fallen_stage: Kuja walking away, but half turned in looking over his shoulder (What is this quintessence of dust?)
fallen_stage ([personal profile] fallen_stage) wrote in [community profile] towerofanimus2012-04-04 06:22 pm

[001]

Characters: Kuja and YOU
Setting: Floor 5, Floor 20
Format: Prose, but I'm willing to adjust.
Summary: Kuja woke up, dressed properly, then went to verify the note. He doesn't like what he sees.
Warnings: Depression, discussion of planet destruction, slight dissociation, suicidal thoughts

Floor 5

One of the first places Kuja found was the observation floor, peering into one of the viewing terminals. He had awakened disoriented and alone, wondering if he was in some sort of afterlife or final hallucination. The note he discarded as rubbish, focusing instead on finding true answers (and something more stylish). While he found his clothes easily enough (though many might find them startling), the red around his eyes is a touch crooked, the neutral color on his lips not quite perfect, his rust-colored nailpolish overlapping onto his cuticles in places.

What he found was a world destroyed. Gaia's once lush surface scrubbed clean of all life, leaving only dust and rock. Not even the Iifa Tree was left, no Mist leaking from caves, no monsters roaming the worldwide desert. The atmosphere was either sucked out or burned, the sky black and empty.

I won't let this world exist without me!

Floating up in a rush of agony and power, Kuja had unleashed it all on a half-dead planet. What plant life had managed to florish he cut down, burning glassy stems and watching them fall into other, asymmetical dominos falling and shattering against one another. Fauna was no safer than flora, an instant extinction as bodies were crushed by plants and scorched by magic. He even burned the silver dragons he was so fond of before, reveling in the beauty of their smoldering pale feathers. Bran Bal was crushed in a trice, and Kuja soared like a vengeful god cutting a swathe of judgement. Soon only the surface remained but it wasn't enough, it had to be hollowed and smashed just like Kuja, just like his ambitions and future and - and as the atmosphere was next to set ablaze, Kuja shaped some around himself as he sliced through the crust of the planet, molten chunks of the mantle exploding out and solidifying as it met the chill of space. Still not enough; not nearly enough. Kuja had to destroy more, had to stomp the pieces into space dust so there was nothing left, nothing but the void of space and the light of more stars with old screaming light that needed to be snuffed and silenced, nothing for ever more, nothing nothing nothing -

Nothing left. Nothing left of his past, nothing left for his future. Nothing left of his last pinprick of hope. Kuja stared at the console, numb with thoughts that circled but couldn't find rest. "Do I need a reason to help people?" was only met with "let's be happy here", a moral and a life and a soul made pointless for being cut short. A victory made pyrrhic by weak vacillation, by that damned boy who wouldn't back down and stole respect.

Eyes continued to stare at the wasteland, but they saw nothing.


Floor 20

On the edge of the platform into the empty space, Kuja sits, kicking his heels and heedless of the fall. Fair away from the staircases, he's hunched over, staring at the space below his feet. The note from his room is crumpled in his fist, but eventually he smooths it out and carefully folds it. Paper airship complete, he tosses it into the void, watching float downward before setting it ablaze with magic until it's reduced to ashes on the breeze.
terrificmachoemperor: (Normal - Just normal)

Floor 20

[personal profile] terrificmachoemperor 2012-04-05 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
"I should have done that with mine," a voice said from the back, looking at the paper sore before it burns into flames.

Hello Kuja. Meet the human bulldozer.

Kanji was already wondering how he could do that without a Persona. That, fortunately didn't last too long considering everyone he has met so far. A lady like this could wield fire wasn't something too hard to grasp when it came down to it.

..Except, you know, Kanji didn't realize this wasn't a lady. After Naoto and Link, it seemed like a natural progressing, really.

"You okay?"
terrificmachoemperor: (Emotion - Sighing)

[personal profile] terrificmachoemperor 2012-04-05 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
Okay okay ,he got it, you could use these magic spells, it's okay, he knew when he wasn't that interesting anyway. Kanji gave off a sigh, and wondered why he'd bothered in the first place. Damn you Yu for somehow causing him to be more sociable.

"Look, I ain't the best guy to cheer people up, but I could try to help if ya want, lady. I know that this tower's pretty lame, but I've been learning to make the most of it."
terrificmachoemperor: (Emotion - Surprised as shit)

[personal profile] terrificmachoemperor 2012-04-05 04:58 am (UTC)(link)
Oh damn it, backtrack, backtrack!

"O-oh shit! SHIT! Man, I am so sorry about that," he stammers, totally not losing his cool, what you mean Kanji lose his cool--he was totally losing his cool. "Y-you don't look much like a lady, I promise!"

Kanji you were terrible.

"Uh...maybe I should go..."
terrificmachoemperor: (Emotion - Blushing surprised)

[personal profile] terrificmachoemperor 2012-04-05 05:45 am (UTC)(link)
Wow, way to confuse him even further. Kanji stands there with his mouth half open and ee sees Yosuke in his mind laughing at him. GDIT YOSUKE even when you're not there you manage to rile Kanji up.

"Hey don't get the wrong idea, okay?! The girls I like look just fine the way they are!" Just because he had assumed Naoto was a dude first doesn't mean he couldn't judge girls or not. Oh no. Now he was thinking of Naoto and her in a feminine outfit and...

...yeap he was gone into blushingland.
terrificmachoemperor: (Movement - Yelling and gonna punch)

No it's the best I love it

[personal profile] terrificmachoemperor 2012-04-05 06:28 am (UTC)(link)
Oh well that just tipped him over from blushland right into punchyourface land and he glared at Kuja with the strength of a thousand suns. As he went on, his voice became louder and angrier.

"SCREW YOU! I ain't in any way attracted to you, you hear?! You keep saying that, and I promise I'm gonna punch your face in as flat as a pancake!"

Ohgod he was out for blood now.
capax_infiniti: (this arcane process called WALKING)

[personal profile] capax_infiniti 2012-04-05 09:21 am (UTC)(link)
"A fitting end, to something that should be taken with a grain of salt at the very least."

Walking slowly along the ramp, heading for the entrance is someone who seems completely and totally unassuming. A rather old man, walking with a measured pace, his back hunched and arms resting just above his hip. He seems wholly unconcerned about the lack of any sort of handrail or barrier, letting wind simply wash around him. His yellow eyes are fixed on Kuja, studying him curiously.
terrificmachoemperor: (Emotion - You saying I like dudes?)

Hahaha oh god

[personal profile] terrificmachoemperor 2012-04-06 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
"I ain't kidding around here!" he snapped right back, before cracking his fist. "You start getting the wrong ideas again and I won't hold back. We clear on that?"

He turned around and began to walk out, puffing in anger.
capax_infiniti: (ugh those drapes really don't match)

[personal profile] capax_infiniti 2012-04-06 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
He's used to such things. Besides, he rarely makes eye contact when speaking with others himself, preferring to keep them at a distance or behind him.

"Disregardable. If there is a need for destruction, they're naught but glass. Projectiles or even one's own fist would render them unusable."
terrificmachoemperor: (Movement - Giving the Finger)

It's all good I live to make him suffer I mean what

[personal profile] terrificmachoemperor 2012-04-06 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
"Whatever," he replied flashing him the middle finger as he left. "I ain't scared of you."
terrificmachoemperor: (Normal - Coolest Manliest Guy)

[personal profile] terrificmachoemperor 2012-04-06 06:45 am (UTC)(link)
Kanji, meanwhile, while being a braller if the situation called for it, was strangely much happier using threatening words and being on his way. But if push came to shove, he'd do it. Slowly, he turned around and gave him the angriest stare-down he'd done in quite a while.

"I don't beg for anyone either, asshole."

That was as much of what he would say, before calmly taking out his glasses and putting them on.
untiemyhands: (of decay)

Floor 5

[personal profile] untiemyhands 2012-04-06 09:43 am (UTC)(link)
She's been here a while now, but Klara still hasn't quite mastered walking without her boots sometimes rending a terrible squeak from the polished floors. Kuja will have that irritating noise as a herald that she's there, peering into one of the terminals near the one he's occupied.

This girl - this terrible little ragged waif doesn't seem to even flinch at what she sees. There's a dissatisfied "hum," sure. But no abject horror.
capax_infiniti: (nobody said you could talk)

[personal profile] capax_infiniti 2012-04-07 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
"We were speaking of screens, not those on them. Sentients require more thorough handling than the inanimate." It felt like speaking to a four-year-old, like he was trying to explain something to Ventus and just staring at that blank, clueless face again.
capax_infiniti: (do not know if want)

clearly they are destined for great things

[personal profile] capax_infiniti 2012-04-07 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
"Misunderstandings are bound to happen in places where worlds intersect. My apologies, then." A short, token bow, not that the other was looking his way. It almost was like dealing with Ventus again, handling things with white kid gloves to ensure that everything went appropriately. The only difference was that there really wasn't a reason to indulge this youth so.

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