towerofanimus | [ 01 ] ✿✿ [ Open ◦ Intro ]

Entry tags:

[ 01 ] ✿✿ [ Open ◦ Intro ]

☙Room 02-19❧
[ When morning comes, there has been a new addition to the room. In fact, the large wheelchair stored next to one of the beds might be more noticeable than the frail girl laying within the sheets. While she is dressed in the white vestments forced on everyone else upon arrival, there's color splashed along her hands. Stirring awake, with widened eyes, she notices the blood covering her hands right away. Shrieking, she holds them out as far away from her body as possible as her thoughts quickly dawn on her. Just moments ago (or so it felt like) she was holding the bleeding corpse of her older brother while the rest of the country joyously chanted for their freedom around the pair. Within moments she's struggling to drag her legs around as she wearily digs through everything around her. The white clothing was frightening and only made her lithe form look sickly, although the color draining from her face may add to that belief.

Upon discovering the letter, she'll shake her head as she mutters how untrue it is for a minute or two before it all sinks in. Judging from the world she "left behind", one where F.L.E.I.J.A. was becoming a common enough weapon in battle, the idea doesn't surprise her. Just what all had happened since the death of Lelouch vi Britannia? Just where did she fail to help out? Placing the first letter down gently, she'll catch up on her reading with the second one. ]

A network? [ It makes sense to her really as she looks towards her wheelchair nearby. If she can get to a terminal, then she can issue a formal apology to any other survivors of the incident and possibly get the answers she needs. ]

☙Dormitories❧
[ In an attempt to familiarize herself (and perhaps find someone), Nunnally will be moving between the floors via the elevator while in her electric wheelchair. She does have a bit of trouble adjusting to areas that are brighter than the rest of the tower, shielding her eyes with an arm. She's still dressed in the white suit though, but at least her hands are bare of the blood they bore when she first woke up. Having found herself uncomfortable with the 'skin tight' part, she's settled for having a blanket draped over her legs, just a couple inches away from the floor. Despite everything though, she'll put on a tiny smile the moment she encounters another being. ]

Hello there. [ Waving a hand as a greeting. ] Do you take residence on this floor or are you visiting a friend?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You can leave messages for others to find, even in image form, and read earlier messages.

*"Even in image form". Could Enoch sound any more awkwardly before video's time? At least Nunnally wasn't around in his previous nexus-world home to see him geek out over completely ordinary pens.*

[ It takes her a moment before she figures out just what he means by that. ]

Ah, that's a good resource. Have you used it yourself?

*Well, he was just in the alcove, but he thinks she probably means if he's used it often.*

I have...it took a bit of work to learn how to use it, and there's an inconvenience to it, but it's useful for learning if someone is planning a gathering. You ought to be careful, though...if there's anything you don't want our hosts to hear, it's best discussed in person. There isn't any way to know whether they're watching or not.

Why would we keep secrets from the administrators?

[ Someone's novice is showing as she has yet to really feel any fear from them yet. ]

Things that are meant to be private are better in person. Isn't that a rule of thumb everyone should follow?

Because one of them, the one overseeing us now, is more than likely to turn our knowledge against us. He...isn't pleasant.

[ What pleasant demeanor she held fades away as she grows serious, thinking over his words. ]

Overseeing us now? Does that mean the administrators take turns and if so, what is their schedule like?

They do. As far as I know there are three: Dax, Jason, and Riki. Dax is the most trustworthy of the three, and treats us with respect. Riki, I'm afraid I know very little about. Jason...is least trustworthy, and doesn't care for us beyond his 'experiments'. Unfortunately, he's our current overseer... Each has the tower for a month, and Jason always follows Dax, which must mean Riki follows Jason.

[ So there's a pattern. Noting it in her mind, she continues to listen intently. ]

Does that mean there's a hierarchy here or are they equal in power?

They're equal, I believe, and they work under a younger woman named Ruana. She...has an unsettling quality to her, from what little I've seen of her.

*Maybe it was in her smile or her tone...maybe both.*

Ruana? [ That's four to her count now. Just like she was told. ]

Why has she shown herself before? Was it a special circumstance?

In a way. The other three were...having a competition of sorts to determine who would lead the tower in a month they'd disputed. Jason's approach involved...torturing the group he was supervising. Children were among them, and he didn't even spare them. Those of us remaining in the tower heard of it, and I was part of a group that tried to find this competition and stop it.

At first, we only met Dax, who asked us to leave. It seemed he wouldn't take any measures other than to stand in our way until she appeared and ordered him to kill us. Some ran, but I and others didn't.

*A pause, and he speaks quietly.*

...It was very quick. I didn't realize I had died until later on. But I did learn that those who had run, Dax allowed to escape.

[ Nunnally listens, absorbing the information and coming to her own conclusions quick enough. No point in bringing up her theories, at least for now, so she'll encourage their current conversation to continue. ]

Have you died many times here or was that the only one to your knowledge?

I apologize for asking a personal question if you find it to be one.

*Enoch shakes his head. The number of times he's died isn't personal, but the details of those...he'll only share if he feels he must to protect someone. He doesn't want to think about it.*

...Four times.

Does it get easier?

[ Realizing that it's a rude question, she shakes her head. ] No, you don't have to answer that, it's just... I just feel as though I will have to face death multiple times in this place. If it's as dangerous as I hear, that is.

... *Right, she...must not have the use of her legs, that's the obvious reason for a chair on wheels - such a surprisingly simple solution to such a thing...*

...You could always travel with someone else, or find some way to defend yourself. Something that can be used as a shield as well as a weapon, perhaps. No one needs to die here.

*A pause.* ...I'm not sure that it's easier to die.

If it doesn't get easier, then I'm afraid I'll just have to get used to it.

[ She doesn't even seem upset with the thought of dying. It's something she's always known from her own homeworld. ]

I could never raise a weapon on anything. Violence... violence is so unnecessary.

*...Oh, Enoch hates to encourage her to break such an ideal.*

If only you were right... The monsters here... *He shakes his head.*

What of them? Are they merciless creatures or something else?

[ She'll try to plead with him silently to answer her. ]

They are. I don't think...killing them is pointless. They're cruel beings, particularly those that appear at night.

Is there no way to have them change their behavior? [ Shaking her head. ] Maybe if we can capture a few of them and force them to behave properly. Releasing them into the wild, maybe the others can learn from their experiences. Manipulating nature is wrong, but domesticating creatures we have to live with.

That can't be a crime, can it?

*Enoch is silent for a moment, seeming somewhat pained. Eventually, he takes a deep breath and speaks.*

...There are creatures that will...enter your body in a nonphysical form and then become physical within you. I...can't describe the pain.

*A lowering of his head. Another slow, deep breath.* Others still have paralyzing claws. They'll flay you alive and leave you to suffer until something else comes to kill you.

Some take on a form that mimics and distorts yours, and attacks you with a twisted rendition of your own style.

There are others. Some are docile, but the ones that aren't...these aren't beasts. They are monsters.

I suppose I was naive to think things might be that easy. To have to fight against them is cruel, but there are plenty of floors here. Maybe we can find a way to keep them in their own areas and make more of them safer for our own kind.

[ A deep breath. ] Humanity has always had a way with expanding and crushing those who stood in the way.

This isn't...this isn't a war between humans, and these are not merely animals.

*Didn't she listen? Didn't she hear what he just said? This sort of frustration was...new, to Enoch, the way it felt, the way it was combined with hurt. He'd had others disregard his words before, but this...he'd bared his worst experiences here as an example and still she went on as if these were nothing more than lions - potentially dangerous, but still of God's order and creation.*

They are like creatures from feverish nightmares...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ 01 ] ✿✿ [ Open ◦ Intro ]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject