towerofanimus | o4 [A Little Bit Unstable] BACKDATED TO FEB 14TH

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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.

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The stairs at floor 30 have a tendency to drop people into the room, which Raven learns the hard way as he lands in it with a sharp hiss. Immediately, he makes as if to rush back toward them, but stops, because instantly it's very clear someone else is here and busy, to boot.

Instead, Raven dashes backward to get out of their immediate area. Intent mainly on just keeping out of the way, he shadow steps around the room, observing, for the most part, though sometimes adding to the steadily growing amount of monster casualties; creatures shred themselves to pieces behind him after some of his dashes, albeit messily. The metal claw that is his left arm lacks the finesse of his preferred blade, but he'll make do with what he can.

And all the while, he pieces together his observations. Haggard and worn... flagging, yet neither stopping nor showing any sign of wanting to. Too skilled to be so completely unaware of one's limits... From the looks of things, this pace has been kept up for a while.

...He doesn't bother asking why. What he asks instead is simply, "It's cathartic, isn't it?"

Raven's voice is quiet and deep, but it carries across the floor somehow, measured just enough to be heard. Despite this, he's not really expecting any answer. The question was largely rhetorical, and would as well have been addressed to an empty room.

Yes, he knows the feeling well- too well, too familiar with it, really. He's been down this road before. Maybe he doesn't know the story, the reasons, the details; he couldn't, really, being so new to the Tower, but he knows Anger, the sort that encompasses your entire being and keeps you fighting until you simply can't, anymore.

It's worrying, and all too familiar for comfort.

Which is why it takes him a moment to speak up again, voice carefully controlled: "It does no good to lose yourself in it, though."

Itachi notices the presence of someone else as soon as he lands on the floor, but he doesn't bother sparing him a glance. He focuses all his attention on fighting off the monsters that attack him, and though he can feel the strain of it in his eyes and his limbs, he doesn't stop. Briefly, he finds himself wondering if he should quit before he comes across a monster he can't fight off, but his single-minded drive to take out his frustrations puts a stop on that train of thought.

Itachi would expect that anyone who finds themselves on this floor would be kept fairly busy, so he doesn't expect to hear the stranger address him. The first time he speaks, Itachi just shoots him a glare over his shoulder before returning to his fight.

He hates to apply the word "cathartic" to slaughter, but it really is the best way to describe it. In his lifetime, he rarely, if ever, threw himself so completely into a battle. Normally, he'd think of ways to end scuffles as quickly as possible, or he would purposefully hold back. Today, though, he's going all-out, unleashing all but his strongest techniques on the horde.

He only stills when the stranger speaks up again. He tosses one final kunai into a monster's skull, hitting it with great precision without ever even looking its way. His back is turned toward the other man, and Itachi responds without looking back.

"Who's lost?" he asks.

His own voice is calm and measured, a stark contrast to the ferocity seen in his fighting. There's a pause, and it seems as if he might say something more, but the monsters start to come again, and Itachi leaps into the air to rain a slew of shuriken down on them.

Romeo came here every so often, to talk to his lost friends; he had a lot of them. Mostly Molly, who he came to tell all about his adventures and the new friends he had made.

He saw Itachi and ran up to him, a little worried because Itachi looked really upset. He read the name on the gravestone and his eyes widened. He looked at Itachi sadly and then silently wrapped the man in a hug.

Itachi barely sensed Romeo's presence before the boy came up next to him. His mind was filled with buzzing thoughts about whether or not this was a joke, what he could have done to prevent this, and what he would do if Sasuke really was gone. He was just getting used to this new life with Sasuke here, a Sasuke who knew the truth, and looking at his gravestone now gave him a feeling like he'd missed the top stair walking up the steps in the dark - it was a feeling that was equal parts panicky and sickening.

He didn't move for a long moment when Romeo hugged him. He listened harder to the sounds around them, sharpened his senses in case anyone else came along, but he did it all whilst staring in confusion at the gravestone before him.

Eventually, after a few minutes of silence, he let his arm drop down, away from Sasuke's name. It took him another few seconds to find his voice.

"...I couldn't protect him after all."

Romeo hugged him in silence, he was sad as well that Sasuke had gone but he knew he wasn't as sad as Itachi was. When Itachi did speak Romeo let go and sat down in the grass next to him.

"You tried though sir, you can't stop the bad people, they are too powerful. But you did when he was here..."

What next came out of Itachi's mouth was something like a scoff, though there were no traces of humor in the sound.

"Hardly."

The few months he'd spent with Sasuke were troubling. They'd started fighting as soon as they'd met, and then, tentatively, they had attempted to work through their difficult relationship in an attempt to rebuild it (and even then, he couldn't help but think that he was starting a new relationship altogether with a stranger of a Sasuke, and he felt a bit guilty for thinking of it that way). And then Sakura - the Sakura he knew - came along, and all three of them were aged up and given false memories, but even then, Itachi was prepared to find a way through things.

Sasuke had been taken from him before that could happen.

And, though Itachi knew Romeo's words stemmed from good intentions, they stung him all the same. He didn't want to think that stopping the administrators was an impossibility. He knew that they were almost inconceivably strong, knew it through both his own memories and Romeo's, but he needed to believe that there was a way to defeat them. Every technique has a weakness was the saying, one that had been drilled into Itachi's head from a young age. Every jutsu, every physical attack, every impossibly strong technique, they all had their flaws. The administrators had to have one, too.

But the bigger picture paled in comparison to the emotions Itachi felt right now. To hear that his world had been destroyed and that his own Sasuke was dead was one thing, but to have a Sasuke come back and then get taken away was another matter entirely.

Itachi tried to be strong, but it was getting to be too much. His shoulders slumped, and he brought a hand up to splay over his face. A scornful smile spread over his lips for a second, but it faded quickly enough.

"I'm his big brother," he said, and the solemn tone of it surprised even him. "I should be able to protect him, no matter what the odds. I should be able to..."

And he trailed off, bowing his body toward his knees.

Romeo sat silently, he remembered how sad he had been when Alfredo had died, how down his spirits had been and how no matter what he did he just felt sad and wanted to cry all the time. How he would have given anything in the whole wide world to have Alfredo with him again.

And he remembered his own little brothers... who he hadn't seen in a long long time.

"Sasuke is really strong sir, even though it is really scary on the ruined worlds he will be okay. Because he is really really brave and I don't think he would want you to be sad..."

He tilted his head, "A long long time ago, before I came here my dad got really really sick and we didn't have money for a doctor. My mum was really scared and so was I, and I was trying to find money and I did my best to protect Carlo and Pedro who were really little. They're my brothers. Then I went in the church to pray and found them there, and they had been trying really hard to get money too! Even if they hadn't actually found any. Because they were scared too and lots of people were saying my dad was going to sell me and they wanted to protect me and save dad. Even though they were much littler than me."

He smiled sadly, "And they were so so brave and strong so I knew what I had to do and it made me braver and stronger so I wasn't even scared and could go and sell myself to Luini, because my dad wouldn't." He paused, "But you already knew all that sir because you were me! So Sasuke is probably trying really hard to get back and save you from the bad people and one day if we all work together we will stop them and get all the people from their dead worlds back and all be safe together. And you gotta remember how brave he is so that you can be braver to."

Edited 2013-02-24 11:18 (UTC)

Ringed gold meets tomoed blood-red with no visible reaction when Itachi glares; they're both rather preoccupied, after all, even if there are brief lulls in the onslaught at times.

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.

Monsters fall under Itachi's onslaught, and a group of them die before his feet even touch the ground again. He lands softly, and, in the blink of an eye, pulls all of his shuriken from the monsters' corpses. He deposits the shuriken back in the pouch on his leg just as quickly. Blood drips off of them and seeps through the material of his weapons pouch, but Itachi can't bring himself to care.

"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!

Itachi let Romeo talk, because no matter how many of Romeo's memories he had, hearing someone talk about their past in their own words always an enlightening experience. There was something about the way Romeo spoke, with the vocabulary of a child but all the wisdom of an adult, that never ceased to amaze Itachi.

Romeo had gone through so much pain and sadness in his short life, but he never lost that spark that made him a distinct personality in a sea of people who were slowly losing their fire. Itachi admired that perhaps more than anything. He owed it to Romeo to at least try to pull himself together, but in the face of Sasuke's grave, that seemed like a near impossibility.

"We'll all be safe together..." he repeated softly, never moving his hand from his face. "...Yes, that's a future I want to believe in. I just wish-"

And Itachi had to stop himself there, because the more he talked, the more he felt like he was going to cry. He took in a few shaky breaths before he kept talking.

"I just wish there was more that I could do to secure that future for everybody."

Romeo nodded, he had long lost the belief that they could go back to their old worlds, but... a new place that wasn't really bad where they could all be free... That was still a dream he could have.

"We just gotta keep strong, and keep fighting the bad people. We can't let them win."

"They won't win," Itachi said, and his voice was resolute.

The longer he sat there on Sasuke's grave, the angrier he got. The sadness was still there, of course, burning a hole in his heart, but those feelings of grief and loss were backed up by rage.

How dare those administrators admit that the people who disappeared from the Tower were lost somewhere in another universe, yet still give them graves as if they were dead? How dare they add another visual depiction of just how hopeless their situation seemed to be, give them another reason to worry that their loved ones might not ever return? It was ego, plain and simple, and Itachi wouldn't stand for it.

"If I have to murder every single one of them myself, I'll do it," he went on.

And saying that sent another pang through them, because this wouldn't be the first time he vowed to kill a group of people for the greater good. But thinking about the massacre he committed in his homeworld only brought forth more sadness about Sasuke, and he grit his teeth, as if doing so would dull down the pain of it all.

Romeo looked at him sadly, he didn't want anyone to murder anyone but the bad people were really bad and hurt them all the time... He reached out to grasp Itachi's hands, "We will stop them sir, I promise and they wont hurt anyone else."

He laughs; it's a quiet, harsh sound, more air than substance. "No, I suppose not. I apologize. All I know is that everyone has some sort of limit to reach. But that's me being presumptuous.

"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."

Itachi's silent for a long moment. He trains his eyes on the twisted bodies underneath him, and for a moment, he feels a pang of guilt. He shouldn't be killing so carelessly, so ruthlessly. But a second later, rage overtakes him again, as he thinks bitterly that ruthless killing is what he was always "meant" to do. He might as well live up to the image he's built for himself.

"...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."

Itachi let Romeo keep hold of his hands, but he didn't return the gesture. He stared disdainfully at Sasuke's grave, a million different feelings bubbling up inside him, and for the longest time, he didn't say anything.

After a long pause, he tugged his hands away from Romeo's and shot abruptly to his feet. He turned in the direction of the staircase, his expression grim.

"Don't make promises you can't keep," he said. It stung him to be so dismissive when he knew Romeo was just trying to help, but he was almost upset enough not to care.

He had to go. He was still too emotional to think straight, and if he didn't do something about it soon, he feared he would start to say things he didn't mean. He scowled at nothing in particular.

"Excuse me," he said, "there's something I have to go do."

And he started toward the staircase without another word.

Romeo blinked sadly after him, sad that he had made him mad. Yet he was planning to keep his promise, even if it was really hard and even if Itachi was mad at him.

"I'll look after him." He spoke now to Sasuke's grave, "You don't got to worry because I'll make sure he's alright and help him smile again. I promise."

And he was planning to keep that promise too.

It's Raven's turn to fall silent now. There is nothing he can really say to that, whether it be whatever sentiment the other man isn't expressing, or what it is that he does. It's a long, long moment before he finally does voice his thoughts out loud- and thoughts they are, really, meandering trails without a set destination.

"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.

The other man is silent for so long that Itachi almost leaves him be. When he starts to talk, Itachi stills himself, the foot he'd raised to put on a step hovering in mid-air. He listens silently, then, after a pause, settles himself back on the stair he's been standing on. He's turned away from the stranger when he speaks.

"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.

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o4 [A Little Bit Unstable] BACKDATED TO FEB 14TH

Option Two; Floor 30/later in Itachi's rampage?

Sounds good!

Lets go for the graveyard

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SUDDENLY TEAL DEERS

All the teal deers

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aaaand massive apologies for the lateness, I'm sorry;

same here, ahhhh

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let's pretend this didn't take forever and a day, aha . . .

it's okay, I'm the Backtag Master myself