destinystrings | Redi Domum

Entry tags:

Redi Domum

Who: The missing visitors and you. Open to everyone.
Where: MAGI Labs
Summary: After being violently removed from the Tower of Animus, everyone is returned 'home'.
Warnings: None

There was a tight clench behind your navel, the sensation of something dragging you through the fabric of time and space itself... it was an unpleasant sensation, almost sickening. Those of Hinoto-Ri had vanished from the tower completely when the clock struck midnight from what had just happened, removed from that reality. It had happened with such abruptness that it was downright disorienting to observe. There was no chance for a hurried goodbye, no chance of even letting out a surprised scream...

Those of Hinoto-Ri were dragged back to their own world with very little grace, and for a dizzying and wild thirty seconds, they suffered from the sensation of thick tentacles grasping and yanking their bodies this way and that through a swirling blur of matter. Where were they going? What had caused this?

After those sickening moments that seemed to last far longer, they were unceremoniously shoved out of the Shining Trapezohedron in a stream of bright lights, and into what looked like a giant room filled with computer screens. At least it didn't appear to be the Mictlan, like when the other group had returned.

Pray that you weren't on the bottom of the pile...

Now there was a quiet hum, as an alarm went off. Lights shone brightly upon you as scientists outside were running scans to determine you weren't harmful from your trip. That left you time to think.

You had finally met him...

Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos. He'd taunted some of you, shown you another world you had been sent to save...but in the end, nothing much had changed. Perhaps there was small solace that it was still standing and not completely obliterated as had been his plan. The questioned remained, however...

Where was He now? ...you could figure that out later. There were reunions to be had first.

[OOC - Anyone can start threads.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He sighs.

Both of those issues are disturbing in their own right, though he can't say he's ever fully trusted any governmental body. He recognizes that they're necessary on some level, but he's not so blind to put his faith in them. He's also far from believing that it isn't corrupt on some level. Doesn't matter how good they are, there's always dirt underneath. Shinjiro would, quite frankly, prefer to keep his head out of politics, but if Hanamura had been censored for things he said, that didn't bode well. A government should be able to take talk and criticism like anybody else.

On the other hand, he's not sure the demonstrations surprise him. He knew not everybody trusted them, had no reason to, and it was likely that distrust would be acted out sooner or later.

He grimaces. "They violent at all?"

Peaceful demonstrations were one thing, but if they were escalating or had already grown violent, he'd start to be more worried.

Edited 2013-03-04 01:26 (UTC)

She sighs. "Everyone seemed really riled up and they weren't willing to listen to logic at all. I don't understand how they can just fall right into what the Anoli want them to believe. They haven't given anyone any reason to trust them either."

Minako can't say she has much faith in authority, either. Too often the 'authorities' in her life have been absent, or revealed to be not worth looking up to. Adults, even adults in power, are people with troubles like anyone else, so it's much better to rely on your own observations and logical reasoning. "But Nicholas-san - he's the man with glasses who says he's a paranormal investigator - is organizing a group to help show people we're here to help them. I think it's a good idea."

Edited 2013-03-04 01:52 (UTC)

He stares at her for a moment. She had been there then? ...Of course.

His grimace thins in thought. "Doubt the people here trust them any more than we do." Not after the tournament. Not that there likely weren't few sympathizers in the crowd, but out-right trust by the majority was a little much to expect, not after the Anoli had tried to kill the mayor and terrorized countless others. "Doesn't mean they haven't been thinking about what the Anoli brought up before. They just gave people reason to think about it, is all."

Bringing that sense of distrust and suspicion right out into the open, using a very public and heavily populated venue, guaranteed it would be talked about, discussed, and debated. That in turn might make people that were more hesitant about talking about it more vocal in their opinions. With any luck, Nicholas' ideas would help change people's perceptions, though what impact it'd have is impossible to say.

"But they don't trust us, either. Because of the tournament, they're acting like we're all violent without even getting to know us."

She isn't saying so directly, but the crowd's assumptions were hurtful. The tournament had been hard for everyone involved, and the result was more mistrust. And besides that... The crowd was acting like no one who arrived here deserved to stay, regardless of their circumstances or how hard they worked for the city. They should just 'go back' to wherever they were before and leave Hinoto-ri alone.

Not everyone has that choice.

"N' that's probably what they think." And he can't say he's surprised. Even if by some miracle they were all saints, they'd probably still be disliked and mistrusted by a minority, because being afraid of something alien is easy to do. It's easy to give into negative assumptions, especially when you're afraid and want to protect what you have. It's not right and it's not fair, and the assumptions are hollow and without much foundation. You'd think people would be more rational, but they aren't. "Ain't how things should be, but that's how people are."

There's plenty of historic precedent for that.

"I know." And she really does. Assumptions without facts had followed her all the way through school, even to Port Island. Her circumstances were different, and so there were whispers and gossip, and even the vague uneasiness from some people no matter how bright and friendly she tried to be. Maybe that was Death's doing, in the end, but... most people only see what they want to see, and hear what they want to hear, and nothing more. "It would just be nice if there were a few less."

This is about the time she thinks she should change the topic. "So how's the food? Acceptable?"

"Heh." That sentiment doesn't surprise him either. If they're lucky, that mistrust will fade with time. Emotions flare then simmer down. Of course, there's the possibility that they won't be here long enough for any of it to actually matter.

He takes the change of subject in stride. He stares down at what little remains of his food, almost appraising. There's a part of him that would be appalled at ordering a bad meal. It had tasted like he had expected. It certainly met his expectations, and so far his system seemed to be accepting it just fine. It'd better. He hadn't been adventurous for a reason.

"Yeah." But with the change of subject he figures he should start to fill in her own curiosity. He's sure he could get away with not saying a damn thing about the place for awhile, but there was no reason to hide anything that he didn't already have an intention to. "Was getting sick of the cafeteria food."

The food had actually been decent, but you got sick of seeing everything heart-shaped and dyed pink after awhile, and there was something unpleasant about finding candy hearts that tasted like chalk in the more solid things you ate. But he figures that's as good of a place to start as any. It'll tell her a few things on its own.

"Cafeteria?"

He knows her and her curiosity well. Now that he's brought up the topic himself, he's left himself open for questioning. "Where exactly did you all go, anyway? All I've heard is that it was a 'horror tower.'"

That's an apt description, though he thinks it's something of a subtle understatement, but he'll keep that to himself. There hadn't been anything nice about it that wasn't some mocking charade in disguise. Now that he's answering her questions, he'll have to figure out how to strike a balance of what to say, how to say it, and what to keep quiet. She deserves to have things honestly told, but doesn't need to be given all the tiny details.

"It was a tower. Like what Tartarus might've been like if it had people with an imagination runnin' the place."

"I wouldn't really expect Tartarus to have a cafeteria..." But as desensitized to it as she'd been by the end, Tartarus itself hadn't been a particularly nice place, so the explanation isn't very encouraging.

"Like I said, it had people running the damn place." Not that he'd stoop to calling the administrators there human, but the sentence is true enough. He keeps his face expressionless. "Had dorms and elevators and things built into it, and had about a hundred floors. All of them were different."

"And since you said it's like Tartarus, I'm guessing some of those floors had monsters."

It's only logical, plus she's not sure how something could be a 'horror tower' without monsters or demons of some degree.

A nod. "Pretty much. Some did, some didn't."

And those that didn't have any were sometimes just as, if not more, dangerous than the floors that did in some way or another. In ways Shinjiro hadn't had time to discover for the most part. He had been careful, maybe more cautious than some. Aki had told him what floors to keep the hell away from if he could, and most things he could fend off.

"Just had to be careful, is all."

"And you were there the entire time?" Three weeks in that place sounds like a lot... although it had taken them a whole year to climb the last tower. "What were you all doing?"

Edited 2013-03-04 08:33 (UTC)

He shrugs, frowning again. "We didn't have anywhere else to go."

It wasn't like the tower had an exit, and none of them had the foggiest idea how they were even going to get home. And even if he could've left that tower, Shinjiro couldn't have just left Aki and the rest. Couldn't have just left them there with the administrators and those damn collars they couldn't live without. He hadn't wanted to.

"We were looking for someone. That was what a dream we had told us to do."

It sounds asinine, saying so, but they'd all had it, and they didn't have anything else to go on. Just a set of shitty instructions that made their mission sound important, but as the days wore on it certainly hadn't felt like it. It was more irritating than anything, being left with nothing to go on except a well-founded hunch and nothing else.

"We didn't know who it was, but a lot of us figured it was Nyarlathotep." He pauses, his voice turning almost acidic for a few seconds. "And it was. Not that it mattered who we were looking for: he had to be in the tower. Ain't anywhere else he could've been, though it got frustrating after awhile."

They looked and searched but found nothing. And the administrators had a pretty twisted idea of hospitality. He hadn't personally experienced the worst of it, but he had seen and heard things. Understood what some of the experiments could turn into. And the longer he stayed the clearer it was becoming that they had to be on some sort of time limit. The necklaces they wore would save them once, but that's it. With those sort of odds, there's no way all of them could last for months. They couldn't just be brought back like the people with collars could.

"We saw that dream, too," Minako confirms for him. "So... it really was Nyarlathotep? You met him?"

It'd sounded like that, from the way he phrased it.

He tilts his head. Shinjiro had wondered if that was the case, but he couldn't be sure.

At her question, he nods. "He was waiting for us in one of the floors." Inside the damn maze with the mirrors. That was one floor he was glad to get out of. He didn't need another presence inside his head that he sure as hell didn't want. He wasn't some toy to be played with. None of them were. "Just been biding his time, I guess. That was yesterday." Or at least he thinks it was.

Edited 2013-03-05 06:17 (UTC)

Minako considers the remains of her food, debating taking another bite... and then sets it aside. Maybe she'll finish it later, but right now she has no interest in eating.

"...So, what happened?"

The way he's not said it already makes her worried.

Because he's mulling over what to say. He could go into detail of what the bastard did and said, but what good would that do except make her upset? It was obvious that it was all just a game to him, weighing a person's reactions like you would rate an actor's performance. The details didn't matter here. And it's nothing he'd enjoy bringing up. "He talked shit mostly," he says, finally, pausing for a short span of seconds, "...probably to see what we'd do. We eventually we found our way out."

He lapses into silence again, trying to piece together the final hours. There had been a lot of chaos and confusion during the last little while. It had been hard to understand exactly what was going on for sure. He knows what he saw. There are things he can guess at, but can't confirm for certain now that they're gone and out of the Animus. There hadn't been time to make sense of anything. He had seen the build-up from the terminal screens, as had many others, and was limited to what it showed him.

"Not long after, I think he tried to destroy the tower. He didn't manage. One of the heads runnin' the place stopped him, far as I could tell. Then about an hour later, we were kicked out and ended up back here—at least, that's what I'm guessing is what happened. Don't think any of us chose to leave, and I don't think anyone magically found us a way out. It felt different."

"So, basically..."

Running over what he'd just said...

"No one was able to do anything at all."

So the entire trip had been a waste? They'd spent all that time climbing the tower for nothing?

She wasn't blaming Shinjiro, or anyone, for not being able to defeat Nyarlathotep themselves. From the sound of it, they hadn't been given much of a chance. What had Philemon actually been hoping for, anyway? Wasn't Nyarlathotep some sort of godlike being?

There are some parallels she could draw here, but right now, that's about the last thing she wants to do.

He sighs. "More or less."

They couldn't even hold their own against the administrators there, let alone take down something akin to a god. They hadn't even had the "honor" of finding him, really. At best, they had all been bait to flush him out, but he's not even convinced of that. He's sure Nyarlathotep only surfaced because he felt like it. It wasn't because of anything they did. In the end, their actions were small and insignificant in the long run. They couldn't save the people in the tower, and they certainly hadn't done a damn thing to Nyarlathotep.

"But I don't think us accomplishing anything was ever the point."

"Then what was the point?" She's thinking back to what Tatsuya had said about Philemon. He ruins your life. Anytime he gets involved, things become worse. Philemon had probably meant them to accomplish something with this move, but if it wasn't defeating Nyarlathotep, what were they supposed to have done?

He answers with a question. "Didn't your brother say somethin' about a bet?"

"That's right..."

She sighs. "I heard something else troubling about them while you were gone. Eikichi-kun's friend, Tatsuya, was talking about Philemon on the network. He said that both Philemon and Nyarlathotep are aspects of humanity in general."

Great. More psychological talk.

While the revelation might have been unbelievable years ago—as if an aspect of humanity could take on physical form—there was little reason not to take the explanation at face value. In the end, it probably doesn't even matter what they are. They exist, and that's all there is to it.

"He say anything else?"

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