Pieces of the Puzzle

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Who: Cain Knightlord and EVERYBODY (no seriously, he is knocking on every door in the residential areas)
Setting: All dorm rooms on each level
Format: Starting with Prose, but will match you
Summary: Cain has some questions to ask of everybody!
Warnings: Cheerful derpiness?

[First Part: Private to Abel]

The events of the weeks precluding Halloween had been harrowing, to say the least. Not just due to the violence that had been committed, the deaths that had followed, but because they had seemed powerless to resist it. Even Cain had felt that inexorable pull that told him to kill those who had been subject to experimentation, bombarded with sights and sounds that were no less horrific for the fact they had been hallucinations. It frightened him, the idea of the loss of control, more than most other things did here.

Yet they had managed to resist, the pair of them together. Though in part, he was sure that some of Abel's resistance had stemmed solely from a refusal to hurt anyone just because the Tower decreed it so, rather than from any desire not to hurt innocents. His own logic and fierce internal reassurances that none of it was real had barely helped, yet somehow they had got through it locked in their room without any blood, theirs or anyone else's, staining their hands. It was a victory for them, a reaffirmation that together they could overcome any odds and force things back their way.

It had given him a renewed sense of inner security, a belief that this imprisonment would not be permanent. All he had to do was bide his time, be patient and surely the solution would come to him. He had faith in his own abilities and, with Abel beside him, it was only a matter of time before they were free. It had brought back his ever-present smile, his outward confidence, as though he had chosen to be here and the whole situation was under control. He would make friends, gain confidences, find a way through that to the secrets of the Tower and those that ran it, and then...

But first, his brother deserved a reward for managing to resist the temptation to give into those persuasive voices telling them to kill and maim. He knew Abel was keenly feeling the sense of imprisonment here, and it was imperative that Cain maintain his normalcy to give his brother back a feeling of security and safety. So it was that morning, one (1) Abel Nightroad would be woken up by the smell of delicious (if slightly charred) pancakes covered in maple syrup.

"Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead~"

[Second Part: Open to Everybody]

Having enjoyed his breakfast with his brother, Cain was now on a mission to collect more information that might be useful in unravelling the secrets of this tower. He had down a few names as worthy of extra interest - the nations, Charles Xavier... But he wanted to meet everybody. The more confidences he could gain and the more friends he could make, the stronger his position (and Abel's, by proxy) would become in the tower.

So starting at the bottom of the dormitory levels and going around in a methodical pattern to each room, right through every single one in the Tower, he knocked on the door loudly and confidently. He will also be peeking his head into the libraries, the watch room, the church, and the cafeteria as well to try and catch anybody not at home.

"Excuse me, I wondered if I could have a moment of your time, please?"

[ooc: So very open, in every dorm room and most public locations in the Tower. Cain is on a deliberate hunt for as many residents as he can find.]

Comments

[lucidmutant.livejournal.com]

When that dorm door opens, it opens to show Cain an enormous green fellow with a rather scary visage, but he's showing no signs of hostility. "Time seems to be all I have here, so I do have plenty to spare." A roundabout way of saying yes.

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Well now, that was not what he was expecting when the door slid open, and for a long moment he was left to wonder if the Tower was altering his perceptions of reality again. If it was, then he wouldn't let it affect him, he wouldn't display any outward signs of discomfort.

Maintaining his friendly smile, he raised a hand in greeting and leaned on the doorframe, peering up at the other's neck to check what colour his collar was..?

"Mind if I come in?"

dormssss

[tempustemporum.livejournal.com]

Cain gets the dubious honor of being the one to intrude upon Ienzo’s reading time. He’s doing it in his dorm room, though, not in the library; it’s much nicer in there than it is in here, but he’s kind of grown a strange attachment to the place after becoming an effective shut-in for a few weeks. That and, well, he’s been sleeping in here for five months, it’s not like it’s unfamiliar to him anymore. Normally, no one in his room really gets visitors, which is why he found it mildly surprising when a door opened. Regardless, he went to open it himself.

“Excuse me,” said the blond-haired man standing on the other side of the door, “I wondered if I could have a moment of your time, please?”

“…You may,” he said. “What is it?”

huzzah!

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Cain glanced at the other man's neck to check his collar colour, just a brief flick of his eyes so as not to make it too obvious, before he was raising a hand in genial greeting.

"I'm conducting a bit of research into the tower and why it has brought us here, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

Room 2-12

[token_vengeance]

"What do you want."

Erik opened the door, raising his eyebrow at the blond standing before him...sounding a bit too damn cheery for his liking.

Leaning against the door frame, with his arms crossed over his chest, he knew he looked less than welcoming.

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Cain would have been utterly naive if he thought everyone would be co-operative without any stumbles at all, and so he takes the brusque greeting in his stride, smile never wavering as he looked for what colour Erik's collar was.

"I'm conducting a bit of research about the residents of the tower, looking for patterns and correlations between various things. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?"

[begin0peration.livejournal.com]

There's some obvious sounds of objects being moved and a trunk being closed before the occupant answers the door. Fran seems perfectly content despite apparently being interrupted in the middle of something, but hey. Her first visitor~~.

"Of course~. What do you need?"

[terranities.livejournal.com]

His smile widens a little, blue eyes shining warmly behind thick glasses, as he leans down somewhat to be more her height.

"Just to ask you a couple of questions about your home and life here, if you don't mind?"

...well you said you wanted tl;dr okay

[terranicidal.livejournal.com]

Abel was not happy with any part of this shithole.

It had, however... given him something that he hadn't had in an extremely long time -- hope, and the taste for a freedom that seemed just beyond his reach in this place. After his conversation with Edward, and then Cain -- it had all fallen into place. If they were far enough away from the Red Mars Project that neither were recognizable, their identities just as generic and indeterminable from the next pair of faces in the crowd, then that meant that maybe a life as 'normal' was not as impossible as he had come to believe it was.

Hope for a life away from a world where they were nothing but tools... expensive pawns, guinea pigs and lesser beings -- monsters...

He wanted it. God, he wanted it more than anything. A place he could protect them properly -- a place they could actually be... happy.

But the Tower of Animus was not that place. Perhaps it was a stepping stone to reaching it -- but it, itself, was far from the ideal paradise despite the 'freedom' that existed within the overlying entrapment. It was true that no one knew what he and his brother were, here... that they held no rank, no daunting responsibility, were held to no higher standard despite supposed lesser standing... they were merely faces. Faces... collared and bound to the same rules of captivity as everyone else.

Quite the double-edged sword, in Abel's opinion.

He had endured the first real trial since coming to the Tower, it was true... stubborn will had done him wonders alongside his brother's affinity for guilt-tripping him into something approaching obedience (and self-preservation). They had escaped it relatively unharmed, if he was resigned to the irritating migraine from dealing with those ridiculous shocks for 'disobedience.' There was no way in hell he was allowing himself to comply to orders... even ones he might be inclined to follow on his own volition otherwise. There was no love lost between Abel and the general populous, here, after all... But he was no dog to bark on command.

He was determined to teach them that lesson, no matter what it took.

And that was where his mission objective had begun. He was intelligent; he knew there was very little chance that they would find any genuine information about their captors without waiting a fair amount of time to get it through slip-ups or opportunities that might present themselves once in a blue moon. And while he was intelligent... he was also sincerely impatient. He didn't have it in him to, like his brother, sit back and bide his time. Instead, he took the proactive route... the success was arguable, and perhaps measured only in time.

He would sit outside those fucking elevators, and he would wait. They had to show their faces, eventually. These doors had to open... and when they did, Abel would be there. God help him, he would fucking be there.

...That plan lasted long as it took for his body to determine it was a failure for the necessity of sleep in his own dormitory bed through consequences he didn't quite understand the logic in... He wondered if this 'punishment' for straying from the set 'routine' they seemed to fix in place without every really saying anything at all was only implemented to irritate and subjugate, to teach the prisoners their place. It only made his hatred and determination burn all the harder.

But... it worked, as he had eventually forced himself to conceded; he didn't intend to kill himself... and he would return as soon as he'd gotten a decent night's sleep in his own bed to dissuade the side-effects of doing otherwise. It was after that night of remaining quite dead to the world that he was woken by his brother's greeting, accompanied by the smell of pancakes. ...Ah. One of his favorites, and...

He cracks his eyes open grudgingly... lifting a hand to groggily rub with a slightly quizzical (and arguably half-asleep) glance in his twin's direction. As expected, his hair is going every which way and that might be some drool at the corner of his mouth. He really is a charmer.

"...Cain?" The hell are you doing up at this UNGODLY HOUR. ...Regardless what hour it is, it's SURE TO BE UNGODLY.

mmm derishush

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Cain was well aware of his brother's plans to sit outside the elevator doors until they opened, and personally he thought them fatally flawed in a number of ways. The biggest flaw was, of course, Abel's need to sleep - they only need wait for his brother to succumb to that basic need before leaving and returning completely undetected.

Aside from the holes in his logic, Cain was worried that this would be seen as an act of aggression and would make Abel a target for experimentation, someone to be made an example of. He refused to lose his brother here, where there were no safety nets of being a valuable commodity... yet he wasn't actually out attacking anyone, and for that grace alone, Cain wasn't arguing with what he chose to do.

"I brought you breakfast, lazybones. I cooked it myself~"

Which had been a distinct adventure, and the reason they were a little burnt crispy around the edges. Advanced in many ways though they were, neither had been given cause to even make toast for themselves before, all their meals provided by the UNASF cafeteria.

Dorm

[consumedpast.livejournal.com]

"Hmm? I suppose so."

Alice wasn't exactly the friendly type, nor was her patience much to write about. Still, if this man had something to say to her, she would give him an opportunity at the very least.

What he did with said opportunity was his own decision.

[terranities.livejournal.com]

"That's very kind of you, miss."

He beamed at her as though she had given him the holy grail, instead of just a grudging acceptance that he could talk to her for a few minutes. His eyes slid to her neck, surreptitiously checking out her collar colour.

"I just need to ask you a few questions for research purposes, do you mind if I come in?"

[isnotagiraffe.livejournal.com]

The door of room 2-18 opens and a tiny little boy in an oversized cloak peeked his head out. By oversized the cloak looked like it was tailored for a fully grown man of fighters build and was wrapped round Taiki several times.

"Of course sir," Taiki opened the door a little bit wider, he was not sure if he had met this man before, or if he was one of the people he had been so rude to in the last few weeks.

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Ah, another child. He hadn't realised there were quite so many children caught in this horrible place. Stepping through the door of the dorm room and crouching down to be more at his level, his eyes found their way to his throat to check the colour of his collar.

"My name is Cain, what's yours?" His voice was gentle and non-threatening, holding out a hand for Taiki to shake.

[princesslantern.livejournal.com]

The door to the dorm swings open, and Milagro stands proudly inside the doorway wearing a sweatshirt probably three sizes too big. Her hands on her hips, her hair carefully braided on either side of her head, she looks worlds more confident than she did during the past month of experimentation. She peeks around to see if there's anyone other than him out there, then smiles.

"Did you need help with something?"

[terranities.livejournal.com]

It's nice to see someone smiling at him in return, it makes his job easier and he holds his hand out for a shake warmly as he checked for what colour the collar around her neck was.

"My name is Cain, I'm conducting a little research into the Tower, do you mind if I come in and ask some questions?"

Room 1-02 and his collar is orange!

[spiritsup.livejournal.com]

Romeo opened the door with a smile. He was returning to his usual state of confidence now that the shock of his friends wanting to kill him had worn off. "Hello sir!" He said brightly smiling happily and nodded. "Do you need help?"

cheers!

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Another child... Cain was beginning to wonder if the ratio of adults to children was somewhat skewed in the favour of those less able to fight back.

"That's right, and I bet you're just the person to help me. Do you mind if I come in?"

In the coridoor (with an orange collar)

[knightofangst.livejournal.com]

Suzaku was walking down the coridoor, he was still shaken from the 'reward' he had gotten, and from the events of the last few weeks. He nodded politely to Cain though, "Hello Cain."

coolios

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Always pleased to see a familiar face, especially one already friendly with him, he smiled back and raised a hand in greeting.

"How have you been, Suzaku?"

Library! Ed's collar is indigo! c:

[unexculpable]

Ed looked up from his book, swinging his feet off the table and sitting up as Cain approached. He paused, waiting to see if his twin was with him before answering. Ed really didn't want to deal with that asshole right now and the last time they met this way it didn't end pleasantly.

"Sure. You're Cain, right?"

woot!

[terranities.livejournal.com]

“That's right, and you're Ed?”

He grins at the boy, pleased that he seemed more amenable to talk to when Abel wasn't there. But then, everyone appeared more amenable when Abel wasn't there, his brother had a tendency to rub people up the wrong way.

“I met your brother, Al. He seems really nice, he said we should talk some more.”

[xbludjunkie.livejournal.com]

It was rough, dealing with this tower, that's for sure. With no leads Sam almost felt restless, or well... he figured he should be.

He was having kind of a tough time though, considering he thought this whole thing wasn't even real. Probably just some illusion conjured up by some monster/angel that he had yet to kill/piss off with his stubbornness. Therefore it was a bit hard for him to come to an agreement with himself about... Dean.

Couldn't stop the guilt for not being able to help his brother in the first place. Couldn't stop the ache from knowing he was de-- gone. Couldn't stop himself from missing and wanting his brother back.

Sam knows he should be searching desperately for a way out, perhaps even more so now that he has seen how dangerous this tower really is. But he's angry and itching to get vengeance for what happened to Dean. To be frank, someone knocking on the door and pulling him away from such thoughts was probably a good thing.

He opens the door, looking surprised and maybe a little bit interested. Sam does a quick scan of the other, trying to remember if he's seen or met this kidnapped victim before while he answers, "sure."

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Cain hasn't been in the tower very long, and he certainly hasn't met Sam before, but his smile is warm enough that it could easily be intended for an old and valued friend.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it. Do you mind if I come in?”

He was already semi-stepping through the doorway, holding his hand out to Sam to shake politely at the same time, while looking for his collar colour.

“Cain Knightlord, it's a pleasure.”

Room 1-17 with a green collar!

[fangirls.livejournal.com]

Marta opened the door swiftly enough and upon seeing the blond man in front of her, almost wished she hadn't. Her hair was a frizzy mess and her clothes weren't looking any better. She probably looked like a total slob. It would've been bad enough to open up to someone she knew, but to see a complete stranger, and a cute boy standing there...! She could've just died right then and there. That was what she got for just laying around her dorm all day, though it wasn't like she could have foreseen a cute blond knocking on her door.

"Oh, sure! Did you need something?" She responded, smiling brightly and beginning to smooth out her hair.

huzzah

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Cain didn't seem to mind her dishevelled appearance in the slightest, giving her a bright smile as though she were just the person he wanted to see.

“I'm doing a bit of research on the people that the tower chose to kidnap, you wouldn't be so kind as to help a poor scholar by answering some questions, would you?”

room 1-07 with an indigo collar, if you are not tag-overwhelmed ;;

[prayerless.livejournal.com]

Aqua always felt a little strange opening the door to a shared room, but it was only courteous that someone answered it. She could always take a message or redirect a guest to her roommates if it happened that the guest was not for her. Though that didn't seem to be the case today.

She tilted her head at the young man. She was certain she'd never seen him before. But he was nonetheless greeted with a courteous smile. "Sure. Do you need help?" He didn't look like he was in any urgent trouble, but it was best to make sure.

never too many tags <3

[terranities.livejournal.com]

She seemed more reserved than some of the people he had met, although her smile and offer of help was polite enough, which was something to be grateful for. He pushed his glasses higher up his nose and leaned against her doorframe with a slightly melodramatic huff.

“I certainly do need help! My feet are killing me, I've been walking all around this tower and I'm not as fit as I thought I was. You don't think I could come in and sit down, do you?”

[queenofbass.livejournal.com]

Marceline had been practicing, but that was almost all she could do at this point. Time was not a commodity in short supply here, and she could afford to put down the bass when the new guy knocked at the door.

"Yeah, what's up?" she asked, not bothering to move from her spot hovering a few inches off her bed.

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Calling through the doorway, seemingly not bothered by the fact the occupant hadn't even bothered to move from her spot inside to let him in.

“Could I come in for a moment? I just wondered if I could ask you a few questions.”