#Uunive Semreh

[cloudbattrolls]

Valuable life lessons with Tuuya, featuring @terribletrollstbh and @howdy-nyalll

[terribletrollstbh]

While Uunive can appreciate a good Carnivale, this year the Blood and Candy theme called to her more!

Pulling inspiration from the vampires of RE:V, Uunive's dress is supposed to evoke Lady D's iconic dress with a more daring cut and filigree trim, while her necklace is inspired by the chokers the Dimitrescu daughters wear.

Bloody dye splatters were added along the edges to evoke a "Massacre at 5pm, Formal Event at 6pm" vibe. The fur stole was added to help keep her warm with all that skin exposed- this dress is backless, after all!

And of course, you can't attend a masquerade without a mask!

Once again, please open in a new tab to see all the detail

[terribletrollstbh]

And now a little Helixe :3

[cloudbatcave]

Tuuya and @terribletrollstbh’s Uunive when she was a kiddo; she’s wearing a nightdress tuuya made specially for her.

I like Tuuya’s outfit here, shame they don’t wear anything like that now; they don’t want to draw attention to themself. Being safely in their old cavern home was different.

[cloudbattrolls]

To Mould Me Man

Various Parties | Hanhai Cavern

The butterflies flew away.

All the ones remaining in the cavern rose in twos and threes, then in larger clouds, streaming out of the tunnels and rooms and back up above the earth. 

The surviving jades blinked and marveled to see them go, wondering if they were free now.

Then the wasps rose in a furious, writhing mass, chasing them, killing some - but not enough. Dozens still escaped their sister’s stingers to make it past the cavern entrance as Rhyssa shrieked from multiple mouths. 

The noise of her rage made the trolls cover their ears, and even Ozryel slowed in her flight to listen.

Tuuya used the opportunity to shoot her in a wing, but she merely regenerated. Just as she had the entire damn time; nothing they did stuck, she healed too quickly. 

They had no idea why Rhyssa was screaming. They only knew this fight was hopeless; the mother of swarms was toying with them, and Uunive hadn’t managed to get close to the matriorb’s tank because Ozryel would swoop down to beat her back. 

She was fast, too fast even for Tuuya to get many hits on. 

They were lucky she didn’t seem inclined to use a gun. Perhaps she hadn’t bothered to learn how.

Tuuya gritted their teeth. How were they supposed to break this stalemate?

–

Rhyssa fumed in a small respiteblock, the few remaining clouds of her flying so fast in circles they generated heat. Her troll form’s fists clenched, and she bared her needle teeth.

How fuckin’ dare Inshii abandon her! Abandon Mama! When she got out of here, she was gonna give them such a -

Oh damn it.

Rhyssa found herself torn apart by multiple superheated blades at once, and the melted wasps could no longer make others as they struggled and died. 

She regrouped, panting, snarling as she stared at her attackers. The goddamn DeVilles, of course. They all looked at her with eyes as cold as ice.

“You think you can - can fuckin’ kill me?” She said, amused despite her rage, sending some of herself to sting them, tear at their skin. “Even if you put me down here, I’ll still -”

She was struck again, despite her counterattack. Again, and again, and again. So many wasps fell, they covered the floor of her cavern room in a mass of twisted, bubbling white. 

She screamed again, and the DeVilles winced as more wasps rose, but there were hardly any left now. Not after her construct Tuuya had destroyed, not after Rivali, not after the ones the Hanhai jades had managed to swat.

She had brought every part of her to this attack, taking even the ones she usually left to guard her town. 

Desperate to see her family whole again, Rhyssa had held nothing back. 

Now, under a trifold onslaught of freshly fed rainbowdrinkers, she was little more than a few dozen insects struggling to cling to bones, her skimpy clothes so shredded they barely stayed together.

Nothing to worry about. She’d just come back, she always did. She’d make these heathens regret -

Hirudo rammed her with her trident, cracking her bones apart, squishing most of the insects into paste.

Only a few left now, enough to barely make her voice work as she buzzed feebly, spawning a few last wasps, but they too were dispatched by Neffie and Joey’s blades.

“I’m not - you can’t -”

“I can.” Said Hirudo, and gored her through her lungs, destroying the final piece of the ancient swarm.

Her eggshell had been burned by Platar. She could not respawn.

After ten thousand years, Rhyssa the wasp was dead.

–

Ozryel paused again, and Tuuya riddled her with holes again.

Though she healed, she stayed still, her translucent wings barely beating enough to keep her aloft.

She landed, her bare feet touching down gently on the floor as her pale teal dress fluttered. 

Tuuya gave up shooting her for the moment. They shouldn’t waste any more charge. 

“Rhyssa…my daughter is gone.”

The old hag actually sounded mournful.

“Good.” Said Tuuya and Uunive together. 

“This was all her fault to begin with.” Snarled the worm swarm. “She had it coming.”

Ozryel turned her full attention to Tuuya for the first time.  Seizing the opportunity, Uunive began to slowly, stealthily make her way toward the matriorb again. 

“You blame Rhyssa for this?”

The fallen angel sounded amused, intrigued even. 

“Oh, Tuuya…what lies you tell yourself.”

“What can I say? I inherited deception from you.” They shot back, wanting to keep her eyes on them by any means possible.

Then Ozryel was shot directly in the heart - if she had a heart - by what looked like a superheated bullet, one the swarm hadn’t even heard coming.

She shrieked like her daughter had, Tuuya’s ears pressing down from a noise far louder and closer.

The mother of swarms launched herself back into the air, but more slowly, more unsteadily as her body had to push the steaming, bloodied bullet out.

Tuuya turned around, and smiled in relief and worry alike to see Rivali shooting at Ozryel again, narrowly dodging as she swooped down with her claws out and fangs bared.

With a quick reach into their sylladex, they swapped their laser pistols for their revolver, which Uunive had also made lucky. They had never preferred bullets, but now was the time. 

Ozryel cursed them both as they riddled her, swearing vengeance on Kotenkha’s line - wasn’t that Rivali’s ancestor? - and becoming so incensed her flying was more erratic. She was easier to hit now, but she also seemed to want to tear the komondor troll apart, and they were still only slowing her down for seconds at a time. 

Skilled as the jade was, they did not have the strength and speed of an undead, and Ozryel was starting to break through their armor and injure them, a slash here, a bite there.

Tuuya saw, out of the corner of their eye, that Uunive had gotten ahold of the matriorb. She nodded at them.

Tuuya gritted their teeth as they had the luck to land a perfect cluster of shots on Ozryel, enough to slow her nearly to a standstill. 

This was going to hurt.

Bone cracked and reformed, skin grew and stretched, their clothes tearing and Tuuya made their very bones lighter in the seconds it took them to drop their gun and begin transforming, dashing up the giant corpse of the mother grub.

Then they launched themself, arms now batlike wings, off of the carcass to tackle Ozryel in midair before she could strike at the wounded jadeblood one last time.

They tangled her up, bearing the screeching creature down to crash on the rock. 

Tuuya wrapped her in their tendrils, more and more even as she tore through them, as she clawed chunks out of the worm swarm, rending their skeleton, crushing their lungs.

Still they constricted her, still they held as their worms were scattered across the floor, chewed apart, shredded to pieces.

They heard a noise. The tell-tale hum of a technological energy barrier being thrown up.

As Ozryel finally ripped them into enough agonized pieces that they stopped moving, Tuuya still looked over with their nearly severed head and just caught the retreating figures of Uunive and Rivali escaping with the orb.

Their exit was now sealed behind a shimmering blue wall covering the only tunnel out. 

Not even Ozryel could break through that. 

She howled in rage and hate, and looked at her mangled descendant with glowing green eyes.

“I was going to make new children! Loyal ones! An army!” She snarled. “You took that from me! You - you filth! Pathetic imitation! Half-troll whelp!”

“You’re a terrible mother.” Murmured Tuuya with weary amusement, too tired to try to knit their broken body back together. “I’d say I did those poor would-be swarms a favor.”

“As if you are better!” Said Ozryel harshly, mockingly. “You blame Rhyssa for your troubles! But you did not listen to her when she first asked you to come, so of course she had to force you.”

Her green eyes gleamed as she spoke again, voice now low, a sort of sadistic purr. 

“I’ve seen all your memories, Tuuya. I lived in your body.”

The worm swarm swallowed.

“I know you abandoned Uunive for space, thinking you would die killing Firebird. You lied to her throughout her youth. 

You shelter Ailene, knowing as she grows more healthy, you’ll be more tempted to eat her.”

Tuuya’s ears drooped. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t thought before, but hearing Ozryel say it…

“Do you really think Florah will continue to accept you if he learns more of your deeds? That Melina will still humor you once she gets bored of your fussing? That Crimew will want you if she is ever able to return home? 

You are a hypocrite denying your true nature, pathetic and mealy-mouthed, trying to play both sides while embodying the worst qualities of each. You are nothing but a stain upon troll and swarm.”

Tuuya lay there, silent, having no retort. What defense was there to give?

Ozryel got up, her dress now tattered, and walked a few feet away, crossing her arms as she stared down at the second worm swarm. 

“I meant to save every race this empire has ever destroyed, and I failed. I am the product of trollkind’s own violence, and you wonder why I rage at what they took from me? At least I do not pretend to be anything else, unlike you. Lying to yourself so well that you believe you belong among trolls. Lleios had the same sickness.”

Tuuya shook with a quiet sob. 

“I don’t…I’m not trying to…”

“Liar.” Said Ozryel softly. “Still lying, even at the end. You have always loved to deceive and destroy…you cannot change your mind now, after gorging yourself on blood and pain for over a hundred sweeps.”

“No more.” Whispered the worm swarm. “I want to die. We both have to die.”

“I am death.” Said Ozryel scornfully. “You are a shadow of my weakest child. You cannot kill me.”

“No.” Said Tuuya, closing their eyes, mustering all their focus. “I can only offer you another way.”

Hundreds - thousands - of worms left their skin through their mouth and hands, their face, leaving it slack around their skeleton. They curled around Ozryel’s feet. She could have struck them down, but she was too amused. What were they doing now? 

It reminded her of how Lleios had played, when they were young.

They rippled and flowed over her skin, not biting her, merely tickling her with their wiggling. 

Then they curled inside her ears, her mouth, her mind, but they were so gentle. They didn’t linger…they dissolved.

They returned to her. Piece by piece, she felt her hope restored, given up so long ago when she’d thought there was no use for it anymore, trapped far underground in the dark, in a body she’d never wanted.  

She hissed and thrashed, trying to fight it. She still had no use for it! She - she - 

Ozryel glowed, not with the white pallor of an undead, but with promise; with the realization she should have left long ago, impressed on her mind as she became whole again. 

It was not possession, as she had once done to them. Tuuya willingly let themself melt away, their very identity slowly flickering into nothingness.

Her wings cast beams across the cavern, illuminating the entire place as she turned to pure light, shedding all her mortal concerns.

Corrupt no more, she ascended Alternia, an angel risen at last from her prison of flesh. 

Death was needed elsewhere.

When the light faded, Tuuya’s remains lay still and abandoned on the stony floor. 

–

The worm swarm floated far above their planet, adrift among its ships and satellites, the endless bustle of troll industry and empire.

Tuuya felt only a mild curiosity that they were not yet dead. Why were they witnessing this?

A last dying dream? Some sort of hallucination, like the one they’d had with Cestoa?

They saw…they saw Crimew, somehow.

Crash-landing on the planet, just like she’d said she had. 

Tuuya dove down closer, worried about her. She looked hurt and alone.

Tuuya saw Melina, alone, having just escaped her cult, unsure what to do or how to be a part of society. 

Florah, held captive by Allmah, suffering, driven mad by hunger.

Ailene, threatened by the drone. 

Devrin, cheerful, but a bit lonely on his turtle. 

Lulith, not taking any time to watch cartoons, bereft of the JoJo-themed clothing they’d made. 

Vallis, struggling to stay himself.

Ashe, still not knowing any other rainbowdrinkers.

The Diplomat, causing suffering once more.

Tantor, still longing for someone else like him when he was far from home.

Proxus, Hydran, Meloni…all their other students, still hoping for guidance.

Claire…never having gotten therapy, having no one to spar with to get her anger and frustration out.

Margol, still stuck on Alternia, slated to be helmed.

Gwyn, having made it off Alternia, but far slower, with more difficulty. 

Pebble, never having gotten a phone, unable to make friends far away from her volcano. 

Talula, untrained in her shadow powers, still a risk to herself and others.

Ichi, endangering himself far too recklessly in his daylight runs.

Rivali. Still miserable in a cavern that did not respect them.

Channi. Locked up in his mansion, even more afraid of the world than he was now.

Kamala. Still loved, still cared for, but not quite as much.

Vrayan. Similar to Kamala, and yet…

Jaskir. She and Channi were friends. Yet…she didn’t smile so often. Her lovely face was more muted now.

Uunive…

Uunive hadn���t lived at all.

Just another crushed grub, discovered hidden by Anders, simply for being lime.

Why were they seeing this? 

They were still selfish, parasitic of kindness better spent on those more deserving than them. They’d wanted to eat nearly every one of those people, dozens of times. 

They had consumed Kamala once, even if she had already died.

Such hungry love wasn’t real love.

Besides, they’d ruined so many more lives than they’d ever helped, starting with the massacre of Kaningård all those sweeps ago. It would never be even. 

They should get on with it and die.

Do the right thing, for once.

“Is that really what you want?” 

Lleios’s quiet, lightly accented voice asked.

Tuuya’s jaw dropped as they witnessed the first worm swarm now floating beside them. 

Translucent in their green suit, nearly intangible, Lleios’s angular face smiled at them with a grin almost identical to their own.

A ghost, or another hallucination? 

“Ozryel’s gone now, hm? And what a mess she’s left behind.” They said with a chuckle, then fixed Tuuya with a sharp jade gaze.

“Will you too abandon everyone you love? Leave them behind to deal with it all, like you did when you went off chasing Firebird?”

For once, Tuuya could not seem to find words. They all felt trapped in their throat. 

They couldn’t remember who that was. 

They felt like they should. But they couldn’t. 

Lleios wagged a slender gray finger at them. 

“Death is not a settling of scores, my dear. All the damage you’ve done would remain. I would know.” They gazed up at the stars, then down at Alternia. 

Then they looked their successor directly in the eyes. Tuuya didn’t know what that meant either. What scores? 

“I asked Rhomox to make something interesting of me. If there was one thing that man did right, it was you.”

Tuuya tried to laugh, but they were still too choked up. Them? Something right? Hysterical. 

Who was Rhomox, anyway? How had he known Lleios?

“What are you waiting for?” Said Lleios calmly. “The right punishment? The proper amount of suffering? What do those fix? None of the people who love you would enjoy seeing you in pain. Quite the opposite.”

Tuuya couldn’t remember who all those people were. Names started to turn fuzzy, to slip away. It was so tempting to slip away with them. 

No more pain.

Lleios sighed.

“You’ve got to try, despite - and because of - all the harm you’ve done. Will you waste the body I gave you? Yes; gave you. Willingly. I, Lleios the First, do not mind that I became Etuuya the Second. I’m rather proud of it.” 

The older undead put a hand to their successor’s shoulder as Tuuya stood stunned by this revelation.

Proud? Of them?

“Start by feeling guilty about one less thing. Little steps, hm? We are worms, after all. Not so fast, or powerful, or dangerous as the others. But always persistent.”

The second worm swarm crumpled, clinging to Lleios with a small squeak. They knew so little now, but they - they needed to know more - 

“I’m not staying, you daft thing.” Their predecessor said, amused, though they did gently put their arms around the younger drinker, hugging them for a moment. 

“You can. If you want to.”

They vanished, and the second worm swarm looked at the stars again, then back down at the planet.

All they knew for certain was that they had loved. 

They had loved over, and over, and over again, and they felt certain that they would always love, if they could do nothing else. 

Little steps, Lleios had said. 

Tuuya took one. 

–

Hours later, after the matriorb had been secured, the empire called and informed, and the surviving jades tended to, Rivali and Daudre warily deactivated the shield and stepped into the mother grub’s room.

Both of them looked sadly at the massive corpse waiting for them, bowing their heads in a silent moment of mourning.

Then they looked around the place, avoiding the laser-blasted spots and picking up any of Uunive’s knives they found, searching low and high for any trace of Tuuya.

They had almost given up when Rivali’s sharp eyes noticed shreds of the rainbowdrinker’s red clothing, then a tiny glimmer of white; a single worm curled up and lying still on a small rock nearby.

They rushed over, putting a pair of gloves on before they picked it up. Sure enough, it was Vannyn; a piece of them, anyway. 

They looked around. They couldn’t see any other worms, nor bones or any other remains. Only this one, which was so lethargic it didn’t even move in their hand.

“They need blood.” Said Rivali, looking at Daudre. “Blood and a place to reform.”

The other jade nodded, and they both left at a brisk pace.

Rivali carried the worm gently, attention split between the small invertebrate and watching where they were going.

“Thank goodness I found you.” They muttered to it. 

“Do you have any idea how much hassle it would have been to explain that you were dead? I’ve already had to deal with your family’s fretting. You never stop causing problems for me.”

The worm still did not move.

Rivali’s ears flicked.

“You had better perk up when we get you some food. I will be extremely irate otherwise.”

They walked a bit longer, finally making it to a room that hadn’t been destroyed, and appropriating an old ceramic laundry bin to put the worm in. 

“They might not make it if we don’t feed them now.” Daudre said quietly.

Rivali looked at the rocky ceiling.

“I want it stated for the record that I hate this.” They groused, but took out a knife and carefully shed some of their jade blood directly onto Tuuya, cut from their arm.

At first, there was no response. The komondor troll watched, agonizing seconds go by, as the worm still did not move…

…until nearly a minute later, with tiny, weak wriggles, its toothed mouth started sipping up the green liquid.

Rivali broke into a relieved smile, which they swiftly covered with a cough.

“Finally.” They said, avoiding Daudre’s amused eye.

“I’ll call their family.” Offered the other cavern troll. “You deserve a break. I’ll give them more blood, too.”

“Good.” Sniffed the lusus wrangler. “This is disgusting and I never want to do it again.”

Having said so, the dog troll stayed next to the basket as Daudre made the calls, and quietly shed a few more drops of blood into it.

The process was slow, slower than Rivali had ever seen from Tuuya before. It took them almost ten minutes just to make as many worms. They must have been damaged somehow in their final confrontation with Ozryel.

They still kept at it, segment by segment.

“Are you worried, is that it?” Muttered Rivali several minutes later, now watching the worms in between reading a book.

“You should be. Rhyssa is dead, but Inshii isn’t, they just withdrew for some reason. We don’t know where Gallen is, or if he’s alive…it’s a mess. We need you to deal with it. You can’t just escape responsibility.”

The worms kept building their brain, deaf and voiceless for the moment.

Daudre shed some more blood over them.

“They’re a funny thing, aren’t they?” The genet troll said conversationally. “Unique, scientifically speaking. It was interesting to study them, back when they were here.”

“Don’t say that to their family.” Warned Rivali. “They might think you want to imprison them again.”

Daudre laughed. “You did that, Riva.”

The dog troll looked delicately annoyed. 

“I’d do it again. Otherwise…I would have been trapped in this place for far longer.” They admitted quietly. “And Tuuya would have kept their jades captive for who knows how long.”

They looked down at the worms.

“They forced me to learn how to adapt.” Rivali admitted. “Insufferable creature.”

Daudre laughed softly. “You’re not going to say any of this to their face, are you?”

“Absolutely not. And give them the satisfaction?”

The scientist laughed, and so did the lusus wrangler. 

Hanhai’s jades slept and recovered. Rivali left to keep Uunive company. Daudre held Ashwat as she cried over the mother grub and laughed in relief to see her friend safe.

The sun set over Alternia after a very long day.

Tuuya kept rebuilding, more slowly than ever before, into a new version of themself.

Weakened. Damaged.

Sustained, now, by their own hope.

THE END OF

THE CHILDREN OF OZRYEL

[cloudbattrolls]

Skyfall

Various Parties | Hanhai Cavern

Tuuya hung up on Platar, breathing a sigh of relief that he had agreed to destroy the Ozryel swarms’ eggshells.

It was the only chance they had of destroying them for good - and if anyone could do it, it was him.

They’d miss him, strangely enough. Even if he was a product of all the empire’s wretched discrimination, they still felt he was not entirely a bad man.

They closed their eyes for a moment. They couldn’t afford to delay long. They just wanted to take Kaningard in, one last time.

The distant sounds of scrabbling animals in the cavern. Their daughters, talking and arguing in the room over. The soft fabric on their skin, clothes they had made themself.

Ozryel had to die. Leave. Whichever.

By extension, so did they.

They opened their eyes again.

They began walking to their daughters.

If only they could say goodbye to their other children…but there was no time. Almost two hundred sweeps, so suddenly cut short.

But wasn’t it that way for everyone, in the end?

They’d brought enough death. They ought to face theirs with dignity.

They poked their head into the dining room.

“Hello, my dears…I hate to interrupt, but Uunive, I need you. Something urgent’s come up.”

Their tone and expression must have made it clear how urgent it really was, despite their attempt to sound calm, because their older daughter got up and went with them, no hesitation whatsoever.

Quickly, they took her to another room and explained the situation.

“It will be very dangerous, and I may not return - ” (they internally winced at the half truth) “ - and…”

They trailed off as they noticed the limeblood wordlessly reach out to touch the cave wall, grab a chunk of it with only the strength of her hand, and then crumble it.

“I’m coming with.” Uunive said, in a tone that brooked no disagreement.

Despite everything, Tuuya couldn’t help a proud but nervous smile from stealing over their face. Their darling girl. So strong and grown-up now.

Grown-up, and about to be alone again.

No. No time for pain. They had to keep moving.

“All right.” They said with a nod. “If you could call Kamala for me, while I gather our weapons…someone has to watch Ailene.”

Their human daughter was still recovering from the loss of her arm. Fortunately, one of their moirails was a docterrorist.

Uunive nodded, and the worm swarm bustled away to review their stock and pack as quickly as possible.

Smoke bombs? Check.

Their laser pistols? Check.

Uunive’s knives? Check.

Superheated blades and a few other emergency items? Check.

They looked at their work outfit, slung on a hanger in their closet, the one they often wore when going on jobs for Chimer.

They’d already altered it once, to accommodate their current body type…and they would alter it one last time, because damn if they would go down without a fight.

As they rolled back their sleeves, white worm tendrils sprung from their arms to work in tandem with their hands, scissors, needles and thread.

A few minutes later, they nodded at the result, satisfied, and changed into it.

Normally they would decry this skimpier style as ridiculous and impractical. For them it was ideal to have more skin to let out tendrils from, and it still covered much of their skeleton and what few organs they had.

With a few swift scissor chops, they cut their hair. Less to get tangled by the other swarms or for them to grab onto.

They’d take along their fireproof armor too. It had certainly saved their skin enough times…and  they’d ask Uunive to use her luck psiionics to enhance their weapons too, just in case.

They could only hope they’d stay intact long enough to find and subdue Ozryel.

Hope, mused Tuuya as they went back to fetch Uunive and go, activating their small spaceship for the first time in ages.

Strange that they should have to give up hope that wasn’t even theirs.

That when they should despair, they instead felt calm.

What was there to worry about anymore?

—

Rivali pursed their lips as they saw a missed call from their old friend. Not an uncommon expression for the jade, but one currently laced with worry along with disapproval.

They tried to call Daudre, hanging up when it went directly to voicemail. Then they tried to call Vannyn.

“Rivali?” Said the worm swarm, surprised. “Ah - I’m a little busy right now, what’s -“

“Daudre called me, but left no message. Do you know anything?” They said curtly, cutting in.

Tuuya sucked in a hesitant breath. “Ozryel, Inshii, and Rhyssa invaded Hanhai cavern. Uunive and I are on our way.”

There was a moment’s silence.

“I’m coming too.” Declared the komondor troll.

“Rivali! I know you’re skilled, but you could di -“

The jade hung up on the undead’s panicked plea.

No one invaded their old home without them doing something about it.

Despite the miseries they had suffered under those narrow-minded old wretches, they were far from the only trolls there.

Daudre, the only friend they’d ever had at home. Ashwat, their lineage-mate, kept away from them for fear they’d be a bad influence on her.

Even the stuffy, rigid matrons who disdained their identity did not deserve to die in such a way.

They had fought Ozryel when she’d been in Tuuya’s body, and they had won.

As they checked their weapons and sent a message to Temasek cavern’s matron superior excusing their sudden absence, Rivali found themself eager for a rematch.

—

A short time later, the ship hovered some distance above the desert cavern’s entrance. Tuuya’s dark gray fingers adjusting and focusing the ship’s sensors to see if the other swarms had been bright enough to leave constructs to guard the entrance.

The answer seemed to be no, the pale sand below undisturbed by anything but the wind.

Still, Tuuya took them down slowly, laser cannons primed to fire. They weren’t keen on doing more collateral damage than they had to, but they also weren’t going to give the other swarms even the smallest chance to get in close.

They were glad of it when a massive wasp construct shot out of the sand, buzzing angrily as it got riddled with melted gaps from a round of white beams. The rest of it dodged and reformed before streaming further upwards.

Tuuya pulled the ship back up, g-forces pressing on the worm swarm and their daughter. They cooled the cannons; now it was time to use nature to their advantage.

They slowed a little, a tactic that would make most opponents suspicious, but Rhyssa hadn’t the brains the mother grub gave an ant. It only made her bear down harder as the small ship drifted into a cloud.

The lingering heat from the cannons caused gentle steam to waft around the vessel, cloaking it even further.

As the construct barreled within range on vast wasp wings, multiple wicked pincers extending from it, Tuuya released a little something they’d had Thrixe make for them.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have much of it. This would use up their whole stock.

The construct began to skitter and scratch against the ship’s windows, causing small cracks to splinter across the glass…and then went limp, helpless, rendered impotent by the fungus specifically engineered to feed on undead biological matter spreading through its tissue.

Tuuya smirked as they slowly took the ship down again, watching the massive white insectoid thing fall to the sand and scatter into pieces, going still as it died.

They landed, and satisfied nothing else would jump out at them, strode past the wreckage and the corpse riddled with gray fungus; fortunately, the substance became inert after it did its work, so neither they or Uunive were at risk.

“I cannot wait for the rest of you to perish.” They said lovingly to the splotched, broken body as they went by, stepping over a large segmented leg.

“I do so hope I’m there to see it.”

—

Hirudo panted as she faced down a room full of white butterflies, even though she didn’t technically need to breathe. If she got out of this, she was swatting every single one she ever saw again.

The fuchsia was covered in cuts, her already ratty lolita dress now basically in shreds, and Joey and Neffie were faring even worse as they stood behind her. One of the rustblood’s pedipalps had partially broken off, and Neffie was limping heavily.

Klirro had never arrived. Who the fuck knew why.

She felt their eyes on her as she hefted her heat gun defensively (it was nearly out of charge), but the swirling swarm didn’t attack.

Instead, it spoke to her.

“It would be a waste to kill you.” said some butterflies, pressed together with rapid constructs to make a faceless voice, but it still didn’t quite sound like a troll speaking. It was rustling and oddly-toned, vibrating at random moments and making some vowels in drawn out or overly clipped ways.

“You proved yourself useful to Rhyssa. She would have you dead for your treachery, but I think otherwise.”

Hirudo laughed sharply and without humor, the sound echoing against the stony cavern walls.

“You think I believe that?” She snarled. “You might be elders, but you turned even on Tuuya when they didn’t do what you wanted. I know what our lives would be like under you; I won’t do that to my coven.”

As she spoke, the leech rainbowdrinker swapped her heat gun for a grenade she pulled the pin from and flung at the ceiling in seconds, then grabbed her coven members and made a break for it.

She knew, as the butterflies dove for her in a massive fluttering of wings, she probably wouldn’t make it.

Either the rocks would get her, or the bugs would.

Maybe she could at least throw the others clear of -

A giant rope - no - a white worm tendril - snaked around her and yanked her to safety with sickening speed, pulling her out of the room in barely more than a second.

Barely conscious from the debris that had pelted her body, the razor proboscises that had freshly cut her skin, Hirudo wiped her face clear of blood and dirt with a shaking head.

She gazed up blearily at her rescuer as she was gently set down, Neffie and Joey tumbling out of her arms onto the rocky floor. They groaned as they slid down, Neffie hissing in pain from her bad leg.

Crashing and crumbling noises came from behind them, and while she felt the breeze of a few butterflies escaping, she could tell many had been crushed. The very floor of the cavern shook from the impact, and she knew it would be felt throughout the whole place.

Tuuya smiled down at her with that needle-filled mouth of theirs, and gave her an ironic salute. Uunive stood next to them wearing a hardened expression, prongs on her horns now, and the seadweller could hardly believe it was the same girl she’d kidnapped mere perigees ago.

Beetles hovered around her, for some reason. What…?

“There are matrons’ bodies in a room not far from here, ones we found already dead.” Said Tuuya with sadness. “Make use of them. Heal. Find Rhyssa and kill her, Inshii too if you can manage it. If my contact has succeeded in rendering the other swarms able to die…we will soon know.”

“What about you?” managed the highblood, coughing between words.

“I?” They said, amused, looking back as they already began to walk away, ragged crimson coat waving as they strode side by side with their daughter.

“I’m here for Ozryel.”

—

After the cacophony of the explosion, it was almost eerily quiet in the cavern. Inshii had fled elsewhere, not hanging around to attack the worm swarm and the lime drinker.

Jade blood lay messily spattered across the ancient sandstone passages Tuuya and Uunive descended quickly, heading for the mother grub - and something of equal value.

“The matriorb…” Tuuya said, picking up a conversation they’d had on the ship. Uunive had mentioned feeling certain that the mother of swarms would try to use it for some terrible purpose.

“I can’t imagine why Ozryel would want it, but who knows? I remember when I got ahold of it…it seems so long ago. At first I worried I might be getting tricked, but no, it was a real one. Real enough to earn you a place here…”

They sighed, looking around at the ravaged cavern.

“I hope there are still jades to save. I hope it dearly.”

“There will be.” Uunive said firmly, her beetles fluttering around her.

“Tutu, think. She invaded this place to do something. Maybe it had to do with me, but that can’t be the only reason. She has to want at least some of them alive.”

Tuuya nodded. They had no idea if that was true, but there was no point in arguing, and all they could do was try.

A dying groan and wail came from the cavern ahead, and both undeads’ eyes widened as they sprinted toward it -

- in time to see Ozryel finish slitting the mother grub’s throat by dragging her claws across the exposed paleness, jade blood gushing out of the vast grayish white carapace. It pooled across the floor, flooding over toward the other two undead.

Tuuya wailed, a wretched noise more beastlike than troll, and Uunive yelled in rage.

Ozryel laughed as her strange wings lifted, bird-shaped yet diaphanous in nature. Of course the wretch had white hair as a troll, and pincers at the edges of her mouth. What a lovely family resemblance to her children.

Green eyes. Solid green, the same color as their own irises.

Tuuya’s hatred suffused their every worm as their insides writhed, the swarm eager to kill.

Not eager to die. Resigned nonetheless.

They lifted their laser pistols and began shooting at the ancient creature as she soared up and away, laughing mockingly as she dodged the daggers and laser fire.

–

Rivali had taken a juvenile roc lusus as transport, quickly rigging it with a saddle and throwing on a helmet paired with goggles.

Not strictly with cavern permission, but Hanhai desert was a suitable enough environment for one to spend some time in. It wasn’t big enough to do any major damage, and the local towns were scattered apart some distance from the cavern.

Besides, this was an emergency. They could apologize, do paperwork, and pay the fines later.

The real challenge had been getting the thing to put them down (mostly) safely, but a few bruises were an incredibly minor price to pay for the speed of travel; though at least Temasek wasn’t too far away.

They primly dusted themself off, the roc promptly ignoring them as it looked about for food.

Much as they longed to rush down into their old home, the komondor troll was wary as they entered the tunnels, ears pricked and eyes open for any wretched bloodsucking insects. At the slightest flash of white, they’d have their heat gun trained on it.

They hoped the creatures weren’t disguising themselves as trolls. They would be more difficult to identify quickly…but why would they bother? Much as Rivali hated to admit it, the lack of guards and no sight or sound of anyone so far probably meant the place was already in their grip.

They heard whimpering, and froze.

They peered around the stone corner.

A few jade wrigglers in gray and black uniforms huddled in a hall, and the oldest couldn’t be more than five sweeps, with the youngest perhaps three.

Above them hovered a small cloud of white wasps, making a low buzz.

Rivali waited, wondering why they hadn’t been attacked, then realized: insect eyes weren’t very good, and the light was low. The only illumination underground from the wasps’ own mild glow and the glass-encased torches on the walls, one of which had been smashed and damaged. They were already clad in their sleek white armor, lightweight to allow freedom of movement, but still offering some protection.

They couldn’t shoot at the swarm fragment right now, not with it so close to the girls.

So they picked up and threw a rock over it, the movement making the wrigglers jump and the wasps rise up in a small, angry funnel, zipping toward them.

Rivali fired.

The heat spread in a burst, melting most of the wasps into white drops dotting the tunnel floor. The few that escaped were dispatched by the flash of their blades, swiping the creatures apart and smearing the last one against the wall with a ringing clang.

The wrigglers huddled together, still scared, though the oldest held a knife in a shaky hand. She stood in front of the others to shield them.

“Wh-who are you?” She said.

“Rivali Tescin.” Said the older jade, not looking at her, already moving on. “Hide somewhere. This will take a bit.”

–

Outside the cavern entrance, one last being had come. Only to witness the curling strands of conflict, not to fight.

Still, she had promised her coven aid. This was not the time when they died.

There would only be two deaths today. She was fairly certain of it.

With red spiral eyes Klirro watched the solitary white butterfly that watched her in turn, and smiled with a mouth full of jagged teeth.

“Inshii.”

Others came to join it, making a throat and voice.

“Klirro.”

“You are not really in this with your whole feeling, are you?” She said gently, lovingly. “You spiral inwards and inwards, not even guarding your sister, letting my coven escape.”

“I assist my mother as she asks.” Said the butterflies in their flat, rustling voice.

“Only as she asks.” Murmured the horrorterror.

Spirals had already started to weave themselves through the tan grains, filling the sand with patterns between the tall, thin undead’s feet. Hot winds blew around and around her, stirring her short hair.

“I ask you, Inshii the butterfly: retreat.”

The butterflies stared at her with their myriad compound eyes, antennae twitching as their wings endlessly beat.

“If I refuse?”

Spirals of twisted, dried organs lashed out at the butterflies, holding them in the air, warping the air so it was solid, angled, like glass, then like liquid, pouring in on each other, physical laws breaking down with spirals of crimson energy.

Klirro laughed. A light, normal laugh, as she held out her open palms under the blaring light of the sun.

“Then you can never refuse a single soul again.”

Inshii, for the first time in millennia, felt fear.

The last of the DeVilles smiled wide, stretching the muscles and bones of the corpse she inhabited.

Yes, Ozryel might be an incarnation of death.

But the second worm had come, and death was due a reckoning.

END

[cloudbattrolls]

I love Uunive

[cloudbattrolls]

Reposting this on its own because Tuuya being a dramatic gremlin still makes me laugh.

[cloudbattrolls]

It Tolls For Thee (Part One)

Tuuya kissed Uunive’s forehead as they arranged her blankets around her. She laid in a big, comfortable bed that could have easily held a troll much taller and wider than she, set with gray sopor-infused sheets. 

Weak sunlight filtered through a tinted window in the wooden wall; not enough to burn a living troll, but enough to remind the worm swarm that it was slightly after dawn. 

The limeblood lay still, sweating, turning slightly in her sleep. Yet she was cold to the touch, and she had no pulse. They ached as they looked at her, ears lowered.

If it hadn’t been for them, she’d still be safe in her cavern. 

They had realized, shortly after Klirro had bitten her, weeping over her body, that her eyes still fluttered under closed lids. Hope and guilt had welled up within the swarm’s body.

They’d immediately called Chimer and begged for a safe place to take her, since their forest hive was still being watched for all they knew. To her credit, the fuchsia hadn’t asked too many questions, and had let them use an isolated location in a valley, with the closest other hive a mile away. Unable to go back hive for their own ship, they’d borrowed one of hers to fly here.

Uunive shifted again, her long strands of hair splayed across her chest and shoulders. They remembered when she had just barely pupated, growing them out for the first time, so proud of her newfound girlhood. They had felt ready to burst with happiness alongside her; not a son, but a daughter! The most lovely daughter in the world.

Would she be a drinker when she woke? It seemed likely, though who could say what Klirro’s intentions had been - if she’d had any at all, damned senseless horrorterror. 

They prayed Uunive would be able to subsist on blood, with no need for flesh-eating. It would be hard enough for her as it was.

What would become of her dream to sneak mutant and lime grubs to safety? 

No. They couldn’t think about that right now. 

They sighed, running a hand through their wavy hair as they felt leaden with exhaustion. More immediately, what were they going to tell her cavern? Her superior matrons must be wondering where she was. They hadn’t even tried to contact Daudre yet, and their main phone was currently off in case the DeVilles were tracking it. They’d have to find another burner one to use, they’d only had one spare on them. 

They made Uunive a cup of steaming passionfruit hibiscus tea - her favorite - and left it on the day table next to her in case she woke up soon. 

They nearly tripped on a slightly warped floorboard while walking out and shook their head blearily, arms out to right themself as their feet struggled to cooperate. Stupid. Clumsy, even. 

But it was hard to give even a passing thought to their hunger when all they could think of was Uunive.

A knock from the door.

They went rigid. No one except Chimer was meant to know they were here. 

Then they forced themself to untwist from the knots they’d started to tie in themself, for their limbs to relax. There could be any number of explanations.

Yet most trolls wouldn’t visit as the sun was coming up.

They peered out a window and sighed as they swore softly in Svenska. 

Of course it was Rhyssa.

They couldn’t fight her. They were no match for her on a normal night, not without heavy weaponry and ideally backup, and right now they doubted they could win a scrap with a half-rotted zombie.

With a groan, they reluctantly plodded over to the front door and opened it.

Rhyssa wore a wide smile, empty eye sockets covered by her usual bandanna, and held her arms open. Tuuya squinted at her. They were never going to accept her hugs. 

Especially not now, when they had a pretty good idea of why she was here.

She dropped her arms after a moment, looking slightly disappointed.

“Let me guess; you were involved with the fucking DeVilles.” They spat, arms crossed as their glare pierced her covered face. “I shouldn’t be surprised! They’d normally never have the guts. Honestly, I’m just unimpressed you didn’t have the gumption to do it yourself! I don’t know what stopped you, we both know I’m weaker.”

Silence curled around the two swarms as the younger creature’s accusation hung in the air.

Then she shrugged, the wasps outside her main body flicking their clear wings. 

“There was no other way to get your attention, sugar. I didn’t know it was gonna go so sour, promise on Mama they were told not to touch your little lime. You want revenge on that terror of theirs? I can help. She’s strong, but she’s cracked.”

They stared at her, bright green eyes hateful and deadly serious.

“Why. Did you not. Do it yourself. Why play games with me, Rhyssa? Did you think you could get away with it? What was your plan, exactly? Blackmail? Did you hope I wouldn’t know it was you? Did you think I’d ever give up trying to get my daughter back? Fuck you.” 

They tried to close the door but she grabbed it and held it open. They let go, arms trembling. 

“Tuuya.” She said, just as serious, and the wasps hovering around her buzzed darkly, low pitched as their antennae twitched. “I didn’t wanna have to do this. I don’t want you to hate me, honey, not more than you already do. But it ain’t just about want anymore.” 

Her mouth pulled into a grimace, and for a moment Tuuya believed she actually regretted this catastrophe. That she felt some sliver of remorse about her actions, that some force beyond her made this an act of necessity.

Then they snorted at the very thought.

“I repeat unto thee: fuck you! You killed my daughter - “

“You mean the one lyin’ in there slowly turning into one of us, real delicate all the while?” said Rhyssa casually. “That daughter?”

Tuuya went cold, cold as their moirail’s icy blood.

Of course she knew. It wasn’t as if the hive was proofed against things like her and them. They’d just proved how easy it was to slip into the DeVilles’ clinic. Wriggler’s play for a swarm, and unlike them, Rhyssa had wings and eyes on every part of her.

“What do you want.” They said, resigned. No matter what, they couldn’t risk Uunive dying for real. Whatever the wretched woman asked for, they had no choice.

She broke out in a wide, needle-toothed smile they knew and hated. Their ears pressed against their wavy hair in dread.

“Aw, it's easy! We’re goin’ to meet Mama. We say hello, see if she likes ya, and then we’ll figure out the rest.”

Tuuua stared at her with pure disdain and disbelief, lip curling. If this actually wound up that being simple and painless, they were a fuchsia. 

“Fine, whatever. Take me to Ozryel.”

—

Rhyssa had a car.

A clearly very old car, given the signs of wear on the paint and tires, but despite those it seemed to be in very good condition. Tuuya’s ears flicked in surprise. 

They paused, looking at her half-covered face.

“How do you even drive?”

She pouted, hands on her wide hips. 

“Y’think you’re the only one that forms constructs? Just ‘cause I can’t do troll eyes no more doesn’t mean I ain’t able to make a bigger one of me to look ahead.”

Tuuya blinked at her petulant tone. It figured, they supposed. They’d just done their best to ignore her as much as possible until now. So if she’d mentioned it before they’d certainly tried to forget.

“Right.” They said, trying not to dwell on how hungry they were. They dearly hoped she wasn’t going to take them near any trolls; they weren’t sure they could control themself, even if they took a suppressant.

A sharp pang ran through their body and they shuddered, every part of them aching for blood.

Don’t be stupid, they thought at their individual worms savagely. I don’t deserve to eat. I ought to starve for what I let happen. If I just dropped into hibernation -

Rhyssa’s hand closed on their shoulder and they jumped, but barely, not having the energy.

“You need food.” She said in a soft voice, a voice they hated even more than her smugness. They twisted away from her - they could still do that at least.

“Unlike you.” They snarled. “I can deny myself. I will deny myself as punishment! As much as I blame you for this, as much as I blame the DeVilles for listening to your wretched self, I know damn well it’s my fault too for failing her! It’s my fault for taking her in to begin with!”

“Give her a normal life, I thought, raise her to be a regular troll - ha! Stupid. All I did was make everything worse. I didn’t know anything.” They muttered. “Uunive deserves so much better. She’s going to hate me so much. She’s going to -“

“Food. Now. C’mon.” She said, bundling them into the back seat and shutting the door behind them. They made weak noises of protest, but had no strength to resist, or even to talk much more.

They didn’t feel much of an urge to remain conscious. They didn’t ever have to sleep…but why bother staying awake? The worm swarm slid down on the worn, comfortable back seat that smelled of honey, eyes closing.

—

They woke up feeling full, and a hand to their belly confirmed it: their form was laden with blood, worms curling contentedly under their skin. 

They groaned, and their eyes fluttered open. Where were the no doubt numerous skeletons - oh.

There weren’t any, only various bloodstained containers scattered about on the car seat and floor. They were still in the car, and Rhyssa had put a blanket on them. They had stopped, and the wasp swarm was nowhere to be seen. . 

So how…?

They sat up, adjusting the blanket around their shoulders (It was soft, okay, and it also smelled like honey). 

They were far from where they’d started - Tuuya didn’t recognize this place out of the car windows at all and the sun was much higher in the sky. They pressed a hand to a cold pane, wishing they had breath to fog it up and draw in with a finger like trolls did, but all they could produce were a scarce few droplets. 

Stupid dry insides. 

They got out, looked around, and spotted Rhyssa’s large white wasp lookout she used for driving hovering ahead. Ah, that explained it, they hadn’t really thought she’d leave them unattended.

Why had she fed them that way? They were perfectly capable of eating in their sleep, goodness knows it had happened before, but Tuuya had assumed her utter disregard for troll life would mean a bundle of slaughtered bodies.

“Hey.”

There she stood, and they’d swear she hadn’t been there a few moments ago as they spun to see her.

“Where did you get that blood from?” They said, not outright hostile but with an edge to their voice.

She yawned. “Buzzed around, gathered blood from sleeping trolls with no harm done. Borin’ as watchin’ paint dry. Figured you’d rather that, though.”

They nodded, thrown by her consideration. Then their eyes narrowed.

“Did you just kill and eat them yourself after?”

She snorted.

“Sugar, I ain’t a total idiot. Why get rid of good blood? I mean it’s more filling, ain’t no doubt, but can’t always eat ‘em whole. They take time to get big enough to be decent grub, and breathin’ means meals again later.”

Ah yes, good of Rhyssa to remind them why they hated her.

“They aren’t cattle.” Tuuya hissed. “They’re people. I’ll be the first to admit they’re delicious! But their feelings and lives matter just as much as ours. I know I won’t convince you of a damn thing - I say this to remind you that I don’t care how you treat me, I am not your family, and I will never be on your side.”

Rhyssa shrugged. 

“Sure.”

They bared their teeth in annoyance, but what could they do? Get back in the car, that’s what. They had no doubt she’d left some of herself at the hive with Uunive in case they didn’t cooperate.

They drove in silence for a while. Tuuya knew that even properly fed, she had them cornered, fighting was pointless. Besides, they’d probably need it for facing Ozryel. Who knew what that creature was going to do to them?

The woods and fields changed to a wild shore, with only a few trolls and hives around as the car frequently dipped and bumped on the unkept road. Likely there were few drones out here to maintain it. 

Rhyssa drove them over to a strip of beach that seemed abandoned beneath the harsh red sunlight. As Tuuya’s eyes adjusted they noticed the white isopods scattered on the shore, scuttling about, and they glared. 

The wasp swarm huffed at them.

“Be nice. Gallen ain’t never done nothing to you.”

“Give him time.” They retorted snidely. 

The pair stood there in silence, and Tuuya stretched. At least it was nice and warm, even with the sea breeze tossing their wavy hair. Where the hell was the rest of the isopod swarm, anyway?

Rhyssa took out a phone she looked at, sighed, and knelt down to look - well, the wasps around her looked as her troll form knelt down - at one of the white creatures.

“Get up here, lazybones. We ain’t got all day. She’s not doin’ so good.”

The isopod’s antennae twitched. Then it shifted and sat on a wasp.

Rhyssa snorted.

“You think you’re real cute. Come on, or I’ll swim down there myself and you know I hate gettin’ wet. I’ll be fit to be tied if you make me drag you up like a sack of potatoes.”

Something burst out of the water and drenched the two swarms in salty spray - Tuuya hissed and let out worm tendrils, ready to fight, until they noticed Rhyssa already stinging the perpetrator…who was silently laughing, a massive, hairy man around seven feet tall nearly bent double in wordless mirth. She shoved him too, but he didn’t budge, instead elbowing her as she stung him more, but it didn’t seem to bother him at all. 

Hm. If Rhyssa had no troll eyes…did he not have a voice? They had assumed her inability to make them was just a random defect, but if he was also flawed this way, were the two problems related somehow? Why couldn’t they regenerate themselves properly as Tuuya could? 

They knew so little about them.

They shook their head, scattering droplets as they retracted their extensions. The less they knew, the better. 

Good lord he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Just a pair of rough knee-length swimming shorts. As if Rhyssa’s tacky cowgirl getup wasn’t stupid enough. 

“Do you have a shirt anywhere, or do you just go round hoping no one bumps into that heaving chest of yours? Honestly, I weep for both of you. And you just soaked my clothes, you’re lucky these weren’t a nice set.”

Rhyssa turned to look at them and frowned.

“Rude! Be nice. Doesn’t cost ya a beetle. You’re so polite to trolls.” 

The sheer bitterness in her voice almost made their ears flatten, but they tipped their chin up haughtily. They would not let her shame them.

Gallen waved a hand in dismissal. He started signing, and they knew some of the Alternian Standard form of the language, but he did it so rapidly they couldn’t tell what he was saying.

Rhyssa put her hands on her hips.

“Well, if you’re not fussed, Gal…I guess we should get going. Where’s the rest of you?”

On cue, a bunch of isopods dragging ropes came out of the waves hauling what looked like a…refrigerator? Why.

Rhyssa exhaled heavily.

“Yeah, I guess we should bring that…security’n’all. And if we have snacks on the way over ain’t neither of us tellin’ her.”

Gallen raised a hand solemnly and Rhyssa high fived him as the pair of them got it into the car. 

Tuuya pointed at them both with an accusing finger.

“I know I can’t remotely stop the pair of you, but I can promise most sincerely you’ll have to knock me out or gag me because I will not shut up if you idiots kill trolls on our trip to wherever the hell.”

Gallen blinked at them, then looked at Rhyssa.

She sighed.

“Y’see what I deal with, Gal? Y’see this shit? I don’t deserve this.”

Tuuya laughed so hard it hurt.

“You ABSOLUTELY do! You deserve so much wor -”

“Does your little lime deserve it?” She interrupted coolly, and Tuuya promptly shut up.

They hated themself for bowing so easily. For getting in the car obediently, ears pinned, throat choking up. For staying put as not too long later, Rhyssa and Gallen stopped, went out, and after a time their troll bodies came back, Rhyssa chattering cheerfully about who she’d eaten whole and who she’d left alive.

It was some kind of game to her, and from Gallen’s mild, sometimes indulgent expression, he felt the same way.

Tuuya hated themself because they knew they were just like the other swarms, despite all their trying. At their core, they were the same.

No matter how much they wanted to be different.

 They were silent during the rest of the drive, unbroken except by stops for fuel. They couldn’t find it in them to chat online or even play games on their phone. 

All they felt able to do was stare out the window as the sky grew darker again, evening coming on, as they worried about Uunive and how she was doing. Had she woken? Would she be hungry? 

They had left some blood for her in the fridge just in case, but how long would that last? How long would they be gone? 

Would they ever see her again? 

They hardly noticed when the car came to a stop for a final time - Gallen had to prod them on the shoulder to get their attention and they nearly slapped his hand away, but fear for Uunive stopped them. He hauled the container he’d brought with him out, several isopods carrying it behind the three of them as they walked together.

They’d reached a forest now, one with tall, dark pines and firs towering over the swarms’ heads. The moons had come out, both merely crescents, their thin light of little use as they followed the wasp and isopod drinkers into the trees.

How long they walked, pushing branches aside and trying not to trip on half-rotted logs, Tuuya could not say. An hour? Two? It hardly seemed to matter. They saw many animals from a distance, but all gave the parasitic creatures a wide berth. 

Except for the crows and vultures. No need to wonder why.

Tuuya recalled that Rhyssa had once said she and her siblings were at least four thousand sweeps old, probably with a few added centuries. How long had this forest seen them pass? How many generations of beasts had learned to be wary of things that looked like trolls, but did not smell or act like them? 

Rhyssa stopped suddenly as they neared the edge of the greenery.

“Gal.” She said, voice cracking. “D’you remember? D’you remember when - when we first saw the trees? We all…we didn’t know what the hell they were. Mama couldn’t tell us.”

She looked at Tuuya, and her next words sounded on the verge of tears.

“You…they…”

Gallen touched her shoulder gently. She sniffed, leaned into him.

Tuuya’s mouth twisted. They couldn’t afford any sympathy, and her words were odd. Why hadn’t Ozryel known what trees were?

Just what was she, this creature that had spawned such monstrous children? Where were they going?

They kept walking, and not long after, they slowed to a halt. The isopods dragging the refrigerated container caught up with them, now scuttling alongside the trio. 

A massive wall waited for them. It was an odd structure, uneven in shape, and they could not tell what it was made of. It looked too organic to be stone or metal, worn and weathered by time into a rough texture. Yet it must also be maintained somehow, for still it stood, despite the dips and holes in its surface. 

They thought they saw something flicker in one of the cavities, but it vanished before they could get a good look.

A fat, elegant seadweller in colorful silks waited for them in front of the wall.

They were dressed so fashionably that for a stupid, happy moment Tuuya thought it was a troll. 

Rhyssa and Gallen seemed surprised to see them at first, until Rhyssa ran over to them with a smile and Gallen followed at a slower pace, which brought the sinking certainty of who this really was.

The fourth and final drinker swarm, the one Rhyssa had once described as the oldest and most knowledgeable of troll affairs. 

Inshii, the butterfly. 

[cloudbattrolls]

Lemon To A Knife Fight

— leechfulLolita [LL] has begun trolling honeyBee [HB] —

LL: Rhyssa, its Neffie, we need you

HB: what’s up, sugar cube?

LL: Hirudo isn’t at her computer, the door’s blocked, I think they might be coming from underneath??? 

HB: sugar they’re worms, what were you thinkin’ would happen 

LL: not our foundation getting fucking chewed through! We need backup!

HB: mm hmm. Well, it’s coming outta your pay! I was about to let my nails dry. Takes me forever to do it, I can’t see well. 

LL: whatever just co

HB: well whiskey and biscuits, things must really be going pear shaped. 

— honeyBee [HB] has stopped trolling leechfulLolita [LL] —

The wasp swarm clicked her tongue as the parts of her that had been watching her hands so she could paint flew back into her body. Little ones! So helpless sometimes. 

They’d done well tracking down the lime Tuuya played lusus to, which still had her reeling from the wildness of it. What a pure strange thing to do! But it figured the coven could only get so far on their own. 

Still, she guessed it didn’t matter much. 

Either they succeeded, and she swooped in to play hero, offering Tuuya her help to get their lime back in exchange for their cooperation…or they failed, and she could still blackmail the worm, who would now be desperate to protect their pet grub. 

The plan would work either way.

Her sibling would have to come home.

SEVERAL MINUTES PRIOR

Hirudo yawned, but her body was tense, waiting for some sign of their expected visitor on the camera feed. She shouldn’t be worried - Rhyssa had advised them on the best choice of weapons, and Joey and Neffie were both fully prepped on how to handle Uunive if she tried anything - though she shouldn’t be able to, the lime was currently fully restrained.

The fuchsia was tired of grubsitting, though, and it had only been a few nights. She’d joked to her girlfriend that she should be enthusiastic, given her caste, but Neffie had only snorted.

Having Uunive around reminded them how inconvenient the needs of the living were, too. She wondered how Tuuya could have possibly put up with the tedium long enough to raise a wriggler. Why they ignored Rhyssa, she'd never know. The older swarm had explained how they had steadfastly rejected her or refused to engage even when she showed interest in their hobbies.

Why? Weren’t they lonely? Trolls only lasted so long, anyway.

Movement on the cameras.

She relaxed as she examined the glowing screens properly. The troll looked nothing like Tuuya. They were plainly dressed and milling about aimlessly, maybe lost or trying to figure out if the clinic was open - it wasn’t, of course. They weren’t risking any interruptions during the operation.

Wait - where were they going now? Around the back? Hirudo clicked her tongue in annoyance. The last thing they needed was some nosy idiot sniffing around when the worm swarm could show up any minute. 

So involved was the coven leader in looking at the annoying passerby that she didn’t notice the slight but distinct shifting in the soil around the clinic. 

—

Neffie and Joey played lusus passing while they guarded Uunive. The rustblood grumbled as his moirail bullied him into accepting a crafting recipe, the limeblood silent on the couch.

Both snapped to attention as their leader’s voice crackled through a walkie talkie.

“There’s some idiot on the cameras. Probably just an idiot trespasser, but stay sharp. I’m going to take care of them.”

“Did Tuuya send someone to distract us?” Neffie said disparagingly, rolling her eyes. “Like we're /that/ dumb. La-ame!”

The basement floor creaked slightly. Klirro sat up quickly in her long stone coffin, the red spirals in her eyes rotating quickly instead of their usual slow coil.

“They come. All of them is coming. This is the time; the whole is with us.”

Neffie squinted. “Klirro, you know we love your nonsense, but what the hell does that - ”

The floorboards snapped and cracked open in a wide circle, and the ancient rainbowdrinker was pulled beneath the earth, coffin and all. 

Neffie and Joey screeched, gaping at the mangled, broken floor, splintered wood lying everywhere at odd angles, the dust thrown up from the movement settling back down again. 

Uunive stared, silent. What had just happened? 

Did this have anything to do with her lusus?

TWO MINUTES PRIOR

The troll had started setting up something that the leech drinker knew could well be weaponry of some sort, but whatever it was she wanted it and them off her property. With an annoyed sigh she went outside to deal with them. If this was some lackey of Tuuya’s, they weren’t being very subtle. She was a bit disappointed. Weren’t they supposed to be old and cunning?

“Hey. If you don’t leave -“ she said, showing off her sharp sanguivore teeth “ - I’m going to make you.”

The troll - nondescript, with a plain face, gray eyes, and short straight hair - cocked their head and looked at her as if studying the sign in a shop window. 

“Why do you want me to go?” Their voice was strangely flat, and they were very still for someone who’d just been threatened. There was something off about them - about their smell - but she had a million other things to worry about right now. 

Odd. Usually trolls hit the bricks when they saw a towering fuchsia. “Uh, you’re in my territory? Don’t be stupid. You know what - you had your chance.”

She drew her glaive from her sylladex and ran them through with the speed and strength of her caste.

There was no blood on it. They hadn’t screamed or even moved at all. They merely looked at the weapon as if it were an amusing curiosity, then up at her as they gripped it with both hands and pulled hard.

The pole, custom made for seadweller strength - cracked, pushed out of the body into two pieces that fell on the ground with dull thuds. 

She looked at them, those impassive gray eyes, finding her entire body restrained by the dry coils of white worms flooding over her limbs, her torso, her mouth and her eyes as she tried to move.

They clung tight around her dead gills, nibbling at them gently with tiny razor teeth, and she shuddered.

—

CURRENTLY

Neffie had run upstairs to Hirudo’s computer, frantically messaging Rhyssa. All the doors and windows of the clinic were covered by bone and viscera and the camera feed wires had been chewed through, leaving the screens blank.

Where was her girlfriend? Where was Tuuya? How were they - it must be them - doing all this when she hadn’t even seen them? 

Why hadn’t Klirro come back?

—

Joey held a plasma gun as he bared his teeth and his pedipalps twitched, head darting this way and that as he looked out for further signs of the floor collapsing or other weird shit going down.

He hoped to hell Rhyssa would come and actually lend a hand. He hadn’t signed up for this bullshit. He’d called out for Klirro in the vain hope it would make her reappear, but of course nothing had happened.

At least the kid seemed as wigged out as he was. She kept looking at the ground too, as if expecting it to collapse even further.

There was a faint rustling, and Joey’s ears flicked, trying to figure out where it was coming from.

Multicolored silk and bones fell from the ceiling. 

He looked up to see Neffie’s cocoons gone, shredded, the bodies inside reduced to skeletons that he put his free arm over his head to protect himself from as they rained down. The limeblood had fled into the bathroom and shut the door and honestly he couldn’t be fucking bothered with her right now.

It wasn’t like she had anywhere to go. They were in a fucking basement, after all.

—

Uunive, whispered a voice as she sat huddled on the cold bathroom floor, and she startled. But it didn’t sound like the coven. 

No, it sounded like…like Tuuya.

“Where are you?” She asked in the same hushed tones, trying not to tip off Joey. 

Everywhere. I have a way out for you. Prepare for sudden movement. Please trust me.

The limeblood swallowed. She had to trust them. She didn’t have a choice. 

—

Klirro hummed as she was held in her coffin in the dark, quiet earth. It was peaceful; just like her nap had been, when she had been bound and put in her tomb. The worms shifted around her, keeping the lid shut, spiraling pleasingly as they curled and wriggled.

She could drift off again, maybe it was that timeline after all…

Klirro felt Hirudo’s suffering as it spiraled down to her. It twined with Neffie’s panic, Joey’s anger and frustration, Uunive’s worry and tiny, cautious spark of hope.

Most potent of all, the worm’s rage, fear, and love. 

No, it was not the moment to sleep. 

With a crunching of bones and squelching as she rearranged the troll corpse that held her, the horrorterror pushed the coffin lid off despite the worms that held it, unraveling the invertebrates into thin spirals of segments and teeth. 

She moved around and up toward the surface where Hirudo was through the dirt and touched the worms holding her, undoing these smaller ones as well.

The horrorterror held the fuchsia in her bony arms as she reformed her troll shape, patting her on the back.

Then Hirudo bared her fangs and snarled, taking a plasma gun from her sylladex.

“Rhyssa’s worthless. We’ll take them down ourselves.”

— 

Neffie had drawn her own gun, but where to shoot? She went back down to the basement, wanting to at least be near Joey. 

She stopped dead at the sight of the bones, at the ruined silk cocoons. The maroon looked at her with grim sympathy, his own gun in his arms, trying to avoid stepping on the tattered, colorful fragments strewn all over the remaining floorboards. 

“What happened?” The jade asked, her voice cracking. Her work! Her silk! All her bodies, and some of those colors had been rare! There wasn’t a spot of blood or viscera to be seen, meticulously cleaned from the bones in instants.

“They just…fell.” Her moirail said, shaking his head. “Don’t know what to tell you, Nef. I kept waiting, wonderin what’s gonna happen next. I hate this, it fuckin’ sucks worse than actually fighti - ”

The bones on the floor quivered. They rolled back and forth. 

They grew spikes and tines of bone, spiderwebbing together into a writhing mass that tried to overrun the room as the rainbowdrinkers blasted at it with plasma, hissing in fury. 

__

The floor fell apart below Uunive and she stifled a scream as she fell - but did not splatter. 

Gentle white tendrils curled around her and set her down in what was, from the smell of it, a freshly dug space several feet below the DeVille Clinic.

She looked up, but the hole was already being filled in, and she was in the dark - no, not quite, the tendrils were glowing, illuminating the hollowed out earth, now with a ceiling just barely big enough to allow her to stand. 

As the tendrils let her go and slid back into the earth, she saw they were segmented.

Feeling faint for a moment, the limeblood quickly brushed it off and smiled in a wobbly sort of way. 

What a lusus she had. 

—

Klirro, for once, closed her eyes. The spirals in them still turned, but she needed to look below. As above, so below, trolls sometimes said - looking for order. For synchronization. It was sweet.

Chaos was as much a perception as order was. Tiny facets of a vast, cut gem. 

As Hirudo joined her coven mates in destroying the assault of bone trying to skewer them, the ancient drinker spiraled. Everything turned back in on itself. Every loop that could never quite close. She wasn’t ready to see this spiral of her coven find its end quite yet.

She felt the limeblood deep within the earth. 

She still had to set the girl free. 

She had promised.

— 

Uunive couldn’t help screaming as suddenly - sickeningly - the world shifted around her and she was - she was -

Stone. Stone surrounded her, scraping at her skin. She couldn’t see, could barely breathe.

She heard the blast of weapons, cursing and yelling that went completely silent as the stone was moved aside by a pair of long, bony hands and a horribly familiar face with massive fangs and red spiral eyes looked down at her.

—

Neffie, Joey, and Hirudo could only stare. The bone web had stopped attacking, and they’d blasted a lot of it to dust with their weapons. Now Klirro strode over to her coffin, risen from the hole in the broken floor it had fallen through. She pushed aside the slab of stone with gentle care and looked down at the frazzled girl within. 

“Tuuya.” Said Klirro gently. “You will undo yourself into inversion. You have tried to undo my coven. Your daughter…”

She tilted her head, looking down at the smaller being. Swathed in protective psiionic power. Like a haze of lime and gold. Gripping the lime by the shoulders, she yanked her out of the coffin for all to see.

Out of the remaining bones, worms wriggled out and rapidly formed bones and skin into a troll shape, glaring at the horrorterror, a laser pistol in each hand. The anger in their gaze was only equaled by their desperation.

Klirro returned the look with one of faint sympathy.

“So many, to hold such tightly coiled loss, eating itself up.”

She leaned down and bit the limeblood in the throat, jagged fangs sinking directly into her veins. 

Tuuya unhinged their jaw and screamed.

From every construct hidden in the clinic that had watched and destroyed and wriggled, from their troll mouth and the other mouths grown on their body in distress, they screamed in an engulfing chorus as their daughter collapsed in a heap and the DeVilles fled upstairs from the terrible, piercing sound.

Klirro was last among them, giving one last look to the wailing swarm as she left. 

So it had to be. So it had always been.

Tuuya put their guns away and cradled their daughter’s corpse in their arms, their precious little girl, as they sobbed clear tears over her body, the stains mingling with the lime blood running from her mangled throat.

They lamented to such heights the coven heard it long after running from the clinic. It rang in their ears, hounding their rapid steps, a choir of loss and fury that promised them a terrible second death.

Not far away, Rhyssa listened as well. 

The wasp swarm’s mouth stretched wide under the bandanna over her eye sockets, long needle fangs showing in a satisfied smile.

[cloudbattrolls]

Further along the water theme, Tuuya teaching Uunive to swim. Amusingly I drew this last night before any of this

@hemospect

[cloudbattrolls]

Don’t You Snap and Jaw

Klirro || DeVille Coven Clinic || Present Night

Note: Neffie and Uunive belong to @terribletrollstbh!

Neffie hauled the sleeping - dead? - sleepdead? - troll down, down, down to the webs. She carried her wrapped up form down stairs creaking and singing, down to the dark cool space that held the tomb Klirro had dragged with her out of the temple, down away from the pink and green moonlight and into the smell of dust and mild decay.

Klirro liked to repeat words to herself so they spiraled back in on themselves, turning to echoing nonsense, like the troll tale about the forest nymph whose voice was taken and could only repeat what others said to her.

Aside from the small stone tomb there lay beautiful silk and the looms, wide wooden structures hung with the shimmering strings. The long-dead things, once trolls, hanging peacefully from the ceiling to become threads, flesh to beautiful tapestry.

Trolls had so many stories. Stories that ate stories and became new stories, all coming back to where they began.

Oh, Neffie was talking, and the troll wasn’t sleeping or dead anymore. She went back along that thread of time so her mind could catch up.

“Hope your lusus comes quick.” Said the spider troll, sneering as she thrust the limeblood into the room from the sack she’d been snatched in. The troll stumbled and flailed as she was dumped onto the floor, but quickly rose to her feet as her captor spoke again.

“If they don’t I might add you to my collection.”

The tall jade gestured with a careless hand to the webbed up corpses hanging from the ceiling. The girl’s eyes grew wide and she swallowed, but her fists clenched.

“Tuuya?” Responded the breathing girl, afraid and confused but also angry. So many feelings! Feelings layered upon layer, twisting and curling.

The old drinker reached out a hand to the little troll, her claws long and gnarled, and the lime shrunk back.

“What do you want with my mom?” She said, snappish, trying to hide her fear. Why did she try? Fear was a machine for spiraling.

“The worm has that name now?” Klirro asked. “They had so many…the last was Lleios.”

Neffie ignored her elder rainbowdrinker. “Not us. Blame that wasp woman. Not that I care, though - as far as I’m concerned you’re a snack waiting to happen unless they get here fast enough.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Demanded the heavyset limeblood, hands on her hips. “Tuuya would probably give you whatever you wanted if you asked nicely!”

Neffie stared at her and then laughed, shoulders shaking with mirth. The sound echoed and bounced as all the molecules vibrated with it, the energy dissipating into the underground space.

“Wow, they really did tell you nothing. Guess they don’t think much of you. I mean, why would they? You’re just free blood.”

“Tell me.” She demanded. “Tell me and I’ll behave. I want to understand.”

“I don’t have to tell you a thing.” Drawled the undead. “But I guess it doesn’t really make a difference. Sit down.”

Obediently the shorter troll sat on a worn and bloodstained couch, prim with her hands in her lap. Her posture might be submissive and refined, but Klirro saw the sharp attention in those jade-contact eyes, hiding their true color.

“Your lusus never liked us. Why, I don’t know - they’re weird about other drinkers, except now they have that class that I guess real bloodsuckers aren’t invited to - ” Neffie cut off her own bitter voice.

Klirro had never understood why the coven minded the worm’s rejection. They - Tuuya - must always be very confused, with two lives in one. They barely knew who they were.

The others didn’t see that, and they didn’t understand when she tried to explain. Words were beautiful, but clumsy. It was easier to communicate in shared sensations, but that usually melted troll brains.

Oh, she had to go back on the loop of time again to hear.

“ - but it’s whatever. We got paid to go after them, we weren’t going to turn that down. Even if we wanted to, this other woman is worse, Hirudo said. She’s wasps and she’s much older than elder Etuuya. I don’t know what she wants them for and honestly I don’t care. They should’ve treated us with proper respect when they had the chance.”

The young girl was silent, her round face thoughtful.

“So you captured me to get to them? How did you even find me?”

Neffie sniffed, clearly tired of answering, picking idly at the sleeve of her striped shirt.

“Doesn’t matter, you’re here now and you get to keep the stiffs company while you wait. Bathroom’s over there, we’ll bring food. You try to get out and we’ll all take turns sipping from your jugular. I’ve never had lime before, didn’t even know you still existed. I wonder what you taste like.”

Neffie smiled, showing her long, slightly jagged teeth. Uunive - that’s right, her name was Uunive - stared back, even though she trembled.

“Why do you fear?” asked Klirro. “You fear death?”

“Getting my throat ripped out, specifically.” Muttered the girl. “Don’t touch me.”

Klirro withdrew her hand. It had hung in the air the whole time; the dead flesh she was bound to did not get stiff or numb.

“I feel how the world aligns itself for you. I am sorry the planets do not spin their song to favor your first life continuing.”

The girl stared at the spindly maroon drinker, whose tone carried sincere sorrow and regret.

“How can you say that when you’re with them? You make no sense.”

Klirro smiled and made the skin of her arms strip itself and form a spiral, thin and weaving together into a whole. Her dead muscles showed beneath, glistening pinkish gray shot through with pulsating red spirals that flickered in endless fractal patterns.

“Luck is one layer of the spiral, a flat plane! The quicksilver bead dips and yaws, but it cannot know the sphere no matter its direction. Your flesh mind cannot divine what originated outside flesh.”

Uunive stared, her round face wrinkling with revulsion and confusion.

“You’re insane…” she muttered, without much conviction.

“Klirro is old.” Scolded Neffie. “Be polite. She’s still something if she’s riled - stronger than your lusus, that’s for sure.”

The jade spat the words with more defiance and spite then actual confidence.

She looked up at the older undead, expression cool.

“Don’t let her escape. By which I mean leave the basement.”

Klirro put her skin back the way it had been and pressed her hands together, nodding. Neffie went up the creaking basement stairs, locking the door behind her with a forbidding click.

Uunive flopped on the couch, lying on her back as she stared at the ceiling, trying to avoid looking at the webbed-up bodies. Klirro saw that the few bright ones - shiny flares of color bleeding into glorious silk - seemed to unsettle her the most by how her face moved, how she pulled back into the old cushions as if they would hurt her.

“Are you really going to let me go if Tuuya comes?” She asked quietly. “Or am I a dead troll walking.”

Klirro felt events possibly yet to happen. Her awareness curled around worlds where they had already occurred. It brushed past the things that always happened, the fixed spokes on which the multiverse twisted and turned through the ether.

“Yes.” She answered honestly, because to her most things were true. “I set you free myself.”

The limeblood didn’t look like she believed that.

Klirro merely turned away, tracing spirals in the air with her finger, the floor around her warping slightly as it always did if she stayed in place too long.

Glowing red concentric lines radiated out from the horrorterror, their light throwing Uunive’s face into stark shadow as she turned away, shaking with soft sobs as her situation fully sunk in.

Klirro listened curiously. She had never been able to weep. Troll mourning impossible to understand, except to feel a vague sadness that they couldn’t see the whole of things as she could.

“Your lusus will come.” The drinker said. In this world it was a certainty.

The worm would come, and they’d shed their clear, bloodless tears over what would happen that night.

That, too, was certain.

[cloudbattrolls]

Of course Tuuya made Uunive (and themself) Egg Night dresses. It helped get them out of their funk a bit, though they’re still barely drinking blood. But they rarely stay down long around their precious baby, both because she makes them the happiest and because they don’t ever want to burden her with their problems and negativity again.

[cloudbattrolls]

I love Uunive in all her interactions but her being a shit to her parent is perpetually hilarious

They had fun camping and yes, Tuuya slept in the coffin. Or being Tuuya, fell out of it and hit their head on a log because they are a restless sleeper made of splayed cat limbs.

Uunive meanwhile probably slept like the beautiful princess she is.

@terribletrollstbh

[cloudbattrolls]

I know this is a meme song but that’s why it’s perfect.

Tfw you are trying to repair the lies and damage you surrounded your daughter’s childhood with for her protection and yours but you’re pretty sure you don’t deserve her affection even though you still love her more than anything.

Uunive in the photo is of course copyright my dear @terribletrollstbh as always

[terribletrollstbh]

its been literal years since uunive got a new reference picture, so i figured its about time

on the left is her day to day cavern wear, on the right is what has been dubbed a “hot girl summer” look