oo1 | voice.

[asquiet]

[Nezumi has already figured out the basics of everything going on and he‘s surveyed the area. He's still curious how all of this works and so it's time to use the journal he received. Important questions and all of that.]

Free food, free shelter, and free everything. Isn’t that just impressive? Much like that library we have is. It has a lot of

Comments

[doubleppk]

The food's safe! Even the restaurants here. [She had the same paranoid thought too.]

And it doesn't seem like they do the Shifts via the food. I guess it's too variable that way or something.

[asquiet]

[Finally someone smart enough to question this crap.] You have my sincerest gratitude for answering my questions, miss. The restaurants are run by people like us, correct?

[doubleppk]

Yes. Which doesn't make them less suspicious, but after over like a year here, you get bored easily, so the idea of running one just to keep busy and have a hobby starts to make a lot more sense.

[asquiet]

I had read about the restaurants and the school. People have really settled into this place.

[unseenspy]

It's nice to know that someone has a basic idea of what's going on.

The food's safe enough; I've only been eating it for two years. The changes in behavior are caused by the shifts that the Malnosso use for their experiments.

And the Malnosso watch us constantly through our journals, so be careful of what you reveal. There may be other means as well, such as via the barcodes on our necks.

[asquiet]

[He laughs at that first bit. People are idiots no matter what.]

So they haven't tampered with the food in the two years they've been here? [The paranoid part of him is telling him not to rely on that, but he's going to have to eat some time if he wants to survive.

He hadn't thought of those barcodes, but that's a good idea too.]

[unseenspy]

Of course not. We're too "valuable" to them to just kill off like that. They need us alive for these experiments, so why would they tamper with the food?

[asquiet]

It wouldn't even have to be killing off. Just simple things like slipping different things into our food to see how we react.

[ voice ]

[repudiationist]

The food hasn't killed me yet after half a year, if that's any indication.

[ She sounds rather deadpan, as if even if she was killed it wouldn't be a big deal either way. ]

And the first thing you should learn in this place is that people get complacent much too easily.

[ voice ]

[asquiet]

Complacent? That sounds like a universal problem to me.

[ voice ]

[repudiationist]

Yeah, but it's even worse in this place. Especially since it just makes people hang around there as if they're home or whatever, it's almost a little sickening.

[ voice ]

[asquiet]

[He laughs.]

My my. The foolishness of people never ceases.

[liketofu]

You could as well just ask why we're carrying around our journals at all. That's a more effective way of spying on any of us, don't you think?

[asquiet]

We know that one, though. If someone wants to tell something valuable, then that's their problem. But they're more likely to get information when we don't know it's a possibility.

[liketofu]

Like though hidden bugs and pinhole cameras.

[asquiet]

Exactly like that.

[godbent]

Your choices are eat or starve, regardless of what you think of the food. You can eat the animals from the forest or the plants from there or even raise animals or plants yourself, but have you ever heard of the principle "fruit of the poisonous tree?" It implies in this instance, anyone questioning things like you ought to have considered that much, right?

[asquiet]

I know my options and thank you for giving them to me. But I'm looking for an answer, not a discussion, miss. That won't get me anywhere.

[godbent]

[Sigh] That was an answer. If there has been - and even though I've never heard of it I'm sure someone has - there's no other non-controlled options, not really. However, if you want to or want to strong arm someone to do testing, the Med Center is your best bet.

[asquiet]

I suppose I wasn't very clear in what I considered an appropriate answer. My apologies. [He's being subtly sarcastic here.] Though the suggestion you give is something to consider. You have my gratitude.