The Perils of Kariya Matou

[vermicompost]

Characters: Kariya & OPEN
Setting: Various floors, throughout the end of the month and maybe into the next.
Format: Action, but will match prose
Summary: Kariya wanders away from Lancelot at various times and has misadventures.
Warnings: Death is quite possible! Also body horror, blood, insects.
Notes: Kariya finds himself in a series of dangerous situations. Will he die? Will he be saved? (Or will someone hasten his death?) Feel free to rescue him from (almost) certain death or disaster! Or give him further problems to deal with. I also don't mind different people replying to the same prompts; Kariya can just have extra misfortune.


Floor 15:
[Some might argue that Kariya shouldn't wander away from Lancelot. He's sick and weak and his thinking is impaired, and he only has one arm. Yet Kariya is nothing if not stubborn, and sometimes he likes to be by himself, to do things for himself. Yet this doesn't always work out as well as he might hope…

The workshop floor seems relatively safe. He wasn't expecting to find monsters here during the daytime. The miniblin aren't much of a threat to someone stronger in combat, but this is Kariya. The creatures swarm toward him, and he knows that if he doesn't do something, he'll be injured and will likely die. He's weak and sick and lacking an arm, but he doesn't want to die. He doesn't have a weapon. He has no choice. He sends out his crest worms. The creatures burst out through his skin and then from his mouth as he vomits them up. The worms quickly grow and twist, turning into large, wasplike creatures that divebomb the attacking miniblin. As they fight, Kariya slumps to the ground, bleeding, breathing hard. If the monsters don't kill him, the blood loss might.]

Floor 87:
[As Kariya wanders into the field of poppies, something seems wrong, but he can't quite say what. He frequently visits the meadow on floor twenty-five to relax. Isn't that where he is? He looks around and blinks. It's different, but that doesn't mean too much when everything is an illusion. Maybe they changed the flowers here for some reason.

With a sigh, Kariya sinks to his knees, then sits, then lies down. He feels so tired, but that's nothing new. He should sleep. For a little while.]

Floor 36:
[Trapped on the crumbling staircase, without the use of any magecraft to help himself, Kariya stumbles and flails, trying to keep his balance. For a moment, he succeeds, only to find himself on a single stair between two gaps, each much too large for him to leap over. He stares. What is he supposed to do now? At any moment, this remaining stair might crumble beneath him too, but if he tries to jump, he'll likely plummet to his death.]

Floor 60:
[He'd been thinking of Sakura, remembering how she'd loved to cook, even as a little girl, so the kitchen seemed like a natural place to look for her. He's sure Sakura's here somewhere. She can't be gone, can she?]

Sakura?

[He walks into the freezer without thinking of it, and the door swings shut behind him. Blinking, he turns to open it again and leave, as Sakura isn't there, but it doesn't move. It's--locked? He pulls at it again and shivers inside his hoodie. It's so cold in here. He knocks on the door.]

Sakura...? Hello?

Floor 85:
[How did this even happen? He didn't mean to enter this floor, but now he's midway down a slide and hanging on to the edge, pushing with his feet against the sides, trying to prevent himself from sliding down any further. He hates slides. He remembers being forcibly pushed down them as a child. Unashamedly, Kariya starts to cry.]

Floor 96:
[The white is very calming, and there don't seem to be any monsters present. It's a very nice floor. Peaceful. Kariya wonders why he doesn't spend more time here. He sinks into the chair and shortly closes his eyes, letting out a long breath. Maybe this is a better floor to rest on.]

Comments

floor 60

[puppy_lancer]

[Lancer isn't actually looking for food on the kitchen floor. He wants to see if anyone stowed any turnips in the freezer so he can carve a few lanterns for Samhain. He originally searches the cabinets, but when he hears the knock from the fridge, he goes to open it.]

[vermicompost]

[By this point, Kariya has been in the freezer for some time. He's shivering violently. His hoodie is poor protection from the cold. But all this time, he's kept knocking on the door intermittently, which is the only thing he can do in this situation. He doesn't give up, even though his hand aches and his fingers are numb.

When the door suddenly opens, he's so startled he stands there, staring at Lancer in shock.]

[puppy_lancer]

[Lancer too stares at Kariya in shock. So much so that he almost closes the door again.]

Kariya? What were you doing in there?

[He notices the slightly blue tint to the other man's face.]

...I think you should get out now.

Floor 15

[stitchedupbodyguard]

Hey!

[Searching for candy was Veronica's main priority right now, even if she didn't like it. Saving other people helped her get her mind off that though.

So here she was, slicing through a miniblin and dodging giant wasps to get to the bleeding man on the ground.]

Hey, hey, are you still alive?

[vermicompost]

[The wasps divebomb her as well, but only idly, focusing most of their attention on the miniblin, as Kariya still has enough presence of mind to direct them, if only barely.

He looks up at her and blinks in confusion, as if he doesn't understand what's happening, blood from his mouth sliding down his chin. He puzzles out her question. After a moment, he nods, once. He is alive, after all.]

Floor 85

[god_damned]

[ Kirei is still trying to get a sense of the Tower. There are so many floors, and he has had limited time to study them all in full. This one is new to him, and he is drawn further into it when he hears the sound of sobs.

He follows the noise to its source, and stills when he notices Kariya, struggling to keep himself still midway down the slide. ]

Kariya?

Why are you crying?

[vermicompost]

[Kariya glances up, his tears ceasing temporarily. It's difficult to miss the fact that the actual tears are mixed with blood. His one hand is weak, and it's a struggle for him to keep his grip.]

Kirei--?

I--I fell down. It was an accident. I don't want to go down any farther. I have to get up.

[If he slides down, how is he going to get back up? He has no idea what's at the bottom, but he's sure it can't be good.]

floor 87

[destructiveprinciples]

[ He must have walked up and down this damn Tower a hundred, a thousand times by now. There's so little to do, so little to get done. He's bored. Horribly bored. Even the arrival of the priest, younger and wide-eyed as he was, did nothing to relieve it.

Bored, bored, bored.

Walking past this floor, the red poppies dipping and bowing their heads in some fake, gentle breeze, Avenger pauses for a moment. There was a familiar half-rotten maggot collapsed among the flowers. After a moment, bare brown feet (wrapped with black bandages, except for the toes) came into Kariya's probably sleep-blurred vision and stopped right next to him as the Servant stared down at him. ]

[vermicompost]

[Kariya half-opens his eyes, looking up at the young man standing over him. He doesn't recognize him, but he doesn't have any reason to be afraid of him. There's nothing to be afraid of here. He feels so calm and peaceful that he smiles.]

Oh. Hello. Did you come to rest here, too?

Floor 15

[absentapothecary]

[The workshop was the best source for cloth in this place, and there were these lovely sewing machines... so that's where Annika found herself, busy at work. But wait, wait, was that the sound of combat? Of monsters? She dropped her sewing, sprang from her seat, and darted towards the source of the sound.

And arrived on the scene in time to see Kariya... do his thing. And what a thing it was. Congratulations, sir, you have just managed to weird out the undead lady with your insect antics.

Not for too long, though. There were still far too many miniblin about. Up shot her right hand and a burst of searing flame leapt forth, engulfing one of them.]

Hey! You! The lot of you! OVER HERE!

[And then she launched a ball of far more compacted flame at another one of them. Hopefully that would draw them her way, instead. She seemed healthier than that buggy fellow by a wide margin.]

[vermicompost]

[Kariya is good at weirding people out. He has the worst family magic. He knows it's awful. It can be useful sometimes, but on the whole, he hates it--even when it is useful.

At the sudden explosion of fire, he winces, not sure what's happening, backing away as well as he can. He looks up, eyes wide, not sure if this is something helpful or a new source of danger. A few of the giant wasplike creatures return to buzz around his head, protectively. Not that they'd be much good against fire, being insects.

Whatever the source of the fire is, the miniblin do move toward it, or a number of them. The wasps continue to engage the rest, although every moment they remain in combat drains Kariya, and blood starts to leak from his eyes and nose.]

Floor 36: The Crumbling Stairway of Death

[chevalier_mal_fet]

[Yes, some might argue that Kariya should not Wander from his Servant's Sight or Knowledge, and Lancelot is chief among them. But though his Master appears Weak and Mild, he is a Willful man, and will do as he pleases in the end. Usually, Lancelot is in time to forestall most of the gruesome fates that seem to await his Master around every turn, but there are times when for one reason or another (being the Tower in either case) he does not sense his Master's distress and come to his aid.

In this instance, however, Lancelot is in Time, though he is not best pleased with his Master's state. Standing one reasonably whole step above Kariya, Lancelot assesses the situation. Here he is without his Powers, and he feels their lack-- for what could be simpler than to become a black mist, to enfold his Master and make away with him safely? The circumstance is far more keenly felt as a merely rather tall and physically powerful Mortal Man. Lancelot the Man gives his Master a slightly harried Look. He certainly will not allow the Man to Die here.

Master, do you be still until I know best how to proceed. Should I ask how you came here, and why?

[vermicompost]

Lancelot!

[Kariya is relieved to see him. In his relief, he almost starts toward him, but remembers his predicament in time. Sometimes he may not be as careful as he should be, but he most assuredly does not want to die.]

I won't move. I don't know. I was walking--

[He doesn't have a good reason. He hardly has a reason at all. He'd been frustrated at having to remain in his room, at being powerless. He'd started climbing up the stairs, but he probably shouldn't have come so far. He concludes, unsatisfactorily:]

I don't know.

floor 15

[undefines]

[Nue usually rests during the day and moves around during the night, but today, she has decided to take care of an errand before sleeping. Specifically, the metal rod she claimed from this room as a weapon has been bent and twisted beyond the point of usability, so she needs a replacement.]

[Her sensitive ears pick up the sound of buzzing before she steps onto the floor proper, but at first she simply writes off the noise as being one of the strange (to her, anyway) machines on this floor in use. It's only once she moves from the staircase that she realizes it's something else. It's weird, though—as far as she knows, the monsters in this place never fight one another.]

[Soundlessly, she moves closer to the commotion, and when she notices Kariya, it's more by scent than anything. The smell of his blood is sharp and fresh to her nose—and why shouldn't it be, when he's still bleeding on the floor?]

Hey, what are you doing here?

[vermicompost]

[He turns to Nue, eyes widening as he sees her suddenly so close. He hadn't realized she was anywhere nearby.]

You shouldn't be here. It isn't safe.

[She's just a young girl. He doesn't want her to be hurt.

The blade wing worms are doing well against the miniblins. They're much more mobile, and if there's one thing they're good at, it's tearing things apart. But Kariya isn't doing as well, the thin skin on his face breaking open, blood leaking out, sliding down his face and soaking his clothes.]

Floor 15

[doctor_dismemberment]

[From the direction of the staircase, gunshots ring out. Precisely-aimed bullets, two or three at a time, pierce the miniblin straight through their skulls. The shots are concentrated on the creatures that aren't being attacked by Kariya's wasps.

Richtofen crouches by the stairs, face marked with the concentration of a soldier as he fires his SMG. As intent as he seems on killing the beasts, though, he actually seems rather calm while he's doing it. It's only when they start to turn and make their way toward him that he cracks a smile.]

Aha, ja, that's right. This way, hm? Come here, you abominations.

[He continues to shoot them quickly, never once wasting a bullet. Hope you don't die before he's finished clearing the room, Kariya.]

[vermicompost]

[Kariya turns toward the sound of gunshots with a start. He stares at Richtofen. Though drained and in pain, he's able to understand what's happening. Someone else is helping him. He doesn't know who it is, but he knows that.

He keeps most of his attention on the Blade-wing worms, directing them to continue their attack. They're rather efficient once they get started, stripping flesh from bone, using both their sharp teeth and their sharp wings. The miniblins so attacked are soon reduced to helpless, bloody masses.

They're efficient, but that efficiency has a price, and that price is Kariya's own life energy. Fortunately, he's not on the verge of death, but he's breathing hard, down on his hands and knees, the blood dripping from his mouth and eyes pooling on the floor beneath him.]

and then floor 96 because I decided to tag with Shinji after all

[looselips]

[Not long after Kariya closes his eyes, a small hand grabs hold of his sleeve and tugs. The action seems agitated.]

What do you think you're doing, you idiot?

[vermicompost]

[Kariya starts awake.]

Oh, Shinji. Hello.

[He smiles, glad to see him.]

What do you mean? I was taking a nap.

Floor 60

[seventhsong]

[Kariya isn't the only person looking for an important missing someone. Though in the case of Lorelei, he's focused most of his searching on floors that restricted powers. A detour into the kitchen-floor is only because of a mostly-ignored idea that maybe food should happen at some point.

But well the floor's empty of actual food, so he turns to go.

The knocking of someone on the inside of the freezer might well have gone unnoticed for most people, but Lorelei has a ... special relationship with sound, and it's sharp and clear enough to turn him right around. But he hasn't been in the Tower long enough to be instantly suspicious of what might be on the other side, so it's simply pulled open. Is somebody in there?]

[vermicompost]

[Kariya's been in the freezer for a little while now. He keeps knocking intermittently, but his knocks are growing fainter and farther apart, when suddenly, amazingly, someone opens the door. At this point, it seems almost too good to be true.

Kariya should probably leave the freezer immediately, but he's so startled, and his thoughts are so muddled from the cold and his pain that all he can do is stare, open-mouthed, his one remaining arm wrapped around his body, an ineffective gesture that hasn't made him warmer at all.]

15

[sawthelockdown]

[She came here in order to try to learn more about crafting things - y'know, just in case, especially after that leg incident a while back. Learning by doing, that is. Difficult, especially without a teacher, but...it kept her busy.

Of course, fighting keeps one busy too. Very quickly, she's got Norn out and healing that bloody mess over in the corner, while she fries the miniblins with electricity.

Kariya you may not die. 8(]

[vermicompost]

[Not sure what's going on now, Kariya curls up in the corner, hoping that whatever's happening is for the best. But his vision is so blurred that he can't tell if someone came to help him or if something else dangerous has arrived.

Although he suddenly feels--better. Is someone healing him? He blinks, but he still can't really see, even if his winged worms continue to fight the miniblins.]

36; you know what i should just not be allowed to tag before coffee

[fionnuisce]

[As a general rule Waver tried not to linger for very long on power-deactivating floors. Being without his magic was...unsettling, considering how he'd come to rely on what little he had to begin with. But today it was a little difficult not to stop, given the unexpected sight he'd come across.]

Kariya--?

[A little-known fact was that Waver, like many ordinary people, was quite afraid of heights. Or rather, of falling from them. But he only hesitated a second or two in order to evaluate the situation. Trying to jump across was suicide; even if he did make it, both of them standing on the same spot was begging for trouble. Volumen Hydragyrum was out of the question, as was using a Command Spell.]

[Guess it'll just have to be the hard way, he thought with a resigned sigh. The lecturer leaned over as far as physically possible and reached towards Kariya, incredibly aware of how precariously balanced he was. But the other magus didn't seem all that heavy, and Waver himself was a little stronger than the thin frame of a researcher would have implied.]

I don't know how people get themselves into this kind of shit. Can you reach my hand?

[vermicompost]

[For Kariya, floors without magic were something of a relief. The worms suddenly went dead. He could feel their presence, the size and shape of them inside him, but they were still, as if dead. If only they were all dead.

It was true, Kariya was small and light and wasted away, which was what happened when you were full of ravenous worms and couldn't eat solid food.

Waver! Yes, it's me. You... It's dangerous. You shouldn't be here.

[Which brought up the question of why Kariya was there in the first place. A good question, but not one that had a good answer.]

I--I don't know either.

[He hesitated to reach out.]

I don't want you to be hurt.]