“What do you think about you him?” Astrid asked Octavia about this match that popped up on the dating app.

“He's not half bad.” Octavia scrolled down on his profile. He seemed to be a decent guy, but she wasn't really her type. He was likeable, but not bangable. “Not really my type.” Octavia swiped away and discarded him. If the guy wanted a girlfriend, he wouldn't have used the labrador as a profile picture.

“That's too bad, I would've dated him.” Ash commented. Octavia rolled her eyes behind her dark tinted steampunk glasses. That's exactly why she didn't. Octavia was into attractive men that were spontaneous, unpredictable, like Chris but if the men that she scouted were bland, boring, lacked iniatiative to maintain a relationship, then there was no point in dating. She wanted to love and feel loved.

“And get sidelined for a dog, no thanks. It's one thing to love a dog, and to get blocked for a dog is another.” Ocatvia pointed out the difference.

“Yeesh! No wonder you're single.” Ash commented.

“You're not having any luck on the love department either.” Octavia retorted.

“I'm single by choice. I love myself enough to not grovel for scraps.” Ash smirked as he flipped her braided ponytail to the side.

“What about the tension between you and TR? You're both at each other's throats like an old married couple.” Octavia countered.

“As if an idiot like TR is a viable option. I rather swing the other bat than tap that.”

“Mmhmm, keep telling yourself that.” Octavia humored her. She knew that Ash was in denial about having feelings for TR like a closeted homophobe lying through their teeth about their inclinations. As much as she was convinced that she wasn't in love with TR deep down she loved the hardheaded team mate to bits.

Ash herself didn't understand why Octavia insinuated that her and TR were a thing. Their relationship is as toxic as it gets, they flung insults at each other, argue, compete. The so called sexual tension has become a synonym for attraction and normalized. The love/hate dynamic is not something to be desired. He gets on her nerves and pushes her buttons with minimal effort, so she brushed Octavia's comment.

“I mean it. Why is sexual tension the standard for love?” Ash questioned, “it has been engrained in popular culture for centuries now.” Ash spun and walked away as her braided slung itself to the other side of her shoulder before eliciting an annoyed groan.

“She kinda has a point.” Astrid agreed with Ashlyn's statement.

“This kind of trash has been romanticized for ages. Look at this.” Ash scrolled down a list of enemies-to-lovers stories from her phone.

— The Jerk Next Door

— Made Love To My Enemy

— Married To My Frenemy

— Bad Boy and Goody-Two-Shoes

— Broke The Billionaire Bully

— Breaking Bonds

— My Nemesis Made Ammends

— Hack You

— Not Today, Bucko!

— Kick, Bully, Kill

And the list goes on.

“It's so cliché, it's annoying.” Ash stated to get her point across.

“Pairmount Studios tweeted that they're gonna be producing the movie for Breaking Bonds by 2172.” Astrid commented.

“And Nuthouse is making an anime adaptation of Kick, Bully, Kill.” Octavia added.

Ash put her phone on sleep mode. “I rest my case.” She decided to get a soda from a vending machine and a snack.

Astrid squinted at Hayley France's kiosk, “Wait, are those books they're selling?”

“Get real, Astrid. No one uses physical books  anymore. You can download an ebook or a PDF with the name of the story or author of any piece of literature. There are blogs that give away the plot so that you don't have to waste hours reading it.” Octavia stated as she swiped her thumb in quick motion to type the name of the story title. “There are also tutorials on how to download without the premium membership ads popping up.”

“I'll go check it out so that I don't have to hear another debacle about premium memberships.” Ash volunteer while she opened a bag of cheesy nachos and fished one out and ate one when she headed to the kiosk. Then Astrid heard Octavia mentioned that one of her favorist artists release a new album. By the time Ash came back she confirmed that they were actually selling physical books.

“Those are books?” Octavia picked up the paperback and opened the book to flip the pages.

“Weren't books banned for creating waste?” Astrid asked while Ash searched on her smartphone.

“By the 2030s, environmental organizations have stated that paper, like plastic, aluminum, alloys, metaloids, and other metals had been mass produced by industrial factories, the same factories that produced gas emissions for decades which exacerbated the ozone layer for years demanded to be shut down by environmental extremists. The WHO have suggested that the only way to prevent the Earth from dying faster is to ration the fabrication of every day products such as: books, cosmetics, clothes, domestic appliances, electronics, fast food, pesticides, robots, sweets, vehicles, etc.” Ash read the article on The Bluffington Post. “The strangest thing is there had also been posts of banning books across Asia, Europe, nearly half of the American continent, and some countries within Africa and Australia.” Ash then read the following, “The books that have been banned were The Bible, The Book of Enoch, books from the Holocaust, books related to slavery, colonialism, imperialism, communism, socialism and political books.”

They should've taken initiative in banning political correctness instead. A stranger commented on the blog before Ash scrolled down the page to read similar comments.

Astrid eyed the books of different genres: she picked up a book titled Echo Of The Empire.

Logan, TR and Alexander had asked to some of the guards where they could find Brandon. The team leader however, got distracted when he had taken in interest on the female janitor, Jayshree. The employee already gave them directions, though Logan deviated the topic to flirt with her, to search her thoroughly before she sprayed his glasses with pepper spray as a warning. Alexander and TR had to pull their team leader out of trouble before they spotted Brandon return to his workplace.