He's gonna change her like a remix, then he'll raise her like a phoenix

[otomechapilot]

(For a second, there's a certain gathering tension in the network. Both bewilderment and fear. It comes to a head in a single, piercing telepathic cry, not quite a scream, over the network.)

Oh my GOD, what did I DO!?

Oh my god I nearly killed Hebe! Is - was Hebe one of ours?! Was Atlas? Athena? Nike?! Kallias!? The manticore!? Doctor whatsisname was definitely one of ours but I just -

Oh god oh god please tell me I didn't kill any of ours.

Comments

[leftbehindagain]

Hey, slow down a second. Take a breath. [If... she needs to, the network being what it is.]

Kallias was Kanji. I think most of the gods other than a couple of the Titans were familiar faces - they show up every now and then, but aren't part of the group - but I can't speak to all of them.

almost simultaneously with Naoki

[fridgeninja]

Deep breaths.

Private, Psychic Protection I

[otomechapilot]

Okay. Okay. So I wasn't a - my other half was a friend of Kallias, at least, and we saved some lives at the end. There's that much.

I definitely remember fighting some people who weren't monsters. But I... wow the Greeks had some weird hang ups.

Is this going to keep happening?

[otomechapilot]

Working on it. I - I expected to at least be myself.

Don Orlea told me about the many worlds thing but not that I might not be myself.

[fridgeninja]

Ah.

It's definitely more difficult when you're not expecting that.

In any case, killing us isn't something to worry about too much, since we all come back now. Natives of the worlds we visit probably don't.

Private, Psychic Protection II

[leftbehindagain]

[Once he catches her locking down the conversation, he meets her in the middle and locks down the whole thing.]

What, infiltrating? Probably. I've infiltrated around half of the jaunts I've been on.

[otomechapilot]

For most of the monsters that probably doesn't matter, but I met at least a couple who were... people. You know.

Proved it to me pretty easy. I think he - there was this manticore, and he dragged people away to a doctor on a cart with... her... help.

...does the park with the rides mean we did it? Whatever we were supposed to do?

Permaprotected until stated otherwise

[otomechapilot]

Was Kanji himself? Should I talk to him? It's okay for him to hear this conversation.

I didn't even know I could make it private, it just kind of happened.

[leftbehindagain]

...Yes and no. I snapped him back to himself a couple of weeks in.

Filtering stuff can be useful, but if you don't need it to be you can take it back down.

[fridgeninja]

If I have to guess, I'd say it looks like Chariot-san thinks we were successful.

[otomechapilot]

He... sort of got his act together when things started getting crazy. I thought it was just Kallias rising to the occasion while I was still in Spartan Mode...

If I'm super lost you have permission to do that to me. Please.

It was... she was pretty much what I'd be like brought up as a Spartan, down to what happened to my parents. That's... maybe something I should keep psi locked for now.

[otomechapilot]

Chariot. Uh, which is that? Moving forward?

(There's a shift in her cognition of the events, as she works the idioms into the context of what she actually saw.)

...meaning that we changed things so that version of Greece would never explode that hard ever again.

[maximumest]

You are okay. We are all okay so far. If anyone is dead they will be back.

[otomechapilot]

...and you were magnificent. You saved dozens of lives. As a literal monster.

I don't think I got your name. I'm Sara, without the I.

[maximumest]

Sara, no I. .. Hm.

[He almost liked the sound of Sarai more. But she seemed pretty stressed out already so why mention it and make things worse?]

I am Broly. It's very nice to have thumbs again, and no fleas or ticks. ... It was the right thing, right? Even for a monster?

[otomechapilot]

Are you kidding, Broly? You fought the end of the world with us and we won.

Sarai, (she chuckles, nervous) and I had this much in common - we both thought anyone could try to be a hero. If anyone deserves it this Jaunt you deserve it as much.

You helped people. You saved lives. That's absolutely doing the right thing.

[leftbehindagain]

That was probably me putting Kanji back in the driver's seat, at least in part. I figured he'd rather be frustrated with the state of things for a little while than stuck feeling like he hadn't done enough after the fact, and he told me to watch out for a situation like that.

If I'm there and myself to do it for you, I will. It doesn't kick you back to your own body, though, so you'd still be sharing until the jaunt ended. [Or until her overlay got killed, but why go into that if they don't have to.]

Overlays can be ridiculously on point sometimes. Are you all right?

[otomechapilot]

No but I will be. Probably. Thank you.

...food that's not meat on bread would help if it's not too much trouble.

[leftbehindagain]

Kanji's probably got some set up in Aiya, by now. Assuming he didn't run headlong into a dungeon, anyway. If he hasn't, I can make something.

[otomechapilot]

Sure. And I should probably brush up on the Major Arcana.

...after we both eat and take a nice long nap, I think. I'm pretty sure... well, Achaea won. I think that's good enough.

[maximumest]

.. Good. I don't want to be a monster. It's good you got out of all of it okay. That is ... the way where you're along for the ride during a Jaunt, instead of being you? I thought it sounded unsettling. I guess it was.

[leftbehindagain]

That they did. [So did Chariot, if the carousel gimmick's anything to go by - which means they can rest a little easier, in terms of the overall outcome of this mess.]

[otomechapilot]

(She takes a deep breath, and the intent behind that act rings clear across the telepathic connection. She needed to center herself before answering.)

Along for the ride is... when you're along for a ride you can look out the windows.

This was more like the way that other people talk about dreaming.

[maximumest]

If it's upsetting I won't ask. I owe you for not trying to stab me.

[otomechapilot]

(Broly? Have the sound, and emotions, of a teenage girl having an explosive gigglefit across the network.)

Don't worry about it. I can't speak for anyone else I might turn into, but I do my best to only stab bad guys.