towerofanimus | Against the brain's better judgment...

Entry tags:

Against the brain's better judgment...

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.

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"Oh, so you have spoken to her about this?" Lucifel raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "She asked me about your story quite eagerly."

"I did. Or, I tried." Enoch looked over his own note. "She can be...impatient."

"I noticed that as well." He shook his head slightly. "Her stubbornness does remind me of someone." It's certainly not the same kind of stubbornness as Enoch's but Tohko really is stubborn.

"Yes, but without the patience to temper it." Enoch chuckled fondly.

At that point, the intercom came to life, reminding the tower that residents with a blue collar were to report to the infirmary for their collar checkup some time today.

"...Ah..."

And now Enoch looked a little apprehensive, turning his box of chocolates over in his hands a bit.

The Archangel looked at the collar the other wore. So it was Enoch's turn. It made him wonder when he would be called for a checkup... and what would happen if he were to tell them 'no'.

"Better get this over as soon as possible right?"

Enoch made a noncommittal noise and nodded. "It's...I asked our hosts to restore the memories of my return to Meridian that I'd forgotten. It would happen during this..."

"Did you? Tell me how it goes once you are back, will you?" Lucifel leaned against the doorframe, his smile not fading. That could get interesting...

Enoch looked up at Lucifel, his apprehension suddenly focused on him for the moment.

"...Will you come with me?"

He knows Raphael is there in the infirmary, but...Lucifel's presence has been a three-century constant, after all.

Okay, he wouldn't have thought that Enoch would ask him to come along. ... Then again, he had promised.

"If it's okay for me to come along. Then I will see what will await me."

He would just need to give him a bit of time to get his hair done.

"Thank you..."

Enoch would wait outside for him as long as it took. He could go to the infirmary at any point during the day, after all..

"Don't mention it."

Then Enoch should be prepared to wait for some time, because it takes almost and hour for him to do his hair. While he could skip forward, this was something he would take all the time he needed for.

That was fine. Lucifel would find Enoch sitting and waiting patiently, apparently having been able to occupy himself. When Lucifel comes out, Enoch looks up at him with a little smile and steps closer to him.

"I have no idea what to expect...I've never had memories returned to me..."

Though he could have every missing chapter of his life restored this way...something about that doesn't sit right with him. The only reason he asked for this was because he felt he was forgetting something important...

Everything is fine when it's Enoch, isn't it? It's so much like him to wait there so patiently.

"It's the best not to expect anything at all."

They would see what effect if would have on the scribe, even though it might be cruel of Lucifel to just think of it as some sort of entertainment while stuck in this place.

Some things, the tower hasn't broken.

"To...expect nothing?"

To Lucifel's credit, he has no way of knowing just what it will do, does he?

And he is glad about that.

"Yes, nothing and everything."

None of them knows what it would do. Yet should it be horrible he would have to reduce the damage that might be done to the scribe.

"I...think I understand." Let it happen...well, that's what he has to do either way. Enoch looks down the hall at the elevator and starts heading towards it, used to needing to use it rather than having Lucifel around - Lucifel can follow him, teleport there himself and wait, or just catch up and teleport them both.

"That's good." Lucifel smiled at him and walked with him, wanting to do a human thing for once. He followed him the rest of the way.

Lucifel could wait with him in the waiting room, but the worker units didn't let him follow him into the examination room.

A few minutes passed. A few minutes longer than other blue-collars were taking.

Then Enoch was more or less pushed out of the waiting room, where he stood in a daze, his face pale and his eyes wide and full of tears. He took one or two faltering steps forward and went still again, arms crossed tightly and his fingers gripping his upper arms.

How come he had expected that much? Well, then he would just wait outside...

When the Archangel saw the tear stained face of the scribe he choose not to make any remarks about how it went. It was pretty obvious after all. "Enoch...?" Lucifel got up and stepped closer to the scribe.

Enoch focused on Lucifel through the haze of his tears. He opened his mouth to reply, but all that came out was a small sound, and he closed his eyes and shook his head, stepping towards Lucifel.

Hopefully this wasn't scaring the new blue-collars, but...Enoch was nowhere near in control of his emotions at the moment. Maybe they should go somewhere else.

It was probably better to get out of here as quick as possible. With a quick flick of his fingers Lucifel got them away from the infirmary, to an elevator that was close by. The last thing he needed was people staring at them like they were animals at the zoo and ask why Enoch cried or why Lucifel didn't do a thing to calm him down or comfort him.

*That would be the tower's residential elevator! They could go to the bottom of any block or to the top of the dormitories.

Enoch was just going to shuffle past that last bit of distance and lean on him.*

I remember...

Right, Enoch had said that he would have memories returned to him. But what kind of memories? Lucifel pushed a button of the elevator, waiting for it to come.

"And what exactly do you remember now?"

It might be better to wait for him to calm down, hopefully he didn't push him too much into talking about what he just experienced. Enoch already looked like he was having a breakdown.

More credit to Lucifel for letting Enoch lean on him.

"I woke...and..."

He needed a moment, burying his head against Lucifel's shoulder or neck or whatever he was able to rest it against at the moment.

Lucifel was still obviously uncomfortable with being touched by others. Right now he was barely tolerating the contact with the scribe, but endured it. He could skip forward but he had wanted to know what the other was remembering.

"Yes?"

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