"TEXAS!"
"I'm here."
In a fraction of a second, Texas went from laying down in sleep, to standing rigid as rebar, beside her bed and tangled mess of sheets. A lifetime of toil and terror had turned her into a light sleeper, and she was ready to go to battle at a moment's notice.
Well, almost ready. Texas had gotten far too comfortable in Penguin Logistics. She used to sleep fully clothed, but now she was holding up her fists and looking around for any sign of danger, clad in nothing but a pair of panties that said CANDY WOLFY across the ass.
Exusiai pays no heed. "We're not in real danger, but we've got a serious problem here," the Sankta said. "S-something's… wrong."
"What's wrong? What happened? Talk to me, Exusiai. Are we being robbed?" Texas cracked her knuckles, before deciding that whatever troubles they would be facing, would be better faced with some actual clothes. She starts looking for her shirt and pants.
"Nope," Exusiai said, pushing her pointer fingers together anxiously.
"Is Lappland here?"
"No."
Texas relaxed considerably. "Faulty plumbing? Kitchen explosion? Emperor wants to rap battle someone again?"
"No, no, and no!" Exusiai made a big X with her arms. "This is about Sora!"
"Sora?" Texas frowned. "If another crazy fan didn't follow her home, then—"
"She's… she's…!" Exusiai looked close to tears. "Come here, I'll show you!"
And just like that, Exusiai zoomed out of the room, with Texas following close behind.
The dark-haired Lupo spent the short trip wondering just what in the world was happening. She couldn't fathom what had gotten Exusiai so twisted-up, but fortunately, she wouldn't have to ruminate on it for very long. In under half a minute, they reach the door to the kitchen, where a peculiar black aura is practically seeping out from beneath the door frame.
Texas raises an eyebrow. She's about to push the door open, when Exusiai grabs the hem of her shirt to stop her.
"Texas…" Exusiai whispers, wilting beneath her Lupo coworker's gaze. "Sora… watch out for her. Be careful… okay?"
Texas blinked. "You're not coming with me?"
Exusiai shook her head. "Not until I know it's safe!"
"Oh for goodness sake, Exusiai. It's just our Sora." Texas pushed the door open, where she took a single step inside. "How bad could it… be…"
A spirit of darkness leans against the kitchen counter.
She wore clothes as black as midnight. So dark, they almost seemed to absorb all the light around them. Her skin was as pale as the moon. She looked… ghostly. Ethereal. Not from this world. So fragile that a single touch would make her shatter to pieces. And she was smoking one of Texas's cigarettes, glaring down at the cell phone in her hands while her fingers worked at the touch screen keyboard.
Texas squinted her eyes. She thought that Exusiai had been mistaken earlier. That there was, in fact, a break-in. That some troubled youth had somehow forced herself into their home, just to make a nuisance of herself. Unfortunately, the truth was often stranger than fiction.
"Sora?" Texas stepped right up to the nightmare before her. "Sora, is that you?"
The being who was once known as Sora simply rolled her eyes, before they settled right on Texas's face.
"What." It almost didn't sound like a question at all. She stared expectantly at Texas, who pressed on with her own inquiries.
"What the hell are you wearing?" Texas was absolutely flabbergasted. Her blonde coworker - their bubbly, sprightly, positive and cheering colleague - was gone. In its wake was some kind of dark spawn from the very depths of the underworld. "Is that makeup? It's so pale. Are you in cosplay?"
Texas looked Sora up and down. From the fake spiders in her hair, to the rhinestone spikes on her combat boots. From the too-many-belts wrapped around her waist and extremities, to the studded choker fit snugly around her neck. Texas had never seen anything like it before. Now she understood exactly why Exusiai was so shaken.
This wasn't Sora. Not even close.
"What's it to you?" The woman scoffed, turning up her nose.
"What's it to me?" Texas was taken aback. "Are you feeling okay, Sora? Are you sick? Should we take you to—"
"I'm not sick, dummy," the woman spat, "and stop calling me Sora. Sora is my OLD name, okay? I'm not with that kid shit anymore."
"Kid shit?" Texas crossed her arms. "That's literally your— okay, are you changing your codename? What did you want to be called instead of Sora?" Texas sighed.
"Heh." The woman pointed to herself with a thumb, cracking a wide grin. Like a porcelain doll's face, crooked and unseemly. "Names are for friends, so I don't need one. But if you wanna call me something, then I go by Bad Dream's Nightmare, now."
"That's… too much." Texas shook her head, simply. "I'm absolutely not calling you that every time we speak. Maybe I'll shorten it to BDN, or something?"
"Shorten it?!" Sora - or perhaps BDN - got up in Texas's face. "Explode!"
The silence between them is thick, and all-encompassing. Texas doesn't flinch an inch, but her confusion is paramount.
"What?" she asked.
"I said, explode." BDN shook her hands in front of Texas's face. "I just commanded your soul to explode. You're going to have a Soul Death in exactly 7 days. I'd be nervous if I were you."
"Sora what the fuck are you talking about?"
"DON'T call me SORA! I told you, I'm Bad Dream's Nightmare, now!" She curtsies, ever-so-slightly raising her spiderweb-patterned skirt in formal greeting. "And it's a pleasure to meet you, Texas. Try not to piss me off, okay? You wouldn't like me when I'm pee-oh'd."
Right before their very eyes, a title flashes across their faces.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ SUPPORT
BAD DREAM'S NIGHTMARE
BDN is nonplussed. "Five stars?! Excuse me? I'm at LEAST a six-star operator! I'm at least a SEVEN-STAR operator! And I wanna be a Vanguard this time! Quick and deadly, like death's dagger!"
The title returns, this time with a couple of tweaks.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ VANGUARD
BAD DREAM'S NIGHTMARE
"Ha! That's more like it!" BDN throws up her arms in triumph. "Watch out, world! There's a new—"
"Sora?" Croissant walked lazily into the kitchen. The Forte woman must have just woken up. A sleep mask still hung from one of her horns, and she yawned loudly. "What's all that ruckus, girls? What's happenin'?"
Croissant took one look at Sora and she flinched, almost leaping back in surprise. "SWEET POTATO PIE! WHO THE HELL— Sora?! Izzat you?! What happened to ya?!" The Defender operator rubbed her eyes to make sure that what she was seeing was real. Unfortunately, it was.
"Don't call me Sora!" Sora stomped her foot, looking enraged. "I just said I'm changing my name to Bad Dream's Nightmare! Don't you see the title right there? I'm a seven-star Vanguard now!"
"A seven-star wuzzat?" Croissant waves the title away from their faces; it's the least of her worries right now. "Sugar, what's gotten into you? You look like a…" She winces, looking at Sora's outfit. "You look like some kinda demon, straight outta horror flicks!"
"You like my outfit?" BDN smirked, doing a little twirl. "I think it suits the new me!"
"It looks atrocious." Texas pointed at Sora, unfazed by this mood swing. "Change out of that. You look insane."
Sora grinned suddenly. "Oh yeah? And who do you think you are, huh? You're not my mom, you can't tell me what to wear! I can wear whatever I want! Bad Dream's Nightmare can wear whatever she wants!"
"Please don't start talking in third person," Texas resigned. "And stop acting like some rebellious teenager. You're twenty-five years old. Is this supposed to be your quarter-life crisis, or something?"
BDN scoffed. "Shows what you know! There's nothing wrong with a bit of reinvention! You should try it!"
"First of all, no," said Texas, "and second of all, this is excessive. This is by no means a bit of reinvention. You almost scared Exusiai to death with your appearance."
"Well, I'm very sorry that Exusiai can't handle who I really am inside," said BDN. "Not!"
"How ridiculous…" Texas started to leave the room. "If you want to play dress up and talk like a brat, I'm not going to stop you. But you should have more tact and—"
Ding dong, bing bong!
The doorbell rings.
Texas paused. "Who is that?"
"I'll get it!" Exusiai could be heard scurrying down the hall.
"I invited some new friends," said BDN, smiling expectantly. Her tail, which had been dyed black and white, was now wagging.
"New friends?" Texas asked. "What are you…"
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
"Exusiai…?!" Texas jumped into action at the sound of Exusiai screaming, only to be met with a pair of men who suddenly walked into the kitchen like they owned the place. A couple of nasty-looking vagrants, one skinny and one burly, covered in tattoos and dark clothing. Under normal circumstances, Texas would make short work of these home invaders, but these were not normal circumstances, because Sora - or BDN - was jumping for joy and clapping her hands together.
"Yayyyy! You both made it! How was the drive? Was it…" Sora cleared her throat, returning to her gloomy demeanor and unholy aura. "Was it loathsome?"
"Hmmm… nice place you got here…" The lankier of the two gentlemen, with black and white face paint, looked around the kitchen with apparent wonder. His own makeup made him look like a walking skeleton in a hoodie, but he had a nose ring and a stud on his tongue. "This room's bigger than my whole apartment."
"That's 'cause you're poor as fuck." The heavier of the two gentlemen was already rifling through cabinets and drawers. Like his companion, he was dressed from head to toe in dark leather, and he had a wool cap on his head, even if outside conditions would permit otherwise.
Texas's tail shot straight up in a frenzy, but she remained stock still. "Hey! Who are you two? What do you think you're doing?!"
"I told you, Tex-ass, these are my friends!" Sora jumped in between both intimidating men, wrapping an arm around each of their necks, and giving each of them half a hug. "Are you just going to turn away my new friends? How selfish can you be?!"
"I…" Texas didn't know what to say. And so Sora continued, by gesturing to the lanky punk on her left.
"This is Fingerbones," she said, and the man known as Fingerbones raised his hand in a mock salute.
"'Sup, babes?" Fingerbones's irises were enormous. It was immediately obvious to everyone in the room that he was currently intoxicated, but on what, nobody could presently say. "Is this the party van?"
"And this is Mr. Horse!" Sora gestures to the giant man on her right, who gives a wave of his own. His presence is overwhelming, and his tone of voice certainly matches.
Altogether, Texas was beginning to get a very particular sense of dread. A danger she only felt when she was looking danger in the face, and it was looking right back at her.
Mr. Horse gestures vaguely to Texas and Sora. He asks, "are these our groupies, or something?"
"Groupies?" Croissant scratches her head with confusion. "Huh?"
"Oh, I almost forgot to mention!" Sora cocks her head to the side, towards Fingerbones and Mr. Horse. "We're not only friends, but we're also getting a band thing going on. It's just a small thing."
"A band thing?" Croissant gasps. "You're starting a band?"
"It's just a small thing right now," Sora repeats, "but yeah, a band thing. A new band. Me, in a band. Not a solo artist - not anymore. A real band. A METAL band, where we play metal music, and maybe do some banging. Headbanging, I mean. We bang our heads."
"I get it," said Texas.
"We're called Impregnation Imminent!" says Sora.
"That's the worst thing I've ever heard in my entire life."
"Yeah, well." Sora clicks her tongue. "You just don't understand our creative vision."
"Sora, are you on drugs? What's happening here?"
Exusiai walks into the kitchen, eyes glued to her cell phone. "I think I've figured it out," the angel says.
"You haven't figured anything out! I'm not some PUZZLE to be solved, I've just finally come out of my shell!" Sora puts her hands on her hips. "And I need you to respect me. Or else!"
"Exusiai…" Texas, weary, walks up beside Exusiai. "Is she running a high fever? Is she sleepwalking?"
"Worse." Exusiai shows off her cell phone screen, where it appears that Exusiai has stumbled upon some kind of medical forum. "I think she's suffering from Goth Bitch Syndrome."
"Goth Bitch Syndrome?" Texas's eyes go wide.
"Yeah. GBS. Not to be confused with IBS, which is Irritable Bitch Syndrome."
"Okay," said Texas.
"Yeah. GBS. Goth Bitch Syndrome. According to the forum, individuals ranging in age from twelve to thirty are likely to experience Goth Bitch Syndrome at least once in their lives. But in extreme cases, even geezers can become goth. Imagine that!"
"That's… that's horrible…" Texas swallowed hard. "Is it like Oripathy?"
"Well, Oripathy can't be cured. But… It looks like GBS has some treatments available."
"UMMM HELLO?" Sora gestured to herself. "I'm right here, you know! Stop talking to me like I'm in some kind of coma, and listen to me! Are you going to be groupies for our band, or not?"
"You're asking me if I want to be a groupie for a metal band called Impregnation Imminent?" asked Texas.
"Yeah!"
"Then no, idiot."
Sora was certainly offended. Goth phase be damned, she let her fury show on her face. "Why the hell not?! We're going to be the biggest thing in Lungmen, just you wait and see!"
Texas kept staring at Sora. "Exusiai, how do we cure GBS?"
Exusiai read the forum post on her phone screen. "One way to cure Goth Bitch Syndrome is for the afflicted individual to…" She squinted as she kept reading. "And I quote: get a real job. "
"That's going to take too long," Texas said sadly, "we need something faster."
"Another method of treatment," Exusiai said, "is to just let the afflicted individual live their life. It says that eventually they'll be forced to grow up and reflect on their actions."
Sora sneers. "Seems to me that you're just jealous!"
"Jealous?" Texas looked visibly sick.
"Have you ever had a goth phase, Texas?" Exusiai asked.
"No," Texas lied.
"Oh, okay."
"She's jealous!" Sora pointed right at Texas. "I'll show you just how serious I am! Tonight, Impregnation Imminent is going to be having its first concert, and you'd better be there!"
"Sugar, didn't ya form this band like… today?" Croissant smiled with amusement. "What instruments are ya gonna play?"
"I'm singing and playing electric guitar," said Sora, "obviously!"
"I play bass," said Fingerbones, half-mumbling his answer. He seemed lost.
"I do drums." Mr. Horse decided that was all he needed to say on the matter.
"I wanna join the band," said Croissant, finding amusement in all this.
"No you don't," Texas said.
"For sure I do! I think it sounds fun! Metal music… I ain't gonna knock it 'till I try it," the Forte reasoned. "What am I gonna play?"
"You can play the sleigh bells," Sora decided for her.
"Sleigh bells!" Croissant pumped her fist. She was really excited now! "Let's rock and roll! Texas, are you—"
Texas shook her head no.
"Okay!" Croissant turned to her new bandmates. "We should practice before tonight!"
"Croissant, the last thing Sora needs is any kind of encouragement," Texas reasoned.
"Yeah!" Exusiai pointed to this new version of Sora, her eyes wide with fear. "She needs an exorcist!"
"An exer-what-now?" Croissant waved dismissively, keeping her smile. "Sugar, they call those people personal trainers ."
"Enough!" Sora stomped her foot to silence everyone. "We'll be heading to practice now. After tonight's show, you'll see just how serious Bad Dream's Nightmare really is!"
"Yeah!" Mr. Horse punched his open palm.
"Yeah…" Fingerbones blinked slowly. "Hey, can I use the bathroom?"
"No," Texas told him.
"Bah, we were just leaving, anyway!" Sora pointed to the door. "Impregnation Imminent, let's move out! That means you too, Croissant. You're a part of Impregnation Imminent, now. That also means you'll need a new outfit and band name for tonight!"
"Oho! A new name for a new me…" Croissant rubbed her chin, suddenly deep in thought. "You can call me… C-Dawg. With a W!"
"C-Dawg!" Mr. Horse threw his head back with a hearty laugh. "That's good."
"C-Dawg, our newest member of our band new brand! I mean, our BRAND new BAND!" Bad Dream's Nightmare snickered. "Right then, let's go!"
And with that, Sora - or, Bad Dream's Nightmare - left the kitchen. Behind her followed Fingerbones, Mr. Horse… and Croissant, who was now C-Dawg.
"Please make sure she's safe," Texas told Croissant.
"Oh, o'course!" Croissant winked knowingly to her companions. And then she was gone, if only to keep Sora out of trouble.
Exusiai took a deep breath, and let it pass through her lips. "That was intense."
"That was annoying is what it was," said Texas, crossing her arms and scowling. "Sora's gone through slight changes over the years, what with her music career and her side ventures… but this is something completely out of left field."
"Remember when she dropped a rap album under the name Lil Sora? I guess it's kind of like that?"
"This is somehow worse," Texas remarked. "She's hanging out with strange men and painting herself up like a mime. Not to mention those HIDEOUS clothes…"
"Well, are you going to her concert tonight?" Exusiai asked.
"To make sure she doesn't hurt herself? I suppose I'd better," said Texas, shaking her head and sighing. "But the concert isn't until tonight, so we're going to have to kill some time until then."
"Hmmm." Exusiai hopped up onto the table. "D'you wanna make out?"
Texas was quiet for a moment. She closed her eyes, as if ruminating on the question. Pondering it. Tasting it. Finally, she decided.
"Yes, obviously," she said.
"Hey, I think she's waking up!"
Sora clenched her eyes shut. It felt like someone was drilling holes into her head; the pain was almost unbearable.
"Turn the lights down a bit, she's coming to."
Through her eyelids, Sora can sense that the lights in the room are turned way down. Now that she's comfortable opening her eyes, she does exactly that.
Right in front of her, standing in a semicircle around her hospital bed, were the concerned faces of her friends and coworkers. There was Texas and Exusiai standing together. Croissant was here too, but she looked remarkably different. Even Fingerbones, and Mr. Horse too. Everyone was here, minus her own boss. Who knows just what that little penguin is up to…
"What?" Sora blinked as the pain in her head subsided. "Where am I…?"
"Good morning, sunshine!" Croissant, who was wearing black and white face paint, points to her own smile with both hands. She had dark streaks in her hair, and she was wearing an Impregnation Imminent t-shirt. "How are you feeling?"
"I feel… okay…" Sora sniffled, sitting up in the hospital bed. "What… what happened? I don't remember how I…" She squinted. "Did someone attack me?"
"You attacked yourself," Exusiai replied, much to Sora's befuddlement.
"What?"
"What she means is," Texas spoke up, "you ended up in the hospital because of what you did on stage. You really don't remember?"
Sora winced. "No…"
"You headbanged for three hours straight," said Texas, "and then you got dizzy, tried to kiss Fingerbones, and then you blacked out."
"Oh no…" Sora didn't want to hear it.
"But you blacked out while standing up, so you fell off stage and smashed your head against a steel chair."
"Oh no…!" Sora closed her eyes. She really didn't want to hear that!
"And then," Texas continued, "the steel chair clamped around your neck, cutting off your circulation and almost strangling you to death."
"Oh no!" Sora whimpered. "I… that's terrible!"
"It was kind of sick actually," Exusiai mumbled, and that gets a hard elbow jab from Texas. "Ow!"
"The crowd…" Sora gasped. "What happened with the crowd? Were they… cheering at least?"
"There was no crowd," said Texas, "this all happened during your first practice session."
"Oh…" Sora frowned deeply. She looked hurt. Then she looked up at Fingerbones. "I'm sorry, Fingerbones. I didn't mean to try to kiss you and then almost die."
"It's alright." Fingerbones, now dressed remarkably clean and no longer under the influence of narcotics, smiles and rubs the back of his neck. "Also, it's Todd now. I'm only Fingerbones when I'm in the zone. Right now I'm not in the zone."
"Okay," Sora considered, "that makes sense…" She looked over at Mr. Horse, who cleared his throat and straightened out the hem of his plaid shirt.
"And I'm Timothy," he told her, "and also, I just stopped by to make sure you were okay. I have to get back to work now. My real job," he clarified.
"Real job?" Sora rubbed her own temples to soothe the pain. "You have a real job? I thought you were goth…"
"No, sadly I'm just a poser," said Timothy. "Anyway, see ya."
And just like that, the man who was once Mr. Horse had gone away, never to be seen again. He's never coming back.
"Being goth is a lot of hard work," Sora said, sighing deeply. She felt so defeated. "I thought if I got really into the role, then I could…"
"Sora… you don't have to dress up in black, and paint your nails, and change your name to be goth. Goth isn't about the clothes you wear, or the friends you make, or even the music you listen to. You can be goth where it counts."
"In here?" Exusiai held a hand over her heart.
"No," said Todd, "lower."
Exusiai held a hand over her crotch. "In the… in the pussy? Goth is found in the pussy?"
"What? No! Higher!" Todd touched his own stomach. "In the gut! You feel it in your gut!"
"Oh." She was almost disappointed to hear that.
"Yeah. The gut… that sounds right. I should write that down…" Todd turned to everyone and gave a friendly wave of goodbye. "Bye, girls. Take care of yourselves. You too, Sora." He turned to the bedridden Lupo and smiled at her. "Stay true to yourself. Also don't call my phone again. My wife is already really mad that I spent the day with a girl half my age."
"Okay. I really don't know what to say about that," Sora said. But she watched Todd leave all the same, before turning to face her comrades. "I'm sorry, girls. I don't know what came over me. I thought if I changed my style, then I wouldn't get stagnant. That I wouldn't get… boring."
"Awww, sugar!" Croissant put her hand on Sora's shoulder. "You ain't boring! You're you! And the only one who can be you is, well, you! That makes you pretty gosh-darned unique!"
"Exactly." Texas gave Sora a thumbs-up. "Let this be a lesson for you, Sora. We love you for who you are, and we never want that to change."
"Ditto!" Exusiai put her arms up, in a triumphant pose. "Goodbye, Bad Dream's Nightmare, and HELLO Sora! We missed the hell outta you! Even if it's only been, like, 20 hours since we last saw you."
"Awww, you guys…!" Sora sniffled. "It's official: Sora is back!"
Croissant cleared her throat. "Hey, uh, that reminds me. I'm quitting the band."
"What?" Sora blinked, leaning back in her hospital bed. "You're quitting Impregnation Imminent? Why?"
Croissant hung her head low. "I don't think our sound is the kind of direction I want to be focusing in. I think I want to focus on establishing a solo career before I commit to this kind of genre and subculture. I know it hurts, but I think it's for the best for everyone involved if I split off and try to take a less conventional, more indie path."
"What?" Sora blinked with confusion, and it's a confusion that only grows when Croissant wags her finger in front of Sora's face.
"Also," the t-shirt-wearing, black-and-white-makeup-wearing Forte said, "you ain't real goth. You're a poser. And I can't be having that kinda baggage weighing me down when I focus on my solo career."
"What?!" Sora's lip quivered. "W-wait, Croissant, I told you I didn't mean it!"
"Croissant? The hell are you talking about?" She scoffed, turning away from everyone. "Don'tcha know? It's C-Dawg now. An' I decided I wanna be an eight-star Sniper operator, by the way."