video; un: j.porter

[cantgetanyworse]

[Jane appears to be sitting in the middle of the woods. It's raining, though not terribly hard, and she doesn't appear too bothered by it as she shelters under a tree with an irritated-looking bird fluffed up on her shoulder.]

I've been thinking about something... and indulge me, because sitting out here waiting for the rain to stop is terribly dull.

[She doesn't use the network too often and rarely for a casual query, but she is bored.]

There are a good many people here from other worlds, yet I often notice that most seem to be... hmm, heroes of some kind, I suppose? Or people who were already powerful in magical ways, or people of high political influence. Some are gods, even. [A little shrug follows this, and she hums thoughtfully.]

So I wondered, then, just how many are not. How many were pulled into this from perfectly ordinary lives where nothing magical or horribly dangerous really happened to them, and they were certainly never anticipating having to halt some multiverse-ending calamity.

[A fat raindrop hits the top of her head and she flinches, looking up and then shuffling further back against the tree.] I'm sure I'm not the only one who often wonders which capricious higher power thought they had the skill set for this.

Comments

[cantgetanyworse]

[Snap judgements are things that can't necessarily be helped... but Jane tends to measure herself more on how she thinks of someone after that initial moment has passed. The kind of life this woman is describing sounds... quite sad, really.]

Is it what you want?

[She can't help but be curious, but she does want to understand.]

[garyoutensei]

'Want', ideals of desire, the way we humans think of it, doesn't really factor in. It's something I'm driven to, it's the fuel that keeps this body moving forward.

[ Another long drag from her pipe, the slight sound of the tobacco burning, before an exhale. ]

Until I've killed That Man, I'll make no illusions of anything else being meaningful to excusing my existence.

[cantgetanyworse]

So, then... what happens after that?

[She doesn't flinch as badly as she thought she might have at the thought of someone being fuelled entirely by the drive to kill somebody. It isn't a pleasant thought to be sure, but... ah, she's faced up to worse things by now.]

Or at least, while you're here, and he... isn't?

[garyoutensei]

My only goal here is to get back to that.

[ And as for after... ]

And once it's done, I lay down to rest.

[ Permanently, most likely. ]

[cantgetanyworse]

[That's... A little sad, actually, she thinks. Jane bites her lip and keeps that thought to herself, because she does not get the feeling that pity is something that this woman desires in any form.]

What did he do?

[Ah--]

That is, if you don't mind my asking.

[garyoutensei]

[ Baiken hums, letting the question linger for a moment. ]

They took everything.

[cantgetanyworse]

[Took everything... Well, there's an answer that says nothing and yet everything all at once.]

Then--...

[Her jaw tenses just a bit.]

Then I'm sure they deserve everything that's coming to them.