He almost looked like an adult. Imposing, classy, confident. Almost.
Abruptly, Silas thumped his fist to his chest. "Long live the Revolution!" he barked.
And there goes the adult image. Hasn't lasted long, I see.
You know... I just noticed. Silas is very infatualed with the idea of the Revolution and the
Tale of Merika, but I am not entirely sure it's because of his otaku side.
Do you remember
'Lost in the Valley of the Night'? There was a dream of Silas and Yumika - pardon, Mika - being trench buddies.
The Revolution had finally come to him. Perhaps it was an inevitability; perhaps he could have done something to prevent it; perhaps he could have ran. It's not like the Revolutionaries persecuted those who ran from the front lines, for there were always more willing, voluntary bodies for them to throw against the Eastern oppressors.
But then again… if he kept on running forever, he'd never be able to look at himself in the mirror ever again. Himself, or his Big Sister.
The thought that Big Sis was rooting for him brought a bit of color back to his face. He gripped his Everyman rifle a bit tighter, and his fingers clenched more securely around a tiny metal gear - a good luck charm from Big Sis.
At first, I thought it just a vivid dream caused by too many sleepless hours in front of the monitor, and the theme song blaring through the earbuds.
But there are things there that give a different context to that dream. First off, 'the Eastern oppressors'?
"Long Live," he says. It's the old Merikajin revolutionary chant.
Silas smiled tentatively. There was only one proper, patriotic and customary response. "...L-Long Live the Republic."
An old
Merikajin chant
? But Merika is fictional in Silas-verse, and the events of the game describe the Revolution as it is happening! When did it grow old?
Someone - a girl - was singing an old patriotic song. Something about 'cold, wintery slopes.'
An old patriotic song about cold wintery slopes? Sounds like we may know a certain Republic that fits.
Once he crossed the threshold, there would be no going back, and that thought made him mortified for a second... but inside, he was met by a deluge of smiling faces. So many smiling faces.
That settles it, doesn't it? This wasn't just a random piece of trivia put up in the middle of an update for no reason. It is definitely a page from Silas' past, whether from this 'verse or an alternate one.
So what, is Silas a refugee, or maybe a deserter? Plausible. But then, how is Yumika here? Is it even her? I mean, Mika was a field medic, and Yumika is...
In the incredibly unlikely event that Yumika is put in charge of a Saisei-era military regiment, +15% morale damage and +15% morale defense
...that.
It would certainly explain his feeling of guilt and inadequacy, though.
"Your neighbors are too busy mostly not existing to hear anything, Silas," Big Sister replied succinctly. She paused. Somehow, Silas felt her virtual eyes going over his outfit. "...you look positively dashing. Did you visit the Hypermall while I wasn't looking?"
I am most upset at her being unable to virtually straighten our tie, then the illusion of a household would be complete.
"Yeah…" Hana let out a sigh. "...I have a… really weird effect on emotions. You got lucky; usually, when I feed off insecurity, what comes out isn't so… yeah…"
"I-I guess my LUCK stat's really high!" Silas laughed. His laughs quickly died away. "...sorry. Bad joke."
"It wan't a bad joke, though. Will you stop apologizing?" Hana said, looking a bit cross. But she was grinning. "I never thought…" Hana shook her head. "I mean… I didn't think that your home would be so close to mine."
"M-Me neither," Silas affirmed. "If you live there - " he pointed at the overhead map " - that means you're - w-what - a ten minute's walk from me?"
I must protest. What
does usually come out when you feed on insecurity? Is it something even more brazen, or why did you call Silas the lucky one? Inquiring minds want to know!
Also, all I am hearing is that we will be changing our schedule shortly. If they live within ten minutes of each other, they can take the train to school and back together, dammit!
What does Nanami's jealousy taste like?
And I just realized this, but for a boy who wasn't even homeschooled - because Big Sister certainly wasn't teaching him much - and was thrust into a 2nd grade of high school... Silas is actually pretty brilliant to keep up with his studies. I guess that's one example of him not knowing his own talents.
She briefly glanced in his direction, her gaze hovering over his forehead for a millisecond, before quickly looking away again. "You're very hard to miss. You know what I mean?"
No, no I don't. Explain.
Hana thought for a moment. "...no, I don't think that. But you can't just forgive people on the basis that they might be a better person under different circumstances, can you?"
Silas hesitated. He acquiesced, "I guess…"
In truth, he wasn't quite satisfied with that answer. Something felt… wrong about that judgement, somehow.
Ah. Hitting too close to home, maybe? The readers know he can be a
completely somewhat different person in different reality rewrites. Does he suspect that too? Is there something in his memory that wants to disagree with that assessment?
But... his own repressed memory causes him to calls himelf useless. Is he then trying to justify his past actions here?
A RikuRiku performer brandishing a long wakizashi was facing off against a dark-skinned man in some sort of olive-green military fatigues, who appeared to be using his bayonetted rifle as a melee weapon. They were flanked by what looked like two very colorful armies - one decked in imposing olive suits and bearing red flags, and the other one dressed in traditional kimono and waving teal streamers.
Is it a reenaction of the Great War setting? I am not imagining it, right? The bayonets versus wakizashis, olive fatigues versus kimono, red flags versus teal ones? Looks very much like a Pravic-Mihokujin conflict. I wonder why the other performer is dark-skinned, though. Not a lot of them up North.
But now the crowd seemed deathly quiet; breaths were being held in anticipation. Silas craned his neck; the RikuRiku from before was sprawled on the ground. Her allies were hunched; a single teal streamer was flying from a pole held up by a prone street performer. One of the Red soldiers was kneeling before her, hand outstretched, and she reached to take it.
There was a sudden, deep, guttural roar. Silas yelped; a bear's face, propelled forward by two sets of feet, was rushing through the crowd. He felt someone's hand jerk back; he felt the air brush against his cheek as the bear head leapt into the ring, followed shortly by its body, and then its legs. It was a monstrous thing; growling, clawing, grasping. The crowd erupted; the performers all rose abruptly, with RikuRiku using the Red soldier's arm as leverage to lift herself up; and all readied their weapons.
I have no idea what
that is supposed to be about. Did Chii-kun write the scenario for this one too?
Almost immediately, another student, one with her hair tied up in a net, burst from behind a drapery and pulled her aside, whispering something fiercely into her ear.
For some reason, her eyes seemed to flash over Silas's forehead more than once.
"I mean, of course, w-we're seating people right now!" the girl said suddenly, as the other one dashed back inside.
I'd like to highlight an oddity in Ami's behavior.
For someone who has the strength of personality to boss the entire class around and force them into working overtime while underprepared and out of ingredients (Hiro left our booth with a promise to yell at the foreing classmate... when he returned he was standing at attention all but shouting 'sir, yes sir!' in the general direction of the hallway), she was surprisingly skittish around Silas, always darting out of sight. Did she recognize us? Well, I mean, of course she saw
something in us. But her actions... was it bad for us to recognize her? Her staring at our forehead - did she try to avoid meeting our eyes?
But then Hana also had that look when she said we were hard to miss...
At first I thought Silas was someone important, or related to one, but the dream made him sound as a simple rank and file, just a Private First Class. Now I am confused.
Edit: hahaha, Private First Class of
Platoon 4-1. How did I not recognize it before?
So he deserted not just from his platoon, but from his entire reality?
