"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.]

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[lightningbride]

[Damn it. How do so many people know her civilian identity here? What the hell is going on? Pao-Lin thought she'd be able to lie low here for a bit, but if people already recognized her she might not be able to stay as hidden as she'd like. She wonders if this is Maverick's doing, but from what she'd heard and read about, the deaths of her co-workers and her own disappearance were explained to the press as tragic heroic sacrifices in the name of discovering the identity of Ouroboros once and for all, and condolences were sent out to the families. Going by that, Pao-Lin Huang should already be dead in the eyes of everyone but Maverick, who set up this one last rigged game for her to try and win. So why do so many people in this little village know her?

Maybe they're right, a little voice inside her says. Maybe you did live here and were kidnapped by the Malnosso and sent back as --

No. She can't go down that road, or else she'll go crazier than she already thinks she is. Anyway, if Maverick was arrogant enough to leave her alive so she could come back and get her revenge, Pao-Lin wouldn't put it past him to plop her in some little "theme park" of his own design just to see how long it would take for it to break her.]