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[persisto]

@ JOYCE.B
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room #025; bunk 38 (formerly with Mrs. Sheringham)
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[bluecircuit]

[The concern she's showing puts Nebula off-balance, looking unsure out of both eyes. Although the left eye is not her original, but a bionic one.]

I am fine... [not really at all fine.] but annoyed with these constant network issues. [She's used to her memories being used by her father to sift through at his leisure, this is not quite to that level but it still leaves her unsettled.]

[persisto]

[sounds fake but okay??

Joyce does nod, still frowning, lower lip sucked just briefly between her teeth.]

Definitely getting worse again. You here the first time it was shooting things all over the place?

[bluecircuit]

Shooting things? No. I don't believe so. [Nebula looks confused and maybe, just maybe, a bit concerned.] I've only just arrived.

[persisto]

Ah. Well. This guy-- [an absent little tap at the screen, as if somehow that will indicate the strange hybrid Perseus-slash-message-machine that she's got her head 90% (maybe 75%) of the way around (maybe 66%)] --has gotten mixed up before and probably will again. I'd try not to worry about it.

[But speaking of worrying.]

You settling in okay?

[bluecircuit]

[Try not to worry about it? Easier said than done. There's no telling what it might decide to send out next, considering with the nanites the ship likely had access to all the data on her synaptic drive. All her memories. It's unsettling, to say the least.]

I am alright... [Except she looks very uncertain as she says that.] As well as anyone here, I'm sure. I don't wish to be here.

[persisto]

Fair enough. But... there's stages of that.

[Without a clear end point, for better or worse.]

You get to a point where it's a little easier to breathe through it.

[bluecircuit]

I do not wish to reach a point where I am complacent with my circumstances. I did not cast off the chains of my father to be held captive by a ship.

[persisto]

[--first things first]

Not so great with your dad?

[bluecircuit]

Adopted father. He murdered my real parents and half my planet. Then made me this-- [She turns her head to emphasize the ocular implant and lifting her cybernetic arm into the frame.]

So. No. Not great.

[persisto]

Oh-- hon.

[Is "hon" better than "kiddo?" Hopefully.]

Is-- [Her fingers lift to her own face, touching thoughtlessly just below her own left eye.] --does it hurt?

[bluecircuit]

[This reaction and the mothering is very weird to her. But it's so honest that it's hard for Nebula to sneer at it. So instead she just looks uncomfortable, not looking directly into the video feed.] There is not a moment where I am not in pain. But it is a reminder that I am in fact... alive.

[persisto]

[Another soft little noise, less "kid" or "love" and more just an instinctive protective thing.]

Quite the way of looking at it. Good on you.

[bluecircuit]

Thank you. [She manages the barest of smiles at the compliment.]

What is your name?

[persisto]

Gotta call 'em like you see 'em.

[There's an instinctive half-shift in the instinct to offer a hand. Video calls are still a little fuzzy, apparently.]

Joyce. What's yours?

[bluecircuit]

Nebula. [She peers into the video feed.] You're Terran? Human? Seems most people on this ship are.

[persisto]

[A small thing, but it makes her smile.] Definitely human. We-- call ourselves "Earthlings," I guess, out here in the cosmos.

[Although honestly? "Terran" sounds way cooler.]

What about you?

[bluecircuit]

My planet was Luphom. But I haven't been there since I was stolen from it... [She's not sure she'd be welcome back, considering what she'd become and the reputation she'd gained as a Daughter of Thanos.]

[persisto]

Luphom. [Repeating it won't make it stick, but it won't hurt.] So you used to--

[The camera veers slightly as she lifts one hand to wave at the space around her. The lowest tech is still a little beyond her, here.]

--all this sort of thing?

[bluecircuit]

[Her head tilts at Joyce's gesture around her.] Spacetravel? Yes. It is normal for me.

[persisto]

Oh, good!

[There isn't a huge amount of good news these days. This is worth letting her face light up over, at least a little bit.]

One less thing to have to get used to while you're here.