sarcasmancer: (Contemplatively Uncheerful)
Jade Curtiss ([personal profile] sarcasmancer) wrote in [community profile] towerofanimus2013-12-06 10:48 pm

1. Wisdom

[Characters]: Jade Curtiss, OPEN
[Setting]: Room 1-06, Floor 5, 19, 45, Cafeteria.
[Format]: Prose to begin, but I'll follow your lead if there's something else you prefer.
[Summary]: Jade's arrival in the Tower and what he finds there.
[Warnings]: Mild creepiness on Floor 45 but nothing more than that. Yet.
[Edit]: I had Jade looking up information on the Tower on Floor 19. Someone gave me a head's up that there aren't any texts about the Tower itself in the libraries, which is mentioned in the desc for Floor 3 but not 19, which is what I focused on. That's my bad, and it's been fixed. Sorry!


- Room 1-06 -

When he had gone to bed, the night over Grand Chokmah had been still and warm and calm. Could the world really have ended on so peaceful a night?

The note that greets Jade Curtiss when he awakens in a room with an unfamiliar ceiling says so, at least. He pulls himself upright, frowning at any of his new roommates should any of them be present--and if not, simply frowning at the clearly lived-in room simply for being--and then reads the note carefully.

His expression does not change for a moment. Then the fingertips of his left hand rest on the bridge of his spectacles while he sighs.

He is out of bed, ignoring for the moment the suitcase that is set up at the foot of it, and examining himself and the blue-liquid collar around the top of his neck, just above the collar of his usual military uniform, in the first mirror he's able to locate.

Then he is out, only briefly in the corridor outside his dorm room before he heads to the most logical first destination.

-------

- Floor 5 -

Jade silently observes the state of the world on the other side of the viewing station screen: everything dead and dust, from the humans to the planet to the stars. He rests a hand on his chin as he watches, a troubled look on his face. He spends a long time in front of the viewscreen, changing angles and locations and so forth. The vision of destruction never changes despite his efforts. In time, Jade turns his back on it, one hand in his pocket, one holding his spectacles in place as the glare from the overhead lights obscures his eyes, and walks away.

-------

- Floor 19 -

It had started in the more general library, which Jade had lingered in for no more than a minute until he was informed of where the actual research texts could be found. Then he brought himself here, and considers the many, many blank spots on the shelves, including and especially the entirely empty history section.

He sighs for the second time that day. "One would think that these 'benefactors' would go to more effort to hide the fact that they're hiding something," he laments out loud, despite being in a library.

Nonetheless, he flips through a few of the remaining astral projection books, then returns them to their correct spots and finds himself a relatively comprehensive text on magical theory; something on the Tower itself would have been ideal, but he hasn't been able to find anything on the topic. At least he can compare and contrast "magic" with the fonic artes he knows. He removes the text and takes it with him to a suitably squishy chair, where he begins to peruse it. However intense his concentration, though, he's not so absorbed that he'd be unable to notice anyone approaching.

That would just be foolish.

-------

- Floor 45 -

After familiarizing himself with the nature of his new "home," the man known as the Necromancer brings himself to one of the observatory levels. He strolls up to the glass walls, peering through the cracks in the clouds at the empty sky. He's about to turn to leave when motion in his peripheral vision catches his attention, and he turns his head to regard something that might be human if if it weren't clinging upside-down to the outside of a glass wall on cloud level.

And, of course, it didn't have waxy corpse-gray skin stretched all over where its face should be.

Like a lizard, it creeps slowly down, then across, before coming to a halt in front of the long-haired man. Jade watches it without moving. It watches--for a relative value of "watches" given that it has no eyes--him back. When he steps to one side, it follows; when he steps back, it skitters around on himself and winds that way too. As the skies gradually begin to redden, a couple more of the faceless things crawl in, and he amuses himself for a time by walking slowly back and forth across the room and watching as he gradually leads a chain around the circumference of the floor like the Pied Piper of faceless horrors.

-------

- Cafeteria -

Jade is tempted, once night falls, to go hunting for monsters. For the nonce, he opts instead to get his first meal, having not bothered to eat all day. He heeds the warning and takes a bowl of hot, plain oatmeal as his first meal, then carries it to the first empty seat he finds and eats with all the resigned resolution of a soldier. His expression is somewhat distant as he eats, but the moment anyone speaks to him, it transforms into a pleasant smile.

This may be a trap.
seventhsong: (lack of keyword going on)

[personal profile] seventhsong 2013-12-07 08:51 pm (UTC)(link)
The stairs are better than the elevator, which doesn't stop on EVERY floor. It kept one in good shape at least, assuming these artificial bodies needed to be kept in shape. Lorelei hasn't figured out if it's possible to say, get fat or not, and he's not quite willing to try either. "Good. If this place has taught me nothing else, it's avoid the obvious headaches at all costs." And if he can spare someone else the same problem, well that's okay. It's not even as easy as color-coding them for convenience, they mostly wore the same color collar. Just because Lorelei could instantly tell one isofon from another didn't mean anyone else could.

He really did miss having more than one Luke around. Multiple Asches would be okay too. His own bonfire of the sacred flame. "Ahh, don't be that way. Asch means well, he really does. He just keeps tripping over his own biases and perceptions." Constantly. Every single time they talked in fact, and he knew that was a problem on Auldrant too. "Hopefully one day he'll figure it out and stop! Change isn't really that hard, if you really put your mind to it and don't give up on the idea. We've seen that proven time and again."

It doesn't process immediately that Jade's switched languages. Lorelei was better at ancient Ispanian than he was modern, and lingual drift was a headache most times, but now? The tower had a way around that; sometimes he didn't even BOTHER with modern Ispanian. It's the question that catches his attention first, and the fact that he very obviously knows what he's being asked immediately erases the possibility, however slim, that this is Luke. Luke doesn't know Ancient Ispanian. Asch might. It's actually enough to make him stop on the stairs and give Jade a level look. That expression at least shouldn't be unfamiliar.

"If I answer that, are you suddenly going to begin acting differently?"
fragileprophet: (but no really you're wrong)

Floor 19

[personal profile] fragileprophet 2013-12-07 09:16 pm (UTC)(link)
The libraries are peaceful, and though this one doesn't promise as great a measure of safety as the one on the third floor does, the books that can be found there aren't quite as high-level. Ion isn't exactly researching anything, mind you, but the more strange things that the Fon Master saw during his stay within the Tower, the more eager he was to try and see if he could obtain any sort of explanation, however small.

Even though it had been nothing more than a vision, the pain he had registered within it he could still remember too clearly to ignore. Browsing idly through one of the many aisles that can be found on the floor, his small, pale hand traveling against the thick spines of the books as he read their titles absently. In doing so, Ion didn't see Jade so much as he heard him--and the moment the voice spoke from what sounded to be a few aisles over, he recognized it.

Ion immediately stopped what he was doing to search for the colonel, now sitting, and couldn't stop a small smile from finding its way onto his boyish face. No matter how unfortunate their situation may have been, Ion never could quite stop himself from just being happy to see another familiar face.

"I find the more obvious the tyrant, the less there is an appreciation for subtlety." And one couldn't argue that the administrators, or at least Ruana, were anything less than tyrants. That wasn't a label Ion would use lightly, but he had experienced enough now that even he couldn't overlook or excuse their blatant abuse for the residents they claimed to have saved.

His tone turning a bit less ominous, Ion's soft smile widened, and he approached the group of chairs that Jade had claimed. "It's nice to see you again, Jade. Would you mind if I sat with you?"
seventhsong: (keyword this)

so many icon options. So little time.

[personal profile] seventhsong 2013-12-07 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)
There are many ways this can be handled. Some of them less pleasant than others, but for a few moments Loelei weighs his options. It's better than what he'd been concerned about, which may or may not be the result of dragging things out on Jade for quite a while. Had the question been anything else, he might have kept being evasive, but the idea, even the idea of one of his isofons going missing or dying was an unsettling one.

Maybe it had been enough to lock 'person' in Jade's mind and attitude, instead of 'Aggregate Sentience'. Being regarded as a person was better. Safer.

Less likely to lead directly to problems.

"Everyone has fetishes," is the frosty-sounding response after that several-second delay. He could get annoyed, but it's not actually anything worth being annoyed over. He knew what human fetishes were of course, but he never bothered with them. It's not exactly what he was expecting, but it was better than he'd feared. "And I'll have you know He Who Would Seize Glory did the possessing, not me. I was not a willing participant."

And if he thought about it too long he got chills, so he's not going to! It's easier to just not let it bother him; there's the distinct sense that such a prod doesn't really actually upset him at all. "I wouldn't throw stones in that particular glass house if I were you, I know what you've gotten up to for the past thirty years."
seventhsong: (where them keywords)

[personal profile] seventhsong 2013-12-07 10:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"If anyone at all ever believes you when you say things like that, it would be a miracle of world-shaking proportions." Lorelei's headed back up the stairs again, content for the moment that it seems he's not suddenly going to be treated like the inhuman creature he actually was. It was easy to get used to being just some other person in the Tower; nobody cared here what he was. It was nice. "Let's try to save those miracles for things we need a little more!" Believing Jade's endless array of ... well, Jade-ness wasn't one of those things.

And even being openly mocked doesn't really seem to bother him much. Lorelei did have things that would set off his temper, and it could be just as explosive as his isofons', but different triggers. Jade might find it eventually, but right now something much more like good cheer has settled into place. "I'm told truth is in the eye of the beholder."

He won't bother telling anyone else though, if they didn't already know. Jade's done awful things but Lorelei's not always exactly sure which of those things are actually awful and which merely got under his skin as the Seventh Fonon. "I admit I've wanted to speak to you directly for quite a while, beyond the ... mm, very brief exchange in the Core, but it seems those aspirations never quite work out the same way when met with reality."
seventhsong: (Default)

[personal profile] seventhsong 2013-12-07 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
One index finger rises. "That may be true enough. You are certainly earnest in your trouble, and are usually pretty sincere about all that trouble. I'll conceed that one." It's safe enough. It would probably take a bit of effort to find the things that would agitate Lorelei to the point of physical retaliation. Luke was good natured for all his spoiled behavior and even Asch had a good heart beneath the prickly exterior. It seemed to hold true throughout the isofonic group.

And yet it struck him as a little odd to hear himself called Lorelei by this man. Why?

"Ah, so serious." He notices the fading smile.

That incident stuck in his mind as to why he needed to practice modern Ispanian more. If he hadn't translated everything he said.. "Many things! You must understand that knowing what happens does not usually impart certainty as to why those things happen until the body dies and I collect what's mine. It's all guesswork for decades."

And is about the only game he gets to play, in the core of a world. "But it can wait, there's months and months yet before this place goes up in a puff of smoke or something, there are far more immediately relevant things to get through first to make sure you make it that long. I wasn't kidding about death not sticking here, by the way."
seventhsong: (think of a keyword damn it)

[personal profile] seventhsong 2013-12-08 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
"You haven't. I've been trapped for longer than your people have had a country, how could you cause me trouble? I just observe a lot." Nothing happens without him knowing about it sooner or later. There were drawbacks to being a planet's memory. He'd watched Jade and so many others cause so many problems, for themselves and for others. Jade at least made it out of them more or less intact. Many weren't fated to. "And I know trouble follows you like a cub follows string. Not always of your direct causing of course."

But it happens anyway. Look at the recent mess Jade had gotten embroiled in; one earthshaking disaster after another without stop.

There's a snort at the mention of the Score and how the Order might react. "Oh no, that's pretty well set in fonstone, isn't it?" It's almost a pun. Almost. "It's only guesswork as to why it happens. If Harold the Guardsman is going to have himself a cheese sandwich for dinner, why does he decide to have that instead of the ham dinner his wife made him? It will happen, but why? Only the reasons are guesswork." He can admit it. But he finds out eventually. Knowing events will occur but not the motivations that lead to them..

He wasn't telepathic. Not when dealing with people not his isofons, at any rate. That mysteriously vanishing smile draws a sigh. Lorelei did prefer people happy, or at least pretending to be. "As you walk through this place you'll find .. machines in the walls. Terminals, with screens on them, with a counting down timer. All of them have this timer. It's at one hundred and seventy seven days as of today. When that counter runs out, so do we, as near as I have been able to tell. I believe the power source of this place is ... finite. Sometimes it even leaks, and those in the vicinity experience terrible oracular hallucinations. One of the people who rule here, Ruana, set it in place. It may even be an auto-destruct. There's been some noise about doing something about it but little actual action therein."

Lorelei himself seems unconcerned about it, but given his nature that's probably not much of a surprise.
fragileprophet: (yes please tell me more)

[personal profile] fragileprophet 2013-12-08 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
Ion wasn't so sure he'd call it a pleasant surprise, but it certainly was much more pleasant than most of other surprises that could be thrown at him in this environment.

"Thank you," he responded politely as he took a seat across from the older man, then nodded at the new question. "Yes! She came here...ah...a month or two after I did, if I remember correctly. She's assigned to a dorm just across the hall from my own." They even had the same Tower-given job! Though, that was a bit off topic. Looking a touch bashful, Ion admitted, "I do wander off from her company perhaps a bit more than she'd like me to."

Her current absence from his side--or even the floor in general--was evidence enough of that. At least Jade was there, now. He could take care of any monsters that may happen to accost them efficiently enough than the Fon Master could. If they were lucky, however, that wouldn't happen. It was still early enough in the day, after all.

"Have you just arrived this morning?"

Ion did try his best to stay caught up to speed with everything that went on around him, but the Tower was just so large and he was so lacking in energy. The Fon Master tended to miss a good deal of happenings because of it.
oathshackledbird: Puppy Pout (Puppy Pout)

[personal profile] oathshackledbird 2013-12-08 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
A Lancer class servant like Diarmuid never has to worry about being fast enough since speed is one of that class' strengths. Of course having enough speed is one thing, not being distracted is another thing all together, and Diarmuid finds himself quite distracted by just how quickly Jade's attitude switches. That is why he doesn't move fast enough to avoid the man's attention to his ears. Despite the scowl on his face, the way his tail start wagging suggests that he doesn't exactly mind having his ears rubbed.

"I decided shortly after I was cursed with these that it was useless to argue with everyone who called me 'cute.' However, I am afraid I just cannot allow 'adorable' to go without comment. I would like to salvage what little pride I have left, if it is okay with you," Diarmuid's tone might be light, but he hasn't forgotten that very carefully schooled blank expression on Jade's face or the deliberately avoided question.

In other words, even if it isn't commented on again immediately, the topic is certainly not dropped...
seventhsong: (in desperate need of a keyword)

[personal profile] seventhsong 2013-12-08 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
Plenty of steps to go; if Jade can climb them with his hands behind his back then this is just fine, though Lorelei's attention shifts a little when he takes note of it. A bad position for balance, if a monster suddenly appeared. Sometimes they did. "Something like that, yes." It was enough. It's rather like reading the script for a movie, and then reading the novel. So much gets left out, or left to interpretation. The Score was a song of dates and times and locations for a reason.

"I'm afraid that Animus Tower isn't Auldrant. I can't rely on memory here to supply what is or will be. All I can do is make educated guesses based on what I've picked up from others." He sighs. It's actually really frustrating more often than not. "It doesn't get discussed much. Nothing does, really, unless it's forced out of them. There's research being done about these things-" He pulls on his collar by way of demonstration, but of course it doesn't come off. "-But little advances so far. A bit of mapping, a bit of exploration. Most of the captives here have long given into despondency."

It was sad but that's how it went when people were prisoners. "Not much!" The admittance is far too cheerful for the subject matter. "Very few people know very much and are positively closedmouthed about most of it. The Administrators also keep their secrets. All that's known for certain is we're running out of time, the bodies we wear aren't ours ... and presumably that said bodies are somewhere else for those of you who normally have them, and it's believed that the people who leave are turned into fuel." That's fairly grim!

Lorelei pauses on a step for a moment before giving a brief smile and continuing upward. Floor Six wasn't far. "No. Well, that's not exactly true. I've been encouraging all of my isofons to extend the knowledge and control they have over their own power. It will be vital to know if they survive the coming ruination of the Tower. I'll need all the help I can get. Including yourself, if we get out of this intact. I expect now that you're here, Saphir might be along shortly as well. Zo may have plans, and I'm content to play into them."
fragileprophet: (It's unavoidable.)

[personal profile] fragileprophet 2013-12-08 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
"A little," Ion agrees, his face falling--if slightly, if momentarily--as he recalls his first month. The kidnapping and experimentation and lack of control over his own body. Being forced to kill one of the first friends he had made. Being killed by Luke for the same reasons. Waking up to a tuning fork stained by blood; a reminder that remained still at the bottom of his trunk.

But that was in the past now. There was nothing he could do to change what had happened, and no good that would come on doting upon it. "But there were others here, then--Asch and Luke and even Guy, for a time." Though, he had found himself in enough trouble with Guy, not that he had ever blamed the blond. And in truth, he missed him just as much as he missed everyone else who had come and gone. Or who had never been here to begin with. "I've tried to make some new friends, as well. It eased the transition a little."

Ion cuts off his reminiscing to answer the next question. "I'm in room 1-16! We're not too far away from one another; that's comforting." He laughs as he remembers the first time he met Luke--how that never would have happened if he hadn't run off from Anise in the first place to investigate the Cheagle Woods. Indeed, some things never really changed, did they?

But the talk of Anise changes something in his expression, and as much as he tries to hide it, Jade was far from oblivious. Ion, himself, is perceptive enough to be sure that Jade would notice. "Of course." Ion closes his eyes for a second before explaining. It felt so practiced, now. "It was just short of a month since Van's defeat at the Absorption Gate. I thought everything was over, and we'd all gone back to the lives we had before our journey."

But, as for his Guardian...

"I don't know where Anise has come from. She avoids talking about it; she's hiding something." At least, she was hiding something from him, and at this point Ion was sure that she realized he had noticed. Still, she wouldn't tell him what it was.

Not that he couldn't guess, at least in part. The evidence was getting too troubling to ignore.
oathshackledbird: Face (Face)

[personal profile] oathshackledbird 2013-12-08 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
"I suppose we could always play fetch with your glasses, though I cannot guarantee they would remain in one piece very long no matter how careful I am," Diarmuid is smiling, though there is an edge to the look in his eyes. He could tell Jade to stop petting his ears, but he does actually like it much to his dismay, and while he doubts it will happen, perhaps the other man will let his guard down a little if he thinks he has some control over Diarmuid.

"So, what did you think of the view? You sure seemed caught up in it..."
seventhsong: (keywords aagghh)

[personal profile] seventhsong 2013-12-08 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
"It's akin to expecting you to be able to remember someone else's memories." Simple enough. The Tower isn't Auldrant. Everything now is flying blind. He hated it. It's like being blind for the first time and having to adapt; he was, but poorly and slowly. "If you wish to try to get involved with that, seek a man named 'Doc Brown'. He's an older human, with wild frizzy white hair and a bizarre demeanor for standard humans."

A very nice man as far as Lorelei is concerned, but that won't help anyone recognize someone else. 'Blatantly odd' might be easier to spot. "As far as I know this particular lot has been open only a couple of years. Two, three. There were however previous victims. It did not go well for them. There's the theory that the experiences we have when the air becomes unhealthy is their memories, and we are seeing glimpses of their past. Buuuut.. that's a theory." He makes a gesture, almost negating; it could be true! It might not be.

Lorelei can be helpful when he chooses to be.

There's only a moment's pause at Jade's frown. "I believe I would know if one of my isofons were so permanently harmed," he says, and this time it's quiet. "Like you might notice a limb being torn off. There was ... no such thing. I have chosen to believe that wherever he is, Luke is not being used for such a purpose, and in time I will see him again. To surrender hope is to surrender all possibility of a positive outcome."

And he chooses likewise to not allow the idea to settle back in the frentic worry he was still dealing with every time he thought about it for long. Luke wasn't gone forever. There was the other Luke, it's true, and Asch. But he wanted all of them safe. All of them.

"I don't think it would be so bad. Isn't it a good thing, to have such a loyal and dedicated companion?" Lorelei doesn't quite see things the way normal people do, apparently. "Besides which, I'd find his knowledge quite useful. Anything to make the work easier. You truly should pay more attention to people who have such a handy skillset, Colonel. You never know when it might be useful!"
Edited 2013-12-08 02:33 (UTC)
fionnuisce: (and it was not your fault but mine)

[personal profile] fionnuisce 2013-12-08 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
"Psychic? No. Skilled in hypnosis, but not quite psychic." he answered, snickering. It wasn't often Waver met someone that could tolerate or keep up with him in terms of pure unadulterated snark.

"Unfortunately, that means I can't exactly pull your name out of thin air with much accuracy. Care to enlighten me on that much?"

Page 3 of 10