zackthekiller | Monday, week one. (A word of caution)

[We're murdering people now?]

[In one instance, he wouldn't have minded. He was provided familiar room and board, and he could kill anyone he wanted as long as he played nice with the other psychos.]

[This was different, though. Now his life was on the line. Along with the magical bullshit he's putting up with, he also has to keep an eye on his standings, plus he has to get enough candy so he can go put up with the familiar shit and find Ray... And if he has to get away with murder, it means he'll be put on trial if he gets caught.]

[Now, Zack has a certian M.O. that could pop up at any point, and while that would make him less likely to kill for some reasons, it would also get him punished for a crime he didn't commit. He needs someone to back him up, someone who isn't too likely to turn on him.]

[Luckily, Zack knows a certian dead eyed girl who hates being forced into bullshit. After dealing with the mystery person in the Network, he sends a private message to Miach's phone.]

Mia, it's Zack. Mind if I crash at your place for a bit? I gotta tell you something important.

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[ That gets her to pause on her way to the kitchen and turn her head towards him again. ]

Oh?

Liars.

[He watches her sternly for a minute.]

[ There's a moment of silence, though Miach's expression doesn't change. 'Liars', huh? It seems like an almost childish thing to despise, but Miach can't say she doesn't understand what kind of place it comes from. ]

I don't care about lying. When the whole world around me is a sugar-sweet lie, the best I can do is refuse to change myself for anyone or anything, you know?

Maybe in another time, another era, I'd have found pleasure in deceiving people. I certainly do think dishonesty is part of human wickedness.

But I'm not that person now. I'd rather demonstrate my true self until the end.

[He watches her cautiously as she explains herself. She has a point, the world is full of shitty liars. Of course, she would also have to lie sometimes. But taking pleasure in it? There's another level of fucked up.]

[But she says she's changed. He's not sure about that.]

You promise?

Sure. I promise that I haven't lied to you and won't lie to you in the future.

[ Her tone of voice is pretty casual, but she's not being dishonest here either. ]

I'm going to make us that coffee now.

[ As she leaves the room for the moment, Miach wonders if anyone has ever been so insistent about not being lied to by her. Her adoptive parents, in theory, of course, but in practice they had swallowed up any bit of untruth that made it seem like she was okay. As for her friends... maybe the idea that Miach could be lying hadn't even occured to either of them. Curious. ]

You better not...

[Or else.]

[He's sure he's made it clear to Mia that he would get revenge if she betrayed him.]

[He waits for his coffee.]

[ If Miach ever would find a reason to betray Zack, then going down at the fault of her own actions doesn't even sound so bad.

It only takes a moment for her to emerge again with two cups of black coffee - the cups are kind of chipped but clean. She'll hand Zack one - if he wants sugar or milk then.... well, that would need to be arranged. Somehow.

Miach sits down next to him on the bed this time, own cup in hand. ]

If you want to ask me anything to test my sincerity, go ahead.

[Zack doesn't care. He'll just put up with the bitterness. Besides, he's lived in worse dumps.]

... Alright, random question one. What were you like as a kid?

[He could threaten to kill her, but she doesn't care if she dies and that's not good.]

[ Miach blinks at that and then laughs a short but genuinely amused laugh. ]

I'm impressed by the fact that you managed to pick a question I cannot answer - though make no mistake, by cannot I mean 'literally not able to' not 'unwilling'.

I don't have any clear memories from before I was 8. I do think I was happy before then though.

[ She smiles wistfully as she tries to grasp whatever vague memories keep escaping her. ]

... Oh.

[So she has amnesia. Whoops.]

I had no idea. Is there anything you can remember? After you were 8?

Hell.

[ She pauses, then corrects herself: ]

Though a different kind of hell than the society I already told you about.

Another thing we have in common is that we've been put through the orphan care system. They plucked me out of a war zone, put me through therapy, layered kindness and compassion onto me like cement and then decided I was fit to be put into their perfect little world.

I went from a place made out of iron and blood into a world where nobody has ever had to see a serious injury, let alone a corpse. [ Miach shakes her head at that naivety. ]

I liked it fine at first - nobody touched me physically, I had all that I needed to live... but it wasn't long before I noticed that it's just another kind of torture. They won't touch you physically, but the clean and sterile inhumanity expected from living humans just kills you all the same.

So then I made the same choice you made: I decided to get back at the world that tried to swallow me.

[That... Got his attention. He's going to sit here quietly and listen to her story.]

So... You were alive for the apocalypse, and they tried to make you...

Damn.

I guess we do have that in common, even though you were stuck with the health Nazis while I got... You know.

Oh, the war I'm from wasn't the Maelstrom. That one happened before I was born.

Chechnya is simply one of the conflict zones left over. Most of the world is covered by lifeism but my home country is still fighting even now.

Funny, isn't it? I don't think anyone noticed I'm not even Japanese.

[ She certainly looks close enough to it - her minority doesn't have too much resemblance to their direct neighbours either. ]

... I have never heard of that country before in my life, but it sounds like hell.

[Last time Zack checked, actual Japanese people didn't have blue hair. It's possible hair dye is popular in the future, but who cares about the future of hair?!]

How'd you end up in life-land, then?

Well, I was eventually freed from Russian slavery by Chechen freedom fighters and given into an adoption program. Japan was trying to fight against the decreasing birth rate in their country - you know, how everything those days is about ensuring the survival of the community. So they had this program about adopting war orphans and integrating them into Japanese society.

That's what brought me to the Mihies.

Monday, week one. (A word of caution)

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CW Abuse indeed, indeed

Holy shit.

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