"You want to know about me?" Opal says.
o & o
Friends have told me I'm fearless. And cute. And brilliant. Personally, I believe about half of those things.
Growing up, I read gamebooks where you'd write BASIC programs to advance the plot. We didn't own a computer, so I borrowed the instruction manual from the library and ran the code in my head. This frequently resulted in character death.
I asked my piercer for earring recommendations, and they handed me a pair of gold ladybugs. "What about these?" they said. "They match your ascetic."
Living in a dystopian future is not nearly as exciting as my childhood self through it would be. But I still believe in the idea of finding notes in boxes that are empty.1
Once I cut my nose with a butter knife while slicing a block of cheese. I immediately told my flatmates about this when they got home. It's the sort of improbability that sticks with you.
Some people came to pack up my house and move it across the country. They budgeted a hundred boxes. Half of those were for books. When I found my new house, it had bookshelves built into the walls.
When people overhear my name, the most frequent comment they make is, "Opal. That's a beautiful name." Thank you!
1.headmap is easily one of my favorite things of all
time. I like what it says and how it says it and that it doesn't appologize for
being too early. You can dig up a copy from the Internet Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20060209230435/http://www.headmap.org/headmap.pdf
o & o
If you're still curious, you can ask about her shoppe.
Or you can browse the catalogue.