for dzelkva

[selfconcept]

little cutie goes here aka I'll think of something later

Comments

7/30

[dzelkva]

[ Hien—rather, NoName—receives a message on his phone with three words. They're area keywords to Great Fortune's Radiation.

When Hien eventually goes there, he'll find himself in a snowy tundra. Right outside of the shrine dungeon is Zelkova, waiting patiently. ]

[selfconcept]

[ At least his long black cloak with the hood makes itself useful and lets him feel the cold less. It doesn't take long for Hien to get there. ]

What? Couldn't this be an email?

[ Friendly as always. /s ]

[dzelkva]

Isn't it better to talk in-person?

[ Figuratively speaking. ]

[selfconcept]

[ Hien doesn't sigh, but that vibe comes off him in waves. Neat how the VR can capture the essence of Hien's tired feeling. ]

Out with it.

[dzelkva]

That bug that happened during the party. What came of it? You took Fandaniel somewhere, didn't you?

[ He's nosy. ]

[selfconcept]

I took him to a restricted area, reprimanded him, and "cleansed" [ read: killed ] him of the bug so that he would no longer infect anyone. The rest of it was sent to the developers to look at. The affected people and dungeons are quarantined off from affecting more NPCs and PCs. It should be fixed next patch if the developers are good enough.

[ He stands firm on "pay me double" about actually getting rid of bugs on a wider scale. ]

8/6

[selfconcept]

[ Same place as before. Hien isn't particularly feeling creative right now. He says that this is pretty urgent too. So whenever the two meet in the Great Fortune's Radiation area, Hien speaks up first, with none of the tired drawl that usually accompanies his voice. ]

What is this about gear level cap rewards?

[dzelkva]

[ Zelkova furrows his brows. The request to meet up was surprising enough, but this...?

Hm. ]

What rewards?

[selfconcept]

Players have been reporting that they received a gear set for reaching the current level cap. Some are unnerving.

[ Would Zelkova even understand the severity if he says it--whatever. It's fine. ]

Fandaniel reports hearing the screams of his dead family from the weapon.

[dzelkva]

[ Ah. So it's incredibly personal to him. He thinks he's starting to get how all of this connects. ]

...I see. I have no knowledge of these rewards.

[selfconcept]

Neither did I. Could you look into any hacking possibilities? I was concerned about the abrupt keyword comment in Akatsuki's post as well. While that... wasn't as harmful, some of these gears seem to be intensely personal.

[ NoName was abandoned by his parents, but he still remembers feeling absolutely betrayed over his grandfather's "murder". If anything, that is the single concept of family that NoName doesn't mind keeping. ]

[dzelkva]

[ Zelkova doesn't say anything about how personal it is, because he thinks Fandaniel's explains that much, but... ]

I could look into it, but I'm not sure I'll find much of anything.

8/12

[selfconcept]

[ NoName had received a text on his phone like usual whenever Zelkova wants to meet up. He really considered just sleeping it off to deal with it tomorrow, buthe might as well get this out of the way. He has a feeling he knows what Zelkova wants to talk about.

They meet up in Great Fortune's Radiation as always. ]

You wanted to see me?

[dzelkva]

[ They're here for a reason, so might as well get to it. ]

What happened with Swallow? I encouraged her to try getting PKed in case it might help her log out, and you know how much I don't like PKing. She told me it was a bad idea. Do you know why?

[selfconcept]

Yeah.

[ But will he tell Zelkova? Just the way he said that single-word statement alone can anyone tell that he refuses to budge on talking about that particular topic. He isn't hostile right now, but he sure is stubborn and sounds tired. ]

[dzelkva]

[ He eyes Hien, tilting his head a bit to look up at him. ]

Is that all you have to report?

[selfconcept]

[ He holds back on clicking his tongue. NoName wishes Zelkova wouldn't look at him like that. He already feels somewhat guilty since he asked Zelkova to look into the cap gear earlier and when Zelkova is asking him for something, he can't provide. ]

... Yeah.

[ He bites back a "sorry" and just breathes out. Perhaps it would be obvious to Zelkova that NoName isn't choosing not to divulge what happened of his own choice, since he usually speaks his mind even if it's a terrible thing to say at the moment. ]

[dzelkva]

[ It's definitely obvious, to the point that he momentarily digs into NoName's files again to see if he signed an NDA or something along those lines. ]

I see. I guess that means we have nothing else to talk about.

9/9

[selfconcept]

[ Now that Zelkova has returned, NoName sets up a time to meet in Great Fortune's Radiation. He has a lot to talk about with Zelkova. But first? Don't worry. He took another small nap after the entire reveal so he's feeling a little better. ]

... Zel.

[ It's cold here as always, but NoName doesn't feel it. ]

[dzelkva]

[ He certainly doesn't, so all he does is turn to NoName with a small smile. ]

NoName. What's the matter?

[selfconcept]

Several... things.

[ He thinks back on the time when Zelkova said that player panic shouldn't happen again, and yet... here NoName was, useless as always. Something happened and he couldn't do anything about it. ]

First, the special gear code and the "bug" for the hall of mirrors from the Lumina Cloth carnival a few weeks back are linked. They're by the same person, but as to who that is... I don't know.

Second, did Hoerwick pull you out for maintenance or something for a week?

[dzelkva]

I think all of it is linked. I'm still trying to figure out who it is, though.

[ Ugh, why are they so elusive? It's even starting to frustrate him a little bit. ]

My creator doesn't need to perform maintenance on me. Someone knocked me into one of the outer dungeons.

[ Of which Hien probably doesn't know about. ]

[selfconcept]

What...? What the hell is an outer dungeon?

[ There are inner and outer dungeons?? This is complicated suddenly for NoName. He thought dungeons were just dungeons. ]

Anyway, do you think that whoever knocked you out there is also responsible for the other two?

[dzelkva]

It's both outside and inside of Fragment.

[ Does that help? No. Great. ]

I think it's possible. I would like to think that there wouldn't be multiple threats running around.

11/3

[selfconcept]

Zel.

You were right. I should have done what you said, because I have a lot of regrets. I still remember your words, despite me forgetting things a lot faster than usual. I'm starting to forget my time in Fragment too. I've done a lot of things that you didn't want me to inflict on the players. I couldn't keep them safe, because what I am to the core, but they're just excuses and they have no place here.

I wanted to apologize. I should have told you about the dangerous bug regarding log out deaths sooner. I wish I spent more time with you too. I took the time for granted, until I realized you're no longer here and I don't have much time left. I know I won't make it through, or at least, my self won't. I won't remember this either. Whatever you see of me later, I won't be myself, and dead at worst.

But I hope that you'll remember for me, and see to that the remaining players are safe.

If I knew what a regular human family felt like, maybe I would have seen you as a younger brother figure, despite your firmness on insisting that you're an AI. I saw Fandaniel do that with Cubia, and it made me think a little on my own relationship with you.

Admittedly, I was a little jealous.

I hope that as an AI, you learned the better things from humans so that you don't end up like Cubia. Even if your actions were programmed, it was nice to have the kindness early on despite my attitude. Thank you for being nice to me.

I'm glad I got to know you.

- NoName