fandomhighdorms | The Deck, Saturday Morning

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The Deck, Saturday Morning

The weather had gotten drearier over the past few weeks, and that suited Aloy just fine. Too much sunshine wasn't good for the land - regardless of what the people of this time did to keep the food and drinks flowing freely.

No, a rainy morning was fine. She'd been tinkering on something that might be a step towards plugging herself into the portal system for a while now. She took the device, a mess of wires and two skillfully autopsied phones, and sat down with it on the porch.

Her Focus was on, showing her a multitude of facts about the device she was working on, and helping her block out the world.

Tinker, tinker...

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Vette blinked, then smiled a little, taking the triangle, turning it over curiously one more time to get a better look, and then lifting it up to the side of her head. The thing was clearly made for a more human ear, but if she angled it around a bit, she could find a position where it sat more or less comfortably.

Aloy nodded along as she did so. "Now touch it," she instructed.

(She was ready to knock Vette to the floor if she tried to take off with it, but she had a guess she wouldn't have to.)

Edited 2018-09-09 11:39 (UTC)

Vette did, and actually startled a little as the purple grid sprang up into view, her eyes going wide.

"Oh..." She looked around, holding her breath a little. "Oh, that's pretty."

She wanted one. This, too, was going on the list of things she was definitely going to have to figure out how to replicate.

She would probably regret that in another moment or so, as the Focus began to analyze everything within the grid and supplied her with useful information like COMPOSITION: WOOD and OBJECT: TABLE.

"So I take it it's nothing you're used to," Aloy said wryly.

"There's a lot I'm not used to," Vette replied easily, making note of the words and kind of wrinkling her nose at them. Yeah, she was definitely going to have to work on her High Galactic some more. As it stood, this thing was basically just a sparkly light show for her. "Home is a big galaxy. But we've got scanners and things."

A little grudgingly, she reached up to take the Focus off again, holding it back out to Aloy.

"It's neat," she supplied. "Thanks for letting me take a peek through it."

Understandable. Aloy hadn't been able to read them either, when she first found the Focus. Years of practice had taught her what all the symbols meant, but it took time.

She slid the Focus back onto her ear where it belonged. "No problem," she said. "Though that rules out us coming from similar places."

"Apparently so," Vette agreed. "So either this is a 'creepy ruins' thing in general, or... something else."

She paused.

"In hindsight, that doesn't narrow much of anything down at all."

"Unless there's a multiversal race of portal-jumpers who leave their equipment unattended after they leave," Aloy speculated. "Just another option I'll never be able to tell Rost about."

"If there's something like that, maybe they think they're being funny," Vette grumbled. "Hey, let's just hop world to world, leaving things sitting around to see who'll stumble over it!" She paused. "If that is the case, I wonder why it's all keyed to this place. There's a lot of multiverse."

She paused again.

"Unless this happens all the time, and some people just... end up in space, or in volcanoes or under oceans or something and we're really the lucky ones in this scenario."

"My theory is that this place is some kind of... knot in space and time," Aloy said slowly. "But I'm not sure exactly what that means yet."

"A... knot," Vette echoed, frowning a little. "Like where all of the pieces connect?"

She set her own phone down so that she could clasp her fingers together, palms up, forming a sort of bowl with her hands.

"It's an interesting theory," she noted. "I was thinking of it more like a sarlacc. Things fall in... they have a heck of a time getting back out again."

And then she clapped the heels of her hands together to demonstrate, making a sort of chomping sarlacc beak motion.

"But there are people around here who get out very easily," Aloy pointed out thoughtfully. "They seem to find reasons not to leave, but they can." A beat. "What is a sarlacc? Besides... chompy."

"A sarlacc is a creature from my galaxy," Vette supplied. "Think of it like... a giant pit in the ground, with teeth. Just one big open mouth, waiting for things to fall into it so that it can digest them, keeping them alive for like a thousand years. I'm sure if you had the right equipment you could make your way back out again. A jetpack or something? I don't know, I have no intentions of falling into a sarlacc's mouth. Great as living for a thousand years in screaming agony sounds."

She shrugged.

"Maybe I'm just bitter about this place. Comparing anything to a sarlacc isn't exactly charitable."

"Trust me, I understand," Aloy said. "I've been here for, what, a year? That's all time to train that I'm losing. I'm doing my best, but this place is... different."

For one thing, there were no machines roaming around, and no one hunted for their food.

"And I'm new," Vette sighed. "Everyone keeps saying that I'll get used to it, maybe it'll even be good for me, but I shouldn't have to."

She heaved a sigh that was more than a touch exasperated. Then she reached for her phone again.

"What kind of training are you losing?"

"Don't get used to it," Aloy told her. She hadn't. "I'm training to run in the Proving. It's... a coming of age ceremony. Whoever wins it gets a boon."

"A boon," Vette echoed, her curiosity piqued. "What kind of boon?"

It sounded important, and thus, was fascinating.

"Anything you want, apparently," Aloy said. "I plan to ask the Matriarchs what they know about my mother."

Vette glanced up for a moment more.

"... I can see how a boon like that would be appealing, yeah."

What she wouldn't give for the same. Possibly even to ask the very same question.

Aloy shrugged faintly. "So I've been training for a long time," she said, "And now I'm stuck here."

"Which would get in the way of a lot of things. But especially that," Vette allowed. She frowned a little. Being here meant she wouldn't be able to continue her own search for her family, either.

Well. Ow.

"Is there any way I can help?"

"Maybe," Aloy said. She shrugged faintly. "But that's me. What's your story?"

"Went to pick up an ancient relic in a tomb," Vette, sighed, annoyed. "A flash of light and some fancy lightning later, and I'm sitting in a Portalocity terminal, surrounded by glitter and balloons. I haven't been able to contact home ever since."

"Anybody waiting for you back there?" Aloy asked. "My mentor Rost... he has to be worried sick."

"I've got friends back there," Vette sighed. "Taunt, Flash, and Plasmajack. We had each others' backs, you know? And I can't even tell them that I'm safe, just stuck."

She frowned down at her phone.

"I'm sorry you were separated from your mentor," she added.

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