Three people come out of a seemingly innocuous door to a dull, grey building. Two of them are laughing about something the other one said, and then one parts way from the group, waving and making his way out of the alley.
The other two are left behind, looking around curiously.
One of them has blue hair. The other has purple eyes and slightly pointy ears.
They're quite out of place.
Jay shrugs. "Lack of resources, differences in opinion of government. Sometimes just sheer bloody mindedness. Humans are violent. We apparently like violence too much to avoid it."
"Are you okay, Miss?" she's confused by the look of horror, and that probably shows. Sure, this isn't exactly nice, but she was pretty sure that at this point it was just plain fact. Humans kill humans, in small numbers, or large numbers, in a variety of inventive ways.
"I'm fine," she responds. "I just feel like we should have come up with something more powerful so I could declare those governments not okay, assuming people have – legitimate complaints."
"Unfortunately we did not bring any large signs," says Itaruko, rolling his eyes. "But – okay, it just seems sort of ridiculous. We've had – oh, I don't know, like two wars in the history of anytime recent?"
"Gross abuse of human rights is frequently considered a reasonable reason," Jay says blandly. Then she rolls her own eyes. "Well, good for you. Unfortunately we haven't reached the level of society or technology where we either manage to achieve world peace, or we blow up enough people that wars stop being a thing. Hi. This is happening, and it might sound ridiculous to you in whatever ivory tower you come from, but this is our reality. And it doesn't seem all that ridiculous to the people fighting for the right to have a roof over their heads, or water to drink, or to, y'know, not be persecuted for a belief they hold."
"I didn't mean ridiculous as in they're being ridiculous, I meant – how many people do you have, are you at like, hundred and fifty billion or something?"
Jay starts to apologise for her outburst, but then the numbers process.
"Hundred and fifty billion ?! We haven't broken ten. Billion that is. How- How does your world even support that many people? Like, resource wise? How do you not have more wars?!"
"– No, I was scaling up to try to account for the wars – we're at a hundred and fifty million. With something like two recent wars. So."
"...ivory tower," Jay mumbles. "Yeah. We have seven or eight billion. And plenty of them are starving. It doesn't help that corporations and richer countries are buying up massive swathes of farming land in poorer countries and exporting what is cultivated to the richer countries. Leaving less land for the locals to farm."
Tau shakes her head and gets to her feet. "I'm going to have to intervene there, Lady Jennifer. Corporations help grow the economies of these countries. And ViaTech certainly ensures that it isn't exporting anything the local populace is struggling to source."
Jay sighs. "I'd forgotten how sharp your ears were, Ms Tau. And of course, you would defend your company, even when we are both well aware that their hands are far from clean."
She turns to her guest. "This is Amelie Tau. She works for one of the larger corporations. She might also be able to render assistance if you can get a straight answer out of her. Tau, these are..." And that is the point that Jay realises that she forgot introductions. "And I seem to have failed to introduce myself, or ask your names. Jay Carson." She stares at Tau, daring her to make an issue of it.
Tau proves that she is much better at pleasantries than Jay. "A pleasure to meet you both. Amelie Tau, ViaTech Industries. No matter what Lady Jennifer says, we do far more good than harm. We also pride ourselves on being at least one step ahead of our competitors on the technology market," she laughs, a self-depreciating sound, "possibly nowhere near your levels, but certainly higher than most on this planet. Now, I must say that from the conversation I overheard, and yes, Lady Jennifer is quite correct about me having sharp ears, but you're obviously not from around here. Can I ask how you got here?"
"I somehow don't think how they got here is relevant to how they can help us."
"That doesn't mean I'm not curious. And frankly, the level of tech that allows for dimension hopping or whatever is definitely something that would help us. But, I do rather suppose that it is...not necessarily relevant."
"Unfortunately the dimension-hopping tech is not actually ours," says Theira. "We arrived here by way of door."
"A door?" Tau says, well aware of the disbelief in her voice. But... "Well. I suppose there is a logic there. How else would you get between dimensions other than a door? Depending on our definition of door." She shakes her head.
"Anyway," says Itaruko, "we might have been a bit ambitious coming here with just stories and hoping to change the world."
"Well, it can be hard to convince people with stories and no obvious evidence, but equally if you don't have any local context, you don't know what kind of evidence you might need. And stories can always help. Implant a rumour in the right place, and it grows, and eventually bears fruit. Either way, we're perfectly willing to play tour-guide to give you a bit more context if that's what you would like?"
"We are?" Jay lifts an eyebrow. Because it's not that she's not willing, it's more that: "Thank you for volunteering me without my say-so, Ms Tau."
"Why, Lady Jennifer, were you intending to let me have our visitors all to myself without any oversight?"
Jay sighs, pinches the bridge of her nose. "I suppose you are right about that." She turns back to Itaruko and Theira. "As Ms Tau says, we're perfectly willing to play tour guide if you wish to get a better grounding on our world?"
"That sounds like it'd be wonderful," says Itaruko. "There aren't going to be any… issues… that you two have to work around to do that?"
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