don't think about all those things you fear

[ex_depaysement502]

Characters: Juliet and open
Setting: all over the tower, all day - feel free to mark the floor if you want
Format: action to start, will follow whatever you want
Summary: another new arrival, another curious soul. however, she has no clue her other self was here.
Warnings: nothing except her being her



[This was one realm to wake up in. She had been in the house, she could have sworn, but maybe she had slept, sleepwalked out. Despite how she had never done so in memory, it could happen. It would explain some things, but not others. A memory wipe again? Not out of the question if she had gone somewhere new. And the collar suggested it. A suppressant, or something controlling her.

No matter. She should be more concerned than she is, but for now she knows all she has to do it find the border and cross, so there is time enough to explore.

An elevator. That, at the least, was familiar, and the stairs were nothing she didn't know how to use.

There is time to explore, and Juliet intends to make the most of it.]

Comments

[ex_depaysement502]

Sorry if I'm disrupting your work.

[She offers a smile and quickly steps to the other side so she won't be in his way.]

[warriorscribe]

Not at all. *Enoch looked up at the red-haired lady as she passed. She was vaguely familiar... But not one of the faces he caught glimpses of every day. And he was fairly sure he'd seen this face with a very strange weapon before...something that looked many-toothed. Who goes out into the tower without a weapon if they have it?*

...Did you lose your weapon?

[ex_depaysement502]

My weapon? [Then she recalls the words from earlier.] The one the other self had, yes?

[warriorscribe]

Other self-... *Oh. This is...strange. Just like Meridian, but within the same world...* You're not the same as the one I met before, then.

[ex_depaysement502]

Very likely not, unless my memory has been altered. [She bows her head for a second.] My name is Juliet, and it's nice to meet you, on behalf of me and the past.

[warriorscribe]

*He hadn't gotten Grell's name in their brief meeting. It had been nothing more than a bit of curiosity in passing, after all. So Juliet will find this one accepts her new name without confusion.

Well, now that it's a proper introduction, Enoch closes his books, tucking the pen into one of them, and stands to address her on her level. She seems nice, after all, in a way that contrasts with the faint impression he had of the woman he'd met before.*

It's nice to meet you too, Juliet, or, at least, to learn your name. *He gives a bit of a smile at this.* My name is Enoch.

[ex_depaysement502]

Enoch. I'll make sure to remember that. Have you been here long?

[warriorscribe]

*The faint smile fades quickly at this, and Enoch looks up, silently mouthing out the reasoning. Contest, Riki, Dax, Jason...Ruana...is this Riki's again, then? He's not sure, and thinks it might be better to wait on the response to his request. But in any case...*

...This would be the start of my sixth month here.

*After this month, he'll have been here twice as long as he stayed in Meridian...would he be able to hold on to that bright spot in his memory, or would it slip away like the original memories of his good times with Armaros?*

[ex_depaysement502]

So you're well versed. I'm sorry if my question dragged up...unpleasant memories.

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch shakes his head.*

...No, it isn't your fault. Time can't be denied.

*Even if death is.*

[ex_depaysement502]

But still. I asked such a personal question when we've only just met.

[warriorscribe]

It's a sensible question to ask when you're trapped.

[ex_depaysement502]

You say trapped and yet we can enjoy the sun and wind still.

[warriorscribe]

But we're at the mercy of our hosts, only one of which acts anything like a host. The others play games with us. Last month, random people were dressed in costumes and forced to search for candy. Eventually, the only way to collect enough candy was to turn on one another, and those who failed were warped. Many were badly disfigured, and I...they took my free will.

We have the sun and wind. We have food, most of the time. We have shelter. But three of four of our hosts make this a prison instead of a refuge.

[ex_depaysement502]

They will only make it a prison if you let them destroy what hope you have. Horrible things can happen, yes, but there has to be a way to resist them and their actions. Simply because they have power doesn't mean that we don't.

Sorry, he kind of ran away on me.

[warriorscribe]

They can kill your body with the press of a button. They can remove something inside you without warning, without so much as a knife. They can manipulate your thoughts until they've taken the core of what makes you human.

We've tried to resist. All we can do is comfort one another in the wake of their games. To say it isn't a prison makes a mockery of our suffering. We are trapped.

*Enoch doesn't realize how badly he's begun to shake until he's stopped speaking. With a slow, shaky sigh, he tries to relax himself. He thought the pain in the wake of that breakdown was past...*

I'm sorry. If there is a means to turn the tide, we don't have it yet. I have faith that we have the strength to support each other. But freedom, and peace...right now, are beyond us. Until they aren't, we can only stand as strong as we can, and learn what we can.

don't apologize! it's a lovely tag.

[ex_depaysement502]

...I've seen people vanish into thin air and never return. People have woken up from death missing eyes, limbs, that they had even when they died. Speaking too much about things they didn't want you to know got you killed.

I do not tell you this for pity, I tell you it so you can understand that my words do not come from ignorance. Resistance and endurance to win out is more than possible. You are trapped because the exit is not there just yet. As for peace...take it day by day. Peace exists even in prison.

[warriorscribe]

*In other words, everything he just said. Then again, it had come after an outburst that could have used a filter. It would be easy enough to let that slip by.*

I know. I just said as much.

*Though it did help to hear it from someone else sometimes.*

It's...this has been a quiet month, so far. *Aside from, well. Having an emotional meltdown after a stretch of shock-induced emotional numbness. But that was just him. The tower had been quiet as such a place could be.* The beginning of the month tends to be. I can only hope Riki doesn't plan to toy with us again.

*If it even was Riki this month. He hadn't expected Ruana to be part of the rotation at all, and it had thrown him off.*

[ex_depaysement502]

Riki? What or who is Riki?

[warriorscribe]

One of our hosts. There are five, and four of them oversee us in cycles. I...had once thought it was three, but it seems I was wrong. Riki is the one we know least about, and...if I'm right, is the one overseeing us this month. The only thing I know of him is that once, he put us in rooms where we had to solve puzzles to escape them.

[ex_depaysement502]

Five? I would say that's excessive but then I remembered this place's size. What were his puzzles like?

[warriorscribe]

They...seemed as if meant to test each one of us, while forcing us to work with a group of strangers.

[ex_depaysement502]

Team building exercises. How charming of them.

[warriorscribe]

It's all we know of Riki. The others are Dax, Jason, and Ruana. Dax treats and speaks to us with respect. The cafeteria under his watch serves food that is, while...unfamiliar to me, satisfying, with a good variety. He doesn't play with us the way the others do.

Jason...we are nothing but experiments, to him. Not even children are spared, and what he does is nothing short of torture. His months are obvious by the cafeteria's lack of food; he only serves the bare minimum we need to survive.

Ruana...I didn't realize she oversaw us at all until last month. Where Riki issued a challenge, Ruana wanted to play a game. I've already told you the details.

[ex_depaysement502]

So the food is what tells us who's in charge? That's interesting-if there's enough of a pattern you could predict who would be there next, perhaps prepare for this Jason you spoke of. [She has a feeling all of them will amuse her.] Has anyone attempted that?