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I am some what curious about the way he's dressed though.

"somewhat"

“Hitomi Fujiko, right”

Those are both given names.

I trail me voice off

Either "I let my voice trail off" or "My voice trails off"

She felt bad about say you were boring

"saying"

She just keeps laying there on the floor.

"lying"
...plus a few typos.

Am I the only one who thinks it's strange that Rin would draw herself using words, when words are the one thing she dislikes most?

Also: Lilly really doesn't like mornings

Mirage_GSM wrote: Am I the only one who thinks it's strange that Rin would draw herself using words, when words are the one thing she dislikes most?

I took it to mean that she's full of words that can't get out ... because she doesn't know which words to use. Or something like that...

Finally we get the canonical Hachisame and Hitomi... out of the mind of Rin, no less. Good one. Would be even better with a few edits, but I'm not complaining!

Nothing insightful to say about this. Its a fun read and I am looking forward to reading more. Your character interactions make up for the slow pace in my book. I do think you missed an opportunity by not having Hitomi's accident involve a Red Ryder air rifle.

Gosh, I adore this story. Hitmoi is fun to follow, and I love everything about Time Warp. You've been teasing about Hachisame for a while now, and I hope you can pull off whatever you're planning there because the build-up is getting to me.

I'm glad to see Time Warp being more assertive. Her warp factor puts her at a disadvantage in conversation--and everything else--so it feels nice to see how she can make herself more pronounced when she wants to be. She's becoming my favorite fanon character, but all of your characters are so much fun to follow.

As others have said, this chapter needed a lot more proofreading.

Small request, but could you put the date of the last update in the subject like some others?

It makes it easier to separate new chapters from the chatter that comes in between.

Hey, I know that picture! Or at least something on shimmie that resembles it.

I went back, did some fixing, not sure if I caught everything, but I've been a bit sick lately so I could have missed some stuff. ...probably did.

Mirage_GSM wrote: "somewhat"

“Hitomi Fujiko, right”

Those are both given names.

I know. I don't consider that an error given the character involved.

Hey, I know that picture! Or at least something on shimmie that resembles it.

Really? I kinda thought I made it up.

Gosh, I adore this story. Hitmoi is fun to follow, and I love everything about Time Warp. You've been teasing about Hachisame for a while now, and I hope you can pull off whatever you're planning there because the build-up is getting to me.

So do I. I've been worried since I started this thing that once I get to the reveal people will go "okay. That was stupid. Sorry. I can't follow this anymore."

I do think you missed an opportunity by not having Hitomi's accident involve a Red Ryder air rifle.

Running with scissors isn't enough for you?

Small request, but could you put the date of the last update in the subject like some others?

It makes it easier to separate new chapters from the chatter that comes in between.

But I LIKE the chatter!... and so should you.

Chapter 16

“Daisuke, could you watch the class for a moment please? I'd like to speak to Fuku in the hall. Fuku?” The teacher, Miss Miyagi looks up from her desk.

Well, this came out of nowhere. Without a word, I get up from my seat and head to the door. Miyagi follows, as she closes the door behind her, I can hear Daisuke speak up to the class. “Alright, teacher's gone. Who's up for some disco dancing?” Miyagi subtly rolls her eyes.

She takes several steps down the hallway then stops and leans against the wall. “Remember at the start of the week you said you weren't sure you belonged here?” she asks me.

I nod.

“Speak up. I'm not going to bite you,” she says.

“Yes, ma'am,” I say.

“This has to be a new experience for you. You probably feel weird and awkward and all sorts of things. Depressed maybe. That's usually a big one. It's okay. I'm not going to hold that against you,” she says. As she talks she reaches into her coat pocket. Her hand emerges empty so she tries another one and this time pulls out a small plastic box. “Gum?” she asks as she flips it open. .

“No thanks. I've never much cared for gum,” I tell her.

“Have a piece. It's juicy fruit,” she says. She unwraps a piece and pops it into her mouth then holds out another for me to take. I don't want to appear to be ungrateful, so I reluctantly accept. “Now remember, no gum in the classroom. This is for out here only.”

“I will, and thank you for the gum,” I say. It's actually not bad.

“My pleasure. I hate to snack alone,” there's a slight smirk on her face as she says this, but it quickly vanishes as she goes back into teacher mode. “Now let's talk. How are you adjusting to school?” I hesitate while I try to think of what answer will end this discussion the quickest.

“I suppose I'm doing okay, all things considered,” I say softly.

“-aside from the bizarreness of the whole place and the usual soul crushing post accident depression,” she finishes for me. He comments take me off guard. I'm shocked that a teacher would seemingly make jokes about these things and even somewhat offended. However I can't bring myself to be to mad at her because she's right.

“Everyone has pain. You, me, your classmates, your best friends, your worst enemies, everybody hurts sometimes, and everybody thinks their own pain is the worst. That just human nature. You'll have to excuse me for being blunt. I find that sometimes people need the truth slapped into them before they can accept it.” Despite her harsh words, the look on her face tells me that she really does want to help. I just don't know what to say. When I don't reply, she continues. “I worry about all my students and I just want you to know that if you do need help, you can always talk to me. If you don't want to talk to me, Daisuke's a nice guy, there's also all sorts of support staff here, other teachers, plenty of people you can go to. Don't worry, We've seen it all before.”

“Thanks. I appreciate that, ma'am,” I say.

“That's what I'm here for,” she smiles a bit after that and adds “I'm also here for teaching, so let's get back to the main subject. Do you want to be in my homeroom. If you're uncomfortable, we can arrange a transfer to another class.”

I know I told her I'd think it over at the start of the week, but I really haven't had much time to do so. Now I'm mentally rushing and quickly trying to figure out all the pros and cons of staying versus going.

It's not like I feel that I belong here. That might be more of a problem with the entire school than the class though. Would I feel more comfortable in a class where everyone can see, but they're missing other limbs or body parts? Probably not. On top of that, if I were to transfer, everybody would think there was something wrong and even more attention would be pointed my way.

“I guess I can stay,” I say. It's just easier to go with the flow than it is to rock the boat.

“I'm glad to hear that,” she says. “I'd hate to think I'd driven a good student away.”

“No. You're a good teacher, I don't have anything against you. I was thinking more about other students,” I say.

“That was a joke. I take it your not used to having your teachers joke with you. You may have noticed, but this school is a bit different than most other schools,” she says.

“I've noticed,” I say. I start to think about all the variations of uniforms I've seen since coming here and how nobody seems to put any real priority into enforcing a dress-code of any kind. There's no way you'd get away with anything like that at my last school. There you'd get sent home if your socks were dark gray instead of black. I can't even begin to imagine what they'd say about me wearing an eye patch.

“In all seriousness, I am glad you stayed. Several of your classmates have already spoken to me about you and said you've been quite a helper. We can always use more productive sighted individuals in our class.”

“Thanks,” I say. I hope that doesn't mean I'm going to get volunteered for more work, but it does feel nice to be appreciated.

“Now spit out your gum,” she says, holding out the empty wrapper. “It's time to go back to class.”

After class is done for the day, I make it a point to catch up with Rin as she walks back to the dorms.

“Hey, Rin,” I call out. The armless girl stops in place and turns to me. The girl with the prosthetics, I think her name was Ibarazaki, says a few words to Rin and walks off with a wave. That's probably for the best. I really don't want to get into any kind of argument with her today.

Rin doesn't say anything as I approach, instead she just seems to be waiting for me to talk. “About that picture you drew the other day,” I say.

“What picture?” she asks. “I draw lots of pictures.”

“The one with me you, Time Warp, and Hachisame,” I say. There's no way she's already forgotten that, is there?

“Yes,” Rin says. I look at her curiously.

“Yes? Yes what? What do you mean 'yes'?” I ask.

“I drew a picture like that,” she looks at me eagerly like she's awaiting feedback of some kind.

“Let's try this again,” I say with a sigh. “You told Tana that you were sorry for calling me boring then drew a picture of us as monsters to make up for it. That does that sound right?”

“No,” she says flatly.

“What part of it is wrong?”

“I told her that I was sorry you weren't interesting and sorry that I said that. It's not your fault you're not interesting, but maybe I shouldn't have told you that. If you didn't know I'd hate to be the one that told it to you. Did you?” There's something in her expression that tells me she's truly worried about whether or not anyone has told me I'm boring before.

“I'm not uninteresting,” I say. Rin just shrugs. “and what about us being drawn all weird?”

“I was trying to capture a feeling of a person more than a person,” she says.

“You drew me with one eye,” I say firmly and perhaps just a tad angrier than I meant.

“You have one eye,” Rin says.

“I meant you drew me as a cyclops,” I restate. Rin looks at me as if to say 'didn't we just have this discussion?' I hate to be outsmarted by somebody that doesn't make sense half the time, but she got me with that one. “Okay. Point taken. Why did you only draw me with one eye?”

She looks up at the sky and makes a sound somewhere inbetween a sigh and a hiss. “Some people define themselves by what they have and are not what they don't have and aren't. Maybe I understood you wrong.” There's a look of genuine sadness in her face as she says the last part.

It takes me a second to untangle the mess of words Rin just said. “So, it's a glass half empty- glass half full kinda thing?” I ask.

“No thanks. I'm not thirsty,” she says. I'm not sure whether she's joking or not. I am sure that I won't get anything else useful out of her right now, so I let her walk on.

When I get back to my room, I take the picture back out of the drawer I'd put it in and tape it to the wall. It's not that I like the picture, but it means something. I think there's a lesson here somewhere or maybe it's not a lesson. Maybe it's just something I need to think about and decide.

Also, I really should have asked why Hachisame was some sort of tentacle monster and why Rin was drawn with words. I mentally kick myself for thinking of this after it's too late. I'm also going to have to learn how to hang pictures straight with just one eye. I'm about to fix the drawing when the door to my room flies open.

“So what was that all about?” Hachisame says cheerfully as she barges into my room. Behind her Time Warp stands there looking like she's just knocked and is waiting for the door to open. “Ooh! Nice picture!” Hachisame says as she spots the drawing I'd just hung. “You know, I've actually got a T-shirt like this where I'm drawn up like a fish-monster? It's a bit more cartoony looking though. Rin drew one and I loved it so much I took it and had it silk screened.”

“How's it going?” Time Warp says as she catches up and enters the room.

“I'm cool,” I address Time Warp before turning back to Hachisame. “Don't you knock?”

“I did once, like, a week ago,” Hachisame says. “So, what were you talking to Rin about? It's okay, you can tell me. I'm awesome.”

“We were talking about the picture she drew. More importantly though, I thought you were avoiding me. Why are you all the sudden all friendly again?”

Hachisame looks somewhat surprised. She turns to Tana and waits for a comment from her.

“I didn't say anything about you avoiding her,” Time Warp says with a shrug.

“That's good, 'cause I wasn't,” Hachisame says.

“What about the last few days and you skipping out on lunch?” I ask. “Tana said you weren't avoiding me in a way that sounded like you were avoiding me.”

She spins in her wheelchair back in my direction and just has this huge look of confusion on her face. “She said I wasn't and you took that to mean I was?”


“I said she wasn't because I thought you thought she was and was going to ask about it,” Time Warp says. “I was trying to stop you from asking about it before you asked about it.”

“I've got a feeling right now that everyone here is operating on a completely different wavelength right now.” She reaches over and ruffles Tana's hair. “Usually it's just her that does that.”

A moment later, Time Warp reaches up as if it swat away Hachisame's hand, but she'd already stopped. “Okay, time out,” Time Warp says raising her hands up like she's trying to separate us. “Okay, one at a time. Everybody. Truth.” She lowers her arms. “I'll go first,” after saying that, she stops. “Actually, I don't have anything going on,” she sounds a bit embarrassed. “umm... who's next?”

Hachisame reaches under the blanket she has on her lap and produces a coin, she's about to flip it when I speak up.

“Okay. I said something the other day, I don't know what and Hachisame's been weird and avoiding me since then. I don't know why. I don't know what's going on. On top of that, Rin drew me some weird picture and I haven't figured that out yet either,” I say.

“You thought I've been avoiding you?” Hachisame says.

“Rin draws weird stuff. Don't think too much of it,” Tana says afterward.

“You've been acting weird,” I say to Hachisame.

“Okay, yeah, there's been a bit of stuff I've been trying to figure out how to say but mostly it's just coincidence. It's just that time o' the month and I get bad cramps,” she looks a bit embarrassed and I'm not feeling that much better. I'm just about to apologize when Tana speaks up again.

“The truth,” she says.

Hachisame seems to visible deflate in her chair. “Okay, okay,” she says towards Time Warp. “You seem pretty cool and I like you and everything, but I need to know something...” her voice trails off. Whatever she's talking about, she's deadly serious and for a moment I'm afraid I've pushed a confrontation where one really wasn't needed. “Can you keep a secret?”

“Yeah,” I say uneasily.

“No. I mean like a huge huge you'll-tell-nobody-ever kind of secret,” Hachisame says. “You have to absolutely promise me that you won't say anything about it.”

“She's serious,” Time Warp adds.

“I promise,” I say. “Unless you're going to tell me you've killed somebody or secretly are some kind of bizarre fish woman trying to take over the world,” I add trying to add a bit of levity to things.

Hachisame laughs loudly and then follows up by clicking her teeth together like she's taking two quick bites of something. “See, I knew I liked you! No, nothing like that,” she says.

“Then tell me.”

Hachisame turns to Time Warp. “Lock the door.”

Oddball wrote:a giant cliffhanger

You are evil.

Mwahahahaha!

Yay, more of this fic

I wouldn't normally comment on spelling, but this...really?

Oddball wrote:if you're socks where dark gray

[/spelling rant]

Anyway, good work here.
Damn you, cliffhangers, my arch nemesis!

Well, you have officially made me reel back when I saw that cliffhanger. Other than that though, this was a really nice chapter, and I look forward to the next!

Chapter 17

Hachisame and I both look towards Time Warp who shows no signs of having heard whats going on, which is normal for her, but it goes on for longer than usual.

“There's goes my dramatic moment,” Hachisame sighs.

“Why are we locking the door anyway?” I ask.

“Oh, you wanted me to lock the door!” Time Warp exclaims finally getting what we were talking about in her usual late manner. “Sorry about that.” Having said that, she goes over that flips my door locked before taking a seat on the corner of my bed.

“So, why are we locking the door?” I ask again.

“This is going to be hard for you to believe but … I'm different from you people,” she starts slowly.

“Okay,” I say. It's fairly obvious she's different. Nobody in this school is just 'regular people'.

“I mean really different. You see, I'm … not actually human. I come from a long forgotten race under the sea.” There's something strange in her tone. It's unbelievable, but she says it with an unnervingly serious tone and expression. “My people chose me to come to the surface world and retrieve a variety of both male and female humans to help repopulate our race. I was hoping you could be one of them.”

I look at her strangely, opening my mouth to start to speak, but I don't know what to say. “Are you serious?” I finally manage to ask.

“No. I'm just messing with you. I thought that would lighten the mood,” she says with a big grin. “I can't believe I managed to say all that with a straight face,” she laughs. Now I really feel dumb. It's not that I believed her, at all, even the tiniest bit, but I suppose stranger things have happened.

Somewhere.

Probably.

“I was wondering where you were going with that,” Time Warp said. “I half expected you to start talking about Innsmouth any second.”

“I have no clue what that is,” Hachisame says as though she'd proud of the fact. “It sounds like a geek thing.”

“Okay. Just for the record, I knew you were messing with me,” I say.

“You need to read more,” Time Warp says to Hachisame before redirecting herself towards me. “Don't try to cop out, you fell for it.”

“Whatever,” I say, trying to blow the whole thing off.

“Okay, so let's cut to the chase then,” Hachisame says before hesitating. There's a look of confusion on her face and partial embarrassment as she seems like she doesn't know what to do next. “Okay, let's put it this way. You know how some people around here are missing pieces of them?” After she says that she takes a look at me and slaps her forehead. “Yeah, of course you know that. Duh.”

“I wasn't going to say anything.” I add.

“I appreciate that. Anyway, people are missing parts, but you can wrap your head around that. I mean you in general, not 'you, you, of course especially you can,” she rambles on. “This is not working,” she finally says as thought she's trying to organize her own thoughts. “Let's try this. Why did I say I needed the wheelchair? Do you remember?”

“You said your legs were weak,” I reply. It's not the first time I've wondered exactly how true that statement was.

“That's half true. Literally. That is literally half true, but I don't actually need the wheelchair. It's just easier.”

I try to glance over to Time Warp hoping maybe I can read her expression and see where this is going. Sadly, she's on my blindside, so I have to turn almost completely to do so, ruining any subtly the act may have had. Once I do, she seems a bit sad and maybe a bit bored. Something like that anyway. It turns out I'm not as good as reading expressions as I thought I was.

“What was that for?” Hachisame asks.

“Don't worry about me. Pay attention,” Time Warp says. Hachisame doesn't pursue her question anymore.

“Now I'm going to start taking off my clothes. I know I'm good looking, but don't try to make-out with me,” she says. The joke seems halfhearted and falls flat in the room. Hachisame undoes her long skirt and it falls to the floor.

My first thought it that I'm not seeing things right. I have to be seeing double. I blink a few times and rub my eye before I'm reminded that seeing double isn't possible for me anymore. Once I remember that, I feel sick.

Hachisame stands there before me wearing a pair of blue and white striped panties... and a pair of darker blue panties on her other set of hips. Somewhere around her belly button, her bodies seems to split into two in a y-shape. There's definitely two separate sets of lower bodies, even if they are pressed tight against each other. That much is apparent from how her underwear seems to fit her normally, although I do notice a bit of redness and chaffing where the two separate parts of her rub against each other. What I thought was her two legs where only two of the four she has. Her outer legs are longer more developed with two smaller legs dangling in between them. Her two middle legs look less developed, not appearing withered or useless, but shorter and seem like they'd go to a person a few years younger and slightly smaller than she is.

“I'm not taking of the underwear, but rest assured, everything's there and it all works,” she says. As she finishes saying this, she moves her middle two legs around in what resembles a strange dance to illustrate that she does in fact have control over them.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I jerk away suddenly. “It's okay. I was weirded out at –gahh!” Tana goes from trying to reassure me to suddenly jumping at surprise from my sudden panic. It's surreal. Nothing going on her feels like something that should be happening.

Hachisame sits back down in her chair without bothering to put her skirt back on or pull the blanket over her legs. She crosses her middle two legs as she sits. “It's okay,” she says. There's a deep sadness in her voice. It hurts me even more knowing that I'm the one that causes it, and that this must be the kind of reaction she gets from everyone. “It's okay,” she says again. “I know this is a bit of a shock.” Then there's silence in the room. After a minute she seems uncomfortable and stands back up, walking around in the room. “That's why I use the chair. It makes me less noticeable. You know how your arms just kinda start to swing when you're walking around? Your legs do the same thing if they're not touching the ground, and well, missing an arm or leg or whatever? People get that. They're a bit repelled by it, but they get it. Try walking around with extra body parts. People freak.”

“I'm sorry. I didn’t know,” I say. I didn't know. I don't know.

I don't know what to say, what to think, how to feel, this... this is just so far out of my element of .. knowing how to handle things... god. I can't even think straight right now.

It's bizarre, not exactly disgusting, but it's like that feeling when you see something surprising that you're not sure you saw; you do a double take and look again. No matter how often I look or how hard I stare, the extra legs remain. My brain keeps thinking 'You aren't seeing this. This isn't what's happening,' while my eye keeps going 'Nope. That's what's really there.'

“What's to know? Like I tell people, not everybody gets a normal life. I'm perfectly fine with that. Anybody that tells you that you can do anything or fit in or whatever as long as you try, they're just full of shit. Me? I get by pretending to be crippled instead of a twisted freak.” She says it without bitterness, anger, or sadness in her voice. It's just something she's accepted.

There are so many questions I have about how she has to do things, when and why she started to pretend to be crippled, how she uses the bathroom, why couldn't she just get surgery to fix her up? Would that even be possible?

“Let's give her some time,” Tana says.

“Thanks,” I say softly.

“Hey, it's cool. I don't take it personal, but I'll understand if this too much for you to handle and you don't want to hang out anymore,” Hachisame says.

I do the only thing I can thing of. I reach out and hug her as tightly as I can.

“It's okay. You're my friend, Hachisame,” I say to her. “Just because you're kinda strange doesn't mean you're not my friend.” I want to cry but no tears come.

She doesn't hug me back, but after a few seconds she speaks. “New rule. No hugging me when I'm in my underwear,” she says. “It's weird.”

I break off the hug almost immediately as she says that. Sadly, Tana seemed to think we were doing some group hug and tries to get in on it. I end up getting hit in the face by her outstretched arm. It surprises me more than it hurts, but Time Warp seems to get the worst of it. There's a strange expression on her face as she tries to put her arms back down and realizes they aren't in the position they're supposed to be in.

“No group hug?” Tana asks, as she rotates her should a few times. I think she's trying to reassure herself that her arm is still working right, but I could be mistake. I don't understand how she perceives things yet either.

“Maybe later,” I say. “Right now, I'd just appreciate some time to think about things, if you don't mind,” I say. I hope I'm not coming across as rude or trying to kick them out.

“Yeah, we can do that,” Hachisame says as she picks her skirt off the floor and puts it back on. Watching her bend down with all her legs fully visible makes her look like some psychedelic horror monster. “Just do me a favor and don't let this get out. There's not a lot of people that know about my situation and I prefer to keep it like that.”

“I won't. I'll keep it between us,” I say.

“Don't tell Suzu. She doesn't know,” Time Warp adds.

“How does she not know?” I ask. “I thought you were close.”

“You know how some people walk in their sleep and some talk in their sleep? She goes further than that. She's sometimes awake when she's asleep,” Hachisame says. “She'll walk around and --”

“She's more my friend that Hachisame's,” Time Warp says, talking over whatever Hachisame was about to say next.

“That too. Not that she's a bad person or anything, we just don't have much in common,” Hachisame says. “Rin's cool though. She knows. Anyway, I'll take off now and let you have your alone time.” Now that she's back in her wheelchair with the blanket over he lap, I look to see if I can spot the signs of her extra parts now that I know about them. I can't. The wheelchair looks a bit wider than average and maybe her hips look wide, but she does a really good job at concealing herself. She closes the door behind her as she leaves.

“Do you need somebody to talk to?” Time Warp says. I hadn't even realized she was still here.

“Yeah, I guess,” I say quietly. Awkward silences are even more awkward when it comes to Tana. It's not her fault, but I'm not sure she's really helping either. Finally she speaks.

“Do you have anything you need to know or want to ask?” Tana prods after a minute of silence. I want to ask if Hachisame is upset with me, but I'm afraid to know what the answer is. Still, there is something else Hachisame said that stuck with me that I want to know about, and I think it'll be much safer to ask. “Or I could leave if you prefer.”

“No. Don't go. Just give me a minute,” I say to her. I don't know why. It's not like a few minutes of silence is going to be enough time for me to figure out how I'm supposed to handle something like this. What do you do when you learn one of your friends doesn't look entirely human? I stare at the picture Rin drew of us all. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be symbolic, just an exaggerated caricature or what. I feel somehow being able to understand this might help me figure out how I'm supposed to handle these thing.

Maybe it's none of the above. Maybe the fact that Rin can draw something like this just means she's able to accept how things are. Maybe the fact that I take offense to it means … something bad.

Maybe Rin is just weird.

After some time of sitting there in silence, Time Warp eventually speaks. “It's a nice picture isn't it?” It's fairly obvious that she isn't that interested in the picture. She just wants me to say something.

“Hachisame said she doesn't have much in common with Suzu, but you two don't seem like you have much in common either. Why are you two friends?” I ask.

It takes Tana a moment to reply, as usual. Once she does, she sighs before she begins. “Before we met, me and her shared a kinda-sorta common background. Hachisame was home-schooled her entire life and rarely got out. I was home schooled most of my life as well. My parents tried a time or two to get me into regular school and I spent a year at a private school once, but nothing really worked. The teachers didn't know what to do with me and most of the other kids my age weren't sure how to handle me either. Most of them were nice, but they kept their distance. Basically though, neither of us ever had a real friend before coming here,” Tana shrugs an cracks her knuckles as though she's making a show of it being no big deal. “You've had friends before, right? How'd you make them?”

I hesitate trying to think of exactly how I've made my previous friends. There's no real story to tell. “I don't know. I guess I just talked to people, hung out, and we found out we had stuff in common.”

“I can't really talk to people. You might have noticed this. Most people don't have patience for me,” she says. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out one of her introduction cards, casually flipping it around in her fingers as she talks. I understand what she's saying. In fact, I don't think I would have hug around her if she and Hachisame hadn't pried their way into my life. Thinking about it makes me feel guilty. The story doesn't quite make sense yet though.

“Hachisame doesn't strike me as somebody that has patience either,” I say.

“You know how we came and checked on you when you got here? That's school tradition. The older students show around the newbies. The girl that used to have your room was the one that checked up on me and Hachisame and welcomed us to this place,” Tana explains. As she does, she gets up and grabs one of my bottled waters from the corner of the room and sits back down in the swivel chair by my desk, spinning it around a few times as she sits down.

“Was she nice?” I ask.

“Not really. Motoko was a bit of a hard ass, a real stickler for the rules type. She also had, like, prosthetic everything. I seriously think there might have been more plastic and metal in her than there was original flesh and blood parts,” she says. I've noticed she starting to take carefully timed sips from the bottle to try to match the flow of conversation. I'm not sure if this is something she's doing to make me more comfortable or just so her own delayed responses won't stand out as much. Before I can think of which explanation fits better, the door to my room flies open again.

“Sorry. Sorry. I'm trying to give you time to yourself, but – did I leave my socks in here?” Hachisame says as she wheels herself into the room again.

“You didn't take off your socks while you were in here,” I say.

“Bummer. I have no clue where those things are now,” she says. “I liked those socks.” She looks at me and for a brief moment I can tell she isn't quite sure how she's supposed to act around me anymore, but it only lasts for a brief moment. She then gives me an overly exaggerated apologetic shrug and just like that the awkwardness is gone. She's just as straight forward and casual as ever. I don't get how she bounced back to normal so quickly after such a reveal.

“I was just telling her about, Motoko,” Time Warp chimes in.

“Ah, The Machine,” Hachisame says, “God she was boring! If I didn't have Time Warp here to talk to while she was dragging us all over the place, I would have gone nuts.”

“She sounds interesting,” I say for lack of anything better to add to the conversation.

“That's how Hachisame and I became friends,” Time Warp says somewhat cheerily.

“True story,” Hachisame quickly adds, despite the fact that she wasn't even in here for most of it. “Oh, and you said I didn't take my socks off in here. That means I didn't show you my toes either, did I? I have nineteen. Two of them are fused together into one extra big toe,” she says.

“I'll take your word for it,” I say. I've really had enough... what's the word I need? Body horror? … for one day.

“Maybe later,” she says with a shrug. “Anyway, I'm leaving your to mope and for Time Warp to sit around telling stories. I'll catch you later. I've got socks to find,” Hachisame says leaving the room again.

“She's really not good at giving people their space,” Time Warp says as she leaves. “She never has been the whole time I've known her.”

“So, when did you find out about her extra body parts?” I ask.

“The same day she found out there was a pool and she wasn't allowed to swim alone,” Time warp smiles. “Of course she kept the fact that I didn't know how to swim a secret from the medical staff when she got permission, but that's okay. She ended up teaching me and I doubt you could drown her if you tied weights to her legs.”

I smile at that. Somehow that just seems to fit perfectly.

Stop reading this post. You want the post before this one. It's the one that has the story in it. This is just some rambling author's notes.

…


Okay, did you read the story first? Good. Now we can continue.

Please, step into the mind of the author for just a little bit. (wipe your feet first.)

Sigh * Since I started writing this, I've worried that once I revealed what was wrong with Hachisame I'd lose people. They were going to read and go “Sorry. That was stupid. I just can't buy that.”

Just so you know, this was planned form the beginning. Although how and when the reveal happens ended up changing. That happens to me sometimes. The characters just start to take on a life of their own and go “Okay, the stories not going in that direction anymore. We're doing this instead.”

When I started this story, I wanted to take three joke characters and treat them with dignity and respect (or at least as much dignity and respect as I treat the other characters.) This meant I had to figure out how to figure out how to make their exaggerated problems into realistic ones.

You've probably seen the picture on the shimmie that shows a human version of Hachisame and Hitomi. Hitomi is missing and eye and has a scar over her face. That worked for me and I didn't have to change anything.

Hachisame was another problem. For some reason, “Sharktopus girl” just didn't translate to me as “Girl with no legs.” So I went looking elsewhere for my inspiration. Hachisame's “problem” is based on a real-life sideshow performer named Mrtyle Corbin (although tweaked slightly.) I'd post pictures here, but I know people tend to skip to the last post and might see the photos before they read the reveal in the story itself. For me at least, “the Four Legged Woman” is much closer to “Sharktopus girl” that simply not giving her any legs at all. (I also considered giving her more of a prominent or even deformed backbone to match the “shark fin” but I decided against any further deformation. The girls got enough problems. Still some people that are thin have more visiable backbones than others, so that might be included later (or maybe not.)

I'm also going to apologize for any medical incarcerates that may arrive. I tried to do reacher, but there's not a lot of information I could find on Mrtyle and not much more on dipygus (the name of the condition she and now Hachisame share.) Also some of the information I did find, I chose to ignore for dramatic and narrative purposes.

Anyway, thanks for reading so far (even if you are going to quit now). If you're still interested though, don't be afraid, more is on it's way.