Reroll

I take a bit to watch the video as I walk; my Perception ‘Al’ will flag me on anything important. Honestly, it looks like a professional production, minus the credits. A picture of a Guardian as a police officer, side by side with the “terrorist” that shot me at the Children's Hospital… they look like real pictures, even though I know this was all Ed holding a phone steady and recording while Betty ran illusions in front of it.  Oh, and some shots of me getting shot while healing sick kids.  Yeah… those ones are all over UsTube.  Especially that first little girl… so cute!

The voice overs are nice… again, Illusory sounds…oh, she got the recording of the mermaid on there… before the actual rape, but she's still stuck in thre tank… yeah, the mermaid doesn't look happy.  It goes over what we know about the Bureau for the Preservation of Human Rights (including the actually-valid and necessary work they do, although that is downplayed), whay we suspect, and… yes, outs ‘Alice’ as a former human.  Oh yes, and includes the announcement of another healing session Sunday at the local hospital.  It should get a good start on getting the job done.

Now, we're using things we actually saw or had videos of for the visuals (exclusively), but this could really be used to make some seriously hardcore fakes to ruin a rep.  Scary to think about.

I find I'm pretty far from the only one watching; on my walk I catch snippets of the audio track playing on other folks’ phones.  It's… good, Ed wasn't joking when he said there were a lot of followers. Hmm… I wonder how many? Easy to answer.  I just go to the video statistics and… seriously, five million views? That video just went up.  And thirty million channel subscribers. Pity we can't monetize our streams… I mean, that won't crack the top fifty on UsTube, but still.  And we only have two videos on there. I guess real magic is really popular.

I also take a moment during the walk to call the magic number.

“Welcome to Fairchild Flowers, how can I help you?” It's a cheery woman's voice.

“Ah, yes, Elaine gave me this number on the back of her business card; is she available?”

“Ah… which Elaine? It's a family business, and for whatever reason they keep passing down the same name.”

“The third.”

“One moment…” The line starts spitting out some light jazz.  I'm walking as I'm waiting, so it's no big deal.

I'm on hold for maybe a minute, and then I hear another voice, “That Elaine is still at work at the hospital; she isn't on shift today.  This is her mother.  You said this number was on the back of the card?”

“That's right.”

“What was the full name listed?”

“Lady Elaine Fairchild the third.”

The line is dead for a bit, “And why did she give you that card?”

Honestly… “She actually gave it to my messenger, but used an older word. I could only guess as to the specific reason, but I'm thinking she wanted to get in touch.”

“We should probably discuss this in person. Here…” she gives me an address, which I copy into my phone, “Any time during the day. Bring the card, please. We’ll need to verify it.”

“Sure thing.  See you soon.”

“See you soon,” we both hang up.

I wonder what she means by verifying it? No matter.

I get to Bambi's Beautiful Booty without issue, and head on in; the business is open, after all.

“Ah, Kenna, welcome back. So you're looking to buy… let me show you the mirrors…” she takes me to a section of the shop where… yes, she has a dozen mirrors in various styles.  Wood frames, mostly.

My Appraise ‘Al’ keeps me updated as I look closely at each, “No silver here… ten grand, five grand, six grand, no silver…” yeah.  Seems modern prices have nothing whatsoever to do with ancient prices, and especially not that mishmash that makes up the game's pricing.  I eventually settle on a nice handheld mirror with a dark oak backing and handle.  My ‘Al’ tells me it's worth 1,200 gold pieces… the price? Thirty bucks.

I pay Bambi in cash, she wraps it up carefully and puts it in a bag (it is fifty-ish years old), and as I'm heading out, I see two police cruisers pull up, with two big, beefy, identical guys in the front of each… four Guardians.

Bambi closes her eyes and sighs, “Mind locking up for me? If they're coming here it's not a mission.”

I consider as they start to get out, “Do they bother you when you have a customer?”

She pauses, “No… I don't think they like witnesses.”

I nod.  “All right… you know what? I'm going to be… distracted for a bit.  Mind watching to make sure I don't do anything too terribly stupid?”

She crinkles her nose at me, but says, “Sure….”

I release my animal companion and whisper a few words of instruction in her ear: “Stay here, be insistent and unreasonable about it until I return,” and duck underground to get behind the Guardians as they walk in, all eyes on Bambi.  They pause when they see my Companion in my Kenna Smith form.

And I'm naked again… also invisible and incorporeal.

I also know the van will be nearby… I come up only when I'm confident I'm far enough behind them that the big beasts won't see me, then look around… and see a van with a fresh coat of blue paint and way too many antennas parked alone in a nearby lot… they figured the problem with all white, huh? No matter.  I call my ring to me, look inside the van... confirm that, yes, the controller is looking at Bambi's Beautiful Booty… and instructing the officers on gently encouraging the civilian to leave… heh, good luck with that, she knows she needs to stay. Also good to know they're mostly leaving civilians alone… even if my animal companion isn't exactly a civilian.

I step into the controller’s body, and look down  with his eyes, watching the white, slightly overweight balding man with brown hair morph into a woman, all the fat migrating to her chest and rear.

Eh, whatever.  I talk into the microphone, “Looks like the civilian isn't leaving… all four of you: Abort.  Pull out your wallets, give all the cash to Bambi, then head back here.”

I wait patiently, watching them obey as Bambi collects the money.

When they get back, I order them into the van.  While it is really, really tempting to make her suffer… give the puppets some orders about raping her and ignoring further orders… no.  That would just bring more misery into the world.  So I simply order the meat puppets to shoot the controller.

As the dead body falls off me and the mest puppets collapse, I head back to Bambi's, and repossess my Animal Companion's body.

I take a breath and look up, “So… hopefully I didn't do anything too embarrassing.”

Bambi just looks at me, still holding the cash, “What did you DO?!”

I shrug, “The Guardians are essentially mindless puppets. They're directed by a controller in a nearby van. I compromised him, used his body to give the meat puppets some orders, which included killing the controller… in turn cutting the puppets’ strings.  That would be the gunshots you heard.  But to do that, I had to have my attention elsewhere.”  I'm bending the truth a little, but all of those statements are true.

Bambi considers that for a long time, just staring at me, “So you can remote control people by thinking hard?”

I pause, “There's a bit more to it, but… yes. I tick a couple of the boxes on the list of things that scare the upper management of the ‘Bureau for the Preservation of Human Rights’, as the organization tells the controllers it's called.”  Let’s see… Invisibility, Mind Control, and possession are all possible for me; the only one I'm missing is rapid reproduction.

Betty pauses, “And… you just… so calmly.  Why haven't you….”

I smile sadly, “A skilled sniper can do something similar. Why don't most people stab each other with knives? Oh, there's consequences for bad behavior, sure, but if everyone was doing it the police would be overwhelmed, and the official consequences would evaporate along with civilization. In the end, civilization works because *most* people want to… if not do the right thing, at least not do the wrong thing. I'm not so different.”

“You just killed five people, and you're calm.”

I correct her, "One person and four puppets made of meat, who - based on history - were about to commit a rape. So… while it's not a good thing… well, it's not like I could report them to the police, and most ethical systems allow violence in the case of immediate defense of another.”

“Are you….”

I close my eyes, “A monster? Possibly.” I open them again, and look straight into Bambi's eyes, “But if so, I aim to be the most benevolent monster I can be.”

She's flabbergasted… but I suppose she's over a hundred years from being a soldier on the battlefield. So of course, I dig myself in deeper, “At this point, I could probably dig deeply enough into the organization to find their leaders and dismantle the thing entirely… but as strange as it sounds, not having them at all would be worse than the current situation.” I shake my head, “They need to be reformed, and hitting them with a big hammer won't do that.”

“But you just…”

“Oh, sure, I killed one that was actively engaged in bad behavior, yes.  Not the first time, even. But something like that organization needs to exist to curtail the actually bad supernaturals, so simply killing it off entirely would backfire badly. And I AM working on doing ot the right way.  Until then… I'll still prune bad elements as I run across them.”

Bambi pauses, and takes a breath….