towerofanimus | Sinking In

Who: Cain Knightlord and YOU
Where: Cafeteria
Format: Either is fine with me
Warnings: None

Cain was struggling.

They had been here for days now, eight now to be precise, and still they had come no closer to discovering a mission objective. His stomach had grown more knotted each day they awoke in those beds in that room, a rising sensation of undeniable truth - however insane it seemed. The logic that he had used to prove this was a simulation at the start, seemingly so incontrovertible, was slowly dissolving as time passed without change.

Firstly, their superiors would never have left them inside a simulation for eight days if they were making no headway. They would have been pulled free and reprimanded, perhaps even properly punished (though that was unlikely now they were adults), and sent back to their duties. A week was a long time on the colony, and there was no way that they both could have been spared for this long. Secondly, he had never seen such a variety of programs with such diverse and full personalities; they were well-rounded and independent in a way that simulated people never could be, and each time he met someone new it made the doubt grow.

Of course, he was sure that Abel would be having none of it. That if he told his brother that he was starting to consider the possibility of other worlds and a kidnapping tower, then Abel would have him restrained to the bed until psychiatric help could be brought. Either that, or he'd punch him and be done with it. And he wouldn't blame Abel if he did, this was absolutely ludicrous as a situation, and every time he thought about it logically, then his mind wanted to strangle itself for even contemplating that it could be true.

Torn, lost, confused; Cain had become more withdrawn as the days had gone on. Until it had culminated in a rather dejected blond man sat in the cafeteria, pushing food around on his plate without any interest in actually eating it. When he spoke, it was to nobody in particular, just exhaling his frustration to himself.

"...this can't be real. How can it be? How can--?"

[ooc: Open as an open thing, everyone welcome!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Something more formal should have been made, even if it were scratched onto a wall."

He might take up the task himself, except that would be accepting the possibility he might be there a while.

Suzaku nodded, it was a good idea one that he wouldn't have thought of himself. But he was a soldier, not an officer, not a Lord, not a leader. "I would be happy to assist, as I say I have explored the place and have a decent mental map myself."

"I'd appreciate your assistance, perhaps we could work from the ground floor upwards?"

He would get a piece of stone or wood, and carve the map into place if no paper or pens were available.

Suzaku nodded and stood up, going to salute by putting his arm over his chest before he even realised what he was doing. "Shall we get started..." He said awkwardly.

Cain was well used to people saluting him and obeying his orders by now, that the gesture barely registered as odd until Suzaku's awkwardness afterwards.

"Do you have something sharp to scratch into the wood?"

Suzaku thought for a moment and then nodded, "I will return," he went to the cutlery to find a knife, it should be sharp enough, he didn't have his sword with him or any kind of dagger.

"Here," he returned, "Where shall we make it?"

Cain picked up his congealing plate of ice cream and let the mixture slide onto the table, before rubbing it clean with a corner of his sleeve.

"We'll scratch it into this plate, we'll use a plate per floor so gather some others."

Suzaku did the same with his plate, not wanting the ice cream anyways and nodded before going to gather a pile of plates counting out twenty one. He returned to the table and put the plates down carefully. "There."

"This floor has this room, a kitchen and two elevators, one no one can enter and the other goes to the first floor of bedrooms only."

Starting by scratching in a rough square and marking it with the words 'Mess Hall', he handed another plate to Suzaku.

"You take this up a level and mark all the first floor bedrooms, names on the doors and corridors, then meet me back here."

Suzaku took the plate and stood again giving the same hand over chest salute. "Yes my Lord." Without even realising his formality he walked to the elevator and made his way up to the first floor of bedrooms. It took perhaps twenty minutes to go to each door and scratch the name written there onto the plate. His writing was tiny but very neat. He wrote in Britannian even though he had no idea if languages differed through the worlds.

There were seventy five rooms in total so the plate was full of tiny writing by the time Suzaku returned to the cafeteria to hand it back.

Cain had neatly transcribed this floor onto his plate and sorted the others into two stacks. Although he was a little distracted as he worked... My Lord? Why was this relative stranger referring to him that way? Not that he wasn't used to deference (albeit, sometimes grudgingly) from his subordinates, but there was a distinct difference between 'Major' and 'Lord'.

"That looks great, I've divided the remaining plates into two stacks, so you start at the top and work down. I'll start at the bottom and work up, we'll meet in the middle."

Suzaku nodded and saluted again before taking one of the stacks of plates. "We shall meet on floor ten then." He gave Cain another formal salute and left with the plates.

It took him a good while to record all the floors. The open space with the ramp to the first floor of dorms, the second library; Suzaku made a note of roughly where the different subject sections were as well. The study room, the room of bloody handprints and screaming, the room that seemed to be a bottomless pit, the workshop, media room, cathedral, the room with the visions of exploding universes, the room with no walls and the waterfall and finally the aquarium. For each room Suzaku drew the basic layout, where the doors, any windows and staircases were. He waited on floor ten for Cain.

Cain hadn't been aware there were so many... odd... levels to this tower, so he takes rather more time than Suzaku as he explores while he catalogues. But eventually he makes it up to floor ten as well, looking at the plates his comrade in arms had drawn up.

"They look great, I'm going to take them to the library for better organising; perhaps copy them onto something more durable."

Suzaku nodded, "Perhaps if we went to the study room first we could find something better to draw them onto." He looked through the plates until he found floor eighteen to show Cain.

"Actually, I should be getting back to my brother, he'll probably be worried."

Cain gave Suzaku an apologetic smile. "Perhaps we can meet up another time to get it done?"

"Of course, I should be going also," Suzaku had no intention at all of running into Cain's crazy brother. He gave another salute and a smile and left the room.

Sinking In

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Have put up a new entry of him in the library with the plates <3

Awesome <3