#only thing not posted yet is that folykl

[maretriarch]

art vs artist 2024!

[snowtimeisbesttime]

Thoughts and questions on Hiveswap Act 2– Part 1.

**DISCLAIMER** I haven't played through the entire game yet! I got to the intermission in the whole trial thingy, and will continue tomorrow! Therefore, I Am Not Looking at anything yet, only posting. I'll probably come back and edit this once I've actually finished the game.

-Did the default names for Xefros & Dammek's lusii change?? I loaded my Act 1 save, and I'm sure they had their default names (Zoosmell and Cornibuster) there, though I'm also pretty sure i accidentally unlocked the “name the lusii” achievement on that save by clicking on the text windows without actually changing their names so... Dammek's lusus is called Toothy now i guess?

-On that note, if Xefros' lusus died I'm going to fucking scream. Even though I'm pretty sure we've barely seen him on screen since like the end of Act 1 but Regardless.

-We see Charun's cave, and it turns out they were neighbours with Zebede all this time, but they're nowhere to be seen at the train?? unless they grabbed an earlier one... Charun did get a death flag the size of the pacific ocean, when interacting with their weird sculpture with a lot of legs and arms surrounding a mouth, but Zebede's just gone without a trace? The bees are gone and there's a hole in the side of his hive, but his lusus doesn't seem to be particularly upset? And neither is Charun's, assuming that huge bug near the cave is their lusus. (Idarat the canon fantroll #3 doesn't appear at the train either, but that's probably for the same reason there aren't any jade or teal background characters: to keep the court scene neat)

-The drones are supposed to be en route to the station, supposedly to fix the ticket machines but probably to cull whoever tripped the alarm on them... i sure hope they don't follow the train or anything orz

-Mostly everyone seems to resemble their respective Friendsims, more or less:

Fozzer appears to be scratched still, yet more philosophical. Also he's not in the train either.

Folykl seems just a touch friendlier than in her friendsim (and Kuprum's still just as hyped about becoming a helmsman as before, even if he seems to know more details about it now).

Chixie's more anxious, probably because it seems she's been doing stuff as The Mask for a while now, and she's going to fuck shit up at Jeevik Week. She says she's not alone in that, and considering it's apparently confirmed that the random troll from her good end Was Dammek all this time... is she also actively in the rebellion? Also is it just me or does her sprite look somewhat scribblier than everyone else's? Even the background characters??

Elwurd's pretty much the same, and it does seem her flirting with Joey was mostly to try and get her to buy something. Also... if her fake tickets were so good, why didn't she just use them, instead of giving them to Joey and Xefros? Like, I get Marvus and Boldir Knowing Stuff, but her?

Zebruh's paying attention to Marvus instead of Chixie, which. Small mercies. He's still a dick, and we're still doing the whole “clowns are peak oppressed” thing.

Marvus seems to still be perfectly nice to the main characters, and perfectly willing to let other people die in order to help them advance (getting Zebruh to sign up for Slam or Get Culled, Daraya if you fuck up in the trial thing, Hopefully Not Any More Cases...) He is helping Tyzias out with her defensive legislaceration experiments, though, and basically everyone who isn't Joey seems to think he might flip his shit and murder someone, as clowns do. At least people don’t seem to lose their minds around him anymore.

Vikare's basically the same, but Joey immediately picks up on his Jake Vibes and instinctively dislikes him.

Diemen eats people???????? as in, actively????????? wtf?????????

Skylla seems to be pretty much the same, but she's obviously worried because Ladyy's sick!! God I fucking hope we do get to help her out before the end of the game.

Marsti's also friendlier than she was in her volume, though I remember MSPAR was particularly prone to sticking their foot in their mouth in that one.

Cirava's surprisingly more trusting than they were in their volume (and also, their eye's light green and not teal). Also, apparently they gouged their other eye out on stream?????? as in live???? besides that, good to see not All of the powerful psionics get succesfully indoctrinated.

Polypa's also rather willing to help out, though we still don't know what the heck happened to her.

Boldir's suitably mysterious, and probably also involved with the rebellion... she does call Xefros “burgundy figurehead”.

Konyyl and Azdaja are still having relationship stuffs, but in the end they clearly care the most about each other. (he still doesn't seem to give a fuck about helm stuffs so far?) The question is, who exactly were they hunting down??

The jades and the teals are basically the same as their Friendsim incarnations, as far as I've seen. The one major change to the jades (besides jade lore which i'll discuss further down) seems to be that hatched2dance is now one of the biggest reasons for their fights, and Bronya does get a crunchy bit of Backstory (the jade from her past that got culled because of the Rainbow Hemotions saga, which is also the reason she's so hard on Daraya now)

On the teals, Stelsa and Tyzias seem to have a teensy bit of quadrant vacillation going on?? Tirona seems to be more focused on becoming a history revisionist than a memeagandist now, and it would also seem that Tegiri's the one into vampires now (or at least, Tagora's better at hiding it And a lot better at not getting involved with the whole mess that is whatever the heck the jades are doing)

-Psionics can have single-colored eyes!! tbh we'd already seen this back in Tegiri's route in Friendsim but it's good to Actually See it visually.

-Also, nice to see that Xefros *can* go toe to toe with the strongest psionic we know in all of Hiveswap! (95% sure that I've seen someone theorize something like this might happen?? I personally wasn't expecting it here but anyways Xefros you're doing amazing sweetie) What's not so nice is that he's only shown this strength when Azdaja hurt Joey (as far as i've played of course)... so unless he like unlocks his potential or something so he can do Big Psychics without seeing his friends get hurt beforehand we're in for some Angst.

-Also if Marvus got his ticket from Cridea (and Chixie won hers in like a raffle or something) then why couldn't she have given Xefros and Dammek some?? like, Dammek's been to one Jeevik Week already. Fiamet also told her about Joey, but by then they were already in the train.

-Me: Xefros' microphone's going to be important in act 2! Also me: *has to give it to fucking Zebruh to get his ticket*. Oh well, that's one thing for the Second Playthrough of Achievement Getting (plus: wearing the cone horns, having Joey introduce herself to Boldir, getting through the whole ace attorney segment without game overs...)

-We get the Quadrant Explanation #1000, sans auspisticism.

-It's vaguely implied that Dammek has also read some Soldier Purrbeasts books?? He's told Xefros the whole “death creates a bond deeper than matespritship or kismessisitude” thing, apparently! So if he's not secretly into troll warrior cats then. That sentence's more than mildly worrying??

-JADEBLOOD LOREDUMP PART THE NTEENTH: Okay first of all it's implied that More cloisters exist? Which in retrospect is pretty much obvious because you can't expect only six trolls to take care of All the troll grubs in existence. Also, the reason jades can't sneak out of the caverns anymore is “because they get Drone'd”, and it seems to be implied that they Can't go out At All*, which kinda contrasts with Friendsim (where literally all the jades snuck out of the caverns at least once: Lanque, Daraya and Wanshi in their own routes, Lynera in Vol 18, and Bronya in Vols 6 & 18). One of their tasks seems to be guarding Forbidden Literature, and Xefros states that they either cull or indoctrinate the most powerful psychic grubs.

-It's also stated that all of our jades were chosen for the cloister when they were basically wrigglers, while Lynera states in Friendsim that she's only been 2,43 sweeps in the caverns. (Considering Bronya's new backstory, it seems that capability to become a rainbow drinker ISN'T the qualifying factor for getting cloistered– depending on how exactly that jade died). It comes to mind that regular, non-cloistered jades might not really know about all these logistics, as it seems that at least Bronya wants to keep them secret– and therefore I don't have to go back and re-rewrite yet another chunk of Mirrorbent orz.

-Lastly, Xefros says they will all become nuns (btw, space church was mentioned in Lanque's route!) when they reach their Ordeals, and we already knew they'd be forced to live in isolation from Friendsim, but during the ace attorney thingy Lynera says she's NOT going to leave the planet because she'll become a midwife and tend to the Mother Grub (basically what we all thought jadebloods did back when we only had the ancestor stuff on Homestuck)... but either Daraya or Lanque told her that they weren't real? So either there's more jade propaganda that we didn't know about, or...

-*The one exception to this is, coincidentally, Jeevik Week, and it's apparently because Trizza herself made it so jades could go too, 3 or 4 sweeps before Hiveswap... why's that? What's so important about Jeevik Week that Trizza would do this? Iirc Cridea and Trizza were sort of set up as opposing forces (?? words), all the way back from the first bunch of concept arts we saw of them? The first thing we learnt from Trizza was that she was the “second best at memes”, and on Cridea's first appearance, when troll twitter was still Prongle, she said that some chick was stealing her memes... and now, Cridea has exactly one follower less than Trizza, who everyone in Alternia's forced to follow... would that person be the heiress herself?

[empressofrizalia]

Mahou Sensei MSPA-tan! Chapter 2: The Kids of Class 413

[Cross posted on AO3.  Also, an important note:  Alterra Academy standard uniforms are in the popular preppy style most private schools on Earth have. Tops consist of a long sleeve white button-down shirt and a black blazer with the school logo on the left chest side. Troll students have their signs parallel to the logo on the other side. Ties come in candy red for human students while troll students have theirs in whatever blood color they have. Bottoms are either deep grey skirts for girls, or trousers for boys. Socks must be either white or black with tasteful leather shoes. Dress code rules may not be as strict as they are in other academies, but there will be consequences if the uniform gets so modified that it stops being recognizable.]

You twist the knob and push the door open.  The sounds of babbling and activity die out in an instant at the sounds of squeaking door hinges take over.  You make a careful step past the threshold, unaware of the forty pairs of eyes staring at you or the mischievous giggles directed at you.

As you open the door a little wider to allow the rest of your body to go further, you hear a faint clatter from above that jolts you on alert.  The giggles stop and the kids’ amused expressions turn into surprise.  You look up to see a chalkboard eraser hovering just a couple of inches away from your head.  Ah, the classic chalk duster trap—the ever popular age-old school prank that no one seems to tire of.  You fondly regard it as you remember your SUIT days until you realize that the eraser was still suspended in the air above you.  You tilt your head slightly just enough to see the bewildered faces of your students staring.  Crapbaskets! You must have used majyyk to keep it from landing on you without realizing it.  This doesn’t look good.  The most fundamental rule of majyyk was that it was forbidden to reveal it in the presence of anyone who isn’t another mage.

You pull the majyyk back and let the eraser fall.  However, you were so concentrated on it that you made a momentary oversight of keeping your gaze up on it.  As a result, the dusty board writing correction implement lands square on your face and bouncing off to the floor, chalk dust landing delicately on the surface of your wide open eyeballs.

Holy shit! It stings!!

Your hear a loud chorus of laughter as your hands went to your face on reflex to try and get rid of the dust.  “My goodness!” You hear Ms. Maryam’s voice through the din.

You manage to wipe most of the chalk dust from your face and make a tentative step forward and trip over an invisible wire.  The next thing you know, something falls onto your head with a loud clang and you’re sent tumbling across the floor.  Stopping only after hitting the teacher’s desk at the center of the class front.  The laughter grows louder.  This must be what Ms. Maryam meant when she told you to be careful.  You haven’t even done anything, yet here you are on the floor with some metallic object obscuring your head and face filthy with chalk dust.  You must be quite a sight right now.  How utterly humiliating.  You try your best to blink away your tears; you can’t afford to show any kind of weakness, not in front of your students.

A moment later, the metallic object gets lifted off your head.  You look up expecting to see Ms. Maryam, but it was someone else instead.

“Are you alright?” A troll girl with a jade colored streak in her long silky black hair asks you with a genuine concern on her face.  She kind of reminds you of a mom.  “Oh, you’re just a wriggler.”

You hear more laughing, though this time the rest of the class didn’t join.  Strange enough, one of the jokers’ laughter sounded a lot like a series of LOLs—like the internet slang.

Your savior turns to the source of the laughter with righteous anger burning in her eyes on your behalf.  “Seriously, Kuprum? Folykl? Of all the pranks you two could come up with—a bucket? In class? Really?!”

“Lololol!” A troll boy with four jagged horns and a pair of fuschia goggles strapped over his strange yellow and purple eyes laughs.  “Like how were we supposed to know it ain’t some other shitty adult coming in?” His wide smile shows off a set of saw-like teeth.

“Yeah…” says a troll girl with long greasy terribly unkempt hair and two pairs of horns like Kuprum, only hers jag outward instead of inward like his.  She’s sitting awfully close to him.  “What’s done. . . is done. . .”  Her voice sounds ragged.  Not the tired kind of ragged, but rather the weak and sick kind of ragged.  “Don’t… get your. . . undies. . . in a twist, Bronya. . .  That was. . . funny… as hell. . .”

Your savior, now known as Bronya, started to full on berate the prankster duo.  While she got busy, another troll kid, a boy wearing a pair of sunglasses and horns like deer antlers, goes to help you get back on your feet.

“Sorry about that,” he says in a cool rather aloof manner.  “A lot of these asshats don’t really have anything better to do with their time.”

“Shut up, Dammek! You were in on it a lot of the time!” says a heavyset troll girl sitting next to a long-haired boy with three pointy horns and a mustard yellow coat in lieu of the school blazer.  Her figure is impressively muscular, so much that the sleeves that were supposed to conceal her big buff arms were nonexistent; most likely torn off.  “This whole schoolfeeder pranking was your idea to begin with!”

“Anyway…”  Dammek ignores her.  “Think of it as a rite of passage. Of course, none of the schoolfeeders last very long once we’re done with them.  Not even the troll adults could handle us.”  He says it like it’s some kind of proud accomplishment.

“The trolls here are a bunch of weaklings, including the highbloods,” a girl with curvy notched horns and three eyes agrees while inspecting her nails.  “It’s shameful, really.  They wouldn’t last one second if this was Alternia.”

“They’d be taken to the culling fields for a little R and R, lol,” says Kuprum.  Rest and relaxation? That doesn’t sound so bad.

“Rampage and rending,” he clarifies.  You stand corrected.

“Especially that weirdo with the nubby horns and his lame ass talk about equality and shit.”  A few other trolls in the class turn to give him the stink eye.  “Lololol! So fucking longwinded about it, too.  Like, he never shuts up once he got going.  He’s as bad as Galekh, but preachier.”  A boy with short curly hair, glasses, and Christmas tree-shaped horns scowled and opened his mouth to object, only to be held back by a tired-looking girl with a mug.  “Lol! He’s so full of bullshit, I can’t even—Hrk!”

Kuprum gets cut off abruptly and you see Dammek had taken a tight hold of his uniform necktie and began to choke him with it. You stand around in shock.  Dammek had gone from your side to choking his classmate in a blink of an eye.

“Take that back, you asshole,” he says, voice dangerously low.  But Kuprum was too busy trying not to die to make a proper reply.  Next to him, Folykl is trying to separate the two boys as she cussed out at Dammek, but failing due to her measly strength.  Another troll with a pair of simple curved horns grabs hold of Dammek from behind to pull him away.  No one else tries to get between them.  Some seem content, amused even, at watching them try to go for each other’s throat.  Others just preferred not to get involved.  Bronya has long since retreated to the side.  The look on her face tells you that she wants to stop them, but unsure at how to approach.

This is definitely not how you imagined your first class was going to go.  You have to stop them.  As the teacher, it’s one of your duties to stop your students from killing each other.  You take a step and reach out to try and mediate between the two aggressive young trolls.

“Wrigglers, please! This is not the time for fighting!” Ms. Maryam’s cry beats you to the punch.  The class grows silent and still at the sight of the adult jadeblood standing in front of the class.  She sighed and rubs her temples, trying to soothe away a growing headache.  “Please return to your seats at once.  Honestly, this is not the way to greet your new schoolfeeder.”

The class lets out a collective “Huh?” then started looking back and forth between her and you.

“So, um…” A girl with wide horns reaching horns that looked like a cow’s and a twig in her mouth raises a hand.  “Ms. Maryam, does this mean ya’ll be schoolfeedin’ us from now on?”

“Oh, no,” Ms. Maryam replies.  “I’m only here as an escort.  Your real schoolfeeder is right here.”

All eyes follow as the only adult in the room gestures to the only human.  When you realize all the attention has shifted towards you, you bat away the remaining chalk dust that clung to your hair and clothes before flashing them a friendly smile and wave.  Some of the kids grimace at the sight of your filthy face.

Ms. Maryam smiles at you.  “Please introduce yourself to the class.”  You nod and take your place at the front and center.  You tell them your full name and that from today onwards, you’ll be teaching at this school.  You’ll be only here for three terms, but it’s nice to meet everyone.

There was a pregnant pause as they all just stared at you after you finished your introductions.  All the while you notice that the classroom had a tier-style seating similar to that of an auditorium or a lecture hall where the seats start off from the ground and go higher like a set of stairs.  You silently counted five tier rows, split at the middle by a narrow set of actual stairs with two more additional sets at either side for ease of access.  Each row comfortably accommodates four troll kids each.

Oh, man.  Just look at all those obvious dress code violations.  They’re not even trying to be subtle about it.  Or maybe they just don’t care.

You consider maybe handing out demerits or detention slips for violating the school standard dress code, but scrap that plan quickly.  Doing so wouldn’t endear you much to your students especially since your botched first impression.  Ms. Maryam stands a little bit behind you, ready to intervene in case things start going south.

“Hmm hmm…”  You hear a faint titter.  “Hmhmhmhmhmhmmhmmhwahahahahaah!!” The tittering grew louder until it turned into a full blown laugh.

“Oh how funny this is.  How very droll,” said a three-eyed girl in mirthful mockery.  “That human is going to be schoolfeeding us?”

“The other human schoolfeeders barely lasted longer than the adult troll schoolfeeders did,” says the boy with the flashlight horns, one arm on the desk, the other supporting his chin in a daydreaming pose.  “It’s kinda sad, really.  I would have loved to get to know them a little better.  Humans are so fascinating and exotic.”  He gives you another flirty wink while he gets weird looks from all adjacent classmates.  You nearly blanch.

“Hey! How old are you? You don’t look as old as the other schoolfeeders,” asks a shorter troll boy whose fluffy hair obscured his eyes and seems to be holding a hotdog sandwich.  Doesn’t this little guy know that eating in class is a no-no?

You answer his question anyway, being mindful to give your age both in years and sweeps.  And to make up for your lousy entrance, you also mentioned your university level knowledge in your subject.  Nothing like a little bragging ought to nurse your bruised ego, and maybe to make you look a little less lame than usual.

“So you’re in a similar age as us and are officially qualified to professionally teach a class,” a boy with product-infused hair swooping over one side of his face says as he examined you with a scrutinizing gaze from his seat.  “I must say, that’s rather impressive, even on Alternia.  Though it’s also pretty obvious that the higher-ups of this schoolfeeding facility are getting desperate and running out of ideas.”

“Kinda makes you wonder if this is all for real,” says a girl with hooked horns and dyed blue hair with an undercut, leaning back on her seat with her boot-clad feet on the desk.

“I assure you that Mx. Reader’s credentials are all valid,” says Ms. Maryam.  “Remember, they may be the same age as you, but you must treat them with proper respect as an authority figure, understand?” The class answered her with a chorus of varying but unenthusiastic agreement.

“Alright, now that you’re acquainted, I believe it’s time for class.”  The adult jade troll turned to you.  “You can take it from here, Mx. Reader.”  Oh, okay…  She turns and exits the room.  Great, now you’re all alone and at the mercy of forty unpredictable alien kids.

You nervously make your way behind the teacher’s desk and set and open textbook upon it. You put on your best professional face.  You will not be laughed at again; you’ve got to take this seriously.  You tell the class to turn to a specific page of their textbooks and go up to the chalkboard to write something.  However, it seems that there has been a bit of an oversight on your part.

You’re too short to reach the top of the board.

Your blush as you hear giggles from behind.  You don’t blame them—standing on your tiptoes and stretching your arm up in a useless effort must look really funny.  But then, out of nowhere, you feel your stomach clench and your feet leave the ground.  You go up and up until you make it to the appropriate height you had been aiming for.  This isn’t your doing at all.  You’d know if you used majyyk to float, but in the few seconds of that moment, it felt like you just stepped into a strong breeze.

You turn your head slightly and take a glance back at the class.  You notice flashes of cyan and blue coming from the troll boy with the coat, which turned out to be coming from his eyes.  He’s holding up one hand and you could see his fingertips emit similar colored sparks.  You realize that this must be the work of psionics.  You’ve learned that some trolls, particularly the ones in the burgundy and gold caste, have powerful psychic powers.  Now that you think about it, maybe you’re not the only peculiar one in this school after all.

He notices you looking at him and he gives you a thumbs up with his other hand while smiling.  You thank him silently and move on with the lesson.  Your heart feels lighter at how easy things are going.  The troll kids are nice to you so far.  Maybe it has something to do with your age like Ms. Maryam said.

However, as with all good things, your revelry comes to an end when pain strikes the back of your head and you start to fall.  You cry out, but quickly catch yourself with a quick floatation spell and make a soft landing back on the floor.  You look around and back to the class and at the goldblood kid who catches your gaze and shakes his head in adamant denial.  By the looks of it, he is just as surprised as you are and it broke his concentration on you which caused your fall.  You turn back around to the board, deciding it was for the best to just keep going like nothing happened. . . until it happens again… twice.

You’re hit with such force that your forehead slams on the chalkboard.  The giggles resumed.  You step away, rubbing your aching forehead.

“Is there something wrong, teacher?” You hear Bronya ask.  You tell her that there are things that keep flying at you.  She immediately casts an admonishing look at Kuprum and Folykl, who quickly catch on.

“Don’t… look at us…” says Folykl.

“We already did our share of pranks,” Kuprum follows.

Bronya turns away, begrudgingly deeming them honest.  She then leans forward on her seat to look at someone at the far end of her row.  “Cirava, did you use your psionics against the schoolfeeder?”

Yet another goldblood troll looks her way with a half-lidded neon green eye at the mention of her name.  They had short messy hair that stuck out at different directions.  Like the other goldbloods, they had four horns—two of which go straight up and curve a little outward near the top and ended in two pointy prongs.  A triangular eyepatch hides and injury in their other eye if the prominent gold veins on that side of their face are to be referenced.

They speak in a relaxed almost sleepy tone.  “Nah, my dude.  My psionics haven’t worked right since I took out my eye.”  You look at them, utterly mortified.  How and why would anyone mutilate themselves like that was beyond you.

“I see,” Bronya says in understanding.  She then turns around to ask the last remaining psionic kid.  The short stocky one sitting next to her wasn’t one despite being also goldblooded, guess not all of them can have super cool powers.  “Well, Azdaja?”

Azdaja began shaking his head once more.  “I didn’t do it.  I was helping, remember?”

Bronya furrowed her brow.  “Then who did?”

“You’re asking me?”

“Hey! Leave him alone,” the buff-bodied girl next to him shouted.  “Daja didn’t do shit wrong! Calm your rumble spheres, fussyfangs!” Bronya turned away with a huff.

“It’s probably Dammek,” said the girl with the dyed hair.  “He’s sorta paranoid so he tends to go around testing people.”  Dammek glared her way, upset at being downright outed.  “He’s was mostly the reason we had gone through several schoolfeeders befo—Ack!” An unknown projectile hits the side of her head and makes her flinch.  She glares back at him, baring her sharp teeth.

“You wanna go, Elwurd?” he asks.

You start to get nervous.  You’re really not keen on having another fight in your class.  And Ms. Maryam isn’t around this time to help you out.

Ding… dong… dong… ding…

Whew! Saved by the bell.  Thank gog.  You’re not sure how you would have done should things got out of hand.

You check your watch for the time.  It’s high noon, which means it’s lunchtime! The kids get up from their seats and start heading for the door as you gather your things from the teacher’s desk.

You notice something on the floor next to your foot.  You bend down and pick it up out of curiosity and look at it closely.  It was white with brushes of gray and felt rubbery to the touch. It’s an eraser, or a chunk of an eraser broken off from a larger whole.  You think back to several minutes ago, put two and two together and grimace.  This tiny thing almost gave you a concussion.

“Hello there~” You hear a suave voice coming from nearby.  You turn and see one the flashlight-horned troll boy standing in front of you.  You wonder if he needs something.

“I can’t help but realize that you might be all alone during this midday meal hour,” he said, sidling up to you and getting a little too close for comfort.  “Have you been given a tour of our fine schoolfeeding facility yet? If not, then I’m more than happy to volunteer.  I’ve been around for a while and I know every hidden cranny.  I can show them to you if you want, and perhaps get to know each other while we’re at it?” Oh gog, this is just like your Japanese animes—except it’s real and not as romantically exciting as you thought it would be!

“Move aside, Troll Romeo!” Flirtyboy let out a grunt when he was shoved away from you.  Thank goodness for that.

“Hey teach, you wanna have lunch with us?” Elwurd presence replaces Romeo’s (is that even his real name?) albeit at a more acceptable distance.  “I bet you still got no clue where the nutrition block is in this place.  Why don’t you come with me and Cirava and we’ll show you?” Cirava waves at you from their spot a foot away.

You take a moment to ponder on her offer.  There wasn’t much time for a grand tour when you and Mr. Vantas stepped out of the airport and quickly got marched to your class.  You nod.  It would be nice to have company.  Fortunately, you needn’t worry about any kind of stigma associated with anything beyond the acceptable student-teacher relationship.  You may be the teacher, but it doesn’t take away the fact that you and your students are all about the same age.

Elwurd beams.  “Cool! Let’s go.”  The two troll girls walk with you on both your sides like a pair of bodyguards.  Boy, this day just keeps getting better.  The day wasn't over yet and you're already making friends with your students.  Was it because your'e a teacher? Ah, who cares? You're happy!

You go ahead and take the first to step out of the classroom.

“Ah, Reader! There you are.”  You hear Mr. Vantas’ voice call out to you, and sure enough, there he is coming at you down the hall.  And he isn’t alone—there’s another adult troll behind him.  She was a lady like Ms. Maryam, though younger and a has a little wild look on her.  Her hair was long and a little messy, though you could clearly make out her horns that look like cat ears.  Her casual business attire has mostly olive colors.

“Welp, it looks like there some important schoolfeeder biz about to go down,” says Elwurd.  “Looks like we’re gonna have to cancel our lunch date.  Maybe next time.”  She gives you finger-guns and a wink before leaving.

“Later!” Cirava bids, following behind Elwurd.  You wave them goodbye.

“Reader, would you care to join us for lunch?” Mr. Vantas asks as he and his friend stop to talk to you.  “I know you’re young, but we’re still colleagues.  Also, Dolorosa insisted that we invite you along in case you have any questions.”

Dolo—who?”

“Oh, sorry. I meant Ms. Maryam.”  Isn’t her name ‘Porrim’?

“It’s more of a title. Like mine is ‘Signless��.  It’s… a weird troll thing…”  Right.

“Wow, is this the wriggler teacher mew told me about?” asks the lady troll, gaping at you with wide eyes.

“Yes, they are,” Mr. Vantas replies.  “Also, maybe if you—”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeee! Mew’re so cute!” The lady troll cried while hugging the life out you with your face pressing on to her chest.  Did she just use cat puns?

Mr. Vantas gives her a dry look that goes unnoticed.  “I can’t believe a tiny kitten like you is a teacher in our school! Oh-em-gee!” Several students lingering the hall watch with amusement as she goes on to pinching and squishing your cheeks in her alien hands like a lump of toy slime.

Uhh…

“Meulin, please stop.  You’re embarrassing them,” Mr. Vantas admonishes her.  She pouts a little, but does as he says.  “Sorry about that,” he apologizes to you on her behalf.  You tell him you’re fine.  Hopefully the slight swelling of your abused cheeks would go down in time for your next class.  And yes, joining them for lunch sounds like a swell idea.  You could ask for pointers in teaching.

“That great! Shall we go then?” You nod and take your place between the two adults like you had with Elwurd and Cirava.

Being the big school Alterra Academy is, there’s no doubt that their facilities like the cafeteria would also be big.  Though to you, it isn’t such a big deal.  The dining hall at SUIT was just as big.  The difference between that and the academy cafteria is the contemporary design versus the old ancient castle look.  There are kitchen installations lined along two ends of the facility and some stalls that serve all kinds of food, including Alternian fare.  You and your colleagues go and order some food and head to the Staff Lounge where all the other teachers and some other members of the school staff congregate on their breaks to escape from the kids and relax for at least an hour everyday.

“It looks like you’re getting along with Class 413,” Mr. Vantas says after sitting down on a cushy chair.  Meulin, or Ms. Leijon the Literary Arts teacher as she introduced herself, sat on another next to him.  “How was your first class? Was there any trouble?” You have half a mind to tell him all that happened, but you also didn’t want to come off as whining.  So you tell him that it was a success and everyone was so well behaved and nice.

“Whoa, really?” he asks.  “That’s new.  All the other teachers who tried to handle that class usually ran out crying or furious around the first quarter of class time.  I even tried, but…”

Ms. Leijon beside him giggles.  “He ended up unleashing a vast expletive at the class after half an hour.  It was so loud, some teachers poked their heads out of their classrooms to see what was going on--myself included.  After that, he walked out and lamented to Dolorosa what he did.”

“Don’t tell him that, Meulin.  The last thing I want is to have Reader get a bad impression of me.”  S he stuck her tongue out at him in a playful manner.  “I still can’t believe I lost my patience so easily.  Perhaps my time at the flogging jut has changed me.”  His expression turns somber. Ms. Leijon takes one of his hands in hers and give it a gentle reassuring squeeze.  Flogging? Was he involved with shady characters who he got on the bad side of?

“No, nothing like that,” Mr. Vantas says.  “Though to the Alternian ruling class, I might as well have. Not that it mattered much since I shouldn’t have lived in the first place.”

How come?

Mr. Vantas looks at you square in the eye.  “As you may or may not know, the planet Alternia is ruled by the hemospectrum.  Those in the warm end scrounge whatever they can to live by while being under the cruel thumb of the blueblood nobility.  Though in every generation of trolls laid by the Mother Grub, there’d be outliers—mutants—who don’t belong anywhere in the hemospectrum.  I was one such mutant.”

You raise an eyebrow and your eyes dart back and forth between him and Ms. Leijon.  Other than the obvious differences between them due to their genders, you don’t really see anything different about Mr. Vantas… unless, he’s got some weird appendage hiding under his clothes.

“I can tell you’re skeptical, and I don’t blame you,” he continues.  “Most mutations are often visible like an extra pair of eyes, or limbs, or whatever else that’s atypical of a certain caste.  Any troll grub who hatch with such mutations are often culled to keep the gene pool pure. Though there are cases, such as in goldbloods, where mutations are given a free pass as they are deemed useful by the regime.  In my case, however, the mutation is in my blood.”

Why? What’s wrong with his blood? Does he have a disease?

Mr. Vantas gave a low chuckle at your assumptions.  “No, it has more to do with the color.  You see, rather than a deep rust as dictated by the hemospectrum, my blood is a bright crimson like you humans have.  Since it was outside the hemospectrum, it marked me as a mutant and therefore have to be culled.  It was only through the kindness of the Dolorosa, my jadeblood mother, that my life was spared.  However, in doing so, she had to leave the brooding caverns in order to properly care for me.  From then on, we lived as nomads—never staying in any place for too long to avoid the risk getting my blood discovered and culled for it by the highbloods.  But as I grew older, I became more aware of the cruel and unjust way of life for lowbloods.  I thought to myself, there has to be a better way to live—where all would care for one another regardless of blood.  Soon, I began having vision of such a life, and started to spread the word. Before long, I gained followers.”

You nodd in understanding as you listen to him relay his life story to you.  So it turns out that the Dolorosa, who is Ms. Maryam, adopted and raised Mr. Vantas who grew up to become some kind of activist.

Though his story was compelling, you have a feeling that it wouldn’t have a happy ending.

“And of course, as with all good things in Alternia, it never meant to last or make a difference.  To make an already long story short, word got to the highbloods about my ‘radical’ ideals and deemed it a threat to the system, thus I got captured.  I was sentenced to death both as a mutant and a rebel, then tied me up on the flogging jut with burning shackles.  I was continuously beaten until my so-called heretical blood was let for all to see.  As I faded into unconsciousness, my final thought was that it was finally the end for me; I’d die without having realized my dream.  However, after what felt like eons, I found myself waking surrounded by friends and family.  I thought I had truly died, but the stinging pain of my wounds told me otherwise.  Later, I found out that one of my distant followers started a riot that allowed for our escape from the empire in a stolen battleship.”

At that point, a familiar motherly voice decided to chime in to add her bit.  “Finding your planet was something that happened by chance,” she says.  “We didn’t know where we were going.  All that mattered was to get away from the reaches of the Empire as quickly as possible.  There were a few hundred of us cramped in a battleship flying through space.  By the time we found Earth, we have exhausted most of our rations.”  You look up to see Ms. Maryam standing behind your chair.  “Once we realized that the blue and green planet ahead of us was capable of sustaining life, we immediately went full speed ahead and soon crashed.  Many of us perished, but thanks to the helpful efforts of a certain human, many were also saved.  And the rest, as you humans say, is history.”

Okay, the story did have a happy ending after all.  Though you were so preoccupied by the story that you didn’t realize when Ms. Maryam arrived.  How long has she been there?

“Just enough to hear Kankri tell you about the aftermath of his failed execution,” she replies, moving to take a seat next to you.

“What took mew so long, Dolorosa? Lunch period is halfway over,” asks Ms. Leijon.

Ms. Maryam gave a little sigh.  “Well, I went to invite a certain someone to join us while we get properly acquainted with our new teacher,” she looks at you, “but he seemed to be too absorbed in his work to move.  He didn’t seem to be interested on meeting them either, so I let him be.  It’s quite a shame.”

Welp, that can’t be helped.  You know better than to assume that everyone would be excited or curious enough to see a kid teacher.  All that’s left to do is enjoy your now cold lunch with your new colleagues.

“Oh, right. I almost forgot,” Mr. Vantas says while he and Ms. Leijon open up theirs.  “Say, while we’re at it, how about you tell us more about how your first class went.”

And so you spent the rest of the hour relishing the company of your fellow educators.

EXTRA

ALTERRA ACADEMY CLASS 413 ROSTER

(SPEAKING ROLES ONLY/NO PARTICULAR ORDER)

Student numbers are in accordance to Troll Call order of introduction + Dammek and Xefros

Name: Bronya Ursama

Student #: 32

Blood Color: Jade

Sign: Virus

Extra-curricular/s: Grubsitters Club, Class President (?)

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: None

~oOo~

Name: Folykl Darane

Student #: 13

Blood Color: Gold

Sign: Gemittarius

Extra-curricular/s: Pranksters’ Gambit Club

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: Unbuttoned blazer, nonexistent tie, pants rather than skirt, lacking presence of appropriate footwear

Note: Never separate from Kuprum

~oOo~

Name: Kuprum Maxlol

Student #: 14

Blood Color: Gold

Sign: Gemnius

Extra-curricular/s: Prankster’s Gambit Club

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: Unbuttoned blazer, Loose tie, messy untucked shirt

Note: Never separate from Folykl

~oOo~

Name: Dammek ??????

Student #: 1

Blood Color: Bronze

Sign: Taurcer

Extra-curricular/s: Alterra Middle School Rock Band (Grubbles)

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: Inappropriate eyewear

~oOo~

Name: Konyyle Okimaw

Student #: 36

Blood Color: Olive

Sign: Lepia

Extra-curricular/s: Alterra MMA Club

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: Torn off sleeves on both blazer and shirt

~oOo~

Name: Ardata Carmia

Student #: 27

Blood Color: Cerulean

Sign: [Blocked by smudge on page]

Extra-curricular/s: Audio Visual Club, Social Media Streamers Club

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: Cape over uniform

~oOo~

Name: Skylla Koriga

Student #: 12

Blood Color: Bronze

Sign: Taurist

Extra-curricular/s: Agriculture Research Society

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: Cowboy boots

~oOo~

Name: Zebruh Codakk

Student #: 34

Blood Color: Indigo

Sign: Sagimino

Extra-curricular/s: Strolling Club

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: Bow tie in place of standard tie, blazer tied around waist, shirt sleeves rolled to elbows

Note: In case of emergency, call the Academy Security Hotline.

~oOo~

Name: Tagora Gorjek

Student #: 26

Blood Color: Teal

Sign: Liga

Extra-curricular/s: Alterra Future Business Leaders, Class Treasurer

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: Pinstripe pants

Note: If he tries to offer something, politely decline even if in dire need.

~oOo~

Name: ?????? Elwurd

Student #: 21

Blood Color: Cerulean

Sign: Scornius

Extra-curricular/s: Strolling Club

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: Skinny jeans and combat boots under skirt

~oOo~

Name: Cirava Hermod

Student #: 25

Blood Color: Gold

Sign: Gemrius

Extra-curricular/s: Vaporwave Appreciation Society

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: Disheveled ‘not even trying’ look, gray leggings, inappropriate footwear

~oOo~

Name: Azdaja Knelax

Student #: 35

Blood Color: Gold

Sign: Gemra

Extra-curricular/s: Alterra Anime Afficionados Association (A4)

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: Mustard yellow overcoat in lieu of school blazer

~oOo~

Name: Diemen Xicali

Student #: 11

Blood Color: Burgundy

Sign: Arrius

Extra-curricular/s: Alterra Gastronauts

Uniform Discrepancy/ies: None

ALTERRA ACADEMY FACULTY & STAFF DOSSIER

Name: Meulin “The Disciple” Leijon

Age: 15 solar sweeps/33 years

Blood Color: Olive

Occupation: Signless’ most devoted follower/girlfriend, Academy Literature Teacher

Notes:

-Gratuitous cat puns

-Likes to ship even as an adult

-Furiously studies and compares human and troll literature