whisper in a dead man's ear; it doesn't make it real

[crouching_sin]

Characters: Naoya and OPEN.
Setting: Various floors.
Format: Actionspam to start, but I'll match you.
Summary: Naoya takes care of some daily tasks and some exploration, as well as taking some time for himself.
Warnings: Talk of death. Other than that I can't think of anything in particular.


[Floor Fourty-Eight]

[It's become a daily ritual for him - coming here and dusting off the tombstones. He takes special care on the ones whose names are worn out, as he knows all too well how a name can disappear from time.]

[Occasionally he stops, and when he can't see anyone he allows himself time to grieve. No tears are shed, but he sits next to a grave and allows himself to shake. So many lives… so many deaths. It hurts. It hurts, and there's no way anyone else can truly know.]



[Floor Thirty-Nine]

[Though he has a pretty good metabolism on his own, exercise is always important. Naoya steps onto the track, well aware that geta are not exactly ideal footwear, but he doesn't have any other options. He doesn't trust the track enough to simply go barefoot or in socks, so it's with his geta clacking that he starts walking the track. After a circuit, he starts running. The third he takes walking again, and the fourth he takes at a medium jog.]



[Floor Thirty-Three]

[He was an idiot to think that this would work. Naoya crouches at the end of the farmland, having taken some seeds of what looked like possibly pumpkins and planted them. The tiny patch he's claimed is choked by some kind of plant that is decidedly not what he intended to grow. He sighs, and digs his hands into the dirt, trying to pull up the thing by its roots. No sense in letting any of this grow and spread to the rest of the farmland.]



[Floor Twenty-Two]

[Naoya just stares, unimpressed, at the pictures that surround him now. He's well aware of each one - all of them depict the same thing.]

Heh… even now, I still am my brother's keeper…

[To release himself he had to use Abel again and again. The lamb, the sacrifice, the endless cycle of pain and fear and heartbreak on both their parts. He's well aware that he'd pretended not to care, but each and every time Abel is hurt it breaks his heart. He doesn't want to use his brother like this. But to draw God out, and to have the power to defeat Him, he needs to use Abel.]

[He turns, looking to see what else the gallery holds for him today.]

Comments

floor thirty-nine

[liquidouroboros]

[Clack clack clack.]

[Ignore it, he thought to himself. Stay focused, shut out everything else. The ponytailed blond soldier took a breath and closed his eyes, casually discarding the shirt of his forest green SEAL uniform and pulling on a pair of simple leather gloves. Without a sound he shifted into a fighting stance; the uniform was restricting, more than he'd like. Without the shirt he had a better reach and-]

[Clack clack clack clack.]

[-mobility. The only thing that differentiated him from any other soldier about to start training was the was the jet black tattoo running from left shoulder to elbow, a serpent coiled around a sword underneath the words 'temptation revelation'. It was something that differentiated him from those with the name of 'Snake', like his blond hair and British accent...individuality for one that could never be an individual.]

[Doing all he could to ignore that incessant noise, Liquid set himself to punching and kicking an invisible opponent. His motions were fluid and serpentine as his name, each strike and small movement indicative of an expert. A weapon forged in the flames of warfare and sharpened by years that demanded no less than perfection-]

[Clackclackclackclackclackclack.]

Must you wear those infernal things?!

[...He wasn't much for patience or tact.]

[crouching_sin]

[Naoya glared at the blond-haired idiot, before smirking slightly.]

I have no other shoes and I don't trust this place to not suddenly break out in broken glass or something. So yes. Yes I must.

[liquidouroboros]

[As irritated as he was, Liquid had to admit that was a reasonable counter.]

You realize you're liable to fall and break your neck in those, correct?

['And you will if I have any good luck' went unsaid.]

[crouching_sin]

Please. If I can navigate a demon-ravaged Shinjuku and climb fifty flights of stairs with these, I think I can handle a track.

[So no luck there, yeah. He does step off the track and walk closer towards Liquid, though.]

Floor Twenty-Two

[lightofhumanity]

[chaos wandered through the Tower, peeking through floors that interested him and avoiding ones that did not. Eventually, he came upon a large art gallery. Since it had been awhile since had seen an art gallery, chaos wandered into the room, looking at the paintings. However, as he looked, he sensed something in the room. It was human..but it had an extra weight to it.

After looking at a picture of the Crucifixion and sighing, he turned around, more than happy to leave that bad memory behind. It was then that he saw the source of that sense-a man with white hair and red eyes. chaos smiled.]

Good evening. Have you seen anything interesting?

[crouching_sin]

[He noted the picture behind the man, and huffed a bit. Tch. But in response to the question, he simply shrugged. Interesting? It was hardly interesting watching people depict his most hated moment over and over and over again, the one he could constantly see when he closed his eyes.]

Simply some old paintings from my world. I do wish they'd have more variety.

[lightofhumanity]

[chaos nodded.]

It would be nice if they did..and which old paintings have you seen?

[Since these were paintings from another world, they may be more interesting to chaos than this man.]

Floor Twenty-Two

[technologic]

[The art gallery is one of the floors April is most unsure about, since sometimes the paintings there were nice to look at and sometimes... not so much.

Though it seems like it's one of those 'nice to look at' times for April, since she's looking at a painting of the London skyline and tilting her head at it, as if trying to see if she can recognize the place.]

[crouching_sin]

[... Ah. That's good. Naoya walks over to her and follows her gaze, remaining quiet for a few moments before speaking.]

It's London. Before it was ruined in your world, I assume.

[technologic]

[April tenses up slightly in surprise, due to most of her attention being focused on the painting, before she glances at Naoya and then back up at the painting.]

... Yeah, I thought it looked familiar... The clock tower kinda threw me off, since it doesn't look like that anymore.

Floor 33

[alephbet]

[Aleph's not sure what that plant even is. Then again, he's not really the best at plants.]

Do you want some help?

[Pulling them out, he can do.]

[crouching_sin]

[That's okay, he's hardly good at plants anymore either. He looks up a bit at the voice, though.]

Heh. Yes. I'll probably ruin the land further if I continue to work with it.

[alephbet]

[Aleph kneels down and begins uprooting the troublesome weed by hand.]

Did you have much of a garden at home?

Floor 22

[evokingfool]

[Minato is examining a painting, one of a familiar scene to him. A bridge, under the eerie green glow of the full moon.

He glance away to check the next paintings. Buildings, familiar scenes from Port Island, Iwatodai...Tartarus. He may work hard to make it disappear, but something about the Shadow infested tower fascinated him.]

[crouching_sin]

[Naoya walks a bit closer, examining it.]

Something from your world, I assume?

[evokingfool]

[Minato glance at Naoya, before his eyes slowly went back to the painting.]

That's right. Tartarus, a tower full of Shadows.

[When he arrived in this tower, it's almost like home. Just with more varied monsters. And no money in chests.]

Floor 48

[ceasetoexist]

[This is awkward.

Pokey hadn't really been looking where he was going in the Tower. By this point he was just exploring the floors of the Tower as they came so he could have some kind of idea as to what the Tower was like on a better scale. He had to admit he hadn't expected the graveyard - and if the place was anything like Mayfield he couldn't see any point to it other than the people here being assholes - but he especially didn't expect to see the man kneeling down by the graves and shaking.

Pokey isn't particularly socially astute. Hell, you could call him a moron when it got down to it when dealing with social situations. But even he realized when someone wanted to just be left alone. If the general posture wasn't an immediate give away, the shaking was.

For a moment he thinks about trying to talk to the guy, but puts that away quickly. Empathy was something he had only really learned recently in the grand scheme of things. He still doesn't get how to go about "comforting" most people in general. So he opens his mouth once to try and say something then immediately shuts it when he realizes there's nothing he can think of to say.

The best thing will be to just leave. Hopefully without the man even knowing he was there. So Pokey will start to walk away and hope his presence was never even realized.

Until the stupid little clutz manages to trip on the way out. Well. That didn't work too well.]

[crouching_sin]

[He looks up at the sound of someone tripping, and sighs. Dammit. He'd hoped he could be alone.]

Don't land on the graves. I don't think they'd appreciate that.

[ceasetoexist]

I didn't.

[Well. He just barely managed to avoid landing on them.]

...So they actually bury people here.

Floor 22 because I'm awful

[sawthelockdown]

[Asako's been wandering the gallery herself for a while as well - partly to get away from people for a bit, and partly...partly because sometimes, the paintings are like the visions she had in the past, and it's funny how you don't think you'll miss something until it's gone.

It's funny how you end up needing those things after a life of going "sheesh, I don't want it anymore." Then again, here, she might have been able to make more use of it. Oh, sure, she can still scan enemies, but if she'd known about the whale...or the costumes...or, hell, anything...

And it's at this point that she bumps into Naoya. Literally.] Ooof!

You are but ilu

[crouching_sin]

[Naoya turns, attempting to block some of the paintings from view, and looks down at Asako.]

Careful there. What are you doing in this place?

[sawthelockdown]

[She glares up at him, at this. It is the look of someone who has made this mistake many times and is fully expecting...well, to be called a runt or something like that.]

Looking at the art, of course. I take it you're doing the same?

Floor 22

[silentsacrifice]

[And at the end of the hallway, he'll see Itachi, who's staring at some more abstract paintings with a somewhat distant look on his face. He doesn't even turn his head, but he responds to Naoya all the same.]

You're familiar with those paintings?

[He sounds as distant as he looks. He's seen the paintings quite a few times on his trips to the gallery (he's not sure why he keeps coming back), though he's never been able to identify them. The art of his world is much different.]

[crouching_sin]

Quite familiar. They all depict an event from my world's history - or mythology if you prefer.

[He rolls his eyes once more and heads over to look at what the other is looking at.]

[silentsacrifice]

[Itachi is looking at a far more abstract painting. The canvas has been painted in swathes of red, blue, and black, with spatterings of white and yellow, to paint a stylized scene of a man in battle against a great, lunging beast. To someone from Earth, it would give off a distinct Eastern flair, as opposed to the stark realism of the paintings Naoya had been inspecting.]

Oh? And what event was that?

[Despite what he's saying, Itachi's tone is far from conversational. He's curious, yes, but he's also not in a very social mood. At this point, though, he's seen those unfamiliar paintings enough times to want to know the story behind them, even if that means asking a total stranger.]