maskormenace | voice.

[There are a lot of questions, a lot that she's had answered just by being here, but there is always more than that. It's why she comes here today. Lightning isn't great at this means of communication; it seems more like it's suitable for someone else, someone not her, but here she is.

Some part of her realizes her questions will be telling, especially for Hope, but they are necessary. They're important to understand. Not only her situation, but this world's situation.]

I come from a world that was in danger. A different danger. Our war had long since passed, and what remained was somewhere that ... [She struggles with the words.] Use your imagination. [That works.]

What I want to know is the source of this war. Who's leading it? Why is it happening? [As a military adviser, she has a feeling it'll be important going forward, but she wants her fellow imPorts' opinions first; it feels important. This is their lives, too, after all.]

I also have some questions about the flow of time. A friend and I ... we're from different points altogether. He's from my past. But the past itself is shaky. Is that the same here? Should we consider all points in the timeline one and the same?

[What else should she add? There's a sound of uncertain shuffling, in part because she's impatient with herself for not knowing what to say right off the bat.]

... Right. I'm Lightning.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Is it a change if you've grown used to it?

Mmm, depends. I think growing accustomed to change doesn't necessarily mean you know precisely what is going to happen. Being adaptable does not make changes any more exciting.

Or any less, too, I assume.

Indeed not. Change is simply change, how you react to it is up to you.

I find it's invigorating, either way.

Normally, I'd agree.

But ... truthfully, I could do without some changes for a little while.

I'm afraid, when it comes to being outside of your own world, that it is unavoidable.

Maybe so.

But I'm bound to get used to it eventually.

Hopefully. Although we can trust it will be sooner as opposed to later, hm?

I don't think anyone wants to be left out of their element for long here.

Can't do much heroing if that's the case.

Oh, indeed not.

I doubt they want people who cannot adapt.

You think that's why they pull in so many at once? Surely one of them's gonna work out.

Perhaps, perhaps.

Eventually they have to find one, mm?

Wouldn't be the first time someone's laid all their hopes on one above all.

[It's spoken as if she's speaking from experience. Her experience, that is, but it's not like she knows about other cultures and their adapters ... or saviors, to take it a step further.]

Of course it wouldn't.

I would hope, however, that perhaps if we support them, then perhaps that would be no burden at all.

Which them? The people looking for a prime choice, or the other imPorts?

Other imports, of course. I don't really quite care about the people who brought is over.

Yeah? And just how do you manage to be so indifferent?

What could they do, kill me?

[ At that, he sounds amused. ]

Some would say there are fates worse than death. It depends on the reincarnation cycle of the world. [She supposes. Of course, she's thinking back to Fang's words, about how death can be so final ...]

But I doubt they'll go that route.

It's still of little matter to me. I'm immortal. I've already seen much of what they will try.

Immortal, huh?

[Lightning herself still isn't certain if she is here, or how any of that works. She doesn't know if some machine can take away some of what was done to her.

She's not going to try to find out, either. Sometimes, it's better not to know. She knows she doesn't feel like a god. But she doesn't know how much of that was losing her emotions to Lumina's existence ... and how much of it was Bhunivelze hoping to make her into the new Etro.]

How'd that happen?

[So she keeps her inquiries simple. Or perhaps too direct.]

Oh, a little meeting once upon a time, and then I found myself...quite different afterward.

[ Go to a cult meeting, Charles had said. It would be fun, he said. ]

I don't think there's a standard path to immortality.

Maybe not. Just from that, I now know of three different ways. Maybe four, if you like sleeping a lot. [Crystals. But who wants to dream forever? Lightning sure doesn't, unless it's necessary, and it proved necessary the one time she did it.]

Indeed, and every world is different. There are many where I come from, after all.

[ Lazarus Pits, being a magician, whatever the hell Vandal Savage is. ]

I only unlocked the secret of the one that worked for me, I'm afraid.

I can't imagine an immortality spent sleeping is all that exciting.

It's not. [Spoken knowledgeably, if not seeming as if she's directly speaking of herself.] But someone sure tried to sell it that way.

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