EVENTS:

Emilia looks grim.

Emilia: "I do not trust the Triplets. They clearly have their own priorities, and those may not coincide with ours. They could betray us, if it proved advantageous, and the opportunity arose. I have to stay alert, at least while you're out of commission.

...Still. I, haven't... Slept. In a while. I can, maybe, rest my eyes. Just for a moment."


She blinks a few times, her eyes rolling back as she sits, much like when you first met her. She must've been really tired, to even forget to properly close them or lie down. A faint sound of static echoing through Klimt's mind indicates the banshee is indeed asleep.


___________________________


While Malia observes intently and Eigla lies down to rest, Rosa concentrates. Trying to share her senses, she focuses on the voices, feeling the subtle involuntary movements that the new nerves send through her body. Much like when contacting the Mud King, she begins to hum a song of cohesion and unity. A song to make whole what was shattered.

What's she doing?
Hmmmmm.
Connecting, maybe? I can feel it doing... Something.
Head, what's happening? Can you see it?
I- I think I can! It's like, I can almost move... I'm, I'm in her head, and I can feel her eyes! I'm seeing it! I-


Rosa opens her eyes surprisedly. For a moment, she's confused and amazed at the fact that she can see, despite the fact that she's pretty sure she was never blind. Looking down, she sees one of the Echoes' heads looking up at her, and also sees herself looking down at it. It is, again, disorienting to gain a new pair of eyes.

Hey? What did you see? Are you there?
I can't feel her, though. Maybe she's like, awake out there!
She could at least let us know...

Rosa hears one less voice in the cacophony.

EVENTS:

There's a few seconds of silence within Rosa's head, followed by intense discussion between the Echoes. She can sense a flurry of emotions, divided between fear, apathy, anger and hope.

Does that mean she's inside you now? Can you think what she's thinking?
Hmmmm. HMMMMMMMM.
No you idiot, she's been, eaten! This is all that awaits us! Oblivion!
Oh can it, I'm sure she's still in there, just, part of Rosa's mind now! Right Rosa? (Please say yes Rosa)
Can I get off Ms. Rosa's Wild Ride? I, I didn't expect this to happen. Not so soon...
Hey, but this could be good, right? I mean, we get to like, be one again! Instead of, all broken up. That's, good, right?
She promised to help us. I, I wanna stay me. I don't wanna die a ♥♥♥♥ third time!



Eigla watches Rosa intently. Her Sword seems, troubled.

________________________________________________________________


Gently laying Emilia down on the bed, Klimt realises he completely forgot about Peggy! Though... He'd been carrying her barrel until recently, he remembers putting it down just before Curie had her... Accident.

Oh no. Oh dear.

Rushing out of the room and preparing for the worst, he wades through the puddle of brain fluids to find the rusty barrel bent and overturned against a corner, its contents nowhere to be seen.

EVENTS:

The echoes remain silent, perhaps trying not to disrupt Rosa's search as she looks inwards for any remnants of the absorbed one. She scans her memories, trying to find duplicates or unexplained jumps.

Hmm. There's, a few things, in there. In one situation or two, she finds herself looking at facts from slightly different perspectives. Or, following separate trains of thought to reach the same conclusion. There's also... Vague outlines of external material. Memories of darkness, of a surgery, of shambling about the Rig once. But it's all faint, and indistinct, and most of all... Small.

It's not often one thinks of their own mind as being enormous, other than some particularly narcissistic individuals. Still, Rosa can't help but compare the faint fragments and sensations with the whole of her memories. So puny and frail, compared to a titan such as herself. She could forget about them for an instant, and the echo's remains would surely be absorbed forever in her bulk. The same for the others, really - Their entire existences and personalities, mere shadows of her own, fake copies of the true Rosa... She could consume then in a shallow breath. It is a strange thought.


Still, there's something else to try. Untying the knot that holds the sutures together, she pulls away her recently-acquired head. Its eyes go blank for a moment, but it quickly finds its bearings. Talking without lungs is not exactly easy, but it does not take much to interpret the words she tries to mouth.

Head: "Hm. I was right. It is, too late.

The other echoes, are not here either. It's silent.

...Bring me back inside. This feels wrong. I'm still Rosa. I should be there. Not apart."


__________________________________


Meanwhile, Klimt turns to leave the room, wondering where Peggy might have gone. Suddenly, something wraps around his ankle, pullling him off-balance! He manages to grab onto the side of the bed and avoid fallling over, then looks down at his trapped foot.

There's, a skinless hand, coming from under the bed and tightly grabbing his leg, cracked fingernails dug deep into his flesh. Before his very eyes, its muscles and tendons snap, each severed half dividing in two before reattaching. In the space of a second, each finger has turned into a smaller hand of its own, and more shoot from *its* fingers in a nightmarish fractal. Blood spurts from the newborn limbs, joining the puddle of cerebrospinal fluid on the floor in a malodorous, sickly-pink ooze.