[He folds his arms over one another, leaning toward Five with unconscious interest.]
How long was that? Your lifetime.
[Of all the confounding aspects of the visions, a young body with an old mind that had been but one. Just as confounding is how breathlessly old he is by M.K.'s standards.
This place has been a nightmare, not the least of which because he's still alive to live it day after day, but there are moments--moments when genuine wonder creeps in past dull, deadened defeat. This boy, for all he knows, had been there in the early days, able to see the shining cities before they fell. He isn't thinking of the horror of the fall itself, in part because with no real record of it, there's no real image to fill the gaps in his imagination. He shrugs.]
You might be able to answer that better than I could. No one really knows what happened. They say they destroyed themselves. Wars or something else, I don't know. I just know it's always been the way it is: dead.
no subject
How long was that? Your lifetime.
[Of all the confounding aspects of the visions, a young body with an old mind that had been but one. Just as confounding is how breathlessly old he is by M.K.'s standards.
This place has been a nightmare, not the least of which because he's still alive to live it day after day, but there are moments--moments when genuine wonder creeps in past dull, deadened defeat. This boy, for all he knows, had been there in the early days, able to see the shining cities before they fell. He isn't thinking of the horror of the fall itself, in part because with no real record of it, there's no real image to fill the gaps in his imagination. He shrugs.]
You might be able to answer that better than I could. No one really knows what happened. They say they destroyed themselves. Wars or something else, I don't know. I just know it's always been the way it is: dead.