animus_network

[After a long month spent gathering information, pouring over the guide to the Tower he found, and generally just trying to gather his bearings, Mello decides to turn to the network at long last. He never did like the idea of a completely solitary investigation.]

How's it going, Tower? Everyone been having fun? Great. Down to business.

First off, let me say that you're just about the craziest bunch of kidnapping victims I've ever had the displeasure of living with.

I mean, come on. Weddings? Birthday celebrations? I know that people have an innate need to try and make unmanageable situations as normal as possible, but surely there are better things you all could be doing with your time.

Now, this might come as a shock, but I'm not content to sit here and leave myself to the mercy of my kidnappers. I've already read that guide that some of you have put together, so don't bother explaining how dangerous the place is to me, or how there's no way out, or blah, blah, blah. However, if anyone has info on hand that hasn't yet been added to the guide, feel free to cough it up. If our hosts have allowed you to write up that guide in the first place, I'm sure they won't mind my asking for a little more elaboration, right?

Information is key, especially in a place where nothing seems to make sense. I fully intend to make use of it and find a way out. You're free to join me, if any of you are up for it.

All right, now time for a question.

I've heard that we all come from different worlds. That isn't normally something I'd believe, but since I've arrived here, I've seen a ton of strange things, so I'll bite. In the interest of finding out which "universe" I'm from, give me an answer: have any of you heard of a mass murderer named Kira? He kills people - criminals - with heart attacks. Just in case any of you are from one of those "alternate timelines" and Kira hasn't yet reared his ugly head, have any of you heard of a detective named L?

Regards.

-M

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So you're telling me you were able to get back to your world.

[Now this is information he can use.]

How did you manage that?

I didn't.

Went to sleep one night here in the tower and woke up back on Gaia. Same thing happened to bring me back, collar on my neck and completely aware of everything that happened between here and there and back again.

[Mello's expression flickers momentarily, finally settling on a frown.]

Fell asleep and woke up... Then you're not even sure how you were transported there? For all you know, it could've been a very convincing set-up.

[Of course, he's never been to the ruins of his own world, so he has no way of knowing what it's like.]

Could have been but it felt, looked and smelled real. It... felt like the Planet, even without the Lifestream being there. I don't think I can explain it effectively. That's something the science types are better suited to.

If you were put into some sort of induced hallucination, stimulating the right parts of your brain could give off the impression that what you were seeing was real.

Then again... Hell, all right, let's assume you were really there. They would've needed to be able to get you there, which means that wherever we are has to be somewhere close to where you were taken from. But if that's the case, what was keeping you alive? I could assume that being inside the Tower's walls could somehow shield us from whatever wiped our planets out, but if you were placed in the direct line of whatever had wiped all the life from your planet...

[Don't mind him, he's rambling.]

It just doesn't make sense, from a scientific standpoint. I'm gonna have to start considering supernatural options, but that's a real pain.

[He is SO finished with having to re-evaluate his methods of deduction because he can't rely on the laws of physics any more.]

Presumably, whatever destroyed Gaia had already moved on and hasn't reached the tower. Or they have some kind of defense against it. They can already bring the dead back to life so that already evidence towards them having more advanced technology than most worlds represented here.

[She's heard worse. Ever heard Veld give them a speech on what their mission will entail? Yeesh.]

Start considering the supernatural. You've got people here who can change shape and summon the elements.

All right, all right. It still doesn't add up. Maybe I'm just too stubborn to accept that my world really is gone.

[If that's true, all of his hard work, all of his efforts, everything, it was all for nothing. No Kira to catch, no Near to beat, no world full of onlookers to daze and dazzle with his amazing deductive skills. Even though he's sure he can rise to the top wherever he is, it just isn't satisfying to think that his biggest enemies are already dead. Much as it sickens him to admit it, he needs to know that those two are still alive, if only to thoroughly crush them under his own boot.]

I'll consider the supernatural, but if I do that, it means that it'd be all too easy for the people keeping us here to fake the look and feel of a dead planet. Isn't it more comforting to think that that's what they did?

I don't blame you, I didn't want to believe it either. A trip back there though is a real eye opener.

And maybe it would be but you're among people who can call down lightning, make a pillar or ice or shoot fire from their hands. Shape shifters, people who actually were dead, humans and non-humans, anything you can imagine is here. And if it isn't yet, it will be.

I'd like to think that it's all fake though, yeah.

I'll have to find my way back to my own world some time. See for myself how much of an "eye-opener" it is.

I can't say I'm a complete stranger to the supernatural, so I'm sure it won't be too difficult to work all this into my deductions. The lack of consistency is a real pain, though. I'd thought before that the universe was bound by laws, even if some of those laws are beyond scientific explanation, but this tower is just all over the place.

[And he's at a loss here. Damn.]

Anyway. I'll stop taking up your time now. Good luck with that wedding stuff.

[Is he sarcastic, or is he sincere? We just don't know!]

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