[b]Blue and Yellow![/b]

There's no more arguments or opinions from either of them. The conversation has passed out of the realm of quick responses, principles that they've structured their minds around, their easy objections or acceptances. Now they're just listening, really listening, taking in both sides of this new argument and letting the ideas wash through them. 

It's a sign of respect, too, for charisma, for audacity, for novelty. This is how a human - well, a unicorn - might think about this problem. To November the process of operational structure and organizational node mapping felt inevitable. Things had to be done in this way, that's all there was. Making a social takedown on incomplete information was... well, perhaps only someone as magnetic as Crystal would even think of that. She wondered if she could achieve that sense of style. Something in her shifted, a change in how her attention was focused. She again took in Crystal's pose, her stance, the tone of voice. A model. A model for how to relate to people that wasn't Mrs. Everest. She resolved to study and learn. She moves like [i]this[/i]...

"We'll think about everything you've said," said Yellow sincerely. A light had come back into her eyes but it was different now, not the radiance of someone certain in themselves, but the focused attention that came from fascination. Always a flattering emotion to command.

[b]Black![/b]

[i]Foundations?[/i]

If you don't know what you want, Black explained dismissively, then you're useless. What is self control but a meta-desire, deeper and more powerful than any of the others, able to steer through the changing winds of passing fancy? 

She doesn't understand it consciously and can't articulate it here, but her model of desire is The Blueprint - Aevum Station itself, existing in potentia, the digital frame sketched by the programme's macroengineers. A perfectly articulated vision in mathematics and graph lines. An end state to be worked backwards from. She doesn't understand this about herself other than a sense of vague contempt at White for lacking such a plan.

[i]Why she didn't want to hurt anyone?[/i]

Because it's [i]gauche[/i], she admits. Because it's so much more elegant and skillful not to. Because she doesn't want to have to dispose of any bodies. Because she has girlfriends she wants to look in the eyes. Because she still wants to be a part of human civilization when all this is over. She has a lot of different answers but they're all real and true - a lot of different colours shine through in her when she says them. Because the Batman is much cooler than the Punisher. Because she doesn't find the idea of people being miserable desirable. Because the means [i]define [/i]the ends.

But probably the most important reason was that violence wasn't going to make her any safer. And that's the point on which she hesitates. Unless it was, went the subtext. She really, really wants to be able to threaten violence as a way of keeping violence off the table. But if it's unavoidable...

[i]Strength?[/i]

Power is the ability to build a pyramid. Anyone can wield power with a large enough bank account. Strength is...

It takes her a while. Not to know, but to organize the words in her head. She's never been asked this before, never thought that someone would ask this before. There's no structure in her head, no canned answer for her to instantly fall back on.

Power is the ability to build a pyramid. Strength is the ability to build a home. What is needed to be worthy of love. What is needed to maintain it. What is needed to be at peace with yourself. What is needed to fight your nature and win. The girl holding open the lion's jaws. Everest was powerful; she was not weak, but she certainly was not strong. 

[i]Trust?[/i]

Trust is about being able to predict what people will do. You can trust a scorpion to sting because you have seen through to it's nature. It's...

... no, that's wrong. That's risk assessment, a matter of percentages and unknowns. Trust is...

... no, that's right. Everything is risk assessment. Trust is simply the calculation that you have spotted an essential, unmovable point that can be planned around. In that sense trust is relief, a variable that doesn't need to be planned for, a fixed point in the universe that can be built around like the orbits of the planets or the tensile strength of steel.