It had been a long night in this world. It was the first time Rose had visited this particular version of earth. She did not often visit the same place twice, given how many different options she had available to her. If you could travel anywhere in the universe, do you think there is any version of this world you would want to frequent? She did have one place where she could stop in and rest if the need arose, a sort of “home base,” if you will, but calling it a home was a stretch, and even that place was not a frequent stop. She preferred not to linger too long in one place. She was always visiting new places, meeting new people, trying new things, and that was how she liked it.<br/><br/>She had come to this dimension for the same reason she went anywhere, because she felt like it. She couldn’t really say that there was a specific reason because there wasn’t. She had no grand purpose here, she simply picked a place at random and when she arrived, she found the biggest party with the richest people and integrated herself. She would charm their silk socks right off of their perfectly pedicured feet until she found the one, then she would make her move.<br/><br/>To be clear, “the one” was not some romantic term for an antiquated idea of a soulmate she could chain herself to and settle down with. It was simply the one she would choose to spend her time with that night. It was often the one with the most wealth who seemed easiest to manipulate. There were, admittedly, times when she gave in to her human impulses and chose someone less wealthy but more suited to meet other needs. Tonight, however, was not one of those nights.<br/><br/>As expected, she’d chosen someone blessed with more money than beauty to get close to and they left the party together well before the other guests. They went back to his place and a few hours later, she was a few million richer and he was happier than he’d probably been in a long time. It was a win-win, really.<br/><br/>Okay, so maybe not as much of a win as you think, or either of them would have liked. She did have<span style="font-style: italic">some</span>standards and, thanks to her mysterious father she’d never met, she also had this godly ability to alter reality. You can use your imagination to figure out the rest of what happened.<br/><br/>“It was a pleasure to meet you,” the gruff and sleepy voice of the middle-aged man called from behind her as she slipped on her coat and opened the door. “The pleasure is all mine,” she lied with a voice as sweet as honey and a smile that belied the complete and utter lack of emotion she felt towards the man. He might remember her and this evening for many years. She, however, would forget it and him by tomorrow.<br/><br/>With that, she stepped out into the cool, crisp autumn air and headed down the dimly lit street. You would have expected a man of his stature to have taken her to a nice house in a well-manicured, safe neighborhood, but that was not the case. Apparently, in this world, when a man of status wanted to enjoy beautiful women without his wife knowing, he bought a more modest home in a less conspicuous neighborhood where no one would expect to find him. At least, that’s what this one did.<br/><br/>Rose sighed lightly as she sauntered down the street, which was really less a street and more an alley. She had to admit, she had not gotten nearly as much satisfaction out of that as she had hoped. Just another boring day in a boring city on another boring version of earth.<br/><br/>As she thought this, she turned a corner and saw a group of people surrounding someone else. One particularly loud man yelled something about punishment, telling the apparent focus of the group’s ire that this would “teach you to steal from us again,” before the group moved in closer, appearing to be getting ready to dole out whatever punishment they saw fit. Now, this is the part where a good person might have jumped in to stop them from hurting this person and insist that they take it to the police and let them handle it, or something like that.<br/><br/>Rose, however, was not a good person. Not really. She cared about herself, that was it. Self-preservation was her instinct, not self-sacrifice. That was what she told herself as she walked by, her eyes focusing in front of her, not at the scene to her right. It was not until she heard the sound of a child’s voice that she paused. She looked over her shoulder at the scene just in time to see the loud man push the child backwards. Rather than falling, he hit into the building behind him, hard enough to loose whatever he had stolen from his hands. The object, which she could now see was food, landed on the ground behind the man who had pushed him.<br/><br/>She still couldn’t see the kid’s face, just a tussle of white hair between two of the men that surrounded him. Either way, this changed things. “Damn it. Why’d it have to be a kid?” she muttered to herself as she was already walking towards the group. She hoped she would not come to regret this. “Is that really necessary?” she asked as she approached from behind the loud man.