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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
The mention of healing gets her a flood of messages. Most of the uncountable number are requests for healing a particular illness, injury, or relative, with a minority answering the question. Most of the answers are suggesting the hospital, where there is apparently already a world-class healing cape who spends most of her free time there. (Quinn's answer agrees, but he suggests not going until he's written them a suitably lawyerly letter about the name thing and making sure they know they could be liable for any names she overhears.) The mention of de-aging provokes a lot of comments on how it could affect the status quo among mortals, a lot of debate on whether it's even ethical, and fewer actionable suggestions.
imeanforever
Does Quinn also think she needs to have a lawyerly letter written to just heal whoever shows up to an accessible rooftop?
wormcan
He certainly thinks it wouldn't hurt. And provides an assumption of risk form for her to distribute to potential people to be healed. (It's a fairly standard form, with the exception of an extremely visible warning saying to sign it with something other than their name.)
Even when limited to the subset of people who need healing who can get to a rooftop, any such place is likely to be crowded.
Even when limited to the subset of people who need healing who can get to a rooftop, any such place is likely to be crowded.
imeanforever
Promise has a printer and some paper delivered to her address. She prints out a bunch of the form. She puts a stack of them on a roof with a paperweight, announces the location and a time window on the forum with very short notice so it would be inconvenient for anyone to ambush her with anything more complicated than psoriasis, and hangs out.
She makes sure to clarify on the forum the limits of her healing: while unlike that other healer ("808554") she can do brains she can't do minds; she mostly cannot do anything more specific than restoring some or all of a person to a healthy state - no cosmetics, no cyborg parts, no giving people wings (unless they want to be turned into a sparrow, and she hasn't yet consulted her lawyer about whether she may recreationally turn people into sparrows; Quinn, can she recreationally turn people into sparrows?); she is really, really not a doctor and cannot offer an informed opinion on how her healing will interact with any doctor things weirder than "rest" and "fluids" and "splints" and "duplicating things the mortal body already does, only more conveniently" (but wrt those things she's fine); she has never actually de-aged a mortal before, only knows the theory, and while she certainly expects not to make any big mistakes she cannot re-age anyone who she overshoots with so they'd better be okay with landing more or less anywhere in the "young adult" range; she will take more specific questions but it is more efficient to put them through the forum rather than crowding the roof where she's trying to study her patients -
And really, really, REALLY don't tell her anyone's name. Sign your form with an X or your phone number or something.
She makes sure to clarify on the forum the limits of her healing: while unlike that other healer ("808554") she can do brains she can't do minds; she mostly cannot do anything more specific than restoring some or all of a person to a healthy state - no cosmetics, no cyborg parts, no giving people wings (unless they want to be turned into a sparrow, and she hasn't yet consulted her lawyer about whether she may recreationally turn people into sparrows; Quinn, can she recreationally turn people into sparrows?); she is really, really not a doctor and cannot offer an informed opinion on how her healing will interact with any doctor things weirder than "rest" and "fluids" and "splints" and "duplicating things the mortal body already does, only more conveniently" (but wrt those things she's fine); she has never actually de-aged a mortal before, only knows the theory, and while she certainly expects not to make any big mistakes she cannot re-age anyone who she overshoots with so they'd better be okay with landing more or less anywhere in the "young adult" range; she will take more specific questions but it is more efficient to put them through the forum rather than crowding the roof where she's trying to study her patients -
And really, really, REALLY don't tell her anyone's name. Sign your form with an X or your phone number or something.
wormcan
Turning people into birds: probably a bad idea. Not a crime, as long as she can turn the volunteers back of course, but if anything does go wrong she could be sued. The de-aging too, since it's untested and she's doing it despite being aware of some likely risks, but that one's valuable enough that there's less to worry about if it does come up.
The people who show up are capable of getting to a roof on short notice and not using any complicated doctor things, which adds up to the mortals who aren't the most critically in need of healing but could benefit from it. Most would also like to be made younger while she's at it, though a few were scared off by her warning.
The people who show up are capable of getting to a roof on short notice and not using any complicated doctor things, which adds up to the mortals who aren't the most critically in need of healing but could benefit from it. Most would also like to be made younger while she's at it, though a few were scared off by her warning.
imeanforever
She spends a while looking at all of them. After about ten minutes, she starts working on people who she's studied enough who've signed their forms. She heals without further confirmations; de-aging she goes over the "you understand that as an immortal fairy I cannot nail an exact age" bit out loud.
wormcan
Anyone who is there to be de-aged is already willing to tolerate that. They each assent again.
wormcan
They all think so. Several offer to pay her. Eventually the miraculously healed people disperse, walking and leaping and praising Promise.
imeanforever
Promise has all the money she can use but appreciates the thought and encourages them to donate whatever amount to a useful charity.
When the time window closes she flies away again.
When the time window closes she flies away again.
wormcan
The next time she's online, there's a message from Brockton Bay's other most sought-after healer. Apparently 808554 would like to meet her.
wormcan
Actually, yes. Comes of having a sister who can fly. She suggests the roof of the Brockton Bay Central Library, the following evening.
wormcan
808554 comes just after. She's a young mortal with brown hair and a white robe, barely noticeable next to the person she's getting a lift from. The flying parahuman is wearing a white and gold costume complete with a cape and crown, and it's slightly harder than expected to look away from her. She radiates an aura of oh my god, it's really whoever this is.
imeanforever
Thank you Yellow.
Double check. Double-check everything. Check range of effect. Note changes in thought patterns.
Proceed with established plans regardless of influence -
"I DO NOT LIKE YOUR AURA AND ONE OF US IS GOING TO LEAVE IMMEDIATELY."
Her original plan did not include hollering, but she left herself that much leeway.
wormcan
Awe changes to fear as the flying parahuman approaches the edge of the roof. Whether she's actually dangerous is another question, but she certainly looks like it.
Her passenger steps off. "It's just my sister, not an enemy." And to her sister, "Did you let it flare up again?"
The aura dials down. Still not gone, but much easier to ignore.
Her passenger steps off. "It's just my sister, not an enemy." And to her sister, "Did you let it flare up again?"
The aura dials down. Still not gone, but much easier to ignore.
wormcan
She manages to leave both earshot and the range of the effect. The other two exchange some words, and then the offensive one flies off and the other one crosses to her side of the roof.
"Sorry about that. She can't actually turn it off, if I'd known you'd object I would have come some other way."
"Sorry about that. She can't actually turn it off, if I'd known you'd object I would have come some other way."
imeanforever
Promise lands again.
"If she can't turn it off she ought to be more careful about where she goes. I'm meeting you on a roof because if I met you on a street corner I might hear somebody's name, which wouldn't even do anything to them unless they were mid-assassination-attempt, and she goes around like that to encounter strangers?"
"If she can't turn it off she ought to be more careful about where she goes. I'm meeting you on a roof because if I met you on a street corner I might hear somebody's name, which wouldn't even do anything to them unless they were mid-assassination-attempt, and she goes around like that to encounter strangers?"
wormcan
"She can turn it down, but usually doesn't bother when it's just us because I'm immune. She's...not usually that careless about leaving it on?"
imeanforever
"It wasn't just you. Were you not expecting me to show up?" Promise shakes her head. "Anyway, what did you want to talk about, and do you have a nickname that is completely unlike your real name and more pronounceable than 808554?"
wormcan
"Panacea. Nice to meet you. Circumstances aside.
I wanted to ask you about the healing you did. And- and warn you."
I wanted to ask you about the healing you did. And- and warn you."
wormcan
"You're doing it because you want to help, right? But if you start doing it you can't really ever stop, you'll always know that you could be saving someone's life right now and aren't—you've got hundreds of people asking you already, and how many could you get to?—until all the faces blur together and you end up wishing you couldn't do anything just so there'd be less depending on you."