Chương 124: Definitely Not A Jitterbug

June quietly received the tabloid device while wrapped in his blanket, then waved the delivery person away with a silent thanks. He waddled back to the bed and looked at the device in confusion. After a few moments of blank staring, he freed his other hand from his blankets and rubbed his brow with it. The tabloid device was rectangular with smooth edges. The issue was that it had no screen, or anything, in fact.

It was just a rectangular rim of matte silver; there were no buttons on the sides, and the rim encased nothing. June placed his hand where he thought the screen should be, assuming it might manifest if he placed his hand in it, but nothing happened. He raised the device above his head and put his head through the opening.

'Did they give me a bumper case and not the thing?' He wasn't sure what the recording device could be; he had only seen water screens in Lengue. June tried waving the device around, up and down, left and right, horizontally, and randomly, hoping to wake it up as a phone would, but nothing.

'…'

"Wake up?" The device vibrated for a few seconds, but nothing occurred.

"Wake up?" The device remained still.

'Maybe I should ask someone...' June sat and considered it for a few short moments before deciding against social interaction. He continued to wave the screen around for a good half hour before tossing it back onto the bed and plopping back and hitting his head on the bed's backboard. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"FFfffffffffffff..."

June peeked his head out the window of his room; his room this time didn't have an artificial window playing projections, but a real one. He peeked his head further out and looked directly up at the room above where Mortimer said he was staying. The night was chilly, but June rathered taking the shortcut to Mortimer's room instead of wandering throughout the halls; he didn't know where he was; he just knew that the room provided was his.

June didn't want to risk overstepping or wandering into places where he shouldn't be, so scaling out of his window and up the side of the building seemed more logical to him.

'… Wait, why am I doing this? This is dangerous.' He looked down at the drop; it wouldn't kill him, or even injure him, but even then it was a short distance to the ground. It would kill a mundane person if they fell down, and June was a mundane not too long ago.

'Is this logic dissonance from the simulation?'

'…' June let out a sigh, closed the window, and plopped himself back onto the bed; he had gotten used to having the Voice respond to his rhetorical or stupid thoughts. Without his imaginary friend, he felt like his mind had become an uncomfortably echoey room. He sat and pondered silently for a few moments when his eyes suddenly lit up.

'I have an idea!'

He had to ask around to find the correct room, but finally June stood outside Lilia's bedroom; it was already night, so she may have been asleep already. The two didn't speak much after he woke up, since he was torn away immediately for psych and physical evaluations, then thrown into a room where he fell asleep on a bed for the first time in what felt like ages.

June lifted his hand up and hovered his knuckle near the door, considering if he should risk waking her up or not, and eventually he delivered a single tepid knock before turning around and walking away. He was pleasantly surprised and elated to sense his favorite Dreamer aura along with the sound of her bedchamber's door opening.

June feared that his feelings for Lilia would wane with time apart; he feared that his reality and his imagination were separated by a firm line of unrealistic expectations, but to his relief, he didn't feel any less affection for her than he did before, maybe even more.

A chill flowed from her room, giving June goosebumps all over; where others would find it uncomfortable, this type of climate made June feel comforted; it was the perfect temperature to fall asleep under the covers, the kind of cold greeting that would bring you fine tidings of a snow day, the sensation that allowed someone to sit near a source of warmth and take a sip of hot chocolate. June visibly deflated with an exhale and swayed after forgetting to stop. This was the sensation of home he missed.