towerofanimus | The Party Without Power

Entry tags:

The Party Without Power

Characters: Tohko Amano and you!
Setting: The Cafeteria. October 31st, All day.
Format: Prose.
Summary: Tohko woke up to find that the power is out in the Tower. She quickly tries to set up her party , and hopes that, despite the power, people will come.
Warnings: Tohko is a bit annoyed about the power. And please be sure to follow her rules, or may find yourself in some life-threatening trouble.

Tohko was lucky that she had woken up early. The power was out for some reason, and Tohko, knowing that a loss of power everywhere would be terrible to the food she had prepared, rushed to the kitchen. She had been lucky-she had done most of her baking yesterday, when everyone was asleep, and thus, had gotten it all done. Tohko pulled three pumpkin-flavored cakes, a dish of pumpkin-cupcakes, and quickly pulled out the pumpkin ice cream. Thankfully, it was only a little melted. It still looked edible.

Tohko pulled out plates, knifes, bowls, spoons, and forks, and set them out in a way so that people could easily have access to them. She then did something stupid. She knew Enoch had told her to keep out of his way, but she felt a little sorry that the guy might miss out on the festivities. So, she cut him a large slice of cake, quickly ran into his room, and left it on his nightstand before returning to the kitchen. Thank god no one was there.

So, now Tohko is back in the kitchen, waiting for people to come to her odd party. Eat, drink, socialize, and cheer up!

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At least once a day Sephiroth would check out the cafeteria. Not really out of a sense of hunger anymore, but more out of a general need to keep an eye on what went on in one of the most trafficked locations of the Tower. Hunger, as a fellow resident has advised him, was very much all in the mind. His cells were indeed still self-sufficient, which was comforting knowledge to have given the circumstances.

The events of this latest week have taken their toll. Sephiroth wasn't even involved in the candy hunt turned Halloween costumes-made-real game, but steadily seeing others change like they had; not only was it unnerving but it drove the burning determination to never allow himself to ever end up like those specimens had. Sephiroth was currently bent on ending said experiment asap and as such, his frustration and pain pent up from the forcing of two collar checks thus far just fueled the unquenchable anger towards any who may, willingly or not, be supporting the regime.

To make it more perfect, it seemed there wasn't any power today. It was permanent nighttime which meant that getting around was more dangerous than normal; what with the monsters. Considering that 'monsters' now indeed included affected residents made no difference to Sephiroth - he would put down anything or anyone that came at him without question or regret.

Masamune was poised with it's curved edge upwards to the celling as Sephiroth stepped into the cafeteria; pausing for just a second at the arrangement laid out before he flickered vivid green eyes across all of the shadows in the room. The very notion that this was a party laid out in such a way was giving his instincts all sorts of warnings.

And Tohko, who had no idea of the stress Sephiroth was under, jumped at the sight of the blade and Sephiroth. "Oh! Hello! I'm sorry that I didn't see you..this blackout makes it hard to make out things. Would you like some cake or ice cream? Or maybe a cupcake?" And, just in case the man had trouble seeing her, she re-introduced herself. "I'm Tohko Amano, the book girl, remember? You helped me out in the library!"

Edited 2012-11-01 04:00 (UTC)

That was a nice surprise to come back to after a trip to the restroom. It guaranteed Tohko had a relatively uneventful day as far as he was concerned.

But all it took was hunger. That broke whatever tiny thread remained of his own will and saw him descend to the cafeteria. It was a good thing his own costume made it hard for monsters to target him the same way it helped defend him against human or once-human opponents, or this three day permanent nightfall would have seen to his death by monsters too.

Even as he helped himself to something to eat, he cast a wary eye to the darkness, looking for the sinner that was most likely there.

Tohko had been putting some more ice cream in some bowls when she spotted a glowing light moving in the cafeteria. Holding her breath, she quickly ducked down under a table, hoping that the darkness would hide her and that Enoch wouldn't hear her. She liked the guy..but he was out of control right now. She understood and sympathized, but she didn't want to die again.

He couldn't see very well by his own light (one can hardly look directly at oneself), and the Arch didn't cast much light, itself. He heard the movement, and watched that direction for a while, but...given that it was dinnertime and there were many people here, Enoch wasn't going to make assumptions. His rationality had not been destroyed in that respect.

As long as it wasn't a monster, which...it didn't seem to be.

Tohko almost breathed a sigh of relief. Enoch didn't seem to notice her, and since he hadn't looked under the table yet, Tohko hoped that he wouldn't. 'Please..just take the cake. Or a cupcake. Get something to eat and leave. I don't want our friendship to be nipped in the bud.' She pleaded in her head.

And of course, at that moment, her stomach just had to grumble. She hadn't left the cafeteria much, due to the party, and she hadn't munched on something in quite awhile. Tohko silently cursed herself and hoped that Enoch hadn't heard.

Someone's hungry, with all this food around? Enoch wondered if it was someone who had been rendered physically unable to get their food to their mouths...

Cautiously, he stepped forward with his plate, Arch out ahead of him to cast what little light he could.

Tohko bit her lip. Enoch was starting to come closer, and if she didn't hurry, she would probably die..and this friendship would start at square one again. Quickly, Tohko took a piece of candy out of her pocket-she still had a little, thank goodness-and tossed it towards the other end of the room. If this worked with Harry Potter on a Cockatrice-Basilisk-then it might work for her on an immortal man.

She held her stomach to suppress any more growls. She didn't know if it would work..but it was worth a shot.

It worked on the basilisk because the basilisk wasn't human. Enoch was, and he wasn't seeking the source of the sound like he was seeking prey; it was a desire to help that saw to this.

The sound, he reasoned, may have come from someone else in the room.

"I'm sorry...I can't see you very well. Do you need help getting your food...?"

Darn it..that didn't seem to work. Tohko, seeing no other alternative, tried to make her voice as small and squeaky as possible. If Enoch didn't recognize it, she might still have a chance. Her options were getting smaller and smaller. "No, I-I'm quite fine. I just feel more comfortable over here, watching everything. I'm not that hungry. Please don't worry about me."

"Is something preventing you from eating?"

It was looking like he didn't recognize her voice. So far, so good...

Tohko smiled to herself. He didn't seem to recognize her made-up voice, and a plan was being put into her head. Using her made-up voice, she squeaked, "T-to be honest..my costume prevents me from..looking at anyone. If they look at me..they turn to stone. It's..hard to get food..when a lot..of people..come here."

Which was perfectly reasonable for the tower. No wonder they were hiding under a table. Enoch set his own plate down on the seat and headed over to get himself another one. It seemed she'd escaped.

"Thank you..sir. I-I'm..terribly..sorry about this.." Tohko squeaked and quickly ate the food. She probably shouldn't have said anything..but if she hadn't, the fact that she hadn't been polite would have bothered her. Of course, the food tasted like sand, but she gobbled it all up anyway.

Tohko noticed Enoch walking away, and lightly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that she was in the clear-for now, anyway.

Sephiroth spun towards the sound from across the cafeteria. Fist tight around hilt and blade ready to sing, pointed directly in Tohko's direction.

By now, his eyes had adjusted to the gloom enough to make out the profile of the small girl and then the voice he recalled from a previous meeting. However, he didn't react or change his stance one bit. He remembered how mutilated she had been last time and based on how degraded this experiment had gotten he wasn't about to take his chances.

"I remember." Sephioth's tone a warning for her to stay her distance away form him. "What do you want?"

Tohko froze when he turned the blade towards her, and wondered what was wrong with him. He didn't seem to be in the best of moods..it was probably this event. It had caused everyone pain on some level, and Sephiroth was probably no exception.

Tohko sighed. "Please, calm down. I'm not going to hurt you. This month has been pretty horrid, so I thought I would cheer everyone up with a small party." She hadn't been feeling well either, but that was something she would keep to herself.

He might as well have been a statue, stood there with the length of Masamune ready to impale this ~~monster~~ girl at a seconds provocation. Eyes narrowed down to simply where his weapon was pointed and expression as emotionless as only he could be in these circumstances.

Same as last time his attention was drawn to the needle-fingers she had, but he forced his gaze back up into her face as if trying to figure out if this was some sort of trick or not. Eventually, after a few tense seconds Masamune was lowered but not vanished; monsters could appear from anywhere and at any time. There was a lot of trust being exhibited, based on the strength that they had met before.

"I'm not sure thats such a good idea."

Tohko breathed a sigh of relief and calmed down a little when Sephiroth lowered his sword. She wasn't sure if the guy was still mad, but at least it didn't look like he was going to skewer her. Maybe he was worried about her fingers? Probably not..after all, Tohko had said that they were a pain the last time they met. At least..that's what she remembered.

"How come?" Tohko asked. She cut a slice of cake for Sephiroth and put it in front of him. She wasn't sure if he'd eat it, but she'd be a terrible host if she got all this ready and didn't give it to people.

"You never know what you'll draw here." Sephiroth wasn't even looking at Tohko anymore, he was more concerned with their surroundings and what might leap out of the shadows at them.

Of course, Tohko's actions could be an extension of this game of theirs - an attempt to draw several residents here. And then what? Sephiroth then looked over the piece of cake as if even that may be dangerous.

"That's true..but if someone starts a fight, I can defend myself. I think. Besides, we've all had a rough month. Sweets and company are usually the best ways to cheer up after something terrible." Of course, for Tohko, it would be sweet books, but she wasn't going to say that.

Tohko watched Sephiroth as he looked at the cake. "I'm sorry if the taste is a little off. I've never baked anything before.."

Sweets and company? Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at that comment. There was a naive view of the world if he ever heard one. Then again, Tohko was an adolescent. To Sephiroth that really wasn't an excuse but she'd gone and said it and therefore cemented opinions of her that had only been first impressions before.

As for cheering up, Sephiroth didn't recall ever having needed to be cheered up before. When he failed, which wasn't often, he reflected and made the necessary changes within himself to make sure he didn't make the same mistake again. Never mind that the last times he'd implemented that philosophy before coming to the Tower had all ended in eventual failure-

It didn't matter, he was stuck in this Tower now and for all he knew his world was gone.

"Sorry but I'm not much of a sweet tooth. You can have mine." Sephiroth smiled smally at Tohko as he looked around for any other monsters/residents that might be within his sight range.

"How was your book?"

"Ah..alright then." Tohko ate a bit of the slice, and it tasted like sand, as usual. However, she was used to it, and forced a smile. "Delicious! This came out sweeter than I thought it would be!"

Tohko paused for a moment when he asked about her book. He was pretty sharp and had almost caught on to her the last time she stumbled. She had to be careful, or else he'd find out. "It was pretty good! It was a collection of short stories, so it was pretty interesting. Some were like ripe, juicy oranges, and others were like sweet sugar cookies. Although..the last story was pretty depressing. I have no idea why they put it in that volume." Tohko sighed.

Sephiroth occasionally looked over Tohko while she ate his slice of cake; though he was entirely too on edge to relax and not keep looking around for trouble.

There it was again, that nagging thought that all other people within this Tower were in on it and therefore part of the problem; to be eliminated at all costs. Sephiroth, ever the control freak, held back on these more primal instincts and Tohko's conversation seemed to be unrelated enough to suit this purpose for the time being.

Creative, the way that she described the book that way. Like her favorite flavors of food, but he could relate to the depth that she connected with books; being a reader himself.

"Sounds good. Maybe I'll have to borrow it since you're finished."

Tohko always seemed to have food on her mind, but then for a girl who thought sweet things held the key to being happy was this really much of a surprise to him? Truth is the youngster confused him a little.

It was all Tohko could do to not panic. "S-sure! If you want, I can run and grab it for you!" The book was missing the third story, as Tohko just couldn't help herself and ate it-it tasted like a cold, slightly aged wine from a dusty bottle-but she had a good excuse. She just had to hope that the excuse would work.

"By the way, what is your favorite story?"

Edited 2012-11-02 04:20 (UTC)

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes again a little at Tohko. He wasn't sure exactly what it was but something was going on with this girl. It could just be this Halloween thing; after all maybe they didn't just physically mutilate her - who's to say there isn't some psychological messing around that went on as well.

"S-sure." He mirrored her, while his eyes flicked over every detail of her that might lend some insight to why she was trying to hide something.

Then she asked a question and he paused. Usually he was quite sharp with responses to questions that he was expecting but he wasn't expecting that one. Not only that, Sephiroth couldn't remember off the top of his head what his favorite story even was. Irrelevant memories. The more he thought about it though, this gap in himself the more uncomfortable it was making him. "How could I pick one, there are so many that I've read before..."

Tohko nodded her head at the reply. "I'm the same way. There are just too many wonderful stories out there for me to only pick one as my favorite." Tohko quickly finished the slice of cake off before carefully walking off to her room. It took a little while to find, thanks to the power loss, but eventually, she managed to come back down to the kitchen with the book.

"Here you are! One book that tastes like a buffet! Although..you'll have to forgive me. I was reading this book late at night in the halls, and a monster attacked me. I managed to survive, but The Mountains of Madness was completely shredded out of there." Tohko sighed as she put the book on the table. She hoped Sephiroth would buy that story. After all, it didn't sound too odd, right?

And so he waited, alone in the Cafeteria with Masamune ready at his side. Like some mockery of a bodyguard for the party-worth of cakes all laid out on the table. It would be rude to just walk off even though his instincts were screaming for him to keep moving. Any monster could turn up at any moment and ruin this selfless act of cheering up which the girl was trying to deliver to the Tower.

It was almost sad, the thought that no one seemed to know or even care about her efforts here. Which is why Sephiroth would never have even considered arranging anything like this himself; after all what did he care if other people were upset? His existence was paramount.

Eventually she got back, with her tale of how the book had lost it's story. He didn't recall noticing any shredded pages when he'd handed the book down to her in the library before. He did remember though, wondering how she was going to turn the pages with her fingers messed up like that. For this reason, he didn't buy her story but just looked her over with a look that knows. He knows that something is going on but he doesn't know enough to make a guess what it could be.

"Well, then you'll have to tell me all about the Mountains of Madness then."

Tohko, who had already been sitting on pins and needles, grew even more pained and nervous with the look Sephiroth shot her. Did he know the truth? Did he figure it out? Tohko tried to calm down. There was no way he could have guessed it right, even if he did suspect something. After all, her problem was an unusual one. It wasn't easy to guess what it was in five minutes or less.

So, Tohko smiled and nodded. "Sure! At The Mountains of Madness is a novella that was written by H.P. Lovecraft in 1981. It's about a geologist named William Dyer, who, after finding some ancient ruins near a mountain that is taller than the Himalayas, discovers creatures that are unknown to science. Of course, this being a Lovecraft story, the creatures came from space and are far older than humans, and as Dyer deals with them, he grows more and more paranoid. The writing style is a little hard to swallow if you're new to Lovecraft, but if you're used to it, reading it is like drinking a bottle of old, cold wine, stored in a dusty bottle that no one has been able to find for years! It's simply delicious!"

He'd never heard of Lovecraft; hadn't existed back home to Sephiroth. Neither had a lot of the things that she had mentioned.

Not that Sephiroth would know the things that Tohko spoke of, even if they had been of Gaia. Sephiroth had been a keen reader in his youth but even if he had read such books before, memories of such pursuits were not key to keeping oneself grounded within the sea of Mako - along with much else Sephiroth had known before, it would likely have ended up stripped from him.

That doesn't mean that he didn't listen with interest at what Tokho had to say about her story. Indeed, her analysis seemed advanced for her years. Well rounded as it was with her usual food metaphor stamped on the end of it.

"Not dissimilar to the creatures lurking around this place." She was definitely onto something with the paranoia. Sephiroth was well aware that the very fact that he was contained here was starting to cause him to chip into unreasonable paranoia. Trying to link everything, even mundane things, back to the grand wheel of the experiment that was being played out.

Tohko chuckled. "Actually, we're pretty lucky that we're not in a Lovecraft story right now. The monsters in them are so otherworldly and inhuman that the characters usually went insane after finding out about them. In that regard, we're doing a lot better than Lovecraft's characters. At least, that's what I think."

Thank goodness..it seemed that the description of the story had managed to drag him away from the fact that the story was torn. Tohko promised herself that if she found the story in the tower again, she'd share it with Sephiroth.

"That very much depends on your outlook." How could she not compare that with their current situation within the Tower? How some of the mutated residents were in fact so very otherworldly and inhuman. How eventually all of them would go insane?

Maybe Tohko was insane already but Sephiroth hadn't quite figured out the specifics yet. She'd been messed with already. But somehow Sephiroth wasn't so convinced she was part of the problem; despite his thoughts in that direction when concerning pretty much anyone else in the Tower.

"That's true, I suppose. However, since we haven't all gone insane or died out of pure horror, I think we're doing alright. How about you? What do you think?" Tohko asked.

"I think it's a matter of time. And those that accept this sorry existence will be the first ones to fade away."

"Hm. I'm not quite sure about that. After all..there are a lot of strong people here..and if we try to help out each other, we might not go insane. And..I don't think there's anything wrong with enjoying this Tower, even if if does have it's bad points." Tohko sighed.

After all, even though this Tower was putting her through some horrible things, and even though terrible things had happened in the past, Tohko had met some good friends here. She'd gotten a little stronger here.

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The Party Without Power

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Have an unwanted dinnertime guest?

Of course! Be our guest!

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Tohko, you need to take better care of yourself.

Oh dear.

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I am correct in assuming that he puts the plate down on a seat near Tohko, right?

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well saved :) lol

Not really..><;

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