towerofanimus | "You want to do whatever you can..."

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"You want to do whatever you can..."

Characters: Seiko Shinohara and anyone. Just anyone.
Setting: Starting out in her dorm room and after that, anywhere, everywhere.
Format: Prose, though I'm pretty flexible so I'll roll with either.
Summary: Seiko arrives in a place that isn't filled with death and terror! Clearly the smart move is to explore!
Warnings: Probably ~~a little bit~~ a lot of screaming and a bit of a spoiler/trigger warning in beginning exposition. Also, Seiko.

Seiko screams the second the paralysis falls away, when she realized that this wasn't the bathroom stall and there wasn't a crushing veil around her neck. She reached for her neck with her still-numb arms, coughing and hacking all the way. Unfortunately this causes Seiko to edge off of the side of the bed, and she falls to the floor with a loud thump.

The pain she feels when she hits the floor is almost surreal, so alien that it seems fake. She wheezes loudly. What bothers her most the fact that she can't move her limbs, though she is in no position to be thinking so extensively. Feeling slowly begins to enter her body, sending shivers coursing throughout. Finally she can speak.

"Naomi?!" She flops on the floor. "Nao-"

Seiko suddenly flies into a coughing fit. She curls up into a ball on the floor, her hands clawing at her neck. It's so hard to breathe. The coughing just continues, with Seiko could find some purchase. Eventually air invades her lungs and she manages to stop, but her eyes stay inhumanly wide. Her movements are still spastic, her eyes darting in all directions.

Her usual bright, cheery demeanor is nowhere to be seen, replaced with one mixed with confusion and shock. But that's only to be expected from someone plucked so suddenly out of their personal hell. It'll take her a while for her to compose herself.

No. Actually she bounces back pretty quickly.

It isn't long until she starts bopping around in her school uniform. She wanders the dormitory floors just to snoop around. She won't mind it if anyone comes to bother her, but she's pretty busy peeking around corners. And into Closets. Pantries. Other people's rooms. If anyone is been unlucky enough to have left their doors open. Welp.

She isn't being a creeper though! After all that letter said that she was going to be staying here (the nice one, not the mean one that felt like a knife to the chest) so it was perfectly understandable for her to find her way around And how will Seiko know how to get around if she doesn't explore?

This is not just an excuse for her to bump her nose into places she has no business being in. Pfft. Where would you get that idea from?

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As usual after something strange happens, Sakuma stays in his room for as much as he can just reading, which is what he's doing right now, sitting cross legged on his bed with a book in his hands. Reading helps take his mind off how terrible the tower can be and even if the book he's reading right now isn't terribly interesting, at least it's something to do.

When the door to the room opens, he thinks it's just one of his roommates but when he glances over, he sees a girl he's never met before. Almost immediately, he asks "Can I help you?" He tries not to sound accusatory because even though it's obvious she doesn't belong here, maybe she's looking for one of the others.

[Kyoko is laying out her bed, arms laying behind her head, one knee bent up while the other lays flat. She's clenching a stick of pocky between her teeth. Upon seeing the door open she'll raise her head enough to see whose standing in the doorway. Looks like this moment of downtime is over.]

Yo.

[She sits up, staring at the girl. Not a monster, but not someone she's familiar with either.]

Don't think I've seen ya around before. What's up?

It was shaping up to be a somewhat normal morning, for the tower, as far as tower mornings ever did become routine for Enoch. Get up, summon armor, stow the Arch, head out to use the restroom and maybe shower, stop at a terminal to check the network...

And then this routine was interrupted by someone screaming.

Enoch nearly knocks the stool over in his rush to help the person who was screaming, though by the time he figures out where on the floor above it was coming from, Seiko is likely coming out into the hall already.

Gosh, why would anyone shut themselves up in a room like this?

Seiko picks up on his tone of voice, and takes this as a perfect excuse to step into the room without an invitation. It's looks the same as her room. Good, at least she isn't missing out on anything!

"Hmm?" She turns her head. "Well, gee, I don't - "

Seiko actually looks straight at the boy and just stops talking. Just stares.

Yo.

[ Seiko parrots, then immediately giggles. It's as if she just realized what she's doing. Seiko cocks her head, her hair bobbing on her should. ]

Oh, I'm just exploring. I just arrived actually. I feel kind of weird calling it that but.

[ She shrugs. She regards Kyoko (and the pocky) for a second before smiling. ]

You look busy! Eheh, hope I'm not interrupting!

...Why is she staring at him like that? It makes feel extremely awkward. Sakuma lowers his book slightly and stares back at her. Now that he's looking at her carefully, he's pretty sure he's never seen her around the tower before, even briefly.

Still, though.

"Can I help you?" he repeats, a little more forcefully this time, hoping that it's enough to get her to stop staring at him.

Seiko is still a bit dazed. She holds a hand to her head, but at least she's smiling.

In any case, she leaves the room and sees a man rushing around from door to door. She scratches the side of her head. Goodness, he's really rushing around. Is he looking for someone?

Look at her. She's only been here for so long and she wants to help people! How silly!

"Hello!" She says, waving. "Is something wrong?"

"That eyepatch makes you look super cool."

Said rather flatly. And the smile Seiko makes is very sunny indeed. She's totally ignoring Sakuma's question, but at the same time she's... sorta answering it? Kinda? This makes things less awkward, right?

"Has anyone told you that? You look like a Shonen Hero!"

Yeah Seiko's just making things even more awkward, huh...?

Well, that's certainly unexpected. Sure he's gotten a couple of comments about it since arriving at the tower but it still feels weird to him. No one back home made a big deal about him wearing an eyepatch after all. So her comment throws him off a little especially since he's no where near a shounen hero.

"Uh. Thanks, I guess." His brow furrows a bit because her comment definitely did not answer his question and he isn't about to give up. This time though, he tries a different approach. "Are you looking for Kidou or Gandalf? Neither of them are here right now and I don't really know where they are, sorry."

He's holding onto the hope that she's looking for someone and that's why she's here because suddenly he's worried she's here for theft. If that's the case, it's a good thing he's here so the room isn't empty.

Huff, how rude! Did Seiko look like the kind of girl to up and rob people blind? ~~Disregarding how suspicious she looks right now.~~

If Sakuma's suspicious of Seiko, she doesn't appear to notice! She tilts her head, hair twirl bouncing on her shoulder. Kidou? Gandalf? Did he think she was here to see anyone? Of course, her peeking into the room had been only fueled by a blind, strongly-felt curiosity that girls with sunny dispositions tend to have. Sakuma wouldn't know anything about that though (which is probably case for most of her friends, oddly enough).

"Oh no, I don't know who those people are! Are they nice?"

Then she just goes silent. She also thinks to ask him if they have eyepatches too but it sounds like a silly thing to ask, doesn't it? ~~Totally disregarding everything about this entire situation.~~

[And Shiro will come into a room where a girl is at her bedside, praying...] Oh goddess Martel, please keep the people in this tower safe. I don't know what's going on in this tower but I pray that there is no more suffering like there was last month.... [The girl doesn't seem to notice that Shiro is here]

Not really, just me kicking back.

[Kyoko offers a shrug. She's not really one to seek out company, but she won't reject it either. She turns, letting her legs tangle over the edge of the bed. One eye closes and her hands lock together, the other watching Seiko.]

A newbie, huh? I take it you've already read the intro to the tower. They're just a waste of time, y'know, but you've probably already figured that out by now.

[Her voice strains a bit as she stretches out before dropping her hands to her side, one leg swinging back and forth.]

[ Seiko sways on her side, placing a hand on her hip. ]

Mhm, yep! It was the first thing I saw when I woke up and -

[ Her smile disappears suddenly. Seiko darts her eyes away from Kyoko, down to the floor. ]

I... I don't think they were that useless. They certainly told me a great deal, nothing I couldn't hear from anyone else but--

[ Seiko looks back. She smiles, or at least forces a very good one. She hates to be such a downer! ]

But it's better to just move on, right? No reason to worry about a buncha dumb letters. [ She sticks her tongue out. ] But this place - tower - it's super big! We're on the top floor and everything, aren't we?

[ Seiko is... A bit surprised? Out of the few rooms she's barged into, this one seemed the only one being used. More or less. She's taken aback, mostly because this girl did not appear to notice her. ]

Hey, I didn't mean to disturb you!

[Kyoko considers pushing that point, but decides against it. This girl, like everyone else, ill either believe her world or gone or she won't. There's not much she can say to change her mind. Instead, she briefly extends her hand, gesturing for Seiko to come closer. She bites off a chunk of pocky.]

I've lost count of how many floors this joint has, though this is about the only one worth seeing. [A few seconds of thought and she adds,] Well, I guess a couple of them might be worth visiting, but getting to them's a serious pain, y'know.

When someone gets his attention, and doesn't even act as if something's wrong, well that gives him a little pause. He hadn't hallucinated that, had he?

"I heard someone screaming...Is everything all right up here?"

Her not knowing either of them definitely makes Sakuma a lot more suspicious of her. Immediately, his frown deepens as he asks her again, "Then why are you here? This isn't your room."

He finally closes his book, sets it down on his bed and moves so now he's sitting at the edge, all the while still staring at her, not bothering to hide his suspicion anymore. It's definitely a little offsetting that she doesn't seem to be bothered by what she's doing at all, like she's genuinely curious but he doesn't want to risk anything. Being in the tower for so long has taught him to be wary of everything and everyone around him.

Seiko does not appear to be alarmed, more confused than anything, forgetting for a second that she woke up screaming her lungs out. She scratches her head, hoping that she heard him right.

"Oh, that?" Seiko smiles awkwardly. "Eheh. That was probably me. Hope I didn't wake you up or anything~!"

Now she looks at him as though she were genuinely embarrassed about the whole ordeal.

[ Seiko doesn't show any hesitation, though she does take a quick peek to see who else was inside. Seeing that it was just Kyoko and her, she took the invitation to sit right next to Kyoko by the foot of the bed. ]

Are there that many? Which one are we on? [ She looks at Kyoko curiously, cocking her head. ] Wait. A serious pain? Isn't there an elevator you can just take?

Seiko does notice a change in this boy's demeanor, and it appears she's just getting the 'hint'. She gives Sakuma a weird look, taking a gander at the rest of the room.

"Ne ne, I was just looking around! No harm in doing that, is there?"

That. is going to be the best answer Sakuma is going to wrench out of her. She places a hand on her hip and gives him a shake of the head.

"What else could I have come in here for?"

It makes Rapunzel's tower look like a playhouse and we're stationed at the very top of it. [She takes another bite of pocky, glancing at Seiko sitting by her bed. She's not used to having company like this, rarely even noticing her roommates. She won't complain, though.] There's an elevator, but it's completely useless, y'know.

Enoch relaxes a little. At least she seems unharmed... He was worried it was some other trick by their hosts.

"No, not at all. You weren't being attacked, were you?"

[ If Kyoko thought this was odd, she hasn't seen anything yet. This is Seiko being tame. Seiko listens to Kyoko intently, and she shows her understanding in the best way possible - a long, drawn out "Ooooooh." ]

Neh, and I suppose we don't have any girls with really long hair! [ She taps her chin. ] But how can an elevator be useless? Is it broken? That sucks!

Seiko shakes her head.

"Attacked? I don't think so."

She sounds almost uncertain about her answer, though this sort of overlapses with her cheerful tone. She cocks her head, beaming.

"Eheh -- Were you coming here to save me?"

"I was. It wouldn't be the first time someone put monsters in the rooms..."

What else could make someone scream in terror like that? If she wasn't being attacked, what...oh.

"Was it...the note? Did you just arrive?"

Tch. If it were broken nobody here'd get to eat, y'know.

[She takes another bite out of her pocky stick meaningfully. How this girl can be so peppy Kyoko does not know.]

It only stops once every twenty floors or whatever, so it's still a pain to get to whatever floor you're aiming for.

[ Well, seeing as how Kyoko hasn't been starving, Seiko can assume that the elavator must work. Yet - ]

Every twenty floors? Are there stairs?

[ Seiko makes a face. She doesn't seem to like that prospect. ]

Someone should check that out! It sounds very inconvenient!

The other questions bounce off of Seiko. The smile disappears. Did she hear him right?

"I was just kidding," she admits. "About being saved?"

She suddenly remembers the question, and she understands. She shakes her head.

"No," she says. "No, I wasn't screaming about the note..."

"Danger is too real here. I wouldn't ignore anyone's screams."

But...she wasn't screaming about the note, and she wasn't screaming because she was in danger...

"Most screams aren't for nothing. Are you certain you're all right?"

Sure, there's a staircase, but who wants to do that much walking for such a small reward? Course, the people in charge of this joint only exist to make things more difficult.

[She closes one, her annoyance towards this place only becoming more obvious as she continues.]

They can't even be bothered with showing their faces, y'know. Probably cause they know somebody'd send 'em flying if they did.

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"You want to do whatever you can..."

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Somewhere between the two okay?

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Haha, a-okay to go!

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Great! Also sorry for the slowness.

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Sorry for the late reply, I honestly thought I responded to this!

Whoops, sorry. I honestly thought I replied to this earlier. ; w;

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That's okay! ♥

It's okay, school's been kicking my ass so I'm slow, too...

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