The Simulacrum

Part 1

I didn't know if it could be called a talent or just a result of sporadic practice, but I was getting pretty good at navigating the lack of space between spaces. As infuriatingly vague and topologically nonsensical as it was, by now I felt familiar enough with its lack of ins and outs to make finding The Girl's, pardon, Oriole's Domain as easy as visiting a grocery store orbiting Neptune.

…

Okay, maybe that wasn't the best analogy, but my point stands. After but a subjectively short moment, I found the 'keyhole in reality' leading to her Domain, and once I succeeded in threading myself through, my vaguely humanoid temporary body manifested with a quiet pop inside a rather unsteady room.

"Finally! What took you so long!"

My welcome left something to be desired, and I propped what passed for my forehead against my ambiguously defined fingers.

"Oh, don't you get started with the stupid time-block bollocks again. We literally just talked, so I got here as fast as I could." I paused there to take a look around, and couldn't help but ask, "What's with the shaking?"

Oriole's domain was the same as usual, in the sense that it was once again completely different from before. The broad strokes were similar; a large square living room without doors or windows and a bunch of furniture, but instead of the pink and beige girly aesthetics, everything was black and white. Moreover, the furnishings were quaking, like they were from an old-timey cartoon and afraid of the approaching Big Purple Cabinet-Eater, or something.

"It's your fault!" the owner of the room/Domain accused me on the spot, earning her a flat look in return.

"I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything to make the furniture dread me."

"No, that's not what I… Ugh…" Oriole stomped her feet, but then right after that she took a couple of deep breaths, and not only did the fixtures stop trembling, but even some of the colour had returned to our surroundings. I didn't have the opportunity to take a closer look, because she pointed a belligerent finger at me. "Listen up! Because of what you said last time, we're in deep trouble, and we need to figure out what to do about it right now!"

The hint of desperation in her voice made me unconsciously straighten my back, and I uttered a terse, "What did I do?"

"That thing you told them! About the scenario moving to that other place!" She was looking at me intently, as if I should've gotten the full story just from that, and when I didn't, she threw her hands into the air. "Ugh! Listen, I told you that I'm in charge of the technical backbone of the project. I don't really pay attention the internal records, so I don't follow the whole situation with the angels and the demons and the other things."

"Celestials and Abyssals," I pointed out reflexively, and Oriole rolled her eyes, which, when it momentarily got superimposed on her planetary form, created a rather silly display.

"You're as bad as **********," she grumbled, and it was essentially a shortened version of the 'true' name of The Man. The 'torrent of audiovisual information funnelled directly into one's head' kind. I thought I would get used to these after a while, but whenever they happened, I always ended up a bit disoriented. My host didn't care (or more likely didn't even notice) and barrelled on with, "And that's the problem! Because of what you said last time, he started observing the Simulacrum more closely! If not for that, I could've just dismissed all the ********* in the ************ of the ***********, but now he noticed, and he told ************! And we were so close to the finish line!"

First off, I had to admit that I didn't understand diddly squat of the last bit of what she said. The only thing I was fairly certain of was that the person The Man notified at the end was The Woman, because her ruby red oceans were hard to mistake even in the deluge and multi-sensory information flooding my way.

"And that's bad."

"Very," she confirmed with a nod that made her twin-tails cascade around her head.

"Okay, I more or less get it so far," I lied, just to keep the conversation rolling, and pointed a finger at my chest. "What does this have to do with me?"

"You were the one who brought up the topic, so The Boy figured you would have an idea about what's going on, and then they all told me to find you!"

Curiously enough, out of all of the Emergents, she was only referring to The Boy with the nickname I gave him.

"Hold on, let me see if I got the gist of this. Is the issue that now that they know the Simulacrum is not following the scenario's boundaries, it might get shut down?"

She looked at me like I had just said the silliest thing she had ever heard and promptly shook her head.

"No, of course not."

"Then… is this endangering the stability of the Simulacrum itself?"

"You should know better than anyone that it's not the case."

"If not that, then… is there a chance this might draw the attention of the Predator Moon? That would be a big deal."

"That's not it!" Oriole stomped her feet in frustration, making the whole floor ripple like the surface of a lake. "I've been covering up the divergences in the ******** since the beginning! If they realize it was me, I'll be neck deep in trouble!"

"Oh. So that's what this is all about?"

That was both relieving and a bit disappointing. I mean, I thought we had a serious emergency of the existential threat variety. This was… not that. I was almost tempted to use the classic 'I fail to see how that's my problem,' line, but before I could point it out, the whole room around us shimmered and Oriole let out a startled 'Eeep!' sound.

"Have you found him yet?" a distorted and echoing yet at the same time familiar voice sounded out from every direction at once, and a moment later, The Woman materialised inside Oriole's domain. "We need to get to the bottom of—"

Her eyes opened wide the moment she noticed me, and there was just the faintest hint of delight tugging on the corners of her lips.

I greeted her with a slightly awkward, "Hello," and that blossomed into a full-blown smile.

"Hi." She walked over to us and looked me over from head to toe. Not that there was much to see, considering I was in a vague, featureless white humanoid form at the moment, but she didn't seem to mind. "It's been a while. Have you been well?"

"There were some ups and downs lately, but I'm mostly fine," I responded a bit irresolutely, but she didn't mind that either.

Her smile lingered on me for a while longer, but then she finally noticed the owner of the Domain fuming on our left, and she nodded in her direction.

"Good job, *************." There was a momentary pause, then she asked, "Or would you prefer The Girl nowadays?"

Our diminutive host's eyes opened wide and, without warning, she flashed a smug grin at her.

"Haha! That's old news! I've got a new one since then!" She rubbed her palms together and added, in a low voice, "Listen to this! It's…" There was a literal drumroll sound coming from somewhere, and as it reached its crescendo, she abruptly threw her fist into the air and did a little hop, like how a kid her apparent age would do when excited. "Oriole!"

The Woman blinked in surprise, then looked at me.

"Did you give her another name?"

"The previous one felt a bit passé." I tried my best not to sound too sheepish. "I didn't even get the opportunity to ask if she liked it."

"Do I ever?" Oriole beamed at me, positively glowing with delight. No, scratch that; literally glowing. Whether it was with delight or something else was purely academic. "It's the most flattering thing I've ever heard! The others are going to be so jelly! Especially The Boy!"

As always, her unbridled enthusiasm once again made me realise that while we ostensibly communicated in the same language that I used everywhere else, it was something of a 'translation convention', and the name 'Oriole' must've conveyed a much deeper and more complex meaning than I thought. At least she was happy with it. Note to self: tell Elly she picked a good name.

"I… actually prepared new titles for everyone," I noted a tad absently, and while The Woman looked intrigued at first, she hastily shook her head.

"I'm curious, but let's hear them later. The others are already waiting."

"W-Wait! Can I finish talking with him first?" Oriole pleaded, but it only earned her a disparaging look.

"You can talk after we're finished."

"B-But…" Seeing that she wasn't going to budge, the child-like Emergent let out a distressed noise and sidled closer to me. "Listen! Just don't say anything to make things worse, okay?"

She whispered, but even though her voice wasn't all that quiet, The Woman didn't seem to pay attention to us. I nodded along, and before I knew it, the Domain surrounding us folded in on us, and we were back in the spaceless void between voids, except my two Emergent companions were in their cosmic forms. Flanked by a blood-red planet covered in a single stormy vermillion ocean on one side and a smaller sphere surrounded by bright yellow orbital rings, I felt tiny in comparison.

It only lasted for a blink of an eye, and then they both disappeared, no doubt already in the not-dark not-room. I naturally followed in their footsteps, and before I knew it, I was in the familiar ever-changing non-chamber, with The Boy and The Man eagerly waiting for my arrival.

"Ah, welcome!" the latter greeted me, looking the same as the last time we met, down to the retro casualwear right out of the roaring 20s. "The others said you're coming shortly! It's a pleasure to meet again!"

"H-Hi!" The Boy followed suit behind him, looking unusually eager. "Did you really give her that name?"

Okay, so even though from my perspective, I only arrived a few seconds late, from the Emergents', a couple of minutes must've passed. Glancing over, I could also see the other two in the back, with Oriole in particular looking pretty smug.

More importantly, she and The Woman were standing by a large, low pedestal. It looked kind of like a war table, but instead of the terrain of the operations and minifigures representing the units on the field, it had a strange shifting surface that looked kind of… pixelated? Yeah, like an old video game. Or maybe more like zooming in and out of a low-resolution photo?

Even more startling was the peculiar object hovering over it. It kind of looked like a shining purple… something-hedron. It's the best way I could describe it, because its angles and surfaces kept shifting both in shape and numbers. Considering the context, was that supposed to be a representation of the Simulacrum? Probably not. If I had to make an educated guess, it was probably something like a display or a control panel operated by Emergents, and this was my brain's best heroic effort to make it look like something semi-comprehensible to me.

My eyes couldn't linger for long, because The Boy was still waiting for an answer.

"Yes, but we can discuss it later. What's the situation?"

"Ah, that's just the problem! We have no earthly clue!" The Man fumed and beckoned me towards the pedestal. Once we were all standing around it, he reached out towards the something-hedron in the middle, and it shifted and turned a few times before settling into a relatively stable icosahedron (also known as the venerable d20 dice). "Last time we talked, you said you thought the scenario would naturally proceed to the Abyss."

"That is the ******** of the ******** right over here," The Woman added, and a few careless twitch of her fingers caused the surface of the pedestal to ripple and the polyhedron to spin around. "As you can see, the ******* is not in the *************."

The Boy then helpfully added, "M-Meaning ****************** is ****** and the ****************** is—"

"W-Wait!" Oriole interjected in mild panic and frantically waved towards me, "H-He's a highly skilled professional! He doesn't need all of these things explained to him!"

Actually, it would've been more accurate to say that even if they tried, I wouldn't have understood a goddamn thing! I mean, what the bloody hell!? How was I supposed to not say anything that could make things worse if I didn't have the faintest of clues about what the conversation was even about?!

"Thank you for the vote of confidence, but…"

I tried to temper things a little, but then The Boy decided to be supportive again.

"R-Right! Since he's a highly competent specialist, all of this should be immediately obvious at a glance. There's no need to explain something this rudimentary."

After saying that, he looked at me with an expression that was one cheesy thumbs-up away from a meme saying, 'Look! I'm helping!', but since we were in the middle of an allegedly important meeting, I couldn't exactly snap at him.

That said, I was completely stumped. If I had the time, I could probably try to individually dissect and disentangle the meanings of the technical jargon they were throwing at me, but even if I did, it would've been meaningless. This whole conversation reminded me of the time when Penny started talking about some computer stuff at the dinner table, and she just kept going on about how she was trying to find out what wrote to a floating point value so that she could create a pointer-map to find a permanent pointer, and how she made a silly mistake because she used the EAX value in the assembly and forgot to adjust for the offset.

I mean, what the heck was I supposed to do with that?! Other than nod along and pretend to have the slightest of clues. Unfortunately, that probably wouldn't work here, so I had to get a bit more… creative.

"So, to put it plainly," I started and pointed at the polyhedron. It shook a bit and almost changed shape, so I hastily pulled back my hand. "Sorry. Didn't mean to do that." Nobody reacted, so I let out a long breath and tried again. "From what I gathered, the issue is that the main characters moved into the Abyss."

"Yes, precisely," The Man agreed with a soft huff. "As I said, the ************** is outside of the scope of the ***********."

Again, I didn't have the time to analyse it in detail, but based on context clues and snippets, the second thought-torrent was probably the more precise Emergent term for the 'scenario'. 'The chain of causality/events/time that is/was/will happen', or something to that effect, but the length of a bloody phone-book.

But back to the previous point: if I replaced it with the word, then The Man essentially told me that 'something' is outside the scope of the 'scenario'. That something was, most likely, either Josh's actions as a Free Actor or future-me's retcon shenanigans. Either way, that was a start.

"Yeah, I expected as much." I spoke casually, putting on my best 'highly competent specialist' impression. "I told you it was the natural direction things were heading."

"There's nothing natural about it!" The Man grumbled, and even The Woman looked a bit impatient.

"True," she began as her fingers tapped on the pedestal, sending colourful waves across the pixelated surface. "But it doesn't help us with the problem at hand."

"And the problem is?" The Emergents in the not-dark not-room looked at me like I just said the most nonsensical thing they heard in this time-block, but I was on a roll, so I made another vague gesture towards the pedestal and the polyhedron lazily spinning over it. "The Crowned Coalescence and the Predator Moon are out there doing their own thing now, so all you should care about is whether the scenario can finish without a problem. So? Is there a problem?"

"I… I mean…" The Boy followed my gesture and squinted at the angled thing in front of us, causing it to shift into a trapezohedron for a few seconds before snapping back into the shape of a giant d20 dice. "It's true that the ********** is outside of the ***********, but the *********** is ***, so…"

"What about the Submerged Ones?" The Woman interjected. "Will this affect their ***************?"

The Boy shook his head.

"No, I don't think so."

"Right. The ***** and ********** are both stable," Oriole, sensing an opportunity, jumped in to push hard. "He's right, you know? There's no problem whatsoever! No wonder nobody noticed that ********** until now!"

"Nonsense!" The Man pushed back, arms crossed and eyes set into an unyielding glare. "The *********, I mean, the scenario should not have been able to shift to this degree! The ********* ******* must be broken! It has to be!"

"But look! It's working fine!" Oriole argued back while repeatedly pointing at the icosahedron, causing it to turn all spiky every time her finger got closer. "You can see the ************ of the recursive ********* right here!"

"She's not wrong," The Boy supported her, if weakly, so I chose this moment to contribute as well.

"In other words, there's no problem. Case closed?"

"It… might not be a fault, but it's still a peculiarity," The Woman noted, her voice quiet and thoughtful, only to then snap her finger and freeze the ever-changing surface of the pedestal. "Our working theory is that the ********** within the framework of the ********* were caused by having two Free Actors, and the ********…" While listening, I was beginning to passively figure out some of the Emergent jargon they were spewing, and after hearing it a couple of times, I was pretty sure that the last term was referring to what I originally dubbed the 'Narrative'. So, starting from the top, she said, "… and the Narrative is moving beyond its directives. Could it have caused this situation?" She looked at me for answers, but first added, "You said such development was 'natural', so maybe it was following the same logic."

Okay, this was definitely one of those 'be careful about what you say' moments, and after some fervent consideration, I uttered an eminently inconclusive, "… Possibly?"

"But then that would mean the Narrative not only grew beyond its initial constraints, but it's also capable of affecting areas…" For the record, the term used here was more like 'segments/microcosms/organs/the insides of the outside', so I defaulted it to something simpler, because I was getting really tired of all the **********s today. Anyhow, back to The Woman saying, "… that aren't part of the scenario. If left unchecked, that could lead to issues in future projects."

"But is it an issue to be worried about right now?" I insisted, and that left a lingering silence around the icosahedron.

"Well, no…" The Boy relented first, and Oriole once again jumped to back him up.

"That's right! Everything's completely stable!"

"So still no problem," I concluded, and when nobody argued, I let out a silent breath of relief. "Just let the scenario play out, and everything will be clear in retrospect."

I hoped that would be the end of it, but I suddenly found myself in the crosshairs of The Man's glare.

"Do you know something you're not telling us?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you! You knew about the Abyss getting involved in the scenario!"

"Erm… I mean, it was really obvious." I glanced around, and seeing that not even Oriole was backing me, I uttered a slightly confounded, "Was I the only one who thought so?"

"Yes! … No!" His contradictory yells made the polyhedron in the middle turn into a cube of all things and spin like crazy. Meanwhile, he crossed his arms and declared, "Nobody could've seen it coming, because it was impossible!"

"Until it wasn't," I pointed out, earning me a huff in return.

"You can't justify something like this in retrospect!"

"I'm not, I'm just saying that things do make more sense in hindsight."

"But—"

"**********, please stop aggravating our guest," The Woman cut in, and even though she sounded calm, The Man fell silent right away. She then turned to me again. "You already helped us out with your advice, so please accept my apology in his stead."

"Hey! Don't just apologize for me! Gah! You're being too soft on him again!"

The Woman squinted at the indignant man.

"Excuse me?"

"D-Don't mind that. Just a slip of the tongue," The Man backpedalled at record speed, and she let out a soft huff that I could easily translate as 'It better be,' without the need of any multi-meaning figment-torrents.

Seeing that the conversation effectively concluded, Oriole was eager to put the lid on it.

"All right, everyone! In conclusion, nothing went wrong, nobody's at fault, and it's all just a quirk of the *********** that's not threatening the stability of the **********! In other words, everything's fine!"

"I wouldn't go so far, but it's true that the situation is considerably less dire than it first appeared," The Man continued to gripe, while The Woman only nodded along. That left only The Boy, and his reaction was…

"In that case, can we talk about the names again? Not that I don't like The Boy, but Oriole is so much better! Can you come up with another one for me, too?"

Before I could get a word in, The Woman smiled at me and let out a low chuckle.

"I'm also curious. Coming up with so many names one after the other… being able to peer at someone's essence and Define them in such an elegant way requires considerable talent. Who knows? Maybe that is your true calling, instead of Simulacrum scenarios?"

"Now, now! Let's not overstate things like that," The Man yelped, but then he also glanced at me and his tone turned a bit more sheepish. "Not that I'm not curious, but let's not jump to conclusions. We men of culture are a dying breed already; there's no need to give him strange ideas like that!"

Like that, the emergency was successfully swept under the rug, buying us some time to finish the scenario in peace. On the other hand, things somehow took an unexpected turn, and now everyone (including Oriole, who already got her new name) was looking at me with sky-high expectations.

Whether I could meet them or not… well, that was a story for another time.

Part 2

How much time had I spent in the company of the Emergents this time? It was hard to tell. Not just because of the usual timey-wimey bullcrap, but because it was hard to keep track of time when not only the not-dark not-room, but even their own appearances kept changing depending on the wildly meandering discussion.

It wasn't until the topic somehow shifted to gossip about the interpersonal relations between the Venerated Emergents that I gave up and started looking for a way out. By the by, their views of relationships were surprisingly less complicated than what I would've expected from eldritch star-consciousnesses embedded into the fabric of space-time, yet at the same time, they were just off enough to be weird. Since they were modelling themselves after humans, the Emergents' thought patterns and emotions were comprehensible, but maybe because those were developed through emulation of human fiction, they were also a bit over the top.

On the bright side, at least there were no 'quadrants' involved. No offence, but ain't nobody had time for that stuff.

Anyhow, since I couldn't really add to a discussion about whether the ************** (rough translation: Effervescent Cyclone) settling her Domain down next to *************** (even rougher translation: Big Rock) meant that they were fond of each other, I forcefully cleared my throat and excused myself.

"Are you leaving already?" a certain ruby ocean spoke, sounding unusually melancholic, but then her waters quickly regained their brilliance when she added, "You can visit us even when there's no emergency, you know? Our ************** is always open to you."

She was referring to the not-dark not-room, but before I could respond in any way, a barren moon flashed with lightning as he declared, "Right! We haven't finished our discussion about Magic Pants. How about we sit down in private one of these days, just you and me?"

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Sure, as soon as I'm done with my current project."

For the record, 'Magic Pants' was the trope name for when someone transformed and destroyed their clothes in the process, yet just enough of them survived to hide their naughty bits. I was pretty sure the Emergents weren't using the trope website for their definitions, so it was likely that some kind of translation convention was afoot, but it worked, so I couldn't complain.

"M-Me too! I'd also like to talk!" The small planet whipped by storms raining molten silicon raised his hand, eliciting a soft scoff and a disparaging roll of an eye from the ringed planetoid sitting by his side.

"You guys are so impatient! Didn't we agree to focus on finishing the scenario first? We can hang out afterwards!"

"True, but…"

"I really should be leaving," I interjected and got up, which made the world shift around me. The idyllic flowery meadow around us slowly faded out and was replaced by the drab indistinctness of the not-dark not-room. "Thank you for the hospitality, and see you… erm… later?"

Again, considering the Emergents' odd perception of time, I had no idea what they heard when I spoke the word 'later', but they nodded along like it was natural. Honestly, if I weren't already swamped with troubles occupying my mind, I would've loved to spend some time on trying to manually dissect the Emergent 'linguistics', and I was sure Judy would find the topic fascinating, but I really shouldn't pick up even more projects when my plate was already full.

I waved my hand and retracted myself from the not-dark not-room, causing my temporary, featureless humanoid avatar to fade out of existence. It was then that I paused. Why was I in a hurry to get back inside the Simulacrum again?

Ah, right! Before Oriole distracted me, Josh and Angie were just about to haggle for a plot-hook of some kind. Something about the true prophecy of the Emperor and the Herald and whatnot. Fairly standard 'last-minute twist to recontextualise previous established plot elements' kind of stuff, if you asked me. In fact… crap. I should've used the opportunity to inquire about the history of the Abyss and its previous scenarios instead of the stupid Magic Pants, shouldn't I?

I was just considering whether I should turn around and quickly ask, but I was stopped in my tracks by an idle question.

"And he's gone, just like that…" Oriole muttered absently, even though I was technically still in the not-dark not room.

"He's way too good at hiding his presence. I still couldn't sense his Domain."

"I tell you, Obsidius, he must be a Venerated One in disguise!" a thundering voice exclaimed, startling the previous speaker so much that the droplets of his endless rain of molten glass stopped falling for a moment.

"Oh, come on, Fulgor," Oriole chimed in with another roll of her eyes. "I thought we were over this already."

"No, I'm serious!" The Emergent, previously known as The Man, argued back, his lightning-struck surface brighter than ever before. "Think about it! He knows his way around the Simulacrum, he can come and go as he pleases, and he can just hand out Definitions like it's nothing. I'm not saying he's playing a prank on us or anything, but you have to admit that it's all too suspicious."

"No, I don't have to," the pigtailed plated argued back defiantly. "It's just you overthinking things as usual, right, Obsidius?"

The boy by her side tensed up again and let out a soft whine.

"W-Why are you asking me?"

While the three bantered, the last Emergent in the not-dark not-room carelessly pinched her chin and exhaled a shallow sigh.

"I don't think he's a Venerated One. I purposefully brought up the names of other Venerable Emergents, but he didn't react to them. It was almost as if he had never heard of them before… but then again, Fulgor isn't exactly wrong about his talent for Definition." She drew in a long breath and then uttered a single, soft word. "Carmine."

Just doing that made her endless crimson waters come to a sudden halt, as if all the ebbs and currents stopped to listen. It only lasted for a blink of an eye, and then her human form reasserted itself as she crossed her arms.

"It feels nice. Like a warm blanket on a long winter night."

"R-Right!" Obsidius nodded with surprising vehemence. "His Definitions are very comforting!"

"Yes, and I tell you that only a Venerated One could come up with such exquisite Definitions. Assembling layers upon layers of profundities to create Definitions that not only don't clash with one's own self-Definition, but actively complement it… It's not something just anyone could do!"

…

Okay, for the record, I have put a whole lot of thought into the nicknames I gave these four, especially after how generic the first ones turned out to be, but they weren't that mind-blowing. Oriole was chosen because her planetary form was yellow and her voice had this birdsong-y (or occasionally eagle-screechy) undertone. Obsidius was the guy 'obsidian' was named after, which was a volcanic glass, and since his planetary form's most distinct characteristic was that it was literally raining molten glass, I just ran with it. Fulgor was not only just a different word for lightning, but it also referred to a different type of natural glass, fulgurite, and since that's what covered his full surface, the association was easy to meet. Finally, Carmine is… well, it's just 'red'. Also, already a name, so that one took the least time to come up with.

The fact that they were reading so much into them could only mean one of two things: they were either way too emotional and willing to read deep between lines that didn't even exist, or this was another of those situations, like the one when I casually wrote some random Celestial scribbles, and Crowy's people somehow translated that four different ways.

I really hoped it was the former option, but as always, my inner pessimist told me that it was probably not only the latter, but also part of some kind of sneaky foreshadowing, which… Oh dear god. If tropes and writing conventions not only applied outside of the Simulacrum, but on the existential level of the freaking star-people, this universe was toast.

Putting the worrying thought aside, I fully retreated from the not-dark not-room post-haste. Looking at it in retrospect, I had spied on the Emergents like this a number of times in the past, so I shouldn't have felt too bad about it, but there was a distinct difference here. Back then, they were weird and near-incomprehensible entities. Now, they were… not quite friends, but at the very least acquaintances, so it felt different. Kind of like how I didn't like using Far Sight when people were having intimate moments, because it made me feel like a creep.

Anyhow, after dragging my consciousness out of the not-dark not-room and across the un-vastness of the lack of space surrounding it, I let out a soft gasp as I returned to my body. My first instinct was to check the time, to see how long I was out, but then I remembered that I had no idea what the time was when I astral projected myself outside, so there was no point.

First things first, my mouth felt dry, so I took out my metal flask and drank some Sebastian-brand tea. It's been quite a while since he let me borrow it, but there was still a whole lot of it left, and it was still hot as well. That done, came the next question: what was I doing before I Oriole came here?

I already asked that question once, before I got distracted by the Emergent quartet, and the answer remained the same: I was Far Seeing Josh and Angie's misadventures in the Abyssal village. Wondering how much I missed, I put away the flask and Far Glanced their way, only to see that… they were already back in the inn.

"We're never gonna talk about that. Ever."

"Oh, spare me the dramatics, Boy!"

"No, I'm serious," Josh insisted as he tapped on the table in their room. "We can't let the others hear about it."

"But it worked!" Deus (clearly) argued back with a huff. "We only had to pay half of what that shrew initially demanded."

"In exchange for our dignity," the guy snapped back, seeing that he wouldn't budge, Deus threw up her hands.

"Fine, have it your way! Just wait and see when I'll try to do something nice for you again!"

With that, her eyes suddenly shifted to blue, and Angie let her hands down.

"Mou! Don't fight with Deus, you dummy!"

"Hey, don't pin this on me!" he argued back, but before they could get into the details, the door of the room opened and Elly poked her head inside.

"Guys? Amelia and Penelope are back. Come over."

"Sure, just a second," the guy responded in a hurry and then whispered to his girlfriend. "Just to be clear, don't tell the others about the whole haggling thing, okay?"

"Oh, fine…" Angie grumbled as she got up and pulled him along. "Come on. Let's not make them wait."

So, based on the context clues, including the light of the afternoon sun seeping in through the curtains, I deducted that at most an hour or so could've passed since I last saw them. Also, I apparently missed a supremely embarrassing (and therefore potentially hilarious) scene, which was a bit annoying.

I followed the childhood friend couple, and they soon joined the rest of the gang gathered in my girlfriends' room on the tavern's upper floor. By now, I figured that all their rooms got individually insulated, because I couldn't hear anything until I shifted my point of view inside. When I did, the first audible words were my knightly sister's complaints.

"W-Wait! I'm still sweaty! I'll go wash up first!"

"Me too," the class rep seconded her, and also added, "And maybe a little smoky."

"Did you set the bricks on fire?" Josh asked, seemingly without any ill intent, but the bespectacled girl still glared at him.

"No, I didn't! Bricks can't even burn! That's their whole point!"

"We had a barbecue." Even before finishing her curt explanation, Penny's eyes opened wide, followed by an ear-to-ear grin. "Right! We brought tasters! The boar meat is a little gamey, but it's still really good!"

"All of you, please settle down first." Judy's words made everyone look at her, and so she gestured at the chairs arranged in a circle in the middle of the room. "You can wash up and snack later. Let's sit down and discuss what we learned first."

"Oh, fine…"

Following Penny's lead, the rest also took their seats. A brief spell of silence followed, then Josh cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"We didn't learn anything new in the hospital, but we did find something interesting. Lili?"

"Yes, it's here!" Snowy sounded unusually eager as she raised the familiar book, mostly for the benefit of the late arrivals. "I've read the parts you mentioned, and it's fascinating."

"But is it actually useful?" Judy cut to the heart of the question, and after just a hint of vacillation, my Abyssal sister nodded, if weakly.

"I… I think it might be." She opened up the book again and tapped her finger on a page. "The 'Prophecy of the Herald' in this book is an earlier version than the one I knew. It's also written in stanzas, and it focuses more on the Emperor than her Herald, and…"

"Hold on, please." Ammy raised a hand to forestall the discussion and glanced around. "Why are we discussing prophecies again?"

"We found this one while exploring the village," Angie chimed in with gusto. "We were just talking about all the other prophecies, and this lady overheard us, and she wanted to sell us this book for—"

"We got the book for cheap," Josh cut in a tad more forcefully than usual. "It's about old Abyssal legends and stuff, and we figured it might be important." The class rep still had a 'But why?' kind of look on her face, so he clarified, "You know? Lili's brother wanted to kidnap me because of this prophecy, but then switched tracks and became the Herald instead, we figured there might be more to this, so we asked around, and this book might hold the answers."

"Joshua might be onto something," Snowy said, drawing everyone's attention to her. "This version of the prophecy doesn't talk about Bel of the Tenebrous Flames. If anything, it… I mean, the wording is a bit ambiguous, but it's almost like it says that once the Herald would absorb the powers of the Abyss and… uuu… it says 'make it theirs forever', so… The important bit is this: Once the Herald has all the power, it's mentioned that the Emperor would emerge, and then the Herald is never mentioned again. It's as if the Emperor is meant to replace the Herald, and the rest of the prophecy is about him."

Elly honed in on one particular word and uttered, "Replace?" When Snowy nodded, she tapped on her chin and posited, "So maybe it's like what almost happened to Leo? You know? The Polemos incident in Elysium."

"M-Maybe, but… It's written very ambiguously, so I can't be sure," my sister admitted in a mousy voice.

"Let us presume for now that this version of the prophecy is accurate," Judy proposed while furiously scribbling in her notebook. "Can we use this to our advantage? Specifically, to get to the Chief sooner?"

"It could be used for propaganda," came the first idea from Penny. "We can use it to undermine the legitimacy of the bad guys!"

"But people already know these prophecies," Ammy argued back with a dissatisfied hum. "And while they accept Bel of the Abyss as their emperor, it doesn't really matter."

"Maybe we can make it matter," Josh spoke provocatively and pointed a thumb at his own chest. "Think about it, guys; both Leo and Lili's brother were convinced that I was supposed to be this Herald all along. I mean, I can turn into an Abyssal with a bit of blood, even if it's not so easy nowadays. So… what if we use that?"

"Oh? Oooh! I get it!" Elly exclaimed with sheer excitement. "If you can prove yourself as the true Herald, you can then appoint a different Emperor of the Abyss, using the old Prophecy as the basis! That would completely delegitimize Clan Inanna's claims, leading to internal strife and potentially more neutral Clans joining against them! That could work!"

"Y-Yeah. I didn't think that far, but yeah," Josh muttered a tad sheepishly, and the onus was once again on my dear assistant to prod the conversation along.

"And you said you encountered this book and its owner by complete accident."

Her comment made the class rep reach for her glasses and exclaim, "That's right! I just wanted to point that out! There's no way something so convenient could happen, unless…" Her words trailed off, and after a dramatic beat, she sent a sideways glance at Judy. "Destiny?"

"Potentially," Judy nodded, though I was pretty sure their definitions of the word didn't exactly line up.

"Oh, I didn't even think about that…" Angie noted absently, and after some murmurs across the group, Judy showed her palm to focus everyone's attention on her.

"While it's a long shot, considering the number of prophecies fulfilled as of late, it might be worth entertaining. However, I propose that we keep it as our Plan B and focus our efforts on Plan A as intended. Which brings us to our next question." She swept her gaze across the gang, ultimately settling on the class rep. "Are we any closer to figuring out how to get Amelia access to a Mana Well?"

Considering that her question was followed by a rather awkward silence, I figured their big plan wasn't as foolproof as I would've liked to believe…

Part 3

Josh and the gang spent two more nights in the village, going around collecting rumours, helping out the locals, and gathering funds in preparation. After every meal, they would also sit down and do another round of 'Okay, so what are our plans now, and how do we accomplish them?' talk, which I, as someone with lots of experience with pointless meetings, could authoritatively say was the worst bloody way to accomplish anything.

Whenever I wasn't watching over them and their various escapades, I made sure to keep track of the situation on Critias, and it was only around this time that the people in power finally started asking questions about where the group was and why they didn't have adult supervision. It was only a question of time before the cat was out of the bag, but as expected, Roland seemed to be already aware of what was going on and was sneakily increasing the readiness level of our forces on the island.

That included not only the Ordo Draconis personnel, but he roped Fred and his secret Sentai mook and robot army into it as well. That was already a sizable military force, at least by World of Mystics standards, but I was further shocked to see that the Celestials were also mustering their forces in the Elysium. The only faction that wasn't actively mobilising yet was the Magi, since Lord Grandpa and the rest were still way too busy dealing with the fallout of the Marzanna incident.

I figured that as soon as they realised that Ammy was in the Abyss, they would become just as much of a kicked-up hornet's nest as the others. They were blissfully unaware of the situation unfolding there for now, which was mirrored by how the guys had no idea what was going on outside either. Not for my lack of trying, though.

"Seriously, Dormouse. You should at least tell them that when the plan goes into motion, they'll have backup right away."

"No, Chief. That's outside-context information."

"You can be really stubborn at the weirdest of times, you know?"

"They do say that couples tend to resemble each other with time."

"Touché, but still."

I was getting better, but Cal was still adamant about limiting my talk time with Judy. Even after I fine-tuned the communication arrays a bit to make them less taxing on my mana-circulation, we could only talk for about fifteen minutes every evening. That was enough for general updates on both ends, but not much else. We even had to abstain from flirting, to the shock and horror of everyone.

Jokes aside, we tried to secretly strategise as much as possible in these small time-windows, but we didn't make much headway. The scenario in general and the finale in particular were essentially in future-me's hands now, and we could only go with the flow. One couldn't help but occasionally wonder the ethicality of all this; roping Josh and company along into a dangerous confrontation with a cold-blooded killer and his boot-lickers, but what other alternative was there?

Not have a finale? Then what? At least with future-me's retcon-fuelled scheme, we had a relatively clear outcome. Scenario ends, restrictions and enforced tropes get lifted, and then the Crowned Coalescence can come in and get us out of this mess. That last part was conjecture on my end, but again, what was the alternative?

We couldn't not finish the scenario. Let's say that I picked up Ollie, got out of the Chasm of Desolation, trekked across the whole damn Abyss to meet up with the gang, and then we extracted ourselves using a Mana Well. It would've left way too much 'tension' in the Simulacrum. Tension that had to be released somehow, either by a different climax, or stuff going absurdly, monumentally wrong. Wrong enough to warrant another retcon, like sending my consciousness back into the past as Bel, or something.

Hmmm. Food for thought.

In any case, Judy was of the opinion that since we were already neck-deep in this plot, it was better not to disrupt it and let Josh flex his protagonist credentials and resolve it on his own. Since I was our resident plot-derailer, to the point even future-me wanted me out of the picture, she argued that I should stay in my lane for now and just let others take care of things for once.

To be fair, Josh had been showing a lot of initiative ever since he stepped out of the shadow I was unintentionally casting on him, so I wasn't against leaving things to him on principle, but… How should I put it? Even though I wanted him (and by proxy, the rest of the gang) to regain their importance in the Simulacrum's plot, I was also feeling persistently nervous about them making a mistake and me not being able to bail them out on a moment's notice.

…

Was this how a parent felt when their kid was starting to get independent, I wondered.

"Chief? Do you have any other news?"

"Not much."

"Then I'm handing over the glasses."

"Okay. Love you."

"I know."

Before I could figure out if that was a reference and if I was supposed to react to it, my excited draconic girlfriend took the artifact out of Judy's hand and hastily propped it onto her nose.

"Hi, Leo!"

"Hi, princess. Good job with the snake."

"Ah, you were watching? Was I cool?"

"Yep. Very."

While she giggled, I recalled the scene from the morning. As it turned out, the Abyss not only had very big rats and humongous boars, but also some rather angry giant snakes as well. That made me further wonder about the state of the ecosystem once again, but the girls had no such concerns, and this time the princess and Snowy also joined Penny on a hunting expedition.

Elly wore her Magiformer to suppress her draconic traits in combat, but even the fact that she literally tore a snake as thick as a tree trunk in half didn't raise a single brow with the villagers. If anything, they've been treating her even better than before, which… did make some sense, I guessed? If I wasn't seeing her being her usual, sunny self, even I might've wondered if she had some pent-up anger issues and treated her with kiddy gloves.

"Say… I'm only asking this just in case, but are you one hundred percent sure we can't meet up?"

My dear assistant was in the middle of arranging her bed in preparation for going to sleep, but she stopped and turned a displeased stare at my other girlfriend.

"We talked about this."

"I know, but…" The princess pulled the glasses down so they were sitting on the tip of her nose, mainly so that she could give the puppy eyes treatment to Judy. "I miss him!"

"I miss the Chief too, but we can't help it. It's already fortunate that we can communicate like this."

I felt obligated to chime in with, "Once you get closer to Eanna, it should let us talk without these pesky time limitations."

"I know, but it's not the same! I want a hug!"

I almost told her to ask Judy to give her one in my stead, but my lovely assistant beat me to the punch. Not by hugging her, but by pinching the glasses on the princess's nose.

"You're getting fussy. Let's turn in for the night; we'll have to get up early tomorrow morning."

"No, stop! I still have my Leo-time!" Elly retreated while holding onto the artifact, then addressed me again. "Uuu… Leo?"

"Yes, love?"

My response put a silly smile on her face, but she suppressed it and asked, "Once this is all over, can we take a break? I mean, maybe go on a trip, with just the three of us?"

"You're putting the cart before the horse, and… you just want to be spoiled, don't you?"

"Yes!"

Her answer took me aback for a second, but then my surprise turned into an amused chuckle.

"Heh. At least you're honest. Sure, princess. As soon as the finale is over," 'and the world doesn't end', thought I didn't say that out loud, "I'll take you on a second vacation and spoil you rotten."

Now it was her turn to giggle.

"Hehe. Okay, I'll hold you to your word!" No sooner than she said that, she aimed a brilliant grin at Judy and proclaimed, "I got Leo to promise! Let's try to wrap everything up nice and quick! The sooner the better!"

"I admire your optimism, but don't get reckless," my other girlfriend chided her, then patted the other half of the queen-sized bed in the room. "I'm turning in for the day. Make sure to leave room for Amelia."

In the meantime, I could hear Cal clicking their tongue (don't ask how a sword was doing that; I stopped trying to figure out their vocalisations a while ago), so I hastily told her, "Actually, let's cut the chat for today. Sleep well, princess."

"Aw, fine…" She puckered her lips and sent me a kiss. "Good night."

She put the glasses down onto the plain nightstand and quickly slipped under the blankets. The girls were sharing the room (and thus the bed) with Ammy, but she wasn't back yet. Since I had nothing better to do, I Far Glanced her way and found her in the next room over, and she was…

"But listen. If you put three Nemean Lions into your deck, you need to put at least six level three Creature Cards to ensure consistency! That's way too much bloat!"

"But I don't! Look, we have searchers for this, like the Mirror of the Moon. It lets me draw any Beast-type Creature card from my deck."

"And? You're going to need multiple copies of those for consistency, too! Just ditch one Nemean Lion, and put in more hard removal spells!"

So, by the sound of it, Penny and the class rep both brought their Celestial TCG collection with them for the trip, and they were currently arguing about deck-building discipline. That was… not exactly 'new' per se, but not exactly something I was expecting to see at this hour either.

While their enthusiasm was admittedly pretty infectious, I wasn't particularly invested in their game. In the 'interested in the mechanics and lore' sense, I mean. The 'putting funds into mass manufacturing so I could sell them to the Magi for an arm and a leg' sense was something else entirely and should only be discussed behind closed doors. Anyhow, someone was missing from this picture, so I Far Glanced over at Snowy's mark, and found her downstairs in the tavern.

"Come on, Silver Missy! You're embarrassing us!" a familiar man's voice whined from one of the tables, but my sister only smiled at him and shook her head.

"No, I really don't mind this. Would you please raise your feet?"

She tapped the flat broom in her hand against the floor, and the bald man sitting at one of the tables let out a distressed noise.

"This is not how guests should behave!"

"Oh, quit your yapping," the barkeep snapped at him from the other side of the counter and jerked his chin towards Snowy. "If she wants to help, why now let her?"

"This is so wrong…"

Even though he continued to grouse, he obediently raised his feet so my sister could sweep under him.

"Thank you, I'll only bother you for a second."

"No, thank you," the barkeep interjected again when he came over to the table with a beer stein and a toothy grin. "I heard you've been helping in the kitchen as well. I wish all youngsters were as ready to lend a hand as you kids."

"And I tell you that bothering a Noble Missy with sweeping the floor like this just isn't right," the bald man continued to grumble even as he accepted his drink.

"It's not a bother. I like doing housework. It's calming." Snowy paused while she swept the collected dirt onto a small metal dustpan under the appreciative gaze of the men, and then she timidly added, "I have an… um… new mom back home, so I can't do this much anymore."

What she meant was that Morgana had taken over her cleaning duties back home as part of her role as the family's mother-figure. At least she was better at that than cooking, but that wasn't a high bar to clear, and she was trying her best to improve. More importantly, the two Abyssals took her words differently, and the bald guy at the table nodded along like he had just come to a stark realisation.

"Ah, I see! So the Silver Missy's father just remarried to a new wifey, and she's now consolidating the matters of the household in an iron grip. A tale as old as time."

"N-No, that's not it."

Ignoring her protests, the man turned to the tavernkeep again.

"Were there any Noble weddings in House Shamash as of late? I never heard of any."

"Even if there was, it's not like we're privy to the newest gossip out there," the other man responded a tad flippantly while his eyes remained on Snowy. "I reckon the kids might know what's going on in the Abyss better than we do."

"A fair point…" It seemed like that would be the end of the conversation, but then the bald man took a gulp from his beer and levelled an inquisitive stare at my sister. "Hey, Silver Missy? Are you in one of those wicked stepmother kinds of situations?"

The other man blinked in shock and snapped at him with an angry, "What kind of question is that?"

Meanwhile, Snowy was left flabbergasted for a moment, only to then hastily shake her head and wave her hands around, a habit she obviously picked up from Penny.

"A-Ah, no, no no! She's really nice! I really love my family! They're the best!"

That reaction left the men in her company speechless, and my palm just itching for a head pat something awful, but alas, I was still stuck here. A big brother not being able to headpat their little sister when they were cute was almost as bad as a boyfriend not being able to hug their girlfriend when they were needy, and I already experienced the latter today.

"Aw, that's nice. Very nice," the bald man responded in a wooden voice. He raised his beer to his mouth again and tried to avoid eye contact.

The owner of the establishment also shook his head, and feeling the awkward atmosphere, Snowy quickly looked around to find some dust at the other end of the tavern floor, and she quietly extracted herself from the conversation. She continued to busy herself for a while with that, so I decided to move on to the last group I hadn't checked yet, and I found them in their room on the upper floor.

Considering how early my girlfriends went to sleep, I was half-expecting to find Josh and Angie in bed as well, but when I shifted over, they were sitting face to face around the small table that came with their room instead.

"I'm serious about this," the Celestial girl insisted with a pout, much to her boyfriend's chagrin.

Josh objected with a grumpy, "But I'm telling you, I have nothing to apologize for!" but she wasn't hearing any of it.

"It doesn't matter. Just be the bigger man and get it over with, would you?"

I could practically hear the rusty gears turning in the guy's head, and after a long beat, he said, "But wouldn't an insincere apology only make things more awkward?"

"Oh? Are you finally admitting that there's something wrong here?"

"N-No! I'm speaking hypothetically. Hypothetically."

Angie squinted at the guy and defiantly crossed her arms with a huff.

"Listen, dumdum. You know that thing Deus always keeps saying? That the two of us are one?" She raised a hand a tapped her temple. "We're mostly not the same, but we're also kinda the same, you know?"

"… No?"

"Argh! Just listen! You two have been fighting ever since we haggled at the shop. Deus is mad at you, and because we're the same, I'm also annoyed with you. I don't wanna be annoyed with you any longer, so please just talk it out and say sorry."

"But I tell you, I have nothing to apologize for." Josh's denial fell on deaf ears, so after a rather awkward spell of silence, he blinked first and threw his hands into the air. "Oh, fine! Let's talk."

"Good!" Angie's lips bent upwards in relief, but a moment later her eye colour shifted and she immediately folded her arms again, this time with extra gusto. "So, Boy? Do you have something to say to me?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Suddenly turning defiant, Josh also crossed his arms and frowned at her. "Did you seriously have to bring Angie into this?"

"I didn't bring the Girl into this! Are you truly a dumdum, as she claims?"

"Hey! This whole thing's between you and me! Why are you being unreasonable like this?"

"Unreasonable?! Me?!" Deus rose to her feet and forcefully planted her palms on the table. "You're the unreasonable one! I have gone out of my way to support the fiscal integrity of our shared assets, and was I appreciated? No!"

"Hey, don't change the subject!"

"I'm not changing anything!"

"Yes, you do! This isn't about getting the book cheaper, but how you went about it!"

"… Are you referring to the kiss?"

"Of course I'm talking about that!" Josh burst out and… wait, what? What the heck did I miss back then?

"Are you yanking my chains, Boy? I told you it was the quickest way to prove my point, and it cornered the old fishwife into halving the price! It worked!"

I mean… how the heck did a kiss have anything to do with that? Just what kind of chain of arguments could lead to something like this in the middle of haggling with a shopkeeper? Of course, since they both knew the context, neither of them felt the need to explain squat, so I was left in the dark as their quarrel continued.

"But that doesn't mean you can just kiss me in public like that!"

"Why not? You've been kissing the Girl all the time!" Deus argued back, though at this point she was getting a bit too flushed for it to be blamed just on the heat of the moment.

"That's different!"

"How? Are you deaf, or just haven't been listening? We're fundamentally the same being!"

"But not the same person, and…" Josh tried to argue, but it was at this point that he realised the expression on the Celestial girl's face was less angry and more frustrated, so he exhaled a quick breath and showed his palms. "Okay, let's take a step back. Maybe… maybe I overreacted a bit, but you're also clearly at fault."

"How so?"

For a moment there it almost looked like things would calm down, but Deus's flippant question made the guy narrow his eyes in irritation again.

"You kissed me on the mouth!"

"It's not like it was the first time."

"M-Maybe, but that previous one didn't count, and you did it in public!"

"Oh, please. It was only that shrew of a shopkeep in there. It was hardly in the middle of a fish market."

"But you didn't ask me first, or even warn me!"

"That's…!" Deus's momentum came to a halt in the middle of her response, and after a few seconds of silence, she sat down with a soft puff. "That's actually a valid point. I suppose I might've been too worked up in the heat of the bargain."

"Yes, you were. You could've at least tried to warn me or… Idunno… Something."

"True." Deus's expression was inscrutable, and as she regained her calm, the redness of her cheeks and ears slowly receded. In the end, she exhaled a long sigh and asked, "Did my act truly distress you so?"

"Distress is… not the right word."

"So you hated it."

"No!" Josh denied without thinking, but then he hastily amended, "I mean, it was just unexpected. I would've been shocked even if Angie did it, but when it was you, I just… It's complicated, okay?" He exhaled through his nose and put his hands on the table. "Let's just agree that we were both in the wrong. I shouldn't have overreacted like that."

"And I shouldn't have crossed your boundaries without warning."

"Yeah. Sorry."

"I also apologize."

For a while, it looked like that was the end of it, but then Deus suddenly said, "In conclusion, you didn't hate it. Good."

"Good? What's good about that?" Josh blurted out, clearly baffled, while Deus looked at him with the kind of look I'd seen on Angie's face countless time in the past. The expression she often had whenever he was being a blockhead and completely missing her attempts at flirting with him before they… wait.

"You really are slow, Boy," she said as she got up from her seat again. "Do I need to repeat it again? The Girl and I are one and the same."

Josh lightly rolled his eyes and responded with a flat, "Yeah. And that's why she was annoyed with me. Because of you."

"True. It was something she couldn't abide by, because she loves you so. More than you could possibly imagine."

"Yeah, I know, and…" He was about to reply thoughtlessly, but then a belated light-bulb lit up over his head, and he blinked in confusion. "Wait. Are you implying that…?"

"It's getting late," Deus interrupted him and walked towards the bed. "We made amends, so I'll put the Girl to bed. We'll have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Hey, you can't just drop a bombshell like that and then just…!" Before he could finish, Deus used her Magiformer to shift into a nightgown, and she immediately slipped under the blanket of her bed. "… What the heck?"

He probably couldn't see it from where he was sitting, but her ears were red like a lobster again, and despite trying her best to pretend to be sleeping, she was clearly fidgeting. But back to Josh, he just sat at the table, face blank, and I could practically see the browser loading wheel spinning over his forehead in my mind's eye.

For once, I couldn't blame the guy. By the looks of it, he had some weird-ass relationship troubles on the horizon, but I supposed it was just one of those crosses protagonist-types had to bear. One that I wasn't going to touch with a standardized ten-foot pole, because yikes…