and I need someone to talk to apart from you

[animusnpcs]

Characters: Zo, open
Setting: floor 001
Format: brackets, party-style
Summary: Zo visits the residential levels of the Tower.
Warnings: none so far

[The elevator dings as its doors slide open--that's not an unusual occurrence, really, for a floor that not only houses one of the elevator stopping points but also the most reliable food sources. What's unusual, though, is the boy who steps out of it.

Zo enters the cafeteria, looking around as if he hasn't seen it in some time, which is true. He's followed by one retrieval unit. While she looks as blank as any retrieval unit, her collar is chipped and she wears glasses. In fact, she might be a bit familiar to some, though she will not respond (but there's something... Unusually alive about her, even so).

Though he's careful not to stray far from his bodyguard, he smiles at the floor in general.]

Um... Hi! Wow, it's been a while since I've been up here!

Comments

[sageprincess]

... This might not be something you want to talk about when you're treating yourself to a special visit, and for that, I apologize, but... did Dax tell you anything about his plan to stop the "virus" and restore the worlds? Anything at all?

[animusnpcs]

He wanted to have you guys help. And I wanted that, too, but we were outvoted.

[sageprincess]

Outvoted...? I see. I suppose Ruana and Jason would much rather play and experiment with us than try to see us home.

[Which leaves Riki as a swing vote, and, well. So much for thinking he could possibly want to help.]

Do you know if there is anything else we can do to help? Since I doubt very many of us up here care much for their votes.

[animusnpcs]

Jason and Riki think you'd all just break everything. I think it'd be nice if you guys could help fix stuff and then maybe use real stuff to figure out what's happening to all the worlds, but I can't let you downstairs or I get in trouble.

[sageprincess]

I cannot say that is not a valid concern, given a certain number of us seem to believe might makes right.

[Sigh, Ganondorf.

... Hm.]

Is there any way to bring this "real stuff" up here? Perhaps the simplest and most easily replaceable of it as a trial run to prove we are not all brutes?

[animusnpcs]

[Zo shakes his head.] We're not allowed. We just give you guys the film stuff. It wouldn't be obvious to you if I gave you something real but all the administrators would be able to see it right away.

[sageprincess]

[Damn. She sighs, disappointment evident in her expression.]

I do not suppose you have any ideas on how to win them over, then? This whole process could only go faster if we could resolve this peacefully, and even if Dax said Jason is our first "opponent" in his research, I do not think he would want us to kill or maim him.

[Even if most of the Tower residents do. But it wouldn't make sense to take the man that repairs these constructs of bodies out of the picture.]

[animusnpcs]

Dax and Jason always fought. It was kind of scary, hearing them shouting... But Jason is the one who fixes all of you when you're broken, so unless someone else learns how to do that it'd be real bad if he died.

What do you need to fight him for, anyway?

[sageprincess]

[She hums slightly, in agreement, then... places her hands over where her heart would be if this body had one. Over where her soul is.]

"Not everything is as fake as it seems." Dax's research mentioned that we are being drugged to keep "certain aspects" of ourselves contained. Jason supposedly has the keys to "unchaining ourselves," and yet, not even he knows what these keys are meant to be.

I do not know if we need to fight him, necessarily - it all depends on what the keys are, I suppose - but most of us are not fond of chains and drugs.

[Arthur... the utter rage in his eyes when she told him what she saw in Ruana's library still haunts her.]

Do you have any idea of what he was talking about?

[animusnpcs]

Well, Jason does all the body stuff. He designed the bodies and the fluid and the retrieval units and the worker units. So it'd be something like that, I guess...

[sageprincess]

Yes, that seems to be the common theory. The idea certainly is not deterring those who are planning on boycotting the collar check ups.

[But it can't be that simple, can it?]

... Personally, I am not so sure. Those are the things he knows best, correct? So he would have to be aware of whatever this "key" is, if it were something that could be found in one of those things...

[animusnpcs]

I guess you'd have to get some of the stuff he uses! Something you usually can't, probably, so not the bodies since you've all got those.

[sageprincess]

[An exhale that toes the line between amused and exasperated.]

And there is no way to get those things without forcing our way down to your levels, is there.