Meris inexplicably had Carneman pull support of the army of the undead from our quest, even after I had promised to support Fenton. She gave no reason; in fact, she had not even been responding to my messages. So I stepped down on the quest. In fact, I went awhile without even engaging in the Arturian Realm altogether, investing my time, instead, in catching up on my academic studies.

Last Friday, however, my hiatus was broken when I received word from the Conjoined Order on a new urgent quest, promising to pay, up front, for the re-fitting of my avatar's airship, The Slayvon.

Over the past couple of weeks, the Divine Kingdoms of Marlen and Prestia joined forces to construct a certain colossal island-barge, consisting of an area of land in which stood an entire town while the exterior of this...island-barge-thing...was defended by mighty walls, turrets, and guns. Forces set in motion by the works of cooperating Divine avatars allowed this large island-barge to float and navigate the Arturian Sea like a large ship.

This super-vessel has since positioned itself between Antemaersa and the North Shore where it could dispatch its naval and air forces to effectively close off access by opposing entities to the Eastern part of the entire Realm. The Conjoined Order tried to prevent the super-vessel's deployment by striking the construction site in Prestia with a merciless onslaught of airship, naval, and infantry divisions. It was a formidable effort, but alas, the attack failed to stop the Divine Kingdoms' agenda. The vessel was finally completed and launched last weekend.

The Conjoined Order, this weekend, planned another attack on the super-vessel, this time stronger and longer-sustained in the hopes of subduing the colossal super-isle, for such an effort would be required. My role in this was to have Captain Bornan set forces to work to create duplicates of The Slayvon.

From the moment I was informed of this, I began to doubt the effort. I reasoned that the same outcome would result, an utter defeat for the Conjoined Order, except on a larger scale. "So what's the point?," I thought.

It was on Saturday that I received a private Ticketer message from a relatively new Third Level Society Member: Jon Beyon. It was an invitation to join a meeting held in the Basement Chamber of the Southeast Wing of House Deering, on the Southeast end of campus. It was quite a walk for me, but interest got the better of me.

When I arrived, I was surprised to find that Alex Cromme and Trayva Meris were there as well, demonstrating how elated they were at the prospect of some sort of a new invention.

That did not surprise me so much as when I saw at this meeting another unexpected figure: Sari Frame.

Before I could dwell on this further, however, Jon Beyon, a short youngster with a balding head, ascended the makeshift wooden dais and began presenting his new innovation.

Up to this point, I never took the time to think of what our console was like, a practical tool without which engagement of our avatars in the Arturian Realm would be impossible. And I will admit, I never considered how primitive it was. The most basic part of each Member's personal console was a glass dome enclosing a round mini-dais set atop the Center Ticker, a typewriter with a paper roll upon which the engaged Member types commands and which is then fed automatically into the Console Box, also known as the "brain" of the console. Knowledge of a certain language of pseudo-scripting, in our case, the Northwest Circlarian Type, is required to become fluent in avatar engagement. Meanwhile, our old console model also includes, powered by our communication structure, the Ticketer, a ticker on the left-hand side, where a Member will see printed out on a paper roll the messages sent between themselves and their fellow quest group Members. With this, you enter commands fed into a different slot in the Console Box. This left-hand ticker is also used for private messages between individual Members. On the right hand side is a ticker without a typing keyboard. This, of course, is the Public Section of the Ticketer, which displays all public announcements made by Members, Administrators, and the Dungeonmaster. One may enter an announcement to post in the Public Section at any time by entering text into the left-hand ticker so long as that ticker is not engaged in group or private messaging spaces.

Jon Beyon's console model preserves the left and right-hand tickers used in the Ticketer system but completely does away with the center ticker and typewriter of the avatar engagement section. In its place is a series of three uncovered mini-daises known as "engagement pads." The center of these, located on the floor, is used by the Member's feet to control movement of the avatar. The left "pad" contains special markings on paper to do what the avatar's left hand would do (i.e. cast talisman spells, use a sword and shield, etc.), while the right "pad" serves the same kind of purpose.

So in other words, this new invention means immediate input for immediate action; no more typing or knowledge of the Northwestern Remikran Type required.

Thus, I realized that Jon Beyon and this invention was behind the mysterious "three suns" enemy having frustrated my previous two quests. The notion of facing avatars powered by immediate-input-immediate-action made it impossible for a Member like myself, with a traditional console requiring the typing of actions, to overcome such a conflict.

While I saw the benefits of this new prototype, I was also concerned about the future of the Third Level Society. Surely, there will be resistance to change, especially by those in support of Fenton as the next Dungeonmaster, no matter the outcome of next month. The new console model will undoubtedly help us to defeat the floating isle-fortress stationed near Antemaersa. And moreover, I see this helping some Members, who struggle to form words in a timely fashion but otherwise have promising and cunning strategy, to overcome the obstacle of having to type out commands in accordance to a certain jargon. To keep the dynamics of the Arturian Realm fair and balanced, though, this invention would have to be implemented uniformly, which is why I am concerned about Fenton and his Traditionalist camp putting up a resistance.

All of this crossed my mind while I sat at the meeting. In thought, I glanced around. Cromme and Meris were here. Sari Frame was here as well. All three were displaying the same type of attitude of excitement and welcoming at this new innovation. After Jon finished, Sari got up in front of the gathering and, seemingly having read my mind to a degree, stated that this needs to be implemented uniformly. And honestly, since this moment, I began to understand the importance of the stance taken by Frame and her friends. I feel also that Cromme and Meris are of the same sentiment. My only concern now was that since I promised my support to Fenton, I did not want to publicly declare my excitement for this, otherwise risking the reopening of the rift that had emerged between me and Fenton last spring. Furthermore, I hoped then as I hope now that this will not become a concern central to Fenton during his campaign or, should he win next month, his tenure.

I brought these concerns up to Jon Beyon, and also the idea that this should be implemented uniformly. To the surprise of both myself and Sari, Jon stated that a better strategy was being implemented, that he was "silently" converting numerous Members to the new console prototype, and would continue to do so until a vast majority of Members had the new model; then any resistance to such a change would not be practical.

"What if someone blows our cover before this agenda is complete?" I asked.

"Small chance of that happening," Jon replied.