[center][h1][b]Tuesday 13th June, 2094
St Giles Hotel, Russell Square, London, England
1900 GMT
[/b][/h1][/center]
[color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Wide Open[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color]

[center][img]https://i.pinimg.com/736x/87/17/84/871784d7338241facaccb31dcaed7ffd.jpg[/img][/center]

[b]Soundtrack: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozPOZ5wQmhw]The Chemical Brothers - Wide Open (By The Light Of The Moon Mix)[/url]
[/b]

Cassie stared into the horizon outside of her window, the evening sky in London’s glass-framed, Bath stone-floored built up skyline, towers as high as the Shard, green infrastructure dotting the landscape and bridges across the Thames, as well as the streets. A city that felt like it was timeless below all the glass was there, warts and all, pubs and all, but it was modern, as efficient as it could be. It was the hustle and bustle in the commercial capital of the world, as well as the high-tech medical one making Cassie’s stay here a short one in the comfy hotel arranged after her visit to Harley Street. 

She was deep in thought, deep in uncertainty. Isolated here after the surgery, her new eyes were still taking some getting used to. The false horizon and trying not to fall over was weird, it was like being drugged but with the slight feel of it being like her entire brain was at a wrong angle, so laying on bed was the way to go. No fix for that sometimes, not after a procedure that decades ago, was incredibly risky. Now it was back to racing within 24 hours. A needed fix, given her last ones were giving some yip back in Monaco, so she bit the bullet and did it early rather than risk any more issues.

It felt like gently, her humanity was peeling a teeny bit out. She got the whole idea of cyberpsychosis, maybe Layla accepted her mods by leaning into it? But her, this was a whole different thing. It was voluntary, she had healthy eyes sitting in an icebox in the Inverness repository when she had it privately done, that she could have reattached and put back into her. If she wanted to go back to a slightly short-sighted pair. Now she was staring back in the mirror at X+Y Composites Viewfinder AG Spec, one of the four main brands of eyeball that pilots chose if they weren’t using the Mk1 Human Eyeball that every pilot was born with. Rather than a normal set of eyes, these were made to sustain and deal with the demands of AG racing, like a specialised helmet for F1 or other motorsports, just on absolute steroids. It made her feel superhuman. Yet it was another piece of her she was parting with to go further and further.

It was complemented by a set of drugs to get her used to it, given it paired to her neural link, a hair-thin cable running from the back of her eyes into the link’s joining point in the base of her brain, and well, changing the very nature of who she was, how she saw, how she interacted.

Flicking to a blue, her eye changed, and with it, Cassie took a moment to stare in. Was Zygon even the right call? They’d encouraged this, wanted her to do this, were they the bad guys making her change? Or was it just herself, like Dorian said? She couldn’t tell. She felt conflicted, wanting to be on the grid and wanting it all, and yet, sometimes looking at what she was and being unsure who was exactly inside. There was a lot more composite than person sometimes, Zygon made that happen perhaps in a very literal sense.

The sponsor, media, and everything else was far more demanding than Valkyrie. To think the grass was greener on the other side. It really wasn’t, and even in spite of a good result in Monaco, 5th on the board, she wondered what came next. Han had been focussed in on her own self more and more lately, her own demands from being the promised one in Korea having its own toll. Cassie wanted to help, return the favour, but couldn’t find a way how. Instead, she was in a clinic-appointed hotel, resting up on a bed, letting herself literally adjust to not being blind.

Yet it was a place on the grid. And they had funded this, and had more money, and the mods went deeper. Cassie had to admit, that was what she hated about Valkyrie. The lack of change, the lack of anything. At least…. Zygon were trying, right? She just hoped it was the right change. Maybe if Jamie got kicked out mid season, she could jump over? Or Zygon would turn around? They were talking about something in the factory, something exciting, holding works and prioritising the engineers for a long-term upgrade in design. It was hard to know if she was in the wrong place, or right. Talking to family didn’t help. It seemed uncertain. The woman that introduced Delta Hyper in Auckland, cheerfully going around sponsors, putting on a brave face was now one that was in a little bit of a mental slump, trying to put it together for what next. Home race, yet it didn’t feel even like last year, it felt like she had to just get out of this block. And no amount of chemical stimulants, or fixes in her brain were going to change the worry she had. It would just come back worse.

So maybe she was more melancholy than usual. The gently tanned skin of the redhead, her curls neatly cut short for home, and being here gave her time to unpack. More than seeing family, more than catching up with friends, just being here, alone, gave her a chance. Maybe she would do it all again. No other way out, not unless MMR or Carrera called? Then again, maybe that could have been the trick. Who knew. It felt strange, but choices were choices. And as she sighed, trying to think less about the fact that she was replacing bits again, more about the other stuff she had going on to worry about, like the Scots Pine forestry scheme next week she was visiting, or the school visits she’d begged Zygon to let her do, before then going for advertising at a Scots-Korean Whisky company and being literally their doll for a day, there was much to do and a schedule that didn’t stop. The racing, somewhere in there, also fitted in.

She felt what Harrison felt, the advocacy, the want to do good, volunteer more, get involved and while Zygon had allowed her some opportunities to look at sustainability and go out there and do more to encourage it through the team's mouthpiece, she had been stunted. Not when their profit came first. And well, reality was that they weren't in the planet saving business, they were in the everything else. She thought she could poke in, but in an organisation, particularly an eastern one as certain as they were, Cassie was now realising her hubris.

With it, she flicked through to her phone and merely had to think to project the group chat into the glass wall, leaning up against the bedframe. Doing what she did best, taking her mind off things.

[hr]


[b][center][h3][code]Tues 13/06 Formula AG Pilot Group Chat[/code][/h3][/center][/b]
[color=fff200][b]AStirling [/b][/color]
Heading out of the garage now, it is pouring it down
[color=fff200][b]Dorian[/b][/color]
Nice, we shot our piece yesterday
[color=fff200][b]Harrison[/b][/color]
So gutted to be missing out on this and the festival interview! Go go @Nelly !
[color=fff200][b]Kofi[/b][/color]
It looks so fun, super happy to see all those old cars out! That Starcross car sounds beautiful 😊 
[color=fff200][b]AStirling[/b][/color]
It really is *attached video file*
[color=fff200][b]Henry[/b][/color]
Damn that is insane! 
[color=fff200][b]Layla[/b][/color]
Pretty lovely
[color=fff200][b]Henry[/b][/color]
Weather is absolutely shit though, this is why I prefer St Kitts
[color=fff200][b]Cassie Neves [/b][/color]
Scotland is worse, much worse, and midges too
Enjoy the track, I’m over there tomorrow morning for prep
[color=fff200][b]Harrison[/b][/color]
*laughs in Australian*
[color=fff200][b]AStirling[/b][/color]
You have spiders and really scary animals that want to kill you all the time though
[color=fff200][b]Harrison[/b][/color]
This is a bad time to mention the ones the size of a cat that got made at my local uni I did a talk at?
[color=fff200][b]Jen Lowry[/b][/color]
Fuck off absolutely no
[color=fff200][b]Cassie Neves[/b][/color]
Jesus you people have something wrong with you and it isn’t sunburn
[color=fff200][b]Harrison[/b][/color]
It’s nightmare fuel but they’re making new synthetic fibres out of webs and stuff, super cool
[color=fff200][b]Jen Lowry[/b][/color]
NOOOOOO
[color=fff200][b]Kofi[/b][/color]
Better this cold rain than hurricane weather…..it is awful
[color=fff200][b]Dorian[/b][/color]
I’m enjoying being back inside now! Very soaked, no canopy on the roof, all my gear is sodden *picture of soaked replica 1980s era racing suit*
[color=fff200][b]Astrid[/b][/color]
You know there are more modern composites? That GoreUltra stuff is the best when outside, I swear it’s made of more than just nanites, it’s got magic in it
[color=fff200][b]Harrison[/b][/color]
It is the best
[color=fff200][b]Ava Villarosa[/b][/color]
Someone has lots of money, I want to go buy some more so so bad
[color=fff200][b]Jamie[/b][/color]
Such Gorpcore 
[color=fff200][b]Astrid[/b][/color]
Someone wants to throw the 30s look on
[color=fff200][b]Wedge[/b][/color]
Ideas on pubs with good food for me and my folks on Monday? I keep coming here all the time but never actually went to a proper British sit-in
[color=fff200][b]Jen Lowry[/b][/color]
The Fox Inn in Farthinghoe has an incredible setup, they have really good shepherds pie with artificial lamb shanks
[color=fff200][b]Dorian[/b][/color]
Lmao you English are so funny you can’t have a village called Farthinghoe
[color=fff200][b]Astrid[/b][/color]
“oh la la fartinghoe”
[color=fff200][b]Jamie[/b][/color]
I heard this being said
[color=fff200][b]Astrid[/b][/color]
You are Canadian, no?
[color=fff200][b]Dorian[/b][/color]
*shots fired*
[color=fff200][b]Kofi[/b][/color]
That’s America
[color=fff200][b]Ava Villarosa[/b][/color]
They banned most guns 20 years ago to be fair, that joke is dead
[color=fff200][b]Astrid[/b][/color]
Dead like the uhhh…..
[color=fff200][b]Wedge[/b][/color]
Holy shit this is getting out of packet
[color=fff200][b]Astrid[/b][/color]
You are out of packet
[color=fff200][b]Ava Villarosa[/b][/color]
In all seriousness, that sounds lovely, thanks Jenny, I might go there!
[color=fff200][b]Dorian[/b][/color]
Fuck you @Astrid, gonna miss your shit talking 😉
[color=fff200][b]Astrid[/b][/color]
I am bored again sorry
[color=fff200][b]Layla[/b][/color]
We can tell.
[color=fff200][b]Cassie Neves[/b][/color]
 Apart from Astrid being her usual self; PSA, when you’re modifying X+Y optics, be really careful when adjusting the dilution in the lens, it’s really horrid and I was quite ill over it
[color=fff200][b]Wedge[/b][/color]
Yeah I just had some fitted earlier this year and man is it weird, real upgrade from the last ones I had fitted two years ago before coming into Formula AG
[color=fff200][b]Layla[/b][/color]
Welcome to the fake eyeballs club
There’s the Novafite supplement that helps you get into it, take a stronger dose than they warn you because if you have the AG spec neural link it’ll need more of the biochemical building blocks to do the work, not that I should be telling you….I know how much it sucks to begin with when you’re getting into them but it stops you from getting fake horizons all the time when you start until your brain binds into that- the advantages are great though long term, self adjusting, neural link display comes through really nicely, I don’t use X+Y anymore (can’t say which I use but they are INCREDIBLE) but like the adjustable colouring on them particularly and would recommend to anyone, family / friends too. Lot of X+Y clinics in Jordan that do good business with yours truly still being on the old advertising 😊 
[color=fff200][b]AStirling[/b][/color]
Nerd
[color=fff200][b]Cassie Neves[/b][/color]
Thanks Layla, I’ll try that!
[color=fff200][b]Layla[/b][/color]
No problem! I do my best, for all of you I’m a guinea pig anyway :P 
@AStirling How to the gills are you again? I mean, I’ll trade you my liver for those arms of yours!
[color=fff200][b]AStirling[/b][/color]
It’s fine thanks, got a new filter and it works so nicely. Arms are still something you won’t see on market for a long time, go make your own 😉 
[color=fff200][b]Ava Villarosa[/b][/color]
I have discovered you can hide stuff in the new legs, it’s actually mostly hollow. Yes, I didn’t change my walking ones for ages, you’ll all laugh but it is new to me!
[color=fff200][b]Harrison[/b][/color]
You guys like ripping yourselves up? I prefer not shoving more hardware into myself, bone marrow stuff was very painful / intrusive but I’m enough 😊 
[color=fff200][b]Dorian[/b][/color]
You should have had it 20 years ago, that stuff back then HURT! It was horrible, I only had it redone five years ago and it’s insane how far it’s come along
[color=fff200][b]Layla[/b][/color]
Can’t have painful marrow if you have no limb
@Ava Villarosa wait until you’re mostly hollow! I don’t even need a suitcase anymore, that and adaptive clothing!
[color=fff200][b]Dorian[/b][/color]
https://consequence.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/chemical-brothers-beck-wide-open-video-watch.png
Layla be like:
[color=fff200][b]Astrid[/b][/color]
Yeah I mean fair enough but I’m just waiting on the moment we get synthetic bodies. @Layla when?
(Also, @Kais you're already there, I'm talking occupancy)
[color=fff200][b]Layla[/b][/color]
Damn, rumbled me :D I’m an android all along!
@Dorian Classic Chemical Brothers. Actually my inspiration for becoming more synthetic, I ADORE that 3D printed, wireframe pattern. Came extremely close to using that instead of some of my designs.
@Astrid careful he does have feelings, and he will be judging you a lot more after you know what so careful ;) 
[color=fff200][b]Ava Villarosa[/b][/color]
The factory androids can’t poke back as much you do so I’ll believe you’re human 😊 
[color=fff200][b]AStirling[/b][/color]
For now!
[color=fff200][b]Cassie Neves[/b][/color]
@Bea I'm in London btw, sitting in St Giles Hotel at Russell Square- I can almost see your gaff from here (when these eyes sort themselves out)
[color=fff200][b]AStirling[/b][/color]
I can be there in like an hour?
[color=fff200][b]Dorian[/b][/color]
Aww British friends

@Paul want to get a drink in that pub Jen recommended?
[color=fff200][b]Layla[/b][/color]
None for me and @Kais, the ship has issues and he has a show run in that Porsche tomorrow