[.006] ----------- [OPEN]

[lethechained]

Characters: Naminé (lethechained) and EVERYONE
Setting: The entire tower, any of a few floors.
Format: Any
Summary: Naminé's powers are out of control. This is a dangerous thing for everyone in the tower.
Warnings: Minds being crushed, memory manipulation, illusions, possibly violence and psychological trauma. Also, one rather upset young lady.


[Something bizzare is afoot.

Throughout the week, several anomalies will be occurring in the tower. One of the most noticable of these is the spontaneous opening and closing of strange, dark portals which some might recognize as Corridors of Darkness, which, when passed through, can send the traveler anywhere in the parts of the tower that are accessible by its captive occupants. Another of the more obvious goings on is the new rather concerning tendency for places, things, and even people to suddenly look like something else, even something markedly different. This change is an illusion and not permanent, but it's a very convincing illusion indeed. Also rather disorienting is the sensation that something is calling one from somewhere or another; whether or not anything is actually waiting for them should they choose to investigate varies. The more observant or magically and/or psychically inclined might discover that it feels as though someone or something is creeping through their mind/heart from time to time.

Less noticable but considerably more dangerous are the changes in one's memories that could happen at any time. Memories might be rearranged, replaced, or removed entirely. New memories, memories of things that never happened, or even copies of someone else's memories might also make an appearance. Worse still is the possibility of one's (metaphysical) heart collapsing in on itself, leaving them little more than a vegetable.

The source of all of this mess is a young lady who will be spending as much of her time this week as possible hiding away, trying her hardest to keep her malfunctioning powers in check. She's not having much luck, and those who run across her might find a rather distressed Naminé tucked away somewhere like the library or the maze.]



(( ooc: This is intended to be an open log for both interaction with Naminé and general shenanigans that might be caused by her powers. For details, please refer to this post. ))

Comments

Maze? 0w0

[knightime]

[Well, actually. He didn't plan on returning to the maze after his little fiasco with Vriska. He kind of accidentally somehow went through one of the strange, dark portals, only to be spit out into the maze. Needless to say, he's now wandering through the maze now.

He's assuming all of this is because of these stupid check ups everyone had been getting.]

Hey? You look like someone stepped on your dollhouse and tore the heads off your Barbies. You okay?

owo

[lethechained]

[She'd be quite apologetic for having stranded him in the maze if she was aware it was her fault. Her powers are so haywire right now that it's like trying to hold back a flood, only she's just one girl and she can only block so much. Blocking what she can is of course her focus, right now, so when she's spoken to she jumps; she didn't even see him walk up. She does indeed look like something terrible has happened, and when peers up at him it's with wide, almost fearful eyes. She squeezes them shut immediately and turns her face away - it might not stop her malfunctioning magic from going after him, but it's better than nothing. So far, so good, anyway.]


I... it's not me I'm worried about.

[knightime]

[It was no big deal. He wouldn't have really made it a big deal. He just wanted to get out of here whenever he can.

He just shoves his hands in his pockets, tilting his head to the side. Okay... Did he want to keep bothering her? Yeah, she seemed to be pretty distraught. Now that he's here, it seemed too rude to just walk off now.]

Huh? What are you worried about? [Might as well bite the bullet.] I mean, you seem to be pretty scared about something. Did someone fuck with you? [Because that would be pretty rude.]

[lethechained]

[It is, however, kind of big deal to her. Perhaps it's for the best that she doesn't know.]

[What is she worried about? She glances back up at him, hesitating. How is she supposed to explain it? She's spent so long trying to keep under the radar about her... rather unique abilities that, even now, when others are at risk because of them, she's not comfortable with the idea of discussing them.]

... They did something to my collar, and now I'm-- not right.

Maze

[princesspowerful]

[Molly didn't know what she felt the need to explore the maze, her body was extraordinarily heavy today but she couldn't keep herself from wanting to keep moving around. So, somehow she found herself in the maze!]

Nsmine? What are you doing here?

[lethechained]

...!

[The girl seems quite distracted when Molly finds her, enough so that she doesn't even notice the other girl is there until she speaks.]

-- Molly?

Also Maze

[myblueskies]

[Romeo was scared when he accidentally walked into a dark portal and even more scared when he ended up in the maze. He hadn't been in here since the day he, Molly, Ienzo and the Doctor had ended up in here.

He ran around lost until he stumbled over Namine.] Namine! Are you lost too!

XD

[lethechained]

[She'd be apologetic about being the cause of his situation if she knew it was her fault. She looks up at the sound of her name, looking almost afraid.]

--Romeo? -- No, I--... not exactly.

Re: XD

[myblueskies]

[At her face he bent down to grasp her hand.] What's wrong Namine? Don't worry, we'll get out of here!

[lethechained]

[She draws inward as her hand is grasped, as if she wants to pull it away, but she doesn't.] No--! Romeo, you need to leave...!

Meadow

[reversedestiny]

[He hadn't been back here since the chocolates. But he needs it. Because, for the past half hour, things had been strange for him. You see, instead of losing or gaining sudden memories, or his memories rearranging, his own memories had been made strangely clear. Even things he shouldn't remember due to having been a babe at the time. But that's not what's causing his freak-out. No, what's causing him to freak out is a certain set of memories relating to a certain change in his life.

He remembers it all too vividly, calling to the silent house that he was gonna go get changed and wash his hands--he was four to turning on the bath was out of the question. And so he'd walked upstairs, catching just the barest glimpse of red on the walls of the kitchen in his peripheral vision as he did so. Once in his room, the door shut, and before he could turn, there were hands. Strong arms lifted him, and he cried out for his parents immediately because this wasn't Mama or Papa's hands. But then everything went cold and dark, and he was being carried away, soon slipping into unconsciousness from the strange and biting surroundings.

It replays over and over, a scene blocked out by the sheer trauma. He'd come to guess what the red in his peripheral vision was, of course, and the grim realization that he hadn't been rescued from uncaring parents but had been kidnapped has left him shaking. So he just hides, curled up in the middle of the field, hands over his ears.]

Re: Meadow

[lethechained]

[Hiding has done her no good. Holing herself up in the library, her room, the maze, anywhere she could find-- nothing has been able to help those within the reach of her powers, which, it seems, means everyone in the tower. She's had to eat, had to sleep, but she's done as little of either as possible, attempting to devote her focus to keeping a handle on her abilities.]

[That hasn't done any good either. Desperate, she's been seeking instead peace, some place soothing in one way or another. The other floors have failed her, and now she comes to this one.]

[It doesn't take her long to see him, to stop and watch and regret. He's-- unsettled, that much she can see from where she is, and she is immediately struck with the fear that it's her fault, that she's done something to his memories without even realizing it - her magic has been so far out of her control that she doesn't even know what it's doing, not all the time; all she knows is that she should try to stop it. Distraught, she stays in place, watching him cautiously.]

[reversedestiny]

[Sora will jerk up when he finally feels her presence, looking wildly to where she is. But it's just Namine, so he forces a smile and stands, visibly shaking as he does so.]

H-Hey...

[lethechained]

[The girl jumps at the suddenness of his movement, but afterward stays where she is, keeping still so that she doesn't startle him back, once he spots her. Immediately, she can see his state, and it's all she can do not to frown, to smile back with her own forced one.]

... Hello, Sora. [She hesitates visibly, then, gentle but with a bit of her concern showing through,] How are you?

Library

[forceless]

[Not that Ven was particularly adverse to the library. After all, Roxas worked there so he came around all the time to bother him. However this time was an accident, when he stumbled through a portal that looked suspiciously like something Terra or Vanitas could pull off, and fell to the ground upon exit.

And when he spotted Naminé at the source, tucked away in distress? Well that definitely wouldn't do.] Naminé....?

[lethechained]

[The girl stiffens at the sound of her name. In contrast to her normally upright posture, she's curled inward in her chair, face cradled in her hands. She stays that way for a moment, as if hoping that she'll unhear what she just heard, but the memory of that voice doesn't go away (fortunately or unfortunately), so she slowly raises her head, eyes fearful.] -- Ven.

[forceless]

[The sight of her just made him frown with concern. What happened? What was happening?]

Hey...what's wrong?

[He got off the ground and stepped forward, carefully hunching over and resting a hand on her shoulder in a small gesture of comfort.]

[lethechained]

[The gesture might be meant as a comfort, but the tension in her only seems to get worse. One would think she was expecting a slap across the face rather than anything well-intentioned, but it's not that at all. She half-opens her mouth to speak, stops, closes it, hesitates, then--]

-- You shouldn't be here. [It's sudden and not an answer, but it's the truth. Her powers might be able to affect others from a distance so great that it doesn't matter, but, if nothing else, at least it might make their effect weaker, were he not right here before her and so susceptible to her unwilling influence.]

HALLWAYS

[endinsentiment]

[How many times can one storm down a corridor looking pissed? Indefinitely, and it looked like it was becoming somewhat of a tradition for him in Animus. So far, he'd yet to come to terms with the place itself-- the varying time streams, it's inhabitants, the monsters that stole in with the night-- it was all new, and for one of lesser control, alarming.]

[For Vanitas, it was just plain irritating. But this surpassed any and all aberations. By a long shot.]

[He was shorter. Keychain clinking against his hip, legs exposed-- his body at large felt exposed. Vulnerable. It wasn't like he hadn't tried to change. But his clothes simply melted away, changed. Into this.]

[He hadn't gotten an answer before, but as stormy blue eyes scouted the hall in front of him, he was very much inclined to the belief that he would now. Right. Now.]

[derping]

[There was only so long someone could stare in the mirror before they finally had to believe what they were seeing - when no amount of blinking would make your eye color change back from yellow to blue, when no matter how much your tried to rearrange and mess with your hair and view it in a different lighting it looked pitch black, when every time you looked down your hands were still covered in gloves that you've never even worn before...it became hard to deny that something actually was different.

Sora had given up on thinking that this was a dream, and had instead started trying to figure out what was going on. Why...why did he look like that guy from before?

Even if it wasn't a dream, it couldn't be real. He...even if they looked alike, they had nothing to do with each other!

Right?

He had to leave sometime - find someone, figure out what was wrong and what to do.

...no, he thought, looking in the mirror one more time. Not sometime. Now.

That's what finally sent Sora running down the hall, knowing exactly who he was looking for.]

[lethechained]

[It's been a long... long day for Naminé already. All of her attempts to hide away, to find peace or concentration or something, anything to keep her powers at bay, to keep them from affecting the others in the tower, from hurting people. That has been an exercise in futility. She's exhausted already, pale and distraught and trying to keep her distress, too, in check.]

[So when she walks into the hallway and sees what looks like Vanitas running down it in her general direction, the jump that such a realization causes her is significant and blatantly visible, her eyes going wide with fear.]

[derping]

[It didn't help that Sora didn't really look very approachable right now even discounting the appearance change, with the way he was rushing as fast as he could to...well, he wasn't sure where. Wherever the guy he looked like right now was. He had to be somewhere, and Sora was determined to find him and figure out what was going on.

But this complete lack of foresight also meant that he wasn't watching where he was going. Honestly, it's a miracle that he notices Naminé in time to stop. But he does, and he slows down in time to stop a short distance from her.

He would have started talking to her without a second thought if he hadn't registered how she looked right now - tense, afraid...

Oh no. His thoughts came to a halt, his own expression becoming apologetic (a look not well suited to his face the way it was now). He hadn't even thought about what would happen if someone saw him like this. Naminé must have met that Vanitas guy, and now she thought he was him...now what?]

N-Naminé? [Would she believe him? He hoped so.] It's just me! Sora.

Floor Three → Stairway(?)

[justabignobody]

[Riku has been noticing how much seems wrong not just with his own but also with the powers of quite a few others; it's really hard not to when his own own state of ever increasing unease, calls to his Darkness, Soul Eater summoning itself and the shadows to his feet darkening and curling, hissing in reply to a call he hasn't even meant to make.

It takes him a bit to notice how his memories are being shuffled, that he suddenly can recall certain early childhood encounters in so much clearer detail ("Out͏sįd͝e ̢t̵hìs̛ ͜t͏i̸n͟y̧ worl̶d i̴s ̡ą ̛m̕uc͘h big̷g̀er ͡o͏ne͠..." "S͡o͝ ̵t͢h̨e͏n͢,̵ if҉ so̸m͟eth͞ing ͘hap̛p̀en̛s̨,͘ a͜n̸d͏ ̶R͟ik͘u is ̀abou̷t ̷t͏o g̨e̕t͡ ͝l҉òst͢.͞..") and combined with his own bout of lightheaded-ness it's just so terribly hard to concentrate to do anything but let these flashes roll over him.

There is a cold knot in his stomach tightening when he can finally think clearly enough again to realize just whose powers this must be, and it makes him turn on his heels - there has to be a way to fix this; it's one thing if his Darkness is acting up, but a whole other if it's Naminé's power over memories - but then he has to halt, because he can feel the pull in his heart, eyes widening as he sees the Darkness climb up his legs, winding around his body, and he's reaching up to hold his head when something just snaps-]

Re: Floor Three → Stairway(?)

[justabignobody]

[...........Curious.

That's the first thing he thinks when he comes to, a mild headache throbbing behind his temples, frowning as he pulls of the black cloth that has been tied around his eyes, blinking as he takes in his surroundings. It's not unusual for him to fall asleep in the library, even though he has yet to just pass out on the floor, but the first look tells him already - this is hardly Radiant Garden.

He frowns down at himself as he climbs to his feet, letting the thin, black cloth flutter to the ground - he does not remember ever owning such a black cloak like the one he is currently wearing (and yet it does seem strangely familiar).

Curious indeed.

Maybe one of their secret experiments on the Door has finally born fruit, maybe the trauma of leaving one's world has left him without the memory of actually doing so.

That may very well explain his inability to recall anything but his name from prior to entering the Garden, he supposes, though certainly that's just a theory for now.

There will be time to contemplate on this later though, especially when there is so much else to explore - a whole new world in fact. Looks like he has been right to go ahead with the experiments after all, despite Master Ansem's fears and reservations.]

Stairway - Sorry this took so long orz

[attheclocktower]

[She's heading down to the cafeteria, finally back in her coat now that she's removed the sling. She keeps rolling her shoulder on regular intervals, testing it and re-testing it to see if the pain comes back any.

She's so preoccupied doing this that she doesn't see the person heading up the stairs until she nearly bumps into them, glancing up and twisting to the side at the last moment.]

Sorry, I-

[His face. There's something about it that pokes at memories at the back of her mind - ones she knew weren't hers. There's little more than bits and snatches, nothing she can really grasp, though there's a brief mention of h̵eą͞͏rţ̶s ͝an͟͟͠d̸͢͠ ҉ḑar̡͞͝kn͏̷e̷s̴̵s ̕an͜d̷ ͜͡b͟e͘͡͠ǵį̷̛n̕n͞i̸̶ng҉s̸̀͘ ̧͘͜a̕n͢d ̶e҉̷nds...

She takes a step back, shaking her head as if to clear it.]

I should've been watching.