towerofanimus | What's the point of praying [Open]

Characters: Romeo and Open
Setting: Cathedral
Format: Starting in prose but feel free to switch
Summary: Romeo wakes up to a tower that is very different than the one he went to sleep in.
Warnings: Small child having a very grown up crisis. Mentions of Dax's death, plot reveals, etc. Quite a lot of religion/questioning religion/heaven and hell and souls and good and evil stuff.

The cathedral was quiet, but not empty. At the front of the pews there was a small barefoot boy kneeling, head bowed. He wasn't praying though... he was just thinking.

Everyone seemed different today, the adults had that pale, something really bad has happened look about them. Romeo hadn't found any of those he really trusted to ask what had happened, but he had walked past a terminal and it had came on, for the first time in a while. So he had looked at the network...

And learned everything. Seen Zo being attacked... Seen Dax... He was dead. Dead for real... and seen Feferi's post, she was so upset and what she had said...

He knew what souls were, and he guessed that he had sort of known that they could take your soul out of your body. Because that's how he must have been swapped with mister Itachi, and how he had been a rocking horse. Still Romeo, even though he had been made out of wood and all he could do was rock...

But souls were meant to go to heaven. They belonged to God right? If you died your soul went to heaven if you were good. So the bad people were stealing their souls, and making them come here instead. And it wasn't really saving them at all...

The bad people. Romeo couldn't get what he had seen out of his head. He squeezed his eyes tight shut but tears came anyways. He had thought all this time that mister Dax was a bad person, that he was working for Ruana and even though he was nice to them he was still bad because he let bad things happen and didn't try and stop it.

But he had, he had been trying to help them all along, trying to stop mister Jason, that he was trying to stop the monsters, that he was trying to save them from miss Ruana...

And he had died for them. Because he argued with Ruana. That made him a hero. But could a bad person be a hero? And if he was was he a bad person at all? Or a good person who had been doing bad things because it meant he could help them more?

Romeo felt really bad for being so mad at him. For being angry all this time at someone who had actually not been bad at all. And it made him even more worried for Zo... He was just little and Romeo had never believed that he was really bad. The bad people were just his bosses so he had to do what they said. He didn't try and stop his tears, he couldn't work out how to keep his spirits up.

He really hoped that Zo would be alright... He brought his hands up to clasp together in prayer before dropping them again. He hadn't really believed God could hear him for a long time and he guessed he knew why now. The priest in his village had always said that his soul belonged to God even before he died, and God would look after him and when he died as long as he was good he could go and live with God and all his friends who had died. But if the bad people had stolen his soul than it didn't belong to God any more, it belonged to the bad people.

And Romeo really didn't know what to think about that...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Teachers are just stepping stones meant to be surpassed. If you become stronger than your teacher, that means you succeeded at everything they taught you and went beyond their expectation, thus becoming stronger!"

He should know... the trail of beaten dark masters at the Yordle's hands was staggering. But that was how he had become the most feared caster in all of Valoran, no, in all of Runeterra!

Romeo blinked at him, "I never got stronger than them they just disappeared."

And when you were twelve it was difficult to convince people to teach you to fight.

dsbalgfgasd

"That's not what I meant!" Veigar flailed flustered.

"I meant that you don't need them. There's plenty of venues of knowledge in this place and plenty of ways to learn. You just have to continue pushing forward instead of sitting idly!"

More confused blinking. "But books can't teach you how to fight the bad people!"

"Of course they can! Unless every book in this blasted place is completely and utterly useless, books hold techniques and strategies and historical accounts! Some might even teach spells, conjurations, rituals!" Veigar spouted as he paced some more.

"You don't have to be solely a brute with physical prowess to defeat enemies! The strongest opponents more often than not are the clever ones, not the buff ones."

Romeo blinked at him again, "But there's so many! It will take a million years to read them all!" His eyes were full of interest though, he hadn't known you could learn magic or fighting from books.

"Do you have anything better to do? Sniveling, crying, feeling sorry for yourself or others or just hiding don't count as things better to do than your personal growth and strengthening. Don't you want to be able to protect your precious friends?" he voiced in a low tone.

"You don't have to read it all, but it's sometimes advised if you have the time. Start with the basics, move on to specialization in what you want to focus on. It's not hard you know..."

Romeo frowned at him, he wasn't sniveling. He was just... sad. It was really hard to keep his spirits up but mister Veigar was right! He had to become stronger so he could protect all his friends!

He scrambled to his feet and nodded looking serious, "I'll try really really hard sir! I promise!"

Veigar grinned, yes, good. He really abhorred when someone who was under his alliances whined and gave up or seemed as such. Especially when they were ~~short like him~~ height impaired since the taller ones looked down upon them!

"Good, I expect you to minion. This is not the place to be amongst the weak! Especially if you have important things to protect..." Because he had lost his... not that he would admit it.

Romeo scrubbed at his eyes again and raised his fist to his heart, "I do sir, I got lots of people to protect. I'll get really strong so I can! I swear!"

An oath, and Romeo always kept his oaths, or at least tried to. He would protect everyone, even people who he thought were bad because they might be like Dax and really be good.

"I'll protect everyone here I promise!"

"Good, good...." Veigar said in a low voice, smiling at the new found drive of the minion.

"Just remember, you can't protect anything if you don't protect yourself either. One has to make sure they don't fall before they prevent others from falling."

Romeo thought about that for a moment, but it was right. He remembered in the costume event, he had been trying to protect all the kids, and then tried to help Kidou but had gotten killed by Kidou, which meant there wasn't enough candy and Ken had tried to share out what they had, but he didn't have enough for himself and he had died. And then all the kids who couldn't fight didn't have any at all and had died.

He nodded, though it was hard not to run into danger without thinking if his friends were hurting. "Yes sir."

Veigar grinned and nodded, "Good then, I believe I'll be looking forward to your progress minion."

He turned to leave and started walking. "I do hope you don't disappoint, but... considering you have so much to protect, I'm sure you'll do well."

"I wont..." He stood up a bit straighter, trying to look brave. "I wont disappoint you."

As Veigar walked away, he grinned. "Make sure you don't."

He was pleased. The minion seemed as determined as ever and that would give him a better edge in what was to come.

"I wont!" He smiled as Veigar left and took a deep breath. He had lots of work to do!

What's the point of praying [Open]

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