OO4 >> your Christmas wish will be for a functioning kotatsu and a way out of this hellhole

[altitonant_emperor]

Characters: Hidetoshi, and all of you crazypants here at towerofanimus .
Setting: Room 03-02, and the lounge on the 38th floor.
Format: Either actionspam or prose is perfectly fine by me, but as always, remember I'll be slower to reply to prose.
Summary: With the heat no longer working or inactive, Hidetoshi tries to deal with the cold, and pass the time productively. News flash; he isn't fond of the cold. At all. Basically, this is a post open to whoever. 
Warnings: Man, it's cold in here... ? Oh, the usual hating on the administration.


[ SCENARIO A || FLOOR THIRTY-EIGHT ]

[ At least the start of the new month was uneventful. He could appreciate that.

Hidetoshi rubbed his arm, trying force some warmth back into his limbs, and make the slight shivering stop. Of all things, why did the heating system have to turn off? Granted, it was better than whatever system that protected them from the monsters outside the Tower getting switched off, or the oxygen-providing system becoming inactive, or the lighting stop working, but it was still tedious. Was there any real need to simulate the harsh, wretchedly low temperature of winter? The answer, to those morons in charge, was apparently yes. The vice president of the student council could not fathom their reasoning. Whose month was this again?

Just wonderful, he thought sourly to himself, but not unexpected from them.


He resented the cold, but like many of the distasteful element of this place, it appeared he would have no choice but simply have to put up with it. He couldn't stay huddled under the blankets of his bed to conserve and relish in the heat that had built up overnight for more than a hour or two, and after that, he'd headed down to one of his favoured floors—the lounge, where there was no immediate threat of maiming via monsters and which had a comfortably sensible layout of couches, sofas, and tables. The view could even be called morbidly impressive, if you found looking over an endless sea of dull grey fog stretching out past the horizon to be interesting.

So, whenever somebody walks into the lounge, they'll either find one of the sofas occupied by a grouchy high school student, seemingly absorbed in reading a book as to distract himself from the chill, or the same high school student pacing idly around the room, attempting to keep warm by remaining in movement. He alternated between the two activities to pass the time. On one of the tables, he had left a couple of nutrient bars snagged from the cafeteria that morning that were bland and tasteless, along with his copy of Battle Royale, a pencil and a neat stack of scribbled notes on various subjects.

Bug him? N/Y ]

Comments

[culbutiri]

[Nesir grinned, not so irritated anymore, at least things were going her way. She curled her bare feet under her in an attempt to warm them up and thought back to what she had scanned in the notes.] Why did you be writing about souls? [Start with something she at least knew the meaning of.]

[altitonant_emperor]

One of the admins—Ruana—called this place "the Tower of Animus," on the network. [ Hidetoshi elaborated, assuming she was referring to the "animus = anima" portion of his notes. And she had included some very foreboding words along with her title drop. ] Roughly translated, it's "the Tower of souls." Anima is a latin word that stands for a breath of air, the vital principle, or simply the soul. Anima is also one of the two primary... [ What was the word, what was the word, c'mon... ] a-anthropomorphic archetypes of the unconscious mind, along with Animus as the other.

[ It had something to do with the collective unconscious that transcended the personal psyche, and the masculine and feminine... something. It was hard to recall the exact details when there were no books on psychology in the two libraries. ]

[culbutiri]

[Tower of souls... well that sounded foreboding. She wasn't sure what the last bit really meant but she got that Anima meant a similar thing to Animus and that was the human soul...

The soul was reborn into a new body when you died, so perhaps this was a way of preserving their souls... in their old bodies after the end of the world.] So this do be a tower of souls... I guess they really did be saving us...

[altitonant_emperor]

[ Hidetoshi nodded. His thoughts lie along the lines of the connection of their bodies and their bodies—but what he wondered was if their worlds had been destroyed, why wouldn't their original bodies destroyed right along with them like everything else? And perhaps the admins hadn't saved their bodies. Maybe they'd just preserved the souls and constructed new bodies. ] That is Ruana's claim, and she believed it at least.

[ He leaned rested his chin on his fist, eyes closed for a couple of moment before blinking open again. He straightened back up. ] But, for all we know for certain, they could be feeding every single one of us a pack of malicious falsehoods.

[culbutiri]

They could be. [She nodded, she didn't know who this Ruana was except one of the leaders here and she thought she probably had an ulterior motive past saving them.] But I did just be coming back from my world, and it did be looking pretty dead to me.

[altitonant_emperor]

... Oh. [ She had been sent back to her world for a time? Like Jay. He frowned. ] My condolences for that. It must have been quite a unpleasant experience. [ He's perfectly aware that was most likely an understatement on his part. But that was the best he could do in regards to offering sympathy to a stranger. ]

[culbutiri]

It did no be the best week of my life no. [She shrugged, she's pretending she doesn't care. And honestly for the most part she doesn't, but Lotte is dead, as is Ral. And it hadn't really hit her that she was never going to see them again...] So I do no be knowing... they do be very powerful and so I do be guessing it could be being a very strong illusion...

[altitonant_emperor]

They are powerful. [ He agreed, not remarking on her first sentence. It was his business on how she chose to grieve or dissociate herself from her universe's ruin. He ran an idle finger down the spine of his book, tracing the letters of the title. The management holding all the power in this situation was one of the issues that so discomforted him. ] Tch. In this place, it's difficult to rule out any possibilities where no one knows anything for certain.

[culbutiri]

Yes all possibilities should be being considered. They do be being powerful enough for such an illusion but they could be powerful enough to be ending our worlds...

[altitonant_emperor]

I don't believe they are that powerful. [ Not enough might to devastate dimension after dimension after dimension after dimension. He would not believe that even there is a chance that could be true. They were not that strong. They had limits surely. ] It is one thing to appear omnipotent in this Tower of souls—this environment is their playground; to pull elaborate illusions here would be child's play for them. But it's another for them to be that powerful outside a place where they are in complete control.

[culbutiri]

[Nesir nodded, that made sense since she couldn't imagine them being powerful enough to destroy gods... no matter how amazing this place was.] I do be hoping you do be being right.

[altitonant_emperor]

Yeah. [ 'Amazing' was not quite the word he would use when describing this place... ] If they desired test subjects or whatever they consider us in their warped minds, all they would have to do is kidnap us, not destroy everything in our worlds.

[ That would make no logical sense. None at all. He couldn't even begin to understand what could drive someone to destroy the entire world to start with. If their dimensions were truly gone as they claimed, the cause lied elsewhere. ]

[culbutiri]

[She means in terms of power, though honestly if she wasn't one of the victims she wouldn't mind this place at all. It was serving the shadow god as far as she saw even if those that ruled it didn't hold those beliefs.] I do be guessing so, and it do be easier to hold people who do be believing they do be having no where to run to.

[altitonant_emperor]

[ That, girl, is a warning sign you need to check your moral fiber in case it's fraying. Most of them mind this place because it's a nasty place, not just because they're not the ones in control of it. Not completely bitterly; ] Correct. Collars, nowhere to flee, awful food, monthly unethical experiments... They are not kind, our hosts.

[culbutiri]

[You say this as if she has any moral fiber to begin with. That would involve her subscribing to the same notions of morality as the majority of the world.]

No, kind would no be a word I would be using to describe them. You did be forgetting the fact they decided to be providing us with no heat source.

[Even the temple had had fires in the winter, and even the most lowly of trainees were provided with warm blankets and warm food.]

[altitonant_emperor]

[ Observation: that's grand for her, really. Not that Hidetoshi knows this. ]

Forgetting? Hardly. [ There's a difference between forgetting something and not choosing to mention it aloud because it seemed obvious by itself. Kinda difficult to forget when you're freezing your ass off as they speak It's cold enough he can their breath hanging in faint white clouds in front of their mouths. ] I do miss the indoor heating systems now that they are no long in operation.

[ But yes, he agrees they are assholes who abuse their power and control over those they own responsibility to not kind. ]

[culbutiri]

[Nesir nodded wrapping her arms tighter around herself. She didn't actually know how the tower had been warm before, she had seen no fires... But whatever it was she missed it too.] I do be guessing that the fact we can no be dying do just be giving them the excuse they do be needing.