"Electric flowers that radiate positive vibes," Nessy mused, her tail swishing thoughtfully. “Hrmmm.”

  “I don’t suppose you happen to smell anything like that nearby?” I asked.

  “Nope,” she shook her head. “I mean, I can try to sniff that specific thing out, but it’ll probably burn through my remaining Scrutiosmia and then we’ll be completely defenseless. Plus I don't want to go out there and get caught up in another fight.”

  We retreated to a quiet corner by the freezer section, sitting cross-legged on the floor. The jar sat between us, empty and waiting.

  "Okay," I said, trying to approach this logically. "Electric flowers. Something that blooms, produces light, and gives off... good feelings? Happy energy?"

  Nessy's ears perked up. "What about See-Mass lights people hang up during holidays? They're electric, colorful, and they make people happy."

  "Maybe," I said, considering it. "But where would we find working Christmas lights in this mess? And would they even count as flowers?"

  Nessy's nose twitched as she thought. "What about those lamps that look like lotus flowers? My neighbor had one—it changed colors and rotated. Super relaxing."

  "Again, where do we find one?" I sighed, leaning back against the somehow functional freezer door. The cold seeped through my shirt, a small reminder of the past where everything wasn't screwy.

  We fell silent, the reality of our situation settling around us like dust. Here we were, bandaged and exhausted, trying to figure out how to catch glowing insect-like creatures to help plant a moldy sandwich in magical concrete. The absurdity of it might have been funny if our lives didn't depend on it.

  "What if..." Nessy began slowly, her eyes lighting up. "What if we make one?"

  "Make a flower?"

  "Yeah!" She bounced slightly, her enthusiasm returning. "Like, an origami flower or something, but with light. Didn't Calvin say intent matters more than technique? Maybe we could fold paper into a flower shape and... I don't know, infuse it with happy thoughts?"

  “But with light… electric light,” I pondered. “How would we light it up… maybe put your phone under it or something? Wait… what if we just took a photo of a flower? A flower on a phone screen is technically an electric flower.”

  “Yes! That’s perfect!” Nessy clapped. “You're so clever!”

  “But that excludes vibes… where does one find happy vibes?” I asked.

  “Music festivals, restaurants, beach parties, theme parks,” Nessy mused. “People produce vibes.”

  “Pretty sure none of those exist right now,” I said.

  “Yeah,” she frowned. “Dang it. Wait…. But what if we generated our own happy vibes and just… took some selfies of you and me?”

  I stared at her. Could the solution really be this simple?

  “There were scented kids markers in our ‘room’,” I said. “We can draw some flowers on paper and… take selfies with them?”

  “Nah. I’ll draw flowers on your face and lick them off,” she said. “Happy vibes!”

  “Is this just an excuse to lick my face?”

  “Yes, yes it is, how very observant of you.”

  “And what if I won’t radiate enough ‘positive vibes’ for the selfie?” I asked.

  “Eh, I’ll radiate enough happy vibes for both of us,” she said with absolute certainty. “Trust me. I’m vibing extra-hard just thinking about it.”

  “Uhh.” I looked at her and noticed that her tail was wagging like helicopter blades, vibrating her entire figure. “Right then. Go get the markers. I’ll be here… definitely not vibing or whatever.”

  “Uh-huh,” she laughed and vanished with a swish of black and white tail and tapping claws.

  She returned at the speed of the wind, nearly crashing into me, hands filled with thick markers.

  "Ready for your makeover?" she grinned, uncapping a purple marker with her teeth. The scent of artificial grape filled the air between us.

  "As ready as I'll ever be," I replied, momentarily closing my eyes with resignation.

  Her paw steadied my face, the soft pads of her fingers pressing gently against my jaw. The marker's tip was cool and wet against my skin as she began to draw. I could feel her breath, warm and rhythmic, as she concentrated on her work.

  There was something extra-intimate about this moment—her face inches from mine, her attention focused entirely on me, her panting breath washing over me in waves from running so fast to fetch the markers.

  "S' lookin' good," she murmured, switching to another marker. This one smelled like synthetic strawberries, sickeningly sweet but not entirely unpleasant. "You're being very patient. Good boy."

  I opened one eye, staring at her. "Did you just 'good boy' me?"

  Her eyes and cheeky grin stuck me as her flower-drawing faltered for just a second. She grinned, her canines flashing in the dim light. "Maybe! Hold still."

  I held still, surrendering to Nessy's artistic endeavors. Her tongue poked out slightly from the corner of her mouth as she concentrated, the tip of her dark nose twitching with each stroke of the marker, decorating my entire face with flower art that would hopefully be enough to attract the bulbees.

  "Almost..." she murmured, switching to a blue marker that smelled vaguely of blueberry candy. "Just need to add some highlights..."

  "There!" she announced triumphantly, capping the marker and leaning back to admire her handiwork. "Done! You look positively garden-worthy!"

  She pulled out her phone, which inexplicably still worked despite its battery being permanently at zero percent. "Selfie time! Try to look happy. Or at least less miserable than usual!"

  "I don't look miserable," I protested.

  "No, you have a 'perpetually preparing for disappointment' face," she replied, positioning her phone at what she clearly thought was the optimal angle. "It's very cute in a sad puppy way, but not great for positive vibes."

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Before I could formulate a response, she was pressed against me, her arm wrapping around my shoulders as she held the phone aloft in front of us. Her fur tickled my neck, soft and still slightly damp.

  "Say 'squirrel' or whatever makes you smile!" she instructed, her tail thumping against the linoleum floor with excitement.

  "Sandwich," I deadpanned, which earned me a snort of laughter.

  The camera clicked, capturing what I assumed was my flower-decorated face next to her grinning muzzle. She immediately checked the result, her ears swiveling forward with interest.

  "Hmm, not vibey enough," she declared, scrolling through the phone's features. "Let's try with filters. Oh! This one adds actual flower animations!"

  She set the camera on video and multi burst selfie mode and snuggled closer, her weight shifting until she was practically in my lap, her tail now brushing against my arm with each enthusiastic wag. I could feel her heart beating against my chest, rapid and strong, a drumbeat of pure canine excitement.

  "Ready? One, two—" Without warning, she licked the side of my face, a long, slow swipe from jaw to temple that left my skin damp and tingling.

  “Ugh, bleh, these taste terrible,” she sputtered, sticking her tongue out. I chortled. The phone kept recording and taking selfies. “Ugh whatever.”

  She proceeded to lick me, making bothered faces and commenting about the sniff-marker betrayal which made me giggle and then outright explode into laughter, which made her laugh in turn.

  “Yass, these are def’ vibacious vibes!” She commented, licking and wincing.

  “Vibacious isn’t a word,” I laughed. “Why are you still licking if you don’t like the taste?”

  “I’m not deviating from the five-year-licking plan when minor flavor complications come up!” She fired back, laughing so hard that tears sparked in her eyes. "Let's take more! Different angles! Different expressions! Maximum vibage!"

  What followed was a barrage of selfies, each more ridiculous than the last. Nessy seemed to have an endless repertoire of ideas for poses and expressions, from solemn to silly, from regal to outright ridiculous. And with each new photo, she found a way to invade my personal space in increasingly creative ways.

  She draped herself across my shoulders like a living fur stole.

  She stood behind me with her paws on top of my head, making bunny ears.

  At one point, she even convinced me to hold her up as if she were crowd-surfing, her arms spread wide in triumph while I struggled not to drop her and secretly marveled at how light she was despite her size.

  Between shots, she hummed something about “” under her breath and licked at the marker drawings on my face, claiming she was "refreshing the canvas" but really just indulging her apparent need to groom me at every opportunity.

  "We done yet?" I asked. "Surely we have enough 'vibes' captured by now."

  Nessy scrolled through the collection, her ears perking at certain images. "Almost... We need one more. The ultimate vibe!" She flopped onto her back beside me, patting the floor. "Lie down. I want to recreate that famous scene from that movie…”

  “What movie? Titanic?”

  "No, no, the one where they're looking up at the sky, thinking about how small they are compared to the universe."

  I had no idea what movie she was referring to, but I found myself lying down beside her anyway, staring up at the stained ceiling of Calvin's Mini-Mart covered in drawings of marker-colored, violet-iris eyes.

  Nessy wiggled closer until her shoulder pressed against mine, her fur tickling my arm. She held the phone above us, adjusting the angle carefully. "Now, look thoughtful but hopeful. Like you're contemplating the vastness of existence but also thinking about maybe getting ice cream later."

  "That's... oddly specific," I said, but tried to comply, focusing on the eyes staring back at me from above with unnerving intensity.

  Violet eyes. So many violet eyes, a spiral, a constellation of them, a galaxy of violet, twinkling stars.

  "Perfect," she murmured. Her free hand found mine, warm fur against my skin, her claws carefully retracted. Her nose booped my cheek. "I'm really glad I found you, Alec."

  The simple sincerity in her voice caught me off guard. I turned my head slightly to look at her, finding her blue eyes already watching me, glowing slightly. For once, she wasn't bouncing or fidgeting or talking a mile a minute. She was just... present. With me.

  The camera clicked above us, capturing the moment.

  "That's the one," she said softly, looking at the photo. “Perfect.”

  It wasn't perfect—my face was still covered in smudged marker flowers, her fur was sticking up in random directions, but there was something about our overall poses and expressions, the way we were looking at each other rather than the camera, that felt real. Genuine. Maybe even vibe-y.

  "Yeah," I agreed, a strange tightness in my throat. "That's nice.”

  “The nicest!” She sat up suddenly, her mood shifting back to excited determination. "Now let's see if these selfies can attract some bulbees!"

  Retrieving the glass jar, Nessy pried open a window. She set the screen displaying our floral-themed selfie collection in a continuous slideshow. Then she got some duct tape from a shelf and taped her phone to the base of the jar.

  She placed the phone-jar onto the outside concrete ledge.

  The colors flashed and changed, the digitally added flowers blooming and fading in endless cycles across the selfie slideshow lighting up the jar.

  I looked up at the darkening sky. It looked like a wall of gargantuan, black storm clouds was rolling towards us across the city, flashing with violet streaks of lightning that left off-color rainbow imprints in my eyes.

  “Looks like Celestorm is ‘bout to get here,” Calvin said from behind us, almost making me jump. “Good timing. Get the bees and head to the garden.”

  “If this insanity works,” I commented.

  “It will,” Nessy said, looking at something in the distance. She was still humming "Pack vibes... Unbreakable bond!" under her breath.

  We didn't have to wait long. Within minutes, a faint buzzing sound drew our attention to the rapidly dimming street, where a small cluster of light began to form—a glowing, pulsing orb that seemed to solidify as it approached. Then another appeared, and another, materializing from the gloom like tiny stars emerging at twilight.

  Bulbees.

  They drifted toward our makeshift flower beacon, their crystalline wings catching the light, bodies pulsing with internal electricity. Unlike the ones that had attacked us earlier, these seemed calmer, more curious than aggressive. One approached the jar, hovering above the phone's screen, its light dimming and brightening in time with the changing images.

  "They're responding to the pictures," Nessy whispered, her voice hushed with wonder. "Look, they're changing their colors."

  She was right. As the slideshow cycled through our various selfies, the bulbees shifted their illumination to complement the hues displayed on the screen. When a photo with predominantly blue filter appeared, they glowed a soft amber. When pink dominated, they shimmered with emerald light.

  "It's like they're... completing the spectrum," I murmured.

  One particularly bold, chonky bulbee descended into the jar, settling atop the phone. Others followed, drawn to the vibrant selfies and possibly to each other. Their collective light grew stronger, filling the jar with a swirling aurora of color.

  Moving with exaggerated slowness, Nessy reached for the jar's lid. The bulbees showed no sign of alarm, seemingly entranced by our images. With one smooth motion, she sealed the jar, capturing seven of the electric insects inside.

  “Well done,” Calvin commented. “You've created something new—not just electric flowers, but a conceptual reflection of your bond. Clever. Very clever indeed.”

  “Eeeeee,” Nessy squeed, holding up the jar. “Look, look! They're so chonk and cute when they’re not stinging me!”

  Like a miniature lightning storm captured in glass, the bulbees swirled and pulsed, painting the inside of the jar with ever-changing patterns of light. Their earlier hostility seemed forgotten, replaced by what almost looked like playfulness as they darted around each other like electrons circling atoms.

  She handed me the phone and the jar, her face alight with pure wonder.

  “Hurry now! Bring your drawing of Nessy, the concrete bucket, the sandwich, and your luminous friends to the back garden. It's time to create new life!” Calvin declared loudly, sending Nessy into motion.

  Celestorm thunder rattled across the city beyond the small Mini-mart we were occupying. It didn’t sound like regular thunder, more like a symphony of alien whales crying through the sky. The broiling, dark shawl engulfed the world horizon to horizon, the clouds twisting into inverted, tornado-like swirls.

  The clock on Nessie’s phone went berserk as if the phone was being flown through twenty time zones at the same time.

  The [0%] battery stat momentarily flashed with [∞%], sending a cold, eerie shiver down my spine.

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