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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 -
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imeanforever
wormcan
"I'm sorry! I forgot my power was still active, this is the same thing that started all this, I'm sorry!"
imeanforever
"Look, I believe you, but on the list of things I don't like mind control is on top of the list. You can't do it to me anymore, but I'm not sure this eventuality is the nice perk for your trial you were hoping."
wormcan
"You said you might be able to keep me out of the Birdcage, all you have to do is order me not to sing, I'll be miserable but I'll be alive, please help me!"
imeanforever
"I have ordered you not to sing. I would like to keep you out of the Birdcage, too, but whether I can do that depends on things such as how impressed various people are with the results of this test. The fact that until I had your name your power was working on me isn't encouraging."
wormcan
"But that just means they have to keep you away from me, not that I'm dangerous to anyone right now, doesn't it? It'll still keep me out?"
The Director has apparently been informed of what happened. Her voice gets piped in, "We'll make sure the court knows what happened, both the non-cooperation and the effects from it. It should help on balance, but it's up to the judge."
The Director has apparently been informed of what happened. Her voice gets piped in, "We'll make sure the court knows what happened, both the non-cooperation and the effects from it. It should help on balance, but it's up to the judge."
imeanforever
"You're not dangerous to anyone right now. That doesn't seem to be most people's primary consideration. I don't suppose the Protectorate wants to sell me Birdcage-bound capes for more gates?"
wormcan
"If you can neutralize them effectively, an additional gate would be worth more than the backlash from giving up Birdcage-bound villains. Unfortunately, that's not a deal we can make. Sentencing is in the hands of the co– the judicial system. The most the PRT can offer is what I promised about Bakuda."
imeanforever
"Does the judicial system want anything? Who would I talk to about that? These large unwieldy organizations interface very clumsily, it makes it hard to negotiate efficiently. I know you have a lot of mortals to handle, but still."
wormcan
"The individual making the decision in a given case is the judge, and judges are strictly forbidden from accepting things in exchange for favorable decisions.
In order to guarantee keeping people out of the Birdcage, the statute would have to change to say that no one can receive such a sentence if a Master-class cape renders them safe. Until today that would have been unreasonable.
And changing laws is well outside my influence."
In order to guarantee keeping people out of the Birdcage, the statute would have to change to say that no one can receive such a sentence if a Master-class cape renders them safe. Until today that would have been unreasonable.
And changing laws is well outside my influence."
imeanforever
"Whose influence does it take? Who is running this overgrown court of mortals?"
wormcan
"The relevant answer is Congress. A few hundred mortals, each representing the interests of a lot more mortals. The goal is to keep the laws at least vaguely similar to what people in general want them to be, but a side effect is that it is hard and complicated to change things."
(Canary, meanwhile, is thoroughly confused. The typical expected result of a desperate plea for help does not include the word "Congress.")
(Canary, meanwhile, is thoroughly confused. The typical expected result of a desperate plea for help does not include the word "Congress.")
imeanforever
Promise sighs heavily. "Canary, unless you from your presumably better understanding of how all this mortal stuff works have a helpful idea - which I would welcome - all I can do is swear to anyone who asks that you can't sing until I let you. Unless you have a reason why I should steal you away to Fairyland right now and lose most of my ability to negotiate in good faith for any other mortals with whom this comes up."
wormcan
Canary almost smiles. "Me too."
She gets escorted out by Sarkany, and the Director addresses Promise. "Notwithstanding the complication at the end, this was a very successful test. You're not immune to Masters, but that wasn't a condition of the deal. We will have to keep you away from whatever prisons they end up in, of course."
She gets escorted out by Sarkany, and the Director addresses Promise. "Notwithstanding the complication at the end, this was a very successful test. You're not immune to Masters, but that wasn't a condition of the deal. We will have to keep you away from whatever prisons they end up in, of course."
imeanforever
"Of course."
She... might have a solution for that. But it isn't one she wants to bring up right this second.
And unless she wants to torture Yellow... which she only very slightly does... it would require a mortal.
She... might have a solution for that. But it isn't one she wants to bring up right this second.
And unless she wants to torture Yellow... which she only very slightly does... it would require a mortal.
wormcan
And that concludes Promise's ongoing projects with the PRT.
Over the near future, the Tinkers give her her spare harmonic flatteners, the PRT continues to try to talk or bribe her into making more gates, preparation for the prisoners' trials begins, and Armsmaster asks again about sorcery after Promise has had a chance to visit a library. Various important PRT and Protectorate members are also considering which if any major threats to deploy her against.
Outside the PRT, Uber and Leet's video of the Bakuda fight has hit the Internet. The public sees them and Bakuda fight the Undersiders, the Undersiders escape, and then someone invisibly start ordering Bakuda. From her asking for Uber and Leet's names, people manage to start speculating that the names were what allowed it. That cat is irrevocably un-bagged.
Over the near future, the Tinkers give her her spare harmonic flatteners, the PRT continues to try to talk or bribe her into making more gates, preparation for the prisoners' trials begins, and Armsmaster asks again about sorcery after Promise has had a chance to visit a library. Various important PRT and Protectorate members are also considering which if any major threats to deploy her against.
Outside the PRT, Uber and Leet's video of the Bakuda fight has hit the Internet. The public sees them and Bakuda fight the Undersiders, the Undersiders escape, and then someone invisibly start ordering Bakuda. From her asking for Uber and Leet's names, people manage to start speculating that the names were what allowed it. That cat is irrevocably un-bagged.
imeanforever
Promise takes a minute to contemplate her answer to Armsmaster re: sorcery.
"...While in Fairyland anybody who wants to can pick it up," Promise says, "there, it's a longstanding well-known factor and doesn't interact very much with anything else. You can already, obviously interact with sorcery; I don't know that I'd just be teaching you to turn invisible and make lights and other things that I consider as ordinary as you consider light bulbs and phones if you got creative. It could escalate enormously beyond what I can predict or what the institutions intended to deal with capes are capable of reacting, perhaps destabilize some of these mortal systems that barely function as it is and have a lot of moving parts I don't understand. I think I'd have to know any prospective sorcery students from this world very well and trust them very deeply. We are not there."
She doesn't even say 'yet'. He's okay when he's geeking out, but his actual personality leaves something to be desired. But she does add:
"And you probably have more useful things to do with your time than hanging around me trying to get me to like you."
For more gates she will accept something that can copy library books for her to add to her personal collection, because this is annoying to do by hand. And when Sarkany offers her a custom computer that will redact anything that looks like a name and replace it with a consistent sequence of numbers, and also accept hand-drawn written input or voice (since Promise has no idea what to make of the Roman alphabet) that's a gatepair too. (The software update for the written input takes a little while and requires a sample of Promise's handwriting, but Promise has no shortage of non-private handwriting samples.) Now there are gatepairs over the Rainbow Lava Flows (Promise has always wanted to see those) and behind the Sourceless Waterfall.
And now Promise is discovering the internet. The internet is her favorite mortal invention!
"...While in Fairyland anybody who wants to can pick it up," Promise says, "there, it's a longstanding well-known factor and doesn't interact very much with anything else. You can already, obviously interact with sorcery; I don't know that I'd just be teaching you to turn invisible and make lights and other things that I consider as ordinary as you consider light bulbs and phones if you got creative. It could escalate enormously beyond what I can predict or what the institutions intended to deal with capes are capable of reacting, perhaps destabilize some of these mortal systems that barely function as it is and have a lot of moving parts I don't understand. I think I'd have to know any prospective sorcery students from this world very well and trust them very deeply. We are not there."
She doesn't even say 'yet'. He's okay when he's geeking out, but his actual personality leaves something to be desired. But she does add:
"And you probably have more useful things to do with your time than hanging around me trying to get me to like you."
For more gates she will accept something that can copy library books for her to add to her personal collection, because this is annoying to do by hand. And when Sarkany offers her a custom computer that will redact anything that looks like a name and replace it with a consistent sequence of numbers, and also accept hand-drawn written input or voice (since Promise has no idea what to make of the Roman alphabet) that's a gatepair too. (The software update for the written input takes a little while and requires a sample of Promise's handwriting, but Promise has no shortage of non-private handwriting samples.) Now there are gatepairs over the Rainbow Lava Flows (Promise has always wanted to see those) and behind the Sourceless Waterfall.
And now Promise is discovering the internet. The internet is her favorite mortal invention!
wormcan
The PRT Directors eventually come to a conclusion about where to send Promise. Ellisburg.
It used to be an ordinary mortal city, until a powerful parahuman took over and killed everyone in it. Since then, Nilbog has been living alone except for the monsters he creates, and recycling the biomass whenever anything dies. The heroes have decided to leave him to his own devices and hope, not because they couldn't capture or kill him—there are heroes powerful enough to storm the city alone, if they wanted to—but because of what comes next. They have precogs, if unreliable ones, who consistently report disaster if Ellisburg is attacked. Their hope is that Promise can prevent that, and the precogs at least report that the countryside is unlikely to get decimated if she goes in. It'd be alone, to minimize the risk of provoking a reaction, but they can teleport her out in an emergency.
Nilbog's real name, on a clearly marked and warned subsequent page in case she decides not to go in, is Rinke.
It used to be an ordinary mortal city, until a powerful parahuman took over and killed everyone in it. Since then, Nilbog has been living alone except for the monsters he creates, and recycling the biomass whenever anything dies. The heroes have decided to leave him to his own devices and hope, not because they couldn't capture or kill him—there are heroes powerful enough to storm the city alone, if they wanted to—but because of what comes next. They have precogs, if unreliable ones, who consistently report disaster if Ellisburg is attacked. Their hope is that Promise can prevent that, and the precogs at least report that the countryside is unlikely to get decimated if she goes in. It'd be alone, to minimize the risk of provoking a reaction, but they can teleport her out in an emergency.
Nilbog's real name, on a clearly marked and warned subsequent page in case she decides not to go in, is Rinke.
imeanforever
And what exactly do they want her to do with Nilbog, assuming she finds him easy to master? Besides prevent him from decimating the countryside.
wormcan
The important result would be Nilbog captured and out of the city, with all his dead man's switches deactivated. Beyond that, they do want him turned over and tried.
They expect her to object to putting him in the Birdcage, and can make a guarantee this time. It turns out that state legislatures are easier to influence than the one that passed the TSPA, especially when tempted with the prospect of removing Nilbog from their back yard. New Jersey is now the first jurisdiction to consider criminals powerless for legal purposes if under a sufficiently inviolable Master power.
Over the objections of Director Piggot in particular, the PRT decided to ask Promise to include an exception to the powerlessness order allowing him to use his creations to aid against other S-class threats.
They expect her to object to putting him in the Birdcage, and can make a guarantee this time. It turns out that state legislatures are easier to influence than the one that passed the TSPA, especially when tempted with the prospect of removing Nilbog from their back yard. New Jersey is now the first jurisdiction to consider criminals powerless for legal purposes if under a sufficiently inviolable Master power.
Over the objections of Director Piggot in particular, the PRT decided to ask Promise to include an exception to the powerlessness order allowing him to use his creations to aid against other S-class threats.
imeanforever
"I don't mind letting him do that, but I don't plan to conscript him as slave labor. Is that agreeable?"
wormcan
It is a little-known fact that the prohibition on slave labor contains an exception for this exact scenario. Piggot decides not to mention this.
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
imeanforever
She reads his name. She confirms that it is his name.
She'd like more intel before she goes in. His creations might not count as sufficiently under his control that her merely knowing his name would be guaranteed to stop them from harming her if they were so inclined. She wants pictures of the place, she wants to know how they're going to teleport her out if she requests evac.
She'd like more intel before she goes in. His creations might not count as sufficiently under his control that her merely knowing his name would be guaranteed to stop them from harming her if they were so inclined. She wants pictures of the place, she wants to know how they're going to teleport her out if she requests evac.