[Inflection Reflection] Rest
Heidi was led into a set of dorm halls and eventually placed inside a dorm after a long tour around the campus. While she wasn't getting tired, seeing the inside of the dorm made her want to relax. Inside was a bed, couch and desk, with plenty of space for other things.
"This is one of the guest dorms. Feel free to take some time to relax here while we prepare for your interview, or look around some more. Either HQ or I will come to get you when it's time to begin."
"Thank you. And you said 'no weapons', right?" Heidi took out her portal gun and placed it on the desk.
"Your portal gun is fine for travel, but weapons like your move gun is forbidden outside of designated areas."
"Alright. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you."
The Director nodded and walked out, closing the door behind her.
Heidi took a moment to make sure that the Arceus was gone. Then, she yawned and changed forms to her Older Form before walking over and sitting on the guest bed. Ghost appeared in front of her, holding its phone screen out with a notification. Heidi looked up at the notification. It was a message from Nergal, asking if Heidi's okay.
[Tell Nergal that I'm gonna be a little while.]
"Permission request to inform Nergal of your current pending status."
[Permission granted, and permission granted to everyone in the family group, but make sure to proactively inform Jeanne and Melly.]
Ghost disappeared to perform Heidi's tasks.
As the dragon closed her eyes and transformed back to her true form, she suddenly felt light brushing on her feathers. She smiled, adjusting herself to be closer to the entity that was petting her. Then, she heard the sound of the individual.
"Do you really plan to apply without Lacey, Heidi?"
[I plan to tell them that I don't have Lacey with me, but if our Auntie really thinks that I'd be good to be here, then maybe she's onto something.]
"Mmm." The True Arceus scratched a little in Heidi's feathers. She could hear Heidi purring for an instinctual reaction. "...Did you get a glimpse of that one Arceus that looked at you back?"
[Hm? Oh, that one? Yeah. I know that foreboding feeling from anywhere. That was--]
"—Dinah, for sure." Arceus finished Heidi's sentence. "Her name is Ashe. She's one of the higher-ranking agents here, though she likes to do things on her own, just like Dinah does. Considering how this Agency involves themselves in different universes, I'm not surprised that Dinah would want to involve herself here in this space."
[Guess that means that she's probably bound to make herself known eventually. Wouldn't be surprised if she--]
Heidi quickly transformed into her Arceus form. The True Arceus disappeared entirely. Was it already time for the interview, or was that Ashe already introducing herself? Either way, that was fairly quick all things considered. "Coming," she shouted as she briskly walked towards the door, slowly opening it.
A woman that Heidi hadn't recognized was in front of her. She was a woman of fairly tall and commanding stature. If anything, the Arceus on the other side of the door felt imposing and intimidating, as if it was a lesson for Heidi not to open the door in the first place.
"You must be Artemis' niece."
"I… I am, yeah." Heidi shifted a little. "And you are…?"
"Metea. I'm a friend of your aunt's~"
"Hello Metea." Heidi turned around to check to the True Arceus once again. She was nowhere to be found. Heidi turned back to the Arceus. "Would you like to come in? Not sure when The Director or HQ will want to start my interview."
Heidi opened the door some more and backed away from it, allowing Metea to enter the guest room. The two of them moved over to the bed, where they sat on opposite sides of it. Neither of them paid much attention to the décor, likely due to the fact that both of them were familiar with it. Heidi was instead busy trying to get a feeling for this stranger. She could determine that she wasn't hostile and that some of the intimidating aura was downplayed for now, but Heidi wasn't sure where this was going to go.
Metea smiled softly. "Your aunt told me a lot about you… about your accomplishments and what you've went through. She never mentioned just how young you are to go through so much."
Heidi sighed. "Well, when duty calls, it doesn't care if you're 2,000 years old or 200,000. All it asks is for you to answer it, and for you to have the strength to overcome its obstacle."
"That's very mature of you."
"Thank you." Heidi looked up to the skies. "So, how close are you to Auntie Arty? I don't remember her talking much to me about her duties, though I wasn't as important as others at the time."
"Well, if you must know… your aunt and I are rivals." She crossed her arms. "Joined the Agency around the same time. My baby brother and I wanted to find purpose since neither of us were capable of creating a world, and Arty… well, she has her own reasons." Metea chuckled. "Either way, we became friends and rivals, made it up the ranks together, even dated for a time."
"You two dated? I didn't know about that, either."
"Yeah, we did. Though, while it lasted for a while, we broke it off when we reached S-rank. Our relationship was impacting our performance, so we went back to being friends and rivals ever since."
"That makes sense." Heidi nodded. "I… divorced my then-husband for similar reasons. He's a great dragon, but we thought that it would be better for both of us and our shared goals to break things off to focus on our children and our roles in the world. We're still friends, though."
"Understandable. Who is this creature? Was it a Latios?"
Heidi shook her head. "He's the Rayquaza of my current home. He and our adoptive daughter, Zinnia, took me in after a Wormhole transported me there."
"Aww. Interdimensional love. How touching."
"Yeah." Heidi looked down to the floor, though her smile disappeared. "I'm… with someone else now and I love her more than anything in the world but sometimes I think of him and what would have been had this never happened."
Metea rubbed Heidi's shoulder. "I understand. You loved him and, from the sounds of things, loved the life that you built while you were with him. There's nothing wrong with missing that, even if you've long moved on."
"Thank you, Metea. I… appreciate i-- huh?"
Heidi initially looked up to look at Metea for the sincere words; however, something else caught her eyes. On the other side of the the room, someone was standing at the open entrance of the room. She seemed short and aloof, with her phone out and seemingly staring back at the two women. Stranger still, Heidi could sense something extremely familiar about this individual, as if she they had met already before… though, she couldn't put her finger on what exactly yet. Strange.
Metea finally turned around to look at the woman at the door. "Oh! HQ! It's good to see ya."
"That's HQ?" Heidi blinked several times in quick succession. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it wasn't this.
HQ stood up straight and typed something on her phone. Then, she looked at Heidi. "Your interview is ready. Please come with me."
