therewerefifty

[Makie has had the facts of this place explained to her already, by a gentleman in a... fairly awkward situation.

It doesn't prepare her for the reality of a village with occupants like none she's ever seen before. Some of you aren't even human, Luceti. The hell. She wanders the path of the village from Community Building #1 down toward the plaza still in her New Feather dress, just like a gawking tourist, and spends some time staring at the fountain and plaza itself. Uh.

...right. Okay. Time to begin glancing through various shops in her attempts to find the places she was told her things would be. She finds her clothes with a measure of relief, and her shamisen at the item store-- and after she picks it up, she frowns. It's too light. She doesn't need to open it to know she's missing something.

Eventually, she'll find her way into the forge to pick up the last of her things, pays a visit to the Welcome Centre-- and then finally fetches up at the tea shop, which is the most familiar-looking thing here.

...sort of. Never really loses that dazed and confused look.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It can be, and not just because of the monsters. But isn't anywhere gonna be dangerous at least some of the time? Even here, no matter how peaceful it looks.

I suppose so. At home, the worst we deal with on the road are bandits and wild animals, but... there's certainly no short supply of those.

[She'll spare Makie the giant sewer rats.]

I guess that's one thing Luceti has going for it - not much of that stuff walking around waiting to get you.

[We thank you for this.]

What about the drafts and experiments? Does it get more dangerous then?

Yeah. Not all the experiments are dangerous, but the drafts definitely are. It's...well, it's a war out there. Even if it's a weird one and even if we don't like it.

Several people have mentioned this war. Not so much about the people we have to fight, however.

Usually the Malnosso call them the Third Party or "cultists". They're...really, they look like us except they have big wings instead of small ones, and they get kinda crazy about fighting and killing people.

Do they have a reason?

For fighting? I'm really not the best person to explain that. It's something like...like the cultists wanna destroy the place, maybe? They can definitely kill us and stop us from coming back.

But their reason for making us fight just sounds to me like they're cowards about doing it themselves most of the time.

[...if that's true, then it's in their own best interests to fight back anyway. But Makie knows better than to assume that's the plain and simple story. She frowns.]

It seems so... peaceful. For a village at war.

That's because it's totally not our war! And it isn't always peaceful, either. We just all take advantage of it when it is.

[...heh.] I suppose that's the best way of looking at it.

How often is there trouble?

They show up with drafts every few months. Experiments happen way more often than that, more than once a month sometimes.

Is there anything we can do to prepare for either one?

Sometimes they warn us about experiments. They used to warn us all the time in a really stupid way, but things've changed a lot since then.

What do you mean, 'a really stupid way'?

Way before we knew what they might want, or their names or anything, they'd just leave us a message in our journals that was, I guess, kind of a hint? And awful and mean-spirited and...uh, like they had fun "playing" with us.

...and yet these people still expect you to fight for them?

Yeah. That's what happens when you're someone else's experiment.

What happens if you refuse to fight?

[She doesn't encourage rebellion. Makie's pretty sure that won't help-- but there is curiosity as to whether that's been tried before.]

If you refuse and you're on the list? They come and get you and make you go anyway.

[She thinks they stopped it from happening to one person one time, but that is not her story to tell.]

I see.

No matter if you're a woman or a child. That's rather different from my... world.

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