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"Hm. Was it your sad, dreary backstory?"
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Echo somewhat cringed at the word "backstory". She didn't really have a fondness towards it as it sounded weird to her.
"I... I guess..."
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"I guess indeed." Time shrugged, "So, do you think you could explain it more direct rather than just snippets?"
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"How... do I do that? Like, uhm... I dunno... example? You give example?"
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"I don't know either." Time shrugged, "But yeah, I guess. Just give an example or something."
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Echo shook her head.
"No, I mean you give an example, uhm, of how I'm suppose to... explain more direct... like..."
Echo shrugged.
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"Like what?"
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"I... dunno..."
"...I'm bad at this."
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"Well, we won't really get anywhere if you don't say anything." He sighed, "How about the needles?"
Last edited by Time (12/30/2020 12:59 pm)
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"Oh, uhm..."
Echo rolled up one of her sleeves and then went on her knees beside Time to show him her scarred up arm. She pointed at the inside of her elbow, pointing out the scarring there from needle injections. It would be impossible to really tell how many times she was stuck by a needle, but it was enough to leave permanent, very noticeable scars.
"...The other arm is the same," Echo said. "...It was painful... they would... uhm... inject stuff into us about... three times a day, I think. They called it... medicine... I don't think it was medicine, though."
"...They would stick a bunch in my arms at once. I think... I remember they would strap us down because it was painful enough for us to jerk around and... scream and stuff..."
"...So yea..."
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Time examined if all these scars were dealt with by needles.
"Do you know why?"
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Oh no, there were a lot of scars that definitely weren't by needles. A lot look like scars caused by blades of some sort, while others would be harder to tell what their cause was. Some of the more newer ones looked like fingernail scratches.
Echo shook her head, "Not really, but I have a guess."
She covered her arm with her sleeve, noticing Time looking at the other scars.
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"Guess away." Time said as he looked away from Echo's arm and to the sky as he leaned on the tree.
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"I think... I think it was something to make us more, uh, low maintenance. I remember not sleeping... I don't think I would sleep for weeks at a time, same with the other kids. I remember us eating very little. Like, once or twice a week, I think."
"I remember training a lot, and nothing else. I think sometimes I talked to my friends, but we didn't get much of a chance."
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"So some kind of drug to keep you 'energized?'" Time said, raising his hands to place quotation marks around the energized part.
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"Probably."
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"Huh. And what were they exactly doing with you?"
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"I..."
Echo looked suddenly close to crying, but took a breath.
"...We killed people. Specifically, we killed... any rebelling organizations. We were spies during, uhm, during the war. We spied on enemy troops."
"...We killed other children, too. We killed parents. We killed elders. We killed our teachers. Some of us killed our own parents while others watched them be executed for treason."
"We killed anyone who opposed our 'perfect' government."
"...Pretty... pretty messed up, huh? Haha, it was pretty bad!"
Echo tried to not sound like she was crying again, but her voice was shaking in the end and tears were starting to fall. She tried to hide the pain in her voice by trying to sound like she was happy by laughing on the last sentence, but it only made it more obvious she was upset again.
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Well, that wasn't able to go far, that break.
"Oh, so you were experimental child soldiers?" He gives another long sigh
Last edited by Time (1/01/2021 12:40 am)
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Better than uncontrollable sobbing.
"...I guess so."
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True, true enough.
"Do you think you could've gleened any important information from your time as one?"
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Echo didn't respond for a moment before giving a small shrug.
"What kind of information do you mean?"
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"I dunno. Anything. Like, about your people? I can tell it was pretty bad, but can I get any more info on it?"
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"Uhhm..."
"There were five kingdoms. I came from the Middle Kingdom, Regdullax. We had a large wealth gap during the war, I think. Yeah..."
"...There were a lot of executions. Our population went down real... real badly. A lot of people went missing too..."
"But a lot of people had hope for the future. I remember that. I remember seeing a lot of vandalism in alleyways."
"...Currently everything is getting better, I think. It's been a while since I went... back."
Echo thought for a moment.
"...There were a lot of orphans because of the executions."
Echo went quiet for a bit before adding, "We were forced to watch every single one. They would broadcast it and make it mandatory. Twice a week they would have large groups of people executed at once..."
Echo was trying to not cry again because at this point she was pretty dehydrated from crying and her head hurt terribly from it. She was also tired from multiple factors and crying wasn't helping.
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"Sounds pretty horrid."