RENE/Dialogue

* Right Branch
* Ephemerality Route
* Left Branch

* Oh my, are we awake already?
* I'm afraid this won't do.

* I'll have you rest a little longer.

* No need to be so scared.
* All I did was fix you up a little.
* How cold.
* My tag is RENE, remember?

* Still...

* If you wanted to come back, you should've just told me!
* No need to use roundabout ways like becoming a Flower just to get here.
* The moment I saw your TAG on the lists, I rushed over to retrieve you.

* Here! All done.
* These bandages are infused with laamari, so the wounds should heal faster this way.

* It's a good thing your replacement eye seems to be working well.
* They say "One's virtue rests inside the eyes" for a reason.
* I'll come back in a minute. Wait here for a bit, okay?

* Let's brief you on your new job, shall we?

* I need you to deliver him to DOME MÜ.
* Made you a pass and everything.

* Oh! You must be wondering why he isn't moving.
* It's not that he can't move.
* It's that he doesn't know how to.

* Meet ERIK.
* This line of artificial raincoats only learns the data it acquires from patches.
* Plenty useful for the entertainment industry, isn't it?
* They cannot hear nor speak unless patched accordingly, as their raincoat does not process data from the environment.
* As a result, they only perceive the world in a way the patch permits them to.
* A nice bonus is that when they're out of energy, their memories are wiped completely.
* No need to think too deeply about it.
* Right now, he's patched to follow you until you enter DOME MÜ.
* ERIK will enter a protective standby mode if he loses sight of you, so he'll become a neat geometrical shape until you find him.
* Artificial raincoats are extremely valuable, so naturally, no business partner would want to get theirs in a damaged state.

* Let's see...ERIK, check. MÜ pass, check.
* Take some bottled etherium with you, just in case.
* Oh, and one more thing.

* I've sewn in a special patch to your coat.
* If I don't deactivate it in two shifts, it'll damage your coat's fibers.

* You know what'll happen after that, right?

* So...come back soon, okay?

### ÜLAR returns

* Oh— ÜLAR! Welcome back.

* Good job, you two!
* Bring him over.

* And...
* Hup!

* Rest lots before tomorrow, alright?

* There's not much time left.

### RENE's Lab

*ÜLAR wakes up*

* Oh, you're awake!
* Good timing. I'm almost finished with today's work.

* Dream of anything in particular?

* Just joking.

* Haha! This hammock really is bouncy!

* Cuddling like this...

* Is something *unnatural* for raincoat-hjörians.
* Because we don't secrete hormones like ifite-based organisms do.

* But, rest assured.

* You don't need to worry about a thing when you're here.
* All you need right now is rest.

### Luminol Hall

* Looking for something?

* No need to apologize.
* Welcome to Luminol Hall, a home to my personal Artefact collection!
* You can look around as much as you want.
* Is there a particular Artefact that interests you?

* Indeed, these are the most ordinary N-class Artefacts you can easily find without special equipment.
* Very few of them are exclusive, and most of them lack useful function.
* For Diviners, their value is equivalent to throwaway garbage.
* But at the end of the day, their value lies in the eyes of the onlooker, doesn't it?

* Want me to tell you more about them?
* You can choose anything...or nothing at all.

*Selecting Tube with a hole in it*

* This one is an N-rank Artefact, Benevolent Kaleidoscope.
* Look at someone through it, and you'll see a hidden flaw to them.
* However, it doesn't reflect reality.
* What you'll see will be the flaw you yourself want to see.
* But would you use this Artefact if you didn't possess ill intentions?
* That said, to be honest, I do sometimes use it myself...
* Because all raincoat-hjörians look absolutely the same to me, and that is by no means an exaggeration.
* But this Artefact allows to differentiate between them. Pretty handy, isn't it?

*Selecting Fleshy (? thing*

* This is an R-rank Artefact, Lily of Peace.
* Entrust a memory to it, and it will be permanently erased.
* Stores one memory at a time.
* This might be useful for removing painful memories.
* But the question is, would you still stay yourself if you were to forget even one little thing about yourself?
* Any thought, any emotion you ever felt initiated many other thoughts, and made you act a certain way, didn't they?
* However, there might be memories worth losing your current self for.

*Selecting Floating Spikes*

* This one's a Riroid, an N-rank Artefact.
* It makes a nice decoration, doesn't it?
* No other functions were discovered by me thus far.
* Here. I'll send you some data on Artefact Classes.
* It should help you get acquainted with them better.

*Moving on*

* Oh, right!
* I've been meaning to give you a "welcome back" gift.

* Now where did I put it...

* Here! A present from me to you.

* Yes. A fog globe, to be precise.
* It's the entire HJÖ in the palm of your hand.
* Here you can see all the 12 domes, and when you shake it, they'll get enveloped in the Red Fog.
* "At once, all will be consumed by Red Fog, and all you will see shall be crimson. This will mark the first advent of Termination Day."

* Initially it used to be a Humo-class N Artefact, but I customized it myself.
* And now it's all yours.
* Take good care of it, will you?

### ERIK Stream

* Told you.
* Want to try donating some credits?

### DOME VI

*Walking to DOME VI with ÜLAR*

* You mean the *Janitors*?
* They're cute henchmen of mine.
* Each one is autonomous, but once they're given a task, they'll make sure to carry it out properly.

* I can't deny I'm capable of making them myself, but these were a gift.
* They come from the Garden of Brilliance.

*Arriving at DOME VI*

* Look! We have arrived. Welcome to DOME VI.
* DOME VI is a property of the TAU Research Institute, so there's no one else here besides us.

* That's right.
* VI is divided into two parts: The Resort and Idle Grounds.
* The Idle Grounds are home to The Steam Shards, the natural wonder that keeps The Resort afloat.
* And The Resort is...well, that's where we're going.

* See the floating spores?
* These are used to purify ether in etheroids' stead.
* DOME TAU's main mission is to reduce the impact we, raincoat-hjörians, leave on the environment and the living organisms populating HJÖ.
* So naturally, we want to end the exploitation of etheroids for our own needs.

* Be careful not to fall down while we cross the bridge, okay?

* Somewhere fun. You'll see when we get there.

* Come on, don't be scared.
* These Dream Cocoons are nothing to be afraid of.

* Or would you rather go back to the Standby Cocoon back at TAU?

* Look, the Dream Cocoon is welcoming you.
* Put your hands into the holes, and the start sequence will be initialized.
* Follow the instructions, and you're good to go.
* The interface is simplified in a way that even a novice will be able to use it without getting overwhelmed.

### Field of the Undying

*ÜLAR looking out the window*

* The Blooming Field is located below the ground.
* This area is called "The Field of the Undying", which is in fact a huge Artefact.
* Want to go down and see what it's like?

* Sure.
* Aren't you curious?

* Want to taste one?
* Why not?

* Hahaha! Thought so.

* Each of these flowers is a miniature memory storage device.
* However, it's big enough to store an entire raincoat's dataset in one petal.
* In a way.

* Here, we store copies of the datasets of our Flowers.
* In the process of research, their data may get corrupted, or even destroyed...but here, they remain in their original form.
* So we come here to restore their system back to the way it was.
* All we need to do is take one of the petals, and sew it into the damaged raincoat.
* As you may have already noticed, these flowers and TAU's Flowers share a name for a reason.
* However, there's something these flowers are capable of that raincoat-hjörians are not.
* What do you think that is?

* I'll answer it for you.
* They're capable of withering.
* Once their life cycle reaches its apex and they release their pollen, they will swiftly crumble until they become dust on the Field.
* Their lives are conclusive, unlike ours.

* Melodic, don't you think?

### Tree of Ignorance

*ÜLAR watching RENE work*

* Interested in my work?

* I'll show you something fun next time, okay?
* In return, do your best in the Dream Cocoon today, will you?

*After ÜLAR wakes up from dream*

* Curious about the process?
* Oh, right...I promised I'd do a little demonstration. You don't know much about my field of work, do you?
* Let me start from defining some basic concepts.

* Right now, I'm performing a raincoat transplantation.

* Did you know?
* All that you are — your memory, your body shape, your thought processes and sensations — are stored inside the raincoat's fibers.

* Therefore, everything that makes you the way you are is the raincoat you "wear".
* The body is merely a vehicle you can change once it wears down.
* It's the biomass that can be reshaped into anything.

* Simply put, the reason we look the way we do is because of raincoats' material memory encoded in their fibers.
* Let me demonstrate it to you.

* Janitors. Bring in the hjörian.

* Meet our averagely shaped hjörian, brought here straight from the Unharvested Sea.

* The Unharvested Sea is an extremely large body of water located near The Titan.
* Or, *Two Titans*, depending on the region. You see, there are at least three interpretations of HJÖ's creation myth.

* Each day, many hjörians rise up from its depths, and set foot upon HJÖ.
* On their own, they're simple creatures without pain receptors, aimlessly wandering around under the Rain and feeding on the etherium etheroids produce.

* However, the moment they come in contact with raincoats...

* The raincoats attack and seize them!

* And a raincoat-hjörian is made.
* Nowadays, the process is automated through the Factory.
* There's a limited number of raincoats in this world, and most of their TAGs have been registered at the Factory.

* Since raincoats themselves are neither alive nor dead until they come in contact with a living organism capable of metabolism and growth, they cannot move on their own.
* But when they bond with hjörians, they're fused into an emergent organism.

* Let's just say etheroids live on a different plane of existence from you and me.
* As for Echoes...well...
* It would be correct to say that they don't benefit from each other.
* Why is that? The shortest answer would be "different body structure".

* Echoes are ifite-based organisms. Which means they're organics. Thick skin, limited body dynamics, structures prone to failure.
* If I were to compare them to Class H Artefacts, they'd be like animated stuffed toys.
* Once their insides fall out, there's no way of stuffing them back.
* Hjörians, on the other hand, consist of small silicone particles. They're like magnet toys.
* You can mold them into anything, and they will stay the same.
* As one of the common beliefs goes,
* *"When the Overseer created this world, he tore his own body apart to create hjörians (Origin of Form)."*
* *"His holy spirit took the form of etheroids (Origin of Feeling), and his mind took the form of raincoats (Origin of Logic)."*
* *"Then out of mud rose the tools - Echoes."*
* Funny, isn't it?

### Blooming Field

* It's your first time visiting The Blooming Field, isn't it?

* You know how we raincoat-hjörians have fewer senses than, say, Echoes?
* When we have only sight, touch, balance and hearing, Echoes have twice the amount of those.
* In addition to those four, Echoes possess the senses of taste, temperature, echolocation, pressure, hunger and fullness of the stomach.
* Some can distinguish smells, like Carrier Echoes do.
* But most importantly, unlike us, Echoes possess a sense of pain.
* Raincoats don't even have physical responses to pain, since they're unable to perceive it.

* After signing the Agreement form, you're placed in a Standby Cocoon, where you can hibernate until the Tests take place.
* You may choose to not hibernate, and instead immerse yourself in virtual reality we've designed.

* ...patches to test the limitations and potential of raincoats and hjörians alike, ranging from radially symmetrical to bilaterally symmetrical shapes...

* ...raincoat symbiosis with ifite-based lifeforms...

* Our time is up, ÜLAR.
* The Termination will be initialized tomorrow.

### DOME VI

*Noticing ÜLAR in a hurry*

* Are you in a hurry?

* ...

* Oh! So you hurried over to tell me about them?

* That's admirable.

* Great job, ÜLAR. Let's reflect on them when we get back home, okay?

* Let's go. There's still a lot to do.
* After all, the Termination is tomorrow.

### Luminol Hall

* Lost in thought?

* Hi.
* It seems I am restless as well.

* Mind if I keep you company?

* You know, I've been mulling over something for a long while.
* Though, it might be boring for you to listen to me ramble.
* Rather...Want me to tell you a story?
* These are extremely useful for understanding complex concepts.

### Nation of Humo

1

* Once upon a time
* On a small planet
* Lived a nation of Humo.

* The Humo were the only nation on the planet
* Who buried their dead.

* It made them unique,
* and they were incredibly proud of it.
* To the point of equating themselves
* With the immortal gods they worshipped.

2

* Like all the living beings on the planet,
* Humo were mortal.
* The more aware of their finite existence they became,
* The more desperately they looked for a way to live forever.

* They tried everything to immortalize themselves.
* But nothing ever worked.

* Idols were forgotten,
* buildings demolished,
* works of art destroyed,
* and the memories of great adventures became tainted
* As the moral values changed throughout generations.

* Desperate and disillusioned,
* The Humo built a museum.
* A museum that contained copies
* Of every Humo that ever lived.

* However, the copies weren't made of flesh and bone.
* Instead, they were made of special yarn meant to last for millennia.

3

* Eventually, The Humo nation ceased to be,
* But the yarn dolls remained.

* Even though they were copies of The Humo,
* They were merely data containers.
* They weren't aware of their existence in the first place.
* So they just sat there, not moving an inch.

* Centuries passed.

4

* One day, the door to the museum opened.
* Another nation came to the small planet
* In search for resources.

* However, not understanding the value of the yarn dolls,
* They recycled the yarn and made themselves garments from it,
* Never leaning of its true value.

### Luminol Hall

*After finishing his story*

* A silly nation, isn't it?
* All they did in the end was subject themselves to be trapped inside a piece of cloth forever.

* Even now, I keep thinking...
* What a pitiful way to achieve eternity it was.

*After death about The Song*

* ...

* You see, ÜLAR...
* This world is overrun with whispers.
* Poisoning the minds, they keep spreading.
* However, even among this noise, I want to continue singing.

### Field of the Undying

* Dream of anything in particular?

* What's with all the hurry?
* The Termination has already been successfully initiated.

* Didn't you hear me?
* It's already over.
* All that's left is to put an end to our eternity.

* Isn't it wonderful?
* This time, once and for all, all of the raincoat-hjörian "lives" on HJÖ will reach their final conclusion.

* A new Cycle will never begin.
* It'll mark an end to our boredom.
* *They* will make sure of it.

* So please.

* Let me hear your song.

* You ought to remember the words by now...

* "MR RAINER".

*After story*

* Come here.

* Eat all you want.