Xion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
attheclocktower) wrote2013-07-23 08:59 pm
attheclocktower) wrote2013-07-23 08:59 pm
Cognizance Discoveries (Organized)
Zo's and Jason's Argument (in rough order)
Dave will become abruptly conscious in front of an unconscious phantom. The room around him is filled with monsters in cages, and it's a chaotic mess at the quietest of times, but Dave doesn't look away from the monster in front of him.
His hands are covered in gloves made of especially thick film, and he picks up the phantom and carries it down the hall to a door marked SURGERY. Jason is inside, and he perks up visibly when Dave walks through the door.
"I'll never get tired of these," he says, sparing a fond look at the monster. "Who were you, then?"
Dave will black out.
=======
Richtofen will become abruptly conscious standing beside Jason, who is at work cutting up a phantom. The phantom shrieks and wails and Richtofen will feel something like his ears bleeding, though there is no actual blood.
"They're always so loud! Richtofen--R1523463--fetch the leftover cart."
Richtofen turns to step out of the room and gathers a cart filled with mummified corpses. Their entrails dangle out of their mouths as if they've spit up their entire insides. He brings the cart back into the room, and the phantom's shrieking becomes more painful.
"Let's see, let's see, who were you before he missed?"
Richtofen will then black out.
=======
Ocelot will become abruptly conscious pushing a hovering cart filled with meat and rotting things and goop down a hallway. She has been tasked with feeding the monsters, and she throws each cell whatever it needs. It's boring work, but there are other things going on.
From the opposite end of the hallway, Zo shrieks--a loud, startled sound that grows angry and burns at the edges. The door of the surgery ward goes flying in two pieces of crumpled metal.
"What are you doing? What are you doing, stop!" Zo's voice fades as he passes through the surgery ward into a meeting room beyond.
Ocelot will then black out.
=======
Minato will become abruptly conscious having found himself futilely cleaning garbage off of the floor of a meeting room. Futilely because more of it is quickly getting added by Zo as he hurls paper and pencils and pens and all manner of things he can grab hold of at Jason.
"Stop it! Stop, stop, stop!" Zo shrieks, and he's not throwing with his hands really, not by the time the chair is lifted off the ground and pitched at Jason's face. "Put it back, put it back!"
Minato will turn, now, and be able to see the table more clearly--there's a body splayed out on it, looking strangely mummified, except for the way its internal organs spill out of its mouth.
Jason is doing quite a job dodging all the various projectiles, though eventually he's forced to duck under the table. "That's enough, that's enough, if you throw this table I don't know what we're going to do with you!"
"You don't get to touch these, you're not allowed, you're never allowed!" Zo's voice pitches up in octave twice, sounds hoarse and angry and too loud for such a small boy.
Minato will then black out.
======
David will become abruptly conscious mopping the floor of a loud room lined with cages containing monsters. There's a lot to mop up, given how messy monsters often are, and the task seems at least a little futile, but that doesn't seem to be stopping him. He pauses to pick up what appears to be broken pieces of a door, and places them beside the surgery ward they apparently came from.
Inside there's something twitching and writhing and knitting itself together, but David doesn't get a look at what it is.
David then blacks out.
======
Kain will become abruptly conscious standing in front of a door frame whose door appears to have been torn off completely. It's this Kain is addressing, having abandoned a cart of monster organs and body parts on some different priority.
It looks like a fight happened in the surgery ward the door normally covers. Jason is twitching and writhing on the ground, only identifiable because his face is mostly intact, though the rest of his organs seem as if they at some point decided to no longer respect the barriers his body generally has to keep them inside. There's gore everywhere in the room, and something like congealed shadows dripping off the ceiling.
Jason's arms seem to be moving at an impossible angle at impossible speeds--he appears to be knitting himself back together, little by little.
Kain will then black out.
Possibly Related to the Above:
Tohko will become abruptly conscious in a library filled with fiction. She's sorting through fantasy novels--of which this library seems to have a lot--some of which she may recognize and others that are in languages unfamiliar to her. She's near the door, and so when Zo bursts into the library, it's easy for her to notice even unable to move her body.
Zo seems to be in quite a state--he's sobbing noisily, and doesn't stop to look at Tohko as he passes, running through the library and into a back door. Hands seem to reach out to tug him into an embrace as the door shuts on its own.
Tohko will then black out.
======
Legolas will become abruptly conscious setting three places at a dining table. Riki is already there, though his head is bowed over floating screens--he's brought work to the dinner table with him, it seems (if this is dinner, anyway). Zo bounds in next, energetic but looking a bit less enthusiastic than normal, though he manages a smile and a cheerful "hello" for Riki.
"Jason's gonna be late," Zo says, carefully, and Riki glances at the boy over top of his screens. "We can just eat without him."
Legolas will then black out.
Collar Boycott:
Equius will become abruptly conscious mopping up spilled red collar fluid in a small medical ward. Jason looks furious.
"We can't just be missing fourteen containers," he says, glaring down a retrieval unit that has no will to make anything except its neutral expression.
"The containers were misplaced following the last collar checks," it replies, and Jason drags a scalpel down its arm in more hardly contained fury. "We believe they may be in the residential areas."
"Then find them," Jason spits, stabbing the retrieval unit with more force in its shoulder.
Equius will then black out.
======
Lancer will become abruptly conscious cleaning spilled monster blood from a surgical room. Jason is here, and he looks furious--he's talking to Riki over something that looks like a terminal, except for being much more advanced.
"Fourteen missing. Fourteen! He's lucky I let him off with just a favor!"
"It's quite a favor," Riki replies, tone even.
"I'm going to have to track them down now. Ugh, must they destroy everything they touch? They're like infants. They've already given me extra work changing the systems around--you. Come here."
Jason has called Lancer over, and Lancer will do so. Jason will then, with supernatural precision, slice the skin of Lancer's chest open from collar to navel, managing to avoid cutting any deeper than that entirely. Next, he stabs the scalpel down into Lancer's chest, though he avoids any major organs, and appears to be a degree more satisfied than he was.
"You have terrible ideas of stress relief," Riki, still on the screen, replies with a roll of his eyes.
Lancer will then black out again.
Shadow Children:
Ryoji will become abruptly conscious mopping up the corridors of the administrative levels. Retrieval units, worker units, and other unconscious residents pass by on occasion, tasked with unknown business.
It's very quiet, and the atmosphere is quite unsettling. Occasionally, he will hear giggling or screaming or whispering or crying, but these voices don't match any of the administrators or residents Ryoji knows. Things flicker at the edges of his vision, as well--shadows moving, eyes staring at him, hands reaching out--but he never deviates from his tasks and never looks directly at anything happening.
He will continue this task without stopping until he blacks out.
======
England will become abruptly conscious in a library filled with fiction books and novels of all sizes. He's currently sorting a section that seems dedicated to fairy tales. He might recognize some of them, but they seem to cover an impressive variety of languages and cultures, and not all of them, or even most of them, are from the Earth he knows about.
A shadow child stands behind him, not even an inch from his back, the entire time he works. He can see it out of the corners of his eyes when he turns to gather up more books to put back on the shelves, its body inky black and its teeth white white white as it grins at him. It only moves when he moves, follows in perfect step and grins the entire time.
England will continue his task until he blacks out.
======
Ellen will become abruptly conscious in a small operating room. She is cleaning up something that isn't exactly blood, or anything at all, and as she tries to mop it up the shadowy substance giggles and screams and cries and skitters away from her.
Anything she can mop up onto her cleaning rag goes silent and still as any proper spill should, but some climb up the walls and sneak out of cracks and pile up there.
Once the room is clean, Ellen leaves through the door, and a dozen inky black shadows with white white white teeth grin at her before running off.
Ellen will then black out.
Note: We have admin confirmation that this experience and the experience of Amelia (the one below this one) are directly linked.
======
Amelia will abruptly become conscious in front of a closed surgery room door. There's the sounds of giggling and shrieking and crying inside, but Amelia doesn't move, seeming instead to be waiting for something.
Little bits of shadows sneak out the cracks in the door as if escaping something and begin to clump together. Slowly they find forms--two dozen inky black shadow children with glittery white teeth are born.
Amelia moves, then, striking with a beam of light from an object in her hands that pierces half of them. They wail and scream and shatter into a thousand pieces before reforming as the phantoms Amelia may recognize from the residential levels at night.
Amelia will then black out.
Note: We have admin confirmation that this experience and the experience of Ellen (the one above this one) are directly linked.
======
Archer will become abruptly conscious in front of a tank of water being filled. He's simply holding the button down to fill the tank, and so doesn't have much to do otherwise.
On the other side of the tank, visible from where Archer is standing, is a red door that reads CAUTION: CONTROL ROOM STAIRCASE. PSYCHORADIATION LEVELS LETHAL BEYOND THIS DOOR. Children made of shadow occasionally approach the door, touching it and darting away as if it were some strange game of chicken, but they don't seem to dare slide through the cracks and enter it properly.
Eventually, Archer will black out.
======
Nue will become abruptly conscious at first seeing nothing but darkness and hearing only a steady siren-like beeping from her collar. She's being carried--and then she's shifted a little, and she can see inky black shadow children with white white white grins are carrying her over their head. There's an abandoned broom not too far down the hallway that may be a sign of what she had previously been doing. Nue is being carried toward a doorway lined in red paint, and the closer to it she gets the more she can taste something like blood on the back of her tongue.
Then scalpels fly through the air, slicing through the heads of the inky creatures with pinpoint proficiency. The ones that don't drop to the ground scatter, and Nue is dropped on the ground.
"They're such a nuisance," Jason says, leaning over Nue and appearing to check her for damages. "We're going to start losing more residents to them than to their wasteland worlds sooner or later."
Nue will then black out.
Nanomachines:
David will become abruptly conscious in a large research library. He is sorting books--the spines reveal these to be the missing psychology books, though he can do nothing more than observe titles and covers. Riki is in the background, and can be seen out of the corner of David's eye. At one point Riki calls David over and requests a book from a different section of the library and David will retrieve it--this book is simply titled "Nanofilm".
He will resume sorting books until he blacks out again.
======
Nesir will become abruptly conscious carrying broken machine parts. There are enough of them that she will have to make several trips back and forth from a large container of molten metal to the pile.
"Just dump them in," Riki is saying, instructing her idly while most of his attention is on a screen floating slightly to one side of his face. "Nanomachines don't melt at this temperature--well, you wouldn't care either way, I suppose."
Nesir will then black out.
Ruana:
Ganondorf will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
Ruana is, however, inside Ganondorf's mind, pawing at it with curiosity. His immediate memories of the Tower and his plans are sealed to her--and actually, she's speaking to him--simple, eager orders.
"Show me where you're from--not just Hyrule, but where you're from," she says, and while he can't see her she's there, just behind him, sleepy and curious. "You're from the desert, yes? But I've never gotten a real tour. Show me, go on."
There's something like a mental nudge, and Ganondorf's memories of the place he was raised are spilled forth for her perusal.
He will then black out.
======
Quark will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
She's in his mind, though, speaking to him. "Show me something frightening. What scares you?"
She presses against the memories of his mind with ease, as if pushing his thoughts open is no more difficult than opening a favorite book. Frightening, unsettling memories will flash before Quark's eyes as she sifts through them.
Ruana can be seen, in a vague, not-there-at-all way. She grins at him, sleepy delight in her features. "Which one scares you most, Quark?"
Quark will then black out.
======
Dio will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
Even asleep, though, she's standing next to him--or inside his mind next to him. "Hello, Dio. This is your first time here, right? I know you already, but it's nice to meet you here."
Ruana hums, sounding fond and possessive all at once.
"I do love my performers. And since this will be your first performance, show me your favorite memory. Those always say so much!"
Dio will then black out.
======
Mamoru will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
He's standing still, but he's moving at the same time--somewhere that isn't anywhere, in his mind but not, because even though he's conscious he's not in control, and a giggling, sleepy-sounding Ruana is urging him on.
"Here, here, I'll give you a team to play against today," she says, and strange shadows take their places on a soccer field. His own team is the one he would recognize, but they make no sounds at all, and they have no eyes.
He will then black out.
======
Dark Pit will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
But in his mind he's flying, and Ruana is beside him, though he can't quite see her. They're covering ground in his world faster than it should be possible as Ruana skims over his memories like an impatient hummingbird, occasionally dipping into the more dramatic but mostly enjoying the movement itself.
"You don't have a different soul by our standards," she's saying, sounding asleep and yet bursting with energy at the same time. "Here you're all the same. All of you are the same and all of you are precious--so precious to me."
Dark Pit will then black out.
======
Saber will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
Saber is really somewhere in her mind, though, although she is no more able to control herself here than she is currently able to control her own body. Ruana floats just behind her, perhaps, though Saber wouldn't quite be able to see her even if she could look.
"Keep me company tonight, okay?" Ruana asks, though it's not as if Saber could refuse. Ruana takes Saber's hand and flies off with her, slipping through fine lines of reality and passing into a world Saber may find familiar--it's her own, almost.
Almost because there are obvious differences, and Saber is looking into an alternate world with a similar setting to her own. It's not one she would recognize from the Tower, though, and she is floating high above, following the similar-but-not-quite lives of people she almost-but-not-quite recognizes like an unwilling voyeur.
Eventually, Saber blacks out.
======
Lucifel will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
He is standing motionless in front of Ruana's bed. Ruana isn't moving except for the steady rise and fall of her chest in sleep and yet Ruana is. Something crawls across the walls and leaves a trail of blood and bile as it crawls. There is nothing there to be seen, and it can only be tracked by the mess it leaves on the walls. It seems to be moving in obsessive, circular patterns.
Lucifel will then black out.
======
Tavros will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
While he isn't moving in reality, in his mind he's going through the motions of a beast tamer, though all the beasts are ones from his world and none of them have eyes--instead only having black voids. Ruana giggles beside him, occasionally directing him to make the creatures do one trick or another.
"You're so clever," Ruana says, sounding pleased. "Play with me forever!"
Tavros will then black out.
Body Processing:
Xion will become abruptly conscious in the back room of the processing chamber. Her task is to remove the limbs from each corpse that is handed to her--she will pass the torso and head to the next person down the line from her. If the limbs are in reasonable condition, she will place them into the bin on her right, and if they are especially mangled, she will place them into the bin on her left.
She will do this without pause until she blacks out again.
======
John will become abruptly conscious in the back room of the processing chamber. His job is to remove heads from their torsos and place the heads in one of two bins--the one on the right if the head is mostly intact, and the one on the left if the head is too mangled. In order to do this, he will be provided with a small stylus-like device that can open up a panel on the back of each collar. He will press five spots on this panel with the device in a specific order and the collar will come off, allowing him to cut through the film of the neck properly. It is possible for him to memorize this order.
He will do this without pause until he blacks out again.
======
Patrick will become abruptly conscious in front of a pile of corpses in various states of trauma. He may recognize the bodies as residents of the Tower. He is tasked with gathering miscellaneous torn-off body parts that do not contain souls--anything but the torso--and placing them on a conveyor belt just outside of the chute containing all the corpses. He will occasionally have to walk into the pile and sift through them manually.
He will do this without pause until he blacks out again.
======
Enoch will become abruptly conscious in front of a pile of corpses in various states of trauma. He may recognize the bodies as residents of the Tower. He is tasked with gathering up one torso at a time--the part containing the soul--in order to carry them up a large machine to have the soul removed from the inactive body. Whenever there are no bodies with souls to process Enoch will stand unmoving watching the pile of corpses for new bodies.
He will do this without pause until he blacks out again.
======
Claudia will become abruptly conscious standing at the top of a large machine. Occasionally, residents who have recently died are carried up the machine and their soul is extracted from their body. It is Claudia's job to bring the soul to Jason--she will pick up the container once the soul has been squeezed out and walk to the surgery ward not far from where she stands.
As she carries the souls, she will feel something like a mild electric shock, though it does not seem to harm her. There is buzzing and whispering in her ears, and sometimes the souls will scream or laugh or cry, though it's difficult to tell if this is something the person the soul represents is actually doing or if Claudia is simply hearing things.
She will continue this task without stopping until she blacks out.
======
Chloe will become abruptly conscious in what appears to be a hospital ward. There are residents of the Tower on the beds who have died recently. Most appear to be sleeping, but some twitch and convulse as if seizing up. For the most part, those with mild shaking and twitching are left alone, but whenever someone's movement grows too violent, Chloe will move to their bed and strap them down.
Chloe will continue this task without stopping until she blacks out.
======
Naoya will become abruptly conscious in a silent hospital ward. Various residents of the Tower who have been recently killed but not yet returned to their rooms rest, unmoving, on the beds. Occasionally a retrieval unit will appear from an elevator in the room and gather one up. The elevator speaks their destinations allowed--this elevator connects directly to every dormitory room, somehow. It seems they've always been able to step out right into the dormitory rooms whenever they wanted to.
Eventually, Naoya will black out.
Monster Experimentation:
Riku will become abruptly conscious in a large, noisy room filled with countless cages and monsters. He is carrying a clipboard, though it's made of film paper, and it lists certain areas--B6, F9, R7--that Riku is to be attending to. He will find each area in turn and sedate selected monsters, which is a process that involves first pressing a button on the cage to fill it with gas and next stepping inside to inject the monster manually.
He will do this without pause until he blacks out again.
======
Sola will become abruptly conscious in a surgical suite. She is standing next to a table filled with surgical tools, and is tasked with handing them to Jason. He goes through them at an alarming rate--how can he even hold four scalpels at once? Still, he seems to be managing, and the Lost Head he's cutting up and altering writhes and screeches as it's cut up and mangled and altered. It doesn't seem to be anesthetized, but it doesn't seem to be dying, either.
She will continue her task until she blacks out again.
======
Yukiko will become abruptly conscious dressed in hospital scrubs with her hands up to her elbows in the chest of a Filth-Corrupted. It's still alive and oozing everywhere, but Yukiko cannot flinch away or falter. Her arms are unconvered except for a strange white light that glimmers over her entire body.
"Okay, now pull," Jason instructs, watching rather than participating and letting her pull the monster's insides out on her own. "You're not bad at this, really. I should shortlist you, have you down here more often. Here, take that saw next."
Yukiko will then black out.
Toys?:
Riku Replica will become abruptly conscious in a toy room. The toys are a complete mess, and it's his job to clean them up. They cover various age groups, from about five to about thirteen, and Repliku is tasked with putting them in their various spots in toy boxes and on shelves.
If they move and twist and bend through time and space while Repliku does so, he's not expected to find this frustrating.
Repliku will continue this task until he blacks out.
======
Ennis will become abruptly conscious in, perhaps fittingly, a room filled with dolls. She's dusting them and caring for them and placing them carefully back on their countless little shelves. They all watch her as she does this, turning their heads to follow her motions and blinking their eyes at her when her eyes scan over their faces. They move in perfect unison as they do so. Any doll she's currently attending to stares at her with particular intent as she holds it.
Ennis will continue this task until she blacks out.
======
Yuka will become abruptly conscious in a princess-pink bedroom. Ruana is sleeping behind the curtains of her bed, but this is not Yuka's concern. Instead, she's cleaning the walls. They're covered in blood and bile, and she has been given a bucket to scrub them back to their pristine pink glory.
There's whispering all around her, from behind her and in front of her and in her mind, but she cannot deviate from her task. Something tugs at her legs--gentle, teasing--but she still can't so much as flinch or look to see what it is.
Next to her ear, something that isn't there speaks. "I see you."
Yuka will then black out.
Domestic Admins:
Romeo will become abruptly conscious wiping up a table in a large library. This library is comprised entirely of fiction books and novels, and Zo is sitting in a chair nearby. He seems to have just spilled a drink, which Romeo is cleaning up.
"Oh! I'm sorry..." Zo's apology to Romeo seems automatic; he shows no sign of realizing Romeo is aware of what's going on. Zo has a novel in front of him, but the language is not one Romeo would recognize. Still, he holds it out to Romeo, momentarily blocking his view of the table. "This one's just really good, see? It's about rabbits! ...Well, I guess you can't really see."
Zo looks incredibly lonely, suddenly, and then goes back to reading his book.
Romeo will then black out.
======
Suzaku will become abruptly conscious mopping up what appears to be a small but high-tech kitchen. Zo, Jason, and Riki are sitting in the dining room, and can be seen through the door, though Suzaku will not make any particular moves to look at them. Still, he can hear them.
"What do you think the little mice will have chewed up today?" Jason sounds annoyed, though through the door he seems to be looking down at something.
"Are you still mad?" Zo's frown is deep enough to have crept into his voice. "I said I'd do it, so..."
"You aren't strict enough with them," Jason says. "They think they can run wild whenever it's your turn."
"It's not the kid they learned it from," Riki says distractedly. "These've always been the off months."
Jason's sigh says he agrees with this, but none seem willing to approach the matter in more detail than that.
Suzaku will then black out.
======
Samwise will become abruptly conscious in front of a stove. He appears to be cooking foods he'd recognize from home. Zo flits around just behind him, ghosting in and out of Sam's peripheral vision.
"I haven't tried food from your world before, but I bet it's good!" he's saying, talking without expecting any response. "Just about everything I've tried is good, and even the stuff that isn't is interesting! Maybe next time it's my turn I can have food from all over the place for you guys, even if it's fake!"
Samwise will then black out.
======
France will become abruptly conscious in a well-stocked kitchen, high-tech beyond anything he's seen. Zo and Riki are in the kitchen as well, though France doesn't turn to look at them and instead focuses on the task to which he's been assigned.
"Y'can't just have dessert," Riki is saying, speaking to Zo, who whines a little. "It's not good for you."
"But I like his desserts," Zo says, and the pout is audible. "You never let me have anything fun!"
Still, Zo seems to acquiesce. Once Riki leaves the room, however, Zo tugs at France's sleeve and speaks in an excited little whisper.
"France, France--oh, um... F1691932, attend," he says, and France turns away from his cooking to look down at Zo, who is beaming up at him with childish glee. "Make mendiants, okay? And clafoutis, too!"
France will then black out.
Library Adventures:
Shion will awake abruptly in a mess of a medical library. There are books everywhere, the shelves are completely disorganized, and some are stained with blood and bile. Shion will sort the books impervious to the apparent disorganization of this library's owner, though. Any books which are dripping red are placed to one side to dry.
He will continue this task without stopping until he blacks out.
======
Sephiran will become abruptly conscious in an impossibly messy medical library. Jason is sitting on the floor, back to an especially ravaged shelf, knees drawn up to his chest in an almost childlike pose, face buried in a book with multiple piles around him. The book he's devoting so much rapt attention to seems to cover advanced brain surgery. Sephiran sorts books nearby, but eventually Jason looks up at him.
"Do you think your brain would be any good for this?" he asks, turning the book around to show Sephiran a diagram of a brain cut into pieces and reattached with strange wires.
Sephiran will then black out.
======
Jellal will become abruptly conscious in a neatly-kept research library. He is standing with a book cart--though it hovers, rather than rests on wheels--beside Riki.
The book Riki holds is clearly a history book, and the picture of the tower on the cover makes it obvious its subject, but when Riki opens it, its pages are all blank. His eyebrows furrow slightly, the only sign of any frustration.
Then a thousand glittering screens appear out of thin air around the administrator. They flicker with a thousand different tasks, and the book, its pages high-tech film, glow and flicker with information. But eventually, always, they return to their blank state.
"Completely wiped," he says, finally. "Alright, let's have the next."
Jellal hands him another book. History, similarly blank. The process repeats, and repeats, and repeats until he blacks out.
Food/Water "Management":
Maka will become abruptly conscious at a control panel. Vast water tanks hover above her, and she is directing them to various places in the massive room. Some go to cooling and cleaning, some to consumption, others to collar fluid... There's a lot of uses for water in the Tower. The containers really do seem to be floating--occasionally in their trips they'll dip so low as to brush against her head or her shoulders while they pass by. They're moving quickly enough that if she moved a millimeter they'd surely crush her, but she never flinches.
She will continue this task without stopping until she blacks out.
======
Sheba will become abruptly conscious above a large tank of water. It's currently open, and Sheba is at a control panel adding something to it. The label for this is "COLLAR FLUID". She adds five or six things to the fluid, though they all appear colorless.
She will do this without pause until she blacks out again.
======
Avenger will become abruptly conscious stirring a large vat of oatmeal. He's mixing something into it--something in powder form that smells so strongly bitter it must taste even worse--but it's quickly swallowed up into the oatmeal and the scent (and taste, it could be assumed) vanishes.
He will continue this task without stopping until he blacks out.
Retrieval Units:
Anise will become abruptly conscious in front of a line of unmoving, inactive retrieval units. She is tasked with cleaning them, and will be wiping down their bodies and removing any grime, blood, gore, or any other marks on their bodies. The glamour is off here, and she can see the film for what it is so as to better be able to clean them.
Jason is somewhere behind her, not visible but speaking. "They keep writing on their faces, don't they? Well, I suppose it might be frowned upon if I reprogrammed them to bite fingers off." He pauses. "Maybe if it's just one or two of them."
Hands reach out over top of Anise's head to gather up one of the retrieval units. She can't quite see the details of the hands, though. Jason shouldn't be nearly as tall at that.
Anise will then black out.
======
Ion will become abruptly conscious in a cold metal room. He's equipped with something that appears to be a stylus and a long tube attached to a container of red fluid. One by one retrieval units filter in--silently and in perfect order. They sit and tilt their necks slightly to allow Ion to access and open a panel on the back of their collars. Tapping the stylus in three distinct places causes two holes to dilate open just beneath the panel, and Ion will attach the tube connected to the container to the right side while connecting a tube to an empty container to the left side. He will press the buttons on the empty container and then the full container, and the red fluid will be cycled out and replaced with fresh fluid in each retrieval unit.
He will continue this task until he blacks out.
======
Riku will become abruptly conscious in front of a line of retrieval units floating upright in pods. He taps a series of buttons on the bottom of each pod and opens up a more complex statistics screen that lists things such as their charge level, status (all read as inactive), soul status (all read minimal), and last collar and pod dates.
He checks thirty-six filled pods and then an empty thirty-seventh. Its status screen, being empty, is different:
R-037
STATUS: UNKNOWN
LAST POD ACCESS: 6+ MONTHS
LAST COLLAR ACCESS: 6+ MONTHS
Riku will then black out.
======
Kanji will become abruptly conscious wiping retrieval unit pods clean, surrounded by a small group of them. These pods seem to have been modified, given how their electronic innards spill out a little haphazardly, and the way they look scuffed as if they'd been stolen and dragged here.
"What do you think would happen if we chipped his collar open?" a retrieval unit, male, is saying.
"I think he'd be noticed nearly as soon as he got put back upstairs," another unit, a woman in glasses, replies. "And who knows what would happen to him or us."
"But you'll be sup--"
"It's too dangerous. Leave him be."
Kanji will then black out.
Miscellaneous:
Jounichi will become abruptly conscious in a large room filled with mostly rotting monster corpse pieces--he's been delivering objects that the residents of the Tower have made out of monster parts here for disposal. Upon dumping what he has in his arms, he will turn around and leave through a maze of corridors; they all look the same, but he seems to know where he's going somehow. He will enter a large room with what appears to be an extremely advanced computer. Film is stacked to the ceiling on either side of him. "ENTER PARAMETERS" is displayed on the screen of the computer.
He will then black out again.
======
Edgeworth will become abruptly conscious in front of a door. He is carrying one sheet of paper, but it isn't really paper at all--it's film and it appears to have more than one page that can be accessed on the one screen. He stands silently for only a moment before the door dilates open and he's inside a tangle of computers and machinery. Still, it's a very neat and organized tangle, no messier than Riki's work has to be. He glances up.
"ME1827690, state your business."
Edgeworth will respond, his voice not under his control: "ME1827690 carrying a message from Jason."
Riki nods, calls Edgeworth over with a wave of his hand, sending a few floating screens scattering so he can take the film from Edgeworth's hands.
"Dismissed."
Edgeworth will leave the room and black out.
======
Taiki will become abruptly conscious in the middle of cleaning a brightly-lit room. The lights are all internal, though they mimic sunlight well enough, but Taiki is cleaning the windows nonetheless. He is below the fog line here, and can see an impossibly high-tech city stretching out in all directions. There don't seem to be any lights on in the city, though.
He will continue this task until he blacks out.
======
Queen Zeal will become abruptly conscious in an empty hospital ward--though it looks like it was used at least fairly recently, as some of the beds are unmade. She will strip the sheets from these beds and pass them to a worker unit before remaking the beds with new linen.
At one point, a retrieval unit steps up to the elevator in this room. The elevator scans the unit's collar before opening up to allow it inside to travel to the upper levels of the Tower.
Queen Zeal will then black out.
======
Terra will become abruptly conscious in what appears to be a high-tech laundromat area. He's folding sheets that are so hot touching them burns his fingertips slightly, though not enough to leave marks, and placing them in a large, hovering bin awaiting them.
It's quiet, steady work, and only the hum of the washing machines and dryers keeps him company. Occasionally Terra will remove a sheet that's stained with vomit or blood, something that still has gore encrusted on it, and he'll place those in a much lumpier pile to be run through the machines again. Sometimes the sheets shift on their own, as if something was just behind them pushing at them. There's nothing there, though.
Terra will continue this task without stopping until he blacks out.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT IS GOING ON
Sertoria will become abruptly conscious cleaning a dark, silent stairwell. The lights do not turn on for her, and no one passes by for some time. She works down slowly with only the echo of her footsteps for company until she passes a door labeled RESIDENTIAL-DAX. There is a window, and a humanoid figure can be seen watching her through it, but the window is frosted and allows no detail to be seen.
As Sertoria begins cleaning the window, something begins banging on the other side with enough force to rattle the door frame.
Sertoria will then black out.
Dave will become abruptly conscious in front of an unconscious phantom. The room around him is filled with monsters in cages, and it's a chaotic mess at the quietest of times, but Dave doesn't look away from the monster in front of him.
His hands are covered in gloves made of especially thick film, and he picks up the phantom and carries it down the hall to a door marked SURGERY. Jason is inside, and he perks up visibly when Dave walks through the door.
"I'll never get tired of these," he says, sparing a fond look at the monster. "Who were you, then?"
Dave will black out.
- Experienced by Dave Strider [AU2] (
=======
Richtofen will become abruptly conscious standing beside Jason, who is at work cutting up a phantom. The phantom shrieks and wails and Richtofen will feel something like his ears bleeding, though there is no actual blood.
"They're always so loud! Richtofen--R1523463--fetch the leftover cart."
Richtofen turns to step out of the room and gathers a cart filled with mummified corpses. Their entrails dangle out of their mouths as if they've spit up their entire insides. He brings the cart back into the room, and the phantom's shrieking becomes more painful.
"Let's see, let's see, who were you before he missed?"
Richtofen will then black out.
- Experienced by Richtofen [AU1] (
=======
Ocelot will become abruptly conscious pushing a hovering cart filled with meat and rotting things and goop down a hallway. She has been tasked with feeding the monsters, and she throws each cell whatever it needs. It's boring work, but there are other things going on.
From the opposite end of the hallway, Zo shrieks--a loud, startled sound that grows angry and burns at the edges. The door of the surgery ward goes flying in two pieces of crumpled metal.
"What are you doing? What are you doing, stop!" Zo's voice fades as he passes through the surgery ward into a meeting room beyond.
Ocelot will then black out.
- Experienced by Revolver Ocelot (
=======
Minato will become abruptly conscious having found himself futilely cleaning garbage off of the floor of a meeting room. Futilely because more of it is quickly getting added by Zo as he hurls paper and pencils and pens and all manner of things he can grab hold of at Jason.
"Stop it! Stop, stop, stop!" Zo shrieks, and he's not throwing with his hands really, not by the time the chair is lifted off the ground and pitched at Jason's face. "Put it back, put it back!"
Minato will turn, now, and be able to see the table more clearly--there's a body splayed out on it, looking strangely mummified, except for the way its internal organs spill out of its mouth.
Jason is doing quite a job dodging all the various projectiles, though eventually he's forced to duck under the table. "That's enough, that's enough, if you throw this table I don't know what we're going to do with you!"
"You don't get to touch these, you're not allowed, you're never allowed!" Zo's voice pitches up in octave twice, sounds hoarse and angry and too loud for such a small boy.
Minato will then black out.
- Experienced by Minato Arisato (
======
David will become abruptly conscious mopping the floor of a loud room lined with cages containing monsters. There's a lot to mop up, given how messy monsters often are, and the task seems at least a little futile, but that doesn't seem to be stopping him. He pauses to pick up what appears to be broken pieces of a door, and places them beside the surgery ward they apparently came from.
Inside there's something twitching and writhing and knitting itself together, but David doesn't get a look at what it is.
David then blacks out.
- Experienced by David "The Daring Little David" Puskás (
======
Kain will become abruptly conscious standing in front of a door frame whose door appears to have been torn off completely. It's this Kain is addressing, having abandoned a cart of monster organs and body parts on some different priority.
It looks like a fight happened in the surgery ward the door normally covers. Jason is twitching and writhing on the ground, only identifiable because his face is mostly intact, though the rest of his organs seem as if they at some point decided to no longer respect the barriers his body generally has to keep them inside. There's gore everywhere in the room, and something like congealed shadows dripping off the ceiling.
Jason's arms seem to be moving at an impossible angle at impossible speeds--he appears to be knitting himself back together, little by little.
Kain will then black out.
- Experienced by Kain Highwind (
Possibly Related to the Above:
Tohko will become abruptly conscious in a library filled with fiction. She's sorting through fantasy novels--of which this library seems to have a lot--some of which she may recognize and others that are in languages unfamiliar to her. She's near the door, and so when Zo bursts into the library, it's easy for her to notice even unable to move her body.
Zo seems to be in quite a state--he's sobbing noisily, and doesn't stop to look at Tohko as he passes, running through the library and into a back door. Hands seem to reach out to tug him into an embrace as the door shuts on its own.
Tohko will then black out.
- Experienced by Tohko Amano (
======
Legolas will become abruptly conscious setting three places at a dining table. Riki is already there, though his head is bowed over floating screens--he's brought work to the dinner table with him, it seems (if this is dinner, anyway). Zo bounds in next, energetic but looking a bit less enthusiastic than normal, though he manages a smile and a cheerful "hello" for Riki.
"Jason's gonna be late," Zo says, carefully, and Riki glances at the boy over top of his screens. "We can just eat without him."
Legolas will then black out.
- Experienced by Legolas (
Collar Boycott:
Equius will become abruptly conscious mopping up spilled red collar fluid in a small medical ward. Jason looks furious.
"We can't just be missing fourteen containers," he says, glaring down a retrieval unit that has no will to make anything except its neutral expression.
"The containers were misplaced following the last collar checks," it replies, and Jason drags a scalpel down its arm in more hardly contained fury. "We believe they may be in the residential areas."
"Then find them," Jason spits, stabbing the retrieval unit with more force in its shoulder.
Equius will then black out.
- Experienced by Equius Zahhak (
======
Lancer will become abruptly conscious cleaning spilled monster blood from a surgical room. Jason is here, and he looks furious--he's talking to Riki over something that looks like a terminal, except for being much more advanced.
"Fourteen missing. Fourteen! He's lucky I let him off with just a favor!"
"It's quite a favor," Riki replies, tone even.
"I'm going to have to track them down now. Ugh, must they destroy everything they touch? They're like infants. They've already given me extra work changing the systems around--you. Come here."
Jason has called Lancer over, and Lancer will do so. Jason will then, with supernatural precision, slice the skin of Lancer's chest open from collar to navel, managing to avoid cutting any deeper than that entirely. Next, he stabs the scalpel down into Lancer's chest, though he avoids any major organs, and appears to be a degree more satisfied than he was.
"You have terrible ideas of stress relief," Riki, still on the screen, replies with a roll of his eyes.
Lancer will then black out again.
- Experienced by Lancer (Cu Chulainn) [AU3] (
Shadow Children:
Ryoji will become abruptly conscious mopping up the corridors of the administrative levels. Retrieval units, worker units, and other unconscious residents pass by on occasion, tasked with unknown business.
It's very quiet, and the atmosphere is quite unsettling. Occasionally, he will hear giggling or screaming or whispering or crying, but these voices don't match any of the administrators or residents Ryoji knows. Things flicker at the edges of his vision, as well--shadows moving, eyes staring at him, hands reaching out--but he never deviates from his tasks and never looks directly at anything happening.
He will continue this task without stopping until he blacks out.
- Experienced by Ryoji Mochizuki (
======
England will become abruptly conscious in a library filled with fiction books and novels of all sizes. He's currently sorting a section that seems dedicated to fairy tales. He might recognize some of them, but they seem to cover an impressive variety of languages and cultures, and not all of them, or even most of them, are from the Earth he knows about.
A shadow child stands behind him, not even an inch from his back, the entire time he works. He can see it out of the corners of his eyes when he turns to gather up more books to put back on the shelves, its body inky black and its teeth white white white as it grins at him. It only moves when he moves, follows in perfect step and grins the entire time.
England will continue his task until he blacks out.
- Experienced by England/Arthur Kirkland (
======
Ellen will become abruptly conscious in a small operating room. She is cleaning up something that isn't exactly blood, or anything at all, and as she tries to mop it up the shadowy substance giggles and screams and cries and skitters away from her.
Anything she can mop up onto her cleaning rag goes silent and still as any proper spill should, but some climb up the walls and sneak out of cracks and pile up there.
Once the room is clean, Ellen leaves through the door, and a dozen inky black shadows with white white white teeth grin at her before running off.
Ellen will then black out.
- Experienced by Ellen (
Note: We have admin confirmation that this experience and the experience of Amelia (the one below this one) are directly linked.
======
Amelia will abruptly become conscious in front of a closed surgery room door. There's the sounds of giggling and shrieking and crying inside, but Amelia doesn't move, seeming instead to be waiting for something.
Little bits of shadows sneak out the cracks in the door as if escaping something and begin to clump together. Slowly they find forms--two dozen inky black shadow children with glittery white teeth are born.
Amelia moves, then, striking with a beam of light from an object in her hands that pierces half of them. They wail and scream and shatter into a thousand pieces before reforming as the phantoms Amelia may recognize from the residential levels at night.
Amelia will then black out.
- Experienced by Ameila (
Note: We have admin confirmation that this experience and the experience of Ellen (the one above this one) are directly linked.
======
Archer will become abruptly conscious in front of a tank of water being filled. He's simply holding the button down to fill the tank, and so doesn't have much to do otherwise.
On the other side of the tank, visible from where Archer is standing, is a red door that reads CAUTION: CONTROL ROOM STAIRCASE. PSYCHORADIATION LEVELS LETHAL BEYOND THIS DOOR. Children made of shadow occasionally approach the door, touching it and darting away as if it were some strange game of chicken, but they don't seem to dare slide through the cracks and enter it properly.
Eventually, Archer will black out.
- Experienced by Archer/Gilgamesh [AU3] (
======
Nue will become abruptly conscious at first seeing nothing but darkness and hearing only a steady siren-like beeping from her collar. She's being carried--and then she's shifted a little, and she can see inky black shadow children with white white white grins are carrying her over their head. There's an abandoned broom not too far down the hallway that may be a sign of what she had previously been doing. Nue is being carried toward a doorway lined in red paint, and the closer to it she gets the more she can taste something like blood on the back of her tongue.
Then scalpels fly through the air, slicing through the heads of the inky creatures with pinpoint proficiency. The ones that don't drop to the ground scatter, and Nue is dropped on the ground.
"They're such a nuisance," Jason says, leaning over Nue and appearing to check her for damages. "We're going to start losing more residents to them than to their wasteland worlds sooner or later."
Nue will then black out.
- Experienced by Nue Houjuu (
Nanomachines:
David will become abruptly conscious in a large research library. He is sorting books--the spines reveal these to be the missing psychology books, though he can do nothing more than observe titles and covers. Riki is in the background, and can be seen out of the corner of David's eye. At one point Riki calls David over and requests a book from a different section of the library and David will retrieve it--this book is simply titled "Nanofilm".
He will resume sorting books until he blacks out again.
- Experienced by David Lalonde [AU1] (
======
Nesir will become abruptly conscious carrying broken machine parts. There are enough of them that she will have to make several trips back and forth from a large container of molten metal to the pile.
"Just dump them in," Riki is saying, instructing her idly while most of his attention is on a screen floating slightly to one side of his face. "Nanomachines don't melt at this temperature--well, you wouldn't care either way, I suppose."
Nesir will then black out.
- Experienced by Nesir (
Ruana:
Ganondorf will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
Ruana is, however, inside Ganondorf's mind, pawing at it with curiosity. His immediate memories of the Tower and his plans are sealed to her--and actually, she's speaking to him--simple, eager orders.
"Show me where you're from--not just Hyrule, but where you're from," she says, and while he can't see her she's there, just behind him, sleepy and curious. "You're from the desert, yes? But I've never gotten a real tour. Show me, go on."
There's something like a mental nudge, and Ganondorf's memories of the place he was raised are spilled forth for her perusal.
He will then black out.
- Experienced by Ganondorf Dragmire (
======
Quark will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
She's in his mind, though, speaking to him. "Show me something frightening. What scares you?"
She presses against the memories of his mind with ease, as if pushing his thoughts open is no more difficult than opening a favorite book. Frightening, unsettling memories will flash before Quark's eyes as she sifts through them.
Ruana can be seen, in a vague, not-there-at-all way. She grins at him, sleepy delight in her features. "Which one scares you most, Quark?"
Quark will then black out.
- Experienced by Quark (
======
Dio will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
Even asleep, though, she's standing next to him--or inside his mind next to him. "Hello, Dio. This is your first time here, right? I know you already, but it's nice to meet you here."
Ruana hums, sounding fond and possessive all at once.
"I do love my performers. And since this will be your first performance, show me your favorite memory. Those always say so much!"
Dio will then black out.
- Experienced by Dio (
======
Mamoru will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
He's standing still, but he's moving at the same time--somewhere that isn't anywhere, in his mind but not, because even though he's conscious he's not in control, and a giggling, sleepy-sounding Ruana is urging him on.
"Here, here, I'll give you a team to play against today," she says, and strange shadows take their places on a soccer field. His own team is the one he would recognize, but they make no sounds at all, and they have no eyes.
He will then black out.
- Experienced by Mamoru Endou (
======
Dark Pit will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
But in his mind he's flying, and Ruana is beside him, though he can't quite see her. They're covering ground in his world faster than it should be possible as Ruana skims over his memories like an impatient hummingbird, occasionally dipping into the more dramatic but mostly enjoying the movement itself.
"You don't have a different soul by our standards," she's saying, sounding asleep and yet bursting with energy at the same time. "Here you're all the same. All of you are the same and all of you are precious--so precious to me."
Dark Pit will then black out.
- Experienced by Dark Pit (
======
Saber will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
Saber is really somewhere in her mind, though, although she is no more able to control herself here than she is currently able to control her own body. Ruana floats just behind her, perhaps, though Saber wouldn't quite be able to see her even if she could look.
"Keep me company tonight, okay?" Ruana asks, though it's not as if Saber could refuse. Ruana takes Saber's hand and flies off with her, slipping through fine lines of reality and passing into a world Saber may find familiar--it's her own, almost.
Almost because there are obvious differences, and Saber is looking into an alternate world with a similar setting to her own. It's not one she would recognize from the Tower, though, and she is floating high above, following the similar-but-not-quite lives of people she almost-but-not-quite recognizes like an unwilling voyeur.
Eventually, Saber blacks out.
- Experienced by Saber [AU5] (
======
Lucifel will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
He is standing motionless in front of Ruana's bed. Ruana isn't moving except for the steady rise and fall of her chest in sleep and yet Ruana is. Something crawls across the walls and leaves a trail of blood and bile as it crawls. There is nothing there to be seen, and it can only be tracked by the mess it leaves on the walls. It seems to be moving in obsessive, circular patterns.
Lucifel will then black out.
- Experienced by Lucifel (
======
Tavros will become abruptly conscious standing in Ruana's bedroom. She is prone, asleep in what could only be described as pink princess luxury, curtains around her bed obscuring her form beyond vague outline.
While he isn't moving in reality, in his mind he's going through the motions of a beast tamer, though all the beasts are ones from his world and none of them have eyes--instead only having black voids. Ruana giggles beside him, occasionally directing him to make the creatures do one trick or another.
"You're so clever," Ruana says, sounding pleased. "Play with me forever!"
Tavros will then black out.
- Experienced by Tavros Nitram (
Body Processing:
Xion will become abruptly conscious in the back room of the processing chamber. Her task is to remove the limbs from each corpse that is handed to her--she will pass the torso and head to the next person down the line from her. If the limbs are in reasonable condition, she will place them into the bin on her right, and if they are especially mangled, she will place them into the bin on her left.
She will do this without pause until she blacks out again.
- Experienced by Xion (
======
John will become abruptly conscious in the back room of the processing chamber. His job is to remove heads from their torsos and place the heads in one of two bins--the one on the right if the head is mostly intact, and the one on the left if the head is too mangled. In order to do this, he will be provided with a small stylus-like device that can open up a panel on the back of each collar. He will press five spots on this panel with the device in a specific order and the collar will come off, allowing him to cut through the film of the neck properly. It is possible for him to memorize this order.
He will do this without pause until he blacks out again.
- Experienced by John Egbert [AU2] (
======
Patrick will become abruptly conscious in front of a pile of corpses in various states of trauma. He may recognize the bodies as residents of the Tower. He is tasked with gathering miscellaneous torn-off body parts that do not contain souls--anything but the torso--and placing them on a conveyor belt just outside of the chute containing all the corpses. He will occasionally have to walk into the pile and sift through them manually.
He will do this without pause until he blacks out again.
- Experienced by Patrick Dawn (
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Enoch will become abruptly conscious in front of a pile of corpses in various states of trauma. He may recognize the bodies as residents of the Tower. He is tasked with gathering up one torso at a time--the part containing the soul--in order to carry them up a large machine to have the soul removed from the inactive body. Whenever there are no bodies with souls to process Enoch will stand unmoving watching the pile of corpses for new bodies.
He will do this without pause until he blacks out again.
- Experienced by Enoch [AU1] (
======
Claudia will become abruptly conscious standing at the top of a large machine. Occasionally, residents who have recently died are carried up the machine and their soul is extracted from their body. It is Claudia's job to bring the soul to Jason--she will pick up the container once the soul has been squeezed out and walk to the surgery ward not far from where she stands.
As she carries the souls, she will feel something like a mild electric shock, though it does not seem to harm her. There is buzzing and whispering in her ears, and sometimes the souls will scream or laugh or cry, though it's difficult to tell if this is something the person the soul represents is actually doing or if Claudia is simply hearing things.
She will continue this task without stopping until she blacks out.
- Experienced by Claudia Hortensia [AU9] (
======
Chloe will become abruptly conscious in what appears to be a hospital ward. There are residents of the Tower on the beds who have died recently. Most appear to be sleeping, but some twitch and convulse as if seizing up. For the most part, those with mild shaking and twitching are left alone, but whenever someone's movement grows too violent, Chloe will move to their bed and strap them down.
Chloe will continue this task without stopping until she blacks out.
- Experienced by Chloe [AU1] (
======
Naoya will become abruptly conscious in a silent hospital ward. Various residents of the Tower who have been recently killed but not yet returned to their rooms rest, unmoving, on the beds. Occasionally a retrieval unit will appear from an elevator in the room and gather one up. The elevator speaks their destinations allowed--this elevator connects directly to every dormitory room, somehow. It seems they've always been able to step out right into the dormitory rooms whenever they wanted to.
Eventually, Naoya will black out.
- Experienced by Naoya (
Monster Experimentation:
Riku will become abruptly conscious in a large, noisy room filled with countless cages and monsters. He is carrying a clipboard, though it's made of film paper, and it lists certain areas--B6, F9, R7--that Riku is to be attending to. He will find each area in turn and sedate selected monsters, which is a process that involves first pressing a button on the cage to fill it with gas and next stepping inside to inject the monster manually.
He will do this without pause until he blacks out again.
- Experienced by Riku [OU] (
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Sola will become abruptly conscious in a surgical suite. She is standing next to a table filled with surgical tools, and is tasked with handing them to Jason. He goes through them at an alarming rate--how can he even hold four scalpels at once? Still, he seems to be managing, and the Lost Head he's cutting up and altering writhes and screeches as it's cut up and mangled and altered. It doesn't seem to be anesthetized, but it doesn't seem to be dying, either.
She will continue her task until she blacks out again.
- Experienced by Sola-ui Nuadha-re Sophia-ri [AU7] (
======
Yukiko will become abruptly conscious dressed in hospital scrubs with her hands up to her elbows in the chest of a Filth-Corrupted. It's still alive and oozing everywhere, but Yukiko cannot flinch away or falter. Her arms are unconvered except for a strange white light that glimmers over her entire body.
"Okay, now pull," Jason instructs, watching rather than participating and letting her pull the monster's insides out on her own. "You're not bad at this, really. I should shortlist you, have you down here more often. Here, take that saw next."
Yukiko will then black out.
- Experienced by Yukiko Amagi (
Toys?:
Riku Replica will become abruptly conscious in a toy room. The toys are a complete mess, and it's his job to clean them up. They cover various age groups, from about five to about thirteen, and Repliku is tasked with putting them in their various spots in toy boxes and on shelves.
If they move and twist and bend through time and space while Repliku does so, he's not expected to find this frustrating.
Repliku will continue this task until he blacks out.
- Experienced by Riku Replica/"Ira" (
======
Ennis will become abruptly conscious in, perhaps fittingly, a room filled with dolls. She's dusting them and caring for them and placing them carefully back on their countless little shelves. They all watch her as she does this, turning their heads to follow her motions and blinking their eyes at her when her eyes scan over their faces. They move in perfect unison as they do so. Any doll she's currently attending to stares at her with particular intent as she holds it.
Ennis will continue this task until she blacks out.
- Experienced by Ennis (
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Yuka will become abruptly conscious in a princess-pink bedroom. Ruana is sleeping behind the curtains of her bed, but this is not Yuka's concern. Instead, she's cleaning the walls. They're covered in blood and bile, and she has been given a bucket to scrub them back to their pristine pink glory.
There's whispering all around her, from behind her and in front of her and in her mind, but she cannot deviate from her task. Something tugs at her legs--gentle, teasing--but she still can't so much as flinch or look to see what it is.
Next to her ear, something that isn't there speaks. "I see you."
Yuka will then black out.
- Experienced by Yuka Mochida (
Domestic Admins:
Romeo will become abruptly conscious wiping up a table in a large library. This library is comprised entirely of fiction books and novels, and Zo is sitting in a chair nearby. He seems to have just spilled a drink, which Romeo is cleaning up.
"Oh! I'm sorry..." Zo's apology to Romeo seems automatic; he shows no sign of realizing Romeo is aware of what's going on. Zo has a novel in front of him, but the language is not one Romeo would recognize. Still, he holds it out to Romeo, momentarily blocking his view of the table. "This one's just really good, see? It's about rabbits! ...Well, I guess you can't really see."
Zo looks incredibly lonely, suddenly, and then goes back to reading his book.
Romeo will then black out.
- Experienced by Romeo (
======
Suzaku will become abruptly conscious mopping up what appears to be a small but high-tech kitchen. Zo, Jason, and Riki are sitting in the dining room, and can be seen through the door, though Suzaku will not make any particular moves to look at them. Still, he can hear them.
"What do you think the little mice will have chewed up today?" Jason sounds annoyed, though through the door he seems to be looking down at something.
"Are you still mad?" Zo's frown is deep enough to have crept into his voice. "I said I'd do it, so..."
"You aren't strict enough with them," Jason says. "They think they can run wild whenever it's your turn."
"It's not the kid they learned it from," Riki says distractedly. "These've always been the off months."
Jason's sigh says he agrees with this, but none seem willing to approach the matter in more detail than that.
Suzaku will then black out.
- Experienced by Suzaku Kururugi (
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Samwise will become abruptly conscious in front of a stove. He appears to be cooking foods he'd recognize from home. Zo flits around just behind him, ghosting in and out of Sam's peripheral vision.
"I haven't tried food from your world before, but I bet it's good!" he's saying, talking without expecting any response. "Just about everything I've tried is good, and even the stuff that isn't is interesting! Maybe next time it's my turn I can have food from all over the place for you guys, even if it's fake!"
Samwise will then black out.
- Experienced by Samwise Gamgee (
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France will become abruptly conscious in a well-stocked kitchen, high-tech beyond anything he's seen. Zo and Riki are in the kitchen as well, though France doesn't turn to look at them and instead focuses on the task to which he's been assigned.
"Y'can't just have dessert," Riki is saying, speaking to Zo, who whines a little. "It's not good for you."
"But I like his desserts," Zo says, and the pout is audible. "You never let me have anything fun!"
Still, Zo seems to acquiesce. Once Riki leaves the room, however, Zo tugs at France's sleeve and speaks in an excited little whisper.
"France, France--oh, um... F1691932, attend," he says, and France turns away from his cooking to look down at Zo, who is beaming up at him with childish glee. "Make mendiants, okay? And clafoutis, too!"
France will then black out.
- Experienced by France (
Library Adventures:
Shion will awake abruptly in a mess of a medical library. There are books everywhere, the shelves are completely disorganized, and some are stained with blood and bile. Shion will sort the books impervious to the apparent disorganization of this library's owner, though. Any books which are dripping red are placed to one side to dry.
He will continue this task without stopping until he blacks out.
- Experienced by Shion (
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Sephiran will become abruptly conscious in an impossibly messy medical library. Jason is sitting on the floor, back to an especially ravaged shelf, knees drawn up to his chest in an almost childlike pose, face buried in a book with multiple piles around him. The book he's devoting so much rapt attention to seems to cover advanced brain surgery. Sephiran sorts books nearby, but eventually Jason looks up at him.
"Do you think your brain would be any good for this?" he asks, turning the book around to show Sephiran a diagram of a brain cut into pieces and reattached with strange wires.
Sephiran will then black out.
- Experienced by Sephiran (
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Jellal will become abruptly conscious in a neatly-kept research library. He is standing with a book cart--though it hovers, rather than rests on wheels--beside Riki.
The book Riki holds is clearly a history book, and the picture of the tower on the cover makes it obvious its subject, but when Riki opens it, its pages are all blank. His eyebrows furrow slightly, the only sign of any frustration.
Then a thousand glittering screens appear out of thin air around the administrator. They flicker with a thousand different tasks, and the book, its pages high-tech film, glow and flicker with information. But eventually, always, they return to their blank state.
"Completely wiped," he says, finally. "Alright, let's have the next."
Jellal hands him another book. History, similarly blank. The process repeats, and repeats, and repeats until he blacks out.
- Experienced by Jellal Fernandes (
Food/Water "Management":
Maka will become abruptly conscious at a control panel. Vast water tanks hover above her, and she is directing them to various places in the massive room. Some go to cooling and cleaning, some to consumption, others to collar fluid... There's a lot of uses for water in the Tower. The containers really do seem to be floating--occasionally in their trips they'll dip so low as to brush against her head or her shoulders while they pass by. They're moving quickly enough that if she moved a millimeter they'd surely crush her, but she never flinches.
She will continue this task without stopping until she blacks out.
- Experienced by Maka Albarn (
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Sheba will become abruptly conscious above a large tank of water. It's currently open, and Sheba is at a control panel adding something to it. The label for this is "COLLAR FLUID". She adds five or six things to the fluid, though they all appear colorless.
She will do this without pause until she blacks out again.
- Experienced by Sheba (
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Avenger will become abruptly conscious stirring a large vat of oatmeal. He's mixing something into it--something in powder form that smells so strongly bitter it must taste even worse--but it's quickly swallowed up into the oatmeal and the scent (and taste, it could be assumed) vanishes.
He will continue this task without stopping until he blacks out.
- Experienced by Avenger/Angra Mainyu [OU] (
Retrieval Units:
Anise will become abruptly conscious in front of a line of unmoving, inactive retrieval units. She is tasked with cleaning them, and will be wiping down their bodies and removing any grime, blood, gore, or any other marks on their bodies. The glamour is off here, and she can see the film for what it is so as to better be able to clean them.
Jason is somewhere behind her, not visible but speaking. "They keep writing on their faces, don't they? Well, I suppose it might be frowned upon if I reprogrammed them to bite fingers off." He pauses. "Maybe if it's just one or two of them."
Hands reach out over top of Anise's head to gather up one of the retrieval units. She can't quite see the details of the hands, though. Jason shouldn't be nearly as tall at that.
Anise will then black out.
- Experienced by Anise Tatlin (
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Ion will become abruptly conscious in a cold metal room. He's equipped with something that appears to be a stylus and a long tube attached to a container of red fluid. One by one retrieval units filter in--silently and in perfect order. They sit and tilt their necks slightly to allow Ion to access and open a panel on the back of their collars. Tapping the stylus in three distinct places causes two holes to dilate open just beneath the panel, and Ion will attach the tube connected to the container to the right side while connecting a tube to an empty container to the left side. He will press the buttons on the empty container and then the full container, and the red fluid will be cycled out and replaced with fresh fluid in each retrieval unit.
He will continue this task until he blacks out.
- Experienced by Fon Master Ion (Replica) (
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Riku will become abruptly conscious in front of a line of retrieval units floating upright in pods. He taps a series of buttons on the bottom of each pod and opens up a more complex statistics screen that lists things such as their charge level, status (all read as inactive), soul status (all read minimal), and last collar and pod dates.
He checks thirty-six filled pods and then an empty thirty-seventh. Its status screen, being empty, is different:
R-037
STATUS: UNKNOWN
LAST POD ACCESS: 6+ MONTHS
LAST COLLAR ACCESS: 6+ MONTHS
Riku will then black out.
- Experienced by Riku [AU3] (
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Kanji will become abruptly conscious wiping retrieval unit pods clean, surrounded by a small group of them. These pods seem to have been modified, given how their electronic innards spill out a little haphazardly, and the way they look scuffed as if they'd been stolen and dragged here.
"What do you think would happen if we chipped his collar open?" a retrieval unit, male, is saying.
"I think he'd be noticed nearly as soon as he got put back upstairs," another unit, a woman in glasses, replies. "And who knows what would happen to him or us."
"But you'll be sup--"
"It's too dangerous. Leave him be."
Kanji will then black out.
- Experienced by Kanji Tatsumi (
Miscellaneous:
Jounichi will become abruptly conscious in a large room filled with mostly rotting monster corpse pieces--he's been delivering objects that the residents of the Tower have made out of monster parts here for disposal. Upon dumping what he has in his arms, he will turn around and leave through a maze of corridors; they all look the same, but he seems to know where he's going somehow. He will enter a large room with what appears to be an extremely advanced computer. Film is stacked to the ceiling on either side of him. "ENTER PARAMETERS" is displayed on the screen of the computer.
He will then black out again.
- Experienced by Jonouchi Katsuya (
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Edgeworth will become abruptly conscious in front of a door. He is carrying one sheet of paper, but it isn't really paper at all--it's film and it appears to have more than one page that can be accessed on the one screen. He stands silently for only a moment before the door dilates open and he's inside a tangle of computers and machinery. Still, it's a very neat and organized tangle, no messier than Riki's work has to be. He glances up.
"ME1827690, state your business."
Edgeworth will respond, his voice not under his control: "ME1827690 carrying a message from Jason."
Riki nods, calls Edgeworth over with a wave of his hand, sending a few floating screens scattering so he can take the film from Edgeworth's hands.
"Dismissed."
Edgeworth will leave the room and black out.
- Experienced by Miles Edgeworth (
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Taiki will become abruptly conscious in the middle of cleaning a brightly-lit room. The lights are all internal, though they mimic sunlight well enough, but Taiki is cleaning the windows nonetheless. He is below the fog line here, and can see an impossibly high-tech city stretching out in all directions. There don't seem to be any lights on in the city, though.
He will continue this task until he blacks out.
- Experienced by Taiki (
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Queen Zeal will become abruptly conscious in an empty hospital ward--though it looks like it was used at least fairly recently, as some of the beds are unmade. She will strip the sheets from these beds and pass them to a worker unit before remaking the beds with new linen.
At one point, a retrieval unit steps up to the elevator in this room. The elevator scans the unit's collar before opening up to allow it inside to travel to the upper levels of the Tower.
Queen Zeal will then black out.
- Experienced by Queen Zeal (
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Terra will become abruptly conscious in what appears to be a high-tech laundromat area. He's folding sheets that are so hot touching them burns his fingertips slightly, though not enough to leave marks, and placing them in a large, hovering bin awaiting them.
It's quiet, steady work, and only the hum of the washing machines and dryers keeps him company. Occasionally Terra will remove a sheet that's stained with vomit or blood, something that still has gore encrusted on it, and he'll place those in a much lumpier pile to be run through the machines again. Sometimes the sheets shift on their own, as if something was just behind them pushing at them. There's nothing there, though.
Terra will continue this task without stopping until he blacks out.
- Experienced by Terra [AU6] (
HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT IS GOING ON
Sertoria will become abruptly conscious cleaning a dark, silent stairwell. The lights do not turn on for her, and no one passes by for some time. She works down slowly with only the echo of her footsteps for company until she passes a door labeled RESIDENTIAL-DAX. There is a window, and a humanoid figure can be seen watching her through it, but the window is frosted and allows no detail to be seen.
As Sertoria begins cleaning the window, something begins banging on the other side with enough force to rattle the door frame.
Sertoria will then black out.
- Experienced by Sertoria Cani (