CHAPTER ONE

[perturbator]

[The video comes in rather unfocused at first, until some noisy fiddling brings a pair of 80s style Air Jordans into view.]

There's probably other things I should be asking first, but I only have two questions right now. One: How's the weather in California this time of year?

[If this place really is different, the forecast won't be nuclear fallout. People will be there again. America might be whole again.

Quickly, the camera shifts to a small coffee table with several different newspapers strewn all over it, but with a DVD copy of Terminator 2 on top.]

Two: How the fuck do you rewind this thing?

Comments

[perturbator]

Dunno if they like tossing that word around. We called it a "conflict."

[huntergames]

Conflict between who?

[perturbator]

The Reds-- Uh. The Soviets, and us. Kinda like it is here.

[Except they're winning here. He thought that would make him happier than it does.]

[huntergames]

Oh.

[ That's disappointing. ]

I've heard it ended in a lot of other worlds. Maybe it'll end here one of these days.

[ Hopefully peacefully. ]

[perturbator]

A cease fire doesn't mean over, either.

[That comes out more forcefully than intended. And the war didn't end with just soldiers. He's quiet for a moment, then shrugs.]

Maybe. No one's dropped a bomb yet. Must be a fucking record.

[huntergames]

I'm...

[ This is getting a tad awkward. ]

... sorry to hear?

[perturbator]

[Yeah no, even he can gauge that.]

Don't worry about it. Kids shouldn't have to.

[huntergames]

Oh, but... I'm not a kid. I'm eighteen.

[ She says with a mustard stain somewhere on her shirt. ]

[perturbator]

[He actually lets out something resembling a snort of laughter at that. He'd argue, but when he was eighteen, he said the same shit.]

Sorry. Hard to see on this thing, I guess.

[Says the older twenty something with pizza on the couch.]

[huntergames]

[ Eyes. That. Pizza. ]

It's okay! And I'm not unfamiliar with war... besides, I'm in the military.

[perturbator]

[PAY TO PLAY THAT PIZZA BUDDY]

Here? Did you just enlist?

[huntergames]

Back home, actually. I'm a soldier in the Survey Corps.

[ So totally ~not~ a kid. ]

[perturbator]

Not a lot of people to fight back there, I guess.

[He assumes, from what she's said. It's not like the army was that much different.]

You see a lot?

[Action, he means. Death, what that always means.]

[huntergames]

[ She's going to brush past that question. ]

A lot of...?

[perturbator]

Fighting.

[That's... an okay way to put it, right? Maybe clarifying would make this sound less intrusive. Didn't think of that.]

I was in the army too.

[huntergames]

Against the titans? Yes.

[ And what the titans did. That's an easy guess, however.

She perks up, interested by his own background. ]

Were you? Did you fight, uh... the Russians then?

[perturbator]

...Titans aren't people, are they?

[LOOK HE'S GETTING THE HANG OF THE WEIRD STUFF

But he hesitates in answering. Only fair, though.]

Yeah. Special ops.

1/2

[huntergames]

[ Yikes. ]

2/2

[huntergames]

No, they're... monsters. We don't know very much about them.

[ Let's focus on him instead. ]

Special? You must have been a great soldier for that.

[perturbator]

[we all got demons brosis]

Okay.

[He can sense caginess about this sort of thing. He'd been to a few meetings.]

Not really. We just cleaned up messes, and I was the kid then.

[huntergames]

Huh? That doesn't sound like a special team...

[perturbator]

They were suicide missions.

[For the guys who had consciences left, anyway.]

should there be a warning for this WHAT DO I LABEL THIS AS

[huntergames]

Er...

[ She tenses now. ]

Suicide missions?

tw WAR NEVER CHANGES

[perturbator]

Yeah. Impossible odds. We made 'em work in our favor, most of the time. Killed more commies than most infantry units could on their own.

I mean. I get it. People called me a kid then, too.

[huntergames]

Oh.

[ It makes her wonder if it'll ever come to that in this world. ]

There was no other way to stop them?