For Thine Is; Zo

[animusmods]

Characters: any characters who are still within the Tower
Setting: the hidden floor
Format: any
Summary: Zo needs help. What will you do?
Warnings: psychological horror

Aria and the other retrieval units stand guard in the room and regard each person who enters with a little bit of caution. The reason quickly becomes clear: Zo lies unconscious on a bed that appears to have been stolen from a hospital recovery room. With the glamour down, he looks spectral: it's possible to look through his body and to the bed beneath. He's not quite a ghost, though, as he can be interacted with.

If Zo is attacked, the retrieval units will be quick to retaliate. They can't help Zo on their own, though--so maybe there's something you can do...

Comments

[animusnpcs]

He had a bad reaction to what Sephiroth was doing--an accidental discharge of power. [She seems quite insistent about that.]

He needs to be woken up.

[fionnuisce]

Wait, what did Sephiroth do this ti--no, forget it, that's not important and I don't want to waste time. I assume if waking him were simple, you wouldn't have called us. So what, exactly, is this going to take?

[He half-expected the same as what Riki had asked for to recharge the Tower. While that wasn't an appealing option, Waver wasn't going to be entirely against it.]

[animusnpcs]

You have to interact with him--he's sealed behind a barrier right now and we can't reach him. But all of you--he brought you here. You should be able to speak to him.

[fionnuisce]

Fanfuckingtastic. Before I go and do something stupid, next question: what kind of barrier? The 'tangible wall' sort or the 'touch it and you're a fine red mist' sort?

[Always an optimist...]

[animusnpcs]

It's just a mental one. It's what's keeping him unconscious--it won't harm you.

[fionnuisce]

Better than expected, then. Last question: wasn't the point of this floor that the administrators wouldn't know of it, or have I missed something?

[animusnpcs]

I trust Zo--if Dax were alive, I'd trust him with this information, too. It's the others I don't want to know about this place. [She pauses.] And--if I didn't bring him here, Ruana might get to him instead.

[fionnuisce]

[Beat.]

That is a hell of a good point. Never mind, then.

[animusnpcs]

I'd rather people be worried about the admins than complacent about them, honestly. But Zo means well.

[fionnuisce]

I wouldn't say I fully trust him or Riki, but I haven't yet been given reason to think either are out to get us.

[animusnpcs]

I wouldn't trust Riki at all. [Aria seems convinced of that.] I still don't know what he was doing in January, and Zo hasn't seen him in months.

[fionnuisce]

[Pausing at that, Waver seemed to process this information before responding.]

What. Where could he possibly have fucked off to?!

[animusnpcs]

He knows the Tower better than anyone--except Ruana, probably. I think--he took soul energy from people, didn't he? He could power any machine in the Tower with it.

[Aria's mistrust of Riki runs deep, apparently.]

[fionnuisce]

...Y-yes, about that...was that not meant at keeping the Tower operational?

[YOU FUCKED UP, WAVER.]

[animusnpcs]

You've seen the countdown on the terminals, right? The countdown to power failure never dropped lower or gained any time unexpectedly.

[fionnuisce]

...

. . .

[There was a very long silence as Waver contemplated several things with a glamour-less look of rapidly increasing horror. One: everyone including himself had completely overlooked that blatantly obvious detail. Two: if Riki built and ran the Tower, obviously he could just pull a fucking fuse or something and make it look like a power loss. Three: if Riki had been lying--which seemed the logical conclusion--what was that power really for?]

...Fuck. Fucking goddamn lying son of a bitch, we fucked up.

[animusnpcs]

Well-- Maybe a little. But it's Riki's turn to run the Tower next month, and he can't just not show up for it. Maybe you can do something then.

[fionnuisce]

I appreciate your attempt to soften the blow, Aria, but in this case it is acceptable to bluntly say yes, we have fucked up in an immeasurable amount.

[Deep breaths.]

Right. Since he's been missing as long as you say, if he's going to do something with whatever energy he has, I'd bet it will be next month.

...Define 'any machine in the Tower'. Is there anything in the administrative levels we should know about?

[animusnpcs]

There are a lot of machines that haven't been powered at all or fully powered as far as any of us know. I don't know what he'd want with a machine he's never tried to turn on before, but there are things like the machine Zo uses to help him access other worlds that aren't at full power.

[fionnuisce]

... [That sounded like an extremely useful piece of equipment to Waver, and he carefully filed away the concept for more careful review later.]

I didn't realize Zo needed a machine for that. I always assumed he did all of that himself.

[animusnpcs]

It acts to focus his abilities--like a magnifying glass can focus a point of sunlight.

[fionnuisce]

That makes sense. Now that I think of it, the alternative makes him seem even more powerful than rational thought can comprehend.

Is there anything at all down there that can be used or even repurposed to repair the damage Ruana's done to our own worlds?

[animusnpcs]

That machine might be able to be repurposed--at least, the way it is now, without it being powered on fully. I'm not sure what might happen if it's fully powered.

[fionnuisce]

I'll gladly accept 'might' over 'no, that's fucking lunacy'. Putting aside Riki and whatever he might be doing for the moment, is there any feasible way for us to get to that machine and use it without Ruana literally and metaphorically biting our heads off?

[animusnpcs]

You'll have to do it when she's not watching closely--she's awake most of the time, now. It'll have to be in April.