I could put a catchphrase here but I refuse!!!

[shadower]

Don't you have something better to do than bother me? I get it, you're bored, but I was doing pretty great over here. Life's good, everything's quiet, and the sky looks amazing today. You could try going for a walk and enjoying some of that, too.

You know. Instead of tossing me into a world haunted by soul-devouring ghost things.

Comments

[umuh]

I trust them enough when they say they want most of us out of there, and I'm hoping that doesn't mean anything drastic. Things occasionally have to go right, sooner or later.

[ She frowns, looking away. ]

It sure looks like it has the potential for things to go really, really wrong. People have enough trouble getting along when they share just one world. If you open up access to however many you can?

[ Bella lets that statement trail off, as she'd rather not think it through to the end. ]

[shadower]

[Of course he can't help but think of every possible consequence, but he can see he's upsetting her, so he shuts up about it.]

Well... Seems like they've been at it for a while, so they've gotta have some idea what they're doing. I guess.

[umuh]

[ Shikamaru is a kind teen. Bella can appreciate this not going into an in depth exploration of just how terrible things could be. It's just a little too far outside of what she thinks she can deal with right now. ]

I guess.

[ Echoing his words, with a stark lack of conviction. ]

From the sounds of things, our windows are the result of them getting over-ambitious. We don't even know all the whys behind recruiting people. Exploring new worlds? Okay, maybe I've been surrounded by capitalism my whole life, but that sounds like the perfect exploitation mechanism. Is this all supposed to be pure scientific curiosity? Altruism? I don't get it.

[shadower]

[What is "capitalism"? Well, anyway -]

They're definitely exploiting us, but it makes sense that they would, even if our involvement is accidental. Anyone would logically take advantage of the situation, if they could. A native's gonna make the best subject of study.

[umuh]

Natives willing to stick around and be studied as they work for you, all the better. You'd think that'd have some pretty serious impact, even just healthwise. New worlds, new microbes, whole new systems that aren't used to another world's common cold. How are they close to being equipped to handle that?

[ Thinking smallpox and the Native Americans, or even how flu viruses mutate in different regions and spread like crazy. Oh man oh man can she just go home to Fork and stay in the dreary rain and graduate and forget that her soul is apparently a goat named Washington? ]

[shadower]

Maybe they picked up some really good medicine from one of these worlds.

Or maybe nobody's thought about it yet.

[umuh]

Or maybe having our souls separated from our bodies makes us immune to the common cold. Then we'd just be carriers for people not so lucky as to visit the soul-eating ghost land.

[shadower]

That'd suck. For them.

[He's so good with words.]

[umuh]

Yeah.

[ She lifts an eyebrow. ]

Kind of an understatement, but yeah. It's suck for them.

[shadower]

Kind of a strong argument for not visiting any world you don't belong to. But I guess there's no way to enforce that rule around here.

[umuh]

Outside of shutting windows down and only opening them for natives to cross, or something. Which defeats the whole exploring the unknown theme going on here.

Not that I mind. No one needs to come check out Forks, Washington. Or the rest of the world, for that matter.

[shadower]

I'd sooner cut myself off from my world forever than risk exposing it to widespread disease, but I dunno that these guys will take a request like that.

[umuh]

The might. If we're volunteering to spread disease to other worlds, or monitor their data on this one. Which is part of what they're asking? I'm okay enough at computers, that might work out... if they use Excel.

[shadower]

...Dunno what a computer is.

[umuh]

[ Bella stares at Shikamaru for a moment, slowly blushing red. ]

Oh. I'm sorry, that was rude of me to assume you... would. Where are you from? I mean, what kinds of technology do you have at home?