==> 001

[nohorseplay]

Characters: Equius Zahhak and any who feel like dealing with him.
Setting: Floor 38.
Format: Starting with prose, action is just fine if you like.
Summary: Waking up in a strange place with a collar around his neck has not agreed with Equius, to put things lightly. He's found his way out of his dorm and down the stairs to the lounge - and left quite a bit of destruction in his wake.
Warnings: Equius being grumpy and unmanageable.


If you are anywhere near the third floor of the dormitories, you probably heard the sounds of violence and rage. Equius, now at least dressed in his own clothes, has noticed the fact that there is a collar around his throat. This, adding to his disorientation and lack of a Moirail around to keep him in check, has not gone well for just about anybody. Especially the local architecture.

Walking down the halls of the third dormitory floor and the stairwell down to the lounge, one may spy a few holes torn in the wall. They seem to have been formed with someone's bare hands. Drywall and flecks of wood leave a trail where he's walked, and the railing of the stairs is now noticeably warped and broken in a few places where his grip got the better of him. The trail of destruction continues into the lounge itself, with a few pieces of furniture already hurled across the room and broken into pieces.

In short, Equius is in quite a state. He's calmed down, somewhat, settling in a pile of cushions that was once part of a couch. His hands are at his own throat, tugging at the collar with all his strength. It refuses to budge.

Do you dare approach the angry alien boy?

Comments

[mutab1e]

Truth be told, it was a very fucked-up timeline. Doomed at the end of the day, really, though of course he didn't know that. Equius nearly choked when the other jabbed him, but he managed to keep himself... relatively quiet. And, of course, he took the other's commands immediately. Even though he kind of twitched when he realized just what the hell this highblood was making him doing, it was still a valiant effort, and actually a relative success when you consider just what kind of Equius Zahhak we're talking here.

He took a deep breath before speaking, praying desperately that his second attempt was more to his highblood twin's liking. "...Yes, sir."

A pause there, as he recalled everything he could about those who ran this tower. Fortunately, he had a very good memory. "The exact number is unclear, sir, but there are five of them that we currently know of. All of them are humans. Three are adult males -- Jax, Riki, and Jason -- and one is a child, a boy named Zo. There is also a female named Ruana, but I don't know her age. I'm guessing they..." SHIT. No pauses. Shit. "...they switch off control over the tower on a basis centered around human months. They haven't confirmed this, though. ...They don't really confirm anything."

[nohorseplay]

A fact that would surprise him little if he heard it, because clearly things were irreparably damaged from the proper order. There was no chance such a timeline could survive. But at least, perhaps, this useless alternate had a bit of pride in him, a bit of something. He tried to straighten his back and that was an attempt Equius appreciated. Perhaps something could be made of him, after all. But was that really a question? If he was an Equius Zahhak, he was destined for something better than this.

"Better. Don't let me see you slouching again."

Equius watched him like a hawk as he rattled off the information, a soft growl escaping his lips at that pause. Speak strongly, he wanted to snap, but didn't. Better to get the skittish little thing to finish his report before scaring him off. He actually wanted to learn something. And it was a start, if nothing else.

"Humans. What a surprise. Where are they, then? How can they be accessed? Clearly they need to be told off, after this."

[mutab1e]

Hey, it's not exactly easy for him to just revert to a completely different minset, especially while staring a blueblood in the face. After all, a straight back and firm demeanor implies confidence, and confidence usually got him punched in the face. He's still got a fair number of bruises, mind; most of them have healed since the last time he died, but rest assured that they were not gained from fighting robots.

He did nod at OUquius' command, though; it would mean more things to add to his mental tack list of people to avoid and respond to when he entered a room. However, between the Grand Highblood and the numerous other people who were out for his skin, he has developed the tendency to poke his head in first, to see if there were any maniacal trolls or humans about. It wouldn't be that hard to check for the other Equius as well and modify his demeanor accordingly.

He was very, painfully aware of the expression behind those glasses. (How did they crack? Certainly, his had several chips in them as well, but that was more from not having the money to buy a new one. Certainly the True Equius wouldn't have a problem on that front.) It... really wasn't helping, but he forced himself through it anyway. Mentally justifying this as the Right Thing To Do helped, a bit. "There are two elevators on the bottom floor. One is public use, but the other seems to be reserved for the administration. That is all I know about their location. As for the second question, generally, you don't contact them; they contact you. Sometimes one of them will make posts over the network and they can be spoken to there."

[nohorseplay]

Equius himself was also having trouble with this situation. On the one hand, it was nice to see a lowblood showing the proper deference and respect afforded a highblood. Too many of the ones he knew seemed to be far from overly concerned about the laws of the hemospectrum, at least not enough to actually modify their behavior. But while this AUquius should be groveling and whimpering and doing exactly as ordered, OUquius couldn't help wanting to see, well, a little more pride from him. If only because it was his own face, almost, he was looking into.

"Naturally. The ruling class shouldn't deign to speak with commoners too frequently." Said the regular friend of a highblood and two seadwellers, but he was ignoring that. The instinctive urge to kowtow to authority was much too strong. "Still, I trust they have been made aware of our displeasure at being trapped here. It's not like most of us want to be here, I assume."

[mutab1e]

Tsk tsk, Equius. That is definitely going against the order of things. For shame. ...Still, no matter his own thoughts on the matter, AUquius will put an effort into it if only because his better half says to. It's probably kind of inherently wrong in every possible way, but it was fairly easy to justify whenever he noted just how big the other was. To see another version of themselves was mutually unnerving, and it only got worse as Equius forced himself to keep staring into the other's shades. Maybe he would have time for freaking out about it later, when OUquius wasn't watching. He'd certainly get throttled for that.

"Yes, you're right, and I'm sure they are," he continued, voice growing tense as he kept willing himself to speak according to the other Equius' demands. "But they seem to show a degree of..." He wasn't just pausing for no reason here; the word he was looking for was fairly archaic, and maybe even human in origin, he didn't remember. (He had made a habit of poking around the human Internet, so he had picked up some things through cultural osmosis.) "...sadism towards us as a whole. Particularly in the 'experiments' they conduct every so often."

[nohorseplay]

It was a deep contradiction, to be sure, but in many ways Equius had built his entire life in contradictions. What was one more? He'd deal with these complicated and antagonistic emotions later, when he had a firmer grasp on where he was and what was going on. It would need a lot of though, to decide how to proceed with this alternate. Simply ignoring him was clearly not an option. How could he deny another version of himself? And he didn't want others to hear the name Equius Zahhak and get the wrong impression.

He paused, watching the AUquius' face as he hesitated in his words. Sadism. Now there was an interesting concept. Or rather remarkably uninteresting, as wasn't it the natural Troll order of things? To bring pain and misery to those beneath you, unable to defend themselves? Not that he'd been a very good Troll himself if it were. So perhaps it was best not to think about such things, for the time being. No. There were other things he needed to know first.

"I see. These experiments, describe them."

[mutab1e]

Of course it was a common concept, enough that it might not warrant a word all to itself -- in the same way that the quadrant system might eliminate the use of equivalent terms for homo- and heterosexuality. But, well, headcanon is a topic for another thread. For now, we've got some psychopaths to expose.

"The most recent one appeared to be a psychological experiment of some kind. Seemingly random people from around the Tower were chosen and placed into a labyrinth, where they were given eight days' worth of rations an told to kill each other until only one was left standing." He participated in this one. To his credit, he lasted until the eighth and final day, though he was eventually killed. "Every experiment I have been present for was in the same vein, but reading through the archives of the network, it seemed that there was an actual experiment performed on residents in the past. ...You know, the kind involving physical alterations."

ARGH. He did it again. Blast and damn.

[nohorseplay]

His hand went to his chin as he took in this new information. Again, a murderous labyrinth wouldn't have been entirely out of place on Alternia. But this was the work of humans? He'd not thought them capable of anything this ruthless. It was almost impressive. If slightly worrying. He liked to think he could survive something like that with ease, having faced the horrors of the Medium, but it did not do to be too arrogant. Even when one deserved it.

"It sounds almost like a culling ritual," he said at last. "To separate the strong from the weak. Unusual, for a human act." His head tilted again in curiosity, his eyes narrowing. He snapped for a moment, "Speak properly," before returning to his ruminations. "Alterations. So they have plans for us. They must."

[mutab1e]

Equius watched the other think, not daring to do anything other than breathe. Quietly, in the back of his mind, he got a good look at the other for the first time. It had been unimaginable to him of how he would have turned out as a blueblood, and now that they were staring eye to eye (strange-- for some reason he had thought the other would be taller), he realized that he was right. There was no way he could have conceived that this person would ever, ever come out of him. It just wasn't possible. Even though he had seen plenty of examples of two people who were somewhat the same but inherently different as well, he had set the question aside by saying that it just didn't apply to him. There was no change between universes besides the color of the blood. Equius Zahhak was just a failure and a coward, all across the board. It was a cosmic rule.

"It could be," he said. "Even though deaths are regularly followed by revivals in this tower, it would be easy to follow who died and peg them as the 'weak' ones. Even though it might somewhat skew their data, considering that not all of the tower residency was in the labyrinth at the same time." He nodded quickly and apologized at OUquius' reprimand, and began again afterward. "Yes. Or, at least, some of them do. The administration seems to squabble amongst themselves fairly often."