[open] so come and face me now, here on the stage tonight

[cullscuttlefish]

Characters: Empress Feferi Peixes and all her subjects (OPEN)
Setting: Dorm floors, Floor 10, Floor 73, and around the tower - name your place!
Format: Prose to start, but I'll match you in comments.
Summary: The rumor carved in tiny print on the back of Feferi's neck is well-hidden, and she honestly meant well. She wanted to protect everyone. But a wish like that is never so simple in the Tower.
Warnings: LOTS OF THEM. Coddling and meddling in business that isn't hers, in the interest of 'helping' people. Trying to control others' behavior, in the name of 'not letting others suffer' - and this means pushing them towards believing in other Tower rumors, pointing your character towards death traps, stopping anything that will hurt it* or saying 'let me put you out of your suffering'. Also, a quick temper, and the writing is on the wall - if she thinks your character is in the wrong, there will be no card-game challenge**, only death.

But it's all for the best, really. She doesn't want you to hurt anymore, or to fight.

Character death is especially likely on Floor 73 - Feferi is angry and will justify any murder as one against her. If you only want her to mess with your character, don't tag into that prompt.

* except the resistance. she didn't mention it in the original rumor, and it's safe.
** but you will get a gold star for trying to challenge her to a card game.



Dorms:

Feferi Peixes isn't one to patrol the dorm floors. Going from place to place, greeting her friends? That's normal. But this is a patrol, nothing more and nothing less. That's unusual.

What's even more unusual is that her normal clothing is gone. She isn't normally so skilled with a needle and thread, but she's managed well enough, upstairs in the sewing room: the tyrian symbol on her clothing has been carefully removed and sewed onto a simple long, white dress, with a few accents: the long tails of her skirt have become a sash at her waist, trailing downwards, and there are tyrian accents just at the hem of the dress. She wears a bit of coral in her hair, and her jewelry and her tiara seem to shine with a bit more pride than normal. Perhaps it's because Feferi is standing straighter, and it seems to add a few inches to her normally diminutive height, heels clicking against the floor as she moves. Is it just a shadow, or is her hair even longer than it normally is? It trails down her back and past her hips on a normal day, but now it seems to reach the floor.

...is that blood dripping off the edges of her trident? Well, it doesn't matter if it is or it isn't. The Empress only kills when it's merited, after all.

Floor 10:

It should surprise no one that Feferi is here, in the aquarium. It's normally one of her favorite places, and as usual, she's laughing with the cuttlefish. Her fingers trail through the water, leaving little swirls and eddies for them to follow. The sound of her laughter isn't normally as - it isn't cold. It's hardly that; the problem is that it's too saccharine. Feferi has always had a sweet nature, but she's never let it go over the top.

Or is it that she's always been like this? Of course it is. She's always sweet, always kind. The Empress loves all of her subjects just the same way, even the smallest ones. Isn't that obvious?

Floor 73:

"This should have been mine."

Feferi's voice is a quiet, angry hiss. Every now and then, she comes up here, to allow herself to feel a moment of anger. It's always been a thorn in the Empress' side that when her control over the entirety of the Tower was taken, so was her castle. It was taken, and left a wreck, as a constant reminder that nothing here can be entirely hers, that her control only goes so far. It's all right, really; in the end, it just meant that she could keep a closer eye on her people. That's what she tells herself, in order to quell the anger. It works, most of the time, but not when she's here. Not when she's facing it.

Here, she can let her mask crumble, just a little, for a short while. When she leaves, she will be the benevolent Empress once more, but even the most kind person has their flaws. Her tendency to come here and remind herself of how her control was broken is one of hers.

Elsewhere:

Feferi can be found throughout the tower, checking on the residents. She's accompanied by a retrieval unit sometimes, and sometimes her trident is bloodstained, indicating that it's angered her and has had to be dispatched. But that's all right. She means so much good.

Comments

Floor 73

[caliginous]

Karkat had been watching Feferi lurk for most of the day, keeping out of sight until he could discern that he wasn't hallucinating. Something hadn't been quite right since the beginning of the week, and his usual mounting paranoia hadn't helped the feeling any. Now here he was, watching a caricature of the saccharine tyrian blood move around the tower. He doesn't question how she managed to overthrow the admins after seeing a drone follow her about once or twice...in fact, he might have praised her if he knew.

Praised her, if he wasn't so wary of the blood on her trident. It formed a pit in his stomach, brought up very painful details and reminders of exactly how he had died before the Tower had claimed him. They may have not been the same Feferi...but this might have been worse, somehow.

He comes out of hiding after she's disappeared onto the floor with the abandoned castle, sighing to himself. There is a prickling anger forming in the back of his head, one he's certain is stemming from his...friend? Acquaintance? He wasn't even sure anymore, and Feferi was clearly in no mood to clarify. However, she was the Empress and he was a highblood. There would be no ignoring a queen in need.

His sickles are strapped to his back like always, but he doesn't reach for them. He simply straightens his tie, takes a breath, and enters the floor, stopping a respectable distance from Feferi. Best to make himself known before he surprises her by accident.

"...your highness."

[cullscuttlefish]

No, it wasn't a hallucination. Not in the slightest. If Her Imperious Condescension had been the Black Queen - in clothing and in actions only, so far as Feferi was aware on any conscious level - Her Imperial Consideration would be the White Queen. Trade the black bodysuit for a white dress, be softer and prettier, warmer and more approachable. Become a symbol of life, not a thief of it; be a protector, not a tyrant.

And she'd tried. It had been a hard-fought battle, so much blood spilled, but the problem would always be that it hadn't been a complete victory. There had been a single bright, shining moment, a moment where everything was in her grasp - homes, safe and restored, for those that wanted to go back to them. Safe harbor in the Tower, no monsters and no threats, for those that couldn't go back home. It had been in her hands, the gates hers to open. Right here, in this very place, she would have done the thing they all wanted so very much.

It wasn't to be. For all her power, for all the potential that ran in her blood, Feferi wasn't a goddess. She'd been robbed of her chance to ever become one, and without that last bit of power, what could she have done? It was all she could do to keep herself alive during the brutal counterattack. She'd done everything that she could to keep everyone else safe.

At least that's what she told herself. This place itself was the painful reminder of that failure, and her loss. A destroyed castle, hiding a destroyed gate. Her anger flares, and she almost screams, but - no. The voice behind her forces her to at least try to keep it in check. Her fingers tighten on her trident, her face fins flaring as she takes a deep breath, then turns around.

"...Karkat. How may I serve you?"

[caliginous]

If nothing else, Karkat excelled at acting his part. Even when he had come to believe that it wasn't worth it anymore, that death meant nothing in a Tower where your soul and body were two seperate entities, Karkat still managed to keep up his facade when it mattered. He even took a moment to bow after a short pause of consideration -- after all, he coul feel tension and it quickly and easily made him nervous. All of his focus was spent keeping his expression impassive.

When he straightened again, he would regard Feferi evenly.

"I couldn't help but notice your distress, Empress," he replies, folding his arms across his chest out of reflex. It was not a polite posture (and some part of him knew that) but it was the only comfort he could find. "Thought maybe you'd want to talk about it troll to troll. I ain't a bad listener. Its actually kind of in my job description to be a good listener."

[cullscuttlefish]

She was nothing if not tense, and it showed in the faint fluttering of her face fins as she took another long, deep breath. It took a moment, but she gave a light curtsy in response to the bow.

"There's a reason I prefer to be alone up here, and 'distressed' is probably the nicest word you could use for it. The reminder of what happened is unpleasant, to say the least."

She shook her head. No, no. None of that, even if it did make her hands tense once again. "It's not something that anyone else should have to handle. The memory is here, and once I leave, I leave it here. I only get angry long enough to remind myself of what's at stake."

That was a lie, but she thought she was composed enough to make it convincing.

Floor 73

[true_noir]

[Chloe was in an explorative mood. She blew into her hands to keep them warm while she slunk through the castle. The rumor that some had caught about how much Feferi was trying to 'help' wasn't something she'd caught onto just yet, though it was extremely likely that she was going to find out about it sooner, rather than later.

Crouching on top of one of the second floors of the broken castle, she surveyed the ruins curiously, catching sight of just a hint of purple. A thin crack came from the rock below and she scowled as it broke and a small piece clattered off of the stones. She swiftly moved into the shadows, hoping nobody had heard.

But to an Empress? It would probably sound like there was an intruder in her sanctum.]

[cullscuttlefish]

[The crack of the stone and the clatter of the piece that fell immediately caught Feferi's attention. Her head shot upwards and in the direction of the noise.

Who. Who would even dare.

Wasn't it clear to everyone? This was where it had all gone wrong. The counterattack, the gates sealed away, her own power not being enough. The single largest sign of failure. She didn't allow anyone to follow her here, because she couldn't let them see it.

And now there was someone there. No, she couldn't have that. Everyone would understand.

Her footsteps were almost silent as she moved in the direction of the sound, and she knelt for a moment, picking up the broken stone.]

Show yourself, and I may show leniency.

[true_noir]

[She moved back into the shadows. Chloe remembered trolls, what they were capable of. She'd dealt with Gamzee, how he stole into her mind and grabbed the worst nightmares and most horrific memories. If Feferi was half that, she didn't want to confront her, and definitely didn't want to risk the possibility that 'leniency' meant a swift death as opposed to a slow one.

One hand sliding behind her back, she pulled out one of her knives. She'd been practicing long enough that her creations were no longer crude, even if the metal wasn't as good as the ones she'd had when she came here. Holding it in her hand, she kept a defensive posture and breathed shallowly, seeing thin wisps of steam curling in front of her face.

For the moment, Feferi was being responded to with absolute silence. Whatever churl had snuck into her home didn't deign to obey her magnificent orders. Would she stand for it, even if it was some pigeon?

Of course, the rock that had dropped wasn't small enough to have just been from a pigeon.]

[cullscuttlefish]

[Normally? Feferi was balanced enough to keep her violence contained. It was directed to monsters - and they only died to keep her 'mother' fed. When it was directed at a person? They were a threat, or they had pushed her too far.

Gamzee aside, of course; the indigo blood was a bad influence on her mental state.

But this wasn't anything close to normal. Highblooded trolls were never perfectly stable; that had been bred and broken out of them through the ages. The violent side was under the surface of even the most good-natured highblood, just waiting for the right catalyst to bring it out.

It's particularly true for seadwelling trolls. The ocean doesn't teach its children to be kind. It teaches them to survive, and cruelly.

The silence is all too telling for Feferi. She scans the bottom floor first; if it's a monster that's refusing to answer, it will be dispatched quickly. How dare they intrude on what is her territory, by sending one?

She doesn't see anything, and then, it's to the stairs. Her eyes trace the perimeter, finally landing on the steam in the distance.]

This is your last chance. I am Her Imperial Consideration, and I demand that you show yourself.

Dorms

[sageprincess]

[And as Feferi passes by the open door of Room 1-09, the resident who has occupied it the longest gets a flashback to something she never thought she would see again.

Or, rather, someone.

In the grand scheme of things, her stay with Her Imperious Condescension had been short, but the woman certainly left an impression. Tall, imposing, and with far more hair than seemed physically possible to carry, Zelda's memories of her former roommate are fraught with a kind of wariness few others inspired in her. But this isn't the Condesce. This isn't a genocidal, black suited tyrant. This is Feferi, and while the sudden reminder of the similarities in appearance between ancestor and descendant does scare her a bit, she's more concerned than anything else.]

Feferi...?

[She tries, tentatively, as she peeks out of her dorm room. Please don't be under the Tower's thrall...]

[cullscuttlefish]

[That's a familiar voice, and one that makes her smile. Feferi might not officially go by her given name anymore - she hasn't since she took her title, but there are still a few people she allows to be so familiar.

The resemblances between Her Imperial Consideration and Her Imperious Condescension only go as far as physical appearance, anyway. The smile on the Empress' face is warm and genuine as she approaches.]

Zelda!

[Her curtsy is out of respect; she wouldn't be half the ruler she is if it hadn't been for princess-senpai's example, and she knows it.]

[sageprincess]

[There's the slightest quirk of Zelda's head as Feferi turns and she sees the full extent of her ornamentation. Barring particularly cruel tricks of the Tower, the Alternian heiress always looks well put together, but this is different...

The Princess of Hyrule returns to the gesture of respect with a bow of her own head, and while she smiles lightly in turn, there's a questioning glint in her eyes that searches for what might have prompted the change.]

That gown looks lovely on you.

[cullscuttlefish]

[If asked, she'd be all too willing to recant the tale, barring its ending. As it stands, she doesn't particularly like speaking of it; it's an unhappy memory that she does her best to leave sealed away.]

Thank you. I was a bit afraid the coral in my hair might be too much, but it just looked so pretty when I saw it. I could hardly resist, when it was right there...and it's only right that an Empress looks her part, after all.

Floor 73 because I'm horrible

[colorfulbrilliance]

[Meiling had been wandering about the tower, mostly just jumping between looking after the ones that had just arrived. So she hadn't been paying too much attention to what exactly was going on..Besides she was so used to being sucked into everything that it wasn't as noticeable...

So as she's heading up the stairs, she stops and spots Feferi and has to stop for a moment. What is going on? Not even thinking twice, Meiling will head towards her, just curious on what exactly is going on.]

Hey...What's wrong Feferi?

38D

[cullscuttlefish]

[Feferi? She supposes she'll allow it, though the lack of her proper title will have to be addressed.

As will the fact that she really, really does not want to be bothered.]

...I haven't been Feferi to most people for a long time. Not since I took my title proper. Her Imperial Consideration, the Considerate.

[As opposed to her ancestor, Her Imperious Condescension.]

...and I would really prefer to be left alone. Since the gate was here, and since the counterattack...

[colorfulbrilliance]

Wait...What are you talking about? What counter attack?

[Unless her memories are being messed with again, she could not remember anything about an attack or Feferi changing her name to a title. She takes her hat off and scratches at her head a bit. She keeps walking towards Feferi. Yes she knows something is wrong but she isn't going to back down until she can figure otu what.}

What happened? I don't remember anything like that...

[cullscuttlefish]

[Her eyes narrow. How could Meiling not remember? How could anyone fail to remember? No, that was impossible.]

...you're mocking me, aren't you? Everyone in this Tower knows what happened here. When I was finally able to open the gate back home, for everyone that wanted to go home, after securing safe harbor here for everyone that came from a doomed timeline...about the retaliation that happened.

The lower floors may be mine to rule, but they left this place as a constant reminder to me.

Dorms

[morituramfides]

Jin never knew Feferi entirely well. She was one of Sayaka's roommates, so of course he knew who she was and her name and at least some basics (it was almost a game or a wager, watching roommates come and go and which ones would stay constant). Plus he'd talk to her on the network a few times, but that was about it, at least as far as he cared to remember.

But he'd never really been one for authority. He wasn't necessarily any kind of insurgent, but functionally speaking, the admins were still in charge. She wasn't much more than a figurehead to make everyone else feel better.

The bloodstained trident was never a good sign, but hey, who was he to give a damn?

"What are you doing?"

This ought'a be good.

[cullscuttlefish]

"Patrolling, of course."

Her Imperial Consideration couldn't simply leave her territory undefended. These were her halls, her floors, and they were hers to protect. Hers alone. Everyone else had done so much fighting, and they deserved the rest. This was her burden, and hers alone.

"I don't wish to see any harm come to any of you. I could hardly call myself the Considerate if I didn't keep a watch."

[morituramfides]

"Right..."

Well, he certainly didn't sound entirely sure of himself. Then again, he'd hardly ever actually listened to any form of formal governance.

"Not that it's any of my business, but consider me curious-- care to explain all of that, then?" And he pointed to the end of her trident, in particular the blood that seemed to be functioning as a bonus ornament.

Dorms

[evokingfool]

Minato saw Feferi from time to time, mainly from seeing her around the tower but never talked to her without prompting. The last time they talked was over the network, quite some time ago. Before that, they teamed up during the excursion through the elevator.

Other than the obvious effect of staying in the tower for too long, she always strike him as a good person.

As Minato exited room 2-02, he glanced around and saw Feferi. And immediate spotted the blood dripping from her trident.

"...Feferi-san?"

[cullscuttlefish]

Minato's initial impression hadn't been wrong; intrinsically, Feferi wasn't a bad person. When she had written on the walls, it had been to save a group of her friends, and to keep someone with real bad intent from coming to any kind of power. Her intentions hadn't been evil or bad in the slightest.

She didn't expect what had happened to her, but the compulsion to act had been strong enough to overwrite things. Her intent was still good, though, even if misguided now. The blood on her trident wasn't a person's blood; she'd been followed too closely by the retrieval unit that liked to follow her footsteps, and it had been dispatched. It hadn't suffered, at least. A single strike at the place where its neck and head met was enough to kill it painlessly.

"Minato! It's been a while, hasn't it? How are you?"

Her words were warm and friendly, even if her appearance was different, and even if blood was dripping from her trident.

[evokingfool]

"It has been a while."

Quite some time, and it's something Minato was growing more aware of. How easy it was for time to pass by them and he realised it's been weeks, maybe months since he talked with someone again.

"I've been doing well." Between training, watching what's going on, living and trying not to get killed (again), the usual.

Especially with the rumours going around.

"What about you? How are you doing?"

dormitories

[marriedthebloke]

My lady.

[Sola-ui is quick to courtesy to the empress, and averts her eyes from the blood on the trident. She knows her place. Noblewoman as she may be, she is no empress. Nor is she one to question what a Master would do with her subjects.]

How does your health fare today?

[cullscuttlefish]

[The Empress gives a smile and a nod in return.]

I'm doing well today, thank you. And yourself? I know things have been chaotic of late. Has anything tried to harm you?

[If it has? It won't for much longer.]

[marriedthebloke]

No, nothing yet.

[But it's still all a matter of time.]

If there is anything, I'll be sure to alert your majesty.