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

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...

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[Eleanor wasn't the only one who needed to fix up their wardrobe. Kuja walked into the workshop in his stocking feet and white undershirt, metal boots under his arm and cuirass under the other. His armor had arrived in the tower clean, but unfortunately that meant clean from oil as well, so now he had to fix up the joints and give the metal a new polish. Naturally he noticed the singing as he found himself a bench and supplies.]

...You have a lovely voice.

[Untrained, but sweet as a lark in the brush.]

[Eleanor looked up at the newcomer, offering a smile and a small laugh.]

Thank you.

[She slammed a hammer down onto the harpoon, with ease that contradicted her thin frame. She didn't have the musculature to pull such a stunt, but she didn't seem too worried about it.]

I don't believe we've met before?

[Kuja started with the heel of one boot, greasing the joints so they wouldn't ~~clank~~squeak like a certain Captain he could name.]

I don't believe we have. My name is Kuja.

Pleased to meet you.

[Eleanor kept her eyes on her work, a voice in the back of her head explaining in detail what and when and how to proceed.]

I am Eleanor Lamb.

A pleasure, I'm sure, Miss Lamb.

[She's strong... Looks like she's working on some sort of armor, one that gets more wear and tear than his own.]

Might I ask what you're working on?

Shion didn't know how to use any of the tools here, he had never seen most of them before but he was interested in how they worked and had decided to try and learn.

So he entered the workshop and blinked when he heard the poem and saw the girl. "Hello?" He didn't want to disturb her.

Eleanor looks up from her current task, sharpening the harpoon, to look at the newcomer. She smiles warmly at him, expression unguarded. She's so used to being hidden behind her helmet by now that she's not really conscious of most of her facial expressions by now, making them all earnest as a child's.

"Hello, there. Can I help you?"

Oh.

[She picked up the harpoon, inspecting it.]

A memento from my father and my homeworld. It needs regular maintenance to keep it functional.

[She looks over to Kuja's bench curiously.]

May I ask you the same question?

Shion smiled back, "Hello," he moved closer to see what she was doing. "No, it's okay. What are you doing?"

Is that so? Did you live by the sea?

[Kuja smiles and sets the boots down by its neighbor, making sure his cuirass is also visible.]

Armor of mine, although nowadays it has more of a decorative purpose. Elegant, don't you think? I particularly like the rich color of the metal.

Under, to be more precise.

[She smiles wryly at that, just a hint of disdain in her expression. She made no attempt to mask her expression, or even out her tone. She made a humming noise and put the harpoon down, stepping away from her bench to give his armor a closer look. Her eyebrows arch.]

It is a lovely huge, though we are not familiar with the ore. Is it common in your world?

"Oh," she blinks and moves back to work, sliding the sharpening stone against the harpoon's edge. "Some small repairs and general maintenance." She offers him a sidelong smile. "But remiss of me, I have not introduced myself properly. I am Eleanor Lamb."

Really? I've never heard of such a settlement. Most people live aboveground where I come from.

[Kuja picks up his boot again, working at the knee joint with the oil, wiping away the excess: he doesn't want his stockings to get stained.]

It's actually an alloy to get the color, added on at the last moment. It's not common, but it isn't very rare either, and it doesn't compromise the strength of the armor. Not a bad deal for a little bit of vanity, don't you think?

You wouldn't have, even if you had lived in my world. Its founder believed in secrecy to preserve his legacy.

[She shrugged a little, giving his armor one last look. She nodded and stepped back to her own work.]

I am not someone who can judge on vanity, not really. Beauty tends to lose some of its shine, when you've lived to see it unmasked as lies.

[She smiled wryly.]

I value familiarity much more, though perhaps... that is vanity of some kind as well?

[Kuja looks up at her, though his hands still work in familiar movements. The knee joint has so many plates, after all.]

I suppose beauty is often used to cover something less flattering up, for many reasons. Heh, perhaps it might be, but it really depends to what extent. People use familiarity to keep themselves stable. I'd say to moves to vanity when it makes one stagnate instead.

He looked at the suit with interest wondering what it was, what it was for. He had never seen anything like it before. "It is nice to meet you Eleanor Lamb, I am Shion."

Mmm, perhaps.

[She works on her harpoon, straightening it properly, though in the back of her head she's got half a feeling she'll need to make a new one out of scratch soon, if the pace keeps up.]

I am more of a pragmatist these days. The pursue of beauty has never really been at the top of my priorities.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too," she said, offering a smile. She notices the way he looks at her work and arches an eyebrow curiously. "Do you like this kind of work, Shion?"

"I've never done anything like this before..." He looked around the machines, "It looks difficult."

"Mmm, I wouldn't know." She looks back at her hands, moving confidently around. "I didn't... exactly learn this, the conventional way."

[A look that betrayed his curiosity.] How did you learn it?

No? That's a shame.

[He tests out the join, smiling at how smooth and soundless the metal moved. No worries about it wearing out any time soon.]

That is, while pragmatism has its place, it's nice to stop and enjoy oneself every once in a while. Even I, with my previously busy schedule, did make time to just be my own person.

I have never truly been in the freedom to pursue it, to be honest. And now, whilst here, my inner pragmatist demands the pursue of freedom far more loudly than any consideration for beauty.

[She smiles.]

I never did, but someone, somewhere did, and now I have their memories.

[The last of the plates have been taken care of, and Kuja only pauses for a moment in setting it down to take up the other boot.]

...Habits are hard to break, I understand. Especially when a longer goal needs to be achieved.

[Time for a calculated risk.]

My own lack of freedom made me appreciate beauty more, myself, but perhaps our circumstances are different.

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

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