Etcetera

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

Indeed. If you'd like something closer to the full story, then I am a wanderer. One who is not... attuned to any particular timeline. In short, I'm a foreigner to all reality, hence my previous statement that I have no home.

*I cock my head.*

Where are you from? What brings you here?

@Tank O The Lake

A similar wanderer, joined by a friend—
*Nods toward Katherine*
Assisting me for some time now. We tend toward worlds with... interesting beings such as yourself. Or perhaps interesting in other ways.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

Among other things, yes.

*I adjust a blood-red tie as it sits on my chest.*

The rest is a matter of my own privacy.

@Tank O The Lake

Certainly.
*Leans back, leaving both hands wrapped around the cup*
Something we must all sacrifice a bit of for the sake of conversation.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

Hmm. A dreamer, then. Forgive me; they so often overlap.

*With a nod, I return to my previous form, a tall, well-built man of what can only be described as impeccable beauty, eyes shining and commanding from their place on a statuesque face.*

I do love how easy it is to make myself up.

@Tank O The Lake

Dreamer is a great word for it.
*Watches the transformation*
And yourself? A shapeshifter?

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

A mage, then? I've certainly trafficked with them more than enough for my age.

@Tank O The Lake

Mage would be a category more specific than correct. For our purposes, I serve as a humble visionary, reaching for what could be, above what is. I consider that ambition to be more "superhuman" than any trait or lineage I happened to be born with.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

It's been long enough that I don't remember myself. You? You... speak of humans as though you were not one of them, and I can only assume that is actually the case.

@Tank O The Lake

Human, non-human, what a blurry line we find ourselves tightwalking. It would not be unfair to call me a human, but a member of mankind? I'm not so bloodthirsty as they. A small distinction, but an important one.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

"Man" is a word you can use. As is the female counterpart.

*I switch which elbow I'm leaning on. For a moment, my form flickers, a blurring, crackling haze falling over me. When it clears, I've taken a female form, a young blonde woman in what appears to be an early 21st-century police officer's uniform.*

I never settled on what face to wear.

@Tank O The Lake

*Nods with a smile*
A sentiment and challenge all humans seem to wrestle with. Usually on the inside. Where do you hail from?

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

It's not the worst thing to be fascinated by. I've certainly wished for the Lady to visit me time and again.

@Tank O The Lake

Mm, I've pontificated enough to talk your ear off at this point. What kind of man are you, exactly? If man is even the right kind of word.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

If you ask me, the rest state of reality as a whole is one of conflict, and will be until the last star in the last little timeline burns out. The laws of thermodynamics dictate it; something must transition from a higher state of matter to a lower to perform any form of meaningful work. Gasoline burns to drive cars, stars burn out to heat worlds and make life, and governments fall and men fight to exact societal change. There's nothing morally wrong with conflict, just as there's nothing evil about a hurricane or an earthquake. Conflict, disunity, discord, are all simply entropic forces writ large.

@Tank O The Lake

And yet, we all see their consequences on their victims. Every single issue you listed can be traced back to the same evil, whether directly or otherwise.
*Takes a sip of my hot cocoa*
Mankind's fascination with death. A mistress whose temptations fell the whole race time and time again.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

Of course they can. Anyone can. Unfortunately, as with all sentient species, myself included, their own drive to "embetter" themselves is often a masked drive to engage in the same primal activity, just with a more advanced veneer. Take the difference between, say, the Punic Wars, the first two World Wars, the Great Asian War of 2040, and World War III. In all cases, they advanced drastically in a technological sense, but, in all cases, their fundamental cause was the collision of rival imperial interests. Rome versus Carthage, France and Britain versus Germany and Austria, the United States versus China, I can go on for hours.

*He leans in.*

History does not repeat, but does rhyme. Humans are human, and fall into the same... primal traps.

@Tank O The Lake

*Nods*
And what if they could evade these traps? Ascend and become something greater than themselves? Every one of those events you listed share a cause beyond human ambition. Their striving isn't the source of their evil, but the bait that brings out the true evil inside of themselves.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Legend>

In my eyes, everything is. Including myself.

*I chuckle.*

I don't find myself particularly funny, so I watch humanity go by.

@Tank O The Lake

*Lifts a hand*
Do you ever think they could aspire to something more?