THE THIRD STANDARDISED OCCURRENCE OF VIOLENCE PREREQUISITE TO ROMAN ANTZ (Jacky+Invisimort)

Bells

I matched what he did on the hand-held thing, and just stared at the odd . . . thing . . . he was an Outlander of some sort, but he was even odder looking that T.Mor or whats-his-name. "What-- What is that?" Some text was at the bottom of the box, and it looked something like the Mainlander writing. I hesitated, then waggled the knobby things back and forth in an attempt to, I don't know, scare it off or the like. My eyes were probably bulging out of my head. What. Is. That. Thing.

It was creepy.

T.Mor:

"Er... Well... That's the king of all cosmos... and That..."I pointed at the little green guy near the bottom of the screen "Is the prince...of...er...all cosmos... and... The king got all... drunk or something... one night, and... destroyed all the stars...so, we...as the prince...uhm... have to go... and... roll up...stuff... to rebuild the stars. " I explained.

I hit another button on my controller, and... well, There was a split screen sort of set up, and I immediately started rolling the little ball around and picking up...teeny things... "..er... you want to get smaller things... so that you can...get bigger...and pick up...bigger things..." The 'NAAAA NANA NA NA NA NA NA' Theme song started up.

Bells

What. The-- A mental stream of cusswords cut through my mind. That music made me feel like I'd been smoking something illegal. The colors on the screen were so bright it looked like a sunset and a rainbow had gotten together, had a kid, and splattered said kid all over the screen. I stared a moment before waggling the knobby things again, and the little ball of junk on the lower half of the screen started waggling, too. "This is crazy as 'ell."

T.Mor:

"...er... yeah... that's... kind of... the...uhm... point..." I muttered, just having cleared 5 meters in diameter. "...keep rolling... You could get as big as...as... I dunno... the sky or something..." I crashed into some lady. Still not big enough to pick up people... I backed up and started off in another direction, picking up a piece of a fence, and having the fence displace the katamari... It was awkward to roll unbalanced like that...

Bells

I kept rolling blindly, trying to get the ball thing to pick up speed, and picking up random objects from odd-looking structures. "Th' sky?" I repeated, my eyes widening. This was so . . . odd. I kept noticing that T.Mor's rolly thing was bigger than mine, and for some reason, that stirred up a lit' bit of anger in the pit of my stomach. So I kept rolling frantically.

T.Mor:

"Er...yeah... There's a level... In the next game...where you roll up the sun...Whatever that is..." I told her, not taking my eyes off the screen. I didn't quite know what a sun was exactly... but it was big... and you could roll it up. And then...Finally, I rolled up that lady, and she made over exaggerated screaming noises for a bit.

Bells

I didn't seem to be getting very far in this game, but I was moving the controller as fast as I could. "Got t' be kidding me, why can't I pick up th' stupid passer-by-- Pardon, you don't know what a sun is? You're kidding, aye? Aye, I'm a bit of a night owl sometimes, but not knowing what th' sun is, mate, that's 'orrible. You've got t' get out more."

T.Mor:

I glanced down at her screen...She wasn't quite big enough to pick up people yet... "You have to...er...get bigger...before you pick up people...er... ...Try... those green orby things..." I went back to my screen and continued with my rolling. ...That awkward stage...where you are too big for the street...and still to small to pick up houses...

And... I didn't see the big deal about the sun..."...No... I'm not... er... kidding... uhm..." I mean... we didn't have one I didn't think...so... er...

Bells

I paused to study him, reading his face in search of a lie. "You're honestly telling me you don't know what th' sun is?"

T.Mor:

"...Yeah..." I really didn't see what the problem was... but I hit the pause button on the game anyway, so the king of all cosmos didn't yell at us for running out of time...

Bells

"That big bright thing in th' sky, that lights everything up?" That was hard for me to imagine. I'd always liked the sun. It scared gangs away and looked real pretty when it set and rose, you know, with the bright colors and such in the clouds. Never got to actually be out in the sun much, though, just watch it come and go. Sometimes I'd wonder if that's where the world ended, at the horizon where the sunset was . . . And he was telling me . . . that he'd never seen the sun? Perhaps that's why. Outlanders live beyond the horizon. "You're telling me . . . that you've never seen it? Not once?"

T.Mor:

"...Well...I saw it...when I played Katamari 2..." I said. "...and... there's nothing in the sky...nothing... just...grey." Everyone knew that. The sky was grey, the ground was brown, and fire was red and yellow...and some other colours. I dunno what she thought she was talking about... bright things in the sky...

Bells

My brow furrowed. That wasn't right . . . somehow. It made sense. Outlands were wrong places to be, so it should be apparent that the skies would be grey . . . but it didn't seem right. "But what about th' blue? Bright blue, like--" Normally I would have chosen the words 'sky blue' to describe that bright of a color, but I figured that wouldn't work. "Just bright! And th' stars. 'Ave you seen stars?"

T.Mor:

"...In...videogames..." I stated. I built the whole star system in Katamari. "Why...er...why is this so...off to you? I mean... The sky is grey...And... that... that's how it is..." She had talked about blue...blue... Huh. Didn't have any of that here...so...er...yeah...

Bells

"No . . . it's not. Th' sky is blue, idiot!" I glanced back at the bright rainbowy screen. "I've got t' show you th' real sky, sometime."

T.Mor:

"...no... It's grey... I learnt that... back when I went to school... that time... and I mean..." I put down my controller and walked over to my kitchen, where the door was. I opened my front door. "Look... It's grey..." I pointed toward the sky, and held the door open so she could come look. The smell of burning stuff slowly crept into the room from the outside, and I figured that someone on my street had missed their taxes...

Bells

I followed him, cautiously peering out the door. And stared. Everything was grey, and . . . the water, where. Was. The water. The smell of smoke drifted through the air, and there was a distant crackle of flames.

Holy hell. This place was Hell.

"It's always like this? But where's th' water?"

T.Mor:

"Er...well...sometimes it's more on fire...kind of... depends..." I said...she seemed a bit...shocked. "And...er...we...we have... a river... out like... 17 or so blocks out... That way..." I pointed towards the back of my house. "...if you're thirsty though...er... I can boil water..." I actually still had the pot on the stove, from...earlier... because, well... today was my turn to eat and drink things...so...yeah. And...It's not like you really have to...wash pots that only hold water...

[b]Bells[/b

"No . . . I'm fine," I said, taking it all in. "But where's th' ocean?"

T.Mor:

"er...what's...what's an ocean?" I asked. I'd never even heard that word before. Seemed to have something to do with water though...

Bells

My gaze snapped back to him again. That . . . that couldn't be right. There was too much solid ground; it just stretched on to the end of the world. "I don't like it 'ere," I said, shaking my head. "This isn't a good place."

T.Mor:

"...er...I'm...sorry...uhm..." I didn't quite know what I was apologising for... I mean... I couldn't control the amount of water here... Or the fact that someone on my street couldn't pay their taxes... Or any of that... "Er...Here is better than...than...well... The cardboard slums... I mean... yeah..." Not quite sure why I was defending my house either... I knew it needed some work done... Ok... A lot of work done... "...It's not... that bad..." I muttered.

Bells

"Goddamnit, stop apologizing!" I shook my head. "It's not your fault, it's just . . . a lot-- a lot different from 'ome. I don't like it 'ere at all. Something's just not right . . ." I was in Outlander territory. That's what was wrong. I shouldn't have been there, Skelet would kill me . . . Luna would kill me. Kissing an Outlander was far enough. Now I was in his homeland.

T.Mor:

She kind of yelled at me for apologising again... "I'm...er..." I cut myself off. Apologising for apologisng wouldn't get me anywhere. I just decided not to finish that sentence. "...what's... what's not right?" I asked... I mean... ok, It was a bit on fire... but... I didn't see any problems really. "...It's really not that...er... Well... I mean it's... I...er..." Is it bad that I really had nothing to say to make her like the place any better? I mean... Yeah... It was bad... but... It could be worse right? ...right?

Bells

"There's no water," I said. How could he not see that that was a bad thing? The ocean was home. Something to be proud of. Here, it was just . . . gone. "Th' sky's th' wrong color, th' 'ouses aren't . . . they're . . . different." Everything was different. That's what was wrong.