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I’m not going to risk everything by loosening the one reliable leash we have on our thralls. I think that’s why Teacher sent me with you, to keep things sensible. No.

Okay. I won’t threaten you. But I’ll warn you that people who cross me tend to meet unfortunate ends.

Black Goat and Ingenue, Interlude 15.y II

Ingenue, also known as Miranda Webb,[9] is a supervillain seductress and was a resident of the Birdcage. She acted as a leader of one of the cell blocks.[10]

Personality[]

Miranda is capricious, manipulative, cruel and utterly devoid of empathy. How much of that is influenced by her early trigger is a question.[9]

She has a habit of playfully denying her involvement in "the accidents" caused by the use of her powers.

Appearance[]

Ingenue is described as an attractive woman and had been so for all her life. In her teenage years, she fit well with what would become her cape name. In her years of imprisonment, she had matured, and while still beautiful, she had lost the ability to pull off the wide-eyed innocence that had made her so effective early on.[5]

Even in dangerous situations, she did not wear armor or other materials typical of costumed heroes.[11]

Abilities and Powers[]

Ingenue's power works by boosting one aspect of someone's power in exchange for dropping proficiency in another, such as more power at a loss of control, or more control at a loss of range, which she is able to choose. This has the unfortunate side effect of driving her "partners" homicidally insane after prolonged periods of use.[12] These thralls are noticeably off-kilter to those who know them.[13]

Ingenue can also change her personality into her target's 'ideal woman' which makes manipulating them easier.[14] It is also possible she could see a person's abilities like Chevalier could, if in a more detailed and specific way.[15]

Reliable application of power requires physical contact, though this limitation was later removed by Teacher[9]

History[]

Background[]

Miranda is an early trigger.[9]

Ingenue was caught after manipulating four heroes into doing horrible things behind the scenes. Responsible not only for their deaths but also for the deaths of others due to the heroes actions while under her thrall.

Ms. Webb was fully evaluated by powered PRT investigators, who were either confused or terrified by her. She was shortly put into the Birdcage. She was adolescent at the time.[9]

Miranda was assigned into Blood Diamond's cell block. Fearing of becoming the next toy of a sadist Miranda manipulated one of the male inmates into killing her. Later, she organized similar incidents with two competitors for cell block leadership, Love Bite and Teacup.[9]

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine[]

When Panacea was sent to the Birdcage. she was placed in Lustrum's cell block. When a meeting was called to discuss the payment for this favor, Ingenue attended yet kept silent throughout the entire meeting, letting the other leaders' egos clash.[10]

Gold Morning[]

Ingenue was released from the Birdcage, where she placed her eye on Chevalier.[5]

After the initial action in Gold Morning, she tried to visit Chevalier in the hospital bed.[16] She eventually succeeded but was stopped by Narwhal and thrown out.

She would stand by Chevalier throughout the conflict.

Post-Gold Morning[]

She was imprisoned in a tower and was released by Teacher.

Post-Time Bubble Pop[]

Ingenue was seen in Teacher's envoy.[17] She was still infatuated with Chevalier.

During the Wardens assault on Teacher's base thanks to Teacher's gift she was able to disable Valkyrie's power and pin The Flock down. She tortured with Spawner and almost killed Black Goat to force him to obey her.

She was found by Swansong, and after a short standoff had a moment to sabotage Swansong's power and sicced Spawner on her.[9] In the ensuing fight with The Flock, Ingenue decided to abandon Teacher and fled to The City with the remainder of her boys.[18]

Chapter Appearances[]

Worm Chapter Appearances
Monarch
1. Monarch 16.1 Absent
2. Monarch 16.2 Absent
x. Interlude 16.x Absent
3. Monarch 16.3 Absent
4. Monarch 16.4 Absent
5. Monarch 16.5 Absent
6. Monarch 16.6 Absent
y. Interlude 16.y Absent
7. Monarch 16.7 Absent
8. Monarch 16.8 Absent
9. Monarch 16.9 Absent
10. Monarch 16.10 Absent
z. Interlude 16.z Debut
11. Monarch 16.11 Absent
12. Monarch 16.12 Absent
13. Monarch 16.13 Absent
Extinction
1. Extinction 27.1 Absent
2. Extinction 27.2 Absent
3. Extinction 27.3 Appears
4. Extinction 27.4 Appears
5. Extinction 27.5 Absent
x. Interlude 27.x Absent
y. Interlude 27.y Absent
Cockroaches
1. Cockroaches 28.1 Absent
2. Cockroaches 28.2 Absent
3. Cockroaches 28.3 Absent
4. Cockroaches 28.4 Absent
5. Cockroaches 28.5 Absent
6. Cockroaches 28.6 Mentioned
x. Interlude 28 Appears
Speck
1. Speck 30.1 Absent
2. Speck 30.2 Appears
3. Speck 30.3 Mentioned
4. Speck 30.4 Absent
5. Speck 30.5 Appears
6. Speck 30.6 Appears
7. Speck 30.7 Absent
Teneral
1. Teneral e.1 Absent
2. Teneral e.2 Absent
3. Teneral e.3 Absent
4. Teneral e.4 Absent
5. Teneral e.5 Appears
x. Interlude: End Absent

References[]

  1. “If you don’t mind my saying so, you’re all over the place here.”

    I mind,” Chris said, frowning. He’d let himself get agitated. “And I’m in one place. These are the dangerous ones. The ones they wanted to get rid of but couldn’t. The lovely Ms. Webb? Imprisoned-”

    He saw her open her mouth, and quickly added, “-until released by Benjamin Terrell. Who is public enemy number one, and I would guess is either going to die before the year is out or live to be two hundred.”

    “Fair assertion. He has a lot of resources at his disposal.” - Interlude 10.y II
  2. Next monitor. Teacher was visible at the very edge, some others gathered near him. I recognized Ingenue. Ms. Webb. There was a blur on the screen that wasn’t resolving, but I could guess who she was and why Lookout had set her to be automatically blurred out. She stood next to Valefor.

    It meant she was Mama Mathers, and, worse, Valefor had a jaw again. He had eyes. He was talking to her.

    All of them were fine. They weren’t fighting, and with the exception of Saint, they weren’t especially stressed out. They waited and watched through the same kinds of camera we were looking at them through. - Dying 15.6
  3. It made Ingenue think of the girl who had first stepped from that elevator and into the birdcage.

    She saw the slight movement of the hand, perpetual. A nervous twitch that never stopped, thumb moving in a circular motion. The tongue that licked lips and didn’t give or find moisture. Dry mouth.

    That reminded Ingenue of her eighteen year old self even more. They’d put her on drugs from the moment they brought her in, and when the balance was off… well, not those specific side effects. Swansong’s drugs weren’t her own. But enough girls in her cell block had been instructed to take their own medications, and she’d found it easiest if she kept track of who needed to take what and ensure they took it.

    Not that she would threaten them or anything. - Interlude 15.y II
  4. How strange it had been. Little her, barely even an adult in full then, picked up by heroes and escorted to PRT custody, questioned by people with powers that gave them insights into the real her. She had baffled half and scared the other half, somehow. Itty bitty her. - Interlude 15.y II
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Ingenue, not quite the pixie I’d seen in her mug shot, eight years later. She’d been wide-eyed and cute before. Now she was an attractive woman, but not quite someone who could have starred as the girl next door in a teen movie.

    Hopefully she had changed in her habits, as well. She’d partnered herself with three male capes, heroes. They had gone to the Birdcage, and records suggested they hadn’t survived more than a day after her return. When the fourth partner had used his power to poison a town’s water supply, killing nearly a thousand people, people started wondering about the common denominator – the girlfriend. The fourth had gone to therapy, and Ingenue had made her way to the Birdcage.

    She extended a hand, pointing a painted nail, and swept her hand over the crowd. She settled on her target.

    Her walk was a practiced one, with a swaying of the hips, an unhurried pace. She approached Chevalier, then wrapped her arms around him, raising one leg off the ground. Chevalier, for his part, didn’t move a muscle. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.3
  6. It's 'trump' for a reason. Trumps are generally problematic, but they tend to have a weakness where you can go balls-deep right off the bat and catch them off guard before they start making things complicated. You shoot the Othalas, Ingenues, Hatchet Faces and Grues with containment foam in the first two seconds, you mostly have that situation handled. - Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles
  7. Two/Ten: Ingenue - Detail Generator - Trump, spreadsheet by Wildbow
  8. That done, she left them to it, returning to Spawner’s side.

    Hands clasped in front of her, she focused her attention on Spawner. Touch was best, but Teacher had given her focus, no drawback, and she was learning to use it. To alter powers and their courses without the need for touch. Spawner’s bugs went still, momentarily, and his regeneration accelerated, to the point he healed fully in two seconds.

    Another turn of certain keys, and the bugs resumed their process of feeding him what they’d collected, finding their nooks and their holes in the honeycomb portions of their father-mother.

    With her power and with all of the focus in that power that Teacher had gifted her, she controlled the path of it. She chose the designs that would have been nearly random before, put her hands on controls, and painted him with her own brushes. To make him the beautiful sort of alien. - Interlude 15.y II
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 Interlude 15.y II
  10. 10.0 10.1 All in all, there were twelve cell blocks with leaders. That meant that there were eleven leaders with eleven lieutenants arriving. Acidbath, Galvanate, Teacher, Lab Rat and Gavel were leaders of the cell blocks on the men’s side of the prison. Lustrum, Black Kaze, Glaistig Uaine, String Theory, Crane and Ingenue were the female leaders. There were other cell blocks, but twelve was generally agreed on as a good number. It left room for discussion without too much chaos, and it left enough cell blocks leaderless that they had elbow room to do business elsewhere. - Excerpt from Interlude 16.z
  11. Chevalier remained where he was, hands on the handle of the weapon, making eye contact with Scion. Ingenue was only a short distance behind him, looking more like she was dressed up to go to a club than to be on a battlefield, with a little leather jacket and a dress with the slit up one side, her hair draped over half of her face. - Excerpt from Speck 30.2
  12. Ingenue’s power was to muck with other people’s powers. More power, at a loss of control, more control, at a loss of range. Her choice.

    If I had to guess, it mucked with people’s heads. Maybe something to do with their passengers. Her partners tended to go loopy at some point. Homicidal loopy.

    Chevalier’s cannonblade grew to three times the size in heartbeats. Not the gradual growth of before. It was a wild, reckless growth. Unfettered by restrictions he’d been held by before.

    Ten, twenty times the size. I’d seen it be as long as Leviathan was tall, and this dwarfed that by a factor of two.

    The weapon was too heavy for him to lift. He let it fall, the serrated blade biting into the earth on the other side of the portal. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.4
  13. Teacher said. “I’m going to assume this is actually you, Weaver, and that you’re not an Ingenue thrall or something similar. - Excerpt from Speck 30.3
  14. Teneral e.5
  15. “I can see you. On a lot of levels. I can see your power, and I can see what you’ve made of it. You’re something special, putting it to uses like you do. Brave.”

    He frowned.

    “I know about your special sight.”

    “My sight is classified,” he said.. - Excerpt from Interlude 28
  16. “He’s running the Protectorate from a hospital bed,” I said. “And they’re trying their best to keep Ingenue from visiting. He’s refusing to be healed until all of the other patients have been treated.” - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.6
  17. Black 13.x
  18. From Within 16.1

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