[@The Jest]

[b]The High Priestess - Meredith Fong[/b]

With her face scrunched up in thought, it could be seen that Meredith Fong was currently in the midst of an identity crisis.

Well, the use of the word 'crisis' was [i]probably[/i] a bit way more intense than what she was really actually experiencing, so the young woman proceeded to mentally dial the severity of her terms down a few notches for a slightly more accurate description of the situation that had engulfed her.

With her face scrunched up in thought, it could be seen that Meredith Fong was currently debating the nature of her identity.

She hadn't really expected herself to be doing such a thing, not when she was learning all about the strange dream-like world that she and everyone had been throw head-first into from one of the natives (inhuman beings that called themselves 'Shadows', which was actually a pretty fitting name now that she thought a bit deeper into it - very Jungian fellows hidden behind a mirror in a 'Wonderland' where the ego rarely tread), but it was hard not to be thinking so hard when she, or whatever she was right now, was separate from her mind and body, the stuff that one would usually expect to be ... her.

If she thought herself to be Meredith Fong, currently a disembodied collection of ego and other parts of herself that was still recognisably her (maybe akin to a Hindu avatar with the exception of her not really being a divinity?), then was what was left behind still her? If the her in her day to day life was in a way comatose, then it was still breathing and doing things that she would usually be doing in the middle of a night time snooze, so wouldn't it be still her? Or, was it like trying to log into her Runescape account from another computer when she was already logged in on that World, so there was still just this disembodied bit of 'her' that hung around in sea of souls, and the her right now was maybe another physical terminal that was transmitting 'her' while the body she knew best was disconnected?

Hm, she was kinda seriously getting lost.

Back to the basics.

[i][s]Theory[/s] Hypothesis 1:[/i] a blob of immaterial stuff was the real her, and the her right now was just a meat-suit, or maybe a suit of Shadow stuff, that was being powered by the blob of immaterial stuff.

[i][s]Theory[/s] Hypothesis 2:[/i] there were now two Meredith Fongs.

Wondering about what type of thingajig her ego really was aside, that minor musing about Hindu avatars really seemed to make sense here. The rabbit alien wanted them to help it fight against its enemy aliens, who were responsible for the unfortunate states of the poor kids back on Earth. It had been a long-winded journey to this point, and while the way they were being recruited didn't really seem to her like a way to get a slick reception, she could see the appeal of it. Very much the departure stage, which means she could tentatively label them as "good" and the people who were holding the kids hostage as "bad".

And cycling that back to the avatar thing, even if the immaterial Meredith Fong didn't exist, she was pretty sure that [i]avatarana[/i] could totally apply here. Not perfect fit, and maybe 'incarnation' in the Christian sense could be better? She didn't know any theologians who could help her out there, and - she glanced around at the assembled others, whose responses varied considerably - she didn't know if everyone else could help her out there either.

But anyway, she wasn't an unborn, changeless thing. Meredith Fong was very changeable.

But she had in some way descended from somewhere to help 'protect the good, destroy the evil and establish dharma'. Right? Because that sounded like the gist of what the rabbit wanted them all to do. Maybe it wasn't as simple as that, but that was okay to her. Even if the specifics were super vague, she could at least say that were really kids in danger.

Therefore, she decided she'd try save the kids.

She wasn't here to bring an end to the kali yuga.

She wasn't here to fight in a war alongside the Pandavas.

She wasn't here to be an ideal example of dharma.

She was more like a simple animal that was just here to bring some people back to their proper place, away from the "bad".

The thing/person/identity that considered itself Meredith Fong (she quickly decided that it was better to just think of herself as one-hundred-percent Meredith Fong for now, because she could ponder the consequences later) was perfectly willing to do that. Everything else could be dealt with later.

It wasn't good to leave so many parents worrying.

"I want to help the kids," she spoke out loud, a smile gracing her face as her crimson eyes crinkled. "That's fine, right?"