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Gather round, children.
Gather round my screen.
Don’t worry about
the flickering lights:
maintenance is on the way.

[...]

The Aquarium closed a decade ago. The windows were shuttered and the squids released back to wherever squids go. The building was left to sink below the boardwalk and into the gently rocking waves. It is accessible now only by a hidden passageway, and only to those who need it.

[...]

“Please?”

It took no time to type, yet each letter still stung. None admitted it, but I knew every person I’d contacted today relished my shame. They probably knew it too as soon as my name reemerged in their inbox—that the real world had finally drowned my unblemished ideals, and all it took was my cat Muning urinating blood. 

[...]

I don’t know when I came here, or even if I came here. There is no other life I remember. We are farmers. There are thirty of us here on this C-type asteroid. The asteroid has no name, but a high abundance of water, organic carbon, phosphorus, and other key ingredients for fertilizer which are used to grow food. 

[...]