☠ 005 | you said we were born with nothing

[destructiveprinciple]

Characters: Avenger, 'Shirou' and OPEN to all.
Setting: The graveyard on the forty-eighth floor and the hundredth floor.
Format: The exact opposite of Kotomine Kirei's lovingly composed monologues.
Summary: 'Shirou,' on his way down to the cafeteria to do his regular job, comes across the evidence of Rin's departure, and also Archer's disappearance as well. He's not happy.
Warnings: Typical fare for the Tower of Animus such as mentions of death, the destruction of worlds, and sadness.

[ SCENARIO A || FLOOR 48: OUTSIDE ]
[ This was a floor of pointless mausoleums, open graves, and fields of unattended gravestones. Some of the names littered on the headstones he recognized and knew—llya, Sakura, himself. He came by here every morning on his way down to the cafeteria to see them, and that routine never varied. 'Shirou' didn't leave flowers at their graves; it seemed a paltry gesture for failure to keep them safe and well. So, normally he would stand there and talk a little about random things. Saber, the food being a lie, what information they had found out, a video game he'd played in the media room.

But when he came down this morning, there was an unexpected new name among the graves.

Matou Rin, carved into the stone like it meant nothing at all. Like it didn't mean the magus was now in terrible danger, from Ruana's power-sapping to supply the Tower now that the power cores were running out. Like it didn't mean there was now another girl roaming the desolate, destroyed land of the world she came from like so many others. Like it didn't mean another failure.

His knees suddenly seemed too weak to hold him up, and he sat down hard on his rear in front of the gravemarker, one small slab of stone with a polished surface and scratched edges in the lines of gravemarkers stretching out like small, gray pittances. Shirou sat there and rebuked himself, feeling hollow as he thought about Rin, wandering alone in the ruined landscape of her world. And also thought more angry thoughts about how he was going to make the administrators pay for this injustice.

And that's how any nearby passerby's will find the teenager. ]



[ SCENARIO B || FLOOR 100: THE HOLOGRAM ]
[ For those of you who don't give a shit about 'Shirou's little episode of upset—a Servant is slowly pacing about this floor, late within the depths of night. He seems to be vaguely confused.

His back is turned towards the staircase, his face turned away from it. It looks like he's trying to figure something out; ]

—Mm?

Comments

B

[undefines]

[Nue is most active at night, so it's not particularly odd for her to be the one to come upon him at this hour. By default, she's more interested in the people that move around after the sun has set, so rather than simply pass him by, she watches him briefly, continuing to lurk near the stairs.]

What are you looking at?

[She speaks up after a while.]

B

[destructiveprinciple]

[ Avenger looks over his shoulder at the new person loitering by the stairs, and sensing neither another Servant or hostile intentions yet, only shrugs bemusedly in response. ]

Nothing.

[ It's true. All he sees here is the blank, metal structure of the tower here. There's nothing here. There aren't any holograms for him.

Which is strange considering even the most empty floors in this place usually had blood or something unsettling behind it. Or some fatal device to kill you with. ]

[undefines]

[She looks again. What she sees is familiar to her more by feeling than by appearance—it's been over 800 years since she has seen the place she misses most, after all. She thinks of soft fur, and she can nearly taste the lingering scents of tobacco and alcohol.]

[It only irritates her. The appendages sprouting from her back lash behind her, like the tails of an irritated animal. (Not that he's likely able to see as much, true form obscured by her Seeds as it is.)]

[She drifts closer, floating over the ground rather than walking.]

You seem awfully confused about "nothing."

[destructiveprinciples]

[ For once, this floor poses no threats to anybody, not even him and that's confusing. He's used to threats. It's just an empty room and the not-really sense that maybe he should be able to see something. ]

Wha? No, I don't.

[ He frowns. Then Avenger looks at her and raises an eyebrow; it's a blank silhouette that glows and has a lot of arm-like squiggles. A female, floating over the ground. That's weird, he supposes. After that, he huffs and returns to examining the room. ]

A; taste that dramatic irony

[fionnuisce]

[He hadn't given Shirou the slightest bit of acknowledgment as he walked up just a few steps behind him. In fact, the magus didn't really seem to notice him at all. Waver was absolutely silent as he stared at the new tombstone--very quiet, very still, and with a frigid look in his eyes.]

[He couldn't keep letting this affect him. Not as badly as the other Waver's disappearance had. But this girl, this Tohsaka-that-wasn't-Tohsaka...he'd worried about her. About whatever strange anomaly of the Matous' magegraft that made her different and how it had changed her from the Rin he knew. And now he had to worry about her being a victim like all the others on top of that.]

[It was a long few minutes before Waver acknowledged Shirou's presence, speaking in a low and flat tone colored by only the thinnest traces of actual emotion--whatever he might have been feeling, the lecturer didn't seem willing to let on about it.]

Was she a friend of yours?

A;

[heroicprinciple]

[ Shirou hears heavy footsteps, crunching over the sparse patches of grass and dirt, approaching from behind him. He doesn't get up, his knees drawn up to his chest.

He can't see Waver's face and the silence from him is frigid and quiet, heavy with stillness but he can't see Shirou's face either. Good enough. Matou had been difficult and unstable; more importantly, what had shone through all of that mess and darkened color, was that she was Rin. So busy convincing others she was strong she forgot to look after her own selfish self.

She shouldn't be alone in a ruin. Nor should she be subject to what was going to happen to the others unless they were saved. They needed to be saved.

He nods minutely and swallows the angry knot in his throat when Waver, flat in tone, begins to speak. He's too tired to really put much of anything into his own voice. ]

Yeah, she was.

[fionnuisce]

[Shrugging, he idly adjusted the collar of his black shirt to try and hide the fading bruises on his throat.]

You're lucky. I cant say she had many of those...I doubt she'd even say she had any.

[It was a slightly dark outlook, more brutally honest than anything. Rin--at least the one he knew--was too much like Waver himself had been (and probably still was). The name of Matou hadn't really seemed to change that as far as he could tell.]

[heroicprinciple]

[ She'd called him her friend to his face during that month when people kept vanishing and coming back monstrous and warped. Shirou had dropped by her room, worried about Saber's disappearance and learned of Archer's disappearance as well. But he doesn't mention it here to Waver; she hadn't acted like she wanted people to know it. ]

She wasn't the greatest when it came to that kind of stuff, no. [ magi really ??? ] I'm glad she put up with me.

[ He sighed. ]

Scenario A

[lightofhumanity]

[chaos always managed to find some time in the day to come down to the graveyard and mourn over friends and allies, both old and new..and those who did not have a proper grave. However, when he wandered in, he paused by the person that was sitting in front of a gravestone. They looked different and while their sense was also different there was..a whiff of familiarity to it. Not much for chaos to comment on though. He disguised himself with his own name. He didn't quite know who was disguising themselves here, but that didn't matter to him. It wasn't in his nature to question or point those things out.

What did make him sit beside the person was the fact that the person was sitting in front of the gravestone. While he also didn't know who Rin Matou was, he..did know how it felt to lose someone close to you, and he did want to help. He knew better than almost anyone else how it felt to lose a good friend.]

I am sure you are in pain. However..it is not your fault that this has happened. There was nothing you could have done to stop her soul from returning. However..what shall you do about this, if you do not mind my asking?

Scenario A

[heroicprinciple]

[ When a stranger walks over and sits down next to him in front of the tombstone, Shirou stares at them in slight confusion but lets them be. Maybe they're grieving her too? he thinks.

Then the person starts talking. Pain? Honestly, he just felt hollow and angry. She wasn't dead. Shirou shook his head and sighed. ]

I know that it's not my fault. [ Logic aside, that doesn't mean he blames himself any less. At the person's question, Shirou blinks. Isn't it obvious? ] I'm not going let Ruana use her or any of the other souls, and I'm going to save her.

Re: Scenario A

[lightofhumanity]

[Just because one wasn't dead when they left didn't mean that one couldn't feel pain that they had gone. But chaos, oddly enough..smiled and nodded a little at that.]

Good. Hold onto that hope, and do not let sadness and pain stop or slow you down. Perhaps, if you do, you will manage to help her and others.

Scenario A

[heroicprinciple]

[ Shirou sees nothing odd in encouraging the determination of others. ]

Hm, that's right. Can't let negativity overtake us before fixing things, and helping the others. [ That's just common sense. ] Or any point, really.

B

[crouching_sin]

[Naoya visits this floor every so often. It's a bitter nostalgia - he knows the spot where that place should be in the world, and he's visited it. It'd been avoided by most people - nothing would grow there anymore - and the last time he checked a satellite image it had become a garbage dump.]

[So he's surprised to see Avenger on this level as well. He flicks his eyes over to the 'fields', and notes with a little amusement that he's standing right near where he used to stand when he was taking a break.]

... Heh. Something puzzling you?

B

[destructiveprinciples]

There's nothing here.

[ It's late enough out that Avenger feels Naoya ought to be resting himself instead of being out and about wasting energy, but hey if that's what his Master feels like doing, he wouldn't be stopping him from doing that. His eyes flicker over to him. ]

Last time I heard, this wasn't one of the empty floors.

[crouching_sin]

[He looks over at Avenger, frowning.]

It's not empty. From what I've been able to tell, it projects the place from home you miss most.

[There's a moment of silence, before Naoya lets out a soft sigh.]

For me, it's my first home.

[destructiveprinciples]

[ He glanced over the room again, double-checking. No, there aren't any projection he sees; it's just a bare, metal room. ]

Huh? [ There's a beat of quiet. ] .. Ah, I get it.

[ He huffs. Avenger had never formed much attachment to places themselves. He had only ever been in two places that could count as actual "places" in his entire life, honestly. Fuyuki City was only appealing because of its associated memories. His homeland on the other hand was hateful to him, even as he nursed a nostalgic longing for it. He didn't miss either of them.

And...

The desolate wasteland where the air is thin, a mountain summit far above the ground. That scenery had been etched into his mind as surely as the hatred from generations of only looking it. The Servant didn't need the Tower's illusions to view it. So it was perfectly natural this floor had nothing to create a hologram of for him.

Naoya sighs.

He uncharacteristically casts a sympathetic look in his direction. ]

Homesickness, Naoya? Suppose even centuries don't erase that kind of sentiment, right?

[ The modern era probably hadn't spared the location of his master's first home from the need for pollution and advancement. ]

A

[chainsawn]

... What's wrong?

[ If 'Shirou' will look, he'll see that another gravestone is talking to him. It's not him hallucinating though, since there's an actual body attached to the gravestone. A girl. Two eyes pop up on the gravestone head, blinking at him idly as if it's normal to look like this. ]

A

[heroicprinciple]

Huh?

[ He does look at where the unexpected voice is coming from, and it takes a few seconds for her head to pop up into view. Shirou blinks. Why is these a little girl behind a tombstone? ]

... A friend left.

[chainsawn]

People leave a lot here though. Friends too. [ She shakes her "head" a little, and the tombstone promptly changes back into a normal head. She puts her hands on the side of it for a moment as if she's checking whether it's on straight or not. ]

But I know it's sad.. I don't want to lose friends either. It hurts.

B (Evilness wins the day...)

[oathshackledbird]

(OOC: If it comes to it, hurting Diarmuid is fine, but I would like to avoid death. If nothing else, because he promised Waver he would be careful if he ran into Avenger again, as much as he will hate to if things get too bad he will retreat.)


[As much as he doesn't like listening to rumors, it seems like whenever a new one has sprung up about someone being gone lately it has turned out to be true. That is why, after his nightly patrol, Diarmuid finds himself in the graveyard checking stones and looking for something he doesn't want to find.

Unfortunately, he finds it anyway. Two stones holding names he never wanted to see: Rin Matou and Archer. A small part of him tries to comfort himself by saying at least they had left together and not been separated here in the Tower...but that helps little since he knows that they were from different worlds originally and so they were separated in the end after all.

As hard as he tries, Diarmuid can't stop himself from shaking. Rin had been one of the first people he had become friends with when he arrived in the Tower. Granted, their relationship had always been odd and downright confusing to them both at times, but that didn't change the fact that he had always cared about her.

Diarmuid doesn't stay in the graveyard long. He can't. Looking at the markers hurts too much. Instead, he unconsciously finds himself heading for the one floor where he usually finds comfort. Floor 100. Only what he runs into when he arrives is the farthest thing from comfort he can imagine.

It's darkness. A darkness reminiscence of Rin's, but so much stronger that any comfort he might draw from its familiarity is wiped away. In fact, his sadness at Rin's departure is also wiped away and replaced by anger. He doesn't have to see the person's face to know their identity. Only one person feels this dark and unsettling and it takes all of Diarmuid's self-control not to attack the servant while his back is turned. The action might be dishonorable, but this servant had hurt his master and that meant all bets were off.]

Avenger...

B (another victory for the darkness)

[destructiveprinciples]

(OOC: Understood! I'll keep that in mind.)


[ It's silent on this floor. The quiet isn't heavy or suffocating, it's just... there. There is nothing to make noise so the distant, faint sound of Diarmuid's footsteps as he descends the staircase is noticeable. There's not anything to block it. If the illusion Diarmuid's eyes see instead of the Tower has noise and grass and sunlight, he doesn't hear it.

He turns sideways at the Servant speaking up, the right side of his body turned towards him and dark eyes stare at the knight. Avenger blinks, his voice lilted as he sees Diarmuid's anger, but cannot guess at the source of it. ]

? Oh, it's you.

B

[oathshackledbird]

Yes...it's me.

[Anger aside, Diarmuid is kind of confused. Part of him had expected Avenger to be angry with him as well because he was Waver's servant, but perhaps Waver had not mentioned that fact? Or had not had the time too? He had said the attacked was...unpredictable just as so much else about Avenger is.

Diarmuid takes a deep breath and forces himself to calm down. He had promised Waver he wouldn't case more trouble with Avenger than needed--at least not when he was alone.]

He...must not have mentioned me to you. If that is for better or worse, I don't know.

[There is part of him that still wants to fight Avenger for what he did, but another part is pointing out it would be best not to if for no other reason that he is distracted right now by the news of Rin leaving the tower and as a result his focus is not as good as it should be.]

A, duh.

[no_longer_a_king]

I see you found it.

[She had come down here to doublecheck, after finding out so suddenly that Archer and Rin were gone as well among those who had been taken. Two more people in danger now and who knew how much time they had left before Ruana would go after their souls?]

Re: A, duh

[heroicprinciple]

—Yeah. I did.

[ He. Doesn't sound happy about it. mundane doesn't have an appropriate sadface icon sigh ]

[no_longer_a_king]

[She kneels down beside him, quiet. Nearby, as if watching over her, is Archer's stone, an angel atop it. Part of her thinks its appropriate it says 'Archer' and not 'Shirou'. Her heart hurts at the thought, considering how she had finally begun to consider him a friend despite all that had happened between them and now....

Now she doesn't know if she'll ever see him again.]

We can stay here as long as you need.