Glamour Failure

[animusmods]

Characters: any
Setting: all around the Tower
Format: any/party-style
Summary: A general mingle log for the reaction to the beginning of the Idealism event.
Warnings: PG-13; please include any more detailed warnings in your threads if necessary

Comments

E

[puppy_lancer]

[Lancer barely suppresses a snicker when he sees how silly the other man looks, his hair just melding into the water.]

What are you talking about, a year?

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch doesn't face the speaker for a moment, and then he slowly rises to his feet and turns, finding the glow of the other person in the dim red light.*

A year...it's the time left for this tower.

[puppy_lancer]

[His mouth drops open in surprise.]

Are you serious? Does this have anything to do with the glamour failure? What the hell is going on?

[warriorscribe]

It does. But I don't know how much I can say here.

*Telling Zelda about it in his own room was risky enough - even if he'd kept his voice low.*

[puppy_lancer]

Then...is there any place we can go? Just for a few minutes. You can tell me there.

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch steps out of the waterfall and nods.* Come with me.

*He'll start leading him back down to the cafeteria...

...only to find that the elevator isn't coming, when he'd used it to get down there.*

....Strange. *And he jumps as a particularly loud howl sounds from below.*

[puppy_lancer]

[Lancer barely avoids jumping in surprise like Enoch.]

...Looks like we're taking the long road then.

[Seems that like the food, the elevator was a casualty of the power loss.]

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch looked back up at the stairs they'd just climbed down. What he wouldn't give for powers to be on right now. At least then there'd be a chance of running into Lucifel or someone else who could teleport. As it was, though, well, they didn't have much of a choice. Enoch led Lancer up the stairs - though pulled him aside on the fourth floor instead. It wasn't worth climbing all the way back up to the dorms, with the risk of attack from monsters so high. All he had to do was stay away from the walls.

Once there, Enoch led Lancer to a film-covered couch, the back of which would conceal the view from the stairs (or at least partially if it was nothing but a thick construct of film), and motioned for him to crouch down. It wouldn't do for his stalker to see him with a mysteriously real sheet of paper, bad enough he doesn't know if he was seen with the envelope or not...

But once they're at least partially concealed, Enoch pulls the note from the film that was his pocket and holds it out to Lancer.* Keep your voice low, don't read it too far from yourself, and return it to me as soon as you can.

[puppy_lancer]

[Lancer follows behind Enoch, crouching down. The actually real piece of paper catches his eye.]

Where did...

[He shuts up when he hears Enoch's order. Without saying a word, he takes the note and reads it.]

So, only a year?

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch tucks the note back into his pocket as soon as it's returned to him.*

Only a year. *He turns to slide down against the back of the couch.* ...It will be difficult. But it can be done.

[puppy_lancer]

It's a good enough period.

[He takes a moment and then remembers another detail of the note.]

Taught him empathy?

[warriorscribe]

Or "granted"... Given her age...I wouldn't be surprised if Ruana raised the others. That would explain it.

[puppy_lancer]

Strange. I always thought they'd be older than her. She acts a little young to be a mother of four.

[warriorscribe]

She's over a thousand years old, even if she doesn't act it. Dax once said they're all younger than she is.

*At this point, the information isn't sensitive, which is a good thing if his stalker is back. But either way...*

[puppy_lancer]

So she either gave birth to all the other guys, or made from some magic or psionic process? Then why did she...eat Dax?

[warriorscribe]

Because she sees the others as dogs. She clearly doesn't have any respect for them as people...

...though not even we normally eat our dogs. *His fists clench. Just thinking about it is enough to reawaken that rare, so very rare desire to destroy her...*

She doesn't even respect him as that.

*A pause, while Enoch seemed to relax a little.* ...It seemed as if she gained something from eating him though. The heart is the seat of their psionics.

[puppy_lancer]

[He watches Enoch's body language and waits for the other man to properly calm down.]

Yeah, that part was fucked up. And I get that the heart holds their powers, but what about the brain?

[Wasn't that the most important organ in a body anyways?]

Why'd she try to eat it and then spit it out?

[warriorscribe]

It must be where their motivations and thoughts rest - his empathy repulsed her.

*He sighs, a long, shaky sigh.* They said they were descended from the original residents. I think Ruana has had many 'dogs' in her lifetime. Her years are not her own.

[puppy_lancer]

So that was just business as usual for her, huh?

[He feels like just standing up and smashing something, though he knows such a display of emotion would be fruitless.]

[warriorscribe]

It must have been... She said that lifespan is dependent on their powers. And if she can take others' psionics by eating their hearts...

[puppy_lancer]

Wait a minute. You just said she made all of the others. Why would she cut down on her own lifespan? Why not just run this place by herself?

[warriorscribe]

No, no. Lifespan is dependent on powers, and she can take other peoples' powers. She isn't cutting her own lifespan, she's stealing it from her "dogs"!

*That...came out more forcefully than he intended. But he doesn't particularly feel like correcting that; they're not exactly on secret knowledge anymore. Enoch raises his voice, knowing his retrieval unit stalker had to have caught up with them by now.*

Jason, I know your agent must be here now. Can you hear us? You're only her dog until she decides you're cattle instead!

*With a seething sigh, he rests against the back of the couch and mutters something not quite under his breath, but quiet, closer to the volume they'd been speaking privately at.*

At least unless she gets involved personally she doesn't have a breeding pair amongst her unwitting livestock.

[puppy_lancer]

[He makes a face, or at least he would if he had a face to twist around. That wasn't something he needed to think about.]

You know, too bad we don't have a visual of the administrators right about now. I sorta wanna see what all of them look behind their pretty little illusions.

[He uses this idea to distract himself from the thought of Ruana breeding.]

[warriorscribe]

*Sorry for the mental image. The idea itself didn't disturb Enoch as much as what the implications were enraged him, which, well, he was already angry. If he was right, Ruana used every single living thing around her for her own gain at the worst of expenses for the other party.

It takes him a moment to respond, his whole body tense.*

If they're glamoured at all. I think only Ruana must not be what she appears. The others have said they're human...and they have never given us direct lies, only incomplete truths.

[puppy_lancer]

Alright then.

[A pause.]

Hey, do you think this glamour was set up more for her, or more for us?