☠ 007 | here is no water but only rock

[destructiveprinciple]

Characters: Avenger and OPEN to all.
Setting: Wildcard wanderings, the thirteenth floor, the seventy-seventh floor, the seventy-fourth floor and the hundred-and-one floor.
Format: Preference for action spam.
Summary: Aftermath regarding the regains from last month's event along with an open log for this month.
Warnings: lol Angra Mainyu (also nudity in one of the prompts)

[ SCENARIO A || FLOOR 13: CATHEDRAL ]

[ In the church, there's the usual silence—solitary and deepened by the evening's dimness—dust particles drifting in dim shafts of light.

And there's also a boy whose modesty is only preserved by his red mantle, seated on a front pew right near the altar with one tattooed leg crossed over the other leg, head tilted back to gaze up at the vaulted, airy ceiling and the faint murmuring of some invisible mass. He's quite obviously not here out of any reverence for religion. Avenger is quiet and his dark eyes are mildly discontented.

But what's actually strange about the scene is this; the Servant had a long, red cloth in his hands, the ends trailing carelessly down onto the floor. To whose with the capability to sense such things, there's a lingering touch of divinity in the fabric: a sigh that the useless shroud had once been holy, but was no more.

Avenger himself wasn't too sure what to... do with it. ??? ]


[ SCENARIO B || FLOOR 77: SAUNA (mixed entrance) ]

[ It's several days after the crowds have drained out of the bathhouse that. It's not so much Avenger gives a fuck about his personal hygiene and the fact he's starting to smell as it's that occasionally his desires are very simple ones, and today they happen to include a long hot bath.

He backs up, naked amidst the clouds of steam, before taking a running leap and doing a cannonball into the hot pool with a gleeful shout.

The sauna is nearly empty today so luckily there's nobody for him to inconsiderately splash in the face with a wave of hot water. ]


[ SCENARIO C || FLOOR 74: CAVERN ]

[ After several days of forced abstinence from murder, Angra was feeling itchy for it again, needing something to sate his bloodlust. And hunting down the less powerful of the Tower-generated creatures was a superficial escape from boredom.

Therefore, one can find him fighting monsters and indulging in a bit of violence in the cavernous darkness of this floor.

There are one or two already-dead creatures nearby. He is, as the casual observer can notice, very untidy about his kills and delighted in mutilating them, always leaving a bloody mess behind him. ]


[ SCENARIO D || ANYWHERE IN THE TOWER: YOUR PICK]

[ Generally, Angra wanders through an assortment of floors at night (or during the day) and shows little concern for which ones he ends up on as long as they are neither overly threatening or extreme. It's entirely possible to cross paths with him at some point.

Though, that begs the question of why on earth are you choosing to strike up conversation anyway? ]

Comments

sauna

[puppy_lancer]

[Nearly empty doesn't mean completely empty. If Avenger looks hard enough through the steam, he might be able to find a blue haired Servant leaning against the edge of a pool, half-asleep and looking out at the steam with dazed eyes.]

[What can he say? He's a little tired from what's been happening to his friends lately.]

[destructiveprinciple]

[Avenger can hear breathing, slow and steady through the steam. But it warranted only a dispassionate glance in his direction to determine the other Servant's identity—Lancer— and whether or not he was hostile—not at the moment?—before he returns to carelessly splashing around. The water drips down from the ends of his soaked hair.

He makes no effort to engage Lancer.]

[puppy_lancer]

[Lancer yawns, then slides into the water. Further and further until he gets some water right up his nose.]

Woah!

[He starts up, looking around the sauna and seeing only Avenger.]

...Were you just trying to drown me?

[destructiveprinciple]

[Avenger is submerged up to his shoulders in the water. His eyes turn towards him.]

Oh ho? Like you needed any help.

[The amused reply floats through the steam to Lancer. ]

Cathedral of course

[god_damned]

[ It is natural that he finds himself here. Given the quarantine, Kirei was unable to continue his exploration of the Tower as much as he desires and likewise had not yet found the chance to reach the Cathedral. Now that they are free, bringing himself here is what comes instinctively.

It's a reflex, to return to what is familiar to him. However, what he finds waiting within the cathedral is not what he anticipates.

He stills when he sees the boy, unmistakable with his tattoos and his aura -- and something else too. Kirei's eyes focus on that cloth in the boy's hands, and he frowns a bit, but he steps forward with new found curiosity.

Perhaps it's some Sign, to see Him here, when he came looking for God. ]

Avenger?

Re: Cathedral of course

[sixbillionsins]

Huh?

[ It's footsteps coming down the aisle, heavy and drawing closer, first alert him to the priest's approach.

Avenger looks up, and is entirely not surprised when he sees Kirei, a man of the Church, in this cathedral. He pulls the cloth back into his lap from where it'd been hanging down onto the floor, into a messy clump there so he can have one hand free to wave idly in greeting. His bare feet rest flat on the cold floor. ]

... Oh, hey Kotomine. What's up?

[god_damned]

[ The casual way of speaking doesn't seem to line up with what he senses from the boy, but it's only a mild separation. He is used to Heroic Spirits speaking with a certain formality, given the age from which they belonged to -- but Avenger is an exception, isn't he? He is not sure yet, but something tells him so.

Kirei steps closer, watching the cloth as Avenger bundles it up again. ]

I came here to pray. [ Somehow, he doubts Avenger is here for the same reason. ]

What is that you're holding?

[destructiveprinciples]

[ There's definite lack of refinement to Avenger's casual speech patterns; crude and blunt, a little uncomfortable to deal with in conversation with his predisposition to ignore what other people thought about him for it. He talks like somebody who has never had a lick of formal education or ceremony in his life. ]

For what?

[ He asks, fairly certain he could take a guess at what Kirei, missing years and in a post-apocalypic place like the Tower, would pray to god for. The man wasn't anywhere near as predictable as the hero of justice, but he wasn't on the difficult end of that scale of predictability either. ]

This? [ He holds up the red cloth. ]

Ah, I'd have thought you would recognize it right away, given your line of business. It's one of your Church's Holy Shrouds. [ A pause. ] Seems like all the holiness has gone outta' it however.

cavern, aww yeah

[pinnaculum]

[There are a number of monsters in the dark, and it's not surprising when another one approaches. Before Avenger can react, Sephiroth appears, his sword cutting cleanly through the beast's neck, the blow accompanied by a spray of blood. Sephiroth's kills are much neater, but the drive behind them is not completely dissimilar. As the body of the slain beast twitches, Sephiroth pauses and studies Avenger and the carnage surrounding him.

There's a different quality in his voice when he speaks. The voice is less dead. There's more feeling in it.]

What are you? Are you human?

sweet

[destructiveprinciples]

[When the creature approaches, the small form shooting out of the darkness with a length of gleaming steel in his hand does get to behead it before the Servant has any chance to react, slicing through skin and skull until Sephiroth yanks it clear of the bisected throat. The creature's dead body crumples to the sandy ground and twitches.

Avenger, who had allowed Sephiroth get on with that kill without interference upon seeing him go immediately for the beast, remains standing a little ways from him with the carnage he'd wrought still surrounding him, still high from the rush of adrenaline. His short swords, as ill-fitted as they are for combat, are in his hands.

The new timber to the child's voice when he stops and asks, earns a quizzical headtilt from Avenger, made unsettling by the fresh splatters of blood he'd gotten on his face.]

And what prompted this sudden line of inquiry, kiddo? [A grin, giddy with bloodlust.] I didn't know you were concerned 'bout that sort of thing.

[pinnaculum]

I am not a child.

[His tone sharpens. He's frustrated, because he is a child, with his child's mind, his child's ideas, his child's body--yet at the same time, he isn't. He is neither adult nor child. He has no idea how this was done to him, or even what he is, now. As if his pride needed any more injuries.

He's as blood-spattered as Avenger, though his manner is colder.]

Will you answer my question?

[destructiveprinciple]

What a tiny adult you are.

[He observed, with the underlaying air that he is making a jab at Sephiroth when his tone sharpens like a multi-dimensional pencil sharpener and grows colder than Avenger has heard him before, even when they'd both been standing on the snowy floor and he had caused bright flowers of fire to bloom out of oxygen. But he accepts that frustrated, clipped correction for what it is and drops it.

A shrill chattering noise roses out of the gloom closest to his right.

He blinks, turns to the side and slams his foot into a small, lunging monster and kicks it away before turning his attention back to Spehiroth.]

Alrighty. Ya' want the long answer, or short answer?

D, Floor 30

[warriorscribe]

*Except he isn't striking up conversation. He's surrounded by Husks - hopefully the staircase hasn't fallen out from under Avenger, since one of their patches of charged air is right beneath it.

Enoch doesn't seem to be paralyzed by the electric charge as he should be, though he is most definitely in pain as he slashes doggedly at the one before him, his Arch buzzing as his armor slowly cracks, cracks, cracks... and one or two bits of it shatter and fall away in glimmering white shards.

He seems to be killing them faster than his armor is breaking, but just barely, and if Avenger has indeed been unlucky enough to have the staircase fall from under him, surely the ones closest to the staircase have their eyes on him now.

Care for a fight, Avenger? Or perhaps just a good show?*

Re: D, Floor 30

[destructiveprinciple]

[He would have preferred just watching a good show from the sidelines—Avenger wasn't big on jumping into other peoples' fights even when he cared about the combatants or outcome—but scrabbling up the staircase just as it begin to fall out from underneath his feet because ugh this floor and there's some guy fighting lightshow zombies down there, doesn't save him; he plummets down.

His luck is shit.

Dematerializing is a boon in this situation. The Servant passes right through the patch of charged air from the Husks, hits the darkened floor and scampers to the side so he wouldn't be electrocuted when he re-appears, snarling as the Husk's lidless eyes alit upon him and begin to surround him as well.]

Damnit— [The rest of it is lost under the noise of scrambling zombies.]

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch just barely registers the other person here, fighting the Husk with utter focus.

When it falls, he sees where the others have gathered and runs to help their other target, bringing the Arch down on one from behind.*

Are you all right?

[destructiveprinciple]

[We're sorry, but Avenger is too busy fending away the swarming, stumbling Husks to bother answering—he lashes out with one of his claw-like, twisted knives, attempting to sever one's kneecaps so it can't walk and he can kill it.

Limited to purely defense at the moment thanks to their numbers, he's actually holding his own and warding off the monsters even if he isn't gaining an advantage.

These things are a lot slower than Shades, thankfully.]

floor 74 because this will end well

[undefines]

[It's not uncommon for Nue to come to this floor for her own reasons. Because she likes it, or because she wants to play around spooking people, or because she's sick of pumpkin already and some of the monsters are fine to eat. More often, it's some combination of the three. Whatever the reason, she's here now, and when she hears some commotion, she automatically gravitates to its source.]

[Of course, as usual, the shape Avenger sees moving in the dark will be one of his mind's own design.]

floor 74 of course it will (it wouldn't)

[destructiveprinciples]

[Stone and stone beneath his feet and the sound of water running over rock, Avenger is really just letting off steam; he ducks behind a stalagmite and the creature he's fighting, some horrid furry combination of a goat and a dire wolf, slams right into it when it charges after him, leaving the opening he needs to smash the hilt of his knife into its skull. Avenger was surprisingly aerobatic and fast for all of his whining.

He wouldn't go after things too strong to take down easily, or he'd get slaughtered in turn but this is small fry for an Heroic Spirit. A joke.

Once the monster is dead, its blood splattered across the cavern floor, Avenger pauses and notices Nue; to him, her shape is unchanged, a blank silhouette that glows and has a mass of arm-like squiggles. A female, floating over the ground in the dark. He lifts an eyebrow.] Hm?

[undefines]

Oh, it's you.

[She comes closer, falling quiet. It's hard to tell, when she's just a silhouette, but she's looking at the slaughtered beast on the cavern floor.]

Having fun?

Cathedral

[pure_as_snow]

[The void of silence rang with the light footsteps as Irisviel wandered the immense structure, taking in the fine details of it's grand construction. In some ways, the general style remind her of home and the chapel where she had taken part in the ritual that eventually brought Saber into her life.

For now, she doesn't yet seem to notice Avenger]

[sixbillionsins]

[ The sound of more footsteps, lighter than the priests' and quiet, meandering down the aisle between the wooden pews reaches his ears. The embodiment of all the evils of the world looks up from the cloth that he's silently considering, and. . . He blinks.

Oh, the Einzbern's grail vessel for the fourth war.

. . .

The woman is accompanied enough that she doesn't appear to have noticed his presence in the cathedral yet. Which is odd because he didn't remember Irisviel as that unobservant as to not notice somebody sitting right out in the open like he was and leaking tainted prana to boot, but whatever. The Servant makes no move to draw her attention. ]

[pure_as_snow]

[After a while longer of surveying the grand cathedral and dwelling upon her past, the fact that she was not alone soon became quite clear as her eyes fell upon Avenger.

Everything about him seemed to raise a host of red flags in the homunculus mind. From The strange flow of prana to his strange appearance, it was all enough to push even someone as open and kind as Iri to take caution.

Slowly, she retraces her path across the cathedral's floor and makes her way towards to structure's entrance, giving herself the option of fleeing if necessary.]

Who are you?

[She had a million questions, but that was all she could muster.]

Scenario B

[no_longer_a_king]

[Of course this is the one time he manages to catch Arturia completely off guard. The baths are something she finds relaxing, something she comes to daily to enjoy and try to relax in the moments she can let herself do so. She'd been the only one in the sauna today so it was quiet, peaceful, almost serene.

Then Avenger had come sailing overhead and did a canonball. Damn near kicked her in the head, too, before she got a face full of water and began to cough and gag on it.

What was with people and trying to drown her when she's trying to relax?!]

[sixbillionsins]

[ At least it was near kicked her in the head, not actually kicked her in the head. He emerges from where'd he cannonball'd into the hot spring, black hair dripping wet and sticking to his face, mouth still half-open when he turns around to see who else was in soaking in the sauna, coughing out the water he'd splashed in their face. Didn't see her when he'd jumped in.

. . . It's Saber. It just figures. ]

—You're in here, too?

[ The list of people who Saber probably didn't expect to see cannonballing into a hot spring: Avenger. ]

[no_longer_a_king]

[Yet somehow Arturia knows she shouldn't be surprised.]

A-Avenger?

[She can't freeze at the voice and the sudden aura radiating off him like she normally would, no. She's still too busy coughing and trying to sit up and--

--and for some reason her arms cross over her chest and she ducks down further into the water so it's almost up to her chin. This surprises her because, well, he has Shirou's face, but he isn't Shirou. Why should she get shy like she had for him when Avenger is as far from being Shirou as you can get?

Especially after they were stuck together in a very small room, making sure she knew he was nothing like Shirou at all.]

What are you doing here?