Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

With practiced ability, Herosaurus turned the knob and opened the door of his room, taking a moment to spit out the metal's flavor, then the gray wood creaked under his weight as he carefully step out. In all the time he had lived in Cloud Walkway, the floor had never collapsed, even with everyone standing in the same place, but that didn't help much in giving him peace of mind. Blackspace was deceitful, and whenever he was out, at the back of his mind remained the question if that would be the day the floor would finally give out under him.

Herosaurus preferred to stay in his room, even with how empty it was. There was enough space for him, nobody looked at him and he didn't have to worry about falling to who-knows-where… or at least he didn’t have a constant reminder of the possibility. However, it was still an empty room, with nothing to occupy his mind but his own thoughts, and those… The light frown he wore didn’t betray the constriction which had a grip on his heart. He needed someone’s company.

And his plan was to go directly to said someone’s place, when he noticed loud squeaking in the distance. Cloud Walkway was small enough that whatever happened on one place could be easily seen from any other, especially for someone as tall as Herosaurus, so his guard soon got replaced with sadness, once seeing what was going on.

Oh, Omoli...

Herosaurus made his way towards the scene. No matter how much squeaking of the little ones put him on edge, it couldn’t be compared to what they felt, watching Omoli devour one of their peers.

"Omoli... please, stop." Herosaurus, using his tail, gently pushed him away from the little one. Omoli let him, chewing the last bite he had taken. There were little tears in those eyes which avoided his gaze. His face was smeared with black blood… his hair seemed to be dripping with it, too.

Okay. Okay. This is fixable, Herosaurus thought. Of course it was, little ones were the most helpless creatures of Blackspace, of course Omoli was... physically fine.

Now... Herosaurus turned towards the little one... or what was left of them.

Too late.

Okay.

The little ones kept squeaking, squirming, trying to flee. He didn't know how to calm them, but he had to try. However, that was when he noticed a figure sitting on the bench, a Faceless.

"What are you looking at?" They spat.

"Forgive me, I didn’t see you arrive."

"I arrived here before you, way before. Don't think you were first."

Herosaurus was going to apologize for not greeting them, but...

"What?" The Faceless asked. "I wasn't going to get in the way of that thing, do you want it to stab me? It's always the same."

"No stab..." Omoli whispered, hiding behind of one of his front legs.

The Faceless scoffed. "don't talk to me."

Herosaurus didn’t know what to say, but there was no much point. What was done was done. He could hear Omoli sniffle. He had to take care of that. The little ones kept squeaking.

"Could you take care of them?" He asked the Faceless, motioning the little ones.

"Why should I?"

"Please..."

The Faceless crossed their arms, remaining silent a few moments. "Fine." They got up from their seat.

Herosaurus lowered his head to look at Omoli, still hiding behind his front legs. His neck was flexible enough for that. "Let's go get you clean, alright?"

Omoli nodded, stepping out of hiding, so Herosaurus could grab him by the stem on his head, using his lips rather than his teeth to not hurt him, and lift him, beginning his walk towards the waterfall. Peripherally, he saw the Faceless pick up the little one's remains and unceremoniously throw it over the edge. If Herosaurus had decide to come out earlier, maybe he would have been able to save them... Nothing to do about that now, but to give a silent apology to the little one. At least, Omoli wouldn’t be hungry for now...

While walking and carrying Omoli this way, Herosaurus wondered if the others would think he looked like a wild animal with it's offspring... It's not like he had many options. He could move faster than Omoli, and the faster they went, the faster they could end the whole ordeal. Omoli needed that now. If Herosaurus had a normal body, he would carry Omoli in his arms with all the care he needed, and not like this, like a wild animal.

When they reached the waterfall, Herosaurus gently set Omoli on the ground. With no words, Omoli began to clean himself, using his leaves to gather water and splash it in his face. Herosaurus’ mind began to drift away as he waited.

...If he had a normal body, these incidents wouldn't happen in the first place. Omoli would always have cookies to eat, instead of having to endure the pangs of hunger for days and weeks until the desperation drove him to doing this. A solitary suffering. No one else in Cloud Walkway felt hunger.

His attention went back to Omoli when he bumped one of his front legs.

"All clean?"

Omoli nodded. The guilt and shame in his gaze had been concealed behind a protective numbness. Such is Omori’s way, from what he had heard.

Herosaurus gave him a tired smile. "Alright. How about we go home now?"

Omoli nodded again.

Once at Omoli’s place, Herosaurus placed him right in front of the cardboard box where he slept. At the same time Omoli sat above scraps of dollars he sometimes ate in an attempt to fool his stomach, this being his resting position, Herosaurus laid down as well, wrapping the end of his tail around Omoli, as if he tried to pet him.

“I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep, okay?”

Omoli wrapped his stem around his tail and nodded.

For the next few minutes, Herosaurus cooed Omoli to sleep, humming comfort, watching as Omoli’s lost gaze weaken, he was too lively to perform Omori’s tricks for too long, and made an effort in sniffling as quietly as possible. Omoli didn’t want to cause more trouble.

Herosaurus wished he could wipe away his tiny tears.

Chapter Text

Throughout his life, many of his companions had tried to make their awful experiences more bearable by telling him he would eventually get used to them, but Herosaurus struggled to call these words ‘comforting’, even if such was the intention, whether they were true or false. Being indifferent to Omoli crying himself to sleep sounded as awful as witnessing it first-hand.

He still thought about these words, from time to time, as they likely were the only thing left from those who had said them…

Other times, it was better to not think about it. He didn’t want to think anymore, and there was no one better at distracting people from their thoughts than Big Pocket.

Well before Herosaurus arrived at the western side of Cloud Walkway he could see that Big Pocket already had some company. He stopped a bit farther to watch him and Crab dancing with carefree fun. The cheerful tune resulted somewhat bittersweet with the image of Omoli still fresh in his mind. The faint guilt made Herosaurus make a note to tell Omoli to visit Big Pocket after waking up. He would help him feel better, like he did with everyone else.

Cloud Walkway would be a much more miserable place if it weren’t for Big Pocket. He had come up with dances for everyone, adapted to their physical capabilities and limitations. Like that, he encouraged everyone from time to time to simply relax and have some fun, a much needed relief. Even if it wasn’t an option for Herosaurus, he enjoyed watching people have fun. Seeing and hearing them laugh brought a smile to his own face, moving his tail along the music, although he stopped once he took notice.

Big Pocket and Crab finished their dance bowing at each other and Herosaurus would have clapped if he had been able to.

“You two dance pretty good!”

“Ah, Herosaurus!” Big Pocket said, likely just noticing him there. When he danced, the world stopped existing for him. “Have you finally changed your mind?”

“Uh, no, I-”

“Hello, Herosaurus! Anything new today?” Crab jumped in front of him to greet him.

“Hey, Crab… Nothing out of the ordinary. What about you?”

Crab jumped from side to side in excitement. “I visited the door again and nothing happened!”

“Oh, I see…”

“Let’s dance again!” Big pocket said to Crab, who turned around to look at him.

“Okay. Don’t you want to join?” He asked Herosaurus.

“I-I’m good, thanks.”

This time around, Herosaurus wasn’t paying attention to the dance in front of him, distracted by what Crab had said.

Some days ago… maybe, it was hard to tell, a Black door had appeared at the center of Cloud Walkway. According to a Faceless, doors themselves were safe, even if the places they lead to weren’t. They didn’t have an explanation as to why the door was moving around, but… it seemed to be more afraid of the than they had been of it (Herosaurus wasn’t sure if it had a conscience or not). With some teamwork they managed to corner the door. However, it’s unusual behavior made everyone wary of getting closer to open it. They looked at each other, silently asking who would be the one to open it. Omoli answered by approaching the door.

Using his stem, he attacked the door once, to make completely sure it itself was safe. Before the eyes of almost every folk of Cloud Walkway, except Pluto and a handful of absent Faceless… nothing happened. Without further ado, he opened the door. The others readied themselves to escape or attack.

The other side revealed a completely alien landscape which they could barely look at, so bright it hurt their eyes. Through quick glances, they watched Omoli jump into a sea contained in a small sized room (for Blackspace standards). Since they could distinguish his leaves moving side to side with his wobbly walk, they could guess the calm water reached no deeper than a meter. But said conclusion would be drawn later. They could think of nothing, they could not breathe, as with each second passing they expected to witness Omoli’s demise. A minute passed, then two, of Omoli investigating the sea, then the small island in the center. After another minute, he jumped back into the sea and returned.

“It safe.” He declared.

For now, he didn’t need to specify to the more experienced residents.

However Crab, born together with Cloud Walkway, was not one of them, and set off to explore this new, exciting place, driven by a naive wonder that, Herosaurus lamented, would be his death one day. Loomy, not much older than Crab, soon followed with a similar sentiment, dragging Kel behind him who, holding in a firm grip the shredded remains of a beach ball, settled to protect his friend.

Herosaurus, too, entered the place more with a sense of duty than anything else.

There had been more than one occasion in which he had to traverse through cold water. It could never be a pleasant experience, or that what he had thought, but the warm air in the room somehow gave a perfect balance to the coldness of the blue water. He looked around, his eyes adjusting to the colors, breathing in the smell of salt, the sunlight on his scales feeling so… wonderful, so tender.

So unfamiliar. Too unfamiliar. It almost scared him.

Herosaurus hadn’t gone to that room since, choosing to stay in his gray-scaled world, it’s cold and misty air entering and exiting his lungs, under the illusory safety of normality. It was a sentiment most shared.

Crab, however, claimed the room felt like home.

The dance ended once again. Herosaurus gave his praises, still deep in his thoughts.

“Are you sure you don’t want to join?” Crab asked him. “You’ll have fun!”

“I’m alright with just watching.” he assured with a sheepish smile.

“Won’t you think it over?” Crab’s look became sad. “I think it would be good for you… you always look tense.”

“Look, Crab.” Big Pocket Walked towards them. “Herosaurus’ problem is that he’s too shy.” He turned toward Herosaurus. “You gotta shake off that shyness!”

“I-”

“Stop worrying so much and go with the flow! There’s nothing better for that than dancing. Let yourself have fun freely! Let your body express itself!”

“...I think-” Before he could say anything more, Big Pocket put an arm around his neck as a friendly gesture.

“You have to try it at least once, or how can be so sure it isn’t for you?”

“Yes!” Crab agreed. “Come on, try it!”

Herosaurus tried to get free, but Big pocket’s hold was strong enough that a weak struggle wouldn’t do.

“Well, what do you say? Will you give it a try?”

“L-Let me go…”

“That doesn’t answer my question, Herosaurus!”

He began to back away, stretching his neck, rising his tail.

“Where are you going?”

But his tail wasn’t flexible or long enough to swipe at what snared his neck. It was a useless thing. He thrashed, wildly enough that he, for a moment, lifted his front legs, which then shook the wood at landing. Really, such force wasn’t necessary, Herosaurus realized.

“Woah, I didn’t know you could do that.” Big Pocket held the railing. A bit more, and he might would have fallen. “That’s the spirit!”

Crab, so tiny in comparison to Herosaurus, was equally impressed, not thinking about how he could have been crushed. Just now.

It horrified him the tragedies that could have happened, in just a second. “d-don’t touch my neck…”

“You still haven’t answered my question!”

Herosaurus averted his alarmed eyes, almost expecting to see in the fog a black fish swimming, enclosing. “I can’t.”

Big Pocket sighed. “You’re so stubborn at times.” He turned towards Crab. “do you want to dance?”

Crab looked disappointed. “You don’t know what you’re missing out!” he told Herosaurus.

The dance began once again. Herosaurus watched them, feeling worse than before.

Could there be anything more ridiculous than a dinosaur dancing? Simply imagining the humiliation was gut-wrenching for him.

He decided to leave before they had a chance to insist again, well aware of the jagged scars all around his throat.

Chapter Text

Breath in, one, two, three, four.

Hold, one, two, three, four.

Breathe out, one, two, three, four.

Breathe in, one, two...

Everyone knew this exercise.

Herosaurus liked it, it was relaxing.

Yet, he didn't have memories of learning it.

According to a conversation he once overhead from a Faceless group behind the waterfall, this was one of the few gifts The dreamer had bothered in giving to Blackspace inhabitants. They spoke their gratitude mockingly.

Sometimes he wondered why they seemed to hate 'The dreamer' so much, more as a passing thought than as a real question. Herosaurus didn't think much about those matters. They were as important for the world as little relevancy they had in his life.

‘It is how it is.’ That was his way.

Everything is nothing but a dream.

That's how it is.

We live in a nightmare.

That's just how it is.

Herosaurus’ questions were simple ones with simple answers.

How are you? As well as I can be.

Anything new today? Just the same.

Why was there an Angi in his room? To kill him.

Maybe it had come from that emptiness, said to be between one area and another, from where it was so hard to get out. Maybe the Angi had been swimming for months, searching for anything or anybody, to the point of questioning if there had ever existed anything beyond itself. Maybe it, unlucky, was struck by starvation, and swam with the knowledge that the first being it stumbled upon, if it ever did, would offer no more comfort than the carcass which would calm the pain for a while. No sympathy, no companionship. Things it could never hope for, all because of it's maddening hunger.

Not that Herosaurus would ever think about the Angi's motivation to charge against him and close it's jaws around his neck.

He swinged his neck wildly, kicking the air in a vain attempt of getting rid of the Angi that digged it's teeth in his flesh with the strength of a bear-trap.

The struggle must've lasted two hours, maybe more, until complete exhaustion forced him to kneel down and let settle the acceptation that, despite how big he was compared to the fish, he couldn't do anything to defend himself from it.

Similarly, the Angi kept biting, as hard as it could, swinging it's body side to side trying to tear off the flesh, break his neck, make him bleed out, anything, but his scales were doing their job. Exhaustion would force open it's jaw, pained and weakened. The first meal it had seen in months and it was too tough. It weakly swam about, debating if swimming back to the emptiness and try it's luck in finding something else to eat...

But it needed to eat. It needed to eat now.

Those few second of indecisiveness sealed it's fate.

It screeched when teeth digged into it's spine. Herosaurus panted as the Angi thrashed. It was well secured in his jaws, but not for much time. He didn’t have the strength to snap it in two, so, ignoring the pain in his neck, he leaned back his head as much as possible and slammed the Angi against the ground as violently as he could. And again. And again, until it had lost it's shape.

Even then, he was scared of the corpse.

Could anyone else in Cloud Walkway survive such encounter? Besides Pluto, he doubted it.

Herosaurus was reflecting on these memories, at that spot at the south where two path diverged, when he heard the characteristic sound of flushing a toilet. Absentmindedly he directed his gaze over the zone at the south-east. Over there he saw a pretty common sight on Cloud Walkway, Loomy greeting Kel, them talking a bit (he was too far to understand what they were saying), then Loomy floating down the path while Kel limped right behind his friend. That’s when he got to see Kel’s face.

At times he found his neck gave more problems than solutions, but if it was useful for something, it was to have a better look of things when he straitened up. There was no room left for doubt when he did exactly that. Kel was... he really was smiling.

"His l-little smile... was like a ray of sun... as long as he smiled, everything... e-everything was worth it..." Those were the words a Hero he briefly met once used to describe how a Kel's signature smile looked like. But... getting to actually see it?

It didn’t last. When Kel took notice he was there, his usual sour mood was back. Herosaurus almost didn’t see Loomy floating faster until being in front of him.

"Herosaurus, I haven't seen you all day." Loomy said. Kel soon caught up, using the railing for support and to let his leg rest. Herosaurus tried to smile, but it was hard with that glare directed at him.

He wanted to get away from it... but not greeting would be rude. "Hey, guys, how are you doing?"

"What do you care?" Kel spat.

"Good! We were about to play a common Headspace game." Loomy said.

"That... sounds fun." The pinwheels barely moved with how little wind here was. Maybe that was the reason why Cloud Walkway seemed more foggy than usual. He didn’t had a particular interest in the weather, but it was better to look anywhere except at Kel.

"It's called 'making paper planes and throwing them from a high place to see them fly.' Very traditional in Headspace culture." Loomy always got excited whenever he talked about the world above. " You make them from dollars! Right, friend?" He bumped Kel, in what was meant as a friendly gesture, but it made Kel flinch away.

"H-Hey..." he scolded his friend, but there was never any bark in his voice when it was about Loomy. "Not really?… But it’s the only paper I have...”

"No better paper than dollars for paper planes, friend! Come on, don't get sad, we're going to have so much fun!" Loomy bumped into Kel again. This time, he petted his friend’s head.

"I guess they aren't good for much else."

"do you want to join us, Herosaurus?" Loomy asked. He barely understood what game Loomy was talking about, how could he join?

His answer had little thought behind it. "I have somewhere else to be."

"Then why don't you move?!" Herosaurus on instinct backed away at Kel's yelling. "You always get in the way! It's annoying! No one can pass whenever you decide to block the entire path!"

Apologies only made him more angry, so Herosaurus walked backwards in silence.

Once at the central platform, there was enough room for both friends to pass. This time, the Faceless was standing next to the bench. Under it the little ones were hiding, cuddling together, making them look similar to a Lili. Herosaurus wasn't sure if the mimicry was a conscious defense on their side or not.

"Thank you for letting us by!" Loomy said as he floated by. It wasn’t said with any ill-will, but it still stung like a sarcastic thanks.

“You’re welcome.” Right after speaking, he regretted his word choice. Was it too formal? Did it sound like he was doing them a favor by not blocking the way? “Have fun.” He added, forcing a smile, in an attempt to fix it.

It didn’t work. While limping past him, Kel had made an effort on ignoring him, but his goodbye made him face Herosaurus, with such disdain, that he wished he hadn’t gone out of his room to begin with.

"You don't tell me what to do."

As the friends left he could hear Loomy’s whisper-yell of "what was that for? He was just being kind!" to which Kel simply replied with a snort. They were a good distance away, heading to the north-west platform, when the Faceless decided to talk.

"I don't know why you bother with that brat."

"don't call him that," he replied. "Kel... has gone through a lot."

“And for that you let him yell at you whenever he feels like it? A good stomp would teach him that attitude will cost him one day.”

He wasn’t even going to entertain the thought. “That’s cruel.” didn’t the Faceless know how easily Kel panicked? He would never scare him for respect.

The Faceless stared at him a moment. "Your attitude isn’t much better, you know? The more you try to replace his brother the more he will hate you, just give up.”

Why did everyone keep thinking he was trying to do that? He always made an effort in keeping a cold head but the shadow was really testing it.

The Faceless scoffed. “What? Did I hit a nerve? Maybe you’ll finally grow an spine, that might save your life once this place collapses next cycle.”

Herosaurus decided the best was to walk away without another word, heading north-east, the way he had meant to take from the start.

Kel could be... mean, at times, but Herosaurus liked to believe he didn’t hate him that much.

After all, when Herosaurus carried the Angi's remains to Omoli's place, Kel practically tripped over his own legs in his hurry to help him. Even after enough time passed for the residents to conclude his wounds weren't lethal, Kel wouldn't stop trembling, at the verge of tears. At the Faceless’ cynicism, he responded “I don’t want to see anyone die again.”

Whatever little happiness the memory brought him, however, was quickly put in check at the other many, many memories of Kel yelling at him.

“Why don’t you leave me alone?! You’ll never be my brother! You are nothing like him and you’ll never be!”

At least Loomy could see he was just trying to be kind.

Chapter Text

There was a certain fatigue everyone carried all the time. For some it was an inherent thing, a fact they learned to ignore, to tolerate. One that had an explanation, amidst the illogicality of their world. An explanation they would never get to hear, but it was there.

For others, said inherent fatigue was combined with a disaffection for the every-day. With sighs of resignation, they watched on, eyes numb, voice irritated, and a bored ‘again?’ at the bad ‘news’ that were more like old tales.

Herosaurus was too tired to put a name on the kind of fatigue he was feeling.

Announcing his presence was never necessary, with all the noise he made at every step. Without looking, anyone could guess it was him the one walking around, where he was going and when he took a turn. The railing’s corner threatened to dig into his shoulder and ribs, the same one that constantly grazed against his sides, leaving light-colored horizontal marks, as he made his way through the narrow paths, too narrow for him. Herosaurus wasn’t fit to live in the small Cloud Walkway, or maybe Cloud Walkway wasn’t fit for him to live.

A the end of the long path, on the small platform located at the east, Pluto rested on his side, back turned towards him. He had never seen him move to any other position.

“Hello, Pluto.” In each of his visits, Herosaurus used various greetings. Some more elaborated, with heartfelt words, maybe even enthusiastic on rare occasions, if maybe Pluto would feel a speck of that. Other times, like today, they were simple. “Would you mind if I… stayed here a while?”

Big Pocket’s music faintly reached the east zone, Loomy and Kel’s conversation lost meaning with the distance, a little one squeaked from time to time and another squeaked in response. There wasn’t much noise, but with how quiet Pluto’s voice was, it was enough to drown it out. Still, Herosaurus managed to hear his response.

“… I wouldn’t.”

With a thanks so quiet Herosaurus couldn’t hear himself, he closed the remaining distance.

Even with the little room he had to maneuver, by dragging his belly on the floor a bit, he had figured out he could squeeze his head through the space between Pluto’s ‘head’ and the railing. Then, he pressed his side against Pluto’s back, and laid down, getting comfortable.

Herosaurus always did this when he visited Pluto, ever since he mentioned to find comfort in the texture of his scales. When it was a bad day for Pluto, Herosaurus would let his chin rest atop of him. Today, he wrapped his neck and tail around him, in the closes thing to a hug he could manage. He had learned to find comfort in the cold texture of rock.

With his chin against the floor, Herosaurus let out a sigh and closed his eyelids. Tension didn’t leave him as Pluto brushed his fingers along his hair, never going below his nape, but he appreciated the gesture.

A few moments of silence passed like this. When Pluto spoke, it was in concord with the silence.

“Are you here because of Kel?”

Herosaurus swallowed, feeling his throat constricting. “No… It’s my brother… and my friend. I… was thinking about them, earlier, today.”

“I see.”

He had never met his brother nor his friend Aubrey, or, at least, he didn’t retain memories of them. Heros, Kels and Aubreys were created together, so… the most likely explanation was that there had been something wrong in their creation, which didn’t allow them to function, and their bodies had rotten away before any of them gained conscience.

Still, it was just the most likely explanation.

“I was wondering how they were doing… do you think they live in a place like ours?”

“I don’t know.”

In the solitude of his room, in the solitude of his mind, Herosaurus couldn’t help to think about them from time to time, perhaps more often than he should. He would have liked to met them. He would have liked to talk with them.

“Do you think they look like me?”

“I don’t know.”

Without much to do, Herosaurus sometimes occupied his time thinking the kind of conversations they could have together.

“If I could talk with them… I would tell them there’s nothing wrong with having a dinosaur’s body.”

“That’s correct.”

“That doesn’t make them any less Kel or Aubrey.”

Pluto hummed in agreement.

Herosaurus liked to call it a ‘gut feeling’ the inclination he had to imagine his brother with a pterosaurs’ body. It made sense. Agile and fast to make up for fragility. It wouldn’t matter he could be hurt easily if no one could catch him. Aubrey, on the other hand, surely had a pachycephalosaurus’ body. Her headbutt would be everyone’s terror, and no one would attack her without thinking twice.

“I-I think Kel would be really happy with his wings, so maybe I don’t need to tell him that.” He raised his head a bit, looking at the sky. “No matter how wide they are, he still has so much space to fly around… I bet he would fly all day. He would play in the clouds, fly under Cloud Walkway… he would enjoy his freedom a lot…”

“Flight doesn’t make you any more free in this place.”

Herosaurus let his head rest on the floor again, with another sigh. Pluto would know about that, wouldn’t he? Pluto, the one who flew around their world, saw many places, met many people and decided he didn’t want to fly ever again.

“Stay with your feet on the ground, or you’ll just hurt more.”

Pluto’s advice was a bit late. The imaginary bond severed and Herosaurus’ sorrow grew in the absence of his brother and friend. Quite a feat, as he didn’t have a brother and friend to begin with.

But it wasn’t like he didn’t have anything or anyone. He had… Herosaurus liked to think he got along more-or-less well with most of his neighbors... and, even if there wasn’t much competition, that didn’t change the fact Cloud Walkway was the best place he had lived at.

For how much longer, though? Herosaurus and everyone else knew Cloud Walkway would likely fall down, or up, from the sky one day. The aftermath… was harder to guess. However, if experience told him anything, it was unlikely they all would stay together.

And that thought brought another question… Hadn’t them been forced to coexist in the first place, would there be any reason to be with each other?

It was well known Kel would leave the second he had the chance, to continue his search for that ‘church’ he was looking for.

Loomy would likely want to company his friend. He was a good friend.

He had a feeling Crab wouldn’t care if the door stopped appearing in Cloud Walkway as long as it took him with it.

The many Faceless had no attachments to anyone besides their own kind.

He wasn’t sure what Omoli planned to do once there were no more little ones, but with the way he sometimes looked over the railing… Herosaurus could take a guess.

Big Pocket, Pluto and him were the ones without any plans… but Big Pocket had never been close to neither of them, so it wouldn’t surprise Herosaurus if he left to find a new group.

Pluto was the only one without a motivation to leave… or a motivation to stay, simply staying wherever Blackspace tossed him at.

If that was the case, then, Herosaurus could stay with him, at the very least.

He closed his eyes, which were getting dangerously teary. They might live together, but they all were by themselves. This had been the group he had stayed with the longest without anyone dying or disappearing… and yet, their bonds were as weak as with any other.

“do you think Kel is right? Am I trying to replace my brother? I-I’m not, consciously I mean, but… do you think, deep down…” He swallowed a sob.

“Cry, my friend… We live in a harsh and lonely world, but at least we are allowed to cry.”

He took a shaky breath, pressing the side of his face against Pluto’s forehead, hiding, quieting down.

Pluto couldn’t do much for him, besides wiping his tears. No one could do much for anyone, as the many problems of their world were beyond their reach to fix. A sad, fearful, angry and hurt world that begged to be listened and was silenced, with all it’s inhabitants.

Herosaurus couldn’t pin-point most of the time exactly why cried. Maybe it was because of everything, this normalcy that brought the worst of them and made hope and wishes a painful thing to have. Would things ever improve? Would they ever be able to trust they could form friendships without the threat of death taking them away? Would he ever feel like himself, despite… himself? Would he ever be able to live without fear? Would he ever know what happened to Kel and Aubrey?

No one in Blackspace could answer his questions.

“It’s hardly anything… but I’m here, Hero, I’m here.”

“T-Thank you...”

Oh, what a world.