[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/NISMglX.png[/img][/center][center][h2][color=#b9dde9]Laurey Karlin[/color][/h2][/center]In the tense lull between Natasha scrambling after Nero and the stomach inverting lurch of a Spacewarp, Laurey’s eyes settled upon Narvia, and her runaway brain tripped over a discarded observation and fired her thoughts before she could censor them.

“Congratulations Little Lady. Enjoy it,” she mimed checking a watch, an outdated yet enduring gesture, “We’ve only got about three minutes left anyway.”

But they didn’t. 

[b]They jumped.[/b]



The acid that stung and tasted vile was not nearly as bad as the nausea Laurey felt. It didn’t fade, but lingered, like cobwebs. Or oil. At that point she realised she had laid a hand upon Klein’s shoulder for support, having stumbled forward. She squeezed it, trying to play it off as intentional but her weakness turned it into some weird caress. She flinched back, as though burned.

“Alright boyo, you heard the captain,” sweat was beading on her brow. Not just nerves. How long since her last hit? Should her heart sound like a rotor blade in her ear? “Let’s move.” 

[b]They walked.[/b]

“As the catalyst for the sweep of our crew, it just seems right that you’re the first, no? Don’t worry, I won’t tell if you have weird stuff on your devices. Well, not too many people at least. But Avelyn man, oh boy,” Laurey shook her head with sage sadness, “I heard that if you resist she has to try harder and harder, until your jelly just leaks right out of your ear.”



[b]They were poor.[/b] 

Poorer. Laurey didn’t much feel like telling everyone just how much she’d spent on drugs; narcs, man.

The stock thing had sent a message, that was the important part, that was what served the cause.

Kanarusian, useful. Laurey was going over the documents when Moonstrike's final remark stunned her. Realist. Gone. When? Emptiness opened inside her, a cold dark hole in her chest. The ambrosia she’d tasted, that purging fire in her mind, she knew she craved that like a drug, divine, certainly, but just pleasure flushing through her brain all the same. It was the purpose that had come, like a blanket over the soul, that sense that there was something worth working towards, that total lack of doubt. That was more. It was a threadbare dream now, eaten by the waking world. 

But surely it was all part of the Great Plan, right? Realist left without a word for a [i]reason.[/i]

“Tell Realist I say hi too!” Laurey chirped at Moonstrike, unsure if it was even still there. Yes, everything would be A-okay.

She spun to Klein, cracked grin and outstretched hands, “Hand ‘em over then.”