My bunny slippers just ran for cover

[will_you_still]

Morgan doesn't strictly need to sleep. Even if she didn't want to put up with the annoyance of constantly having a caffeine buzz and having to ask for coffee on almost every summon, there are naps. Naps can keep a daeva going for quite a long time.

But there's something unutterably pleasant about curling up in a proper bed in pajamas and just sleeping. And then waking up and getting breakfast in those pajamas. So she does that, because immortality's a long unpleasant time if you don't enjoy the little things every now and then. Like adorable bunny slippers and soft pajamas and sleeping in.

She's midway through a fruity salad thing that counts as the standard fairy breakfast when she feels the summon. Showing up to a summon in pajamas? Eh. If they're proper summoners she bets they've seen worse, and she doesn't particularly care if they think she's unprofessional.

She puts her spoon down and accepts the summon.

Comments

[peterxy]

"The last one's Shatterbird. Silicokinesis, with increasing precision the closer her target is to herself. The Slaughterhouse Nine has taken to announcing their arrival by exploding everything made of glass on the city they're attacking. Furthermore, she uses glass embedded on her costume to fly, create decorative wings, conjure shields, and manufacture weapons."

[will_you_still]

"Does she sense glass as well as control it?"

[peterxy]

"Possibly, but since she can only control to very fine degrees glass that's relatively close to her it's not unthinkable that she does not."

[will_you_still]

".... So it is highly likely that I completely eclipse her."

[peterxy]

"Yes."

[will_you_still]

She smiles a little. "Good to know. Mind, this doesn't mean I could completely prevent her from causing all sorts of mayhem, because it is very hard for two powerful telekinetics that don't have omniscience to stop one another when fighting on a large scale. But it's nice."

[peterxy]

"Indeed." He types a few more things into his laptop that don't get reflected on what he's projecting onto the TV. "Do you have an email? I can send you this information in text form. Mind you, I can't give you access to the system."

[will_you_still]

She needed an e-mail to sign up to the forums! So she has one, and tells him of it.

"I understand," she agrees, sounding like she actually does.

[peterxy]

Tap tap. She has received an email with all the information the Protectorate currently has on the Nine, including past members, a list of crimes, known previous locations, etc.

[will_you_still]

"Excellent, thank you. Now, would you actually like to coordinate about local villains? I don't mind taking out one or two while I'm here to assuage suspicion as to why I'm here."

[peterxy]

"That sounds tempting. What did you have in mind?"

[will_you_still]

"I don't actually know very much about local villains, so I'm willing to be pointed at one of them and told, 'Please make that go away.' To a point, I mean. Please don't try to sacrifice my PR so you don't have to sacrifice yours. If it's possible, I would like one that might be convinced to stop being a villain if I show up and ask them to stop, but I understand if a villain with a 'Redeem me' sign hanging around their neck isn't available."

[peterxy]

"You do realize most if not all of them have more than a few felonies under their belt and even if you do manage to redeem them that will only mean they'll have to go to jail."

[will_you_still]

... Morgan is beginning to see why the villains outnumber the heroes. Of course they would, with that sort of system in place. 'Hey, person that was recently traumatized and has strange powers you might not be able to control, if you fail to perfectly stay within the bounds of the law you must either join the Protectorate or be a villain, and if you are a villain, there are no takesies-backsies, you go to jail.'

What a dreadful and reprehensible waste of resources. Villains can pay off their debt to society not by sitting in a room wasting tax money, but by helping out society! Building roads or doing demolition or helping at hospitals or transportation or resource gathering or any number of other things.

(That is not to say that jails are useless, but the law not accounting for the fact that they are at war with the Endbringers means that it is a stupid set of laws.)

But she cannot tell the US government to go fuck itself, nor does she want to get into a fight with the Protectorate. Changing it slowly would take too long, they are on a schedule. How can she get around the law and still be efficient and prepare to keep the world from ending? How could she recruit villains without causing a big fuss with the law over stolen hunks of rock?

...

Oh, she is going about this all wrong.

"... Fair enough," she says, after a pause, like she just realized that this would be an issue. "Toss me at a tougher one then."

There are places in the world that are run by parahuman war lords, where who's in charge changes monthly, where things are untidy and the rules are made by whomever is in charge.

She's going to go to one of those places and conquer it. That seems like the reasonable thing to do.

[peterxy]

He sighs. "Well, we have this one solo villain that's been giving us a headache, and that's saying something with Legend on the team. We're not even sure what she- they can do yet, but they mostly fight against other gangs. Then sometimes they'll pull a high profile job, like robbing a bank on their own, each showier than the last. She- they're a PR nightmare, but from what we can gather might be a good target for your redeeming plans."

[will_you_still]

"Pronoun trouble?"

[peterxy]

He rubs his temples. "Trying to train myself into it. Whenever the press or anyone uses any kind of gendered pronoun for them they make a point of causing us trouble. Part of the PR nightmare."

[will_you_still]

"Ah, I see. High profile jobs, each showier than the last... Any idea why they'd do it? How old are they?"

She doesn't seem to have any trouble with the pronouns.

[peterxy]

"Young, probably late teens, but it's not like we have a whole lot of information about them."

[will_you_still]

Morgan nods.

"Do you have a cape name for them yet, or is that part of the PR nightmare?"

[peterxy]

"Glam. The PR nightmare is mostly how thoroughly they have been able to singlehandedly hand us our asses."

[will_you_still]

"Ah," she says, trying to look like she doesn't find this statement funny and failing a little. "Well, I'll see if I can take care of it. Any information on where or how to find them, or shall I improvise?"

[peterxy]

"As long as you don't break any laws while you improvise," he says dubiously.

[will_you_still]

"Current improvisation plan was to buy a set of christmas lights, pick an abandoned building, and string up the name Glam in big letters," she says serenely. "But I'd like to see if I can find them without attracting a lot of attention."

[peterxy]

"It might be a good idea to not do that, Glam has enough enemies that they'll probably suspect it's one of them."