#01 { video }

[missingspice]

[ Of course it doesn't feel like a dream: deep dreams rarely make you feel like anything is out of place. Perhaps she was submerged, pushed into an even heavier sleep or paralysis from the ones who were hunting her. It's not entirely impossible, but she certainly felt that slap when she woke up.

So did the Greeter on the Diamond, apparently. There was no easy way to apologise for that. Atsuko sits before one of the plainly-decorated walls of her room in the Tower Apartments, the video feed shaking very slightly: she's not used to taking videos with her cellphone, after all. Her hair is tied up, despite the rough landing. Another world. Business as usual. ]

I don't understand what they want me to do with all of this, but it's appreciated. Really. [ Her tone is so even that the sarcasm barely affects her words at all. The feed pans down briefly to the toiletries given free at the apartment lobby, atop a stack of promotional flyers, information packs, vouchers... All the cheap deals handed to every newcomer, and then some, taken from the reception. Organised into piles as it is, it still stands a few inches tall. ] The vouchers, especially. It's impressive the amount of effort people will put in to recruit... I'm surprised the terms and conditions for using these aren't simply contracts.

[ Picking up one of the SERO leaflets, she puts the cellphone aside, showing her profile a little more clearly. There don't seem to be any belongings in the room at all aside from her lab coat hung on a chair. ]

Now, this Eberhardt Institute. Is it a research institute, or a clinic? [ Glancing at the camera, she's beginning to sound unsure of herself-- speaking aloud like this as though someone might hear and know the answer... ] There are some things in this world I would like to ask about. Ask somebody in the psychology department, if there is one, as a doctor myself. And, I suppose if this number is public now...

[ Atsuko frowns at her cellphone, her newly-configured NV, the first real disdain she's shown all through her message. Without another word, she reaches forward to snap it shut, ending the feed. She's going to have to teach herself how to secure her messages, ASAP. ]

Comments

voice;

[freeholding]

More doctors. Are you a vampire as well? Merely asking for curiosity's sake.

voice;

[likepaleglass]

You really don't know how to speak to a woman, do you?

Just asking for curiosity's sake.

voice;

[freeholding]

I don't see how her gender has anything to do with hypothetical vampirism. Problem?

voice;

[likepaleglass]

That seems more the question for you.

Do you frequently ask others whether or not they're vampires?

voice;

[freeholding]

When it is pertinent.

voice

[likepaleglass]

No need to run away. Not all of us are unfriendly.

voice;

[missingspice]

A friendly few cannot stop a city of strangers knowing my phone number, can they. [ Sighs. ] Does everybody communicate using this system?

voice;

[likepaleglass]

Everyone does. Though not all messages need be public.

Are you concerned that someone will hear you?

voice;

[missingspice]

[ When somebody isn't listening on the other end she'll fiddle with the security settings. ]

Not particularly. But I could use a little privacy for certain matters, to be honest, as anybody would.

voice;

[likepaleglass]

Of course.

Well. Welcome. I'm sorry that you had to come at such an unfortunate time of the year.

[text]

[mouthbreathing]

Things are a little unstable here, politically. I'm sorry you had to get hit with it all right out of the gate.

text;

[missingspice]

Not a problem. I assume everybody does, not just me.

[text]

[mouthbreathing]

That's true. You seem to have it all under control though- and on your first day, too. You're not still feeling sick?

text;

[missingspice]

I felt worse when I arrived. But that will wear off too, along with being surprised at any of this, won't it? Corporations, powers, Darkness; it's unreal. Being sick is the least of my worries.

[ Why is she telling him all this? Maybe it's just respite from the bizarre conversation she witnessed earlier... ]

[text foreverrr]

[mouthbreathing]

I wasn't sure if I really wanted to get used to it when I first arrived here, but it happens eventually.

[The thought is nearly disheartening; he doesn't want to think of this place as a home of any sort, for whatever value of 'home' is available to him. He doesn't want it to be permanent.

Warsman shakes the feeling off.] Is where you're from very different to all of this?

[voice]

[antedupmyheart]

I'd imagine they prefer the image of free will.

voice;

[missingspice]

I thought there was a choice whether you affiliated.

voice;

[antedupmyheart]

Very much so. Yet they're still the major powers in play, here.

voice;

[missingspice]

Then it's only compelling to join them if power is what you're looking for, isn't it?

voice;

[antedupmyheart]

So I'd assume.

[Video]

[gaveherwings]

[There's something about her professional disdain which is rather fondly reminiscent of Re-l, so... Daedalus will dare indulge her, sitting back in his own desk chair in what appears to be a very tiny office.]

It is a research institute, the oldest one established in the city, I believe, for psychology. Eberhardt id the 'E' in SERO. But they do do clinical work there. Hillsdale's doctorate programs in psych intern exclusively out of Eberhardt.

video;

[missingspice]

[ Upon facing somebody with some measure of professionalism that doesn't lie in vampire studies or flirting, she already feels less like she needs to stay guarded. Between having ended the video and receiving this response, she's pulled her labcoat around her shoulders for warmth. ]

Is that so? I hadn't realised it was so central to the corporation. That's another difference between home and here.

video;

[gaveherwings]

I have lived here for two and half years now, and still I stumble across new differences daily.

[He chuckles, already silently wondering how the newcomer clinic might benefit from psychological services... if this is what she's offering.]

Dr. Daedalus Yumeno, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

video;

[missingspice]

Atsuko Chiba, it's a pleasure.

[ The response is a reflex, and for a moment she allows herself to mull over that information. Two and a half years, and he seems well-adjusted. Maybe it comes with time, or maybe this world is different enough to his that he can accept this place without drawing too many parallels between it and home. And it surprises her slightly to hear a similarity between the sound of his surname and her own mother tongue. ]

Dr. Yumeno, what... world are you from? [ She feels a little silly just asking it, but she needs to get herself used to the mindset. ]

video;

[gaveherwings]

From quite some time ahead of where we are now, strange as that is to conceive, I understand.

[Dr. Yumeno smiles sympathetically, as if he's walked newcomers through the future history of this world a hundred times or more- the denial and shock or jaded disappointment never ceases to invoke some shade of compassion.

]

Ecologically, the earth has been spoiled by the release of methane hydrate gasses, and the remnants of humanity are confined to self-sustaining dome cities. Our fishbowl 'paradise' (as it was touted) was called Romdeau.

A few of my other fellow citizens are also here- Re-l Mayer, [He holds his tongue, knowing better by now than to introduce her as the regent's granddaughter] who worked for the investigation bureau, and now serves the SPPD here, and Raul Creed, who was our last security chief. He manages at a high end club, in Siren's Port.