Spoiler Alert >

Why spoil the story?

Because life is short and who knows what could happen. Maybe I'll never get the time or energy to draw the whole comic before I die. Or maybe you've read the comics and you just want to see what happens already

I only have 2 of 3 arcs really planned out. So ultimately this isnt a finished synopsis. Maybe someday soon. I also have some really rushed novellas written for these two arcs that I will be uploading soon too.

Neon kiss summary

Part one: Space Between Us

Benevolent aliens have “invaded” earth, solving many manmade problems. They propose a trial period of 20 years in which they give humanity as much help and technology as they can to fix issues like climate crisis and late stage capitalism. In exchange, after the trial period, their people will be allowed to immigrate to earth, as their own planet was destroyed long ago and they have been living in artificial satellites ever since. After 20 years, all of humanity will be able to vote to let them stay or leave (taking their star-trek-like technology with them).

Oren is the son of some prominent leaders of his people (though their power structure is very different from traditional human governments). As children, before puberty, his species cry crystalline tears of a ~magical(science)~ mineral which fuels their technology. Because this mineral is very powerful and dangerous in the wrong hands, their children traditionally are required to stay isolated in their families/small communities) until they have passed the age of producing this mineral.

Oren has never cried the crystal tears and so has never been allowed to leave his home satellite until the age of 21(ish in earth years). He’s been isolated and sheltered for much longer than others of his people. Finally when it appears he will definitely never produce the mineral, he is allowed to do his people’s current tradition of visiting earth to mingle with the populace.

Oren goes to visit Kana, a friend he’s made online who is running an artist commune on earth, based around a movie she’s making. His friend is of another alien race, one which is related to his but has been in conflict with his people since before their planet was destroyed. The movie project is based around their people’s shared history with the goal of breaking down barriers between them. It is also based on the fact that Kana has had damage done to the parts of her brain which are used in the technology to connect to the virtual internet world that most people use. As such she can’t use virtual technology to create this movie as is common in the time the story is set. So the commune is made up of humans and aliens working together to build this story by hand.

At the artist commune, which is based in the wreckage of a cruise ship which is mysteriously lodged in a desert of sand, Oren meets Jupiter, a human friend of Kana’s. Jupiter takes an instant interest in Oren, seeing a beautiful but shy and vulnerable person who also has a high status as one of the mysterious aliens “taking over” earth. The two begin dating and have a tumultuous relationship due to Jupiter’s jealous and insecure nature and Oren’s realization that he is asexual. Kana’s cousin, Sorrel, also doesn’t help the situation, as he is prejudiced against Oren’s people based on their species’ shared history. On top of that, Sorrel is jealous of Oren’s relationship with Jupiter, as Jupiter and Sorrel are friends. Sorrel blames Oren for the drama and tension being caused by their relationship and treats him snarkily.

One night Oren and Jupiter are at Jupiter’s home residence in away from the commune. Jupiter’s home has a holographic AI servant, as is becoming popular on Earth. Oren’s people have truly intelligent AI citizens who assist in complicated space technology shit, and are not treated as less than flesh and blood citizens. On Earth however, humans have cobbled together their own facsimiles of these AI and use them as you might expect of humans.

Oren has always found the holographic AI people attractive in a way he can’t explain. Despite Jupiter’s AI not being truly conscious, Oren treats them as if they are, and enjoys their company, talking to them and looking at them when they are in the room. Jupiter notices this and deletes the AI out of jealously. This crushes Oren but he keeps his feelings secret, as even among his own people, attraction to AI is considered strange and kind of lame.

Back at the commune, Oren and Jupiter have one more terrible night together. Despite Oren’s growing disinterest in and repulsion from sex, Jupiter insists and wears Oren down with guilt, and so they do it anyway. After Jupiter falls asleep, Oren cries quietly to himself and feels sudden pain in his eyes. He realizes he has cried the crystal tears, as one falls into his hand. He is shocked and frightened and suddenly decides that he must leave and go home. Children who cry these tears are protected from the outside world/s because in their people’s distant past, they have been captured and tortured by enemies (Kana and Sorrel’s people) in order to gain this valuable minerals they produce. So Oren knows he could be in danger if anyone knew he could produce this mineral as an adult, as it is a highly guarded resource due to its powerful potential.

So he sneaks out of the commune and takes a shuttle ship home without telling anyone. Back at the commune, Jupiter wakes up alone and goes to search for Oren. Unable to find him and freaking out, he goes back to his room and finds one of the crystal tears left on the floor. It’s very obviously unusual, glowing and magical looking, and Jupiter feels an instant possessive desire for it. He’s heard the effect this mineral can have on people and so realizes what it is and thinks it may be why Oren left. He keeps it secret, locked up in his room, but every night he takes it out and holds it and gets all weird and Gollum-y about it.

Oren ends up back at his home satellite, where his parents are not at home, out at a governmental engagement elsewhere. Stumbling groggily through the house from his long shuttle ride in sleep stasis, he is surprised by his parent’s new holographic AI assistant, Lumi, who likes to walk the halls of the home when he is alone there. Oren is shocked and triggered by Lumi’s presence (and by his cuteness) and Lumi is concerned about Oren (and struck by his beauty). Oren asks Lumi to show him to his room (which has been moved in the huge home satellite.) Oren shuts himself alone in his room to freak out to himself and Lumi goes back into the virtual world.

Oren talks to Kana and apologizes for leaving suddenly. Kana is upset as she has been relying on Oren for moral support and creative input during the movie project, and wants him there as it reaches completion. Oren is not sure what he is going to do, and doesn’t want to speak to or see Jupiter at all. Kana is also stressed by this because Jupiter has been unbearable since Oren left him.

Oren gives himself an “i ghosted my shitty boyfriend” haircut and calls for Lumi for company. He ends up confessing that he has cried the crystal tear and swears Lumi to secrecy. If Oren is found out, he’s afraid his people will never let him leave their isolated enclave again, from fear that he will be captured and exploited for his ability to make the super mineral as an adult. Both humans and the other alien species could decide to do this and so he’d be forever sheltered and isolated from his human and alien friends, not to mention unable to join the immigrants should the vote go through and they be allowed to move planetside.

His moms come home and are shocked at Oren’s appearance, because while on earth he had cosmetic surgery to change his ears from his alien appearance, to round human ears. He’s also used whatever future technological medical procedures to dim the sparkly skin his people have. His parents are upset that he’s tried to look human (he was anxious about looking so different on Earth and getting unwanted attention for his looks, and so changed them). He’d never actually pass as human but he had just wanted to downplay the things that made him look so different.

Despite this his parents are glad to see him as he’d been gone on earth for about 3 years. His mom Sennafi treats his gently but his mom Tala is more strict, and quickly behind to pressure him to join their government council, if he’s not going back to Earth to do whatever silly art thing he’s been doing there. Oren says he doesn’t know what he wants to do yet and Sennafi tries to get Tala to give him space.

Oren has never felt comfortable with his race’s peers, since they all know he never created the crystal tears and so never contributed to his society in the main way they are all supposed to. He feels looked down on, pitied, and less valued, and also considered to be immature since he never went through their biological rite of passes as a child. And now he is uncomfortable, worrying that any time he cries, which is often because he’s an emotional little crybaby, his secret could come out.

So he’s having a panic attack in his room, and Lumi, who is kind of a voyeur and has been trying to keep himself from following Oren around by watching the house cameras, and failing, appears in his room saying he detected a possible medical emergency. He helps Oren calm down and apologizes for his breach of privacy. Oren is surprised, as Lumi seems different from the other AI he’s met amongst his people. He is a lot more similar to humans than Oren would have expected.

Lumi backstory: Oren’s alien species use their crystal tears to combine with some mysterious thing they find in space near the black hole they have a religious connection to. When combined they are able to create AI which are truly conscious beings. Scientists raise these AI as if they are children, spending years teaching them to be people the way solid, “real” people are. Lumi’s science/“parental” team was made up of both aliens and humans, as part of the immigration project, to help the alien AI integrate with human society. Conscious AI have actually already been given roles on Earth in the alien embassies and service centers. However the AI people have a tendency to decide to dissolve their individual consciousnesses and be absorbed into “the cloud”, a sort of afterlife dimension they have created for themselves. All of the other AI in Lumi’s batch he was raised with have already decided to do this by the time he meets Oren. His last AI sibling has just told Lumi they have decided to join the others and Lumi is accepting but sad. Lumi has never felt the urge to leave the way many other AI do, and he feels strange because of it. Lumi feels much more connected to the organic people he lives and works with. His attraction to them also confuses him. He doesn’t know it but this is because his batch of AI were raised/programmed differently as a secret experiment between a few strange scientists, both alien and human, who are trying to figure out why the AI often decide to leave for the cloud, and are trying to get them to want to stay with the organics.

So basically Lumi feels very connected to the organics and develops an instant crush on Oren, as many people do, because he’s so pretty and sweet and sad. Lumi is also kind of a kinky weirdo who goes online into virtual bdsm spaces and plays around a lot with bondage. He pretends to be a regular person when he does this because there is definitely prejudice against AI from a lot of people, who don’t consider them intelligent and call them “cartoons” derisively. In the online world Lumi can feel like he exists as a 3D being with a body that can feel things, unlike when he is projected into the real world and is like a ghost who cannot be touched and can’t feel or physically interact with anything.

Lumi ends up taking the role of Oren’s confidante, and they start spending a lot of time together. They’re attracted to each other and both confused and conflicted by it, which is causing some fun tension between them. Eventually they decide to meet up in the virtual world, and go to a club and dance together. As the days pass they go on some more dates and get to know each other better. However Jupiter has been trying to get ahold of Oren all this time, sending him increasingly unhinged messages. Sorrel also sends Oren a message telling him not to come back.

Finally Jupiter sends Oren a message with a picture of the tear he has, saying “I have something of yours.” Oren did not know there was a second tear left behind and completely freaks out, thinking Jupiter is blackmailing him or will report him or something, which will essentially end up with Oren being trapped at home forever (he thinks).

Oren finally calls Jupiter back and feels pressured to come back to him. Jupiter says he just needs to attend the movie premier party with him and he’ll give Oren the crystal. Oren agrees reluctantly. Jupiter also tries to get him to talk about why he left but Oren isn’t ready to tell talk about how hurt he was by the deletion of Jupiter’s AI assistant and by his pressure for sex. Very stressed, Oren asks Lumi to come with him to Earth as friendly support. Lumi agrees immediately but decides to keep it a secret that he’s leaving the satellite home. Because Lumi is in charge of all the digital programs and systems and security on the home, he decides to make a copy of himself to go with Oren, one who doesn’t contain all the home security system information. He reasons that once they return from earth, the copy can merge his personality together with the original so they can share memories. This doesn’t seem so strange to him considering the AI propensity for ego death and merging together into the mysterious cloud consciousness. Lumi figures this is his version of that. Oren doesn’t entirely understand the implications but figures as long as his parent’s home is secure, it’s totally cool for Lumi to send a copy of himself with Oren.

Oren uses the crystal tear he has to make a physical item that Lumi uploads his copy into. Tiny flying projectors can come out of it to project Lumi’s form and also act as cameras for Lumi to see through, and Oren wears an earring that Lumi can talk to him through when not projected.

On Earth, Oren reunites with Jupiter and kind of tries to pretend everything is fine, and he’s sorry, and they can enjoy the premiere. Jupiter assumes they are back together and Oren doesn’t dissuade him from that. They spend awkward time together with an increasingly concerned Lumi observing.

Unfortunately, during one of Jupiter’s freakouts, Jupiter told Sorrel that Oren cried the crystal tear and left it with him. Sorrel is intrigued and starts thinking about what his people, past enemies of Oren’s people, could do with that tear. Sorrel’s parents had suicide bombed a spaceship of Oren’s people and Sorrel was raised with his cousin Kana in one of his people’s traditional enclaves/kind of a cult.

Alien history interlude: Oren’s people are called Karadas, and Sorrel and Kana’s are Deyluji. In the distant past they lived on the same planet, but their people are genetically distinct from each other in some ways. They have different alien Star Trek style ears, and while the Deyluji do not produce the crystal tears, they can have some empathic/psychic abilities. Despite this, the Deyluji exploited the Karadas for a long time, waging wars against them and raiding their communities to steal children who were viable to produce the valuable mineral tears. Many horrible things happened in this history, but eventually technology reached the point where the Karadas, in desperation, and with the help of Deyluji sympathizers, created a weapon with the mineral that unintentionally destroyed the possibility of living on their planet any longer.

The surviving Karadas and Deyluji fled the devastated planet. The Deyluji settled in small communities on various habitable planetoids, and the Karadas used their newly advanced technology to create artificial satellite homes in a secret location.

The modern Deyluji are now scattered and fragmented, and while many have formed alliances with the Karadas and joined them in their goal of helping Earth and eventually settling there, there are still outposts of them that hate the Karadas, blame them for everything and deny their violent history of exploiting them.

So Sorrel was raised in an extremist cult that focused heavily on masculinity and being, mostly symbolically, warriors. (Kana is a trans woman and so left the community before Sorrel did, in order to transition and get away from the oppressive culture). Sorrel himself is asexual and so always felt awful in his community due to being unable to connect to the macho sex centered culture of his particular enclave, so when Kana invited him to come join her at the artist commune on earth he did, despite his dislike of the Karadas. He tolerates Kana’s friendship with Oren but has always expressed dislike of him for being Karadas (and of course feeling jealous and threaten by Oren’s relationship with Jupiter, who Sorrel bonded with through their shared sneakiness when Sorrel first came to earth)

Because the Deyluji do not have access any longer to the crystal minerals they once used for technological advancement, their people struggle and live in less than ideal conditions on their settled planetoids. Despite his feeling of alienation from them, Sorrel can’t stop thinking about what his people could do with even just one crystal tear from the Karadas. Knowing Jupiter has one in his possession eats at him. So he calls some frenemies he has back at the enclave and tells them Jupiter has it, and sort of has to explain he Jupiter got ahold of one. So now some Deyluji warriors know that there is an adult Karadas who produces the tears, and that a human has one of the tears. Not knowing that Oren will be coming back to earth yet, and so not knowing the danger he would be putting Oren in, Sorrel says that the warriors should come to earth and take the tear from Jupiter.

When they arrive however, they see Oren is there with Jupiter. The two warriors essentially kidnap them both into a shuttle, and begin to take them back to their planetoid. Lumi, fearing for Oren’s life, comes up with a plan and has Oren let him loose into the ship’s systems at their first chance to do so. Lumi locks the warriors into the pilot area, allowed Oren and Jupiter into escape pods, and threatens them that he will destruct the ship unless they return the tear. Lumi knows the danger of outsiders getting access to the power of the crystal and how much damage they could do if they used it to create a weapon, so this threat is serious. The warriors refuse, and as they are trying to rid their system of Lumi, Lumi tells Oren he loves him and launches Oren’s escape pod. Then he destroys the ship with his own crystal/data chip thingie inside.

Oren is completely devastated at Lumi’s self sacrifice (and literal murder of the two warriors) and goes back with Jupiter to earth in shock. He quietly leaves Jupiter, this time telling him clearly that it’s over between them, and goes home again. There he reunites with the original Lumi, who is also shocked at the turn of events, and feels very strange about losing that part of himself he sent out with Oren.

Jupiter, dumped, and essentially in withdrawals from being separated from the crystal he was obsessed with, goes into a self destructive spiral and ends up in a mental hospital care center type place. Sorrel, disgusted with everything and everyone, including himself, leaves the artist commune and goes to live in one of the free cities on earth. Kana has a successful movie premiere but feels abandoned by all her friends and her cousin. But at least she ends up dating a cool genderfluid artist named Ooma.

In space, where the ship was destroyed, the power of the crystal tears that were blown up mysteriously coalesces the data of Lumi inside their shards, and the remains of the warriors genetic material and metal components from the ship, into a humanoid cyborg being made of flesh and metal.

Part 2 - The Vote

The newly created cyborg floats in space for a while, unconscious, until a spacefaring scavenger from Earth comes across the wreckage and picks him up. He’s got a human friend who is a robot repair guy named Charlie back on Earth, so he takes the still unconscious cyborg to him.

Charlie is very puzzled by the cyborg as it clearly was not made in a traditional manner. He manages to wake him up , but he has no memories and has trouble communicating. Charlie’s robotic boyfriend Jun, who is usually spicy to everyone, takes a liking to the cyborg, naming him Silver because of his shiny metallic body (and because it’s a The Silver Metal Lover reference lol). Jun and Silver spend a lot of time together after that and Jun becomes deeply attached to him. They also do some sexy robot stuff together because ultimately this is a BL and that’s fun.

It so happens that Sorrel has settled in the same city. He spends his time alone and brooding over how everything went down with Jupiter and Oren and how he essentially got two of his own people killed and almost got his friend and his friend’s ex killed. He hasn’t really wanted anyone to die, he just wanted his people back home to have the same kind of technology the humans got from the Karadas (essentially star trek replicators and stuff). He hadn’t been thinking about how his people would probably have used the crystal tear mineral to attack the Karadas, even though he knew they were an extremist cult focused on violence and revenge. Sorrel feels very stupid and awful and begins to get a ton of traditional Deyluji tattoos all over his body.

However, he gets kicked out of the only Deyluji tattoo parlor in town due to them knowing about Kana’s transition, talking shit about her to Sorrel, and Sorrel throwing hands about it.

Sorrel finds a new tattoo artist named Suatre, who is a strange and friendly human who claims he’s a time traveler. He seems to know very little about the world he’s living in. Sorrel assumes he’s probably from a weird fringe society like himself and just accepts Suatre’s ramblings about having left everyone behind in the past and waking up here in the future. They end up dating despite Sorrel being asexual and Suatre clearly having mental health problems.

Suatre is friends with Charlie, because Charlie works across the street from Suatre’s tattoo shop, and Suatre makes friends with everyone. So it’s because of this that Sorrel meets Charlie, and by extension Jun and Silver.

When Silver sees Sorrel, his memories are triggered and he remembers everything, about being Lumi’s copy, and loving Oren and sacrificing himself for him, and also Sorrel and how it’s Sorrels fault everything happened how it did. Silver punches Sorrel and they yell at each other until Jun and Charlie drag Silver away.

The exchange eats at Sorrel, and he eventually calls Oren and tells him about Silver/Lumi.

Oren, back at home, has spent the last few months trying to fit into his people’s society and dabbling at joining the community council. And he and Lumi’s relationship has progressed, despite Oren’s feelings of guilt over losing Lumi 2.0. When he gets the call he is shocked and confused and decides to go to earth to see the robot Lumi. It doesn’t go well. Lumi feels hurt that Oren didn’t try harder to keep him from sacrificing himself, but he wants to go with Oren back home to reunite with his holographic copy. Oren, afraid his secret will come out if he shows up back at home with a strange cyborg copy of Lumi, clearly created by mystical crystal tear power. He says some wishy washy shit about it not being the right time, and how Lumi has to stay on earth for now, and Lumi is completely heart broken. He basically tells Oren he is a coward and everything is his fault and storms off.

Oren goes into Oren meltdown mode, sitting on a park bench crying. Suatre happens to see him and asks him if he’s okay. They talk and Suatre invites him over to get stoned and chill. They sort of end up flirting, Suatre says he’s in an open relationship because his partner is ace and they came to an agreement about it. But while Suatre is talking about his boyfriend, Oren realizes who he’s talking about and jumps up to leave. But oops Sorrel sees Oren leaving Suatre’s place looking all frazzled and red faced and assumes they had sex. Sorrel yells at Oren, saying something lame about Oren stealing everyone he cares about. Oren is completely done being yelled at and exits the situation to leave Suatre to clear things up with Sorrel.

Oren goes to visit Kana next, who is living at Jupiter’s mansion.

Jupiter has had a rough time. For a while he’s been at the mental hospital/care center voluntarily after dealing with self harm (the care hospital is awesome and utopian and not horrible like mental hospitals are now). There he meets a mysterious octo merman living in the hospitals ornamental Japanese garden’s pond. Somehow they connect despite the merman not seeming to understand speech and not saying anything himself. Jupiter spends time with him and feeds him burgers. The merman gives Jupiter a necklace that he’s had squirreled away somewhere in an underwater cave.

Jupiter leaves the hospital eventually and goes home. The weather gets colder and the merman doesn’t know where Jupiter went. Food becomes scarce as the merman is living secretly in the pond and the custodians of the hospital either don’t know he’s there or they ignore him. (How he got there is a mystery involving rogue mad scientists that I haven’t thought enough about yet to really explain. But they involve a human/Karadas partnership and illegal experiments with the crystal technology. )

Winter comes and the merman is getting thin. Jupiter shows up suddenly and tranquilizers the merman and takes him home and chains him up in a huge fancy fish tank in Jupiter’s huge fancy house.

Clearly all the therapy at the hospital did nothing for Jupiter. He is keeping the merman (who he names Inky because of his dark hair and sclera) because he couldn’t keep Oren.

Inky isn’t completely against it. He missed Jupiter and is now safe, warm and fed. But he isn’t free and he has a heavy collar around his neck, which is attached to a long thin chain which keeps him from being able to escape from the top of the fish tank area.

Jupiter spends all his time at home with Inky, but is sad and pathetic yet cruel in his keeping Inky captive - he clearly thinks Inky will be safer that way.

At one point, Sorrel comes over to visit and discovers Jupiter with Inky. Jupiter and Sorrel fight, Sorrel calling him sick for keeping a conscious being as an unwilling pet.

That night Jupiter goes into Inky's tank, unlocks Inky and locks his own arm to Inky's underwater chains. Inky tries so hard to save him, pulling him towards the surface but unable to get Jupiter’s head above water. Finally Jupiter loses consciousness and Inky chews Jupiter's hand off to release him from the wrist chain and to drag him out of the water. Either alarms go off at the injury detected or Kana shows up (maybe Sorrel told her to check on him) and Jupiter’s life is saved.

Jupiter goes back to the hospital and Kana stays with Inky at Jupiter's place. Eventually Jupiter starts to get better and Kana takes Inky in a wheelchair to see him. Jupiter waves sheepishly to Inky from the group therapy room he’s sitting in, and Inky sees he has a robotic arm now. Inky’s feelings are unreadable, but he slips back into the garden pond as Kana is wheeling him away, and eventually he and Jupiter begin to reconnect at the shore of the pond sometimes.

All over Earth, the Vote has begun, to decide if the Karadas aliens (and the Deyluji, who the Karadas have included in the deal) get to immigrate to earth. If they do, they will set up their alien cities in the locations where landfills and nuclear blasted sites are, or the ruins of forests which have become deserts, or other such uninhabited places. Using their tech they are able to clean all the waste and toxicity that humans have caused on the earth, and recycle it into any kind of matter they want. Their technology will be extended to humans who want it, though their printers (replicators) will not print terribly dangerous weapons. Their centers will be open to humans and their knowledge will be shared, and they will be willing to help the humans to fix their own communities and problems should they ask for the help. They will not share their crystal tears themselves though, and their children will continue to be highly sheltered and protected from outsiders until they stop crying the crystal tears at puberty.

In the city, Charlie takes Suatre around to canvas for voting yes. Charlie is part of one of many groups that take action to convince people (only humans are allowed to vote on this, no aliens or AI) to let the aliens join them on earth indefinitely. Suatre follows Charlie around, learning more about this world and the history and factions for or against the vote. Suatre also goes on a surreal road trip with Sorrel, to try and understand why he feels like he time traveled here, and to find out if he’s just crazy. This trip kind of doesn’t make any sense and Suatre ends up feeling like he’s integrated his past memories into a life he’s had in the present. He’s been dreaming of a goddess that brought him to this future, and that might take him away to another world someday. He finally, after this road trip, dreams of her again and asks her to let him stay. She agrees and Suatre wakes up feeling like he’s always been in this time, and a whole person again.

There’s a scare where people think the vote for the aliens to stay will not pass, which would cause who knows what chaos for the human race once the aliens leave and take their miraculous tech with them. Some people fall into despair. Sorrel tried to reassure Suatre by saying he can teach him to survive a societal collapse, and the takes him on a date to space (how romantic!)

However it turns out that an extremist faction of awful humans living outside the domed free cities have found a way to block peoples Yes votes. This is soon discovered and fixed. The vote passes and the people rejoice.

Silver hooks up with Jun and Charlie as a threesome and wonders what will happen if Oren moves to earth.

Oren, at home in his sattelite neighborhood, decides he doesn’t want to move to earth and starts to try and join his people’s political party. He gets cosmetic surgery to change his ears back to his normal alien ears and lets his skin become shimmery again. He’s still keeping his crystal tears a secret. Lumi and he have a weirdly kinky yet sexless relationship (despite Lumi being an AI hologram, they could do it in the virtual world, but Oren can’t handle it). He hasn’t told AI Lumi about cyborg Lumi.

Part 3 - ???

Too late I realize that I haven’t let myself think much further ahead than this.

I know Suatre and Sorrel are endgame, I see them growing old together.

Silver eventually meets Lumi and they have a really intense thing about whether or not to merge their memories now that they’ve spent so much time as separate beings, and in which direction would they merge- AI Lumi joining Silver in his robot body, or Silver losing his body and merging into Lumi’s programming? Do they merge at all? One of them really wants it and one of them is more ambivalent and they fight about it. One argument is that if they end up in a body, Oren might be less attracted to them, but does that even matter? I picture it ending with them kissing somehow lol but I go back and forth on what happens there.

Oren eventually comes out about his ability and he’s put through some kind of medical therapy to stop the tears, to burn out or remove whatever gland or something that allows it to happen.

Jupiter is rehabilitated and goes home, and eventually he is surprised by Inky, who has gotten a procedure to have human legs now, and they move in together and continue their really weird relationship.

The earth goes through many positive changes as the aliens begin to move in and settle down.

To be continued....