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[eidetics]

[There are several orders of business, here, and Lisbeth gets right down to them: no greeting, no please, no thank you.]

I want to know how many people have left the ship and then returned. With or without memories of being here before, and how long they were gone. Firsthand accounts or otherwise.

I also want to know how often our brains and bodies are fucked with and whether anyone's unaffected. I know this isn't the first time. [And if you're stupid enough to go blabbing to a stranger about the memories you're experiencing, be her guest, but she's not asking for that.]

I need these items:
- disposable camera
- soldering iron
- copper wire
- electrical tape

Contact me privately and we'll arrange something.

Comments

[anon text]

[ryuuzaki]

[Someone's planning to build a taser.]

Search the network archives for more answers than you'll get here.

I wouldn't try your device on the manticores.

[eidetics]

[That's a bingo.]

I've looked. I want to hear personal accounts.

[And then, after another moment--]

Manticores.

[Watching video and reading about strange creatures is very different from actually encountering one. She's not sure what she believes yet.]

[ryuuzaki]

It's not that it's impossible that it would stun them to some extent, but it's a chance I wouldn't take... if you're close enough to try it just to get away, you're too close. And they're capable of moving fast. Take a look.

[A link to this video comes along with this comment.

Of course, the item would probably cause more discomfort to an ordinary human, but that's a subject that he'll leave as understood for now.]

[eidetics]

Were they genetic experiments?

[Because despite the fact that she was beamed onto a starship--which she's decided to stop trying to process in favor of focusing on surviving or leaving--Lisbeth refuses to wrap her brain around the existence of magic, in animals or otherwise.]

[ryuuzaki]

It seems like it. The genetics lab was full of them, along with what appeared to be genetically modified rats. It's been destroyed, but I don't think they've been eradicated.

[Those rats... his leg still aches now and then, and even though he's washed them, he still has the bloodstained shoes to show for it.]

They tend to be found in the less-inhabited parts of the ship. If you start to see the murals, you're definitely a little too far out.

[eidetics]

[This is seriously fucked up. On a different level from what Lisbeth's used to dealing with.]

The layout of the ship changes. Correct?

[ryuuzaki]

Correct. The paths in some of the more distant areas seem to change frequently.

The lifts work most of the time, and they're better than the alternative. If one deposits you in a place you didn't expect to go, something weird is going on. That's when you're most likely to run into trouble, if you don't go looking for it.

[He'd had a passing--only passing--observational familiarity with Lisbeth during her previous stay on the ship... she had been a fixture in Comms when he'd volunteered to help out during the shortage. His impression of her was that she was fierce and defensive, and that she might very well be the kind of person who would go looking for trouble... but the latter was hard to be sure of without more time to observe her behavior, time he hadn't had, and not every person is prone to looking for the same kind of trouble anyway.

Now that she's come back claiming to have no memory of her previous stay, it doesn't seem like a good idea to base much of his analysis of her on vague earlier acquaintance.

At least she's thinking seriously about self-defense.]

[eidetics]

I won't go looking for it.

[The truth is, Lisbeth would be perfectly happy to be left alone, live quietly with her laptop and work and not have to deal with people at all. But when trouble comes to her, she gives as good as she gets.

And it comes to her with some frequency.]

[ryuuzaki]

Good. I'll hold you to that.

[Useful words, coming from someone speaking anonymously. Not even slightly uncomfortable at all.]

But what will you do?