[OPEN] standing dumb in the light

[glowsferatu]

WHO: Kanaya Maryam and YOU!
WHERE: Dormitory levels
WHAT: Kanaya wakes up, she is not at all fond of her circumstances. And so the Tower receives a glowing alien girl conspicuously and shiveringly sneaking through the hallway.
HOW: Action

[ thirty seconds of sleep paralysis is a hell of an introduction to a new setting. by the time it's worn off, kanaya has found plenty of time to begin panicking. it doesn't look like any memory she's ever had, so the most reasonable explanation is that it must be someone else's. it's a dream bubble, right? it has to be. that doesn't explain the collar. something is wrong here. who put her in this ugly jumpsuit? who would even make such an ugly outfit?

once she's on her feet, she spares a moment to wonder if she should make the bed before deciding that there are bigger problems at hand, and ends up missing her introduction letters in the process. she elects to sneak out into the hallway instead, only to find it's cold. unreasonably cold, especially in this miserable outfit. her best hope is to keep moving, see if the bubble doesn't change if she does, stopping at each corner to peek around it. you never know what you might encounter in these things. ]

Comments

hi I am not late at all, nope

[geometry]

[Well that sure is a Kanaya head, a glowing Kanaya head, peering around the corner. And there's a glowing Kanaya body attached to it.]

[What.]

[Equius stares at the troll for a second, trying to figure out whether it was a hallucination or not (he'd been getting quite a few of those lately). It certainly seemed like a hallucination, since last time he checked Maryam had not turned into a night light. But just to be sure, he had to grab her attention somehow...]

...Uh.

[As usual, he is a master of grace and eloquence.]

[glowsferatu]

[ her gaze darts to him the moment he opens his mouth. equius, okay, that's...yellow. is this some kind of roleplay he's participating in? is it a...uh...kind of roleplay that she probably doesn't want to know anything about or witness in a million lifetimes?

questions, big questions, important questions. questions she honestly doesn't know if she wants answered. she tries to hold back a cringe but fails spectacularly. she is not moving from the corner, but she can't look away. he has her full and undivided attention and she doesn't like it one bit. ]

[geometry]

[If this is some roleplay, it is seriously an impressive one involving a lot of Spatial distortion, because he has met your Equius, okay. That dude is scary... and also a million times his size in terms of muscle.]

[He finds himself staring back at her, steadily growing more worried. Was there something wrong? Oh god, the last Kanaya had been told about him in advance, hadn't she? Eridan had told her. Oh god. She's thinking that he's the other Equius. Oh god. Oh god.]

Hello. There.

[The voice is quiet, shaky, and higher pitched than what the blueblood Equius should be capable of. Hooray for a lack of troll testosterone.]

[glowsferatu]

[ as she stares at him in subdued horror, she can't help but notice certain details. the tone of voice, the change in physique, the undamaged horn, the distinct lack of ghostly eyes. this may not actually be what she thinks it is. it may be something weirder altogether.

slowly, cautiously, she steps out from behind her corner and stands up straight, hands clasped in front of her. she's considerably taller than redkan, but she wouldn't know that herself yet. the only indication of her caste in this outfit is the jade her lips are painted with while they're pursed tightly, the corners still pulling downwards. she's a little overwhelmed with wondering what the hell is even going on. ]

Um. Hi.

[geometry]

[The lips, he... probably should have noticed those by this point. But he still hasn't. Somewhere between the very distracting glow and his exceedingly dumb glasses, he just hasn't made the connection. Obviously this is some kind of new Kanaya, because she's still in that jumpsuit and even Maryam wouldn't lower herself to wearing such a thing. It would be pointless to ask her if she's new.]

[Equius shuffles awkwardly for a little while before he responds. How do you even explain the Tower to people? How?]

...I guess you recognize me, kind of?

[glowsferatu]

[ to be fair, that glow is pretty distracting to begin with, and kind of overwhelms the colors it surrounds sometimes. it makes the jumpsuit just that much more unbearable, given that they're so close in color.

she shifts her weight between her feet and crosses her arms. she's stopped moving, the cold is beginning to catch up with her. ]

You resemble certain individuals with whom I am familiar, but in ways that are distinctly unlike either of them. It may be impolite to ask who exactly you are, but the impulse remains all the same.

[geometry]

No, it... it’s fine, that’s kind of the normal response.

I’m Equius Zahhak, though you probably expected that. [Now that they’re actually engaging in a conversation (albeit a very stilted and awkward one), he moves a little closer so that he doesn’t have to talk so loud.] The thing about this Tower is, uh... it tends to pull in people from different versions of the same universe as well as people from completely separate universes. It might be just a doomed timeline that separates us, or something more than that, we don’t know.

But the point of it is, I’m... real, and so is everyone else here who might not be exactly like you remember them. [He folds his arms, then sticks them in his pockets, and finally just shrugs.] N-not to say that the people you remember won’t be here either. They might be. But just don’t be surprised.

[glowsferatu]

I probably shouldn't be. [ not to the extent that she is, at least. ] None of that sounds especially unlike what would normally occur in one of these bubbles, except that, well...

[ she pauses, considering the most delicate way to put this. ]

You don't appear to be dead. [ nailed it. ]

[geometry]

This... isn’t a dream bubble. I’m not dead.

[Maybe. Hopefully. As far as he knows.]

Did you read the letters?

[glowsferatu]

How is that even possible?

[ and what letter is he even talking about? ]

[geometry]

...I guess you didn't.

There were letters in an envelope on the table to the side of your respite sponge that would have explained this. I guess you didn't see them, but... in short, uh, the universe has been destroyed. It can't hold any more life. Alternia, Skaia, the Veil -- if you ever saw the Veil. Even the dream bubbles. They're... barren now. [He saw this first hand, on a not-very-fun hiatus trip back in October.] We're in the Tower because, according to the administrators of this place, this is where we have to stay since all of the other worlds have been destroyed.

[glowsferatu]

[ she narrows her eyes, trying to process this. ] None of that is new information. Our session was ravaged, our universe annihilated, but we had moved on beyond them both. We were...doing relatively fine, I doubt we needed these administrators' assistance.

[geometry]

[ ... ]

And where exactly did you move to?

[glowsferatu]

We were traveling through the Furthest Ring, toward a different session entirely. The journey still has nearly a sweep to it. [ "has", because she's not entirely convinced that it's over just yet. ]

[geometry]

...Oh.

[Equius takes a moment to contemplate this. Holy shit. And he thought his session was sequence breaking.]

Well. Still. As far as we know, that... is what happened. Go back and read those notes if you have to, they'll say the same thing, even though it's kind of hard to believe, I guess. I-I mean, not that the letters are particularly trustworthy anyway, but in this case they're... actually telling the truth... maybe.

[glowsferatu]

[ she's still skeptical, how could someone even destroy the furthest ring? it would have to be something first rather than a vast collection of nothingness. still, she looks behind her at the hallway she'd just come from, a little disoriented. ]

I'm honestly not sure where the room I'd awoken in is anymore.

[geometry]

Well... there are plaques next to the dormitories that list the names of the people inside. Females on one side and males on the other. I guess you could find your room that way... just be careful you don't go into Mar-- um. The other Kanaya's room.

...There's another Kanaya.

[That probably would have been better information to give in the beginning of this conversation, dear.]

[glowsferatu]

[ it probably would have gotten the same miserable and disconcerted frown either way. ]

That's...great. [ she kind of dreads that meeting, but it's probably inevitable. at least she won't have to learn simply by encountering her directly. ] Do you happen to know which room I should avoid if I'd like to prevent that confusion?

[geometry]

Um... no. [He looks almost apologetic, as he has this entire conversation.] I don't generally, uh, make a habit of talking to her. So I don't know her room by memory. But, uh... I guess you could get an answer if you asked someone else nearby, like a roommate... if they don't know who Kanaya Maryam is, that's yours.

[glowsferatu]

[ no one is not sorry for this conversation. she's already embarrassed enough by the jumpsuit, and having to be told what's going on when the information was apparently available from the start just really doesn't help. ]

Right. I guess...that would be one way to meet those I'll be staying with. [ an awkward way, though less awkward than presumptuously wandering into the wrong room. "staying" isn't an idea she particularly likes, either. ]

[geometry]

Right. [He coughs.] ...urk, excuse me. But, uh, anyway, it's really not all that hard to avoid your roommates. I mean, you have to sleep in the provided bed every night or... well, you won't get any rest, but you don't really have to do anything more than look at them most of the time. Unless they're, uh, particularly outgoing or particularly... um. Unpredictable. ['Unpredictable', by the way, is Equius' nice way of saying 'the Grand Highblood'.]

[glowsferatu]

Well, I don't entirely mean to avoid them, I just...would have preferred a better method of introduction could be found instead.

[ though she's not really excited about having to share a room, either. ]

[geometry]

...Uh.

Well, I guess you could just go about it discreetly.

Look for something in the room that seems familiar, and if it's not there, then you're in Maryam's room.

[glowsferatu]

Yes, just rummage through someone's belongings in hopes they could be mine. That's a brilliant and far less uncomfortable suggestion!

I don't even know that I have any belongings here.

[geometry]

...I didn't mean you had to... sorry. Never mind.

[He looks down at the floor again. He'd meant that there might have been some object on the walls or strewn about the room, clothing maybe, that she'd caught sight of before... but there was no point mentioning that now.]