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Tree branch: check. Assorted lightweight seed-bearing fruits and nuts: check. Other seeds: check. Water bottle, for when she has to veer away from the river: check.
Better not linger in her starting place too much longer. Yellow's faster than her and may have already come home to a wreck. Thorn might have a habit of checking up on the place, even, just in case. She's invisible, inaudible, unsmellable - that won't help if he sends someone thorough. Or comes in person.
She sets out.
She's been flying for about thirty minutes after her shopping trip when she falls through a tear and squeaks inaudibly and lands in the middle of -
imeanforever
imeanforever
Okay. Is there a good way to negotiate my conditional handing them over without running afoul of an insistence on an unconditional such surrender?
wormcan
There's no procedure set up for that. It isn't a situation that comes up often, and there's no single person making most of the decisions. I could try negotiating it, if you send me a list of your conditions.
imeanforever
Promise sends him an outline. Chief among her conditions are that she is not handing anyone over to be killed, either by the state or a fellow prisoner; she is unwilling to forbid self-defense to (for example) the Siberian if there is much chance she will require it and have no willing protectors.
Oh, and did she leave a Victoria and an Amy standing by? They can go home.
And Promise can order some pizzas for the S9. The contingencies about what if she leaves them alone with no food were only that.
And then...
This is getting ridiculous. She has nine captive parahumans, even if the S9 are taken away from her she will still have five, and while it's possible she'll just never accumulate more it seems a little unrealistic. She needs a better place to keep them.
Her address is fine for ordering pizzas to but it is not really cut out to host a lot of vassals. Her tree can get bigger, but she'd like to ever see her books again without worrying about information security.
Promise reads a few Wiki pages on Earth geography and climate,
and goes to the gate above the sky islands,
and makes a long, long row of tiny little gates, just big enough to peep through,
each leading to a spot high, high above a different mortal world's location-of-Viña del Mar.
Oh, and did she leave a Victoria and an Amy standing by? They can go home.
And Promise can order some pizzas for the S9. The contingencies about what if she leaves them alone with no food were only that.
And then...
This is getting ridiculous. She has nine captive parahumans, even if the S9 are taken away from her she will still have five, and while it's possible she'll just never accumulate more it seems a little unrealistic. She needs a better place to keep them.
Her address is fine for ordering pizzas to but it is not really cut out to host a lot of vassals. Her tree can get bigger, but she'd like to ever see her books again without worrying about information security.
Promise reads a few Wiki pages on Earth geography and climate,
and goes to the gate above the sky islands,
and makes a long, long row of tiny little gates, just big enough to peep through,
each leading to a spot high, high above a different mortal world's location-of-Viña del Mar.
wormcan
Choosing Earths at random means many of them are too different along a lot of axes. Climate differences are to be expected, but one world has less gravity and no atmosphere to speak of, another appears barren but usable unless she tries stepping through in which case it becomes impossible to breathe, a third gate fails due to the lack of anything resembling an Earth. Eventually one of the gates leads to a world similar to Earth Bet without the humans.
imeanforever
Promise shuts the unsuitable gates as they settle and prove unsuitable. And when she finds a nice one, with the pleasing autumnal climate Wikipedia led her to expect and no humans anywhere even if she makes a second gate to check its Africa for early ones.
Man, Earth wildlife is pretty. She hasn't been to many uncultivated wildernesses on Bet.
Since the concept of alphabets, Hebrew or otherwise, is alien to her, she names her planet Hawthorn, plants a tree at her pleasant AU-Chilean location, and then starts investigating prefab housing and bulk mortal food purchases.
In the meantime, anything interesting in her inbox?
Man, Earth wildlife is pretty. She hasn't been to many uncultivated wildernesses on Bet.
Since the concept of alphabets, Hebrew or otherwise, is alien to her, she names her planet Hawthorn, plants a tree at her pleasant AU-Chilean location, and then starts investigating prefab housing and bulk mortal food purchases.
In the meantime, anything interesting in her inbox?
wormcan
An update from Quinn: most of the people involved are very much in favor of prosecuting any of these (apparently it's a boon to their careers) and they're willing to make some concessions. No collar preventing the singing supervillain from opening her mouth, for instance, and more importantly they won't be trying for capital punishment. (The fact that the Siberian is effectively unkillable may or may not be part of the reason for this.) But the Birdcage is a sticking point; some of his counterparts are of the opinion that if the Slaughterhouse Nine don't get sent there then there is no reason for it to exist.
imeanforever
Then maybe there isn't a reason for it to exist, Promise comments. Does not trying for capital punishment mean not getting it?
imeanforever
How flagrantly illegal would it be to leave the Siberian with permission to pick up her friends and leave if someone did try for capital punishment?
wormcan
Flagrantly. At most, the remedy would be to challenge the ruling in court before the scheduled date, and get a bigger judge to overrule it. No need for any new felonies at all.
imeanforever
I am deeply dubious about this entire process. But assuming for the moment that I trust those involved not to seek capital punishment and I'm satisfied that these particular individuals can probably be considered capable of comfortably inhabiting the Birdcage and therefore are not cases of my specific problem at work, what's my next step?
wormcan
If you decide to trust it, you can just send them to the nearest PRT office. You will almost certainly be asked to testify about capturing them, but the the system isn't meant to rely on continued involvement of whoever caught the defendant.
imeanforever
Is it reasonably guaranteed that someone who has registered a willingness not to seek capital punishment will be prosecuting?
wormcan
Reasonably. It won't be legally enforceable until the agreement gets made on their behalf instead of yours, but I'm as confident as is possible outside that constraint.
wormcan
Their lawyer. It can't be me since you're involved and I'm representing you, but a deal that involves not being executed is what any defense lawyer would aim for. Under the circumstances.
imeanforever
Do I get to talk and/or help select their defense lawyer? I have been getting the impression that even champions of the ostensible principles of the mortal justice system might be pleased to see these particular defendants suffer.
wormcan
You can, there's no rule against it, but it's ultimately between them and their lawyer.
And a bit of a misplaced concern, fortunately; defense lawyers in particular are used to defending regardless of who the defendant is.
And a bit of a misplaced concern, fortunately; defense lawyers in particular are used to defending regardless of who the defendant is.
wormcan
It will make things more complicated, but if she can understand what's going on and express preferences to her defense team then being mute won't by itself be prohibitive.
imeanforever
Okay.
Time to email the Director. May I expect your assistance in handling the humane jailing of the Siberian, Bonesaw, Mannequin, and Shatterbird the same way you did with the ABB capes?
Time to email the Director. May I expect your assistance in handling the humane jailing of the Siberian, Bonesaw, Mannequin, and Shatterbird the same way you did with the ABB capes?
wormcan
Subject to the same caveat that I don't have unlimited influence, yes. For something this high-profile there's even less of a guarantee of keeping them out of the Birdcage, but I'll do what I can.
imeanforever
I'll bear that in mind.
Hmm.
Promise emails Sarkany. If the Siberian just spends a lot of time with her friends they're probably all safe versus physical harm but that is by no means the only harm on offer. How bad is the worst case...?
It's bad.
Promise sends a caravan of furnished trailers and a fuel supply and generators and shelf-stable mortal food to Hawthorn, while pretending to anyone who asks that she is still dithering. Plumbing in the style mortals are accustomed to will be harder, but she parked near a river.
She moves the occupants of her tree there.
She asks her lawyer, If I do decide to start doing flagrantly illegal things, are innocent persons known to be my vassals who are not otherwise participating in my projects at risk?
Hmm.
Promise emails Sarkany. If the Siberian just spends a lot of time with her friends they're probably all safe versus physical harm but that is by no means the only harm on offer. How bad is the worst case...?
It's bad.
Promise sends a caravan of furnished trailers and a fuel supply and generators and shelf-stable mortal food to Hawthorn, while pretending to anyone who asks that she is still dithering. Plumbing in the style mortals are accustomed to will be harder, but she parked near a river.
She moves the occupants of her tree there.
She asks her lawyer, If I do decide to start doing flagrantly illegal things, are innocent persons known to be my vassals who are not otherwise participating in my projects at risk?
wormcan
No. Even for those who are, anyone who wanted to punish them for it would have to prove you didn't force them. Your vassals might be at risk if they're dependent on you and you get captured, but they're at least safe legally.
imeanforever
What is a good way to handle my money in the event I decide to start doing flagrantly illegal things, where "money" includes some number of bounties and a blank check from the Protectorate?