towerofanimus | Event: Quarantine

Characters: any characters trapped in rooms during the event
Setting: dormitory level rooms
Format: any
Summary: An unexpected series of explosions has trapped residents in the dorm rooms with no power and no way to get out. Try to communicate with the outside, deal with being stuck in a small room with other people... Deal with the really strange things that seem to be happening, too.
Warnings: typical Animus horror event warnings

[There are several more explosions, and the sound of things falling and crumbling outside. The dorm rooms themselves don't collapse or cave in, but the furniture and trunks and nightstands may be rattled and knocked about. Eventually, the lights flicker and go out entirely, leaving everyone in the dark. There are small red emergency lights lining the floors, but they don't seem to have come on all the way, and flicker on and off eerily.

After maybe twenty minutes everything falls silent. However, if you try the door, you'll find you can't get out...]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

*Enoch sighs irritably. He doesn't mean to snap. The relative quiet has seen to Eleven wearing his patience thin.*

I'm sorry.

*He raises a hand to his head, shaking it slowly.* ...Somehow, I can't see their water stores running low. The only time I've ever seen water unavailable in this place is when the temperatures were left to extremes.

But you're right, it's best to prepare for the worst for at least a day or two. By then we'll have a better idea of how often Riki can give us water, if it's every day or less than that...

*He still thinks everyone in the room would be responsible enough. There's no heat to prod them into instinctive thirst and nobody's a child - or at least, nobody looks particularly like one, plus the fact that water seemed strangely abundant in the tower in general. But arguing isn't something he feels particularly good about doing. Even if it serves as a distraction, it still leaves him with a bad feeling, all said.

His head is pounding, between this, Eleven, and his attempts to think despite her. He curls up against the wall he'd slept against again.*

[Sheba is late to respond, but when she goes over to look at the bottles and the syringes, she only comes away with a syringe - she can go without water for now.]

I grew up near a desert... I'm used to going without water. I don't need much.

[It's sort of a lie, because there had always been enough water in Lalivero, but it's a well-intentioned lie. And speaking of water stores... that comment makes her look thoughtful, and she thinks back to when she'd suddenly become conscious while working in the lower levels. She'd been working with collar fluid, and yet...] They have really big tanks down there... [She gestures below them, indicating the administrative areas.] I don't think all of them were just water, but if even some of them were, there should be enough for the people who aren't stuck up here and for us. They might even be able to redirect the pipes so that the water that usually goes to the bathrooms up here can be used, since it doesn't look like any of us will be using them. [Though she doesn't think it will be as easy as rolling big pipes into place, like it had been on Weyard.

She glances at the door and makes a face. Even if they could get out, she's not sure she'd want to, what with all the sounds...

With a sigh, Sheba realizes that almost any other Adept would have been more useful up here. Mia or Alex could have created water; Jenna could have made a fire to keep the people who didn't have blankets warm at night; even Ivan could probably have done more than she could. It's a little frustrating to her that her abilities aren't as useful to her friends as others would be. So what can she do?

Her brows furrow in concern and she leans over to Enoch.]

Hey... are you okay?

*Okay? No, he's not. He hasn't been for a couple months. He shakes his head.

...But he's never been sure how to explain this. At first, he hadn't wanted to. But now, now that it was too hard to not let it wear down his patience, he's only ever managed to explain it while drunk.*

...It's hard to explain.

[There are a lot of things that are hard to explain. Sheba knows that sometimes it helps to have someone know what's bothering you, even if it's hard to talk about, though. She glances swiftly in Van's direction - and, seeing that he's not paying much attention, she looks back to Enoch and lowers her voice.]

If you don't want to talk about it, but you still want someone to know... [She reaches up and taps the side of her head.] I could listen.

[She doesn't remember if she's ever told him about her ability to read minds; she does remember using the skill to check if some of the rooms in Jason's level were occupied or not, though. He had been there for that, but she didn't know if he knew how it worked. But she hopes it's clear enough without too much explanation.]

*He didn't know that's what she was doing then, but when she says that, it becomes clear. Enoch nods.*

I'd appreciate it.

*Sheba may or may not be able to hear Eleven's screaming. If she can, it will be present from the very moment she accesses his mind. His thoughts are a mess right now, but once Sheba seems to be doing something all the related memories will start coming to the surface - not quite in order or perfectly clear, but he's trying to explain it to her, and can't feel her presence in his mind to even know what it is she's looking at. Regardless of what memory he deliberately attempts to show her, the screaming does not stop, if she can hear it in the first place, though once his focus is on attempting to show her the elements of a story, if she can hear it, it fades slightly.*

[She does hear Eleven, the very instant that she first starts to hear Enoch's thoughts; they're inextricably tied together, and she flinches at the screams, scooting back and cutting off the connection immediately.]

What..?

[After a moment she reaches out to his mind again though, and she closes her eyes, bracing herself for the screams and sifting through the memories as best she can. Her stomach is churning as she pieces together the story of how this had happened - how awful... What had been done to Eleven and the others was cruel; what had been done to Enoch was even crueler.

She opens her eyes and looks directly at Enoch, concerned.]

Have you been living with this ever since...?

*Enoch lifts himself up on an arm when she recoils from the screaming, slowly uncurling and sitting up again as she reads his mind.

When she opens her eyes and speaks, he nods, his head hanging.* I have. She can be drowned out, but, there's nothing...

Do you still hear her even when the glamour is off?

[If it's a glamour thing, maybe they can convince one of the nicer administrators to disable that particular part of the glamour for Enoch. She's not sure that would even work, though. Ruana's very thorough in making sure her games go as planned... and this sounds as though it's an extension of the game she'd played with them.

Would she even let one of the others help him?]

Yes. She isn't a part of it. And yet...I'm not sure she's truly there. I can't communicate with her at all.

*Hopefully the impression of her being, well, an impression, was conveyed in thought in a way Sheba could parse, since Enoch couldn't really understand that's what he was sensing from her, not knowing what an actual presence in his mind felt like.*

There has to be something we can do...

[She doesn't think it's fair that he should have to keep hearing her like that. (For a few moments she wonders if Ruana still hears Eleven, or if she passed the it on to him, or...) She bites her lip and tries to think, but none of her ideas sound plausible to her.]

You're so strong... I don't think I would be able to manage the way you have, if it had happened to me.

I don't know how strong I really am. I feel as if I'm turning into something not myself.

*Between the incident with possessed Rick and his ever-shortening patience and the arguments it's gotten him into, he's worried. He doesn't want to lose himself...*

Event: Quarantine

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Oops i've taken over this thread sorry <_<

It happens!

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