01 - Ascending From The Depths

[blackestomen]

Characters: Queen Zeal and anyone
Setting: Dorms, Cafeteria, and about the Tower.
Format: Brackets to start, will follow with whichever.
Summary: Zeal awakens and attempts to get her bearings. More things are strange and wrong than simply being taken to somewhere new...
Warnings: None

[Room 2-09]
[The new arrival this morning might seem unusually subdued to some. No screaming, no shouting, no questioning who and what brought her here. She hardly moved since the sleep paralysis wore off. Just enough to sit and to cradle her head in her hands. The note hasn't been read. She's been simply staring straight ahead, and muttering quietly, unaware of those that might be around her.]

I cannot hear it. Cannot feel it. It's gone, gone, it's gone.... and I live. But it's gone. How? How?

---

[Cafeteria]
[Having managed to recover her wits somewhat, Zeal had made her way down to the cafeteria. She had felt hungry, genuinely hungry, for the first time in entirely too long. The savory omelets and pancakes in sweet syrup pulled at her senses, and she strode up to the unit in charge of handing out food with the intent to demand both... and was instead handed a bowl of oatmeal.]

What... what is this?

[Boiled grains. Mush. Food for an invalid. Fury began to rise within her. How dare they hand the Queen such a poor excuse for a meal! But as she opened her mouth to scold and shout, her stomach rumbled. She stopped. She took a step back, and looked down at the bowl in her hands.

What... would it taste like? There had come a point where food no longer mattered, where she had simply begun to exist on raw willpower and magical energies. And now she had to eat again. It was a necessity, gnawing in the pit of her stomach. This... would not be such a terrible thing to start with. Something simple. Something pure, for its simplicity. Silently, a bit absently, she found her way to a table. And then she sat and ate, slowly and carefully, genuinely savoring every bite.]

---

[Floors 22-23-24]
[Zeal was a cautious woman, a woman who considered her actions carefully, but not an incurious woman. Placed somewhere new, in such circumstances... she had to learn more of the place. She had to explore. It seemed most fitting to start at the bottom and work upwards, and that was just what she did. Her first real hiccup was upon reaching the twenty third-floor.

Or... no, that was the twenty-fourth. She had counted twenty-four floors. Or was that twenty-three? No, but...

She passed a hand over her face and hissed softly through her clenched teeth. Everything felt a little bit wrong, a little bit strange, and everything had Zeal second-guessing herself. But this... this particular feeling was one that she couldn't explain away so easily. It wasn't an absence of presence, it was a lapse of... of something. That wouldn't do. And so she lifted her skirts, turned on one heel, and began to start back down the stairs to see what all the fuss was.

Having returned to floor 22 with an even stronger sense of something being wrong, she turned right on about again, ascending the stairs once more. Back to what she knew, absolutely, was floor twenty-four because she had counted it and...

Again with the gritted teeth. Again with a raised hand, this time upon the side of her head. Upon hearing footsteps approach, she turned towards them, pointed imperiously, and shouted a demand.]

You! Tell me, what floor is this!?

Comments

Floors 22-23-24

[idkworldruler]

[He was once again exploring the tower floors, looking for anything that may have been considered out of the ordinary. This was before his concentration was somewhat broken by the loud, demanding voice called out to him. Just another lost soul in the spiraling tower, nothing to really pay much attention to. Still, he tilted his head as he drew closer. Most demanding people tended to have equally annoying ways to gain their demands.]

Well now why don't you tell me where you believe you are?

Floors 22-23-24

[blackestomen]

[That was not the kind of answer that she had wanted. Nor did the young fellow seem to be exhibiting the right amount of respect for her. But it would have to do. She inhaled sharply, flicked her wrist, and gestured back towards the stairs.]

I think that this is the twenty-fourth floor! But I have only counted twenty-three! Can you explain this?

[idkworldruler]

They left out the thirteenth like good sports?

[That...wasn't the reason at all, of course. But it would be rather amusing to have her think so. Or at least it would inside of his own mind.]

[blackestomen]

They did not leave out the thirteenth! It is as though I cannot remember the twenty-third floor!

[She's starting to get visibly angry, and equally visibly unhinged. Things are very wrong now, and this is not helping to set them right.]

[swordofzero]

[More than a year and a half in this place and Suzaku still snapped to attention when shouted at. He forced himself to relax a little and answered the question] Floor 24.

[blackestomen]

[The answer didn't seem to be to her liking, judging by the expression on her face. She seemed as though she had been struck. The hand that had been pointing was withdrawn and passed over her face.]

But then... then where is the twenty-third? Where?!

[swordofzero]

[Oh. That. He had gotten into the habit of ignoring that particular trick of Riki's.] It doesn't exist, or rather we can't remember it. It is a feature put in by one of the administrators mostly to confuse us.

[blackestomen]

It doesn't... exist?

[A very odd look crosses her face, something starting towards shock and horror and drifting towards realization.]

Magic, then. Yet, I sense nothing that I recognize. How...?

Cafeteria

[gomu_ningen]

[Well that seemed like an odd question.. From a few tables down, Luffy looked toward the rather elegant looking woman, stuffing a fresh forkfull of food past his lips as he hurriedly chewed.]

"It's breakfast. Better eat what you can before they make you eat nothin' but cardboard again.. Unless you don't wanna' eat it. In which case, send it my way, Pretty Lady."

Cafeteria

[blackestomen]

[She wasn't sure that she liked how this boy was addressing her, but couldn't find the exact words to express her displeasure. So she frowned at him, and sat.]

Nothing but 'cardboard'?

[She tucked one hand protectively around her bowl, pulling it closer to herself. Now she had a few words, a few things to say, but she did still want to eat this.]

What 'they' do you mean? Do 'they' deprive us of food, usually?

Re: Cafeteria

[gomu_ningen]

The higher-ups. They're a bunch of bullies, if ya' ask me. They call the shots whether we like it or not.

[He finishes the bowl by tipping it into his mouth, dropping it onto the table once the contents were past his gums.]

They'll switch up the menu here from time to time, make us eat really crappy food one month then even worse food the next. Just make sure you eat a bowl of oatmeal before you eat anything else, okay? Otherwise you'll get really sick. I don't know why, but you'll regret it if you don't.

I'm Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy. You?

Cafeteria

[blackestomen]

[Witnessing more of the young man's eating habits, she wrinkles her nose. How... primitive. How uncivilized.]

I see. I'll take your advice.

[And she ate a spoonful of oatmeal, slowly, letting herself appreciate it with no haste to answer Luffy. After she had taken her sweet time, she set the spoon down and spoke again.]

I am Queen Zeal, of the Kingdom of Zeal.

Floor 24

[drewtheline]

[Queen Zeal wasn't the only one in the tower attempting to get her bearings. Young Burakh-- or was that Elder Burakh now?-- had been wandering the levels on his own, albeit not necessarily for the same reasons. He wasn't exploring, he was searching, which was apparent by his body language, scrutinizing every detail of the room he was in, trying to unlock any sort of secrets that might lie within...

Searching for what, though, was a mystery. After all, the room he was standing in was completely empty. He paid little mind to those who came and went up the staircase, completely absorbed in his own little investigation, gloved hands feeling along the smooth white walls, until Zeal's voice pierced him.

Turning to look at her, the unkempt looking man with stubble on his face and blood on his clothes gave her an almost amused look, though his expression remained unfriendly.]

Why the imperious act, good lady? [Their was a lilting sarcasm to his polite tone.] Is there a problem with your ability to count?

Floor 24

[blackestomen]

There is a problem with this tower! The floors are not adding up!

[Up until now, there had been room within her for doubt, for the possibility that she was going slightly mad. But with someone else implying that she was the problem? Oh no. No no no. That wasn't at all acceptable.]

Or are you... too fascinated with walls to notice it?

[drewtheline]

[Artemiy can't help but crack a dry smirk at Zeal... She reminded him far too much of a certain other woman he knew, it was actually amusing him greatly.]

I haven't overlooked the missing ventricle, bos. [The word is emphasized, and very clearly foreign.] I'm a surgeon, my senses are keen, my hands gentle, I noticed immediately. [He reaches back to the wall, touching it with gentle pressure, feeling every inch for any abnormalities.] I am attempting to find the floor you so carelessly lost.

[blackestomen]

[A foreign word? The first foreign one she's heard in this foreign place. How strange. She frowns, she tilts her head, and she listens closer. He's interesting.]

I somehow think that the floor was not lost somewhere in that wall.

[She's calmer now. No imperious shouting. She crosses her arms over her chest.]

It feels less a matter of redirection, and more one of... perception.

Floor 22-23-24

[withak]

[Police officers learn really fast to snap to attention when being shouted at.]

The twenty-fourth. The twenty-third is missing.

Floor 22-23-24

[blackestomen]

[Such a simple, straightforward answer? It startles her. She freezes, then lets that gesturing arm drop to her side.]

Missing. Missing? How can a floor simply be missing?

[withak]

Because everyone who crosses it is certain that it's there, yet there's no floor and no one remembers it. More importantly, giving into the compulsion to keep looking for it will make you disappear.

Cafeteria

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch overhears the woman - newcomer by the bowl of oatmeal - sounding like she's about to protest. He watches from where he is, ready to come over and warn her...

...but then she accepts it. The tension seeps away, and he brings his plate over to join her at that table.*

I'm glad you decided to eat that after all. The food here is inedible if you don't eat the oatmeal first.

Cafeteria

[blackestomen]

..hmm?

[Her mouth had been full when Enoch had spoken. She carefully swallows that mouthful of oatmeal, sets the spoon down into the bowl, and looks to him with no small amount of curiosity.]

Truly? There's some sort of enchantment on the food? But I hadn't sensed any such thing...

Re: Cafeteria

[warriorscribe]

I wouldn't call it an "enchantment"... I suppose this world's food is just as alien to us as we are to the world. The oatmeal must adjust our bodies such that we can eat everything else.

Cafeteria

[killadeadman]

It's gruel. What, never seen it before?

[A pale man in a gaudy yellow cloak drawled from nearby. He didn't bother trying to hide the small, amused grin on his face, clearly expecting a 'no.' The way that this woman carried herself certainly screamed 'noble' or 'aristocrat' of some sort. As much as Gangrel hated anything to do with court, he at least knew how to identify different bearings.]

Cafeteria

[blackestomen]

[Oh. A comedian. She turns herself about, still clutching the bowl with both hands, and shoots him a look that will likely only support his (quite correct) theory that she's some sort of noble or royal.]

I am simply astonished that they would serve such primitive fare to one such as I!

Re: Cafeteria

[killadeadman]

Mm, yes. How dare they serve a prisoner's meal to their freshly-kenneled dogs.

[For emphasis, he lazily reaches up and plucks at his colorful new collar with a claw-shaped nail. A lady this proud was probably hyper-aware of her own.]