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towerofanimus2013-03-20 09:58 pm
swordedpast) wrote in towerofanimus2013-03-20 09:58 pm
Entry tags:
The serpent tangles in the lion's claw;
Characters: Archer (swordedpast) and OPEN.
Setting: Various places in the tower during the event, March 17th through March 23rd.
Format: Tagger's choice.
Summary: After a week of brooding, Archer throws himself into preparing for the worst when the weather goes wild.
Warnings: Nothing so far.
Archer is not sociable at the best of times in the tower. The most contact he's likely to have with its other residents is when he's cooking Rin's breakfast, and he doesn't exactly make a habit of being friendly then, either.
But for the past week he's been virtually invisible. Literally: nearly any time he can get away with it, he's been in spirit form, nothing more than a lurking presence around the corner. The return of his muddled memories of the Fifth Holy Grail War, and his part in it, has left him more inclined to brood than ever. So anyone with decent spiritual awareness may, in the days leading up to the start of the spring storms, notice a wandering presence, a nearby sense of power, drifting through the stairs and the floors of the tower--but shying away from making contact with anyone. On rare instances, that same presence can be spotted on one of the quieter floors, this time in corporeal form, brooding in some corner. But he speaks with no one.
At least, until the rains start. Then he's a man with a mission.
[ SPRING: floor 80 ⇒ stairs ⇒ dormitories. ]
[ It's one thing to get food when the cafeteria is empty and the restaurant not functioning, but that won't matter if none of it can be kept dry. Archer himself hardly needs to eat or stay out of the rain, but Rin does, and so he's on a quest to find materials for shelter. He finds success at the top of the fourth block, on the floor with the circus. Carefully avoiding the sinister clowns, he grabs a relatively small tent, pulls the tarp down, and sets out to carry it back to the dormitories, where he'll be taking it to room 1-15 and setting it up to provide shelter.
What? Yes, it's theft, but it's not like the worker units are around right now to stop him. ]
[ SUMMER: various floors ]
[ The heat doesn't bother Archer. He doesn't need to eat or drink, and physical discomfort has been the least of his problems for a very long time now. So the sultry and stifling heat of summer is nothing but an opportunity for him to head out searching for food and water for Rin. Any floor that might have something that can be scavenged for food falls to his attention--he searches for edible plants on floor 101, he seeks water among the crystals on floor 99, he tries to grab fish on floor 79 (though the water there seems to be salty, and not drinkable), he checks for meltwaters on floor 66, and--
--when the thunderstorms come, he is briefly trapped on floor 68, dodging lightning as he dashes up the stairs. He can't simply go to spirit form when he's carrying food. ]
[ AUTUMN: floor 89 ⇒ stairs ⇒ dormitories. ]
[ By now it's clear enough what's going on. Spring came first, then summer, and now it's fall: that means winter is next. So, with his previous brooding well and truly set aside for the moment, Archer is making a serious effort to stock up on certain supplies. That means that, once again, it's time for some judicious theft.
The hotel has the most pertinent of those supplies, which is why he can be found carting heaping piles of heavy blankets to the stairs and then back up to the dormitories. He has even less patience now for anyone who might try to stop him than he did a few days ago when it was only water he was defending against. He expects winter to be brutal, and no one will stop him from defending his Master against it. ]
[ WINTER: closed to Rin. ]
[ It's time.
Archer has barely spoken to Rin since the fairies' geas wore off. He's brought her breakfasts without a word. He's set up that tent for her during the rains. He's guarded her during the thunderstorms and the tornados. But he's been a silent presence throughout.
Now, as he appears to present her with the piles of blankets he stocked up during autumn (along with some scrounged supplies of food and drink, carefully prepared to hide their humble origins), he's prepared to finally talk in order to convince her to use them properly. ]
swordedpast) and OPEN.Setting: Various places in the tower during the event, March 17th through March 23rd.
Format: Tagger's choice.
Summary: After a week of brooding, Archer throws himself into preparing for the worst when the weather goes wild.
Warnings: Nothing so far.
Archer is not sociable at the best of times in the tower. The most contact he's likely to have with its other residents is when he's cooking Rin's breakfast, and he doesn't exactly make a habit of being friendly then, either.
But for the past week he's been virtually invisible. Literally: nearly any time he can get away with it, he's been in spirit form, nothing more than a lurking presence around the corner. The return of his muddled memories of the Fifth Holy Grail War, and his part in it, has left him more inclined to brood than ever. So anyone with decent spiritual awareness may, in the days leading up to the start of the spring storms, notice a wandering presence, a nearby sense of power, drifting through the stairs and the floors of the tower--but shying away from making contact with anyone. On rare instances, that same presence can be spotted on one of the quieter floors, this time in corporeal form, brooding in some corner. But he speaks with no one.
At least, until the rains start. Then he's a man with a mission.
[ SPRING: floor 80 ⇒ stairs ⇒ dormitories. ]
[ It's one thing to get food when the cafeteria is empty and the restaurant not functioning, but that won't matter if none of it can be kept dry. Archer himself hardly needs to eat or stay out of the rain, but Rin does, and so he's on a quest to find materials for shelter. He finds success at the top of the fourth block, on the floor with the circus. Carefully avoiding the sinister clowns, he grabs a relatively small tent, pulls the tarp down, and sets out to carry it back to the dormitories, where he'll be taking it to room 1-15 and setting it up to provide shelter.
What? Yes, it's theft, but it's not like the worker units are around right now to stop him. ]
[ SUMMER: various floors ]
[ The heat doesn't bother Archer. He doesn't need to eat or drink, and physical discomfort has been the least of his problems for a very long time now. So the sultry and stifling heat of summer is nothing but an opportunity for him to head out searching for food and water for Rin. Any floor that might have something that can be scavenged for food falls to his attention--he searches for edible plants on floor 101, he seeks water among the crystals on floor 99, he tries to grab fish on floor 79 (though the water there seems to be salty, and not drinkable), he checks for meltwaters on floor 66, and--
--when the thunderstorms come, he is briefly trapped on floor 68, dodging lightning as he dashes up the stairs. He can't simply go to spirit form when he's carrying food. ]
[ AUTUMN: floor 89 ⇒ stairs ⇒ dormitories. ]
[ By now it's clear enough what's going on. Spring came first, then summer, and now it's fall: that means winter is next. So, with his previous brooding well and truly set aside for the moment, Archer is making a serious effort to stock up on certain supplies. That means that, once again, it's time for some judicious theft.
The hotel has the most pertinent of those supplies, which is why he can be found carting heaping piles of heavy blankets to the stairs and then back up to the dormitories. He has even less patience now for anyone who might try to stop him than he did a few days ago when it was only water he was defending against. He expects winter to be brutal, and no one will stop him from defending his Master against it. ]
[ WINTER: closed to Rin. ]
[ It's time.
Archer has barely spoken to Rin since the fairies' geas wore off. He's brought her breakfasts without a word. He's set up that tent for her during the rains. He's guarded her during the thunderstorms and the tornados. But he's been a silent presence throughout.
Now, as he appears to present her with the piles of blankets he stocked up during autumn (along with some scrounged supplies of food and drink, carefully prepared to hide their humble origins), he's prepared to finally talk in order to convince her to use them properly. ]
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It's just so absurd. ]
...hahaha.
[ Then he laughs. It's not the crazed laugh she heard before, but a sincere one. He's really amused. ]
Haha, I'm really sorry, Master.
[ His hand leaves her mouth and jumps right behind one ribbon, where he...
...scratches her head vigorously? ]
It's just that you're acting like an angry little cat. So I think I should treat you as one.
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[ She sulks just as she were one. Why, she doesn't even make any movement away from his hand either. ]
You really do say too many stupid things.
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[ It's too cold to let his own pain stop him from helping her, you see. So even as he scratches her head with one hand, he slips the other around her back to pull her close. ]
And I won't let you freeze either.
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[ Huffing up, she doesn't use any force in getting away from him. Instead she just sits there close to him with a hand there to support her and the other digging through her hair playfully. ]
If I had a tail, I'd raise it in defiance.
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[ He stops scratching her head and simply rests his hand there. ]
Don't you know? Cats lift their tails when they are happy, too.
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[ Except for her. She'd raise it out of happiness, but she's not going to openly admit that. ]
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[ Now he does the unforgivable: he musses her hair with that hand. ]
Haha, I bet you can puff up like an angry cat too.
[ It's too cold to let go of Rin; he has to stay close to keep her warm. So he has to keep distracting himself from what he's doing with trivialities and mockery-- ]
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[ Bringing a hand to try to repair the damage of her hair. ] S-Stop that! What if people see?!
[ Yes, she's that worried about people seeing. Not the two of them holding on to each other, but her hair falling out of a ribbon. ]
May as well--[ Reaching up to tug at one of the ribbons, she attempts to free her hair. ]--since you've messed it up.
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[ It's one thing to tousle her hair, and quite another to see it spilling free from the ribbon. His throat tightens with sudden unexpected emotion.
Why does she do that to him? ]
Maybe if you wore your hair like this more often, you'd seem less like a kitten and more like a, a grown wildcat.
[ Stupid. That didn't come out right at all. ]
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Are you saying I can't be tamed, Archer? Dangerous words to admit to as my Servant.
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Of course you can't be tamed. That's why you need a keeper. The wild Rin, with me along to desperately hold onto the leash. Yeah, that's how it goes.
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[ She repeats the word as though it were a new title. ] I could settle for that.
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[ He's confident, but he's still blushing slightly. How is it that she can do that to him now? He should be more jaded than that. ]
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[ Cheering up just a bit as she glances towards his eyes. ] Does that mean if I go to kill the administrators of this tower, that you're going to stop me?
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Maybe they really are meant to be a team. The broken Emiya and the broken Rin Matou. ]
Only if I don't think you can win.
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Um, if you want to. If you rather not, that's fine...
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But then she makes that face. Then she says it'd be all right for them to team up. ]
Ah...
Yeah, we can work together on this, Rin. We are a team.
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[ It feels warm now. She's not sure why that is, but the chill is finally leaving her. ]
I never thought I could be a part of something with someone else. [ So in her comfort, she admits something stupid. ]
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Hah, I didn't either.
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It's nice... [ Something else comes up in her mind as she gives a sigh, a prelude to the exhausting conversation to come. ] There are a lot of people here who care about me supposedly. I don't understand.
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[ It's hard to think straight when she's this close to him. It's hard to hold onto his usual bitterness and self-loathing, at least, and that's the same thing, right? ]
"Supposedly"? What a thing to say--
[ A split-second's hesitation. ]
It'd be one thing to say it about your Servant, but about your sister?
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[ That's the nicest way to put it in Rin's mind. Seeing Sakura with the same color hair she had days before arriving in the tower was unsettling. Vividly replaying that scene over and over in her mind, some of the minor details are already lost on her. ]
Saber's chosen to champion her again. I'd say it isn't a pain, but it really is. I suspect you can't do much against her.
Saber, that is.
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[ He doesn't know exactly what's going through her head when she says that this version of her sister is strange, but he does his best to guess. ]
Hah, of course I can't best Saber as a swordsman. But I am an Archer, after all. Don't write me off just yet, Rin.
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[ Twirling her finger in her hair, Rin muses over the thought, trying to figure out how to word her feelings properly. ]
Why does she exist? At first I was angry, but then... Well, everyone who knows of Sakura knows of her like that, so you know what that means right?
[ It meant Rin herself was the failure. Not that she needs to say that. ] ... I won't write you off, Archer. You're all I have, so I will treasure you. No one wants to accept 'Rin Matou' except for you, so I should hold onto you dearly and never let go.
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She says she'll treasure him, she says she'll hold onto him, she says he's all she has.
What is he supposed to do when she says a thing like that? He wants to rail at her about how untrue it is, how she should have Saber instead or anyone, anyone but him, but if he did that she'd be hurt, so he has to let her treasure him. Like picking up a piece of coal and clutching it tight when there are dozens of diamonds nearby. But maybe a broken Servant suits this broken Rin. Maybe she prefers the darkness of coal to the hard light of diamonds.
He draws closer to her when she says a thing like that. Before he knows it, he's resting his chin against her head, with the scent of her hair and her darkness tickling at him, and he's recalling the last time he was this close to her--
No, he can't think of that. Archer mercilessly crushes his own sudden burst of combined desire (for her) and revulsion (for himself). But he kisses the top of her head chastely before pulling back a bit, because isn't that what you do when you're this close to someone? ]
She isn't your failure to claim. She's another Rin's failure. All those other Rins that we remember...they couldn't save their Sakuras. You're the only one who could.
[ He tries to move on before she can start to question that and pick apart its obvious holes. He tries to steel himself for what's to come. ]
...so you should approach her as a sister and an equal. You're both Matous who were condemned where others were saved. But she found a way to save herself as well, so she should help you find yours. As a sister and an equal.
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