"Check out this game that Kite@rhrny gave me during lunch today!" 
It was two months later when she successfully begged her parents 
to let him spend the night at his house. He held the copy of Grand 
Theft Auto V triumphantly in the air, like he had pulled off the biggest 
heist of all time. 


"Oh... how did she manage to get it anyway?" 


"Well, let's say she knew a guy who knew a gal who doesn't give a 
shit about GameStop policy. Only took two months but it's here. 
Apparently this is mine to keep. Sick, huh?" 


"Ah..." Heather fidgeted with her hair bow. She couldn't even 
pretend to be enthused about the game, but so long as her friend 
was happy, it made her feel happy. "You just can't let your parents 
find out, or you'll probably be grounded until college." He got panicky 
at the thought; she couldn't help but laugh. 


"Yeah, well! They won't! I'm super good at hiding my M-rated 
games, so they'll never find — oh, wait! This is for you to play as 
well." He rolled over to his backpack and started rummaging through 
it. "She also managed to get the new Mario game. | know how much 
you wanted that; it should be here somewhere..." She had to resist 
tearing up in front of him. 


"Are you sure? You know | won't be able to take it home." 


"Yeah, yeah, | can keep it here. | can also keep it safe from my 
parents. You can play it however much you want!" 


While the rest of the night was hard to fill in from memory, she did 
stay up almost the whole night on his Wii U playing it, long after he 
had gone to bed. So this is what safety felt like. It felt like gaming far 
away from the trappings of regular life. If only sAyerAccotf was a 
girl. 


A few days later, Heather's friend had gotten in trouble. So that's 
why he hasn't been at school, she thought. Later, news had spread 
through the grapevine of every clique in their minuscule class. 
Someone had their hands on stolen copies of games, and it didn't 
take long to follow the trail. Around the same time, Heather's life 


became even more of a trial to endure. It was months later that she 
had realized that the hair bow she lost might have also been found 
at his house. Of course that's how the secret got spilled; it's better to 
confess to being a thief than to be a tranny. 


The rat bastard modern-day Judas Iscariot had sold her out, never 
to look her way again even as school became her second Hell. 


"| have something | want added to me." 


That was how these conversations usually started. Whenever 
Heather wanted some new ability, she would bug Andressa and 
Dahlia about it. It didn't happen often, but there was no reason to 
fight off the temptation. 


She cheated death once already, and now had both looks and 
abilities no other human could achieve, so what would be the trouble 
with anything new? Usually, both moms were fine with it. She never 
really gave much consideration to that; if they were both okay with it, 
then why wouldn't it be fine? 


So far, Heather had requested pretty minor things. The ability to 
make graphics look nicer in games. An icon of her in games that she 
could control and talk through. The ability to have it automate certain 
tasks (reminders not to play for too long, for example). Nothing big, 
certainly nothing that could hurt anyone. There wasn't much else 
that she could think of. Except for... 


"Hmm?" Andressa replied, distracted as she programmed. "What do 
you want us to add?" 


"Something that lets me modify games to —" 


"No." They shook their head. "You never seemed like the kind of girl 
who wants to cheat, so | figure you have another reason for it. My 
answer will still be no." 


"| don't think it'd be a step too far though. | can already make 
graphics look better, so wouldn't something like removing blood or 
making skipping forced cutscenes be a natural next step?" 


"Would those be the only changes you'd want to make?" 


"Even if | said yes, you would still say no..." A frowning face made 
out of question marks appeared on her screen. It was the first time 
she got turned down; she had no idea how to proceed from there. 


"Doesn't Danganronpa have pink blood anyway?" 
"Yeah, but it's... too much for me even then." 


"Hah, you must really like dating sims, Miss Mason." Heather 
couldn't help but laugh a little. "It's just a matter of principle. That 
could break games, or glitch things out too hard. And it might 
actually tempt you into wanting to cheat. No go." 


"Buuuut..." 


"You can learn how to mod and program. Dahlia has a pretty 
powerful laptop she almost never uses for those purposes that we 
can give you." 


"lf that was the only reason, you wouldn't be so immediately firm 
about it on every level." Andressa paused. They seemed unsure on 
how to react. Ten seconds passed, then twenty, then thirty. It was 
the first time Heather experienced an awkward silence with either 
mom, so she didn't know what to do. The screen was replaced with 
an exclamation mark and teardrops. "U-Uh, I'm sorry if | touched on 
a nerve! | didn't mean to, if | did anything wrong | can apologize for 
that! Um, I-I'm sorry m —" 


Andressa reached out a hand to stop her from spiraling into a 
neverending apology loop. She had gotten better about not doing 
that, and she was only able to catch herself when someone snapped 
her out of it. She felt her mother's arms wrapped around her. Warm 
and secure. 


"You're fine. | just don't want anything wonky to happen to you," 
Andressa quietly spoke. They tried to be as calm as they could for 
Heather. "I don't know if having something like that can accidentally 
fuck you up if we're not super careful about it. The more we add, the 
greater a chance something might go wrong. Maybe it'll be better if | 


ask Dahlia and we can see what she says, alright?" She looked up 
at them and nodded, feeling a little more relaxed. There were 
probably more unspoken reasons, but she had come to understand 
that they weren't the best at being communicative. Fitting of a friend. 


"Hell yeah." 
"You didn't even think about it!" 


"Look Andy, it shouldn't be a big deal. We're both smart enough to 
try and figure out ways it can go wrong and prevent it. It shouldn't 
hurt Mags at all." Heather shrunk a bit into the couch. She never had 
the heart to tell Dahlia that it always embarrassed her a little to hear 
that nickname. "We can spend weeks working on it, and it shouldn't 
be an issue, alright?" 


"I... guess. You sound supremely overconfident, love." Dahlia 
grinned, and Heather couldn't help but smile seeing her mom beam 
with pride. 


Dreaming of an end... 


Heather ran away from home at the age of 16. 


She woke up in a panic, body shaking. She didn't like to think about 
it. She didn't like to dream about it. 


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" "W 
Can we? 


"Mags... that's so far away from where you and Andy live. Jesus. 
Why?" 


"It's the Switch! It'll be so fun to play, and it's free, and | should be 
good at whatever game they announce! It's no big deal, right?" 


"She has a point though. That's pretty far away. Are you willing to 
travel and stay at a hotel overnight?" A buffering symbol appeared 
on her screen. "We can only do so much. We can stay over there for 
one night, and we'd have to travel by car if you wanted to go, so it'd 
be pretty difficult." 


"That... should be fine. | think." Heather wasn't sure; the journey 
seemed grueling, and maybe there was someone who'd be better 
than her. But then again, the prize was so tantalizing... how could 
she refuse? She felt more bothered by their reactions; she was 
worried they were annoyed, even if that was less likely than surprise 
and fatigue. That anxiety always stuck with her now. 


"Heather, you'd have to take this seriously if you wanted to go. Once 
we make the plans, we can't afford to back out, especially since 
Dahlia will come as well." They sighed. "At least they can afford to 
miss classes for a bit." 


"Yeah. | wouldn't mind, I'd just have to rearrange some stuff and 
suck up to some professors. My grades are good enough now that 
it'll be fine. Really, it's whether you two can handle it, especially 
Mags." 


Heather looked down at the floor, twirling around a non-existent 
object. There was the possibility of being overwhelmed, but they've 
been better at dealing with sensory overloads at home. Going to the 
arcade for her birthday went well enough. And it was only a 
GameStop. There shouldn't be much of an issue. The tournament 


wouldn't last too long as well if she could be quick enough and good 
enough to beat everyone. And they seemed to be on-board now, at 
least. 


"| can do it, no problem." 


"Then | should be fine as well. Can you come down two days before 
we head there, dear?" 


"Yeah, should be no problem. I'll have to send you all my weed as 
an extra safety precaution since | just bought some, but that's not 
gonna be an issue for you | hope." 


Heather grinned. Now she was pumped. She never felt so excited in 
her life. 


Dreaming of birth... 


Heather didn't remember how long she had spent in nothingness. 
There was no reason to keep track of time at that point. Maybe there 
was something, but whatever called her from the living world had 
wiped the memory of it. Maybe it was because she was destined to 
come back that she spent her time in nothingness. 


"_..ink this could work?" 
"I dunno, Armand said it'd be fine like this." 


Her existence pulsated, and the two ladies immediately went on 
alert. 


"Hey, anyone there?" Heather didn't know how to respond in this 
state. All her thoughts could do was pulsate, with no meaning 
carried along. "Shit, Andy, do you know what to do?" 


"I'm thinking Dahlia... Hey, whoever you are. Keep... keep pulsing 
your thoughts. Until you can form words with them! It shouldn't be 
too hard. We have all night anyway." 


Night? Right. It was night. The opposite of day. Day was the period 
of time roughly defined as ‘the sun being up’. Night was the period of 
time roughly defined as ‘the sun being down’. And the sun was a 
giant star that radiated light and heat. Alright. What were they doing 
talking to her at night? How were they talking to her? What sort of 
state was she in? 


"Don't worry. Take your time to figure it out," the other lady 
reassured. 


She pulsated. Her energy and soul and being pulsated as she 
worked out universal concepts when she was a human being. There 
were four seasons. The planet she lived on was Earth. People had 
ages. She was 16 years and some months old. There were games. 
Digital games. Video games. People had names. She was a girl. 
Heather. Heather Mason. 


"H.. eat... her..." 
"ls that your name?" one of the ladies (Andressa) replied. 
"Y... Yes. Heather. Heather. Heather M... ason." 


"Oh, like the Silent Hill Chick!" The other lady (Dahlia) seemed 
excited at that prospect. A warmness ran through the words spoken, 
and the warmth reached her being, as it were. 


"How do you feel right now?" 
"Feel?" 
"It's hard to explain... what are your feelings right now?" 


"That might be too abstract for her, Andy. Let's see. Do you know 
where you are right now?" Heather thought. They were in night. So 
they weren't in nothingness, like her. So if they were alive... 


"Hell?" 


"Fuck no. We just reached out to your soul, that's all." Dahlia 
sounded like an adult, and swore like one, but she didn't sound... 
angry. "We're still pretty new to this thing. It's, uh... have you ever 
seen Fullmetal Alchemist?" 


"No..." 


"I'm out of ways to explain it already. | might just get some coffee. 
Do you want some, sugar?" Pause after some, before sugar. 
Sugar... that goes in coffee. But there was a pause. So she called 
Andressa "sugar". Were they...? 


"I'm good, but you can't be out of the room for too long. Please be 
back in less than five minutes. Or we may lose Heather." Lose... 
they didn't want to lose her. Heather couldn't hear anything but 
words, but the pause in speaking probably meant that Dahlia had 
left the room that they were in. She tried to catch up on concepts 
again. Math. History. Alan Turing, Paris Is Burning, Fox News, pool 
cues, climate — 


She experienced what she could only think of as a 'twang' in the 
area where her thoughts had gathered. 


"It's alright, Heather. You can relax. You should be fine. Listen... | 
don't know what happened to you, but | can't imagine it was 
anything good." 


"No." A pause. "How are you talking to me?" 


"We... that's a long story. Um... my girlfriend and | work on this 
project with friends. And we decided that we wanted to contribute to 
it. But everyone else's project is like... Hmm." Pause. "For this thing 
our friend group works on, we bring back lost souls. People that life 
just screwed over. And we put them into fitting bodies that other 
souls no longer are able to inhabit. Um, that's a long story. Jeez 
Dahlia, you'd explain this so much better." 


"Am | lost?" 


"| don't know. Do you feel lost?" Heather couldn't answer that. 
Possibly...? 


"Did you pick me on purpose?" 


"Not really. We just sort of. It's like when you go fishing, and you 
throw some bait out into a crowded lake, hoping to catch some fish. 
Like that, but less dangerous. So we do that, and configurate their 
souls and bodies to do cool shit." Configurate? Oh, configure. Like a 
computer? Or was it magic? It felt magic. "We want them to feel 
useful when they didn't feel useful in life. This is only one way to do 
it, but it's the easiest and most consistent way. But..." 


"But?" 


"Stuff keeps going wrong, and they get lost all over again. | always 
feel the worst about it. | think my bitching in chat has finally gotten to 
them, | hope." 


"Huh Qo" 


"Human souls are still human. They don't stop being human 
because they no longer have a body. It's hard for us to think of it like 
that while we're alive but it's morally grey. We just didn't realize it 
until a certain point. But we still wanna help. And Dahlia and I... it 
wouldn't really be a bad idea to be a mother, right?" Heather didn't 
know how to respond. She would have disagreed in her lifetime. 
"So... if you want to come back, we can find a way. It's not alchemy, 
so | don't think any laws of natures are going to be broken. We just 
care a lot, | guess. Maybe too much," Andressa's voice cracked. 
Heather could tell how serious she was. 


"[. y " 
"Hey, I'm back! See? Turbo quick." 


"Hey!" Heather could hear a kiss; she pulsated as much as she 
could without realizing. "Hey, Heather, is everything okay?" 


"Huh? Y-Yeah, yeah! Yeah... | think so. Family would uh... would be 
nice. It just sounds too convenient. I've never really had a family... | 
want to be cool, and cared for, | just want a family. A real one..." 


"Hey, you're talking to us, so we must already be doing something 
right!" Dahlia giggled. Heather could have sworn she heard 


could take the SCP-contained book with him. The characters 
allowed him to take the book, but displayed concern about Agent 
traveling on the prairie at night. Agent proceeded to remove the 
book from SCP-826, and exit through the cabin door into the 
research team's room. Display time on watch is consistent with 
Agent 's report that he had spent several hours in the setting.