The Simulacrum

Interlude

"Good night, Chief."

"Sleep well. I'll see you tomorrow."

There was a sleepy grunt of agreement on the other side and my assistant ended the call. I removed the phone from my ear and checked the call time. We talked for nearly two hours. It was almost midnight. I exhaled in a shallow sigh before I put my phone down. I still didn't need any sleep, so it didn't really matter to me how long we talked, but one of these days I really needed to learn how to send her to sleep a bit earlier. Staying up so late couldn't be good for her health.

The fact that it was midnight also reminded me of something else as I walked over to the calendar hanging on the living room wall. I gazed at it a little before I reached out and tore off the front leaf.

"It's already October," I whispered to no one in particular as I entered the kitchen and opened the fridge to get my customary midnight snack. It was stocked full with fresh essentials, a testament to the dedication of the invisible ninja maids that still maintained my household when I wasn't around. Well, at least I liked to imagine they were ninja maids, for lack of better explanation.

Anyways, when I opened the fridge door, my eyes were caught by a small lunch-box on the bottom tray. It took me a second to recognize it, but then I remembered that the last time Judy was over for one of our brainstorming sessions, she made a couple of sandwiches for us. By the way, I still didn't understand why she was so fixated on sandwiches. I had seen her in the kitchen and I knew she could cook (well, she could certainly cook better than me at the very least), but whenever I asked about it she changed the subject.

But back to the point: I took out the lunchbox and opened it up. While the bread of the three sandwiches inside was slightly stale, I decided to eat them anyways. With that decided, I returned to my room and sat down in front of my sparkling new computer.

I just bought it a few days ago, and while it was a bit of an overkill specs-wise, especially considering that I only used it to browse the web and edit text files, I decided that if I had the money, I might as well use it. I grabbed the mouse and dismissed the classic hyperspace-screensaver. I cracked my fingers, wiggled them over the keyboard, and got ready to write up my latest observations and theories, but then I stopped. The reason for that was painfully prosaic: I had nothing. For a few minutes I tried wracking my brain, trying to remember something peculiar or interesting, but I came up blank.

Ever since Snowy joined the group almost exactly three weeks ago, nothing happened. Well, okay, that might have been overstating things a little, but it was still true. While there were tons of small adventures, wacky situations, and amusing group activities almost every day, nothing particularly extraordinary happened. No new member for the entourage, no sudden drama from the left field, even Snowy's prick of a brother didn't make good on his threats. Not that I was really complaining about that last bit, but still.

While our days were far from dull, they also became a bit of a routine. Gone were the exciting and dread-filled days of the first week, when everything was new and exciting and scary and ripe for observation and experimentation. What we had instead were fun but ultimately unsubstantial days, just like... well, just like normal' life.

It wasn't just my life though. Things have quieted down around Josh as well. After the first day, the entourage incorporated Snowy surprisingly easily. While at first there were some sideways glances when she was around, by this point she was as integral a part of the group as any of the other girls, hanging out with us both at school and outside. Just last weekend she even came around for the second Whatesherface the Werewolf Huntress marathon (seasons 2 and some of 3). She was spending most of her time either at my side or at Joshua's when I was looking, though according to Judy she was getting along with the others whenever I wasn't around.

The princess was also making strides to accommodate her, though on the other hand she still seemed overly cautious and tried to stick around with me whenever I was talking to Snowy in what she probably considered a casual and no way suspicious manner. Needless to say, it was neither. Oh, and if we were at the princess, by this point there was a full-blown cold war between her and my dear assistant, though when I confronted them, they both denied the accusation. It was pretty obvious that I was the source of the friction, but for the time being, I decided to play things safe and let sleeping lionesses lie.

So, just to reiterate: My past three weeks weren't particularly eventful, and while I didn't really mind it overall, a small part of me at the back of my mind found the situation awfully dull and disappointing.

Regrettably, that wasn't something worth noting in my research, so I quietly closed the document, cracked my fingers again, and decided to spend my time in a less productive but infinitely more fun way: watching children's cartoons and then overanalyzing their 'themes' on forums to the point where even the fans of the series would wish me to hell. Hey, don't look at me like that! Everyone needs a hobby.

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