Before the Pathogen. [He says it quick and casual, as if he'd like to just skim past this particular element of his reality.

Let's talk about Shangri-La instead!] How fascinating. I wonder why that is? I know there are distortion zones in my world, but they're usually-- [Ah hell, what was that about avoiding talking about this part of his world?] --ruins. There's too much interference because of all the metal.