[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

Cafeteria

[great_king_of_evil]

[ Ganondorf was heading to take his meal- The food was horrendous as ever. And who should he find? Kuja.

Backstabber. Traitor. He hoped he had received the worst punishment of them all. He deserved no less. Well... He'd have done the same eventually. In fact he's probably have done even worst, so he can't really hold it against him.

Still. He's angry but he'll sit at Kuja's table anyway. ]

[denigrator]

[Hojo's attention is attracted by the act of someone "fussing with some contraption", and he moves closer to observe, hovering, watching. He is potentially interested, but not definitely.]

And what are you doing there, hm?

SHRIEK I was hoping we'd have CR <3

[fallen_stage]

[Kuja spares the other man a glance. With such a confident (and presumptuous) tone, Kuja guesses he's used to having subordinates. Kuja isn't nearly so tired as to become meek. Sliding his stool back from the synthesizer, Kuja holds up an Ore for inspection.]

Trying to make jewels. I haven't quite got the machine to work yet.

I am happy to be able to oblige! <3

[denigrator]

[He adjusts his glasses. He looks over the ore, then the synthesizer, without saying anything at first.]

To make jewels. [His tone as he repeats this isn't incredulous. It's a simple repetition, without any real emotion attached.]

Then this device, when functioning, should theoretically be capable of the transmutation of matter? Or is it that this substance in particular contains the potential to become a jewel but lacks a specific catalyst?

[fallen_stage]

[At least he's reasonably intelligent.]

The synthesizer can create a new object out of two others, but in this case, the Ore I hold, while plain, has the potential to become a gemstone. The work of millions of years of pressure and heat and chemistry... in a moment.

[denigrator]

[He leans in a little closer.] Fascinating. The chemical reaction it causes can be put to other uses.

Can it synthesize both organic and inorganic matter?

[He tends toward the organic in his own studies, but he doesn't limit those studies. Knowledge should have no limits.]

Do you have a purpose in mind for these jewels? [He wouldn't be likely to ask 'why create jewels', since science for its own sake makes perfect sense to him, but he wonders if the jewels are an end in and of themselves, or if there is more.]

[fallen_stage]

Depends on the matter and combination. I'm not an expert on this by any means: it's a technical skill usually taught to apprentices.

[With the intelligent questions, Kuja is defrosting. This was proving to be a good distraction after all.]

Not particularly. They can be used to channel certain energy, or teach certain abilities, but I really wanted to test out the synthesizer, and jewels are some of the simpler items to mix.

[fallen_stage]

[Whatever thoughts Ganon has, Kuja doesn't appear to share them. He just glances at Ganon as he sits down.]

Hello again. No complications, I trust?

[denigrator]

Mm, so it is quite versatile. So much potential.

Apprentices of what trade? We can fuse certain objects in my world, but we do not have a synthesizer so varied in its uses. I'm impressed.

[It is a device from this person's world, then, but not of their design (not that Hojo has paid very close attention to Kuja himself). To meet the inventor of such a device would be quite a pleasure, but he is content to speak about it as well; he will talk shop, as it were, in almost any situation. He nods his understanding and approval.]

Best to begin with a simple experiment. [Not that he always follows this advice himself.] Jewels are useful items, then. I know of similar objects. I would like to observe, if I may.

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.

I almost wrote "shop" as "ship"

[fallen_stage]

Of synthesizing, of course. As you might imagine, it can be a delicate process.

[Oh yes, Kuja really likes talking shop with someone who knows what they're going on about. His suggestion is good, if obvious.]

Of course.

[Pop in the Ore here, pour in the potion here, fiddle around, and........ Kuja plucks out the result, holding it out.]

Ta-da! An opal. When equipped, it can grant one Blizzara.

[He's not gonna mention its eidolon potential yet. Without a summoner it's useless.]

[denigrator]

Of course, that is self-evident. I did not know whether it was a part of a greater craft.

[Hojo watches Kuja very carefully as he works, remaining silent until he is finished.]

Impressive. Its structure appears to have been completely altered.

Blizzara. An ice elemental attack. So these jewels are like Materia. [This is murmured, but then he adds, in a firmer voice:] They sound very like the objects I mentioned, which we create and fuse, if with very different equipment. Though I have no such equipment with me. It is not my specialty.

How is the device powered? And may I inspect it more closely?

[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?

Makin' shit up woooo

[fallen_stage]

The process sounds similar, at least. Jewels are the least of what I could create, but like I said, such processes are more complex. Ore, at least, already has the building blocks of gems sleeping in their hearts.

[Sorry Hojo, Kuja's prone to poetry, science or not. He steps away from the synthesizer.]

It can vary... a forge, a Mist engine, any sort of power source really. In this case, the machine seems to have been adapted for the electricity this Tower seems to fsvor.

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.