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Tree branch: check. Assorted lightweight seed-bearing fruits and nuts: check. Other seeds: check. Water bottle, for when she has to veer away from the river: check.
Better not linger in her starting place too much longer. Yellow's faster than her and may have already come home to a wreck. Thorn might have a habit of checking up on the place, even, just in case. She's invisible, inaudible, unsmellable - that won't help if he sends someone thorough. Or comes in person.
She sets out.
She's been flying for about thirty minutes after her shopping trip when she falls through a tear and squeaks inaudibly and lands in the middle of -
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imeanforever
imeanforever
And she got their names during the tactics conversation, with Eidolon's cute fireworks power repurposed to display pictures of them for her to focus on.
"First things first. Do not communicate my name to anyone by any means. Without my express permission, which you have until I indicate otherwise such as by snapping my fingers, or until two hours are up, whichever comes first, do not occupy Fairyland. Never give me an order that I do not request of my own uncoerced will, except, when authorized by me saying so of my own uncoerced will, the reciprocal of that one or a strictly more flexible version of my ratification."
She looks them over. She sighs.
"Enforcing no orders and deploying no powers, you may, honestly and without misleading omissions, speak. You may interrupt yourselves to warn me if this is about to cause you to disclose personal information of no legitimate interest to me."
"First things first. Do not communicate my name to anyone by any means. Without my express permission, which you have until I indicate otherwise such as by snapping my fingers, or until two hours are up, whichever comes first, do not occupy Fairyland. Never give me an order that I do not request of my own uncoerced will, except, when authorized by me saying so of my own uncoerced will, the reciprocal of that one or a strictly more flexible version of my ratification."
She looks them over. She sighs.
"Enforcing no orders and deploying no powers, you may, honestly and without misleading omissions, speak. You may interrupt yourselves to warn me if this is about to cause you to disclose personal information of no legitimate interest to me."
whole_new_can
A dark-skinned woman in a lab coat answers. "One of the backup plans is to evacuate to Fairyland. Our opponent probably can't reach here, unlike every earth. May we assume that if that plan gets put into action you don't intend to leave us behind to face Scion alone?"
imeanforever
"At this moment I dislike all of you personally and would be very much inclined to prioritize you last in any evacuation for which you were not logistically essential. I do not intend to leave the human population to face Scion alone, if that's what you're asking."
wormcan
Everyone accepts this answer, including the one of the six who isn't already logistically essential for leaving last.
imeanforever
"Learning my name puts you in very bad company. I sort of liked Alexandria and had never me the rest of you, you didn't exactly have targets painted on your foreheads. I have no idea why a power that sounds as good as Contessa's thought it was a good idea to share it around. Even if had 133468 the walking blind spot over here not gone on his extremely idiotic Fairyland jaunt I would never have found out, never would have otherwise stepped on one of your feet or needed to rescue any of you from hostile fairy orders by giving you a berry or otherwise encountered the fact that you had my name, I don't see how it would help. I don't want the world to end, I am not stupid or reckless, and using fairy orders well is a skill - Eidolon for one is terrible at it - which it is generally a bad idea to start figuring out in an emergency situation and/or when trying to order more people at one remove."
wormcan
"You do have every right to object to us having that kind of power any time we're in earshot of you, even without us ever intending to use it. We wanted to avoid risking the same fate as Cherish, even without you having any reason to kill us. And if I recall correctly," which she does, "you were in Fairyland at the time. Contessa's power was unable to predict you from our world."
imeanforever
"I am sometimes not in Fairyland. These days I am only in Fairyland to eat and rescue Triumvirate home invaders. She couldn't wait fifteen minutes for me to finish lunch? Or, if this happened long enough ago, a few hours to wait for me to wake up?"
wormcan
"Earlier, when you were visible, we checked that you would not find out we existed. If not for Eidolon's blunder involving both Fairyland and an existing blind spot, yes, it would have been safer."
imeanforever
"You should probably assume you are not moving from this spot without me knowing everything of more interest to me than your favorite colors," Promise says, "and that if I don't have to drag it out of you piecemeal it will be faster and bode much better for our ability to cooperate to your desired level of flexibility with respect to the end of the world. Should I let Contessa check up on that or is it sufficiently obvious?"
wormcan
"We sell superpowers.
We have the body of the second entity. Parahuman powers come either from Scion or from us. He does not discriminate between the sinners and the saints, but we try to balance the scales. Even so, a large minority of ours end up villains."
We have the body of the second entity. Parahuman powers come either from Scion or from us. He does not discriminate between the sinners and the saints, but we try to balance the scales. Even so, a large minority of ours end up villains."
wormcan
"Because we want it that way," the Doctor continues. "We had the Number Man calculate the proportion of heroes and villains that would maximize the capes available at the relevant times. The cape world is set up to minimize the damage ordinary villains do, and the Birdcage means that even the villains who won't follow the unwritten rules are still preserved for the endgame.
We could of course shut down parahuman crime in any given city on any Thursday. Knowing that we allow it, is it surprising that we also create some of the villains?"
We could of course shut down parahuman crime in any given city on any Thursday. Knowing that we allow it, is it surprising that we also create some of the villains?"
imeanforever
"Birdcage is past tense," Promise says. "There is like one guy in there. Anyway, go on."
wormcan
"I know, and you'll notice your Birdcage plan succeeded. If not for the fact that being Kept is safer than being Birdcaged was, it would have conflicted with one of Contessa's long-term plans and she would have stopped you.
Everything about parahuman culture, especially in North America, is designed for the greatest number and experience of Scion's opponents. We have fingers in a lot of pies, on both sides of the hero and villain divide. Any of the Kept who bought their powers is aware of a group called Cauldron. They would of course know us only as the people who sell them."
Everything about parahuman culture, especially in North America, is designed for the greatest number and experience of Scion's opponents. We have fingers in a lot of pies, on both sides of the hero and villain divide. Any of the Kept who bought their powers is aware of a group called Cauldron. They would of course know us only as the people who sell them."
wormcan
"Dr. Manton didn't buy powers. He was Cauldron. One of our best researchers, before he snapped. He knows considerably more than our existence."
whole_new_can
That's news to more people than Promise. "The Siberian was Cauldron? And you knew this? What about Hero, are you going to tell me you orchestrated his death too?"
Alexandria sounds characteristically unmoved by Legend's outburst. "The Siberian's background was never what made her dangerous. And no, her killing Hero was exactly as unexpected as it looked."
Alexandria sounds characteristically unmoved by Legend's outburst. "The Siberian's background was never what made her dangerous. And no, her killing Hero was exactly as unexpected as it looked."
imeanforever
"Oh, is your sketchy shadow cabal not telling you everything?" whispers Promise under her breath. "Go on. In approximate sincerely-understood order of what is most likely to interest me. All of you, but postpone your remarks if someone's saying something more interesting than whatever you had in mind or if I point at you."
wormcan
Memory erasure! And they don't have a very precisely targeted method of doing this, so they've been using a device they call the slug to erase people's entire memories. It gets used on the case fifty-threes who get released into Bet after being used as test subjects for Cauldron's parahuman powers research. These subjects consent, in the sense of being offered a conditional way out of emergencies and taking it, but are almost never anywhere close to fully informed. Death rates have been lowered by now, but physical mutations are still fairly common. A few of these get brainwashed with triggers causing them to automatically lose to certain paying customers, who then rise higher in the ranks of their chosen organization. The Nemesis program was used rarely in comparison to the scale of human experimentation, but is likely to offend Promise particularly. Many case fifty-threes are currently imprisoned, to be used as reinforcements against Scion later. Cauldron intentionally permitted the Nine to stay active as long as they did because the Slaughterhouse Nine caused more trigger events than the number of capes they killed. And they have been enforcing secrecy very strictly, occasionally going as far as sending Contessa to intimidate people who know too much.
That's all their crimes against humanity. The Number Man adds of his own accord that Cauldron is also the only reason Earth Bet is still standing. Absent them, nations would have fractured into factions, breaking down like fractions as parahuman warlords replace functional governments. He estimates that by the beginning of the previous decade banditry alone would have made it impossible to ship food to cities, a catastrophe in its own right even ignoring all the other effects of parahumans being less restrained and more hated.. Fortunately, they have Washington, along with the capitals of many other nations, in their pocket.
When Alexandria's speech ends, Legend resumes yelling.
That's all their crimes against humanity. The Number Man adds of his own accord that Cauldron is also the only reason Earth Bet is still standing. Absent them, nations would have fractured into factions, breaking down like fractions as parahuman warlords replace functional governments. He estimates that by the beginning of the previous decade banditry alone would have made it impossible to ship food to cities, a catastrophe in its own right even ignoring all the other effects of parahumans being less restrained and more hated.. Fortunately, they have Washington, along with the capitals of many other nations, in their pocket.
When Alexandria's speech ends, Legend resumes yelling.
imeanforever
"How much of this were you a party to, since some of it obviously offends your sensibilities?" Promise inquires of Legend.
whole_new_can
"I knew about designing the Protectorate to keep capes alive and able to fight when the end of the world comes, and about manipulating other groups for the same ends. This includes supporting many villain groups. I knew about selling powers, and where they come from. I didn't know Scion was the threat, but even that barely even seems important next to the mass kidnapping.
They told me there were no human test subjects because the Number Man could estimate results in advance, I should have known that one was a lie."
Alexandria backs him up. "Legend is the public face of Protectorate leadership. He was aware of only the most basic elements of Cauldron, not even informed on the nature of Contessa's power. And," she answers his unasked question, "Hero was no more complicit in the rest of it than you are."
Legend disagrees about how complicit that is, but doesn't say so.
They told me there were no human test subjects because the Number Man could estimate results in advance, I should have known that one was a lie."
Alexandria backs him up. "Legend is the public face of Protectorate leadership. He was aware of only the most basic elements of Cauldron, not even informed on the nature of Contessa's power. And," she answers his unasked question, "Hero was no more complicit in the rest of it than you are."
Legend disagrees about how complicit that is, but doesn't say so.
imeanforever
"Did you actually consider alternatives with less blatant evil in them or did you just go with the first result Contessa's power spat out in spite of the fact that the endgame opponent for all this accumulated firepower is one of her blind spots?"
wormcan
"Yes."
Most of the people present weren't involved early on, so it's the Doctor who answers. "We started with more fully informed and thoroughly vetted volunteers. Alexandria was one such, recruited from a hospital where she would otherwise have died. It wasn't enough. Even this isn't enough, in all likelihood, and if there were a way to go further I would.
Contessa's power only confirmed that. If we return the deviants to where they came from, memory intact, the end result isn't much better. Some get killed as demons, others turn destructive, and it definitely compromises our secrecy."
Most of the people present weren't involved early on, so it's the Doctor who answers. "We started with more fully informed and thoroughly vetted volunteers. Alexandria was one such, recruited from a hospital where she would otherwise have died. It wasn't enough. Even this isn't enough, in all likelihood, and if there were a way to go further I would.
Contessa's power only confirmed that. If we return the deviants to where they came from, memory intact, the end result isn't much better. Some get killed as demons, others turn destructive, and it definitely compromises our secrecy."