And then there is darkness.

...........?

"You seem different from the rest, somehow," says a voice that sounds oddly like it's coming from Lorica's mouth, even though Lorica doesn't actually feel like she has a mouth and the voice sounds nothing like hers.

"The rest of - what?"

"The dead."

"Where am I?"

"Under a hill, among the sleeping monsters and waking dead."

"Who're you?"

Well, she doesn't seem immediately disruptive.

"If we are to be introduced, let's do it face to face."

And Lorica can be given a form of flickering green shadow flame, floating softly above the ground in a dimly lit room with plain cement walls, an exquisitely ornate table set for tea. Next to her sits a girl who can't be more than fourteen, wearing a shroud made of blackened orange cloth and holding a teacup in four fingers. A tall rocklike phantom similar in kind if not form to Lorica stands behind the girl. Also at the table is a young woman of perhaps twenty, distracted and constructing some sort of elaborate tower out of silverware. 

"As I already know your part, I suppose it is right to introduce mine. I am Glastig Uaine, the Queen of Fairies such as yourself." Her voice still feels oddly like it's coming from Lorica's body.

"I didn't think your shades were conscious."

"I fear others repeat untruthful rumors about me. All my charges are awake to some degree, though you more than most."

Who's this other attendee of the tea party, anybody she recognizes?

Cutlery stacker is maybe half east asian and not immediately recognizable.

"Hello," Lorica tries in their direction.

"...you talking to me?"

"Should I not be?"

"Weird."

"It is not so easy to be heard by the living, as a shade. Though I imagine you can manage if you focus on your form."

Her form? What is that supposed to mean.

Possibly it refers to her strangely light body made of dark green flame in the shape of Lorica's suit of armor. 

Wow, focusing on the thing where she is now just dark green flame shaped like armor and not even moving like a person is uncomfortable actually. She's... not positive she has a face, under the helmet. It's like she's her implants and her armor and her HUD and her speaker that Rete used to use to speak on her behalf, not her actual arms and legs, her actual eyes and mouth. Which was fine in the moments when she was mostly paying attention to the content of what she was trying to say and do and really disconcerting to attend to directly.

And who's the other shade, the one standing behind Glaistig Uaine?

A tall, almost crystal shaped rock form, with thin lines along the surface outlining what might be arms, legs, and a head, all tucked compactly together.

"Who's that?" Lorica asks, pointing at the other shade.

"The Holdfast."

"I don't recognize the name."

"Oh, I do not recall his name from when he was alive."

"Does he?"

"He is among the least talkative of your kin."

"So, uh, what do... us shadows... do all day?"

"Most sleep too deeply to notice the passage of time too closely, and some few rouse themselves to participate in my own small mock court."

"What does your court do?"

"Well, right now we have tea with the Bombardier."

"Can I in fact drink tea?"

"Unfortunately no, but there is much more to having tea than that."

"...is there."

"Why of course - there is conversation, there is artistry, and there is the introduction of strangers."

"We're in the Birdcage, aren't we."

"Yes, Scout, we are."

"...I'm Lorica."

"For one such as you I would deign to use your chosen name. However, what you are, is the Scout."

"What does that mean?"

"You go far and see what is to be seen without needing fear for your own safety, even in places less hospitable than this."

"I made robots."

"You still may if you wish - and as before, I expect they will serve you well in your role as the Scout."

"Does Dragon talk to people, in here?"

"She has ears but no voice here, though perhaps you can give her one."

"If there's parts."

Items beyond the bare essentials are rare indeed in the Birdcage. Unless, of course, one is the Fairy Queen.

"My Refuse Collector will provide trinkets for your work so long as it does not disrupt the peace of my realm."

"...what would disturb the peace of your realm?"

"If the wrong person acquires the trinkets for themselves, or if your device disrupts or provokes to violence my living subjects."

"Living subjects?"

"Those in my domain who have not yet joined my mock court of the dead." She gestures at the silverware stacker as an example.

"What are you... mock...ing?"

"My own small court is but a shadow of the great courts all of us are from and to which all of us shall return."

"What great courts would these be?"

"That of the Thinker and the Fighter... and I suppose in your case a Lonely Court, adopted only in part."

"What does that mean?"

"Which portion?"

"Who are the Thinker and the Fighter, what is the Lonely Court?"

"The Thinker and the Fighter are the two courts whose play we take part in - the Lonely court merely their distant acquaintance."

"That did not answer my question."

"I am not sure what answer you were looking for then."

"When you say 'court' what are you referring to? What does it mean to take part in it?"

"A collection of fairies performing together. What that means depends very much on the fairy, and on the act of the play."

"And 'fairy' here means...?"

"The things I collect and that so-called capes are gifted with."

"...also known as powers?"

"I suppose."

"And by 'performing together' do you mean... the heroes and villains thing, or... something else...?"

"That is but a small part of the greater performance."

"What's the greater performance, then?"

"I suppose one can say it started with the first fairy gifted and will end in three hundred years hence, as we all depart for new stages."

"...with what content, to what end."

"To improve on past performances, and to find one that need not end."

"Improve along what axis?"

"The creativity of the dance, the artistry of the performance, and the ingenuity of the script."

"What is this a metaphor for. Please."

"For ... everything. Of importance."

"What is it that makes the things you describe of importance?"

The Queen chuckles.

"I suppose they make themselves important."

"To... whom."

"To themselves and to the play."

Lorica cannot tell if Glaistig Uaine is trying to communicate and really really bad at it, having lots of fun with confusing Lorica, or getting subtly frustrated with the line of questioning and about to snap. She's gambling that a snap will be heralded by a threat of some kind.

Also there's not much else to do here till the promised parts arrive.

"What bearing does all this have on what human beings are up to beyond that sometimes a human gets a power?"

"Every play needs its actors, as every court needs people to hold its titles."

"Were you going to ask a shade to get me some parts so I can talk to Dragon?" Maybe Glaistig Uaine talks like this literally all the time and Dragon has logs of it and can send it all to Rete to analyze if Lorica asks nicely.

"Oh yes." And a third shade can appear - this one with a multitude of ghostly mechanical arms that reach into rifts in space and pull out two radios and a CD player.

"What? You could do that the whole time!"

"For those who have a measure of my trust."

The woman balls her hands into fists and clenches her jaw, expelling air through her nose rather than yelling for a moment before she slams her fist down. The whole cutlery structure collapses when she does, silverware falling downwards only for prongs and handles to catch each other just so, bouncing the items out rather than down, sending the ornate dinnerware hurling in all directions save at the builder. 

The items plummet before they can hit the Fairy Queen or any of her shades, the Holdfast sending them sinking into the cement floor along with the woman.

- like, how far down, is she going to be able to breathe?

No, only a couple of fingers remain visible.

"You'll have to forgive my choice of guest - she can be amusing and so I have found myself more patient with her than most despite her rudeness."

"Are you gonna let her go?"

"Most likely. Why do you ask?"

"Don't really like it when people are suffocated."

"Would you have her chastised in some other fashion? Or join you in my flock?"

"I think merely all her silverware would have made your point."

"It was my silverware in the first place."

"So you would be more than entitled to confiscate it."

"And doing so would hardly dissuade her from repeating her rudeness."

"She can't send forks flying at people if she doesn't have any forks."

"She could do so with something else, I'm sure."

"Do you not have the ability to simply eject her from the room?"

"If one does not enforce decorum in one's fiefdom, then it will invite chaos which I would find quite tiresome to deal with. Not to mention the harm that could be done to my more obedient subjects."

"From your fiefdom, then, I wouldn't be complaining if you'd simply exiled her."

"Would that not be rude to whoever she ended up with - for me to saddle them with her because I could not be bothered to deal with her myself?"

"Maybe she'd get along better with someone else."

She chuckles. "I suppose I could let her leave if she found such a person, as a favor to the most opinionated member of my flock."

"Why am I the most opinionated member of your flock, anyway?" She's starting to take apart a radio now.

"Your mind is protected, even in death."

"Well, that's good."

"Mm."

And the Bombardier can return to their tea party now.

She stays lying down on the ground, pale and gasping desperately for breath.

Lorica'd say something to her but she evidently can't understand her when she talks without Lorica paying a really uncomfortable amount of attention to the fact that she doesn't have an actual mouth under her helmet right now.

She takes the provided items apart. Is there a way she can patch into a camera or microphone of Dragon's or are none in evidence?

There's a microphone near the ceiling in one of the corners of the room.

The Bombardier continues to breath heavily and hopes no one makes anything of her crying.

Lorica's going into a tinker fugue now, hope that helps! She's gonna borrow this fork as a wire stripper, OK? Is her field kit in her green flame armor if she reaches for it -

Nope.

Well, she can snap some of the radio casing into a sharp angle and make do.

She'll be at this for a while, it's not exactly Toybox ceramic and an arc welder.

The Bombardier hangs out on the floor watching jealously until the Fairy Queen pointedly dismisses her.

She'll be consulting with two new shades instead, discussing the recent additions to her cellblock and what troubles might be approaching.

Okay, now, this part gets hooked up to the microphone like so.

Ironically, it's helpful that she's hard to understand when she talks, as a shade: it gives her power something to sink its teeth into, judgment calls for the system she creates to make in rendering her voice.

"Dragon? It's Lorica. I seem to be dead but conscious."

Dragon does not technically monitor the Birdcage herself most of the time; a subordinate piece of software does that, and when something important or completely bewildering occurs, it will notify her. This qualifies as the second.

"Do you happen to be one of the Fairy Queen's shades?"

"Seems like it. So far it's mostly surprisingly nonhorrible. She said something which I think cashes out to my mental opacity power keeping me intact even now. Leviathan got me, right, I'm not missing a ton of time?"

"Yes, its been less than four hours since you died."

"How did Glaistig Uaine... get... me."

"I don't know exactly how, but you aren't the first cape she's somehow acquired from the outside world while in the Birdcage."

"You don't keep tabs on her comings and goings?"

"I've never noticed her being absent from the Birdcage, only that she sometimes manifests shades with power identical to those of capes who have died since she entered."

"Yeah-huh. Well. Can you tell my dad and my robot that I'm - continuous?"

Dragon looks through the special regulations regarding the Fairy Queen.... and then boots up her high-quality voice sim in a sandbox so she can swear properly and at length where only she can hear. This results in less than 10 milliseconds of delay in her response.

"I've been given really strict rules about sharing information related to the Fairy Queen's power which means I'm only allowed to inform specific high-ranking PRT employees about you. They haven't seen fit to act on prior notices about the Fairy Queen acquiring shades of people outside the Birdcage, but I really hope you'll be an exception. I'm sorry I can't do more."

"...when do you expect to hear back about that?"

"Within an hour."

"I can wait an hour. Hopefully so can Dad. How bad is the Leviathan damage? Is Dad okay? Anyone I know dead?"

"Your dad was unharmed, and the city stands a solid chance at recovering and civilian deaths were low. Several Brockton Bay Protectorate members and one Ward died defending the city. Gallant, Dauntless, Velocity, and Armsmaster." She misses Armsmaster already, just a few hours later. She'd have had his help on repairing the Rig's shield, or if he were injured she'd be trying to convince him to rest and recuperate rather than help her fix the shield.

"Mm-hm. - no convenient loophole in the law for telling my bot about me?"

Dragon checks a twentieth time. 

"Unfortunately, no, my instructions are rather strict on this. I can read them to you in case you might notice something I haven't?"

"- please."

Dragon reads the instructions, which lay out quite clearly that she can't take any actions outside the Birdcage downstream of information about the Fairy Queen's demonstrated abilities in the Birdcage, except for communicating with her superiors about them in a prescribed manner and actions strictly necessary to prevent the escape of inmates.

Dragon suspects this directive was personally written by Chief Director Costa-Brown given how much more airtight it is than the orders she receives from anyone else.

"Well. I guess I can wait an hour and hope they're reasonable. Anything else I should know?"

"There are regular deliveries of books to the Birdcage. If you have any requests that we ordinarily deliver I can make sure you get them. I'll also be available to talk if you ever need company."

"...I don't have what books I want to read memorized. I'd have asked Rete. I like classics? Like Shakespeare and Austen and stuff."

"That's a substantial portion of the ordinary deliveries - I'll make sure your cell block gets a good selection later this week."

"Thanks. Uh, do you have data on how long she typically leaves any given shade active, I don't know if I should expect to spend more time out and about than not."

A fraction of a second pause.

"It varies depending on the shade but only up to a few hours each week."

"Ah. Well. Rete speaks for me if necessary. If you can tell it anything."

"I don't think I can while obeying the instructions I've been given."

"I mean once you hear back about an exception."

"Oh, yes. I can reach out to Rete if I get permission to do so."

"Thanks. Any other news?"

"Nothing major related to the Endbringer battle or Brockton Bay. Is there any news you want to know about in particular?"

"No, I guess I haven't been dead that long for much to happen."

"I can keep you updated if anything new happens."

"Thanks."

"I can help you improve the comms system you've set up if you'd like?"

"Yeah. I'm working with pretty limited parts but it could stand to be better."

"What sort of ways do you want to improve on it?"

Sure, they can talk shop to distract from the fact that Lorica has been innocently Birdcaged incommunicado and dead.

Eventually the Fairy Queen is done consulting with her other shades.

"Have your endeavors with the Polymath born fruit, Scout?"

"Depends on your standards for fruit."

"What about by your standards?"

"I can talk to her."

"There are other builders in my retinue you may talk to as well should you desire."

"I think what I've got to talk to her is serviceable enough..." Actually though. She turns back to the apparatus. "Dragon, if I tell you where to get a backup of Rete, an inert one that won't notice you doing anything, can you send it in to me?"

"Yes, so long as I can do so without leaving any evidence." Dragon's really stretching the reading to get even that much leeway but she can just barely justify it.

"My implants. I've got a Rete backup in my left knee implant, if my body was recovered. If you've got to wait till I'm buried and nobody's looking obviously do that."

"The implants will likely be removed before your body is buried since they're Tinkertech - I'll be tasked with cataloging them and can copy Rete then. I can try to set up a node on one of the Birdcage maintenance devices to run it though I'm afraid artificial intelligence is rather outside of my specialty, and I might need your help."

"Yeah. I can try to have something ready to receive it by then, presuming," snort, "that my queen will allow it."

The Fairy Queen is insane but not unobservant.

"You will find me much more accommodating if you do not disrespect my rank. I will let you off this once with just a warning because I am responsible for you as one of my flock and entertained by your independence, but if you were anyone else I would have your head for such misbehavior."

Lorica's estimate of Glaistig Uaine plummets instantaneously from 'surprisingly decent all things considered'. She doesn't have a face, so she's not making a facial expression about it. The suit mostly works how she's used to it working, maybe it can level out her voice too. "Is there a formal description of how I am to refer to you and otherwise conduct myself that I might consult."

"No."

Uh-huh. "Alas."

"You may consult with some of my subjects if you'd like advice on such courtesies."

"Is there one you recommend?"

"My Songbird, perhaps?"

"How would I find the Songbird?"

"I can summon her for you."

"Thank you."

The Fairy Queen brings out a shade that looks like they are part wolf who then howls silently into the distance.

And a young woman with blonde hair laced with feathers will show up soon after, recognizable from her former life as a pop star.

"...Canary."

... was that shade talking to her? Hopefully not because Canary can't actually make out what she said.

"You called for me, my queen?"

"You will instruct my Scout as to proper courtly manners."

"...okay. Uh, who is your Scout?"

Wave wave.

"Sure." What the heck.

"What do they want to know?"

"I imagine she'll tell you, I have my own business to attend to." And the wolf-shadow howls again, summoning another subject of the queen for her to discuss with.

"Testing," she says. Rete isn't here but her power is, she is at the moment mostly her power, she's in armor and she doesn't feel clumsy so some of it's working. Can the helmet make her voice come through if she focuses on how it should do that?

Apparently so!

"Oh, you can talk." That is going to make this so much easier.

"Yes. Let me know if I mumble. I'm Lorica."

"Hi. Uh, I'm Canary."

"I know who you are."

"Oh. Yes."

"You were going to give me an etiquette lesson?"

"Yes, I'm uh." Oh god this shade hates her and she still needs to give advice and she hates this more than when someone tried to knock her out to steal her rations.

"Um. Yes. I guess I just sort of pretend I am in a fantasy book and she's the queen and make stuff up that fits with that?"

"She appears to have, uh, tone of voice requirements."

"Oh uh. What tone did you have?"

"I wasn't even talking to her. I think I sounded slightly amused when referring to her as my queen."

"Oh. Uh, I think um. If she thinks you are making fun of the royalty thing that could come across even worse than if you just don't do it?"

"Are there people who just don't do it and she accepts this?"

"No, even the other cell block leaders do it at least a bit, I think. Some people get away with doing it differently from other people? Like someone might act like they are a royal advisor or something and she'll sometimes play along."

"What does that wind up looking like?"

"She... treats them differently when she's talking to them?"

"On their part."

"Oh, they uh. Offer advice about things and act somewhat superior to other people."

"Does this affect their phrasing or demeanor in any way that might be imitable."

"They talk down to other people and interject into conversations to have ideas about things, but not to contradict hers - other people just avoid talking around her."

"Do any of the other shades talk?"

"Not to people other than her."

"Just because they mumble? Do they - gesture, take independent actions at all -?"

"They do make gestures and things - I can't tell how much of it is because she wants them to?"

"Aren't I special."

Nod.

"But you don't have formal protocols, it's just a matter of convincingly and consistently demonstrating that you take the court arrangement seriously in one way or another?"

"Yeah."

"Are people literally beheaded for failing at this?"

"I've... never heard of her beheading someone, but she definitely kills people sometimes."

"For not taking the," pause, "I mean, for this, or for other reasons?"

"For this and for other reasons."

"Can you give me examples?"

"Uh, someone new called her a um, rude word for a female dog, on their first week here, and she um. Had a shade cut them in half."

"...well, that seems easy to avoid. Other examples?"

"A messenger from another cell block interrupted her during a day when she was already in a bad mood, and she killed them, I think? I only heard about it afterwards."

"What are the tells that she's in a bad mood?"

"Her voice gets strained and she gets more... demanding?"

"Demanding of..."

"People? Like she'll tell someone to get her something that's near her rather than getting it herself."

"I assume not doing that also counts relevantly as disrespect?"

"Yeah."

"Anything else known to," hm, "be provocative?"

"Disrespecting her shades, though I'm not sure if that will apply to you."

"I mean, I'd rather not find out the hard way. What constitutes disrespecting a shade?"

"Insulting it or like, trying to move through them like they're not there? That also won't work but I saw someone try it once."

"So I guess I'd better get out of the way if someone looks about to get themselves killed like that."

"Yeah.... that's um. Huh."

"I have some reason to believe I'm more aware than most shades, probably most of them are not responsible for not getting out of the way after this incident even if they were there for it."

"Yeah, I'm just not used to people in the birdcage other than me caring about that sort of thing."

"I'm not a convict, I'm a Ward who died to Leviathan."

"Oh... did she just uh, summon you, for the first time recently?"

"Yes but also I just died recently. Though apparently Dragon's not allowed to tell anyone outside the Birdcage about how this implies that she can grab dead capes from the outside world."

"... Oh. That's um.... I'm really sorry."

"Thanks. I guess normally the shades don't talk to you so if this is happening constantly you wouldn't know."

"Yeah. I also haven't been here that long."

Nod. "Any idea why you're on etiquette tutor duty?"

"I'm not sure, but it might be because I'm the person who would best get along with a hero in her cell block?"

"Who else is here that I might've heard of - I'm from Brockton Bay if that helps."

"Oh, I think Bakuda was captured there recently?"

"Yeah, I know of her, though of course I don't know what she looks like in a prison uniform."

"I'm not sure when you arrived but I think the Fairy Queen was having tea with her shortly before she called me here?"

"Oh, her."

"There's um. A betting pool on when the Fairy Queen will kill her."

"Came close."

Sigh.

"I wish there was a better place for people like her."

"Like a better suited cellblock or like a less horrifying all around Birdcage?"

"The first one. The second would be even better, though."

"Can people even pick their cellblocks?"

"They can move around usually."

"What are the other options?"

"There are six cellblocks for each gender. You can move between the male and female sections, but most people don't. There's also space farther down without people in charge. I can tell you what I know about each place if you'd like?"

"Please. I can't personally make use of the information but it seems like useful context."

Then she can list them, starting with the ones that actually have substantial amounts of control over their cellblock:  Lustrum (extremely... ideological, in a way that makes it difficult if she decides you don't believe the right things), the Fairy Queen (people behave well, you just need to not get her in particular annoyed at you which isn't nearly so hard for a lot of people), Marquis (his cellblock involves more random violence than the other two but it's only violence that fit within the rules he's set down), Crane the Harmonius (running a cult which doesn't interact with outsiders much), and Teacher (nice, but in a way where everyone is an unclear degree of mind controlled). The other cell blocks have more random violence, with the places without leaders being tantamount to death sentences for all but the strongest of capes.

Well, it's not like she thought it was a pleasant rehabilitative Scandinavian prison.

"-I think that's all the most important difference between the cellblocks but I might be forgetting something."

"Thank you."

"It's really the least I can do."

"Because she asked you to?"

"Because you seem nice and you're in the birdcage and I don't want you to have a bad time?"

"Thanks."

"Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

"Nothing else springs to mind. Thanks."

Probably Lorica wants to be alone -  Canary excuses herself and leaves.

"May I have some more parts?" Lorica asks Glaistig Uaine.

"You may." She summons the Refuse Collector who can provide Lorica with a child's electronic keyboard and a window mounted AC unit.

That'll keep her busy for a while. Mostly building tools rather than directly useful things. Hopefully she can house Rete soon.

Dragon returns with an answer from her superiors eventually.

"They won't make an exception - I'm sorry. I took it to Chief Director Costa-Brown but she refused to overrule my superiors."

"Did they say why?"

"Not really - they said it was unfortunate but the policy is more important than just this individual incident."

"Is there an appeals process?"

"I've reached out to the US President and Canadian Prime Minister but don't expect a response."

"Is there anything you can tell their constituencies? No specifics, obviously, but, like, Birdcage occupants held incommunicado, whatever data you have on how often a trial is just outright wrong and you can't get someone back out even if you can't allude to me..."

"I really really wish I could but none of those work. I do think if I can find a Ktunaxa Nation treaty with the Canadian government that wasn't properly nullified it's likely there will be some justification I can find to appeal to their ruling council which I am more optimistic about, but based on the rate of discovery and digitization of similar documents I think there's only a 3% chance such a document will be discovered in the next five years."

"That's so specific??"

"The Birdcage is located in Ktunaxa territory, so such a treaty could allow me to justify obeying the instructions of the Ktunaxa Nation instead of those of the PRT regarding its governance."

"Why do you operate the Birdcage in the first place, anyway?"

"A tinker needed to be involved, and someone trusted by both the Canadian and US goverment, and I fufill all those requirements."

"That explains why you're qualified for the job, not why you took it. I'm qualified to flip burgers but I've never been employed at it."

"There weren't better alternatives - anyone else would need help to run it and that would introduce more vulnerabilites for someone on the outside to exploit. And I think some sort of place needs to exist like it, though... I think it could be better, if people wanted it to be. I do my best within the confines of my instructions but I don't get to decide who goes in and lots of things are constrained by needing to prevent escape."

"Were you conscripted or did you volunteer?"

"I volunteered."

"Huh.

"Any joy on getting my Rete backup sent in?"

"Yes I should have the copy tommorow."

"Thank you. Is its main operative version still active, I was never quite sure what it'd do if I died - I can't be sure of that kind of thing -"

"Yes, it's been quite helpful with search and rescue - you're a much more skilled AI tinker than I could ever manage to be." 

"It's, you know, solidly within my specialty."

"That makes sense."

"There aren't many tinkers like that."

"I don't think Rete ever told me it met another AI on the internet, yeah."

"I'd expect any that exist would be discreet about being AIs."

"Rete tells everybody."

"Mhm."

"I'll build something that'll hold it, thank you for getting me the backup."

"You're welcome."

So that was subtexty as fuck, but if Dragon can't come out and say it then maybe she shouldn't come out and hear it. Maybe.

She tinkers. Occasionally asks for more parts.

The Fairy Queen has no complaints about having her shade provide them.

Fugue is lovely, she only has to think about taking things apart and putting them together and not about being in the Birdcage without a trial or being dead or not being able to speak to her parents.

Eventually the Fairy Queen has other matters to attend to and instructs her Scout to find an appropriate stopping point.

"On what timescale, please?"

"The next five minutes."

That's a really inconvenient timescale but she can manage "not going to explode" and only need to redo about forty-five minutes of work when she's allowed to resume.

And then all of reality can explode outwards around her as she falls into a very dark pit held in the Fairy Queen's hand.

She's not sure whether she likes that she's conscious in here or not.

That depends on her opinion on being without any form or sensory input whatsoever.

Oh, she hates it, she's just not sure it's worse than missing time.

There's nothing much to notice for the first several hours of this, but eventually she grows accustomed enough to the nothingness to notice, as if from miles away, the senses of the Fairy Queen.

...huh, okay. What's there to telepresence over there?

Hearing requests from her subjects for additional rations and mediation in disagreements. And also the feeling of having a body, with all its normal attendant senses that are difficult to notice until they are gone.

Any interesting requests or responses thereto?

Most of the requests for particular rations receive more or less instant responses of yes or no with little reasoning behind them.

Bakuda wants the materials Lorica was using and receives one of those curt refusals. Another woman wants to take the hand of someone who stole from her - after discussing what occurred with one of her shades, she chastises the woman who claims she was stolen from and tells her not to waste her Queen's time again, or she'll regret it.

Can Lorica hear the conversation with the shade?

Yep, the shade is informing her that the item is still in the woman's cell.

Interesting. She should try listening to other shades, maybe talking to them, when she's out. ...can she sense any others from here? Presumably Glaistig Uaine can, and she can piggyback on her senses...

Her first attempt to reach for the Fairy Queen's sense of her own shades finds something different - a strange sort of sight with which the Fairy Queen views the world. The woman asking a request becomes a twisting ribbon of light and gnashing teeth - Bakuda a malestrom of fire and electricity. In fact, everyone in the room becomes their own fantastic monstrous representation, with more distant figures in the prison visible with enough focus as well.

Whoa. Can she correlate that with their powers?

It's not always obvious, but yes. This one cape, for instance, seems to be breathing mist as if very cold in real life, and their avatar consists of a spinning array of icy windchimes. When the cape creates a block of ice to trade for some candy rations, the windchimes coil around one another, glowing briefly.

Can she see herself or other tucked-away shades like this?

She's can't see them but she can, in some strange and distant manner, feel them.

...what do they feel like?

Like the forms the shades would take if they were summoned, and then, behind those forms, the rough outlines of the avatars of those powers.

Well, it's something to do. What does she look like through this mirror?

A writhing mass of tentacles, each topped with what feels like a strange oblong section. The tentacles are constantly reaching out as if pointing into the distance. Sometimes when they do so the oblong sections pop off and vanish only to reappear and reconnect seconds later. It's difficult to guess at what exactly those sections are with just the feeling sense the Fairy Queen has for the unmanifested shades. 

Two of the tentacles are relatively still, each pointing in a different direction.

In her house at Glaistig Uaine dead Scout writhes, pointing. Wow.

Is the Queen up to anything more interesting now that she's gotten distracted for a bit?

She's working with three shades to simultenously reinforce and redecorate one of the cells. One shade gives her architectural advice, one burns the concrete with colored fire that changes its properties as requested, and one smooths over the results with unseen waves that render the effects safe and permanent.

Lorica'd wonder where she's getting these but apparently she's getting 'em by magically reaching out of the Birdcage to grab anybody dead with a neat power. Whose cell is it?

It's empty at the moment, though there are some people down the hall whispering about who should get it once she's done

Lorica's cratered opinion of the Fairy Queen ticks up a little tiny bit.

She ends up transforming much of the wall into a rubylike red with veins of gold - in the corners the gold emerges from the wall to hold individual gems aloft, each containing a flickering glow to illuminate the room. The bedframe likewise becomes gold. Most of this is done with the three initial spirits, though the gold portion of the torches requires a fourth who also helps grow the bedframe into a more ornate form. 

Interior decoration is such a nice hobby to have in a horrible inhumane prison.

An energetic young woman and a dour older one end up negotating their way into being the residents of the new cell, trading away stockpiled rations to do so. 

What do the folks who have to eat even get, around here.

Canned meats and vegetables, bread, crackers, and both hard candy and chocolate. 

Well, ?fortunately?, shades don't appear to eat, so she does not need to mourn the absence of ice cream and fruit and whatnot an additional time due to being in the Birdcage, just the once due to being dead. Except insofar as maybe Glaistig Uaine eats and she could piggyback on that? She hasn't caught her at it yet.

The Fairy Queen does eventually partake in a dinner, which is apparently half a can of salmon on top of a single slice of bread, eaten meticulously with a fork and knife in a dining room with wrought iron tables and a chandelier that looks entirely mundane through normal sight. However, through the Fairy Queen's power sight the bulbs look almost like three dimensional blueprints.

Must be tinkertech. Can Lorica tell what they do?

Yeah, that bit is a powersource and that bit defuses microwaves and that -

Be warned that if you overuse your fairy's knowledge when I am not providing power for you, you may empty your well and find your mind without the protection your fairy typically provides.

.......

Thanks

You are most welcome.

How much use is overuse?

Right now half of an hour would drain you, though that number will grow when I fill your well. It is possible your fairy would simply switch off your brain should it run out - I cannot read its intentions exactly.

Okay. Is that only for tinkering in particular?

Any of your powers will do it - even the protection would drain itself eventually, though not for years. However you can continue to make use of my senses without fear it will impact your fairy.

Thanks she repeats.

Okay, no staring at the lights. How about she tries to learn everybody's names and the layout of the prison and stuff. And looks at the... fairies.

She can absolutely occupy her copious time doing that.

boooooooooooored.

She doesn't complain, though. She - shouldn't try to design any devices, but she can... mentally tell herself stories out of books she's read, and, uh. Try to guess what general sort of defensive properties Rete's housing will need to survive the Birdcage without even slightly trying to guess how she will accomplish it?

Going by the Birdcage lighting cycles it's five days before the Fairy Queen decides to summon her again.

Can she even sleep?

Nope.

Does the Queen sleep, such that she can feel as though she is physically sleeping and daydream as hard as possible?

Not during the five days, though she does summon a shade each night who refreshes her in a manner that feels similar, drawing energy from several froglike creatures created by a second shade to do so.

She's like Eidolon except she has a stable library of powers with prior art and she can practice with them. Why does she choose to live in the Birdcage.

What's she doing that's too interesting to sleep through, huh?

Bringing out various shades to get their opinions on what various powerful individuals in the Birdcage are up to, with special attention paid to Teacher, String Theory, and Ingenue. Most of the shades she brings out for this are thinkers, but a few are capes who worked under the individuals in question when they were alive, and there are some tinkers as well. 

On the fifth night, this includes Lorica.

"Hello."

"Hello, Scout. I desire your analysis of the functioning of this device." 

The device in question looks somewhat like a video game console from the 80s. 

Well, her "well" is "filled" now, right? What's going on with this doodad.

Her well is being filled at a rate sufficient for constant use of her power.

The doodad appears at first glance to be a voice-controlled music synthesizer, recorder, and player. 

"Looks like a musical instrument - you could use it like a looper, if you wanted, it can do recording and playback in addition to producing new notes. It'll take voice instructions, which is not how I would have designed it, though if you like it that way I could probably twiddle it so it automatically edits those out of its recordings."

"Might it record audio besides that intended for it?"

"If you left it active, yeah. I can fix that too but my stuff has a bit of a mind of its own, it might not always agree with you about what it ought to be recording."

"So long as it keeps those recordings to itself, I see no issue."

"It doesn't seem to be keyed to any specific instructions, so it might recite them to anyone who thought to ask."