silencetoreason: (Done)
Francis Bonnefoy ([personal profile] silencetoreason) wrote in [community profile] towerofanimus2013-05-25 11:09 pm

{Trois} Le roi doit mourir

Characters: France, England ([personal profile] keepscalm), and Captain Cinnamon Claws (CLOSED)
Setting: Dormitory hallways/bathrooms
Format: Action
Summary: France has his first encounter with an old Tower favorite. England hides and watches because old habits die hard.
Warnings: Blood, gore, death.

[France is beginning to think that terrible things are a monthly occurrence here. Just when he thought he might be able to get the faces of those horribly-mutilated people with pink collars out of his mind, writing started appearing on walls. The shocking part about that is how convinced he was that so many of those things were true. And the longer time goes on, the stranger things seem to get. Between the horrified feeling he gets whenever he walks by a mirror, the whale song and subsequent crash he hears every hour or so, and the appearance of poisonous plants in the cafeteria he'd been so enamored with, France is feeling pretty run-down by now.

When he feels a chill shoot down his spine, the first thing that comes out of his mouth is a sigh.]


What now..?

[He turns around and sees, in the middle of the long, empty dormitory hallway, a teddy bear.]

Eh? ...Okay. Wonderful. Some child has left their toys-

[The bear tilts its head to the side, and France lets out a shout.]

Aah-! Oh, come on! [He starts to feel a gnawing urge to run, to hide, and chalks it up to being over-tired and stressed out.] No, this isn't fair, you know? All I want to do is get to bed. I'm tired of all these strange things happening...

[He keeps his gaze locked on the bear. Just as he's about to chalk the unnatural head movement up to some battery-powered motion or trick of the light, it starts to walk forward.]

No! Okay, bonsoir. Bon- [When the bear doesn't stop, the chill hits him again, and the urge to hide gets even stronger, France turns tail and starts to run off.

When he finds himself standing in front of the bathroom door, he has the slightest inkling that he might be acting stupid, but a quick look down the hallway proves him wrong. The bear is still walking his way, and France feels a growing sense of dread, one he doesn't want to ignore. He pauses with his hand on the door frame, shocked still for a moment.]


Non, non, non, I'm dreaming, aren't I? I must be dreaming...
keepscalm: (027❦darkness which the blind do see)

"old habits die hard" get out of here

[personal profile] keepscalm 2013-05-26 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
[England felt the chill well before he saw the threat. It's unusual that any monster comes up into the dormitory levels unless it's led there. And even then, most of the monsters aren't preceded with such a terrible sense of foreboding. Screaming sometimes, yes. But such a formal warning? No, that's rare. And frankly, not much more reassuring.

It must be a special occasion.

Even more, he felt the undeniable urge to hide. Perhaps not such an unreasonable idea, though maybe a tad premature. Still, he's not one to ignore a self-preservation instinct when it's so pressing.

He ducked into the men's bathroom and stole away into one of the stalls. Though it's not an effective barrier against anything that would really want to kill him, he locked the door behind him, to at least ensure that it stayed shut while he was hiding like a rat. And then, dignity be damned — there are no cameras in here and he didn't see anyone else when he came in — England silently closed the lid of the toilet and hopped up to make himself comfortable.

So, that's where he's perched while France is having his dilemma outside of the bathroom. Curled up on top of the toilet seat, with his knees pulled up to his chest so that his feet can't be seen underneath the door.

Rule, Britannia. He's glad his people can't see him now.


(Of course, England's presence means that when France comes into the bathroom, the lights will already be on. But he may not be aware that it means someone is already in there.)]
keepscalm: (027❦keep my drooping eyelids open wide)

a truly terrible fate tbh

[personal profile] keepscalm 2013-05-26 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[England hears the footsteps that herald the coming of another person. He braces his hand against one of the walls and leans over to try and get a glimpse at whoever it is through the small cracks along the sides of the stall door, but his mysterious companion vanishes from his line of sight before he can figure out who they are.

He hears the telltale click of one of the other stalls locking, but the lack of any noise indicative of using the bathroom for its intended purpose tells England that he is no longer alone in hiding from the impending threat.

He can't see through to any of the other stalls, but he can see a sliver of the bathroom outside. He can't see anything yet, but he can hear a strange sort of shuffling; it's a sound he swears he's heard before, but it's so vague that he can't place it.

Regardless of what it is, though, England and his companion are clearly not the only ones in the room any more. England remains utterly still, unwilling to give his position away by the rustle of clothes or the sigh of a too-heavy breath.]
keepscalm: (065❦oh fearful meditation)

i think you mean truthy-truth-truth

[personal profile] keepscalm 2013-05-27 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
[As their visitor makes its way back towards the showers, England keeps a sharp eye out through the crack in the stall. The niggling feeling that he recognises the sound hasn't gone away, and he'd like to know what he's up against so he can weigh the chances of survival a bit more accurately. As the creature approaches, England waits, completely silent.

When it finally passes by his stall, his heart drops into his stomach like a rock into a lake. He stops breathing altogether. In the back of his mind, he remembers a sound like glass shattering and a skull being caved in.

The familiarity wasn't an illusion. He has heard those footsteps before.

And he'd hoped he would never have to hear them again when the sun rose after those agonising nineteen hours.

Even once the bear moves out of sight of his stall, England doesn't dare to breathe. He's startled into it by the abrupt bang (though thankfully the noise is loud enough to cover the faint whoosh of air entering his lungs again), but he quickly thereafter raises his unoccupied hand to cover his mouth and prevent any further slip-ups. He's seen how those bears kill, and he'd rather not be on the short end of it.]