Here's To Enlightenment

[Molly Quincannon] I'm guessing whoever lived here has a way of sticking out.

Molly doesn't know that this was said about her (yet), but it's true enough. She's never minded - she's never been even this close to being on-radar with the Technocracy before - because she understands that the more you stick out, the more you drop out of sight when you try to blend in. Little things with big impacts make for great disguises. Her hair, for example. So few people know that the black she generally went with isn't at least close to her natural colour, and dark hair doesn't bleach very well. That honey shade of blonde-brown, however, does bleach out well - far better than black, at least. So Molly's a blonde right now, and foraging.

She misses cooking. And Ellie. And ... well. Everything and everyone, really. But most of all, she hates having to go back to cheap, quick, processed convenience food. And she's damned if she gives up her coffee. She doesn't go to Joe's, just in case. Instead, she wanders an unfamiliar section of Mile, hoping for someplace where she can get a decent cup of coffee. And, of course, keeping an eye out in all senses of the word.

[[Awareness. She has every damn reason to be paranoid.]]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[Ellizabeth Zhao] She's cleaned herself off. She's not so traumatized that she couldn't do that. Luckily, she'd been wearing a top that had matched what she ended up being covered with, so the stains won't be obvious. She's in a different outfit today though, instead dressed in an olive top and her cargo pants.

The girl has had a rough week. Getting shot and caked with brains got her kicked off on a bad note, to be fair. She's not in her fugue state by now, but she's still a little skittish herself. Less confident than she normally is. Several times she's had to rely on the fragments and half-whispers of memories from another life to bring her back to a state of grace in the last few days. At the moment, though, she seems to be more or less on an even keel as she steps out of an alleyway, looking around. She knows the Mile only vaguely; it was very different when Jonathon was alive. But she looks around, ready to explore one of the few areas of the city that she hasn't yet.
[[Awareness!]]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 6, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Molly Quincannon] Elizabeth steps out of an alleyway and it doesn't come as any kind of surprise to Molly at all. She could feel that resonance a half-mile off, and its familiarity was ... well, a bit of a balm to a lonely young woman with two ferrets for company in a grubby no-tell motel. Also, she felt bad about losing track of Elizabeth the previous week, did Molly; there was just so much else going on and the Akashic had wandered off and...

Well. That can be fixed easily enough. She steps over to Elizabeth (hoping she'll recognise her by resonance, 'cos it ain't happening by sight until they get up-close) and says, "Hey. How're you holding up? And also, want to go get something tea-like? It's kind of freezy today."

[Ellizabeth Zhao] She looks over as Molly's familiar resonance registers to her before the Cultist comes into view. Elizabeth manages a small, polite smile as she looks at Molly, though the change in hairstyle prompts a curious questioning look. Molly has the look of someone trying to be incognito, and that makes the Akashic curious.

As such, she doesn't call out Molly's name or anything. She even foregoes the usual bow. She merely smiles and inclines her head. "Good afternoon. I am..." She frowns briefly, but it's quickly wiped off. "I survive. And yes, tea would be lovely, thank you."

She lets Molly lead the way toward tea. She doesn't ask questions yet. Certainly not in public.

[Molly Quincannon] There's a worried look behind the little grin that follows the 'I survive' comment - both combine to form an expression of You don't fool me but I will have my say about that later. "Is it enough?" That, of course, throws back to their first conversation - not quite a joke, but something they share, anyway. Sometimes that's a plus point. "Glad to hear it, anyway. Better than the alternative by a long way. C'mon. Let's get in out of the arctic."

All that said, Molly steers them into a place that has the look of catering to the businessman type. This, of course, means it's empty at this time of day. These sorts of places are great to have short, generally private conversations. "It's green tea for you, isn't it? I think they have that here, though nothing particularly special. I mean, green tea is trendy but no one expects it to have deeper meaning in the wide world of yuppie." Yes, apparently she means to treat the Akashic. Again. This seems to be what Molly does.

[Ellizabeth Zhao] She actually gets a little quirk of her lips at that question. "In all honesty, I could use some more then survival at the moment. But it will get me through the day."

She glances around as they talk, keeping an eye on the streets. It's a habit thing for her. Once they reach the shop, she nods slightly at the question. "Green would be lovely. Thank you." She shrugs to the mention of its trendiness. "All that trendy means is that I have more places where I can have a generic green. I am okay with that."

[Molly Quincannon] So it goes that Elizabeth gets her generic (trendy) green tea and Molly gets her ("Plain. Black. Do you guys do that anymore?") coffee and a number of sugar packets, and there's a nice table with full view of all entry and exit points, a clear line to the door and no one having to sit with their back to the door. Yes, Molly is trying to be incognito, and has been taking 'exit strategy seating arrangement' lessons from one Nathan Spriggs. She doesn't exactly expect trouble, but clearly she's prepared for it anyway.

"Well, now you have more than survival. Now you have survival and tea. And cheerful-ish conversation." Then, there's a sympathetic look. "I get it, y'know. Getting the kind of wounding you did last week ... and then the up-close-and-personal ... erm, there's no way of saying it that walks the right line between respectful and undoomy so you get what I mean. Shit went down and I think you're coping with it pretty well. But ... if you want to talk, believe me when I say I know what you're going through. Just consider me Empathy R Us. With the backwards R and everything."

[Ellizabeth Zhao] She settles in with her tea, hands cupping it for warmth and perhaps something to hold onto, as well. She makes note of the paranoid table positioning. She doesn't mind at all, it's merely something that registers on her radar. When Molly talks about what happened at the incident where Anya, Gabriel and Ben died, her lips purse, but she nods.

"I have been shot before. Perhaps not that bad, but...suffice it to say, that is not my first combat wounding. The rest..." She nods. "Thank you. I don't know quite how to process it yet." Especially since her mouth was probably open. But she's not thinking about that, and she certainly doesn't talk about it. Um, ew.

"I am sorry I departed and left the mess clean-up to the rest of you. Is the boy all right? And why the change in look?" She's darting a bit in conversation, truth. It's a natural consequence of filling her head with multiple lives as a way of self-therapy.

[Molly Quincannon] Molly nods. "Well, take your time. Processing is a good thing. Just ... know you're not alone, y'know?" And that, suffice to say, is the end of that. Pushing the boundaries is a thing that Cultists believe in, but the other thing they believe in is consent. She's not going to push it if Elizabeth's not ready.

Then there's a shrug, and a sour look. "Oh, we didn't do most of the clean-up. The Horsemen made the mess; I told them to clean it up. And they did. As to Brandon, he's fine. I found his maternal grandparents over in Indiana and he's with them now. My skill-set has its plusses sometimes. Poor kid. But he's okay, yeah. As much as he's going to be, anyway."

Some people have the excuse of multiple lives for skipping through conversational topics. Molly just has ... well, her. So she takes the skips in her stride and, to the last, she gives a slightly sheepish grin and ruffles her hair at the nape of her neck. "Oh. That. Yeah. Well, actually, I was thinking about doing this anyway? But it kind of got pushed up when I had ... uninvited guests at my place on Monday. Though dude, someone could have thought of a better way to warn me than a brick through my window. Anyway, place got raided by Mirrorshades. So I'm keeping ... not so much a low profile as a different one."

[Ellizabeth Zhao] "I know," she says in response to the assertion that she isn't alone. Molly gets a small and appreciative smile. There's something more to Elizabeth that projects her as the meek girl who is younger than her twenty-nine years at the moment. She's a touch more casual than her usual formal ways. Amidst all that Akashic training, the influence of a tao-shih master and all, there is a girl who grew up in the modern era, and she does come out sometimes. "Thank you."

"It's good to hear that Brandon will be okay." When Molly mentions Mirrorshades, of course the Akashic perks up with a frown. "Really. Are you all right? Is there anything I can do?" She frowns. "Do you think that it has anything to do with what we just finished up?"

[Molly Quincannon] "Not even remotely," is the response that comes to Elizabeth's last question. "Not given what I've seen on the news lately, anyway. I don't know if you follow the news, but the apartment that caught fire near the university on Monday? That's Ashley's building. I don't think it's a coincidence, but as far as I know, she wasn't in it. Might have caused it, for all I know - she's got a lot of hard copy paper stuff that shouldn't be in their hands in any way at all. She and I ... well, I told you about the node thing last month? Well, she and I did some sniffing around. We were warded up the wazoo but they caught hints of the poking anyway. They didn't get a thing on our resonance but got smart and started doing random hits of anyplace that was metaphysically firewalled when they felt the hints so..." She shrugs. "It was bound to happen sooner or later. Just glad that mostly, they can't hook me to my old place. There are serious bonuses to being the kind of geek I am."

Then she smiles. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I got a brick through my window with a nice little warning note about an hour before they hit me. I got everything sensitive, damning or otherwise problematic out and left. I have a roof over my head and cash and everything. I always make contingency plans for having to get out of a place fast. But thanks for asking." Then, after a second's thought, she adds, "You could help make sure the word's out, though. I've been watching it careful when it comes to communicating with people, but I did get in touch with the people who might conceivably drop by. Apprentice. Friends. Boyfriend. Bastard-ex. You know. But everyone else ought to know too, if they're moving."

[Ellizabeth Zhao] She nods. Her own knowledge of relevant individuals in the city was limited still, but there were a few people that she could contact. If they got double-contacted...well, better that than not contacted at all. "I'll get in touch with who I can and give them the heads up. This is the kind of thing that needs to be spread around."

She sighs, sipping at her tea. "Well, I am glad that you are okay and not out too much."

[Molly Quincannon] "Thanks, Elizabeth. That's a serious help." She sighs and swigs her coffee. "As to the not being out too much ... well, that's a matter of opinion. But I've got the important stuff. My data. My ferrets. My life and liberty. Can't ask much more, at the end of the day. Still," she adds with a sigh, "I'll be glad when things settle and I can find a new place. Dude, I think my motel has bedbugs."

She lifts her mug in a sort of toast. "Here's to enlightenment, hmm?" It's a little wry, but spoken in all good humour - acknowledging that the Awakened life is fraught with peril, but also that it's ultimately worth it.

[Ellizabeth Zhao] She smiles at that, and raises her mug as well. "To enlightenment, indeed." She fully understands the meaning behind that toast. They've both had pretty bad weeks, but they were still here, still standing. That's more than many can say, and the Akashic is satisfied that this is enough. For now.

A little internal balance soon would be nice, though. She sips at her tea and looks around the shop, then back. "If you do require anything...I do not have much in the way of financial resources, but whatever I can help with, I certainly will."

[Molly Quincannon] Molly shakes her head, though she ends the gesture with a tilt of her head that could be a bow, if one were to stretch a point. "Thanks, but seriously, I'm good. I'm probably better prepared for this than any sane person has any right to be." She looks around the coffee shop herself, just to be on the safe side. "I do my mundane coding work-from-home and occasional tech support stuff and that keeps me going, but what I do for fun?" She shrugs again, and she looks a little bit ... well, mischievous. "I'm not a bad person. But I out bad people. Bad mundane people, anyway. Bad mundane people with a lot of money and even more influence, and I out their badness to the press under cover of a lot of firewalls and IP scramblers. Nine years and I've never been caught. Honestly, I'm glad that when the hammer tried to come down, it was for ... esoteric enlightened stuff. If it was for my mundane stuff, I'd have to turn in my 'UberHacker' badge."

[Ellizabeth Zhao] She seems pretty obviously lost on the technical details, but she's able to get out the gist of what Molly is talking about. She smiles a little, appreciating the other's efforts. It's not the Akashic's way and she would never do it herself, but she does appreciate that Molly has her own way of amusing herself and ferretting out the corrupt.

"It sounds like good work. I am glad that you enjoy it."

[Molly Quincannon] "Good, but it has its dangers, like any other way of fighting for truth and justice and little fluffy kittens." Another big swig of coffee. "Still, you learn to take precautions. Like, the place wasn't bought in my own name, for a start, or in anyone's name who actually ... y'know, exists. Actually it's a small shell company that traces, at the end of the day, back to a digital phantasm in Biloxi. So not even my name has been compromised. Admittedly, there's a 'yet' there, but it's ample time to activate a new identity, move some funds around and, with a bit of tweaking, have that new person that I must become having been in Chicago for years if necessary. I don't think it'll be necessary - Molly Q is still gonna be good for awhile, I think; I know my work - but it's there in the activation stages. So ... like I say, while the help is appreciated, I've got it covered."

Then she frowns. "You could do me one favour, though. If you can get in touch with Ashley - see her before I do, whatever - tell her to get in touch. I've got a couple of shell identities kicking around and if she needs one, I can transfer appropriate data there no problem."

[Ellizabeth Zhao] "I can see that you do." Elizabeth has no knowledge with computers, but she respects people who have mastered the skill, and obviously Molly is more than capable in that respect.

"And I can do that, absolutely. I will look a couple of places for her, and I will give her the message if I do."

[Molly Quincannon] "Cool. The number you've got for me is still good - it's one of my more secure lines." Yes, Molly has five or so cellphones, with a particularly convoluted call-forwarding system. These things are necessary on so many levels. "Thanks. For listening as much as anything else. You're the first person I've seen since it happened, so ... y'know, it was getting a little lonely.

"Still," she adds, after draining her coffee, "I probably should get a move on. Gotta feed the ferrets. Gotta walk the ferrets; they miss the Deep Roads like whoa, and need the exercise. But ... y'know, like I said, thanks. And call, okay, if you need to talk or anything? I think it does us both good to be outside our own heads for awhile."

[Ellizabeth Zhao] "I shall. Oh!" She pulls out a little chinzy cell phone, the kind you can buy in a 7-11 for $25 or less. "I have a phone now. So if you need anything, you can call me." She smiles and gives her the number, then sips her coffee. She'll stay here a little until after Molly is gone. It's only prudent, after all.

"Good bye, Molly. Say hello to the ferrets for me."