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towerofanimus2013-02-21 04:23 pm
silentsacrifice) wrote in towerofanimus2013-02-21 04:23 pm
Entry tags:
o4 [A Little Bit Unstable] BACKDATED TO FEB 14TH
Characters: Itachi and you!
Setting: Floor 48 (the graveyard), then floors where there are a lot of monsters
Format: Starting with prose, but I'll match you
Summary: Itachi visits a grave, and discovers one there that he never wanted to see.
Warnings: Lots of angst, and some monster-killing gore.
The Graveyard
It finally happened.
It had been his intention to visit a grave, one labeled with "Homura Akemi," a girl who he'd failed to save. The weight of his broken promise had settled over him like a dense cloud, but he'd tried to press on despite it all. But then, as he made his way through the graveyard, he spotted a name on a stone that he was achingly familiar with.
Sasuke Uchiha.
He stopped in front of it, eyes wide, puzzling over when this could have happened, why, how. Was it some sort of sick joke? Were his eyes playing tricks on him? No, he recognized the characters that made up Sasuke's name, knew the name of his own little brother when he saw it.
Unfeeling, almost numb, Itachi fell to his knees and reached out for the tombstone, trailing his fingers over the engraved name. The shock and confusion eventually faded off of his face, and he stared blankly with his arm outstretched. He felt the prickling of tears behind his eyes, but he remained stony-faced and refused to let them fall.
Any floor where monsters can be found
Sasuke's name was no longer on the plaque in front of room 4-06. So it was true, then. He was really gone. Be it through random chance, or some sick ploy on the administrator's end, it made no difference to Itachi. His younger brother was gone, perhaps suffering, perhaps dead, and it made his blood boil to think about it.
Was there nothing he could have done? Was this some sort of punishment? Would Sasuke ever be back, or would he be lost forever? Itachi battled inwardly with feelings of rage and grief, but outwardly, he looked fierce. Floor by floor, he made his way down the Tower, stopping wherever he knew monsters roamed.
Methodically, almost unfeelingly, he slaughtered them all.
He wanted to feel bad about letting out his rage like this, because god only knew how much he hated fighting. But when he looked at the twisted forms of the monsters in front of him, all he could think about was that those creations were their fault. The fault of those administrators who were hell-bent on "saving" people, who dragged them from their worlds to suffer with no chance of ever embracing the peace of death. They'd said it themselves, that the monsters were an accident of their part, creatures twisted and manipulated, then left to torment the people they were supposed to be saving.
They'd dragged him into this Tower, they'd dragged another version of Sasuke in here and then let him slip away, and they dragged those hordes of dangerous, freakish monsters in, too. Didn't it only make sense to try to get rid of the twisted, grotesque abominations that had made their way into the Tower?
And so Itachi did just that, ripping through any monster that came his way with the skill only an S-class ninja could accomplish. Kunai split open heads, flaming shuriken ripped through flesh and cauterized the wounds, and giant balls of flame charred dozens of monsters at a time. When he wasn't using jutsu or weapons, he kicked the monsters, sending them flying with such force that they slammed into walls and splattered against them.
Some monsters were easier to fight than others, but the sheer number that Itachi killed left him feeling drained. He got progressively more tired as he made his way down the Tower, panting and blinking rapidly, but he refused to stagger, and he refused to stop. Anyone who met his eyes would face a blood-red glare directed their way, but he would never direct his attacks at the other residents of the Tower.
Setting: Floor 48 (the graveyard), then floors where there are a lot of monsters
Format: Starting with prose, but I'll match you
Summary: Itachi visits a grave, and discovers one there that he never wanted to see.
Warnings: Lots of angst, and some monster-killing gore.
The Graveyard
It finally happened.
It had been his intention to visit a grave, one labeled with "Homura Akemi," a girl who he'd failed to save. The weight of his broken promise had settled over him like a dense cloud, but he'd tried to press on despite it all. But then, as he made his way through the graveyard, he spotted a name on a stone that he was achingly familiar with.
Sasuke Uchiha.
He stopped in front of it, eyes wide, puzzling over when this could have happened, why, how. Was it some sort of sick joke? Were his eyes playing tricks on him? No, he recognized the characters that made up Sasuke's name, knew the name of his own little brother when he saw it.
Unfeeling, almost numb, Itachi fell to his knees and reached out for the tombstone, trailing his fingers over the engraved name. The shock and confusion eventually faded off of his face, and he stared blankly with his arm outstretched. He felt the prickling of tears behind his eyes, but he remained stony-faced and refused to let them fall.
Any floor where monsters can be found
Sasuke's name was no longer on the plaque in front of room 4-06. So it was true, then. He was really gone. Be it through random chance, or some sick ploy on the administrator's end, it made no difference to Itachi. His younger brother was gone, perhaps suffering, perhaps dead, and it made his blood boil to think about it.
Was there nothing he could have done? Was this some sort of punishment? Would Sasuke ever be back, or would he be lost forever? Itachi battled inwardly with feelings of rage and grief, but outwardly, he looked fierce. Floor by floor, he made his way down the Tower, stopping wherever he knew monsters roamed.
Methodically, almost unfeelingly, he slaughtered them all.
He wanted to feel bad about letting out his rage like this, because god only knew how much he hated fighting. But when he looked at the twisted forms of the monsters in front of him, all he could think about was that those creations were their fault. The fault of those administrators who were hell-bent on "saving" people, who dragged them from their worlds to suffer with no chance of ever embracing the peace of death. They'd said it themselves, that the monsters were an accident of their part, creatures twisted and manipulated, then left to torment the people they were supposed to be saving.
They'd dragged him into this Tower, they'd dragged another version of Sasuke in here and then let him slip away, and they dragged those hordes of dangerous, freakish monsters in, too. Didn't it only make sense to try to get rid of the twisted, grotesque abominations that had made their way into the Tower?
And so Itachi did just that, ripping through any monster that came his way with the skill only an S-class ninja could accomplish. Kunai split open heads, flaming shuriken ripped through flesh and cauterized the wounds, and giant balls of flame charred dozens of monsters at a time. When he wasn't using jutsu or weapons, he kicked the monsters, sending them flying with such force that they slammed into walls and splattered against them.
Some monsters were easier to fight than others, but the sheer number that Itachi killed left him feeling drained. He got progressively more tired as he made his way down the Tower, panting and blinking rapidly, but he refused to stagger, and he refused to stop. Anyone who met his eyes would face a blood-red glare directed their way, but he would never direct his attacks at the other residents of the Tower.
no subject
He lingers on the floor a bit longer, now more intent on dodging between monsters and their corpses lying on the ground as he begins to make his way back toward the stairwell from the outskirts of the room. Given the other's initial response, Raven isn't inclined to believe they'll respond at all, or at least not with words. He has no real reason to stay past that initial striking familiarity, so it stands to reason that he should just allow the both of them to go on with their business.
Before the other man speaks, that is. Raven's attention is no longer focused on him, not any more than is necessary to stay clear of any thrown weapons or bursts of fire, so the words take him by surprise, however slightly. It doesn't disrupt his rhythm as he engages the monsters nearest him in a deadly routine.
When his immediate area is clear, he affords himself a brief moment to glance at the other man once more while he's raining shuriken.
"...Perhaps no one, at the moment," he relents, before blurring into action again.
And that is all, until, at the stairs:
"Still, I wasn't speaking of the present." Whether it's his own past, or a possible near future... Raven's visage, expressionless until now, settles into a frown as his brows knit.
"Who would it benefit for you to exhaust yourself here?"
It's an honest question, although one he knows isn't likely to receive an answer.
no subject
"If you think something like this will exhaust me, you don't know me very well," he says.
Though his words are haughty, he's speaking the truth. He can't carry on for as long as he'd have been able to a few years ago, but fighting hordes of mindless monsters takes a lot less out of him than fighting calculating opponents.
"But then," Itachi goes on, and he disappears in a puff of smoke, only to re-appear on the stairs a second later, "I suppose you don't know me at all, do you?"
That's Itachi's oh-so-polite way of asking for this stranger's name. He's even got a welcoming glare on his face!
aaaand massive apologies for the lateness, I'm sorry;
"It wasn't to mock your skill, at any rate. That much is obvious, considering," Raven says, casting an impassive glance about the floor, or, rather, the monster bodies strewn across it. "I can leave now, if you'd prefer, and you can continue on for however long you'd planned to."
same here, ahhhh
"...Planned?" he asks, more to himself than anything. He shifts his gaze to his hand, knuckles swollen and red from all of the fighting he's been doing. "I hadn't planned to do this at all. Senseless killing isn't a hobby of mine, but..."
Several thoughts cross his mind. "But I have to," "but I should," "but it's the only thing that'll make me feel better." None of those options make it past his lips, though.
"...But I suppose I need to know that I'm still capable," he finishes, clenching his hand into a fist. It throbs with dull pain, but it's nothing he can't handle. "I would hate for my fighting skills to have weakened, especially when there are people in this tower who desperately deserve to be on the receiving end of all this."
let's pretend this didn't take forever and a day, aha . . .
"Fighting without end is tiring." That's stating the obvious twice over. With as many names as are in the tower, he's under no illusions that all of them will just so happen to be good people. "But... someone has to do it, I suppose." And that... is as much an implied question as it is a statement, acknowledgement of whatever it is that drives the other man through all the 'senseless killing' that may not be so senseless as it's painted.
"It's an admirable drive." There's sympathy enough in him to understand, at the very least, that sometimes these things just... happen, or- feel necessary, or other things that he can't put words to either, because none of them really feel right or justify it happening at all. Not properly, anyway, not to any 'good person'- but eloquence was never any strong suit of his, and Raven has long since stopped thinking of himself as a good person.
it's okay, I'm the Backtag Master myself
"Don't call it admirable," he says, before looking over his shoulder to fix the other man with a red-eyed stare. "It's simply necessary."
He forces himself not to cringe. Necessity is how he justified all his actions back in his homeworld, and that didn't end well at all. He pushes the memory of Sasuke's tear-streaked face, his anguished voice, out of his mind. It'll do him no good think of people who were no longer here.