Private ✪ Finweald And The Sky Was Red

[Yugam]

Another day, and another long mission completed. It was always strange to the Hunter, walking into Explorer's League's headquarters, or even into Finweald. He wasn't unused to civilization, per se, but he seldom visited it. Too much time in the wilds looking for anything that might give him answers, or help him learn how to help Unmei regain her body. Or if this really even was Unmei.

Stranger still was the lack of Luthien. Yugam had gotten used to having her at his side, Beleg seeming to think that the two needed to always be paired together nowadays. This last expedition had been on of the few exceptions though. Little more than a hop, skip, and a jump over to Providence for yet another delivery. Beleg hadn't even tried to hide his intentions this time, though maybe the lack of Luthien hadn't been present. Yu only cared to get whatever job was assigned to him done, and then get paid, whereas Luth tended to be a bit more...argumentative.

Back in Finweald now though, and with no other missions to complete, or Fate threads to follow, the Hunter was at a loss for what to do next. He wasn't exactly eager to sit around and nothing in a game so full of things to do, and the best place to find something new to do when you faction had nothing for you was to check the town bulletin. Pieces of paper had been nailed to the board, or otherwise kept in place by a knife stabbed into the pockmarked wood. A brief scan of the classifieds, and Yu almost let out a sigh. Mostly the boring stuff today. Fetch quests of various kinds, requests to gather or mine this or that. The kind of things that made Yu want to put one of his revolvers to his skull and pull the trigger. There was one particular request, however, that stuck out to the man.

It wasn't like any of the others, firstly because of how much text it held, but secondly because of the peculiar particulars. A request to interview...well, just about anyone who would sit down with this prospective journalist. Yu would have passed if it was just that, not being much for conversation, but the latter half had caught his attention. Survivors of the Red Fever were wanted to help record the expedition's events. Explorer's League members especially wanted. Now that was curious.

Yu quickly took out his leather bound notebook and jotted down where the quest-giver was supposed to be, and the short description of their appearance that they'd left behind. Well, there couldn't be that many pink-haired elves in Finweald.

​

The Barrel and Cauldron. At first glance, it wasn't exactly the nicest venue that the interviewer had chosen, but honestly, Yu had not been expecting much. Outwardly, it wasn't a very impressive building. Four stone walls and thatched roof, but what else did a tavern really need? Stepping inside however, Yu was pleasantly surprised. Clean and well kept, the brightly lit room practically shone with a welcoming, comfortable aura. The staff, while not wearing butlers' suits and maids' dresses, were all dressed nicely, and the smell of the food they carried wafted over to the man invitingly. How long had it been since he had a nice meal? The food must've been good given the off hour that the man had arrived. A good number of seats had been filled, and as Yu's eyes scanned around, they settled on the person he'd come here to speak to.

The Hunter walked over to dark wooden table that the pink-haired elf was sitting at. Despite the resting bitch face that seemed to be permanently plastered across his face, his voice seemed warm. Kind even. "Rael, I presume?" he said to the woman. "My name is Yu, I heard you wanted to speak to Red Fever survivors."

@Rael

 

[Rael]

.

To his credit, he had been far more punctual than most Travelers before him.

Not far into her venture, the Storyteller had found the first hurdle in her challenge to gain an understanding of the events surrounding the Red Fever: freeloaders. It was an impossible task to compare the handful of individuals willing to lend themselves to her purpose to those who would join her under their false pretenses, leeching off of her limited funds. And she, lured by the promise of a story, would not complain. Not even once.

Only the Gods knew how tirelessly she had labored to collect all the parsnips in Eastern Brisshal for some coin to get herself started...

Rael scribbled down a note to remove the offer of free food and drink from the advertisements she had spent much of her in-game funds producing and then putting up on what available bulletin boards she could find. Yet, in the same breath, she crossed out the previously written line, effectively removing it from future consideration as her intuition warned her against removing that element from her interview postings. After all, a deal ought to be sweetened before being sealed.

A sigh tumbled forth from her lips whilst she looked out the window of the establishment, hardly even noticing the bell chime that announced another customer's arrival, the feathered quill brushing back and forth over the blank pages of the grimoire she used to house her spells, memories, and stories. Chin propped up on the heel of her hand, she only let out the softest hum as she heard her name being called, turning around rather slowly to face one she didn't quite recognize.

"Yu?" The name fell from the elf's lips rather quietly, who stood from her seat as he stated his purpose. Hands joined in front of herself, she offered a small bow of her head by way of introducing herself, the man's lack of expression seemingly gone unnoticed. One could almost say her own emotionless exterior mirrored his, were it not for the warmth that blossomed in her face, a delicate smile settling on her face.

"Wonderful, wonderful. Please, have a seat." Rael extended out her hand towards the seat directly across from her, waiting for him to take it before she sat back down. "Would you like to order something, so we can talk while you eat? Or would you prefer to get the questioning out of the way?"

---

@Yugam​

 

[Yugam]

She'd turned to look at him with a slow, calm demeanor, standing up only after she'd identified him as the one addressing her. She bowed politely, with a rigidity and formal distance that might've been mistaken for coldness were it not for the gentle smile she cast his direction as she gestured for him to sit in the seat across from her. She conducted herself well, the man thought. Most players tended to act with the kind of bombast and uncaring that was typical of someone trying to relax and have fun, a habit Yu could fall into as well, were he among familiar friends.

There was nothing wrong with that, of course, nor was there anything wrong with the calm, dignified demeanor with which Rael seemed to possess. If nothing else, it was a pleasant change of pace for the man who could only suffer others for a small amount of time before exhausting himself.

"I'm alright for now, thank you," the man replied to the woman with a soft smile of his own as he sat down in the offered seat, lifting a hand to indicate he didn't need anything. "I'll ask for some water when we see a server."

'I don't like her,' a voice spoke in the man's head, despite the slight upward curl at the corner of his lips.
'You don't like anyone,' Yu reminded the sword-spirit, mentally rolling his eyes at her quick judgement.
'Not true. I like Toko.'

The man chose to ignore Unmei as he interlaced his fingers and placed them on the table in front of him. "So, mind if I ask a question of my own first?" he asked inquisitively. "Why are you interested in Red Fever?" He doubted it was just simple curiosity. If that was the case, she could have asked any old sap on the streets what the event was. Most people knew by now, and had constructed their own cobbled together version of events that was more or less closer to the truth. Interviewing individuals who'd been present? That certainly went above and beyond common curiosity.

@Rael

 

[Rael]

.

With the Hunter's question declared, the Elf gave a tilt of her head as her first, immediate response.

The movement itself had been unconscious, spurred on by reflex rather than any actual thought behind it, but even the simplest of gestures coupled with the puzzled expression plastered across the Storyteller's face could betray the surprise, the confusion. Rael blinked a few times in rapid succession, fingers traveling down the blank page upon which her hands rested, as if the reminder of her task was enough to bring her comfort.

"I am... Not," she finally blurted out, regaining a measure of her earlier composure as she said the words. Then, she spoke her next line as an apology and warning both, giving the appropriate pause meant for him to reconsider. "My answer will not be as straightforward as your question, I'm afraid."

What kind of answer would a person such as himself expect?

A truthful one, perhaps.

The quill's feather, its weight upon her hands a subtle relief, drew idle circles on her palm as she pieced together scattered thoughts into an answer to a question few had ever asked. "Word of mouth is unreliable. Sure, it's how many norms and stories of our world came to be, but the practice itself birthed lots of different versions of the one same topic they all had intended to share in the first place. I could go around and ask anyone about what they'd heard, but that wouldn't be faithful to what actually happened. It wouldn't be a version of the events faithful to those who experienced it."

She pressed the feather to her lips then, partly obscuring her mouth from vision, along with the small smile that the tickling sensation birthed. Her eyes remained downcast, averted from the stranger's gaze until she could find it in her to finish her piece. "Landers don't keep many written records, I've noticed. Nothing is written of the people things happened to, or the things they endured to achieve the results everyone celebrates, and it all gets lost. Forgotten."

Already was the thought melting the previous uncertainty away, paving the way for the unwavering blaze of conviction to glimmer bright in her eyes as she glanced back at Yugam.

"I wish to write of it all. Not just the Red Fever. I think every story deserves to be told."

---

@Yugam​

 

[Yugam]

Yu waited patiently for the elf to formulate her answer. He was a patient person, and he wasn't in any kind of rush anyways. He'd come here to answer her questions anyways, and who how many there were, or how long it would take. When she did finally gather her thoughts though, she spoke eloquently, and without interruption. Yu found himself nodding appreciatively as she explained. It was a good answer, a good reason.

"A storyteller who wants the truth, not the legend," Yu said with a a slight smile, finding himself to be amused. "Never thought I'd see the day. Alright then, well, I'll answer whatever questions you have to the best of my ability." The man reached into his coat, procuring a black, leather bound journal that he placed on the table in front of him. "I try to write stuff down as much as I can. My memory ain't so good, but pen and paper," the man gestured to the quill in Rael's hand, "well, you know."

The man exhaled slowly as he flipped open the journal, thumbing through it's pages until he'd found what he'd wanted, right near the beginning. "So, where do you want to start then, storyteller?"

@Rael

 

[Rael]

.

"Legends will be made regardless of my meddling, won't they? I can always make my own later if I so please."

The admission alone made her feel powerful, though not in the way most would categorize things such as strength or power, often associated with feats one could demonstrate in front of the masses to leave them in awe.

A hundred names would, in time, comprise the contents of the grimoire's pages. In the storyteller's humble beginnings, however, there were but a handful of them, accompanied by a brief description of their person penned by her hand. The Kind Hunter would not be the exception to the tradition.

"For starters, then... I would have your name; the faction you were associated with at the time, if you joined any; your motives to join the expedition and your initial thoughts on what you would find there."

It wasn't a difficult task to notice the way her eyes slid down his form to the leather-bound journal set in front of him. Rarely, if ever, did she bother with subtlety when confronted with something she hadn't the answers to.

The question came out faster than her thoughts could warn her against.

"Was your memory affected by the Red Fever?"

---

@Yugam​

 

[Yugam]

"Indeed you can," Yu nodded in agreement. There was always time to make history. It took one act, one choice, and being at the right place, at the right time. But seldom were there such things as living legends. As Yu's eyes drifted over the elf's features he wondered what stories would be told about her, the storyteller, for just a moment. An act of courage? Peerless oration, only recognized after she was and gone. Who but the Fates knew?

The Storyteller began her interview, and Yu made himself comfortable in his chair, leaning back slightly. "No, no, my memory isn't something that came from the game," the man answered, shaking his head. "I had an accident a long time ago, they aren't related."

Yu didn't seem interested in elaborating further, instead moving on to answer the rest of Rael's questions. "But, anyways, my name is Yugam," the man reintroduced himself. "At the time of Red Fever, I had only just touched down, so I wasn't associated with any faction yet. Hell, I didn't even know what they were." The man paused as he thought back to the expedition and how'd he wound up there. Just how much information he wanted recorded. Glitching out and being found buckass naked wasn't exactly something he wanted written in history books though, so the man chose to omit that piece of information. "A couple of Lion's Pride members stumble across my way after I started wandering around a bit. When the game re-launched, a ton of new players were entering, so the lion's pride thought it'd be a good idea to go gather up as many Travelers as they could find and point them in the right direction, make sure they didn't get themselves into too much trouble."

Yu paused as a server passed by their table, and the Hunter raised a hand for a moment to request a glass of water with a soft smile. The server nodded and hurried off, leaving Yu to return to his story. "Uh, right, where was I? Uh, so yeah, they gathered as many of us as they could and just pointed and said 'go that way'. By the time I got there, Camp Nisus was already a mess. I never really did find out what happened there, beyond the Fever, but the leaders there pretty gave us options. Research, exploration, a couple other things, all to help get the camp back together. And that's how I wound up with the League. I'm not much for research or any of the other stuff they were offering. Plus, mysterious ruins? I was curious. Didn't know what I'd find, but it was bound to be different, so I went looking for that 'different'."

@Rael

 

[Rael]

.

The page was titled Yugam.

Underneath his name would be his present affiliation to one of the factions, a sidenote marking that he hadn't been one of its formal members at the beginning of his tale, signaled by his use of "yet". Below the opening notes, written in a smaller font: [ Impaired memory, though it does not seem to affect his desire for adventure. Hastiness to move on from the question suggests an underlying sense of discomfort might be brought about by the specific circumstances surrounding his condition. The Storyteller rejects the inclusion of this detail into future records so long as they do not become a necessary inclusion for an accurate retelling of past, present, or future events. ]

His retelling of his first days on the game were but a reflection of Rael's own, an ongoing experience which she delighted herself on with the passing of each day. That willingness to get oneself involved, be it to test the limits of a system talked about as if it belonged nowhere but in the verses of a ghost story, or to experience that disparity between what one could do in the real word and what could be achieved when fantasy was brought into the equation, removing all the burdens of plain, everyday life.

"Gathering the playerbase, giving them advice on how to keep themselves safe, and then requesting their aid in a highly dangerous mission. I wonder..." An observer by nature, cursed by the threads of fate that saw her invitation to the game arrive late, Rael was a stranger to most events that had immediately followed the relaunch of the death game. The elf had joined as soon as the dangers were over, there to hear the celebrations and cheers thrown the Travelers' ways, there to hear of resentful whispers which blamed Travelers for waking the world up from its slumbering state.

"I have talked to others who explained a bit of the Red Fever and its dreaded touch upon a person, its effects. Could you tell me your experience with the affliction itself?"

She drew lines to draw a timeline of the events described to her by the Hunter, piecing his story together as she called to memory pieces of information fed by others she had encountered previously in her journey. Rael made no mention of the others whom she had already successfully interviewed, much more interested in the different experiences each individual had gone through.

"'Different' needn't be any less important than the other options given, as I'm sure everyone found a way to make themselves of use within the ranks they decided to join on that day. Were you successful at finding those mysterious ruins, then? Please, spare no details about your findings, however insignificant you may think them to be."

---

@Yugam​

 

[Yugam]

Yugam had also wondered what exactly the idea had been behind sending a bunch of fresh new players into the thick of things. It hadn't exactly turned into a tutorial, like most of them had needed, that was for certain. A cynical part of the man though that they were just looking for cannon fodder at the time. Throwaway bodies in case things went to shit, as they had. But, given all of Yu's experiences since then, he doubted that. There was a great effort put in to preserve lives, wherever possible.

So that left poor leadership.

Yu didn't voice these thoughts aloud, however, instead allowing the elf to ask her next question. "Like a rollercoaster," he responded. "Except in my case, it just kept going down," the man had heard tell of some Travelers experiencing extreme elation, flip flopping between highs and lows like they were flipping through a picture book. Yu wasn't so lucky. Or maybe he was lucky in that he didn't have to wrestle with the constant changes.

"It was a lot of fear, anger and sadness," he continued. "I consider myself a fairly controlled person. I'm quick to get my emotions under control and focus on objectives, but this was something else. Completely overwhelming." The man sought the right words to describe his experience. "Imagine you're at the bottom of the ocean. No way up. You could try to float up, but risk bursting blood vessels from the pressure change. Or you could stay down there and let yourself slowly get crushed under the weight of the water. There's no right answer. Just dread." That might've been the best way to describe it.

Yu leaned back in his seat as he considered the thing he had seen in the ruins, which was, not much. Except for one thing. "We found 'em, yeah. Not much there, sans the giant fuck-off demon corpse and rapid insect mother and her countless babies. But there was also this weird statue. Like a shrine or an altar or something. Another Traveler I know, he gave it a blood offering. It didn't seem like anything special happened to him but...you could feel something, ya know? I dunno if you're religious but I swear on my life, it felt like something responded to him. Or maybe it was just the Fever, I dunno."

@Rael

 

[Rael]

.

His lively descriptions, and the comparisons he included in his answers to each of her questions, greatly served to paint a better picture within her head. Whenever Yugam paused, the elf would quickly turn this page or another, going through previously gathered information and filling in the gaps of what one member of the expedition could not remember, with what another told her about.

Rael was even happy that, when she looked up to ask him about the emotional repercussions on those afflicted by the Red Fever, he had left her speechless by answering before it could even be brought up. "I guess that discards my theory that the fever would be most effective upon those with a lesser ability to keep their emotions in check..."

The feathery end of her quill brushed against the high point of her cheek, regarding her notes with a measure of dissatisfaction that could only be solved in a method discovered not too long ago.

"Would you be willing to fall asleep?" By coincidence, she brushed a stray strand of pink hair behind one of her pointed ears, as if the gesture would indicate all he needed to know for the context surrounding the inquiry. So long as he knew of elven traits, of course. "Excuse my straightforwardness, but surely you are familiar with the myriad sayings of how dreams are often the gateways to one's memories, amongst many other things like hidden desires we may not face in broad daylight, fears... All sorts of interesting tidbits of information, really."

"There is only so much I can write about with what you are willing to share with me through your retellings, but if I could see it through your memories... Oh, it would be nothing short of exciting. Nothing short of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so vivid and almost like the real thing."

A sigh heavy with the storyteller's yearning tumbled from her lips. She was mindful not to let the silence linger, preferring for the huntsman to reach a conclusion of his own rather than feel pushed one way or the other by her whimsy.

"On the other hand, I would not begrudge you, were you to refuse me. Dreams can be... Complicated, in that influencing them is not often something easy to do, and things begin to slip from your control."

---

@Yugam​

 

[Yugam]

"I guess that discards my theory that the fever would be most effective upon those with a lesser ability to keep their emotions in check..."
"Yeah, no one escaped," the man affirmed with a nod. Even now he could remember how even Jin had been affected by the fever. The Jin that Yugam knew rarely expressed any kind of emotion beyond a mild, consistent annoyance. But back then, the man had displayed a range of emotion that Yugam had never even known the man was capable of. It had terrified him then, although, that might've just been the effect of his own Fever.

The elf paused as she seemed to ponder over something, toying gently with the quill in her hand. "Would you be willing to fall asleep?" she finally asked, brushing aside a loose strand of hair.
"Uhm, I'm sorry?" the man asked, eyes widening slightly, a brow lifting upwards in confusion. As Rael gave context to her question, the man was able to slowly connect the dots, if only tangentially. "Dreamwalking?" the man asked, requesting clarification. "That's a thing here?" This was the first time Yu had ever heard of such a thing before. The concept had been around since the dawn of time, but if Terrasphere had somehow managed to actually achieve it, interpret the nebulous brainwaves of a sleeping dreamers, and convert it to a format understood by the game, well, the developers deserved a Nobel Peace Prize. Well, if you put aside the fact that dying in the game meant dying in real life.

Still, this all offered Yugam an opportunity. "Can you navigate them. The dreams, memories I mean," he asked, leaning forward over the table and clasping his hands together.

@Rael

 

[Rael]

.

"W-Well, it seems to be..."

Her ramblings weren't met with the outright refusal of her proposition, their dynamic shifting for a moment as she found herself on the seat of the person being asked the questions in which the other seemed to have a particular interest. Rael even leaned back into her chair, linking her hands above her lap as she drew from her limited experience on the subject, and shared it with the Hunter.

"I believe I can. I have." Though the circumstances had been different and completely unintended on her end, a consequence born of a coincidence rather than a deliberate action taken on her part. "It started like this," her hand directed his attention to the pages that held his answers, brushing over the paper, "a rumor heard in passing about some elves being able to do it. And then I forgot to log out one night, I must have been really tired."

"When I opened my eyes I wasn't in the room that I had rented, but inside someone else's headspace, as I soon discovered. Able to walk, talk, bring things to life, but not control. That was what the Dreamer did. He changed the landscape with a thought, sometimes even if he was unaware of it, but our minds are tricky and don't always cooperate, so even he was confused at what he saw even if there was no one else who could've shown him those visions."

---

@Yugam​

 

[Yugam]

"I believe I can," the elf said, displaying only a brief moment of uncertainty, before reaffirming her claim. "I have," she said with an air of confidence in her own ability before beginning to explain how it had last occurred. The man settled back into his chair as he listened, arms crossed over his chest as he stared at some space between them, considering what was being said.

After a moment, the man sat forward slightly again, flipping to a new page and picking up his pen. The man began to jot down some notes as the elf continued.

Dreamwalking
viewer is elven (race trait?)
dreamer and viewer must be asleep (no scrying orb/device)
viewer can interact and possibly influence dreamspace
dreamer seems to have moderate to complete control over space (subconcious)
dreams not always clear (interpretation)

"Well, the subconscious doesn't always speak in a language we understand," the man stated as he finished the last of his notes. "We've been trying to interpret the messages left behind in dreams for who knows how long." Yugam set down his pen again and looked up at Rael. "I've got one more question then," the man said. "Do you know if memories from the real world transfer?" He paused for a moment before amending his question. "I realize it might not be possible to answer, but color me curious."

@Rael

 

[Rael]

.

"Perhaps the only reason we have failed to interpret them so far is that we haven't been able to witness the entirety of another's dream. Just hear retellings, look at scans."

Yugam's questions aren't without purpose, a not-so-hidden fact considering what he had mentioned earlier regarding his inability to remember much due to certain situations which had transpired in the real world. Given the more personal undertone to the conversation, something neither of the two would surely mention, Rael made an effort to limit her rambling to a minimum, answering his questions to the best of her ability.

"Most likely. You know, most people who play this game do it as some sort of escape, or to live out a fantasy which they had imagined a thousand times before... Usually, those dreams would be flashy. Dreams of daring exploits, of heroic deeds, of rewards... His were none like that. I think he, or someone dear to him, must have suffered an injury, outside of Terrasphere, that hasn't allowed him to view anyone else without that lens obscuring his perception. "

Thoughts flickered to the knight clad in a raging inferno, to their experiences together, eyes downcast in a way that still allowed to see her polite smile, but one that also gave away that the emotion didn't quite reach her eyes.

"That Dreamer... I saw them again, and again after that, when they were awake. They couldn't remember me after I delved into their dreams, I know not the logic of it."

---

@Yugam​

 

[Yugam]

Well, at least Yugam was able to confirm that the elf was another Traveler and not just a really impressive Lander. No Lander would use the word 'scans', the way she answered his question not withstanding. The man listened carefully, intense eyes trained on her as she told of the last man who's dreams she had explored. It turned out to be a surprisingly depressing story, but, as it would be, not too dissimilar from Yugam's own.

The woman gave a sad smile as she averted her eyes. "That Dreamer... I saw them again, and again after that, when they were awake. They couldn't remember me after I delved into their dreams, I know not the logic of it."

He forgot her?

Yugam didn't say anything for a moment, interlaced fingers covering his mouth, fixed on a knot in the wood of the table. "So you're saying I might forget you," the man spoke, hands descending to the table as he looked up at the elf again. "It's not worth the risk," the man concluded. "I'd let you walk my dreamscape, but the risk of losing memories, of you, or of anything else, it's not worth it. Memories are precious things."

@Rael

 

[Rael]

.

A mistake in calculation.

Were it not for the accident which had caused the barriers between his consciousness and those memories to form, perhaps it would be easier to convince him to allow her the slightest glimpse. Why, even as she considered her past experimentation with the ability, she quickly noted the only one who stood to gain much from it was, well, herself.

"They are precious indeed. We are incredibly frail and forgetful creatures, and we pay no mind to all we should..." Fingerpads glided delicately over the ephemeral passages written on paper. They, too, would decay into obscurity should she disappear.

The man could walk away with his memories untouched, having discovered flashes of long-forgotten faces. He could welcome back the sensation of something once cherished and dear to him, now left behind, unimportant.

Or he could walk away with his ability for memory recollection having worsened, visions witnessed by the two within his dreamscape, the latest addition to a string of lost days, faces.

"Say, Yugam... Stories, legends, are not based on the facts alone. Some take more than the heroic deed to consider themselves complete, such as the motivation behind the hero's journey. His woes, his passions."

Rael was laboring to keep the world from suffering a man's fate.

If anyone understood the importance of memories, it was her.

"For the next part of the interview, I would know yours. I will grant you a single kindness and say that the topic of conversation may delve into personal topics. Invasive, even, if you were so inclined to think of them as such.

Do I have your permission to continue?"

---

@Yugam​

 

[Yugam]

"They are precious indeed. We are incredibly frail and forgetful creatures, and we pay no mind to all we should..."
"I know that better than you may think," Yugam replied offhandedly, an ironic chuckle escaping his throat as his eyes drifted to his journal. So many things were lost in the foggy recesses of ones mind. His more than others.

"Indeed, all legends have a kernel of truth," Yugam agreed with the Storyteller, though there was a question behind his eyes as he wondered who it was she spoke of. Certainly not him, but someone from her past. Perhaps the man who had forgotten all about her. Questions begot more questions. What was he to her? Her to him. They weren't for him to know.

"So long as I'm free to not answer, ask away," Yugam consented with a nod as he shifted in his seat slightly, as if to give the elf his full attention.

@Rael

 

[Rael]

.

A fair compromise.

What use was her duty as record keeper if all she ever amounted to was to collecting faces lost amidst the crowd, names lost to obscurity, lost to the shadow cast by the deeds crafted by their very own capable hands. Even in their own world, there but remained a fundamental truth about all stories: it was their characters that made them memorable.

And what, then, made Yugam memorable? What set him apart from another adventurer of the same rank?

"We will return to the topic of the Red Fever towards the end of the interview, but for now..." The volume of her words lulled into an eventual quiet, fixated on the pages beneath as if they contained the clues of what she should ask next of the man. What to ask, what to ascertain something that would bring her inches closer to discovering him as a person, and not him as the avatar of Yugam.

"May I have your real-life name, for example?" A question a very select few would elect to answer, but one that had the potential to reveal so very much depending on the intensity of the reaction produced. "Similarly, does your avatar resemble your real self in any way? Yes or no, and why, if you could elaborate."

---

@Yugam ​

 

[Yugam]

Yugam nodded silently. It wasn't as if the man had anything else today, so he could sit and recount tales and legends for as long as the Storyteller wanted. He'd never been good at doing more than one or two things in any one day. Some small part of his brain recoiled from anything more than that.

"May I have your real-life name, for example?" Yugam pursed his lips for a moment, as he considered the elf's request. He was typically pretty open about his IRL identity in other games. But Terrasphere was not other games, and there was real danger in others knowing his real identity. The fact he'd kept his typical appearance had not helped in that respect. Finally though, the man spoke. "Ari," he said, giving his nickname, vague enough to give anything away. He'd have to look into changing his appearance later.

@Rael

 

[Rael]

.

Legends, as decency and kindness owed to a stranger you've just met, would not be the sole object of her pursuit.

"Well met, Ari," the gentle scrape of metallic point against paper filled in the space after the greeting, his name added to the earlier details of his person that she had started to write down. She thought nothing of the gesture, unsure if the name that had been offered was truly his own or that of a beloved pet, and it wasn't like she had the means available to prove the player's identity. Only his word. "How did you first come to hear of the game? And of its possible consequences?"

Kindness was the facade to grant her study into the mindset of others similar to her, roaming about in a world not their own in search of that which they could not easily grant themselves otherwise.

"Did these consequences affect your experience in any significant way - your decisions, your view of events?"

But were these pursuits so vital as to justify their deaths?

"Assuming you do know... Why do you yet play?"

---

@Yugam​