lunariansage:
purplebitsofanalysis:
*As much as Chel’s expressions lacked variations most of the time, Dr D. was managing to do the next-to-impossible by tearing the neutral façade out and substituting it with a variety of faces that easily betrayed the little girl’s nature as a clone of Rachel. It seemed as if Dr D’s influence had some kind of property that interferred with the girl’s normal thought processes, ruining her otherwise calm demeanor. Nevertheless, she tried to keep her cool, the chair spinning slowly until it was upside down along with the occupant.*
“Sho the mosht improbable posshibility happened. But lingering thoughtsh that interfere with the IL from the inshide? Thish ish jusht…”
*Whatever this notion was, Chel couldn’t say, for the entrance door slowly opened without creaking to support the theatrical timing; the pair of figures entered the room, the taller one pushing the door back into its frame, in a gesture that was more significant than it seemed. As if she was closing a rather bad chapter of both her and Mikoto’s lives.*
“Did we miss something? Ah.”
*Rachel’s already weary expression darkened even more as she made contact with Dr D’s eyes once again. The last thing she needed right now was to have her around after such an ordeal-which was her fault in the first place.*
“You’re still here, I see.”
*It was rather easy to deduce what her tone implied. Had she shouted “GET OUT OF HERE!”, the message wouldn’t have been conveied just as equally. She turned to the only other face that she was willing to see, finding it odd to see it in reverse.*
“We were shtill dishcusshing Dr D’sh exishtence, Big Shish. We were nearly finished.”
*Rachel didn’t answer. Still gripping Mikoto’s hand, she reached for the Personal Computing Device’s keyboard and tapped a few keys, turning back towards the entrance. Chel could recognize that sequence without even looking at it directly: tugging lightly the child with her, the scientist opened the door, beyond which stood the tranquil, silent bedroom.*
“I don’t care. I won’t change my previous words: you’re not welcome here.”
*Her words sounded like a pre-registered message, lacking the hatred they should have expressed. Turning her barely opened eyes toward Mikoto, Rachel tried to force a smile out, just to give her a parvence of reassurance.*
“Mommy’s pretty tired now, and I guess you are too after all this… should we take a nap?”
*Chel stood silent, her gaze fixated on pretty much nothing. Not Rachel, nor Mikoto or Dr D. This was the first time that the child wasn’t sure as for what to do.*
Mikoto nodded, holding gripping Rachel tightly as they passed through the room. She sent D one last nervous glance, her eyes still puffy from crying, as the pair entered the other room. “Okay mommy…” Once in the bedroom, she finally released Rachel and quickly ran over to climb up in the bed. In this calm state, with the two of them, she could finally see Rachel’s feelings once more. A slight frown crossed her face at the continued fear confusion present in her mother’s mind, but the important thing in her mind was that Rachel had come for her. That was all that mattered at the moment. “Do not wowwy, mommy,” the child consoled with a contented sigh. “We awe together now…” With that sentiment and a big yawn she curled up in Rachel’s bed and shut her eyes, not waiting for the girl’s response.
===
Eirin, who had been silently watching the conversation between Chel and D from her screen with some mild interest, finally spoke up. “Well, I frankly do not have much concern for your topic of conversation, but the child is safe and what may have been a disaster has been averted. Miss Chel, simply inform Miss Rachel that we will discuss the child’s fate later in the future. For now, I think she is in no condition emotionally to make such plans. Best of luck.” With a slight wave, Eirin signed off, leaving just the two of them to speak between themselves.
The nervous gaze that Mikoto gave the Dr. D was… heartrending, say the least…
After all, it was all too clear that she would now accept Rachel… and not herself…
“You know, I truly have no right to be Mikoto’s mother, Miss Chel.” She said dejectedly. “I don’t want to be a bad person to you or Rachel. I just wanted for us to be friends… That was why I offered the mind wipe before, so that we could start over… Sigh…”
“As for your current questions, you do know that an IL being is made from several ideas, not a singular one, yes? The IL itself is overflowing with such ideas already, and these very ideas are fluidic in nature, going as they please. So, when a new IL being is made, some of the ideas that are freely floating around, along with the wills of the other IL beings at times, tends to overwrite the composition of the set of ideas that created the IL being fairly slowly, causing a slight change in each new ‘Rachel’ that is created, since the ‘departure’ portion of each Rachel happens at such an accelerated rate, virtually instantaneous, in fact. Such is our mutual hatred, fear, and loathing of the IL. That’s why each Rachel is different, and why there are so many of us, when there should be only one Rachel Diorata.”
“And the worst part of all this, outside of the fact that I’m officially surrendering my own daughter to your Rachel, is twofold. The first is that I had hoped that I would of found the first Rachel to leave the IL, or ‘Rachel Prime’, as I had dubbed the would be version of myself, the original, and ask her to care for Mikoto. I knew Rin was a gamble, but I had few, if any options if I was to keep her away from… Her other parent, the one that she resembles and can reduce me into a mindlessly loyal love slave with but a single kiss…”
The doctor promptly summons a metal bat, and bashes her own head with it a few times, denting the bat and regaining her senses in the process.
“…sorry about that. It’s just that I’m weak minded against her, that was… the real reason why I needed to find her a new home. Because that version of Yagokoro is the head of a massive empire, comprising a sizable portion of the shattered multiverse that we live in, and an army that obeys her every order, which is to seek new dimensions to absorb into our own. If she had her way, Mikoto would be at the head of that army, willing universes from the very Void that shattered our dimension out of there, if needed. Of course, it’s easier to manipulate the Void when you have a Yakumo Factor, as the boundary between something and nothing is mandatory for surviving our dimension at all. I would rather that Mikoto not know about the harshness of our dimension, of why we are forced to do such drastic things, regardless of what we truly want or intend, and I would rather that she not succumb to the insanity that the Yakumo Factor brings, or at least not at her current stage of development.”
Dr. D then laughs maniacally for a few moments, before she falls on her knees and starts to cry.
“…and when I finally find the original Rachel, the salvation for her that I had sought, it turns out that she can’t handle the illogic, to the point that she’ll actually bleed from overexposure!” She cried in pained panic. “And she hates me just for offering a way out… One that I can’t even give her, because she’s too fragile to survive my methods!”
“I didn’t want Nitori to go crazy… I didn’t want Rin to act mischievousness and careless… I didn’t want for Marisa to even show up here…” She sobbed terribly as she hugged herself. “And I don’t want Mikoto to become like her mother… Like either of them. I wanted to be free… And the rules had no meaning, no matter what I wanted… No one cared, except for when it suited their selfishness, and the only one who was nice…”
“Sac-chan… They tore her soul apart, and the world was OK with it… OK with allowing my only true friend to be worse off than dead… And to save her, I…”
“I… broke me… I broke… reality…”
And then the doctor could only cry in sorrow and madness, knowing her true sin, and suffering for it…