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

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!