We Have Come To Terms

[a_louse]

Batallion Zhar was kept by the Russian government on a leash for too long. It was only a matter of time until they broke free. Maybe now their fortune will turn around for the better.

I intend to let ESUN know about the way Russia treats its immigrants next time we talk. This is not how a professional government should act.

[Roger falls silent. Paradigm Corp at home is not exactly a paragon of virtue, either.]

Comments

[majestic_keiki]

Wouldn't that just lead to people asking questions about who you are?

[a_louse]

Let them ask. I will tell them the truth; that a part of my job as a negotiator is to stay well-informed.

[majestic_keiki]

So you think the ESUN is going to listen to some guy without ID talking about being from a hidden city nobody has heard about and how one of its members is violating human rights?

[a_louse]

Haven't I mentioned that semi-secret negotiations between Paradigm and ESUN are going on? My position as an official negotiator is acknowledged during those. I am going to mention this topic during one of those meetings.

[majestic_keiki]

I must have missed that.

[a_louse]

It was a part of my greeting message.

You didn't think I intended to just approach an ESUN official out of the blue and tell them about this, did you?

[majestic_keiki]

It sounded like it. And with the things some people around here do, it wouldn't surprise me.

[a_louse]

Let me assure you, I have at least a bit more common sense than that.

[majestic_keiki]

That's good...You wouldn't imagine the things some people do.

[a_louse]

Do I want to know?

[majestic_keiki]

No, you don't. But you probably will if you stick around long enough.

[a_louse]

You make this place sound like a madhouse.

[majestic_keiki]

We have at least one mentally unstable person here and several who might be. Lots of things that outsiders would think we were insane if we mentioned.

[a_louse]

Just like at home, then. I have some experience dealing with crazies in Paradigm already.

[majestic_keiki]

So Paradigm is like this as well?

[a_louse]

Have you heard about Memories? I don't mean events you remember from your recent life. I mean Memories as objects.

[majestic_keiki]

No, I haven't. And I have a hard time even understanding how that would work.

[a_louse]

Sometimes, people in Paradigm find Memories from before the mass amnesia event, 40 years ago. Memories that belonged to them, sometimes, but most of the time to someone else. They rarely just remember them; usually they find them in some remote area, long forgotten.

Those Memories give them the knowledge of how to create amazing, long-forgotten things, things that should not be possible. And the people who find them are often not the most mentally stable kind.

[majestic_keiki]

...Seriously?

[a_louse]

I'm sure you see now why one of my rules is to stay away from Memories as much as I can.

And yet I often have to deal with people who use them regardless.

[majestic_keiki]

That still sounds so weird. Memories are just kinda there outside Paradigm. Inside your head where they belong.

[a_louse]

That's just how it is in the City of Lost Memories. It's all the aftermath of the event, 40 years ago.

And now you know why it took me very little time to adapt to the strangeness of the outside world.

[majestic_keiki]

Yeah...It seems like a lot of people are more used to strangeness than I was.

[a_louse]

I'm sure you will get used to it. That's the reality of the world we live in, after all.

[majestic_keiki]

I will. I've gotten used to lots of weird things.