One Explanation Later
"I see" The Mascot muses, "that explains quite a lot, especially the odd dissonance that I feel from the Candidate, is she truly alright?"
"She says she's fine and Histoire trusts her but asked us to keep an eye on her De-sync from the status screen" IF informs it
The Mascot hums "perhaps it would be best if i spoke with Histoire herself about this myself"
"So you'll come with us?" IF asks
"Indeed, it would be for the best that way" it says
They made their way over to the others
Nepgear looks over to the "pair" that made their way over to them
"Are we done?" she asks with a raised eyebrow
"More or less" IF says, "do i want to know what's happening there?" she asks pointing behind the candidate
"Do you want to lose brain cells?"
"Not particularly, no"
"Then no, you don't want to know"
IF shakes her head in a mixture of disbelief and exasperation, "either way it's time to head back"
"Alrighty, lemme just pick something up real quick" Nepgear goes and picks up Magi bridal style
They could see it in real time how Magi goes from having a dark cloud over her head to pure bliss in under a second the moment Nepgear picked her up
Location: Planeptune Basilicom
"I see, this is rather problematic" the Mascot says, "and you still choose to go this route?"
"Unfortunately were in dire straits, ASIC and by extension the Deity of Sin is getting more powerful as we speak as they continue to drain the world of its shares" Histoire says with a frown, "i have very little choice left other than to put my blind trust and faith into Nepgear in hopes that she can pull this off"
"You're gambling everything on one Candidate to be capable of saving the world?" the Mascot asks surprised
"Under normal circumstances i would be at last reluctant to put such pressure on her however due to the nature of my initial interaction with her after her awakening, the pressure she would be under is the least of my worries" Histoire says as she looks in the direction of the Sharicite Chamber where Nepgear is going through a Re-Sync before the lilac haired girl heads off to Lastation as she thinks back to Nepgear's rather aggressive reaction
The Mascot giggles, "and you wonder why we call you the mother of the CPUs~"
Histoire's eyes widen as she very uncharacteristically sputters out "Wha..!?"
Location: Planeptune Basilicom - Kitchen/Dining room
Being a Guild agent, IF has had the chance to try a lot of different foods from all around Gamindustri and she would wholeheartedly admit that Compa's cooking trumps all of them
This leads to the questions of "where the heck did this Magi girl learn to cook?" and "how high is Nepgear's standards for a home cooked meal if she has Magi cooking for her regularly?"
Because Magi's cooking is world class, like "belongs in a 5 star restaurant that you need to make reservations months early" levels of world class
To this day IF had this kind of food only once in her life as getting reservations in such a restaurant is excruciatingly difficult and not to mention the bill itself will put a hole in her wallet a dozen times over
IF sighs softly to herself and looks to the only other occupant in the room that only Nepgear knows, Brin
The Blue haired girl in armour is seated across from her with her eyes closed, meditating
These 2 girls, another 2 things that Nepgear can't explain due to that stupid seal on her tongue, not that she said that out loud but it was implied with that look on her face
Still, 2 girls as her familiars is more than a little inhumane, especially since "familiar" is a term used for monsters that are bound to a human, Monster tamers, really
Of course like any power or ability there are those that have mastered it to the point of being able to enslave humans with it, she didn't want to think that Nepgear is that type of person but…
"Credit for your thoughts?" IF's musings are brought to a halt by the question posed to her by the Armoured Blue haired girl
"Oh, erm, it's just…" IF stammered as she struggled to voice out her concerns, although it seems like Brin understood what she was trying to say
"Don't be fooled by our human appearance, Magi, myself and the other two, yes, there are four of us, are in fact monsters" Brin says with a soft smile on her face, "admittedly we're closer to outcasts even by monster standards"
"So Nepgear, who found you just turned you into her familiars? That still seems pretty cruel" IF says
Brin shakes her head, "no, Lady Nepgear took us in, cared for us and protected us, she didn't want to have us as her familiars because she didn't want to put us in harm's way" She says, "each of us have our own reasons for choosing to become her familiars, and none of us have regretted it once since"
"Even with her yelling at you like she did with Magi earlier?" IF had to ask
Brin for her part just snorts, "Magi loves to boast about how amazing Lady Nepgear is, and Lady Nepgear would let her go on her triad however the current situation is anything but normal as anything that we say that crosses the line will negatively affect Lady Nepgear"
"So she's normally not like that" IF says with relief filling her being
"Lady Nepgear is one of the nicest people you will ever meet" Brin says with confidence, she thinks for a bit before continuing, "at least until you cross her bottom line, at which point she's the last person in the universe that you'd want to be near"
IF's eyes widen at that last part
Location: Planeptune Basilicom - Sharicite Chamber
Nepgear stretches after being resynced as much as she would be
She checks her status and blinks at the 91% on her sync rate
'So each of the mascot's blessings count as a percent' She thinks to herself 'that means that Burn, Ohm and Cal count as 2% each, so i'm stuck with 94% until it's time to get them back'
She takes out her N-Gear and opens chirper, finds a very specific user and sends a friend request
As she was going to put the N-Gear back into its holster, it vibrates with a notification, checking the notification shows that the Friend request has been accepted and that there is a private message sent by them
The first thing that Nepgear did was change the displayed name for the person to "Wifey" before she replied
Wifey: WIFEY!
Gearsy: jeez, i thought u'd be working rn
Wifey: i was
Wifey: but im taking a break now
Wifey: hows u?
Gearsy: i see
Gearsy: im good
Gearsy: all things considered
Wifey: wha happan?
Gearsy: De-Sync ?
Wifey: nooooo!
Wifey: m dealing with that too
Wifey: should i rush to finish that project? ?
Wifey: so that i wont be De-Synced
Wifey: and can help you out
Gearsy: no need
Gearsy: ill be fine for now
Gearsy: things are just starting
Gearsy: ill let u know when i need you pop over
Wifey: kay~
Wifey: ?
Gearsy: ? ❤️?
Wifey: ❤️
Location: Planeptune Basilicom - Kitchen/Dining room
Histoire joins IF, and Brin at the table
Currently, they are waiting for Nepgear to finish Re-Syncing and join them so that they can go over what needs to happen next
The sound of footsteps caught their attention, looking towards the source of the footsteps to see Nepgear walking towards them with her eyes glued to her N-Gear and a rather cute smile on her face
After she sits down Nepgear lets out a content sigh
"Hot date?" IF asks with a teasing smile
Nepgear blinks "not yet" a teasing grin briefly forms on her face, "I'm sure i can get her to agree to one before you'll ask Compa out"
"What does that supposed to mean?!"
Nepgear blinks innocently, "did i say that out loud?" she asks with a tilt of her head
"Gear!"
"What?"
*Ahem* Brin coughs to get the pairs attention, "perhaps it time to go over what the plan is lady Nepgear" she says before taking a sip of her tea
Nepgear hums, "i thought we're going to Lastation, then Lowee and finally Leanbox before finishing our round here at Planeptune" she say with a stretch before she sighs, "i still don't see why we can't go to Lowee, then Lastation and finally Leanbox or the other way around starting from Leanbox and finishing up in Lowee, y'know, making a circle instead of this horizontally inverted 4 that were going to be doing" she says dryly
"With all due respect Lady Nepgear, you say that like we won't be dragging you back here kicking and screaming for resync after we're done with every nation" Magi pops up behind her with a cheshire smile on her face, "so it won't matter what order we go to the other nations in"