(Greentext) Denise's Doppelganger

>The lone Denise happily strutted through the sparsely populated mall, clad in her favorite black & green clothes without a care in the world
>Tom the technician's false diagnosis had saved her life and gained her an online friend, but at the cost of her unlimited gaming time
>In his report, he stated that she simply "loses track of time", as if she were just a forgetful teen, failing to mention her literally missing software
>As a solution to this, Mr. Clark bought two small clocks and hung them each up beside the televisions she used, making reality only a glance away from the screen
>He also imposed strict gaming regulations from that point on: a maximum of two hours on weekdays and four on weekends, not just however long her free time was
>There was nobody to enforce this rule when both the Clark parents were at work and the children at school, but more tasks were assigned to keep her busy otherwise
>As to not further dampen her spirits, Mrs. Clark convinced her husband to lift his "uniform-only" restriction on Denise outdoors, returning to the belief that if she wasn't malfunctioning, her clothing choice was totally harmless
>Back at the mall, she was making an automatic beeline to her favorite store: Hot Mess, of which she was a frequent customer
>The brick walls, edgy clothing, and modern rock music that quietly played over the loudspeakers had become all too familiar to her
>Even without her location mapping software, she could RUN through the shop blindfolded and not knock anything over
>As expected, she was on a first-name basis with the few employees and even the manager, their work days and shifts easily memorized
>Being 1:56 on a Thursday afternoon, she expected to see Ryan, the piercing-covered gentleman she remembered from her first time there, working the register
>Stepping through the wide entryway, she was immediately proven right

>"Hey, Denise!" Ryan called out, scratching his head in confusion, "There you are!"
>"What's up, Ryan?" she answered with a smirk, "Were you thinking about me or something?"
>She came closer to the counter and saw his attention kept switching to the other side of the store
>"Yeah, I... uh..." he leaned over and half-whispered, "...thought I just saw you walk in a few minutes ago, but you didn't say anything. Now that you're ACTUALLY here, I'm wondering who the hell my other customer is."
>"What? I didn't see anyone else who..." she said, stopping herself when he subtly motioned to the far corner of the shop
>She spun her head around and saw someone emerge from behind a magnet display
>It was an out of uniform nandroid with long black hair, equally dark clothes, and arms covered in shiny accessories
>If her eyes were green instead of blue, she'd be her spitting image
>"You got a doppelganger, Denise," Ryan snickered, the humor of the situation hitting him
>She was shocked to see another nan of similar appearance at first, but surprise soon gave way to intrigue
>"She shops here like me, she dresses like me," Denise thought, "We might have similar interests too. What if she ends up living near me? Who knows? I could have a new best friend before two o'clock!"
>The look-alike took one last look at the display and plucked two magnets off the side, then reached into her side pocket and extracted a small music player
>Her black headphones blended into her wig so well that Denise didn't even notice them until the connecting wire swung around
>She either changed the song or adjusted the volume, then put the device back in her pocket
>Once that minor job was done, she emotionlessly walked up to the counter and slapped the magnets down
>"Just these," she said without smiling, an air of shyness surrounding her
>Ryan shot a brief look over at Denise, waiting for her to say something, as both the nans were mere feet away from each other

>After the opportunity passed, however, he shrugged and started to scan her magnets
>Denise was close enough to see the look-alike's purchases: both items had pictures of edgy-looking anime characters on them
>She recognized neither; to her, every one of those shows looked exactly the same and not one was worth watching
>Though she believed the genre attracted the most bizarre people imaginable, she was willing to look past it if this nan was already so similar to her
>Refusing to admit this robot might not be best friend material, Denise casually placed her arm on the counter and geared up a simple introduction
>"What's up, man? How you doin'?" she asked with a confident grin
>The nandroid didn't react, unfortunately; her headphones protected against the unimportant sounds of the outside world
>Quickly realizing this, Denise sighed and reached out to get her attention as politely as she could
>Seeing her arm move out of the corner of her eye, the look-alike turned towards her and finally met her gaze
>"Ugh, what do you want?" she huffed, annoyed
>Denise was taken aback, but still tried to make a good first impression
>"I like how you're dressed. In fact, you remind me of myself!" she chuckled, "My friend here thought you were me when you came in!"
>"...Okay," the bot responded impatiently, though with a less rude tone
>"Look, what's your name, man?" Denise asked directly, "You live around here?"

>The look-alike blinked her black eyelids, relaxed her shoulders, and respectfully lowered her headphones to her neck, tinny music audible from Denise's distance
>"I'm Penumbra- well actually my real name's "Sydney," she interrupted herself, "but Penumbra is MUCH cooler... And no, I don't live here. I'm from Ithaca, New York."
>Denise was rewarded for her persistence as Sydney's shield of hostility vanished, though her stereotype about anime fans being strange proved true
>"Excuse me, Miss PENUMBRA," Ryan jokingly cut in, "the magnets are $4.89."
>As she rummaged through her chained wallet, she kept her focus on Denise and continued talking
>"We just stopped here for lunch at the food court, which is where my family is right now. We're on our way to the Cape for vacation. Now, who are you?"
>"My name's Denise," she said, extending a gloved hand unseen by Sydney while she extracted a 5 dollar bill, placing it on the counter, "Good to meet you, Sydney."
>When she turned back, she saw Denise's hand, briefly hesitated, but ultimately shook it
>"Denise, like I said," Sydney sternly told her, "I like Penumbra better."
>"Right... uh," Denise paused to think, reluctant to call her that stupid name, "what kind of games do you play? You have a Silver-Z or a PowerBlok?"
>"Video games?" she scoffed, "Haven't played one since my kids grew up. That kind of stuff is too immature for me anyway."
>Though a cornerstone of possible friendship was gone, Denise fought the urge to drop the pursuit altogether, still hoping to find some common ground
>"So what DO you do in your spare time?" she asked, masking her desperation
>"You want a bag, man?" Ryan casually interjected again about her purchase
>"No, that's okay," she replied to him before looking back at Denise, pleased to recite a mental list, "I like to listen to my rock CDs: Razor Candy, Black Veil Virgins, stuff like that. Aside from music and browsing TornCanvas, I also LOVE to watch anime. My favorites are Lunatic Miko, Blood x Katana, Kuro Night Hunters, and the first two seasons of Death's Embrace. How about you? What anime do you like?"
>Denise's mind was made up; her music taste was too emo, her entertainment taste was beyond confusing, and there was no doubt consuming all that "edgy crap" rubbed off on her
>Despite their differences, the former failed to grasp that Sydney was no different from her; they ran on parallel roads of the same "underground" culture and consumed it in identical amounts
>Realizing how incompatible the two were spawned a cynical thought in Denise's mind, and before her manners could filter it, the sentence had already left her lips
>"None of 'em, because anime is totally gay, dude," she answered, stone-faced

>Ryan loudly cracked up at her statement, her serious tone catching him completely off-guard
>Unfortunately, Sydney did not find it as amusing; her cheeks flared up bright red and her eyes grew fiery
>"YOU'RE the one who's fucking GAY!" she snarled, slamming her fist on the counter in unison with the final word, "You take that back, bitch!"
>"Woah!" Denise recoiled, holding her hands up, "I'm sorry! God, calm down, Sydney!"
>For that, she nearly received a slap, dodging it at the last possible second and backing into a standing hat display, almost knocking it over
>"Hey!" Ryan blurted out, prepared to drag Sydney out of the store personally
>However, there was no opportunity to counterattack, as she had already stormed out of the shop, taking her magnets yet leaving her 11 cents behind
>A small crowd of shoppers curiously peered in through the entrance, but none were brave enough to chase down the departing offender
>"Jesus," an approaching teenage customer said, "What was that all about?"
>The pair stood in silence, wide-eyed and still processing what happened within the last ten seconds
>After the adrenaline soon wore off, he exhaled and she returned the few fallen hats to their display
>"You okay?" he asked, "Should I get security?"
>"I'm fine, but she's not worth the hassle," she requested, "she's an out-of-towner anyway. With any luck, we'll never see her again."