[b]Green![/b]

Green stopped dead for a moment. "Connection," she said. She tried to pause, tried to turn the idea over in her head, but it was too big and she was moving too fast. She started talking with no plan, no endpoint, something she thought was inherently dangerous but sometimes couldn't get away from.

"The problem with what I'm doing," she said, "is the problem with being dominant in general. There's no [i]comedy [/i]in it. Submissives can say things like 'I hope she steps on me uwu' and it's inherently comedic, it's against society's expectations, it's against the expectations of basic survival, it's one step away from Wile-E-Coyote walking into a clearly labelled trap because she's blinded with thirst for the Roadrunner. But the same doesn't work in reverse, right? A dominant can't say 'I want to step on her' - that's psycho shit to begin with, and any attempt to soften it undermines the confidence the dom is relying on. There are ways to make that funny but they all rely on undermining the dom somehow - making her a white mage, making her a mousegirl, using the gap between capabilities and intentions to soften the line enough to be funny. And that concept in general means I can't talk about this stuff directly and clearly without an endless sequence of hedging and veiled invitations and implications about what I [i]might [/i]do, and as soon as someone shows the right kind of interest the jaws of the trap snap closed. But even that only really lasts a scene."

"But," she said, "maybe that's a limitation of imagination? Maybe there are ways to make this type of character funny after all, and dominants just generally don't see it because they're too close to the fantasy. Maybe that's the advantage of a custom fantasy setting I could use here, the advantage of furries in general - animals are often inherently funny and that can be used to counterbalance things. Maybe I should step a bit back from my ultra high intensity visions and Oglaf the setting just a little bit in the name of being able to express things verbally rather than purely through *smouldering stare*s or waiting for someone to ask to be spanked uwu. Oh anyway, your best view of the audience is going to be during the competition. There's a contest coming up where Silkmoth and Beeatrice are going to improvise craft random objects with their chosen materials and the winner will be decided based on audience cheers. Human tribalism reveals, and sometimes that's a good thing."

[b]Yellow![/b]

Black and White both give Yellow warning looks. There's a limit to how good she can be seen to be at planning massive terrorist attacks that involve co-ordinating the response of the SES as cover without tipping her hand. Knightly was cool but she didn't want to test that he'd be more annoyed at the people blocking the station's repairs than the one who damaged the station in the first place.

"Thing though, this is to see what their priority there is, right?" said Yellow. "They control Preparedness, remember, so if things are falling apart in general it's not going to be [i]their [/i]thing that goes first. What I'd like to see is some sort of wide area test or mild crisis that'd force them to concentrate their resources around a single spot. A solar flare would be perfect."
"Yellow, he doesn't control the sun," said White.
"I know."
"You don't control the sun either,"
"[i](sadly)[/i] I know."
"Failing that, I'd settle for a chance to rummage some offices and plant some bugs of my own," said Black. "Do these people ever have meetings together, some special formal or informal event? Failing that, I'd like to look at their calendars."

[b]Brown![/b]

Brown clasps her hands together, stands up straight, and her eyes fill with awestruck anime sparkles. "The horrible little ego monster!" she squeaks. "Where!?"

The bit aside, Dragon always was the coolest and most relatable of the Zodiacs to Snake. The elder engines might have had time or wisdom enough to see past the flash but Snake had never gotten that. Her entire time with him was spent watching him do it right the first time every single time. She'd been a card-carrying fangirl and had consistently tried to model herself after and replicate Dragon's skill and artistry whenever she could. By sheer coincidence, that kind of pure-hearted flattery had been exactly what was needed to penetrate Dragon's cool, disinterested exterior. It had managed to get him to pay attention to his little sister's requests and suggestions rather than trying to just finish the whole project himself.