holding my pride tight until your tears dry;

[recrypt]

Comments

[recrypt]

[ she's a little slow to shuffle there anyway, movements stiff and affected, so it's no wonder that anyone else beats her to the bonfire. ]

... You knew them, right?

[swordflash]

[ he looks up, not quite reaching her face and settling instead for her neck. ]

Yeah. Not very well, though.

Are you okay?

[recrypt]

[ she blows out a breath, the heat fogging up the air in front of her. ] Partly frozen. My joints are stiff.

It's not an effect, though, it's what happens when you stay out overnight without keeping active... What about you, though?

[ 'are you okay' is the better question for him in this situation, but. ]

[swordflash]

[ stiff like an elderly person . . . ]

It must've snowed all night. Are you saying that you slept outside?

[ why do cute girls keep sleeping in the cold? please stop.

he scoots over on the log bench to make space for 45. ]

Here, you can sit next to me. The fire's warm.

[recrypt]

We would have almost done so if I didn't manage to drag Minako into the lakeside cabin in time. But it's still not particularly well protected from the cold, so...

[ haha,

but she'll sit down besides him before leaning down to slowly gather snow into a pile. ]

You didn't answer my question though, Zenitsu.

[swordflash]

[ not one, but two girls! that's terrible. ]

Huh?

[ wasn't she asking him if he was bothered by the cold? was she actually returning his question? ]

I'm fine.

[recrypt]

Hm.

[ hmmmm. the snow pile grows. ]

Are you really?

[ even if he hadn't known them well, it must be unsettling, losing others from your own world here. ]

[swordflash]

Well, I'm still here. I don't even have a painful effect this time . . .

[ all things considered, he thinks that he's gotten off very lucky this week. ]

[recrypt]

The absence of pain doesn't quite necessarily equate to being okay ... but, if that's what you say, then who am I to question it?

[ the base of a snowman forms itself. ]

[swordflash]

[ wise and clever words. unfortunately, they're pushed aside as he blinks at the pile of snow that's taken form. ]

D-did you do that?

[recrypt]

[ dflkgjdsfg i meant it more as just her autopiloting through making the pile of snow but ]

I've been making it this entire time...?

[swordflash]

[ 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?

[recrypt]

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

I've weathered worse conditions anyway.

[swordflash]

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

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

[recrypt]

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

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

[swordflash]

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

You're from the same country as Anya?

[recrypt]

... 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.

[swordflash]

[ 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?

[recrypt]

[ 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.

[swordflash]

[ 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?

[recrypt]

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. ]

[swordflash]

[ 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?

[recrypt]

... 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.

[swordflash]

[ well, that's a depressing thought. ]

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

[recrypt]

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.