Location: Planeptune Basilicom - Living Room
As Histoire floats into the living room she has a rather thoughtful look on her face
She sees IF pacing back and forth while Compa was seated on the sofa playing with the hem of her skirt, it's clear to the tome that both of them are nervous because of the rising tension between her and Nepgear earlier
The lilac haired girl wasn't wrong, the level of tension that filled the room was something that could have only been felt during the peace talks between the goddesses when they were trying to end the console wars peacefully, well, as peacefully as the 4 very competitive goddesses can make it at least
Histoire shakes her head and speaks up, "sorry for the amount of tension girls"
"Histy!""Lady Histoire!" both girls exclaim
They quickly make their way over to the tome
Histoire smiles to the two of them, it's clear that they wanted to say something but was unable to form the words
"Girls, i need you to keep an eye on Nepgear for me," she says before clarifying, "it's nothing bad, just keep an eye on her status and make sure that the De-Sync doesn't go beyond 70%"
Compa tilts her head in confusion
"What do we have to do when she gets close to that amount?" IF asks sounding concerned
"as annoying as it may sound, you'll need to bring her back here to Re-Sync" Histoire
"But, what will happen if the De-Sync goes beyond that?" IF
"That depends on the CPU in question mostly as theoretically they can go up to 80% without showing signs of difficulty, what is guaranteed however is that beyond 90% a De-Synced CPU will not be able to move as their bodies stop responding to them" Histoire
"Eh? Is it something like when you try to do a big combo but the game doesn't do some of the inputs?" Compa asks
"Think, you are trying to play a game but the controller's disconnecting due to an issue with the wire" HIstoire
"So their fully aware but cant do anything at all" IF
"Yes, which is why I chose 70% as the baseline as we don't know how much De-Sync Nepgear herself can handle without difficulties and at 70% you should have enough time to return here all the way from Leanbox" Histoire
"Hi everyone" Nepgear walks in to the living room, now with her hair tied into a ponytail with a black ribbon and a D-pad Clip, clipped into the knot, and a pair of D-pad clips keeping her bangs from going onto her face, on her hands are a pair of black elbow length gloves
She blinks at the relatively serious atmosphere, "why so serious?", she asks with amusement dancing in her eyes
Histoire and IF shakes their heads at Nepgear's "question" while Compa tilts her head in confusion
Nepgear just giggles, "honestly though, what's up? It looked like you were having a serious conversation"
"It's nothing much Nepgear, I was simply telling them to keep an eye on your status, specifically your sync percent" Histoire says without missing a beat
Nepgear hums, "sooo, what's the point you drag me back kicking and screaming for a Re-Sync?" she asks looking at IF and Compa
"Lady Histoire said to bring you back for a Re-Sync at 70%..." IF starts
"But Ge-Ge, why would you be kicking and screaming?" Compa asks with a frown
"Coz it'll be funny, well, once, at least" Nepgear says with a very Neptune smile on her face
"Nepgear", Histoire says exasperated
Nepgear just giggles
"Still though, 70% huh, that's not a lot of leeway if something does go south" Nepgear states as a slight frown forms on her face
"It isn't" Histoire agrees, "which is why i expect you to keep track of your sync levels and Re-sync as necessary, getting IF and Compa to keep an eye on that is more of an insurance, and if they have to 'drag you back kicking and screaming' as you so eloquently put it, then so be it" she says, going as far as using air quotes for what Nepgear herself had said, "Now i believe we should get back to business" she finishes
"How's the state of the world after we were all captured?" Nepgear asks
Histoire nods, "as it stands currently ASIC has a strong hold on Planeptune while Lastation and Lowee are both in a better place compared to Planeptune they also have a rather strong ASIC presence and Leanbox is the one that's holding out best however if you look closely they are being pushed back"
"So to simplify, Planeptune is gushing out 'blood' and Lastation, Lowee and Leanbox are 'bleeding' with the only difference being that Leanbox has managed to put on a nice looking bandage but that can only do so much unless something is done about the cause of the problem"
IF and Compa's faces bleached from Nepgear's assessment
"Ge-Ge isn't that a bit much?" Compa asks softly
"As morbid as her assessment is, it is true" Histoire says with a sigh, "shares are the lifeblood of Gamindustri and as long as the people's faith isn't in the goddesses, it is considered to be 'bleeding'"
"Right, so what's the plan of action?" Nepgear asks looking at Histoire
"Currently our plan of action is to collect as many shares as possible" Histoire states
"But wouldn't that be slow and inefficient? ASIC can gather shares faster than we can" IF says
"Iffy's right, even people that believe in the CPUs Probably know that they lost…" Compa says looking down
"You are correct, however it is still the best course of action as it will serve to rehabilitate Nepgear's combat ability" Histoire says, "meanwhile i will be looking into the location of Planeptune's Mascot"
"Mascot?" IF says confused while Nepgear just tilts her head blinking seemingly cluelessly
"Is that like game mascots?" Compa asks curious
"No, they are created by the ancient Goddesses to passively oversee the balance of the world, they preside over the nations and ensure their prosperity" Histoire explains, "they will also remain neutral to everything else, however, should the need arise, they will assist the CPUs to rid the world of the influences of evil"
IF's eyes widen, "wait, they're real?!" she exclaims
"Eh, Iffy's heard of them?" Compa asks looking at her friend
"Something like that…" she says with a sweatdrop, "though it's mostly folklore and legends"
"Well, as interesting as that is, I think we should get out of Histoire's hair so she can focus on finding the Mascot" Nepgear says
"Ah, Nepgear" Histoire calls out to her charge
Nepgear look to Histoire with a slightly confused look on her face
"Here" Histoire hands Nepgear a small handheld device, "this is the N-Gear, it's a feature packed handheld device that should prove invaluable to you, I'm sure IF can give you the rundown of what it can and can't do"
Nepgear's eyes widen slightly before smiling brightly to the tome, "thank you"
'Id forgotten just how retro this N-Gear is compared to my N-Gear-G Mk-1998' she thought to herself with a sparkle in her eyes
Location: Virtua Forest
After the three of them had gone to the guild and gotten a quest to clear out some Doggos in Virtua Forest the three of them had made their way there
"Alright, we're here," IF states, "you ready Gear?" she asks looking at Nepgear
"Yep yep" Nepgear say with a smile and it looks like she has too much energy as she's essentially bouncing on the spot
"Here they come!" Compa yells as a small pack of Doggos are making their way to them
"Souya!" Nepgear yells as she swings two beam sabres in an X pattern taking out a couple of doggos instantly
Compa looks to her side where both Nepgear and IF were standing only to find Nepgear missing as Lilac coloured particles lingering where she was, like when she had done the teleporting thing back in the Graveyard not too long ago
"Iffy…?" Compa calls out to her friend
"Y-yeah…" IF stutters out
"Is it just me or is Ge-Ge behaving a lot like Nep-Nep?" Compa asks her friend
"You mean, bright, bubbly, and carefree?" IF asks back
"Uh-huh…" Compa answers
"Yeah, she is…" IF says
For those that are wondering why they aren't going to help Nepgear with the Doggo pack the answer is very simple, the one sided massacre Nepgear is causing is so mystifying that they can't look away nor could they bring themselves to move
With Nepgear
Nepgear for her part was trying to enjoy herself as she carves her way through the pack of 100 Doggos or so
'I knew modding these two when i went back to my room would be a good idea ' she thinks to herself with a strained smile as she links the bottoms of both sabres and extends the handle and starts to wield them Darth Maul style
She's now twirling her "light stick of death" around as she "dances" her way through them, doubling, if not tripling her efficiency at dispatching her opposition
Moments later
IF and Compa Make their way over to Nepgear after she's massacring the Doggos
"Well, i suppose it's safe to say that your ability hasn't diminished Gear" IF states with a sweatdrop
"You're amazing Ge-Ge, you were faster than Nep-Nep" Compa says with a smile on her face
"Sorry Compa, but i'm pretty sure that Gear is faster than most of the vehicles in the world" IF says
Nepgear all the while is rubbing the back of her head in slight embarrassment
"DOGGO!" the loud voice of a Grandoggo startled Nepgear
"Looks like things are about to get difficult" IF says, "Gear, transform and show him whos boss"
"Transform?" Nepgear asks with a blink
"You know, 'Hard Drive Divinity', you haven't used it since you got back" IF says while looking at the girl, "well, now's your chance"
"Iffy…" Compa speaks up, "you just want to see Ge-Ge's very cute and adorable goddess form"
"IF, i know what you mean by Transform" Nepgear says, "just why?"
"What do you mean 'why?', it's a boss monster!" IF exclaims
"It's just a Grandoggo, its so slow that we can have another conversation of this length before it finally reaches us" Nepgear says dryly
"so many people have fallen to this boss monster in the past" IF says with narrowed eyes
Nepgear looks over to the Grandoggo that's bouncing, admittedly slowly, its way over to them before looking IF dead in the eyes and saying "skill issue"
which caused IF to face fault and Compa to laugh nervously
"DOGGOOOOOOOO!" the Grandoggo wailed as it dissolves into data particles
Nepgear looks on with pity as the Grandoggo's final moments passed, she closed her eyes and gave a silent prayer before turning around and start walking back
"We're done here, so let's head back" Nepgear says with a smile to her companions
Both IF and Compa nods their heads and follow after her
Although had either of them bothered to look closely they would have seen that Nepgear's smile was a bit strained
Location: Planeptune Basilicom
The three of them went to the guild and submitted the completed quest and collected the rewards before returning to the Basilicom
Workers in the guild had noticed that IF, one of the best guild agents was looking rather "pouty" to say the least, when asked about it Compa would just give a nervous laugh and tell them not to worry about it
"Welcome back girls" HIstoire greeted them as they walked into the Basilicom. She looked like she was going to say something when she stopped herself, "what happened to IF?" she asked instead
Compa lets out a nervous laugh "well…"
HIstoire gives Nepgear an exasperated look after Compa gave her the rundown of what happened during the quest
Histoire sighs "we'll put a pin into this conversation for now" she states firmly, "now, while the three of you were out on your quest, i've managed to find the location of Planeptune's Mascot"
"Eh? Really?" Compa blinks
"Yes, you will find our Mascot within the depths of Virtua Forest, if my information is correct it should be hibernating there" Histoire states
"Boo, i was hoping to do some more upgrades to my sabres" Nepgear bemoans
"Gear" IF starts to say
Nepgear rolls her eyes, "yeah, yeah, I know, lets go" she says with a pout as she starts walking while grumbling under her breath "doesn't mean i have to like it"