[ OOC ]
[ooc: My bio is too long, so I'm just putting early Purg history here to link to on my profile. Feel free to ignore~.]
UPDATE 1st Dec 07: Since arrival, Shu had already made quite the name for himself. Almost immediately landing a recruitment position with Shinra courtesy of the President, he resumed his part as a military strategist - as well as being a bit of a dragon and a tyrant to the Shinra employees in general. Spotting neglect amongst the ranks, he began a rigorous training regime that slowly graduated from races to obstacle courses to obstacle course races with added puzzle-solving, with increasing rewards for those who did particularly well.
He also had the opportunity to meet Mathiu and catch up, as well as find something of a strange and quirky relationship with Peony, the Shinra PR of the time.
He invited Asellus, a sweet and boisterous woman who worked beneath him at the company, to be his housemate after noticing that both of them were having similar resentful feelings about being in their own company all the time.
He was still researching the Hojo case when a man called Schuldig confronted him, first simply mocking Shu's efforts with the employees, and then telling him bluntly that he had a plan to reel Hojo in. Schuldig had already gotten friendly with Hojo as a pretense, telling the scientist he would offer up one of Shinra's employees in exchange for a cure for Elena's Jenova-fied state. However, the plan was that Shinra would be informed of the meeting location, and in this way they could draw him out of hiding and bring him in for questioning.
At first the employee was to be Reno; when this fell through due to his connections to Elena, he went to Shu. Shu, eager to be the one who solved the case, accepted. Schuldig had told Hojo that he and Shu were in a sexual relationship, and so Shu very reluctantly kept up the pretense of public flirting, in case the Professor was monitoring them.
There was a brief delay wherein Schuldig was killed by Logan, also overcome by Jenova. Shu finally had the opportunity to meet him for the first time shortly after his reawakening; he rushed down, only to have his mind and body seized by Schuldig. He was told they were going to go and see Hojo then and there. Thinking he'd been set up and mocked every step of the way for his gullibility, he was marched to the meeting place and kept there until Hojo's arrival.
However, Schuldig soon showed his quality. Looking through Shu's eyes to aim, he quickly turned to fire three rounds into Hojo. Though they were not on target, he released Shu's body and allowed him to run. Shu did, promising that if Schuldig didn't respond in five minutes, he would be coming back for his body; a telepath in Hojo's hands was too much of a liability.
Thankfully, Schuldig was able to kill Hojo, and he was surrendered to Shinra. Schuldig later explained his reasoning, telling Shu that he couldn't trust the man to run when Hojo arrived, and Schuldig plainly didn't want him to be killed. Shu decided to tell nobody of the mind-control incident, and things seemed to have settled down.
However, the incident had left Shu shaken. Much of what Schuldig told him mentally - of his gullibility and the way he ignored the signs - was entirely correct, and the strategist had much to think about in terms of his security, and the security of Shinra.
13th Dec 07: Shu grew increasingly resentful about Schuldig's cruel demise at Logan's hands and the lack of a response to it. When another person was killed by Logan and he still continued unchecked, Shu arranged a meeting with him on top of the clock tower, where they spoke briefly, and Shu came to realise that the only way to get him brought in was to get an active accusation up against him.
He threw himself off of the clock tower, killing himself in order to frame Logan. He consequently forgot about the details of why Mathiu expelled him. Schuldig felt his death, and was the one who retrieved his broken body, taking it to Shu's home to clean up what remained and keep vigil while the corpse pieced itself back together. As soon as Shu woke, Schuldig left without a word.
As a result of doubts and suspicions on all sides, a launch was investigated to identify just what really happened on top of the clock tower. Shu insisted upon his innocence, as did Logan, and the pair enjoyed a somewhat awkward relationship over the consoles.
Schuldig began to show signs of some kind of mental sickness during this time. By delving into an elaborate dreamscape and seeing various aspects of Schuldig's life from his childhood to his feelings on both of them, Shu and Elena were able to identify the source of the problem - a communicative door left agape in his mind after a telepathic communication with Hojo, madness beginning to infect the walls inside with black and mako green. Along the way, Shu was subjected to a multitude of images with Schuldig - some of them memories where he played a substitute, some fantasy, but a significant body of them sexual. They were his defense mechanism, a suitable distraction for any other telepath wandering through, but they left Shu wondering.
Shortly after, with Asellus feverish, bored, and feeling like a pet in the home while she was off work, she took the opportunity to glue all of Shu's furniture to the ceiling. After Shu made a joking attempt to sell her, she let slip that she wasn't human, and when Shu questioned her she fled in a panic to her room. He followed her up to her room to identify what happened, and to do his best to understand whatever she might have to say.
After the dream incident, Shu told Schuldig - after being informed that a 16-year-old girl was flirting with the telepath - that he was spoken for. After a further discussion, Schuldig warned him of what he was getting into, and Shu suggested that he was no saint, either.
Cissnei called a meeting with Shu shortly after, where it was revealed - not before being punched in the jaw - that the truth had come out after a meeting with Logan where Naminé was brought to investigate his memories. Shu admitted wrongdoing and calmly informed her of why he chose to do it - that after two deaths, there was still no action being taken to prevent more, and that someone needed to accuse him of wrongdoing. He stated he'd accept any punishment and make various public and personal apologies, distancing himself and the consequential blame from the Shinra company.
It was later revealed that Logan stabbed Cissnei, as well.
27th Dec 07: Much had changed since Shu's demotion to secretary - a short-lived arrangement, ultimately.
Shu found five kittens to bring home to Asellus, who had requested them. Shu supposed it might keep her busy without her having to vandalise his home.
Schuldig also mentioned to Elena at this point that Cissnei was 'all he had', provoking her to anger after she had saved his life in the dreamscape and considered herself his close friend. Shu, equally distressed but more of a mediator in his anger, went to speak to Schuldig about it, bringing food as a peace offering before he set to the lecture. In the end, even Shu's patience ran out. He threw the man across the table in a sexually aggressive manner, telling him that if he thought that was all Shu wanted him for, he'd do it and go. Schuldig responded surprisingly positively to the aggression if not what he had to say, and he told Shu what he wanted to hear to make him get on with it. They had sex on the table of Sunde, but Shu didn't stay the night.
Not long after his demotion, Hojo was broken out of the laboratory by Zaeruapollo and Wesker along with Logan, Rikku and Yachiru, all of whom did a significant amount of damage on the way and killed a great number of people. The President quickly reinstated Shu to deal with the fallout, and though Zaeruapollo and Wesker have not yet been retrieved, fixing the building and dealing with the corpses was done quickly and efficiently. Trackers and patrol were also set out to try and follow the markers of their progress, to no avail. In the process of the breakout they had also abducted Elena - and Hojo sent her dismembered parts back to certain higher-ups in Shinra, Shu included. Horrified and numbed by the experience, he had a brief moment of being entirely overwhelmed and spent several days in a daze of sorts. Ultimately, her body was found and Shu took her home, laying in bed with her until she awoke again. She was so frightened and traumatised that he had to prove to her that her eyes had come back by making her touch her closed lids. He also briefly refused her the freedom to go home until she was physically better, but she stole some of his clothes and slipped out alone.
Thereafter Schuldig, bearing the burden of Sephiroth and Hojo's insanity, became outrageously jealous and told both that he would not be speaking to them again. Shu managed to smooth things over with Schuldig, but it took far longer for Schuldig and Elena to make right between each other.
Shu began to medicate Schuldig out of necessity, realising he was starting to lose his mind. However, knowing that Schuldig didn't quite see the illness in himself, Shu did not deign to tell him. The telepath calmed, but his mental skills weakened.
During this time Shu also discovered that Asellus had a lover/friend-with-benefits of sorts called Cosmas - though they were not monogamous partners of any kind at the time, and Shu was somewhat appalled by his lecherous and ultimately tasteless behaviour. He told Asellus he was going to speak to him, and when he did, it got he and Cosmas off to a very poor start together.
On the way to his home at night, Shu was attacked by Wesker, who ran into him twice and did considerable damage to his upper torso from the force of the blows. After taunting him and telling him he wasn't worth his time to take, Wesker went to leave, but was driven off by Leon ultimately.
It was discovered during this time that the T-Virus Wesker was spreading would make zombies of the corpses, leaving the dead to regenerate in new bodies elsewhere - effectively meaning there would be a zombie doppelganger for the victim.
Shu was assigned a bodyguard in the form of Elena, but was foolish enough to disregard orders and go out alone again, sure that, with Wesker's reassurance that he wasn't worth his time, he wouldn't be making him a target. Naturally, he did. Shu was taken and placed in a cage - shortly followed by Elena, pulled in after Wesker bribed her with Shu's freedom and failed to follow through, and Rufus, who also lacked in protection. Shu was injected with the T-virus, and Schuldig held mental communication with him up to his death. Shu explained to him that when they found him, they had to shoot him, and that he wanted Schuldig to take the anti-psychotics. Schuldig conceded, saying he'd do it for Shu's sake, despite that it weakened his telepathic skills.
Shu died, and forgot about the Fire Spear incident he implemented to help turn the battle around against Leon Silverberg. The result is that Shu will become a considerably less affectionate person over time, failing to recollect that it was in Apple's words that he trusted to make his sacrifice.
Thankfully, Shinra were tipped off on Wesker's location by Hojo, now temporarily sane and in custody thanks to Schuldig's efforts. That said, they didn't arrive in time to stop him from biting Rufus.
On the morning of Christmas day, Shu arrived at Sunde as promised, his first port of call after picking up presents from the office. No sooner had he laid down beside the telepath than Crawford entered. Whilst Schuldig went to bathe, Crawford gave Shu several ill-received warnings - first about his relationship to Schuldig, and then about the damage created by the medication he was giving him. Towards the end of their meeting, Crawford had a prediction about Wesker's next target. Shu passed this onto Rufus, and in the same breath, detailed a plan to create a sluice gate on the river to steal the water supply and flush Wesker out. Sasori had since insisted on using Iron sand instead of a sluice gate, which Shu accepted - despite his great wariness and dislike of using less physical and permanent means. However, he also wanted to have a dam built, as the time the Iron Sand could be sustained is insufficient for the amount of time it would take Wesker to need that water.
Asellus had also been attacked by Wesker, further provoking Shu to action.
For Christmas, Schuldig got Shu a (real) blue lightsaber with which to defend himself, Asellus bought him nice shoes and a proper tea set, and Elena bought a coat to replace the one she stole.
However, things were quick to sour again. Schuldig, resentful of the people brought in to replace Rufus and Shu during their detainment - Zack and Sasori respectively, both now retained as superiors - defected. Larxene dealt with the complaints to further deter others from questioning the decision, and Rufus also, upon his return, stated that the new job roles would not be questioned. Shu, though hardly fond of the sudden uprising of strangers, also cared very little about who he was working with as long as the job got done. However, he stated a desire to retire after the Sluice Gate/Iron Sand operation, and mentioned to Schuldig that his personality gelled poorly with Sasori's, as the man was too quick to throw accusations and orders around. Shu, unused to being treated poorly by a subordinate and disliking a lack of respect in general, stated that he would remain long enough to deal with Wesker. That upset Schuldig, who stated that he doesn't want to speak to him for a while.
However, shortly after the conversation they did speak again, and Schuldig told him to come to Sunde and sneak in through the back, telling him of a secret passage into the rafters. He took Elena and went there to see what was going on.
He also discovered that Asellus had sewn all of his underwear together into a large flag, another fit of boredom - or perhaps revenge, as Shu had recently walked in on a particularly intimate moment between her and her boyfriend, Cosmas. She had also encouraged the gods to make Schuldig pregnant - to prove that they could, indeed, impregnate a male if they wished. Shu was dubious about the whole thing, and doubted that anything had been done to him genuinely.
A cease-fire with Wesker was decided upon when the personality-switch event arose; both of them unaffected, they chose to wait until normalcy returned as the city was in utter chaos. Schuldig was brought in after Elena tried to make him dance at Sunde for her, and he had become a snuggly and incredibly over-affectionate person. Asellus, for now, was off the hook about the underwear and pregnancy incident.
01st Feb 08: A great deal had happened since Shu's last update. Schuldig was brought to Shu's home and kept safe and well distracted for the duration of his emotional instability. Eventually, however, Shu succumbed, and for several days he was drinking profusely, speaking in a gruff and uncultured tone, and vomiting his way up and down the house. Asellus was not appreciative of Shu's newfound love of grape and grain, and did her best to keep him out of trouble for the duration. However, there was no helping Shu's efforts to launch himself at every attractive girl that commented on his journal, using cheesy pick-up lines and referring to them as 'dames', 'babes' and 'broads'.
Brad took advantage of Shu's condition to try and send a girl to his home in order to sever his tie to Schuldig. The girl came, but no intercourse was made, and she left at the end of the night when Shu passed out. Thankfully, Shu lapsed enough to his old personality after this discussion to warn Brad to stop what he was doing. Brad turned the tables, telling Shu he'd seen his future, and it was in Schuldig's best interests that Shu stop seeing him. Shu, unsure what to do but progressively being worn down by Brad's promise of the danger he posed to Schuldig, finally caved and agreed to sever their tie.
Thankfully, Schu gave him just the right motivation when, delirious and deeply sick, he leaned forward to kiss Elena thinking she was another woman. Whereas the knowledge hardly bothered Shu - who was guarding a private attraction to Elena - it gave him an excuse to make the break-up seem convincing, and so he followed through. Schu was deeply displeased.
Shu was able to justify to himself why he did it, forcing himself to believe it was for everyone's benefit:
It's better that it be this way than not - for him and for myself. I'm nothing short of a liability. Attacked twice already, and threatened countless times by those who cannot target him themselves. I'm too easy to get to in a place like this. It does not have a terrain that lends itself to war, nor the kind of protection required of individual men that would have been found in Dunan. Even during the Unification, didn't we have a woman infiltrate, trying to kill our leader? That Karayan... And there's even fewer barriers to keep such a thing from happening here. No castle with reinforced windows. I can't afford to spread my attention too thin, nor to be roaming conveniently free. It begs for a penalty.
As for Shinra, his connection to me ties our companies. If one of us catches a cold, the other will sneeze, and I am at least partially to blame for that. I can't be a black mark on his record for my wartime actions. Strategy and accounting. Absurd. There was always a reason I did one and not the other at any given time. You try being a trader when half of the country thinks you're responsible for its decline.
And then there is, of course, me. The liability he is to me. The potential for preferential treatment. The concern. The constant concern. Who could stomach it for long? It's an obstruction in my goal to leave this place. I certainly can't remain forever, naively believing that it would last that long. Better to get out now with my memories than stay here to rot. It would be difficult to leave the others - Asellus, Elena particularly - but neither would not move on.
His time apart allowed him to establish some things in regard to his plan. The snow was cleared from Purgatorium, and with Sasori, Shu began construction of the plan which had since enjoyed some updates, tweaks and alterations, but the principles remained the same.
During this time, Asellus briefly disappeared. When she re-emerged, Suzaku verbally attacked her needlessly. She was on the streets, cold, and seemingly getting sick, and Shu defended her honour.
As a consequence, Sasori butted in to tell her to let it go, and suggested that he could make the working conditions of his fellow employees (Shu, that is) very unhappy if she didn't. Shu told him that he would not be working with a man who couldn't control his emotions. Sasori took umbrage and assumed that Shu intended to have him fired.
He took the complaint to Rufus, and Shu was contacted. He smoothed out the incident, explaining that his complaint held no underlying meaning - only that, until Sasori could cooperate in the workplace, he personally would not be making friendly with him.
He is mistaken about my intentions. I even clarified that there was no underlying tone to my statement, which is also publicly visible.
Put simply, I will not debase myself in order to work with someone uncooperative or temperamental; that is my vice, but one I am sure you will understand. Therefore, if he wants to sustain a reasonable working relationship with me, he will need to - as I do, within the workplace - reign his personal feelings in. We act in the best interests of the company during those hours.
Schuldig also made the whole incident very public, as he often did after Sasori took command of security, and expressed disgust with Sasori's public behaviour despite that he and Sasori had a good companionship beforehand. It seemed that Schuldig still felt anger that Sasori had seemingly taken Shu's place.
Schuldig also wasn't satisfied to sit back and accept the breakup for long. He arrived at Shu's home and put a bullet hole in the opposite wall and the ceiling, spurring Shu to come downstairs and find out what on earth he thought he was doing. Schuldig used the gun to threaten him into sitting in the living room, where he quickly tied him to the chair and fixed his head in place. He pulled out a long pin and started to heat it over a candle, assuring Shu that it was most definitely getting rammed in his eyes. This, of course, terrified Shu, who mentally finally lapsed and let Schuldig see the encounter he had with Brad that led to this. Shu, angry with Schuldig beyond measure, demanded to be untied, but the two continued to talk until they reached some sort of understanding. Their relationship resumed, though Shu assured him that all bets were off if he tried that again.
Then came the power switch. During this, Shu was endowed with Schuldig's telepathy, something that overwhelmed him so terribly that he could barely think enough to construct a sentence and request help. Asellus soon came to his aid, and Schuldig set out soon after to assist him. However, he never made it to his destination; Schuldig was intercepted by Hojo and didn't detect him, what with his telepathy taken away, and Hojo shot him and dragged him away to experiment. It would be a week and a half before Schuldig would be released.
During this time, Sasori would also be put out of commission, but Schuldig's disappearance was the final straw for Shu who then got the sluice gate/Iron Sand plan underway. He positioned his main troops - Yachiru, Asellus, Marron, Logan, and many others - and the water was effectively diverted and remains so.
Despite Wesker's anger, however, and his suggestion that he may have died several times since, it is clearly a futile effort. However, the lack of water does seem to motivate Hojo to finally release his captive.
Unfortunately, Shu was not informed; an intentional oversight on Cissnei's part, as she believed that Shu had still severed ties with Schuldig and was not aware of their encounter at Shu's home. Discovering from Reno that he had been cut out of the loop, he was infuriated; despite Cissnei's insistence that she would find Schuldig on her own, Reno and Shu decided to go searching themselves. Elena, despite her profound guilt after Schuldig previous cruelty when she didn't go to find his corpse, refuses to go this time, well aware that her efforts are probably futile and he will hate her anyway. Shu was able to convince her to assist when, resigned as he is feeling from the whole experience, he informed her that it was worthwhile to search and feel that one was still doing something, even if one must admit that the effort is futile. If it is all they can do, they should still do it.
Schuldig woke up before anyone was able to find him, oblivious to the time that had passed. After he made a throwaway sexual comment to Shu but pined after Cissnei's company, Shu flew into a frustrated anger with both Cissnei and Schuldig. He contacted Cissnei on the journals and chastised her mercilessly for keeping the information from him, for trying to be the only one looking for him, reading that as a single-minded desire to keep Shu and Schuldig apart and remain Schuldig's favourite without contest. Though, when it became clear that he had misunderstood her intentions behind being the one to find him, he apologised, locked the thread from the public eye and fell quiet for a time. He spent the evening drinking with Asellus.
At last, he contacted Cissnei again, requesting to see Schuldig at her home. He was permitted, and it seemed that things had calmed down again.
Some few days later, Shinra split into two seperate companies, and Shu became the leader of ShuRa, which became the unofficial police force of Purgatorium. However, in the process, he hired Logan, and Schuldig, still angry from Logan killing him when he was under Jenova's influence, demanded that Shu make a choice between them. This obviously caused a lot of upset, and in the process Cissnei told him he would also have to make a choice between her love and satisfying his thirst for revenge. Angry that he would force her to make that choice, Schuldig broke ties with her. He did the same to Elena, and he also threatened Logan again. To Shu, Schuldig explained that he needed his revenge in order to move on. Shu conceded that, if Logan was willing to humour him, it was none of his business what he had to do. Given Logan's physical advantage, Shu was sure that Schuldig would be the one killed in a fight between them.
However, further conversation with Cissnei revealed that it wasn't Schuldig's original plan to just fight him. He wanted to torture Logan horribly for what he did. Shu, understanding now everyone's reaction to Schuldig's violent behaviour, expressed upset and disgust. Logan was, after all, innocent, and was under the influence of Jenova - just as Shu was under the influence of the T-virus when he attacked Rufus, something he still distantly remembered in some strange form. He told Cissnei he would talk to Schuldig about his severed ties, and his desire to torture Logan.
Asellus also came to him, stating that Cosmas had been provoked into madness by a man who had recently been employed by ShuRa as head of the official sector called Maizuru. Shu went to confront Maizuru about this, where it was revealed that Cosmas had provoked Maizuru first, prompting the man to reveal his knowledge of Cosmas's history through physical contact. It sent Cosmas off the deep end, though he seems to be returning from it.
That is the stage Shu is at now.
UPDATE 1st Dec 07: Since arrival, Shu had already made quite the name for himself. Almost immediately landing a recruitment position with Shinra courtesy of the President, he resumed his part as a military strategist - as well as being a bit of a dragon and a tyrant to the Shinra employees in general. Spotting neglect amongst the ranks, he began a rigorous training regime that slowly graduated from races to obstacle courses to obstacle course races with added puzzle-solving, with increasing rewards for those who did particularly well.
He also had the opportunity to meet Mathiu and catch up, as well as find something of a strange and quirky relationship with Peony, the Shinra PR of the time.
He invited Asellus, a sweet and boisterous woman who worked beneath him at the company, to be his housemate after noticing that both of them were having similar resentful feelings about being in their own company all the time.
He was still researching the Hojo case when a man called Schuldig confronted him, first simply mocking Shu's efforts with the employees, and then telling him bluntly that he had a plan to reel Hojo in. Schuldig had already gotten friendly with Hojo as a pretense, telling the scientist he would offer up one of Shinra's employees in exchange for a cure for Elena's Jenova-fied state. However, the plan was that Shinra would be informed of the meeting location, and in this way they could draw him out of hiding and bring him in for questioning.
At first the employee was to be Reno; when this fell through due to his connections to Elena, he went to Shu. Shu, eager to be the one who solved the case, accepted. Schuldig had told Hojo that he and Shu were in a sexual relationship, and so Shu very reluctantly kept up the pretense of public flirting, in case the Professor was monitoring them.
There was a brief delay wherein Schuldig was killed by Logan, also overcome by Jenova. Shu finally had the opportunity to meet him for the first time shortly after his reawakening; he rushed down, only to have his mind and body seized by Schuldig. He was told they were going to go and see Hojo then and there. Thinking he'd been set up and mocked every step of the way for his gullibility, he was marched to the meeting place and kept there until Hojo's arrival.
However, Schuldig soon showed his quality. Looking through Shu's eyes to aim, he quickly turned to fire three rounds into Hojo. Though they were not on target, he released Shu's body and allowed him to run. Shu did, promising that if Schuldig didn't respond in five minutes, he would be coming back for his body; a telepath in Hojo's hands was too much of a liability.
Thankfully, Schuldig was able to kill Hojo, and he was surrendered to Shinra. Schuldig later explained his reasoning, telling Shu that he couldn't trust the man to run when Hojo arrived, and Schuldig plainly didn't want him to be killed. Shu decided to tell nobody of the mind-control incident, and things seemed to have settled down.
However, the incident had left Shu shaken. Much of what Schuldig told him mentally - of his gullibility and the way he ignored the signs - was entirely correct, and the strategist had much to think about in terms of his security, and the security of Shinra.
13th Dec 07: Shu grew increasingly resentful about Schuldig's cruel demise at Logan's hands and the lack of a response to it. When another person was killed by Logan and he still continued unchecked, Shu arranged a meeting with him on top of the clock tower, where they spoke briefly, and Shu came to realise that the only way to get him brought in was to get an active accusation up against him.
He threw himself off of the clock tower, killing himself in order to frame Logan. He consequently forgot about the details of why Mathiu expelled him. Schuldig felt his death, and was the one who retrieved his broken body, taking it to Shu's home to clean up what remained and keep vigil while the corpse pieced itself back together. As soon as Shu woke, Schuldig left without a word.
As a result of doubts and suspicions on all sides, a launch was investigated to identify just what really happened on top of the clock tower. Shu insisted upon his innocence, as did Logan, and the pair enjoyed a somewhat awkward relationship over the consoles.
Schuldig began to show signs of some kind of mental sickness during this time. By delving into an elaborate dreamscape and seeing various aspects of Schuldig's life from his childhood to his feelings on both of them, Shu and Elena were able to identify the source of the problem - a communicative door left agape in his mind after a telepathic communication with Hojo, madness beginning to infect the walls inside with black and mako green. Along the way, Shu was subjected to a multitude of images with Schuldig - some of them memories where he played a substitute, some fantasy, but a significant body of them sexual. They were his defense mechanism, a suitable distraction for any other telepath wandering through, but they left Shu wondering.
Shortly after, with Asellus feverish, bored, and feeling like a pet in the home while she was off work, she took the opportunity to glue all of Shu's furniture to the ceiling. After Shu made a joking attempt to sell her, she let slip that she wasn't human, and when Shu questioned her she fled in a panic to her room. He followed her up to her room to identify what happened, and to do his best to understand whatever she might have to say.
After the dream incident, Shu told Schuldig - after being informed that a 16-year-old girl was flirting with the telepath - that he was spoken for. After a further discussion, Schuldig warned him of what he was getting into, and Shu suggested that he was no saint, either.
Cissnei called a meeting with Shu shortly after, where it was revealed - not before being punched in the jaw - that the truth had come out after a meeting with Logan where Naminé was brought to investigate his memories. Shu admitted wrongdoing and calmly informed her of why he chose to do it - that after two deaths, there was still no action being taken to prevent more, and that someone needed to accuse him of wrongdoing. He stated he'd accept any punishment and make various public and personal apologies, distancing himself and the consequential blame from the Shinra company.
It was later revealed that Logan stabbed Cissnei, as well.
27th Dec 07: Much had changed since Shu's demotion to secretary - a short-lived arrangement, ultimately.
Shu found five kittens to bring home to Asellus, who had requested them. Shu supposed it might keep her busy without her having to vandalise his home.
Schuldig also mentioned to Elena at this point that Cissnei was 'all he had', provoking her to anger after she had saved his life in the dreamscape and considered herself his close friend. Shu, equally distressed but more of a mediator in his anger, went to speak to Schuldig about it, bringing food as a peace offering before he set to the lecture. In the end, even Shu's patience ran out. He threw the man across the table in a sexually aggressive manner, telling him that if he thought that was all Shu wanted him for, he'd do it and go. Schuldig responded surprisingly positively to the aggression if not what he had to say, and he told Shu what he wanted to hear to make him get on with it. They had sex on the table of Sunde, but Shu didn't stay the night.
Not long after his demotion, Hojo was broken out of the laboratory by Zaeruapollo and Wesker along with Logan, Rikku and Yachiru, all of whom did a significant amount of damage on the way and killed a great number of people. The President quickly reinstated Shu to deal with the fallout, and though Zaeruapollo and Wesker have not yet been retrieved, fixing the building and dealing with the corpses was done quickly and efficiently. Trackers and patrol were also set out to try and follow the markers of their progress, to no avail. In the process of the breakout they had also abducted Elena - and Hojo sent her dismembered parts back to certain higher-ups in Shinra, Shu included. Horrified and numbed by the experience, he had a brief moment of being entirely overwhelmed and spent several days in a daze of sorts. Ultimately, her body was found and Shu took her home, laying in bed with her until she awoke again. She was so frightened and traumatised that he had to prove to her that her eyes had come back by making her touch her closed lids. He also briefly refused her the freedom to go home until she was physically better, but she stole some of his clothes and slipped out alone.
Thereafter Schuldig, bearing the burden of Sephiroth and Hojo's insanity, became outrageously jealous and told both that he would not be speaking to them again. Shu managed to smooth things over with Schuldig, but it took far longer for Schuldig and Elena to make right between each other.
Shu began to medicate Schuldig out of necessity, realising he was starting to lose his mind. However, knowing that Schuldig didn't quite see the illness in himself, Shu did not deign to tell him. The telepath calmed, but his mental skills weakened.
During this time Shu also discovered that Asellus had a lover/friend-with-benefits of sorts called Cosmas - though they were not monogamous partners of any kind at the time, and Shu was somewhat appalled by his lecherous and ultimately tasteless behaviour. He told Asellus he was going to speak to him, and when he did, it got he and Cosmas off to a very poor start together.
On the way to his home at night, Shu was attacked by Wesker, who ran into him twice and did considerable damage to his upper torso from the force of the blows. After taunting him and telling him he wasn't worth his time to take, Wesker went to leave, but was driven off by Leon ultimately.
It was discovered during this time that the T-Virus Wesker was spreading would make zombies of the corpses, leaving the dead to regenerate in new bodies elsewhere - effectively meaning there would be a zombie doppelganger for the victim.
Shu was assigned a bodyguard in the form of Elena, but was foolish enough to disregard orders and go out alone again, sure that, with Wesker's reassurance that he wasn't worth his time, he wouldn't be making him a target. Naturally, he did. Shu was taken and placed in a cage - shortly followed by Elena, pulled in after Wesker bribed her with Shu's freedom and failed to follow through, and Rufus, who also lacked in protection. Shu was injected with the T-virus, and Schuldig held mental communication with him up to his death. Shu explained to him that when they found him, they had to shoot him, and that he wanted Schuldig to take the anti-psychotics. Schuldig conceded, saying he'd do it for Shu's sake, despite that it weakened his telepathic skills.
Shu died, and forgot about the Fire Spear incident he implemented to help turn the battle around against Leon Silverberg. The result is that Shu will become a considerably less affectionate person over time, failing to recollect that it was in Apple's words that he trusted to make his sacrifice.
Thankfully, Shinra were tipped off on Wesker's location by Hojo, now temporarily sane and in custody thanks to Schuldig's efforts. That said, they didn't arrive in time to stop him from biting Rufus.
On the morning of Christmas day, Shu arrived at Sunde as promised, his first port of call after picking up presents from the office. No sooner had he laid down beside the telepath than Crawford entered. Whilst Schuldig went to bathe, Crawford gave Shu several ill-received warnings - first about his relationship to Schuldig, and then about the damage created by the medication he was giving him. Towards the end of their meeting, Crawford had a prediction about Wesker's next target. Shu passed this onto Rufus, and in the same breath, detailed a plan to create a sluice gate on the river to steal the water supply and flush Wesker out. Sasori had since insisted on using Iron sand instead of a sluice gate, which Shu accepted - despite his great wariness and dislike of using less physical and permanent means. However, he also wanted to have a dam built, as the time the Iron Sand could be sustained is insufficient for the amount of time it would take Wesker to need that water.
Asellus had also been attacked by Wesker, further provoking Shu to action.
For Christmas, Schuldig got Shu a (real) blue lightsaber with which to defend himself, Asellus bought him nice shoes and a proper tea set, and Elena bought a coat to replace the one she stole.
However, things were quick to sour again. Schuldig, resentful of the people brought in to replace Rufus and Shu during their detainment - Zack and Sasori respectively, both now retained as superiors - defected. Larxene dealt with the complaints to further deter others from questioning the decision, and Rufus also, upon his return, stated that the new job roles would not be questioned. Shu, though hardly fond of the sudden uprising of strangers, also cared very little about who he was working with as long as the job got done. However, he stated a desire to retire after the Sluice Gate/Iron Sand operation, and mentioned to Schuldig that his personality gelled poorly with Sasori's, as the man was too quick to throw accusations and orders around. Shu, unused to being treated poorly by a subordinate and disliking a lack of respect in general, stated that he would remain long enough to deal with Wesker. That upset Schuldig, who stated that he doesn't want to speak to him for a while.
However, shortly after the conversation they did speak again, and Schuldig told him to come to Sunde and sneak in through the back, telling him of a secret passage into the rafters. He took Elena and went there to see what was going on.
He also discovered that Asellus had sewn all of his underwear together into a large flag, another fit of boredom - or perhaps revenge, as Shu had recently walked in on a particularly intimate moment between her and her boyfriend, Cosmas. She had also encouraged the gods to make Schuldig pregnant - to prove that they could, indeed, impregnate a male if they wished. Shu was dubious about the whole thing, and doubted that anything had been done to him genuinely.
A cease-fire with Wesker was decided upon when the personality-switch event arose; both of them unaffected, they chose to wait until normalcy returned as the city was in utter chaos. Schuldig was brought in after Elena tried to make him dance at Sunde for her, and he had become a snuggly and incredibly over-affectionate person. Asellus, for now, was off the hook about the underwear and pregnancy incident.
01st Feb 08: A great deal had happened since Shu's last update. Schuldig was brought to Shu's home and kept safe and well distracted for the duration of his emotional instability. Eventually, however, Shu succumbed, and for several days he was drinking profusely, speaking in a gruff and uncultured tone, and vomiting his way up and down the house. Asellus was not appreciative of Shu's newfound love of grape and grain, and did her best to keep him out of trouble for the duration. However, there was no helping Shu's efforts to launch himself at every attractive girl that commented on his journal, using cheesy pick-up lines and referring to them as 'dames', 'babes' and 'broads'.
Brad took advantage of Shu's condition to try and send a girl to his home in order to sever his tie to Schuldig. The girl came, but no intercourse was made, and she left at the end of the night when Shu passed out. Thankfully, Shu lapsed enough to his old personality after this discussion to warn Brad to stop what he was doing. Brad turned the tables, telling Shu he'd seen his future, and it was in Schuldig's best interests that Shu stop seeing him. Shu, unsure what to do but progressively being worn down by Brad's promise of the danger he posed to Schuldig, finally caved and agreed to sever their tie.
Thankfully, Schu gave him just the right motivation when, delirious and deeply sick, he leaned forward to kiss Elena thinking she was another woman. Whereas the knowledge hardly bothered Shu - who was guarding a private attraction to Elena - it gave him an excuse to make the break-up seem convincing, and so he followed through. Schu was deeply displeased.
Shu was able to justify to himself why he did it, forcing himself to believe it was for everyone's benefit:
It's better that it be this way than not - for him and for myself. I'm nothing short of a liability. Attacked twice already, and threatened countless times by those who cannot target him themselves. I'm too easy to get to in a place like this. It does not have a terrain that lends itself to war, nor the kind of protection required of individual men that would have been found in Dunan. Even during the Unification, didn't we have a woman infiltrate, trying to kill our leader? That Karayan... And there's even fewer barriers to keep such a thing from happening here. No castle with reinforced windows. I can't afford to spread my attention too thin, nor to be roaming conveniently free. It begs for a penalty.
As for Shinra, his connection to me ties our companies. If one of us catches a cold, the other will sneeze, and I am at least partially to blame for that. I can't be a black mark on his record for my wartime actions. Strategy and accounting. Absurd. There was always a reason I did one and not the other at any given time. You try being a trader when half of the country thinks you're responsible for its decline.
And then there is, of course, me. The liability he is to me. The potential for preferential treatment. The concern. The constant concern. Who could stomach it for long? It's an obstruction in my goal to leave this place. I certainly can't remain forever, naively believing that it would last that long. Better to get out now with my memories than stay here to rot. It would be difficult to leave the others - Asellus, Elena particularly - but neither would not move on.
His time apart allowed him to establish some things in regard to his plan. The snow was cleared from Purgatorium, and with Sasori, Shu began construction of the plan which had since enjoyed some updates, tweaks and alterations, but the principles remained the same.
During this time, Asellus briefly disappeared. When she re-emerged, Suzaku verbally attacked her needlessly. She was on the streets, cold, and seemingly getting sick, and Shu defended her honour.
As a consequence, Sasori butted in to tell her to let it go, and suggested that he could make the working conditions of his fellow employees (Shu, that is) very unhappy if she didn't. Shu told him that he would not be working with a man who couldn't control his emotions. Sasori took umbrage and assumed that Shu intended to have him fired.
He took the complaint to Rufus, and Shu was contacted. He smoothed out the incident, explaining that his complaint held no underlying meaning - only that, until Sasori could cooperate in the workplace, he personally would not be making friendly with him.
He is mistaken about my intentions. I even clarified that there was no underlying tone to my statement, which is also publicly visible.
Put simply, I will not debase myself in order to work with someone uncooperative or temperamental; that is my vice, but one I am sure you will understand. Therefore, if he wants to sustain a reasonable working relationship with me, he will need to - as I do, within the workplace - reign his personal feelings in. We act in the best interests of the company during those hours.
Schuldig also made the whole incident very public, as he often did after Sasori took command of security, and expressed disgust with Sasori's public behaviour despite that he and Sasori had a good companionship beforehand. It seemed that Schuldig still felt anger that Sasori had seemingly taken Shu's place.
Schuldig also wasn't satisfied to sit back and accept the breakup for long. He arrived at Shu's home and put a bullet hole in the opposite wall and the ceiling, spurring Shu to come downstairs and find out what on earth he thought he was doing. Schuldig used the gun to threaten him into sitting in the living room, where he quickly tied him to the chair and fixed his head in place. He pulled out a long pin and started to heat it over a candle, assuring Shu that it was most definitely getting rammed in his eyes. This, of course, terrified Shu, who mentally finally lapsed and let Schuldig see the encounter he had with Brad that led to this. Shu, angry with Schuldig beyond measure, demanded to be untied, but the two continued to talk until they reached some sort of understanding. Their relationship resumed, though Shu assured him that all bets were off if he tried that again.
Then came the power switch. During this, Shu was endowed with Schuldig's telepathy, something that overwhelmed him so terribly that he could barely think enough to construct a sentence and request help. Asellus soon came to his aid, and Schuldig set out soon after to assist him. However, he never made it to his destination; Schuldig was intercepted by Hojo and didn't detect him, what with his telepathy taken away, and Hojo shot him and dragged him away to experiment. It would be a week and a half before Schuldig would be released.
During this time, Sasori would also be put out of commission, but Schuldig's disappearance was the final straw for Shu who then got the sluice gate/Iron Sand plan underway. He positioned his main troops - Yachiru, Asellus, Marron, Logan, and many others - and the water was effectively diverted and remains so.
Despite Wesker's anger, however, and his suggestion that he may have died several times since, it is clearly a futile effort. However, the lack of water does seem to motivate Hojo to finally release his captive.
Unfortunately, Shu was not informed; an intentional oversight on Cissnei's part, as she believed that Shu had still severed ties with Schuldig and was not aware of their encounter at Shu's home. Discovering from Reno that he had been cut out of the loop, he was infuriated; despite Cissnei's insistence that she would find Schuldig on her own, Reno and Shu decided to go searching themselves. Elena, despite her profound guilt after Schuldig previous cruelty when she didn't go to find his corpse, refuses to go this time, well aware that her efforts are probably futile and he will hate her anyway. Shu was able to convince her to assist when, resigned as he is feeling from the whole experience, he informed her that it was worthwhile to search and feel that one was still doing something, even if one must admit that the effort is futile. If it is all they can do, they should still do it.
Schuldig woke up before anyone was able to find him, oblivious to the time that had passed. After he made a throwaway sexual comment to Shu but pined after Cissnei's company, Shu flew into a frustrated anger with both Cissnei and Schuldig. He contacted Cissnei on the journals and chastised her mercilessly for keeping the information from him, for trying to be the only one looking for him, reading that as a single-minded desire to keep Shu and Schuldig apart and remain Schuldig's favourite without contest. Though, when it became clear that he had misunderstood her intentions behind being the one to find him, he apologised, locked the thread from the public eye and fell quiet for a time. He spent the evening drinking with Asellus.
At last, he contacted Cissnei again, requesting to see Schuldig at her home. He was permitted, and it seemed that things had calmed down again.
Some few days later, Shinra split into two seperate companies, and Shu became the leader of ShuRa, which became the unofficial police force of Purgatorium. However, in the process, he hired Logan, and Schuldig, still angry from Logan killing him when he was under Jenova's influence, demanded that Shu make a choice between them. This obviously caused a lot of upset, and in the process Cissnei told him he would also have to make a choice between her love and satisfying his thirst for revenge. Angry that he would force her to make that choice, Schuldig broke ties with her. He did the same to Elena, and he also threatened Logan again. To Shu, Schuldig explained that he needed his revenge in order to move on. Shu conceded that, if Logan was willing to humour him, it was none of his business what he had to do. Given Logan's physical advantage, Shu was sure that Schuldig would be the one killed in a fight between them.
However, further conversation with Cissnei revealed that it wasn't Schuldig's original plan to just fight him. He wanted to torture Logan horribly for what he did. Shu, understanding now everyone's reaction to Schuldig's violent behaviour, expressed upset and disgust. Logan was, after all, innocent, and was under the influence of Jenova - just as Shu was under the influence of the T-virus when he attacked Rufus, something he still distantly remembered in some strange form. He told Cissnei he would talk to Schuldig about his severed ties, and his desire to torture Logan.
Asellus also came to him, stating that Cosmas had been provoked into madness by a man who had recently been employed by ShuRa as head of the official sector called Maizuru. Shu went to confront Maizuru about this, where it was revealed that Cosmas had provoked Maizuru first, prompting the man to reveal his knowledge of Cosmas's history through physical contact. It sent Cosmas off the deep end, though he seems to be returning from it.
That is the stage Shu is at now.