[Video]

[oldmannomore]

[There's a man looking in his early thirties with an expression caught between amused and distressed as he sits at the terminal.]

Earth is destroyed, huh? I know there's plenty of species who would love to. That letter wasn't really informative. Was it the Conclave? Or someone who tried to go rogue from them? No, that doesn't make sense... Gao's got them on a short leash.

If you're telling me my home was destroyed, you couldn't even tell me who did it?

[His amused expression falters.]

Unless this is some kind of torture setup, in which case I'm talking to no one who cares, I guess.

Comments

[midgarhorizon]

Torture setup, sounds about right. The food is, definitely.

[oldmannomore]

I don't know, I've had some pretty bad food. The CDF may know a lot of things, but giving their soldiers good-tasting food isn't really one of them.

[midgarhorizon]

The what? I've heard of that one.

[oldmannomore]

CDF. Colonial Defense Force?

ack sorry that last tag was supposed be "never heard"

[midgarhorizon]

Right, different world.

I figured. :|b

[oldmannomore]

I've been to different worlds. Unless you're not human? But most of them know about the CDF.

[midgarhorizon]

If I wasn't human, what would I be?

[oldmannomore]

[He just stares at Reno, with a 'seriously?' look.]

A lot of things.

[midgarhorizon]

Too bad, I was actually curious.

[oldmannomore]

[Pfft.]

With the way our soldiers change between, it's not out of the question for other races to have developed that technology as well.

video

[myblueskies]

[And a small child appears on the other side, giving a small reassuring smile.] The world hasn't been destroyed sir! The bad people are just lying to us.

video

[oldmannomore]

[... He looks so young. He shouldn't be here.]

I kind of figured. If we were under attack, I would have probably heard about it.

[myblueskies]

[Romeo nods] I think it would be hard not to know the world was ending sir! I don't know why the bad people keep telling people it has been, I guess they want us to like them.

[oldmannomore]

That's not a very good way to get people to like you, don't you think?

[myblueskies]

No it's not! And nobody does like them because they are bad and keep doing really bad things!

[oldmannomore]

... Do you mind telling me what kind of bad things they're doing?

[myblueskies]

[Romeo nodded looking grim] Well they brought everyone here, and they sometimes make people disappear for no reason at all. And sometimes they come back but can't remember ever being here!

Last week they made us play hide and seek with teddy bears and almost everyone died. They are magic or something and can make it so you don't really die and you just wake up every time they kill you. They like seeing people cry and like it when we are hurt and scared.

They sometimes do experiments as well, they turned me into a deer that was still a human but I was a deer as well and then they made my best friend kill me.

There's lots of monsters as well, and I think they work for the bad people as well, and one time the tower turned into just one room, that we couldn't escape from and it was full of monsters!

They said they would let us go home one time as well, but sent us to really horrible places where bad things had happened and it wasn't real!

[oldmannomore]

... I'm sorry.

[And he honestly sounds it, too.]

You shouldn't have to go through all of that. No one should, but especially not someone your age.

[myblueskies]

[He looks like he isn't too sure what to say to the apology, after all this wasn't one of the bad people. He hadn't hurt Romeo or his friends.]

It's okay sir, we are going to beat them and all go home.

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[tempustemporum]

[You thought Romeo was young? Go nuts.]

No, it wasn't very informative.

...Signs have pointed to it being true, but considering the capabilities of the tower, those could also be fabricated to support the lie.

video

[oldmannomore]

[Yeah. This does not make him happy at all. Then again, if a man in his 90s can be in the body of a man in his 30s, then an older person can be in the body of a child. Even if it's probably against some CDF or other kind of convention.]

What signs, and what kind of capabilities does the tower have?

[tempustemporum]

[Sorry about that. Also herpaderp, sure did forget that this was video and therefore featured his unreasonably quiet speaking voice.]

...well, on floor five, there are viewing stations that allow you to view 'your' homeworld, in a state of ruin; presumably what happened to it causing you to be taken here. furthermore, i have spoken to several people who have lived in the tower, disappeared, and come back; these people wandered the same ruins of their world until they returned, according to their memories. the tower has been known to condense itself into one floor and back again, and summon monsters from nowhere; fabricating such things as an illusion would hardly be out of their range of capability.

[oldmannomore]

... I wonder which homeworld they'd pick for me. But that's... disturbing. Either it's a really well-built torture facility, or...

[He doesn't want to think of the 'or'. If he's really been brought here, and his world really is gone... Jane... Zoe... everyone he cares about...]

[tempustemporum]

[He nods, expression unchanging from the blank line it's been up to now. Following his thought processes, it's likely that he will begin to think about the people living in his old world sometime soon, so...]

...people filter in groups. just because some isn't here now doesn't mean that they won't come in the future.

[oldmannomore]

Hopefully. And my wife can probably hold her own until she gets here.