Andie took a deep breath and stretched out her arms. Not to calm her nerves or steel her will, just to relax after having her ego’s ridiculous anxieties drilled into her.

Once she’d settled back into being her normal, confident self, Andie began to scan her surroundings for her ego’s Courage - spotting it laying on the ground next to one of the mindscape’s bunkers. The normally shimmering bronze of its blade had dulled, and its warm orange glow had faded. Not that Andie cared, as long as it made platforms like it was supposed to. Andie trudged over to the blade, then kicked it up into the air and grabbed it by the handle. “Blaze a path, my Courage.”

Nothing. Not even a spark.

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A low growl escaped Andie’s lips. Of course the stupid thing wouldn’t work for her - why would it work for her? Nothing worked for shadows. The whole fucking world was rigged against them.

Not that it mattered. Andie was a badass among badasses, and if the world thought it could so much as slow her down…? Well, the world was in for a surprise.

Andie hurled her ego’s Virtue off to the side. “Reveal yourself, my Arrogance.” A cool, comfortable, familiar sensation washed over her - like a wheel slipping into a rut it had carved on a road a thousand times traveled. This was how she was supposed to feel - supposed to think. It just felt… natural.

A silky black darkness leaked out of the cracks of the mindscape and pooled around Andie”s feet. It was the same darkness that followed her everywhere. It reached up toward her with inky tendrils of shadow that bloomed into a pitch black flower, displaying her Vice: A sleek, simple, and elegant cerulean katana.