towerofanimus | cross your fingers, hold your toes. we're all gonna die when the building blows.

Entry tags:

cross your fingers, hold your toes. we're all gonna die when the building blows.

Characters: Shion & YOU~
Setting: You can catch her passing through the dorm floors, the libraries, the media room, or her moping on floor 12.
Format: Take your pick.
Summary: Shion is a mess, surprise.
Warnings: None yet.

After the elevator incident, Shion hadn't exactly been sure what to do. She didn't know how she felt about knowing how the tower worked. On one hand, it was disgusting and it was unnatural. Jason and the rest were keeping them all in the dark and as prisoners. On the other hand... They were immortal. What difference did it make what body you had, as long as you were the same person on the inside? Your soul... Your essence. That's what she had told Allen, right?

And Allen brought another issue. She wanted to see him, more than anything. But she didn't want to worry him. Sure, he was used to her recklessness, but especially after the KOS-MOS incident, she had been trying to lie low. For Allen's sake, more than her own. It might have seemed otherwise most of the time, but she didn't want him to worry about her. So she tried to calm down, or collect her thoughts. But it just wasn't happening. The more she tried to wade through the mess in her mind, the more conflicted and alone she felt.

In the end, she gave up on false pretenses, and started off for Allen's hideouts. The meadow, libraries, the media room... Eventually she ended up on the twelfth floor, quietly staring into the stars as they blinked out of existence.

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"Shion." She couldn't walk into the library without expecting to meet him, could she? Because sure enough, here he was. The Compass was still situated perfectly on his desk in his little makeshift office, and as perfectly predictable, he sought her out immediately. If he was upset at all by what he saw, it didn't show. Of course, he wasn't; Tohko knew that he actually saw it as a good sign, a good indication of what should be coming in their near future.

"You are unharmed?" he asked casually, approaching her. "Perhaps physically. It appears the inevitable has finally occurred within the Administrators. You should not be afraid, or worried. It was only a matter of time before they began to turn upon one another."

Rather heartless, sure, but it's Wilhelm. "No act is complete without a plot twist. Characters die upon the stage. More often than not, it is one that the audience is fond of."

She sighed, and closed her eyes for just a few seconds before turning to her former boss. Honestly, the fact that he had an office on the floor had slipped her mind. But there was no getting out of talking to him now. She pursed her lips to keep from grimacing, then shook her head.

"I'm not afraid, I'm more bothered by Jason's actions. Well, Ruana's too, I suppose. But keeping all these secrets, and letting people slip back to their own worlds. Dax was..."

She paused for a moment. If Enoch was right, Dax had allowed them to look behind the scenes, and he died for that reason. Maybe that part did bother her a little more than she had thought.

"Dax was trying to be honest with us, you know. And he told me that our worlds really are destroyed. It might really be true."

"You must know by now that everything in this Tower can potentially be a lie," Wilhelm replied nonchalantly. He patiently listened to Shion again, but were he capable of such, he would have frowned. Shion essentially answered her own question, and she didn't see it.

"Shion," Wilhelm answered. "Would Ruana be capable of allowing people to 'slip' back to their own worlds if those worlds did not exist?" He took a few steps towards her. "Allen is from a previous cycle of the eternal recurrence. His very existence in this place is proof that one, or more likely, both of them have lied to you."

Edited (typo) 2013-03-03 06:13 (UTC)

She looked away. When it came to Wilhelm, she often found herself backing whatever position was contrary to his own, but it was more than that this time. She wasn't sure what was worse. The idea that she had left everyone behind to be trapped in the tower, or that they had all been destroyed. But if what Dax said was true, there was at least a reason for it all. Rather than senseless cruelty.

"Are you, perhaps, bewildered?" He asked, an ironic reprisal of what he had said before, back on Michtam. "Shion," he answered, taking another step towards her. He was only a yard or so away by now.

"I remember seeing you say something rather telling in the Compass," he began. "I had told you before that I did not do what I did out of malice, or evil. You do not agree with the measures I took, but in the end, you knew they were necessary."

Wilhelm's eyes narrow for a moment. "The point I am making is that, whether or not you would like to admit it, I believe that you need my help." There it is. A proverbial deal with the devil. Wilhelm placed one of his hands behind his back. "I know that do not feel that you can trust me, and nor should you. But I am as much a prisoner here as you are."

She didn't meet his gaze again. For some reason she felt the smallest twinge of guilt. It was true, she understood that his actions had always been necessary... But she still didn't like him. Nor did she want his help. But she did know she might not have a choice in that matter.

"So what you're saying... Is that you have something you want me to do. Is that correct?"

After all, she couldn't imagine another reason for him to suggest that she needed his help.

"No. If I required something of you, I would not be this direct." Probably not the answer she was looking for, but it was true. And it was likely something she already knew, anyway.

"What I do require, however, is that you do not lose what you gained from our universe." He knew she knew what he was referring to. "Beyond that, I ask that you tell me everything you learn about the remaining Administrators. The Compass cannot read them. I believe they exist outside of the collective subconscious."

"Well..." She'd just gloss over the part about the pendant for now. Since it was likely that Allen would hear their conversation.

"I'm afraid I don't know that much about them, really. When a few of us went into that elevator that's usually not accessible, we ended up in Jason's offices I guess. He has a lot of medical equipment, and seems to perform a lot of grotesque experiments. He also has video access to almost every inch of the tower."

Honestly, she didn't mind helping Wilhelm when it came to the administrators. She could at least trust him not to doom her, and her friends, as long as it didn't suit his ends. Jason however...

"He seems to be in charge of those retrieval units with the red collars. Or he performs their maintenance. But that's all I know, so far."

"That is quite alright," Wilhelm answered. "I have others who do." Shion wasn't the only piece on the board, after all. She's just not a pawn. "I am aware of Jason's profession. It would not surprise me to learn that he does even more than what we are aware of."

He remembers the retrieval units, yes. He met them after the riot. They looked completely braindead. "It would be unlikely to turn them against their masters. They are likely under a form of mind control we are unfamiliar with."

"Well, there was one interesting thing about them that we discovered there. They were all released when we accidentally set off an alarm, and it seemed that most of them were unable to access the full extent of their power. If they touch your collar, it instantly deprives you of Ether capabilities, so it might be worth noting that without their proper maintenance, they can be handled more easily."

"Do you know what usually triggers this alarm?"

It was unusual for Allen to visit this floor, where stars, galaxies, universes were wiped out of existence in the massive holo-stage. It distressed him, both as a Testament and as a person who would have given his life a thousand times over if that's what it had taken to save his universe. But now, after what he'd seen, what he'd heard, he needed to think. And this room would make sure he couldn't run from his thoughts.

He stood invisibly, a miniscule amount of his attention going to manipulating the senses of anyone else who might enter the floor into thinking he wasn't there. He was finding more and more lately that he didn't want to be bothered...or maybe in this case, he didn't want someone to give him an excuse to distract himself, as he watched the stars vanish before him.

He didn't see Shion so much as he sensed her, instantly aware of her consciousness as it approached. So much for no excuses for distractions. Once he pinpointed her location, he approached, dropping the illusion that obscured him.

"You too, huh?"

"Allen! I didn't think you would be here."

She was starting to think she simply wasn't going to find him. But now that she had, she wasn't even sure what to say. How did one lead into telling someone that she just got back from a really dangerous and possibly stupid trek through somewhere no one was supposed to be? Not to mention the fact that she wasn't sure if he already knew thanks to his powers.

"So... You're looking well."

Perfect.

"There are some perks to not having to sleep."

He was sure if he did, he'd be looking a lot worse. Between Shion's disappearance into the Administrator floors and what he'd seen on the network, he'd been too stressed to relax, let alone sleep.

"I don't usually come here, but...I've had a lot on my mind recently."

"I guess you saw all the videos?"

She was going to leave it at that, but... She couldn't. Normally she'd keep everything to herself, no matter what. Even if Allen already knew the truth. But... She didn't want to make all of those old mistakes again. So she took a deep breath, then continued.

"Allen, I don't know how much you know, but I went down that elevator with the others, and saw all of it in person. Jason is recording every inch of the tower and... And wringing out people's souls."

And mulching together body parts!

"I know it probably seems stupid, but it was a chance I felt like I had to take. And after dying twice, I guess I didn't feel like it was that big of a risk."

"Yeah...I saw them. And I know you went down there, too."

He sighed and glanced behind him, warping the space so that it would support weight and throwing an illusion of a padded bench over it as he sat down.

"I guess...it explains some things I've been wondering about. Did you know that Testaments are normally invisible and intangible unless we work at being solid? We don't normally have bodies unless we go out of our way to create them, but it's the other way around here. I have to work at being invisible or intangible. And how they can revive someone whose body was damaged beyond recovery."

He shook his head, flexing his fingers.

"And I don't think I can really chide you too much about going down there. I was worried, but...this is the kind of information that's worth some risk."

"...Really?"

Of course, she knew Allen would find the information interesting, but she half expected him to say that it was worth risking OTHER people to get it.

"I didn't know that about Testaments though. But, you're right, that fits with what we saw. There are still a lot of unanswered questions though. Why is the process for bringing people here so unstable? And the obvious, why are they keeping us as lab rats?"

"I'd prefer if you stayed where you wouldn't be painting a target on yourself, but some things...well, I'd probably do the same thing if there was another chance to get down there."

He leaned back, letting his own distortion support his back as he watched the holographic stars vanish.

"As for your other questions...all I can think of is to say that Jason's a scumbag with a really twisted idea of what's an appropriate payment for rescuing someone and Ruana's out of her mind."

He glanced over at her and waved at the illusory seat next to him.

"You can sit down, by the way. It'll support two people fine."

She did take a seat, but didn't get all that close to him. It could have been the subject matter, or just the fact that she had been stabbed to death the last time she had spent a significant amount of time in that room. But she felt a little awkward.

"I don't think I'm any more a target now than I was before."

Because Jason would have already done something to the people who broke into his office, right?

"But still... Even with this information, I don't feel any better off. Especially after going up against those people with the red collars. If they weren't already damaged... Well, I don't think any of us would have walked out."

He reached over and wrapped his hand around hers, still mostly looking out at the stars. It would've been beautiful if not for the destruction.

"It's not the kind of thing I was hoping to hear, either. And I can see why it made you uncomfortable...the idea that you only got through on a fluke can't make our chances look any more promising."

He finally turned to look at her properly, forcing a small smile that he hoped was reassuring.

"But just...think about the fact that you did make it. And you found out something important, even if it's not the most pleasant thing to know."

"I do think about that."

She smiled back, and it lasted for maybe a moment, before she looked back at the stars.

"It's just that... I don't know. I'm really starting to believe that our worlds are destroyed. And if that's true, if what Dax said is true... Then Jin and everyone else who left are stuck in ruined places. Alone. And if Jason would just let us help, maybe we could figure out why people get returned. Why things aren't stable.

It's not even just the experiments, or treating people like prisoners anymore."

"After seeing Dax's...his conversation with Ruana, I've...been starting to wonder the same thing. I don't know how Wilhelm or Yeshua could exist in that case or how I could still have these powers, but...Dax at least believed he was protecting us."

He sighed, closing his eyes. Images of Dax's death started to fill in his vision, but he pushed them down and away.

"But I think dealing with the Administrators might be even more dangerous than we thought. Did you see what happened to him?"

She nodded, but didn't comment. She wanted to avoid thinking back on it at all.

"It's--" She stopped herself with a frustrated sigh. "We can't even discuss anything without them listening in. Now we know that for a fact."

Not only did it dampen all the planning discussions, it was just weird.

"Not necessarily. Did you see any indications that they can read minds?"

She brightened at that, instantly realizing what he was suggesting.

"Good thinking, Allen! I don't think they have any way to monitor that."

He smiled, more genuinely this time.

"I'll have to contact Yeshua about it, but I'm pretty sure he'll agree. And...maybe Wilhelm, too."

It was a shame Jin wasn't around to help, but that didn't seem like a good topic to bring up.

"Wilhelm...?"

Really Allen? He might as well bring KOS-MOS up, since her face fell a little at that suggestion.

"He'll find out whether we tell him or not. I can't really think of anything to do about that."

"Well, we don't have to go out of our way to let him know."

"It wouldn't really make a difference. And I'd rather take what little control I can dealing with him than let him rub in the fact that we can't keep anything from him."

"Fine."

The sigh she heaved along with that word was a pretty good indicator that she wasn't going to be happy about involving Wilhelm for any reason. But, at least she'd drop it. ~~FOR NOW~~

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cross your fingers, hold your toes. we're all gonna die when the building blows.

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