brockton bay, meet glam

[mxglam]

It's the anniversary. Glam would very much not like to celebrate.

It’s their last day on Winslow High - they’re being transferred to Arcadia on Monday - and also their last day without a patrol schedule assigned.

And the PRT released a small announcement on its website about Glam joining the Wards. Now their wiki page doesn’t get erased, of course - they’re no longer speculative. They wonder what it’s got on them.

Comments

[mxglam]

"Fair, I guess."

[thinkering]

"Or maybe the Endbringers are just Case 53s who woke up one day, discovered they were monsters, and decided to act like it, and they all formed a monster club, how would I know."

[mxglam]

"Well when you put it like that."

[thinkering]

[mxglam]

[thinkering]

An email from Miracle Max pops up on the wall. Looked at the drug. Got a formula for an antidote that you can use prophylactically but if there's multiple in the family won't do much against sibling drugs. It wasn't purified well; whoever made it was primarily something else, not a drug tinker.

[mxglam]

"Okay, that's interesting, but I don't know that it actually helps us much to catch the person. And what are the actual effects of the drug, other than the withdrawal after you don't have it?"

[thinkering]

The bot transcribes Glam's remarks and asks if it may please have their email password.

[mxglam]

Yeah, here you go.

[thinkering]

The bot sends from Glam's email account.

Max writes back, Oh, I thought that lady would have described the symptoms. Looks like it's just designed for extreme addiction and actually being recreational was secondary. I'd describe the likely high as 'just barely pleasant' over about an hour and a half at this dose for a typically sized person, but coming down to normal would feel like you were dying.

[mxglam]

"...how delightful. But guess I know what I'm supposed to look like when we go to the next meeting place."

[thinkering]

The bot copies to Max again, who has no reply. Lorica solicits "at least two, more if you can finagle it easily" doses of prophylactic antidote, and gets an ETA back, which is comfortably before the drop point.

"Although I suppose we can't guarantee anyone or anything will show up this time, since the first messenger didn't get home."

[mxglam]

"Yeah. But I mean, the first messenger didn't really have any messages other than 'package delivered,' so maybe it's not that relevant. We don't have much to lose by going." Pause. "Except for the money. What are we gonna do about that?"

[thinkering]

"You're going to give it the money, of course," says Lorica innocently.

[mxglam]

"...see, this is why I love you, you think about things."

[thinkering]

"Had it honestly not occurred to you in ten years that you could counterfeit?"

[mxglam]

"It has occurred to me, several times, and I decided against it every time because I am a good, virtuous person!"

[thinkering]

"That's why you counterfeit as part of sting operations!"

[mxglam]

"I will remind you that this is my first such operation."

[thinkering]

"Yes, yes."

[mxglam]

"I should probably go over all the things I have ever thought about using my power for and decided against at the time."

[thinkering]

"Do tell."

[mxglam]

"I dunno, I've spent some time in my life thinking about how I'd go about committing various crimes and then deciding not to do them. Selling various fake items is an obvious one, though jewelry wouldn't work because people usually squint at it. Robbing a bank, or a store. Using strategically placed pebbles to make sure the horse I bet on won the race."

[thinkering]

"If you tripped all the horses in a race except one it would be very statistically irregular."

[mxglam]

"Well I wouldn't make all of them trip. Or even one. Just, making them slip a little bit, maybe? Or the air's slightly rarefied in front of them, or something."