Ioche

/eye-oh-key/

n. The anxiety of being an individual; the realization that you've never felt comfortable being you—leaving you to question if you'll ever look in the mirror and feel comfortable with the person staring back at you—questioning every decision, or feeling that you've had about yourself.

Derived from Italian io che, meaning I who.

John Koenig, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

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This novelette is one of two entries for Literary Lounge's Gen 3 2022 contest. In three months, the goal was to write a 7.5-20k novelette using the keywords: Edge, Envy, and Escapade. Ioche is complete with ten parts at 18.4k words.