Meet Despedida before your first mission together (Time -1)

"Wroooong," a voice came from behind the curtain you'd spotted in one corner of the room, interrupting you as you began to knock on the back door. "Back here, New Ciao."

Well, you had a fifty-fifty chance. Quickly, you reversed course, moving to the curtain and waiting for her to draw it back. When that never happened, you took action yourself, pushing aside the colorful cartoon characters on its surface to reveal the girl gaming at her PC. Despedida sat in a high-backed chair, dressed in an outfit covered in character images. Upon her head sat a sideways turned cap depicting an orange orb with four red stars on it. A heavy coat sat on the back of the chair behind her, hiding the images printed across its downy surface. Her tight, red t-shirt showed some group of ninjas on it, while her black jeans were patched over with pictures of cutesy dinosaur characters{if Weakness for Video Games = 1} that you recognized from the video game series, Bubble Bobble{endif}.

"Yo! Admiring my Bubs?"

While you were busy admiring her fashion, the girl had turned her face to you, grinning with a cheeky look on her face. Her skin was a rich, caramel tone and her hair was as pretty, black, and curly as it had looked in the photographs. You wondered how she kept so well-maintained while retreating for so many long video game sessions... you even saw what looked like a number of webcams recording her, set all around her wide desk. You desperately hoped that she wasn't streaming from a subterranean CEDIT base...

You had a lot of questions, but you started with a friendly one and asked what she was playing.

"Uuuuh... Early access game called Priests vs. Paladins. You ever heard of it? It's pretty goofy but it's way too easy." She watched you with her eyebrows raised, while downing a long gulp of bottled water. You'd really expected to see some sort of energy drink, to go along with her gamer girl persona. {if Weakness for Video Games = 1}Of course, you'd been eager to play that game yourself. You asked her if she was playing as a Priest or a Paladin. "Ha ha! Oooh, you're a gamer? I hadn't guessed, from that stuffy suit! You look like Agent 47, but without the baldness. Hey, if you're gonna play, play Paladins. They've got some super strong characters." Shoot... You'd been planning to play priests.{endif}

Well, on to more important matters. You told Despedida that you wanted to know more about her role here in the Goodbye Girls. Her specialty was technology, but she apparently worked as a field agent. That seemed like an odd combination... in the movies, spy organizations all had their own tech departments and the genius would spend all his time in the lab.

"You're a movie guy, huh?" She tilted her head back and forth, thinking of the right answer, then raised one finger. "That's not the best way to do it. Don't you think it's kind of stupid how Q always complains when Bond ruins his gadgets? Plus, he never gets to see how they do first-hand. I wanna see every success my gadgets get and to use them for myself. I wanna see the angry faces of everybody that I hack in real time. He he he he..." A bit of a sadistic side seemed to suddenly spill out past her good-natured character. As you watched, the smile suddenly faded from her face, replaced with a somewhat strained smile. "Look, Ciao... I'm glad you came to find me. I wanted to tell you, face to face... You should quit this assignment. Go, before you learn anything more about the Goodbye Girls."

The sudden change in topic shocked you. Lowering your voice, you asked what she knew.

"I know we've had three dead Ciaos in less than three years." Despedida pulled her cap down to half-shade her eyes, then turned her shoulders back to her monitor. "You're going to be the fourth. If this was Street Fighter II, you'd be trapped in the Zangief vs. Akuma match-up. What I mean is, your odds are something like 1 against 9. Now's not the time to insert another quarter, it's time to run."

You asked if Despedida wanted to help you survive.

"I do. And that's why I'm telling you to leave. To that end, I'm going to stop making friends with you too. That's hard for a fun-loving gal like me, but I'll try~" The girl grabbed the curtain, then pulled it closed quickly and shut you out. "It's not too late to forget what you've seen and return to the real world, Ciao. This is a broken game that has no mercy for low tier characters like you Ciaos."

Feeling a new sense of dread, you left the girl to her games. Was that a warning against what the others might do to you... or a threat of what she might? You hadn't seen her eyes at the end there when she hid them with her cap, but if you had... would you have seen sympathy or malice?