Russian meet Russian

When Vladimir listened to Ritsuko and her reason for wanting to join the army he couldn’t help but smirk a bit; it was something he would expect a child to say, though he himself was much like that in his youth. He had wanted to fight to protect what he thought was right; to protect this great land. Making friends was something that was bound to happen along the way, it was not something that should be forced, though he was sure that she had already learned this lesson. It seemed like she was fairly upfront about her past and that was a good thing. Being able to talk so openly about your past was something that Vladimir enjoyed about others; they did not feel the need to hide anything, or to lie about some past tragedy. He was in general agreement with what Ritsuko had been saying until she had called basic training a hell hole. While he was not angry at her, he simply could not agree with what she had said; she had not experienced a place as bad as hell.

The special training camp for the KGB was what one could consider hell. General Training was something which was meant to simply shape a soldier up; it would ensure that they were ready for combat and sort of scenario that may entail. It was relatively tame training; sure, it was much more intense than that which one would do at the gym, but in the end it was simply instilling that strength along with discipline. These were things that a majority of the population was able to obtain, so long as they worked hard and maintained a steady training schedule. Special ops training was something which took a person who already had these traits and broke them, remaking them into something which was rather frightening. Reshaping their minds, pushing the body to its limit, these were things which he had spent an excessive amount of time enduring. It was this training which had caused him to change into the man he was today; the person who was capable of defending many. This, however, was neither here nor there. He did not believe that others had to hear, or even understand, his past and he was perfectly okay with this; he did not feel the need to discuss it with others either.

It was with her inquiry into his past that he simply smiled and decided that he would give her only a slight glimpse into his past; it was not as though he had known her for so long that he could simply open his entire past to her. There were things that she didn’t need to know about; those who never saw action wouldn’t have the same thoughts. They wouldn’t be able to comprehend what had happened; this was in no ways a comment to suggest a lesser intellect, simply that they did not share the same experiences and could not fully understand his feelings. “I was born in Russia and spent most of my life in Russia. After having gone through my schooling I too decided to join the army and fight for our glorious country. After having gone through basic training I was quickly recruited into a special forces unit; the training for this was brutal. It was something I will never be able to forget and truly changed me into the man I am today, whether for better or worse. After that I spent some time out on deployment, though I had quickly decided it was not the right thing to do. With this I had left the forces and was on a journey of self discovery, attempting to better myself. That’s a pretty concise summary of what I’ve been up to, if I do say so myself.” He chuckled, looking over to the girl. “Anything in particular you’d like to ask?”