towerofanimus | Glamour Failure

You are. [She asserts, firmly, before answering his question.] Who you are - your choices, your personality, your friendships - has not changed.

You are Legolas. Do not let this revelation make you forget that.

[And after that peptalk, she's back to her calm, poised demeanor. Strange it might be, but someone needs to stay sane during all this. Might as well be the one who started it.]

One truth of the Tower has been revealed to us. Perhaps not in the most pleasant way, but it has been revealed nonetheless.

[So this was the truth? It was horrifying, to know everyone she'd know had been reduced to something like this... she was more worried about others than herself. After all, she was just... a soul anyway. Still, she had to make sure everyone was alright]

Saki? Saber? [She called out in a worried tone, as well as the names of her other friends, trying to find them. She stops though when she hears that meow.

Turning, she looks down at the misshapen but vaguely quadrupedal film-creation that is coming up and rubbing against her leg with another curious meow]

...Toto?

[And that's about the point when she breaks down in the hallway sobbing]

[So. Just what the hell do you do when faced with something like this? This is simply so far beyond anything she'd ever experienced that she'd spent the last... oh, probably a good half hour now just sort of wandering around aimlessly, her left hand resting on the hilt of her sword. Not sword. Thing that used to be her sword.

Whatever, it's probably still sharp and it probably still cuts people. Maybe.

But she's trying as hard as she possibly can to not just break under this. Even if nothing else about her is real, even if nothing else about this place is real, she is still real. Right? Does it even count if it's just your soul and nothing else? It's all so confusing, and the only real way to keep herself from snapping is to just focus on how angry she is right now. That the people who run this place would even create something like this. So when her train of thought is derailed by the sound of somebody laughing within earshot, she finally decides to actually react outwardly to this situation.]

THIS IS BULLSHIT! [In the most mature and level-headed way possible, even going as far as to slam her fist into the wall next to her to further prove how collected she is right now. On the bright side she's pretty sure she's not alone, if that impossible to recognize vaguely human-shaped thing over there is actually a person and not a figment of her rapidly degenerating mind.]

[He finds someone sitting down, folded up like they just wanted to sit for a while. Dave can't leave it alone. By now, he's covered in dirt with the only clean patch left the broken disc shape on his chest. It's a way to claim his identity. He's damn well going to drive down that flag and say he is who he is.]

Yeah I'd sit down in this situation too.

[He's too tall to be the Dave she knows, is friends with. But he still stands there, waiting to see if she'll say anything or might need someone to talk to.]

[Xion - with Shion in tow - is stopping by her room when she sees the indigo figure. Between that and the box, she realizes.]

Zelda...?

[Her voice is cautious, maybe even a tiny bit afraid, and overall a somewhat incomprehensible mix of feelings from her trying not to focus on what's happening to her and everyone and focus instead on finding the people most important to her]

[Kariya doesn't notice when the lights go out. He's asleep. He sleeps through it all, his usual long, fitful rest: he's so tired that he needs to sleep often, but too sore to sleep regularly or deeply.

Then, all at once, it stops.

The pain stops. He doesn't feel it anymore. After a year--no, going on two years now--the constant agony, the throbbing, the slow but steady gnawing feeling of being consumed from within: it's all gone. He opens his eyes. He sits up--or tries to, but flails, finding himself submerged in eerily bright blue water.

What is happening?

After some thrashing, he manages to fight his way out of the pod, with arms that work normally. He emerges, coughing, then steps down, and when he takes his first steps across the floor, he's not limping. He's frightened, but the physical relief is overwhelming. He wants to cry, but for some reason, he can't cry. He looks down at his body, and it's completely alien to him. Wires, blue liquid, a glowing core... He should be horrified, and he is, but beneath the horror there's a current of strange, almost mad, joy, because his body, as it was before, was as much of a burden as anything else.

I'm free. They're gone. They're not real at all.

Kariya is a selfish man, in many ways. He has a narrow outlook. It saves him, because he thinks: the worms are gone, and in the midst of so many changes, so much bewilderment and fear, he is able to bear this. He edges out of his room into the hallway, cautious but determined, then starts down the hall. He has to figure out what's going on. Has this happened to everyone? How are the people he cares about, and where? He needs to find them, somehow.

He wants to help people. At a time like this, people must need help, and he can do something for them, even if it's only offer his support. He goes forth to seek them out. He calls out down the hallway.]

Hello, are you all right? Can I help?

Rabbit was honest as far as he'd think it would do good. In this case... he didn't see a single thing good about telling her the truth. Rather like cheating in poker, it left a bad taste in his mouth. So to speak. He just carried her, trying not to think about the gravity of everything he just learned.

"Ri-right, we'll he-he-help everyone an'... an' everything will be okay. They'll fi-fix it." Bring the illusion back, make everything look alright again. Even if he knew the truth, the lie was... preferable over this.

"An' nu-nuthin' ba-bad's gonna happen. Everything is gonna be o-okay, kiddo."

Among all the deceit, it is important to have some evidence of reality. It would be easy to believe that this itself was just an illusion without it.

[In other words, it was important to have-- some sort of anchor.]

You yourself seem to be handling it quite gracefully. [Though he wouldn't expect anything less, she was still a young women, despite everything that's happened here.] It is... regrettably, unlikely that others will. But I do not believe it is very fair to harass the messenger, is it?

[Sleep was never something that came easily to him before midnight ever since the Investigation Team was first formed, or, more accurately, since he was nearly sucked inside his TV that rainy night before their senpai's body was found hanging on a utility pole. Thus, he was wide awake when things began to changed.

The electricity was something he likely suspected, somehow knew it was happening but had no idea why... He began wandering the second floor dorm hallway when they went off, his Arcana glowing in his hand even if it seemed dim even to him. At least it was a light source.

But then, everything changed...

"Waking" up to see the film over every wall, every object that existed in this place... Watching the falsehoods wash away bit by bit to expose the cold, naked truth... He felt the sensation of bile rising up in his throat.

Or, well, what seemed to be his throat.

After checking himself in the mirror, seeing what he really was behind their illusions... all he could do was make the motion of sighing. So... They were all wired mesh-like robotic creatures now, with their souls placed inside? Why was that both freaky and cool at the same time ~~no yu, no fanboying about this right now you need to concentrate~~?

Remember this: There will come a time when everything around you seems to be not what you thought it was, and you won't know what to believe about anything at all. At that time, look for something that is still true.

Looking at his own hand, he was starting to understand what that meant. However, since he couldn't hear their voices anymore... couldn't feel his power... He knew what he had to do to keep himself from going mad. He needed to find the others and support them in this time of revelation and confusion.]

... How right you were, Dax-san...

[Though sometimes this tall blue-glowing figure wished Dax could be around to see this, help them more. Now wasn't time for wishing, however. It was and always is time to go to each and every floor and try to gather the bonds he knew were true and still present. That, and find what else remained of the Truth they hold so dear.]

[Dude are you looking him up? Is that what you're doing right now? What the hell, Dave? What the--]

Oh my god. [Yes, Dave, that was clearly the most important thing to focus on here.]

We're all Ken.

[And here is John, going along with it.]

Except for those of us that are Barbie, I guess. This is terrible, Dave. Terrible. There are no more butts to scope this is the worst tragedy that has ever fallen the tower, hands down.

Yukiko--!

[Labrys thought she'd recognized that shape when it ran past, and sure enough she'd been right. She knelt down next to Yukiko--though her first instinct had been to put a hand on her shoulder, the mechanical girl (was she even that much anymore) didn't dare in case that only made it worse.]

Y' recognize me, right? It's me, Labrys. Listen, it's okay. I mean, it ain't okay, but it's gonna be. Don't give up now, alright?

[She hesitated, and there would have been uncertainty visible on her face if this were any other day.]

Maybe...m-maybe I ain't got any right to talk, not bein' human--I could probably get uploaded into a new body anytime, no big deal. But you're still Yukiko, ain't ya? Your heart's still here, ain't it?

[The Life of a Servant, insofar as it may be called a Life, is one of Sensation. Lancelot's existence turns on a tide of feeling.
The intimate, constant murmuring of his Master's thoughts and the twisting course of his emotions. The ebb and flow of Prana within his Master, and of the Bond between them, also.
The enrichment of his own Magic-- his Glamours, his Abilities, his Sword.
The nearly intuitive knowledge of the presence of other Servants sharing his space.
The feeling, however-illusory, of his own body as a solid object, occupying space in the ways it did while he was yet living.

In an Instant, all are Gone from him. The loss of Sensation, of Identity, is staggering.
For without a Master, how can he be a Servant? Without a Sword, how can he be a Knight? Without a form, how can he be anything so simple as a Man?

This is leaving Camelot again. This is losing his Senses. This is Mad and Lost and Wandering in a Place he should know but does not, unsure of his own Name.

Utterly Alone. For how can other Wandering Shapes he cannot name or sense be Real? They are not even Shades come to curse him. Their voices do not reach him as he staggers in his steps, seeking any purchase, any solid place that does not fall away from his feet, his hands.

From somewhere, from within or without himself he cannot tell, comes the sound of Screaming.]

Edited 2013-06-01 07:08 (UTC)

[What a coincidence. This wireframe is also looking for his friends. He probably should have been looking more where he was going though because he totally just ran smack into ahoge-frame on the stairs.]

Ack! Sorry, dude! You okay? [John has no idea who the hell he just ran into or if they are even actually a guy.]

[That oversight might be a good thing. By now, Dave has calmed down because he has to. All of the howling rage and frustration of being back in the same damn boat he's always been in is trapped inside. Again. Like it always was.

Jade Strider had been so quiet for so long, he'd gone in search of her. He just so happens to catch sight of the glow, raps on the door with one dirt covered fist. He isn't shining like everyone else, because of the dirt and dust, except for the clean patch with the broken disc symbol.

He can't tell who it is, but they're having problems.] Temporary fixes are available even if this whole bullshit sucks.

[Naminé had woken with a start when the noise began. It was impossible not to, for someone like her, her sleep kept ever light by the memories of dangerous times and dangerous people. She'd been on her guard immediately.]

[But nothing could have prepared her for this.]

[She is very still as she looks down at herself, slow as she raises her hands, looks at them, looks down at her-- her what? Her soul? Her... heart? It can't be, surely.]

[She stumbles, though, when she turns to run to the door, all but blind in her haste. She's not sure where she's going, what she's trying to do, but something in her tugs her forward, tells her she has to-- find the others? Find out if everything is like this? Her mind is a jumble, a flurry of thought and emotion that so cloud each other as to make both ineffective.]

[She doesn't make it far before she stops. It's an abrupt sort of thing, almost as if some part of her has finally managed to grab control for a moment, but then that moment passes and she finds herself leaning against the wall, 'face' pressed into (what passes for) her hands as she takes deep, shuddering breaths to calm herself.]

[It could still be a lie, after all.]

[(It doesn't feel like a lie.)]

[She should have known.]

[It's slow when she slides down the wall, so slow that she hardly notices it until she reaches a sitting position, legs tucked haphazardly to the side. There she stays, though not for long - eventually, she rises to her feet again, lets her hands fall from her face, and goes in search of the others, whoever or whatever or wherever they might be.]

[Ion knew better than to wander around outside of the dorms after the sun had gone down. So, like a good Fon Master who wasn't particularly fond of the idea of becoming food for monsters, he had been in his room attempting to sleep when the excitement began.

The green-haired boy was on his feet in an instant, covering his ears in immediate response to the noise that screamed across the Tower. It was when the noise ceased, however, that Ion truly began to feel a sinking in his stomach.

For a long few moments, he simply considers crawling back into bed. Whatever had happened seemed to be over now. He can't move. Ion finds himself rooted firmly in place, unable to make any sort of action. That is, until the announcement plays. And then the lights turn on again--red and dim.

And then Ion turns around to see that his bed hadn't been a bed at all, but a strange pod-like device filled with purple liquid. Suddenly Ion is cold. Cold and empty and unsure whether he's afraid or simply stuck in some incomprehensible form of shock.

He reaches toward the tuning fork that hangs around his neck. It's gone. When Ion looks down at himself--his hands--nothing is as it should be. His hands aren't hands at all, and everything he knew himself to have been wearing is missing.

Ion sputters softly, a choking sound stuck in his throat, before stumbling haphazardly out of the dorm and into the hallway. He needed to find Anise--to find anyone.]

Lorelei...

[He says the word quietly, as if in a desperate prayer. Then with a weak shudder, the Fon Master gropes toward the wall nearest to him to hold onto it as he shuffles forward, away from the room he had left. Away from the pod and--Yulia, how he wishes--away from what he thought he saw of himself.]

[Now was certainly not the time to be worrying about 'who's, 'where's, and 'why's. What was important now as for everyone to remain calm-- or at least, a semblance.

So it didn't matter who, or where, or what even, but when Fado saw the girl in distress on the staircase, he approached her-- himself glowing violet-- and set one "hand" on her shoulder, in hopes of calming her down.]

Now is not the time to try and deceive ourselves further, my dear.

A humanoid figure of orange substance and foil was huddled outside the door to his own dormitory, unable to stand staring at the liquid-filled pod he'd been sleeping in for the last several months. Hidetoshi nonexistent stomach was twisting. It wasn't the revelation of what his body was constructed of that shook him.

It was their metal, film-covered surroundings, bathed in the dim redness of the lights. Throughout the Tower, he could hear people screaming, electricity was pulsing through the walls in odd places, the illusions had been stripped away and there wasn't anything in his trunk but that goop. His school uniform was gone.

He sits there and takes deep breaths to calm himself. Calm. Deep breaths. Calm.

Worst yet, if you wanted to do anything. Welp. You can think about it but there is no way you can do anything more than dry hump like the desperate teenager you are.

[He holds up a finger, because making this terrible joke is better than everything else.] Brightside! No mess to freak out about. No chance of knocking anyone up. Just slip and slide, bro. Slip and slide.

[While it was hard to tell people apart in this place, that wasn't going to stop Tohko from trying to help calm down the residents. After all..when it seemed like there was nothing to believe in, you had to find something that was true. That's what Dax had told them to do, and Tohko had done it.

It was now up to her to make sure that everyone else did so, despite the circumstances. Despite her appearance, despite the truth. So, when she saw a person sitting on the ground, Tohko sat next to them and tried to pat them on the head.]

..I know this seems terrible..but you know, not all hope is lost. I'm sure not everything is horrible, despite these changes.

[It was... a disconcerting turn of events, to say the least, but at the same time it had a side of relief to it. This tower that defied logic did not run so illogically all along. An elaborate illusion, but an illusion nonetheless. This was something that could be calculated, researched, and understood. A step in the direction of a true solution.

But she couldn't quite ignore her... well, herself. Logically, this was a good thing, because illusions would do them no favours, and yet... seeing her body in this pitiful state... She wanted to place the emotion as 'anger'. This uneasy feeling, however, seemed much closer to the human concept of 'fear'. Perhaps it was some mix of both.

She stared at her reflection in the wall awhile longer, wishing she had some better method to analyze herself with. This shimmering light at her core... similar to El, she theorized, perhaps this was what humans called a soul? But if it could be transplanted to this form, surely it was not impossible to transplant it yet again. Although, she would need proper supplies and tools to construct herself a new body...]

Ah, if only it could be properly examined...

Oh wow, this was new. He stood in the middle of what he guessed to be a hall, staring at his hand in genuine curiosity. There was a first time for everything, he supposed. So then, what to do now? This was obviously the doing of one of the admins, which begged the question as to if this was just another illusion, or a form of reality itself? Whatever it was, the truth would most likely reveal itself in due time. That, or he do his own little digging while he awaited for the Tower to resume its regular program...unless this could also be considered part of the norm.

Who knows, maybe everyone here is merely a clone that had been granted the memories and personalities of those who actually exist in other realities? "Then there's the idea that this is all just another experiment..." He clammed up as soon as he realized he was talking to himself.

"This must be what tripping balls is like." Now to find the nearest...person. Could they be considered people right now? And..."coerce" them into helping little, helpless Mitchell. In fact there was someone right now, how long had they been there?

"Hey, are you seeing what I am?"

Edited 2013-06-01 07:35 (UTC)

[She doesn't really wanna look up-- or open her eyes-- at this point she just wanted them to be gone after all of this shit that's happened. Actually, it's only kind of on instinct that she jerks her head up when she hears someone familiar, though not someone that lived in this room.]

Dave-- ?!

[She recognizes the voice, and the broken record. And now more than ever, her voice is completely untooled and unaffected by any of her usual speaking habits.

Maybe just a little bit weak from out of use. A shame it was still sounding so upset.]

Approaching the humanoid figure of orange substance and foil was another humanoid figure, but with blue liquid flowing inside his body. He slowed down to a stop, not very far from Hidetoshi.

Minato feel...tensed and anxious, before he spoke in his unmistakable voice.

"Hey."

Despite his self-control, his voice sound a little shaken.

At that moment, a horrible thought entered Yotsuba's head, and her stomach turned and twisted into more knots. She was going to help her friends and family, and Rabbit was going to do the same. That would help..but..

"But..what if they decide to not fix it?"

Glamour Failure

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[Open]

I feel this is a good time for these two to meet.

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open

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open | dormitory floors | SO WHO NEEDS A PROTAG...

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Open : Free Setting

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[Dormitory Hallways -> Everywhere] [OPEN]

Dormitory Floor 1 and Open!

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Open!

Open - event warnings.

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