Her last moments were hazy. Black, fading more and more as the ebb and flow of consciousness threatened to wake her. The only images dancing through Kanaya’s brain right now, if anything, were of her lusus. The large, beautiful mother who’d once taken care of the young troll. It was the only thing she could find comfort in now, all there was to her name. Her thoughts.
A dirge drummed out to Kanaya’s heartbeat. Slow, at first. Her hanging head rose from it’s slumped position, grown out hair snarled and blurring her vision. The jade blood whips her head to the side in hopes of shifting her bangs, though the effort was met with little success. And still, her hand was held back as it went to swipe away the remaining strands of protein shrouding her vision.
Faster. Her heartbeat grew faster, coming with the realization that she was restrained. What- what is this? What is going on?! She thought, mind racing as she gritted her teeth, brows furrowed in worry and confusion. The jadebloods body was numb, though she felt the low rumble of a nervous purr build in her chest. It was just then that she looked down to her form- bright, cold, stark. With each new query that was shoved onto her thinkpan, Kanaya was drawn short again and again. Her lip had began to bleed as her sharp fangs terebrated into it, her wine beading around the ivories.
While the taste of her blood had managed to calm her just the slightest, the moment was short lived.
A metallic behemoth entered the room, not too different from the drones who’d collect buckets of genetic material back on Alternia. This one had been white, oddly clean looking. Come to think of it, the whole room was rather orderly. Sterile, even, in the blinding white that saturated it. When the drone approached Kanaya, she froze, all for the teeth digging into her lower lip and the trembling of her wrist.
Silent. Everything fell silent once more, vision fading as the growing pain in her neck subsided.
As time passed, Kanaya would come too, dazed and hazy to what had happened in the other room. She may or may not find out in the future it was merely an exam of sorts, but for now she was uncertain. Weary, a hand slipped to her face, cold metal trailing over her shoulder from the chains around her wrists. Unlike the ones in the white room, these seemed to be longer, though she wasn’t sure by how much. This was the first thing she studied as she stood up, still nauseous as she slides up the wall behind her. It was cold, but it felt smooth and clean, a noticeable contrast to how grimey and unkempt she felt.
Still, as the jadeblood turned to face the wall, her mind wasn’t even processing the others in her vicinity, nor the stares and whispers that followed their gaze. Her own was turned to the wall, hands feeling about before finding the latch that’d held her binds. Gripping it, she gritted her teeth, pulling with a muffled grunt through her lips. No, nothing! She was too- too weak to do anything, save for standing on her own feet. Very well.
No, no not very well at all! This was bad, and it was just hitting her as it had in the previous room. Her calm soon shattered away, her gritted teeth soon piercing into her lip again, before nipping on her tongue to hold in a scream that most certainly would have otherwise come forward. She stayed turned to the wall, hands over her mouth as she dropped the chain, the metallic pang bouncing from the wall right into her ears to the very core of her being. The sound was cold, and her whole body was aching where it had once been numb.
She wanted to turn and face the others, really she did. But she couldn't. Kanaya was far too afraid to look upon any of the faces that may share this horrid room, and she did her best to block out any voices, in fear they belonged to someone she knew. Someone she cared for.
It was at this point the jadeblood felt along the wall, moving shuffling to the far right until her chains were pulled taught, inches away from the closet corner in the room. Only if it was a little longer, only if. She slowly lowers herself, hands over her ears before moving to hug her legs close to the faintly glowing flesh of her torso. Had she known better, she wouldn’t have burned the energy, but that wasn't something she cared about. Not then. She would only focus on her glow, dull as it may be. She would figure this out. Right?
