towerofanimus | Something Unexpected

Entry tags:

Something Unexpected

Characters: characters selected to go into the elevator
Setting: the admin levels
Format: any
Summary: The admin elevator has been left open, its destination preprogrammed. Where is it going to take you?
Warnings: general horror warnings for now

The elevator doesn't announce itself when its doors slide open. There's no alarm, no message to be found about it. It sits open and waits for anyone curious enough to enter. There's a barrier on it that locks out anyone without a collar, and it isn't going to stay long, but aside from that there appears to be no security. There's nothing stopping someone--or multiple someones--from climbing into the elevator and going down.

Where's it going? Who knows.

Hub Area
A lounge area with sofas and chairs. It's large enough to hold the entire group, constructed similarly to the dorm rooms, and is connected to five doors.

Door One
???

Door Two
???

Door Three
???

Door Four
???

Door Five
???

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[At Jason's order, the units began to move, and Gamzee began to get self-destructive with his attempts to break free of their hold. Thrashing against the metal tore his clothes and the skin beneath it, leaving splashes of purple in a trail behind them. Clawing broke his nails, screaming obscenities scratched his voice.]

[He didn't want to lose it. He had Tavros to think about. With all of them being carried at once, he was sure the rest of the group was about to endure the same thing he was - whatever the hell that may be, he wasn't looking forward to having any part of it. If he could break out of this unit, he could try busting up the other ones. It wasn't giving so far, though.]

[Farther away slipped their chances of exacting a proper beatdown on the administrator, and the fog from the elevator down had shorted his chucklevoodoos. Where there was usually a stream of dark consciousness able to extend from his mind to others', there was now nothing. It infuriated him beyond words to be so powerless, and that was probably why he had such little strength to fight these things off with. If he couldn't touch Jason physically, he'd at least try to assault his eardrums with his furious screeching.]

MOTHERFUCKING CANDY-VEINED HUMAN!!!

REND OUR MOTHERFUCKING SOULS AND BE UP AND ALL FUCKING FITTED WITH THE DIVINE PUNISHMENT OF THE MIRTHFUL LORDS.

TEAR YOUR FAITHLESS PUMP BISCUIT OUT YOUR MOTHER FUCKING SHELL AND RAIN GLITTERSHARDS UP IN THEM DIVINITY-BLIND GANDERBULBS.

IN THE NAME OF THE MESSIAHS

WE WILL MOTHER FUCKING RISE A MOTHERFUCKING GAIN.

[Meiling is also thrashing about. She's scared but at the same time, her rage and anger takes over and over rides that fear.

She wants top protect those that are also down there with them, everyone with her and the ones who are unaware of all of this...

Remilia...Sakuya...Wriggle...Marisa...She had to fight for a way to protect them and the others. She had to!]

KILL US NOW AND YOU ARE ONLY GIVING US MORE REASONS TO FIGHT. YOU WILL NOT STOP US

[Jason looks rather displeased with being spat on, but he wipes it off and handles it remarkably well for how furious he's been--though, with that look in his eyes, it's likely because of the prospect of an experiment.]

Haven't I told you over and over you can't die here? I've never killed you. Still, usually we wipe your memory of everything that happens to you between your bodies becoming unable to work and returning to your rooms, so this will be an interesting test, don't you think?

[The retrieval units carry the four up to the dome, which expands accordingly. The four of them are placed in it, and in an instant it closes around them.

Then the liquid, violet in color, begins filling up the sphere. They'll find, though, that they breathe perfectly fine in it.]

[SHE'LL TAKE IT. It's not the punch in Jason's face she's been wanting to throw at him ever since that month in his pod started, but she'll take it. Actually landing a hit of some kind is more than good enough.

But there's not a whole lot she can say after that. She's said her piece and yelling even more isn't going to do a whole lot to change it now.

She starts to shake as they approach the top of the platform and that sphere closes around them. That liquid filling it up doesn't seem that different from water, but it's still more frightening than any ocean she's seen.]

...I'm sorry. For dragging you into this.

[And she holds out her hands to the others. It's small comfort, she knows, but anything that might help...]

[As the liquid surrounds them, Gamzee's shouts deteriorate, but his struggling continues. Instead of bucking and throwing punches, his fingers were now clamping around the collar on his neck, tugging it out of fear of drowning. His entire life he'd only received one piece of advice - not to go near the ocean. He'd always broken that rule, wading out there desperately in the middle of the night. When he'd hit an unexpected dropoff, he'd struggle much like he was doing now. After they were submerged, however, and the purple had camouflaged his bloody wounds, he realized that breathing was still a thing that was happening. There was no liquid in his lungs or throat.]

[At Feferi's apology, he said nothing. Gamzee had never been one for teams. He always wandered off by himself, going at his own pace, and now that he'd grown even more distant from the lack of sopor, he didn't care enough to respond or take her hand. Instead, one hand remained around his throat, the other's fingers twining in the hem of Tavros' jacket, and he closed his eyes. What better way to die than in the peace of prayer?]

Holy humorists, guard our motherfuckin' laughybits against the stoic science.

Love you, Tav.

[Meiling just looked to the others, a sad look on her face as she shakes her head. This did not turn out as well as she hoped but...Maybe the others could find things out that they could not. maybe they distracted Jason enough to get them further in.

She didn't know but took Feferi's hand in hers and smiled softly as the liquid enveloped them. She was scared and didn't know what to expect but..She would stay strong until the end.]

I think we all have to take some blame in this, so don't be sorry. I just wish there was more we could do.

[The machine hums around them as the sphere shrinks. At first the pressure is something that could at least be called normal, like wearing an outfit too small. But then it gets tighter and tighter, and soon there's a feeling like they've been pushed to the very backs of their bodies.

When there's no farther back for them to be pushed, there's pain. Unimaginable pain, like they're being torn out of their bodies. Fingers twitch and limbs jerk or stop working abruptly--the loss of control is gradual but chaotic.

Then they're floating, trapped in individual bubbles picked up by retrieval units. Their bodies are being carried off. The pain is fading, slowly.

They're still fully conscious. They're still capable of observing. They're capable of speaking, too, though their voices won't carry much beyond the immediate area.]

[Feferi manages to find one of Tavros' hands, giving it a light squeeze, and linking the four of them together. Gamzee might not have thought much of the idea, but this had been a trial by fire. You didn't go through a trial by fire and not come out the other side linked together in some way, and she intended to link them all together before what was sure to be the worst of it.]

It's - we did everything we could. After this, we get the story out there. I'll find you all, on the other side of whatever this is. I promise.

[That's all she can manage before the pressure gets to be too much to speak. She can't even manage a scream, not physically, during the worst of the pain. It's worse than anything she'd felt during that long month. It's worse than all of those previous "deaths" in the tower combined.

Feferi knows that further down her own timeline, she dies at the hand of her moirail, but she also knows that even in a state of rage, Eridan wouldn't make her suffer like this. It just keeps going, down to where she can't move her legs anymore, to the last twitches of her fingers, down to the last minute movements of her eyelids.

Then the pain finally starts to fade, all she feels is floating, and she sees - no. Doesn't see. See isn't the right word, when her body is being carried off. And she shouldn't be able to speak, but she instinctively knows that she can. Feferi senses the other bubbles, but she has to ask anyway:]

...are you there?

[At first, Gamzee was serene, feeling each fiber of the jacket between his fingers, even when the pressure started getting uncomfortable. His limbs tried to maneuver themselves to Tavros' hands after a few moments of crushing, but they suddenly lost all motor skills, jerking off to the side while he desperately tried to reclaim them. His fingers clenched and unclenched, his back spasmed and his neck jerked, but it didn't matter after a while, because the pain grew so intolerable that his mouth open in a scream. He wasn't sure if it was silent, because he wasn't able to hear anything anyway. His body was failing him, but at the same time his nerve endings seemed to be working overtime. He was being torn apart, skin and bones and tissue and organs ripped from each other, but somehow remaining intact.]

[He wanted to pass out. He wanted to die. He wanted to do anything that wasn't feeling this much pain. ANYTHING.]

[After a blank whiteness, he was watching his body. He didn't know where he was watching it from, but he couldn't move, couldn't feel anything like he could while he was alive. Was he a ghost!? Was he...]

[This machine. It extracted souls. Was he... was he his soul!?]

[What a filthy thing to be.]

Wh... what the fuck...

[This pain was more then Meiling had ever felt in her life. She tries to scream as the pain takes over but her voice will not cooperate. Her body twitches as it starts stilling.

She never thought her fate was to die here, That her Mistress had long ago changed her fate to stand guard over her family for as long as they lived. Dying in battle to make sure they lived maybe? But this was not what she had hoped.

But then nothing..She could see and hear voices but..what was going on..Was she..

There is a gasp as she catches on.]

Are we...Everyone still here?

[The retrieval units carry them into the very room they were banging on before. Jason has finished fixing Sheba in the time their extraction took--she's sitting in a device, unconscious. Jason addresses a free retrieval unit in regards to Sheba.]

Put her in the recovery room as usual.

[He turns to the four of them, then.]

I hope that experience was interesting for all of you?

[They're placed into a container while the retrieval units vanish for the moment.]

I suppose by your definition of finteresting.

[Feferi can't glare right now, otherwise she would be. Her voice might sound a lot more tired than it had been - that kind of experience would take a toll on anyone, and it has certainly taken one on her - but it still has the same fighting spirit it had before.

She still isn't going to say much, though.]

[It was still such a foreign feeling, being outside of his own body like this. Jason had done some pretty fucked up shit to him before, but nothing of this caliber. Gamzee wasn't one to stew in his weakness, however. At least not publicly. He'd screamed in agony twice now in front of this son of a bitch, and he didn't intend to embarrass himself further. It was time to stuff his anxiety down, and steel himself for whatever was next.]

Not quite all what I fuckin' meant when I motherfuckin' was up an' askin' on your ass to make me somethin' else.

[If soul orbs could scoff, then that statement would be followed by a soul-scoff. Keep up the attitude, Gamzee. It sure got you far before.]

[Meiling is going to stay quiet at this point because she is tired. Raging like that, fighting like a man woman and the that? Even her soul was exhausted to the point of just stewing in this mess.

So no words from her but if she could glare, she would be glaring SO HARD. She's still pretty upset but not enough to speak any further. She didn't trust what she might say.]

[The retrieval units return with bodies--their bodies, or at least some versions of them.]

Now, normally this all gets erased from your memories, but you did seem extraordinarily interested in the process, with all the noise you were making.

[With a tap of a button the table expands to fit all four bodies, which are placed side by side. The retrieval units, thus relieved, gather up Jason's surgical tools.]

[Feferi can't feel nausea right now, not actually being in a body, but she can feel dread. She can feel a lot of dread, in the same way she felt it every time she was taken to an operating table when she was in that pod. For a moment, she almost wants to say Don't put me in there, but she doesn't. This is part of the process, and she intends to burn it into her memory.

The nightmares will be worth it, she thinks. Thinks being the key word there.]

...just do it, already.

[Because the waiting is the worst part.]

[Gamzee felt like he was watching himself in the pod again. Except, instead of looking up through the eyes of his lifeless, bare body on the table, he was watching everything as if it were an act. A show, starring their soulless corpses.]

[He didn't have anything to lose, being stripped down to something he never new he could be. Thinking Jason had taken everything from him previously was a mistake. Gamzee didn't know just how much this man could rip from someone, until now.]

[He didn't want to imagine something worse than the hell they'd just been through, so he was trying not to think of what would or could come next.]

[He couldn't stop staring at himself, though. He wasn't a time player. He didn't get to see himself dead like his body was some sort of prop. Feferi had basically summed up his only coherent thought.]

Put me the fuck back.

[He knew that meant he would have to be staring up at the ceiling again, under the shine of the knife and the glare of the surgical lights. Knew he'd have to look this human in the face again as he took him apart and put him back together. He was going to be stronger this time. He had to be. He had nothing to lose, but he had everything to gain.]

[Meiling was not sure she wanted to see this or not but she had no choice. She couldn't just close her eyes or look away, as she could see that body sitting there, waiting for whatever Jason was about to do to it.

She told Jason once 'I wish you a slow death, but a quick ride to hell', She felt like this was being shown to her instead. But this was information that could be taken back. To be known by everyone...]

I agree...Put me back.

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Something Unexpected

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