As Quinn scrolled through her phone, she could hardly believe her eyes just how much people were talking about her. How much garbage they were spewing. There were some things that made her wince, like all the speculation attached to the duel and Roaki. There were some things that made her roll her eye, like the three different eyepatches, none of which actually looked like her eyepatch. There were some things that made her chuckle, and she tapped on the link for the pilot quiz. She'd take it later and see if she got herself or Deelie, or...or Safie. 

Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

And there were some things that made her eye shoot open in sheer astonishment at the audacity. [color=FFE63D][i]Secret relationship? Fad diets? Product endorsements I've never seen? [b]Born on the MOON?[/b][/i][/color] She kept scrolling, and the results grew wilder and wilder. Until, finally, she saw it.

[i][u]Locke and Sansean Loughvein...[/u][/i] And just like that, they had [i]names.[/i]

Locke and Sansean.

And they were...they might be...they could be...dead? They might have died in Hovvi?

Even imagining was...completely alien. Just...just the [i]idea[/i] that mom and dad were...[i]dead?[/i] Even now, it felt like breaking some kind of universal law. They had been her whole world, her whole reality, for so many years. It was almost hard to fit it into her brain. And something else smacked into her brain along with it, forcing itself in. Like a punch to the face, a lightning bolt to the chest, sending her reeling. Her breathing hitched. No. That had to be wrong.

Deep, [i]sharp[/i] breath. 

Hand shaking more, she reached back up to the search field. Missed it at first, scrolling past meaningless articles. When her trembling fingers reached, she typed in, [i]Sansean and Locke Loughvein.[/i]

Article after article filled the screen. Those about her came first, of course. But they were few and far between as she scrolled down, met with something else entirely.

[i][u]Genius Modiologists Presumed Dead?[/u][/i]

[i][u]Loughveins Missing After the Hovvi Disaster[/u][/i]

[i][u]Still No Word From Loughveins in Wake of Quinnlash's Duel and Absence - Are They Still Alive?[/u][/i]

More and more, and each one she read delivered that same bolt to her chest. She stared at the screen for another moment, then tossed it to the floor and dropped her head into her hands.

She hated her parents. She knew she hated them. They'd done awful things to her for reasons she didn't understand and the search had made no clearer. They'd kept her locked up in one room for her whole life. Fed her poison. By all rights, she hated them with every fiber of her being. The thought of them dead should satisfy her, and she felt [color=black]Quinnlash[/color]'s satisfaction and even glee, certainly.

So why, then did that that bolt strike her? Did that thought punch her in the face?

Why did the thought of them dying make her so [i]sad?[/i]

And at that thought, her confusion and frustration found their voice and she let out a raw scream, letting her palms muffle it and dull the sharp edges:

"[color=ffe63d][i]Why do I care?![/i][/color]"