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⬣//JUST AS A SEED TAKES ROOT.
A team of four courageous adventurers managed to unearth a secret Area unique from the others: the Hulle Granz Cathedral. Unlike other Areas, this one is lacking all the usual monsters, dungeons, and treasure. What might the purpose of this Area be, then...?
Well, if you’re feeling penitent or perhaps wish to hold a sermon of your own, head to Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground and knock yourself out. What? Too soon?
Anyway, be not afraid! The cathedral is perfectly safe. Following Ganymede’s little incident in the cathedral, a timely email has been sent out to beta testers regarding health and safety that reads as follows:
To our beta team,
Please exercise caution when playing video games for extended periods of time. Take breaks every thirty minutes and do not sit in the same position for more than two hours at a time. Remember to stay hydrated and play in a well-lit environment.
Failing to take care of your health while gaming can result in a litany of health complications, including but not limited to eye strain, muscle fatigue, headaches, dizziness, and involuntary loss of consciousness and motor functions.
We take the health and safety of our beta testers very seriously. If you have any concerns, please contact us at cccorp.ccmail.com.
Thank you for your continued efforts,
CyberConnect Corporation of Japan.
Guilds have been patched into the current version of Fragment and are now available for players to create their own and join others. While some guilds have opted to go the private route, others are in need of players to fill their ranks!
The admins have kindly supplied those recruiting for their shiny new guilds with a number of goodies to aid in their player gathering efforts:⬣ A bundle of personalized flyers proudly displaying their guild logo and a description of the guild’s @ home and available amenities.
⬣ Party poppers and streamers. Nothing screams “join my guild!” like a face full of glitter, confetti, and colorful strips of ribbon.
⬣ A megaphone that lets your voice echo far and wide, even across Root Towns and Areas, but with great potential for abuse comes restrictions! The megaphone can only be used five times before it breaks. Use it wisely!
⬣ A unique recipe for a cocktail, latte, tea, or other type of beverage that can be blended up and served in little sample cups to court potential members. These drinks are unique to their guilds and, when consumed, have a special effect that reflects the leader of that guild. Is your guild leader a pretty cheerful guy? Drinking their special brew will make you feel happy too!
Whatever effect your guild’s drink has is up to the leader’s discretion, but if you so desire, drop a comment under the questions top level and we’ll brew one up for you.
Additionally, you may host a guild open house and invite potential guildies into your @ home to let them take a look around! Guild @ homes are typically locked to guild members & their guests only, so use this as your opportunity to put your best foot forward and impress the world with everything your guild has to offer.
Also arriving with the newest update are mountable Grunties! Aren’t they cute? ...Well, they’re someone’s definition of cute.
While the ability to ride around town and in Areas at 2x speed is certainly alluring, you can’t just walk up to the Grunty Ranch located in each Root Town and take one out for a stroll. If you want a mount of your very own, you’ve got to commit! Becoming a proud Grunty owner means you must first become a proud Grunty parent, and to do that, you’ll need to raise your Grunty from infancy into adulthood.
Just what kind of adult might your Grunty become? That depends on how you raise them and what you feed them. Those strange "foods" popping up all over Areas might not taste good to you, but they sure do to Grunties!
For more information on how to acquire a baby Grunty of your very own and raise it into a proper — or not so proper — member of Grunty society, head on over to the Grunty Ranch.
Mac Anu, the City of Twilight known for its gentle ocean breezes, has been uncharacteristically warm lately. Very, very warm. Its usual orange skies have been swapped out for vivid blues, the sun dwelling high in the sky and threatening to burn everything in its wake.
It won’t take much wandering to feel the effects of heat exhaustion sink in, and even after you log out for the day, those symptoms seem to linger. Do Hien and Zelkova know what the hell is going on? Of course not. Unusual occurrences are slowly becoming the norm in Fragment, it seems, but the point of a beta test is to work out any kinks. Report it and move on.
Lumina Cloth is similarly affected by unusual weather phenomena, but it’s much more pleasant and hospitable than poor Mac Anu. The sun hangs just above the horizon, bathing the strip in early evening light. It’s much cooler here too, and what’s more, it appears that a carnival has rolled into town. What fun!
All the usual carnival fare is here: greasy fried foods, drinks served in foot long glasses, and a litany of carnival games that are totally not rigged. Entry is free and so are the prizes, but some of them take a bit of legwork to win.
⬣ Successfully PK another player to win the carnival exclusive Thursday The 12th™ skin. PK’d players will receive an appropriately spooky ghost skin of their own!
⬣ Step on up to the dunk tank and get dunked on to win a sexy swimsuit skin! Both the dunkers and the dunkees will win this skin, but only those who successfully dunk the player in the tank will be rewarded with the chance to show off some skin. The appearance this skin takes is dependent on the player wearing it, so have fun and get creative with it!
⬣ Take a trip through the hall of mirrors with a friend and do some reflecting! Stare too long into the mirrors and you might recall a memory that doesn’t belong to you, but to the person venturing through the hall of mirrors with you. Did that really happen? Surely it’s all in your head. Memories available for memshare are limited to the ones listed on your application.
Additional rewards include giant plush monsters that can be used to decorate guild @ homes and private rooms (limit one per player!) and a pet goldfish that, unfortunately, will die a hero’s tragic death within a week. Womp womp.
We’ve had a busy week! It seems like there was a glitch that allowed players to equip other players as weapons, which resulted in a ten player chain, wielded by none other than our hardworking head administrator, Hien! I’ll have a talk with him about not doing this kind of thing in the future, I promise!
That wasn’t all, though. An unknown entity reached out to the players participating in the ten-player chain and issued them a special title: Good Friends Stick Together. Fragment’s not supposed to have titles. Well, at least not in the beta. But you can go ahead and add it to your name if you want to anyway, and it shouldn’t cause any problems! We still can’t pinpoint who sent those messages and how they overrode the permissions to create those titles in the first place, but... Hmm. I don’t want to start any rumors, so I’ll keep looking into it.
There are those armor sets too, which I didn’t know had been handed out to those of you that reached level 25. Oria brought it to our attention, thankfully! There’s not a whole lot we can do about it now, but we know that some of them are pretty invasive. But knowing is half the battle, right?
Our friend Ganymede suffered an accident recently that had him lying unconscious in the hospital for about a day. He seems to be feeling better now, thankfully. Ḩ̵̲̼͆̃͐̆ò̸̧̰͕̥̈́͒̕͜p̷̫͙̯͇̾̄͜ę̸̹̒f̷̠̭͉̱̅͘ǘ̴͎̙̥̭̈́̈́l̵͇̙͍̳̜̇̓̒l̷̬̲̀̆̈̅̂ͅỳ̵̧̻̖ ̷̠̫̭̰̦̋͗h̴̰͕̑͗e̸̦̼͇̾͘ ̴̡̢̝̺̳̊̎̎̔p̴̳̠̼̜͔̂̅̐à̵͕̹̟ͅỹ̴̡̛͝s̶͉̕ ̴̢͕̬̑̆̕͝b̸̹̲͗͒̊͑͠ē̶̛͖͠ṯ̸̻̺́͒͐t̶̻͕͎̑ĕ̶̖̀͗͛͋r̷͙̗̙̲͙̓̚͝ ̷̻̠͉̈́̚a̷̡̙̳̽́̀̋̔ẗ̴̢̨̛̬̺t̴͖̳͝ē̷͇̆͆̍̚ͅn̵̪̜͉͊̉̔̄͐t̵͕̼͈̓͋̈́̕î̷̬o̸͇̐͋͑͌n̶̟̫̟̽̑͒͐͘ ̷̜̈́̈̀̂̎t̶͙̂͛ô̸̠̜ ̶̫͎̎h̶͖̳͛i̸̗͖̖̅̂͆̄͛s̸͔̈́̇̍ ̸̩̗̻̕s̵̬̼̳̲̞͝ù̸̞̺̣͙̾͒͛ŗ̴̻̟̻̭̂̈́r̶̡͈̲̣̣͋̊͗̕o̶̥̝̮̓ų̴̻̯̬̊̑̑͌̉ͅn̶̢̙̦͔͖̈̒͝d̷̰̼̤̥̃̿͒̌̎i̸̯͑̾͊̑͝n̵̦͐g̸̪̾͝͝s̷̛̝͙̣̹̍͛͝ ̸͔̲̠̩͗̓̀͘a̷̛̼̓̈́͊ṅ̵̥͆̎ḑ̶̨̯̱͍̇ ̷̛̗̮̀̆ḧ̴̼̪́͗͝i̵͓̬̤͂͐͒s̶̮̎̿̃ ̴̛͔̋͗̽h̷̝͑ͅē̴̱ȃ̵̝͎ͅļ̷͍̀͐͊̊̽ẗ̸̼̺̟̥̼́̄͛h̶̥̹̬̮̽̅ ̷̟̖̮͛́̿t̸̢̤̤̂͒͋̍o̶̼̟̓ ̵̥̳͙̖̆̈́ả̶̛̳̱͙̖̩̿̽͘v̴͈͉͖͊͘ỏ̶̤͚̅͑͝i̴̱͈̩̳̳̿̇̕͠ḏ̵͙̮͗͆ ̶̯̭̝̹̯͊s̸͍̰͔̔̀͋͋̐u̷̟̠͑̔̏̚c̵̨͖͉͇̀͆͘ͅh̴̨̓͌̄̈ ̶̧̱̻̼̏̃̃i̷̱͉͈̿̎̋͒͜͝n̴̢͓͍̂͝͠c̷̢̢̛̹͚̑̓̅ͅi̶͕̟̻̘̫̾͌d̶͉͉̏̇e̵͉̱̩̯̤͐̎̉̾n̸̡̠̈͜ţ̴̇͑̈́͘s̵̩̼͔̙̙̉͘ ̵̮̯̞̮̾̈́͋̔̈h̵̡̗͉͉͈̉̐̅̚ȁ̵͖͚̖̾p̸̰̬͖̩̀̈́̆̓p̶̢̛̼̈́͆̒͘ͅe̷̟̘̩̲̻̾̊n̵̨̩̜̟͆͘i̵̙͉̺̮͠ͅṋ̷̆ġ̶͙͚ ̴̩̋à̷̄̑̂͝ͅǧ̵͖̜͍͕̒̑͒a̷̧̛̞͐̃̈́͘i̷̯͉̬̯̽̍n̷̘̝͓̽̅̕!̵̩͑
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[ So he pulls Mithrun by the hand deeper into the hall of mirrors. This set of mirrors seems to deform your body into looking skinny and tall. For Mithrun, maybe he might as well be a real angelhair noodle pasta at this point. ]
It's funny because of this!
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... I see.
( Said like he's logging this information rather than like, indulging in any particular dose of serotonin. He studies their reflections for a few moments, like trying to analyze the humor of it. )
Like how babies smile when they see something unexpected.
( An attempt has been made, at least. )
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Have you never laughed, Mithrun.. c'mon. Maybe if you look closer, you can feel how funny it can get.
[ Oria knows this isn't true, but they're here for fun! Or, at least Oria is. ]
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( But sure, he'll look. )
... It is absurd.
( The best assessment he's got. He considers something. )
... I don't remember the last time I laughed genuinely.
( He was so fake... Did he enjoy things back then, enough to laugh? He must have, right? Trying to recall makes him feel the sharp edges of his body that brush up against the hollow carved into him. )
Are there better mirrors?
( Funnier mirrors, better at their jobs. He doesn't think they'll make him laugh, but, well, they're already here, so whatever. If they're still handheld, he'll be pulling Oria over to the next set - a set that expands the width of you in several weird humps from top to bottom.
He studies it, then glances to Oria for his professional opinion. )
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Oh my god. Mithrun, you look like a caterpillar. See? If you get even closer, you get even wider at some parts!
[ And that's when Oria thinks he sees something in the mirror. What is that... ]
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The mirror shatters on impact, slivers of your pretty silver eyes split across the shards, an accent to your expression of anger - agony - rage. You drop what you'd been holding. You don't recall what you'd used to break the mirror. If you could allow yourself to cry, you would be.
"How could she? How could he?" you ask, though what you mean to say is Why not me? Your gaze swings across the room - a nice apartment, high-end. Not yours. The mirror set up in the living room had been beautiful, and it'd framed you like a model. But all you saw in it was what you lacked.
"I don't understand it, either," comes a deep, somber voice, and a gentle hand on your shoulder, his palm broad enough that it comes to rest where your shoulder meets your neck. "You're a lovely young man. Far more talented and charming than your brother. That she would choose to marry him instead... My heart breaks for you, Morgan. It truly does."
You look up at the man - broad-shouldered, gregarious in disposition, and kind. He's always been good to you - your most trusted confidant; your professor until the day; the graduation ceremony had just ended. You're meant to be out with those cretins you called friends, networking. Behind him blares a light, and it frames his head like something divine.
You shake your head. "I don't... I don't want this."
"Then what is it you want?"
"... I want her... to be with me."
Your professor looks uncertain, like he's not sure if he should say something.
"What? What is it?"
"Well, there is a way, but..."
You whip around to face him fully, wide-eyed and desperate. You grab him by the collar, both hands. "What do you mean, there's a way? I—"
"It wouldn't be easy, and it wouldn't be quick. You have a bright future of research ahead, Morgan. Perhaps you should just—"
"Tell me!"
"... Well... if you wish for it so badly..."
His palm brushes along the back of your neck. There's something unnerving about the touch, but he smiles at you broadly, in that gentle way he always has. He's the only one you've ever trusted to understand you, accept you. You trust him.
"... Though it pains me to say this so frankly... You lack power, dear Morgan; you lack influence. Your brother is the heir to your family's name and fortune. But you..."
You inhale shaky, your lips tight in its grimace.
"... But there is a way to compensate. I have an in for you, if you'd like. I have some friends, and people who work under me. Have you heard of the Sarabi?"
One of the most influential crime organizations housed in the United States.
For a moment, you are wide-eyed; paler than you already were in shock. You feel yourself hesitate, and then, as if he'd known, you feel how his fingers tangle in your hair, cupping the back of your head - uneasily intimate.
But you've always trusted him. And to say no here, it feels, seems to mean resigning to a life without her - a life alone.
You nod. )
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... I guess there is some appeal to it.
( Does that mean he finds it funny? Who knows. His face looks the same as ever. But, hey— progress? )
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Oria kinda hates how he could understand these emotions despite how they're not his. The "memory" makes him form so many questions. Morgan? The strength of the desire that feels familiar to him of wanting something? Sarabi?
He felt like he went through an entire cycle of something before Mithrun's shoulder brushes against his and he turns to look at Mithrun after snapping out of it. he has to look down to look at his face, since Mithrun is an entire half a foot shorter, but then he notices those legs. The ones that feel like they've been spiting him for whatever reason ever since he saw Mithrun for the first time. ]
2/2
He didn't meet Mithrun in the game first. ]
You're Morgan? That's you? Jesus fuck.
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... Yes? And you're Oria.
( He guesses. It was never pressing enough for him to go out of his way to verify, but, if this guy recognizes him, then Mithrun supposes that's confirmation enough. )
I guess I look a little different.
( Among other things, )
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Yeah?! You're like... completely different from when I last saw you.
[ He's trying to compare past Morgan to Mithrun and... it's not clicking. It's not working. Oria won't even bother trying to figure out how Mithrun figured out he was Oria. He wasn't exactly hiding it either. ]
Anyway, I'm saying that because staring at this mirror made me like... go through a memory trip? But as you. It was...
[ He's not sure how he should describe it. ]
Wait, you were involved with Sarabi?
[ Hello?????????? ]
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The implications of being able to see other people's memories... Neural leak? He can't imagine Hien or Zelkova will know anything about this, either. This feels a little less like beta testing and more like guinea pigging. )
... Yes. ( Legally, he shouldn't really confirm this... But nothing in Fragment can leave Fragment right now, and by the time it could, possibly, be used against him, he'll probably be dead. So it's whatever. ) While doing research. I was one of its captains. I don't know what you saw, but...
( ... )
... My mistakes are my own. One of those mistakes is why I'm like this now.
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What the fuck.
What the fuck!! ]
... Was it worth it? Joining Sarabi for that reason.
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( The smile is wry. )
I didn't understand the price, nor the interest. I didn't mind so much when it was people I didn't know paying the cost.
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[ Oria quietly breathes out. ]
That's just how it is normally. People don't care fucking up people if they don't see it. Out of sight, out of mind.
[ He's not sure how to feel about this in general, but he's sure that he'll be able to process it over time, so he'll shove that out of the way for now. In the meantime, he just smacks Mithrun's back. ]
C'mon. Let's go to the next set of mirrors. Maybe if we're lucky, I can get you to laugh at least once.
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He would assume Oria would be more repelled, but he guesses he'll find out eventually if Oria is. )
... I think desire is blinding. You have to be careful, not to be too hungry.
( But he goes with Oria along to the next set of mirrors, gazing into them dutifully. He'd be surprised if one can get him to laugh, but who is he to resist the attempt? )
cw emeto
[ He doesn't really want to think about it, because if he's consumed by desire, he wont make it. He knows he won't.
The next set of mirrors make you look intensely wavy. Oria feels like he's getting a headache from staring at it for too long, so he doesn't look at it longer than two seconds. ]
You look like some sort of grater.
[ But with that, Mithrun will see a memory that isn't his.
The scene is in a fancy dining room that seats 30 people. Everyone who sits down at these must be at least three times your age. You've grown, you're 14, you've long since learned the ropes of how to conduct a business meeting, as well as how to partake in it, how to shift the atmosphere of a room, how to change things into your favor... at worst, an emotional manipulator. This sort of meetings were the hardest of all, because you know that no one will take you seriously as a child.
But it's time for dinner and they bring out the food—it's a high quality steak that has pretty garnishes off to the side. You pick up a knife, carefully serrating it through the meat, picking it up after having elegantly stabbed a fork into it. This is what you were taught. It's how you must behave in any and all business meetings you go to.
Your father, Arvel Severine, had been spearheading the entire meeting himself based on his charisma alone. You wish to be like him one day. But you see him get up from his seat to take an important call. You're not sure what it is, but then you eat the little cut up piece of steak and eat it.
Steaks are delicious.
Meat is great.
You could eat those every day and never get tired of them.
But something lurches in your stomach the moment the food lands there. You feel extremely dizzy with body heat temperature rising. You can't move. All you can do is stay still. Everyone at the table ignores you as you try to claw at something, anything, to tell someone that something is wrong. It's hard to breathe, made worse by the reflux.
You feel bile ejecting upwards through your throat and can't hold it back, so you end up throwing up on the floor. You feel so dizzy with the pain strong enough to feel like someone is trying to yank at your organs through your throat, but you think you can see some red mixed into it. One of the servants cry out about something that you can't decipher. Where's your father? You think you see him at the door right before everything turns black. ]
that's not very delicious in dungeon of oria...
He understands, too, because he had been there, once upon a time. Not quite like this, not quite the same feelings, not quite the same situation - but wealth is its own kind of sickness.
He doesn't glance at Oria as the black fades out and Fragment fades back in, staring, instead, at his strange reflection in the mirror, where he'd just been someone else. )
... Would anyone benefit, if you died?
( What an uncomfortable question to ask without context. But he assumes that must be the case, with these things - inheritance is always troubling, though he frankly does not recall the Severine's heir situation precisely; he knew it by heart, once, but he's forgotten the finer details of it since his accident, along with a great number of other things related to people he knew. A rival harming the son as a message to the father is also viable, but that's just so... tacky. Just send a head in a box, at that point, if you're going to be so medieval. )
tehe pero
Yeah. What did you see?
[ The fact that he has to ask probably means there was more than one attempt at the very least. ]
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1/2
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It doesn't take long for Oria to figure out what Mithrun saw with that description. ]
My father's steak was poisoned too. He got lucky that he had to take a call.
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damn though )
... Just to eliminate competition? Or to send a message? ( Better than a head in a box, he guesses... ) ... Who did it, in the end?
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[ Which doesn't make sense to him because he thinks that person in particular doesn't have the brains to do anything correctly, but that's what he was told. ]
Other than that, they tried not to tell me about it too much, since I was recovering in the hospital. Then I had to go under some rigorous taste training...
[ He pulls out the sake that Mithrun gave him. ]
That's why I can't drink alcohol, so you can take these back.
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( Trade request denied, despite Oria's tragedy. Maybe Hani will like them?
(He's provided no context because he's just been offloading these,) )
It's surprising you're still around, given the plural attempts.
( Mostly Mithrun just had people try to suck up to him for money, which is way less interesting. )
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