Just once, she wanted to choose for herself.
She couldn't even control her hair anymore. Marcy looked at her ragged mane in the mirror, tugging at the irregular shapes, the holes cut in the sides, and the fading scars of surgery. She sighed and rubbed her face. She looked at her fingernails. They were cut short, and she honestly couldn't remember if that was how long they'd been before she'd been...hurt.
What if the Core had cut her fingernails? Christ, the thought made her skin crawl.
Sometimes she felt uncomfortable in her own skin, in a bizarrely specific juvenile feeling, like someone had mistakenly worn her jacket for a day and she had to shrug it back on.
Go to hell Josh, I'm still not over that.
Marcy tugged at her hair again. She sighed again. The one time she'd had a choice, she'd ruined everything. She thought it was a third option, but...it wasn't.
When they'd found her, on the surface, there was no damage. But when they tried to pull the helmet off…
There was nothing so directly invasive as giant drills in the skull, but there were numerous fiber-optic electrodes that went under the skin, reaching into her brain through various means. They penetrated the skin and made microscopic holes
One of the parts that creeped her out the most though was the fact that they'd gone through her eyes. She remembered this from some old Transformers thing; the easiest way to access the brain was through the eye socket.
She rubbed her eyes and put her glasses back on. They said they were lucky she could see so clearly. She was just slightly nearsighted now. Just enough to need glasses.
It reminded her of a Stargate Atlantis episode. She touched the bare patches on her head, circles around sore red marks. They'd gotten what the doctors called a "surprising" amount of the wires out of her skull when they removed the helmet but had to cut the hair around the points, and to even access her head by getting through the shell. It was difficult to maneuver around the hair, so they'd just cut it. And now it looked like someone threw a weed whacker at a tree.
She sighed. The good news was, it was human. It was done for her benefit, to get that thing out of her head. Unlike some people. Her hair had been something her parents obsessed with. She always had to comb it and use gel. The first chance she got in Amphibia she dunked her head in a fountain, and let it go static.
She grimaced in determination. Fuck it. It's my hair, isn't it?
She picked up some scissors and pulled up a youtube tutorial.
XXXXX
"So? What do you think?" She asked. Marcy had cut her hair into a mohawk with a bit of an undercut.
Sasha looked up and her eyes widened. Anne squealed, "Oh my god, mar-mar, you look amazing!"
Sasha's face turned into a tomato as Anne rushed over, squeeing over her friend's haircut. "Hopefully, I can get some green hair dye for it too! At least until my hair grows back properly."
"Where'd you get the idea?" Sasha managed to stutter.
Marcy blushed a bit and didn't answer.
Sasha tilted her head, her blush fading, "...You got it from a My Little Pony episode."
Anne and Marcy turned to look at her. "How do you know that?" they both asked, with emphasis on the third and fourth words respectively.
Sasha blushed. "I...um...Totally Legit Recaps…"
Marcy put her hands to her head, wincing immediately and pulling it down as it came away with something purple, "I told you it was funny!"
Thank you to my friend Red Panda for the art for this story. you can read it on tumblr
redcoloredpanda/669599602923683840/ya-know-what-i-think-she-deserves-a-cool-haircut