S A D I E
7:40-XXX AM (7:40-XXX MT) | 11/01/2036
Soma, San Francisco, CA; Warehouse
Direct Mentions: Callan, Carswell
Brief Mentions: Aurora
Indirect Mentions: Alexander, Finley, Everyone Else
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As she watches Aurora face Alexander’s sharp smile, Sadie is reminded of the word “schadenfreude.” Her brother had gotten his hands on a strange dictionary once, one that housed a lot of words too big for the both of them. In the light of a gentle campfire, he’d managed to read nearly two hundred pages of it to her throughout several sleepless nights. She wasn’t paying that much attention, his constant yacking coming in through one ear and yeeting out the other, more focused on his fingers running gently through her hair, but she remembers him stumbling over a set of letters, cursing colorfully in all six languages he knew, and the sudden deviance of his soft voice snapped her back to reality. She looked at him, and he turned the book around to face her, fully expecting her to give up four words in if the look on his face told her anything. She pronounced it perfectly.
Schadenfreude. Noun. A word that describes pleasure derived from someone’s misfortune. In a way, it could be said to be identical to sadism.
Charlie giggled, drawing a glare from her. “Oh, don’t look at me like that,” he said. “I’m not teasing you, you brat. I was just thinking. I mean—” he wheezed like a dying cat— “just imagine if you were like that, if you were evil. Ohoho, you’d be adorable, wouldn’t you?”
When he pinched her cheeks to piss her off more, she called him a condescending fuckwit, which prompted him to thwack her lightly upside the head, then prompting her to thwack him on his shoulder (she was too small to reach the beastly thing he called his brain) because he shouldn’t be such a dickwad thinking about her in a position she’d never be in. Between the two of him, he was the product of Satan and Judas fucking under God’s bed; she was heaven incarnate, Jesus’ righthand woman, forever with a halo over her head, mischievous pranks on the fellow survivors they disgraced with their existences and pottymouth be damned.
Charlie pinched her cheeks again and told her to never change.
Schadenfreude—a word that describes pleasure derived from someone’s misfortune.
Sadie’s sure as hell feeling it now.
She's more than familiar with it. Everyone is, she knows, but not to the same degree as she is. No one can reach her level. She's just that special.
A part of her knows that she's getting excited over nothing. She can keep watching. She can keep waiting. Nothing will happen to Aurora. Aurora could waste their time and keep on doing it and nothing would happen. Alexander is disappointing. He isn't like Emilia. He is nothing like Emilia. If he was Emilia, then the moment Aurora approached with that big mouth of hers, he'd have turned to where Sadie stands with manic grins echoed on both of their faces and said, "Girl, are you hungry?" But he doesn't. He's frustrating like that. He's… problematic. Emilia would have handcuffed him to a Sadie who hadn't eaten in three months. And that makes Sadie kind of want to eat him right now, alive. It isn't like he's going to do anything. He's lenient with everyone. So lenient. At this rate, he'd probably let Sadie eat the entire world without a care. He'll never get her to Icarus. Nothing will get done. He's a fuckwit. Look at him, telling Aurora to shut the hell up in the kindest way possible. Asshat. He should have looked at Sadie. He should have seen Aurora for the deadweight that she is. Aurora is a kid, isn't she? Kids are problems. Kids shouldn't be… a part of the population. They are problems. Aurora is young and is a little brat and shouldn’t be here, and Sadie is young and is a little brat and shouldn’t be here either, but she is special. She is special. She is special. Alexander should have known that. He should have ripped out Aurora's tongue. He should have torn the girl to shreds. He should have shot her between the eyes. He should have had everyone drag her out and fed her to the dead. He should have looked at her and looked at Sadie. He should have brought out a chain and attached it to the little rubber nub on Sadie's collar and dragged her closerclosercloser and said, "See? I have a monster watching my back." He should have smiled and said, "Girl, aren't you hungry?"
Sadie lovingly strokes Hulda’s fake fur. Let's hope, Saekki, that her corpse doesn't slow us down.
She waits. For nothing, she knows. Aurora is still alive. Aurora will keep on being alive. Alexander does nothing—because he is disappointing.
Sadie rocks back and forth on the heels on her feet, eyes tracking Aurora as the girl wanders off. She squishes Hulda so tightly to her chest that if the thing had bones they would have snapped.
She wants to get the fuck out of here already. She doesn’t know much about distance and time and math, but she knows that Icarus is on the opposite side of the country, she knows that they’ve been in this moldy warehouse for hours, she knows that they’re wasting time.
"By the way," their Glorious Leader (Leader Leader Leader Leaderleaderleaderleader he is the leader he is the leader he is the leader because remotes and electricity and collarcollarcollar and it only hurts because you were bad you should stop screaming— …He sucks and there are times when Sadie gets so frustrated that she wants to wander off and never come back, but he can hurt her and she is scared and she is special and she needs to get to Icarus and he) is saying, "Sadie needs someone to keep her with us. Looks like you've offered, Call, so that role falls to you."
Her anger festers. She thinks, automatically, as she always does when she is addressed, My name is Sadie, nom jot nyeon gae!
And then his words catch up to her.
And then she thinks, Oh. He didn't call me "Girl."
She thinks, Okay.
She thinks, This is definitely an existential crisis.
She thinks, Wait, what the fuck did he say?!
Her mind is a malfunctioning drain. Because hearing her name come from someone's mouth is… (wrong why is it wrong isn't this what she wanted why does she want and then get and then she doesn't want it why why is she thinking too much it's too early for this she hasn't been like this for so long and why is she like this whywhywhy is it) strange, the drain elects to not acknowledge that very specific set of five letters, and instead spouts out: Call = Callan = Shitty C = Eww.
She looks to said Eww right as he squawks out something akin to a useless protest. Now, don't get her wrong, she… understands why Alexander would want someone to watch her and keep her with them (and by-extension in check), but… Why Shitty C? Hah, maybe he picked him 'cause they had a mutual epiphany and now want to hate each other for no reason. It's Alexander's fault, really. He should have killed Shitty C the moment he became a problem. But Alexander is disappointing. At least, though, he’s working on getting them out of here.
Moving on.
Shitty C says her name (she flinches before she can stop herself. She can't help it. Now that she's gotten one of the things she bitched about internally the most, she's starting to wonder if it was a good idea to correct Alexander when he called her "Girl" for the first time on that day they were forced to put up with each other. She hasn't heard her name said in so long that it sounds worse than the snarls of Twos.) He shittily tells her to come along, and she dutifully follows because doing as orders tell her to is her forte. And—
His heartbeat roars in her ears.
He is too close.
Sadie’s beginning to wonder if he doesn’t have any sense of self-preservation.
...Doesn’t matter.
Callan is saying shit that makes her wonder again why Alexander is such a disappointment that he hasn't forcibly removed the asshole from what little remains of the population, but whatever. Shitty C is exactly that—shitty. ...Even more so now that he’s led her to a wall. Granted, the wall is next to the exit, so Shitty C isn’t a time-waster like everyone else is proving to be in her mind, but he’s positioned himself in such a way that he’s blocking her from the door they’ll leave through. The thing is, she could just go around him, but there's a fallen rack a little to his left, and that means she'd have to go around that, too, and there's a bunch of ankle-twisting objects scattered everywhere around said rack, so she'd have to find a way around those. And fucking eat her for being impatient; she wants out of this place already and doesn’t want to deal with more shit just to— Just… It’s— It's musty and she can barely goddamn breathe and, oh dear God, she is—
A loud noise comes from behind her, and Sadie spins her head around so quickly that she gets whiplash. She can’t see well with a rusted rack in her way and with one eye closed, but she spots Aurora on her ass, a wooden crate toppled on its side next to her. It looks like the girl tried to peek outside and was too short, so she used 100% of her brain and stacked shit on top of each other, but that backfired and now she’s made a fool of herself.
Hah! she thinks briefly. That’s what you get for not knowing how to bite your tongue.
Aurora having a big mouth and falling don’t really have anything to do with each other, but fuck it. Carswell—that fuckwit—helps the girl to her feet and says a bunch of Nice Guy™ bull, but doesn’t get a thank-you or even a single acknowledgement. Sadie both thinks that Carswell deserves it because of his wonderful idea to keep existing, and that Aurora is very rude and really does need her tongue cut off. She doesn’t get to think for long, though, because Aurora’s making her way toward them now, pushing past both Alex and Callan as she makes her way to the exit. Look at her, strutting around like she owns the place. HAH! Like she has any right to… to… to something. Sadie forgot what she was going to say, but it doesn’t matter because she’s gonna beat the girl outside. She will. This is a race now. Sadie’s just so fucking competitive, and she’ll fling this door wide open and—
Her face whacks into Callan’s back.
(Sadie is briefly reminded of Mom’s Emilia’s hastily-scribed notes that were given to Alexander. The backbone of the set of rules to follow as they make their way to Icarus.
Stay away from Girl whenever possible.
May that rule rest in pieces. At least for now.)
(Sadie wonders how many more rules will be broken.)
Right. He’s in her way.
She stands on her toes, leans into the man’s space, her hand coming up to grip his shoulder. She thinks that he really should’ve taken care to make sure she wasn’t directly behind him. “Hey, Shitty C,” she purrs, “do you mind getting the fuck out of my way? I need things to bitch about~”
She promptly shoves him out of the way, giggling as his body connects with the wall with a deafening THUD. Schadenfreude, schadenfreude, schadenfreude.
Sadie cuts Finley off (and nearly barges right into Shittiest C. Really, what the hell is Carswell even doing disgracing the space next to the door? Does he think that breathing in her general vicinity makes him a better person? What an ass), and promptly flings herself out the open door. She skips out merrily, taking a deep breath of her reward.
Her happiness doesn’t last long (though the semi-manic smile stays plastered on her face); when she realizes that an open door means that Aurora beat her to le ~Outside World~, her breath comes out in an angry huff. Just to check, she looks around a little, and… Yep. There the girl is…
Bitch.
Her mood drops even more when Carswell proceeds to announce his continued existence. As he indulges in letting everyone know how much he loves his voice, Sadie takes her place in the center of the group, her steps almost silent.
And then she unleashes a very unique skill that was cultiminated over the years she spent bullying her brother and antagonizing dozens of scientists.
Her voice cuts through the air in a painful rasp. “It’s ‘dimmer’ outside because the sun isn’t all the way up yet, you stupid little cunt~” She turns to the side a little to flash Shittiest C an oh-so-nice smile. “Or did your love for your vocal cords finally drown your intelligence? Oh, wait, that’s if you had neurons in the first place.”
She flicks her head back around to face forward.
“Since you apparently forgot already, it’s November,” she goes on, gravelly voice whistling at the end of each word. She speaks slowly, as if facing a toddler. “Y’know what that means? Winter. Y’know what winter means? The sun gets less helpful than you. And you know what else~? Look around you, Shittiest C. Whatcha see?”
She throws her arm (one arm because Hulda would succumb to gravity if the other failed to maintain such a tight hold) in the air in a Behold! gesture, her makeshift sling bag nearly getting yeet off to outer space.
“Buildings!” Paired with a cackle, her voice is booming to her ears, but she couldn’t care any less because there’s only four Ones out there in the streets, and Ones can’t hear for shit.
(They’ve also eaten recently, so they won’t be as aggressive, anyway. Sadie is jealous.)
“Rows upon rows of warehouses!” she goes on like the hypocrite that she is. “They’re taller than you’ll ever be. Do y’know what that means, Shittiest C? They block out the sun! That’s why it’s ‘dimmer!’ And maybe don’t use ‘referencing’ in a casual conversation because you’re not a boomer. I mean, what the fuck?”
She giggles like an excited psychopath, bringing her arm back down to wrap around Hulda. Her next words are muffled against the fox’s head.
“And Treasure Island is where we’re going next. It’s a place that very much exists.”
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[ 2470 words :') ]
새끼 [sae-ggi/sae-kki]: general derogatory phrase, but also used to describe a young and cute animal (f.e., 코끼리새끼) or as a term of endearment for a child/grandchild (f.e., 내새끼). In Sadie’s case, she’s basically calling Hulda a cute bastardly animal who she views as her own kid.
놈 [nom]: bastard.
좆 [jot]: dick/cock.
년 [nyeon]: bitch.
개 [gae]: dog/cur, but implies “son-of-a-bitch.”
Summer Month: 2 
Night Weather: 
Earthquake Moon: 
