[ during individuation event ]

[immortalia]

Characters: Anyone!
Setting: Workshop, briefly, but library for the overall setting.
Format: Action most likely.
Summary: After everyone has received their packages in the mail, Sertoria gets to work on distributing messages to people so that they can try to figure this out. Feel free to hijack threads and mingle around as you want! Sertoria will still be around if anyone wants to talk to her.
Warnings: Usual tower warnings, but mark them as needed in your post.

Sertoria had "woken" up early that morning to do her normal routine: Do a little morning patrol to see if anything changed in the tower overnight before checking her mail and the network (she found that the network was unreliable right now when trying to send any messages), and then if she didn't find anything, go work on some projects in the workshop.

However, she found an item in her box and froze while reading the nametag.

CXEV5001.

Either this was someone's cruel idea of a joke or--

Wait a second, didn't Waver say he received something weird in the mail? Sertoria was sure that no one she told about her designation would do something like this to her, so it had to be that. She slipped the nametag in to her robe's pockets and ran down to the workshop to begin writing a message on pieces of paper to distribute.

Everyone will be receiving a slip of paper under their doors roughly in the mid-morning when she's done with the slips of paper, her hands slightly marked with ink. It will read:



image reads: Did you receive something weird in the mail?

If yes, please meet me in the library so we can figure this out.

- Sertoria Cani

After that, she'll be waiting in the library for people to come around.

[ Library ]

Once Sertoria was done distributing her message, she was sitting down on one of the chairs with her legs crossed and head bowed. She was holding the nametag in between her fingers, wondering why this was her "package." Well... Whatever it was, she was sure the tower's residents could figure it out. After all, she believed in them.

When someone does show up, she'll put the nametag away and greet them, forcing a small smile on her face.

"Hello. Shall we get to work?"

Comments

[bowandblade]

[Archer's eyes stray away as he notices the shadow children trailing after Lancer, and he looks back over at the shadow child had that taken to sitting on the corner of his table.]

Ah yes. Of course. The origins of the hero. [He smirks and glances at the shadows again.] You cannot shake your nuisances, either?

[puppy_lancer]

What are you talking about?

[He turns and reaches to "stroke" a shadow child's head.]

They aren't nuisances. They're my precious people.

[He turns back to Archer and grins.]

This little guy is my son.

['The son you murdered.']

[bowandblade]

[Archer tilts his head at Lancer, eyes narrowing slightly, before he glances at the shadow child with its white, wide grin.]

You have a strange notion of what you consider your offspring, Lancer.

[puppy_lancer]

Yeah, I know. He looks a little different. But he's got the voice. And I'd say he's got the memories as well.

[bowandblade]

[He scoffs, shaking his head at the other Servant and resting his closed fist with Ayaka's glasses on his knee.]

And you say it is speaking in your son's voice? You are going mad, hound. These things are trying to trick you. [The one shadow child that had followed after him yesterday hadn't spoken, and the ones following him now seemed to whisper and murmur about "his world."

Nuisances.]

[puppy_lancer]

....Are they?

[He mutters. On some level, he knows these have to be illusions or some other trick of the Tower. But it's been so long since he's heard those voices and seen the people behind them. He just wants to believe that some version of his loved ones are by his side.]

...Maybe they are. But that doesn't mean they're bad.

[He knows he looks pathetic, taking comfort in things that are supposed to torment him.]

[bowandblade]

[He gives Lancer a long look, then shrugs his shoulders with a smirk.]

If they are not annoying you with words and noises, then they are only eyesores.

[puppy_lancer]

Still not as bad as some of the other things I've seen. And not as bad as some of the stuff that ended up in people's mail.

[bowandblade]

[And his eyes avert back to the head Lancer is holding, even as his fingers flex around the mangled frames in his hand.]

Worse than a decapitated head. The packages must be creative.

[puppy_lancer]

Someone got the head of something she actually liked. Another one got...a reminder.

[bowandblade]

[His eyes fall half-shut at those words.]

A reminder, hm? [He lifts his hand at last, loosely uncurling his fingers to show Ayaka's glasses.] You mean a taunt.

[puppy_lancer]

[He stares at the broken frames, and for the first time today, he feels himself getting pissed.]

Fuck!

[His fingers dig into the skin of the dog's head.]

And why did they choose to give that to you?

[He's not sure if he should be relieved that he hadn't opened his mailbox to see this taunt, or if he should feel more slighted that Archer had been sent those despite being someone else's Servant.]

['It's because you're such a failed Servant.']

[bowandblade]

What else could they possibly present me that I would care about?

[He scoffs at Lancer's question, sliding his feet off of the table so his chair can rock back onto all four legs.]

Are you jealous, hound?

[puppy_lancer]

[He drops the dog's head on the table.]

Of course not. Just a little irritated that Jason forgot to choose one of her actual Servants. Then again, it's just like you said. Not very many reminders to choose from, is there?

[bowandblade]

[He doesn't even glance at the dog's head as Lancer drops it, his gaze remaining on the other Servant as he idly turns the broken glasses in his hand. When his only companion had been reduced to mud, there was little of his original life that the administrators could use against him.]

This was a very deliberate choice. Can you not see how twisted the choices of gifts actually are?

[puppy_lancer]

From what I can see, they're meant to hurt. Reminders of home mixed with people's fears.

[He pets the dog head.]

Of course, mine's also pretty cool.

[bowandblade]

Yes, but they may also play off each other. [He raises the glasses, as if reminding Lancer to their existence.]

Imagine the upset if Saber was still here to see this. Imagine if you had the capacity to overthink why I would receive Ayaka's glasses and you would not.

[puppy_lancer]

...Yeah, he would take that a lot worse, wouldn't he?

[And that confirms Saber is gone too. Lancer never liked him much, but he would rather that Saber was here still. If only so they could wait for Ayaka together.]

[bowandblade]

[He smirks and nods, flipping the glasses one more time before tucking them away in one pocket. A stupid taunt to be sure, but he did adore Ayaka.

The shadow children crowd closer to the desk, hopping up and down as if looking at the decapitated dog's head. Archer scowls and rises up long enough to try to shoo them away.]

[puppy_lancer]

[He looks at Archer shooing the shadows away.]

Oh come on, what's the harm of letting them take a look? It's a pretty cool thing.

[bowandblade]

I do not understand how they cannot annoy you.

[But, then again, Lancer could not hear the whispers to the 'King of Uruk,' the 'king who would watch forever.']

[puppy_lancer]

...Because they don't say anything that I don't already know. They're right, you know.

[bowandblade]

As I said, tricks. They are also worse than being followed around by a retrieval unit.

[puppy_lancer]

You can draw on retrieval units and they stay quiet.

[He smiles, remembering the doodles some residents had made on their retrieval units.]

Come to think of it, do these things follow any of the drones?

[bowandblade]

Not that I have seen. [He eyes one of the shadow children as it seems to approach his jacket pocket.]

Has anyone discovered where they came from?