FOR THEY CANNOT DIE ANYMORE, BECAUSE THEY ARE EQUAL TO ANGELS.

[cccorp]

Today, the canals of Mac Anu flow as gentle as they always do, gondolas drifting lazy through the paths of sunlight cut bright across the water. Shops and vendors line the stonework streets along the waterways, a general murmur of NPCs circulating through their preprogrammed business keeping Mac Anu, as always, feeling maybe a little more alive than a real city.

There is one particular bridge that nearly every player's taken at least once, because it connects to a great many other places of interest, and it's wide enough for easy travel. Besides, with the professions update, they've put a fishing spot on the other side of it. NPCs with fishing rods litter the spot in alternating shifts, their laughter mingling with the calls of shopkeeps advertising cheap prices for some simple plants to get started crafting with, and the clink of forks and plates at a restaurant nearby, its customers singing the chef praises.

Below the bridge, a gondolier passes, humming, his gondola drifting along its circuit through the canals, his tune in rhythm with the passing conversation. As he comes out from under it and sails further away, he glances up at the bridge, as if he were expecting something, and he seems to see it. His gaze remains fixed there until, eventually, the water takes him out of sight again.

Today, you might notice that at the base of this bridge, just before your feet, is a red sort of smear.

A little further down the bridge, about a fourth of the way along it, is a person collapsed on the ground. The red trails to him, fallen forward.

You see upon approaching his hand grasping at his throat at the singularly cut sliced deep into his neck. His one good eye wide and unblinking, he is—among all the laughter and conversation on either side of the bridge; in the shadow of the clock tower, which stands a silent witness, the sun at its back—no longer breathing, his body cool to the touch.

Perhaps this could be considered a kindness: for one who failed, time and time and again, to grasp the desire to live, maybe he found some suggestion of it in his last moments, his hand at his throat, his palm smeared with dried blood, a curious anomaly in the deathless Mac Anu. Fragment had, after all, taught him a great many things. Should he not be grateful for one more, no matter how permanent the lesson?

Mithrun is dead.

Comments

INVESTIGATION RESULTS : FINAL TIMELINE...?

[insinning]

[AS REQUESTED IN CHAT

1. Mithrun is testing a glitch at the fountain in Lumina Cloth. He gets SMASHED with a big spikey thing, leaving a crater. But manages to successfully gain (1) spiky fish and into the inventory it goes. (Hani and Sinclair test this but are unable to get the fish. They do get 10+ spiky things though, a second crater and a concussed Sinclair. Yay) This is how Mithrun also gets the giant bruise on his back.

2. At some point he got the message from our mysterious sender inviting him to: Recursive Fool's Dungeon. Goes around in circles looking for the Chaos Gate but eventually makes it there. (Confirmed by 0koto and Sinclair for it to have been sent to Mithrun by @ dv)

3. In the dungeon, he fights red wyrms, head hunters and Thousand Trees. At this point he must also have been hit with the status effect that wont let him restore himself through potions, as he mentioned to 0koto. Most injuries (neck, cuts, burns) are accounted for here.

4. He leaves the dungeon, bleeding everywhere. He meets 0toko at the casino who uses him as a stepping stool to get to the top of the crane machine. He leaves his blood everywhere.

5. He returns to Mac Anu, eats spiky fish thing, gets poisoned? Symptoms suggest that is what happened. Dies.

Unknowns: What those circular bruises are from (not the fish?), and where is Zelkova??]