towerofanimus | (no subject)

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Character(s): Xellos and just about anyone.
Setting: ANYWHERE. Xellos is porting/wandering anywhere he can to get a "lay of the land" as it were. He could pop up anywhere you please, just please indicate where.
Format: Starts prose, will follow whatever.
Summary: Xellos exploring~
Warnings: Nothing yet.

This was troubling.

Of course, that was putting things mildly. Being unable to fall back into the astral plane was one of the first things the Mazoku General Priest discovered upon waking. Immediately following that, it became apparent to him he felt very... disconnected from things. This was not his own world. That was very clear.

The next thing was to attempt escape. Leaving behind the room he woke in hastily, he attempted the most obvious course of action. He tried to teleport outside.

Instead, he only found himself in a dark hallway, barely illuminated by emergency lights.

That would have been too easy, wouldn't it have?

So, he went on about his way, exploring his new surroundings. He did this for quite awhile, and one thing became clear pretty quickly.

The emotions of people, negative ones, were vibrant here. It was without much a doubt that he wouldn't have much of a problem surviving on at least that. What came with it, however, was another matter...

World destroyed, hmm? If that is the case, I think I will be VERY cross...

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On a different Dorm floor, there was a familiar face sitting against one of the walls near her room and hugging her knees to her chest. Her gloves, cape and shoulderpads were tossed to the side, finding it far too hot to wear those.

Frustration, irritation, maybe even a bit of helplessness and despair were among the emotions coming off of her.

There was one odd thing, though - should Xellos try and sense them, the talismans Lina ~~stole~~bought from him were not there.

Come across her he did, strolling down the hall of this particular dorm floor after attempts at teleporting out proved fruitless. He paused a bit as he caught sight of her.

Well.

That was a happy coincidence, wasn't it?

"Well, well!" he said just loud enough to try and catch her attention as he approached. The Mazoku rubbed his chin. "Fancy meeting you here, Miss Lina!"

Something wasn't right, though. If he was to be perfectly honest, he was a bit disoriented trying to adjust to that "disconnection" he felt from obviously not being in his normal plane of existence. However, it wasn't enough to completely throw him...

Something was missing.

"Eh?" Lina looks up, and squints - there's not much light out here, save for the periodic lightning flash. So she opens one hand, calling up an orb of light, and sees someone...she's never seen before.

"Who are you?"

Xellos can be, most of the time, pretty unflappable. Not many things generally get to him, but this one certainly threw him for a bit of a loop. One eye actually quirked open for a few seconds and he stared down at the sorceress.

"Oh, come now Miss Lina, let's not be silly!" he replied, closing the open eye. "I do not think Mr. Gourry is rubbing off on you that much."

Then it hit him. What was missing...

The Demon's Blood Talismans. The power of Ruby Eye himself was in one of those talismans, and he obviously held a deep connection to that sort of power.

Yet they were not present on Lina Inverse's person that he make out.

Lina twitches at that comment, and quite visibly. It's been over a week since she had a proper meal, so she's not in the best place in terms of mood.

"I'm not being silly," she answers in an icy tone, though it's quickly replaced with an irritated one. "Now answer my question! Who are you, and what d'you know about Gourry?!"

Tea. Tea, tea, tea. It was far too hot for its steamy comfort, but tea was an adaptable beverage! If not hot, then cold!

Hopefully?

Filia idled in the elevator as it rose to the dormitory level, holding a tray in one hand as she made her way to Lina's room. Tea, lukewarm, but it was the best she could do after finding that even the utilities in the kitchen were without power. Perhaps Lina would be kind enough to use one of her shamanistic spells on the beverage. Beside the tea cups was a plate of berries. In her other hand, the tail of a strange looking aquatic creature -- bucktoothed, and boy, were those two teeth razor sharp. They'd nearly tasted her arm when she went swimming in that aquarium for food, but luckily, she had still enough strength under water to swat it with her tail.

She wasn't sure how lucky she'd be if there was a next time... And there would be a next time if the neglected state of the tower continued.

First things first, though. Finding Lina and making sure she'd eaten. The girl was a monster without food. The thought of a starved, and subsequently wrathful Lina Inverse made her grimace in worry -- both for herself and the rest of the tower's inhabitants.

The edge of her hat was crumpled between her fingers and the tea tray and so left her ears exposed. It was far too hot to wear it, even if she had left her room with it on in some irrational sense of defiance to the temperature. Too hot, too, to wear her white robes. A dress, for now. She ignored the temptation to take off her boots.

No, she might step on something barbed.

Edited (mini can't read fo'shit) 2012-06-10 01:28 (UTC)

For all intents and purposes, Lina seemed fully serious in what she was saying. Not to mention quite a bit snippy. And with a tone that, coming from Lina Inverse, would even give someone of his stature a moment of pause.

"...oh, this is possibly a dilemma," he mused aloud, placing a finger to his chin. "Tell me, Miss Lina... what happened before you came here? Humor me, and I may just have an answer for you."

For once.

And for once, he was actually quite serious.

Secrets weren't any good when he didn't know them, after all.

Hearing the sound of the elevator, Xellos' eyebrows rose and he went to investigate the noise. Being able to transport was one thing, but it didn't serve him much good if he wasn't aware of the landscape. So initially, it was best to take matters in straight on.

He'd nearly walk straight on into Filia as she stepped out.

He stopped, quiet for just a moment before an unrestrained smirk arrived on his face.

Matters may have been dire, but even he couldn't resist a grin at the irony of it all.

"Oh my, what have we here? It'd seem yet another happy coincidence, Miss Filia!"

All of a sudden, that familiar itch--

Ding!

Her facial features twisted with every word he said. "Happy? Happy?" she near-screeched, her fingers tightening on their respective catches so hard it was a wonder the tray hadn't snapped in two and the fish hadn't come back to life just to bite her fingers off.

"There is nothing happy about any of this, Xellos!"

He kept up the expression and went on without missing a beat.

"Oh, come now! Surely you must be glad to see a familiar face! A shining light in an obviously dreary situation! Isn't optimism one of your race's things, Miss Filia?"

Yes, this would certainly get him nowhere. He was also more frustrated than he could remember being in a very, very long time.

It was almost relaxing!

"I was in the middle of dealing with a clone of Rezo the Red Priest that had gone berserk," comes her answer, and particularly venomous. Learning of her apparently surviving that given that Filia knew her from events that hadn't happened had caused her to be less angry about that - but only a little.

And given her mood, well...

"So are you someone else that knows me that I've never met like that blonde lady?" She gives Xellos a judgmental stare, looking him over. "That color hair, being that polite... What are you, a cousin of Amelia's or something?"

The way he said things made her want to swing him around the room like a rag doll.

Then again, he had a tendency to 'make' her want to do a lot of boorish things simply by existing.

"I should know it better than you," she replied sharply, "so don't even try to lecture me on it." You dirty Mazoku! "When did you get here?"

[Oh hey, there comes a full course meal around the corner, Xellos. By which I mean a sulking, brooding troll that couldn't stick his head further between his shoulders without breaking something or spontaneously turning into a turtle. Eridan is his usual little blackhole of self-loathing. There wasn't much to do or say about anything right now, and it worried him. It gnawed at him, not being able to do... well, anything. He blinked behind the sunglasses as he ran into the mazoku, on his way to enjoy his newest pastime: stare at nothing in particular and wallow in how much he hated everything ever. This guy didn't look disturbed at all, which given the latest batch of shenanigans in the tower, was disturbing in itself.]

You okay?

Naoki's stay in the tower so far had been a strange one. And now that the entire place was half-dead due to events and the place was in a sad state of affairs, he was only running on instincts forged in the Vortex World and his half-demon blood to help out the others.

He passed by Xellos, riding a Bicorn, stopping to see if he was a new arrival or not. There was something strange about this guy. Maybe it was the clothing that reminded him of a magician...a demon maybe? Hard to tell. Regardless, Naoki wasn't really one to talk so he gave him a small nod, waiting for the other to speak first.

Edited 2012-06-11 21:56 (UTC)

Xellos gave a completely involuntary twitch and leaned back. Of all the people, of all the people to compare him to... Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun was about as far from something he wanted to be associated with in such a way as he could think of.

"No, Miss Lina," he said, completely deadpan for a moment. "Miss Amelia and I are ... not associated in such a way."

He then composed himself.

If she was telling the truth, and Lina wouldn't have anything to gain from such a lie... There was some definite time displacement going on with this situation. He supposed that was entirely possible... After all, he dealt with things that were far beyond the comprehension of most mortals on a regular basis anyway. What was a little time travel?

Yet it would also mean she didn't know him. Certainly, if he wanted to he could play with that, if need be. However, at the moment, he was trying to deduce his own situation. Making an enemy of Lina Inverse would not serve to his advantage.

"Well, this is most unexpected," he went on, finally. "What would you say if I told you that I know you and your little band from a significant time after that? That I were an ... ally, of sorts?"

At times, anyway. That wasn't entirely inaccurate, it was just missing some key points.

"Well, one has to wonder sometimes!" he shot back in an entirely casual tone, notably taking a step back away from her as he did so. Just in case.

"...though, if I must say, I have not been here long," he said, and then reached up to tug at the collar around his neck. He then pointed at her own with his staff. "If anything, we seem to be in a similar predicament."

[Exploring, exploring, exploring. Really, Xellos would be at this for awhile. He notes his inability to fly or teleport in this particular area, and also notes this is one place of any he does not want to get into any major altercations. Simply not being able to touch his powers merely by the fact of stepping onto a particular floor unnerves the Mazoku and puts him a bit more on guard than he'd normally be. He masks that pretty well, but is so distracted by that he scarcely notices the troll in passing.]

Oh, me?

[A slight laugh.]

I am doing better than a lot of people around here, it would seem. For the here and now, at any rate.

Needless to say, Xellos took immediate notice of this. The creature was an obvious tip off, as was its rider. Both were notably abnormal, and there was a certain sense of the rider... It seemed peculiar, but still adjusting to this place and the state his body was in, it wasn't something he could figure out immediately.

So, curiosity taking over, he lifted his staff and tilted his head in a slight nod.

"Greetings, there! I don't suppose this creature fit in your incoming luggage, hm?"

She bristled. An undignified noise of frustration trickled out of her throat, but his next comment snapped her out of flying into a rage.

"Of course we are," she said haughtily, eyes closed. She wished her hands weren't occupied that she might cross her arms to prove her point. "Everyone is."

Oh, wait.

She opened her eyes to peer more closely at him. "They... They got you, too..." she mumbled, the implications finally dawning on her. (Duh. He was right there.) If the tower keepers had managed to snatch even a Mazoku like Xellos...

"Can't you access the astral plane?"

Logic suggests that she should take note of that reaction, but given the state of things, Lina's not at her most logical right now. That, and...well, most anyone has that kind of reaction to Amelia, at least as a knee-jerk.

"I'd say that I've heard something like this before, though others have suggested I have a faulty memory for not remembering people I've never met." Xellos gets a brownie point for having a different idea - one that doesn't question her capability.

"I'd also say that's a relief, since things were looking pretty bad, last I recall."

[The remark and the laugh earn Xellos an odd look. Then a shrug.]

That's not... really hard, all things considered.

[Eridan snorts.]

If you're new.

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elevator / dorm floor one

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Re: elevator / dorm floor one

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Stairs down to the 31st floor

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Re: Stairs down to the 31st floor

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