Posting an rp record of Nomikos and Twinflame discussing Twig/Zadkiel, for the benefit of @mmostuff and @masksbeardsandbricks and whomever else is interested and cares to parse this interaction for very obtuse and out-of-context plot points.
Nomikos walks up the ramp towards Twinflame's room carrying a mysterious bowl. A mysterious bowl with ice-cream on it. Because that's the best way to bribe kids these days.
Twinflame is in her room clattering around with a project, as she often is. She's doing this with a decent amount of fervor to make up with time lost on her trip with Cilka, during which she'd scavenged parts to help with this this specific project.
SIS (Nomikos’ scanbot) flies past Nomikos and takes a sharp turn into the room a moment before Nomikos herself appears. She goes to the 'project' and wiggles her scanning arm at it. "What's that? Is it dangerous? Will it explode if I scan it?"
Twinflame “It wouldn't explode. it's a containment unit for the voice box. It's a big noise-maker noise-container. Put the box inside and then launch this into space and nobody'll ever find it.”
SIS hovers around the noise-container, looking as unconvinced as a scanbot can look. That is to say, not much at all.
Nomikos: “I bought ice-cream. Do you want some?”
Twinflame stands suddenly at hearing Nomikos' voice. "Have I had ice-cream before?"
Nomikos: “I don't know. This is a good time to find out, maybe. Also a good time for a break.”
Twinflame: “Well I don't know if I should take a break. In the meantime the box is uncontained and could do... something!” She comes around the device to look at the ice cream.
Nomikos: “The box doesn't have any power.” She points at the icecream. "Maybe you had some when you were in Grismara? Before joining that project ship."
Twinflame: “Well maybe the box could /get/ power if it's uncontained somehow. Don't turn your back on it.” She ignores the fact that it isn't in the room, picking up the ice cream. "That would've been a long time ago."
Nomikos, just in case, points out the spoon sticking out of a side of the dessert. "Use the spoon," she says, and then adds.,"What do you remember of Grismara?"
SIS flies over Twinflame's shoulder and scans the ice-cream. Then she flies away to scan the container that will surely not explode at the scanning.
Twinflame: “Oh. Not a lot. School. I remember learning. Reading. Building things. Really great things. And then going to a special school where we built things together.”
Nomikos: “Do you remember the Contagion? The Outbreak and all that nasty stuff that ensued afterwards.” Nomikos asks that causally, as if it was the most common conversation of her life.
Twinflame: “I remember all of that. Everyone was sick and we were going to work on a cure.”
Nomikos: “Do you remember the people that recruited you? Were they Grismarans?”
SIS comes back from scanning the container and scans the ice-cream again, as if that was her way to take bites out of it.
Twinflame: “Uhm. No, I don't remember who they were. I'm sure they were probably Grismaran, though.” She takes a bite of ice-cream. Her shoulders bunch up. "Oh. It's cold. Ice cream. I get it."
Nomikos: “It's best when eaten slowly.”
SIS chips in: "Twirl it in your tongue until it melts!"
Twinflame: “Mm hm. I'll figure it out.”
Nomikos: “Why do you think the Harbinger wants the box?”
Twinflame has another bite of ice cream in her mouth, and she puases to bite down on the spoon. For just a second. Then she looks confused and pulls the spoon from her mouth, sticking it back in the ice cream and setting the ice cream down. "It... seems to. Where did the box come from? Space, right?" She returns to the machine she'd been working on.
“It came from a Grismaran ship, so...yes.”
Twinflame: “Right. It's a voice-box from the big ship. The Harbinger attacked the voice from the ship, so it's going to come after the voice-box, too.”
Nomikos: “Do all Harbingers want to kill the voice of the ship?”
Twinflame: “They shouldn't. We need to do what it says. It must not have given her a chance to say anything.” She goes back to work on the machine.
Nomikos: “Just how you tried to fry Twig that one time.”
Twinflame: “I guess. I don't want her telling me to kill anyone.”
Nomikos: “Well, the other Harbinger didn't seem to have any problems with killing other people, so there must be something else.”
Twinflame: “Well maybe the other Harbinger is just a killer and I'm not.”
Nomikos: “Was the voice always in the ship?”
Twinflame: “Not always. She came after most of us. She wasn't there at first and then later she was everywhere all the time.”
Nomikos: “Who brought her in?”
Twinflame: “I don't know. the people on the ship, I guess. I wasn't part of that project.”
Nomikos: “Did it have a name?”
Twinflame: “What? The ship?”
Nomikos: “The Project.”
Twinflame: “I don't know. I'm not good with names.” She is working inside of her machine with a very plain, old-looking tool she most likely pulled from the scrap heap somewhere. Most of parts are probably scrap as well.
Nomikos: “Twig kept calling it 'the Vault'.”
Twinflame: “Well they kept us there. It's what it was.”
Nomikos: “Was there any other ship involved?”
Twinflame: “I don't know. All I remember is my project and the people. And things they said. I remember it doesn't hurt, and that's very important. It doesn't. I guess there were other ships because the other Harbingers left, but I didn't leave.”
Nomikos: “Did they tell you why they had to leave?”
Twinflame: “The voice was telling all of us what to do. If they left it's because the voice told them to. She told me to stay.”
Nomikos: “But it didn't say why.”
Twinflame: “Everyone else on the ship was dead by then. Leaving made more sense. I don't know why I stayed.”
Nomikos: “How many days do you remember being in there after everyone left?”
Twinflame leans away from the machine, pausing to think. "No... Not long. Maybe... three? I was only on the big ship for a week or two. Then everyone was dead. Then the Harbingers left. Then you were there."
Nomikos: “Ah, I see. One last thing: what's the difference between the voice of the ship and the big voice?”
Twinflame looks up at Nomikos and says very seriously, "They're different. The voice on the ship is... I don't know. Smaller. Dim, but light. It talks and you talk back. Big Voice is nothing like that. Big Voice is too big to hear you. It talks over everything. It talks over the sounds in our heads so we can't make sounds. We hear it in our..." she points at her head. "Bones. Our bones make noises and we sound like Big Voice. It's completely different.”
Nomikos: “Mm. Let me know when you finish the container. We'll have to test it. Oh, and don't forget your ice-cream, if you liked it. It tends to melt if you wait too long.
Twinflame leans around the container to watch Nomikos leaving. "Mom. You don't know Big Voice? Nobody told you?"
Nomikos: “You told me about it but I've never heard it. The AI in the ship didn't mention it, as far as I can recall.”
Twinflame: “Nobody hears Big Voice. They hear about it. Big Voice is a story people tell kids. It's the story the universe told the first stars to scare them into behaving.”
SIS scans the ice-cream, expecting that to somehow cool it down and stop its melting process. It doesn't.
Nomikos: “Sounds like a bigger and scarier Twig to me.”
Twinflame: “It's different. No one ever told you. I can tell you when I'm done. I can set the story outside.”
Nomikos: “Alright. I'll be downstairs.”
Twinflame: “Okay. I'll finish.”