(no subject)

[abetterway]

[Xavier is sitting on a cot in the Flop, hands clasped in her lap as she smiles into the camera. It's a weary smile, but a friendly one. Her hair is tied back in a low, messy knot.]

Hello. My name is Jocelyn Xavier, and I have a request of everyone.

I'd like to know some details about your home, your history. Nothing intimate, of course – just basic facts that might help us discern some sort of pattern in our abduction. Your statistics, essentially – and your skills, if you don't mind sharing.

I'll start us off.

I come from Earth. America, originally, but I've been traveling for several years. The current year is – was – 1956. I recently turned thirty years old. [Her expression tightens, just slightly, as her voice quiets.] Both of my parents are deceased. My step-brother and his father, as well.

[Her next words come quickly, as she forces old emotions away.] I spent eight years at Oxford University, in England. I have PhDs in genetics, biophysics, psychology, psychiatry, and anthropology.

[She hesitates, then, brow furrowing she glances downward; she seems to steel herself as she looks back into the camera.]

I was a soldier for three years. [It would be dangerous to admit, at home, and might raise suspicions here. But she's asking for honesty, and she's holding enough back already.]

Comments

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[lehnsherr]

I didn't meet Charles until 1962.

[What are pleasantries?]

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[abetterway]

[The smile returns, just for a moment, faint and wistful.]

Interesting. Can I ask how you met?

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[lehnsherr]

He found me.

[There's a pause. He knows there's so much more he could say, but the idea of sharing it with a stranger, alternate versions or not, still doesn't sit well with him. So it's with some effort that he finally does manage to provide a few, extra details.]

I was hunting Shaw. Charles pulled me out of the ocean while I was attacking his submarine.

[Well, trying to.]

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[abetterway]

[Xavier waits quietly, patiently; she knows better than to push. Her brow furrows as she listens, and finally she nods.] Ada never mentioned that name - but I'm sure there's a lot she never said. [A lot Jocelyn may never hear, now.]

Your attack wasn't entirely successful, then?

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[lehnsherr]

[He tenses up with that question, voice harder now. No, Shaw was still alive. But that doesn't mean he's staying that way. Charles had already said as much.]

What do you think?

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[abetterway]

No, then.

[after a moment, quietly] I'm sorry.

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[lehnsherr]

[Pity is the last thing he wants to hear, especially from her. But he takes another moment to himself, to keep himself from snapping at her. No, he can be civil about this.]

I'm still going to kill him.

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[abetterway]

[It was a rash thing to say; that always happened, with Ada. She's not sure how to feel about it now.]

I don't doubt it.

I - he - might try to stop you.

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[lehnsherr]

I've no doubt about that.

[He's known from the start, long before their discussions over chess, that Charles doesn't think in the same terms as he does. He only sees right and wrong, black and white, and none of the shades inbetween.]

He won't change my mind.

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[abetterway]

I know.

[Her expression is resigned, but there's no condemnation there.]

It's possible...that he understands, even if he doesn't approve.

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[lehnsherr]

Did you?

[Approve of Ada's need to kill her tormentor? Get in the way? Help?]

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[abetterway]

...I understood. [Her smile now is thin and worn.] To say I've never felt murderous would be a craven lie, and I've suffered far less.

I don't believe - I cannot believe that taking lives is the right answer. But I won't judge her for doing so. [She shakes her head.] Who am I to do that?

[Her voice is soft, now, soft and frayed.] I've seen people kill for so many reasons. Ada's are not petty, or fanatic, or arbitrary. That does mean something, in the scheme of things.

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[lehnsherr]

You understood, but you didn't approve.

[He can still recall each conversation he's had with Charles. Specifically those that left them at odds with each other, courtesy of their ways of thinking. It only makes it that much harder to hear those options stated so clearly.]

If there are any similarities between our worlds, then she would have wanted you by her side, whether you agree with her methods or not.

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[abetterway]

She left.

[She says it simply, but her gaze falls; she remembers that last conversation, the quiet resignation of it, the aching emptiness it left behind.]

I could have followed. But what then? How could we do anything together, if we couldn't agree on how to do it? How could our friendship stand, if all we did was rehash the same old arguments?

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[lehnsherr]

You'd find a way to work together.

[Though he already knows that isn't possible; that at some point in his own future, his friendship with Charles is going to come to an end. He can't stay at the mansion with people who would rather wait for the war to find them than to take a proactive step in their favour.]

You're both too idealistic. Though you, at least, seem to realise that.

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[abetterway]

[She smiles, just slightly.] I wouldn't be much of a therapist, were I not perceptive.

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[lehnsherr]

You're a therapist.

[It's delivered in a nice, flat tone. While the job may work hand in hand with her ability, it doesn't make him feel any more comfortable with talking to her. Not if she's the type to try and analyse everything he says.]

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[abetterway]

Only on request.

...It's how we met. Ada wasn't a patient - she was a volunteer.

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[lehnsherr]

[No, that makes even less sense, as far as he's concerned.]

A volunteer where?

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[abetterway]

[Her voice is soft, now.] A friend of mine was running a clinic for Holocaust survivors in Israel.

[Private]

[truth_is_cold]

Anything specific you would like to know?

[Private]

[abetterway]

I'd like to know why we, specifically, have been abducted. Finding common ground could help with that. Anything you'd be willing to tell me should be helpful.

[Private]

[truth_is_cold]

Hm.

[Okay, he thinks about it.]

I'm a soldier and a philosopher, and due to some genetic engineering sturdier than a normal human would be.

[Private]

[abetterway]

[Her eyes widen at that; she's clearly intrigued.]

Genetic engineering. Is this a common process, where you come from?

[Private]

[truth_is_cold]

Very common. Most humans are engineered on some minor level. Then there are human subspecies that have specialized engineering. Heavy-Gravity Worlders live in higher gravity. The Inari can see in the dark. The Castellians breath water.

Mine moreso than most. Nietzscheans were originally engineered bred to survive in any rigorous environment, and with the intellect to build a flourishing civilization. Homo sapiens invictus.

[Private]

[abetterway]

I see. [It's a fascinated murmur; she's not staring at him, that would be rude, but there's a definite sharpness to her gaze.] Carefully modified steps in evolution.

How has that plan gone, so far?

[Private]

[truth_is_cold]

It depends on what time period you take us from. In mine, we have been cooperative members of society fro hundreds of years, but have been exploited.

In Dylan's future, he knows us as something much worse.

[atwar]

I am Sif, sworn shield-maiden of Asgard, known to mortals of Midgard - your Earth - as myth. What would you know?

[abetterway]

[She stares, for a moment; once, she'd dismiss such a claim outright, but here, now - well, she can accept the possibility.]

How many of those myths are true?

[atwar]

I could not say; I am unfamiliar with all the mortals' stories tell of us.

[abetterway]

I'm far from an expert, but in the stories I've read, Sif is a prophetess, and the wife of Thor.

[atwar]

[ your answer is a bark of laughter ]

I am no prophetess, nor any man's wife. As a girl I chose to cast aside what expectations others had for me to pursue a soldier's path. Thor is my dear friend and I have known him since we were children, but marriage? No.

[abetterway]

[Her grin is a wry one.] Somehow, it doesn't shock me that they got it wrong.

Have others followed your path?

[atwar]

There are the Valkyries, who are fearsome to be reckoned with.

[abetterway]

If it's any consolation, your alleged daughter is one of them.

[atwar]

If it's all the same, I still much prefer the truth to your legends. I would make a poor mother.

[abetterway]

As would I. There are too few warrior women in our stories - those that get much acknowledgement today, at any rate.

[atwar]

The women are always set aside in favor of the men, but that will change.

[seesobserves]

There isn't one.

[abetterway]

You've asked, then?

[seesobserves]

Others have tried asking. I've observed.

Among the people who've woken up so far, there's a great deal of variance in background, time period, planet of origin. We don't even share a common biology.

Besides, the sample's too small. There's thousands of pods, and only a handful of us are awake. Even if there were a pattern, we couldn't accurately extract it from the current data.

[abetterway]

We can, however, begin to catalogue information before we're overwhelmed with sheer numbers.

It's possible that patterns appear in different subsets. ...I wonder if different people may have been assigned to different worlds, or times.

[with a wry smile] It's always difficult when you've no idea who or what may have set the parameters.

[seesobserves]

...and then you've got the problem of people generally not wanting to share their background with a stranger.

[Giving you a Pointed Look, by the way. He knows you're hiding something.]

[abetterway]

[She acknowledges that look with a rueful smile.] I don't expect everyone to share everything, no - or anything at all, if they'd rather.

We can't stay strangers indefinitely, however, not if we want to survive here.

[boygodofneuro]

Topher Brink, I also come from Earth. The hell hole better known as Los Angeles, California. It was 2009, I turned twenty seven last January, I've got no siblings and my parents, well. I don't really talk to them so I don't know if they're still alive and kickin'.

[He sighs. This is clearly boring him but the fact Xavier is a pretty woman with as many degrees as him holds his interest enough for now.]

Was sent off to University when I was but a wee lad, got PhDs in a crapload of stuff but it all pretty much means I know more about the human brain than just about anyone else on Earth right now unless Halverson's magically come back from the dead while I've been gallivanting around Jurassic park planet.

[abetterway]

[Her smile is faint but appreciative as she listens, nodding slightly when he finishes] Thank you, Mr. Brink.

I can't help but wonder if our expertise will be needed. What did you do with it, on Earth?

[boygodofneuro]

Medical research, mostly. Been working with cutting edge technology for the past uh, like seven years? I can pretty much permanently cure PTSD, depression and a whole bunch of other mental disorders. No need for tricky concoctions of neuroleptics.

[abetterway]

[She's staring openly, now; she'd be suspicious of such claims, but he has little reason to lie here, and he doesn't speak like a conman.

Still - she reaches out with her mind, as she answers, just enough to sense any deceit.]

You must have improved quite a few lives, over the years.

[Video]

[flowing_kinetics]

[Oh hey, it's that lady from before. What is it that she wants to know...?]

Uh... Alright.

Akira Tadokoro. [She already knows this, he knows, but might as well mimic what she's doing. He's got no real idea how the hell to do it otherwise.]

Earth, Japan. Back home, it was 2011. Don't remember the month or day. [Time travel kinda mucks around with your head, and Akira doesn't keep track of dates that much anyway.] I'm 17. Don't have parents. Have a sister, Kaori. Had a friend, Matsu.

[Schooling, what is that] Got taught by Taeko at the orphanage, got psychic powers. Can make fire, ice, all kinds of stuff like that.

[Um...]

Was that it?