"We get some flex on how we're paired up but if they decide you and Windflower are a good fit powerswise it doesn't matter that much if you like her or not. I don't know if you will or not, they just don't have a current favorite assigned partner for her."

"...well, I can actually see a way for our powers to pair up interestingly."

"Sure. You make more sense paired with Windflower than Boots. But if you don't get along with her it's still going to suck."

"Yeah, not being able to pick my own patrol schedule and partners would be annoying."

"And you have to come across very party-line and mature and responsible whenever anybody's looking, to get solo patrols. That and you need the powers for it, but you do."

"Mm." Acting mature: not a favorite past time of Glam's.

"Also, they can keep you for up to six months after your birthday as an identity-concealing measure."

"Eh, Wards, Protectorate, not that big a difference to make six months that awful."

"It's a little different, but yeah."

"Having to actually listen to authority goes in the list of cons."

"They can make your life difficult if you piss them off."

"Am aware."

"Oh, and it's not just capes, the PRT is there too, Director Piggot is not super popular."

"...do they actually, like, do things? That matter? On a day-to-day basis?"

"Most of the non-tactical authority wielding is PRT muckety-mucks. You don't weigh down capes with administrative stuff if you don't have to, so that makes sense, except they also don't hire for people skills in the PRT."

Nod. "Well, I wouldn't suppose it's that high a priority for an organisation whose main objective is protecting against parahuman threats in the first place."

"Yeah. It all makes sense on a local decisionmaking level, but I can't help but notice almost everyone with institutional power over me principally exercises the power in such a way as to convince me to wash my hands of the whole business when they graduate me."

"Elaborate?"

"Like - they understand that I am valuable but do not seem to have internalized the information that my goodwill is valuable, that when you don't have the luxury to hire and fire the cape to get a good 'culture fit' you should maybe make sure every single other person in the system is optimized to soften that. If they were thinking, if they wanted to keep me, they would give me a slightly smaller parts budget and hire me a liaison specifically selected to be my best friend and make sure I never had to spend another two minutes in a room with somebody whose main skill is getting promoted through the PRT ranks and that I never had to have a conversation with Boots that wasn't about tactics."

They giggle. "Is Boots that annoying?"

"Just not my cup of tea. I'm sure he has lots of friends."

"What a very diplomatic thing to say."

Snort.

"So what's daily life there actually like? How does it mesh with classes and stuff, if they require you to get an education? And family time?"

"We go to school, after school we hang out in our lair, I tinker most of the time so I don't think I have the best view of game night or whatever. Some of 'em work out. A little sparring. Whenever they're worried about Youth Guard protests they nag us about our homework. We go home or stay out later and patrol and then go home."