it's all in your hands...

[notachickenhawk]

Characters: Tobias and you!
Setting: Room 1-10 and surrounding rooms, Floor 32 ("Earth" forest), Floor 1 (Cafeteria)
Format: Either.
Summary: Tobias wakes up and attempts to figure out what's going on.
Warnings: None I can think of. Suspicious birdface?


[Room 1-10]

Tobias bolts awake, wings flapping, because part of his brain has sensed that this is an enclosed space and he needs to get out. He screeches and flips himself up off the bed, hawk instincts screaming at him that he needs to get out!

He flies towards the door, and lands on the knob, trying to turn it. Out out out he has to get out!

Someone might want to try to calm down the panicking bird with a green collar on.



[Floor 32]

Finally, he's found something that looks familiar. Tobias wheels off from the stairs to go head into the forest. He needs some food, and he needs to rest his wings. But something's wrong.

The instant he leaves the staircase, he heads into a dive. It's uncontrolled, and he screeches. Tobias flaps his wings desperately, trying to get himself to fly - but he crashes into the ground, stunned. It'll take a few moments to get himself back to enough of a mental state to try to hop back towards the staircase.



[Floor 1]

A quick peek at this level had revealed it was a cafeteria, and while he's suspicious this place seems built for humans. So Tobias had flown up to the level above and morphed human - finding himself in a skintight white suit. He's not even going there right now, but he heads downstairs (barefoot), squinting a bit at terrible human sight.

When he gets down there, though, he freezes. He hasn't been in a cafeteria in years. And yeah, this isn't a school cafeteria, but he doesn't know the rules. Someone might want to get him to move - he's blocking the stairs.

Comments

[seekinganswers]

[She hears the voice in her head and thinks nothing of it. Not until she realizes that they're still on the outside of the Tower, and that her mind reading shouldn't be working. Then she looks down at Tobias sharply, shock evident on her face.]

You... how are you doing that?

[notachickenhawk]

<Not important right now, it's complicated.>

[He shifts a little uneasily. Follow the talking bird, right?]

[seekinganswers]

...alright. [Sheba accepts it, because - well...] We all have things we'd rather keep secret. I understand that.

[She doesn't exactly broadcast her ability to read minds for the same reason. So she doesn't question it again as she continues up the stairs. Next is a narrow strip of land, which Sheba pointedly ignores - she knows that floor, knows to stay on the staircase. Then a lake, and after that a crumbling staircase. She has navigated this area often enough that she doesn't make a single misstep as she traverses the stairs.]

It's going to get very dark. [The warning comes shortly before they step onto the thirty-seventh floor and back into the Tower itself.] Just a warning.

[notachickenhawk]

<Great. What do I look like, an owl?>

[Well right now, no.]

[seekinganswers]

Wow, you could give Jenna a run for her money...

[Sheba murmurs it mostly to herself, rolling her eyes and drawing the hand arm that isn't supporting Tobias so that she can keep a hand on the railing. Her steps are carefully measured, as she doesn't want to trip and send the both of them flying into the darkness.

She sighs in relief when they reach the thirty-eighth floor.]

So do you have a name? Mine is Sheba.

[notachickenhawk]

<A friend of yours?>

[He does his best to keep his balance, and when they get to the next floor he relaxes a hair.]

[The question makes him tense again, though. Should he tell her? It's a common enough name. She won't have his last name. And for all any Controller knows, it's a fake name.]

<... Tobias.>

[seekinganswers]

...yes. [Sheba is quiet for a long moment.] My best friend. If she's around here anywhere, though, I haven't seen her yet... but it is the time of month when new people start to arrive, so maybe I'll see her someday soon.

[She continues up the stairs in silence, speaking again only when they reach the gymnasium on the thirty-ninth floor.]

It's nice to meet you, Tobias. You must have a lot of questions about this place... If you want to ask them, I'll do what I can to answer.

[notachickenhawk]

<Maybe.>

[He doesn't want to confirm or deny anything. He has no idea, anyway.]

<First of all, what is this place? Why am I here? Why did I wake up in a bed? How can I get back?>

[seekinganswers]

[Something tells her these questions are only the beginning. Sheba keeps moving as she talks, because if she pauses to answer the questions they'll be standing there all day.]

Most of us just call it the Tower. I'm pretty sure it has another name, though, but I've thought of it as the Tower for so long that I have a hard time remembering the other name. [She sighs.] According to the people who brought us here, they saved us because our worlds were destroyed. Our worlds are gone, but... I wouldn't call this saving.

[She bites her lip and looks down at her feet as she climbs the stairs.]

Everyone sleeps in the beds. If you don't, you get really tired. Too tired to move, and that's... dangerous. There are monsters here.

...as for how to get back... you don't want to go back. You just don't.

[notachickenhawk]

[He digs in his talons on reflex. Sorry Sheba. At least he realizes it after a moment and releases.]

<They can't be gone. That's what we've been trying to stop! I mean even if they win it'd be still there, but...>

[Okay, okay. Stop. He's giving away too much. He hunkers down a little.]

<I have to get back. We've still got a war to fight. And sleeping on sheets is going to drive me nuts.>

[seekinganswers]

Ow! [Sheba winces when his talons dig into her skin, but thankfully she is able to keep from jerking her arm back.]

...I'm sorry. I don't know what you were going through on your world, but...

[She shakes her head.]

I wouldn't lie to you or anyone about this. We're trying to find a way to restore the worlds, but we don't know how to do that yet.

[notachickenhawk]

<... Sorry about that.>

[He's quiet for a few long moments while they continue.]

<Someone has to know. Someone's researched this, or someone has the technology to do it.>

[seekinganswers]

The administrators know, I think. They're the ones in charge of the Tower. But they're not very forthcoming with answers.

[Something that bothers Sheba every day of her life. They arrive on the forty-first floor and it's dark again. Sheba strides to the elevator, hits the button, and begins pacing as she waits for the elevator car to arrive. Back, forth, back, forth. It's not good to stay still here.]

A lot of the things they have here are much more advanced than anything I ever saw on my world.

[notachickenhawk]

<A lot of the things I deal with all the time are more advanced than belong on my world. But hm. What are these administrators like?>

[... Okay yeah this floor is gross.]

[seekinganswers]

It depends on which one of them you're wondering about. There are four of them now - Ruana, Jason, Riki, and Zo - and some are worse than the others.

[It is. But it could be worse; Sheba knows that well enough by now.

...where is the elevator...]

[notachickenhawk]

<Is it 'worse' as in 'hellish but bearable' or is it 'worse' as in 'nightmares forever'?>

[We're not talking about the insect morphs. Ever.]

[seekinganswers]

Nightmares forever is more like it.

[The elevator arrives and Sheba sighs, relieved, as she slips into it. She hits a button and relaxes a bit as the doors slide shut.]

Most of us are coping, but it's... [She frowns.] It's difficult sometimes.

[notachickenhawk]

<I know how that goes. You just have to keep going, though - since if you don't do it, no one will.>

[He 'sounds' sympathetic, at least a little.]

[seekinganswers]

Yeah. It's worth it in the end, I think... it's just hard to handle until you get to that end.

[She smiles faintly.] But then, some people are better equipped to handle it than others. When you're more capable, you get more responsibilities. Something like that.

[notachickenhawk]

<Alternatively, dumb luck or because someone stacked the deck.>

[He'd be unhappy about that part, but... yeah.]

[seekinganswers]

That's true, too!

[Sheba can't help but giggle. Dumb luck is how she's managed to do as well as she has here, so she can relate to that.

The elevator dings and the doors open; she steps out onto the twenty-first floor and heads for the stairs.]

So, which is it in your case?

[notachickenhawk]

<Second one. I'm not the only one who was put in there on purpose, I'm pretty sure. At least a few of the others definitely were.>

[He turns his head to preen a little bit, getting his feathers back into place.]

[seekinganswers]

At least someone had a plan...

[She's thoughtful as she heads up the stairs, mulling things over. Being put there on purpose sounds like he didn't have much of a choice, but she can't help but wonder -]

If you had the chance to, would you do it again?

[notachickenhawk]

<It's a desperate plan, probably, and the longer it goes on the more it looks like even the way he stacked the deck is falling apart, but yeah. It's a plan.>

[He's quiet for a bit while he thinks about it. Would he do it again? It's not like he hasn't thought about it. It's not like he hasn't agonized over it.]

<... Yes. If I hadn't... even though my life is a lot different, we're fighting for our lives, we're all paranoid... yes. There was no one else who would fight, and I was stuck in a bad situation before. Even with being like this, it's better.>

[seekinganswers]

That's really brave of you.

[She's quiet a while longer, and there's just the sound of her steps on the staircase, one after another. Then she looks down at him with a small smile.]

I don't know what was going on where you're from, but your world is lucky that there was someone like you there to defend it.