Patrick Dawn (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bashfulshifter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
animus_network2013-08-17 01:26 pm
bashfulshifter) wrote in animus_network2013-08-17 01:26 pm
[text/action]
[It's too quiet.]
[Rick's been wandering the Tower since Thursday, trying to help whoever he can with their shadows, checking up on them every few hours when he can catch his breath. But after yesterday, he's lost track of nearly all of them...and earlier today, he watched yet another die. After making a full circuit of all the safer floors and the stairwell, he's only now beginning to realize that perhaps Sertoria's death was just a continuation on a pattern that he's somehow missed.]
[It's evening, now, and around him the Tower has become eerily silent. Rick's staggered his way to the top floor dorms; his collar is almost as clear as it was Wednesday. He knows that the network hasn't been working well, but he's so alone, so terrified that he's failed all the people that he's tried so hard to help, and this is the only other way he can think of to try and contact them. The message he sends is short...]
Is anyone still up and around? There's so few people left...if you're still alive, I'm on the first floor of the dorms. We should stick together. Don't let the shadows win this.
[...but the message that comes out is glitched, nearly unreadable in spots. Rick paces between terminals, reloading his post to see if the problem fixes itself--and then, appropriately enough, he gives one of the computers a solid, frustrated kick, and collapses on the opposite side of the hall.]
[It's doubtful that anyone will be lucky or persistent enough to decipher Rick's message. If they do, though, he'll be curled up by the wall where he left himself. A shadow rubs his back.]
[You tried, honey...but you can't save everyone, you know. I told you it wasn't worth the effort and you just didn't listen...]
[Rick's been wandering the Tower since Thursday, trying to help whoever he can with their shadows, checking up on them every few hours when he can catch his breath. But after yesterday, he's lost track of nearly all of them...and earlier today, he watched yet another die. After making a full circuit of all the safer floors and the stairwell, he's only now beginning to realize that perhaps Sertoria's death was just a continuation on a pattern that he's somehow missed.]
[It's evening, now, and around him the Tower has become eerily silent. Rick's staggered his way to the top floor dorms; his collar is almost as clear as it was Wednesday. He knows that the network hasn't been working well, but he's so alone, so terrified that he's failed all the people that he's tried so hard to help, and this is the only other way he can think of to try and contact them. The message he sends is short...]
Is anyone still up and around? There's so few people left...if you're still alive, I'm on the first floor of the dorms. We should stick together. Don't let the shadows win this.
[...but the message that comes out is glitched, nearly unreadable in spots. Rick paces between terminals, reloading his post to see if the problem fixes itself--and then, appropriately enough, he gives one of the computers a solid, frustrated kick, and collapses on the opposite side of the hall.]
[It's doubtful that anyone will be lucky or persistent enough to decipher Rick's message. If they do, though, he'll be curled up by the wall where he left himself. A shadow rubs his back.]
[You tried, honey...but you can't save everyone, you know. I told you it wasn't worth the effort and you just didn't listen...]
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[Waver was admittedly stronger than what looked like a scrawny frame would imply, and while he did give it a decent try he was geared more towards speed than strength. So picking anyone up was a little difficult.]
Goddammit...hang on, I've got a better idea. [He took a glass vial of mercury from his coat pocket, pouring it out onto the floor.] Fervor mei sanguis.
[Remember the weird mostly featureless maid, Rick? She's back at that and picking you up bridal style.]
Right then, shall we?
no subject
[He's looking very embarrassed about this when Waver reveals his "better idea." Rick remembers the maid, vaguely--right, he was going to ask what it was next time he ran into the man, wasn't he? Now seemed like a much more suitable time for such discussion.]
[Rick curls up awkwardly in the construct's arms, expression a combination of confusion and slight anxiety.]
...Thank you. [Gotta get that out of the way first.] Um...i-if you d-don't m-mind me a-asking...what is...?
no subject
no subject
[For the moment, that is. He thinks over a few key words and squints, befuddled.]
...Magic?
[The concept probably shouldn't seem as strange to him as it does--he's seen enough uncanny things in the Tower, and even seen "spells" used first-hand, but the term is so nebulous that he's not sure how to define it. One person's magic could be another universe's...aspect of life that goes without explanation. Or something of the sort.]
[...Whatever, he's confused.]