"I am Veliona," she says, tilting her chin upwards. "I am Seele's dark half, the part she repressed. I am both the cause and solution to all her issues."
"Vel...?" you begin.
Veliona raises a hand to stop you, before turning her attention back to the topic at hand.
"I represent all that Seele wishes she could be: Strong, merciless, determined. I am everything she was not, and will never be so long as she clings to your pathetic reality."
"Vel!" you say, scandalized. "That- that's not true at all! Any of it! I'm happy with who I am!"
You turn to look at Theresa, hoping to get some backing, but she just smiles.
"What?" you say, frowning.
"Nothing."
Kiana is laughing.
"Something funny?" you ask.
"You two are so cute!"
You stare at Kiana, horrified. She raises an eyebrow.
"What?" she says. "The two of you are adorable when you bicker."
Theresa sits back down in her chair, a finger to her chin.
"The question remains," she says. "Who are you? Who are you really?"
You wipe your hands on your clothes, and stand beside Veliona.
"Can we just... can we just pretend she's my sister?" You ask. "Vel is... she's complicated. There's a lot I'd have to explain. She's not dangerous. Just... please, can we just go with that?"
Theresa looks at you for a long, long moment. You shuffle your feet, before looking over at Veliona. She's hiding something, and her eyes give it away. It's not a malicious secret or plot she's hiding though- it's more like an... embarrassing fact.
You turn back to look at the trio of girls watching you. You don't really think that they'd judge Vel too harshly for what she is, but... you want to keep that to yourself.
"... Yeah, fine," Kiana says. "We'll go with that. For now."
Theresa nods.
"Alright."
Vel brings her index finger to her mouth, poking at her lip in thought. Then she leans towards you, putting an arm around your shoulders. You go red in the face.
"Hi," she says in a sing-song voice. "I'm Vel! I'm the big sister of this girl right here, Seele. Isn't she cute?"
Kiana laughs. "Sure. If you like the helpless type."
"I'm not helpless!" You protest, blushing.
Veliona laughs, then whispers "Thank you" into your ear.
She's incorrigible. You don't know how to respond to her teasing, so you just stand there awkwardly. She and Kiana converse for a moment longer, before she turns to the rest of the room.
"We found Tesla before we came here," she says, her voice suddenly all business. "I... Seele, you're the actual valkyrie here. Want to take over?"
Oh. It's time for a debriefing. You nod, and Veliona steps back. Taking a deep breath, you continue what she started.
"If that's okay with you, Theresa."
"Go ahead," your boss says in a friendly manner. Theresa is nice. It's like being around a teacher or parent more than anything else, sometimes even a classmate. "How are things out there? Take it from the top."
You take a breath, and begin.
"Alright..."
You fill them in on everything, pretty much; everything except Yvette. That's too private, and shouldn't be relevant. You'll work out how to get her back, someday. You promised.
Everything else, from searching through shards of broken reality, through whatever you did to Ai-chan and all the way to helping Tesla, you explain.
"The thing is... The thing is, Tesla's alone," you finish. "She's clever, but all the other engineers, they're..." alive "Dead. I think. Anyway, she needs help. She said there's maybe two or three days until her equipment burns out."
You stop. There's dead silence in the room for a long moment.
"Well," The Theresa finally says, scratching her head. "That certainly is a pickle."
"I could go back with Seele and help her," Kiana offers. "It's true that neither of us are engineers, but I could probably help her a lot with... Understanding the situation. But I think she'll still need more hands than just the two-- the three of us."
Kiana glances at you.
"It'll be a few hours before she wakes up, but I'm not sure I feel safe leaving her there," you say. "What if whoever killed those engineers goes after her?"
She isn't helpless, you know, but more and more you feel it may have been a mistake to leave.
There's a pause in the conversation.
"Ai-chan disappeared a few days ago," Theresa says. "She was behaving oddly beforehand, but said she was going to check on the server system. I let her go, thinking she'd be fine." She closes her eyes. "I asked Kiana to look for a way out afterwards. Is the route you used to come here... Is it safe?"
"No." You shake your head. "Only for me and Vel, and maybe Kiana. Some of the corridors don't have air. A few of them have broken geometry. They're not safe for anyone else.
Theresa nods. "Then we don't have much of a choice. I'd like to ask Kiana to stay, and perhaps make a safe path, but I haven't been in the field. You have. Seele, what do you think we should do? And why?"
Oh no. No, no, no. This isn't fair. You're not the leader here. You're a follower. You... You look down at your hands.
Oh, what the hell do you know? Vel has to make the tough calls in your head most of the time anyway.
"I," you begin, then shake your head. "Give me a second to think."
You walk over to the window, and look out past the front of the cockpit. It should have been a direct view of nothing, but Kiana has set up little floating boxes that, though they're just sitting in a purple mist, at least keep the view from being boring. You can't be sure, but if you squint you can just make out the little holes in reality where the raw stuff of the quantum sea is eating through. It's a long way off, though.
You hope this is a test of some kind, but no, you're not that lucky. Theresa is serious. You sigh, then turn around.
= = =
Good grief, Vel. The vote didn't include "And then stop", but I'm not sure I could have resisted this even if it had.
Quest selection screen:
[ ] Rebuild the corridors, so other people than you and Kiana can get around.
Plus: Other people than you and Kiana can get around.
Minus: This potentially includes Otto.
[ ] Go help Tesla.
Plus: No risk of Tesla being attacked, or of sudden existence failure.
Minus: With just you and Vel, it'll take all available time. Kiana's no more helpful either.
[ ] Find out what happened to Ai-chan.
Plus: ???
Minus: ???
[ ] Search the ship for survivors.
Plus: More crew!
Minus: There's no way to get them out of where they're trapped, but fewer will die while you work out a way to do so.
[ ] Protect Theresa and the others.
Between Rita, Siegfried and herself, she'll be fine.
[ ] Write-in
Any of these can be done by you, or Kiana, or both. If you provide poor reasoning, you risk Theresa overriding you; this is better than the alternative.
No update tomorrow, as I'll be spending it on a different story. Take your time.
