"Alright, I'll see you later," Israfil said, smiling back at Mike, then added, with mild hesitation, "You still...have to show me your ability sometime."  Mike was slowly changing Israfil's view of Ascendeds.

[hr]
"I see," Tera replied.  She considered asking if it wouldn't be better to just have the good and none of the bad, but maybe the point of being human wasn't to be optimized, maybe the point lay in the inherent complexity and contradictions.  "Thank you for talking with me, I hope my questions aren't too weird.  Not many people I've encountered enjoy talking about stuff like this."