animus_network | ♘ 01 || [text; anonymous]

I've been wondering the same thing. From what I've gathered, the admins have something to do with it all. Not to mention, the Tower seems to have a mind all its own.

I've heard people talk about others leaving, and then reappearing a few days later. Sometimes it seems to happen after a death. I don't know how any of this works. I'm just as curious as you are.

the tower and the admins. everything would come back to them, considering.

i've heard mention of experiments and games, but seen little that qualified as either other than certain traits of the floors themselves. it may be simply that none have occurred recently, but given that

suppose that this entire situation is the game?

[or something. it's all speculation and conjecture, at this point.]

Storage, probably. We know they're just putting our souls in new bodies, so who's to say they can't just take them back out and keep them in stasis for a while?

[there's a brief delay before the reply comes.]

admittedly, that possibility hadn't crossed my mind. given what we know about them, it wouldn't be too surprising.

though in that case, the question becomes 'why?' resources, boredom?

They say they want to save us from dying worlds, but that doesn't mean they have the resources to pull that off on such a large scale.

If that's true, they might think that putting souls in storage is better than letting them die. They can always put the souls back in a body after they've obtained more resources.

Then again, they might be using the souls for something else. Who knows?

[It's a pretty detached response coming from such an energetic woman, but being detached makes it easier to consider all the options.]

It may as well be, to the admins. It's like we're their play things in this place. I've heard of some off events that have happened lately, but I haven't really experience anything myself just yet.

I suppose that makes us lucky. Still. This place gives me the creeps from time to time.

pull us here against our will claiming to have saved us, only to do and toy with us as they please. hardly a better way to gather test subjects if it's an experiment.

off events?

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.]

No. But it can work in terms of giving us a false sense of hope when we wake up.

[That is until everyone actually gets up and looks around at the place...]

Oh. My finger slipped. I meant "odd" events".

[Claws are not meant for these keyboards.]

The people in charge of this place probably just dump them somewhere else for a while! They must think it's pretty funny to see everyone cry over their loved ones going missing, you know? [ and honestly, evatrice agrees with them, it's hilarious.. ]

or break us with the knowledge that there's nothing left. hard to say what the aim is. perhaps not so much of either?

[Except that would mean that they speak the truth, and that's not a very satisfying conclusion.]

it's fine. i understood your intention regardless. i actually meant to ask about what sort of events, specifically.

[Pity that they're anonymous on the network; he's been typing with one hand himself on account of his left being, well, an unwieldy metal claw.]

'funny' would not be the word i'd personally use, but yes, i'm sure. [you can feel his curtness through his text, right? right.]

you believe that they're storing them somewhere too, then?

Edited (i can html, really) 2013-04-01 23:37 (UTC)

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?

[ she can. and even so she just decides to ignore it.. ]

Probably. Even if they were lying about the worlds being gone, what reason would they have to send us home? They're not that kind, riiight?

discipline or punishment, maybe, if we assume the worlds really are gone? perhaps if some of the residents were getting a bit too unruly for their tastes. or maybe if they just felt like it.

[uunfortunately he's sort of mostly musing to himself with that. some traits, it seems, carry over to electronic communication too apparently. oops.]

i don't think i'm as familiar with their individual habits as i should be.

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?

[ it's okay, her stupid way of dragged out talking is even transferring to text.. or maybe she's just like a gleeful little kid that loves to hold down buttons extra long if she can help it. probably a little bit of both. ]

They have better ways of punishing people though. More interesting and entertaining ways! If you can choose to throw someone into jail or instead torture him horribly and slowly, then the answer to that choice is obvious!

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.

[ . . .

well okay, anyone who happened to be passing by would've seen him visibly and noticeably twitch and take a moment to compose himself.]

maybe. also more involved. suppose it takes too much effort when they can focus on other distractions. it'd be more practical than entertainment.

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?

But thinking about practical stuff is so boring!

[ priorities. ]

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.

boring or not, sometimes it has to be done.

so you can spend more time on the interesting things, of course.

[raven why the hell are you encouraging this. sardonicism doesn't convey well via text. stahp.]

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?

[ EXACTLY, RAVEN.. NO.. DON'T.. ]

Really? I see, maybe in that case you're useful enough to stick around after all! Wait a little more before rolling over and dying then!

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.

[is that... supposed to be a compliment, coming from Evatrice...]

...i'll do my best.

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.

[ It's.. close.. enough.. basically. It's as far as she'll get with giving compliments. ]

Are you sure? ... Oh, wait, you can't do it in general since everyone keeps coming back here either way, riiiight?

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. ♥

[hoorah...? i think..]

depends on whether or not you consider all of us here to be dead already, probably. or what you define as death in general.

[because she actually does bring up a good point. if they just keep reviving, then... huh.]

Dead means that someone's heart stopped beating and they stopped breathing, right? We're all walking around just fine, so there's no way we're dead!

[ Honestly, she doesn't think much of the whole soul thing. As long as she has her powers and can have her fun, she's fine.. ]

fair enough. though the absence of either is still hard to make permanent here anyway.

[ He is thiiiiis far away from just logging off the terminal and walking away, just saying. Just. A heads-up in case Evatrice finds the conversation suddenly being cut short. ]

[ Hey, it wouldn't be the first time for her. She'll just move on to something else if this stops or doesn't interest her anymore either. ]

What about the people in charge here? They could probably do it, right?

...likely.

but they had to have brought us here for a reason. whether it's for their claims of rescue, or simply wanting to toy with us...

'breaking' us permanently seems as if it'd be counterproductive to whatever it is they're doing.

though apparently they did kill one of their own relatively recently. who knows, in that case.

[ It's unfortunate that it can't be conveyed via text how slowly he types out his thoughts in the first half of his message- specifically around the 'toy' portion- other than a slight delay in the reply speed overall. ]

They're like kids. [ She can tell this fairly accurately, because.. well, it's just like she is.. ]

They're just playing until they get bored, and then they'll throw whatever they're bored of away. Just like that guy among them. It's just a matter of time.

...pick and choose at random, discard the ones they don't like, is it.

would save us a lot of trouble if they were choosier to begin with.

Maybe they are choosier to begin with and you just don't agree with their choices.

♘ 01 || [text; anonymous]

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