Tyger Tyger Burning Bright

[firstofthefallen]

Characters: Lucifer
Setting: Around the Tower, Floor 13
Format: Action brackets to start, will match any form
Summary: A thousand years of captivity and powerlessness does not bode well with someone who puts a surplus on the importance of power.
Warnings: Blasphemy warning for floor 13 and in general, creepiness, encroaching madness

Anywhere
[The Tower is being odd today. That seems to be something all can agree on who inhabit it. But there's something especially off with wherever you are right now.

You can't put your finger on it at first, but the sensation is bothersome. Worrying, to a degree. It's a prickling sensation at the back of your mind that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. It takes a moment, but not too long, before you realize what the sensation is.

You can't tell exactly why, but you feel like you're being watched. You might feel like you can see the shadow of someone else in the room, indistinct and for a brief moment inhuman, before it flicks out of sight. Or maybe you hear something that sounds like footsteps behind you. Or to the side. Or right in front of you.

But always. Always you think that in the back of your mind you can hear a low, indistinct singing.

Perhaps you'll just try and leave the room you're currently in. Or perhaps you'll call out to see if anyone's there.

Maybe there is no good choice at the moment.]

Floor 13/The Cathedral

[The Cathedral was his. YHWH had managed to take so much away from him in the 1000 years Lucifer had been trapped just by trapping him here that if the most Lucifer could do to obviously hurt YHWH was destroy a place that seemed to be for his worship, Lucifer did it.

The pews in the Cathedral have been shattered, most reduced to splinters and heaps of broken wood. Most of the shattered pews seem to have been covered in some form of unpleasant filth, and the smell of carrion and dark staining on the wood attests to what it is. The wood, if one felt some desire too, would be filthy to the touch, grimy and clumped and wet, so horribly wet.

The large, ornate stained glass windows too have been defaced, obscenities in several languages, in English and in German and in Latin and in all languages in between, new and old, alive and dead, have been carved into the glass. It would be better, more accurate perhaps, to say they were scratched into it. Some of the obscenities are simply vulgarities, single words meant to shock and offend. Others are long winded, ranting tirades against God, against belief, against seemingly anything having to do with order and control of oneself, or of others.

The same kind of filth that covered the shattered remains of the pews too seems to start running down the center of main aisle, originating in the middle of it. The path of grime and filth continues to the podium at the very front, where one would stand to give a sermon.

Instead, there's a creature sitting on top of the podium. The creature, in comparison to the wreckage that is now the Cathedral, looks beautiful. Almost serene. And yet from it's posture there's something wrong. Something frightening beyond how immediately inhuman its appearance is. The fact that the creature is singing, and singing in a voice not beautiful but monotone, almost droning, doesn't help.]

Our God
Is an awesome God
He reigns in Heaven above

[As the creature sings, it seems to be whittling something. Not with a knife, but it's very fingers. It doesn't appear to have claws, and yet it still digs its finger nails into a piece of wood - a large shard of what had once been a pew - and tears chunks of wood away with ease. The figure it's making appears to be a little man, hands outstretched to heaven, as if pleading or asking reprieve.]

With Wisdom
Power
And Love

[And at love, the creature crushes the little man in entirety in it's hand. The wooden figure disappears into the creature's fist, and once the hand becomes unclenched all that appears again is a fine dust that sprinkles and falls to the ground.]

Our God is an awesome God.

[The Cathedral was his. To do with as he pleased. To be the one way Lucifer believed he could still spite God, could strike in some fashion against YHWH who had managed after so long to leave him truly powerless in Lucifer's contest against Him.

Lucifer hadn't given up. Not completely. He could still form a Chaos faction. He could still fight back. He just

He just needed to find some way to hurt this damn Tower. And none had presented itself.

None had been found in a thousand years.

And so he sat. And sang. And made mockery as he schemed.

As he tried not to break down further.

He wasn't accustomed to visitors. Most seemed to realize it was a bad idea by this point to enter the Cathedral. Still.

Lucifer wouldn't necessarily be angry to receive some visitors.

Even the devil could be lonely.]

Comments

Cafeteria

[midgarhorizon]

[Trying to get breakfast under these circumstances were annoying. Trying to his best to ignore it, he got his breakfast of eggs, eggs, and more eggs and sat down with it.

Taking a bite, he chewed for a moment, and was ready to take another bite when he set down his fork, and sighed.]

Either go away or stop starin' at me.

[firstofthefallen]

Why?

[The voice is static-y, breaking in and out as if it was being heard through a cheap television. And yet it's clearly organic. And nearby.

What might be worse is how the voice seems to change. No. Not change, but resonate with other tones, a male and female voice ringing out. Sometimes at the same time. Sometimes switching every other word. Sometimes young. Sometimes old. And sometimes soft, or screaming, or telepathically.]

My.

Does having someone watching som-someone watching really detract that much from fulfilling the NEEDS of the body?

[He - it - is standing behind you. And from the shadow now looming over it's hard to tell if the figure is male, or female, or even human. Or if it even really mattered. But from the shadow there is one thing that can be told pretty easily.

Motherfucker is tall.]

[midgarhorizon]

[Reno is just rolling his eyes, unimpressed by the display.]

Because it's just fucking rude, yo.

Cathedral

[stalemates]

[Lambda steps onto the floor, intending to carry on to the next, until she notices the state of it. Complete ruin. It looks like something from her games so long ago, hadn't she defaced Oyashiro's shrine some thousands of years ago? Was that her, or was it the woman? She doesn't know, truthfully. It's all a blur. If it even happened.

Nonetheless she goes towards the altar, not minding the filth sticking to her shoes and dress.]

Do devils like to masquerade as angels these days...?

Re: Cathedral

[firstofthefallen]

These days?

[Lucifer looks at the ground a moment, thin fingers drawing across his lips a moment as he thinks, before smiling.]

We always have. It says it in the book you know. His book.

I was always surprised by how nasty He let Himself look in the book. And I'm meant to be the evil one.

[stalemates]

Isn't that usually when they want to tempt humans...?

[She laughs lightly, returning the smile.]

I don't think anyone's going to come in here.

He wants His subjects to fear Him, of course. If He looks 'nasty' in the book, it's to keep us all in line, right?

Could be a corridor anywhere-

[neverbeamemory]

[Being spied on is really starting to get old. Did Turks never learn? After the last time one of them had followed him one would have thought they would at least try to be less obvious.

Though it did feel different from before - more threatening. It wasn't only his sense of paranoia that was being teased. It felt worrying like something bad and life-changing might happen the moment he turned a corner.

Sephiroth stopped at said corner and took a long lingering gaze over the corridor he'd just walked down.]

"Stop playing games. Show yourself."

Re: Could be a corridor anywhere-

[firstofthefallen]

Games?

Don't you d-d-don't you like games?

[Whatever it is, it's stepped out of the shadows and is right behind you Sephiroth. It's wings have become unfolded from its back, and have begun to curve in front of it. As if making a bizarre wall to the sides of the silver haired man.]

Re: Could be a corridor anywhere-

[neverbeamemory]

[- Buh.

Sephiroth spun and jumped back in the same instant, away from the monster that appeared from no where. His own feathered black wing was manifest even before he landed, beat forward when he landed to preserve his balance. That had been close, most monsters that lurked around the Tower wouldn't hesitate to attack at any opportunity.

That is what gave him pause, when usually Masamune would be there and he'd be ready to dispatch the threat. As far as he knew, monsters didn't talk to residents and they certainly didn't create atmospheres like that either. That's not to say he wasn't going to have to defend himself but he needed to know what he was dealing with first.]

Not generally.

a hallway

[apprisingreaper]

[Nyx had felt... odd when she woke up. For a moment, she swore she was back in that child's body again, but when she blinked-no, this was her form, the one Ryoji had been mutated into years ago. And as powerful as this form was, it was still clear that she as well could not harm the tower.

So she was spending her time wandering, disgusted with this place that she was a prisoner in, but completely exhausted with trying to do anything.

When she hears Lucifer moving around behind her, she sighs, calling out in the hallway to get him to stop.]

Lucifer. Stop this childish behavior.

[firstofthefallen]

[Laughter. More giggling than laughter, to be precise. Small footsteps resound across the room, and then the ceiling. The form of the child seems to materialize from out of the ceiling, standing on it. And smiling.]

You were always always too dour, Lady Nyx. It's a-It's a condition! I've found that seems to extend between most between most death gods.

[apprisingreaper]

[Nyx regards the child blankly, though with the tiniest bit of understanding. Any being such as them would go mad in a place like this. She has already changed from how she was before, how much longer before she lost her mind?]

You have no reason to stoop to the levels of humans. We are above problems such as this condition of yours.

floor 13

[terreifying]

What are you doing?

[Rei had definitely changed over the years. She was no longer a scrawny teenager and looked to be a woman in her late twenties. Her longer hair was caught up in a little ponytail and a pair of glasses rested on the bridge of her nose. She had swapped out the school uniform for a blouse, pants, and a lab coat.]

[She has a worried expression on her face. It is that creature again. One so similar to herself. And yet he never bothered to hide who he was. At the same time, he had always seemed so pained.]

[At the very least, she wanted to talk to him. To find out what he wanted.]

[firstofthefallen]

Worship.

[Lucifer turns his head towards Rei, still smiling. It's hard to tell if he actually recognizes the woman, and neither his words nor his actions seem to speak of whether he does or not.]

Can't you tell?

[terreifying]

Quite a destructive worship.

[Though, as one who knows of the true nature of God, she cannot help but wonder if this is all too fitting.]

You've certainly ensured that you'll be the only one worshiping here for a time.

Hallways

[alephbet]

[Aleph has honed the ability to sense danger, on 'his world' and in the tower.

(It's so difficult to think of it as his world when he hardly remembers it as more than just a passing dream.)

Being watched is rarely a sign of anything good. Yet, something in Aleph, deeper than a finely-tuned sense of paranoia, stills him from doing more than resting his hand on his sword hilt as he looks around for the source of the feeling.

No matter what becomes of Lucifer, no matter if he sinks to the level of the monsters of the tower, Aleph will never fear his presence.]

[firstofthefallen]

[Get ready for danger then, Aleph. Because Lucifer's materializing right behind you.

And the child just puts his arms around Aleph's waist, leaning in to him.

It's odd. Just as much as his madness had over taken him, his affection for Aleph had become more obvious as well, especially in display.]

Floor 13

[demonfly]

Sir.

['Takajo Zett' visits this floor frequently. Not every day. Some days he can't deal with the sheer force of chaos that Lucifer has fallen apart into.

But frequently, he visits, in one form or another. It doesn't matter what he looks like, or what name he calls himself - Lucifer will always recognize him as what he is.

Zett kneels in front of the podium and waits to be addressed.]

[firstofthefallen]

[Lucifer sits on the podium a minute more, looking at the dust that had once been his little man. He keeps looking at it as he speaks.]

Zett.

Tell me.

Is there anything of interest around the Tower?

Lab?

[uzuki]

[Shion had been gathering some empty tubing in the lab. She knew it was getting late, but surely not late enough for monsters, right? So why did she have such a knot in her stomach? She set down the plastics she was untangling, and slowly, she scanned the room with a worried expression.]

Hello? Is someone there?

[firstofthefallen]

[The voice, when it speaks, seems to fill the whole room. To echo, and come, from every corner.]

Are you alone?

Is anyone ever alone?

Or do we just just ignore what's always hiding in the corneeeeerrsss.

Floor 25 (Meadow)

[warriorscribe]

*Everything is strange. Some people he passes by are older, and he's heard someone say they'd been there for five years on the network. He knows he hasn't missed time. He dropped a request form in the box just yesterday, and if five years, or more, had passed, he would remember getting a response to it. He could let time run together and pass him by in a blur of impressions, but the response to this particular thing was something he thinks he'd remember.

It's striking a nerve he very much does not want struck. So he wanders to the meadow floor and sits down in the anomaly of spring weather, something else unaffected by time. He takes deep breaths and begins to pray silently - it's not prayer he knows is effective, and it isn't spoken as if he expects it to be. A request to nothing and no one for the strength to see this through - if God should somehow hear, it would be wonderful. But he was fully expecting to only search for his own inner strength.

He tends to miss things sometimes, when he's deep in thought. But the faint sound of singing reaches his ears, and he opens his eyes, glancing around for the source. When he sees no one, he raises his voice to ask:*

...Is someone there?

Floor 25 (Meadow)

[firstofthefallen]

Why WHY why do you pray?

[Still not showing itself, but the voice seems to rustle the grass as if it was the wind. To stir as if it was a damnable breeze.]

Workshop

[friendlyfiend]

[At first, A'kin pretends to ignore the vague sensation of prying eyes as he continued to sort through the drawers and clutter, humming softly to himself as he works. Whether the source is a curious fellow resident or the latest round of administrator mischief, he's doing nothing that he'd need to keep hidden and as uncomfortable as the elusive presence may be, it hasn't done anything actively hostile- yet.

About the third time something flickers and vanishes in his peripheral vision, though, he finally gives in and responds. Assuming this isn't all in his head to begin with, his audience is either doing a terribly sloppy job of scrying or else they want to be acknowledged. Setting aside the tangle of metal strands he'd been fussing over, the fiend readies a dispel and turns toward the half-seen shadow with an amiable grin.]

Enjoying the show, cutter?

Re: Workshop

[firstofthefallen]

Cutter.

[The word amuses Lucifer for some reason. He doesn't know why.]

Cutter and burner and smasher and defiler~.