⚡ 15th zap | video/action ✼ back-dated to the 27th ⚡

[i_am_not_cute]

[In the late morning hours, the face of an androgynous-looking girl appears over the journals. Despite the bruises and scratches marring her face and exhaustion weighing down her eyelids just a tad, she's smiling brightly at the camera from somewhere outdoors. She does sound distracted, though.]

Hey, everyone! I guess I'm here again. Geez, I wonder how long it's been...

[She doesn't specifically remember what her last month here was. All she has is a general impression that it was chilly then, which is no help.]

Maybe it's been so long that no one here knows me anymore, huh? In that case: my name's Pao-Lin and it's nice to meet you! Hope things have gotten better since I left.

[The cheer fades from her countenance a little as thoughts of elsewhere stain her slowly returning memories of Luceti. She shivers a little, though that's related more to the cold than to her mental tangles.]

Well, I'm gonna go get some clothes. I'll be in the plaza if anyone wants to talk. I really wanna see everyone again!

[She really hopes that there's at least one of her old friends around. Normally she'd be okay with being by herself, but...not right now.]

***

[After Pao-Lin finds clothes more suited to the cold, she shuffles to the clinic to get her injuries checked out and properly treated if need be. Once that's dealt with, she visits Seventh Heaven to answer any replies she might have received while wandering around. (And to get a couple of bites to eat, of course.) Finally, she'll check that her old apartment at CH7 -- whoops, the Heart Building -- is still free. (Whoah, there's an elevator now?! Thank goodness. After the beatdown she received while fighting that old NEXT geezer, she really doesn't feel like walking any more than she has to.)]

Comments

[windandrain]

The Third Party made a bomb...that could do that.

[She just says it straight out, letting that hang in the air there.]

[i_am_not_cute]

[It's hard to believe that the news could get worse.]

But...isn't the Third Party...I thought they weren't good with technology and things like that! How could they make a bomb that would sacrifice people?

[windandrain]

It was dark magic, Pao-Lin. Not any technology. A ritual meant to power a device...with evil energy, the magic of death.

[i_am_not_cute]

So it was a magical device that...

[She can barely wrap her mind around this.]

...how many people got sacrificed?

[That's how this ends, right? Why else would Saori look and sound so grim?]

[windandrain]

Everyone who was on the draft. Myself included.

[It's all she can do not to just break down then and there, sobbing. It's taken her ages to move beyond that, her temporary death. When one's greatest fear is just that...acceptance does not come easy.]

1/2

[i_am_not_cute]

What?!

But then...how are you...

[It seems that Pao-Lin has temporarily lost the ability to speak complete sentences.]

2/2

[i_am_not_cute]

[But that's okay, because actions speak louder than words.

Pao-Lin gets up from her seat and throws her arms around Saori in a hug.]

[windandrain]

John.

[She whispers that very, very low. Almost too low to be heard, but she returns the hug gratefully.]

John turned back time. Without that...I'd...we'd...never go home.

[i_am_not_cute]

[Pao-Lin pulls back from Saori to gaze at her in surprise.]

Huh? So...he really figured out a way to send all of us back home?

["Us," indeed. Even with as long as Pao-Lin's been physically and mentally away from Luceti, it's always a part of her and she always a part of it.]

[windandrain]

He figured that out, but that came later.

The...um...bomb...we had to find it and disarm it, he sent us back three days before that.

And several months later he sent us back five or six centuries, to fix whatever it was that was wrong with The General.

[i_am_not_cute]

That sounds like something out of a sci-fi story... What happened to the General, then, all those years ago? Was he like us?

[She'd only ever caught glimpses of him, if that, while on drafts. Mostly she knows his reputation.]

[windandrain]

He was, yes. And he was...a lot nicer. It seems like the General had been infested with some sort of spirit, but I'm not sure exactly. Just that...whatever...it is the Enemy tries to sacrifice us to is likely the possessing party. But the possession was driven out.

[i_am_not_cute]

So does that mean that he doesn't exist anymore? Or, wait...does he not exist in a different timestream from ours?

[She saw an anime about this kinda thing once!]

[windandrain]

He's different. Changed. His name is Theobold, it seems.

[i_am_not_cute]

Then that must mean there's no more drafts, right?

[windandrain]

Yes, that's true.

[i_am_not_cute]

So what about the Malnosso? Are they still around?

[windandrain]

In a sense, yes. They call themselves just The Organization now, I understand. And they work with us rather than against us...but I'm not sure I trust them entirely.

[i_am_not_cute]

The Organization, huh... [Certainly a less foreign-sounding name than "the Malnosso."] Are they still doing the experiments? What about the rogue Malnosso, what happened with them?

[windandrain]

There were no Rogue Malnosso as far as I know, no. And the ... experiments ... are more voluntary. And presented as something necessary.

[i_am_not_cute]

No rogue Malnosso? But then who kidnapped me for... [Her memory of That One Mallynapping is frayed in a way that feels strange to her, like it's something waving just out of her reach. Was she misremembering?]

[windandrain]

You would have had to have volunteered. Or...it never happened in this timeline.

[i_am_not_cute]

[Pao-Lin shakes her head slowly, although it's more out of confusion than denial.]

This is really weird...but I guess it's okay if we're going home. [A laugh.] Even though I just got here again.

[windandrain]

Well that's better than being stuck here, yes?

[i_am_not_cute]

[Pao-Lin nods.]

So what do we have to do to get home, then?