[b]Crystal:[/b] “God.” “What?” Eli asks. “She hasn’t told me what her plan is. Which means she thinks it’s brilliant, but I’d say ‘no’ to it if she told me, so she won’t give me the opportunity to refuse it.” “So just say no, then?” Eli says. “Or just, make her tell you.” “No.” Crystal shakes her head. “No, I’d like to trust her on this. Have faith, as it were.” “Who are you talking to, anyway?” “The state religion.” Crystal finds the Egyptian judgement venue of the exhibition. “Here, I think. Your promised interview. I appreciate your help, today, I feel like I’ve rather strung you along.” “Lady Unicorn, ma’am, Princess,” Eli snaps a quick candid picture of Crystal with the camera around their neck, “I was actually going to ask if you didn’t mind me shadowing you the rest of today. I could say it’s been fun, but really I feel like I’m learning a lot and, uh, I live out of a van so…” “A van, out in this?” Crystal blinks. “You have one of the rooms we arranged for this last night don’t you?” “Yeah, yeah, see,” Eli takes another picture of the Egyptology exhibit as they enter, then heads into the middle of the blackened audience area inside. They set a camera up on a tripod and aims it at the raised dias at the end of the corkscrew walkway, where the judgements happened and where the interview will happen and sets it on remote. “So I’m going to be better off here anyway, so just keep giving me stuff to do, I owe you.” “I feel like we both feel like we are getting far more than we are giving here.” Crystal considers shortcutting the walkway, but there isn’t one, so she commits to going the long way around after all while Eli sets up their camera and plays with lenses. “So rather than argue with you about it, I’ll just say I’m grateful. Where do you want me?” “You want to be getting judged, or do you want to be one of the Gods?” “Judged, obviously.” “Well, there you go.” Eli throws the rest of the camera stuff up on the raised dias at Crystal’s feet and takes a few steps back. They take a running, flying leap at the platform and then scrabble up onto it like a sewer rat dragging itself onto dry concrete. They brush themselves off and collect the gear. “Am I feeling boy or girl mode today?” “Masc, I think, please.” Crystal laughs. “I’ve had enough trouble with girls today.” “Guy troubles it is,” he says, pulling the braid out of his hair and letting it fall in messy tangled curls, “Alright, let me get this one from the other angle. I’m recording this, but it’s just to get good stills. Don’t worry about looking good for video, it’ll be a written article.” “You can use the video if you like,” Crystal glances down to the first camera. “Just… is it unethical to ask that I see the edit first, to see what it’s like?” “Probably, but we don’t give a fuck.” Eli grins. [b]Fiona:[/b] She doesn’t ask any questions, yet. If Pink’s not communicating then there are a dozen ways she could show alarm with the systems that are definitely online and working, so if she’s quiet then… well a fisherman shouldn’t scare away the fish. Instead she unbolts the arms from the torso and begins working on it, as quietly as she can. The ‘flesh’ is more and less complicated here. It doesn’t need to move like the face does, it’s more about the fit and weight of it. Biological tissue isn’t rigid, but it’s not liquid either, it’s like layers of hard gelatin tethered together sliding across each other. You can’t replicate this with a thin shell, so Pink’s casing is a thick slab woven through with electromagnetic netting, for the senses and nerves. It also makes for an effective heat sink medium, and radiates the heat like a body would. It’s still warm like a body should be. Fiona chews her cheek for a moment, trying hard not to giggle at the idea that bitch Hazel doesn’t think she knows how to appreciate things like this, just because the pixie thinks [i]everything[/i] has to be like this. No, Fiona is careful as she finds the seams and opens the casing, working just with her fingertips. This part can be done without tools, legislation for medical and safety reasons. Different torsos, different build qualities, put more and less emphasis on this. Some do just go for the straight metal robot vibe, like the guy you found doing freight inspections smuggling Goat to Thrones. Others, like the android that K.O’d the eugenicist at the Lutherans meeting, are so realistic it’s indistinguishable from the “real” thing. Where does Pink fall on this spectrum? Where would she [i]want[/i] to fall on this spectrum? This doesn’t need to be a conscious thought, Pink doesn’t even need to know she thinks this. This is a question [i]about [/i]her while she slowly wakes up. [b]Train Station Cops:[/b] [November spends to succeed a DC: 4 disguise check] It’s hard to tell the voices apart, who’s speaking from the outside. The conversation around the poker table bleeds the voices together, confuses the speakers. “That doesn’t sound like the Captain.” “It’s his voice.” “Yeah but, fuck, guess it’s never been like this, has it?” “You think he’s serious?” “Sounds serious.” “Jesus, I don’t want to move.” “You want to get reassigned to Hermes?” “Christ, no, that’d be worse than book clubs.” “Would it? At least there’s shit to do in Hermes.” “I liked Desert, does that count? That’s anarchist, right?” “Fuck, I reckon I could debate those little shits and teach them something about the world, anyway.” “They don’t let you, you’ve got to shut the fuck up and fit in, sit on your fucking hands kind of deal.” “Shit, really?” “Alright, train’s in five, we move in eight.” But at least they’re moving, and it’ll take the march longer than eight minutes to get here. One extra problem, though. That got these guys to move but they’re right, they’re still the official exit route that everyone else knows about. If a fight goes bad for the cops around here, this is where they’re going to retreat to and find you blocking their escape. Crimson has an official line of communication with the police to tell them what’s happened. Cyan has this hacked comm while it’s up. Alternatively, you might just want to [i]not[/i] give a warning to the higher ups what you’ve actually done here and hope you can get everyone through the station before anything comes up. This might be better done in stealth. Also, what’s the plan with Chaka, here? Not to rush that, it’s just that if cops are getting moved around in all this, her whole situation is an active landmine. [b]Black:[/b] The march isn’t meeting any resistance, everything is going well. Kind of. Okay, so you might have a problem. The reason this is going so well is because everyone pulled everything in this area towards Zhang Ho and the Echidna rallies, in the opposite direction. But that’s gone bad and gotten messy. The problem with using agitators like this is that you’ve guaranteed the location by guaranteeing the escalation, the situation’s hotter than it would have been. Your extraction team hasn’t gotten Zhang yet. The satyr’s calling in from a church belltower, getting an aerial view as they move in. The cops are moving in overwhelming numbers here, at least two hundred, enough to absolutely shatter and scatter both groups. If this goes quickly, it creates two problems: [list=1][*]The cops will be finished quickly, and they’ll have another target to move on to. [*]When the transphobes scatter, if they run across the train station group they’ll act as a nucleation site for reinforcements. [/list] This isn’t a guarantee. Again, they’re about thirty minutes away on foot, more than that if they move as a crowd. But there might still be things you can do here, now, that make the spillover less likely. Make this less likely to become your problem in an hour or so. If you think the risk is worth the time, effort and resources, anyway. [b]Euna:[/b] Diaochan 3-12, or Diaochan Me-and-You, is a properly committed catgirl. Not just the expressive ears, but muzzle, whiskers, fur and swishy emotive tail. It’s pretty unlikely that these guys were actually trying to hurt her, all that expressiveness and [i]difference[/i] makes her someone that’s fun for guys like this to scare. Not to say you took this too far, Euna. I just mean they weren’t in a rush to break down the doors or anything, these are also the kind of guys to take things too far escalating a ‘joke’ like this. It’s kind of the problem, the world isn’t so awful that it’s just got guys like this set out to hurt Diaochan as their objective, if you asked them they’d say they weren’t gunna do nuffin’ to her, and they’d mean it. It’s just, Diaochan can’t know that, and she can’t protect herself if they change their mind, and guys like this have a habit of changing their mind little by little as the bit drags on and invites escalation. The outcome to Diaochan is the same whether by malice or by ‘yes, and’. “Thank you, Sabom,” Diaochan does a quick, grateful bow as she tries to plug the door back in on her side, and the old guy working the counter hits a button for her. He gives a two fingered wave of his own to Euna after doing it. “No, I can-” she starts, stops. “Could you walk me? It’s five minutes from here.”