Jade Curtiss (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sarcasmancer) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
towerofanimus2013-12-06 10:48 pm
sarcasmancer) wrote in towerofanimus2013-12-06 10:48 pm
1. Wisdom
[Characters]: Jade Curtiss, OPEN
[Setting]: Room 1-06, Floor 5, 19, 45, Cafeteria.
[Format]: Prose to begin, but I'll follow your lead if there's something else you prefer.
[Summary]: Jade's arrival in the Tower and what he finds there.
[Warnings]: Mild creepiness on Floor 45 but nothing more than that. Yet.
[Edit]: I had Jade looking up information on the Tower on Floor 19. Someone gave me a head's up that there aren't any texts about the Tower itself in the libraries, which is mentioned in the desc for Floor 3 but not 19, which is what I focused on. That's my bad, and it's been fixed. Sorry!
- Room 1-06 -
When he had gone to bed, the night over Grand Chokmah had been still and warm and calm. Could the world really have ended on so peaceful a night?
The note that greets Jade Curtiss when he awakens in a room with an unfamiliar ceiling says so, at least. He pulls himself upright, frowning at any of his new roommates should any of them be present--and if not, simply frowning at the clearly lived-in room simply for being--and then reads the note carefully.
His expression does not change for a moment. Then the fingertips of his left hand rest on the bridge of his spectacles while he sighs.
He is out of bed, ignoring for the moment the suitcase that is set up at the foot of it, and examining himself and the blue-liquid collar around the top of his neck, just above the collar of his usual military uniform, in the first mirror he's able to locate.
Then he is out, only briefly in the corridor outside his dorm room before he heads to the most logical first destination.
-------
- Floor 5 -
Jade silently observes the state of the world on the other side of the viewing station screen: everything dead and dust, from the humans to the planet to the stars. He rests a hand on his chin as he watches, a troubled look on his face. He spends a long time in front of the viewscreen, changing angles and locations and so forth. The vision of destruction never changes despite his efforts. In time, Jade turns his back on it, one hand in his pocket, one holding his spectacles in place as the glare from the overhead lights obscures his eyes, and walks away.
-------
- Floor 19 -
It had started in the more general library, which Jade had lingered in for no more than a minute until he was informed of where the actual research texts could be found. Then he brought himself here, and considers the many, many blank spots on the shelves, including and especially the entirely empty history section.
He sighs for the second time that day. "One would think that these 'benefactors' would go to more effort to hide the fact that they're hiding something," he laments out loud, despite being in a library.
Nonetheless, he flips through a few of the remaining astral projection books, then returns them to their correct spots and finds himself a relatively comprehensive text on magical theory; something on the Tower itself would have been ideal, but he hasn't been able to find anything on the topic. At least he can compare and contrast "magic" with the fonic artes he knows. He removes the text and takes it with him to a suitably squishy chair, where he begins to peruse it. However intense his concentration, though, he's not so absorbed that he'd be unable to notice anyone approaching.
That would just be foolish.
-------
- Floor 45 -
After familiarizing himself with the nature of his new "home," the man known as the Necromancer brings himself to one of the observatory levels. He strolls up to the glass walls, peering through the cracks in the clouds at the empty sky. He's about to turn to leave when motion in his peripheral vision catches his attention, and he turns his head to regard something that might be human if if it weren't clinging upside-down to the outside of a glass wall on cloud level.
And, of course, it didn't have waxy corpse-gray skin stretched all over where its face should be.
Like a lizard, it creeps slowly down, then across, before coming to a halt in front of the long-haired man. Jade watches it without moving. It watches--for a relative value of "watches" given that it has no eyes--him back. When he steps to one side, it follows; when he steps back, it skitters around on himself and winds that way too. As the skies gradually begin to redden, a couple more of the faceless things crawl in, and he amuses himself for a time by walking slowly back and forth across the room and watching as he gradually leads a chain around the circumference of the floor like the Pied Piper of faceless horrors.
-------
- Cafeteria -
Jade is tempted, once night falls, to go hunting for monsters. For the nonce, he opts instead to get his first meal, having not bothered to eat all day. He heeds the warning and takes a bowl of hot, plain oatmeal as his first meal, then carries it to the first empty seat he finds and eats with all the resigned resolution of a soldier. His expression is somewhat distant as he eats, but the moment anyone speaks to him, it transforms into a pleasant smile.
This may be a trap.
[Setting]: Room 1-06, Floor 5, 19, 45, Cafeteria.
[Format]: Prose to begin, but I'll follow your lead if there's something else you prefer.
[Summary]: Jade's arrival in the Tower and what he finds there.
[Warnings]: Mild creepiness on Floor 45 but nothing more than that. Yet.
[Edit]: I had Jade looking up information on the Tower on Floor 19. Someone gave me a head's up that there aren't any texts about the Tower itself in the libraries, which is mentioned in the desc for Floor 3 but not 19, which is what I focused on. That's my bad, and it's been fixed. Sorry!
- Room 1-06 -
When he had gone to bed, the night over Grand Chokmah had been still and warm and calm. Could the world really have ended on so peaceful a night?
The note that greets Jade Curtiss when he awakens in a room with an unfamiliar ceiling says so, at least. He pulls himself upright, frowning at any of his new roommates should any of them be present--and if not, simply frowning at the clearly lived-in room simply for being--and then reads the note carefully.
His expression does not change for a moment. Then the fingertips of his left hand rest on the bridge of his spectacles while he sighs.
He is out of bed, ignoring for the moment the suitcase that is set up at the foot of it, and examining himself and the blue-liquid collar around the top of his neck, just above the collar of his usual military uniform, in the first mirror he's able to locate.
Then he is out, only briefly in the corridor outside his dorm room before he heads to the most logical first destination.
-------
- Floor 5 -
Jade silently observes the state of the world on the other side of the viewing station screen: everything dead and dust, from the humans to the planet to the stars. He rests a hand on his chin as he watches, a troubled look on his face. He spends a long time in front of the viewscreen, changing angles and locations and so forth. The vision of destruction never changes despite his efforts. In time, Jade turns his back on it, one hand in his pocket, one holding his spectacles in place as the glare from the overhead lights obscures his eyes, and walks away.
-------
- Floor 19 -
It had started in the more general library, which Jade had lingered in for no more than a minute until he was informed of where the actual research texts could be found. Then he brought himself here, and considers the many, many blank spots on the shelves, including and especially the entirely empty history section.
He sighs for the second time that day. "One would think that these 'benefactors' would go to more effort to hide the fact that they're hiding something," he laments out loud, despite being in a library.
Nonetheless, he flips through a few of the remaining astral projection books, then returns them to their correct spots and finds himself a relatively comprehensive text on magical theory; something on the Tower itself would have been ideal, but he hasn't been able to find anything on the topic. At least he can compare and contrast "magic" with the fonic artes he knows. He removes the text and takes it with him to a suitably squishy chair, where he begins to peruse it. However intense his concentration, though, he's not so absorbed that he'd be unable to notice anyone approaching.
That would just be foolish.
-------
- Floor 45 -
After familiarizing himself with the nature of his new "home," the man known as the Necromancer brings himself to one of the observatory levels. He strolls up to the glass walls, peering through the cracks in the clouds at the empty sky. He's about to turn to leave when motion in his peripheral vision catches his attention, and he turns his head to regard something that might be human if if it weren't clinging upside-down to the outside of a glass wall on cloud level.
And, of course, it didn't have waxy corpse-gray skin stretched all over where its face should be.
Like a lizard, it creeps slowly down, then across, before coming to a halt in front of the long-haired man. Jade watches it without moving. It watches--for a relative value of "watches" given that it has no eyes--him back. When he steps to one side, it follows; when he steps back, it skitters around on himself and winds that way too. As the skies gradually begin to redden, a couple more of the faceless things crawl in, and he amuses himself for a time by walking slowly back and forth across the room and watching as he gradually leads a chain around the circumference of the floor like the Pied Piper of faceless horrors.
-------
- Cafeteria -
Jade is tempted, once night falls, to go hunting for monsters. For the nonce, he opts instead to get his first meal, having not bothered to eat all day. He heeds the warning and takes a bowl of hot, plain oatmeal as his first meal, then carries it to the first empty seat he finds and eats with all the resigned resolution of a soldier. His expression is somewhat distant as he eats, but the moment anyone speaks to him, it transforms into a pleasant smile.
This may be a trap.
Floor 19
Even though it had been nothing more than a vision, the pain he had registered within it he could still remember too clearly to ignore. Browsing idly through one of the many aisles that can be found on the floor, his small, pale hand traveling against the thick spines of the books as he read their titles absently. In doing so, Ion didn't see Jade so much as he heard him--and the moment the voice spoke from what sounded to be a few aisles over, he recognized it.
Ion immediately stopped what he was doing to search for the colonel, now sitting, and couldn't stop a small smile from finding its way onto his boyish face. No matter how unfortunate their situation may have been, Ion never could quite stop himself from just being happy to see another familiar face.
"I find the more obvious the tyrant, the less there is an appreciation for subtlety." And one couldn't argue that the administrators, or at least Ruana, were anything less than tyrants. That wasn't a label Ion would use lightly, but he had experienced enough now that even he couldn't overlook or excuse their blatant abuse for the residents they claimed to have saved.
His tone turning a bit less ominous, Ion's soft smile widened, and he approached the group of chairs that Jade had claimed. "It's nice to see you again, Jade. Would you mind if I sat with you?"
no subject
Regardless of whatever temporal flux, though, just as Ion's attention had immediately been grabbed when he heard Jade's voice, so was Jade's when he heard the gentle tones of the seventh replica. He looked up in surprise, then smiled--an actual smile, for once--to see him.
"Fon Master Ion! I must say, it's a pleasant surprise to see you," he replied, standing up to greet him. His conversation with Lorelei earlier told him that this may not be the Ion he knew (technically, he definitely wasn't, but in a broader sense), but his expressions and the way he greeted him told Jade that this was most likely a close enough approximation to count.
He shook his head. "Not at all. Please, go ahead." He sat down with Ion, this time a more serious look on his face as he observed the replica. Perhaps if he hadn't met Lorelei first, he would have been more shocked, but... well, Jade always one to grow quickly inured to a situation. "Is Anise here as well?" he asked instead.
no subject
"Thank you," he responded politely as he took a seat across from the older man, then nodded at the new question. "Yes! She came here...ah...a month or two after I did, if I remember correctly. She's assigned to a dorm just across the hall from my own." They even had the same Tower-given job! Though, that was a bit off topic. Looking a touch bashful, Ion admitted, "I do wander off from her company perhaps a bit more than she'd like me to."
Her current absence from his side--or even the floor in general--was evidence enough of that. At least Jade was there, now. He could take care of any monsters that may happen to accost them efficiently enough than the Fon Master could. If they were lucky, however, that wouldn't happen. It was still early enough in the day, after all.
"Have you just arrived this morning?"
Ion did try his best to stay caught up to speed with everything that went on around him, but the Tower was just so large and he was so lacking in energy. The Fon Master tended to miss a good deal of happenings because of it.
no subject
"It must have been difficult here on your own in the beginning," Jade muses, regarding the young boy. "Which dorm are you in? Mine is 1-06." Red eyes flick at the collar around Ion's neck, noting the color, and then flick back up. It's in time with an amused smile as Ion admits to not staying close to her like he should. "The same as ever, I see," he remarks. "I can just see her tearing out her pigtails over it."
Especially since it sounds like this place is far more dangerous than Auldrant was in certain ways. At least death is impermanent. He wonders from when this Ion is. He wonders from when that Anise is. There is a brief debate on whether or not it would be prudent to address that directly; then he asks, "I encountered Lorelei earlier. He explained to me the... non-linear nature of time for new arrivals. May I ask what had been happening with you and Anise before the two of you arrived, Ion? Just for reference's sake."
A sober nod at the question. "I must say, it was a rather rude awakening. I came here to research the nature of this place." A gesture of the text he picked. "If I'm going to be stuck here, I may as well understand what I have to deal with."
no subject
But that was in the past now. There was nothing he could do to change what had happened, and no good that would come on doting upon it. "But there were others here, then--Asch and Luke and even Guy, for a time." Though, he had found himself in enough trouble with Guy, not that he had ever blamed the blond. And in truth, he missed him just as much as he missed everyone else who had come and gone. Or who had never been here to begin with. "I've tried to make some new friends, as well. It eased the transition a little."
Ion cuts off his reminiscing to answer the next question. "I'm in room 1-16! We're not too far away from one another; that's comforting." He laughs as he remembers the first time he met Luke--how that never would have happened if he hadn't run off from Anise in the first place to investigate the Cheagle Woods. Indeed, some things never really changed, did they?
But the talk of Anise changes something in his expression, and as much as he tries to hide it, Jade was far from oblivious. Ion, himself, is perceptive enough to be sure that Jade would notice. "Of course." Ion closes his eyes for a second before explaining. It felt so practiced, now. "It was just short of a month since Van's defeat at the Absorption Gate. I thought everything was over, and we'd all gone back to the lives we had before our journey."
But, as for his Guardian...
"I don't know where Anise has come from. She avoids talking about it; she's hiding something." At least, she was hiding something from him, and at this point Ion was sure that she realized he had noticed. Still, she wouldn't tell him what it was.
Not that he couldn't guess, at least in part. The evidence was getting too troubling to ignore.
no subject
"For a time, hm," Jade muses, thinking back to what Lorelei had told him. "I understand there were two Lukes at one point. It must be something of a headache. I'm glad you've managed thus far, Ion."
Room 1-16, is it? Then Anise isn't too far away, either. It's not precisely reassuring, but it's hardly a bad thing, either. "Yes, it's convenient not having the two of you too far away if anything happens," he agrees. The reason for Ion's laughter isn't immediately clear to Jade, but he doesn't begrudge the young replica the little piece of happiness.
But the conversation changes to whens, and sure enough, Jade sees that slight change in Ion's demeanor. There are many reasons for that, and the first one makes sense. However, when he adds that Anise refuses to say when she's from, that solidifies the timeline for her, too. There's only one reason she'd keep that information from the Fon Master.
"Well, she is a young girl. Maidens do like to keep their secrets," is what Jade says aloud, shrugging, as if he hadn't the slightest clue. "Still, the fact that she's hiding it from you means it must be either serious or embarrassing. If you like, I can try talking to her about it."
no subject
The Fon Master gives a small sigh, his shoulders sagging. "But then he--that is, the Luke that had been here for so long, vanished. And then a couple months ago another Luke, one who had already cut his hair, arrived, but vanished as well a couple weeks ago." In explaining it, Ion felt somehow aged. He knew his friends weren't really gone, or at least he didn't want to think of it as if they were, but knowing he could find each and every one of their names on a gravestone made it feel almost as if he had actually outlived them. Two Lukes, a Tear (and another from before he arrived, so he had heard), Guy, Natalia, another Jade...even Florian, who he hardly knew, Sync, who it pained him to know, and Van, who he hardly cared to know, filled him with conflicting emotions.
He was still so afraid he'd find Anise's name up there with the others.
His smile returns, be it soft and sad, and Ion shakes his head. "I wouldn't call it a headache. I know Luke can be a handful some times, but I truly do enjoy his company." Ion pauses, turns his gaze up from where he had found himself staring at his lap to Jade once more. "But, thank you. I've been trying to do what I can to stay out of trouble."
As Jade gives his light-hearted reply to the subject of Anise, Ion tries his best to keep his smile, however strained. "I was hoping," he confesses, "that with time she'd come to tell me, herself." With a pause then, he can't help but add, "I'm starting to doubt that time will ever come."
But where were his manners? Ion didn't know where his head was, being so forlorn so soon after Jade's arrival. "I'd certainly appreciate it, but please don't worry yourself about going out of your way to do so!"
This time, when Ion smiles, it looks a bit more like it's meant to. "I'm sure it'll sort itself out, eventually."
no subject
It would be even worse had Ion actually listed all of the Auldrantians that he'd seen come and go. What Jade's heard so far has been bad enough. "Forget a headache, this sounds like a migraine," he murmured under his breath. Then Ion contradicted him, and he chuckled faintly. "I didn't mean it quite like that, but... point taken. I'd grown used to a short-haired Luke, myself."
Which meant he really didn't fancy the prospect of going back to the long-haired spoiled brat. Ah well, such was life in this new and unpleasant place. He'd simply have to make do.
More importantly to the immediate moment, the tension and strain in Ion's smile was obvious. That he'd feel that way was no surprise. If Ion suspected what Anise is hiding... no, even if he didn't, there was enough unhappiness to be gleaned just from the knowledge that his most trusted subordinate was hiding something from him. Jade listens when Ion admits to his despair that she'll confess the truth to him. "Speaking from personal experience, it's far easier to leave something unsaid and undiscussed if no one ever confronts you about it. On top of that, depending on what it is she's hiding, Anise may feel that telling you would only trouble you. You told me once that some things are better left unknown." The time at Deo Pass, when the party first clashed with Legretta the Quick. It felt like such a long time ago, even though it was less than a year in the past relative to him. "I don't mind talking to Anise about it, as I intend on tracking her down regardless, but should that be the case here, would you prefer to not know after all?"
After all, he knows, or at least is near-certain, what it is that Anise must be hiding from Ion. Discussing it with Anise first is mostly a formality at this point, though Jade has no intentions of giving Ion that information himself.
But the next moment, Ion cheers up a little, reassuring himself that it'll work out. Jade laughs a little. "Yes, perhaps you're right. Forgive me; I do tend to over-think things." He shrugs. "It comes with the territory."
no subject
Granted, for how long and arduous of a stay it felt, Ion couldn't help the guilt that accompanied the thought. Because as painful as it was for him, how much worse had it been for those who had been there longer? How many more cruel experiments and games had they undergone? And for how often Ion longed to be reunited with a thriving, happy Auldrant, how much more did the others long for their own respective worlds?
To think of what it had been like seemed to be a complaint in and of itself. Ion didn't want to be selfish.
He listens carefully to what Jade has to say about Anise, knowing that the man has a point. Some things really were better left unsaid, and maybe that was true in this scenario, as well. Was it simply how close he felt to Anise that made it so much harder to accept things for what they were? Or had he simply grown tired of ignoring her evasiveness with a gentle smile, playing along so to not make her uncomfortable, all the while letting it fill his heart with uncertainty?
"Not at all," he assures, finally. "Those are all good points you mention. And if I were still on Auldrant, knowing only what I knew then to be true--that Van had been defeated and Mohs arrested--I would have been more than satisfied to let the subject remain unspoken."
Ion sighs. "I suppose, however, if I'm being honest, I'm not sure I can stop myself from being troubled either way." He was afraid to know what Anise was hiding from him--because if his suspicions were correct, it wasn't news that any one person would be glad to receive. But the circumstances had changed. Ion had been told that things weren't as simple: that Van hadn't really been defeated. He knew that at some point, Anise had met--and named--another replica of the original Ion that he himself had never known of.
"If it would hurt Anise to talk about it, I'm more than happy to let her hold on to her secrets...but I wonder, at this point, if it wouldn't be easier for the both of us if she didn't feel as if she had to keep it from me anymore." In the end, that was what it was really about, wasn't it? It hurt more than anything, the way she'd stiffen and turn away. He just wanted her to be comfortable around him, and to trust that whatever it was she was withholding from him, he'd forgive it. He'd forgive her.
no subject
It's a silent impression that's quite a contrast to what Ion thinks of himself. And unfortunately, since neither Ion nor Jade are the type to speak their thoughts freely, silent is how it will remain.
"There's nothing wrong with that," the fonist says when Ion admits to being troubled. "Regardless of whatever may be bothering Anise, you still have a right to your own feelings." Well, as long as one didn't let them override rational thought, but that had never been a problem with Ion. The way he chose to die proved that, whatever he thought of himself, he could think things through extremely rationally. He may have sacrificed himself, but he didn't do so needlessly, and he made the most of it given the circumstances. It might have been thanks to Mohs that Ion died, but Jade suspected, based on how conversation had been going before everything had gone south, that he probably would have taken the same or similar actions anyway.
It occurred to him that the same thing might have struck Anise. Jade found it unlikely that was the reason for her reticence, though. The guilt alone would have been enough to hold her tongue. And what was more...
"I see," he said at the end. "I can understand that."
...she probably thought he'd hate her if he knew.
/Really, Anise,/ Jade thought, gazing down at the morose young man, remembering his last words. /You should know better than that... Not that I can blame you./
Guilt, and the secrets it led to, was a poisonous thing.
no subject
Being told by others, particularly by those he held in such high esteem, that he was entitled to the things he had, be it physical possessions, his emotions, or even just the name and title that were given to him, was not a statement that Ion took lightly. Maybe for some, these things were taken for granted, but as a replica such ideas were a content internal struggle.
It helped, sometimes, to be reassured by others when he found he lacked the ability to reassure himself.
In any case, talks of feelings and relationships had never quite been the best thing to talk about with the Colonel. A well-timed subject change seemed quite in order.
"In any case," the Fon Master then said, "if there's anything I can do--any questions you have that I can answer that would help you become more familiar with the Tower, I'd be more than happy to tell you what I know." Granted, the replica didn't know as much as say, Asch, but he still liked to think, at this point, that he had at least a decent grasp on living in this place.
no subject
Yes, Jade hates explaining things, but it's not just that. These things should be settled between the ones most deeply affected by them.
Nonetheless, Ion's genuine smile is returned in kind. "I didn't say anything special, but you're welcome all the same."
When the boy offers a change in subject, the fonist sees what he's doing and does not call him on it. There's only so much that can be said on that subject without Anise being present, anyway. Besides which, an offer of useful information is never unwanted. Jade touches a hand to his chin to consider.
"A breakdown of the floors would be appreciated," he says. There are plenty of questions he could ask, but this one seems the most practical for the immediate moment. He's managed to get some such information earlier, but only a couple of floors; enough to get from the dorms to his various destinations to where he is now. "I know of a few, and I intend on searching through them personally when I get the chance, but given that there's over a hundred in the Tower, knowing whatever details you might know would be very helpful. Not including the dorms and floors I passed via elevator and stairs, I was on floors five and three earlier."