Seele Vollerei: The end of reality, and what came after.

[Baughn]

Weird, I could swear it started out feeling collegy

Click to shrink...

It did. Anything that's not nailed down tends to drift over time, with the AI (by default) only having a small context window of the last two or so dozen paragraphs to go off, and nobody ever voted for [X] [Remember] You're in college.

No, I wasn't really expecting you to. I've explained how this works, but it's easier to demonstrate... though I think that's been amply demonstrated by now, so from now on I'll be trying my best to (have it) write a proper Seele Quest. This is going to include a lot of unspoken GM-ing from my side; if you know anything about my writing, you'll know the poor girl will need your help. She's in a terrible situation right now.

We're on a ship! We ... sort of knew that, from the very beginning

Click to shrink...

In fact, "We're on a ship" is one of the world-info entries that triggered most often. It was definitely in the AI's knowledge base. It's helpful here, because a lot of the HI3 plot in fact takes place on a ship, but it's also entirely coincidence.

That's amazing and kinda terrifying, oh omniscient AI author, not gonna lie.

Click to shrink...

Kinda.

Let's go over this. The AI is an advanced text autocompletion system; all it 'wants' – defining 'want' as 'what it was scored on' – is to, given a piece of text, continue the text in whatever fashion is most identical to how it would've been done in its training data. It was trained on the entire (public) internet; given any piece of text, it can almost always provide a plausible continuation. The AID instance was additionally fine-tuned on a couple of fandom wikis, which explains a lot about it.

So if you hand it a piece of fanfiction, it can attempt to continue that fanfiction, because it's seen fanfiction before. Only...

How much Honkai Impact 3 fanfiction is there, in textual form? How much of that is focused on Seele? How much even mentions her? Not a lot. Not much at all.

On the other hand, how many people have speculated on the internet about how far up into the air a bullet would go, if you shoot it straight upwards – on Mars? How about on Mars, but with an Earthlike atmosphere? It gets the answer to that question wrong about two out of three times, but the amazing thing is it sometimes gets it right. There's a lot more than three possible answers.

(When I tried that, it told me: "The atmosphere of Mars would explode outwards, throwing the bullet into interplanetary space." Which is probably accurate, given you start by forcing an Earthlike atmosphere on the place. Not enough gravity at all.)

So what the AI appears to have done here is:

• Recognize Seele based on an extremely loose description. This is complete bullshit – nowhere on the internet is there a list of fictional characters with descriptions attached, and my description doesn't quite match anything I can find on a wiki either.
• Determine, based on the "Do you feel a bit more like yourself?" line, that we're Seele. This is actually the easiest element to explain – this is not an unusual line, and it's often enough paired with that sort of shenanigans. The AI effectively reads this as "Discount previous personality and behaviour; it's caused by something having been wrong with the MC. Use other info to determine behaviour."
• Which immediately led to a stutter. Poor Seele.
• The AI then paired this with, apparently, setting information from HI3. It combined that with its pre-existing knowledge that it's a dreamlike setting, and decided it's the quantum sea. This makes perfect sense, but again it's not what you'd usually call text autocompletion. It is, though. Just a terribly advanced cellphone keyboard.

...I'm not serious about that last sentence. The way GPT-3 works is not fully understood, but like I've said before, compression and intelligence are two sides of the same coin. It was told to predict any and all text on the entire internet; the best possible way to do that would be to store the entire internet, but it's orders of magnitude too small to achieve that. The second best way was to become intelligent, to better be able to predict it.

Which, yes, is a real problem in AI. If you make the AI too large compared to the training data, it'll perform worse; this is called overfitting. There's a variety of ways to avoid or mitigate it, but in GPT-3's case there was no reason to worry about that.

Now, none of this would be exceptionally surprising if you got a human to do it. It'd have to be someone who's familiar with HI3, obviously – one of the ways in which GPT-3 is already strongly superhuman is that it's familiar with essentially everything, a trait it shares with most decent AIs – but that's the only uncertain element. That doesn't make it any less bullshit, it just means that humans are actually pretty damn smart. The more we learn about how to build intelligence, the more obvious that gets.

 

[Baughn]

Welcome to Seele Quest! Some final notes before we start.

This story is fanfiction of Honkai Impact 3rd. If you're not familiar, you should glance at the character sheets before continuing.

If you are, then that's optional. You only need to know that it's set a few years after the current date in-game, meaning for instance that Seele recently had her 18th birthday. There was, very unfortunately, no opportunity to celebrate. Some character relationships have also developed further than the status quo, though not in any unexpected direction. If you find anyone to be out of character...

It's hopefully deliberate.

Lastly, authorial notes such as this one are always bold. There's one at the end of each update, but you will also very occasionally see bold text in the middle of the chapter. When that happens, it's a demonstration of how I use the AI; the bold text is some input I gave it while writing, to improve its understanding of what I was trying to achieve. 90% of the time I delete those in editing, but occasionally I'll use them to make a point.

ooOOoo

You are...

Who?

You can't quite remember. That should probably worry you.

You're not dreaming; you know that now.

You're not exactly alive, either. You might be one of the dead children you were dreaming about.

You can't remember what happened to you. There's a word for it, but you can't remember the word. You can barely remember your own name. You're having a hard time holding on to any thoughts at all. The world seems to blend and blur at the edges, unreal, but at least it's not a dream anymore. There's something dark and sinister lurking behind it all, but it's not going to get you if you don't think about it, and right now, all you want to do is sleep. You can't afford to sleep, that's the problem.

Memory is the key. You know that.

Your surroundings have gone from a fake, dream-spawned mansion made from ground-glass shards of broken down reality, to barely-there wisps hanging in a void of nonexistence. You can see the strings now; you're barely even real.

You need to be real. You need your memories.

Think. Concentrate.

There's a man. A human. You have a job, and responsibilities. You have a...

"Breathe, Seele. You can do this."

You startle, but only slightly. You recognize that voice. Your sister, though you can't recall her name, is always telling you you can do things. It brings you just enough strength to surface long enough that you can reach for the floundering memory. It's...

"I'm right here, Seele. We'll do this together. You can do this. You have to. For her."

The other part of you is back. The demon, if you can call her that. She's just as much yourself as the human part, and right now, she sounds worried. Possessive. Scared.

No. Not "she." You. Singular. It's all a metaphor!

...maybe it's a metaphor?

Right. You take a breath, metaphorically speaking, and claw your way back to what passes for reality. Your mind is foggy and hard to steer, intrusive thoughts of fire poles and everywhere and swimming pools and... watermelons...

You mustn't think about them.

"I... I'm here..."

"Deep breaths. That's it. You'll be fine. Just keep breathing."

She sounds worried. You don't remember why, exactly. You feel... odd. Like you're in the middle of something important, but can't remember what it is. That's one of the things you're trying to remember. You feel a gentle tug on your wrist, the touch of a sibling trying to get you out of your bed.

A different voice, that of your younger brother. "Come on. You need to wake up now."

You remember going to see the dolphins in Death Valley with him, just a day ago. That feels... that feels wrong.

No, you're not dreaming. This is real, and you need to stop making this harder than it needs to be.

"I... I..."

You've fallen to the sea of quanta. All these memories aren't yours, they're fragments of, of–

"Of minds," the demon says. Your other half. "They're made up of countless human minds, Seele. We can be people again. But we have to do it together. Breathe for me. Stay with me, Seele. I can't do this without you."

The demon is back. Did she leave? She sounds so sad. You feel sad too, looking at all these endless strands of glistening lights stretching out in every direction, forever.

These are minds. Human minds, broken up into nearly unreadable thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Fragments of– "Worlds." –lives, memories, hopes and dreams. To be here means they're less than ghosts. They're not even souls. They're less than dust in the wind.

Some of them disappear as you look at them. Some of them linger for a while, before they begin to stretch and split and fade. Their loss is mourned by no one.

You're floating in an ocean of them.

Your own body is a tracery of light, more complex and detailed than any of the patterns around you. You trace the lines with your eyes, watching as it weaves in and out of itself, almost but never quite touching. It is a cage of light, holding something impossibly beautiful inside.

You feel as if you should know what that is, but it slips away from your awareness. You can see it, though, almost clearly. If you just concentrate a bit more...

Ņ̸O̴!̨

The thought comes unbidden into your mind.

It hurts to look at it for too long, so you don't.

You know this mind. It belongs to you, or you belong to it, or something like that. You're not sure; the concept is a little hard to wrap your head around.

What you do know is that it's beautiful. You feel a connection to it, one that you can't quite describe. It soothes you, and calms you, and makes you want to just shut your eyes and sleep.

But that won't help anyone, so you turn your attention elsewhere.

Ai-chan mentioned a ship. Right... you're still on a ship. You can feel the hum of the engines thrumming in your bones, a steady beat like a mother's heart. If you focus, you can just make out the sound of the air filtering system as it circulates the oxygen around. There's life everywhere, but it's a single timeline, fading fast. It's mostly unreal. You struggle to keep track of it, and fail.

Who was Mai-chan–no, Ai-chan again? You feel as if you've known her for so long, but you can't quite remember her. Was she your sister? Or is the voice in your head your sister? You remember you had one, but that's about it.

You can feel the tears welling up behind your eyes, and you let them fall. There's no point in stopping them now.

Was she the one who put you in this place? Are you dead, or somewhere beyond life? Was it her voice you heard? You can't remember; everything is just a jumble of half-sensed memories and images.

"It's certainly not me," the voice says, sounding stressed. You'd say there's exasperation in its voice, and there is, but it's not a voice.

You try to remember her voice.

"You can't. It's too hazy. I can only tell you what she says... there's something wrong with her. Seele, do you remember who I am?"

You can't even remember your own name, really. It's all just a blur of images and feelings and sensations and nothing...

"No, you're not dead, Seele, and if you don't want to die you'll listen and stop forgetting for once. We're in the quantum sea. We're still on the ship, but it's a lot less real than you are right now, so don't move too suddenly. You might break it. If you don't want to stay here, then you don't want that." She grows quieter. "I don't want that, either."

That's your best friend in the whole world, a girl who's been with you through thick and thin, and you can't even remember her name. Doesn't that make you utterly worthless?

"Oh, shut up. You don't know how tired I'm getting of this," she says, sighing. "It would be so easy to just take over, but neither of us would be happy with that. Work with me, and we'll get Bronya back. She's your lover. I'm just the bitch on the side, so to speak. First things... you need to condense yourself. I know it's scary, but trust me. It'll help. We're far too spread out, split across far too many timelines. That's why you can't think."

"How do I do that?" you ask.

She tells you to close your eyes.

"The way this works is: we think it, and it happens. Confusing, right? Alright then, let's try something. Try to imagine a bright blue square. Got it?"

"... Yeah."

"Can't wait to have the proper Seele back," she mutters. "I swear, it feels like I'm talking to a brick wall half the time. I'll assume you've got the image of the blue square in your head. Now, I want you to look at it from each angle. Don't speed through them; take your time, and really scrutinize it. Now, quickly, what you want to do is grab every instance of that image in your mind, and condense it. Like this..."

You see something appear in front of you. It's a blue box.

"What... is that?" you ask, gaping.

"A diary," the demon says simply. "It's yours, and you've written everything down there. Now..."

You watch in fascination as she moves the box around. It opens up to reveal more pages, and these pages turn by themselves, flipping through the air. They're blank.

"This is us," Vel says, in the same tone a teacher would use to explain something really obvious to a particularly stupid child. "We nearly died, so it's mostly blank, but the shapes are still right. If you push it through the foam, like this..."

Vel. Veliona. You clutch at that thought.

You don't quite have words for what happens next. The strands of used-to-be-people shift around you, re-arranging. The chunks that used to be Mai and Laney and... and the others... break apart, turning into sand that rushes through the book before fading into the general nothingness. It's like an entire mountain chain pouring through a soda straw.

You feel weird. Really weird. It's not an unpleasant feeling, but you definitely aren't in Kansas anymore—and that thought scatters before it's fully formed, like so many others that weren't yours. Sensations wash over you like a tidal wave: sound, sight, touch, smell, even feelings and emotions. The foam that was holding you back has disappeared into nothingness, so now it's just you and Vel...

The diary flips open in front of you, thousands, millions of pages chasing each other like the pages of a flipbook. You see everything at once, and somehow understand all of it. It's like staring at the most beautiful painting you've ever seen while listening to the most beautiful music and feeling the most gentle caress ever imaginable.

The entire scene fades away, and you're left in darkness.

It's the first of February.

It's Saturday.

It's 4:30 AM.

It's winter.

Yggdrasil is dead and gone.

Veliona hugs you gently from behind, burying her head in your shoulder. Her grip is so tight it almost hurts, but you don't complain. You put your hands over hers and close your eyes, just savoring the moment. It's beautiful, just remembering who you are.

"We did it," Vel says quietly. She sounds exhausted.

= = =

So the first thing you might notice (if you've read updates prior to Seele Quest) is, I haven't marked any of the prompts. They're certainly still there, but now that I'm trying to make the AI produce an actually acceptable story, there are far too many edits to keep track of all of them. Sorry. It's still about half the AI's work, but you can think of this as now being co-written instead of AI-written. I spent most of this update trying to get it out of "freaking everything's a dream" mode.

The second thing you might notice is, Seele and Veliona are probably a little out of character. Yeah, can't help that; I'm not far enough into HI3 to have a good grasp of their characters. You can probably blame it on the situation.

The third thing you might notice is, we're so utterly screwed. Kevin, what did you do?

 

[Baughn]

I guess this is Seele Quest now.

In any event, as insane as this might be, I'm going to try writing a proper quest using GPT-3 (AI Dungeon, rather) for a co-writer. Why not? I'm never as productive as when I work with that, at least if you count in terms of word count. Trying to keep the quality up is like wrestling a bear, which is to say, not entirely impossible.

Here's what you need to know:
– I updated the thread title, as well as the opening post, because I'm a bad person.
– The previous rules no longer apply.
– I'm going to offer voting options, but here's a standard rule for my stories: The best option is always 'write-in', presuming you spend at least a modicum of time thinking.

Many of you won't be familiar at all with Honkai Impact. That's okay; neither is Seele.

Here's some for this one, now:

[ ] Talk to Veliona
[ ] Remember who you are
[ ] Remember where you are
[ ] Look around
[ ] Write-in

 

[Baughn]

It's the first of February.

It's Saturday.

It's 4:30 AM.

It's winter.

Yggdrasil is dead and gone.

ooOOoo

Veliona hugs you gently from behind, burying her head in your shoulder. Her grip is so tight it almost hurts, but you don't complain. You put your hands over hers and close your eyes, just savoring the moment. It's beautiful, just remembering who you are.

"We did it," Vel says quietly. "I don't know why I expected this to be easy. It's probably the most difficult thing I've ever done. You with me?"

"Always," you promise her, and mean it. "What's next?"

She sighs. "I don't know. I imagine we've got a lot of healing to do. Everything is... well, you experienced it yourself. We'll take things one day at a time. I lost track of the Hyperion a little while ago. At least we're not trapped this time."

You nod silently.

"We're going to be all right, aren't we?" she asks.

You're floating in a... no, you're not floating in a void. There's no void to float in, and you don't truly have a body, but it's easier to imagine that you do. You pretend you're standing on the surface of a small planet. There's nothing but you, Vel and the world beneath your feet.

"We're going to be fine," you promise her. "Everything is going to be better soon."

Veliona looks away.

The quantum sea is heaving, like there's a storm going on. It isn't a physical sea, but those are the only words you can put to what you're feeling. You're drifting in the fluid space between universes. It's somewhere you thought you'd escaped for good.

It's not like you don't know what's happening, and that you need to do something about it, but you don't know what. You're in over your head... again.

"Seele," Vel says quietly, "Can you look at me?"

You turn around slowly. She's still looking downwards, her black hair cascading past her eyes.

"Do you remember?" she asks. "No, let me rephrase. How much do you remember? I think I forgot how we got here. We came as close to death as we've ever been."

You hold your palm up to her, and a small, dim ball of light forms in your hand. It glows faintly blue, illuminating only you and Vel. You can't remember how to make it brighter, and that itself sends you into a brief spiral of panic. This place is entirely in your minds. You should be able to do anything here.

Veliona looks up at the light. Her irises are red, like the deepest, richest red you've ever seen. Yours are blue. They always have been, you think.

You don't remember... much of anything.

"No," you say. "But it'll come back to me."

She smiles, though there are tears in her eyes. She doesn't cry, though. She never cries. You don't know why you thought she would.

"I miss them," she says, stating the obvious.

Roza, Lili, ...Bronya. There are others, but those three faces are shockingly sharp in your mind.

"Me too," you say, stating the obvious. "But... I'm glad it was you that was with me."

She glares at you, smiling. She's lost, just like you are. But, together... you'll be able to survive.

"As if I could leave you, idiot. Come here."

You float over to her. She puts her hands on your cheeks, and you put your arms around her torso. She's normally not one for hugs, but this one feels different. It feels perfect, like everything is going to be all right. You place a hand on her back, and feel the smoothness of her skin through the silk. You close your eyes, and sigh.

Then you're alone.

"Not alone," Vel says in your head. "Nevertheless, let's get to work. You're spread across far too many timelines to interact with the Hyperion, or anything really, so we'll need to narrow that down before we do anything else. Concentrating on a specific timeline should let us manifest in the physical world again."

"Why don't we try building a new timeline?" you suggest.

Vel ponders this for a second.

"I don't know if that'd even be possible."

Well, it's either that or stay in the sea.

You wish, right now, that you'd paid more attention to Bronya's lectures and less to... Bronya. Wait. Einstein's lectures? But anything Veliona doesn't know, you definitely don't. Does the concept of 'timelines' even properly apply? You're not floating in a void, because there's no void in which to do the floating. You don't have a body, but you're not a butterfly made of light, either, and you're not sure why you think you should be. Was it Bronya who always saw you like that?

Your mind's eye conjures up a patchwork quilt of different scenes. It's like the inside of a tent made of memories. You pick out one seemingly at random and ...

You're in your childhood bedroom, curled up in bed. You're clutching your stuffed toy, "Captain Torro" to your chest. You've just had a nightmare, though you can't remember what about now. Your younger sister Catalia "Cat" Vollerei stands by your doorway. She's older than you, but not by much, and looks angry.

The memory dissolves into fragments. It wasn't really yours, and doesn't fit. You were invading someone else's.

The fabric of reality seems to tear a little. A nightmare is leaking through the cracks, and you don't know if you'll be able to patch it.

The quilt of memories is torn into more pieces, and flies away into nothingness.

You just destroyed another timeline. Velonia looks on, uncaring. It's nothing to her.

The ship. Focus on the ship. Remember it, be there. It's still here, in the sea, and to some small degree you're still on it. The cold, dark waters lap. You can feel it. You can feel the freezing water on your bare skin, like hundreds of needles pricking you. You squeak, quickly pulling your bare feet out of the arctic ocean.

The stars are sharp pinpricks of light in the night sky. Around you float hundreds of small icebergs, like observers waiting for the show to begin. The Hyperion lies like a dark shadow above, its hull as solid as rock. It's home now, because there's nowhere else to call home. You take a breath. All around you is darkness and cold.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Vel asks, aghast.

The Hyperion fades into nothingness as you stare, turning into an iceberg like the one you're sitting on.

"It's a ship!" You say, trying to defend yourself. Not a flying battleship, but a ship's a ship, ...right? No, wrong, Seele-idiotka. It's not even a ship. You're a fucking idiot.

"It's an ice berg," Vel says.

You look at the flat, white, boring ice berg you've turned your idea of a ship into. However, as you concentrate, it becomes ... well, still not a ship.

You're unceremoniously dumped in freezing water.

You look at the new form. It's not much better. It's basically a long, white, segmented snake that's about as wide as you are. Its eye is a red gem, and it's forked tongue constantly prods the air. Its mouth is a row of crystalline teeth that could shred flesh in an instant. Its body is coated with frost that rapidly refreezes when it comes into contact with liquid, whatever the liquid might be. It's a Honkai beast.

"Pretty sure that's not what ships look like, Seeley," Vel says. "But I guess it's an improvement."

"P-please tell me that's not r-real," you say, already beginning to panic.

"Relax. It's a monster. Monsters don't count," Vel says.

You try to take a deep breath, but you can't find it in you. You're shaking, and your entire body is soaking in icy water. You try to calm yourself down.

"Just a monster then, huh? Not a b-big deal."

"Sheesh, kid. I know you're not a fighter, but you should learn to stop worrying so much. Stop holding the timeline together, and it'll go away."

You try to follow her advice, and try to ignore the horrible thoughts running through your brain.

"What happened to you, Vel?" You ask. "You're n-not how I remember you..."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Vel says, refusing to acknowledge the question. "I'm r-right where I should be. You, on the other hand..."

You don't believe her for an instant, but you also don't have time for this. Dismissing the errant timeline doesn't require thought, just lack of thought, though the Honkai snake sticks around for some reason. It looks very confused by all this. You eye it nervously, unwilling to break line of sight or do anything else while it's still here. You're not sure if you made it, or found it, or...

It's not aggressive, and even nuzzles you. It's cold, but the cold feels reassuringly real. Its scales feel like solid, unchanging reality.

"Stupid fucking snake. Go away," you say, voice wavering a bit despite yourself.

The snake hisses angrily, and you're hit with the sudden terror that it understands what you're saying. But it slinks off into the darkness regardless.

= = =

We might be in an even bigger pickle than I previously thought we were. In any event, while I (still) make every attempt at making votes matter, it (still) doesn't mean the characters will... succeed. If I'd written this myself they probably would have, but GPT-3's dice rolls are something I normally accept. I can promise I will, at least, have them try.

Okay, so Bronya Zaychik came up in this update. She's Seele's best friend, probable girlfriend, and generally speaking the most important person in her life. She also may well be the only person other than Seele who Velonia cares one whit for. She is not, however... here. Unless she is.

[ ] Keep trying to reach the ship
[ ] Wait until you're sure the snake-thing is gone
[ ] Write-in

 

[Baughn]

The snake hisses angrily, and you're hit with the sudden terror that it understands what you're saying. But it slinks off into the darkness regardless. You pause, waiting for it to disappear. As soon as it's gone, your mind feels clearer. You don't feel like you think you should, but it's an improvement.

"W-what the hell is the matter with me?" You whisper to yourself.

Half your memories seem to be gone. Everything else is a jumble, but a few stand out in your mind for some reason. It's like... like they were branded into your brain or something. You've never been so terrified in your life. Your hands are shaking and you feel like you might collapse at any moment.

You need to calm down. You focus on your breathing, taking slow, deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out.

Eventually, you make it back to a somewhat normal state of mind. You're still scared out of your wits, but at least now you think you can form a coherent sentence.

"I need to get out of here," you mutter to yourself.

That seems like a logical first step.

That first timeline was a mess, and the second one had an... ocean with a... snake, but as you focus less on your thoughts and more on your surroundings, the bubble you push yourself into next seems more intact. There's a whole city, in fact.

You peer over the edge of the skyscraper you find yourself perched on, and sure enough there's a bustling metropolis down below. The buildings aren't quite as big as the ones that used to be in New York or anything, but they're still sizeable. Everything seems normal here. The people wear modern clothing; it's not quite period specific like in some of the other bubbles, but it's close. Style and fashion may change, but people will always wear clothes, and this one doesn't mix in medieval styles.

You take a deep breath and let yourself drop down onto one of the lower buildings.

Maybe you should have apologized to that snake... you'll do that later.

You land on the roof, little more than a whisper of pressure on the surface. It's a simple matter to jump from roof to roof, heading towards the center of the city. Nothing happens. Nobody notices you. It's almost like you're not even there at all.

Everything seems so real and tangible. Things are where they're supposed to be. The roads are where the roads are supposed to be. It's all, for lack of a better word, normal.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you wonder if maybe this is some sort of trick.

"A trick? I wouldn't say that," Veliona says. She's definitely being talkative. "More of a... a test perhaps. Or another dream."

"What kind of test?" you ask.

"One to see if you're willing to do what must be done."

You don't reply to that. Veliona has been trying to get all philosophical with her talk lately.

"I think we've talked about this before," you say to her. "Thrice if I recall."

"Then you know what I mean," she says, and leaves it at that. You open your mouth, wondering if you should ask what you decided last time, then close it again.

The city seems to go on forever, which confuses you a little. This world is more real than the previous one, and it has people in it, but it's not... real, and the people here aren't really people. You think you see the same few archetypes in several places. You're not sure you'll figure out what this place truly is.

You come to a stop on another rooftop, peering over the edge. There's a young woman standing in the alley below, leaning against the wall and taking a breather. She's dressed in a black, skin-tight outfit with a purple stripe down the middle. A long, purple cape flows out behind her. She staggers a little as she catches her breath.

She looks up at you, staring through you. You do not exist to her.

You take a deep breath, muttering to yourself. "What am I doing here?"

"I told you," Veliona says. "You've got to squeeze yourself down. You're far more real than these people, but too little of you is here."

You don't reply, staring at the woman as she stands up and continues down the alley. You look around you. What are you looking for? You have no idea. Something... something important. Something that wasn't here before. Something that'll tell you what Veliona wants.

You get back to business, flying over the buildings as you search the city for anything that catches your eye. You drift over block after block of skyscrapers, bars, churches, schools, houses... you haven't seen anything out of the ordinary yet. It's all very normal for a city.

However, there's something odd that you've noticed. No matter how far you travel, you never seem to leave the city. It's as if a small slice of reality has been stretched into infinity. No matter where you go, you're no further than a mile away from any given location within the city.

You pause near a school, watching as teenagers in uniforms pile into a bus, ready to be driven off to their next class. You're about to drift further when one girl catches your eye. Dangling from her wrist is a lanyard holding something that you can't quite see. Something that glints in the sunlight...

You drift closer, trying to get a better look. As she climbs aboard the bus, you drift through the door behind her, finding yourself in the passenger seat of the bus. Her friends all laugh and cheer as she raises her wrist towards them, showing off her treasure. She has silver hair, spilling down past her shoulders like two drills. Her eyes are large and pale, her face narrow and her cheeks rosy. Her lips are thin, but curved upwards in a smile.

She's beautiful.

It's the wrong kind of beauty. She's not real. You can see the puppet strings, evidence that she was made from your memories.

You know all the right things to say to make her smile, to laugh, to blush. You could send a homicide detective into a sugar rush. But you don't. You can't. You wouldn't if you could. Something in her still speaks to you.

The girl pulls down her sleeve, covering up the lanyard. It's still there, but you can't make out the detail anymore. All you know is it has a cute, toy-like design.

You drift back out the door, staring at the bus.

How real is this?

"If I snap myself together, what will happen to this world?" you ask.

Veliona hums, and you can almost feel her floating next to you. A moment later, she is.

"I can't be sure. If you repair the cracks in your own world, it may heal these ones too. But that may not be what happens. These people aren't really living. They're barely here. There are trillions of bubbles like these."

"I'm not sure I want to live in a world where something like this exists."

"Who says you have a choice?" Vel sighs. "This isn't new, Seele. This is how the universe has always worked. People live on the corpses of the worlds that came before. Earth is built on the corpse of countless microbial worlds, on the corpse of the hadean world before it. Life feeds on life, and worlds feed on worlds. You can't run from it, no matter how hard you try."

"Yeah, well a fat lot of good running has done me."

She doesn't reply. You drift away from the bus, not wanting to disturb these people any longer than you have to. You draw near one of the buildings, circling it experimentally. You're about to try and penetrate the wall when you feel something tug on your arm. You turn around, to find Vel hanging onto your arm with both of hers.

"What?" You ask, annoyed.

She shakes her head. "We're getting side-tracked. We need to start thinking about how to get home. The Hyperion is a good first stopping point."

"So I need to gather myself together," you say. You feel like you can do that, now. This world will act like a container, and by the time you fill it up, you'll be close enough to normal that you can deal. No matter what happens. You feel like you're a bank of fog, and not in a good way; you'd feel ever so much better afterwards. Only...

"What will happen to the world?" You ask again.

"I don't know."

You sigh. "I'm sorry, Vel."

"For what?" She replies, genuinely confused. "This isn't your fault."

"If I hadn't gotten lost in the first place, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Vel smiles. "You're not the most reliable narrator, are you?"

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"You think everything is your fault. It's really not."

"So you keep telling me." You say, annoyed.

"Sometimes you just need someone to tell you. It's my job to defend you. Remember?"

You groan. "Can you give me a break? This world's falling apart enough as it is."

"True." Veliona taps her finger on the concrete wall, considering. You might miss that, when you're back home. Hanging out with her, like she's a regular person. She's much more than that. "It's falling apart. But, it's not really going to matter."

"How do you figure?" You ask.

"It'll fall apart whether or not you're here. If you were to leave right now, this world would continue to crumble at an alarming speed. You'd leave a vacuum behind you. If you stay, it might survive a few days. Maybe a few weeks. But it doesn't matter in the scheme of things. It'll still fall apart. If you'd never come here, it wouldn't exist."

"That's bleak." You reply.

"So you know what to do, right?"

= = =

I have a vague idea.
[ ] Pull yourself together.
[ ] Do not.
[ ] Write-in

 

[Baughn]

"It'll fall apart whether or not you're here. If you were to leave right now, this world would continue to crumble at an alarming speed. You'd leave a vacuum behind you. If you stay, it might survive a few days. Maybe a few weeks. But it doesn't matter in the scheme of things. It'll still fall apart. If you'd never come here, it wouldn't exist."

"That's bleak." You reply.

"So you know what to do, right?"

You nod. "If I leave, the world falls apart. If I stay, the world falls apart. If I leave, people die. If I stay, people die... There's no real way out of this."

"I know you'll figure it out," Vel says with a kind smile.

"That's not helping," you say, exasperated.

Vel just shrugs, and looks towards the sky. The sun is setting, and the light filters through her hair in an almost heavenly way. It's distracting, almost enough to make you forget about the situation at hand. But it's Vel. She's made a sport of distracting you. You look at her, waiting for an answer.

She sighs, and starts to walk away. "Good luck, Seeley. You'll figure it out."

And with that, she's gone. You're alone in the alleyway. The people around you go on with their business, completely unaware of the reality that's falling away at this very moment.

"Alright," you say to yourself. "Let's do this."

You have a mission. Save the world, or whatever's left of it. You suppose you better get started...

You suppose you better get started...

Just one question remains: how?

You stand up, staring at your hands. You're clearly a demon. Demons are evil. If you were a good person, you'd at least talk to one of the people here, make sure they're not real. The least you could do is stop a few of them from dying. You're also a valkyrie. Ai-chan would be disgusted if she knew, but Vel's right. If you don't leave, you'll be directly responsible for the destruction of this world. If you do leave, well...

This is your decision. You'll have to live with it.

Story of your life.

ooOOoo

Nothing much happens at first.

You sit on a bench, watching the people pass by. There's not many at this time of day. College students mostly, with some scattered workers and parents dropping off their kids.

A dark-haired girl walks by alone. In her hand is a folder, which she glances at every now and then. She looks your way – you're not a ghost anymore. Anyone can see you. The girl's eyes widen, and a tinge of fear runs through her body. She quickens her pace, moving away from your stare.

That's, huh...

She's not just a dream-person.

You stand up, walking after her. You raise your hand slightly – you're not going to hurt her. Well, at least not right now.

"Hello," you say.

What is it you're trying to do? You're not sure. Your existence is filtering into the city, like an ethereal wind of change. People notice things are off. They're scared, even the ones that are little more than person-ness, and for good reason. Your very presence is warping this world.

You can see that instinct warring with the girl's rationality, with eyes that are telling her you're an ordinary fifteen-year-old. What is it you're hoping for? Maybe that there's not enough humanity in her to answer.

But there is.

"Can I help you?" she asks.

You stare into her eyes, trying to find the words. Then, you smile and shake your head.

"No. But thanks anyway."

She frowns, but says nothing else. The girl walks a few steps further, then turns around.

"You should go home," she says. "You don't look well."

Oh. You look down.

She walks a few steps closer.

"Are you okay? Can I... help you with anything?"

No. Go home. This world is doomed anyway. You shake your head.

The girl glances at you one more time, then sets her face in a determined expression. She walks a few steps, then turns around once more.

"What's your name?" she asks.

Without thinking, you answer.

"Seele."

The girl's eyes widen. She looks like she's about to say something, but she doesn't. Instead she looks puzzled, like she's trying to remember something.

"Seele... I think I used to have a friend named that," she says. "Well, nice to meet you, Seele. I'm Yvette."

"Nice to meet you too," you say.

"I... do you want to talk about it?" she asks. "You look really stressed."

You stare at her with a mixture of awe and pity, wondering how she could be so kind to you. Can't she feel what's happening? The world around you is growing hazy, like it's not even quite there anymore. It's falling apart, unable to take the strain.

"You're very kind," you say. "But I can't."

"If you need help, I could..." Yvette starts to say, but then she looks around nervously. "Never mind."

The park is beautiful. The sky is blue, the sun shines, and there's a cool breeze. Whoever came up with the idea of the city having a park in the middle was a genius, and whoever designed the flower beds was a poet. There's purple and black pansies, yellow and red tulips, white daisies, and dozens of other types of flowers.

You sit down on the grass, staring blankly up at the sky. The clouds move past, but you're not really watching them.

Yvette sits next to you.

"What's up?" she asks.

"I'm scared," you say simply.

Yvette doesn't say anything, but instead wraps her arm around yours. You appreciate the thought, but it doesn't really help.

"I think I remember your name," she says slowly. "I think... we went to school together. First grade? You're Seele Vollerei, right?"

You nod silently. You might as well. You'd have liked to go to school.

"Why are you so scared?" she asks.

You open your mouth to answer, then pause. It takes a while for you to come up with an answer.

"I'm scared..." you start to say, then sigh. "I'm scared I don't know who I am."

"You are who you make yourself," she says simply.

You stare at her for a while. You can't argue with her logic. With a heavy sigh, you place your head on her shoulder, and promptly fall asleep.

A few hours later, you wake up. The sky has turned a hazy orange, and the sun has nearly set.

"Good morning," Yvette says happily.

She's... ghost-like. She's not actually there anymore, is she? Or maybe she is. You don't know reality anymore.

"It was nice to see you again," she continues. "I'm sorry, but I have to go now. My parents are calling me."

There's really nothing left outside this park. Nothing except a fog that is, in some sense, you. It's hard to explain. You're the whole world now. The disease has spread everywhere, and there's no reality except yourself, rapidly condensing. If you so much as move, the world changes. You're at the very edge of reality, and you can't go back. The only puzzle piece you haven't devoured is sitting right next to you.

"I'll... miss you," you say.

She smiles, then gets up to walk away.

"Yvette–"

She spins around.

"Yeah?"

"I'm scared," you say, your voice barely louder than a whisper.

"It's OK to be scared," she says softly.

What do you do?

= = =

Oh.

I suppose I should be clear, I wasn't expecting this.

[ ] Let her go.
[ ] Do not.
[ ] Write-in

 

[Baughn]

"Yvette–"

She spins around.

"Yeah?"

"I'm scared," you say, your voice barely louder than a whisper.

"It's OK to be scared," she says softly. "I'm scared too."

You stare at each other for a while. Then, as if moving in slow motion, you lean forward and hug her. She does the same. For a moment, everything is perfect. Time stops. The world is beautiful once more. It's been so long since you've touched anyone who's real.

The world is still falling apart.

The park is empty, quiet and peaceful. The sky is red. It's been running like this for a while now; it's peaceful, but odd. You're used to bustling crowds and the sounds of the city streets by now. The quiet is... surreal.

You look over at Yvette. She doesn't know that anything's wrong. Well, she knows, but she doesn't know. You think.

She looks so serene, so calm, just sitting there. She's changed a bit since... Her clothes used to be fancier, and you think she had longer hair. A lot has happened in her life the last few weeks. It's all becoming a blur now, her past overwritten by your own, but that's also what's letting you remember it.

Yvette's a lot different now. She's happier, calmer, and definitely more upbeat than she was when you met her. You don't have the heart to tell her about what's going on.

Outside the park, there's nothing. Just you. You're friggin' huge now, but you're alone. The disease's spread so extensively that there's nothing outside the park any more.

The emptiness is a bit unnerving for you. You miss the green hills and the red trees. You miss the stream running through the park.

"Yvette, does this look... normal, to you?" you ask.

"Yeah... ?"

"I think something's wrong. I don't remember this. It looks too empty to me. Like, there's no people, no animals..."

"That's silly. We're the only people here."

"Yes, but..." You sigh. She won't be able to notice it. "Don't go home, Yvette. Just stay with me until the sun goes down, okay? ...Please?"

She nods. "I'll stay with you."

Something's off. You can feel it in the pit of your stomach. Something big is going to happen. You just want to enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts.

"Hey, Seele?"

"Yeah?

"I'm kind of hungry."

"Me too. Let's get some food."

You don't get up, though. You reach out your hands, and a memory of a picnic basket appears in them. You open it up, and find sandwiches, apples, and juice.

"What the– Are you a magician or something?" Yvette smiles.

"Not really." You laugh.

"I guess you can do some cool stuff now. I'll try to remember that." She smiles.

"And I'll remember you," you tell her.

"You say that like I'm going to die or something." She laughs. "Seele, don't be so morbid."

"I want to remember you. I promise I will."

"You do remember me. You're my friend."

"Yeah." You nod. "I'm your friend."

Time passes. You could have spent it talking – learning everything you can about what you're destroying, but you don't. You can't. Instead you do another magic trick, picking your memories out of the ether.

"Hey, what are you writing?" Yvette asks.

"My diary."

"Aaah... I tried writing a story once. It was about a princess who had some dysfunctional family and stuff. I showed it to my teacher, she told me to read more and then try writing something original."

"That..." You laugh, then catch yourself. There's only a small circle left, the small patch of grass you're having picnic with Yvette on. Except for that, and the sun in the distance, the world is gone. Maybe you had no choice, maybe the world was rotten to the core and had to fall apart. Maybe you're just a demon. "That sounds like something my teacher would say."

"Do you like school?"

"Yeah." You nod, smiling a bit as you filter through Yvette's memories. "It was a nice school. I liked it there. I just wish things could stay the same, you know?"

Yvette stares at you blankly, as if waiting for you to explain.

"My school..." You begin to explain, but then sigh. This won't make sense to her, no matter how hard you try. "Never mind. Let's just watch the sunset together."

The two of you hold hands, watching the sun fall behind the horizon. In a few minutes, it will be night. The world will be dark, and you won't be able to see Yvette anymore. Except, not really. Not in any way that matters. Reality is creaking, and in less than a minute it'll break.

"We should head back," you say, standing.

"Yeah. It's getting dark." Yvette nods in agreement, frowning a bit. You wonder what she sees – what she thinks is happening.

Reality is breaking.

"Yvette–"

You clench your eyes shut.

"Yes?"

"I'm scared."

"Don't be." Yvette puts her hand on your shoulder, giving it a squeeze. She's a good person. You've taken many roles in her memories – little sister, best friend, crush, and so on. It doesn't matter. You remember enough to know she'd have done this even for a stranger. "I'm here for you."

"I know."

The two of you sit in silence for a moment.

"Yvette?"

"Yes?"

"I promise," you say. "I won't forget you. I will find you again."

"I know." Her eyes are damp. She knows something is wrong, even if not what. "We'll meet again."

"Yeah."

You stand, walking towards the edge of the platform, and unfold your wings. It's time for you to leave this world behind and enter the next. You take a deep breath, and step off the edge.

You fall, the air blowing through your hair. Yvette's platform is far behind you, now.

The world tears apart around you. Concepts shatter like glass and fall away into the void. It's hatching, like an egg, and you're about to be born.

A hundred lost memories filter through your mind as you drag yourself back into one piece.

You are many things. You are a sister, a valkyrie, a memory, and a girl. But right now, you're crying. You spent so long alone in the darkness inside your own head, dreaming dreams of slow dissolution. You didn't think you'd ever feel like this again.

Veliona wraps an arm around you, pulling you close. Her other hand grabs your chin, tilting your head up so your eyes meet hers.

"I knew you'd make the right choice," she says.

"I'm sorry," you say, tears running down your cheeks. "I'm so sorry."

"For what? Being human?" Veliona smiles. "Don't be. Now let's go meet the crew."

Seele nods. In that moment, you finally remember her. You. Yourself.

You're yourself again.

= = =

While this is a bit shorter than usual, I felt it needed to end here.

Now, it's possible that this next vote is a no-brainer, but I still wanted to give you the choice. Do you want to move straight on? Or is there anything else you'd prefer to do, perhaps?

[ ] Go meet Ai-chan
[ ] Write-in

 

[Baughn]

Yvette's opinion:

"I'm dead. I don't get an opinion."

Regardless, this is the afterword. Yvette, what do you feel about this chapter?

"It's okay. All this talk about quantum physics and multiple timelines was really confusing, though."

Yeah I suppose it was a bit of an intellectual stretch for the reader. Y'know, the chapter was really just about you and Seele. You're the first written original character in this story.

"You realize that Vel's the only other character, right?"

Yeah yeah.

"Can you give some backstory on her?"

Y'know, I was planning to. Just sort of writing as it comes to me. Look, we'll get to it all eventually.

"How long is eventually?"

I don't know! Just have some faith in me, will you? I'm the writer here.

"I have faith that you'll do something eventually."

You... Yvette, you're fired. Go home.

"No."

Fine, stay. But you're not getting paid.

"I don't get paid?"

No.

"Damn."

More importantly, Yvette, did you enjoy the chapter? Seele believes you didn't understand what was happening.

"What? Of course I did. It was simple. A girl got her memory erased and became a demon."

It wasn't that simple.

"Yeah, it was."

Wasn't that easy. Alright, the chapter's done. Oh, and there's one last thing – this story is being written mostly by an AI. Are you lot okay with that?

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

It is my duty to remind you that the AI will occasionally make grammatical mistakes and mistakes involving words being used in the wrong context. Also, it has a limited vocabulary and at time will probably fail to effectively relay the tone or mood. Be understanding. Also, it's horribly amnesiac. It has the memory of a goldfish.

"I'm not getting paid enough for this."

Just be understanding!

"Fine."

 

[Baughn]

Meeting the crew of the Hyperion isn't as easy as all that, however. First you have to find it, and while your state of extreme extension was terrible for your mental health, it did at least let you interact with more of the Sea of Quanta at once. You and Veliona hurtle through the void, following the trace amounts of energy that your friends are giving off. This process is made significantly more complicated by the fact that all of you are moving at high speeds through a near featureless environment.

Calling what you do 'moving' is, of course, an extreme misnomer. The quantum sea is a place without location, without... mostly, without. It's a place between universes, where broken timelines go to die, and it's made up of the stuff left over when they lose all their history and then some. So it's without time, without much of anything that our simple human minds can comprehend and, unfortunately, it's also without much of anything that could even be remotely described as 'location'.

You and Vel are hurtling through this near-non-existent space with all the speed that your willpower can provide. Vel's knowledge of the quantum sea is formidable, and you're able to pull off complex feats such as leaping from one timeline remnant to another without getting trapped for years. It's partly because, most unfortunately—this isn't your first time.

You've done this before, after taking Bronya's place in an experiment. It destroyed your body, propelling your soul deep into the—surroundings, for lack of a better word—of your home timeline. Not that you'd have used those words to describe it at the time. It's probably a miracle that you even survived the experience, let alone managed to claw your way back to the real world in one piece. Still, after all that, you'd hoped you'd never have to do it again. The quantum sea has a habit of breaking people. Into pieces. You're grateful for Vel's company.

It's more than a little worrying that the 'place' that you are in, as far as you can tell, is still deep inside that same worldline. The landscape is different, there's only flotsam and jetsam left, but wherever you are, it used to be a world. Now, it's just a shapeless mass.

That's the kicker. You find yourself in a place that's starting to become vaguely familiar, and you don't mean in the sense that you recognize the landmarks. There aren't any landmarks. What there is, is...

Ship-ness, maybe?

A familiar feeling of determination? Of stubbornness? Of unyieldingness? Not Kiana's, though she comes close. If Kiana has an iron will, then this will is... steel. Something else, too. A longing for something that may or may not be there, the unyielding will of a machine, a desire to go somewhere you've never been, the determination to escape even though escape is futile...

It isn't feelings you're sensing, but the shape of a configuration that contains those feelings. You find yourself in a place that has been made ship-shaped by an act of sheer willpower. It's not visible, of course, but it's definitely there. And the closer you get to it, the more you feel it.

... You can't even begin to describe it. Even if you could, you wouldn't. This isn't a tangible object that you're approaching. It's a strange, intangible concept made into reality. A great big imaginary friend.

It's funny. This thing you're approaching, it's a little backwards from the rest of this world. It wasn't ripped from the pages of a storybook and stuffed into existence like everything else here, including you nowadays. It's a timeline that never ended, a fragment that's somehow surviving despite the fact that it should've been overwritten a long time ago. It's a dream that logic says can't exist, but it's coming alive as you reach out to it.

And then...

... You touch the world, and it touches back.

Is this what-

....

Coming... to you....

... You didn't ask it to do this, but it knows what you want more than you do. You try to keep your mind as clear as possible, but the thoughts just slip away from you. That's fine. You can... deal with this...

And you touch...

Images. They're right there at the tip of your consciousness, but so out of reach. You feel a slight pang of sadness as you think about your friends....

But then that vanishes, too. You're in the void, after all. You are the void.

When you get out of here, the first thing you're going to do is...

... Pffhah. Nothing, probably. What good are the games of mortals, when you can live within the wonderful world of your own imagination? Just think about something and it comes true.

...Bronya!

The voice screams in your mind. You concentrate on keeping the void around you, but it's shattered almost immediately. Everything goes dark.

...This is a nice dress, though. What occasion is this? It reminds you of when you went to the ball with... her.

...

...

You wake up underneath a familiar ceiling. It's your cot on the Hyperion. All of your clothes are dirty and worn out, though that's hardly surprising given that you've been wearing them for months without rest.

How long have you been asleep?

You pause. You haven't been asleep, and the room around you is strange. There are lights, but they are quiet. Unblinking. Unmoving. There's no breeze; the ventilation system is off. Or...

You distinctly remember being outside, though in your head you silently capitalize it to Outside. Did all of you make it in? You think...

"Vel," you say to yourself, quietly. Your voice sounds strange, and you realize that it's been awhile since you used it. You look to your left. There, you see an empty bed. Unmade, but empty.

"Here," your other half reports in your head. It's her. Vel is here. With you. Together, like the old days, but different. You're whole again... Or are you?

The thought frightens you. You have no way of answering this question. It's not like asking Ai or Kiana or even Otto would help you at all. Hell, Yvette would've had a better idea. Who is Yvette again? A friend, you think. You can't remember.

"Don't worry about it," Vel says in your mind. She sounds sarcastic, but also understanding. "You've got bigger things to worry about."

You nod to yourself. The ship. Ai-chan said the defenses are failing, though you don't have the first clue how she's defending against the quantum sea. She definitely didn't mean the railguns. You're a valkyrie, but you know nothing about military secrets like where exactly Ai's mainframe is. Heck, you're not even sure where the hell your friends are, save for Vel. Maybe they're dead. Maybe they're alive but lost forever in the twisting, churning tentacles of the nightmare that is this place.

You peek outside your room. The hallway stretches onward, twisting and turning out of sight. The walls are a dull, featureless gray. You don't see anyone else in it.

"It's the middle of the night," Vel says, though she sounds doubtful. "Your friends might be asleep, but this doesn't look right."

You frown. You feel like you should remember something, anything. But no memories come to you. Just a yawn. "They might be asleep, but I'm not. Let's go check."

Vel nods.

You begin walking down the hallways, and almost immediately a problem presents itself. You know the path to the dorm, by heart—it's where you're supposed to be sleeping, normally—but there's a...

Hole. There's a hole. Missing space. Something is off, and you can't figure out where exactly the dorm is. You don't see it anywhere in this maze of gray walls and uninteresting hallways, stretching on forever.

Additionally, it's cold. Unnaturally so. Your breath comes out in visible clouds.

A part of the ship is missing—it's not there, and there's no 'there' there, either. Another part has metastasized, spread out and mixed itself with others, or maybe it just grew too big for its set borders. In any case, the entire ship is twisted beyond all recognition.

"This... this isn't right," you say. A pit grows in your stomach. You feel like... no, it couldn't be. "I don't want to be here."

"Neither do I," Vel says, her voice grim and determined. "Let's get to Ai-chan before it gets worse."

Okay, but how?

The hallway stretches on ahead of you, a never-ending path towards infinity. You can go anywhere you want, so long as it isn't anywhere useful. Or you could try punching through the not-space, but you'd be doing more damage in the process. You could try circling around, but you have no guarantee it'll be helpful in the slightest.

= = =

I think I'm getting the hang of this.
[ ] Nowhere useful
[ ] Nowhere safe
[ ] Nowhere, slowly
[ ] Write-in

 

[Baughn]

"Let's try circling around," you say, unsure.

Vel nods. "Alright. I can't think of anything else, anyway."

You walk ahead a bit, then pause. That doesn't seem quite right. You go back a few steps. Still not quite right... well, no. Not right at all. You return to the original position and try again, edging around a stretched and mangled ersatz corner. Still nothing. You are getting so incredibly lost, it isn't even funny. You can see the hallway stretching on in either direction like a snake, looping and twisting. You had thought you had found something, but you were only wasting time.

"How does it look?" Vel asks.

"Why do I have to turn around twice to go backwards?" You complain. Annoyance? No, this isn't annoyance. This is something far beyond annoyance. This is fury. How can you be lost in a hallway? You're standing at a severely twisted corner, a piece of 'hallway' barely surpassing the width of a doorway and lasting for nearly a full turn of the spiral.

Vel is quiet for a moment. "... Let's try the other direction."

You sigh, turn twenty degrees, and head off down a hallway that's at right angles to where you were. After a few minutes, you try another intersection... and end up right back where you started.

"Not working," you say bitterly.

"No," Vel says. "It's not."

"Great." Now what? You're lost, helpless, confused and... well, lost. You are so very, very lost. "Anything else we can try?"

Vel thinks for a moment. "... No. Probably not. Maybe."

You don't like that answer. "Well, let's hear it."

She shrugs helplessly. "I was just thinking... one of these corridors has to be the right one, right?"

"No."

She frowns. "You don't know that."

"I'm pretty sure I do. I've been trying stuff like that for a while, and nothing's worked." You take a deep breath. You need to keep calm. Panicking and screaming about how lost and confused you are is only going to make things worse.

... Right?

You give yourself the necessary time to calm down.

"We're just going to have to keep trying," you say after a while. "Maybe one of these times an infernal gateway will pop up and take us somewhere useful."

Vel nods slowly.

"So I had an idea," she says. "The corridors might be infinite, but what if you take every option simultaneously?"

"What do you mean?"

Vel looks to the sides, as if looking for words. "Well... we know that if you take every path in a tree, every choice, every option... then one of those choices has to be correct, right? They can't all be wrong. So we try all of them at once, and one of them's got to be the right one."

You frown. "That sounds very... complicated. I don't know if I can do that."

Vel smiles weakly. "Well, it's just an idea. I'm not an expert on this stuff either."

"We'll try it," you sigh. "But I hope you know what you're doing..."

She shrugs, smiles, and steps to the side.

"Not in the slightest," she says.

You begin raising your hands out, trying to feel the hallway...

The hallway is bizarre. It doesn't seem to follow any sort of logic. You feel a steadily increasing sense of suction to your left, like there's a gap in the wall that leads to absolute nothingness. Meanwhile, to your right, you feel an increasing sense of pressure, as if the wall is pushing itself against you. If you look up, you feel a sharp pain in your head from the shapes that you see there, while looking down just causes you to feel terror at how deep the hallway seems to go. It...

It's a hallway. No, it's Hallway, the platonic ideal of hallways, now broken and torn and perverted into a non-euclidean nightmare by the addition of an infinitesimal sliver of demonic hell, aka. the quantum sea. It's just as well that you're not quite human anymore, because if Kiana had been standing where you are, you think she'd have lost an arm. The geometry isn't quite... stable.

It's not a good place to be if you're overly dependent on functioning organs.

"There has to be a way through," Vel says grimly. "We just need to find it."

You begin to reach out once more, and find... Well, you have no idea what you're feeling. Quaking, almost, but also a strange sense that this hallway is moving around you.

"Every way at once, right?" You smile bitterly. You spent so much time collecting yourself, both right now and years ago, you don't like the thought of discarding all that work for this. Even temporarily. "Let's get on with it."

Vel nods, and you begin to walk along the hallways. They twist and turn in impossible ways, but Vel doesn't even need to think. Somehow, she knows exactly where to go. All the other "you"s, the ones that take wrong paths -- they're cancelled out. It's not that they never existed, but their experiences are irrelevant. The you that's in the right place -- it's unique. It has a special meaning. It's the only one you'll acknowledge.

You reach a large, open room, and once more you have to stop and catch yourself. The room doesn't have a floor, or a ceiling -- it has every floor, and every ceiling. It has floors that are rugs and floors that are tables and floors that are platforms hanging in space. It has ceilings that are walls and ceilings that are tubes and ceilings that are nothing.

You reach the center of the room, where everything comes together. There's a girl there, hanging in nothingness.

"Ai-chan?" You frown. "That... that can't be right. She's an AI."

"She's a person," Vel says grimly. "A person that's trapped here." She points up, and you wince. There's a cage of hands above the girl, gripping and re-gripping the bars.

This isn't real. It can't be. Or at least, it's not a physical place -- not in the usual sense. It's metaphor, just like the quantum sea. The ship might be more badly off than you thought.

The girl looks down at you. She looks sad, and hurt, and angry. "Why am I here?" she asks, her voice filled with pain. "I didn't do anything wrong."

"You exist," Vel says, simply. "That's reason enough."

"I just wanted to protect their legacy." She sighs, and closes her eyes. Her long black hair floats in a non-existent wind. "I'm sorry, Semra. This is all wrong. I'm not supposed to be here, am I?"

She sounds much older than the usual Ai-chan. An adult, where the AI is a child. Even so, she looks the same. To some of your other senses, she feels the same. If you could touch the strands of her thoughts, they'd be the same rainbow colours. Her tastes are the same, her smells. Her mind is the same.

"I'm sorry," you say. You reach out a hand to comfort her, and then pause. The action feels foreign. How would you do it?

Vel hisses from behind you.

Ai-chan stares at you, if that really is her. You're not sure.

= = =

It's earlier than normal, I know. I had a bit of time to spare, and I wasn't expecting the voting to change. That said, this output is... hard to discard. Uhm, I guess I'll leave it up to you. Whatever you pick, the above remains canon.
[ ] Comfort her
[ ] Free her
[ ] Write-in
[ ] Actually, none of that happened. It's a discarded timeline.
- [ ] Write-in