Rufus Shin-Ra

[ostentateduplicity]

enduringfortitude replied to your photo: The “I should be mad but I need a nap and maybe a...

everything is your fault, but seeing this again and making dumb shrieking noises in my head is mine

Wait what did I do

[ostentateduplicity]

The “I should be mad but I need a nap and maybe a valium-laced steak” look you give your employees when you catch them kissing at the top of the staircase. 

I think my favourite things revealed in the texts was how terrible this guy is at taking care of himself and handling dangerous situations. 

[ostentateduplicity]

wip time because caffeine, for reasons, does not work on finns and he is going to fall asleep in the oven while at work

Headcanon: Dark Nation’s ears went through a stage where they would cross over the top of its head like a toupee while they were starting to stand.

[ostentateduplicity]

Oh, Nathaniel needn't worry about that apparent 'shirking'. While of course the Turk likely wasn't aware of Rufus intentions, if it were anything of true importance he would have made it a point to go in person. As it was he was merely fitting in a quick survey within the rest of his schedule to see that the place had been properly cleaned up since his last visit. It would take a few more days due to this, surely, but he was in no real rush to move out here to Midgar.

Not to mention that this was of worlds more importance than telling some old man to clean his room properly.

That black creature lurking off in the background had come in on its own impatience, originally set to follow Rufus' steps around the room; by time it circled Rufus should be done, right? It thought so. The man typically regarded the Turks with a level, familiar mood however little he may have personally known the member. He was always professional with them, never friendly or playful with them (not on a level recognisable to the Guard Hound), though sometimes more pleasant than usual. Dark Nation fed completely off its owner's energy and it was Rufus' apparent interest that changed its path. It headed straight for the pair, head low beneath its shoulders in a level of submission it only showed in its master's presence.

"How do you do, Nathaniel," Rufus had intended to finish, the beginnings of a surname sharply cut off in the first sound when the President had to step aside and twist in order to keep his balance, shooting a scowl down at the large animal that had roughly knocked itself into his hip. "Turk," he said pointedly and quickly followed it up with "Leave him alone," when the response was apparently to be ignored with little more than a grumble.

Dark Nation stretched forward; it wanted to know what made this one so special. It didn't understand that Rufus' curiosity could simply be based off past events.

[ostentateduplicity]

"Fantastic," he replied, airy and without a scratch of pleasantness, "Hope that was enjoyable for you; I heard SOLDIER were holy terrors once they became forcibly involved. A real shame that Reno and Rude were in Junon." A hand lifted, breaking the straight-backed and proper image to push out of his face the few stray hairs he could never fully manage to keep back. "Rest assured that there will be no more of that nonsense as we'll be doing things differently around here from now on."

Leave it to the man who thought it was stupid to have a way to escape in an emergency. But that was so long ago and Rufus was satisfied in the response the Turk gave him for although he said little the colour on his face told a great deal more. Appropriateness aside. Hassling the other man further would be redundant.

It was about then that Tseng moved in, while knowing he could do very little to actually spare Nathaniel, and took the first break to interrupt. "President, the Research Division is expecting you soon. We'll be late."

Rufus gave him a look, "I have no doubts in your ability to barter with frumpy old men."

"Sir?"

"We won't be late because I'm sending you in my stead. I'll meet with you later; you know what I'm looking for. Oh, and tell Professor Hojo that if there are still crates and filthy glass everywhere by time I do come up there it will be my boys doing the cleaning for him and that I have no control over what they do or don't have disposed of."

Tseng said nothing when he dipped his head in agreement and turned to head for the elevator alone, disappearing within only after needing to step out of the way for something large and black that let itself into the room.

"Now then," his voice had a bit of perk to it upon addressing Nathaniel once more, or perhaps it was only less cynical, "I don't believe we ever formally met."

[ostentateduplicity]

That wasn't Tseng's voice at all, he realised. Then he realised he should have known it wasn't him with the hound's lack of a reaction; the beast didn't like anyone but a certain one of his Turks. Dark Nation only moved again when Nathanial came into the doorway, shuffling forth on its elbows a few inches and tossing back long ears. It watched him with only less intensity, and of a completely different sort, than Rufus as the hardened look in his eyes drained to relief. Nothing against Tseng but he had been too close with him for too long. He could likely chase this one off rather easily so long as he gave no reason for the Turk to disobey on terms of his personal well-being.

"Oh, Nathaniel." His voice likely reflected that bit of residual stress and although he made to straighten a bit more he decided to forgo the struggle and merely found balance in how he currently stood. "It's nothing to pay mind to, I'm just tired." ...Of not having any space. Of this building and city.

The Turks, new or old, were all the same in that sense of loyalty. Whether in staged execution, exile, or after betrayal they still returned and in uniform, falling immediately into role with whoever was calling the shots in the group. Rufus figured them gathering during Meteorfall and the reveal with how the one way out of the Turks being 'in a body bag' had only been true in his father’s case and that Rufus had no intention to have any of them taken out then or in the future, played the biggest part of that continuing after the fall of Shin-Ra corporation. He had become such an integral part of the Turks' lives after Veld, after preventing the execution of the three main Turks, that knowing he saw them as more than pawns and that they had his loyalty as well...

Dark Nation got up off the floor after the Turk in question came close, stretched, and moved around behind Rufus and circled between the two slowly, drawing around them a figure '8'. The instability of the way he stood caused it to act in such a manner regardless that it was friendly with Nathanial. Though he did little about it; he knew the body language of the Guard Hound as well as he knew his own, and so far there was nothing threatening about the creature's shark-like behaviour. It was watchful, perhaps uncertain, and only a little tight in step when its owner's mood suddenly shifted.

Rufus' initial response was to fix Nathaniel with a grumpy, fairly childish look of either 'I can do it myself' or 'I can handle it' depending what level of stubbornness was translated from it. Between Reno (although Reno let him fall when they first found him after Weapon; he'd have been mad about that if he'd not accidentally made himself so high that he'd fainted [it was probably safe to say that he was no longer trusted unsupervised with painkillers]) and Rude, his care givers and kidnappers, and eventually Tseng he had become somewhat desensitised to being touched or handled and carried, and may not have immediately rejected an offering of aid even for the sake of his dignity had he not only just began to get the older trio to back off of him. He knew that he needed help, that he would likely always require it now, that he would return to not reacting fussily over the matter in time, but he was tense and unwilling to give up the little bit of time he had to himself without people touching him.

Fortunately that expression wasn't one which lasted very long; Dark Nation noising as it paced reminded him what he'd began considering, pale features relaxing into a faint smirk. "I would most definitely appreciate some help," he finally answered, voice more devious than it should have been. Instead of shifting to allow the Turk in he gave into the demand of his legs and let them fold, slow and careful as not to jar his back, and reached for the floor to catch himself in case he tipped. Rufus lifted a narrow cloth bag that he'd been carrying with him and held it out to the other. "Tseng, Elena and the boys are upstairs where the office once was. I never understood the appeal of sitting out in the cold, not to mention how much Rude abhors it, yet every year they would gather up on the roof to spend the night and I made it a point to have them brought a bottle or two extra of liquor. I thought I'd deliver it in person this year, suppose not." The curve on his lips became a little more visible, "They're awfully fond of you, all of them. You can help by taking this to them for me."

[ostentateduplicity]

The room was so green and blue and the central light so strong that when the elevator let them off Rufus found himself squinting a bit and had to turn his gaze elsewhere into the room. That made it no better; the metal floor a hard shade of grey and the walls an ugly off-white, something he'd likely see described as beige or eggshell in paint catalogues, the last of it appearing to be coloured with various condiments than actual paint. This was supposed to be a break room? But at least it matched the tacky colour schemes of the rest of the building, something he considered not worth his time. After all, he wasn't here to judge his late father's piss poor taste in interior design. Nor the functionality of any of it – he expected nothing spectacular considering he had been the one to suggest to his father that there be a way to escape from the upper floors in an emergency since the plans lacked any form of escape route entirely. Rufus was five when he brought that up. Five.

He'd been here before on numerous occasions, short and scattered they may have been, yet he'd never spent enough time to really take anything in or explore all of the floors. The last time he'd been here had been immediately after the death of his father though he'd fled back to Junon and hadn't returned until the employees at the head office had cleaned the place up from the raid to meet his very high standards (let him find claw marks or a speck of blood anywhere). Between business in Junon and elsewhere his time here still remained short, even as he made sure to spend a few hours of each day on personal inspection. A couple floors each time, ground up.

Tseng moved out first and began his rounds counter-clockwise, the footsteps that followed his though more delicate greeted the metal beneath them with a sharp clack; Rufus wore hard, flat soled shoes without ridge or grip, unsuitable for walking on pavement in and strictly dress. Pale, icy eyes surveyed the room after they adjusted while Tseng gave his briefing then continued to the elevator to wait by the door on his own.

But Rufus wouldn't catch up quite so fast once he reached the tables at the furthest corner of the room. He'd been intending to ignore the Turks for the time being save the three he'd kept with him since he was young, and this one wasn't going to be any different until he caught the bit of blue as he rounded the corner. He hadn't recognised the face from the distance between them, the time that'd passed had also been great, but he did distinctly remember that blaze of blue. It stood out against the dark hair and clothing, and Rufus slowed down to walk over to his table instead of back around. "I remember you; aren't you that rookie who started around the time when my father pulled that idiotic drill?" He studied him a little harder, trying to paste the face he'd watched on the monitors to a real person. Not too hard in the end as most of the Turks were highly eccentric or at least fairly distinguishable in their style when they weren't, mostly piecing a small memory and flat imagery to a physical object. "Who stubbornly ignored my warnings?" While the tone was testing, more of the 'I told you so' sort, he was not threatening the Turk though he did expect him at least to get up on his feet.

[ostentateduplicity]

( enduringfortitude, equivocalcongenial)

Little of the Shin-Ra building was salvageable and although Rufus had made it clear he had no intent to rush into deciding the fate of the remains the lower floors were made livable, if for no other reason to house his Turks and himself. They weren't going anywhere; he'd disbanded them, offered them their freedom without naming a price and the idiots refused to leave him. That brought them back around to here through a series of events leading up to the image of Sephiroth being pulled again from the lifestream and those monsters, him and Cloud, using the old headquarters as their personal battleground. It was so painfully easy to tell which damages were created by what. Only a few months had gone by since the last time they almost lost their planet and Rufus found no need in worrying over the wreckage that was once the most imposing structure in all of Midgar.

Even in this state, was it anything less? A towering darkness that loomed over the city, odd shapes and sharp spikes jutting out from its own shadow. That poor tree from the upper levels was bent and broken, its roots dangled in debris and wires and pipes that had come down with it and though it was wilting, it somehow still clung to life with the light and rain it got from the broken wall. He thought he'd leave the mess, all of it, at least eventually – invest elsewhere, simply move on from this, but for now it provided him and the three lead Turks enough familiarity to fall back into during the calm to collect themselves.

The storms had come on harsh and sudden this year, the heavy snows trapping most everyone indoors. Rufus could still oversee the progress of the city when the skies would clear but as the weeks went by his interest waned and he went more often unsupervised with the illness gone. Distance from Tseng was perhaps the most relieving, though it caused him more trouble than expected as he slowly adapted to functioning on his own once more.

Getting downstairs had been a project in itself, getting back up the stairs had proved nearly impossible. Those stairs. Rufus wouldn't have even tried once upon a time and that was before Diamond Weapon. He hadn't made it very far in all honesty for although he'd managed down the only reason he got back up that third flight of stairs was because the floor beneath him, like most of the building, had no working electricity and he refused to sit in the darkness no matter how much he hurt. He wouldn't have dragged his chair with him regardless whether or not he had the strength to do it.

Rufus hadn't quite made it across the room when his body finally forced him to sit down, the floor was at least carpeted in the centre for decorative purposes. Dark Nation settled impatiently beside him, one of the reasons he had gone this far, and he gave the beast a look that threatened turning it into package delivery so he could rest a bit but the Guard Hound grumbled as if reading his mind.

He'd swear it'd only been a few minutes, though reality may have been longer, when he heard footsteps and began trying to pull himself up off the floor for show. He'd care less if it were Elena who'd leave him in peace if he scowled at her long enough, but as he worked to get his knees to straighten that wasn't where his mind was. “Tseng?” He called to the unlit doorway, uneasy, “What was that I said about lurking around behind walls?”

[ostentateduplicity]

Here’s Shin-Ra’s best kept secret. Look how excited he is; he just learnt Bolt and wishes to show you.

[ostentateduplicity]

It all started with the empty lobby – he may not have noticed otherwise that all of Shin-Ra was silent. It was uncanny. Some distance foot steps, a few heavier than others, the buzzing and beeping of machines and computers, but there were no voices. Rufus figured they may have worn themselves out the day before, or perhaps gone so overboard to force his father into realising how idiotic the idea itself was. In all honesty the fact that the building wasn’t ablaze meant that they couldn’t have gone too crazy.

Still, this didn’t seem right. He’d stood a moment between the two black desks, glancing from one to the other and attempting to peer past the information boards behind them. There may have been something else going on. What if they’d continued the activity? Someone leaping out of a hiding spot would likely result in them being mauled. Rufus left before lockdown so there was a very real possibility that there was a reasonable explanation for the apparent lack of life. Maybe the game was still on.

He also realised that it was possible no one was able to leave yesterday and decided that he was annoyed with the situation instead and continued forward. Rufus cut to the right with Dark Nation following at his heel, pausing when the Guard Hound perked at the elevator sounds.

A very angry scientist was not exactly what he was expecting when the doors slid open. He turned calmly to face her full on, brows raised equally curious and in confusion. The boy’s mouth opened to ask if she had the right person (why should that anger be directed at him?) when he noticed the state she was in. Rather than any form of greeting or the intended questioning Rufus’ jaw closed tight, both insulted and startled with the presence of blood, and took a small step back. What had happened here yesterday? They weren’t supposed to tear one another up. He’d been present for that part. “Pardon?” That’s probably the real reason no one was here. They were all trying to clean some horrendous mess they didn’t want him to see.

[ostentateduplicity]

Lu and Ru's entire relationship summarised in seven words:

"You don't pay me enough!"

"Get out."

[ostentateduplicity]

Pre-arrest, will contain inconsistencies with canon. Warnings: Zack bites. Format: Lit. Post order: None ORP except:        Hojo        Lucrecia        Nathaniel (OC)        Zack thread: zombies invade shinra

"Your imbecility is unrivalled," Rufus shot at his father beside an incredulous stare. "Do you truly believe this will go over well?" There would be no excuse for this one; it had to be a joke. It mattered little that his insults were ignored to save face before the table; if he could see what his father was up to then by no mistake would his employees be capable of understanding. The way Rufus saw it implied weakness. He was giving in, letting up control to a piece of paper with numbers on it. This time of year came with a collective of festivities from numerous cultures and the company was by no means any one major race or religion. During the past years the months came and went and each went about their own. This year was different. This year a portion of the men came together to petition for a holiday. Their demands were not particularly greedy, Rufus thought. One day was what they'd asked for and his father seemingly lacked the gumption to offer any sort of acceptance or refusal. Saying 'no' was not a hard task to accomplish. Announcing to building not to come in the following day shouldn't be any more complicated. Truthfully speaking it less the why and more how his father was choosing to humour them. If his objective was to keep everyone in the building wouldn't a wine party lean more in favour of Shin-Ra's image than such a childish game? It was a quiet noise made in admonition that cut the boy off as he went to protest, instead turning to stare at the source of it – a man in navy who had sat beside him through the discussion's entirety. Rufus closed his mouth and looked back to the table, observing in silence as plans were finalised. At his father's instruction a woman's voice sounded over the intercom, assuring her listeners that they've entered a state of emergency and, sure enough, she was quite the actress. He shouldn't have doubted she'd play the role of news broadcast seriously, ignoring that it would instantly be clear as a joke. Drill. ...Orientation? A game no matter what they would call it. The President and announcer, verbatim, were explaining it as a 'disaster awareness exercise'. They were to enact a zombie apocalypse in the generic fashion most delineated in horror films in order to emulate a real-life disaster situation. Apparently the activity was to start out fairly simple: she explained it as if it were an isolated issue and they were going to quarantine the contagion and hoping to eliminate the infected before it spreads beyond their control. Rules were few and far in-between but a gentle reminder that the zombies weren't really zombies accompanied them. Shin-Ra was offered a short period of quiet, allowing everyone to get settled and finish whatever it was they may have previously been occupied with before the woman came on the intercom once more. She promised to update periodically throughout the event, though warned that the broadcasts would only be broadcast across a private channel and handhelds to further the illusion. The announcer began covering a short list of names that would mark the beginnings of the horde. While most the names were random a few of notable reputation and rank made it into the selection. Calling off names would also serve as a countdown because, currently unknown to the employees, they intended to lockdown the entire building. When the female voice told everyone to take a moment to prepare Rufus stood. "Well, I won't be having any part in it." Finding no need to wait for pardon the boy pushed his chair in, turning to leave and pointedly ignoring the way his father teased him for making an escape. That old man's attitude toward the child was likely the exact reason Rufus got away with so much – he treated him in a similar manner. His vitriolic mockery, however, was not affectionate. Although the blue and gold lights behind him remained lit throughout the day it was still early enough in the morning that thin beams of white still shot up from their inlay within the entryway's flooring. Once outside Rufus paused at the top of the marble staircase to pull a coat on and tidy up his hair. He probably should have arranged a time he'd call to check in with the project; if they'd all agreed it was work, he may as well treat it as work regardless that he was skipping today. ...He wasn't going to go back in and get trapped with the entire HQ running around like idiots, though.

[ostentateduplicity]

....Out of cathodes.

Yes.