[Feferi's gray skin looks pale as she steps forward, and it's clear that she's shaking. But she takes a deep breath, because this is too important not to tell everyone.]

My name is Feferi Peixes. Anyone who knows me knows I'm infamous for fish puns, but I'm going to hold off on them here, just so the message is as clear as possible. I don't want it to get twisted by a bad turn of phrase.


The message you all saw about the soul thing...it's true. I know, because...

[She takes another deep breath, swallowing hard.]

I went down the elevator, with some others, when we saw it open. We had to take the chance. We needed to know what was down there.

When the group I was with saw a soul being extracted from a dead person, we couldn't believe what we were seeing. More than anything, we knew what a precious thing that was. We didn't want it to be harmed, and so we followed where the retrieval unit was taking it.

...we didn't expect that it would be carrying the soul straight to Jason. We confronted him, we refused to give up the presence of the other groups that were in the administrators' area, and he punished us by forcing us to go through the soul extraction and re-implantation processes while we were still conscious.

Before I go on any further, I have to stress this point: DO NOT TAKE THIS AS AN INVITATION TO CONFRONT JASON. He will not hesitate to put you through that process, and no one should ever have to experience a thing like that. I don't want anyone to consider this as an invitation to take some kind of vengeance. That path only leads to pain.

I didn't think that he was actually capable of anything close to mercy until I went through that. Everyone in this tower has been through it while unconscious, and that is truly a mercy. When it happens, your body is taken downstairs and placed into a sphere. That sphere fills with a violet liquid, and then it begins to contract.

[Tears start to run down her cheeks as she remembers, and her voice cracks.]

It quite literally squeezes your soul out of your body, and that is like no physical pain in this or any other universe. I don't think there is a single word that is capable of describing it. Agony isn't strong enough, because the pain keeps going while you feel your body stop working.

And even when you are only that shining light, the pain doesn't fade immediately. It takes time.

Then, you're surgically put into - into a...a new body. I...

[She can't keep talking. She breaks down sobbing, and then the feed cuts.]

[Kyoko appears on the screen. She's obviously shaken by the last pair of network posts that preceded hers, but more than that, she's really pissed off (or, more likely, she's turned her fear and confusion into anger.)]

What the Hell was that? That girl..she just ate her own companion, didn't she? She just ate him like he was piece of meat! Even though he hadn't done a single thing wrong...! What the Hell does she mean, "rotten!?" The only thing rotten here is her!

[She clenches her teeth and reaches to end the feed, then suddenly stops. She didn't really care about Dax, but she thinks, probably, he was the only one she came close to liking, but more than that? It's infuriating to see someone betray their companion like that.]

Ruana! You're watching to this, aren't you!? So why don't you show yourself already! Tell us all about how you used to pray to keep your soul while going around and stealing everyone else's. That's the real point of all this, right!? You were never interested in saving anyone to begin with!

Seriously, whatever the Hell it means to lose your Tower in this place, you deserve it! Denying people even death, stuffing them into bodies that they don't want and killing them just for fun, doing things like that to your own companions--I hope somebody years your heart and soul out, you disgusting waste of space. Nobody here needs your kind of salvation.

As for the rest of you, I could care less about what you think of this post. If you ain't got anything useful to say, don't even bother.

so, the whole politics in the tower aside what happens to our unwitting guests will they go to the space between spaces? Or just sent back to whence they came?

More importantly, why should we care?

The network connects to a new feed an hour later, at eleven. It's not as stumbling as the previous connection--while a blast of energy accompanies it, this is a more precise one. If Zo's connection was a sledgehammer, this connection is a scalpel. Ruana and Dax are sitting across from each other at a table. The display is off to the side, and so both are displayed in profile.

Neither seems especially cheerful at the moment.

"You should see all the damage they did downstairs," Ruana says; the tip of her left shoe taps against the floor rhythmically. "Jason's labs still have dead monsters in them, Riki is going to have to fix all his security, they went into my bedroom--" Ruana growls, but composes herself. "I know it was you."

"I wasn't under any impression I was being especially subtle," Dax says, and his tone is ice cold--efficently emotionless. "We can't keep doing this. We're hurting them--all of them."

"We're saving them."

"I'm sure a lot of them would have rather died. Some of them have told me as much."

"We're saving them! If we have to save them from themselves, too, then that's just part of--"

"I'm saving them!" Dax slams his hands down on the table. "From the monsters, when I can keep them down here. From Jason, when I can keep him from cutting out their veins or rearranging their nervous systems for fun! If I have to save them from you--"

"From me? Dax--"

"--it's not that much different from what I do all the time."

Dax slams a hand against the table again and it falls apart--chaotically rearranged, as Dax's powers are wont to do. Ruana shrieks with something more sinister than laughter.

"Is this a coup? Oh, dear." Ruana vanishes, reappears next to Dax. Her voice drops to something slower and sleepier than her normal trill. "You're being a very bad dog."

The entire room falls to pieces--Dax has used his abilities again. A moment later, Half of RUana falls apart, too, in a mix of pulped organs and shattered bones. But a moment later she reappears on the other side of the room, still regrowing bits of skin but otherwise looking fine.

The wall spikes suddenly through her chest and the feed cuts out again.

The feed comes back on an hour later. Ruana and Dax are sitting across from each other at a table. The display is off to the side, and so both are displayed in profile.



( Then the world falls apart. [extreme gore and distrubing content] )

The atmosphere of the Tower changes--reorganizes itself, finds a new sort of order with only the dull taste of blood in the back of your throat to mourn the old way of the world. What were Dax's powers if not control of order and chaos--and Ruana uses them now to rewrite things, to claw out the tumors the universe said were inoperable. It is not so much removing Nyarlathotep as tearing him out of the fabric of the universe, not so much closing a door as writing that door out of existence before and after and forever.

Nyarlathotep, and all the visitors who came with him, are shunted violently through the universe back to where they came from. It's a rough ride, the sort you might expect to get if you intruded and were tossed out, and there's no time to even register what's happening until it's happened.

Silence settles over the Tower, and the feed turns off.

[ There are so many elements about what's happened in the last several days that are so disturbing, that Cecil feels a lot like someone threw her onto a moving locomotive and expected her to stay on her feet. She feels dizzy, helpless, trapped, and with every new discovery about this place, she loses a little more of her hope. The last couple kernels of information she garnered from the network are such that for what seems like a long time, all she can do is sit at the terminal and struggle with making any noise at all.

"Just like the worlds of the disembodied souls you siphon into recycled bodies over and over, this one will also meet its end!" ]

Our worlds are truly gone, then. We die here... and they... recycle our bodies? How...

[ It hardly seems worth it to ask, but she feels she understands this less and less as time goes on. She places her hands over her mouth and looks away for a moment before going on. ]

What did those of you who went inside the elevator see exactly? What... Who is Nyarlathotep?

[ She's still sort of new. She's briefly met... er, about two or three people. ]

I've made this offer to another already, but I wish to be more public about it. I have some experience in healing magic and I would like to help if I possibly can. My name is Cecil Harvey and I'm in room 3-01. Please contact me if you require aid.

 [Hei appears, though he doesn't look too pleased. How could he after witnessing that. However, he's keeping it under wraps for now. Probably why no one was seeing his angry side at the moment. Lord knows how much he wants to rage, always wanted to rage in fact. But hey, people had to be shown as level-headed.]

I am aware of certain circumstances regarding the events that transpired, aside from certain things regarding whatever experiment they were doing. However, there is information I wished to set up for this tower: the school system. I am aware now is not the best time, but focusing on rage and sadness alone will only make you more sloppy in thinking and fighting. I speak from experience.

There is a list present here. You can contact me if you have any questions. Multiple teachers are allowed, and classes will begin in March, assuming nothing else happens to give everyone time to recover.

That is all.

I'm no good at speeches. Louis is far better at them than I am - but with him gone I feel that it's my duty to pick up his slack.

[It still stings a little to speak of his disappearance, but Aleph has had worse pains.]

Not because I need to intimidate the administrators. Not because I need to curse them. They know already what their crimes are. But everyone trapped in this tower needs to hear this right now.

Every tyrant falls. Every regime is overthrown, every cruel fist is shaken off. No matter how powerful, how old, or how deeply entrenched.

You know how many of us there are, and our numbers continue to grow. And with every new captive comes a new hope for freedom. Among us are those stronger than you can imagine, those wiser than you can dream of, those skilled beyond belief - those who may not have the power to escape on their own, but will risk everything together to bring down those who would seek to torture us.

With so many of us who are so strong, freedom is an inevitability.

Hey so can somebody tell me what's going on and make it make sense?

Also any way to get cigarettes here, ran out a long time ago and it fucking sucks.

[...Frankly? Shepard is actually quite subtly freaked out--no matter how much she's had to put up with over the years, no matter how much mutilation occurs in Shepard's life on a daily basis, it couldn't possibly prepare her for what she saw only a while ago. Ruana consuming Dax, and the fact that her soul is apparently bound to a replica of her current body--this collar must have had something to do with whatever the hell it was, but she was only grasping at straws--hit her all at once like a torpedo to the face.

...But there are still things that need taking care of--things that need doing while they're still here. Thus, when the feed comes on from her end of the dorms, she's putting on the face she's always put on since she started service.]

Considering what just happened, I won't be surprised if any more posts come onto the network with single-minded rage towards Ruana. But it's only going to waste our breath at this point.

We need to buckle up for whatever's ahead. The basics come first--food, supplies, anything you can think of that I might've missed. If anyone has other ideas, pitch 'em here. I'll take them into consideration.

Commander Shepard, out. [With that, the feed cuts. For now, Shepard can be found amongst the corridors of the dorms--though later into the evening that day, she'll be found at any floor where prey is plentiful.]

[Luke's curled up in front of the terminal, looking rather forlorn after the massive info dump that was just dropped on everyone, not to mention Dax's horrifying death. It takes him a moment for him to live his chin up from where it's wedged against his knees so he can speak clearly.]

So... I don't... really understand what's happened. But from what I've read and watched on the network... does this mean everyone that's died is... a replica?

[...he really doesn't know how to feel about that. On one hand, yay, even more people like him! On the other... that is so damn depressing.]

W-were we living when we were taken from our worlds, or was that our first 'death'? How is it even that they were able to bring any part of us here?

[He sulked back until his face was hiding behind his knees now.]

...I think all this gave us even more questions than answers...