Collar Checkup Boycott

[animusmods]

Characters: open to all
Setting: infirmary; around the Tower in general
Format: party-style all week; please note the date your post is taking place in the subject line
Summary: The results of the collar boycott slowly become clear...
Warnings: standard Tower warnings
Note: You may NPC your own retrieval units.

The results don't begin to become clear until Tuesday--Monday passes more or less without incident, except for the number of orange-collared residents who miss their checks. And on Tuesday, the retrieval units are out to search for them. It doesn't seem like they were meant to recover so many, though: a clever resident will be able to avoid their retrieval unit entirely. And so, some oranges continue to have escaped their collar checkup today.

It's worse on Wednesday. Retrieval units are out and about again, but this time to try and search for the yellow-collared residents who skipped the day before. No orange-collared residents are searched out at all, and even then there seems to be enough confusion in the programming of the retrieval units any boycotting yellows can run off and hide if they're careful about it.

By the time Thursday arrives, there's a general, obvious level of confusion in the retrieval units' retrieval programming. They were obviously not programmed to be searching for so many colors at once. Some residents may find themselves being dragged in for a second collar check this week, even if they went to theirs, and the infirmary seems to be working at double time. No one even bothers to search for the two wayward greens.

By Friday the retrieval units are out in a number that seems more fitting for a small militia than anything else. Still, they seem more intent on tracking down the greens--their programming still telling them to retrieve those who were missed the day before--but they don't seem to know which greens they're looking for. Anyone with a green collar may be dragged in for a collar check, possibly multiple times today.

Saturday is chaos in the infirmary. The retrieval units seem to have entirely lost sight of who they're actually searching for, and anyone brought into the checkup room will be able to see how messy and confused it looks, with no real time to clean it and orange through violet collar fluid all lined up at once where normally only the color of the day and of the day before would be out at all. Again people may be brought in for multiple checks while those intent on evading capture can remain elusive.

But Sunday--on Sunday the entire process breaks down. There's too much volume for the retrieval units to handle, and they scatter about in a strange catch and release program, dragging anyone they catch to random places around the Tower before letting them go. They don't seem to be entirely certain of what they're supposed to be doing.

Something else happens on Sunday, as well...

Comments

[slightlyoblivious]

I have a problem with the fact you're probably going to run that straight down to some other villain. It's not going to get analyzed other than to see what it can do to hurt other people, because that's the kind of person you are. You don't care who you hurt as long as you get what you want.

[Yukiko knows this is a bad idea, but she still says it loud enough to be heard. She knows it and that makes her want to back down or go find someone to help. The problem now is time. She can't let this go so easily, and there is no time to handle it any other way.]

I have a big problem with that.

[neverbeamemory]

I don't know what to find more insulting.

[Silver eyebrows twitched, the entire intense glare of his eyes zoning in on Yukiko alone.]

The fact that you clearly don't think I'm smart enough to realize that figuring out this liquid might be the key to freedom, or the fact that you would dare to presume to know how me well enough to make such a judgment with regards to obtaining what I want.

[Equally as loud, so that anyone can hear that really cares to. Sephiroth steps closer to Yukiko and issues one last -final- warning.]

I want you to get out of my way, now.

[Threatening isn't his style, actions speak louder than words after all, but his body language does it well enough. Already his left hand is curled into a position as if it might in a moment hold a sword.]

[slightlyoblivious]

I know exactly what that liquid might be. It's a key to figuring out exactly what these collars are and how they work. You're right; it might be our freedom.

[She reaches for the pouch at her side - she doesn't have her new fans yet, that's still a network post I need to make in the future, but she can use the ones she has just as well.]

I just don't want it in the hands of someone who made someone I love commit suicide by jumping off the Tower.

[Her last words are louder than before. Yukiko wants everyone in that room to know what he's done. If she dies right now? She doesn't want to die, of course not, but at least she'll have told part of the tale beforehand.]

No. You don't always get what you want.

[neverbeamemory]

[Sephiroth closes his eyes against the torrent of louder words as if they were an invisible wave that crashes over him. They might well be, for all the effect they had.

His next words are chillingly cold in tone.]

You see, that's one thing you need to learn about me-

[Then he moves...

It's quick and a lunge up close to Yukiko; Masamune is summoned from no where, extending out of a clenched fist as if it might have been hiding in his grip all the time-

Just as said fist is hooked in close to Yukiko's body; the blade sliding through her as it is extended into reality. Penetrating through her torso and pointed at the ceiling, stained red all the way up. With his other hand he holds Yukiko's shoulder steady for a moment while he finishes his sentence.]

-I always take what I want.

[Sephiroth then steps back and brutally slowly pulls the blade from her body. As if wanting her to feel it for as long as possible before the inevitable.]

[slightlyoblivious]

[The words aren't for Sephiroth, anyway. Yukiko has been aware of that the entire time. The words are for everyone else in the room - and anyone that might be outside hearing it. They need to know exactly what's going to happen. Not that she thinks anyone's going to help her, but she has to try it.

Yukiko knows, in that lunge forward - it's short, but it feels like an eternity - that she is definitely going to die, painfully. She tries to summon her Persona, but there just isn't time.

She screams loudly at that blade piercing up through her, trying to get her arms free so she can at least damage that container, but before she can, she's being pinned in place.

It's not all right, dying like this, but Yukiko makes as much peace as she can with it in a short time. She will tell others what happened, after she wakes and the paralysis wears off.]

...not if...not if...someone else...

[Not if someone else takes it from you, she tries to say, but the world's spinning and all the color is draining from her face. There's another scream as that blade's withdrawn - it's raspy, drawn-out.

Then there's only blood and pain and the inevitable. She coughs blood, and the color on her lips is the only color on her face, because Yukiko is fading fast. Her eyes roll back and the lids close as she goes limp, then starts to grow cold.]

[neverbeamemory]

[He knows it's not real. He knows it's not permanent. He knows well what death brings in the Tower having experienced it a few too many times himself. But that doesn't lessen that particular sense of euphoria he experiences at taking someones life. Someone like Yukiko, someone who had had it coming. Like Aerith

Sephiroth will watch her right to the end, mercilessly as the blood slides off his blade and pools a little on the floor off to the side - before flicking the great sword behind his left arm and peering around at the others momentarily as if inviting them to be next. If he has to cut down everyone to take that container he's more than prepared to.

Seeing no further argument he goes back to his intended container, vanishing his sword in the meantime and lifting the precious-fluid vessel up in both arms again. If no one else interferes, he'll make straight for the door. Doesn't want to be here when the retrievals come to take Yukiko's corpse away - with any luck the others might figure that as well but it's really not his concern.]

[technologic]

[Except he isn't able to simply leave, if the sudden burst of electricity sent towards him is any indication. April doesn't want to fight in such a small space, especially with how she really doesn't want to attract attention, but like hell she's just letting him walk out after all that.

So she'll be making sure that bolt of electricity hurts, too.]

[neverbeamemory]

[Always in the back.

Maybe he should have waited for the retaliation before walking past everybody. That bolt of electricity hits him square in the back. He makes more of a frustrated grunt noise at the shooting, instant burning pain that surges right up and down his whole frame before earthing, curling arms around the container stubbornly. It stumbles him forward almost into the waiting area chairs and near missing the nearby wall as he painfully crashed to one knee.

Just who-

Sephiroth turns to look over his shoulder, still in a crouched position while his back re-adjusts to not having a few hundred volts put through it. A green light flares at his wrist for a moment before he secures the container under one arm and flicks a fireball back in Aprils' direction.]