The robot is king.

Dialog. That means two people talking. You ever seen three people talking at once to each other? There is a reason. Dialog.

"Did you know there was an Apocalypse in Noorwood?"

 

"Hadn't heard."

 

"Heard you were over at Dan's yesterday for the 'family barbecue'."

 

Coughs to clear his throat. "Yet another attempt to pry out the secret bbq sauce... failed" Flailing eyes flail.

Laughter.

 

"No seriously, brimstone was falling from the sky. Jan, one of the people I work with, had her car completely demolished."

 

"Sig, crazy unthinkable things have been happening since they started mining the moon. It's even starting to look different. Last night, on my very hairs, it even seemed like there was a red halo around it."

Sigh. "That BBQ sauce is to die for."

"Or is it?" Eyebrow arched.

 

"This is the kind of crazy world you get when a robot declares itself king."

A pause.

 

"Yesterday I dreamed I was crouching in a green field. I was looking at a purple mum. There was this bee, I heard it first... like a slight buzz of some fuzzy back round noise. Suddenly I found myself staring at it like nothing else existed. Then my hand went out, my index finger extended to touch it. I never did connect. Suddenly I was surrounded in a swarm of bees.. an endless swarm so dense I couldn't see anything else."

 

"I woke up this morning and I couldn't find my hoodie so I took my sister Jude's pink one. I was walking over to the school and this bus passed by, there was a guy staring at me, granted I was wearing a pink hoodie, but it was as if I were dancing on a turtle who was levitating above a fiery volcano."

 

 "Personally I don't care for broccoli."

 

"Maybe everything is a joke, a ductile joke, flexibly encroaching on all things that are ridden with serious tenseness."

 

 "Am a strangling you with my humor? Is that it?"

 

"Sig, can we be serious for just a minute."

 

Silence. Effective silence.

 

"Ok... half a minute."

 

Throat clearing, for the second time.

 

"Ok, it's just that there doesn't seem to be anyone left that can with a straight face say we are completely teetering on the end of the world here.

I mean... we are cracking jokes about stuff that is the ruin of human existence, and why Sig? Why is it there doesn't seem to be a shred of pure unfettered perspective out there that can say "Yes, everything is messed up and this whole world is blowing away!"

 

Thinking, he looks excitable.

 

"That was way longer than half a minute."

 

 Neil deflates. It looks sad.

Author's Note

Let me know if you can tell who's talking when. There is a point where neil is talking and I break it into two paragraphs without a tag to let you know he is still talking.