OO6 >> How do you measure the distance between two people?

[altitonant_emperor]

Characters: Hidetoshi in his early twenties, and YOU!
Setting: Various (floors 48, 1, 6 and the dormitory levels) set throughout the week.
Format: Stating with actionspam but prose is perfectly fine by me. As always, just remember I'll be slower to reply to prose.
Summary: Hidetoshi is affected by the event (further details and tl;dr can be found here) and firmly believes he has been in the Tower for over a decade, and is acting accordingly. Surprisingly, he remains quite sane.
Warnings: Do mentions of animals getting electrocuted to death count as a warning... Oh, and Hidetoshi being weirdly mentally stable for the environment he grew up in.


[ SCENARIO A || FLOOR THIRTY-EIGHT ]

[ There's a reserved-looking man in his twenties that cuts an imposing figure and dark gray hair tied neatly back into a spiky ponytail, reclining in one of the beanbag chairs situated in the lounge, a thick book plopped open in his lap, several other tombs stacked next to him with a cup of coffee placed on top and occasionally he makes a remark to thin air. Like so; ]

That's a fucking farcical and erroneous assertion.

[ Don't be a smartass, you've already read the end of this novel, why read backwards. You already know what the ending is. Spoilered. Cheating.

Hidetoshi wrinkled his nose slightly, took a cocky sip of his coffee. I don't recall asking for your opinion. If I want to believe that for once in this story, the protagonist wouldn't be an ignoramus, then I will.

Are you truly going for that angle of argument? Delusion. Pointless. Flawed reasoning. Tut tut.

A familiar presence shifted in his mind, jostling for attention. Hidetoshi turns a page and sniffs. Shut up, you're just as engrossed as I am. Of course, he speaks very softly, so if you're hanging out in the lounge as well, you're fully capable of easily ignoring him. This floor is very quiet and calm, quieter than the flashy media room at least. A good place to take a breather and escape from the craziness of what Hidetoshi assumed to be a sudden wave of newcomers for the first time in ages, and the latest experiment. ]


[ SCENARIO B || FLOOR SIX ]

[ —Thunder Reign!

Faintly heard, through the forest, he calls out a spell's name and his persona flickers to life to cast it, scorching black patches of the ground and whichever mutated animals dared attack him. Some survived and fled, others died after a few more spells.


He's standing under the shelter of a tree, calling down thunder attacks. In front of him hovered a heavily armored persona dressed in a cloak of shades of dark gray, regal yellow, and with ribbons knotting the fabric together. Its face was featureless and smoother. A black stripe of colour over the blank space where eyes would normally would be and a crown-like crest that rose from its brow, and long wide sleeves covered its arms. One of its hands was a stump with a gleaming sword portending from it.

There's no reason for it; Hidetoshi had felt the desire to indulge and seen no harm in doing so here.

One of his longer swords was out, held confidently in his hand, the blade's edge sharp and well-cared for. He handles his movement with more grace than a scrawny twig of a teenager did. He's alert, that fact displayed in the terse tightening of his lips, the slight drawing of his eyebrows, the way he casts his gaze—unafraid and observant—across the surrounding area while his face stays calm. ]


[ SCENARIO B || FLOOR ONE ]

[ Someone has dragged a dead deer (bearing the signs of being cleanly shocked to death) from the forest into the kitchen and is skinning it (disclaimer: the mun knows jack shit about skinning animals) with the ease of old practice, out of the way and being very tidy with it, keeping the blood to a minimal. He's already thinking of how he wants to cook it—Lancer preferred meat, and he doubted Minato or Nesir would say no to decently cooked food. Whenever he tracked down Togami-kun after he was done being a fool for the day, he'd see if he could stuff some of the meat onto him. Then he paused, and glanced down at the partially-skinned corpse in front of him.

Y'know, when he was growing up, this was not a skill he'd ever thought he'd learn. Nor was... this the sort of life he'd ever would have believed he would lead. Not exactly the successful, credit-to-society existence he'd dreamed of as a teenager. Strange thought, that.


Twelve or something years, huh...

Man, it's been a long time. Over a decade. Hidetoshi almost chuckled. ]


[ SCENARIO C || DORMITORY LEVELS HALLWAYS ]

[ If you meet him in the hallways, he's probably just pacing back and forth, lost in thought over the odd changes that seem to have overtaken the Tower for this experiments. After all, he could recall no experiment where the entire upper fifty floors had simply vanished. He looks bored and restless, and can be bothered at will. Or he's napping in his room, and for some reason, you want to come in and bug him. ]

Comments

Floor 38, also this was kinda my mistake XD I need to read better

[apprisingreaper]

[Nyx had been aimlessly wandering the Tower, hopelessly bored, when she spotted Hidetoshi. Or rather, heard him-it was impossible to ignore the ruckus in his mind, and she hadn't even intended to read it. She walks over to where he is sitting, curious and slightly amused.]

Your discussion with your other self is intriguing. Wouldn't some people call this insanity, hearing voices in your head and responding to their questions?

Floor 38 |D s'okay

[altitonant_emperor]

[Their internal discussion slowed to a halt.

Night Queen? Hidetoshi felt his persona perk up curiously and turns his attention outward again.

He'd always found it hard to believe that this inhuman being was a boy who he should have known once if what Minato-kun and the others had told him of their history with a teenager named Ryoji who had really been Death with a human's face and Nyx, had been true. He closed his book and looked at her when she walked over, trying to figure out if she was amused or just bored.]

Perhaps it is something like that.

[Way to stick up for me there.

I cannot exactly argue that hearing voices in my head and responding to what they say isn't a valid sign of insanity.

Nitpicker. Hmph!]

But he's myself and I'm himself, so why should I treat him as anything less than that? A mere voice in my head wouldn't be able to assume physical form.

[apprisingreaper]

[Oh, it's pretty true. She's kept a mainly human form, so that yellow scarf is still clearly visible between the black wings.]

Perhaps you imagine its physical form, and imagine the Shadows that you fight with it.

Perhaps you are imagining all of this right now.

[altitonant_emperor]

[Hidetoshi does not remember Ryoji. He remembers an empty seat in one of the homerooms that no-one ever sat in, the note of sadness in Minato's voice when he spoke of him, and sometimes he can recall bells in the gloom of midnight before his memories come to a blank. So the scarf does little but offset the black of Nyx's humanish form, a meaningless trinket.]

I'm afraid my imagination isn't quite that creative.

[Epiphron shifted restlessly, muttering to itself. We are not in Interception right now, Night Queen.]

And if this were an illusion, well, I don't especially care if it was. But it's not an illusion anyway.

GOTTA be Floor Six X'D

[idol_support]

[This floor is a dangerous floor, especially for someone who has basically zero combat skills. Still, she'd gotten a reading on a Persona she'd never seen before on this floor, and while the person using it had had a familiar feel, there was something different too... Thus, she'd decided to come investigate. She didn't need to bother any of the others--she'd stay close to the stairs so no monsters would attack her, and if things got dangerous she'd get out of there fast.

However, her mind goes temporarily blank when she finds she source of that new Persona, because...]

...Hidetoshi-senpai?!

[At least, she thinks it's him...he looks pretty different, older and stronger and carrying at least one sword...but no, there's no mistaking it, it has to be him.]

Floor Six | lol

[altitonant_emperor]

[And when Rise locates the source of the new Persona, said source of the new Person looks... more than a little taken aback when he sees her. Hidetoshi's drawn eyebrows shot up and his calm face flickers to a honest expression of surprise, staring like a man greeted with a unexpected vision of a girl gone for years and years. Which he was. She looked like a perfect younger replica of his friend.]

... Rise?

[he frowned. She was one of the new arrivals? No, this was oddly coincidental with whatever the new experiment going on was. He doesn't looked uncertain, just wary of what was possibly one of the Tower's tricks and doesn't move from under the tree. His persona vanishes.

... And she remembered him? That wasn't an event that had occurred before.]

[1/2]

[idol_support]

[She's still gonna be staring at him, eyes wide, because he'd very nearly flipped his lid (at least internally; outwardly he'd done an admirable job of keeping it together) the first time he'd seen her summon Kanzeon, so...seeing him with a Persona of his own just a few months later (for her anyway) is...kinda strange.]

Since when do you have a Persona?

[He does look a lot older though, and she's seen enough of the time shuffling around already to realise that this must be something similar. So...maybe in the future, the Tower (or the admins) figured out a way to bring out peoples' latent abilities somehow, like the TV world had done back home...? Or maybe Izanami had...]

[2/2]

[idol_support]

[Then what he'd actually said truly hits home, and she can't hold back a giggle.]

...Finally gave up using the honorifics, huh? Is it like that for everyone now, or am I just special? ♪

[...Yeeeeeah, even when you're older, the teasing isn't gonna stop. X'D]

[altitonant_emperor]

[That wide-eyed stare from her is met by Hidetoshi, who is looking at her in puzzled surprise like she's the utterly strange thing here, not him. Slowly, like he's carefully considering his words;]

... Several years by now. I haven't exactly kept track.

[And wow, you know what's great about making it a subconscious habit of repressing all your unhappy emotions? Every time the feelings get too extreme, you just bounce back into the territory of no feelings at all. It's actually really great and that's just what happened to Hidetoshi because he was starting to feel some very extreme things right then. The surprise vanishes from his facial expression, as did the slight crack in his composure. He calmly puts his sword away, deeming her a non-threat. At her small giggle, he shrugs and makes a short hand gesture.]

No, I did not. I reserve that for my closer acquaintances.

[S-sigh. He'd almost forgotten about the teasing, except not really.]

SCENARIO B || FLOOR ONE

[oathshackledbird]

You're doing it wrong.

[Lancer leans against the doorway into the kitchen and crosses his arms over his chest. Okay, so maybe the kid isn't actually doing anything wrong. Maybe Lancer just feels there should be a bigger mess. Skinning and butchering a deer is not something one accomplishes without getting blood all over. He should know. He'd killed and skinned countless animals in his first life and just as many more in the time he's been in the tower.]

Are you afraid of getting a little blood on you or something? Cut into it! It's not like the thing is still alive to care, you know.

SCENARIO B || FLOOR ONE

[altitonant_emperor]

I'd hate to make more of a mess than I must.

[He says calmly, unruffled, confident in knowledge he was doing this correctly. His palms of his hands and fingers are covered in gore, the knees of his pants soaked a dark blotted crimson, and some of the blood pools under the body, soaking its raggedly fur but other than that, he skinned the deer cleanly. His eyes flick upward toward the blackened Servant occupying the doorway, unreadable as ever and a little pitying.]

There's no reason to to be leave things messier than strictly required. It'd be rather careless of me, no? Good day to you too, Lancer-san.

Re: SCENARIO B || FLOOR ONE

[oathshackledbird]

[Lancer sighs and flicks his eyes off to the side in annoyance. He should have known better than to think this one would be willing to rise to his bait. Though, that doesn't mean he's going to stop trying.]

You're wasting time. Things can always be cleaned up later, but deer's meat and other parts started breaking down the moment you took its life. Have you really learned no better over all the years?

And today is boring as usual. Why else would I be down here poking at one as dull as you?

SCENARIO B || FLOOR ONE

[altitonant_emperor]

You find me dull? One such as you? I see. Should I take that as a compliment?

[He grins a bit, unbothered by Lancer's relentless prodding and baiting, and considers flicking an raw intestine at the Servant: but his sense of self-preservation wins out over that idle whim. He works as he speaks, practiced.]

If you think I'm wasting time, that's my choice. If nothing else, this Tower have has an overabundance of time to share with us all anyway. We wouldn't run out of that anytime soon.

... It's better to have nothing to clean up to begin with. Cleaner that way. And whose I would share meat with, aren't terribly picky about their food.

[His skinning knife is bloody too. He sets it down and pauses to wipe his bright red hands on his apron.]

floor 38

[fuhgeddaboudit]

What is?

[Labrys was aware, somewhere in the part of her mind dedicated to binary numbers and exact calculations, that time had passed. How much, she never dared to check. Too much. Too long living somewhere she could never fulfill her promises, too long watching her friends age in body and mind as she stood still.]

[Her still-accented voice had lost most of its coarse lack of subtlety, and there was a more mature and refined manner to the way she seemed to carry herself. The yellow scarf of her Yasogami uniform was tied in her hair, securing a long and thick silver-blue braid. The android closed the book held in her own hands, stepping forward as she asked.]

floor 38

[altitonant_emperor]

Epiphron is currently trying to run a nugatory commentary on the books I want to read, and I disagreed with one of his remarks.

[Hidetoshi replied with a laughingly annoyed little smile, but he didn't sound truly irritated at his persona, as he looked up from his open book to the robotic maiden stepping towards him whose youthful appearance no longer matched his own as it had when he'd been a teenager, though her personality and voice had developed over the course of their imprisonment in the Tower.

In the back of his mind, his persona scratched lightly at him, remarking on how he resented Hidetoshi implying his input was something as bland as to be rated nugatory, really? Rude of you. I was right.

Hush the hell up.]

floor 38

[fuhgeddaboudit]

[Labrys raised a hand to her mouth, laughing quietly as she pulled up a chair.]

I might be the lucky one, I'm thinkin'. Ariadne was always pretty quiet, and Pasiphaë's pretty much the same. She does talk t' me now and then, but I ain't sure we've ever disagreed on somethin'.

[She sat down, smiling as though the idea amused her.]

You two disagree on stuff often?

dorm hallways

[egotist]

[Togami is watching the other man pace around, appearing normal sans for a bandaged arm on his right shoulder. There's a bit of blood staining it and it's still fairly fresh from a run in last night. He can't help but call out to Hidetoshi as he paces the floor endlessly. Perhaps he was concerned, or maybe he just wants to irritate him for a bit.]

Something amiss? You won't be able to accomplish anything like that.

dorm hallways

[altitonant_emperor]

[Hidetoshi halts in his slow pacing at the sound of Togami calling out to him to glance casually over at him before resuming his steady, unhurried revolutions under and down the corridor.]

Amiss? Why, yes. There's an anomaly that has occurred. And—[His eyes flicker to the other man's bandaged right arm, the small plums of dull red blooming through the edges. A ting of disapproval entered the grown man's expression before vanishing instantly, unnoticeable.]—well, it calms me down at least.

[Without any particular tone to his voice;] Is your arm broken again, or simply wounded during your usual [foolhardy] routine?

[egotist]

[And just a sigh of exasperation from Togami. So it was nothing to get worked up about. He leaned against the wall with his back.]

It hasn't occurred to you by now that this is just business as usual for the rulers of this Tower? How do you think I haven't gone mad by now after accepting the abnormal instances here?

[He tightens the bandages holding the injury.] Why yes, it is only a minor scrape.

In his room because yup

[culbutiri]

So do I be right in thinking you do be having a theory already? [Nesir doesn't really need a reason to bug him, she has done so often over the last ten years. But she does actually need to talk to him today and waiting for him to wake up would be wasting time. Who slept through the day anyways?]

In his room because why

[altitonant_emperor]

Nngh... [Was Hidetoshi's articulate response from where he was trying to take a nap on his bed, arms resting behind his head and he had just getting to sleep when she was kind enough to disturb him why that. He rolled over and sat up, grumbled blearily;] ... Where on earth are your manners?

[That's a rhetorical question, don't answer it. Reorganizing tired thoughts into a semblance of order;] You are correct.

Because she is polite and respects his private spaces at all times

[culbutiri]

[She just sits at the end of his bed and doesn't answer his question because in her opinion their relationship was one of mutual benefit and manners didn't matter.]

And would you be willing to be sharing this theory?

Scenario A

[warriorscribe]

I'm sorry?

*Enoch might have passed this floor by but the remark caught his attention. He steps off the stairs, curious now.*

Scenario A

[altitonant_emperor]

... Hm?

[Focused on the book open in his lap and the debate in his mind, Hidetoshi only looks up once Enoch speaks. He sets down the coffee cup.]

[warriorscribe]

Who were you... *A pause as he realizes, oh, this is another person he knew, but older.* ...talking to...?