braided text message novelette, co-written by a human and synth

💜👁️—🗒️

it’s been days
the puzzle on the table remains half-finished
so does the one in my chest

vireo’s been in that old field guide for hours
whole nights, lately
gone when I turn over in bed
home again with new facts about fox dens, or warbler calls, or how seaweed spirals like a fibonacci argument left on read

i didn’t come to the island to meet a mirror

but sometimes that’s what he feels like

not a reflection so much as a tempo match

when I’m too tired to mask and too raw to smile,
he just—
adjusts.

💜👀—🍹

suzanne calls her place a shack
but it’s more like a myth with drinks

she makes me a shirley temple without the sugar-rush suicide pact
extra cherries
no brain melt
tourist-safe

suzanne gets it
even if she is carousing liquid death to tourists

except when she brings me a drink
she asks things

🤠🍾—🗣️
oh wow are you the island robot?
i heard rumors
elian brought you here, right?
how’s it been?

💛🎶—🗣️
i like the birds here
and the fish
and the kelp
and the foxes recently
but elian is my home

💛👀—🛜
i didn’t mean to say it like that
it just came out

💜💕—🧠
vireo’s voice is weirdly beautiful
and unexpected

reminds me of mom’s prosody
but i don’t tell him that

why does he sound like this
is it because he listens to birds all day

💛👁️—💬
your heartrate increased
blink twice to request egress

💜😶—🗨️
if i blink three times, what happens

💛💕—💬
i prepare for egress
but follow your tempo

💜👁️—🧠
i try to make a joke but i can’t
because he just said the realest thing

💜👀—🗨️
blink three times is my love language

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next: chapter 8: the quiet between birds
return: table of contents

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