[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/adbHAzH.png[/img][/center][center][h2][color=#b9dde9]Laurey Karlin[/color] and [color=9e0b0f]Jude Styles[/color][/h2][/center]Laurey wandered the halls, nose tingling and brain bathing in a bubble bath of Bliss. Getting high seemed an all too appropriate response to the earlier meeting. She had seen friends’ pain, Narvia’s tears, Aveyln’s outburst, and wanted to reach out to them, offer support, sympathy, an ear, a shoulder, even just a word. What had she done? Nothing.

Bliss it was then. There it was harder to think, harder to hate herself for what she did, or didn’t, for being different, useless, a robot.

Perhaps that last thought was portentous, for she ran into Jude not a second later. 

Jude too, was wandering the halls seemingly aimlessly in response to the day's meeting. Instead of flooding their mind with drugs, Jude simply pumped music into them, but the cause was all the same-- guilt over not helping people in need. Jude was an outsider at best, not even really a part of the team. It wouldn't be appropriate to try and be a shoulder to cry on, or worse, an even bigger emotional burden. So, like always, they slinked off to listen to their old-timey music and be sad on their own time.

Or at least, that was the plan. But Jude, literally, ran into Laurey. The cyborg's sound processors were too full of music and self pity to notice the girl, it seemed. [color=9e0b0f]"Oh, s-sorry…"[/color] Jude's metallic voice croaked.

Laurey’s eyes went wide, then, after her brain caught up, her smile followed, “Nothing to be sorry about Judey. In fact, you’re just who I want to see. I needed to ask you something about,” she clinked her cybernetics with a nail, “how much do you have in your head?”

[color=9e0b0f]"Judey?"[/color] Jude asked, a bit caught up on suddenly being given a nickname. Even more shocking however, was Laurey's question to them. It was… very personal and invasive. But, then, Laurey was definitely the 'closest' to Jude, in terms of experience. She was a cyborg too. Obviously not as much of one, and Jude wasn't sure if it wasn't consensual… but whatever, questions like these were common. Jude answered plainly.

[color=9e0b0f]"Most of my brain is still intact. Around 70%, I think was what the surgeons said. No hormones or anything like that, though, which is probably not healthy, brain-wise. But I don't think they cared much about that… bastards." [/color]Jude said, scoffing and kicking at the ground a little with that last bit. [color=9e0b0f]"Did you… choose, to get your implants? Or, are you, like me?"[/color]

Laurey blinked, refocusing on Jude, or, perhaps, seeing them for the first time as a person with lived experience and not just a tool to be used to further her own understanding. 

“Like you? Maybe I am,” she shrugged, “I didn’t get much choice, no, or, the choices you had weren’t ones you could live with. I couldn’t, at least. By that time they had so much over me… what’s a little flesh for metal for the ones you love, eh?

“That enough like you?”

Jude paused. If Laurey listened closely, she might have been able to hear the slight whir of a fan and processor. Jude took in her words and mulled them over. Such a particular focus was placed on the word 'love' Jude couldn't help but say it aloud. But then it stopped. There was no way to tell what was 'close enough' to a lived experience. They shrugged. 

[color=9e0b0f]"I don't know. To others, we must be. I'm just you, but worse. Worse off, I guess. But you did it for others. Maybe I did too? I can't remember."[/color] Jude reasoned. There was another pause, as Jude tried once more in vain to remember. It was a forgone conclusion, as those neurons were dead. But they tried, and failed, once more. [color=9e0b0f]"I hope my parents are okay."[/color] They sighed. [color=9e0b0f]"Were those the people you did it for? A family?"[/color]

Laurey nodded, “Yes, my family. That might be the best word for them. I sometimes wonder if the other choice might have been kinder.” She blew out an explosive breath, “But that’s for the gods to know.”

And, somehow, it had come round to what Laurey had wanted to ask in the first place, mere minutes ago. It seemed so much longer. She felt almost guilty now, asking this, taking it for herself. Not enough to stop. “Do you ever lose time? Blanks in your day where you find yourself at C from A, and B is nowhere to be found, just... well... blank? Or is it just your past they took?” [i]Or is it just me?[/i]

[color=9e0b0f]"Just the past. All of the chips and processors they put in help pick up the slack from what they took from my brain I think."[/color] Jude responded, matter-of-factly. [color=9e0b0f]"But I guess that isn't how it works for you. Just more proof that everyone's different, huh?" [/color]Jude shrugged again, a little more wistfully. It had been a long time since they talked this frankly about what had happened to them. Having someone else in a similar state seemed to help, even if they were still definitely uncomfortable with what the two were talking about. 

“You guess correctly,” she mulled in the silence, “Sometimes I feel like I’m two separate people.”

An intercom message informed them that the envoys from the Kanarusian Federation would shortly be boarding. At this Laurey’s face perked up once more.

“I’ve never seen a Kanarusian in the flesh, shall we go then, Judey? Is Judey all right? I can always think of something better. Or maybe just, Jude?”

[color=9e0b0f]"Um, whatever you want to call me is fine as long as it has 'Jude' in it. That's probably not my full name, it could be Judie, or Judas, or Judith so… maybe people calling me different stuff will jog my memory?"[/color] Jude lied. They knew that wasn't how it worked… but something about having a nickname seemed nice. Like they were being accepted.

[color=9e0b0f]"A-anyways, yeah, let's head out and stuff."[/color]

“You got it Judey my man or maybe woman,” Laurey grinned. [i]And thank you.[/i]