001 Ring

[savarin]

Characters: Red Savarin and anyone else.
Setting: Room 2-10, Floor 1
Format: Action, but I'll try to match you!
Summary: Red wakes up and discovers that something very strange has happened. Oatmeal follows.
Warnings: Possible angst and vomit, maybe at the same time. Also, lots of text. Sorry.

[Red's eyes flutter open. The first thing he notices is the ceiling. This definitely wasn't the Asmodeus; what the hell was going on?]

[The second thing he notices is that he can't move. His eyes dart around, trying to figure out where he is, but unfortunately he doesn't glean terribly much from the ceiling. After a little while, though, Red manages to get control of his body back, leaping off of the bed.]

[A white catsuit? That's the least of his worries right now. There's a letter near that bed, addressed to Red. He rips the envelope open, beginning to read...]

...What? No way. This has gotta be some cruel joke. When I find whoever set this up--

[He cuts himself off, staring up at something he'd finally noticed by the bed. A robot. His robot. Whoever had brought him here, at least they'd left him his companion. If the letter was true, and his world really was destroyed, then surely they wouldn't leave him that?]

[The dog-man sits there for a while, poring over the letters. If this was still a joke, something meant to fool Red... it was detailed. For the first time, fear begins to well up inside him. Was this the truth? Maybe there was someone else that could fill Red in; there's four beds, after all. Surely someone else must be using them, and if there's nobody around, maybe he can wander the halls for a bit.]

---

[There was a lot of time to think over things. Red had taken an elevator down to where the cafeteria was supposed to be, leaving Dahak behind for now, and the trip lasted at least half an hour. He still held hope that none of this was real, that maybe he'd gotten stuck into another simulation. What purpose would a simulation like this serve, though? He couldn't readily explain this, and that's what scared him.]

[Food would help. It always did. Unfortunately, what Red got wasn't food. It was a bowl of lumpy beige glop, served without comment but with a spoon. It wasn't disgusting, but neither was it very pleasant. The other people here - something else that gave him pause - had actual food. Why did Red have to suffer with this mush?]

This stuff's gross. I'm gonna see what's goin' on here.

[With a measure of wariness, the Caninu man starts to approach the other tables, asking for whatever food the other cafeteria-goers can spare. A collared dog begging for table scraps; it's too bad the irony is lost on Red, who's never seen a normal dog in his life. Who wants to spare their supper just so he can lose his lunch?]

Comments

Cafeteria

[unteachableapprentice]

[Chicken nuggets. Fish sticks.

Not exactly what a person might call a filling dinner by any stretch of the imagination, but food nevertheless. Which is why when the dog/man hybrid approached him and asked him for food, he was somewhat reluctant.]

Hey, if ya want food you can just go ahead and ask those guys over at the counter for em; I ain't given you mine, I'm hungry enough as is.

Cafeteria

[savarin]

[What are those, anyway? Some kind of fried... things, possibly meat. They look good, or at least better than oatmeal. Red keeps glancing down at them while he talks.]

Look, I tried that, and what they gave me ain't exactly food. How'd ya get those things?

[Because he'll be damned if his first meal in this place, real or not, is that stuff.]

Cafeteria

[unteachableapprentice]

Huh, you're supposed to just be able to ask em and they'll give-

[Wait. Hang on. This seems familiar. Exactly like how he was on his dirst day.]

Woah, hold on. Did ya eat their oatmeal yet?

Cafeteria

[savarin]

Oatmeal? Is that what that slop is? Nah, I haven't touched it and I ain't gonna.

[Is there some significance to it? Nothing in this damned place seems to make any sense. Red's still not eating it unless he absolutely needs to.]

[unteachableapprentice]

Ugh, I know how ya feel; hated that bowl of... stuff when I first ate it. [It doesn't even deserve to be called food, that .]

But trust me, you'll want to before eating anything else. Really.

[savarin]

[Red slams his hands onto the table, making it shake briefly, and glares at the man across from him.]

Listen, I woke up in some weird place with a letter tellin' me my world's gone, someone took my clothes and gave me this thing, and now I got a collar on. I ain't in any mood to be trustin' people. Gimme that!

[He moves to swipe one of the pieces of food from the Apprentice's plate, and should he succeed, he's definitely taking a great big bite of whatever it is. Oatmeal rule be damned, Red wants real food.]

[unteachableapprentice]

Woah, easy there, big guy. I know how ya feel, since my world was destroyed to- wait, DON'T!

[Yep, probably should have guarded his plate better. He was about to eat that fish stick, damnit. He's going to stand up, and step back ever so slightly now.]

Well, don't say I didn't warn ya.

[geometry]

[Okay, let's all be honest with ourselves here: Equius approached this animal creature initially for the robot. He didn't even much care that Red was an animal creature at all. There were plenty of different humanoid aliens and mythical beings around here, Equius himself one of them, so after the initial surprise of having a walking furry guy with ears wandering the hallway (while wearing the Tower-patented "confused newbie" look), his attention was more reasonably drawn to the giant mecha. He's a little bit tempted to just jump on the thing and start looking at its insides. But if it belonged to the fox guy, then that would be kind of rude...]

[Equius stops in mid-step, stares up at the machine with a mixture of fear and surprise -- fortunately, the thing was only about a foot and a half taller than him, or else he might have run by now. Shortly afterward he looks to Red.] ...Is this yours?

[savarin]

[While Red mulled over his situation, he thought it would be good to try out Dahak. Maybe it was a fake, too, or something had broken; fortunately, everything checked out. This was the real Dahak, or at least a very good copy, and it was even undamaged. At least he had something familiar.]

[...Unfortunately, though, a human had stopped him. No, not quite human; they had gray skin and weird yellow-orange horns protruding from their head. Red's on edge, keeping an eye on the stranger of indeterminate species.]

Yeah, it's mine. Why are ya askin'?

[geometry]

[...Meep. Yeah, okay, now he's getting nervous.]

J-just wondering! [His shoulders rise in a position that could easily be called defensive and a little spooked.] Sorry. It's just... you don't often see mech that large in here. Most of the workers seem to be organic...

[savarin]

[Well, that only brought up more questions. Fortunately, there's someone here who can answer them, or try to.]

Alright, you're tellin' me there's other robots? Workers, too? I'm gonna need more info. Who are ya, for one, and what's this place?

[Because frightened not-human be damned, Red needs answers. Maybe then he can figure out if this is a simulation or not.]

[geometry]

[QUESTIONS. SO MANY QUESTIONS. Um...]

Well. Uh. First of all my name is Equius Zahhak, and you're in a place called the Tower of Animus, though generally it's referred to as just the Tower. The, uh, the workers are the people with red collars, they... don't talk much. They just do general upkeep things. Like cleaning, you know. And as for the robots, uh...

[He shrugs.]

I, uh. Build robots. And so do several other people also, there's a whole workshop floor for stuff like that. But the resources in this Tower are kind of... you know, limited? So you can't build things too big or complex. And so I figured that your, uh, your machine here had to have come from another world.

[savarin]

[Collars. That's something. The man in front of him - Equius - had a collar around his neck, with some kind of colored liquid running through tubing. Now that he thinks about it, there's some kind of pressure on Red's own neck; he reaches up quickly, running his hands over the collar. Yeah, he has one too.]

Okay, so I'm stuck in a tower, and someone put a collar on me. I'm not believin' any of this. Where's the guys in charge? I'm gettin' out of here.

[Now he's trying to pull on the collar, but it's a very snug fit. The most he can do is yank at the tubing, but nothing seems to give. Maybe there's a latch somewhere at the back...]

cafeteria;

[chainsawn]

[ When Red arrives at Urotsuki's table, she's exactly in the middle of re-enacting an epic dinosaur battle.. using her dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. A teenage girl can dream, okay. Especially when she acts much younger than the way she looks - mentally she doesn't act like she's 15 at all.

But she looks up the moment she sees him approach, stopping her whole playing in the middle of one 'dinosaur' stomping on top of another and she just stares blankly. ]

cafeteria;

[savarin]

[Well... at least someone here is having fun. Looks like those are supposed to be some kind of animal shape, although Red can't tell what. Either way, this girl's making them fight... which gives Red an idea.]

Hey, mind if I join in? That looks like fun!

[He's not going to sit down just yet. Let's see how the girl reacts first.]

[chainsawn]

[ It takes a moment for her to speak up. At first she's still just staring at him, as if staring for that long of a time will make her figure something out, the nuggets still in her hands. ]

.. You want to..? [ Her voice is so blank it's difficult to tell any emotion whatsoever from it. ] I need someone to play the pterodactyl.

[savarin]

[Right, most people here probably aren't used to seeing dog-people walking around. Red's having trouble getting used to all the humans here, so at least the feeling is mutual.]

The ptero-what? Uh, just tell me which one that is and I'd be happy to play.

[Of course, this is just to get some food, but why not try to have a little fun? The mood certainly needs lightening around here.]

[chainsawn]

[ Don't worry, she won't find it weird. It's just interesting to her. She's seen weirder things in her dreams, hence why she's so easily agreeing to him being allowed to join in. ]

It's the one with the wings. [ She points at it. ]

Don't you think flying dinosaurs are really cool..?

[savarin]

[Oh, that one. Red picks it up, trying to resist the urge to eat it; it smells delicious, and food's what he came here for. Patience, patience.]

Uh... what's a dinosaur? Some kinda bird?

[Boy, this is embarrassing. Red will just kind of... swoop it around a little bit, feeling pretty self-conscious. Sure, he wasn't exactly very mature, but pretending that a lump of fried meat was some kind of flying thing? He's a little too old for that.]

[taintedwhite]

[Shiro looks up at him as he approaches her table and beams.] A puppy!

[Then she frowns.] Why did someone put such strange clothes on the puppy?

[savarin]

Look, I'm not a puppy, I'm a grown man.

[Red just sighs, plopping himself down onto a chair opposite Shiro. He's probably not going to get any food from her, but maybe she could volunteer some information.]

I'm tryin' to figure that out myself. Couldn't they have left me my normal clothes?

[At least he was clothed. That's a small victory. Still, the jumpsuit was rather embarrassing...]

[taintedwhite]

[Shiro claps her hands in delight.] The puppy can talk! So that's why they put clothes on the puppy! So that people know he can talk! [It makes perfect sense to her.

Still she pauses.] A grown... Oh. A dog, then! Hello, Mister Dog! Mister Dog is hungry?

[Contrarily to what he thinks, he's more likely to get food than information from Shiro. XD]

[savarin]

M-Mister Dog?! My name's Red!

[This is going nowhere. Red would just get up and leave, except... she's offering food. Might as well try to deal with this girl for now; he sighs, propping his head up with one hand.]

Yeah, I'm hungry. Got anythin' to spare, kid?

[taintedwhite]

Red. [A smile.] That's a good name. Shiro was named after a color too. Shiro would have liked to be called 'Red'. But white is good too, right?

[Shiro nods.] Shiro has gotten pudding today! And cookies. But sweets and cakes always taste better when shared. Red wants a cookie?

[savarin]

Well, it's... nice to meet ya, Shiro.

[Kind of a coincidence that he meets someone else with a color name, although the word isn't familiar to him. Sounds like it could be something from Nippon, perhaps?]

Sure, I'll have a cookie. Way better than that... whatever they gave me.

[And before Shiro can explain anything - if she wants to, of course - Red will take that cookie and pop it into his mouth. It's not great, but it's sweet and it has texture. That's good enough.]