> Animus: Assemble

[caliginous]

Characters: Members of Group A and YOU
Setting: Fourth Floor -- the white lounge.
Format: WHO EVEN KNOWS
Summary: Karkat attempts to pull everyone into one place for counter-resistance.
Warnings: MALFUNCTION MAY OCCUR, that means depending on who you tag and who tags in, your character may end up injured. Please check individual sub-threads for malfunction warnings! There's also obvious body horror warnings here due to modifications from the event.

[In a room full of white, its not hard to spot the various victims of Jason's latest experiments. Each sits or stands in their own corner on or off furniture talking amongst one another or simply staring at the door waiting for someone to approach them.

Some of them don't look all that approachable, even if it appears that they are completely sane at first glance. Some of them might even look like they don't want to be there.

You won't really know until you approach them.]

Comments

[tentacletrainer]

[[OOC: While malfunctioning, Rose will attempt to manipulate people into following paths that will lead to their destruction or unhappiness. Either I will contact you if it may come up or, if you're interested in having it come up, feel free to contact me! As a side note, it seems as if something beneath her robe is...squirming. And looking underneath it has the potential of knocking your character unconscious or driving them insane if they aren't used to Eldritch impossibilities. So keep that in mind!]]

[[She...honestly didn't want to be here. At least the part of her that had a grip on who 'she' was. It wasn't that she didn't like the company - all company was good company - and only partially because her looks were so off putting (who approaches what essentially equates to a walking burn victim?). Maybe the way she looked would ward people away.

No, she just didn't want to interact with anyone. She didn't want to see their bleak futures or have the potential to attack them. She knows what she's like when the conditioning kicks in. She's seen it in plenty of others.

Or well. She hasn't really seen it so much as eavesdropped on people discussing it. Or perhaps those running from it. Rose was blind aside from her Seer's sight, so she couldn't really see much of anything anymore. And she mostly kept to the side of the room, near the walls because of it.]]

[ghostytrainer]

[Trusting Bluekat's note entirely, John had dragged his alternate self down to the fourth floor at the indicated time. With how weird Johto's Dave had been acting earlier and the fact that he STILL hadn't heard from Rose or the Dave from the tower, he couldn't ignore something like that note.]

[It was worse than he could have ever imagined. The poor people in this room were so grotesque he almost had a hard time believing they were people at all. John glanced around the room wildly, looking for any sign of his friends when...low and behold he knows what that sun symbol is, even if it's the wrong color. That's on Vrisk-- wait. That's not Vriska at all. The outfit is all wrong and Vriska isn't blonde. But there's another hero of light who is...]

[All it takes is one glance at her left ring finger to realize who that figure by the wall is. Abandoning his alternate self, John takes off across the lounge in the "burn victim"'s direction.]

Rose!!! [He doesn't stop even as he finally reaches her, throwing all caution to the winds and embracing her...not too tightly, though. He doesn't want to hurt her any more than he imagines she already is but...] I was so worried!

[tentacletrainer]

[[She gasps softly, though less out of pain and more in surprise. John, what are you doing hugging someone like her?]]

...sorry to have worried you.

[[And she's sorry for edging away a little as well. But she just can't risk it. Not with John.]]

[ghostytrainer]

[Because he loves you, duh? Why else would he be hugging you like this? And more importantly, refusing to let you inch away? Not happening.]

It's okay, it's not your fault! I just...I didn't know where you were and everyone else was gone too and just...what happened, Rose? Karkat sent us all notes, what's going on?

[Stiiiiilll hugging. Even resting his head against her shoulder and everything. Fear? What fear? Rose may have have had her body modified horribly but she's still Rose and according to Karkat's letter and the way she's talking, she's still in her right mind so...she won't hurt him.]

[tentacletrainer]

[[John, please...]]

I...I don't rightly know. Another experiment I guess. Proof that Jason is a sadistic bastard.

[[She's going to carefully try and pry him off. Not with much force but still.]]

[ghostytrainer]

But-- [And that's when John notices something that probably should have been obvious from the moment he touched her. He loses his train of thought entirely, pulling back a little bit, hands still on her shoulders. He looks a little...disgusted? Concerned? It's an interesting expression, to say the least. Not that Rose can see it. But she can probably hear it in his tone because what the actual fuck is going on here?]

Rose...you're wiggling. Why are you wiggling? What did he do to you? [You don't mind if he tries to take a peek under your robe, right?] I swear I am not trying to look at something I shouldn't, it just feels like you have got a snake under here or something...

[He hasn't quite moved it away enough to see under it just yet but give him about 10 seconds and that won't be an issue anymore.]

[tentacletrainer]

John...what are you talking about? What are you looking at? [[The confusion is plain as day on her face, though she's not trying to follow his gaze to answer that question herself. She's kind of staring just a little bit past his shoulder, really, believing that's where he still is.]]

[ghostytrainer]

You are all wiggly where you shouldn't be! It's like there's someth-- [But exactly what it's like, we will likely never know as the next thing that comes out of John's mouth isn't a word as much as a horrified scream. It's followed by a dull, painful-sounding thud as John hits the floor, unconscious]

[Being a Prospit dreamer and from so early on in the timeline, John's experience with intergalactic space calamari amounts to exactly zero. He was not in any way prepared for the literal horrors hidden beneath that robe.]

[tentacletrainer]

[[Rose barely even flinches at the scream, but moments later jumps at the sound of something hitting the floor.]] J-John? John what happened?

[[She's just...going...to grope the air a little yeah. And when she can't find her fiance, she'll sort of crouch down a bit and try to find him down there, feeling around on the floor.]]

[longwinded]

[The bigger John has been present in the room the entire time. I wonder why that is, little John. So at the sound of a scream and a thud he guesses this makes it okay to approach the pair now.

.....What the fuck just happened and why is John on the floor?]

Rose? This is the other John. Are you okay Rose? Is he okay? He's sort of unconscious.

[tentacletrainer]

He is? [[And you are? Wow it's a little difficult to tell you two apart when she can't see.]] I don't really know what happened. He said something about me was wriggling, and promised he wasn't looking at anything he shouldn't? But I can't...I don't really know what he was looking at to begin with.

[[Skipping over the 'are you okay' part.]]

okay, using this for serious!Rei icons

[nottheonly]

[Rei's expression falls as she catches sight of Rose.]

You too, Rose?

[She walks toward Rose, seemingly not noticing the girl's desire to isolate herself.]

okay u u

[tentacletrainer]

Me too what? [[She doesn't look in the direction of the approaching girl. She doesn't seem to notice that she's actually approaching her. Not immediately anyway, but the footsteps soon reach her ears and she does turn her head slightly in that direction.]]

Re: okay u u

[nottheonly]

Gotten modified. I've seen a bunch of people have that happen to them.

[tentacletrainer]

Oh...yeah. Me too then. How many others have you seen like this?

[nottheonly]

Uh...a bunch of them. They're all weirdly shaped and have pink collars.

[tentacletrainer]

Pink collars? [[Instinctively she moves her hands to her own collar, as if this will let her tell what color hers is.]] Why would we suddenly have different colored collars...?

[terreifying]

I dunno. Maybe Jason wanted a new color.

[tentacletrainer]

Perhaps Jason should consider taking a long walk off of a short pier. [[Yeah, she hadn't cared for him much before, but really didn't care for him any now.]] If he enjoys pink so much, he could easily just wear it himself.

[nottheonly]

He really does need to get punished. Hard.

[knightime]

[Maybe it's better that she can't see Dave. She doesn't have to see what they've done to him. But she might hear the faint sound of gears turning.

On the upside. Dave has been so thoroughly brainwashed that the sight of Rose doesn't affect him at all. He does acknowledge her and he approaches her. Why wouldn't he? She is important to him. He should help her.]

Rose. [She can probably already tell something is off with the way he speaks.]

[tentacletrainer]

Dave? [[She can, yes. But she's not surprised by that. As much as she didn't want to believe any of her friends would undergo the same treatment, she's not surprised that they have and she can only assume that's what is wrong with him.

Either that, or whatever has happened to her is horrific.

She doesn't look at Dave, so much as in his general direction.]]

[knightime]

Do you need help?

[He doesn't have to help, but Rose was important to him. He knows that much. He had to help his fellow unit.]

The admins did well.

[tentacletrainer]

Did well? I suppose you could say that. [[It depends on your definition of 'well'.]]

I...well. I can't see. If you would be able to assist me around the tower for a time, that would be appreciated.

[knightime]

[He doesn't understand what she could mean other than things are completely well.]

I would be more than happy to assist you in anyway, Rose. You just need to tell me what you need help with.

[His touch is gentle. Instead of warm hands, Rose feels metal and gears turning. But he makes it so she doesn't get caught in them. He doesn't want to hurt her. He just wants to help.]