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Post by Cloud on Oct 27, 2010 4:58:00 GMT -5
Edge, the city built out of the ashes of the former capital city. Rufus wasn’t particularly fond of Edge; having to see the ruins of his once great Midgar in the backdrop was still a sorrowful experience for the company president. Previous plans to reconstruct the city were all but abandoned in the attempt to restore public confidence in the company as they head into a new era of energy creation. For now however, caution was the name of the game and until he can properly investigate the recent events that placed the planet in it’s precarious position, majority of the company’s reconstruction must be put on hold.
A sudden jolt. It was enough to bring the man back to his senses; ending his nap in the rear of the helicopter. Updraft the pilot informed him, nothing to be worried about. Glancing out the window, Rufus could see his former company headquarters off in the distance; it’s shadowy and beaten remnants still towering over all as if an everlasting monument to Shinra’s former glory. Letting out a subtle sigh while taking his attention from Midgar, he could see his destination getting closer and closer. While Shinra’s new company head quarters was located in Junon, a branch office was newly constructed in Edge; an effort to keep the fledgling city under his eye. The WRO surely couldn’t keep watch over everything after all.
“Don’t bother with shutting down; you’re to continue your search for materia.” Rufus stated with finality as the ‘chopper’ descended for it’s landing. “Of course Sir.” The Turk pilot replied obediently as he landed the aircraft, tires squawking slightly from the sudden friction on the landing pad’s surface. Sliding the door open, Rufus exited the helicopter, sliding it shut before entering the building through a roof access.
Rufus welcomed the smell of fresh paint and new carpet after riding for hours inside a helicopter. The silence was also a relief from the constant roar of the props. Taking in a breath of air, he descended the stairwell into the area that would soon be filled with cubicle offices, no doubt filled with the sounds of copying machines and the like. Standing on the far side of the room was a man adorned in a lab coat who wasted no time to speak. “Rufus Shinra…. What displeasure, I was beginning to think that you’d never show.” Slowly coming to a halt, Rufus peered across the room to observe the man opposite of him. “I can’t say that I expected company. What is the occasion, if I may?”
The other sneered at the blonde, leering at him with venom. “Tch… You can quit the act? Don’t act like I don’t know. The reactivation of the Junon reactor…” Taking a moment to observe Rufus, he continued. “Oh yes, I know all about it.”
Not reacting to this man’s revelation, Rufus just glanced off towards the wall of windows to his right. “Blackmailing me, are you? How curious…” Slowly walking over towards one of the large windows that revealed a spectacular view of the city, the company president was more than amused by the intruder. “Dressing up as a Shinra employee, taking advantage of our temporary lack of security in the new facility and somehow acquiring knowledge that very few know. Impressive. However, in the midst of your brilliance, you did look over one small fact.”
“Oh, what might that be?” The cocky smile that formed on the man’s face was beyond obnoxious, so much in fact that Rufus could barely stand to look at him. He did however seem completely clueless as to what Shinra was about to say, and was even daring enough to let down his guard.
“You’ve over looked the fact that I am within this very building.” Rufus turned away from the window and took a couple of calculated steps towards the intruder. “How is it that you plan to escape? Or better yet, survive this mere encounter between us?”
“Heh, you plan to shoot me? Dirty your pompous hands? As if….”
“Oh no. I wouldn’t shoot a concerned citizen. I value the opinion of all the people. It’s just….” Rufus paused for a moment as he lightly massaged his temple.
Quickly growing impatient from Shinra's talking, the intruder pointed his firearm towards the other, clicking off the safety. “It’s just what?”
“Oh, please do excuse me." The president replied nonchalantly. "The view outside the windows on this floor is really something... " Letting his sentence hang for a brief moment while he placed his hands into his pockets, Rufus continued speaking in a calm demeanor. "It’s just that you’re not a concerned citizen. You couldn't care any less about Junon. This will happen be the fourth failed attempt on my life. Getting quite tiresome.”
“You arrogant son of a ….” Never given a chance to finish his sentence, the would-be assassin fell to the floor with a dull thud, blood pooling on the new carpet. Off from the side, a man donned in a black suit revealed himself, returning his silenced pistol to it's place inside his jacket.
“Persistent, aren’t they?" Rufus chimed as he walked past the dead body. "Inform Tseng that there is to be increased security in every building. I find that assassination attempts tend to ruin my good nature. Also send for Reno and Rude. I would very much like to speak with them."
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Post by Griever on Jan 4, 2011 6:11:05 GMT -5
"Impressive," a voice intoned from behind Rufus - from, in fact, the very place he had just been standing. The speaker clapped his hands, then let them fall to his sides, stepping forward slowly, smiling as he glanced down at the blood that ran through the fibers of the carpet toward his feet. But just before the red liquid would've met the fabric of his robes, he lifted from the ground, as if pulled upwards by some invisible force. He looked up, past the blonde, again smiling, then suddenly he was gone; but not gone, moved, and he landed between the pair of Turks with no sound but the soft flutter of fabric. He lifted his hands so that one rested on each of them, holding their shoulders with the lightest touch, before suddenly his fingers contracted into a near-crushing grip that seemed impossible for one of such willowy build. And then a light issued forth from the places he touched, and his smile spread as he backed away, letting them process just what had happened to the best of their ability.
After all, fal'Cie didn't exist in their world, so of course l'Cie were equally foreign. But he had been kind, this time: their Focuses were clear enough, if they bothered to pay attention. And by the shock and fear on their faces, they understood perfectly well. One raised his gun to his partner, who stepped back and did the same, opening his mouth for some sort of defiant cry. But it never came, replaced by the sound of a gunshot, and then another as his own fingers pulled the trigger while he fell.
The intruder let out a sigh as he watched, returned somehow to his earlier place in front of the windows. "Pity. It's been so long since I've had the pleasure of watching a Cie'th's birth. But they performed their tasks admirably, didn't they..." grey eyes locked with the President's, "Rufus Shinra?"
He gave a grand bow in the courtly style of royalty, then slowly drew himself back up to his full and considerable height, expression completely placid despite the fact that the pair was now surrounded by the dead. Turning, he glanced out the window toward the sprawling city and, beyond, the distant broken tower of the former Shinra headquarters, then turned his gaze back to his company, gesturing back as he did so. "Impressive, really, what you've built. Or perhaps what you've destroyed is the true accomplishment? Either way, commendable. Few men can say they've stood at the top of an empire...though I must admit, that is a long way to fall." The way he watched Rufus was at the same time playful and curious; he was closely reading his expression for a reaction.
"But don't worry, you'll be useful again. Grand, even, perhaps. That all depends on the choices you make. What do you think? Would you prefer glory, or that lovely form of eternal torment? Either way, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy watching you."
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Post by Cloud on Mar 7, 2011 2:44:18 GMT -5
Rufus could only watch helplessly as the intruder quickly turned his Turks against one another, in a very mysterious and intriguing fashion. Such abilities did not exist in their world, so no doubt this being newly arrived from the recent cataclysm that smashed their worlds together. Cie'th? Now that was a curious term. Nevertheless, his lower lip twitched with disgust, or perhaps it was in a small part out of fear. He can't recall ever being this scared of someone. Keeping his composure, he forced a slight smirk as he took a subtle step back away from the man. Now the man was insulting him, stating that he fell from his place atop the empire he built took a lot of gull. His smirk quickly turned to a frown.
“My empire is still here. It has only changed from one form to another, from one goal to anew. A being with such intelligence as yourself should very well know that something doesn't simply cease to exist, it just goes through a transformation, simple or complex as it may be.”
Rufus' eyes didn't leave the intruder for even the slightest as he moved across the room towards the same window the other had been looking out of. Fear was something that Rufus wasn't very good at expressing, thus he hid it well. “Midgar fell, but out if it's ashes Edge arose.” There was a slight pause, he could hear the elevators being activated, no doubt more Turks to come up and check in on things. Having seen what he can do once already, even on a small scale, there was no doubt that a small faction of Turks would have much of a chance against this man. SOLDIER would've been more appropriate.
“Why is it that you come here? The merging of our worlds has put our many different civilizations into a precarious situation. Such hostilities you have just shown doesn't do anything to help ease the ever presiding tension.”
“But don't worry, you'll be useful again. Grand, even, perhaps. That all depends on the choices you make...”
Those words echoed in the bank of Rufus' mind, what did he mean by that? Directly asking may result in an answer he wouldn't like, not that would change any from how he currently felt. Biting the bullet, he finally asked, no longer able to avoid the nagging question that he intruder was no doubt waiting for him to ask. “Or was it me.... you came for? I am not one who gives into threats...”
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Post by Griever on Mar 10, 2011 6:00:52 GMT -5
Rufus Shinra was an interesting man. Intelligent and perceptive in equal amounts, he was proving himself by the moment to be exactly what he had hoped. And was that a flash of defensiveness there? Proud, too, then. So very proud. Not entirely unfounded, either: his father had built the Shinra legacy, perhaps, but Rufus had pushed it so much farther. Ambition was abundant in him, channeled by an exceptionally calculating mind. He would be perfect.
"You are as brilliant as the rumors would suggest." He was still watching the man, even as he found himself watched in turn. "Yes, you are exactly why I've come here. But don't worry, I won't be threatening you." He stepped away from the window, slowly, nonchalant in every mannerism, as though there was no oddity in the situation at all. "I don't need to threaten."
A ding sounded in the hallway then, soft but still audible within the room. Footsteps followed, and as he turned toward the doorway, a small handful of black-suited men entered, clearly unprepared for the sight that met them. He watched their faces as they discovered their dead comrades, as their eyes then turned to him, amusement lighting his features as guns were drawn.
It was deafening, the clamor of gunshots that rang out. Bullets pierced his robes as he staggered, blood flowed freely from wound after wound, turning the white fabric to crimson. He was still when the onslaught finally subsided, bent at the angle he'd stopped at, as though frozen by shock; tension hung thick in the air as his assailants waited for him to drop. But then a sound broke through the hesitant silence, too soft at first to make out what it was but rapidly growing in volume, and the Turks' faces went white at it, to the last man. He was laughing, and it was becoming wilder and stronger by the second.
"This is all you can do, and you attack a fal'Cie? Such ignorance!" The laughter subsided abruptly as he looked up at them, and their guns were lifting again, but it was all in vain now. A blinding flash of light erupted with a sound like thunder in the place where they stood, and when it subsided all that was left was another set of bodies to join those already littering the floor. He straightened, then disappeared again, returning in an instant to the window and to his place next to the president, his robes as pristine as they were when he'd entered the room.
"I've come to bring you a little gift, President Shinra." He was smiling again, amused by the entire situation. "I can guarantee it's something you've never seen before."
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Post by Bharune on Mar 29, 2011 17:25:02 GMT -5
The blonde Turk reclined in the black office chair, propping his legs up casually on the empty desk in front of him and bringing an unlit cigarette to his lips. Already he was bored out of his fucking skull; there was literally nothing of any entertainment value in this place. The Shinra branch set up in Edge was still bare, and the sparse movements of security and last-touch construction was doing nothing but adding to his poor mood. Across the room, an electrician worked on the wiring for the fluorescent lights. Absently, he hoped the man got electrocuted. At least that would break the monotony. Igniting the flame of his lighter, Seun inhaled to set the end of his cigarette aglow. Briefly he wondered how the people of Edge would take to the presence of Shinra, but from what he could tell support for the company was still increasing steadily – had been for the past two years. Typical. Amid overlaying fears and crises, people always flocked to the only master they knew, regardless of how many times they’ve been kicked. Meteor and Geostigma all seemed like a distant nightmare. “Fox!” Another Turk called to him, emerging into the white-washed room from the corridor. “Might have a security breach here!” Seun stared at him neutrally without rising, tugging the cigarette from his lips to exhale a curl of smoke. “Let’s go!” “I ain’t babysitting on my day off,” Seun answered lazily. “I’m just here because you pussy-footers couldn’t find a whore in Wall Market. Get to it, grunts, and don’t whine; if you need help daddy will bail you out.”The condescending sneer to Seun’s words was a clear enough dismissal, and he watched as several Turks joined the first one, readying their weapons and snorting their dissent before quickly filing into the elevator. Surely they could handle it – they were ignorant greenhorns, but they knew how to shoot a gun. Seun turned his amber eyes to the large window cut into the wall at his left, studying the urban Edge scenery. He had a perfectly good cigarette between his lips and wasn’t keen on the idea of ruining his peaceful smoke break. In another week when this room was filled with blue-collared douches, lighting up inside would earn him a quick bitching, which guaranteed a moment’s fun. He loved fucking with Shinra’s finest asshats. The branch office was well constructed, insulated, and designed so sound wouldn’t carry, and Seun didn’t detect any anomalies from above. Still…he supposed he might as well head on up. If he was slapped with a professional negligence penalty, it would mean more than a happy share of paperwork. Not only that, but he assumed the threat had been neutralized, which meant there’d probably be some mess or another. Of course, Seun wouldn’t deign to clean it up himself unless it was some significant task, but barking orders to the lesser punks was a good way to pass the time. Shifting and dropping his booted feet to the floor with a heavy thud, Seun rose fluidly from his seat, his non-cigarette hand tilting up the assault rifle he had taken to carrying around – made a lovely sound, she did – to rest the barrel against his shoulder as he meandered to the elevator. With a lazy movement, he pressed the button for the uppermost floor. Beep.Barely did he have time to contemplate the terrible lift music before the doors parted once more, delivering a scene that was a vastly different from what he had been expecting, causing his eyebrows to lift slightly. Seun paused in the opened elevator, rifle settled against his shoulder still, and he took advantage of the interlude to pull the cigarette from his lips long enough to exhale, his eyes roaming the messy pile of dead Turks. Both the president and the mysterious intruder, however, seemed perfectly intact. Well. This was awkward. Maybe Shinra had decided to conduct their layoffs the easy way. Hm…now it seemed to be decision time. Get out or stay in the elevator and head back downstairs? The latter suggested cowardice but, for all he knew, the president didn’t care to be disturbed during whatever negotiations or blackmailing was currently taking place. On the other hand, though, since most of the other Turks on duty were….incapacitated…Rufus was currently without a guard, and though that wasn’t Seun’s typical job he was obligated to stick around unless otherwise ordered. And if the enigmatic stranger was the one who caused this mess… The Turk stepped out of the elevator impassively, intending to disrupt as little as possible though he didn’t bother to try to hide his entry – as if he could anyway. He stepped around the bodies of his ‘comrades’, glancing down at them without expression. Hm. The stranger didn’t look powerful, but Seun was no idiot, and the pile of corpses presented convincing evidence for caution. If the dark-haired one had caused this, however, the Turk was undoubtedly no match alone, and he wasn’t in a particular hurry to test that hypothesis. He didn’t find the prospect of death at all frightening, but neither was he quick to clock out – whenever he did go, he wanted it to be something…interesting. Seun moved to a corner near the elevator, away from the men and their negotiations though the president was well within his gaze. Gripping the rifle, he dropped the butt of it to the floor, unthreatening but still prepared. Then, casually, Seun relaxed against the wall, seemingly intent on finishing his cigarette. Nice and discreet, just like Tseng was always telling them a good Turk should be.
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Post by Cloud on Apr 25, 2011 1:04:03 GMT -5
What was a man to do in such a situation? Rufus wasn’t being given many options by this point as his eyes gazed over the group of dead Turks. Fox was there, and despite his talents in quickly dispatching undesirables, he alone wouldn’t be a match against this foe; not when he somehow miraculously came out unharmed from the barrage of bullets. “You’ve managed to put me in quite the peculiar situation. You were able to defeat my forces and yet come out without the slightest injury. However I am still reluctant to comply.” He had no reason to trust anything the man said. First he says he isn’t there to cause harm, and then almost right away murders a group of men. Of course, in his defense, they did fire first. Slowly but surely, Rufus walked away from the window, positioning himself closer to Fox and in the room’s center. He certainly didn’t wish to stand near this fal’Cie any longer.
One particular problem that Rufus was facing was unseen by the others, his curiosity. What was this fal’Cie, where did it come from? How was it able to regenerate so rapidly? The biggest question of all however was this ‘gift.’ This strange and powerful being shows up and offers Rufus this unknown variable, but has neglected to mention the catch. “You say that it is something I’ve never seen before; how so?” Deep down in the pit of his stomach he regretted asking.
“Fox…” His eyes shifted towards the Turk standing nearby, verbally acknowledging his presence for the first time since he arrived. “… No matter what this man is about to reveal, you are not to attack. Doing so will only bring about more unnecessary loss. Besides…” The blonde’s eyes refocused back on the fal’Cie. “… I am quite curious as to what he wishes to present me.” There was no point in continuing this farce. Rufus knew that he wasn’t going to be able to get out of this, no matter what he said. And with accepting that, he allowed his curiosity to take over, using that to give at least an acceptable rational reason.
(D= Sorry for taking so long with posting, and sorry this is what I have to present. I couldn't type up anythin I liked, and it got to the point where Griever told me to post whatever I had, even if it was poo, so.... yeah. It is poo XD But somethin to get the thread goin. Rufus is kinda all over with his feelins about what's goin on =P)
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Post by Griever on Jun 5, 2011 18:36:32 GMT -5
Ah, yes, how he loved this, ignorance bordering on both foolishness and bravery. Cocoon, Gran Pulse, it didn't matter; the residents of his world invariably treated fal'Cie with fear or reverence, not this neutral curiosity. Here, out of place, he was no god, just a powerful oddity, one of many. Oh, how little they knew of power. Laughter issued from the strange visitor again, taking on a faint echo in the nearly empty room as it rose and fell and finally subsided. Arrogant Shinra, confident Shinra, thinking he was being presented a choice. But these games were growing tiring, and he had other things to attend to. With a brief glance at the new Turk, he moved away from the window himself, his steps slow, measured, human.
For now.
"Power," he replied calmly, with a small gesture of his hand. "Power of a kind you've never conceived of. The ability to control with fear-" a smile pulled at the corners of his lips, threatening to cut the words off in laughter again "-or with influence is admirable enough, President, but it means little without true strength behind it. What I have for you is the tools with which you can shape whatever you choose." He stopped walking, locking his eyes onto the man in front of him. The pretense dropped from his face like a mask, leaving an expression of pure malicious humor behind. "And for that, you'll give me something I want."
He lifted his hand. A light coalesced around him, faint at first but quickly growing brighter until it swirled and spun about his form, twisting around his arm like a shimmering snake. For a brief moment it lingered there, hovering, then with impossible speed it shot forward, striking Rufus' arm like a blow, flaring and irrevocably burning in its mark, his brand.
The vision he gave was, as always, vague. Flashes, that was all he would allow - Shinra's glory, the mako reactors, a twisting light that could've as easily been the one that had left his mark as it could've been the Lifestream. The president was a perceptive man; watching him in his attempt to make sense of it all would be entertainment enough that the outcome of his Focus mattered little. The willful ones were always the best.
"Ark." He was behind Rufus now, watching the last glow of his light fade from the brand. "Remember the name of your master, l'Cie. Run, if you will. Fight. But you will carry out the task I've left for you."
Then in a flash he was gone, as though he'd never been in the room at all. Rufus Shinra, after all, was only one piece of a much larger task - fal'Cie never moved on anything but a grand scale.
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Post by Bharune on Jun 13, 2011 18:57:53 GMT -5
Seun regarded Rufus for a brief moment over the rim of his sunglasses as the president instructed him to refrain from attacking. Fox made no reply, merely allowed his gaze to stray nonchalantly and lifted his cigarette back to his mouth. Somehow, he didn’t think that would be a problem. He was flattered, though, that Rufus held him in such high esteem to think him so loyal and honorable. There was a reason he was a Turk. Now Seun had shown commendable bravery in the past – he had fought and bled for Shinra company and exposed his true face as a dependable protective force. Supposedly. Or maybe he just liked it that rough. At the moment, however, he found Rufus’ command to finish his cigarette without lifting a finger no matter what to coincide with his own wishes, so he certainly made no effort to argue. One would expect the blonde Turk to be extremely rational and grounded due to his dark and lethargic demeanor, yet when he witnessed the stranger’s unnatural display he showed no emotion save a sort of detached curiosity. He didn’t feel the slightest ripple of fear or excitement or awe, as if the pulse of such affecting rhythms had ceased to stir in his chest long ago. Here was a man who seemed to balance on the fence between being alive and deceased, teetering on that precarious tightrope without the slightest concern about which way he might fall. Clinging to neither fear nor ambition, he was truly free to act and observe with an open mind. Seun Soe Fox no longer existed in the world, yet his body still moved and brain still continued to fire those synapses, locking him in a fragile cognizance. And that was fine, for now. Behind the shade of his glasses, Seun watched the dark-haired stranger wield his magic, speaking of things like power and control. He sneered silently in derisiveness, momentarily losing all interest in the scene before him to focus on his shortening cigarette. Control was easy enough. And what did power matter in the face of mortality? The whole game was meaningless in the end. Ambition was just an act, just a hopeless cling to some self-instilled delusion of purpose. Once the mysterious entity vanished, Seun remained near the corner long enough to finish his smoke before flicking the depleted filter towards the arrangement of corpses. He took a few long, slow strides towards that mass of blood and gore, swinging the rifle back up to rest on his right shoulder. “This ain’t your world now, boss,” he remarked in his deep drawl with some faint, dark amusement, his eyes regarding the mess Rufus’ intruder had left behind for them. “Might wanna invest in better security, hm?”Like a fucking god. “And now would be a great time to fondle some balls for the sake of Shinra’s relations.”Seun’s lips curved into an almost unnoticeable smirk. He meant that hypothetically, of course.
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Post by Cloud on Jul 2, 2011 0:24:52 GMT -5
It had happened so fast that Rufus had no time to prepare himself for the onslaught of light, light that painfully seared a mark onto his flesh. He had stumbled back, falling to one knee from the ‘attack,’ if that is what it was. Glancing up, the President opened his mouth to speak but was too slow, Ark vanished just as quickly as he had appeared, leaving nothing but a pile of dead bodies and two men who had no idea what they just witnessed; though Rufus could have guessed that Fox didn’t care too much about the event that just took place.
“I appreciate your humorous approach to this situation, Fox, but for the time I’d like it if you kept any fondling jokes to yourself.”
The pain in his arm was already dissipating, but the mark was doing anything but going away. Upon closer inspection he found nothing that’d make sense of the vision he had. What was that about anyway? The vision made little to no sense. Slowly standing up in place, he turned to face the Turk.
“No one is to know about this aside from Tsung, Reno and Rude. Until further notice I want the Turks on high alert. No one without proper identification is allowed inside this building.”
It was hard to focus on his job with Ark still on his mind. Aside from the strange mark on his arm, there seemed to be no other noticeable effects; but Rufus knew as well as anyone that things like this don’t present all their secrets right away.
“It seems… that this merge has introduced new obstacles to our world. I need some time to figure out what just happened to me and to draw up a plan of action. As you say, we will need better relations with the populace. Best way to do that is how we’ve always dealt with things in the past… With force…”
Without saying anything else, Rufus quickly left the room, leaving Fox behind with the dead bodies. Someone is bound to clean up the mess sooner or later; with Rufus not planning to return for awhile, it didn’t matter to him when or how. He had too much on his mind to worry about that.
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