"I understand. May I anesthetize you now?"

She takes another breath.

And another.

And then nods.

The lights in the room dim gently, and a soft streamer of starlight slips from her fingers, sinking into her shoulder. The moment it makes contact, her consciousness, swiftly starts to fade into a soft fuzz of comforting darkness. In a few seconds, she's out like a light. 

Anesthesia should leave her groggy, waking up slowly, but this clearly isn't mortal-tier anesthesia. She gets her normal hypervigilant awakening instead. As soon as it wears off, she goes from sound asleep—

—To wide awake, cataloguing everything around her. There's a vague warm and pampered feeling lingering in her skin and muscles and bones, but that doesn't stop her instincts.

Empty room, metal grid, hologram or the body she designed with Jun.

No Jun.

Wearing a thin little hospital gown thing.

Right, she was getting the bodymod done. 

She checks herself out, running her hands over her body, stretching, examining herself thoroughly.

Bloody hell.

She's bloody small. Lithe and strong and elegant, cute little pert tits, an arse you could bounce a quid off of, and a gymnast's legs. 

She steps out and twirls, stumbling at first, then dancing through the empty spaces in the room, delighting in the change. Every stumble as she gets used to her new body just serves to drive home that she's basically been reborn, she's a whole new girl, this is amazing.

Pretty soon she's laughing, reveling in the relief and the thrill, even the stumbles of adjustment fading.

Then she comes to a stop, just breathing and taking it in.

"Thank you!" she calls, grinning. "This is amazing!"

The door swishes open, and Jun steps in, a wry snort and smile alike on her lips. 

"You're welcome. Really, it's the least we can do for those willing to take on whole worlds for us." 

She settles down a little, but there's still an extra little beaming brightness in her eyes. 

"I'm glad that the process has gone so well for you." 

"It's fine bloody work, and a load off my back. Should we figure out clothes before going to the light pools, or after?"

"No need to wait. I have the effects you had on you in storage if you're attached, but it shouldn't be an issue to replicate something suitable." 

She walks over to a wall, and taps it, the illusion fading away. 

"Just describe what you have in mind and it should be able to make anything ordinary you have in mind." 

She hums for a moment. "Hip-hugging black jeans that don't impede movement, black socks that stop just above the boots, midriff-bearing black tank top with a silver knife print on the chest, black sports bra with green trim, black bikini-cut panties."

The moment she starts dictating, she clicks a button on the replicator's console. Once she finishes, they fizzle into existence in neatly folded stacks. 

Ooh, clothes. She fishes the panties out first, then steps into them and pulls them up under the hospital gown. Next the jeans, she'll slip into those, marveling at the fit. Then the bra, she'll turn around, tug the gown off, pull the bra on, and then turn back to finish off with the tank top. Once that's on, she gets into the socks and boots, and bounces just a bit on the balls of her feet.

"Fuckin' brill."

She smiles warmly. 

"It's truly quite a joy, yes." 

She battens down the urge to offer her hand, and simply folds her hands against her thighs. 

"Would you like a little while longer to settle in, or would you like to go to the light pools now?"

"Pools, I think. I don't do stillness well. Never have."

There's a brief moment of dislocation, like the moment you tear yourself away from a good book into a world with space and objects and things outside the world you thought yourself in. 

The walls of the room glint an ominious obsidian black. Strips of harsh blue-white fluorescent lights fill the room with a moody glow that seems dimmer then it ought to be. Shelves of black-painted steel hold rows and rows of sunglasses in countless different stylings, alongside a number of circular tubes of sunscreen and lotions. A shadowy veil cloaks one-side of the room, violet-fading-to-darkness folds in space like a crumpled hankerchiefs flicking and flitting in the air. 

There's perhaps a dozen other people in the room - a green-haired catgirl with a bow slung atop her shoulder, A klingon woman decked out in full plate, An asari dressed in a flattering dress, some sort of many-footed insectoid, amongst others. 

"Please select a pair of sunglasses and listen to me carefully. The Light Pools are not dangerous to you, persay, but they are immensely powerful, and something of the like that you never before seen. The primary mechanism of the empowerment is through the unfiltered sight, though you'll likely notice some effects by simply having the light hit your skin. If it's too much for you at any time, just put on the glasses and the effect should drop precipitously. It's absolutely normal for the effect to be too intense for comfort, and is no judgement as to the quality of your character. It's normal for you to see many different things, especially with the sunglasses off - it's too complicated for your soul to comprehend as of yet, and has its own myriad nature. Don't immerse yourself entirely in any symbolic font of power you see, and it will be perfectly safe. Once you feel the effect having fully settled on your soul, take the highlighted path back here, at which point you can be transported back to base. Do you understand me?" 

Hailey nods, taking a pair of sunglasses and hooking them into the neckline of her tank top for convenient storage. "Understood. Are there any circumstances under which we should immerse ourselves partially, or should we just say no to immersion altogether?"

"It's alright to do so - it's just that willingly attempting to completely submerge yourself in it entails a ritual process you are unprepared for." 

She nods. "Noted. Should partial immersion be expected to do anything in particular?"

"Not particularly - though in principle it might make it a little slower for the glasses to reset you back towards normality while you're submerged." 

"Gotcha."

That's all her questions. Anyone else?

It looks like the process is fairly desynced - single minders debriefing agents in the background, with people stepping out after they're personally satisfied. The veil every so often has a small ripple that seems to come from the other side, and people are still trickling in two by two as they talk. 

She glances wordlessly and inquisitively towards the veil. 

Okay then. "Thanks, Jun. I'll go take that look, then."

And she takes a steadying breath, then off she walks through the veil to gaze upon the pools.

The pools are the perfect picture of a Summer's Idyll. You stand alone in a verdant forest glade, the canopy of emerald and jade leaves shifting and swaying in the sweet Spring wind. You can almost feel the grain of each leaf, the way the air caresses over the paper-thin feather-light surface, the way the dreamy drips of dew slide along the surface, sometimes like droplets slipping along slick stone, and sometimes clinging tightly to the barely there surface. The regal gale of Winter slips through her hair, rustling playfully as its sings the poignant song, each mote of dust and petrichor glinting with Glory. The warm tones of sunset are spilled along the fertile soil, a tapestry of Fall at its finest still fresh, despite the welcoming warmth in the air and the gorgeous greens of the grass. 

But front and center, there's the Pool, radiant and oh so real, every droplet oh so real and resplendent - like every drop of water spilling from the waterfall that feeds it holds it's own rainbow that you could stare at forever, and never know the truest extent of it's beauty. Grey and brown rocks sit against the soil, polished by the soft tide of water 'til even the most ordinary of stones shines like a gem in-and-of-itself. The water itself is blue and clear, the surface's shine preening through the incredible transparency, showing off the texture of the silt and the swishing of the sand beneath the surface. 

An immense waterfall towers over the scene, niagra falls writ large, writ close. A wash akin to rain streams through the air amid the thunderous downpouring of the flow, down into the pool far below. The surface is concrete, here, with steel railings shining almost defiantly against the storm of power. The space is almost crowded - dozens, perhaps hundreds of souls standing loosely bunched together to take in the sight. 

It's white and frothing, enough that's hard to make out any individual droplet or any part of it sitting truly idle. The foam twinkles a proud platinum and white-gold, radiating it's own version of a sunlike strength, churning with the will to persist, to grind down obstacles and burst through barriers.

A greenhouse hums with light, dozens of layers of glass panes tinted every color of the rainbow letting the sunlight slip stream in waves, leaving the pool beneath dappled with a dizzying array of colors and combinations, shifting along the surface. Marble-white steps descend into the pool, with limestone tiles cladding the space around the pool and a deep granite filling out the underlayer. Little jets are inset into the walls, ready to please and pamper the worthy. A handful of souls dip in and out of the space, indistinct mirages and shadows no matter how closely she looks. 

She's in her own hands, standing atop her wrist, a pool of water, fresh and clear, shining of electrum and energy between her palms, fingers clenched together to hold it together for just one moment longer -

Behind her, the veil of shadow still blooms like a crudely copied-in in background.