Love Reincarnate

Chapter 0

Song: Custer by Slipknot

5:36 am, October 1st, 2025 - Custer, South Dakota (USA)

Celeste stepped outside of her small brick home and into the frigid dark morning. The small button on the right side of her forehead emitted a dim ring of red, the sign that her implant was in standby mode. Her roommate (and childhood best friend) Izzy paused beside her, jingling the car keys in her hand.

“You drive this morning and I’ll drive us back tonight,” the shorter-by-one-inch woman said, her bleach blonde hair messily tossed in a bun atop her head. The pale yellow donut bounced around her crown as she handed off the keys and beelined towards their shared sedan. A cherry red Subaru, gifted to her by her parents seven years ago as a high school graduation gift.

“Get ready to scream along to metal ‘cuz I stayed up too late and don’t wanna fall asleep and crash, lil’ red.” Celeste said as she held the smooth metal of the carabiner in her right hand, using her thumb to parse through the keys until she found the car fob.

“What, being a cyborg doesn’t give you extra energy after all?” Izzy called out.

Celeste rolled her eyes and walked towards the car.

Once on the road with Slipknot blasting on the stereo, Izzy looked at her friend’s side profile as the other woman focused on the road while driving. Despite Celeste’s dark brown hair being down, if she looked hard enough for it, she could see the glow of the LED ring around the smooth domed metal disc implanted in her friend’s temple.

It had been a few months since the installation, but the young woman couldn’t help still being on alert for any changes in her friend’s personality.

“Are you still getting overtime every day?” Izzy said as one song ended, giving a moment of quiet so she could get her friend’s attention.

Celeste reached over to lower the volume of the music, also coming to a stop at a red light as they were now halfway into town.

“Yeah. Don’t worry, baby, Daddy’s still bringing home the bacon,” Celeste said in a deep tone, turning briefly to blow a kiss at her friend.

The other woman was too stunned to speak.

Celeste roared out a loud laugh as she lifted her foot off the brake once the light turned green.

“Okay, sure, yeah, that part is nice. But is it good to have that thing on too much? It’s connected to your brain, you know.”

Celeste let out a sigh. “Yes, I know. It’s my brain after all. And also after all, I’m not the only one in the world with something like this. My entire department has one.”

“Your department of five people. Plus Art.”

” Plus Art? What, you’ve got a crush on Art Palmerston? You want him to impregnate…I mean, implant you too?” Celeste said as she made a smooth turn onto a quiet side road, avoiding morning traffic.

“God, shut up! Heaven forbid I point out the fact he’s kinda hot when I’ve only seen him like three times. Anyway,” Izzy said, trying to regain her train of thought.

“Yeah, anyway, you have a history of what class today? I know you have an afternoon class, but what is it? Is it cool if I sit in? Daddy needs overtime money,” Celeste said with a smirk, wishing she could see her friend’s reaction as she instead focused on the dark road ahead.

“History of East Asia. We’re covering the Edo era of Japan today. And yes, you can come, but I think my classmates think you’re a tweaker because of all that blinking you do.” Izzy said, mocking her friend by staring at the dashboard and blinking twice rapidly. Then she spun to the window and blinked twice rapidly, then turned to her friend and stared at her nose, again to blink twice rapidly.

Celeste let out an offended gasp. “You know I have to blink twice to focus on an object to get the algorithm to do its job. That’s why overtime is so easy. I just sit with you in class and focus on random stuff to collect data.”

“Okay, ChatGPT, stealing all the data and feeding it to computers. You’re helping make my job obsolete, you know?” Izzy said. The blonde relaxed into her seat and watched the buildings pass by through the window.

“My little historian, you also collect data and organize it. Just the old-fashioned way. Don’t worry, I’ll collect fat overtime checks until the AI bubble bursts, and you can stay in school forever.” Celeste said, only half joking.

“Working at school and going to school is a kind of lit. Like, I’m friends with everybody, but I also have seniority and don’t live in the dorms. No more getting blackout on the weekends and eating fast food to survive anymore.”

“Yeah, now we just commute an hour both ways every day and eat convenience store food to survive. Big upgrade.” Celeste said with a yawn, tempted to turn the music back up to give her something to focus on.

“Well, I’m a working woman. I need my masters and then we can both find househusbands who stay home and cook and clean while we have careers and bring home the bacon.”

Celeste nodded, bringing the car to a stop at a red light so she could conveniently raise her fist and exclaim, “I love equality!”

” EQUALITY!” Izzy yelled, cranking the music back up as an Eminem song played.

Slim Shady fantasizing about beating women sounded in the car.

Izzy pressed the skip button as she whispered to herself, “That’s not equality.”

Celeste heard her and replied, “Not equality,” while shaking her head.

“I think I’d rather stay single than have a househusband, to be honest,” Celeste added.

” Yeah, staying single is actually probably the best choice,” Izzy said. She sat up to unfold the visor and opened the small mirror to check if she had dark circles under her baby-blue eyes.

“You always have a place at Big Daddy’s house, baby girl,” Celeste said, sticking her tongue out to prevent a laugh as she continued down the highway, now just a few minutes from the Molnar-Spatter office building.

” Stop calling yourself that or I’ll grab the wheel to crash this car and take out both of us,” Izzy yelled, dropping her head in her left hand, her messy bun slapping the tiny mirror closed.

“Drop Daddy off at work and have a fun day at school,” Celeste said as the office building came into view, the concrete gray color wiping away every bit of dopamine she had every time she saw it.

“Are you feeling powerless at work and that’s why you’re roleplaying dominance in your personal relationships?” Izzy said, eyes boring into the side of her friend’s head, a slight tremble in her voice.

Celeste smirked to herself. “If that’s what you’re into.”

“I wonder if I can convince the head of the psychology department to spend his volunteer hours psychoanalyzing you implant freaks,” Izzy said as the car turned into the parking lot of the office.

“Oh, so you think I’m freaky?” Celeste said, sticking out her tongue as she pulled up to the front of the building.

“Ah, but he probably can’t volunteer for a company. For profit and non-profit, kinda isn’t the same, huh ChatGPT?” Izzy said, looking to make eye contact with her friend before they both got out of the car.

“I mean my boss, your future boyfriend, said we have a therapist on staff if we ever need a session.” Celeste said seriously as she held the driver’s side door open while Izzy walked around the front of the car.

“Ah, a company therapist. That sounds like HR’s dream and a union’s nightmare.” The blonde woman said as she looked into her friend’s hazel eyes.

The brunette rolled her eyes as she tucked a strand of her freshly washed and dried stick-straight dark hair behind her ear. Izzy closed her hand into a fist, raising it to tease punching her friend before she sat in the driver’s seat.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell my therapist all about you, baby girl,” Celeste said as she closed the door.

Izzy flipped her off with her left hand as she used her right to drive the car out of the lot and towards the university down the road.

Celeste took a moment to admire the sunrise, an orange glow covering the various shades of gray of the parking lot and office building surrounding her. She let out a breath and raised her hand to her temple, pressing the external button of her implant. The ring of color changed from dull red to emerald green, flashing brightly upon awakening before dimming to barely visible.

The young woman walked inside the building, noting the doorman, who made eye contact with her and smiled, giving a nod while doing so. Celeste beamed back at him, looking into his eyes and blinking twice rapidly.

In that moment, the image of his figure gained an outline, and the rest of her vision blurred about ten percent, just enough not to impair her but also just enough to force her focus to what was being highlighted. Then, an internal voice that mimicked her own read the known data about the figure.

“Harold Alberts. Aged 54 human years. Caucasian, brown eyes, bald head, no teeth.” Along with miscellaneous facts about his personal interests that Celeste and the others in her department had gathered through various interactions with him.

Celeste noted the awkward wording of “human years” instead of just “years” when reciting his age. And the major error; that he has no teeth. He has teeth, and Celeste had seen them before, but the algorithm was confused because today he smiled with his mouth closed. She took her phone from her pocket and typed this information into her notes app so she could focus on finding the code responsible once she was at her desk.

The morning passed as the young woman focused on the code she had access to, correcting and testing and correcting and testing. She tested by looking at her coworker, who sat across from her, Sandra. Sandra was an older woman whom Celeste respected as she had decades of experience over her. They had made an agreement soon after both joining the department that they could be each other’s test subjects whenever needed.

Once the “human years” had been corrected to just “years”, Celeste took her lunch break. It was the first time since clocking in that she had noticed someone was missing today.

“Hey,” she whispered to the focused Sandra as she stood up, trying not to startle the silver-haired woman intensely typing away at her keyboard.

Sandra looked up and made eye contact through her thick black-framed glasses, only to blink twice rapidly and squint. She typed a few keystrokes while watching Celeste. “Hmm?”

“Where’s Richard?” The younger woman asked, eyes glancing at the empty desk next to hers.

“Ricky dicky dock? Hmm. He’s usually good at showing up. Maybe the changing seasons made him sick. I wouldn’t worry,” Sandra said.

“Hmm, yeah, okay,” Celeste said slowly. She thought back to the day before, when the department had its weekly meeting. Richard seemed normal, even a bit energized as he on the spot created the tasks for this week’s testing.

“Anyway, wanna get lunch with me?” Celeste whispered to her, not wanting to disrupt her few other coworkers who were at least pretending to work.

Sandra looked at the bottom corner of her monitor to check the time. “Clocking out or doing overtime?”

“I wanna people-watch, so might as well stay on the clock,” Celeste said with a small smile. She already envisioned getting a greasy burger from the drive-thru and sitting in the older woman’s car as they staked out the local park.

“Ugh, I’m pooped. I think I’ll clock out. But we can go together.” Sandra said as she clicked around her computer before standing. Her colorful dress, making her look like an art teacher rather than a coder, swayed as she stretched.

“Let’s go!” Celeste whispered, making her coworker chuckle as they left the office for an hour of fast food and collecting social data.