*****A Cursed Existence*****
Entry 4: Be Careful What You Wish For…
AN: Sorry about the delay, a few new games I got have been soaking up my spare time. In better news, this ended up long enough for me to split it into two chapters; and I'll be posting said second chapter two days from now, so expect to see it on Friday. Anyway, review time.
FalseProphet75: Made this a PM to keep from spoiling it for those that haven't figured it out yet. [Covered in a PM]
Blaze1992: Yes. Yes I did. Buuuuut, at least I'm figuring it out now rather than…"in the act," so to speak.
Tom712: …*mutters about how some people never change* Yes, it is indeed nice, in my humble opinion.
Prometheus-777: DAAAAMMMMNN, SON! Well, I think this should be obvious then. [Covered in a PM]
Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967: Your wish is my command.
jmeson75: Well, is this close to what you were expecting? I suppose I'll just have to wait for the reviews to find out!
As a few of you have probably figured out, I changed the description to something I think is more… fitting. My thanks goes out to ThePilotArchangel for his help in that regard. Also, as in my own reading I've discovered keeping track of in-universe time passed can be tricky using my original method, I'm now adding a second part onto every date stamp for convenience's sake. Hope it helps. Anyway, time to get this show on the road!
November 30th, 2182, 3:03 am EST. (Three days later)
"… oh come now, it's just a gift! We're friends, aren't we? How long have we known each other now?" I asked the vague figure that always appeared in my dreams – the only recurring themes being the other person that was always there and covered in blurs no matter the clarity of the dream itself, a sort of fog blocking out any details except the odd flash of blue or black moving around, and the fact I had no control over my own body – be it asari, human, turian, batarian, or even hanar; I'd experienced dreaming from each and every known sapient species out there bar a vorcha, though I was silently thankful regarding that last one. During this particular dream the figure and I, currently "occupying" an asari body that wasn't the one I'd been living in for several weeks now, were in a high-rise apartment of some sort with an excellent skyline vista provided by the wall-to-wall window in front of us.
As usual, I didn't hear the words said in response, in spite of a distant sound coming from the direction of the vague and blurry figure, but I felt the general amusement they caused. "See! I'm right. And besides, it is not that special. True, it has a small and very private lake that I'm sure you'll come to love, but it's not as if I can't just find another estate similar to it. So – are we agreed then?"
The figure moved what I assumed was its head in a nod, a moving patch of blue the only difference I could see in the black and blue blob shaped like a person. However, before anything else could happen I heard the sound of glass breaking followed by a sharp pain in my upper chest that quickly shifted into a sickeningly wet sensation, soon followed by the pain spiking into agony; and a faint purple mist shooting out from the left side of the figure in front of me-
I woke with a gasp and feeling a phantom pain from my left shoulder, feeling like I'd broken out into a cold sweat despite asari not even being physically capable of sweating. After a solid minute of forcing my pulse down to more manageable levels, and massaging the area where just a few moments prior it felt like my shoulder had been stabbed and then set on fire from the inside, I released a final, shuddering breath.
"Is it normal for dreams to be that… vivid?" I asked no one in particular in a tone just above a whisper. "And while I'm thinking about it, since when have I ever remembered dreams that clearly after waking up? Oh, sure, an image here or part of one there, but never an entire dream… maybe it has something to do with asari bonding…" I pondered, before looking down at my left arm and wondering why it felt slightly stiff all-of-a-sudden. "Must've slept on it wrong…" I eventually decided.
Forcing the arm to move and get the blood flowing again, I yawned after a moment and looked over at a nearby clock. "Huh. Looks like I woke up early. Maybe I can still get another hour of sleep or so…" I trailed off as the image of that purple mist coming from the vague figure flashed through my mind – the phantom pain making a short-lived comeback – and I grimaced. "Then again, maybe not."
Yawning a second time I stood up and stretched, now grateful for the gust of cool air that greeted me every morning for the past few weeks. It was only then that something odd about that phantom pain hit me. "Wait… in the dream…" pausing and thinking on it further I realized I couldn't really call it that anymore, "in the memory, the person it came from was apparently shot through the chest. So why would my shoulder hurt?"
The image of the purple mist and the vague figure made itself known yet again, and I looked down at my left shoulder to try and see if my sudden hunch was right. Hmm… can't really see anything thanks to the shades being drawn and how early it is, but…
Noting a small spot on my bicep that seemed paler than my already pale blue skin, I squinted at it, but quickly concluded that I simply didn't have enough light to be sure. Well, the bathroom's my next stop anyway, so I can just check it there. Still though, if I do have a scar there, it finally answers who that blurry figure is… which only leads to a thousand other questions, one of them being what exactly happened to all these people who knew the "old" me…
An odd sense of foreboding crept over me at that, and I shook my head to concentrate. "One problem at a time. For now, let's just see if I actually have that scar or if it's just a trick of the light." And with that decision made I went into the bathroom, flicked on the light, and stared at myself in the mirror, my eyes searching for and finding the discolored patch of skin. And, with equal parts worry and relief – something I didn't even know was possible before now – I arrived at a conclusion: it was definitely a scar. The odd swirling pattern reminded me of a burn, and I remembered then that incendiary ammo was a thing in Mass Effect.
"Huh," I muttered dumbly while continuing to stare at what I now knew to be a bullet wound. "How come I haven't noticed that before now?"
November 30th, 2182, 3:40 am EST. (37 minutes later)
After half an hour of checking myself over more thoroughly than I had in the past several weeks, I found – to my initial shock – well over several dozen other scars of various shapes, sizes and locations that followed one of two patterns: they were either round and very obviously received thanks to "me" getting shot some time in the past, or were wide and thin and occasionally long, in other words stab wounds. Though the scars that really surprised me (discounting how surprised I was that I had so many in the first place) were six crisscrossing long and thin white lines on my lower back that I only barely caught sight of while twisting around in front of the mirror, and either someone used a rather unusual knife to do the damage, or the original Miri had somehow been clawed by someone or something. Judging by the slight increase in distance between the top two lines and the bottom four, my money was on the latter; and considering turians, krogan and vorcha were all equipped with the natural weapons to do it, and the right number of digits on top of that, I found myself wondering what kind of situation "I" must've been in for it to happen.
Regardless, it at least answered the question that had me looking in the first place: Am I the strange figure from my dreams/borrowed memories? The answer of course being: Yes.
After brushing my teeth and slipping on a light grey t-shirt, but forgoing pants at the moment simply because I didn't feel like it, I came downstairs to find Aena carrying what looked like a container of cleaning fluid – or perhaps another type of fluid, I had no way to know just by looking at it – in one arm. Upon noticing my arrival the VI froze in place for a second and seemed to blink in surprise judging by the total lack of color emanating from underneath her crest, but after a moment she shifted into her usual glowing blue and cheerful self.
"Good morning, Mistress! I apologize for not being informed of your change in wake up schedule. Would you like me to prepare your breakfast?"
Glancing at the container briefly, I raised an eyebrow and looked back up at her. "Aren't you occupied doing something at the moment?"
Without even a pause, the VI answered me. "I was about to restock the automatic sprinkler system's supply of liquid fertilizer, but according to my guidelines, as created by you, all tasks involving your welfare take priority. Do you wish to modify or rescind these guidelines?"
"No, I don't," I answered while stifling a yawn, still a bit drowsy from having woken up earlier than intended. "Just make the usual; I'll be in the dining room."
Without waiting for a response, aside from acknowledging her customary half-bow, I turned and headed for the dining room – and, after sitting down, I stared out the window at my lake, admiring the scenery. As it was still well over an hour earlier than I normally got up, the local sun – a yellow-orange star just like Earth's, though it was slightly paler in comparison – was in the process of peaking out just over the tree line, roughly half of the glowing orb currently visible above the horizon. Because of the difference in elevation between the mansion (or, more specifically, the dining room) and the lake, the sun's rays reflected off the crystal clear water like something out of a portrait; and, for quite possibly the hundredth time, I found myself just staring at the scene in appreciation.
If I ever meet that person from the memory who gave me this place, I'm going to thank her profusely; why, I might even have Aena cook her a meal! I thought with a smile, only to frown when a part of me was absolutely certain I would never see this person face-to-face. And yet… for some reason, I know that'll never happen. Why? And all those other people from the dreams – or rather, their own memories. If even half of what they've shown is accurate, I should be anything between a very close friend or a recent acquaintance, but I have yet to hear any of them try and contact me. I've gone through "my" emails and read the most recent of them – at least those before I arrived here and became Miri – but I can say with certainty that none of them mentioned me in reference to the memories I've seen so far. It just doesn't make any sense… unless…
Thinking back to my first day here, I repressed the sense of unease that arose whenever I thought about that corpse laying next to me, immediately coming to, and subsequently denying the conclusion I reached. No, no, if I was one of… those things, I should've been caught or discovered decades ago. No way the original Miri was able to avoid attracting attention for so long… right?
While having these thoughts I unconsciously started moving the small tendrils on the back of my head around, the relaxing distraction from my newly arisen worries proving itself invaluable. Eventually I released a small, pleased sigh at the self-massage (if I had to compare, it was similar to getting a neck massage, and released quite a bit of tension) and nodded decisively to myself.
Right. By all logic, if I was one of those creatures, then I would've been caught or at least noticed by now, and a Justicar would undoubtedly have been sent after me. As that hasn't happened yet, obviously the circumstances of my arrival here was just a coincidence. She probably had a heart attack before I woke up; heck, it might have even been an overdose – not like I know what was running through her system the night before.
Having arrived at this new conclusion, I focused my thoughts back on what I was going to be doing later today – that is, the date I'd arranged three days prior. Hmm… Let's see here: the reservations have been made, all my clothes are cleaned and pressed, so I can just pick what I'm going to wear later, and I'll be using the gym downstairs before taking a shower later this afternoon; so what to do until then? Well, I suppose I can always read a book or watch something, maybe even something about history; might be good to find out what the asari were like several millennia ago. I mean when did they shift from being a disparate and divided people into one Thessia, why, what lead up to it; maybe even how the Justicars or the modern asari government, the Council of Matriarchs, came into existence. I've always enjoyed learning history.
For some reason, though, I felt that I was forgetting an important detail regarding the aforementioned Justicars; but without remembering anything for sure, all I did was ignore the silent alarm bells going off in my head at the topic. It couldn't be that important… right?
One of these days I should really learn not to tempt fate…
November 30th, 2182, 4:51 pm EST. (13 hours 11 minutes later)
"Hmm… black or white… back or white… Ah, why not grey this time. Oooh! Or maybe black work pants with a dark brown or black leather coat! Do I even have one though?" a quick glance over the miscellaneous section answered me. "Dammit, no leather coat… I should have Aena order me one before I go. Say, while I'm thinking about it, I wouldn't mind having a dog either… though I'll have to go over the specifics on how dogs react to asari and vice versa later."
My random thoughts having reached a conclusion, I nodded to myself and grabbed a light grey dress from the miscellaneous section and, making sure it wasn't one of the ridiculously hard to put on ones, I started the process of getting dressed. Once I was, I sent off a brief message to Aena via my omni-tool telling her to purchase both a dark brown and black leather coat (human make and real cowhide, of course, because I can afford it) and to look into information regarding human dog breeds (I'd prefer something like a German Shepard or Labrador Retriever, but I had no idea if they even still exist with those names nearly 200 years in the future). I also told her to find and download the most relevant studies about how dogs react to asari biology. Call me impulsive, but I liked leather even before arriving here; and on a more important topic, I want to enjoy the company of "man's best friend" dammit! Even if I no longer technically qualify as a man in more than one way…
Maybe I can see about getting a cat too… I mused, only to shake my head to keep from distracting myself with mental images of adorable balls of fluff and cuteness… and claws… and teeth… Now that I think about it, throughout history humans have always tended to surround themselves with dangerous predators for some reason. It's a wonder they haven't turned lions, tigers or bears (oh my!) into house pets!
Again I had to shake my head to get rid of all these wandering thoughts. Pre-date jitters, I eventually concluded it must've been.
That done with, and making sure there weren't any issues with either my looks or the way the dress hugged my frame by looking myself over in the bathroom mirror – displays a general outline without showing too much, which makes it just right in my opinion; though the bust area seems to be a size too small. But, knowing asari sense of fashion and decency, it's probably supposed to be that tight. Asari do love showing off their bodies, after all, which means to blend in I need to do the same, albeit not that much considering I have my own standards and image to uphold – I made my way to the garage to pick a car.
Arriving there I was faced with a conundrum: Should I pick the red car or the silver?
Hmm… the silver one seems to be built more as a day-to-day car, if still from a brand the average person could never afford, so essentially a Rolls Royce or Mercedes, while the red is obviously the asari equivalent of a Ferrari or Lamborghini, meant to look gorgeous and have amazing performance while sacrificing passenger space. Looking between the two I eventually made a decision. Well, there's only going to be two of us anyway, and the third vehicle is a skytruck of all things along with a trailer attached to it, so… may as well go all out.
Getting into the red one I found it amusing how close to the mark I was, as the doors even slid up rather than out like on the "luxury sedan" that is the silver car. Pressing the appropriate button the garage roof slid open, and the car slowly went up and out of it. As expected, the same automated feminine voice spoke up as in the other car, revealing that "I" had the same VI installed in all my vehicles. "Do you have an intended destination?"
Rather than answer verbally I just read from the message on my 'tool and inputted the address information given to me by my date.
"Private residence in Taria City Third Residential District. Is this your destination?"
"Yes."
"Do you wish to enable the autopilot function?"
I spent a moment thinking it over and debating if I was confident enough to risk my still fledgling skycar driving skills. Well… I have to learn eventually, and there's no better time than the present… at least that's what it'll read on my tombstone after I crash in a blazing glory…
Shaking off the unpleasant mental image of a burning car with me still in it, because that was something I did not need floating around in my head right now thank you very much, I nonetheless made a decision. "No."
"Destination confirmed. Estimated travel time: 23 Thessian Standard minutes."
Seeing the direction I needed to go on the interface I took one last breath before letting it out slowly, firmly grabbing the steering wheel. "All right. Nothing complicated. Just gently nudge the accelerator, nice and slow, no problem, should be eas-" tapping said accelerator lightly, I immediately felt the car shoot off, "SYYYYYY!"
Barely a second later, however, the effects of the sudden acceleration seemed to dissipate, and according to my dashboard the inertial dampeners just kicked in.
"Huh. Without the feeling of imminent whiplash this actually is pretty easy." As if to prove me wrong, after pushing down on the accelerator again I felt myself forced back in my seat involuntarily; but, yet again, the dampeners made it to where I only noticed this for a brief second before it became tolerable in spite of the continuing acceleration.
"Hah… ahah… *phew*… See, Miri? Nothin' to it…" I managed once I got accustomed to the ridiculous bursts in speed and their subsequent effects, not noticing the way I referred to myself. For some strange reason I couldn't help but feel incredulous (and slightly panicked) at the statement, but the feeling disappeared as quickly as it came.
"Well then, time to see how long I can keep it on manual…"
November 30th, 2182, 5:30 pm EST. (39 minutes later)
I considered it a point of pride that I personally drove the car for over half the trip before switching it to autopilot when I entered the city proper. Of course, because I kept it on manual for so long I also ended up getting turned around a few times without trying, but at least I didn't have any near-death experiences this time around. Though considering it took me close to ten minutes of nerve-wracking acceleration to finally remember all modern cars were equipped with a sort of "cruise control," I wasn't really sure if I should be annoyed at myself for not using it earlier, or proud that I'd managed to handle such a touchy accelerator for so long without taking a one-way trip into the terrain below. Still… Progress!
In related news, I again found myself appreciating the fact asari don't sweat, otherwise I'd be drenched right about now. Though, again, in related news, I now have a slight headache because an asari's body heat is regulated via their crest, and as such it felt like my head was a few feet away from an open flame. Good times…
Fortunately, such a sensation didn't last long and when it faded, so too did the headache. Getting out of the car and straightening my dress – a thought I still found odd to even have at times, but I simply equated it to wearing a suitcoat and moved on – I confirmed this was the house I wanted and went to the front door, ringing the doorbell next to it. It amused me that even asari had such a thing as doorbells rather than something more alien in nature, but hey, why reinvent the wheel?
The house itself wasn't anything truly surprising; perhaps the architecture was, to my eyes anyway, foreign, but aside from that it was a relatively normal, albeit futuristic in its own way, single-story suburban house. Small, grassy front yard, a single small and alien (no surprise there) tree growing out of it surrounded by a similarly small flowerbed, and an extension added to the house that must've been the garage judging by the way the rather large, sharply sloped door covered nearly the entire street facing wall it was built into. While I was doing all this I decided to ring the doorbell again, wondering if maybe no one was home.
My examination of the pleasantly normal – compared to my own "house," that is – building was interrupted by a voice from the other side, answering my question. "I'm coming, I'm coming!"
As promised, the door slid open a few seconds later, revealing an asari that was definitely not the one I was expecting. She looks… older. More mature, for certain. The work pants and shirt certainly complete the image. And unless I'm mistaken that's a shrapnel wound above her right eye. Though her face does look somewhat familiar for some reason…
"Yeah, what is it? Who are you?" the asari questioned me gruffly, and I couldn't help but blink at the tone.
"My apologies, but is this the home of Ceora D'Vese?" I asked her rather than immediately answering.
"And if it isn't?" the woman asked in turn while crossing her arms and raising the eyebrow with the scar above it, coming off as suspicious of me.
"Um, my name is Mirilley V'Seila. I was told this was her address…" I trailed off with a slightly embarrassed smile, doing my best not to cause any trouble if I did indeed somehow get the wrong house.
"Why should I care what your name is? What, you think you're someone important?" she asked rhetorically, and I had to keep from narrowing my eyes at how she acted even though I just answered one of the questions she initially asked me. Even still, my smile disappeared into a flat line and my lips thinned almost of their own accord.
Before I could come up with a proper response – that is, one where I didn't reply just as rudely as her – my attention was grabbed by another asari practically running around a corner further in the house, wearing an attractive deep red dress that, unsurprisingly considering these are asari we're talking about, accented her slim figure very nicely. The newly arrived person looked right followed by left, and at the latter direction caught sight of the two of us now staring at her. It was about then that I recognized her as the one I came here to pick up.
At seeing the currently strained expression on my face, the girl now identified as Ceora groaned in exasperation before looking at the older, scarred woman still firmly standing in front of me with her arms crossed. "Motherrr! I told you to stop scaring off my dates!" she said in a tone that wasn't quite a whine. It had too much annoyance in it to call it that.
I blinked at that, and instantly realized why the older woman looked somewhat familiar; that is, family resemblance. Said woman then scoffed as if at some private joke before replying to her apparent daughter's remark. "Ceora, please! The last 'date' you had was with some scum selling salarian who got arrested not even a month after you met him! And don't even bring up the one before that! You'll forgive me if I see for myself the quality of the person daring to take my daughter out for the night."
The daughter of the two groaned a second time at the statement. "Mom, I'm 63 years old! I'm old enough to date who I want! Besides, Jimorr was just…" she paused then as if looking for the right word, "a test! Yeah, he was a test. I wanted to see if I liked salarians, and it turns out they're not my type. And besides that, it's not my fault I didn't know he was a red sand dealer!"
Oh dear God, what did I just walk into? I couldn't help but think, looking back-and-forth between the two asari like a rabbit pondering if the animals he was looking at were in fact wolves arguing over their next meal – that meal of course being me.
I don't know why, but I felt a brief flash of amusement at the thought of arguing over someone like they were a meal, which was… strange, to say the least. Doing my best to ignore the thought, I cleared my throat so as to grab their attention. Once they were both looking at me I spoke up. "So… are we still going on a date, orrr…"
That caused Ceora's eyes to widen a little, and before her mother could say anything else she rushed off back in the direction she came, coming back out a moment later with something similar to a purse as well as a coat held over one arm. "Yes, we are absolutely," she emphasized this while staring at her mother, "still going on a date."
The older asari just stared back and, not seeing a change in expression in her daughter, relented with a grunt. "Fine, but you better be back home before lights out."
"Thanks Mom!" she said cheerfully, followed by a hug and peck on her mother's cheek, the parent returning the hug and smiling ever-so-slightly; and afterward Ceora ran past me out the door before pausing a few steps later and turning around. "Uh, which car is yours?" she asked in a little embarrassment. The question was understandable considering there were close to a dozen parked in the nearby "public zones" meant for such use in neighborhoods such as this one.
"The sleek red one right there, and it's unlocked whenever you're ready," I answered, hiding the amused grin at her excitement.
"Okay, thanks!" and with that she ran off again.
Feeling the burning gaze of the elder D'Vese behind me, I turned to face the woman who, in retrospect, was probably only a few years older than myself, a decade at most – physically anyway. "If she comes back home in a crying mess, I swear by the Goddess and Kalros I'll find a way to make your life a living hell," she growled out.
Kalros… wait, isn't that the krogan "mother of all thresher maws"? The deity figure from the third game? Guess that explains her personality: her father must've been a krogan, I reasoned in the privacy of my mind.
"Don't worry, this is just the first date; I save the emotional breakup for the second," I tried a joke to judge her response. "Utterly unamused" is the only term I could apply to her reaction.
"Just don't make me regret this whole damn thing," she said with a heated glare, and if not for having experienced a quite literal identity crisis slightly less than a month prior I might've even been intimidated by such a thing. As it stands, I kept a neutral face and just nodded in the affirmative. "Someone your age should be going after other matrons instead of inexperienced girls…" she "muttered" with a frown of disapproval.
Naturally, the comment, while perhaps designed precisely to do as such, rankled me, and my left eye twitched in annoyance. Unfortunately, my mouth also didn't show as much discipline as I'd prefer it to and opened before I could control it. "What, like you? Maybe next time, sweetheart. And besides, I didn't ask your daughter out, your daughter asked me. So I apologize if I offended you by not refusing her offer."
We exchanged a mutual glare for a solid ten seconds before two things happened almost simultaneously: first, I realized what I just said and my eyes widened at my words, and second, the asari across from me let out a short bark of laughter. Fortunately, as these two events coincided with each other, she completely missed my own reaction.
"Well, at least you're not a sniveling, spineless worm like the last one," she said with amusement and a smirk before simply closing the door, leaving me staring at the painted metal in bewilderment.
Because krogan father, I eventually decided was the best excuse for her abnormal actions. Right, general confusion aside, I should probably get to the car so that she's not waiting any longer.
Shaking my head, I went back to the car expecting Ceora to have already gotten in it, only to find her standing next to said car and staring at it with what looked like shock. Noticing that I'd walked up to her, Ceora turned her wide-eyed gaze from the car to me. "THIS is your CAR?!" she nearly yelled. Well, she did yell, but only the two words.
Not knowing how to react, I answered truthfully. "Yes?"
Somehow this seemed to shock her even more. "But… but… it'd take a year's worth of pay at my job to afford it! It's even the latest model!"
Again having no idea how to react, I slipped into the mentality I'd been working on ever since I found out the original Mirilley was nearly 400 years old. "And I'm sure that if you work hard at it, by the time you reach your matron years you, too, will be able to afford things like this. It is, after all, how I can afford it: having worked for over a century to reach success," which was possibly even true for all I knew; digging up "my" past for any information was proving unusually difficult, which was a double-edged sword in this case. At least I didn't need to worry about anyone just looking me up on the internet-er, extranet to find out who I am.
"Just who did I ask out when I wasn't thinking clearly…" the girl said in a daze, making me worry I somehow broke her without even doing anything.
"Mirilley V'Seila, that's who," I told her as if it explained everything, sounding more confident than I felt at the half-truth. I was Mirilley V'Seila, after all, just not… the Mirilley V'Seila. At least, not the first one anyway. Ok, I'm starting to confuse myself over pointless conjecture; moving on!
"Right… right… that's who you are; who else would you be?" saying this, I could tell Ceora had no idea what I meant by it and had trouble accepting that I was so well-off. Though I may be underselling it somewhat by calling my financial conditions as merely "well-off," but that's neither here nor there.
Is going on a date with someone in the upper class – well, I assume that's where I'm at; for all I know, I could be "middle class" by asari standards – really that surprising? Huh. Hope I didn't overdo it with that restaurant reservation then; from what Aena told me, it's not the "best" restaurant "I" have been to, according to "my" own words, so it should hopefully be nothing too shocking. Of course for all I know it could be a place renown for excellent food and given five stars by everyone that goes there, but the original Miri didn't like it for some reason… since when was going on a date so complicated?
Internally shaking my head, I decided to just go the direct route for now and got in my car, not closing the door. Seeing as Ceora still didn't budge I turned to her and raised an eyebrow expectantly. "Well, are we still going on a date or not?"
Blinking, the girl then proceeded to shake her head as if clearing out cobwebs, afterward facing me with determination. "We are, I was just distracted," she said, also with determination, though she shrunk somewhat when a corner of my lips went up in amusement.
"Then by all means…" I gestured to the passenger seat and, after taking a final breath to build up her courage, Ceora complied and got in the car. Making sure she closed the door, and likewise doing the same for my own, the car lifted into the air and I selected the next destination on the interface.
Now all I need to do is let the autopilot do its work and I can enjoy a pleasant conversation. I admit, being cooped up by myself with just Aena for the past several weeks has been a little lonely. Not enough for it to be a problem of course – I've been living effectively alone for years now due to Dad's crazy work schedule, and then me having moved out – but it's still nice to actually talk to people face-to-face once in a while.
Once I finished with the interface, acknowledging the six minutes it would take to reach the restaurant (air travel is soooo much faster than traveling by roads) I turned towards Ceora with a friendly smile… only to find her staring at the interface in – what else – shock.
"Something wrong?" I asked kindly.
"You have an automated guidance system… of course you have an automated guidance system…" she muttered, either to me or herself was anyone's guess.
"Is that… strange?"
At my words she just shook her head in the negative. "No, it isn't; it's just that most cars have just a basic autopilot VI that only takes into account the distance to the destination and the max speed of the car involved. An automated guidance system, however, is meant for comfort over speed; never mind that it has a far, far lower accident rate because of simply avoiding the most congested air lanes. Like I said: comfort over speed," she ended without any real energy, looking like she was about to cry.
This, naturally, was not the way I wanted to start the date, so I desperately looked for something to serve as a distraction. Ah-hah!
"Look, you can roll the windows down!" I exclaimed happily, but she just sagged further.
"Most cars don't let the windows roll down because at their normal speed it's dangerous to the passengers…"
Starting to panic, I pressed a button I'd only recently discovered, making two finely crafted reusable glass bottles appear in-between us. "How about some refreshments? Some nice fruit juice."
She picked up one of the bottles, turned it around once, and then looked back at me with a slight smile but dead eyes. "This is made on Thessia and only in limited numbers per year, and the fruit it's made from is so rare that a full bottle of it competes with mid-level wines in price."
"Snacks?" I asked, further trying to do damage control, holding out a bag of salted nuts. I had no idea why they were stuffed in the car door like they were, but personally I didn't care.
Ceora looked at the bag in my hand, blinked, and suddenly life came back into her. "Perfectly ordinary food!" she exclaimed, as if she'd reached enlightenment at the sight of plain old gas station food – or the asari equivalent that is. Almost yanking the bag out of my hand, she opened it and took out a couple of nuts, both a deep purple in color, and immediately ate them without a second thought.
Seeing me staring at her like she was a strange and mystical creature, she offered the bag back to me. "Want some?"
"Uh, no thanks, you can have them, I'll wait for the meal proper."
Shrugging, she went back to munching on them. "Your loss."
Why can't I, just for once, have something perfectly normal happen to me? Or is she in fact perfectly normal for an asari? Is simplicity too much to ask for? *siiggghhhh* Why do I feel like I just jinxed myself?
If only I really knew…
Cliffhangers, amirite? I would apologize, but it's an author tradition from what I've seen to always try and keep your readers on the edge of their seats. So if you have any complaints, blame tradition, not me.
I'm sure some of you have noticed the gratuitous amounts of foreshadowing here, which leads directly into the next chapter. As my original plan to cram it all together in one big chapter obviously went out the window during the writing process, expect to see those promised "certain people from the games" with the next content drop two days from now; and hoo boy, is it gonna be a doozy.
Nothing else I can think of, so I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next time!