Xaviers!

Natalie, in the flesh and blood, is seated at one of the cafe tables, sipping on coffee and making notes in a notebook as she watches people wander back and forth on their business. She adjusts her hair back behind one ear and sketches somewhat earnestly in the notebook.

((Open))

"Hey..." comes an awkward voice from behind Natalie before Shari steps up to the table, awkwardly standing next to one of the empty chairs. Her appearance is that of an intentionally forgettable looking girl, features moving and changing as they fade from smooth white skin to green with a smattering of scales, chin folding into distinct clefts as her ears push through her dark hair.

"Hey," Natalie says, almost as awkwardly, though less awkwardly than the Natalie of the recent past. She flips the notebook shut, but not before Shari can catch a glimpse of dashed notes on one page and several sketches of what looks like pieces of a robot on the facing page. "I wasn't sure you were still around. Want to sit?"

She gives a curt nod as she pulls out the chair and sits down, hands in her lap.

"I'm pretty good at blending in. Thought about leaving. Go on a - what do you call it - road trip? Woulda felt shitty though."

"Why so? You would have been doing something you wanted to do, right?" Natalie manages to mostly slide her apprehension about Shari maybe leaving off her face, but not totally.

"I dunno. Maybe." she says, followed by bit of an awkward silence.

"But, like... then what?"

"Point. Seems to be a bit of 'then what' going around," Natalie says, fidgeting at first and then trying to keep her hands busy by sipping her coffee.

"Right. Yeah. I dunno... I got friends here. Kind of. More so than I've ever really had before. Even after screwing that up it's more than I got waiting for me out there, I guess." she says with a crooked smile.

Natalie smiles back, a little relief creeping into the expression, "I'm glad. That you're staying. I like having you around." Was she babbling?

"Plus it feels like I owe it to..." she stops and makes a strange face for a moment. "I don't know her real name." Her features change again, green alien skin sinking into brown, eyes fading from mottled yellow to a light hazel. "Her Shape led me here, before it fell away and I remembered. I... think that's why I got so mad at how you're just going from one body to the other like it's no big deal. Cause maybe it's not. For you."

"Ah," Natalie says, momentarily not sure how to approach this. "It's... different for me. And I know it seems like everyone says that to justify themselves. But I am sorry that I hurt you."

"I think it's because it's machines. Or maybe cause you're human. But probably the machine thing. And I don't think I did a good job explaining or trying to understand."

"I think..." Natalie sips her coffee to give herself time to think. "I think I'm getting used to the idea that 'me' is 'me', whether I'm in this body, or a robot frame, or just hanging out in the Point's network. Professor Terrance and I have been talking a lot about that."

"And I'm not. Or... I am but it's complicated. It changes. I can be who I feel like being and I can feel like my shape feels like. Who I am is never quite the same. And I didn't want you to change, cause I like that you. But you're always that you, even when you're in a computer, because Humans aren't like Skrulls and if you discard a body it's not the same."

"I could forget about this shape, abandon it." she says, glancing down at her Middle-Eastern self. "And with some I do cause they're boring or not important or I just made them up and that's okay. But some of them are important to me. And this one... Somebody died for this one."

Natalie watches her for a bit, obviously not sure what to say. Finally she slides a hand palm up across the table, "Then you be you, Shari. Whether that's Skrull, or a young woman from the Middle East, or a massive otter. You be what you feel you need to be when you need to be it. I may not understand it, but I certainly cannot judge you for it."

"I think I just tried to hard to make you understand, cause I thought you'd be all... beep-boop robot if I didn't and you'd lose the You I like or that you'd be too much like my parents who don't give a shit about throwing away a shape that used to be a person when they're done with it or I dunno..." she says, sliding her hand on top of Natalie's, turning scaly and green again as she does.

"I can't say I wouldn't recycle a robot frame if it was more effective than repairing it, but it's also not... a person. The only thing that would be sacrificed was the original time spent to build it." She squeezed Shari's hand, "But I'm even keeping this squishy one around because it has its uses."

"You're so weird..." Shari laughs softly, making it sound like a strange kind of compliment.

"Helps to be a bit weird when you're trying to fit in around here," Natalie says, "And that's something I'm trying to work on."

"I mean, you're right. The whole planet's kinda odd." she smirks.

"As has been shown to me lately, even my mechanical acquaintances are odd, so I can't really argue with that assessment," Natalie says, seeming to have lost track of the fact that she's still holding Shari's hand.

Shari for her part doesn't seem to mind.

"Yeah, cause that's what I meant." she chuckles. "I'm glad you're doing better. I was more harm than good, huh..."

"No, I don't think I'd say that," Natalie ponders, "I think you were just something I wasn't ready for."

"Are you now?" she asks, briefly glancing down at their hands and brushing her thumb against the back of Natalie's hand.

"I think... I'm up for seeing where it might go." She bites her lip, "The question is, are you okay with me being... well... me?"

"I think so." she nods. "And it's fine if you need to hang out or hide in a robot as long as you don't disappear into it..."

"I can only promise to do my best. I have no illusions about being perfect."

"Nothing's ever 'perfect'. That's a dumb word anyway."

"So how do we start this? Dinner?"

"I know all the good places. Curry, shawarma. The really great ones are in London though..."

Natalie seems to ponder for a moment, "So we go to London. It's not that long a ride, right?"

"Like an hour or so?"

"That's not too bad. And I can go in a body that doesn't require plugging in, so you won't have to worry about finding an outlet." She grinned at Shari.

"It's amazing how eating provides the same thing and it's not boring." she laughs.

"There is something to be said for having non-mechanical sense every once in a while."

"How's that even look like? The mechanical ones. Is it like having TVs strapped to your eyeballs?"

"Not really? But I think it's probably different for me. I interpret the information they provide me much the way my brain interprets the information my eyes are gather, or at least that's my guess."

"That makes sense. Brains are smart like that."

"When they're not being dumb, yes," she says with a laugh.

"That's just when you use it wrong." she nods.