059 - Olga Phone Home

Olga Marie Animusphere

After -finally- getting released from Haku's grasp, Olga made a beeline for the cold showers, furiously wiping herself down (to erase all evidence) before finally leaving the baths (as quickly as her feet would take her) to finally attend some business she's been putting off for far too long already.

When she originally decided to keep comms to a minimum until they could stabilize the connection from their side, the plan was to secure a Leyline with relative promptness. Circumstances didn't really collaborate, but they were never such that going back on her decision made sense either.

In the end, it's been a very eventful day they have spent without contact with Chaldea and there will no doubt be plenty of information their fine instruments picked up that the Exploration Team missed and she'll need to be briefed on.

A fortuitous circumstances that also made for the perfect excuse to shove the confusing mess of feelings she's currently experienced into the darkest corner of her mind, where they would hopefully go ignored until they went away on their own.

(It didn't work, it didn't work at all.)

She has never felt so mortified in her life.

She has never felt so relaxed in her life.

The redhead's frankly ridiculous talents as a masseuse are the unwarranted cherry on top of the world's greatest unfairness layer cake. This is the first time she's ever received a massage, but she has no doubt they have been ruined for her forever. The way her brain turned into mush and her body became little more than a pile of goop under Haku's expert hands was nearly a religious experience.

A– And having an unearthly beauty like Rid– Marie Antoinette gushing over the supposed beauty of her body all through the experience didn't help one bit!

In spite of her best efforts to keep a neutral façade as she walks down the palace hallways, a miserable whine escapes Olga's lips when she remembers what came afterwards. The incriminating damp spot on the massage table when she got up at the end, her mortification when Haku caught sight of it and made it banish with a hand gesture before Olga's brain could even process, the mimed zipped lips and conspiratorial wink before continuing acting as if nothing had happened.

Something that would've been much more comforting if Olga's shame hadn't already been noticed by the one person she would've wanted to hide it from no matter what.

Pausing her steps, Olga leans her back against a marble column and starts taking deep breaths while rubbing the bridge of her nose. This isn't working anymore. She seems to have reached the limit on how much she can just… shove every inconvenient thought into a corner of her mind and refuse to acknowledge them until they go away on their own.

Denial has failed her.

"Just accept it already, you have it bad." She mutters to herself with a resigned sigh. "To think you used to look down on this sort of foolishness… how the tables have turned."

Entertaining romantic feelings towards a subordinate is the sort of complication that would make her wince at the breach of ethics and professionalism in normal circumstances, but that isn't even her biggest worry here. The Grand Order makes for a hell of an extenuating circumstance, after all. No, the real problem is…

(Mashu's feelings, Haku's Servants, Haku's Cult, Haku herself…)

The real problem is that the whole circumstance is all a big mess and she has no idea what she's ever doing.

Hitting the back of her head against the marble column a couple of times, she lets out another sigh and resumes her steps. She might have accepted her feelings, but she simply doesn't have the time to waste hours agonizing over them at the moment. There's a meeting to get to.

Reaching the ritual room of the palace -because of course the palace has a ritual room- she gets to work.

The place apparently hasn't been used since Emperor Nero's Mother Agrippa met her very deserved end, but it's at least clean and free of dust. Whether that was due to Nero's orders or something Tohsaka-senpai implemented after taking over, the place is perfectly functional, if clearly unused.

After sweeping for eavesdropping methods -and feeling a bit conflicted on how she should feel about finding none- and setting up a Bounded Field for privacy, she sets up the communication ritual proper. Originally, this ritual relied on Mashu's shield as a focus, but more energy-intensive alternatives were developed to avoid getting caught on a single point of failure. With leylines as powerful and healthy as those of Classic Era Rome, the supply of magical energy isn't really a concern.

By the time the holographic faces of Roman and Da Vinci appear before her, she has somehow managed to push her love troubles out of mind for the moment. It won't last, of course, it never seems to last lately, but things will hopefully remain like that for the entire conversation.

"Lady Director, finally!" Is her Tech Advisor's cheery greeting. "We were worried you forgot about us."

"Da Vinci." She acknowledges curtly, hoping to skip pleasantries and dive straight into the matters at hand. "Report."

Vinci immediately goes serious at her command, but what follows isn't the report Olga had just asked for.

"Square root of minus-one." A seemingly simple string of words that make Olga's spine stiffen.

"The black egg escapes containment." The reply escapes her lips before she can properly process it, the correct words seared into her mind specifically for this sort of occasion.

"Passcode accepted, identity confirmed." Da Vinci nods, her usual smile returning to her lips as she visibly relaxes. "My apologies, Lady Director, I might've jumped the gun there."

"There's nothing to apologize for, that's what we have the personal passcodes for." Olga , still feeling a bit nonplussed about the whole thing. "That said… what exactly prompted this?"

"Well, this is the first time you've addressed me by my actual name." Da Vinci scratches her cheek sheepishly. "It would've been a big problem if a doppelganger had somehow replaced our leadership."

Olga feels a familiar flash of guilt when she hears Da Vinci's reasoning, followed by a flush of embarrassment at her own slip of the tongue. There are… reasons why she's always tried to keep a professional distance with Chaldea personnel, especially with the Servants. They haven't always been the best reasons in the world and she's been feeling less and less inclined to stick to them as of late, but that doesn't justify the lapse in judgment.

She must be more out of it than she thought.

Stupid sexy haku, stupid relaxing massages.

"Yes, well… Chaldea Servants are slowly but surely growing in number." Instead of voicing her actual thoughts, she jumps to the first plausible-sounding explanation she can think of. "You might not be the only Caster in our lineup for much longer "

She's always doing that, isn't she? Hiding her feelings behind logical-sounding pretenses, regardless of whether the subterfuge is reasonable in the first place. And all… For what? To avoid showing weakness?

(Isn't her inability to speak out her true thoughts and feelings a weakness all on its own?)

"Nevermind that, it has been a rather intense day." She forcefully pushes the conversation forward. "I can only imagine there's a lot you have to report by now."

The following defrief is a comfortingly familiar business. Many of the updates are mere routine or have outright become outdated as the Exploration Team learned about them on their own, but there are some surprising points. The data obtained from Steno's 'Hero's Cavern' was apparently both fascinating and maddening, keeping their Analysis Team incapable of agreeing on how to even classify it, though Da Vinci was feeling optimistic they could use the data to advance some other projects.

And, speaking of Stheno…

"It's confirmed, then. Divine Spirits can become Servants." Olga mutters with a frown. "I had hoped there would be an alternate explanation for Rome's Berserker."

"If we are being pedantic, Divine Spirits can't become Servants." Roman interjects with a weak smile. "It's just that the Grand Order has loosened the rules of reality to the point where the impossible is happening anyway."

"Right terrifying implications aside… Both Ibuki-douji and Stheno were summoned under a Servant Class, Berserker and Assassin respectively." Let's focus on that instead of the gradual and inevitable unwinding of reality itself. "Speaking of Stheno, the name is familiar, but I can't quite place it."

"Stheno Gorgon, eldest of the Gorgons." Da Vinci explains. "Divine Spirits of old who inhabited a place called the Shapeless Island and interacted with the Olympians on occasions, mostly to their own detriment. Nowadays they are better known as—"

"Medusa's sisters." Olga completes the sentence, remembering the tall and curvy Servant accompanying Matou-san back in Singularity F. "I thought Athena cursed them to become hideous monsters?"

"That's how the myth goes. But Servant or not, Stheno is still a Divine Spirit." Da Vinci nods, using her index finger to flick a small window towards Olga. "As opposed to a proper Heroic Spirit, there's a limit on how much human perception can affect her. Our scans found this in her Spirit Origin."

As she studies the scan results in front of her, Olga's eyes slowly widen in awe.

[Goddess Divine Core - Ex] A Skill that expresses one being a perfected goddess from birth. A composite Skill that preserves the absoluteness of the mind and the body, repels all mental interference, prevents the body from growth and prevents the form from changing no matter what.

"That's quite the skill." She finally muses out loud. "What about Ibuki-Douji?"

"She seems to possess a variant of the same skill, but we're having a lot of trouble deciphering the specifics. As opposed to the fully defensive nature of the Stheno's skill, Ibuki-Douji's seems to be inherently violent."

"To the surprise of absolutely no one." Olga can't help but roll her eyes. What else was she expecting, really? "Keep working on it."

"Indeed! No puzzle will remain unsolved in front of this humble and graceful polymath genius!"

"Anything else to add?" Olga resists the urge to roll her eyes again. That's Da Vinci for you. "What do we know about this Purple Empress we're supposed to defeat?"

"The further away from the Exploration Team we aim our scans, the less reliable they become." Roman answers with a sheepish smile. "But there's a signature that's on par with the new titanic output from Saber of Red, and a second one that seems to be stronger than anything else we've encountered around, including Empress Tohsaka's insanely powerful Servants."

"So just like Tohsaka-senpai claimed, then. Pity, this would've been a nice time to catch her in a lie." Olga sighs wistfully. "Keep scanning through the night, I want as much information as possible before we make our move tomorrow."

She's about to end the ritual on her side when Roman clears his throat uncomfortably, drawing her attention back to the two of them.

"There's… something else, Lady Director." He speaks up once her eyes land on him. "It's not strictly about the singularity, but..."

"Out with it, Roman." She snaps when the man fails to meet even the basic decency of finishing his own sentences in a prompt manner. It's been a busy day and it looks like tomorrow will be more of the same. At this point, she just wants to be done here and catch some quality sleep for once. "I don't have all day."

"Well…"

"It's about Fujimaru-chan." Da Vinci finishes the sentence for him.

… Ah, there goes Olga's hope of keeping Haku out of mind for this conversation.

"I see." Olga's face goes immediately blank, which on second thought probably defeats the entire purpose of trying to hide her emotions, but the harm is already done. "Out with it, then."

"We are already aware of her suspicious circumstances and the way she went from relaxed to extreme violence the moment her doppelganger seemed about to expose some underlying truth behind her façade only confirmed the suspicions."

"I'm with you so far, but I don't see anything there worth raising eyebrows." Olga speaks slowly, doing her best to give this conversation a fair chance in spite of the rather strong temptation to do otherwise. "It doesn't take a genius to realize there's more to Haku than the cheerful flirt she shoves on everyone's faces."

"Indeed, it really doesn't give away much on its own. But since the trials of the 'Hero's Cavern' could see through Fujimaru-chan, I thought it might be worth it to review her conversations with the purported creator of the place with an open mind."

To demonstrate, Da Vinci replays Stheno's words:

"And here I thought you already knew what you were getting into… But if that's how you want to play, then calling me an Earth Goddess would be close enough. If you are supposed to act in Humanity's best interests, then it could be said I'm a representative of the Planet."

Which, sure, now that Olga knows there's something to look out for, she can tell the wording is a bit suspect, but that's about it.

"At a first glance, Fujimaru-chan's first conversation with Stheno makes perfect sense on its own, but the meaning of the entire conversation changes drastically if one works under the assumption that Stheno knows." Da Vinci explains. "There's a lot that can then be read between the lines, chief amongst them the insinuation that Fujimaru-chan already knew to expect her presence within the Singularity."

Leave it to Da Vinci to catch something like that when Olga could only flounder around even after being told what to look for.

"So… what does this even mean?" She frowns, trying to ignore the clenching feeling inside her chest and maybe cheating a bit with magecraft so her throat wouldn't clench pathetically and choke out her own words. "Are you trying to imply Haku is a traitor, that she's not acting in Humanity's best interest?"

… Shit, she doesn't need this conversation right now. She's very aware that Haku has her own agenda, she's also very aware that she's not really qualified to do anything about it if that agenda ends up becoming–

… Fuck, she can't even put it into words inside her own mind. What a mess.

"No, nothing of the such, Lady Director." Roman raises both hands in an appeasing manner "We are rather confident that Haku is invested in Chaldea's mission, it simply might not be her main goal."

"What's this all about, then?" She already knew that much, Haku pretty much told it to her face when she first asked about it!

"This isn't enough on its own, but it makes for an excellent starting point." Da Vinci explains, and it suddenly occurs to Olga that she never shared what she knows about Haku's goals with anyone else, so of course this is big news for them. "I'm rather confident we can start going through other recorded conversations, looking out for deceptive statements and half-truths to work out her real goals."

"I don't want to know about it." She abruptly blurts out, before even realizing what she's doing.

"Lady Director?"

"Keep your discoveries to yourselves, I'm… emotionally compromised in this matter and can't guarantee I'll do the right thing if intervention proves necessary." She grinds out slowly, her admission fighting back every step of the way. "If you ever feel the need to move against Haku, there are protocols to work around me devised exactly for this eventuality. With that in mind, the less I know about this whole business, the better."

"That's…" For once in her life, Da Vinci seems to feel at a loss for words. Olga only wishes she was in any mood to appreciate it. "Rather mature of you, Lady Director."

"Yes, well. It doesn't feel that way." It feels childish, it feels like running away.

"For whatever my opinion is worth to you, Lady Director…" Roman adds, with that (warm) dumb smile of his. "I'm proud of your choice."

"That doesn't really mean much."
That really means a lot.

As soon as Olga reaches her room in the guest quarters, she collapses face first into a sinfully soft mattress with a groan. Today has been… yeah. She's not even going to dignify today with a mental recap. It has just been… too much.

And tomorrow doesn't look like it will be any better.

And she's tired.

And she wants to sleep.

If nothing else, Haku's unfairly pleasant ministrations have left her body mellow and relaxed in a way she didn't even know was possible.

So yes, now she's going to close her eyes and—

A suspicious creaking noise right on the other side of her door, followed by the sound of shuffling steps trying way too hard to be quiet, makes her eyes snap right back open. She takes a deep breath and bites down a curse, seriously considering just… ignoring it.

Yeah, she should just turn around and go back to trying to sleep.

Whatever's going on, it's not her business.

They are in the heart of the Roman Empire, there's no way this is an enemy attack.

And they are screwed if this is a betrayal, so there's no point in worrying anyway.

Yes, she should just…

…

…

Damnit.

Muttering a long string of rather unflattering things about herself, Olga drags herself to her feet and quietly makes her way to the door of her room. Having learned from the mysterious interloper mistakes, she subtly silences the hinges and handle before very carefully opening the door just enough to take a peek into the corridor.

She has no trouble locating the interloper, standing right in front of Haku's room, hand frozen halfway towards the handle in hesitation and wearing something absolutely scandalous.

Or rather, calling Mashu an interloper is probably too mean. It's not like Olga wasn't expecting this to happen sooner or later. Heck, she had even encouraged it!

And yet… she (had hoped it would never happen) hadn't expected it to happen so soon.

(She isn't even sure who she should be feeling jealousy towards)

For a moment, she seriously considers revealing her presence. It wouldn't be hard to pass it for an incident, and startle Mashu into aborting her plans, not when her courage is already flaking like this.

In the end, though, she carefully closes her door again and proceeds to collapse into the sinfully soft bed once again.

She truly is the worst friend in the world.

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