Yeah. [He sighs and gets back to it, proceeding carefully to minimize awkward stumbling.]

The City was controlled by beings who called themselves the... day-ties and they were able to put curses on the population and give us things in ex-exchange for memories, items, uhh. Oh, et cetera. They may have been members of a tech-no-log... race. [He scratches his nose, as if an itch had distracted him.] Maybe one that is studying human—? Humans, I guess. Yadda yadda. [Deliberately avoiding that word, anonymous.]

...Oh, deities. I'm guessing this "source" mentioned here is who everyone keeps talking about lately.