♐ 001

[nohorsingaround]

[ A long time is spent accessing the vine by this new individual. She tries several times to write a message, resulting in nothing more than a few harsh scribbles before ink explodes over the scroll. Three times they flash across the Vine before she gives up and, finally, a video flickers to life. She looks to be in her early teens, grey-skinned

Comments

[airof]

I don't know any of that but you're another person to mention a game. And you look like her. Kinda.

[nohorsingaround]

[Equius: Question who this is.]

Are you by chance speaking of another like myself, perhaps of exceptionally smaller stature with an enforced habit of speaking in an insulting and crude manner?

[airof]

Insulting? I don't think so! At least, she's never insulted me.

But she does look like you!

[nohorsingaround]

Then it is not Karkat.

[Now that that's settled--]

She wouldn't happen to be wearing unconventional and yet fitting paint smeared across her face, would she?

[restlessdevil]

Your skin... and those horns. [It's impossible, right? Zenobia was never able to find proof that there was another like herself]

Are you a... half-demon?

[nohorsingaround]

A what. No, I am a troll.

[She squints at the vine.]

Are you another human? Upon my last inspection there had been only four in their session.

[restlessdevil]

A troll. [Blinks. "Troll" must mean something different in their world. Zenobia's never heard of a talking troll. Guess I shouldn't have gotten so excited.]

I am a half-demon. Does "session" mean "world" or "realm?" Because otherwise I don't think I understand.

[nohorsingaround]

"Session" means their session of the game. The one in which you should be playing or captive. You are a half-demon? Elaborate.

[notvitiligo]

I don't think there's a Karkat here [though there totally should be]

Also, this probably isn't a game, or at least not the one you're thinking of.

D'you know anyone named Kanaya?

[nohorsingaround]

I do. Kanaya was a comrade of ours of unique purpose. You... do not seem to be the human he had formed a strict and constant habit of conversing with.

[notvitiligo]

Oh, um...

Kanaya is a girl here.

Everyone's a girl here.

But yeah, no, I'm from a, uh, different world. From you guys and probably the humans she- he, whatever- talked to.

[nohorsingaround]

[She's quiet for a long moment, analyzing the first part of that message.]

Naturally. I would not expect you to be from our planet. Perhaps your world is the resulting offshoot of the human session. However, you appear to be suggesting Kanaya is not only female, an inconsistency with the Kanaya I am familiar with, but alive.

[no_hometown]

Ah, are you one of Kanaya's comrades?

Please be careful with the Vine. It has sentience, of a sort. It can respond to verbal commands as well as gestures. It will not respond as readily if you damage it.

[nohorsingaround]

Are you... are you reprimanding me?

[There is perhaps something wrong when an immediate sweat is visible though video, but that does seem to be what's happening. Pull it together, you filly goose.]

I assure you that my mistreatment of the Vine was unintentional. I will limit myself to verbal commands from this point on. It will be a familiar habit.

[no_hometown]

[She did not intend for her tone to convey a reprimand, but if that was the case, it does not trouble her, and the cool temperature of her voice does not rise in the least.]

No, I am providing you with information. I did not believe the damage you inflicted was intentional. I assumed you were a new arrival and acted in ignorance.

[nohorsingaround]

[Equius, unfortunately, has a habit of taking things the wrong way quite often. The absurdity of it is overwhelming.]

I must confess that even my most graceful and gentle touch is enough to snap such delicate plantlife. An unfortunate side-effect of my exceptional strength.

[ebony_bone]

The game. What makes you say that?

[nohorsingaround]

Its likeness is extraordinarily similar to the lands created by the game. You are?

[ebony_bone]

Dominique de Tisi. [A very slight tilt of her head.] So it is only a likeness, then?

[nohorsingaround]

I have not yet investigated further, though I assume it will become apparent very quickly if it is in fact as I suspect.