recrypt | holding my pride tight until your tears dry;

[ reading comprehension is a lost art, and one that shall be excused by spacing out. ]

Right . . .

Is your body going to be okay, doing that?

It's the effect, unfortunately. But being this close to the bonfire should help, at the very least.

I've weathered worse conditions anyway.

[ he eyes her without looking at her face for a long moment. ]

You've been through a lot, haven't you?

Haha. What do you want me to say to that?

I operate in Russian territory. It's going to get cold.

[ no, it's not just the cold . . . ]

You're from the same country as Anya?

... I suppose?

[ it's interesting, isn't it? how despite all the german affectations she was programmed with, it's really still russia... or rather, the neo soviet union that's actually her origin. ]

It isn't using the same name anymore, but... more or less, yes.

[ right, because she's from a reality where organic beings are incapable of surviving.

between this being another country and presumably quite ahead of him in years, he finds himself curious to better understand the mechanical world from which 45 hails. ]

What is it like there?

[ well, they can, they just need to be wearing appropriate protection and stick in the less-irradiated zones.

it's just that dropping in on a whim probably will not send them to those zones, if only because dolls were made specifically to function where humans couldn't safely go.

anyway this has been your fun fact of 45 being made of radiation resistant materials. ]

That depends very much on where you go to. Green zone cities tend to be walled off, prosperous, clean. You can almost pretend that a war hadn't ruined much of the earth only a decade ago. They are very choosy and selective as to who from outside might be let in, however.

Yellow zone cities and settlements ... they vary more. There's less inherent structure, less strict regulation. Governments don't pay as much attention to them. They get less in the way of resources.

That city in the memory I spoke of- that was a yellow zone city.

[ maybe even of murder-resistant materials, too.

he can't imagine a world so ruined that cities would have to be walled off that dramatically. just how much did people ruin the earth? is that the reality they're all headed toward, or just the one? ]

Is that right? And the same goes for the rest of the world?

It's how regions are classified in the Pan-European and Neo Soviet Unions. I couldn't say much about how the rest of the world looks, or how they've specifically chosen to handle the circumstances.

[ but it's quite the inhospitable world for a human to be in. picturesque abandoned cities from before, overgrown with plant life, are quite the common sight. what remains of the global population has all either clustered into the livable green zones, or settled for carefully scraping out a living in the yellow zones. ]

[ those are words he understands individually, but not as units.

he takes a moment to think. ]

You called yourself a traveler in the story. Did you travel far?

... Perhaps it's less that I've traveled far, and more that I've never settled down. Certainly not then, anyway.

There's no true home for me to return to anyway, Zenitsu.

[ well, that's a depressing thought. ]

There isn't anyone? What about the other dolls?

What about them? Just because they're other dolls doesn't mean I have anything to do with them. On the contrary- as far as the records show, I don't exist.

What do you mean?

As far as anyone is concerned, I should have died to years ago in the incident that killed everyone else I knew at the time. They called it an accident.

I know better.

[ they must probably be humans.

as simple as she puts it, zenitsu is outraged enough even under current circumstances to start rising from his seat. ]

They tried to get rid of you? That's horrible!

Well, I was made to be disposable. I can't say the same thing for many of the others who were there, especially the humans.

[ so it's a bit of a cosmic joke how she's the one who survived. ]

[ everywhere, there is loss. he watches her for a beat before sitting back down. ]

Then whoever they are just didn't care? That makes it even worse.

Oh, they definitely cared enough to try to make sure everyone there died. That way, the knowledge of what they'd done would never get out.

[ dead men tell no tales... ]

Doesn't that mean you're in danger? Is that why you're in a coma back there?

But if you don't exist . . .

[ how did they find her? and who were all those dolls in her memory? ]

Of course I am. But what was I supposed to do? Run?

[ run, and for what? self-preservation, at the cost of... what? ]

If I want answers, I'm going to have to put myself at risk at some point. And just because they can't trace or track me doesn't mean I can't physically be affected in combat.

[ she'd go back to that chaos for something like that. if he were her, he would've ran and never looked back. ]

You're . . . unbelievably brave.

Brave? ... No, I don't think so.

I just won't accept the idea of giving up. Or I can't, rather.

[ the things she says ring so true. jigoro would've loved to know her, he thinks. ]

I hope you find it—the answer.

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recrypt - 2020-07-31 16:06 (UTC) - Expand

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swordflash - 2020-08-01 05:49 (UTC) - Expand