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

[thinkering]

"Ah, fuck," says Lorica. Bots spread out over the neighborhood looking for tracks or fleeing critters/tinkers.

[peterxy]

There is a track, which can be followed as far as a manhole but no farther.

Papers in the warehouse indicate that the Tinker was naming himself 'Blasto' and that his specialty seems to be a form of accelerated guided evolution of hybrid creatures. There are various half-legible notes scrawled on the edges of pages with new ideas, but it's very clear he was just starting to test his capabilities and hadn't explored much what he could create, yet. A few more notes indicate that he discovered the drug accidentally when working on a plant-plant hybrid (whose broken vat and dried dead body can be found in the mess).

[thinkering]

Wards go back to HQ. Lorica distributes careful praise for Boots's squished-critter count, Echo's marksmanship, Windflower holding it together under pressure, and Glam's disintegrations. Lorica accepts praise from Chevalier for a no-casualty mission that almost worked.

[mxglam]

'Almost worked' sounds way too negative for Glam, who thinks there was no way they could've accounted for a containment-foam eating monster. They wait until Chevalier's gone to make that comment, though.

[thinkering]

"I could've been watching him. Armor was airtight."

[mxglam]

"Between watching all the other critters, managing the battlefield, and making sure none of us were eaten, squashed, melted, turned into goo, or otherwise maimed or killed, after properly applying two tools that when properly applied have almost zero escape rates, I don't think you can reasonably blame yourself. Do better in the future, sure, but this was still not bad at all."

[thinkering]

"Thanks."

[mxglam]

"You're welcome for my only stating the facts and very reasonable conclusions drawn from them."

[thinkering]

"Heh."

[mxglam]

Glam edits footage of the Purity fight, with some advice from the Boston branding person. Heroes getting their hineys whopped are edited out, but slightly kicked is okay; people don't like it when heroes are too infallible. The self-deprecating humor is used, with Lorica's line ("I don't remember this part but it probably hurt.") being used verbatim.

It's published a couple of days later, and a link is posted on the PHO Brockton Bay message board.

[thinkering]

Lorica's bot is only discreetly partisan. Commenters are delighted to have this footage and speculate that the bot took it (the bot admits this) and have various mostly approving remarks about kicking Nazi ass, various mostly approving remarks about the shape of Rewind's ass (Lorica's bot removes these for perving on a cape of unknown age), and the occasional decent suggestion for how to use Glam's power (drop things on people, trap them in boxes).

[mxglam]

Ooh, dropping things on people is a nice idea, though have to be careful not to hurt them too much. The boxes would have to be pretty durable, though, especially with someone like Purity inside.

[alicornucopia]

Line it with mirrors! If it's somebody like her I mean.

[mxglam]

Yeah, I like that idea. Though she's pretty well captured, now, so wrt her it won't matter much :P

[alicornucopia]

People who think Glam is faking are somewhat thin on the ground. Purity's capture was announced and video editing is difficult, after all.

[mxglam]

And technically they're not faking it, since they did in fact do those things. Isn't it nice how easy it is to believe in things that actually happened?

[alicornucopia]

So is this gonna be a regular thing or just like celebrating getting the nazi bitch

[mxglam]

Glam is irked by the sexist language, but pings Lorica's bot instead of saying anything about it. Instead:

Yeah, planning on making it regular, as long as I don't run out of things to post.

[alicornucopia]

Lorica's bot points out that swearing per se is not against the rules and there is no precedent for deleting one-off uses of "bitch". "Cunt" would be another matter.

[mxglam]

Sigh. Alright, they guess.

[msglam]

Later, Boots and Glam are in the gym for one of their usual self-directed training session.

"Alright, so, I'm thinking we could do a multiple-assailant session today, I could get several mes to attack you at the same time, what do you say?"

[alicornucopia]

"Sounds good. I wasted a bunch of those plant things but more practice is good."

[msglam]

"Yeah, especially if that Blasto guy's more prepared next time." Six costumed Glams appear, surrounding Boots. "They're just gonna charge, nothing special about them, no flight, no superstrength. They're just human, though, so you can't go all out on them. Say when."

[alicornucopia]

Boots sizes up the extra Glams, then says, "When."

He leaps, lands hard on a Glam's shoulders.

[msglam]

Crack.

Pause.

"I am very happy my copies can't feel pain," she says, even though the noises and faces (emojis) it's doing would seem to indicate otherwise. "You'll need to hold back way more than that, you could've broken their spine or worse, and that will be hell on our PR department, especially if someone sues."