Sinking

[warriorscribe]

Characters: Enoch and anyone (one prompt closed to Urotsuki, one closed to Lucifel)
Setting: Various floors in the tower, August 2, August 6 and August 8. More prompts to come pending Individuation and infiltration results, watch this space!
Format: Starting in prose, but it doesn't matter.
Summary: Enoch makes an attempt to help someone in particular, and then has a complete and utter breakdown two days later
Warnings: Mentions of character death?

August 2, Floor 101

a - open: Anyone on the hanging gardens floor who happened to be passing under a rather tall palm might have a few dates fall at their feet. Or on their heads - thankfully the palm in question wasn't a coconut palm! Looking up would reveal someone's up there - Enoch, with ropes made of braided gauze and stone weights helping him scale the trunk, making his way down slowly with a bunch of dates awkwardly held in one hand. Maybe he'd share!

b - closed to first responder: Something had caught Enoch's eye as he headed back to the stairs with his new harvest in hand - a Succubus, hovering patiently where she could catch nearly anybody passing through. At first, Enoch seemed curious by her lack of aggression, though still wary. As the monster fluttered over to take one of the dates from the bunch in his hand, all his wariness and curiosity gave way to a dazed calm. Seeing this, the Succubus dropped the fruit, useless to her, and took Enoch's arm to lead him off. Anyone care to try to snap him out of it or attack the Succubus before she kills him?


August 6, Floor 12(locked to chainsawn)

Enoch had managed to avoid seeing Kidou's gravestone until now, that part of the graveyard already cared for by his fellow gravekeepers. It figures that on the day he saw it, he would get that note from Urotsuki. He'd asked to meet her on her favorite floor, and it was sure she would be the one waiting for him. He entered the floor, into the swirling galaxies of destruction, keeping an eye out for the girl.


August 8, Floor 69, later 81 (Locked to brbtalkingtogod)

It didn't matter that Rick had been possessed. He still hadn't been trying to attack him. He had been running. And all the same...

Enoch wandered, his gaze a far away, troubled one. He didn't seem to have any idea where he was going, following staircases and riding elevators. He passed people without acknowledging them. Everything the monster in control of Rick still stung, mixing with the guilt of killing him, churning in his gut and filling him with numbness. It was only a matter of time before he stepped where there wasn't a step, tumbling off into the soft clouds of the floor below.

The pain began to abate. Dazed, Enoch stared straight up, already unwilling to move let alone what the floor would do to him. Even the peaceful air of this floor couldn't pierce the defensive numbness yet, only counteract the pain and guilt, so it left him with a detached sort of feeling, one in which nothing quite seemed to matter.


August 8, Floor 81

Lucifel had moved Enoch away from that floor, and while it seemed he would stay with the scribe all day, even he had to leave for various mundane things like food and drink. While his guardian wasn't there, Enoch lay in the bulges of the windows, facing up to look at the stars above. He appeared vulnerable, hugging himself and staring out at the alien constellations distantly, his back propped slightly against the incline so he wasn't lying flat, cradled in the bulge of the window. He had to apologize to Rick, but he had no motivation to even move. To think more on that thought. He let his mind empty again. He doesn't acknowledge anyone who simply approaches (unless their names are Patrick Dawn or Lucifel), but he will respond to conversation attempts, though it may take a try or two to get his attention.


August 11, Floor 100

Well, he hadn't meant to do anything on this floor. But when four shadow children walked up to him and grinned unsettlingly, ultimately trapping him on the stairs, he had to jump off, floating to the room below with his Arch.

It took him a moment, in the sudden sharp pain of seeing the house in Meridian again, wound torn open by his prior encounter with the thing that had possessed Rick, to realize the shadow children weren't attacking him. Instead, they'd followed him off the stairs and gathered around him. He reached out to gently push one out of his way, and his hand went right through it.

He had to wonder if he was hallucinating. On seeing someone else pass by on the stairs with their own in tow, he asked, "Ah...do you know what these are?"

Comments

[brbtalkingtogod]

Lucifel remembers that day surprisingly well. Although this time it wasn't as awkward. The hand that rested on Enoch's head carefully pet him. It can be said for sure that he is learning quickly.

"Calm down... take a deep breath before you continue Enoch."

[warriorscribe]

Rather than speak, Enoch went silent, feeling Lucifel's hand run through his hair. It should be easier to focus on that alone, to let all the pain slide back into the fog again... But he couldn't do that on command. He would have done so all the time if he could.

"I won't steal anything from you..."

[brbtalkingtogod]

"I know that." He continued to run his hand through his hair, his fingers pushed a few strands of hair that were out of place away.

[warriorscribe]

Enoch quieted eventually, curling up on the couch as if trying to curl around Lucifel. His mind had taken the route it had always unconsciously taken, throwing itself at other peoples' problems to avoid Enoch's own.

It hadn't worked this time. There was no escaping the fact that he'd violated one of his deepest-set morals, already pushed and tested through the course of his mission. Ruana hadn't even messed with his mind this time. Rick had been possessed, but he was afraid, not attacking, running...

[brbtalkingtogod]

Oh Enoch, that's an unhealthy thing to do and Lucifel is not sure if it's taking self-destructive or self-preservative features.

Dealing with what he has done is the first step to being forgiven and to forgive himself. But as Enoch is right now the archangel thought that it might be better if the scribe got the chance to recover... although this place probably won't give him much of a chance to do so.

There is one thing he could do for him though... And perhaps for himself as well.

"The worst, when he spoke to me, was that he kept referring to me as mortal. How fragile and mortal I am..." Mortality is by far a greater fear of his, if not the greatest even.

[warriorscribe]

When Lucifel began talking about what not-Rick said to him openly, Enoch looked up, propping himself up on a hand beside his leg. His eyes were full of silent tears, and he wasn't speaking, but he was attentive, worried.

He reached out to rub his arm reassuringly with the hand not holding him up. They would fix it. He wasn't totally confident in that, but he still felt they could do it. That they would find what they needed in time.

[brbtalkingtogod]

"He even knew of Michael..." Lucifel gave him a slightly pained smile. He actually felt better by telling Enoch about this. But it probably wouldn't help the scribe as much.

[warriorscribe]

Enoch looked up at Lucifel, at that smile. After a moment's hesitation, he wrapped both arms around his shoulders, partly holding him and partly leaning on him for not really having any other way to hold himself up.

"Whatever had hold of him...it knew things it shouldn't..."

At least that sentence came out coherent, pauses for sobbing or not.

[brbtalkingtogod]

"..." For the moment the archangel remained silent until his arms found their way around Enoch's back. He's getting better with hugs, compared to the beginning, where he became all stiff.

Eventually Lucifel spoke to him again. "I probably don't even have to ask... but it knew things of you that it shouldn't either, didn't it?"

[warriorscribe]

Enoch nodded against Lucifel's shoulder. "Armaros..." His voice came out a pained whisper, and he held Lucifel a little tighter for it.

[brbtalkingtogod]

Figures. Of course it would have been Armaros the thing inside Rick would speak of to Enoch. "I see." Well, at least now he could provide a shoulder to cry on. And maybe some distraction as well.

"Wanna take a look at the windows?"

[warriorscribe]

Enoch nods again, his hold loosening so Lucifel can move more freely.

"All right..."

He...may need a moment before he feels like getting up, though.

[brbtalkingtogod]

They can take their time. Lucifel is even willing to wait for Enoch. Then again, he could just get them to the window, couldn't he?

[warriorscribe]

He could. In fact, he might have to, since Enoch doesn't seem to want to let go. He may be lucid again (for now), but he's far from okay.

[brbtalkingtogod]

Then he should just do that. It only took a the blink of an eye, and the flick of his fingers, for them to sit at the window. Lucifel looked up, gazing at the stars.

"Amazingly beautiful, aren't they?"

[warriorscribe]

Enoch looked up from Lucifel's shoulder, reaching up the the beautiful heavens beyond this painful world. His hand rested on the curved glass above them.

But if this world had a Heaven, surely it was destroyed by the same force.

"They are..."

[brbtalkingtogod]

"Did you know that humans have found different constellations of stars?" He might as well could distract him with something and it also seemed like a good exercise for the other. It might be the sky of a different world, but maybe there were some familiar aspects.

"The Summer Triangle should be clearly visible. It's made of three different constellations."

[warriorscribe]

"Constellations?" Enoch asked, his tone almost absent. He didn't focus on Lucifel as he normally would when awaiting an explanation. Instead, he continued to stare up at the stars.

[brbtalkingtogod]

"Yeah. Like pictures in the sky, you just need to connect the stars with lines to see them." Lucifel lifted his left hand, his for finger pointed out to draw lines.

"Some are only visible during certain seasons. The summer triangle is one for example."

[warriorscribe]

"What is it?" Absently, Enoch began to trace lines between the stars against the glass, but his imagination wasn't cooperating.

[brbtalkingtogod]

"A lyre, an eagle and a swan. The brightest stars of these constellations form the triangle, which are Vega, Altair and Deneb." There was a story to them as well, but he wasn't so sure if Enoch would like to hear one.

[warriorscribe]

"Where are they?"

Not in this sky, but at least it was keeping Enoch engaged. Coincidentally, also distracted. That much wasn't such a good thing, but it was better than the sort of distraction his mind came up for itself before.

[brbtalkingtogod]

"They are at the northern hemisphere, but they can be seen in the south as well. They are just upside down from there."

Lucifel still tried his best to locate at least one constellation. Some world's skies should have similarity to their own, shouldn't they?

[warriorscribe]

Lucifel would find nothing recognizable.

Enoch made a sound of acknowledgment and pressed his palm against the window again.

He had to wonder again how it was possible to be homesick for a place he couldn't clearly remember.

[brbtalkingtogod]

Oh well, it couldn't be helped then. The sight was still a wonderful one to look at.

Had the angel known what Enoch was thinking then he would have told him that it was probably only natural for him to feel this way.