kaisou | i'll be coming through, coming through

Entry tags:

i'll be coming through, coming through

WHO: Belle, Harumasa, Jun, and the Crystal Tower residents
WHERE: the Crystal Tower!
WHEN: during the horror plot!
WHAT: Lycaon, Anby, and Hugo are missing from movie night. Anby would never miss movie night. therefore they're trapped in deep-cleaning the Crystal Tower. this is a foolproof conclusion and Belle's going to go get them.
WARNINGS: mentions of terminal illness and missing persons and the post-apocalyptic setting of ZZZ.

[Look, Belle knows Anby. She'd never miss movie night, at least not without letting Belle know what's up first. And since Lycaon and Hugo are absent, that leaves only one logical conclusion for her to make:

They're stuck in the Crystal Tower.

She knows Lycaon well enough to know he's not going to be happy about the general state of the Tower. It's...well, it's seen better days, is what it is. Hugo would tag along to irritate him, he does like to make it a hobby, and Anby's the poor sucker swept up in helping them out. Clearly, Belle's gotta go get them out of there! Or, well, Belle will try to get them out of the Tower, anyway.

Because she's not entirely certain she won't get mugged by a monster, she goes to talk Harumasa into coming along with her, and so here they are with Jun tagging along. Belle sets little Eous down on the ground, opens her laptop, and sends the little Bangboo on its way up.]

I don't know if this is better or worse than the time in the Ballet Twins, honestly.

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[Belle comes to ask Harumasa for assistance in finding the missing on-again-off-again couple and Anby. Of course he's going to help! He's just as worried by their disappearance, but he trusts that Lycaon and Hugo would keep Anby safe. He can't go searching on his own. There's no way he has the stamina for that this month. So it works out that Belle approaches him for this.

Plus, well, he's not going to say no to Belle regardless.

That being said, the Crystal Tower is a logical conclusion given the insanity that is their favorite werewolf-vampire duo since Twilight. Harumasa doesn't think that's the right one, though, since he's about 95% certain that Anby would've texted him or the group chat with an SOS. However, it gets him out of the Meropide and he's going to seize that opportunity.

By draping himself daintily on the cheap ass fainting couch Anby got from somewhere he doesn't want to think about.]

Man, so much happened in the Ballet Twins that you're gonna have to be so much more specific. At least the Tower isn't haunted. Allegedly.

[Jun is a bit of a third wheel in this, and he knows it. Were Haru in good health, he probably would've passed on coming. But considering Haru's health this month and Belle's.... physical fortitude, Jun decided it'd probably be best if he tags along.

So he's quietly following after them. He has his doubts if they are actually in the tower (why would they go here?) -- but he's not contractually obligated to point such things out. He's just contractually obligated to be Haru's assistant here, and if Haru wanted to go.... well! ]

I wouldn't rule out a haunting. I had to help clear this place out of monsters twice now.

[REASSURING]

Edited 2025-10-15 16:16 (UTC)

Plus it's just creepy and cavernous. [Her eyes glow as she connects to Eous, her laptop showing what the Bangboo's seeing.

Harumasa's not wrong, lots of things happened at the Ballet Twins. Belle pauses a moment, racking her memory, before she says:] The first time I met Lycaon, he and his group had been hired to clean up the Ballet Twins for a client. We ran into each other by accident, actually—Anby and the other Hares and I were searching for a contact who'd gone missing, and her signal was coming from the top of one of the towers. We met Lycaon and crew midway through their cleaning.

[She pauses.]

They were very thorough about clearing the place out of monsters. And also just plain old cleaning and repair work, I know we fixed the lights up. Anyway—that's why I figure he's busy deep-cleaning, but Victoria Housekeeping's not here and Anby and Hugo are, so.

[This sounds like such a reasonable conclusion to jump to. For anyone else it would be batshit insane, but for Lycaon? Yeah, Belle's pretty sure he would.]

That's true. It'd be a big hit for Halloween if they converted some of this into a haunted tower.

[Not that anyone has the budget for that. Other than the insanely rich.

Harumasa hums softly as he sits up a little. His ears swivel like he's trying to catch any sound coming from the Tower. He can't hear any movement or sense the presence of people other than the residents. The Crystal Tower is flipping huge, though, so he's not surprised by that necessarily. Still... he'll take advantage of being outside the Fortress for a bit longer to humor this.]

That sounds like Victoria Housekeeping alright. [He glances at Jun.] Lycaon's old crew was basically a maid service, but they also included monster eradication as part of their 'cleanup.' Usually only rich people and politicians could hire them.

[He lies right back down.]

I don't hear anything or sense anyone higher up, but this place is enormous. It's practically city-sized in and of itself!

[Jun will nod at the explanation, thankful for it] Ah, yeah. He mentioned he used to be a butler in his past life. It doesn't surprise me, many groups sought to exploit the resources found in Eclipses in my old world. Especially the rich.

[So. There was probably many variants of the Victorian Housekeepers in his world world. Though...] ... Though, actually going so far as to deep-clean an Eclipse sounds like a step only Lycaon would do.

[He'll move to sit down on one end of the couch as he tries to send out his own senses]

Mm.... I'm not sensing anything either, but with the sheer level of magical energy here, it's possible my senses are being drowned out.

It was the same in New Eridu. The Hollows were dangerous, but they also were profitable, and everyone wanted a cut. [Belle and Wise included, though their main goal had nothing to do with money.] Especially the corporations.

[cough TOPS cough]

Oh, absolutely. He'd take the Crystal Tower as a challenge. We have to get him out, he'll deep-clean every floor if he's allowed.

[Eous starts making its way up the stairs, a small and determined little robot rabbit. Belle, in the meantime, opens up an app to the side of her laptop screen, beside the video feed from Eous, that looks a lot like she's crafting a map of the Tower floors.]

Eous and I can't see anything that could be hostile. Can't see any trace of the others, though. [She glances at Harumasa, chuckles a little even as her cheeks tinge red, and ducks her head back down.] I bet they could make their own horror movie in here. Get A24 to distribute.

[Harumasa laughs at that. The price is a little bit of a cough, but it's a normal one.]

Yeah, the biggest corporation conglomerate even had oversight for Hollow Special Operations, but not Section 6. [Mostly for Jun's benefit:] You can think of HSO as the equivalent to first response disaster relief and firefighters. Section 6 was created to be more independent, but with only four of us there's only so many places we could be. We usually got deployed to Hollows that first formed or if there was a particularly powerful Ethereal in it. Buuuuut the Chief could accept any mission that she felt was right for us to take.

[He knows himself well enough that he'd still follow Miyabi's orders if she was here. He wouldn't even question it.

Though, at the mention of Lycaon deep cleaning every floor....]

... I don't know how Lycaon has the energy for that.

[It's a mystery to why their favorite wolf doesn't get tired. Maybe it's the anxiety and OCD.

He's going to be a nightmare when Water is strong.

That comment from Apollo is enough for Harumasa to miss Belle's glance at him as he covers his eyes in horror. Have fun potentially being the sole witness to this, Jun~.

Don't speak that evil into the world! Maybe Lycaon won't be affected by it like that!

That said, Harumasa decides he might as well play his part and join Belle at her laptop. Now that Eous is on the move and connection is established, he should probably help keep his eyes out for anything suspicious. He sits up, ruffles Jun's hair gently with a smile, and surrenders the fainting couch to his little brother as recompense for him taking a seat next to Belle to look at the screen.]

Man, too bad Tower of Terror is already copyrighted. It'd be such a great title for that movie~. On the other hand, with some clever shots and strategic placement of fake rock walls, I could see them making it look more like a crystal cave system! Really give it that claustrophobic feeling.

[Harumasa's spouting a lot of nonsense, but he hasn't seen anything that raises his suspicion or interest yet (6).]

From what I've heard, the hostiles here are normally in the basement. But sometimes a few escape and wander around up here. That's what I was told, at least.

[He listens to the explanation, nodding and compiling it in his mind as he compared it to what he remembers. ]

Mm... Section 6 sounds like what a previous commissioner of mine was working on establishing with the Aegis aka Taskforce Zero. [It's not often Jun speaks about his past life. But they had time to kill and it's not like he's sharing anything truly confidential since it's mostly about the other factions] During Eclipse disasters, it'd be most common for agents from the factions Zodiac or Nemesis to respond - and yes, the Zodiac of this world is very similar to give you an idea. Unfortunately, as much as they loved to tout a commitment to protecting people... their true priorities were to benefit from the Eclipse. That much was apparent from how they'd bristle anytime a Seal Knight appeared on the scene, as our priority was sealing away the Eclipse.

After a particularly terrible Eclipse disaster, many began to realize they could not rely on Nemesis or Zodiac to protect their homes. Aegis was a military-funded group formed to do that, with their priority was to protect Japan and act as first response to any future Eclipse disasters. They commissioned me help them build an anti-Eclipse arsenal, as well as help them with an Eclipse-related situation they didn't have the capabilities to handle completely by themselves.

[Lot to unpack there, but Jun's moving on with the conversation. As for Belle's blush, whether he saw it or not? He's ignoring it. Instead he's just enjoying getting the chance to sit on a couch. He'll leave the monitoring of Eous to those two, he rather rely on his own senses. ]

... You must've heard that from one of the Warriors of Light, I've known the basement to only be sealed since it arrived here.

[He does lean back. Jun does love a good ghost story]

The true horror of this place is the Midnight Hour. It's an extra hidden hour that happens between midnight and 12:01am. During that time, most of the city residents are trapped asleep in coffins, while monsters known as Shadows roam. It was summoned when some poor individuals were kidnapped to this very tower and trapped within the Midnight Hour themselves- which triggered labyrinths that exposed their inner fears and horrors from their past... night after night.

[Pause. To Jun, teasing:] So basically, you're Miyabi. [It's actually a compliment, she liked Miyabi a whole lot back then. She sobers up and nods.] That's very similar to TOPS, yeah. That's the conglomerate Harumasa's mentioned, with power even over most of HSO and the military—and hands in a lot of other pies. Some of those pies had to do with mining resources directly from the Hollow. I've been getting memories of coming into contact with miners who worked for Porcelumex, who mined and produced materials made out of Porcelume—Ether-resistant stuff.

Ether, by the way, was a deeply corrosive substance only found in Hollows. It also could provide a hell of a lot of energy—New Eridu ran on the stuff. So I guess you could say TOPS, and the companies that made it up, took Zodiac and Nemesis's priorities to their logical conclusion. [Though, well, had there been much of a choice?]

...if you ask Lycaon I bet he'd say something about how he gets the energy from the satisfaction of a job well done.

[She's pretty sure it's the anxiety and the OCD, yeah. Meanwhile, Eous has cleared the first floor and found nothing in particular, so it moves on up to the second floor. So far so good.]

What, seriously? That sounds wild, when did that happen? [Last year, but you were also in a coffin, fast asleep.] I'm not surprised people got kidnapped to here in particular, it has the vibe of a secondary location you take people to.

[Harumasa grins at that.]

Yeah, pretty much~. The Chief was the strongest person I knew. Even now, I'd probably put her on the same level as you, Jun.

[Although his tone is light, it's clear in the way he says it that he doesn't mean it lightly. He's serious.]

Mhm, and Ether has the potential to corrupt living beings into monsters. Ethereals. Without high Ether aptitude, you can't survive long as a human in the Hollows. It's like your natural resistance to the stuff. The condition I have in this life is most likely a mutation of the condition I had in my previous life: Ether Aptitude Regression Syndrome. Gave me a really high resistance, but the end stage has that resistance take a catastrophic plummet.

[He's told Jun about his Master, and that he'd been experimented on much like he'd been in this life, but he doesn't think he's told him that detail.]

TOPS also had its hand in pharmaceuticals and even the music industry. And that's only the stuff we can list off the top of our heads.

[Harumasa looks dramatically horrified.]

No thank you. He and I are two very different people in that.

[Obviously. But mostly in the work ethic way.]

It definitely sells you on the vibe that messed up things happen here. I'm so glad I didn't decide to live here....

Ha... something like that. [He's not sure he deserves to be put on the same level as Miyabi, based on the stories he's heard of her] Seal Knights were the strongest of the anti-Eclipse forces, no doubt. But we were considered less a "first response" and more a... "last resort".

[As such, they were not exactly celebrated the same way Miyabi and Section 6 were. If a Seal Knight needs to get directly involved, it means things had gotten really bad. But he listens and considers the explanations, nodding at the talking of ether aptitude.]

So like Resonance... [He says more to himself than anyone else. That's not really a phrase Jun's uttered around these two before and... of course he's not elaborating. Instead he's scoffing at the idea of Ether mining] They'd send people to mine ether into the Hollows, which is a substance that can corrupt people into monsters, and they'd use it to power the lights - thereby making the population dependent on it. [Christ] Leave it up to corporations to find a substance worse than fossil fuels....

[God he hates capitalism so much. And based on the tidbits of what Haru's talked about with his past life and his Master.... it definitely gives him a bad feeling on why there was interest in his brother's condition. The brother he's snorting at]

Yeah, you are. Lycaon would never make me physically drag him to a meeting, or sit on me until I gave him ear scritches. [THROWS HIS BROTHER UNDER THE BUS]

It happened last year. You weren't on the app yet, so you slept through the Midnight Hour. [.... in a coffin] But you aren't wrong. You couldn't pay me to live in this place.

So the Seal Knights get sent in when all other options fail and a Nineveh-level threat is about to cause a large-scale disaster? Do I have that right?

[She can't think of anything analogous besides Section 6, and they weren't exactly the last resort—from what she recalls, like the other HSO sections, they were a rapid-response frontline strike force deployed to high-risk areas. The other best option she can think of is...

Her typing pauses for a moment, and her head tilts upward as she seems to recall something. A woman in yellow, with long white hair and sharp eyes, a black bird settling on her outstretched hand—but Belle blinks, and the woman's gone as fast as she flickered into existence in her head.]

Hm? [She heard Resonance, and makes a note to ask about that later.] Ah, yeah. And depending on the Hollow, they also sent people in there to collect other resources besides Etheric energy—I know the Lemnian Hollow was rich with Porcelume ore in particular. [And there was something else special about it, but she can't quite recall, with those memories lingering just out of reach for now.] It's why Hollow-diving was so lucrative, as risky as it was. I know for sure Wise and I earned a lot more off Proxy work than the video store before...

[She pauses.]

...Let's just say there's a reason I keep up with cybersecurity measures these days.

[A terrible chuckle escapes her at the thought of Jun dragging Harumasa, leaving claw marks on the floor, to a meeting.]

Oh, does he try to give you the big sad Bambi eyes and sniffle too, Jun? [She says, even though it works like a charm on her even when she knows he's messing with her.] The little "woe, I have never had ear scritches in my life ever and I am so bereft" whine? That one?

[A hum.]

I wouldn't live here, but I'd definitely shoot a horror movie here. Something along the lines of Alien? It could stand in for a remote and distant planet hostile to human life.

[Harumasa hums as he glances at Belle. That's an interesting little tidbit he just heard. He's always been curious about something in his memories that sticks out to him. How Phaethon created a new account for some unknown reason. Now... the gears are turning in his head.

Ah, and now they're talking about him and his shamelessness. First it's Jun talking about how he has to be dragged into meetings and how he sits on his little brother until he gets pets. Then it's Belle talking about his sad Bambi eyes!

You know what?

Fine.

He'll throw all of his dignity out into the void (what dignity, Harumasa, you only use it when you're 100% serious and you're only <1% serious right now) (7).

Harumasa puts his head on Belle's shoulder, looking up at her with sad eyes. His tiger ears are lower to really sell the look of being a poor, pitiful cat. Truly a creature who has lived a hard life with no affection.]

The both of you give me the best ear scritches! That's the best way for a cat to bond, you know! Is it really so bad that I want to spend time with you and ask for your attention while I'm at it?

[He's absolutely not serious. This is a bit. This is exactly what a cat would say if they were capable of human speech.]

Mm, that's exactly right. Otherwise, we rather keep to the shadows.

[AKa still doing things to protect the population, but out of view of everyone so they don't realize they are being protected. Just as he was sitting here, regularly flipping on his sensing power, just to make sure nothing in this place got the jump on them.

And he would say more about what Belle was talking about with the Hollows and possibly being hacked, but his brother has decided to respond by being an overdramatic cat. He'll give Belle an amused yet sympathetic look]

Ah, looks like Miette's back.

Yeah, I'm familiar with keeping to the—

[Oh, there are the sad Bambi eyes. Again. Belle stifles a giggle behind her hand, eyes full of mirth. Better than the worry and anxiety that drove her here with Eous and her laptop, anyway.

In a high-pitched, cutesy voice, she says:] You deny Miette affection? Jail. Jail for Jun for one thousand years.

[Which is to say, yeah, she's easy, she's going to give him scritches right now even though she fully knows this is just a bit Harumasa's doing. This is why Inky the cat is so deeply spoiled.]

So this Midnight Hour you were talking about earlier—you said that if you weren't on the app at the time, you'd just be fast asleep. I'm guessing that it was one of those Spirit Realm problems that just kinda pop up when you're on the app?

Edited 2025-10-20 19:01 (UTC)

[His ears still perk up to the high-pitched voice Belle puts on like any housecat does when their Person is Talking To Them.]

Why is it always—?

[Why is it always the meme cat? That's what he wants to finish that question with. Instead, Belle starts giving him ear scritches.

The effect is instantaneous. Harumasa immediately melts and starts purring with his eyes closing shut (6). To be fair to him, he's been stressed out this entire month even if he hasn't been obvious about it. So, his cat brain is searching for easy ways to de-stress and feel comforted.]

[Because that's who you are, Haru. Just face it. Jun watches Haru turn into a full cat puddle for a second, biting his lip to keep himself from laughing. Sure, he knows how good ear scritches are, but Haru c'mon.

Oh well. After that second he's just.... going to pointedly ignore his brother and talk to Belle. ]

Yeah, that's right. Though in that case, it was intentional.

I don't know if you had any past run-ins with the old Black Order, but they were pretty ruthless. One of their Zealots-- aka one of their inner circle got killed while they were here. No one was willing to confess to doing it, so a couple Zealots showed up and triggered the Midnight Hour to pressure people into confessing.

[Belle turns a little red, but continues with the ear scritches. The purring is...helpful, actually, at least in steadying her and keeping her anxieties from spiraling out. She looks back down at her laptop and mostly keeps her eyes there, only briefly flicking them up to let Jun know she's paying attention to what he's saying.]

Not really. But then I made sure they wouldn't have any reason to investigate me, either as Belle or as Phaethon. [Still, she hears enough to sit up a little more when he mentions that one of their Zealots got killed while here, which means—

Well, she's spent long enough on the app to know that it's almost certainly someone on the app who did it, for whatever reason.]

Let me guess, all that happened was they also got killed in turn? Because people on the app don't seem to take very kindly to being pressured.

[She continues the ear scritches and Harumasa continues purring in bliss, even if they're talking about some dark shit (7). Frankly, it's a miracle he hasn't fallen asleep yet. It's harder to have nightmares when there are people making noise around him, reminding Harumasa that they're here and he's not where the nightmares want to take him.

Still, it's clear that he's paying attention given that his other ear swivels in Jun's direction. He remembers Jun telling him about that "ghost story" with Tartarus.]

Mm, didn't the Crystal Tower change, too? It was one of the reasons I chose not to live here. Would've been fine on my own, but I didn't know how that would affect my health. Too risky.

[Spiritual energy of that magnitude while Harumasa is in the Tower may have caused him to be in severe crisis. If not for his condition, being alone in an unknown place might have been okay until rescue. Given Belle and Jun know better than anyone his real capabilities, he's fine admitting this much and dropping the act.]

[Jun will raise his eyebrow a little at his brother before he says a bit dryly]

You're not wrong, but I'm happy to hear my invitation to live with me won out over the creepy tower on account of its magical radioactivity.

[He's more just mildly annoyed than actually upset because he knows Haru just talks like that sometimes and doesn't actually mean it, but also - bruh. And to show he's not actually mad, he'll move on with what he was saying]

It did change, and yeah it result in their deaths. The incident pretty much kicked off that entire rebellion that changed the Black Order. Definitely one of my more difficult missions.... though for the record, I didn't kill any of the Zealots.

[........ Directly, anyway.]

You just can't beat the views of the ocean floor. [She says that in all sincerity. She's been down to Meropide, she's seen the view. It's a good one.

At Jun's assertion that he didn't kill any of the Zealots, Belle just shrugs in response. She wants to ask more, because she thinks that there's more to the story besides that, but for the sake of plausible deniability she instead says:] I heard about the rebellion, everyone did, but not about the lead-up. Seems there's a lot more to it than I thought...

[Brief pause.]

Did you guys take the fight straight to the Order, wherever they're based, right after that?

[Harumasa catches that and turns his head to look at Jun. His expression is calculating for a moment before he looks back at Belle with a smile.]

I'll be right back.

[He's giving up being comfortable on Belle's shoulder AND her heavenly ear scratches for this.

The young archer stands up, transforms into a tiger, and flops gently on his little brother. He's careful not to crush him, but that's still a LOT of tiger.]

That's why I said one of the reasons! My biggest reason was that when I found out you and Ana-bear were living down in the Meropide, it could've been a facility and I would've chosen it to live with my family.

[As if to further the point, Harumasa licks Jun's face with his scratchy big cat tongue. Love hurts, doesn't it?]

Nah, there was some things that happened between the midnight hour incident and going to the headquarters. Like when the Fortress appeared in the harbor, and there was something of a ceasefire during Pride month--

[-- But that's as far as he gets before he suddenly gets a BIG TIGER on him. Jun yelps and will make a show of squirming in protest, especially as the scratchy tongue starts licking up his face]

Gah! Your tongue's all scratchy, Haru! See Belle what I have to deal with!? I never get the cute tiger, just this! [She gets the cute Haru while he gets this!!

Yet despite his protests? He'll still wrap his arm's around the tiger's neck to give him a hug, then reaching over to administer an affectionate ear scratch. He hadn't been that annoyed, he's come a long ways from the days he was practically holding his breath and waiting for his siblings to leave again-- but he still appreciates hearing that reassurance. So more quietly he'll speak in japanese at a volume meant for Haru-]

「ありがとう. I know you feel that way. The feeling's mutual too. 」

[.... He may have forgotten Belle is studying japanese even thought it was his idea]

Edited 2025-10-23 18:43 (UTC)

Wow, inclusive of them—

[Aw, no more tiger to pet. She looks up and pouts exaggeratedly at Harumasa, but the teasing pout melts into something sadder and softer as she watches him and Jun bicker and grumble and whisper—something in Japanese, she can't quite tell just yet, being a novice in the language. But she watches them for a moment, and thinks about Wise swiping her pudding cup and Zelos ruffling her hair and gently calling her a nerd.

Then she smiles, and the grief vanishes like the breeze—there and gone in a flash.]

Maybe if you gave him ear scritches more often he'd be the cute tiger to you too.

[She's just saying. Anyway, she'll look back down at her laptop and guide Eous around the floor, then up the stairs.]

Still no sign so far. He must've found a problem area somewhere high up and it got his attention. [Big sigh.] Poor Anby. I feel bad for her, being stuck with the divorcées.

[Harumasa chuffs in response to the gratitude. As long as Jun knows his heart, all is well. The serious moment having past, he jumps in on the teasing that Belle has provided.]

Exactly! Belle gets it~.

[He licks Jun's face on more time before getting off of his little brother. The young archer has enough energy to transform back to his human form (12) and sits down next to Belle again. However, this time he leans against her with more genuine tiredness. Harumasa's careful to make sure it's still gentle pressure rather than his full, dead weight, but it's still noticeable.]

How're Eous's batteries? I dunno if it's even able to get all the way to the top, especially not if we're doing a thorough look around. [The young archer chuckles, though.] Bee's probably fine. Maybe wanting to figure out how to jump ship in the future, but the trick is not engaging with it. Or making it sound embarrassing to both of them.

[He'll make a face with that last lick to the face, before scoffing at Belle]

I give him ear scritches nearly every day. Don't listen to him.

[His lap once again free, he'll lean back to try to make himself more comfortable and realign his spine again]

Mm. I'm not sure you can call them divorcees anymore anyway...

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i'll be coming through, coming through

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