[@Crimmy]

[b]wew LAD[/b]

We worked in tandem on the mechanism for a few minutes, with April essentially putting me through a review session of everything I had figured out. The general concept of what I was working with was all but there, with the next step being trawling through the spare parts to get started on reverse engineering...

But...

[color=00aeef]"So, catch me up, nee-chan! How'd you de-steam without beating him into next week, anyway?"[/color]

Nobody loved to get caught up in their own whirlwind of conversations like a pair of sisters.

Can't be helped, can it?

While they began to prattle on off into their own little world with April retelling the grand story of kicking me in the face, I took the opportunity to take a small breather from trying to force my brain to work in so many dimensions at once.

Inevitably, I found myself locking eyes with a familiarly stoic gaze.

[b]"Sorry, you must be getting pretty bored just watching us try and do something resembling work."[/b]

Even if she didn't outwardly indicate... much of anything, really, it couldn't be fun. She almost definitely had family to be seeing around here... Really, who the hell did those brats think they were, dragging this poor girl around like she was one of their playmates?

Well, I'm also sure that, in fairness to them, they were expecting something more lively than this to be dragging her too, but I still digress.

Galla was here for family day, that much was a certainty. I knew I'd seen that flat expression on someone here before.

Someone with the same dark hair and eyes.

The same sharp features.

The same accent, even...

I should have pieced it together sooner, really. Perhaps it was the lack of aggression beneath that threw me off, like getting a stone instead of ice. Beneath the blank, all I could read was more blank, after all.

No undercurrents there to terrorize or mystify.

[b]"Say... you're Gratia's sister, aren't you?"[/b]