Red woke up and rolled out of bed. She took a second to shake loose the last dredges of sleep before pulling out her morning notebook.

She turned to the first blank page and glanced at the date. Today’s date was a multiple of three, a new clothing day. Red stepped over yesterday's clothing as they grabbed a random selection of clothing from her wardrobe. Each item had been carefully chosen after all, so there was no wrong choice.

Today's correct choice turned out to be two thirds of a three-piece burgundy suit with a pair of torn black leggings. Happy with the selection, she threw it on with barely a thought.

Fortunately, today wasn't a shower date (even) or a hair washing day (multiple of five) so she had it quite easy, with nothing on the map of her life, save the highly productive meeting with Scarlet later today.

She took a second to look in the mirror before going downstairs. There were rules that people expected them to follow and she had to spend a decent amount of time in the early morning making sure she hadn't forgotten anything which would inconvenience her later.

Shirt? Buttoned up to the point of what Li called "Decent".

Face? Wiped clean of ink to save time when talking to Sai. (Where did that come from anyway?)

Hair? Pulled back into a semblance of a ponytail to keep it out of her eyes as long as possible.

With all that done she grabbed her bag of notepads and headed out of her bedroom. As they did, she took a moment to observe her old bedroom, updating her notes on the void distorted room from the doorway.

Darkness still uncontained, tendrils now at ~3cms into room.

The words went down quick and sharp, the reckless flick of the fountain pen spraying a few dots of ink across her face as she wrote. She considered for a second entering to get a better look, but paused, her memories dominated by the feeling of floating alone in the unmappable darkness.

Instead, she made a second note and underlined it thrice.

Assistance required in studies – Room unmappable on its own.

Content, she pulled the door shut and ascended the stairs three at a time, her feet skipping over the threadbare carpet as they made her way into what the estate agents had marketed as “Bedroom Three”.

She slumped into the chair at the edge of the room as the time clicked over to the hour and the video connected, the ancient CRT monitor tinting the image a pastel shade of green as the loading wheel was replaced by the slightly pixelated face of a twenty something woman sipping her tea as the system loaded her details.

The connection completed with a ping finally displaying a name: Scarlet Locke –She/ They.

As usual the meeting started with a long pause as two people who were used to taking social ques from others gazed blankly across the virtual space in a subtle social standoff. Scarlet cracked first, her hands gesticulating violently as words began to spill forth.

“What’s happening with that spicy danger energy? Have you managed to test the box? And what about the Void exploration? Have you gone in again? Also have you gotten the sensors I sent you, they should have arrived by now. And what about the street’s topography changes, have you got a working model, or should I try and simulate it here?”

As Scarlet finished Red looked around for the relevant note pads and upon finding them. Began to read back the required sections.

Red responded that Biz had managed to use it to channel energy into a way to heal the injured Charlie and in return asked if there was any update on the simulations, any noticeable pattern to the people and buildings that had disappeared.

Scarlett scrolled through the notes on her phone and answered that there were no fourth-degree formulae which would map to the pattern, and she would be working on upgrading the simulation to explore fifth degree solutions. And questioned back about the nature of the ability which had healed Charlie.

Red explained and the conversation continued in the same pattern of question and answer as the two demigirls covered two weeks’ worth of notes and discoveries.

Red spoke concisely breaking down the events that had occurred in the order that felt more natural than chronological, her notes a mishmash of personal anecdotes, unchecked assumptions, and second-hand accounts from the other members of the street.

Today Scarlet seemed focused on the specifics of spicy danger energy excited to get the detail behind the vague messages Red had sent between meetings. To this end she allocated multiple questions on the topic honing in on the specifics any other would have missed.

Red in turn asked about simulation upgrades and the search for the other half of the elusive postal portal which delivered post onto the street. As Scarlet responded, her words were lost as a dull thudding disrupted Red’s note taking.

Scarlet frowned as Red turned towards the noise before returning to the screen apologetically.

“Sorry, could you repeat that?”

“I was saying that whilst I haven’t found it yet, I think the Portal is connected somewhere near London bridge, as of yet haven’t found where. I tried to get into the nearby branch, but they threw me out.”

It was at this point, the front door thudded open, and Sai entered in a blast of wind and rain.

"Hey Red, let myself in cos the weathers shit and you ign- Red what the fuck is that?"

Happy for the excuse to explain the contraption Red launched into a detailed description of the train of adaptors connecting the slick MacBook to the archaic CRT monitor.

Red grinned as Sai frowned and continued.

“Awesome… And the thing on the screen? Please don’t tell me you did more sci-fi stuff, we have enough problems without you making an A.I. of yourself…”

“Unfortunatly not, though it’s quite a good idea! Maybe we can build one with the help of Scarlet of here, I doubt my computer has enough ram, but they should have access to the university servers.”

“Scarlet?”

Red waved her hand in the vague direction of the CRT screen.

“You named your prototype A.I. Scarlet? Isn’t that a bit on the nose?”

Red went to correct them but was beaten out by an outburst of noise from the laptop speakers as Scarlet took the opportunity.

“Hey there Sai! I’m actually a person! A doppelganger you might say!”

Red watched with interest as Sai turned to look at them and then back to Scarlet.

“A doppelganger?”

“A doppelganger or double! Like Red is my double, or I am hers – We have not really figured it out yet. But we are the same person from parallel worlds, yes? And yet we are both here in, somewhat, the same universe. Of course, it is hard to tell if we are truly the same person split by timelines or merely similar patterns generated by the ripple effect of the same events, yes? Personally, I am inclined to think the prior, though we are coming at demi-girl from different agabs there is a lot of similarities between our stories. Our parents seem to be the same people and the events of our lives map reasonably against each other, and we share 98.7% of our facial features. Understand? The primary difference is that I’m called Scarlet and she’s Red, and this is particularly interesting, because Red’s parents were planning on naming her Scarlet at birth, but got her gender wrong for the first eight years of her life at which point she took the derivation of that name Red. So you see-”

Red smiled as Sai raised their hands in what Red recognised as mock surrender, the expected result of conversing with them for too long.

“I think I see…. There is two of you now. Or well, I’m assuming two. I don’t suppose you have a Rose, Ruby or Crimson hidden somewhere do you!”

Red nodded enthusiastically as Sai chuckled, making a few quick notes under a new header- Potential Doppelganger Names.

She snapped out of the planning process as Sai’s next words piqued her interest.

“Whilst this is intersting, and I’m gonna be spending quite a bit of time unpacking it later, I came here for a reason. I came her to ask about the dangerous buildings. The type B‘s as Biz calls them. With the arrival of Jack, and my disconcerting graveyard discovery I think we should look for people living in them. Charlie and I think there are three other beings on this street…”

Red looked up from her notepad, curiosity alight in her eyes as she gestured for Sai to continue.

“We, err found the graves in the infinite graveyard. Four in all, one is Jack’s, but there are three others.”

Sai paused to allow Red to get caught up her notes, pulling at the worn hem of their coat, eyes distant as they considered what next to say.

“Charlie was looking for one in the library when he was attacked. Poking his head into a place of magic and danger only to find a guard dog.”

Red’s notes stalled as she tried to put her finger on the strangeness emanating from Sai, there was something about how they stood. The texture of how they spoke. Something she could barely notice as her mind burned with the desire, the need to cross reference these expressions. These patterns with those in Sai’s entry, but she persevered. It was necessary to hear them out first.

“I’m sure you are wondering why I have come to you Red, its not really your area of expertise.”

Red frowned as Sai continued, she had not been wondering this, the information was both intersting and helpful in the mapping of the street.

“…Well, I think… I think one of them might be the void behind these walls.”

She watched as they paused to gesture at the darkness swirling behind the glass of the living room windows.

“I think this darkness, this void is a creature, a being. Maybe even a smart one. You opened a hole to its lair, and well…. I’m concerned about what happens next.”

Red grinned at the anxious individual before her, of course, this one was simple.

“Next we gather data!”

They shared a confused look with the image of Scarlet as Sai’s calm mask cracked their face a whirl of emotions as shock, anger, disbelief, and reluctant acceptance flitted across their dark skin.

Red watched as they collapsed to the floor holding their head in their hands.

“Of course, that’s your answer…. Of course…”

As Sai accepted their fate, the shadow of the darkness behind the street stirred and the being within replayed the conversations on loop. The new data dissected and analysed as its multitude fought for and then agreed a consensus.

NEW OBJECTIVE: Make contact.