Against the brain's better judgment...

[warriorscribe]

Characters: Enoch and anyone (except for one where it's closed to Lucifel and maybe his roommates too)
Setting: Outside room 1-12(closed to Lucifel and maybe his roommates), Floor 2, various
Format: I'm starting in prose but I'll match!
Summary: Enoch has something to give his guardian, and then it's time for his collar checkup. And he'd been promised to have memories returned to him re: his little hiatus trip.
Warnings: Repressed memories are repressed for a reason. Maybe mentions of death, trauma, mention of suicide attempt

Dorm Floor 1

Enoch had returned here after a visit to the mail room, where he'd found two boxes of chocolate, one of them for Lucifel. Tohko sure did take easily to people...he supposed he should be glad for that much, the last thing he wanted was tension between his friends. He stopped outside the room with Lucifel's name on its plate and knocked on the door, hoping Lucifel had slept late too. He'd been either nearly missing or completely missing breakfast, himself, ever since going to Meridian...

...oh, that reminded him, he'd have to go to the infirmary for his collar checkup after this.


Infirmary

The drones had to push him out of the room. Enoch wandered back out into the waiting room, his arms folded tightly. He shook as he picked through the now perfectly clear memories. Of waking beside a corpse. Of wandering under a vileness-red sky, and burying Asato, burying Sissel, burying Ashraf and Michael, and his collapse thereafter, his empty plea to the second level, burying Armaros in the sea(and trying and failing to join him), and the moment it really dawned on him - he was utterly alone. Isolated.

He made his shaky way back to the stairs, nearly running into things and people on his way there. He didn't know where he was going, but he couldn't stand still.

Anywhere else

The tower was much larger now, but Enoch was making his aimless way up the stairs anyway. Not even his usual resting floors, the eleventh and twenty fifth, were stops. He kept his head down, his face tear-stained.

He had forgotten them for a reason. It was intensely painful, recalling those moments of discovering corpses that should not be, interring an immortal's corpse in the sea. They, especially Armaros, they were never meant to leave him, Meridian was supposed to be safe, he had been trying to keep it so. And that soul-rending pain of being utterly isolated, having no one, mortal or otherwise...

...But he had wanted to remember for a reason, hadn't he? He paused where he was on the stairs to the eighteenth floor and looked out at the tables as if he'd never seen them before. So what was important about it that he'd forgotten?

He continued to climb and reflect. And, naturally, not watch where he was going.

Comments

[warriorscribe]

Raphael may have noticed it was the checkup day for blue collars. But the angel could be forgiven for thinking he was sick, with his face drawn and his movements slow and heavy, with his eyes on some distant point beyond the floor.

When Raphael speaks, he stops and looks at him for a long moment, his expression disturbed and far away.

"...Raphael, were you at the gathering our hosts announced?"

[godheals]

He may have noticed, but collar check-ups did not leave one in such a state..at least, in Raphael's experience. However..that expression did not look good, even if Raphael did not know why Enoch was wearing it or where it had come from.

"I was not. What happened there?"

[warriorscribe]

"Questions were answered, mostly about the new visitors....and I asked Jason to restore my memories of my return to Meridian."

Enoch shifts uneasily, from one foot to the other, his eyes flick somewhere off to the side for a moment, and his lips tighten. His grip on his own forearms tightens a little too, indentations in the tops of his gloves pronounced.

[godheals]

...Oh dear. While Raphael hadn't seen Meridian, he remembered what he felt when he looked into those viewfinders. While his empathy was still growing, he could understand what Enoch was feeling here.

At least, so he thought.

"Enoch..I am sorry that you saw that..but..what do you remember of your return?"

[warriorscribe]

"Everything." Enoch swallowed heavily, took a restless step forward. "Let's walk, I can't stand still."

[godheals]

Raphael nodded and started to move forward with Enoch. He wasn't quite sure how to help in a situation like this..but he had failed his role, failed his duties, and failed Enoch before when he hadn't spoke up or managed to help when he was suffering.

Even though God was destroyed, he would not allow himself to fail again. He would do all he could.

"..What specifically, then?"

[warriorscribe]

Enoch glanced over at Raphael, the deathgrip on his arms relaxing a bit as he walked with him.

It was still several flights of stairs before Enoch began to speak. "...It was...as if I'd woken from a dream. Everything was exactly as it was when I left. Except..."

[godheals]

"Except the people that had been in that world were dead."

..Sadly, Raphael didn't know that Armaros and Enoch had shared a house together. If he had, then he might have tried to use a bit more tack with that statement.

[warriorscribe]

Enoch sucked in a breath through his teeth, stumbling over the stairs and coming to a stop as he righted himself.

"...Yes. Except I woke beside a skeleton."

((*tact))

Gah..thanks for catching that. ><; This is more evidence that I shouldn't tag on little sleep.

[godheals]

"Are you alright?"

..Raphael meant physically, obviously. He tried to help Enoch right himself as he replied.

"..Armaros's skeleton?"

No prob ^^

[warriorscribe]

"Yes..."

That was an answer to both. Enoch may be leaning on Raphael a little more than he needs to to stand up.

"...It...There was a place for the tail on his spine. That's how I knew..."

[godheals]

Not that Raphael would mind. It wasn't like he was weak physically, and if Enoch could be helped and healed by leaning, then he would allow it. Rapahel patted Enoch on the back before speaking again.

"I see...I am so sorry to hear that, Enoch. Losing a good friend again like that must have been horrible."

[warriorscribe]

"He wasn't...it was to last this time..."

For the moment, he seemed completely lost in his own thoughts.

[godheals]

"Enoch..if we come from different points on the timeline, then perhaps there are also other copies of our world. It is possible..that a different Armaros might come here."

[warriorscribe]

....Raphael, did you really think that was helpful? Enoch just looks at him, features still drawn and pale, but a hint of something in his eyes, different and hard to read.

[godheals]

...It could have been a small comfort!

While Raphael couldn't quite read what Enoch held in his eyes, he did get the feeling that what he had said hadn't been particularly comforting.

So he thought it out..realized something..and tried again.

"..Of course..it will not be the Armaros you knew and loved. I am sorry, Enoch."

[warriorscribe]

Enoch made a small noise of appreciation at the attempt. He simply wasn't in a state to deal with the angelic stunted empathy with as much patience as he normally had.

Nothing changed the fact that he was gone. Even another Armaros from Meridian...would just be from another Meridian.

[godheals]

And, sadly, Raphael now saw that, even if he hadn't gotten it at first. However..he wasn't quite sure how one comforted someone in this situation. But..he would try.

"..I shall be here, as always, if you need me."

[warriorscribe]

He did need people. People he wanted to see, like Raphael. But how could they help...? Well, not in any active way on their part.

"Could you walk with me a while?"

[godheals]

Raphael nodded.

"I will."

He could do that much, at least.

[warriorscribe]

"I asked for this...because I felt I had forgotten something important..."

Enoch climbed the staircase, making sure he was keeping pace with Raphael. It was comforting, having one of his companions beside him.

Though...didn't that sound familiar, somehow?

[godheals]

Raphael didn't have any trouble keeping pace with Enoch. He may not have been a fighter, but that didn't mean he was weak.

"..What had you forgotten? Or do you still not know?"

[warriorscribe]

"I...I had forgotten so much of it, I don't...it's so painful to think about...I don't know what was important..."

Raphael wouldn't have to move too quickly considering Enoch kept stumbling over the steps or pausing so he didn't do so.

[godheals]

When Enoch stumbled, Raphael tried to help so that the man wouldn't fall.

"Enoch..if it is painful to think about, then calm down and do not think about it right now. It..may be best to wait for awhile until you are calmer to deal with this."

[warriorscribe]

"And if I forget again?" He needed to think through it. He needed to figure out what was important before he pushed it away again...

...if he could push it away. He never asked if Jason would make it impossible to forget...