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

[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.

[notachickenhawk]

<I wouldn't call us brave, not usually. I mean to other people it might look like that... but there's literally no one else fighting. We called for help two years ago and they didn't believe us. We have to work on the assumption that it's just us. If we don't fight, then the whole planet is basically lost.>

[seekinganswers]

That just makes you even braver. Being brave isn't about never being afraid of anything... it's about doing what you have to do to help others even when you're scared, or even if it seems hopeless, or even if people don't believe you about what needs to be done.

[She smiles, and it's as she speaks again that they finally step onto the meadow floor.]

...at least, that's what I think.

[notachickenhawk]

<I guess. It's just that... I don't know. I know war changes people, but some of us are starting to reach our limits. We're starting to take crazy stupid risks, more than before, and go along with plans we wouldn't have just to have a chance to hit our enemy hard.>

[He flaps a little, before gliding off her arm to rise into the air and circle around her. He does a few lazy circles in the air before spiraling down near her.]

[seekinganswers]

[She chuckles weakly. It's not because she's amused - she's not. It's because hearing him say it makes it so obvious that many people in the Tower, herself included, are starting to do the same thing.]

It's like that here, too. [Her words are spoken softly.] I'm sorry. It sounds like you've jumped out of one war and right into another.

[notachickenhawk]

[He lands in front of her, tilting his head a little bit.]

<At least it's familiar territory, I guess. Though as long it's not brain-infesting slugs it'll be easier.>

[seekinganswers]

Brain-infesting... what?

[Sheba is confused. And like any good mind reader, when she's confused, she looks for answers. She's only really looking for surface thoughts - she figures that'll be what's on his mind now, since they're talking about it - but for all she knows, his mental defenses may be different because of how he communicates, so who knows what she'll find.]

[notachickenhawk]

<Slugs.>

[Fortunately for her, Tobias has neither any mental defenses nor anything to let him know she's peeking in on his mind.]

[She'll see a grey slug, swimming around in what looks like sludge. Someone's head is dunked in the pool, screaming, and the slug crawls into the man's ear. After a few moments, the man stops struggling, and stands up.]

[seekinganswers]

[Eww, gross!

Tobias will hear the words very clearly, but Sheba's lips don't move because she doesn't say them aloud. She recoils at the memory of the Yeerk Pool and the newly-made Controller, wrinkles her nose at the memory of the slug and the sludge.

I don't think they have anything like that here. At least, I've never seen them.

She doesn't seem to realize she's speaking in his mind and not out loud.]

[notachickenhawk]

[He glares at her, flapping his wings.]

<Hey!>

[seekinganswers]

[Hey what?

She still hasn't realized it - it feels natural enough to her to communicate this way that she hasn't yet noticed anything out of the ordinary.

Is there a problem?]

[notachickenhawk]

<Yeah, you're in my head!>

[He squawks at her.]