002 | text

[relinquishing]

[It takes him all day to muster himself out of his bed to make this post in the dormitory levels. Had he not been slammed with a message about his new "job", he would have kindly stayed in his room for a day or two just to... he wasn't even sure what the right word was. He didn't need to relax. He needed to detox. His journey home had been short, but he hoped and prayed it was just a dream. Only a dream, please just let it be that. But he'd seen the barren landscape, inhaled the putrid, acidic smell of miasma leaking out of every crack and crevice, seas of purple mud and poison all that remained of his world.

Of course he wanted it to be a dream.

...]

Two questions. Feel free to answer or not.

First: How many of you have been back home? As in: how many have returned to what used to be their home, only to come back? What did you see, and did it... feel real?

[...]

Second: What are we left with if the worlds we all know are really gone? Is it just us, this Tower, countless years and a few grim expectations?

I really am starting to wonder.

Comments

[Text]

[technologic]

I can't answer the first one.

But I think, if our worlds really are gone, maybe there's a world outside the tower that we can go to one day. And even if there isn't, we can someday find a way to stop the monthly experiments so life here is more bearable.

[Text]

[relinquishing]

Maybe. Seems that there's too much destruction and not enough answers to make that kind of wish, though. Right?

...And experiments or otherwise, would you really be okay with that? Having this place be your home for the rest of your life?

text;

[sageprincess]

Of course it is not.

We fight to find out the source of the destruction, and then we reverse it.

I refuse to give up hope.

[Perhaps it's farfetched. Perhaps it's ridiculously unreasonable in the face of all she has seen and experienced. But there's a glimmer of hope - she knows there is - and she will grasp onto it with everything she can.]

text;

[relinquishing]

Your Highness.

No disrespect meant. But that seems like a very tall order.

[They have the technology to transmit all these people and things and monsters from different universes, and even send people back to take a look at what was left. But still no way to restore things. Part of Guy wants to hope that there's some way that, in that ability to cross universes, a solution could be found.

But right now, it seems like a fairy tale.]

voice

[repeatingsun]

Yes. I returned home - once. ...My world was already barren - something bad had already happened - but...there was nothing and nobody there. Not even the twisted kinds of life that there would have been otherwise.

[Solas sounds nearly traumatized by this fact.]

Not even the others who would've been there t-- well, let's just say nobody was there. No one. Human or otherwise. Not even a fish in the river.

...I can honestly say it was the most disturbing experience in my life.

voice

[relinquishing]

[He allows the voice function to carry over, his own words neutral and rather quiet in response. He knows the feeling. He knows it oh so well.]

Isolation like that... it sounds pretty disturbing, yeah. It must have been hard for you.

[Text - hey look someone knows how to use filters]

[bloodyashes]

So it's really gone?

[And then, a few minutes later, as though someone was trying to figure out what to say and then finally grumbled "to hell with it" under their breath - ]

Do you want to talk?

[yo hey text filters forever]

[relinquishing]

[Well, you weren't exactly the first person he expected to see. Color him surprised.]

Depends what you want to hear, I guess.

text, private

[justabignobody]

I have. And yes, I believe it was real.

I don't think that's reason to give up though. There is a way to restore it all. There has to be.

[That he believes with all his heart. ...Even if he doesn't know how exactly they should go about it.]

text, private

[relinquishing]

Maybe. Maybe not. [Personally, he hasn't given up hope. He's just lost quite a bit of it. It's a jarring experience, after all.] I guess it depends on what we'll be able to do with the way things have changed around here, right?

...If you don't mind, what about your world made you think that destruction was real?

[text]

[warriorscribe]

I have, but I do not wish to describe it. I will say with utter certainty that it felt all too real, in a way beyond our senses alone.

But I do have faith in Dax's work, and in his assertion that he was not the only one working to find an end to this destruction. Though his colleagues are not as kind as he was, I believe it is at least in their best interests to halt this, for it must be more work on them, the larger this tower's population grows. As for reversing it, perhaps one of them will take it upon himself to attempt to continue Dax's work there as well. It may indeed take years, but it is years that we have, and failing the restoration of our worlds, we will find peace someday. Hardship always comes to an end, even if it seems endless.

*After all, Ruana was mortal too, right? Sure, even if lifespan is determined by their powers, she couldn't live forever.

...She had absorbed someone else's, though.

It's a good thing this is a text post, and Guy can't see Enoch's eyes widen at the thought.*

[text]

[relinquishing]

So patience just is a pretty massive virtue, basically.

I can't say I ever got to meet Dax or understand his intentions. Not ouside the group meeting back in the cafeteria, anyways. So I don't think I can say anything on that. But even while this tower grows, are we really sure that their best interest is to just stop it all together? And even if it is; what do you think that would that mean for the rest of us? I'd love to keep my hopes up. But I wouldn't put it past some of the people in charge to simply abandon us to the vultures.

[voice]

[thiscloakisgreen]

[There's a low hum at first, as if a machine is springing to life.]

Are you still wondering about this? How uncharacteristically trite of you. I believe I may have already told you in person, but since I am forced at hand to reiterate, so shall I:

There are no absolutes. I have little to doubt that our worlds are in perfect shape. If not, then we merely sit on the means to reconstruct them.

[voice]

[relinquishing]

[He chuckles awkwardly - a common expression around Doom, but just a little more tired than usual.]

You have a great deal of faith, Doctor. People might get envious.

text

[bloodright]

I have; it was as already described. Barren, decayed, lacking in other life.

text

[relinquishing]

Mmm. Did it feel... strange to you at all?

[Text/Failquirk sry.]

[hystericull]

what thE FUCK did you ALL FUCkIN Do.
to be spEcIaL EnOuGh tO GeT YoUr fUcKiN SeLf uP AnD SeNt tHe fUcK BaCk? <:o?

[Text] lol gamzee~

[relinquishing]

[W o w that is a lot of coarse language for one sentence.]

Sorry, I really don't know. Maybe I just got the luck of the draw or something. A magical prize for being in the right room.

[It's a load of BS, but he really doesn't want to dwell on it too hard.]

voice;

[cullscuttlefish]

It's happened to me at least twice now. It never gets any eelsier to sea your world dead, and it feels more real every time it happens. It would be a whole lot betta if it was just...gone, not absolutely dead. Easier to deal with, anemoneway.

...were you here when the administrators decided to hit the fast-forward button a couple of months back? It made it feel like there was nothing but years and reely grim expectations, all right. But I don't intend for that to be the reel end.

Voice

[relinquishing]

[Ah, it's the girl who made the announcement about their deaths. Just hearing her speak gets Guy's already weary voice to soften.]

Yeah, I was here. It makes your heart sink a little bit, doesn't it? To think that people have the possibility of being here for decades... centuries, if their body allows it. I doubt that anyone would really want that.

...So, what do you intend to do?

[Text]

[sacred_flamer]

guy yu were alseep?

[...hope you can decipher redhead typing, Guy.]

i was aslep for awhil. i got stuck back home i think

there was all that purple stuff a round same colr as the meeasma stuf

[Text]

[relinquishing]

...

Luke, your spelling needs some work.

[Oh well. He deciphered your handwriting enough.

There's a pause.]

I don't know if I was asleep or not. But yeah. That's about what I saw, too. Like the Qlipoth, sort of, only you could tell where countries and cities might have been.

[Baticul was actually one of the most difficult places to see. The city dissolved, only a massive, gaping hole in the ground left where the capital had originally stood.]

text; dang I'm late though

[hellacious]

shit's all kinds of hella crazy, dude
looks like home, feels like home, but the lack of life sure doesn't help it sound like home
know what I mean?
but it's got all the right ups and downs, rights and lefts, corner stores and thrift shops

no life anywhere though, and that's the part that's a kick in the teeth


honestly, it's probably better not to think about that particular 'what if', bro
might be a little too depressing for some folks to handle

text; nah man, if it were like a week ago you'd be late. it's cool

[relinquishing]

Depressing or not, some folks might need to take the chance to think. This isn't really a place I think anyone should get stagnant in.

Not when you're faced with empty worlds like that.

[It might be cruel. But this is now the second home he's lost due to catastrophe. First an island. Now the whole planet.

Forgive him for not being super idealistic.]

text

[seekinganswers]

i just came back from mine and it felt too real for me to deny it even though i really, really want to

seeing that makes it hard to think about what's left

there's a whole world outside this tower probably, but what if it's just like ours?

text

[relinquishing]

Makes you wonder if that's the reason that this Tower is even here in the first place.

There HAS to be something out there that hasn't been destroyed. But the land you knew and had memories attached to... it's hard, seeing it all gone.

I'm sorry you had to go through that.

[keybearer]

I refuse to accept it. There has to be some kind of trick to it. Even if it did feel real... who's to say it's not all fabricated by the admins?

[Maybe it's foolish of him to think this way, but it's one of the few things that keeps him together in the tower.]

Given everything else they put us through, is it really a stretch?

[relinquishing]

[Don't worry, other!Riku, Guy completely understands this feeling you have.]

Maybe, Maybe not. They do seem to like pulling plenty of other tricks on us, though. Why should this be any different?