(no subject)

[athousandcurses]

Characters: Grainne, and you
Setting: Dorm 1, Floor 100, Floor 25, Cafeteria (and if there's a floor mentioned you want to encounter her on just toss up a new prompt!)
Format: Either or
Summary: Getting acquainted with the Tower!
Warnings: TBA


Dorm Floor 1, outside the elevator

Grainne couldn't shake off the unsettled feeling she had since waking up here. There was a constant undercurrent of fear that she wasn't used to, and it kept her on guard and ready for anything. It hadn't taken her long to find the outfit she'd worn wandering around Fuyuki in the trunk at the end of the bed she woke up in, along with... several other more nostalgic items. That didn't stop her from shifting to her robes almost immediately upon stepping out into the hallway. White dress covered by a green cloak, and a veil over her face that she pulled down to see better. Her identity isn't nearly as important now that she's... lost.

Looking up and down, she saw rows of doors, each with nameplates next to them, and the one by hers had her name on it. Frowning, she looked at the letter in her hands again, before slipping it into her pouch. This is some sort of dorm, but where, and how did she end up here? What sort of joke is this?

Maybe it's where defeated Servants go when they died...

Well, it may be and it may be not, but she took a deep breath and started walking, looking at the names along one side but not really reading them; they were unfamiliar to her, except for one. She hesitated when she caught sight of "Assassin" clearly labeled on one. Was that a coincidence, or could it actually be? Up ahead she saw what looked like an elevator, and the beginning of a staircase. She stopped there, trying to decide which way to take.

---

Floor 100: Holodeck

More floors, more dorms, but these ones all seemed to be empty. Grainne kept on, wondering if there was an end, but after the fifth floor of dorms that she counted, she came into... well, simply one of the most bizarre rooms she'd ever been in. Some sort of hanging garden in the middle of space. The unease she'd been feeling started to grow, and she walked on, looking for the next set of staircase which she found by literally walking into without realizing.

When she made it to the next floor and stepped into it, her heart stopped. It was home. Not Fuyuki, or the place she stayed at while fighting in the war, or even the house where she lived at the end of her life. The place she had raised her children and lived happily with her family before events worked to ruin everything they had. Intact and as if she had never left...

Moving farther into the scene, she placed a hand against a tree only to go right through it, and bitter disappointment met the realization it wasn't really real. It's just some illusion made up to look like a memory. Grainne turned then to leave, heading for the staircase.
 

---

Floor 1: Cafeteria

After that one floor, Grainne headed up again to where she saw the elevator, and this time got on. If she had more of that to expect from going down the staircase, she'd try the elevator and hope there were answers somewhere, but she paused when she saw only certain floors were marked. Every twenty floors... and she could expect walking into random orbital hanging gardens and illusion based scenery. What kind of building was this?!

Fighting down her rising irritation, fear and helplessness, she pushed the button for Floor One. After a ride that seemed entirely too long, even for a place with over a hundred floors, she stepped out into a Cafeteria. Now this, at least, made sense...

At least until she was handed a bowl of what looked like oat porridge left a little too long in the pot by a very odd person with a blank expression and a collar.

Actually, now that she thought about it, everyone had a collar...

Squeaking, her hand flew up to her own neck and felt the collar there, unnoticed until now. She made a face and rubbed her hands over her face, shaking her head.

---

Floor 25: Meadow

After gathering herself, she set out once again, this time going up since there seemed to be no other way but that. Everything she saw and heard and felt only made her more determined to keep on. Floors passed by; a library, then another, what looked like a clinic, a place filled with televisions and video game consoles, a workshop, a maze, a forest, and then finally a meadow...

The magus that created this place definitely had a weird sense of humor. Still, she stepped off on this one, curious if it really was just a meadow. She would have investigated the forest, except she saw animals in there that looked uncanny and she didn't particularly feel it necessary to find out if it was real. The meadow seemed real, though...

Sitting down in the grass, she plucked a few flowers and held them. she had to admit that having a meadow in the middle of such strangeness was calming, and probably the break she needed.

Comments

[glassceiling]

I think someone has written a guide to all the floors. There were copies being distributed a while ago.

[athousandcurses]

Do you know where I could get one?

[glassceiling]

My best guess would be the network. Our knowledge would allow us to use the computer.

[athousandcurses]

[Oh, the internet. She's used it before, but hadn't thought to check if there is one here. It can't hurt to look into it.]

I'll do that. Is there anything else I should keep in mind with this place?

[glassceiling]

...That everything here is an illusion, from your form to your powers. There is a way to retrieve your powers, though it takes some trouble.

[athousandcurses]

[...Assassin isn't pulling her leg, is she?]

I can understand if my powers have been locked, but... My form?

[She's looking down at herself as if she expects her body to morph into something strange.]

[glassceiling]

...It seems these bodies are fake bodies, with an illusion cast over them to make them look like our actual bodies.

[She hasn't witnessed a glamour failure yet, so she has no idea what the un-glamoured shells actually look like.]

[athousandcurses]

[That takes her a moment the think over.]

Isn't that what we are anyway?

[glassceiling]

I suppose it is similar. But here, even the humans have false forms. The only things with forms of flesh are the monsters.

[athousandcurses]

What possible reason could there be for that? It makes no sense unless everybody is dead, and that doesn't seem right. I've seen ghosts and spirits before. The behavior isn't right.

[glassceiling]

[She shakes her head.]

I do not know. Though I have heard people say that only our souls come here.

[athousandcurses]

It sounds almost like an afterlife.

[glassceiling]

Only I was not yet dead before I was taken here. Nor is this the afterlife that a Believer should be sent to.

[athousandcurses]

There are such realms that seem almost like one though. Places of the gods and the Sidhe.

[She pauses for a moment.]

A Believer?

[glassceiling]

One who believes in the true God (Glorified and Exalted Be He).

[athousandcurses]

I see... [She knows enough than to pursue that line of questioning. Grainne's stubborn and never gave up her own beliefs, but she knows what happened after her death.] Is this tower the only thing that exists here?

[glassceiling]

I think so. I have never seen the world outside of this tower.

[athousandcurses]

Then there may be no escape...

[glassceiling]

At least, not until we defeat the administrators.

[athousandcurses]

What kind of beings are these administrators?

[glassceiling]

They claim to be human, and yet have powers and appearances unlike that of any human.

[athousandcurses]

Beings able to wield Second Magic as easily as they seem to sound more like gods from ages past.

[glassceiling]

Their power is a heresy.

[Her voice is a little harsher than it was before.]

But even with that power, they are not invincible.]

[athousandcurses]

Why do you say that? How are we able to fight them?

[glassceiling]

We have an ally who is privy to some secrets of the Tower. She helps us know where to attack. Apparently, one of the earlier attacks deprived the Tower of its energy. We now have only months left.