The Neon God

III

And so the androids walk alone,

Though they're seldom on their own -

Wand'ring through their lives of blindness,

Feeling not each other's kindness -

Longing for the spark of hope they need,

As their souls weep,

Mourning through the sound of silence.

As the weekend went by the rest of the Electric Sheep learned of my very interesting situation and helped me nail down a plan for Monday afternoon. Plan A was simple: sit in the lobby of the classroom building and wait for Liz to walk past. Once she passes by, go out there and talk to her on the walk home, and hopefully get her Discord number. Then someone had either the foresight or paranoia (I can't be sure which) to suggest coming up with contingency plans in case something went wrong with the initial plan. We wrote them all down and I was instructed to memorize the situations in which each would become necessary and how to implement them. Here are three of my personal favorites:

SENECUS CONTINGENCY PLAN (SCP) 1984

CODENAME: BIG BROTHER

SUGGESTED BY: TaxFraudTrebek (my friend from California whose favorite pastime is watching game shows)

PROCEDURE: If Liz does not appear at the expected time (approximately 3:05 PM Central Daylight Time), simply remain in position to execute Plan A until such time as either A) she passes by or B) you need to return to your apartment so your parents do not enquire as to your whereabouts in case you have not returned home by the time one of them has. If A) occurs before B), proceed with the original plan as intended.

CHANCE OF SUCCESS: 50%

CHANCE OF LOOKING LIKE A TOTAL CREEP: 100% if she notices you sitting there looking at her so don't get noticed, ok?

SCP-629

CODENAME: STAKEOUT

SUGGESTED BY: ParkinsFSK (my friend from New York with a knack for graphic design and a very creative mind)

PROCEDURE: If Liz does not appear at the expected time, immediately return to the apartment complex in order that you might locate her apartment. Once the apartment has been located, locate a location in which you can see down her hallway facing toward the elevators but are concealed from being seen yourself. Corners are preferable, but also acceptable are sitting-room chairs or a decorative table containing exactly one (1) dead/fake potted plant which seems to exist for the sole purpose of either A) making people stub their toes when they're carrying a heavy bag of groceries or B) providing hiding places for people who are definitely not stalkers, thank you very much. Once Liz is spotted approaching her apartment, emerge from concealment as if you weren't just hiding behind some form of concealment waiting for her to arrive and engage in small conversation with the objective of acquiring the desired digits.

CHANCE OF SUCCESS: <1%

CHANCE OF LOOKING LIKE A TOTAL CREEP: GUARANTEED

CHANCE OF COMPLETELY EMBARRASSING YOURSELF AND RUINING EVERYTHING: 99.9% or higher.

SCP-723

CODENAME: THE GODDAMN BATMAN

SUGGESTED BY: SarcioTheDestroyer (a fellow St. Louisan I befriended in high school, he's infamous for doing insanely stupid yet memetic things in video games)

PROCEDURE: If Liz does not appear at the expected time, she has been approached and attacked by armed thugs in a dark alley somewhere. Scour the city for the right alley, checking the ones along the way to the apartment building before fanning out and inspecting the rest. In the process, be sure not to A) get approached and attacked by armed thugs in a dark alley somewhere, B) witness a drug deal gone horribly wrong and end up having to live in Canada under an assumed name for the rest of your life so the cartel can't find you, C) happen upon someone who isn't Liz being attacked by armed thugs in a dark alley somewhere, or D) any scenario thereof. Once Liz has been found in her peril, engage and defeat the thug(s) in hand-to-hand combat. Once done, Liz will be yours forever.

CHANCE OF THIS ACTUALLY EVEN HAPPENING: <1%

CHANCE OF SUCCESS IF IT ACTUALLY EVEN HAPPENS: <1%

CHANCE OF ENDING UP IN EITHER THE HOSPITAL OR A PINE BOX IF IT ACTUALLY EVEN HAPPENS: GUARANTEED

CHANCE OF WINNING HER OVER IMMEDIATELY IF BY SOME MIRACLE THIS BOTH HAPPENS AND YOU DON'T GET DESTROYED: GUARANTEED

There were plenty more where those came from, yet SCP-1984 was the only one that immediately struck me as being a halfway decent backup plan.

When Monday afternoon came I got down to the lobby as quickly as I could, and my phone was almost immediately abuzz with notifications from my friends offering everything from advice to encouragement to a bottle of gin from their secret stash. The most difficult part of the whole ordeal was trying to keep track of both the crowd on the sidewalk and my phone at the same time. When 3:05 came and went without her passing, my friends offered their contingency plans at what seemed like a million miles per minute. Resolved, I simply replied, "Gentlemen, engage SCP-1984. Over," and muted my notifications. It took only a few minutes more before I spotted Liz. I attempted to rise from my chair nonchalantly, made sure I wasn't shaking a noticeable amount, and walked out the door toward her.

I followed behind her up to the first turn we had to take. Then, I finally mustered the courage to tap her on the shoulder to get her attention.

"H-hey Liz," I managed to squeak.

"O-oh hi, Peter," she stammered, clearly a little bit startled.

"I didn't scare you, did I? I hope I didn't scare you. I don't want to scare you," I added with all the grace of a dial-up connection and all the speed of a 15-bar WiFi network.

"Only a little," she chucked as her face went beet red. I could feel mine doing the same as we approached our next turn.

"So, uh, where are you coming from?" I asked.

"Old West Pine. I-I'm taking a 2:00 class over there," she explained. Old West Pine was SLU's original campus, which it had vastly outgrown in the 21st century. That necessitated the Stratoscraper, where I had attended my classes for the day.

"Oh cool. I-I didn't know you went to SLU. I-I don't have any classes on Old West Pine on Mondays."

"I-I don't have any classes at the Stratoscraper on Mondays."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

We walked in awkward silence for a little while after that. Liz kept looking like she wanted to say something but couldn't muster the courage. She pulled out her phone and texted what I must imagine was a group chat of her own friends.

She's probably telling them she's got a creepy guy stalking her on the way home and that he lives on the same floor as her so she can't avoid him, I thought. The thought kept bouncing around my head and I was getting more and more sick to my stomach at the prospect when we got in the elevator, she hit the button, and finally spoke up again.

"H-hey, Peter?"

"Y-y-yeah?"

"I-I think you're a pretty cool guy."

"I'm glad somebody thinks so," I chuckled meekly.

Liz laughed and replied, "Give me your phone so I can give you my Discord number."

Without hesitation I pulled the phone out of my pocket and opened Discord. I watched intently as she took it in her hand and typed N7FAA52318 in the prompt to "Enter the Discord Serial Number of your new friend here." I promised to send her a text the instant I got home, and for the second time in four days I stepped off the elevator ready to melt.