Talking to a Samurai is not always as easy as it looks sure, a newly awaked one might still be mostly human and therefore reasonable, but once they have been a Samurai for a while, let's say you might as well be talking to the alien overlords they serve that is how human the still are.

--Start of a speech by the governor of Rome in an effort to eject the Samurai from the city.

After we finished cleaning ourselves, I went back into Snake Eyes' bedroom, lounging around in some new clothing that Lyssa got for me. It is just some sweatpants, shorts, and a baggy t-shirt with an image of a hyena with the text There ain’t no mountain Hyenaf. Snake Eyes is not here, though apparently some of the city people wanted to talk to her about the recent incident, so she went to deal with that. I personally did not want to cause any more problems by showing up with her, so I decided to stay behind and lie down for a bit.

Snake Eyes room is really nice. It is both clean and organised but, at the same time, really cosy with the little decorations here and there. The bed is also lower than normal, almost sinking into the ground, blending perfectly into the pillow corner to the side.

After a while of me just lying on the bed staring through the window and trying my best not to fall asleep, snake eyes finally come back. I sit up in the bed, pulling my shirt back over my stomach. “You're back,” I say, noticing that my voice sounds a lot more tired than I had planned.

Snake Eyes is just looking at me with this goofy smile before shaking herself out of it. “Yeah, I am back; I guess I did not process properly that when you said you would be waiting for me, you would be lying on my bed.” She says in a bemused tone.

“I am sorry. Was I not supposed to?” I ask, a bit stressed out. I guess I really did not check any of her boundaries.

“No, it is more than fine; it makes me happy, actually. I was just not expecting it, and that made me a bit stunned with happiness,” she says giving me a big smile.

I smile up at her. “That is good, so shall we talk,” I say, patting the spot beside me.

She nods and slowly crawls on the bed, sitting down against me. “So what do we talk about,” she asks, leaning her head down on my shoulder.

“That I don’t really know. I've never really done this before, so any suggestions.” I say a bit awkwardly, how I wish I could let Evelin do all of this for me.

“Well, here is my question from before. So you are a samurai?” she says, looking at me curiously.

Oh, that is a bit easier. “Yes, I am. My name, as you might have heard, is Maniac.” I say with a nod.

“Where did that name even come from?” Snake Eyes asks with a smile barely containing her giggle.

“I kind of killed a whole bunch of people on my first day of being a Samurai.” I say with a bit of a shrug.

I feel Snake Eyes go stiff against me. “Why?”

“Because they were human traffickers, and that made me really angry… I guess that was my first outburst of anger caused by the Samurai drugs.” I say, coming to a realisation.

“Your drugs cause you to be angry?” she says as i feel her relax back into me

“I would not say cause, but they make it easier to become really angry, but I got it under control. Also, now that I have upgraded my drugs, the effects have lessened considerably.” i try to reassure her.

“That is good, but why use drugs in the first place?”

“Uhm well,” i say, fidgeting with the blankets. “When I just became a samurai, it was just a cheap thing that allowed me to fight better and longer,” I say, looking at her and trying to gauge her reaction. “And they still give me some benefits so I continue to use them.” trying my best to explain the positive side of things.

“I guess that makes sense, but now you have a lot of points, right? You can afford to not use the drugs anymore?” She says that last bit like a question and weirdly I can hear some worry in her voice, but no judgement.

“I mean, I probably should for the ones I use a lot,” I admit, “but I’m not sure. It’s nice to be able to turn them off, and I like the flexibility they bring,” I admit feeling strong all the time could be fun but I am not the most careful person out there and turning off my sense of pain just sounds like a bad idea.

“Just be careful, okay?” She sighs, putting her arm around my back slowly scratching my back, before asking “Do you have any specialities? Besides the drugs and the big axe thing..”

“It is not really me, but Evelin is a world-class hacker, so I have access to, like, the library of all libraries of digital skeleton keys, meaning that I can get basically into anything,” I say a bit unsure

“Oh, that is so cool,” she says with excitement. “If you have a high enough catalogue, we might be able to break the shield with that.”

“We don’t really have a catalogue. Well, that is not true. We have a basic one to get some gear, but most of it is just her being amazing,” I say with some amount of pride.

“You really like her, huh?” Snake Eyes says with a little laugh.

“Of course. She is like my cute little sister, and I need to protect her. How about you? What do you specialise in?”

“Artillery mostly”, Snake Eyes says with a deep sigh. “When the incursion first broke out, and the underworld got sealed off, we needed a lot of firepower to protect everyone, so I bought a lot of artillery since the amount of damage was great and everyone could use it.” she shivers and drags her knees in close to her chest. “Later, with the twins' help, we built a wall, and I could invest in some more things, so I got the mech with specialised mounts, allowing me to repurpose some of that artillery.” she finishes the story quickly.

I still find it hard to think of what that situation must have been like, having no support or weapons to fight off a horde of monsters. The death toll must have been high. I try my best to comfort her by hugging her close and putting a kiss on top of her head.

“You must have raked in the points with all those cannons around,” I say to get off the topic a bit, I think. Fuck why conversation hard.

“Not really. The degree of separation is quite high, so I am barely running positive on them at all, and that is only because there are so many plants outside the walls,” she says with a bit of head, making me wonder just how often she has complained about this already.

“That is where the mech comes in, then. More direct action, more points.”

“Kind of, it also allows me to target problematic aliens more easily. So being more flexible.” She say

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“What about the eyes and stuff?” I ask, curious since those are slightly different from her general vibe.

“I mean, I guess you are somewhat the same in that regard. My complete face was changed for, you know, the” she gestures around with her hands before sighing out the word “sex work.” then she looks back at me, a bit unsure. “My eyes were done somewhat improperly, so they always kind of hurt, and I did not like the colour, so I had them replaced with something I did like, and that is also useful. I believe you have a similar reason for changing yours.”

“I have not changed anything about my face yet,” I say without thinking.

Snake eyes pause, looking at me with more interest. “But you look somewhat different from me.”

I sigh. “Well, yeah, it is a hologram,” I say, turning the thing off and revealing my real face. Somehow, showing it to her makes me feel really uncomfortable as if it is not really my face anymore. “This is how I truly look.”

Snake Eyes gives me a very intense look. “I do see the resemblance between us now.

“Yeah, I didn't really have a chance to change my face, so this is what it looks like for now.”

“So you do want to change it?” she asks, looking at me intently.

“Yeah, and now that I think about it, maybe me and Evelin need something that allows us to actively change our face depending on who is in control. Not that I mind sharing a face with her, but it feels like we both have different ideas as to how we should look.” I say, trying to figure out if we could set up something with the holograms or maybe something more biological.

“That might actually help me differentiate the two of you better.” She says with a smile. “Not that I want you to be different, just that it might be easier.”

I nod. “Something to do when we get out of here. I think investing in weapons might be better seeing the situation we are in now than first.”

Snake Eyes sighs dramatically beside me. “I know, right? Why can’t they just give us a thousand points every day instead of ten? Talking about getting out, how did you even get here in the first place?”

“So I don’t remember a lot of it, seeing as I was dealing with the bullet in my brain, which makes my memories of that time a bit foggy. But I was in a building that exploded and collapsed down into the undercity after that; I spent a few days just wandering around, trying my best to survive.” I say, trying my best to think back, but it kind of became a blur of plants and gore at some point.

“Do you remember where you fell through?”

“I mean, not exactly, but I am pretty sure I can retrace my steps somewhat, so I might take a bit of time.”

Suddenly, some of the speakers in the Snake Eyes room produce a static sound before Lyssa’s voice comes through. Lyssa would recommend again that the hole that was created was closed almost instantly after you fell through, almost like it was created on purpose.

I nod. “I guess that makes some sense. It is an easy way to hide the evidence.”

“Evidence of what?” Snake Eyes asks curiously.

“Yeah, I was originally in this city to figure out what was going on and found a facility that was creating mutated antithesis. Guess they are using the undercity as their trash shoot or testing ground,” I say, feeling disgusted by the entire notion.

“Fucking bastards,” I hear snake eyes say in a low growling tone

“Yeah, that sums that up quite nicely”, I say.

“Wait, if you were going to investigate, does that mean you had a team?” she asks, getting excited.

I nod. “I did have one, but they probably went underground after the explosions. We were, after all, betrayed by the company that we worked for, so it might take a while for them to come out of hiding to find us. Trying to figure out our own way out might be faster, and after today, I am not sure how much time we still have to just wait around for a rescue party.”

“Hope for the best, plan for the worst,” Snake Eyes says with a nod. “So, should we stop procrastinating and actually talk about our relationship?” as she pokes me in the side.

I nod again. “Yeah, I am not really sure how to relationship, but I will do my best.”

Snake Eyes reach up, her hand ruffling my hair. “Sure, let’s see. I am correct to assume that you want a romantic relationship.”

I nod in confirmation.

“Then I guess it mostly comes down to what we want and don’t want in a relationship. Anything you can think of?”

“Hum, maybe I'd prefer it if you did not pull off my mask suddenly; it is a bit personal and makes me a bit nervous,” I say, poking at my bracelet.

“I see. I am sorry,” she says with a downcast voice

“It is fine. It does not bother me that much, especially now that I have the whole fake face facade going on, so it is even less of an issue, but still, I wear a mask because I don’t want people to see my face so it not being pulled off helps” I say trying my best to reassure here

“You hate your face that much?”

“No, I don’t think so. I mean, it is mostly Evelin that has a problem with it; for me, it is more like a feeling that it is not really my face,” I say as I touch my face slightly. “ Also, having the mask allows me to take it off and become somewhat of a normal person again since people won’t be able to recognise me.”

“So it is more a privacy thing,” she says, looking at me.

I nod. “Yeah, I still need to sort out my feelings on a lot of it, but yeah, I have been seen as a beauty and a tool for most of my life, and I don’t want me, Maniac, to also become something like that.” i say trying my best to explain my feelings on the topic.

“I can understand that. I guess the moment you show your face, there will be thousands of deepfakes on all the porn sites.”

“There are already just with the mask on,” I say with a bit of a grimace. “Anyway, what about you? Any issues you have with me?”

She pauses for a bit, then takes in a deep breath. “I prefer it if you did not call me snake eyes. It seems so impersonal.”

“I can do that for sure. How about love or babe.” I say with a bit of a smile as she starts to blush. “Anything else?”

“Well, maybe it is less something I don’t like. I just need to know how to interact with Evelin.”

“That I don’t really know either, if I am honest. Like, I assume that she is going to end up in some awkward situations with you, and that is something we just have to accept, I guess, but for the details, I think you should talk to her about those,” I suggest.

“I will try that. You think that she is willing to talk to me?” she asks, sounding rather unsure about herself.

“I hope so. I mean, I do think she likes you. I am sorry that I can’t really give you more. Me and her have not really discussed it all that much, so it is going to be a lot of trial and error.”

She nods again to herself. “I can do it it is just a case of getting along with my girlfriend's sister. I can do that.”

“that is one way to put it,” I say with a smile. “Talking about getting closer to people, there is something that I should probably disclose,” I say, feeling rather unsure about myself.

“Uhm, okay, sure, what is it?” she asks, looking up at me curiously.

“Me and Evelin are kind of in some kind of free relationship thing already,” I say, feeling rather unsure.

“You are dating each other. How does that work?”

I want to react but am momentarily stunned by someone bursting out laughing in the back of my mind.

“No, not her, just some other people. We did not really realise that we were split apart at that time, so it is probably going to be a bit messy when we get back, but you know you deserve to know, and I should have told you sooner.” I ramble out in a bit of a panic.

Snake Eyes stays silent for a while, “ Maniac, would the other people be angry by the two of us going out?” she asks in a neutral tone.

“No, they should not. It is supposed to be semi-open.” I try to explain.

“Semi-open?”

“Like no random hookups, but if you like someone, you are allowed to date them,” I explain, trying to ignore the fact that our first time was kind of a random hookup.

She stays silent for a bit longer after that. “Okay, that is fine, I guess.”

“You’re not mad?” I ask, still feeling rather unsure.

“I am a bit confused, I don’t know. It is going to take a while to wrap my head around it, but I can accept it for now. That might change when I meet the others, though. Is that okay?”

I let out a sigh of relief. “That is good. I will try to do my best to answer anything that you are unsure about.”

She just nods while staying quiet for a while.

“So what now, then?” she asks as she leans back into me. Seemingly trying to ignore the kind of awkward conversation from before.

“I don’t know, maybe grab some food. I was just about to go eat before the breach started, so I am actually Pritty hungry. After that, I don’t know, talk more, cuddle, a combination of both.”

My love gives me a kiss on the cheek before getting out of bed. “yeah, let's do it.”