Elaine wandered through the racks of weapons idly. She knew that she could easily outlast Ciddia and her... it took Elaine a moment to recognize that the woman was no more than an employee, in spite of being dressed in a fashion that in her time was reserved for heavy-hitters. Oh, there were always fakers who wore suits, but there was something to this Administrator, a shadow of the gravitas that she mentally reserved for the real thing. Perhaps it was just being trained by Ciddia, who was without a doubt still the real thing.

More to pass the time than anything, Elaine offered the younger woman a smile and picked up a paired sword, the other lifting off the rack next to it according to her mental command, and said, "So tell me about yourself. Don't worry about this whole locked-in thing, I'm not that desperate to keep the thing. Just... checking." She swung the sword she wasn't touching around like it was a nunchaku, while maintaining eye contact. When the other woman didn't respond for a moment, she put it back, wondering if she was too intimidating.

"I'm just her to help people," said the other woman after a period of silence. "The colonies... have given up on progress since the end of the Two Worlds. It's better and worse depending on where you go. My mother got fired from a job for using unauthorized technology--off the shelf stuff, but her boss was a technophobe. She found another job, but for a while, it seemed like she was black-balled from everything." The Administrator bared her teeth. "The Administrators don't do as much as I'd like, but they aren't afraid of technology itself. They just... aren't eager to give things away anymore."

"Do you think that's how Teddy sees you?" Elaine took a radiation shockwave pistol and, idly, removed the power source and racked it separately. Irrelevant, but it gave her something to do with her hands.

The Administrator was quiet for a minute. "Perhaps not," she said quietly. "I'm sure every time that he doesn't get something he thinks he heeds, it feels like a betrayal. And given our policies, that happens often enough. However... we watch more than just Teddy, and too many people on the Two Worlds are abusing the technology they have, let alone what we could give them." The other woman wandered, as casually as someone unused to zero gravity could, over to one of the racks. "May I ask you a question?"

"Of course!" Elaine wanted to drop another body next to the woman and teleport over, but fought the urge. Most people didn't like it when she did that, and while it was fun to piss off Archons or other people with power... she had no reason to dislike this woman. She seemed... professional, well-meaning, and not nearly as stuffy and cold as most of the people she remembered. So, Elaine just flew, "About some of my stuff?"

"This one." The Administrator set her hand down next to the Dragon Gauntlet, one of the few items Elaine had been reluctant to let go of. "I'm just curious... it gives off a strange feeling."

Elaine couldn't help grinning. "Yeah, you wouldn't know the feeling, would you? They call that a Dragon Gauntlet, new age Draco tech. See, magic in the Old World was two pieces--a spiritual body and a power source. Before the Two Worlds became one, there was only one real power source, and that was the planet itself--something the Arch Sorcerers did, whatever." She shrugged. "But with real power sources from Terra they could create what they call mini-dragons, fully independent of the planet. That means if you make your own custom spell, nobody can use it but you, which is very different from how the rest of magic works."

The administrator held her hand over the glove, as though afraid to touch it. "So this is... magic?"

"Pure and true. Though if magic is damage in the world outside..." Elaine gave a waggling wave of her hand. "It'll probably just break, too. Like Ciddia said, it might make another one of those monsters, and why risk it? It's just a weapon."

The other woman's eyes remained locked on the item for a long time. "The Two Worlds are damaged, yes," she said. "The colonies are fine."

"But they don't want this stuff," pointed out Elaine amicably. "You said that yourself. And again, weapon."

"But..." Finally, the Administrator just sighed and put her hand down. "Of course you're right. I just wish..."

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"That you could live in a world of peace, harmony, and magic? Yeah, we always want the world to be different." Elaine flew up just a bit, hanging in midair over the arsenal of weapons, and gestured grandly around herself. "Behold! This is what that ideology has created. We fought to create the perfect world, and destroyed the imperfect one. Now nothing remains."

The Administrator flinched and turned her head to the side as though she'd been struck. Elaine caught the movement and turned to look at her, there was an awkward silence for a moment, and then Elaine laughed.

"You," she said cheerfully, "you are a piece of work, aren't you? Don't worry about me, I'm only half as cynical as I act. Here." Elaine summoned her Pandora Token and flipped it at the Administrator, who only managed to catch it after it had bounced once off her chest. "That's what the lady upstairs wants. We can get out of here, now." She paused. "What's your name, by the way?"

The administrator, following some unseen direction, crossed to the other side of the platform and deposited the coin in a small box. A light lit up on the side of it, and she nodded in confirmation. "My name is Liao," she said as she looked up at the other woman. "Chun Liao."

Elaine pushed off of a nearby weapons rack with one foot, flipping end-over-end with practiced grace, and landed in front of Liao--with the lack of gravity, it was just a fancy way of flying, but she did put some effort into making it look like she was fighting against gravity. Give how her flight powers worked, she was rarely actually aware of what gravity wanted her to do, anyway, unless she was keeping both feet on solid ground.

Then she offered the other woman a handshake. "Pleased to meet you, Chun Liao." Elaine did her best to pronounce the name right, which made Liao's lips twist into a bit of a smile. "I am Elaine Many. In spite of what your profile on me says, that is my real name now. The other one is an echo of a time long gone."

Liao gave the other woman a small smile, still seeming more than a bit shy. "Pleased to meet you, Elaine. I am sure it will be very interesting working with you."

"I'll make sure of that," Elaine replied cheerfully, as a portal ripped open next to them. She measured the portal for a moment, weighing the chance of another betrayal, then shrugged and gestured to Liao. "After you."

To her surprise, the portal dropped her right back out in Teddy Helmann's compound, where one wall, the one closest to the blaze, was now mostly melted or fire--not a surprise for such a chintzy wall, Elaine thought. Liao kept her face an unreadable mask, but as the portal zipped shut and reopened, she couldn't keep the stress out of her voice.

"Ciddia would like you to put out the fire that you so casually started." Two administrators appeared from the portal, looking quite bewildered, and deposited backpacks on the ground before immediately departing. "Ideally before this place is completely destroyed."

Even before she was done talking, Elaine had appeared two bodies, each hauling a backpack up and flying over to the wall. "Of course," the remaining Elaine said, easily splitting the mental load of the three bodies. "What's in the tanks, water or some kind of suppressant?"

"There's no tank. They're connected to the lake." Liao gestured vaguely off towards to the northeast, and the body of water once known as Lake Michigan. "That's where the runoff will go, anyway. Try to control the erosion if you can, but we aren't expecting any miracles."

"Right." Two hoses came to life, and before long, the wall at least was put out. There was so little in the area that could actually burn, that while the plasma was hot enough to melt or even ignite some types of dirt and sand, it wasn't self sustaining. Still, she sprayed a perimeter and gave the hot ground a good hosing, which led to a lot of steam and little runoff, and made double sure that the wall was completely put out.

As things wound down, Elaine looked over the wall, and then looked around the rest of the compound. She felt her face falling a bit as she considered the place Teddy had proudly called home. She was no one's idea of a craftsman, but the walls were shit, and the buildings, and most of the tech. But Teddy, who could afford a small standing army of guards, could only afford this much.

"It's a different world without civilization, without technology" she said into the open air, and Liao gave her a strange look. "There are--there used to be--mages and builder Archons who could have made a better compound than this in an hour, and a true fortress in a day. How long has Teddy been here? Years?"

"Most of his life," replied Liao, evenly.

"But the coin has to be locked up. But Archons shouldn't exist. Nothing should be repaired, replaced. The Administrators sit by doing nothing." Elaine let her scorn sit naked in her voice. "I'll bet this is better than a lot of places. Better than some hospitals."

Liao said nothing.

"Fortunately, I did have some things in my inventory that aren't weapons." Elaine gave the other woman a big grin. "I'll make amends for this. And maybe do some other things. We'll figure something out, and make you look like cowards for sitting around doing nothing."

Liao watched the other woman's face for a moment, then gave a professional smile. "That's just who you are, Elaine Many. We are the Administrators, and you are an Archon. Go be what you are."

Elaine snorted, wondering who had written that line for her, and turned and walked away from Liao.