lung, meet rewind

[msrewind]

She gets the note just before lunch. She's in the PHQ in less than twenty minutes, then she knocks on Piggot's door politely.

Comments

[mxglam]

"Yeah... If we come up with a good idea we'll use it but for now I think that branch's done. As for decoy parents-"

[msrewind]

"I can recognize my parents. I can just ask them something only they would know, Lung knows me well enough to know I'd do something like that."

[thinkering]

"But does he have to let you? If they're gagged or on a video feed."

[mxglam]

"If he doesn't that's pretty much the same thing as not offering proof they're alive at all, and we're back to the first branch of the tree."

[thinkering]

"I don't think we can count on Lung having sane standards for what constitutes proof that someone's alive. I can imagine him producing her actual parents in no condition to talk."

[mxglam]

"Right, but that's not what I mean. I mean, in terms of what we can actually do and plan for, incomplete proof that they're alive which Rewind can't get him to complete is pretty much the same thing as no proof at all."

[thinkering]

"Mm."

[mxglam]

"Or, well, I suppose we could just pretend they're in fact Rewind's parents and try to rescue them anyway, and if they're not, well, we'll either save them or arrest them depending on just who they are."

[thinkering]

"There's an idea." The bot fills in a side branch.

[mxglam]

"So any strategies that apply to rescuing Rewind's parents apply to fake-parents. Except then we'd have the problem of rescuing her actual parents at some point, probably."

[thinkering]

"Yeah. If Lung puts them somewhere findable."

[mxglam]

"Okay, so... any other failure modes?"

[thinkering]

"Nothing that seems likely enough to bear mentioning."

[mxglam]

"Alright. Is there any difference in strategy between if they're rigged with something and separated or if they're rigged with something and together? Other than my speedster?"

[thinkering]

"No, I think that's the only difference."

[mxglam]

"Then the bring-Rewind's-parents-in-person whole subtree's done, I guess?"

[thinkering]

"Yeah." The bot wraps it up.

[mxglam]

"Okay, next's remote transmission, which could be either a video feed or a phone call."

[thinkering]

"Make sure," Lorica tells Rewind, "if it's either that you get to see or hear them react to something in real time."

[msrewind]

"Yeah, if it's a recording it's pretty useless."

[thinkering]

"But it could be a recording pretending to be a live feed, if you don't interact with it."

[msrewind]

"I won't let him trick me."

[mxglam]

"Okay, so, if it's a telephone conversation... I can't actually conjure anything through the phone that won't alert them."

[thinkering]

"What do you mean, 'that won't alert them'?"

[mxglam]

"Well, I can only conjure stuff if I can notice it's been conjured. Via video or in-person I can make a tiny locator somewhere they're not likely to be looking but which I can see, whereas via the phone it'd need to produce some noise loud enough for me to hear and then they'd hear it, too."