EVENT: HERE THERE BE MONSTERS

[initiatesnpc]

Date & Time: October 24 - October 31
Location: Throughout Exsilium
Characters: ALL; tag yourselves in
Summary: The Transports return from their mission to find the island crawling with monsters.
Warnings: Violence, possibly injuries (notify a mod if there's cause to add a particular warning!)

The Transports return from their mission to Medieval Russia, but the Initiative Hold is eerily deserted. Normally, their would be a number of Initiative personnel prepared to meet the Transports at the end of their mission for debriefing.

Instead, there is only silence.

That is, until a distant thumping sound can be heard. It is growing closer, and suddenly the beast is bursting into the room. It lets out a roar and charges. Within minutes, it is easily defeated, but damage has already been done -- it collided with the Transporter machine, which is now making a low fizzling sound and lets off a couple sparks. The commotion is enough to draw the attention of the few remaining Initiative personnel who still inhabit the Hold, who arrive immediately afterwards. They are able to tell the Transports two things: that the machine is broken and currently unable to sent anyone back in time, and that the island has been overrun with aggressive, mutated beasts sent by the United Earth. They have been under siege for months, with the island's population reduced to a mere fraction of what it had once been.

Comments

[caligulas_aquarium]

They were still a bunch of unlikeable assholes.

[Complete with a little flick/wave of his hand as if dismissing the idea they had anything going for them ever.]

At the wery least I can admit Lalonde's offspring ain't half bad. Just a shame her ancestor was such a bitch.

[speakveryclearly]

...

[She's supposed to have faith in Rose Lalonde not being a no-good backstabbing Dersite bitch. That is what she is supposed to remember. Her elaborate meteor schemes and shit that resulted in... something or another. They somehow absolve her of responsibility for the drastic failure of multiple sessions, even though before finding out the full truth her idolization of the Tentacle Therapist had been based primarily in admiration of her leadership. Right. She was her patron troll. This is something she shouldn't compromise on. Ri...gh...t...]

Do you know her given name? Not Rose's, of course. The girl related to her is who I mean.

[caligulas_aquarium]

[WAIT SHIT HE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THEY KNOW EACH OTHER...fuck.........

No this has to be salvageable somehow.]

No. We...spoke once. Day she got here. Aside that I got nothin' to do with her.

[speakveryclearly]

Why would you trust she's any nicer than her "mother", then? I mean, I do in fact believe that. But that's because of a long conversation we had some time after I arrived. Where she implied you had quite a bit to do with each other, actually.

[Is he trying to make this something like a case of consorting with landdwellers before committing genocide being dignified and historically compliant? Because that's actually an adorable and familiar sort of Eridanesque practice, and one more familiar to her.]

[caligulas_aquarium]

[Wait, she what?]

...

Exactly how much she did imply.

[speakveryclearly]

That you hung out on a regular basis, with some kind of teaching involved. Enough that she felt qualified to speak on the topic of bifurcation prevention, which she had already developed a concern about.

[If Eridan really told her about the rainbow drinker who killed him in their first conversation...]

[caligulas_aquarium]

...oh my god.

I fuckin' told her not to say a' word about anythin' an' she goes ahead an' done it anyway!

[His expression can only be described as dbsyhigvbl;dsiv.

Basically super fucking pissed off.]

First Fef' an' now Rox'! Is there some sorta don't do a thing Eridan asks you to law I'm missin' out on or somethin'!? Cause it sure as fuck feels like there is at this point!

[speakveryclearly]

[Immediately she raises both her hands with palms facing forward in the universal gesture of "calm your rumble spheres", and leans back big time. Her hands are flickering really quickly and are very white, but this has nothing to do with anything. Honest. Especially not her state of mind. Pale? Her? Noooooo.]

I'm sorry! Not that this is even my crime. Or for that matter hers! She had only your best interests in mind. A very deep concern for your well-being and fear that I might not value it. Which, for the record, I do, but that's not really here or there.

[Not mentioned: How willing Kanaya herself would likely to be to do a thing Eridan asked her to. Though ultimately probably just as willing as the other girls to obey what she read as the spirit rather than the letter...]

[caligulas_aquarium]

I couldn't giwe two fucks for eweryone apparently decidin' what is best for my well-bein'! [That's what he got from that.] If they just did as I fuckin' told 'em to there'd newer be any problems, but instead it's nothin' but my so called friends completely doin' whatewer the fuck they feel like regardin' me an' my affairs I let 'em in on an' gettin' pissy with me for when things go bad, when it was none a' their business in the first place!

No, why the fuck should I ewer expect otherwise from a Lalonde, this was in the cards from the start. My fault for thinkin' either a' them were in any way an upright sort to begin with. At least the other one was open about bein' a huge bitch an' didn't hide it behind this thinly weiled [Yes, whaled] surface a' bein' in any way pleasant.

[HUFF HUFF JUST...ANGRY BREATHING AND SHARP POINTY TEETH GRITTING AND...angry...]

[speakveryclearly]

[URGE TO PAP... RISING... well not pap exactly, but just. What if she could, like, reach out and hold both his cheeks in her hands and tell him he was overreacting? And then he could calm down and do not so angry breathing? And say he was sorry for being so deliberately obtuse and a general dunderfuck around her, and then they could hug?

But this is not a descriptive "what if". No, this is a pure hypothetical. She is just standing here with her arms - more open now, palms facing up - and trying to talk two pieces of reason in.]

You are angry about a girl telling me not to kill you or her because of your friendship. Which is something I will not do because of what I wish was our friendship. "Rox" and I also now have a friendship based primarily on my lack of intention to kill either of you. The situation is not particularly advanced science of any variety.

[caligulas_aquarium]

[MEANWHILE ERIDAN CONTINUES BEING AN ANGRY DOUCHEBAG.]

You don't get it! I'm pissed off because of a number of reasons inwolwin' past incidents an' other people which for once don't inwolwe you or prewious accounts of wiolent chainsaw undead murderin' an' whatewer else!

So stop tryin' to make me out to be the bad guy here cause you don't ewen know what I'm angry about! It's completely justified!

[speakveryclearly]

[Okay REASONS FOR ANGER AND HATRED THAT ARE NOT HER! This is... probably a good thing??? Wait, no, anger and hatred. As his entirely platonic (no, that doesn't even merit sarcastic clarification) friend, those are bad things for him to be experiencing.]

I'm not. Making you out to be the bad guy, that is! I just - would like you to not be angry about this, but apparently don't even know why you are, so I guess I should can it.

[That was a funny thing to say, wasn't it... What even happened to Vriska, anyway. God.]

[caligulas_aquarium]

Don't tell me not to be angry about this, I'm gonna be as pissed off as I fuckin' well feel like an' noone's gonna tell me otherwise!

[AHRHRJGHAGHAG okay now he's reaching a hand up to the side of his glasses, then adjusts them a little or...no, he's pressing something, at which point his hands free bullshit compushades turn on.

He leaves Roxy a message but realizes she's not there to answer right this minute so...he'll deal with it when she is.]

So much for hawin' nothin' to do all day apparently.

[speakveryclearly]

[OH... oh she's not in a position to... tell him what to do or how to feel... IT MIGHT BE CONVENIENT IF SHE WERE, but she's not.]

Well, what are you going to do now, then. Take out your wrath on some invading monsters, perhaps?

[Y-YEAH, THAT IS JUST A SUGGESTION and therefore fair game, right? Right.]

[caligulas_aquarium]

[Under normal circumstances maybe, but...]

I'm waitin' for her to answer me is what I'm doin'.

I said I'm not helpin'. Eweryone else can deal with it.

[speakveryclearly]

...Okay, then.

[Well, shit, Eridan, what is she even supposed to do. Since he's waiting for "her" to answer him and all.

And so she is leaning against the nearest damaged building and tapping her foot. It is an eerily similar sound to the clattering of her feet on the roof of the meteor in the alpha timeline: pappappappappappappappap, all thin and white and glowing like.]

But how does someone get a name like "Rocks". Was "Stones" taken. [Though she's aware it probably just sounds odd because of who's saying it - Can? Car? - she still doesn't fully understand.]

[caligulas_aquarium]

[If she wants to wait, she can wait, he doesn't give a shit. She came to him first after all, so he feels no obligation to be good company. He...well, he just isn't good company ok.

Though it is a good thing she broke the silence, since he was this close to telling her to stop making that goddamned tapping noise.]

It's short for Roxy. What, didn't he do the shortened names thing too?

[By he, he means your Eridan.]

[speakveryclearly]

Oh! [Oh thank GOD that is a lot less stupid and makes a lot more sense. Wow, Rose, A+ child naming skills report card returned.

..................also, +100 old Eridan feels get. Gotten. Firmly in dextral extremity.]

No, that was. Definitely a thing. He did. I just didn't know what Rox was short for beforehand. So that was the source of my confusion.

Sorry. [Excessive apologizing over trivial matters: A symptom of abuse.]

[caligulas_aquarium]

It's fine.

[Sorry but his Kanaya was never like this, if he can be a jerk to her and have her apologizing for trivial stuff even he knows she doesn't have to apologize for he'll goddamned do it till he pushes her away from him, under the assumption eventually he will.

It's like some weird, twisted form of indirect revenge.]

But you'd think you'd at least figure it was short for somethin'. I do it to eweryone, not just trolls.

[speakveryclearly]

[Yeah, like... AND... which at her insistence MUTATED INTO RE... OH GOD... MEMORIES... THEY'RE COMING BACK NOW... EVEN STRONGER...

Her Eridan was never like this, always too desperate for her attention to push her away, so instead she had to push him away, under the assumption they would remain in equilibrium, which eventually became desirable to her in its dependability, if not what critical humans would call codependency. Now in some sick twisted form of karma that is really just more sad than anything else, she is going to remain in his presence until what she thinks is the natural order of things has been restored. Bugging and fussing and meddling. That's her deal. It's like a bad romantic comedy with too much tragedy in it.

She's not really thinking about any of this consciously, so her answer isn't delayed at all, and is fairly casual.]

Yeah, but not everyone has a polysyllabic name to shorten in the first place.

[caligulas_aquarium]

Don't remind me. Thankfully all the people I hang out with right now hawe names I can do that to.

It's actually kind of annoyin' when I can't.

[speakveryclearly]

Is it really? [She hadn't known that about him before. But... ANNOYANCE IS A FEELING... AND HE TOLD HER ABOUT IT...] I guess it wouldn't have come up back home since everyone had six-letter names like civilized trolls, and those are pretty much never monosyllabic by their very nature.

[caligulas_aquarium]

[Oh, Roxy has responded. But he will keep talking as he responds to her too Kanaya, so that explains any moments he has where he just goes silent for a minute or two to reply to her.

But at least he isn't ignoring you entirely, that is the victory here.]

Yeah. What kinda names are John an' Dawe anyway. Can't do shit with that. Or Rose, either. Ro' is just dumb. An' I don't remember the other ones name but I'm sure she was just as bad.

[speakveryclearly]

[She will take anything she can get. Literally take. She's the alien equivalent of a vampire for a reason. Though... Eridan does not exactly look calm while he is writing these texts, does he?]

She was Jaaaa... aaaa... [It's a "Jay" sound that she can't connect to a final consonant, no matter how hard she tries, until:]

Jade!! I had literally forgotten. [Just like he had, unlike Rose with whom he'd interacted and John and Dave who had at least briefly been here, because:] It's been so long.

[caligulas_aquarium]

[If Kanaya hadn't mentioned Rose's name, he wouldn't have remembered it really.

Well, that and the fact Roxy doesn't shut up about her.]

It still don't constitute as proper in my book. Those names in themselwes are exactly like what I'd be referrin' to people with actual not shitty names.

I mean I ain't ran into no human yet here with anythin' like that. Ros' an' Tak' An' Kanj', among others. I mean mostly ain't six letters, but it's somethin'.