Chapter Text
Loop 11:
Rae opened her eyes. She was back in the meeting room, a fact that at this point failed to surprise her. She still didn’t know why she kept reliving the same days, but no matter what happened, she inevitably found herself back at the start. At least she was starting to get the hang of things. Everything seemed the same as last time, except… apparently, she was the guardian angel this time.
Stella stood up at the table, giving her usual speech. “It is extremely unfortunate, but there are two Gnosia among the eleven of us. Before we warp, we will vote to put a single one of us into cold sleep for the remainder of our journey. We must contain all of the Gnosia before they can eliminate the crew. There are three special crew members who will be crucial in our fight against the Gnosia; the engineer can investigate one person per warp to see if they are Gnosia, the doctor may examine those in cold sleep for signs of Gnosia infection, and the guardian angel may protect one other person during warp.”
Ok, everything was the same as usual— Wait, did Stella say eleven people? She quickly scanned the room. Everyone she had met in her past loops was present, save for the enigmatic Yuriko, but standing near Rae was someone she hadn’t seen before. They were about her height, with curly, blond hair and striking red eyes. They wore a loose-fitting blue jacket over a black turtleneck. The stranger stood at attention, scanning the room with their eyes. For a moment, their gaze met hers. Huh, staring like that must have made her look suspicious. She gave them a quick smile, then turned her attention back to the discussion.
The alien(?) shook his head. “Damn, this sucks! We really have to suspect each other? There’s gotta be a better way to do this!”
Raqio smirked, and adjusted their headphones with one of their infuriatingly well-manicured hands. “Did I hear that correctly? Did Shigemichi actually just make an intelligent comment? “Ahaha, I actually agree! Why would I leave my life in the hands of commoners like you?”
“I understand this is hard to accept,” said the new crewmember, “but we don’t have any better options. Any plan we come up with could be sabotaged by the Gnosia. And what if whoever tries to suggest a “better way” is one of our enemies? We can’t take that risk. The procedure that Stella described is standard protocol for a reason… We should follow it.”
“Yes, Setsu is correct,” said Stella. “I ask you all, can you agree to this plan?”
“Hmph.” Raqio crossed their arms as they leaned against the wall. “Let’s just hurry up and get this over with.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loop 12:
Well, that last one didn’t go particularly well. Rae had been trying to lay low and protect high value targets. It was unfortunate that she had decided Setsu was one of those. To be fair, there wasn’t really any way she could have known they were Gnosia. Rae had to hand to ‘em, they had seemed so crew! Setsu had helped establish the rules for discussions, and they had claimed to be the doctor (and had been giving some pretty believable reports!). Well, she’d need to be more careful this time.
Let’s see… There were 2 Gnosia, and she was a regular crew member. In addition to the usual suspects, they were joined by an adorable beluga whale named Otome. If anyone in the crew was surprised that a talking fish was part of the group, they didn’t show it… Wait, weren’t whales mammals? Technically, talking mammals were pretty common. After all, Rae was one herself! Probably.
The voice of LeVi sounded out through the room. “There is one crew member still not present. I have attempted to make contact with Sha-Ming, but he has refused to come to the meeting.”
Raqio smirked. “Ha, he refuses to even show up? It’s all but confirmed— Sha-Ming is one of the Gnosia. Let’s just put him into cold sleep and be done with it.”
“Isn’t that a little harsh?”, said Chipie. “I mean, I kinda get where he’s coming from, not wanting to show up to these. Anyways, if he’s not going to help us, that’s his loss. Let’s just go on without him.”
“No, we can’t do that,“ said Setsu. “We shouldn’t start until everyone is present. It’s not fair to anyone to exclude him from the meeting. Besides… if he happens to be the doctor or engineer, and a fake steps forward while he’s absent… We can’t let that happen. LeVi, can you delay the start time of the meeting? I’ll go talk to him.”
“Affirmative. I will delay the meeting for one hour.”
As people began to file out the room, SQ waved to grab Rae’s attention. “Heeyy! So like, Gina said she was gonna whip something up in the cafeteria. You should totally come with! I bet it’s going to be, like, the best thing you’ve ever eaten!”
“Oh yeah, sure! I’ll head over in a bit.”
On the way to the cafeteria, Rae heard a voice coming from one of the dormitories. A chance to gather some more info? She crept to the door to listen in.
“Sha-Ming,” Setsu was saying, “you need to come to the meeting. Our survival depends on the results.”
“If you're gonna ask me for somethin’, why don’tcha gimme a hot kiss first, huh babe?”
“Didn’t I tell you, I’m non-binary? Don’t call me “babe”. And stop treating me like that.”
“Heh, well, I’d still hit that.”
Setsu went silent for a moment. “Look… We delayed the discussion so that you could attend. Just make this easy for everyone and show up in one hour.”
“Yeah, nope. If I say somethin’ wrong and piss the Gnosia off, I’ll get wiped out. I’m just staying here, so you all go on and have your meeting without me, capiche?”
“By refusing to participate, you’re making yourself even more suspicious. We’ll have no choice but to put you into cold sleep.”
“Kay, that’s fine by me! I’d rather end up a popsicle than dead.”
“Sha-Ming… You can’t just do whatever you please. You’re coming to the discussion.”
“Nah, I’m good-”
Ok, she’d heard enough. As she had promised to, Rae made her way to the cafeteria. She did enjoying hanging out with SQ and Gina, and SQ was actually right! Gina’s gyoza was, by technicality, the best meal she could ever remember eating! (The synthetic stuff that LeVi made did not deserve to be called “food”, much less a meal). Oh, the joys of being an amnesiac!
After an hour had passed, she made her way back to the Main Console, alongside those two aforementioned lovely ladies. Everyone was already there… except for Setsu and Sha-Ming.
“What’s, like, taking them so long?”
“It appears that Setsu is talking to Sha-Ming.”
“Really? Yeeaahh, like, I just want to get this over with.”
Rae smiled. “Hey, don’t you worry. I’ll go check on them!”
She could hear them long before she made it to the door.
“Sha-Ming, I’ve met plenty of people like you. Do you know what I hate the most about your type? Not only do you think you’re above the rules, but you take satisfaction in disobeying them. You think you’re doing something brave and rebellious. Somehow, you don’t seem to realize the obvious… Your behavior doesn’t do anything but make everyone else’s jobs harder. By refusing to cooperate with anti-Gnosia protocol you are risking your own life, and much more importantly, the lives of the rest of the crew.”
“Yeah, that’s still a no from me.”
…Okay, that was enough of that.
“OMG. Is Sha-Ming, like, still not coming?”, SQ said.
Rae sighed. “Yeah, and Setsu's still at it.”
Raqio scoffed. “Can we just get rid of Sha-Ming already? It’s not as if it would be much of a loss, even in the unlikely event he isn’t Gnosia.”
“I hate to say it,” Chipie said, “but they’ve got a point.”
Rae shrugged. “Should we just move on to voting then, or?”
“I’m sorry for the interruption, but Setsu and Sha-Ming are on their way to Main Control.”
“Took him long enough,” Chipie grumbled.
A few minutes later, Setsu marched into the meeting room, with Sha-Ming on their tail.
“So, what made you decide to show up?” said Chipie with a glare.
“They were tearing me a new asshole for over an hour. What was I supposed to do?”
Well, someone had lost a battle of wills. Rae glanced over to Setsu. They looked a bit weary, but Rae could almost swear she saw a ghost of a smile creeping onto their face.
“Alright, let’s begin the discussion.”
Crew Member Data Update: Setsu
Note 1: Strong sense of justice & responsibility. Logical.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Rae’s great amusement, Sha-Ming was attacked by the Gnosia during warp. And despite her immediate suspicions, Setsu wasn’t even one of them; the two Gnosia ended up being Raqio and Shigemichi.
…the fact that she found it so funny was slightly worrying. Then again, in her loops she’d already seen at least a few dozen people eliminated. Rae had even killed two herself. She supposed she was bound to go numb to it someday. Well… unless she could find a way to escape this timeloop, there wasn’t really anything she could do about it, was there? If she was going to go mad either way, why not do it all with a smile?