[PRP] I Scream, You Scream (Sonny & Preacher)

[shibrogane]

"They've been green forever," said Sonny, widening their eyes as far as they could without physically prying their eyelids apart. "Forever! As long as I can remember! Papa and me have the same eye color, we always have..." They fell silent. "They look more like Father's now..."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"I, uh... d'ya think it was on account of tha magic? Like that reset thinger. And you ain't like you afore..." Preacher tugging on the end of her braid in thought. "Though I'm like seventy eight point ********' seven percent sure the other bit o' ya had purple eyes. Are you... uh... mergin?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Sonny turned their head as if they expected their purple-green eyes to track differently. "I... it could be... if we were more parallel than I expected, where we just filled the same niches in the world but actually were fundamentally different..." They leaned in towards the glass. "But that would mean that you all would be changing too... have you noticed anything different about yourself?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She frowned. Preacher had thought Sonny and Sunny more parrallel than the same thing anyways, but honestly magic stuff was pretty much bullshit and she knew nothing. "I can, uh... like talk n' stuff when I'm a animal now. Didn't used ta do that. N' I can make funny sigils n' s**t, but nothing big changed..." Preacher shrugged and stuck her hands in her pockets.

"I kinda thought ya were tha same as old Sunny, too, just with diff'rences brought 'bout by tha whole new sigil thinger. But if we view ya as a seperate form of tha magic... waht're the implications of ya'll being parallel but diff'rent versus bein' version of tha same thing?" Preacher wasn't sure she liked the sound of things.

"If ya're mergin', so to speak, that means that the old kinda Sunny exists in a way here, too, n' I thought she di'nt atall. Maybe."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Sonny was quiet for a long moment, stumped. "It would mean that you didn't create a new world," they said, finally looking away from the glass. "It would mean that you were put into a different, pre-existing world that had the traits you were looking for. It would mean... there is no new sigil, not as we thought. That what you really did was use the sigil to find a world where I wasn't trying to break anything, and this is what you found."

They sounded terrified. "That would have taken a horrendous amount of power," they said. "Far more than anyone could expect to reasonably control."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"So we're ********' dirty thieves," she said flatly.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Your words," said Sonny. "Not mine. And it's not even necessarily true, if none of you have noticed any changes since coming over then it's probable that nothing has changed and I'm a one-off."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Nah," she said, sounding a bit upset. "Mercer said the Mercer who was here afore him had issues. Like 'e's got an injury he ain't have afore. We stole this world n' replaced people. I ain't got a family or a past 'fore Ashdown, so it's easier f'me." Preacher sound have realized this earlier. They stole this world from the version who had held it before and no one held any remorse for it. It was too... intricate, too involved, too... world-buildly to be something they'd created.

"We made tha sigil in tha darkness with a lotta people n' Renard n' a fiddly weird-a** rock. Sunday said we gotta." She looked up at Sonny. "Did we ******** up real bad?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"You did what had to be done to survive," said Sonny. They reached over and pulled Preacher into a blessedly human-style hug. "You maybe messed up, but I don't blame you for it, and I think you're doing your best to make things work."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She stiffened at first, then forced herself to relax. There were not a lot of hugs in her life, so it felt awkward, at first, and she wasn't sure where her hands were supposed to go. But, tentatively, Preacher hugged Sonny back.

"But... what give me tha right ta choose m'life over tha Preacher that was here afore? I mean... this means I killed someone jus so I could get 'nother shot. It's not fair ta them." She made a noise that sounded surprisingly like a sniffle.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"For all we know, you simply swapped worlds with her," said Sonny, and then they trailed off, pulled out of the hug. "Preacher, don't cry, it's okay. And you didn't know, you didn't choose. You were just trying to survive, and there's nothing wrong with that."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"M'not cryin'." But she had definitely been on the verge of it, thought she'd never admit it. It was just ******** unfair and stupid. "If we swapped worlds n' s**t, that means tha other Preacher is dead 'cause sure as oranges tha other you was tryna end the world. Makes us all murders even if not by intent." Preacher took a deep breath, putting the thought behind her. It was something to unpack later.

"If that Sunny was tryna end tha world, n' she did, is she leakin' over 'cause she's nowhere else to go?"

shlbrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I don't know," said Sonny. "I'll ask Father... if I can get him to sit and talk with me again like he used to." They sighed. "Anything's possible."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"I mean, 'e knows 'bout tha other version, so he should be willin'? Does he not act normal of late?" Preacher kicked a pebble into the road.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Uh... Neither of my fathers got swapped with your versions," said Sonny, looking puzzled. "I don't think. Father's just being really, really weird..."

The Semblance of Unity