towerofanimus | [01] || [Open] || [Backdated to before the event's start]

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[01] || [Open] || [Backdated to before the event's start]

Characters: Rude and YOU
Setting: Room 4-14, Meadow, Maze (Battle), Floor Five and Cafeteria
Format: Prose or Action, whichever you prefer
Summary: Rude wakes up in the tower and goes off to explore. At some point he'll fight some monster and try to eat the most feared oatmeal.
Warning: Lots of "………" and this kind of silence. Otherwise nothing, aside from violence at the maze.

Dormitories (Room 4-14)
By now Rude was already dressed- His suit impeccable, his fighting glove together with his Materia and bracelet ready for action. His earrings and sunglasses were on as well- The lack of light didn't seem to be a problem for him. It never was. In fact it was as though his sunglasses were apart of him and didn't obstruct his vision at all. And now he's on to reread that paper. The planet, destroyed? As far as he was concerned that was nonsense- After all that had been going on, he couldn't imagine the planet being destroyed so easily. Let alone him being the sole survivor.

He shrugged and pocketed the paper before moving on to look at what else he had in his trunk- His suits and accessories had obscured everything else. His PHS but it was of little use as the communication functions were broken beyond repair. Whatever, he listed what he had with him and ordered it in his Trunk for easy access. Oh, and bottles of Ale? Whoever took him had a strange sense of humor at least.

Floor Twenty-Five (Meadow)
It took some time for Rude to realize. A meadow, here in the middle of this hell of a tower? That was surprising. That made no sense, like everything else he saw so far. And there was obviously nothing to do around here.

He decided to quickly explore and look for people, but he wouldn't stay long. At least this floor was fairly quiet and relaxing, if anything.

Floor Eight (Maze)
… A Maze. No, Rude wouldn't enter it. He had whatsoever no times for it; there were far more urgent things to do. Nevertheless, as he was heading to the exit- Monsters attacked him. They were many but they were weak. He easily punched back those who attacked him and then cast a Lightning spell on those who were behind him.

More appeared, and he would probably take care of them fairly easily, but help would be most welcome, if only to make the battle end more quickly. Even though he, for one, desires no help right now.

Floor Five
After exploring a bit of the tower, some of the architecture couldn't help but remind him of the Shinra Building- Yet at the same time it couldn't be more different. Whoever did that had to be powerful and they had to master some advanced technology or materia. On top of that they probably had large sums of funds at their disposal. There were few people with that kind of means left on Gaia; and he was already making a list of who he thought could be his potential captors.

He advanced and tried to look through the viewing station after a while- Nothing. It was getting irritating, absolutely nothing worked in this tower. He shook his head and decided to head for the exit. Worthless.

Floor One (Cafeteria)
… Oatmeal. The one food Rude could never eat ever since he was a children, it had to be the one food he would be provided with to eat. The only food. He poked at it and tried to eat, very slowly and carefully…

…

No. Just no. Oh God, what horror was that? Alright, he'd go hunt for other food, he'd remain on diet or something. But he couldn't eat that. He just couldn't. They'd have to give a reason solid as rock for him to go through swallowing that horror. Or remain one month without eating.

Everywhere Else
Have a Turk walking through the tower. He looks strong and maybe dangerous, but don't be afraid, he doesn't bite and even if he is fairly cold, he's a polite person. Rude will just go ahead and explore, try and find people from his homeworld if there are any and answers.

By the way he looks walks and behaves; it's obvious that man is considering himself to be on work or on some sort of mission- Hopefully you won't think he is one of the Tower's agent.

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She was headed down when she heard the tell-tale sounds of battle on the floor. Siira picked up her pace and jumped over Rude, an Ice 3 spell going straight into the face of one monster and landing a kick on the head of another. The force from her jump and landing was more than enough to crush most of its' face.

And the woman wasn't even paying attention to who it was she just leapt in to rescue. So she didn't recognize the bald Turk just yet. He might be able to recognize her though, whether from Meteorfall or from before. Her fighting style just definitely unique.

Breathless and looking a bit worse for the wear, the Turks’ most haphazard member stumbled into the cafeteria, swearing up a storm as usual.

Monsters. There were fucking monsters and meadows and all manner of freaky ass shit in this tower and merciful Shiva if this wasn’t the worst fucking day ever. The note in his room said he could get food down here, though; after people had filled his brain with all sorts of messed up info that he had stopped bothering to try and process, he was absolutely starving, so he’d forged his way through and finally made it to the cafeteria… which was dark. And empty.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Belatedly, he noticed a lone figure on the other side of the room, and his heart lept when he realized that – yet again – he recognized the trademark suit the person was wearing. The sunglasses and excessive amount of earrings filled in everything else he needed to know.

“Damn… They got you too, huh?”

He recognized her immediately. Not only her fighting style, but her hairs were pretty unique and hard to miss. Yet he didn't say word of it, right now they were to kill those monsters, questions would come latter. And those monsters were quickly dispatched- While Siira on managed to exterminate them easily with her kicks and ice spell, Rude himself cast yet another Blot3 spells on all remaining target and punched the last one standing.

She was one of the last person he had expected to see here- He couldn't say it felt bad seeing one of his fellow Turks, even when they had not met in years. She had lost nothing of her skills after all that time.

"Siira."

He had spotted a man entering, but hadn't cared enough to go and see. If it was an hostile, he would take care of him would he make the mistake to get too close. Rude looked up when the man addressed him-

... Rodney? Well now. He had hoped to see people from home, but he hadn't expected to see Turks... Let alone those who had no choice but to leave the company. That was a good thing though, they were amongst the few people he trusted after all. Yet at the same time, it was fishy.

That many Turks, reunited in the tower? Took away all credibility from the letter that pretended the planet was gone. That hardly could be a mere coincidence.

"Rod."

A nod and a slight smile, but only for a second.

"Me, you and others apparently."

"Hey Rude." One last kick to one of the monsters that tried to get back up and it wouldn't be getting up again. And look, she didn't even have to bust out her gun. She definitely didn't lose any of her skills in that time. She was a Turk, after all. None of them would get rusty.

Strightening her suit and kicking one of the carcasses, Siira sniffed a bit as she caught her breath. This hadn't even been a minor exercise but it was thrilling all the same.

"Damn, the whole gang is startin' to flood in, huh? I mean, I've run into both Reno's, Rod and now you. It's like a Turk reunion in here."

At least there weren't graves to fall in to had been Reno's opinion of this floor. It had an uncanny resemblance to one of the decks on the Elegante so he usually avoided it but it was comfortable enough in the ridiculous heat fluxuations of late.

There were plants he knew were at least vaugely edible growing as well and he'd been decidecidedly busy looking for them when Rude appeared. The catch of suit out of the corner of his eye had him turn though.

And freeze completely still with one hand on his gun. Fear jolted through him, the last two times he'd seen Rude the guy had been an illusion by a thing trying to kill him and a corpse respectively.

"Rude?" He breathed, a vauge hope that this wasn't whatever it was that was destroying worlds playing another trick trickling down his spine. It wouldn't be easy but if he had to he'd do what needed to be done to protect the universe at large.

Reno and Rod? He nodded and then readjusted his sunglasses. Well, Reno's presence was a definite plus, as well as Rod's. Although it was quite suspicious. Siira and Rod, both of them in this tower on top of Reno, after all those years. Definitely sounded fishy, but he trusted her.

He frowned ever so slightly for a second though- He thought to have heard 'both Reno's', which made no sense. He probably misheard that part, most likely was 'Both Reno and Rod'.

"....... Both Rod and Reno? That's good."

It was a long trip up and down these stairs, but Reno was slowly starting to get used to it. Sometimes it was a relief not to have to use the elevator, but it was a bit annoying at times.

Hauling scavenged food. That was what he was doing right now, toting up what he found to the Floor 38 encampment in a large bag he had made for this specific purpose. Or that was what he WOULD be doing if he hadn't run into someone... someone who was kind of like a giant wall of a man... and dropped the bag of mushrooms.

The meadow was particularly calm and admittedly by the time Reno came in, Rude was lost in his thoughts. While on the outside he didn't speak a lot, that much couldn't be said on the inside. This tower, the letter. None of this made sense. The Planet's destruction... He couldn't believe it, yet this was the less unlogical option. He needed to have more elements. He needed someone to give him answers.

That's when Reno spoke his name. Caught by surprise yet he reacted quickly when he heard a very familiar voice addressing him. He turned immediately and looked.

"............"

It was Reno, of course. He looked a little bit...- Different, if the word was right. Different from last time he spoke with him but there was no doubt. It was well the Turk he had worked with for roughly ten years.

"Reno."

He smiled ever so slightly for a few seconds then nodded.

"Good to see you."

Now, at first Rod had been completely convinced that this whole thing was some giant conspiracy against the Turks – the fact that Turks kept popping up all over the place only made him more and more certain that this was all an overly elaborate ploy to get them all out of the way, once and for all. That had been before he’d literally had to fight for his life all the way down to the god damn cafeteria, however, and by this point Rod couldn't even find it in him to be surprised when he entered the room to see Rude sitting quietly and poking at a bowl of what appeared to be oatmeal. Rod was tired, he was stressed out, and while he was certainly happy to see the Rude, he was pretty much done with theorizing about why this was all happening and ready to get his chow on. Thinking about the situation could come, uh, never.

“Ugh, don’t even get me started, man. Who else you seen so far?” Rod plopped down heavily on the bench across from Rude, looking extremely relieved at the chance to sit down for a while. “And where’s the grub? I could eat a whole god damn chocobo.”

Those stairs were a pain, alright. They were awfully reminiscent of the sixty floors of stairs in the Shinra Building. By this time Rude had already met Siira- Who had told him about the existence of two Reno in the tower. And then one of the two Reno she mentioned. So he wasn't that surprised to bump into Reno.

Well, physically-speaking this one looked more like the Reno as he remembered him. Good at least he'll be able to differentiate them with ease. Not good though, he's still having a hard time coping with the idea that there are two in this... Tower.

He grabbed the bag of mushrooms on the ground and handed it over to Reno with a slight smile.

"Smells better than their oatmeal."

Reno had just taken the bag with a muttered 'thanks' when he realized just who had given him the bag back- and then dropped it again. "Rude?"

Shock. He wasn't expecting Rude to show up, and he was happy to see the big lug, really, really happy, but at the same time, again that meant more people were gone...

Reno would have to break himself out of that train of thought, that was gonna get seriously fucking depressing.

"Rude!" The bag forgotten, Reno stopped giving a flying chocobo about dignity, he actually full out hugged the guy.

In time Rude would get over the conspiracy theory- But for now he still had to keep it in mind. All in all, it was more reassuring to think that, than to think Gaia's gone. As for now-

"Only Siira, but she told me Reno is- are here."

Two Reno... He trusted Siira's words, but he would have to see them to believe it. Reno may very well have played a prank on her, that's the kind of thing he could and would do. But he knew for a fact Reno wouldn't play such a prank on him, so he'd get to see in time whether this was true or not.

As for the grub... Rude points his dish and shakes his head.

".......... That's all they got."

It was nearly amusing to see Reno that dumbfounded at his sight, but Rude's face remained straight and he only nodded when Reno uttered his name. And then-

".............."

That... Was that...? A hug? Rude kind of, well, didn't know how to react to a hug. Come to think about it, in spite of having been partners and best friends for years, hugs wasn't really something they did often, if ever. Reno should've known that- Was life in this tower really that terrible?

Rude just remained... Immobile for a moment.

Then he... Tried to hug back. He's seen other people do it before. Okay, the embrace is very light and... The clasp on the top of Reno's back nearly non-existence. It's... Very awkward overall, but at least he tried? Would it have been anyone else, he would probably have pushed them away immediately.

But that only last a totals of 6 seconds before Rude let go- That's already a lot.

"...you're kidding me, right?" Rod deadpanned, staring at Rude in horror for a moment before leaning forward and peering suspiciously at the oatmeal, as if maybe it would jump out of the bowl and creep away if they didn't keep a close eye on it. Judging by his experiences in the tower so far, it honestly wouldn't surprise him. "The fuck even is that slop? Dude, I think it just moved."

Oh, right, yes that was probably a good idea. Not embarrassed in the least, okay maybe a little, Reno let go and busied himself grabbing his bag of mushrooms again.

"When the hell did you get in?! Damn, it's good to see you, buddy." He straightened up and settled down on a step. "Did- did anyone explain what happened, why you're here?"

He was concerned for his partner now, the initial elation of seeing the bald cueball wearing down a bit. The Turks were all showing up in the Tower, mostly around the same time- what exactly did that mean?

"It's called oatmeal."

Moved? He looked at his bowl and- No, the boy probably dreamt. There's nothing alive in it. There cannot be something. ... Come to think about it, now that Rod saw him- He couldn't avoid eating it or, what would be his reputation? Not to mention it'd set a bad example. Goddamn, oatmeal.

Ah finally, the awkward moment could end. He straightened his suit and his tie following the 'hug' and looked at Reno.

"Just today. It's good to see you as well."

And that was true- It might not show on his face aside from the smiles that pop-up for a mere second once in a while, but he was genuinely happy to have found Reno in this tower. Living in this place would be easy with friends, and especially his best friend. He nodded as an answer to his question though.

"I've met a few but the explanations were... Unsatisfying."

The planet gone, this tower being some kind of safeplace located beyond the dimensions, the influx of Turks being nothing but a coincidence. Yes, very unsatisfying.

Rod just stared at the oatmeal, torn between his rampant hunger and the fact that he really couldn't imagine anything more unappetizing. He couldn't believe that he'd come all the way down here for this.

"Ugh, on second thought, maybe I ain't so hungry after all..."

"............"

He sympathizes with you there. Yet... Now he had do it. If only to set an example and preserve his image. He shook his head then grabbed the desert spoon he had been provided with.

"... There's no other food and we have to be ready for what might happen."

And thus he went for the oatmeal with his utensil and... swallowed. Slowly and painfully, yet little of it showed on his face.

Rod watched Rude closely with something akin to awe in his eyes. As Rude ate the oatmeal, Rod kept expecting him to grimace or gag or at least flinch, but no. The guy was like a fucking rock.

It was pretty epic.

Finally, shaking his head in disbelief, Rod pushed himself up and ventured over to the side of the room where it looked like food would normally be served. There, sitting almost innocently on one of the assembly tables, was a single bowl of oatmeal. How convenient... almost like it had been waiting there, just for him.

Rod shuddered, picked it up along with the spoon sitting next to it and returned to the table.

"...don't think it's poisoned or anythin', do you?"

"Two Reno's and a Rod, actually." Siira corrected him, raising her hand to wiggle two of her fingers. She wasn't sure he could handle hearing that so quickly but it was better than waiting and, at the end of their conversation, then mentioning it. That would be a bit cruel.

The martial artist grinned and clapped him on the shoulder, looking him over for a second before nodding. Of course he wasn't hurt, she wasn't that worried about that anyway. It was seeing Rude here and she kind of had to touch him to be sure that she wasn't hallucinating.

"Shiva's tits, Rude, it's good to see you. And we ain't alone, some SOLDIER's are here, ex and otherwise. It's a fucking ShinRa reunion."

Reno's pretending it never happened. Don't blame him, it had been a while.

He swung his bag over his shoulder, and grabbed hold of Rude's sleeve, his customary way of dragging the bigger man around, and started climbing up to Floor 38. "I got a lot to tell ya, just promise me you won't call me crazy. Because I'm completely serious, Rude." That was probably the most important part. Rude was used to Reno, he knew him, and he was worried the big guy would think he was joking.

"Seems like I've been telling way too many people lately. Anyway, the planet's dead. I've seen it. The people who run this place claim they rescued us, but they aren't all trustworthy." That was sort of an understatement, from what he had seen of Jason. Out of all of the so-called administrators of the Tower, Dax seemed the one that was looking out for them the most, which was saying a lot compared to Jason.

"That's how ya wound up here anyway. Oh, don't mess with the collar, bad things happen. And this place is crawling with monsters and idiots, so watch yourself." Pausing for a moment, he sighed. "Y'know I should just write a damn paper called 'So Your Universe Was Destroyed' and give it out to people."

It was the smile that did it, Reno's hand falling from the weapon limply.

"Rude. You're here. You...you asshole! D'you know how worried- you ass. I haven't seen you alive since- I should hit you." He was jumping from sentence to sentence as relief, worry and anger warred for control of his emotions. "Ifrit's balls I never thought I'd see you alive again."

"As it is good to see you...-!"

Wait, two Reno? She really just said that? Sorry, but that kind of obscured everything else. He didn't even realize she clapped him on the shoulder. For one because that made no sense. For two because the existence of two Reno would probably destroy the universe. Oh wait...

"SOLDIERs? Who? And what's with those two Reno?"

It's strange. Siira wasn't one to drink alcohol while on duty, nor was she one to speak bullshit or make stupid jokes.

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[01] || [Open] || [Backdated to before the event's start]

Maze

Cafeteria

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Meadow

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Upperfloor/Staircase?

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Sounds good to me!

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