strangetrip | [EP] Research - Pro Aris Et Focis (OTA)

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[EP] Research - Pro Aris Et Focis (OTA)

Some of Jane's memories were returning, thanks to Molly, and she had some intense conversations with Alex about her possible military background. All of this had her looking at her tattoos differently. There was one that was barely visible on her arm underneath a black patch of ink. Molly had done a glamour spell that was able to remove the ink cover but it was still faint. It was clear enough so that Jane could research it and she'd learned it belonged to the Navy Seals.

That got her even more motivated as she sat at a table with a scattering of books around her that had military images, a notebook and a mirror. Jane was in the process of trying to look at a smaller tattoo on her back and try to sketch it. Neither was successful and she was getting frustrated. She needed a way to catalog all of her tattoos so that she could start to see if anything related to any of the memories that were emerging.

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"I cannot imagine having no memories." Lillith felt this was likely because she would be dead before she had a chance to experience it. With no memory, she would not know why to disguise herself, and she would not do it. The Broker would find her, or another Broker, and then her sisters would torture and kill her.

"It must be very strange."

"It was hard at first." Jane admitted quietly. "I don't even know my name, but Jane feels more like who I am than whatever my name really is. It also helped that I met a lot of nice people when I arrived. It could have been so different if I had woke up in the middle of an unfamiliar city. One of millions instead of one of fifty."

"For us both, I think, is most fortunate people here are kind." Lillith gestured to herself in amusement. "And I am glad you have found help from Molly. She is also kind to me, although we do not know each other well."

Jane's smile grew at the comment. "I've met a lot of nice people here, present company included. I think maybe I was brought here when I was, at my most vulnerable, for a reason. No idea what that is." She admitted with a chuckle. "But I could have been dropped in the middle of a big city as another anonymous person - well as anonymous as you can be with tattoos like this."

"Possibly," Lillith said, but her voice held a note of disagreement. "That assumes that the drop was intentional rather than random, that options of where to drop you existed, and that this place is known to a person or persons with access to many worlds, no? I have seen little to suggest a design in this, but I admit, it is somewhat more pleasant to believe our location is known..."

Lillith's thoughts spun her off into a contemplation of the types of beings who might be capable of such an outcome as this. Not for the first time, either.

"You think this was random?" Jane asked, sincerely curious. She'd always thought there was a design, especially when so many of them were - different. It wasn't that she was so different despite the tattoos, but those that weren't - like her and Alex were soldiers. Even Liz, that was a normal teenager, was from an area that was known for aliens.

"I do not know what to think," Lillith replied. "I am able to imagine many internally consistent scenarios." She had not, in fact, meant to suggestion it was entirely random. Only that there was no proof to the contrary. "For example, suppose that the single criterion for being transported to this place was the making of a significant decision that caused reality to branch. In such a case, those with active, dangerous, or otherwise unusual lives would be more likely to approach such decisions and be therefore a more significant proportion of those who arrive."

Jane's brow furrowed as she processed that theory. Had she made the decision to wipe her own memory? It would fit that theory, but what would have caused her to make that fool hardy decision?

"How does reality branch? Do you mean like the poem, The Road Not Taken, but with reality instead of a path?" That intrigued Jane a lot and she wouldn't be able to say why if asked.

"This poem, I do not know it." She would have to look it up, because it sounded interesting. A divination wizard might make much of it, though she was not one. Still, she understood the theory well enough.

"May I?" she asked, pointing to the notepaper Jane was using. And when she agreed, Lillith drew a line, and then split it into two, and then at the end of each two, another set of branches. "At each point that a significant choice is made, imagine another universe is birthed, and with it another version of you, such that all paths are taken and explored."

Jane's brow furrowed once again as she processed what she was seeing. "Would that work the same here?" She asked the question almost without realizing that she'd asked it. "A decision I make while here on in one of the otherworlds would branch off to another reality in that world?"

That kind of made sense to think about it. Why otherworlds suddenly appeared. Maybe it was more to do with making other realities than it had to do with them as prisoners. Or maybe she was trying to find a nice spin on things.

"I do not know." This place did puzzle her, and she had given it much thought, usually when she was painting. But she had no more answers than anyone else seemed to have. "It might. But this place might be an end-point, outside of space and time, or a pocket plane." Or some greater creature's dream. But she did not say that, because it might be distressing.

"I'd say I've never heard of anything like this, but I don't know, I might have." Jane said wryly. "I'm okay with it being outside of space and time. I know a lot of people want to get back home and I admit I'd like answers to my past, but I'm also okay with being here only. This is the only home I know."

Lillith smiled kindly and patted Jane's hand. "Then I am even more glad it is a good one."

[ooc: fade?]

[ooc: Fade is good.]

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[EP] Research - Pro Aris Et Focis (OTA)

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