Glamour Failure

[animusmods]

Characters: any
Setting: all around the Tower
Format: any/party-style
Summary: A general mingle log for the reaction to the beginning of the Idealism event.
Warnings: PG-13; please include any more detailed warnings in your threads if necessary

Comments

Warning: Character Meltdown + Possible Taibani spoilers in the threads

[tsunderebunny]

[Barnaby was numb.

No. That was incorrect. The entire maelstrom of emotions that he felt ontop of the Justice Tower just a few short weeks ago, the disbelief and despair that preceeded it, and the blinding rage over what was done to both the memories of the city and important factors in his own life crashed on top of him the second the lights went out. Glamour Failure didn't need a precise definition when all the systems shut down. His red leather jacket, his glasses, his hands were all bits of wiring that were precisely held together in a working whole.

It's a lie. It had to be a lie. He kept himself moving-- he needed to move-- and tried to remember the reality.

It's a lie. It's a lie. It's a lie. It's a lie. Its a lie it's a lie it's a lie--

His body lurched and he collapsed against a cold metal wall, all of his own systems finally syncing together in a delayed reaction. Sinking to the ground, his mind latched onto the one thing he knew to be true-- anywhere.

Nothing, not even his own awareness, could be trusted.]

[blackwitch]

[ Evatrice is.. well, pretty annoyed by all of this would be an understatement. Sure, she's not surprised or freaked out to see any of this, but it's still annoying, so annoying-- how could they do this to a great witch like her, huh?!

So the best way is to watch people who are worse off than her, maybe she can at least get a little bit of schadenfreude that way. It's the only thing that can satisfy her right about now. So as she sees him falling to the ground like that, she's standing next to him. ]

Wha-t, can't even handle something like this? [ But her tone's not gloating as usually. It's very obvious she's bothered by all this too. ]

[tsunderebunny]

[Barnaby stared at her blindly, not comprehending the entirety of what was going on. A woman that he couldn't recognize stood before him, but there was only person he had met so far who had that voice and that particular speaking habit.]

...I don't think even thousand year old witches would know what to do with this.

[His tone was flat, the struggle for some scrap of control evident with every syllable. He could handle this, with time. Barely.]

[blackwitch]

[ Well, he's right about that, at least. It's all so annoying to her, she really can't handle it in that sense either, but it's not as much of a breakdown as much as it's just pure anger. It's why she frowns down at him. ]

Well.. [ She tries to keep her tone airy though. Trying being the keyword here. ] .. I guess I did learn the people in charge here are all useless scum.

[tsunderebunny]

[There would be much trying in the coming days, a rational voice hidden in the back of his mind noted. It was lost in the chaos that suddenly stilled at her sentiment.

It was something that was all too familiar at this point.]

Honestly. This entire thing...?

[He trailed. There was much information that he still wasn't aware of in this place. There was little for him to cling to.]

[blackwitch]

Of course.

[ Her tone is still not up to its usual par. It's almost calm now, eerily so considering how she's so emotional usually, maybe it's a storm brewing underneath everything. ]

At first I thought they were fun, you kno-w? They were super creative about making people suffer, so I thought they were sort of cool..

[ Just like with Beatrice, huh? That witch had been so cool and cruel, but then she just had to go and get all soft, that dumb granny! ]

But to involve a powerful witch like me in it like this?! To take away my powers?! [ There her voice raises already until she's yelling. ] Like I'll ever forgive them for thaaat..!

[tsunderebunny]

[Barnaby, unflinching, took the verbal assault in utter silence and watched her from behind a layer of frost that that had settled over him at her words.]

This is what it feels like to be at the bottom of the totem pole. [His tone was sharp, like fractured ice.] You're no different than the rest of us.

[blackwitch]

[ Like she can accept that.. like she can accept that.. being like everyone else is what she absolutely doesn't want, it's an idea she's hated even before she became a witch. ]

I'm not..! I'm me, I'm powerful, I'm smart, I'm better than anyone else..! I'm not like anyone else, I'm not not not not not..!

[tsunderebunny]

Prove it.

[Two words, spoken without malice or rage, were his only responce to this tantrum. If the girl couldn't, then she truly would be a child in his eyes.]

[wegotlucky]

[Neal had not exactly calmed down since meeting with Gold. If anything, his frantic paranoia had gotten worse. If he had lungs, he would be hyperventilating as he clutched himself, arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders.

He wanted to wake up. This was a nightmare, this was a nightmare. This wasn't real. He'd wake up any moment now in his own bed in his apartment. It was summertime, and when he'd wake up it would be winter again. It was going to snow soon, and he'd be happy.

He saw the trembling figure. He couldn't recognize anyone, and he couldn't trust his own eyes. This had to be a lie. There was no way that anything that was going on was real.

He slid down the wall next to the figure, not looking at him.]

[tsunderebunny]

[Barnaby barely cast the person a passing glance when he slid down to the floor beside him. There was too much to focus on for him to focus on and too few ways for him to do anything. His hands fisted in his hair-- could it even be called hair anymore? Barnaby didn't want to know. Staring blindly at the floor they sat on, Barnaby shoved the thoughts aside.

Regardless of conditions, there was another person beside him.]

...

Please tell me that this is a dream.

[wegotlucky]

[He doesn't speak right away. There's something surreal about all of this that is keeping his brain from processing it completely.

After everything he had experienced in his life, it was this that made him want to crawl into a hole somewhere and long for death.]

It's a joke.

They're just messing with us again. They turned people's bodies into their playthings. That's all this is. Another sick joke.

[There's no way this is real. He refuses to believe it.]

[tsunderebunny]

[It had to be. He wanted it to be. After learning what Maverick had done-- after nearly killing his best friend-- there was no way that Barnaby could accept any of this. His memory of his partner had been altered. His memory of that Christmas Eve had been altered.

What else? What else?

Barnaby's eyes narrowed in a sudden swell of rage.]

I refuse to be used like this again.

[wegotlucky]

[Neal nodded, the other man's resolve rubbing off on him somewhat. For years and years he had floated between bitter sadness and rage. He had been cast aside and abandoned, and then Fate had found it funny to use him yet again in something that he couldn't even begin to understand. And now he was here, again tested by Fate.]

We have to fight them. We can't take this lying down.

[tsunderebunny]

That's right. We can't.

[His life was full of tests of some kind or another, and he had pulled through each of them regardless of the personal cost. This was unbelievable. He didn't want to believe. He didn't know what to believe, when his awareness had been compromised before.

Barnaby fisted his hands, consciously stilling their trembling in his anxiety.]

I'm sorry, sir. We might need to go hunting for more than a circus, and I think we have more to worry about than elephants.

[wegotlucky]

[He laughs. It's a dark, frantic laugh. The one of a man who has been thrown into a situation time and again where everything was beyond his control.]

You're telling me.

I've gotta say, they've got a hell of a set-up here.

[tsunderebunny]

[There was no laughter nor tears for Barnaby, just numb rage.]

Don't go complimenting them. They might get ideas.

[technologic]

[Anger isn't an emotion April knows how to handle well; around thirteen years of almost constantly suppressing it made it hard for her to figure out how to deal with it now.. But she can keep in under control for now, but just barely.

And she's distracted from her thoughts when she notices someone slinking to the ground, and she's quick to go over to them.]

Ah, h-hey...

[tsunderebunny]

[He didn't process her words at first, not truly believing that he was being spoken to and not someone else until he noticed her presence nearby. Barnaby looked up, and stared uncomprehending until he realized that she was trying to speak.

The voice was familiar, but it was hard to place the details at the moment.

His thoughts were on something that he thought he ended.]

Where's the emergency exit? I'm done. I need to find someone.

[Miss Agnes, Saito, Kotetsu. Someone adult, someone familiar.]

[technologic]

If I knew, I wouldn't be here right now. [That came out too harsh for her liking, and she makes a sound as if taking a calming breath, though she doesn't really have the organs to do it.

But she does recognize the voice.] ... I-is that you, Barnaby?

[tsunderebunny]

[He wasn't capable of any witty reparte in responce to her snarky comment at that point, so he wordlessly let it slide. Somehow, in some way, he would find something that made sense...

Barnaby looked up at her, suddenly connecting the voice to a face that he had met once before.]

It is...Miss April?

[technologic]

Y-yeah, that's me... [She doesn't bother telling him not to use 'Miss', and she instead just moves to crouch down near him.]

I... How're you holding up? [Because asking if he's okay seems stupid when it's obvious that he isn't.]

[tsunderebunny]

Still alive. [Barnaby stared at his hands, still stunned by the wires and the liquid inside them.]

You're holding up well.

[technologic]

And you're still you... [She shifts slightly, before giving a small, bitter laugh.]

... When I used to do really deep hacking with my powers, I would, um, turn into bits of data, not recognizable in anyway. But I was still me. Now it's not much different, really...

... B-but I'm not holding up as well as I seem to be. [The anger is still bubbling away inside her, and she has no idea how to handle it and it almost hurts, with how potent all her once suppressed anger is.]

[tsunderebunny]

No one is...

[He slumped further against the wall, slipping into that well again. That fire from so long ago, the distorted faces, that photograph that contradicted everything that he knew.]

What is anything? I thought this was over!