[OPEN] I feel this burning inside, a feeling no one should know...

[thebigsister]

Characters: Eleanor Lamb and YOU!
Setting: Floor 15, the workshop.
Format: Starting with action, but I'll match your preference.
Summary: It's time to put all that compound intellect to use and brush up some borrowed skills to give her suit some much needed maintenance. So behold, Eleanor Lamb is actually looking like a human and not some weird monster out of a horror game.
Warnings: Hopefully none? Will add as necessary, though.

[The suit needs to be mended or patched in places where monster claws have worn it. Her harpoon and her ADAM needle need a little sharpening and some good hits with a hammer to straighten them after they've been crooked slightly. And of course, she needs to check the airtight seals on her helmet.

Eleanor, unfortunately, only owns another set of clothes that aren't her suit: a rather girlish white dress. Two of them, in fact. But she's been using one of them as a nightgown, the other relegated to the empty depths of her trunk. Without any other option - and no, working around naked was obviously not an option - she moves about the workshop in such clothes, barefoot and wearing no protective equipment, as she goes about giving her suit proper maintenance. She's slightly distracted, busy rummaging her own mind to find the right set of memories or skills to complete the task at hand, but of course... she's hardly defenseless even without the suit. Absorbed by her task, she doesn't notice when she begins half-humming, half-reciting a familiar poem/song:]

In the House of upside-down, cellars top floor, Attic's ground. In the House of upside down, laughing cries and smiles frown. In the house of upside-down, found is lost and lost is found...

Comments

[fallen_stage]

[It can't be. It can't be what Kuja is thinking. It's too miraculous.]

On my world, a person can be revived from life using the feathers of a phoneix. However, there is a time limit, since the soul doesn't linger for long, and without a soul...

[He can't help it: he shudders.]

Well there's nothing to bring back.

[thebigsister]

Really?

[She makes a curious sound.]

There is no time limit... back home. But the death must be untimely, that is to say, violent, and the person had to have died in the vicinity of one of the devices.

[She sighs.]

It took me ten long years, before my father could be revived.

[fallen_stage]

[For a moment, Kuja is breathless, staring at his hands. There's some limit, of course, but... it's better than a phoenix down.]

That's... amazing. I wish I had access to such things back on my world.

[Suddenly he's animated again, leaning forward, and he would take her hand if they weren't otherwise occupied.]

Tell me, how do they work, these devices?

[thebigsister]

A DNA scanner, primarily. The network of vita-chambers - that's what they're called - is all keyed to a particular DNA signature, in this case, my father's. If the person they're keyed to suffers a violent face in their vicinity, they will be recreated instantly.

[She pauses for a moment.]

It is... it is a lot more complicated than that, actually, but that's the basic process. I know more about keying and rekeying the network than the actual functions, though.

[fallen_stage]

So, with the DNA sequence...

[On his tongue is the unspoken "genome"; a slight superstition, Kuja doesn't like to say that word. On Gaia, he had no need to. Evidently Eleanor's word was more sophisticated than he thought.]

Those must be marvelous device, to retrieve the soul and recreate the body through its genetic code at once. Phoenix downs work on a purely magical basis. Perhaps using the technology could get a more controlled result....

[Great, now he's wondering how to recreate it with the resources he has.]

[thebigsister]

Perhaps, I only know of two people who benefited from it, though it was once intended for the general use of the population.

[She pauses a moment, thinking about it.]

Though given the state Rapture was left in, I think the technology might be lost forever.

[fallen_stage]

[Damn! What a cruel temptation, to raise his hopes only to dash them before they could bloom. Kuja's irritation doesn't mar the curiosity on his face.]

Was Rapture ruined? War, maybe?

[thebigsister]

Greed, more like.

[Eridan shrugs.]

Greed and human nature. Ideals are never executed the way one would hope for. No, Rapture was ruined by greed.

I like how Eleanor briefly turned into Jaderi there XD

[fallen_stage]

[Well. That could mean a number of things. Economic ruin, civil war, downright razing of the land, and so on.]

A country ruined by corrupted idealism and greed? I've seen such things, but likely not to the extent you know of.

dlkfhglfkgjh HUSH NOW.

[thebigsister]

[Fun story: I was threading smut once, whilst writing fanfic, it was like, five in the morning and I hadn't slept in like, three days. Suddenly, for some reason, suddenly there was throwaway line about Vriska in the middle of my porn. I still don't know what it meant or where it came from. Whoops. At least here it was just a slight slip of the finger, c'mon, it was bound to happen sometime, between Eleanor and Eridan.]

Calling Rapture a country is too kind a word. They hoped the be the country of the learned and the wise, but in truth they were little more than a city of daydreamers lost in their own greed. There was nowhere to run, and it was all their own damn fault.

LOL! how wretched XD

[fallen_stage]

Ah.

[How interesting! There was a fuller, lengthier story there, the stuff of epics. Or perhaps a tragedy.]

Created by ideals, they isolated themselves? I would imagine something like that happened, if they were abandoned on all sides.

[Of course, Kuja is still thinking of countries and landmasses.]

It was a sad, sad thing.

[thebigsister]

That was the idea, I suppose. But of course, it did not flourish as it was expected.

[Eleanor shrugs again, shifting to work her armor carefully.]

Then again, there is nowhere to run, under the ocean.

[fallen_stage]

[His armor finished, Kuja starts fastening his boots on.]

That would be a difficult place to flee from. Was that Rapture's natural state, or..?

[thebigsister]

There is nothing natural about Rapture, except perhaps the end it found.

[Eleanor sighed.]

It was built that way, isolation meant as protection. But in the end it didn't exactly work out that way.

[fallen_stage]

Because of greed at the bottom of the sea, Rapture was crushed under the ocean's weight.

[Oh there he goes, being poetic. He can't help it, the image of an underwater populace has a certain romantic appeal. No doubt that occurred to the creator and its inhabitants as well. How cruel is harsh reality!]

That's the problem with isolation: if you aren't strong enough, then there will be nothing to aid you when you crumble.

[thebigsister]

And worse, should you be weak in isolation and attempt to enslave the strong to aid you when you crumble, you shouldn't be surprised when they turn back and scorn you for taking away their freedom.

[Personal experience? What are you talking about...]

These two are mutual bad influences

[fallen_stage]

[Kuja smiles at her as he finishes up his boots.]

Precisely! Those who are so weak will be devoured by the strong. No one suggests to a shark to help the fish that strays from its school.

Sob.

[thebigsister]

But there is beauty, when it happens. And it can happen.

[Eleanor smiles faintly, thinking of many things that she will never say outloud.]

What they fail to understand is that kindness is not weakness. It is not the mark of slavery. There is great dignity in it, but it should be free or it is nothing but empty lies.

[fallen_stage]

There's beauty everywhere, even in a shark devouring its meal, blood swirling in the open water.

[Kuja starts to put on his other boot, but pauses at Eleanor's comment. It sounds too much like Zidane familiar.]

So I have heard, and so I have seen. I can be cynical at times, but don't doubt that I believe in kindness too.

[liar]

[thebigsister]

I am glad to hear that.

[She smiles at him, a softer smile.]

[fallen_stage]

[He smiles, back, pleased. Eleanor was going to be useful, he could tell.]

I'm glad to have met you.

[Boot complete, Kuja buckles himself into his curaiss.]

Well, it was a pleasure to talk with you, Eleanor.

[thebigsister]

Likewise.

[She shrugs a little.]

I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity to talk again.

[fallen_stage]

Of course. Farewell.

[With that, Kuja walks out of the workshop.]