Participants:
Scene Title | In Denial |
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Synopsis | Mallory wants to know what's going on. She wants to help. She doesn't want to get involved. Hana reminds her of how these are, in fact, mutually exclusive goals. |
Date | December 21, 2008 |
Somewhere Virtual
Sunday evening finds Mallory running through the last of Hana's training programs; she's been progressing steadily, though she slowed down near the end. Head pounding, she cracks the last bit of code. Tucked away in the laundry room of her aunt and uncle's little house, she doesn't get bothered too often. It leaves her free to space out with her laptop and her Ability. Pausing to blow her nose gently into a spotted kleenex, she sends out an inquiry to the great beyond. Wireless?
As usual, Wireless is prompt in her reply. Yes? Simple and to the point; nothing more elegant than that.
I finished the programs. What really happened with Rickham? Mallory, also brusque. One day there may be a chatty technopath. One day. And Hana and Mallory will probably look at that other technopath weird or find them annoying.
Very good. Wireless pauses for a moment; but whatever she's thinking isn't conveyed by the emotionless text. You don't really want that answer, Mallory, is her reply.
Then why did I ask? is Mallory's reply. The feed cut. You see everything.
Wireless: I'm the one who cut it. A pause only long enough for antoher technopath to notice, perhaps to consider wording. What happened to 'not getting involved'?
Mal rolls her eyes somewhere on the other end of the connection, without thinking. Knowing what happened doesn't necessarily mean I have to get involved.
Wireless: That's what you think. She, it seems, disagrees with the girl's opinion. But she continues nonetheless. It was an assassination attempt by the same people who bombed Washington-Irving. Phoenix thwarted it, barely. The barest of bare-bones summaries.
Are the people who bombed the school still out there? They're the ones that robbed the bank? In theory, fifteen people died as a result of Mallory's actions. If that's occurred to her, she certainly didn't contact Hana about it.
No, they died as a result of Wireless' actions. Mallory was merely an accomplice. Wireless: I believe they're the people who impersonated PARIAH in order to rob the bank, yes. We haven't yet managed to corner them and take them out. Much to Hana's annoyance, but that's another emotion text fails to convey, even if it might be inferred.
That's something I'd be interested in helping with, Mallory informs Wireless. She's half typing and half using her ability to write her messages, somehow managing not to think ahead of her fingers.
Wireless: It's one thing to act on our own. It's another to assist in a group effort. Impossible, then, to remain 'uninvolved' — not and do the job well.
Wireless: But if you want to take part, then the first thing to do is get caught up.
Malware: I don't do group work so well. The reply is fast. I can't keep my contact minimal?
Wireless: They would need to trust you. You would need to know people, places, names. Your ability works best by touch; for some applications, it is better than mine, but that involves travel, again with other people. This is not something we, you and I, can do alone. Our opponents are too large, too well-organized, too established — and you don't have enough training or experience in any regard to conduct such an operation without a team in support.
The pause is long. Finally, Malware: I need to think on this one.
Wireless: Take your time. But in the wake of that remark, a link follows — another set of training exercises Wireless took the time to put together. No strings attached, nor any leads which might draw Mallory deeper into the underground she's so vocally fled so far.
And that is one reason why Mallory gets on alright with Hana. Got it, is her brief reply before she follows the link, gathers the exercises up, and blinks offline.
December 21st: Volunteering |
December 21st: In the Foxhole |