"So, uh, Maryam the sequel. Or whatever."

Kanaya pauses, just becoming aware of the fact that the telltale slouchy footsteps behind her have ceased – as well as the echoing result. She glances over her shoulder, aggravated; for all that talk of best behavior, Feferi's ancestor – pre-scratch self? dancestor? all the newly coined terms are hard to keep track of, but she's managing – just… rubs her wrong. The fish girl's sitting up on the railing of the staircase they just descended – Meenah's insistence to search for pointless treasure when in reality Kanaya knows about most everything stashed in the boxes (and just where had she been storing that atrociously pink clam shell purse Kanaya might never know) – and giving her the fishiest grin she's seen in a long time.

(Rose is snarky, yes. Terezi has her moments, and fate had better help Gamzee when she gets her hands on him… but she's getting derailed again. That grin of hers threw her off.)

"I believe I told you earlier that my name is Kanaya." Like every word she's ever uttered, Kanaya enunciates each with perfect diction – especially the last one. That fishy smile of Meenah's slides off for a moment, and she purses her lips, somehow contriving to look even more like a fish.

"Yeah, yeah, Carpaya." She grimaces. Kanaya arches a brow. "Okay that one was shitty. I've pretty much got all these flippin' fish puns in the bag, but your name's throwin' me off, girl."

"Yes, yes. What's your point?"

Meenah pouts, swinging her long, scrawny legs. "Can't a fish girl get some glubbin' space? You don't reely have to escort me everywhere, get a grip – "

"Mmm yes your attitude's really making me be okay with you walking around unescorted. Oh, I suppose I mean 'reely.'" As usual, Kanaya's comebacks leave a little to be desired – but she's got the deadpan down pat, even in the afterthoughts, so that's not so bad, then. The over enunciated 'reely' might've been a bit too much, though…

But Meenah cracks a grin. "Aww, no fair, y'all used a fish pun. That's adorbs, yo."

Kanaya moves brusquely past the compliment – "At any rate you're almost out of the meteor, I'll bring you to the door and you can just go along exploring your dream bubble – "

"So you can have your date with the talky Light chick?" Yes, her grin's quite fishy by now.

The younger Maryam clears her throat lightly, though a hint of jade bubbles beneath her cheeks. "Perhaps," she manages eventually, glancing off to the side; the corner of her mouth turns slightly upwards.

Meenah's really grinning now, her teeth sharp and pointy and wow she really resembles Vriska. "Cute. Here's hopin' she'll stop carpin' on once in a while so you two can get koi-zy." She chuckles to herself – an odd habit, to laugh at one's puns. But it's a little endearing all the same; it's nice to know Meenah would ever do something so normal and dorky as to laugh at her own jokes.

"But you're avoiding the subject," Kanaya says eventually. "I didn't think you'd be the type to just bring up things willy-nilly. What's your plan?"

Despite Kanaya's even-keeled tone, Meenah scowls, her eyes narrowing. Kanaya's fascinated by those eyes; they're so white, so blank and empty. And Meenah's not an empty sort of person… she's so full of that certain snarky sassy something, but being dead washed that something out of her eyes. It's uncanny, and eerie, and it throws her off a little bit. Just a little.

"I don't reely wanna tell you! I'm just sick of trawlin' along after you."

Contriving to remain diplomatic, Kanaya answers, "Well, we're pretty much at the end of the tour, just on through the door there and you're back in your dream bubble."

Meenah's pout is back, her fuchsia lips outrageously pursing into an expression Kanaya would not have thought was possible. She mutters something about wanting to stay on the meteor.

"Also, the horn pile's off limits," Kanaya warns her, stern. "Karkat's sleeping, so don't… try anything."

The slump in the fish girl's shoulders becomes more pronounced, and the rainbow drinker knows she's hit the mark. "Coddamn, li'l Mar, I just want to talk to shouty. Don't have to take that tuna voice with me."

"I'll take whatever… tuna… I want to." Okay, that one isn't so good, but Meenah's lips twitch. Kanaya presses on. "I think we've still got a ways to go through the dream bubble, so maybe you could head out and then come back if you'd still want to…? Though I don't think that would solve any of your problems as I'll still have to escort you – "

By this point, Meenah has vaulted off the railing and has swaggered up to Kanaya, bending down a bit to scrutinize the rainbow drinker's expression. Kanaya pauses mid sentence, pulling her head back a little. "… Um," she finishes, not entirely sure where her train of thought went.

"You shore talk an awful lot, mini-Maryam." There's a note of definitiveness to her speech, as though it took her a moment to think of the precise thing she wanted to say. Kanaya watches her warily, not particularly flattered.

"… But you're still adorbs." Abruptly, she grins, showing her two rows of white and unnaturally pointy teeth – incisors of a sharpness that even Kanaya can't lay claim to.

"Um."

"Yeah, you probs avoided turtle disaster." Meenah laces her fingers behind her neck, still smirking enjoyably. "Sociopaths gotta watch themselves when y'all are nagging up a storm, fussyfangs."

Oh, that nickname. Kanaya sighs and smiles, a sardonic edge to her thin-lipped expression. Despite the dream bubbles and the dead friends, she had yet to encounter one of her oldest and closest relations… but, perhaps, it was for the better, as what would she even say to her girlish flame? Vriska never sticks around, and Kanaya has a living, breathing companion this time around.

… Though Meenah is neither living nor breathing.

Still, the ghost girl lopes her arm around Kanaya's shoulder, slouching off towards the rest of the dream bubble, prattling on about the meddling she's noticed Kanaya doing and sounding a bit like a nag herself. It's funny, but the ones who often complain about something often are the perpetrators of it themselves…

"Somefin funny, Kanaya?"

"Oh, you just remind me of a friend."

Meenah pauses before the door, staring at her suspiciously with those eerie white eyes. "It's not mini me, is it?"

"Feferi? Oh no." She chuckles a little bit, her eyes darting off to the side again. "She's… well, mini Serket, I guess."

"HA!" The loud laugh causes Kanaya to jump and frown at Meenah, who's giggling wildly about something or other. "Serket, reely?"

"Yes, she was our Thief. And Hero of Light." Kanaya's frown directs to Meenah's spindly arm, which has firmly hooked itself to her shoulders.

"Shit." Meenah blinks, a bit taken aback. "She a sociopath, too?"

Almost against her will, Kanaya smiles, her eyes flitting back up to Meenah's ghost ones. "More or less."

The reddish purple lips curve into a smirk as the fish girl chuckles. "That's brilliant. I'mma tell olda Serket." Finally, the arm drops down from Kanaya's shoulders. "Aight, girl, dis is my stop. Thanks for the tour, yo."

Kanaya shrugs, still smiling. "Sure. If you come back in, I'll be here… to, uh, continue the tour."

Meenah watches her for a moment, seemingly deliberating between being annoyed or amused… but her eyebrows raise as she settles on the latter. "Cool. Let minnow how the date goes, then."

And after a swift kiss on Kanaya's cheek, Meenah's bounding off to go bother some other hapless soul. More than likely the Serket person.