(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: December 1st
Location: The Observatory.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Observatory after their initial briefings.
Warnings: None.

Your arrival here has been very unceremonious. One second you were somewhere else, and now, very suddenly, your feet hit the glowing white of the Transporter pad, and you're here. You aren't alone, either. There's a crowd of others around you, each seeming just as bewildered, angry, or confused as you might feel. At the head of the group is a woman in purple robes, solemn and taciturn. She hurries over a quick overview of your intended purpose here, and gives direct answers when asked for them, but to most things she simply shows you how to access the tablet you've just been given, or tells you that the DITR's greeters will explain everything. On the tablet, you can find the history of this place and a record of what your new cohorts have experienced. Someone stands on hand to give you a weapon, and though the armory is now greatly reduced, you should be able to find something to suit you.

You're shepherded down a walkway tunnel and into the Observatory, where you will find screens mounted on three sides of the wide room; they show multiple variations of satellite images, focused on... somewhere snowy. It's difficult to say more than that, but those that record heat readings seem to suggest there are people there, where ever "there" is. It's night outside the great wide windows, and the lunar landscape isn't much to look at right now. But, hey, at least all the lights are on, right? No more creepy red emergency lighting upon arrival — not that you'd know anything about that.

You're free to explore the base, visit and use any of the VR rooms, or discover your new room and roommates, but try not to step out of any airlocks if oxygen is a requirement for your system.

Welcome to the moon base, and to the remains of Exsilium.

[[ ooc; As a note for players of current characters: please keep your root comments confined to the various groups and organizations that set up root comments to greet new characters! We highly encourage tagging around here, but since it's a log meant for new characters specifically, we ask that they be the ones to set up root threads to the entry. Thank you, and happy playing! ]]

Comments

IT'S ALL GOOD

[crab]

"It's not like they even look much different from the surface of your planet," Karkat points out. Nothing can really grate his nerves quite like those insufferably cheerful types. "They're just a bunch of glowing plasma that occasionally scorch your eyes in their sockets, anyway."

1/2

[velveteened]

" — oh!"

Oz could comment on a lot of things — the truth of Karkat's statement, asking about plasma — but that'll have to wait because he's discovered something of priority.

v reasonable questions

[velveteened]

"So you're an alien!"

If he sounds really excited about it, well.

"Does that mean you know the Guardians of the Galaxy?"

one hundred percent

[crab]

Karkat, at first, looks vaguely bewildered, first questioning Oz's sincerity, and then questioning his intelligence. Once he gets past the are you shitting me, stage, however, he looks nothing short of gravely offended.

"You're seriously only just noticing that? What the fuck did you think I was, late for human Halloween?" Karkat snaps, drawing himself up to his full, still terribly short, height. "This will probably come as a shock to you, but all aliens from all universes and all realities are not the same. What the lumpsquiddling fuck are the Guardians of the Galaxy?"

[velveteened]

Oz isn't much of a giant, himself, as in — isn't at all by any stretch of the imagination except perhaps if one is a hobbit or dwarf or very, very generous. This makes Karkat's height endearing! Or at least not irritating.

"You never know," Oz points out brightly, "since anything's possible! As for Guardians of the Galaxy, I thought the name would be self-explanatory."

[crab]

"If there was anyone guarding the galaxy where I come from, my species sure never ran into them, which says a lot for the miserable job they were doing with their so called guarding, considering how many civilizations we conquered and overthrew," is Karkat's dry response.

[velveteened]

"An empire?"

Or a kingdom, just as easily, but he thinks of that word first after a particular conversation with Gamora. Besides, 'space empire' has a cooler ring to it than 'space kingdom.'

[crab]

"The Empire," he confirms. Karkat has rather complicated feelings regarding the Alternian Empire and the enforced caste system of the hemospectrum -- on one hand, he harbors a deep, furious resentment for it, recognizing it as unfair, oppressive and all around pretty shitty. He would have been executed on sight if anyone knew what he was -- how could he not resent it?

On the other, though, he really, really wishes he could belong to it. He wanted so badly to be a good troll, even if being a good troll meant being an objectively awful person.

Not that he has any intent of telling Oz about this.

"Trolls weren't what you'd call a friendly race."

[velveteened]

"The Empire," Oz echoes, feeling out the sound of it. Well, that makes sense; if he were an alien part of a possibly warlike and definitely conquering-happy sort of race, he'd call his peoples' empire the too. Besides the fact that from the sound of it, it's entirely possible that they're quite successful at it.

"Does that mean you aren't a friendly person?"

Being general with the use of 'person,' but just the same. He sounds genuinely curious about it too, for all that it's not the politest of questions.

[crab]

"Do I look friendly to you?" he snaps, attempting to puff himself up to look fearsome and intimidating. As is standard for Karkat's attempts to look intimidating, he mostly just ends up looking a little silly.

[velveteened]

Matter of fact: "Yes."

Whatever standard Oz is using is undeniably questionable, but there we have it.

[crab]

Oz is very swiftly rising through the ranks of most baffling people Karkat has met today. The simplicity of his answer and the complete dearth of irony takes Karkat so off guard that he forgets to look angry for a split second, before he recovers himself, smacking the heel of a palm against his forehand.

"No," he gets out through gritted teeth. "The answer was no, you blithering shitpipe, what part of my behavior so far even remotely resembles friendliness? Or are you just another one of those bizarre humans who really get off on verbal punishment for some reason?"

omg i swear i don't usually fail quite this much

[velveteened]

Oz doesn't laugh, but he does grin. He is, in fact, another one of those bizarre humans who really get off on verbal punishment for some reason (and in fact the person most important to him sometimes pushes him down staircases so, you know, what standards?), but that's not necessarily something he's self-aware enough to admit. Instead, he starts counting off on his fingers.

"You answered me when I spoke to you; you're still here talking to me; you've answered my questions, too; you haven't threatened me at all, even as a joke; and it's hard to say for sure, of course, but I don't think you've lied to me even once either."

it's fine it's fine!! i am like, molasses half the time

[crab]

Oz's list renders Karkat momentarily speechless, which is an achievement in itself. His logic is actually reasonably sound, when put like that, and Karkat actually struggles to find a way -- any way -- to refute it.

Shit. Maybe he has been friendly. Or something approaching friendly. Karkat's version of friendly.

"That's not called being friendly, dumbass, that's called not being a total douche for no apparent reason, but if you want me to threaten you, I can come up with any number of ways to do so. We can start with how I'm about to shove your head so far up your own wastechute you'll discover the pocket dimension where you must be keeping the vast quantities of bullshit you seem to be full of."

sob okay

[velveteened]

"Isn't that the same thing?"

He asks it with an air of far too much innocence and then laughs. He's teasing, though to him the two are fairly close anyway. As for the "threat," it only feeds his laughter in a way that isn't unkind but probably really, really irritating.

[crab]

It is incredibly irritating. If there is one thing Karkat Vantas despises, it's not being taken seriously.

"If you don't shut your fetid word geyser in the next three seconds you are going to discover firsthand exactly how unfriendly my species can get," he bites out through gritted teeth, hands balling themselves into fists. "It will be an adventure in Alternian culture and exactly how much force needs to be applied to a human skull before it collapses in on itself."

[velveteened]

"Sorry, sorry!"

It's a bit flippant, though not insincere, but Oz Vessalius has a terminal case of an extreme lack of self-preservation.

"So trolls," he begins, and then pauses —

because, see, there's a mental stammer; he'd been about to say are and it suddenly struck him with a particular awful clarity that Karkat had said were

— and frowns.

[crab]

It's enough to stop Karkat from exploding, at least, so Oz is spared paying witness to just how impressive Karkat's lung capacity and vocabulary really are. For now.

"Trolls," Karkat repeats, taking Oz's frown as his finally realizing how awesome and intimidating trolls, and by extension Karkat, really are. "Were the most badass species in the entire multiverse, and you should be grateful beyond mortal comprehension that you ever got to meet one. Have some respect."

[velveteened]

Were, again.

"I see," he says, and maybe he does, "I am grateful."

[crab]

Karkat pauses for a moment, giving Oz a scrutinizing look. That was a fairly abrupt change in tune -- he'd been fully expecting further teasing.

Did he say something?

"Yeah, well. Good."

[velveteened]

"So," Oz says after a moment, curious, "does that mean you've never seen a human before?"

[crab]

He actually laughs at that, a short bark of it, and shakes his head.

"Hell no. I've had way more experience with your species than I ever needed, wanted, or asked for. I created humanity's entire universe, where I'm from, to start with."

1/2

[velveteened]

Wait what.

wait i lied

[velveteened]

No really, what?

[velveteened]