Ange shrugs, giving the initial kind of unhelpful answer of: "All kinds of monsters."
Look, it's just.. true though. There's so many different kinds of monsters that Ange doesn't even really know how to summarize it in any other way. It's clear the other does have an idea of what monsters in general are, so Ange also kind of imagines Jim can just.. try to imagine for himself what she might mean by that..
.. or, you know, he might just run into them sooner or later. That'd also work. She has clearer answers for his other question though, so she focuses on that.
"And the punishments seems to vary from person to person. One of my.." ... her voice suddenly trails off.
It's hard to tell why, but after a brief shake of her head the girl adds: "One of my acquaintances suddenly wasn't able to lie anymore. At all. He had to be upfront about absolutely everything all the time. It seemed like a real pain." And that's definitely still an understatement, really.
"Does this place have defenses against them?" Well, they haven't been besieged by any in the short time since Jim's been awake, so he's going to go with a 'probably'?
His hand absently brushes the phaser on his hip, as if just a subtle check that it's still there. It is, holstered neatly, and part of him absently notes to figure out whether it should be set to stun, or something higher.
"That's - unique." Jim blinks, opening a new can of questions. "Why would they want to punish someone with something like that? And not...community service or jail time?"
He's been around this block before, himself, with his rapsheet a mile long and some of it even sealed by the courts, to boot; punishment for transgressions usually fell into two camps: rehabilitation, and exploitation. Sometimes they masqueraded as each other. Jim eyes Ange thoughtfully for a moment; a teenager caught up in something like this was definitely odd; what could they want from her? "Can I ask you what they've accused you of, or is that considered too personal around here?"
The girl does have to think about it for a moment. Her listed crime does have a rather personal angle to it, but.. she figures that as long as she doesn't have to get into the circumstances of it all, it's fine.
So Ange shrugs slightly, and a moment later she's already putting her hands into the bag she's carrying with her, pulling out a piece of parchment. She unfolds it so she can show it to him. Her name is listed at the top - 'Ange Ushiromiya' - and aside from the text that's the same as on every other parchment, it reads that she's charged with 'amicide.'
"You shouldn't take what's listed so seriously though," she says. Not necessarily referring to her personal crime by itself, more just in general, but hey, if it means he has less questions about that, all the better.
"Some people have told me they had a crime listed that they never even committed in the first place. I think they're just using this as some sort of excuse for keeping us here."
Jim's not 100% sure what he should be expecting, but an actual, physical piece of parchment is not on his bingo card. It's something of a novelty in his time anyway - paper anything, let alone official documents - but Jim inclines his head to read the proffered missive.
His immediate judgment is tamped down on, save an evaluating flicker in clear blue eyes, but Jim wisely keeps any thoughts about the accusation to himself. He knows as well as anyone that people can be capable of a lot more than one might imagine based on preconceived notions - and that reasoning was often far from cut and dry. The fact that Ange makes no pass at explaining away the crime explicitly doesn't go unnoticed, but Jim can certainly respect the choice of no obfuscation.
"A coercion tactic." A decently effective one, at that. He gestures vaguely to the paper, brow furrowing. "And once people have paid their prescribed sentence? What happened to your friend?"
"It's just a front. Even people who go through some sort of punishment are still just as stuck in this place as the rest of us. And I've been here for a year without even the slightest sign of release." The girl shrugs as she says it, but a part of her clearly looks annoyed. Not with Jim, obviously, but with this entire situation. It'd be one thing if their captors were at least bothering to be honest, but every single time she runs into this place's odd punishment theming, she just finds it a very annoying lie.
"Sometimes people do seem to randomly disappear from this place, but it's seriously without any real rhyme or reason to it."
Some of them definitely weren't people who seemed like they truly repented for some crime, for one..
"They're trying to keep us from asking questions by doing all this weird stuff. There's clearly a lot more going on here than meets the eye." There's a slight pause, and then Ange aims her full attention at Jim again as she asks him: "Are you interested in finding out?"
A comfort, it is not, but Jim's used to the universe smacking him in the face by now. That Ange has been trapped here for that length of time with no apparent end goal in mind is...a lot more worrying. Motivations for actions taken usually boiled down to money, power, emotion, or some mix of the three - but to take a guess at what this was? The closest he had was entertainment, and that - no, that's definitely not a comforting thought.
"And there's no indication as to where they might go." It's not a question, but a statement posed with a frown as he mulls over the information. Curiouser and curiouser. "Or be taken to, I guess that's the better phrasing."
"I'll say. Why not keep us in jail cells, if the true purpose was their so-called punishment?" Obvious though it may be, Jim feels it's a question worth voicing. He meets her gaze with a decisive nod. "Even if it's the last thing I do."
After he says that last thing, the girl goes quiet for a moment. She is, however, still definitely directly looking at Jim. If anything, something in her gaze almost makes it seem like she's scrutinizing him. Like she's looking for something, and who knows if she's finding it in him.
"You don't seem so bad," she then finally says, like she was silently evaluating him in her head the entire time.
At least she doesn't just mysteriously leave it at that. After pulling her shoulders up into a shrug, the teen continues with: "Some people seem so happy-go-lucky in this place, even though it's a weird and annoying place that's got us trapped. I've been hoping that more people would arrive who are actually interested in finding out what's going on here and how we can escape from it."
And apparently Jim has matched her standards of 'not too horrible an arrival' by being someone who's willing to do that.
Jim stares back, his clear blue gaze even and steady. He's reasonably sure this is some kind of test by her estimations - what he's not sure of is whether or not he passes, until she seemingly makes her determination and continues on. Regardless - Jim's used to the odds being against him. It's still never managed to make him believe in no-win scenarios.
"I guess there could be worse places," Jim allows, surreptitiously glancing around again. At least it wasn't some kind of desolated, wild planet in need of taming - trust him, those weren't fun to be marooned on. "But I'm not looking to spend the rest of my life here."
"Where there's a will, there's a way." He nods, straightening his uniform absently. He still has a phaser and a can-do attitude; raising a little hell was always an option. "Is there a communications array anywhere nearby?"
There's another pause. This one is shorter though, and Ange's gaze much less scrutinizing. Instead the girl frowns as she asks: "Is that a thing from your world?"
Sure, she can kind of imagine what it is just going by the name. But it sounds specific enough that she figures he might be looking for some very specific thing, which makes it more likely that it just straight up doesn't exist here.
"We can't contact anything outside of this place, but you can communicate with everyone else who's stuck here with those tablets they gave us. You have one too, right? You can send messages using that thing."
"Yes, but there should be something similar here." If this place was as advanced as it should be, based on what Jim could glean from their surroundings on the time period. "Any kind of wireless communication center, I mean? Or wired, if that's what we've got to work with."
Jim wisely doesn't mention his technical prowess - he'd only embarrass himself when Ange's words proved true, no matter how good he was with a computer terminal. He glances down at himself, freeing the tablet from his utility belt when he notices it. It's about the same size and shape as his PADD is, so he'd glanced over it entirely. "Ah. I thought this was - nevermind. This must be connected with a wireless network originating from somewhere."
He certainly is a technological guy, Ange figures. Her vision is coloured a little by the fact that she doesn't know all that much about technology at all. So rather than her seeing through Jim trying to downplay matters a little, it's more just that she knows so little that any small admission on his part feels like he's speaking like an expert already..
And to avoid saying anything she doesn't fully understand, Ange just admits: "I don't know much about that stuff."
She doesn't like admitting it, but it's still preferable to the alternative. Maybe it's a good way to see if Jim is one of those people who will make fun of her for it, she figures. Ange kind of assumes anyone would.
"So you might have to ask someone else. Or look around. Most stuff here seems more like magic than technology to me." Since that is something Ange actually does know a few things about - making it easier for the girl to assume it's got more to do with that.
"Magic is just technology we don't understand yet." Jim offers, no hint of judgement in his tone. No, he wasn't likely to make fun of her - if he's a little surprised, well, hopefully it only shows in his eyes for a moment or two before he manages to abate it. She looks modern - well, relatively speaking - but if she was brought here same as Jim, maybe she's not as familiar as one would assume with the technology of the times. "That's alright. If you happen to see anything - would look like a bit tower, probably, with antennae things at the top. Maybe, I'm not 100% sure on that actually."
"Thanks for checking on me," Jim straightens, apparently ready to set out looking for this communications center he assumes must exist. The tablet in his hand is surprisingly devoid of features - no music or notes apps, but there is an online message board, so it must be hooked up to something. "Christ, this thing is weird. I better check this out."
She still isn't entirely sure whether or not his knowledge of technology - apparently too advanced for this place, maybe? - is a good thing or a bad thing. At least it might help him figure some stuff out here easier than she could, but at the same time it might confuse him in other ways.
Oh, well. At least Jim seems like enough of a responsible adult that he'll be able to handle it.
"I mean, it'd look kind of bad if I just let a new person bleed out on the docks."
.. Not that Jim's suspected injury seems that bad, but Ange is nothing if not queen of the very flat deadpan hyperbole. She shrugs a little bit.
"Good luck finding it. If you want to thank me, then just make sure to tell me if you ever find anything interesting in this place. I'm collecting information." Ange points at the device in his hand. "My username on there is just my last name, so I'm easy to find. It's Ushiromiya."
It's definitely sure to, especially when he figures out he doesn't have access to a replicator here. He's supposed to figure out how to cook without lighting the stove on fire? A gas stove?
It was sure to be interesting, to say the least.
"Well, your consideration is unparalleled," Jim laughs good-naturedly, unbothered by the deadpan delivery. One of his closest friends is on her level with that kind of humor, and his appreciation for it is natural.
"Will do." Jim nods, tapping at the tablet to bring up the network - he finds her in the contact list, committing the exchange to memory. "Soon as I set this up, I'll send you mine. Let you know if I find anything."
yes, this is the perfect point! thanks for the thread! <3
Jim does seem like the type who might be able to find some good information to pass along to her - if her first impression of the guy is anything to go by, anyway. And even if he doesn't end up being that way, then Ange figures briefly having interacted with him just now isn't too much of a waste of time. No skin off her back.
"Hopefully I'll hear good news from you soon then," the girl adds as she's already making the first few steps to walk away. She raises her hand a little like some sort of greeting, but if it's meant to be a wave, it's kind of half-hearted. "See you."
And with that she leaves him to go explore this place for himself.
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expiationlogs2024-04-14 10:44 pm
no subject
Look, it's just.. true though. There's so many different kinds of monsters that Ange doesn't even really know how to summarize it in any other way. It's clear the other does have an idea of what monsters in general are, so Ange also kind of imagines Jim can just.. try to imagine for himself what she might mean by that..
.. or, you know, he might just run into them sooner or later. That'd also work. She has clearer answers for his other question though, so she focuses on that.
"And the punishments seems to vary from person to person. One of my.." ... her voice suddenly trails off.
It's hard to tell why, but after a brief shake of her head the girl adds: "One of my acquaintances suddenly wasn't able to lie anymore. At all. He had to be upfront about absolutely everything all the time. It seemed like a real pain." And that's definitely still an understatement, really.
no subject
His hand absently brushes the phaser on his hip, as if just a subtle check that it's still there. It is, holstered neatly, and part of him absently notes to figure out whether it should be set to stun, or something higher.
"That's - unique." Jim blinks, opening a new can of questions. "Why would they want to punish someone with something like that? And not...community service or jail time?"
He's been around this block before, himself, with his rapsheet a mile long and some of it even sealed by the courts, to boot; punishment for transgressions usually fell into two camps: rehabilitation, and exploitation. Sometimes they masqueraded as each other. Jim eyes Ange thoughtfully for a moment; a teenager caught up in something like this was definitely odd; what could they want from her? "Can I ask you what they've accused you of, or is that considered too personal around here?"
no subject
So Ange shrugs slightly, and a moment later she's already putting her hands into the bag she's carrying with her, pulling out a piece of parchment. She unfolds it so she can show it to him. Her name is listed at the top - 'Ange Ushiromiya' - and aside from the text that's the same as on every other parchment, it reads that she's charged with 'amicide.'
"You shouldn't take what's listed so seriously though," she says. Not necessarily referring to her personal crime by itself, more just in general, but hey, if it means he has less questions about that, all the better.
"Some people have told me they had a crime listed that they never even committed in the first place. I think they're just using this as some sort of excuse for keeping us here."
no subject
His immediate judgment is tamped down on, save an evaluating flicker in clear blue eyes, but Jim wisely keeps any thoughts about the accusation to himself. He knows as well as anyone that people can be capable of a lot more than one might imagine based on preconceived notions - and that reasoning was often far from cut and dry. The fact that Ange makes no pass at explaining away the crime explicitly doesn't go unnoticed, but Jim can certainly respect the choice of no obfuscation.
"A coercion tactic." A decently effective one, at that. He gestures vaguely to the paper, brow furrowing. "And once people have paid their prescribed sentence? What happened to your friend?"
no subject
"It's just a front. Even people who go through some sort of punishment are still just as stuck in this place as the rest of us. And I've been here for a year without even the slightest sign of release." The girl shrugs as she says it, but a part of her clearly looks annoyed. Not with Jim, obviously, but with this entire situation. It'd be one thing if their captors were at least bothering to be honest, but every single time she runs into this place's odd punishment theming, she just finds it a very annoying lie.
"Sometimes people do seem to randomly disappear from this place, but it's seriously without any real rhyme or reason to it."
Some of them definitely weren't people who seemed like they truly repented for some crime, for one..
"They're trying to keep us from asking questions by doing all this weird stuff. There's clearly a lot more going on here than meets the eye." There's a slight pause, and then Ange aims her full attention at Jim again as she asks him: "Are you interested in finding out?"
no subject
"And there's no indication as to where they might go." It's not a question, but a statement posed with a frown as he mulls over the information. Curiouser and curiouser. "Or be taken to, I guess that's the better phrasing."
"I'll say. Why not keep us in jail cells, if the true purpose was their so-called punishment?" Obvious though it may be, Jim feels it's a question worth voicing. He meets her gaze with a decisive nod. "Even if it's the last thing I do."
no subject
After he says that last thing, the girl goes quiet for a moment. She is, however, still definitely directly looking at Jim. If anything, something in her gaze almost makes it seem like she's scrutinizing him. Like she's looking for something, and who knows if she's finding it in him.
"You don't seem so bad," she then finally says, like she was silently evaluating him in her head the entire time.
At least she doesn't just mysteriously leave it at that. After pulling her shoulders up into a shrug, the teen continues with: "Some people seem so happy-go-lucky in this place, even though it's a weird and annoying place that's got us trapped. I've been hoping that more people would arrive who are actually interested in finding out what's going on here and how we can escape from it."
And apparently Jim has matched her standards of 'not too horrible an arrival' by being someone who's willing to do that.
no subject
"I guess there could be worse places," Jim allows, surreptitiously glancing around again. At least it wasn't some kind of desolated, wild planet in need of taming - trust him, those weren't fun to be marooned on. "But I'm not looking to spend the rest of my life here."
"Where there's a will, there's a way." He nods, straightening his uniform absently. He still has a phaser and a can-do attitude; raising a little hell was always an option. "Is there a communications array anywhere nearby?"
no subject
Sure, she can kind of imagine what it is just going by the name. But it sounds specific enough that she figures he might be looking for some very specific thing, which makes it more likely that it just straight up doesn't exist here.
"We can't contact anything outside of this place, but you can communicate with everyone else who's stuck here with those tablets they gave us. You have one too, right? You can send messages using that thing."
no subject
Jim wisely doesn't mention his technical prowess - he'd only embarrass himself when Ange's words proved true, no matter how good he was with a computer terminal. He glances down at himself, freeing the tablet from his utility belt when he notices it. It's about the same size and shape as his PADD is, so he'd glanced over it entirely. "Ah. I thought this was - nevermind. This must be connected with a wireless network originating from somewhere."
no subject
He certainly is a technological guy, Ange figures. Her vision is coloured a little by the fact that she doesn't know all that much about technology at all. So rather than her seeing through Jim trying to downplay matters a little, it's more just that she knows so little that any small admission on his part feels like he's speaking like an expert already..
And to avoid saying anything she doesn't fully understand, Ange just admits: "I don't know much about that stuff."
She doesn't like admitting it, but it's still preferable to the alternative. Maybe it's a good way to see if Jim is one of those people who will make fun of her for it, she figures. Ange kind of assumes anyone would.
"So you might have to ask someone else. Or look around. Most stuff here seems more like magic than technology to me." Since that is something Ange actually does know a few things about - making it easier for the girl to assume it's got more to do with that.
no subject
"Thanks for checking on me," Jim straightens, apparently ready to set out looking for this communications center he assumes must exist. The tablet in his hand is surprisingly devoid of features - no music or notes apps, but there is an online message board, so it must be hooked up to something. "Christ, this thing is weird. I better check this out."
no subject
Oh, well. At least Jim seems like enough of a responsible adult that he'll be able to handle it.
"I mean, it'd look kind of bad if I just let a new person bleed out on the docks."
.. Not that Jim's suspected injury seems that bad, but Ange is nothing if not queen of the very flat deadpan hyperbole. She shrugs a little bit.
"Good luck finding it. If you want to thank me, then just make sure to tell me if you ever find anything interesting in this place. I'm collecting information." Ange points at the device in his hand. "My username on there is just my last name, so I'm easy to find. It's Ushiromiya."
think we're about good to wrap there!
It was sure to be interesting, to say the least.
"Well, your consideration is unparalleled," Jim laughs good-naturedly, unbothered by the deadpan delivery. One of his closest friends is on her level with that kind of humor, and his appreciation for it is natural.
"Will do." Jim nods, tapping at the tablet to bring up the network - he finds her in the contact list, committing the exchange to memory. "Soon as I set this up, I'll send you mine. Let you know if I find anything."
yes, this is the perfect point! thanks for the thread! <3
Jim does seem like the type who might be able to find some good information to pass along to her - if her first impression of the guy is anything to go by, anyway. And even if he doesn't end up being that way, then Ange figures briefly having interacted with him just now isn't too much of a waste of time. No skin off her back.
"Hopefully I'll hear good news from you soon then," the girl adds as she's already making the first few steps to walk away. She raises her hand a little like some sort of greeting, but if it's meant to be a wave, it's kind of half-hearted. "See you."
And with that she leaves him to go explore this place for himself.