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Bella bikes to the airport on Friday. She gets a little reading done on her flight, then sleeps-on-purpose through the remainder of the trip, waking up precisely when the plane touches down. One nice bonus that she didn't even explicitly build into the power is that she can sleep at will in virtually any position; she doesn't have to get comfy if that's not convenient.
She steps off the plane, backpack full of her things over her shoulders, and stalks into the halls of LaGuardia, eyes peeled for Libby.
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self_composed
self_composed
"Is this band," Bella asks, "a magic rock band? Or is that only a fraction of your activities?"
self_composed
"So the rest of it is just garden-variety... networking. Informal, I presume, no mailing list, no registering yourself as an LLC in Delaware, I suspect I'd have heard about it by now if you hosted mixers alternate Thursdays."
self_composed
"And you sent Bridget to spy on me because you wanted me kept on your radar because... you think I might get in someone's way, or might be able to do things you and your friends would like done."
prima-sequentem
"I expect you to get in someone's way if I don't keep an eye on you," says Libby. "The question is whether you're going to have simple, ordinary goals that conflict with the simple, ordinary goals of one of my people, or at the opposite extreme, start setting cities on fire one day. I don't like it when people set cities on fire. It creates mess."
self_composed
"I don't have any plans to set any cities on fire," Bella says honestly.
prima-sequentem
"Because you're powerful, and 'someone' covers a very long list of people you could potentially inconvenience without ever knowing it. You could only manage not to get in anyone's way by being very unimaginative, and you don't strike me as unimaginative."
self_composed
"Do you classify mints in general as 'very powerful', that way, or do I only count because you think I've got imagination?" Bella asks.
False dichotomy is fun.
False dichotomy is fun.
self_composed
"What, then?" Bella says, unfazed. False dichotomy is fun but it doesn't always work.
prima-sequentem
"You have the tightest anti-spying ward I've ever seen. For example."
self_composed
"I don't like being spied on. I don't know if Bridget told you, I took it a bit amiss when I found out she'd been doing it." Bella sips her drink. "How did you see my anti-spying ward?"
self_composed
"Of course. But doesn't that strike you as a bit rude?"
prima-sequentem
"Sure it does. But I am absolutely willing to be rude if it will help me protect my people."
self_composed
Bella is not quite sure how to communicate the disconnect between Libby's take on this and her own. Bella is also not sure if she wants Libby to understand the way in which this is not okay, though, so she doesn't try very hard. Instead she says:
"The way Bridget talks about you makes more sense now."
Because it really does. Humans are mostly designed to care about people being team players, not about people adhering to abstract ethics or rule of law. Libby is - or can produce a very convincing front of being - a team player.
"The way Bridget talks about you makes more sense now."
Because it really does. Humans are mostly designed to care about people being team players, not about people adhering to abstract ethics or rule of law. Libby is - or can produce a very convincing front of being - a team player.
self_composed
"Yes, she was adamant that you were definitely oriented around being helpful to her and others in the network, and kept taking exception to the 'sinister' description."
self_composed
"Because you were spying on me," Bella says tiredly.
She is not sure why this is so complicated.
She is not sure why this is so complicated.
prima-sequentem
"Comes with the job," she says, unapologetically. "Someone has to make sure nobody destroys the world."