3. Knowledge [Video]

[sarcasmancer]

[[OOC: This is backdated to the 16th, after the Nyx Avatar battle. I meant to make this post earlier, but so it goes. Better late than never!]]

The video opens up on Jade Curtiss, picking up and slipping on his glasses, then looking at the camera while smiling his usual unconcerned smile and wearing his usual military uniform.

"Forgive me my abruptness, but I'd like to conduct a little survey," he says pleasantly. "My name is Jade Curtiss, and I had the fascinating experience of my first death yesterday--at, apparently, the hands of Death itself, no less. When I awoke this morning, I couldn't help but wonder, what sorts of deaths have you all experienced thus far? If you wouldn't mind indulging my curiosity, please leave a response in whatever format you prefer with as much detail as you feel comfortable with giving.

"Please be aware that I will likely ask follow-up questions. This is, of course, completely optional. For those of you who do participate, thank you in advance for your cooperation."

He nods his head politely, then reaches forward for something off-screen. The video cuts there. ...Morbid much?

Comments

videos

[seventhsong]

[It's Lorelei! He's missing his scarf-cloak and seems to have acquired a great deal of mud on everything else.]

What a terribly morbid topic! But let's see.

[He hrms a bit.]

Well, I haven't died as much as some, but Jason killed me recently, and before that the ... plague doctors killed me a few times.. [There is a brief but obvious flash of annoyance. He was going to get revenge one day.] But that's about it.

[sarcasmancer]

My apologies. I'm a terribly morbid man.

[But despite the mild humor with which Jade says that, he pays attention to Lorelei's answer.]

Ah, yes, the plague doctors. I'm afraid I spent my time in the infirmary working as a nurse when I realized that I was completely useless against them.

Fascinating, though. It must be a strange experience for you to die, being an aggregate sentience.

[seventhsong]

It wasn't much dissimilar from what I'm already used to experience. Consciousness temporarily ends, then in a little while you're right back the way you were before. I admit the lack of a death that seems actually relevant may be part of why I still have difficulty with the idea of permanent mortality. It seems so implausible.

[He rubs his chin a bit, getting another little smear of mud there.]

It might be stranger for me if it actually stuck, but it hasn't yet, so it fits with previous situations well. It's so much messier now I'll admit that.

video;

[slightlyoblivious]

I'm sorry, for my part in what happened. I wasn't in my right mind.

[Yukiko bows her head.]

More on-topic, two of my deaths here were during a Tower event where my body was modified. It resembled the creature you saw me summon yesterday. The two deaths were at the hands of people who were also under Tower control, and...let's just say they were violent.

The third? I was fully in control of what happened. It was in a confrontation with someone else here. They were trying to take something, and I was trying to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. I came out on the worse end of it.

[What she means: Sephiroth stabbed her.]

[sarcasmancer]

You certainly weren't. Still, you seem to have recovered your senses, and Nyx was apparently defeated since I woke up the next day despite its promises, so there's no use in dwelling over the past. May I ask what exactly happened there? If you aren't counting yesterday's events as one of your deaths, though, I take it those two young men succeeded in neutralizing you without killing you.

The deaths themselves, though... They sound highly unpleasant. This Tower event, as you call it--how widespread was it, and how long ago did it take place? Also, have you ever noticed any differences about yourself when you woke up afterwards, if I may ask?

filtered, just in case

[slightlyoblivious]

What happened to get me down there?

[That gets a bit of nervous laughter.]

...you saw Nyx. You didn't see its other face. That other face belongs to someone named Ryoji Mochizuki. We're from the same world, and we started dating when I was here before. When I got back, well, we picked things up where they started. That's why I was a target.

I got put under a nasty bit of magic that turned me against everyone, and made me want to protect Nyx above everything else. As for the rest? You could certainly put it like that. What actually happened was kind of embarrassing, but they knocked me out before I caused a whole lot more damage.

[Read: in the middle of a serious fight, she got knocked out by a frying pan to the head.]

That event...it would be a year ago, in March. It affected a pretty large proportion of the Tower's population.

Besides the sleep paralysis getting longer and more frightening each time, I haven't noticed anything different about myself, though.

[video]

[fragileprophet]

[Ion doesn't check the Network terribly often, and replies to what he sees even less, but it felt terribly rude to ignore a post from Jade, so he sets up a video response right away. Sure, it might be easier to go track him down in person...but, well, there was that issue of how terribly tall the Tower was.]

Hello Jade, [He greets with a smile, as usual, though it of course fades to one of sympathy shortly thereafter.] I'm sorry to hear that you've had to experience dying. It's not very pleasant, is it? Though, I suppose it happens to all of us, here, eventually.

[More to the point, though, niceties aside, as Ion's well aware Jade can surely appreciate.]

If I remember correctly...I've died, I believe, four times. At least, technically speaking. [He didn't want to have to count the July incident.] I died twice in the poppy field on floor 87. The first time was on my first day here, when I was with Guy. We didn't realize that their powers were so deadly, and thought it would be a good place to rest while I regained my energy--I had gotten rather tired after traveling for so long up the staircase. The second time was my most recent death. I hate to admit that I, well, collapsed again after overworking myself. A nice young man tried to help me, but ended up taking me right back onto that floor and I was too far gone to warn him of the danger.

[Ion shakes his head, sad at the memory. Their newest Luke had been there, too. In fact...that might have been the last time that Ion had seen him before he disappeared.]

Other than that, I died once with the Luke that's currently in the Tower when we went down as a group into the Administrative floors and got cornered by retrieval units. Before that, my second death was by the first Luke that was in the Tower when I arrived. We had both had our minds altered by Jason at the time, so...it wasn't really his fault.

[The touch of sadness that affects his eyes disappears all at once as Ion remembers himself. He smiles again.]

I hope that helps? I, of course, don't mind answering any questions.

[sarcasmancer]

[Even if Ion hadn't responded, Jade wouldn't have been offended. Really, he wouldn't have been offended if he'd gotten no responses whatsoever, though he would have been disappointed. This is the kind of topic most people would prefer not to discuss, and Jade's well aware that he's not the easiest person to whom to confide emotionally sensitive matters. Still, his response is polite--though, really, he's always polite to Ion, even when he's being stern.]

Not especially, no, though from a scientific point of view it was very interesting. I imagine it wouldn't be difficult to avoid, but you'd have to be a shut-in to accomplish it. Those of us who aren't content with such roles run that risk.

[The poppy field... He'd seen it in passing, but he hadn't been aware that it was deadly. Good to know, that. The retrieval units getting nasty was something he'd heard of already, at least.]

Which young man was this? I assume you would have mentioned his name if you knew it, but if you could give a description, I'd appreciate that. As for the last death you described, you say you and Luke had your minds altered? I understand this must be difficult to talk about, and I apologize, but could you explain that in more detail, please?

[fragileprophet]

[Leave it to Jade to find dying interesting. On the screen, he shakes his head.]

Oh, not at all. I don't mind elaborating.

[First, there was the question of the young man.]

You're correct; I never got his name, or even saw him again afterward. It's fully possible that he's disappeared from the Tower since. But he was probably somewhere around Luke's age, with dark hair and...a headband, if I remember correctly. He was a bit tanned; the sort that one gets when they work outdoors often, and rather strong.

[He was able to lift up Ion, after all. But then, Ion was quite the opposite--small and pale from his time indoors and underground. Lifting him wasn't much of a challenge for most people. Hell, Anise could probably lift him if she wanted to.]

As for what happened between Luke and I...I'm afraid I can't speak for what happened to him. It was something very different, from what I could tell, and he wasn't around much longer afterward for me to be able to ask in detail. [Ion pauses, here, looking thoughtful.] As for me, I can tell you that this was only a couple of weeks after I had arrived. I don't remember the process. The last thing I remember is being grabbed by a retrieval unit, and when I woke up I didn't have control over my body, though I was fully cognizant otherwise.

[He frowns. He can still remember it with such clarity; it hadn't even been the biggest horror he had gone though...but it had been the first. How could anyone forget the first?]

I had had these sort of...speakers...[He gestures to the sides of his head.]...put over my ears. For the most part, I just walked around doing simple chores. But other times, I could hear...forgive me, it's hard to describe, exactly, but it was death. I could hear when residents of the Tower were about to die. And when I did, I'd stop what I was doing to seek them out.

[video]

[fionnuisce]

Twice. It was utter bullshit on both counts.

[Waver could not possibly look more done with everything up to and including existence itself. He was visibly exhausted and by all appearances utterly emotionless.]

I make a point to avoid it when I can.

[sarcasmancer]

Oh, my. You drowned to death in shit? Twice? What a terribly embarrassing way to go. No wonder you look so enervated.

[...Despite the shit that Jade's giving him now, though, he has a pretty decent guess on what has Waver looking like that. He'd spotted both him and Diarmuid on the battlefield last night while engaging the healer.]

[fionnuisce]

Hi-fucking-larious, Jade.

[:|]

Once was a likely accidental suffocation, the other was more deliberate and much less clean.

[video][private]

[notsogrimreaper]

[The boy that responds doesn't look like he'd know much about Jade's death, but appearances can be deceiving. He does show some very slight similarities to the monster, however, and looks quite melancholy when he responds.]

... I'm sorry. If you would like me to explain what happened, I will. I would prefer not to do it on the network though.

[Sharing something like this so publicly is what got him into that mess in the first place.]

[video][private]

[sarcasmancer]

[That young man. He bears a passing similarity to... Jade frowns.]

You wouldn't happen to be Ryoji Mochizuki, would you? Whether you are or not, I would appreciate a full explanation, and I don't mind meeting somewhere in person to get it. Is there a floor you would prefer?

[video][private]

[notsogrimreaper]

[Ryoji seems a little surprised that Jade already knows his name, but he tries not to question it. Maybe someone mentioned it during that battle, in that period of time when he was transforming and he could only focus on the pain.]

Yes, that's me. I don't mind wherever you'd like to meet. Where are you now?

[Video]

[evokingfool]

[Ah, the man who aided them against Yukiko.]

Sorry that you died.

[Because it sucks. But anyway, the question...hm.]

I died roughly eleven times. [He thinks. Minato doesn't remember what happened on March 5th last year...] Some from being killed by others and some from participating in games.

[Video]

[sarcasmancer]

So it goes. It was going to happen sooner or later. Now that it has, I'm simply putting a priority on information I've meant to gather for a while now. I'm glad that you were able to neutralize Yukiko relatively peacefully, by the way. Death is such an inconvenience.

Eleven times, hm? Have you been in the Tower for a long time, or have you simply been unlucky? Also, how well do you remember these deaths, and could you please describe to me some of the effects when you came back, particularly with the later deaths?

[Video]

[evokingfool]

The credit's on Chidori-san's timing and actions, but we wouldn't have done it without weakening her.

[Without Jade, it'd probably take longer...]

It comes from being here for a long time. Over two years for myself, actually. [He's surprised the number isn't higher.] As for my deaths, I remember most of them, mainly those I was conscious of and it's a not a fast death.

[Hmmmmm...] Other than the sleep paralysis, it feels like the temporary arm numbness was longer than before.

[video]

[averytinyparticle]

[What an interesting post to the Network! Quark smiles pleasantly as he sends a reply.]

Hi, Mister Jade! My name's Quark. I'll answer your survey!

[Because surveys were meant to be answered, right? It would only be polite.]

I've died twice! Both times were because of these shadow people that followed me around everywhere. The first time, my shadow sounded like my Grandpa, and he said a lot of mean things to me, so I got really sad and tired until I ended up dying. The second time was during Halloween. I couldn't give a shadow the candy it wanted so I got drowned in a bathtub full of water that burned really bad.

[It wasn't really very fun, and Quark can remember it hurting.]

I hope your first death didn't hurt too much!

[video]

[sarcasmancer]

[Jade is just as pleasant back, despite the subject matter. On the surface, he hardly seems concerned about it at all.]

Thank you, Quark; I appreciate your cooperation. Shadow people, hm? They certainly don't sound like they were very friendly. Their methods of murder sound quite different, though. Are you sure that they were the same type of monsters, or were they monsters that only appeared similar?

Oh, no, not at all. My vessel was destroyed in an instant, so I hardly felt a thing. It was actually a little disappointing.

[averytinyparticle]

[Whoa. Jade was disappointed that he didn't feel any pain when he died? He must have been really strong or really, really weird!]

I guess they could have been different! Especially because the second time was during one of Ruana's games. Maybe she made them, herself.

[Maybe she liked scary shadow people. Quark didn't know. He just knew that Ruana was really scary and could do a lot of things that he couldn't explain. So why not this, too?]

[voice]

[attheclocktower]

[It's more than text, but less than video. This isn't exactly the easiest things to talk about, but there's worse.]

Ten times. A lot of them as part of a game or experiment. I think... one time trying to escape a floor that trapped me and my friend there.

Three times as part of a punishment.

[A part of her wants to ask if it's really just curiosity, but refrains, for the moment]

[voice]

[sarcasmancer]

[Indeed it's not--for normal people. Jade's well aware that his attitudes are abnormal, which is why he made the caveat that people could say only as much as they were comfortable with. Of course, until they make it clear that that's all they're saying...]

I see. I take it you've been here for a long time as well. I think I'm familiar with the floor you mention as well. May I ask what sort of 'punishment' you mean?

[video]

[chevalier_mal_fet]

[Not usually one for the network, Lancelot feels more drawn to it now than he has been before during his time in the Tower. On a whim, likely due to his preoccupation with the aftermath of his own recent death, the Dark Knight answers the question as asked.]

Being a Summoned Spirit given flesh, I am reckoned long dead on my World.
I have met Death in this place but twice. Once at the hands of Jason. Once in saving my Master from a Fall that would have killed Him.

Does this satisfy you, Jade Curtiss?

[video]

[sarcasmancer]

I'm afraid I'm not a man easily satisfied--unless you're saying that that's all you're comfortable with saying. For example, I'm curious: how do your deaths in the Tower compare to the death or deaths you experienced on your home world?

[He seems awfully blase about talking to someone who claims to have been dead for a long time. Lancelot may come to learn that this is just how Jade is.]