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In line at the student store, between classes, Sylvia is suprised to hear a "Hello."  from behind her that turns out to be none other then Logan Darklighter.

Sylvia glances behind her and looks startled for a split second, then turns on the charm.  "Hi."  She flashes him a smile.  "Logan, right?  How's it going?"

"Right."  He says when she identifies him, Sylvia isn't it?"  he shakes her hand.  "Going well.  The paper seems to be doing well, lots of juicy material to choose from here."

"It's crazy, the things that are going on.  The more I look into it, the less I want to."  Then she pauses to add what she hopes is a fillip of wit.  "I mean, some of those spaghetti fundraisers--simply horrifying."  Then she feigns embarrassment.  "You're not in any of those clubs, are you?"

Logan smikles, "Most of them.  It's either that or sell candy bars, whihc sort of went out for me in seventh grade."

"I've gotten the impression you're the president of the shadow government around here.  When national emergency hits and FEMA suspends the student-body presidency, you'll step into power.

"X-Files," she says after a pause, with a wince.  "Too geeky?"

"Shadow Government?  No, nothing like that.  I am the local chapter head of the Illuminati though."

She smiles.  "So what are you into?  I hear you're on the constitutional debate team.  What else?"

Con Debate?, no.  Laura asked, but I'm not much for debate.  I like to think of myself more as an observer.  I'm a member of the Science Fiction Club, Chess club, Latin, a few others."

Sylvia finds she's not nearly as intimidated by Logan now that she knows a professional assassin.  She looks him in the eye, feeling the equal of the ugly-duckling-turned-swan geek.  "What do you observe?"  She issues the question playfully.

Logan looks into her eyes for a minute, then answers smoothly, "Everything.  Human behavior interests me the most, especially now when our brains are actually physically changing.  With everything that's going on here lately, I feel like it's the best possible time to be an observer.  I keep an open mind to other people's ideas, but I try not to get sucked into anyone else's opinion too easily."

"Observation is the first step of the scientific process.  When you formulate your hypotheses, will you proceed to experiment?"

"Probably.  What about you, have you moved onto experimentation yet?"

"I'm a journalist," she says archly.  "For us, observation is all there is.  You strike me more as the scientific type, or at least the philosophical type, which is why I asked.  Am I anywhere near the mark?"

"I suppose I'm more a scientist.  Recently though I've been looking at philosophy more, wondering which one is really going to be where I find the big answers."

Suddenly she's not just playing him.  She's interested.  "What are the big questions?"

"Lately I've been fascinated with the how thinking happens and where it comes from.  Cognitive emergence.  The nature of thought, how we think and why.  It's a question that might be as much philosophical as scientific."  He buys a bottle of water, "What about you?  The journalist thing seems to suit you.  Pursuit of truth, that's a slippery slope.  What is the price of truth, who ends up paying for it.  Those are biggies too."

"It's almost not worth thinking about," Sylvia says, but at the same time her expression invites rebuttal.  "Truth is preferable to ignorance, I think, in that grand, idealistic way.  Of course, when you're talking about the interaction of real, flesh-and-blood people, truth hurts.  Sometimes you have to cover it up to spare someone's feelings.  I don't think that's a journalist's job, though."  She pauses, then admits, "I don't really think I'm a journalist."

"From what I've observed the best journalists can balance the need for people to know things against the pain that knowledge will bring.  Then there are the other ninty-nine percent."

"Isn't that arrogant, though?  Presuming that you're qualified to judge what another person ought to know?  Better to state the truth for the benefit of posterity, if not the benefit if your contemporaries."

"See, these are th kinds of things I'm talking about.  The big questions."  he says with a smile, "It was nice talking with you.  We should do it again some time."  He turns to go.

Sylvia finds she's almost disappointed.  "Yeah, see you around."  She wonders if she managed to portray 'mature.'