"And there it is, ladies and gentlemen. The first day of the trial to determine the shared future of monsters and humans has began on this cloudless day. The air around here is tense with expectations. What was not long ago just legends are now staking claim on a home they once inhabited. To say that the people are split about it is to be gravely underestimated. You sir, what are your thoughts on this?"

After rubbing the tiredness out of their eyes, Aofil reaches for the dial.

"YOU SEE!"

Their hand hesitates for a second.

"I, THE GREAT!"

The voice fades away as Aofil turns off their radio. They sigh at having to be reminded again, and curse under their breath before getting out of their bed. Their yawn bounces around the living room as they near their kitchen. Scrounging through their pantry, they eventually find the last bag of tea. They make a mental note to buy some more on the way home before putting their kettle on. It's not long before the smell of generic tea fills their apartment.

As the water heats up Aofil makes their way to the bathroom. On the way they make a quick stop by the door to pick up today's newspaper. They don't make an effort to read it, but they still catch the headline out of the corner of their eye. Again they twist their lips into a frown and sigh. Guess they're gonna have to be reminded of everything again, despite their best efforts not to.

They place the newspaper in their bathroom sink to prevent clogging. Their electric razor beeps as they take it off the charging station. They comb through the fur on their arm to get it as separated as possible so that their razor removes as much as possible, and with a couple of methodical strokes, they cover the large headlines about the new monster city with a small shower of glistening white fur.

They rub the last strands off their arm and fold the newspaper over the small mounds of fur. They rinse the blades under the faucet, and return the razor to its charger next to the unused manual razors. There's still some stubble left on their forearm, but Aofil isn't gonna risk cutting an artery to get rid of it. They've already prepared an excuse for it so there's no need to risk bleeding out on a consistent basis. Having different colored hair on your body than on your head isn't rare, so Aofil's sure that they're gonna be in the clear about it.

With the hair out of the way they check their eyes in the mirror. They detect a faint red glow deep inside their iris. It's not much, and no one except Aofil would notice it, but it's there. They tap their cheeks and the surrounding skin. They're not sure whether it is because they slept on their side or not, but their cheek feels just a bit warmer than the rest of their face.

They fill a small cup with water and fetch their medicine. They bounce a pill in their hand before looking at their eyes again. Aofil shakes out another pill, better not risk it. Not today. With a confident throw the pills hit the roof of Aofil's mouth and they rinse the pills down with a moutful of water. They put the lid back on the pill jar and drop it into their pocket. Again, better not risk it. Before they leave they clear their throat and spit some of the night's determination into the sink and wash it away.

After a quick shower Aofil brings the folded newspaper along with its contents to the fireplace. They lit a match and throw it onto the newspaper. As the starts to spread they close the hatch to keep the smell of burning hair from escaping. They made that mistake once, and will never make it again.

The kettle whistles a sharp b tone, and Aofil pours themselves a cup. They rinse the taste of determination out of their mouth, and then proceeds with the rest of their breakfast.

Aofil brings a bowl of cereal out to the living room and opens a window to let some fresh air and sun in. The announcer on the radio was right, it is a cloudless day. Though that's probably just a coincidence. Any weather forecast at Mt Ebott isn't gonna be representative of where Aofil lives now.

Not to say that Aofil doesn't welcome the sun despite it shining the same on what they've tried to leave behind them. They still haven't shaken off the habit of eating outside, and having the window open is their way of easing it out of their system.

What they haven't found is a way to subdue the feeling of silence that's present in their apartment. Sure, there's traffic outside, but that's just noise. There's no life anymore, or, to be specific, it's so much less than before that it could just as well be described as dead. Before all that happened, they had the same silence with every meal, with every minute, and with every second. It still tingles their spine a bit, but they're making progress in trying to ignore it. Aofil's has told themselves that the feeling is a side effect from their medicine. Despite the feeling, they'll take that over what their medicine subdues any day of the week.

They know that it will fade once they get a goal in life, and today's the day. Afterwards they just have to make it through their morning routine. Easy, compared to now. Still, it doesn't help that they were reminded again, but they'll roll with it.

Aofil taps their spoon on their bowl.

They'll roll with it.

As they catch the clock Aofil hurries the rest of their breakfast down. They rinse their dishes before heading back to the bathroom to brush their teeth. With that done Aofil checks their eyes in the mirror again. The red is gone, and their cheeks are the same temperature as the rest of their skin. No determination as they spit out the toothpaste either.

Good.

They still decide to bring along their pills, just to be safe.

With their backpack over their shoulder Aofil nods to one of their neighbor as they make it down the stairs. Aofil holds the door open for them and get a thankful nod back. The street outside is buzzing with the usual morning traffic, and Aofil joins the stream of people making their way to whatever life they have. After a bit of struggling, Aofil manages to untangle their headphone cable and puts on some music to calm themselves a bit. Both from what they heard, and where they're going.

The subway station isn't that far away from their apartment, and then, the school they're heading to be interviewed at isn't that far from one either, so all in all it's a pretty easy commute should they land the job. Combine that with their music holding their focus, Aofil can almost blink and be at work. Again, if they land the job.

It's been a rough couple of months with them not really making any progress with forgetting, or moving on. The pills helped a bit, but not as much as they wished. They're still gonna need them even if they succeed with the interview, but not for the same reason.

This time they will actually help.

Slowly they got a grasp on themselves, and realized that the best way for them to cope is to occupy themselves so that they have more pressing matters in their head. They have to actually do something to be able to forget. Aofil has to make a habit out of not thinking about their past.

At first they thought that being a teacher again would just be the complete opposite of what they were trying to do, remind them every single day. But, the more they thought about it, the more they convinced themselves of another possibility. Instead of reminding, being a human teacher would replace monster memories with human memories.

Aofil's still not fully convinced, but they believe it enough to give it a chance. It's the only way they can think of.

Today's the day they start to forget.

Something catches their eye though while they're making their way down the stairs leading to the subway. Their heart race as they spot a red convertible idling before a stop sign. The driver is human though, and as Aofil mutters to themselves for scaring themselves, they get bumped by a passerby that gives them an annoyed glare. The light turns green and the car drives away. Aofil readjusts the straps on their backpack and continue down into the subway.

"Morning, Aofil," greets one of their colleagues, "Coffee?" they ask with a cup outstretched.

Aofil takes it and gives it a sip, "Thanks."

"So," the colleague serves a cup to himself, "did you hear the news? First brick has been laid for the new monster city."

"Nah," Aofil shrugs as they sit down, "I'm not into monster stuff, really."

"I didn't mean it like that," the colleague laughs out.

"Neither did I," Aofil corrects, "It's just," they blow their lips nonchalantly, "I don't know, I'm just not interested. You have those prints I asked for yesterday, Tylior?"

"Sure do," he throws them down in front of Aofil and takes a seat opposite them, "but honestly, Aof, come on, not even a little bit with the monsters?"

Aofil furrows their brow as they drink some more coffee. They shake their head as they swallow.

Tylior rolls his eyes, "Yeah, I'm sure you don't care about literal legends reintegrating into society. Of course you wouldn't be interested in the biggest event in human history. We're living this, Aofil, at least you could feign some interest?"

Aofil lets the question hang for a while as they skim through the papers handed to them, "Hasn't really been relevant the years I've been working here, Tylior," they reach the end of the papers much sooner than they thought they would, "I mean, you've only brought the monsters up today despite them being on the news at least once a week for like five years."

"You weren't really the talkative type at the beginning, Aofil. Took some time for you to come out of your shell, you know? By that time I just didn't bother asking."

Aofil scoffs, "You and no one else, you mean?"

Tylior drums his fingers on the table, "How many pills did you take this morning, Aofil?"

"One," comes an emotionless response.

"Take another, I can hear your voice slipping a bit."

Aofil meets Tylior's concerning eyes and blinks out of the haze they see building up in front of them. Dammit, they shouldn't have risked it this morning. They put down the papers and take out their pill jar and swallow another one along with some coffee. The mix is not sitting well with them, "Thanks," they still say.

"No problem, Aof."

The room is silent for a minute as Aofil flips the papers back and forth. They read and reread the bullet points again and again, but there seems to be some stuff missing.

"You sure this is all, Tylior?"

He nods, "For today that is, there's gonna be some new stuff later tonight, but I'll have a printout for you tomorrow. Did you see that about the new data system?"

"Yeah, but I'm sure they'll find a way to make it so that it won't save us any work."

Tylior chokes on his coffee as he hears Aofil's quip, "Yeah," he coughs one more time, "you're probably right. Oh, speaking of something entirely else, Julie thought that maybe we could go out for a movie and drinks this weekend?"

Aofil nods, "Sounds like a plan! I'm pretty sure I can get Wednesday's test done by Friday so I should have the weekend free."

Tylior puts his hand up, "Nice," and Aofil meets it, "Sunday lunch as well?"

"Sure. Depends how hungover we'll be, though."

Tylior checks the clock and downs the last of his coffee. He scoots out of his chair and leans into Aofil as he passes them, "Exactly."

Aofil waves him off as they return to the papers Tylior printed out. They furrow their brow at the bullet point stating that a new standard test is on its way, but that shouldn't be a problem for them.

Worse things have happened.

"Morning, class," Aofil greets as they enter the classroom. They get a halfhearted response, but it doesn't really bother them. Were it not for the coffee they just had they would be feeling the same. It's always the same with morning classes.

"So," Aofil picks up a whiteboard pen and takes off the lid, "let's continue with friction today. As we learned yesterday, when there's a difference in velocity between two objects, be it a table and a book," Aofil pushes one on their desk, "or my pen on this whiteboard. Even ice on ice experiences friction, just not as much."

Aofil writes some formulas on the whiteboard.

"Who wants to guess how this works?" they ask the classroom while pointing to the first formula. There's no hands to begin with, but one is raised eventually, "Yes?"

"Magic?"

The classroom starts to giggle. Aofil feels the grip on their pen harden. They breath in calmly, and exhale carefully to steady their voice, "No, not really."

They spin the pen in their hand as they wait for the giggling to die down. It takes a while. Good, means Aofil managed to catch themselves in time. As the room becomes silent again, Aofil starts explaining how the formulas come together, "It all starts with the force equation," and as they continue they see more and more heads nod in understanding. Aofil finishes by making groups and handing out some assignments for the class to complete.

Most of the class manages to complete it before the class ends, and Aofil gives out some light homework for today's lesson. There's a bit of a sigh from the class, but it's for their own good.

And for Aofil's amusement, of course.

As the class leaves the principal enters after a knock on the door frame, "You got a minute?"

Aofil nods, "Sure, what is it?"

"I saw that all the information didn't make it out yesterday."

"I thought it felt a bit small, yeah."

The principal nods, "Right, we'll get it sorted out until tomorrow morning though, but I'm just gonna tell you right now that you might need to stay a couple of hours extra on Wednesday. I got an offer of a sponsored lesson not so many days ago and I want you to hold it."

The principal catches Aofil's less than happy expression.

"You'll get payed for it though, pretty well actually."

Aofil's frown turns back up, "So what's it about?"

"If you could condense the sophomore year's science curriculum to around two hours it would be fantastic. You don't really have to delve deep into the specifics, just keep their attention for two hours."

Aofil catches the time and starts erasing the last lesson's notes from the whiteboard to make way for the upcoming one, "Who am I presenting for?"

"I'll have the specifics tomorrow, that okay with you?"

"Fine by me, I've been waiting to get a beachfront property."

The principal laughs, "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you did."

Aofil fails to properly catch the last part as their new class starts pouring in through the door. They still nod and smile as the principal takes her leave. Was probably not important though.

Again, Aofil's been through worse.