towerofanimus | [o2] A little discussion. ☂ Closed.

Entry tags:

[o2] A little discussion. ☂ Closed.

Characters:

Break and

Tohko.
Setting: Floor 81, the lounge, around 10AM, forward-dated to the 22nd. (After exchanging some mail.)
Format: Starting with action but you can use prose if you're more comfortable.
Summary: Break and Tohko decide to have some tea together after all that went on.
Warnings: Mentions of the event, most likely, and Break probably being Break. I will edit if anything else happens.

[ Break, having arrived with a tea set and a bit of tea, enough for a few kettles, he is sure, is quite happy to find a nice table in the lounge after getting the water and sugar he would need and bringing it to this floor via the elevator. It is a shame, he thinks, that they've no cream or milk, but it will just have to do. He prefers black tea, of course; he only hopes his guest will not mind the flavor. He would sweeten it with honey, but that is also harder to come by here.

So he waits for Tohko to arrive, once he has set his tray down. Emily is sitting on the table nearby. Truthfully, he is not sure whether or not she is going to be followed, and if what happened has had any bearings on his current goal to learn as much about the limits of this place and the admins as he can. If she was brainwashed, it was quite possible she may have reported to the administrators that he was dangerous, and if that is true, well... he needs to find out. That aside, he quite needs someone with information, and so he begins dropping sugar cubes into his own tea, one, two, three... and on he goes until fifteen are in place.

When Tohko arrives, she will find him sitting there looking entirely at ease, though she may note at the moment he is not wearing his coat and such as he usually does, he is in his Pandora Uniform. Why? Well, he got himself kind of... nicked up in his other clothing, oops. A few people decided to attack him when they were insane. Besides Tohko. Not all of them were easy to handle. He has his cane nearby, leaning against the seat. Can't be too careful, right? ]

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[ Sigh. She misses his point yet again. ]

My dear child, you are quite missing the point. I detest repeating myself, so I am going to ask that you listen VERY CLOSELY to what I am about to say, every single word. If you attacked me, how many more people have you attempted to hurt in your efforts to make them stay "in-line" as a puppet? And how many were your precious "friends"? I am going to tell you right now this will inevitably happen again--

[ And he just waves the fork airily in her direction. He is speaking, here, from experience: it is better to throw away all those useless things if you are going to have a single goal than it is to say you will or won't have uncompromising morals. ]

If you are willing to continue your attempt to fight these people, you will have to forsake all of that and learn to cope with the fact you will be used to hurt the people you care about. You cannot say you will never hurt the people you love or use them, because you just did, did you not? You may wish to fight me on this front, you may wish to say "but that was not me," but we both know the truth, do we not? I am not saying you have to behave differently, what I am asking is this:

[ And now, he just leans back into his seat. ]

Are you truly fine with suffering that much? It would be easier, you know, to simply live your idealistic little life and let them run it. But if you continue this path, they will likely not allow that to happen; after all, you are already being watched.

[Tohko has been listening carefully to Xerxes, even though she's been working on that tea for most of the time. When he finishes speaking, she puts down her glass. Her smile was gone, but she looked very determined.]

I admit..I attacked quite a few people, and some of them were precious, dear friends of mine. However, let me rephrase what I have said: I, in my right mind, with my free will intact, will never hurt the people I love or choose to have them be sacrificed instead of me. I know the can twist my free will, and I know that they can and sometimes will use me as a puppet. But..the fact remains that, in my right mind, I won't do those things, and it won't stop me from trying to make amends once the damage it done and I'm back to myself.

I know I'm being watched, and I know that I might get hurt if I continue. But it's better that I hurt instead of the people I care about. I won't throw away my ideals.

[ ... What a foolish little girl. Did she really think it was that easy? He wonders if she wasn't the sort who'd end up attached to a Chain and dragged down into the Abyss... "I'll be fine" is the stupid attitude Oz developed. And now... now what? Where does this leave them all? What should he do? Should he keep trying to gather as much information as he can...? He needs a goal. But at least Tohko has some amount of conviction, and courage. And she won't just hide behind an excuse. That is enough for him, at least, to not outright dislike her. ]

You really are an idiot. Opening yourself to that kind of thing... I can only hope they do not break you in the end. However did you come to be so stubborn?

[ Pausing. ]

... And what will you do next? Having lofty goals is nice, but the immediate future is a larger concern. I imagine this is the calm before the storm... though I cannot say for sure what is going on with everyone else, as one cannot keep track of them all face to face.

[Tohko wasn't the type to hide behind an excuse. She would accept responsibilty whenever something happened, even if she was stubborn and foolish sometimes. However, at the question, she couldn't help but lightly smile.]

Don't worry..I don't think they will. I'm more worried about everyone else than myself. However..I got to be this stubborn when I read stories about heroes and characters who never gave up..and prevailed. And that was only further hammered into me when my stubbornness managed to save someone back home from suicide.

As for what will happen next..I'll have to talk with everyone, find out what they've managed to do in my absence, and then plan out something with them. We'll come up with something, even if it will take us awhile.

[ ... There's a kind almost bitter smile. Hahahahahaha... oh, god, what would she even think if she knew the truth? He's torn between amusement and hating those sort of stories. Knights in shining armor... do not exist. Break smiles, but it does not quite reach his eye. ]

... Not giving up is simply someone being stubborn. Heroes do not exist outside of fiction, Miss Amano. Though, if you are planning to meet with them, I am not sure you should use the mail to do that. It leaves too many gaps.

[If Tohko heard the truth..she probably would have dealt with it as best she could and comforted Xerxes. She was the sort of person who put others in front of herself, after all. However..since she was a book girl, she loved all sorts of stories. She noticed that Xerxes smile wasn't quite genuine, but she didn't comment on it.]

That's not true. Heroes exist all over the place, if you only look hard enough. I've met quite a few of them here..however, the mail system was good enough to be trusted by Dax. It should be alright..but I was planning on meeting people face-to-face.

[ And then the cheeriness is back. ]

All over, you say? Then I must be running into knights in shining armor left and right!

[ But, more seriously... Break takes a moment finish his tea before continuing. ]

This Dax man--I am curious, if you could indulge me for a moment, Miss Amano... what do you know about him?

[..Obviously, Xerxes hasn't read enough stories.]

..You might not be..but you know, heroes don't have to be knights in shining armor. They can be all sorts of people.

[Tohko took one more sip of her tea, collecting her thoughts, before moving on.]

He was one of the Administrators, and the only one with a morality system similar to a humans. He hated Jason's experiments and didn't like the way Ruana treated us, but she had a hold over him..and for most of the time, he didn't go against her. However, his months were peaceful, and other than the monsters, no experiments would take place.

However, eventually, he got fed up with Ruana. He managed to get several people down to the Administrative level, where they learned the truth about the bodies here, and..he pulled several people from an alternate universe here, and a large, powerful monster, in an attempt to kill Ruana. When that failed, he challenged her himself..and lost. She devoured him.

[ ... He sighs. Not going to dignify the hero thing with a response-- ]

I do hope she at least garnished him properly! I doubt he was a rather good meal.

[ Yeah. That's really all he has to say. ]

How interesting. This Ruana girl... she is not unlike something I have encountered before.

[ Alice. The Will of the Abyss. She sounded just like her... ]

[..And that comment earns you an angry glare, Xerxes.]

Xerxes, she ate him whole, ripping his guts out for all to see. It's on the network if you ever want to take a look.

[..However, that second comment was interesting.]

What was similar to Ruana in your universe?

[ Since he is done with his tea, don't mind if he just gets a lollipop out. He seems entirely unbothered. Lol you expect him to care, Tohko? Cause he don't. At all. ]

I've no idea what you mean by "network," dear girl, but yes, you rather insinuated that. Do you think that bothers me? However terrible you think it is, it can always be worse.

[ It doesn't. Not at all. ]

Some people call her the "Will of the Abyss," though she would likely prefer to be called Alice. She is quite like this Ruana girl I have heard so much about. Twisted, warped, depraved, but still some form of child, still a little girl of a sort.

[ He's resisting the urge to rest his hand over his hair right now, the hair that covers up the other side of his face. That eye of his she gave to that stupid cat... no, it was more like a rat. It had no right to call itself a cat. ]

That's true..but even if it can be worse, that doesn't change the fact that it's terrible..but if you don't know about the network, I can teach you about it.

[After all, she's already taught several people in the Tower. However, this information was interesting.]

I see..and how did you handle her? And was she the strongest thing you ever came across?

[ Heh. He'll bring up this "network" thing later. But for now, there's... an odd sort of change to his expression. ]

Miss Amano, what would you expect hell itself to be like, I wonder...? What kind of person do you think would live at its core?

[ It's a bit odd to answer a question with a question, but he has a point. ]

[Tohko sighed as she scratched her head, trying to think of how she could put her views on Hell so that they would make sense.]

My views on Hell, Heaven, Purgatory, and God are a bit odd, since I've read so many stories and seen different version of the places..but if Hell were to exist, and if it were to be a bad place..then I imagine that, at the core, there would be no one. Everyone who went would be stuck in an empty place, alone, forever.

..Did you push Alice into Hell?

[ He allows himself a slightly amused chuckle. ]

Hah... I'm not sure if I should be offended you would think so poorly of me. ... You have it quite backwards.

[ Insinuation? That HE may have been pushed down there himself. But he won't tell her that outright. Instead, he's quiet for a moment before he goes on. ]

Your description is not... off, but it is not correct, either. I would say it rather more looks to me like a broken toy box... and its core is a room filled with dolls and madness. In its most simplistic form, that is what we call the "Abyss". A world where something you could call demons reside. ... Though we call them Chains. The sort of things that man, Jason, turned you into are very average horrors there. The Abyss is an unnatural creation, a black hole of madness and inhuman creatures. And yet, at its core, the living embodiment of that madness...

[ And he points to Tohko. ]

... A young girl. Just... like... you.

[Well, Tohko got that insinuation perfectly well, and she sighed and scratched her head.]

..I'm sorry. That must have been a horrible experience for you then. How did you manage to get out? And why did Alice push you down?

[Hey, don't compare her to the creator of Hell and countless monsters, Break.]

She couldn't have been just like me..I'm not strong enough to make things like that. However...how was she able to make all those things? And was this young girl Alice?

[..And was Xerxes a Mad Hatter?]

[ Heeheehee. But Tohko, everyone can be a monster. Jason made you one, remember? But he's not going to answer any of that--she does not need to know anything about his past. ]

You assume she created it? Not at all. She is simply the Will of the Abyss. Unlike Miss Ruana, well, I am sure their existences are similar, though... I suspect the Will has been around far longer, I cannot say for certain.

[ He shrugs lightly. Oh, the smile's very much there now, but it's oddly... sharp, somehow. Precise. ]

If you were offered the chance to change anything you wanted about the world... the past, the present, the future, even this place, were it possible... would you take it?

[Yes, but did everyone like being a monster? However, Tohko looked a bit puzzled at that term.]

Why did the Abyss choose her to be it's will? Was there something special about it or was she just willing?

[..That second question did make Tohko think that she was willing..that Alie made the deal for power.]

It depends. What are the specifics of the contract? What will I have to do or give up? I'd have to know everything that went into something like that. I have no intention of becoming Faust unknowingly.

[ He laughs merrily, now-- ]

Well, it is good to know you are not a complete imbecile!

[ His demeanor changes so rapidly it's a bit shocking, but, Break just sort of flops around, messing with his lollipop. ]

Who can say? I certainly am not qualified to judge a being such as her! But Chains, I think, would be a little easier to explain. When an illegal contract is made, the human playing host to the Chain in their body will have a tattoo-looking insignia appear right over their heart. The top is a needle--every time they use the Chain's power, the more humans they feed to it, well... tick, tock. It's simply a matter of time after that. Of course... the promise you could, oh, reverse the destruction of something precious to you would be far more alluring than common sense if you were desperate, would it not?

Well, I am a book girl, you know! I'm not a fool.

[Tohko burned Xerxes information onto her brain and sighed. So..Alice had made a contract and had a Chain put in her body..and she had turned into a monster after feeding countless people into the Abyss. Break might have tried to stop her, and..got pushed in as a result.]

..Possibly..but you know, even if I was desperate, I wouldn't want to endanger others. If I was to make a contract like that, I would want only one person to get hurt-me.

[ Something like that. ... Or something nowhere near like that. He won't explain, probably not unless Tohko tries to ask directly, and even then, he will never tell her the entirety of it. It was not for her to know. ]

There is never an "only you" can be hurt in anything, be it contracting or simple relationships. Every power comes with a price--

[ Crunch goes the lollipop. ]

You may lose your head, but then the person next to you has to deal with the aftermath. In particular, I think, the same might be said of our so-called 'saviors'. What is the cost of what they do? What deal did they have to make? Why would Mister Jason feel the need to try to silence us into obedience through force if he was not concerned about that price? What you do not see tells you more than what you do. I would like to see... what shall happen after this.

Desperation breeds belligerence and ignorance... oppression breeds revolution and planning.

[Sadly, Tohko could be pretty stubborn when she wanted to be, so further questions about Xerxes past would probably come up until he told her to stop asking about it.]

Then I just have to make sure that my friends and loved ones aren't standing next to me in that scenario. However..Jason's probably concerned about his own hide, since he might not want to end up dead..and we were saved..because Ruana destroys our worlds by looking at them.

..And while might might happen next will be interesting..we have to make sure that we don't plan foolishly.

[ He chuckles. Tohko, you're so stupidly cute and saying "not to be foolish"? Really? He's amused, though in a very dark sort of way. ]

What a mess I have found myself in.

[ All he can think of was how something that had ruled his life for so long was so utterly decimated in seconds at Alice's irritation. And the ensuing bloody rain. Sigh. ]

It is indeed good that I am a servant, or this would be a most irritating and unfamiliar situation to clean up.

[ Which you can take as a sort of "I'll help if you need it" kind of thing, Tohko. But more importantly... ]

About this "network" you speak of... I presume it has to do with the odd... contraptions in this place, such as that lift?

We've all found ourselves in this mess..but it's good that you're used to these things. I've been here awhile, so I've gotten used to a bit of it..so hopefully we can both help everyone out.

[Tohko then looked out toward the elevator and nodded before looking back at Xerxes.]

That's the elevator..and yes, it is a technological appliance..if you need help using it, I can show you how to.

[ Such fancy words.]

Elevator... I suppose it does not elevate us in terms of status, then? It really is a shame, perhaps we could use it to curry favor with our ad-min-is-trai-tors.

[ But on a less silly note-- ]

Unfortunately, I am afraid we are not yet elevated enough from my perspective, as you have probably realized. The help would be most appreciated, Miss Amano. Perhaps I can repay the favor in kind.

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