maskormenace | 001 ✿ Video

001 ✿ Video

Hello, fellow imPorts.

[ A smile lights up her face -- friendly, warm, inviting. And her tone is much the same. ]

My name is Raina. As you can probably guess, I'm new to this world. But that doesn't make me any less fascinated by it. To be drawn here by forces beyond our control, given powers beyond some of our comprehension, and to have an opportunity beyond our wildest dreams to be heroes? I can't be the only one who is excited by the prospect, can I? This world is incredible. Beautiful, even.

[ Her lips purse in thought and she lowers her gaze toward her fingernails -- freshly manicured. It was one of the very first things she did since she got here, apart from buying the lovely flower dress she has on. ]

But there are things that the files and the debriefing can't explain; things that only those with experience in this world can share. And that is what I hope you'll do with me. Share.

[ Raina makes eye contact with the camera again, her smile -- still beautiful in nature -- houses something else. Something almost predatory. ]

What is it that makes you special? We were chosen for one reason or another. Perhaps you aren't aware of the reasons or perhaps you aren't comfortable sharing them over the network. I understand. We all have our secrets. But I hope at least some of you will help me understand your worlds and your lives and you, yourself. Now that we're all given a special power -- what was it that you have done with yours or what is it you will do?

I greatly look forward to meeting all of you and appreciate your time.

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[ her story, there's so much to it and so much she tries not to share. she isn't sure if she should be open with it, but she's been too tight-lipped, and it's gotten her nowhere good. she can give parts, she supposes.

enough to paint a picture, but not enough to inspire pity. ]

Well, I'm not from Earth. Even among my compatriots, you might say I'm one of a kind. Our sun was much larger than this one, and hotter. Any troll that would deign to endure the light of day would be scorched dead within a few hours. But not me.

It may have been taken as a sign, clearer in retrospect than in that moment. Only the dead walk by day, the monsters lurking in the bright, hunting to slake their thirst. I'm speaking, of course, of vampires.

Because, uh. That's what I am. [ she kind of stumbled there at the end. ]

[ This is a fascinating narrative -- painting a picture of a world that couldn't withstand human life. And to think of these trolls, like her -- but not like her. It becomes increasingly clear that she is different and interesting in her own way. Raina is full of fascinated interest. ]

It's incredible how "vampire" can come to have different meanings across various worlds, and yet they all have one trait in common. So what is it you do here? Do you still need to drink from the living in order to sustain yourself?

Well, it's that or the freshly dead, and those aren't either as readily available or, in many cases, as prudent as the living may be. [ unless she killed them herself, and she hasn't had reason to kill anyone in a long while. at least, not in a case where she was successful. ] I have some willing volunteers. It's much better than taking the synthetics provided by the government.

But "vampire" isn't exactly the word we used, I only learned it through human association. But the similarities are clear enough that it's easier to use, since I'm here on Earth. It takes less to explain what it means than if I only said I'm a rainbow drinker.

Rainbow drinker...

[ Raina repeats and then smiles, not mocking or anything. ]

I like that.

[ But then again, she was always one to enjoy more flowery and elegant terms. ]

Is it different to drink from humans? I assume you didn't drink from them before you got here. Can you tell the difference between a human and a nonhuman just by the taste of their blood, even if there are no physical differences in their appearance?

Honestly, I'm not sure I've actually tried it from a nonhuman that looks identical to humans. [ she knows one, but she hasn't exactly asked. it's always a weird thing to ask. ] I can certainly tell the difference between species, if their physiology is significantly different, but if they're just a human from another planet, that wouldn't really be the case.

We weren't all red like you, where I'm from. Hemochroma was more varied, socially aligned along a spectrum, with your caste decided by the color of your blood. Like a rainbow. Hence, rainbow drinker.

Probably fitting that ours was in the middle, as it's a phenomenon exclusively limited to a jadeblood like me.

[ It's very tempting for Raina to offer her blood for the sake of knowing. Was she still human? Or had the alien DNA altered her entirely after her transformation? But she bites her lip and keeps her silence for now. Maybe later on in their relationship it could be an avenue to explore. ]

What were all the different blood colors of your world? And did you have a preferred color to drink?

[ good choice, raina. when she knows you better, she might take you up on it, but in the first conversation it's bound to be awkward. kanaya'd be worried she's another fetishist, and while she's, well, not unattractive, she'd be a bit iffy on that. not least of all because she looks so much older.

but she's far too preoccupied to even consider any of that. without the request, it doesn't even cross her mind. she's too busy thinking that she should leave out red, with karkat so fresh it wouldn't be wise to share his secret. ]

There were eleven. Burgundy, brown, gold, olive, jade, teal, cerulean, blue, indigo, violet, and tyrian. Though jade and tyrian aren't two you'd encounter terribly often. There weren't often more than two tyrians at a given time, the empress and her heiress.

Jade just tended toward rarity, as we also tended to be female. I'd never actually met another of my caste before leaving Alternia behind, at least not that I recall. We were midwives, that was the role assigned to us by our blood, so it's possible one had attended to me after I first hatched.

[ the other question is a little more difficult. ] I can't really say I have any preference. It's been a very long time since I've had the opportunity to be picky, or even tasted most of them.

They all sound.... beautiful.

[ Raina is in awe of it -- the thought of so many different colors running rich through the bloodstream. And Kanaya says some interesting things that gives insight to her kind. Empress and heiress being the only two to house tyrian blood, mostly females in Kanaya's bloodline, and hatched -- not birthed. The caste system is also intriguing. ]

Do you have parents the way humans do?

If you mean that the coupling of two people eventually led to the reproduction of a new troll, sure. But we never met them. [ not technically, at least. kanaya's met an alternate universe ghost of her mother, because her entire life is bullshit, but none of the others around will know about that yet, and she can't well share spoilers. ] I think they staggered it to ensure our progenitors are long dead before we wriggle out of the caverns.

[ which isn't going to make much sense to a human, she realizes. how do you delay a birth until the parents are dead? ]

Our entire reproductive process is a bit different from yours. We're incubated through surrogates, and then adopted by appointed guardians. All of which were of a separate species. One's lusus served something of a dual purpose, as both parent and pet.

It helped to instill responsibility from a young age.

Edited (tense issues) 2015-04-16 04:22 (UTC)

[ It might not make sense to a human. But Raina's not exactly human, and she lives in a world where aliens aren't exactly that strange of a thing. She's seen her fair share of unusual. So she isn't immediately questioning Kanaya as she explains the staggering of the birthing process.

As a scientist, she finds it fascinating -- the codependency of this other species along with Kanaya's, how they serve two separate functions to survive. ]

So I imagine that when your kind goes through the hatching process, you are at a higher level of intelligence than human children? After all, human children are completely reliant on their parents for the first few years. And to be learning the responsibility of caring for your...lusus, you called it? As well as allowing it to take care of you -- that suggests a certain level of autonomy immediately at birth. Is it right to call it birth? Or would you prefer hatching?

Birth is for species who are born. We hatch. [ kanaya may not be a scientist herself, not in the strictest terms, but she knows plenty enough reproductive biology to think the distinction's important, just by nature of her position in society. ]

But I wouldn't say we have quite that level of cognizance at the start. those responsibilities usually become more important as we age, like a handing off of the duties. The daughter becomes the mother. Really, prior to pupation, we're just crawling little wigglers, hardly capable even of cleaning our own pungent discharge.

But I suppose we may have a higher intelligence than humans at that age. I mean, it's possible. We have to at least be smart enough to survive the trials.

This is all so fascinating... [ She pauses as though searching for a name before looking embarrassed. ]

Oh! All of this talk about your world and I never even asked for your name. I guess I just got wrapped up in your stories. You explain things so well, and it's all so interesting, it's easy to get carried away with listening. I'm not sure what is out there in my world. We have our fair share of aliens, and there may be some that are similar in nature to your kind. But I have yet to come across them.

So before we go any further, what is your name? And how old are you, if you don't mind me asking? You look very young, but age is a relative thing when it comes to so-called vampires of my world.

My name is Kanaya Maryam. I'll be eighteen next month, but when I first arrived here, I was still thirteen. I've been an imPort nearly four years, and you can do that math yourself, I know it doesn't quite add up. What it does add up to is I tend to know what's going on with things here.

[ though not always quite as much as she thinks, but she'd hardly admit it, not on that topic. ]

I can almost promise you won't find anyone like my species in your universe, we didn't even have an Earth in ours. If we were, you'd know it. The Empress would have had your planet kneeling long ago, that's what she does.

Four years...?

[ And no, it doesn't add up. But four years. That is an impressively long time. ]

You must have seen so much during that time, Kanaya! And met so many wonderful, horrible, and dangerous people in the process.

[ Raina wants to know all of them. Especially the dangerous ones! ]

Have you adjusted well to this world? Considering it must be so dramatically different from your own.

[ the dangerous ones, she is the dangerous one, as far as she's concerned. the others that aren't herself, that takes a bit more trust for her to open up about. ]

I doubt I'd have made it this long if I hadn't learned to adapt. It's simply a necessity of survival, and if there's one thing I know how to do, it's that.

Then you and I have quite a bit in common, Kanaya.

[ Raina offers an understanding smile. ]

[ kanaya's smile is more weary, with just a hint of sadness. ]

That may be, Raina. Though I hope you're not made to survive anything like what I have.

[ Raina doesn't give any indication one way or the other, though her expression does become sympathetic. ]

If you ever need to talk about it, I'm a very good listener. I know we don't know each other very well just yet, but I do hope we'll be able to find a friendship in this world when we never would have gotten the chance to meet otherwise.

I'm sure you must be an excellent listener, but unfortunately I've never been a teller of any great inclination. Even this much is more than is typical of me.

[ but this, it's all surface, just facts. she tells it as well as she can without emotional attachment, and leaving out the worst. it's easier to pretend she's unaffected that way, to still be strong as she needs to be. easier to avoid the pity. ]

Still, I do hope you do enjoy what this world can offer you that your own cannot. If there's one thing your time here can offer you, it's that.

[ Raina is tempted to repeat the point that Kanaya had shared a lot of information about her world to Raina herself, which had to count for something. But she doesn't. She just wears a smile of understanding and nods, knowing that the best way to gain trust is to go in subtle. ]

Thank you, Kanaya. I intend to fully enjoy this world for what it is and for all of the incredible individuals I otherwise would have never met. I hope that your time here has brought you that same kind of enjoyment, even if on a small level.

[ reflex would answer "don't worry about me," but that's no way to respond here. raina's only just met her, she can be far more polite than that. it's a pleasantry, that's always more about politeness than truth. ]

Thank you, Raina, and I do look forward to speaking with you again in the future. Take care of yourself.

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001 ✿ Video

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