maskormenace | 014 ♍ VIDEO

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014 ♍ VIDEO

[ Kanaya is sitting at her desk, with Ashiah laying down on it in front of her. The little grub keeps glancing around in various directions, while her mother's gaze and smile is fixed on the camera. ]

I've been thinking recently about the cross-section of the imPort community who aren't human, perhaps most particularly since the ambassador elections last month. There are a sizable amount of us, not a large group, but significant. I've spoken with many of you on individual terms, and while the resources Governor Kang and SELF have provided to those of us with more unique needs have been invaluable, I feel there is still something missing in our collective socialization. We live the imPort experience in a way that many others won't fully appreciate, and I think we could benefit from sharing those experiences with each other.

[ At this point, Ashiah tries to wander off camera, but Kanaya suppresses a giggle as she puts a hand on top of her and scoots her back into place. ]

I'm unsure exactly what form that would take, but putting us all in a room to share our stories would be at least a start. If anyone is interested, please let me know, and I'll see about renting some space. Of course, if you have any special dietary needs, in terms of snacks, I would like to hear those as well.

This is generally something I'd prefer to save until we're in person, but... [ She's interrupted as Ashiah turns around and nuzzles into her chest, then tries to climb up her shoulder. Kanaya stops and laughs to herself, then plucks her off and cradles her, despite all her fidgeting. ] Anyway, for those of you who I haven't had the pleasure with yet, my name is Kanaya Maryam, and this is my daughter, Ashiah. I'm an Alternian troll, specifically an awakened jadeblood, which basically means I'm a vampire. She's a Daughter Grub from the same planet. [ She raises a finger, shaking her head. ] And before you ask, no, she isn't a troll, and she won't grow up to be one, either. Once she finally pupates, she'll become a Mother Grub. They acted as gestational surrogates for trolls, while the jadeblooded caste were their caretakers and midwives. It's all a bit complicated, this is just a general summary.

So, hopefully we'll be able to put something together moving forward, and I'll be able to hear all of your stories, as well. I'll be looking forward to hearing from each of you.

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You're telling me.

[...although, in Van's experience at least, his having to adjust to things had less to do with what he was and more where he came from. Not that that will hold true forever. It's possible that with being more honest about the other half of his parentage he might find certain things more difficult than he did before.]

If you'd like more help with setting things up...maybe I could lend a hand?

I appreciate the offer! Once I have a better idea of what needs to be done and how many hands I'll need to do it, I'll be sure to give you a call.

[ But that's no place to leave a conversation with someone she's just meeting. So, she segues into smalltalk that could be relevantly telling. ]

So, how have you been settling in?

It's been an adjustment.

[To say the very least.]

But I've been lucky to have met some helpful people so far: the Doctor, Jonathan Joestar, Gansey, and Lord Baelish.

[And now Kanaya, too. But he thinks that goes without saying.]

I'm glad to hear it, it sounds like you've fallen in with some god people.

[ At least the ones the jury isn't still out on. But maybe she just wanted the dog to win that election instead, who doesn't like dogs? ]

Are you finding much in common with your own world?

Good to know I'm not alone in thinking that.

[Of course, Van's met some other wonderful people, Komasan among them, but he can't say he's had the chance to get to know any of them half as well as those he's mentioned by name. In fact, even a few of those he's been able to name he knows disturbingly little about, making Kanaya's question a bit of an embarrassing one to answer.

He shakes his head.]

There's not a lot of similarities at all, to be honest. But I expected that. There wasn't the first time I saw this place, either...or at least, a place that looked a lot like this one. I know now it was a different Earth.

[He says the name with concentration, because what he really wants to say is Mystic Moon.]

Huh. [ That's what she'd been looking for, just a small hint about where he's come from, or at least an excuse to ask. Though it does come with an interesting commonality. ]

I'd known an Earth myself, I had friends from there. But I hadn't set a foot on one until I became an imPort. I've found that seeing it from a distance can be very different from actually experiencing it. No one tells you how cold it is here.

[ Probably because no one processes 100+ degrees Fahrenheit as "a bit nippy". ]

What was your own world like?

Yeah, it's...really different. Where I'm from, we call this place the Mystic Moon. It hangs in the sky along with our moon and few people have ever been between.

Even the period I spent there was brief. An hour, two at most? I lost track of time, but then I was back here and a girl had come along with me.

[That all seems so very long ago now, and at the same time, like it had just begun the day before. Van sighs.]

Anyway, Gaea's at least not much warmer or colder than this, but it's a lot less...developed, I guess. In most places, anyway. Did you have to adjust to such a huge difference in technology, too?

When I really think about it, much of the advanced technology that existed on my planet wasn't exactly relevant to daily life. At least, aside from breakthroughs in personal storage that drastically changed our approach to transportation, and computers of a much later generation than those on this Earth.

But, at my age, and with my caste, our space travel capabilities were never going to matter, and I don't think I'd ever even encountered a robot in person, unless a cyborg counts.

[ She half wonders if she didn't miss out on something there, that Vriska no longer needed her cybernetic prosthetics by the time they started dating. She dismisses it as also irrelevant, which means she probably didn't. ]

So, your planet and Earth were in some sort of coaxial relationship, and shared a moon? Or is this some sort of interdimensional relationship that the two had?

We have computers, but they're nothing like what I've seen here. [Nothing like the device he's using now, which reminds him of Hitomi's pager. In fact, almost everything of a similar nature in Gaea had been triple or quadruple in size, and its use was...almost entirely restricted to those from the Zaibach Empire, if not merchants and military personnel from the varying wealthy countries of the land.] Space travel isn't even something we've managed.

Actually, it was a blue beam of light that took me to the Mystic Moon and home again, not even a ship...

[And neither were responsible for his being brought to this world. That, he'd been both surprised and disappointed to learn, was because of the Porter. Yet another piece to the puzzle, and this one having nothing at all to do with home. At least...he didn't think.]

As for the moon, I think we share it, but it's strange. You can't see Gaea from the Mystic Moon at all. It's almost as though there, we don't even exist.

[It's a one-sided interdimensional relationship, in other words. Because undeveloped or not, shit where Van's from is born to be complicated.]

A blue beam of light? I suppose that could really work either way, depending on how developed the Earth is. But, if anything, not being able to see it from Earth may be indicative of it being cross-dimensional.

[ But, when she really thinks about it... ] Not that it would be without precedent. My own planet had its own interdimensional connection with an Earth, though it probably wasn't as direct as yours.

So, what other sort of species live on Gaea, other than humans?

I can't think of another way to describe it. A blue beam of light, that's what it was, though...there seemed to be something almost magical about it. Or scientific. It's not something I understand, either way. But I'm grateful it brought me home again.

[Not so grateful it left Hitomi stranded on Gaea, though not because Van doesn't like her company. He just...understands very well now what it means to be separated from your home for a long time. Literally world's apart. It's rough.]

What sort of connection did your planet have? If it wasn't so direct, I mean.

[A beat, and then more fondly...]

Gaea's full of different people. Humans, Junin, the Ispano, Mermaids, Doppelgangers, and...

[A pause. Hesitation. Wariness. But if he's going to do this, there can't be half measures. Kanaya has been open about herself. Van can be, too.]

...and my people, the Draconians, descendants of Atlantis. Although saying there's many of us might be misleading. It's just me and my...my brother. As far as I know.

Edited 2016-07-29 16:13 (UTC)

The last of your kind? I understand how difficult that must be. Both Ashiah and I in similar straits.

As for our connection, it was...hmm. [ How does she explain this in a way that isn't convoluted? It might be impossible. ] Their universe was the offspring of ours. We had set up the capability to monitor it, and we were able to communicate with them, but physically traveling there was closed to us.

It only lasted a few hours anyway, from our perspective. After that, the last few survivors had to escape to the same Void we had, as both of our universes died.

So, no direct interaction within the universe, [ From without is another story entirely, she personally engineered and raised that universe from just a tadpole. ] but we interacted plenty with its inhabitants.

[ An additional clarification occurs to her, and maybe it's a bit too honest and revealing, but she hates having lived behind so many walls these past few years. She'll take awkwardly revealing.

Still, it is a bit awkward, so her eyes widen and glance off into the distance, tilting her head to the side. ]

...Some more thoroughly than others.

[Van regards the grub and Kanaya both, his expression understanding but also apologetic. This position isn't one he'd wish on anyone. While he's grateful she understands, he's also sorry that she seems to be able to relate.

But then his attention is drawn away from that fact and to a more startling point.]

Your universes died?

[How is that even possible? Van's never had to worry about galactic-level calamities before, much less universal.

A beat, and then awkwardly he adds...]

I'm sorry, I'd understand if you didn't want to talk about it in detail. I shouldn't have asked like that, it's just...alarming to hear.

It's, well, just the way things work where I'm from. Cosmological propagation. The parent dies as it births the child.

[ It's a basic concept on Kanaya's planet, where families just don't exist, trolls only hatching from parents who've been dead hundreds of years. Or how Kanaya had to cut Ashiah's egg from the corpse of her mother. Legacy always came with sacrifice on Alternia. ]

Though, I guess it helps to understand it when you've seen a universe from the outside. When you can perceive them as living beings, rather than abstract concepts of Space.

You mean everything out there is alive where you're from?

[He glances away from the camera as if to indicate everything beyond the scope of this planet.

It's difficult to imagine something so vast as being alive itself and not simply pulsing with the life it contains. Difficult...but not impossible. In fact, for all that the birth of the child means the death of the parent where Kanaya is from, Van finds himself fascinated. Does she value her existence all the more knowing what was sacrificed for her to come into being?]

Is what happened to your universe the reason you and Ashiah are on your own?

I don't know if quite everything is living. Planets are still big chunks of rock with living things on them, but I suppose that doesn't rule it out. Though I wouldn't expect them to be sapient. I'm not quite sure even Bilious Slick himself was sapient.

All I know for certain is that everything in the universe was a part of his body, or at least a resident within. Any overarching consciousness within the that space would thus be his.

[ It's weird to think about, she was never aware of it while she actually lived within a universe. She just bred him.

She shakes her head. ] No, it isn't. I haven't always been alone, you know. The Porter isn't bound by time, that a world or a person is dead now doesn't mean she couldn't being them anyway.

I suppose, perhaps, she's simply grown bored with most of us.

She?

[A beat, and then he adds...]

Do you mean Lachesis?

[He doesn't know much about the so-called Fate, but he's glimpsed mentions of the name in various documents that circulate for imPort benefit. What little of them he could read, anyway.]

You make it sound like we're here for...for amusement. Do you really believe that?

[ Got it in one, Van. ]

I don't know, maybe not exactly. Her motivations have always been opaque, but there was always a sort of whimsical tone in the way she would speak to us.

Back when she would still speak to us.

What did she have to say?

Mostly, she would make fun of us for doing things wrong. I heard there was some incident with horns she played over the communicators for no discernible reason, but I wasn't around for that.

We're probably better for not hearing from her.

That...sounds like something a kid would do.

[Which only supports Kanaya's opinion that they're probably better off not hearing from Lachesis. Still, it's bizarre to think about.]

An omnipotent, petulant kid, yes. I suppose it's no mistake that our circumstances tended to be so much worse when she had an active hand in them.

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