[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

[canofworms]

At least they have names. [It's his only reaction for a long moment as he mulls things over; he's only been in the tower a little while, but it's enough to get a feel for how hard it is to get a feel for it. It's not unlike the feeling of trying to learn magic deliberately and on his own for the first time, ten years late.]

Do you have details on the experiments? Details seem hard to come by here.

[fionnuisce]

According to what I've been told, they seem to rotate control of the tower. Ruana's month in October apparently led to murderous Halloween costumes that killed the wearer and then led them to murder others.

[Waver himself didn't even know how he read that with a straight face.]

One month of Jason's involved people coming down with a number of illnesses. Hallucinations, schizophrenia, and the like. In January, Riki aged people's minds and bodies so it would appear they'd been trapped here for varying ridiculous lengths of time.

[He glanced up from the notebook again, fully knowing how insane he sounded.]

We're dealing with some serious shit, Kariya. Measuring it by our world's terms, there's True Magic all over the place at the very least.

[canofworms]

[His smile is a little vague, but that may be because he just started eating his oatmeal again, or because he's deep in thought.]

Mm, there's a lot our world's terms don't quite measure up to, I think.

[He seems to wake up a little after that, eyes coming back to rest on the other magus as he digs his spoon in again.]

Like the way they recycle. [A little sardonically, though there's a hard edge to his voice.] That and their little tower must be what lets them flaunt their power any way they want.

[fionnuisce]

Don't get me started on that; the logistics alone make my head hurt, never mind the consequences. I can't even begin to imagine where they could have gotten the powers to do things like this.

[canofworms]

Don't hurt yourself. I'm sure that's another thing they want.

[It is largely sincere, even though he's talking to his bowl.]

Honestly, the 'logistics' don't interest me. I want to find an exit. Failing an exit, I want to find a way to take this tower apart. [It's stated flatly, without room for argument.] I have a War to return to.

[fionnuisce]

You're not the only one. Places to go, things to dismantle, students to fail, you know how it-...

...Wait a minute. You came here straight from the war?

[canofworms]

The Fifth War of the Holy Grail, yes.

[You could probably fill the Tower from top to bottom with the amount of bitterness in that sentence fragment. Oops.]

And unless the Grail activated as early as the War did, there's no way that world is gone.

[fionnuisce]

....what the hell do you mean, 'the Fifth.'

[If not, you could fill the rest with the amount of 'oh shit' in that not-quite-a-question.]

[canofworms]

[He stares at Waver for a long moment, and then lets out a breath that's almost a laugh.]

That would be the one after the Fourth, Waver Velvet.

[fionnuisce]

Wh--why the hell is it this early, and what the hell's your world's version of me doing screwing around instead of stopping it?!

[canofworms]

[He stares for a lot longer that time.

There are implications and more implications in that outburst that he's almost afraid to parse. Good thing he's already had his own minor outburst; he can step back a little.]

I don't know why. I-- [was too much of a failure to see it coming, and too new of a magus to stop it in time] --didn't have time for that, once it started.

[He takes a deep breath. Stepping back.]

As for your other question-- [he doesn't know that, either, go him] I haven't seen you in ten years.

[fionnuisce]

Goddammit.

[Waver regained his composure quickly, pressing a hand to his head and muttering under his breath.]

I wonder if that could be some kind of universal constant...I'll have to check a hell of a lot of things when I get back. Maybe there's still a little extra time I can work with...ah, hell, I'll think of something.

[He looked back at Kariya, calm but completely serious.]

Tell me about your version of the Fourth War.

[canofworms]

[While Waver's muttering under his breath for the world to hear, Kariya's holding his. He's also methodically and carefully crushing that rising hope in his chest back down, because Waver Velvet is a survivor of the Fourth War, but Waver Velvet is also a trained magus and a titled man.

Kariya only trusts as far as the other party might stand from the wall they back him into. It's a big 'might'.]

... I was the master of Berserker. The Three Great Families all participated, along with a few wild cards. [A slightly amused glance across the table.] Caster was a bit of a nuisance for a while. I finished the War, and--

[By the time that extremely truncated account trails off his voice has gone completely flat, and he's looking down at the table again, posture very still. The end of the War isn't something he usually talks about.]

[fionnuisce]

...and the Grail wasn't what you thought, was it?

[He leaned forward slightly, all other thought completely discarded. Even if in another world, if someone could just confirm it without any doubt whatsoever...]

[canofworms]

[He draws in a sharp breath and looks up, but can't detect anything other than seriousness looking back at him.]

... No. I don't think it was what anyone expected. The same thing happened in your War?

[Of course, he's failed to specify what that thing is, but he's still caught between caution and hope and that is not conducive to coherence.]

[fionnuisce]

I don't think it was, no. I only saw the results from a distance, so as it stands now I have no way to be sure.

Might as well address the proverbial elephant in the room and stop dancing around words: I think it's been corrupted.

[canofworms]

... Fuyuki burned. That was the result.

[He finally speaks those words aloud, doesn't know why he had so much difficulty getting them out, since everyone who was in Fuyuki at the time -- who wasn't reduced to cinders -- would have seen how the War ended.

Second Magic. Some things don't change, of course.

He laughs because he doesn't quite know what else to do.]

'Been' corrupted? It wasn't corrupted from the beginning? I've never heard of the Grail granting a miracle.

[fionnuisce]

...now that you mention it, neither have I. I'd thought maybe something went wrong during the Fourth, but it makes more sense if it was ruined from the start.

[canofworms]

[He should be more wary. He should be more careful with what he says. But neither the Grail nor the Mage's Association are here, the Second Magic has made fool enough of him, and the tiny hope stirred up in the course of their conversation hasn't allowed itself to be turned away.

At this point, the words end up just tumbling out.]

The amount of evil in that Grail... it seeks disaster. It feeds on human darkness and misery. It could never come close to a miracle. [As with his account of the War, the evaluation is dull and drained of emotion.] The Holy Grail War was a lie from the beginning.

[That's what he truly believes -- the betrayed belief of someone who fought to the bitter end for something that was never there.]

[fionnuisce]

...I'm going to destroy it.

[Waver was in general an honest individual, but usually he played his cards a little closer to the chest. Caution was better than showing one's hand too early, but at the same time this truly confirmed what he'd felt for ten years. It must have been the same in his own world, there was nearly no doubt now. When Archer's Noble Phantasm had been activated that night...maybe it hadn't been in a fight, but with intent to destroy whatever the Grail was to stop the imminent disaster from spreading.]

I want to dismantle it altogether, Kariya.

[canofworms]

[His reaction is to go completely still and silent -- his innermost thoughts suddenly hunted down and spread out still-bleeding on the table. There's a strange relief and sudden disorientation all at once.

He doesn't know if he can believe in what he's heard, or if he's suddenly hearing things, what he wants to hear. This tower hasn't been kind. The baldness of the statement helps: he takes a deep breath and tries.]

... On the word of someone in this Tower? Under the influence of Second Magic? [His words are harsh, instead. There are too many misgivings, too many years between him and the world he was born into.] You're a magus. You should know what that means.

[fionnuisce]

No--I already planned to dismantle it. [Waver spoke with conviction, absolutely set on what he'd chosen to do.] I've been thinking about this for nearly ten years.

I'm a magus, sure. If I survive, I'm risking a Sealing Designation at best. I don't really care. If my life is the price to make sure no one else has to suffer and die needlessly, then I'll pay it without complaining.

[canofworms]

[He stares for a moment longer -- even he doesn't know if it's out of wonder or disbelief -- before he lets loose a huff of air that's something like a sigh and a laugh all tangled together, and leans his head in his hands.]

A Sealing Designation, huh? Then... you'll probably succeed where I failed. [Because it's true. Now that he thinks of it, faces someone with more ability and experience with the little he's managed to accomplish -- it's a moot point, isn't it?]

You still have a little time.

[fionnuisce]

Hopefully that'll be enough. I'll have to get in touch with Rin as soon as I get out of here; maybe we can prevent the Fifth before it starts, if we're lucky.

... [Waver sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as though trying to push back a headache.] Who am I kidding, I'm never lucky.

[canofworms]

[There's a blank moment.]

... Rin?