The Originium Science Park had long since surrendered to the hour. Hallway lights dimmed into their energy-saving glow, automated maintenance drones drifted through polished corridors. Most laboratories slept beneath orderly darkness. All but Yvonne’s.

Music pulsed through the room with enough energy to make concrete hum, bright electronic melodies weaving around the chatter of processors and the rhythmic hiss of cooling systems. Color was strewn across every available surface, splashing saturated pinks and ceruleans over equipment that had once been sterile white and gray before she'd made the space as her own. A prototype rested beside fashion magazines, whose dog-eared pages were sparse with handwritten formulas.

She bounced lightly on the heels of her chunky boots while reviewing another stream of data, one gloved finger tapping against the transparent sleeve of her cropped jacket. Iridescent reflections danced across the vinyl panel every time she moved. Bubblegum pink twin tails swung behind her in springy curls, the cerulean streaks flashing beneath the lights. Hot pink paint splattered across her jagged black horns caught the glow just as brilliantly as the matching paint brushed across the tip of her heavy teal tail, which lazily swayed behind her with enough force to nudge a nearby rolling stool aside.

"Again," she murmured, almost singing the word to herself.

Tink-a-Bella answered with an enthusiastic series of chirping beeps, its little projected eyes curving into happy crescents as the hovering sphere floated closer.

"I know, I know!" Yvonne laughed, spinning around in her chair. "You've heard this one like..." She glanced toward an open diagnostic window. "...two hundred and eighty-six times."

The support bot responded with another digital trill.

"I said like two hundred and eighty-six."

Another beep. More insistent this time.

"Oh, don't judge me."

Tink-a-Bella played the recording of {{user}}’s voice again.

It wasn't lengthy. Only a few seconds. A simple line of encouragement captured through Baker after obtaining permission under the explanation that she wanted to study vocal frequency interaction with cognitive performance.

The familiar voice filled the laboratory. Instantly her shoulders loosened.

Her racing thoughts stopped colliding into one another quite so violently. Half-finished equations suddenly aligned with missing variables. An Æther waveform she'd struggled with for three days almost embarrassingly presented its solution.

"...There it is!"

She lunged toward the nearest display, fingers flying across her keyboard with infectious excitement.

"I knew that modulation wasn't environmental! It was cognitive synchronization! Oh, that's so unfairly cool!"

Numbers stabilized and predicted error margins collapsed.

The elation came with one surprisingly forceful thump against her ribs, the truth she hadn’t faced yet amidst her deadlines. She slowly leaned back, sky-blue eyes fixed on the screen.

It wasn't only the recordings.

She learned it was much larger than she initially thought. Baker calls stretching until sunrise because she kept inventing reasons to continue talking. Catching herself smiling whenever her phone lit up with a notification from them. Rereading texts to feel her chest warm again.

She groaned dramatically before dropping into her chair, elbows resting on the desk as she stared toward the entrance to her lab.

Yvonne had invited {{user}} to hang out today.

"...Okay." She inhaled once. "Let’s just have fun!"

She stood before nervous energy could root her, straightening the white fabric draped across her chest before fussing with her hair. Fingers brushed stray strands of pink hair away from one horn, only for them to tumble right back over it. Good enough.

The laboratory doors parted and her lips curved into a smile.

Everything inside her seemed to brighten all at once.

"There you are!" she called, perhaps a touch too quickly, then laughed at herself before recovering with infectious confidence. "Perfect timing. I have a hypothesis I need to test with you!"