blasto, meet official opinions on self-replicating minions

[peterxy]

The PRT catches wind of a strange increase in disappeared domestic animals in the downtown area. Given that the people who live there are the rich and powerful, this is clearly a problem that needs to be investigated and solved immediately. The PRT, of course, agrees that this is of utmost importance, and not just because of precedent about mass abductions of pets, of course not, why would you think that, they are so very worried about Fido, even Scion recognizes the merits of rescuing lost pets.

(Lorica's asked to maybe keep a few more eyes there than she has been.)

Comments

[mxglam]

"Yeah."

[thinkering]

The school visit rolls around. Lorica's supposed to go first because captain. Fine. She goes up and the bot mostly reads it in her voice and she gestures at appropriate moments.

[mxglam]

Her presentation's well-received enough. Next's Echo, who talks about self-defense, then Rewind, who presents stuff about gangs, then Glimmer, who talks about Philadelphia, then Glam. They walk into the small auditorium, silent, and look at their audience, propping their head on their elbows, leaning on a lectern they conjured.

[alicornucopia]

The audience looks back. They've been sitting here kind of a while now and are fidgety. Somebody is surreptitiously eating a sandwich.

[mxglam]

"Bored, are you?" they ask softly, but their voice comes from tiny surreptitious speakers at the backs of a few chairs, in spots no one was paying attention to, as if they were right there over their shoulders.

[alicornucopia]

Sandwich kid jumps and drops his sandwich and looks miserably at it.

[mxglam]

"Sorry about your sandwich, kid," they say. "I'd offer to conjure you another one, but my conjured food tends to disappear after a few bites. Terrible weakness, I know."

[alicornucopia]

Sandwich kid gets a hissed reprimand from one of the chaperon teachers and scoops the remains of his sandwich into its bag and puts it away.

[mxglam]

"If you had a parahuman power," they ask, still leaning on the conjured lectern, "what would you like it to be?"

[alicornucopia]

...The kids are not sure if they're supposed to answer that. They're probably not all supposed to talk at once, right?

[mxglam]

"I meant you, sandwich kid," they clarify. "What's your name?"

[alicornucopia]

"...Todd."

[mxglam]

His voice also comes from a bunch of speakers everywhere.

"Hi, Todd! D'you wanna be a superhero?"

[alicornucopia]

"I wanna be a dentist," says Todd.

[mxglam]

"Oh, that's cool! Is one of-" Pause. Shake head. "I have a time limit, we'll chat later if you want." They straighten up. "Does anyone here want to be a superhero? Or, perhaps, a supervillain? Just raise your hands if you do."

[alicornucopia]

There were a couple of twitches when Glam said "superhero" but nobody seems to want to own up to "or, perhaps, a supervillain".

[mxglam]

They smile, having expected this. "Unfortunately we don't really choose to have powers. And while the Protectorate is currently pretty neutral about 'rogues,' don't you find it interesting that so few parahumans choose to become those?" They sit cross-legged in the air, and gesture idly to make the lectern disappear. "Can anyone here name a single rogue?"

[alicornucopia]

Coupla hands.

[mxglam]

They point at one of them. "Are you gonna say Sphere? I bet you're gonna say Sphere."

[alicornucopia]

"...I was gonna say Tiger Lady."

[mxglam]

"Oh, alright, I'm defeated," they say, throwing their hands up dramatically. "Ooor maybe not! Can you nnnaaaame... five rogues?"

[alicornucopia]

Nobody can do that.

[mxglam]

"Aha! I win!" they say, grinning, then clear their throat. "On the other hand, I bet some of you have at some point owned Alexandria lunch boxes or Armsmaster underwear, and I doubt none of you have speculated on who would win between Eidolon and Legend."

The projector finally comes to life when Glam mentions Alexandria lunch boxes, and starts showing pictures of various heroes, changing from one to another every five seconds. As they do, a few copies of heroes (Alexandria amongst them, naturally) start walking (or flying) in from the back of the auditory, floating above the students or joining Glam at the front.

"And it's not just a matter of PR, although we must commend the Protectorate there. It seems that, for better or for worse," and at the 'for worse' pictures (mostly blurred, from a distance) of various villains start replacing the heroes', "parahumans tend towards conflict." No copies of the villains show up.

[alicornucopia]

The kids are mildly interested in the copies.

[mxglam]

"Does anyone here know how people get powers?" Copies have stopped walking in, only about a dozen of them, but the pictures are still going. The speakers have also disappeared from behind the kids.