I am not Eye

[animusmods]

Characters: Anyone (Animus and Destiny Strings)
Setting: All the levels, with the cafeteria, stairs and the dorms as the safe zones. You can find more about the event here. Remember the stages of insanity for the Animus characters!
Format: Any, start your open posts.
Summary: The tower appears to be overcome with a strange mist.
Warnings: general horror warnings for now

A strange, primordial scream. Perhaps something that didn't seem too out of place for this tower, yet there was something...off about it.

Then came a small series of rumblings. Something was stirring up in the tower. Thankfully the dorms seemed seemed fine. It was when you started to walk down that you realized something was wrong. There was dark mist everywhere. It wasn't natural. Even with a light, it was hard to see past the staircases into the levels, causing even more confusion. Thankfully, the stairs seemed to be safe and if you walked down the entire hundred levels, you'd notice that the cafeteria was safe too.

But that seemed to be it. Everywhere else, the mist was thick and seemed to hang on to the clothing and hair.

Then another noise rings out in every corridor, a laughter musical but somehow diabolical, not quite male nor female, asking a single question;

"Are you enjoying yourself?"

It looked like someone was wanting to play a little game with you.

[OOC: Start your own threads and all the rules about this event can be found here]

Comments

February 25th, 14th floor

[miseris_socios]

Ken was trying to ignore this. It was making him unsettled and irritated, and the longer he kept trying to do his usual tasks the more uncomfortable he was feeling. He headed down to the fourteenth floor to try to find something to distract himself.

... And it was on this level that people could probably find him, spear pulled close and arms wrapped around his knees, collapsed on a couch and crying.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

[the_usual_stuff]

[Pharos had just been drifting between floors when the voice had echoed, the quakes shook the tower and his persona had snarled, Moh Shuvuu reacting with similar unhappiness. A frown had appeared on his pale face.

It was on one of his later wanderings of the Tower, he came to this level. Through the thick dark smog, he could see Ken, collapsed on a couch and sobbing to himself. He teleported over, fading out and back, recognizing only one of the Arisatos' friend and feeling concerned.]

'You're sorry?' [The little boy parroted, gently. ] Who are you apologizing to?

[miseris_socios]

M... mother...

[Even now, he could see her, standing in front of him. He'd failed - but no, he'd done the right thing. But she was still dead and everything was wrong - no, he'd made a resolution to himself. His hand clutched his Evoker, trying to think of Dike and what she symbolized for him - but it was hard. So hard. He was tired, his voice rough and his eyes red and puffy from crying.]

But... I didn't... I'm sorry!

[the_usual_stuff]

[Pharos plopped himself down on the couch next to the shaking boy, regarding him and his tired, rough sobs with bright blue eyes and honestly at lost for how to fix whatever was wrong with him. He did not touch him.]

Your mother... ? I see. [He tried for a smile, a wraith so pale in the darkness of fog. The white stripes of his uniform stood out more than the black ones in the smog. Probingly, almost pleasantly;] Why apologize to her? She is far, far away from here and cannot hear you.

[miseris_socios]

I... I can hear her. So she must be able to hear me. I'm sorry I didn't... I'm sorry I failed... I...

[But he can't bring himself to kill someone, not anymore. The crushing feeling of disappointing her makes it hard to breathe, though.]

... Please. Please understand...

[the_usual_stuff]

You may hear her voice... but she may not hear your words in return.

[He would know, his mother talked in the back of his head all the time but that didn't mean he was heard back.

Pharos paused. Failing what was perceived to be a maternal figure. By failing to grant humans the unending night, by his older self granting them a choice, would he concur Her disappointment? Could She even feel disappointment towards something like him?]

Ah... What did you fail at?

[myblueskies]

"Ken!" Oh no... Romeo recognised that voice anyways, even if it's owner was hidden in fog. Romeo jumped down the final few steps onto the floor and found Ken on one of the couches.

He wrapped his arms round him. "Don't listen to them okay, it's just the bad people."

[miseris_socios]

Ken jolted when someone came and hugged him, shaking in his arms.

"Mother... I failed her... but... no... I..."

No, he did the right thing. ... But he still felt like a failure. He didn't understand. He suddenly felt very small, trying to ignore the whispers.

[myblueskies]

"No you didn't." Romeo shook his head and hugged tighter, "You didn't it's just the bad people making you think so."

[miseris_socios]

The physical contact was helping a little, but not enough. Ken rocked back and forth, not answering, just trying to ignore the voices.

"Stop it... stop it!"

[myblueskies]

"We gotta get out of here Ken. The bed rooms are safe." He tried to tug at Ken, hoping he would follow him.

[justiceinheaven]

The mist was obviously a bad thing; it reminded her a lot of the TV and the place that looked like heaven, after all. Her brother would probably be upset if she messed with it, so Nanako was sticking to the stairway and the lower floors where there wasn't anything. After all, her brother couldn't get too mad at her if she was just taking a peek into certain floors to see if everyone was okay, right?

And if she heard sobbing like that, she really didn't have a choice but look in.

Nanako shuffled into the room, looking around with wide eyes, before finally spotting Ken curled up in a ball. She hurried over to him immediately, resting her hands on his shoulder.

"Ken-kun...?"

[miseris_socios]

Ken shivered a little, looking over at Nanako before ducking his head a bit.

"N... Nanako... you... you should go... you don't... want to be around me..."

Not when he'd failed someone that badly. He didn't deserve to have friends.

Gah, sorry! I must have accidentally deleted the tag.

[justiceinheaven]

Well that was a reaction she wasn't exactly expecting. She paused a moment, letting out a curious noise, before kneeling next to him. It probably wasn't a good idea to stay out here for long, but if she could convince Ken to leave with her, then it'd be worth it.

"Why do you say that?"

It happens. <3

[miseris_socios]

"Be... because I tried to kill someone. I was going to murder him... and I steal and I hang around with people who do other bad things to survive... and... and I'm not a good person and I... I don't want to hurt you..."

He pulled himself into an even tighter ball, trying to ignore the lecturing from his mother he could hear.

<33;;;

[justiceinheaven]

Nanako was silent for a moment, not sure how to respond. Ken... he wasn't that much older than she was, but at the same time, he was. She remembered feeling that way about him and admiring him for it... despite his faults. She couldn't remember what those were, but she had a feeling this was one of them. Children their age had no business plotting revenge or even thinking about murdering people, much less going through with it...

Hesitantly, she shuffled closer to him, resting her hands lightly on his shoulder.

"...you won't hurt me, Ken-kun," she said softly. "Remember what happened before? Ten years from now, we'll still be together here... so don't be afraid of me, okay?"

[notsogrimreaper]

"K-Ken-kun!"

Ryoji's immediately rushing over, kneeling down to get a better look at him.

"It's okay, Ken-kun, calm down... You didn't do anything wrong..."

[miseris_socios]

His eyes are red and puffy, and he's shaking, but otherwise he looks physically fine, just upset.

"But... but I failed. I failed her... I'm so sorry..."

[notsogrimreaper]

"I'm sure she forgives you, no matter what you did... Come on, why don't we go for a little walk?"

If he gets Ken to the staircase, he'll start to calm down, right?

[miseris_socios]

"But... I can't leave her..."

Getting him there might be a problem, though.

[notsogrimreaper]

"...Where is she? We can take her too."

Ryoji is certain that the girl Ken is speaking about isn't in the room, but he'll say anything to get Ken to safety.

[morituramfides]

"Ken?"

It'd been another while since he'd seen the kid and-- it wasn't exactly under the best circumstances. But it seems that these weren't going to be very fortuitous circumstances again either.

It was weird. He'd walked through the mist, the voice nagging oh-so-slightly in the back of his head, but-- what was that compared to Moros' chiding every day? He wasn't sure if he'd been able to quiet the Persona or was just growing used to it again, but the extra voice didn't bother him. So instead, he focused his time on the kid for now; Minato sure wasn't around to do that, and Chidori wasn't quite in the condition to do it either he'd bet.

"What happened?"

[miseris_socios]

"I... I can see her... she's... I can't... I... I failed her and... but I don't want to..."

He wasn't making much sense, but he looked like he was going to be sick or something anyway, what with how his face was pale.

"I can hear her, I can see her... I should have... should have killed him but I couldn't... I didn't want to... but maybe I should have.. I don't... I don't know."

He took a deep breath, and he knew this wasn't a good question to ask Jin, but he had to ask it anyway.

"Sh... should I have killed him? Just... I don't know..."

He'd failed at avenging her, he'd failed at killing Shinjiro, and he'd failed at trying to be the better person. He didn't know what to do anymore.

[morituramfides]

Jin's brow furrowed, his expression for the most part remaining mostly neutral, as he took to a knee in front of Ken.

"Kid, we dealt in revenge every day. We've gotten tons of requests for people to off the folks that have wronged them, but we never took all 'em, did we? Only the ones that really deserved it. You think your old woman would've wanted Aragaki to get offed just for fucking up a bit?"

He was pretty sure that most...parents? Wouldn't want that. Right?

[miseris_socios]

"N... no. But... but I can hear her saying that she's... she's disappointed in me... that I failed... that I did the wrong thing even though I know I didn't..."

He rocked a little, trying to ignore her voice, but it was hard. He pitched forward and grabbed onto Jin, hugging him tightly and pressing his face into the older boy's shoulder.

This had to be the administrators messing with them... or something...

"H... help me... please..."

He wasn't sure how much longer he could deal with this without breaking down entirely or snapping.