“The real-estate market has gone completely bonkers! Are there rooms, apartments and houses available to rent? Yes! But are they reachable to a regular mortal like me, a mere teacher, without mortgaging the next 5 generations of my extended family? Sadly, no. Teachers aren’t multi-trillioners, you know. As soon as Ga-Ram announced she was leaving me and moving to Andromeda, I knew I’d have to find myself a new place to live. I hope Ga-Ram will miss me. Accepting the fact that I really had been living off her (she was right, even though I’d never admit it to her), I’d now need to find a place out of the New Earth Megacity area and commute to work every day. I could only afford two options: Europa or Mercury. Although I do love to get my feet wet every now and then, I’ve always been more into water that’s not freezing cold, call me fancy. So, I chose Mercury. Granted, due to the planet naturally shrinking and the extensive cooling system installed throughout the planet, my backyard is getting smaller every day. But I feel as if I’ve made the right choice. It is super nice not to have noisy neighbours (Mercury is a one-person planet), plus I can finally do some serious reading done! It’s also awesome to have sauna time, all the time (the average temperature is 167 C / 332 F) ! The only downside is, there are NO PETS ALLOWED! Poor Kiku! … I really hope Ga-Ram misses me.” Vignette: 2/6