[audio]

[mentis_reae]

[The voice that comes from the device is low, even, measured, precise, and very, very angry.]I have been given some information about this city. None of it was remotely substantive. Not a single piece of information was remotely useful, save that it is evidently unsafe to venture out at night, because a poor criminal justice system is evidently one

Comments

[voice]

[drainedpaladin]

[he sounds completely bored, as he always does - of course, being yanked to new worlds is par for the course for him, at this point]

Hm. From what I heard, it was some kind of machine that took us here.

[voice]

[mentis_reae]

Valuable knowledge. And who operates said machine?

[voice]

[drainedpaladin]

[a bit of a pause while he yawns near-silently]

No one. They don't even know where it is.

[voice]

[mentis_reae]

And by what mechanism does it work?

[Audio]

[kase_ni]

[Syaoran doesn't know how to respond to this person at first, not because he didn't know what to say--but the fact that he seemed angry and incredibly stressed, will he be able to talk to him well? especially since the reason for them being here is a biazzare one]

--U-um...

You're in Siren's Pull now, sir. I don't have much details myself, but I've heard that large thing in the center of town, called the Core, was the cause of us being brought here.

Please be careful, just earlier on, there was news about a missing girl, and people are looking at newcomers to be suspects of her disappearance.

[Audio]

[mentis_reae]

Yes, they mentioned this "Core," yet they did not explain the precise mechanism by which it works, nor who operates it.

[A slight pause]

And have the police found any leads on the girl?

[Audio]

[kase_ni]

I'm.. I don't know. But there's 2 factions greatly involved to it. Perhaps people of those factions would know more. They are called AGI and SERO. SERO believes that fixing the malfunctioning Core would better the situation, but AGI seems to believe the other way around. Or that's what I heard...

Oh, that is...

They said there are witnesses that saw the girl talking to a person in black, near the stadium and the apartments the newcomers stay in. There's still looking for more information themselves.

[Audio]

[mentis_reae]

What situation, precisely? The state of this place?

And do they have more information than that? A clue like "dressed in black" is nearly useless. Criminals will often dress distinctively so that a witness remembers only that detail; after all, changing clothes is easy enough.

[voice]

[yaaaykira]

[Misa takes a moment to puzzle the legalese, and gets the gist of it: the man is new and Very Upset. And also complaining.]

... The apartments aren't that bad, Mister.

I don't think anyone had a choice in coming here. The Core just kind of pulls random people-- Misa doesn't know if the Core knows what it's doing, or why. [You can almost hear the shrug as she finishes.]

[voice]

[mentis_reae]

They're extremely bad. I'm fairly certain I've found evidence of cockroaches. I will not reside in a place with such vermin.

And very well; what is your own opinion?

[voice]

[yaaaykira]

[Oh, yikes. D: Misa hasn't particularly noticed anything like that around her own apartment, but now she resolves to thoroughly check it for bugs.]

Well, they're free for the first month-- they're not gonna just give us a ritzy penthouse or anything.

[This makes her blink. It doesn't really occur to her that speaking in third-person isn't quite normal.] I'm Misa.

[voice]

[mentis_reae]

Oh. I'd thought you'd been speaking of an esteemed - Well. In any case. I rather doubt this "Core," the object of which they speak, is sentient, as you imply, as it is indeed an object.

[Pause]

And yes, they mentioned that we're subsequently expected to pay rent. What banks do they have here?

[switch_it_off]

Its not so much the lack of a proper legal system ... though admittedly, you're right, there's not much of one. The streets aren't dangerous at night because of person-on-person violence. There's talk of monsters.

You're not in your home world. Legal action or broken laws there won't amount to a thing here.

[mentis_reae]

By "monsters" you mean wild beasts of some ilk?

[switch_it_off]

Not... exactly. They're just monsters. I wouldn't recommend walking the streets at night if you're a civilian.

[mentis_reae]

A "civilian"? As opposed to what?

text;

[illusionomicon]

They offer no justification for your appearance here, and no means of returning home either. You'll feel yourself drawn back to this place even at the outskirts of the island.

The rival companies AGI and SERO hold most of the power here. You'll be asked to affiliate with one of them eventually, I imagine. Neutrality is possible but rather more difficult, or so I am led to believe.

Doumeki, the young man who first spoke with you, is not the first one who reports being unexpectedly drawn from one world into another prior to his arrival here.

text;

[mentis_reae]

[Except a pause as he figures out the typing system.]

This is, then, a plutocracy of some ilk? I've heard mention of these companies; I was not aware they held any sort of political power. What of the elected government?

And I assure you that, given what I've seen of this place, it holds no draw for me whatsoever.

text;

[illusionomicon]

I've heard very little of them. The companies seem to do mostly as they please, as I'm sure you'll observe.

Not what I meant, but you'll likely want to experience that for yourself as well.

text;

[mentis_reae]

I take it, then, that you hold with all this absurdity about "dimensions" and "teleportation" and what have you?

And describe precisely what you mean by "do mostly as they please." Provide examples.