End-User Perspective

[Molly Quincannon] It's technically Henri's day on sentry duty, which means Molly's on duty. She's careful about getting there, though - between Rogue Council bods, potentially pissed-off Technocracy and whatever else decides to throw itself at her head this month, it pays to be so - but she does get there, with somewhat lopsided baking (chocolate pecan pie this time) and a sense of duty about the Christmas decorations. It's about time those came down, really. So there's a denuded Christmas tree sitting in the back garden, waiting to be chopped into firewood by someone less likely to chop their own foot off as Molly might be, and a box of decorations and lights tucked into an out-of-the-way corner of the foyer.

All that done, Molly's relaxing in the kitchen with pie, coffee and a book of Sudoku puzzles. There's a manila folder at her left elbow, full of printouts. It's nice and quiet - the first chance she's really had to relax this week.

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley doesn't even need to be at the chantry today. But with Rogue Council operatives, a newly angered Technocratic Union and whatever else might be in Chicago this month, she's feeling a little anxious about the general state of affairs at the chantry. She wants to go and double check her wards, make sure that the place is still standing and the node is safe. She remembers all too well the surprise attack in late August.

Ashley comes up to the house from the back entrance. She notices the Christmas tree sitting there, stripped of what had made it lovable, forgotten now that its usefulness has passed. A corpse, but at least it'll light a fire. She looks at it for a second or two, runs her fingertips over the needles, and then steps into the house.

The Hermetic looks a little harried today, but classes are about to start so perhaps that's the reason. She's teaching two this semester.

Stomping off her boots, she glances toward Molly once she's in the door, and then leans down to wiggle them off. "Hey Molly," she says.

[Molly Quincannon] "Hey, Ashley." She doesn't look up from her Sudoku, but the hand not holding the pencil gestures around the kitchen. "Chocolate pecan pie, don't mind the slight lean to it." Gesture to the pie on the counter. "Chicago has new faces - one of which is nearly impossible to remember, but still. I have data." Gesture to the manila folder. "Things're gonna go to the shooting place again, I can just tell."

Then she looks up and gives a half-smile that's mostly greeting with a hint of 'sorry for yet another infodump of potential doom on the horizon'. "How're you?"

[Ashley McGowen] The moment Molly mentions new faces, one of which she can't remember, Ashley looks over at her again while unbuttoning her coat. "Gabriel and company? Gregor and I met them," she says, and something a little tired touches her eyebrows, furrows them together, when Molly mentions things going to the shooting place. Really, she was lucky Gregor didn't start a fight with them that night. For a little while it had looked like a distinct possibility.

Shrugging her coat off, she moves over toward Molly and the manila folder she set down. There's a momentary wince - her pants are wet all the way up the back of her calf, and it's going to soak her socks. "They said you met them before they ran into me. Where were you at?"

How is she. Ashley runs her fingers back through her hair and then rakes them forward again to smooth it back down and try to order it after being out in the wind, and then picks up the envelope. "Keeping my head down after the shit that went down at the Asylum, mostly," she says.

[Molly Quincannon] The description gets a nod and a bit of relief - at least that's one less bit of info to throw. She is vaguely aware of how people react when she delivers information in one mass bolus; she's just hard pressed to find other ways, given her nature. "Yeah. They were at this house three blocks from my place, as a totally random coincidence. Anya was pacing the porch and I dunno what the hell she was smoking but her first reaction was 'you have three seconds to tell me who you are and why you're here before I kill you', which ... weirdest way of saying hello ever, but ... y'know, it gets the attention. Anyway, that got sorted out and they told me they were hunting down this one last Mirrorshade, or so they said, under Rogue Council orders. Which I confirmed later. The guy's been blacklisted by his organisation, Ashley. He's on the run and been abandoned and I really want to know why a group like the Rogue Council that's supposed to be about shedding dogma gets so dogmatic over killing one scared, shunned 'Shade."

Then she sighs and nudges the folder a little closer to Ashley. "That's what I've got. Full names for Gabriel, Anya and Nora - I couldn't even read the other one's licence plate, eff-eff-ess. Also social security numbers, last known addresses, bit of personal background, and transcripts of what they were doing at that house and what the guy they're hunting was doing before he took off, including the text message back-forth he indulged in while there."

[Ashley McGowen] "Yeah, she seemed pretty pissed when I ran into them too," Ashley says. "She was arguing with Gabriel. The group doesn't know how to handle her, either. Potential loose cannon." This assessment of the group's weaknesses is delivered tonelessly as she picks up the folder and begins to flip through it. Ashley already seems to know what to target if the group turns out to be trouble, apparently.

She glances up as Molly goes on, briefly making eye contact while the Cultist fills her in. "They told me that they were after him because he was helping to work on a drug that was supposed to take away Awakened abilities. Kind of like a mini-Gilgul, I'm guessing." From Ashley's mouth, that word is pronounced a bit like she delivers vulgarity, casually but with a slight emphasis. "But they said it didn't work. My guess is that they want to eliminate him before his research actually gets somewhere. But that's a fair question."

She glances through the rest of the information Molly dug up. "I was going to check out their history in the Awakened community with some colleagues of mine," she says, "so this will help with that. I didn't have last names. Thank you."

[Molly Quincannon] Molly shudders a bit when Ashley mentions mini-Gilgul. Obviously there is - she's a mage and she's marginally sane. Still, she listens and thinks it through before she says, "I ... don't really think the Technocracy as a whole are interested in him continuing his research right now. In fact, they're not interested in him at all. They called him a liability and cut him loose. I guess because they don't want to deal with collateral damage if they try to shelter him from these Horsemen - Gabriel and them - and they've already got what they need of his research without him." She frowns, more curious than afraid. "I want to talk to this guy. Ben, his name is. Not that a first name will get anyone very far, but I know what he looks like. Anyway, I want to get his side of this. We've been played before. I don't really want to get into that shit again." Because, of course, getting played by a stranger with a good cause was what started the chain of events that ended with torture, rescue missions and Nephandi mess, at least for her.

To the thanks, she nods. "You're welcome. I got some of their mundane history too. Not much - with the 'Shades around, I'm being a little bit more careful about the hackery than I might be normally - but some. Nora's got a history that involves some pretty violent shit having happened to her family. Between that and Anya's sealed juvenile record, I'm thinking that they were recruited for this particular mission because of their pasts, maybe? Gabriel ... I figure he's supposed to be the one to keep them marginally sane and on target. Bit of a public figure; might be worth asking Emily or Solomon if they've heard about this guy."

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley has a very good memory. Her eyes flicker as she looks over the information, reading, drawing it in, as though she's memorizing it. Or at least the essence of it. "I doubt Emily has, since she's new to the Chorus and I don't think she has a lot of contacts outside the city yet," Ashley says, "but maybe Solomon would. I can ask him. Gabriel seemed kind of like a zealot to me. Started talking about how the Rogue Council was God's message. Nora seemed pretty level-headed, though."

Nora is almost a Tradition-mate at this point, though, so perhaps Ashley is biased. Of course there was some level on which they got along (Hunger and Famine.)

"The Technocrat is at least worth talking to," Ashley says after a moment, "but I'm not interested in going to bat for him, if it comes to that. It depends on what he knows and how willing he is to help us out."

[Molly Quincannon] "Well, that's kind of what I'd be going for, if I were going to talk to him. Which I'd really like to do, to be honest." Of course she would. Look who's talking. "I mean, if they've got this mini-Gilgul drug thing, I think I'd like to know how close they are to making it work and if the project's still a go-ahead. I just don't think that one group that comprises a ... well, I didn't talk to Gabriel enough to go with 'zealot' but the whole Rogue-Council-as-God's-Message thing was a little disturbing, I'll admit ... anyway, him and someone who says hello with firearms? I don't think that's the best way of getting information. It's actually the best way to either scare the information away or ... y'know, sorry for getting to sound a bit paranoid, which is probably seeping in from the company I'm keeping, but ... it's a good way to plug a leak, this kind of thing. Do we even know if the Technocracy knows about the Rogue Council? I mean, if some of the transmissions they send out end up wrong, is there any chance at all that someone else sent this message that Gabriel's taking as holy fiat to get one of our own to plug a leak in Technocratic security?"

[Ashley McGowen] "It's a possibility," Ashley says. "Which we could probably best easily discern by talking to the Technocrat." She glances over the transcript of the texts that were sent, eying them for a moment. "He's probably desperate enough to sell them out."

Though Ashley isn't altogether certain of how to handle a potential defector, or whether he could be trusted in any sort of long term arrangement. Her brow furrows a little once more. "I'd also like to talk to him. But the Technocracy could be waiting for us to do that, so better not to rush in."

[Molly Quincannon] Molly chuckles and prods at her pie. "I know, I know, fools rush in. I suppose the question is, how long do we wait? If these Four Horsemen really think they're on a mission from God a la Blues Brothers, they're not going to play it safe or wait it out, whatever we tell them. If they catch him first, that information's gone." Then she wrinkles her nose and adds, "Not to mention that if the Mirrorshades were lying about hanging this Ben guy out to dry and are laying a trap with him as bait, they can identify a couple of us now. I gave them a pretty safe cellphone number and we didn't get further than that, first name and Trad, but there's the visual ID thing. Plus the twinge of conscience that says that letting anyone else walking into a trap is kind of a shitty thing to do. Should we try to ... I dunno, warn them or something?"

[Ashley McGowen] "I'm not particularly inclined to tell them anything until we know more, shitty thing to do or not," Ashley says. "If it doesn't occur to them and they walk right into it, it's their own damn fault. I at least want to get an idea of their Awakened history and see if they're even who they say they are, first. And what they've done in the past. If we steal the Technocrat from them, I want to make sure that they're not going to flip the fuck out and cause problems for us here."

Ashley has long been focused on the idea of conflict being a way of life, that it seeds out the people who can't cope; evidently she has no problem being one of the people who sweeps in after it's done to take advantage of it. This is pragmatism. "Probably good to make the rest of our people know that they're around and working, too."

[Molly Quincannon] There's not much to say to the first, beyond "Let me know what you find out? My contacts in the Awakened vein probably don't touch yours; mine are all in the mundane." She tilts her head towards the manila folder, as who should say Case in point. "I'd like to have the full picture, y'know? Saves me stupidity later on." She leaves it there, not really wanting to get into an argument. She actually feels bad for the abandoned Technocrat, and just wants to know what the hell's going on so that maybe there can be a resolution that doesn't involve anybody killing or dying or anything.

But, as they say, if wishes were horses...

Instead of pursuing it, she moves on to the rest of it. "Already on it. My Trad's filled in and so's my housemate; Nathan knows and I'm passing it on to Israel, who'll make sure Solomon knows. I've talked to Wren and I'm seeing her again to fill her in on the newer stuff - that was a two-day labour of love to gather, that file - and Anna and Eustace are coming over for dinner later this week so I'll tell them then. You're more in contact with Emily, Thomas and of course your own crew than I am, though, so help with the data-spread would be great, thanks."

[Ashley McGowen] "As soon as I know, I'll fill you in," Ashley says. Being on good terms with most of the city's disciples helps her in this regard. "If he's useful, we'll save him, but better not to think too far ahead until we know." Compassion doesn't seem to be high on her list for abandoned Technocrats, at least, if it ever really is for anyone she knows.

"I'll tell the people I talk to," she says. "This is something Kage might actually want to help with, honestly. I'll see what she thinks about it."

[Molly Quincannon] "Cool," says Molly, and really? That's about all she wrote on that one. So she moves on with an available segue. "How is Kage, anyway? She's totally Alice-in-Wonderland sometimes, y'know? 'People come and go so quickly here'. I don't see her anywhere near as often as I want to. Though she introduced me to a friend of hers just before Christmas. Alex, Akashic guy, kind of quiet and the softer side of snarky?"

[Ashley McGowen] How is Kage. Ashley glances up at that, and a corner of her mouth twitches when Molly compares Kage to Alice in Wonderland - to the Cheshire Cat in particular. It's not something that surprises her, evidently; Kage has earned herself a number of nicknames and Thomas' names for her are Lewis or Grimm, alternately. Occasionally she's teased the Orphan about it. "Kage is really busy with work," Ashley says. "Her PhD is in Esoteric Studies and she gets consulted by different companies for little bits of odd occult knowledge sometimes. I guess somebody was doing research for a movie last year. Stuff like that. But she ends up traveling out to California a lot, so I haven't seen her as much in the past few months."

Finally, Ashley shuts the folder and then goes to get a plate and a fork so she can have a slice of the pie Molly has sitting on the counter. "I met Alex," she says. "Though I haven't had much of a chance to get together again with him yet."

[Molly Quincannon] "No, me neither. That's the thing about our lives; sometimes it doesn't leave a lot of space for social stuff. I should've got his number, but ... oh, you were coming in as I was going out, weren't you? I ended up on some spectacular auto-rant and had to bail because my work's stupid hardware guy managed to set the server on fire. Again. Right. So you met him right after I did. Sorry. Random memory throw-out." She gives a sheepish sort of grin and goes on. "Anyway! Yeah, lately it's been too busy to do much. Though that's at least mostly my fault. Too many projects, not enough time."

Then she tilts her head in that way that says nothing so much as 'I have a question'. Yes, it's Molly's default state, but sometimes she's more obvious about it. "Your foci. How you do what you do. How did you work out the mechanics?"

[Ashley McGowen] "I met him before that, actually," Ashley says. "Kage introduced him to me when he first got into town, and I got his number then. I can pass it along if you'd like." A beat. "There's another Akashic, too. I just met her last night. She wanted me to pass along her number so she can get to know the locals. You're welcome to that one too if you'd like."

She glances up at Molly just as the Cultist is tilting her head, and Ashley's expression says she is already anticipating a question even before it's asked. The question itself seems to surprise her a little though, and she raises her eyebrows. "I focus a lot on Words and language," she says. "There's a concept and an idea that's underlying everything here. What we see is an extension of Thought, and each thought or concept can be encompassed by a Word. In Enochian, which I make heavy use of, you can layer words on top of one another to have multiple meanings."

A pause as she cuts a small slice off the wheel of pie and slides it onto the plate. "I have a necklace that I use. And sometimes I use blood, since it's a symbol of instinct and instinct is an extension of Will."

[Molly Quincannon] The offer of a number for the new Akashic gets a smile and a nod. "Sure; cool. That's new - someone actually comfortable with random phone calls from gabby strangers."

Then she listens to Ashley's explanation, such as it is. After a moment of pondering (because she can actually shut up now and then, particularly when information is in the offing) and then says, "I get the idea, basically. More or less, anyway. It's just ... how did those particular ... things and words and symbols ... actually click for you, in conjunction with what you're doing?" She prods her pie again and realises that she's probably not making a lot of sense without context. "See, it's just that ... I said before about projects? Stuff that's been keeping me busy? I've been ... trying to move away from what people might call an over-reliance on tech. New foci - backup foci, I guess you could say. A lot of it's been about getting to the root of the ... I guess you'd say the Will of it, and then branching out in a different direction. I just thought you might have ... insight, I guess, on this kind of stuff. How to find that click so it's not waving a stick, shouting bad Latin and looking like a LARPer who's lost their grip on reality."

[Ashley McGowen] When Molly agrees to take the number, Ashley sets her fork back down and goes to reach into the pocket of her coat for a small notepad. Pulling it out, she also retrieves her Blackberry - an older but still rather reliable model - and goes about scribbling down the names of both Akashics. The new name, beneath Alex's, is Elizabeth Zhao. "That's just the number to the place she's staying at," Ashley says. "She doesn't have a cell yet. So she's probably not always reachable." And, tearing the little piece of paper free, she slides it toward Molly.

And then picks her fork back up and takes a bite, looking over at Molly while she listens to the Cultist's questions. She's already shaking her head by the time Molly finishes, by the time she has swallowed. "An instrument isn't just something you can turn on and off and switch out," Ashley says. "It works because it's how things work. It's how magic works. The Words I use click because I know that they're tied in to the underlying concept. If you don't understand that, then yeah, it probably will feel like you're just waving a stick and shouting Latin, because it doesn't mean anything for you."

She cuts off another small chunk but doesn't lift it yet, looking back up at Molly instead. "I guess the question is, is it you doing all that stuff, or the technology? If you're using technology as a crutch and denying the strength of your own Will, then yes, there's a problem for you."

[Molly Quincannon] More quiet thought, during which Molly sips coffee and mulls the thing over. "I'm saying this wrong," she finally says. "It's ... okay. At root, it's me doing it. I know that. The ways I've been expanding have only helped to prove that. It's like ... you remember the deal with the armband? Sign language isn't how I started Working with Mind. It's not how I learned, and that expression of mood was originally something I expressed through this." She reaches into a pocket and pulls out a device that some might recognise as a sonic screwdriver but others would just see as a metal tube with a light on one end and various small dials and buttons. "Light and sound ... tied into the underlying concept, like you said. But that's not the only thing tied into the underlying concept, is the thing. Sign language is a really good expression of mood too, on a more ... visceral level, I guess. It's all about symbolic gesture to express a concept, and mood is more or less automatically translated in the process because of facial expression, body language, stuff like that. So it worked. Actually, it worked better than the way I first learned that kind of thing."

She sighs. "I guess I'm just trying to get to the bones of it. Most of the places I've learned from have been ... well, tech-centric people and I keep thinking there's got to be more to it than that. Magic seems like such a ... fundamentally visceral thing and I'm starting to feel like connecting to the universe entirely through pieces of plastic is ... kinda cheap."

[Ashley McGowen] "Well, it is," Ashley says bluntly. "Magic is a thing you feel. What you exercise it with should mean more to you than...hitting some buttons and entering an access code. I mean, we're talking world fucking bending abilities, and I can do all of it by thinking and Willing it so. Why would you want to diminish the significance of what you can do?"

There's passion and hunger in her voice, make no mistake. But she doesn't seem to intend to make it a long drawn out speech; after a moment she eyes the pie on the plate in front of her, takes another bite, and considers what she says next.

"If you're going to rework how you do things, you need to rework how you understand things." There's another look up toward Molly, and a shrug of her narrow shoulders. "But not everybody is in touch with that part of themselves. If you don't feel it, work on feeling it. If you can't, find another way."

[Molly Quincannon] Molly looks downright taken aback at that. "I don't 'diminish the significance' of anything! It's not just ... 'hitting some buttons and entering an access code'! Just..." Unlike Ashley, Molly does try not to air her arrogance about some things, but this ... this is just so much not what she meant and even though she knows that Ashley probably knows squat about this kind of thing, it hits the core of everything she does, mundane and otherwise. Still, she tries not to be abrasive. "When it comes to computers and gadgets, you're thinking from an end-user perspective. Which I get. Thing is, there's a lot going on that you don't see. Like with people, or the universe itself, there's a lot going on with computers that your average person can't see. You see computers, you think ... word processing programmes, calculators, Firefox. I think of all the thousands upon thousands of calculations, instructions and expressions needed to create each and every one of those useful little things. Those expressions - that code - create powerful tools out of nothing but ideas expressed in a certain way, and what's Will as we're terming it here but an idea expressed with power behind it? When I say I want to get more visceral with it, I'm not denigrating Will through code, which is best expressed through gadgetry or computers. I'm just trying to explore it on another level so I'm not a one-trick pony. If I can work my Will through the means of expression I have at my disposal, why stop at code when I can express myself other ways?"

She takes a deep breath, then, and lets it out in a sigh. Ashley may not have planned a huge speech, but Molly is given to random acts of rant at times. "How I understand it is that we're communicating with the universe and bending it to our will. I also understand that there a lot of different ways to communicate the same idea, and it's all a question of which one suits best for the situation and the person. I just want to make my Will heard as clear as I can, and keep my options open. Doesn't change the core of what works for me; just that some fine-tuning is in order sometimes."

[Ashley McGowen] Ashley raises her eyebrows at Molly's protests, and there's a certain skepticism, a doubting, inherent in that. She is an Adept, and while certain stifled aspects of her mind and being have become more pronounced lately through her own explorations, she remains rather firmly entrenched in her own idea of doing things. Sometimes at that point it's difficult to look at things another way. "Being a one-trick pony - or not - isn't about the instruments you use," she says. "It's about what you believe you can do. I mean, I can't...tell you how to feel when you do magic. I could train you in Hermetic theory, but your Will is something you've learned to exercise on your own."

There's a thoughtful pause as she absorbs the next thing Molly says. "If you believe you need to adapt your communication for the situation, that sounds more like something you should experiment with. But when I use Words, it's not about communication, it's about encompassing the underlying ideal and using it to suit what I'm trying to do."

[Molly Quincannon] Now it's Molly's turn to look skeptical. "But ... isn't that what communication is? Encompassing an ideal - or at least, an idea - and using it to suit what you're trying to do, or say, or something?"

The rest, though, she waves away. "I wasn't asking you to teach me a new way; sorry if I gave that impression. I was asking ... when you were learning to do the things you can do, and you found the way that worked for you specifically, that really did it ... how did you know to stop looking? Was it just that you found something that did what you wanted it to do and that was it? Or did it ... speak to you? It's probably a stupid question. I just figured ... people have so many different ways of doing the same thing that it was worth asking about other people's experiences. I want to understand, and I guess it's not in me to believe that I have all the answers yet. Hence asking other people."

[Ashley McGowen] "Communication means that there's someone else on the other side listening in," Ashley says. "A concept is just...what it is. There's not a thing I'm communicating with. There's no being. I'm using what's already there and commanding it." There's a forcefulness that she can't quite articulate; somehow the word communication alone doesn't seem to suit.

She thinks about it for a moment and then adds, "An idea gains power by encompassing other ideas and inserting itself into everything. That's effectively what you're doing, with your Will. You're becoming the embodiment of an idea, and you're making yourself an inherent and integral part of the universe and adapting so that you come out on top."

Then she reaches up to scratch her jaw, thinking through the rest. "I'm still learning too, and I don't have all the answers either. So I can't say there's ever been a definitive it point for me. This is how I came to understand things based on what I'd read and learned, and it just felt right. I'm sorry I can't articulate it better than that. It was just a feeling and a knowing."

[Molly Quincannon] "That's where we're different, I guess. I'm pretty used to communicating with ... things other than what people consider to be 'beings', I guess." She gives a sheepish grin and picks up another forkful of pie, not eating it just yet. "It's a geek thing. I anthropomorphise mercilessly. Almost everything but clothes and food. Not clothes because that's a bit more intimate than I want most inanimate objects to get, and not food because that'd just make eating kind of creepy." And with that ... munch.

When she's swallowed her mouthful of unanthropomorphised pie, she smiles. "It's okay. 'A feeling and a knowing' is more than good enough as far as I'm concerned. I figure feeling and knowing are different for everyone, so they're not really meant to be that clearly articulated, if for no other reason than privacy. Sometimes I think the heart or soul or whatever the seat of the emotions is this week disengages from the part of the brain that does the words just so it can keep its secrets to itself. Poetry's a work-around."

[Ashley McGowen] "I know a lot of Traditionalists who anthropomorphize things," Ashley says. "Dreamspeakers mostly. I just never have." In fact, she often doesn't consider some other people (Sleepers) worth her notice, or to be people in the same sense she is - the ideas they embody aren't strong enough to cast themselves out into the world. Perhaps she would, if she had more of an ability to understand them, but she does not.

She swallows the last bite of her own, sets the fork down and nudges the plate aside. "I can communicate with Thought on its own when I want to, and when the other person is willing," Ashley says. "Sometimes breaking it down and condensing it into speech seems to cheapen it."

[Molly Quincannon] "Never? Really? Like, not even a teddy bear or something?" Molly did not by any means have a traditional childhood - there were no dollhouses or games with the other kids or anything like that - but there was a teddy bear, at least. The idea of not even having a teddy bear to anthropomorphise seems a little wrong to her.

The idea of communicating with Ashley by thought alone ... well, she's been there and done that, though not in these sorts of circumstances. It's intriguing, but ... well, now's not the time. So she contents herself with, "True, though I guess those of us who don't do our best with what we've got. And I like words. They're fun to play with."

Molly never much looks at clocks; she's never needed to. She just knows... "And it's about that time. I have to bail." She collects her Sudoku book and takes her plate to the sink, saying, "You can keep the file, if you want. It's all printouts of stuff I've got on my hard disc, and a hard copy backup far away from the originals is always a good thing, especially when I know it's going to be safe." She washes her plate, then turns to Ashley and her parting shot before she heads out is, "...I don't want to put you on the spot, but so I know for any potential improvements ... how was the pie?"

[Ashley McGowen] "Well, yeah. When I was a little kid," Ashley says. "I meant magically." In fact, as far as she can recall she did that sort of thing much more often, before her Awakening. But she can't really remember all of it.

Molly says that she has to bail, and Ashley just gives her a nod, taking her own plate to the sink. They'll be cleaned later, sometime this evening after she's exhausted her mind doing research and when the quiet of the house becomes too unsettling. "Just a little heavy," she says, of the pie, "but it was good. Thanks for feeding me."

Molly leaves and Ashley slumps back over the counter on her elbows, opening the file once more to flip idly through it. And she considers, for a while, the Technocrat's words, leaping off the page and shaping a plea.