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[ more than she thought she'd get, and so malkuth inhales softly as she pulls a seat closer across from the other woman as she flips to a tabbed page. ]

So there's a few Districts in Karteria that require some TLC, but one of the worst off is East Sophia -- a friend and I toured around it a little since I was curious, and there's a lot of buildings that are either unfinished, left to rot, or poorly planned in an effort to turn a quick buck on tourists that never ended up coming in. A lot of the hotels-turned-apartments tend to cut corners to make up for the loss profit, but it's the abandoned projects that I'm most interested in. The fact that they're the most... I won't say welcoming, but the ones who're the least interested in making Augmented lives a problem anyway is a big sticking point, so I feel that we'll be able to come and go a lot easier than we might anywhere else.

To point: I'd like your advice on some key matters in reviving East Sophia, particularly in delegation of necessary tasks and penning down some firm ideas for where to begin in terms of outsourcing material, wealth, and labor.

[ a pause, and malkuth smiles a little more sheepishly. ]

I mean, I have some possible ideas, but I don't know how well it'd work out... I don't want to alienate those living within East Sophia already, but I do want to better their lives while at the same time seeing if those of us interested in running a business, clinic, or whatever else might be able to do so with their support and goodwill.

[ being able to... make a difference, however slight, here-- where she hadn't been able to before, would make her happy. but malkuth does know it will take time and effort, which is exactly why she's reaching out to angela. that, and to talk on something else, but this is the explanatory build up. ]

( angela listens quietly, not looking at malkuth. putting that architect dream to good work here, isn't she? another big project to better a city full of people who don't deserve it, but--

there isn't any room for human sacrifices in this one, as far as she can see. that already makes it better than what the research team had tried so many years ago. )

If you don't wish to alienate those living there, seek help or counsel from them first. Survey the populace and find out what they consider important, whether they're locals or Augmented that have decided to stay there. That's your first step.

After that, things should be easy. ( she spreads a hand, curling her fingers as she talks. ) You put out a call or find others who already have an interest in revitalizing East Sophia, you make a list of what they can do, and you organize manpower. That's all simplified, of course, but that's essentially it. The most important part of this will be getting those staying in East Sophia's thoughts and permissions first, and if they'd like to help out or start their own businesses, it's important to support those as well. We are intruders to their city, Malkuth. Even if the people in that area are less bothered by us -- or rather, the aspects that reveal themselves -- we are not from here. It can easily turn against us if you simply go rushing in bullheadedly.

( she folds her hands in front of her, watching malkuth from her peripheral. )

Do you understand?

[ when angela begins to speak, malkuth's pen moves against the paper. things that are obvious-- things she would've remembered a moment too late, or would've slipped through the cracks with her own good intentions at the forefront, this is what she needed angela for. someone outside, who can pick it apart and see clearly... ]

Yup! Got it all down. I know the people in Basileios might be willing to put money into it if we could pitch it just right, [ being bored rich folk has its perks, ] but I don't feel like that's quite the right answer, either. They wouldn't have the interests of East Sophia at heart...

[ so accruing any necessary funds would be... hmmm. she taps her lips with her pen, humming softly. ]

Well, I guess that's where a little gambling and some sweet talking comes in. We'll coast free until we can't and use what money we've got to spare, whether from the businesses that set up shop or out of pocket from the jobs we've picked up, for the unavoidable. Thanks, Angela! I knew I could count on you.

[ ...

but she will still just be. sitting here. ]

( angela doesn't open her book back up. she waits, and waits, and finally, )

Is there something else?

[ she hasn't gone back to her book, and malkuth hasn't moved. there's a quiet comfort in that; angela is the same as she has ever been, even surrounded by a radically different crowd. ]

Do you remember what we talked about before? The cultural exchange thing.

[ that should be an easy enough start, after speaking about something far larger. it... is going to lead into something else, but she can't push herself to state it -- just because of who they are to each other -- without a bit of structure. ]

The one you decided you'd rely solely on your income as an idol manager to finance and promote?

( tell her you decided on a better course of action than that. )

Before you chewed me out in front of my idols, yes. [ god. ] I can't handle it and the restoration project at the same time, much less finance any of it on my own -- 3kon included in that budgeting process, in and out -- so... will you oversee it?

[ this is the closest angela is getting to "you were right i was wrong" ]

(

)

...And just what am I getting out of this?

( she gets to be right, but what's the profit margin for her putting her time into this instead of, say, anything else. )

What, being catered to as a control freak isn't good enough?

[ like she's one to talk. anyway. ]

Full control over a potentially massive project whose only downsides include the willingness of the Karterians to interact with it and our less pragmatic Augmented peers to join in, but the upsides include fostering a good relationship with Patho-Gen -- which I don't see a flaw in, especially if one's curious of their secrets it's far easier to weasel something out of someone who likes you than not -- reclaiming the Light that was lost through the stories they tell and the knowledge you'll learn, and a larger cut of the profits going into your pocket for anything you might want. In fact, you can do whatever you want with the last... even if it means cutting me out entirely, and we'll pay a venue fee for 3kon to attend like we would anywhere else.

[ malkuth leans back in her seat, arms crossed. ]

I mean, the only people who're going to ask about anything back into theirs is gonna be anyone who runs a stall, but I think you can figure out the best way to negotiate that.

( ...malkuth has her there. well, not like Angela didn't have some interest in it, albeit she did not want to get involved so heavily--she wanted to see how it'd get spun to her.

she toys with the edge of her sleeve, mulling it over, then finally looks over to her company. )

Explain what you mean by "reclaiming the Light". Did we lose it? I would assume it hadn't traveled with us to this land, naturally, but.

( it sounds like a little more than that. )

[ ... "Did we lose it?"

malkuth gives her a perplexed look, tilting her head a bit before answering. ]

It hasn't, nope! Pretty sure I die like anyone else for real now, not that I'm in a hurry to test that. I've got all the human necessities I had before I became something "non-human", though I can still feel the Abnormalities I suppressed in the back of my mind. Faintly. I guess that's just something I live with, now. [ ... ] You really don't remember? Or-- know? You dispersed all the Light back into The City.

( she dispersed all the Light back into The City?

why would she do something like that? was that what she should have done? how did it come to pass? Angela's eyebrows furrow, searching for a hint of a jest in Malkuth's expression before realizing, no, this isn't a joke. )

I... no, I don't recall. The last thing I remember is... ( ...what's a safe memory? ) Argalia. Him and his band of cronies breaking into The Library. You lot fought them.

( yes. that one's safe enough. it has to be after that point, that this choice of hers was made. )

[ argalia... there's mixed feelings, there, about him and his crew -- but she's careful not to let it show in her expression or words, knowing angela's feelings on them. ]

Yeah, and we won, too. Both times.

[ she weighs the words, lining the timeline in her mind with experienced ease now, and draws from point a to b ]

I don't know what happened up at the top, I just made just the other Asiyah were okay after their bouts, so this is sort of second hand from Roland... after him and Argalia fought, it came out that Roland was some Color -- who'd have thought? -- and also they're related by marriage? Crazy. Anyway, you and him had some talk he didn't go into and you ended up releasing the Light we'd saved up through the "sacrifices" of others, which weren't sacrifices at all because they weren't dead just like, sleeping.

[ .....................

malkuth's kicking at her lightly. not to hit her, note, just at her. ]

Why didn't you tell us they weren't dead-dead, huh? Part of your petty revenge for us going against you? It's a huge relief to know they're back where they belong, or-- well, getting there!

( BOTH TIMES?

but, okay. so he hadn't said anything about... so they don't know what happened. the choice she made there must have been to let go of her revenge, to not let the past shackle her; his choice must have been the same. to agree to begin again together, to work towards a future where such choices didn't space to exist...

...hindsight is easy, but she can't forget the pain in her heart when he'd revealed the truth to her. it persists even now, his name on her skin worsening the less she talks about it, but she can't talk about it.

especially not to malkuth. )

The difference didn't seem to matter. They weren't sentient any longer, so they were as good as dead. ( really, essentially, right? ) I see, however. I appreciate the knowledge.

( could she become the type of person when, faced with betrayal, doesn't choose to lash out?

she doesn't know. )

I'm not certain if we're able to collect Light here, as nothing that worked in The Library does here—for example, I cannot book anyone. ( SO SHE TRIED? ) However, I won't discount the rest of the positives you mentioned.

You tried?!

[ no, hold on, full stop ]

As soon as my book was returned to me by Patho-Gen, yes.

( ? WHAT. )

I wanted to see if everything was in working order, or if it was as I suspected—that those particular powers did not stretch beyond the reach of my Library. I would have done the same thing in The City had I managed to leave. Don't make a big deal out of it.

And if it had? Are you confident you could've returned them to how they'd been before?

[ it is a big deal though, that she'd even try it -- that she wasn't past that part like malkuth thought, hoped she was -- and the other woman sighs, closing her eyes with a slump. maybe it's still too new. maybe it's only right to test it, to see... even if hopefully, angela would never use it against someone for real. she wasn't like that anymore. ]

Thank goodness it doesn't. I can't imagine how much trouble you could've gotten in depending on who it was.

( what if she needs to defend herself, malkuth? rely on powers she doesn't want, or ones she's familiar with? )

I wouldn't try something if I didn't think I couldn't reverse it. Don't think so lowly of me. ( ice cold. ) Regardless, the book is merely a book. A highly informational one, but a book nonetheless.

[ angela can be irrational and reckless. she trusts her, but she also knows that, and so malkuth doesn't reply to that. ]

Well... Whatever. What's done is done. [ ... ] We've been exiled by The Head, so our current view is the walls outside The City. Just so it doesn't come as a total surprise.

( ah. )

So the area we're in more closely resembles that dead area outside of Karteria. ( wonderful... well, the outskirts are a hundred times more dangerous, so. ) How terribly familiar it must be.

In every, and all, aspects.

[ from the city itself to the lands outside. ]

But you know... you can see the stars out there.

[ far from the walls, the light pollution, surrounded by entities of all kinds that want to strip your flesh from bone. malkuth sighs, wishing she'd been able to spend a moment more outside. ]

Countless little lights in the faraway sky, just like the countless little lights that faraway city. It's kinda funny how similar they are. Not so easy here, with its dreary weather.

( stars, huh.

she's never seen them before, she supposes. in books, yes. in memories that do not belong to her but are encoded regardless in her memory, yes. but she, angela, has never seen them before. to gaze upon bright twinkling lights in the sky, millions upon millions upon millions of miles away—

to reach those, doing everything in her power—

an impossible task, isn't it? )

That reminds me of a poem.

[ a poem... ]

And are you gonna share? [ ... ] I'd like to hear!

( angela's quiet. maybe she isn't going to recite it. maybe she shouldn't—but she does, voice soft and gentle like a nighttime breeze. )

"Wishing not to have
so much as a speck of shame
toward heaven until the day I die,
I suffered, even when the wind stirred the leaves.
With my heart singing to the stars,
I shall love all things that are dying.
And I must walk the road
that has been given to me.
Tonight, again, the stars are
brushed by the wind."

( ... )

That's all.

... That's really beautiful.

[ and she means it, too. it's a lovely, lonely poem, and reminds her of the angela who was so angry at being left behind, the angela who had seen them loop after loop after loop, the angela who resented her creators for making her who she was and followed the path laid out before her.

... who stepped off it, onto her own. it's a very, very lovely poem. ]

Something you read back in The Library?

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raises hand. major ruina spoilers, for the unwise,

yeah.................. spoilers as well.

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