「Destroy」she said ; closed to massproduced

[imitationsoul]

[ It's not unusual to be back here and Miach doesn't feel any particular discomfort at the sight of the rundown bunker now. It's smaller than it is in her memories, even in the world of her dreams. She's grown past being hurt by it, she thinks. For a moment she considers going inside, but then she thinks better of it and climbs to the roof. It's easy in a dream, though even then the hard facade of the building hurts her bare feet. Why are they bare...? Oh, Miach thinks and smiles. She's wearing rags, of course she is. It gives an experience of being alive that's lost in her waking world.

From the roof, she has a good view on the valley below, on an ending battle. The freedom fighters that had saved her in reality seem to be losing here. They're bleeding, there's blood and dirt, and dirt and blood and dirt again. Miach's own feet are bloody as well, she notices with a mixture of disgust and amusement, and kicks them in the air as she watches the carnage. ]

Comments

[imitationsoul]

[ ... angels. Miach raises an eyebrow, clearly skeptical. Christianity was still somewhat present in the current world and of course Miach would know about angels, but to dream them up as an enemy...? Dreams may be bizarre, but this is throwing her off. ]

Because it's not real. It's either a product of my subconscious during REM sleep, or something fishy is happening.

I'd prefer the latter, truthfully, but we may have a hard time confirming as much.

[massproduced]

[Not an angel then. Rei's eyes shift from Miach to the surrounding war zone. The dead lying on the ground, the smell of iron in the air. Rei takes this all in with dispassion.]

I am not a product of your subconscious.

[Though quiet, it's the firmest she's sounded so far. It's a sentiment that, like many of her questions so far have been, can be reversed on Rei herself.]

If you are not an enemy, then that is all I need to know.

[And with that, she sits on the edge of the roof, and breathes out.]

[imitationsoul]

[ It's not really hard to imagine Miach dreaming up someone who insists they aren't a dream, but it's never happened before either.
Miach decides there's no harm in going along with it for now - she's in her own brain's privacy, so the worst than can happen is waking up while headshaking at herself.

Without hesitation, she comes to sit close to Rei. ]

What happened to the good old "do not be afraid"?

[massproduced]

[Persistent. Rei doesn't acknowledge Miach's proximity but continues to look at supposed Chechnya.]

The angels of the old testament were said to have brought fire and destruction to Sodom and Gomorrah causing a mass genocide.

[Her tone is utterly apathetic as she points it. She's never wondered about literary contradictions like that before. Angels have always been the enemy - the ultimate threat to humanity. The notion that angels could be kind, merciful and beautiful simply came later.]

Real angels are like this as well.

[imitationsoul]

[ Considering it's still her own dream, Miach shouldn't be terribly surprised to have people fire knowledge back at her that otherwise she'd definitely have to explain, but it still catches her pleasantly off-guard. ]

'When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city." '

The angel's from the scripture were very... selective in whom to save. The right path of life is already decided from above and so.

But I can't say any reliable source has ever reported angel sightings since those times.

[massproduced]

Then you have been asleep for a very long time.

[She comments a little dryly, though she doesn't fully believe that's the totality of what's going on at the moment. It would be impossible to exist in her world without knowledge of the angels, even as an ordinary civilian and she doesn't fully buy into the idea that her own subconscious would be questioning the existence of these dangerous beings.]

Perhaps you are someone else entirely.

[imitationsoul]

How long would I have had to have been asleep for, in your opinion?

[ She's entirely certain that's not the case, but she wonders how specific the requirements here can get. Angels... If that had been a codename for the various effects of nuclear destruction during the Maelstrom, she'd know about it. She'd know about giant robots as well.

No, this is different, it's not something books can simply decode for her as it seems. ]