We're back in the hotel room that our fantastic duo are staying at. Mako, having sufficiently gorged herself on shrimp, was taking a nap to try and sleep off the calories. Ika, always the Insomniac of the two, took the time to herself - it had been a little too long since she was left alone. She found her earpiece that Velvet had given to her, put it on her ear, and tapped the small chip on it. She stepped inside the closet, as to not wake her partner. A static. The familiar voice of the captain came in. "Hello, this is Velvet." "Hi, Vel, it's Ika... right? Yeah." "Oh, hi! You know the mission's not until a while, though, right?" "I'm aware. I just... wanted to talk to you. Nothing's wrong, just curious about a couple of things." "Sure. Shoot." Ika took a second to collect her thoughts. "I didn't read the whole case file on Era. Did it say anything about... his parents?" "Not really, no. Why do you ask? Did they mean something to you?" "I... I think so? You know me, some things I remember truthfully, and some seems to be alien to everyone else. I just wanted to see if a memory of mine lined up with reality." "And that would be...?" Ika took the time to reposition herself and sit down on the floor of the closet, careful not to touch the walls with her shoes. "Well... supposedly, my father had blue hair, and my mother had blonde. I didn't know my father, though... when I was born out of the ground, he was so happy for me that he..." Ika paused, just to prepare herself. She took a deep breath. "He exploded. An outburst, of the most literal degree." Ika heard some typing. Velvet was muttering to themselves. "_{Blue hair... Cyclone family...} Sorry, I'm just looking something up. I'm sorry to hear about your father, though." "It's... fine. Never really knew him. Or my mother, either. I..." Ika shook her head to try and avoid tears. "Well, clearly I didn't have a normal childhood. Wish I had. Anyways, you find anything?" Rustling of some papers. The roll of small wheels in a desk cabinet. "You'll have to give me a second, Ika, this has been a cold case for a while. Not sure if we-" Velvet more hurriedly looked through files. "Hm. Do you know a Mazki?" Ika's eyes widened. "I think so? Not much, but... that name sounds familiar. What do you have on her?" "Not much, unfortunately... Blonde hair, yep, sounds right... definitely Human, but other than that, she's disappeared quite a while ago. Nobody knows what she did or where she went. She's the poster child of missing people." Ika closed her eyes. "Oh... I was just thinking, cause... well, does The Lady have blonde hair?" "Ika, just because two people have the same hair color, doesn't mean they're the same person. We can change our hair whenever we want, anyone can." "Sorry... I know it's stupid, I just feel like there has to be something important about that. It's maybe because none of our friends really knew their parents." "I know my parents. Well, we don't speak much, but they're nice people." "Yeah, but..." Before continuing, she creaked open the door of the closet. Mako was still fast asleep on the bed. She closed it quietly. "Mako didn't know her folks too well either, Toby said he was abandoned in the desert, and Edgie? They were born from a cauldron. Maybe it's just a desire to know more about my life, but at this rate... I don't even know anymore. I just want to do good and be forgiven, for whatever I did." "Forgiven?" Velvet talked as if Ika had said something horrible. "Ika, the case has been dead for aeons. Era's assumed dead." "I-I know, but... I was part of that case. I was him, wasn't I? Everyone deserves to know what happened, I feel." This time, Velvet sighed over the line. "If that's what you believe is right, Ika. But, mission first, exposing second, alright?" "I understand. Just needed a second opinion. I'll keep the piece in my ear, just let me know when it's time." "Understood. Signing out." A small zap was heard, indicating that the call ended. Ika stepped out of the closet - probably for the second time in her life. Mako was still fast asleep, not really mumbling, but not really snoring much either. Just to be sure, Ika put two fingers on her neck, feeling for pulses, veins. Still beating. Ika could join her, but again, she wasn't much of a sleeper. Wouldn't want to abandon her either, in case she woke up - Ika didn't want another coffee incident. Ika sat on the bed, next to her lover. She always wore that same smile, day in, day out - even while sleeping, she could still see it. It was so endearing, so alluring... Ika toyed with the idea of giving her a kiss while under the <font color="#e64539"><u>Spell</u></font>, but decided just to smooch her on the cheek, just a little bit. Hm, what else to do. Ika took a look outside... same strange town, always in the dark. Colorful, but... an apt metaphor for everyone's knowledge about everything, she thought. The neon still flowed through the streets in their own gutted pipes, something resembling printer ink - if printer ink was something that was real, and not just something dreamt up by her subconscious. Becoming further bored, she located her backpack and rifled through it... Aha! A book she was reading on the basics of the Synths. She didn't remember exactly where she got it - probably while she was at base. But, this would help her from drowning in her thoughts for too long. She opened it to where the bookmark was - well, it was more of an index card with an arrow drawn on it in pencil - and began to read. ``` 3.4 - The Creation Process Unlike most other races, who usually involve the elements in some way, the creation of Synths is, by nessecity, very artificial. If two parents would like to have a child, they must submit valid samples of their own material to base the child off of - for this purpose, spit is collected from the Huma, or oil is collected from the Robo. From there, the material is combined via a lengthy process of infusion, combination, then construction. Only Huma may produce a child with another Huma, and likewise with Robo and themselves. This keeps the race pure - anything else is considered a mistake, known as a Cyber. ``` Ika wished she didn't have to read that slur. And to mention it so casually too... Though, she found it strange that she *objected* to it. Or that she knew what a slur was at all. No other person she knew had a specific, derogatory way to refer to them... Okay, maybe if she went through everything she would consider a slur... No, it's just the cyborgs. *Only* the cyborgs. This somehow made it worse for her. Ika decided to just lie down for now. Could sleep, but again... probably best to just zone out until Velvet called upon them for their [[Plan]].