Aleph looked around before frowning and clearing her throat a little bit.

“So... Uh it’s nice that you can talk clearly Pylo but that was... Actually that was really mean. Uhm was there anything else? Or did you just want to yell at us over something no one here really had anything to do with?”

The siren tilted her head at Aleph before speaking. The tone of voice had been predatory, almost nasty with the way it verbally lashed at Omega. Aleph could admit that she at first found the whole subtle teasing tone that Pylo now spoke with kind of thrilling.

But then she had just laid into Omega like that.

But with what she said now the almost husky tone seemed a bit at odds.

“I... I just wanted you to understand, to show you how many trials and traps there were! it wasn't ever my intent to hurt any of you or be misunderstood. I just was doing what the literature said about how you work and it was wrong...I just wanted to let you know that won’t be happening anymore. I wanted to show why I’d been having so much trouble with this!”

Aleph looked at Omega who was putting on her ‘brave face’. The same one she had gotten before when everything was about to come apart at the seams on her and she fell apart into a blubbering mess over something.

Pylo twiddled her fingers a bit as Aleph watched her for a moment trying to set things straight in her head.

“Okay, you did that, but you didn't have to do THIS to Omega while you told us.”

She blinked, Aleph’s voice was a lot harsher then she was expecting. But then again it felt like the right tone to take with Pylo. It just didn't sit right with her. And she didn't like how she’d just sat there in shock while Pylo did that to Omega. Sure the two had their friction but this was way too rough!

“And I guess I can get you being upset over us not liking how you were speaking to us before? But so you pointed out that was not OUR faults! We didn't do the research you used! I’m glad you figured out what was confusing you and making it so you couldn't get across to us before. I was happy to have a clear conversation with you before even! But if you’re going to use it like this I can’t say it’s an improvement. Now if that was all, can you leave us alone Pylo? Please?”

The siren pouted, that was the only word for it. But Aleph didn't quite care just then. After that she slithered and slinked off and out of the habitat.

Omega shivered a few times but didn't say anything for a while. Just the sound of the faux breeze and their own breathing.

“I’m gonna go talk some sense-like inta our hipsalicious ship queen afore she eats all the cake like a foo! You got this right wise-most Lil-puppa”

It was not a question but Aleph nodded anyway and gently guided Omega over to one of the clouds to sit down and let out a few shuddering breaths.

“She-she was right Aleph... this was my fault too”

Oh not this again! Aleph blew a lock of her hair out of her face. This was going to call for desperate measures.

“Shove it ya seaskanklet! Or I’m gonna call that behemoth of a idiot back in here to scrub your brain out with her tongue!”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

There we go, shock and confusion instead of moping.

“Do you even know what you just said there Aleph?!”

Aleph laughed and flicked Omega in the ear.

“I called you an overly clingy diminutive of a nomadic whore. Then threatened you with what Pylo did to me in the first few months to give you something real to mope about.”

Omega stared at her like she grew a second head.

“What? I’ve been listening to enough of our resident prophet’s lunacy for a year! I know how to fit some of it together these days.”

Omega blinked a bit then finally cracked a smile.

“Yeah, I just kind of forget your not just that kid that used to follow me around in the rice fields anymore”

Aleph laughed and again blew her hair out of her face, this acceleration was getting annoying. She kind of missed not having to worry about her hair as much. Then again the way all her muscles burned and bones settled felt so much better in some ways.

Ached and stung like a bitch though.

“I dunno, I still feel like maybe I’ve pushed all of us down some kind of hill without a bottom... Everything keeps getting weirder and faster and I don’t know anything about how any of this is going on”

Omega let out a heavy breath as she flopped back into the silky fluff of the ‘clouds’. Releasing a smell in the air of fresh rain and ozone. There was some kind of bacteria that lived in the clouds, it eat the light and helped process the balance. Beyond that though it was out of Aleph’s expertise to study.

“Yeah, I feel like I didn't prepare you enough for this. But I don’t think anyone on terra prepared any of us for this. Not the academy, not whatever madness Quarti did. Maybe I should ask to send a laser back, but we were the last to leave so...”

Aleph huffed and flopped back into the clouds next to her ‘mentor’.

“We can’t send a laser back anyway Omega. We haven’t been aligned properly since before Redweed. You really need to learn some things for yourself Girl... The skillshare lets you be an expert if you know what to prepare for. But it’s getting embarrassing when you keep overlooking things because you don’t have some old obsessive riding your soul”

Omega flinched unseen from inside her cloud.

“Is it, really that bad? I’ve been trying to juggle the right mix but it’s like every shift we end up with some other random out of the blue thing. I can’t carry an expert on everything at once, it would burn me out”

Aleph sighed, she never wanted to be in this position, Omega when she was prepared was genuinely better then her at almost anything.

But only if she wasn't surprised and had the right souls on hand.

“You forget you don’t know things as well as you sometimes do. And then you get upset with yourself that you don’t and you freak out and then I’m the one having to take care of you... That feels all kinds of backwards”

Her friend gave a heavy whistling sigh through her teeth.

Then just a companionable silence.

“I believe I have some augmentation I could enact to help you with your problem”

Which was broken with a polite and soft voice that nonetheless made both terrans jump a good meter into the air out of their springy cloud beds.

Aleph went through her list of particularly foul curses she’d learned from quarti.

How had she forgotten Elsie was there the whole time!

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