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[athousandcurses]

I know that we are here voluntarily, and as such this may seem like an odd question to ask...

How do you adjust to not only come from a different planet, but a universe where everything is different? Does it make you happy or do you feel ever more homesick? I have heard it said that something familiar changed only a bit can be more unsettling than something completely alien.

Comments

[athousandcurses]

Has it been that difficult traveling universes for you? I've only experienced one that was that hostile...

Not even the vegetation? [She hums a little, softly.]

[timesbureaucrat]

I've travelled to four other universes before I came here. Each was a alternate version of my own planet, and each very unpleasant.

For me, that was closer to what you describe, the familiar mixed with the strange. They looked like home but the culture of the place was vastly different.

On Gallifrey the grass is red and the trees are silver.

[athousandcurses]

It is very unsettling when it is so close. I think the worst ones are the nightmarish landscapes of the city you live in when a catastrophe occurred in a parallel world.

So this planet is very alien to you, then. It is odd, but all of the places I have been, the grass is green or dead.

[timesbureaucrat]

How have you travelled through universes? Where I come from, humans usually can't, not without the aid of technology far beyond their own.

But yes, this place is very alien to me. It's...safer than home, however. Attacking skeletons not withstanding.

[athousandcurses]

It is a long story, but made short, it was technology.

[Zo's psionic powers were far more difficult to explain, so she doesn't. The whole reason why he existed in the first place was due to that technology...]

Hm, you are not the only one that has said that... I suppose that makes this a place of refuge.

[timesbureaucrat]

Yes. Only temporary, however. I can't stay here forever. But I'll enjoy the relative safety while I have it.

[athousandcurses]

So you have something to go back to, unfinished business?

Forgive the questions... I am trying to find my way on something.

[timesbureaucrat]

Not unfinished business exactly, just a duty to my people. That's what I have to go back to. [His voice turns softer, lower.] There are terrible things on the horizon and I can't abandon my planet under those circumstances.

[Then he adds, lightly, like it's a joke although it isn't much of one.] Even though I'd probably lead a much more pleasant life if I did so. Ah well, the burdens of power.

[athousandcurses]

Duty... [That is one thing that has been weighing on her mind.]

Your people should be glad to have a dedicated one like you. Knowing what is coming can be difficult to bear.

[ She pauses, folding her arms around her middle.]

Hm, what would you do if it were a bit different? If it were something you had wanted for a very long time were to come true, but something happened that made you dread it? And now it had a more than likely chance to be something horrible instead of something good, but that chance was still there?

[timesbureaucrat]

[He huffs out a single laugh.]

That's actually a fairly accurate description of the situation back home. Well, aside from the chance of it being good. There is no chance now of it being good. Perhaps a few centuries ago it might have been.

[He pauses.]

But in my case, wanting it or dreading it is irrelevant. When the event inevitably happens, I'll have a role to play. I have to carry it out. I don't have much choice.

[athousandcurses]

Oh. [A little bit taken aback, she nods. A situation similar? Her heart aches for him, though she knows not what his future holds in store. Painful things coming true she knows very well about.]

What if you did? Would it really be so bad if you walked away?

[timesbureaucrat]

Bad for events? No, not really. It probably wouldn't make one blasted difference whether I was there or not.

But if I walked away forever I'd never be able to look myself in the eye again.

[athousandcurses]

[His answer seems to depress her, for she loses a bit of her sparkle.]

... It seems that disappointing oneself is still the hardest thing to do no matter what world it is.

[timesbureaucrat]

You sound as if you have experience with that. First hand or just witnessing it in others?

[athousandcurses]

Oh, both. I am older than I look. Among some it is a common problem...

[timesbureaucrat]

How old are you?

[It doesn't occur to him that it might be a rude question to ask a lady.]

[athousandcurses]

It's hard to say. When I was young we did not use the calendar the modern people do. I usually just give it as two thousand years, give or take a couple centuries.

[timesbureaucrat]

Two thous-- But, you're older than I am!

[Suddenly everything he'd assumed about Grainne needs to be reassessed.]

I thought you were a human.

[athousandcurses]

I was.

[Grainne's never really been the kind of person to take too much glee in seeing surprised reactions, but she has to smile a bit at his.]

A long time ago...

[timesbureaucrat]

So then...what are you now?

[Narvin still hasn't processed it all, and isn't sure what to make of it. He thought for certain he was the oldest import (a change from back home where he was very young compared to most of his peers on the High Council).]

[athousandcurses]

In essence, a Heroic Spirit, though the designation is quite loose...

[It included people like Saber, after all, though Grainne never knew his true identity was Gilles de Rais.]

Though most mages would call me a Servant. It is very difficult to explain. [As is most of Nasuverse, really.]

[timesbureaucrat]

[A Heroic Spirit? A Servant? Narvin tries to translate that to concepts he's more familiar with.]

Do you mean like a Champion of one of the Eternals?

[athousandcurses]

[There's a slight hesitation as she tries to piece together what that might mean in his world and translated into hers. It could be? She doesn't know enough to really say, though.]

I would have to know more about those concepts. Would an Eternal be a god?

[timesbureaucrat]

Gods? Certainly not, although some cultures have sometimes worshipped them as such. [Including ancient Gallifreyans.]

No, they're simply powerful cosmic entities, incorporeal and practically immortal. They sometimes play games among themselves, using Ephemerals--that's us--as their game pieces.