"âl̶ÌÌlÌ·ÍÌoÌžÌÍ? HÌ·eÌąÎ»lÌĄĂČ? GÍodÌ, Í áčleÌ”ase someone just answer I can't take this anymore. . .I'll talk I promise I'll talk this time just answer."
The bell tolls, her mouth waters, and the descent begins. A dog choked by a leash of loyalty, held in hands that hurt just as easily as they comfort. Left to chase tail, abandoned in a submarine they don't even realize is their coffin.
A mere mutt, waiting at the door for their owner to return. Unsure if it's been minutes or years, for time is fickle in oceans of blood.
Original character. . . Laika (Iron lung 26')
(Portrayed by Reign , They / He, 18+)
more info under cut
Hello there! I'm Reign, the moderator behind this account. I have been infected by the Iron lung worms and they demanded I make a roleplay account to join in all the fun! That's precisely what this account is for, below are some things to keep in mind if you want to interact.
Do's and Don't's
Do :
Send in Anon ask, Make up Anon signatures, ect
Ask questions, Come up with storylines, ect
Have fun with it, go nuts, I'll correct course if anything goes too off the rails
Dont :
Be offensive, Being rude or an ass in character is okay but there's a limit
Send in sexual ask
Things to remember
This blog will include canon typical violence, body horror, exploration of religious trauma, cult indoctrination, and the like. Anything that goes beyond what's expected from the movie will be marked as nsfw
The creator of this blog is an adult, lets be tactful with how we interact with each other. I promise I'm friendly though so if you ever want to be mutuals and come up with plotlines feel free to ask ^^
Laika's story will not be spelled out, it will be uncovered through ask and general post I'll make about it! She will react in character to questions and is not always a reliable narrator or the most forthcoming, so please be patient with this slow burn of a character lol
Within universe all ask will be coming through the speaker Laika has aboard their submarine
I work a full time job, so please be patient with me when it comes to responses!
I'm just here to have fun! As long as what you send in or want to do does that I'll be up for it, don't be shy :]
âSometimes I wonder what kind of pictures are being taken of me in other universes. . . is that weird?â
THANK YOU SO MUCH TO VUROMIKATT FOR THIS AMAZING COMMISSION I GOT DONE OF MODERN AU!LAIKA! Please go check them out. Below is also a doodle of Laika they did which I love
Fun facts about ModernAU!Laika
- Sheâs currently studying to be a marine biologist.
- She surfs in her free time.
- She escaped from a cult she was born into when she was seven thanks to her sister having the courage to run.
- She met Ava through an internship she did which made her apart of the womanâs research team in Russia for a summer. She primarily joined to gather information for her thesis and has kept in contact with Ava ever since and now considers her an âinternet sisterâ!
- Sheâs also chronically online and is not shy about her âcringeâ interests!
- She knows the Simon of this AU and is actively trying to help him get over his fear of the ocean.
- She works part time at an aquarium to help fund her life style and schooling.
- An in universe joke is that Laika keeps trying to convince Simon that he looks like Markiplier only neither him nor anyone else sees the resemblance and so she just feels crazy.
- This Laika suffers from night terrors that are primarily just visions of other versions of herself in different universes where sheâs not happy.
Psssst... Hey, next time you go to sleep, we're gonna show you the ocean, ok? I hope that's okay. I think you'll enjoy it.
[The next time Laika falls asleep, she appears in a white void, with a strange sense of lucidity that you wouldn't usually get in a dream. She sees a small cartoony calico cat standing on two paws and waving at her aggressively.]
"Halloooo!!! It's nice to meet you I thought it was really really sad that you never got to go to the beach and never will so now you get to! Have funnnn!"
[The cat plops out of existence with a squeak and Laika's surroundings slowly start to morph into an ocean beach, with no other people on it besides... Some human figure in the distance.]
-đ
By the time the voice cuts through her sub, Laika is already in her cot. Laying on the precipice between the waking world and subconscious, she can offer no reply besides the way her body twistsâ as though trying to physically escape the threat to her slumber.
The headache she'd sustained from her escapades in photography had yet to leave her and while keeping her eyes closed against the never ending light from her submersible was helping with the pain, actually drifting off was proving to be a challenge.
Laika had never truly gotten used to sleeping on the ship, the stagnant air that laid so heavy it could choke. The unnatural warmth that Laika had known exclusively through body heat now overwhelmingly consistent. Sweating through her button up alone felt more unbearable than freezing next to someone.
Yet, for all her reservations, her bed had been calling to her ever since the nosebleed. Not just from how light headed she feltâno. This was something else. The way she sunk into the mesh material of her cot, how the overhead lights didn't breech beneath her eyelids like usual, the rocking of the Omega breeding lethargy rather than nausea.
Laika doesn't even clock she's asleep at first, and the way her eyes blink open on instinct has her mourning just how close she'd gotten.
Before the void stares back at her.
There's only a millisecond of eternity that her brain tolerates before it latches onto something it can comprehend, even if with only slightly better understanding. Because Laika knows what a cat is, there were a few that lived on Eden after all. None of them stood on two legs though, and maybe she just wasn't worth the conversation but she didn't think they talked either.
Maybe it isn't a cat at all, but whatever it is, whatever it's sayingâ It's lost in translation as Laika instead grapples with the questions she has that get trapped in her throat. And it isn't until it's saying its goodbyes that she regains the ability to talk, blinks away her deer in headlights expression, and physically jolts into action.
"Wait! Don't leave, I don'tâ"
Her hand grabs air. And suddenly an incomprehensibly void peels away to reveal something just as mind bendingâ even if for completely different reasons.
The salt in the air hits her first like a punch to the gut, and her muscles tense up accordingly. Laika is reminded just how lacking her imagination truly is, because being able to taste it had never even registered as a possibility during her attempts. But it's undeniable, the way her throat closes up in protest against the assault on her senses despite merely breathing it in.
Laika's eyes water, and she doesn't even know the saline carried in the breeze is partly to blame. Though her assumption that it's from awe alone is an understandable one. Especially when placed in the context of what lay in front of her.
A spectrum of colors she didn't even know existed bends on the horizon, threatening to break against the curve of the Earth as the sun sets. There's one in particular she knows all too well though, one she never thought she'd see again.
Her favorite.
["Like your eyes??"
âOkay, ouchâ donât go poking them out or they wont be blue for much longer but yes. Like my eyes, silly.â]
The sound of water lapping at the shore becomes the backing track for Laika's emotional descent as the sight of it all makes her feel faint, her tears fall heavier. Her knees buckle, she hits the sand, and the tide hitting her knees is what finally snaps her out of it.
She's seeing the ocean, touching the ocean. The beast sailors failed to conquer, the savior humanity lost in the rapture, the pipedream she thought impossible.
The wish her sister never stopped making.
["You know you're supposed to be asleep, what are you doing up?"
". . .Did the pictures make you sad?"
"What?"
"You're crying. . .was it the pictures? I can beat them up if you want."
"Pffttt. No Laika, it's justâ It's not the pictures themselves. I suppose I'm just feeling a bit homesick."
"Butâ we are home, aren't we?"
". . . maybe you are."]
Something about that memory she had forgotten all about becomes clearer in the aftermath of the sight she struggles to describe.
Laika was been born on Eden, she'd barely been four when God decided to take the stars and planets like a thief in the night. The ocean she'd come to yearn for was one from books, archives, photographs. The one Jordan mourned was realâ forged from water, coral, and life. Not paper and ink.
With the small pinhole Laika had known Earth through, she could never understand her sister's grief even if she sympathized. She harkened it to someone being born blind and another losing their sight well into adulthood. Both tragedies, ones neither of them truly grasp even with its overlapping symptoms. But nowâ in the face of a small fraction of what her sister had knownâshe understood.
How could anyone who'd bore witness to heaven be at peace in its substitutes?
Part of Laika wonders why Jordan didn't cry more, didn't collapse into herself from the weight of it all, the way she knows she will the moment she wakes up. Of course, Jordan had always been the stronger of the twoâ it'd been a miracle she'd been caught crying at all. It's that reason that makes Laika suddenly feel wrong for assuming her sister would fall victim to her despair the way she felt so comfortable doing. They may have been cut from the same cloth, but Jordan's had never needed as much patching up as hers.
The reminder has her attention going to the sleeve of the button up she wears. The tide had drenched its cuffs, and there's an automatic instinct to pull away, to not let the water taint it anymore than it had.
One Laika ignores in favor of submerging her hand up to her forearm. Something about the last thing her sister had worn being completely covered in sea waterâ it just felt right. But she wouldn't go that far, mostly because she feared if she submerged herself in its depths she'd forget any reason to come back up.
The morbid thought forces her eyes off the water and back towards the shore, where she does a double take at the figure sitting there.
"Jordan. . .?"
She hadn't said her name out loud in so long, a streak she didn't mean to break. Maybe it was a combination of the fact her sister was the only other person she associated with the setting and she'd already been thinking of her. But upon seeing whoever that was in the distance? It slipped outâ a wish of her own.
It was impossible, but Laika stood up anyway. It was impossible, but she was already standing in the biggest impossibility was thereâ right? Laika knew it was impossible, and she made her way towards them anyway. Picking up speed. Hoping beyond belief that her sister would be the one sat on that shore. That all her trials had been worth it, all her obedience finally counted up, maybe she was finally getting her reward.
HELLO I GOT MORE PHOTOS OF THE SEA FOR YOU FROM MY FRIEND WHO STILL LIVES IN MY HOMETOWN!
Here ya goooo.. the second one is taken during the winter btw that's why there's snow on the ground. And why there's nobody on there lol. You can imagine this place filled with colourful umbrellas and lawn chairs and people laying on towels tanning and a lot of toys and sand castles and people playing in the water and this grandma always walking around screaming "SALTED FISH, COLD BEER, BOILED CORN" and selling those things. That's how it is in the summer. Plus the scorching sun.
Laika's eyes close as she attempts to do just that. Imagine a sun that disappeared before she was old enough to commit its warmth to memory. Imagine what the salt in the air would smell like, the ambience of joy that would float around with it. The waves pushing at her shins as she just takes it in.
The picture helps, but there's only so many words it can be worth before it starts depreciating. Laika's eyebrows furrow as it fades from her mind. Her attempts to get it to stay are fruitlessly despite the way her cheeks puff out from the effort of the mental concentration she believes will grant the wish.
When it's gone entirely she wants to crumble. Laika feels ungrateful for the thought, but the images and her failed pursuit of imagining being the one who took them, they only make the hurt burn hotter. Like knowing more about what she could of had is giving her something to mourn, fleshing out her grief and making it physical.
Her head throbs and there's a ringing in her ear that she swears is coming from the ship itself. After it dissipates and Laika has the nerve to think the worse is over: Something cascades down onto her lip and her eyes snap open. Using her overalls to wipe it off, red stares back at her with a vengeance.
She thinks she's done with the picture show for today.
". . .Thank you. Both you and your friend, thank you so much. But Iâ I think I need to lay down now."
Most of the planet was covered in water! You could probably look at a whole planet and be unable to see a lick of land... other than maybe islands and stuff, but still! Whoooole lotta water, most of it undrinkable because of salt and bacteria and other such things.
There were also rivers and lakes, which were freshwater, aka no salt, and seas, which had a lotta salt, one of which had so much salt, you could float in it noooo problem, no effort no nothin... but also verrrrry little could survive in it, which is where it got its name as "The Dead Sea".
Also, that little yellow guy called Joltik... I believe is something called a "Pokemon", from a game series of the same name. Really popular apparently.
"Pokemon? I've never heard of that one, maybe it's too rough for the children of Eden to play. Though I do wonder how the little toy would be apart of it? Anywayâ Joltik seemed cute. I like him. I can see why he's popular."
Unfortunately right now I live in a landlocked area and the ocean is like.. eight hours away by train. But I can answer this for when I still lived in my hometown! I lived like 40 minutes away from the ocean by bus. Yes, you can go there at any time! Some people spend a whole day there, a beach day. And swim or play in the water or tan or do whatever else, yes! Well some beaches are paid but not all of them. I only really used to go during the summer cause at other times of the year it was too cold to swim and I didn't have time because of school. And I only rly went to the sea to swim. About once every two weeks or every week or so cause it was a whole thing to organise it with my parents. It can get super busy, especially in the day (I lived in a tourist beach city, beach was the main attraction so it was busy) but if you get there early you can get a nice spot. I don't- somehow. I've lived there for 12 years and I only have like one photo. I didn't appreciate it enough, really. I just sort of assumed it'd always be there.. and, well. Now even if I was there I wouldn't be able to go cause some of the beaches are mined. Because of the war in my country. Water mines. So there's a chance to jump be swimming and die. Not great :(
However, my friend had a photo of the ocean they live near! Ft. Joltik and my friend's hand
Getting the same image again startles her for just a moment before the continued answers to all her questions calms Laika once again, and she decides to let them completely finish before saying anything. Finding it both rude to interrupt, and quite enjoying the ramble. Laika could talk, a lot sometimes to a degree she found embarrassing, so she could admit that just listening to someone do it instead was just as enjoyable. Maybe even more so, since she didn't have to worry about being the one who'd said too much for once.
Previously mentioned ramble is a rollercoaster for Laika, because on one hand all the new information about the ocean and life on Earth was knowledge so valuable it's impossible to name. But on the other, she could have gotten whiplash from how quickly the tragedy was thrown at her . Having sat back down a bit after her intentional reaction, Laika grips the back of her chair as a grimace grows on her face.
"That's. . . horrible. I can't imagine having an ocean so close and having to be scared to go in it. And, I'm sure you appreciated it plenty. I mean, if you can remember it so fondly and mourn its loss, then you did. At least in my eyes you did, though maybe that doesn't mean much considering. Lookâ either way. I just hope you stay safe from whatever's happening in your country, after all, there's an entire ocean waiting for you after it's over, right?"
HELLO, I heard we were sending you pictures of the ocean and unfortunately this is all I have. Ignore my hand and Joltik. Or don't, I do love my Lil' Buddy :]
The word 'unfortunately' almost makes Laika want to laugh, because there's nothing unfortunate about anything that's happening right now. She's seeing the ocean, she's seeing anything at all that isn't the orange of her submarine, and that's more than she thought she'd ever see again.
"It just looks so big, Iâ I can barely comprehend it. Like it stretches on forever. I meanâ I had read it was big but seeing it is. . .it's something else entirely. Thank you so much."
Wiping her face with her overall's suspenders, Laika attempts to collect herself before she continues. Though the laugh she gives sounds wet.
"Who is Joltik? He's very. . .yellow, is that normal?"
I'm afraid I don't have a photo of exactly what you're seeking but I have this!
Ignore the baby me in the background- this was taken on a liman! A liman is a part of the sea or a river which was separated from the big mass by sediments and stuff. The water there is really salty.. it's also quite shallow! But still pretty.
And nah, I literally just have these photos, I don't mind sharing.
Laika barely finds it in herself to write down the information the Anon has given, once again too starstruck by the image she's been graced with. The last part of their response has her freezing in the middle of writingâ which was a slow process since she was trying to multitask enjoying the image before it faded at the same time.
'I just have these.' It echoes around her, said so causally something in her wants to mourn. But what? The life could be living if she was born into a universe like theirs? The pictures she'll never be able to take? The nonchalant-ness she'll never be able to afford? All of the above and more.
"And you can just. . .go to there any time? And swimâ or, or play in the water? How far away from the ocean are you? How often do you go? Is it super busy? Do you have anymore photos like this? I would really like to just see more of it. . .please. I'll take anything."
Hey hey hey, did you know that some of us anons actually live on pre-Quiet Rapture Earth? Well, not quite, it's more of an alternative universe cause our technology isn't nearly as crazy as yours is. Like, it's 2026 and we haven't even colonised Mars yet. Welp.
Anyways, not the point. Do you have any requests for pictures or anything we can tell you? :D
For now, have this picture of the ocean I took while back in my hometown:
[The following picture simply appears in Laika's mind.]
There's not nearly enough time granted for Laika's brain to catch up with what's been said before she's hit with the image, and she can feel the way her brain cramps in response. Like an ant that's seen a motherboard, that comprehends it for only a moment before it's lost again. She's left reeling, having physically stood from her chair in the aftermath of what feels comparable to a bomb being dropped on her.
Her mind, something usually as blank as the starless expanse they called a sky, was suddenly brimming with the picture. And it was beautiful. The grainy depictions in the textbooks she'd been smuggled didn't hold a candle to the one she could see when she closed her eyes. And it isn't until it fades fully that Laika finds the ability to recoup.
"That was. . . woah."
There's another few seconds of silence that fills of sub while Laika tries to think of what to say, tries to think of anything but the ocean she's just seen. It doesn't even register to her that maybe she should be frightened that this voice over her speaker can beam images into her brain, she's too grateful for the gift she's been given to look it in its mouth.
"Andâ and you said you could keep showing me stuff like that? Like, even if I can't give you anything for it?"
The skepticism is understandable, at least in Laika's mind. She doesn't have much to offer and the concept of these peopleâ Anons they called themselves?â would just be willing to hand her the equivalent to gold on a plate, for what? It seemed too good to be true, and that scared her. This idea that she would be given things she couldn't even earn.
Yet, despite that, she still answers. Though she feels greedy for doing so.
" Could you. . .can I see a photo of the sunset on an ocean? Jordan always said it wasâ"
A pause. She's talking too much and scolds herself for it. Requests don't need side stories attached to them after all.
I love following cool roleplay blogs I will never get the balls to interact with. Yes I will tear your interpretation of your muse apart with my teeth and like all your post. No I will not shoot you a message asking if my muse can be friends with yours because my body can't tell the different between that and having a gun in between my eyes, sorry!!
Oh! I uh, didn't think you'd wanna hear about the ocean considering... where you are, but I'm glad to talk! Oh and don't apologize, I had no idea there were that many sharks that's siiiiiick! I've seen pictures of the basking shark, they're so cool and I think silly looking. Big mouuuthh. Have you ever seen a goblin shark? They were weeeeird looking things, hence the name, and I think they're neat for that, honestly! I like the ugly ones
Ummm, okay, what else do I know about the oceannnnn... Um, have you ever heard of the Kraken? It's a creature in... I believe it was norse mythology that was basically a Giant Ship Eating Squid. It was most likely inspired by a Giant Squid, which is... exactly what it says on the tin. Squid but really really Big, probably because it's main habitat was deep in the ocean, and things that were deep deep down there tended to be bigger and/or weirder.
Okay, okay, okay, uh, your turn :3
- đââŹïž
The assumption isn't an unfair one to make, and part of Laika herself questions why that's not the case. Why the blood she inhabits doesn't taint her love for the watery expanse that covered Earth the way it has everything else. The answer she comes up with isn't completely solid but it's the only one she has.
"This. . .hell hole? It's not the ocean. An ocean? Sure. But it isn't the one I love. It's already taken too much from meâ I won't let it get this too. I can't."Â
Blood may be thicker than water but she'd yet to see proof it was unyielding, and that gave her hope.Â
"I'm sure it can't be that ugly. . .right? I meanâ I bet they're cute. Even if I've never seen one, all the sharks I have seen were cute so the odds are in its favor! And deep sea creatures were some of my favorites! Have you seen an angler fish? They're so odd, I can't help but love themâ you know? They may be my favorite. Did you know that only the females have the lure on their head? Oh!â and they're bigger than the males too! Pretty cool, huh?"
They can hear the pride in Laika's voice as she shows off her knowledge, undeniably giddy at finally sharing it with someone.
I love following cool roleplay blogs I will never get the balls to interact with. Yes I will tear your interpretation of your muse apart with my teeth and like all your post. No I will not shoot you a message asking if my muse can be friends with yours because my body can't tell the different between that and having a gun in between my eyes, sorry!!
Yeah that's fair. Honestly you should always treat a vehicle with respect, especially when your life is in her hands.
... that's. That's dark, I'm sorry- Let's change the subject!
Didn't you say something about... something called the Leviathan? Was that the ship or the mission? I can't remember, I've got the memory of a goldfish. But anyways! I just find it interesting bc. The Leviathan is actually a big ole sea surpent from some old, old, old tales.
Yeah people didn't know a whole lot about Earth's ocean, so they all thought there were monsters down there, even writing it on maps for areas unexplored. And I guess they weren't too far off, given how much was in the ocean. Sooo many fish, big ones, little ones, hell I don't think they ever stopped discovering new species down there!
... which is prooobably not what you want to hear while... down here, I'm sorry, I'll shut up now- sorry for yapping so much
"The Levithan, an unimaginable force of chaos and evil that only god could ever think of defeating. . ."
It's mumbled to herself as she recalls all the sermons that had been crammed into her head about the very same beast. Eyes locked onto the computer that's meant to keep record of all the pictures and logs she had given up on taking.
"Guess it's a good thing he already took care of it, huh?"
"No! I meanâ it's fine please don't stop. . .'yapping'? Don't tell anyone cause I could get into a ton of trouble but I love the ocean, my sister would sneak me the archives we had on it and justâ oh my gosh! It's just so cool! Did you know that there were over five hundred kinds of sharks? And there was one called a basking shark who could open its mouth up to a metre wide! I got to see a picture of it one time and it was the coolest thing I've ever seen! Andâ"
She stops herself upon realizing that now she was the one rambling, and it's hard to stop when she hasn't smiled this hard in years. Which seems ridiculous but she could hardly be blamedâno one was meant to know that her sister made a habit of sneaking her the contraband, which meant she had no one but her sister to ramble on about her interest in the topic to. Being down there, where she didn't have to fear the consequences, made it hard not to indulge.
Laika still understood social expectations though, it was impolite to prattle on. After all, a godly woman was seen and not heard. Though maybe an exception was made if no one could see her.
