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

[reloves]

[ Minako pauses for a moment at that. It mostly seems like she's thinking, especially since she lets out a hum at the end - though it's a relatively airy kind of hum. ]

What does it feel like to you? When you use it, I mean. Or just having magic in general.

[ Sure, Minako did also have the experience of one day being able to use magic - though that was back home, quite a few years ago. And considering how quickly the memories of her past life came to her right after, it never really felt weird to her.

So it's kind of interesting how truly regular people would think about it. ]

[cantgetanyworse]

What does it... feel like?

[Funny, she's never really thought about it. Jane purses her lips. It's different here to how it was when she lived in the other place. There, power was just something she had and she never really had to think too much about using it. It just... worked. Here, she had to learn it.]

It's as if I'm... drawing on something not quite inside myself, but not separate from me either. More like something I've been allowed to have access to.

[That probably makes no sense.]

I find healing easier than dark magic, but... I wonder if that is because I'm still a little afraid of it.

[reloves]

Hmm, I don't think that's a strange thing to feel at all.

[ It's quite different from that time they went shopping together. Back then Minako had been in full on excited ditz mode, but right now? She's sounding a lot more serious than that.

Because she's got a lot of experience with this topic. ]

Maybe it's also since it comes more naturally to you. You seem like the type who likes helping people.

[cantgetanyworse]

[Jane laughs.]

Do I? I wonder why that might be. [Definitely not the person who took an almost complete stranger shopping for a winter outfit because she just wanted to help. Jane can't be anything but good-natured about such a statement when it's so very on the nose.]

Perhaps you're right. I've barely used dark magic at all, though I thought I'd better learn how to use it, just in case.

[reloves]

[ Minako just giggles too at the first part of what the other says - and also just because she's glad that Jane seems to recognize it herself. At least why Minako is saying it, and hopefully she also just recognizes that quality about herself as a person.

But the laughter instead turns into a hum when she thinks about the rest. ]

Maybe there's someone who could teach you more about that stuff? I don't really know anyone here who uses dark magic, but there's got to be some people.. [ Surely it can't be that rare, right? ]

[cantgetanyworse]

[Her tendency to put other people first in that way has been pointed out before and not always kindly, but Jane isn't about to stop just because a few people think it's a silly way to be.]

I'm sure I know one or two people... [Though they aren't people she actually wants to ask about it, admittedly. But there must be others! You can't tell what magic someone has unless you ask, after all.

Unless they're having a bad day with animal magic, anyway.]

I suppose I've just had other things on my mind.

[reloves]

Hey, hey, that's okay! I mean.. it seems like people have been stuck here for a while now.

[ Minako has already been here quite a few months herself, and she knows that other people have been here for even longer than she has been.. So it doesn't seem like this place is in any rush to send them all home again anytime soon, she thinks. ]

So that just means you can take your time in learning that stuff, you know? There's no need to rush!

[cantgetanyworse]

[She laughs a little at that.]

I suppose you're right! [Granted they could disappear any day - any of them could - but that shouldn't stop any pursuit of learning. She can't even imagine just sitting back and doing nothing, just waiting to go home.]

There are a lot of other things I'd like to do that aren't practicing dark magic, but perhaps I ought to give a little time to it. I've been here for quite a while myself now.