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]

Both Alexandria and Eidolon go off to do things, and Legend says, "Come with me, I'll get you a comm device and we'll be able to direct you places where you'll be useful."

[will_you_still]

"Sure."

She gets a comm device, and is directed places. It turns out that one of the best places to put her is someplace high, with a view of everything, and then she can move whatever she's looking at. Then it's just telling her what to look at and do - she has very good finesse for someone that's far away and telekinetically messing with stuff, though if asked she says that she loses some finesse at this distance.

(But she has several hundred years of practice. That adds up.)

If this takes long enough she'll inform Legend that she doesn't need to sleep and can stay awake indefinitely if supplied with enough coffee.

[peterxy]

Not needing sleep is uncommon but not unheard of. Not needing sleep but needing coffee not to be affected by sleepiness is unheard of, but well within parahuman parameters of (ab)normality. And her help speeds the process up considerably and Legend asks her several times if she really is sure she doesn't need a break.

[will_you_still]

She assures him that she doesn't, but she does keep supplied with coffee.

...

She does not take bathroom breaks.

[peterxy]

That is also not unheard of, but it is nonetheless somewhat stranger than needing coffee to stay awake.

[will_you_still]

Well, she promises to explain things later. Relief efforts now! Whee helping people.

[peterxy]

People are helped! Eventually her help can be reasonably replaced by decentralized normal-human and -parahuman efforts without loss in efficiency.

[will_you_still]

Well, then she can now go explain things. In private. Is there a suitably private location?

[peterxy]

There is! It turns out that being the leaders and founding members of the world's foremost parahuman organization gives people access to quite a lot of things. Who'd've thought?

They find a room that Eidolon declares to be impossible to spy on via means not immediately obvious to Morgan, but both Alexandria and Legend seem to believe him.

[will_you_still]

Gosh. Morgan guesses she'll believe him too.

Once they are inside:

"So I have been to an Earth besides this one, but I'm not from any Earth. I'm a - well, the English word for it is actually fairy. Fairies have their own world they can be summoned from, by humans. Every fairy is immortal, and has the exact same powerset I do." Pause. "We're part of a subset of beings called daeva, the other two subsets are also immortal and can, respectively, make things and change things. They can also be summoned."

[peterxy]

"What exactly is your powerset, in full detail?" asks Eidolon.

[will_you_still]

"I can control the movement of arbitrary amounts of matter that I can see, with my finesse depending on how well I can see it. This includes directly moving things, but also keeping things still. I can't work through cameras, but I can work through mirrors, and binoculars and microscopes and the like also work just fine. I can work without sight, but I'm working based off of what I think is there, and I'm much more likely to uh. Just break everything, really.

"Along with that I cannot suffer things that are unpleasant past a certain set baseline. If I go without sleep, the sleepiest I can get is a mild drowsiness that can be fought indefinitely with coffee at the cost of, uh, being kind of wired from drinking coffee nonstop. I have a friend that has not slept in over a century, he thinks it's a waste of his time. I can get a bit hungry, but don't need to eat and won't ever starve to death - flying in space without anything to protect me is unpleasant, but it's not actually harmful. You can't remove my limbs without my permission, period. I have a penpal who was once trapped in a black hole. She was stuck there for a while until she managed to get out, but she was never in mortal danger. And - so on. Comfortably immortal. All daeva get that part.

"The Simurgh caught me off guard, I didn't know if my comfortable only-unpleasant-to-a-baseline immortality extended to my head or not. ... I want to hope that I do have it, but I will never test it, because rogue daeva are the stuff of nightmares, and I do not want to be turned into a crazy puppet of destruction."

[peterxy]

Eidolon nods, both he and Alexandria inscrutable.

Legend looks a bit disbelieving, though. The last time a cape claimed to be a fairy... "If that's the full extent of your powers, how did you manage to injure the Leviathan?"

[will_you_still]

"... I mean. Arbitrary matter includes pulling things apart. Tell the left arm to go one way, everything else to go the other way - it was the most obvious thing to do. After I took him to space, I tried that - he seemed to be made out of layers, no internal organs. Like the world's most murderous onion. The only problem was, the most inner layers were - super dense. Impossibly dense. I tried to rip those apart and couldn't manage it.

"Then I tried crushing them, and that didn't work either. So I ripped off all of the layers I could rip off, and hit him with the most unbreakable thing I had available." Pause. "Which was starting to show some promise, but then the Simurgh showed up."

[peterxy]

It is Legend's turn to be stunned into silence.

"The Simurgh has not returned yet," Alexandria says. "Do you need to be present with the things you move to move them? You said you're limited by the speed of light. Are your perceptions as well? If you moved the Endbringers far enough and fast enough that your and their time no longer passed at approximately the same rate, would you still be able to move them?"

[will_you_still]

"I don't need to be present with the things I move to move them, but it helps me aim. Every scrap of accuracy I can get I will try for, when I'm working with things that fast. My perceptions are standard human, though without the annoying issues - I don't need glasses, my vision's perfect. Peak physical health, but that's about it. And, yes, but keep in mind that if I move something that fast without going with it, it is not going to be an issue for very long unless a parahuman has like. Really fast portals that I can look through to keep moving them, or something that'll count for sight instead of cameras, or something." Pause. "How much do you know about physics? I can talk physics."

[peterxy]

"I know a lot about physics, but since parahumans appeared there's been less of a consensus on what the word means."

Legend looks at Alexandria. "...are we limited by physics anyway?" he asks, looking at her meaningfully and hoping she'll get his meaning.

Alexandria sighs and looks at Morgan. "There might be a better option."

[will_you_still]

"Oh?" says Morgan. "Do tell."

[peterxy]

"It is not a resource we can afford to make known, but in combination with your powers it would be... very shortsighted of us not to use it," Alexandria says carefully. "How were you planning to return to your world?"

[will_you_still]

I'll show you mine if you show me yours, right.

"If this works with the same summoning mechanics I'm accustomed to, I return to my world if my summoner dismisses me, or dies. I don't currently have any plans to expedite either. I'm - okay, some fairies only accept casual jobs, leave for an hour, move some couches, but I am not that kind of fairy. I accept the jobs that aren't easy, that might take a very long time. I've built my life in mind of the fact that at any time I could be summoned away for a long time. So everything there is can be put on hold for a while. And you kind of seem to need me, so."

[acanofworms]

"In that case the first order of business is guaranteeing your summoner won't do either of those things. Who and where are they?"

[will_you_still]

She considers.

...

She can't really keep a kid safe and secret on her own. Perhaps she could play bodyguard and keep a single kid away from harm, and perhaps she could keep the kid secret by never ever mentioning her to anyone, but there's no way she could do both and pull if off alone.

So the real question is, does she trust these three?

"That is a lot to ask of me," she points out, "and I'm not saying no, I'll keep my summoner's identity secret, but that is a lot to ask of me, especially since while I've heard a lot about you three in the past few days, I haven't really gotten to know you."

[acanofworms]

"That's reasonable, but you certainly have heard enough that whatever we may actually be like the fact that we have humanity's well-being as a priority should be fairly obvious. But as a show of good faith, this is our resource. Door."

A square of light appears mid air behind the heroes and expand into a three dimensional structure, the inside of a well-lit hallway without the outside.

[will_you_still]

Morgan notes that this is a secret that they've kept from the entire world. Too valuable to risk, she realizes immediately.

Yeah, okay. That's maybe not even, but it is a suitable show of good faith, she thinks. And they are obviously trying to save the world. She'd like to get along with these people.

There's a pause as she weighs this, then:

"Mary O'Brien. I dropped her off at a police station in Saint John. I didn't get her age, but she looked to be around five or six. She summoned me in Newfoundland, my first priority was getting her away - her parents were already dead."

[acanofworms]

Alexandria nods at Legend. "We'll make sure she's safe. For now, though, this is a private enough location. If you'll come with us?" She gestures at the hallway.