towerofanimus | [o5] Those who can't acknowledge their real selves are bound to fail

Entry tags:

[o5] Those who can't acknowledge their real selves are bound to fail

Characters: Itachi and you!
Setting: Various, including the dorm floors, Floor 48 (the graveyard), and Floor 2 (the infirmary), but he can be found anywhere around the Tower.
Format: Starting with action, but I'll match you.
Summary: Itachi has become a Group A drone, and so he's not entirely out of it all the time. Unfortunately, because of his modifications, he wishes he was.
Warnings: Details of Itachi's surgery can be found here. Warnings include body horror, angst, violence, and the mental trauma that comes with knowing you're a brainwashed drone half the time. Even the non-drone prompts carry a risk of violence via malfunction, so please specify if you absolutely don't want that to happen.

Any floor; Compliant

[Itachi patrols the halls like a proper drone should. Though every step sends jolts of pain up to his back, where a large uchiwa fan has been stabbed into him, he does not falter. His arms are bent and twisted and carved up with intricate tomoe, and they swing limply by his sides as he moves, but he doesn't act as if it's abnormal. And, perhaps most noticeably, though his eyelids are open, if one were to look closely, they would see nothing but empty black pits.

And everything is fine.

He navigates using a combination of memory and sounds. For the most part, he seems to keep to himself, but every once in a while, a louder-than-usual noise will make him snap his head toward the source. Even though there's no way he could possibly see anything, it looks like he's staring a hole through whoever made the noise.

He has to keep everyone in line for his masters.

He has to make sure the residents aren't getting out of hand.

In a low, toneless, measured voice, he asks:] Is everything all right?

[There is an unspoken promise in his words that suggests that, if it isn't, he will right the situation. With force, if necessary.]

Dorm hallways; Waking Up

[Itachi's knees hit the ground with a heavy thunk. His hands - one of which is twisted backward - skim over the floor, swinging back and forth as if there were no bones in them at all. A strangled noise makes its way out of his gaping mouth, and he sucks in quick, heavy breaths. His eyes are wide open, but he can't see. He can't see.

Everything is wrong.

He twists his head, because the presence of the fan stuck in his back is now more apparent than ever. It's a useless action, one driven purely out of instinct, because he won't be able to see the fan no matter how hard he tries. He shakes his head and hunches his back, sucking in ragged breaths.

This is the first time they've done something like this to him. He's been victims of games and experiments, but never a surgery like this. He's seen them on others, heard tales of woe, and hell, he's even been inside Romeo's head, receiving memories of everything the boy's been through over the years, but he's never felt it firsthand. And it hurts. All of a sudden, it feels like all of the pain and suffering he's been keeping inside of him is flooding out, and Itachi struggles to keep his emotions contained. But despite his best efforts, he's almost hyperventilating by this point, and he can't even cover his mouth, or punch a wall, or look to see who's in the hallway watching him freak out.]

Damn it, damn it-!

[It's perhaps the most emotional display Itachi's shown throughout his entire stay in the Tower - more than when he fought Sasuke and later saw his tombstone, more than when he was laying on his deathbed as the result of some experiment, more than when he watched Dax get torn to pieces on the network.

The transition from "mindless drone" to "terrified, mutilated mess" took less than a second.]

Graveyard; Malfunction

[Everything is not fine-

Itachi is standing over Sasuke's grave. He's been here enough times to know which direction to turn when he steps off the staircase, how many paces he needs to take to get to this spot. But still, the uncertainty is killing him, the idea that he might not be in the right place, and he can't even lift his arms to run them over the engraving on the stone and see if he's right.

And it's terrible, terrible that so many people would waste their time mourning on this floor. It breeds feelings of disdain toward his masters, the administrators of the Tower. Rows and rows of graves of people lost somewhere in the multiverse, people who had friends and family grieving for them, calling their names, and it's easy to understand, standing on this floor, why looking at all of those barren, empty graves would make a person want to rebel.

Rebellion is misbehaving.

He cannot allow the residents to misbehave.

Itachi's bruised, broken arms covered in swirling symbols begin to twitch. He has his empty sockets fixed on Sasuke's tombstone. And it seems like he might stay that way to anyone passing by, but if Itachi hears even the softest footstep, his head will snap to wherever it is the sound came from.

And one of the symbols on his arms will start to glow.]

Infirmary; In Need

[When he's sure that no other drones are nearby - drones whose operations went properly - Itachi approaches whoever's closest to him. With every step he takes, he winces, and there's a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead. The pain of trying to walk around with the fan stuck in his back while he isn't actively brainwashed is immense.]

You.

[His voice is low, but pointed enough to let whoever he's approaching know that he's talking to them. In this state, when he's sane, it seems like it's a lot more difficult for him to navigate around his new disability. He has enough presence of mind to at least keep his eyes closed now, instead of exposing his empty eye sockets like nothing's wrong.]

Ex-excuse me. [The stutter is accompanied by a particularly noticeable wince.] May I have some help?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Raphael was an angel of healing. It was his job to help others..but when he saw a boy who was horribly mangled approach him and ask for help, even he was a little..put off. Not that it showed on his face.]

..Of course. What do you need help with? And what has happened to you?

...The administrators. [Itachi keeps his voice down, as if worried that other, properly functioning drones might show up to make him into a brainwashed slave once more if they hear him talking.] They did this to me. My eyes are-

[He stalls, sucking in a slow, measured breath, then letting it out. The action causes a great deal of pain to throb across his back, but he ignores it to the best of his ability.]

They took my eyes. I can't... [He tilts his head down pointedly toward his arms, where they hang by his sides, limp and mangled.] Bandages. I'd like to wrap bandages around my eyes. Would you mind helping me..?

[The short, clipped way he delivers his sentences, pausing every now and again to collect himself, makes it no secret that he's in a lot of pain. For what it's worth, he seems to be handling it well now that his initial freak-out up on the dormitory levels has subsided.]

[Raphael nodded as he spoke, understanding. So, this was the sort of experiments the Administrators liked to perform. It was terribly cruel.]

Don't worry, I will help you. Hang on though.

[Carefully, Raphael would place a hand on Itachi's shoulder, and in a green glow, try to heal him. He would succeed with any scrapes other residents had given him..but things the Administrators had done to him would not be healed.]

[Itachi didn't have much on him but a few bumps and scrapes, mainly from where he'd knocked into things in a stunned haze earlier. He perked up a bit when he felt the pain from those few things recede, but compared to the agony of the fan jabbed in his back, it didn't bring him much relief.]

Thank you-- For trying. [He shifted uneasily under the man's grip.] I don't think that will work, though.

[..So the Administrators were limiting his powers. Raphael did not like that at all. He was an Angel of healing. To take that away from him was to take away his reason for living. You might as well erase him at that point.]

..You are welcome..I am sorry that I cannot do more for you though. The Administrators are limiting my powers.

[While he still looked calm, he wasn't wearing a smile as he got some bandages and brought them over to the boy.]

I won't hold it against you.

[Itachi's lips curled into a smile, but it looked pained, forced.]

The administrators are very powerful people. I didn't expect you to be able to reverse whatever it is they've done to me.

[He nibbled on the inside of his lip. What they'd done to him stretched far deeper than simple flesh wounds, right to his very core. A memory of his time spent strapped on the operating table came back to him in a flash, and he tried his best to squash it down quickly.]

...The bandages will be more than enough. [He gave a faint, insincere chuckle.] I'm sure I look a fright.

[..While Raphael was not the best at reading smiles and faces yet, he could tell that smile looked a little..off. Maybe due to the pain? That chuckle didn't sound that good either.]

Perhaps not..but that still does not mean that I enjoy this. As an Angel of healing, it is wrong that they are stealing one of my roles away from me. However..hopefully the bandages will help. Don't worry though..I am not frightened.

[Itachi's smile hung on his lips for a few more seconds. Just when it looked like he was about to let it fade away, he forced it back onto his face.]

You're very kind. [He nodded to his arms, which he couldn't even lift in a shrug in their condition.] I wish I could have gotten them myself, but...

[And then his smile really did fall off his face. To take his eyes was one thing, but to incapacitate his arms as well? Take away those two parts of his body, and you might as well strip him of the title "ninja" as well. He couldn't use doujutsu, couldn't make hand signs, couldn't even reach into his weapons pouch to find a kunai...

He grit his teeth.

He had to hand it to the administrators. They knew all of his weaknesses quite thoroughly indeed.]

[..Since it seemed that the boy couldn't move his arms, Raphael took it upon himself to apply the bandages himself. After all, he was an Angel of healing. To not do it would be an insult to his role, his reason for existing.]

It is alright..in your condition, it would have been hard to do so. It is not your fault.

[Raphael saw the smile fall from the boy's face, but just chalked it up to the pain that he must have been feeling and didn't ask about it.]

I'm gonna stop them Molly. I promise. [Romeo was in the graveyard, visiting his friends, filling Molly in about what was happening.

He wished she was here, she would know what to do. How to help his friends, how to stop the bad people. Keeping his spirits up was hard, and Romeo continued walking through the graveyard, he saw a figure by Sasuke's grave, a figure with a fan sticking out his back.]

No! They got you too mister Itachi! [And he's running up to him, to hug him, despite the danger. Because Itachi was his friend and it was so bad that he had been hurt.]

[Perhaps it's because he knows that voice is Romeo's that Itachi's malfunction occurs so quickly, or perhaps it's a simple coincidence, but in a second, what was left of Itachi's conscious mind shuts down entirely.

Romeo is misbehaving, and so he must be punished.

A symbol on Itachi's arm lights up, one that looks like his own personal Mangekyou Sharingan. Romeo will be caught in his genjutsu instantaneously, leaving his material body standing in the middle of the graveyard with a blank expression on its face while his mind goes somewhere else entirely.

Romeo might remember the instantaneous shift of colors from normal to black, red, and white from his fight with Sasuke months ago. Again, the sky has turned blood red, and a pinkish moon hangs in the sky. Itachi has pitch black skin, and the carvings on his arms look white instead of red. If Romeo looks down at himself, he'll see that his own coloring has shifted similarly.

Romeo will not be able to move his arms or his legs.]

Twelve hours will suffice.

[His voice is calm, measured. There's a hollowness to it that was never quite there before. He doesn't elaborate on what he means when he says that.]

[All the lights went funny, just like when it had happened in the cathedral, and just like the times Romeo could still remember from when he was Itachi.

He knew that it meant bad things were going to happen, and he couldn't move.] Mister Itachi?

[Itachi wasn't thinking much of anything. He was on autopilot, letting his malfunction take the wheel, while his consciousness had gone completely. Even the words he spoke weren't things he was able to control.

It seemed as if the ground beneath them had started to stir. Itachi faded away until he disappeared completely, but his voice could still be heard, a distant echo all around Romeo.]

You shouldn't be here.

[And that's all he said, because soon, his voice would get drowned out by other sounds. It started out as a pounding, almost like the rumblings of an earthquake underneath them. But then it intensified, a muffled banging and scratching that grew louder and louder, rocking the very ground Romeo stood on.

Soon enough, he would start to hear screams.

They, too, started out muffled, so that Romeo would be able to tell that they came from underground, in the coffins. Then they would get louder and more distinct, until Romeo could hear the voices of everyone he'd had a connection to that had disappeared from the Tower, screaming underneath him.]

Help! [The voices overlapped, but Romeo would feel like he could identify each and every person who was screaming. They sounded terrified.] Help! Is anyone there?! Please..!

[Itachi himself was nowhere to be seen or heard.]

Mister Itachi? [The ground was starting to rock and Romeo couldn't move, it was scary and then there was banging and screaming, like people were underneath them, like it was a real graveyard.

Like all his friends were dead and needed his help but he couldn't get to them because he couldn't move]

Mister Itachi? Don't be scared [At the voices] Don't be scared it's okay...

[Itachi still didn't respond, but the voices did. They grew more frantic at the sound of Romeo's voice, and began to call out for him. Underneath the sounds of their cries, the scratching sounds grew ever-louder.]

Romeo! Romeo, please! Under here!

[Some voices were distinct - the "Molly" that he was talking to earlier, Alfredo, Bianca. Others were more background noise, but their voices would fill Romeo with a sense of familiarity, like they were people he'd known in the Tower before.]

Help me! Dig! Please, you have to help..!

[Meanwhile, the graves around Romeo would seem larger, more distinct. Every engraving on every stone would be a name that Romeo was intimately familiar with, both people who had been in the Tower, and people from home who never had. They spoke through sobs, some of their voices raspy and weak like they weren't getting enough air.]

Please! Please! Why aren't you helping?!

[Despite it all, Romeo still wouldn't be able to move.]

[Romeo started to cry, and tried to tell himself it wasn't real. But it felt real and sounded real and his friends were scared and he couldn't move.]

I... I can't... I'm sorry... I'm sorry...

[Tears streamed down his face because he had to help them, he had to help his friends it was what he did, and they were scared and he couldn't move...]

[The longer it went on, the louder the voices would get, until they were the only things Romeo would be able to hear. The banging, the scratching, and the screaming, as well as the gasping and choking of those friends who seemed to run out of air in their coffins.

And then the images would start.

Romeo would be able to see the faces of the people crying out for him, broadcast in his mind as clear as day. Black-and-white faces streaked with tears, fingertips bleeding white as they scratched at the lids of coffins, people from all parts of Romeo's life thrashing and suffocating and dying all over again.

Underneath the sound of it all, Romeo would just barely be able to hear the dim monotone of church bells ringing.]

I'm sorry, I'm sorry... [Finally Romeo's pleas fell silent as the images flashed through his mind, all his friends, his parents, his little brothers, dying and suffocating whilst he stood there unable to move a muscle to help them.

Tears streamed down his face as he stared at the images, letting them burn themselves into his mind.]

[The crying and pleading would continue to grow to a fever pitch, but then, one by one, the voices would fall silent. Romeo would see each one of his friends and family choke out their dying breaths and fall limp in their coffins, and soon, their cries would be replaced by the ringing of that distant church bell.

When there were only a few voices left, soot started to drift from the sky. It fell like snow, covering the ground in a blanket of ash that decorated every too-large tombstone. Romeo would inhale it with every breath he tried to take, and if he tried to cough it up or spit it out, it would cling stubbornly to his mouth and tongue. Eventually, it would feel like the insides of his lungs were coated in it.

As soon as the very last voice faded away, Romeo would find that he would be able to move. By the time that happened, there was at least an inch of soot covering the ground, and more still continued to float to the ground.]

Edited 2013-04-22 23:21 (UTC)

No... [One by one his friends fell dead, suffocated in their coffins as he stood helplessly by. The church bell mocked him, something that had always been a symbol of hope to him, happiness, a new dawn, it tolled the deaths of his friends and he watched as the world began to turn grey with ash.

The moment he could move he fell to his knees, scrabling at the ash, at the dirt underneath, though the voices were gone, they were all dead. He could barely breathe, coughing did nothing and the ash stuck to his tears, coating his face, slowly turning him back into that scared chimney sweep from the time before they Black brothers was created.]

[John was just passing through the infirmary on his way down to get some lunch, but an all-too-familiar voice puts food out of his mind all too quickly.]

Itachi? [He abandons the stairs, sounding more than a little worried.] What the hell happened? How can I help, what do you need?

[That's a familiar voice. Itachi doesn't know whether or not he should feel relieved.]

John. [He flashes him an unsteady smile, as if doing that will offset the sight of his mutilations in general.] I was just hoping- You wouldn't happen to know if there are any painkillers in here, would you?

[He doubts it'll help, in all honesty, but he figures it's worth a shot. It's just been getting impossible for him to move a muscle without pain shooting up his back or to his arms, and if he can feel even a little bit of relief from that, he'll be happy.]

Um, give me a second, let me see if I can find some. Don't move, okay?

[He says it without really thinking. Of course he's not going to move, not in that state. Where on Earth would he even go? But true to his word, John's footsteps can be heard walking across the room. There have to be painkillers in here somewhere...]

Ah! Found some!

[There's pause as John rifles through the bottles, glancing at the labels. Eventually, he picks one and a rattling sound accompanies his footsteps as he makes his way back to Itachi. He stops in front of him, popping the lid off the bottle and pouring a couple of the pills into his palm.]

These were the strongest I could find, at least I think? It's kind of hard to tell but hopefully they'll do something. Err... [A glance at his arms. Yeah that's not happening is it?]

[Itachi stays put, hesitant to even breathe when it causes such great pain to shoot through his back. Though he's in a huge amount of pain, he seems to be taking it in stride, only appearing a little bit flustered with his situation.]

A-anything is fine, thank you.

[He tilts his chin down, rolling his head back and forth, but of course, it does little more than make it apparent to John that he's thinking about his arms. He lets out a tiny chuckle (and his smile wavers when doing so makes his back throb even more).]

...I don't even know what they've done to me. [He lifts his head up back toward John.] How bad is it?

[His smile stays on his face as Itachi tries to make light of the situation. He's already feeling agonized enough about all this; there's no need to drag others down with him, when they're undoubtedly dealing with other things themselves.]

It's... [He pauses, idly rolling one of the pills in his hand.] well, frankly you look like hell. So pretty bad.

[Wow, way to not sugar coat that at all, John. As an after thought, he adds:]

But it could always be worse, I guess. At least you are still human and they didn't like...give you any extra appendages or tentacles or something. They did stick a fan in your back though. And there are a bunch of these weird looking symbols carved into your arms. And your eyes are uh...kinda not there. At all. But somehow I get the feeling you might have realized that much.

[But enough of that, let's do something about these pills, shall we? Even if they probably won't do anything.]

Say ah.

[Even though he knows the dead are Hades' realm, it's still somehow easier for him to hang out here than a lot of other places. Maybe it's because he was intended to serve in the Underworld Army. Maybe it's because this is where heroes always end up. He's not sure.]

[Even so, he notices Itachi, and carefully creeps closer. He's curious what this... really broken-looking person is doing, who he's looking at.]

[The glowing symbols make him pause, though. He reaches for his staff.]

[It's too late for that staff to do Dark Pit any sort of good. The symbol on Itachi's arm continues to glow, while the graveyard's colors warp abruptly to tones of black, red, and white. Itachi himself vanishes behind a mirror, long and tall, that slams into the ground before Dark Pit and reflects his new black and white image back at him. More mirrors - some taller, some wider - appear out of nowhere and lodge themselves in the ground, forming a sort of jagged circle around Dark Pit. Dozens turn into hundreds, until Dark Pit is surrounded by a maze of mirrors not unlike what one might see at a carnival.

Soon, the only thing he'll be able to see is the black grass under his feet, the red sky above him, and a forest of mirrors as far as the eye can see, reflecting his own image back at him hundreds of times over. With so many different images being reflected on each other so many times, Dark Pit will see a twisted, warped version of himself no matter where he turns.]

Twelve hours.

[That's the only thing Itachi says, though he's nowhere to be seen. His hollow voice seems to echo off of the illusory mirrors all around Dark Pit.]

[He stares at the mirror, and turns, trying to find out where the voice is coming from. He races at one of the mirrors, before freezing. Why can't he move? Why... why does he feel suddenly afraid? He tries to look away from the vision of himself that looks so warped, but it's everywhere.]

Wh... what the heck?!

[The reflections, from the beginning, look a little... off. It may be that they don't quite move like they should, lagging a second or two after Dark Pit moves his head, or it could be that even with all the mirrors around him, his reflections shouldn't look quite so inhuman. Whatever it is, it's indistinct, but it's designed to leave Dark Pit feeling a deep sense of dread.

That's just the start of it. The reflections seem to react to the sound of Dark Pit's voice. Eyes swivel back and forth to look at him, mouths hang agape, and then those reflections start to move forward, hands outstretched, clawing at the surfaces of the glass like they're trapped inside and trying to get out.

His voice first fades away like normal, but then it bounces back to him, that "Wh... what the heck?!" being repeated by each one of the Dark Pits in the mirrors. It starts at the very edges of the horizon, then moves from one mirror to another to another, becoming more and more warped the closer to Dark Pit it gets. By the time the reflections closest to him speak, their voices are barely recognizable any more, closer to the growling and shrieking of animals than anything. There's a distinct undertone to them, though, like Dark Pit's voice is struggling to be heard underneath that ear-piercing shriek that's coming from the nearest mirrors.]

Shut up shut up shut up!

[He drags his body into action, reaching for his staff and firing a shot off at the closest one. No. No more mirrors.]

Like hell I'm gonna listen to some... r...

[Tch. He's a reflection. But... that's not all he is, right?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[o5] Those who can't acknowledge their real selves are bound to fail

Infirmary

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Yup let's do this in front of Sasuke's grave. Open to as much awfulness as you can handle

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

infirmary

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Graveyard; malfunction

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject