x. voice

[firstroar]

The reports seem to be mixed. Have those of you who have returned found yourselves safe places and warm clothing? Some have offered already; I should hope the message has reached those in need.

I'm not certain of what remaining here could be of use to you Earthside, but it can be brought when I join you. But not just yet.

[a beat.]

The people...

What are they like now?

Comments

[crab]

GOD, SHUT UP, I WAS MERELY ACKNOWLEDGING THAT THE SYSTEMS IN PLACE WHEREVER YOU COME FROM SOUND LIKE THE SOCIETAL EQUIVALENT OF A GARBAGE DUMP. THAT DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU.
THIS IS *ALL* PURELY ACADEMIC CURIOSITY FYI. THERE IS NOTHING PERSONAL ABOUT ANY OF THIS, SO DON'T GO GETTING ANY CRAZY IDEAS. LET ME JUST DESTROY THAT PARTICULAR AVENUE OF POSSIBILITY BEFORE IT CAN EVEN PRESENT ITSELF.
SO THERE ARE A LOT OF YOU?

[ he might be a little disappointed, at that. is he the only mutant who happened to be the only one of his kind? ]

[firstroar]

[acknowledgement doesn't need to come with an "I'm sorry," kiddo. but he'll let it go, based on memory. cranky, angry child. good reasons and bad.

evenly:] There were. But fewer still, after...[exhale.] In the time I've been taken from, many are lost. But if there are more hidden on other colonies, other planets, I'll never know.

[crab]

[ he suppresses the urge to offer condolences, this time. he is not supposed to be making connections, mutant or not, and he's not about to go back on his decision so early in, just because some random alien from another universe might have a background vaguely similar to his. ]

FURTHER EXAMPLES OF THIS INCONTINENT CLOTSHITTING AWFULNESS ATTRIBUTE. I'M SENSING A THEME.
WHAT'S YOUR ESTABLISHED AUTHORITY LIKE?

[firstroar]

In ways...this United Earth is similar. Where I am from, the highest authority is a computer system designed with a program called Superior Domination. There is a commanding terminal in every colony and satellite humans occupy, which determines everything from career to offspring to actual birth. Everything is monitored and adjusted to benefit the system's output.

It's been this way for five hundred years. Humans chose to live this way, if history is to be believed. But that is granted from a machine, as well.

[crab]

WOW, MAKES LACHESIS SOUND LIKE A DOWNRIGHT JOY.
I WOULDN'T TRUST YOUR HISTORY, IF I WERE YOU.

[firstroar]

[a delay.]

"Lachesis"...

[crab]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. INSUFFERABLY SMUG, AND ALSO A COMPLETE SOCIOPATH.
SHE'S THE ONE WHO TOOK ME FROM MY REALITY THE FIRST TIME.
TO A PLACE CALLED THE CITY.

[firstroar]

You...

[wait.]

It truly had no other name than that? I thought it was something else erased from my memory...But I remember that name. Lachesis. The machine.

[crab]

[ he very nearly drops the tablet again ]

Wait, wait, wait, you're the other imPort?!

[firstroar]

I was. [beat. no,] I am.

fuck pretend he was so upset he switched to voice and that wasn't me being a dumbass

[crab]

Oh my god, that's absolute bullshit. I can't believe this! This is way too much. [ you don't get to be a mutant and an import. ]

i didnt even notice I WILL ROLL W IT

[firstroar]

[wELL...]

It's remarkable, certainly. It seems less and less like a coincidence this way.

capslock was not enough to express his indignation

[crab]

No. Fuck this. Paradox space eats happenstance for breakfast, I'm not dealing with yet another "spoooooooky" coincidence, the entire purpose of which being to see how long it takes for Karkat Vantas to tear every last strand of follicular biomaterial from his skull in a fit of impotent fury, I am sick and fucking tired of this Chekhov's Sickle nonsense, I'm not putting up with any more. When I get my hands on her I'm going to wring her skinny neck.

[ he sounds like he means lachesis, but he really means ruka, for not telling him the other import's name in advance. ]

karcaps

[firstroar]

[wow Blue's glad this is a conversation separated by miles to avoid the emotional feedback.]

"Her"? [Karkat don't give Lachesis people pronouns it's the enemy.]

[crab]

[ he falters, then -- he at the very least has the presence of mind to remember this is public, and if he says anything that might have implications for ruka, it won't be her neck he'll have to be worrying about. ]

She-- Lachesis. Lachesis is who I meant.

[firstroar]

I see...

[Ruka is in his thoughts, but for how secretive she's been, he can't imagine her revealing herself and that history to anyone else, including Karkat. he's...quite a talker.

hm.. .]

But I don't understand. Are you connecting that machine with the happenings here?

[crab]

[ well now he's going to have to try and bullshit his way through this. ]

No. I'm connecting her both with our apparently shared history, and with the endless fucking migraine she deigned to bestow upon me the day she yanked me off that meteor.

[firstroar]

Lachesis was...is, perhaps, still a chaotic force, despite being a computer. How much sway it truly held beyond the push and pull between our own worlds and hers...I don't know if I can believe much of it. Compared to something like the Mother System, Lachesis is a broken project, and any victims subject to it more victims of chance than anything...

[a beat.]

But my memory of it is fractured. There's aspects I'm missing, I'm sure.

How much do you remember of it there?

[crab]

All of it, as far as I'm aware. And she was sentient. She could talk. Not often, but she mostly utilized her linguistic skills for the purpose of gloating. [ his feelings on lachesis can be summed up with the dinkleberg meme. ] She knew exactly what she was doing.

[firstroar]

[an unpleasant thought.]

Frustrating...

[crab]

You're telling me. But I think I would take her over the Initiative. She knew what she was doing. They don't have the slightest fucking notion.

[firstroar]

What did you like about it there? [the city.]

[crab]

I didn't like it. [ it's not dishonest. ] I don't like any of these inter-universal waste sphincters. I just disliked it slightly less than here.

[firstroar]

[well that's. depressing.

is this a teenager alien thing?]

It may change. [rather, it ought to; nature of living, etc.]

[crab]

It won't. [ stubbornly, with purpose behind it. he won't let it change. he won't give the initiative the satisfaction of seeing him fall in line with what they want for him -- even if it goes against his best interests. ]