He smiled broader. "That would be…that would be great." he knew he couldn't talk to any other veterans about what he had gone through, that it had been too long and they were all dead, but that didn't matter. Maybe he would be able to see that the world didn't stay in the darkness of the war and that things had gotten better. Maybe that would help.
Maddie nodded. "I bet it's peaceful. I bet there aren't any wars either. Didn't Miss Dove say that people can go to the moon?" She asked, perking up at the the thought of being out of the loop.
("I bet there weren't any wars either". US and Europe look guiltily at WW2, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the entire Middle East, etc)
“I bet there’s a whole colony of people on the moon!” Archer added excitedly. “And fancy communicators! We have to go. We’re supposed to do that loop thing soon anyway, so we could make a day of it! Or a few hours, anyway.”
Jack nodded a little bit. "The moon would be so cool to see." he replied, smiling as he looked at Archer and Maddie. "God, it would be so amazing to see all of that."
"It would," Holly said softly. "But what would happen if we tried to leave the loop? Wouldn't our age just catch up with us?"
“Not if we only go for a few hours,” Archer responded confidently, though the question did worry him a bit. “We’d have to be there more than a full day for something like that to happen.”
"I thought you wanted to see all of it," Holly said, tilting her head to the side curiously. "Why would you stay for only a few hours? That seems so boring!" She shook her head. "You'd see almost nothing. And what if we get caught?"
"We won't get caught so long as we're careful." Jack said. "Really. I mean…we need to wear as modern-looking of clothes as possible, though." he added, looking at Holly. "Otherwise we'll stand out like a sore thumb."
“What even are modern-looking clothes now? For all we know they could be wearing tinfoil,” Archer added, knitting his eyebrows together in thought. “We could have one or two people just hop in and out for a glimpse so that we would have something to go off of.”
"I really want to see the world now!" Maddie said, hopping up. "We can seek out, just for a bit. Also long as we hide Archer we all look normal."
“Or I could wear a scarf,” he suggested, gills flaring as he gave her an annoyed look. “I mostly look like a normal person.”
"Yeah!" She shouted, ignoring Archer's annoyance. "Come on! We're all tired of being cooped up anyways. Lets go see something new!"
Jack was laughing a little bit at them, shaking his head. "Maddie, Archer, hold your horses." He said, smiling.
“I’ve been holding my horses for one hundred and seventeen years,” Archer deadpanned. He smiled as well. “I think it’s time we have some fun.”
"Yeah! Archers right! We've been in here for so long! I at least want to have a weather change." Maddie said, racing over to Jack and trying to pull him up.
Jack swatted at Maddie gently. "Hey, hey, none of that." He got up on his own, Shaking his head.
Archer hopped to his feet as well, grinning. “I can’t believe we’re about to go see the future! I mean, go see the present. Whichever.” He chuckled, looking around at his friends. He glanced at Holly, who was the last one sitting, as if with a challenge.
"Do you want me to come?" Holly asked them. She was usually the one "out of the loop" you might say, because she spent so much of her time reading. "I can, if you want me to. I'm not sure how useful I would be, though."
“You should come,” Archer responded. “It’ll be fun.” He grinned at her, welcoming. He thought it would be more fun if it was all four of them.
"Alright then." Holly closed her book and stood, sitting the book on the grass and brushing off her skirts. "When do we go? Now?"
Jack stood, putting his sketchbook into his pocket. He had nice big pockets and a rather small sketchbook, so it worked. "We can go now, I suppose. Or later. Whichever."
"Let's go now! I can't wait any longer!" Maddie said, basically bouncing with excitement. "We have a *hours" before the loop resets anyways."
Archer nodded. “Let’s go!” he agreed, Maddie’s enthusiasm catching. “We’ll be here and back before Miss Dove even thinks to check on us. We’ve spent almost entire days at the lake before, and man am I ready to see the present!”
(bump)