Not what I expected [open]

[undroppedeaves]

Characters: Samwise Gamgee and you!
Setting: Room 2-04, then dorm halls and staircases heading down the tower
Format: Whatever you wish
Summary: Sam wakes up
Warnings:

[Room 2-04] Sam hadn't thought he would ever open his eyes again, never mind feel a soft bed under him and his first thought was that it had truly all been a dream. Except he tried to move and he couldn't. For a terrifying moment he was stuck unable to even scream.

Then it was over and he sat up, the room was different than anything he had seen before, the clothing he wore clung to him. Had they somehow been rescued? It seemed like it would be an impossible feat, yet here he was. Alive. Somehow no longer on that mountain, and it did really seem possible he had dreamed it all up. Except where was he and where was Frodo?

He looked round the room, a room made for big folk, four beds including the one he had woken up in. "Samwise Gamgee, what have you gotten yourself into this time?"

[Hallways] Later, dressed in the ragged clothes he had found in his trunk he walked the hallways. Still not quite believing that this could be real, there was so much he didn't understand. "Mister Frodo?" He called as he walked, because if he was alive. If he had been saved then surely they had saved Frodo as well.

"Mister Frodo?"

[Staircases] Sam wasn't quite ready to step out onto any of the odd places he could see around them, but carefully continued to walk downwards, wondering how far down this place could go, and what other strange things he would see. He walked carefully, stopping every now and again to shake his head in disbelief at the things he saw.

Comments

[undroppedeaves]

Well Sam had heard of no Shadowfax but his mind was still stuck on the fact that Gandalf was here, when he had seen him fall.

"Not the same Gandalf I remember. Now if you don't mind me asking, what does that mean?"

[tohko_amano]

Thankfully, Tohko was prepared to explain the differences to Sam.

"It means two things. First, you may remember Gandalf with his title of Gandalf the Grey. He's..now Gandalf the White. And he might come from a different point in time than you did, so your memory may not match up with his."

[undroppedeaves]

Gandalf the white, Tohko was right he had not heard him called that title before. The second thing she said confused him, but truthfully the time he came from did not matter so much as the fact he was alive.

"Do you know where I can find him?"

[tohko_amano]

Tohko smiled and nodded as she spoke.

"He may be in the third floor, the nineteenth floor, or the twenty-fifth floor. If you want, we could look together, and I can tell you what I know about the Tower."

[undroppedeaves]

"If you are not too busy, I wouldn't want to take you from anything." But Sam didn't want to wander around on his own, when he did not know what lay on the floors she had named.

[tohko_amano]

"Oh, don't worry! I'm not busy, and I enjoy helping people. It's just up the stairs here, so it won't take us that long to look around.."

At that, Tohko sighed and started to walk forward a little, scratching her head. She looked back every now and then to make sure that Sam was following, and as she did so, she gave him her usual info dump.

"As for this Tower, it's called Animus. Four people now run it-Riki, a secretive man who builds the Tower and is in charge of the records, Zo, a small child who can bring souls here, Jason, a sadistic medical doctor who sometimes experiments on the residents. He, I believe, helps transfer your soul when you die. Finally, there’s Ruana, a woman who has been here for thousands of years and doesn’t quite understand human empathy or emotions, and hates it when people go against her. She may seem sweet, but she is capable of removing free will and cannibalizing her own Administrators.

There used to be a fifth Administrator named Dax. He was the most humane of the bunch and did his best to protect us from Jason and the monsters here. He even managed to sneak people down to the Administrative levels in order to let them know more about this place. However, when he tried to go against Ruana..she killed and ate him, possibly absorbing his powers in the process. He was a good man.

Death isn’t permanent here. If you die, you’ll just wake up in your bed the next day. However, don’t throw your life away for foolish reasons. For one thing, you’ll probably get punished if you die too many times, and for the other…your body is made up of recycled parts. Only your soul was pulled to this universe. Your body, and the ones you’ll have afterward, are not your original body. That’s why you have the collar. It helps make sure your soul safely stays in your body.

I’m sorry to say that your universe is destroyed. You may see people you know here, but they won’t be from your own universe or point in time. I don’t know exactly how our universes were destroyed, but I do know that it was caused by Ruana watching our universes, for some reason.

If you haven’t been to the cafeteria yet, make sure that you eat the oatmeal when you do. If you don’t, you’ll throw up anything else you try to eat until you finish it. However, you can eat anything you want afterwards, and you can add things to the oatmeal to improve the taste.

Monsters roam the Tower at night, and some of the higher floors have monsters that attack if you get too close. If you can’t fight, then I would suggest learning. There are plenty of people here who would be willing to teach you."

[undroppedeaves]

She lost him very quickly, Sam tried to keep up and listen but it was all so much and all so awful that his expression soon turned into one of horror.

"The worlds are really gone?" Someone had mentioned that they were claimed to be, but this sounded like it was absolute...

And his soul, and not his origional body, and someone was eaten. Far from being rescued Sam thought that this place was even worse than the one he had come from.

[tohko_amano]

At that, Tohko sighed and nodded.

"I'm sad to say that they are. However, there's also a possibility that we can restore them, so I'm sure everything will turn out alright in the end here."

[undroppedeaves]

"How can it be gone. All of it? Everything?" After everything Frodo had gone through, the worlds were just... gone.

He didn't know what to think, he didn't even know how this was possible.

[tohko_amano]

"Ruana, the leader of the Administrators here..she has some mental power that can..crush universes, and destroy everything in them. I know that it's a bad explanation, and I am sorry..but I don't know much about it either."

[undroppedeaves]

"Are you trying to tell me she destroys worlds with her mind?" Sam had heard a lot of things, seen a lot of things yet...

[tohko_amano]

Tohko sighed and nodded, scratching her head. "I know that it sounds strange, but it's the best possible explanation I can come up with right now. If new details are found out, I might be able to tell you more..but for right now, that's all I have."

[undroppedeaves]

"Thank you for telling me, even if it's a lot to try and take in." Monsters, people being eaten, it sounded as bad as Mordor, and the world had ended... everything they had tried to stop had come to pass.

[tohko_amano]

At that, Tohko managed a faint smile, even though it was weak.

"You're welcome. I know it's a lot to take in..but it's better to know everything that's going on when you first get here than be taken by surprise when something weird happens."

[undroppedeaves]

Sam nodded, he supposed that was right, best to get it all over with at once. "You never told me your name miss."

[tohko_amano]

Tohko's smile grew a little at that.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm Tohko Amano, the book girl. Who are you?"

She knew the answer to this question already, but if she acted like she already knew him, she would just confuse the poor guy.

[undroppedeaves]

"The book girl, is that a title of yours?" He asked politely before smiling, "I'm Samwise Gamgee, it's nice to meet you Tohko Amano."

[tohko_amano]

"It's nice to meet you too, Samwise!"

Or, at least, in the flesh.

"And it is a title of mine. Back home, I knew the most about and loved stories the most, so I had the title of 'book girl'."

[undroppedeaves]

"That is an impressive title to have." He smiled, "What stories do you like best?"

[tohko_amano]

Smiling, Tohko replied.

"Fantasy, love stories, and science fiction, I suppose. But since I'm the book girl, I'll read anything that I can get my hands on. How about you? What stories do you like?"

[undroppedeaves]

"Adventure tales, and anything with a happy ending." He gave a small smile again.

[tohko_amano]

"Happy endings and stories full of hope do help a lot..especially in a place like this."

[undroppedeaves]

"I think in this place you need all the hopeful stories you can find." Sam nodded thoughtfully.

[tohko_amano]

"You really do..otherwise, you tend to break down. This place is pretty cruel sometimes."

[undroppedeaves]

"It sounds cruel." Sam sighed, from one awful place to another it seemed.