The old photos made her conscious of her age, of how much time had passed - and of what an interesting life she'd had. IF saw pictures of herself after her first guild task. She was tired, sore, and covered in more dogoo gunk than she would like to remember. She flipped through more pages to see herself and her first motorcycle, the purchase of her ninth phone, and Compa sewing a pocket on her jacket for said phone.
She flipped back even farther to see pictures she drew as a child. Most of them were pictures of herself during her middle school syndrome days she'd like to forget, but there was one that stuck out. It was a picture she and Compa had drawn together in grade school. It was a picture of all four CPUs in crayon. It wasn't a very good drawing, since the only way you could tell who was who was from the colors and a few things that, almost, resembled the goddesses. She chuckled, remembering the amount of time and detail she'd put into drawing Verts breasts and Compas utter confusion in her doing so.
She put the picture down and thought. As a child, she looked up to the four of them as people she yearned to be. When she was a child, she couldn't have believed that she'd meet all the goddesses in person. Granted, one of them was a pervert, another one had anger issues, Lastation was full of girls in denial, and the goddess she knew best could be called sluggish on her best days. Even though they weren't as elegant as she'd imagined, she knew all of them meant well. She'd worked with them for over a decade, and, in that time, they'd all taken a hit or two for her. Neptune probably did this the most when things got too rough for a human to deal with. Between Neptune and Compa, she couldn't help but feel like she was being babied on some of their adventures. She didn't like it, but she never claimed that she didn't need help, unlike the Lastation goddesses.
She flipped back another page and saw a picture she didn't remember. She knew the picture had to have been taken before she was six because she never cut her hair any shorter than waist length since. The picture was of herself on Neptune's shoulder. She struggled to remember how the picture had gotten taken until she saw the bag in Neptune's hand. The bag was filled to the brim with pudding. Chocolate, Vanilla, and, of course, Carmel. She remembered seeing Neptune in a store and slowly working up the nerve to ask her for a picture. She was extremely surprised when she got not only got a yes but swept off her feet by the goddess.
She wondered why and how she could've forgotten about this, but she realized that it'd been over forty years ago. Realizing this, she slumped and sighed. She was almost fifty now. Not the oldest member working at the guild, but she was close. C-Sha retired two years ago and ever since then she'd wondered how much longer she could keep up with the quests given to her. Before she had time to let that sink in, there was a knock on the door.
"Iffy, Compa and I are going to Lastation to bother Noire! Want to come!?
She smiled, closed the album, and made her way to the door. Neptune was wearing her usual white hoodie and Compa was wearing a pink trench coat." How many times have I told you not to yell outside my front door, Nep!?
"I tried telling her not to," Compa said, pinching Neptune.
"Ow! But, you get here faster when I do that," she said entertained by IFs annoyed expression," Are you coming?"
"Of course, I am! I gotta make sure you don't do anything too stupid over there," she said putting her jacket on.
"I never do anything stupid. People just don't realize how secretly smart I am."
IF scoffed, "Tell that to Histoire the next time Planeptune crashes."
"Hey, we haven't crashed for at least fifty years, Iffy!"
"Most goddesses don't crash more than once!" she retorted.
The two argued all the way to Lastation with Compa interjecting from the sidelines. Even though IF didn't know what route life was going to take her down in the next couple of years, she knew she'd have these two to keep her company for all of it.
Well, there it is. I hope you enjoyed this short little thing I did, and I hope I didn't mess up too much in terms of continuity. I know Compa was the one that introduced Neptune to pudding in the original, but I don't know if that's how it worked in all the other dimensions. Also, apologizes if my grammar and punctuation made your eyes bleed. I'm still working on it. Feel free to tell me what I need to work on as long as you do it in a way that doesn't feel like you're crucifying me. I'm kidding. Crucify me all you want I'll probably still take it.