answers and questions [open]

[animusnpcs]

Characters: Dax, Riki, Jason, and Zo; open
Setting: cafeteria, after lunch, February 10
Format: either
Summary: Some of the administrators answer questions.
Warnings: possible language, possible violence


This question and answer session was obviously hastily-planned. Ruana isn't here, but the others are, though for the most part they don't look quite at their best. Zo looks half asleep and distracted, having slid his chair close enough to the wall that he can lean on it to catch a bit of extra sleep in the middle of this session. Jason, usually improbably neat for his often messy, bloody profession looks wrinkled and tired, like he's been spending one too many nights in surgery. Dax looks entirely exhausted, and every time the lights in the cafeteria flicker that exhaustion only seems to grow worse as he looks more concerned. Only Riki seems himself--but then again, he's always been stoic and silent, so reading him in general is a difficult task. It's Dax who speaks once enough people are assembled.

"Greetings, residents--I'm sure you know the four of us by now. And guests, welcome--you probably don't know of us. I'm Dax, and these are Riki, Jason, and Zo." Dax gestures to each one in turn. "We are four of the administrators of this Tower. As you may have guessed, we weren't exactly planning on visitors, and you weren't brought through the same channels. Still, we thought this would be a good time to answer a few questions. With the network--down--we have opted to speak to you in person."

"If you try to attack us, you'll regret it," Jason says from his seat, and while Dax looks sidelong at him neither man can seem to muster the energy for a proper verbal sparring.

"Okay, the floor is open to questions," Dax says, just barely managing a smile. "We will answer what we can."

Comments

[justabignobody]

[Nope, no mistakes here; he is right not to assume. Riku takes note of that flicker of alarm and is admittedly, kind of surprised by it - the last time he had a 'chat' with Zexion, the other had been downright patronizing and hardly anywhere near feeling threatened.

It's just like he's though before... something is changed with this particular incarnation of the Nobody. He keeps his voice in the same careful, neutral tone as before.]

Hm. They do that at times.

[They've done it with Axel, with Roxas, with Vanitas... it probably shouldn't come a surprise that Zexion is back as well he supposes. (He can't have nice things after all.)]

[grimgrimoire]

'At times'? [More like constantly, Riku. Even you should be able to realize that they are always looking for new people to make suffer in safety instead of simply just letting them die with the rest of the world. He was going dangerous places with that comment, he knew, but oh well.]

[justabignobody]

[Well, of course they always bring new people but that isn't what he is referring too. So yeah, have a shrug.]

It seems that there are some people they are more 'fond' of then others. [A pause.] And some they are so 'fond' of that they have two of them around at the same time.

[He adds this almost in afterthought.]

Somehow I didn't get this tag until now, sorry!

[grimgrimoire]

[Two of them, he says. Riku looks old enough, so surely he remembers the Replica... but that can't be what he's talking about right now, right? Otherwise he would be talking with a bit more familiarity about the creation that shared his face... still, the alternative is to accept that there can be two people who are exactly alike in this Tower, and that's WEIRD.]

How so?

It's okay; I'm being pretty slow myself. orz

[justabignobody]

[Oh, he certainly remembers the Replica - how can he not when said person sleeps in the bed right next to him. Riku notes that Zexion can't have been in the tower for all that long yet, if he hasn't run into that particular phenomena yet. Doubles aren't that much of a rarity after all, and to Riku by far not as weird as they had been when he had first arrived.]

Alternate Universes. Places created by the difference of choice, circumstance and destiny.

[grimgrimoire]

I see.

[Well that makes much more sense. There's a difference between the two of them, not just two copies of the same! Clones seemed kind of pointless in a place like this. And whatever enables the administration to take people from their home world also enables them to take people from multiple versions of the same world as well. It's really fascinating stuff, and he would have loved to study it, if he hadn't been living the negative side effects for the duration of his stay. ...Actually he still wanted to study it, kind of. But details.]

Are you one of the people who has a double here, then?

[justabignobody]

[It figures that Zexion is someone who'd take that particular oddity of the tower in a stride. Then again... given how their home universe works, it doesn't seem all that weird after the initial moment of '...Huh.', or at least that's what Riku thinks.

Also... if that is his way to ask for volunteers... well, Riku refuses. >.>;

At the question he shrugs, the smallest hint of a mischievous smirk flickering over his face.]

Who knows...

[He is well aware that he's pretty much answered the question already, but... he is a bit of a special case, all things considered. There may just be two real Rikus in the tower... but as to people with Riku's face? Well... He's going to leave the Nobody to discoverer that for himself.

He turns serious again a second later though, deciding to finally stop dancing around what had bothered him enough to start this conversation... and to keep it in such a neutral tone.]

You too... [His eyes narrow slightly.] You are different... from both, the Zexion I engaged back home and the one I once encountered here.

[Something is different about the man before him, and admittedly it's driving Riku crazy that he can't pin down what. Apart of the cloths, of course.]

[grimgrimoire]

[It's not his way of asking for volunteers! Honest. Why don't you believe him, Riku, that's really mean. That said, even though the comment was a little... threatening, it wasn't entirely untrue. No one could ever be sure who was a Rikuface and who wasn't — or an Ienzoface, as the case may be.]

[The second observation freezes that comment in its tracks, though, and if there was any sign of a softer expression on his face, it's gone now.]

Well, I would hope so, seeing as I am not Zexion.