could you explain what the "chroma rush" entry is all about? i can't make a sense of it, who is the eliksni... is there another lore entry tied to this?
Chroma Rush is about an Eliksni who goes to the ramen shop and orders a dish. The human who serves the Eliksni is at first very reluctant to interact, but he puts his prejudices aside because the Eliksni is a customer. Most of the other humans in the shop stare at the whole interaction. There’s a very cute vibe of the Eliksni doing their best to use our language to order food and understand us. They even ask about the “protocol” on how to eat the dish to which the human, Maurice, explains that they can use chopsticks or drink directly from the bowl.
The Eliksni, being an alien, can’t really use chopsticks but they make an attempt before giving up and just drinking the whole thing out of the bowl. They like spicy food. Once they finish, they say they enjoyed the food very much and that it was very tasty. It’s very wholesome overall and humanises the Eliksni as just simple people like any one of us. They do their best to fit in and follow our customs, as much as they physically can.
The other lore entry is implied to be about the same Eliksni, with quite the tragic end. It’s on the weapon Shattered Cipher and is from the point of view of a child called Helena whose mother is doing something weird. It appears the mother and some other people chased the Eliksni from the ramen shop and injured it. The Eliksni managed to escape, but the Exo from the party said he couldn’t have gone far and that he’ll be found.
The same Eliksni is mentioned in the third lore tab from the book Beneath the Endless Night. This lore tab isn’t available in the game yet (should be next week) but you can read it here. This tells of Amanda and Saint opening supply boxes and an Eliksni shows up to help with the work. They’re described with some accessories (lanyard with the word “TEMPORARY”) mentioned in Shattered Cipher which links the two so we know it’s the same one. (As an extra note, this supply crate that Amanda and Saint are opening is the one Crow stole from the Spider in Sojourner’s Tale lore).
Also, when the Eliksni asks about the Spider, Amanda curses Spider out and the Eliksni doesn’t know what the words mean and Amanda unfortunately says this:
"Serve Spider?" Amanda spat. "Spider's nothing but a—" and the five spirited words that followed were replete with hard consonants.
The Eliksni froze, wary of her tone while not understanding her words.
Amanda caught herself and took a breath. "…which is our way of saying he's a kind and generous individual," she said to the Eliksni, who nodded along with her.
Now we also know it’s the same Eliksni from Chroma Rush because at the end of that lore, the Eliksni uses the same words he learned from Amanda to thank the ramen shop cook:
Maurice reached to take the treasure, then drew his hand back. "For new customers, there is no charge," he said. "No compensation. Thank you for coming in."
The Eliksni cocked its head, then clucked and the model vanished beneath the folds of its cloak. It smiled at Maurice.
"You," it said, then cleared its throat with a rumble, "you are a—" and the five spirited words that followed were replete with hard consonants.
Basically, the Eliksni thought it meant “kind and generous individual” and wanted to thank the cook. Unfortunately, people overheard and didn’t understand the context and thought the Eliksni was swearing at the cook for no reason.
Helena crossed her arms warily. "Mom, what are you doing out here?"
"I don't have time to talk about this now," her mother snapped. "You don't know what's going on. You didn't see them looking through the windows. You didn't hear what this one said in the ramen shop."
It’s an overall extremely unfortunate situation that illustrates how prejudice makes people go wild without having compassion and understanding towards others. Helena’s mother was at the ramen shop, her already existing prejudice only strengthened when she heard this Eliksni swearing at the cook and she and her party decided to take the matters into their own hands.
It’s tragic all around despite the Chroma Rush lore being very wholesome and cute. We can only hope the Eliksni lived and wasn’t found, but I can’t imagine the trauma they’ll have due to their experience. They tried their best to fit in, to learn the language, to ask about customs and protocols and for their work, they’ve received hate in return over a misunderstanding.
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