Texts: Other Sides

Texts: Other Sides
Date of Scene:	12 May 2024
Location:	Texts
Synopsis:	Hinoiri has revealed herself to Bow, and with the novelty of that common knowledge between the three of them, it falls to Sayaka to reveal what things had been like before Bow came. The texts end when Sayaka opens the door to her dorm.
Cast of Characters:	Sayaka Miki, Bow

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(PHONE) Bow texts: Hey babe. <3 Just got off work, do you want me to bring you some take out for tomorrow?

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Hey, Bow! <3 I would like some. I have a fridge unit to put it in. How was work?

(PHONE) Bow texts: Cool, I'll get you some extra bread too! Work was great... look, can we talk? I mean text. Whatever. I just... I had someone drop in as I was getting off and it didn't go well.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: What did they do? And who are they?

(PHONE) Bow texts: It was Hinoiri. Apparently she forgot we met at karaoke. She wanted to talk to me. About you.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: What happened?

(PHONE) Bow texts: Before we go any further - you know I love you, right?

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Yes, what has that got to do with Hinoiri's visit?

(PHONE) Bow texts: She told me that she was Sunbreaker.

(PHONE) Bow texts: And that... you know all the warnings I have you about Double Trouble? Apparently she and Hinoiri are dating. And have been for some time.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Ah, she is being a lot more honest about that lately.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Her upcoming ascension, likely.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Hmm, Double Trouble... I am happy for her and hope her second go at it is better. I had made ours into a disaster.

(PHONE) Bow texts: I got mad, bluebird. For you. Because I knew you wouldn't. No. No you did not make yours a disaster. Hinoiri said it was her. And I don't think she's told you everything. But I can't prove it. But Double Trouble... the things she did back home. I just. I can't.

(PHONE) Bow texts: I'm trying really hard to forgive her. But.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Bow, back then I was legitimately terrible to be around. Self-destructive, temperamental, judgemental, negative... The list goes on and on.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Hinoiri is a good part of the reason I am still here to talk about it.

(PHONE) Bow texts: I never met that Sayaka.

(PHONE) Bow texts: So I'll take your word for it. But it doesn't mean it was right.

(PHONE) Bow texts: She tried to drive a wedge between Adora, Glimmer and I... while keeping up busy to allow the Horde to destroy the Kingdom of Salineas. And then delighted in doing it.

(PHONE) Bow texts: And I know you now. And you are the one I want.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: They did a horrible thing. I am sorry you had to go through that.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Unless they want to make amends for it, it is not your concern, just their fault.

(PHONE) Bow texts: I know I'll have to forgive them someday. I don't know if they'll ever be repentant. Hinoiri claims she'll never do something like that again. But... I don't trust her.

(PHONE) Bow texts: Which is saying a lot because I give a lot of trust.

(PHONE) Bow texts: We also talked about Catra and Adora. She didn't take any responsibility for her dark energy - she even suggested I could learn to use dark energy.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: I don't know why she was carrying some around so carelessly, but Hinoiri says she didn't mean for Adora to get close.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: There are other things for you to try than dark energy.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Hinoiri doesn't have bright ideas sometimes. But she isn't vicious.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Bow, have you ever had someone tell you off harshly for trying to help them?

(PHONE) Bow texts: Have I ever had someone yell at me? Yeah. I mean, I've not always been a great soldier. And I've been on the wrong side of Glimmer a few times.

(PHONE) Bow texts: And if you're asking if someone flat out refused my help and got onto me about it? Remember when I arrived here, Adora was under the influence of dark magic and she broke my jaw when I tried to help her.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: That's a starting point as ok as any other.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: That was me, sort of.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Except I didn't break your bones.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: I was very much a fan of being mean and broody all the time instead.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: This with no dark energy to influence me, and for months on end.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: There was the Soul Gem pollution thing that I deliberately wasn't keeping good track of, I guess.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: But that was on me, because I was convinced I was impure and that I didn't merit to be anything other that a Youma-killing machine.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Back then, I was even fine with not taking care of harm that wasn't killing me, because what was the point? I would regenerate.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Someone had taken an arm I had cut off at one point to get out of a binding spell.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Probably, at least. Ula says it wasn't there a few hours later.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: As far as I was concerned, I was just meant to be an unfeeling robot.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Except not even that I could do right.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: So Hinoiri had to bear all that.

(PHONE) Bow texts: But that's the thing. You found yourself and you found a reason to go on. And that reason wasn't based on anything around causing the maximum amount of pain to others just because you delight in causing it.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: And did she try her best to break me out of that mindset.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: To convince me that I still deserved to live despite my soul having been forcibly taken out of my body.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: The only thing that made it slightly easier on her was a Lost Logia coming along and splitting my body in half.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: One half was like the old me.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: The other was just as despondent.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: I am fine now, but I owe Hinoiri a lot.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: She never gave up on me.

(PHONE) Bow texts: And that's fine. I can accept that. I can appreciate that. I can even be grateful that I have the you that she left behind. I just... nevermind.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: That leads to yes, Hinoiri having a lot of problems, but she is just as deserving to have a hand extended to her as I was.

(PHONE) Bow texts: I wasn't mad at Hinoiri. Okay. A little. For the way she treated you at the end. Even if I was the beneficiary of it. What I cannot get behind is Double Trouble. And I am sorry if you can't see that. Or if it somehow makes me less.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Bow, I have already said Double Trouble did a terrible thing, and if they don't want to make amends for it, that's their fault.

(PHONE) Bow texts: I know you kept who Hinoiri was really from me. I know you kept the past from me. And I accept that, because I told you from the start that what happened to you before we met was yours and you can decide whether or not to share it. And there are things that you didn't know on my side. Like what I experienced on Etheria. I'm not mad at you. I'm not mad at Hinoiri. I'm not even sure if I can be fully mad at Double Trouble. But that doesn't mean I have to sit there and smile and be polite and all. I told her I would be her friend. For your sake.

(PHONE) Bow texts: And that's fine. But how do you feel about it?

(PHONE) Bow texts: Because I know we are a lot a like in a lot of ways and one of those is setting aside our thoughts and feelings for someone else.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: If you don't want to interact with her, or Double Trouble, that's a choice that's yours to make. One that will be respected. Just make it with the knowledge of all sides of her.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: I told you what I had gone through before you met me. You know that fact that my despair turned me into a Witch. I trust you and you are the only person I trusted with that secret besides those who were there to experience it. Not because I have any reserves about it. But because knowing that Puellae are the source of Witches is a dangerous thing to tell. It could break any other Puella that came along, for one.

(PHONE) Bow texts: And I have not shared that secret with anyone.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: So, you have known the past all along. Just not Hinoiri being Sunbreaker. Because that wasn't my secret to tell.

(PHONE) Bow texts: Again. I'm not angry about that.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: I feel fine now in every regard.

(PHONE) Bow texts: Good. So do I. I just wanted to talk to you about it.

(PHONE) Bow texts: Because you're my girlfriend and I wanted to communicate with you and I know I'm not great at it, but I'm trying and your food is here.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: The worst part is Hinoiri is probably going to ask for something she might not actually want. And I want to make sure when the moment actually comes, if she chooses to go through with it, it will be knowing that she has true friends and what the consequences of her desire may be.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Thank you. Would you like to come in?

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Nobody is around to raise a fuss about curfew.

(PHONE) Bow texts: I'd love to. But before I do. Let me just say... I get everything you're saying. And I appreciate what she did for you. But like she said before she left - we're not going to get along outside the Korma. We'll probably still be enemies. But she at least wanted to be my friend for your sake. And I'm fine with that. If you're good with that, I'm right outside for you to open the door.

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: Bow, what are you saying?

(PHONE) Sayaka Miki texts: I am not going to leave you behind either.

(PHONE) Bow texts: I wasn't saying that. I was saying that I love you and I'm willing to give Hinoiri a chance simply because of that. To let her prove her words with her actions.