animus_network | [01] || [Circumstances] || [Video]

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[01] || [Circumstances] || [Video]

I would advise against using the network, but given the circumstances there are no other options.

[ Have a Gandalf appearing on the screen- He looks dead serious, yet somehow calm. Anyone paying attention could notice he looks quite tired as well. ]

I need to know what happened in this tower before my arrival- From the first day people were ‘saved’. If there are people who could give me any relevant information, this would be highly appreciated.

I’m most interested in a child who has been mentioned a couple of time yesterday, I believe his name was Zo. From what little I have read, I assume something terrible must have happened.

[Text – Filtered to Princess Zelda, Fi and Xion]

I need to see the three of you as quickly as possible. Please come to the library as soon as you can. You know which one.

-- Gandalf

[ It is sent right after the video feed, and he won’t reply- What he has to speak about with them is too important to be discussed on the network. ]

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Don't be sorry, that's not for us to chose the circumstance, we can only chose what it is for us to do.

[ ... Now that he's face-to-face with him, Gandalf remembers who Minato reminds him of. Minami. ]

What did Zo try to do, and what was his punishment? I believe the boy may be the key.

[ ... Ah. Well. there had been worse incidents. He takes a deep breath. ]

There's... a lot more to this, and it happened around the time I first got here, myself. I apologize if anything I say is faulty or confusing, it has been... a fair number of months.

[ He pauses, quiet for a moment once more. Through the haze, he has only to recall the paranoia on top of the voices of his friends. His family. He remembers all of this very, very clearly. Unfortunately or otherwise, he begins to recite from memory. ]

I think... that he tried to help us. Bring others here, all the people who were left, he said. He didn't want to see us sad, or... something to that effect.

He, a man named Dax, and a man named Jason--the one behind the Labyrinth and Q and A earlier--got into an argument on the Network in public. ... What I don't know is how he was punished; all we could see was Zo in a room with monitors off and a giant hand going into his chest, it didn't look human. Myself, and others, tried to search for him and help him, because we were concerned, but we... couldn't find him.

He controls something, bringing people here, I think? When they argued, his eyes glowed white and the monitors behind him kept flicking on and off, showing worlds with time limits...

[ Obviously, there's a lot more to it than that, but... well, one bit at a time. ]

Don't apologize, what you've said is very interesting- And worrying for the child. The monitors, the hand, the arguments- That's a lot of info and we need to analyze it all...

[ Oh yes, he wants more info but first of all, something- ]

Time limits?

[ It picks his interest.He opens wide-eyes at that, because depending on his answers, it changes everything. ]

How were the time limits? Were they close to 0, were they advancing fast, slowly...?

[ ... He is thinking hard to remember, give him a moment. ]

The timers were... frozen at one second, I think. If I'm right, it seems like he had been trying to either stop the destruction or bring people here before it occurred. But when they argued, there was... a problem. When I first got here, there weren't actually that many threats to us actively in the Tower.

I mean, not like it is NOW, at least.

[ It was a little safer if you discounted the floors themselves. ]

Frozen...? So they have a way to stop the destruction... Now the question is to know if they didn't go with it because it couldn't work, or because this would have been an issue to them and would have compromised their plan.

[ That's a lot of useful information... And at the same time, it makes things more complicated. ]

I have been told by a young boy that monsters appeared following this. More specifically, the phantoms that imitate voices of our love ones.

[ He looks down, thinking about how to properly explain what had happened. ]

I can't tell you about whether or not they stopped it on their own, or if the images were real. However... what you've been told about the Phantoms is correct.

[ Minato is deep in thought, before he speaks next. Contemplating something. ] ... I do know that it seemed like Zo-san himself was able to stop it, but there were repercussions when he did so, which you already know, in part.

The entire Tower lost power for a long time, and that was the first time actual, dangerous creatures started appearing. Like you've heard, these things pretended to be people we knew: enemies, loved ones... they were like the Shadows from my world that feed on people and lure them using their voices. They were invulnerable. You couldn't kill them, the Phantoms. Anyone who went too close to one had any abilities besides regular human strength and training disabled and were instantly killed. Drained of their life force, almost.

The Phantoms were a result of what he did. They still appear during the night time here, and can drain you of energy. They're not as dangerous as they were. Other things are far more dangerous than them, now. They didn't start showing up after that, though. It was just the Phantoms, at first.

[ Gandalf listen attentively to what Minato said. That's all really... Fascinating, worrying. Yet he feels he gets closer to the truth. ]

Pretend to be people we knew... Unless they are indeed people we knew but unlike us they weren't given the chance to have a physical body and are tormented between life and death, unable to escape and drawn toward those they once knew...

[ This part was more spoken to himself, but he smiles to the boy afterward. He doesn't want Minato to... Worry too much about that hypothesis. And what it implies. ]

Zo can stop the universe's destruction, but it drains the tower's energy and draw Phantoms... Furthermore, the others do not want him to succeed and will do anything to keep him under their power...

There is a lot we could learn from those phantoms. From Zo. We need to organize those information and find ways to analyze them. Is there anything else of importance you think should be mentioned?

... There's a few other things. There were two particular events... and a break-in attempt I was a part of. But the first was an experiment by the administrators here. I'd wager it was Jason's doing--most of us were forced to sign up against our will.

[ Recalling it was... really terrible, to be honest. ]

A group of people were abducted and their bodies were... modified. At the time, we didn't know why they'd gone missing. Everyone else in the Tower who had found themselves signing up despite not wanting to had... different problems. Paranoia, listlessness, being shocked by their collars if they disobeyed the rules... various effects.

I know one girl actually had a phantom trapped in her body...

[ He frowns. While he knows Gandalf might be right, he doesn't particularly think that's a good omen. Either way, he doesn't want to consider what that might've meant. ]

... When they decided the people they'd abducted had suffered enough, it was like half the Tower had some sort of switch flipped. I was... I wasn't part of it, and I know other people resisted it, but they... murdered the people who had been experimented on. It was like their minds had been taken over. Well, they succeeded. The people were brought back to normal eventually, but... I feel like you deserve to know that they're the sort of people we're dealing with.

[ He just... looks down at his feet, bites his lip. He really hated this place. ]

They forced people of this tower- To kill other people against their will, after having make them suffered a living hell?

[ There's a limit to the horror, and it has been crossed. ]

Whatever they're doing to us, it is obvious it is not in the best interest to restore our homeworld.

[ He looks gravely at Minato and very briefly puts a hand on his shoulder. ]

I thank you for those information, they are going to help a lot, I only wish you wouldn't have had to live through such horrors. Maybe you know more but I believe there will be a time soon when we'll meet again. Then we'll be able to discuss about those events further, but...-

[ Because it's obvious Minato is not exactly feeling good about all of this- Speaking about too much at once could worsen things. ]

For now I believe you should relax. Soon enough something is going to happen in this tower, what little free time you have is not to be wasted.

[ ... What is this, a responsible authority figure? He's not even used to this sort of thing, let alone someone telling him to "relax".

There is the briefest of confused looks before he nods, quietly. Okay, then. ]

... I feel like everyone deserves to know this. And... besides that, I'm one of the fortunate ones. I plan on trying to do something again if and when I can, but thank you, Gandalf-san.

[ ... That should suffice. ]

Everyone deserves to know, and I am the one to thank you for the precious information.

[ He nods, smiles then starts to leave. ]

I believe we shall meet again soon sometime in the future, especially if you plan to try and do something.

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[01] || [Circumstances] || [Video]

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