Matou Kariya (AU) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
canofworms) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
towerofanimus2013-03-09 04:08 pm
canofworms) wrote in towerofanimus2013-03-09 04:08 pm
[OPEN] Well, look what the cat dragged in.
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, anybug 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.
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
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.
no subject
(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?
no subject
Unconcerned by the Worms, he draws near. Arondight is still in his hand.]
Yes, I am the Servant Berserker-- but I sense no Contract between us. Though you are Kariya Matou, then even still you are not he whom I Serve.
Speak then, and say how you know me.
no subject
[He doesn't signal the Worms as Berserker approaches, despite the bared sword in the Servant's hand. He has no intention of fighting a Servant; he may be confused, enraged, and as out of his element as it is possible to be, but he isn't far enough gone to be foolhardy.
Especially not in the face of this knight. Despite the Mad Enhancement, he still knows his strength better than any other.]
I was your Master -- Berserker's Master -- in my own right. Ten years ago.
no subject
[Lancelot draws nearer, but does not sheathe his sword, for the things that lurk in the shadows of this Cavern are quick and bloodthirsty. He stands before Kariya, taking in his appearance, the feel of his Prana, the flying worm that seem to obey his commands. He feels a wave of hope, but does not allow it sweep him away completely.]
Ten years. As you are living, we must have prevailed. Tell me then, as you were my Master-- did I prevail for you? And did you make your wish upon the Grail? I have heard it Cursed, and know not what think.
no subject
[He won't go into details.
Instead, Kariya holds back a sigh and the urge to look away -- from the Servant's clear, unfamiliar gaze; from his own cowardice, his bone-deep unwillingness to have anything to do with that other self. Nobody wants to look at the skeletons in their closet.
The Grail. Always, the Grail. It haunts his dreams and waking hours and now it shadows him out of the world. He's raged, despaired, laughed through it all, too many emotions to count in the short time he's been walking here. Right now, he stands with the closest thing to an ally he's seen since he arrived -- it's no comfort, his memories of this no-longer-a-man smeared in darkness and blood -- but it threatens to undo him anyway.
His voice is soft, so it doesn't betray him.]
You fought for me, as the strongest Servant. [He doesn't attempt the smile, but keeps his gaze steady.] We sacrificed everyone else, and I met the Grail. She-- It is cursed, Lancelot.
[He speaks the name almost without thinking.]
The Grail grants only disaster. What wishes were granted, I granted myself.
[Oh, look. He still has the energy for bitterness, even with his head held high.]
no subject
His grip on Arondight tightens until the seams of his glove strain against his hand.]
I have heard tell of this, but to hear it from you-- if we took the victory, then what disaster was brought about?
Did you fulfill your oath-- to rescue the maid? What became of me-- did I face Saber?
[He knows he should not ask these things. That knowledge from a supposed future is poisoned, for thus do the Fae sometimes torment the mortal with might-have-beens and might-yet-bes. But he has asked all the same.]
no subject
Instead, he gathers what's left in him -- and delivers the good news first.]
I returned Sakura to her family, yes. Fuyuki had to burn, for that to happen. [It comes a little easier than the last time he had to say it. Maybe it's the audience. Maybe--] The fires helped us corner Zouken. He's the one who had to die for Sakura to live. For everyone to live.
[The words slip out unbidden. He's talking to what once was a mad dog, a being mired in despair and scent of blood so thick it nearly drowned the very Worms in his body. He's talking to a cursed knight from a tale of blades and betrayal.
It's here, though, where he remembers to be careful.]
... As for Saber, she couldn't stand before your blade. [That memory again: the fading brightness of a sword in a sea of fire. The utter stillness afterward.] You defeated her.
no subject
The moment, like all such moments, passes so slowly for him.
Oh, he had wanted this (does want this, he can't deny it to himself, Arthur's blood running over his hands), but it is also the thing he least wants. Such waking visions he has had, sleepless nights he has weathered, imagining Excalibur parting his armor, piercing his breast, taking what remained of his Life. The release of it, of justice.
Always the struggle within him, between Rage and Release. Only his King can grant him either terrible thing.
When he speaks, his voice is rough, breathless.]
I-- she fell to me.
[It's another long moment before Lancelot rights himself fully, realizing where he is and who he is with-- and that there are Monsters about for which he must watch.]
Forgive me.
[It's unclear if he means the words for the man who is not his Master, to excuse his weakness, or for someone else.]
Yes, I have told my Master that he should allow me to put the old devil to his Death, when we return to the War.
His life for the girl's, and by my hand-- it seems just, for he has betrayed us all. [He's not overly concerned with collateral damage, such is even the most Just War.]
But to return her to her family-- I would not have thought you would wish to do such a thing.
1/2
It's completely surreal to feel concern for -- the Servant that once was his, that never was his. Kariya actually starts forward a step, as though he thinks he could catch all that bulk if he needed to. He wouldn't even make a very good cushion.
In the end, he only watches. For monsters, and as Lancelot comes back to himself.]
I-I should be the one to say sorry. It probably wasn't what you wanted from that battle.
[It's as close as he'll come to describing that mess; he'll spare both of them. They were both fighting a battle with no real victory.
He's startled to find himself almost smiling, instead, at Lancelot's 'justice'. A small, vicious satisfaction. Even if he returns to madness, he will be a mad dog.]
... I'll leave him to you. He's wily and older than any of us can remember -- we caught him by chance. You'll have to do some hunting.
2/2
I don't understand. Why wouldn't I return her to her family? It's where she should have been.
[If not for him and his.]
Re: 2/2
I know not what I might have wanted from that Battle, it is something I can never know. Can never have. To not know what one truly desires-- you owe me no apology. Master.
[For they are the same man, in their way, and he was once this man's Servant. Even if he is so no longer in fact.]
My Master, as I know him now-- hates the Tohsaka Magus with feverish obsession. He unwisely risked himself in Battle against the man and was nearly killed. I cannot think that he would return the girl to her Father.
Unless, he were to have me kill the man. But that strategy is as flawed as all his others.
Do you-- as you are now, do you feel differently about this Magus than does my current Master?
no subject
Kariya's life is very much a one-way street -- what choices he's made feel more like detours than different paths. He was always walking towards certain things, and he's only gotten better at not looking back.]
... I hate him too. I've hated him since he betrayed his family, and I don't think I'll ever really stop.
[He can't imagine not hating Tokiomi. He has so very many scores to settle with him, should they meet in the afterlife.]
Tokiomi Tohsaka is dead, Lancelot. If Kirei didn't kill him, I would have. I would never trust him with Sakura again. But as it happens-- [his chuckle is dark, terrible satisfaction] --he's very good at making enemies.
[Or just at mistaking his allies. Same difference, really.]
no subject
But if you wished his death, and he did die-- whether at your hand or the hand of another, then I cannot see the wrong in that.
[Debts of both blood and honor are not an unfamiliar idea to a Knight, especially one so imperfect as Lancelot now is. The dark laughter seems not to affect him.
He moves closer to his once and future Master, looming somewhat over the smaller man, angling them towards the entrance as a strategic precaution.]
Kirei-- the name seems both familiar and strange to me. Tell me of this man who did your bidding in this matter.
no subject
Kariya tips his head back and studies the Servant he hasn't seen in ten years (and, really, had the last time counted at all?). He's still not entirely sure where he stands -- where they stand -- though Lancelot seems to have taken the whole thing with aplomb.
(The strangest thing is to have someone other than Kirei tell him that his crusade was justified, that Tokiomi should have died. He hadn't told anyone else.)]
... He didn't do my bidding. I wanted to kill Tokiomi with my own hands. [The hands that are balled into fists at his sides; he continues speaking calmly.] Kirei Kotomine is a priest, but can't be trusted. I needed him to kill Zouken, but you're better off keeping your Master away from him.
[He's not so indifferent to his other self as to wish Kirei upon him, Servant or no.]
And about the matter of his killing Tokiomi -- please keep that between us and your Master.
no subject
Thus far, no such man has had contact with my Master-- though there will be little for me to say about it in any case, unless he should remove the Mad Enhancement, as I have urged him to do.
I do not require it to gain Victory.
[Lancelot gives a shrug, as if shaking off a memory.]
Nor have I a preference, one way or the other, in the Tohsaka Magus' Life or Death. I only do not wish to be thwarted in my Fight by my Master's quest to seek the man's destruction at the cost of his own Life. I was wrathful indeed when I arrived here having been unable to defeat Archer due to his foolish waste of prana.
Though now I do allow that I have come to better understand him.
[He looks down upon this Master of his that never was, and nods in response to the man's request.]
It is likely that there was little understanding between you and I-- still, I am glad to have served you well. If you search of a way to return to your World from this place, you may leave the matter in my hands, if you will. I have been diligent since my arrival, and have sworn to find a way for my Master. So I would do for you as well.