If what Dent had said was true, they'd be hoping Lunge couldn't memorize whatever they told him. But Indy didn't think they'd bank on that. "Any idea if it was one of the regular daytime doctors?" he asked, though he wasn't expecting an affirmative. Indy himself had never had one of the rumored "therapy sessions," but the doctors were conspicuous enough when they passed through the halls; he thought he might recognize one of them.
He'd anticipated Lunge's interest in that point and had his answer ready. "My office at Barnett College, in upstate New York," he explained. "I can't remember if I ever clarified the title, but I'm a professor of archaeology there. Dent, I and another person walked out the ballroom door and straight into the room." As for whether it was exactly the same as how he'd left it--close, but not quite. "It looked like time had passed there at the same rate as here. My mail had piled up, and my colleagues were discussing my disappearance. But they didn't seem to be able to hear or see us."
The disappointment of that still stung. Marcus, and even Irene and the undergraduates, had been such a welcome sight after the last couple of weeks. To move through his own building like a phantom had been--well, Indy had other concerns to pursue right now. "What do you mean by 'another world'?" he asked Lunge with keen interest. It wasn't the first time he'd heard that theory pitched, even obliquely--not by a long shot. Indy still didn't buy it, but he wanted to know whether Lunge had evidence of there being more than just time travel at work here, or whether that had just been a colloquialism.
fsasfdsah I am so sorry for taking so long with this ;_;herr_inspektorJuly 15 2010, 16:15:40 UTC
This time, the question gave Lunge pause. Then, after what had felt to the inspector like an eternity when it had only in truth been a moment, he sighed. "I don't know." Three little words he was loathe to say aloud- it was as good as admitting defeat. "I'd only know from the voice, and I haven't yet had one of the sessions here." Even if he did see them, he doubted they'd do anything so obvious as to place him with the same doctor; they'd set the man up as a far more unearthly creature, able to slip into the night without a second's notice. And they wouldn't want to shatter their daytime ruse, would they?
"It's impossible to be sure, but from what I've heard from other patients, it seems as though many people weren't pulled from this 'world'. There are gaps in knowledge, for example, between Ryuuzaki and I that should not be there were we from the same timeline." The 'Kira' case that L apparently seemed to be pouring so much energy into was a more understandable gap, given the lengths to which L seemed to go to keep his personal business personal, but L himself should not have presented such a mystery to him, particularly not now that he had managed to verify his identity. "It's not unlikely that the place we were taken to- Ryuuzaki's base- was another 'world', if not a clever reconstruction of it."
But it was in the details of those 'worlds' that their experiences diverged; time had passed in Jones' 'world'? Jones and his partners for the night (Dent too- they work together frequently, then) had from the sounds of things moved through it as though they were ghosts, which would make sense if it were some sort of illusion, but the introduction of 'real people' was altogether more troubling. Creating convincing doubles that reacted in the appropriate way to a friend's disappearance required a far more complex illusion, far more work- it also reintroduced the possibility that some part of what they had experienced was real. Hmm. "Did the people you saw act as you would expect them to? It all seemed 'real'?" Lunge had a feeling he knew the answer already, but it was worth asking.
Lunge's answer to that question was the anticipated one, of course. Indy didn't have any other immediate queries--he wanted to know about the specifics of the experiment but figured he'd be better off getting information in that vein indirectly from Javert--so he nodded and let the subject drop for now. Even if that hadn't been his intention, Lunge's next statement might well have sidetracked him anyway.
Gaps in knowledge. Even if you took out the incredible elements like magic and dragons from others' accounts of where they came from, more mundane distinctions--differences in what people knew, in how historical events had gone--fit with what he and Richter had discussed. Indy realized that idea could even explain why no one from the future seemed to have heard of him except as a fictional character, even though he'd hoped at least one or two of his finds would be significant enough to be general knowledge. Or was that simply ego talking? "What kind of gaps, specifically?" he asked. What he needed was concrete fact, not vague generalization and speculation. Unfortunately, the latter were in much greater supply than the former around here.
He didn't have to speculate about his answer to the inspector's question, though; as loath as he was to admit it, Indy trusted his senses and instincts enough to be confident that what he'd experienced last night was the genuine article. "Down to the last detail," he answered. "I'd like to say it didn't seem real, but I was right next to them, and I've known one of those people all my life. There's no mistaking that it was actually him, and he wasn't acting." One corner of Indy's mouth quirked up in a brief flicker of amusement. "He couldn't put on a performance that convincing to save his life."
Then, shifting topics, "What did Ryuuzaki say about where you ended up? Did the base seem real to him, or just a convincing fake?" He was willing to share information about what had happened to him in the interest of expanding the collective knowledge, but talking about others' nights was nonetheless more comfortable ground.
Lunge hadn't expected to feel quite so relieved when Jones decided to leave the matter of his session for now- he also hadn't realised that the man's questions had made him as tense as they had. Uncomfortable, yes. That was only natural. But it was only afterwards that he noticed the tightness in the pit of his stomach discussing the matter had brought about, and it was... worrying. No, disappointing. He'd have to work on that.
Just as he would have to work out a way of discussing Ryuuzaki's business without giving away more than L would be comfortable with giving away. It was fairly clear that he didn't distrust Jones at all- it was likely just that paranoia back at work- but still. Better to be careful.
"According to his status as a detective operating at least partly in Europe and given that he comes from eight years ahead of me, he should know of both myself and the case I worked on already- it was made headlines across Europe fairly steadily throughout the investigation," he explained. Particularly in regards to the final act. He hadn't yet been able to read the newspaper reports on Ruhenheim personally, ostensibly to keep his testimony as clear as possibly- but also, perhaps, to avoid it entirely. It was harder to forget when you were pinned to a hospital bed. "It would have been impossible for him not to know about even if the details later became sensitive, particularly given his links to the police. As it is, neither of us knew anything about each other until we met here."
There. If L found fault with that report later... well, that was his problem. He nodded, recording Jones' testimony with his hand- and he seems genuinely convinced, that smile wouldn't be there if he didn't- part nostalgia, part disappointment. Just like L, until they'd reached the computer. "He seemed equally convinced- until we discovered that everyone in the building had vanished. The building was entirely empty." Which explained why he and L had found it easy to think of everything as a trick- it allowed at least a glimmer of doubt, and that was all a person needed to latch onto the least stressful conclusion. Lunge knew that first hand.
He'd anticipated Lunge's interest in that point and had his answer ready. "My office at Barnett College, in upstate New York," he explained. "I can't remember if I ever clarified the title, but I'm a professor of archaeology there. Dent, I and another person walked out the ballroom door and straight into the room." As for whether it was exactly the same as how he'd left it--close, but not quite. "It looked like time had passed there at the same rate as here. My mail had piled up, and my colleagues were discussing my disappearance. But they didn't seem to be able to hear or see us."
The disappointment of that still stung. Marcus, and even Irene and the undergraduates, had been such a welcome sight after the last couple of weeks. To move through his own building like a phantom had been--well, Indy had other concerns to pursue right now. "What do you mean by 'another world'?" he asked Lunge with keen interest. It wasn't the first time he'd heard that theory pitched, even obliquely--not by a long shot. Indy still didn't buy it, but he wanted to know whether Lunge had evidence of there being more than just time travel at work here, or whether that had just been a colloquialism.
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"It's impossible to be sure, but from what I've heard from other patients, it seems as though many people weren't pulled from this 'world'. There are gaps in knowledge, for example, between Ryuuzaki and I that should not be there were we from the same timeline." The 'Kira' case that L apparently seemed to be pouring so much energy into was a more understandable gap, given the lengths to which L seemed to go to keep his personal business personal, but L himself should not have presented such a mystery to him, particularly not now that he had managed to verify his identity. "It's not unlikely that the place we were taken to- Ryuuzaki's base- was another 'world', if not a clever reconstruction of it."
But it was in the details of those 'worlds' that their experiences diverged; time had passed in Jones' 'world'? Jones and his partners for the night (Dent too- they work together frequently, then) had from the sounds of things moved through it as though they were ghosts, which would make sense if it were some sort of illusion, but the introduction of 'real people' was altogether more troubling. Creating convincing doubles that reacted in the appropriate way to a friend's disappearance required a far more complex illusion, far more work- it also reintroduced the possibility that some part of what they had experienced was real. Hmm. "Did the people you saw act as you would expect them to? It all seemed 'real'?" Lunge had a feeling he knew the answer already, but it was worth asking.
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Gaps in knowledge. Even if you took out the incredible elements like magic and dragons from others' accounts of where they came from, more mundane distinctions--differences in what people knew, in how historical events had gone--fit with what he and Richter had discussed. Indy realized that idea could even explain why no one from the future seemed to have heard of him except as a fictional character, even though he'd hoped at least one or two of his finds would be significant enough to be general knowledge. Or was that simply ego talking? "What kind of gaps, specifically?" he asked. What he needed was concrete fact, not vague generalization and speculation. Unfortunately, the latter were in much greater supply than the former around here.
He didn't have to speculate about his answer to the inspector's question, though; as loath as he was to admit it, Indy trusted his senses and instincts enough to be confident that what he'd experienced last night was the genuine article. "Down to the last detail," he answered. "I'd like to say it didn't seem real, but I was right next to them, and I've known one of those people all my life. There's no mistaking that it was actually him, and he wasn't acting." One corner of Indy's mouth quirked up in a brief flicker of amusement. "He couldn't put on a performance that convincing to save his life."
Then, shifting topics, "What did Ryuuzaki say about where you ended up? Did the base seem real to him, or just a convincing fake?" He was willing to share information about what had happened to him in the interest of expanding the collective knowledge, but talking about others' nights was nonetheless more comfortable ground.
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Just as he would have to work out a way of discussing Ryuuzaki's business without giving away more than L would be comfortable with giving away. It was fairly clear that he didn't distrust Jones at all- it was likely just that paranoia back at work- but still. Better to be careful.
"According to his status as a detective operating at least partly in Europe and given that he comes from eight years ahead of me, he should know of both myself and the case I worked on already- it was made headlines across Europe fairly steadily throughout the investigation," he explained. Particularly in regards to the final act. He hadn't yet been able to read the newspaper reports on Ruhenheim personally, ostensibly to keep his testimony as clear as possibly- but also, perhaps, to avoid it entirely. It was harder to forget when you were pinned to a hospital bed. "It would have been impossible for him not to know about even if the details later became sensitive, particularly given his links to the police. As it is, neither of us knew anything about each other until we met here."
There. If L found fault with that report later... well, that was his problem. He nodded, recording Jones' testimony with his hand- and he seems genuinely convinced, that smile wouldn't be there if he didn't- part nostalgia, part disappointment. Just like L, until they'd reached the computer. "He seemed equally convinced- until we discovered that everyone in the building had vanished. The building was entirely empty." Which explained why he and L had found it easy to think of everything as a trick- it allowed at least a glimmer of doubt, and that was all a person needed to latch onto the least stressful conclusion. Lunge knew that first hand.
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