towerofanimus | Lo, I am become Death (Open)

Entry tags:

Lo, I am become Death (Open)

Characters: Chloe and You
Setting: Floors 25-26, 32-35 mostly, though she will sometimes wander
Format: Action or Prose
Summary: Chloe is ten years older (27-28), and by now deeply unhinged. She lurks in the shadows and the darkest patches of the islands and the morgue whenever she is able, danger in her eyes.
Warnings: There is always a risk when you see her, especially on floors 32-35, where powers do not work. She's had ten years to hone her skills as an assassin and hunter further and is more than willing to abuse the lack of powers on those islands. Let's keep it PG-13, however. If you want something 18+, PM me and we can talk.

Chloe was almost beyond caring about the cretins trapped in this place. Some of them were souls she had met, had attempted to befriend, but in the end her natural tendencies as a predator had gotten the better of her, and what few friends she had made had mostly fled her. They were not trustworthy. They were not true.

She had survived, monsters untold. There had been death. She vaguely recalled it anymore. It had been an educational experience when it had happened. It had taught her most of all not to trust those who possessed power. In this place, any of them could become monsters at any moment, and several were to begin with. In the end, her principles hadn't mattered. Her mistress hadn't mattered. There was only one thing in this world that was constant.

Death.

Here, in these places, she was the one who could deal it. They could come and treat with her, plead with her sensibilities if they wished. Some even did, though the conversations were rarely long or comfortable. It was futile. The only solution that she ever truly saw was to be worse than the very things she hunted. She could rely upon only herself, at least until the day that her time was finally up.

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[ Monsters. The tower is full of them, but after so many years it's no wonder that the inhabitants that once swore to protect others now lurk in the shadows just as well. People who lived ordinary lives before had grown mad from not being able to return to it while the children who grew up in such an environment learn to adapt to it. Rin is one of those individuals; while she arrived in the tower nearly an adult, her life before was nothing to long for. Torture, abuse, loneliness all made the tower more ideal. In a floor that hosts powers sits a girl who notices another presence nearby. ]

Hunting? [ Calmly spoken as though she's incapable of fear. ]

[it was hard to tell whether she really was hunting or not. One might easily mistake her behavior for being that of fear, wedged into a dark and shadowed corner of the chamber. Almost all of the chambers had been opened, and at least one thing hauled out and killed. Chloe held a knife, quietly watching the room with intense eyes that showed nothing of fear.

She was waiting for something.

When Rin came into view, her lips curled upwards in a small smile.]

Perhaps you could say that...

[The face was familiar... but only barely. She had only ever met the girl that bore that face once in her former lives and wasn't the most personable of souls on a good day after this long. However, there was a glimmer of distant familiarity. It did not, however, translate to friendliness yet, only enigmatic observations.]

You might find more active prey elsewhere. [ Rin taunts her without knowing the dangers of doing so. Usually she has better judgment when it comes to others who think like her, but this woman was hard to read. Even if she bore a sign around her neck with her intent, Rin will undeniably mistake it in her maddened state. ] The morgue is, as you might have guessed, where the dead rest.

Which has always bothered me. [ Plopping down on whatever turned over piece of furniture can be found, she props her head up lazily with her elbows on her knees. ] We have a graveyard, yet there are no bodies there. We have a morgue full of bodies.

So where do they all go. [ It's more of a musing than a question judging by the look on her face. ]

That one was considerably more active a half hour ago. [She smirked as she said that, gesturing towards the dead monster.] You might have noticed that the dead do not so much ... rest in this place. Who can say where they go in the end?

But I don't know. Active prey have a way of happening along from time to time...

[No, the way she was looking at Rin was not entirely healthy.]

[ The look doesn't go ignored, but she finds no reason to comment on it. Not yet at least. ]

They do here often. Maybe they are drawn in by the scent of death and think it'd be an easy meal. [ Looking towards her with a slight tug of a smirk appearing. ] So what brings you here? Supplies for something?

My task. I may prefer to avoid the predators of our little slice of hell most days, but I do still have my assigned tasks...

[She chuckled and shook her head.] What sorts of supplies did you think I might be seeking here? Chloroform?

Chloroform? [ A laugh. ] Why would anyone need that? You can do just fine without it in this place. People are too trusting of the inhabitants here, thinking them different from the monsters that crawl amongst the tower.

They are a touch foolish, yes... and really the problem is that there is little value in using it. An abduction should happen on the same floor, if one is sensible. It only helps to subdue, not to conceal the deed.

This tower ... limits certain forms of play.

[Not even remotely concealing it. It was a fairly bald topic for her at this point.]

However, it is one of the few supplies you might find here for use.

There were never the best of friends or enemies. Their relationship was twisted in a way, a thin black thread that tangled around them. There was no telling where their confrontation would lead to. As always, Kirika kept her patience and responsibility. Even though Chloe has grown predatory in the past years, Kirika turned her head to a different direction, hope and faith. Chloe may have been blinded by the darkness, but that didn't meant she was alone.

Kirika may have grown soft over the past years but her dark side remained sharp as the tip of blade. Thanks to some experience, she has controlled her dark self like a switch of a button. Rarely, someone else would switch it under circumstances.

Kirika made her way to one of the islands, her weekly routine. It felt as if she hasn't heard or felt Chloe's presence in a while. With her it was hard to tell if she vanished from the tower or not. As always, she kept some ammunition with her close by. Once she gotten deeper in the forest, she paused her movements. She closed her eyes so only sounds could be heard. She waited knowing the woman would come, like taking bait.

With this one... she saw no reason to conceal herself. They had lived too long with this, and the woman still had a good ear. There was a loud thump as she dropped to the ground a short distance away. Wrapped still in her cloak, the woman made her way towards Kirika, a dark and distant smile on her face.

"You come to me... again...," she whispered, eyes lidded and lips thin, the smile never quite touching her eyes. "Tell me, my friend, to what do I owe this special visit of yours?"

When Kirika heard that thump, her body naturally turned towards the sound. She brushed her long bang a side before she smiled. Over the years Kirika has grown bold and confident with her words. Kirika leaned her back on one tree before she responded.

"Nothing, really. It feels as if I haven't seen you in a while. How you've been?"

She smiled a low, cunning smile at Kirika while she drew up closer. Her friend had filled out beautifully in her age and Chloe could not help but appreciate her beauty at times like this, when she was there... alone with her. She stalked forward, a hand pressing to the tree above where Kirika leaned and she kept that feral grin on her face.

"Concerned... for me? My my... I don't think I've been anywhere near your precious Rolo lately," she said softly. She hadn't, well not at least intentionally, and there'd been no bloodshed.

Kirika didn't move from that spot when Chloe approached. Chloe, still lost in her own darkness, jealousy the most. When Chloe mentioned Rolo, she tilted her head to one side, "you don't have to bring him up every time." Even if she did came near Rolo, he could defend himself.

"Jealousy is what made the step sisters ugly." She referred to Cinderella. "Really... you should give him a chance."

Her face twitched and lips twisted, almost into a sneer. It was an ugly one just like those step sisters. However, she didn't snap at Kirika just yet. "He has something I have wanted my whole life, and beyond," she said, starting to walk, or perhaps better said stalk, nearer. "Why should I not be jealous? What is it... I should be happy you are happy?"

She chuckled. "But you are right. We don't have to speak of him. What would you suggest?"

She expected something to happen. When Kirika saw Chloe's action, there was a slight smirk. Even after the years, it was fairly easy to read Chloe. "Then we can be happy for one another, but I highly doubt it," Kirika's tongue slipped with a soft sigh.

Kirika shrugged, "last time it was about me. How are you fairing? Or swords play."

"I am... a little too selfish for that," she said, pausing in her tread to watch the other woman. "I think you know that by now. I am... alive. it is one of the most fascinating things of my existence. I continue, regardless of so many things. Untouched, living yet dead."

...

"Perhaps what is oddest is that I no longer feel even our little talks are surreal. They are simply... habit, as will be the conclusion. I am not even sure I am comforted by the sameness of it all."

Rolo has come here to pick flowers for his wifey when he senses that he's not alone. He turns round slowly, drawing out his two hunting knives, ready to activate his Geass. He's taught himself to wield two blades now in the time he's been here.

"Who's there?"

The faint rustlings that Rolo heard froze entirely. Eyes were watching him from the few bushes in the area nearby, eyes that were not pleased. It was him, the second Mireille. He was more competent than she had been, and far more deadly, equal reasons not to wish to engage him, not when he was aware of what was happening. Furthermore, the aftermath of her attempts always solicited more awkward conversations with Kirika than usual, when they did not simply come to blows.

A moment's hesitation and she simply rose.

"I had not expected to find you here," she said woodenly, keeping her hands out of sight, though any fool could tell she was armed under her cloak, wary.

Rolo kept his knives in plain sight as a warning to her not to try anything, and he kept a safe distance from her.

"I come here from time to time. What are you doing here?"

Chloe seemed to prefer to do much the same. Her knives were not visible, but Rolo by now would know they were there, strapped to her back in rows from which she could easily grab and throw them. Instead, she remained, still and quiet as she listened to him.

"Lingering, away from the cattle," she said, finger making a vague gesture in the direction of the dormitories. "It is a pleasant place, a haven away from the madness... such a pretty lie, wouldn't you agree?"

He nodded as of to agree. "Though I wouldn't call them cattle. Most of them are pleasant enough people. And this is home." Since well, there's the little problem of him being dead in his world.

"We are all cattle, in a way," Chloe said with a faint shrug. "To our wardens, we are things to be toyed with, poked, prodded and changed to suit their needs. I simply like to pretend to be something else now and again."

Whether they were pleasant or not had lost most meaning to her in the intervening decade. That was written all over her face.

"I suppose you are right in a way but thinking that way doesn't really do anything. I decided long ago to make the best of my time here and it's been a good decision."

He slipped his knives back into their holsters at his hips, still really to be pulled out at a moment's notice. "And you haven't changed at all in all that time."

Edited 2013-01-25 17:24 (UTC)

"No. I would say that I have changed quite a bit," she said, shaking her head. Her lips were quivering at the edge of a smile. "You have grown a touch soft... whereas I have hardened, though I would not say your skills have lost their edge. I think of what I have done as making the best of my time here... after a fashion."

At least, making the best of what she believed was currently available to her, thanks to him.

"Really? But are you truly happy this way? And you would be wrong in thinking I have grown soft." He smiled at that. A smile that hinted he knew something she didn't. Did he, didn't he, he's not going to share.

"Then, perhaps you are simply better at seeming soft than when we first met," she said with an enigmatic smile of her own. It seemed fitting, after all.

"But happiness... such an ephemeral thing. I do not know that one is ever truly happy, no matter what illusions one finds."

"Kirika never told you what I was before then?" An assassin. A spy. Someone who had to put on any persona that was asked of him. A liar. Easily as big a liar as his older brother. Though there are several people he doesn't lie to, and they include his wife.

"Then I pity you. It might seem ephemeral but it is capable of lasting forever."

"Perhaps she did... perhaps she left me to guess... Should I be the one to tell you?" she mused, chuckling and shrugging. She couldn't recall exactly. "She really does not like to speak for long about you, you know. At least not with me."

It always led to problematic talks.

"I see. Well, I suppose it's better this way. Well..." He held up a bunch of flowers he's picked. "I've got what I wanted. I'll be leaving now."

She considered for a moment, her eyes narrowed as they looked at Rolo. "I have not... but I do not think I will be taking what I need from you... and so we ... will see each other again most likely, Rolo," she said softly. "Do... take proper care of her."

He looked over at her with a smile. "I do not have to be reminded of that." And with that he swiftly left.

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Lo, I am become Death (Open)

it says closed, but I think we were plotting? you can delete if you want <3

It's open. I'm just a moron, heh. (Morgue btw)

Oh, sorry! That's fine by me <3

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floating island.. one of them

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Floor 25 - the flower filled meadow

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