{SCE} What The HELL Am I Getting Into?

[Taylor McCarthy]

"What the hell am I getting into?"  Taylor muttered to himself as he navigated the dense, wooded terrain.  As if things in his life couldn't get more confusing and ridiculous he was now wandering around in the forest in search of a goddamn clone of a girl who was... something to him.  Just the mere thought of what he was doing was more than enough to make him think he'd gone crazy.  Or, specifically, more crazy than he already was.  In a matter of minutes he'd met his brother, beat him to a pulp, learned that Lucy now had a duplicate running around that embodied her deepest, innermost thoughts and feelings.  Taylor knew better than anyone that Lucy was a tightly wound ball of raw emotion hidden behind an aggressively apathetic shell.  He imagined grown men would be driven to bouts of lunacy if subjected to the truth that lay behind those hypnotizing blue eyes.

So why the fuck was he out looking for the physical embodiment of just that?

"Hello?"  He called as he stepped into the clearing.  Someone said they saw 'Lucy' headed this way and he figured the nicely cleared out bit of area would be as good as any.  His brow quirked as he finally found his quarry.  It looked like Lucy and, from what he'd heard before, sounded like Lucy, but there was something different.  She moved more slowly, there was an almost sedation, dull look in her eyes as she went about... whatever the hell it was she was doing at the time.  "Um."  He said, cautiously moving closer.  "What... what are you doing?"

[Lucy James]

Lucy had practically told the clone to get lost and run off doing something that meant not bothering her - or anyone else. So of course, that was exactly what Lucy 2 had done; it wasn't like it mattered anyways. She didn't have anything better to do, so she'd might as well wander around the woodlands and wait until a bear or something came to eat her. That would have been just her luck. Hanging upside down from a large rock, Lucy 2's eyes shifted to the approaching boy.

"Hanging. Waiting for death. Nothing of importance..." she replied, her tone as depressingly monotone as it could possibly get. "Then again, nothing is important. Nothing matters," she sighed solemnly. She didn't understand why the boy had bothered to talk to her. It wasn't like she was interesting. Or anything. She was just a clone. Half a person. Not even that. She was nothing but a vessel... an empty vessel that the owner didn't even want... joy.

[Taylor McCarthy]

Taylor almost flinched when 'Lucy' spoke. The words that passed through her lips sounded like they'd come from Lucy but they were missing the breath of life and fervor that the girl always had. There was something hollow and almost foreboding about listening to the clone. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came at first. His brow furrowed as he drew closer, looking at her as if she was nothing more than a strange hallucination. Yes. Taylor, himself, was a being of super human ability and he went to a school filled with kids and adults alike that could do amazingly fantastical feats. Nothing, though, could prepare him for coming face to face with a clone of a girl he felt so strongly about.

"Oh... kay..." Taylor just couldn't get his mind around this. The girl was an extension of Lucy, as Jack had explained it. She was, to paraphrase his brother, the things Lucy didn't want to talk about. "So. You're... part of Lucy?" He didn't know if the clone was aware of what it (she?) was or represented. "You're things she... thinks but doesn't want to face?" Was he wording it right? Hell if he knew. How the hell was he supposed to know how to talke to a frickin' clone for chrissakes?

[Lucy James]

Lucy 2's eyes never left the boy and as he started talking, a heavy sigh fell from her lips. "So I've been told," she replied. "More a manifestation of..." She waved her hand, gesturing to herself as if that would make it all the more clearer. "Yes, that is all I am. Not my own person. Someone else's." The clone let her body drop to the ground where she shifted until she was sitting, rather than laying. "To an extreme degree. Because apparently that is very curious. I'm jumping with joy."

She shifted some more. "What I understood from Jack 2 - not that I think you'd care, because no one ever does." Another heavy sigh. "I'm a manifestation of Lucy-- Her's sadness and depression to an extreme degree." And clearly lacking in anything resembling a personality. Because Lucy 2 was such a lucky, lucky clone. "Do you have any other questions, or can I go back to waiting for death? Because that is the most thrilling thing I've done all day."

[Taylor McCarthy]

Taylor watched the girl move about with rapt fascination. He was awe struck by the fact that she even existed and it showed. His eyes remained wide, his mouth just slightly agape as she spoke, explaining the purpose of her being. He had so many questions that he knew neither the clone, nor the original would have any sort of clue. Like how was this even possible? What would happen if the clone was 'killed'? Did the clone take the emotions out of Lucy or were they just imprinted onto the new body? So many questions and none were more important than the ones floating about in his mind.

"No." He said finally, giving his head a shake so he could focus on the task at hand. He had sought this... person out for a reason and he was determined to see it through. "How much do you know about... Lucy?" He asked curiously. "Do you know everything she thinks and feels?"

[Lucy James]

Furrowing her brows slightly, the clone shrugged. That was an oddly strange question, wasn't it? "I have all her memories, so I suppose that means I know everything. Yay me, right?" she shook her head at that as she leaned forward, swaying slightly. Her voice lacked any and all signs of enthusiasm. A hand came up to absentmindedly scratch an itch on the tip of her nose.

"I am Her, but I'm not." She was just a cheap copy. A copy that had all the memories, knew everything, but... "I'm like a broken version. Even with all the memories and thoughts, I only represent a part of her. I'm not whole." And Lucy's hair was clearly prettier. And better. But that was hardly hard to do, being better than the clone. She was a clone, after all.

She looked up at the boy again with a somber expression. "She just tells me to shut up when I talk... I don't blame her. Nothing I say is worth listening to anyways."

[Taylor McCarthy]

"No, no, no, no." Taylor's head shook as she spoke quickly. He hung on every word 'Lucy' spoke, giving her his undivided attention. He even went so far as to move to sit beside her. Part of him knew this was just a temporary imprint of Lucy's emotions and thoughts made physical. 'Lucy' wasn't real in the fullest sense of the word. She wasn't wrong in her assessment, but that didn't mean she wasn't important or couldn't be a huge asset.

"I wouldn't be here if you didn't matter." Taylor pointed out while offering a bit of a smile. He knew this wasn't really but she looked and sounded like her. Hearing the disparaging words come from her lips was a little bit of a heartbreak as his mind imagined the 'real' Lucy saying them. He had a host of questions still, but didn't know how to go about asking them. It didn't feel right to dismiss the 'girl' as less than human but that's what she was. She wasn't a complete personality or being.

"Why are you... she... you?" He gave an exasperated grunt as his head shook. "Why is Lucy so afraid to let anyone in?" He finally got out.

[Lucy James]

"I only matter because you want something. But that's fine. It's either that or eating grass," she sighed. Maybe she should have done that instead. But it was too late for any of that now. At least she had something to distract her from the impeccable doom that would unfold over her once Lucy found out how to get rid of her.

The boy's question caused the clone's head to tilt. Sighing, the clone's eyes moved from the boy and towards the ground. A hand came out to pluck absentmindedly at the grass. Of course he wanted to know about Her. The clone wasn't important. What had she expected? "Because people don't care," she replied, shaking her head.

"Because people only use Her to gain something. Or used to. They don't anymore. She made sure of that." 

[Taylor McCarthy]

Taylor's bright, brown eyes glimmered as the clone spoke. It was surreal to think he had someone here willing to talk that could tell him every intimate detail of Lucy's life. If the girl had been more open and less enigmatic it probably wouldn't have been such a fascinating situation. It made sense, though, that Lucy would withdraw. She'd been hurt before on a level few could understand. For a moment he debated whether or not to satisfy his curiosity and inquire about the details surrounding the events that had led to Lucy's withdraw from the world but that felt too invasive. He better stick to the present if he didn't want Lucy to feel betrayed by his intrusion.

"What if..." He paused a moment, then took a deep breath and continued. "What if someone did care and didn't want to use her?"

[Lucy James]

Shrugging again, the clone pursed her lips as she lifted her hand, letting the grass fall from her hand. "You already know the answer to that," she replied with a sigh. "Isn't that exactly what you're tried telling us-- Her for a while now?" When talking about Lucy as if she was another person, it was a little easier to keep herself distracted, instead of thinking about them as one and the same. But that hardly matter. Once it was all said and done, Lucy 2 wouldn't exist anymore. Lucy would see to that.

She didn't want her around. No one did.

"She doesn't admit to it- but she does feel something. It scares her. It makes her cautious. But it also makes her stupid." The boy could take that however he wanted. It wasn't like it mattered anyways.

[Taylor McCarthy]

In all this it seemed the manifestation of a partial fractured of Lucy's mind had the clearest handle on everything. Yes, Taylor knew the answer. He'd seen it in so many of the little things Lucy did but he couldn't deny there had always been a lingering doubt. The girl was remarkably adept at keeping him guessing and, even when her evasiveness spoke more about her true feelings than she cared to admit, she still had him turned around and upside down. Hearing the words coming from 'Lucy' herself carried a great deal of weight and lent a certain weight to what he was doing.

"What does she feel?" He groaned, his shoulders slumping. He just wanted answers. He wanted this game they were playing to end. For once, he simply wanted Lucy to be honest and stop running away. "This something. Does she actually care?"

[Lucy James]

Shifting uncomfortably, the clone sighed heavily. "She cares. In her own way." She tossed the boy a glance as she rolled her shoulders back into a shrug. "And that's a lot more than most people get." She looked away again then. "She cares the only way she knows how to. It's a process, and she's trying her best to run away from it, because she doesn't want to care. It's better not to." Because caring was pointless. It was a waste of time.

It wasn't like anyone cared about the clone's opinions though. The only reason the boy even bothered to talk to her was because he wanted to find out more about Lucy. He wouldn't have been here otherwise.

"She hasn't really cared- or tried not to since she was a child. That's a lot of years of keeping people at an arm's reach." The clone then wondered if she was always going to feel like this, or if she perhaps were allowed to stay, could grow to have her own emotions... "You have the patience of a saint."

[Taylor McCarthy]

For the first time since he'd approached her, Taylor's eyes fell from Lucy's clone. It was one thing to suspect all of this, but to hear it from Lucy's own lips was an entirely different story. Every word she spoke stuck in his mind and joined the ever growing cacophony raging around. As strange as it was to consider, the girl sitting beside him was Lucy in every way, shape and form. She may not have been all of Lucy, but she was enough to take shape and lend him an insight into the girl's mind he'd never imagined.

He kept his focus upon the ground in front of him for a long while before finally lifting his gaze to the girl sitting beside him. "Maybe I do. But I care about her, you know? I really do." He seemed almost resigned to this fact. "Please tell me she knows that."

[Lucy James]

"Knowing, believing, trusting..." the clone trailed off, shaking her head. "Not the same things. She needs to acknowledge it before she can admit to it, and only then is she open to knowing, believing and trusting." She wondered if this was the life that awaited her if Lucy let her stay. Constantly being a portal, some gateway to the real girl, and not the false copy. The puzzle piece with no where to fit in.

"Asking me to tell you all of this probably isn't the best way to get her to trust you. I wonder if our separate memories are shared once we merge..." she trailed off at that, her shoulders slumping as she looked at the grass in her hand. 

[Taylor McCarthy]

Taylor exhaled slowly and nodded. He'd nearly gotten caught up in the chance to learn more about the girl who'd captured his attention so completely he could barely believe he was listening to a partial clone made from her own emotions and thoughts. Regardless, 'Lucy' was right and he'd asked enough. "Hopefully she'll understand." He said quietly, although he doubted that as well. He feared he was still on a slippery slope with Lucy and any little thing could send everything they'd built crashing down around them.

He furrowed his brow and looked to 'Lucy' now. He studied her for a long while, his dark eyes soft as he watched her. It was fascinating to hear of Lucy's innermost thoughts, especially as they pertained to him, but the constant sighs, slumped shoulders, and depressing comments hadn't escaped Taylor. He had a knack for reading Lucy and her clone made no attempts to hide anything. "Why don't you come up with your own name?" He suggested. "It might help you to, I don't know... become your own person."