You can't say goodbye. Not now, not ever. You need them too much. Veliona needs them too much. Without them, you wouldn't have a family—no link to humanity—barely any reason, really, to stick around. You have Kiana and Theresa, yes, and they're friends—but it's one thing to help them, because they're there and you like them. It's another one entirely, if it's ever a choice between them and your siblings. The world can burn, before you ever let these two go. But you have other choices. You don't have to let them go.

You're not letting them go.


"Seele?" Veliona says, suddenly alarmed. "What are you doing?"

You...

Something shimmers in the distance, begging for you to take it.

You hear a sob, Rozaliya's composure finally collapsing. Roza needs you now, while you can worry about whatever that was later. The half-glimpsed correlation whips about, failing to find purchase on your full existence, then fades away with something approaching reluctance. Suddenly you're happy you didn't touch it—whatever it was, you can't shake the feeling that it was alive in some way.
Fuck.

That was close.

That was too close for comfort.

... probably Serenity? Reason seems ... well, basically safe to be around, inasmuch as any of the Cores are safe - they have a tendency to be 'not actually safe, but at least not lethal to be near' right up until the moment they decidedly are not, just ask Wendy -

But the Gem of Serenity knows Vel; and frankly, I'm pretty damn sure it was intended for Seele, this cycle, before the Honkai got sidetracked by handing extra Cores out like candy to the Herrscherin of the Void.
 
But the Gem of Serenity knows Vel; and frankly, I'm pretty damn sure it was intended for Seele, this cycle, before the Honkai got sidetracked by handing extra Cores out like candy to the Herrscherin of the Void.
This cycle, last cycle, every cycle. "Cycle" isn't really the right word, but it'll do.

There's a bit of a problem, though. It's expecting someone human.
 
[ ] Finish clearing a path between the twins' group and Engineering.
Would be kind of rude to leave 'em hanging. Also, Tesla needs minions.
[ ] Investigate the floating ball and its altar.
Ha. If you think I will not put this off for as long as possible, and possibly longer?
[ ] Investigate what happened to Ai-chan
I continue to be 100% certain that absolutely nothing bad is brewing as a result of ignoring this. Completely. Safe. No consequences at all. Everything is fine.
[ ] Investigate the Core of Reason
On the one hand? Almost certainly not time-sensitive. On the other hand? Very useful, and almost, maybe, probably not, this is hubris to even think, but almost safe, unlike literally any other Herrscher Core. On the gripping hand? Bronya.

I suspect it is only a matter of time before Seele forces our hand in this regard; and if I didn't think we needed both of Seele's major actions for other things right now, this would shoot to the top of the list.
[ ] Search the ship for other survivors
- [ ] Where?
Literally our job. Just saying.
[ ] Help Kiana finish the path between Engineering and the bridge.
a) useful; b) there's a chance we could learn how to make paths better, which would be handy, because Seele and Vel's road building technique is decidedly ... rustic.
[ ] (Re)introduce Veliona to the twins
Sisterlies are important!
[ ] Talk to Kiana's father
... is now really the time though? I think that Kiana and Siegfried need to talk; and for that matter, that TeriTeri is probably going to want to talk to Siegfried, and maybe share a stiff drink, given recent revelations. Siegfried Kaslana's social schedule seems likely to be pretty full in the immediate future.

We probably should talk to him at some point. But maybe not tomorrow?
I rather liked Hans, and talking to him would be interesting ... but it's competing against other, really quite important things in-slot.
All in all, I think @Alcor has the right idea, and their proposed sequencing seems good. I guess the question is ... where to go back to S&R?

The options we were given last time were:
  • Engineering
    • Near Tesla, most likely to have useful Tesla-minions, fewest total people
  • Offices & Junk
    • Where we found the Twins. Most people, but section is heavily damaged, least immediately useful mix of people
  • Hull, turrets, etc
    • Exposed to the sea. Crew members there most likely to die without intervention, and many had already died when this choice was originally offered - and it's been another whole day since. Hazardous, both physically and emotionally.

I don't know. Gonna percolate on this overnight, I guess?
 
If time were working normally I think I'd still tend towards searching the exterior parts of the ship since they're the sections in the most danger... however it seems to be increasingly clear that time is no longer working like usual so questions like "How long would we estimate people in the exterior could hold out?" don't seem nearly as useful when I wouldn't be entirely surprised if different parts of the exterior have experienced different lengths of subjective time. We've seen time acting up even outside the exterior even. I suppose there's no rule saying such a thing needs to work against us and perhaps some sections have, from their perspective, only experienced an hour but...

If not the exterior (whether we think too much time has passed, voter preference, etc.) I think I might be leaning towards Engineering? The plan to this point would have us meeting back up with Kiana as we connect the paths to rejoin her. Since she's better at fixing things than we are she might be a better choice to try the Living Quarters than Seele?
 
To provide some perspective on the "Too much time has passed" possibility–

It's currently a week after the apocalypse. Seele took that much time to pull herself together, find her way to the Hyperion, and get inside. Everything since then has taken less than a day. The difference in elapsed time, for someone near the hull, isn't that big between yesterday and today; anyone who was going to die quickly is already dead, so you're left with a slower trickle.

A lot of the crew were 'allergic' to the quantum sea, similarly to Roza and Liliya. That group is either already dead, or on the bridge. I didn't go into detail, but it's not just named characters there.

That said, the rule controlling how much time is passing is actually fairly simple. There are exceptions, but so far you've only run across one of them.

I think I have now given you enough information to work out what it is.
 
I think that Kiana and Siegfried need to talk; and for that matter, that TeriTeri is probably going to want to talk to Siegfried, and maybe share a stiff drink, given recent revelations. Siegfried Kaslana's social schedule seems likely to be pretty full in the immediate future.

We probably should talk to him at some point. But maybe not tomorrow?


If @Baughn allows, we may write an interlude about some of this. Theresa is going to need someone to talk to, and her list of confidantes is rather short. For reasons that should be clear to literally anyone familiar with HI3's source material, Otto is right out. So that leaves...basically just Sieg. And someone needs to prepare him for the bombshell of a conversation heading his way.
 
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If @Baughn allows, we may write an interlude about some of this. TeriTeri is going to need someone to talk to, and her list of confidantes is rather short. For reasons that should be clear to literally anyone familiar with HI3's source material, Otto is right out.
I would adore such an interlude.

The quest focuses on Seele, obviously, so we're unlikely to see this conversation unless you decide to write it.
 
I would adore such an interlude.

The quest focuses on Seele, obviously, so we're unlikely to see this conversation unless you decide to write it.

Iris may demand another SC interlude (on top of the one already owed) in exchange. We'll see. Anyway, we should sleep. And so should you.
 
That said, the rule controlling how much time is passing is actually fairly simple. There are exceptions, but so far you've only run across one of them.

I think I have now given you enough information to work out what it is.
The rule, you mean, right? The exception is - to my knowledge - clearly the orb and its surrounding area of time dilation.

I'd have to go back and maybe check a few things to try and determine the rule if it's any more complex than "time works as usual more or less" because Tesla, for example, discussed timeframes with Seele as though nothing were that unusual. Without some research my first guess would be that it has to do with proximity with Tesla's "experiment"/"hold-the-ship-together-thingy" in Engineering trying to assert what were the normal rules of reality as best as possible against the pressure of the Sea and that the further you get from there the shakier things would get. That seems a bit too simple and vague though so, yeah, would have to do some research to see what clues I may be missing.

That said, since the thrust of my thinking there had to do with trying to determine where S&R efforts would be best directed... despite being an advocate then and now for the exterior, I'm getting a worse feeling about it the more I think about it. If it's been eight days we're well past the point where survivors would need access to basic survival supplies to have lasted that long - water, first and foremost. That's less of a problem in the Living Quarters were you might expect supplies like that to be found - indeed we found MREs by the orb. ...Would there be readily available supplies out in the exterior? I'm not very optimistic. Especially when looking around for them there would be exceedingly dangerous-to-fatal for anyone not named Seele or Kiana.
 
The rule, you mean, right? The exception is - to my knowledge - clearly the orb and its surrounding area of time dilation.

I'd have to go back and maybe check a few things to try and determine the rule if it's any more complex than "time works as usual more or less" because Tesla, for example, discussed timeframes with Seele as though nothing were that unusual. Without some research my first guess would be that it has to do with proximity with Tesla's "experiment"/"hold-the-ship-together-thingy" in Engineering trying to assert what were the normal rules of reality as best as possible against the pressure of the Sea and that the further you get from there the shakier things would get.
Well, close, and that's definitely part of it. The further from Tesla's equipment you get, the more anomalies there's going to be; but proximity in and of itself doesn't affect the rule I'm talking about, except inasmuch as areas inside the core area of effect have time working perfectly normally.

Seele went out to play. She experienced about six hours, from when you left the bridge to when you returned to the twins the second time, and I'll be nice and add that the effect of playing with the orb was minor, but mostly adds to that number.

It doesn't normally take six hours to walk around the ship the way you were doing, but, well.

In that time, Theresa experienced about fourteen hours.

Kiana experienced about seven hours.

The twins experienced about nine hours.

... probably Serenity? Reason seems ... well, basically safe to be around, inasmuch as any of the Cores are safe - they have a tendency to be 'not actually safe, but at least not lethal to be near' right up until the moment they decidedly are not, just ask Wendy -
Reason should be reasonably safe to be around, yes.

Seele hopes so. She's carrying it around inside herself.
 
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Major
[X] Finish clearing a path between the twins' group and Engineering.
[X] Investigate the Core of Reason

Minor
[X] Help Kiana finish the path between Engineering and the bridge.
[X] Talk to Kiana's father
 
Major
[X] Finish clearing a path between the twins' group and Engineering.
[X] Search the ship for other survivors
- [X] Keep searching amidships in the offices and living quarters.

Minor
[X] Help Kiana finish the path between Engineering and the bridge.
[X] (Re)introduce Veliona to the twins
 
Major
[X] Finish clearing a path between the twins' group and Engineering.
[X] Search the ship for other survivors
- [X] Keep searching amidships in the offices and living quarters.

Minor
[X] Help Kiana finish the path between Engineering and the bridge.
[X] (Re)introduce Veliona to the twins
 
So obviously Seele's eyes look fine.

She doesn't really use them for anything.

I think ... I think Seele has Lore 5, not Lore 4. Thus, she can use miracles of Greater Vision for free, and can reflexively have Vision active at all times and without it counting as an action.

Um, in less jargon-y terms ... Seele can perceive things for what they are rather than for what they look like, at all times, as just another sense. She can intuit structure rather than seeing substance.
Y'know.

When I originally read this I was just nodding along, noting that you'd gotten the gist of it once again. It's only skimming through it again, now, that it occurred to me that you're describing the hypothetical game of Glitch, not the story you're reading. As far as you're aware, at any rate.

It is, regardless, entirely accurate.

Seele has on multiple occasions described the depths of the quantum sea as a void devoid of anything, space included, and this certainly includes light, anything you could possibly touch, and so on–

But it's not... empty.

Not really.

There's structure there, even if most of the structures are ephemeral. You just can't see them with eyes. There's no light; this section of the abyss is acting according to the rules of a wardrobe from a surface world, and this other section is acting as if it's a girl, and when they come close to each other that makes it much more likely for Ms. Seele to be replaced by a version wearing her usual adventurer's clothing, but it's not happening because she sees it—in a real sense it's not happening at all–

Well, that's how it works in the Abyss, if you don't happen to be alive at the meta level, running your mind on a self-repairing, self-propagating quantum computer that's built on top of that raw noise. It's not how it works in a bubble universe; those obey causality at least partly, though it won't usually extend to "atoms work", and you won't usually be able to notice.

I'm looking forward to showing this off~

Sometime later.
I think Seele reads perfectly normal to all senses other than a miraculous power that can directly parse what things are, to which Seele feels weird - washed out, incomplete, and like she's occupying a bunch of possible positions rather than any specific location
Oh, and--

If Theresa looks at Seele, she'll see a fifteen year old girl. Someone who claims to be eighteen, of course--this is Wrong, but it's one of the better possible choices--but Theresa isn't one to worry about matters of apparent age.

If Bronya were to look at Seele, and very likely hug her, she'll see her best friend. If she then were to dip into her more exotic senses, she'd find that things are slightly off; Seele is still there, but the space she's in is empty. There's not really any space there, even. There's no confusion about where she is, though.

(Unless they're in the middle of a game of tag.)

If she were to keep looking out she might spot a universe-sized butterfly, its wings wrapped protectively around her. It's next to her, though it's not clear where exactly it might fit.

This isn't a game of Glitch, is what I'm trying to say. Any similarities are coincidental, but we've been aiming for the same goals.
 
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Major
[X] Finish clearing a path between the twins' group and Engineering.
[X] Search the ship for other survivors
- [X] Keep searching amidships in the offices and living quarters.

Minor
[X] Help Kiana finish the path between Engineering and the bridge.
[X] (Re)introduce Veliona to the twins
 
Major
[X] Finish clearing a path between the twins' group and Engineering.
[X] Search the ship for other survivors
- [X] Keep searching amidships in the offices and living quarters.

Minor
[X] Help Kiana finish the path between Engineering and the bridge.
[X] (Re)introduce Veliona to the twins
 
Scheduled vote count started by Baughn on Nov 17, 2020 at 8:22 AM, finished with 19 posts and 5 votes.

  • [X] Finish clearing a path between the twins' group and Engineering.
    [X] Search the ship for other survivors
    - [X] Keep searching amidships in the offices and living quarters.
    [X] Help Kiana finish the path between Engineering and the bridge.
    [X] (Re)introduce Veliona to the twins
    [X] Finish clearing a path between the twins' group and Engineering.
    [X] Investigate the Core of Reason
    [X] Help Kiana finish the path between Engineering and the bridge.
    [X] Talk to Kiana's father
 
Our dice rolls are trending in the right direction at least!
This was the most interesting outcome remaining on the list, at least for this place in particular. It's a little...

It's going to be fun.

Ahem. Anyway! This particular dice roll actually has a song attached. It's also got a good chance of being highly informative. I'm not sure if I'll get to a voting point tonight, but in any event, here it is:

 
Have a Baughn approved spoiler/preview share from Discord:

BaughnToday at 10:10 PM
Anyway, I have good news and bad news.
The good news is, I've been having fun describing the Abyss! Next episode will definitely be up tomorrow.
That's also the bad news.
 
Seele Quest: 5.1
Day 2

Breakfast is military food. It's not bad, but it's bland and boring. You don't eat much. You don't need to, after all; you're snacking a little, only to keep the twins company. The... younger twins. You still haven't gotten used to that, and you're not sure how long it'll take you, but you're constantly aware of Veliona's presence by your side in a way you weren't yesterday.

Things are looking up, though. The four of you have taken a table in a corner of the cafeteria–

That's, well, that's Veliona's doing. She cleared out the path to it early in the morning, while you and the twins were still sleeping. There's a few tufts of grass and other nonsensical intrusions, but it's safe, and that means Hans and the rest of everyone can get around at least a little bit without Roza and Liliya to fetch necessities, which in turn means you can keep them where you can keep an eye on them.

It also means the place is almost boisterous. Everyone's chatting and laughing, and it's almost like a normal morning. Almost like you woke up back home, rather than on a broken ship on the edge of nonexistence.

"Good morning." Hans smiles.

"Morning, Hans," the twins chorus.

You get the impression that he'd like to pat them on the head, but he settles for scooping a second helping of eggs onto Rozaliya's plate. You can't help but smile at him. Anyone Roza and Liliya likes is okay in your book.

You take a sip of your water, and listen in on the conversation.

"So what's the plan for today, Hans?" Liliya asks.

"Taking stock," he says. "I might not look it, but I'm good with numbers. Well, the Hyperion was stocked for a lengthy deployment. Even with the power having failed for a while, there should be plenty of food, water, medical supplies, you name it. For now, I'll be summarizing everything that's accessible in the cleared areas."

"Got it." Roza nods.

He hesitates, then looks at Veliona. "I'm happy to have something to do, but..."

"Those seals? Not my doing," she says, shaking her head. "I've been wondering about that too. We've found three now."

Hans frowns, and scratches his chin. "It's a big ship, but that's three out of eight freezers in this area. I'm worried about how much of our provisions we've lost. Maybe the seals are edible, but..."

"Um, what are you talking about?" you interject.

Veliona blinks, and shrugs her shoulders at you. You blink back.

"There were eight walk-in freezers in this section," Hans says. "We've found five that are intact, their contents still frozen. The other three turned into..." He scratches his chin, once again. "There's no way to say this without sounding crazy, but the entire room was replaced with a single block of ice, containing frozen seals. All three of them. The seals look perfectly intact, but all the same I'd rather not eat them."

"What do you mean, seals?" you ask. "Like, the animals?"

He nods. "Big furry creatures that live in the ocean, like a cross between a fish and a bear."

"That can't possibly be right," you say, imagining the scene.

"It isn't," he agrees. "But there they are, behind a solid wall of ice. I mean, I'm not an idiot. I know what's probably causing this. It's just..." He shakes his head. "Bizarre. Even for me."

"Do you think we should go in and investigate?" Lili asks.

Hans shakes his head vigorously. "I'd rather leave them alone," he says. "Absurd or not, they're still just dead animals. Frozen, dead animals. They're not going to come alive if we leave them alone, and I'd rather not risk the wrath of the Crawling Plague of R'lyeh."

"The what now?" you ask.

"Highly contagious, morphologically unique virus," Hans explains. "Highly unstable. Gives you superpowers, but makes you broody and dark. You end up slowly turning into a kraken. It's from a novel I was writing in my teens."

"Oh," you say. "Uh... is that a real virus?"

Hans chuckles. "No, no," he says. "It's not a real virus. You'd need a direct injection of squid DNA to contract it."

You scratch your head.

Veliona grins. "Does it turn you into a tentacle monster?" she asks. "That sounds really cool."

"It sucks," Hans says. "You spend all your time in the ocean, you have to kill yourself or become a complete psychopath who lives to hurt others, and there's no way to turn back. All you can do is brood. And defeat the Herrschers, but that's just a way to suppress the dark cravings in your heart."

Hans brightens up. "I should write a book," he says. "What do you think, Veliona?"

"Uh huh," she says. "That's a great idea. I'm sure it'll be a bestseller."

"You think so?" he asks. "Really?"

The five of you look at each other, then collapse into laughter.

"Yes, really," you say, wiping a tear from your eye. "Thanks, Hans. I needed that. Roza, Liliya–" You take a deep breath. It's not unlikely you'll be spending the day with them, and you could tell them about your sister later, when it's just the four of you. You could. You could, but... she's not a secret. You don't want her to be a secret. You might as well do this now.

"Veliona," you say, "is my sister."

Hans looks surprised. Roza and Liliya look surprised. Veliona smirks and folds her arms, rolling her eyes.

"Really? I had no idea," Hans says, scratching his head. "Seele, that's fairly obvious. You look exactly alike."

"We do," Veliona agrees. "Although now that you mention it, we've always been a little different. Seele was always the quiet, timid one. And I... well, as you know, I'm not."

You palm your face. You really, really should have seen this coming. Hans looks at you, then at Veliona, then at Roza and Liliya for confirmation.

"You're... right," you say. "It's obvious. She's my twin sister. The thing is, I didn't realize that before Rozaliya said so yesterday, and I should have. We've been together... six years now?" you say questioningly, looking at Veliona.

"Or a hundred," she says, shrugging. "You shouldn't be beating yourself up about this, Seele. My memory is hazy that far back, but I know we didn't get off on the right foot. Honestly, I'm not surprised you thought I was a demon."

"Please, Vel. You're not a demon. You're my sister," you say.

She smiles slightly. "Of course I am, silly."

You look away, feeling the beginnings of tears in your eyes.

"Seele, are you alright?" Liliya asks.

"Yeah... I'm just happy," you say, rubbing your eyes. "Anyway, Hans, here's the thing. Veliona was born from my stigmata, somehow–" And you'll keep your guess that she wasn't to yourself, for now. "–And it's only four years ago, or thereabouts, that I started seeing her as a person. I'm not proud of that, but it's true. It took Rozaliya stating the obvious to make me realize that we're family."

You take her hand, squeezing it softly. She squeezes back.

"Seele, you don't need to explain yourself," she says. "I know you didn't mean to. And I get it. I probably would have done the same thing, had our roles been reversed."

You give her a sad smile. "Thanks, Vel. In any case, that's... that, I guess. She's my twin sister. It's not that complicated. I just wish I'd let her out a bit earlier, like when we were in the orphanage."

Vel winces. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, but that would've been a really bad idea. I would have murdered Sin."

You sigh. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"The point is, you're stuck with me," she says, smirking. "Now, as for your punishment..." Vel looks at Roza. "What do you think I should do? You're the expert. How do you handle overly quiet little sisters?"

"I'm not that much younger than you," you say.

It's probably true. Probably.

"So what?" Vel grins. "We're twins. They're twins. I'm sure Rozaliya's got plenty of ideas, and I want to hear all of them."

She corners Roza, who smiles back nervously. This? This could be a real problem. For you, for Theresa, for everyone whose sanity isn't already in question. You should probably stop them.

"Come on," Vel says, leading Rozaliya out of the room. Liliya follows like a lost lamb.

After briefly weighing your options, you decide the best course of action is to...

Ignore them, and hope for an impossible miracle.

ooOOoo

Nothing like yesterday's disaster happens, and after the first two or three rifts, closing them becomes second nature.

True, your patches aren't as clean as Kiana's. Sometimes the patches turn into holes into the abyssal void, and sometimes into floating patches of grass, or pinecones, or other things that don't belong. When that happens, you try it again until they're at least traversable. Veliona, on her side of the corridor, seems to have found a trick for reliably turning the ones in the floor into flagstones.

You could swear you saw something moving inside one of them, but it was only an illusion, a shadow playing tricks on your eyes. There's nothing to worry about.

Nothing at all.

Which doesn't stop you asking the twins to stay well back. They obey—or rather, Rozaliya seems reluctant to approach them at all. Is that because of the spiders? Was it the spiders? It was the spiders, wasn't it. You feel a smile playing about your lips. Of all the things to make Rozaliya stay back, you didn't think plastic spiders would be it.

You spend the morning mostly like that, making about a foot of headway per minute, while the four of you have a half-shouted conversation about nothing of importance. Who cares about the exact shade of pink that goes best with blue and white?

Rozaliya, evidently, and you find yourself smiling at her frustration, born of trying to match both you and Liliya simultaneously. Veliona joins in to disagree with everything Rozaliya suggests, both of them turn on you—Liliya pointing out she did blue first—and you end up dressed in brown for a while. Vel might have an evil streak a lightyear wide, but she has good taste. It's great to see them getting along, whatever long-term consequences that may have, and you're happy to just sit back and be…

You're falling.

Reality crumbles, all around you. You get a brief but crystal-clear glimpse of Liliya screaming as you tumble to the floor, a spear of white-hot agony lancing your side. Veliona bursts, like a soap bubble that's been pricked, and you feel her attention tear outwards. Away from the Hyperion.

It's like looking through a kaleidoscope. Sounds, colors, sensations run past your vision like a whirlwind. Rozaliya is begging for you to get up, but you can barely understand her words. The world has shattered around you, and you're helplessly falling through the cracks. It takes you a moment to realize that it isn't the hallway that shattered, but you.

ooOOoo

Your mind is awash with fragments of memory, and you can't for the life of you remember what's real and what isn't.

You almost feel as if you're in two places at once.

You're on the floor of the hallway, body broken in half, but you're also in a void, a butterfly wrapped around the Hyperion. A shattered butterfly. Everything's tearing, and you can't keep up. You have a blinding headache, and if you try to look at the damage or focus on what's important, you feel as if you'll lose your mind.

You can't afford to lose your mind.

Painfully, you drag yourself away from the Hyperion, from the broken body in that hallway, glitching and fuzzing out. It isn't really doing either of those things, but Veliona's own panicky exertions are making it impossible to keep it synced with the Hyperion's reality, something that should normally be automatic.

Your own panic isn't helping.

The world resolves itself piece by piece.

You're in the quantum sea. You're nailed to the Hyperion, a lance of white nothingness piercing your side. The horizon is a wave of beasts, of quantum shadows, of something or other that your headache is making it hard to resolve.

From that perspective, Veliona is fighting a desperate but hopeless fight to protect you from an onslaught of what must be thousands of the beasts, enough of them to fill the sky. They aren't acting normally. They're faster, stronger… bigger than normal, and they're not just aiming at Vel. In fact, they're barely aiming at her at all. They're going for the ship as a whole, and it's defenseless. Vel is forced to put herself between their attacks and the Hyperion, her efforts to protect you and the rest of the ship making the fight even more one-sided.

Your vision swims, your attackers' appearance shifting from honkai beast, to quantum shadow, to an all-encompassing flood of consumption that threatens to swallow you up when you look at it. The only constant is the white lance of energy protruding from your side.

The beasts are relentless. They're deadlier than any shadow should be, slipping into every crack, every weakness, every fault and fractional timeline of the ship, making it impossible for Veliona to find a clear shot without risking damage. It's an impossible fight, one even Durandal would have trouble with. Your entire left side is gone, torn to pieces, large chunks of it simply missing. Pinned to the ship, you're struggling to maintain your form.

That's how a human would see it.

Good thing, then, that you aren't forced to conform to that perspective. This is dangerous, but not yet a disaster.

ooOOoo

It would be wrong, to say you must be a native of the quantum sea to fight the things that are. All you need is the ability to see them, and shoot at them, or hit them, or do whatever act of violence you're best at—and the Sea will take care of the rest. All you need is to pick out the right correlations, through serendipity or nature, that let you treat your enemies as 'someone you already know how to fight'.

As above, so below. The instant something in the Sea matches well enough with events in a higher world, the Sea will conform to that story instead of its own. That's what you mean by 'correlations'.

The same applies to movement, or breathing, or existence in general. Anyone who wasn't born here is, by definition, a juggernaut. Mountain-sized, or planet-sized, compared to the gnats that are the native life. Efficiency isn't needed, only the ability to aim at them at all, and if the creatures you might have seen your scythe slicing through in the past weren't as real as you, then that didn't change the outcome at all. But that's only true for someone like Bronya, fighting something that—in a Tesla-esque sense—barely exists at all, relative to her.

That it was still a fight at all goes a long way to demonstrating how inefficient this is, and for someone who can't do that—like Roza, or Liliya, or most people really—wading into the quantum sea would mean being slowly worn down by enemies they can't even see, their life stolen away until there's nothing left at all.

None of that is optional. If you're human, then the true nature of the fight you're in is literally unimaginable. No human could possibly fight a battle that's even close to equal, mired in the depths of the quantum sea. Not like Veliona's doing right now.

But Vel isn't human.

Vel is something else entirely, and by this time, so are you.

ooOOoo

Your human form melts away, discarded, and a disintegrating butterfly-of-light welds itself back together as if time is reversing. You spread your wings high above the battlefield.

That's not what's really happening. These aren't honkai beasts. They aren't even quantum shadows. Their concepts, almost all the ones that are exposed to you, all just say 'enemy', 'predator'; their appearance is hardly meaningful. Their original attack, the one that happened maybe three seconds ago, was to impale you with a spear made of the concept of disintegration. You don't think all of that through in the moment, you just feel the confusion.

They didn't hit your sister first. That was a mistake. That lost them the fight.

Since they didn't…

It's a nuisance. But that doesn't calm you, your heart still racing as you imagine how this could have gone so horribly wrong. Your teeth, if you had them, would clench, creaking with entirely justified anger. And all you want to do is tear them to pieces. These things tried to kill you.

You finish evaporating the lance, its remnants quickly catalogued by your stigma, and feel your insides realign themselves the way they're supposed to. Zero damage, a little 'bruising'—you can feel a few pieces missing, but nothing you don't have copies of. It'll fix itself in a matter of minutes, and you jolt Veliona with a burst of anger and eagerness, letting her know you're ready to help.

Your sister is the icy focus of a stalking predator. And with your presence secure, there's nothing holding her back. She appreciates your offer somewhere, you think. She just doesn't need it.

Shadows crawl out all around you, everywhere these entities are not; a denial of all existence other than your own. The world contracts. The beasts are around you; then they're in front of you; then they're arriving from a single point, a single pathway that's the only way to or from the ship. Another rain of lances arrives, to be swallowed up by the darkness.

She's trying to cut them off, at the cost of placing herself between you, and all the creatures and weapons raining down on you. Again. That's a fight she can't hope to endure for very long.

You don't think, you just hurl yourself down that sole remaining connection, arriving as a wrecking ball in their midst just as Vel's tide of dark and death crashes into the horde of monsters.

Vel's looking to slice away their ability to reach the Hyperion. You help, as best you can, throwing chaff in their way, amplifying their shouts to confuse them, and cutting one or two of them open when they aren't watching carefully enough. If you were still operating on that level, you'd imagine yourself as a whirling ball of death.

The way they react is odd. Ill-coordinated, panicky. Almost animalistic. Not like honkai beasts, which always throw themselves on your scythe regardless, and definitely not like people. Your crude intervention works, the chaos receding a little as Veliona's shadows solidify into shredded space, then no space at all, and that gives you a little time to think. The attacks against you, in the beginning and now, they were… simple. Undoubtedly powerful, but crude. That's an opportunity.

It's easy to win a fight when you outweigh them a trillion to one. Any human can do that to an ant. Harder when you're on equal ground, but whatever these things expected, it wasn't Vel. Or, for that matter, you. You aren't sure if they were expecting anything at all. Their insides leak out, and your stigma catalogues them—panic, confusion, hunger—pieces of humans, but nothing like intelligence. To your senses, their minds feel like the mass of writhing maggots that one sometimes sees on a corpse.

Animals?

Your view of the Hyperion has narrowed to a single, needle-like eye that passes right through the middle of Veliona. That fight is won; there's no way for them to harm it, now.

Your own should have been hard-fought. They should have reacted to your arrival, rearranged themselves. The closest should have delayed you, others pulled back to form lines you couldn't so easily pierce through. Instead the closest are as often biting at other beasts as they are towards you, and they're all pulling back, trying to escape. There's no hint of any kind of coordination.

True, you've done your very best, to stop it happening, but–

You're not in any danger, and that is in itself wrong. You aren't able to slaughter them—they aren't really here. But if you can hold them in place for just a little longer, you can cage them. Keep some of them from running away, trap them in a barely-attached slice of space-time for you to study. Or kill them. Or maybe just cut them off from reality entirely, lost until the Sea degrades them into nothingness.

= = =

The abyss of the ocean is a dark and lonely place, filled mostly with dust at maximum entropy, but occasionally the carcass of a whale drops in from above.

[ ] Trap one of the creatures
- [ ] And study it immediately
[ ] Fortify the Hyperion
- [ ] By making it harder to spot
- [ ] By making it dangerous to get to
[ ] Return to Rozaliya and Liliya
[ ]
Write-in
 
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Absurd or not, they're still just dead animals. Frozen, dead animals. They're not going to come alive if we leave them alone
They weren't until you said that!
But that doesn't calm you, your heart still racing as you imagine how this could have gone so horribly wrong.
Yeah, that... that could have been bad.

My first inclination is to return immediately because we gave the twins a huge scare and I want to let them know it's okay now. Not a huge fan of capturing one of these things, I feel like we can tell Tesla or Theresia when we make our way to them and see if they have any ideas first. As for protecting the Hyperion... if we didn't just collapse in front of the twins I'd probably gravitate to this, and to the "make it more dangerous" subvote but we did so...

Broadly speaking I guess I'm in favor of reporting the incident to the powers-that-know-about-weird-stuff first before taking any action here since it doesn't seem like an emergency situation. If they then ask that Seele do something like try to capture one of these things or try to fortify the Hyperion... we should be able to come back here in a more controlled not-blindsided-by-a-conceptual-lance way and do that... right?
 
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