David "The Daring Little David" Puskás (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
megazero_to_superhero) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
towerofanimus2014-03-10 12:05 am
megazero_to_superhero) wrote in towerofanimus2014-03-10 12:05 am
Entry tags:
Locked in the Tower ✪ Part Four: Don't Turn Your Back on the City
| Characters: | David "Little David" Puskás, and all youse guys! |
| Setting: | All day March 9—Residential Floors, Floors 1, 14, 39, and 100 |
| Format: | Matching tagger's choice, but starting with Prose. |
| Summary: | In the morning, martial arts training at the gym. Later in the day, David seeks out Waver and Diarmuid and chills at the Media Room. Toward the evening, David "visits" home on Floor 100. Also, random encounters in the Cafeteria. |
| Warnings: | None come to mind! |
Option A: Floor Thirty-One (Gymnasium, Morning)
Earlier last month, David had met Reno, and taken up his offer on getting some martial arts training, given that without ammunition for his rifle, he's quite effectively declawed. Reno says he likes getting that training done in the morning, so David's up bright and early today for his first lessons. It also looks like his powered armor is finally behaving itself, as he's casually floating into the gym using the suit's flight system.
Although David's waiting for Reno, he's not above chatting it up with anyone else that might be in the gym if Reno's not there yet. Until then, he'll be idly examining the gym equipment, seeing what there is available, and—
—oops, that tiny weight sure did slam on the ground hard.
"Da heck is dis thing, made of lead?" David mutters as he cuts power to the flight system and tries to pick it up. Even with the motor-assist functions in his suit, he's having to put some effort into putting it back on the weight rack.
Option B: Dormitory Floors (Especially Floor Two, Afternoon)
Later, David makes another attempt to find several people he's looking for—namely, Waver Velvet and Diarmuid Ua Duibhne. By now, just about everyone he's asked has named Diarmuid the go-to guy for learning how to fight with a sword. David's still got that Orcish sword on him, and as the only real weapon in his whole arsenal here at the Tower, he's got to learn how to use it. As for Lord El-Melloi II, David aims to talk to him about the results of the library Easter egg hunt.
... but, really, David should have done this before Zo's surprise rearrangement of residential assignments. Not that he had any reason to suspect it was going to happen, but it's made this a bit more difficult than it should have been.
David wanders the residential floors, checking the various room signs for the people he's looking for. He'll find them eventually—even if it takes him a little while to do it. Plenty of time for anyone else to run into him, on chance. When he finds Diarmuid and Waver's housing assignments, though, he'll be knocking on their doors.
Option C: Floor One (Cafeteria, Morning/Noon/Evening)
David doesn't really understand the significance between the choice of food available for each month, but he is so glad to be done with February.
He hadn't learned of the resident-run kitchen until partway through the month, thanks to Reno. Up until then, he was flat out avoiding the Cafeteria during dinner hours. As if the side effects of power donation weren't enough.
Now, though, he's enjoying the menu. Even if it's more suited for a kids' menu, he's not complaining. Not after last month. So, anyone visiting the Cafeteria throughout the day might see David helping himself to a stack of peanut butter pancakes and chocolate milk, sandwiches and mint soda, or spaceship chicken nuggets and vanilla milkshakes—depending on the time of day, of course.
Option D: Floor Fourteen (Media Room, Afternoon)
"Tossin', turnin', nightmares burnin' / Dreams of swords in hand ..."
No, that's not David's voice you're hearing over the media room's speakers, but rather Steven Tyler's. David's currently relaxing—in mid-air, no less, and in that laid-back hammock pose that Rolo Lamperouge caught him in a few months ago—while Aerosmith's "Kings and Queens" blares through the speakers. He's taking the time to savor having his powered armor return to full (and proper) functionality again after donating power at the end of January by abusing its flight system to chill out in his own way.
The song's a lot darker than the type of Aerosmith songs David usually listens to—and the band is more well known for their bright, funky and peppy songs, but ... with recent events, and with some of the kind of people he's run into of late, it seemed fitting. And anyway, he'd missed hearing his favorite bands, since he'd never really visited the Media Room before until Ruana's game last month. It makes him wish he had some sort of MP3 player or walkman on hand. Or, that he had that functionality built into his helmet. Why didn't he ever think of that before?
"Living times of knights and mares / Raising swords for maidens fair / Sneer at death, fear only loss of pride ..."
It'd be easy for David to doze off again, but he's a little wary of doing that now. Instead, he floats in his hammock pose with a contented grin, nodding softly to the beat of the music in a sort of half-hearted headbang.
Option E: Floor One Hundred (VR Memory Floor, Evening)
Floor One Hundred was one of many that David had never paid attention to before. Up until recently, he believed it was always the empty room that he had seen of it—however, after meeting Reno and being shown Ragnarok's files kept in Aria's hideout, now he knows what the floor really is ... and he's really curious to see it for himself. So, late in the day, he makes time to do just that.
Stepping down onto the floor, the surroundings change into ... a stairwell? No, wait—after a moment, David realizes it's a building's roof access staircase, with the door leading outside open. He hesitates for a moment, before walking outside—and finding that the floor has turned into a roof.
A roof of a building in Atlas Park. At night, in Paragon City, Rhode Island. America. Primal Earth. His home.
It's all an illusion, of course. David knew that coming here—and yet, he's moved. Silently. It's a powerful recreation—there's no people visible down on the sidewalks, no Hellions or Vahzilok or other villainous scumbags trying to prey on the citizenry—but, as he approaches the edge of the roof, he can see that there is simulated traffic down there, and in the sky as well. The sights and sounds of a big American city emanate from all around.
There, in the center of Atlas Park, is Atlas Plaza: City Hall, with the American flag made from Statesman's cape fluttering in the breeze. The massive statue bearing the weight of the world on its shoulders—dedicated to the superhero who gave his namesake to this part of town. The other neighborhoods bordering the seat of Paragon City's municipal government—behind him, the rest of Downside; on the north side of Atlas, The Promenade; Paragon Transit Authority's Yellow Line metrorail snaking its way through the buldings; Hyperion Way, and the entrance to what used to be Eastgate ...
... and all around, the shimmering War Walls dividing Atlas Park from the rest of Paragon, taller than almost any skyscraper. The rest of the city just barely visible beyond its energy fields, city lights winking in and out like starlight. Even knowing full well what he's seeing is simulated, David can't help but feel the urge to light up a stogie and survey the landscape for signs of trouble. Well—he doesn't have a lighter, but he does still have a fresh cigar in that travel case.
With a quiet sigh, David fishes that cigar out of the case and places it in his mouth, contenting himself to at least feel he was back on Primal Earth ... if only for a short time.
no subject
Until he speaks, that is.]
I suppose. [He sighs, somewhat heavily.] Though it's really neither here nor there anymore, is it?
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You one of dose types dat think our worlds're gone for good?
[The unspoken message, of course, is "I'm not."]
no subject
There is no proof to suggest otherwise. In fact, for me all the proof points to nothing but the utter destruction of My World. I can feel it.
I suppose you are one of these Dax-types?
no subject
Yeah. Destroyed or not—I ain't given up hope. We got a sayin' back home: It ain't over until da fat lady sings. An' Ruana, well, she ain't nowhere near dere yet.
[Which is frankly amazing, given the kind of gruesome eating habits she has!]
no subject
[Sephiroth scowls and turns away back to the rack; didn't need that memory stirring thank you very much David. His tone holds a stern tone of finality to it. Sephiroth doesn't need to be heading into the undertaking he has planned with any small voice in his mind that might be telling him to reconsider. He's struggled with indecision for too long being stuck forever in this place.
No, it will be the time for him to act soon.]
There is hardly the time left to be hanging onto hope.
[He mutters, back again to the other man.]
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Sure it is! If you don't got hope, how's you gonna stay motivated to change anything?
[Even though Sephiroth's got his back turned to him again, David still shrugs expressively, as if the other man can still see it. Maybe if there's a handy mirror nearby or something ...]
With all I've seen, heard an' done, I ain't convinced our world's're beyond help. Dere might be a way to bring 'em back, if we can figure out just how dey went belly-up in da first place.
/sob this being the day before ToJ started....
[He scoffs, tilting his head from side to side a little while he formulates thoughts but still not turning to face the other man. Sephiroth can nearly feel David's insistence on the air between them.]
Even if I have to pull at my shackles here right until the end, I will find a way out.
[And he does think he has found one. The best chance he's ever going to get.]
You put too much weight into speculation.
Haha. THE TIMING!
[... Is that all Sephiroth is interested in? Getting out of the Tower? Anything else David would have interjected or argued takes a back seat to this.]
Arright, so humor me a sec—let's say you do find a way outta here. Where you gonna go, some other dimension? What if dat world-killin' thing hits wherever you go?
Such delicious bad timing - RPer's ambrosia?
There is nothing else so important to him.]
It's very much an unknown path.
[He turns his head to look around, before turning to face David - making sure that he's not currently being so closely supervised. His unit, blank as ever, remains by the door to the stairwell, but they are as far away from that position as he can get on this floor. Sephiroth lowers his voice to just-above a whisper, just in case as he focuses once more on David's face.]
Though to get myself within the Life of this World will be a start.
no subject
So you ain't plannin' on goin' far? Just gettin' outta da Tower?
[That's even assuming there is a world beyond this Tower ... David thinks back to when the glamour failed. He's pretty sure that the windows to the outside world turned a disturbing pitch black. The windows they see all the time have to be a simulation of some kind, much like their bodies—but what lies beyond, David doesn't yet know.]
no subject
[There is a much larger scale to this plot, but Sephiroth doesn't need to tell anyone about it. It'll be obvious once he achieves it, with the added bonus that now one will be able to stop him once he's gotten that far.
He peers over to the supervisor by the stairwell once more and then back to David.]
no subject
[David readjusts the cigar in his mouth in deep thought. He doesn't look away from Sephiroth—not that the visor makes it apparent, but he's squinting at the other guy, as if doing so might help him get a better understanding on what Sephiroth means by getting "within the Life of this World."]
[A moment or two of silence passes. All David can guess is that Sephiroth is planning on crafting a flesh-and-blood body for himself somehow, so he wouldn't be dependent on the Tower's systems to exist here. ... but as it's a topic Sephiroth is clearly hesitant to discuss for fear of tipping his hand to the Administrators, David lets it go for now—settling into a more relaxed pose.]
Yeah, well, I don't see da point of doin' dat without fixin' da bigger problem first. Unless it's da only way we can start lookin' into stoppin' dat world-killin' thing—maybe if we run outta time on da clock.
no subject
I'd take my chances against the virus, I might even be able to learn what I need to from it.
[Instead of picking up a new weight to train with, Sephiroth stretches his arms out in front then raises them above his head. Then he leans down and takes a scrap of material -the remains of his skin-tight suit that he uses as a cloth now- and nods to David.]
I'm about done with this now. Farewell, Daring Little David.
[Then he turns and starts to stride over towards the doorway.]
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[... Well, at least David can bid the guy a pleasant goodbye. He holds up an open hand in a sort of subdued waving gesture.]
Arright, catch you later.
[David watches Sephiroth leave the gym floor, then turns and looks back at the rest of the gym proper, with a renewed feeling that he's got to start learning some new tricks if he ever hopes to make a difference within the Tower. Come to think of it—]
[Where the heck is Reno?]