01 ☣ voice

[vaccination]

Bullshit is showing up here with everything on me but my comic books. All those Savage Starlight issues, gone. Just like that. Fuck you too, Initiative.

[A pause. Ellie's never really addressed a group of people. Technology is crazy. Okay, there was a point to this whole thing.]

... anyway, guess I just wanted to say thanks to the people that helped me out when I got here. I found who I was looking for, so. Didn't wanna leave anyone with a cliffhanger.

Comments

voice

[vaccination]

On your own?

[Ellie had briefly entertained the idea, when younger, but even then she'd always plan to go with a friend.]

voice

[hyanaimne]

[she debates for a long moment on how to really explain it, if she wants to explain it at all]

Mm . . . my village had been destroyed, and I was the only survivor.

voice

[vaccination]

Shit... I'm sorry.

[Loss happens everywhere, even in worlds without cordyceps.]

voice

[hyanaimne]

[there's a long moment of silence before she answers; since she never talks about it, hearing "I'm sorry" . . . it's just strange to her]

Ah . . . you needn't say that. It was a long time ago.

voice

[vaccination]

[Things can happen twenty years ago and still sting as if it happened yesterday.]

Yeah.

voice

[hyanaimne]

[it certainly can]

Mm . . .

Ah—I hadn't meant to turn the discussion in such a direction. My apologies.

voice

[vaccination]

It's alright. I asked.

voice

[hyanaimne]

Even so . . .

I know they may not be the same, but have you checked the library to see if they have these comics of yours?

voice

[vaccination]

Not yet, but I guess I should, seeing as it's been suggested a few times.

Re: voice

[hyanaimne]

You never know, yes?

Perhaps we will see each other there.

voice

[vaccination]

You hang out in the library?

voice

[hyanaimne]

Sometimes. There is a lot to learn about this world, yes? And others like it. So I do a bit of . . . research? I think that is the word.

voice

[vaccination]

Research, yeah. That's the word.

That has to take up all your free time.

voice

[hyanaimne]

Heh, only a bit. I do not spend all my time there.

voice

[vaccination]

That's good. Too much research can drive you nuts.

voice

[hyanaimne]

Ah . . . can it?

voice

[vaccination]

Or turn you into a monkey.

voice

[hyanaimne]

[she sounds so confused]

A what?

voice

[vaccination]

Uhh--it was a joke. But monkeys are... um. Animals that are pretty smart.

voice

[hyanaimne]

Monkeys . . . I see. One moment?

[Ellie will hear some soft cursing as Tempest tries to figure out how to look things up on the damned tablet. A few moments pass before she makes a soft "oh" noise]

Oh . . . they are cute . . .

voice

[vaccination]

Do you not have them, where you're from?

voice

[hyanaimne]

Not to my knowledge? They certainly do not live in my country, but perhaps across the oceans, down south . . .

But I have never been there, so I could not say for sure.

voice

[vaccination]

I only knew about them because of some book I read.

[And then she saw some real ones, but they weren't exactly things you wanted to pet.]

voice

[hyanaimne]

Ohh? [and back to books they go] Do you like to read, then?

voice

[vaccination]

Yeah. All the time, when I can.