towerofanimus | [open]

Entry tags:

[open]

Characters: Romeo
Setting: Everywhere, starting in the cafeteria, going to every floor in turn, making a brief trip into room 1-03 and finishing in 1-02. Just let me know where you are finding him.
Format: Starting in prose, but will change if you want
Summary: After not being able to find Molly all day Romeo asked on the network. He is now searching the whole tower looking for her.
Warnings: Lots of sadness

No. Molly was not gone. Romeo was not going to believe it, because it just couldn't be so. She must just be hiding somewhere. Maybe she was sad and wanted to be alone. Though that wasn't really like Molly, maybe she had decided to go into the maze and got lost.

Or maybe the bad people had got her once and for all...

No... He had to keep his spirits up, she had to be somewhere. He began in the cafeteria, checking everywhere including the oven and the freezers. "MOLLY?" He called. He stopped people when he saw them asking if they'd seen her.

"She's bigger than me and wears cool hats and is a superhero!" He told them if they didn't know her by name. He checked all the floors, even the really scary ones. He swam about in the aquarium to see if she was in the water, and ran around the forest, remembering to look upwards in case she was hiding from the animals.

"MOLLY!"

He didn't find her. He ran through the dormitory halls poking his head into rooms and asking if people had seen her.

But he was starting to expect the answer no. It was impossible to keep his spirits up, tears kept welling in his eyes as he tore desperately through the last coridoors before pushing open the door to room 1-03 slowly with shaking hands. He ran over to Molly's bed, it was neater than it should be. He opened her trunk and stared for a few moments at the emptiness inside before a sob escaped his lips and he fled.

He had suspected it from the moment Ienzo had told him that her name wasn't on the list anymore. But now the truth came crashing down on him. Molly, his best friend in the tower, as best a friend as Alfredo had been was gone, gone and the bad people had taken her and were probably doing horrible horrible things to her.

He stumbled into his own room and crashed onto his bed sobbing, not even bothering to keep it quiet. Molly was gone and it was like all the light had been sucked out of the world.

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"I can trap them in a temporal loop for a couple of seconds... you don't need to sacrifice yourself." Despite this, he follows Romeo deeper in, hoping he's not planning to do something stupid like run all over the place. They're almost certainly going to get themselves killed...

Romeo didn't really understand that but he knew that it was magic so he nodded. He zig zagged across the forest, not sticking to the tracks. Romeo was starting to get worried and desperate and when he did that he got stupid, or more stupid that usual. "Molly!"

"Romeo!" Ienzo was trying to keep at a pace that would let him remember the surroundings, but with the other boy constantly running off, it was soon evident that he would need nothing less than a leash if the strategy was going to work. "Romeo, stop before you go any farther." He could figure out a way to try and get them back later, but for now, he just needed to remove a certain headless chicken from the equation.

Romeo stopped for a moment, "She might be here Ienzo, she might be hurt. The animals might have got her. We have to search everywhere!" He was working himself up to a panic, but he could not think of anything past finding Molly. His friend was in danger and he had to save her.

He set off again calling Molly's name.

Now growing rather irritated, Ienzo stubbornly followed behind. "If they could take down Molly, what do you think they would do to-- us?" He paused abruptly near the end of the sentence, but it wasn't a stutter of fear; he knew that Romeo probably cared more about Ienzo's well-being than his own, so therefore including both of them in the equation would likely make a more convincing argument.

"They wont hurt you Ienzo, I'll fight them." But he did pause for thought; even if he didn't stop walking. They where much stronger than him, if they had managed to get Molly, who was a superhero, they had chased him before, he sighed.

"I don't want you to get hurt Ienzo, I can take you back to the stairs if you want. But I have to check the whole forest, she might be here."

"How are you going to fight them, Romeo? You have no weapons, no magic, and will be at a severe disadvantage based on size alone. There is no way you can realistically hope to approach one without being torn limb from limb!"

...It was at this point that Ienzo realized he was shouting. Whoops.

"I don't care," Romeo was shouting as well, tears in his eyes. "They have Molly and she's probably hurt and scared and I have to find her, I don't care if they tear me limb from limb, I'll just wake up and come back until I find her!"

"We've gone through six out of twenty-five floors, Romeo," he said. "If Molly came in here, she died and will probably revive by morning. And if she didn't, she's on another floor -- the majority of which we haven't checked -- or has vanished from the Tower completely." Pause.

"Now. Find a path back the way we came." He's not asking this entirely because he wants to get back to the stairs, per se.

Romeo paused, Ienzo was right, if she was here she would die and wake up again. He turned round and walked back to the younger boy. "She is here somewhere, let's go to the next floor."

He began walking in the vague direction of the stairs, hoping that he had not got them too lost.

Ienzo breathed deeply, once, letting Romeo walk ahead for now. At least he had resolved that issue, so they could both focus on remembering the way they had come. He thought he had an idea of where to go, but... it was hard to record it while not losing Romeo. Hopefully, between the two of them, they could return to the staircase in time.

Romeo looked around, slowly realising he didn't know where he was. "We came this way right?" He looked around them but everywhere looked the same.

"I think so..." He stopped a few paces behind Romeo and looked around. "I... tried to keep track of the path, but..."

Romeo felt a bit bad, "Sorry I ran off..." He had to keep their spirits up though! They'd find the way back!

"I think it is this way!" He set off walking again.

He didn't offer any response, only followed Romeo back through the trees. In truth he had left behind the point where he knew where he was going simply by turning around, and was now hoping that something of the surroundings would spark his memory.

The stairs had to be somewhere, Romeo continued walking, feeling bad that he had gotten them lost and no Ienzo was in danger as well. He could hear rustling coming from nearby and stepped closer to Ienzo in case anything jumped out at them.

"We must be close," he whispered.

"Slowly," he said. "Slowly and quietly..." He was normally very adept at moving quietly, but with everything crunching under their feet the task had become significantly harder. He didn't know where Romeo got the idea that they had to be close to the exit; that rustling might have been a beast that didn't come close to the stairs, which would mean they were actually very far from their destination...

Romeo slowed down and walked as quietly as he could, which was much louder than Ienzo was managing. Truthfully he had no idea where they were, but he was trying to keep Ienzo's spirits up and they had to be close. He was pretty sure it was this way.

Unfortunately the rustling was getting louder.

Almost subconsciously Ienzo held his hands out slightly, prepared to fire off a Stop if anything comes near... of course, it won't last for long, but...

Romeo clenched his fists, ready to protect Ienzo. The rustling got louder and out of the bush came a baby deer.

A baby deer with teeth that was heading towards the two of them.

Yeah, guess who's no longer fooled by baby deer? This kid. Immediately he muttered "Stop" under his breath, and the creature was caught mid-bound, stopped in midair with its jaws open.

"It won't last for long," Ienzo said, even as he pulled Romeo's arm to prompt an escape. "Quickly. Let's go."

Romeo was not fooled by baby deer either, though he did feel sorry for the animals here, they were as much prisoners as the rest of them. He took Ienzo's hand though and ran.

"Can you climb? We'll be safer in the trees!"

"Climb? Of course not!" Sorry Romeo, but this loser has pretty much never needed to climb for anything in his life. (Yeah, he is kind of overly enabled.) So he stops again, looking around for any indicator of where to go; when he finds none, he catches his breath and then starts moving in a direction which may or may not lead to the staircase.

"Oh..." How can he not climb? Even before Romeo became a chimney sweep he was always climbing things, it was fun! It was also useful because adults, and attacking animals, often didn't think to look for you if you climbed up high.

Romeo ran after Ienzo, "What if I helped you get to the first branches, so you think you could stay up there until it was safe?"

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