towerofanimus | 00:00:01

Entry tags:

00:00:01

Characters: Akise Aru, anyone else
Setting: Any hallway with a fair degree of people
Format: Either
Summary: Akise detectives the hell out of this situation (?).

"This is new... She really didn't take it well."

Akise is far more intrigued by this turn of events than any normal person has a right to be.

It's not like this is the first he's ever heard of the supernatural. Frankly, after infuriating Murumuru to such a degree, he expected something to happen. He just didn't foresee it to be in such a passive-agressive manner. It doesn't take a lifetime of being near his former accomplice to decipher her personality. He expected her to eliminate him in some way. Erasing him or deleting his memories are unconventional choices, but fully within her scope of power.

He did not expect to come out of it as the owner of the diary he's had for a few days now. Yukiteru needs this to stand a chance as First. Why did she not take it away...?

'The tower's freezing.', it says plainly, as if Akise is already familiarized with his predicament. It's a useful piece of information, given how it tells him that he's in such a structure in the first place, but a diary that talked about what happened to him would be so much more useful in this situation. Then again, that would hardly encourage cultivating his skills as a detective.

And yet, that doesn't bring him down. Not in the least. Matter of fact, Akise looks cheerful, navigating the halls in an attempt to feed his diary information on events he's yet to witness. He reviews the contents at five minute intervals, having noticed a large absence of electronics in this place. If there are others here, he considers, then that does not support his theory that this is a personal punishment. Even stranger is the fact that, for the first time since he's received it, his diary seems to be malfunctioning, neglecting to show events at times.

I wonder if the others are here. It sounds unlikely, since Murumuru and him were the only anomalies, but it would be a problem if she had done away with the other diary owners after he changed their futures to such a degree.

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From the far side of the hallway, a woman approaches. Lean and beautiful, her long purplish hair falls in ripples down her waist, her square shaped, forever unblinking light purple eyes covered with glasses that correct no sight deficit, but rather keep her from accidentally turning things into stone. Even if Rider discovered that she can control her eyes far better than usual, it is welcomed to still have the Mystic Eye killers with her.

Soon enough she notices the boy, although her calm face shows no interest. She has seem already a number of people trapped in the Tower, after all. Still, his apparent cheerfulness is slightly perplexing to say the least. So while she says nothing, her eyes are fixed on him as they approach.

Akise's slight smile does not waver, even as he immediately notices the irregularity in Rider's eyes. Even considering the situations he's gone through, that is not normal. Could this truly be unrelated to the game?

He does not check his cell phone to see if this conversation leads anywhere dangerous. He's decided to start braving this new environment in a cautious manner. After all, he can't be sure this doesn't have anything to do with the diaries yet. Instead, he simply waves, his now-upraised hand tilting ever so slightly to the side in a confident fashion. It's only polite.

"Hey there."

[ Unlike most other people, Evatrice is feeling as healthy as ever. Hah, as if a witch would ever get sick or be bothered by the cold. Not that she looks like one right now in her school girl outfit, but still, it's not exactly like she's secretive about it.

The boy manages to catch her eye, though - or rather, instead of the boy his device does. Hello, eighties, never saw anything like it.

And apparently she's just shameless enough to speak up about it. ] What's that supposed to be?

[ Yukki was sick. Very, very, very sick. On top of the fact that he was constantly coughing and/or blowing his nose at almost any given moment, the fact that he was having cold sweats, and the fact that his fever hadn't gone down, he'd been hallucinating constantly. If anyone other than him had been looking at his Future Diary, they wouldn't be seeing a constant stream of bad things happening to Yuno like he was. And when he did manage to find her, she was constantly on the verge of flipping out again due to some paranoid belief that he was either going to cheat on her, or someone was after him. Apparently, both of their diaries were lying to them, and until arriving here, he didn't even know that was possible.

Yukiteru had, again, left the infirmary against medical advice. He needed to find Yuno, fast. He had taken another pill that, supposedly, was supposed to relieve the fever he believed was causing him to think irrationally, despite the fact that his Diary said none of the medicine in the Tower worked for anyone, not just himself. He had to try.

When Yukiteru turned the corner, he barely even noticed Akise; he was completely lethargic. His skin was sickly pale, he looked as if he had lost ten pounds, his eyes were watery and bloodshot both from the flu and from lack of sleep, and he looked as if he were wound even tighter than Yuno from the stress of worrying about her and himself. The area underneath his nose and above his top lip was chapped from constantly being rubbed with a tissue.

He nearly walked into Akise in the hallway. ]

[ Keeping away from Yuno was a bitch. Granted, she didn't know the girl's face or her clothes, but the hair would be familiar enough of a sight to be warning sign. Who else had hair that distinctive? At least it was so bright it would be easy to recognize even with her awful eyesight.

Still, she was on guard, slinking through the hallways and floors with the "grace" of a scuttling spider in the darkness. She'd exchanged her bright orange robes for the white ones she'd worn in disguise, and stuffed her hair bow in her trunk, locked away. Best to take away any immediately-distinguishing features.

She walks along tentatively, sticking close to the wall, glancing over her shoulder occasionally, but

As soon as she sees that face, she stops cold. ]

A...Akise-kun?

[Akise stops dead in his tracks, his nonchalant attitude very much interrupted by seeing Yukiteru alive. For the first time since arriving here, his face betrays his confusion. It makes sense that Akise wouldn't be kept up-to-date anymore, but what doesn't seem to fit is for him to still be intact if Yukiteru's been healed. Of course, he figures that if his memories really have been altered, he wouldn't know about it himself, but the simple fact that he remembers his participation in the game is enough to discredit that hypothesis.]

[Akise notices that he's not in the best shape, which he finds bizarre. Yes, Yukiteru wasn't exactly healthy the last time he saw him, but a change like this could change the future. That is not a risk Murumuru would take. She would have spared no second if it meant getting him back to normal. Otherwise, she would just be trading one wrench in the machine for another.]

[If this really is him, then things are starting to go his way. He can explain the situation to him. It will change the future, certainly, but Akise has a very strong feeling that Yukiteru's the kind of person who would use that information to change things for the better. Adherence to some concrete idea of how things 'should be' is worthless if it brings no benefit to people.]

[Of course, simply interacting with him is a byproduct of that course of action that he can't complain about.]

Yukiteru-kun. I finally get to talk to you.

[His smile is back. Cryptic expression, yet with a slight hint of worry in his eyes. Should he try to get him some help first?]

[Akise first lets relief sink in before contemplating the situation. A small part of him feared that Murumuru would persist in negating his actions. To see another diary owner unharmed gives him some peace of mind.]

Tsubaki-san. Did you just get here too?

[A friendly wave. His tone is not panicked, nor confused. It's as if he's simply talking about a building they just so happened to walk into. He doesn't fully understand the situation, but being calm seems like the best choice. It's worked out pretty well for them so far.]

[Akise can't help but find this interesting. He's never met someone who didn't know what a cell phone was, so naturally, he feels he may be misinterpreting the question. Maybe they're simply more uncommon here.]

This? Just an ordinary cell phone. Hard to get a signal around here, isn't it?

[His fingers move as he talks, removing the diary from the screen so he can properly display the device.]

[ She knew that face. The pink haired girl knew the face of the detective all too well. And it was a face that she would never forget. Not in one world, and not even in the next.

So when she sees him, she stops, giving him the coldest glare that she can ever give him. ]

You.

No, I've been here a few weeks now...

[ Tsubaki wraps her arms around herself, shivering in her robes. The one pitfall of exchanging them out: these were much thinner.

She has to think about what her next words will be. What does she even say? "The real First is here, and so is the Second, but apparently she's completely insane and would murder me if she saw me, which is why I'm sneaking around trying to avoid her."

But she'll settle for some timeline bullshit instead. ]

I have to ask, what's the last thing you remember before waking up here? There's some discrepancies...

The cold was miserable. No future-telling phone diary was needed to remind Satou of that. She had wanted to steal the blanket from her bed and walk around with it, but figured that would give away the fact she wasn't feeling well. Instead, Satou had pulled herself together to smile and pretend that she wasn't cold. After all, idiots don't get colds! That must apply to keeping warm as well?

Even so, it was getting harder and harder to keep her mind off of being cold. Satou was already beginning to come down with a case of the 'normal flu' as a result of the strain on her cold body, and being sick clouded her mind with fever. Pretty soon, she was sure, it would be impossible to feign cheerfulness. So it was a relief to see someone up ahead... someone with a cellphone, at that. Perhaps from her home world. Maybe even Japan. But most of all, a potential conversation to distract her sickly thoughts.

"Excuse me!" Her initial call was soft, ruined by the on-coming flu. She took a deep breath after hearing her voice and cast a quick spell to clear her throat and voice, then spoke again. This time while waving like a friendly weirdo. "Excuse me! Are you all alone?" Way not to sound sketchy.

[ Yukiteru froze in place as he heard that eerily familiar voice. He almost didn't want to turn around, thinking it was his fever-addled mind playing tricks on him again. Frankly, he almost wishes Murumuru would show up and cure him, but then again, Yuno couldn't, either. And she had won. The silence is split by the sound of his phone vibrating in his pocket, probably the one thing Yukki had to continue reminding himself of to remember which updates are real and which ones aren't.

That was all the convincing he needed. Sure enough, when Yukki turned around and wiped his eyes off on the back of his sleeve, Akise was indeed there. Though what he said was... odd. Finally get to talk to him? He did a hell of a lot more than that, and it cost him his head.

Speaking of which... he had one on his shoulders, kind of like of how Tsubaki had both of her hands. Was he from a different timeline, too? ]

A-Akise-kun?

[ He's forced to clear his throat afterward. He's unsure if he should be happy, or worried about this. Because the moment Yuno realizes he's here... well, the only person who that might be good news for here is Tsubaki, if only because Yuno's going to have a new priority target.

Yukiteru is staring, speechless. If he had the coherence, he'd be warning Akise about Yuno, or at least looking at his Diary to see how long Akise had until Yuno inevitably found out he was here. ]

Edited 2012-12-20 23:34 (UTC)

[The question catches him off-guard. The fact that Tsubaki has been here for weeks, even though they just saw each other a few hours ago, even more. And yet, after combining both of those things with Murumuru's situation back home, another theory begins to form. Akise allows himself to mull over the question, not because the last few days have been uneventful, but because there's too much to review. Really, where do you stop? Having a shirt and tie already, he decides to take said delay to slip off his jacket.]

[...Huh. That is cold. Regardless, he extends it to Tsubaki, along with an answer.]

Funatsu has been exposed. He will pay for his crimes. We were with everyone just outside the cult grounds before being taken here.

[He may have omitted a part or two at the end there, in the interest of seeing if she remembers all of it.]

Me?

[Whoa. Akise's never felt that much hate directed towards him before. Not even from Murumuru. Speaking about, he can't help but find that hair just a little fami...li...]

[Oh.]

Do we know each other?

[Surprise after surprise. Now he knows this doesn't make any sense, because the whole point of healing him was getting things back on track. Giving him knowledge of Akise would be counterproductive.]

[The vibration of the phone does not go unnoticed. Could it be a different one? After all, the prospect of this Yukiteru having gone through different experiences is not ignored. It's what Akise's original plan would have accomplished.]

Yeah. Are you alright?

[Let's go down this rabbit hole, he figures. Akise feigns non-chalance, acting like he's not at all puzzled by all these inconsistencies. He doesn't neccesarily have to lie. Just talk as if he knows what's going on. If this works, then he won't be kept in the dark much longer. His only regret is he didn't have the doubts he has now a few seconds ago. He can't take back his previous statement.]

[ Her eyes (eye?) widen a bit, but graciously takes it and hangs it around her shoulders. It was a bit hard to put a jacket on with sleeves that wide, so she settles for something else. ]

Thank you. [ A pause. ] Eh...? You're...a bit behind, in that case.

[ She actually takes a moment to tuck her hair out of her eyes. ]

I don't know what you've explored or searched so far, but please be careful.

Edited 2012-12-21 00:58 (UTC)

[ This... this might not be a good thing. Yuno was just now starting to come down from her desire to kill him and repeat the Survival Game for a third time, things were just now starting to turn normal between them. ... sort of. Now Akise was here. Sure, Yukiteru was happy to see him, Akise was the closest thing he had besides Minene and possibly Hinata that he had to a friend. But Yuno was not going to take this well, and he didn't need his Diary to tell him that. ]

I'm sick.

[ Captain Obvious. ]

Don't get too c- [ coughing. ] close to me, I don't want you to catch it.

[ ... or for Yuno to have yet another reason to kill him. He is not looking forward to that conversation with her. ]

"Greetings." She cocks her head slightly as they meet in the hallway. "I don't think I have talked to you before. My name is Rider. Have we met?" Better make sure anyway, since there is a lot of people trapped in the Tower and she's not about to make enemies or friends she does not want to.

Friends is a very loose term to her, though.

[ .. Cell phone..? Well, at least Evatrice is intelligent enough to be able to figure out a few things from that name and the way it looks. So it's like a regular phone, except you can carry it around, huh..? Probaly some future invention, or from another world.. not that she needs one, being a witch and all, but she's always eager to learn new things either way. Curious enough that she isn't really murder-friendly for once. At least, not immediately. ]

Of course the people in charge here would want to stop that kind of communication. They're not morons. [ A sigh as if she can't realise someone wouldn't immediately realise that. ]

Sick...? We have to get you some help, then. Walking around like this may just make things worse for you.

[Now actively concerned, Akise ignores Yukiteru's words by getting closer. At least there's no physical contact. This time. Akise figures that if this place brings so many people, there must be someone with medical knowledge around. His desire to learn more about the situation is rapidly taking a backseat to helping his new friend.]

I will. Don't worry about me, Tsubaki-san.

[It's not being reckless when you know you'll succeed, right?]

Time... works differently here, doesn't it? At first, I thought this was part of the survival game, but between the letter and all the people from different times here, I'm starting to have my doubts.

[Akise takes everything in stride. The question does sound odd, but that's what his life has been for a few days now. He waves, quickly noticing symptoms similar to Yukiteru's. It does not change his behavior.]

Not anymore. Can I help you?

[Akise looks up, sighing as he hides the phone back in his pocket.]

I wonder... If what the letter says it's really true, then at least they could give us our own way to communicate with other people here. We still wouldn't be able to contact anyone else.

[As if it would make any difference at all. Maybe he doesn't know about the network. Maybe he's just making conversation. Or maybe he's simply trying to steer it away from the possibility of divulging the future diary.]

"I'm pretty sure I would remember meeting someone so stunning." he says, not at all too shy to compliment a person he's just met in such a manner.

"I'm Aru. Akise Aru. It's a pleasure to meet you, Rider-san." An odd name. She doesn't look Japanese, either. As an aspiring detective, Akise is already curious. Regardless, he offers a half-nod in respect.

They must think those terminals are good enough! [ And at least she did figure out how to work those, despite being from the eighties and all. ]

That, or they just reserve that privilege for the people who have special powers. Isn't that almost like survival of the fittest?

[ Because it's Evatrice, of course, and she can't ever not gloat when given the chance. ]

[Asako is very rapidly flipping all of the tables mentally, right now. When she sees Akise being - thoughtful? - she decides to investigate. What's this person doing? He looks like Naoya. Is he anything like Naoya? Surely he is, right?]

Hello, what are you doing?

[She smiles, but it's an unsteady, fevered smile.]

Hm? Just getting to know this place.

[Akise notices she has her own problems, so he tries to chip in and make her day a little more tolerable by offering her a confident smile. This place really needs someone to help people out, he thinks. Luckily, that's a detective's job.]

If I may ask, what about you? Doing anything special?

Impressive. I've never seen anyone with actual powers before.

[Not completely true. 12th was pretty weird, and Deus and Murumuru go without saying.]

But a true detective makes sure everyone survives in the end, strong or otherwise.

.. Huuuh? [ Even without the latter half - it's too sappy and goodie-two-shoes for her tastes, but luckily she's distracted by the first half - she almost seems a little curious. Not necessarily in a good way, though. ]

You claim to be a detective?

[ It makes her think of Battler, honestly. And mostly how he defeated her like that right before she got here. ]

Th-The medicine d-doesn't [ Another coughing spell. ] work.

[ Akise, it's a good thing Yuno has her own thread, you're way passed her ten-foot limit. In your case, it's probably one hundred yards. ]

R-Really... I'm... [ No he isn't, and he knows it. He's been hallucinating, he's about twenty hours behind on sleep, and he has a fever. Sweating in cold weather is not a good thing. ] I-If you promise to stay clear of Yuno...

[ She frowns, but says no more on the first issue. ]

That's the conclusion I've come to. There's far too many people here who have never heard of such things, some who don't even have anything supernatural or preternatural in their worlds, some who have even more.

[ A pause. ]

First is here, though I don't know about the others.

"Me too." Well she really doesn't mind compliments.

"Akise-kun, then. You seem in high spirits, all things considered." She's a pretty deductive person on her own too, so she's picking up signals here and there.

[Akise nods, as if already expecting those news.]

The game won't continue with even a single one of us missing. It would be like tracing a drawing with a part of the page ripped out.

[He's given this point of view many metaphors in his head, you will notice.]

It would be better if they weren't taken to a place like this, but for the time being, they should be safe.

Even so, you still need to rest... Don't worry. I'll find a way to fix this for you.

[He looks mildly curious at his last words. 'Yuno'? Akise's not an idiot. He quite vividly remembers Murumuru mentioning her as the Second. He knows her actions up to the confrontation with Tsubaki. This is his tendency to go off-track backfiring on him. Worth it.]

I do. I promise, Yukiteru-kun... Come on.

[For the time being, anyways, but that is an implication even Yukki should be aware about, if he really knows him. Akise considers himself to be completely honest here. Breaking a promise to his friend is already unthinkable. Hardly befitting of a detective, and certainly not something he would do as a decent human being. The fact that it's Yukki may color his view on this a little.]

[He puts himself at Yukki's side so he can lean on him if he so wishes, contagiousness be damned. That said, he's more than willing to recognize this may be too much for his friend's stressed psyche to carry, and is willing to simply move on if he does too.]

I doubt it would have continued back home, regardless, with six of its players refusing to move forward. [ So, that's not really a concern of hers. Maybe. It's a bit of a relief to not have to worry about getting diced from behind, here, but she still wonders if her Diary could be used to kill her. Oh, well. It's staying locked up in her trunk for now. ~~No one let her know about the Space Whale incident.~~ It wasn't even working...

A slight pause before she continues. ]

How up to speed have you been brought? There's quite a boatload of information on this place, vital and trivial.

[ Akise, if only you knew. What she did to Tsubaki wasn't even the worst Yuno Gasai was capable of. Actually, considering what she did to several other people, Tsubaki actually kind of got off easy just losing a hand. Yuno has killed people for far less.

Akise's words stung a bit. As happy as he was to see one of his best friends here, his very presence was a ticking time bomb. Even if this might not have exactly been the same Akise he knew, Yuno wouldn't care. And it was clear that he still had feelings for him, even here. That was going to complicate things. ]

Akise... you... you really don't want this cold...

[ He wasn't even sure if it was a cold. It was more like a really, really bad flu, where the fever was high enough to make him hallucinate. Well, he's of course suffered worse (as in, more realistic) hallucinations, he was just without the luxury of knowing these particular hallucinations were fake. He was forced to bring himself to look at them lucidly. The 'epileptic tree' principle, if you will.

Yukiteru opts not to use him as support, though he appreciates Akise being there. ]

It's not far to the infirmary from here.

I saw Yukiteru-kun some time ago, but he wasn't able to speak very clearly. I did figure out we may not necessarily have the same experiences, though. The diary's told me we're in a tower, but apart from that... nothing.

For our purposes, I think it's safe to say you're the resident Tower Expert in this room, Tsubaki-san.

[He almost sounds dismayed at how unproductive his search for an administrator has been, but he's not disappointed. After all, relying on the help of your friends just like they do with yours is something any detective should be comfortable with. He's not ashamed to admit crazy nightmare-towers are out of his realm of expertise, but he's more than willing to work with Tsubaki to overcome it.]

[Akise stays still in contemplation for a second, but it's not long until he resolves to understand Yukiteru's position. It's true that this looks like something far worse than your average illness, and if Akise's going to help Yukiteru get better, then he has to be at his best. He'll defer to his friend's judgment.]

[He has so many questions he wants to ask as they walk. Back during the game, it wasn't hard to visualize Yukiteru as a real person, but he really did go through a certain degree of idealization in Akise's mind. Even now, he still believes he's looking at the future god of their world. That he is in such a sorry state does not change Akise's opinion. He will compensate for whatever obstacles may present themselves.]

Mm. How long have you been feeling like this?

[A question made out of genuine curiosity, but also with the interest of keeping track of Yukiteru's mental state.]

An aspiring detective. In time, I expect to turn into a world-famous one.

I guess getting out of this tower is step one right now.

[All of it said with a straight face.]

"I figure it'll do more good. I won't notice anything important if I let this get to me. And besides, though I'd rather be home with my family and friends, I do have to hand it to the mastermind behind this that this will be an interesting mystery to solve."

How interesting, you really think you can do that even though you're just human?

[ It's difficult to say whether she's genuinely interested or just making fun of him. Probably a little of both - Evatrice is someone who understands where hard work can bring you despite all odds, after all. ]

A week or so.

[ To be honest, he lost track of time. How long had it been? He didn't even know himself. He feels like he's been in a total daze lately, unable to tell what's real or what isn't. And the hallucinations have been getting more and more vivid. ]

B-But it's [ coughing ] not be I'm worried about.

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placeholder-y!

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Sorry about the delay! On a trip.

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