Niko Bellic | Network 002

[vengeance_driven]

[Public | Audio]

I would like to say that I do not intend to eat my hound. He is a good dog. He protects me.

Those are not all the words I said.

I won't eat my beast either. She keeps creepers away. I also wouldn't eat her if she didn't keep creepers away.

[Niko's explanations at their finest.]

Comments

[domesheriff]

[she glances at Niko, considering that] I don't know--this is still different. With the resort and all, I mean. I'm not really used to that kind of luxury.

And... [she pauses, trying to work out how to explain] I'm from one small town, you know? My whole life, I've been around the same places and people. I'm not used to...being new. Having to get to know everybody and everywhere. I think it...feels bigger than it is. I can't even imagine what it was like for you, moving from a village to a big city.

[she wonders what it'll be like for her, if the stars do align and she ever finds her way back to Chester's Mill after the missile. she'd have to get used to living somewhere new then, too. but hopefully she'd at least be doing that with Rusty]

[vengeance_driven]

You get lost easy. You didn't really have to get to know anybody, because nobody cared. [And that alone makes him prefer this place.] Here, some people actually want to get to know you. And you can have a few places that you want to visit regularly.

Still, I do miss home. The way it was.

[domesheriff]

[she frowns at his description] Yeah...I wouldn't want to live somewhere like that either. [after all, this is hard enough for her; she can't even imagine trying to get used to somewhere bigger]

Your village, you mean? [but she wonders if he just means anywhere in the world he left behind]

[vengeance_driven]

My cousin loved it. So I think it works out for some people. [Just not for him.]

[He thinks as they're walking, ignoring a herd of the strange looking steeds that are roaming the landscape.] Yes, my village. It is not the same after the war, but we were pretty peaceful before that. Life wasn't perfect but it was pretty good.

[domesheriff]

[she remembers him mentioning his cousin-in-law before. curious, she asks:] Did you move to Liberty City with your cousin?

[she frowns] You left after a war, huh? [but she doesn't really want to think of how a war would change a place, and she has a feeling that's something Niko would rather not remember either] What was it like before that?

[vengeance_driven]

Yes! He told me he had a mansion and he did not. [He still sounds aggravated about this, like he'll never get done complaining]

It was peaceful. We were a mixed village, Serbs and Bosniaks. Catholics and Muslims. People do not understand Balkan muslims- they are faithful but casual. This is the way it was for my village. Then the war started and [he makes a dismissive motion.] No more peace.

[domesheriff]

[she smiles at that, amused] Is that what you guys thought America was like?

[but as he tells her about his village, that smile falls] That sounds like it was nice. [she isn't sure what else to say. that sort of peaceful coexistence is actually hard for her to imagine--Chester's Mill isn't exactly known for its diversity, after all. her own family was enough of an oddity, so much so that her parents left years ago]

[vengeance_driven]

It is what my cousin continued to believe America was like. But there was a lot of lying on his end. He made things out to be better than they were.

But they were better than home, I guess. I think I was more in the mood to rebuild than to make some new place work. [As if that would fix his baggage.] And your whole life has been spent there?

[domesheriff]

[she frowns] Have you been here long enough to get settled? [she realizes doesn't know how long he's been on Quadratus]

Yeah. [she nods] I mean, not just America--I've always lived in Chester's Mill. [until now, of course]

[vengeance_driven]

Ah... about six months. So I think so. I figured out all the street names.

Just Chester's Mill? Wow. You are going to make me look like I am worldly. [He's genuinely joking- despite his time in the merchant navy, he knows at heart he really is a country bumpkin.]

[domesheriff]

[she gives a smile of amusement at that] Sounds like a good sign. I've got a feeling it's gonna take me a while...

Well, you do have two languages and three countries now. [she takes it as the joke he intends. don't worry, Niko--she may not be the same sort of country bumpkin as you are, but she definitely is one, too]

[vengeance_driven]

Three. I speak Russian, too. They think I sound like a peasant, but I speak Russian. [Russians usually don't have the kindest opinions of other Slavs- after all, there are so many of them.]

But here, you don't have to worry about food, about work. Is like what my country wanted to be when it thought of communism. And here, the capitalism doesn't seem to hurt anyone.

[Most of it, anyway.]

[domesheriff]

Even more worldly, then! [but at his other comments, she frowns curiously at him. the way he put that, it makes Quadratus sound like some kind of paradise] Is that your way of saying you really like it here?