towerofanimus | (no subject)

Characters: Margulis and Tear Grants, then open.
Setting: Floor 30 (closed prompt), then floor 13
Format: Either
Summary: Margulis, overcome with an unexplained sense of guilt due to the flu, decides to visit a floor that reminds him of an old friend. Thanks to the staircase on the thirtieth floor and the fact that he's not up to his usual level, he needs a little help along the way...
Warnings: Violence, blood, possible mention of murder, suicide and human experimentation and Xenosaga being suffering.

[Floor 30]

Margulis had been hunting when the guilt struck. The emotion wasn't an unfamiliar one to the long-deserted U-TIC commander, but normally he could pin down the reason for it. It wasn't like he didn't have plenty to regret. But this time it was just a vague, nagging sense that he'd done something wrong. So, naturally, his mind filled in a reason: the death of one of his best friends. With her on his mind, he decided to head down to a specific floor that had reminded him of her the moment he saw it.

But as his luck would have it, taking the long route to get out of the annoying group of power nullifying floors faster turned out to be a bad idea. The staircase on the thirtieth floor chose now, while he was too distracted to react in time, to drop out from under him. By the time he got to his feet, he had just enough warning to dodge out of the way of a Darknut's sword. Ordinarily, he might have been an even match for the creature, likely even somewhat stronger due to his superhuman abilities. But now he didn't even have the energy to maintain his full enhancements. His Ethers were useless, and as he clashed blades with the monster, his growing list of wounds made it obvious that he couldn't defeat it alone.

[Floor 13]

But despite his detour on floor 30, Margulis eventually made his way to the cathedral floor. After the noise of the other floors, the quiet was a relief. Even his unusually heavy footsteps were barely audible as he walked to the front of the line of pews, his movements making it clear that he was injured even with his dark clothing concealing the bloodstains. As he sat down heavily, his mind drifted off to his own world, to events that had occurred not even hours before he'd arrived in the tower. In this state, he wouldn't even notice the muffled sounds of someone else entering the floor.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Tohko had figured out that, since she wasn't dead yet, that the monsters she had been hearing were in her own head. In short, she was developing schizophrenia, like Edward. However, just because she knew didn't mean that the voices didn't scare her a little or that she wanted to hear them. So, remembering that the cathedral had been quieter, she had managed to make her way there. Using her memory, she walked down the isle..until she heard the floor beneath her squish, like it was wet.

Thinking nothing of it, she took another step, and hear the squish again. Tohko doubted it was water. After all, since this was a cathedral, people might want to come here to die and think. Someone here was injured, and even in her state, blind, unfeeling, and with monsters in her head talking about all sorts of ways they could kill her, she spoke.]

Pardon me..but is someone here injured? Or am I mistaken?

*He looked up from the floor at the sudden voice, instinctively reaching for his sword before the question registered.*

I'm fine. These are merely mild injuries left over from an incident on the way here.

*Okay, that was partly a lie. While his injuries weren't critical, they were enough to be giving him trouble. But he'd never been good at admitting when he needed help.*

[Tohko, using her ears and her memory, figured out that the person that the voice belonged to was sitting in a nearby pew. Sighing, she sat next to him, but not too close. At least..that she could tell.]

Are you sure? Even mild injuries can become serious if you leave them unchecked..and if you're just being stubborn, I can't tell whether I should actually help you or not.

[Tohko sighed again. The voices were quieter, but they were still screaming in the back corner, saying that they were going to boil her alive and eat out her eyes and tongue while she was still alive. She knew they weren't real..but they still sounded horrific. She had to stay calm though. She couldn't snap. Not now.]

I've been injured countless times before and rarely have I needed help in recovering.

*And he had the scars to show for his stubbornness. But even if he did need help, he wouldn't have admitted it. What right did a murderer have to ask someone else to save his life?*

[Tohko smiled at that.]

This may be one of those rare times. Hang on a moment. Don't move a muscle, alright?! I'll be..right back.

[To get out of the chapel, she'd have to move past the left corner, where the monsters had been laughing at her. She knew they weren't real..but that didn't mean they still weren't scary. Hurrying out of the chapel, she quickly moved down the stairs until she wandered into the infirmary. Now came the hard part: grabbing some gauze. Remembering where one of the counters were, she wandered toward it and tapped her hand on it's surface until she heard her hand hit something that sounded like a roll of gauze.

She grabbed it and ran back up the steps..only to trip and fall near the top. She managed to hold onto the gauze, and while she wasn't hurt, she knew she had fallen, thanks to the noise she had heard. She crawled up the rest of the steps, and, when her hands told her that she wasn't on the steps anymore, she used her memory to force herself to stand and walk in the chapel again.

All the while, the monsters talked and talked about how slowly cutting off her body parts would be fun. Tohko did her best to ignore them and walked up to where she remembered the man was.]

Here you are! I'm sorry about the wait..but use this to help yourself, alright? I'm sorry that I can't dress your wounds myself.

[Tohko sighed.]