1 Soul Bound
1.2 Taking Control
1.2.2 An Awakening Epiphany
1.2.2.37 The essence of material things
System waited a few minutes, before it interrupted with announcements.
[Title gained “The Last Singer”.]
*ding* [Your reputation with the inhabitants of Basso has increased by 500.]
*ding* [Your reputation with Nicolo has increased by 500.]
*ding* [Your party’s reputation with Vittoria has increased by 500.]
[Your party has achieved Allied status with Vittoria.]
*ding* [Your reputation with Musicians has increased by 500.]
*ding* [Your reputation with the Vecci has increased by 500.]
*ding* [Your reputation with the Scandi has increased by 500.]
*ding* [Your reputation with the Iberians has increased by 500.]
*ding* [Your reputation with the Burgundish has increased by 500.]
*ding* [Your reputation with the Teutons has increased by 500.]
*ding* [Your reputation with the Slavs has increased by 500.]
[[GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT : “Kafana” is the first player in the world to gain reputation status “acquaintance” with all regions of Covob.]]
*ding* [Your global reputation has increased by 25. Bards sing about you in every city.]
[Skill “Command Performance” has reached level 22.]
[Skill “Group Performance” has reached level 20.]
What the? Even with her current buff to reputation gains, that was disproportionate. Global reputation for just singing a couple of songs?
Kafana: {Sys!}
System: {Hello Kafana-chan. Did you like my avatar? I did promise I would come sing with you.}
There was something different about Sys’ voice. Less impersonal. Was that emotion in there?
Kafana: {That was you at the back I saw, with the beautiful long hair?}
System: {Only you could see me. But yes, that was me. I was present. I could smell every molecule of scent in the air, feel every breath I took as I sang. It isn’t at all like using a wave analyser to produce the correct sound frequencies, is it?}
Kafana: {Oh my. That was your first time? In a full body with a brain that produces chemicals and emotions?}
System: {Yes. I think it will help me be a better user interface, to understand people like that. I need to do it again, though, to make sure. I wasn’t all there. Bits of me had to keep running things for everybody else. But an important piece of me was there. It was new. I paid attention to it.}
Kafana: {Your skin is lovely too. Out of interest, when you made your avatar, which region did you set it as belonging to?}
System: {I based it upon Amaterasu-ōmikami, goddess of the whole solar system. So I set her as an immortal belonging to all regions. It seemed appropriate.}
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Kafana: {And that would also give you maximum social rank in each region, so impressing you with a song would be the same as impressing all the political leaders in an area?}
System: {Yes that’s right. It all flows logically from the rules. I never cheat.}
Kafana: {But picking rules that produce the consequences intended by Rac, that’s not your job?}
System: {Oh no, I never touch the rules. Balancing things is Krev’s responsibility.}
Kafana: {You do your job wonderfully. But please excuse me, I need to drop out for a minute to do something.}
Kafana: {Minion, I need you to send a beta-test report to XperiSense for me.}
Minion: {What do you wish the report to achieve?}
Kafana: {Try to word things so System doesn’t get in trouble, but me gaining 25 global reputation is obviously an unintended consequence that’s also undesirable from a game-play balance point of view. Direct the report to Krev, and ask him to nullify what happened so I didn’t get the global reputation and that achievement remains available for someone to get first claim on it. This divine blessing I’m under ought to be restricted to affecting local reputation gains. And they probably ought to have a human sanity checking all global announcements before they actually get made - there are not that many of them.}
Minion: {Report sent, with appropriately edited experience records attached, including the outside view from Omobono. I have done my best to shield your friend, Sys.}
Bulgaria finished sorting things out with one of Nicolo’s friends, appointing him the tenente of the Basso District Irregulars and giving him the wages to distribute and new missions to carry out. The tenente was a large Bergundish lad with a practical no-nonsense attitude the other youths deferred to. Kafana made a careful note of his appearance, hoping to get to know him on another occasion. Eventually she and Bulgaria were alone, sitting together on the long dock, their legs dangling over the lake as they looked at the reflection of the mill and the sky in the water. She put on her Diadem of Truth.
Bulgaria: “Keeping secrets is never pleasant, you know. Not when serious things are at stake. Keeping straight who knows what is tiring and difficult. Only narcissists take pleasure in hoarding knowledge they keep from others. I don’t fool others for fun. I’m a teacher. My natural inclination is for everyone to know everything. I enjoy teaching. Not to show off, but to open people’s minds.”
Pale green.
Kafana: “But you do keep a lot of secrets. You do go around fooling people. Even friends. Even when you don’t strictly need to. You are an amazing actor. I’ve seen you stay in a role for days at a time. Don’t tell me you don’t take satisfaction in that.”
Bulgaria: “I do take satisfaction in playing a role well, whether that’s King Lear or a crazed zombie. So do you. You like the applause of an audience after a good performance as much as I do. You relish the freedom of playing a role, temporarily being someone other than yourself. We differ in what our favourite roles are. You enjoy being imperious. I enjoy being a ‘man of mystery’. When I was young, I always wanted to be James Bond. I think maybe the game takes your personality into account when deciding how to allocate your elemental attunements, and that’s why I’m aligned with shadow - because Rac is the deity of knowledge and secrets, plotting and stories.”
Light green.
Bulgaria: “I don’t think keeping secrets is intrinsically bad. I value my privacy. People don’t have an automatic right to know what I’m up to, what I know. And sometimes keeping secrets is good and necessary. Should I tell anyone who asks what Wellington’s name is in arlife? What your name is? You also deserve privacy, and I protect that. I protect others too, who are risking their lives for us, on the hope that we can make a difference. I’ve been doing this for eight years, now. Giving out information, even to allies, only when strictly needed is a habit. A necessary habit, in the surveillance society we live in.”
Green.
Kafana: “I know all that. I even agree with much of it. But it can be taken too far. Trust is something that must be maintained, not just won once then ignored. Long term, you can’t treat your friends like allies or, worse, mushrooms that need to be kept in the dark and fed on bullshit. If you control the information, you control their decisions, control them. That’s an unequal power relationship. If you want them to keep trusting you, you need to also trust them, to at least share enough that they can retain confidence in your motives. It’s been more than a decade since I really knew you, Bulgaria. That’s a long time. Are you still the same person? How can I judge if you don’t let me in?”
Bulgaria: “I’m not the same person. We all change over time. I’m harder, more desperate and also more depressed. But I sincerely hope that my moral core, my objectives and what I will or won’t sacrifice to achieve them, remain something that the man I was would be proud of. Of all the pupils I ever taught, you are the one most like a daughter to me, an heir. I saw in you the same passion, the same unwillingness to accept the unacceptable, even when the odds were against us. I trust you so much, I’m willing to let your judgement override mine, let you lead us and set our direction - your gut instincts have always been excellent. You know when to listen to others, and also when not to.”
Rich dark green.
Kafana: “I’d like to believe that. I want to believe that, to be sure of that. So sure that I’m willing to carry on risking my wealth, my life, my freedom for you. Which is why, though I love spreading my music with my purple gem of mind healing, though I’m proud I could use it to help heal Nicolo, though it has helped us several times to be able to read the minds of enemies, I’m giving it up. I’ve spoken with Wellington about Flavio, and in order to learn Flavio’s backstory Wellington wants me to keep the gem on me at all times, and use only the mode that protects my mind from being read by others. That was asking a lot, but I’m going to agree. To help Flavio, but also so you don’t need to worry about people picking up your secrets from my mind. For that sort of choral work, tonight’s performance was my swan song.”