towerofanimus | Teach the world

Characters: Open!
Setting: March 12th, secret floor
Format: whatever you want!
Summary: The hacking was apparently successful! After writing out his transcriptions into longhand, Enoch is ready to give everyone their due. A couple of people had a terrible time of things, after all, and he owes it to them.
Warnings: Nothing yet!

*At first he'd hidden his transcriptions and awaited punishment, spending what remained of that day and the next snatching up cups and plates and utensils from the cafeteria, storing them in the secret room. Whatever their punishment, they would be ready for this much, at least. After seeing what Xion and Richtofen had to go through to get what information they did, in particular, he owed it to his team.

When no punishment came, his first instinct was to worry. To anyone else, it may seem like perfectly natural paranoia - no punishment? That's too good to be true - but what Enoch hadn't told anyone about was his talk with Riki. He knew why it had been so easy to get where they needed to go. He had said not to spare them punishment to maintain his appearance. To avoid a repeat of what had happened to Dax. And after what had happened at Mitchell's terminal, he knew there was no excuse, no saying he hadn't known they were in there.

But in spite of his worry, he went on with the plan. He wound up enlisting the help of Asch and Lucifel along the way. So there was food better than what Zo had served (but there was a plate of dino nuggets anyway), mostly soups, stews, and bread. Lucifel had made cushions for the chairs and a tablecloth for the table he'd set up.

The table is set up by a wall where everything he's transcribed has been posted where the call to form a team once had been. He's working on making more copies even as he eats, but he's contributed, too - there are five bottles of red wine on the table from a prior month. A sixth is set apart from the others, with Richtofen's name on it, and because Xion is so much smaller, she gets a half-filled one. (Where did the other half of that bottle go? Who knows!) For him, personally, he's got a bottle of apple cider from Rick, and takes sips from it now and again as he writes.

There's still much to do, but this is an important step and food has always helped encourage morale and discussion.*

((ooc: From this point on, anyone is free to handwave knowing any of this information. Also this is the last time I use hideously inappropriate music for my titles and cut text, I swear!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She's telling Zo which world the "virus" will strike next.

*Enoch looks down at the paper he's copying - he happens to be on that exact part, funnily enough.*

'I may have lied to them a little'...

[This would be enough to make her head spin even if she wasn't already sick. Yukiko takes a long, deep breath, trying to steady herself.]

...and there's nothing they can do about it, I assume? Or if there is something they can do, they aren't doing it.

Wait. 'Lied to them a little'? What does that mean?

...I'm sorry. My head's all fuzzy - it's just a bit of a cold because of the weather, I think, but it's enough to scramble my brains a little.

She said it before she...she said it to Jason's corpse. I think...we've found what it means. Dax found that the worlds destroyed weren't even next to each other. Sometimes, they were completely isolated. The only thing they had in common...well...was this very tower.

...now that I think about it, she did say that.

[A detail that had been lost in shock.]

So, is the virus coming from the Tower, too? Since we know the worlds are being connected to the Tower, it would make sense.

If I'm asking questions that are obvious, I'm sorry. I'm not entirely clear-headed today...

Yes...or more specifically, from Ruana. She did say...the "virus" destroys the worlds with a lot of "pushing"...pressure, like psionics.

*Why, though? Was she jealous of all these living worlds? Did she long for the company of those who had suffered such loss like her, even if she had to create it?*

...She spoke as if she genuinely believed she was saving us from something. But from what? Had she come to believe her own lies until now?

It could be that she wanted us to know something about what she'd been through before we all started getting pulled here. It wouldn't be the first time I've heard of something like that happening.

[She thinks.]

...she looked so young, with her glamour down. Maybe someone convinced her that what she was doing was right, and it was the one thing she took to heart.

But who? This *he gestures to the papers* would seem to say that only she was aware of the truth. Zo could have known, but...she could have told him anything if he were to ask.

That's a good point. She could have told Zo anything, and I think he's the one person she wouldn't lie to.

Maybe it was someone she met before she started pulling people here? It's a wild guess, but...

The only others here were...they were Riki, Dax, and Jason. And how could they convince her of the righteousness of something she hadn't yet begun to do?

*It just didn't make sense. She'd had to have thought of it herself. Or Zo had to have encouraged her, not realizing she'd been lying about the destruction of their own world.*

...point. I was thinking someone she'd met even before that, but I don't guess there's anything in the records about her parents or anything.

[None of this makes sense.]

Given she deliberately forgets things that are too painful for her, I...don't think it's infeasible she came to believe at least part of her own lie.

*It's...sad, really. Sad that it's all come to this.*

I don't think it is, either.

[Yukiko shakes her head.]

...I almost feel sorry for her.

I do feel sorry for her. *He toys with the hospital bracelet on his wrist; a habit he's developed lately.* She's lived over a thousand years, gone mad with the isolation, if the torture she experienced before hadn't driven her mad already. She constantly hears the screaming of the souls she's devoured, and her only reprieve is to distract herself completely.

*He stands, and looks on the wall with their information.* If this is deliberate... *He reaches out, his fingertips lightly touching the incriminating words.* ...then it isn't likely we'll be able to leave her alive. She is old and mad, set in her ways by her inability to see she's done anything wrong. But that's all right, should it come to that.

*And he lets his hand fall at his side.* ...She deserves to have an end.

We always say 'I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy', when it comes to horrible things. Torture, experiments - no one deserves to go through that. It sounds so hollow to say it now, but hearing it all laid out, and laid out about a person who arguably is our worst enemy...

[Yukiko sighs, not quite finishing her thought before shakily getting to her feet, squinting at those words. The truth is right there, quite literally the writing on the wall.]

It really doesn't seem like we'll be able to leave her alive, does it? I'm not saying that as a punishment, but it seems like she's too far gone to even consider trying to bring back. There are some wounds that run too deep to heal.

[She nods agreement.]

...she does deserve an end.

Teach the world

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I'm so sorry I have no idea where all these words came from

never apologize; these are lovely words