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1. A Paradise with a Catch, or: Two Little Sisters
The Silver Anchor's living area. Soft afternoon light coming through the ports. Shutia was sunk deep into the sofa, giving herself over to a pleasant and undemanding silence.
Or so she thought.
"...Huh?"
Something at the edge of her vision. She looked right.
A girl was sitting there. She hadn't been there a moment ago.
"Sati?! When did you — how did you even get on the ship—"
"Ehehe, big sis. I've been here the whole time."
Sati's smile was the kind that made it difficult to think clearly — pure and bright and entirely without agenda. She attached herself to Shutia's right arm without any preliminary steps.
"Big sis. I'm the happiest person in the world, getting to be your little sister!"
"What — when did we agree to — and 'big sis' is not a fair thing to just — Sati—"
Shutia was fighting very hard to maintain an appropriate expression when something different settled against her left arm. A warmth with a different quality to it.
She turned. Slowly.
Red hair. Expressionless face. Kanoa.
"Kanoa?! You too, why is—"
"...big sis wants me to be your little sister. right?"
"I — well — objectively speaking you are — I mean there's a certain—"
"...settled. starting today, I'm big sis's real little sister." The grip on Shutia's left arm became definitive. "not letting go."
Right arm: Sati, radiantly wholesome, apparently attached permanently.
Left arm: Kanoa, stating facts in the tone of someone describing weather.
Both hands occupied. The exact shape of the thing Shutia was not supposed to want, assembled and presenting itself.
"Oh no. Oh no oh no — this is wonderful but this is absolutely going to result in divine punishment and I have no idea what to do—"
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2. Approaching Footsteps, or: The Shock of Awakening
Shutia was still cycling between delight and terror when the living area door opened.
Quietly.
Step. Step.
The sound had no business being that measured. The cold sweat arrived immediately.
Ledea Mace stood in the doorway. Silver hair. A smile that had been assembled with great care and was not reaching her eyes.
"...My, my. Shutia."
The darkness pooling behind her was probably a trick of the light.
She stepped forward. Then again. Her voice, when it came, had the warmth of something kept in a very cold place.
"You really do have a gift for acquiring little sisters. Even with a perfectly good older sister already at home — look at this wonderful family you've built. What remarkable ambition."
"Sis! This isn't what it looks like — this was completely outside my control, it was an accident, it's a disaster—!"
The light left Ledea's eyes.
She raised the very large dictionary she was holding.
"AAAAAAAAHHHH—"
Shutia hit the floor.
The Silver Anchor's living area. Exactly as it always was. The news playing quietly on the monitor. No Sati. No Kanoa. No dictionary.
She had fallen asleep somewhere between lunch and the afternoon light, and the nap had provided a thorough accounting of her current anxieties.
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3. The Real Body Heat, or: A Monopoly Reconfirmed
"...What was that? You're doing exercises by screaming now?"
Ledea looked up from the monitor, genuinely puzzled. She was holding her tablet. Not a dictionary.
"Sis... you're real, right? You're not angry?"
"Did you have a strange dream? You look terrible, Shutia."
Ledea came over with an expression of mild exasperation, and Shutia launched herself off the sofa and wrapped both arms around her with full force.
"Hey—! What — that's too tight, let go—"
"Sis—! You're the real one, right?! This is real! There aren't any new little sisters anywhere, right?!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Go wash your face. You're wasting a perfectly good day off."
She said it with her mouth. With her hands, she patted Shutia's back — slow, reluctant in the way of someone who has decided they may as well — until the grip gradually loosened.