never let me sleep

[animusmods]

Characters: characters participating or open
Setting: throughout the Tower on the 26th-28th while characters are frozen
Format: party style; please specify the date and time in your subject header
Summary: A mingle log for the Cognizance event.
Warnings: PG-13; please note in subject lines any more specific warnings
Note: Remember, only characters who missed their collar checks can be awake on the first night!

Comments

26th, between midnight and 1 am

[ambassadorasshat]

[Tonight is apparently not the best night to be unable to sleep. This redhead's been wandering the dormitory floors in an effort to make himself tired enough to sleep more than an hour at a time, and so far it isn't working.

He nearly misses a step on one of the staircases as the sudden sensation of being startled awake hits him, causing him to stumble.]

...The hell?

[Maybe he was more tired than he thought.]

let's do the thing

[bloodyashes]

[Unlike some people, Asch was actually asleep when things flickered. When he wakes up to the Tower being weird, his first action is to hesitantly poke his head out of his room and make sure nothing exploded in the meanwhile.

...Nope, nothing to see here, just a Luke falling on himself. Time to ignore the idiot and figure out who else isn't frozen.]

26th - Shortly after midnight

[blackestomen]

[When she had deftly dodged her checkup in all of the chaos that ensued, Zeal had no idea what the effect of it might be. And as she sat there, wide awake at an unseemly hour, she still had no concept of why this was happening. This place was strange. Strange things happened. Who could say exactly why?

Compelled by a need to get a drink of water and perhaps answer the call of nature, she slipped from her room. But she never made it as far as the bathroom, for the light from one of the terminals on the way caught her attention. And the words on it stopped her short.]

Time suspension...?

[That put an uncomfortable chill up her spine. If time was not flowing properly, that could be nothing but bad. But what was there to be done about it? Surely something. Apprehensively, she approached the terminal and attempted to... do... something with it, but clicking on the buttons and wiggling the little device next to it produced no results.

Still anxious, she looked up and down the hall, stepping slowly away.]

...Is anyone here? Is anyone awake!?

[culbutiri]

I do be. [Nesir had woken suddenly to this silent, motionless state of the tower. She too wondered if it was an effect of the boycott.

Seeing someone awake was reassuring.] Do they be being down again? [She nodded her head at the terminal]

OPEN; 27th, 6am; cw: talk of decapitation

[ghostytrainer]

[John awakes with a start and it takes every bit of self control he has not to start screaming. There are two things in this world that he would have been okay with never seeing again: decapitated heads and the processing room. And guess where and what he was doing right before he woke up? He sits upright, writhing silently in a combination of disgust and horror before darting out of his dorm room and down the hallway towards the stairs. He's pale as a sheet and looks almost ill, hardly paying attention to anything or anyone around him. He has one thing on his mind, and that one thing is not talking to people.]

[The crystal caverns were apparently his destination, and once he's managed to seclude himself in one of the many twists and turns John finally, finally allows himself to scream. He shudders, choking back sobs and trying to take deep, calming breaths. But it's hard to forget what he saw, and more importantly, what he did and absolutely nothing about either of those things is okay.]

[Eventually, he sinks down into a sitting position, breathing still ragged as he releases his Altaria from her ball. Once she's free, he pulls the overly large bird into a tight hug, almost as though trying to lose himself in her cloud-like feathers. She doesn't seem to mind, curling up around her master almost protectively and chirping quietly on occasion, almost as though trying to help calm him down...]

[Follow? Approach?]

((ooc: John got stuck with the lovely job of removing heads in the processing room. So if your character died on the 26th, there's a chance he might have decapitated your character's corpse! Let me know if you want that to have happened, it can be the sort of bonding experience that only Animus can provide.))

[reddeadvirtuoso]

[==>Jade: Investigate the flash of light.

Well, she was no pokemon master herself, but she'd been around Rose and John enough to know how a pokeball worked. And even if she didn't, she had how many years of cartoons as reference?

Anyway, the point was she noticed it when John let his Altaria out. Since she'd woken up in the middle of the time suspension she'd spent the rest of the night/morning messing around the Tower in a fit of insomnia and euphoria (not that the insomnia part as very new), which she'd abruptly stopped when she noticed that John must be around.

OK she wasn't exactly presentable right now (though some of the mud had fallen off at least), it was quickly apparent that something was wrong, and so she carefully took a few steps closer.]

John? Uh... you OK?

[The dumb questions just kept on rolling.]

27th after midnight; open

[reddeadvirtuoso]

[Jade had woken up, and everything had stopped.

She'd felt like something was off, but it wasn't until she stumbled around outside to see people frozen in mid-action. It wasn't a scene she was intimately accustomed to, but there was something familiar about it.

A passing glance at a computer said something about-- time suspension.

Time suspension?

Her mind still idly kept track of minutes and seconds, but-- maybe it was just her tricking herself, but right now it felt a bit more unnecessary (which is dumb as it had never been necessary in the first place, she was just going completely batshit.)

Time suspension!

It was an odd thing to make her happy, but it did-- and so the entire night there would be the side of Jade Strider, patches of her clothes and skin covered in mud (a bit of a carry over from this whole glamour failure thing-- it just kind of made her feel better, in case of a glitch), running around the halls of the Tower, harmlessly messing with people who were frozen, excitedly jumping down stairs, and... all in all, being really cheerful about it.

Maybe she'd finally lost it? She wasn't really that bothered.]

[turntechtrainer]

[If she's lost it, then all the time kids around are nuts. Dave bounces down the hall not unlike a jack rabbit, cape snapping in his wake. Speaking of his wake, he's left leaning towers of nutrition bars and doodles about like he's secretly five.

Spoilers: the maturity level can fit.

He kicks off a wall as he hops off the staircase and flips through the air, to land with a smirk on his face. He spots her almost immediately and gives her a thumbs up.] Hey, hey. Looks like the night belongs to us.

26th; during and immediately after time suspension

[colonial]

A; OPEN
[America awoke with a start to the sound of something humming in the room. In the unsteady glitching of the glamour, he could just make out what looked like an elevator, but he knew there shouldn't be one in the room, and so it made him tug at England's arm.

When England didn't wake up--didn't even move--he only tugged harder, called England's name, shook him and nearly pulled him out of bed. When the retrieval units stepped out of the elevator, he picked up England and bolted out of the dormitory room.

Now he's wandering around, carrying England over top of his head and making uneasy, whimpering noises every time he sees someone encased in white light.]

Engwand? Engwand, wake up!

[Every noise makes him jump, and every movement makes him freeze, but he still attempts to make England wake up even so.]

B; closed to England

[It had been a few hours, at least. America wasn't great at keeping track of time, and the terminals just said time was suspended, whatever that meant, but he knew it had been way too long.

He's sporting wounds, now, from a fight or two with wandering monsters, but he was still too frightened to go back into the dorm rooms, and he still had to protect England. He'd managed that, at least, even if it had cost him mangled fingers and his footprints are marked with blood because of a still-closing wound on his calf. His dressing gown, stained far too red for what few wounds remain, speaks more loudly of what he's been through.]

Engwand, you're sleeping way too long. [His voice is a tiny whisper--he's too afraid of attracting any more monster attention to speak louder. He's frightened at how still England is, too--it's not normal, when England wakes up so easily.

But he keeps carrying England above his head even so.]

A! Dorm levels?

[tentacletrainer]

[[Rose had woken under similar circumstances and, like America, grabbed her friend and bolted out of the room. The difference was that Rose was actually carrying John piggy back for now, but she was trying to wake him up too, occasionally grumbling about what a fat ass he is. When she spots America and England though, she pauses.]]

...hello?

[[They aren't encased in white light...are they like her then?]]

27th; 5 AM

[alae]

[Dark Pit comes to in his bed suddenly, sitting up and pressing his hands to his face. ... She did... what? And...]

[He can't believe her, but he has to find the one person he can trust with this kind of information. He grabs his weapons and heads out, heading towards Asch's dorm - but anyone is free to bump into him and ask why he looks so distressed.]

[bloodyashes]

[Well, when he gets there, he'll have to wake Asch up, first. The redhead is curled up in a ball on his bed; he's been out a couple hours (since time resumed earlier that night) and is pretty clearly in some state of nightmare.

He's not making any noise; instead, his shoulders just shake under the blanket, which covers him from roughly neck to waist. It's not really kicked off - instead, it looks like he's pulled it into his arms slowly over the course of the hours he's been sleeping.

zzzzz]

27th briefly during then after time suspension

[savedbyasong]

[A] Shion woke up with a start rubbing his head and taking a moment to decide whether what he could remember was a dream or not. But he rarely had dreams so vivid, and why would he dream of books of blood?

He stood up, slipping on his shoes and moved out of his room, he blinked again as he came across a person unmoving, surrounded by some kind of light.

"Hello?" He called reaching out to touch the light, his hand touched the person, they felt real but made no move. He frowned again and began walking down the corridor, trying to work out what was happening.

[B] All of a sudden people moved again, like nothing had happened and Shion couldn't make any sense of it. He moved towards the first dorm level, looking for Xion, not that she was likely to understand it more than he was, but he wanted to check on her, check nothing had happened.

He kept an eye out for others as well, other people he knew, people he knew sometimes had answers.

[A]

[bowandblade]

Archer had been out of the dorm room when he had come to, on his way out to look for something to do for another night in the tower. After catching sight of one of the terminals with its strange message displayed, he started wandering around the dormitory levels looking at the other terminals.

He returned to the second dormitory level, eventually noticing Shion. "Have trouble sleeping?" he quipped with a smirk, hands in pockets.

27th; after midnight

[pushedaround]

[ Tavros woke up with the worst headache possible and a foggy memory. Still, he could recall a few things in the back of his head that made him feel a bit awkward. Ruana, entertainment, view of her bed and her compliment. So weird.

However, now that he was out of the comfort of his bed, he found himself in the middle of the hall experiencing another round of discomfort. Except, this time, he knew it wasn't some kind of dream. Some people appeared to be frozen and surrounded with a weird aura. He didn't recognize anyone so far, but that didn't make him feel any better.

He wanted some answers. ]

[myblueskies]

[Romeo was equally confused, having just woken up having spoken to Zo. He didn't know if it was a dream or real, but since some people around him were now frozen he thought he was either still dreaming or it had been real.

He remembered some people saying that they had seen some people working for the bad people, was that what he had seen. He remembered the book Zo had been reading, about rabbits he had said. He saw Tavros, Gamzee's friend, and ran over to him] Hi Tavros! You're awake too!

26th || Right after midnight

[lartdelaguerre]

[ Big Boss was returning to his dorm around midnight, assault riffle in hand in case a monster decided to pop up on his way, when he felt the sudden sensation of coming to abruptly, as if he had been asleep. Yet he was clearly conscious... The sensation was pretty unsettling to say the least. He looked around suspiciously and continued on his way, maybe he was just tired--

That is until he spotted a man apparently frozen in time next to a terminal and surrounded by a shield of light. Next to him was a dog that appeared similarly frozen in time, the man could be recognized as Doc Brown. ]

What the...?

[ He tilted his head and looked at the man, tentatively pushing the barrel of the assault riffle against him to check he was well real and alive. He couldn't say? Though this shield seemingly offered him protection...

He then caught sight of the message on the terminal signaling a time suspension was in progress. Time suspension? ]

... You've got to be kidding me.

Re: 26th || Right after midnight

[notagiraffe]

Taiki had woken in his bed, and looked around everything seemed too quiet. He padded out of bed, and left his room, blinking at the frozen people.

"Sorry... What's going on?" He spotted his roommate, who was luckily awake, and not frozen like the others.

26th || Right after midnight

[great_king_of_evil]

Prompt A

[ Once in a while, Ganondorf happened to sleep in his bed. Generally he did it only when it was necessary so as not to die of exhaustion because of the tower's effect, and even when he did so generally it lasted a couple hours at best. No time to waste with sleeping after all.

Until he came to abruptly. Ganondorf looked a bit surprised, but quickly got up and looked around as he heard the familiar elevator noise. Why in this room? Nothing to see, hence he opened the dorm's room and looked around. Needless to say, in the eventuality of roommates he utterly ignored their very existence aside from casual observing. A quick look at the corridor would be enough for him to see the frozen bodies and pick his curiosity.

He would have gone to examine them, but then he heard the elevator open in the room and the retrieval units coming out. That was quite a surprise now, they had elevators in their own room. He observed them changing the fluid with a neutral face. Was this... Happening every night? This was humiliating. He then saw them checking their trunk-- In this trunk, Ganon had put before going to sleep a small weapon retrieved from a monster a couple days ago.

And he saw the retrieval unit swap this weapon for another one-- One that was without a doubt much less real. He couldn't help but smirk at that. Obviously annoying, yet he could only respect the administrators's efforts in maintaining their own power. ]

Ingenious...! [He couldn't help but chuckle.] Very ingenious.

[ Without a doubt he wasn't meant to see that. It was probably related to the collar boycott, and without a doubt it was very informative. ]


Prompt B, on the 27th

[ On this day the same thing happened once again, the elevator, the retrieval units, etc. As the retrieval unit went back into the elevator however, Ganondorf did try something. He cast a spell on himself and basically miniaturized himself, before jumping on the retrieval unit's shoulder. At this size, he was really small enough to hold within the palm of the hand.

It looked like it worked for a moment...

Alas! When the retrieval unit was about to depart, Ganondorf wasn't allowed to accompany it to the administrative level. And lo, the Great King of Evil got flung off back into the room, crashing quite violently into the wall and slowly sliding to the ground. Thankfully he was more resistant than most people, but that was humiliating.

Her would switch back to his real size right after the elevator closed, hopefully nobody witnessed that total failure. ]

[culbutiri]

[He would be so lucky. Nesir had been looking for him after her conversation with Doc, to report what she had seen.

And so it was that she was walking past the elevator as something flew past her into the wall and turned into Ganondorf. She raised an eyebrow] So this do be what you do be doing with all your powers?

27th || During time suspension

[doc_brown]

[ Much like last night, Doc was standing close to a terminal in the dormitories floors with Einstein, ready to go to sleep soon. He hadn't skipped the collar check so he had been frozen for the entirety of the previous hidden hours.

However today he didn't get frozen, instead feeling the sudden sensation of coming too even though he was awake. What was this? Before he could think much however, he saw the message on the terminal: time suspension. ]

GREAT SCOTT!!

[ Was it what he thought? No it couldn't be. Dear administrator of the tower: one doesn't simply mess with the space-time continuum. You could find Doc trying to type on the computer and find out what this is about, to no avail. Oh, and the dog is frozen, alas. ]

[culbutiri]

People were frozen again, though this time that was not what was worrying Nesir. It had been what had happened earlier that night that worried her.

She had left her room to see if anyone else was awake, seeing frozen people once more. When she saw Doc, who didn't seem to be frozen she moved towards him. He probably didn't know her but she knew of him.

Knew he was a person to go to if you wanted anything built.

She didn't bother with pleasantries. "Do you be knowing what a nanomachine be being?" She glanced at the screen, at the message that she assumed was what had made him look so shocked. "Time suspension?"

27th - 6 AM - warning: was involved with processing

[bashfulshifter]

[Rick quietly blinks himself into consciousness feeling quite awake, although far from well-rested, with the distinct impression that he's been vividly dreaming. His temples are pounding and his heart seems to be slowly winding down after kicking away in his chest; Rick thinks he should be distressed about something, but he's not quite sure what it is.]

[He sits up in his bed and leans on his knees, pensive. Was it whatever he was dreaming about? Could he even remember? Rick grabs his glasses, rolls off the mattress and stumbles out the door. Perhaps a walk will help clear his mind.]

[Wait for it.]

[Wait for it...]

[Rick is halfway down the hall when he turns on his heel and starts briskly walking towards the stairs. The images of disembodied limbs, piles of mangled bodies, kicking and wading through them, are now all quite fresh in his mind and much too clear to be a simple dream--but most alarming is the presence of a familiar face, not dead but helping. What was going on here?]

[And what floor does Enoch even live on, anyways?]

((ooc: Working with dead people! Let me know if your character died around this time and you think Rick would recognize them. Also, Rick will be wandering through the entire second and third floors before he finds Enoch's room, so if you want to run into him before then that's fine!))

[warriorscribe]

*Unlike Rick, Enoch didn't remain under the impression he'd been dreaming for much longer than he'd been awake. He knew people were drugged and taken down to the admin levels for work; as much had been said following the break-in Dax had facilitated, the one that had led to his death.

The thing that got to him wasn't wading through a pile of corpses. Oddly enough, he didn't mind that so much, possibly because of what he was doing with them. He was helping with the extraction process. Being stuck in a dead body must be terrible, and if helping them to get back on their feet was something he could do, well...*

I know you can see and hear me. I would do that of my own will if you asked me.

*...yes, he is talking to his dorm room's ceiling. Or rather, the cameras he knows are there. Maybe Rick is close enough to hear him at this point, maybe not. He sighs and gets out of bed, reaching for the Arch only placed there to perfect the false memory of having gone to bed of his own will. Between this and the strangest three hours all month last night, he has to wonder if this really is Jason's doing. He'd thought so at first, during the time suspension earlier, but then he'd seen a retrieval unit change the fluid in his pod, which seemed like something that was oddly routine for a punishment. And then this, the glimpses of things he clearly didn't want to show people...

He's so lost in thought he nearly runs into Rick on his way out, but lucking catches himself and steps back at the last moment.*

Ah...Rick?

*He'd been there, too, working on that pile of corpses. He was doing something different though, he remembers him gathering limbs...*

26th and 27th first prompt open, second closed to Diarmuid and potentially Waver

[swordofzero]

[26th Open] Suzaku woke with a start though he hadn't been sleeping. Which was a strange feeling and he looked around the staircase he was on. Seeing a person, stood still, a light around them.

He reached out to touch them, they didn't stir. Nor could he lift them. He frowned and continued up the staircase, looking for anyone else awake.

As he stepped out onto the gymnasium floor he learned that it was only people who were frozen. The monsters were very much active and he shot at the mangey orange wigwigs as they rushed at him.

[27th] The next night was even stranger, all of a sudden he was nowhere he recognised. Instead in a kitchen, and the voices he could hear where Jason, Riki and Zo.

He woke up properly disorientated and was on his feet moving to the stair case, down to the fourth dormitory floor.

He was at Diarmuid's door before he could think and he knocked quietly, hoping he didn't wake everyone up.

27th: Order--Suzaku, Diarmuid, Waver good?

[oathshackledbird]

While Suzaku's caution is appreciated, there is currently no one sleeping in Room 4-16. In fact, the two people in the room are talking and no where near sleep.

"It was an accident. Though my brother insists differently, one that was my own fault. I should have realized with how high our emotions were a spar was not a good idea. But if felt good to fight against someone who I knew could handle it..." Diarmuid's head bows slightly, his fingers moving over an ugly scar that starts down by his nose and travels across his cheekbone to end just below his eye--right about the spot where his mole would be if the scar hadn't been there.

"Considering the fact that Gae Bolg's wounds aren't suppose to be able to be healed, I think I'm pretty lucky..." He pauses, grinning sheepishly at Waver. "That doesn't really help does it? You're probably still mad..."

When the soft knock rings out, Diarmuid gives the door a curious look wondering who would be visiting at such a time, "Yes?"

26th and 28th open

[undroppedeaves]

26th "Hello?" Sam called down the corridor, "Can anyone hear me?" He had woken in his bed with a start, to find the tower changed. Not in a way like when the glamours had failed, but it was quieter, and he wasn't sure those in his room who where still asleep where even breathing.

It was a frightening thought and as he passed people frozen he began to worry more. He had gotten used to strange things happening, but they never failed to frighten him.

[28th] Sam entered the kitchen, despite the fact it was still the very early hours of the morning. He wasn't sure why exactly he was here except that the strange experience had made him want to cook.

He worked in the kitchen every day, but just serving the foods on the menu, now he began making a dish from home, he wasn't sure if anyone was even awake and unfrozen, but if they were they were welcome to breakfast.

Re: 26th and 28th open

[marriedthebloke]

Sola-ui almost jumps as she hears someone calling out.

"I-I can. What do you want?"

28th, sometime late at night/early in the morning

[notsogrimreaper]

[There's a sharp inhale of breath and the rustling of covers as Ryoji suddenly sits up, shocked awake by the-that wasn't a dream, was it? It must have been real-memory. He was down in the admin floors again... he can't remember where exactly, but that doesn't really matter. What does matter is he lost control of his body (again, why does this keep happening to him? It's getting really hard to know what part of him can't be changed and twisted by Nyx or Sephiroth or the admins or anyone else) and that he saw things. Monsters in the corner of his vision, laughing at him and screaming in his face. They appeared to be similar to the Shadows in his world, but he couldn't be sure. He never got a good look at them, and considering how shaken up he was, he wasn't sure he wanted to.

He looks around the room, trying to make sure everyone is still asleep. He doesn't want to wake them with this. Maybe he'll tell someone in the morning... As easy as it would be to just quietly ask if someone's awake, he can't find the words. He'll just stay awake then. He doesn't really need the sleep.

He swings his legs around so he's sitting on the side of the bed, looking up at the ceiling and trying to think through what that experience meant.]

[frilliance]

[While Ryoji was dwelling on his experience, Edgeworth suddenly woke from his ‘sleep’ with a terrified gasp. Riki’s room… he was there…and he…

Wait, where was he? Was he back in his own dormitory? And his own bed?
The man sighed in relief. It was just a dream, a terrible one, but a dream all the same.

Breathing heavily, he prosecutor ran a hand through his hair. While doing so, he realised that sweat was pouring down his head. Wow, that nightmare really frightened him. It was not surprising, really. His body, his actions and his voice - he could not control any of them! Thank goodness it was not real…

He should get back to sleep. The last thing Edgeworth wanted was Dia, Ryoji or Cu waking up and worrying about him. Little did he realise that someone was already awake…]

27th [during time suspension] | 28th [during time suspension]

[altitonant_emperor]

[ A: OPEN ]

[ Tonight, Hidetoshi was unknowingly locked in a glow of that white light. He'd been outside of his dormitory room, returning from a midnight bathroom break and was now for the duration of time suspension, was frozen motionless mid-step not too far down the hallway from the door to his room.

The teenager hadn't managed to avoid his collar check after all. ]

[ B: OPEN ]

[ He stepped away from the terminal and sighs, accepting that it wasn't feasible to use the network at the moment. For whatever reason. The message on the screen, "PLEASE WAIT. TIME SUSPENSION IN PROGRESS...," was completely absurd, but.

Hidetoshi steps out into the hallway to find the Tower had indeed changed, and it was weird. On the bright side, it seemed nothing had exploded into chaos just yet. He sounds pretty exasperated when he mutters; ]

Lovely. Just... Lovely.

[ Okay, let's see if he can find somebody else to talk to. ]

B!

[ghostytrainer]

[Between not boycotting and working in the admin levels, John had managed to miss the first two time suspensions. Luckily for him, Rose had made sure to tell him all about it. Not that that made the situation any less bizarre...]

[He offers Hidetoshi a smile as he passes him in the hallway, wiggling his fingers a little as he sort of sing-songs the Twilight Zone theme. Doo doo doo doo doo doo dooo dooo...]

Haha, am I right? [You look like youre from Earth, dude, please tell him you got the reference.]

27th | After Time Suspension

[immortalia]

System SPERO has suffered a minor, unexpected crash. Welcome back, CXEV5001.

[ Sertoria hadn't avoided her collar check, especially since she wasn't going to do something so careless. However, there was the whole learned helplessness that Jason talked about. It had gotten her to think on her actions, but not enough to where she stopped going to them altogether.

Even with all this going on, there was something else that bothered her a lot. It was what she witnessed while cleaning the stairwell, and while her optic sensors couldn't record it, it was memorable enough. Maybe it could give people in the tower hope...

Off go her covers in her bed and she's out the door in a moment or two. ]

Amplify audio output to 200%.

Approved.

[ Soon, everyone hear a rather booming voice coming from Sertoria, who's clearly doing this to get people to notice her. She's purposefully not using the network for this as it could get erased. ]

People of the tower, please listen to me! I am unable to provide you a video recording of what I have witnessed, so I apologize! However, around twelve to twenty-four hours ago, I remember cleaning one of the stairwells in the administrative levels. There was a door I found labeled RESIDENTIAL-DAX. I am not sure what this means as I have insufficient data, however there was a figure inside and clearly strong enough to at least damage the door frame slightly. I was unable to see what or who it was before my program crashed.

[ She's going to be repeating this message for several floors until everyone hears it. ]

[warriorscribe]

*After waking after midnight- or during no time at all, finding himself back asleep again but knowing he'd actually been working in body processing, and then encountering Rick who also remembered their time in processing, he thought he'd had enough weirdness for a day.

Boy, was he wrong.*

You found what?

27th or 28th | While everyone's awake

[taintedwhite]

[A| Administrative levels]

[Shiro had understood she had to help take care of the monsters in Jason and for some reason, that new job made her pretty happy. It made her feel as if she had a responsibility. And she was kinda sure Ganta would be proud of her when he'd get here and find out. She sauntered happily into the lab holding a bucket full of food in each hand.]

Feeding time!

[A tentacle came out of one of the cages to try and grab the food, but not fast enough. Shiro jumped back getting out of range without spilling any of the buckets' content. She glared at the cage.]

Bad Toby! No stealing the food from Shiro. Shiro gives the food and Toby waits for his turn.

[There was a low growl but the monster didn't try that again. Ganta would definitely be proud.]

[B | Dorms level first, then anywhere else]

[Have an albino girl looking rather sleepy as she walks like a zombie down the corridors. Suddenly she bumps into someone and blinks.]

...Huh?

[culbutiri]

Be watching where you do be going! [Nesir glared at the girl before recognising her,, she's still confused and irritable about what she could remember, and the fact she was being controlled against her will. Again.] Oh it do be being you.

27th | After midnight

[turntechtrainer]

[He comes to rather unexpectedly, in the middle of striding down the hall. Vague memories turn clearly the longer he keeps walking and Dave stops cold. It doesn't matter what's going on in his surroundings anymore, his mind latches onto the fragments of what happened the previous night.

Which one were you, then?

He'd been in stabbing distance of Jason but even that is secondary. Suddenly it makes too much sense why the monsters prowl the halls and when the glamour failed they were real. It makes him sick to his stomach for a second. His first instinct is to pull at time, but if there's one sensation he hasn't forgotten, it's conscious awareness of time.

It's stopped. He glances around, and something in him...relaxes. Time doing unusual things is something he knows how to deal with. Dave grins and reminds himself he has to tell people what the monsters are...later. Right now...

If you find him later on, he's out making mischief, doodling on the walls by frozen people and zipping off or doing harmless little things like having someone touch their nose.]

[keepscalm]

[England stops at the flash of red passing by him in the hall. When he turns to look, he sees the kid (teenager? They're all kids to him) at the wall, doodling by some poor sod who's stuck with one of those weird aura-like things.

He comments before he thinks better of it. Not that he would have refrained even if he had.] Brilliant use of this time.

27th, various times, feel free to run into him on the 26th or 28th too

[warriorscribe]

((ooc: Enoch didn't skip his collar check; he'd be in bed during time suspension on the 26th. Otherwise, free game!))

Time suspension - dorm 3-18

Sometimes Enoch woke early, but very rarely before dawn if nightmares weren't involved. As he glanced about the room, wondering what had caused him to wake so abruptly, a retrieval unit came in through the wall itself. He sat and watched it warily, sliding out of bed as it bent to change the fluid in the pod he'd just vacated. Continuing to ignore the fact that there was someone awake in the room, it continued to do the same for Prussia's pod, and then began to check the trunks.

"Ah-..." At this, Enoch started forward as if to stop it, but its utter lack of reaction made him hesitate. Instead, he moved to stand behind it, watching it glance through his trunk. Were they looking through the rooms of the people who had been involved in the theft?

And that's when the glamour flickered, and something that should have stayed as it was - the manila envelope he had found Dax's research in - didn't. It was made of film now! The retrieval unit didn't unwrap his cloak to check the note inside, so Enoch had no way of knowing if that was still safe. When the retrieval unit left for the elevator in the wall, Enoch quickly unwrapped his cloak and held that note, the one thanking the tower's residents for granting Dax empathy, until the glamour glitched again.

He sighed in relief. It was real. He put it in his pocket and replaced his cloak, wandering out into the halls.

"Is anyone else awake?"

Time suspension - dorm halls and dorm 1-12

PLEASE WAIT. TIME SUSPENSION IN PROGRESS...

Enoch stared at the terminal for a moment. Time suspension. Gandalf had mentioned something about pausing time, right? Well, when it came to matters of time...

He made his way to room 1-12 and knocked on the door before opening it. "Sorry, I'm only here for my friend..."

(only if nobody answers)
Enoch moved to Lucifel's side, looking down at the sleeping angel. He hadn't been woken, and not even a light shake of his shoulder got any response. The angel capable of freezing time was himself frozen in time. With a little sigh, and a worried glance at the door, he tucked the bedsheets in around Lucifel's shoulders and turned to leave. If he left the door open, monsters could get in.

Mid-Morning, Floor 77

Anyone venturing to the sauna, perhaps on their way to the mailroom, would see droplets of blood leading in a rough path to the men's changing room. On entering, they would find Enoch sitting on the bench in front of his locker with a long strip of gauze that he was winding around his arm, the wound already obscured. He had his armor dismissed to make it easier to work with the wound. Beside him rested the roll that gauze came from, and a scalpel that had obviously been used to cut the strip from the roll, given the end of the strip. The scalpel had smeared blood on it that was also present on the strip's edge, as if he'd used it as a weapon as well.

Late Morning, Floor 101

Enoch lay on his side beside a sapling (those lucky enough to be nearby during a glamour glitch would see it was real). Strangely enough, his upper arm was wrapped in gauze again, like it was when he'd been putting up the information Dax's message had revealed, though without powers working on this floor it was impossible to tell if his armor had suffered any. On first glance, he appeared to be asleep, but on drawing closer, he could be heard speaking quietly.

"Could it have been different? Could we have simply followed instructions, made it seem as if it was us alone? ...How are we doing? Are we looking in the right places? Is all of this a good sign?" A sigh. "And who or what is..." He doesn't finish that sentence, instead going quiet and still.

If he was left long enough without interruption, he would fall asleep. It was a light sleep; most monsters made enough noise to wake him from such a sleep, but it would probably be for the best if he didn't get sunburned.

floor 101

[ghostytrainer]

Eventually, John manages to drag himself out of the crystal caverns. Though he feels slightly better about everything that happened downstairs, he's still kind of out of it. So instead of going straight back up to the dorms to go lock himself in the shower for a few hours, he finds himself in the floating gardens instead.

"Shit... wrong fl-- Enoch?" He was mostly muttering to himself, about to leave so that he could get to the right block when he noticed a familiar figure lying down. Lying down and bandaged, at that. Slightly worried, John quickly approaches, just in time to hear Enoch speaking quietly to the tree. Though he's not quite close enough to actually catch anything being said.

"Dude, is everything alr... are you talking to that tree?"

It doesn't sound like he's judging, persay, (He's spoken to things that can't talk back before, after all) but he is admittedly a bit confused.

[sawthelockdown]

[Day 26 - Time Suspension]

[Okay, so Asako skipping the collar checkup? Turned out to be a bad idea.

For other people, that is.

You don't give a bored person access to a time stop. You just don't. As a result (and with the mun's permission!), her cousin Naoya is going to find out that someone managed to apply marker drawings to his face while he was in the library. Which is odd, considering that nobody appeared to be there! Mysterious.

Anyone else who skipped their checks can probably find Asako limping her way out of the library with a marker in the hand not holding her crutch.

Yes, she totally used the time suspension to execute a prank.

Worst. Overlord. Ever.]

26th

[marriedthebloke]

[The first thing that Sola-ui feels as she wakes up is that something is off. Quietly, she gets up from her bed and looks around. So far, everything in her room seems normal...except for the fact that one of the other girls in that room is sitting on her bed, completely still.]

Excuse me.

[She calls to the girl, hopefully quiet enough not to wake the others. To her surprise, the girl doesn't answer. She frowns, and then goes up to tap the girl on the shoulder. When she does, she find the girl is still unresponsive.]

Excuse me.

[She repeats, louder, and even gives the girl a shake. Again, no answer.]

[Finally, she gives the girl a fairly strong push. The girl falls backwards onto the bed, but otherwise doesn't move.]

W-what the...

[She quickly runs over, opens her door, and looks outside. Various people are standing outside their rooms, immobile. They're also surrounded by an eerie white glow.]

[By now, she is thoroughly unsettled. She goes from one person to the other. Poking them, shaking them, screaming in their ear. Nobody responds. And they don't even tip over like her roommate did.]

[Soon, it dawns on her that she might be the only one still moving on this floor. Along with fear come a sort of morbid curiosity. She wants to see if this effect holds true for the rest of the Tower. At the same time, she wants to find Diarmuid and check to see if he is alright.]

[She starts descending the stairs and looking to see if Diarmuid is on any of the lower floors. She doesn't have to look far, as she finds him on floor 100, frozen and glowing like those from the floor above.]

Diarmuid?

[She walks toward him and grabs his shoulder. She tries to shake him, but finds she has no more luck moving him than anyone else.]

Diarmuid!

[For the next several minutes, she tries pushing, tugging, and even lifting Diarmuid. However, he is simply too heavy for her to move at all. Finally, she leans, exhausted, on his shoulder.]

...I'll watch you.

[She mutters, not sure he can hear her in his state. One hand goes to ruffle his hair.]

After all, you've watched me.

[She's not sure if the monsters are frozen or not, but even if they weren't, she would try to protect him however she can. After all, with him frozen here, he's a perfect target.]

26th--As Time Suspension Ends... (Warnings: Blood, Injury, Violence, Death)

[oathshackledbird]

[When the Time Suspension ends, it can be said that Diarmuid wakes up. Except he doesn't, because to him, nothing has changed. No time has passed. He doesn't feel or sense the remnants of the shield that had been around him. Doesn't know that someone was touching him or talking to him. Nothing...

What he is aware of is the scream and the racket coming from the stairway. Diarmuid's not sure when it started, but without even thinking, he summons his spear to hand and dashes toward the stairs. When he arrives, what he sees fills him with horror. An Orc is attacking a woman. He can't see around the brute enough to see who he is attacking and Diarmuid doesn't pause to find out who it is. That can wait until later when he has stopped the brute's attack.

Fortunately--or unfortunately--the Orc is so focused on his victim that it doesn't realize Diarmuid is there until he is thrusting his spear into it's back. The creature makes a strangled sound and tries to reach back to grab Diarmuid. He ignores its struggles and uses his spear to pull it away from the woman it had been attacking. Once some distance has been gained, he rips his spear from the monster's body and then with a swing faster than the human eye can see, he removes the Orc's head from his shoulders with the larger of the two swords Waver had made for him.

Diarmuid doesn't wait long enough to see the monster's body hit the ground. Instead, he unsummons his spear and sheaths the sword even as he's moving toward the woman. Once her bright red hair catches his eyes, though, he pales because her hair is not the only thing that is red right now...]

Lady Sola-Ui...

27th-28th

[evokingfool]

27th, Morning

Minato woke up with a start, briefly confused before he quickly get out of his bed (his pod under an illusion--) to grab things to write down his notes. Write down what he can remember from that dream. And a part of him didn't think it's a dream.

He quickly went over to find Yu, hoping to talk to his roommate and discuss what he had seen.

"Yu, are you there?"

They need to talk.

28th, time suspension

After what he had seen, as well as his general unease, Minato's unable to sleep that night. Getting up from his bed, he grabbed his evoker and sword before leaving the room.

It didn't take him long to notice the frozen residents on the dorm floors. As well as the retrieval units exiting the elevator and entering the dorm rooms.

Minato step out of the way, watching them go.

[pitiedthefool]

It was rare that he ever woke up so late, yet he lingered for a brief time to collect his thoughts. Something had been off lately - since the boycott that he couldn't quite place, and yet...

He shook his head, pulling himself from his own thoughts when he heard a friend calling for him.

"Yeah. Did something happen?"

Aside from the usual helltower shenanigans that made up a Tuesday?

26th & 27th July - both during time-suspension

[neverbeamemory]

A:26th July - Dormitory Level 1 / Midnight [During Time-Suspension]
[As almost every night in the Tower, Sephiroth prefers the more monster-oriented hours rather than those in which he might have to come into contact, or even speak with the vast majority of the residents. It has long been a habit of his to use these hours to seek out monsters against which he can challenge himself, and empty his frustrations that would otherwise make it impossible for any sleep.

He's sweeping the 1st Dormitory Floor on his way to the lift to catch down a stop or two when it happens. He jolts awake. Though not by any means has Sephiroth been sleeping, he stops abruptly in his patrol and peers around as if to verify his surroundings. What WAS that?

Sephiroth's suspicions flare up into high alert instantly as his eyes then rest on a nearby terminal, which he approaches cautiously. PLEASE WAIT. TIME SUSPENSION IN PROGRESS...

But he wasn't suspended. Which led to the next fact: he should have been? Was it that jolt of awakening he'd felt a moment ago? Of course his skipped collar check rests right at the forefront of his thoughts, so this is a connection that isn't missed. A light smile creases Sephiroth's features as he continues with his patrol, before catching the elevator to get on with some monster hunting carefully eyeing up any white light-shielded, frozen resident that he might encounter.

So here are the real results of the boycott...to say that Sephiroth's ego is swelling would be a gross underestimation.]

B:27th July - Dormitory Level 3/03-02 around 2am [During Time-Suspension]
[Sword in hand Sephiroth approaches his Dormitory. His forearm sports the tell-tale sign of a clawed attack, ripped leather and deep gouges underneath that, while not gushing blood on account of his regeneration, are still seeping away slightly. The time had stopped, at completely the most inconvenient moment and the abrupt feeling of waking up had given the monster a window in his defense. He's lucky he'd been quick enough with the counter to stop it from ripping his arm right off, but is expectantly not too happy about the whole affair.

Was this going to happen every night now? It was something to bear in mind. Clearly this had happened every night in this damn Tower and he'd been, like everyone else, oblivious to it until now. As he opens the door to his Dormitory he's met with another sight. Retrieval units. Not one, like the shadow he's gained, but a group of them. One of them is going through his trunk-

No. Stop. Sephiroth has to reinforce his willpower over his own already charged-from-combat instincts not to react violently to this breach in his privacy. He knows attacking these things can only end in death, though the anger pounds away behind his eyes all the same. Though really, he isn't all that surprised at what he's seeing. They are kept in an impossibly controlled environment, privacy is much a anything else; an illusion.

He lingers in the doorway and watches until they have finished their work in his room. Hmph, well they're not going to find anything worthwhile anyway - Sephiroth's trunk is hardly full of trinkets and only a fool would keep something important in so obvious a place. He certainly hopes Ganondorf has hidden his treasure well.]

26th July

[wrigurun]

[Just in front of the elevator Wriggle sat, blinking as she stared at some point on the ceiling, trying to pin point a strange feeling that left a taste in her mouth like she'd been sleeping for a long time. Her antennae twitched as Sephiroth approached and she began to realise that the air was strangely stagnant]

Hey, did you feel that? Just now?

27th, time suspension

[heavenscorpse]

[Well, that was creepy.

V/V wandered around the halls, looking for those not under the time stop. It seemed that the majority of tower residents were still asleep... she'd taken her collar check so she didn't know this had been going on the night before.

While she wandered, she sang almost without thinking about what she was doing. It popped into her head, really.]

It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart...

[papillonmagique]

You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You're paralyzed...

[The rest of the verse follows almost automatically, and it came from the white-haired girl in front of her who is walking ahead and twirling her lance nonchalantly.]