ivanyouidiot | 001

Entry tags:

001 | Voice

[As far as interesting occurrences go, waking up with no memory of how he got there has never, in Ivan's experience, been a good thing. He's a bit past that point -- and past spending lots of energy freaking out over the fact that there's something growing out of his back as well -- by the time he figures out to look inside the notebook he sees. Reading what he finds gives him some notion of just how deep of a hole he seems to have fallen in, but at least everyone seems to be in the same position. And this Malnasso isn't a group he's heard of before. If keeping his head down is what he needs to do, then that's what he'll do.

Of course, keeping his head down doesn't always mean literally keeping his head down. Ivan knows that there can be just as much advantage to going, "Hey, look at me, I'm not a threat at all," as there can be to going entirely unnoticed. And he happens to think he's made the former into an art. And as far as these things go, he might as well meet the other abductees.]

Well, this is...

Hello everyone. I'm Ivan. [Cue a smile, it might not be be able to seen but he's pretty sure that it'll come through in his voice.]

I'm going to think that won't mean much to you yet, since none of you seem particularly familiar to me, but from what it sounds like we might have time to get to know each other. A few facts about me: I like parties, not getting shot at, and sleeping in late. And not having my body modified without my permission, [it's a little harder to make himself sound cheerful there, but he does his best,] but given the circumstances I'll settle for three out of four.

Your turn.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Things can be acquired. I started with a bedroll and a toothbrush.

Both useful, practical things.

Surely there are interesting things to be had here as well.

I found a bottle of Vorkosigan district wine a couple of weeks ago. Now I wish I'd saved it.

I'm sure I could have enjoyed it with you, but... I hope you enjoyed it with whoever you did share it with.

[Sorry, Ivan. Gregor is depressing.]

Not the way you would. And it was just after the last draft.

[He'd burned offerings to his parents. The dream shifter had managed to recall the ghost of his mother so vividly it had been necessary.]

[Clearly the answer to that is that he should cheer up.]

Next time you get some you can share, then.

Maybe there will be more, now you're here. I understand that how much stuff shows up from a world depends on how many people from that world are represented here, which...doesn't make a lot of sense, but I get tired of asking those questions sometimes.

And it just...showed up here somehow?

I guess this place can't be all bad, then.

It...depends. [Gregor leans back in his chair, frowning.] Now that it's been established that neither you nor I are in immediate danger, are you going to sit down?

Edited 2012-08-03 22:00 (UTC)

I suppose I could.

[He settles himself, still a little uneasily. He was right, sitting doesn't have him feeling any better.]

So we can address the more long-term danger?

[Gregor steeples his fingers. He's turned into the Emperor here, without thinking about it.]

In this village, with the exception of about a week out of each month, you and I are relatively safe. The Malnosso, who don't appear to have connections with Cetaganda, Jackson's Whole, or any lesser distasteful organizations, mostly keep us in reserve. Sometimes they abduct villagers for experimentation--something I'm not yet familiar with--and sometimes they send us in drafts into battles with a primitive but formidable enemy. Every so often they run a village-wide experiment, and I'm not yet certain how they do it.

Also, any buildings they built are bugged. Including this room.

What kind of enemy is it? Couldn't we attempt to negotiate with them instead of fighting as the Malnasso wants?

Bugged. Ahh... I suppose there's not really much to be done about that, unless we can build new structures that wouldn't be?

Malnosso. [Just a gentle correction.]

There are a few structures built by the villagers. I couldn't tell you if they've been bugged since being built, but I couldn't find any in the one I checked. As for negotiations with the Third Party, negotiations are completely outside their purposes. They want to kill all of us. Permanently.

Then why aren't we constantly in battle against them?

[Ivan's head hurts. None of this makes sense to him.]

The Malnosso are. They use us as reserves for, apparently, special cases.

So they also have an army of their own?

Are most of the people here soldiers on their worlds?

[It hadn't sounded like it, but that would be what made sense.]

No. Many are civilians with no combat experience at all. They don't choose based on combat experience so much as...ah, something I believe would be better discussed over coffee after you've had a chance to sleep on what you've already heard.

Edited 2012-08-04 00:18 (UTC)

Why not now? I'm sure I'll understand it just as well at the moment.

...There's something the locals call a shift. Most believe it to be supernatural, while I would prefer the term unexplained, but whatever it is, the Third Party is adept at using shifts to their advantage. Some areas outside the enclosure naturally have shifts, and evidently, not every person is compatible with every shift. People who venture into incompatible areas demonstrably have bad side effects. When drafting villagers, the Malnosso choose based on compatibility with the shifts in the area.

Well then. And is the Malnosso compatible with all the shifts, or is that...why they need us? Have people used the shifts to escape?

[He never thought he'd think this about Ivan, but it's nice to hear some of the right questions asked, for once.]

Are the Malnosso, and I think it varies with them as well. I haven't run into anyone in the village with any sort of mastery over the shifts, but I was in the last draft that went out, so I saw them used by the Third Party. They're...hard to explain scientifically, but I'm no scientist.

Neither am I. Can you explain them non-scientifically? Do they look like something in particular?

Depends on the shift. It's not like a machine, where you see the parts of it as well as the effect. You just see the effect.

Okay. That makes sense, I guess.

[Not really, but maybe it will in time.]

...By evening of the day I came here, I was completely convinced everyone here had been brainwashed. You know. Conditioned, somehow, or at the very least, deceived. Eventually "mass delusion" stopped explaining everything.

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