What to do when you lost your purpose

[culbutiri]

Characters: Nesir, Eva Beatrice, Ivan, Jade and everyone else who wants to meet a sightly crazy angry Nesir
Setting: Starts in the mailroom, floor five, floor fifty nine
Format: Either
Summary: Nesir recieves a gift and then fails at anger management, big time. 13th, 14th and 15th August
Warnings: *deep breath* Blood, gore, murder, torture, death, body parts in jars, shadows, madness, risk of injury, lots of words

[13th: Mailroom: Open] She almost didn't go to her mailbox, she could see others, in various stages of grief and anger and didn't want to know if whoever had decided to torture them had included her in their game.

Curious cats might get made into soup but it does not stop the curious nature of cats. She opened her mailbox and took out the jar.

She would not break down, not here and so she found some dark disused corner and stared at the hearts, she didn't know why or how she knew they were Ral's and Lotte's. All hearts looked the same, and it wasn't like she hadn't seen a human heart before.

But these were Ral, the awkward, infuriatingly kind boy who had befriended her when no one else would, who had taken on bullies for her. Who had gotten through all her defenses she had put up around her and proven that even if she hated the whole world she couldn't make the whole world hate her back.

And Lotte. Lotte who Nesir was sworn to. Her priestess even if they were both still training. Who Nesir would die for, a thousand times instead of letting anything happen to her.

Warriors aren't supposed to outlive their priestess Nesir jumped, she hadn't even noticed the shadow following her. And she hadn't expected it to speak with the old master of the training yards voice.

Warrior acolytes are definitely not supposed to outlive every priest and priestess in existence. His voice was cutting.

[13th: Floor five: Eva Beatrice] It had taken some searching, especially since Nesir didn't know what she was searching for. She was angry though, and wanted to fight. Not monsters, monsters didn't feel. Monsters didn't get angry, or sad. She didn't just want to fight she needed to hurt something.

Emotions were useless, emotions dragged you down but the emptiness held no comfort. Did she deserve comfort?

She spotted the woman at the viewfinder, she knew her, even if she had spoken to her only once she knew her kind. Nesir grinned, "Oh cake witch?" Her voice was mocking, "Do you be wanting a challenge, you do be looking bored."

[14th: Floor fifty nine: Ivan] Dying had not made her any calmer. Her eyes glinted as she lay in wait near the staircase of the torture chamber. She still held to her decision of a month or so ago, she had no body, no name, her friends and world were dead. All she had was her soul and that was not truly hers, it belonged to the god of darkness.

And so it was chaos she served, she watched as people moved up and down the staircase, until she spotted one who she figured she could take. She just had to hope they had no powers.

Maybe she should have chosen a powerless floor. But regardless she jumped up and attempted to grab the man and pull him into the room. Shadows swarmed around her.

[14th: Floor six: Open] A knife flew through the trees, aimed at a dear. Nesir let out a hollow laugh as the monster creature began to charge towards her. Killing had put her in a better mood, though not enough to be able to ignore the shadows that sat up the trees with her.

What kind of protector are you? It's your fault I'm dead, is killing creatures all you're good for? Why did you get to live, you don't deserve to live.

She threw another knife.

What is the use of saving a weapon, whilst letting those that can wield it die

To add insult to injury the glamour glitched showing her for what she was, wire and yellow liquid, she chuckled darkly.

[14th: Room 2-01: Jade] Nesir was covered in blood by the time she returned to her room, most of it was Ivan's. Her side of the room was still a mess from when she had left after the sleep paralysis had worn off that morning. She picked up the jar of hearts from among the covers and put it on the nightstand. Pride of place.

They probably expected her to get rid of it, expected her to hide from the pain. But no, let chaos rule, do what they don't expect. She flopped on her bed, not caring about the blood.

[15th: Beach level: Open] She had managed to sleep, which she was surprised about. But she had woken early, and made her way out, wandering the tower before anyone else woke up.

She ended up on the beach floor, she liked it here. Even if it was fake, but for a fake place for fake people it was a lot nicer than a lot of the floors.

The shadows had followed her of course, still taunting her, Lotte's voice, Kant's voice, Ral's voice. She sat by the water line, kicking off her shoes and letting the water splash over her feet. She hugged her knees, and tried to pretend she was alone.

Comments

[reddeadvirtuoso]

It wasn't as if Jade was totally clueless. Well, OK, she was pretty clueless, but it didn't take the world's greatest detective to recognize something bad happening. The jars-- she'd seen them the night before, sleep paralysis was an easy sign of getting yourself brutalized around here.

The blood was kind of just the icing on the cake.

She'd had her own ghosts to deal with, but hey, nagging someone else about their problems was always a good distraction that David liked to employ. And besides, she kind of owed Nesir for... a lot, for setting her straight.

"Hey Rambo," she called from the door, covered in dirt and her gun strapped to her back, but still blocking the only exit from the room.

"Wanna give the audience a clue as to what the fuck your problem is?"

[culbutiri]

Nesir just groaned, she couldn't deal with Jade right now. She couldn't deal with Jade most the time but she couldn't just murder Jade. It would just make the girl all sad and scared and then Nesir would have to deal with that on top of everything else.

Ignoring her wouldn't work either, because Jade wouldn't go away, Nesir knew this from experience. "I do no be having one."

[reddeadvirtuoso]

Jade crossed her arms and peered over the top of her shades, just so her look of disbelief was that more visible beyond the tinted glass.

"Really? 'Cause normal people usually go for a shitty knick knack and or an action figure for their bedside decoration, not jars of fucking disembodied hearts.

"Most people also usually wash off the blood when they're going on a murderspree before it stains."

She sure didn't look sad and scared now, that was for sure.

[culbutiri]

"And when did I ever be giving you the idea that I did be normal." She sat up, brushing blood tacky hair from her face.

She gestured towards the hearts, "Be meeting Ral, warrior acolyte and Lotte, priestess acolyte. The administrators must have been thinking that I did be missing them."

[reddeadvirtuoso]

"True. But I can at least sorta hope that you're sane or something."

Then again maybe that was reaching for a place like this.

She glanced at the hearts when Nesir pointed them out, and-- well, she'd seen some gore before, but she didn't really like looking at the Kali-maa show.

"Friends of yours, I'm guessing.... You OK?"

She ventures the question cautiously, but she's still genuinely concerned. Anyone seeing body parts of a loved one would appropriately flip their shit.

[blackwitch]

[ .. Well. Now this is something she didn't expect. Evatrice sits here a lot of the time waiting for someone to freak out over the viewfinders and have some entertainment that way, but lately not as many new people have showed up so it's gotten boring. Everything has. The reveal that even her powers are part of the glamor annoyed her more than anything, and then there's that present too.. it's just an annoyance to her, nothing big, but it's like everything piles up after a while.

But this.. sounds better than any of that. It's why the corners of her mouth tug up. She remembers this person. ]

A challenge..? And what kind of challenge are we talking about?

[culbutiri]

I did be thinking a fight, unless you do be being any good at knife throwing. [She smirked] But you can be calling it if you do be wanting to be.

It do be having a prize though.

[blackwitch]

Hee hee.. in a place like this any challenge without a prize would already be interesting enough, riiight..? It's enough to make someone rot away from boredom. [ Or just get really annoyed. But she doesn't like just telling anyone that. ]

A fight would be just fine, I'll even let you decide the rules if you want! Bu-t.. you'll at least tell me what the prize is first, right?

[culbutiri]

Exactly, it do be being far too boring around here.

[She smirked, hoping this worked. She didn't know Beatrice that well, but she seemed similar enough to Wretched Egg.]

Of course I will be, winner do be getting to be killing the loser, however they do be wanting.

Floor Fifty-Nine

[thinkwisely]

Other curious cats were setting themselves up for trouble, too. Or maybe it wasn't so much that Ivan was curious as he was...listless. Desperate. Trying to find a way to pay no mind to the shadows creeping at his heels.

I needed you, Ivan. Thought you could save the world, did you? Stupid boy.

Ivan shakes his head as he climbs the stairs, face shaken as he worries his lip, staring stubbornly ahead--refusing to look back at the thing with Hammet's voice.

You left me to die a prisoner in Lunpa--even failed your own destiny.

He chokes back a wad in his throat, and tries to tell himself not to be offended, or hurt, or sad, or anything. Because this can't be Hammet--this can't really be Hammet. Just ignore it, just keep walking, even though it hurts. Just keep stepping up and up.

I hope you enjoy the ring on my finger: the one that the rogues in Lunpa cut off as a message before you doomed us. Maybe you can pawn it off somewhere with the Shaman's Rod. It's not as if you'll be needing either, anymore.

Ivan thinks about what he found in the mailbox--those adorned finger stumps and the note. He, of course, had slammed the door shut and stumbled back and away from it without taking it. Couldn't stomach it. But the words were burned into his gifted young brain: one for every time he cheated. And the doubt only creeps further in as he considers it. Maybe this really was his fault. Ivan had been wasting his time in Tolbi...being dishonest in the Tournament, when the one who he should have been focusing on all along, the one who should have been a father to him and his top priority, was wasting away in Lunpa.

The Jupiter Adept can feel himself weakening as his heart cries out. And then he's stumbling--only he's not really stumbling so much as he's being dragged violently to the side suddenly. He had been paying so little attention he hadn't even noticed the girl on the steps. Caught so off guard, and still so new to the Tower, he doesn't even think to pull a weapon to defend himself. And already being so small, already beginning to feel weakness set in from the assault of his Shadows, Ivan is easy to pull along.

"Can I help you?" Ivan manages to choke out the words before his eyes go wide at the devilish floor he realizes he's been surrounded by.

[culbutiri]

Small and easy for Nesir to overpower, she quickly stripped him of any weapons he did have and pulled him over to one of the tables, attempting to strap him down on one.

"Yes you can." She chose a voice that was similar to Beatrice's, though it wasn't an exact copy. She didn't really care if he managed to identify her though.

[thinkwisely]

Maybe if this has been earlier in the week, Ivan would have been able to put up a bigger fight regardless of his surprise. Maybe he could have summoned a djinn, or held onto one of his staff or his light sword. Maybe he could've tapped into some of his attack-based psynergy even without a weapon.

But it all seemed so hard. Never before had Ivan felt so sluggish and disconnected from himself. "What are you--" He starts, but his sentence is cut off with a grunt as he gets forced down onto one of the tables. Now, he's starting to feel panic set in over the confusion. The shadows grin down at him as he struggles but is ultimately overpowered (his talent didn't lie in his physical battle capabilities, that was for sure). As if Hammet and his wife and all of Ivan's friends are eager for retribution.

He pulls against the straps, his heart beating uncomfortably fast in his ribcage. "Please...I don't know what this is about...b-but..."

Are you going to ask her to be reasonable? Do you think that my kidnappers were reasonable when they cut into me? Why should she be?

[culbutiri]

"It's not about you." Her voice was still sing song as she found the implements she needed and circled him grinning. "You were just in the wrong place," she touched a knife to his hand, gently, and then to his forehead.

"At the wrong time, I'm doing this because I want to, it has nothing to do with you."

Therefore no way out, no bargains or bribes. Just Nesir, no Culbu, Culbu and this person, pain and death.

Floor 6

[crouching_sin]

... Not whom he expected to see, but whatever. Naoya heads towards her, the trail of shadows after him.

"Is this for fun or just because you're in a bad mood?"

He can guess which, but.

[culbutiri]

"Both." She threw another dagger at the monster. "It do no be as fun as I did be hoping though."

[crouching_sin]

"That happens."

He leans against a tree, waving one of the shadows off.

"Oh stop talking. I've heard this all before."

[culbutiri]

"It do be being weird to be having an audience." She nodded at her own shadows. "And knives do no be working on them sadly."

15th: Beach

[chevalier_mal_fet]

[There is a lone figure down the shore, walking the line of the tide, trailing Shadows of its own in its wake.
If Lancelot survives this time, it will be due to his connection with his Master-- which is strong though his Master has gone quietly Mad.
Though the Shadows reproach him aloud, he has heard their words before, always. He cannot remember a time, when in his right mind, that Arthur's voice and Guineviere's have not come into his Dreams and even into his waking hours-- naming his faults, pleading and accusing and sorrowing. Poison in his ears, but no less than he deserves.

But here is Nesir Aeser, sat where the false water meets the false land.
Unoticed for so distracted is she), he comes to stand beside her, his unlikely friend.
Her gift to him is pinned to his breast- nearby to a strange pocket-square, which seems to be spotted red and white. An unusual choice for the Black Knight.]

Nesir Aeser.

;;

[culbutiri]

[You presume to keep the names we gave you girl? Elena's shadow spoke as Nesir looked round to Lancelot.

Yet you ignore us, doomed us.]

Lancelot [She notices the broach and is surprised that he still wears it] It has been being a while since I have been seeing you. [Since they killed together]

(apologies: out of town/family funeral)

[chevalier_mal_fet]

It has.
[He has his own Shadows. Weeping and Accusing, clinging to him stubbornly.
He is more used than most to the such company-- not that he is unaffected, for they do tire him.
The effect is merely muted.

Preferring not to tower over her, Lancelot drops to the sand beside Nesir.]

I am in your debt.

How do you fare?

<3

[culbutiri]

I do be being alright. [She tilted her head across to him and smiled as he sat next to her and the shadows backed off a little] You do be being batter company than these others.

15th: Beach level

[neverbeamemory]

[This floor is more of a pass-through usually for Sephiroth on his wanderings around the Tower. However the usual visual scan of the area revealed what looked like a familiar figure - accompanied by a couple of shadows of her own.

"What's this? Another you would use and discard." commented a shadow near to him - of which there were many more. Sephiroth, as quite practiced by this time in the week ignored it as he approached Nesir - curious to see how bad she's got it more than anything else.

He's not had any effect on anyone else's shadows much, on account of the lack of bonds he has with anyone in the Tower. But, if nothing else there was a strong bond of could-have-been friendship if he'd have let it, of hatred lingering from their last fight. Sephiroth stopped a small distance away from the shoreline and raised a hand to one of her shadows, to see if he could invisibly make it react to him.]

[culbutiri]

[Oh look it's another one Nesir turned to see who the shadows were talking about, and her eyes narrowed when she saw him. At least this one treats you with the disdain you deserve.] What do you be wanting? The shadows did take a small step back, though not all that much, just enough to give Sephiroth room.

[neverbeamemory]

[As if dis-satisfied with the amount of room the shadows left him with Sephiroth swings an arm at another at them, trying to get it to back off a little more. Then Nesir speaks and he turns his attention back, and down to her.]

You'd best not be listening to them, you know. [He comments, the closest thing to any advice that anyone might get from him. Nesir, for all her very human qualities has been marked clearly by Ganondorf as 'one to watch' - and so this would be the test wouldn't it? If her shadows were anything like his and kept trying to break her down.]

[culbutiri]

[Nesir seemed to realise that he was tying to chase off her shadows, and blinked in surprise.

See how she's convinced them she's worth living, though she is alive on time stolen from us Elena commented to the other shadows.] Of course I do no be listening to them, they do be being like insects chirping in the grass.