Glotos/Longing So for All the Fish

Dialog

N-7000: This unit is pleased to inform you that culinary ingredient supply has stabilized, and relations with reconstructed Karellians are rated as "friendly."

N-7000: As conditions for proceeding with the next phase of operations are optimal, this unit has taken the liberty of ordering additional customers. Patron-003 and Patron-004 are being transported to the Last Dregs even as we exchange communication signals.

Jammingway: What sort of patrons has Stigma-4 reconstructed for us this time, I wonder? We may as well see for ourselves!

(Cutscene begins)

N-7000: <whirr> Sensors indicate that Patron-003 and Patron-004 are "around here somewhere."

Jammingway: The café has a pleasant ambience about it these days, wouldn't you say, <name>? The Karellians aren't even shouting at each other!

Jammingway: ...But where are our new customers?

M-104: <whirr> Patrons were seated according to "table with a view" protocol and served in accordance with "salad" protocol, which have produced a satisfaction rate of 124% among customers to date.

Jammingway: Excellent work, unit! 'Tis always better to speak with customers after they've been fed...

N-7000: These patrons are of the "Grebuloff" race, known for its metallurgy. Records indicate that this civilization originated amidst the shining blue seas of its home planet, later adapting to life on its landmasses. Thus, the Grebuloff diet includes both fish and plant matter.

Emotional Grebuloff: <sob> <sniffle>

Nostalgic Grebuloff: <sigh>

Jammingway: Oh dear! Is the salad not to your liking?

N-7000: The organic life-forms' preferences confound this unit's logic circuits. Please provide additional data.

Nostalgic Grebuloff: Oh, I hope you won't take this personally. It's a perfectly lovely salad, only...

Emotional Grebuloff: Waaaaaah! I miss home so much...<sniff>

Jammingway: I see...The salad brings back painful memories. Could we get you something else, perhaps?

Emotional Grebuloff: All our friends are dead...WAAAAAAH!

Jammingway: W-Wait! How about a cup of tea?

Jammingway: What are we going to do!? We made our customers cry. Cry!

Jammingway: We need to catch them before they can escape through the portal to another Ostrakon. If we can't cheer them up quickly, their woe will plunge this who place into despair!

Unmemoried Portal

Jammingway: Bugger! Where did they go?

N-7000: Audio input registers no whimpering in the vicinity. This unit can only conclude that Patron-003 and Patron-004 have utilized the portal to teleport to Base Omicron.

Jammingway: Curse their advanced technological comprehension born of generations of metalworking innovation!

N-7000: Fear not, anxiety-prone life-form -- the Base Omicron perimeter is perpetually monitored by patrol units. This unit will transmit recorded data of customer service interactions to aid in detection of rogue patrons.

Jammingway: Well then, what are you waiting for!?

Base Omicron

Perimeter Patrol Unit: <beep> Fugitive "Grebuloff" data downloaded. Initializing pattern-matching sequence...

Perimeter Patrol Unit: Sighting confirmed. Last known location: territory between Base Omicron and clouded portal. Target life-forms were deemed "annoying, but non-threatening," warranting no interaction.

Idle Idling Unit: <whirr> Anomalous data detected in clouded portal transmission record. Timecode suggests these unregistered life-forms may be the "Grebuloffs" you are looking for.

Jammingway: I suppose we should be thankful that it isn't a rogue Omicron we're after. Needle in a haystack, that would be.

N-7000: Camera recordings confirm that Patron-003 ran screaming through Base Omicron, followed closely by Patron-004. Did any patrol units provide additional data?

N-7000: Then there is a high probability that the clouded portal was the customers' point of egress...

Jammingway: How do their little legs run so fast!? Asking for a friend...

Jammingway: At any rate, that portal leads to Ostrakon Tria. Let us make for the abode of the Ea. At the least, there may be more eyewitnesses.

Ostrakon Tria

Jammingway: <wheeze> They cannot have gotten...much...farther...

Sarcastic Ea: Ah, to search for those long lost. I too have known this need...or have I?

N-7000: Per this Ea unit, the rogue customers may be somewhere nearby.

Sarcastic Ea: If it is indeed the well-armored beings you speak of, they entered our abode crying for water. Incidentally, their crying produced water as well, which one must assume is why ther were carrying on so.

Sarcastic Ea: Regardless, we told them of the wellspring of regret. Perhaps it brings them spiritual comfort, as we once found in our holy places -- or perhaps they continue to weep, even now.

N-7000: ...This unit would not venture to theorize. However, projections do indicate that once the Grebuloffs locate a water source, they will entrench there. Despite their sophistication, their nature subjects them to certain base instincts.

Jammingway: If only they had stayed for tea...They must be awfully dehydrated by now. Come on!

Wellspring of Regret

Jammingway: At last!

N-7000: Allied units must remain alert to fluctuations in dynamis. Engaging spatiotemporal monitoring...

Emotional Grebuloff: <sniffle> Weh...

Nostalgic Grebuloff: Fathomless deep! You followed us all the way out here?

Jammingway: It is our responsibility as café managers -- though we underestimated your determination and lung capacity, I must admit. Do you feel better now that you've seen the water?

N-7000: Query: is the imbecilic life-form malfunctioning? This unit lacks many of the traits shared by organic races, but even so, the visual data could not be more conclusive.

Jammingway: I shan't dignify that with a response. But...how do you feel?

Nostalgic Grebuloff: UuuUuuUuugh...

Jammingway: So...bad, then?

Nostalgic Grebuloff: Yes, bad! We finally escaped those pointy terrible machines, only to find...this! We can't dive in this miserable little puddle -- it's barely suitable for dipping!

Emotional Grebuloff: I don't want to be in this strange land! I want to go home! But we've lost so much...did we finally lose our ocean too?

Jammingway: I'm...not certain I understand. Are oceans truly that superior to lakes? Our seas on the moon don't even have water most of the time...

Jammingway: Ah, like in Old Sharlayan? Big and blue with a horizon all its own?

N-7000: This unit has never seen such a thing. Omicron protocol is to evaporate significant water sources that may be of use to the enemy before landing.

Jammingway: There are no oceans in Ultima Thule, that's for certain.

Jammingway: Even so, there must be something here that brings back pleasant memories of the sea, rather than depressing ones...

Jammingway: You would know, <name>! What's unique about the ocean, aside from all the water?

What will you say?

• The beach has a sort of...smell.
• The salty sea breeze!

Jammingway: In that case...perhaps we can harness the scent you recall to evoke memories of relaxing days at the shore.

N-7000:This unit acknowledges the potential of this course of action. Comparison of data from the Dead Ends and records on the Ragnarok shows significant similarities between the chemical composition of the oceans of Etheirys and the Grebuloffs' star.

Jammingway: Sea smell it is! Once <name> sniffs out a sufficiently ocean-scented ingredient, we'll sprinkle it on a delicious dish to raise our customers' spirits.

N-7000: Isolating odiferous compounds and querying database...

N-7000:

• (for Miner) <ping> Chemical match found. Salt mined from deposits at approximate coordinates "14, 17, 2" will produce a similar odor to the "sea salt" of your home star.
• (for Fisher) <ping> Convenient chemical matches found among the life-forms present in the wellspring of regret. This unit assumes your olfactory senses are sufficient to discern which ones.
• May this unit once again suggest the purchase of gold salmon roe from unit N-0598 in A-4 Research? It is scientifically proven effective in attracting organic life forms.
• (for Botanist) <ping> Chemical match found. Constituent amino acids of the legumes located at approximate coordinates "13, 14, 2" will be useful in simulating the smell of your oceans. Similar amino acids are present in dragon scales -- however, these are not so easily digested.

Jammingway: Surely we can find some manner of disk to cook with that! Perhaps a soup?

N-7000: This unit suggests worrying about that after allied units reconvene at the Last Dregs. In the meanwhile, protocol requires that management gently prod the customers until they regain their faculties.

The Last Dregs

Nostalgic Grebuloff: I could go for a spot of dinner after so much sprinting. What did you have in mind?

Emotional Grebuloff: <sniffle> I'm sorry...You're all -- <hic> -- so kind...Waaah!

Jammingway: I do recall a distinct odor near the Last Stand in Old Sharlayan...was that the ocean?

N-7000: <whirr> Customer vital signs stabilized. Social acceptability of issuing dinner invitations restored to 100%.

N-7000: Ingredients confirmed. Loading recipe...

Jammingway: Huzzah! It's time to get cooking!

Emotional Grebuloff: <sniff> This salty, tangy, vaguely fishy aroma...How bittersweet it is...

Nostalgic Grebuloff: Astounding! It tastes just like the tide!

Emotional Grebuloff: An invigorating flavor, as if I've waded in and accidentally swallowed a lungful!

Emotional Grebuloff: ...Ah, such fond memories! Even if they do sting a bit.

Nostalgic Grebuloff: We had many, many a good day, thanks to our beautiful sea.

Nostalgic Grebuloff: If I could go back to those times, I would treasure the blessings it gave us. I would keep it safe from harm...

N-7000: <whirr> Incoming transmission from Stigma-4...

N-7000: Observational units report rapid changes to Elysion's landscape. All signs point to Grebuloff influence.

Jammingway: Really!? Well, this bears seeing for ourselves!

A-4 Research

Jammingway: Hurry, hurry! The Grebuloffs have already gone!

N-7000: This unit fears for the cardiovascular system of the excitable life-form, and recommends not keeping it in suspense any longer.

Elysion

From their profound love and appreciation, the Grebuloffs' ocean has been reborn! It will make a fine home for myriad aquatic creatures.

There is yet much room for Elysion to grow and change. What other hopes will the power of dynamic bring to life?

A-4 Research

Jammingway: It may be a bit smaller than the real thing, but it certainly smelled like an ocean to me! And did you see the happy looks on the Grebuloffs' helmeted little faces?

N-7000: This unit did see, and appreciates allied units' assistance in fulfulling this objective.

Jammingway: We have land, we have sea...one does wonder what could possibly come next. Not to mention what menu items it will inspire!

N-7000: ...More importantly, this mission is evolving. Analysis of statements made by the Grebuloffs, as well as their overall demeanor, indicates that their memories originated just prior to their star's ultimate demise.

N-7000: Once reconstructed, the individuals initially remained in a state of deep despair over what had befallen their world, and its seas in particular.

N-7000: Via Operation: Soup, however, café management restored to them their will to carry on. These events have caused this unit to reevaluate the significance of the current mission. Mission significance and satisfaction with current orders are now rated as "high."

N-7000: <whirr> Yet this unit has unresolved queries. Metaphysically, this unit and other life-forms in Ultima Thule are naught but simulations -- memories reconstructed with dynamis. Regardless of our actions, can these "lives" truly be categorized as meaningful?

Jammingway: ...Not to cut your existential crisis short, bolt head, but do we not have data proving that you're as metaphysically significant as anyone else? Our customers affected the dynamis of Elysion, and that's a fact.

Jammingway: You lot may be a little different, but your feelings -- your hopes, your dreams? Those are real. So let's get out there and serve up some smiles, eh? We can't do it without you.

N-7000: <whirr> <whirr>...Affirmative. Thank you, Jammingway.

Jammingway: Flowers and fish...Perhaps we should recruit some carrot-loving patrons next.

N-7000: <whirr> There is much data to be acquired from the Grebuloffs, if only they would stand still...