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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
"We sell superpowers.
We have the body of the second entity. Parahuman powers come either from Scion or from us. He does not discriminate between the sinners and the saints, but we try to balance the scales. Even so, a large minority of ours end up villains."
We have the body of the second entity. Parahuman powers come either from Scion or from us. He does not discriminate between the sinners and the saints, but we try to balance the scales. Even so, a large minority of ours end up villains."
imeanforever
"...because Contessa's on the fritz most Thursdays or because you don't check?"
wormcan
"Because we want it that way," the Doctor continues. "We had the Number Man calculate the proportion of heroes and villains that would maximize the capes available at the relevant times. The cape world is set up to minimize the damage ordinary villains do, and the Birdcage means that even the villains who won't follow the unwritten rules are still preserved for the endgame.
We could of course shut down parahuman crime in any given city on any Thursday. Knowing that we allow it, is it surprising that we also create some of the villains?"
We could of course shut down parahuman crime in any given city on any Thursday. Knowing that we allow it, is it surprising that we also create some of the villains?"
imeanforever
"Birdcage is past tense," Promise says. "There is like one guy in there. Anyway, go on."
wormcan
"I know, and you'll notice your Birdcage plan succeeded. If not for the fact that being Kept is safer than being Birdcaged was, it would have conflicted with one of Contessa's long-term plans and she would have stopped you.
Everything about parahuman culture, especially in North America, is designed for the greatest number and experience of Scion's opponents. We have fingers in a lot of pies, on both sides of the hero and villain divide. Any of the Kept who bought their powers is aware of a group called Cauldron. They would of course know us only as the people who sell them."
Everything about parahuman culture, especially in North America, is designed for the greatest number and experience of Scion's opponents. We have fingers in a lot of pies, on both sides of the hero and villain divide. Any of the Kept who bought their powers is aware of a group called Cauldron. They would of course know us only as the people who sell them."
wormcan
"Dr. Manton didn't buy powers. He was Cauldron. One of our best researchers, before he snapped. He knows considerably more than our existence."
whole_new_can
That's news to more people than Promise. "The Siberian was Cauldron? And you knew this? What about Hero, are you going to tell me you orchestrated his death too?"
Alexandria sounds characteristically unmoved by Legend's outburst. "The Siberian's background was never what made her dangerous. And no, her killing Hero was exactly as unexpected as it looked."
Alexandria sounds characteristically unmoved by Legend's outburst. "The Siberian's background was never what made her dangerous. And no, her killing Hero was exactly as unexpected as it looked."
imeanforever
"Oh, is your sketchy shadow cabal not telling you everything?" whispers Promise under her breath. "Go on. In approximate sincerely-understood order of what is most likely to interest me. All of you, but postpone your remarks if someone's saying something more interesting than whatever you had in mind or if I point at you."
wormcan
Memory erasure! And they don't have a very precisely targeted method of doing this, so they've been using a device they call the slug to erase people's entire memories. It gets used on the case fifty-threes who get released into Bet after being used as test subjects for Cauldron's parahuman powers research. These subjects consent, in the sense of being offered a conditional way out of emergencies and taking it, but are almost never anywhere close to fully informed. Death rates have been lowered by now, but physical mutations are still fairly common. A few of these get brainwashed with triggers causing them to automatically lose to certain paying customers, who then rise higher in the ranks of their chosen organization. The Nemesis program was used rarely in comparison to the scale of human experimentation, but is likely to offend Promise particularly. Many case fifty-threes are currently imprisoned, to be used as reinforcements against Scion later. Cauldron intentionally permitted the Nine to stay active as long as they did because the Slaughterhouse Nine caused more trigger events than the number of capes they killed. And they have been enforcing secrecy very strictly, occasionally going as far as sending Contessa to intimidate people who know too much.
That's all their crimes against humanity. The Number Man adds of his own accord that Cauldron is also the only reason Earth Bet is still standing. Absent them, nations would have fractured into factions, breaking down like fractions as parahuman warlords replace functional governments. He estimates that by the beginning of the previous decade banditry alone would have made it impossible to ship food to cities, a catastrophe in its own right even ignoring all the other effects of parahumans being less restrained and more hated.. Fortunately, they have Washington, along with the capitals of many other nations, in their pocket.
When Alexandria's speech ends, Legend resumes yelling.
That's all their crimes against humanity. The Number Man adds of his own accord that Cauldron is also the only reason Earth Bet is still standing. Absent them, nations would have fractured into factions, breaking down like fractions as parahuman warlords replace functional governments. He estimates that by the beginning of the previous decade banditry alone would have made it impossible to ship food to cities, a catastrophe in its own right even ignoring all the other effects of parahumans being less restrained and more hated.. Fortunately, they have Washington, along with the capitals of many other nations, in their pocket.
When Alexandria's speech ends, Legend resumes yelling.
imeanforever
"How much of this were you a party to, since some of it obviously offends your sensibilities?" Promise inquires of Legend.
whole_new_can
"I knew about designing the Protectorate to keep capes alive and able to fight when the end of the world comes, and about manipulating other groups for the same ends. This includes supporting many villain groups. I knew about selling powers, and where they come from. I didn't know Scion was the threat, but even that barely even seems important next to the mass kidnapping.
They told me there were no human test subjects because the Number Man could estimate results in advance, I should have known that one was a lie."
Alexandria backs him up. "Legend is the public face of Protectorate leadership. He was aware of only the most basic elements of Cauldron, not even informed on the nature of Contessa's power. And," she answers his unasked question, "Hero was no more complicit in the rest of it than you are."
Legend disagrees about how complicit that is, but doesn't say so.
They told me there were no human test subjects because the Number Man could estimate results in advance, I should have known that one was a lie."
Alexandria backs him up. "Legend is the public face of Protectorate leadership. He was aware of only the most basic elements of Cauldron, not even informed on the nature of Contessa's power. And," she answers his unasked question, "Hero was no more complicit in the rest of it than you are."
Legend disagrees about how complicit that is, but doesn't say so.
imeanforever
"Did you actually consider alternatives with less blatant evil in them or did you just go with the first result Contessa's power spat out in spite of the fact that the endgame opponent for all this accumulated firepower is one of her blind spots?"
wormcan
"Yes."
Most of the people present weren't involved early on, so it's the Doctor who answers. "We started with more fully informed and thoroughly vetted volunteers. Alexandria was one such, recruited from a hospital where she would otherwise have died. It wasn't enough. Even this isn't enough, in all likelihood, and if there were a way to go further I would.
Contessa's power only confirmed that. If we return the deviants to where they came from, memory intact, the end result isn't much better. Some get killed as demons, others turn destructive, and it definitely compromises our secrecy."
Most of the people present weren't involved early on, so it's the Doctor who answers. "We started with more fully informed and thoroughly vetted volunteers. Alexandria was one such, recruited from a hospital where she would otherwise have died. It wasn't enough. Even this isn't enough, in all likelihood, and if there were a way to go further I would.
Contessa's power only confirmed that. If we return the deviants to where they came from, memory intact, the end result isn't much better. Some get killed as demons, others turn destructive, and it definitely compromises our secrecy."
imeanforever
Promise... paces.
"And if you don't put them back but leave their memories? Are those even theoretically restorable, incidentally?"
"And if you don't put them back but leave their memories? Are those even theoretically restorable, incidentally?"
wormcan
"Not in any way we know. And that's what we do, with many of them. We use the slug only when adding case fifty-threes to Earth Bet."
imeanforever
Promise paces more.
"People are terrible," she mutters. "Where do I meet better people? I can't be the only one. Don't answer that unless you have a really good idea."
Pace. Pace.
"I do not consider," she says, "continuing to mind-wipe people on a routine basis a legitimate option. I do not consider allowing villains to run rampant in order to cause trigger events - especially when you fucking have trigger events in a can - to be a legitimate option; you don't have to be the police of the world but you have to stop making it worse on purpose. Colonizing Fairyland is a legitimate option, but I need to know ahead of time so I can make it less hilariously dangerous. Colonizing non-Earth planets in the mortal world is an option. Me politely asking Scion to leave is an option. Acquiring an army of fairies is a bad but legitimate option and requires similar prep to colonizing Fairyland. Comments?"
"People are terrible," she mutters. "Where do I meet better people? I can't be the only one. Don't answer that unless you have a really good idea."
Pace. Pace.
"I do not consider," she says, "continuing to mind-wipe people on a routine basis a legitimate option. I do not consider allowing villains to run rampant in order to cause trigger events - especially when you fucking have trigger events in a can - to be a legitimate option; you don't have to be the police of the world but you have to stop making it worse on purpose. Colonizing Fairyland is a legitimate option, but I need to know ahead of time so I can make it less hilariously dangerous. Colonizing non-Earth planets in the mortal world is an option. Me politely asking Scion to leave is an option. Acquiring an army of fairies is a bad but legitimate option and requires similar prep to colonizing Fairyland. Comments?"
wormcan
"Don't talk to Scion. We don't know what causes him to rampage, and his mind isn't even approximately like a human one. Something innocuous might be the trigger he needs."
Eidolon adds that "an army of fairies is better than it sounds. Scion prepared for the possibility that we might fight him, and weakened what we can do. Most powers have built-in safeguards to be unable to seriously hurt him. Sorcery doesn't."
Eidolon adds that "an army of fairies is better than it sounds. Scion prepared for the possibility that we might fight him, and weakened what we can do. Most powers have built-in safeguards to be unable to seriously hurt him. Sorcery doesn't."
imeanforever
"I meant that it is a bad option because I cannot acquire a substantial number of volunteers, you ethically myopic, reckless, clumsy imbecile."
whole_new_can
"Right now I'm the only one who might—might—be able to fight him. And I'm losing my powers. A source of powers that doesn't rely on what we can scavenge from the entities themselves is the best hope we've seen in a long time."
The Doctor has a different objection. "Do I need to remind you that the fate of our world is at stake? Followed by every other world except this one?"
The Doctor has a different objection. "Do I need to remind you that the fate of our world is at stake? Followed by every other world except this one?"
imeanforever
"The world is made of people. Appallingly, tragically mortal people, who you're parasitizing without a shred of guilt in whatever quantity is convenient for your gappy, untrustworthy planning power's numbers to line up optimistically. I cannot currently solve the problem where they are all going to die and neither can you! But you could make it a little less of a misery pit while they live!" exclaims Promise. "Did you - oh, just off the top of my head, you could have recruited Mannequin before the Simurgh got him and set him up on an Earth that didn't have the Simurgh on it and gotten into space."
To Eidolon: "That's unfortunate. Two questions: one, Glaistig Uaine is rumored to be on par with you and I have her name, if you bring her to me with her hearing working I can get her help. Two, your power doesn't recurse?"
To Eidolon: "That's unfortunate. Two questions: one, Glaistig Uaine is rumored to be on par with you and I have her name, if you bring her to me with her hearing working I can get her help. Two, your power doesn't recurse?"
whole_new_can
"Part of it is my power," says the Number Man. "It's very good at numbers. While we don't know what fraction of earths are populated or how many of those Scion could attack before running out of power if he runs out of power, there are septenvigintillions of worlds. I can understand wanting to sacrifice less, but there's nothing we could do that would cause more harm than failing to stop Scion."
Eidolon is confused by Promise's sudden willingness to use orders to secure cooperation of soldiers, but is more confused by the other question. "Recurse?"
Eidolon is confused by Promise's sudden willingness to use orders to secure cooperation of soldiers, but is more confused by the other question. "Recurse?"
imeanforever
Promise ignores the Number Man for the time being. "Your power doesn't let you dig things up to recharge itself? ...You have to have tried it. Please have tried it. I didn't think my estimate of your ability to ignore non-horrifying ways to accomplish things could get lower."
imeanforever
"You didn't try it. You are all so reliant on some combination of self-righteous confidence in your cause and your powers that you have atrophied your collective ability to actually think of things, evaluate plans by other metrics... and with this handicap you're still acting like the only hope for your species. I'm going to have to do your jobs for you! I can't even delegate substantial parts of it to somebody else because everyone is terrible! Why is everyone terrible!"