exsilium | 004; text

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004; text

This may only apply to a few people, but has anyone actually left the island and gone into UE territory?

If you have, I would like to speak with you. I have a few questions.

[ Short and to the point. Now to sit back and see if anyone bites. ]

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[Easier for people who are highly trained at keeping themselves from being noticed]

The city we saw was extremely clean, pristine. The people...well, they were much more like docile cattle than people. The leaders of the United Earth make all of their citizens take a drug that keeps them in line. Keeps them from questioning their rulers or trying to stage an uprising.

Duncan and I found some of the drug and brought it back.

[ The drug part he knew. The other parts, he'd heard stories from the exiles who'd made their way over, but the confirmation was good. ]

I see. So fitting in might take a bit of work, if someone were to sneak over there. [ Less so for Caesar, but when he thought about the people who might be tagging along... ] What about security? Is it more lax with such a docile citizenry?

Fitting in would be difficult--the citizens look different than normal humans, but they all look almost exactly the same as each other.

Security was much higher within the city than without, actually. We saw many armed Masked patrolling the city, keeping an eye on the people. My guess is that the leaders don't take any chances, no matter how compliant their citizens might be.

Different than normal humans? How? I mean, this place gets people from there all the time, but I don't think they've ever looked exactly the same.

It's hard to explain. Maybe it's just that they all had the same vacant expression on their faces all of the time. You've been to the marketplaces around here, haven't you? People there smile and laugh, argue, frown, children run around playing... there was none of that in the city we visited. There were no expressions or emotions... perhaps that's what made them all seem the same.

That makes more sense, yeah. Considering how controlling the United Earth is and how that drug of theirs works, there wouldn't be a whole lot of creative differences in how to dress or how to look.

It's unsettling to see, I'll say that.

I won't pry into why you're so interested in all of this, but if you're thinking of traveling over there the best advice I can give you is to be careful and stay hidden.

I won't lie, I have a group planning on seeing what's out there, but I'm making sure to be as prepared as possible. So far I've gotten a few routes used by exiles to get here that seem to have been safe, but if they still are...

I guess we'll be finding out.

At least you're preparing for the trip rather than just heading out without thought. I have no idea if their routes stay the same or not--if they were smart they would change it every now and again to keep anyone from discovering a pattern.

I'm sure they all used different routes, but the routes themselves shouldn't have changed too much. Not unless there's been sudden changes in the landscape out there, which, well, it is possible, but that can be said for everything.

Very true. I still do some exploring around the Hold, and I've not seen much change in the land in the immediate vicinity. I'm not sure if anything's different further afield, though.

For around here? I think the only major differences is the weather changes significantly the farther north you go.

There have been changes to landmarks, though. Some of the missions we've done have changed things here. Have you seen those botanical gardens north of the Hold? They weren't here when we arrived a year ago. They didn't show up until after one of our early missions. But if you ask the citizens, they'll say that it's been there for years.

Really? [ Give him a second, he's thinking what was said over. ] I guess that makes sense. If you change the past to change the future, things end up different. Man, that's going to be a pain, if I have to change my maps every other month or so...

[ Sigh. SIGH. Time travel. ]

Thankfully the routes I've gotten are from after the last disaster through time, so they should still be mostly accurate.

You should be fine. Most of the changes to the environment haven't been very large-scale. At least it hasn't on this island; I have no idea how much it has changed in United Earth territory.

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