Fragment 54 Insight

Let’s start this off with the obvious. Almost every single ‘summoning fragment’ prior to this one has been over the course of a few days, showing how the servant in particular adapts to their surroundings. Dantes’ is the longest by far over the course of nearly an entire month (which I obviously don’t intend to do again – writing a month of time in one fragment is lost material).

That’s why Quetzalcoatl’s arrival is so special and upbeat at the same time: She’s the true icebreaker. Everyone else gets summoned, and they stand respectfully and wait until the light fades. The ever-lively rider, rivalled only by Astolfo for energy, tackles Gabrielle to the ground in an instant show of happiness. If that doesn’t set the mood for the rest of the fragment, I don’t know what does.

And so it was. Writing her summoning chapter over the course of a few hours felt great. It’s obvious she fits in, and she’s practically jumping for joy at every corner and discovery. I even gave her tendency to speak Spanish a little boost: If she gets really excited, she completely switches over unintentionally. There’s no loss information or understanding when she does, because she’s obviously just very excited. For those who speak Spanish, though, it’s some extra candy.

Setting her up and teasing future friendships and relations was also very easy, especially considering another idea: Artemis arrived too. Ever since reading about Quetzalcoatl’s personality and knowing of Artemis’ bimbo quirk, I had the idea in my head they’d make incredible friends as goddesses. Thus, I made it happen… and poor Atalanta now has two very active goddesses who want to play with her kids. At least she’s not crestfallen over the Mesopotamian one though.

Besides setting up Quetz’ clear road to success and acceptance, I dropped a few other necessary foundations. It’s obvious Chaldea has become adept at figuring out how to guide or talk with Spartacus since he became friends with Leonidas; Too bad he still wound up chasing the Romans later. There’s also the overdue reveal of Rome’s promised room, which is rather fitting if you think about it. Also directly name dropped the other arrived servants just to ease some suspense.

There were a lot of possible interactions for Quetzalcoatl, but I decided to keep it simple with some of the more obvious and promising ones. I did manage to sneak in quite a few servant cameos this time around though, but the next fragment will have even more by comparison. Hope you’re all enjoying the smooth sailing, because I figured it’s necessary considering the next singularity’s entire mood and theme. That’s a long way off though.

As for the song they dance to: Many should recognize it from way back when.

Next week: Regardless of what others believed or said, he always acted out of obligation rather than love or desire. He never did it for rewards or praise, but merely because it was the right thing to be done. But this time is different, and he may find a proper reward for his rather peculiar heroism.