[Amanda's actually been trying not to think about that too much--that, strangely, this place might be better for her than even Eudio was, in some ways. Eudio fixed her body, but here she really has things to do that feel like they might matter in a big way]

Yeah, I guess it does. I actually really hate that 'when one door closes' kind of stuff, but I guess that's sort of the only way I've kept going sometimes.

[she recognizes her probably not always healthy ways of coping for what they are, and really doesn't see much point in picking at them when they've worked]

I don't know. I guess this [she gestures vaguely at her legs] has finally stopped seeming like something I'm going to lose. And the kid I was back then would be really ticked off if all I did was make someone's robot stop recording them without permission. Which is still cool, but it's not the kind of thing I thought about when I was watching shuttle launches.

[she pauses, fidgeting with the leather on one leg for a moment] The persona I had back there wore leather and things like that all the time. She was...cool. Also kind of bitchy but I can get whre that came from. It was kind of what I guess I would have been like if I hadn't decided to mostly tune out what people said about me. And she...knew she was attractive. I guess that's still hanging around a little. [she still has trouble seeing her that way, because she's not seeing it reflected in someone else's eyes in a way that matters, but maybe faking it will make it at some point]