[02] || [Open] || [An Eternity]

[urtv]

Characters: Jr. and you
Setting: Dormitory Floors
Format: Action or prose, will follow.
Summary: Jr. has spent an eternity in the tower. Hundreds, thousands years- Maybe even more? He doesn't know and he's stopped counting a long time ago. Now he understands more than ever why Albedo was once so afraid of being immortal. It sucks and it drives you mad.
Warning: A particularly distressed URTV whose powers are on the brink of going berserk and whose sanity is maybe already lost to the tower. Also the sleeping consciousness of Albedo may be influencing his behavior, for the worse. Meaning he can be fairly dangerous since at this point he barely gives a damn about anything. Replies may come from urtw.


Gaignun Kukai Jr. could be found wandering around the dormitory floors, a gun in the right hand and his harmonica in the left hand. He wasn't heading to a particular floor or dorm. No, he was simply wandering around endlessly as if he had no real purpose in mind. As far as he was concerned, countless years had gone by ever since he first explored in this tower. Physically though, he looked exactly the same as he always did.

It was his curse after all. As long as he would exercise a mental control to keep Red Dragon from growing and possibly going berserk, as long as he'd try to protect his friends from himself, he would remain a child in appearance. It was not only his powers he prevented from growing, but unfortunately also his body. Yet after so long, he was on the brink of just stopping and letting the Red Dragon go haywire. At least his clothes were finally on par with that of real cowboys, as used and old as they could get.

As he walked, he would sing a bit sometimes, in a half-broken voice as if he had a particularly bad cold. But the most striking was probably the near-lack of emotions as he sung, even though it was supposed to be a sweet song.

"I remember the days of summer~
We were so close together,
You were humming the songs of silence;
Sweetly plucking the harp of wind."

He chuckled (the laugh probably having an unfortunate familiarity with that of young Albedo) and kept walking, keeping a strong hold on his gun. At this point he wouldn't hesitate to shoot anyone being a danger, be it to him or his friends. An eternity in this tower probably altered his ethics and moral judgement.

"Every moment was sacred and mystic~
We were near to the shore of eternity."

After a while he finally sat down at a corner and crossed his arms, watching his harmonica as he kept singing in a slower and darker fashion. After all these years he felt closer to Albedo than he ever did before. Being unable to die, unable to rest... Oh he could die alright, but the guys in charge of the tower would just bring him back as if nothing had happened. And since he could not grow old, dying from a natural death was also out of the question for him.

"The days are gone, and will never come back..."

Comments

[uzuki]

Shion hadn't planned on leaving her room, since she actually wanted a little time alone, and it seemed she usually got it when she was working. But she realized she needed another tool from the workshop, so there she was, making her way quietly through the hallways. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts, that she almost didn't notice Jr.

But when she did, her expression became one of worry.

"Jr... Are you alright?"

[facedthetruth]

Margulis was wandering rather aimlessly himself, simply not wanting to sit in one place with his thoughts despite the fact that he still carried Jin's sword. The familiar voice caught his attention, but there was something...off. It wasn't hard to track down the small URTV sitting in the corner and he looked down at him with slightly more of a frown than usual.

"It isn't like you to plant yourself somewhere this out of the way."

[seconddaughter]

From somewhere inside herself, MOMO knows that song. She's never heard it until now, but it's soothing in a familiar and yet strangely foreign way. It doesn't help that Jr. is singing it in such a monotone that the song's original bittersweetness is sapped dry.

She's not the young girl she used to be, and now has half a foot over him in stature, if not more. It feels so wrong, because MOMO knows he's got a good decade or so on her, and on top of that, the reason she suspects plagues him enough to make him stunt his own growth like that still wrenches at her heart terribly.

Something's obviously a little off as she approaches him. Alby starts yipping excitedly at her ankles, throwing off the tempo of his singing. He's physically the same as ever, but she feels like there's some sort of weird strain that wasn't there before...

"Jr.! Oh, what happened to your clothes? You weren't attacked, were you?"

[lightofhumanity]

"You were a half of me...a long time ago~"

chaos had sensed his friend nearby and found him sitting down at a corner..but something was wrong. His clothes were tattered and worn, and he sensed differently.

"Jr..what is wrong? Why are you singing?"

[urtw]

"Hey Shion."

He looked up at her with some sort of indifference for a moment. She was still one of her best friend, but he was so done with people asking him if he was alright... No he was not. Or maybe he was, since that horror had become the norm after all. And so he would reply with his most deadpan and bored tone, which was pretty uncharacteristic.

".... Of course I am alright. Why wouldn't I be?"

[urtw]

"It is not like me..."

Right. As far as he was concerned, it was totally like him and that since hundreds years now, so this would get a laughter out of him as he juggled with his harmonica. He wouldn't reply immediately, but then he'd look up at Margulis with an empty smile.

"What is like me then, Margulis?"

[urtv]

"MOMO..."

Jr. looked up when he heard her voice and immediately stopped his singing. She was maybe the last person in this god forsaken place for who he tried to keep a grasp on his sanity. The only one for who he was doing his best to keep a hold on his powers. It was getting hard and everyday he was closer to give up, but he'd keep trying.

To see her like this- Older than he was in appearance, it reminded him about his own fate. He should have grown. That was what Gaignun had tried to show him, what they both wanted... And he probably would have grown if he had stayed back home. But then Animus happened. Ever since he set foot in this tower, everything went wrong.

But anyway, he would try for her and the others. They were all much stronger than him- Well they didn't go through an eternity but he couldn't know that. So he'd try to smile at her, even though this smile and his voice sounded clearly off.

"No, no I'm alright, don't worry..."

[urtw]

"..."

Jr. stopped singing when chaos came nearby and spoke-- What was it with everyone today? It was like he was the only one remembering that eternity they all spent here. Maybe it was better that way. He wouldn't look up but still would answer in his monotonous tone.

"Why wouldn't I be singing...?"

[lightofhumanity]

In his head, chaos sighed as he sat beside his friend. That monotonous tone didn't bode well.

"Because you would probably be doing other things other than singing sad songs. Now tell me..what is wrong?"

[uzuki]

"Jr..."

She was a little taken aback by that response. But that was enough to make her approach him. She was really determined to ascertain the problem after hearing that tone.

"I'm not sure. Did something happen?"

[facedthetruth]

Being called by name rather than that annoyingly familiar (though less annoyingly now that he was approaching good terms with this version of the URTV) nickname he'd been saddled with by both incarnations of Jr. he'd met caused him to pause. When did the brat ever put aside his absurd nicknames? And that was just one of many things wrong with this picture.

"I've never known you to pass up an opportunity to be in the spotlight."

[seconddaughter]

Something about the way he told her not to worry only made her worry more. MOMO wasn't sold, and her grip on being able to believe him when he said that slipped the longer she watched him.

"Are you?" she asked, a little rhetorically. She wasn't willing to call any bluffs, but something was definitely not right here; she just... couldn't figure out what. "Hey, why don't we go back to my room? If you're feeling down about something, I'm sure Alby would love to help, too!"

A rather transparent attempt at conveying what she really thought, but the offer stood all the same. MOMO smiled at Jr., a little thinly on her part.

[urtw]

"Nothing happened, like every days around here." he said before chuckling lightly "Nothing ever happens here after all..."

If anything, Shion was the strange one. Did she forget all the years they spent in this hell tower?

"You're the one who's strange you know."

[urtw]

He looked up at Margulis and shook his head, chuckling lightly for a minute. Once again, this one was uttering strange words.

"... You speak strange worlds." he said simply in the same monotonous and lifeless voice "It is not like one could be in the spot light when there are only darkness."

[urtw]

Well, she was as always. If anything, he admired her capacity to remain stable after that eternity they all spent here. In fact he did not remember her staying that stable. Yet again, his memories were shaky at best

"Sure... Why not."

he sounded a bit defeated as he said that but he would follow. he wasn't sure he wanted to be in her room or allow anyone so close to him to see him when he was that bad, but... He'd try to smile. Not very convincing but a smile all the same.

[urtw]

"What is wrong... Nothing for you of course, you are used to this."

Probably that people like Wilhelm and chaos were equipped to cope with immortality. People like Jr. And Albedo couldn't say as much alas.

[facedthetruth]

None of Jr.'s words were siting right with Margulis and each one caused him to worry more. But he wasn't yet so upset as to show it directly, especially when he knew anger was so much more likely to snap the URTV out of this attitude.

"So, is that how you became a Testament in my universe as well? By giving up on the life you possessed as having no positive qualities? How pathetic...and here I carried some amount of respect for you."

[lightofhumanity]

chaos could live a long time..but that didn't mean he enjoyed seeing the people he knew from one era die only to see their souls in a new body that didn't know him at all.

"..And what exactly am I used to, Jr.?" chaos's face would just grow more melancholy as he said that.

[uzuki]

"Strange?"

She placed her hands on her hips, a little indignantly.

"I'm the same as always, so I'm really not sure what you're getting at."

[seconddaughter]

MOMO said nothing, smiling a little brighter at his acquiescence. Maybe Alby would cheer him up, and she'd certainly do her best to help. She reached out to take his hand and lead him to her room, where her on-loan dog was (hopefully) not causing any trouble.

"Alby," she called with an exciting note in her voice, "look who's here!" Naturally, he launched himself towards Jr., vaulting off the top of the bed and pawing with boundless energy up his pant leg, completely ignoring any unusual smells or nuances he may have picked up. That sort of thing couldn't have mattered less to a dog who hadn't seen his master in a while.

But it mattered to MOMO, and she watched, trying to gauge the reaction. Something was wrong, but she wasn't sure it was appropriate to push the issue yet.