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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
"Yes...
I'll have to talk to some people. Atypical brain surgery on a minor is something we'd need all kinds of consent for."
"Just do it," Vista says. "It can't be less safe than leaving whatever Bonesaw decided to put in there."
I'll have to talk to some people. Atypical brain surgery on a minor is something we'd need all kinds of consent for."
"Just do it," Vista says. "It can't be less safe than leaving whatever Bonesaw decided to put in there."
imeanforever
"Also, I am running on very inadequate sleep. I can heal just fine, but I cannot reasonably wait around for hours while you fuss with things. It will presumably be very inconvenient for all parties to have Vista here stuck in costume perpetually rippling the space around her while I go home and sleep for a day or two."
wormcan
"Or I could do it." Panacea enters, accompanied by Glory Girl, and volunteers. "Wouldn't have to affect the brain itself, just disconnect whatever Bonesaw did. Might still need you for afterward, Promise."
wormcan
As far as Vista is concerned, this just means Bonesaw's work can get stopped sooner. She's all for it.
Once the patient is unconscious, her scalp and skull part and reveal the addition. It detaches.
"It's out, but probably affected the brain while it was in there. Promise?"
Once the patient is unconscious, her scalp and skull part and reveal the addition. It detaches.
"It's out, but probably affected the brain while it was in there. Promise?"
wormcan
"Thanks for your help, both of you."
The doctors and Vista are in agreement on that one.
The doctors and Vista are in agreement on that one.
imeanforever
"Okay. Any other crises in progress?"
There are not. Promise goes out, finds the ex-sparrow ex-abomination, loans her her own force field generator so that she can make it to the PRT office and ask them for help without having any unfortunate accidents, gives her ten thousand dollars for incidentals, brings the five evil clones back to her address (damaged, but not beyond Promise's ability to patch up; it's a familiar location and mostly made of things like wood and rocks) and parks them there with constrained permission to go out with some gifted money of their own to get groceries/shoes/actual furniture of some kind while they're crashing there and says she'll get them longer-term orders when she has slept on it, and goes back to her tree again to bolt down a bowl of haws and nuts - she's too exhausted to prepare anything more complicated - and go back to sleep.
There are not. Promise goes out, finds the ex-sparrow ex-abomination, loans her her own force field generator so that she can make it to the PRT office and ask them for help without having any unfortunate accidents, gives her ten thousand dollars for incidentals, brings the five evil clones back to her address (damaged, but not beyond Promise's ability to patch up; it's a familiar location and mostly made of things like wood and rocks) and parks them there with constrained permission to go out with some gifted money of their own to get groceries/shoes/actual furniture of some kind while they're crashing there and says she'll get them longer-term orders when she has slept on it, and goes back to her tree again to bolt down a bowl of haws and nuts - she's too exhausted to prepare anything more complicated - and go back to sleep.
wormcan
Six people sit at a table.
"She healed my eye. Even you couldn't do that, Eidolon."
The dark-skinned woman in the lab coat speaks instead. "Some powers are stronger than others, especially in limited scopes. If she has a true healing power, that's notable, but is it more so than our research?"
"Yes. There are no healing powers, but Promise is not a parahuman at all. We are dealing with a completely separate source of abilities. You all see the potential there. Furthermore, she has mentioned the capability to open a gate to Earth Aleph. If she can cross worlds, the only thing stopping her from finding us is not knowing where to look."
"Or," says the Number Man, "she could get us to our other destination."
"And win the entire war? Nothing is that easy." Legend.
"We don't abandon any other plans, but it's worth looking into. And if nothing else, a prompt evacuation could decrease casualties by up to..." the Doctor looks at the Number Man.
"Three billion, three hundred and ninety-one million, eight hundred and three thousand, five hundred and four. Give or take.”
"One more thing. She healed my eye. Her sorcery can get past my invulnerability, and I've seen what she did to an enemy.
But she was hiding something while describing how she bested Cherish despite being affected by her power. This was immediately after saying that she could protect others through vassalization. Throw in the fact that she has never been observed to eat mortal food, and the inference is overdetermined."
The Doctor nods to the woman beside her. She asks herself a question, and says the answer.
"Alisyrrabel."
"She healed my eye. Even you couldn't do that, Eidolon."
The dark-skinned woman in the lab coat speaks instead. "Some powers are stronger than others, especially in limited scopes. If she has a true healing power, that's notable, but is it more so than our research?"
"Yes. There are no healing powers, but Promise is not a parahuman at all. We are dealing with a completely separate source of abilities. You all see the potential there. Furthermore, she has mentioned the capability to open a gate to Earth Aleph. If she can cross worlds, the only thing stopping her from finding us is not knowing where to look."
"Or," says the Number Man, "she could get us to our other destination."
"And win the entire war? Nothing is that easy." Legend.
"We don't abandon any other plans, but it's worth looking into. And if nothing else, a prompt evacuation could decrease casualties by up to..." the Doctor looks at the Number Man.
"Three billion, three hundred and ninety-one million, eight hundred and three thousand, five hundred and four. Give or take.”
"One more thing. She healed my eye. Her sorcery can get past my invulnerability, and I've seen what she did to an enemy.
But she was hiding something while describing how she bested Cherish despite being affected by her power. This was immediately after saying that she could protect others through vassalization. Throw in the fact that she has never been observed to eat mortal food, and the inference is overdetermined."
The Doctor nods to the woman beside her. She asks herself a question, and says the answer.
"Alisyrrabel."
imeanforever
After sleeping for thirty hours, Promise wakes up without anyone throwing any rocks at her or anything. That's nice. She snuggles in bed for another hour, just enjoying being in her tree with no disasters obviously looming.
Then she gets up, eats breakfast, picks some leaves and makes herself a new dress because this one has a lot of blood on it, turns invisible and inaudible so she won't have to deal with the clone brigade immediately when she swings through her address to go visit Yellow, gets some updates to her orders and gives him some contingent ones, moves him and his food supply (which she tops off) into her original tree, goes back to her Valley Continent tree, eats lunch, and then emerges into the mortal world.
It is night; her sleep cycle is all thrown off but she'll probably be okay to stay up until the next local evening. The clone brigade bought a couple of king sized mattresses, shoved them together on a floor upstairs, and are cuddled up together like beans in a pod; it is actually cute.
She emails Sarkany: Now that I know what happens when I'm physically obliterated I want a batch of self-destruct devices. I'd like it to completely vaporize me if I stop breathing without pausing it first, fall unconscious without pausing it first, or want it to. Ideally also if someone other than me tampers with it. I'll pay a gatepair for it if you can whip some of those up for me.
Then she goes to see what the Internet has been up to while she's been busy/asleep, ruminating between pageloads in her notebook about long-term orders for the clone brigade. (She can just buy notebooks! Without having to make her own paper! Some of them were soaked in the flood but she still has most of a box of them.) And she emails her lawyer about anything she should know before setting up the two-day-old evil clones of legal minors with mercifully public identities for order-enforced independent life assuming money is no object.
wormcan
The Internet is awash in permutations of the latest cat video.
On more relevant subjects, everyone knows about Leviathan's death. The battle was worse than they usually are, with twice the cape death rate and increased civilian casualties. Essentially everyone who was in the city has lost a friend or at least knows people who did. But ultimately, they're considering it a victory. It's as if an entire class of natural disasters personified was suddenly stopped. To make things even better, seismic data has apparently started suggesting that Behemoth is inactive. Scion was unaccounted for at the time of the change. People are talking about retiring the name "Endbringer," but there's no widespread agreement on what to replace it with.
The general public has heard about the effects of the gate box but not who was responsible. They know the Nine were fighting, which was unexpected but the Nine are unpredictable occasionally. They know Nilbog was fighting, which surprised everyone and is widely speculated to be Promise's doing. (The vs. thread has been updated accordingly.) The details on what the Slaughterhouse Nine have been doing before and since, other than hanging out in Brockton Bay and fighting occasionally despite the loss of Crawler, are not on the Internet.
On more relevant subjects, everyone knows about Leviathan's death. The battle was worse than they usually are, with twice the cape death rate and increased civilian casualties. Essentially everyone who was in the city has lost a friend or at least knows people who did. But ultimately, they're considering it a victory. It's as if an entire class of natural disasters personified was suddenly stopped. To make things even better, seismic data has apparently started suggesting that Behemoth is inactive. Scion was unaccounted for at the time of the change. People are talking about retiring the name "Endbringer," but there's no widespread agreement on what to replace it with.
The general public has heard about the effects of the gate box but not who was responsible. They know the Nine were fighting, which was unexpected but the Nine are unpredictable occasionally. They know Nilbog was fighting, which surprised everyone and is widely speculated to be Promise's doing. (The vs. thread has been updated accordingly.) The details on what the Slaughterhouse Nine have been doing before and since, other than hanging out in Brockton Bay and fighting occasionally despite the loss of Crawler, are not on the Internet.
imeanforever
Promise does not publicly claim Nilbog, nor the gatebox. Or her clone brigade. Behemoth's probably-gone? Good for Scion. She sends the Director a message asking if someone has been by borrowing her force field, has anyone had the sense to give her a replacement in the time Promise has been asleep, can Promise come pick up hers soon?
Sarkany answers her email despite the late hour: I could design something like that. How large a batch will you want?
Promise says: Three to start - one and a replacement and a spare. I might want to refine the design after. It does have to completely disintegrate my body; if all it does is take me apart in some less thorough fashion I will be in worse shape than needing a few days of sleep.
Sarkany replies with some questions about customization details, which Promise answers. (Getting the distinction between "stops breathing" and "holds breath for perfectly ordinary reasons too abruptly to remember to switch the thing into a less paranoid mode" right is tricky, apparently, but everything else is minor for a tinker of this caliber.)
Promise makes more minor sorcerous repairs to her address. She checks to see if the evil clone brigade made themselves known in a manner visible on the forum in her absence; they were not to impersonate their originals, but they do look an awful lot like them and were not forbidden from harmless power use (convenient, or they'd have had a hard time getting the mattresses in to the house).
Sarkany answers her email despite the late hour: I could design something like that. How large a batch will you want?
Promise says: Three to start - one and a replacement and a spare. I might want to refine the design after. It does have to completely disintegrate my body; if all it does is take me apart in some less thorough fashion I will be in worse shape than needing a few days of sleep.
Sarkany replies with some questions about customization details, which Promise answers. (Getting the distinction between "stops breathing" and "holds breath for perfectly ordinary reasons too abruptly to remember to switch the thing into a less paranoid mode" right is tricky, apparently, but everything else is minor for a tinker of this caliber.)
Promise makes more minor sorcerous repairs to her address. She checks to see if the evil clone brigade made themselves known in a manner visible on the forum in her absence; they were not to impersonate their originals, but they do look an awful lot like them and were not forbidden from harmless power use (convenient, or they'd have had a hard time getting the mattresses in to the house).
wormcan
No one has guessed that there are more Panaceas and Glory Girls; they might have been seen more often than usual but people aren't exactly tracking capes. Even the ones with known public identities; that's just impolite.
The Director confirms that Promise can pick up her force field and the recipient has a replacement, but reminds Promise that it's advisable to rely as little as possible on tinker products to solve long-term problems.
The Director confirms that Promise can pick up her force field and the recipient has a replacement, but reminds Promise that it's advisable to rely as little as possible on tinker products to solve long-term problems.
imeanforever
If you have a better idea I'd love to know what it is and I'm sure she would too.
The Director must start answering her email early, Promise supposes. Maybe Quinn will get back to her before her clone brigade wakes up.
The Director must start answering her email early, Promise supposes. Maybe Quinn will get back to her before her clone brigade wakes up.
wormcan
This is not exactly a thing there are laws about, not even on Earth Bet.
The most important interest the state has here is that all children be provided with things like food, clothing, shelter, medical care, safety. Normally this is the responsibility of the parents, but under the circumstances there might not be any. Depending on their age (developmental, not chronological), they are probably required to be getting education in some form. (If this is necessary, it might be worth keeping them away from the originals.)
The best interests of the child involve having a healthy relationship with a parent or guardian, and this usually means someone who doesn't think of them as evil. If any such person tries to compete with Promise for custody, it'd very likely be no contest.
There is no law against being evil. If Promise successfully enforces non-evilness, she is likely to also prevent some things that the clones would have legal rights to do. (If they're minors she's responsible for, she can give nearly arbitrary non-harmful orders. But this has an expiration date.) It is not OK to take away someone's ability to act freely in ways that aren't illegal, and sometimes in ways that are; Quinn offers to consult about drafting orders to neutralize the clones' ability to do evil with a minimal amount of this.
The most important interest the state has here is that all children be provided with things like food, clothing, shelter, medical care, safety. Normally this is the responsibility of the parents, but under the circumstances there might not be any. Depending on their age (developmental, not chronological), they are probably required to be getting education in some form. (If this is necessary, it might be worth keeping them away from the originals.)
The best interests of the child involve having a healthy relationship with a parent or guardian, and this usually means someone who doesn't think of them as evil. If any such person tries to compete with Promise for custody, it'd very likely be no contest.
There is no law against being evil. If Promise successfully enforces non-evilness, she is likely to also prevent some things that the clones would have legal rights to do. (If they're minors she's responsible for, she can give nearly arbitrary non-harmful orders. But this has an expiration date.) It is not OK to take away someone's ability to act freely in ways that aren't illegal, and sometimes in ways that are; Quinn offers to consult about drafting orders to neutralize the clones' ability to do evil with a minimal amount of this.
imeanforever
I'm not sure I actually have anything like formal custody. She describes the circumstances under which she acquired the clone brigade, makes it clear that she is quite confident that without orders Plague and Pestilence will probably kill everybody on the planet (perhaps with two competing pathogens as a sort of race) and the Victorias will wreak some lesser mayhem, etc. Bonesaw might literally be the only person who doesn't think of them as evil, and Bonesaw is (as far as Promise knows) also a minor. Someone might come to think of them as not evil after they've been around longer, of course. She is not sure if they are of an age to have to be in school; she tells him who they are clones of so he can check. To the extent they can have healthy relationships they seem to be forming quite the little gang amongst the five of them theme naming and all.
wormcan
Quinn had guessed it might be them; there are only so many minors in Brockton Bay who would be said to have a public identity rather than just not having secret ones. He knows exactly how seriously to take this.
I'd be surprised if you accidentally acquired legal custody before getting a chance to ask me. But it sounds like no one else is going to claim them, and the state isn't likely to step in.
By age, they are going to have to be in some kind of school until they're 18 or graduate high school. Type of school is up to Promise and them; some actual-parents homeschool and online courses are also available. Alternatively, there are equivalency tests available to make the requirement irrelevant; they could pass these easily if they wanted to.
Establishing their legal existence would be the hard part, but he could manage it with a lot of paperwork on his end and an excessively boring court appearance on theirs.
I'd be surprised if you accidentally acquired legal custody before getting a chance to ask me. But it sounds like no one else is going to claim them, and the state isn't likely to step in.
By age, they are going to have to be in some kind of school until they're 18 or graduate high school. Type of school is up to Promise and them; some actual-parents homeschool and online courses are also available. Alternatively, there are equivalency tests available to make the requirement irrelevant; they could pass these easily if they wanted to.
Establishing their legal existence would be the hard part, but he could manage it with a lot of paperwork on his end and an excessively boring court appearance on theirs.
imeanforever
What will actually happen if I don't haul them in to the court appearance or literally force them to do some kind of schooling and they decline to agree to same? They are not cooperative by nature and I do not want to order them to do things that are safely outside the category of "refrain from extinguishing the human species".
wormcan
The most likely outcome is nothing at all, especially since as far as the relevant agencies know there are no such minors. Of course, Quinn recommends getting them a legal existence and following the rules anyway, because he was successfully brainwashed Lawful Neutral in law school.
imeanforever
I suppose I'll consult them when they wake up and see just how uncooperative they're inclined to be.
wormcan
It turns out they have their own reasons not to object to swamping Arcadia with Amies and Victorias Dallon.
imeanforever
Well, she'll take that. She emails Amy to warn her, adapts her musings on order set to accommodate high school attendance and prohibit evil, says they may as well continue to crash at her address, informs them that if she gets attention from social services over them she is not their mom and will not be best pleased, and leaves them to figure out things like "when is the school reopening post-citywide-disaster" and "how does the school administration get this explained" for themselves. She increases their allowance so they can make the house pleasant to live, requires only that they leave the living room with all the gates mostly open, and goes about her other business.
wormcan
They explain it with the truth, naturally. No one would believe anything else.
The original Amy replies with a request.
She has these rules for herself, and Bonesaw is inevitably going to try to force her to break them again. And she's still not trusting herself to break a rule exactly once, because that was what she told herself she'd do last time. So it's increasingly important and can she please have that order she asked for.
The original Amy replies with a request.
She has these rules for herself, and Bonesaw is inevitably going to try to force her to break them again. And she's still not trusting herself to break a rule exactly once, because that was what she told herself she'd do last time. So it's increasingly important and can she please have that order she asked for.
imeanforever
Promise sighs, and looks at her notes, and gives Amy a time when it would be convenient to call her, but adds that if she can bring herself to tell her parent-or-guardian that would really be preferable and that anyway if she doesn't it's reasonably likely that Pestilence or Plague eventually will find an opportunity.