Deyha plodded along the track beside me, matg my agonizingly slow pace as we made steady progress on the sed p of the day.

  A question wahrough my mind and out my mouth before I could sider w, "Do you miss it, the time before you modded?"

  Deyha took a long breath and sighed. "Yes and no. Sometimes I miss being able to walk without g noises, and when I didn't have a scary tail that set people on edge."

  "Is there no going back?"

  "There is. I could, but I won't."

  "Pros outweigh the s?"

  "Precisely." She kicked a pebble out of the way of my walking aid and theuro my side.

  "What made you choose the chimera mods?"

  "I didn't. I was modded before a lot of the protes were in pce."

  "Yikes. And you're keeping them?"

  "Yep. Almost as much out of spite as anything." Deyha k and picked up one of the pebbles she had been kig. It was graceful, a perfectly banced and fluid one-leg squat, and then she was walking again. "The thing about bat mods is they are illegal to create now. And any ges I would make now would be sidered creating. It's not even that I'm hardcore itted to being u's the venom. It's wicked valuable, and nothing on the p synthesize it like I do."

  "I see why that might make some folks anxious."

  "Sure, a bad actor could do a lot of terrible shit with it, but the medial properties of my venom are profound. Saying its worth its weight in gold is the uatement of the tury. Or, I suppose it was worth its weight in gold."

  "What ged?"

  "Me and a few others did some punk shit. We give it away at cost."

  "Charity is huge, but… how does that help?"

  "We bankrupted private health insurance."

  "That was you?"

  Deyha held up her hands. "Not only me, but a bunch of us. Modders, modded, wyers, doctors." she made a face "business majors."

  "Wow, rude."

  "Listen, what kind of business major do you think joins a team specifically to topple an industry."

  "An average one."

  "See?" Deyha gestured helplessly. "See? Now you're being mean!"

  "Yeah but only I am allowed to be a hypocrite. That's how it works."

  "Whatever, Brattie. Anyways, we worked quickly, gover fundi us fast trae dual-purpose mods and before the capitalists could scramble together any sort of mod ban, the damage was done."

  "So you were never really going t a poison barb to a gun fight."

  "Pretty much."

  We walked another quarter of a p before I broke the silenbsp;

  "Okay we talk about how you called me Brattie?"

  "Noticed that, did you?"

  "Yeah, Deyha. I did."

  My indignation was someoiled as I tripped and she caught me and helped me back upright.

  "What I say, I have the gift of wit."

  "And what, I have the curse of curves?"

  "Oooh, good one, you're right, I actually have the gift of one liners, and you my dear absolutely have the curse of curves."

  "Smooth." I grumbled a walking. Suddenly, Deyha wasn't walking by my side.

  She looked up from her phone and grinned, "Sorry, I was curious, you're never going to guess the band that did that song."

  "What? Fallout boy? MCR?"

  "'s cute is what we aim for'. how perfect is that? This is basically our theme song now!"

  "Fuck me." I groaned and tinued walking. A few seds ter her phone crackled to life. And rather than the song we had been discussing, Deyha ughed as she pyed somethiirely different.

  "If you gave me a ce, I would take it--"

  I surveyed the board between Jake and myself. I had a few possible turns pnned out but it was a losing game. My best ce was that he would make a pretty dumb mistake but he didn't tend to do that in games. His turn ti and when I looked up to see what he to I had the weirdest sense of foreboding. Something behind me was incredibly and unbearably amusing to him, and frankly that sounded like bad news for me.

  I turo see that Deyha and Carolyn had matg mischievous grins, easily a far worse sign than one devious grin on its own, and Carolyn was bringing something out from behind her back.

  She was holding out a pstic tag, obviously 3d printed with my name on it.

  "You're shitting me."

  "e onnnn" Carolyn whined "it's funny and you know it!"

  "It's degrading!"

  "See? You're making ument for us!" Deyha spoke up and I felt my whole body burn.

  "SHhhhhHHh" I made a grab for the tag but Carolyn was quicker.

  She and Deyha took up seats at the other two sides of the table.

  "See, it has your name--" she flipped it "the dairy name--." she pulled a tab and the back part popped off and then snapped ba pce when she released it. "And a magic bag! Tell me you don't love it!"

  Jake was crag up now and I made anrab for the tag. "I will NOT be seen in public with that!"

  Tears welled in my eyes and I scowled as Carolyn held it directly above her head now, as if broadcasting for the entire room.

  Deyha at least seems sympathetic. "Carolyn, stop."

  Whatever jovial mood they had been in was utterly killed, undoubtedly from my waterworks. Carolyn handed me the tag and I held it in my p. Trag the embossed letters and toying with the tab. It took me a long time to get trol of my breathing again but once I was somewhat posed I wiped my eyes. "I love it, but please, please don't do that to me."

  My posure shook again as Carolyn scooted her chair closer and began to rub my back. Fresh tears fell and I felt like I'd lost all my progress trying to scrape together my posure. Since when was this so hard?

  "Baby, it's okay. You're with friends here. You're safe. Nobody thinks poorly of you."

  I let myself sway in the seat as she tinued rubbing circles on my back.

  "But I'm scared." it felt pitiful, admitting it in front of Carolyn, Deyha, AND Jake.

  "How do you guys do it? How do you just… exist authentically and have people just… know who you are? Or worse, pletely misuand you beyond your trol."

  "You know just as well as us, Maddie." Deyha leaned oable, staring at the board but not seeming to see it.

  "I could trol it before though! I could just be nobody, I could wear my heart on my sleeve in one room and then just as easily turn myself i and pass pletely out of people's minds."

  Carolyn's hand paused on my back. "Babe, I don't think that's a good thing…"

  "It erfectly funal defense meism!" I sobbed.

  Nobody had anything to say to that, but somehow the silence alone was enough to erode my certainty in the fact. Was it funal? Had it ever been? It had to have been at some point right?

  Carolyn broke the silence. "I guess now is a bad time to tell you we need a portrait to sell the milk bottles then?"

  "Yes Carolyn!" Deyha sat up and rubbed her face. "Now is just about the worst time I could imagio remind her of that."

  "Remind me?"

  "Fuck." Deyha groaned.

  This felt like familiar territory. Carolyn and I were testing Deyha's st nerve; Ea our special way. The universe was ba order.

  "Yes," Deyha tinued, "That was one of the things we discussed on day one. People like to feel like they know who their produes from and now there's an industry-wide trend of folks getting all bent out of shape over this."

  "Having my name on it isn't enough?"

  "Do you need us to make an exception that desperately?" Deyha's voice carried years of weariness suddenly.

  "No, I don't want to be any trouble."

  "That's not what i--" Deyha cradled her head in her hands. "Damn it Maddie…"

  Jake spoke up for the first time since Deyha and Carolyn joined us. "Looks like we got ourselves a reaaaal mexi standoff." He seemed to shrink in on himself as three pairs of eyes turo him with a full spectrum of expressions. "It's from a video…" he trailed off.

  "Anyways…" Deyha turned bae. "We will figure this out."

  I nodded. "I vaguely remember you talking about the portrait thing and I guess I just thought I'd magically be past all my self image issues by then. I promise it seemed feasible at the time."

  Deyha nodded. "t say I'm surprised."

  "Hey!--"

  "Face it Maddie,--" Carolyn cut in before I could mount my defense, "--you have a brand, and we already know it."

  All three of them were once again looking at me with a fond sort of pity.

  "Fine!" I folded my arms and winced as I immediately regretted it. "Fine.--" I repeated "-- are there any other bandaids we should rip off? Do I o a a ercial? Am I going to receive fan mail from people telling me how good my milk tastes?"

  "Actually--"

  "No." Deyha held up a fi her. "No, Carolyn."

  "e ONNN" Carolyn whined.

  "No." I looked between them, Deyha's all too familiar dread once again matched by Carolyn's glee. "No no no, I was sarcastic, please, I really don't want to be on TV!"

  Deyha rubbed her forehead, "Oh you sweet summer child… no. That's not it."

  Carolyn leaned closer, "You don't have to respond--"

  "No!" I stood up "No, that's so weird! What the fuck?"

  "There's fan-mail." Deyha said.

  "NO!"

  "And they talk about how the milk tastes."

  "I'm not going to read them." I clutched the tag to my stomad stepped back from the table. "I refuse. Hard no."

  "Rex Maddie! You don't have to read them, you won't have to evehem!"

  "But now I know!" I whined. "NoOoOo I was kidding!" I tried to stamp my hoof but I just made myself wobble on my toes again.

  Deyha leaned ba her seat. "I guess now you will be more careful about the evils you speak into the world."

  " yoing to tell me that there's bathwater--"

  "That might actually sell--" Carolyured.

  "Fuck you!" my voice came out as a squeak and now both Carolyn and Jake had the giggles.