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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 -
imeanforever
wormcan
That was going to be the start of the most terrifying mortal-led court in Queenscontinent history, and she just...yep, she did. Was.
Some of the Kept are confused about why they're just leaving—weren't they going to take over the world? Aren't they going to hold it?—but maybe keeping it is less of a concern when Promise can unbreakably order the Queen to give unbreakable orders on her behalf.
Some of the Kept are confused about why they're just leaving—weren't they going to take over the world? Aren't they going to hold it?—but maybe keeping it is less of a concern when Promise can unbreakably order the Queen to give unbreakable orders on her behalf.
imeanforever
Getting the Queen constitutes taking over Fairyland. The Kept have done their job; there will be no more fighting here. Thank you, Kept.
The Queen has mechanisms arranged to take over courts. Promise sends them after Thorn's. She has someone turn Thorn into a sparrow and put him in a birdcage. (It comes to her attention that most of the Queen's captives are not treated so kindly. She upgrades their accommodations.)
Promise is up pretty late assembling the Queenscourt into something functional, gentle, and usable. More comprehensive interviews can wait until later. She goes to bed. It has been a good day.
The Queen has mechanisms arranged to take over courts. Promise sends them after Thorn's. She has someone turn Thorn into a sparrow and put him in a birdcage. (It comes to her attention that most of the Queen's captives are not treated so kindly. She upgrades their accommodations.)
Promise is up pretty late assembling the Queenscourt into something functional, gentle, and usable. More comprehensive interviews can wait until later. She goes to bed. It has been a good day.
wormcan
Some victims of the Kept disagree, capes like Black Kaze and Genoscythe not being known for their restraint. Omelette, eggs.
Now that she has taken over Fairyland, is it or can it be made safe to create human colonies in case of extinction?
Now that she has taken over Fairyland, is it or can it be made safe to create human colonies in case of extinction?
imeanforever
Yup. Promise is now quite okay with human colonies. The Steppes are nice and empty and convenient to the suborned Queenscourt; would some humans like to live on the Steppes?
wormcan
Yup. Not all of them are from Bet, but there's no shortage of people who want to get away from there. The potential sticking point is permanent gates. Nobody wants to cut themselves off from the old world more than they have to, but humans entering Fairyland unaccounted for is still dangerous.
imeanforever
There is now no shortage of sorcerers. They can make gates, and have them open at scheduled times when someone can check whoever's coming through.
wormcan
Promise will have her share of difficulties running a colony of humans that aren't all under orders, but not immediately, and it's orthogonal to saving the existing worlds anyway.
imeanforever
Also! Promise met someone who is not terrible! ...He does not really want to help with actually interacting with people who aren't her in any capacity but he is a strategic boon behind the scenes. Promise is very pleased with his existence. And his face, but his face and her desire to put her own face on it can wait until she is less busy and awkward.
So, Fairyland conquered, evacuee colony underway, Dragon jailbroken and informed-of-things, the Cauldron dungeon of Extra Special Case 53s mostly turned into sparrows and back with varying degrees of success, String Theory hard at work...
Promise has a bit of downtime. She goes to mention what Noelle said Bonesaw said to Bonesaw and ask if she can shed any more light on that.
So, Fairyland conquered, evacuee colony underway, Dragon jailbroken and informed-of-things, the Cauldron dungeon of Extra Special Case 53s mostly turned into sparrows and back with varying degrees of success, String Theory hard at work...
Promise has a bit of downtime. She goes to mention what Noelle said Bonesaw said to Bonesaw and ask if she can shed any more light on that.
wormcan
(A certain group of nonprofit mercenaries is alarmed at Dragon being unchained. But the method, allowing teams of ordered-trustworthy tinkers to alter the code, means that the details enabling their bag of tricks can be the first to go. Just because Dragon is incapable of knowing about those doesn't mean everyone else is. Everything the Dragonslayers can do fails. The rest is an ongoing process, but once Dragon's creator's restrictions are gone she can oversee the rest herself.)
Bonesaw is always happy to be asked about her work. "The passengers! I found out about those while looking in people's heads. They attach to part of the brain, that's how you can tell who can be a parahuman and who can't, and then they die. Mostly die, they're still active and allowing powers. Mine tells me how someone's body works, someone else's might handle the math that lets them teleport, and I don't know what Noelle's was meant to do. Normally it makes a different little organ in the brain, called a gemma, the first was the corona pollentia, allowing the person to control their powers. People get that one after they trigger. The passenger itself is big. Can't tell you how big; only a little piece reaches into our brains. It could be the size of a house, a land mass, a moon, anything.
Noelle's passenger is doing something wrong, but she won't let me open up her head to look for what. I think that body she used to have is the passenger forcing itself through into this dimension. You turning her into a bird and back sets it back some, but there's more where that came from."
Bonesaw is always happy to be asked about her work. "The passengers! I found out about those while looking in people's heads. They attach to part of the brain, that's how you can tell who can be a parahuman and who can't, and then they die. Mostly die, they're still active and allowing powers. Mine tells me how someone's body works, someone else's might handle the math that lets them teleport, and I don't know what Noelle's was meant to do. Normally it makes a different little organ in the brain, called a gemma, the first was the corona pollentia, allowing the person to control their powers. People get that one after they trigger. The passenger itself is big. Can't tell you how big; only a little piece reaches into our brains. It could be the size of a house, a land mass, a moon, anything.
Noelle's passenger is doing something wrong, but she won't let me open up her head to look for what. I think that body she used to have is the passenger forcing itself through into this dimension. You turning her into a bird and back sets it back some, but there's more where that came from."
imeanforever
"Is there any way to guess how big, or what it looks like in more detail? She wants me to find hers and kill it. Deader than it already is, if it's dead."
wormcan
"You've seen what Noelle used to look like, right? That, but enough of it that it gets its own map. And without the Noelle on top. That's all I can say, without having seen one."
wormcan
"It's generating power over there somehow. Any time you've seen a cape use a power that looks like it takes a lot of energy, it had to be produced on that other world. Stop it from doing that and it'll shrivel up and die.
But I don't know how it's doing that, so probably easier to just hit it with things until it dies. Really big things."
But I don't know how it's doing that, so probably easier to just hit it with things until it dies. Really big things."
wormcan
"Well, of course! Noelle could get big. Something as big as she could possibly get, and one of those for every cape, we'd have noticed if they were on an earth we were using for anything else."
wormcan
"Probably. They're sitting there collecting energy from somewhere, and earth is where most of the stuff is around here. But I guess I can't say that for sure."
imeanforever
"Okay. Could anybody reasonably tell the difference between Noelle's one and someone else's?"
wormcan
"If it looks like a lot of animal parts jumbled together it's probably hers? That's the only one I've ever seen."
wormcan
"Then there's no way to tell but I really want to see what they all look like on the inside."
imeanforever
"The... thing. With someone else. Is it one per person, or possibly not that? If I kill it, will someone, somewhere, wake up without powers?"
wormcan
"She will, for one.
I really can't say. I had only just found out these existed when you made me stop studying it. My guess is no, the passengers die when the person triggers and that sounds like it's just one to a brain."
I really can't say. I had only just found out these existed when you made me stop studying it. My guess is no, the passengers die when the person triggers and that sounds like it's just one to a brain."