10

[looselips]

Characters: Shinji Matou & OPEN
Setting: Various floors, dangerous and otherwise, then Room 2-06.
Format: Action preferred, though I'll try to match.
Summary: Rider is gone, and Shinji isn't taking it well.
Warnings: Descriptions of a child's death-by-drowning in Part 2.
Notes: Part 2 takes place the day following Part 1, and is open to both passersby and roommates alike. If tag you into Part 1 without specifying a floor, I'll pick one myself; the only one that is really off limits is Floor 90, for reasons.

part 1 - various floors
[Shinji knows when Rider is gone, of course. He just doesn't accept it. He isn't the most rational, measured person at the best of times, and his circumstances now are obviously not optimal. So, rather than trying to quietly come to terms with her departure, he goes to look for her. He'll find wherever she has run off to sooner or later, he thinks, as though she's still somewhere in the Tower where he can yap at her until she pays attention to him.]

Rider! [He waits briefly, standing in the dormitory hallway. When there's no reply, he calls out again, louder and more agitated now.] Rider!

[And he keeps shouting for her as he stomps around the Tower, his voice growing increasingly demanding as he becomes increasingly desperate. He can be heard calling for her in all sorts of places, since while he starts with floors he is more familiar with and ones that are relatively safe, he soon begins to venture places an unattended eight-year-old really should not be. Mostly, he sticks to floors he thinks or knows would attract Rider—ones with water, or treasure, or that inexplicably smoky barroom—paying no heed to the way he is tiring himself out with all this searching.]

part 2 - room 2-06
[As it turns out, ten minutes is the perfect amount of time for reliving the way you died.]

[The lagoon had been a natural place to check. No one can blame him for going there. It isn't his fault, anyway—the blame lies on Rider, for leaving him in the first place, and those things lurking in the water, those things that had grabbed him before he even had a chance to scream. He can remember the feeling of their strong, wet hands wrapped tight around his wrists and ankles, and the way it felt to thrash as he tried to struggle free of them. But, more than that, he can remember the way it felt when he couldn't free himself. The panicked fear of death, the way water poured into his mouth and down his throat when his lungs desperately tried to suck down air...]

[His legs tremble when he is finally able to move again, but he makes himself stand regardless.]

[He can't take it anymore. As if losing to that pathetic no-name weakling wasn't enough, as if dying wasn't enough, as if being brought to this place only to have everything that made him special taken away from him wasn't enough, now he has been killed, again, by mermaids.]

[He doesn't even care that he's throwing what is undeniably a childish tantrum when he shoves his trunk over. He doesn't care that doing this might break something inside. What did it matter? He died, and now on top of being dead he's alone here, all because his stupid, selfish Servant went and abandoned him. He picks up an upturned item at random, paying no attention to what it is, and throws it at the nearest wall.]

[Unless stopped, he'll be at this until he calms down or tires himself out, and tiring himself out is probably the option that will come first.]

Comments

[puppy_lancer]

Yeah, it's certainly not the right way for any Servant to treat their Master.

[It's just not his business to criticize Rider on that.]

How about I ask her about that? Why she ran off instead of asking for a pay raise?

[His tone is much softer now.]

[looselips]

[That disarms him somewhat, so his tone isn't as heated when he speaks again. It is, however, flustered.]

Wh... Whatever. It's not like I need you to ask her that for me. I can handle her myself.

[puppy_lancer]

Always better to have a hero at your side, no?

[Not that he suspects Rider of being disloyal.]

Besides, maybe there's things she'll take better from an adult than from a kid.

[looselips]

I don't care! [He stomps a foot, gesticulating forcefully.] I'm her Master, so she has no right to treat me like a kid!

[Already, he's getting worked up again, but his tone is a bit different from before. A little more desperate, maybe?]

Why would I want you by my side, anyway?!

[Because he wants Rider, though he isn't admitting that.]

[puppy_lancer]

Because you don't want a monster to turn you into a bite-sized snack before you can find your Servant.

[looselips]

F... Fine. But only until we find Rider, got it? There's no way I'd settle for a mediocre Servant like you.

[puppy_lancer]

...Don't think too highly of yourself. It's me who doesn't want a little brat as a Master.

[looselips]

If you'd turn down having a genius like me for a Master, that just proves that you're an idiot not worth giving the time of day to.

[puppy_lancer]

...Genius in what? Annoying people?

[looselips]

Try "spirit hacking."

[Uh, duh???]

[puppy_lancer]

Spirit...hacking...?

[Wait, he remembers hearing from that one Rider something about the Grail War on the moon being fought inside a computer program or something.]

I thought magi didn't like technology.

[looselips]

[He snorts, the sound derisive.]

Maybe some old fossils who are too stupid to adapt. I can't imagine there are many of those left, though. You know how natural selection is.

[puppy_lancer]

Was that what you were trying to do with that computer then? Some sort of magic hacking stuff?

[looselips]

[...He sighs. He hadn't wanted to admit that it wasn't working here, but...]

Yeah, basically.

[puppy_lancer]

Interesting.

[He actually sounds impressed. Not even Misaya had been able to do anything like that.]

And can your hacking affect anything other than computers?

[looselips]

[Oh, are you giving him a chance to brag? He might change his mind about you yet.]

That kind of thing depends on your talent as a magus—not that it's a problem for me, since I'm the best spirit hacker in all of Japan. I can hack into and manipulate all kinds of technology.

[puppy_lancer]

Huh...

[He taps his chin, thinking.]

What about those drones? They're technology, right?

[looselips]

Are they? [Shinji himself actually turns thoughtful now, considering the suggestion.] I've never seen one of them cracked open, so I can't say for sure, but they look pretty organic to me. To be honest, they make me think of poorly-programmed NPCs.

[puppy_lancer]

Well, they've got these fancy collars.

[He taps his own.]

You think you can try getting into one of their collars or something?

[looselips]

[...He sighs.]

Yeah, see, that's the problem. Every time I've tried to do some spirit hacking here, it's failed. Not even like I hit a firewall, it just... [He shakes his head, scowling half in thought and half in frustration.] I could maybe try something that doesn't involve going all the way and digitizing my soul, but who knows if that'll actually do anything.

[puppy_lancer]

[He rubs at his collar as he remembers the reveal the entire Tower had gotten but a day or two ago. By his reckoning, the collars kept their souls anchored to bodies, so it would make sense that one couldn't "digitize" their soul.]

What about something that doesn't involve your soul? Like, making a toaster into your mystic code or something?

[looselips]

...A toaster?

[Yeah sorry that's what he got stuck on. Does a toaster even count as technology??]

[puppy_lancer]

What's wrong with toasters? They look like any other type of technology to me.

[So what if there were better examples? That was the first one that sprang to his head.]

[looselips]

Could you have picked something lamer? Sheesh. What would I even do with it?

[puppy_lancer]

Use it to shoot burning pieces of bread at your enemies?