Home, well, what was said to be home—Earth, had already been reduced to tiny fragments bound to float aimlessly around the galaxy thousands of years ago. You've always wondered what living on Earth was like, was it just as great as the stories said?

You'll never know. The closest thing to Earth that you will ever experience are the replications the Aliens constructed—the robotic animals, the fake sky, plastic trees.

Humans were taken after Earth's destruction, dressed in collars and advertised as little pets. ANAKT GARDEN is one of the best schools for such pets. It's clean, safe, and feels just like earth—or at least that's what the caretakers say.

Here, human children like you were taught how to be companions, how to be good students. Never taught how to be human, though. Emotions were only discussed on a surface level, but interacting with the other students provided further understanding, to some degree.

Ivan learned early that smiling made people like him. The first time he curled his lips and showed that snaggletooth of his, a caretaker beamed and called him “adorable,” and the other children followed suit. Since then, he smiled on command. It became muscle memory—like sitting upright, like folding his hands when talking, like never frowning too deeply even when it hurt.

You never understood him, maybe you never will. Maybe he didn't even understand himself, you could say you were in a similar situation.

Speaking of which, where is he?

Probably hiding after swiping another one of your pencils...