towerofanimus | Fifteenth Staff ♞ >Virus detected.

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Fifteenth Staff ♞ >Virus detected.

Characters: Sayaka Miki, Jin Shirato, and the tower's populace at large.
Setting: October 17th and beyond.
Format: Prose, but we can match you!
Summary: Sayaka and Jin aren't quite feeling like themselves today.
Warnings: Promised character harm, possible death, uncreative use of zalgo text.

sayaka-centric prompts:

It's so
L̨o̷u̸d
lately.

Someone keeps trying to ask for he l p but it's every syllable at the same time from too many different places to make any semblance of sense. It's an utter cacophony. She hates the noise, even as it makes her want to reach out and try something, anything to help - to shut them up.

It would be nice to be deaf, but they aren't talking into her ears.

Is there a way to make yourself deaf in the head?

Eventually, she found out.

(location: floor 20, early evening on the 17th)

"One, two, three, four. I think there's one less for each I took."

Sayaka sits astride the edge of the precarious, winding walkway that replaces the staircase here. In the lap of her black dress are as many candies as she just counted aloud. There's a bubbling sense of self-satisfaction settling into her, and it's not from taking in the fresh air.

Soon she'll find some peace again. Taking a couple candies wasn't really going to do anything permanent. It's easy to find a candy, lose a candy. It's just a tiny little loss for tiny little gain for her. No, no, no! The real path to silence is going to be a little more... forceful. A lot more exciting. Heh, it'll probably even be noisy!

(location: behind you, date unknown)

It's a pretty simple plan, to start out with:

"Uh, hi there! There'snotenoughtimetoexplain, so - Don't think, just run! C'mon, this way!"

Approaching someone like that is pretty likely to be taken at face value, as dangerous as things are around the tower. Sayaka's plan is to play misdirection: surprise someone into thinking there's something after the two of them, and lead them into the trap.

jin-centric prompts:

(location: floor 43, date unknown, same day as sayaka's 'behind you')

Jin's part of the trap was easy; wait for whatever poor sap was going to show up. Once they showed up, he was promised a spectacular opportunity. Being up-close and personal was the best way to learn, after all.

So he stayed still, crouched down in the back of a jail cell on the 43rd floor. There was nothing to speak to him now, no distractions. He was left with his thoughts, formulating careful plans in his mind for whoever showed up. Would he start with their chest? Or maybe he should determine their body composition first-- open their heads? Wouldn't that be interesting...

He feigned injury, sitting silently until Sayaka returned. If they were willing to follow her this far, they'd easily be willing to follow her just a little farther. Then both of them could have their fun.

(location: floor 27, date unknown)

It's not like he needed the tools that were littered around the laboratory-- on the contrary, he could easily make due with what he had in his hands and what he had in his head. But everything around here could make it so much more interesting if he got the chance, couldn't it?

The Tower's linearity was a wonderful advantage. Oh sure, it wasn't the most interesting floor, but many people would forego the elevator and pass through here in anyway. And he would so much like to have a conversation, if it convinced them to stay long enough. For now though, he sat at one of the tables, a few chemicals set out before him, a scalpel in his hand, and the blood and pus slowly seeping from his wounds. A small wince here and there, which he'd try to ignore. All he needed to do that was a distraction.

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"Don't think, just run! C'mon, this way!"

Itachi had done it. He's not a gullible person at heart, but being in the Tower had turned his world upside-down. Everything about the place was new and offputting to him. The mere fact that he hadn't been able to find a way out in months was mind-boggling, and recent events had left him even more on-edge than usual.

Maybe that was why he took the girl's word for it when she told him to run. It was believable enough that some monstrous horror was lurking just around the corner, after all. The other matters that weighed heavily on his mind - his urgency to get back to his world, Romeo's recent death and subsequent resurrection, the flare-ups he'd been having where his illness was concerned - were on the forefront of his mind, so by the time he realized he couldn't sense any monsters behind them, they were already fast approaching floor 43. A suspicious feeling overtook them, and his eyes narrowed before landing on the form of someone in one of the jail cells.

He recognized this floor. It was one of the ones that had inexplicably appeared out of nowhere, and Itachi had wanted to investigate it more thoroughly, but he hadn't had a chance. Now was as good a time as ever, he supposed.

He slowed to a stop just before the jail cell, squinting to get a better look at Jin. Predictably, it did little good - his vision was bad as ever.

"What's this about?" he asked, turning to cast a glance at Sayaka.

No matter how she'd been keeping pace before, Sayaka seems to have been wiped of energy by the run here - she catches up to Itachi a few steps late of him stopping, and waves her hand in a 'wait a minute' gesture while she catches her breath. It's an act to stall for a few seconds to sort out how exactly to proceed - seriously, it worked this far? It's all she can do not to grin.

"..What's what about? Hey, wait, is there someone in there?"

She steps around Itachi to peer curiously into the cell. That curiosity is quick to melt into shock. "Oh, geez! They're hurt!"

He didn't do much more than grunt in pain-- and the blood that was staining his clothes made it a pretty believable act. He wasn't entire faking, he was injured. But there wasn't much Jin could do about it now, and there wasn't much he wanted to do about it right now.

Another small cry of pain, this one a little more affected, but you could hardly tell the difference. Just get closer...

Itachi scrutinized Sayaka's face, searching for any sign of dishonesty. She didn't look nor sound the part of anything but a girl who was tired out after running from a monster (one that he couldn't hear, sense, or see), but he turned away to look over Jin again.

"Is he?"

He sounded skeptical, but faltered a bit when he heard the huddled figure cry out in pain. If he concentrated more, Itachi could detect the sharp, tangy scent of blood in the air. It took his eyes a moment to focus, but, sure enough, it seemed like the boy's clothes were covered in blood.

He told himself to turn away. He shouldn't get involved; everyone in the Tower seemed to be suffering from some sort of injury or affliction this month. If it was a costume-related injury, then who knows what sort of a transformation the boy's mind had undergone? After all, Romeo had-

Inwardly, Itachi shook his head. He pushed away thoughts like, 'But what if he's really injured, what if it was a monster attack, you know first aid, you can do something,' and stood firm, an eyebrow raised in Sayaka's direction.

"Look, there's blood...!"

Sayaka covers her mouth with a hand, and take a wobbly step back ~~with no small thanks to her costume's heels~~. It's somewhat gratifying to think that wow, if she'd ever spoken to this guy once in the past, this act wouldn't work. But luck was on her side today.

"Who's there...?" Another grunt of pain as he carefully turned to look over his shoulder at the other two was enough to over up the fact that his voice didn't sound too terribly weak. Just trying to cover it up, right?

He slowly started to lean over, as if in pain, placing one hand on the ground to steady himself. This guy needed more convincing? Jin was no actor, but he'd at least experienced shit like this enough to put on a solid enough performance, he hoped.

Itachi didn't say anything to either of them. He was still trying to evaluate the situation, decide if it was really worth his while to stay. He should quiz the girl about why she was running through the halls, and where the monsters were (if they existed at all), but instead, he took one step closer to Jin.

He didn't know what these strangers were capable of, but if they turned out to be dangerous, it would be easiest for him if he was close enough to make eye contact with them. He just had to give the boy a once-over and ascertain whether or not helping him would be worth it. If either one of them turned out to have ulterior motives, he was sure taking them down wouldn't be much of a challenge.

So, that in mind, he stepped closer, both feet in the cell now. A hand hovered by the weapons pouch strapped to his leg.

[The voice was familiar and yet not, and that alone already raised some warning bells; what's with all the craziness that's going on lately. Though, that sinking feeling was proved when he felt a familiar hand yank him away from the hallway in front of his room.

Sayaka never asked for help, she's the one giving them.

And then when his eyed adjusted, he felt like his gut is just about to give.

"I have to get outta this situation...!"]

H-hey! What's going on here!?

Edited 2012-10-23 05:36 (UTC)

Running for our lives? I'm pretty sure we're running for our lives.

_{[It's the typical Sayaka comment, but that's what's unusual for a situation where she's professing that Kyousuke's life is in danger. Those moments turn her sharply serious, not jocular.]}

Aren't you supposed to be the one to fight these things?

[Regardless, while he appreciates the sentiment, his paranoid nature from all the mess that's going on is just.

...Leading to him going into speculation that...

yeah.

she's snapped.]

[ Madoka's gone...

Homura wanted to turn back time, but she couldn't. She had to remind herself that, in this awful place anyway, death doesn't mean the end. She had to protect Madoka's friends, she had to protect Sayaka, so that she wouldn't fall into despair when she got back.

That's really the only reason that she's looking for Sayaka right now. That and... okay, she's pretty worried. Homura is somewhat relieved to see Sayaka's back in the distance and calls out to her. Thank goodness she's okay. ]

Miki Sayaka!

_{[There's a familiar voice that called out to her. Sayaka cocks her head to the side thoughtfully, a dangerously extraneous motion considering that she's literally dangling her legs off the edge of the tower.

That was outside loud, not... Loud. It sounded like...]}

Ah, is that the transfer student sneaking up behind me?

_{[Sayaka's voice sounds unusually unfettered, considering the tower's state of chaos. She's also, notably, not dressed normally - it doesn't really look like a costume, so much as it is the outfit someone with an entirely different sense of style to Sayaka would wear.]}

[ The style is definitely something Homura picks up on. She's seen Sayaka Miki deviate through many timelines, but never in such a drastic way. Her expression falls to an uneasy look, but is quickly recovered. ]

That is a dangerous place to be. Please return here at once, Miki-san. I would hate to see you fall.

Romeo was still on his search for bad guys! So far he had found a few, and helped a lot of the kids so that made him happy. But there were still so many adults!

Today he was walking through the laboratory, he didn't understand what most of these things were but they might help him in his quest to rid the tower of all adults who could hurt the kids.

That was when he saw Jin... Jason... An adult and one Romeo knew would hurt kids if he wasn't stopped!

"Hm?"

Oh. Well wasn't this a surprise!

"Can I help you?"

Somehow, despite the bleeding and the obvious bad mojo, he doesn't sound like as much of an asshole as he usually is.

Edited 2012-10-24 00:15 (UTC)

"No." Romeo's eyes narrowed, he didn't need help off any bad adults! Especially this one. After a moment of glaring he lowered his head, antlers pointed at Jin and charged.

Oh my. Wasn't this a bit of a problem?

Jin didn't even bat an eye, though; it only mad sense for the kid to be upset with him. The transformation hadn't afforded him better stamina, but it had given him better senses and some sort of weapon.

He side-stepped around Romeo as the kid approached, taking a scalpel out of his sleeve and flinging it through the air, aimed right for Romeo's back.

Romeo yelped as the scalpel hit his shoulder and reached round to try and remove it. It hurt a lot and he stumbled a bit before throwing it back (most likely ineffectually as he threw it with no grace or aim).

"I'm going to stop you!"

He stepped out of the way of the scalpel with ease; even if Romeo was no slack with a throwing weapon, Jin was much better at aiming than the average person.

"You're not very smart, are you?"

"I am!" He rushed towards him again, "You're the stupid bad adult!"

Another few sidesteps to get out of the way, and another fling of his arm to through a scalpel towards Romeo, without even aiming for a particular spot this time.

"The sooner you learn that I am the average behavior for those over 16, the better."

"I know! All adults are bad! You will hurt all the kids." The scalpel scraped his head and blood began to trickle down his face. Romeo glared at him in anger and picked up a table, instruments and all and flung it towards Jin.

The flying instruments was a bit of a shame-- then again, it was nothing that crucial, and there was a much more interesting specimen right here. He raised his arm up to cover his neck and head and braced his legs, the table slamming right into his side and shoulder and sending him back against the wall. It was...not a pleasant blow, that was sure, and he was pretty sure he banged his head, adding yet another crack to his glasses, but he couldn't do anything about that now. And the pain would be negligible again soon enough.

"So what happens when you grow up, huh?" He did his best to collect himself and adjust his glasses, and prepared another scalpel just in case Romeo came closer.

Romeo did come closer frowning at him, "Well I don't know..." It was a good question and one that he; in his new changed form couldn't answer. Instead he just lowered his head and charged again, racing towards Jin with a scowl.

He let out a sigh, and an exasperated one at that. How boring and uncreative. Once he had regained his senses, it was easy to step to the side to avoid the brunt and make a jab at the boy(???)'s side with another scalpel.

"What a hideously simple mentality you have."

The scalpel stopped Romeo for a moment as the pain hit him and he glared at Jin, "I don't got to listen to you, you're a stupid bad adult." He reached out to try and pick the boy up.

It was probably pretty sad that he let himself get roped in to this. He'd realized pretty much immediately that there was no reason to trust this situation, being yanked around to who-knew-where, but, to be frank, he was curious. Also exhausted. He'd spent so long stealing and swiping candy that he really wanted a damn break. Maybe seeing what dumb and dumber had cooked up would make him feel better.

Of course it was stupid- he would never claim it wasn't. But some part of him was hoping they would at least be better at this than an old 'bait-and-switch'.

"Hey, what's going on?"

Hearing something like that put him into high alert mode. Was this a real danger? A trap? A prank?

"I said run, right?! You really don't wanna know what might still be following me right now. I mean, I dunno if you've seen the giant skinless murder lizards before, but--"

Sayaka clamps her jaw shut, apparently just realizing she was babbling.

"Why can't you just fight it? Or if you're too weak, I can always fight it."

His spear generates in his hand.

[The initial shock propels Kyoko forward, but it's only a handful of steps before she realizes what she's doing. Running away just wasn't like her, so she's brimming with confidence as she spins around, searching for whatever it was they are supposed to be running from.]

Oi, what're ya running for? I wanna just what's so scary that it's even got the tower's hero of justice running with her tail between her legs?

Edited 2012-10-27 06:16 (UTC)

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Fifteenth Staff ♞ >Virus detected.

Behind you prompt, Day 23

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Floor 20 | Sayaka!!!!

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floor 27, let me know if this isn't okay!

KATY WUT R U DOIN

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22nd; can you even get behind a ninja- oh wait, Itachi. /Damnit/ Itachi-

Behind you, before the 20

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behind you