A Tale of Two Civvies

The two girls stared at each other for a minute.

"For real girl?" asked Calorie at last, breaking the silence.

"Yup."

"Wait a minute-" began Calorie. Suddenly her eyes narrowed. "You know what, this might be a stretch but I think I know who you are."

"Oho? Let's hear it then."

"Avery?"

"Dude, what? No way bro, how did you know?"

Calorie sighed a deep sigh and sat herself down on the floor.

"I had just finished gaming my weekend away, and as I was going down to the kitchen to fix myself a cup of instant noodles, I heard this super loud crash. I was like really scared, because nobody hears a crash like that and doesn't get scared, you know what I mean?"

Auricularis nodded emphatically.

"So then I was trying to figure out if I should go outside and take a look or not, and I almost didn't, but I did. That was probably the first and last time I did anything even sorta brave."

Princess Auricularis could tell the story was going to be long, so she joined Calorie on the floor.

"You were hit by a truck, but because you were so jacked from all the sports that you play, the truck might as well have hit a wall. Honestly gurl, it was more like you crashed into the truck than the truck crashed into you.

"Obviously you died, but I didn't expect to die too. I went outside not knowing that there was a truck that was sent up high in the sky because of your muscles, and only saw you lying on the ground. So then I went to see if I had to call an ambulance or something, and you know how it is when you go outside after being in the dark for so long. Eyes gotta adjust and all that."

Auricularis nodded again. She remembered all too well the struggle of pulling herself out of bed in the wee hours of the morning for her morning jog.

"Right, so as I was saying," Calorie cleared her throat. "Then I looked up, and you know how my eyesight is already super bad, and I wasn't wearing glasses, and then there was this blur in the sky, and it was getting closer, and then it hit me. I mean that's when I saw the truck. I completely panicked and I couldn't move, and not just because my muscles had pretty much become all fat from all my vegetating. It was game over before I knew it. The truck KO'd both of us, and I guess we ended up here."

"Bro, wait, I think I know what you mean."

Auricularius looked up and stroked an imaginary goatee as she tried to recall what had happened on that fateful day.

"Yeah, I remember now. I was taking my morning jog… I had no idea that was your neighborhood by the way, wait-" Auricularis directed her gaze at Calorie with her eyes opened wide.

"Um, sorry I didn't ask earlier, but who are you?"

"Oh yeah, huh. I'm Cerise. Same school, same grade, if that helps?"

"Cerise? I know you! You're the girl who always had a small army following you everywhere."

Calorie turned a shade of pink to rival Auricularis' hair.

"Err, yeah, don't mention it. I don't know why they were like that. The kids at our school were weird. But anyways, what were you saying?"

"Hmmm, let's see, that's right, my morning jog is where I stopped. Okay so, I was doing my morning jog as usual and I think I had a test in my first class that day, so I wanted to make sure my brain was fully awake so that I wouldn't end up making a ton of careless mistakes that would tank my grade. My grade is on the edge in math, no lie. I don't even know how I'm passing, to be honest. Everything that came out of the teacher's mouth sounded like pure witchcraft. But back to the story.

"So uh, morning jog, yup. Wow I think that's the most times I've ever said morning jog in one sitting. Usually that street is pretty car-free, so I wasn't being super careful. I guess the one day I'm going over formulas in my head during my morning jog is the one day whoever was driving that truck decided to just not pay attention to the road or whatever. I didn't see it coming at all, and I guess since it was over for me pretty much instantly it wasn't that bad. I think what happened to you was probably worse."

"Maybe," replied Calorie. "You know, I wonder how we ended up in these bodies. Like, why was I reincarnated specifically into the body of a maid named after the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 °C who also happened to be the best maid this household has ever seen? I don't even know how to clean---this whole time I've been getting by using magic! Back home people always offered to do things for me so how am I supposed to know how a duster works? Like gorl what?"

"I feel like that's where common sense is supposed to kick in," said Auricularis. "Also on the topic of names, I'm literally named after an ear muscle that nobody knows about. Need I say more? But what is this magic you're talking about? I don't know if I can do magic, but I've only been here for a day. I guess I haven't figured out how to use it yet?"

"Yikes, that's rough gril. For, like, magic, well I've been here for two days, so maybe you'll be able to work it out tomorrow."

"Ooh, that makes sense," nodded Auricularis. "Right well, this body is awful. Look at how skinny my arms are. I bet I can't even do two pushups in this body. Back in my body I could do 50 in my sleep…"

"Do you think anyone else from our world is here?" questioned Calorie, changing the subject.

"I don't think so, I mean we're the only ones that died, right? Except for the truck driver who I'm going to guess died after the truck fell from the sky and killed us. If I see him, it's on sight."

"True, true. But then again, even though we died on the same day we popped up into this world at different times. What if there's someone who died maybe a day before us or after us?"

"That's a good point."

Once more, the two sat thinking in silence.

"I guess we won't know 'til we know," declared Auricularis.

"That's right grill." Calorie crossed her arms thoughtfully. "If we know, we know."

Meanwhile…

In a lavish estate in a galaxy far, far away, but not too far from where the princess and her maid had just discovered the truth about each other, a silver-haired duchess with drills sharp enough to drill a hole through three feet of solid concrete sat in her library, sipping tea.

She had been awfully lonely as of late, for she had not a soul to converse with. All the wealth of her household could not fulfill the deepest of her heart's desires.

To no one in particular she murmured, "I wonder if anyone else from my world is here."