AMA i am a science experiment (N/A 19) who found a crashed spaceship with someone inside (F 17)

[atmasphere]

Zoa's seen a lot of things. They know there are worlds upon worlds that exist, both inside the Tower and outside of it. Not just floors, but whole planets that are worlds in themselves.

Things have crashed into their world before. Monsters, meteors, all manner of hazards. But this one just appears to be a spaceship, unremarkable, surprising in its mundanity. It demonstrates no extraordinary power, no sudden antagonistic bent to it. It carries no traces of power, apart from the power necessary to make it fly, that no longer exists; it is, in fact, a very simple thing to trace. It came from somewhere else; it ended that journey here.

This makes it something that is, frankly, a complete mystery to Zoa, at least in terms on how to deal with it. But they assume that such a thing has a passenger, or at least something inside, and the air is breathable on this floor (not a hazard for them, but possibly a hazard for the occupant of the ship).

So they sit, and wait patiently, for something to happen. They're better at waiting than they used to be.

Comments

[beautifulisolation]

[ Rin knows, on some level, now she knows the truth of where she is – she understands that a ship traveling somewhere would eventually reach some sort of destination. But it's been so long since she started this journey and her memories of the outside world are so fuzzy... it's hard to imagine any sort of destination existing at all. Let alone ever finding her way there. So she's entirely unprepared for the day when, seemingly out of the blue, the clear sky is blanketed with screaming red error messages and everything is falling away and she can't tell up from down–

And then suddenly, violently, gravity reasserts itself as Rin jerks awake in her seat at the heart of the ship. For a terrifying moment, she can't see a thing and thinks there's something wrong with her eyes. But then her senses gradually come back into focus and she feels a tickle on her face – it's her hair, grown long and thick enough to obscure her vision. Because of that, she can't see what might have happened, but she can feel that she's suspended, hanging almost upside down in her seat thanks to the angle of the ship's landing and she has no idea how she's going to get out.

Is someone nearby? Someone must have seen the crash and come to investigate, right?

She tries to say something or call for help, but all that comes out of her mouth is a croak. She paws weakly at the straps holding her in place, tries to pull them free and apparently triggers something that causes an alarm to start blaring out from the bowels of the ship. ]

[atmasphere]

[ The ship remains silent for a brief second, and then begins to shriek in alarming noises that Zoa can process happening all at once. It would be mildly overwhelming, if they hadn't experienced things much more overwhelming than that.

They consider how to best approach this problem, and decide the direct way is the easiest. Power swirls around them as they upend the ship as gently as possible and lie it on its side, with some effort.

Then, they search for a door, and, finding it, pry it open. ]

Hello? [ They peer into the darkness, without any fear. ]

uh a lil cw for some weird techno body horror shit in here

[beautifulisolation]

[ The ship suddenly moves and Rin can't stop herself from letting out a squeak of surprise and fear. She half-expects to hear the engine hum to life and for the VR to reassert itself, but when neither of those things happens, she begins to struggle weakly against her restraints again. She can't make them come undone and then it strikes her that even if she could – she's still wired into the VR. There's no pain, but she can feel the thick, heavy weight of the cables against her back and she draws in a jagged breath.

Then, too bright for her to look at – a light slices in from the side and spils over her face. Even through the curtain of her hair, she has to cringe away from it. Her eyes are too adjusted to the dark for her to bear it, but she has to. Because – someone's there. She's not alone.

Rin wets her lips (or tries, anyway) and manages to force out some words from her throat. ]

P–please... please help...

[atmasphere]

[ Zoa takes in the strangeness of the device. Built for one person, and as they trace the self-contained world of the spaceship with their atma, they find this person is quite literally wired into the ship.

Strange. But they themselves are strange, so it's nothing worth worrying about. What's important now is that someone needs help. ]

Okay. Don't worry, it'll be fine, okay? [ They keep their voice level, kneeling to brush away what seems like an endless sea of hair, searching for the cables that are keeping this person plugged into the ship.

They don't need their hands to search. Their hands are for very carefully holding this new, clearly helpless stranger, reassuring them that nothing bad will happen.
They remember handholding being a constant comfort in their travels, so they search for a hand to hold with their own, and do so when they find one.

They squint in concentration, turning one of the heavy cables, attempting to detach it from the stranger's body. Atma shimmers around them, turning the air a hazy rainbow. ] Does it hurt when I do this?

[beautifulisolation]

[ A shudder like thunder rolls through Rin's body when the stranger responds. It's been so long since she's heard another person say anything, another real person that the sound of it makes her feel like she's coming unraveled all over again. She doesn't know if it'll be fine, she doesn't even know if she'll be able to survive being disconnected from the ship after so long wired up to it, but when the stranger says that things will be okay, Rin can almost believe them. ]

Okay...!

[ Her voice is weak and more than a little raspy but the hand that grips Zola's back when they find it is strong and firm.

Her voice catches again, low in her throat, when she feels one of the cables shift and break away. There's no pain but instead a slimy feeling of discomfort, like the tingle of a mostly-numb limb. ]

It... i–it doesn't hurt. [ She grits her teeth and grips Zola's hand even tighter. ] I'll be okay!