Regret me not

### I Once Knew You

The session opens with Auntie, Azat, Stroke, Diamant and Ringer gathering at 4va’s bar to raise a toast to the memory of Erlareo. Stroke speaks up, giving a makeshift speech in his name, and talking about all the good qualities that the party saw in him in their brief time with him. The group sit together and think about everything they saw in him, listening to what the others have to say in his memory, before lifting their drinks and somberly toasting to his name. As they share with one another their thoughts on their companion, 4va steps in asking about him and wondering how he died, seemingly pretty insensitive to his loss, and largely curious. She presses the party for only a moment before Stroke asked her to leave and stop asking her questions. After the toast is made Diamant drains the rest of her drink and turns on Azat. She confronts him, asking why he was acting so strangely in HELL, and telling him that she feels lied to. Azat, calm and collected, tells Diamant that he doesn’t know what sort of attitude she described to him, and says that he considers it hardly a lie to keep his shapeshifting abilities from her, as she previously had no business in knowing.

Diamant, almost desperate now, tries to explain herself, saying how he’s always been there for her, her whole life, and keeping such a massive secret from her makes her feel like everything she thought she knew about him was a lie. She explains how she feels betrayed, and is very clearly hurt by his actions. While she explains to him, Azat doesn’t seem fazed by Diamants vulnerability, and once she’s finished he puts his drink down and looks at her coldly, telling her that the person she thought she knew was her employee. He only cares for her because she pays him well to do so. He explains how, if not for her wealth, she wouldn’t even have him to rely on, and this new person she feels she’s meeting has been him the whole time, and in their trip to HELL he simply dropped his caring act. Diamant sits in silence for a moment after this, and no one speaks to either of them as she quietly regains her composure. Eventually, Diamant pushes her dink away and turns to Ringer and Auntie, offering them a ride to the Oldwood reservation, as she’s leaving immediately and is stopping there on her way. Both Ringer and Auntie are happy to accept, thanking her for her offer, and Diamant, without a further word to anyone else, leaves the club.

### Home Sweet Home

As Diamant drives Ringer and Auntie back to Oldwood, the trip is nearly entirely silent, as no one speaks. The trip is uneventful however, and Diamant first arrives at Ringers boat and drops her off there. Ringer quietly gets out of the can and says her quick goodbyes, Diamant telling her to look into the image quality that she before making her way back inside. Diamant then asks Auntie if she has an address, which Auntie is happy to give, and the drive is only a short distance from Ringers residence. Once they arrive Diamant and Auntie talk with one another before Diamant leaves, Diamant thanking her for helping her through the mission and Auntie explaining to her that it’s none of her business what happens between her and Azat, but if she were to ever need someone to talk to, Auntie's door will always be open to her. They talk about how the mission to rescue the Silvers family was hard on Diamant, and that she wasn’t prepared to see everything she did, but wants to continue, saying how she thinks that she’ll get used to this new life eventually. Before Diamant leaves, she mentions to Auntie how she knows some people who do some “Volunteer work” that may be interested in working with Auntie, and Auntie says that she is happy to look into it for her, as helping others without resorting to violence would be a wonderful break from Wastehunting.

Diamant then drops Auntie off at her place and continues her drive to visit a place called the “Golden Grace”. She meets up with Valerian and Corona, telling them how it’s good to see their faces and them telling her how she looks like she could use a shower. The three of them have a quick conversation, Corona telling Diamant that she doesn’t normally look as dirty as she is, and allowing her to use the shower for as long as she likes. Diamant takes a shower and changes her clothes before messaging Stroke and asking her when she can meet with her. Stroke replies to her after only a moment, saying that she can meet with her the next day, and Diamant agrees to pick her up at the Tartarus club tomorrow. She then leaves the room she was staying in to meet with a woman she calls Perona, and tells her about Auntie, explaining how she thinks she would be a great addition to the volunteer work she does, and Perona seems interested in what she has to say, telling Diamant she’ll think about it and let her know once she makes a decision.

Meanwhile, Stroke, Stitches, Auntie and Peppermint, each find their way to get clean, Auntie showering and changing at her tent, Peppermint somberly making her way back to her apartment, meeting up with a friend she calls Kai, Stitches checking in with Silvers and Stroke to check in on her cyberware, and Stroke sneaking into a gym to which she doesn’t have a membership to illegally shower. The three of them spend the rest of the day at their safe houses. Ringer, after being dropped off at her boat house, burns her old clothes that were stained with blood and sweat, before making her way to the mosque to meet with Imam. Imam is happy to see her, but is very quick to notice how she is upset, asking what she’s been doing with her time that's troubling her. Ringer begins to explain what she was doing but quickly begins to open up to him, admitting to him that she’s been having hallucinations and how she needs a break from reliving her past traumatic memories. Imam is quiet while she explains and once she explains he invites her to stay at the temple with him. The two of them spend the rest of the day together, cleaning the temple and talking through the hardships that she’s been through. As the day ends, the group finds themselves making their way back to their safehouses and getting an undisturbed rest for the first time in days.

### Back to Business

The very next morning Stitches decides to call a few friends, the first is unavailable at work and the second she calls Dina. Dina answers her call and Stitches asks her if she would be willing to meet with her sometime in the next few days to catch up with one another. Dina tells her that she would be happy to and promises to meet her at a cinnabon the next day. After calling with her, she then makes her way to Alister’s place and asks him for any work he may have for her. Alister is happy to give her a job to pay off some of her debt with him and she spends the whole afternoon working on this job. Once she finishes Stitches reaches out to Stroke and Auntie regarding when they want to implant their new cyberwhere and contacts Azat asking if he could drop them off to her. Azat confirms that he is able to give her the cyberwhere and Stroke says she’d like to implant her arm blades later in the week. Auntie is unresponsive to her messages until much later in the day, seemingly busy, but when she does respond the two of them talk over the recovery time that would be needed for lung surgery, and decide to perform the surgery early in the morning, so Auntie will have the time to heal before AM returns.

Meanwhile, Ringer stays at her boat house, talking with people online and Peppermint invites Kai to go out with her, the two of them spending the entire day getting wasted at nearby bars until they are too exhausted to drink anymore. Stroke spends the first half of her day at the Tartarus club, but Diamant arrives sometime in the afternoon, and Stroke leaves the club with her. Diamant offers Stroke food and the two of them talk while they eat. Diamant begins by apologizing to Stroke for constantly arguing with her, telling her that while she does get on her nerves often, she does admire her at least a little bit and would like to try to be her friend. Stroke lets her finish before apologizing herself, saying that she shouldn’t have been so short with her and been more patient, since this whole mission has been Diamants first time Wastehunting. The two of them talk for a moment, sharing with one another how their childhoods were so vastly different and bonding a little over how Once they are done talking together, Stroke asks Diamant why she wanted to talk with her, and Diamant begins to go over some of the information they have gathered so far to organize it. The two of them talk over how it seems impossible for Stroke to have survived the fall from the roof, and Stroke remembering that she was shot, but was fine when she woke up. As the day goes on, the two of them eventually decide to pay Warden Wright a visit, disguising themselves and pressing him for any further information he may have on Stroke. The two of them message Ringer and ask if she can find any information on Warden Wakoa Wright, and it only takes her a few minutes to find his home address and share it with them. Having gained this information the two of them decide to meet back up the next day, wait for him at his house, and talk with him there to get the needed information out of him.

As the day ends and a new day begins Auntie makes her way early in the morning to meet with Stitches to insert her new cyberware lungs. Arriving at the metro at 4 AM, she arrives at Alisters place and meets with Stitches at 5 in the morning. The two talk for a short while outside before Stitches leads Auntie inside and introduces her to Alister. Alister is initially shocked to see an ork enter his shop and when Auntie and Alister see each other it becomes immediately apparent to both of them that Al will not be able to help perform the surgery, as he’s a hobgoblin, and would risk infecting Auntie with goblinization being that it affects orks. Al explains to Stitches the dilemma and Stitches volunteers to man the behind the scenes of the shop for him while he manages the front for the duration of Auntie's recovery. Deciding that this is a good plan, Stitches leads Auntie to the room in which she will perform her surgery and prepares her for the operation. Once Auntie is unconscious on anesthesia she considers the best way to begin only for a moment before starting. Opening her ribcage is easy enough for her to do, but once she extracts the actual lungs themselves Auntie will have mere minutes before she reaches critical condition. Deciding not to take any chances, Stitches takes a shot of a special drug that allows for her to move faster and with more precision. After dosing herself, Stitches quickly extracts Aunties lungs one at a time and replaces them with the mechanical ones. The whole procedure takes her no more than 90 seconds to complete, and putting her ribs back into place and sewing up the flesh is no problem for her as she’s done this dozens of times. Auntie wakes up only around an hour of being unconscious and the two of them talk for a moment concerning her recovery plan. While dosed up on pain killing drugs, Auntie asks Stitches if she has a jigsaw puzzle and Stitches hastily makes one out of an old picture for her. Auntie spends the rest of the day resting, and Stitches checks in on her regularly.

Sometime in the afternoon Stroke and Diamant meet back up in Diamants car and, using the information that Ringer gave them the previous day, make their way to Warden Wright's home to wait for him. Stroke discusses the plan with Diamant, asking about a charming spell and they consider kidnapping the Warden under the effects of a charming spell. Talking over their plans, it becomes readily apparent that the two of them don’t really know what the plan is, only that they plan on getting information from the warden. Stroke argues against kidnapping the warden completely, and vouches for keeping him unharmed as much as possible, though violence, or at least hostility, is likely going to be unavoidable.

### Warden Wright

The two riots park outside of his driveway and wait for him to return from work. They wait for a few hours in the car, and it’s only at 8:00 that Wright's car finally pulls into his driveway. They wait for him to enter his house and the two of them leave the car, Stroke wearing the helmet she found on the Shattered and Diamant casting a spell to disguise her face as another person. Stroke takes out her mechanical eye and sends it over to his window to see what he does. She spies on him while he makes himself dinner and eats it alone. He then sits in his living room and puts on the television, seemingly going to watch it until he falls asleep. At this time Diamant and Stroke decide to knock on his door and confront him face to face. He answers his door and Diamant doesn’t hesitate before beginning to intimidate him, telling him she wants to talk with him regarding his unlawful activities. Wright shockingly remains unphased by this intimidation tactic, rather, seeming confused by what she’s talking about. He tells her that she has the wrong person and doesn’t know what she’s talking about, insisting that he is of no importance.

Diamant presses him further, asking him why he was conspiring with Anthoy Silvers, and asks him what he knows about Nakamura Runin and her arrest. At the mention of Stroke and Silvers Wright begins to start talking, as he does know about them. He tells Diamant and Stroke that he will tell them everything they want to know just as soon as they leave, and the two of them agree, preferring not to resort to violence. He tells them that Stroke was released under some unlawful conditions and that if she is found by E-SEC she will be brought back into custody. He also tells the two of them that Stroke wasn’t the only one arrested and held without a trial, and that there were other people arrested under similar circumstances. Diamant inquires as to why, and the warden admits that he doesn’t know, only that it’s his job to keep them locked up, and mentions that while he isn’t certain of it, he’s heard rumor that his bosses are holding them hostage and working with New Evolution on a project. He mentions how he was never fond of his superiors and that they don’t communicate with him what happens with the prisoners and that he’s heard a rumor that some experimentation was going on, but he knows no further on the matter and frankly, he doesn’t care.

In regards to Anthony Silvers Wright tells Stroke and Diamant that he doesn’t currently know what he’s doing or where he is. He had no communication with Silvers before he met with him on the boat and claimed to be his friend. Wright describes that he and a few other members of E-SEC had been on the boat with him because they were conducting a meeting between a few of the Wardens of Empyria and Autodock industries regarding business that had nothing to do with the missing prisoners or the bombing of Autodock industries. The Warden asks about Anthony Silvers, and Diamant refuses to give much information on him, only that he was being forced to work for some unknown people. At the mention of the experiments possibly done to the prisoners held without charges, Stroke begins to quietly panic, and Diamant tells Wright that she has no more questions for Wright, and the two of them leave him to enjoy the rest of his night.

### Reconvening

As Stroke and Diamant leave Warden Wright's house and remove their disguises Stroke begins to panic after learning what was possibly done to her while she was in prison. She starts frantically asking questions that Dimant has no answer to, and going over all the worst possible outcomes and possibilities. Diamant, trying to calm her, messages Stitches asking where she is and if she and Stroke can see her immediately. Stitches explains that she’s busy, and it’s only after Diamant insists that their situation is urgent, if not critical, that Stitches directs her to Alisters place under promise that they won’t stay long. Diamant quickly makes her way with Stroke to the area and both are met with Alister who stops them only a moment before Stitches calls to them from the room where Auntie is Resting.

Hurriedly, Diamant and Stroke explain what they learned at Wrights place and Stroke talks to her describing how she was quite possibly experimented on. Though she has no idea what she’d be looking for, she asks Stitches to perform a quick check up on her to make sure that she doesn’t have any chemicals in her bloodstream that shouldn’t be present, and to find out why she healed so fast from her bullet wound. Stitches pulls out a needle and a syringe to perform a blood draw and at the sight of the needle all want to figure out what’s going on with her seems to evaporate from Stroke, as her panic is replaced with fear of the needle. Diamant calms and distracts her while Stitches prepares the needle for a blood draw and when she is at her calmest Stitches quickly draws Strokes blood. While preparing to run a few tests on her blood, Stitches asks her to pee in a cup so she can test her urine for unnecessary chemicals. While Stroke does this Stitches scans Strokes blood for anything noteworthy, but finds nothing abnormal. When Stroke returns she runs a test on her urine sample as well but finds only traces of LSD left over from their stay at Ye Old Salt. Thinking for a moment, Stitches thinks to try only one last thing. Pulling out a small Stitches Thread, Stitches makes a small incision on Strokes arm, causing it to bleed profusely. Rather than heal it immediately, Stitches watches the wound for any abnormal healing that may be seen in the time that it’s left untreated. However, Strokes blood and damaged skin behaves exactly as she might expect from a healthy sopratonian woman, and sighing, Stitches stitches her arm back up.

Both eager to hear what she has to say, Diamant and Stroke wait for Stitches' proclamation and Stitches tells them that Stroke is healthy with the exception of the LSD traces. Confused and not feeling much comforted, Stroke and Diamant talk with Stitches only a moment longer before Stitches tells them that she has to leave, and doesn’t think Al will let them stay for much longer. Somewhat disappointed and still nervous, the two wastehunters leave for the Tartarus club while Stitches prepares to meet with Dina.

Arriving at the Cinnabon that had been chosen earlier, Stitches meets with a charming woman on the older side who seems really happy to see her. The two chat for a while regarding where Stitches has been and what she’s been doing the whole week that she’s been out of contact with her. Dina is shocked and more than a little concerned to hear that Stitches has taken up Wastehunting, but while she does tell her that she should be careful, she doesn’t disagree with her decision or even try to persuade her to rethink. After talking for a great deal of time over this and catching Dina up on Stitches current life, Stitches asks how Dina is doing and what’s been going on in her life. Dina admits that nothing nearly so crazy as starting Wastehunting has been happening, but talks to Stitches regarding her family. Dina mentions that she’s expecting a niece soon, and talks for a while about her sisters, Sarah and Remy. The two of them enjoy their time in each other's company for a while before Dina eventually sighs and says that she has to get to work soon. Dina thanks Stitches for her time, saying it was good to see her again and leaves the cinnamon buns for Stitches to eat. After Dina leaves Stitches looks at the cinnamon buns left on the table for a moment before sighing, standing up, and throwing both cinnamon buns, untouched, in the garbage and leaving to return to Alisters place.