[Event, returning from surgery, open]

[spiritsup.livejournal.com]

Characters: All those who were expermimented on if they want and everyone else
Setting: Cafeteria, morning
Format: Whatevers easiest
Summary: Those that were taken a week ago are left in the cafeteria, changed and somewhat broken. (I'm starting with Romeo, and then everyone can just make their own threads/reply to each other/tag around. I just thought this would save 8 very similar different threads)
Warnings: Horror, description of body modification horror, trauma, angst, unplesentness. Probably lots of anger

Romeo had barely struggled when he was taken a week ago but now he was angry. The bad people had hurt them all, did awful things to them. He shouted at them and was ignored, he tried to bash them with his antlers but it did nothing. Soon they were left in the cafeteria. It had only been a week but everything had changed. Romeo had fallen once they had put him down, he still wasn't good at walking and he looked around. The cafeteria was exactly the same though it seemed that the whole tower should have changed, become even scarier than it already was. He looked at his mouth, so strange and protruding out of his face and then down at his legs, four of them now not two. They looked strange in a way they hadn't in the cells. They had been a scary place and the face that he now had hooves and antlers hadn't been as horrifying as it was now he was in a normal place. A place he had been for a long time now.

He looked at the others and tried not to cry, he had cried so much already and it wouldn't keep anyone's spirits up. Now they were back they had to act strong and brave because they would be seeing their friends. Those that were hopefully safe. With a determined look Romeo struggled to his feet and stood, staying very close to the others, scared even now he was no longer imprisoned. "It will be alright." He whispered, both to himself and to those around him. They just had to keep their spirits up, and no matter what they had to keep living.

Comments

Kanaya

[grimauxilatrix.livejournal.com]

[Relief washed over her when she woke up in the cafeteria and not in the cell. It had been torture watching people be taken and returned modified. It was even scarier to wait and know that you could be next. She had tried to remain calm and collected throughout the week, but it was difficult to retain her composure. She was furious at their captors and worried about the others but she was too drained to do anything about it.]

[It was eerie how the cafeteria didn't seem to change but the inhabitants were so deformed. She looked around the room at the others but didn't say a word to them. They had gone through this together but what could she possibly say to them. Who knew for certain that it would be alright in the end?]

[Kanaya was slumped in one of the chairs and compared to a lot of the others, she didn't look to bad. Almost normal even. Often the phantom inside her would be restless and angry and try to push its way out of her. You could see her skin straining to keep it inside, no matter how much she wanted it out out out of her. When she spoke the phantom would try to climb its way out of her mouth, again with little success.]

[For now she'd sit here and just contemplate what to do next.]

Re: Kanaya

[allurprincess.livejournal.com]

[Sora has only been here for a few days; although she's heard from various people about their missing friends, it isn't a personal thing. But they were described to her, and she has a thing for faces.

When she comes down for breakfast, she knows who it is she's found. Mostly. Those who still have a human face. What she can't work out is what's been done to them. Utopia's experiments were nasty and brutish things, and as a street-level hero, she could never afford to be squeamish, but it still takes her a moment of swallowing to stifle her reaction. Even the smell of exposed, red flesh is too much.]

W-what... [bolts over to the nearest person who looks able to talk, a girl with grey skin and coloured horns, slumped on a chair] What happened? I'll help you!

[allthefeelings.livejournal.com]

[The cafeteria was one of the few places in the tower that Eridan actually went. Which meant he was here now, eating oatmeal mixed with bacon and occasionally glancing over at the others in the room that had been there when he came in.

Eventually, he carried over his bowl to the table nearest Kanaya's chair, and sat down beside her. He leaned in slightly to speak in hushed tones.]

Hey, Kan, I knoww wwe aren't on the best a' terms...but wwhat's wwith all these freaks?

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

Oh god. This was just... oh god.

The situation was bad, very bad, terribly bad, but Ienzo didn't seem to register that until he heard the curses. A large number of profanities, in several languages, started running through his brain in quick succession -- they were the only things that could reasonably describe his thoughts right now, or lack thereof. This was admittedly not the first time he had utilized Braig's 'foreign language lessons', but the first time where he had used so much of it. And definitely the first where he was considering saying them out loud.

He approached Kanaya slowly. She was slumped in a chair, jerking around every so often. He had seen this reaction too. It was reminding him quite a bit of the spasms caused by a creature whose body had been overcome by Darkness -- not just heart, but entire being. He would not have been surprised if her hair turned white and skin dark brown. As he got closer, he realized slowly that they probably wouldn't have injected her with Darkness (most people here didn't even know what it was), so it must be something else.

Some other sentient, openly malicious element that caused subjects such obvious physical distress?

He stopped a few feet away. This was not good, not good at all...

[pchaaair]

[Everyone else in the room still bothered him, but-- Kanaya was back. She was back, and-- that gave him a little happiness, at least. It was one happy thing in a giant mess of unhappy things, like being stuck here, and Alternia being destroyed. Tavros made his way over to Kanaya quickly. He pushed those thoughts away and focused on the matter at hand. Kanaya being back.]

Kanaya, um, what happened?

[timegame.livejournal.com]

[Aradia wasn't entirely sure what to say or do about what she was seeing- the changes in people, while not always immediately obvious, were all the more disconcerting when she realized that there was in fact something off. She spotted Kanaya easily amidst all the humans, and bolted over, stopping just short of her as she watched Kanaya's skin seem to push and crawl at irregular intervals. Swallowing thickly, an unease beginning to settle in the pit of her stomach, she moved to close the last foot or so between them slowly, concern overriding everything else.]

...Kanaya? What is- is there anything I can do?

[dawnlotus.livejournal.com]

[It had definitely been some time since Vietnam heard from her, and so she was getting a little worried. However, there was something about her that didn't seem right. Cautiously, she approached her.]

What...what happened?

[2nd-dii2ciiple.livejournal.com]

Kanaya? [He still can't see properly, but she's not saying anything and he needs to be sure she wasn't left behind or something, so he opens his eyes and tries to sort through the confusing visions of present and past.] Are you here? Are you okay?

[quarkylass]

[ She isn't quite sure what to say, or to do, so she'll just stand there and watch. ]

[salamancer.livejournal.com]

[Rose hadn't exactly been having the best day previous to now.

She had woken up with a note informing her of her participation in an experiment, and that was never good. As of now, she couldn't stop itching at her skin, startling as it felt as though someone was touching her, and hearing whispers-- much like that of the Horror Terrors-- and seeing shadows and movement in her peripheral vision. She did her best to calm herself down and push it to the back of her mind, but it was still disconcerting to know that they had done something to make this happen.

When she walked down to the cafeteria, her eyes widened in shock. Kanaya!! Kanaya was back, she was here--

And there was something wrong with her. Rose could tell even before she saw the straining beneath the trolls skin, reverberating back to herself and replicating the feeling beneath her own skin, causing her to itch more at her skin.
Rose was furious.]

What did they do.

[The aura around Rose seemed to be ebbing ever so much darker.]

[craaaaaaaazy8s.livejournal.com]

[Vriska was still skulking about after the fiasco with Terezi, and though she'd noticed Kanaya's absence she hadn't been too concerned over it. It was Kanaya, she would be fine. She was always fine.

But when she stumbled upon her in the cafeteria, it was obvious that she'd been mistaken to think that way. They weren't moirails anymore, but even when they had been, it had always been Vriska that needed looking out for. And Vriska had always sort of thought Kanaya was able to take care of herself, that she didn't truly need someone to take care of her. She'd always known their moirailship was more beneficial to herself than it was the jade-blood, but now...

Seeing that thing trying to escape almost made her want to vomit. Why hadn't she gone looking for her? Why hadn't she tried protecting her? Oh right, she was too busy fucking everything up again. She'd concluded to play nice (again), to try to make up for her mistakes (again), but any thought of discarding the violence she always fell back on was wiped clean from her mind. Someone would pay. She would make them pay.]

Who the hell did this to you?

/tags ALL THE SURGERY PATIENTS

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

Somewhere in his sleep, Ienzo had felt that he had been tampered with. Of course, he didn't quite realize it until he woke up -- three hours later than he normally did. It didn't take him very long to see that this was definitely not a coincidence; circadian rhythms did not just break like that, especially since there was no stimulus that divided this day as different from any other. Suddenly wary of the universe, he went downstairs to the cafeteria.

And stopped at the door.

It didn't take him very long to drop the stoic act and just stare wide-eyed at the line of monstrosities that sat along the floor. He recognized a few immediately, Kanaya for example, but others it definitely took him a moment. Such as the small, mutilated creature sitting on the floor there. Now, Ienzo had seen mutated versions of just about everything under the sun, so he wasn't running out of the room and gagging like someone else might have. But he was still shocked speechless at the creature that had once been one of his towerma--

holy shit.

Romeo.

sob

[spiritsup.livejournal.com]

People started coming down, Romeo looked at them. He was so glad that there were still people who wern't hurt, who had spent a week not locked in a cage. He saw Ienzo and smiled, his smile; which was a little twisted due to his mouth and nose being wider, faded a little.

"Izeno..." He tried not to cry but it was so hard when Ienzo looked like he wanted to run away. He had to stay brave, even if his friends would be scared of him now.

Milagro

[princesslantern.livejournal.com]

[fifty]

[Laying eyes on Milagro, America's first thought is that it makes his previous concerns about her trip through the glass seem ridiculous. But underneath that is the current of recognition, now that he's seen her in person, that this is one of his citizens, maybe one of his last few citizens anywhere, and she is hurting, and he has to do something right now even though he doesn't know what to do or how to fix it or even who she is outside of that post she made about the glass.]

What--what happened?

[fifty]

America was up earlier than usual, but his typical early morning (or late morning) exhaustion was muted by the unease that the note he had gotten brought. Still, he was too out of it to notice how he walked rhythmically enough that he might as well be marching.

And when he stepped out of the elevator into the cafeteria and saw--saw--what was he even seeing?

His first, lizard brain instinct was to bolt back for the elevator, but the rest of him wanted to bolt forward and see what was happening. And so he was left staring as the elevator closed behind him.

[spiritsup.livejournal.com]

Romeo saw his roomate and watched him quietly. He didn't want to scare him, everyone seemed very scared and Romeo was sad that it was him, him and the others, that were making them scared and sad. He didn't want to make people scared. He wanted to make them happy.

Dean

[gimmepie.livejournal.com]

[Unfortunately, Dean can't even really see where they've been taken, nor can he smell without a nose. All he can do is listen-- by some miracle -- to the people around him. He doesn't want to be seen like this, whatever it is. There is no comprehensive image of himself in his consciousness, but he knows it must be horrible.

He doesn't understand why he can even think. Why is he alive?

Will you approach the man sitting there in a hospital gown and without a face? He'll probably need some help up the stairs. Or doing pretty much anything that requires vision.]

[fifty]

[Yet another jolt of recognition but not. If the man hadn't been sitting up and breathing America would have been sure he was a corpse. If not for the citizenship recognition America would have been sure he was a monster, after that. But no, this was--this was impossible. And hideous and terrifying and everything at once.

His desire to keep what few people he had left safe--and the failure to do so staring him in the face with the removal of this one's--kept him from running.]

H-hello?

for Romeo

[princesspowaful.livejournal.com]

[Molly had entered with Piccolo on her shoulder but he hopped off and went towards... something. She quickly followed after him and as she got closer she realized what it was. It wasn't a what, it was Romeo. With that realization she ran as fast as she could towards him, piccolo still got there before she did.]

[she gives him a strained smile] You look kinda cool? Uh, that's kinda mean, sorry. Um. Are you okay? Me and Piccolo missed you.

;; Molly

[spiritsup.livejournal.com]

[Romeo's heart leaped when he saw Piccolo, he was so glad his friend was okay. He had been frightened that he hadn't been able to get to Molly but Piccolo was brave and smart. And then there was Molly. After Ienzo's first reaction Romeo was terrified that she would run away from him. But her words made him smile properly for the first time since this had happened.]

Molly! Thank you for looking after Piccolo for me, did he behave himself? I missed you too! [Tears came into his eyes again and he shook his head, toppling a little as his antlers overbalanced him.] I was scared... I'm glad you're alright.

[cantgetlaidin.livejournal.com]

Germany was vaguely relieved to wake up in the familiar setting of the cafeteria. It was preferable to the glass cell he had been confined to for the past few days. It was over. For now, at least.

Still, the damage had been done. The nation was barely recognizable from a distance. Frail, delicate, his skin far too big for him and sewn together by black thread. He was a skeleton of the strong, imposing figure he had been only a week ago. Drained and weak, he pushed himself up from the chair with considerable effort. He needed to get out of here. He needed to get away, locate an ally he could trust and... Well. He wasn't sure what he would do after that.

It took him considerable effort and it looked like his legs were threatening to give way with every step, but using the tables and chairs as support, he slowly tried to make his way towards the exit of the cafeteria.

[dawnlotus.livejournal.com]

Vietnam was making her way into the cafeteria when she noticed the man struggling, and while part of her was telling her not to go help, her pride kicked mentally kicked her and she headed closer.

"Do you need any..." Vietnam couldn't finish that sentence, realising who this was. Or a shadow of who he once was, a melting, almost fleshless shadow.

"...Germany?"

France

[creme-master.livejournal.com]

[He had had the better part of a week to physically recover from his surgery. At first he'd wondered if they were ever going to release them, but now that they had the man wished they hadn't. Reflecting the others' thoughts, it was incredibly surreal to see the cafeteria as it had been the day they'd been taken. A week ago, and while everything had changed for them nothing had seemed to change for the Tower.

Francis had made the fast discovery that he was essentially unaffected by the toxic bile that had been so gracefully given to him; a small tally on the plus side of this whole fiasco. The downside? He couldn't open his mouth without the stuff spilling out, leaving the normally verbose man silent and more than a little morose looking.

It was disheartening to lack the ability to comfort, and while he was set on remaining close to the eight others (in all of their varying degrees of dismemberment) he had resorted to wringing his hands in his lap, eyes down as if he were lost in some sort of thought. He didn't feel the usual urge to act in a way to garner all that much attention.]

[fifty]

France?

[America's tone is childishly subdued, closer to shy colony than brash world power, although he's trying to grasp at the tone of the latter and sounding more afraid for the effort. America ran to his citizens first before he was entirely aware of the other people he knew in the room. France didn't look, at first glance, injured. But he was wearing the hospital gown like the others, so something had to be wrong.]

Ψiioniic

[2nd-dii2ciiple.livejournal.com]

[Ψiioniic is huddled in a corner, arms wrapped around his legs and curled up tight. He's got his eyes closed - he's learned that he can't trust what they tell him, his vision twofold cutting in and out sporadically. He can't tell the difference between visions of the future and visions of the present - he was trying to fight off the drones that came to retrieve them hours before they actually appeared.]

[With his horns gone and the white, skin-tight film that completely covers his body, he's almost impossibly to identify except for the crackles of red and blue electricity that occasionally snap around him. He can't control those, either. He can't even hear or smell or touch or taste properly. He's helpless and he knows it, and he's pretty sure he'll never make it all the way from the Cafeteria to his room alone.]

[Worse, if the Condesce or Dualscar find him like this...]

Kanaya... Milagro, Romeo, everyone, are you all okay?

[spiritsup.livejournal.com]

I'm here mister Psiioniic, I'm alright. [He is sat or lay on the floor nearby. He knows that Psiioniic can't see him or hear him very well though.] I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you. [He'd already failed in that, but he would try his best to stop anything worse happening now that he wasn't locked in a cage.]

[f0rceless.livejournal.com]

Ven had had no idea there were any consistent disappearance; he knew some people were missing, but looking was a pretty hefty task. But then before he knew it, there was a huge crowd in the cafeteria and.... What had happened? What had they done to them?!

He didn't know many of them, but he knew something was wrong; and he did recognize Romeo vaguely after a moment or so of though; that was the kid he'd seen before when the phantoms showed up...!

So the blonde hurriedly rushed over and tried to help steady the poor kid, with his hands on what would be Romeo's shoulders if he were still human. "A-Are you OK?! What happened?!"

[spiritsup.livejournal.com]

"Ven!" Romeo hadn't seen the boy all that often but he remembered him as the one who fought darkness with a key and had magic fire. He managed a half smile as the boy steadied him and nodded, wabbling a little as his antlers made him lose balance. "Yes..." He had to keep his spirits up and Ven's too! But he was still scared. "The bad people got us, they were like doctors but doctors are good and they were bad! Very bad."

[hoboherooo.livejournal.com]

Oh god.

Oh god.

Eiji couldn't do much but stare around the room at the people who had been changed - his gut was a wrenching mix of emotions: fear, anger, pity, sadness... This had been going on, and he had no clue about it. He might have been able to stop it if he had known...

Not again...

[spiritsup.livejournal.com]

"Mister Enji!" Romeo called out before he remembered that he looked scary and he didn't want to scare people. But he knew that when mister Enji got scared or frightened something happened, and it made him want to hurt people even if they hadn't done anything wrong. Romeo didn't want that to happen here because everyone in the cafeteria were good people who hadn't done these bad things.

The bad people were long gone. "It's me," his voice was quiet, "Romeo."

Romana

[tomatatas]

As soon as she wakes up Romana starts to weakly struggle, her breathing fast as she forces herself to sit up. As soon as she does though, the small slit in the back of her gown showed the skin stripped off her spine, showing the bones perfectly and matching the skin stripped from her legs and elbows. She bites back a whimper as the back of her thighs press to the surface of the bench she was placed on before slowly standing, reaching back to hold her gown shut.

As much as she sympathies with everyone whose gone through this, she has to get to her room, find clothes that cover her arms and legs and yet don't have a neckline low enough to show the skin cut away from her torso, her ribs and lungs missing and her heart perfectly shown inside the otherwise empty cavity. And so she looks straight ahead, taking slowly steady steps out of the cafeteria.

[freewolfmoon.livejournal.com]

Everything Fenris has seen here today only confirms what he believed already. The people in charge of this tower are evil; he knows their ilk. But he stays silent and almost ghostly in corners as he watches. There's nothing he can do to help, anyway.

That is, until he sees Romana slowly making her way forward, step by step. The sight stirs memories in him of both pain and uncertainty, and worn down by what he's seen, he doesn't really think before falling into step at her side.

"Tell me if there's anything I can do." It surprises even him that he's offering.

[cullionfish.livejournal.com]

[A certain highblooded Empress had, in fact, found her way below when she began to catch wind of movement in the tower. She'd been rather tired of sitting up in her room pacing, trying to figure out how to handle this horrendous situation she had found herself in.

So when the victims were dumped in the cafeteria, she was there in her own corner, silently observing like a hawk sizing up its prey. Whoever these people were that held them captive had technology even greater than Alternia's by the looks of things. An enemy she almost couldn't afford to fight, but perhaps to befriend and overthrow instead.

She had to be honest, there was a certain art in the methods of experimentation they used, however impractical some of it was. The Condescension had already spoken to the one she was interested in ... so for now, she would hover ominously and wait for reactions from others.]

[spiritsup.livejournal.com]

[A thud sounded from not to far nearby as Romeo fell off the hoverboard that Ven had lent him. However he had managed to get a good way across the room before he had fallen and that was much better than trying to walk. He struggled upright, wincing as his antlers scraped the floor and stood up slowly, concentrating on keeping his balance. He saw the troll lady sitting there.]

Oh sorry miss [He still winced as he saw his mouth and nose, all bone now move inches in front of his face but this was an adult so hopefully he wouldn't scare her.]

Tagging Romeo

[champagnedelis.livejournal.com]

"R-Romeo...?" She hadn't recognized him when she'd first entered the cafeteria, but somewhere in that morphed appearance was the little boy she'd baked cakes with. She rushed to him and knelt before him, hands automatically moving forward to gently cup his cheeks, tears threatening to build in her eyes. God, even to the children-!

"What... Romeo? Are you..." 'Alright' seemed wrong to say, considering the boy was no longer completely human... She glanced at the antlers and hooves before changing 'alright' to, "... Are you in pain?"

"Mon cher, who has done this?"

;; France

[spiritsup.livejournal.com]

Romeo looked up when he heard his name being called. It took effort to lift his head but he was getting more used to it. It was miss France, he managed to give her a tiny smile when she came towards him feeling bad that she was so upset. "Miss France! No it doesn't hurt, not really... I just don't really know how to use my legs yet... and my head is all heavy..." His eyes still had tears in them and he frowned at the second question.

"Bad people miss France, really bad people."