Ravens of Eternity

Chapter 62

62 AMA #Eva sat down on the grass and leaned up on a stout tree. She decided to relax at one of the parks on Helios, as it seemed nice out. Plus she needed the freshest air possible, and that could only be found near plants.

The digital sky was a bright blue, with hardly any clouds to be seen. The digital version of Sol shone brightly. It was unchained and unrestricted by the trappings of humanity. For a moment, she felt as though she was back on Earth.

But that moment passed by quickly.

Eva’s EyeCast hovered in front of her, its dark lens reflected her pale face back to her.

She was still getting used to it. Well, as best she could, anyway. She had never been much of a fan of cameras, unless she was behind one.

When she had done her stream, she didn’t really show her own face. She didn’t have the courage for that. In lieu of her face, she simply used her character’s.

But now she found that she had to be in front of a camera, almost all of the time. And it unnerved her to some degree. Some people loved to be recorded, to have heaps of attention slathered on them.

Eva didn’t like that feeling at all. But she knew she had to do it. It wasn’t for her sake, anyway. Of course, the more it was out and recording, the easier she felt about it.

She hoped that one day, she’d be completely comfortable with it around her all of the time.

.....

In fact, she had attached a pair of “cat ears” to the thing to help her get used to it. It looked sort of cute, in its own high-tech sort of way.

Eva then looked directly into the camera and smiled widely for it.

“Hi everyone!” she said. “I wanna thank you lots for watching and subbing to our channel. It’s been a really wild ride for us so far, and these vids really help ground us. We lost everyone we ever loved when we got transported here. Hell, everyone we ever knew. So it’s really nice having you all here. Sort of here. And we like hearing from you all! Even if you think we’re fake, or whatever. Doesn’t make me feel so far away.”

She looked away wistfully for a moment, before she turned back.

“We know you’ve got a lotta questions for us, and we wanna answer as many as we can. We figured an AMA was the best way, but thing is we can’t do it live just yet. Just technical crap, really. Until we sort that all out, we’re all gonna have to settle for this recorded type, cool?”

Eva then reviewed a bunch of questions in her DI. Mack had sent both her and Miko a whole rack of comments that people left on their channel. Well, at least the most popular comments anyway.

And minus the completely offensive ones. He made sure to filter those out before he sent them over.

Mack chose well, as there were a number that caught her eye, and she certainly had much to say about those topics.

What’s it like piloting a mecha?

How many planets are out there?

Do either of you have a boyfriend?

Have you been to a neutron star yet?

What’s the coolest tech you’ve played with?

But there was one comment thread in particular that completely caught her attention.

It launched a rather huge fight that ended up in curses and hot tempers.

“K8Ed1d asks, ‘It looks like you and Raijin kill a lot of people. Don’t you feel bad for all those people at all? Or their families?’ I hear ya, Katydid. I’ve been thinking quite a lot about it recently. And I’ve got a ton to say.

“First and foremost, lemme get this out of the way – I don’t really feel bad. Not even a little bit. Not for them, and not really for their families, whoever they are. It might sound wrong or evil of me to feel that way, and maybe that’s true. Most of the time I don’t feel anything when I space people. Sometimes, like with Nightmare’s goons, it felt really fucking good to get rid of ’em.”

She looked away for a moment, and looked as though she was looking for the right words to say. Then she simply shrugged and talked to the camera again.

“I’m not gonna pretend I’m some sorta saint. I’m not. I get mad as hell sometimes, especially when people do terrible shit to others. Even more so if they hurt people I know. Sometimes I lose all rationality, you know?

“We’ve all been there, right? I’m sure lots of you have wanted someone else dead at some point in your life. Everyone knows you don’t really mean it, of course. For most people anyway. But I’m not most people. And in this universe...”

Eva then drew her weapon and showed it to the camera. The thing was massive. It was too big to be called a sidearm, and its barrel was more like a slab of steel.

She then pulled out one of its bullets and showed that to the camera. It was a massive 20mm round.

“When you’ve got one of these,” she continued, “it becomes way too easy to give in to your anger. I suppose it’s a bad thing when a person like me is aiming one of these at a person I hate. They’re liable to stop existing afterwards. I’m not saying it’s an excuse.

“It just is what it is. I’m not a nice person, not all the time anyway.

She put away her Handcannon and its slug and smiled widely for a moment at the camera.

“Some of you defended me and Raijin, and I thank you. I’m sure Raijin does too. You’ll have to watch her AMA if you wanna know for sure. And you guys are right – those people deserved it. At least from my point of view. And my friends’ point of view. If they’re gonna take a swipe at me, I’m gonna swipe back.

“Except, I aim to kill. ‘Coz I’m not stupid or naive. Not everyone deserves a second chance, and if my instincts tell me to evaporate a guy, then I’m gonna do it, dammit.”

Eva’s head leaned backwards, until it tapped on the tree behind her. She sighed deeply.

“And some of you criticized us pretty hard, too. We coulda done more to not be so lethal, yeah? Maybe kept more alive. Coulda been less harsh, less destructive. That I could at least have given some of them a chance to surrender.

“Something along those lines, anyway. And I get it. Those people needed to have justice served the right way. Getting killed outright isn’t enough. Some of you even said it was too good for them.

“I’ll concede that. If I was a better person, I probably would have tried. Unfortunately, I’m not. Hey, just tryin’ to be real here.”

She then got up and walked across the park. The camera followed her, and rotated around her head slowly.

The sights of Helios Megacity slowly revolved around her like planets around a sun.

“Truth is, we humans have got this crazy idea that preserving life is something great. Like its heroic or someshit. If we do it, we somehow become better.”

She looked directly at the camera as it orbited around from the front. The pristine green park lay sprawled out behind her as she spoke.

“It’s not. Life eats life. That’s the true law of nature. If you’re weak, you get eaten. If you’re strong, you get to eat. Simple as that, really.”

Eva headed towards one of the city blocks with a few short buildings on it. She ducked in between the narrow alleyways and jumped off a wall. Her hands quickly found purchase on a ledge on the opposite wall, then kicked off it with her legs.

She quickly ascended up the alleyway with a few acrobatic moves, until she ended up on the roof with a flip and a flourish.

The camera caught her grace and agility the entire way up.

She went to a corner, sat over the edge, and looked over the city’s skyline. She was awed by what she saw.

Before her was the park. There were a number of people there, simply enjoying their time. Laughing, playing, walking, talking.

Living.

Around the park was a typical busy Helios district. People ran around on the ground while all manner of hover vehicles littered the sky.

And the sky itself turned slightly orange as the false Sol descended towards the horizon.

“Problems only happen when you start devouring outta greed. It doesn’t really matter what you’re after – money, things, lives, power. If you eat up a lot of it, you’re gonna hurt the hell out of a lot of others in the process. And I can’t abide by that, not even a little bit. Shit really angers me deep down. Like, blood boiling, can’t control my trigger finger angry.

“If greed was a person I could evaporate with my gun, I wouldn’t even hesitate to pull the trigger on them. Not even for a fraction of a second.”