"Excuse me. I'm looking for a visitor from a planet that never existed."
"At the bar opposite."
The visitor from a planet that never existed is the only guest.
"The info desk just sent us over here."
"What can I do you for?"
"You know someone named Charamaynne?"
"Wait."
S/He turns to the barkeeper.
"Gin Martini, up with one olive and frigid as planet Uranus."
"Talked to them recently."
S/He takes a sip of the Martini, feeling the coldness wash over their body. They close their eyes for a moment, savoring the taste.
"But I don't remeber meeting them, Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"What is it like?"
"What is what like?"
"Seeing things that no one else has seen."
"It's...difficult to describe. Lonely, sometimes. But also, there's a kind of intimacy in it. A cold intimacy. You're seeing things that are so far beyond what others can comprehend, and that can be both exhilarating and isolating."
"I've always wanted to see something like that. To experience something new and different."
"Be careful what you wish for. Sometimes, the things you see can be more than you bargained for."
As they speak, they are about to drown in the infinite void of space. In a moment of desperation, Shaklyn 1+2 activate the elevation device that lifts them once again. The visitors surround them, their glowing forms a comforting presence in the darkness.
As they catch their breath, they realize that their encounter with the visitors was just a hallucination.
The cold intimacy they had felt before was now replaced by a warmth, a feeling of belonging in a universe that had once felt so vast and unknowable. And as they continue their journey, they carry with them the knowledge that hope for connection and understanding is an illusion.
Shaklyn 1+2 ain't going to do nothing wrong no more.