#svalla saikos

[cloudbattrolls]

Svalla Saikos, mastermind who invited her crush’s mom on a date as well but to be fair she genuinely wants to get to know her better

[uprising-trolls]

UPRISING ACT 2: ANCESTRAL REIGN SUMMARY

Uprising Act 2 begins after The Darkened, a violent and bloodthirsty troll of ages past, resurfaces on Alternia. With the death of Intaxi Neishi on her hands, she immediately turned her attention to a much larger goal: Conquering Alternia for her own.

The Darkened’s arrival was a violent one. The Bane of Stars, her flagship, descended on an Imperial Fleet base, making short work of their defenses. The Darkened then ordered the ships’ primary weapon, a device that taps into her own statickinesis, to be fired, turning all residents of the base not protected by Shadowguard armor to be vaporized instantly. The crew then set out to fortify the base to properly house the Darkened and her operations.

Sonati Yxlisi hears rumors of a appearance on Alternia; a hyper powerful troll who also utilizes umbrakinesis much like she does. Sonati, still struggling to cope with the realizations made in the prior sweep, feels her reputation as a fearsome killer who uses shadows is in jeopardy, and rushes off to challenge the newcomer. Elziye Incaru, now fully separating her life from the one Intaxi made her, warned Sonati not to pursue this as what she could dig up on this ‘Darkened’ character was not good at all. Sonati ignored her warnings, and went after the troll anyway.

The Darkened, however, was more than prepared for her. Sonati was nearly killed in the confrontation, but more scarred by the fact that The Darkened turned out to be her own ancestor, Tusira Yxlisi. Aelynn arrived after Elziye alerted her of Sonati’s plan, taking the injured troll and helping nurse her back to health.

Meanwhile, Tusira returned her sights to Alternia as a whole. She dispatched her highest ranked soldier, the Shadowguard Sentinel Xavvax Utiitu, to claim a nearby city that had fallen under control of a minor rebel organization. Upon arriving with a squadron of lower ranked Shadowguard, Xavvax discovered that the rebel group was being lead by someone she had long thought dead, Norexx Naalit. Norexx was revealed to be Xavvax’s ex matesprit. The two of them were originally rebels together many sweeps ago, but during an incident where authorities were clued in to their location, Xavvax presumed him dead and fled, only to find herself enlisting in The Darkened’s army of Shadowguard. It turns out that Tusira was the one behind the infiltration, planting spies within the group to destroy it from the inside, and push the survivors of whatever fallout occurred to join her ranks. Once Xavvax discovered all of this information, she went on a rampage, truly killing Norexx and several of his soldiers, as well as a few Shadowguard, before fleeing the city and going into hiding.

A chance encounter led Sonati, still recovering from her altercation with Tusira, to meet Xavvax, and the two began to hatch a plan to take down the rampaging ancestor. With Sonati’s experience with Yxlisi umbrakinesis, and Xavvax’s knowledge of the Bane of Stars inner workings, they gathered a small group together with the intent to disable, or destroy, the Darkened’s flagship. The group was comprised of Sonati and Xavvax, along with Svalla Saikos, Cygcna Albire , Sintax Dextri, and Matari Markab.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances outside of her control, Sonati was rendered incapacitated and was unable to aid the group in their assault on the Bane. Xavvax was left to lead the charge, with the plan to utilize her clearance to sneak aboard the ship with Sintax and Matari, while Svalla and Cygcna provided a distraction using Cygcna’s psionics. Sintax was to be left in the main control room of the ship, to prevent any Shadowguard from reaching the engine room, and keep the alarms from signalling their presence. Meanwhile, Xavvax and Matari would venture into the depths of the ship, locate the engine’s core, and plant charges on it for later detonation. With the chaos caused by the distraction team’s efforts, they would ideally be able to slip out with minimal issue.

Of course, things do not always go as planned. Once they had breached the ship, each team found increasingly difficult challenges. Sintax was left to fend off waves of Shadowguard that rushed him in an attempt to sound the main alarm. Cygcna and Svalla encountered a strange troll with illusion based abilities, identifying herself as Jeluno Ikolus, infamous pirate and thief. She mocked their predicament, commenting on the increasingly obvious fact that Cygcna’s psionics were rapidly growing unstable, and a massive discharge would soon follow.

The detonation team, however, encountered possibly the worst of it. Within the core of the Bane of Stars’ engine, Xavvax and Matari found the ancestor of Monamo Infoir, The Sunbathed, wired to the ships systems. Standing to defend her, was Sintax’s own ancestor, The Reaper. After a combat-less encounter, Xavvax convinced The Reaper to stand down, allowing Matari to finish planting the detonation charges across The Sunbathed and her systems, thanking her for freeing her of this hell.

Outside, Jeluno realized the time of detonation was quickly approaching, and bid the pair farewell, before making it appear as if their cover had vanished. Xavvax and Matari regrouped with Sintax, and while they were able to retrieve Svalla, Cygcna chose to stay behind in the base, as she had become too unstable, and was about to let loose a massive psionic discharge. After shadow-warping the remaining group to a point of safety, both Cygcna and the charges placed on The Sunbathed detonated, destroying the base, and the ship in its entirety, as well as all crew remaining in the building.

With the destruction of her flagship, and the massive loss of crew, Tusira ‘The Darkened’ Yxlisi was forced to retreat and end her plans of conquering the troll homeworld.

The destruction of The Bane of Stars and the defeat of The Darkened marks the end of Act 2, and lays the pathwork for the beginning of Act 3.

[cloudbattrolls]

What do you do with Sonati Yxlisi, who killed so many trolls?

I like to hold her gently in my arms, like the beautiful woman she is.

Svalla is into Sonati but is comfortable with the fact Sonati isn’t into her and genuinely enjoys their friendship regardless, so she doesn’t bring it up.

Won’t stop her from cuddling her fellow umbrakinesis user every chance she gets though.

@uprising-trolls it’s the girls

[cloudbattrolls]

I still have plenty of work to do with anatomy and diversifying body types but I feel pretty good about how I draw Svalla now, she finally looks how she’s supposed to. Soft, pillowy, can and will create beasts and weapons out of shadow to fuck someone up if she needs to.

[cloudbattrolls]

The Shades of Us

Svalla Saikos | Derevnya | Two Weeks Prior

Svalla bit her lip as she breathed out hard, her breath white in the frigid air. Usually it would be indistinguishable among the vast steam clouds Derevnya’s machinery created. 

The canal boats lay anchored, the tundra crawlers were hibernating - living parts resting while their artificial motors hummed on standby, waiting to be woken up again and sent to chase down prey for the city. Barely any of the golem-drawn vendors’ carts or lumbering steam cargopedes moved down the empty streets, and passerby spoke to no one and hurried past each other quickly in the late night air - only an hour or so until morning.

The whole town felt asleep, but not resting - the tense sort of sleep one got during a hunt or a heist, the kind she’d had more than enough of in her life. Fleet ships with red tridents circled its distant borders like vultures, waiting to pick it clean.

“Svalla - there you are, Svalla!”

The purpleblood turned from standing on the balcony outside her classroom to watching one of her students scamper up to her, breathing heavily.

“What’s wrong, Aleksy?”

The lean oliveblood held up a hand, one pointer finger raised while they got their breath back.

They straightened up and wiped their forehead, sweat gleaming in the pink and green moonlight.

“There’s a woman - got past the blockade and the policeradicators somehow - some kind of cyborg - says she knows you.”

Svalla’s brows narrowed, her lips pursed in concentration and suspicion.

“I don’t know any cyborgs, except one man...what’s her caste?”

“Uhh, not sure - she was wearing all grays, didn’t have a symbol. We didn’t know what to do, so we locked her in a room...she went willingly, at least. Was that okay?”

The fox troll considered this, playing with her short braid.

“Take me to her. If she’s a spy, we’ll figure it out soon enough. You did well.” She added, and the green blood flashed a nervous smile.

As they walked down the short flight of stairs leading out of her second-floor classroom, teacher following student, Svalla conjured a shield of shadows that floated around her right shoulder. She summoned a knife for her right hand, a pure black instrument that reflected no light; its edge gave off faint wisps of black smoke.

She dropped it as she opened the door and beheld the troll in front of her.

The troll who sat on a wooden chair and looked down at the floor, only tilting her head up at the dark blade’s fall to the floor and dissolution as it hit the panels.

With one and a half limbs replaced by metal and ceramic, hair cut to barely below her ears, and scarred far more than when Svalla had last seen her, the person in front of her was still a familiar face for the shadowmancer.

“Matari Markab.” The purpleblood breathed. “I thought you were dead.”

“Not yet.” Her voice was quieter, raspier - but unmistakably the same one that had teased, comforted, sleepily mumbled at, and begged Svalla for more food on countless occasions.

She was thinner too, her old friend now noticing how her ragged gray clothes hung more limply on her frame. The lowblood wasn’t skinny, but the generous round figure she’d always been happy to flaunt was no more.

Her eyes were the same orange as ever, the same intensity, but their playful mockery was gone. She looked like a troll who’d seen hell and come out the other side.

Svalla slapped her in the face.

Not hard - the indigo knew her own strength and the frailty of lowbloods - but enough to send a message.

“If you weren’t dead” she said, deathly serious. “Then why the fuck didn’t you contact us. Me. Sintax. Sonati. Anyone. You’ve got no excuse good enough that could make me forgive you, Matari, but you do owe me an explanation. Start talking. I want to know why now, of all times, you choose to come back.”

Matari spat out a little blood. Maybe the slap had been too hard. Svalla found she didn’t really care.

“I told you I joined some pirates, right? They got sick of me, marooned me on a planet with one outpost that was hundreds of miles away. Took me a long time to get there and stow away on a ship going back to Alternia.”

The dullness of the pegasus troll’s voice drove the fox troll up the wall. Her shield of shadows quivered, spreading and becoming thicker.

“That doesn’t answer my question. Why did you come back? Why didn’t you just stay in space? Find someone else to mooch off of and disappoint? You’ve done it your whole life. What made you stop?”

Matari blinked, but her expression didn’t change. There was a pause before she spoke, her voice still dull but with a note of weariness.

“For the first time in my life I was alone. Really alone. I blamed everyone else for a while, but out there on a planet that doesn’t give a fuck who you are or whether you live or die...I realized it was my fault. All of it. Everything from when I jerked around Gliese to when I fucked up with Cennef to when Pheres and Sipara ditched me. And yeah, how I abandoned you guys. I didn’t come here thinking you’d want me back -“

“Good, because I don’t.” Cut in the purpleblood icily.

“ - but I heard what was happening, and I knew I had to help.”

The shorter woman bit her lip again, thinking.

“Let’s say I buy your story. Let’s say I believe the empire didn’t catch you and use one of their psychics to turn you into a spy, that all this isn’t a front. Let’s say I even believe you want to help. What do you think you can do? You could, from the looks of it, barely save yourself without someone else to clean up your mess. I’m amazed whatever mediculler you found spared you. I can’t imagine why.”

The lowblood looked at the floor again.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you.” The fox troll snapped.

She raised her head again, gaze sharp even if her voice was dull.

“Because I’ll die to get you out of this, Svalla. I owe you that much.”

The indigo slapped her former friend again - lighter this time.

“What good are you to me if you die? What good are you to Sintax and Sonati? You’re going to live, Matari, and you’re going to apologize to them and me. You’re going to make it up to us. Not because we’re going to forgive you. But because you owe us living a better life than you did before.”

Without waiting for a response, the shadowmancer called out to Aleksy, who had been awkwardly hovering in the hallway the whole time.

“Get me Lelyah. She can tell if Matari is clean or not.”

“I - I think Lelyah is asleep.”

“Wake her up.”

“...she’s not going to be happy.”

The fox troll bared her fangs - short, but very sharp.

“Let me worry about that. Go.”

Student obedience, caste loyalty, or simple survival instinct informed the lanky olive it would be better for them if they didn’t argue further, and they skittered off in search of the psychic yellowblood.

Matari said nothing in the time it took for Lelyah to appear, scowling with her hands on her hips, Aleksy keeping several paces back from her.

“What do you want, Saikos? Your idiot told me we might have a spy? Keep her locked up until tomorrow evening, who cares. And next time send someone who looks less stupid. I hate their dumb face.”

“A whole tray of lemon bars, dusted with sugar.” Promised the highblood. “Yours if you scan her now.”

The blue and red eyed psychic made a show of tapping her chin and pulling a face, but Svalla knew she had her.

“Fine! But I’m not going easy on her. If she babbles nonsense after, that’s your problem.”

Before the fox troll could object, Lelyah turned, red and blue sparks dancing between her two sets of horns, and sent eye beams directly into the orangeblood.

“Hmmm...well someone’s got a filthy mind! You’re a nasty one, aren’t you, girlie. Full of so much regret you keep pushing aside, letting it pile up like garbage. Pathetic. I see you were controlled by a maroon once, interesting...oh, you deserved it too. Even your own mother doesn’t want you anymore, hm? That’s why you’re here. This is all you’ve got left.”

The psychic rolled her neck, looking over at the indigo.

“She’s not being controlled by anyone else, or used as a sleeper agent or medium. Just a sorry mess of a troll. Feed her to someone’s lusus, she’d be better off. Don’t wake me up again.”

Lelyah stomped off back down the hallway, and Svalla glanced at Matari.

The orangeblood looked up from staring at the floor.

“So how can I help?”

It was as if nothing had happened. As if her every weakness hadn’t just been laid bare. Matari Markab didn’t cry. She didn’t curse, or mock, or ask why Svalla had let that happen.

She had asked her question, and then went silent again.

“How did you get in?” The purpleblood realized that was the most potentially useful information her former friend had to offer.

The tiniest smile crossed the outlaw’s lips.

“My new limbs have high tech. I can go invisible, and lower my temperature so sensors think I’m a highblood. Or spread my body heat around enough that they can’t pick me up at all.”

“How did you even afford that?” The indigo said in disbelief.

“I didn’t.”

Again the tiny smile, and Svalla knew the orange was mirroring her own thoughts: once a thief, always a thief.

“Can you make other people invisible too?”

The smile vanished, and the former thieves’ guild member shook her head.

“That tech only works on me. But I’ve got lasers, and I can make a little smoke.”

Svalla finally dismissed her shadow shield, thinking hard. The plan she’d been working on since she’d mentioned it to Sintax now seemed possible. Difficult - highly dangerous - but just barely possible.

The orangeblood took something out of her sylladex. Curious, the fox troll stepped closer.

It was dried meat. Dried meat and some celery. Utterly bizarre.

“Why are you barely eating anything? No wonder you’ve lost weight.”

“And you’ve gained some. Looking good, Svalla.”

The shadowmancer pouted, pleased at the compliment and acknowledgement but not wanting to give Matari the satisfaction. It was strange hearing praise without the usual flirty note in the lowblood’s voice, but her tone had been completely even.

The orangeblood chewed at a reasonable pace, not racing to see how fast she could finish at all.

“I’ve got a plan.” The indigo said, sitting down on another chair and shutting the door so Aleksy couldn’t hear. She looked around, but if there were mechanical spybots, she couldn’t see them or pick them out with her shadow sense. She was going to have to risk it.

“The empire has everywhere covered, except underground. There’s a jade cavern nearby that Derevnya has tunnels to; I’ve had trolls digging out to them since the blockade started, and we’re nearly there. Enough of us will be leaving through them that the empire is bound to notice, and we’ll need a distraction to cover our escape.

I had one planned already, but until now, I couldn’t figure out how to set it off without the empire tracking us down immediately. With your tech, you can destroy the cults’ libraries and not have a psychic tracker hunt you down right after to interrogate you.��

Matari’s mouth pulled back in a puzzled frown, the expression odd without the roundness her face used to have.

“The cults’ libraries? Don’t they hate you enough from the first time? That seems extra risky.”

The fox troll’s lips drew back into a hard line.

“I know what I’m doing. This is the only way to get the empire’s attention long enough to make sure we all escape safely, and if it works how I want they might even back off from Derevnya.”

Shock was written plainly across the taller woman’s face.

“How?”

Svalla Saikos smiled a grim smile, the smile of a troll who has very little left to lose and a major bone to pick.

“There won’t be much horrorterror summoning after you destroy their texts and the empire comes to clean up the ashes. We’re going to tip them off and slip away while they’re busy.”

“Svalla, you’re selling these people out. They’re probably going to die.”

The lowblood flinched as the highblood snarled at her.

“They’re the reason we’re in this mess! They were sloppy and let themselves get caught! Don’t feel any sympathy for them, Matari. They deserve this.”

The pegasus troll’s eyebrows knitted together quizzically.

“Wait a sec. Your problem with them is that they got caught, not that they summoned a big freaky monster in the first place? Girl, you are whack.”

“The empire wasn’t doing anything about the problems. I’m not saying it was an ideal solution, but it worked! Everything would’ve been fine if they hadn’t gotten careless and let someone squeal.”

The younger woman paused after the indigo snapped at her.

“Sure. Anyway. Is there somewhere I can sleep? It’s been a long night.”

Svalla waved a hand dismissively.

“Aleksy can show you. But I want to know one more thing.”

“Uh, sure.”

“Is it true your lusus doesn’t want you anymore?”

Matari looked away.

“I don’t know. She didn’t come when I called when I went back to our hive...I don’t know if she’s alive or dead. I only found some of her feathers.”

So Lelyah had been right. This really was all her former guildmate had left in the world.

Maybe the right thing to do would have been to hug the abandoned troll, but a part of the purpleblood felt it was only fitting that the orangeblood’s caretaker leave her the way she herself had left so many others.

“Go sleep, Matari. We’ll discuss details in the evening. Don’t mention this to anyone else, or put it in a text message.”

The lowblood nodded.

“Thanks, Svalla.”

The fox troll folded her arms.

“Just go sleep.”

Her former friend obediently got up and walked out the door, and she could hear the woman asking the olive about her room.

The indigo took a deep breath.

What was it the standard-speaking trolls said? It never rained but it poured?

She felt like her tensely sleeping city had just been flooded. That any moment she could drown in the weight of what she had to do. There were no more obstacles blocking her way.

It was exhilarating. It was terrifying.

Svalla Saikos had never backed down from what other trolls considered unthinkable. As a child, she had studied for sweeps to bind eldritch powers to her service without resorting to cursed bargains. She had come back to her city after being cast out and stripped of her stipend and carved out a new life, knowing perfectly well how much those she’d spoken out against wanted her dead.

She walked back up to her balcony, a chill wind tossing her long hair back and forth.

Sweeps ago, she had proclaimed that horrorterror artifacts should be released from the cults and used for the good of all, carefully controlled and regulated legally. She had criticized the cults who hoarded secrets, who practiced shameful sacrifices and loathsome experiments while everyone else turned a blind eye.

For this she had been banished.

For this she would punish the trolls who had hidden in the very shadows she controlled for so long.

The indigo smiled into the chill air, looking into the horizon at the red sun just beginning to peek into the sky, its light stark against the slowly hovering imperial ships.

The city was about to wake up. 

[cloudbattrolls]

Svalla and Gliese, who both need new refs, but I want to finish Cherie and Rivali first. I worked on Cherie last night at least.

[cloudbattrolls]

Naitos in full (though I’ll probably change his jacket design) and Svalla. I’m not super satisfied with her face but her body is pretty much how I wanted it.

[cloudbattrolls]

Me: I have no cute girls

Me, remembering Svalla exists: I have a few cute girls

Her in her bathing suit, ready to fight more sea serpents if she has to

[cloudbattrolls]

I am not the best at drawing characters with bigger hips, but I’m trying, because Svalla and Sombra both have them.

The girl of ice and shadows. Also the girl who will take the last brownie and eat it in front of you to establish dominance.

[cloudbattrolls]

Svalla Saikos

Name: Svalla Saikos (her first name refers to the movement of waves on a shore, as well as overflowing emotions. I don’t remember where Saikos comes from, if anywhere, lol. Admittedly this is a replacement name for the character’s original one so I mostly went with what sounded good).

Online Handles: mutedSilhouette

Age: 11.6 sweeps (25 years)

Gender: Female (goes by she/her pronouns)

Caste: Purple (Svalla is on the bluer end of purple, but she’s still proudly indigo.).

Height: 5′0 (She’s very small for her caste, but she isn’t at all sensitive about it. She tends to use it as an excuse to make other people fetch her things or ask to be carried by taller trolls.)

Weight: 180 pounds (Svalla has a heavy, curvy build, with a round body and thick hips).

Lusus: Arctic fox mother, regular sized. Svalla calls her Snyieg, since it’s the Russian Local Derevnyan word for snow. 

Psi: Svalla doesn’t have psi per se. She gave up her latent ability for chucklevoodoos in exchange for the ability to manipulate shadows instead, which she obtained via very careful and particular horrorterror contracts. 

Strife: Svalla mostly uses her shadow powers for fighting, but if necessary she also has knives for direct combat. She’s a dab hand at traps if she gets the opportunity to set them.

Sylladex: Her stuff is organized in neat rows labelled in Cyrillic, so she says the letter and number to get things out.

Hive: Since she’s not as rich as a regular indigo due to the loss of her stipend several sweeps back, Svalla rents a small apartment in an old building. It’s nothing special, but she mostly spends her time at the university she works at anyway.

Interests: Teaching:

Cooking:

Trapping: 

[cloudbattrolls]

Never To Be (Always Not Me)

Matari Markab || Present Night || Derevnya, Saikos Hiveblock

You sigh again, loudly, and open one eye a crack to look at Svalla bustling around in the kitchen.

You draw in another breath when she puts up a hand, one of her soft, small, pale hands, so unlike most purplebloods’ that if you hadn’t seen her bleed before, sometimes between her size and her behavior you’d wonder if she was really purple.

The look she gives you now removes all doubt.

Svalla is small, just as soft as you but with bigger hips, and her face isn’t necessarily intimidating. It’s just a look of sheer force, of the knowledge that she doesn’t need to speak.

“I know.” You reply. “Shut uuuuup.”

She comes over and yanks a pillow out from under you and you topple off the couch with various swears, the wooden floor planks giving the opposite of a tender welcome to your elbows and shoulders.

You half-bare your fangs at her, but then you just sigh again until she puts a hand over your mouth.

“What are you?” she says, almost gentle, but with an edge to her northern-accented voice, her lilt growing stronger now that the two of you have lived here for over half a sweep again.

“I want a clade again, is that such a crime?” You mutter, pushing her hand away, hating yourself for the sound of it. Lyncus never would have let you get away with this. He would’ve laughed you into the canal until you stopped sulking.

If you want a clade, Matty, then get one. You’re a likable girl, when you’re not being super fucking stupid. 

“They will never quad you.” She says, so simple, without any bile, and that’s why you hate her for it.

“So what, then? Do I just get to sit here, knowing that they’ll do whatever and I don’t matter?”

“You left other people.” She says, and you snarl, you clench your fists, and she doesn’t move a muscle. “You neglected your own matesprit, left the guild your moirail was in. One of your clubs taken for helming. Now you whine, because they don’t pity you like you want.” 

“So what, I deserve this?”

Svalla gives you another look, and for once, you wish the two of you had more mobile ears; hers don’t give any hint to how she’s feeling behind that even purple stare, and you’ve never needed ears to betray your emotions even further.

“For everything, a consequence. It’s up to you if you deserve it.”

Then she turns away.

You’d asked her once, about clubs.

When you’re ready, Matari, but that won’t be for a while, I think.

She treats you like some dumb pupa. 

Just like you treated Sipara.

Guilt settles on you and you hate her for it, with a platonic fervor that you want to claw at her for until she gives you some kind of satisfaction. You get up, open the door, slam it behind you.

Snow is falling, and you blink it out of your eyelashes, a million tiny uncaring flakes in a vast sea of indifferent fog.

You walk into it, and it obligingly swallows you up.

[cloudbattrolls]

A Good Song Never Dies

Epsilo Volant | Present Night 

The violet ignored the stares he got as he sat down to eat. Certainly this place catered to teals at the most - and there weren’t a lot of them in here, it was mostly olives and a smattering of lower bloods. He focused on the papers in front of him, his observations of the squid Vallis had become so taken with.

None of it matched up. The data was wholly inconsistent, and when he’d tried to take handwritten notes in pen the ink had run together into writhing, spiraling shapes. He’d tried to do it with his digital instruments, but they’d started growing barnacles and smelling like rotted octopus. Obnoxious, and the repairs and replacements had cost him no small sum of caegers. 

Finally he’d hit on a solution - carving his observations into metal with a laser pen. A pain, but it was the only medium that preserved them long enough before it corroded to be copied down elsewhere. 

He drew out the sheet from his sylladex, and an edge crumbled in his hands onto the table. Dull gray shards scattered over the laminated wooden surface, some dust even falling to the floor. His mouth thinned in distaste at the mess.

As the seadweller rose out of his chair (it creaked slightly as he did) to find the napkin dispenser, he stopped dead.

Two women sat in the table across from him, and while one was unfamiliar, he squinted through his glasses at the lowblood of the pair.

It couldn’t be. Could it? He’d never seen her again after that night four long sweeps ago, her or her pest of a moirail. He’d never questioned Tulula about them, silently agreeing to let things lie for the sake of their matespritship.

Tulula was long gone.

And sitting scarcely a stone’s throw from him, thinner and with cybernetic limbs she hadn’t had before yet her horns and face still unmistakable, was Matari Markab.

She spoke more quietly too. He didn’t want to be too obvious, but he crossed closer than necessary as he got napkins, trying to hear them better.

“…know it, Svalla.” Said the bronze in that low, dull voice so different from the brazen confidence he’d known. “It’s just…hard to do anything except work these nights. ‘Sides, thought you didn’t want me around.”

The purple was unusually short for her caste, heavyset and despite being similarly quiet, she had purpose in her face and more energy in her posture than the lowblood. Her long hair shifted slightly as she scowled slightly in disapproval.

“Sometimes I do.” She replied. “But I have to think of Sintax. Sonati too. It’s not just about me. What about your ex matesprit and ash?”

She shook her head.

“Sent them apologies. Nothing, didn’t expect there to be.”

Epsilo couldn’t recall who those exes were, if he’d ever known. It couldn’t be Albire; she and Markab had never actually been together, Dionna had told him. Markab was clearly isolated; that was the important part. He had no reason to fear a revenge cycle.

He took his napkins and returned to his seat, cleaning up the mess, but always sharply aware of the pair.

He copied his notes as quickly as he could, and a good thing too - they got up to leave right after he put them back in his sylladex. He was lucky they hadn’t noticed him - they were still too deep in discussion, and thankfully he looked rather different from when Markab had known him.

Stealth wasn’t usually his style, and his caste and size made him stand out among the smaller and lowerblooded trolls. As he left the restaurant, he released two scouter flies - small, fragile things, quick and equipped with strong, high quality cameras in their shining insectoid eyes.

If he was lucky, Markab lived nearby. If he was even more lucky, the purpleblood would go her own way and not have to be involved. He had no interest in causing collateral against a troll who had never wronged him, especially since it sounded like she did have people who would miss her.

As they violet looked through his own device showing the camera feed, he wasn’t kept waiting long.

He checked his weapons just to be sure, but as he approached the small hivestem she lived in nearby, he wasn’t worried. The bronze had never had psiionics - it was possible her limb replacements had extra abilities, but he doubted it. They had seemed like they were of rather basic make and materials.

Then he realized - the purple was still there with her. His fins flicked in irritation. No matter. He would convince her to leave, or he would disable her.

The hivestem’s door was unlocked, and the one troll he saw as he climbed the stairs immediately turned around and walked back in their block at the sight of him. It was a dingy place, ramshackle at best. He wouldn’t be surprised if rats lived here. It certainly smelled like they might, and cobwebs hung in the corners.

As he walked toward the closed door, he heard the women’s voices again.

“Maybe you could go on jobs with me again…we both need the money.”

“You sure you trust me, Svalla?” The voice carried a hint of bitterness, but mostly fatigue. “Not that I blame you if you didn’t. But I don’t want to work together unless you do.”

There was a pause.

“I do. For this. You were always a good thief.”

A short bark of laughter with little humor.

“Yeah. I guess I was.”

Epsilo didn’t bother knocking. He used his caste’s strength to simply push the door aside, ripping it out of the lock. The old wood gave easily beneath his wide, slightly webbed hands.

Matari flinched as the indigo - Svalla - tensed and a black, nebulous shape appeared in her hand.

Then the bronze’s eyes widened and she mouthed his name silently. Her companion noticed and her eyes narrowed. The shorter troll looked back at the seadweller.

“You know her?”

“She helped destroy my first laboratory.” He stated flatly.

“You kidnapped my moirail! You were going to rip his eyes out!”

His fins flicked in annoyance at the pegasus troll’s noise.

“Don’t make a fuss.” The seadweller said in the same flat voice, staring her down. “It won’t help. If you could compensate me, I don’t need to take revenge.”

He didn’t really expect her to be able to, or to say yes. Yet she swallowed, her remaining organic eye weary as her mouth tilted in a thoughtful expression.

“How much?” She rasped, sounding as if the words were painful to get out.

“Tens of thousands of caegers. My equipment was not cheap. I lost things that night I haven’t been able to replace since.”

Matari blanched, setting a hand on a red couch for support.

“That’d take me sweeps. I’d probably die first.”

“That’s not my problem.” He replied. Why should he care that her short lifespan and poor choices limited her so?

“If you’d only wanted Furtiu, you could have taken him without wrecking everything else. Without getting Tulula involved. You just wanted a chance to destroy me.”

He’d stepped forward toward the woman, who looked at the man now looming over her with bared teeth and trembling fists.

He was yanked back and spun around with such shocking force his fins puffed out as he saw the indigo cross her arms and ropes of shadow retract into the dark nimbus.

“That’s enough.” The purpleblood said quietly.

“I don’t blame you for hating Matari. I know how much trouble she can cause. But you’ll never be repaid if you kill her.”

He blinked, then his lip curled in disdain.

“She’ll never be able to pay me back before she dies. I doubt she’d even try without attempting to flee again. That’s what she always does - run, or get someone more powerful to help her. She’s doing it right now.”

The indigo paused, her face unreadable. Epsilo stared at her with disdain, Matari with desperation.

“If someone took my moirail and tried to rip his eyes out…I’d want to destroy them and everything they cared for too. She’s told me about you before.”

“What have you heard?” Drawled the violet. “Assuming you believe anything she says.”

The little indigo looked up at Epsilo with no fear, only quiet disappointment.

“Enough. Now please leave. Come back when you’ve calmed down and we can discuss this further.”

In answer he whipped out his bone saw and went for her throat. He lunged and her shadows pushed him back, Matari grabbing his neck. Her fingers dug at his gills, making him cough and choke.

He writhed and kicked the lowblood away, his blows weaker thanks to the shadows restraining him. He hissed and grabbed his remote from his sylladex, summoning the scouter flies to get in the indigo’s face.

She shrieked and slapped at them, and the shadows loosened a bit…but he still couldn’t get free, bound around his middle.

He swapped his saw for a gun with a paralyzing agent and shot her.

She stiffened and fell as it took effect, the dark ropes finally slackening properly. The flies retreated.

“That’s an interesting power for your caste, instead of psychic abilities.” He said. “I’ll study you while Markab repays me. Insurance to motivate her.”

He didn’t need her fully intact either.

The violet put the gun away, drew and raised his saw again. He raised his arm up to then slash it down -

On Matari, who’d pushed herself between him and the purpleblood.

He dug into her flesh first with surprise, then his eyes narrowed and it became intentional. Orange blood gushed out of her as Epsilo mangled her insides a moment or two longer before putting the saw away. It dripped onto the floor, spreading out as the pegasus troll collapsed, eyes wide with shock as she coughed.

He had no reason to linger. It would have been nice to take the purpleblood, but if she was stupid enough to defend Markab, she deserved to watch her die. Besides, that paralyzing agent didn’t last very long on anyone above jade - the price he paid for its rapid effectiveness. Someone might try to help an indigo if he dragged her with him through the streets.

So he walked out the door and back down the worn stairs, thinking little of the incident. He went back to the guild’s island, looking at his notes again before he fell asleep as the sun rose.

His eyes snapped open in the middle of the day, sunlight clear against the tinted windows of his hive. He had to get to the ocean.

Epsilo climbed out of his recuperacoon, throwing clothes on in a flurry, hardly knowing why he was so frantic. His fins rippled and his gills ached, and strangely, his torso felt…odd, right around his center. The skin there had paled, in the shape of the shadows that had gripped him.

Come, come.

The command was more a feeling than actual words. A summons winding its way through his every cell as he ran to the beach and waded into the cold ocean, squinting despite his darkened goggles.

Another’s touch. But you’re for us. We have all the knowledge you desire. We have your love, his mind afire.

Come back, Epsilo.

Or Vallis could lose himself, you know.

The voice - multiple voices - didn’t sound angry. If anything they were gentle. Sleepy. Murmuring almost out of reach, rhythmic like the soft slap of waves on a shore. They offered comfort, like his lusus had as a wriggler.

The skin where the shadows had gripped went paler. His eyes closed.

It wouldn’t be so bad to lay down in the sand and let the water wash over him. He understood now what Vallis meant about finding static comforting.

Almost without thinking, he became a hyena, and curled up in the water under the blazing sun, dreaming of Vernrot.

The eyes in his dreams might have unsettled him once.

Things were different now. He had nothing to fear.

[cloudbattrolls]

“Have you ever seen the aurora, Sintax?”

He probably hasn’t. First time for everything.

[cloudbattrolls]

Matari’s Relationships

Close Relationships: 

Sipara Nzinga - Charming, reckless, brilliant, and ridiculous - Sipara’d normally be your type in red, but you’re not touching that with a mile-long pole and a hazmat suit. Instead you help her when you can, tease her always, and stick with her despite knowing pretty well she wouldn’t do the same for you. You like trolls who are bad for you, what can you say?

Sonati Yxlisi - Befriending her was probably one of the worst choices you ever made, but you never claimed good judgment as one of your virtues. She’s dangerous as hell and scares the piss out of you on one level, but damn if she isn’t fun to pal around with and you both laugh at the same shit, so as far as you’re concerned you’re besties.

Casual Relationships:

Meukit London - Is it your fault the Lepus girls are hot? You don’t think so, so it’s at all your responsibility when you keep winding up attracted to them. You tell yourself it’s just a flirting exercise, just a pretty face that you like having around, and a terrible idea given your line of work, but...well, you’re mostly not super good at lying to yourself.

Sintax Dextri - He’s adorable, god bless him. You love this precious little ignorant mutant (is he seriously 9 sweeps?), you love messing with him, and you are going to introduce him to all the fabulous benefits of living a life that’s not in captivity. Whether he likes it or not.

Winnie Galope - She smells bad and you feel kind of amazed that she’s so ignorant on a couple of topics, but she’s a total sweetheart and damn if you’re not a sucker for lowbloods in need, especially when the two of you have almost the exact same sign and lusus.

Svalla Saikos - You never thought a purple could even be so quiet and shy until you met Svalla. She’s weird for her caste and kind of dull, but something about her is endearing and the pair of you are hunting buddies sometimes. You’ve never met anyone else so good at traps, and her shadow magic is cool.

Former Relationships:

Cygcna Albire - Your former redcrush and oldest remaining friend, you adore her despite her strangeness and want nothing more for her unnaturally short life to be as happy as possible. Too bad she’s going to die soon.

You try not to think about how she died, but you miss her sometimes.

Cennef Renard - At first you thought she was some sort of lowblood legislacerator trying to bring you in; but eventually you realized she just admired how you stole shit, and how can you not like somebody who shares your desire to mess with highbloods? You think she’s cute as hell and wonderfully vicious, even if she’s a bit too uptight for her own good sometimes. You miss her, but you’ll have plenty of time to explain yourself when you get back.

Well, so the fuck much for that. God fucking damnit.

Gliese Benral - Oh, boy. Your ex, the first troll you dated in red, and then in ash, and a big damn mess of emotions. You still care about her, but you know she’s bad news (especially now that she’s in the fucking Fleet) and frankly with no quads between you now you’re not sure if you even want to keep in contact.

[cloudbattrolls]

Finally I finish this stupid thing, it has its little mistakes but WHATEVER it’s passable enough

ALOPEX AGOPUS: thief, shadowmancer, trapper, teacher of Misade Kalisa and moirail of Maggie whatever her last name is. Had a matesprit once but we don’t talk about that. Comes from the Northern Holds, settled in Icosahedron and joined its Thieves Guild. Originally created by @iskrowrioutha, now used by me for all types of shenanigans. Or as many shenanigans as a wary, quiet purpleblood gets up to anyway. Then again she does steal things. And practice magic. And regularly go into the woods to kill cute furry things and mentor a jadeblood. She really likes her sugar and giving her sweets is a good way of getting her to open up a bit more.