Warmth from the hot spring day still lingered in the air as I made my way through the Main Campus to the Music Building, behind which flashed heat lightning from a distant thunderhead, in contrast to the tranquil stars and planets lining the night sky directly above and the shimmering lights lining the sidewalks.

I was not here to see Meghan, though. She and I had grown close as romantic partners this semester, sleeping together more often than separately.

This time, though, I was here to see someone else. Someone I hadn't seen since around October of last year. I entered the Music Hall and began navigating the seemingly never-ending maze of rooms and granular planes. Meghan had shown me the ropes of this place, so I've been feeling far more confident going at it alone whenever I needed to. And indeed, this was one of those moments.

Nevertheless, it took me a while to find him. I tried some hallways and rooms, tried others. Most were silent this time; it was the week of finals. In the beginning, there were many musicians practicing, preparing for their performance juries. But that dropped off rather quickly, as many of the students, having passed such exams, moved out for the summer...

And then I heard it: the distant sound of a lone guitar playing. Using my ear and sense of direction, I followed the sound toward its source. Before long, I arrived at the door. As the guitar playing continued, I opened the door. Inside, among lit candles and stooped over, playing his guitar, was Otto Worren. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" he said, still concentrating and still playing.

"Did you get my messages?" I asked, taking a seat across from him.

"I did." He continued playing.

"Well...?"

He continued playing but looked up at me with a weary grin. "Well, what?"

"Have you given it thought yet?" I asked. Since my last entry, Aledon and I had come up with a clever recruitment idea, involving a "Big Quest" taking place between two planets in an off-grid system between the Galacian and Crescan branches. The idea was to have two trading hubs, each held by a massive, newly established guild, with a high-traffic route between them. Otto's role, with his avatar being a pirate, would be to attack one or a few of the trading vessels while Aledon worked behind the scenes to try and get the guilds to blame each other. My role would then be to place clues to help them identify Otto's avatar as the culprit, culminating in a major showdown between the now-united guilds and his pirates. Afterward, whether Otto won or lost, we would call the new recruits into a meeting where we would instill in them everything about the troubles caused by Monika Rhodes. Thus would be a major step taken for us in our resistance.

I came up with part of the idea, spent a few weeks convincing Aledon, at the end of which he finally gave in and amended the idea to its complete form. Now, I was working on Otto.

"Something about two guilds fighting and myself causing more chaos," Otto said, laughing a little but still playing.

"So it starts out with the guilds on friendly trading terms with one another-"

"It's okay. You don't need to go in detail," said Otto wearily, still playing. "The point is that I had barely time at all to read into the details. Busy with music finals, now busy unwinding..."

"Busy not being busy?"

"Call it what you may. I call it 'being busy escaping stressful things'...like Monika Rhodes."

"I know she's given your people the short end of the stick. In fact-"

"She was pushing me out," said Otto, laughing a little again. "She wanted traditional in-your-face good-guy, bad-guy dynamics at play. She made it clear with her revised Prefect Policies that she wanted free-wonderers like me off the playing board. My role was to cause chaos. She clearly wanted none of that. She wanted straightforward railroad plots to rule the range."

"Let her have her way, and there will be no more Society in like...five years?"

"Tell it to the choir. They've been telling it to her. She won't listen though. And it's clear that even those not directly supporting her are not willing to fight to keep the Arturian Realm favorable for those like myself. I figured that out way back in January and effectively disengaged. Sorry, but I'm done."

"I know it's discouraging, Otto, but think about the returns on this quest. It's Aledon and I at the helm. And guess what? We're fighting against Monika! We're fighting for people like you!"

Otto stopped playing and gently placed his guitar on its resting stand. He put his fingers on his temples and closed his eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Then he looked back up at me. "You're losing my respect, Maxima."

"I...I don't understand..."

"Well, for one, you have now begun patronizing me. 'Fighting for people like me'? Seriously!?.... And that in response to the five or more times I've said no, and the silent treatment I've been giving to your literal HUNDREDS of messages!"

"The silent treatment, but... I figured you were busy. I was sending reminders-"

"AFTER I'VE SAID NO!" With that, it seemed that all the energy had gone out from him. He sat back in his chair with a sigh. "Listen. I... I did not mean to vent in that fashion per se. But if you're a true friend, please respect me when I say no."

"Okay. That's fine. Don't mind if I do.... I remember you saying that you were working on your own blockworld, though, if I could just add that."

"Oh mercy." Otto put his fingers to his temples again. Then he looked back at me. "Listen, Maxima. I know you mean well. I know you see me as a friend, someone from whom to draw...mutual inspiration. But let me be honest for a second: Monika wants everyone to completely ignore the elephant in the room. Arnold Stamp, that is. Meanwhile, you want the opposite - to spread awareness of Stamp and his dangers. But honestly, Maxima, that's the only difference between you and Monika."

"I know you didn't mean that," I said, with a quiet and shaky voice. "I know you're just stressed and exhausted."

"Well, think about it, Maxima," said Otto as he rose from his chair again and began pacing. "You both try, relentlessly, to recruit me - Did you know that Monika was trying to recruit me too? That's why she turned on me in the end. I saw through it and kept saying no. - You both try, RELENTLESSLY, to recruit me. When I say no, you first question if I meant to say no. And I clearly mean it every time, by the way; if I was unsure, I would say that I was unsure - I don't bluff on that.... But then you both come begging me to change my mind. I say no again. You both keep begging. I try another approach at this point: silence. And yet you both keep persisting. And when begging doesn't work, you both start patronizing me!!.... Sorry Maxima, but that's the goddamn truth! You are no different! The Arnold Stamp thing, sure, that's a difference, but a menial one! You're both one and the same bird. Wanting dominance over a situation, which is why you two never get along. And you both push and push until you PUSH EVERYONE ELSE AWAY FROM YOU!! Sorry Maxima, but... GET WITH THE FUCKING PROGRAM AND LEARN TO TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER!" He sat down again and massaged his temples. "You know what? Let's just change the subject."

"You mean waste time!?" Now I was angry.

"I'm trying NOT to waste time here," said Otto, indicating his guitar. "Either change the subject or leave my practice room."

I felt my jaw tremble from rage. I stood up angrily. "I think I'll take the latter option. And you know what, Otto? I think it's time we parted as friends. Take care." I made my way to the door.

"You have waaay too much invested in Arturian Realm right now," Otto added. "It's just a fucking game, for God's sake, but I know you wouldn't let yourself believe that. You take care, yourself."

Still angry, right as I was at the door, I turned around and added, "Try not to be a quitter, Otto. I know that other musicians are NOT quitters."

Otto whipped around. "Again with the patronization...You know what? Get the fuck outta my practice room! I'm tired of your-"

But I didn't catch the rest of it, for a let his practice room door slam shut. I turned back around to make my way upstairs...and nearly bumped into Meghan. "Oh, my God. I'm so sorry," I said.

"It's okay," said Meghan as she gave me a hug. Then she turned us both back toward the Music Hall exit and put her arm around my shoulder. "Did he pace?" she ventured. "You know it's never good when he starts pacing."

"I think you overheard, Meghan, but please don't rub it in," I said, cringing.

"You're right. Let's keep walking. Let's give him space. In fact, let's give it all some space and time." And for the rest of the trip back to my place, we walked in silence.

When we arrived back at my place. The door opened to reveal Aledon, whose look of anticipation turned crestfallen as soon as he saw Meghan and me. "I was hoping he didn't turn," he said to me. "But I had a feeling..."

"So we start over then...?" I asked.

"Not necessarily," answered Aledon. "I've been speaking with Madison and Elisabeth over the past few days. You know how they barely engage with the Society... really, due to the politics here. However, they have agreed to help out after this week.

"As for this 'Big Quest,' the one this Friday, though, they did work a little on a special script thing that generates one-time daemons and accompanying spaceships. It's a little mini-factory to be placed in orbit around one of the planets. And it will be concealed and hard to find till the end. And that would, hopefully, take the place of Otto if he is going to refuse to help us. What do you say?"

Meghan stuck her lip out a little in careful optimism, shrugging. "I guess it's worth a shot."

I sighed and put my face in my hands for a moment. "I mean, it's our best shot at this point. What other option do we have?"

***

That was what happened this past Tuesday, the most eventful day of this eventful week.

The next day, like this past Monday, I had finals in the morning and afternoon. For the remainder of Nollsday, I went questing with Meghan again, putting up with a new feature that Monika imposed on all of us: a message bubble popping up in front of our avatars every time she posted on Ticketer. And every time she did, it was about some personal vendetta against someone, especially my brother.

Meanwhile, Layda hasn't had anything useful to report; just the same notion of Monika, Karyanna, and Sara bad-mouthing Aledon, talking about how he "pandered too much to the 'fringers.'"

In fact, that's all she's been doing: gaining attention toward herself over people she found annoying to herself. She has done nothing productive as a Dungeonmaster so far. As Aledon put last night: "She is, indeed, all about herself, just like a certain Mr. Stamp. The only difference is political alignment."

Such an atmosphere of cringe would only get worse later that day when Maggie broke the news that her article, the one warning about Stamp, was rejected, yet again, due to it "covering content not worthy of coverage or discussion."

For Wednesday, I broke away from the political discussions, both University and Society-related. I had the bulk of my finals that day, anyway.

On Thursday, I submitted to Dr Jaynes a draft for the new sets of seeds to plant alongside the ones planted from the box. It was the fourth attempt; he had rejected the first three attempts, creating a repetition of the frustrations I had last fall. This time, though, he finally approved of my plan. So I will plant the seeds sometime next week.

Friday, as in yesterday, brought a load of good news. Meghan and I decided to spend the upcoming summer together here at the University. Despite the politics, I love the Campus, its wonders, its community.

Also, though it went on till well past midnight this morning, the "Big Quest" was a smashing success. The guilds were disrupted by the daemon factory as planned. And as hoped for, the guilds temporarily turned on each other. Then, one group of our recruits found out about such a daemon factory and destroyed it, uniting the two guilds in the process.

Most importantly, though, about 25 percent of these recruits agreed to actively resist Monika and spread awareness of the dangers of Stamp. I know 25 percent does not seem a lot, but we had about 100 people take part, and 25 percent agreed to join us - a big step. Honestly, I had been dreading that our division within the Society would help clear the way for Stamp to come to power. But with this number, I have become hopeful again.

My concern, now, shifts toward Cray Fenton. Frail as he has been last year, he has been getting worse since Meona's passing. She was his closest friend. So while I am staying at the University this summer, Aledon and I will make several visits to Cray, to make sure he is doing well.

Bernard, who I just found out is graduating this week, will be moving to a different residence. Madison and Elisabeth will be staying somewhere else this summer, leaving just Aledon and me to keep our living suite in shape. So he and I are working out a staggered schedule to ensure one of us stays while the other visits Cray or our parents.

Aside from that, Meghan and I will take on more meaningful quests while I tend my granular plane garden.