towerofanimus | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Characters: Anyone and everyone
Setting: Cafeteria, Noon, Nov 7th
Format: Anything
Summary: A party/discussion mingle after calling a meeting of the residents.
Warnings: tba

The anonymous post on the network was an invitation to gather, discuss and share information. Maybe they would get incredibly lucky and get to the bottom of things, such as who was behind the bombings or the strange things that went on during Quarantine.

Someone has been at work down here in the dining hall, moving the tables around to create a space in the middle in case people felt like dancing. Most of the chairs are around the outside and facing the middle, for everyone to see each other better. There was another space and some chairs for musicians, and a couple of the larger tables were set up with a large buffet of normal cafeteria food (because Zo wasn't likely to poison them) and resident prepared dishes, both clearly marked.

Of course, there was always the oatmeal.

[ooc: Feel free to make your own threads and subthreads!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Easy enough to assume, unless you're from Auldrant, anyway. Asch doesn't even need to hear the music or see the red hair; the pulse of the Seventh Fonons is guide enough to bring him towards Lorelei during a break in the discussions.

He was serious when he said that he wanted to watch, after all. That hasn't changed. The choice of music, on the other hand, gets a raised eyebrow. It's a lot more upbeat than what Asch would have chosen for himself, but then, Lorelei was far more upbeat than he'd ever expected.

"I would've expected instrumentals," he says finally, hopping onto Lorelei's table and dangling his legs over the side.

It's just the easiest way to manage wide varieties of sound. He could have tried for a guitar and simply played music, but there was a limitation to a guitar's capabilities. As Asch approaches, he's given a grin that is precisely as cheerful as most every other time.

Now isn't the time to think about missing isofons.

"I thought about it," he says thoughtfully. Actually says; he's been practicing. "But then I figured perhaps for something a little less... mm, how can I put this?" Lorelei thinks about it for a moment or two, then: "Cultured than a reception or something, that I should try to manage a sort of music anyone with two feet and a wiggle could dance to."

That much is working out pretty well at least.

It's not as though Asch hasn't noticed him missing. But this isn't the first Luke to disappear, and Asch didn't let himself get attached enough to care. So he isn't nearly as bothered by it as Lorelei is.

The actual-speech is noted, with a bit of satisfaction. He's learning something, at least. Asch snorts lightly at the comment. "I taught Arietta to waltz, once. I don't think culture has anything to do with it."

Asch's lack of caring about a great many things, and Lorelei's failure to be the same, might well be one of the many defining features between them. Sometimes, differences are good.

His vantagepoint isn't just for convenience, it's letting him keep tabs on most of the goings-on. "Arietta, the girl raised with the ligers? She seemed awfully cultured to me. Claiming otherwise simply because it wasn't human culture is a little silly. You taught her one fragment of one species' dance. I'm more impressed with the ligers' efforts."

Lorelei's tone suggests he's not entirely serious.

"My impression was that ligers didn't do much in the way of music." Unfortunately for Lorelei's maybe-or-not joke, Asch does serious 98% of the time. That's another difference. (Someone in this fonon frequency has to play the straight man.) "She and her Ion were going to a formal affair and she desperately wanted to impress him. I guess I was the only person she knew who knew how to dance."

It's one of the few memories of the girl he has that can actually make him smile, but Asch stops reminiscing quickly enough. "Find out anything interesting?" Of course, his idea of interesting and Lorelei's are different - but Asch can't pass by the possible intelligence opportunity that is someone who can probably hear every word spoken in the room.

"Culture isn't all about music, but yes they had their own." Had. Lorelei could accept the loss of Auldrant easier than he could the permanent loss of individuals, it seems. But the Score had long predicted that demise, and he'd gotten used to it. "But it wasn't human ballroom dancing. I can't imagine the powerful of Daath would really approve of a ligerly idea of music."

Leave it to humans to judge things by human culture! He was going to one day expand their repertoire of good music-making, one way or another. "It's too bad," he says brightly, settling his hands on his lap. "I could bring out some days-long epics sung by masters of their craft while mankind was still banging rocks together to get fire, except I don't think a soul here would appreciate it."

The matter of 'interesting' doesn't get a response right away. He's mulling it over. What he found interesting, and what Asch found interesting, was different. Attempting to interpret that through a different set of values can be a pain. "Quite a few things, I think. I'm not sure what you've already caught wind of though."

"You might be surprised." That's all he'll say on it; Asch doesn't have the time for days-long liger singing. No one in the Tower does, really.

Besides, the powerful in Daath or any other country weren't always right. Asch had his eyes opened to that long before coming to the Tower.

"Your perspective on it is as interesting as anything I've heard tonight." Both because Lorelei is, in fact, several thousand years his senior, and because Asch was still trying to figure him out. The Luke who remained was no threat - untrained, holding affection towards him in place of his actual brother, and mostly stable of mind. Lorelei is neither the first nor the last, and given what he's heard from Reno about what the two discussed, Asch doesn't trust that Lorelei's idea of "harm" is the same as his.

Lorelei shrugs. Ligers were good at what they did. So were the whales. He thought perhaps they'd appreciate whalesong more, but who spoke whale anymore. "Maybe later then!" When things are a bit settled.

He makes a slight gesture with one hand, as if to indicate the gathered. But when he speaks again, it isn't even remotely aloud. The nice thing about having isofons is one can be heard without saying anything, and he isn't sure exactly how much the people who run this place may be listening, or not. Best safe, surely.

There is a boy here who has the codes to unlock our collars. No-one seems quite sure what this will do, or at least hasn't speculated. The man with the almost-white hair posited a theory that the hallucinations people recently experienced by way of bombs and rooms may have something to do with the tower sitting on some form of broken reactor. The Fon Master is here.

Lorelei isn't quite as straightforward in this sort of communcation as perhaps Asch and Luke were; when he uses it, it comes with a constant undercurrent of sound, not all of it Lorelei himself, some of it whispers of remembered and overheard conversation, other voices quietly layered. Riku's, Sephiroth's. Dock Brown's. It might be a little odd at first.

There are a few people playing tag, the Administration aren't human, and there are or were actual photographs of the hallucinations from earlier. There are many Towers, this is the only one that works. Reno was asked to dance, and he refused. Some seem to think the hallucinations aren't hallucinations at all. There was talk of psychoradiation, and more than one person with stammering problems.

Interesting things, as far as he's concerned.

The unfortunate things about having isofons that are fonballs is that sometimes, they don't think in the same terms you do. Asch cringes full-body, bringing a hand up to his head in an attempt to alleviate the pain. It takes him a good few minutes to even process what Lorelei is saying, the shift in format is that great.

If Lorelei is paying attention to his thoughts at all, there's a mixture of acknowledgement and I-already-knew-that's for the most part. Asch had talked to the Riku with the collar codes and Ion, of course, had been here for months, the both of them. Most of what he doesn't know tends to be focused on the hallucinations; Asch had, at least in majority part, discounted them as typical things of the Tower.

We already knew about the administrators, or at least some of us did. What Lorelei gets over the connection in return isn't quite a true mental image, but a realized imagining of a drawing Asch had been shown - Jason, in his terrifying, long-faced glory, the image tinted with Asch's fear not of the man himself, but what he was capable of doing. You didn't forget being trapped in your own body easily, after all.

<Woah woah woah! What's going on?>

Tobias' 'voice' comes across a little panicked as he flies in and lands on the table. His 'tone' softens as he hops over to Asch, nudging his hand with his beak gently.

<Are you okay?>

Edited 2013-11-09 23:17 (UTC)

There's little concept of actually doing harm by using that strange mental connection, on Lorelei's end. It didn't hurt him ... but human minds simply aren't made to be hooked up to a thinking fonon that way. He hadn't really realized it with Luke either, in spite of the obvious way Asch reacts.

The look he's given is puzzled and a little concerned, though it doesn't make Lorelei shift communication methods. That was odd. Even odder, the impression of inhumanity that was Jason.

I am reminded vaguely of squid. Is-

The Aggregate cuts off suddenly as a hawk all but crashes into the table, visibly startled. "What? Is something going on? ..Why wouldn't he be okay??" Startlement is rapidly sliding towards alarm here.

"...Ow." That's all the verbal answer he manages for a moment - Tobias might be trying to help, but it's too many voices in his head all at once. Asch squeezes his eyes closed for a minute and tries to center himself - in that respect, Tobias and his beak-butt helps, because it gives him something to focus on that isn't sounds in his head or outside it.

"I'm fine," he grumbles. "This always happens when someone - " And the stare he gives Lorelei says that yes, Mr. Sentience, he means you. " - tries to get into my head." He pulls his hand back from Tobias and rubs at a temple.

He turns to look at Lorelei, glaring. Then again, he's a hawk, so that's every expression.

<Sorry. You just looked like you were in pain.>

Tobias turns his head to preen some feathers that were ruffled when he landed, and continues. <Sorry for interrupting.>

Given two glares for reasons he simply doesn't understand, Lorelei looks terribly confused for a moment ... and then rapidly annoyed, returning glower for glower. The music, still playing seemingly of its own volition, slides quickly dissonant. Those usual moods of good cheer and friendliness aren't the only states he exists in.

"No-one has ever complained of it causing problems before, including your other self from my world. Maybe something is wrong with you after all."

Tobias' apology, whether he means it or not, earns an unblinking, expressionless stare from the Aggregate. He doesn't say a word about it, but there is an almost tangible sense that suddenly Lorelei isn't interested in company.

"Maybe you should pay more attention. It always hurts." Lorelei's mood might be going sour, but Asch is stubborn as can be as usual. "If there's something wrong with me, it isn't that."

There's a lot wrong with him, honestly. Asch drops off the table and offers an arm for Tobias to perch on, if he'd rather not fly - the leather and fabric of his gloves is thick enough to block the talons, at least.

Tobias flies up and perches on Asch's arm, looking back at Lorelei.

<Calm down. I was just checking on a friend. You don't have to get upset.>

He gets the distinct feeling that he's going to regret sticking his beak in this, but... oh well. Business as usual.

"Then you've spent an awful lot of time deliberately, willfully inflicting harm on your other self."

Lorelei hadn't known, or understood. Clearly it was otherwise with Asch. Tobias isn't given a second look this time; maybe humans (and hawks) don't get upset when they're accused of causing pain to people out of nowhere, but he did.

It's deliberate when he slowly rises, slowly turns around and sits back down, with his back to the both of them. It's an unspoken dismissal. There is no music now, but the party has other musicians, they'll manage just fine and possibly better, until Lorelei feels like bothering again.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(no subject)

sup fondad

hello other-self

Re: hello other-self

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject