The Simulacrum

Timaeus was a pretty big city. Not exactly a metropolis by any means, but as the capital of the island-nation of Critias, it was still a sizable settlement. As such, it naturally didn't only have the single park we most often frequented whenever heartfelt talks or considerably-less-heartfelt battles were concerned, but about half a dozen of them. Some smaller, some bigger, some situated on flat grounds, while others more on the hilly side.

It was in the early afternoon when, in one of said commons, currently covered under a thick layer of snow, an unlikely pair was heading up a dangerously steep slope. It was snowing, if only lightly, and while the holiday season was already over, the sparsely forested, white-clad hills of the park still carried a hint of postcard-esque, winter wonderland kind of atmosphere.

"Come on, Paz! Hurry up!" the brown girl at the front, wrapped in a white, fur-trimmed winter coat, turned around and enthusiastically waved at her companion.

"I am right behind you, so there is no need to yell. Do not stand out," the tall young man, dressed just as warmly and pulling a large sled behind him, chided the ex-arch-mage even as he did his best to catch up to her. "If the Lord discovers that you left the School without permission, we are both going to be in trouble."

"Like, chill, Paz. It's not like Endy has eyes everywhere, and we totally blend into the crowd!" Armband Guy glanced around at the mostly empty park, and his face visibly read 'What crowd?', but before he could vocalize the question, the brown girl crossed her arms and let out an indignant huff. "And, like, who does he think he is to tell where I can go anyway? Grounding me just because I got a liiittle carried away before the tournament? It's, like, totally bogus, right?"

"You did not just get carried away. You punched a Feilong clan elder who tried to stop you from interfering with the battle outside the Restricted Space, openly declared that you wanted to fight Xiao Feilong, and you flashed your underwear for everyone to see in the process."

"Like, would you stop harping on my undies? Geez, Paz, you're such a perv!" Armband Guy obviously wasn't amused by her remark, so after a short stalemate, she let out another huff and turned her face away. "Well, fine. I could've been, like, a tiny bit more discrete about that, but the rest are still totally uncalled for! Like, no one told me the dragon was a baby girl! It's so bogus!"

Saying so, Sahi turned on her heels and started scaling the slope again with stomping steps, and this time Pascal closely followed after her.

"You would not be in this situation if you did not loudly declare your intent to fight a dragon in front of an entiry audience. Why would you even want to do something like that?" Armband Guy grumbled flatly, following up on the previous topic, and she all but scoffed at him.

"Like, why wouldn't I? I never got to see a dragon in my whole life, let alone fight one! It would've been sooo wicked!"

"Most people would try to do everything in their power to avoid meeting a dragon," Pascal pointed out, and this time she openly scoffed.

"Most people are lame. I don't want to be lame. Like, I got a second lease on life, and I totally refuse to have any regrets this time around!"

"And that is why we are out in the cold and climbing a hill," the guy continued to grumble even while he readjusting his glasses, but the brown girl completely ignored the barbs in his words and flashed an ear-to-ear smile at him.

"Totally! Like, can you believe it? I never got to go sledding in all my life! Not even once! The first time around, it was always just study and study and study some more. It was, like…" At this point, she put her hands under her nose, mimicking a moustache, and she lowered her voice by an octave or two. "Saahira, to become successful, you have to study! Saahira, you have to be the best among the best if you want to be successful! Saahira, you can't do what you want; once you're successful, you'll have the time to play around!" This time, she threw her hands into the air and let out an enormous groan. "Barf me out! Lies, all of them! It's, like, the more successful you are, the less time you have to do what you want! Like, once you're at the top, you just have to keep working more to stay at the top, and for what? To have even less free time? Bah! Gag me with a spoon, will you?"

"So you had your own difficulties," Pascal noted, and after some thinking, Sahi lightly shrugged.

"Like, yeah? Being the daughter of an arch-mage wasn't easy, but, like, I don't think I need to preach to the choir about that."

"My relation with the Lord is an entirely different matter," Armband Guy stated plainly, but it only elicited an amused giggle from the girl.

"Yeah, suuure. Toootally different." Pausing for a second, her expression turned just a tad more serious."Hey, Paz? Do you, like, have any plans for the future?"

"… Where did that question come from?" the guy responded with a clumsily raised single eyebrow, so she continued to pester him.

"Come on, Paz! We just talked about hopes and dream and leaving no regrets and stuff! I'm sure you have your own thing going on! Like, what do you plan to do after school?"

"I will follow the Lord's orders, so I will most likely join the School as a scholar."

"No, not like that!" Sahi exclaimed, waving her hands. "That's a totally grody way to go about your life! It's yours, not Endy's!" When Pascal didn't react, she puffed up her cheeks and crossed her arms again. "Listen up, Paz. I told you I want to live without any regrets, right? Like, I wanna do what I wanna do and don't wanna do what I don't wanna do."

"Yes. And that is why we are still outside, in the cold, and still climbing a hill," Armband Guy echoed his previous sentiment, but she once again ignored the critical undertone in his voice.

"Totally! Like, look at all this snow! It would be just plain criminal to stay cooped up underground and miss playing around in it! It's, like, an experience and stuff! What if we never get to have the chance to do it again? Like, I already know how lame it is to live with regrets, so I have a whole list of things I want to do in this life!"

"Such as sledding," Pascal guessed, and she confirmed it with a huge nod.

"Ding-ding! Bingo! I want to, like, sled with a boy, and ski with a boy, and go to the beach with a boy, and parachute with a boy, and scuba dive with a boy… You know? Like, normal things I never got to do the first time around! I bet you too have things you always wanted to do but never got around to try, right?"

"Maybe, but why do all of those activities require the presence of a 'boy'?" Armband Guy shot an armor-piercing question her way, but Sahi simply laughed it off.

"Oh, please, Paz! Don't be a ditz!" She skipped ahead, then turned back to the guy, put her hands behind her back, and leaned forward with an impish grin. "Just what could your cute junior mean by something like that, hm?"

"You are not even remotely my junior, and you are still not cute," Pascal responded in a flat voice, yet even that only managed to draw another giggle from the girl.

"Riiight. You sound toootaly believable right now."

He didn't say anything this time and simply walked past her. They were nearing the top of the hill, and soon they came to a stop.

"Wow. The view here is so bad!"

"Bad?" Pascal echoed him, and the ex-arch-mage rolled her eyes.

"Not 'bad' bad, but 'cool' bad. You should totally understand what I meant by now. I thought we have, like, a connection and stuff." Since he didn't respond, she ignored him and continued to look at the scenery, seemingly unaware of the conflicted look in the guy's eyes as he gazed at her in turn. At last, she put her hands on her hips and glanced at the sled. "All right! Let's do this!"

Despite declaring that in high spirits, Sahi remained completely still, and when Pascal didn't move a finger either, she awkwardly cleared her throat.

"So… Like, do you know how to sled?"

"I have no experience in the field, no," Armband Guy admitted without the slightest hesitation.

"That's, like, a problem, isn't it? Like, I just told you I've never done it either, right?"

"It does not look that complicated."

"True," Sahi mumbled a tad uncertainly, but at last, she psyched herself up and grabbed the reins of the sled out of the guy's hands. "I guess we just, like, have to learn as we go!"

True to her words, the two of them spent the next couple of minutes trying to figure out on which side of the hill they should put the sled, then another couple of minutes arguing about how one was supposed to steer it. At last, Sahi stomped over to it and sat at its front. It was followed by a long beat of awkward silence, but then she slid back on the seat and patted the spot in front of her.

"What are you waiting for, Paz? Hop on!"

"… I do not remember ever agreeing to ride the sled with you."

"Oh, don't be lame! You said you never rode one either, so what better time than now! You can even tell your friends you did it with your cute junior! They're going to be toootally jelly! Come on, it'll be fun!"

Armband Guy hesitated for a while longer, but at last, he bent under the pressure of her gaze and grudgingly took his spot at the front of the sled. The moment he did, Sahi immediately clamped her arms around his waist with a smirk that said 'Gotcha!'

"Awesome! Now we just have to figure out how to get this started, and it'll be totally wicked! Do you think we have to kick off first? Or should I, like, use my astral constructs to push us? Do you think anyone would notice?"

Pascal didn't answer her question. In fact, he seemed to be completely lost in his own thoughts for the moment and remained silent right until Sahi rose out of her seat and rested her chin on his shoulder.

"Hey, Paz? I know you aren't nearly as stoked about this as I am, but at least keep pretending to help, will you?"

"I am not pretending, it is just that…" His words trailed off, causing the brown girl to cock her head to the side (while her chin was still on his shoulder, of course). At last, he let out a shallow sigh and muttered, "To be perfectly honest with you, I always wanted to try scuba diving."

Sahi blinked in surprise, followed by a tinkling giggle as she plopped back down onto the sled.

"See, Paz? I totally knew you would come arouuuuuuu—!"

Her last word was overtaken by a panicked yelp, as her moving around like that caused the sled to lose its equilibrium and it began to slide down the hill. It only lasted for a second though, as after she reaffirmed her grip on the equally startled Armband Guy's waist, her panicked cries were soon replaced with whole-hearted laughter, like she was living her best life. In a way, maybe she was.