towerofanimus | Wave 1 (OPEN)

Entry tags:

Wave 1 (OPEN)

Characters: Tahno and anyone! (Open~)
Setting: Dormitory Hallway, Floor 10
Format: Prose to start, but I'll match you!
Summary: This stupid collar is really stressing poor Tahno out. Luckily, all of the bendable water in the aquarium is pretty relaxing.
Warnings: None to start, but he might be a bit of a jerk to you (or hit on you), depending on who you are and what you do. Possible swearing, too.

(Dorm Hallway)

This stupid collar on his neck was driving him crazy. He’d barely been awake for twenty minutes, and he already hated this place. What kind of place put collars on their residents? He had every intention of going to the bathroom to get a better look at it, but he only got halfway there before he felt the liquid flowing through the collar.

Well, he could walk all the way to the bathroom just to stare at it, or he could just stop here and bend the thing off.

At least, that was the plan. The liquid inside was bendable alright, but it didn’t help him. He’d spent the last few minutes trying to yank the liquid hard enough to burst through the collar, but it just wouldn’t.

Now, he was leaning back against the wall, both hands hovering inches in front of his neck as he tried desperately to damage the collar from within. His face was red, and his hands were practically white from the strain.

Man, he must’ve looked like an idiot to any passersby.

(Floor 10)

After all of that effort on a stupid collar got him absolutely nowhere, he was feeling a bit frustrated. Maybe even a bit inadequate, seeing as his bending couldn’t break such a simple little thing. He had set off exploring just to take his mind off it. He had taken the elevator down to the first floor, and then gone up. Most of the floors didn’t really appeal to him.

That was, until he found the tenth floor.

All that water was beautiful.

…The fish were nice too, but he really didn’t care about those.

It had only taken him ten seconds to discover that, despite being held in place by some weird mystical force, the water could still be bent. He’d just have to put it back in the weird no-glass tanks when he was done.

A few minutes later, and he was dancing with the water like he did at home. He could hear the roar of the crowd, feel the lights that covered the stadium, taste the enemy attacks flying by him, and oh it felt good.

The only problem was that he was showing a blatant disregard for the poor fish in the water. And maybe even himself, should anything dangerous find its way into his flying river or water balls.

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Tohko sighed.

"In his universe, he's tricking people by remaining in the shadows and hiding the truth. No one suspects him because he seems pretty innocent. However, he'll spill the truth about himself here. After all, he has nothing to lose. His goal won't be put into checkmate if he blabs here."

Tohko then glared at him.

"You're welcome..but how am I being a little snot? You should look at what you've said and done and consider why I've been so harsh to you."

He listened quietly, staring at the opposite wall.

"What's his goal, then?"

He wasn't so curious because he cared about this guy, but he did wonder why someone would change so much after being put here. Was the same thing going to happen to him?

"Don't act like you were all smiles and roses when you got here," he growled, looking at her from the corner of his eye. "I'm surprised you'd be such a pain to a new guy. Especially me."

Adding that last part was dumb, but it was just such a habit now. Everyone at home loved him. Nobody at home would treat him this way. The fact that she didn't know who he was... well, that was just... so weird.

"His goal is to save his universe by using the Eternal Recurrence until people can break the cycle and live without it. The Eternal Recurrence will send his universe back to the beginning, which puts history in a constant loop until people can smash out of it."

Tohko sighed as she told the guy about this. She liked Wilhelm's goal, but she didn't like his method..even though it was hard to come up with alternatives. However, she wasn't going to give up. She did give a very small smile when the guy said he was a new arrival.

"I admit, I wasn't happy when I arrived..but I adjusted pretty quickly. After all, I'm sure we'll all be able to go home soon, so worrying and getting too mad and sad won't help a thing.

And I yelled about you because you insulted, me, a friend back home, and books. I don't care whether you're a new resident or an old one, I won't let you off the hook if you do that."

Tahno blinked. That goal seemed like a lot to take in. Was the whole universe doomed or something? And how could anyone reset time?

He wasn't in any shape to care about that right now. So he just nodded absentmindedly.

"What makes you think we'll go home?" he asked, his voice sounding a bit more hopeful than he was expecting. He would like to go home.

He rolled his eyes at the last few sentences, but didn't comment. He couldn't find a witty comeback this time.

Edited 2012-12-24 06:55 (UTC)

Thankfully, Tohko did not notice his eye-rolling. If she had, she would have yelled at him again, but she just pressed on instead.

"The residents in the Tower are constantly fighting to get home, and we're always finding out new pieces of information that will help. I'm sure, eventually, that we'll all be able to go home. We just have to force the Administrators to send us there, or find out how they got us here in the first place. I think they got us here with some highly advance technology..but since I don't know where they keep that stuff, I don't know whether I'm right or not.

Plus..it would be terrible if a story like this had a sad ending. That would make it too salty and bitter. In a story like this, a happy ending is usually the best way to go..so don't worry. We'll be able to go home soon."

All of that sounded pretty nice. The possibility of getting home was a nice thought, and it sounded like it might actually be possible. He kind of enjoyed her speech. Until the end, that is.

"This might come as a shock to you, but this isn't a story. A bitter and salty ending is entirely possible, because this is real life."

Funny. He wasn't usually a pessimist. Not outwardly, anyway.

Tohko sighed and glared at him.

"It could be, if someone started writing it down! And even though bitter and salty endings pop up in real life, I'm sure that this one will be sweet. What do you have against stories anyway? They do a lot of good things!"

Edited 2012-12-28 06:04 (UTC)

"Then that's a history book," he mused. "but I guess that could count as a story."

He could help but think about Avatar Aang for a moment. That was history, and it sure was a story. One with a happy ending, in fact. Still, that was an entirely different situation.

"I don't have anything against them. I just don't give a shit about them at a time like this."

Now that she had pointed out that stories didn't all have to be fictional, he actually did like a few stories. There were the stories about the Moon Spirit... The stories about the Avatar... the stories about the Fire Nation. Plenty of them.

Tohko grinned and nodded.

"Exactly! A history book is just the story of the world or a place!"

After all, history books had a taste to them, and you could root for certain people like you could with characters, so it wasn't too large of a stretch to call them stories.

At that comment, Tohko sighed.

"You should. They'll help you out and give you hope, which is something that's needed in this place, I've noticed."

He shrugged. He hadn't even read any history books lately. Not that he was a history nerd. He just liked bending a lot, and that included the history.

"There are plenty more bitter stories in history than happy endings. What makes you think we'll end up on the happy side?"

Hope. Hope was a nice thing, he guessed, but he'd never needed it. He'd worked hard and gotten rewarded. Hope didn't get him into pro-bending. Hope didn't improve his skills.

...This girl was starting to sound a lot like Katara, the Avatar's wife. She talked about hope a lot, or so he was told.

"Hoping doesn't get you anywhere. Working for it does."

At that comment, the smile on Tohko's face died a little, and she sighed.

"..Because it would be way too sad if, after everything we've suffered here, we got a bitter, poisonous ending. There's no way that can happen! I'm sure that, in the end, we'll all be able to go home! We'll all get a sweet ending. Besides, I've already told you that there are people here who wouldn't even be able to exist if their universes were destroyed, so I'm sure we'll be able to go home! The question is when, not if."

Tohko sighed and scratched her head.

"That's true, and I'm not saying we should just hope and ignore the work that has to be done. However, sometimes the Administrators will do terrible things, and you can't fight back. In those times, all you can do is cope and hope it'll all work out. If you don't..then you'll really fall into despair and break."

"Just because the place exists doesn't mean we're able to get there. We could all just die here."

Hell, lots of places existed that he never got to go to. Why would this be any different?

"Can't fight back my ass. If they want a piece of the Alpha Wolfbat, they can come get it. I'll tear them apart."

He might've been pessimistic about going home, but if people tried to physically hurt him, he'd never lose.

"Oh..actually, we can't die here. I'm sorry..I must have forgotten to mention it. If you die, you'll just wake up the next day in your bed. However, I'm sure that you'll get punished it if you die too many times, so..be careful."

Tohko wasn't sure why she was telling this jerk to be careful..but even if he was an idiot, she still didn't want an idiot to die because of her. At his comment, Tohko chuckled and smirked.

"Oh really? Then tell me, what will you do if, one day, you just randomly wake up here wearing an embarrassing costume and find that your fingers have been turned into blades and that you have a huge urge to kill anyone making a mess? Because that has happened before. And the Administrators almost never show up in person."

...He probably should've found that surprising, but he really didn't. Of course they'd like to keep you here forever. If they had the power to bring people from different universes here, it wasn't a stretch to have the power to bring back the dead.

"What happens if we just grow old and kick the bucket?" he asked. "Or has that not happened yet?"

He blinked at her when she asked her question.

"That's ridiculous," he said, sounding more confused than angry. "Why would they do that? And how could they put you in a costume without coming in person?"

Tohko sighed and scratched her head. "I have no idea. I haven't heard of that happening in the Tower yet."

She then sighed again. "The Administrator in charge that month-Ruana-did it because she thought it was a fun game. And no one knows. However, it did happen two months ago. Believe me."

"That's good, I guess."

Ruana. He'd have to remember that name.

"That's fucked up. What other shit do they put people through?"

"I suppose..but if none of us die from old age, that could be another way they could make us suffer as well."

Tohko sighed and nodded.

"It is pretty terrible. I don't think Ruana completely understands human morality and values if she thinks that. As for what the other Administrators do..Jason has been known to medically experiment and torture the residents here, and is considered even worse than Ruana. Dax is actually pretty humane and doesn't harm us..and Riki is pretty secretive. I'm not quite sure how he'll run the Tower. He'll be running it in January though."

He cringed at the thought of that. Being old and unable to pro-bend would be awful.

He listed carefully to her explanation of the administrators. He'd have to remember each name. Jason sounded like the worst of them. Unless Riki ended up being worse, anyway.

"Are they new, or have they just never run the place before?"

Tohko shook her head. "Oh, they're not new. They run the Tower in monthly cycles. Ruana ran it in October, Dax ran it in December, and Jason's running it now, so next month should be Riki's turn."

"Yeah, great." he sighed. "So then after that, Ruana's back?"

Tohko sighed and nodded. "Yup..and I have a feeling that she'll be bringing another game with her. I hope it's not too terrible..or that it doesn't involve ripping out the hearts of people you like."

"I guess that second part isn't much of a threat. Nobody I give a shit about is here. Lucky me," he sighed, rolling his eyes.

Tohko sighed and scratched her head.

"I'm sorry to hear that..no one from my universe is here either. However, it is possible to make friends here in the Tower..even if you'll have to undergo some character development."

He didn't really want to make friends here. He didn't have a lot of 'friends' to begin with. Most people were fans, or people he had to impress. He guessed his teammates were friends, though. Trust was important during a team sport, even if you're just trusting them to make a good move.

"I'm not going to act like a lowly idiot just to make some friends."

Tohko let out another sigh, but this one sounded more irritated than the last.

"You don't have to worry. You're already an idiot. If you don't shape up, you're going to get a lot worse than just a few slaps from me."

Re: Dorm Hallway

wolfbat_captain - 2013-01-12 16:59 (UTC) - Expand

Dorm Hallway

tohko_amano - 2013-01-12 18:54 (UTC) - Expand

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