The closer we get to Frustration's house, the more Amaris fidgets and comes up with random excuses to go back--I just threaten her with a hug when that happens, it usually shuts her up.
"So you were friends before, right? What was it like?" I ask, trying to stop her from biting what's left of her nails.
"W-we were just in the same orphanage, so we did some things together b-but... when we both became magical girls we... ha...." Her breathing gets a little bit more frantic, she tightens the drawstring of her hoodie, hiding even more of her face.
"Huh, Luis never mentioned they had another magical girl in the orphanage, aren't they supposed to be rare?" I change the subject for her own sake.
"I-it's...extremely uncommon for two magical girls to be born in the same city. A-although neither me nor Frustration are born here, we're both from another country, s-so maybe it doesn't count? N-no one really knows how magical girls are chosen..." She squints at me. "I-it's weird though. If we count Hotel and you, that makes 4 magical girls from the orphanage, t-that's not just unlikely, it's statistically..." she mumbles to herself.
"Ha, well, Hotel and I developed our powers before we came to this city, so it's different." It's not completely wrong, but my body was also 'born' here--still, we're oddities that shouldn't be accounted for.
She just shrugs and doesn't question me any further, at least she calmed down a little now--which is good, because we're right next to Frustration's house, and it's too late for Amaris to run away.
Frustration's house is a lot better looking than every other rundown house around it, it's not what I'd call impressive, but it stands out from the rest of the slums--having a two-story house at all is basically a luxury around here, after all.
I knock twice, making sure to keep my eyes on Amaris so she doesn't run away when I'm not looking. It only takes a moment for someone to open the door just enough for their head to peek out. It's a guy I think I've seen before, but I can't remember when.
He stares at us without saying anything, and I'm not entirely sure what to say either--to my surprise, it's Amaris who speaks first, "It's...Amaris, or Inadequacy, c-can we talk to Vera?"
The man's head hide behind the door again, and he shouts, "Honey! It's Amaris!" someone can be heard running inside the house and the door is slammed open, revealing Vera and a shirtless man. He's pretty fit to say the least, and I can't help but stare a little longer than intended, I'm pretty sure I'm drooling a little--hopefully not too much.
Amaris is a little bit flustered but not as much as I expected, she's a lot more focused on Vera--or Frustration, whatever you want to call her--to care about the shirtless guy.
"Heeeey Otis?" Vera addresses the man, "Can you cook something real quick, we got guests. I love youuu~" she says in a sickeningly sweet tone.
"Alright, love you too~" Otis smiles and leaves to what I assume is the kitchen.
"Rubbing it in..." Amaris says quietly to herself.
"Hmm? What was that?" Vera gets closer to Amaris.
"It's nothing..." Amaris is barely audible as she gets behind me, as if I'm some kind of anxiety shield that will absorb all the awkwardness of this interaction.
Seeing the state of Amaris, Vera turns her attention to me instead. "Hooo! I like your haircut, you're looking good!" she says, clasping her hand together.
"I know right! Don't I look cute?" I reply, trying to match her excitement. Vera and I giggle like we're schoolgirls talking about our crushes, unfortunately I can feel how deeply uncomfortable Amaris is, so I cut it short. "Can we come in?"
Vera nods and ushers us inside, Amaris opts to stare at the floor instead of making any eye contact, but that's to be expected. The inside of her house looks a lot better than the outside, there's a lot of furniture, and the living room we find ourselves in has a big comfortable sofa with a TV.
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"Wanna play video games?" Vera opens a closet full of little wooden boxes, and she takes out a few disks out of them.
"You have video games in this world?" I jump out of the sofa, it's been so long since I've played a video game. Although I experienced my fair share of gamelike systems.
I probably shouldn't have said 'this world' because both Amaris and Vera are looking at me like I just spouted gibberish. Thankfully, they don't linger on it too much.
Vera mentions what we can play, I say I'm okay with anything but RPG, and we end up settling with some sports game we can play together--they only have two controllers though, so we have to share a little. Amaris just nods and doesn't argue with our choice, I'm not sure if she's unwilling to take a side or if she's just not paying attention.
The game has pretty simple 32-bits graphics, but it's still fun--even if Vera always wins because she knows the game better.
"You're not that good at this, I thought you'd at least be good at sports game." Vera says after beating us at another game--it's actually starting to get on my nerves a little, she's not holding back at all.
"J-just because I work out d-doesn't mean I'm good at sports. A-and sports and video game about sports aren't the same at all!" Amaris protests.
"So you do still work out..." Vera suddenly dives on top of Amaris's legs and lifts the lower part of her hoodie, revealing a lot of pecs under there--seriously, I think she's more jacked than Vera's boyfriend. "Wow! You're jacked! Seriously, how much are you hiding?" She tries to squeeze Amaris's arms, but her hand gets slapped away.
"I- I don't like being touched! Y-you're ALWAYS like this!" She turns to point accusingly at me, "S-same thing for you!" I throw back my hands in fake outrage, I wasn't even going to do anything for once. Vera awkwardly gets off of Amaris and sits down to her part of the sofa. Amaris mutters a 'sorry' before we play another game, but the mood is not really there.
"That's my bad, I shouldn't have done that," Vera apologizes, "still, you worked so hard for that body, but you don't let anyone see it, why are you acting like you're ashamed of it?"
"I- I don't work out so people can gawk at my body! I work out to be stronger because my power can only do one thing! B-because if someone is in danger and I'm not strong enough, then I don't think I could- of course YOU wouldn't get that!" Amaris's eyes starts to glow, her hands are clenching the controller I hear it crack.
"Ho, fuck off." Vera rolls her eyes. "You're always like that, you complain that nothing ever goes your way, but you refuse to do anything about it. You just go along with whatever people tell you to do because you're too scared of what will happen if you don't!" Metal spikes start rising out of her shirt. I'm looking back and forth between the two of them, not entirely sure what I should be doing.
Otis shows up with four salad bowls held in his arms--and seeing the situation--he carefully lowers the bowls and wraps his arms around Vera, "Hey, it's okay. Everything's okay, I brought something to eat like you asked, I even added mangos, you like mangos right?" I'm afraid he's going to get impaled by one of the spikes, but the spikes stop popping out after a few seconds.
"I- I mean can you believe her? I'm trying to be nice but-" Vera eventually gives in to Otis's hug. "But yeah...I- I do like mango...thanks. Love you." she's still visibly pissed off, but not enough to transform, I guess.
I can't say the same about Amaris, if anything, I'm pretty sure she got worse after seeing Vera calm down. Otis looks at me like I'm supposed to find a solution for her too, but I don't know her as well as he thinks I do.
"I can't...can't have anything...be anywhere..." she mumbles to herself, everything around her change to jarringly bright colors, but none of those colors belong together, the TV turns to static, the controller moves by itself. I look back at Vera, and she looks just as lost as me. I guess it really is up to me to find a solution.
What's the opposite of inadequacy? Belonging? How do I make someone feel like they belong? She doesn't like compliments, she doesn't like hugs, she...wait, I got it.
"The one and only hex goddess, at your service! The forces of evil shall tremble before their own power! Beware, friend or foe, as my magic is too AWESOME to be contained!" I shout in the stupidest way I can think of, hoping it's annoying enough to get the reaction I want.
"How the fuck does that help?" Vera exclaim, but she doesn't look pissed off, that's good.
"Why are you always like that! Y-you don't take anything seriously!" Amaris shouts, I think it's working--that can't work with just me though, I need Vera to take the bait.
"Yeah, it's not the time to mess around, do you think everything's a joke?" Vera slaps the back of my head.
"Y-yeah! D-did you think it was funny? I just want to be taken seriously for once!" Amaris says in outrage, everything around her slowly comes back to normal.
I get called every name imaginable, and I'm even hit a few times--Otis tries to stop the bullying, but I gesture him to stop.
It's hard to make someone feel like they belong, but a very effective tactic is to simply give people a common enemy, then those people will belong against me--the logic is a little bit twisted, but it's there. If that didn't work I would've tried to insult Amaris to make them both gang up against me, I'm glad it didn't come to this though.
I eventually get chased out of the living room, and I can't help but smile as I see the both of them laugh together at my stupidity. I guess I understand why Hotel wants to help people, it does feel nice, even if I'm ultimately doing it for myself.