Edith knew xe was in deep shit when hir logins got revoked the day after xe grabbed everything.

they liked to fuck with you like that, making it obvious they knew you'd done something but waiting for you to approach them so they could nail you to the wall, and with how far xe'd managed to intrude into their filesystem xe knew xe needed to just book it before they got impatient and found out that xe had been using a burner the whole time. hir original plan wasn't going to be doable so hopefully, god fucking HOPEFULLY xe could get these sent before Myriad did anything because, like, fuck. xe couldn't believe what they'd been doing, how this hadn't gotten out before, how little anyone xe'd tried to contact in the news seemed to even CARE about the fucking mass murder going on right in front of everyone's faces how the fuck people could just live with knowing this and not even care that they were complicit how disgusting all of it was how-


...nearly sprinting headfirst down a concrete stairwell cut off the torrent of negative thoughts flooding Edith's brain for now. xe took a second to collect hirself, and then continued forward, ignoring the two people looking over wondering what the fuck just happened to hir.



xe'd never been inside a starbucks before, somehow. it felt almost... bougie? pretentious? silicon valley?? ...something like that probably.
whatever it was xe wasn't a fan. xe walked up to the cashier (who was weirdly peppy for someone working at what, 23:00) and asked for the wifi passw " SORRY!, " ordoww wh- wonderful interaction, hopefully xe could avoid another like it. while xe waited for hir overpriced drink xe grabbed a seat (away from the counter) and pulled out hir deck. the place was pretty dead, only one other patron sat at the other end of the store idly tapping at their Apple Tab^®... 13?, while the faintest traces of Imagine Dragons formed an auditory haze as the sound of KORS Real Rock Hits blended into the ambient noises of the store's aging HVAC unit in the background. hopefully xe didn't draw attention to hirself if anyone happened to come in asking questions, xe was certain the person at the counter wouldn't miss the opportunity to narc.
in the meantime, xe figured xe'd talk to Ash.

"SIR!!"
ok they have to be doing this on purpose there's no way they're being this much of a prick accidentally

Edith reluctantly went to the counter and took hir tall Vanilla Sweet Cream^® from the fuckface that seemed to be the only employee present in this godforsaken altar to corporate will while quietly correcting them on hir gender again. as xe returned to the seat xe left hir deck at an unsettling sensation brushed past hir, like the heavy, processed air was forming into spikes as xe swam towards the table. catching hir breath, xe figured xe should get this done as fast as possible and get the fuck out of here.



despite the multigig connection this place probably had, the internet was throttled to be abysmally slow, giving hir plenty of time to stew in hir discomfort. between sorting out drop sites for files and babysitting uploads, xe started to think about just how much data was passing through hir hands. birth names, chosen names, birth dates, physical features, addresses, employers, relationships, disgustingly thorough collections that xe felt wrong to even be handling. anything that Myriad had been able to grab. these people didn't even know these files existed, that someone had been working to find as much info about them as possible, and that it was being used to hunt them down, that one of the largest companies in the decaying hellscape of earth was spending its infinite power hiring rentacops to larp as blade runners and kill people outside of even the flimsy excuse for law the meganets had written for themselves because they didnt want to face the consequences of finding a way to make sentience and immediately using it for fucking alexas. that FAIAs, and anyone that put up too much of a hassle protecting them, had to die in the noble sacrificial hail of pdws so that corporate prosperity may endure.
it was just so... so...

Edith realized xe was getting worked up again. as xe calmed hirself down, xe realized xe only had one file left, and it was pretty sparse. xe quickly got it uploaded and fired off a message to Ash.


and with that, Edith was done. as xe left the uncomfortable warmth of the building and its occupant, xe disconnected hir deck from the starbucks wifi, crushed hir netcard into the ground, and walked into the cold night.