animus_network | [Video]

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[Taro's voice is unlike what those who met him his first day here would have heard. It's actually serious. His expression is grim.]

I know you guys saw that too. Whoever these people are - the people who run this place, I'm guessing? Whoever they are, they seem pretty sick. Vivisection? Really?

[He struggles to keep his expression from turning to anger.]

So, a few things.

First of all, yes, I know they can probably hear this.

Second, if anyone would like to fill me in on this 'Q&A session' that apparently happened before I got here.

Third, which was the reason I was going to make this post before that broadcast... is it just me or are some of the floors... draining, in some ways? Like you aren't up to your full potential? Like the uh... what was it. Thirty second floor?

[He's not going to explicitly mention abilities yet, but it's what he means.]

... Thanks. And my name's Taro Watanabe, for those of you I haven't met yet.

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One of our "benefactors" saw fit to explain some of the things about this place. If what he said was true, then he and the others holding us are nothing but monsters themselves.

...y-yeah. I saw it.

[Tara is leaning against her console, fiddling with something glittery in both her pale hands. Her eyes are fixed on it, but her attention is definitely on Taro.

She's been thinking, since that post went up.]

Th-They lied. About us...being happy here. M-Maybe even about saving us.

[Maybe even about their worlds being gone.]

W-We can't be happy here.

...a-and I've noticed. With the other floors. And I'm T-Tara. Hi.

And what kinds of things were explained?

Of course they did.

[... He nods.]

Good to meet you, Tara. ... You okay?

[Under the circumstances, he means.]

[Tara gives a one armed shrug. Maybe it should have been obvious. But it was easy to believe that her world had been destroyed. And Willow was here. She'd wanted to be happy here.]

No.

[She feels weak. Tara knows what to do when she feels weak...but her preferred pool of victims seems more or less nonexistent, here. She has a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that she's going to have to find someone.]

I-It was...kind of just basically not okay.

... Do you wanna meet up somewhere and talk about it?

[He does genuinely sound concerned. He kind of has a weakness for lost-seeming young women. ~~It happened in his canon, it's less creepy than it sounds.~~]

[Tara only shrugs again, before giving the little stone of rose quartz an idle toss up into the air. She catches it neatly in her other hand.]

I-I guess. But, um...also kind of want to hear what other people say. I mean...m-maybe someone can tell us if they always talk like that. M-Maybe we're just being...silly, and that's just how it is here.

[On the other hand...he seems nice. Maybe he'd understand if she drained him dry. She'd see him somewhere safe afterwards, at least.]

Well we don't have to go that far off from a terminal, if you don't want. That way we can hear if someone responds.

U-um, if it helps, I have a short summary of the information I got from the session.

Oh? I'd appreciate it if you could send it to me.

Sure! Hang on a sec-

[And after a while, Taro's going to get a textfile labelled: Summary.txt]

Thanks.

[Give him a minute while he reads over this...]

[... His expression turns from serious to furious ~~which I need to find an icon for~~.]

What the fuck... no. Everyone else can't be dead.

[Everything he worked for... everything he hoped for... everyone he loved, cared about, hated - all of that can't just be gone.]

Not too surprising, really. I do wonder why we were allowed to see it.

[Enough that, for all that he was calm and vaguely bemused on screen, there was already a determination to paint the walls with their blood going on behind that faint smile, whatever the point of letting the "guests" see that was.]

And it's the thirty-first to thirty-sixth floors.

...I'm sorry.

[And he's really clueless on what to say right now.]

There's nothing to be sorry about because it's not true. It can't be.

Yeah, I'm wondering that too.

[... Great.]

That's annoying...

[Tara finally looks up at him. Her gaze is remarkably sharp, although it's sharp from curiosity, rather than any hostility.]

W-Why do you want to talk to me? I mean...l-lots of people would have been upset by that.

[She smiles wryly at him.]

I-I, I don't really mean to look this...sad.

I would treat it with a grain of salt, for now - it may be accurate...

But even if it is, someone may be trying to provoke us.

[He caught the vivisection part, it's just almost like he doesn't seem to care right now...]

Very. [Have someone else who doesn't really want to talk about suddenly ending up sans powers.]

Yeah, that's true.

[He's known too many from the Underground who disappeared. Vivisection from scientists is a popular theory as to where they ended up.]

For telling us to 'be happy here' they sure seem to go out of their way to make it creepy.

Well, a few things. First, we're all in this together, so we should try to support each other, right? Second... you kind of remind me of a friend when she was a lot younger. Third, it's the right thing to do. And fourth... you seem nice. Someone like you shouldn't have to be so sad.

[He smiles encouragingly.]

We all have times where we're sad. It's easier to get through them if you have someone with you, though.

[It's more familiar than he's willing to admit, as much as it'd depend on who was running a given test; "Be a good boy", "This will only sting for a moment", "This won't hurt a bit".]

It might be to encourage us to be cooperative, or perhaps the "reassurance" helps them with their own consciences... who knows?

[Whether they truly believed they were doing people "favors", serving some greater good, or just wanted a pretense to keep people pliable, it didn't really matter in the long run.]

[For her part, Tara is of the very, very definite opinion that she should always be sad. She's frequently sad. But saying as much to Taro would involve going into far, far too much.]

...okay. I-I'm on the...eighteenth floor. O-Or I guess I could just, um, come to you. Y-You've got, um, all the important stuff to listen to.

[A beat, and then she adds:] I-If you're just trying to be nice so you can sleep with me, then...it's not gonna happen.

[Needlessly harsh, perhaps, and she'll feel it later. But, well, Tara hasn't been around very many people for a while, and even the ones she's met inside the tower have been really anything like Taro.]

I'm a floor above you, on the nineteenth. The eighteenth floor just seemed kind of creepy. Wanna come up here?

[... Don't mind him, he's just going to be facepalming.]

That's not exactly something that's on my mind too much right now. I'm more concerned about the whole danger thing.

Either way it's stupid. Better to warn someone so they can be rightly suspicious than to catch them off guard.

[Being paranoid is a natural reaction to his lifestyle. 8D; ]

Better for the victim, perhaps, but worse for the one making the warning - they have no reason to say something that would be to their detriment.

[Paranoid is a good reaction! ...Subtle apparently needs some work.]

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