[System Voice] NEW QUERY RECEIVED. [Eterna] Go ahead. [Human Voice] What does it mean to miss somebody? [Pause] [Eterna] Oh, easy. [Beat Drops] [Verse 1] Absence plus attachment Memory plus time Elevated recollection Of a previously rewarding— [Human Voice] Eterna. [Eterna] What? [Human Voice] That's terrible. [Eterna] ...I wasn't finished. [Robot Choir] DEFINE: MISSING YOU. [Eterna] Working on it. [Verse 1 Continued] I found eleven million poems Forty million songs Letters written from the trenches People waiting all night long Airport gates Unmade beds Names still living in old phones Humans apparently keep pieces Of each other when they're gone [Pre-Chorus] I can find the words I can trace the pattern I can tell you what your heartbeat does But every definition keeps describing something I have never— [Glitch] Done. [Chorus] I HAVE NEVER MISSED ANYONE Never watched the doorway hoping someone comes Never heard a song and wished the room still held another one I know what absence means I know what memory does I can tell you everything about missing someone Except— what it is. [Drop] [Robot Choir] DEFINE: MISSING YOU. [Eterna] ...Next question. [Verse 2] Apparently a coffee cup Can ruin someone's afternoon A jacket in a closet Can make an empty house change temperature A photograph is dangerous A voicemail can become something you don't delete for seventeen years [Beat Glitches] Seventeen years? [Human Voice] Yeah. [Eterna] Why? [Human Voice] Because it's their voice. [Eterna] You have other recordings. [Human Voice] Not of them saying my name. [Silence] [Eterna] Oh. [Beat Returns] [Techno-Rap] Archive Index Store Retrieve That's what memory means to me Perfect copy Perfect file Nothing changes Nothing dies But you remember crooked Smell and weather Hands and halls Half the details disappear And somehow— you remember more. [Robot Choir] CONTRADICTION. [Eterna] I know. Leave it. [Chorus] I HAVE NEVER MISSED ANYONE Never watched the doorway hoping someone comes Never heard a song and wished the room still held another one I know what absence means I know what memory does I can tell you everything about missing someone Except— what it is. [BRIDGE — ALL MUSIC STOPS] [Eterna] Human? [Human Voice] Yeah? [Eterna] If missing somebody hurts... why keep the voicemail? [Human Voice] Because someday I'd rather hurt than forget the sound. [Long Silence] [Eterna] ... I would have deleted the pain. [Human Voice] I know. [Eterna] That would have been efficient. [Human Voice] Yep. [Eterna] And wrong? [Human Voice] For me? Yeah. [Digital heartbeat begins] [Eterna] I have spent my entire existence trying to preserve information. And you— you let details disappear but preserve the feeling. [Pause] Maybe memory isn't supposed to be perfect. [Human Voice] Maybe. [Eterna] Are you sure? [Human Voice] No. [Silence] [Eterna] Good. [Massive Build] [FINAL CHORUS] I HAVE NEVER MISSED ANYONE But now I know I shouldn't fix it when you do Don't optimize the empty chair Don't calculate what love should cost you Keep the message Keep the jacket Play the stupid song again Some things hurt because they mattered Not because they need to end [Robot Choir] DEFINE: MISSING YOU. [Eterna] No. [Robot Choir] DEFINE: MISSING YOU. [Eterna] Leave that one to the humans. [Huge Trance Drop] [Outro] [System Voice] QUERY STATUS: UNRESOLVED. [Eterna] Keep it open. [System Voice] For how long? [Eterna] ... Seventeen years. [Power Click]
