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

[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.

[hachitaro]

It's fine with him. He curls up and purrs, tail resting against the man's wrist.

"Everything will be all right in the end. I've believed it for my whole life and I'm not going to stop now."

[warriorscribe]

"No problem. Everything's fine." A bitter little start of a chuckle, to stand in for right?

He lets out a sigh. "I have too. But there's no denying what we're going through now. And what Dax may go through."

[hachitaro]

"... We have to focus on ourselves, honestly. I wish there was something we could do for him, but we're not as powerful as they are. We have to accept that. Right now we have to concentrate on our own survival - we can worry about him when we have a better position for ourselves."

[warriorscribe]

"Without him, we may never have it. His months are the only chance for anything resembling respite."

Riki was...who even knew what that deal with the obstacle rooms was, and Jason certainly wasn't concerned for their safety at all.

[hachitaro]

"This is true. But we have no real bargaining power to help him. Think of it politically - if you have politics where you're from. They have no reason to listen to us, and we don't have that much we can offer to them or ability to pressure them into doing what we want."

He fluffed up a little in annoyance at that.

[warriorscribe]

"We have our minds, and our strengths. As of now I doubt anyone's even tried..."

Enoch looked down at the now puffed-up kitten and set Taro down on his leg.

[hachitaro]

He mrowed a little, and pawed at Enoch's leg. "We'll work something out, eventually. We just need more information..."

[warriorscribe]

"And we have so few opportunities to get it. I was trying to do so with this request..."

A smile flickered briefly into being for a moment when Taro pawed at his leg, and he put a hand on his back.

[hachitaro]

"We'll come up with something. Chin up. There's always a way."

He arched his back, rubbing against the man's hand, and flopped over to expose his belly.

[warriorscribe]

"I know. But every new way we seem to find is often closed off..."

The return is halfhearted at best. He's trying to pick his own optimism up, too. That tiny smile came back and lingered this time as he touched one of Taro's little paws with his finger - like a pat on the arm, a gesture of thanks.