endbringer, meet gun

[peterxy]

...Very unseasonable rains can be seen in the distance from the shores of Acapulco.

The Brockton Bay Protectorate starts organizing volunteers to be transported or teletransported in batches to it. Heroes, rogues, villains, anyone's assistance is appreciated. A rendez-vous point is set for non-Protectorate capes wishing to volunteer, and Protectorate capes are informed of the situation via communication devices.

Comments

[thinkering]

"Don't count on it."

[mrglam]

"I'm not." He looks at his copy. "You're not actually sapient, right?"

"Nope! Still just saying things you expect me to say and sorta behaving like you expect me to behave."

"Okay, good. That is good."

"I mean, maybe if you were expecting me to be sapient I would be, but for now I'm just another mouth for you."

"...why are you explaining me things."

"Probably for her sake."

"Okay, that's fair."

[thinkering]

Lorica laughs. "You and me can do our occasional sapience checks in sync!"

[mrglam]

"...well I really really don't want to be sapient," the copy says.

"He means I don't want him to be sapient."

"Yes, that."

"Like, he dies half an hour after I stop paying attention to him, and sleeping doesn't count as paying attention."

[thinkering]

"I was imagining continuity between conjurations."

[mrglam]

They look at each other.

"That might work," says original.

"Well, it will work," says copy.

"Will it, though? What if you do things or go places and talk to people while I'm not around? How do we keep your memory?"

"...I don't know if I currently have a memory, and even if I didn't that doesn't mean a sapient me wouldn't."

"I don't think my power was designed to work like this."

"Do you think it was designed?"

They both look at Lorica.

[thinkering]

"Well, this is all sort of worrying and not the sort of thing we can ethically test, so. Leave it aside until one does pop up sapient and don't run off and do things without the original. Do you think you can get the animals master idea in working order in the next few days or should you go with a different specialty fork?"

[mrglam]

"Dunno. I'm feeling very omnipotent right now, and this is exactly the right kind of feeling to test it."

[thinkering]

"Cool. Gimme a seagull."

[mrglam]

Seagull!

It perches on copy's shoulder. "Can you squint at it?"

The copy does. Neither of them poof. "Guess I don't count as a person."

"Good."

[thinkering]

"Hey, I resent that."

[mrglam]

They look at her. "I'm pretty sure you count as a person! You made my Rubik's cube disappear when you squinted at it," original says.

"It's just the belief thing you're immune to," copy continues. He furrows his brows, then shrugs and shakes his head. "I am powerless and also immune to the belief thing. Non-sapient constructs don't have beliefs."

[thinkering]

"We haven't concretely determined whether the bot counts."

A bot approaches the seagull to inspect it.

[peterxy]

Seagull: exists.

And preens itself a bit because it is a bird and birds do that?

[thinkering]

"Bot does not count either," Lorica concludes. "Well, there goes my idea of building you a minion that believed in you real hard."

[mrglam]

"...if I ever become sapient I'm giving myself omnipotence."

[thinkering]

"Wouldn't that be fun."

[mrglam]

"I think it would! The world is suboptimally arranged and I am displeased about certain facts of it like Endbringers or old age."

[thinkering]

"I cannot disagree with your stated goals."

[mrglam]

"I didn't expect you to."

[thinkering]

"So there's a seagull, you could stick with a theme or you could do a whole menagerie, throw in a polar bear and a, I don't know, can you do an air-breathing levitating swordfish?"

[peterxy]

Swordfish: appears!

...and falls on the floor, twitching and flapping.

The seagull looks interested.

[mrglam]

"...do seagulls even eat swordfish? They look too big."

[thinkering]

"They'd probably pick at a dead one. Come on, why can't the swordfish fly? It is here at all by your sufferance, surely it can ignore gravity."

[mrglam]

The copy frowns, picks the fish up, and raises it to eye level. "Will you stop twitching already?"

It does.

"Thank you."

Both of them glare at the swordfish before the copy lets it go. It insists on obeying gravity.

"Whyyyyyy."