Most Samurai tend to be more mentally resistant than the average person, if this is because of their AI companion or if they are specifically chosen for their more resilient mindset.

Even when we take all of that into consideration, some samurai still tend to break. They, however, don't tend to break from one specific event but from multiple smaller ones that slowly build up over time. All this is to say that a mental breakdown is rare but not impossible in a Samurai. So I suggest we invest more in ensuring our savers have the adequate care they need. We don't want another Alie Atomica after all.

-- Speech given as a defence to why the mental healthcare budget should not be cut, 2047

Instead of waking up in the warm and fluffy sheets of our mindscape, I wake up in Katlyn’s bed. It is not that her bed is uncomfortable; it is just less comfortable than the one in my mind. Yep, that is something I should definitely not say out loud if I want people to think that I am not crazy.

I still haven’t really talked to her, and this is the second time I wake up naked in her bed. So I guess we can maybe still throw the not crazy out of the window. At least I don’t have a headache this time, so that is a massive improvement.

It is still dark in the room, so I quietly get out of bed, putting my eyes to glow on a low setting so I can go and collect my clothes. Once I finish putting them back on, I look around, unsure as to how to continue from here. Then I spot two green eyes looking at me from across the room; I turn my eyes even lower, not wanting the light to bother her too much.

“Evelin?” I hear Katelyn ask.

“Yeah, that is me. How could you tell me?” I ask in an unsure tone.

“Melody would have stayed in bed,” she simply states

Melody, huh? I guess that is the name Maniac gave her. Should I call her that as well from now on? Does she want a normal name? Now I feel kind of bad for not asking.

“Get back to bed. It is like three in the evening”, Katelyn says in a tired voice.

I just stand there, a bit frozen. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, you're basically uhm… Melodys? Sister, so why not?” she says with a tired smile.

I guess I can’t really argue with that logic, so I slowly crawl back under the covers with her. I lay down on my side, facing her. Details are a bit hard to make out in the dark, but I think that she is smiling at me, at least.

“So what have you been up to?” she asks in this jovial tone

“Well, Maniac and I were redesigning our soulscape mind thing,” I tell her we should really go and find a name for it at some point.

“Your what?” Katelyn asks, sounding rather confused.

“Like there is this space where we go when we talk to each other. It used to be like a mess of colour, but Maniac figured out how to manipulate the space, so we spent a lot of time decorating it,” I explain, getting a bit excited about it.

“You should show me around sometimes, then,” she says with a bright smile

“Uhm, you want me to show you around in my mind,” I ask, with some amount of astonishment.

Katelyn looks at me with surprise. “Right, yeah, that might be a bit impossible.”

“I don’t think it is impossible, just a rather strange experience,” I muse.

“What do you mean it is not impossible? It’s your mind. I can’t just casually take a stroll in there. If I had that power, I would have fewer problems right now.”

“I mean, before we found this city and everything,” I say, gesturing around. “We were working on a way to digitise our mind, so if we finish that, we might be able to install a mesh port in there.”

“Is that safe?” she asks, looking at me.

“I don’t know, really. Maybe I might be at some risk of getting hacked, but I am not sure that the framework would even work on the same system. Also, trying to hack the brain of a hacker when I could probably fight back at a much greater speed just sounds like suicide,” I explain.

“I mean, I'd prefer it if you did not take that risk just for me.” she gives me a serious look.

“It would not be for you. Having you in there would be more of a weird bonus. I am pretty sure that if you could digitise our mind or at least a large part of it, I could do the opposite, too. Like I could code by just thinking about it.”

“That sounds useful, I think.” She gives me a weird look. “I don’t have the know-how of what that actually means.”

“I am not exactly sure myself, but I think the possibilities are endless. But what makes me the most excited about it is that it might allow both of us to be active at the same time and actually interact with the rest of the world to a certain degree,” I explain.

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“So you want to separate from her?” Katelyn asks curiously.

“No, not at all. I don’t think that it is even possible,” I say in a bit of a panic.

“Not even with Protector technologies? I kind of assumed they could figure something out like the twins but in reverse. Of course, a second body would probably not be cheap.” Katelyn says.

“Okay, when I said it was not possible, I did not mean that with some protector technomagic, we could not separate from each other because I think that is possible,” I say, taking a deep breath. “I just don’t think the result would be that great.”

Katelyn gives me a confused look. “How so?”

“Well, we don't know why or how exactly we split, but I am pretty sure that we have not fixed that issue, so it would only be a matter of time before one of us would run into a situation where we need the other to switch in, and since that is no longer possible an other personality would be created, so we be ending up with four of us instead of the two of us.” I elaborate.

“So what you are saying is that the two of you need each other and can’t really be separated because you both complement each other.”

“Yeah, exactly. I mean, it might be fine for small amounts of time, but for the majority, I don’t think it is a good idea.” I say with some consideration.

“If splitting you guys up is not an option, what about combining you back into one person?” she asked rather innocently.

“You want us to become one again?” I ask, unsure if I want her to answer.

“I don’t know; maybe it sounds a lot less complicated. I mean, I don’t hate you, but it is kind of weird that my girlfriend only has a body fifty percent of the time.”

“I guess I can understand that,” I choke down the pain as best as I can. “I just don’t want that at all. Not only do I like it that someone is around and with me all the time, but also, if we combine, who’s to say both of us wouldn’t stop existing in a way as a new entity would be formed to take our place.”

“Oh right, yeah, I would not want to lose her,” she looks a bit guilty. “You don’t think one of you would like to take over and just gain the skills of the other.”

“I don’t think so. I mean, it is not like we were like that before. I mean, maniacs' personality is not strange to me. It is something we feel often. We just had fewer opportunities to act upon it, but I don’t think she is foreign influence, so to say.”

“So there is no real way to fix it then?”

I am about to say something in anger but quickly bite it back. “I don’t think we need to be fixed. I believe we are fine the way we are.” I say through gritted teeth.

“I am sorry. I did not mean to insult you or anything. I was just wondering out loud like if we are going to stay together for a long time, I would like to know stuff.” she seems rather sad and apologetic.

I reach out, an arm squishing her shoulder slightly. “I know it is just, you know when someone says that, it feels like they are telling us that we should not exist, and that kind of hurts.”

Her eyes go even wider as she drags me in closer “I am so sorry! I didn't mean it like that! I just want to help the two of you because I am happy that you exist!” she panics as she pats my head.

I try my best to come up with a proper reply, but my brain has difficulty coming up with something on the account of breast being pushed in my face. Fuck why am I so gay.

“Hey, stop ogling my girlfriend, will you?” I hear the maniac say in a joking tone.

“Oh, be quiet, will you? It is not my fault that she is still naked”, I bite back.

“Uhm, what?” Katelyn asks, a bit confused.

“Maniac is teasing me because I got distracted for a second by your, like, uhm… personalies”, I try my best to explain.

Katelyn's face turns bright red. “Right, sorry. Did not mean to,” she says as she pushes me away from her.

“It’s fine, don’t worry. I am fine. It is not like I hate seeing pretty, naked ladies or anything,” I say, trying to levy the situation.

She goes even redder. “I should probably put on some clothes.”

“I mean, you don’t have to. I don’t mind,” I say, giving her a wink.

Kately pauses already halfway out of the bed. “Are you flirting with me?”

“I was not trying to. I was just trying to mess with you a bit since we like going to see a lot of each other in probably somewhat compromising situations,” I say, giving her a questioning look. “I just wanted to be on friendly terms.”

“Ah, okay, sorry, I was getting a bit confused with the multiple girlfriend thing, so I just had to ask” She now fully gets out of bed and throws on some simple nightmare. Once she is done, she hops back into bed. “So, what are your plans for today?”

“Well, the first thing I want to get done is the teleportation module thing. After that, I don’t know, maybe make it up one of the support pillars to investigate this forcefield I keep hearing so much about.” I should have really looked into it sooner, but everything was so chaotic, and I just wanted to sit down and relax for a bit.

“There are no pillars”, Katelyn states in a deadpan tone.

“Wait, the entire city is held up by just the walls? That doesn’t sound safe?” I am rather confused. This space is huge, and the city built on top of it is not exactly small, so unless they invented some new type of concrete, this should be impossible.

“Well, before, or after the barrier activated, I’m not really sure about the timing, they all exploded,” she answers.

“All of them, just like that, and you don’t find that strange?” I ask, utterly baffled.

“Of course we did, but there is not much we can do about it. We were mostly just trying to survive. Someone rigging the elevators, and support pillars to explode was not our main priority at the time,” she exasperates.

“Ah, I am sorry. I didn't mean to accuse you of anything. I was just wondering why someone would blow them up,” I try my best to explain.

“I don’t know. Maybe they wanted to bury the entire undercity. Who knows what those cloud lickers top side are thinking?” Katelyn sounds calmer now

Well, that is a bit rude. I am one of those top-side cloud lickers. “But why put in the force field if they wanted to bury this place.”

“I don’t know, Evelin; they just felt like it. I guess I don’t know what a bunch of top-side spire dwellers are thinking,” She says, looking a bit annoyed.

“Right, sorry,” I say, getting out of bed

“Where are you going?” Katelyn asks, looking a bit confused.

“This problem is bothering me, so I am going to investigate,” I walk to the door. “You should sleep some more; you sound tired”

I smile and blow her a kiss as I close the door.