EVENTS:

Rosa opens up her cockpit, allowing Eigla to enter and hug her smaller body. The sharkgirl looks unhurt, but her reddened eyes and shivering muscles tell the story of her suffering. The two heads look at each other, and Megarosa's arms instinctively wrap around Eigla as well.

Sally: "Well ain't that bloody adorable! Hah.

Anyhoo, s'getting too dark to go scoutin', an' I still need to finish fixin' up me body. Ye two scallywags can stay there if ye want, jes' don' bother me."

The pirate captain sits back down on one of the hospital beds, and the autodocs continue to remove rebar and rubble from her insides.



_________________________________


Curie looks down, fidgeting.

Curie: "Well. I have, seen, the meatblob. And it will be here soon, and it'll be risky, and- I realise, there is a chance, an unavoidable chance, we will be destroyed. Or, worse yet, you alone will.

A-and, I don't, want to lose you again. I really don't. It's been so little time... And...

I know it's childish. I'm childish. I..."

She begins sniffling, and looks away. When her head turns back at you, her face has once again uncoiled into a squirming mass of tendrils and barbs, this time spreading down along her neck and chest like a bizarre vertical maw.

Curie: "Can I, kiss you?"


You're not quite sure how she's talking. It's as if the sound came from inside your head.

_________________________________


Malia laughs loudly, prompting the voice to speak once again.

"What was that?"

"..."

"You sure? ...Okay. I... Okay."


The threadgirl then continues to meditate.

EVENTS:

Eigla and Rosa decide to leave the medical tent's confines and search for a more private place to sleep. Wandering around the fort, they come across a series of loading bays for Sally's quadruped gun platforms. The last one is vacant, and large enough for Bigrosa to stretch comfortably, so they decide to set up camp there. Almost immediately, a weak drizzle begins falling - It's probably a good thing Eigla decided to postpone her scouting for tomorrow.

Rosa examines her cockpit. When fully closed, it fits around her body quite snugly, steel cables pulling Bigrosa's ribcage closed. However, by relaxing a bit, she can make it large enough for two, maybe three people to fit in there, like some bizarre flesh-and-iron tent.


___________________________________

Malia decides to investigate. Shimmying her threads through the door jamb, she lifts the lock mechanism and gently slides it open. The great darkness of Molly's lab beckons.

"This might hurt a bit. Sorry~"

CHUNK

SPLURT

The distant sound of metal against flesh startles her, and she hears muffled screaming. Then, more cutting sounds. Then silence.


____________________________________


Klimt's form loses coherence as his face buries itself into Curie's. Their embrace slips the bonds of their bodies. He drowns deep inside himself, and her.


...


It's dark. Quite dark. How long has it been? He can't feel his legs. Green letters blink before his eyes, or not-eyes. He can't close them.

DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED. DEFRAG INITIATED.

EXTERNAL DRIVE: RUNNING SCAN... COMPLETE. ONE FILE FOUND. DISPLAYING.

A landscape materializes around him. Great farmlands, pockmarked by sentry towers and warehouses. Tall, humanoid figures till the fields, oblivious to his presence, spike-like metal legs passing straight through his form. In the distance, a fortress-like city of steel and concrete.