towerofanimus | Glamour Failure

[Feferi's responding laugh is closer to a sob.]

I wonder if it would be better if I had never been brought here at all. Never been given the chance to be a leader, play at being some kind Empress.

They did it to remind me what I can never be.

I don't want to know what's in there.

That's why I asked. [At least someone seemed to be keeping a level head, and he offers her a wane grin of his own that doesn't quite reach his eyes. Fayt himself would probably have been freaking out more a few months ago, but now it was just a bitter, disturbing irony. What he had to do now was focus on the situation.

She was right, though. Even if it worked, there was nothing to say it would continue working. At best guess, the lighting looked like it was running on an emergency power source. If it was and that ran out--]

Guess I'm taking the stairs. [Real body or not, he didn't want to get on an elevator that had the possibility of falling.] I'm worried this might get worse than it already is.... Did you hear it?

[She looks up - different Dave, but that broken disc is one she'd know anywhere.]

...yeah. It's just...you always want to hope that there's something better. That there are pieces you can pick up and build something from.

In the end, though, I'm just...

[She holds up her hand and looks through it. What else does she need to say?]

Rei?

[Feferi looks up, recognizing the voice. She has to ask, though.]

[Naoya tries to break away, tries to twist out of her grip.]

It's all a dirty lie... ahahaha!

[With all of his other defining features stripped away, even his limp, Shinji wouldn't have recognized Kariya if not for his voice. When he hears it, though, a desperate, not entirely rational kind of relief washes over him. He moves toward what must be the body of that person, not thinking about much of anything.]

[This is different than the last time he felt this kind of horror, back in April. He hadn't had any control over his body, so he couldn't have cried and clung to anyone even if he had wanted to. Now, he still can't cry—even if he feels like he is—but he can at least reach out to grab at Kariya when he hugs him. Shinji clings to him, his shoulders trembling and shaking.]

[Kariya's words don't receive any kind of verbal response. Shinji doesn't snap or berate him about what does he expect to do? He just sobs, openly, even if his ability to truly cry has disappeared with the rest of the illusion.]

It isn't.

[Nope, sorry Naoya. Not letting go.]

The Tower may be a lie. These bodies may be lies. But we're real.

Edited 2013-06-01 16:37 (UTC)

That's the problem.

[His body shakes, vibrating in anger.]

If they can do all of this... why can't I - why am I still -

[He lets out a scream of frustration, pounding the floor.]

[Still holding on to big bro, sorry. She pulls him in, pressing the side of his face against her shoulder, a reversal of the past. An empty gesture, but meant. Shhh, brother. Let her worry this time.]

Because they can't get rid of real things. They can lie and make illusions, make us think we've still got our powers, but they can't get rid of what's at our cores...for better or worse. ...that's how it seems, anyway.

[The truth is far worse than anything Claudia had suspected. The sight of her body when she looks down at herself, wire and film and starkly green liquid, is enough to make her knees weak and her stomach churn. Her breathing—does this body really need to breathe, or is that just some pointless action she takes out of habit?—comes in short, anxious bursts.]

[But she crushes down the initial panic, and her desire to cry from—if nothing else—stress. In the last few years, she has learned well enough how to stifle her emotions and ignore them until a more convenient time. She feels hollow and numb as she lingers outside the door of her room, not acting, merely observing her surroundings as they are now. She wants to go farther, but it's night. There's a chance the monsters might have disappeared as well—but there's also a chance they might not have. She doesn't even know if she can be revived, with things the way they are now.]

[Then again— What does her life truly matter now?]

[She steps forward, to find the elevator.]

[It didn't take long for her to recognize the voice, at least. But the manic overtones of it?

Nope, that's sure to put her on alert. Shepard draws the film that would have been her Phalanx and pursues him. She has no plans whatsoever to kill him--just make sure to neutralize him before someone else gets caught up in a potential rampage.]

[Hallelujah wheels around as he hears footsteps behind him. He draws his pistol, leveling it at the form nearing him.]

Hah. I don't care who you are, but you're not going to stop me! I'll kill you, too! I wonder who you'll cry out for as you die?

Yeah. Me.

[She kneels down and does her best to offer a reassuring smile. She can feel her cheeks and mouth moving, but it won't show on her now flattened face.]

Mm. I didn't feel that at all. You think that has to do with the souls business?

Asch..?

[She hadn't known for sure that it was him sitting beside her until that moment, but she'd had a general idea - he was about the right height, the color of the fluid in him was violet, and the film making up his hair was long enough... but it's comforting to hear his voice and to know for sure that she's not alone, and even more comforting to realize that he'd stayed with her even when she was at her lowest point, staying there in companionable silence until she'd calmed enough to come up with anything coherent to say.

Her voice is a little shaky, but quite obviously relieved, and she doesn't flinch away from his hand even though she probably would have if it had been anyone else who was still in the Tower. Instead, she shifts a little so that she can put her hand over his.

Something that's still true...]

...thank you... for being here. [The friendship they've forged is real, even if the bodies they were in when they forged it weren't. That's something that's incredibly true and she's aware of it even through the haze of fear and uncertainty. She's quiet for a moment or two as she considers that. In a way, it's not so strange... she's known him for five months now. It had taken her less time than that to grow to trust Felix and Jenna and Piers, and she knows for sure that she would fight as fiercely for Asch as she would for any of them.] I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared, but... I'm going to keep going in spite of it. You've given me the strength to do that... so, thank you.

[He curls up, a ball of pain and horror. This isn't anything he's experienced before. This is new, and this is terrifying. Nothing is real. Nothing, except his soul. How can they do this, though?]

... Hurts.

[It hurts, not having the answer. It hurts, being scared. It's been so long since he's had to deal with something truly new that he doesn't know what to do.]

[Claudia isn't expecting to be called out to, but she recognizes the voice at once. It's enough to break her from her thoughts of where to go first, and she automatically turns.]

Kariya?

[It's hard to tell, given the way their (illusion of) flesh has been stripped away, but her posture is more severe than normal. Her cooler tone of voice, at least, is less ambiguous.]

To be frank, [and her tone is blunt] I don't think there's much you can do to help most people.

Yeah, it does. But you're not alone, Naoya. You really aren't.

[Yeah, the ball of pain and horror is still getting hugged, and she is going to do something like calming headpets. It isn't real, but-

But the emotions are.]

You don't have to deal with this on your own. I'm here...I want to be here for you. ...So, you see? You don't have to deal alone.

[It's all stupid words, but right now, what else is there?]

[ Such a huge revelation with so many horrible implications. Those artificial bodies they had been granted were even less than they thought. Everything around them was an illusion, and what little was no lie was only metallic frame and film. That was the true power of the administrators he could witness-- Much like the gods of his world. How pathetic.

As it was to be expected, most of the population was freaking out and about to lose it. Yet a few others were facing the news with apparent calmness. You could add the Great King of Evil to that group. After all he had seen in the tower ever since his arrival, that sort of revelation, whilst not what he had expected, was nothing impossible. It did not mean he felt nothing at the revelation, no.

He was annoyed ~~furious~~ at his soul being trapped in such a pathetic body, unworthy of the magnificent Demon King. He had been trapped in the appearance of a blue pig when he had been sealed within the dark world before, but it still had been his body. How pathetic this current body was, only further proved the incompetence of those so-called saviors.

The fact his powers were unavailable and that they may as well have been apart of the illusion? Made it worse. He prided himself in his might and god-like powers. If the Triforce was nothing more than a copy, created out of this strange film, then he would have to give up chasing after Link and Zelda for the missing pieces while he was in this tower.

Power... Power was out and obviously Ruana didn't take well to the event. A reality had not changed-- She and this tower were responsible for moving the souls and destroying the worlds. They were not unlike the gods of Hyrule, those he had robbed of their power. And he was still intent on accomplishing the same here. The power of this tower was what he would go after, much as before. With the Ruana furious and the systems down, now was a good time to strike. He would need to gather a few trusted one before doing anything, such as Nesir, but even in a situation like that he wasn't about to let go of any opportunity to take power.

So you will be able to find the King of Evil walking the corridors in the search for familiar shapes, heading for the first floor. In spite of the situation, he may be easilly recognizable, as tall and massive as he naturally is. And as mentioned above he looks fairly calm, pleased even? Maybe his self-control improved greatly over time.

He has in hands his swords, made of the film. Doesn't matter what they look like as long as they do their job to cut any monsters in his path. ]

[It had taken some time for Sheba to calm herself, and even longer for her to make it back up to the dormitory levels. But that's probably a good thing - she's had time to think about all this, and hopefully she's stable enough to keep moving forward from here.

It occurs to her that she doesn't know whether or not the elevator still works, and that she should check just in case there's anyone still in the lower parts of the Tower - so instead of going straight to her room, she heads up to the first floor of the dormitories. She sees the indigo figure before she can really make out the elevator, and it gives her pause.]

...Zelda?

[Her eyes are locked on the chips. To someone in the know, they're a dead giveaway as to this figure's identity. Unfortunately, Sheba's identity may not be so obvious - there are a lot of violet-collared residents here, even if she's a little shorter than most of them, and with the glamour gone there's not much else that makes her stand out. Even her tendency to answer thoughts rather than words wouldn't work here, because she simply couldn't hear them even more. Believe her, she's tried using it already to identify some of the people she's run into on the way up.]

It... looks like we got a little more than we bargained for, huh...

[The voice is familiar, but with Nue in her current state of mind, she can't place it after having only met Chloe once. She doesn't even try to place it. She whirls on the speaker, hissing out a low, animalistic noise through her teeth.]

Obviously. Obviously, they don't fear anything!

[Her voice raises in volume and intensity as she speaks, but then it lowers again, quiet and dark.]

They're fools. Only fools don't feel fear. I'm going to do them a favor and teach it to them, so they won't make this kind of mistake again.

[ Doc was walking the dormitory floors with Einstein, trying to find his way in the darkness when he heard the message saying the glamour system was about to shut down. What could it possibly mean? Then suddenly everything around him changed as the red lights went up. He looked with horror at the walls and the film covering them. ]

Damn... Damn. damn damn!

[ Needles to say, it took him quite a few minutes and lots of efforts not to freak out. He then slowly extended a hand to touch the wall-- And that was when he saw his own arms, which caused him to open wide eyes and scream his famous: ]

GREAT SCOTT!!

[ He walked back as if he was afraid (and he was) before looking at himself. That was horrifying. As he was looking down he spotted Einstein, or rather what was supposed to be Einstein, but instead it was only this strange film.

He screamed.

And walked back, which subsequently caused him to fall on his back. Yep; Doc is in the group of those who don't take the news very well, like not at all. ]

[She's working toward that, herself - pushing away all the white noise in her mind in favor of helping someone else with their own. Her face is still in her hands when he finds her, and it's not until he speaks that she looks up, drawing them down partway to peek up at him.]

--....

[There's a part of her, ironically or otherwise, that is ashamed. It's not so much to been seen physically as she is now, but rather that she should be found curled up like this. She's not sure if it's worse or better when she realizes with a jolt that it's Riku. It would be hard for her not to, really. She's too familiar with both his appearance and his heart. Her fingers curl inward, not forming fists so much as closed hands.]

... Riku.

[And she falters, then, but it's brief, and,]

... You, too?

[Zelda doesn't move from her spot near the elevator, though a slight incline of her indigo-wire head indicates Yu is correct in his guess. In contrast to the screams and cries that fill the rest of the Tower, her voice is remarkably calm.]

Hello, Yu.

[A greeting is all she gives, however, as she assesses what his opinion on this turn of events (and, in turn, his opinion of her) might be.]

Hidetoshi had already vented his emotions and a lot of the initial shock onto Aleph, so he's doing pretty well in that department in comparison to the chaos all around them.

"Damnit."

He has the inkling he'll be saying that a great deal over the next few days. With a sigh, he stands up, trying to ignore the fact that he doesn't have knees or toes, and only the impressions of a blank face, tongue and eyes.

"We'll have to hope that this wasn't done with malicious intentions. Because if it was, we are in even deeper trouble than we are right now."

Yeah.

He knows that feel, Minato.

Glamour Failure

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open | dormitory or whatever other floor you want

OH BOY OH BOY, VIOLENCE!

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Re: Open

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Open || Any Corridors / Floors || No warning unless you attack him

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Open || Dormitory Floors

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