"Hmm. I think I bought too much," Aris says.
It's to herself because of course it is. It's not like there's anyone worth saying anything to anyway. At least not anymore. There might have been before (and by that she means definitely) but the Union's just filled with a bunch of dolls and ugly men that even she can't fix. Which is saying something because she's the most impressive person when it comes to fixing up faces in the entire place.
The world too but who honestly cares about the world.
Boring place. It's only useful for her to get large stockpiles like this whenever she feels like leaving the nice clean walls of her labs and rooms.
She didn't quite understand why there was a sale today at first, especially since it was everywhere, until she decided to search up whatever this Valentine's nonsense was, but when she did, she decided she might as well participate. Buying chocolate cheap is such a bargain after all!
Of course Aris did it more because it felt familiar. Just like how walking in those awful crowded shops felt familiar and loading up her ugly prisons' bars-like trolley was familiar, though the loneliness and the empty space beside her hadn't been. At least she wishes it hadn't been. Years and that loneliness always accompanies her everywhere, appearing at the strangest of places like in cars and restaurant seats and just about whenever she's walking somewhere because nobody's ever done that before obviously.
She does know what it means. Sure she pretends not to as she fusses over men who she's sure are pretty, and she genuinely felt better when her darling Takeo was by her side before he decided to run off to some rich man's house (honestly! didn't he know such suspicious places were hubs of the underworld? if he wanted that he could have just stayed by her side and she'd have picked something out of her psychedelics rack for him. she really needs to get him back soon before they completely corrupt him), but it's not something Aris can forget no matter how many frills she wears or tea she drinks. That just makes her get a heatstroke or need to run to the nearest powder room.
So that's why she finds herself curling up on her bed with a few of the boxes in her arms, thinking that the bed should still be warm.
"How annoying!" popping off the lid of the topmost box, she takes a bite of a conch-shaped chocolate and wrinkles her nose- "Ugh. And dark chocolate? Even worse."
Nothing seems to be going right at all today. She keeps on remembering someone she doesn't know. Their- hmm. No that's not right. Her phantom has been following her around all day. Does the woman have nothing better to do instead of pestering her? Maybe this is because of Crombel's dumb experiment. He's absolutely horrible at fixing things; just look at Yuri! Or maybe he did it on purpose. She ruins men's faces all the time when she's bored, so that could be possible.
Aris would have preferred if he got rid of the phantom woman instead of making her appear more though. It's an absolute menace on her life, making her remember the warmth of another woman's embrace, the fluttering of her heart whenever she complimented her, the happiness of a very very very long time ago. Such horrible things they are, and so she's always throwing herself into her work.
Or she's in bed like this, going through way too much chocolate to try and forget everything by getting a horrid stomach-ache.
There's nothing good about it at all. Not the voice that she sometimes hears that she's sure is just around the corner. Not the hot touch on her back that's gone the moment she spins around to scold the missing person. And Aris definitely, absolutely, loathes that there's no face to go along with it all.
If there was she'd hunt down this person! To kill them of course. She's such an annoying distraction, and Aris is sure that personally getting rid of her would solve the problem. It's only logical.
Just as much as why she's been buying threads and yarns and fabrics even though she's not the least bit interested in using them. They fit in quite well with the rest of her things and she gets the funniest feeling that she's not the only one who would love how pretty they are.
