“I may be stepping down from my position but be assured that I won’t stop fighting against the unseen killers that stalk us. Our biggest enemies have always been – and now more than ever – ourselves.”

-Fatima Belkadi, 2165, Paragon of Mental Health Re-Election Speech

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It didn’t surprise me when Mérida told us to meet in the botanical gardens. I don’t know what the girls did in these four days, but they surely knew the station better than me. And for being the one invited, I was the first to arrive. I had a perfect vista of Proxima b, Proxima Centauri, the vastness of space, and some foliage. Vistas like these were either expensive or fake through virtual reality, yet both were equally pleasing to me. The contrast of nature and space was always an inspiring one.

I debated if the blue shining star I saw on the horizon was Betelgeuse, or if I was being the star equivalent of a racist. Both were possible.

During my placid stargazing, I happened to land my eyes on a wild Makoto. She looked distressed as she found none of her friends in the designated location. Ah, she’s so cute when she’s suffering. I was a bad friend and a bad person, I didn’t hide it. Those two kept gluing to me despite it, or perhaps, because of it.

Deep down I knew it was just because of my inability to manage money.

She turned her head side to side with violent shakes, examining the place like a gazelle searching for predators. The disadvantages of having forward-facing eyes, huh?

Finally, after she probably gave herself a headache, Makoto gathered enough courage to step forward and ask the man at the table.

“Excuse me, sir, did you happen to see a cute, tall auburn-haired student and a muscular man with a yukata?” Makoto slumped and took a step backward as the man looked at her. “A yukata is like an Asian tunic/bathrobe…”

Oh, dear Makoto. Clueless as always. That was not the issue at hand. I was, of course, the man Makoto was talking to. Body mass shapeshifting was still impossible to me, but there were many factors to keep yourself unrecognizable. A pair of sunglasses, dying your hair, and tanning your whole body from head to toe from one day to another. This was the work of shapeshifting and not cosmetics – except the sunglasses, I didn’t have time to change my irises – but the job was performed well enough that even she whom I had known for two decades, couldn’t recognize me.

Now, I had many options on how to respond. Sending her away wasn’t an option because the moment Mérida arrived and instantly recognized me because she had the sixth sense the both of us lacked – namely common sense – she would dropkick me for making Makoto distressed.

But alas, I had a manner to keep her domestic violence leashed.

Making her join the game.

“Hmm~” I mumbled, making Makoto yelp in discomfort. “I can’t say I’ve seen people matching those descriptions, but I’m certainly seeing another cute student right now.”

A normal person wouldn’t have reacted instantly, Makoto, on the other hand, needed a few seconds and then to also look at her back to notice I was talking about her.

“Huh? Me?” She blushed in doubt.

And then they said men were the densest beings in the universe. It was more of a… median. There were people and people after all.

“Of course.” I smiled at her, just adding a bit of creepiness to make her surprise more accentuated. “I don’t know about these people you are talking about, but how about you sit down here, and we have a long and drawn-out talk.”

“I… uhm… I…” Makoto.exe stopped working.

“Come on, don’t be shy.” The moment I extended my hand to grab her arm, a karate chop landed on my head.

“Jesus-fucking-Christ!” A woman cried in pain behind me. “What is your cranium made of? Lead?”

“I’d say calcium. Still a metal though.” I shrugged.

“Stop messing around, Lorem. I’m the only one allowed to molest Makoto.” The cute, tall auburn-haired student crossed her arms and pouted.

Well, there goes my plan of making Mérida join the play.

“Huh? Lorem?” Makoto responded with a bit of lag. “Are you Lorem?”

“Yes, Makoto. Lorem Ipsum the one and only, because I’m the only moron in the whole humanity to name themselves that way.”

“Why are you…” black? Makoto really held the last part as if this was a 2000s sitcom that needed to be censored.

“Shapeshifting, of course,” I responded as a matter of fact. Because it was, indeed, a matter of fact. “I mean, what did you think, that I blasted myself with UV rays for the joke?”

“You are capable.” Makoto deadpanned.

“Yeah, you kinda are.” Mérida sighed after her and sat down. Not without putting one leg over the other in a needlessly erotic motion.

“You two have too awful images of me.” It was my time to pout, but I wasn’t a ‘cute student’ but a burly two-meter black man, so I knew it came off as everything but cute.

“Oh, that’s a good expression, it makes me want to paint it.” Makoto sat down beside Mérida.

“Do so.” I put my hands behind my head and posed. Truly a bizarre façade.

“Did you fellas forget why we are even here?” Mérida snapped at our tomfoolery.

“Did you fellas forget who was the last one to arrive here?” I put my own poisoned weapon on the table. “Two can play that game.”

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“Did you fellas forget we are supposed to be adults?” Makoto put her hands on top of the table. “Three can play that game.”

We looked at each other in the eyes like gunslingers in Wild West movies and then Mérida drew her gun. Not by talking, but by other tactics. My interface lit up. Is this a fucking invitation to play Catan?

“Four can play that game.” The woman added with a smug.

Makoto and I rolled our eyes, but I got too excited myself and rolled them a bit too much into my skull. Note, evolved bodies are wacky. It took me a few blinks to heal back my eyes to normal. The girls just saw me spasm, which wasn’t that rare of a sight.

“Anyhow,” Mérida cleared her throat, “after much ponderation I have made my choice.”

“Congratulations!” Makoto clapped happily at her whilst I took the more sarcastic approach.

I hate you. Mérida gestured with her lips as Makoto hugged her. Same. I replied with all the love in the world.

“Are you all not going to ask about my choice?” Mérida asked once she unlatched Makoto from her.

“We will see once you come out of the ascension,” Makoto replied.

“Not that you are going to tell us,” I added.

There was something beautiful in how the two women gave me a nudge simultaneously. Makoto’s was more of a Lorem! Whilst Mérida’s was more of a Say that to my face, fucker. I was but a master of non-verbal communication.

“You say that I am autistic, but could an autistic person read the sheer disgust in your expression?” I crossed my arms and put a smug as I talked to Mérida.

“Yes? Quite easily, in fact, man.”

“Damn.” There went my joke. “However that may be, congratulations for finally taking a single decision in your life.”

“I’m going to murder you in your sleep~” Mérida replied with a lovely smile.

“My quarter rooms are open to ladies.” I laid my back on the chair.

“Better hope our tycoons are not in the same system, otherwise I’m going to nuke the shit out of yours.”

With that declaration, I realized I had forgotten to notify the girls of my tycoon’s magnitude. And better to keep it that way. Better to tell them once they are more grounded and less neurotic. Perhaps once we were back at home they wouldn't throw me at the vacuum of space because of my well-deserved merits.

“Was that all?” I asked.

Mérida, being good with social clues as always, recognized I wasn’t talking about her threats but the reason for the meeting.

“Yes, duh.” The girl let her mask drop and she gave me an expression of exhaustion. “I am not going to see you in a few days, so I wanted a solid imprint on your faces. Unfortunately, you decided to cosplay as a clown.”

I frowned. “Vaguely racist vibes, Mérida.”

“Oh, you thought I was talking about your looks. I was talking about your play; with those jokes and mannerisms I thought you were just out of clown school.”

“Nye.” I snickered at her.

“Nye nye nye.” She hissed at me.

“Nye nye nye nye!” And I replied in kind.

“Definitely, you two have forgotten that you are supposed to be adults.” Makoto facepalmed at our side.

We ended up talking for a bit longer, but Mérida hadn’t notified us much in advance about her coming evolution, meaning we had only a few minutes to talk. Barely enough to take a short walk across the gardens. Mérida bid us goodbye, promising to come back to us as a hot babe as if she already wasn’t one.

“What now?” Makoto rocked her legs back and forth on a bench.

“Don’t ask me, I am supposed to be the one who doesn’t touch the grass.” The raven-haired woman looked at me with a hint of pity. “What about your evolution? When is your date?”

“In a few days, I am one of the latest on the list.” She added sorrowfully.

“Your worth isn’t valued by your merits,” I told her.

“Easy for you to say it, ‘1% Boy’.” Makoto grinned at me. No matter how strained it may be, a grin was a grin. If she hadn’t added that last part as an ad hominem attack, I would have known something was very wrong.

“I am being serious, don’t mortify yourself over it. The words I spoke on the graduation speech were directed to everyone.” Especially you. I left that last part unspoken. “What are 25 years against eternity?”

“These 25 years are everything we have, Lorem.”

“Yet,” I added.

She blew from her nose. “True. Yet.”

There was a great difference between distress and… this. I didn’t like to see Makoto like this.

“Have you chosen?” I didn’t dare to look at her, instead choosing to intake the unlimited cosmos on top of us.

“I… don’t know.” She responded. “Why did you choose biological, Lorem?”

“Because I am a coward.” I didn’t fight it. “Once a human becomes synthetic, even if a lot of the brain tissue remains untouched, they can no longer recognize a human body. What if I regretted my choice and wanted to go back? I heard it feels like a prison of flesh from some synthetic testimonies. And that disconnect is even more brutal with virtualization from what I’ve heard. Even robotic bodies feel wrong, only incorporeal manifestations or avatar representations like those of Parallel work for them as ‘real bodies’.”

I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was like to feel trapped in your own body. Your very existence but a cage to yourself.

“I don’t believe you are a coward.” I heard the rustle of her hair and knew she too was looking upward.

“That’s not for you to designate.” I snickered. “There’s another thing that would need your designation, though. A more pressing and important decision.”

“I know…” Makoto sighed. I couldn’t read the emotion of that gesture, but I knew it wasn’t out of exhaustion. “I wish I was as brave as the cowards then.”

I broke our unspoken agreement and looked at her. Straight in the eyes.

“You are brave, Makoto.” She tried avoiding my gaze and I grabbed her by the chin with my fingertips to keep her looking. “You are the bravest of us all.”

She slapped my hand away and looked downward. I couldn’t interpret that gesture so I remained there, static, until she decided to let her voice be her.

It was a giggle.

“Oh, I can’t take you seriously with that face.” Makoto grabbed her stomach from the laughter and tumbled around the bench. “You look like a fried shrimp!”

There were hints of tears in the corner of her eyes, and I was unable to decipher why they were there. I hated myself for that. Was it laughter? Or something else? Something darker? I kept my sulk to myself, if she decided to keep appearances, I would do so too.

I smiled at her. “Oh, come on, a fried shrimp? You can do better than that! Mérida would be disappointed in your lack of imagination.” And I let her play in this board game that was life.