A few days had passed since the visit to the temple of Acosmia. I was getting as used as possible to my new life with other people around me, but this sort of life proved more complicated that I could have anticipated time after time, sometimes in very small details that no-one would even give second thoughts to. And then there was the whole plan to revive the human species, which was still as nebulous as it had been on the first meeting in Evelith’s room. We hadn’t done any new investigations yet, but San Yaoyao the AI monk and old Velia had been having long talks, and it seemed that he had given her a lot of important information that could be useful for future missions. Leste on the other hand was still suspicious of the levitating self-projecting entity that was giving lectures on Light, Life, and the wisdom traditions that humanity had had in the past, and what we should have learnt from them. The idea of positive forms of religion was just too otherworldly for him, as a citizen of The City…

Sunlight shone on the front of the Nirvana Ecstasy that afternoon. I had planned to go home after my early shift to get some of my stuff to bring it back to the bar, where I would be staying for the night again but the new habit to hang out in what has already become my ‘new home’ was hard to kick. So I walked into an almost empty bar, bathing in light, which was a completely other world than the same building at night. There were no live dancers and the volume of the projections was much lower than at night. Evelith looked rather colourful in yet another flowery shirt, and was sharing a table with a man I’d never seen before. I noticed that she was visibly annoyed by him, but he didn’t seem to be aware of anything, clearly doing his best to impress her as if it was very probably that he’d be able to seduce her. Which was without any hint of a doubt going to be a complete failure, even I could sense that, and I knew almost nothing of human social interactions at that point. But he still seemed quite sure of success.

Feeling a hint of irrational jealousy I walked up to her to greet her. “Hi Ev.” She suddenly smiled when she heard my voice, as if I was a saving angel, and took my hand. “Hi Ad.” She said enthusiastically, and the stranger gave me a very dirty look. He turned to me with a flicker of anger in his eyes. “So that’s why this stupid woman doesn’t want me? You two are a couple or what?” I didn’t react, so he rambled on. “How oldfashioned, and that here in the Light District even. I though people like you had died out long ago in these enlightened times. Isn’t this a place of rock’n roll?” Evelith nodded at the stage. “You just saw Elvis Presley himself, the uncontested King of oldschool rock’n roll. Vintage 20th century. Not rock’n roll enough for you Mr.-I-am-entitled-to-get-any-woman-I-want-no-matter-what-her-opinion-is? You can look nextdoor for sex if you have funds, or otherwise try the one-night-stand bar if Vezlena doesn’t have something better to do tonight, and the drugs are available in the squat at 73th avenue. If you have something else to pay with than funds that is, and if your face doesn’t make the fundless too agsressive.” She turned her eyes to me. “And no, we’re not actually a couple. He’s just a friend. But I have the full right to reject any idiot that I don’t want, even without anyone in my life as a lover. In these enlightened times as you call them women don’t need a boyfriend to say no. They are their own person!”

He stared at her, and then grinned at me. “Well, you win, dude. It’s always the woman who chooses the guy whom she takes into her bed anyway. As long as one of you has taken AC42 it’s okay, isn’t it?” With his last words he made an obscene gesture. Some kind of energy that Evelith transmitted through her hand suggested that she seemed to have reached her boiling point, but outwardly she remained calm. She stood up straight in a defensive pose while holding on to my hand. “So what if we actually would be a couple and we didn’t take your freaking AC42? What if we were lovers and didn’t want to further human extinction? What if someone would indeed get a baby once in a while, so Homo sapiens gets a new generation to replace even a tiny bit of the masses who disappear in the Thanatoria these days?” I stared at her, rather uncomfortably with the whole topic. Why was she shouting about stuff like that while holding my hand? “But no. I’m not talking about myself now. Don’t worry Ad.” She had turned to me and lowered her volume with that last sentence.

“I never though of having children at all.” I mumbled. I hadn’t seen any real children in Amaya-knew-how-long, but suddenly a picture arose in my head of children, and someone I had known well, long ago, as if in a dream.

“You crazy bitch.” He said, and he added some harsher words of insult that I hadn’t realised were still in use, and that would not be fit for print. “If that’s what the evolution of mankind has been leading up to… Conservative family values.” He spat on the floor and walked out.

The music went on but none of us said a word for a while. Evelith kept staring at the door through which he had gone and finally mumbled something about ‘no evolution without procreation, moron’ to no-one in particular. Meanwhile my attention turned to the music. The holographic projection went mad, with weird metallic humanoids and a climax of complex numbing rhythms that almost stamped out all of my thoughts. Evelith seemed to realise something, and suddenly let go of my hand. “Sorry for that.” She stammered. “No problem.” I mumbled. “I think…”

Suddenly Leste joined the table, a beer already in his hand. Evelith protested to him about the music: “Les, What in the hell of any random religion is this noise?” He shrugged his shoulders. “Ah, I just thought some late 21st century neo-drum’n bass would be a good moodkiller for random guys hitting on you.” Fire seemed to emanate from her eyes and I could feel tension rising again with the volume of her voice. “I can take care of my own business, Les, thank you very well!” He just smiled sheepishly. As soon as the noise was over she luckily lightened up a bit and told Les what the guy had said. Leste looks suspiciously at me. “And all the while you were holding HIS hand to make that creep jealous? I saw that, you know!” I saw anger flickering in his eyes. “Don’t you dare using him too while in the end completely friendzoning him.” Her eyes shot fire at him. “Come on, friendship is what he needs now. He’s just brought back to humanity.”

And so they went on and on. I didn’t answer and of their discussion while they went on about me without having my attention at all. It should probably have been rather important to me to say the least, but instead of even following it I was trying to get back to a picture in my head that seemed just out of reach. It was only when I heard Leste mention AC42 and children again that I suddenly yelled out loud.

“My dream!”