It was an average day in Nora and Bianca’s house. Bianca was getting ready for uni when she spied the magic markers on her bedside table.

You know, thought Bianca, I never tried duplicating my head.

Bianca picked up a blue marker and carefully drew a line all the way around her neck. It wasn’t exactly a neat line, but she managed to close a gap, evidenced by the line disappearing as soon as the two touched.

Now the fun part, thought Bianca, grabbing the sides of her head and pulling upwards.

It was a bizarre sensation, as if having just drunk a case of champagne. Bianca’s vision doubled, but it wasn’t just that - she could hear twice as much detail and smell just as much. She could feel the sensation of two hands cradling her head, but simultaneously feel nothing at all.

Bianca had a second head in her hands. But despite the head being physically separate from Bianca, it wasn’t mentally separate.

“Whoa,” said Bianca out of one mouth.

“This is so trippy,” said Bianca out of another mouth.

Bianca placed the extra head on her dresser, but due to the lopsided way she had drawn the line, her head couldn’t rest comfortably on its stump, and fell down. Bianca decided to take the black marker and cut off a bit of the stump, until she could rest it flat. Then, Bianca took the red marker and drew an X on the bit of stump that she had removed.

As Bianca got dressed, she sang a bit of “Mrs. Robinson”. To her surprise, she could harmonise with herself, having effectively two mouths.

Bianca switched on her phone, and on her music app, pulled up Run-DMC’s Raising Hell. She selected the group’s version of “Walk This Way”, anticipating the fun she could have with a rap partner who was perfectly in sync with her. Bianca had memorised the lyrics, and decided she would rap Run’s parts while her disembodied spare head would play the part of DMC.

“Yo, there’s a backseat-”
“Lover!”
“That’s always undercover, and I talk til my daddy say! Said you ain’t seen-”
“Nothing!”

“‘Til you’re down on a-”
“Muffin!”

“And there’s sure to be a change in ways!”

Bianca and her spare head continued the verse without missing a beat. When it came time for the second verse, Bianca’s spare head took over the lion’s share of the rapping, with Bianca herself joining in at the appropriate moments.

Nora walked in and rolled her eyes. She was used to the strange things that could happen with the magic markers, and she wasn’t surprised that Bianca had made herself a spare head. It was the rapping that made Nora cringe.

“Hey, could you take a break between verses and tell me if you’ve seen my spare arms?”

Bianca stopped rapping.

“I think you left them under the bed,”

Nora looked under the bed, and pulled out the two spare arms that she had stuffed under the bed.

“Thanks. I think I’ll slap one of the tattoos on as well,”
“Make sure it’s the right colour this time,” said Bianca. “Remember what happened when you put on the wrong-coloured tattoo?”

Nora rolled her eyes. Bianca was never going to let Nora live down having put on the wrong tattoo that altered reality so that it was having extra arms that was the norm.

As Nora walked out of the bedroom to get changed, Bianca quickly grew bored of having two heads that were perfectly synced up. So, she took out the green marker, and drew an X on her disembodied second head’s cheek.

All of a sudden, the second head blinked, her eyes going through REM. The second head looked around.

“Whew! I’m free! Thanks B!”

“Don’t mention it,” said Bianca. “Actually, can I call you B2?”

“I think you can, B1!” said the disembodied head. “Hey, you gonna attach me to your body?”

Suddenly, Nora came in, having attached the extra arms she had created earlier.

“Bianca, are you talking to yourself?”

“As a matter of fact, I am. Meet B2.”

Bianca held up the second head to Nora.
“Hi!” said B2.

Nora did a double take.

“Okay, that’s just…why am I even surprised anymore?”

“B1 was just discussing the idea of attaching me to her body. We can be like, conjoined twins!”

“Who’s B1?” asked Nora.

“Me,” said Bianca, placing B2 back on the dresser. “I’m B1. She was thinking what I was thinking when cloned her from my own head, but now I’ve given her independence, just like my hand.”

As if on cue, Bibi, the detached hand, crawled in and tapped Nora’s foot.

“Oh, hi Bibi,” said Nora. “Look, you’ve got yourself a little playmate.”

Nora picked up Bibi and placed her on the dresser. Bibi crawled over to B2 and stroked B2’s hair.

“Oh look, the two pieces of you like each other,” said Nora. “Funny - I half-expected them to not get along, since they’re technically clones of you.”

The two girls stared at the two pieces of Bianca. B2 would talk to Bibi, and Bibi would respond by tapping out a message in morse code. It was adorable.

“Hey, listen,” said Bianca. “I gotta hit the road. Would you mind looking after B2?”

Nora shrugged all four of her shoulders. “I guess so.”

Bianca then walked out. Nora turned to B2.

“Hey, would you mind putting me on your shoulders?” said B2. “I kind of miss having a body.”

A few minutes later, Nora had used the black marker to detach her own head. After some careful alignment, Nora had returned her head to her shoulders, with B2 sitting next to it.

However, Nora suddenly felt the left side of her body go numb.

“Dammit! There’s always a catch!” said Nora.

“Ha ha,” said B2. “Now I’m in control of your left side,”

Nora’s left arm then started snapping her fingers, much to Nora’s annoyance. Nora couldn’t will the left side of her body to obey her brain now that B2 was in control.

“Okay, if we’re going to share a body, we need to cooperate,” said Nora.

“Of course I’ll cooperate, babe,” said B2. “I’m a clone of your girlfriend’s head, and I share her love for you,”

It took a while for Nora and B2 to get used to sharing Nora’s body. Eventually, they both got used to walking, and coordinating body movements.

“Well, I think it’s time,” said Nora, heading over to her bedroom. Nora saw a new packet of reality-altering tattoos on the dresser, and picked them up.

Nora then peeled off one of the reality-altering tattoos and slapped it on her hand. Reality shifted there and then.

“You’re shifting reality so that we’ve always been conjoined twins? That’s cool!” said B2.

“Wait, you can see the changes too?” said Nora.

“Of course. I’m technically part of you now.” said B2.

Nora carefully picked up her phone and skimmed through the photos. In each one, Nora had two heads - her own head and B2.

“I look so cute on your body, Nora,” said B2.

Nora sighed.

“God, you’re chatty. But then again, so is B1.”

B2 chuckled.

“So, where do you wanna go?”