08 | do you want me only for my body?

[alephbet]

Characters: Aleph and you.
Setting: June 1st, riiight after the reveal.
Format: Starting with actionspam, but will match you.
Summary: Aleph has had enough of it.
Warnings: Will edit if anything comes up.

[Aleph has always tried to stay strong.

He was a gladiator with no memories, then a Messiah with no choices. Then a hero with no ability to save the people he knew or even stop from killing them himself. Then a God-killer whose punishment would be eternal.

He did these things, he lived through these things and took minimal comfort because he knew it would all be worth it. For the people he would save, in the end. The future he would build.

Now he stares at what should be hands, his hands, as he sits outside his dorm room on the floor. He thinks about where he should be, what he'd done so much work for, and yet everyone on that world is dead now. He misses his demons. He realizes -

he doesn't even have eyes to cry-

-and so he just huddles up on the floor and sniffles pathetically.]

Comments

[technologic]

[April on the other hand, is more furious than anything. All the pain they were put through and their bodies aren't even real-

She stops in her angry marching through the halls when she hears the sniffling, and the voice is one she recognizes.]

... Aleph?

[alephbet]

A-A-April. Sorry, it's - a rough night...

[He doesn't want to be weak around her.]

[technologic]

No, no apologizing. [Just hearing him like that is enough to make... well, she doesn't exactly have organs but something in her still twists horribly. So she doesn't even stop to think before crouching beside him and pulling him into a hug.]

T-this... Is r-really bad, so don't apologize.

[alephbet]

I'm still alive... But my world isn't, none of my demons are here, the other captives are all I'll ever see and some of them will just disappear forever...

[technologic]

[April rubs his back gently. She doesn't want to think about her world right now, about her group and the promises she made and failed to keep.

She just turns her attention back to Aleph for now] ... I know. It's... a horrible situation right now.

... But this is something we can use. That if this is all the tower is, we can get out and find a life out of here somehow. And get back at the admins for what they did.

[altitonant_emperor]

[ Hidetoshi couldn't stand remaining in the dormitory, staring at the liquid-filled pod he'd been sleeping in for the last several months. Or he could bear turning around and waking up the others in his room, wireframes stuffed into the pods. The body? His body? Maybe he tolerate this violation because they'd been told about this, hadn't they? The only thing the administrators had managed to save was the souls. It made him sick to the pit of his nonexistent stomach. But what terrified was not his wireframe, glowing orange body.

It was his cold, bleak metal surroundings.

Lifeless metal, electricity pulsing through the walls in odd places, film covering everywhere, what had happened, the lights had gone out?

He walks, not daring to leave the dormitory floors, and walks and walks through the halls until Hidetoshi stops when he hears sniffling noises. Another wireframe body is huddled on the floor. ]

—hello? [ He hasn't known Aleph long enough to identify his voice by sound alone. ]

[alephbet]

[Aleph can't do it either. He stiffens a little.]

Didn't want to bother the roommates... But it's too dangerous to go far, so...

[He sounds like he's apologizing.]

[altitonant_emperor]

Oh. Yeah, it's too dangerous to leave the dormitories now.

[ ... Aleph? Hidetoshi inches closer. ]

Do you know what... [ He trips over his words a little, frightened and angry and confused. ] What happened?

[ Everything is bathed in dim, red light from the emergency lights. Glamour failure, glamour failure the computerized voice had said. ]

[alephbet]

[Aleph tries to keep the emotion out of his words.] Glamour failure... we were always like this and our minds had been tricked up until now.

[altitonant_emperor]

[ Hidetoshi didn't want to hear that anymore than he wanted to hear the emotion in Aleph's voice. ] Damnit.

[Quieter, frustrated: ] Damnit.

[lightofhumanity]

[chaos was having mixed feelings about their current predicament. On the one hand, it seemed that the illusion had finally been lifted, which, while painful..was a good thing. The truth wasn't always pleasant to know, but..it was in humanity's best interest to know it regardless. He couldn't use his powers either..but..that meant that Anima couldn't activate here. Here, he was no longer a failsafe. No longer chaos.

But that meant hat he couldn't protect or heal his loved ones..unless he forged a weapon out of whatever was left here. And it seemed there were no actual plants here for the residents..and the monsters and Administrators were only going to get worse here on out.

Pondering and thinking, chaos walked..and saw Aleph, huddling and trying to sob, even though the poor man couldn't. Sitting beside his friend, chaos spoke.]

..I am sorry, my friend. The truth isn't always full of joy. However..there are still some good things to this. There are still some things that we can believe in and hope for here.

[alephbet]

It's not fair... [Aleph mumbles it into his arms, then speaks louder.] I know we need to know the truth, but I'm just so tired of this - I'm tired of spending most of my life in this Tower for nothing, nothing real.

[lightofhumanity]

Being tired of illusions and having the wool pulled from your eyes is normal. However..that does not mean that everything you see is not real. It just means that different things are real in different forms.

[alephbet]

What do you mean?

[He is in no state of mind to decipher things.]

[lightofhumanity]

What I mean is this: I am here, you are here, and the Tower is here, even if their forms and shapes are different from what we expected, and even if we are less powerful here than we knew. However..we are still here. The shape and form is different, but the inside, the whole, is still the same.

[undroppedeaves]

[Sam left his room in a state of shock, almost tripping over the frame outside the room. He looked at it in concern, he didn't need to see features to see that they were upset] Hey now, don't you go crying, if we all do that then it's going to get fair noisy in here.

[alephbet]

I'll stop... I know. It's not going to help any of us.

[undroppedeaves]

That's it. [He held out a hand to help the figure to it's feet] No sense in letting something like this get the better of us.

[alephbet]

[Aleph takes Sam's hand and gets back up.] It was just for a moment.

[undroppedeaves]

I know. [He staggers a bit, since this frame is larger than his.] No shame in it at all.

[tsunderebunny]

[Barnaby had already had his own freakout elsewhere by the time he returned to his room, bouyed by the numb clarity that replaced his rage. There were two phrases that his mind clung to as anchors: 'change is your friend' and 'find something that's still true.'

He had an idea that he had to pursue, and was so set on it that he almost didn't notice the figure sitting outside their room.

Almost.]

...Mister Aleph?

[It was strange to see him like this.]

[alephbet]

...Aleph's enough...

[The subconscious motion of his hand to wipe at his face, even though he hadn't really been crying, gives him away.]

[tsunderebunny]

Aleph then.

[Politeness was his default, no matter how much he was able to adapt. It was easier to hide behind the veil that proper manners provided. He knelt beside his roommate on the floor and searched for something that he could offer.

There was woefully little, but for a few words.]

'As long as there's a glimmer of hope, a real hero never gives up.'

[alephbet]

[Aleph's whole body shakes in response to that.] I know. It's... hard to be a hero every hour of every day. It's hard.

[tsunderebunny]

[Conversely, Barnaby goes very still.]

I know. It's why I stepped down.

...we're all in the same situation here. No one is more and no one is less. No one is a hero.

[and yet everyone could be. This was an eerie deja vu for Barnaby, after he remembered the extent of Maverick's betrayal. How many times had this situation happened to him before? How often, if there were other instances?

Now's not the time for this.]

That doesn't mean we should stop. This isn't the end.