Towers of Learning

[existwithoutme]

Characters: open to all
Date: today and subsequent days
Summary: Kuja has completed her library and museum; all are welcome to enter.
Warnings: None, will update if, by chance, anything happens

Comments

[a_good_daughter]

[Kadaj stands in the paved square, alone. She stares at the buildings, firms her stance on the pavement beneath her feet. Some things about this place remind her of Edge. Kadaj traces the angles of the walls and thinks of her sisters. She takes in the roofline and remembers dying. High above the ground.

But this is not Edge. There is too much that is fanciful here. Too much that is free.
The beasts attract her and she approaches them, lingering in the entrance under their stone eyes.]

[existwithoutme]

[Kuja notices her little goddess (as she thinks of her) and draws near, in spite of her own common, golden appearance and her tail. She doesn't like that reminder of the one who made her, of being made.]

Those are replicas of statues that stand in my palace.

[a_good_daughter]

{Kadaj moves her shoulders as if shifting a weight. She speaks without taking her eyes from the statues-- at first.]

Did you make all this to remind you of your palace? Does it remind you?

You've changed-- why?
[Kadaj nods, her eyebrows rising.] You look both more and less human. If that is possible.

[existwithoutme]

No, not at all. I need no reminders. I am not sentimental, but they were pieces that appealed to me aesthetically, so I thought I would recreate them here for the pleasure of it. [Yet she doesn't say why she made the place as whole.]

[Kuja doesn't like the reminder of her appearance, but she remains calm for the moment.] Yes, sometimes this place alters our appearance when we create too much. It is a temporary effect, nothing more.

[a_good_daughter]

[Kadaj takes in Kuja's appearance for a long moment, then seems to have satisfied her interest.]
The power of this place is erratic, and therefore weak. I don't know in what way, but there must be a weakness in it.

I have never created anything for pleasure. Only need.

[existwithoutme]

[Kuja scans the area to make sure they're alone. They are, and they're far from the Vine.]

I couldn't agree more. This place was nearly torn apart recently, by those--odd dreams. [She waves a hand, carelessly.] Not that they affected one such as myself, but the Gardens clearly have some vulnerabilities.

If there's anyone here with the power to find and exploit them, I believe it must be you. [Finally, someone with the strength to be of use in Kuja's plan to secretly thwart the Queen.]

Oh, I have a love of beauty, fleeting though it may be. To me, pleasure is a form of rebellion, you might say. [She smiles.] But now, I'd say that destruction is more needful, wouldn't you?

[a_good_daughter]

[Kadaj smiles. The rhythm of Kuja's speech is unusual, she thinks the woman likes to hear herself talk. It isn't unpleasant.]

Pleasure is unimportant to me, but I understand destruction. It's the path to renewal.
Needful, yes. I would remake this place.

Tell me what you know. Besides the fact that the Queen's rule is unstable.

[existwithoutme]

Yes, renewal. [Kuja thinks that's a very good word. There's beauty in renewal. It's a positive. However...] This place could stand to be remade, but why not simply destroy? It will end the Queen's rule and likely send us back to where we were before.

[Or destroy everyone. She should probably care about that, shouldn't she? She is trying to reform. Well, it's not the likely outcome, is it?]

[a_good_daughter]

[Kadaj looks up, as if searching for something in the sky above, but it's only the same impenetrable blue as always. When she lowers her gaze, it takes her a long moment to come back to herself.]

Yes, without Mother, I can only destroy-- I call her, but there is no answer here.

I could end this place-- but would we be released? I would not want to be tied to the end of this time. I must go back to Mother.

[existwithoutme]

We're cut off from our worlds here, so you're cut off from your mother. It's the Queen's doing. Unfair of her, isn't it?

There's only one way to find out what would happen if we destroyed this place. We would have to destroy it. I doubt those who rule the Gardens would give us a straightforward answer on the matter.

[a_good_daughter]

[Kadaj shrugs, seeming not to want to be bothered-- but she's considering Kuja's words nonetheless. Of all the beings she's meant in this place, Kuja is among the most-- comprehensible.]

If I were going to destroy this place, I wouldn't give the Queen any warning. I would simply act.
I would act when I felt the time was right. Suddenly, swiftly.

Is that what you would do, Kuja?

[existwithoutme]

[She pauses for a moment before replying.]

Yes, that is what I would do. I have witnessed it myself: the Queen and her minions take time to react. Not long, but there is a lapse. That would give me long enough to destroy this place and everyone in it.

[a_good_daughter]

I would choose a time of confusion, upheaval.
That's the time I would choose-- and I always choose, I always make the plans. [Kadaj sounds momentarily a little weary and annoyed as well as arrogant.

She looks at Kuja with bright, assessing eyes.]

This place and everyone in it... and how would you do that?