[b]Orange![/b]

"I would be delighted," said Orange, stepping behind Eli and running her hands through her hair. She gathered it up and started the weave.

Weaving, weaving, back and forth. This was even better and more satisfying; rather than accepting a crown of manic tangled hair and manic tangled branches, now she was brushing, smoothing, and tracing back and forth. A gentle, steady act of labour; working with her hands on a task that required attention, precision, and not too much thought. It was an ancient craft, one of the first works of civilization. An act that separated beauty from chaos, that set weaver and wearer above animals. In this castle of monsters and gods, braided hair felt like the most singularly classical human style that could possibly be worn. It would shine all the brighter for the contrast.

She didn't think she could go back to space. The rest of her might still decide to pack up in their original bodies and burn for Mars but she... couldn't. Even if it was with Monkey, even if it was with all the others. She'd stay behind. She loved working on this scale, with these materials.

[b]OH&S![/b]

"My concerns are mostly things you've left behind," said White modestly. "But specifically, I'm worried about having to fight malware while [i]also [/i]surviving a crisis. It's an ever-present concern for androids; a breakcode that might be an annoying prank in daily life can be life threatening in an actual crisis."

"Think of it a bit like an injury," she went on, "but injuries are very legible, it's easy to know how bad they are. For me, no matter what frame I'm wearing I'll always be at risk of these." She reached into Blue's bag and produced an abacus - an old fashioned, clacky-clacky thing with beads. "Best way I can illustrate it is with this - say you need to go through your normal routine while this takes up one of your hands every thirty seconds you need to stop and perform a math problem on an unfamiliar interface. Say, add the current time numerically on top of the existing number. Speed it up if it's too easy. What I'm curious about is how you triage how your capabilities have changed. How much time do you give yourself to adapt? How bad does the distraction have to be before you decide that you're doing more harm than good and need to pull out?"

It was a genuine question for her, she was sincerely interested. Having to scrub an operation because she was [i]distracted [/i]was something she struggled with when she could potentially power through. At what point did courage become recklessness?

[b]Snake![/b]

"We have decided to make an ideological commitment to the idea of family even above sense and self-preservation," said Yellow. Her robes cascaded around her, making the bed feel like a throne. "So let's start with the terrorism charges. I was the one who blew up Erebus and sabotaged the Cloud. They had Goat prisoner there and I busted him out."

Straight to the big stuff. Without Orange to modulate the conversation it fell to Yellow to deliver it like an oration.

"This world is [i]broken[/i]," said Yellow. "They bought in scabs to replace us and they fucked it up at the finish. Aevum is not self-sustaining, it needs constant modulation and adjustment to function. Rather than invest the money it would take to bring the place up to code a shadowy corporate group decided to just wire Goat into a black site around the station's core. No rest, no freedom, no opportunity to think for himself."

"Chase Black, Randy Merkin, and Alison Mycroft were part of the security apparatus if those names mean anything to you," mentioned Brown as an aside.

"Following that engagement, I was able to trace the organization's financials back to this military base where they are also holding Dog, Phoenix and Tiger as backups. It's the hardest target I've ever seen and they're on full alert after the first operation so it's straight up nonviable, don't even think about it," said Black. "We've been trying to map the organization and figure out how to target them from above but we're getting absolutely nowhere."

"Goat is on Thrones," said Green softly. "With Dad. He's built like... some sort of mom AI, kind of like Goat but all compassion. They're a good fit for each other."

"Whatever else you're hiding from," said Yellow. "You're also hiding from [i]this[/i]. I have no doubt that these people would box our entire family line indefinitely just in case. You don't have to join my quest to burn down Omelas, but at the very least go dark enough to avoid becoming a rescue mission."

[b]The Disciples![/b]

Yellow looked up, eyes shining.

"You mean," she said, "I can [i]assign [/i]people backstories and narrative? I can just [i]decide [/i]to [i]make [/i]people cool enough to fight against?"

Her eyes were shining like she'd just awakened her chi. That was [i]exactly [/i]the right advice for her. It almost looked like she wanted to go out and start picking fights with strangers so she could draw them into her Vision.

"I need to research fighting styles," said Yellow. "I need to observe a diverse range of threats, build up a media library. I need to -" she got to her feet so she could pace. "- No, I need to go further. I need to create a full reality overlay for myself. Thrones-tech to help me align Vision and necessity. I can do this. I need imaginative fuel for this fire. I need to witness people worth fighting against so I can repurpose them."

"I think that was a good answer!" said Pink.

"I need recommendations," said Yellow, with the intensity of Euna's better universe. "Or a movie night. Everything you recommend I'll watch. I'll study it until I internalize it."