voice, un: endsoftheearth

[earthy]

[It takes Terra a little while to report to the network. He knows he needs to — he can't just keep this information to himself — but he's not really eager to talk about what happened.

He finally just forces himself to sit down and turn on the device.]

... Hello. I'm Terra. I've never put up one of these messages before. If I do something wrong, let me know.

[With a deep, steadying breath, he gets on with it.]

I tracked down another one of the... 'M' people. She told me a couple things that I think might be important.

Uh... For starters, this 'M' group is apparently pretty big. She claimed my catching her wasn't going to stop anything, that there are too many of them... out there somewhere, I guess, carrying on doing whatever it is they're trying to do. Maybe she was just bluffing. Or maybe we're going to be dealing with these people for a while...

Anyway, then she went on to mention their leader. 'The guy at the top of all this.' I thought it was that Shady Man... S-8, but no, it's someone else. She didn't know his name. Said he's really into birds, though? And that he looks like a... normal person.

She told me that this leader has a hideout but that it moves around a lot. Moves around constantly... is what she said. It was in the Theatre District here in Olympia last, but she was sure it had already been moved again...

[He trails off at that and keeps quiet a moment.]

That's about it. All she would tell me.

[Another pause, this one a bit longer than the last.]

Her name was Gnome.

Comments

[earthy]

The rat?

[He missed the 'lol I totally murdered that guy in cold blood' post.]

There was a rat person, too?

[But more or less correctly guesses what Qrow means. There are mouse people, why not rat people?]

I'm okay. [-ish.] What about you?

[Did catch the recording about S-8's fate, though.]

[unpromising]

So I heard.

[ It'd be so weird to actually see a rat that can talk. People who had rat-like features, fine, but... actual rats. . . jeez. ]

What about me? I'm as fine as I'll ever be.

[ Hint: he's never fine. ]

[earthy]

Huh...

[It might not be weird to him that there was a rat person around and involved in all this, but the thought that Gnome was married to said rat person does give him pause.

If the rat person was as short as the mouse people he's seen and met... That's... interesting?

Love will find a way?

He's distracted by Qrow's completely convincing assertion.]

You are...? But you were the one to catch S-8, weren't you?

[unpromising]

Catch is... not the word I would use.

Buuut yeah. I'm fine.

[earthy]

[Oh. Yeah. Uh.]

... Tried to catch. [Or...] Found.

So, it... doesn't bother you? What happened?

[unpromising]

That's not how people should be going down.

[ By "going down", he means dying. It just wasn't right. And hopefully that answers Terra's question. ]

[earthy]

[Yep, that suffices as an answer.]

People shouldn't be going down at all.

[unpromising]

[ Well... that's not something Qrow can particularly agree with, but. . . ]

Yeah? Ever?

[earthy]

Yeah. Ever.

[... Wait.]

I mean... Most people... shouldn't have their lives taken from them or be forced to take their own.

[Every great once in a while, you might run into someone who does actually need to be bludgeoned straight out of existence.]

[unpromising]

Yeah, well... shit happens.

[ This is all sadly a fact of life. It's difficult to accept that some people have to die or some people want to die, but... ]

Anyway, this is all good info. I hope we can all move forward now that we know more.

[earthy]

[Shit happens... That makes the 'ask someone what this means sometime' list.]

I hope so, too.

[And might as well say it...]

I'm sorry about what happened with S-8. I get it that you're fine, but... you know, feel better.