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

[Riserar]

Thought about it for a little bit, although I'm not sure about how dangerous this situation can really be. So a couple of things come to mind...

-Seele should properly apologize.
-Seele and Veliona need to sort out their thoughts and what they just saw (the snake, the dreams), with the idea being so that they can at least feel like they have a little bit more of a grasp on the situation. Talk about the fire moth, and anything else Seele thought stood out to her.
-Figure out why the snake is causing the world-ending disaster. If it's not with malicious intent or immediate danger to the two, ask Vel to persuade the snake not to cause the eruption, since it seems to like her quite a bit.

Really need to not promise Roza and Liliya not to disappear and then keep doing it somehow. I really doubt they're going to let Seele go anywhere out of their range of sight if this keeps up. Like, ever. Thinking about how everything played out, it's interesting how it came to be this way. I never really thought much about writing with AI, so this is pretty neat stuff. Absolutely surprising at every turn, which so far I consider it a positive addition. Also, I don't really know how this all works, or how I can condense these into votes well. I also want to know what others think about it.
Something like this?

[ ] Do something about the giant snake threat by figuring out what it's trying to do, with a cautious approach, starting with an apology from Seele
-[ ] Sort out thoughts on the dream
-[ ] Have Vel try to nudge the snake not to destroy this world

Truthfully, I don't know if Vel figuring out all of this about her past is going to make her feel so sure of herself immediately, and in the worse case, she has a bit of a meltdown about her identity. At least she has Seele by her side to confront whatever fears or worries together.

 

[beowolf]

Like Shadow said, Veliona is far too addled by her emotions to think through the implications of anything she's seeing. She's also operating on false assumptions—she believes she's as similar to Seele as she is because she's been copying bits and pieces from Seele, not for example because she is Seele.

It's a perfectly understandable misunderstanding, of course, but the fact is that Seele has been able to take a step back and think about things, and Veliona hasn't.

Click to shrink...

So, I'm quoting your response as the person I want a response from, but my question is inspired by @Alcor 's confusion.

Do Velonia and Seele even know that there is such a thing as a Previous Era? ...No, that's not quite accurate, I'm pretty sure they do, how do I phrase this... Do they know enough about how the Eras work that they realize there even could be a person that would meaningfully fit the phrase "the previous Era's Seele"?

 

[Baughn]

Do Velonia and Seele even know that there is such a thing as a Previous Era? ...No, that's not quite accurate, I'm pretty sure they do, how do I phrase this... Do they know enough about how the Eras work that they realize there even could be a person that would meaningfully fit the phrase "the previous Era's Seele"?

Click to shrink...

They do not.

Seele knows that people 'repeat', but mostly in the context of bubble universes. I would not go as far as to say she's thinking Vel might be from a previous era of her own world. However, she does know what Fire Moth is.

EDIT: To be clear, Veliona claimed from the start to be an AI developed by the previous era, and Seele ran with that assumption for a while. She's currently very confused.

 

[Baughn]

Traditionally, I've had trouble describing scenes where Seele exists chiefly in the quantum sea. Snowfire said I should pretend it's operating as per normal four-dimensional physics, and there's something to that; it makes it much easier to get emotions across.

Or, indeed, to avoid confusing the hell out of the readers.

None of that is true, though. It's all a lie. Seele didn't look towards Vel at the end of this chapter, except in the loosest possible sense, and if she had you wouldn't be able to tell that's what was happening.

I tried my best to have an AI draw the scene--you know, with a void dragon 'hugging' them. Here's the output. And, I stress, this is pretty close to what I think you'd see... if your eyes didn't disintegrate in the first couple of milliseconds.



So, you know. Try to keep that in mind.

 

[Baughn]

I intend to post the next part (with Roza and Liliya) on Sunday, or at least have it ready for beta-ing by then.

Like I said at the time... having them succeed would be entirely too much, and indeed they won't. It's going to be okay, though. These kids are made of sterner stuff than anyone their age frankly ought to be made of; their minds as much as their bodies.

Regardless, you have until then to decide what about snek.

 

[Thelxiope]

[X] Step back from the precipice. This is new, and we're safe-ish now at the least. We don't have to rush this worrying about what might happen if we wait. So let's get to know this dragon of yours/ours and see where it takes us. I'll be right here for you, all the way to the end, and whatever we make afterwards.
-[X] Apologise to the snake properly. Like you meant to days ago.

I don't know why it's so hard to remember to vote for this quest. I really don't.

 

[Cute Princess]

[X] Step back from the precipice. This is new, and we're safe-ish now at the least. We don't have to rush this worrying about what might happen if we wait. So let's get to know this dragon of yours/ours and see where it takes us. I'll be right here for you, all the way to the end, and whatever we make afterwards.
-[X] Apologise to the snake properly. Like you meant to days ago.

 

[Riserar]

I'll toss this in. I may have forgotten to actually do it for a bit. Oops. Suuurely nothing will go wrong. Love the generated image. It certainly is interesting. The sea of quanta feels so abstract in a way.

[x] Do something about the giant snake threat by figuring out what it's trying to do, with a cautious approach, starting with an apology from Seele
- [x] Sort out thoughts on the dream
- [x] Have Vel try to nudge the snake not to destroy this world

 

[Baughn]

I'll toss this in. I may have forgotten to actually do it for a bit. Oops. Suuurely nothing will go wrong. Love the generated image. It certainly is interesting. The sea of quanta feels so abstract in a way.

Click to shrink...

There's another picture of the twins at the start of the most recent chapter, which I added a little late; I found my most recent picture-AI a few days later. This one is good enough for general use.

I don't suppose there's any point whatsoever by now in pretending they're someone else, since even Seele has figured that out. And, for that matter, that they're in poor mental shape. She's going to...

Who am I kidding. She'll run to Rubia for help. That's the only person who could possibly be helpful here, and should be quite useful as far as she knows. ... But no spoilers as to that, please, Baughn.

...

So, the quantum sea. This is the same thing as Hilbert space in real life, and I've been attempting to represent it as such. This is to say, it's a (near-) infinite-dimensional space where each dimension corresponds to a different possible value of a fraction of the universal wavefunction. A different possible location for an elementary particle, say.

However, the universe of Honkai Impact 3rd follows a mangled-worlds formulation. What this means is that interference between worlds doesn't vanish as decoherence reaches a maximum; similarly to waves in a pond, although they normally don't interfere with each other, a sufficiently big wave can scatter a smaller one and cause it to cease to exist—becoming part of the larger wave. Alternately, for sufficiently small waves the wave mechanics as a whole break down, being a statistical approximation of the true underlying physics.

What it means, in practice, to Seele, is:
— Although the quantum sea is nominally infinite-dimensional, some dimensions are more important than others. Those are the ones she (and others) are able to move along, and it's a definitely finite subset which also has a significant amount of local structure. That structure depends on... let's call it the multiversal geography. Bubble universes leave an imprint that blocks off some routes, and make others more easily accessible, but bubble universes are just the most obvious form of such geography.

— The number of viable dimensions available for movement always numbers at least in the millions, though for a large fraction it's not so much 'movement' as 'very slight shifting'.

— There's no equivalent of light in this sea.

— With the exception of the bubble universes, which are unusual, normal physics doesn't properly operate in the quantum sea. If you think of a single bubble universe as a computer that's been cut off from the internet (aka. the Tree), and is probably running on battery power... then the rest of the Sea is what you get after crushing the computer into dust, mixing it up, and dropping it in the ocean.

Yes, in this analogy Einstein is a computer program. No, she wouldn't survive the Sea. Not for a millisecond. Nothing that depends on functioning atoms can, although this is not as true for any lifeform living in a bubble universe as they'd like to think.

— Worlds are born from the Imaginary Tree. They grow, they branch, and eventually they fall into the Sea, being ground down into fertilizer for the Tree. This is a natural process, and something very similar has been suggested as a possible explanation for the Born rule in real life.

Seele is someone who was born a human, but who was thrown into the world I describe above and who is now something close to a native. She isn't a quantum shadow; quantum shadows are alive, and she's not. I don't mean to say she's dead, she's just not... well, not biological. An upload running in a robotic body, without any living components.

She's adjusted well. It probably helps that Veliona and Seele can easily project a perfectly functional, living human body for them to puppet, though neither is quite sure why they have this ability. It really is just a puppet, and it's only mostly alive, but it means she wasn't forced to face reality every single minute of every single day. Except, of course, for those few years when she was.

In HI3 the 'natural process' I described above is of course mediated by Honkai. The most recent update has something to say about that.




The lady who said this is borderline insane. This doesn't mean it's not at least partially correct, and I know quite well what it means. It's... funny, really, how alike we think.

None of this is especially relevant yet! But I'm looking forwards to when it is~

 

[Riserar]

I can't say that I'm well acquainted with quantum physics subjects or most of the terms used in this quest, so it does feel fairly foreign at times. The explanation definitely helps.

But I do have to question the nature of stigmatas and if all of them are functionally the same. The artificial ones from the current era seem to pale in comparison to whatever Dr MEI was working on in the previous era. Shicksal made artificial ones for their valkyries, but they're not the same as the "natural" ones that weren't implanted after. At least, what I got from it. In this universe, it's a bit different from canon, so I'm wondering at least this universe functions of stigmata.

Example:
CE Mei has a natural stigmata, but later fused with the herrscher personality, whatever that means. Also her father "sealed" the stigmata. Again, no clue what that entails.

Theresa has a stigmata she inherited , and Sakura is still within her.

Mira Rimmer, that sculptor from the theater of domination arc. Coming from someone who sculpts honkai beasts, it's really ominous. Maybe HoL's influence gave her some insight into the will of the honkai, aside from her continuous mental health decline into a hive-mind puppet.

 

[Baughn]

Scheduled vote count started by Baughn on Jul 16, 2021 at 4:17 PM, finished with 31 posts and 5 votes.

• ---

  4 people have voted

  [X] Step back from the precipice. This is new, and we're safe-ish now at the least. We don't have to rush this worrying about what might happen if we wait. So let's get to know this dragon of yours/ours and see where it takes us. I'll be right here for you, all the way to the end, and whatever we make afterwards.
  -[X] Apologise to the snake properly. Like you meant to days ago.

  • Snowfire
  • Alcor
  • Thelxiope
  • Cute Princess

  1 people have voted

  [x] Do something about the giant snake threat by figuring out what it's trying to do, with a cautious approach, starting with an apology from Seele
  - [x] Sort out thoughts on the dream
  - [x] Have Vel try to nudge the snake not to destroy this world

  • Riserar

 

[Baughn]

I can't say that I'm well acquainted with quantum physics subjects or most of the terms used in this quest, so it does feel fairly foreign at times. The explanation definitely helps.

But I do have to question the nature of stigmatas and if all of them are functionally the same. The artificial ones from the current era seem to pale in comparison to whatever Dr MEI was working on in the previous era. Shicksal made artificial ones for their valkyries, but they're not the same as the "natural" ones that weren't implanted after. At least, what I got from it. In this universe, it's a bit different from canon, so im wondering at least this universe functions of stigmata.

Example:
CE Mei has a natural stigmata, but later fused with the herrscher personality, whatever that means. Also her father "sealed" the stigmata. Again, no clue what that entails.

Theresa has a stigmata she inherited , and Sakura is still within her.

Mira Rimmer, that sculptor from the theater of domination arc. Coming from someone who sculpts honkai beasts, it's really ominous. Maybe HoL's influence gave her some insight into the will of the honkai, aside from her continuous mental health decline into a hive-mind puppet.

Click to shrink...

The function of the stigmata isn't supposed to be different from canon. However, canon isn't explicit on this, so it ought to be fair for me to explain how I see it. There may be misunderstandings or inaccuracies, and there will probably be differences from canon once they get around to explaining it.

= = =

Dr. Mei was perhaps the foremost genius the world has ever seen. Over the few years of the Honkai War, she not only found ways to fight back against an extra-universal plague; she even discovered how it works, and learned to exploit it to their own ends.

At first this meant bulk hardware. Honkai reactors, Honkai lasers and so forth; exploits of the underlying physics which gave their civilization limitless power, anti-gravity, man-portable weapons capable of cracking a low-level Herrscher's defences, and so much more. This on its own would have cemented her place in history, had there been a history. It was enough to let them survive the start of the war, but not enough to handle its escalation, so Mei kept going.

So... Honkai reactors are relatively simple systems, which merely exploit the Honkai's tendency to grow, as a power source. It might not be exceptionally safe, but they don't require the ability to make or even control the Honkai.

Honkai Beasts themselves regenerate with no visible source of mass or energy. They're sturdier than any regular material object, and they can sometimes control the Honkai itself as a form of attack. It doesn't destroy them, as it destroys everything else; quite the opposite. Replicating this was clearly... useful.

Mei found a way to fake the control systems used by Honkai Beasts to steer the assemblage of quantum-level "cells" which they're made up of, and in the process she discovered that Honkai is, genuinely, alive. The Beasts don't "control" it so much as they're made of it, as multicellular forms of life, though the visible beasts are silicon-based puppets.

This led to MANTIS, once she'd found a way to steer the regeneration such that the constant Honkai radiation didn't kill the user. Later, the same technology was used to create Roza and Liliya—though the Grey Serpent lacked the ability to fully recreate the process, and was hobbled by Cocolia's demand that the twins had to survive.

Later yet, she gained an understanding of the physics underlying the Honkai—the fragmentary, broken shards of reality that make up the Quantum Sea, and which combine to form a new sort of meta-reality—and was able to design biotechnology which could bootstrap a form of machinery running directly on those physics, with no Honkai involved at all. Nanotechnology, to the Honkai's biology.

It was programmed to form a stable bubble in the quantum sea, construct computing machinery inside that bubble, and then snapshot the user's body to achieve full regeneration. Since this simply means restoring it to a previous state, brain included, by default it would cause full anterograde amnesia; to avoid this, one of the first actions the stigmata takes is to flash-upload the user's minfd onto the same computers running the rest of its functionality.

After this is done, you should then in principle have someone with near-absolute Honkai resistance, an indefinite lifespan, and even a degree of built-in weaponry. Which, combined with their ability to run away even from reality (if necessary), should have allowed humanity to survive despite what she saw as the probable destruction of that reality. She was right, though it took longer than expected.

Unfortunately the stigmata project mostly failed to work. She was left with one unsolved problem at the end—she needed a functional AGI to run it, and that technology didn't exist. So…

Like she'd done to create Prometheus, a few months earlier, she used a human mind as the raw material. Specifically, that of the Herrscher of Death; an acceptable target, and one which should have fit the task.

It still didn't work, as Seele can be quite spiteful if pushed that far. Dr. Mei had to chop out so much of her mind that the resulting "AI" mostly failed to achieve its purpose.

That was, until it activated on this era's Seele Vollerei, and misidentified the two of them as being the same person. The damage that Dr. Mei did to her was, mostly, quietly undone. And the stigmata activated to its fullest extent.

 

[ShadowAngelBeta]

In other words Seele is effectively the closest example we have to a complete Stigmata as Dr. Mei intended them to be. Functional immortality, outright immunity to honkai radiation, carrying around an armory of every weapon of the previous era (this is how Seele gave Bronya Project Bunny), and the abillity to survive unaided outside of a Bubble Universe.

From there you have natural and dormant stigmata which are essentially computers running with either no or half an operating system or something. All the hardware is there, but its not really doing anything on its own. Effectively it "merely" has honkai radiation immunity and... hmm... Imprinted skills is the best way to put it maybe? Anyone with a stigmata is going to be superhuman, just to varying degrees and with varying skill sets.

Artificial stigmata are the current era's attempt(s) at replicating the above to varying success. Across the board they're all worse, which is more a sign of how stupidly broken Dr. Mei was than an insult to the current era researchers. They seem to primarily suffer from a "One size fits all" issue of... not sure how to say it, but its only really provide honkai radiation resistance as well as more generic and weaker boosts.

Dipping over into the game, a popular/good early set for elemental users is Kira, who offers... I think its a 15% boost to all fire/ice/lightning damage as well as just being weaker in overall stats. Now, while a bit dated but still amazing piece is Monet, who offers 40% Lightning damage.

CE Mei has a natural stigmata, but later fused with the herrscher personality, whatever that means. Also her father "sealed" the stigmata. Again, no clue what that entails.

Click to shrink...

Head canon because never explicitly addressed, but I would guess the Herrscher personality was a... shadow/imprint of Mei from her "sealed" stigmata, a shadow/imprint from her moment of awakening as the Herrscher of Thunder way back when in her childhood, and/or both.

I wouldn't know the mechanics of "sealing" a stigmata either, but it is a biotech "nanomachines son" attached to (what I can only assume is) human DNA. But they manifest in a macro form either at birth or when exposed to enough honkai radiation to "turn on." I wouldn't know how one would find an off button or isolate them from the body potentially, but hey, current era's already made artificial ones, so y not.

Theresa has a stigmata she inherited , and Sakura is still within her.

Click to shrink...

I chalk that up to early installment weirdness myself. The first open world segment of the game implies its Mei who resonates with Sakura's stigmata world the most, eh.

 

[Riserar]

Head canon because never explicitly addressed, but I would guess the Herrscher personality was a... shadow/imprint of Mei from her "sealed" stigmata, a shadow/imprint from her moment of awakening as the Herrscher of Thunder way back when in her childhood, and/or both.

I wouldn't know the mechanics of "sealing" a stigmata either, but it is a biotech "nanomachines son" attached to (what I can only assume is) human DNA. But they manifest in a macro form either at birth or when exposed to enough honkai radiation to "turn on." I wouldn't know how one would find an off button or isolate them from the body potentially, but hey, current era's already made artificial ones, so y not.

Click to shrink...

I think something about it was mentioned elsewhere, but this is where I remember seeing it first. Mei had awakened her stigma powers, then her father sealed it. When Cocolia created that outbreak by having a lot of honkai energy in the area using the gem of conquest, Mei became the herrscher of thunder. At least until HoV took the gem from Mei when she reawakened. And then Mei takes it back. A whole lot of passing cores back and forth.

 

[Baughn]

I think something about it was mentioned elsewhere, but this is where I remember seeing it first. Mei had awakened her stigma powers, then her father sealed it. When Cocolia created that outbreak by having a lot of honkai energy in the area using the gem of conquest, Mei became the herrscher of thunder. At least until HoV took the gem from Mei when she reawakened. And then Mei takes it back. A whole lot of passing cores back and forth.

Click to shrink...

And if not for these events, she'd... probably have never become a Valkyrie, instead being a scientist again. She's good at that; much better than she ever was as a Valkyrie. What we're looking at is still the best possible outcome, I think. If Sirin had never had Mei, she'd... almost certainly lose to her other half.

So much of this story ends up being for the sake of, because of, or done to Seele. I'm sure that girl would have much preferred to live a quiet life with her family. It's just not in the cards.

 

[Baughn]

The modern stigmata created by Shicksal are, on the face of it, similar to those built by Dr. Mei. They were designed by reference to her design, using information sourced from her database, and while comparing them to 'natural' stigmata in the development process.

All of that being said, they're still vastly inferior. In part that's sheer pragmatism—natural stigmata kill the majority of the people they activate on, and Shicksal wanted to improve the Honkai resistance and survivability of their own recruits. Killing them would be counter-productive. Kevin's plan would have 'worked', because Kevin wasn't aiming to create soldiers—he was aiming to create civilians who'd have a chance of survival if the soldiers failed. Applying the same procedure to Shicksal's recruits would merely have killed their recruitment efforts.

So, artificial stigmata don't attempt to upload the user; this is the step that most usually fails. They don't provide regeneration; without the upload step, the stigmatas' form of regeneration would be worse than useless. They don't provide an armory of previous-era weaponry, because... most likely, it fails to create the attached bubble universe at all. It seems like a process that, if it goes even slightly wrong, would definitely kill the host as well. Which would on the flip side imply there's nowhere near enough computing power left to run any of the more advanced systems, such as Seele the 'AI'.

What's left is, as @ShadowAngelBeta said, basic enhancements. Increased honkai resistance; increased strength and resilience. Contrasting this to the original design, it's probably just stage one of the stigmata's bootstrap procedure.

They've been improved over time, but they're still not very... well, they're useful, but the resemblance is superficial at best.

= = =

Seele, regardless of which one you think of, has spent a lot of time thinking this through. She was at one point asked by Raven to take a look at Sora, and found that the girl–

Quick digression. Sora (or Kuu; it's been translated two ways) is a girl whom Mei ran into while she was chasing after Kiana. She has a natural stigmata, but she's also got a bad case of retrograde amnesia and, at least at the time, looked somewhat like a zombie. She's not in very good shape. She is, regardless, one of the most capable kids in the story.

Not in a combative way, like Roza and Liliya were back then—she's about two years younger than our favourite twins. Raven has taken in a lot of children, all of whom are on the Hyperion at present, and Sora is the undisputed leader of the group. Mei found her pleasant company, if a little too brave for someone with no apparent ability to survive a conflict.

Sora, however, does not appear to be recognized by honkai beasts as an enemy.

Anyhow. Seele was asked to take a look at her, because Seele at this point had been studying under Dr. Einstein for the better part of two years, and everyone knows she has the most advanced stigmata in existence. She's made no secret of it, though she until recently attempted to hide Veliona's existence. This was not exceptionally workable, considering how obvious she can be.

What they found was that Sora's upload had gotten 'stuck'. Her body was suffering from high-level honkai infection, kept in check through continuous regeneration; her memory was poor because her brain kept getting partially reset to what it had been like when she was ten, when the stigmata activated. Since the process never completed, it was never able to shift modes to where it didn't matter.

Veliona was able to 'unstick' it. Seele encouraged her to do so, and Vel didn't bother to mention that she had to copy over a few bits and pieces of herself to make the "AI" in Sora's stigmata stop crashing. It subsequently finished bootstrapping.

This... is going to come up later.

 

[Riserar]

The function of the stigmata isn't supposed to be different from canon. However, canon isn't explicit on this, so it ought to be fair for me to explain how I see it. There may be misunderstandings or inaccuracies, and there will probably be differences from canon once they get around to explaining it.

Click to shrink...

They barely go into detail on stigmatas despite the fact that they're integral to fighting the honkai, which is important to the goal of finally defeating them. In the very early chapters, they mention that they can be a legacy of prominent figures (eg. Revolutionary figures in science, art, etc), and the basic perks of hosting one. Not much into detail. Not even the manga goes very in depth into stigmatas. Not that there's no detail at all, though.

Honestly, I dig this interpretation. Its pretty neat. Has a lot of potential depending where you want to take it.

Which, combined with their ability to run away even from reality

Click to shrink...

You know, some of both Seele's battle lines has stuff to do with hide and seek, and considering she can just phase through enemies and disappear into a cloud of butterflies in-game, she'd be insanely hard to find in a game, hilariously.

natural stigmata kill the majority of the people they activate on, and Shicksal wanted to improve the Honkai resistance and survivability of their own recruits. Killing them would be counter-productive.

Click to shrink...

I think the manga Second Key talks about project STIGMA, and it's a very low success rate. Ninety-nine percent (iirc) of the people affected will be turned into zombies that have been infected with too much honkai energy. The remaining will have their latent stigmata awakened. You know, those BIO type enemies? That's what most of them will turn into upon completion of the project. And that's why they have a secret project, which is "Trap Kevin in the sea of quanta project" with Su leading the charge.

The game lists BIO as infected organic beings, honkai beasts as PSY, and infected or regular mecha as, well, MECH (Early chapters, when they first introduced the damage triangle)

We see Mei, Bronya, and Kiana escaping from Nagazora (Escape from Nagazora manga), fighting and avoiding hordes of zombies and honkai beasts, and that's where Cocolia caused the eruption by overloading the area with energy via the gem of conquest. In the process of looking for one person suitable to host the gem, just about everyone else is dead in that city.

I speculate the reason why World Serpent is gathering so many cores and gems is for the purpose of said project. With enough of them, I'm sure they can flood the world with energy.

She's made no secret of it, though she until recently attempted to hide Veliona's existence. This was not exceptionally workable, considering how obvious she can be.

Click to shrink...

What made it so obvious? The shift in color palette? The change in demeanor? Tentacles? Huge claws and a bunch of red eyes? Maybe everyone gave her the benefit of the doubt a bit too much?

Veliona was able to 'unstick' it. Seele encouraged her to do so, and Vel didn't bother to mention that she had to copy over a few bits and pieces of herself to make the "AI" in Sora's stigmata stop crashing. It subsequently finished bootstrapping.

This... is going to come up later.

Click to shrink...

And I'm guessing it's not going to be something positive, when it does come up... at least Sora doesn't have to suffer through looping her existence anymore? I think that's at least a plus. Maybe.

 

[Baughn]

You know, some of both Seele's battle lines has stuff to do with hide and seek, and considering she can just phase through enemies and disappear into a cloud of butterflies in-game, she'd be insanely hard to find in a game, hilariously.

Click to shrink...

I commented on it outside the story earlier, but Seele cheats at hide and seek. She goes from A to B without moving the distance, or sometimes even hides outside reality.

Rozaliya usually finds her anyway. Her nose is really good.

It would be hell to fight against. Most of the Valkyries you can at least in principle hit with a gun, assuming they're just dodging and not hitting back, but Seele won't be hit by a physical attack she can see coming. Not ever. And even if you do manage to shoot her, her physical body is just a puppet; it can be 'killed', but at best this puts her out of the fight for a while, and at worst you're immediately up against Couatl instead. Depends on how upset she gets.

The only Valkyrie who's equally good at dodging is, well, Sirin.

The game lists BIO as infected organic beings, honkai beasts as PSY, and infected or regular mecha as, well, MECH (Early chapters, when they first introduced the damage triangle)

Click to shrink...

Your mileage may vary on how much weight you wish to put on this, but it's worth noting that Seela is QUA, Liliya is MECH, and Rozaliya is, well, PSY. By this point in the quest Liliya would also be PSY, mind you.

Normally this just means they're wearing a battlesuit optimized for one or the other, but none of these three have access to battlesuits of any kind. Nor would they likely bother.

What made it so obvious? The shift in color palette? The change in demeanor? Tentacles? Huge claws and a bunch of red eyes? Maybe everyone gave her the benefit of the doubt a bit too much?

Click to shrink...

I usually consider the palette shift to be for the viewers' benefit. It's something they can and might do, but don't have to do.

Right at this moment? Seele is dressed in a comfortable hiking outfit she originally got as a present. Veliona is dressed in the same outfit, but with the palette shifted red-wards and black-wards because she's Vel.

Seele's hair is black. Veliona's hair is also black. But it's true that Seele prefers blues and whites in her clothing, and Vel prefers reds and blacks... although, at the same time, Seele really likes red and black. She thinks it's cool. The reason she's sticking with blue is, in part, so she'll match with Liliya.

The demeanour, tentacles, claws and so on are... yeah.

And I'm guessing it's not going to be something positive, when it does come up... at least Sora doesn't have to suffer through looping her existence anymore? I think that's at least a plus. Maybe.

Click to shrink...

Depends on your perspective. Honestly, I've given you enough information that you should be able to guess.

Sora was not stuck looping. She had full retrograde amnesia, but only partial anterograde; she had no trouble remembering Mei when the latter showed up again a few chapters later.

The only problems she had with memory formation is memories about her past. She had a device that kept her personal history on it, but she wasn't able to turn them into lasting memories; only things that happened after her stigmata enabled. This makes very little sense from a naive perspective, but it's actually exactly what you'd expect if her mind is somehow 'spanned' across the stigmata and her biological brain.

All memories get stored with reference to existing ones. For older elements of her personal history, the references were to data kept on a biological substrate that kept getting reset. For entirely novel, new information, none of that happened.

...

Regardless, Vel didn't take much convincing. For as chuu as she can act, and as scared as she is of showing vulnerability, she's still a really nice girl at heart.

 

[Riserar]

Your mileage may vary on how much weight you wish to put on this, but it's worth noting that Seela is QUA, Liliya is MECH, and Rozaliya is, well, PSY. By this point in the quest Liliya would also be PSY, mind you

Click to shrink...

Canon can just be a mild suggestion in regards to Seele quest. I was just thinking about enemy typing rather than the valkyrie battlesuit types, because that's a whole other story. Between for gameplay's sake, related to the character backstory, or just what the battlesuit was made to do, there's room for interpretation sometimes. I don't think HoV is concerned at all about that 30% damage reduction against mechas during Befall, for example.

Sora was not stuck looping. She had full retrograde amnesia, but only partial anterograde; she had no trouble remembering Mei when the latter showed up again a few chapters later.

The only problems she had with memory formation is memories about her past. She had a device that kept her personal history on it, but she wasn't able to turn them into lasting memories; only things that happened after her stigmata enabled. This makes very little sense from a naive perspective, but it's actually exactly what you'd expect if her mind is somehow 'spanned' across the stigmata and her biological brain.

All memories get stored with reference to existing ones. For older elements of her personal history, the references were to data kept on a biological substrate that kept getting reset. For entirely novel, new information, none of that happened.

...

Regardless, Vel didn't take much convincing. For as chuu as she can act, and as scared as she is of showing vulnerability, she's still a really nice girl at heart.

Click to shrink...

Alright, that makes more sense than whatever I was stuck thinking about. I didn't really get everything about stigmatas a while ago, but putting it this way works for my brain. It's probably pretty obvious how slow I'm picking some of these things up. I guess I was really struggling to wrap my head around it.

I definitely need to reread some things because my memory is failing me when I need it. That, and probably poor reading comprehension.

Also yeah, Vel is really sweet. Surprisingly. I expected it to go differently, but she proved me wrong.

 

[ShadowAngelBeta]

Also yeah, Vel is really sweet. Surprisingly. I expected it to go differently, but she proved me wrong.

Click to shrink...

I recommend this for a canon take on her:


Basically: Ally = Tsun, Enemy = Yan/Sadistic

She enjoys killing the puppets from the latest chapter far too much to not have some sadism or yan and she is on record from Mihoyo being that.

 

[Baughn]

She enjoys killing the puppets from the latest chapter far too much to not have some sadism or yan and she is on record from Mihoyo being that.

Click to shrink...

<Bronya> You're both cute. Each in your own way.
<Seele> C-cute!?

 

[Snowfire]

The only Valkyrie who's equally good at dodging is, well, Sirin.

Click to shrink...

Honestly? I think most Herrschers are up there in terms of similar capacity, not just HoV-Sirin.

Dominance? Wups, that was just a puppet.

Thunder? Yeah have fun hitting someone who can sense your personal bioelectricity (Mei literally does this in the Herrscher of Ice arc iirc), that of any weapons you might have, and can idly transmute herself into lightning or something like it to aid personal movement.

Sentience? Oh I'm sorry we're in a mindgame.

Ice was capable of blanket no-sell temporal insanity in the vein of PE Sakura who used her katana to (for lack of a better term) cut a hole in spacetime. The only reason she lost was because she had no idea what she was doing vs a fully in charge of mental processing Herrscher Mei and essentially letting herself get mercy killed.

And I don't think I need to elaborate at all on what Stars could do with arbitrary levels of gravity control. Let alone the combination that (again) mostly went down so easily due to mercy kill.

And Time Fracture is one hell of a drug.

 

[Baughn]

Meanwhile, on the Hyperion, Sora was having a hard time.

She'd be the last to tell you so. Her entire life, as far back as she could remember, had always been a story of things getting better. She'd started as an amnesiac, crippled child in the ruins of Nagazora, and now...

Now, she was a healthy teenager. Now, people depended on her. Her siblings first and foremost, but even her mom. They needed her. Which was why she wasn't allowed to run away. Especially from the one that was inside her.

Which was probably why she was standing here, in a broken-down corridor on the port side of the Hyperion, lit by emergency lighting and staring at a 'glitch' in reality that would, if anyone were to touch it, probably turn them inside out. A glitch that was invisible to almost everyone else, that only she and Michael could even see, and… but there might be food on the other side. They needed that.

Maybe if she edged around it?

But she'd seen what happened when Ayesha threw a notebook at it. That notebook was not okay.

Michael was smaller, but… but he was only eight. And her little brother. He shouldn't have to—which was the one point mom and her agreed on, there. She'd had to sneak out herself.

"It's not like we have any choice," she said to the air, watching the rippling not-light. "I'm not gonna let them starve."

She gave it a second, waiting for the 'other her' to respond. She got nothing. Sora sighed, closing her eyes and leaning despondently against the wall. She'd have to chance it sometime, but not right now; right now there was someone else who needed her help a lot more. Someone who needed her put-together, not half-panicking and jumpy.

'Hey...' she said in her mind, her voice soft.

Nothing.

"Come on," she whispered, more to herself than anything else. "Just talk to me. Let me help you."

The silence was deafening. Sora thought for a second, drawing on her vast experience as the older sister of eight siblings, then made her way to one of the adjoining offices. There was bound to be some paper, and...

In passing she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror. As always, the last few days, it took her by surprise. The clothes she wore were simple–a white blouse with red trim, black pants, and a dark jacket she'd scrounged up from Tesla's bedroom; the crazy lady wasn't around to complain about that. It was an ensemble she'd tried before, but it had never looked this good on her, and it wasn't the clothes that had changed.

Her eyes brightened, catching on her own reflection for a while.

Deep blue eyes; azure like the evening sky, not the pale purple of honkai infection. A healthy complexion. She was actually a little tanned, somehow, despite the utter impossibility of that. Her hair was probably the biggest change—shoulder-length, wavy, and so dark a red it seemed almost black. Even the shape of her face had changed a little. Only a little, but it made her look like a teenager for real.

Sora had no clue what she'd originally looked like, but she'd used to look like a half-dead zombie. Now? She was… she was pretty, and she had her other self to thank for that, though the superficial changes paled in comparison to her newfound energy. It was a good change.

Running in fright from that, coming from a young girl who only wanted to help, and to make it stop hurting, had not been her brightest of moments.

She turned her attention from the reflection back to the task at hand.

"I'm sorry," she told herself. "For what I said."

No response.

Sora continued on into the office. The desk was mostly empty, but there were papers stacked up and scattered around it. There were also two... no. Three corpses, neatly stacked side by side in a corner of the room. One was a woman who appeared to be about twenty, dressed in military fatigues and covered in blood.

The others weren't recognisable. One looked like he'd been chewed on.

She stared at them for a second, then looked away. Paper, paper...

There was a stack on top of a filing cabinet, so she pulled out a handful. She found a pen and started to work. It was rough at best, but she managed to draw a picture of her mom. Raven, herself standing next to her, and all of her siblings off to the side. Then she added a second girl; a slightly younger one, eleven or twelve, between her and her other siblings. She only had the voice to go by, but 'eleven' felt right. After a bit of thought, she gave her the same appearance as herself.

Sora had no idea what her other self should look like, but... wait, that was an idea. This could work.

"Is red the right hair colour?" she asked, into the air. "I don't know if you're supposed to be a redhead like me, or a brunette..."

Finding some markers, she drew a few lines of different colours on her mother's head. The hint of a hood, like Raven usually wore.

"Okay," she said after a moment, making sure to stay upbeat. "And the eyes... is blue okay? Or grey? I'm not sure which you'd prefer. I want to make you as pretty as possible."

She waited, in hope of an answer. This time she got one. In her mind's eye, the 'other' Sora said a single word.

"Blue."

"So... blue, then? The same as mine?" Sora nodded to herself. "Thank you. Thank you for talking to me again. I'd hug you, but..." She pantomimed hugging the air. "Well, if you like hugs. If not, that's fine, but you're family now. I should have led with that, right? It doesn't hurt so much anymore... right? My body's fine now? I'm sorry. I was scared. And, um... yeah. I guess we need to figure out how to fix this."

"...doesn't hurt," the other her said. Her voice was the weak voice of a child, barely audible, but she spoke. So much better than the soft sobs that were all she'd gotten last night.

"That's good," Sora said. "I mean... not great, but it's better than it used to be. We'll get through this. Right? Together."

She hugged herself, pretending she was holding the other girl.

"Right?" she asked.

...

She felt the 'other' nod.

"And I should introduce you to mom, and Ayesha, and... everyone. I need to tell them we've got another sister. I wish there was some way they could see you. And... and, well, maybe... maybe I shouldn't say anything, but, uh... I think we have to tell Theresa. When we find her. Oh, I can't wait to introduce you to Mei. She's the nicest–"

She broke off abruptly.

"Am I overwhelming you?" Sora asked. "Because that's been kind of a problem. Since everything stopped hurting, actually... and I just realized, I haven't introduced myself to you yet. My name is—"

"Sora." The other girl's voice was a little stronger now, and a little less scared. "I'm... I'm... I don't remember. I'm sorry."

"No, no," she said quickly. "It's all right. You don't have to worry about it. But... I really am sorry. I know what it's like, not to remember. To hurt, and not even be able to talk. I'm going to do my best to help you feel better, and... hey, I know that sounds weird, but I promise to try."

She looked down at the paper in her hands. The picture was almost done. She'd add a few more details, then...

"Hey," she said softly. "You're still here, aren't you?"

The 'other' Sora nodded. She felt her curiosity as a warm glow, and smiled.

"I'm glad to hear that," she said. "I won't ever let you be alone again."

= = =

I was unsure if I wanted to post this at all. Sora, here, does not come across quite as how I see her; she's normally more confident, even when she has little reason for that. She's also, well, less like Seele. Though a lot of that is just circumstance.

I posted it anyway, because while this is just a side-story, in the end it's something that's happening. The above takes place at the same time as the current chapter, or a little before, and since Sora came up earlier I thought we might check in on her. Just take it as the side-story it is. If she comes up again, you'll get a more rounded look at her at that time.

 

[Baughn]

Raven is doomed to always have rebellious children.

In a different reality, she had Bronie. An alternate version of Bronya, whose parenting by Raven, (and little sister-ing by a Teri,) caused her to become a far more confident, louder, and overall riskier person than the canon Bronya. They drove each other to madness.

In this one? She has a flock of orphans she's adopted, all of which are fairly self-sufficient, and all of which wouldn't think to break her commands. Right.

The one she's closest with is probably Sora, who not coincidentally is also the oldest. When she first showed up in canon it was as a half-dead eleven-or-so-year-old, who nevertheless was the undisputed leader of the group, Raven being away a lot. Sora suffered from end-stage, fatal levels of Honkai infection, which was held in check by—

Every single one of these children has a natural stigmata. None of them work quite correctly, but these are the "successes" Kevin was looking for. It goes without saying, perhaps, but if a process kills 99% of a group of people, then most of the remaining 1% won't be in much better health. Sora wasn't at risk of dying, but she was dependent on a continuous intravenous drip of… something. In this story, it was painkillers.

She also had total retrograde amnesia, triggered when the stigmata activated. Seele was wrong about why Vel might not remember her past, but if she'd said the same about Sora, she'd be perfectly correct.

Veliona got to her, and she feels much better now.

Sora was always a quiet child, but it's actually fairly unusual for children to be that quiet without there being some fixable reason behind it. In the year or so she's lived on the Hyperion, together with Raven, they've gotten closer—and so now Sora feels confident enough to not always follow her orders.

Raven is objectively a great mother. She's not just someone who can bring up a child to be a capable, confident person; she's someone who can do that with children who started out damaged. That is, as always, far harder. We don't need to look further than Cocolia for how that can go wrong.

She's a great mother… but she's also searching frantically for Sora right now.

 

[Baughn]

Roza & Liliya

Did there? Did there have to be a solution? There did, right?

Roza was now stuck in a room with thirteen dying people, her dearly beloved sister, and until thirty seconds ago the young boy who happened to be the son of one of those people, and was about to become an orphan. It said something horrible about her life, she guessed, that this wasn't even the first time she'd gone through this exact situation. She'd been somewhere very similar, in a similar situation, when she was thirteen. Then again at fourteen, trying to help with the evacuation of Hokkaido. Killing zombies, mostly. Then a few more times at fifteen, and more than once she'd gotten cursed at.

It blurred together, but every other field hospital had at least had modern technology. Not much to work with, but... there had been doctors, too, and people to explain why she did it. She hadn't needed to be the doctor!

She looked down at Linda, and wondered what to do.

The boy had been looking at his dying mother, eyes wide as he took the scene in. And it sucked that it wasn't the first time for that scene, either. He probably didn't understand how bad things had gotten, but Roza had seen women like this one before. Purple lines criss-crossing their faces, the veins bulging under the skin. Their lungs filling up with fluid, or turning into undifferentiated silicon—those were the lucky ones, the ones who didn't become zombies. The unlucky ones… well, that had been the reason she was there.

"Liliya," she said, her voice wavering. "We have to get her out of here. We need to take her..." She trailed off, because her twin looked at her.

No. Liliya shook her head. No. There was no way they could move this woman. They couldn't. They just couldn't. She'd die halfway through the door.

"There has to be–"

"Roza-idiotka." The words lacked any of their usual energy, and there was a distinct lack of anger in them; instead, she sounded tired.

"Vel–"

"You think she's a herrscher?"

She didn't. Roza shook her head; she didn't want to ask her new sister something like that. Vel somehow still felt like the one who could always fix things—that had been her role in their group, for years. It was hard to connect those memories to the barely functional girl she'd finally met just a few days ago.

"I don't know. I just–" She paused, and sighed softly. "This is our fault."

"Why? Seele's the one who said…"

Liliya didn't even try to finish that sentence, because Roza knew that Lili knew exactly what her sister was going to say. Seele might not have offered to help if it hadn't been for the two of them, and from a rational, cold-hearted perspective…

No, Rozaliya knew. Seele would have offered to help the children regardless. It was still partly their fault, though. She'd known it would be bad, but she hadn't known how bad, and that had led to all of this. And now…

Think, Roza. Think!

She felt Lili's cool, but strong and healthy fingers intertwine with hers, and as she'd done so many times before, she squeezed back.

And then, as she'd also done so many times before, she asked herself—what would Lili do?

What would you do, Liliya? What would you do? If you didn't have me in the way?

"We can't move her," she said. "It'll kill her to try. We can't get her back to the ship, and if we could, there's no-one there who can help. Maybe Kiana?"

A fleeting thought of how quickly the other girl healed, and how that was probably some sort of herrscher power, and Sirin—Roza put the dots together, and she saw Lili make the same connection just as fast, so she didn't bother saying anything.

"But she's not at the gate-thingy," she continued. "We'd need big sis' help just to get to her. And even then…" She trailed off again, because she honestly wasn't sure. Kiana might not be able to help.

"You're right. We can't move her. But there has to be something else." She looked down at Linda, who was staring up into the ceiling, and shuddered.

"I've got an idea," Roza said slowly. "It's a bit risky, but it'll give her a final chance to speak with her children. And maybe, after doing that, we can try to save her."

Lili looked at Roza as she spoke, and nodded, slowly. Then, she turned to look down at the woman, who was still staring upwards.

"We will do our best," she said, in a soft voice. "I promise you this."

Then she leaned over, and kissed Linda on the forehead.

= = =

Ruby wasn't hard to find. She was in the middle of a crowd; a group of people working on the village's defences. Where she'd found this number of able-bodied men in a village on the brink of death from starvation, Roza wasn't sure she wanted to know. She was also shouting, gesticulating wildly, and generally making a lot of noise.

This was typical of her, as far as Roza could recall; the few times they'd met they'd gotten along like a house on fire, but it was the sort of 'getting along' that emerged from Ruby being, in Roza's learned opinion, a child. Roza, unlike Fu Hua, knew how to handle children. Except Ruby was currently being useful, which–

"Roza! Lili!" Ruby shouted, from in the middle of a crowd. "Help us lever this rock into place."

Which wasn't normal.

Ruby pointed at a giant boulder Carole and a group of boys were trying to move, with marginal success. Carole seemed to be doing most of the work, sweating profusely, but the others did their best. The white-haired girl was clearly exhausted, and Roza felt a pang of sympathy for her.

"I'm coming," she called back, and started walking towards them. "Liliya? Can you help?"

She looked to her right, but didn't get a response. Liliya was already there, looking at the stone.

Roza felt her heart skip a beat. Once again she found herself thinking how unreasonably nimble and eager to move her sister had gotten. Once again it took her a moment to remember that, yes, this was reality now. Lili wasn't sick anymore.

The rock moved slightly, and Roza stepped forward, ready to lend a hand. She reached out…

And stopped. Lili was handling it easily on her own, tail wedged into the ground for extra leverage. She smiled exuberantly, and looked back at Roza as she stood there with her hands held intertwined behind her neck.

"Hiya, Roza."

The animation in Liliya's voice made it sound just like her own. The broad smile… well, they were twins, but how long had it been since she'd seen this much of that expression?

"Hiya, Lili." Roza laughed, and gave her a hug. The same pose, from behind, that Lili usually used to greet her. "Can you take it from here?"

Lili nodded happily, pushing a little harder against the boulder. Roza, draped over her back, could feel her muscles pushing—but there was none of the tension or fatigue she'd usually have expected. Lili's body just seemed to flow through her motions, as if she'd done this hundreds of times before.

"Thanks," Lili said, when the rock had finally been levered into position.

Roza blinked. "You're welcome."

"For what?" Lili asked, innocently.

"Uh..." She desperately looked at Rubia for help, but the older woman was busy talking to someone else. Her twin's eyes sparkled mischievously; she was enjoying this way too much. "I don't know, I guess… um… being unhelpful?"

"Oh, that's so unfair!" Lili said, bursting into laughter. "Seele would have stuttered and made at least three false starts. You're not nearly as bad as she is."

"Um, uh, thanks," Roza said. "I mean—"

Lili looked up, and suddenly she was serious again. "No, thank you. This isn't your fault, but… the whole situation had me feeling helpless. And I was never good at letting people do things for me."

Roza's throat closed up. "Well, okay then," she said, awkwardly. "But, uh... don't let anyone tell you to change, all right?"

Lili's grin was wide and genuine. "Okay! I won't."

"Good." Roza grinned back.

Then they both turned to look at Ruby, who was staring at them with an odd expression on her face. It looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words.

"Ruby? What's wrong?" Roza asked.

"I'm trying to remember," she said, frowning. "Were you two always this similar?"

Roza looked at Lili, and was about to answer, when her sister spoke instead.

"Not really," she said. "Who wants to be confused for their twin sister, right?" She smiled. "It's a lot easier to play the straight man, anyway."

"Huh." Ruby was still looking at them. Roza frowned.

"What? Do we seem weird to you now?" she asked.

"I'm just trying to figure out how you did it," Ruby explained. "You guys are like one person, but at the same time... different? You feel doubled up. I've never felt anything like it."

Roza had no idea how to respond. She'd been worried that something like this might happen; 'something like', because she hadn't had any specific expectations. But hearing the Herrscher of Sentience sound puzzled made her worry that maybe, just maybe, they were in trouble.

"I think... I need a drink," Lili said quietly. "Is there a tavern here?" Ruby nodded. "Great. Do they serve twelve-year-olds?"

Roza swatted her sister.

"You kids…" Ruby sounded alarmed now. "Are you going to be alright?"

"We'll manage," Lili assured her. "We've got a plan."

She reached out and squeezed Roza's hand.

"It's a terrible plan." Roza laughed, but it wasn't a happy laugh. It was more of a nervous chuckle.

"That's why it will work," Lili said, firmly. "Sorry, Rubes. It's a biology thing, so I don't think there's much you can do. If it's any help, Seele and Theresa already know. We'll be okay for now."

Ruby looked at her, and sighed. Then she nodded. "All right. What's the other reason you came here?"

She didn't speak, not for a long moment.

"…Not a happy one," Ruby concluded. "You want something from me."

Lili's smile was sad. "Yes." She looked at Ruby. "I'm sorry, but we don't have much time. Can you come with us?"

"…The girl from Taixuan," Ruby murmured. "So that's where we're at."

Roza swallowed.

"Yeah." Lili looked up at Ruby. "I'm sorry. I know this is a bad situation. You don't deserve it, but..."

She shook her head. "No, that's not what I meant." She paused, and looked at Lili. "If anything… This is my village. I don't think you have to apologize."

Lili smiled. "Thank you."

"I'll help you see them off," Ruby said, softly. "But I'm afraid it won't change anything. I'm surprised, though. You've grown up."

"There's nothing I could do anyway," Roza muttered.

Ruby looked at her.

"I'm serious."

"I know you are," Ruby said. "I just wish... I wish you didn't always have to be the strong one."

Roza blinked, and Lili looked away quickly.

"We all need someone who's stronger than we are sometimes," Ruby continued. "It's hard to admit that, but you'd be amazed how often it happens. The world isn't fair. Sometimes…" She shrugged. "I'm happy to be that person, for now."

"I appreciate the sentiment," Roza said, quietly. "And it's nice to hear you say it. But... it's not so much a problem anymore."

"More of your biology thing?" Ruby asked, sounding worried again.

"Nothing bad," Lili said. "We just had a talk." She looked up. "Can we go, please?"

Ruby nodded.

= = =

As the Herrscher of Sentience, Ruby had comprehensive control over thoughts. If she'd been less of a sweetheart, it could have been a problem; as it was, it let her pull people into dreamscapes that followed her exact specifics. In combat, that made her a nightmare.

In this case, though...

The girl from Taixuan had been a young child, ten or so years old, whom Ruby had run into while fleeing from herself at the start of her life. She'd told Roza about her late one night, after Fu Hua had failed to stop her getting at the vodka. She'd said Lili reminded her of the girl, which Rozaliya doubted could be true—but the point was, Ruby had shown her one last beautiful dream while she lay dying from Honkai infection.

The reason for that infection had been Ruby herself, and that was why she'd spent the night tearfully berating herself to a fifteen year old girl, outrageously drunk. Roza had listened, silently, until the end.

And that was how she knew to ask Ruby for help.

Roza and Liliya stood, or maybe 'stood' was a better term, in the center of the village square. It was early morning; the dawn sun wasn't yet high enough for anyone to be awake. There were a few wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys on either side. Linda was there, too, sitting beside Ruby a short distance away. She looked up at Roza, then turned her gaze back to the ground.

The young mother looked perfectly healthy, though this was only true in the illusion. She'd lost consciousness not long before Ruby left with Lili and Roza, and hadn't regained it outside this dreamscape.

"Hey," Ruby said softly. "I'm sorry."

Linda looked up at Ruby. For a moment, it seemed like she might cry. Then she nodded.

"You have nothing to apologise for," she said. "Did you find what you were looking for? You and Einstein?" She glanced at the twins. "Your friends are a little stranger than we'd thought, though I don't know why I should be surprised."

Lili smiled sadly.

Ruby sighed. "We did, maybe. It doesn't matter. Einstein's kid came to find us instead." She reached out and took Linda's hand. "There's someone here to see you."

From Linda's perspective, Pip and Annie stepped out from behind Ruby. From Rozaliya's, she could see they hadn't been there at all until just now. They both looked tired but otherwise fine. Annie was holding her brother's hand, staring wide-eyed at the scene.

"Mom!" she said excitedly. "Are you okay?"

Roza looked down. Lili squeezed her hand.

"Dearest heart..." Linda kneeled in front of them, a heartbreaking smile spreading across her face.

She hugged the children tightly.

"I love you so much," she whispered. "Thank the heavens you're safe. I didn't think... but you know how it is. You have to go when you have to go."

Ruby watched, tears streaming down her cheeks now. She was still smiling, though.

The scene wavered, like they were underwater and the water was rippling. Roza blinked, surprised.

"Do you have anything to tell them?" Ruby asked gently.

And the young mother looked at them, and said, "Yes. Thank you. I'm glad you were there. And goodbye... and thank you."

"I'll catch the two of you later," Ruby said.

The dreamscape disappeared from existence.

= = =

They made it halfway out of the village before Linda died in her arms. They might have made it halfway to the portal, had they started earlier.

It could have gone much worse.

Roza told herself that, over and over again, as she helped Lili carry the body. She'd been so sure it would go wrong; Ruby had been a glimpse of hope, but only for a less painful ending.

But she couldn't help thinking about how Ruby had spoken to Linda... and how Ruby herself must have felt, watching the woman die.

How many times had she dreamt of watching Mother die? How often had she wished she'd done something, or changed things somehow? Was there really no way they could have had a happy life, the ten of them?

Would she ever get that chance? Or was it too late?

She shuddered, and Lili gripped her wrist like a vice.

"Don't," she said softly. "You can't take that on."

Roza shook her head.

The sun was rising, and the sky was beginning to lighten. The shadows of the trees stretched long and dark against the ground, and Roza knew that the Honkai horde wasn't far off. She could smell them; they smelled sweet, like Lili and herself.

She wanted to say something else, but she didn't know what to say.

Lili let go of her wrist, and Roza slowly turned around.

Ruby was sitting on the grass, her legs crossed. She was holding a small box in her lap, and Roza saw the faintest hint of a smile at the edges of her lips.

"What's going on?" Roza said.

"Linda," Ruby said. "It worked. I didn't expect it would, but..." Her voice trailed away, then she looked up. "You were right."

"I wasn't," Lili said. She took a breath and stared at the ground. "I didn't think it'd work either."

"…what are you two talking about?" Roza asked.

Ruby shrugged, and stood. She walked over to the two of them.

"I've trapped her mind," she said, tapping the box. It was pitch black, and now that Roza was looking closely at it, faintly humming with Honkai energy. "I don't think I could do it again, but... for now, she won't be able to escape the dreamscape. She won't live, but she can't die. We'll find a solution…" She looked at Lili. "Eventually."

Liliya nodded silently. She wiped her eyes, and looked up. "I'm sorry."

"No," Ruby said. "One is better than none. We should have... I didn't think. Carole wasn't ready for that sort of responsibility. She's done well enough, all things considered. Better than I might have." She winked. "Don't tell her I said so."

Roza didn't know how to respond to that, and Ruby seemed to sense that. She reached out, and put a hand on Roza's shoulder.

"Hey," she said. "Things don't always end badly. After all, I'm here now."

Roza looked at her, surprised. Then she laughed.

"I guess we'll see," Ruby said. "But I promise you this: it will get better."

= = =

Ruby always had this capability, but lacked the idea. If you hadn't voted to try, even if not this, then Lili wouldn't have been in a mental state for thinking of it. Since the dice nearly went your way…

It's not a very fair outcome. Why Linda, and not any of the others? The answer is mostly nepotism. Partly chance. Ruby would argue that Linda had young children, but she wasn't alone in that. Weighing lives in this manner isn't something you want to try.

Better one, than none.

= = =

"Soo…" Rubia said, dragging the word. "Should I drag your sister back?"

= = =

There is an incoming Honkai horde. You've voted against Roza getting involved with the defense planning—there wasn't time for that and Linda, as it turns out. This does not mean they'll have no input at all. Roza and Liliya are major combatants, experienced combatants, and Ruby will at a minimum ask their opinion.

Not that this is especially relevant to the way I've tried to run this quest.

[ ] [Strategy] Draw the horde away from the village

• Roza: I guess we'd be on our own? I like that idea.
• Lili: Roza…
• Roza: Normal people can't help anyway.

[ ] [Strategy] Establish a perimeter around the village

• Roza: Lots of ways this can go wrong, but we'd have the option of asking Ruby for help.
• Lili: Lots of ways this can go right, too. They might not even come here.

[ ] [Strategy] Make use of the impromptu walls

• Roza: I could cut those rocks without effort. They're hardly walls.
• Lili: Most honkai beasts can't, idiotka.
• Roza: And we'd be stuck with our backs to a wall. No room for maneuver.
• Lili: You just said they weren't a wall!

[ ] [Strategy] Write-in

• Ruby: I think I'll just ask my sister for help.

[ ] [Seele] Leave the two of them alone

• Lili: …
• Lili: I think what she's doing must be important.
• Roza: *hugs*

[ ] [Seele] Ask Rubia to check on them

• Lili: She will absolutely interrupt something.
• Roza: We don't know if there's anything to interrupt?
• Lili: It's Rubia. She'll interrupt something. Might be good though.

[ ] [Seele] Write-in

• Lili: Huh? You want to do what?

[ ] [Narrative] Summarize the combat
[ ] [Narrative] Focus on specific interesting events
[ ] [Narrative] Go RTS for the duration