[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

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.

[oldmannomore]

That's right. We'll be home in no time.

[He probably shouldn't promise this, but... he can't help it.]

My name's John. What's your name?

[myblueskies]

We will sir! I'm Romeo! It's nice to meet you mister John!

[oldmannomore]

Romeo... that's a nice name.

[He hasn't read Shakespeare in forever, but it's not a name that you forget.]

How many people around your age are there here, Romeo?

[myblueskies]

[Romeo has never read Shakespeare because it's a bit above his reading level but Echidna told him about Romeo and Juliet and he thought it sounded a bit silly and very sad. He likes happy stories better.]

A few mister John, there's me and Molly. Ienzo... John, not you but another John. Gamzee, Terezi, Ken, Vriska... the one with the fairy wings... not the other one... Tetra as well!

[oldmannomore]

[He takes in this information, trying to remember all the names. It would be a lot better if he had his PDA with him, but he'd have to make do. It wasn't like he hadn't had to go without it before.]

Ah. Are there a lot of people closer to my age, do you think?

[Or... as old as he looks, at least.]

[myblueskies]

[Romeo shook his head] Lots of people are younger than you, but older than me. Maybe they are about... twenty? [He had to think about it a bit, adults were adults, their ages were hard for Romeo to guess.]