"You haven't even tried. C'mon, what's the worst that could happen?"

"And if you had the ability to look at yourself with full knowledge of everything that you don't like, and a slightly aggressive bent? Hi, Thea."

"The knives were more the Midnight Hour anyways." Cynthia yawns and stretches. "Phil-o-so-phy."

"I mean, I could be like that. I get that. But I wouldn't consider a version of myself that was like that to be friendly. I'm sure she could be friendly, but that's just like I could probably turn evil."

"Do you listen to yourself talk? That's the point. It's some part of you, and that's really what it wants you to admit. Doesn't mean it's all of you, just a part."

"It doesn't feel like a part so much as a potential deviation," she says, then shudders a bit.

"Sure. Same thing. I'm sure without any sense of reality, throwing my bad parts into a pile, giving it free will and the sole purpose of murdering me, I'm su--" Libby casually smacks Cynthia on the back of the head, inciting giggles.

"Something like that could happen! Bad Libby. Everybody has that tiny voice saying 'what if I just hurt people', somewhere deep inside."

"Yeah. You should listen to her. My voice is just a little louder."

Does she look innocent enough?

Not... really?

Thea seems like she wants to try believing that the Shadow's not gonna kill her, but. Knives. They were a little traumatic.

Cynthia is all Totally-Sure-Smiling on the outside...

YOU JUST HEARD YOURSELF SAY SOOOOOOOOOOO!

Libby shifts in place. This author notes that there is a distinct lack of knives in the middle of the street and a giant hair-monster in the off case that there would be. (Street-knives don't bloom until winter, sillies)

Okay, well, she's decided that she'll do it, and if she gets murdered brutally and viciously, that's a shame.

... Remind her why she's doing this again? Oh yes, because otherwise the hair monster might traumatize her again.

She tentatively inches her way in the direction of her Shadow self, going around Cynthia and Libby.

The Shadow self just waits there, seeming passive and at least somewhat innocent.

Cynthia is more beside Thea and out of the way anyways. Libby steps out of the way during those tentative steps, but is still close to them.

She does reaaaally not want to be doing this. But she is.

... Aaand she's eventually within a few metres of the Shadow.

The Shadow has been very still, remaining in a similar pose and trying not to spook the poor, weak, defenseless human. This changes.

She lunges at Thea, cackling maniacally.

Nopenope nope. Thea turns tail and runs to get away. She just knew this would happen, it is not okay, she does not want to die ohmygod.

She only manages to take a few steps before she collapses.

And the Shadow stops lunging, gets a smile on her face, and then fades away.

A moment to relax, and it becomes apparent Thea is partially caught by an 'arm' of Libby. It trails across the ground and then upward, supporting her on the way down. The feeling that Libby is smiling is somehow apparent past the wave of exhaustion that hits Thea.

The hair feels like hair atleast.

Ugh. Well, at least she doesn't feel dead, sliced up, or mauled. She thinks she might just lie here for a bit.

Lying against Libby harder makes her move closer and make a little half-hammock to cradle her against. Cynthia walks over into view.

"That's how it was supposed to go! Except the hugging was a little different. Oh well. What'd you tell your dad about where you were off to? I'll get you back in your bed if you want to doze off."

"I d'no," she mumbles. "Hugging? Uh. He was 'sleep."

"Ah, alright. Easy then, I'll just put you back. I'll hang around a little, but I won't get caught. No worries."

It's a carry by Libby back to Thea's place. Cynthia has nothing against a quick pocket-rifling to find the housekey. Inside, up the stairs, and tucking Thea into her bed.

Cynthia hums along the way.

Thea's house isn't particularly interesting. She's probably on the 'well-off' side of average, but not by much. Her room is probably the one with the open door and the posters on the wall.

Cynthia puts Thea to bed, and gazes around idly.

Posters of the new Justin Bieber and Kanye West boy band formation.

Fucking Midnight Hour. That isn't normal. That isn't even sane. Why tonight do you obscure posters?!

She lets Libby fade back into nonexistence, and spends some time at Thea's kitchen table. Math homework doesn't do itself. The Midnight Hour ends as usual, and after a quick check-in on sleeping Thea around 2AM (Too dark to see the posters! Argh!), Cynthia leaves. She'll grab some of her own sleep at her place. Saturday is here, sleeping in is good.

Zzzz.

Eventually, Thea wakes up. She remembers most of what happened but wow is this a bad headache. Fortunately, she doesn't notice anything wrong with the posters on her wall – in the daylight, they're not anything to do with Justin Bieber or Kanye West. She does eventually get up and have breakfast, and she'll probably message Cynthia eventually. She's a bit tired, still.

... Are those chicken strips? Why does she— No, she remembers why. Sigh.

Waking up? For breakfast? What is this. It's SATURDAY.

Zzz.