Dane listens, then tells you not to confuse patience with hesitation, because hesitation is what amateurs call fear, and patience is what professionals call survival, and Dane likes words that make the job sound like craft instead of appetite. Build trust, he says. Wait for the market to give you noise. Do not push Isabella into checking the floor beneath your persona, do not make her ask questions that turn into procedures, do not make her curiosity sharpen into a blade. It is good advice. Coming from him, that almost makes it worse: you hear kindness in the shape of it, and kindness from Dane makes you wonder what he is not saying, what he is already normalising for you. You stare at your reflection in a dark phone screen and realise you have started measuring ethics in “too early” and “too late,” like someone timing a trade. [[Mango Pressure Update|Wait for Mango to demand a timeline]] [[Quiet Evening Research|Start quiet evening research]]