Searching Far and Wide

[intricate_engineer]

Glen was creating a prototype for a new gate design. It was meant to be affordable and provide quick transport between individual homes. She tests several objects and a rat and everything seems to be working.

She steps through. Instead of finding herself in the room next door, she finds herself standing on a sidewalk in an empty city. The buildings are tall and perfect, colorless with doorways far too tall for any human. The roads have no straight lines and twist in on themselves. There is no life or sound.
Glen tries to stay calm. She begins to walk along the road, randomly opening doors and exploring buildings that are as silent as the rest of the world.

She opens a door that she hopes will lead onto a roof and is instead met with warmth, and soft noise, and color.

Comments

[the_very_best]

"Renée's closer."

[intricate_engineer]

"Want to warn her?"

[the_very_best]

"Yeah, good idea." She can apparently make phone calls on her watch. She does this.

[intricate_engineer]

Glen carefully attaches the third portal to the harness.

[the_very_best]

And presently they are on their way to a well-warned Renée.

[intricate_engineer]

"What's your mom like?"

[the_very_best]

"Scatterbrained kindergarten teacher, tries to tame wild bird 'mon without catching them, fails at it."

[intricate_engineer]

"She sounds sweet? How do you train a mon' without catching it?"

[the_very_best]

"It works sometimes that if you feed them and leave if they get aggressive and talk to them a lot they'll be calm and won't attack you. Some 'mon are so docile that even without being formally caught they can be safe for random people to go up to. People can also keep herd 'mon without catching them, or even catching one of them. But it doesn't work reliably and Renée's not good at it."

[intricate_engineer]

"You can do that with some animals from other worlds too, it's always dangerous with predators though."

[the_very_best]

"Very few 'mon are predators but I don't think it's specially hard with those."

[intricate_engineer]

"They can come to associate humans with food, which can make them more aggressive."

[the_very_best]

"Huh, as a rule 'mon who associate humans with food are friendlier."

[intricate_engineer]

"The idea is that normally humans don't register as a threat or as prey, so the larger predators ignore them. But if you feed a bear, it might start coming towards towns or cars looking for food and might then become aggressive if it doesn't find any."

[the_very_best]

"Maybe it's just that 'mon are so aggressive by default."

[intricate_engineer]

"Possibly. It's unusual enough for an animal to kill a human, that one who does will be hunted and put down."

[the_very_best]

"Wow. We usually assume negligence on the human's part, wild mon are just a hazard you have to account for..."

[intricate_engineer]

"There's the idea that once a predator kills one human, it may have learned the behavior and start killing others."

[the_very_best]

"...I suppose maybe that makes sense in the case of animals? Seems weird to me."

[intricate_engineer]

"Animals are a lot less powerful than 'mon I think, but the average person also has far fewer defenses."

[the_very_best]

"Maybe we should export."

[intricate_engineer]

"You definitely could."

[the_very_best]

"Once we're in touch with the multiverse."

[intricate_engineer]

"Yea, so let's make sure not to break this. I'll jump off to help set it down."

[the_very_best]

"Help how?"