Kanaya hard argued for what would be, essentially, a large petri dish, with Rose’s form stretched across it. It would make it easy to check the status of her bones, whether they had sublimated into the rest of her sopor-modified form, and obviously a larger surface area wouldn’t harm the process.
Rose was not convinced. “Sublimated” was the wrong word, even if “melted” did not sound correct, as she did not intend to become a gas at any point. She’d very much want to be enclosed for the procedure, lest other denizens or visitors to the meteor get ideas about pranks to pull on her sleeping form. And she would require a significant depth to the container, lest a resurrection loop be accidentally induced.
“Besides, if you really want a waterbed, I think I should get at least some chance to enjoy the experience, no?”
~
Kanaya had just sort of moved into Rose’s rooms six days prior, carrying over a pile of extra clothes and sewing equipment.
Dave had been by a few times, checking on status, trying to come up with a name for the monolith Rose was inside, usually hidden from view. He kept trying names that sounded like “Carbonite”, which he refused to explain just why. Until he said over one visit that the tank and the overflow basin looked rather “phallic”. Questioning what exactly that meant did lead to reviewing his source material – Kanaya didn’t see the resemblance. The tank was much bigger.
Terezi came by all of once, perhaps discouraged by the color of sopor from doing anything too odd.
Karkat came and tried to chat with Kanaya a few times – but it was obvious he was a little over-auspitized with Dave. He’d try and start in with Kanaya like they used to, but his words turned to gossip – what little there was on the meteor – far too quickly.
Gamzee was supposedly still around. Thankfully, there were no new happenings to confirm this.
Kanaya napped frequently – that is, she’d close her eyes for a few minutes, wake up, work on her new corset some more, maybe get a visitor for a bit, nod off, startle awake and check the electronic displays on Rose’s container. Occasionally, a hand or foot would thump against the …plastic? Glass? Horuss had come up with, but usually the Human was obscured in the depths of the sopor. The thumps were a little lower in the tank than the troll might have expected, though. Things must have been stretching under the slow current of the recirculator.
…Horuss had stated Porrim’s misgivings were probably legitimate. But, he had only left Kanaya with the impression that this endeavor was ‘kinky’. All in all, he’d been extremely helpful.
~
Something started buzzing – or continued buzzing, as Kanaya opened her eyes. Kanaya pushed herself up – she had finished her first attempt at a mesh corset only a little while ago, and for its coolness on her skin she found herself a little surprised by the fact she was wearing it. The troll sleepily stumbled over to the sopor- and human-filled contraption. Ah, an error code… look it up in Horuss’ hand-written notes… oh. Only a ventilator break-down.
Wait. Ventilator. Kanaya snapped awake. Rose would suffocate. Forget planning, it was time to pull the plug. Literally. A large rubber stopper separated the main tank from it’s large overflow basin – Kanaya frantically yanked at it for a minute, trying to brace herself when it failed to budge. When she finally she remembered it had been twisted in to place – it came loose. And when it came loose, Kanaya felt herself falling.
~
The next thing Kanaya knew, she was waking up in a shallow pool of sopor. A little short of breath, perhaps – she spat out – no, the spit was the right shade, none of the undiluted slime had gotten in. The haziness, then, was just a side effect of under-sleeping for a week.
Wiping little globs off her face, the troll turned her attention to the main tank.
Empty. Save for the respirator tube, dutifully pumping air where it was no longer needed. Even the alarm had stopped.
Just where was Rose? The top was still sealed… so… down. A pair of metal rings seemed to be laying at the bottom of the tank – and nothing else. Well then obviously, she came out the drain hole. Even if she wasn’t supposed to do that.
“She wasn’t supposed to do that.” The thought struck Kanaya as being the wrong level of importance. Why was that? Well, Rose shouldn’t have been able to fit through that hole. Her hips. Head. Too big. Maybe the human’s fist could fit through.
Ugh. Sopor had gotten in the troll’s shoes. Just how long had she nodded off there? Long enough for a full blown sleep-haze, apparently. She awkwardly tried to step out of the basin – no, too far. She tried to wade out, pulling herself through the thigh-deep sopor – when she could finally pull herself over the edge, she found something had hooked around her legs. A long cord – that stretched like a rubber band as she finally pulled her feet out…
Was. That. She pulled at the band- the color was wrong, too light- but it had to be. First she just pulled backwards, but the band simply stretched thinner as she walked back. She resorted to quick tugs, hand over hand, freeing the tube bit by bit, surprisingly clean of the cold sopor that had encased it.
She got one end freed. Nothing like a face to be seen – but a little divot – which looked unnerving like Rose’s asshole. Which, Kanaya considered, might explain why she’d seen no other distinguishing features, if Rose had had been pressed through that tiny hole ass-first, the weight of the sopor above forcing her through. As she thought, she absentmindedly traced the divot – it wasn’t yielding any more of a view.
Picking up on her efforts to release the presumed human – hand over hand, the other end finally popped out. And that end that popped out – well, that looked like a toenail. Which itself disappeared into the cord of flesh with hardly any persuasion persuasion on Kanaya’s part.
Huh. The human’s form must have been a bit more messed up in there than Kanaya’s momentary glimpses over the past nights had led her to believe.
The troll coiled the cord of Rose upon itself, not quite knowing what to do – it was warming up a little bit, so supposedly it was alive. No sign of breath though. Perhaps – perhaps – it had been Rose’s form itself that had blocked the breathing apparatus, setting off the alarm. She momentarily considered what must be the asshole – molding it in – but decided against it. It was the only sort-of-identifiable feature left.
Kanaya couldn’t think. A bath. She needed a bath to remove this sopor. Perhaps Rose might even sort herself out in the meantime. She thought to lock the bedroom’s door, and then made off for some absolution.
~
Kanaya, personally, had preferred showers in her desert hive. Enough water was spent on keeping the lawnring green – bathtubs full of it didn’t seem proper. Nor did lying down again after a day – or night – laying down in the recuperation. But, in the depths of paradox space, it didn’t seem so extravagant, the steam rising from the water, little clumps of sopor dissolving into the ripples bouncing off her body as she scrubbed, switching on that inner glow that was the rainbow drinker characteristic to make sure her skin was clear – as well as what was exposed of her guts – of any “calming” contamination.
There was a rustle from the other room – something being knocked over. It stuck Kanaya that “coiled” may not have been the best position to leave someone who certainly had a compromised sense of direction. But, anything in the room could be alchemized again if there was too much damage done.
“Rose,” she tried to raise her voice to be heart through the so-called bathroom door, “I Will Be With You In A Few Minutes If You Are Having Trouble, I Am Just Cleaning Up.”
There was a long moment of silence.
“Can You Talk, Rose?”
There was a thump against the door. It strained on it’s hinges.
Kanaya half-twisted around, in a way only made possible by the hole in her midsection, to look back at the door, “Rose, just turn the-“
The too-light brown oozed around the edges of the door, testing what the best way in was, before deciding on the gap above the door. It worked slowly, trying to float as it pushed through, finger thick.
“Rose – Can You Talk?”
The Mass pulled harder to her voice.
“Rose – Can You Understand Me?”
It kept pulling, with no obvious change.
“Oh Dear-” Kanaya unplugged the tub’s drain and made her awkward climb out – If Rose was severely mentally diminished, Kanaya recalled, the troll was charged with triggering a resurrection. But – it could be the sopor in her system. Or she was… sleepwalking. She just needed to make sure before doing anything drastic.
Kanaya had just finished toweling off when the last bit of Rose popped through into the bathroom – and promptly flew across it and slammed into the wall above the sink, barely missing the mirror. Kanaya wanted to say something – but held her tongue. Whatever state Rose was in mentally, observation felt like the safer option at the moment. As quietly as she could manage, the troll pulled her corset close, unlaced it to the fullest extent, and latched it around her midsection.
Rose seemed to be trying to orient herself, the sink groaning with her weight – and that orientation was folding the doughy bumpy-edged fabric of her person oddly. Either there was no attempt to change her mass’ flatness, or the human was currently unable to.
Kanaya flipped over to start tightening the corset’s laces.
Fwip-
The folds of Rose noticeably perked up. That – that was probably bad. Kanaya parsed for a moment. The flattened Rose eventually started back into the origami routine.
Fwip-
No obvious change in Rose’s movements. But… this was going to take forever, wasn’t it?
Fwip- Frip-
Rose had slowed down, not that trying to fold herself into a presumed human form was going quickly. But she didn’t seem to be paying too close of attention to the sound of laces pulled through eyelets.
Fwip– Fwip–
Kanaya, at times, sincerely wished her corsets were anything what they were – laced behind her back and out of sight, fingers feeling around for the next pair of loops to pull. At least, given her condition, she didn’t have to worry about some sudden pain from organs not wanting to move out of the way fast enough – but, it was a minor tragedy that she couldn’t twist around and see what she was doing. At least, she couldn’t do it and not draw looks from troll and human alike for the rest of they night, the lab’s other denizens not quite being able to tell is she were coming or going.
Though occasionally she liked the attention.
Fwip— Fwip—
As she tightened, she dealt with centimeters of loose lacing accumulating to meters of lacing to pull through. This should really have been the engineering problem proposed to Horuss – an automatic corset lacer. But then again, Rose was usually quite willing to help. Especially since it had become a test of her skills of manipulation.
Fwip— Fh Fwip– Fh
Kanaya glanced back up at the sink, somewhat surprised how distracting the corset-lacing routine was.
Rose wasn’t on it. No, her awkwardly folded paper-thin form hovered right beside Kanaya. Waiting. Shivering, if that was the right word. Still twice as long folded as Rose normally was tall.
Kanaya grimaced. Rose wasn’t moving. And really, all the troll could do in this state was awkwardly roll away, so…
Fwii
If it were one of Kanaya’s normal corsets, Rose might have just wrapped herself around it’s outside. But no. It was the mesh. The flattened human flesh that pressed into it became a thousand thin, chilly tendrils that found warm troll flesh – Kanaya inadvertently shrieked.
This only attracted more attention. More human flesh ramming through her corset, trying to feed off the one source of heat it had found. Into the troll’s exposed gut, wrapping jade-blooded organs and scabbed sinew… but it wasn’t enough. Not enough heat, not enough space. Mindlessly Rose continued to press up and down Kanaya’s form, encasing breast and buttocks in turn, neck and knee, gill and gum.
Kanaya tried to fight battle after losing battle trying to get Rose to stop, shouting, slapping, clawing – and in the end, just trying to convince the unthinking form to leave enough holes unfilled that the troll could breathe.
It was many long minutes until the motion stopped… that Kanaya finally started to feel warm again. She scratched at her eyelids – and suddenly she could see – though it felt like something was still probing, trying to get in, to test every pore of her being.
She wanted It off. It. Not Rose. Rose would come back if It were gone.
The corset… Kanaya could neither feel it nor see it around her waist any more, sunken in centimeters of It.
The troll had a thought… She rose to her hands and knees, coaxing It into allowing motion. She stood.
How. HOW. The troll looked around for answers – and glanced at herself in the mirror. No, It. In the mirror. The Flesh layered on top of her features, mixed in her hair, a parody human with black hair and horns. She shivered in anger.
The shivering did not go unnoticed.
A tendon in her belly twitched. One she immediately realized should no longer have been hers. That twitch turned into a current – underneath That skin – flesh deciding It was not quite in the right place.
Something tightened along her back. And suddenly the troll wasn’t standing straight up anymore – but floating the slightest bit folded in half backwards, It was taking the most efficient method to redistribute the wrongness It found in Itself.
Kanaya’s eyes went wide in realization. The troll either had to cool It down again – and cut It off, if that was even possible – or warm It up further and melt It out.
But her realization was moment too late. For It had realized It sat on the perfect canvas over which to correct the many little wrongnesses It sensed within Itself – and so proceeded to do en masse.
If Kanaya had been anchored properly, she might have enjoyed the myriad currents that crashed over and through her body. As it was, her limbs were swept through a maelstrom, twisting and furling every direction with no thought to the troll’s comfort or bodily integrity. One moment she was sure she felt the edges of her hole on both shoulders, the next she was wrung like a towel, the next she found her toes of each foot trying to meet between her horns – all while not quite being able to tell which way was up.
It follows that the troll passed out, because eventually she work up again, laying in the floor – the firm, cold floor – aching like she never had before. Well, maybe once before. With a feeling of dread. No, the feeling of dread. Of frustration. Feelings that honestly didn’t feel… troll.
Melting. Melting felt especially right. BOILING. Kanaya had to stand up – and as much as she ached, the motions were easy. The tub – Rose’s tub would be enough to get her back, at least partway. The faucet was turned on – the hot one, not the cold one.
There was no waiting for the tub to fill – Kanaya lay down inside. Slowly the heat built up. Slowly, the pressure inside her released. Too hot. No, she had to wait. It had to all melt out, or she’d never be free of It.
It hurt… but she so wanted to fall asleep. To luxuriate in the warmth…
Suddenly the desire was gone. Kanaya gasped. The troll felt like she was being boiled alive… and she scrambled out of the tub.
As the steam rose off the troll’s skin, she tried to take inventory. The corset – well, ruined. Nastily ripped and bent, though somehow still hanging from her punctuated waist. To the point that if was actually pretty easy to tear off.
She lay on the cold floor a few minutes, her pounding heart finally calming down. Eventually she dragged herself over to the bathroom door, through Rose’s bedroom, to the original corset she had brought to this foolhardy mission.
She nodded off while trying to lace herself. She needed… a long day’s sleep. On a bed. On this bed. And as soon as she was fresh, this sopor was going. Every. Last. Drop.
~
It was the next night when Kanaya made it back to Rose’s bathroom. Unkempt, but rested. And, with an answer.
An answer how to boil water quickly.
It lay in the bathtub. There was a minor attempt at a pair of tendrils – that It had abandoned. The water It floated on had almost all drained out – and what was left was cold. Just as a precaution, Kanaya turned on the hot faucet again.
It started to respond… then stopped.
Maybe It was just a little or Rose. Whatever neurons that still connected. Kanaya wanted Her Rose back.
Of all the people to be asked how to boil a lot of water, Dave had an answer. A so-called “Flameless Ration Heater” – though when explained, Karkat was quite sure he had read about those in the Alternian Military somewhere.
Magnesium. Iron. Salt. Kanaya turned off the faucet and produced a large set of packets alchemized for her – and a second stack she made for herself, just to be safe.
She lobbed them all in the tub and ran from Roses’ bathroom, and, just to be sure, transportalized away.
~
It was an hour later, just as Kanaya was finishing breaking down the recuperacoon that Rose had gifted her, that Kanaya heard the transportalizer fire up – and a knock at her door.
“It went… poorly. I take it. It appears I’m going to need a new set of furniture.”
Kanaya looked up to see Rose. Her Rose, with a fresh set of radiation scars. Just like every time she resurrected.
“It Did,” The troll didn’t make a move towards the human, “It… Did.”
Rose didn’t take any steps closer. The human just had a growing look of concern on her face.
It wasn’t Rose. It wasn’t.
___
Then let’s try more.
A little human sopor exposure lead to interesting effects – not entirely unpleasant, even.
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