SETTING:
( INT. King's Mansion, Treno. An opulent hall with a high ceiling, leading on into a windowless study packed with eclectica. KUJA drapes himself into a plush armchair, a hand pressed over his eyes, and melts like he's been bearing the world on his shoulders. VIVI slowly waddles in. Beat. KUJA slowly pulls his hand from over his face. )
KUJA, FATIGUED:
“…following me from room to room now?”
( VIVI trudges over to stand beside the chair, looking up at KUJA without a word. KUJA keeps talking to himself without hesitation. )
KUJA:
“How precious, just marching along.”
KUJA:
“I suppose I should write that down and figure out why for the next version. She won’t find it nearly as cute.”
KUJA:
“...Too bad I can’t just ask. I do know you can hear me, but… it’s frustrating that I couldn’t replicate the way that we…”
( KUJA abruptly snaps his fingers. )
KUJA, INSPIRED:
“Hold on. Let’s do a test! No speech, yet, but your locomotion’s not so bad-- a little clumsier than I’d like, but you’re already better than yesterday. I didn’t expect you’d be so good at learning. How fantastic.”
( KUJA pulls himself up out of his chair, and starts thoughtfully drifting around the room, scanning the objects present as he concocts a plan to "test" his doll of war. KUJA comes to a stop beside a table laden with a heavy tome. )
KUJA:
“Now.. come over here beside me. Do you know what this is? Do you know what you’re supposed to do with it? Show me.”
( KUJA gestures to his side, and VIVI obediently comes over. VIVI picks up the book from the table, and clumsily puzzles over it. VIVI opens the book, flips it over... then offers it up to KUJA, holding it open by the covers. It makes a pointy shape, spine to the sky. It's a hat! )
KUJA, DROLL:
“That’s… incorrect.”
KUJA, THOUGHTFUL:
“Alright. So… you don’t intuitively know what a book is. That’s.. well, fine, neither did I, when I think about it.”
( KUJA takes the book from VIVI, and opens it properly, supporting the spine with one hand. )
KUJA:
“So you open it up like THIS. Now, take it-- careful, careful! That one volume’s more expensive to produce than every stitch of you was!”
( VIVI accepts the book back. )
KUJA:
“Now… flip to the… seventh chapter. And point to the end of the third sentence. Then.. find the same word on the page again. You won’t have to look far.”
KUJA:
“. . .”
KUJA, AGITATED:
“You can flip more than one page at a time, come on!”
KUJA, ENTHRALLED:
". . ."
KUJA:
“...You really did it.”
KUJA, MANIC:
“Haha---hahahah! Eeheehee hee hee hee! You did it! You-- I’ve done it!”
( For the first time, VIVI experiences being held. KUJA gathers VIVI up in his arms, and spins them both around in a gleeful circle. KUJA doesn't seem to care at all about the book's value, heedless to it falling on the floor. )
KUJA, MANIC:
“So what if you’re a mute?! So what if they’re all mutes, every blessed one! You can read orders, you can learn from what you’re given-- ah, I’ll actually… I can really…”
KUJA, AWED:
“I’ll have that awful woman her army after all.”
KUJA:
“...I can really do this. After all this time. After everything I’ve searched for… It’s all coming together at last.”
KUJA, PENSIVE:
“It’s been.. such a long time since he told me to destroy anything at all. I’ve got more leash than I know what to do with, but at any moment.. it feels like it’s going to pull taut into a noose.”
( It is something like a hug, as KUJA clutches VIVI - the doll he’d made to save himself - like a pillow. )
KUJA, TERRIFIED:
“..please, please let this be it. I don’t know what to do after you, little doll. I can’t do it all myself. I tried.”
KUJA:
“He’ll always want more blood than my two hands could ever hold…”
KUJA, AFFECTIONATE:
“...but we’ll give him all that and more, won’t we?”
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