Audio

[fistsofchange]

[This was unfamiliar technology to Lin, so before she tried making a post, she read the manual from start to finish. This "smartphone" was MUCH more complicated than the ham radio in the interceptor, but she eventually figured it out.]

Hi, I'm Bai Lin. I have a question. I've got that most of us are from different worlds. It's weird, but any time I talk to someone it becomes more and more obvious.

But I'm noticing a trend from talking to you all.

How many people here DON'T come from places where a nuclear war destroyed most of the world's population before you were born?

Comments

[bulletnews]

I'm only somewhat familiar with nuclear anything, but there certainly hasn't been any nuclear war. Or at least none that got past the planning stages, thanks to some specialists willing to brave Old Hell.

[fistsofchange]

If I could brave hell to undo it, I would.

[bulletnews]

There are a few reasons that's not often done - for one thing it's unbelievably hot down there.

[fistsofchange]

So I'd bring a canteen.

[bulletnews]

That's not going to help very much if you burn alive first. The two that actually did it had to have all sorts of fireproofing wards and they still complained.

[fistsofchange]

I'm sure something could be worked out.

This is still hypothetical, right?

[bulletnews]

Oh, of course. If it's already happened there's nothing that can really be done about it.

Although I don't think I understand what actually happened as a result of this "nuclear war"...

[fistsofchange]

According to the old accounts, "All the nations of man were cast down and destroyed in nuclear fire, and a long winter fell across the Earth"

Which never made much sense to me. You'd think if there was a lot of fire, it would get warmer, not colder.

[bulletnews]

I do think that - in fact, all my familiarity with nuclear anything is that the sun is powered by nuclear fusion.

Don't ask me how it works, because I don't know.

[fistsofchange]

If...you say so?

[bulletnews]

Like I said, I don't quite understand it either.

I did get to experience it firsthand some time after that, though, so I will at least confirm that it's very very hot.

[fistsofchange]

Sounds like you've had an...interesting life.

[bulletnews]

Well, I am a journalist. It's my job to know about unusual things.

[fistsofchange]

I see.

[She didn't see.]

What's a journalist?

[bulletnews]

I collect information about unusual or interesting people and events and publish it.

[She was about to ask "what kind of world are you from where you don't have newspapers or anything" but oh, right.]

[fistsofchange]

Oh! What a neat idea. Making sure everyone knows what's actually going on before rumors and such get completely out of control.

[bulletnews]

Precisely.

[If only it were that simple, but that's the image Aya wants to project... so she'll leave it at that.]