[002]

[fallen_stage]

Characters: Kuja and whomever wants to pester him.
Setting: Different places! ;A; Various; see cuttext.
Format: Starting with action, I'll match you.
Summary: Kuja's finding it harder to readjust as usual; more discomfort arrives as he explores the full possibilities of the Tower.
Warning: Minor self-harm? Scratching. Also vomiting.

Kuja woke with a start, but the paralysis wouldn't let him leap from bed, wouldn't let him move at all, wouldn't let him breathe. Sheer panic consumes him during that time, robbing his breath further. Once he can move he sits up, sucking air into his lungs, his lungs, his trachea, his mouth, his lips. For a few moments, Kuja huddles over, hands covering his face and nails digging into his scalp. His face, his nails, his scalp, his pain. He is Kuja, he has a soul, he was from Terra, and he is not like those other guys.

From the back of his throat Kuja can feel a choking sensation, his diaphragm twitching. He knows what it is. Stumbling as he gets out of bed (thankfully dressed in his nightshirt), he ignores everyone as he rushes to the nearest bathroom, not bothering to close the stall door behind himself before dropping to his knees and getting sick.

After that awful, wretched dream, tasting his own stomach acid is almost a confirming relief

((ooc: threads for this will be first come, first serve chronologically. I'll assume Kuja remains sick for a while and others hear him from outside))

[Kuja had been coming regularly for meals, oddly unperturbed by the bland fare offered by the Tower. If he finds it unpleasant, he makes no sign; makes no sign of anything much, in fact. His face is a carefully blank face, expressive as a stone. Right now he has about a third of a bar missing on his plate, his posture one of boredom but his face clear as ever. He pokes around a crumb but isn't otherwise eating.]

[For someone so prim, Kuja seems to have no reservation about sprawling on a couch, staring out into the swirling fog. He seems to have stolenscrounged up some pants from somewhere: they're dark and ill-fitting, but there, under his White Robe. Right now Kuja is on his stomach, his face is buried in his crossed arms.]

[In the same outfit as the day before, Kuja is neatly sitting against a wall. Next to him is a thick water column of jellyfish and pufferfish and even a blue-ringed octopus. Should he really be sticking his hand in like that..?]

[Kuja must really like those pants. He's only wearing the white undershirt of his usual outfit this time around. Rather dangerous considering he seems to be fussing with some contraption, a pile of colored bottles and an assortment of dull rocks arranged on the counter around him. He seems a bit less morose this time around.]

Comments

Floor 4; two days after

[thebigsister]

[Eleanor is irritated. She finds her way to this floor as she stalks about, wearing the thin white dress once more. Her powers gone, she has no hope to get inside her suit for now.

She walks up to the glass passing Kuja's couch without noticing him, and stopping to stare at her reflexion on the windows. It's only then that she notices his.]

Oh.

[She turns to look at him, barefoot and slightly disheveled.]

Hello.

[fallen_stage]

[Kuja suppresses a grumble, recognizing her voice. He doesn't sit up, but he does turns his head from his arms.]

Hello Eleanor. I need to thank you for your support during the last... unpleasantness.

[thebigsister]

[Eleanor shrugs.]

It's alright. You are an interesting man, I was curious to see what you'd do with the resources at your disposal.

[fallen_stage]

[Kuja rolls onto his side, curling up on the sofa. Definitely more listless than his usual charming self.]

Survive. Like I always do. Still, I'm glad someone isn't scolding me for doing what anyone else would.

[There could only be one survivor; he wasn't gonna die just because of someone's young age.]

[thebigsister]

I have told you this before, haven't I? I am no messiah, it is not my place to judge.

[She shrugs.]

Whether you've done right or wrong will catch up with you on its own, it is the way kindness moves the world.

[fallen_stage]

[For someone who does advocates kindness, her view is very... refreshing. Like a sea breeze in the desert.]

I appreciate your understanding, Eleanor. Perhaps they are the fortunate ones, to not know what it's like to be driven to choosing between kill or be killed.

[thebigsister]

I don't think so.

[Eleanor shrugged.]

They might be happier for it, but not necessarily fortunate. They have never had to make the choice, to test themselves and find out whether they truly are who they think they are. Freedom is about choice, even harsh ones.

Dang Eleanor you make his morality go doki doki

[fallen_stage]

[Well. That wasn't the answer he was expecting at all. Most people considered such desperate circumstances irredeemably tragic and something to be avoided. Truly who they think they are... Yes, Kuja had seem some people collapse because an extreme experience cracked their self-perception.]

...I think we both know that from experience, don't we?

She does that, yeah.

[thebigsister]

Personal and otherwise, yes.

[She smiles wryly at him.]

But, if I may, I would add a corollary to your answer about survival.

[fallen_stage]

[Yeah now he's more curious about her. All in good time.]

Go ahead.

[thebigsister]

It is not survival that should worry you.

[She smiled serenely.]

It is knowing that you must live with yourself if you do.

RIGHT IN THE ISSUES <3

[fallen_stage]

[Usually he'd be smiling back and agreeing with her, or pretending to put some thought into it and have a philosophical question, but... it's uncomfortably close. For a moment anger flared up within him: who was she to say such a thing? Did she have to scrabbled and push and bleed for survival? Could she say she'd have done any different? Could he have done something different? It's all too easy to give an opinion from the sidelines.

So instead, he'll probe further.]

Do you have to live with yourself, then? In the name of survival?

Just as planned. 0w0

[thebigsister]

I have to live with ourself.

[The pronoun is intentional, and her smile is humorless.]

In the name of survival... and death, as well.

Best CR <3

[fallen_stage]

[She was an intriguing young woman, after all. Just who was she..? Or maybe "what" was more relevant.]

Most would think those would be mutually exclusive for one person.

[The unspoken assumption hangs in the air: but they aren't most people, are they?]

0w0

[thebigsister]

Everyone makes judgments from their own experience, that's all.

[Their experience isn't ours, though, is what she means to say. She shrugs again. She looks delicate, without her suit. Fragile. Oddly enough, she is now.]

[fallen_stage]

That's true, I suppose...

[Kuja's good at fishing out unspoken meanings. Even better at knowing not to take fragility at its face. Was Kuja himself not almost dainty in taste, at first glance?]

I think we share a certain unique perspective, Eleanor.

[thebigsister]

Perhaps we do.

[She smiles.]

That... would certainly be a first, for me.

[fallen_stage]

[Kuja warmly smiles back.]

Then I'm glad we have had this opportunity to meet each other.

[thebigsister]

I'm glad.

[She shrugs a little.]

I am also glad you made good use of my gifts, inside the Labyrinth.