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Confirot in

Log off Go read I don’t want to waste your ti at those stark white words for a long h Go

I went

Reading the files Dave and Alaric provided took the better part of an hour Gettingtook another twentyand I was sure I could control myself, I shut down et myself dressed; it was time to crash a party

I always kneanted to be a journalist When I was a kid, I thought they were the next best thing to superheroes They told the truth They helped people I wouldn’t find out about the other things journalists did—the lies and espionage and back-stabbing and bribes—for years, and by that point, it was too late The neas in my blood Like every junkie in the world, I neededbut the news and the truth and to irl, and I never regretted it for a er than er than Shaun, and God, I’m scared And I’m still a junkie I still can’t walk away

—Froia Mason, June 19, 2040

Twenty-four

Unfortunately forthe senator’s keynote speech and the dinner party to folloere clear: Formal attire was required for all attendees, even media representatives Maybe especially media representatives—after all, everyone else paid fifteen hundred dollars for the privilege of eating rubber chicken and rubbing elboith Senator Ry in on that damned “freedom of the press” loophole If they shut us out, we’d be free to start playing dirty If they let us in, cosseted us, petted us, and put us in our places, they could maintain the semblance of control Maybe it’s never stopped a real scandal fros, but it’s done a lot to keep the little ones under the table where they belong

The ca mine and Shaun’s on our respective sides of the trailer we’d be living in for the duration of the Sacrah like a hurricane, looking for his own formalwear My suitcases were buried beneath a thick layer of Shaun’s clothing, weaponry, paperwork, and other general debris Locating the which case contained my own formalwear took another five I cursed Shaun the whole time It kept me distracted

Men’s formal attire is sensible: pants, suit coats, cummerbunds Even ties can be useful, since they work as arrotes Woed since the Rising; it still see it killed at the first possible opportunity Screw that My dress was custom-made The skirt is breakaway, the bodice is fitted to allow un, and there’s a pocket concealed at the waist for extra a garment I own, and the situations that call for me to wear it almost invariably require hose and heels At least modern pantyhose are made with a polymer weave that’s virtually puncture proof