[ Porting is the same as it ever is — a hook behind the navel, a tug and panic that pull too quick for speech, for words or reaction beyond that familiar, familiar terror. Not now! Not again! Zipping forth into the future, and losing time; tearing between one world and another, one dimension and another, over and over and over again———
When Ruka blips into existence, the sensation and the knowledge of porting at all leaves her sour, leaves her sick, but not nearly so much as recognition does. This isn't the Porter of Cape Canaveral. This is not Florida, this is not the world where she lives now, the world where she's been trying so desperately to build a new life, the world where, after all these years, she finally has a future. This is a more familiar lab, with an intimately more familiar machine, and— ]
This isn't possible.
[ There are no guards in the lab; just a giant, impossible machine, and whoever else has been dumped here by it. And while those other new imPorts — these other Metas — might look around in confusion, uncertain where they are or what has happened, Ruka has gone pale in the face. She looks as though she has seen a ghost. As though they are the ghosts. ]
This isn't possible. This isn't real. This— This can't be real.
[ Ah. That looks like the start of a panic attack. What a promising start. ]
RUKA 🐉︎ open
When Ruka blips into existence, the sensation and the knowledge of porting at all leaves her sour, leaves her sick, but not nearly so much as recognition does. This isn't the Porter of Cape Canaveral. This is not Florida, this is not the world where she lives now, the world where she's been trying so desperately to build a new life, the world where, after all these years, she finally has a future. This is a more familiar lab, with an intimately more familiar machine, and— ]
This isn't possible.
[ There are no guards in the lab; just a giant, impossible machine, and whoever else has been dumped here by it. And while those other new imPorts — these other Metas — might look around in confusion, uncertain where they are or what has happened, Ruka has gone pale in the face. She looks as though she has seen a ghost. As though they are the ghosts. ]
This isn't possible. This isn't real. This— This can't be real.
[ Ah. That looks like the start of a panic attack. What a promising start. ]