animus_network | ♘ 01 || [text; anonymous]

the souls here are revived upon death, though. given the danger present in some parts of the tower, it doesn't seem our hosts are overly concerned with the deaths of the souls they've rescued. unless you meant something different?

...in any case, i would hope it isn't the latter scenario.

I meant "dead from being sent back to supposedly barren worlds", actually. At least in this place, death is not permanent.

Though considering how dubious that entire story is, there's probably more to it than that. Hopefully, it's only that the administrators are completely wrong and will send us home when they realize, but I'm not holding my breath for that.

that would imply there's some pattern as to who's sent back. if the administrators can somehow predict that and store the souls they think are most at risk, why not just explain so? if nothing else, appeased populations are easier to control.

[It's a very detached, callous-sounding statement, but it's borne of a sort of objectivity similar to what Caster's employing.]

questioning the administrators' actions gets us nowhere fast though, i realize. there's only so far we can speculate before we start going in circles, with the lack of information we have available to us.

There may be a pattern, but it's not something we're aware of. If they have to power to bring souls here and put them in new bodies, they likely have a way of studying our souls. Through the collars they check on every few weeks seems the most likely.

They probably weren't planning on ever telling us, but then the whole Ruana thing happened... Things are pretty obviously getting out of hand now. Speculating about that girl is pointless, though. You're right about that.

[If this were in person, Caster would be shrugging and sighing about it.]

i see. it's a likely explanation for it. [though not for why the Admins aren't more transparent. now, what have they to hide...]

as i understand it, she's the one in charge of everything, correct? the other admins and the tower as a whole?

Right. As far as I can tell, Ruana is the oldest and most powerful of the administrators. She's "in charge" in that no one can oppose her, but I don't think they chose to let her do as she likes.

I mean, the administrator who seemed to be the most honest, Dax, was killed by her a few weeks ago after she put us all through games that put our lives in danger. Sick, isn't it?

is that what happened? i've looked back far enough to see others mentioning the incident afterwards, but i'm afraid

wait

would this be around the time the atmosphere of the tower changed significantly?

That's right! I was in one of the games, so I know it firsthand.

By atmosphere, are you talking about the people who all came and left together in a large group, the air itself, or the way the Tower feels to people with psychic and magical abilities? You're going to have to be a little more specific there!

magic i guess, not particularly talented in it but i could feel something happening a bit over a month ago

was about when all the uncollared people vanished

something changed in the tower, i can't really describe it. a more sinister, murky feeling? sort of a suffocating feeling of darkness and order

but not quite so heavy

nothing's physically changed, i know that much. or at least it seems that way.

and i'm aware of the event where several floors became affected by some spell; this happened before that.

what was it like? the game, i mean.

Oh, so it's a psychic-type feeling, huh? I understand what you mean, now that you mention it, though. There was something that brought those people here, and there was a big fight with it and the administrators. It might still be on the network, if you go back far enough, but I think they killed it. Ruana took over after that.

The games were like something out of an urban myth. I was only in one, but mine was in a dream. We had to find the missing fingers of this creepy old woman...

I was lucky. I got out in the first round. A lot of people in the game died in their sleep when they lost.

think i might've noticed it because i've felt similar before. don't believe it's psychic, whatever that is. it's just a heavy sort of aura. magic's probably the closest thing. [He's fumbling; he has no idea how to explain the feel of corrupted El energy- which is how it seems to him- or the subtle change that occurred in the Tower when Ruana killed Dax and removed the visitors, not that he knows that's how it happened.] i can't be the only one who's felt it, i don't think. i wasn't lying when i said i'm not particularly magic-sensitive.

i suppose i'll see if i can go back that far and check. it seems like something important to know about.

a dream... that was a game? it seems more like a ghost story. those are what the administrators are fond of?

Well, if it's like magic, it's probably close enough that a lot of magic users would have noticed! And since that energy can be felt by lots of different people, maybe there's someone who could more accurately pinpoint the difference?

Ruana likes them, at least. Most of the other admins are pretty straightforward in their torture compared to her. The second worst is Jason, who just like to experiment on us.

Ruana is the one who likes to play mind games. She's a grown woman, but sometimes she acts like a psychotic child. I don't know if you were here for it or saw it, but she told us she was a human experiment in this place a long time ago. It's pretty clear to me that something during that time broke her mind.

maybe. apologies, i hadn't meant to derail the discussion so much.

... experiments. i see.

broken, is it... she rules by power, then, not merit? i can't imagine anyone would willingly allow her to lead them, if such is true.

It's fine, don't worry about it! ♥ I may be a magic user myself, but my specialty is with more physical changes, so I'm sorry I can't help you with that.

Definitely power! Though, I don't think a lot of the administrators don't mind that. They're as creepy and dangerous to us as she is a lot of the time.

unfortunate, but all the same not all that surprising for this place. and it's fine; it's only offsetting because there isn't much to do about it.

you've mentioned a ruana, jason, and a late dax. what of the others?

The other administrators?

There's Riki, who's almost as crazy as Ruana. I think they're friends or something. Zo is just a kid, but he's the one who brings us here. He's got a lot of power.

Those are the only other ones, as far as I know.

five in total, now four? i assume it's either zo or ruana who penned that letter to us, then. from what you described, it doesn't seem to fit the profile of the other administrators. perhaps dax, but you said zo is the one responsible for our arrivals here, and i haven't heard of the letters changing recently, so...

thank you for telling me this much.

If you could find one of the people who've been here the longest, you might be able to compare. I don't know any personally, though.

No problem! Better to have information in a place like this, right? And it's nothing you couldn't have figured out on your own if you'd been here, so even if you're an admin yourself, it'll be fine. ♥

♘ 01 || [text; anonymous]

text; anonymous onward unless otherwise noted

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