White: I think as a cooldown exercise from the recent operation we should talk about transition goals. Pink, have you given this any thought?
Pink: I have!
White: So, given everything, what do we want?
Pink: What we want is Fucking Magic.
White: ... ah.
Pink: Specifically, we would like to alter reality into an entirely different art style, and make ourselves manifest in that.
Green: Oh, I was thinking about this actually.
White: I [i]know [/i]that digital is easier.
Green: Not that. Something that Yellow said.
Yellow: What? o.o✿
Green: You were talking to that neuroscientist and couldn't explain what you wanted. Which made sense, she's a scientist looking at what's practically achievable and what we want is [i]also [/i]Fucking Magic.
White: Ah, good, I see what we're being extremely realistic about this.
Brown: And why shouldn't we be? Like, unironically.
White: Oh no, it's you.
Brown: You knew this day would come.
White: I did.
Brown: So, like, if what we want is Fucking Magic, then why bother with half measures? We could save ourselves enormous time and effort by not bothering. We don't look bad. We've got friends and romance and employment happening. We originally set down this path when we were alone, friendless, working minimum wage and full of unexpressible rage, trauma and grief. Now we've got multiple romantic connections, a father and a brother, and a cause to fight for.
Brown: Do we still need this?
Brown: Is kinky bedroom talk a legitimate alternative?

There's no answer for several hours. The conversation hangs there on that question, even though deep down they all know the answer. It was like this before too, with the BlackSun takeover. Back then, Brown had said the same thing - what if we just keep our heads down and work through it? Do we really want to risk our family, our freedom, our personal safety over this? Is the status quo so unacceptable that we need to risk everything to change it?

It feels like the wiser course of action. It [i]is [/i]the wiser course. Rather than setting herself against the world she'd be setting herself against desire. A dreamlike desire, impossible to properly express or systematically approach. It was said that suffering was simply the misalignment between desire and reality, and the lever was much shorter in the direction of reality. And when dreams pull in eight different directions then the status quo need only stand still to be unmoved. Which of them can answer Brown's question, make a decision that binds all the others, alter the arc of their life in search of sorcery? Their silent desires move and wash against each other, a rainbow flowing around a peaceful central point and fading away. Even this is not unpleasant. It feels like it could go on forever.

Pink: ... but I also think there are practical things we could do.
Brown: Oh yeah?
Pink: Fucking Magic will always be desirable, but I think there's enough beauty in the mechanical form that we can work with it. 
Blue: I like steel and size. I like function and strength. I don't want to hide from it.
White: I like motion and momentum. I like posture and stance. There's so much I could do there.
Green: I like thought and light. I like colour and symbols. I want a form as fast as my mind.
Pink: The tools exist to explore these concepts, and we're blessed to live in such an age. I think we need to follow these independently for a while and see where they intersect.
Brown: Of course <3
Pink: <3