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SLUMBERING WISH's vine shoots out from the palm of your hand and up towards the ceiling cat. It manages to wrap around one of the cat's legs, and with a bit more prodding from Anthony's broom, you manage to dislodge it from the ceiling.
EL FELINO squirms like a demon being doused with holy water. It tries to rip its way out of the vines wrapped around it with its teeth and claws.
Lucy manages to stuff a wad of cloth into its mouth before it can try biting its way out. Okay. NOW you can study this stupid cat.
You lay the restrained feline on one of your many tables. Your coworkers scramble in to do the actual studying. You try your best to help, of course, but most of your focus is on maintaining your vine.
For some reason, you feel like talking to the flower growing out of your wrist. You've had it for a while now, and you haven't really put much thought into its presence. But now? It's the last bit of IN LIMBO aside from its artifact.
Maybe you're feeling sentimental. Is it wrong to form attractions with an anomaly, you wonder? They're not human, or if they used to be human, they're not anymore. Maybe it's only natural for you to bond with something you've worked with for a week now.
You wonder if what you're going to talk to is even sapient, in the same way you are. It is just a flower, right?
The flower growing from your wrist turns to face you. A thought that is not your own pops into your head.
<span class="mu-i">You still hold on to that dream, don't you? That dream you tried to smother?</span>
You do. Even if you have no idea how to help people in a way that matters. Even if you don't understand people all that well, you still want to try.
<span class="mu-i">It's okay. No dream truly worth chasing after can be realized in a single day.</span>
<span class="mu-i">A beautiful flower requires weeks of diligent work before it can fully blossom.</span>
You feel silly even considering the possibility that you have a dream. You're a nobody. Someone who only wakes up in the morning because he has nothing else to do. A corporate slave who knows nothing but work.
<span class="mu-i">Maybe that's true. But you still get up in the morning.</span>
<span class="mu-i">You make what you can of each and every day. That, too, is respectable.</span>
<span class="mu-i">You endure. Like a dandelion growing from a crack in concrete. Is that not beautiful?</span>
It's all you know. You know, you think to yourself, you never thought you'd get motivational advice from a flower growing out of you. Maybe that's why it's bothering to humor you. Because it IS you.
<span class="mu-i">You are me. I am you. We're connected. Rooted together.</span>
<span class="mu-i">We must endure everything that comes our way, Vincent. And I'll be here to help you with every step you take.</span>
A smile creeps across your face. You suppose it's not wrong. That's all you really can do. You've already made it seven days.
<span class="mu-i">Exactly. Remember, I'm here for you. When your shoulders are burdened with too much weight, I'll be here to take the edge off.</span>
<span class="mu-i">We will take care of each other.</span>
And now, the voice is gone.