{Voice - 09}

[sucker_punches]

I wonder if anyone else stopped by those puppet shows at the carnival. Specifically, the ones about the Twins. Did anyone else notice anything weird about them?

[There's a short pause.]

I thought they'd been lying to me, but... none of them had the same image of the Twins. It looks like the natives really don't know what they look like. [She's

Comments

[voice]

[mourning_sky]

[Naomi had some time to kill while waiting for Beyond to show up; so she turned on her communicator and listened interestedly to the broadcast.]

I'm about to go to the Carnival myself. I'm interested in confirming what you've just said.

I've seen something mentioned about the Twins being the rulers of this city. How can they monitor and control the population, if they never show themselves?

[Then again, L comes to mind, and she reminds herself that she was his eyes, ears and shield, once.] They must have people working for them, shepherds among us, something like that. [Musing to herself quietly, but then snapping to attention again when she realizes she's babbling.]

I'm sorry. I'm Shoko Maki. To whom am I speaking to on this channel?

[voice]

[sucker_punches]

My name is Sakura. You must be new, I don't recognize your name.

As for the Twins, I guess no one really knows how they rule this city. They live in the mansion but no one's ever seen them. It's possible they have agents working for them, like you've said...

The natives all but worship them, though, if what I saw in those shows was anything to go by.

[Synthetic Voice ]

[internecineowl]

Strange, rather large animals. ...a male dwarf? It had pieces of its body replaced by mechanical parts. A female elf. A man bleeding from his eyes.

It was an unsettling experience.

[Voice ]

[sucker_punches]

Yeah, that's why I didn't go... I don't like the idea of trapping people in cages for others to stare at.

Do you mean the dwarf was an amputee?

[Synthetic Voice ]

[internecineowl]

Neither do I. But as an old television show once said, people are the same everywhere.

Yes, exactly. His arm was made of... brass?

[Voice ]

[sucker_punches]

That seems a bit pessimistic for you, Nagi. ... [Okay curiosity gets the better of her] What's a television show?

That's--who would make a prosthetic out of brass?

[ voice ]

[heartbetween]

Yeah, I noticed that too, Sakura.

It's so strange...I wonder just who these Twins are...or if they exist at all.

[ voice ]

[sucker_punches]

I think most people are wondering the same thing.

Even if they don't exist... well, their influence is real enough, isn't it? At least to the Anatolians.

[ voice ]

[heartbetween]

That's true.

But if they don't, who is it that's pulling the strings? This place supposedly has rulers, but I still haven't seen anything like a governing body or structure anywhere...

No laws or codes or...anything, really.

[ voice ]

[sucker_punches]

I really don't know. I don't know how there's order in this city if there's no justice system and an invisible government. It's really perplexing.

[voice]

[likethebeast]

I really think I spent too much time at the puppet shows, but you aren't wrong. No two were the same. If it weren't for the stories themselves, I don't think you'd ever know it's about the same people. I think--

[paaaause!]

Well, either they don't know, or they don't want us to.

[voice]

[sucker_punches]

You think they might be trying to make us think they don't know by deliberately changing how they look?

[Thoughtful silence.]

That's not impossible, but if that's true it's a very elaborate ruse.

[voice]

[likethebeast]

Mm, well, if you put it like that...

[a very small laugh, but then she gets more serious]

I know it seems far-fetched, but I also know that people can go to great lengths to keep someone's identity hidden. And it isn't as though they like us very much to begin with.

Ah-- it's only a thought that crossed my mind though. I really can't say how much truth there would be in it.

[voice]

[sucker_punches]

Believe me, I get subterfuge, it just seems to me that the more people in on a secret, the more likely it is that there would be a leak.

[xnoble_reasonx]

Tales often carry different faces and interpretations, even when the subjects are well known.

It would not be farfetched to say they are merely carrying on a tradition of story-telling.

What matters are the pieces they share. They are the story.

[Voice]

[sucker_punches]

Of course, and the story was interesting in and of itself, but it doesn't strike you as odd that even the people who've lived here their whole lives don't know what their rulers look like?

[Voice]

[xnoble_reasonx]

I've already said it. It's in the practice of story-telling that things change, including the faces of the heroes.

We cannot be sure they don't know. The Twins have been elusive for this long for a reason. Those who rule can control everything, even the smallest detail, the most simple opinion. Don't assume anything when it comes to those of status.

[Voice]

[sucker_punches]

But generally in stories like that, the heroes in them aren't currently alive and running the city where the storytellers live.

I'm not assuming, but it does seem unlikely to me that so many people could orchestrate a deception like this. Each show didn't even agree on the gender of the Twins.