She studied it all before blinking a few times. It really bothered her how the sleep mask had folded back her eyelashes, making them feel sticky and weird.

Riley practically hummed as she moved across the room, moving things as she searched. A heart in a jar here, a jar marked ‘bile’ there. “I don’t think I have any cups I’m not using for something already.”

“Figure something out.”

“So bossy!”

“Your disorganization shouldn’t be my problem. You pledged to give me working hands.”

“Don’t move those arms so much. You’ll bleed more, and they get weird if I ask for too much blood. Oh. I have an idea.”

Ashley waited as patiently as she could as Riley reached into a glass jar, pulling out a sphere the size of a softball, pale and crusty. She pressed her thumbs into one side until it caved in, then worked it with her hands to mold it. It ended up as a shallow bowl. She practically skipped in her momentary jog to the sink, where she filled it with water. She reached into the cupboard, and came out with a neon pink bendy straw.

Ashley drank as the straw was placed into her mouth.

“More?”

“No. This is fine for now.”

The bowl was dropped unceremoniously in the solution it had been in just two minutes prior.

“I’m jealous of the apartment. I don’t have much, and they don’t let me out to shop unchaperoned. I have to list all the places I want to go, they vet it before I can go in, making sure people are clear, and having chaperones means there’s a schedule. I can’t be spontaneous.”

“You didn’t have your fill of spontaneousness before Gold Morning?” Ashley asked.

“Apparently not,” Riley said. She picked up Ashley’s dismembered arm, bringing it over to Ashley and holding it against her upper arm. Comparing skin.

“Oh, that’s the feeling that keeps waking me up from my naps,” Ashley said.

“Stick your lip out? Pouty like?”

Ashley stared at Riley, lips pressed in a firm line.

“I’m not trying to poke fun. I want to color match some other tissue to the inside of your mouth.”

“You don’t need other tissue. It’s skin wrapped around machine hands.”

“There’s living matter worked in there, and the flesh immediately under the skin will affect the color of the skin over it.”

Ashley stared Riley down.

“Indulge me,” Riley said. “So few do, nowadays. Let me get the data I need to make your arms the best I can give you.”

Ashley reached up with her stump, stuck the metal tube into the side of her mouth, and pulled her cheek back.

“Don’t cut yourself. The ends of the tubes are sharp,” Riley said, leaning in. “Okay.”

“Why are they sharp?”

Riley stopped in her tracks.