"This stinks!"

Sighing rather dramatically, Noire slumped into her favorite work chair. She wasn't sure whether or not she should be thankful about what was happening thus far or incredibly, incredibly annoyed. She was currently torn between the two emotions, but as neither one was a particularly enjoyable one to be feeling, she honestly wished she could just toss both of them out.

"First my big confession scene gets preempted by a stupid cliffhanger gag, and now every single one of the scenes I was supposed to be in here got rewritten to either not have me in it or be about the other me! When do I get a turn?" Raising a hand to rub at her temples, the Lastation CPU groaned as she realized that, to top it all off, she was now spending the only scene she probably would get in this special complaining about it all. Even her universe's Vert and Blanc had done something more entertaining!

She would just look like a big spoil sport if she didn't do anything now...

But... But would could she do...?

There was no way she would do something that involved an audience, and thanks to that stupid joke, she couldn't interact with Plutia normally either since the scene's resolution was supposed to still be shrouded in mystery! Talk about unfair. That didn't mean they couldn't have some kind of goofy segment, did it? But apparently Plutia hadn't even been planned for any of these...

... Now there was an idea...

Yeah... That was something. Special chapter or not, she wouldn't mind going to find Plutia right now at all. So what if she hadn't gotten to beat up Anonydeath or get accidentally attacked by a crazy redhead she didn't know? She should be thankful for those things! No, now was her chance to do something she wanted to do. Now was her chance to do something for her.

"If I could have one scene that I got to pick in this whole thing, then I'd want to do that. Definitely." Nodding to herself, Noire stood up from her chair. She looked at it for a moments, then a flash of brilliance struck her. Smirking to herself, Noire gave the chair a nice, long look, before she spoke to it, as though she was commanding something far greater than herself or a simple chair. "It's a good thing I brought this with me to Planeptune. Plutia's furniture just wasn't cutting it."

With that done, Noire waited. Not for long, mind, but just long enough to see whether or not her idea would have any merit to it...

Heading to the door of the room, Noire took a deep breath and opened, not sure what to expect.

What greeted her made her grin.

She was in Planeptune's Basilicom.

"It worked! Take that, scripts!" Puffing out her chest arrogantly, Noire took a few steps into the hallway and looked both ways. Everything seemed normal enough — it looked like all she had done was pull off a little trick. "And here Vert was trying to rewrite the story and make the people make things happen for her. That's not nearly proactive enough." A giggle escaped her lips. She had really done it! This scene might turn out okay yet. "Now that's what I call using your head, Noire."

But just how had the lovely CPU used her head anyway? Why was she so pleased?

It was a simple trick, really. Well, maybe not that simple, since Vert hadn't figured to try it out.

Since her location hadn't been specified during the opening sequence, if she just acted as though she was supposed to be in Planeptune before the narration reached that point naturally, then it looked as though Noire had free reign over what was going to happen to her. She would bet, though, that she couldn't contradict anything she'd already said, so for better or for worse, now she was stuck in Planeptune.

"That's just what I wanted, though, so I'm not going to complain." Smirking, Noire began heading towards where she suspected she might find Plutia. She couldn't believe her luck! So she couldn't interact with Plutia "normally" — if she had an office in Plutia's Basilicom and enough pull to control the furniture, then whatever happened next was totally within the rules of that restriction! All that meant is the following scene would play out as if such a thing were natural. How could that possibly be a bad thing?

It couldn't, that's how.

Loopholes, thy name is Noire.

Fighting the urge to hum as she walked along and inwardly celebrated her victory, Noire finally found herself outside of the door that she would open up and find the oh so familiar room where most things seemed to happen in this place — and most importantly, where the one person Noire wanted to see most out of everyone else in this ridiculous story would be undoubtedly waiting for her.

Despite the fact that she had been the one to "arrange" them meeting this way, Noire found herself growing nervous. Neither she nor Plutia could reference what had happened at the end of Noire's attempted confession scene in any way, or this scene would undoubtedly get cut short, but...

Noire furiously shook her head, pushing open the door as she pushed thoughts like that far away.

"I don't care how she acts or what happens next! I just want to see her!"

The room was as it should have been. Just as Noire had wanted, she really was in Planeptune's Basilicom, and everything that thus came with that. Which meant, somewhere in this room...

"Hello, Noire..." At the sound of a familiar, drawn out voice, the exact slowly spoken voice that Noire was hoping to hear, under normal circumstances, she might have jumped. Under normal circumstances, upon hearing Plutia's voice, Noire might have put on her normal attitude and defenses and layers and started their usual routine. "I was waiting for you..."

None of these things were possible for Noire right now, because Plutia was pressing her against the wall and nuzzling her neck like it was a perfectly normal thing to do.

"P-P-P-P-P-Plu-Pla-Plo-" In an instant, Noire was blushing bright red and trying to struggle and escape from Plutia's grip, but despite how gentle Plutia was being, she found she couldn't. In fact, to her horror, her arms were wrapping around Plutia's waist, her hands settling on Plutia's behind against her will, as if being controlled by some unseen force.

"Please... Do this? Is that what you want, Noire...?" Speaking slowly, deviously, feigning-innocence-ly, and of course, tantalizingly, in that taunting sort of way only Plutia could talk to her (funnily enough, that was something that wasn't too different from normal here), Plutia's fingers began slipping into the upper part of Noire's skirt.

W-Why was this happening...?! How had it happened...?!

"Kya!"

Why did it feel so good?!

No, N-Noire, stop, don't get distracted! Think! Nothing strange happened before this, nothing except... Wait... Was this her fault...?! If she had an office in Planeptune's Basilicom and the pull to change things like furniture in and out as she willed... T-Then... based on that premise...

D-D-D-Did this scene take place in some kind of alternate reality where she and Plutia were super intimate?!

"I don't care how she acts or what happens next! I just want to see her!"

Oh great! Even if her first bit of scene building hadn't done it, that had totally made this possible, hadn't it?! It had practically set up all the flags for it and everything in fact!

"Your top is reeeaaally getting annoying, Noire... I think I hate it. Sooooo, I'm going to take it off, okay? Hoooold stiiiii~iiiiill..."

W-W-W-W-W-W-W-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!

She wasn't ready! Who even cared about her confession anymore?! She barely got this far with Plutia in her dreams, forget whatever reality was like! Ohhh, why couldn't she have just enjoyed having a normal scene to herself instead of trying to cheat the system...?! Darn it, no matter! She had to think fast before the rating of the story skyrocketed and her blunder caused them to get canceled!

She just... She just had to think of a way to change the scene again and make Plutia stop...

... But... But...

She actually really really really wanted to stay here!

Torn between a rock and a really, really, really really really soft place, Noire desperately tried to look Plutia in the eye so she could reason with her. Maybe... Maybe she could just talk to her and say something to turn Plutia back to normal! Or at least get her to slow down enough so they could keep going without having to... Wait, no! Bad Noire! Very bad!

As she finally met Plutia's gaze for just a moment, still unsure of what she wanted to do, that look into the renowned sadist's eyes gave her the answer that she needed.

It was... sobering in a way.

This wasn't a dream. It may not have been taking place in the story proper, but it was still "real," so this... thing was a "real" Plutia. Maybe from a different story, maybe from a warped scene she had created through her own intervention, but...

Plutia didn't look at her that way.

There was something missing.

This was wrong.

"Oh wait, that's right... A-Ah! I'm actually on vacation in the other dimension...! This must be a dream I'm having because I... because I..." Noire closed her eyes, ignoring the pleasant things the girl pressed against her was doing — though with her mind made up, they actually even felt less pleasant now — so she could focus and think of something reasonable. No longer was she torn between trying to stay in this reality or whatever it was and fixing it, now she just wanted out. "Because I walked in on the other me and Neptune doing something dirty last night!"

The Plutia before her withdrew from Noire, looking surprisingly wounded for whatever she was, but that had done the trick. Not sure if she should feel thankful or regretful, especially now that this was technically just a dream, Noire began fixing her clothes — promptly glancing away from Plutia's state of attire when she realized that her own hands, while they had been out of her control, had been rather busy too.

Most of all, though... As she started to hear a strange ringing noise and as the world around her began to fade and blur...

She felt relief.

She wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do or not, but in her heart...

Unless it was a dream, the only Plutia she wanted to be with, in this way or any other way, was the real one.

"So... I guess that's what Neptune meant when she said it was really obvious... that I wasn't the right one..." Noire mumbled quietly, feeling like she was both falling asleep and waking up all at the same time. The world around her almost didn't exist anymore and she could barely remember what she had just been doing.

"Huh? What I meant when I said what was obvious? Hey, Noire, has anyone ever told you you sleep talk?"

Slowly opening her eyes, Noire let out a yawn as she took in her surroundings. Familiar, but not... No, she wasn't sure where she had just been, or why she would think that she should be somewhere else. The only place she would have been before this was right here in bed, in this guest room in Neptune's Basilicom. She was on vacation, after all. She couldn't remember why she had decided to come here of all places, considering it was Neptune's Basilicom...

... and plopped on the bed next to her was none other than Neptune herself, watching her with an amused expression and twinkling eyes that practically screamed "I am teasing you right now."

Her cheeks starting to burn a furious red, Noire moved to shove Neptune off the side of the bed as horrible, horrible memories of the night before returning to her as she woke up in full. At least the cry Neptune made when she landed on the floor made her feel a little better.

Still... Why did she feel like she was missing something? For some reason, she almost felt she should feel proud of herself — and she definitely felt just a little bit homesick.

"Awww, Noire, just 'cause you like Plutie doesn't mean you can get kinky like that with me, I'm a pure..." Lifting herself off of the floor, Neptune trailed off when she watched the other Noire's reaction to her mentioning Plutia. Wow, that was just a little bit tactless of her, wasn't it? What if Plutia had rejected her? Man, she'd feel like a real tool if that had been how it went down... "Hey, want breakfast? Me too! I'm gonna go see if Noire's done! She's bailing once she's done, so I'm taking mine to go with hers, but you're totally welcome to chowing down while we're gone. Bye!"

With that, Neptune, more than a little guiltily, dashed off, leaving Noire to her own devices.

For some reason, rather than feel upset or anything like what Neptune had suspected, she actually felt... good.

She didn't know why or what or anything else, but what Noire did know was that she was sure that she had made a good choice... about something, and it had involved Plutia... somehow. She couldn't really figure out the context of it beyond that, but the feeling it gave her right now told her one thing for sure.

She had definitely made the right choice.