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

[mxglam]

...Glam is still having a hard time swallowing this whole 'is good and cares for other people' thing Morgan's got going on, but yeah, sounds good.

[will_you_still]

Morgan has every belief that Glam will get used to her eventually.

To the PHQ! Can she set up a negotiation with someone in charge about getting Glam to become part of the Wards?

[peterxy]

Yes: Deputy Chief Director Reinhold. He apologizes for Chief Director Costa-Brown's absence, she had duties to attend to elsewhere.

[will_you_still]

It's quite all right, Morgan isn't going to cause a fuss.

"So," says Morgan, "Once I explained the situation with the Wards, Glam was much more willing to join up, on probationary status until they turn eighteen, if they don't have to reveal their secret identity. They were in an Endbringer attack and only their power saved them, but not their legal guardian, apparently - officially an orphan. That being said, the Protectorate makes them nervous and they'd like me to be their official for-Protectorate-purposes legal guardian to make sure that they don't get treated badly."

[peterxy]

"It is entirely against our wishes to treat them badly. If they're a minor, then there is much more leniency for their transgressions."

He doesn't mention that no one pressed charges on account of the dead drug dealer so theoretically Glam's crimes are basically petty theft and being an annoyance.

[will_you_still]

"I get that, but I think you need to show that to Glam in order for them to believe it? They struck me as... Well, when I was actively helpful and thoughtful they were weirded out and trying to figure out my angle. And, yeah - they were under the impression that joining the Wards would induct them into the Protectorate when they turned eighteen."

[peterxy]

"They will be strongly encouraged to join the Protectorate when they turn eighteen, yes, but we could not force them to. There may be things more damaging to the Protectorate's goals than keeping capes who don't want to stay that we could do, but most of them probably involve actual felonies."

[will_you_still]

Nod. "The impression I got was that the only reason Glam has been doing felonies at all is because they thought the problem with the drug dealer screwed them over forever."

[peterxy]

He blinks. "I wish I could say that surprises me but in hindsight it really does not."

[will_you_still]

"Yeah."

[peterxy]

Sigh. "And you believe if they didn't think the... incident... would cause problems, they would have joined?"

[will_you_still]

"I think what they wanted was to be a rogue of some kind, but I didn't really ask them for what-ifs, I was trying to understand things how they are now. Now they'd like to be a rogue that gets along well enough with the Protectorate and isn't going to be thrown in jail or forced to do anything that they don't want to do."

[peterxy]

"You understand that's no longer an option. They have in fact committed felonies."

[will_you_still]

"Yes, of course. But I was under the impression that probationary status on the Wards until they're eighteen, and then becoming a rogue that gets along well with the Protectorate is viable?"

[peterxy]

Reinhold spends a second thinking of a way of evading that question without outright lying, fails, and decides to be honest. "Yes, it's viable, and while it's a more desirable outcome than the present it's not altogether ideal. We're not so well-staffed that we can really afford to let people go like that."

[will_you_still]

"... I understand your interests," says Morgan, managing to be diplomatic and honest a lot faster than Reinhold managed it, "but Glam is unwilling to join the Wards at all if it means they have to join the Protectorate. Which means that they keep up being villainous. If you want to try to convince them to stay with the Protectorate after their probation's up, feel free, but misleading them about their available options is exactly the sort of thing Glam is afraid of. And I think if you attempted to, if they ever found out, you would have a much bigger problem than what you currently do now on your hands."

[peterxy]

He considers this, then nods. "Very well."

[will_you_still]

Morgan kind of sees where Glam is coming from on not wanting to join the Protectorate, if this kind of shit occurs a lot.

"So, Glam's birthday is in November, according to them. Is that when the Ward membership ends, or are you going to attempt to stretch it out to protect their secret identity...?"

[peterxy]

"We usually stretch it out for up to six months, and given that Glam's probationary that's likely what's going to happen."

[will_you_still]

"I'll see if they're okay with that," says Morgan. "But you can't stretch it out longer than six months?"

[peterxy]

"No, keeping a growing young adult for too long with their younger peers and not allowing them to move on is potentially damaging to their maturation and should be avoided," he recites from memory.

[will_you_still]

... That sounds like the Youth Guard throwing their influence around. Good for them.

"All right. Just making sure."

[peterxy]

He nods. "Was there anything else?"

[will_you_still]

"Yes, actually - what's your policy on nonbinary gender identities in the Wards? It wasn't in any of the pamphlets."

[peterxy]

"It is against our policies to take any action that suppresses or interferes with a Ward's gender identity or sexual identity. Should a Ward self-identify as one gender, the department should strive to assist in creating a costumed identity to match that gender," he once again recites from memory. That ruling is quite recent, and he doesn't mention that Glam's reactions to being misgendered were the spark that caused it to pass.