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

[godheals]

Sadly, Raphael did not know of that time, and nor did he have much previous experience to help Enoch deal with this.

But..he would try.

Raphael kept walking alongside Enoch and kept his hand on Enoch's shoulder. He wasn't much of a talker in these situations..but if Enoch had something to say, needed to talk..he would be here.

[warriorscribe]

"Everything was exactly as I'd left it..." Enoch's voice was quiet, distracted.

[godheals]

"..Exactly? Even though the world was destroyed?"

[warriorscribe]

"It was aged...but nothing was out of place." Enoch paused on the twentieth floor, shivering out of cold now as he stepped off the staircase to watch the snow gather on the edges of the floor where the wind swept it in. He wasn't wearing his cloak today. But Enoch seemed to want to watch the snow for now as he talked.

"I...fell asleep in my cloak, f-for warmth, and with my sandals on. I had no c-cloak in Meridian, and m-my sandals were on th-the floor...where I n-normally..."

...He took a step back, closer to Raphael. It was a degree below zero at the time, and even in this state, he recognized it was probably better to leave for his own safety.

[godheals]

"Nothing moved due to erosion and time.."

Raphael noticed that his friend was shivering and sighed. He could heal injuries-which included frostbite-but he couldn't heal or stop Enoch from feeling chilly.

"Enoch..it is nice to know that Meridian was warmer..but it is gone now. Let us go and warm up..and calm down."

That last part was directed more at Enoch than Raphael.

[warriorscribe]

Enoch would go wherever Raphael led him.

"Nor did I. Armaros's....Armaros...he would've been...disturbed."

[godheals]

Raphael forced himself to not sigh and started moving his friend out of the room and onto the stairs, directing him by his shoulder.

"Isn't it odd then, that neither of you were?"

..Where was Raphael going with this? If one didn't know better, one would say he had been hanging out with Michael way too long.

[warriorscribe]

"Exactly...that's exactly..."

Hopefully he was going the same way Enoch was going.

[godheals]

He was, thankfully. Normally, he would just head back to the infirmary, but there was no way he was going to leave Enoch alone in this state.

"That's exactly..?"

[warriorscribe]

With the subject matter - Enoch was obviously walking the same way as Raphael considering he was letting the Archangel lead him.

Though he seems to have come to a halt on the stairs, staring straight ahead in the realization he was piecing together. That's exactly it, what was so important he'd suffer this.

"...My body did not move."

[godheals]

And the Archangel was leading him downstairs, to where it was warmer. He was still keeping on the steps though. Normally, he would go to the infirmary, but considering that's where Enoch just left, that might not be the best idea.

At least..he was leading him until Enoch stopped.

"Your soul did. It is as I first suspected then-our souls were what was pulled to this world."

[warriorscribe]

"Yes...these bodies are man-made."

Despite the gravity of the realization...Enoch just seems tired, letting his scrutiny of the memory fall and its painful sharpness just be. He sags backwards against Raphael.

[godheals]

Raphael would do his best to support Enoch as they moved down the stairs and, when they came outside the library, guided him in. There were a few desks with chairs here that Enoch could probably sit down in.

"..It does seem that way. out of what, I do not know. But if they have only pulled our souls here, then they must have manufactured our bodies."

[warriorscribe]

Enoch slumped into the first chair Raphael guided him to, his head on the table.

"They seem to be ordinary flesh..."

[godheals]

And Raphael would just sit down in the seat across Enoch.

"Not everything here is as it appears to be."

[warriorscribe]

"Mm...I don't think it's different enough to matter. It behaves and appears the way flesh should."

Enoch clearly isn't all that disturbed by it. Maybe it's the tiredness doing it. In fact, any thought on what else it could be just tires him further. He figured out what he'd had that memory unlocked to figure out. The specifics could come later. He just wanted the pain to fade now, to relax.

[godheals]

And Raphael, who was usually only concerned with the quality of the soul, wasn't that bothered by it either.

"It probably does not matter. Even if our original bodies were lost, as long as the soul is fine, then it is alright."

[warriorscribe]

"They weren't...lost, I think. I didn't wake within a skeleton in Meridian..."

He tenses up and shivers. That was a thought he'd rather not have wandered to...

[godheals]

"Perhaps..if your soul is fine, so is your original body, even if it not moving or aging. It might be something Zo can do with his psionics."

By the way..

"Enoch..Lucifel told me what psionics are. It refers to the practice, study, or psychic ability of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples for this include empathy, telepathy, telekinesis, and other workings of the outside world through the psyche."

[warriorscribe]

"...That is, essentially magic."

He can't really see much of a difference.

"...'Empathy'? I assume that means something other than simply understanding someone else."

Though he wouldn't put it past Lucifel to call it "paranormal" - he may not be familiar with the word but he could at least break it into its roots and figure out that way.

[godheals]

"..Perhaps. However, it seems to be magic that is affected by physical things, alterations in the brain or soul that can make a person do these things."

If Raphael was the type to normally chuckle, he would have at the next statement.

"You would be correct. It would be the ability to literally feel everything that a person was going through as if it were happening to you."

[warriorscribe]

"I see. An extension of normal empathy..."

Enoch closes his eyes. "So... Zo can draw souls to himself. Ruana can watch things from afar..." And walk, whatever sort of psionics that was.

"...The others, I don't know."

[godheals]

"Nor do I. However, this small snippet of information is much better than what we both started out with."

[warriorscribe]

"Yes. It...may change little, but...it's best we understand."

Enoch sighs. He should raise his head, so he doesn't fall asleep on the table. But forcing himself to examine such painful memories in detail has exhausted him.

[godheals]

At that, Raphael nodded but said nothing until Enoch sighed. While he had no idea just how tired Enoch was, it looked like his friend was going to fall asleep in the library.

"..You should get some rest, Enoch."