An Overworked Mind, a Yearning Soul
Cmon, cmon, cmon! This damn program should’ve worked! Why can’t I seem to contact her?
The option doesn’t open no matter how hard I press down on those keys, the thin plastic bending as I try. Why isn’t it working?
[ERROR: We’re sorry, we don’t recognize the account under the name: MissOpal]
Stupid Accord technology, always seeming to fuck up the moment I need it to. Is it that they found her account? Oh stars, what if they know I somehow contacted an Affini! Treason like that could…
No, no don’t think about that stuff. She said not to! Think happy thoughts, think thoughts free from this place. Breathe in, and breathe out. Good Jona- Racheal. My new name is Racheal. She even helped me pick it!
Please let me contact her, please…
[ERROR: We’re sorry, we don’t recognize the account under the name: MissOpal]
For fucks sake!!
[ERROR: We’re sorry, we don’t]
[ERROR: System Failure, we’re sorry for the inconvenience]
[ERROR: ERROR: ERROR: ERROR:]
—>cztch<—
Hm?
—>-lo?<—
“What, hello?”
“Hello? Racheal petal, is that you?”
What’s this voice that’s blasting out of the tinny speakers in my datapad? It sounds so… angelic…
Wait, they know my…
“Miss Opal?”
“Racheal!! Oh, petal, I’ve been so worried about you! I know normally I’d message you, but your government is getting rather strict on policing these chat boards!”
It’s her. It’s the voice I dreamt about, speaking to me through the blank screen.
“It’s- it’s okay! I’m just… I’m so happy to finally hear your voice.”
“As am I! I wanted to do so in person, whenever we meet, but I sometimes can’t help myself!”
We laugh together. “I understand. I’m so sorry that I wasn’t able to talk earlier, my boss made me pull another double.”
“Another? Oh everbloom - oh flower, I’m so sorry! It’s terrible that you have to undergo that, and I wish so fully that I can finally save you from this existence you describe as life.”
Her voice is so soft, so majestic that I feel I can nearly cry just from hearing it. She understands me.
“Hey, petal? I have two strange questions for you.”
“Stranger than you somehow talking to me through this thing?”
“You could say that. As much as we talk about finding one another, about finally spending time with you, I never actually figured this one thing out: What’s the first thing you’d like to do when you and I meet?”
I’ve dreamed of that so much that I can’t tell if she’s really asking. If I were to pick, though…
“I would like to hug you, I think. Thank you in person for everything you’ve done for me.”
She laughs - a heavenly thing through the awful speakers. “Of course, you sweet thing! It’s been a joy to spend time with you, and I will always be here for you. From this moment onwards.”
From this moment?
“What do you mean?”
“That leads us to my second question, well it’s really more-so a request. It’s just about time, too.”
“What are you talking about? Is something happening?”
Ow- ow, something is starting to wail into the air from outside, a low groan that turns to that awfully familiar scream of a siren. That only means one thing.
“Go outside, darling~”
By the time she says it, my hands fumble free the lock on the door outside, my legs stumbling as I falter down through hallways to the balcony facing outside-
…
In the distance of the sky, so immense in scale to block the few remaining stars in the night, a faintly glowing object sits gently in the atmosphere. The front of it looks like an immense bulb, with the petals behind it acting almost like shielding from the pink glow of the engine behind it.
An Affini vessel. One that rests just above me, just above the city I call home.
She sighs, as if watching the sight from beside me.
“I’m here for you now, petal.”
