#but theyre also dedicated to protecting Mother as theyre... LITERALLY the Facility

[west-tokyo-incidents]

"Rh-03?"

The swimming gore in the right echoes oddly with the soft blue of the left. A blue like the walls of a nursery juxtaposed with the blood of birth.

The woman stares blankly off, and does not respond to her designation.

In her hands, she cradles an empty sphere. Unbroken, unshattered, unkilled. But unliving. Short blonde hair sways gently in the wind from a little fan that noisily clicks in the corner of the room.

"...Meraki?"

She blinks rapidly, as if woken from a dream.

"Yes?" She turns, at last, to look.

A relieved smile greets her, "Is Mother talking to you again?"

She shakes her head, "No, he was singing. You should listen some time." She stands and places the empty sphere on a stand.

The room is a replica of her old bedroom, though she is no longer the apathetic, cruel teen she once was. No longer does she hide the empty socket of her eye, eternally raw and bleeding.

"I should." The visitor agrees, "I just don't have the ears, I'm afraid."

She laughs. It's a pleasant sound.

"What brings you here, --?" She says the visitor's name, but it scrambles on her tongue, a sound like static and a thousand choir voices at once.

Goosebumps and a shiver dart up the visitor's back, but the smile doesn't falter, "The Admin has called for a meeting of the Rh-08 and you hadn't responded yet."

"Oh." She blinks, as if she's only being told she'd left a charm laying somewhere, "Well, I shouldn't keep him waiting. Thank you, --."

Again.

She brushes past the Sophia instance, unworried about his presence in her room as she leaves. There's something so... reassuring yet terrifying about how she speaks names. They aren't the ones they choose, yet they're unique all the same.

The wisdom instance stares at the empty sphere on its platform. It is just that. Empty. Mother is not there.

The names Meraki speaks are ones that Mother has given them. Meraki has playfully called them nicknames, like any mother gives their children. But they feel like so much more.

Something moves in the sphere, and the wisdom instance bows, "Apologies, Mother." And he turns to leave as well.