iwaverse

[iwaverse]

Future Us

Life has been hectic as ever.

Being a struggling law student does not make it any better. Taking law was not as easy as the 16 year old you had imagined. As a 16 year old, your thoughts of law was more to talking in court, defending the wrongly accused. Past you did not think of the hardships and the journey itself to become an actual attorney. Now entering a new semester, you have even more workload to hand in to your very tiresome lecturer.

You can feel the library’s cushioned chair now warming your bums as your mind goes haywire from all the typing you had to do for your next assignment. You would usually do your work in the library since free wifi was provided there even though the wifi would go down every once in a while.

You typed in a few more words in before you bring your arms over your head and stretched the life out of yourself.

“Give yourself a rest, man.” , says Sofea who was sitting across from you, a black pen in hand scribbling random notes in her mini notebook. You were so focused on trying to get your work done you completely forgot the existence of your other friend.

“I just wanna get this over with.” you replied now resting your head on your right hand, supporting it from your chin.

“You’ve been on it for hours now. Chill down a bit. Due date is in 2 weeks time anyway. You’re always pushing yourself like this.” Sofea says now rolling her eyes  while giving you the dirtiest look.

You frowned, not knowing what to reply back. What Sofea said is true. You sometimes overwork so much until fever starts engulfing you. Last minute work is just not your thing, you were always the first one in your department to hand in your work.

You sighed as you bring your hands together and place it above the keypads once again to continue what you started.  Your finger then hovered above the touchpad for a split second before you glided your finger across it to click on the 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘨𝘭𝘦 icon. You would need to search up a few informations on the internet for your next paragraph.

You typed out the words rather hastily on the google search section and clicked on the magnifying glass icon. The page refreshes itself but nothing loaded. You kept clicking on the refresh button hoping for the page to load. The page refreshes itself once again before directing you to the T-rex Dinosaur Game. Your eyes quickly glanced at the “wifi” icon, bottom right corner only to see a banned sign on it.

“Ah, shit. The wifi is down again today.” you say as you lean back against your chair letting out yet another long sigh.

“Hm? Really?” Sofea replied while pulling her phone out of her left pocket to check whether  the connection is really out. “Oh yeah…I didn’t even notice. Oh well, that’s a sign for you to give it a rest Rania.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever.” as you leaned towards your laptop again, a finger on your 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒 button.

𝘔𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦,  you thought silently to yourself.

A minute passed and the game only made your stress worst. The jumping dinosaur on the screen of your laptop is slowly annoying the shit out of you.

𝘑𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘢𝘶𝘳. The clicking of your space button becomes faster each second before you stopped when the dinosaur runs itself into a cactus.

𝘜𝘨𝘩 𝘪 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘰.

A tinge of familiarity suddenly hits you.

𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵, 𝘋𝘪𝘯𝘰?

“Ah, Dino.”

The memory came rushing back.

7 years ago you made an anime fan account on twitter out of curiosity and boredom. Your first icon was a picture of Hanako-Kun from the anime Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun. You remember everything so well. The friends you’ve made there, the posts that blew up and the little fanfics you wrote of your favourite anime characters.

Dino was a friend you made on anime twitter. What a funny name now that you think about it. She was the first few friends you made along with someone named Elis. Elis on the other hand was someone you knew in real life and is still in touch with till this day. In fact, you were gonna go grab lunch with her right after this library session with Sofea.

The three of you were in a big group chat once too, where you met your closest friends on anime twitter. The group chat had the weirdest name, it was Foot Pic Store. FPS for short. The group chat consists of 30 members,  28 or 25? You don’t remember, but Dino was in it.

Dino was known as the angst writer on anime twitter along with another member named Jo. The both of them would always write heartbreaking stories that would leave you dumbfounded, hungry for more.  Dino is probably somewhere out there, rich and still crying over kageyama. Meanwhile Jo was recently accepted to an animation company to work as one of the animators.

There was someone who was from Oklahoma too. Kiah. She played on the national’s team once for volleyball. However, she didn’t continue her life career as a volleyball player and is now studying somewhere in California. Kiah was known as Dee’s so-called-girlfriend in FPS, another member in FPS. Dee bullies the other members a lot but she’s actually the sweetest person you would ever meet. Dee has been travelling a lot lately, not that you know how and where she’s getting all the money from. Probably found herself a rich Arabic man,  𝑊𝘩𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 is what she would say.

Speaking of travelling, another member of FPS is currently studying to become a pilot, Ira. You would usually call them beansie or beans as a nickname because they had a baked beans icon for a few days due to losing a bet made between them and their other friends.

“Beans” was also a ship name for the second youngest members in FPS, Bea and Anne. The memory of them screaming of how big an anime character’s private part is in the group chat was still fresh in your mind, especially Anne. Back in the days, Anne would randomly send pictures of her eyes to get conjunctivitis with you. What a weirdo, but who would’ve thought that weirdo would be studying to become an ophthalmologist. On the contrary, despite the young age, Bea is already working as a manager in one of the biggest franchise in her country.

Speaking of which, you have a few other members who was the same age as you too, Raya and Teddy. Raya is currently studying in one of the most  well known med school meanwhile Teddy is working her ass off to become a successful programmer of some sorts.

Most of the other members are still studying now too. Kaye is currently studying to become a chemist, Ren is studying to become better in cybersecurity to become an ethical hacker, Angi is continuing her studies in the economical field and Allie, just like you, is studying in the faculty of law.

The older generations of FPS are already working. Jade had just graduated and is now working as a new attorney, Ballan is a successful film maker by making films that would leave a big impact on the audience, Riv is working as a cardiothoracic surgeon and Cee has a job that that helps the ones in needs with her skills.

Sora and Ken on the other hand are living life to the fullest.  Ken is currently living with her friends with a few pet animals to make it more lively and is now working as a zoologist. Sora is now living in Japan with the love of her life and is taking care of her grandparents while balancing her life with school counseling.

You’ve lost contact with a few other members like Cat and Arrielle, but according to Elis, they are doing well in life as well.  

As for Hannah, she now has a job she’s happy with and is living with the best partner she could have asked for. Back then, all she wishes for was to find happiness and to be happy.You’re glad things are going well for her even though there are times where life gets rough, but you know she’s strong enough to go through it. 

Remembering all the old events 8 years ago made you somewhat emotional. The late night calls, the online games, the skipping school to chat, the roleplaying, the rigging every poll ever made on anime twitter, the horny chats, the matching layouts…

𝑩𝒁𝒁𝒁𝑻

A vibration from your phone  cuts you off from your daydream.

𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐬: 𝘳𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘮 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦

“Ah, Sof I gotta go now” you say as you start packing up your notes and laptop into your lemon yellow tote bag.

“Elis is here?”

“Mhm.” You nod, still packing everything up.

“Oh by the way Rania, you made online friends before right?”

“Yeah, why?” you replied as you stood up pushing the chair under the table and slung your tote bag over your shoulder.

“Are you guys still in contact?” Sofea asked.

“Oh-“

𝑩𝒁𝒁𝒁𝑻

Another vibration from your phone cuts you off from finishing your sentence. You unlocked the screen of your phone and glided your hand in a downward motion on your screen, pulling the notification bar down.

𝐠𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞: *𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩*

𝐠𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞: 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘶 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬??

𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐚: 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘩, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘎𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦.

𝐠𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞: 𝘦𝘩 𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘣𝘶𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯

𝐝𝐞𝐞: 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧 𝘫𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵

𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞: 𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘩

𝐛𝐞𝐚: 𝘭𝘰𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦

𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞: 𝘪 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘳

𝐭𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐲: 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘰𝘰 𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘳

𝐩𝐚𝐮: 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯

𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞: 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘺𝘦

“Hello?” Sofea said while waving a hand in front of you, clearly wanting the attention from you.

“Oh, sorry. What was the question again?”

“I was wondering if you’re still in contact with them.”

You paused as a smile starts forming itself on your lips,

“Yeah,” you replied,

“we’re still in contact.”