"It's mercy, compassion, and forgiveness I lack, not rationality."

[lightningbride]

[There's a familiar girl walking the streets of Luceti today with an intense, focused expression, newly returned from her mallynapping. But those who know her will quickly realize that something is very off. Very, very off.

The more innocuous difference is that she's taller, with longer hair and a more mature face, though she still wears her yellow-and-black striped jumpsuit. She's also toting around a katana -- an odd choice, considering her weapon of choice as a Hero.

Ah...Heroes and HeroTV. That's where things start to get interesting with this one. If you come up and talk to her, maybe you'll find out just how interesting they are.]

Comments

[ozwell]

[There's something very different and very familiar about this woman, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out where the resemblance comes from. Since they're in close enough proximity, he ventures a guess.]

Pao-Lin?

[Perhaps a relative?]

[lightningbride]

[Hearing her name -- and not even her Hero name, but her real name -- from all these people that supposedly know her from this place she's never even seen before in her life is starting to really grate on her nerves...and make her more than a little paranoid. More than usual, anyway.]

Who wants to know?

[ozwell]

["Who wants to know?" is more often than not an affirmative, and the fact that she even responded is a fairly strong indication that he's probably correct in his assumption. But there's no recognition from her when she looks at him, which is, well, a cause for concern.

Best be honest and straightforward.]

Hubert.

[He nearly blurts out his last name and rank out of habit, but this is enough for now, right?]

[lightningbride]

...and?

[Not impressed. Try again?]

[ozwell]

[None. There's nothing, and while that's pretty logical, it also makes absolutely no sense.]

Do you remember anything about this place?

[lightningbride]

[She snorts.]

No. Never seen or heard of it before everyone here started insisting that I should remember it.

[And she's pretty certain that they're the ones being mindmessed, not her, based on how ridiculous their stories are.

But there's still that sliver of doubt. After all, she didn't know that Maverick had mindwiped her the first time until Kaede had showed up and undone everything, and considering this whole situation she found herself in --

No. She's not going to let this get to her. This is probably just another sleazy trick from Maverick.]

You'll have to excuse my ignorance -- being in a coma for the past five years of my life doesn't lend itself well to traveling.