One thing I got into then was Fift and Shria. I know, no surprise, everybody was paying attention to them. It was the new craze, especially for young people in First or Second Childhood, and especially in our part of Fullbelly. (Because I come from the same region they do! You can see Foo from my old house!) We all followed them. We viewed their talk with Thavé, and Panaximandra, and the riots, and Fift’s escape, and the bodycut on the docks (I mean the “Polysomatic Network Disruption,” but that makes it sound like an accident!), and the confrontation with the Midwives at Stiffwaddle, and when they went on all the shows. That was something. I remember Shria freaking out when ve met Trink on Manifestation of This Moment, and it was super relatable. Shria was a fan of Trink just like we were fans of Shria.

There was so much drama! And we felt really connected to it all. Whenever Fift and Shria got caught, the fans and team-tags would lead the public pressure until they got released again. Different famous people started getting involved, and some Midwives and feedgardeners and adjudicators would help because they wanted Fift and Shria associated with their factions. But mostly it was us—from littles like me, to kids in their teens and twenties and thirties and forties—people who no one was listening to before. We were speaking up. The whole world was falling apart, but we believed in Fift and Shria and Dobroc and Emim and Aparia and Bojum and Meroc and Bluey and Urchis and Eirera. Especially in this part of Fullbelly. People had different faves in different places, but for us, it was that gang.

That craze kind of passed for most people. People still follow Fift and Shria, but not as much. I don’t know why. It’s not like the crisis is over. In my opinion, nothing has been solved.

The world started falling apart when I was eight. Here I am, already fourteen, and it’s still falling apart, I guess. There are still riots and feed outages and bodycuts. There have been body loss incidents and major flow disruptions. People have gone hungry! Adjudication doesn’t work like it used to when I was a baby, when conflicts between two people just got mediated and that was that. Now people joke about how any argument between two cohorts over a bundle-garden can blow up into a riot with team-tag armies and feed-snarls. It’s funny because it’s true.

My agents say twenty billion people are in temporary emergency housing.

I guess people don’t feel as hopeful as they did in those first days. Things have gotten complicated. But I still believe in Fift and Shria.