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COMMANDER'S LOG #2 - BEGIN COMMUNICATION.

Following the latest expedition and the subsequent repair of the observatory's primary telescope, a shift in the perceived heavens has occurred. This alteration can be described in the words of the astronaut Sally Ride, "The stars don't look bigger, but they do look brighter." The cosmos are more visible to me now, nebulas, distant planets, stars, all of them shine brighter than they had the day before. Even under daylight, I can still see them sparkling, though faint and difficult to discern. The stars look very different today, yet still we are bound. There is nothing left to do for the time being, now we must await the next mission.

Soon, the dream will be alive.

Sic Quaerimus Astra.

END COMMUNICATION.

...

Will it go away? It's been a few days now and it still hasn't. I like being able to see the stars better, but... This isn't right. I know that sacrifice and change is inevitable, but this?... I still want to be me. This is just step one, what happens at, say, step five?...

Come on, Andromeda. Quitting now means that everything we've done to get here was pointless. We have to go on. We have to keep fighting. We have to keep striving. All the things we've taken, all the things we've been given, they can not have been in vain. We have to do this, because if we don't...

...

I left the camera on again, didn't I?

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COMMANDER'S LOG #6 - BEGIN COMMUNICATION.

Good news! I was able to manifest something to help Luciole like I said that I would! It's... I don't really know how to describe it, but it's sort of like an illusion mixed with therapy? The specifics aren't important, what matters is that it's magic, gives people a vision of space, and works over the phone.

...

Unfortunately, I don't currently have a phone, so I have to walk all the way to Meadow Lake to use it. I've done the trip a few times already, but... It's exhausting. It's a full day of walking and there's not much out there. I wish I could hitchhike or something, but it's far too risky to get into a car with someone who's not... You know... magic. Despite the distance, I was able to make it to a payphone and call Luciole, and thankfully she picked up! We had a nice little conversation, and then afterwards I picked up some supplies and made my way home. Now I've just got to wait around for another job and... Yeah. Nothing... Nothing else for me to do right now...

...

Luciole is... Luciole is a lot. She- or they? I don't... I'm not really sure what to call them anymore. They're... No, I think it's still she... She's... Give me a second.

[There's about a minute of silence that is occasionally broken up by footsteps, shuffling, and exhales]

Okay.

In our conversation, Luciole revealed a lot of secrets to me. I don't intend to share what they told me with anyone else. This is between me and them. I will say what I learned here for record keeping purposes.

The most important detail is that Luciole isn't a singular consciousness. I don't exactly know what that entails, and I don't expect that I will ever truly learn. It sounds... complex, to say the least. I am aware of Aria, she seems mean, but Luciole considers her a friend. I think that Aria and I might have just got off on the wrong foot, I think I was pushing a little too hard when I met them... I did try to apologize, but she... I think she might have just been stressed. I don't think Aria is the only consciousness that Luciole has. I don't know how many voices are in Luciole, there could be tens, hundreds, even millions of consciousnesses within her... Or there could be like... three. Like I said, I don't know.

Currently, I think of Luciole as: 1. Luciole, the primary consciousness, the commander, so to say. 2. Aria, the secondary consciousness, the pilot, second in command. 3. Lucioles, the undefined consciousnesses, the rest of the crew, may or may not exist.

For the sake of clarity, I will continue to call the whole being "Luciole" because that is what she calls herself. I do not know how accurate my assessment is, and I suspect that there are many, many things that I do not know. I don't even know if I'm right to divide them into consciousnesses...

Secondly, Luciole is haunted by... Something. She called it "They" and didn't seem to want to go into specifics on what "They" are. Luciole last met "Them" seven years ago, and she seems very afraid of encountering "Them" again. She doesn't remember what "They" did to her, though she did mention not being able to close her eyes for quite some time after meeting "Them." Apparently, "They" are the reason that Luciole is... Multiple. She described it as "Ils ont te fait 'Vous'" which would roughly translate to "They make you 'yous'." Whoever or whatever "They" are, Luciole is really afraid of "Them."

I don't know the exact specifics on "Their" nature, but I get the impression that "They're" analogous to a cult. My other theory is that "They" are a Lovecraftian Horror that is inherently unknowable. Whatever "They" are, "They" are not something to be meddled with, given Luciole's fear of "Them."

...

There is the possibility that "They" are not real. Well, no. "They" are real, but not to the world at large... That doesn't make sense. Hang on...

What I mean is that "They" might be an entity that only exists within Luciole's mind, comparable to a sleep paralysis demon but far, far worse. Regardless of "Their" nature, however, I should treat "Them" as being real. Luciole has been hurt by "Them" and that is unquestionably real. "They" are real to Luciole, and that's the important part. Dismissing "Them" as fake won't help Luciole.

Third, Luciole is trapped. I don't know who is trapping Luciole, but I think it might be her family given the fact that Luciole mentioned living with them. By the sounds of it, her home life is really, really rough. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of my own home life, but without Dad, without Arcti, without... Without anywhere to go. She's tried running away before, and it didn't work. It sounds awful, worse than how it was for me. I don't know how she's even surviving, she's... She's a lot stronger than me, that's for sure.

...

What if I brought her here? I mean, I've been here for months now and no one has even come close to finding me. If I went on another job with her, I could ask her to come home with me... That would be a bad idea. Luciole has tried to run away before and that didn't work. Her family- or whoever is trapping her- would come to find her. We could last a while, but sooner or later, they would find us. I can't bring her here, that's putting a target on my back...

I owe it to her to try. I can't... I can't leave her alone out there. Sure, I don't have any responsibility to help but... Luciole is my friend, and I want to help her.

There's more, there's so, so much more. I think Luciole is afraid of being a burden? The people trapping her tell her that she's not special. She seems to hide her emotions and true feelings a lot. There's so much more, so much that I don't know. I could go on and on and on, but... My voice is getting tired.

I'm sorry Luciole, but... Thank you for being my friend.

Sic Quaerimus Astra.

END COMMUNICATION.

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COMMANDER'S LOG #8 - BEGIN COMMUNICATION.

I HAVE MONEY!

I HAVE SO MUCH MONEY!!!

Uh- Ahem. So, in between this entry and the last, I have figured out how to create Portable Suns. Portable Suns are these miniature suns that shoot out miniature solar flares. They are very good for starting fires, I personally have been using mine to start campfires for staying toasty and roasting marshmallows, but they're probably also good for hurting people. I have a Portable Sun of my own, but I am capable of creating more. Soooooo I figured that I should try to sell one of them using that Offr website. I mean, that thing is constantly advertising weird and supernatural services at ludicrous prices, so, I mean, it seemed like a good idea to try to sell a Portable Sun there.

I snuck my way down to Meadow Lake, found a library, used one of the computers, put up a listing under an alias, and immediately received a response from someone named "Saffron." A bit of deal making later, and I gained $75,000.

Now, I've been surviving on... I want to say... $100 a month? I mean, not counting all the shoplifting that I do, that's how much money I normally have. So $75,000 is uh... A lot.

But I didn't only sell one Portable Sun. I have sold five... Or... Five and a half? It's complicated... Not really, actually, one of the Suns was traded for another item instead of being sold.

SO. With my first sale, I bought myself a new phone, some actual food, and a ton of other stuff. Then the other buyers came in and... Uh... I now have $725,000. So... Um... That's a LOT of money. I don't even know what to do with it all... Well, it's better to save it, I don't need to spend all of it immediately. Anyways, in order, the buyers were: Saffron, Marianne, Janus, and "Chucks Trucks and Crucks." I wrote more about them on a paper, so I'm not going to repeat myself here. I don't know any of them, but I think they might be contractors? Not sure.

Outside of money, I got two other... Magical items? No, that's not very catchy... Artifacts! Yeah, that's a good name. I got two other Artifacts from my Offr adventures. The first one was this bracelet made of clay from Ollie! I got it by trading a Portable Sun for it, and it's really cool! It can summon three clay pegasi, all of which are British... I don't know why they're British, but they are. It's nice to have a bit of company at the observatory, these horses are surprisingly good at conversation. They're only around for two hours though, so that's sad. Anyways, I'm glad that I got to talk to Ollie again! He seems to be doing well!

As for the second Artifact... It's um... It's a motorcycle... I don't think it's magical, but it looks pretty cool! I got it from that Janus guy, and I've been trying to learn how to drive it. I haven't had too much success yet, but I'm getting there! Normally, I wouldn't buy a motorcycle because... I mean... Duh. Buuuuut Janus told me that he was a contractor, and apparently a much more experienced one than me. At some point, transportation for these jobs is supposed to dry up, so I really need a way to move around that isn't walking. Besides, once I learn how to ride this thing, it'll be a lot easier to go to and from Meadow Lake. I probably won't have to spend an entire day walking anymore! Maybe I'll be able to go to other places, as well!

Is there anything else that's important to mention?... Hm... I don't think so- oh... Oh right... I um... I haven't talked to Arcti yet. I just... So much happened so quickly and it slipped my mind and I... I'm still scared. I...

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One more job.

One more job and I'll talk to her.

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I promise.

Sic Quaerimus Astra.

END COMMUNICATION.