He nodded and thought for a moment how to explain something that was simply a fact of life where he was from to someone else. It wasn't like trying to explain a deathclaw. Monsters were monsters. Nukes and crap were all science and he wasn't ever any good at that.
"Okay, so," he frowned again, "there's like building blocks or whatever that you can't see that make up basically everyone and a long ass time ago some scientists figured out how to I guess split those even tinier." He cleared his throat. "And some people used it to like power lights and stuff in whole cities and robots and cars and all that, and others used it to make bombs and weapons and crap and when those bombs drop they make huge explosions like miles and all the dirt and rubble and everything from those detonation spots blows up into the atmosphere and spreads out even further. If you're lucky, the explosion or the shockwave or shit even the fire kill you."
Did that seem right? That seemed right. "What gets laced into all that and left behind once all that is over is radiation and that stays. Nothing grows at the impact site and for miles around it. It gets slowly less worse but if you get hit with too many rads it'll kill you slowly. 'S not like gettin poisoned or anything. Poison's easy to get better from. It's like...like you're decaying." His voice got soft and sad, eyes gone a little distant. "The bombs dropped over two hundred years ago. There's still places where you can't go 'cause of the radiation. You wouldn't last more than a few minutes just standing in it."
Re: For Phryne
"Okay, so," he frowned again, "there's like building blocks or whatever that you can't see that make up basically everyone and a long ass time ago some scientists figured out how to I guess split those even tinier." He cleared his throat. "And some people used it to like power lights and stuff in whole cities and robots and cars and all that, and others used it to make bombs and weapons and crap and when those bombs drop they make huge explosions like miles and all the dirt and rubble and everything from those detonation spots blows up into the atmosphere and spreads out even further. If you're lucky, the explosion or the shockwave or shit even the fire kill you."
Did that seem right? That seemed right. "What gets laced into all that and left behind once all that is over is radiation and that stays. Nothing grows at the impact site and for miles around it. It gets slowly less worse but if you get hit with too many rads it'll kill you slowly. 'S not like gettin poisoned or anything. Poison's easy to get better from. It's like...like you're decaying." His voice got soft and sad, eyes gone a little distant. "The bombs dropped over two hundred years ago. There's still places where you can't go 'cause of the radiation. You wouldn't last more than a few minutes just standing in it."