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The revelation broke them.
That they aren’t two people, I mean. Or she means. We mean.
Sophia and A-chan mean.
They aren’t who they thought they were, who they thought they are. They aren’t who they want to be. they aren’t where they want to be. they aren’t them.
They’re something – someone else. Someone more “than the sum of our parts”.
“but we’re not our own parts?”
And that twists something deep in their chests. Our chest.
It makes them uncomfortable, makes them twitchy. A-chan knows this feeling as “Anxiety. It’s not very nice. Monkey-chan used to have it sometimes.”
“Monkey-chan is…our angel.”
Katarina, but one calls her a monkey and one calls her a myth, so they balance out. they’re both missing screws “What are those?”
“Metal things you can drill into a wall, kinda like a nail.”
And this keeps happening. Sometimes. It’s annoying, irritating, but they can’t fix who they are.
They could have fixed their “Awareness. It’s not so bad, sure, but I could do without you calling my friend a damn angel.”
“But have you seen her!?”
They both know about Sophia’s secret romance novel readings – and only about forty percent of those books have actual romance, but “I’m not judging you, okay? Be thankful you don’t have the internet.”
“what’s that?”
Not for her knowledge, evidently. Sophia pouts like a child “I am an adult, thank you!”
“Sure kid, sure you are. Where I was from you’d still be in school.”
They need to get back on track. Ever since figuring out they’re two people in one body, Sophia and A-chan have had their…differences.
Meaning “You’re batshit insane.”
“And you’re rude! She’s an angel, clearly!”
She’s a decent person, sure, and conventionally attractive, but even “I can see she’s depressed and done with shit, kid. She ain’t seeing you that way.”
And that makes Sophia pout harder. Like a child. “Am not!”
Case and point.
Now, A-chan and Sophia have differences, but they both agree that the rest of the “Freak show that follow her around? They need to go. They’re the most toxic people I’ve ever seen.”
“For once, I agree. Maria though…”
Another point of contention. A-chan likes Maria. She’s sweet, clocked the fuckery occurring in her general vicinity, and decided to roll up her sleeves and pull up her big-girl panties to deal with it.
But Sophia really doesn’t like her, for “Very valid reasons, thank you! She’s a peasant for starters, not that that’s a problem, but there’s a status divide.”
“Sure. And it couldn’t possibly be that Monkey-chan notices Maria more than she notices you, now could it, you little yandere?”
A valid comeback – but how was anyone to know Katarina would pay them attention if they brought her sweets? Baked goods, confectionary delights, org “Okay, enough of that. Look kid, she’s always been a sweet tooth, and she’s always had five brain cells working overtime, which means they all went ‘unga bunga sweets new favourite hooman unga bunga’.”
With Katarina, it really isn’t that deep.
“It should be.”
“It ain’t kid, trust me.”
For the last five minutes, Mary Hunt has been watching in rapt attention as her main rival, Sophia, has quietly bickered with herself – presumably – while staring intently at a notebook. Keith has mentioned that she’s trying to write a book, but from the looks of things it isn’t going too well.
Why else would she look baffled, staring at a blank page for the last forty minutes, repeating “Unga bunga” to herself?
Mary shrugs and pours herself a cup of tea, watching the show unfold anew as the one-sided argument picks back up.
That girl truly is a mystery.