towerofanimus | (no subject)

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(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.

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There was a thud a few feet away. Someone else had been unlucky enough to experience the magic of floor 30's stairs, and that someone was a teenage girl.

Tear had been exploring on her own, despite how frightened she was by quite a few of the tower's floors. She heard whispers and screams, saw skittering things out of the corner of her eye... It was horrifying, and her reactions weren't the kind of thing she could let anyone else see.

So when she the stairs fell out from under her, it was a complete shock. She had no one else to explain the mechanics of each floor to her. But, even though her landing knocked the wind out of her, it didn't take her long to compose herself enough to scramble to her feet. And she didn't need more than a moment to survey the battle in front of her before she raised her staff into the air.

"Come forth, O illumination of life! Healing circle!"

A glowing blue circle, filled with an intricate design appeared beneath Margulis's feet. And he would feel his superficial wounds healing completely. The more serious ones... Well, they were less serious afterward, at least.

[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?

The sudden invocation surprised him and he glanced back, only to turn his attention back to his opponent to block a swing of its sword. Pain flared at the impact, only to ease as the healing circle took effect. When there was no active threat, he hated people using healing abilities on him. In battle was a different matter, and his pragmatism outweighed his pride when it came to impersonal fights.

With his wounds eased, his frustrated expression changed to a smirk and he stepped to the side, letting the Darknut's blade fall down next to him as he dealt a flaming strike to the shoulder joint of its armor.

*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.]

Two small knives flew at the monster. Tear had aimed for the edges of its armor, but they seemed unable to penetrate and clattered to the floor uselessly.

She rushed forward, keeping just a few feet between herself and the Darknut. The end of her staff began to glow with a white light.

"Banishing sorrow!"

She cleaved her weapon through the air in front of her, and the monster stumbled back a little, as if hit by an invisible force. But it didn't seem to harm it much.

"We aren't even making a dent! How long have you been battling it?"

"Long enough to realize that I can't cut through its armor in this state, even with my blade."

If he was at full strength, he wasn't sure. But that didn't matter right now, since he was far too drained to even temporarily boost himself that far. Not that it would stop him from taking advantage of his enemy's momentarily dropped guard. With a lunge, he managed to stab the tip of his blade under its armor, earning a faint creaking sound before he had to fall back to avoid a swipe of its own sword.

She narrowed her eyes at that creaking sound. It seemed like the armor moved... He must have realized it too.

"I'll distract it!"

She darted to the side quickly and raised her weapon again.

"Pow hammer!"

A rubber mallet materialized above the Darknut and fell suddenly, bashing it on the head. She repeated this process again. Dashing in another direction and casting the hammer. She was hoping it would be annoying enough to get its attention.

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?*

He nodded, shifting his grip on his blade and raising it as he watched the Darknut's movements, waiting for an opening to go after the same joint in the armor.

"Keep your distance. I doubt that staff of yours would survive blocking a blow from this thing intact."

The monster did indeed turn its attention to Tear and, as it turned to face her, Margulis dashed in the opposite direction from her, placing himself behind their opponent and lunging. The armor creaked again, then the damaged pauldron tore free, exposing a small area of white flesh.

[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.]

She gave a quick nod and continued the distraction. She had no problems keeping herself from being hit, as the Darknut was fairly slow with armor on. She glanced at Margulis every so often though, and was a little relived to see some of the armor come off.

He would have stayed in his room if he could have. But he couldn't. He had to find the people the saboteurs were hindering. His few real allies in this world. The people that were trying or would definitely try.

Except his body simply would not heal itself of this sickness. It made movement through the tower's stairs so difficult, and even worse, he was in no shape to fight, so he had to hide from or otherwise avoid monsters. This slowed down his search considerably.

It was one of those moments where his body gave out, rather than one where a monster was after him, thankfully, when he reached the thirteenth level. Shaking from exhaustion, he dragged himself to the pews and crawled into one.

And he noticed someone at the front. With a groan as his aching muscles protested, he pushed himself up and started making his way towards him. From the back, he couldn't tell, was it friend or foe?

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