And then it comes crashing down

[warriorscribe]

Characters: Enoch and anyone
Setting: From the dorm floors down to the cafeteria
Format: I'm starting in prose but I'll match!
Summary: Enoch, uh. Attempted to get inside help. And now he's seen the admin video.
Warnings: None yet!

Enoch stared at the screen that had come on, drawing him off the stairs on the second dormitory level to watch.

The image of Dax being torn up by Ruana's hands was burned into his vision, Dax's words still ringing in his ears. Ruana's taking over next.

The feed was off. There was no way to know if Dax was all right - but Ruana couldn't have read- ... His request! Enoch didn't linger at the terminal to react. He ran.

Enoch nearly slammed into the elevator door when he ascended to the first dorm floor, he was running in such a panic, but he managed to catch himself on the wall just in time and hit the call button. It's only a few moments, the elevator wasn't all the way at the first floor, but the ride down was agonizing. If he was alone in the elevator, he didn't stay still, his hands were on the door as if ready to push them open the moment there was any space to do it.

Naturally the elevator doors were strong enough to not actually be ruined by that. Enoch slipped sideways out the door as soon as it could admit him and he rushed for the suggestion box's counter, jumping over tables instead of running around them, his Arch occasionally catching on and knocking a chair to the ground.

At least until he pulled it from the back of his jeans and opened it in one fluid, practiced motion as he neared the box, bringing it around in a streak of blue to cut off the top of the box. His other hand was already reaching down to take...

...Nothing. The box was empty.

Enoch stared at it, his Arch slowly lowering to his side.

"No...no..."

His entire body was trembling. What had he done...? What if Ruana took it out on Dax?

He sank to the floor against the counter. Once his head was below its level, the box was, suddenly, intact.

Not, of course, that Enoch noticed. All he could do was hope that Ruana never noticed there was a hidden message in the first place. If he tried appealing to her, it would alert her to the message's presence for sure, if she didn't know of it.

So he was trapped. All he could do was sit there in the wake of his failed mad dash and stare down at the floor that separated them from the administrators, and hope the one that had a moral head on his shoulders still had his head at all come next month.

Comments

[hachitaro]

A tiny kitten leaped onto Enoch's shoulder and started nuzzling him, before settling down a bit.

"What's wrong?"

... Okay, so maybe Taro had a penchant for turning into adorable fuzzy things. Shh.

[warriorscribe]

Enoch blinked at the little kitten, wondering if it was someone's pet before he caught sight of the collar. And then it spoke.

"Taro...?" He sighed. "I...did you see the...movie of our hosts?"

He has never picked up the word "video", funnily enough, but he learned "movie" in Meridian.

[hachitaro]

"Yeah, I did."

He shuddered a little, before leaning in to Enoch again. "You seem pretty upset, though. What happened?"

Let little big bro Taro take care of it, okay?

[warriorscribe]

"I..." He lowered his voice, a cat's ears should be able to still pick it up. "...I left a request here I didn't want Ruana to see."

[hachitaro]

"And since she's in charge next month... yeah."

He paws at Enoch's hair a little. It's distracting, okay. "Hopefully it'll work out."

[warriorscribe]

Enoch reaches up absentmindedly, putting a hand on Taro's head.

"I can only hope..."

[hachitaro]

"I wish I could do more, but..."

There's not much he can do. It makes him feel a little bit bad, though.

[warriorscribe]

"We all do..."

Do you mind being cradled in this form, Taro? Because Enoch's just going to gently slip you off his shoulder and into the crook of his arm, still sitting there.

[elfstonestrider]

Truthfully, Aragorn had been wandering. His meetings with his friends -- or vestiges of his friends -- over the last week have caused the ranger to more or less seek solace on his own. So he was learning the place as any good ranger might, but doing all of the learning on his own.

Most of the things here are so foreign he can not recognize them. The idea of a suggestion box is not found on his world, not that he knows of at least, but he's been interested by it for several days now.

Aragorn's walk does have a purpose, he's not wandering aimlessly. He's simply keeping to patterns he knows not many people will take. And, therefore, seeing Enoch here where usually none are at this particular time, he pauses.

And then rushes over.

Monsters in the Tower, Legolas told him. He's yet to see them but that hardly means they do not exist. Needless to say, he's not seen the message either.

"Are you injured?"

[warriorscribe]

Enoch looks up at the sound of someone rushing towards him. He doesn't recognize him, but he's inclined to trust a stranger concerned for his safety. Maybe not with the true nature of what had happened, but-...

...Oh, what was there to do, lie?

"No, I..." He looked up at the ceiling. Were there eyes there, as in their rooms? Would Ruana be able to see his rush to cut open the box? "...It's hard to explain. It has to do with...what we've been able to see of our hosts."

[tohko_amano]

Occasionally, Tohko would put requests into the suggestion box. First, it had been a request for a photo of her parents, and then a request for more notebooks and pens. Both times, she had been rejected, so after a month-long wait, she was going to try again and ask for more notebooks and pens. It would help her keep each world straight and help her plot with Wilhelm's universe.

However, she didn't expect to see Enoch cutting open the suggestion box and looking through it as desperately as Ivan The Homeless chased after Woland's posse. When Enoch cried out and sank to the floor though, Tohko walked up to him. Her request could wait. She had to find out what was bothering Enoch and what had caused this.

"Enoch, what's wrong? What happened?"

[warriorscribe]

It was too quiet to be called a "cry" by any means, but...all the same, Enoch looked up at the sound of Tohko's voice.

"There was something in there I...intended only for the person I thought was next..."

[tohko_amano]

Tohko sighed and nodded.

"Right..and you're worried that whatever was in that letter had something to do with the odd network post we saw from the Administrators."

Tohko sighed again and thought about what to do.

"..I don't think Ruana will kill Dax. Ruana has said that Jason was a 'bad dog' in her network postings before, so I don't think she'll kill a dog that behaves more. I think what the camera recorded would have happened to Riki as well if Ruana touched him. It may be just her normal effects on the camera..which means..that these Administrators may be something like Lovecraftian monsters."

..Not that Enoch would know what those were. Tohko was forgetting that for the moment as she thought and spoke.

"However..if we really need to find out, I'll ask a friend about it and see what he can do."

Tohko didn't know if Allen had telepathy..but it was a possibility. If he had a spirit body and worked for Wilhelm, anything was possible, and she did trust him enough to go to him for something like this.

"And, if my friend can't do anything, then we'll have to start a demolition project underneath the cafeteria."

[warriorscribe]

"Destroying Riki's project before we even know what it is?"

Enoch sighed and leaned his head against the counter's cool metal surface. Tohko, what is he going to do with you?

"I certainly hope she won't..."

[tohko_amano]

Tohko sighed and shook her head.

"..I'm not interested in destroyed Riki's project, since I have no idea what it is or if it'll be helpful or not. However, since the noises we've been hearing are loudest in the cafeteria, that's probably where they're hiding-underneath the cafeteria. It might take awhile..but we'll find the route that leads from there to their hiding place."

..What anyone was going to do with Tohko and her weird ideas depended upon the person. How well anyone was going to deter Tohko or completely stop her from coming up with weird ideas was anyone's guess.

Tohko patted Enoch on the head as she spoke.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she won't. She has no reason to right now. I'm sure if she gets your letter, Dax will be able to defend himself enough so that he'll be fine."

..A thought then popped into Tohko's head. One that she didn't care for at all.

"..Will you be alright though?"

[warriorscribe]

Dax, defend himself against Ruana? Not likely considering they seemed to be afraid of her. To be honest, he was, too. She was obviously immensely powerful, with all the knowledge of living for thousands of years but none of the wisdom.

"Me? I...don't know."

Ruana was sure to punish him if she found the hidden message. But...it didn't alarm him as much as the possibility that Dax could face consequences too. After all, it wasn't as if he'd received the message; only had it directed at him.

[tohko_amano]

That wasn't how Tohko had meant Dax should defend himself though. In Tohko's mind, there were two ways you could defend yourself-with fists and with words. If Dax used his words correctly, in Tohko's mind, there was a good chance that he might come out of this alright.

Tohko then sighed and nodded at that.

"Alright then..if anything happens to you, I'll do my best to help you out, even if Ruana herself comes out of the woodwork to punish you. And, if Dax needs our help in some way, I'm sure we'll both figure out some way to reach him and help him out."

[warriorscribe]

Enoch could only nod. He was doubtful of their ability to help Dax. But he didn't feel like voicing it.

[puppy_lancer]

Lancer had almost been run over by Enoch during the other man's mad dash. He had followed the other man, trying to tell him to watch it, but found him squatting by the request box instead.

"...What, in such a hurry to get your request?"

[warriorscribe]

Enoch just sighed, not looking up from the floor where construction could still be heard. His hair concealed his eyes, but not his mouth.

"It wasn't a request meant for Ruana."

[puppy_lancer]

He frowns. It couldn't simply be a failed request. Not when Enoch was upset enough to destroy the request box.

"...And who exactly was it for? What did it say?"

[warriorscribe]

"It was for Dax. An-..." Enoch cut himself off and looked up at the ceiling. ...Did they have eyes here too? Did Ruana watch through them?

[puppy_lancer]

Lancer also looks up, but he can't see anything suspicious.

"...Well, she already got that request, so it's not like she can do more to punish you now."

[warriorscribe]

"Requests aren't replied to until the start of the new month..." He sighs. "It...isn't myself I'm worried about."

Enoch never was one to do so, and the tower's treatment of death doesn't help him act any less selflessly. As much as he dislikes both dying and putting himself at Jason's mercy.

[puppy_lancer]

"Then who...?"

He can only make one guess.

"...Dax?"