２ｎｄ ａｃｃｅｓｓ》 ［ｔｅｘｔ］

[decompose]

It appears that the floors are back to normal. Or expanded.

But what I'm more worried about is how many people have woken up from days of what I can only hope is sleep, like myself, and all of this fog. None of it feels right. I would appreciate some details, if someone can spare a moment.

[ filtered to Allen Ridgeley ]

I apologize if I'm interrupting anything important. Would you mind speaking with me?

Comments

[Anon text]

[how_wicked_ruler]

Fog? You must mean the one that gave birth to the shadows. Quite a fascinating experiment, be it led by our administrators or one of our peers if you ask me.

[decompose]

Shadows? The monsters and destruction of the upper floors wasn't enough?

Filtered|Unhackable

[temptestament]

*He shows up unmasked, with a slight smile that's hiding how nervous he really is.*

Don't worry about it. What do you want to talk about?

Filtered|Unhackable

[decompose]

From the date before last, it looks like... [There's a lengthy pause. Nigredo's eyes don't quite meet Allen's.] For a couple of weeks, I dreamed that I was on Miltia. After the Conflict.

[There was still evidence of it all over the place. It was just... empty. Nothing. At least nothing alive, anyways.]

But that shouldn't be possible. Do people honestly just... leave the tower and come back like that? Or was it really just a long dream? [Not that Nigredo was in his dorm or anywhere else at the time.]

Filtered|Unhackable

[temptestament]

*He's silent for a moment, glancing down, then sighs and rubs the back of his neck.*

I've heard of it happening before. A friend of mine once said that he'd been in the tower before and came back after spending time on a dead planet.

*And it makes sense that Nigredo wouldn't notice anything unusual about post-Conflict Miltia in that case.*

Filtered|Unhackable

[decompose]

[First Miltia was a wasteland by the time the whole thing came to an end. All the rust and dust and dirt and grime was quiet easily ignored in light of having to scrounge around for food and water.

Survival has a nifty way of blotting out a lot of things.

Nigredo finds himself wringing his hands. It's out of view, though. He feels uncomfortable with Allen's reaction. Unnerved.]

That can't constitute as part of any proof that entire worlds have been destroyed. [It was meant to be a question. Honestly, Allen is the only one Nigredo trusts here. (Wilhelm... Wilhelm is an entirely different story, and he doesn't really know anyone else in the Tower.) He isn't sure what he's looking for. Confirmation, maybe. Some sort of logic. Comfort, possibly. He didn't know.]

Filtered|Unhackable

[temptestament]

I don't really believe it myself.

*And now there's an absolutely dead serious look on his face. Not only does he not believe it, he refuses to believe it.*

If everyone else from my version of our universe was gone, I wouldn't be able to exist like this.

[how_wicked_ruler]

Apparently this tower allows no rest to the souls of its inhabitants. Quite fitting if you ask me.

[decompose]

Fitting or not, it seems to happen with no rhyme or reason. There isn't any sense in it.

Ill intentions, maybe. But I hardly see what they're trying to motivate us to do, past survival.