trans_9 | Friendly Fire

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Friendly Fire

Elsewhere on this ship, a war was being waged. A war for the hearts and minds, the souls and very sanity of this crew.

A war that Stacy wasn't certain that all would survive, hence why she released you. Replacements would be needed.

But that war is miles away from where you are. Or at least, so it seems. There are no screams of agony to greet you, no monsters trying to claw at you.

But that doesn't mean the Nightmare King can't reach you.

Prior to your arrival here on the Obs deck, reality had been shifted. Constructs of the current crew grew out of nothing. All of them look, sound, feel, behave, and scan as the crew member they're copying. They're as real as you are. And with smiling faces, they await your arrival.

They can't wait to welcome you. To your doom.

Won't you say hi?

[ooc: Nightmare plot is still on, people, and this is the newbie portion. For all current players, as stated above, the Nightmare King made copies of your guys, who are still stuck fighting nightmares elsewhere in the plot. You can tag in as the copy of your character, have them be friendly, get the newbies to let their guard down, and then the real nightmare can begin. Newbies, you can tag in, have fun, and suspect nothing until its too late.]

[Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have the copies of your guys greet the newbies.]

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But not the one who mattered. Nanoha and Fate were precious to her, as the courageous souls who had aided Hayate in leading her from the endless nightmares and giving her her name, and as friends of their family in the years since, but the love she bore for her master was much, much more. Far more than she held for herself, to be certain.

She... couldn't dwell exclusively on that, though. There were still people who needed her. Her name demanded...

Thinking about her name was hard, too.

"...how old is she? How long has she been here?" Reinforce asked instead as she followed after the little girl. Better to concentrate on learning about her circumstances.

"Nanoha-mama?" Vivio asked back. "I... think she's 19. She's... younger than I remember her."

That was the truth to that part. Vivio came from a point in the future further than where Nanoha and Fate were. "It feels weird, though... but I don't care. It's my mother and I love her no matter what."

"Anyway, she's been here longer than I have... maybe four months?"

Younger than she remembered? A strange comment. When the ship said 'many worlds', could it have included different timelines...? That was something entirely different from ordinary transdimensional travel. A seeming impossibility. It made her once again wary.

"What sort of things do you both do here?" She followed up after a pause. The girl wasn't acting like a prisoner, at least...

Clone!Dustin followed close behind them, almost thankful that Vivio had shown up. His real counterpart hardly knew anything of these people—true, he’d met Nanoha, but his views on the woman were decidedly skewed and would not help at all in providing tantalizing information to this ~~victim~~ newcomer. No, Dustin’s mind was far more apt to answer the ship-related questions, the ones that he could actually understand. Lifestyle might be tricky, but he could manage.

Their outlook was happy enough that Clone!Dustin already knew how to phrase this. Though…though perhaps he could have a little fun here. Just enough to keep Rein on her toes.

“Whatever we can,” the scruffy, smiling man shrugged, making sure to keep his prosthetic hand in his pocket—the device acted oddly without the correct mental signature—“Recreational activities, mostly. It’s really not as bad as it seems; the longer I’m here, the more I’m convinced that we’re on a cruise…”

A dreamy pause as Dustin glance at the roof, as if remembering a particularly fond pastime made available here.

“There’s an organizational structure, of course—a Command Crew, some other sectors—but they hardly do anything,” he waved his hand dismissively, “Not like they need to. Once new crewmembers get over the shock of it all, they become very…passive. As you can imagine, order is easy to maintain in such an environment.”

"Yes. I can," She said darkly. She was glad Dustin had spoken up before Vivio, then; the subtleties of psychological entrapment with which she was so intimately familiar were likely beyond the child. Especially if the environment was generally pleasant, as he'd said. But... something was nagging at her about the way he kept answering her questions. The way he phrased his revelations, and the easy smile that dropped only when it was completely inappropriate, gave her the feeling that he enjoyed delivering bad news.

She was far and away from suspecting his true nature, of course, but she had plenty of reason to want to doubt him... so doubt was fast creeping in.

"If we are of so little use, though, why wake us at all?" She asked. The ship-voice had assured her they were vital, and while in principle she trusted it less than her new acquaintances, it did make sense that they would only be released from whatever stasis they had been held in if there was some need for them.

Ah, yes. She was catching on, just doubtful enough of his answers that she was becoming untrusting of the environment, but not himself. He was only the messenger, after all; it’s never the messenger’s fault, is it? He is only the vehicle, not the cause.

Well, in theory. In reality Dustin was making all this shit up. Several halls over there was a full-blown WWII illusion trapping a good portion of the crew that was still alive and awake. No doubt their screams of terror and agony were wafting through the transport tubes as they spoke, muffled by the ambient murmur of the newcomers and the clones that were keeping them distracted.

“Training, of course,” the doppelganger answered calmly and readily, unfitting smile never once wavering, “The AI seems to have our releases timed to some sort of internal clock of hers. When she deems us prepared to handle the situation and further build upon it, then she releases us. Otherwise our minds would be overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of the vessel within which we’ve awoken.”

Though far too polite for his personality, that was indeed something the real Dustin would’ve said. It was even a theory he came up with for the more random stasis releases—one of many, naturally. He was always postulating something new.

"Then the current state of affairs is only temporary," Rein mulled over the implications of the statement. "Do the command staff have any additional knowledge of the schedule? Of our purpose? Were they the earliest releases?"

Hayate was her first concern, but with Hayate... or without, she would need to understand her captor. To best aid it, if their purpose was as it claimed... or thwart it, if she uncovered any evidence that it had deceived her.

Destroy it, if it had brought Hayate harm, she added darkly.

"Nuh-uh. Nothing like that." Clone!Vivio said. "All we know is that our worlds are gone and that the ones who did so are still our there."

Oh, there was so much more out there, but, it's best to mess with the here and now.

"Then again, seeing as we haven't even gone after them... there may not be much hope..."

Clone!Dustin casually cocked his head with mild intrigue. It was…interesting how his smile did not shift this time, as if his expression was static.

“I’m afraid Vivio’s right,” he blinked unemotionally, “But hope is such an outdated notion, isn’t it? We have everything we need here. Why waste our time searching for what’s already lost?”

Ooh, this was getting creepy—just the way the copy wanted it. He gave a sidelong glance to his spectral companion, and his grin widened.

Reinforce stopped dead and stared at Vivio. This was Nanoha's daughter? Had she simply not taken after her mother, or had Nanoha herself changed so greatly in whatever time had passed since she'd known her? The sentiment was so utterly at odds with the girl who had stood against her at her awakening, it was hard to imagine even a daughter saying such a thing, blood of Olivie or no.

"There is hope," Rein said, a simple statement of fact. Her fact, a faith and credo. Hopelessness, a stagnant self-pitying fatalism that obviated the will, had made her what she was before, so it was anathema now.

Her eyes were even harder when they met Dustin's. Every time he spoke she grew to trust him less and less. Perhaps he was simply that cynical, pessimistic, lost... simply needed help. But she disliked the way he seemed to be intent on bringing her down, too. She'd lost her appetite for questions, if they were all going to be answered like this. All this could be taken up later. After she knew... she'd be in a better state. Sooner or later...

"Is it much further, your highness?" She asked rather than argue further.

Darn her and her optimism! It was obvious that Reinforce was as optimistic, if not stubborn, as the child's mother. It would have to change sooner or later...

"...it's not much farther, don't worry."

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Friendly Fire

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