Arknights story · Operator Records
A Game of Scents
Signora dei Lupi Caesar unexpectedly switches scents with Projekt Red, and she will never forget the Fang she's never acknowledged, all of this was planned by Lappland, in order to give the wolfpack a warning.
1 scenes, 249 lines
1. Interlude
249 linesSo you're here as well, Vargo...?
Are you implying my sense of smell is worse than yours?
What I mean is, we've found the right place—that thing is inside the ward.
Sending us wolves to search every nook and cranny of the landship just to find a little keepsake Lappland happened to misplace... do you not find it funny?
Enough grumbling, Caesar.
We agreed the pack leader has the power to issue any order.
So let's finish this quickly.
Is that... your Fang?
...Red.
Lappland's scent...
From the dagger in Projekt Red's hands.
How could Lappland's lost keepsake be your Fang's dagger?
...
Hmph. Our alpha she may be, but the white wolf is ultimately still just a pup.
Hey, Zaaro.
That cloud of dust there was just wild burdenbeasts trying to get out of Rhodes Island's way, no?
Is there a need to ask me when the barrens lie right before our eyes?
Patience, now.
Doesn't sound like something you'd say.
A landship just happens to stray off course into the depths of the wastes, and brushes by those mysterious roaming beings just as we happen to be on the deck, just so we can say hello...
You know how much effort I've put into arranging this special meeting for you and your kind, so why rush me?
You didn't have to trouble yourself.
We could've gone to Lungmen, or Acahualla. The few kin over there are far easier to track down.
Hm?
I mean, I could simply invite Texas's boss to listen to underground rap, or I could meet that Duck Lord at the gambling tables. Quite a few times I've done so in Siracusa.
But they're a minority amongst the Beast Aristocrats, no?
Say your so-called 'crisis' is truly so terrible, yet your first move is to find your kin hiding within human society, and hold a meeting like mortals do?
Call the other wolves back. Your kin will come soon.
Caesar is still hunting your keepsake... wait, you didn't lose it, did you?
I never had a keepsake to begin with, Zaaro.
Then...
You intended for Caesar to meet the Fang she abandoned?
Haha, I didn't say that.
She's asleep.
All you did was to get closer and she trembles so much in her dreams... her fear of you has seeped into her bones.
Heh.
A dreamland...
Enough, Caesar. This is dull and distasteful. Just take the dagger and go.
That dagger is my gift to Red.
When she had just started to understand what was going on around her, I found a beast fang and taught her how to grind it down into the sharpest dagger ever made.
What?
You still don't get it? Lappland made me come here on purpose.
Does she want me to take the dagger back? No. She wants me to eliminate the fear and pain in this human, to rid my influence from her.
Hm, that doesn't seem like her style.
Helping a poor colleague out, or perhaps expressing goodwill to the pharmaceutical organization she affiliates herself with... it is not hard to guess her intentions.
Which is why, as I said before: Our alpha she may be, but the white wolf is ultimately still just a pup.
...
Wait here, Vargo. I'll finish this senseless 'mission' in the blink of an eye.
Red.
Grandma... it's really you...?
Who else could it be...? Truly, a poor child you are.
...
Tsk. Operator Projekt Red, this is the fifth time you've been on my tail ever since I boarded this landship.
If you mean the wolves' scent, there's more than one on me.
It sounds like... you want to kill me?
If the Doctor and your boss who loves hiding in smoke won't be investigating, I'd be glad for a little exercise.
No... I don't want to fight you.
I don't know how to explain... Grandma found you, and you'll become like me. In the end, you'll...
Only winning her an insipid victory.
I listened to Grandma, and I didn't listen to Kal'tsit...
I did something wrong, and again, and again...
I am both a huntress and true wolf.
Who am I?
My heart feels so... messy.
(Pained sobbing)
Do you hate that wolf, Red?
Do you wish to forget her?
Fear not—we are on Rhodes Island. Your Rhodes Island.
I'd be glad to help you.
That's it?
That's it. How could I just ignore her while Kal'tsit's away from Rhodes Island?
Lappland, are you hoping I will praise your passion, or your kindness?
Zaaro, are you hoping I will take your words as flattery, or sarcasm?
...
Grandma, where are you going this time?
Grandma never left. I've been waiting for you to catch up to me.
...
The young red wolf subconsciously raises her foot, but quickly comes to her senses and ends up holding still.
Do not doubt me, child. Do you think there is still a need for me to fool you?
Your doubt, your pain. I will answer them both.
Come over, to Grandma's side.
...
A familiar voice, gentle words. A slight breeze blows through grassland, scraping a faint fishy smell from the soil... it is very safe here.
As if nothing has changed at all.
For a long time.
In the end, the young wolf cannot help but to step forward.
Is this a dream?
A dream, and yet reality.
Follow me, Red.
Why the silence? You would always pepper me with questions whenever we reunited... even when you were unable to string proper words together.
...
I know. You harbor hate in your heart, you blame me.
'Shouldn't', child? There can't be such a dull feeling between us.
...
You've lied to me too after all, haven't you?
On Carnevale night. You did not kill Agnese's Fang. What was that whelp called again?
L-Lunacub.
You stayed your hand, you wanted to test me.
Because...
The Signori dei Lupi may break their Fangs, but a she-beast will not abandon her children. She may swaddle them in lies, but pure relations made in the wastes will always stay strong.
Both Rhodes Islanders and that tailor... they do not understand the wastes, but you believed their words, and let a hole form in our relationship.
The truth is no longer important, and the same goes for who wins or loses...
This is the humiliation Grandma ought to shoulder, and also your rightful punishment, my child.
I said before: this is a dream, and yet reality.
The grass here... You taught me how to hide my scent and wait quietly for prey...
This tree... You taught me how to make traps and hide them under dead leaves...
That rock over there...
You used to sharpen that tooth on it, until it became the sharpest dagger.
Every forest, cave, and skeleton we've passed by... this is your history.
You will know in time.
...
Are you still thinking about our conversation earlier?
Truth be told, we Signori dei Lupi have played our game too many times to count, yet you have been my most special Fang.
Only you live and think like a true wolf, so much so that you will never manage to assimilate into the humans on this landship, no matter how long you stay here...
You are too pure. You are the truest wolf there is.
The truest...
So, my child. Forget what I said earlier. Forget the hate and blame between us.
Because emotions like those are too complicated for you... you are not to blame.
We're finally here.
Th-This is...
Where we met. I found you abandoned in that grass nest over there. So heavy was the rain that night your cries were almost washed away.
There is where our journey ends, and where everything began.
I will burn that nest, and then, what we have just experienced will have never existed.
You will forget the confusion, pain, and grief I have brought upon you, as if I'd never existed...
...I won't have nightmares?
That's right. What a clever girl you are.
Silence.
The young red wolf lowers her head, her knuckles white from clenching her fists too hard. She says nothing, seemingly in the deepest throes of her pain.
The graceful Signora dei Lupi does not move any closer. She decides to give the wolf cub a little time, even if... her own patience has long since withered to near nothing.
Finally, the young wolf looks up.
Do you hate that wolf, Red?
Do you wish to forget her?
Fear not—we are on Rhodes Island. Your Rhodes Island.
I'd be glad to help you.
I don't want to? No one's taught me how to deal with this...
You're on the mark, Projekt Red.
Your life is woven of betrayal and lies, and pain drives you to wish you could forget.
But it's no use forgetting. Just like pulling out your tendons and bones, turning yourself into an empty shell... is that not a crueler form of violence?
You know the wilderness well. Nightmares will also help you to live.
Um...
Haha, an idea just came to me.
I don't have to forget.
You warned me, I remember your words...
I have to remember hate, to keep my eyes on my enemies, so I won't get lost, so I can keep my blade moving... so I can live on.
...
I used to take revenge for you... revenge on enemies that never existed.
I'll avenge myself now!
Red kicks up high into the air, a wolf's hunting technique.
In a blink, she slices the Signora dei Lupi in two.
The mysterious dark mist scatters as blood rains on Red, giving her a demonic demeanor.
Her hand shakes violently, as if she does not dare believe what she has just done... and she faints.
But just as quickly, the dark mist converges once more, and the Signora dei Lupi manifests before Red again.
Did the dreamland give you the audacity to act against me? Anything done here amounts to nothing.
Fine, if you don't wish to forget, then live on with all you know of me. Let the nightmares layer over one another, let pain stack on more pain.
That's all well and good...
The old game is no more, but I do not trust Lappland as much as Zaaro and the others do, that she can bring us a new form of joy...
I shall leave you as a lasting mark of this era.
But I dare say I will forget you in a blink, wolf cub.
After all, you are no different from the other Fangs I have broken in the past.
Come out, Vargo. We should go. The stench here is unbearable.
No... this scent. Something's wrong...
Is this a trick of yours, Lappland?
...
Why is Red's scent on me?!
Really? That can happen?
Let me think... what just happened...?
Red wounded you with her blade, and your blood spilled onto her...
Hahahaha. Could it be, you and your Fang switched scents?
That was just a dream I granted her!
...
Burning it away?
Haha, what heavy rain we have here...
Are you hoping to rid yourself of that odor?
...
It's no use, my dear Signora dei Lupi.
Agnese told me eons ago, when this land was only wild... The wolves roamed in their packs, exchanging scents to communicate with each other and mark your territories...
It was how you hunted together, and how you hunted each other...
There is no way to rid yourself of another wolf's scent on you, until the curtain falls on your life.
Red's dagger...
That dagger is indeed a keepsake of mine... and I've bestowed an 'alpha's blessing' upon it.
So it was you who taught Lappland, Agnese...
I'm not the only one she asked. I had no idea what she was planning to do with the knowledge.
...
Ugh...
Caesar. It seems you have no choice but to continue your travels on this land wearing Red's scent.
Even though you've never looked your Fang in the eye, even though you've long since cast her away, her scent will forever remind you of her existence, and you will never forget her.
Because you will never die, and so it will never go.
!!!
(Mournful howl)
Of course, you can punish me at any time. It will only bring more fun to my new game.
Why do all this?
To do all this as an alpha just for a young friend of yours, to scheme and shame your own wolfpack like this?
Are you implying I did this only out of sympathy for Red?
Hmph. What a childish Signora dei Lupi.
Caesar, I did not humiliate you for Red alone.
Zaaro, Vargo, Agnese, and the few over there... I hope this will keep you all on your toes—
The wolfpack is indeed becoming more human.
...
The barrens are vast, wild, chaotic. I don't care how cruel you treat humans or even your kin... this is simply how things are in the wilds.
But Caesar, your cruelty toward your Fangs is just like that of humans.
Deceit, betrayal, whitewashing, warping her cognition, planting nightmares in her head... you play with the crudest forms of power, no?
(Sniffs)
(Huffs helplessly)
All of you tell me, how that so-called 'crisis' draws near, and the wolfpack must contact more of your kind...
From Sami's icefields to Bolívar's Black Flow, from Sargon's deserts to Iberia's salt flat... there are few Beast Aristocrats used to colluding with mortals.
So of course, I shall prove this new wolfpack will be purer than ever before.
Hey, Lappland.
What is it?
They'll be here soon.
Time to leave this dreamland and let that Red kid enjoy a good night's sleep.
Let us return to the deck...
My wolves, it's time for our appointment in the barrens.