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“Oh hello, handsome. I’ll have to start paying you at this rate.”
This planet had a breathtaking amount of opportunity for anyone to achieve their dreams and those who reached for the stars were the people Quint relished offering his support to. There was so much technology here, and so many people around with different skills that could help anyone bring any idea they had into fruition.
As he waited for his coffee, Quint’s gaze wandered around the café, over the mismatched furniture which added to the magnetic charm of the place, then he rested on the people absently scrolling through their mobile phones. What they were finding so enthralling on these wonderful personal devices he always loved to consider.
It made Quint think about the lack of technology on Vondiv’d, a place where the people concentrated more on making their lives comfortable, building places to live and genial communities together. There were devices around to help enhance their lifestyles like modes of transport and machinery to help with things like food production, bringing with it all the complicated politics over trade and commerce, but none of the intricate technologies that were available here. There were no phones to communicate with people over long distances, which is why the Vondiv’dian communities were small and tight-knit. Not like the thriving metropolises he bore witness to in this lifetime.
He shrugged his thoughts off, shimmied along to the pick-up point and waited patiently for his beverage. Mia and Hen skilfully weaved around one another, purposefully preparing drinks for the ever-increasing queue of customers.
“Clint,” shouted Hen, absently cleaning her milk-frother.
Quint smiled at her efforts to get his name right for what would have been the first time. He liked her. As assistant manager, she put everything into the job to help Mia make it the warm and welcoming place it was, lovingly making each drink and always adding a unique piece of latte art to every coffee she made.
She was another person with passion. Someone that treated others with love and respect, but one who wanted nothing in return. These people seemed to be a lot fewer and far between than on Vondiv’d, but when Quint found them, it gave him that glimmer of hope of discovering more people like the girls of The Brew Box.
Clutching his cup, he homed in on his usual corner with his favourite teal armchair. The feel and smell of the freshly reupholstered suede gave him a sense of comfort and familiarity. It was here in this unassuming haven that he chose to seek shelter from the outside world every morning.
He caught his reflection in the window, marvelling at the way he looked now compared to his old self back on Vondiv’d, his thick hair back to its natural dark brown colour, his face devoid of all wrinkles, eyesight at twenty-twenty-vision.
Outside, raindrops traced delicate paths on the window, racing each other to the windowsill. Taking out his phone, he took a sip of his coffee as his phone jumped onto the wi-fi and navigated to his hidden folder. He watchedThe Loungeautomatically update itself.
He exhaled a sigh, refreshing the ‘new members’ tab in the vain hope that today was going to be the day when Leo would finally appear, whoever he may be in this life. It was a hope that had amplified ever since he was introduced to this double-edged sword.
The Loungewas a brilliant app, brought to this planet from a place that possessed technology of this magnitude already, by someone that knew the Players of this planet needed it. That was how technology progressed in the universe, people bringing with them the knowledge they have from other wonderful places and times.
The app was the only way for Players to seek each other out, to make new friends that understood about the life they had chosen. It was a secret place available only to Players, where they could reacquaint themselves with old friends from past lives, which was the main reason Quint was glued to it every morning.
Like him, Leo would only know they were meant to walk together here. He wouldn’t know how, where or even which continent, so something like this would be invaluable as a tool to help them find each other again.
Life as a Player could be a very lonely existence if you didn’t know anyone else of your kind. If there was nobody to share all you had learned in theMediunnwith, you could easily become overwhelmed with the frustration of having to keep the secrets to yourself.
Of course, not all Players knew aboutThe Lounge.Quint didn’t realise how much he needed it in his life until a chance meeting with the ever-ostentatious Harry all those years ago saw him find it. He hadn’t managed to find Leo through the app yet, but he had met some incredible people through it that had not only shaped and enhanced his life, but inadvertently others around him, like Mia, not that she would know, being a Reboot.It didn’t matter which planet someone called home, all indigenous life and beyond existed on the Player/Reboot continuum, and along with Mia, that included the humanity offering sad, shy smiles to each other on the street outside. Players searched for old loves, Reboots hid from the hurt of losing, sometimes choosing not to love in that lifetime, but all were natural Rebootsand Playersin the grand scheme of life and death,and sometimes there was such a deep beauty and innocence to those who didn’t remember. Sometimes.
Quint tried searching byLocation of Previous ExistenceandDate of most Recent Birth, but after a toil of excessive scrolling, it would seem today wouldn’t be the day he would be reunited with Leo.
“Where are you?” he mumbled to himself. Surely Leo would have known about the app even if he couldn’t use it in their past life. Leo remembered other past lives. Past lives where he may have had access to it, or something similar. From their time in theMediunn, Quint had picked up from Leo that he had been reincarnating as a Player for a long while.
Quint prised open his laptop, about to immerse himself into the world of crypto currency, a new discovery he had made, when the gaze of a man queueing for his drink at the counter met his. The man had a nervous energy, but there was one thing about him that grabbed Quint’s attention. He triggered Quint’sseventh senseover recognising another Player.
Knowing what he knew, Quint was sure the man felt it too. Undoubtedly from the way he was trying to avoid Quint’s gaze, looking at him when he thought he wasn’t looking, this was a person inexperienced with dealing with other Players.
Quint could see that his face held memories that didn’t belong to this time or this life. Memories that he seemed desperate to share with someone—anyone that would understand.
He was a young man and seemed to have a kind of naivety about him, one that exhibited a lack of experience meeting fellow Players.
Quint’s heart quickened, his stomach warming as their eyes finally locked together, and the heat on the man’s cheeks suggested he went through the same. It was a connection that transcended the realm of the everyday, one that could only be recognised by those with a Player’sseventh sense.
Mia tapped the man on his shoulder, repeating her question to him as he ordered the first drink that no doubt sprang into his mind.
Quint recognised a lost soul when he saw one, and he nodded assuredly at him and gestured for him to join him, closing his laptop and making room on the low table for an extra drink.
It seemed like forever whilst the man waited for his drink to be made, his eyes batting between Quint and the floor. Hen handed him a macchiato, and he thanked her swiftly, then walked hurriedly towards Quint’s corner of the café.
Quint searched his mind for a spark of recognition, but there was none, so he stood up to greet this stranger, a soul from who knew where, and automatically they embraced.
From how hard the tips of the man’s fingers dug into his back, he recognised a loneliness that he himself had experienced so often before discoveringThe Lounge.
“I’m your first,” said Quint.
