towerofanimus | (no subject)

Characters: Akihiko and You (Open)
Setting: Cafeteria, Floors 22 and 25
Format: Whatever floats your boat
Summary: Akihiko's back from his dead world, getting back into the swing of tower life and a little unsure what to think about the experience.
Warnings: None at the moment

Cafeteria

There wasn't a lot of food to be found in the ruins of his world, and he's lost some weight from lack of nourishment. Most everything he ate was in a can or vacuum-sealed. Everything full of preservatives and cold.

It's fortunate that the cafeteria has a somewhat normal menu upon his return. It's not good for his regiment to eat so much, but letting go one time can't hurt, especially after what happened.

Hell, he can even tolerate the candy hearts that seem to have ended up into everything.

Floor 22

Akihiko's nothing of an art critic, but today the gallery catches his interest, as he catches a glance of a painting depicting children playing together in a room. There are two boys and a little girl in it, one boy and the girl with short, fair hair and the other dark brown. Their faces are turned away from the the viewer.

As he goes to leave, another work catches his eye. It consists of orange and red lengths of yarn glued in shapes to a collage of brick textures that look like they've been cut out of a home improvement catalog. In fact, closer examination of the cutouts shows white space from around the images, and their glossy feel is the same as magazine paper. It wouldn't be so horrific if the yarn hadn't been adhered to the canvas in the shape of flames. That and the piece kind of smells like smoke...

The art is so unsettling but he can't pull himself away just yet.

Floor 25

Nobody seems to be ~~sleeping~~ in the meadow, so Akihiko decides to do a few practice maneuvers here. It's the closest thing to a pleasant day outside he can get anymore.

He wouldn't be against someone wanting to join him, to spar or even just talk.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Fortunately for Ryoji, Akihiko hasn't reached the point in his life where Ryoji appears, so for now, they're strangers to each other.

The voice calling his name isn't familiar, but he turns to address the person anyway. He's wearing parts of the Gekkoukan uniform, it looks like. Maybe he's an underclassman that ended up here? Hidetoshi had been taken to the tower as well, so it made sense.]

Yeah?

Ah, I guess you don't know me. S-Sorry.

[Ryoji offers a hand, polite but clearly nervous.]

I'm Ryoji Mochizuki. I'll be going to school at Gekkoukan in November.

[Akihiko takes it and gives it a firm shake.]

Ah. That's not too far away for me. I arrived here when it was October. Nice to meet you, Mochizuki.

I-I see.

[They're close then. Ryoji doesn't want to scare Akihiko, especially not when this version has just met him... but he'll have to remember to tell him later.]

So, I didn't know we had an art gallery here...

Yeah. [He looks around again at the series of strange artworks.]

I don't know much about art, but a lot of these pieces are a little too creepy for me.

[Ryoji takes a look at one of the nearby pieces, noticing a large winged shadow hovering over a tower, and immediately turns away, shivering.]

Y-Yeah. Seems like they're trying to show us exactly what we don't want to see.

[Maybe it's not a good idea to keep Ryoji here. The artwork seems to be more of a trigger to him than Akihiko.]

The lounge might be a better place to talk. I can't stand that burning smell much longer.

[Akihiko is probably the only one who can smell it.]

[Ryoji tries to hold in a sigh of relief at Akihiko's suggestion. He really did need to get out of here.

...He's not going to question the burning. He knows Akihiko went through a lot, even if he doesn't know the details.]

Yeah, let's go.

[Please let them get out of here before they spot any other foreboding pieces.]

[Akihiko goes further down to the media room on floor 14, where they had the movie party last year. The creepy face that likes to pop up on screen from time to time is less threatening than the artwork opening up old wounds.]

[Ryoji's only been in here a few times, but he has enjoyed himself. A nice movie or video game would be a welcome distraction, but for now, if Akihiko would like to talk, he will.]

[Akihiko's not much of a gamer. He didn't have a lot of exposure to them as a child, and he's always too busy training to really get into a 'quiet' hobby. But maybe right now would be a good time to try them out.]

This should do for now.

[He takes a seat on one of the couches and enjoys a deep breath of non-smoky air.]

[Ryoji would be more than happy to show him how to play... but maybe a little later. Right now, Ryoji needs to just stay calm.]

Yeah, this is perfect. Thanks.

...You didn't see the painting I saw, did you?

What did it look like?

[There were a lot of forgettable pieces. They may have had meaning to others, but Akihiko didn't feel particularly connected to the others. He can vaguely remember a few landscapes and paintings of still life scenes aside from the ones 'aimed' at him, but that's it.]

[He doesn't want to talk about what it looked like. If he mentions it, then he'll probably have to explain everything to Akihiko. He knows he has to anyways, but... so soon?]

It had a tower on it. And there was some sort of monster above it...

[Towers and monsters. The story of his teenage life. Ryoji never mentioned Tartarus or anything that might be related to that, so perhaps the tower and monster he saw is related to being in the Tower?]

I didn't catch it. I wouldn't worry about it though. I think it's just the tower's way of trying to shake us up.

... Right. It's nothing important. I hope those paintings weren't too bad for you.

[He's careful not to mention anything he shouldn't know about, including Tartarus or Shadows. He can admit all of that later, once Akihiko's a little more settled here, right?]