Did my first Contract mission! I mostly just sort of walked around a police station where there was this one dead guy and then another dead guy. There was this little kid there though Ria, who's really smart and she's got something going on kinda like Alfred where she knows how people are feeling. I'm really glad it's not like his though because for him it makes him really upset a lot of the time so he's gotta stay away from people. Where was I? Oh yeah, so we were going around the station and Ria was asking these questions and Secret went on a side quest where they found out why the other police person got shot up. They both ended up doing most of the work on account of I can't read. Ria ended up having to do a lot of stuff and see a lot of bad things happen because of that so I feel bad about it. If I'd known how she wouldn't have had to see those dead people. I forgot how much that can mess up a person. I've seen a lot of dead people. I honestly don't really remember exactly all what happened with the case because I wasn't really there for a lot of what was going on and I couldn't understand the evidence. There was also Secret, who I thought was an android but isn't! They solved all the other half of the case by themselves. All I could really do was show em a cool ice cream place and pay for it. I thought maybe I could be helpful just from being muscle but it seems being buff alone doesn't mean you'll make it in this business. Maybe it doesn't matter that much though, still got paid by my benefactor by the end of the mission. I hope I can be more helpful on the next mission. 

You might think the title was weird but I swear it makes sense. Like you know, you're enjoying some nice chilly ice cream and you're loving it so much it's just getting all over you, you know? 

Anyway, Snow out. Thanks benefactor for making my ice cream dreams a reality <: 

“After careful consideration, I have deemed my mind capable of learning the lesson administered by my folly which I have recently suffered, and thus elected to purify myself of the wound it inflicted upon me. Though it seems Fate is far less lenient a schoolmaster, and two more sermons came from It.

My first admonishment came in the form of the Bioengineering Department’s response to my plea: the doctor most suited for such a procedure was none other than the Vain Doctor I met in that uneventful event, the Inspection. In that moment, I heard Fate’s cold voice in the written letter. Awaken, fool, It scolded. Your waking hours are wasted in a land of dreams.

I went, and the Vain Doctor healed me. He claims that he does not dream, but his powers have had a more lasting impression on me than his words. I feel it, in the back of my mind: If I speak of it too soon, my punishment will return. And yet what is there to speak of? Is it the face in the dream?

Perhaps. Yet for all the pieces I am missing, I cannot see plainly which one mustn’t be found.”

I was summoned for a special mission that needed my expertise.  It seems command finally has noticed my genius.  However, they sent they most boring individual to recruit me.  He was so bland that I forgot his face.

I was instructed to head to a particular shuttle bay and meet with some others who would be joining me on this little errand.

There was Spark, there will be words about them later.  Lots of mean angry words.  Then there was Kaiza, our pilot to and from the location, and our command representative, Echless.  I couldn't have been blessed with a stupider or uglier lot.  Spark, for one, refused to let me beautify their face, dispute the ugly scar covering half of it.

The errand is to investigate a DECR, and in my department no less.  I hate tatel tails.

We arrive at the airlock, no thanks to Kaiza's excellent flying skills, though I don't see what was wrong with the interior ship transport.  We're greeted by the head scientist who's name and face were so unremarkable that I'm not even going to bother putting them in the report, and his obviously poorly put together genetically engineered body guard.

As we're questioning the residents of the lab, Spark, that nasty, no good, ugly, oppressive Enforcer pig decided to shoot my hand off!  I'll have to file a report with his superior officer and have him reprimanded for his actions!  That bastard deserves not a single ounce of mercy for shooting off my hand!

At any rate.  There was nothing wrong with the lab.

Everything is OK.

"It feels really heavy" Ria complains a bit. She holds the pistol and looks down the range. 

"It should It's a serious weapon."

Ria looks over at Spark.

Reaches out. They are focused, calm. Not malicious. 

Ria breaths. Then aims down the scope. 

"Breath in, then let out half way. Then hold."

Ria breathed in. Release. Hold. Fire. 

She clipped the shoulder of the target. The gun hurt in her hand. 

"Ouch." 

"Yeah, that's recoil. You need to be braced for it. Here, let me show you a shooting stance, and how to hold your arms."

---------

Ria sits with Apa. Apa feels guilty. Worried. A lot of things really. 

The house was full of new emotions to Ria's newly awakened sense. 

"Apa. You took me... From the Biogenetics?" 

Apa is sad. 

"From a lab. It was hard. I thought I got away with it. I carved a hole where my stomach usually was. Then I gave you a drug to keep you quiet, and put you in. I did some ... other things to hide it."

Ria knew it was true. She always knew that she was... That she came into the family.... That she was different. 

She had more questions ... But it was too much.

"How..."

Ria's voice breaks.

"... Did you know what I could do?"

Apa frowns.

"I suspected. I knew that you needed... different foods, nutrients for it to grow. So I kept that from you. Hoping it would stay under wraps. Until you were old enough to hide it... But it seems we were found."

Ria tears up. She stops being able to speaks.

Apa notices.

"Ria.. Alexandria, sweethearts, it's okay. I'm so sorry. I wish I could have protected you better. Know that I did this because I love you. I wanted you to have a full life."

Apa tears up as they take Ria in their arms. An action they have done many times in the 9 years since they stole her away and gave her a name and a family. 

"Shhh. It's okay love. You're safe. You are my daughter, and we love you."