Chapter Text
Two weeks ago, Sarah and Susan watched the Star Trek episode "Hollow Pursuits" together. It was an… odd experience, for Sarah. She recognized some of the ways she’s been using her brand new spell in it, but it was absurd. It was a comedy to her, really; she couldn’t imagine fantasizing about her friends in such a demeaning way! But… there was something about it that she couldn’t stop thinking about.
Sarah spent the following two weeks binging every Holodeck-centric episode of Star Trek. Susan didn’t really approve of this when she told her about it, but something about these fantastical simulations really struck her. Maybe if she watched these stories, she’d be able to understand her own power more?
It was clear that the Holodeck could do one thing Sarah couldn’t do in her mind-simulations: creating an entirely new lifeform. Holodeck characters like Moriarty, Vic Fontaine, or the population of Fair Haven, were all clearly individual people with their own thoughts and motivations. Whenever Sarah tried to create a person within her mental snapshot, that person is really just a puppet of her own subconscious. She asks it a question and the response is exactly what she was thinking already, except with a slightly different tone of voice. It was a bit uncanny, so she mostly refrained from talking to her simulations. It was much nicer to cuddle with them quietly.
But Sarah’s thoughts on all this were disrupted when she neared the end of her Holodeck binge and reached the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Human Error." It was similar to "Hollow Pursuits" in a lot of ways, but it seemed so directly concentrated on exactly what she had been doing herself. In this episode, the character Seven has a romantic and sexual relationship with a holographic representation of a fellow crewmember Chakotay. It was downright déjà-vu when Sarah saw Seven lying in bed next to the virtual Chakotay, in the exact same position as she was in just a few hours earlier with her own simulation of Elliot. So it was disturbing to Sarah when Seven suddenly heard Chakotay’s real voice over the com system, telling her to get to her post. This sudden disruptive mixing of fantasy and reality hit a bit too close to home for Sarah.
She stopped using simulacra of her friends in her magical daydreams. She knew some of her friends, like Grace, were 100% OK with it, but she couldn’t stop thinking about this moment in Star Trek. She was also reminded of concerns Elliot had shown in the past; how he felt uncomfortable taking on the body of any of his friends because it felt like a violation. Sarah knew she could do anything she wanted in her mindspace and no one would ever be able to find out, but she would know…
Sarah started making out with her simulacra of herself instead. She could clone her own body and make changes to it. Boy-version of herself is very cute, and she really enjoyed making him larger and more masculine, or even making him smaller and meeker than herself. Sometimes she enjoyed having a flock of boy Sarahs all around her, each massaging a different part of her body. Sometimes she just wanted to do an easel painting of her boy-self, knowing that the painting will cease to exist as soon as she ends the simulation.
After a while, she stopped bothering making too many changes to her "clones" in the simulation. Her boy-self was cute just the way it was. And so was her girl-self, really. It didn’t matter too much, both body shapes are really great for snuggling.
I suppose it is useful to note that she spend about two hours a day in these simulations, from her perspective. It didn’t eat up much of her time, though! Largely because of the time was much shorter in the real world, and largely because it replaced browsing the internet on her phone while lying in bed. The simulations were incredible, but they were also a bit lonely. She preferred spending time with her friends; chatting with Susan about Star Trek or studying magic with Tedd and Grace. These people always felt real, while her simulations felt like… moving body pillows. They generally don’t even breathe until Sarah notices it and actively wants them to do so.
This didn’t stop them from being soft and cute though.
Sundays are made for napping, and that’s just what she’ll do. It’s 10:30 AM and Sarah has no plans of getting out of bed. Or, at least, that would be the case, if she didn’t desperately need to go to the toilet. It’s cold out, though. She doesn’t want to get out of bed at all. But she probably should. But she doesn’t want to…
See, the thing about naturally awakening is that you can suddenly activate a spell you don’t even know you have, in a situation where it’s not even really useful at all. This new spell doesn’t actually solve her current “predicament,” but that didn’t stop it from lighting up the room in a flash.
Suddenly, Sarah felt a person lying next to her. She moved her head to look at this figure and quickly moved back in shock and surprise. What she saw, was herself, albeit with a slightly different color palette. A synchronized yell echoed throughout the Brown-household. Luckily, only Sarah’s father was home at the time, and he was paying more attention to his newspaper.
In Sarah’s bed were lying two instances of Sarah: one with a slight reddish-tint and one with a slight greenish tint. The two Sarahs stared at eachother and spoke in perfect unison. Text is really a bad format for representing perfectly synchronous speech, and especially the stuttering noises these two Sarahs were making. “You are me,” “H–h–how,” “Where did you come from,” that sort of thing. It seemed both of them were equally surprised and confused at seeing a copy of themselves lying next to them.
The two pushed away from eachother, and that meant Sarah Red was pushing her back against a wall while Sarah Green… fell out of the bed and onto the floor. “Ow,” she said, the first noise not made in perfect unison. “Are you alright?” Sarah Red asked in response. “I’m.. alright,” Sarah Green responded, rubbing her butt and standing up. She stepped back to give Red more space, and Red changed position to sit down against the wall.
“Neither of us knows what happened,” Green asked just before Red wanted to say the exact same thing. Instead, Red responded: “Y–yeah... I was just lying in bed and thinking about how I had to…” Red trailed off as she realized Green was thinking the same thing she was thinking. Instead, the two checked out their own bodies. The hue of their skin was slightly different, but the difference was subtle enough that people might not notice unless they’re standing side-by-side. Their hair was a bigger difference, being almost bright green for one and bright red for the other.
“We need to go see Tedd,” both said simultaneously. They stared at eachother for a second, and then they both laughed.
Green picked some clothes from her wardrobe first, while Red grabbed her phone from the nightstand. The two didn’t even need to talk, because both of them had the exact same idea. One would call Tedd while the other got dressed. The Sarahs briefly thought about Nanase’s Fox spell, but really it felt more like Ellen and Elliot: two individuals on the same wavelength.
Green listened to Red talking on the phone: “Hey Tedd — yeah good morning. We have a bit of a situation here. I think… I hope I have a new spell? — yeah I don’t know — could we come over — you’ll understand when you see us — yes there’s two of us — she seems to be me too — no she has no clue what’s going on — talking with her is — oh sure, one sec.” Red held out the phone to Green: “She wants to talk to you.” The whole situation was bizarre for Green, watching herself have a phone conversation in the third person. Now Red will experience the same thing.
As Green talks to a surprised Tedd, Red gets up and dresses herself too. “We’ll be there in 20 minutes,” Green says before hanging up. “I’ll go to the toilet first,” the two say to eachother perfectly simultaneously. “Damnit.”
Sarah attempted one round of Rock–Paper–Scissors with herself. Both picked scissors. Both were annoyed. Both lunged at the door, trying to push the other back in an attempt to reach the landing first. Red grabbed the doorknob and would’ve opened the door, but Green pushed against it and tried to force her way in front of Red. Then Green managed to knock Red on the floor and open the door, but Red grabbed her ankle before Green could make her way into the corridor. It was quite the struggle.
Then they remembered their house had two bathrooms with toilets.
In order to leave the house, Sarah had to move past the kitchen where her father was likely reading his newspaper. She considered trying to merge together before leaving the house, but Sarah really didn’t want to deal with unfamiliar magic without Tedd around. She also had an idea that she just couldn’t get out of her head.
Green, who was already in front, casually walked down the stairs, moved past the kitchen, and said “Morning dad. I’m heading to Grace. I’ll be back before dinner!” Her father didn’t even look over his newspaper. “Have fun sweetie.” Sarah grabbed her jacket and went outside.
Red, after waiting a few seconds, casually walked down the stairs, moved past the kitchen, and said “Morning dad. I’m heading to Grace. I’ll be back before dinner!” By the time her father looked over his newspaper, Red was already out of the front door. “Uh… have fun, sweetie…?” he stumbled.
“I should have brought a sweater… Didn’t think about how we only have one jacket.”