thisavrou | [voice]

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[voice]

[Ryuuzaki's low voice is accented in a way that people from places other than the U.K. might think of as "generically English," and when the message begins, his tones are pleasant and measured without being effusive.]

Hello, everyone.

The Ingress has brought us to the Moira from any number of places. When I meet someone, I can't say whether our similarities will outweigh our differences, or vice-versa... when you're this far from home, even small commonalities can seem important. It's led me to be curious about the broad strokes of everyone's backgrounds.

[A pause, as he approaches his real question.]

What can you tell me about the government in the place you came from before this? Both the form of government and, if possible, specific names of leaders.

If it wasn't your original home, I'd be interested in hearing about that, too, even down to what year it was for you.

If you'd prefer to answer privately, that's all right with me. I can promise you my discretion.

Thank you.

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I can't disagree with you on that.

[L has been forty since he was ten, but lately, prior to his adventure with the Ingress, he's felt much older, more like his life could end at any time even without any catastrophic mistake on his own part. More at the mercy of various forces, in a way he's greatly resented.]

Do you know much about the events of 2004 in your world? Was anything significant happening at the time?

[If there's that much time between them, there's a small possibility that it's the same world. But people would remember Kira, even after a zombie outbreak.]

What do you mean by significant?

[She could have mentioned war, but she had grown up with it happening so it wasn't something that she really thought was out of the ordinary to mention.]

There's wars going on, but they happen so often that it's not really significant. What happens in 2004 where you're from?

Nothing special... the last things I remember happening there. Things I might have heard of.

[This is a flat-out lie, but for the time being, he's primarily interested in keeping the truth off of the network, not in keeping it absolutely secret.]

Was there a Second Gulf War? There wasn't in my world.

Yeah. It started in 2003? 2004? I don't know, I was young. I grew up with it happening, so it's not really out of the ordinary for me.

[But at least it serves to further separate her version of Earth from his, and she figures it cements the idea that they're from completely different worlds. ]

Is that what you're judging who comes from what version of Earth by? A war?

Not precisely, but it's a large, easy marker. It's one of the few things I've been able to establish.

In the future, the markers might be more refined... or, for example, there are cases where that kind of marker is irrelevant, because the world has what you and I would think of as superheroes, and that's a significant difference for me. It's all relative, of course -- it might not be significant for someone else.

I've met a couple of people from a superhero dimension. I'm a little jealous it wasn't me that ended up there.

[But she guesses here, you can be anything. As long as you do your work and earn your keep on board the ship.]

I guess it's safe to say that everyone here is from a different place and time, and that you're going to get a chance to learn a lot about them if you keep being nosy.

[A tease. She doesn't really think he's being nosy.]

People tend to be extremely indiscreet on these public networks. You'd learn a lot about them even if you weren't nosy.

[He is quite possibly the nosiest person ever to live -- if something can capture his interest. If not, he's indifferent. But his inquisitive nature has usually paid off, and when it doesn't, when someone seems evasive, especially needlessly evasive... that in itself is usually a clue.]

What sort of superpower would you want to have?

I think you're too curious for your own good.

[She laughs as she says it, amused that he's asking her another question. She doesn't mind in the slightest, because it gives her someone to talk to and makes her feel that what she has to say is important.]

I think I'd want the power to make plants grow, though. You wouldn't go hungry if you were able to have a fast growing garden, no matter where you went. What about you?

That's a good idea. You'd want to have someone around with some sort of complimentary ability, even if it was the strength to harvest all of that food. Or you'd want the ability to slow the growth of the plants if you needed to.

[A pause, while he considers it.]

I can't say. It seems like there would be a downside to almost any power. If you were a telepath, you'd lose your sanity if there were no limits on your ability. Superior strength or resistance could come with their own problems, too, and you might have enemies that would be equally strong.

[Another brief, contemplative pause, and he adds,]

It might be nice to never need sleep. My parameters would be that you'd be able to sleep and dream if you wanted to, but you wouldn't suffer any ill effects if you chose not to. All the restorative processes would happen in your body with no loss of consciousness.

[The only thing that makes him reject the idea of telepathy is that it would make detective work incredibly boring by leaving him nothing to solve.]

I'm going out on a limb here and am gonna guess that you're an insomniac.

[She laughs, because who else would want a power like that? She remembers having been in that place before, on stretches of days when no one could sleep because it wasn't safe. She had joked about their transcending the need for sleep - that they could keep going day after day without any physical or mental consequences.

It would feel like the ultimate form of power.]

Wouldn't it suck to never need to sleep, though? You'd eventually lose track of wanting to. And if you were with someone, it would be really shitty if you couldn't lay and sleep with them because your mind felt like it needed to stay awake all the time.

[That's exactly like him, a mind that feels like it needs to stay awake all the time, but he's never slept next to someone he had any real emotional interest in being with.]

I'm not... well, not really. But that would have to be part of it: the ability to sleep if you chose to. If someone enjoyed it, or if it was an experience they wanted to share.

[There's something clinical and distant about his description of wanting it, or having someone who it felt good to curl up with, instead of sleep being a bodily need to get out of the way. Those things are purely hypothetical for him.]

[His tone takes her by surprise, because she hasn't ever met a guy who wouldn't have a crude response to what she said. Except 10k, but he's essentially a saint. So she's surprised by Ryuuzaki yet again, in a way that has a smile evident in her voice.]

It's not something you want to share with someone?

[It feels too personal to ask that of someone she doesn't really know well, so she clears her throat and quickly adds on something an apology.]

Sorry. You don't have to answer that.

[He doesn't mind the question, and the answer is something that people will probably notice about him sooner rather than later.]

When I was younger, my instinct used to be to protect my privacy where I could -- probably, it was a little bit paranoid. But there was always a lot of work to do. More time spent with computers than girls, that sort of thing.

[It really doesn't matter if the idea that "Ryuuzaki is a nerd" is reinforced, or even the idea of him being any number of other things, as long as there's a distance between that and "L the detective."]

I get that. The last time someone came up close to me while I was sleeping, I tried stabbing him.

[She laughs like it's a good story, because it is a fond memory. Tommy hadn't meant her harm, and she became comfortable enough with him to rely on his being her pillow on more than one occasion while they were traveling.]

There's nothing wrong with being paranoid.

[God knows she is, herself.]

I was only teasing, anyway.

Stabbing him?

[He doesn't sound alarmed, exactly, but the words and her tone don't match, so he's certainly interested to hear more.]

Yeah. It was right after I found my new group, and we were staying someplace we could actually sleep. He tried tucking me in, and I almost stabbed him clear through the hand.

[It could've been considered flirting, back home. If it had been intentional and not completely reflexive, anyway.]

He's my closest friend now. Or was, I guess. He's not here with me.

It's a good thing you didn't actually stab him, then.

Would you want to see him here?

Yes.

[Her answer comes immediate, and with a definite tone of longing. Tommy's her closest friend, and the one she's been able to depend on for a year now. He's taken care of her while she's been on death's door with her leg injury and infection, and she would do anything to have him here with her. Even if it's selfish to want it, because he would probably not do well in a place like this.]

It's better he isn't here, but I still want to see him.

That's understandable.

There's nobody I want to put in this situation, but a few people who I think might benefit from it... or who I wouldn't mind running into.

But anyone might turn up here... it could as easily be the last person you want to see.

[He doesn't try to hide the fact that that kind of helplessness doesn't really sit well with him -- the fact that confrontations with someone's entire past could literally be the luck of the draw.]

[She picks up on his tone and can understand why it is he has it, because she feels similarly.]

The fact that we have no control at all is really fucked up.

[Which is the beginning and the end of her thoughts on the matter. Her heart aches to have the few people she cares for and trusts back, but knowing that the ingress could pull in someone who's hurt her makes her even more paranoid about being here.]

Yes. But we don't have much control in life, either.

[This is a drastic misrepresentation of his own life at home, several years ago, which he had been able to effectively control to whatever degree he wished the vast majority of the time. But it's not the kind of thing that's available to or even desirable for everyone; in his case, it's a function of work and temperament, and a choice he can make because he has the money and clout to do so. It's not hard to observe the human condition without acknowledging, to himself, that it hasn't always applied to him.

The fact that it does apply to him now is a major reason for his resentment, but that resentment only goes so far -- it seems pointless when there's so little he can do about it.]

No, we don't.

[Which is a depressing thought, but one that's the reality of being alive. You're born and you die, and you don't have total control over much in the middle. You're always left to be a victim of chance and fate, and all you can control is your reaction to what happens. ]

I'm not used to having control anyway. It's not a big deal, as long as I have some kind of free will.

[He's keenly aware that many people have few choices in their lives even under circumstances he'd consider normal (sometimes even keenly aware that only a combination of talent, luck, and ceaseless work might have kept him from being one of those people), but zombies aren't among those circumstances. How much more could something like that straiten the possibilities of a life?]

What sort of choices could you make at home?

Don't answer that if you'd rather not.

[She appreciates that he gives her an out, although if she wants one, she's more than willing to just end the conversation where it stands. She's quiet for a short while as she thinks of an answer. Not hesitating, just trying to get her thoughts together to vocalize them.]

I was with a group for a while, where I didn't have any choices. At all. The one I'm with now, I get to help decide what direction to head in. If I want to kill or not. How to ration my water. Things like that.

That still doesn't seem like much of a choice in the scheme of things.

[Well, except for the killing. But mostly it speaks of a world where human lives have shrunk to frequent, repetitive basic decisions about survival.]

This group you were in more recently... did you ever do anything fun?

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