towerofanimus | ITP: The Once And Future King

Entry tags:

ITP: The Once And Future King

Characters: Arturia and YOU!
Setting: All over the Tower
Format: Opens with prose, but will match replies.
Summary: Arturia arrives in the Tower and is Very Not Please.
Warning: None at the moment.

Room 2-03
Whatever spell had been cast must have been powerful for it to affect Saber so. A Servant of her class had a naturally high resistance to magic, one that left even Caster's spells useless against her unless she was being particularly clever about it or going all out. For a spell to keep her so still it was hard to tell if she was even breathing despite how hard she fought it?

With a frustrated cry once the spell wore off, Saber sat up, her hands flying up to the collar around her neck. They dared to collar her? What sort of animal did whoever summoned her take her for? She tried to work her fingers under it, found it pressed right to her skin, and decided it best to take stock of her situation first.

This was in no way a normal summoning. For one, this was obviously not Fuyuki City. If it was the Grail would have provided her with knowledge of the current age and yet the knowledge she retained was only that of the last two times she'd been summoned. For another, why was she collared and on a bed? Why the paralysis? And where was the person who summoned her?

It was then she found the letter and it shook her to her core. Was this a joke? Was everything they'd worked for been for naught? Why had she been brought here at all if this was true? What had brought their world to an end?

She balled the note up in her fist and rose from the bed, prepared to demand answers from whoever she came across.

Floor Four: Saber observed the outside of the Tower warily though her face did not show it. She had seen the fog from the higher floors but had not thought it would be this thick. Was this truly the fourth floor or were they much higher up than the floor numbers said they were? She doubted even Archer's eyes could see through this fog. What sort of world had she found herself in now?

A thought that made her body run cold as she pressed her hands to the glass: what if the world really had ended?

Floor Twenty-nine: A hedgemaze. Of course there'd be a hedgemaze and Saber can neither cut it--she'd tried--nor climb over it--again, she'd tried--and was thus forced to travel through it with a grim expression on her face. This Tower proved stranger the more she explored it. Again, what kind of spells were doing all this? Or, the thought occurred to her, was this purely human technology doing this?

It was strange the thought hadn't occurred to her before, but then again, Saber's life had always revolved around magic of some form or another. It would've been even stranger if her thoughts hadn't first gone to it. But with how far she'd seen human technology surpass magic she shouldn't be surprised if such were the case. Nor should she be surprised if it was somehow a melding of technology and magic. This was a place supposedly meant to save people at the end of the world, correct? No matter how hard a magus tried if they were desperate to save people it likely didn't matter if they shared their knowledge or not.

Or so she hoped was the case.

It still did not answer the question of why she had been chosen to be saved, though.

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America had spent most of the short amount of time he'd been here padding around the Tower, exploring its oddities. Of course, there's only so much he can see from his considerably short height, and after watching the woman looking outside long enough to decide she at least didn't appear too dangerous at first (or second, or tenth) glance, he approached, looking up at her.

"Can you see anything outside?"

Saber looked down at the little boy who had toddled up to her. Well, at least this place seemed to be willing to save children, if that was indeed what it was doing. It did not solve the question of her presence there, but it did ease her a bit to see a child here. How old could he have been? Nine? Ten?

"Unfortunately, no. Just clouds and fog. I cannot even see the shadow cast by this Tower and can't make a judgement of how tall it is."

"We must be real high up," America said, and when standing on tiptoe didn't get him much closer to actually looking out, he settled for climbing up onto a nearby chair instead. "Is it always foggy?"

~~And I meant three or four on the age guesses. D|~~

"I do not know as I only arrived this morning," she replied, moving to the chair as he climbed up and holding it steady for him. It wouldn't do for him to fall off and hurt himself, after all.

"But I do suppose we would have to be. This Tower is strange--" the magic here bordered on sorcery itself! "--so I would not be surprised if we were high up or it is indeed foggy at all times."

Once he got a bit more height, he could better see out the window. It really was foggy out, like it was in the mornings sometimes at home.

"D'you think it's fairies?" America asked, looking back at the woman. "England says fairies can do lots of magic stuff."

England? She gave the boy a curious look. Did they name people for nations where he came from?

"Anything is possible," she told him. Her sword was one that had been crafted by faeries, why could the same not do something like the fog outside.

"I've known faeries to make it rain, to cause mischief, even to make fields rot if you crossed them the wrong way. I would not put it passed them to make a fog such as this if they had a desire to."

Veigar had taken his time to explore the tower, wanting to know more about this retched place that was now his prison. No, not prison, he'd be damned if he'd let anyone imprison the great and powerful Veigar ever again!

No, this was just another location to learn about and grow stronger in. Right now however, he was taking a break in this most curious of lounges. Glass everywhere and yet you couldn't see a damned inch past the blasted fog outside.

And yet this girl seemed quite interested in it... maybe she had seen something?

"Are you simply going to stand there and watch the most interesting mass of water and ice ever created?" If that was normal fog that is.

What was this thing?

That was the first thing on Saber's mind as she laid her eyes on Veigar. A magus of some sort? A spirit? A fairy, perhaps? She turned to him, refusing to show her back until she knew precisely what he was. Yes, it was small, but that did not mean it could not be a potential threat or ally.

"I was trying to determine how tall this tower truly is," she tells the being, trying to sense any prana off of it. Just how strong was this being, anyway?

Saber wasn't far from the truth, amongst the Champions, and in the world of Rune Terra, Veigar was one of the most powerful spellcasters there could be, and one of the best at disposing of other magical beings.

Veigar regarded her curiously, raising a brow and looking towards the fog below.

"I don't think even the stairs could truly tell you how large this tower is. Dimensional environments tend to be extremely and annoyingly hard to decipher. They could be the size of a marble in your world, or the size of a whole damn universe." he stated a bit bitterly.

"I would not be surprised. Where I come from, there is magic where feats such as that could be pulled off." It took really powerful magi to pull it off, but it was possible, though she had yet to hear of them as expansive as Veigar spoke of and if he was speaking of dimensional environments and the like? It could not hurt to speak of such things though she kept herself guarded.

Briefly, she found herself wondering if Shirou or Rin were here, but pushed the feeling down. She couldn't bring herself to hope just yet. Not until she knew the area she was in and had some answers of her own.

"Magic is unlimited, the limitations are put forth by the vessels..." And limitations he was without. He'd do what was necessary to be the most powerful and gain as all the raw power he could.

"You seem lost in thought," Not that Veigar cared much most of the time but he really had nothing better to do.

"New to the place or simply still getting accustomed?"

"Both," she said, a hand going to her hip as she kept sizing him up

Saber knew a few things about magic, but she was not a magus and part of her wondered what school of thought this being was from. His attitude reminded her of Rin and part of her wondered if the girl was all right.

"I arrived just this morning. Forgive me, but I have trouble believing all this and yet here I am in this place."

Veigar laughed.

"Ah, but it's real, at least as real as I can feel. While my powers remain intact and I still hold unsurpassed control over cosmic energies, I can't leave this place... It's, well, incredibly built and warded."

He replied almost in admiration of the builders.

"Still, they will not hold me here forever, that's something I assure you, yes!" he said proudly.

If what he was saying was true then Saber's presence here was beginning to make a little more sense. It could be possible to keep a Servant here even unbound by a Master if the wards were strong enough to maintain it, but shouldn't she be able to sense such wards around here?

Too much didn't make sense and the way he spoke set her on edge. She'd intended not to reveal her nature, but if he was a magus of the scale he claimed then she knew she'd be found out eventually. As long as she didn't reveal her true identity then she would have the advantage.

"I myself am in an odd situation. My presence requires certain requirements to be met before it's possible yet I am able to exist here. Perhaps these wards are somehow able to replicate the circumstances."

Requirements like the presence of the Holy Grail, for starters.

"Is that so?" he said with a hint of curiosity.

Veigar was practically a power magnet, not only did it call to him, but his ability to turn it against it's holders was very useful in his trade. Nonetheless, if he knew anything about Saber, he wasn't showing it, being somewhat mellow and just observant at the moment.

"So, without whatever kept you afloat in your world, you wouldn't exist?" He tapped his chin for a few moments, "Maybe this location itself is feeding you. It is incredibly potent considering all the things that make it up."

"It's possible," she admitted, hands to her hips as she glanced out the window, "A place like this should not be so I suppose if it does then anything else would be."

The lack of prana for one thing. She would need to be careful should a battle arise and make sure to eat and sleep plenty to keep from completely burning of what little she had inside her at the moment. Without a master to sustain her and provide a constant flow of it, she could wind up killing herself. Saber has yet to find out how the Tower handles death, but even then she had no intentions of dying before she succeeded in her goal.

Veigar shrugs, tapping his fingers to a light rhythm.

"I'll be wanting to see how things play out at least. This place could provide more means to grow stronger, if that's even possible. If not, it should at least prove interesting learning more things from all these other locations."

"I suppose it shall," she says. That had been one of the things she'd liked about the Grail War: the opportunity to see the future of the world and the chance to fight with legendary heroes across eras. If this place truly did draw from across worlds then perhaps she could learn a thing or two herself.

"I'm going to look around some more. Would you care to accompany me?"

"I don't really have anything planned for the time being, I don't see why not."

Because even thought the Yordle had grown to hate many things, his time in the Fields of Justice still made him feel as if being in a team, or a group was more enjoyable than destroying things by yourself... Or, well, doing more normal things by yourself.

Veigar hopped off the lounge chair he had been occupying and grabbed his staff, moving over to where Saber was standing.

"Ready whenever."

Zack had been here for little longer than Saber herself, and he was still trying to make sense of things himself...and stop getting lost. Hence the pad of paper and pen in his hands when he steps up to the window, having seen Saber when he ascended from the level below and feeling the need to speak up as she pressed her hand to the glass. What was going through her head? He couldn't tell.

"You're not gonna see much out there, you know. The fog doesn't seem to clear no matter what time it is.

"I was beginning to suspect as much," Saber sighed. There were no shadows cast, it was too thick to see through, and until she had a better idea of where she had wound up she could not try just breaking the glass to get out. For all she knew this place really was meant as a safe haven for those who had been rescued from whatever had destroyed their worlds.

She turned from the glass, her eyes turning to Zack, looking him over and assessing him. Strong looking, must be a warrior of some sort, an easy air about him. He could make a good ally here and he had been here longer than she.

"Does anyone know how tall this place truly is?"

At that, Zack nodded and stepped up to the window, looking out across the fog with a frown on his face. Could see for miles, but there was just nothing there. Not a good thing when trying to figure out where in all hells they were, was it?

"Thirty-eight floors, I think. Somewhere around there, but it's hard to tell. There's a couple...missing, I guess."

Missing is the only word that could fit that blackness, though in retrospect, maybe "inaccessible" would have been better.

"I've noticed the missing floors during my own explorations--and there is no way to tell if the first floor really is the ground floor."

Which had been what she'd been trying to figure out. What was under the fog? A world just as devastated as they claimed their own were? A metropolis? A sea? It was impossible to tell at all and it frustrated Saber to know end. For the first time she missed the Grail's tendency to implant information about the age they entered into Servants' minds. It had been hard to notice before but when she knew nothing of her situation it was something she found she sorely missed.

"Then how come we can't get any further down? I mean, sure, maybe who ever built this place doesn't want us down there, but why would they just not build any way at all to come up?"

Because he can get locked off areas. He can understand restricted corridors and accessways. What he can't get is why they'd build a place like this and block any and all access to anything below. It just doesn't make sense.

"I wish I knew, but I've met people who would do things even madder than that."

Morgan. Gilles de Rais. Medea. Gilgamesh. Not to mention her own mad gambit to obtain the Holy Grail itself for the sake of her wish.

"It's possible the lower levels are blocked off to ensure we stay in one area or to keep whatever is outside out, if there is a reason for it."

"Yeah, if there's a reason. I'm starting to get the feeling they don't have an actual reason. Or we're just lab rats and you're right about them wanting to keep us contained."

He says it as he tugs on his collar like it's a nervous habit, which it may as well be, but it makes sense. Collar the rats so they're forced to rely on you for whatever reason, and keep them locked in the maze. If that's what this is, then it makes an eerie amount of sense. He doesn't like that.

"Makes me wonder why, though."

The only reason Saber isn't tugging on her collar as he is would be her desire to keep her hands free in case an enemy arrives. Still, she sympathizes with him. If they are meant to be saved then why collar them like they're dogs?

"That's what I hope to find out. I've looked through most of the Tower and have yet to find any of the people who claim to have saved us."

It didn't leave a good impression on her mind. Why save them and not be willing to explain things to them? If their worlds had ended then surely they deserved to know the true reasons why, at least?

Who can say? Zack has given it some thought but has come to no conclusion on the matter. They just don't know enough for him to make anything more than wild theories and those cause more damage than they fix.

"Doesn't help that there's no books in the libraries that explain this place, either. There's whole sections missing up there, and I couldn't find anything like a history book in either library."

No people to explain, no books to give details, and no way to get down. Rat in a cage is starting to make a lot more sense than he likes it to. Great.

Rat in a cage with horrible food. Saber was still annoyed about the lack of fare in the kitchens and had a mind to personally complain to whoever was in charge the moment she got a chance to.

"It's like they don't want us to know where we are or how we came to be here. The more I discover about this place the more it feels like this is either a prison or a place that was long abandoned."

Zack didn't find the food all that bad, but he'd eaten worse before. Still, if it kept up like this, he'd join Saber in the protest for better food. Even a SOLDIER couldn't exist on nutrition bars for months.

"That's what I was afraid of." He sighs, looking out across the fog as if it holds all the answers. Shame that it doesn't. "But if it is a prison, then why bring kids here? There's a couple who can't be any older than fifteen or so...pretty sure they haven't done anything to deserve being stuck here."

Or at least, that's what he thinks. Sure, by their age he'd seen war and a few too many bodies, but he chose that life. These kids? He doesn't think so.

Arturia loves her food. Didn't help the food in Camelot, quite frankly, sucked. Sucked horribly. And she couldn't really say anything about it.

"It could be for any reason. Not all people are placed in a prison for crimes, after all. If this is indeed a prison, it could simply be because they feel like it or because we have something they want. I, personally, hope they have food intentions, but I cannot accept they believe our homes destroyed. Would someone have not seen it coming? Or sensed it in some form?"

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ITP: The Once And Future King

floor four

Bitty! /grabby hands

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4th Floor.

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Floor Four

Everyone loves floor four!

four leaf clovers are lucky. maybe floor four is too!

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