Minerva tsked, "ah, that is disappointing. No solutions, only problems. Would you like Recluse to run for president, Ace? Perhaps Arachne could arrange a sit-in? Perhaps Jorias Quinn could arrange a bus boycott! Meanwhile<em>I</em>will organize an online petition."<br/><br/>"Boss, no way in hell am I-"<br/><br/>"Sarcasm. Dollar." Arachne begrudgingly pulled a dollar out of her bag and put it in the swear jar. "People are fat and happy, or at least afraid to change the way things are for fear of making it worse. They can't see the ruin that's approaching them. If I thought peace would work, I'd do it. Really, I would, even aside from how I would be met with violence if I had the audacity to walk in the sun. Violence is, unfortunately, the only way left to us.<br/><br/>Now, on any other day, I would say that yes, a lot of people will die. It would be quite tragic but yes, quite necessary. But luckily for you, today the answer is not one person, because Recluse is making excellent progress on a way to win that war without even firing a shot. After all, the Tyrant Sun has already humiliated governments and heroes and villains alike. All you have to do is trap and control its power and<em>poof</em>, all those sticky moral quandaries of death and destruction in the revolution disappear like magic."<br/><br/>"The rookie I told you about, she-"<br/><br/>"Have him secure, yes. One part of a much larger project, but extracting whatever metaphysical property allowed him to be a bane against Zohar will save a great many lives. Now, I will say that a lot of people will be experimented on. There's no getting around that if we want to drive the species forwards, and technology has vastly outpaced human development. Now, I would also say that all three people in this room besides you have<em>already</em>been experimented on for far less lofty goals - Silvia, to try to make a picturesque flagship product. Arachne, to try and find an alternative source of silk. Myself, merely because they could. Having obtained the technology and research that created us, we can at least make our struggles<em>mean</em>something."<br/><br/>She flopped down on the floor next to Ace, letting out an exhausted sigh. "You know all this, Ace. You went to Silvia wanting to make her a superhero, but all you could offer her were scraps and crumbs. She told me." Another fidget from Silvia; Ace could almost see her mouth the word, 'sorry.'<br/><br/>"That wasn't what I said-"<br/><br/>"A momentary respite from the sentence imposed on her, a sentence that can't even really be enforced anyway. Even if I wanted to do things your way, it would be, 'fight for us, then go back where you belong, an insensate puddle of goop because we've made you too dangerous to leave as a person.' There's no place for me in the world up there, for any of us. So I'm going to<em>make</em>one, whether they like it or not, and I'd very much like to think that's not unreasonable. Put yourself in my place. What would you do?"<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Mechanics</div><div class="spoiler_body">Success! That's definitely worthy of your 3xp award.</div></div>