"L-look, Hiro, don't...don't feel that way about it," Effie said. "I..." She sighed. "I wasn't that nice of a person either," she said. "I...I did some pretty awful things too, trying to get respect. So...when I say that, I'm not trying to lecture you..."
The cyborg frowned. "Sure you aren't. What kind of 'bad things' did you do? Obviously nothing so bad that you're ashamed to talk down to me..."
Her stomach turned. "I...I wrote viruses, for kicks." It hurt to say it; not quite so much as it had to share it with Dennis, to tell him how awful she'd been, but still... "I...I was trying to get notoriety, Hiro, but...it wasn't worth it. Even before it was suddenly people on the line, it didn't really make me feel any better about myself...least of all get me any real respect. I...I was just being a jerk...and now...now people can..." She faltered, her voice cracking. Dennis put an arm around her as she tried to steady herself.
"You what?" Hiro asked. He'd...he'd let some cracker into his mind? But...she had cleaned him...
"I-I don't think I'm b-better than you," she said. It didn't mean she wasn't still mad at him on behalf of Dennis, but...she didn't. "But...you shouldn't mistreat people just because you want attention. It's only going to make things worse in the long run..."
He scowled. "Well there's not a lot else I can do!" he said. "Half of the full machines online don't want to talk to me because I've still got squishy bits, and I have to battle my own programming if I don't keep it on a leash..."
Effie sighed. "Have you considered...maybe the problem with your programming is that it's trying to accomplish exactly what you wanted?"
The scowl intensified. "What!?"
She nodded. "I could be wrong, but...you want respect, you want to assert yourself, your independence, to other people...even if you have to put down others to do it. And you worry about what your programming does when left to itself, but...isn't it basically doing that? It's actually capable of feeling no concern for other people, and it's only when your human side is in control, only when you can feel your own conscience, that you're bothered by it. Maybe it wouldn't be such a liability if you wanted something constructive..." She cut herself off; she was starting to get a bit worked up again.
Hiro felt like he was going to be sick. Him, being like that, that thing inside him? She was wrong, she had to be wrong! But...even when he had felt bad...wasn't it pretty much because Hitomi was upset? Did he really think what his electronic side did was wrong, or was he just trying to please her? His directive was valuable, because he trusted his little sister's judgement, but...it couldn't replace his own morality. If he didn't...if he didn't really value his own values except as means to make her happy...maybe Effie was right? He hoped it wasn't so simplistic as that, but it did hit uncomfortably close to home...
"You know, pastor," Rachel said, her voice hushed, "I'm a little surprised at you, givin' a girl a chance with another girl like that...I wouldn't have figured you were okay with that sort of thing."
"Uh, well, it was..." Robert blushed a little. "I...am having to reconsider a number of things. To be honest...I'm not really certain what I believe anymore, at least on...that issue. But...I do owe Lucas a debt, and...I doubt that...my old ways would make me a good witness." She sighed, sipping at her drink. She wondered how many people she might have driven away from God in the past...she had felt so strongly that people ought to cleanse themselves in order to come before Him. But...even if she had been right, and things like that were wrong...she wasn't the forgiver of sins, Christ was. She shouldn't have placed herself in that position...
"Hey, don't look so down," the younger devil-girl said. "You're not going to be much of a witness by moping, either." Robert smiled in spite of herself.
David's brow furrowed. "Ms. Wilkins, though...I dunno, I guess...is there really that much prejudice against the changed? There's an awful lot of...of us, I'd think we'd hear more about it."
Mark shrugged and gestured over to where some of the protestors were milling around. "Well, yeah," David said, "but...they're kind of outliers, aren't they? Isn't this basically how it was before, you see the nuts more often because they're louder about it? I mean, you don't go down the street and have a bunch of people harassing you, do you? It kinda seems like most people are handling things pretty well..."
Rachel shrugged. "Well, it doesn't always have to be so direct, though," she said. "But I think you're kinda right...still, I can see where she's coming from. Just 'cause it's not as big a problem doesn't mean it should be ignored. That might let it get worse."
"Exactly!" Cassandra exclaimed, as she and Lucas approached the table. The group felt her aura wash over them as she stood next to them. It was an odd feeling, it barely registered as a sensation at all, but it was just noticeable enough for them to realize what was happening as they all became animated. They looked around in mild confusion; Cass seemed to get a bit of a mischievous kick out of it.
"Like I said," she said, "it's about fighting bigotry. It's like the saying, 'all that is required for evil to triumph is for good men' - or women, for that matter," - she glanced at Lucas, who blushed visibly, warm red spots with vivid highlight scribbles appearing on her cheeks - "'to do nothing.' I want to help see it eradicated! Wiped away!" She was clearly excited by the idea, her voice a bit stronger and her body language a bit more imposing than might normally be expected; she looked like she was urging troops to war.
"B-but...you don't want to get all combative, if you don't have to, right?" David asked, craning her neck to get a good look at one wing, which seemed to have stray feathers drifting gently and atmospherically in the air, though she didn't actually seem to be losing any. "If...if people are being mostly okay, and you go talking like it's an all-or-nothing thing..."
Now it was Cassandra's turn to blush. "Um...sorry," she said. "I get a little worked up sometimes...especially since my change. I do want to see it gone, really...but...I'm not trying to pick fights, I just don't think people should have to put up with it. I can see your point, but...I'm not sure indifference is enough. Bad attitudes that people don't care about are better than ones they're in favor of and put into practice, but I don't know that you can count on them to die off instead of just hanging around in the background. I want to educate people about that..."
"Speaking of education," Rachel said, her grin somehow looking even more impish than usual in this strange rendering of reality, "thing I learned: even angels of vengeance are cute when they're embarassed."
"Indeed," Cass grinned, glancing sidelong at Lucas.
Toby sighed as the phone rang. It was ringing quite a lot today, as a good twenty people had called in offering a "tip" that some nuts were going to be protesting against the devil-changed, which they'd known since an anonymous source in the police department had happened to mention it, and many others had called wondering if they were going to do a story on it, which they were scrambling to pull together in between answering all the damn phone calls! It was hard enough trying to make sure they weren't getting too invested in selling their own angle on the story; the general consensus at the station leaned pretty strongly against the protestors, and they were having to work at making sure it didn't come off as too much of a screed...not that it was a task any of them really liked. But with all the phone calls, and the front-desk secretary, a naga-woman, out sick this morning for an unstated reason that Toby guessed had to do with the slight bulge that had been forming in her abdomen over the past couple days...it was crazy.
She was just about to let it go to voicemail when she glanced at the caller ID. The anime girl smiled slightly, tried to get herself in a better mood, and picked up the phone, glancing idly at the handset, now rendered in firm pen lines and warm colors. "Hi, honey," she said.
"You sound a little worn-out," Terri said on the other end. "Work keeping you busy?"
"Augh...don't get me started," she said. "The one day our front-desk lady takes off unscheduled, this protest business has to start up and get nearly every fourth person in the county calling in...um, but...how are you and Riley?"
"Just fine," her husband said. "Riley's still dipping in and out of feeling confused by all this, but she seems all right. But...well, if you're busy, it can wait..."
"No, that's fine. I could use a break, really."
"Okay," Terri said. "I got a call this morning from Adam - you remember, the kid from Hedgeton?"
Toby nodded. "It'd be a bit difficult to forget him, considering."
"Well, I'm pretty sure that's 'her' now," Terri said. "H...she got a visit from what she called 'government people.' They had some idea that she was involved in the event, and apparently she let it slip that someone had helped her set things to rights...and they wanted to know who. She called because she thought she should ask before telling them about Riley..."
She let out a low whistle. "Well. She didn't say what kind of 'government people' they were?"
"Not to me, no. Look, honey, you've dealt with government contacts before, right? What do you think we should do?"
Toby frowned. "I've spoken to the PR department of the FBI, and that's as close to conspiracy-theory fodder as I've ever gotten. I wonder if they didn't give her the name of their agency, or if she just forgot? But if they actually knew enough about the Hedgeton event to guess who was behind it, they can't simply be cranks or total frauds..."
She sighed. "Hon...why don't you have her pass along my work number...I'd like to see if I can hear anything more from these people..."
Tiffany sat in the nurse's office, feeling itchy and cranky. These stupid lights just couldn't stay hidden...she looked across the room at the mirror, staring at the girl there. The horn which sat just enough into her field of view to leave her trying to get a better look at it, but moved with her head so that she couldn't, the pale skin, just this side of actual white...that stuff was annoying enough, but to have this tatto stuff on her body that didn't even have the decency to stay hidden...gah! Why did she have to put up with this? What good was it? What was she, and why did her new, weak form come with so much weirdness?
All she really wanted was her first changed form back...with that, she had had power. People had feared her, had respected her. Now, though...she wasn't intimidating, she was frail...even with a spiral horn jutting from her forehead, she wasn't intimidating. How was she supposed to make people listen now? She still wanted them to listen...indeed, somehow it seemed more important to her than before. She had ideas, she had direction...but who would listen to a freak like her, if she couldn't make them?
The nurse, a short, well-built beaver-woman, looked her over. "Ms. Saunders," she said, "by your own account, your clothes are feeling uncomfortable since this...display began acting up, correct?" Tiffany nodded. "Well," she said, "this may sound trite, but...if what you're doing, or what you're wearing, is bothering you, you might consider not doing it. You had mentioned some clothing that came with your change?"
"They're robes, yeah," Tiffany said. "But I don't want to wear them! I'd look like a...like even more of a freak!"
The nurse shook her head. "Tiffany, if this constitutes 'freak' to you, frankly it's a losing battle. No clothes are going to fully hide your changes. For starters, you couldn't hide that horn without a hat which would draw even more attention. If you don't want to wear robes, I'd see about maybe getting some other clothing made from the same material, but in any case, if you know it doesn't irritate you..."
Tiffany huffed. The idea, wearing a normal outfit of that...that diaphanous stuff...it was bad enough in the folds of the robes, if she wore it in only a couple layers, what couldn't be seen? Especially with the gentle glow her body produced...she'd be some kind of glow-in-the-dark peep-show! But...what else could she do? This was uncomfortable, that was stupid...she was caught between no good options...
