[ Verity chewed on her lower lip as she straightened out her back, and took in a lungful of air as the bandages were set firmly around her ribs. The pain was still there as a constant thrum that took some of the color out of her face. Good thing the hands setting her wounds were surprisingly gentle and the conversation kept her mind off the pain. ]

"Utility as the organizing principle. The Functionist regime made the lock and the Senate holds the key."

[ Quoting directly from Towards Peace - which she nearly cited but immediately decided she didn't want to sound like she was trying to upstage the people it actually affected. She look back up at her nurse and caught that excited light in his eyes and knew it right away for what it was. ]

Burgeoning pundit, huh? If this is your thing I can forward you my copies of Megatron's collected works. Really, and hear me out on this because believe me I know, but the guy didn't go completely off the rails without leaving some real solid stuff readily available.

[ Verity doesn't wait for a reaction as she keeps going. ]

I'm serious. I'd skip over the racially charged polemics but even they're not undisciplined and still touch on the anti-mechanical issues brought up in Towards Peace. The neologisms in his pre-war poetic work could even be called inspired.

-Hey, can you pass me the ibuprofen and another glass of water?