Ad Visitatores

[animusmods]

Characters: anyone participating in the event
Setting: floor 56 and eventually other areas of the Tower
Format: either
Summary: Welcome to the Tower.
Warnings: horror/creepiness/potential danger/generally unfortunate things all possible
Notes: PLEASE GO HERE TO MAKE NEW POSTS.

A few minutes before anything happens, Ruana's voice rings out over the Tower's intercom--it manages to be louder than anything the residents happen to be doing. "Hey, everyone, there's something exciting going on at floor fifty-six! Go make sure they don't get themselves killed!"


You arrive, stepping or tumbling, in a surgical suite. It looks abandoned, with dust collecting on the table and floors. The lights flicker, and for a moment blood dripping off the table, puddling on the floor--but no, the lights are back, and surely that was your imagination. It's quiet, eerily so, but nothing hinders you, and you're free to spread out and explore. There are multiple rooms here, like in any hospital, and it's all a bit confusing. Occasionally the lights flicker, and it's a bit frightening as Things appear that shouldn't exist. Shadowy creatures stitched together and reaching for you, doctors brandishing phantom surgical tools, blood splattering the walls or floor or ceiling, how did it get there--but none are real, and all of them vanish when the lights return. Eventually you find the staircase, spiraling up and down into darkness. Approach it, though, and the thing glitters with a barrier that will push back any attempts at climbing the thing.

A girl, a teenager dressed in red and black, appears. And she does simply appear, inserting herself into the space, nearly pushing it aside to make room in it for where she is now. Her face beams with unconcealed excitement, and her words tumble out on top of themselves. "You can't go there! Yet, I mean. You'd all die!"

The girl steps onto the staircase, passing through the barrier as if it weren't there, and sits on the steps to address everyone. "Hi! I'm Ruana. You didn't show up the normal way, so the Tower can't support you yet. We got this one floor ready when I saw you were coming but, well, the Tower's kind've big, so getting all of them set up is taking a little longer than I thought." She smiles, sheepishly apologetic in a carefree sort of way. "I've got everyone coming here to visit you--or at least they know they can visit you--and I'll have someone bring food up for you. It'll be oatmeal, and oatmeal is super boring, but you have to eat it, okay? Then you can have whatever you want! The cafeteria's down on the first floor if you get hungry. We should have everything ready in a few hours. I've gotta go help with that, so you guys wait here.

"Don't worry, the monsters can't get to this floor as long as that barrier is up."

And then she's gone, blinking out of existence. The barrier will remain for three hours.

Comments

[evokingfool]

[He knows that figure, and for just a moment, he almost hesitate on approaching him. Does Shinjiro know him? Or knows just Minako? Perhaps he's the version from Minako's world and know him previously from the tower, and merely returned.

He wouldn't know until he ask.

An eighteen year old young man slowly approaches Shinjiro, until he's at a respectable distance.]

Shinjiro-senpai.

[A simple acknowledgement, but also one to test whether or not his senpai knows him.]

[themortalhalf]

[ Though he's hardly the same Shinjiro from the Tower, he knows them both, for better or for worse. His eyes show enough recognition, lacking the usual blankness of a person who has no idea who the hell he's even talking to. There's very little surprise there, just an sudden turn of his head when he hears his name. He just stares at Minato for a moment, feels like something's off. He seems older, somehow. And there's that collar. He doesn't know what to make of it.

He nods once, jerking his head towards Minato's neck, though his hands never leave his pockets.]

What's with the collar?

[evokingfool]

[Minato is older. He's been in the Tower long enough to have one, quiet birthday.

While it's nice to be recognised, the question about the collar told Minato enough.]

Everyone who was brought here received a collar. It's connected to our health and powers. [For the better or worse. He remembers that time when people received the wrong coloured fluid. Minato glance at Shinjiro's neck.] It seems like you don't have one.

[How curious. Either the admins haven't gotten around to putting them on, or there's something unique behind this.]

[themortalhalf]

[Shinjiro's mouth thins, eyes roving around the blood-spattered hospital suite as half-formed shadows flicker across his vision. So he's not the Minato he knows. The reaction's off, and they're nto even close to being on the same page.]

No. Got this. [He gestures to the revival bead necklace dangling around his neck.] Dunno if that makes a difference.

[evokingfool]

[If Minato's bothered by the floor's setting, he doesn't show it. It's creepy, but it's not enough to unsettle him compared to other floors. The other residents might be more affected, though.

He looks at the revival bead, vaguely recognising the item.]

At very least, you won't be a part of the collar checkups. [It's better that way.] But I suspect you might need it.

[He pause for a moment to think.] ...What did they tell you so far?

[themortalhalf]

[Sounds terrific.]

Not much. Just what that girl talked about. Ruana.

She said something about a quarantine and [a beat] that we're stuck eating oatmeal.

[It better not be shit.

That girl had also said something about "monsters," but he can deal with monsters.]

[evokingfool]

[Welcome to the Tower of Animus.

He frowns at Ruana's name.]

What she said about oatmeal is true. You have to eat it first before you can have other food. If you don't, you'll throw up anything else you try to eat.

[He never threw up, but Minato saw his fair number of people who did.]

As for the quarantine, it's new to me but hopefully you'll get out after a while.

[themortalhalf]

[Looks like they even got the goddamn red carpet rolled out for them and everything.

Some welcome this was. The welcome from Hinoto-ri had been just as confusing, but far more pleasant in comparison.

He nods.]

She said it'd be a few hours.

[Not much of a quarantine, but enough. Everyone probably needed that time.

He tilts his head then, silent for a moment, before speaking again, his tone betraying a sliver of interest, though decidedly wary.]

She also said this place was a tower.

[Like Tartarus.]

[evokingfool]

[A few hours aren't so bad. It's enough to spread information and start organising themselves.

When the topic of the tower came up, Minato looks at Shinjiro and simply say.]

Yeah. The Tower of Animus. It's more dangerous than Tartarus.

[By a long shot, and Minato doesn't say something like this very often.]

[themortalhalf]

Getting pretty sick of towers.

[Minato might not be the leader in his timeline, but it's easy to believe him all the same. Tartarus never had this kind of space. Never this complicated either. The floors were vaguely maze-like, but nothing like this.]

How long've you been here?

[evokingfool]

[Let's see, it's February right now...]

A little over a year by now.

[More than long enough for him to adapt and experienced many different things. Where he's glad to see familiar faces, but also know they might deal with the horrors that lurk in the tower.]