The Girls of Virtue

[06] A Foggy Sky-Type Condition

Beginning starts spending more time with Obsession. The other girl seems to be one of the few people in this world that's decent to her, and that's enough reason for Beginning to seek out her company. She's bored, she's tired, and dare she say it, she's lonely. Obsession fixed two out of three of those things, so as strange as she is, Beginning rather likes her.

Obsession can definitely hold a conversation. Or more like she can ramble for ages, filling time with endless strings of words. Usually about either how amazing Beginning is or how awful everyone else is.

It's kind of off-putting to be the focus of so much, but Beginning is more okay with it than she thought she'd be. It certainly doesn't hurt to make something of a friend. The fact that she's starting to consider Obsession a friend is an odd one, but it's certainly there.

But even as Beginning busies herself with conversation and long walks around town, she can't forget what she saw with Jealousy.

There was an arm embedded in one of the decaying houses. Beginning is certain. It vanished as soon as she blinked, as quickly as if it was never there, but Beginning knows what she saw. It was there. It was real.

She remembers seeing what she thought was a face in a rock on her first walk back to town. At the time, she'd been able to dismiss is as nothing more than stress, especially under the mocking attention of Selfishness and Negativity. Perhaps she really is too worked up. Seeing things like that can't be normal, even for the strange world she's in. None of the others have mentioned anything like it, and at this point, Beginning is afraid to ask.

So beginning tries to focus on Obsession. She tries to push the sight out of her mind for good. She was hallucinating, she had to be. Things like that don't just happen. She only saw both of them for an instant. It can't hurt to assume that it was just a trick of the light, a trick of the eyes.

"Beginning, dear, are you listening to me?" Obsession's soft, low voice cuts through Beginning's thoughts, startling her enough to make her jolt.

"I-I'm sorry. I got a bit lost in thought. Could you please repeat yourself?" Beginning's stutter catches on the first word, making her internally wince. She's been trying so hard to get over that.

"Oh, it's nothing! I'd be happy to repeat myself as many times as you want. I'll never mind talking to you. ...but anyway, I was saying that you seem to be getting along a little better these days. The incident with Manipulation and Cruelty finally got back to me-- Manipulation is quite the complainer, after all-- and I'm just so proud of you for doing so well," Obsession all but gushes. "You're getting so much better at fighting back."

"It's... not so much fighting back," Beginning replies, not quite sure how to explain. "I don't want to hurt anyone. I'm trying to stand my ground a little better, but I'm not going to lash out unless things go way too far."

Obsession opens her mouth to respond, but only gets a word out before a distinct, unpleasant singing resounds from the rooftops nearby.

"Oh dear," Obsession says, cringing a bit. "She's back. We're going to have to get up and move, and quickly. Come on, now. We need to get out of here before a real problem starts up." Obsession stands, brushing off her skirt with two of her hands while another one reaches for Beginning.

Beginning pauses in confusion, but a second later, she realizes why Obsession is in such a hurry, and that they're too late. As in, the person Obsession was obviously trying to avoid makes a sudden appearance.

Hysteria drops down from the rooftops with a flourish and a rippling of her long, red scarf. She's still singing, crowing lyrics and a nonsense tune into the foggy air. As soon as she hits the ground-- hard enough that Beginning can see something snap in her leg-- she's spinning around, singing reaching a fever pitch from all three mouths, deafeningly loud.