Dos

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

Characters: Spain, open to everyone~
Setting: Fourth Floor.
Format: Action or prose; I'll just follow along.
Summary: Spain comes back after being unfortunately brought away to 'visit' her home.
Warnings: TBA


It was downright horrible.

She didn't want to believe her captors when they said her world was gone, but the truth was laid bare to her when she was somehow brought back to her world without her knowledge.

It was exactly as they said; her entire home has turned into a complete wasteland, devoid of life. She could not feel her people, and the land was dead in her heart. But yet, how could she be sustained? It must have been some sort of magic her captors pulled on her, and she touched the collar on her neck instinctively.

Sí, this must be what's keeping her alive. This strange contraption.

Back at the tower, she curls up on one of the couches on the fourth floor, looking forlornly out of the window.

Comments

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

Ienzo decided to ignore the fact that a grown woman needed to count on her fingers. (More than a grown woman, actually -- who knew how long she had been living as a country?) Instead, he was having Fun With Mental Math. If Spain's estimate was correct, it would seem that the two of them had been here for about the same period of time... which got him absolutely nowhere. Awesome.

"It's understandable if you can't answer this question," he said after a pause, "but... who do you know in this castle that has been around the longest?" If he could find the person who had been living in this tower for the longest time, then he could possibly get an estimate of how long this place had been taking people from their worlds, and maybe even when the worlds had been destroyed in the first place.

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

She took another long while to think about Ienzo's question. True, she was perhaps one of the first few people here, but she didn't exactly know who run the place, aside from that scheduled meeting with the personnel in charge that time.

"Lo siento, but I don't know," was her honest reply as she shook her head. "Might be the people in charge of the tower, but even they are keeping their secrets."

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

Ienzo's only reply to this was a nod. Otherwise, all he did was sit back and think. From reading archives on the Network he at least knew the names of the four known individuals who 'run' the tower, but having never interacted with them directly and having not been present to attend the 'meeting' they had apparently hosted (shortly before he arrived)... well, Ienzo couldn't help but think that he was at a disadvantage here. Even if they were as tight-lipped in person as he had come to expect of them (from the little network shenanigans they had pulled to cut off the youngest owner's communications).

He did nothing other than this. Because he is obviously a very well-balanced young man and is completely knowledgeable and at ease in a social environment.

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

Silence was good, for the situation right now. Spain sighed to herself and continued looking out of the window. Ienzo was probably thinking of some way to get them out; he seemed to be a very intelligent kid, if the questions he asked Spain was any indication.

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

Why yes, Ienzo was by this point trying to figure out some way to get them out -- but unfortunately he wasn't having very much success. The one thought that kept coming to him was that he just didn't have enough information. Of course he didn't. No one in this blasted tower did. Right now, really all he was doing was stalling for time; trying to get some background to catch up with what others had already saw. It wasn't as if he had discovered anything new. If they had time before he had come here (which they probably did) to figure things out, and they still hadn't, well... what hope did he have?

(His expression had darkened considerably, now hovering quite a bit closer to a scowl.)

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

Spain noticed his scowl, tilting her head slightly.

"Is there any way I could help, Ieño?"

Because she didn't really like seeing young boys like Ienzo having a bad expression on his face.

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

"...Hm?" He blinked suddenly and looked up at her, having been startled out of his brainstorming session. "Ah... well..." How could he word this? Argh. "...I... well, there is obviously a lot of information being withheld from us, pertaining to the exact nature of this tower... I haven't been able to find any true... breakthroughs." Awkward explanation is awkward.

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

"So you've been asking around. Everyone who is being held here in the tower."

That pretty much explained his many questions for her, and the way he handled her answers; Ienzo was someone intelligent for his age, which didn't strike Spain as weird. Of course, intelligent boys meant that he had a good education, and that was something Spain always wanted to see in children.

OOC: Hmm. Is this backdated or should we have the power go out?

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

He nodded. Being without an idea of where he is was a completely unfathomable idea to the boy, but when it finally did happen, instead of huddling around in a corner he was attempting to figure out what was going on. Because really. He was sure that there was something he had missed, something that could make all of this fall into place. (It didn't help that the raspy voice of his caretaker, Even, was ringing inside his head: "Think, foolish boy! You are practically staring the answer in the face -- why can't you see it?!")

ooc: backdated I suppose.

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

"Ah, alright then. I'll leave you to your thinking, Ieño."

Because he seemed to be needing the quiet to think, Spain supposed. She wouldn't be much help if she's talking and distracting his train of thought.

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

"...Spain." He had been quiet for maybe a minute before this, but it seemed that now he was willing to go out on something of a limb. "...You... what do you think these collars are for...?" He tapped the orange one around his own neck.

Because really, there was no apparent use for them -- nothing was sorted by collar color as far as he could see. So there had to be a use. Trouble is, he can't find it.

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

The collars... up until now, she hadn't taught of them as important, but after seeing the destruction left in her world, she figured that they were essential for her survival.

"These collars might be the only thing sustaining me and the other Nations, I believe," she told him, gently touching the deep violet tubes surrounding the collar. "As for the colours, I don't understand much."

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

"Sustaining you?" He looked up at her again. Did nations need something more than normal humans did in order to survive?

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

"Basically, keeping us alive," she explained further. "In the event of a dissolution or destruction of a country, the Nation tied to it will eventually die. In other words, we die when our namesake is no more."

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

"Eventually? ...How long does it take...?" And of course the most morbid, unfortunate solution is the one his mind jumps to first.

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

She shrugged. "Days, months? Even we aren't certain; Roma Antigua disappeared once her Empire dissolved, but my best friend Prussia is still around even though Prussia is technically no longer a country."

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

"Is it possible that... the collars don't have any sustaining powers at all...?"

Well, if nations suddenly started disappearing and no one knew why, that would answer that question.

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

"A possibility, but we must never be careless."

Carelessness cost her a lot of things, and Spain didn't want it to happen here.

OOC: Awkward internal "oh shit" moment is awkward.

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

"Well..." He glanced to the floor, and didn't look back up. "What I meant was... it may be that if nothing is sustaining you... and your country and people have been destroyed... it... may just be a matter of time until... you disappeared yourself..." He paused. "...Unless... there is some way you can hold it off...?"

ooc: "oh shit" just about sums it right.

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

And then the fact hit her just as Ienzo stopped talking.

"Mi dios. I'm going to die soon."

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

And Ienzo has successfully made the situation ten times worse by talking to her! PROPHECY FULFILLED.

This in mind, however, he decides that now is a great time to just shut up. He doesn't look up from the floor.

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

"No, I'm not going to die," she started to mumble, wringing her hands in her lap. "I still have a lot to do, my economy's still returning, I still have to convince Portugal into the Iberian Union, and, and..."

She trailed off, shoulders shaking slightly before she stopped and looked up, a very determined look on her face. "No, this isn't right. I won't give up. I won't disappear like Roma Antigua."

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

"...Spain," he said after a significant pause, "are there other personified countries here?"

[latomatetas.livejournal.com]

She stopped her rambling, turning back to Ienzo.

"Sí. There's Romana, and Romano, both of them representing the Southern portion of Italy. There's also my sisters France and Prussia. I can't remember if there's any more."

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

"Well then... if the physical land is still there... and there are others here with memories of you... do you think that could be enough to sustain your life...?" So many limbs were jumped upon in this explanation. All the limbs, all of them.