They walked a few blocks, in the opposite direction of the grocery center. Suatre hadn’t wandered that way before. He saw a coffee cafe and felt like kicking himself for being so unadventurous about his new neighborhood. He’d been missing that whole coffee scene. He wondered if it was different now that people didn’t need money. Were people still going to coffee shops to leech off wi fi?

Past the coffee shop (Waking Beauty Beans) there was another row of apartment/shops. Charlie walked up to the first door and knocked. Suatre and Jun hung back, Jun looking bored and Suatre feeling nervous. He’d canvassed for gay marriage like, once, could barely make it four hours because the whole knocking on doors thing felt so wrong. But Charlie seemed confident.

A man opened the door, older, white, stubbly and in a long bathrobe over a sweatsuit.

“Good morning! Do you have a minute to talk about the Vote?”

The man ran a hand over his short graying hair, taking in Charlie. Tall, wide shoulders, dark dark skin, silver hair in a long curly ponytail. He shut the door.

Charlie shrugged and left a flier in his mail box, stuffed with other junk mail. Good to see that junk mail still existed, Suatre thought.

“He was probably a capitalist,” Jun sniffed as they turned to the next door. “And a racist.”

“They don’t want the Vote to pass, I guess?” Suatre said as they stood and watched Charlie knock again.

Jun side eyed Suatre. “Of course not.”

“Because...they want money?”

“Because they’re evil and they want everyone to suffer.”

Charlie waited for the door to open and when it didn’t he walked to the next one. Jun and Suatre trailed behind.

The woman who answered the door this time was wearing a paint spattered apron, her black hair up in a messy art school bun. She smiled and said she was voting yes, and good luck on their canvassing. Charlie gave her some fliers and asked her to give them to anyone who was on the fence about the vote.

The process continued this way as they worked down the line of apartment and condo doors. Either people didn’t answer, didn’t want to talk, or were already voting yes. They didn’t encounter anyone who said they were voting no.

“Why are we doing this if everyone is already on board?” Suatre asked after a few more doors.

“Because not everyone is. People in this area are pretty pro-vote, but there’s a lot of people here who idolize the old days when people had to “work hard” to “earn a living.” They think society will collapse if people don’t have to work all day.” Charlie said.

“Meanwhile they’ve already been using robots to do everything they didn’t want to do anyway. It’s such bullshit.” Jun said.

“It is. I don’t entirely understand the mindset. My parents embraced the invasion. They had to give most of their lives to uncaring capitalists, just to pay for rent and food. It’s hard to understand why anyone would want to go back to that system. But, there’s also people who are afraid to stop living that way, in case the vote doesn’t pass. They don’t want to quit their jobs only to lose everything we’ve been given by the empire,” said Charlie. “So we’ve got prejudiced and old fashioned thinking people, people who are afraid, or both. I don’t know really how to convince them, but I’ve still gotta try.”

“You can’t let it happen without trying, because you care about what happens to others,” Jun said. “It’s why I love you.”

Charlie smiled, punching Jun lightly on the shoulder. “Maybe you should try too, instead of just watching.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jun rolled his white eyes.

“Why don’t you try the next door, Suatre?” Charlie said.

“I, um, I don’t think I know enough to convince anyone.”

“I’ll help,” Charlie clapped Suatre on the back, shoving him forward a bit. Blushing at the contact, he took a flier from Charlie and knocked on the door.

Sorrel answered, shirtless, huge tattoos across his chest and arms. His short hair was rumpled and he looked sleepy.

“Oh, wow, hey!” Suatre said. “I didn’t know you lived so close.”

Sorrel cocked his head. “Uh, hello.” He looked down at the flier in Suatre’s hand.

“Oh…” Suatre looked at it too, “right.”

“So this is what they’ve got you doing.” Sorrel said mildly.

“Haha, um, yeah…” Suatre held the flier out to him. “I know you’re against it, but maybe you’d look at this? We could talk about it next time you come in?” Hoping there would be a next time after this. Hard to tell if Sorrel would hate him now.

Sorrel blinked, face blank. “All right.” He took it, looked at it for a second. He glanced up and past Suatre’s shoulder to where Charlie and Jun stood a few steps behind him. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “I’ll see you Monday.”

“Cool! See ya…”Suatre said as Sorrel shut his door. He stood there for a second then rejoined the others.

“You know him?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah, I’ve tattooed him a few times. He’s against the vote.”

Charlie smiled faintly. “I’m not surprised. A lot of Deyluji are. Although the Deyluji community here is pretty much for it, mostly. Good job with your first try! You got him to take the information, at least.”

They walked on.

“Honestly,” Suatre said, “I still don’t really understand this whole thing, and I’m super against like...the old way, money and shit...but I don’t know what this vote really means, ya know? For the world. What do we have to do in exchange? Sorrel said they dismantle like...weapons factories?”

“Yes, they do. The whole idea is if everyone on Earth has their basic needs met, there’d be no reason for war. Of course we all know people will kill each other no matter what, but it would be on a much smaller scale if we couldn’t bomb each other.”

“So there’s still gonna be guns?”

“There’s no way they could make it impossible for us to have weapons, but their technology, the printers, won’t make guns, among other things.”

“So...what do they, the uh, Ka…”

“Karadas.”

“What do they get out of this?”

“Their goal is peace in the galaxy. They were enslaved and exploited by the Deyluji people in the past. They just want people not to fight, basically.”

“There’s always a catch, though, right?”

“Right,” Jun said. “Like how AI can’t vote.”

“Yeah...that sucks,” Suatre said.

“If they could, some humans would create an endless number of bots to sway the vote their way. It would be a disaster,” Charlie said.

“I know, I know,” Jun shrugged and put his hands in his suit pockets. “I’d vote yes though. The Karadas have AI too, but they’re treated like real people.”

They moved on. Charlie and Suatre took turns knocking and talking. They didn’t encounter any truly awful people. Suatre remembered being yelled at when canvassing for gay rights. People seemed more chill in this time. Not having to work probably helped.

“So I really don’t have to pay rent or anything,” he mused as they walked. “I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Charlie and Jun glanced at each other again.

“Want to go back? I think we’ve done enough for your first day,” Charlie suggested.

“Yeah. Hey, why don’t you guys come check out my shop?”

“Sounds good. You want to?” Charlie asked Jun.

“If you want to.”

Suatre let them into his place.

“Do you guys have any tattoos? Did I already ask that?”

Charlie chuckled. “No, neither of us do. I’ve kind of always wanted one but I’m scared.”

Jun snorted his delicate snort. “Wuss.”

“Yes, well, I actually feel pain, babe.”

Jun shrugged. "Lucky you."

“Oh my god, you guys should totally get tattoos!” Suatre said, leading them into the back. “I love first timers.” He didn’t know why he said that. He couldn’t remember being a tattoo artist. He just knew that when he started working on Sorrel, something had taken over and he’d known what to do. He felt like he knew what he was doing, that he’d been doing it a long time. He tried not to think too hard about the weird split in his mind. It made him feel dizzy.

“Do you know what you’d wanna get?” He asked Charlie, sitting on his rolling stool behind the counter. Jun hopped up on the tattoo table like he owned the place and Charlie found a guest chair. Their respective small and large figures contrasted with the chairs they’d chosen. Suatre almost laughed. They were a strange pair.

Charlie grinned and nodded. “I’ve always thought I’d get a gear design, I don’t know where though.”

“Gears are cool,” Suatre said. “Does it mean something to you?”

“I’ve been working with androids and robots for about a decade. It’s just kind of symbolic of that. I love my work.”

Suatre glanced at Jun without meaning to.

“He didn’t make me,” Jun said.

Charlie laughed. “But I do love you too.”

Jun rolled his eyes, hiding a smile.

Suatre felt a little glow in his chest. He loved couples. They were a particularly cute one. He’d always enjoyed watching people’s chemistry, even if it was a little awkward to be the third wheel. Even if it made him a little lonely. To be honest, a lot lonely.

“But yeah...I think I’d put it on my chest. Over my heart, sort of.”

“Corny,” said Jun, but he smiled again.

“I know,” Charlie chuckled. “That’s me.”

“I haven’t really thought about it,” Jun said, “Because like...I don’t know. I have a weird relationship to my body.” He looked at his hands thoughtfully for a moment. “But maybe like...something on my back, or neck...something cool.”

“An eye,” Suatre said immediately, not sure why.

Jun looked at him. “I kind of like that. Something to watch my back.”

“Well...anytime y’all want, I’m here. I only have one client so I’m almost never busy.”

“How long have you been here?” Charlie asked, looking at the flash designs on the walls. Skulls, butterflies, anchors. Old school. Suatre kind of hated them but they’d come with the place. That he’d woken up in, owning, not remembering.

“Um...couple a months.”

“Where were you before?”

Suatre was quiet, trying to figure out how to answer.

Um...well…” He shrugged. “Oregon.”

“Where’s that?”

Suatre’s warm glow faded. “So like…” He didn’t want to tell them the truth. It sounded too crazy. Just make something up. He hated lying, since he could never keep his stories straight. “I have um, memory loss.” Mostly true. “I can’t remember a lot of things. That’s why I don’t understand like, anything about this w-... um, about the vote, and stuff.”

“That’s okay,” Charlie said. “Sorry to hear that. Was it an injury?”

“Um, yeah. I got hit by a car…”

“Oh no! That’s awful.” Charlie looked at him sympathetically.

“Thank you…”Suatre felt a guilty stab for lying. But then he thought, maybe he wasn’t lying. Maybe that was really what happened. He remembered the beach and the goddess in his dream and suppressed a shudder. What was real?

“Well,” Charlie stood up, “if you ever need anything at all, come on over.”

“Before you go...can you show me how to use this thing?” Suatre jerked a thumb towards the printer in the corner.

“Of course!”

Charlie showed Suatre how to activate the machine, but Suatre couldn’t scroll through the holographic menu.

“How strange...is your Link implant not-” He stopped and looked at Suatre. “Was your implant damaged in the accident?”

Shit. Implant? “Um, yeah.”

“Wow...they must have taken it out then?”

Suatre just nodded.

“That’s hard...I’m sorry. Hold on, I’ll set this up the unLinked options.” He waved his hand around the menu, blue tinged windows popping up and scrolling through, finding the options. The printer started warming up.

“I’m making you a tablet, since you’re unLinked. And a menu ring. When you wear it, you can operate holoscreens and menus and all.” Charlie smiled a half smile. “I’ll show it all to you later, if that’s okay? I have a client coming in a bit so we’ve got to go.”

“Can I stay a while?” Jun asked, surprising them both.

“Babe, you don’t have to ask,” Charlie said.

“I know, but it feels weird not to.”

“I know.” They smiled at each other. Suatre felt his face tugging into a smile too, unsure what the issue was but enjoying watching them.

“Do you mind?” Charlie asked.

“Nope, hang out as long as you want. I’m not doing anything,” Suatre said, but he felt a little awkward. He had gotten the impression that Jun didn’t like him.

“Okay, I’ll see you later.” Charlie waved to them and left.

Jun immediately turned to Suatre. “What’s your deal? I mean, really.”

“What do you mean?” He said, taken aback.

Jun slid off the table. “I mean, what’s your real story?”

Suatre shook his head slightly. “Um, I told you...I had an accident.”

“You’re lying though,” Jun stated. “I can tell.”

Suatre just looked at the little robot as he poked around Suatre’s studio.

“Tell me.”

Suatre stood up too, anxious. “Okay, listen...I don’t know what happened to me. I just woke up here a few months ago. I can remember some things, but not what happened. I swear. I just...didn’t want to sound insane.”

Jun was silent as he rummaged through Suatre’s drawers.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for clues,” Jun said, crouching to look under the sink.

“Clues?”

“As to who you really are,” he said, head under the sink. He backed up and stood. “I just need to know you’re cool. Charlie’s too trusting.”

“I’m cool, man. I know who I am. Just not like...where I am.”

Jun peered at him. “Are you real?”

“Um...yes?”

“I mean, are you AI? Are you a robot?”

“No! I’m human.” I think, he thought.

Jun shrugged. “Just wondering.”

“It’s just good old fashioned brain damage, man.” He suddenly wanted a cigarette, suddenly realized he hadn’t thought about smoking in a whole day. Weird. He took them out of his jeans pocket and lit one, inhaling gratefully. Jun was watching him. Then his gaze dropped, seeming satisfied.

“I’m gonna go. Charlie forgot to sign you off for volunteering. I’ll tell him to.”

“Oh...thank you, Jun.” Suatre felt relieved. Jun didn’t seem to hate him.

Jun nodded and left. Suatre watched his small form go. He was so full of questions still, but he felt like such a freak asking them. A freak and a liar.

He smoked a few of the blue cigarettes, feeling blank. The bottom of the package said “Non-carcinogenic!” with smiley faces around it. He hoped it was true.