#arty is. fundamentally. both a creepy bitch and a silly goose.

[cloudbattrolls]

Blood in the Cut

Gliese Benral | Present Night

Gliese gritted her teeth as she walked through the forest. The weather was nice; cool with just a hint of humidity, and she could hear the distant sounds of construction. A few bugs zipped through the air.

“You always know when I’m close.” She muttered. “Somehow.”

“Not every time.”

Came the voice she’d expected from behind her, but she still jumped a little as she turned to see the false maroon.

“Yeah, okay!” She said with a bark of laughter. It merely tilted its head, expression neutral.

She sucked in a breath. 

“Anyway. I guess…as much as I hate it…I have to admit you were right. I shouldn’t have seen Quilis then.” She said with a grimace.

It nodded.

“It was not personal. I would have turned away anyone who came.”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Poor Quil…she’s really not the best at standing up for herself or saying no. Girl could use a moirail, or an ashmate, or something.” She said with a shake of her head. “Trouble is finding someone in her age range.”

It nodded again. God, it felt weird to be agreeing with it.

“Anyway.” She said, coming up to it and poking its shoulder. “I wanna fight you.”

It blinked.

“All right.”

She snort-laughed.

“Wow, that was easy. And Quil was so disapproving.” She said with a smirk.

“Not here, though.” It said. “I don’t want to damage the forest.”

Her eyebrows raised. “Damn, just how wild do you get? Nah, don’t tell me, I wanna see for myself.”

“Do you know a good place?” It said. “It can’t be anywhere too close to anyone else. I don’t want to be seen by another troll, if possible.”

Her eyebrows raised, if possible, even higher. 

“Yeah, we can fight in my hedge maze - well, the part of it that burned down a while ago. I still haven’t gotten to regrowing that yet. But if you slice up some of the other bushes it’s okay. I was thinking of remodeling the whole thing anyway.”

It nodded. “That works.”

“My signmate might see you, though.”

It thought about that, hand to one cheek. “As long as there’s some cover.”

“Great, time’s a-wasting, let’s go.”

She walked back to her waiting lusus, not bothering to turn around and see if Eileit was following, then jumped on the hare’s back, looked around, and -

-hey, where did it go.

She shrugged. Either it had lied to her or it hadn’t, and it seemed to be able to hide and reappear really easily for whatever reason.

She made her way back to the burned-out part of her maze, several dozen square feet of bare earth between the green hedges bordering it. Sure enough, a minute or so after she arrived and got off her lusus…

…there it was when she turned around, looking at everything with interest.

She shook her head in wonder.

“Man, what the fuck are you.”

It either didn’t hear her (doubtful), or it didn’t want to answer, much more interested in chasing a grasshopper it had found. Haredad watched it a moment, then retreated so that he was away from the fight. 

Gliese smirked. Well, if it wanted to be caught off guard…

The blueblood took out her scythe and ran for it.

It leapt into the air, spreading great metallic wings that hadn’t been there a few moments ago. Gliese switched to her gun, aiming at the bladelike ‘feathers’ as it dodged and flipped, evading most of her shots. The few that did hit didn’t do much damage; they warped a few feathers, but it seemed unbothered.

She whooped in the joy of a challenge, and it dove for her - she took out her scythe and jabbed it directly through the neck as she ducked just in time.

Red liquid leaked out, but not nearly at the rate a troll’s blood would, nor did it seem to bother the creature. It splashed to the ground and on her, and the hare troll grinned in excitement as her foe wheeled away and she swapped out her flamethrower instead, waiting for Eileit to get close enough for a good blast.

Which of course is when it disappeared.

“Oh, you bitch.” She said, mildly annoyed but mostly fascinated. It had just sort of…shimmered out of existence.

The rush of air as it flew by again was just enough to warn her to duck, but she knew as soon as she fired that she’d missed it.

Then she found herself picked up and carried into the air, cold wind streaming past her ears and face and making her eyes weep as it held her firmly, visible once more. Its wingbeats were steady and quieter than they should’ve been, she realized - how?

The gash on its neck was open…but there was no real flesh beneath it, no veins or muscle. Just…synthetic gray stuff she recognized from her fleet training, structures that were model-perfect but nonfunctional. It was creepy as hell, but also fascinating.

Gliese put her flamethrower away and took out a knife instead, jabbing at Eileit’s eye.

It let the hit happen, and simply looked at her a moment before pulling the knife out of its face with its free hand and putting it away. The eye had lost its light, cracked like a screen, but began repairing itself as she watched. Creating small metallic and crystalline lines of…cells? It couldn’t be, could it?

“Not smart, Gliese, what if I dropped you?”

“I have skeletons to catch me.” She said smugly. “Besides. I can tell you’re waaaay holding back. You won’t drop me.”

It shook her gently. She let her head bob around for the gag.

“Ah, uh oh, my thinkpan, it’s dying. Medic.”

It snorted. “I think we’re done for now.”

“What, nooo.” She whined. “This is fun.” 

The blueblood wiped her eyes, because damn the wind was getting to her - aaaand down they went, Eileit gently depositing her on the ground as its wings folded back up and disappeared. Somehow it had manifested them over its clothes, as far as she could tell.

“Why didn’t you use your magic?” It asked, now a few feet away from her.

“Why didn’t you go all out?” The mage said in return. “I was testing the waters. Plus, it’s a bad idea to get too reliant on the stuff. I coped without magic for sweeps, I don’t want it making me sloppy.”

It nodded.

“If I went all out it would kill you.” It said bluntly. “As you can tell, I was designed for combat.”

“No you weren’t.” Gliese retorted, point-blank. “I dunno what exactly you were made for, but it wasn’t that, though yeah, I can tell you’re no slouch. You don’t act like a real killbot. 

Your tactics are more diversionary, meant to isolate and capture, geared toward concealing you. You could’ve had me instantly and you chose to let me fight. You could’ve restrained me with both arms or had a blade to my throat. You could’ve snuck up on me from the first go. 

I don’t believe you don’t know how to do those things; I think you intentionally chose not to.”

It was silent for a few moments. “Quite the theory.” It said.

She grinned. “I know you won’t tell me anything. But I know this shit, I’m ex-fleet. Fuck those bastards, but I did learn some things there.”

It turned away.

“Why did you leave?” It asked.

“Cause fuck ‘em.” She said bluntly. “I was conscripted, I tried to cope and make the best of it, but…it sucks. It all fucking sucks, for everyone who’s part of it. Lowbloods most of all, but all of us. Every single blood color shoved into that miserable fucking machine.”

She paused.

“Uh. No offense.”

It laughed, sharp and amused as it turned back to face her.

“None taken.” It said, sounding genuine if deeply entertained.

“Wow, good, cause I was about to feel like, robot casteist.” She deadpanned. “You’re not a robot, though, are you?”

“No.” It agreed.

“Not gonna tell me what you really are, are you?”

“No.” It said again, amused. “I haven’t even told Quilis, not that they’ve asked. It’s safer that way, for me and everyone else.”

“Ah, so you aren’t imperial, huh. And they don’t know about you.”

It went silent. The pause stretched as its expression became unreadable.

“Please keep that to yourself.” It said softly. “If you do nothing else, please keep that to yourself.”

“Ah, another secret for our pile. Yeah, don’t sweat it.” She said, patting its shoulder. “You aren’t so bad, huh? Funny freaky toaster.”

It made a ding noise as a real toaster oven would and Gliese cracked up.

“That is hysterical.” She said, between fits of laughter. “Holy shit, how many noises can you do? No, wait - can you like, mimic voices?”

“Can you like, mimic voices?” It said back to her, the imitation of the necromancer’s tones nearly perfect.

She clapped her hands. “Oh, we are going to pull so many pranks. You, me, bothering people. You cannot tell me that wouldn’t be fun.”

“I’ll help you with a prank if you tell me something I’d like to know.” It said, placid.

“Yeah, sure, what is it?”

“Where can I get real maple and marshmallow flavoring?”

She blinked.

“You don’t eat, do you?”

It shook its head.

“No. It’s for a friend. They make candies.”

She grinned. “Aw, that’s sweet. Literally.”

It looked at her, and she raised her hands in defeat. “Hey, my moirail likes puns, bad humor’s contagious.”

“I have died. Badly.” It deadpanned. “Cause of death: being pun-ished.”

The blueblood put a hand to her chest in mock agony. “Oooh, that hurt. You and Nan can never meet, I’d wind up stabbing myself in the eye.”

“Objective acquired: meet Nan.”

She squinted at it.

“Okay, now you’re just fucking with me.”

“Data not found.”

The hare troll pushed the false maroon, who toppled over rigidly for the bit and played a cartoon coconut thunk noise, and it took a while before Gliese stopped laughing.