To him it's both personal and unfair of him to speak of; Ilde's world (and it will always be Ilde's world that he thinks about) is a mirror of his own. Did he survive there? Is he some cold monster now, part of an army? Did his family survive? Will the apocalypse come for them in their own timeline, someday?

"I don't mean bureaucracy," he points out. "I mean.. that people who live here and have to make due. There are still art galleries, and concerts, and restaurants, and charity events and schools. There's something like two and a half million people here."

Not all of them are corrupt, not all of them are complacent. For many people, refusing to lower the quality of life for themselves and their peers is just as good as fighting back.