"Yes, I'm sure warmth would help," Madeleine agreed. After walking a few paces, she looked over to Aya as something occurred to her. "Oh, I'm Madeline, by the way. You are...?" In a normal setting, she would have offered her hand in greeting, but this was a far from normal setting and her hands were too occupied keeping her upper arms warm.
"Merci," Madeleine said, smiling as best she could. "I was named after my mother, that much I remember. Your name is quite lovely as well. Do you recall any family? Connections?" Her accent bled through her surprisingly decent English, making her blush slightly in embarrassment.
Madeleine focused on Aya's words, and in doing so, distracted herself from the freezing cold momentarily. "Non, no need to apologize," she said with gentle insistence. She glanced over her shoulder in the direction Aya acknowledged. "I'm sorry to hear of such trouble between you. Is he your only sibling?"
Madeleine looked at her, confused about what she was saying. Famine? Corruption? Last she remembered, the government of America had been finally evening out and things were better foodwise than ever. People, or so she thought, were changing their horrid eating habits as word got out about what awful things were being put into packaged foods.
Madeleine listened in surprise to what Aya told her. "Oui, but I moved to America for my job. That was," she quickly calculated what she could recall, "two years. I lived in America for two years before things are cloudy. In my head, that is. I'm still not sure of what happened that led to this." She swept her arm through the air. What Aya first said hit her now and she paused, dropping her arm to her side. "2979? What are you talking about?"
