T E X T » the world is not enough

[repetitio]

How many of you had combat-training or -experience in your matrices? Call it curiosity.

Comments

[scission]

How would you define 'combat'?

[repetitio]

Start with a broad definition, work from there. Prolonged fighting.

[scission]

War, then. Yes, I have some experience of war.

[repetitio]

Are you a soldier?

[scission]

It wasn't a war involving any military, so not in the technical sense, no. Though I suppose I may well be, now.

[repetitio]

Have you been with the ZDG long?

[scission]

Around a year. Have you joined?

[repetitio]

As soon as I could.

[scission]

No time for adjustment, then. How long have you been unplugged?

[repetitio]

Few months.

[ she's been very quick about her training. ]

[scission]

Soldier to soldier.

[From a rehabilitation point of view, it's a little concerning. Had she taken the time to accept this was reality? Taken the time to give herself any distance from her life in the matrix? Or perhaps she was really that certain on who she was.]

What were you fighting for, before?

[repetitio]

[ it's true, she's exchanged one war for another, but soldier is such a large part of her conception of self that anything else would have been unthinkable.

the question is met first with a snort that doesn't translate to text, of course. ]

Mankind's survival.

[scission]

That's quite a cause. And quite a war, I imagine.

[repetitio]

Seemed like it.

[ but it wasn't real, was it? ]

[scission]

Knowing the deception of the matrices doesn't erase our experiences in them. As I'm sure you already understand, signing up to the ZDG so quickly.

[repetitio]

Yes, and it doesn't change who we are.

[ she was a soldier inside, and she is one here now. ]

[scission]

[There's a short delay, considering, then:]

Why did you choose the red pill?

[repetitio]

No point living a lie.

[scission]

Some would say there's a leap of faith in believing it will reveal a truth. Hope, maybe.

Did you ever believe your war would end?

[repetitio]

Yes.

[ she'd been determined to end it, at any rate, which is not quite the same as believing they would - but it was either them winning and soon, or the aliens killing all of humanity.

that's also an end to the war. ]

[scission]

And what did you think you'd do, once it had? Assuming, in this scenario, you were on the winning side.

[repetitio]

Never thought that far.

[scission]

And now you've found yourself in an entirely different war.

[Except they're meant to be in a truce, whoops.]

[repetitio]

Yes.

[ she sees no problem with that. ]