simurgh, meet your nemesis

[mxglam]

So Glam tests their power some more, and then has a meeting with Piggot where they explain the Siberian. She listens carefully, then asks them not to demonstrate, and says she will communicate that to the appropriate people. That takes a while, and then Lorica is asked to confirm this, and then Glam is asked to demonstrate to very few people with very high clearance.

This should not get out, it would be a PR nightmare, but if the Sibarian copy does what it looks like it does, its help will be invaluable in the upcoming Endbringer fights. When Glam decides to use that power, the story will be that a power copier has grabbed the Siberian's and is using it against the Endbringer, that people should not panic, and that she is an ally. Glam mentions, since they're all being so cooperative about telling everyone on the comms, that the Siberian copy doesn't have to look like the original, so people can know whether to panic or not based on her shape.

That leaves, of course, Glam's own willingness to face the Slaughterhouse Nine. Even if they don't know that Siberian is them, they will likely cause problems, and this will need to be carefully planned.

Careful plans tend not to survive contact with reality, and that is doubly true when the next Endbringer attack happens only two months and nine days after the previous one.

Not that it would matter much: Glam is definitely not going to a Simurgh fight, not yet.

Comments

[thinkering]

But Lorica is.

She suits up, disengages her bot hivemind from the home base software, timestamps it, and gets ready to leave.

[mrglam]

Sadde is... fretful. That's a good word. And today is a girl day, but Sadde needs to at least kiss Lorica once before she goes because. Well.

[thinkering]

He can kiss her helmet; he didn't catch her before she left areas she's willing to unmask in and she's gotta scramble. He can keep his shoulderbot.

[mrglam]

Yes. Shoulderbot. Alright.

Luck!

(...Sadde hugs the shoulderbot.)

[thinkering]

The shoulderbot chirrs.

Unfortunately, it cannot update Sadde on the progress of the fight because the bots aren't allowed to talk to the base station while in Simurgh range.

[msglam]

Which is entirely reasonable and Sadde expected it and it makes her worry and fret and feel awful anyway. Sure, maybe the Simurgh isn't as bad as Behemoth, but still. One in six, on average.

...

She continues hugging the shoulderbot.

[thinkering]

It will not object to being hugged. It makes cute soothing noises.

[msglam]

Cute soothing noises-

well, they actually do help, and she hopes they will start making upset noises if anything happens to Lorica, she'd rather know than wonder.

"Will you make any upset noises if anything happens to Lorica?"

[thinkering]

"I won't know any sooner than you will," says the shoulderbot. "The flock and her suit don't send any messages back until she's clear and then she goes over all the records by hand redacting things before updating the base memory."

[msglam]

"Oh. That... makes sense, I guess," she says, not very reassured at all.

[thinkering]

"So far there hasn't been anything that really worried her in the deployed flock code or the suit software but she doesn't want to be careless."

[msglam]

"Mmhm. Ugh this is awful."

[thinkering]

Snuggle goes the bot.

[msglam]

Snuggle goes the Sadde. Less reassured by the soothing noises, now.

(It occurs to her that it wouldn't make sense anyway, since the Simurgh could fake any signal sent to the bot, but.)

[thinkering]

Well, soothing noises with no basis in knowledge are all the shoulderbot has to offer right now.

[msglam]

Yeah, she'll take that. Soothing noises and no knowledge is better than no soothing noises and also no knowledge.

[thinkering]

Lorica is gone for hours.

[msglam]

Sadde is worried and fretful for hours. She can't read, can't browse, can't sleep - at most, doze off, snuggling the shoulderbot - and she waits. There's no reason to feel this upset, she tells herself, you've been to Endbringer fights together and survived, she managed to survive her first Simurgh fight when she didn't have powers, everything's alright.

She keeps telling herself.

[thinkering]

And:

"The plane is back."

[msglam]

Blink. Process. "And you're not freaking out," she says as soon as she's done. "Is she alright?"

[thinkering]

"I don't know yet. She can't send a message while her suit's cut off."

[mxglam]

"But the plane's arrived!" they say, out their room in a flash, carrying the shoulderbot with.

[thinkering]

Yep, there's the plane -

- and Lorica, walking off of it.

[mxglam]

"Oh thank god," they say, not throwing their arms around her yet because. Maybe not the best time and place.

[thinkering]

"I'm fine," Lorica tells Glam tiredly.