Child of a Dead Empire:

You splash your face with water and sigh. You felt so out of place among these Tagarans. Any second now, it felt like one of them would suddenly see through you and scream out at you. They would descend upon you and- no, best not to think about it. You look down at the remains of your water ration, knowing that you would have to drink this if you used too much of it. Granted, your implants would filter it to pure water by the time it hit your system... but you still didn't want to do it.

A girl ran by, laughing and pulling at the pigtails of another girl her age. They were so innocent, but also alien to you. When you looked at them, you didn't see data tags or the thin veener of cybernetics beneath their skin. Their skin was unusually smoothed, not marked and lined like the faces you were used to. Then again, your own face was much the same, now.

"Jeanne?" You turn to the voice automatically, the Mask you had wrapped yourself in knowing the name more than you did at this point, but you can't help but smile at the owner.

"Sigmund." You tilt your head. "Have a good day?"

---

It is not required for this side story, but you can read the previous threads here: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=COADE
On votes with three or more options (not including Write-In), you can designate another option as your second choice. This helps increase the accuracy of votes, but don't force yourself to add one if you legitimately lack one. You have to specifically mark an option as your second choice for it to be counted as one.
Please feel free to ask questions- I am happy to provide setting trivia that isn't relevant in the narrative. If you ask a pertinent question, though, I will generally answer it in an update.

THE THREAD WAS UP BEFORE MIDNIGHT SO TECHNICALLY IT STILL COUNTS