towerofanimus | (no subject)

Characters: Waver Velvet and open
Setting: Floors 14, 45, 19 and 43 or anywhere else
Format: Starting with action but I can match
Summary: Waver's been in the tower for twenty years and become a grumpy bum. Replies will come from

achillean
Warnings: Nothing really, I don't think.

Floor 14
[Is there really someone sitting in front of a tv with a Playstation controller in hand...in boxers and an undershirt? Yup, there sure is. And that person is Waver. Poor posture and everything. Although it might be hard to some to recognise him as Waver Velvet at first, as he's aged twenty years. His hair grown out past his waist, and being nearly a foot taller are the major points. Care to join? Sure you do.]

Floor 45
[Waver stands at the windows, looking out to the clouds as he thinks. The faceless creatures occasionally watch him, but he pays it no mind, and even chuckles to himself in thinking of his first day in the tower and how afraid he had been. Looking down at what little of the world below he can see through the clouds is a good way to problem-solve, or work out a plan for his next lesson, letting his mind wander. Today, though, he's thinking about what his life could have been outside the tower. Remaining with Rider and those he had met in the Tower of Animus certainly did him good, but if it all had never happened, where would he be? There's no use in wishing for that, or to go home, he's seen the ruins of his world firsthand now. But the thought is an interesting one nonetheless, and something difficult to turn away from. Especially when he's now spent longer in the tower than he'd spent at home.]

Floor 19
[An average day for Waver has always involved plenty of reading. Finding very few other spots in which he can concentrate without being bothered by the tower, or people in the tower, he sits in the library with a magic text of his own. He jots down notes in a notebook as he goes. There are enough magi in the tower to bounce his ideas off of from time to time, as he still strongly believes study can create a great magus. These days it's all a matter of getting any new books from home. Luckily he's received a few at Christmas from the administrators, and has several others piled up on the table. Although a nearly tattered copy of The Iliad sits among them. He's also lighted a cigar and sits with it in his mouth almost the entire time, with no regard for the fact that a library probably isn't the best place to be smoking.]

Floor 43
[In the evening, Waver takes a plate of food up to the cells, as he thinks Ryuunosuke has been locked in one for some time, and can't allow him to starve in there and end up free again. He carries it nonchalantly through the tower, taking the elevator to floor 41 and walking the rest of the way. But when he gets there, and sees the cells all empty, the doors simply hanging open, he drops the plate, sending it crashing to the ground.]

Shit--

[Had someone let Ryuunosuke out? He has to find him right away, before he can hurt anyone, any of the children he tutors.

He can be found all around the tower, desperately looking for the one he should be watching, and cursing under his breath the whole time.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[Tohko is a very tolerant librarian. However, when she smells smoke-like something from a cigarette or a cigar-she follows it to it's source..and pauses for a moment when she sees a man sitting at his desk. It looked like Waver..if he had aged a few years. Puzzled, she walked up toward him.]

..Waver? Is that you? What happened to you? Why have you aged?

[For a moment he keeps his eyes on the book in front of him, waving his hand as if to wave her away.]

Leave a note, I'm busy.

[But then he realises what was asked and finally looks up. Obviously that's Tohko, but, the thing is, she's twenty years younger than he remembers her.]

...Tohko? What are you talking about?

What do you mean, 'what am I talking about'? You weren't twenty years older a few weeks ago. What happened? Did you cast some sort of spell..or are the Administrators messing about again?

[He takes a draw on his cigar, considering the possibilities. He remembers so much from the past twenty years, so he certainly can't be the one affected.]

It looks like it. But it seems to me you're the one who's being messed with.

[Tohko just looks a bit more puzzled at that.]

How so? Only a month has passed since the Christmas party, Waver. A few weeks ago, you were teaching me about video games. I would remember if time marched on, and I would age as well..at least, that's what I think.

Even I could make you think that, much less the administrators of the tower. Erasing memories should be much easier than fabricating twenty years of false ones.

Are you looking for somebody?

[America can't think of another reason someone would react to just looking at the floor like that. Had he locked someone up? America hadn't ever seen someone actually get out without being let out before; if they'd snuck out that might be interesting.]

[And just as he was thinking of what could happen to children at Ryuunosuke's hands- there's one.]

I am. A man who slaughters children should be locked here.

[A very sensitive way to put it...]

Oh. [Well, America doesn't seem to mind being told so bluntly, at least. He looks around at the cells.] He's not here now. I haven't seen anybody here for a while.

What's he look like?

Orange hair, piercings, my height, Japanese. Have you been watching here long?

However, you would also have to alter my appearance to match, and everyone else's appearance to make sure I didn't catch on..and yet, here you are, aged and remembering things that I don't.

I was here last night! [He was trying to lock up a monster, but didn't have much success.] No one was there then either.

It wouldn't only be you, the subjects of their experiments seem to be chosen at random, but it's never one or two people only. If you've seen others around who are as you remember them, it only means they've been affected themselves.

--That long?

[Then he must have gotten out just after Waver brought him dinner the day before. And that means there very well could have been victims already. Death isn't a big deal in the tower, he's come to see that over twenty years, that is, unless you're tortured first.

He grumbles, taking a small kick at the broken plate on the floor.]

Oh, fuck me.

Or it means that you're one of the few who have been affected and everyone else like me is normal.

[Tohko sighed and scratched her head.]

..That's the problem with memory experiments. We can't tell who truly is being experimented on and who isn't.

It doesn't do much good to argue about it. But as I said, from a magecraft standpoint, the removal of memories is not so difficult as creating so many false ones.

I could tell you if I see him! [America offers this quite cheerfully--after all, if this person goes after kids, he'd be a good person to watch for him.] Does he have powers?

That's true..and in stories, things like this aren't difficult with magic either.

[Tohko sighed again..but managed a small smile.]

However, it is interesting to see what you'll like like a few years down the road.

He doesn't, fortunately. But until he's found, you should stay in your room, I can't use you as bait.

[America's smile widens--there's something vaguely inhuman about it. It's childish and pleased, but in a way no entirely human child would be.]

It's okay, I do! If he attacks me I can just break him and then I can tell you and you can watch his bed for when he comes back.

[He averts his eyes, that old tsundere teenage Waver coming through.]

Is it? It looks like thirty-nine is a long way away for you, it's more than a few years, anyway.

[Just going to keep smoking, play it cool, who's embarrassed? Certainly not him, haha...ha...]

[Well, that wasn't what he was expecting. For a moment he's tacken aback by the suggestion, coming from a child who looks so young.]

If you're sure you can handle yourself...

[But really, what's up with this kid...]

[At that, Tohko couldn't help but laugh.]

Well, there's nothing wrong with that! I'll be thirty-nine soon enough..at least, that's what I think. But tell me, do I still keep my braids when I'm that old? Don't tell me that a monster or something manages to chop them off.

[Those braids were pretty important to Tohko. Not because of their appearance, but because they held a precious memory of her Mother.]

Even if he got me first he'd be in big trouble after. So it's okay!

[He says "got me" like it's some sort of grand game of cops and robbers in his mind.]

Even if they're ever cut, you can grow them back, right? Don't worry, I remember them always being right where they should be. On you and not the floor.

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