maskormenace | ❮❮ 01; video. ❯❯

[The video feed flickers to life, revealing the face of a young man decidedly still in his late teens. He's calm enough, almost professional, and his words will be spoken with the deliberation of someone who's put some thought into what they're going to say.]

I'm going to bypass what I assume are the usual comments concerning the... inconvenience of being brought here. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was either in the middle of something important or simply has more pressing matters at "home", so there's little point in being redundant.

[All-in-all, he appears to be taking this alright. There's only the slightest twitch, a furrowing of the brow -- but to anyone who claims to know Light well, this is merely an indication that's he a lot more irritated than he's letting on. (Consider it a blessing that no one really knows Light all that well.) He continues.]

My name is Light Yagami; I was a first year college student in Japan before my arrival. I understand that there are shared residencies here... in that case, if you happen to be one of my housemates, I'd appreciate you letting me know. I'd like to familiarize myself with your names, faces, backgrounds, personalities and et cetera, just so I can get a sense of [what he's getting himself into] who I'm living with and what daily life is going to be like. Just out of curiosity.

Secondly -- and this is directed to anyone seeing this -- I'd like some advice as to how to adapt here. This is a - [a pause because the notion sounds ridiculous but here he is] reality that isn't my own, so as far as I know, down could be up and up could be down. Explanations of do's and don't's are welcome, as is just general information if that's all you have to contribute. And yes, I know I've already been given a summary of what's supposedly happening; it's just that I wouldn't mind getting second opinions, or just meeting the people here.

[He looks as if he's about to end it there, and then, as if remembering something:]

Oh, and is the calendar on this thing right? February 26th? It's almost my birthday again.

Anyway, thanks for your time.

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[He can't help but agree after hearing that, though he may have worded it differently.]

Wait, so -- how do we know the same may not happen to this world? Not to be overly cynical, but there's no guarantee something equally bad won't happen now that we're all here.

We don't. I mean, do we know the goddamn apocalypse isn't coming tomorrow? No. Same thing with this. It's out of our hands.

[With an edge of sarcasm, though not necessarily directed at him:] Reassuring.

May I have your name?

I'm afraid reassuring can't be done for that. I can't make promises I can't keep.

My name is Mitchell Hundred, by the way. It's nice to meet you.

[Light makes a mental note of the name (and the voice) for future reference. This man is the first (to his knowledge) he's spoken to who's been here for a lengthy amount of time. If he has questions for later, he might take him up on his offer to ask.]

It's good to meet you too, and I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. What's your job here supposed to be?

Me? I'm an architect -- [ a pause. ] and the representative for the import population as a whole, actually. They gave me two, I guess they knew I was going to work myself to death, huh?

A representative...? [He's glad he's getting a chance to talk to this man, then; an import representative is -- by principle alone -- definitely someone Light should at least be acquainted with.] They did give you a task with a lot of responsibility, didn't they?

[A moment of consideration.]

Have you done much "representing" yet?

Not too much, I'll admit. They wanted us to get our feet first, and we just arrived about a month ago.

I've started things off, coordinated a bit, but until you guys arrived, we've mostly been settling in. There's not too much trouble, when everyone's busy getting used to how things are now.

"Settling in", huh? I guess that's what should be next on my priority list, too.

Probably. It makes everything a little easier, if you get settled. Then, at least, you've got the lay of the land, right?

So I don't get lost in a completely strange city? [He laughs lightly over the feed.] Maybe a map is in order first.

I gotta say, that's probably not a bad idea.

Or at least try and get a smartphone with a map application, but I'm a guy who likes my tech.

[In Light's world, SMARTPHONES ARE NOT A THING exactly. Not yet anyway. They're getting there.] Right. Should be easy enough to bring it up on my... phone, given that simply talking to you this way is a far more impressive feat.

If you're a guy who likes "tech", then you must really appreciate the hovercars.

They're okay.

[ A pause. ] Don't get me wrong, they're fucking cool, but I keep imagining that they're a logistical nightmare to control. What if someone figures out a way to get the fucking things to fly?

[ That, and they're annoying to talk to. ]

[A pause on his end as well.] Maybe I'm just being too fanciful, but wouldn't that be even more impressive?

And a logistical nightmare, speaking as someone who's big into city planning.