Hello Tower.

[thornythaumaturge]

[The video clicks on, showing a clearly worn out Jade Strider, with a small handful of bleeding scratches and some burn marks on her face, and for once completely lacking her "cool kid" composure. She's breathing heavily and obviously panicked, but compared to John Lalonde it looks like she got off easy-- in the background he can be seen leaning over some pile of debris near two chairs, his face reduced to a bloody and battered mess from an explosion. Both of them seem to have an extra collar on under their colored collars, linked by chains to a strange box on the ceiling of the Library.
When she started talking, it was hurried and rushed, and she sounded like she was about to cry.]

H-Hey-- the fucking bomb just-- blew the fuck up in John's f-face and there's metal and shit in his face and it's all fucked up and we ne--!

[Her sentence was cut short with the sound of a "snap," the chain suddenly retracting on both ends, violently pulling John away from the bomb's remains and Jade away from the computer terminal.

Given the way both of their bodies were now hanging limply from the ceiling, that "snap" wasn't just the sound of the mechanisms.

After a minute or so of that image, someone enters the screen. She looks similar to a popular movie icon, if anyone into horror movies are watching, but just a little more terrifying. She smiles, waving a wooden hand at the camera, before switching the feed off.]

i see the network is working properly again!
good, good. that makes this easier.
i want to play a game, my fellow tower mates.
do you think you can survive any better than these two?
it's a shame they couldn't follow the rules, isn't it?
hee hee hee.
i hope you all are ready.
oh, before i go, if anyone needs candy there's plenty to be found in the library!
i'm sure they won't be needing it.
:)

Comments

[thornythaumaturge]

no, they kind of weren't!
because we were never meant to make a new universe.
that was a completely pointless task.
we were completely useless.
but maybe that's why the other two ran off.
still doesn't make it okay though.

[heirterosexual]

wow way to be a debbie downer!
maybe they were trying to find some alternate way to fix things or something.
i really doubt they were intending to leave you two to a pointless task!

[thornythaumaturge]

they couldn't be bothered to tell us.
hell i didn't even learn of what they were doing until john blew us up and he and i arrived here!
and even THEN it took me being angry with him before he told me!

john stop conversing with the crazy girl.

[heirterosexual]

...wait he blew you up??
suddenly i don't understand anything.

yes, it's probably bad for your brain john.

[thornythaumaturge]

yup!
he just showed up on dave's planet with a bomb and blew us up!

v__v

[heirterosexual]

...that doesn't even make any sense.
john's a little nuts because he's a lalonde, but he's not that crazy!!

[thornythaumaturge]

no, he's not.
he's quite sane!
but we were going to die anyway.
or well disappear from existence.
apparently there might have been a way to save us if we died, but we never got to see if that worked!
guess that's the fate of doomed timelines!

[heirterosexual]

well maybe he was trying to save you, then?
you can't just assume something like that of your friends, rose! did you even talk to him about it?

[thornythaumaturge]

of course i did, but it's still pretty inexcusable in my book.
we made a promise and they broke it.

[heirterosexual]

well what was the promise?

[thornythaumaturge]

that we'd play the game together.
not in two separate teams, but TOGETHER.

[heirterosexual]

there's only so much of the game that CAN be played together, though!
i still haven't met dave, and we've been playing for a year now!

[thornythaumaturge]

well of course!
but leaving us in the dark?
until just showing up to kill us?
not. okay.

[heirterosexual]

yeah, okay, i agree that's pretty much not okay at all.
but neither is killing him in retaliation.

[thornythaumaturge]

it wasn't in retaliation.
i was trying to teach them something!
if it were simple retaliation, i would just outright kill him.

[heirterosexual]

that's basically the same thing!!
trying to teach them that what they did wasn't okay by killing them is basically killing them in retaliation!
never mind that you basically baited your FRIENDS into something, and did the same thing they did to you.
except i doubt they had you hung by chains.

[thornythaumaturge]

oh no, i didn't abandon them like they did us!
i stayed right there, i even gave them a hint to help them solve the puzzle!
and i warned jade that if she wanted to spare them both, not to touch the terminal.
they didn't listen though.
that's not my fault.

john stop

[heirterosexual]

wow, because that's totally fair.
because it's totally sane and rational to teach your friends lessons that if they don't do things right you'll kill them!
what sort of lesson would you teach me, then? if i showed up and didn't do as you said?

john you are just asking for a game

[thornythaumaturge]

hmm hmmm what would i teach you?
perhaps that being so naively optimistic isn't always the best choice!
i know from experience there.

basicallyq

[heirterosexual]

i'm not even being optimistic here, i'm telling you it's wrong to kill your friends!
for ANY reason!

[thornythaumaturge]

wrong!
you clearly displayed some stalwart optimism by continuing to insist that there must be some good reason for ones friends abandoning and then killing them.

[heirterosexual]

newsflash, rose, that's not optimism. that's called believing in your friends, because they're, you know. your friends??
clearly this is something you need to work on.

[thornythaumaturge]

it's optimism, john, because you are blindly believing that two people you've only just met had nothing but the best intentions, even though there's reason to believe that they didn't!

[heirterosexual]

one of those people is kind of a version of ME, who i'd like to think i know pretty well, thank you.

[thornythaumaturge]

a version!
i could say the same thing about rose strider, but i'm completely at a loss as to who she is.
i didn't know i was capable of being so angry and hostile for no reason!
no matter who they are or how close they are to you and the people you know, you never know a person until you actually sit down and try to learn about them.