INTERIOR - Still the living room in the girl’s underground base.

  PRESENT - THE BOY (usual garb, on the sofa, staring at the girl and noting everything), THE GIRL (usual garb minus armor, also on the sofa, tired but engaged in conversation.

  TIME - Even a little more after midday.

  “If we could get something to eat, what'd you be in the moo-“

  Suddenly, a loud knocking sound emanated from a small coffee table beside the sofa, and the mp that sat upon it began to glow a brilliant blood red.

  A total of four knocking sounds came before subsiding, although the redness remained.

  The girl sighed, loudly and annoyedly.

  “what is the cause of this?” The boy asked, still staring dead-ahead at the girl.

  “Uuuuuughhhh… Tuhday??? Reeeaaaly..?” She groaned.

  “... what is it?” The boy tried to press harder.

  “Ssssstupid, is what it is…”

  “but-”

  “Shhhh.” She curtly sounded. “Jus’ be quiet for a bit. Hopefully they’ll think I’m not here.”

  The boy did as he was told, and fell silent.

  The knocking continued, steadily growing louder and louder. All the while, the red light continued to shine, and even began to pulsate in an annoying and eye-catching fashion.

  The boy’s eyes remained just where they were. The girl, however…

  First, she closed her scowling eyes, and sunk deeper into the couch. Soon, her hands began to shake with rage.

  Second, she covered her ears with her trembling hands. Her face was enveloped by a wrathful shade of crimson.

  Third, she enlisted pillows into her efforts, smothering the sides of her head and much of her face in them. A short while ter, she was screaming angrily while beating the stuffing out of the pillows she’d previously employed.

  Following that, she threw the pillows clear across the room, with such force that they exploded on impact against the wall.

  for the mp and tore the shade clear off, hatefully smming it against the side of her face. The mp had, at this point, stopped glowing.

  “WHAAAAT??!!” She screamed into the top of her lungs into the mpshade.

  A low, masculine voice mumbled from the mpshade, thirteen seconds after the knocking had intensified.

  “OBVIOUSLY!!” She snapped, her face red and furled wrathfully. Just in case it wasn’t abundantly clear.

  The voice mumbled some more.

  “III KNOW!” Drops of spit flew out from her mouth.

  More mumbling.

  “I DON’T GIVE A CRAP! SCREW OFF AND DIE!” She smmed the mpshade back onto the rest of the mp, which produced a sudden highish-pitched dinging sound.

  The knocking and light-bring resumed, and, skipping a little tantrum-ing, she picked up the mpshade again.

  The mumbling from the other end continued seamlessly, as if they’d anticipated this course of events.

  “SCREW OFF AND DIE!” She repeated.

  The mumbling continued, the cadence consistent, as though it had been rehearsed.

  “THAT’S NOT GONNA WORK THIS TIME!” She boldly decred. “IT’S MY DAY OFF!”

  The mumbling paused. When it returned several seconds ter, it was audibly confused, and its cadence thrown off completely.

  “YES I HAVE DAYS OFF! STARTING TODAY! THIS IS THE FIRST ONE!”

  Another pause. The boy took this opportunity to blink, which he suddenly realized he hadn’t done in a while.

  Mumb-

  “WHADDAYA MEAN ‘have you been kidnapped by a wizard and repced by a slightly more human-like magical clone who’d actually pass up an opportunity for mindless bloodshed and a free dinner?’ HOW’D YOU EVEN SAY ALL THAT THAT FAST!? Also, talking normally for a bit there made me realize how uncomfortable constantly screaming is, so I’ll talk like this going forward.”

  The boy was silently grateful for this expnation.

  “No, it’s not because the magical battery attached to the clone created in my image is almost out of juice.”

  . . .

  “No, that’s stupid, and you should both feel stupid for saying that. Also, ventriloquism is for stupid people and clowns.”

  The boy was suddenly very interested in this conversation. Not because of the ventriloquism thing, but because she was seemingly talking to multiple people. The girl doesn't usually interact with other people, let alone multiple at once. He'd very much like to hear the full extent of this conversation.

  “does that have a speaker function?” He asked.

  The girl shot him a look that said ‘no, what the heck is a speaker function?’ which caused the boy to realize that he doesn’t know what that is, either. The boy silently wondered why he said that.

  ‘But it can do this.’ She said with another look, briefly moving the mpshade away from her face and pressing a small button on its underside.

  “Either way, you owe us.” The mumbling had suddenly graduated and become fully-hearable sentences in the boy’s ears.

  “Like I owe you losers crap!” She shouted, her head slightly further from the mpshade now.

  “Come now, friend. Information like that didn’t come easily.” Said a new voice, one slightly less manly than the previous.

  “But it wasn’t even useful! All you said was that he might’ve existed near some random river vilge!”

  “oh, that is familiar.” The boy recalled one of his fondest memories since his awakening.

  “My, was that anoth-” “WAS THAT THE WIZARD!?”

  “THERE’S NO WIZARD!” The girl momentarily broke her promise not to scream anymore.