==> 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

[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."