Capítulo 2: COTTON CANDY HAIR:
At the exact moment when he had been swallowed into that strange world, he returned, seated in the same way, in the same posture at the minute time, as if nothing had happened.
Once Alicia had told him that Micaela was alive, the world turned black before his eyes, and the next thing he knew, he had returned.
Who would be able to take in such a massive and novel event unprepared? He certainly couldn't. The rest of the class, he was out of it, unable to give even an ounce of attention to the lecture.
After class ended, he tried to confirm the event of him disappearing into thin air with his friends. However, they merely laughed and told him off.
After thinking it over for a little while and keenly keeping an eye out for any unnatural discrepancies in his otherwise sublime life, he decided to throw the issue to the back of his mind when he found nothing strange. Concluding that it was a misconception and a dream of some sort, a result of his exhaustion from all the assignments he had to complete in the past few weeks. However, it felt more like he was deluding himself.
It wasn't as if he hadn't experienced constant states of almost lifelike reveries and daze due to sleep deprivation before. This time, however, it felt more real than ever. Despite this, he chose to pay it no further heed, attributing it to his overworked state.
Yet, three days after the last incident, while waiting for his food to heat in the microwave as he diligently worked on his assignments, his vision once again got veiled in eigengrau, and soon, he found himself in a place he didn't recognize at all. His body was once again out of his conscious control.
Surrounded by a crowd of faceless mannequins of sorts, they bombarded him with questions about his name, major, height, and more. It was disturbing how these beings could converse with him so normally, despite resembling nothing more than inanimate nondescript puppets.
He appeared to be at a university, with a towering building in the distance, a signboard indicating the department of software engineering. Some of these dressed-up mannequins were studying, while others were fooling around. The scene closely resembled any other university, but he couldn't discern his surroundings any further as he was being squished alive by the puppets surrounding him.
Fortunately for him, his body behaved in the same way any old ruffian and morose 'bad boy' would. He frowned in impatience and pushed his way through the crowd as if careening through, an expression of good riddance washing over his features.
As soon as he did, his eyes fell on an extremely familiar brunette—Alicia. She stared at him in mild disbelief and horror, as if not expecting him to appear here. After a moment, she moved her gaze away, releasing a long sigh, her expression indignant.
Ezra's eyes were fixed on her, and he had lost control over them, unable to discern the writing over her head. However, he was sure that it must have been regarding him staring dubiously at the girl. At least now, he could appreciate this woman's beauty, especially her pale green eyes. What a clear color it was. They were so glassy that they almost looked unreal.
A few seconds later, he jeered at the girl and started to walk along to his destination, wherever it was, completely ignoring Alicia.
By this time, Ezra was clearly aware that this body or character of his, per se, really wasn't willing to exhibit the slightest congenial cooperation or acceptance with this girl named Alicia. It seemed to hold open animosity towards her.
However, the recipient of his dissatisfaction didn't particularly harbor the same level of animosity towards him. Instead, she seemed more inclined to avoid getting involved with him. From their past conversations, it appeared to be driven by guilt over certain events.
At this moment, he was once again able to move his eyes, so he quickly took this chance to look above her head.
The title remained the same: "White lies" written in bold, rather intimidating. However, the subtitle had changed to:
[Chapter 7]
And below it, their actions at the moment were being noted down.
He also let his gaze wander to the ground, noticing the same lucid white-blue line running from her feet as well as his own. Though it wasn't visible at first glance, there was even a white line extending from the feet of the moving mannequins.
However, theirs was thin to the point of being almost invisible when viewed from his height. On the other hand, his and Alicia's lines were at least 20 centimeters wide, melting into a puddle shape below the soles of their feet. The lines ran in the same direction, outside the university's entrance, to who knows where.
When he returned to his world, even though he initially dismissed the notion of disappearing to another world, he couldn't help but think about it over the days. During that time, he came up with a hypothesis for his situation. Observing the current scenario with the mannequins and all, the credibility of his hypothesis increased to some extent.
He seemed to be playing the role of a character in some story, he deduced. A character with a noticeable role, clearly discernible from the rest of the crowd and retaining his human appearance. However, this character that he was playing had the same name and appearance as him. It was either designed after him or he was playing a character that looked like him.
As far-fetched as the theory seemed, he couldn't help but consider it as the most probable answer.
Before Ezra could leave, he was called out. His body stilled before slightly turning around, his eyebrow rising in an imperious manner.
Running towards him was a mannequin, dragging alongside it Alicia, who seemed to have forgotten to struggle in her state of temporary disbelief. At least that's what her expression said.
The mannequin stopped in front of him, pulling Alicia to stand alongside it as it wrapped its arm around her neck and started in a loud chirpy tone,
"Hey, hey, hey. If it isn't Ez and Lisa. Long time no see, eh?"
"Don't call me that."
Came a simultaneous reply. The mannequin made a gesture as if laughing before continuing,
"The hell is with this crazy coincidence. Who would've thought we would be studying at the same university. But then again, most of us back then claimed ourselves to be aspiring programmers."
Ezra merely shrugged, seeming uninterested, before trying to walk away; however, he was held back by the mannequin, causing him to complain and look over with jaundiced eyes,
"What do you want, Penelope?"
As soon as he said that, he saw the mannequin morph into a petite, coquettish-looking girl with wide black eyes and long half-curled dyed pink hair that reached below her waist. Her expression seemed lively, and even though she was slightly small, she still seemed to have a somewhat sporty figure, as seen through her lean and beautiful muscles visible from her half-sleeved shirt. This pretty girl smiled while shaking her head before looking at them.
"Still as impatient as ever, I see. What's the rush? We just met. Why not go out for a meal-
"Let me go first."
Another simultaneous complaint came from the people she had been clutching with her iron grip. She laughed before letting them go.
"Sorry, sorry."
Ezra looked up at the writing that had been present even upon this Penelope woman's head. It was the same as his and Alicia's. He read the part explaining himself and Alicia rubbing the parts that had been clutched at by Penelope. Before it changed into an explanation of the woman's features, it went something along the line of her being a pretty and bright woman. Her full name being Penelope Rosalind Cavendish.
However, what came after was,
[She had fluffy cotton candy pink hair that reached just below her shoulders. Silver plasma-induced eyes. An average height, however, a sporty figure accompanied by her spunky sense of fashion. Her soft yet bright facial features gave her the feeling of a fun-loving winsome woman.]
And as he read on these lines, the girl in front of him started to change alongside. Turning into an exact copy of the person that had just been described.
The previous short lady with delicate features was nowhere to be seen. Instead of her, stood a new person, now posing as this 'Penelope'.
How did a color as unnatural as pink seem so very natural on this girl? As if she had been born with it. Even her brows and eyelashes were tinted pink...?
Previously, it was very evident that the hair was dyed pink in the case of the 'Penelope' before this one. But now it seemed so natural, he couldn't bring himself to believe that it may not have been natural. Moreover, her features, they seemed rather mystical?
However, he knew that she was not some supernatural being. She too was a human the same as himself, as he noted by her wandering confused pair of eyes looking at the world with utter puzzlement and daze. Before falling back on him and Alicia and being stuck there, probably due to losing her control over them like he did from time to time.
While he was thinking over the sudden development, the girl smiled at him and Alicia, eyes twinkling with the exuberant glitter of the absolute joy received from an unexpected reunion. She spoke, her voice, extremely soft and mellow ,
"It has been far too long for the two of you to still be stumbling along the differences of yesterday, am I right?"
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
WorryIsho
WorryIsho Yeah, just a word dump with barely any dialogue that I call a chapter.
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