animus_network | Ω → eight [audio; open to action]

We are, all of us, growing volcanoes that approach the hour of their eruption; but how near or distant that is, nobody knows — not even God.

[ A pause, after reciting an old quote from a certain philosopher Wilhelm may or may not have an attachment to. There's some soft music playing in the background, but the volume, for once, is turned down to where it's barely audible, just loud enough for a listener to know that it's there. ]

This Tower has endured much. The revelations of our true nature here, the Promethean fall of Dax, and the fate of our worlds...

[ Yes - Wilhelm admits he was wrong about the worlds. It appears the Administrators mislead him. Well played, well played. ]

Though there is but one detail that still eludes me. Something I believed inconsequential to the grand scheme, until now.

What exists outside of the Tower?

[ Yes; there is a reason he is asking this. He leans back into his seat, in his small corner of the library he claimed as his own long ago. Those that regularly spoke with him knew where to find him. ]

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[The screen shows what looks like an older teenager in the white jumpsuit and a violet collar.]

You seem to know much about this tower. I would like answers about those things you spoke of.

I believe that I have been here for over a year, now. Though, my perception of time may seem foreign to those who are not like myself.

[ She must be new, here. ]

Which?

Our true nature. This Dax. The fate of our worlds.

We are disembodied souls placed in false bodies. Dax is a former Administrator whose conscience got the better of him. And our worlds are indeed destroyed.

[ His monotone voice says this incredibly casually, as if he were talking about the weather. It isn't intentional, of course; that's just how he always sounds. About as emotive as he gets is him literally stating how he feels. ]

[She's silent at those answers. It takes a good while before she answers. Some things had felt off ever since she arrived the tower. Her being unable to feel a connection with her goddess, among other things.]

This explains much. Our deaths were desecrated to bring us here.

[She pauses.]

Every now and then much of the sights of the tower disappear, and I see my own body as false and everything else as glossy coating and metal. Is this the true nature of the tower?

Yes. It appears to be little more than a warehouse of individuals they saw fit to save from the destruction of our universes. I noticed many inconsistencies with their stories and things from my own universe that would have been impossible given the context of what I was told. It has since been explained.

[ It's ingenious, really. Wilhelm isn't impressed often. ]

So it then falls upon us to fell those usurper gods and return the worlds to their rightful states or to bring all to the true world of death.

[All this is rather much to comprehend, so she filters it through her understanding as best as she can. A divine war of some sort, she could understand at least.]

That is one way to describe this situation. An interesting choice of metaphor.

Metaphors are the gateway to understanding transcendental truth.

[ He's almost hesitant to ask. ]

Would you elaborate?

Reason and the ordinary senses are limited. There are things you cannot know by experience alone. For those things, you need to grasp it directly with the part of your mind that knows rather than reasons. Thus, you achieve wisdom and know the correct action.

The voices of the gods communicate themselves to me. Even when they are gone or even dead, they can still speak to me. They communicate not with words but with epiphany and the intuition of what must be done. Metaphor is a gateway to such transcendental understanding, but they are not sufficient in themselves. One must complete the final step with ones mind, and thus fully grasp the sacred nature of death.

Though such insights, one can know such things as the sacred arts of blood and corpses, the great virtues, and who must live and who must die.

Edited 2013-08-26 07:38 (UTC)

[ Wilhelm listens patiently throughout the monologue. That sounded quite similar to what he uses the Compass of Order and Chaos for. His soul purpose in the universe was to prevent its destruction by any means necessary, and he didn't have the luxury of caring about how many lives must be lost to ensure that humanity as a whole endures. A device like the Compass let him predict the future, to carefully calculate every possible choice he makes in subtly manipulating humanity along a predetermined route of history that ensures the universe doesn't collapse. ]

You are saying, then, that the dead tell you whom to kill?

It is the gods and through them the sacred nature of blood and death itself that communicates those instincts to me.

I see. That is fascinating.

[She recalls something this man had mentioned earlier.]

You were inquiring about what lies outside the Tower? Those I spoke to did not seem to know.

Nobody knows. The only indication we've had was the whale attack. In hindsight, it is much more telling than we believed at first.

Whale... attack?

Yes. A large whale crashed into the side of the Tower, allowing monsters to flood in from the outside.

I have only heard of whales in books, but I read they live in the sea. Was that wrong?

[She considers this new information.]

Is this, then, the origin of the monsters within the tower?

There are several species - and variants of species - within the galaxy. At least, such is the case with my own.

[ A pause. ]

I do not know. That is what I wish to discover.

It seems there are even more mysteries to this tower than I had thought.

We discover this every day.

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She doesn't realize this isn't quite true.

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