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

[msglam]

"Ah."

Munch.

[thinkering]

"I don't understand him."

[msglam]

"Who? Scion? Who does?"

[thinkering]

"Nobody, but it particularly bothers me that I don't."

[msglam]

"Why?"

[thinkering]

"...It bothers me in general when I don't understand things?"

[msglam]

"Oh. Fair enough. I- mostly slot him in a similar spot in my head to the one the Endbringers occupy."

[thinkering]

"Yeah. I don't understand them either but it's less... frustrating? It is reasonably likely that there's no profitable communication to be had with them. Scion is doing, you know, good things, twenty-four seven, but he doesn't prioritize and he doesn't work efficiently."

[msglam]

"Yeah. I do wonder why he doesn't- I mean, he talked that one time he said his name, why did he never say anything else after that?"

[thinkering]

"I don't know."

[msglam]

Sigh. "What annoys me or disheartens me the most is that... he doesn't kill them. I mean, if he could, wouldn't he? Does that mean not even he can?"

[thinkering]

"It doesn't look like he tries. It looks like he hits them enough that they'll leave, and then he doesn't chase them or fire at them as they go, or anything."

[msglam]

"That may be because he knows he can't. But on the other hand, the more hurt they are, the longer it takes for them to appear again..."

[thinkering]

Burgers, om nom. "Or maybe something bad would happen that we don't know about if they died, but he's never had the courtesy to say..."

[msglam]

"Maybe he's too busy rescuing kittens from trees or something."

[thinkering]

"The thought has crossed my mind that it might be a net positive if cats went extinct."

[msglam]

She cracks up.

[thinkering]

"He spends so much time on cats! It's infuriating!"

[msglam]

Nope. Giggling too much.

[thinkering]

Lorica snorts and eats her burgers.

[msglam]

The giggling subsides. "Yes, he does indeed. It's stupid, what the duck is even going on in his head?"

[thinkering]

"Couldn't begin to tell you."

[msglam]

"...what if I made a Scion-copy?"

[thinkering]

"Well, nobody'd expect him to massacre innocents. Holy shit, why didn't I think of that?"

[msglam]

"But wait, don't people kinda keep track of where Scion is all the time? Would they freak out if he started showing up in two places at the same time?"