towerofanimus | Glamour Failure

Still alive. [Barnaby stared at his hands, still stunned by the wires and the liquid inside them.]

You're holding up well.

And you're still you... [She shifts slightly, before giving a small, bitter laugh.]

... When I used to do really deep hacking with my powers, I would, um, turn into bits of data, not recognizable in anyway. But I was still me. Now it's not much different, really...

... B-but I'm not holding up as well as I seem to be. [The anger is still bubbling away inside her, and she has no idea how to handle it and it almost hurts, with how potent all her once suppressed anger is.]

No one is...

[He slumped further against the wall, slipping into that well again. That fire from so long ago, the distorted faces, that photograph that contradicted everything that he knew.]

What is anything? I thought this was over!

[April is silent for a few moments, moving to rest her chin on her knees, thinking over his words.]

... What will you do?

[The silence seems to last for eternity before Barnaby collected his thoughts enough to form words and reply.]

What can we do?

[April makes a quiet, humming sound as she thinks for a few moments.] ... Find a way back home, and try to find a way to reverse what has been done. If we can't do that, try to get back to our original bodies, since they still do exist.

And we find a way to crack this tower wide open, to find the truth hidden beneath all of the lies they've given us.

[There was a point in her words that drew his attention, made him pause and consider the madness from a different perspective. He still didn't know what to believe, but his instincts were telling him that he didn't have much other choice.

His thoughts strayed back to that party, to the one man that he didn't have a name or a face for. In a voice that was hollow in his stunned clarity, he repeated the one phrase that stuck with him through the night.]

'Change is our friend.'

'Change is our friend'... [She repeats the phrase, her voice curious, before she glances over at him and raises her chin from her knees slightly. There's another few moments of silence from her, and then she gives a faint nod.]

... Y-yeah, that's right, it is.

[She understood it better than he did in those moments. He was still wrapped up in the mess of rage and misremembered details. He wanted to follow his own path, live a life that wasn't influenced by anyone or anything.

Clearly the Tower had something else in mind.]

But nothing has changed. Not really.

... No, I think it has. [She wraps her arms around her knees as she looks at the film covered walls.]

We know the truth now, even though it's horrible and painful. And we now know that we can do things to break the admins hold over us. We managed to break their illusion, so now I believe we can do more than that.

Is that so?

[Was that really the truth? Was that really something that he could rely on? All he knew for sure was the knot of anger that twisted his stomach and set his nerves on edge and the rekindled fire of his resolve to never be used like this again.

...her words implied something that drew his attention because of it's sheer familiarity.]

What do you mean?

We fight back, and keep fighting. The admins sometimes unintentionally give us openings, so now we need to break those open more than before. And we could find ways to make openings for ourselves, try to find places where the glamour doesn't fit if it comes back up, or look for some ways to make tiny cracks bigger. To show them that we won't let them do what they please to us anymore.

[She lifts her head up a bit more, and she takes another glance around the hallway.]

... Plus, if we're able to get to a control room somehow, I could maybe figure out what exactly the admins are planning with all this. This all seems technology-based, and I'm very good with technology.

[It was a lot for Barnaby to take in. He was still new to the Tower, and he was severely lacking in information regarding the political landscape. A part of him wanted to find a notebook for that express reason. Another wanted the same so he could make a record of his own thoughts, in case something like this happened.]

...you know something, don't you?

I knew something, would be a better way of putting it. I knew that there were something like... chips on each floor and that they would probably do something. But that was it, I could sense the wireless signal they gave but nothing else, like what they would do.

[She leans her chin back on her knees again, humming to herself in thought.]

But the fact that someone, which I'm going to guess is the main resistance group, managed to get their hands on something like that is enough to convince me that we can break things down even more. That we really do have a fighting chance.

[Barnaby frowned and looked down at his hands again as something clicked in his mind.]

So there is a way to do act here. [It was news to him. People were hush-hush, understandably.]

It's good to know that. I'm tired of this sort of thing.

[She nods a few times, now stretching her legs out in front of her with a faint wince. She is getting curious about how he seems to have experienced this kind of thing before, but she doesn't feel like she should pry right now.]

Exactly! So we will be able to do something about all this.

[It was far too soon for him to want to talk about it. Her discretion is appreciated.]

Do something about which problem? Us being here?

...

Do you know anything about this? I only know the basics.

About us being here. And, hmm... I know a few things that might be relevant.

One of those is that there's apparently multiple towers, like this one. And that one of the admins here was researching ways to reverse what may have happened to our worlds, but he... isn't around anymore. But based on how someone in the tower got hold of something that broadcasted a wireless signal, which is meant to be impossible, I believe that it would be possible to find his research.

[She sighs quietly, rubbing the back of her neck.] I'm, um, a bit of an info collector, so I know some things... But if you really want to know more, your best bet would be to ask the leader of the resistance group, Zelda.

[The brief but incredibly detailed explanation that he got from Tohko on his first day suddenly had a little more context. He wondered if the strange disappearance had anything to do with the mention of the woman-- Ruana? --cannibalizing another one of the admins. There were too many details for him to absorb in a short span, and no written records that he could tuck away and peruse on the nights that he couldn't sleep.

There were many of those anymore.]

So people have already gotten that far in their work? It seems like I've got a lot more to learn in this place.

[Although he would follow that thread with Zelda on his own. Recent events proved that even his Hundred Power wasn't worth very much in the larger context of the Tower, but it was still something. But, he had his own problems to deal with, and he was sure that Zelda had the same.

[If he wants written records, April would be happy to do those, especially since she rarely sleeps much as well. Though her handwriting is... well, it's readable, at least, though just barely.]

Ehe, yep! I-if you want, I can try to fill you in a few more when things are... less hectic, t-though I only know basic details. But I'm not sure if people are going to be able to work on stuff much more this month, s-since I'm gonna guess by that howling that Ruana is really not happy...

[April glances down towards the floor and shifts uncomfortably.] ... S-she'll probably want to keep us busy this month.

[He would have preferred having more than just scraps of paper to keep his own records, but the conversations he's had thus far have had him wary of everything. At least the library and the lounges were safe, for the most part, but the conversation about carnivorous clothes was very worrisome.]

I'll appreciate anything you can offer when it gets less hectic. There's no reason to rush, especially now.

People have said that it'd be wise to stay alert this month, because of that woman.

[April nods a few times, moving to pick at the end of the tattered shaped film that was once her coat.]

All right. That'll give me some time to think over things to say too, I tend to, um... have a lot going on in my head at once.

And now that she seems mad, it will possibly be worse than usual. Best thing to do is to be ready for anything and be prepared to face some sort of violence whenever you leave the dorm area.

[His frame tensed at suggestion and he bristled in irritation at the very thought.]

Danger is something I can handle.

[At worst, he could run. Once he got his powers back (because there was no 'if'), he could even make sure that others can escape to safety. There wasn't much that he could do with his Hundred Power. Not until he learned more.]

Okay. But if you need assistance with things, I would be happy to help, such as stuff concerning weapons or extra fire-power.

[April had been making weapons before, but now she thinks she'll work a bit more on that. Her electrical powers are luckily able to do more than just shock monsters.]

[He glanced over at her, seeing an opportunity to continue a thread he had started to follow earlier, to little progress.]

What kinds of weapons or firepower are you talking about here?

Glamour Failure

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