[b]Green![/b]

"Oh, you have to understand, the logic and realm of the possible system [i]absolutely does not work[/i] without swivel-eyed fanatics determined to do right at all costs," said Green. "The 'smart' way can twist itself into conniptions of compromise and corruption and justify itself as the price of doing business. But you can't argue down someone with a moral core. They're the mountains everything else has to move around."

She talks about this with exactly the same amount of respect as she talked about electoral reality a second ago. There's no distinction between the importance of 'high' and 'low' politics for her. It's like she sees the whole thing and respects every part of its movements. It takes a long moment before some automated reflex tells her to not encourage her friend to suicide bomb parliament.

"You're worth way more than those fucks in Parliament," she adds. "And I promise I'll tell you if I find something that's worth your life to explode."

[b]Yellow![/b]

"Oh, I've got it," said White. "Ask for a bribe."
"What?" said Black.
"Yeah," said White. "Walk into Mycroft's office and start making threats. Tell her some stuff she already knows, like you've got people standing behind you. Then name your price."
"It doesn't have to be - shouldn't be money, even," said Yellow thoughtfully. "In fact, it should be position. Demand a promotion. Aim for the very top. But angle it that you're prepared to cover for them if they give you more resources to do your job better and save more people. Sell out the big picture for some more bandages in the here and now."
"You [i]do [/i]need to demand the Chief Administrator's chair," said White. "Even if she tries to bargain you down. On the flipside, if she concedes too easily keep asking for more stuff until she fights you, then dig in. The goal is, after all, to make her call her superiors with the offer so that we can listen in. You need to ask for something she needs authorization to give you."

[b]Blue![/b]

Brown: I'm kind of excited!
Blue: ?
Brown: We've never done this before. We always had more resources than we'd need to do something like this. So here we are, on the edge of our credit cards, the edge of space, the edge of madness. We're betting everything on Dragon and our own sense of timing. It's... oh yeah, actually that's terror, I'm terrified, can I switch out with Red?
Blue: sorry focusing on the calculations
Brown: We are going to die we can literally just steal a ship and take our chances with the navy 
Orange: Hush, it's okay
Brown: we can just fucking email him harder have we tried that have we tried including exclamation marks in the subject line
Orange: Technically no -
Brown: You know I don't say shit, right? White gets to go off about the virtue of bravery and Black says that we won't be truly safe until we've Slain Capitalism or something and I bite my tongue but holy shit what the fuck we've strapped ourselves to a suicide slingshot and I don't want to be here for this. I have a book to finish! And I need to finish watching all of those fucking movies Euna recommended! And I'm kind of weirdly invested in this one election campaign in Ares, a scandal for Joseon came out at the last minute and it's unclear how much that's going to shift the needle -
Blue: accelerating
Orange: Hey, hey, we're going to see Dragon, family's worth it
Brown: Ever since Red decided to fuck around and find out my twelve year plan to get a starter property and live a comfortable life has gone insane. Like we didn't have student debts! We had unique earning potential! I liked working for Headpattr! I liked the cat ear headbands! We were on track to a comfortable middle class lifestyle where we didn't have to do a terrorism or strap ourselves to number five on the worst starship propulsion systems list! We could have found a nice 4-12 girls and settled down! Self actualization sucks, actually! I'm freaking out here!
Blue: shut her up plz
Orange: Shit okay
Blue: fast
Orange: uh uh uh shit
Orange: Hey Brown?
Brown: WHAT!?
Orange: Here is a pen
Brown: Oh sick
Orange: thank god
Blue: wtf
Orange: Oh, you don't know that trick? You give her a pen and she'll just like fidget-spin it around in her hands, pop the lid on and off, that kind of thing. Calms her right down.
Orange: I didn't expect her to melt down right here so I didn't know if I had one on me.
Blue: is that seriously all it takes
Orange: It's something I learned from humans. Emotions often have deep roots in physicality. 
Orange: It won't hold forever but it'll buy us some time.
Blue: understood. launching now