does not anymore work

[campanas]

Here, in a place where she is quite an unexpected sight, is:

an eight year old girl with brown-flecked white wings, looking dismayed and lost.

with Prime (Aestrix)

with Edie and Emily (Maggie)

with Gloria (Maggie)

with Gren (Rockeye)

Comments

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"That makes sense," Charles says. "I should probably warn you, while it's not anywhere near as bad as it could be, an openly mutant representative might not be the most diplomatic interface with the local government."
A sharper-looking man of about the same age in a black turtleneck enters the room. He gives Glass an appraising look.

[whatamithinking]

"Uhm, I already told Pen this--one of the physical mutations that happen sometimes is a sort of functional hermaphroditism. So, this is our other Dad--the one I mentioned--Erik Lehnscherr. Dad, this is Glass, she's an alternate universe version of Pen's Mom."
To Glass: "Sooo, are they the same category thing as us?"

[thaumobabble]

Glass waves at the new visitor. "Yes, you're all four the same moiety. Aegis's mutation is invisible and purely defensive; the problem is that she as a person is less diplomatic than the average Bell, and we are not an especially diplomatic breed to begin with. That and she's fifteen. Angela is on the higher end of Bell diplomacy, but she does, of course, have wings, and relatively limited expertise on Earths of this time period. I can recommend that someone else entirely handle it? Pattern's not too busy, looks human, and like many Bells was born in the United States in 1987."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Erik nods stiffly, and says haltingly, "Edie says--I could see my parents."

[thaumobabble]

"Yes. The remaining questions are whether I'm bothering the admin or making someone here immortal, and whether we're waking them up Downside or bringing them here. Do you have a place to put them? A way to get them replacement legal identities if they'll want them, sufficient cushion in the living arrangements...? Oh, also, they'll look about twenty-five unless they ask for additional cosmetic magic to adjust that."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"They can stay here. It's a huge place, we're not using all of the living space even with all of the students," Charles said. "I'm sure I can get them some kind of paperwork. I have to do it sometimes with the students, if they don't already legally exist. And sometimes they don't," he says sadly. "I have plenty of money, we can take care of them easily. I have no idea if they'll want to look older," he adds, glancing at Erik.
Erik shakes his head. "I wish I remembered more of them, but this isn't the kind of thing that would have been discussed even so."
"Edie told me the reasons you have for being cautious about handing out immortality, and I can't say I have anything in particular that I think would completely ameliorate them," Charles says. "With Cerebro, we could probably find and rescue anyone who got into a situation that was trying very hard to kill them, but I can't claim that the tactical aspect you mentioned would be completely irrelevant." He summarizes the X-Men.

[thaumobabble]

"Yes, this is a bit of a quandary. Do you have any objections to Jane eating your internet and maintaining a Janepoint in an inaccessible location so that we can, if nothing else, check up on things?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"If I understand correctly what a Janepoint is, I don't think either of us has any objection whatsoever to that," Charles says, exchanging a glance with Erik. "But what's an internet?"

[thaumobabble]

"Maybe you don't have it quite yet? I don't know that I've ever been told exactly when Earths tend to invent those - Jane says you're not quite there by standard timeline. Well, eventually it will be a global communications network, but since there's nothing there yet never mind that part."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Good to know, I suppose," says Charles. "If there's a standard timeline, do you have any advice for disasters we could prevent or at least ameliorate?"

[thaumobabble]

"Well, human-scale politics tends to be perturbed by the exact individuals involved except for some major landmarks and you're already past World War II so that's out, and we prefer non-divinatory solutions for things like hurricanes, such as 'not having hurricanes'. But I'm sure whenever my alts come to a decision about who to send in - they're leaning Pattern with Aegis along for initial consultation - you can talk to them about the details of making this a nicer place to live."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Erik makes a slight face when she mentions WWII.
"Not having hurricanes would be ideal, yes," Charles says. "We're already mostly able to prevent those--one of our students at the moment has weather powers--but we don't catch everything."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I don't suppose 'person who it would be completely unproblematic to make immortal' is something you could search for with your nigh-omnipotent magic powers."

[thaumobabble]

"Not readily. I could shorten the search with autohandling of a few parameters, but basically no, at least not without resorting to unethical mind magic. If anyone wants to volunteer for mind magic, Jane can accept a complete memory dump and make a recommendation based on that."

[whatamithinking]

"Under the circumstances, I'm probably not the best candidate anyway, but if it might help Jane can have a copy of my memories."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Me too, I guess."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Neither of the adults volunteer.

[thaumobabble]

"This won't feel like anything," says Glass. She brandishes her jewelry at them.

Jane comments, presumably.

"How do you feel about calling in the cavalry via Jane rather than relying on your mutations in emergencies?" she inquires.

[whatamithinking]

"If the cavalry will reliably show up, then in most cases yes? I mean, it depends on the emergency? 'Someone is trying to destroy the world and it's kill them or let them' yes, 'my sister is having an emotional breakdown and needs cuddles both literal and telepathic' no."

[iamnotpolaris]

"If it's the kind of emergency where use of powers results in an actually satisfactory solution, like 'that kid fell out the window but I can haul him back up by the zippers on his clothes' I'm not likely to bother, but I'm guessing that's not the kind of emergency you meant."

[thaumobabble]

"Jane thinks that under normal circumstances you being immortal is fine but suspects you might have unfortunate fracture points under particularly earthshaking circumstances. The correct response to earthshaking circumstances, now that we have met, is not 'try to make the earth stop shaking with telepathy and magnetism', but 'summon a Bell or someone else with similar wherewithal to fix it by magic'. Jane herself is not totally reliable, or at least hasn't been in the past - we've patched the known failure mode - but that's not a big enough risk to actually insist that you go on being mortal."

[whatamithinking]

"Understood. If a situation gets bad enough that I'm tempted to do anything I'd regret under normal circumstances, call Jane instead."

[thaumobabble]

"If that's understood I can torchable the both of you right now."

[whatamithinking]

"Alright."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Absolutely understood."