006.

[gloomyapoplectic]

Characters: [AU1] Kanaya Maryam (in [AU1] Karkat's body) and OPEN!
Setting: Room 1-12, Floor 4 (lounge), Floor 10 (aquarium), Floor 12 (space), Floor 19 (research library). Please specify which in the subject line!
Format: Action, but I'll match 'u'
Summary: Kanaya wakes up in her moirail's body and tries to figure out what the fuck is going on.
Warnings: Uncontrollable empathy! If you don't mind specifying your character's emotions in your tags, that would be very helpful to me. (: Also, potential emotion stealing if Kanaya is under too much stress; please specify in your subject line if you are alright with Kanaya absorbing some of your character's emotions! Tags will come from outscandaled.

♍Room 1-12; closed to Suzaku (in Jin's body), the Signless (in Ryuho's body), and Akihiko (in Shinjiro's body)

[Kanaya tends to wake up early regardless, since she's used to a diurnal schedule (having been a fugitive that runs during the day and all). Still, something isn't right when she wakes up. Her horns rest differently on the pillow; for that matter, the pillow she's using isn't her favorite brown one.

As she shifts, she notices that she's wearing pants. The confusion seeps in quickly. She throws the covers off, and lo and behold, they're dress pants. Very familiar ones.

Her hands fly up into her hair. Nubby horns.

Her breathing is audibly panicked now, almost to the point of hyperventilation. She scrambles upright and tugs out the front of the suit jacket. Right there, on the breast of it, is the cerulean sign she has become familiar with over the sweeps.

Kanaya curls up immediately, drawing her knees to her chest and burying her fingers in her hair. She isn't looking at anyone; her eyes are wide but unseeing for the moment, as she's too lost in her panic to do much.

She doesn't even think of Karkat's roommates.]


♍Floor 4; open

[After making a post on the network to assess the situation, Kanaya had made her way to the lounge on the fourth floor, as promised. She's seated on one of the large couches closer to the center of the room, and she's made sure to pick one that faces the staircase.

She's picking nervously at Karkat's well-kept talons and fidgeting every so often. Seems she's waiting for the other shoe to drop.]


♍Floor 10; open

[Following her meetings in the lounge, Kanaya ventured upwards, unwilling to chance eating just yet. When she reaches the aquarium floor, she stops. Anyone who finds her here will see Karkat's body staring in unhidden intrigue at the fish as they pass by; occasionally, Kanaya reaches forwards to skim her fingertips across the surface of the suspended water. She doesn't dare to actually dip her hand in.

Mostly because Karkat will kill her if she ruins his suit.]


♍Floor 12; open

[Kanaya doesn't like this floor, but it's inevitable every time that she'll stop on it to watch the destruction of at least a few universes with sad resignation. She eventually takes a seat on the floor against one of the walls, her legs crossed and her shoulders slumped as per her usual habit of having terrible posture. She sits so quietly that someone passing by might not even notice her at first.]


♍Floor 19; open

[After depressing herself on the space floor, Kanaya decides it's best to scour the library on the way up, in the hopes that there will be something pertaining to their situation or how to go about fixing it.

She sits at a table with quite a few books scattered, open, around her, but they're only tangentially relevant at best, seeing as so much of the nonfiction works have been removed. If she steals a glance at you and you happen to look out of sorts (or even if you're just not busy), she'll politely pose a question:] Um, excuse me. I'm aware that this is a somewhat strange question, but-- does that body belong to you?

Comments

[fartooloudinhere]

Suzaku woke up later than he usually did and realised right away that something was wrong. His body felt wrong, he felt tired, ill even and Suzaku was never ill.

Well rarely ill and it was never something he couldn't just shake off and ignore. But he felt old, exhausted and someone was talking in his ear loudly.

He opened his eyes, the world blurring around him. The voice was louder, threatening him and Suzaku looked round, squinting, trying to clear his vision.

This was not his room... Even through the blurred vision he could see that... He clasped his hands over his ears, unable to take the voice anymore. But it didn't shut up, it got louder and Suzaku was scared.

More scared then he had been in a very long time.

It was then that he realised through the shouting in his head that he wasn't alone in the room. "Who's there?"

That... wasn't his voice...

[outscandaled]

As Kanaya's hysterics went on, it became obvious that they weren't getting better; they were getting worse. Her confusion and panic gradually became dwarfed by fright -- intense fright. Nothing was attacking. It was only Karkat's body. It could be worse.

But she was terrified.

Her claws dug into her scalp as she pressed herself back against the barred metal frame at the head of the bed; she didn't even register the warmth under her nails that meant she'd drawn blood.

She also didn't offer an answer to the question posed by the other person in the room.

But, as Kanaya's fear grew, Suzaku should have felt his gradually taper. It wouldn't disappear completely, but it would leave more room for anything else he might have been feeling about this development.

Floor 10

[inaquate]

[The aquarium floor always brought some measure of calmness... memories of staid days, boredom. Water and fish, things he'd traded in for keyblade and knowledge of the true state of affairs. It was reaffirming in its own way.

It was no surprise to see someone else on the floor... he recognized the species easily enough, one of the Trolls. One he'd never met... then again, he'd only ever spoken with the one girl, Kanaya.

Politely, he doesn't take up residence at the same panel of water, giving whoever it is some space for their own thoughts. He turns to face his own stretch, taking a breath or two and trying to focus his mind on something that wasn't the warm burning in his core.]

[outscandaled]

[If only Xehanort knew.

Unfortunately, though the other person tries to give Kanaya her space, she's aware as soon as someone else is in the vicinity. She can feel the calmness, as well as the buried intensity of focus -- or was it distraction?

Curious, Kanaya turns to look towards the other presence. She doesn't recognise the person, but they're human and female.

She doesn't want to intrude, though, so Kanaya busies herself with the fish instead. She can't help her awe at some of the bigger and more colorful of the bunch.

Eventually, the temptation is too great.

She carefully rolls up her sleeve and sticks her hand into the water. The novelty of a standing wall of water makes her smile just a little -- Nepeta would surely love this floor -- but it isn't long before the fish notice the disturbance and surge forwards, teeth bared.

Kanaya just barely manages to snatch her hand out of the water with an audible splash and recoil a few steps back in alarm. She watches with wide eyes as the fish linger near the surface of the water briefly before going about their business as if they're not deceptive flesh-eating monsters.

So much for calm...]

Floor 19

[heavenscorpse]

Actually, it doesn't.

[V/V - in the Disciple's body - gives a helpless little shrug.] I would give it back, but I don't know how.

[redpeacoat]

[It's easy to tell when you're someplace you're not supposed to be. As Akihiko awakens, subtle things like the mattress he's laying on and the smell of the room creep upon him, causing him to sit up quickly.

A headache hits him, as if a bunch of people started talking at once to him, demanding information or greeting him, and places his hands in front of his face to rub at his temples. But these hands...these clothes...]

Huh?

[A little more awake now, he looks at his roommates, particularly the one with...orange horns. And grey flesh.]

What the hell's going on here?

[geometry]

[Fortunately, Equius always looks out of sorts, whether he's been body-swapped or not. And so far, he seems to be the only person in the Tower who has stayed in the body they were given! Go figure.]

Um, yes?

[He did have to take a moment to double-take, though. There were so many un-Karkat-like things in just that one sentence; had something happened to him? ...And a second later, considering the question 'he' had asked, Equius suddenly got it a lot better. Something had happened to him, and another person had been unfortunately misplaced into Karkat's body. Oh dear.]

[outscandaled]

[Kanaya frowns sympathetically, which she finds to be a lot easier when she's aware of exactly how her conversational partner is feeling.] I'm afraid I am experiencing similar conflict. Given the nature of this place, I am wondering if it is even possible for us to give them back of our own accord.

[heavenscorpse]

Probably not...

I hope she doesn't mind my body. Hers is pretty, and I'm trying really hard not to scratch it.

[outscandaled]

[Kanaya doesn't seem to hear the question at first, too caught up in being confused and freaking out.

She's in Karkat's body. Karkat is going to kill her. If she's in his body, where is her body? Is someone else wandering around in it? How is she going to get back to normal? Will she get back to normal or are they going to leave her like this?

It's a moment before Kanaya seems to notice that there is another source of emotion near her. She looks towards Akihiko, but it takes a little while to absorb that she's even looking at a person.

Her breathing slows a little as she takes the words in, but she's visibly trembling.]

What?

[It takes her long enough to come up with that response, and it's not even that good! Honestly.]

[outscandaled]

[She must have been spaced out, or she'd picked a very inopportune time to glance back at her book without getting a decent look at who she'd asked. Kanaya drops the book rather inelegantly when he responds and turns quickly in her chair.

Welp that sure is Equius who probably thinks she's Karkat.

Kanaya can't help but narrow her eyes a little in reflex.] Some of us were not so fortunate. I suppose you have not yet encountered anyone else with this problem?

[outscandaled]

[Kanaya manages a smile at that.] That is very considerate of you. I don't imagine that many others are taking similar precautions. [Well, she's trying not to bang up Karkat too much, but that's mostly because she doesn't want to deal with his whining if she does.]

I assume you have not seen yours wandering around, then?

[geometry]

[Really, Kanaya. Get on the ball.]

[He doesn't really pay much mind to the narrowed eyes or the suddenly-colder tone; they were closer to typical Karkat than anything this person was doing earlier, so maybe that was just the body working off of muscle memory or something. Still, since he didn't know who this person actually was, he decided that maybe it was a good idea to treat them like they were Karkat anyway.]

That's correct.

[heavenscorpse]

[She shakes her head.] Do you know the person who has it? They must look like you, with the horns and everything.

[outscandaled]

The amount of posts on the network related to it seem to indicate that the phenomenon is fairly widespread.

[There's a note of suspicion to her voice, but that's because she can tell what Equius is feeling, which is very strange because it's not like she ever has reason to know or ask any other time. He seems a little unsure.

She can't decide if she should tell him who she is or let him sweat it out a while.]

I'm surprised that I am the first you have run into.

[geometry]

Oh. I didn't check the Network this morning, so... I wasn't really aware of that.

[Not that it's hard to tell what he's feeling, even without the Heart powers.]

...Well, I doubt this will be over by the end of the day, at any rate. So I suppose it probably doesn't make that much of a difference.

[redpeacoat]

[Does he have horns now too? His hands shoot up to check...nope. His roommate looks scared out of his mind, but with an outward appearance like that, he assumes it's normal. He has more reason to be worked up than Akihiko.]

What did they do...?

[His little outburst was uncalled for. He looks apologetic now, which is probably an unusual expression for this body to be making.]

Did we get assigned to new rooms too?

[outscandaled]

[Kanaya has met a fair amount of adult trolls since coming to the Tower, and this one looks somewhat familiar, but no title comes to mind.]

Unfortunately, I cannot say I am well-acquainted with her. [Kanaya hesitates a moment, unsure if she should speak on behalf of this unknown troll. But, this person obviously isn't familiar with Alternian culture -- they don't even know what Kanaya's species is called -- so it only seems fair to warn her.]

I advise exercising some degree of caution if you do locate her. My species is violent by nature. Some trolls more than others. But young trolls are taught to fear adults especially.

[Kanaya's mouth twists a little, as if she's unsure of what expression she should be making.] However, we are completely capable of rational thought, so my warning may be unnecessary. It depends on the troll in question.

[outscandaled]

[Kanaya continues to openly stare at the human across the room, which is very rude by human standards, but the etiquette of some other species from another universe is not really what's on her mind right now.

At least the staring seems to be therapeutic, and it gives her time to piece together what she's hearing. This person seems just as confused as she is. And he mentioned a new room...

Slowly, Kanaya's hysterics give way to a wary curiosity.] ...you're not where you're supposed to be either?

[heavenscorpse]

Hmmm... all right. I won't be too scared, but I'll try to talk to her politely.

[outscandaled]

[Implying Kanaya ever thinks about Equius' feelings even when they're staring her in the face.]

When you decide to update yourself on the recent posts, they all appear to be anonymous. The other posting options aren't available. If this persists for more than a day, I imagine it will become even less navigable than it already is.

It may be in your best interests to see if any of your close friends have made any announcements regarding this development, to minimize future confusion.

[outscandaled]

Yes, I think this is the wisest approach.

[Speaking of talking politely...]

My name is Kanaya. I apologize for not introducing myself sooner. It must have eluded my think pan.

[redpeacoat]

No. I...

[With more observation, he spots a familiar fabric item nearby, and snatches it up, examining the metal brand plate on the front of the black beanie.]

Shinji?

[He gives his own body a more in-depth looking over. The pants, the turtleneck, the longer hair...holy crap. How did he turn into his best friend? Then does that mean the freaked out grey kid...]

These aren't our bodies.

[heavenscorpse]

Mine is V/V. Nice to meet you!

[She thinks about curtsying and then decides that it would be hard without a dress.]

[geometry]

[That is also true. Kanaya, you're the best not-Heart player, really.]

[He nods at her suggestion, regardless of how unpleasant the tone of voice is. It'll be awkward no matter what happens, as he's seen already from this conversation here, but the more people he identifies, the better.] You're right... I will check more frequently from now on. Thank you.