towerofanimus | first patrol

Characters: Sora and yooou. Seriously she's poking her head into every room, you can meet her in two tags if you want.
Setting: various.
Format: Your choice. <3
Summary: Superheroes should be proactive, especially in the face of great peril. Minutes after waking up, a newly-arrived Sora wanders the tower.
Warnings: None so far!

Sora is a slow waker at the best of times, and a worse one when she's been kidnapped and moved to somewhere that isn't her hideout and her alarm clock, so it isn't until she sits up, calls out the names of several of her major villainous counterparts hopefully (they're usually nice enough to stay nearby when she wakes up, in case she has questions like 'where am I' and 'what have you done with my friends'), and does two circuits of the room that she notices the paper on the table.

When she reads it, it's all she can do not to scream. This lasts for a while, this struggle with self-control and vocal chords, so her legs thoughtfully buckle and she ends up back on the edge of her bed, clutching the note on her lap. Her world. It's too big a concept for her to wrap her head around. All those people. She tries to imagine it, and what could have caused it, and fails. Several times. She blames herself, then stops, then the guilt is shoved down into a part of her mind full of childhood memories and unpleasant thoughts.

Deep breaths. If she's here, Sora, an insignificant girl from Manhattan, then that means others have to be here.

X never warned me is her next thought, but she dismisses it as unworthy of a knight and a hero. It's not her mysterious masked benefactor's fault. It never is. No villains have turned up either, which means she's free to look around. And she means to do exactly that; she is going to search this place, wherever it is, until she keels over from exhaustion. And then she'll start again.

She doesn't notice the trunk until she stubs her toe on it, but once she's got it open, she lets herself cry a little bit. Then she carefully stacks the photos at the bottom, and tucks them underneath some shirts and her socks. The cape and her costume she takes out, mask tied in place, boots and gloves on, cape swirling down to the back of her knees. The gauntlet she fits to her left hand, and even though it isn't armed right now, it makes her feel better. Closer to the others. Armoured, she feels more confident, and sets out into the corridor.

Sora plans to open every single door in this tower, just on the offchance her friends are behind it.

But they aren't. You are. Hello there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Ah, I see!"

Powerful kidnappers was something she could understand. She didn't seem particularly discouraged by that. If anything, it had lightened her load of worries. "I thought there was something weird about it! X comes from my future, so it wouldn't make sense... I don't think. Why would they lie, though?"

Suzaku blinked at her words, a little confused but shrugged at the question. "To keep us in line I guess, if we believe our worlds are gone then we wont try to escape. They want us to see them as rescuers and not kidnappers."

"Oh..." After all, the future X had told her about was meant to be horrible, but she'd spent a year working to change it already. Maybe he was right.

"I don't think I would've thought of that by myself."

Suzaku shrugged, "Neither did I, but it seems to be the general feeling of everyone I've spoken to." He shrugged, he had done his best to gather information but he wasn't good at putting it together and coming to conclusions.

"It's lucky that I met you, then!" It was generally a bad idea for people so similar to band together. Twice the weakness with no further advantages. But, well, it was Sora, and Sora didn't think of that sort of thing. She just nodded, and stepped forward to take his hand.

Shyness was another thing she didn't believe in.

"If there are that many floors, we should start looking now."

"Uh..." Suzaku stood awkwardly for a moment before trying to pull his hand away. "Yes we should, where have you looked already?"

Such paltry efforts wouldn't save him or his hand. She might as well have glued their palms together for all the good it did him to pull.

"This is the second floor I've been on! I've not left out any rooms so far..."

Suzaku pulled a little harder uncomfertable with his hand been held but unwilling to say anything in case he sounded rude. "Alright, if they were all bedrooms then there is one more floor of bedrooms left and then the rest of the tower."

"Bedrooms first, then!" Which meant going downstairs. She set off, and when they were set on their course, she finally released his hand.

This was less from mercy and more because she needed it to gesture and wave. "Oh, and I'm Crimson Lass."

Suzaku followed her, difficult to do anything else when she was dragging him by the hand. He was relieved when she let go. "Pleased to meet you Crimson Lass, I am Kururugi Suzaku." He continued following her clasping his hands behind his back so she couldn't grab them again.

That was generally known as cheating, where Sora came from, but she seemed happy enough to just walk by his side instead. She started down the stairs before speaking again.

"Suzaku! What's his name?" She was pointing to the cat padding along behind Suzaku.

Suzaku walked in silence, keeping his eye out for anyone matching the descriptions Sora had given or for Psiioniic. "Oh this is Arthur," he scooped the cat up and Arthur happily sank his teeth into Suzaku's hand again. Suzaku gave a tiny wince. "He wont bite, he only bites me."

"Is that really okay...?" It was said mostly to herself. Sora reached out to ruffle the fur on Arthur's head, gingerly at first, then more confidently when he didn't switch biting targets. "He's really cute. Is he Arthur as in King Arthur?"

Her pronunciation was absolutely terrible. As a note.

Suzaku nodded to show it was alright and held Arthur so that Crimson Lass could pet him. Arthur purred happily. He nodded again, "Yes I think Euphie named him after King Arthur," his pronounciation in contrast was almost perfect.

"That's so cool! I love those stories." She obliged the cat's purring, though one hand was once again freed to wave around. For comfort's sake, it was the hand covered in her gauntlet. "Like the knights of the round table! The first time I heard that story I knew I was going to be a knight."

Suzaku nodded though he looked a little surprised, "Are you a knight?" She didn't look like a knight, but then Anya didn't look like a knight either and so he was not going to underestimate her.

"Akane was surprised, too! But I'm a knight of justice," she nodded. "I made a vow to protect everyone, so..." At that, she trailed off and wilted a little. The idea that she had failed was- no. She hadn't failed. This had nothing to do with her. It was too big, too everything. She rallied.

"I'll never fail to help someone in need. That's what a knight does, right?"

A knight of justice? Suzaku wondered what kind of world Sora was from and he watched her carefully noticing her wilting, wondering if it was because she believed the world had ended despite the fact Suzaku had told her otherwise.

His face fell at her last words, "Yes. I supose it is." He looked away, knights in fairy stories were like what Sora was saying but in his experiance...

He stayed silent unable to tell her he was a knight too, because he was nothing like her idea of a knight. Everyone he tried to protect died and he had killed far more people than he had ever saved.

"Tsuki told me I was being stupid," she began, but then something in Suzaku's face changed. If Sora was oblivious to 99% of everything around her, the one thing she would pick up on, without fail, was a change in the emotions of her friends.

And, because they'd met over a minute ago, she and Suzaku were friends. So when he looked away, going quiet and sullen, she stopped. Stared, for a moment, and ran around the few steps to stand in front of him. Frowning up, an immoveable object of determination.

"I won't change my vow, even if this isn't my world. I won't. So... You can believe in me, okay? You don't have to be sad. I promise."

Suzaku blinked in surprise at the change in the girl's demeaner, as she ran in front of him. He blinked again at her words, wondering at her determination and enthusiasm. He nodded though not wanting to upset her.

"So is it just two friends you are looking for or were there more?" There were a lot of people in the tower, and Suzaku knew even if they went to every floor they would still end up missing some people.

first patrol | OPEN

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