I hate the sound of my own voice, as much as Narek would get all psychologist on me about malignant narcissism, no room in your life for anyone else, and blahblah. Funny, coming from him, who surprised me with how he’d been dating someone else against our “occasional one-nighter with someone is cool” rule. He called it “spontaneous non-monogamy.” See also: cheating. By then, we’d been together two years, living together most of that, and it took me all of an hour to cram my stuff into a few bags. I should’ve listened to Genesis and left long ago instead of waiting for this latest lie of his, which he wouldn’t even own. Instead, he spun it as a chance for me to grow emotionally. Like, don’t see this as an obvious betrayal of your trust, but instead an opportunity to reflect on what you can reasonably expect out of a partner.

SCENE: INT. NAREK’S CONDO (and it’s his and not ours, Narek loves to remind, with just his name on the deed.) – EVENING

NAREK (his forced calm hiding rage)

You’re a child and no one will ever fill that black hole of need in you. And you think your shitty little videos are doing something? I’m embarrassed for you. Embarrassed.

His voice likes to blast into my head when I’m low, even still. So let me drown him out with the voice of someone stronger than me. Maybe after she’s had a drink and just a tiny bit of her accent slips in, but before she’s goofy enough to laugh at her own jokes.

KAORI (VOICEOVER)

We were hoping to unlock the secrets of the early evolution of our solar system. What we found on this tiny asteroid was so, so much more.

Cue the CGI footage—we’ll have to bug the studio for a bigger budget—of the Mugen probe, looking like a mirrored roulette budget—of the Mugen probe, looking like a mirrored roulette wheel, sailing through the black silk of space. In the control room of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, dozens of staff in of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, dozens of staff in white and pale blue jackets wait in silence, because the pictures white and pale blue jackets wait in silence, because the pictures the probe just beamed back at them of the two-kilometer long the probe just beamed back at them of the two-kilometer long Endovelicus asteroid can’t be right. No way is there a metallic, Endovelicus asteroid can’t be right. No way is there a metallic, clearly unnatural clearly unnatural thing sticking out of its craggy surface. They sticking out of its craggy surface. They were expecting to find ice and organic material, not something were expecting to find ice and organic material, not something extra-terrestrial. Especially not extra-terrestrial. Especially not humanmade since the asteroid since the asteroid spins ninety-thousand kilometers from Earth.