towerofanimus | Seventh Staff ♞ home again, home again

Entry tags:

Seventh Staff ♞ home again, home again

Characters: Sayaka Miki & the tower at large.
Setting: 1st of the month. Dorm Room 1-05, and then the dorm room of pretty much anyone Sayaka has CR with - and if she can't find you there, she'll look for you elsewhere (so anywhere you want) or come back later to look again. Handwave it to any day shortly after the pod-populace return, and feel free to tag in if you don't have previous CR - she'll talk to you anyway. Because talking helped in the pods, right?
Format: Any.
Summary: Regains suck, but Sayaka says screw feelings, screw being upset over it, she's going to go look into every single person she can remember the name of to see how they're doing after that doozy of a month.
Warnings: Angst in the first half. Ridiculously determined and annoying 14 year olds throughout the whole post.

When she woke up back in room 1-05, like nothing had ever happened - no marks on her, soul gem that intimately familiar state of clouded that she remembers it being from the very first day she arrived - Sayaka just stared at the ceiling. Even the color of it was just a bit different than it was in the pods - just some teensy shade of off-white that was off-er than the other. When she recovered from the daze, Sayaka sat up.

She heard a sound, like something had gotten jarred or rustled from her shifting weight on the bed. Carefully, she turned about on the bed to look at what it might be - and froze.

It was a CD player. A broken one, with several pieces of itself scattered around, along with shards of the last CD it would ever play. The whole mess is covered in blotches of dried blood.

Distantly, Sayaka remembers people mentioning getting 'things from home' before, and she knows exactly what this is.

She hadn't even cried in the pods, though she'd come tremulously close. But this is... this is what gets her. Sayaka attempts to scramble away from the sight in front of her, just ends up falling of off the bed - and there go the waterworks. She bites her tongue rather than make a sound, and presses her palms to her eyes - dammit, dammit, dammit, this isn't the time to lose it, this isn't the place!

She'd eventually shoved the whole mess into her trunk and slammed it shut with a crash, because at least telling herself she didn't care a lick about making noise made her feel a bit better. And it was true. She's got things to do that aren't being sad about obvious attempts to upset her. Things like checking up on everyone.

((OOC: Feel free to pop in during her freak out over the CD player or be encountered after.))

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[Sayaka finds John in his room; the door is open, and in the center of the floor is him, legs folded with a little reptile of some kind in his lap. He is playing with her as he would a pet, holding her under the arms and bouncing — and, of course, acting surprised when the bubble of saliva pops in front of his face. It seems that while Sayaka was busy crying over her CD player, the tower had finally decided to cut John a break and give him something nice instead; the giant salamander, Casey.]

[He and Casey both look up when Sayaka opens the door, the latter after a few seconds’ delay; her expression does not change, beady and thoughtless as ever, but John swooshes up to his feat in a gust of air. He cradles Casey in one hand while waving to the blue-haired girl with the other, trotting over to meet her at the door.] Sayaka! Hi!

Edited (WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST WRITE) 2012-07-03 07:19 (UTC)

_{[So she just walked in on about the cutest thing she is pretty sure she has ever seen, wow.

Give her a moment.]}

Sup, John and pal!

_{[Everything seems okay here, at least. John's definitely not lost in the crushing depths of post-June woe like she was worried about, and that's a heck of a relief.]}

Sorry to just bust down your door like that. You looked busy!

Don't worry about it, not at all. [He begins idly scratching Casey under the chin, before realizing that Sayaka doesn't know her. He then holds her up.] Oh, by the way, this is Casey! Casey, say hi.

[Casey makes an odd gurgling noise.]

On the second dorm-floor, near one room's door is Momotaros, peering at a metal puzzle in his hands, but he doesn't seem to care about solving it - he's more or less just staring at it while he moves the pieces around.

Sayaka's approach stirs his attention, and his head lazily turns to look over at her.

So much blue...

He makes an annoyed scoffing noise at himself, then shakes his head.

Blue's a stupid color. Stupid like stupid lying turtles.

Focusing on checking the name plaques and rapping her knuckles on each door in turn - there really aren't that many people in their rooms right now, ugh - Sayaka nearly misses Momo's presence as she draws closer. The clinks from his disaffected fiddling with the puzzle she'd shunted off into the background, singular as her focus is.

It's the scoff that catches her ear. For a minute, Sayaka sees Momotaros and has a panicked thought that he's someone who got twisted up by Jason that she hadn't seen, but - everybody was supposed to go back to normal, right? She had, at least.

She peers at him, looking not quite mad, just harried. "Something you got to say?"

"Eh, not particularly. Not to you, at least." His tone isn't disrespectful - maybe a little weary.

"Y'looking for someone?"

[Will a ridiculously annoying and determined fifteen year old help too? Because if so, Cross is going to be walking down the hall. He's still exploring this strange Tower and still hasn't found out too much about it. As he passes a room, he hears a loud slam of a trunk. Blinking, he curiously looks at the door. Now what's the polite thing to do?

Just open the door and look on inside. That's totally polite, right? He see's a girl around his age from behind.]

Hey there, are you okay? I heard something slam.

_{[It's pretty easy to guess the slam was from the trunk that she's still looming over, though for her part Sayaka jumps up pretty much immediately when she hears Cross speak up.]}

--I'm fine! I just, used a little more force closing the trunk than I thought I was. Whoops!

_{[Her lie is about as easy to spot as the fact that her eyes are still a bit puffy from crying.]}

[Yup, Cross just rolled a 19 to spot this. Her face looks like she had just been crying and there's just something in her voice that tells him otherwise.

Inviting himself into the room, he closes the door behind him.]

You sure? You look a bit upset.

...Eheh...

_{[Her smile falters, a bit. Sayaka sits down on the trunk, and wrings her hands for a moment before really answering.]}

It's been a long month, and I didn't really wake up on a high note, I guess.

[Cross takes a seat on a bed, looking at her with concerned curiosity. It's not hard to notice her faltering smile.]

Maybe talking about it will help? I don't mind listening really. Plus I'm the perfect confidant, we don't even know each other~ So there's no way I can go around telling people.

..Hmm. You make a pretty tempting point.

_{[Because like hell is she bringing this up to anyone who would have better context willingly.]}

..I got something back from home. They do that here, sometimes, when they drag you into special stuff. It's not really something I wanted to see.

..usually I'm tougher than this, though.

[Cross sits there listening to what the girl has to say. As he does, he just looks a little confused.]

What do you mean special stuff? And what did you get? Shouldn't that make you happy that you got something from home?

Uhm.

_{[She's really not sure how to explain it, in a way that isn't baldfaced recounting of her own experiences. Which is about the opposite of what she wants to recount about now.]}

Every now and then, not everybody, but a lot of people will be dragged into something that's not part of the normal way things work here. I mean, day-to-day life's dealing with the monsters and other spooky junk. But for what I'm talking about.. it's usually worse.

_{[Her (lengthy, but nearly bereft of concrete detail) description seems to Sayaka like it'll be a suitable deterrent from those last two questions.]}

[He's not going to pry too much, unless he's being lied too he might. But even then he might not. After all it looked pretty upsetting from what the girl's face told him.]

Hmm....that doesn't sound good....But you got something from home didn't you? Shouldn't that be kind of like a tiny silver lining?

[Ken's sitting in the workshop, jacket off, a needle and thread in his hands. He's doing his best to mend a hole under the armpit, but his stitches are messy, despite his attempts. He also keeps flinching as he sticks himself with the needle by accident. Maybe he should have asked Chidori or Minato or even Kanji to help him.]

[... Sighing, he puts it aside for the moment, staring at his hands a little blankly. A little hamster pokes its way out of Ken's messy hair to look down at him.]

Edited 2012-07-03 18:14 (UTC)

Oh, cute. What's its name?

_{[Because the cute hamster hiding out in his hair seems like a much better conversation starter than the messy sewing attempt he's taking a break from. Sup, Ken, the check-up-on-everybody train has come to your station.]}

[Oh. Ken looks up at Sayaka, reaching his hand up to carefully pull the hamster out of his hair.]

Um... his name's Featherman Tan. Or just 'Tan'.

[Sh... shut up. ;w; ]

[Kuja is in his dorm, looking annoyed. Whatever he has from home, it isn't apparent - unless it's the sand he's sweeping up under his bed. Where did it even come from..? It's one of those indeterminate red/brown/yellow shades, like from an inland desert. He looks up at the door opening, however.]

Sayaka..?

--Yup, you got it, it's me!

_{[The sand is a little odd, but she doesn't connect it as a 'gift from home' - just as some mess, which is strange itself considering how immaculate Kuja seems to her.]}

..eheh. I'm mostly being nosy and looking in on everybody that was part of that whole mess.

[If only it was, and not an awful joke. Not that he has much use for Superslick under usual circumstances.
Kuja pauses, putting the broom aside against the wall to gesture expansively.]

How wonderful of you to think of me! I'm afraid I wasn't much use in that horrid place, despite my efforts toward Dax's thwarted victory.

You tried, though. ...and Jason lost, that's what matters!

_{[And anyway, things don't seem so bad with Riki at the wheel - _yet.]}

[Tried never won any wars; the only consolation was that tried didn't always mean a straight loss, either. Not that Kuja will say any of this.]

I appreciate it. I shudder to think was Jason would be capable of... but with strong people like you, I'm sure we all could have done something under even those wicked circumstances.

_{['Strong people like you?' Sayaka looks away abashedly, albeit with a small grin. Way to feed the hero complex, Kuja.]}

..Jason's not that invincible, anyway. _{[The image of him with thick black stitches across his skin, and a livid expression - that's gonna stay with her for a while.]}

I'm not sure what to do now, though. We're free, but they're back to hiding out in the places we can't reach.

[Kuja was succeeding, then. Did she have something to prove? A missing need his praise could fill? Or was she just lonely, as any young woman might be? He'll sound it out of her sooner or later.]

So we saw, and thus we have some hope. If only we could get them to turn on each other once more.

[He stands closer, body language closed and voice slightly lowered, like he's sharing a secret.]

...You know Sayaka, I don't like to spread this around, but I was actually a noble where I came from. Sometimes, there would be wicked people abusing their power, but most were helpless because of their status. I found in situations like that, biding one's time and striking indirectly were the best methods to bringing them down.

It doesn't seem like it'd be hard. They sure do kowtow to that girl, though.

_{[He's acting like this is a secret he's about to say - Sayaka buys into the prompt, leaning a bit closer herself.]}

Indirectly, huh...? I can understand waiting for them to show a weak spot, that's mostly what we can do...

There are others going directly, but there's no reason we can't take another route as well.

[Feels like a couple of conspirators that way, but it's not harmful. Oh no.]

Observant of you: that girl is our ultimate goals. People like Jason are easy to replace, so while he's a tempting target, we should remember who is pulling his strings.

[Dave is in the media room when Sayaka finds him. He hasn't bothered to pay attention to whatever the Tower gave him.

He's got a pair of headphones jacked in, but sitting around his neck as he fiddles with the knobs and dials on the turntables in front of him. The usual poker face is in place.]

_{[Turntables she'd never known much about. At best, Sayaka always thought they might be some kind of fancy stereo. Seeing as it's the media room and Dave's twisting the knobs to some unknown standard of perfection, she figures he's just picky about his music volume. If he's keeping his headphones on his neck, though, it doesn't seem too rude to bother him.

After all, Dave's on her mental list of 'people to check in with.']}

Soooo~. Listening to anything good?

_{[Directly stating that she's here to check up on people, though?

Haha, that's a pretty funny joke, Sayaka being purposefully overt about emotional intentions.]}

[He glances at her for a moment before looking back at the turntables and looking back at her.]

Damn right I am. But I'm pretty much as conceited as conceited gets. Can't help myself when I think I'm the shit at music. Spoiler, I actually am. I'm a little out or practice, but I'm pretty much getting my groove on. Or was. I kind of been sampling shit all day, so we're seeing where that leads. Hopefully some purdy tracks I can actually show off to other people, but that's going to take at least a few hours worth of work. [He kind of ends up trailing off at some point, mumbling a large portion of his rant.]

Anyways. It's kind of yes and no. Yes, because I'm technically listening to something good. But it's just something I made.

[It's cool. He's pretending everything is alright.]

[ Mami has already risen from her bed - after she'd woken, she hadn't spent much time in it - and gone looking for Sayaka, still holding the bulky, peach-coloured letter envelope she'd been given. She's not quite sure what it is yet, or what's in it, but she thinks she knows by the feel of it.

She peeks her head in just after Sayaka slams the trunk shut, but she doesn't ask. ]

Sayaka-san? May I come in?

Mami-san?

_{[Sayaka sounds at first panicked - _{they hadn't really spoken, not for two weeks since she'd tried something desperate, she's not ready for this conversation} - then shakes it off, because if anything, she's not going to just turn Mami away.]}

Yeah, feel free! I was just putting something away.

[ she doesn't say anything, not about the time in Jason's pod and what had happened at the end of week two; she just nods, and comes in (slipping her shoes off just inside the door as she does so) and sits next to Sayaka. ]

How are you feeling..?

_{[She stares at the lid of her trunk while thinking of an answer, not wanting to go as far as to pronounce that she feels 'awful' - because this place seems like spring breezes and daisies in comparison, doesn't it.

She decides to be honest.]}

They gave me something back from home that was just.. kinda like salt in the wound, you know? But I'm gonna be fine.

_{[And that, she honestly believes, no matter the short term that may be. Sayaka's gonna be fine, there's other people out there to worry about. ..at that thought, she looks over at Mami.]}

..and I should be asking you the same thing.

Ah, even when they give you gifts from home, it still hurts... That's cruel of them. [ she's always been more worried about others than herself, honestly. After being lonely for so long, with nobody to take care of but herself, having friends she could mother a little and spend time with was really something she got carried away with.

She's turning the envelope over in her hands, idly, before sitting it in her lap. ]

Well...I'm fine. [ she kind of smiles, a little. ] It's not too bad now, even considering everything that's happened so far... [ she may be more emotionally fragile than she appears, but her experiences back home have made her stronger than she would be otherwise.

And she doesn't blame Sayaka for what she did. She'd thought of doing the same thing, back in her own timeline, when she'd found out what magical girls were supposed to eventually become. After all, wasn't death preferable to such a terrible existence?

--But, life goes on, all the same. ]

...

_{[This is how it's been for everything this place has done, concerning Kyosuke. She knows it's the weakest spot in her. Every time it's pushed she just feels more and more fragile about it, and that's bad and will just lead to more and more trouble in the future. But what can she do? Stop caring? That's.. impossible to ask of herself.]}

We're getting a break for now. Riki's in charge this month, right? I never really figured out what his deal was.

Edited 2012-07-04 10:07 (UTC)

[ there's a long pause, before she speaks again. ]

If you ever want to talk about it, I'm happy to listen. All right?

[ Everything in its own time. All she can do right now is be here, and offer some sort of support.

she kind of sighs, nodding a little, turning the envelope over in her hands. ]

I hope this month will be more lenient, at least...

Ah, that's right. He is, isn't he... I don't know that much about him, though. Have you heard anything?

Um. I'll keep it in mind.

_{[It's no secret Sayaka's not an honest person, when it comes to her own problems - Mami's offer gives her a brief pang of guilt, but.. she rubs beneath one of her eyes, where it still feels a bit swollen from her earlier crying fit.

She's not ready to talk about it.]}

Before that happened, I'd seen Jason and Dax talking on the network before - but Riki's a mystery to me. Maybe we should ask the people that were in his pod about it...?

[Sayaka's probably not looking for Rose, but her dorm room door's open all the same and giving those who pass by easy access into peeking. not like she's difficult to spot in that riotous red suit anyway.

she's on her bed, legs leaning against the wall as she sews. those stupid sunglasses of hers are off for once to afford her a better view of the fabric as she deftly guides the needle in and out. it would almost be peaceful if her focused look still didn't carry an air of anger.]

[Sakuma's wandering the halls. Part of him wants to look for his friends and another part wants to visit the aquarium so in the end, decided by his indecisiveness, he ends up just walking around aimlessly, lost in his thoughts and not really paying attention to where he's going.

Which, obviously, causes him to walk into Sayaka.]

_{[BONK

..She has really got to start watching where she's going. Sayaka's pretty sure the amount of times she's ran into people in the halls here has reached upwards that she can't count it on one hand.]}

--Oof! Ah, geez, I did it again?

[Again?]

Actually, I think that was my fault. I wasn't paying attention; sorry.

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Seventh Staff ♞ home again, home again

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[Floor 15]

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only non derisive use of you tried in all the tower:

Bahahaha

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