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To Glam's continued delight, more kissing sessions happen on the following days (when they're feeling like a boy). They haven't met her parents as her official boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever yet, and don't mind it too much.
News about Purity's escape surprises exactly no one, but the Protectorate's reputation suffers a blow because of the attack; after all, the heroes were beaten on their home turf. The PHO forums are abuzz, though rumors of Glam's death at the hands of Hookwolf (probably started by same) prove largely unfounded.
And Glam really should get to their webisodes and start building a steadier rep. And that's (one of the reasons) why they're in Lorica's workshop a few days later.
"So what should I do? I haven't posted anything since Purity, should probably make this more of a habit."
"Anyway, I'll get a list of powers that are better than Windflower's and ideally come with recognizable color schemes or something so you can get audience participation for you to try imitating next time."
"If they recognize the stripes you get a boost for a Siberian, if you put one in Legend's costume..."
"I'm not sure Eidolon gets you anywhere much - people think he might do anything but don't expect anything in particular and often can't identify what he's doing in the moment."
"But on the other hand the passive not-expectation everyone has is basically absent, there, and that might do more good than actions that might actually polarize people into active expectation. I mean, it shouldn't be a first or main strategy or anything, but testing would be useful."
"Maybe you could mush a few different copies into an Eidolon."
"Like, you make a Siberian and a Legend and whatever and then they all run into each other and produce an Eidolon and you get some background expectation that they'll have those combined powers but you can flex on them as-needed."
"That'd imply people already knew those were me, though, and I don't know if I want people to know I can do those things before I have enough control over Siberian me to actually show her off and tell people she was me and go all like 'yeah I can make Siberians.'"
"I'm not sure. You've got a lot of options and I have no PR expertise."
"The current plan is sorta shock-and-awe, I don't need people to like me as long as they actually believe I can do pretty much anything. I mean, I prefer it if they like me, of course, but that doesn't enter into it, the PR I need is one of power, you know? So, make the fake Siberian show up, then publicly reveal I was responsible for her, and thenceforth use a Siberian copy that looks like me so it's not as spooky."
"Okay, reminder of the thing I said when you first signed on, you don't strictly need to be liked but you do need people to expect that you don't go around committing collateral damage. If I saw the actual Siberian at an Endbringer fight and didn't know any better I'd think she was there to slaughter civilians. Or take in a concert, you know?"
"Yeah, but—" Pause. "Do you mean that if enough people expect it my copy could start slaughtering civilians? Wait, that's. I had not thought of that at all."
"Well, I don't know, it's a little different from expecting a gun you're actually shooting to be lethal - the onlookers wouldn't be coordinating and wouldn't expect a specific trajectory the copy could take, wouldn't expect a specific civilian to be first, etcetera, they might not be able to agree on enough to ouija-board her around, but it would seriously worry me."
"How to make people even believe them, though? Like, it's one thing to have her tear lizard butt a new one and then admit responsibility, it's a whole 'nother to just show her causing destruction, any video could be faked, and with my power we already know for a fact that the Siberian destroying something I've conjured does not imply she can destroy something real."
"Yeah, awkward catch-22. Maybe you could tell a handful of Protectorate higher-up so they don't assume they need to protect anybody from her and can coordinate anyone else who looks like they're going to try, and then just keep her away from civilians - works better at Behemoth fights than Leviathan one, Behemoth is basically never technically near live civilians."
"Hmm, yeah, that could actually work. Tell the movers and shakers she's an ally, maybe tell people that over the comms during the fight, something like 'we have an ally who can conjure someone with the Siberian's powers to give Behemoth a hug' and then the capes actually expect her to do it. Problem is the diminishing returns and the people who don't get comms. We really should find a way to give everyone in an Endbringer fight a comm."
"Yeah, it's kind of tricky. But so many people show up and don't report to any of the impromptu headquarters before running off to do whatever."