[OPEN] Well, look what the cat dragged in.

[canofworms]

Characters: Kariya Matou [AU4] & ALL THE PEOPLE
Setting: Dorms, Various Floors, Choose Your Own Adventure
Format: Any!
Summary: +1 flailing bug magus. Does it count if 'he' is already here?
Warnings: Fate/BUGS


This man, wherever you meet him, may look just the littlest bit familiar. Maybe it's in the hair, or the slightly gloomy look on his face, or even the rumpled turtleneck he's wearing.

Not many will recognize him as the Matou he is, though, unless he has his insect familiars out. His hair and eye (the working one) are a deep purple, and the prana rolling off him in warning waves is no longer a hallmark of the clan.

Now who could this be?



[Dormitory Floor: Room 1-16]

[Hey, folks, you may or may not have an extra body in here. Don't worry, it's wiggling and quite lively.

Click.

If not for the minor commotion of him going through his trunk, you probably wouldn't notice he's here; his clothes and hair are dark enough that he gets lost in the shadows quite easily. The slant of his shoulders is wary. There's a metallic glint in his hands.

Nothing to see here: just a magus loading a handgun.

(Unless that's a nice bulky camera in his hands, but in that case he's just taking a picture of the wall. So productive!)]



[F1: Cafeteria]

[New arrivals season! There are like a million of them here making faces at their oatmeal. You could probably fill an album with the variety. Maybe decorate each floor of the Tower with a different expression of disgust.

This guy would make a pretty boring picture, though, since he's sitting there with absolutely no trace of feeling on his face as he mechanically brings the spoon to his mouth. In fact, his eyes are closed.

Is he sleep-eating or just trying to find a safe space away from the mush??]



[F20: Outside]

[It's fairly chilly out here, but the thin shadow of a man standing about halfway up the ramp, carelessly at the very edge, doesn't seem to notice. He's strangely silhouetted, staring expressionlessly over the edge.

If you come in close enough, you'll realize that those strange irregularities and bumps in his figure are actually countless large, skeletal, demon-eyed insects perched on his shoulders and arms, crawling clumsily in their attempt to keep their foothold in the wind.

Every now and then, he'll raise a hand, and one or two of them will obediently go walking off into the air. They go plummeting downwards until not a trace is left, and leave him looking a little more frustrated each time.

In the meantime, that shadow in the fog behind him may or may not be something sneaking up on him. Or your eyes are just playing tricks on you.]



[F??: Choose Your Own Adventure]

[Any floor, any time, any bug flavor!

There's a rather surly-looking guy pacing up and down the place, muttering angrily to himself and occasionally raising a hand to swat at the two Blade Wing Worms buzzing along behind him whenever they hover in too close.

It's a little hard to tell whether the familiars are actually worried about their master or just trying to get close enough to chomp on his hair.]

If you're not going to make yourselves useful, go chew on each other or something. I don't care.

Comments

floor 20

[puppy_lancer]

...

[Lancer stands a ways behind the man, observing him. Despite his different (stronger) appearance, the man's scent registers as that of Kariya. Right now, he's not quite sure what to think.]

[canofworms]

[The Blade Wing Worms are the only ones to visibly react, hissing and spreading their wings to make themselves look bigger and more menacing (which is totally necessary, they can't fly, it's a travesty).

Kariya shakes off his hand after the latest batch of Worm skydiving before he addresses the man behind him without turning around.]

You should speak up. People will mistake you for a monster.

[puppy_lancer]

[He snorts.]

I ain't the one carrying mutated insects on my shoulders.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE floor 14

[looselips]

[Congratulations, Kariya, you've found the media room. The TV seems to be in working order right now, and as such, it's not all that odd that the room's other occupant is a young boy rifling through some video games. Shinji only barely glances at the man passing through from the corner of his eye, and as such the resemblance to a certain other not-uncle goes unnoticed. The buzzing insects: not so much.]

If all you're going to do is pace around and grumble, find somewhere else to do it. Oh, and take your friends with you, too. The buzzing is getting on my nerves.

[canofworms]

[It's not that Kariya isn't interested in the media room; would his pretend profession have been in media if he wasn't? There's a little corner of his mind cataloging the gadgetry for posterity very much despite himself. But that's neither here nor there.

He stops pacing, very abruptly, the moment Shinji speaks up. It's been years since he heard it at that particular pitch, but the petulance is unmistakable. The blue hair is...]

Shinji?

[His tone is completely blank.]

Cafeteria

[mask_of_suffering]

[Madoka was taking in her usual lunch when she spied Kariya's meal time display. For a moment she just sits and watches and he shovels the awful muck all the tower's residents were forced to eat into his mouth.

However, this being Madoka we're talking about, she can't help herself but to try and find out what's wrong.]

Is everything all right?

[canofworms]

[His eyes blink open at that, but not until he's shoved the next spoonful into his mouth. It takes a moment for his good eye to find the girl who's spoken.

He swallows, and smiles a little.]

Ahh, it's a little hard to say. I don't know about everything -- or should I say I don't know anything? [A rueful gesture that encompasses the cafeteria, the tower... and the oatmeal.]

Well, there is one thing. They need to work on their oatmeal.

F: floor 41, this is why we don't let me choose settings :')

[angramaintsu]

[ Is he certain that the ones buzzing in around him belong to him and not the floor itself? Rin often retreats here when she needs privacy. Having come to discover that most of her allies won't hunt her down in the dark, it provides a much needed comfort.

That and it reminds her of "home". Something about a floor that has insects crawling in and over themselves is familiar to her. When she hears someone else nearby, she manages a light laugh. ]

Don't fall through the holes. There's plenty of them here and you'll die. [ It's easy to hear where she's sitting, but there's not a single bit of light to reveal her. ]

omg.......

[canofworms]

[You worry too much, Rin. He hasn't moved an inch since he stepped onto the floor -- there's no way any Matou would mistake the sound of so many insects crammed into such a small space, fighting and wriggling for room and prey.

He doesn't banish his own Worms in the face of them; whatever else they are, they're a part of him, and they're a buffer against what's in front of him. Even if their eyes reveal little of the room and much more than he wants to see.

It's quite likely he would have left entirely if not for the too-familiar voice suddenly ringing out in the darkness. If it were possible to go even stiller, he would have done it.

For a moment, he prays he's heard wrong. That doesn't stop him from reaching out with his own voice to catch it.]

... Rin? This is an illusion. [His voice isn't as steady as he'd like. He raises his hand, signaling the Worms to go higher and illuminate more of the area. Several more join their brethren.]

Choose your own adventure, floor 61

[pinnaculum]

[The grass plain seems to stretch on and on, but Sephiroth is aware that it is not all that it seems. He stops there while patrolling, to check if anyone is on the floor and in need of assistance. It is his very important (self-assigned) duty to patrol the floors. When he catches sight of the man muttering and pacing, his attention is instantly drawn. Here is someone who might not be paying enough attention to his surroundings. The insects, too, catch his eye. Are they monsters? But they don't seem to be attacking the man in question. Sephiroth could kill them easily, he thinks, but he holds back.

He knows the grass is treacherous and hides many pitfalls, so his first duty should be to warn this civilian of the danger. The small child with the big (sheathed) sword approaches calmly. (This is his very complicated and very real version of playing soldier. Or SOLDIER, rather.)]

Hello, sir. It is dangerous here. You should watch where you step.

[canofworms]

[The warmth and greenery tugged at some almost-forgotten place inside Kariya (it's not forgotten so much as studiously put away; those particular memories are ones that won't ever fade), and that's a large part of the reason he came onto this floor in the first place. It wasn't long, though, before he felt that sense of being watched that slithers down his back like something large and dark. Something that doesn't like this sunlight.

The clash between good memories and old nightmares nearly sends him reeling, does send him fleeing back to the edge of the floor where he is now, grasping at what reality he knows. He needs to find out what happened to the Holy Grail War. He--

Looks up when addressed, a little wildly, before realizing that the voice comes from much closer to the ground.]

Oh. I... [had been watching his own feet, but not much of anything else] Thank you.

[The strange child looks more like an apparition than anything in the midst of so much that is surreal. He hesitates.]

You are?

[F1: Cafeteria]

[oathshackledbird]

[It's routine by now. Beginning of the month means new arrivals. That means that Diarmuid is in the cafeteria looking for new faces and telling those who wish to listen as much as they want to know about the tower. However, when he stops in front of the dark haired man eating his oatmeal with his eyes closed, he doesn't give his usual greeting. Instead, he just watches the other man.

He looks and feels familiar, but there is no way...

He looks far too healthy to be the Kariya Diarmuid knows.

So another alternate version of a person already in the tower? Why have so many come here this month?]

Kariya?

[canofworms]

[The voice isn't especially familiar, but the face is distinctive once Kariya opens his eyes; the magical pressure that of a Servant, no less. He resists the urge to back up in his seat: cafeteria benches aren't very helpful for trying to get an unexpected magical being ten years out-of-date out of your face.

He puts down his spoon instead. The Worms within his body quiver with anticipation.]

Lancer. Of the Fourth War. [He speaks it more to confirm it to himself than anything; it sounds bizarre aloud.] We never met.

Floor 25 because he's always there

[vermicompost]

[Resting among the flowers as usual, Kariya doesn't necessarily look up when someone new comes by. He's not the only one to favor this floor, and he takes himself away to a more secluded part of the meadow, where he can be alone. Sometimes, his friends visit him here. It's peaceful, here. It's not a bad day, so he was able to make it this far. Having healers he can go to helps a great deal, especially with the drain of his pact with Lancelot.

It's the familiar (ha) buzzing that draws his attention, and then the muttering, so he sits up, curious. He recognizes the Blade Wing Worms, and he recognizes the man with them.

He's seen doubles of others in the Tower, but somehow he'd never expected to see himself. He can tell there's something very different about this self from the beginning. There's his hair, and the worms... He's brought them out himself in the Tower, but never for long and never like that.

He realizes he's staring. He should probably say something. But what does one say to himself? Unsteadily, he gets to his feet as the man starts to walk away from him, or--he walks away from himself? He can't just let himself go.]

Is that--? [You? Me?] Kariya, wait.

[canofworms]

[He's already realized that the majority of the floors are nowhere near safe enough to venture into without careful scouting (luckily, he has the Worms to burn), so finding this, another peaceful stretch of grass and sky... Well, it doesn't come anywhere close to pulling him out of the storm of disquiet and irritation that's descended upon realization that he can't find a way out.

He almost doesn't hear the call, the voice without force unfamiliar thanks to how much it's warped. You don't get used to hearing your own voice in the distance, anyway.]

What...? [So many that shouldn't recognize him do; so many that shouldn't be here look at him like a stranger instead. He's very much on edge as he looks around. It takes him a moment to locate the small figure in the grass; with his one eye, at this distance, he can't quite make out the identifying details aside from the white hair. It's the touch of the magic, too familiar to bear, that has him stepping back, Blade Wing Worms rising in front of him.]

You're a Matou. [He doesn't know what to make of that name anymore, in a place like this.] What do you want?

cafeteria

[fionnuisce]

--?

[He looked like Kariya...kind of. Enough to tell he was the same person, almost. Just like the other version of himself both was and wasn't 'Waver Velvet' as this one knew. Second magic at work again, clearly.]

[Waver would have been lying if he said he wasn't surprised or curious, but it was the latter that caused him to step a little closer.]

...Matou Kariya?

[canofworms]

[He finds himself blinking, nonplussed, at a complete stranger in green and black with long hair. So far, he's at least been able to (mostly) recognize the people who call him by name out of the blue.

It all puts him on edge nevertheless, and he watches Waver suspiciously, spoonful of oatmeal held defensively in front of him.]

... Am I meant to know you?

Floor 74

[chevalier_mal_fet]

[He comes here to be alone. He finds it peaceful, despite the Monsters that occasionally lurch out of the darkness. They're no match for his blade, and he doesn't fear them. This cave reminds Lancelot of a place he once called home. Beneath the Lake. He realizes now it had been strange, growing older in a timeless realm, but as a boy, it had not seemed strange. The beauty of Faerie had been all he'd ever known.

Dressed in his suit, his sword unsheathed (for prideful though he may be, Lancelot is not a fool), he walks silently among the rock formations, feet silent on the glittering sand. Light beams down as from a great height and he slips easily in and out of the shadows. All is silent. Or-- should be.

Lancelot makes his way to the sound of the voice, muttering low and agitated near the entrance to the caves. The tone is a familiar one, but he fails to place it-- until he sees the shadowed profile. But there is an Energy here that he has never felt, one that cannot-- should not, belong to his Master. He watches a moment, wary of a snare set by the Tower. He trusts little he sees in this place.

The Worms hover around the source of Power, droning softly in the still air.
Drawing near, Lancelot steps into the light, letting himself be seen. The point of his sword is lowered, his eyes fixed searchingly on the man still half in shadow.]

Master?

[canofworms]

[It takes Kariya a moment or two to sense the unmistakable magical signature of a Servant -- they're difficult to hide, especially in a place as closed as this tower, though the floors do their best to shatter any expectations as to their space.

(The cavern is serene enough that it makes Kariya more restless just to be on it, its beauty lost on him; he's been sending his Blade Wing Worms to head off any monsters that may even begin to head this way. He's using energy carelessly, but it keeps the Worms occupied and distracts his mind from chasing itself the way he's been chasing the hope of an exit throughout the Tower.)

So, it takes him a moment longer than it should to realize the presence of that Servant. He doesn't recognize the voice, can barely recognize the magical aura -- it is, strangely, the face that sparks his memory. A countenance he saw on that last night of the War, full of fire and regret.

Of course. He might just as well have stepped back ten years in this Tower; here is the past on continual parade. He should probably start thinking that way.]

... Berserker?

F1

[blackwitch]

[ Evatrice doesn't need any of this tl;dr!!

Either way, he's looking so much like some sort of robot that this girl over here can't help but bother him a little. In fact, right now she's waving her hand right in front of his face (and by that I mean practically all up in it) to see if he can actually see anything at all. ]

[canofworms]

[The tl;dr is a figment of your imagination.

It's not difficult to tell there's a hand in front of your face thanks to all the wind she's stirring up. If not, the mischievous girl would've found herself with a palm full of oatmeal. But since Kariya can feel those air currents and he's also interested in preserving his unfortunate meal, he opens his eyes and pauses his spoon.]

... Yes?

Room 1-16

[unkindnessof]

[Is that what it was like for the others here when he first arrived.

Raven watches carefully from his corner of the room. His posture is unthreatening, if guarded, and after a moment or so he speaks up (though is it really speaking up when he's so quiet about it?).]

Hopefully they gave you enough to last.

[canofworms]

[It's pretty much impossible not to notice another presence in the room, even as agitated and off-balance as Kariya is at the moment -- he's been pretty well conditioned to paranoia in his own house, so his 'own' dorm room is no different.

He doesn't raise the gun when he turns, but his grip on it is tight, tension all through his frame.]

To last until when?

[It comes out more sharply than he meant it to, but it can't be helped.]

dorm 1-16

[nonacquiescent]

[Waver sits up in bed, rubbing his eyes. The activity woke him up, so after giving his head a shake to collect himself, he turns to the cause of it.

Huh, that outfit sure looks familiar, but-- wait is that a gun?!]

What are you doing with that?!

[canofworms]

[He's been much too busy being indignant over the letters and rummaging through the trunk and arming himself to pay the other body in the room much mind, beyond noting that it's there, and that it doesn't pose a threat for the time being.

Waver's sudden shout definitely startles him, though, and before either of them know what's happening Kariya's whirled around, and Waver's now staring down the muzzle of that gun. Oops.

Kariya's staring, too. It takes him only a moment to place the face and the squawking, but it's still a moment longer before he lowers the gun.]

You're... Waver Velvet, aren't you?