Report 013 [Voice/Action] | Another 365.25 days have elapsed...

[semper_cogitans]

Comments

[Written]

[shadedsunlight]

I traveled a lot in my own world and I always felt if you spend enough time in a place that isn't your own, whether it's another city, state, or country, you will learn to see things differently. New perspectives, fresh ideas and beliefs. Changing is inevitable.

In regards to this place, I've changed and gained a lot. There are people here very important to me and I love and cherish them greatly. I wouldn't want to lose them.

[Written]

[semper_cogitans]

[It always feels more natural to write to Ginia.]

On Terra, differences in culture between megatropolises are very small, if not absent altogether. That was a very significant anomaly when I first arrived in Luceti. [In fact, it had been utterly unprecedented to Robert. The fact that people didn't automatically agree with each other on the majority of things was... strange.]

But it does make those differences much more noticeable, and I suppose that has had a significant impact on me.

[... He wonders who exactly Ginia means, though some are obvious.]

I hope there is eventually some way for us to retain this information permanently.

[Written]

[shadedsunlight]

A sort of unified, homogenous society then?

I hope so too. Or some way to go to other worlds.

[Written]

[semper_cogitans]

Yes - what with the lack of geopolitical boundaries, and the additional complications caused by distinct cultural barriers, much of it has been [...] phased out.

[... Yes, it is as bad as it sounds. And Robert isn't sure how much he likes it, anymore. Even if Terran viewpoints are safer, more understandable, and more instinctually right to him...]

One wonders if there might not be a way to replicate the same effect that brings us to Luceti, and use it to traverse worlds.

[Written]

[shadedsunlight]

[Ginia's gut reaction is how horrible that sounds. She knows she's looking at it from an outsider's perspective and it'd be different if she grew up in it, but trying to imagine a world without cultural diversity boggles her. How can people, with all their differences and life live so... uniformly?]

That sounds interesting.

It's a good question. The full capabilities of Malnosso technology, I wonder if we'll ever know?

[Written]

[semper_cogitans]

[It helps when you've never known anything else, when cultural differences are demonized as one of those things that made the barbaric pre-Terran humans so likely to kill each other... and when society has begun to forget what those cultural differences looked like in the first place.]

It is certainly much different from all the diversity here.

And I hope so - but knowing the Malnosso, it will be quite some time before we do... if indeed, we ever.

[Written]

[shadedsunlight]

I imagine it'd be quite the change from home to here. Culture shock.

I'm inclined to believe they'd keep us in the dark for as long as possible. Even out on the mission, we were told very little. Just what to do, where to go.

Oh, late in saying, but judging from your words, happy birthday?

[Written]

[semper_cogitans]

[Culture shock doesn't even begin to describe it...]

Ah - thank you. Yes, it is my birthday; I apologize, I should have made this clear prior.

I suppose I just did not think it that important.

[The mission thing makes him wonder, though:] Your mission was experimentation, correct? I have meant to do that myself. It has to be better than the involuntary version.

[Written]

[shadedsunlight]

Happy birthday. And why wouldn't it be? It's your birthday. [Says the person who pretends her own birthday doesn't exist and keeps it a secret.]

It was. Did Giles or Helios mention it to you?

[Written]

[semper_cogitans]

Well - it is merely another year... what happens during it is more significant, I would expect.

As for Giles and Helios, I [...] saw the effects first-hand. [... And then they were awkwardly avoiding him. Especially Giles.]

[Written]

[shadedsunlight]

The journey is half of the fun.

I see. All in all, it was much more humane than the kidnappings, comfortable, even.

[Written]

[semper_cogitans]

I am glad to hear that the Malnosso are becoming more willing to treat us as people rather than commodities to be experimented upon.

[It's a positive step for them - one he's willing to endorse by being a test subject.]

[Written]

[shadedsunlight]

It's a step up from the cages, that's for sure. Still, I'm going to go through some other missions before I form a proper opinion.

[Written]

[semper_cogitans]

Would you be willing to share as much information as is feasible from these missions? [Mostly to satisfy his curiosity, but also in case something truly interesting can be gleaned from the data.] Assuming, of course, that it does not interfere with anything.

[Written]

[shadedsunlight]

Sure, but there's really not much to say. We were in a facility - really resembled an office/research space, big, lots of locked doors and guards about, the works. We each had our own room with an attached bathroom. Basic, but comfortable. Similar to the rooms on the drafts. If we needed food or anything, we could order it in. We were allowed to visit each other, but were otherwise restricted in where we could go.

The actual testing took place in what you could describe as an observation room. Big neutral space with cameras and a two-way mirror. We weren't always together so they must have had other rooms for testing too. Sometimes they'd tell us how we'd be affected, often they didn't. I don't remember most of the shifts nor how they happened, kinda like here, waking up affected.

[Written]

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert reads all this, filing away the data in his head for later referral (not that it'll disappear since it's now been written down). None of it particularly surprises him, but it does answer some of his unasked questions.

The only thing that alarms him is that she doesn't remember.]

Thank you - I will certainly keep this data in mind for when I volunteer.

At the very least, the possible rewards seem interesting.