"Uaaah! Look, Josh! Look! It's so pretty!"

Josh followed the direction Angie was pointing with her arm fully extended, and let out an ambivalent grunt.

"It's… something, all right," he responded, sounding profoundly unenthusiastic, but his girlfriend didn't seem to mind.

I had to give it to her though; the white tower dominating the horizon looked impressive indeed in the light of the morning sun. Or sun-simulation, but let's not get bogged down in that topic again.

The four of us, including Mountain Girl, were leisurely making the rounds around Glaukós, the settlement surrounding said tower. Or at the very least I was about seventy percent sure that was its name. That's what Mike's father called the spire in the middle, and nobody ever referred to the community of the lower-caste Celestials using proper nouns, so I made an educated guess.

"The mountain there looks really familiar," Josh noted, his eyes aimed squarely at the island's center. "This place really is a copy of Critias, huh?"

"At least topographically speaking," I granted him, and he let out a thoughtful hum.

"So… is this place the equivalent of Timaeus?"

"Nah! We're inland!" Angie declared before I could get a word in. She was unexpectedly hyped by the tour, and while she was initially surprised by the stark difference between the inside and outside of the tower, it only lasted for a few minutes before she got caught up in the adventure and forgot about everything else. Just like she did at the moment. "Ah! Look, guys! A horse!"

"Careful!" Josh tried to warn her, but she guilelessly skipped over to the horse drawing the single-wheeled cart on the road. It was a wooden construction pained in multiple shades of blue, with large spoked wheels and two placeholder Celestials sitting at the front; an older man and a pre-teen boy, most likely his son.

"Good morning!" she greeted the pair on the cart with a radiant smile and gestured at the large, brown-and-white stallion. "Can I pet him?"

The man's face slackened, and it wasn't at all surprising. He was about as placeholder as one could get. Yet, their brain freeze only lasted for a second before his eyes landed on me, and opened wide as saucers. Did he recognise me, I wondered? That also wouldn't have been surprising, considering I had my mug broadcasted on the sky screens just the other day.

His gaze jumped back and forth between me and Angie, and another short round of the thousand-yard stare, his lips bent into a servile smile.

"Of course. He's very docile."

Angie didn't even wait to hear the second half of his response, and she was already all over the horse, patting its nose and scratching its ears.

"Wow! He's so big!"

"Don't just approach other people's pets like that," Josh grumbled, but while I couldn't see his face due to the helmet, his tone told me he was also interested in the horse. "Remember what happened the last time with the poodle?"

"Poodles are pricks, but this guy is super-nice. Right?" She beamed at the horse, and after a suitably long comedic beat, he stuck out his tongue and licked her on the cheek. "Wha—?"

After the first surprise, she began giggling uncontrollably. It was a warm, tinkling laugh that made me feel all kinds of cosy emotions, which I then immediately kicked out through my mind's back door and exhaled hard. Keeping my inner Polemos from acting up wasn't hard, but it was certainly tiresome.

Closing my eyes to center myself, I took a couple of deep breaths and resumed my observations of Angie, this time from a much more objective standpoint. Despite the shock of her kidnapping and the revelation that she had a ticking time bomb called 'Deus' inside of her, she remained remarkably carefree, as seen by her hugging the horse's face in spite of Josh's warnings.

So far, her inner Deus hadn't acted up yet, and I still wasn't entirely sure what its 'type' was. The first time he surfaced, I thought it was a body-snatcher-style persona, but I wasn't so certain anymore. Only one thing was for sure: the two weren't distinct parallel personalities that could talk to each other, which was incidentally the one I would've preferred the most. That way, I could've at least interrogated Deus for info, and it might've even let us resolve the situation faster.

Speaking of the 'situation', I was once again reminded that I didn't really know what that would be. According to Judy's theory, it should've been a classic dramatic love triangle, with Polemos wedging himself between the main couple of the 'Angeline Route'. Unfortunately (except not really), that potential plot was already derailed beyond recovery. I wasn't Polemos, Angie wasn't fully taken over by Deus, I had no reason to hit on her, and Josh couldn't even mount a rescue operation for a big climactic finale, because he was already here, and was too busy trying to separate her from the overly affectionate horse.

"But I wanna pet him more!"

"You played with him enough already, and you're inconveniencing these people!"

"Muu!"

What even remained of the potential original plot, I wondered even as Josh managed to drag his girlfriend back to my side?

The setup was still kind of there, but unless the Narrative used its influence to actively flex its chops and make Angie/Deus develop a crush on me, the love triangle was dead in the water. Hell, let's unpack that a bit further: neither our friendly neighbourhood Celestial nor the Elysium's ancient cult leader had any reason to have any romantic interest in me.

The former was rather obvious, as she'd been pining over the guy next to her for most of her adolescent life. As for the latter, the main thing about the relationship between Polemos and Deus was based on the word 'unrequited love', which was… semi-surprising, I supposed? Popular history always said that the Ancient Greeks were pretty gay on a cultural level. While the memory fragments embedded in the dark, spiderweb-ridden recesses of my mind didn't say anything definitive on the topic, I doubted the thing stopping Polemos from making a move on Deus was any sort of stigma.

"Hey, Leo? Why isn't anyone flying?"

"Because it's prohibited," I responded to Angie off-handedly, still deep in my thoughts.

"What? That sucks! I thought I could finally fly around all I wanted! This is so lame!"

"Can't you do something about that?"

Josh's question was probably aimed at me, but his girlfriend must've misunderstood, because she pumped her fist.

"You're right! I'll go any change the laws! Free flight for everyone!"

Ignoring the fired-up girl, I focused inwards again. So, if it was about incompatible orientations, would putting Deus into Angie's body change that? As far as Polemos was concerned, it didn't really seem to matter. Maybe it wasn't as much that he was swinging for the same team, but rather that he had a 'single-target sexuality' mentality. That was a relatively common trope, so I could see it come into play here.

There was still one thing I had to consider though: how was the original love triangle supposed to resolve itself? After living in this world for half a year, I was pretty sure the Simulacrum wasn't running one of those subversive, super-depressing stories where everyone would end up dying or separated or insert-other-sad-fate-here. It meant that the Narrative's plot probably had some kind of happy ending in mind, and with all the romance tropes floating around in the ether, there was no way in hell that it wouldn't involve the solidifying and ultimate resolution of Josh's and Angie's relationship.

So… how was that supposed to happen with Deus around? Would he be suppressed? Expelled? Destroyed? Or maybe he would turn into one of those brain-roommate-type characters living rent-free in Angie's head? Whatever the ultimate resolution, there had to be some way for it to happen… but what if my involvement in general, and breaking the love triangle in particular, would mess that up? What if the original plot was supposed to have some kind of hackneyed resolution about the power of love and friendship giving Angie the power to overcome Deus? Or give Josh the power to suppress him?

I had no way to know yet, but it provided me with yet another dilemma. Should I just keep watch over these two, making sure they stay safe while hoping that the original plot would man up and give them a happy ending, or should I just do what I did best and start working on subverting the hell out of whatever the Narrative threw at us and do things my way? Decisions, decisions, decisions…

"Leo? Earth to Leo? Are you listening?"

"Yes?"

By this point, the horse and its cart were long gone, and while nobody dared to approach us, the settlement slowly came to life as more and more placeholders began to follow their morning routines, opening windows and moving about.

"You were zoning out," Josh responded in her stead, but before I could tell them that I was just deep in thought, Angie beat me to the punch.

"Hey, Leo? Why is this place so weird?"

"… Please be a bit more specific."

"I mean this!" She waved both her arms around in her best drunk seagull impression, and when I only raised a brow at her, she stomped her feet. "You know what I mean! Like, this village is very nice, but why is it so…"

"Primitive?" Josh supplied the end of the sentence, only to receive a pout for his trouble.

"Quaint! I wanted to say quaint!" One huff later, she turned back to me and resumed her animated gesturing. "Do you get what I mean? I mean, I like the horsies, but why are they using them? This is the Holy Land of all Celestials and we have cool crystal towers and everything, so why are these guys dressed so plainly and live in old houses like that?"

She pointed both of her index fingers at the rustic peasant house on our left, and I couldn't help but blink in surprise. It certainly wasn't intentional, but during our meandering tour around the settlement, we somehow ended up right next to a very familiar place. How did that happen, I wondered as I crossed my arms and put a finger under my nose?

Was it a coincidence? Or did the Narrative set this up? Did we run into the horse cart here just to stop us near this house? And if so, what was the reason behind it? Was it important? Was it part of some kind of grand narrative ploy? Or was I just being paranoid?

This was precisely the reason why I hated thinking about things on a Doylist level. Once I started, it was impossible not to see the shadowy hand of the nebulous Narrative behind the most inconspicuous and innocent of events and circumstances, and it inevitably led to getting mired in a swamp of 'what if's, 'if so's, and chronic indecision.

"Leooo! You are zoning out again!" Angie complained aloud, so I turned back to her and inhaled sharply through my nose.

"The vast majority of the Elysium's inhabitants are farmers."

"I get that, but why don't they have trucks and combines and stuff?"

"Because Deus said so," I told her flatly, and after a long beat, her mouth hung open and she forcefully shook her head.

"No way! That's silly!"

"Doesn't make it any less true."

"Nope. I'm not listening," she declared with a pout and even crossed her arms with a huff. "This is Elysium! The Holy Land! There's no way people here would live like this! Stop pulling my leg and tell me what's really going on."

"I already did." My answer didn't please her at all. By the looks of it, the image of the Elysium she had in her head clashed way too hard with the reality in front of her eyes. Just as I was wondering what to say to convince her, my gaze was drawn back to the house on our left, and my eyes descended into a displeased frown. Was this what it was about, I wondered, but soon shook the concern out of my head and gestured for her to follow after me. "Let's ask the locals then."

Despite her previous show of defiance, she immediately fell in line next to me, and our conspicuously masked escorts followed behind us.

"Can we just barge into someone's home?" Josh whispered behind me, so I glanced over my shoulder and flashed a reassuring smile.

"Don't overthink it."

In the meantime, we walked past the fence and reached the heavy wooden door. I knocked on it without any reservation, and after just a few short moments, it opened to a crack, revealing a young boy with a bowl cut. His eyes opened wide when he saw me, and somehow widened even further when I smiled at him.

"Good morning, child. Are your parents home?"

It was only a rhetorical question, considering that I had them marked ages ago, and I had already felt around for their red dots before walking over to the entrance. The kid on the other side froze up for a second, but instead of locking up or showing any of the usual placeholder reactions, his mouth opened into a smile that threatened to split his face and he exclaimed from the bottom of his lungs.

"Ma! Pa! T-The Lord A-Achoon is hewe again!"

Did he just bite his tongue in his hurry? In the following seconds, we could all hear a commotion on the other side, and at last, the door opened wide, revealing a heavy-set, middle-aged man with a well-groomed beard and a face that was constantly swinging between panic and reverence, like the world fastest emotional pendulum.

"Welcome, Lord Archon," he greeted me and was about to get down to his knees. I expected something like this to happen, so I reached out to stop him. He was startled by my hand on his shoulder, and when I shook my head, he rose back onto his feet. "I… must apologize for our disrespect."

"What disrespect?" I uttered in mild amusement and patted him on the shoulder. "I didn't introduce myself, and yet you still welcomed me in. There is no reason for you to be ashamed."

The man looked like I just lifted a millstone off his back. He exhaled a heavy breath, and only then did he register the curious girl and the two helmeted escorts behind me, and he tensed up again.

"What… brings you here, to our humble homestead?"

"I was just showing my friend around, and she wanted to ask a few questions about how life is in the Elysium."

"H-Hello. Nice to meet you," Angie did her best to greet the owner of the house, but his nervousness must've rubbed off on her, as she had a hard time maintaining eye contact.

"May we come in?"

"Y-Yes! It's an honor!" the man yelped and hastily got out of the way.

The inside of the house was just as I remembered. The air was heavy with an earthy scent mixed with the fragrance of herbs. In the back, the man's wife was standing with a bent back, staring at the ground and not daring to look our way, while their son was hiding behind her skirt, yet at the same time also staring at us with sparkling eyes. Well, at least one of them had a good impression of me, I surmised as I walked inside and the rest followed behind me like a line of ducklings.

"How… may I address our esteemed guests?" the man sputtered, doing his best to sound dignified, no doubt trying his best to imitate how he thought a good noble host would act.

I have to say, I was fairly impressed. The last time I'd seen him, just before Director Mensah came here to pick me up with his entire entourage in tow, he was barely more than your average placeholder, yet he was showing quite a lot of development. Was the development of placeholders speeding up, or was he a special case, I pondered?

"I'm…" Angie tried to answer, but she choked up, unsure how to introduce herself.

"She's a friend of mine. Please accept that for now."

"As you command," the man nodded and turned to the ramrod-straight Mountain Girl and the considerably more fidgety Josh beside her.

"She's my Arbiter, and he's—"

"He's my Justicar!" Angie cut in with a delighted grin, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Josh grumbled behind me, but his voice was muffled by his helmet, so I doubted anyone else could hear him.

As for the title, the plan was to introduce him as Angie's Arbiter, to mirror Rinne, but she was adamant that he should be called something else to avoid confusion. I had a feeling she just didn't find the word 'cool enough', though I had no idea why she considered 'Justicar' any better. I didn't want to argue though, so I ultimately nodded and gestured in their direction.

"As she said. Now, if you have any questions to the people of the realm, you should ask away."

"O-Okay…"

She didn't sound very confident, but when Josh stepped up beside her and whispered something into her ear, she clenched her fists and showed a determined expression. I figured they would do fine on their own, so I quickly sunk back into my thoughts again, and this whole scene presented me with yet another topic to consider.

It was the political landscape of the Elysium, and Angie's impact on it.

I had already stirred things up a lot, but now that I could observe her reactions to the enforced agrarian idyll lifestyle of the Malakim, I could use that to speculate a bit. Out of the three head directors, Tsephanyah and his Reformists were the lesser of three evils from the very beginning. That didn't make them the 'good guys', but at the very least he was by far the most surface-level amicable out of the three factions.

Not only that, but he was the one who 'discovered' Polemos, as well as the first one to directly contact Angie and Josh in person. In narrative terms, he was obviously set up as the main supporting character and core Celestial ally in the 'Angie route'. Not only that but Angie's gut reaction to the state of affairs outside the towers fell perfectly in line with his ideology about uplifting the Malakim as well.

So, since the love triangle plot was thrown out the window with extreme prejudice, could that mean that the main plot has shifted to the potential Celestial Civil War instead? We had most of the cards already on the table, so it wasn't out of the question. The only real wild card that remained was Deus himself, but I couldn't do much else than operate under the worst-case scenario and make a few contingency plans.

"You grow olives? Are they tasty?"

"They're bitter."

"Really? Yuck!"

"But, but grandma makes pickled olives, and they are good!"

"Pickled olives? Sounds strange."

"But they are really good! I swear!"

Glancing over, I saw that Angie's unbridled positivity had already broken down the walls of the family, and she was having a lively discussion with the young boy. They seemed to be having fun, and while Josh's body language told me he was bored out of his skull, he dutifully stood behind her and listened to the conversation.

In any case, they didn't seem to be about to stop any time soon, and I was also getting a little tired, so I broke up my pondering session by closing my eyes, and triggering my Far Sight, hoping that I would catch something plot-relevant, incriminating, or failing that, at least mildly intriguing.