Plenty of things to catch up on

[warriorscribe]

Characters: Enoch and Yotsuba; Enoch and Lucifel; Enoch and Tohko; Enoch and anyone
Setting: Floors 15 and 32, Apr 10 or 11(Yotsuba); Floor 48, Apr 18(Lucifel); Floor 81, Apr 20(Tohko); Floor 11, Apr 21(open)
Format: Doesn't matter!
Summary: A catch-all for promised closed logs, and an open prompt for bugging him if you want.
Warnings: There is a retrieval unit hanging around in the last prompt. Don't attack it unless you want to die. Also buried alive in the Lucifel prompt. Also some mild spoilers for El Shaddai, but that's probably not noteworthy (quoting the prophecies of Ishtar if you're wondering).

Workshop(F15), Apr 10 or 11(Locked to sunflowerfairy)

Enoch had given Yotsuba instructions on where to meet, how to avoid monsters if she ran into any, and what not to touch along the way. Now, all that was left was waiting for her to show up. He sat on a workbench with patches of leather he was currently working into sling pouches. Two cloth waist pouches, one attached to a child-sized sash and one with just a tie for a belt loop, sat completed beside him, along with braided rope for the slings and cloth for grips that wouldn't agitate the child's hands as much.


Graveyard(F48), Apr 18(locked to brbtalkingtogod)

Enoch had been slacking again, between general discontent at working for Ruana, the pain of working in the graveyard and knowing every single grave represented someone stranded all alone on their worlds, and the chaos that had ensued with the modified people. In said chaos, he'd in fact forgotten about his job.

It was why he panicked when he woke inside a coffin again. After getting a bearing on where he was, frantically feeling the pine walls, it dawned on him. He doubted he'd be so lucky as to be rescued a second time, especially with the mess going on out there...

Strangely enough, this didn't scare him. It was quiet down here. He wondered if he was jaded, or just relieved to be away from the mess outside. Death wasn't going to be so bad if he could just run out of air in his sleep anyway. He had some choice words for Jason. Plenty of reasons to not be upset at this. His own calm unsettled him a little, but thinking of these reasons helped assuage that.

Of course, he didn't realize his luck hadn't yet run out, somehow.


Highest lounge(F81), Apr 20(Locked to tohko_amano)

Enoch had slipped a note under Tohko's door to let her know where to meet him. It was easy, an elevator stop, and Enoch didn't mind relaxing on the couches or looking at the stars or the world below while he waited. The relative quiet in the tower was a morose, somber one in the wake of everything. But it was quiet, and he wasn't going to complain about that.


Rainbow floor(F11), Apr 21(Open!)

Enoch had returned once again to this floor, to stare up at the sky from below the clouds. The stars were beautiful, but there was nothing like an ordinary, Earthly sky. Even if it was covered in fog. Rain fell lightly outside the tower, where he sat in the water with his legs hanging off the edge of the tower. He gazed up at the clouds as he shifted to pull something from his pocket: a small handful of bone fragments, glowing faintly green-white in the shade of the rain clouds outside. He took one between the fingers of his other hand, and a strong female voice spoke from it, her voice quiet:

"They became the Freemen. The Fallen Angels became angry and rebuked us. I knew then that God's Word was true."

And here were their overlords, afraid of the knowledge they had gained and could gain. It was ironic in a way...

He put that fragment back into his pocket and took another from his palm. Again, the voice of the long-dead Ishtar spoke.

"A prince appeared in The Darkness, hungry for the souls of people. He made a pact with the Fallen Angels and lent them his aid."

He wondered how the technology to measure and contain a soul was developed. Hopefully, it was not an ill-gotten gift like the Grigori brought with them in their descent. If something so wondrous was something the humans of this Earth had rightfully earned, it was wonderful. Scary, but wonderful. It was one of the things he had come to admire about his kind, after everything he had learned about Heaven's stance on it. Humanity could do anything, given the time and need for it.

He replaced that fragment in his pocket, and took one of the two remaining ones from his palm.

"The new world is connected to The Darkness. The souls of those who die fall into it. The people do not realize the dead do not ascend to Heaven. The Fallen Angels notice too late that people become denizens of The Darkness."

At least this foreboding tower wasn't like that. At least this one had indeed saved them from the fate of being bound to their world as a spirit... But he wondered if this world had anything like Heaven or The Darkness. What happened to a native soul here? Part of him wondered if he waited until nightfall, would he hear Dax from the phantoms? He hoped not...

There was one fragment left in his palm, and Enoch willed it to recite its prophecy.

"The Nephilim are the offspring of angels and humans. Neither angel or human, they are at first small and immortal."

It had nothing to do with the rest. But he'd found it in a portal that desecrated the beauty of the area it overlooked. The situation had been a bit like this one, after he'd come out of that portal, water rushing past him to spill off the side of the beautiful water-covered tower in Armaros's level...

Armaros... The thought of him didn't hurt so much anymore. It stung, but it wasn't crippling. He was here, in the phantoms, and there was a way to get him out, he knew it. There was a way to fix everything, somehow, if they waited. They were always improving their techniques; he recalled Dax saying they had reduced the number of people who slipped away...

Enoch closed his hand around the final fragment before slipping it into his pocket, as well. He took his Arch from his back so he could lie down and did so, shifting to the side with the weapon resting on his stomach, a hand protectively over it and the other arm tucked behind his head as he looked out at the rainy sky. A retrieval unit that had been patrolling the floor at random passed close. He'd figured it out; they always seemed to be where he was.

"I hope you like this floor, too," he said to it as it passed by. Naturally, it didn't respond. "I'll be here a while."

And he will - he'll be like this most of the day, either lying like this, or sitting up to listen to the prophecies again. His mission...they'd have that back, too. He just knew it.

Comments

[warriorscribe]

"The best ones are smooth, so they can be launched faster, so let's look around some natural water. or sand."

There weren't very many floors like that, and the desert seemed pretty flat, so not that one...but that gave them places to look, at least. He'd lead her down towards the elevator, not wanting to take the indoor forest floor at all, considering the wildlife...

[sunflowerfairy]

Yotsuba didn't know about the desert floor or the forest floor, but as she followed Enoch, she thought back to the swimming gear.

"Oh! Maybe the place near the scuba tanks has water and stones!"

[warriorscribe]

"Perhaps, but...let's look in air we can safely breathe instead." He remembers some pools of water in the crystal caverns not far from the dorms. Sure, the crystals were dizzying when stared at too long, but he could guide Yotsuba away from that.

[sunflowerfairy]

While Yotsuba would be inclined to look at the crystals, since she had never seen anything like them, she would follow Enoch's advice, if he gave it. "Okay then! Let's be off then!"

For once, she got that saying right.

[warriorscribe]

"Yes, let's." It was a long elevator ride up to the top, but it would be worth it, hopefully. Half an hour is a long time for a little kid, isn't it?

[sunflowerfairy]

It would be a long wait for Yotsuba, but she would probably enjoy it, as she like the elevator and talking to Enoch. He was a lot like Jumbo in some ways.

As she looked around the elevator and looked at the buttons, she stared at them for a moment before looking back up at Enoch smiling.

"I know one of the buttons goes to the kitchen..but where do the others go? And can Yotsuba push them?!"

The last question was asked mostly out of boredom.

[warriorscribe]

"The others go to various floors in the tower...but if you push them, it means the elevator will stop at each one, and it will take us even longer to get to the top."

For good measure, he still had her hand, in case she did try to go push some of those buttons.

[sunflowerfairy]

While Yotsuba could have tried to use her other hand or squirmed away, she didn't want to wait even longer, even if the elevator was cool. However, Enoch had missed something.

"I won't push them then! But you ignored something, Enoch! Where do the others go?"

Apparently, she wanted a specific answer.

[warriorscribe]

Well, all right, if he could remember them all. He might as well start from the bottom.

"The one above the first goes to the restaurant. You shouldn't eat there, but it's a good shortcut to the meadow. I used to spend quite a bit of time there."

[sunflowerfairy]

"Oh! Yotsuba's been to the meadow before! It was nice..but the floor above it was really scary! You should be careful, Enoch! A monster could attack you too!"

..She'll get to the restaurant in a minute, but for now, she wanted to warn Enoch about what she had faced earlier.

[warriorscribe]

The floor above the meadow...was the place with the dead bodies in tubes. Yes, that would be scary for a child, even more so if a monster had attacked her there...

"I've faced many monsters here, and before. I'm strong enough to fight most of them. I'll be fine, Yotsuba."

[sunflowerfairy]

Sadly, Yotsuba had meant the floor where a random monster sometimes appeared if you were too unlucky. However, it was a small mistake on her part, as she wasn't quite familiar with all the floors of the Tower yet. She tended to stay close to the dorms, near the grown-ups.

However, at Enoch's comment, she smiled. "Oh, that's right! You did fight those monsters before. You'll be alright then!"

[warriorscribe]

Enoch chuckled fondly and looked at the buttons again. The next one was...

"The one above that isn't one you want to stop on unless you absolutely must. The floor is made of insects, and if you don't move quickly, you'll start to sink through them. But if you'll be all right, it's a fast way to get to...the levels near it."

[sunflowerfairy]

At that, Yotsuba nodded, still smiling.

"Alright then! I'll avoid that floor then..but what insects are there? Cicadas?!"

If it was cicadas, Yotsuba was changing her tune. She loved the little guys.

[warriorscribe]

"I don't know. The room is always dark, too dark to see them."

He imagined there probably were; there were creatures he didn't recognize in the Arch's sparse light when he checked, and the elevator's light showed a larger variety when he traveled down there. He was glad he had his armor's boots to protect him from any scorpions that might be in there.

[sunflowerfairy]

For better or worse, Yotsuba had never seen a scorpion, but at that answer, she nodded. While she didn't really mind them, it would be bad to step on any spiders or ants, and it would be bad if she fell through and died.

"Okay then! Yotsuba won't forget that floor then! I wouldn't want to step on anything..or fall through and die!"

[warriorscribe]

"The third one up...It's a beautiful meadow with very tall grass. But that grass hides danger - there are pits that will kill the unprepared."

Being able to jump off of air, he could generally save himself from those, at least. As long as one of those angel things wasn't there.

[sunflowerfairy]

Another floor that could kill you..there were way too many of them here, in Yotsuba's opinion. Even though this Tower was run mostly by bad people.

"I understand! Yotsuba will be careful there and look out!"

[warriorscribe]

Enoch smiled down at her. "Make sure to test the ground ahead of you before you put your weight on it - or better yet, fashion a walking stick.

"The one above it is quite nice - it's a lounge, with windows you can step onto and look down at the world below, or up at the stars from closer than it should be possible."

[sunflowerfairy]

While Yotsuba had never used a walking stick before, she could figure out what Enoch was talking about..a stick that you held when you walked. The way Enoch was talking about it, you probably used the stick to make sure that you weren't falling into any weak spots. As she spoke, she returned Enoch's smile.

"I will! If I see any sticks, I'll pick them up and use them!"

..Yotsuba's eyes went wide at the mention of seeing the stars. "You can see the stars there?! Can you see Mars?"

[warriorscribe]

"Mars?" Enoch repeated, not familiar with the planets other than Venus, which he only recalled as a name and didn't remember what it was.

[sunflowerfairy]

Sadly, Yotsuba's knowledge of the stars wasn't that great either. Mars only stuck out in her brain because it was a planet that often came up in the newspapers, her father's translations, or even on the street.

"Mars! The planet! It's really huge and to the left of Earth!"

Sadly, her directions were off, due to her ignorance.

[warriorscribe]

"To the left of..."

Well...that would make sense if he was told the stars were still a plane. But...

...Well, thankfully, the awkwardness of shared ignorance was broken by the elevator arriving at its destination, the hundred and first floor.

"The place to search is, assuming we find none here, two levels below this.*

[sunflowerfairy]

Thankfully, the elevator and Enoch's words made Yotsuba move on and forget about Mars and where it was located in space. Still holding Enoch's hand, Yotsuba tried to walk out of the elevator.

"Okay! We'll find some then, either her or there!"

[warriorscribe]

"The stones we're looking for are not too small, hopefully rounded. The more irregular the shape, the harder it will be to throw them the way you want to."

It's one of the reasons looking near running water was a good idea. The only other option he could think of at the moment was the floor with the lagoon, and he'd seen some manner of creature in the water there...it was probably best to avoid them.