August 27, 2022

Theres a knock at the front door of Claire's cottage. "Claire? Are you here?" There's no answer. Though, a faint whirring sound can be heard! Harmonia opens the door anyways and checks all the rooms upstairs before heading to the basement. "Claire?" All the lights are off, aside from the ones in the basement. Immediately upon entering the staircase down, she can see lots of wires. The whirring is louder, with a mixture of other sounds. She heads further down to check it out.

There's a lot of various monitors and machinery hooked up now, a lot more than there used to be. The Fred Detector seems to have been repurposed into.. something. There's little room to walk around with all the machines, cooling stations, fans... Roxy and a hooded figure are kneeled over in a corner looking over a screen and typing things. The fans and whirring are VERY loud now. Roxy's wearing an outfit similar to Sparrow's, you know the one, accompanied by a witch hat and an amethyst necklace.

The hooded figure is unrecognizable. They're wearing a mostly dark dress with some orange accents and a hood with a flower crown on top of it. There's a respirator on the ground next to them. Neither of them seem to notice Harmonia.

"C-Claire?" Harmonia asks, approaching slowly. The hooded figure finishes typing and hits enter, the lights flickering for a second. The whirring is too loud for them to hear Harmonia, might wanna try getting their attention another way. Harmonia walks up and taps them both on the shoulder.

Roxy SCREAMS and Claire turns to look at Harmonia with a smile.

"Hello, dear." Harmonia can see wires connected to Claire and Roxy's faces with little pad things at the ends of the wires, connecting to the machinery.

Harmonia looks concerned. "W-what are you doing??"

"Making bad decisions!" Roxy smiles.

"We are trying to tap into something. Attempting to see the limits of R053, the links between the different AI and entities within," Claire explains. There's two large containers of different substances on top of the machine they're huddled by, one appearing to be deep, crimson blood that's darker than a normal humans, and the other looking almost like a nebula contained within a jar.

"Why do you always say things all convoluted and confusing is it to seem smarter," Roxy snarks

"Yes, actually."

Harmonia looks at it all. "Why?? And uh- Claire can we talk?"

"For fun, for flavor," Roxy smirks.

"Of course," Claire says, removing the pads from her face and wrists as she stands up. The crimson substance runs down one of her fingers. Roxy takes hers off as well, getting up and leaning against a wall.

"You guys gonna take this room or should I skedaddle?" Roxy asks.

"Uh- we could talk upstairs? Cause of. the whirring."

Claire nods, walking upstairs. Roxy takes out her phone and starts scrollin' the tok. Harmonia follows Claire. They head into Claire's bedroom and Claire sits on the bed, patting the spot next to her.

"You wanted to talk?"

Harmonia sits next to her, trying not to cry as she swallows her tears. "Im sorry for asking that in the groupchat I just..." She looks at her hands, pressjng them against her legs so they stop shaking. "Ive... this is my first real relationship and the only other relationships i see are between demons where polyamory and open relationships are really common and I just... im sorry.." She says, taking deep breaths

"It's okay," Claire says with a smile, her deep red lipstick forming into a smile contrasting her pale complexion, "Just don't do it again, please." Claire puts a hand on Harmonia's face, turning her head to look her in the eyes. "I want to be the only one ever on your mind in such a way that gives you stomach butterflies. I often sit and ponder the things I would do to keep you as my own forever."

Harmonia nods, the tears threatening to boil over. "I just... i feel so alone and annoying and im fucking sad all the time and im so tired..." She says, choking up

Claire leans into Harmonia. "It's okay, my love."

Harmonia hugs her and stops talking, just playing with her hair. Claire hugs back, purring softly.

"So why are you tapping into rose?"

"It was Roxy's idea, she still hasn't told me the details but it's yielded interesting results."

"Is it safe??"

"Well, both of us had to use some of our blood, so... Kind of?"

"What about the nebula jar??"

"That's Roxy's blood," Claire sighs

"Whys hers like that??"

"She thought it looked cool so she just kind of changed it, corruptelam can do that."

"Oh. Wack..."