A year on...

[myblueskies]

Characters: Romeo and everyone
Setting: 4th June
Summary: It's been a year since they defeated Ruana. Romeo has decided that they need a reunion.
Warnings: Generic warnings for people talking about animus things

It had been a year. Romeo knew because they had defeated Ruana just after his fourteenth birthday, and now he was fifteen and a few days. By his counting anyways, in reality it was his twelfth birthday he had just celebrated and it was something he thought he would never get used to, having three more years in his head.

The last year had been the most wonderful that Romeo had ever had, he went to school now. A real school in the city and he stayed at Doctor Casella's house with Bianca, who also went to school. He got to visit his family a lot and was learning so much. He just knew that between him and Bianca Alfredo's dream would become a reality.

Yet Romeo would never forget his friends from other worlds, nor could he forget the three years he had spent in the tower. But he didn't want to, as bad as the memories were and as real that the terror that woke him in the nights still was he would not chose to forget. Because it would mean forgetting his friends and how brave they were.

So it had been a year and a few days ago Romeo had left a note in the new tower. His writing was much neater now, but he still wrote in crayon- mostly for the novelty, crayons were not a thing that he had access to in his world. The note had asked people to come on this day, to remember and meet with new friends again.

He had decorated and even brought some food from home, bread, meat and cheese for the most part, though he had brought some cake too. He had had this idea for a while and so had saved up money, Bianca had helped too, even if she couldn't come here she wanted to make Romeo's friends happy.

While he was waiting for people to turn up he went to sit by the table of gifts that Zo had left, like Alfredo he could talk to Zo anywhere but this place was a bit like Alfredo's grave, where Romeo felt closest to him. He sat telling him about the reunion while he waited.

Comments

[miseris_socios]

Another year. Another year had gone by and at least in Ken's version of events, everything was over. Nyx was defeated, the rest of Strega were fading, and the uneasy truce with SEES had grown into something that could more tentatively be called an alliance.

Ken was back in school, his tuition paid by the Kirijo Group, loathe as he was to take money from them. He still needed to be in school, but thankfully he'd caught up quickly to what he'd missed all the years he was on the streets. Ken had grown in the past year, his frame getting taller and a little more lanky, closer to how it'd been when he left the Tower.

What hadn't changed were the nightmares, the memories of being in the Tower. There were good memories, true, but the terror and paranoia still stuck with him.

(He'd picked up a knife to go along with his spear, and there was always one near where he slept, just in case.)

The new Tower was the only place he really felt okay sleeping. There were people who understood, and so he'd gotten into the habit of checking in at least once a month. He was glad he did this time, because he saw the note.

On the day that was listed, he appeared in the Tower with cookies and soda pop, enough to share. He wandered towards the table of gifts and nodded to them, before setting down what he brought and sitting near Romeo.

"Hey." He smiled softly, trying not to startle his friend.

[myblueskies]

Romeo turned and smiled reaching out to hug Ken. He had seen him a few times since they had left the tower, but not that much. Even with magical doors into each others worlds finding time where he could just disappear out of his universe was hard.

"Hi Ken! I'm glad you came!"

[miseris_socios]

He gave Romeo a tight hug. He'd tried to keep up with him, but sometimes homework just wouldn't be so easily defeated.

"Of course. I wouldn't miss something like this."

[myblueskies]

"I just hope people saw it, I don't know how many people come here." More hugging, he really has missed him.

"Bianca says hello, she wishes she could come meet everyone." But she couldn't pass through the doors, they had tried.

[miseris_socios]

"It'll be enough." He grins a little bit and nods, letting go.

"I didn't really tell the others very much about this. They wouldn't understand. But I heard that other people couldn't come across... it's sad, but we can always visit each other when we have time."

[myblueskies]

"Well everyone thought I had went crazy." He pulled a face, "But Bianca believes me." One person, he had stopped telling anyone else.

"You should visit, Bianca would love to see you!"

[miseris_socios]

"I should. Once my exams are over, I'll see what I can do, okay?"

School came first... he still had a lot of work to do for exams, after all.

[warriorscribe]

Enoch basically lived in the new tower. The world he had been pulled from hadn't been his home, and it had died the death it was meant to die when he returned, resulting in him being flung to some other random world before finding this one. It meant he'd have to search for home.

And he was, really, in no hurry. He knew that pain beyond imagining awaited him in his future, even if he would eventually be victorious. So he was more than happy to linger here in this miniature tower and strike out into other worlds to find new things to plant in the garden he'd started, or books to fill in the little library England had set up.

So he came not from without, but from within, from the stairs leading to the garden floor he created and lived on, carrying bowls full of fresh berries, both Earthly and...not - some might recognize them as Pokemon berries - how could he pass up plants that grow so quickly? He has a small stand of them in the garden now.

"Romeo, it's good to see you again. Your writing has improved since I saw you last."

[myblueskies]

"Hello mister Enoch!" Romeo grinned at him, turning from where he sat. He nodded, proud. "I go to a proper school now, doctor Casella helped me get in. I'm learning loads of things."

[warriorscribe]

"That's good. Learning is always important." Learning incessantly, after all, hounding the truth, has always been the key to success. At home, in Meridian, in Animus...the results may not always be so dramatic, but knowledge, properly earned, was the best thing a person could have as far as he was concerned.

"I'm glad to hear that you've been well. What do you plan to do?" At his age, he'd expect Romeo to have an apprenticeship by default, but he'd learned by now that system would largely fall out of use in favor of more structured education.

[myblueskies]

And Romeo's world is right on the brink of that change, and true if Romeo's family had had any money at all they would have probably apprenticed him out. But things were as they were and Romeo's benefactor had opted for schooling.

"I want to be a teacher, and to make sure that all children wherever they live can read and write and learn things, but I also want to help make sure that no children can ever be sold and I want to make sure that people who are sick can get help even if they have no money and..." He stopped and grinned, he's at least old enough to realise when he's babbling now.

[warriorscribe]

Enoch couldn't help but grin right back. He would have listened to all of that if he'd kept going, because it was people like Romeo who most affirmed his faith in humanity.

"You want to make the world a better place," he said. "There is no more noble goal than that. The key to our success is helping one another."

[notsogrimreaper]

Ryoji may not know Romeo well, but he isn't going to ignore the promise of a party. It has been too long since he's seen the friends he's left behind. He wants to talk to them now, about how he's back in school now, in Inaba with Yukiko, living a normal life for once.

He enjoys a bit of the food set out, and if he sees Romeo, he's sure to thank him for inviting him. But in the meantime, he'll just wait for his old friends to arrive.

[myblueskies]

Romeo saw Ryoji and waved. "I'm glad you came!"

[notsogrimreaper]

Ryoji waves back and offers a small smile. “I think I’m more happy to be here. It’s been a long time.”

[myblueskies]

"It has been. A really long time." A whole year and so much had happened. "How have you been?"

[notsogrimreaper]

“I’ve been good. Really good. I’ve gone back to school, and I just finished entrance exams for college.”

Normal things. Things Ryoji thought he’d never experience again.

“What about you? Did you have school back home?”

[scentofmakai]

A year had passed more or less peacefully in Zett's home, too. The world had been saved from what was threatening it before Animus's whole shindig destroyed it. Setsuna and Mirai were doing well, and Zett spent as much time bothering them as he did hanging around the Tower and bothering the friends he'd made there.

Like right now.

"Romeo~ Romeo~~~~~"

Whether he likes it or not, he's being tackled in a hug.

[myblueskies]

He's very happy to be hugged and he shrieks in happiness. "Zett!" So many hugs Zett is getting right now. "How are you? How have you been? I'm so glad you are here!"

[scentofmakai]

"I'm fine, just fine~ How's my favorite friend?" he asks with a wide grin.

He might have other close friends, and he might have honorary family, but in terms of humans he calls 'friends' Romeo is clearly the most adorable.