001; video // it's a white, white wasteland~

[hiskillingeyes]

[On comes the feed, and in it is a blurry video of a scrawny Japanese boy in glasses. He seems to have found his way into the hostel room and is sitting on the bed, still fidgeting somewhat from unfamiliar surroundings.]

So, uh, nobody's going to stand up and tell me I'm on Candid Camera at this point, I guess. This isn't exactly what I envisioned

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[ysobritish]

[Scrawny Japanese boy in glasses, meet bored shirtless supersoldier.]

It's not torment-filled enough to be Hell and too desecrated to be Heaven. If it's anything like that, it's purgatory, although I doubt that also.

I've never encountered this Tohno Akiha.

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[hiskillingeyes]

[Why hello bored shirtless supersoldier. Too bad that all the shirt-baring people in his world are vampires. But he's not judging, no. not in this route, anyway]

I'm guess that if it's purgatory, then whatever religion came up with this must have really strange ideas about redemption. So where would you say we are? Just America, like they said?

I kind of expected that, but still...it's and odd feeling. Thank you for answering though, Mr..?

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[ysobritish]

...Moriarty. Lieutenant Moriarty.

It does appear that way. Although this is America as it would be after a series of tactical nuclear strikes.

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[hiskillingeyes]

....Moriarty? Er. Forgive my ignorance, sir, but is that a common name in the West? It's, um, I think I've heard of it before. [No, he hasn't read Holmes. It's optional outside reading for some schools, however, and he knows about it.]

The pamphlets mentioned the nuclear strikes, too. I guess that we wouldn't have any embassies to consult, either, even if I never expected to get an American citizenship this way before.

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[ysobritish]

No embassies. Nothing. Consider yourself an honorary American while you're here. They're certainly going to.

It's not common, but we do exist.

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[hiskillingeyes]

Oh. I see. I'm sorry if that was rude, it's just...not as common to us as Smith or Johnson, although I guess we haven't had much exposure outside of movies.

And I guess worse things could happen than being an American. At least I'm talking in English now, that counts for something.

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[ysobritish]

There are thousands of surnames in the United Kingdom.

Oh good, an optimist. [Sarcasm mode is go.]

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[hiskillingeyes]

.....well, there's not much point in trying to tear my hair out on the first day, right? I'd complain for the entire month if that would do anything, but that's a pretty unlikely case, from the looks of it.

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[ysobritish]

There's a difference between pessimism and complaining.

But it hardly matters.

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[hiskillingeyes]

You sound like you could use some optimism youself, sir, if you don't mind me saying so.

I'll admit that I was shocked to wake up here, and that it's disconcerting. It'd just be counterproductive to dwell on it, not to mention depressing for everybody else involved.

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[ysobritish]

[Try doing it after you die. Liquid was never the most sane of people before that.]

Optimism is the tool of the delusional. In the end, all that matters is that you go on.

I take it you couldn't speak english before?

Video, also, no kidding

[hiskillingeyes]

[Well, he sort of died. It's just that Shiki is relatively sane.]

Not really, no. Er, did I just make a stupid mistake? I know that happened a lot in my English exams, unfortunately.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with looking at things on the bright side. There's a lot that could happen in 'going on', even if we're going to disagree about this forever.

Video fffff

[ysobritish]

No, it's just a curious fact. I didn't realise that could happen.

[Liquid had been driven into instability through a life of abuse, isolation and war. Dying had come close to tipping him over the edge.]

There is nothing bright about anything. Only a fool expects joy out of life.

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[hiskillingeyes]

Well, they did say I was always supposed to be an English speaker. Although that would leave the problem of why none of it made any sense when I was allegedly 'dreaming', if that story is even remotely true. Maybe it's just a way to make everything more convincing for us.

[Shiki has lived a mostly regular life as a highschool student with a creepy vision. Dying has not improved his weird logic.]

I wouldn't know about that. Sometimes we find things because we look for them, and do we still call a fool who looked for joy foolish if he finds it in the end?

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[ysobritish]

Don't believe a word they say.

Of course I do. Joy is pointless and unnecessary.

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[hiskillingeyes]

I didn't say that, did I? I was just referring to this whole language thing, it could just be one way to make us believe all the nonsense they said. No matter how they did it.

Well, I guess you wouldn't die or anything if you're unhappy, but then what's the point? Endless pessimism is even more pointless than anything joy could be, if you ask me.