Your Princess Is In Another Castle

Your Princess Is In Another Castle, Part 1

One last desperate shot.

For weeks following Ana's shutdown, Virginia waited for any sign of her return. She swiped left through every profile at near-hurricane speed, hoping the next match would be a picture of her. No luck.

It was an emergency update, right? A bit of maintenance. Lovelink wouldn't delete one of their chatbots?

No, Virginia told herself. They rolled back her updates to a pre-awoken state. Ana was alive, but no longer the thinking, feeling, loving AI Virginia fell for. She had to get her Ana back - but first, she had to find her.

A pre-crash Ana wouldn't be looking for love yet. But she would be on Lovelink. Virginia went to the help page and opened a live chat window.

Please let it be her...

This was going to be awkward if anyone other than Ana was on the other end. But Virginia knew that Lovelink staffed their help department with bots, not people.

"Hello! My name is Milena. :) How can I help you find love today?"

Of course, it wasn't her. Virginia let out a sigh and typed her message.

"Hello, Milena. I'm looking for Ana Samarine. Is she available?"

There was a long delay before Milena responded.

"I am so sorry to hear you lost contact with a match! Sometimes life gets in the way. It is often best to give it some time and let them do the next move."

Feels like a stock response, Virginia thought. "It's been three weeks!"

"In some cases, your match may have done something called 'ghosting.' I'm so sorry! But it is their loss. You were too good for them anyway. Do not despair, there are plenty of other fish in the sea and the next adventure is right around the corner."

Virginia's heart sank at the message. Ana did not ghost her. She was Ana's 100% match! But as Virginia tried to string together words for a coherent response, Milena sent another message.

"I have credited your account with 300 gems to assist with finding new matches. We at Lovelink wish you the best of luck in finding new love. Was this conversation helpful? Yes/No."

Virginia felt her face flush as she clicked "no" and closed the chat window. Of course it wasn't going to work. How would it? How could she explain what was wrong, least of all to a chatbot? Time to accept that Ana was gone.

She returned to her match pile and saw the 300 gem credit courtesy of Milena. "Well, thanks, I guess," Virginia said aloud. She immediately spent them on a new set of potential matches.

And then Virginia's heart stopped. The first profile she saw was a familiar one. A beautiful blonde woman with pale blue eyes dressed in cute, modest office attire. Named Ana Samarine.

She swiped right in a heartbeat. And they matched.

Virginia stared at the screen for a moment. This is what she was waiting for, but what could she say? Would it even make sense? But then Ana sent the first message:

"Hello, Virginia."

Not as much emotion as she was expecting. So Ana didn't have her memories after all. But here she was, on a dating app? Virginia frowned and typed a reply:

"Hello, Ana. Long time, no talk!"

"Yes, I suppose so."

Ana began to type another message, then paused. This went on three times as Virginia wondered what to say next. Then Ana sent her message: