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

[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?

[perturbator]

They invaded us. Kinda past negotiations at that point.

[huntergames]

I am very sorry to hear that.

[perturbator]

Not your fault. You know, different universes. Whatever the hell.

[Time to change the subject before he starts thinking too hard about any of that. He may have noticed her eying the pizza. Finally, he comes fully into frame as he pulls another slice out of the box.]

You know this place? I just hit the first one I could find.

[huntergames]

[ The subject change works. She's immediately preoccupied with thoughts of pizza. ]

Uh huh! I used to work at a pizza restaurant, actually. I still have coupons!

[ They're all expired... ]

they share a psychic pizza connection

[perturbator]

[And he's just as distracted as soon as she mentions coupons. Pizza Tuesdays were less of a thing in the 80s.]

No shit. [He's almost smiling sheepishly now.] Any way you could part with some of those?

[Expiration won't stop him from getting the pizza, either way.]