branding lady, meet meek little lamb

[mxglam]

Glam isn't allowed to actually patrol the following day (it's a Sunday), so they mostly browse the 'net and read books. Echo's busy with her family (and she is allowed to go out patrolling), and Lorica's... doing something.

They're slightly worried about the fact that Yates hasn't replied to their email, but it's the weekend, so maybe that's why.

Has she replied to the email by Monday?

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Are you Native American?" asks Yates pointedly.

[mxglam]

"No, but I don't mean necessarily something that's actually used by Native Americans."

"More the feel? Specifically for whatever artifact I'm going to be using to summon the animals, like Myrddin has his magical feel I could have something magical looking as well to make them appear."

[alicornucopia]

"A 'no' would have sufficed. If you evoke Native American aesthetics and aren't planning to claim, in costume, believably and ideally truthfully, to belong to the culture people will think of when they see you acting that way, then we will have protests to deal with and it is my job to prevent that. You could probably get away with a druid look but you'd need to replace the bronze with leather and deal with the reduction in defensive power."

[mxglam]

"Druid would work if there was something more protective underneath the leather."

"Or maybe I could be really good at dodging?"

"Another idea for the summoning would be making the animals appear from out of view, round a corner or something."

"Especially with species whose presence in Brockton Bay makes no sense."

[alicornucopia]

"If you're in a crowded situation or there's backup for your opponents watching and you don't already have the creatures that you need made, there's no hiding that the animals come from nowhere, and limiting yourself to local species would leave you mostly with small vermin of limited effectiveness plus cats and dogs. I think you're going to have to conjure them, but going through a noticeable ritual first is better than just spontaneously appearing everything. That, or you could have a single animal capable of shapeshifting?"

[mxglam]

"An animal capable of shapeshifting is definitely possible."

"As is a noticeable ritual."

[alicornucopia]

"Your animal will also need a name if it's always the 'same' animal. But it does substantially differentiate the Phylum power from the Glam power; I think it's preferable for that reason."

[mxglam]

"Are we using the druid idea? Something in Gaelic or Welsh would make sense if so."

[alicornucopia]

"I think yes, but advise you to stick to relatively accessible Gaelic or Welsh - names that have assimilated into Anglophone cultures or a fairly straightforward and pronounceable noun. Possibly change the cape name from Phylum to something which matches. Fawn-colored leather armor, bronze studs, green under it, perhaps a gray wolf or some other animal instead of a coyote."

[mxglam]

Erstwhile-Phylum's costume and mask start changing to reflect the new ideas. "Could you look something up? Maybe specific animal names, like bear or eagle or something."

"And the cape name could be 'druid' or 'animal' in a Celtic language, if that's not taken."

[alicornucopia]

"Let me see..."

Yates eventually finds a chart. There are many words on it. Lorica's bot digs up pronunciations. "Loen for the cape name and Ki for the animal?" Yates eventually suggests.

[mxglam]

"I like those," says Loen.

"What do they mean?"

[alicornucopia]

"Beast or animal, and dog, respectively."

[mxglam]

"Cool."

"I'm gonna have to invent strategies for this power, then, it's really different than how I've been using mine."

[alicornucopia]

"You have a while," says Yates.

[mxglam]

"Yeah, won't be a problem."

[alicornucopia]

"Are you happy with your costume or do you expect to make changes to it between now and then?"

[mxglam]

Glam shrugs.

"If you're okay with this one I don't have anything to change," agrees Loen.

[alicornucopia]

"In that case I need a few photos -" Yates produces a camera and snaps pictures of Loen from various angles.

[mxglam]

Loen-

enjoys this a lot.

Even after Glam reminds him to be serious and all, he's still having fun. "Should Ki appear as well? I can probably make her - okay if it's a her? - appear natural enough for pictures at least, for the moment."

[alicornucopia]

"Ki can be a her, and sure."

[mxglam]

Ki appears, and poses as various animals.

It's not obviously noticeable, but she doesn't behave quite as one would expect an animal - even a domesticated one - to. Nothing you could put your finger on, but it's there, showing Loen's lack of knowledge about animal behavior.

[alicornucopia]

"She's not quite a realistic animal. You're controlling her, so that's not unexpected, but you'd pass casual inspection better if you knew more about how your favorite shapes for her moved," comments Yates. "Can you whistle? It might be good to occasionally whistle at her and pretend to be delivering commands that way."

[mxglam]

"Yeah I can," says Loen.

"I was planning on reading up on and watching videos of a number of animals during the next few weeks."

[alicornucopia]

"Excellent. All right, I think that's all we have to cover for today."