⚘✾Mind Bubble⚘✾

"It gives me joy to see your face before going to bed."

"Remi, I'm talking about something more important." I acted as though I wasn't flattered. "That wasn't some love triangle. He's actually someone I met online who felt my impact so much that he wanted to pay my bills."

"Fine, I'm sorry... Not sorry."

"I don't even have your time. I need to go now."

"How about we keep talking until you fall asleep?"

"You're crazy love sick!"

We both laughed.

"Goodnight, Flowerina."

"Goodnight, lil' Einstein."

"Don't forget to pray before you head on to bed."

"I'll try."

¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶

          I appeared in a certain world. All I saw was darkness.

"Hello," I said into the air. My voice echoed audibly.

"Hello!" I heard a weird voice respond in a distance, so weird that I could not determine its gender and personality.

"Who are you?"

"I am intelligence... But you can call me Tika." The voice came closer.

"If this is what intelligence sounds like then I choose dumbness."

"How about this voice?" Tika's voice suddenly transformed; it was alien-like.

"No, no. This is just creepy. I prefer the other one."

"Well, you're gonna take back what you said when you see me." It came back to the default shrill voice.

"Yeah, I should see who I'm speaking to."

The place was covered in thick darkness. I no longer heard the voice or felt the presence of Tika.

"Hello? Tika? You there?"

Instantly, I spotted a green light in the apparel of a ball from afar off. At first, it was faint, then it grew brighter and brighter until I could see a big, round ball. It remained floating in mid air.

"Hello? Tika, where are you?"

The ball moved in celerity with the sound of a mighty wind. It came and spun around me. It paused in front of me and the ball unfolded itself. It appeared to be like a furry, large entity. It had no legs, just a long tail with big, round eyes.

"I am Tika."

"Still not taking back what I said."

The entity changed its colour to pink.

"How about pink?"

"No."

"Purple?"

"Nah-a."

"Yellow?"

"Horrible."

"Orange?"

"Ugly."

Tika continued to switch colours speedily that it started to affect my eyes as it grew brighter by the moment.

"Tika, stop!"

The entity changed to its default colour—green and blinked twice like nothing ever happened.

"So, are you a boy or a girl?"

"None—I am neither a male nor a female. I am welcome in all bathrooms."

"Okay, so where am I?"

"Just somewhere outside Earth."

"What?!"

"Relax. You're in the world of intelligence." It spread out its hands and became luminous by the second.

"Okay, that's enough." The entity got even brighter, as of hyper gamma light.

"Too bright, Tika."

I covered my eyes with both arms. "That's enough, Tika!"

Without warning, I heard an intense explosive sound and the whole place became silent. I was too petrified to open my eyes. I finally did open my eyes and to my surprise, I saw a whole new universe. It was filled with colourful numbers and letters floating in the air just everywhere. I saw some machine parts as well.

The whole place looked like Remi's textbooks; too many numbers.

"Now, would you look at you?" Tika came around and flustered its eyelashes at me, giggling.

I stretched out my arms only to find myself looking like an animation character. I was wearing a black leather jacket and leather pants.

"Oh my... What am I?"

"You're in the right form—there are no humans here, human girl"

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?"

"Yes. A lucid dream. Now follow Tika!"

I followed the entity while staring at all the symbols, numbers, and machine parts.

"What is this place anyway?" I asked.

"Every product of technology comes from this world of intelligence."

"Okay, that doesn't make any sense. Nothing here makes sense. Now wake me up."

"You can't wake up until your purpose here is fulfilled."

"And what is my purpose here?"

"You'll find out."

"I'mma just wake myself up."

I did ten jumping jacks but nothing happened. I slapped myself and pinched myself, still nothing happened.

"You done?"

"So, we talking purpose huh?"

We went further when out of the blue, I sighted a phone, my phone, half as great as the titanic ship.

"Woah," I dropped my jaw. "What is that?"

"A pathway to your personal virtual world. Come on, let's get inside."

"Woah, woah, woah, there's no way I'm going in there.

"Your purpose awaits you. There's no waking up until you fulfil it."

      I opened my eyes. It was past two in the morning and I gazed at the clock on the wall, fighting to stay awake. My eyelashes danced and fell; I went back to sleep mode.

"Oh come on!"

"You're very tired. You can't wake up now. So, what app should we visit?"

"I don't know. Facebook?"

"Wise choice, human girl."

Tika held on to my hand and yanked me into the phone. I screamed aloud as it seemed like I was being sucked into a well.

We dropped to the ground... I dropped to the ground—Tika was a floating entity.

"Ouch," I frowned.

"Sorry. And on the brighter side..." She pointed at a place which was literally brighter than the rest. I saw thousands of people staring into their phones as if they were under a spell; they never moved nor took a single breath. Bubbles levitated above their heads. We advanced further.

"Woah... Who are all these people? I've got too many questions: Why are we here exactly? And why are they here? What is my purpose here?"

"These, human girl, are your Facebook friends just as you requested to see. They are from different countries of Earth and right about now, they are staring into their phones and viewing only your contents. Every single one of them is viewing your contents."

"And why are these bubbles coming out of their heads?"

"Those are mind bubbles," Tika responded. "Human girl, this world you see here, the virtual world, it has more to it than most humans know. You see, when people view your contents, comment on them, or place reactions on them, they give you a message, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, what goes on in their minds are often way, way different. It's easy to hide feelings when you're behind a screen, it's easy to hide what actually goes on in your mind than in in the physical."

"Illuminate," I said and its light increased.

"No, I meant shed more light on this, like figuratively. Gee, Tika."

"Sorry," it laughed. "I'm intelligence, I'm supposed to shine at all times."

"Ride on."

"So where was I?"

"Hide feelings behind one's phone's screen?"

"Oh, yes. So, it could be easy to dictate your emotions when it comes to physical meetings and communications but when it is done on the internet, you barely know what they are thinking. This is the root of online anxiety. Are you confused?"

"The opposite of no."

"Human girl, do I need to consume your thinking?" I shrugged. "Come, let me show you," Tika said.

We walked a bit further and then I noticed name tags on everyone. Tika grabbed one of the bubbles and shook it. Some letters flew out of the bubble and arranged themselves in mid air.

It said:  Yrolg eht lla niag dna pu deffup teg thgim ehs, reh dnemmoc I fi teY .yrt I nehw neve reh fo suoivne gnieb pots t'nac I dna doog os s'ehs

"Okayyyy?"

"Come on, read it."

"Read what? That's total garbage."

"No, it's not." Its voice began to fade away and gradually, its dazzling light. "Figure out what this mind bubble is saying. When you do, I shall appear to take you further until your purpose here is fulfilled." Slowly, Tika faded away until it vanished into thin air.

"Tika? Tika! You left me with nothing, I don't even know what to do. I wish I had a notepad and a pencil, you know!" I hollered into the air.

Shortly, I became anxious, apprehensive, and puzzled. I had no choice but to figure out what the letters were actually saying.

I touched one of the letters and it shimmered and moved.

"Okay, let's do this." I blew some air, rubbed my palms together and began to slide the letters down from the air word by word. I slid one word down, then tried to decode it's true meaning.

It took me five minutes to realize that the first word spelt "glory" backwards!

I continued to bring down every word and re-arrange them forward. It took me seven minutes to accomplish that. But still, the meaning of those words was obscure:

Glory the all gain and up puffed get might she, her commend I if yet. Try I when even her of envious being stop can't I and good so she's.

After observing the words for quite some time, it finally made sense to me:

She's so good and I can't stop being envious of her even when I try. Yet, if I commend her, she might get puffed up and gain all the glory.

"Tika, I've figured it out!" I jumped in exhilaration. Tika appeared with a smile on its face.

"Terrific!"

"So..."

"So what? Do I have to tell you everything?"

"Well, duh."

"Look at the name tag of whom this bubble came from."

"I don't need to see the name tag. That's Bee."

"Well look into Bee's phone, the content of yours which she's looking at."

I did so. "Okay, it says: for someone who writes articles a lot, you sure do make errors. You need to be cautious of how you insert punctuations and you need to place each vocabulary in the right context. Your writing skills matters a lot, if you ask me. But there's always room for improvement. Nice drawing; could use more research tho'."

I turned to face Tika, "this is an actual comment of Bee from a post I made a really long time ago. I don't understand."

"So you mean to tell me that all of my explanations have been for nothing?"

"Probably."

"Alright then," the entity levitated higher and got brighter, "I should leave and return when you've figured it out."

"No! Please don't leave. I-I understand..."

Tika grabbed another bubble, shook it, and its content flew out and floated in mid air.

It said:  🥿🎩👁️     🗝️🍳🍳📌🥾   ☂️👢ℹ️🆕🐐     🧵🎩👁️      ⛄⚓🥭🍳   🗑️⚓🛋️🗝️🐐🐀🦉🌂🆖🐶

"This is easy. Just pick out the first letter of each object."

I picked out the first letter of each objects to decipher each word. It said," 'She keeps using the same background' ?"

"Look into the character's phone and comment on that content."

I did so and it said, "great picture!"

I was keen to shake more bubbles for I was beginning to understand. I shook another bubble and it showed some letters:

             J  F   M  A   M   J   J   A  S  O  N   D

             A  E   A   P   A   U  U  U  E  C  O   E

             N  B   R   R   Y   N  L  G  P  T  V    C

             U  U   C   I          E  Y  U  T  O  E    E

             A  R   H   L                  S  E  B  M    M

             R  A                              T  M E  B     B

             Y  R                                   B  R  E     E

                  Y                                   E       R     R

                                                        R

EMAN YM YAS DNA EM DNIF

EMAG SIHT NIW OT REDRO NI

NEDDIH MA I

SNOSAES DAN

SHTNOM EHT YB DEMUSNOC MA I

I began to re-arrange the letters in alacrity and it said:

I AM CONSUMED BY THE MONTHS AND SEASONS;

I AM HIDDEN.

IN ORDER TO WIN THIS GAME,

FIND ME AND SAY MY NAME.

"Okay, this is sort of like a riddle." I gazed and observed the first set of words and the interpretation. I realized that it was the months of the year. "Okay? I am consumed by the months and seasons. Hmmm..." I struck my chin. Just immediately, I got it. "Jason! July, August, September, October, and November. Jason is your name!"

I tapped on the letters J A S O N and some other words popped out saying, "I am intrigued by everything you do. Sometimes, I wish I was like you. I don't have to be visible because I don't want you to detect my emotions."

Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with anxiety. "Where's MoonBloom? Where's Fisher? Where are all those people? I need to see them!"

"You know you can't," Tika's voice was fading away.

"There has to be a way. This is the most important. Please!"

"Your purpose is fulfilled," its light grew dimmer by the moment.

"No! Please don't go!!"

¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶•°¶

      I awoke by 6:00am on a Saturday morning, sweating profusely. I arose from my bed and started to fumbled my desk and drawers for a certain book.

I got the book and flipped some pages. I froze on a page where I found a drawing. On it said, "Tika."

I grabbed a pencil and flipped a free page to take few quick notes. When I was done, I picked up my phone to dial Remi's number. He picked up in a split-second.

"Good morning," I could feel him smiling. "Missed me so much that you just had to call this early?"

"No, I had the weirdest dream ever!"

"You grew eyes at the back of your head?"

"No..."

"You grew an eye on your forehead?"

"No!"

"We took a private jet to Paris, just you and I?"

"Remi!"

"Then what happened?"

"Remember that drawing I made in the fourth grade of something I created named Tika?"

"Oh, yes. How could I forget about that?"

"Well, I dreamt about Tika!"

"Fascinating."

"But Tika here was this entity—intelligence. I was trapped in a whole new world, like a different universe. And in this dream, I was an animated character."

"For someone who's been watching some animations for the past few days, you seem too worried."

"Yeah I know, I know. I know that the dream can be imputed to how much I watch TV these days but that's not even it. Tika was enlightening me about the virtual world. As a matter of fact, we entered into one of the virtual worlds, Facebook, and I could see every one of my Facebook friends."

"Mind-blowing."

"There was this stuff coming out of their head like some sort of a... Mind bubble, Tika called it. It contained the thoughts of virtual people on my contents, which is often contrary to their comments, reactions or my thoughts towards them because it's not easy to detect and understand emotions due to things being virtual."

"Okay, you sound so unrelaxed and perturbed right now. I'll be in your house soon. Let's talk face-to-face."

      It seemed like I would never recover from this one dream. It was freakish, yet life-changing. The words said to me by that entity could not cease from lingering in my mind.

The first mind bubble I had to decode was that of Bee. Bee was that person who got me intimidated by her level of knowledge and intellectual exposure each time she made a comment on my post. I gave her all the respect she was due. In lowliness, I respected her views on my thoughts and actions and sometimes, she caused me to have a low self-esteem.

Little did I know that this same girl thought to have an inflated self-esteem actually had a low self-esteem! She tried to abate me with reprimanding because she was envious of me. Oh, little did I know!

Monica's, the following mind bubble, she was worried about me using one and the same background for my photos? How did that matter?

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐞? 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐬. ／(˃ᆺ˂)＼

Monica would always make heart-warming comments on my post, yet her mind was full of deceit.

Then Andre, Andre was popular, one I yearned to get attention, comment, or at least a reaction from. If he pretended not to view my posts, I would become moody and feel invalidated, unworthy. Little did I know of his conceit.

These were only a single message from their minds but to me, it defined them already and their true intentions.

It was just a dream, a freakish dream, but I accepted it as a revelation for it was highly significant, pertaining to the meeting I had with Sam earlier and his confessions.

I was seeking MoonBloom and the popular and cool others whom actually caused my emotional turmoil in the past, forgetting that I had blocked them all. 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐢𝐭! (> <)

It would have been nice to see MoonBloom's mind bubble.

     I had this revelation and it made me gain a profound understanding of the deeds of my audience therefore I had no reason to be anxious anymore.

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::♥• 𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐀 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐀 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀 𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐓𝐀𝐆 "𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐌𝐂"

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