Gammadion (part 10)
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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14th March
20:55 GMT +1
"I'm sorry about that. I didn't realise that he'd.. react that way."
Overgirl's eyes are in magnification mode as she stares down at the streets of Berlin, saccading back and forth as she moves from one point of strangeness to another.
"I know."
"Would you..?" I point to the places where her uniform has been burned through. "Like me to repair that?"
"… Yes. Yes, please."
Orange light moves over her bare skin, leaving grey material in its wake.
"There isn't really much we can do about… Getting you back right now. Is there anything you..? Particularly want to see? Anywhere you want to go?"
"The Tempelhof Arc is missing."
"It was never built. For.. obvious reasons."
"I know you said that the subhumans are allowed into Europe, but why are there so many?"
I wonder for a moment if I should call her on the use of the term 'subhuman', but I did just lead her into an ambush by an 'angry' scientist.
"Improvements in transportation and communication technology and infrastructure, civil instability in Africa and the Middle East, and after the war West Germany had a shortage of low-skilled workers that they filled by-."
"They brought in foreign workers."
"They invited in foreign workers. There were economic migrants, not slaves."
"How.. has the Empire-. Germany.. remained… Stable… With…"
"Cultural assimilation, and less emphasis on monoculturalism. When you don't tell people it's essential that they only do things in a particular way, people stop objecting quite as strongly. Which is not to say that there weren't problems, especially in the short term. Just that they're manageable."
"Where are the Jews?"
"Around, probably." I shrug. "They aren't required to wear identification armbands or anything."
"They look-?"
"Just like anyone else? You did realise that Nazi propaganda-"
"National-. Socialist."
"-images were exaggerated at best, right?"
"I.. assumed they were a.. little, but…" She blinks, her vision returning to normal focus. "They just-. And they don't… Control…"
"No, Jews do not control European society. The vast majority of holders of high office in Germany are Christian. There are slightly disproportionately more Jews in banking when compared to their representation in society as a whole, but that's largely for reasons of tradition after a lot of European monarchs banned them from a lot of other trades rather than any concerted attempt to subvert the state. The only person who might be able to claim to control the world's economy is the head of the Greek Independent Authority for Public Revenue, Professor Demetrios Prokopios, and he's… Well, he's not Jewish."
"I… Don't think I.. believe it."
"You're free to look at whatever records you want. History, crime statistics…"
"Genealogies?"
"I.. doubt that our records are as expansive as yours are, and they're certainly not available to the public at request. Is there something you particularly want to know?"
"How the races have.. been bred together."
"I'm sorry? Outside of a few.. very unusual criminal situations, no one makes anyone breed with anyone else. Certainly, having people from different cultures living and working together results in a greater number of interracial relationships than would happen if they were geographically separated, but there's no.. deliberate.. policy of encouraging it. Honestly, the very idea would make people quite uncomfortable."
"I-. I mean-." She gurns. "How, how common.. is..?"
"I don't have the statistics to hand, but general demographic information might be publically available. You'd only find out how many mixed race individuals there are, rather than how many mixed race couples… Other than the fact that you find the whole idea immensely disturbing-."
"Are you-? In a relationship with a… Negress?"
"Ah, no. My girlfriend's father is of mixed Anglo-Saxon and Skræling ancestry, while her mother is Vietnamese. She looks more like her mother."
For a slightly awkward moment I remember Raquel kissing Kaldur on the Watchtower in the first moment of 2011. Maybe she just thought I was taken?
"I realise that this is somewhat hard for you to take in-."
"Yes! It's disgusting! Why would-? Anyone-!"
She takes a few breaths to regain her composure.
"Karl told me that he regretted… Regretted the purges."
"Karl?"
"Overman. Overman told me that he regretted the purges. I didn't-. I thought that he meant that he didn't think it was worth killing them."
"That may well have been what he meant."
"No, he's-" She turns to stare at me. "-seen other Earths! He's seen this result! And he'd.. rather have this than-than-."
She's actually crying. Okay, I can see how having your idol-.
I take a closer look at the violet strands.
"You think of him as your father."
"I was supposed to be-. They made me because they were trying to make someone who could bear his children, and he found out about it -about me- before they were ready. And he-. He is the world's greatest hero! He found out that my family was dead, and he.. took me out of the laboratory and into his home and treated me as if I was his natural daughter, not a half-alien who could never match him."
"Alright. Um."
"Why didn't he.. just… Tell me this is what it was like?" She turns back to the Berlin panorama, shaking her head. "I-. I'm more loyal to him than to the Fuhrer. He should have been Fuhrer after Adolf Hitler died. Why didn't he trust me with this?"
"Because it would have been a total shock to your worldview, and interfered with you being a hero on a world that works like yours does." She gives her head a tiny shake. "You said that he regretted the purges. Did he ever talk to you about them?"
"He was away from the Earth when the Great Cleansing occurred. He never likes to talk about it. He only spoke about it to me after he did a television interview where he admitted to wishing it hadn't happened, even after all of the good that the National Socialist party has done for our people. I-. I need to understand-."
Her head jerks up.
"This world. Are any of my family alive?"
20:55 GMT +1
"I'm sorry about that. I didn't realise that he'd.. react that way."
Overgirl's eyes are in magnification mode as she stares down at the streets of Berlin, saccading back and forth as she moves from one point of strangeness to another.
"I know."
"Would you..?" I point to the places where her uniform has been burned through. "Like me to repair that?"
"… Yes. Yes, please."
Orange light moves over her bare skin, leaving grey material in its wake.
"There isn't really much we can do about… Getting you back right now. Is there anything you..? Particularly want to see? Anywhere you want to go?"
"The Tempelhof Arc is missing."
"It was never built. For.. obvious reasons."
"I know you said that the subhumans are allowed into Europe, but why are there so many?"
I wonder for a moment if I should call her on the use of the term 'subhuman', but I did just lead her into an ambush by an 'angry' scientist.
"Improvements in transportation and communication technology and infrastructure, civil instability in Africa and the Middle East, and after the war West Germany had a shortage of low-skilled workers that they filled by-."
"They brought in foreign workers."
"They invited in foreign workers. There were economic migrants, not slaves."
"How.. has the Empire-. Germany.. remained… Stable… With…"
"Cultural assimilation, and less emphasis on monoculturalism. When you don't tell people it's essential that they only do things in a particular way, people stop objecting quite as strongly. Which is not to say that there weren't problems, especially in the short term. Just that they're manageable."
"Where are the Jews?"
"Around, probably." I shrug. "They aren't required to wear identification armbands or anything."
"They look-?"
"Just like anyone else? You did realise that Nazi propaganda-"
"National-. Socialist."
"-images were exaggerated at best, right?"
"I.. assumed they were a.. little, but…" She blinks, her vision returning to normal focus. "They just-. And they don't… Control…"
"No, Jews do not control European society. The vast majority of holders of high office in Germany are Christian. There are slightly disproportionately more Jews in banking when compared to their representation in society as a whole, but that's largely for reasons of tradition after a lot of European monarchs banned them from a lot of other trades rather than any concerted attempt to subvert the state. The only person who might be able to claim to control the world's economy is the head of the Greek Independent Authority for Public Revenue, Professor Demetrios Prokopios, and he's… Well, he's not Jewish."
"I… Don't think I.. believe it."
"You're free to look at whatever records you want. History, crime statistics…"
"Genealogies?"
"I.. doubt that our records are as expansive as yours are, and they're certainly not available to the public at request. Is there something you particularly want to know?"
"How the races have.. been bred together."
"I'm sorry? Outside of a few.. very unusual criminal situations, no one makes anyone breed with anyone else. Certainly, having people from different cultures living and working together results in a greater number of interracial relationships than would happen if they were geographically separated, but there's no.. deliberate.. policy of encouraging it. Honestly, the very idea would make people quite uncomfortable."
"I-. I mean-." She gurns. "How, how common.. is..?"
"I don't have the statistics to hand, but general demographic information might be publically available. You'd only find out how many mixed race individuals there are, rather than how many mixed race couples… Other than the fact that you find the whole idea immensely disturbing-."
"Are you-? In a relationship with a… Negress?"
"Ah, no. My girlfriend's father is of mixed Anglo-Saxon and Skræling ancestry, while her mother is Vietnamese. She looks more like her mother."
For a slightly awkward moment I remember Raquel kissing Kaldur on the Watchtower in the first moment of 2011. Maybe she just thought I was taken?
"I realise that this is somewhat hard for you to take in-."
"Yes! It's disgusting! Why would-? Anyone-!"
She takes a few breaths to regain her composure.
"Karl told me that he regretted… Regretted the purges."
"Karl?"
"Overman. Overman told me that he regretted the purges. I didn't-. I thought that he meant that he didn't think it was worth killing them."
"That may well have been what he meant."
"No, he's-" She turns to stare at me. "-seen other Earths! He's seen this result! And he'd.. rather have this than-than-."
She's actually crying. Okay, I can see how having your idol-.
I take a closer look at the violet strands.
"You think of him as your father."
"I was supposed to be-. They made me because they were trying to make someone who could bear his children, and he found out about it -about me- before they were ready. And he-. He is the world's greatest hero! He found out that my family was dead, and he.. took me out of the laboratory and into his home and treated me as if I was his natural daughter, not a half-alien who could never match him."
"Alright. Um."
"Why didn't he.. just… Tell me this is what it was like?" She turns back to the Berlin panorama, shaking her head. "I-. I'm more loyal to him than to the Fuhrer. He should have been Fuhrer after Adolf Hitler died. Why didn't he trust me with this?"
"Because it would have been a total shock to your worldview, and interfered with you being a hero on a world that works like yours does." She gives her head a tiny shake. "You said that he regretted the purges. Did he ever talk to you about them?"
"He was away from the Earth when the Great Cleansing occurred. He never likes to talk about it. He only spoke about it to me after he did a television interview where he admitted to wishing it hadn't happened, even after all of the good that the National Socialist party has done for our people. I-. I need to understand-."
Her head jerks up.
"This world. Are any of my family alive?"
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