#ask;

>. "...Bold of you to assume I was planning on getting old."

Alas, he wasn't wrong. Binary had been staring at those monitors of hers for what felt like hours, trying to pinpoint some kind of hole in Roy's little lovechild Panopticon -- but finding nothing. It was sealed tight, as if the whole damn thing had been taped up by flextape. God, she hated those fucking commercials.

"But if this is going to take much longer, then yeah -- I'll either die from boredom or old age sooner rather than later."

Or perhaps at the hands of completely losing her damn mind.

With a groan, her back cracked as the black-hat hacker reluctantly stood up. Turning around to face her favorite vampire, Lestat, with an elongated yawn. She scratched the corner of her damaged eye-hole -- debating whether to remove the prosthetic until the dryness had disappeared altogether -- before freezing in place once she took in his very interesting choice of attire.

"...What the hell are you w e a r i n g ?"

Groan times two, she moved past the flamboyant undead with a following chuckle -- plucking out the fake eye in the nearby mirror before glancing back to him over her shoulder. Say what you will about Lestat -- but there was never a dull moment around him.

"---- Do you have a show tonight? Is that why you're here?" .<

>. "Anonymous? Hah. No. I like to stay away from cliques as much as I can—but I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little curious about their tactics."

"---- Not a single group of hackers has ever made such an impact in the modern era as they have. I mean -- they clearly know what they're doing. And everyone knows it. I don't even think you can fathom the impact they've had on how governments, agencies, and corporations handle their cybersecurity these days. It's all thanks to them. Anonymous."

"But...It's just not for me. No offense to their cause, of course, they should keep up the good work -- but I don't do well in group assignments. I would rather work alone, for my own agenda --- unless anything calls for a more...two-hands-on approach." .<

>. "...---So you want help from little ol' me? Now now -- if that's not a compliment, I don't know what it is."

Her words could be silky smooth as long as she was getting paid for it. And services like that, no matter where they came from, were bound to be expensive. Binary didn't simply hand out her knowledge to just about anyone, no.

This was a transaction. Clear and simple.

"I know where to get a hold of it quick and clean. Gonna cost you, though. Can I take your name, or are you planning on keeping me in the dark? Whatever suits you best, darling."

With a click of her pen, she let the nib hang on top of the notepad. She might be a girl of tech, but she was still traditional in how she took notes. Plus, it always helped to make her look and feel professional.

"I'm flexible like that.".<

>. "...Huh?`"

It didn't even occur to the black-hat hacker that the DJ had spoken nearly half a minute ago before she registered it. It was like her brain had pressed pause on a tape and struggled to find the remote again.

Once she did respond, however, Binary caught herself clicking the lid of her lighter in her hand on and off repeatedly -- aimlessly toying with the fire until her friend Coffi had called her back to reality. If there was anyone capable of thinking about so much and yet nothing all at the same time, it was Bianca.

Just a shame she had been caught doing so red-handed.

"Tch. No, I'm not. I'm fi---"

Nearly dropping the lighter, she grasped it hard, nearly burning her fingertips on the hot metal - before glancing back to the DJ with an equally distracted gaze. That was the downside of making her wait -- her thoughts and mind spiraling all too quickly once she was left in solitude.

"I'm fine."

No, she wasn't. But Coffi didn't need to know that right now, she was getting chased down by her old demons - threatening to tear her apart at the seams.

"Do you got a minute? Could we speak? You know...in private?"

It had only been a few days since GrandTech had launched their precious project -- and every day, she felt like she was walking on needles. Her first job was to make sure all her friends, especially those in the public light, --- weren't targeted.

If Coffi wanted to take that threat seriously, however, that remained to be seen.<

>. "You know -- considering you now got GrandTech looking at you with a magnifying glass;; I would probably be doing the same."

Whatever alibi Dazzler needed to get, Binary was more than happy to help out with. Upon finding out that Project Panopticon's few main targets were the celebrity she had gotten to know a good while back, Binary had nearly dropped everything to go find her. Sure, Dazzler had a w h o l e security team to cover for her; but they didn't know GrandTech like she did.

"But you need to know this isn't going to disappear by itself." With a twist of her body, seemingly a little uncomfortable to be putting herself out there --, Binary grimaced under the mask.

"No matter how much your 'guy' in charge of media tries to cover for you, those asshole are going to keep chasing you down if we don't do something about this."

Dazzler was a reasonable woman -- but Binary's uncertainty about how the other would act in these exploitative situations did make her s t r e s s e d. So she tried to remind herself to take it easy -- to use her words rather than just grab her and get the hell out of there.

A hand reached out for her to grasp. Sentimental and desperate-- simply to not see another woman fall into the claws of the past she so desperately tried to escape.

"Come on. Let's figure this out. Together."

Please.<

~. Bzz Bzz .

>. Only when darkness engulfed her, Binary gathered enough courage to show her face when the rest of her body was fully exposed and barren.