Will you or won't you

[attheclocktower]

Characters: Anybody and everybody
Setting: Floor 1, before noon
Summary: Riki's offered a way to help keep the Tower powered a little longer. Obviously this is going to cause a lot of discussion and debate so let's CONSOLIDATE
Warnings: Nothing as of yet. Possibly eventually, so keep an eye on subject lines and I 'll try to change to reflect any developments

[No doubt Riki's announcement would be polarizing, but the instructions themselves were clear: Floor 1 at noon if you want to help out. And if you want to meet people, try to talk them in or out of it? Or hell, maybe even just talk about the revelation on who is behind those explosions? Well, this is as good a place as any for that too.

Just remember to be careful near the staircase]

Comments

[undroppedeaves]

Sam looked around at all the people here. It seemed a lot of people had decided to help Riki out. Sam was a bit unsure about it all, he wasn't sure how they were supposed to give energy to this place, but it sure sounded better than the alternatives.

He stood in the cafeteria looking around, it seemed like there was a lot of people here, though some of them didn't look too happy.

He wondered if they were all planning to volunteer, or if some thought it was a bad idea.

[megazero_to_superhero]

Count this guy over near where Sam is hanging out as one of the ones who doesn't look all that happy, but determined all the same.

The man in question looks fairly short for a human, himself—the only way he's meeting the eyes of the people of more average height gathered here is from the way his powered armor's flight suit is keeping him aloft a good foot or half in the air. In fact, it's Sam's similarity in this regard that catches his attention—not too many short people around who look more like miniature adults rather than kids.

"Heh, an' here I was thinkin' I was da only shortie in dis tower," he calls out to Sam in an effort to strike up a conversation.

[undroppedeaves]

"Far from it." Sam smiled at him, wondering at how the man was hovering. "Though most of them are human children it seems."

This man seemed to be an adult, he thought. It was hard to tell through the suit.

[megazero_to_superhero]

"Yeah," the man responds, frowning as he looks out over the assembled crowd. There do seem to be a number of children getting involved in this ... His expression screws into a complex one; concern for the kids, yet admiring their bravery and willingness to risk their lives to help others—and, perhaps, a mellow acceptance of it all.

He turns back to look at Sam more directly, allowing him to get a better look at his face. He definitely looks like he's getting on in years—over the hill, or just about there.

"—So, I take it you ain't a human?" There's no judgment in the man's voice, just interest.

[undroppedeaves]

Sam looks out as well, though in his mind the children were here, which was not a good thing. But no one should stop them trying to help, since the odds were they would get hurt anyways. It was not a good thing, but this way they could at least feel like they were doing something and weren't just helpless.

"I'm a hobbit." He explained, "Only one here as far as I know, though there was another when I first arrived."

[megazero_to_superhero]

The man tilts his head as he appraises Sam's appearance, as if he's trying to figure out the telltale differences between a hobbit and a human. "Hobbit's a new one on me," he says, though his curiosity is piqued. "How long ago was it dat you last saw 'em? Da other hobbit, I mean."

[undroppedeaves]

"A long time, about seven months," He had not realised how long it had been here, he had spent a long time here already.

[megazero_to_superhero]

"Dat's about as long as I've been here," the man comments. "Just a lil' longer, actually. You sure he ain't still around? 'Cause I've been runnin' into people I ain't seen for a while."

[undroppedeaves]

"His name has been struck from the room he was living in, that's a sign they're gone. He has a gravestone as well." As much as he would like to believe he hadn't been sent to his dead world, that he had been here. He knew that Frodo wouldn't have avoided him, not for one day even never mind so long.

[megazero_to_superhero]

"Wait—gravestone?"

David couldn't have advertised how clueless he is about the workings of the tower if he tried.

"He actually died or somethin'?!"

[undroppedeaves]

"No he's just gone, to his world." He looked at the man, a little confused. After all he had said he had been in the tower as long as Sam had been. "Have you not seen the graveyard? It has a stone for everyone who has disappeared..."

[megazero_to_superhero]

"Naw, I never have," David says with a wondering tone in his voice. He makes a show of trying to rub the back of his neck—given those huge shoulder armor plates and his generally bulky suit of armor, he can't quite reach back there.

"I mean I've been around da tower, an' I got shown a map of it once, but I guess I totally overlooked da place." David frowns in thought after that. "So dat graveyard ain't for people who're dead, just ... gone from da tower? How'd people figure dat out?"

[undroppedeaves]

"Well since people just wake up when they die, I don't think there's much use of a graveyard for them. And whenever anyone disappears a new grave appears there." Sam explained, wondering what other places this man hadn't been in the tower.

[megazero_to_superhero]

"Huh ... I see," the man says in response. "But I mean—okay, we can't die here, but what's to say people who get a gravestone ain't dead for real? Like if somethin' really did happen, I dunno."

He glances down to the side for a moment, giving a frustrated shake of his head. It almost looks as if he's chiding himself for not knowing these things for as long as he's been in the tower.

[undroppedeaves]

"I understand how you got confused." Sam said quickly, looking bad that the man looked bad. "After all Dax died for real." Before Sam's time, but he had heard about it. "But it seems like we can't, or rather we can't unless our souls get damaged, but that hasn't happened to anyone luckily."

[megazero_to_superhero]

"Somethin' like dat seems like it'd be real easy to do ..." David muses. Of course, back on Primal Earth, there existed many means to toy with one's soul—and he regularly tangled with some of the worst abusers of that ability, so his opinion on this is rather biased.

"Who exactly is Dax, by da way? Or—was, I guess."

[undroppedeaves]

"He were one of the administrators. Like Jason and Riki, but he were killed before I arrived here." He explained, "He was the one who left the instructions to turn the glamour off."

[megazero_to_superhero]

David takes a moment to process this.

"So he was one of da 'good guy' admins? An' da rest of 'em killed him off for dat?"

Wait. He'd heard something about one of the admins being killed before. Was it—

"Hold on a sec, was he da same guy dat was tryin' to reverse the dimension-killing thing?"

[undroppedeaves]

Sam nodded, "Yes, Ruana killed him." He frowned, "I haven't heard of naught like that but I know he was trying to help, and was known as one of the kinder administrators."

[megazero_to_superhero]

David's visibly angered by this news. Life in the Tower didn't sound rosy before his arrival, but he can't help but wonder if the loss of Dax has made things worse on everyone. Without someone to keep the bad guys in check ...

"How many admins've been killed already? Was it just him?"

[undroppedeaves]

"Just him as far as I know." Sam told him, "No one has ever mentioned any others to me."

[megazero_to_superhero]

"I'll hafta ask around to be sure, den," he replies. "But I bet he's da same guy. Which is just peachy—of course dey'd off da guy tryin' to fix everything ..."

He fumes silently for a moment, readjusting the unlit cigar in his mouth. Almost chewing on it. One could only hope that somehow—if he was indeed the admin looking into reversing the dimension-killing phenomenon&mdsash;whatever progress Dax made hasn't been lost ...

[undroppedeaves]

"It does sound like it." Sam nodded, also thoughtful. "Well let's just hope we're on the right track with the clues he left us."

[no_longer_a_king]

Arturia saw the small man looking unsure. To hide her own nerves and lingering guilt about this, she approached him, as kind a smile as she could manage on her face considering how her mind was already calculating how things could go wrong.

"Are you all right, sir?"

[undroppedeaves]

He smiled as she came near, "I am, how about you miss? If you don't mind me saying, you look a little worried." Which was normal, he figured, considering the circumstances.