I snort out an amused breath as I step up to the platform. Next train in seven minutes. 

Jubes: Made the station. 47 minutes.

The train pulls up, and its sleek green carriage doors yawn open like a pair of robot jaws ready to consume me. I think of Silvie, the scene where she ate and ate of my chocolate body in rip after rip of her teeth, and I let the train vore me. 

I grab one of the poles in the aisle to steady myself, and look out the windows through the country and think about Helen. She’d said that all machines have spirits, and all plants have spirits, and that someday I might be reincarnated into a tool just doing its job, like Euphie… 

I force the thought away. I’m supposed to be in recovery for that, and in any case Silvia wouldn’t thank me for bringing her up. The train rumbles down the tracks and bucks under my feet, and for a moment it feels distressingly alive, as if answering my silent question. But the little gribbly demon in my head can just shut up, because trains don’t have souls. (Mostly.)

The skyline of Violettin rushes me and tries to get my attention, but I’ve seen its tricks before. The holo-ads and grey concrete blur together into a solid mass of Stuff I Don’t Care About. My phone’s far more interesting: I’ve got a streak of twenty hard Unrulies without a hangup going and I want to make that twenty-one.

The train ultimately disgorges me, undissolved, onto a bridge across from the airport. I hoof it to Silvia’s gate, then check my messages.

Silvia: Just touched down, taxiing to the gate. So excited, can’t wait to hold you in my arms where you belong. Should be five minutes or less.

My face lights up in a huge grin — I must have missed the message on my way across the bridge, it’s nine minutes old — and I hammer back a reply. 

Jubes: Fuck yes. You through security yet?

Silvia: Bags in hand, in line to disembark, near the jetway. You at the gate yet, cutie? <3

Vixy: Yeah we are ♡

Jubes: Hey, you’re ruining my cool aura here.

Vixy: It’s Silvia, Jubes. She already knows we’re dorkier than a bowtied penguin.

Silvia: And I love you for it.

Jade: As if we’re any less dorky.

I consider our relative dorkitudes for a moment. Between the shameless petgirl and the girlfriend who’s out to deliver the good news (the news is chomp)...

Vixy: You’re right, it’s pretty much a dead heat. 

Jubes: Excuse you, I am Mrs. Perfect and would never be seen to make a sentence that doesn’t effectively communicate the grave importance of my every word and action. 

Vixy: Dork.

Jade: Massive dork.

Silvia: Cute dork.

Jade: Our dork.

Jubes: Your dork.

Jubes: Any progress on disembarking?

Silvia: Off the plane, in the jetway, should see us in the teeming throng in under a minute.

Jubes: Oh hell yes. 

Jubes: See you in person!!!

Phone goes in pocket, and my gaze scans the crowd. I know the Corsairs’ body from photos, but it’s one thing to see it still and another to see it animated and bursting with life and In My Proximity. Hot trans girls in Close Proximity, Act Now, Don’t Miss This Limited Opportunity — 

I catch a shock of curly black hair in the crowd and my heart jumps. Is that her, is that my Silvia —