ITP: Tears in reality

[no_longer_a_king]

Characters: Arturia and OPEN
What: Arturia does her job pre-event and investigates Floor 23 mid-event. Further prompts to be added as the event progresses to avoid spamming the comm.
Where: Circus Floor and Floor 23.
Warnings: Clowns. Possibly other things that come up.


[A: FLOOR eighty; CIRCUS FLOOR; PRE-EVENT]
Two in the afternoon: Time to go to work. As embarrassing and boring as her assigned 'job' in the Tower was, it gave her something constant to do during the day. Busy as she was between the research, her maps, and training Shirou, it was somehow comforting to know she had somewhere to be during the day. Something she had to work her day around, even if in her mind it was entirely optional.

Now if only the ring leader would stop sounding so disappointed about her performance. What did he wish her to do: dance? Her job was simply to take this too-lacey umbrella from one post to the other on a tightrope, nothing else. For a being like her it was a simple matter, something that took less than a minute. The only reason she stayed longer than that was to ensure no one got too close to the clowns. No need for them to make jump ropes out of the audience's intestines, if they had an audience at all that night.

Anyone wishing to speak with her after her minute on the tightrope would find her patrolling just inside the audience's seating, Caliburn in hand, occasionally glaring at a few clowns who strayed too close.

[B: FLOOR 23; Elevators; EVENT]
There was no better chance to map this particular floor than right now, even if she knew she had to be quick about it. There was much to be done and now that Aria was out in the open. Many opportunities, but that would have to wait until Between knowing what they did about the collar fluid now and the fact the chipped units were making a safe house of sorts for them, it felt like things were about to come to a head. In a way they were, as the residents of the tower were surely about to actively oppose Jason.

What looked like a rip in reality itself in the floor did not bode well in any way. It was not too big, no, but there was definitely something trying to push through and for the life of her Arturia had no idea what. Some part of her was thinking Jason, but no. He would be too busy right now. So what was it in there and was it one of the many things they were supposedly being protected from?

Once she was done with a quick sketch of the floor and a few notes on the tear, she knelt down by it, studying it closer, Caliburn in one hand just in case. For all she knew the tear could give way at any moment and whatever was on the other side intended to tear everyone here into a fine paste. If such a thing happened, she needed to stall it for as long as possible.

But what could it possibly be?

Comments

floor 23

[fionnuisce]

Waver had found his way to the twenty-third floor as well, largely out of some morbid curiosity. He watched the tear in the floor intently, arms folded and a look of concentration on his face.

"I feel somewhat compelled to ask whether we're actually seeing the same thing here. Given this place's tendency to skew reality on a daily basis, that is." With the glamour system being the most obvious offender when it came to what was being witnessed versus what was reality, Waver thought a healthy dose of skepticism and double-checking might have been a good idea.

"Following from that, what do you think it is?"

[no_longer_a_king]

"I see a strange hole in the floor that my mind cannot quite process and what looks to be something scraping and clawing at it and making it bigger."

She didn't blame him for wanting to doublecheck. Everything about this place made her want to second guess what her eyes saw. Then Arturia reminded herself that, for all intents and purposes, what she saw was reality. At least while the Glamour was in play. That also didn't mean some things here weren't real or a clue to how things really were.

Idly, she looked up from where she was drawing maps to glance at Waver.

"I know the floor is an elevator waystation for the retrieval units going through the Tower, but as for the hole? I do not know anything beyond what we are seeing."

[fionnuisce]

"Sounds about right from my perspective." he confirmed, mindlessly fidgeting with the newly-repaired sunglasses in his hand. After a moment's silence he stepped forward, leaning over the tear and scrutinizing it as closely as he dared.

"If this is just an elevator waystation, I'd go so far as to say this isn't what one would call a standard fixture." A deadpan and obvious remark, but one that Waver said regardless even if only to think aloud. "Jason being behind this in a literal sense seems highly unlikely as well. But in a less literal definition of the phrase, do you think he could have opened it for some reason?"

[no_longer_a_king]

"I don't know. There's been so many things that are strange beyond the norm happening lately that are bound to only get stranger. For all we know, whatever it is could also be an effect of psychoradiation. Every time the Tower has had trouble lately it leaks in somehow."

From where, she had no idea. Another thing to ask Riki closer to the end of the month. So many things to ask and gather and find out and do. Arturia had no idea where to begin beyond this.

"As far as I have been told, yes: this is meant just to be a waystation. At Dax's suggestion when it was originally constructed. That's why we are always forced to turn away from it and forget it's here."

Floor 23

[neverbeamemory]

For once, that feeling of having passed through a floor that he'd simply forgotten passing through isn't there. Like running into an invisible wall, realizing that, Sephiroth stopped suddenly only two steps up from Floor 23, before backtracking and peering out onto that floor-that-is-never-perceived. It looked terribly foreboding what with all the emergency lighting in the stairwell.

Arturia's head was spotted first in the darkness, next to -what was that? it looked like-

A deep frown distorted Sephiroth's usually well-controlled expression as he ventured out onto the floor and carefully approached that point on the floor.

"That certainly doesn't look healthy."

[no_longer_a_king]

"No, it does not," she said as whatever it was in there clawed at it once more. She couldn't help but get a bad feeling from it, even if part of her hoped that it was simply desperate to get here and not hostile at all.

She turned to look at Sephiroth over her shoulder and pulled her cloak closer about her to keep out the incoming chill. Things would likely get worse over the week with the cold and that's to say nothing of the riot she can already sense brewing over Jason possibly coming here.

"I do not know if it's really there or an issue of the Glamour. It has not fallen for a moment like it is sometimes prone to so I cannot tell." Even if part of her believes it's really there.

[neverbeamemory]

Sephiroth came to an abrupt stop at that new attempt at clawing, from whatever -monster- it had to be on the other side of that rift. Highly aware eyes flicked from the rift itself, to Arturia again, noting the presence of Caliburn as well. He doubted that even if she were proficient with such a sword, that it would make very much difference at all, if all of sudden that -thing- extended an arm through and tried to grab at her. She was knelt closer to it that he would have dared; caution overrode curiosity.

Sephiroth wore no such additional cloak or clothing other than what he usually wore; black leather, boots, gleaming armor at his shoulders and that window of flesh at his chest - he wouldn't show it outwardly but he does feel the cold; his breath mists just like anyone else's, only it's of little relevance to him. Last year, he had been a victim of hypothermia thanks to Jason's experiment, this was one of the first slights that the silver-haired man would take with him to bear against that atrocity of a scientist.

"In all truth you could apply that question to almost everything here. Forever sitting around waiting for the next glitch so that you don't lose a grip on reality." Sephiroth's tone was very disdainful, but controlled in that it was restrained away from sparking at his overly keen anger. For all the good that it did, knowing of the Glamour system and the symptoms of their real existence, it changed nothing of the fact that it was unacceptable.

Floor 40 (Pre-Event as planned!)

[oathshackledbird]

Seeing Diarmuid on a patrol is not so unusual. What is unusual is how distracted he seems. There is much on his mind lately. Ever since the fight with Sephiroth, it seems like every time he's turned around there has been a new question in his mind. New questions, but never new answers. Though talking to others like Lancelot and Reno have pushed him closer to finding his answers, nothing solid has settled into his mind yet.

The fact that he over thinks everything isn't helping either and, it's this over thinking that almost causes him to miss her back in the clutter of the storage floor. However, once he does notice her, Diarmuid can't help but stop and call out to her.

"Still working on your mapping, Saber?"

As the words leave his mouth, though, he realizes something if he dares to mention it. He should ask her. Ask her about how deal with the questions that plague him, but...

Diarmuid frowns. Speaking of failed knights and dishonorable actions would upset her, and his problems aren't that important. He shouldn't. This is something that he should be able to do with on his own...

[no_longer_a_king]

"Always," she said, glancing at him from the corner of her eye as she looked over some of her maps behind a box. Not because she was hiding, but because she was having a moment of childish indulgence in hiding in a 'fort'.

"There's a hundred and one floors here and I still need to find and speak with those who have been downstairs to fill out that part. I recently found out the Tower is far bigger than anticipated. Mapping this whole place could take a lifetime unless I find a proper map the Administrators would use."

She had no idea of the troubles that plagued him or any of that. Nor would she ever unless he spoke up, though his frown gives her pause when she finishes speaking. There's something about him that seems tired--tired in a way she has seen all too many times; a tiredness she sees every day when she looks in the mirror even in those rare instances when she finds she's still capable of feeling joy.

"Something the matter?"

[oathshackledbird]

"Indeed such a map would be much more useful than anything we could ever make no matter how hard we try," As he steps closer and realizes those stacks of boxes are actually a little fort, he can't help but smile, the gesture bringing light to his far too tired face. However, the light doesn't last for long.

Another person might have lied or at least tried to deny her observation, but Diarmuid doesn't. Whether that is because of his distaste for lying or just because he really does want to talk about it deep down is unknown.

"It's that obvious, hu? I guess I shouldn't be surprised," he laughs softly, though there is really no joy in the sound. "When you are pondering the very depths of your soul so hard, signs are bound to show."

Diarmuid's floppy puppy dog ears, the result of a run in with a fairy ring, flatten against his head, "I made a mistake that got a lot of people I care about hurt. That, in and of itself, is not such a big thing. We all make mistakes and we all live with them. It is how I went about this mistake that is the bad thing. I took a step down a road I should not have. Now...I am not sure if I can find my way back..."

Floor 80

[scentofmakai]

[He's trying not to look too obvious about it, but it's hard to blend in when very few people are on the circus floor. So it's pretty plain to see that there's a boy with a pad of paper sketching something, and if Saber comes closer it'll be pretty obvious that it's her.

Sorry. You were mentioned a lot.]

[no_longer_a_king]

[She won't get closer as she does her circle of the audience's seating, but she will notice his eyes following her. Normally she would ignore this and just keep circling, but there's something different about today. Maybe she wants to break routine a bit. Maybe she wants to talk to more people in the Tower as time winds down to zero?

Maybe she wants to see what he's drawing?

So she approaches him, but keeps a polite distance.]

Are you enjoying the show? [When it doesn't involve evisceration?]

[scentofmakai]

It's a nice show, if you ignore the clowns.

[He stops sketching as he talks.]

It didn't seem like you enjoyed your part, though.

[idkworldruler]

A tear in space and time wasn't exactly anything new for him. The entire reason why everyone was here was most likely do to one such tear. However what drew the gas mask clad, young man here was the feeling and sight of encroaching blackness. Again, nothing new, such darkness and light, always threatened to swallow everything in a moment's notice. But with the administrators being supposedly incapable of viewing what was going on in the lower levels, it sparked a bit of alarm.

And it appears as thou he wasn't the only one taking an interest. "I wouldn't get too close to that." He called out to Arturia.

[no_longer_a_king]

"I know, but thank you for the warning," Arturia told the figure, a curious look on her face. A gas mask? Why would anyone wear such a thing here?

"Are you doing well?"

[idkworldruler]

Perhaps the said person was hiding something? Or perhaps they just looked really cool with it on. Either way, it was there and he doesn't look like he would be taking it off any time soon.

That said, he shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps I am for the moment. Are you well?"

[regenleif]

Capell is still covered in bruises from his fight with the fish a few days ago, but now the lights were out and there was general confusion he had went exploring. He watched from windows as things moved, and was drawn to floor twenty three and the strange hole appearing there.

He saw the girl and looked at her, "What do you think it is?" She seems to be studying it, so he hopes she has made some progress.

[no_longer_a_king]

"I have no idea beyond what we see right now."

Which was the truth. It seemed to be growing, but until it got larger she couldn't figure out anything more and she was not about to stick anything into the hole. Not when it seemed something was fighting to get out of there. Doing so could lose one a limb if they did so.

[regenleif]

"Yeah." He shrugged, "Not sure I want to find out either."

[monstrueux]

"It is beautiful, is it not?"

Gilles approaches slowly, but steadily. Once he's there, he reaches out to the rift, and as his hand comes dangerously close to it, there's a searing, tearing feeling, and the skin on the side of his hand is ripped open--with his Servant speed and reflexes, he barely avoids having it torn off. He doesn't seem to mind, lowering his hand as his blood drips to the floor. He's somewhat battered and torn by this point, as if he's been doing this kind of thing consistently, but he's not seriously injured, although he can't heal himself.

He looks at Arturia carefully. He's still not sure who she is, but he is sure that she's not Jeanne. He thinks.

"Saber..."

[no_longer_a_king]

"I spoke with Jeanne," she tells him, her face a grim line and her hand tightening on the hilt of her sword. Even if she trusts Ruler's judgement and character, that does not mean she trusts Caster at all.

At least he unwittingly confirms her suspicions when his hand is torn open on the side. That convinces her to take a step back from the tear. Nothing good can be on the other side of that tear at all.

"I promised her I would give you the benefit of the doubt for now." Hence her not breathing down his neck every moment, even if she would very much like to in order to ensure he did not lay hands on anyone.

[monstrueux]

"Ah, Jeanne..." Gilles repeats the name to himself, lovingly. "Dear, blessed Jeanne. She understands me. She remembers what I once was. No one else does! I cannot be that man again, he is lost." He looks down at the wound on his hand thoughtfully. Whatever it is can injure a Servant without difficulty.

"You need not trust me! I do not expect trust. But... I have harmed no one here." He looks up from his wound, focusing his gaze on her again. "Do you see? I have caused no injury, no pain. I have helped!"

Floor 23

[warriorscribe]

*At first, Enoch didn't see what it was that Arturia was looking at. He knew she was looking at something, but only when he drew closer did he see the eerie movement of something on the otherwise silent floor.*

...What is that?

[no_longer_a_king]

I have no idea. Nothing good, it looks like.

[Which is why she's being quick about her mapmaking of this floor.]

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch looks down at the thing for a little while longer before he takes the note he carries around in his pocket all the time and tears off a little strip from the margin. He lowers it into the hole...and it's yanked out of his hand.*

...I'm inclined to agree.