stormaktstiden | Some time ago, in a jamjar far, far away....

It's probably for the better that the can falls short and doesn't even register as a proper attack. It's also for the better that he's so dumbfounded by seeing her - smelling her, and that's how he knows that she's very clearly still alive (and that is probably yet another lucky point, that he's anxious enough to activate the Gift that gives him a wolf's senses in homid form).

Her words don't really manage to drive anything home but the realization that yes, she is instead still alive and over there and... Doesn't seem to pose any kind of threat, still.

"You should be dead."

So that's ineffective. Her eyes flick around looking for another weapon, but she comes up short. At least she knows she'll still come back if she dies, she thinks with resignation. But she doesn't want to do that again!

The thought--and having the person responsible for it in front of her--have her straighten her back and unconsciously broaden her shoulders.

She's scared, sure. She's mad too.

"Yeah, because you killed me! What was that for?!"

Well, that's obvious, isn't it?

"I thought you would stay dead."

At most, he could have imagined her to linger as a ghost. Someone unable to communicate with the people that he's run into throughout the last couple of days, at least.

The bald explanation catches her off guard--that's what he wanted?

"But..." She blinks and sets her jaw. She doesn't want to whimper--it feels better to be angry. "I didn't do anything to you. I tried to help you. So why?"

It feels strangely unfair, like her parents fighting, like Wei dying. She's sick of it.

She recalls something else too, and now both of her hands ball into fists. "And you made me lose the book list, too! That could get even more people killed if somebody finds it!"

Normally, he would see no issue with telling her that it is because she's human, but where he is vastly outnumbered by them and doesn't understand the place yet, and most of all has no place to retreat to, he should probably not say that.

"I'm not answering that."

He can't even remember that she had anything on her person when he encountered her, or at least nothing that would have struck him as dangerous.

"What does that book list do?"

If she weren't so wrapped up in the list now, she'd be offended by his first remark. As it is, she notes jerk in her mind and moves on.

She shakes her head. Her shoulders loosen, but not in relaxation. "It has prohibited reading on it. You should know how dangerous that stuff is."

Doesn't everybody live in a rigorously censored world?

"It's not mine."

Some people are barely literate. And really not interested in reading in the first place. Sure, he gets why reading can be dangerous. It puts science and philosophy and dates in peoples heads, turning their brains into little Weaver factories - generally a problem with humans, even with homid werewolves to a degree.

But why would there be specific prohibited items of reading?

"...You stole it?"

If anything, she'd been afraid of an accusation that the list was hers and that she was a communist. The thought that someone would think she stole it comes as a shock to her. Her hands fly up, as if for protection.

"I didn't steal it! It was--my friend--" She shakes her head. Wei? Why is she thinking of him right now? "I just found it in the school. I was going to turn it in."

"...what could someone do with it?"

As much as reading puts bad ideas into people's heads, he doesn't see why she is so upset about all of this. If it's just a list of books, even.

"I..." She trails off and looks away to the side. She's unwilling to think too hard on what would happen.

Exasperation enters her voice. Why does this guy ask these questions, anyway? Everybody knows this stuff. "...You really don't get it? If someone thinks you're a commie, you're in trouble."

Okay, he can absolutely mirror that tone.

"We don't have those." Whatever they are. "So nobody would think that anyone is one.

What are they?" And why do they have book lists that other humans don't like?

"We don't have many of them where I'm from either. They're on the mainland."

For all her patriotism as a kid, she doubts that there are too many real communists in her country.

"They're..." She bites her lip. They're bad, they're evil, they're saboteurs... That's what people like Instructor Bai say. But she's never learned too much else about them. "The people who live on the mainland. A lot of the people in my country used to live there, but they chased us off. You've really never heard of them?"

"No."

...And that's really not very informative on why they're dangerous. "Why did they chase you off?"

"There was a war."

A war that they lost, if you read between the lines. Ray smooths some invisible dust off of her skirt and takes that opportunity to avoid looking into his eyes. "...I wasn't born yet, so I don't know much about what happened. But people are worried that they'll keep coming after us even now."

"What was the war about?"

And what side was who on? He is aware that sometimes, there are no right sides in a war. Sometimes, oneself can be on the wrong side. Sometimes others will tell you that you were on the wrong side when your side was justified. But even if she was born later, she should know. Things like that are important, as much as humans like to deny that by making it "far away history".

It's important for knowing what to think of that list, in this case.

Betrayal and rebellion and disrespect, her history lessons would say.

Mr. Chang would say something very different.

She breathes in--shakily, and she doesn't quite know why. "Ideology. The hearts and minds of the people. The Nationalists want everyone to think one way, and the Communists want them to think another.

"The books are... not what the Nationalists would want people to read."

Okay.

"But you only have a list of the books, and not the books."

Doesn't sound dangerous at all to him. You can just burn books, anyway. They catch on fire easily.

"And this is neither the place where you're from nor the one that you were at war with, right?"

"The list is dangerous enough on its own." She wrinkles her nose. How does he not get it?

"No." She pauses, then realizes the connection she has to make. "I've heard it's not the same everywhere, but I have no idea what it's like here."

"Nobody here has talked about books or commies."

Sure, people don't talk about everything important all the time, but he has noticed a distinctive lack of books. Usually they seem to be everywhere where humans are, after all.

She sighs. In spite of her wariness of him, she almost finds herself wanting to relax. To her, he seems strangely naive about life under martial law--she doesn't know any other kind--and that's hard to reconcile with the beast who killed her. Maintaining alertness for so long in front of someone who seems less dangerous... it's tiring, and she knows it'd be very easy to let her guard lapse completely.

But he did kill her, she has to remember that. She lifts one foot, then the other to keep them from falling asleep. Just in case.

"Just because people don't talk about something doesn't mean it's not important. Haven't you experienced that too? Often what really matters is hardly ever spoken out loud."

Well, he is. He knows life in the middle of a war-like situation, but it's still very different from marital law. For one most people in his world aren't even aware of the multi-party conflict bloodily fought in their midst. But there also isn't much censure or tightly defined rules in his society - there are rules, but they almost always grant some open leeway, and while he is aware of politics going on and affecting everything, he's rarely felt that they were threatening him personally.

"No, the really important things need to be taught to the cubs. Why would you not talk about them?"

Perhaps it's different in societies that people as a rule enter before they're teenagers, but he can't really imagine it. There has to be some point in your life when the basics are laid out for you, right?

She sets her jaw; Mr. Chang probably would've said exactly the same thing, back when he--

Ray wraps her arms around herself and shakes her head. "Don't assume I disagree with that. Things are different where I live, but that isn't because they're how we'd all like them to be."

But why would you not, that's just...

"More of them will die if you don't teach them." And death comes too many of them before they ever have children of their own even with the added advantage of the additional knowledge. More often when you refrain from telling them more than the three absolutely necessary things, as he's heard the Weaver Rutters do.

...Somehow, they seem to be talking about different things here, almost.

Ray blinks a few times as she tries to process his words. It's the complete opposite of everything she's heard or experienced.

"People die all the time for knowing or thinking things. At times, people have been, ah... taken away simply because someone thinks they know or think things. That's why people don't talk about these things."

...That makes absolutely no sense.

"Your people don't want other humans to be able to avoid danger and defend themselves and their people?"

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