towerofanimus | [01] || [Open] || [Backdated to before the event's start]

Characters: Rude and YOU
Setting: Room 4-14, Meadow, Maze (Battle), Floor Five and Cafeteria
Format: Prose or Action, whichever you prefer
Summary: Rude wakes up in the tower and goes off to explore. At some point he'll fight some monster and try to eat the most feared oatmeal.
Warning: Lots of "………" and this kind of silence. Otherwise nothing, aside from violence at the maze.

Dormitories (Room 4-14)
By now Rude was already dressed- His suit impeccable, his fighting glove together with his Materia and bracelet ready for action. His earrings and sunglasses were on as well- The lack of light didn't seem to be a problem for him. It never was. In fact it was as though his sunglasses were apart of him and didn't obstruct his vision at all. And now he's on to reread that paper. The planet, destroyed? As far as he was concerned that was nonsense- After all that had been going on, he couldn't imagine the planet being destroyed so easily. Let alone him being the sole survivor.

He shrugged and pocketed the paper before moving on to look at what else he had in his trunk- His suits and accessories had obscured everything else. His PHS but it was of little use as the communication functions were broken beyond repair. Whatever, he listed what he had with him and ordered it in his Trunk for easy access. Oh, and bottles of Ale? Whoever took him had a strange sense of humor at least.

Floor Twenty-Five (Meadow)
It took some time for Rude to realize. A meadow, here in the middle of this hell of a tower? That was surprising. That made no sense, like everything else he saw so far. And there was obviously nothing to do around here.

He decided to quickly explore and look for people, but he wouldn't stay long. At least this floor was fairly quiet and relaxing, if anything.

Floor Eight (Maze)
… A Maze. No, Rude wouldn't enter it. He had whatsoever no times for it; there were far more urgent things to do. Nevertheless, as he was heading to the exit- Monsters attacked him. They were many but they were weak. He easily punched back those who attacked him and then cast a Lightning spell on those who were behind him.

More appeared, and he would probably take care of them fairly easily, but help would be most welcome, if only to make the battle end more quickly. Even though he, for one, desires no help right now.

Floor Five
After exploring a bit of the tower, some of the architecture couldn't help but remind him of the Shinra Building- Yet at the same time it couldn't be more different. Whoever did that had to be powerful and they had to master some advanced technology or materia. On top of that they probably had large sums of funds at their disposal. There were few people with that kind of means left on Gaia; and he was already making a list of who he thought could be his potential captors.

He advanced and tried to look through the viewing station after a while- Nothing. It was getting irritating, absolutely nothing worked in this tower. He shook his head and decided to head for the exit. Worthless.

Floor One (Cafeteria)
… Oatmeal. The one food Rude could never eat ever since he was a children, it had to be the one food he would be provided with to eat. The only food. He poked at it and tried to eat, very slowly and carefully…

…

No. Just no. Oh God, what horror was that? Alright, he'd go hunt for other food, he'd remain on diet or something. But he couldn't eat that. He just couldn't. They'd have to give a reason solid as rock for him to go through swallowing that horror. Or remain one month without eating.

Everywhere Else
Have a Turk walking through the tower. He looks strong and maybe dangerous, but don't be afraid, he doesn't bite and even if he is fairly cold, he's a polite person. Rude will just go ahead and explore, try and find people from his homeworld if there are any and answers.

By the way he looks walks and behaves; it's obvious that man is considering himself to be on work or on some sort of mission- Hopefully you won't think he is one of the Tower's agent.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was a long trip up and down these stairs, but Reno was slowly starting to get used to it. Sometimes it was a relief not to have to use the elevator, but it was a bit annoying at times.

Hauling scavenged food. That was what he was doing right now, toting up what he found to the Floor 38 encampment in a large bag he had made for this specific purpose. Or that was what he WOULD be doing if he hadn't run into someone... someone who was kind of like a giant wall of a man... and dropped the bag of mushrooms.

Those stairs were a pain, alright. They were awfully reminiscent of the sixty floors of stairs in the Shinra Building. By this time Rude had already met Siira- Who had told him about the existence of two Reno in the tower. And then one of the two Reno she mentioned. So he wasn't that surprised to bump into Reno.

Well, physically-speaking this one looked more like the Reno as he remembered him. Good at least he'll be able to differentiate them with ease. Not good though, he's still having a hard time coping with the idea that there are two in this... Tower.

He grabbed the bag of mushrooms on the ground and handed it over to Reno with a slight smile.

"Smells better than their oatmeal."

Reno had just taken the bag with a muttered 'thanks' when he realized just who had given him the bag back- and then dropped it again. "Rude?"

Shock. He wasn't expecting Rude to show up, and he was happy to see the big lug, really, really happy, but at the same time, again that meant more people were gone...

Reno would have to break himself out of that train of thought, that was gonna get seriously fucking depressing.

"Rude!" The bag forgotten, Reno stopped giving a flying chocobo about dignity, he actually full out hugged the guy.

It was nearly amusing to see Reno that dumbfounded at his sight, but Rude's face remained straight and he only nodded when Reno uttered his name. And then-

".............."

That... Was that...? A hug? Rude kind of, well, didn't know how to react to a hug. Come to think about it, in spite of having been partners and best friends for years, hugs wasn't really something they did often, if ever. Reno should've known that- Was life in this tower really that terrible?

Rude just remained... Immobile for a moment.

Then he... Tried to hug back. He's seen other people do it before. Okay, the embrace is very light and... The clasp on the top of Reno's back nearly non-existence. It's... Very awkward overall, but at least he tried? Would it have been anyone else, he would probably have pushed them away immediately.

But that only last a totals of 6 seconds before Rude let go- That's already a lot.

Oh, right, yes that was probably a good idea. Not embarrassed in the least, okay maybe a little, Reno let go and busied himself grabbing his bag of mushrooms again.

"When the hell did you get in?! Damn, it's good to see you, buddy." He straightened up and settled down on a step. "Did- did anyone explain what happened, why you're here?"

He was concerned for his partner now, the initial elation of seeing the bald cueball wearing down a bit. The Turks were all showing up in the Tower, mostly around the same time- what exactly did that mean?

Ah finally, the awkward moment could end. He straightened his suit and his tie following the 'hug' and looked at Reno.

"Just today. It's good to see you as well."

And that was true- It might not show on his face aside from the smiles that pop-up for a mere second once in a while, but he was genuinely happy to have found Reno in this tower. Living in this place would be easy with friends, and especially his best friend. He nodded as an answer to his question though.

"I've met a few but the explanations were... Unsatisfying."

The planet gone, this tower being some kind of safeplace located beyond the dimensions, the influx of Turks being nothing but a coincidence. Yes, very unsatisfying.

Reno's pretending it never happened. Don't blame him, it had been a while.

He swung his bag over his shoulder, and grabbed hold of Rude's sleeve, his customary way of dragging the bigger man around, and started climbing up to Floor 38. "I got a lot to tell ya, just promise me you won't call me crazy. Because I'm completely serious, Rude." That was probably the most important part. Rude was used to Reno, he knew him, and he was worried the big guy would think he was joking.

"Seems like I've been telling way too many people lately. Anyway, the planet's dead. I've seen it. The people who run this place claim they rescued us, but they aren't all trustworthy." That was sort of an understatement, from what he had seen of Jason. Out of all of the so-called administrators of the Tower, Dax seemed the one that was looking out for them the most, which was saying a lot compared to Jason.

"That's how ya wound up here anyway. Oh, don't mess with the collar, bad things happen. And this place is crawling with monsters and idiots, so watch yourself." Pausing for a moment, he sighed. "Y'know I should just write a damn paper called 'So Your Universe Was Destroyed' and give it out to people."

"....."

Wait, did Reno just confirm to him the death of the planet just like that? And then he mentioned writing papers 'So Your Universe Was Destroyed'? Someone tell him that's not true. That's deadly serious business right here Reno, Rude expected you to be more serious when you would speak of that stuff. You're as bad as the Reno he just left on the planet.

Excellent.

He let out a low chuckle at the paper comment but then stared gravely at him.

"So that's true, the planet's gone..."

He sighs and shook his head. He trusted Reno, he knew it wouldn't be something he'd joke about anyway.

"I've fought some monsters already, but what about those in charges?"

If they're like those who were once in charge of Shinra... Bad stuff.

"Probably about the same as people we had to deal with, if not worse." Reno didn't want to get into it. "The thing is, they got the power. They can do anything to us, and there's no repercussions."

It was a pretty dismal, terrifying concept, but he wasn't going to mince words with his partner, of all people. "By the way, you're going to find out anyway, but... there's another me here. He's been through a lot of shit, but for the love of Shiva's tits, don't treat him any different than me. It's this thing he has, that everyone's gonna look at him funny."

"It's problematic."

The planet's gone, the guys who saved them are tyrants- Problematic is a weak word. Ah, and for the other Reno. He didn't plan on treating either differently, but-

"Siira told me and I won't. But how could it happen?"

The cloning thing she mentioned still wasn't a credible explanation in his eyes.

"Different universes." It wasn't all that complicated of an answer, the theories were pretty well known in science fiction, but having it come face to face with a person was much harder to take. "He really needs ya, Rude."

"What about you?"

Simple question- After all he did believe the other Reno had gone through hell and needed help, and his help he would have. But there were two reno in the tower and he couldn't say if this one didn't need as much help.

"I'm fine, Rude." Sort of. "But... he kinda needs you more. It's been almost a year for him, just a couple months for me."

Reno wouldn't say something like that lightly, even with his attitude. He slapped Rude on the shoulder, just to let him know it was fine. "Right?"

[01] || [Open] || [Backdated to before the event's start]

Upperfloor/Staircase?

Sounds good to me!

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