"Apparently the adoptee has..." They both looked at the shapely young barbarian woman staring transf

[dolari]

After the three had passed around their canteen and had a light lunch, they stretched out in the grass for a bit. Jana stared at the sky, watching the clouds go by. Sylvia, hiding her eyes under the wide brim of her purple witches hat spied on her. What she saw was the look of a kid thinking the kinds of deep thoughts kids shouldn't have to worry about.

"Sylvia? Do you like being a witch?"

And there it was. Sylvia smiled. The big question would be coming soon. "Of course I do. If you use your talents for the right reasons, it's very rewarding. And I grew up in it, so it's second nature to me. Pays very well, too. This robe is real Tyrian purple!"

"No really. Do you like being a witch?"

Sylvia pushed her hat back to look Jana in the eye. "Yes I do. Frankly, I like it a lot more than being a waitress back in the old world."

"Then why should we even try going back? If you like it, maybe everyone else does, too."

Sylvia hitched herself up on her elbows. "Ask Jin there how he liked his first decade or two of rabbit. Not everyone's wish is perfect. Some don't know what they're getting into, others probably don't care what their wish may be doing to others. But there's another reason we need to go back. Jin?"

Jin looked towards them from his perch on the pass.

"You're good with maps and roads, Jin. How many people are in the village of San Antonio down there?"

Jin twisted in his seat to face the two women, hand on chin in thought. "Last I heard it was something like twenty five thousand or so."

"And in our world?"

"I really never gave it much thought. About..." Jin's eyes widened as he realized her point. "A million and a half."

"And that's just one city," Sylvia said grimly.

Jana continued to stare at the clouds, already overwhelmed the tasks ahead of them. "All gone."

Comments

[zaecus.livejournal.com]

Ten percent reduction?

A vast improvement in my most humble opinion.

/macabre

Wait 25,000 vs 2,500,000 would be a reduction to 1%... Okay, that's a tiny bit extreme if expressed on a planetary scale. I prefer a genomic reduction to 2%. Which might, actually, result in more extreme reductions in the US, Europe, and Asia.

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

>A vast improvement in my most humble opinion.

Some people will argue that. I've already heard of a story where one of the CREATIONS of a wish will be arguing that JAna is a murderer no matter what because the lives created by the various wishes will die if she succeeds.