#yarrex fissaa

[cloudbattrolls]

Digging Deeper

This drabble is preceded by The Waiting Game and followed by Dead Silent.

You can see her slip, can't you? Start to reveal how paranoid she really is? It's a wonder she holds together, but I can't say I admire her for it.

--

Ullane calls a woman who works for her once in a while, one of the few people she trusts who isn’t fully troll: Zanzul Varzim, who for various reasons is a better reason to call than her signmate to the clinic proper.

The violet comes in several hours later, fortunately not too far from the clinic at the moment, walking in quietly and going to the yellowblood’s office.

The medic has asked the horrorterror hybrid here to use her marvelous ears; her bloodline’s various abilities include hearing ghosts.

The violet closes her eyes, focusing, her iridescent fins twitching slightly as her spots softly glow. When she opens her eyes, they are glowing slightly whitish violet as well.

Zanzul, notepad at the ready, asks Calcit’s ghost if he remembers how he got injured and who attacked him, what tip he was investigating, and how he acquired the information.

Unfortunately, shades of the dead are not always coherent; few hold onto their minds fully in death.

The blueblood’s remnant rambles that they took from his veins what they could not take from his purse, his pockets empty when what they sought was silver. 

Riches flow toward those who copy, he says. This crime was slight, their others greater. He was led astray by promises of truth and justice, but was delivered only emptiness and invisibility.

Ullane has Zanzul question Calcit about his silver further, but he becomes more incoherent, yet still somewhat eloquent. 

Before he fades entirely, he asks what killed him, if her tools were not the cause? 

His lyrical speaking style reminds the medic of her ex auspicitice, and she tries not to think of Widsth Orpheo; there is work to do, and Zanzul has to go.

She returns to the information Yarrex give her about her employee, Halvir Urtyop; the nurse who was the last to see Calcit before he died.

He’s worked for the clinic for several perigees and is noted to be calm and good with patients, with a polite but distant mannerism toward his coworkers, with a perfect legal record and good references.

Ullane dryly comments that she can’t decide if it’s a false lead or if Halvir is way too good at covering his tracks. Yarrex remarks that she might want to decide before the trial, and Ullane deadpans that he’s so wise.

To rule out sabotage from one angle, though she knows it unlikely, Ullane checks the medical machines Calcit was hooked up to that night just to be on the safe side; they are all perfectly in order, her part-time mechanic Priori Poster keeping them well-maintained as always. 

She discusses her next course of action with Xrumon and Yarrex privately in her office, wondering if she should have Halvir followed as she did with Jixill instead of trying to talk to him. 

Luckily, both men point out that this is a bad idea and that if word of it got out, things would become very tense in the clinic. 

Yarrex asks her if she knows any fortune tellers or tarot readers, and as Xrumon wears a pained look Ullane tells the brownblood to go in a corner and put on a dunce cap.

To her surprise, he actually pulls a dunce cap out of his sylladex and does so, leaving the mediculler a bit flummoxed. She asks him why he has that, and he states that he needs to be prepared when working for her.

Ullane had no idea he had one and looks at him as if he fell through the ceiling. Xrumon points out, reluctantly, that she did tell him to do that.

The woman briefly covers her face with her hands and tries to continue onward.

To avoid seeming as if she’s singling Halvir out, the administrator asks all the staff on duty that night if they saw or heard anything suspicious, and receives a variety of answers: Halvir himself says he was surprised at how fast Calcit deteriorated, someone else mentions graffiti on the wall outside, yet another person mentions that the back door was strangely unlocked, and last of all, an entire cellphone was reported thrown away in a trash can.

The final scrap of news catches Ullane’s immediate attention, though she makes note of the others as well.

It may be nothing.

It may be a piece of evidence she sorely needs.

--

The phone, the phone.

If it weren't for me, it would have been useless.

Though I have to give credit elsewhere, too.

[trolloled]

Powers Write-Up

For the sake of my sanity I’m writing down the exact nature of each troll’s powers here. Also, I guess people could read it if they’re interested in a particular troll’s ability. For obvious reasons, the absence of either of my anonymous caste trolls does not necessarily mean they have no powers.

Abnage

Power: Sight Jack

Limitations: Visual-basis, only affects one target at a time, user cannot see from own eyes during use

Description: Abnage can establish a psychic bond of sorts between himself and vulnerable trolls. This bond manifests as Abnage gaining the ability to see as if sharing the target’s eyes for as long as he desires. While in use, Abnage can still make himself blink and ‘look’ around, but since he can’t see what “he” is looking at, he tries not to move too much.

Typical Use: Cheats at card games.

Overcharge Potential: None. This power is too limited to go ‘overboard’ doing anything in times of emergency.

Gerrel

Power: Empathetic Bleed / Emotion Control

Limitations: User must feel the same emotion they are distributing, which the power automatically enforces. User feels a diminished, but still very much real, impact of the emotion they generate. Intensity of emotion inflicted on others dependent on user desire. Prolonged and powerful use can lead to ‘burnout’ where the power no longer functions and the user is left with bad headaches and nausea.

Description: Gerrel can form a psychic link with vulnerable trolls, forcing them to feel as he wants for a period of time. Generally, most people are unaware they are being affected so long as the emotion is a natural progression and subtle. Intense mood swings are possible, but place immense drain upon Gerrel to use. A weak form of mind control, moods can be swung around to convince people to take certain courses of action, however Gerrel cannot make someone do something they would never actually do (i.e. harm a quadrant, betray someone they’re very loyal to, etc.).

Typical Use: De-escalation before violence ensues, leaving guests at parties in a particular mood as per wishes of his employer.

Overcharge Potential: High. Gerrel refuses to explore this possibility out of concern that it might damage his own mind, but if he were to stop holding back when using this power, the radius and amount of affected trolls would greatly increase. Additionally, more violent and intense moods can be brought about. The feedback from this would almost certainly knock him unconscious under prolonged use, but could turn things around if confronted with a large number of trolls intent on killing him.

Adabon

Power: Resonance

Limitations: High energy consumption, user must intake large amount of calories and electrolytes after use or face issues of malnourishment and exhaustion. Power is limited to what user can physically touch.

Description: Adabon is able to match the resonance frequency of any object he touches, violently jolting it with a shock of energy from himself that immediately severely damages or destroys what he touches. Adabon himself is usually left tired from even one use of this on small to medium objects. Larger objects require equally larger expenditures of energy, and spending too much at once may be lethal.

Typical Use: Breaking and entering, getting back into own hive after losing keys for umpteenth time.

Overcharge Potential: Minimal, power is restricted by the user’s own reserves of energy and fortitude. Trying to shake a person apart might be possible, but the feedback would likely kill the user for doing so.

Famynn

Power: Temperature Regulation

Limitations: Power cannot be controlled voluntarily by user. Power is also influenced by the emotions of the user to some extent. If left unchecked, power may be eventually fatal to user (hypo/hyperthermia).

Description: Famynn’s power over temperature might be impressive if he had any decent control over his ability. Instead it defaults to passively and constantly cooling him down, to the point of possibly giving him hypothermia. Temperature Regulation is known to be impacted by the following events: Smoking (causes subsequent rise to stable room temperature), embarrassment/shame/anger (causes heat levels to rise to warm/hot in user and small area around him), sadness/fear (causes temperature to rapidly drop, in small and enclosed spaces with sufficient moisture, snap freezing is possible). While sleeping, power ‘resets’ to room temperature, making it an involuntarily great way to survive when sleeping outside of a hive.

Typical Use: N/A

Overcharge Potential: Medium, Famynn is capable of gaining some measure of control over his power, but only to the extent that he can force it to go to one extreme or the other. Since this tends to be fatal for himself, he avoids doing so. However, as mentioned previously, in a small enough environment with high enough moisture content, it is possible that this power can cause snap freezing.  In theory, it might be possible to freeze a target solid given enough time, control, and patience.

Argumi

Power: Passive Empath & Thought Collection

Limitations: Power cannot be mitigated in any way, regardless of user’s desire to do so. Range of thought and emotion gathering limited to roughly a greenblood’s average living room in size. Power is not obstructed by any structure or object.

Description: Argumi involuntarily picks up the surface thoughts of everyone nearby. Thoughts are heard in each troll’s ‘mental’ voice as they think said thoughts, and all thoughts are heard concurrently, making large groups of trolls a severe drain to be in the presence of. Argumi will also begin to feel the most extreme emotion the closest troll (in terms of proximity) to him is feeling, i.e. a mostly angry troll that has settled into seething will cause Argumi to begin feeling angry for the same reason as the troll in question. Unfortunate side effect: trolls feeling strong emotions related to redrom, palerom, or blackrom will bleed these emotions as well, and Argumi forcibly begins to feel the same way towards whichever troll is the subject of said emotions. Power can be focused on, if user really wants that, in order to do a deeper dive on a single troll at a time. This ‘focusing’ allows the user to sift through memories and subconscious thoughts as if checking through books at a library, and requires deep concentration. Affected trolls are mostly unaware of this intrusion aside from a typically considered ‘disturbing’ feeling of a voice in the back of their head whispering something they cannot hear. It’s really just Argumi muttering to himself mentally.

Typical Use: N/A

Overcharge Potential: Minimal. Argumi has zero desire to even try to push his power towards past its limits. Even if he did, it would only allow him to retrieve repressed or lost memories hidden deep within the subconscious... along with every single emotion the troll is currently feeling. Loss of “self” is probable and very psychologically damaging.

Yarrex:

Power: Object Stasis

Limitations: Power limited by volume/mass of objects to be held in place. More complex objects require more concentration, with there being a hard to quantify “upper limit” of what can be held in stasis. Power use induces brief flash from eyes for each object held. Power also does not work on sapient or sentient living matter, at best only affecting uprooted plants. Range of power is limited to a dozen feet or so.

Description: Yarrex is able to hold objects in “stasis” either at range or by physically touching them. Stasis is defined as “immovable,” with objects refusing to budge from position that they are locked into. Holding objects like this becomes more difficult the longer stasis is held and the more objects there are. “Complex” objects (multiple moving parts) require higher concentration. For instance, Yarrex may halt a Scuttle Buggy (Immensely complex) and little else, or he might halt a gun (fairly complex) and a number of other simple objects. Any momentum held by objects caught in stasis is maintained until stasis is broken, thus a Buggy stopped mid-acceleration will promptly resume speeding at the end of use, and a gun stopped mid-fire will still discharge its ammunition after stasis is ended. Given how fast guns actually fire, it’s up to the user’s own reflexes to stop themselves from getting shot.

Typical Use: Precision sniping. Using the power on his rifle in small, frequent bursts, Yarrex can disregard normal, involuntarily muscle movements shifting the sights while actually aiming, making him a better than average sniper. Power can also be used for an extremely limited version of flight - simply throw foot sized objects into the air, hold in place, and then climb very carefully. This is exceedingly dangerous.

Overcharge Potential: None. Power’s own limitations are hard set, either by the power itself or Yarrex’s own “balance” obsession forming an impenetrable mental block.

Marnin

Power: Electricity Storage & Discharge

Limitations: Power is somewhat involuntary. Discharge automatically occurs upon touching a conductive object with hands, similar to a static shock. Only so much voltage of electricity can be stored at once.

Description: Like a living battery, Marnin can absorb electricity from powered objects he touches and discharge it from his hands. He unfortunately cannot control when he discharges through mental focus, so by necessity he wears rubber gloves at almost all times. The amount of power discharged at once can be somewhat controlled with enough focus, but discharge occurs very rapidly making this difficult. A large amount of voltage is able to be ‘stored’ in this manner, but Marnin has yet to bother quantifying it with a voltmeter. 

Typical Use: Recharging small electronics through concentration, shocking people who bother him with a “friendly” handshake.

Overcharge Potential: Minimal. The amount of voltage that can be stored could be enough to be fatal to a living creature on discharge, but doing so would require getting within reach. Additionally, power is not influenced by emotions or desires, so ‘wanting’ to pass more electricity will have no effect.

Chamlo

Power: Vision Share

Limitations: Power is extremely disorientating when used upon other trolls and self without practice. Power does not need to be directed by sight, but can only work on one creature at a time and the target must be concentrated upon mentally the entire time.

Description: As opposed to Abnage’s Sight Jack, Vision Share is the friendlier (albeit more disorientating) alternative. Chamlo can ‘share’ his vision with the target affected by the psiionic bond, which in theory is not limited by range (Chamlo has never tried), letting them see through his eyes as well as their own at the same time, and vice versa. This is very disorientating for obvious reasons, and anyone experiencing this for the first time tends to become quickly motion sick or otherwise debilitated unless they’re of strong fortitude. Both trolls can still move and act while this power is in effect, if they’re physically able to.

Typical Use: Since this power is not limited to trolls, Chamlo uses it to see the outside world through the eyes of his lusus. He does not use this power on other trolls since he has no friends.

Overcharge Potential: None, this power only works on one target at a time, and its effects cannot be increased or decreased.

Evelsi

Power: Aural Manipulation

Limitations: Only works on the typically psiionically vulnerable, range is limited to what the user can presently see.

Description: Evelsi is able to change what a troll hears by interfering with their minds’ interpretations when sound enters their eardrums. The sigh of a breeze could become a raging tornado, while an incoming train horn could be reduced to a simple bike horn, and everything outside and in-between. This extends to changing what a troll hears someone else as saying, but it cannot stop someone from realizing the words being mouthed don’t match what is being said.

Typical Use: Evelsi makes his singing sound better and occasionally plays harmless pranks. 

Overcharge Potential: Low. Aural Manipulation can be increased in intensity to make all noise completely unbearable for a troll to ‘listen’ to, but such intensity becomes mentally draining on the user. This is multiplied for each troll being given this sort of treatment, making it a poor crowd control mechanism.

Remune

Power: Seismic Sense

Limitations: Range is limited to the size of a “small” building in terms of area. Given its nature, it also only works to detect things that touch the ground while moving or are otherwise in contact with it.

Description: Remune is able to ‘hear’ the vibrations of all things touching the ground within range of his power. This includes the heartbeats of trolls as well as their actual footsteps, so long as they continue to touch the ground. This power is hypersensitive, and as such makes Remune edgy in the company of large amounts of trolls. Driving any sort of vehicle will also leave him in a similar state of edge, but given the monotonous nature of movement in this manner, he is more easily able to handle it. 

Typical Use: Excuse for a drinking habit. In a pinch, can be used to determine if someone may be lying by noticing their heart rate increasing.

Overcharge Potential: Medium to high. The range and sensitivity of this power may be increased with focus, though at the cost of the user’s own comfort and possibly sanity. At the extreme end, vibrations in the air may become able to be picked up if they are close enough to the ground when made, forcing the user to endure the sound of every low flying insect in an extreme radius.

Gaveyo

Power: Fake Death

Limitations: Decreased strength as targets’ castes increase in hue. Minimally useful against greenbloods, ineffective against teal and above. User must physically mimic being dead, else the mental image will not function. Only works on targets that user can see.

Description: Fake Death is an advanced form of mental manipulation that can rapidly work to convince its target that it has successfully “killed” Gaveyo or that Gaveyo has otherwise died. Upon use, the power links with as many targets within visual range of the user as it can and attempts to convince them that the last injury inflicted upon him by one of the members linked has killed him. If no persons linked have attacked him, death is simulated as a sudden heart attack. User must immediately fall onto the ground into a ‘corpse-like’ pose, while the power works to fill in the gaps between injury and death. For example, if someone were to punch Gaveyo in the stomach, Gaveyo would lie down immediately while activating his power. The power would link with the puncher, causing them to see Gaveyo double over and produce whatever they would most believe would be linked with his death, before ‘Gaveyo’ falls into the same position the real troll is laying in. If attacked with a weapon, that weapon appears to inflict a fatal blow, and so on. This illusion covers all senses possible, although as victim caste increases, fewer and fewer senses are covered. The first sense to stop being covered is smell, with the last sense to be removed being sight (at which point the power does not work).

Typical Use: Sucker punching people who attack him, scaring people for giggles.

Overcharge Potential: High. Unknown to Gaveyo, the effects of this power can instead be charged in reverse, causing each troll to forcibly witness and feel their own grisly demise. Fortunately for all people, it is likely he will never uncover this potential. Even if he did, using this restricts the power to work on two or three trolls at a time and requires immense concentration, though it would still most likely be extremely psychologically damaging to the victim(s).

[condescensionsation]

I WOULD fix the symbol on yarrex's shirt

if every time I tried it didn't come out looking terrible

[cloudbattrolls]

Dead Silent

This drabble is preceded by Digging Deeper and directly followed by Abrasion.

Death can come in such strange ways. I am not one to dwell on it, but I will admit; the method here surprised even me.

--

Naturally, Ullane asks Yarrex to help investigate these leads. He checks on the graffiti, which seems to be nothing out of the ordinary - the word ‘Q-Bag’ is included, to Ullane’s dryly amused snort. She can guess where that one came from. 

He finds out that the last person to use the unlocked door was one Giorni Valtop - one of the medical staff - on his smoke break, but that the clinic’s camera footage shows no signs of a trespasser coming through it. 

Ullane muses that perhaps they could figure out if someone using cloaking tech or the like came through it, to which Yarrex responds he’s not psychic, though that would be pretty cool. He remarks that they’re not sure who threw the phone away, but he could have chrono-reactive lenses installed last night to zoom in on the trash can and find out (Ulalne rolls her eyes at that).

He hands the phone to her, having already gone dumpster diving for it in preparation, and remarks that it’s an old-style one, the kind you flip open, imagine. Also, the memory and battery cards have been removed.

Ullane mentions that such a person could still be tracked by visible breath or movement in the air, or yes, with a psychic; it’s too bad Zanzul is away now. Yarrex responds that he’s aware, but their cameras’ resolution isn’t top of the line and they’re in static positions. 

She also comments that the phone’s state isn’t strange at all; clearly it was used to communicate something the caller didn’t want any record of, and it means Halvir may not be the murderer at all, it could be someone else entirely. 

Yarrex points out that it would’ve made more sense to throw the phone away outside the clinic, and Ullane agrees. If they didn’t do that, perhaps they couldn’t, they had to get rid of it immediately for some reason…

…or, she says, struck by a sudden thought, it wasn’t a burner phone at all. It was used in some other incriminating way.

Yarrex shrugs and says he hasn’t the foggiest what it was used for if not making villainous calls.

Ullane rolls her eyes and says that their…opposition…is not ‘villainous’. At least, no more than she used to be. She isn’t an expert on technology, but she could ask Xrumon.

The brownblood warns her that if she stays too vague she’s liable to put on a tinfoil hat. He has some made, just in case. 

She retorts that she looks stupid when she wears any hat, and that she’s intentionally being careful.

Her head of security thoughtfully remarks that the walls have sponge clots…and they ooze green slime, but only on Tuesdays.

Ullane pushes him a little. Stop it with the Spongebob, she says, she hears it enough from Thrixe.

Yarrex collapses in agony, wailing for workman’s comp.

She prods him with a toe. Save it for the theater, Fissaa. Get up.

He takes out a copy of the movie “Up” from his sylladex and hands it to her. She baps him in the face with it and then puts it away in her own, silently wondering how he keeps pulling out oddly fitting objects to match what she says.

Once Ullane goes to Xrumon, he looks at the phone and says it’s a phone. Has she considered giving him a battery to turn it back on with or should he power it with one made out of spite?

Ullane placidly replies that it seems like something he could do, but she leaves and returns with a slightly odd looking battery for him to use.

Xrumon boots up the phone and notes that someone wiped the internal memory on top of tossing the external card, asking her what she thinks it was used for. 

Ullane tells him that she thinks it was used to hack the nanotech, which she knows sounds ridiculous, but she isn’t ruling anything out.

He replies that that’s easy to prove; just bring him a nanobot and a piece of bread.

Ullane frowns, finding it hard to believe it’s that simple, then retrieves the needed things quickly. She explains that usually, Friday simply controls the nanotech with her psi, since they’re technically part of her; made from her own cells’ extremely effective DNA repair that she has so her body can cope with her radioactivity manipulation ability.

But when other clinic staff use them, of course they have manual commands via a remote, or a pre-made code, like a normal robot. It’s dangerous to alter their instructions too much once they’re inside a body, though, she adds.

She hadn’t even thought they could be hacked, she muses. Or maybe the batch itself was interfered with during creation, but that seems less likely.

Xrumon, asks if there’s a specific radio frequency the nanites listen to, and Ullane confirms there is; that’s Friday’s power, after all. Electromagnetic manipulation.

The tealblood goes into the phone’s ringtone and connects it to his laptop, nothing that funnily enough their past work on Reality’s Song is helpful here. 

At first, his work produces only a tuneless noise that becomes inaudible when he puts it on the correct frequency. Then he holds it up to the piece of bread and presses play.

There is no sound.

Yet as both trolls watch, the piece of bread tears itself to pieces, spurred on by the noiseless song.

--

Such trouble gone to, simply to kill one man. Trolls die of less and for less all the time.

But one death, well placed and timed, can change everything.

[cloudbattrolls]

Picking Up the Pieces

This drabble is preceded by Shattered, and followed by The Waiting Game.

This is how the real trouble started. Not that I blame her for this part; she did what any troll would do.

--

First Ullane goes to Yarrex Fissaa, the clinic's head of security. He is a tall, eccentric brownblood with glasses, obsessive about balance in all aspects of his life. A very different successor to Thrixe Varzim, who once held the title, but no less competent.

She views the footage he shows her, displaying various medical staff checking on him during the night. At one point the screen shows a nurse leaning over the patient to check a monitor, 

Yarrex gives his name as Halvir Urtyop: yellowblood, model employee, relatively new hire but past his probationary period. 

When told he likes to golf on the weekends, Ullane jokes that that’s clearly suspicious; Yarrex agrees that not preferring mini golf is a red flag.

He offers to get her the names of all the staff who tended to Calcit that night, and she accepts, though he points out that Calcit’s things have already been confiscated by one Hovend Jegder from the legislacerator department.

The brownblood also notes that he did a search on the man, and apparently he was ‘checking out a hot tip’ on a nearby street shortly before he died.

Ullane, of course, is suspicious of that, and resolves to investigate it later.

Yarrex “comforts” her by mentioning that if she doesn’t manage to prove her innocence in this matter, he knows a guy. Ullane informs him that that isn’t reassuring in the slightest.

They both examine the footage of when Calcit was first brought in; dragged by a redblood who claimed he found the man in a gutter. Unsurprisingly, he left quickly, and equally as unsurprisingly, the noble’s wallet was completely empty of money when it was taken in for evidence.

The pair agrees it was suspicious for this maroon to take Calcit to the clinic at all, and Yarrex helpfully displays a chart with an x and y axis to display Ullane’s stress levels over the matter.

Ullane looks at it and rots it in seconds with her psiionics, unamused. The head of security tosses it sadly into the trash.

She theorizes that the lowblood injured the man to begin with, especially as the man was unable to speak and give any information himself. 

The mediculler suspects sabotage - she already did, but this supports her theory. 

Friday is no fool, the doctor says, for all her eccentricities; this was not her fault. Ullane questioned her regardless and this was almost immediately clear. Friday Lovely is many things, but right now she is distraught, and she was never a good liar. 

Yes, his insides were sab- Yarrex begins to say, then pauses. No, he likes his face not breaking out. 

If the lowblood was the reason the man was injured, why bring him at all? He asks. That just makes him a strong suspect, given Calcit’s death. 

Ullane cracks the barest hint of a smile. He doesn’t want the loving touch of chronic acne?

Then she looks at him with dry amusement. Oh, Yarrex. She has enemies; Friday too, though she is far less known to them personally. She suspects this is the work of at least one of them.

The head of security then suggests she have a detective look into the man - Gerrel Mitius, who once did temporary work for the clinic - and Ullane agrees.

After a few nights, Gerrel reports back that the name of the maroon who dragged Calcit in is Jixill Vladim.

Perpetually behind on his gambling debts, he apparently has something of an addiction he barely stays on top of. Apparently he recently paid off some people who were threatening to take his knees, but he’s not known to be affiliated with anyone in particular.

Ullane thanks Gerrel, who says that helping a doctor is very fulfilling work, and she hopes she hasn’t put him in too much danger. He responds that his primary employer, Viltau Espino, is too dangerous to cross, and Ullane agrees with mild amusement, remembering when she fixed the indigo’s hand.

Later, she visits Hovend at the legislacerator station.

He gives her a copy of the inventory found on Calcit Interg after his death - a copy of a detective magazine and a pair of counterfeit jeans - and mentions that a nanomachine was removed from him for inspection.

His finger is conspicuously bleeding from said nanomachine, and she offers to use her psiionics to heal him. He nervously refuses, as it would be seen as tampering with submitted evidence. Ullane offers him bandages instead, which he accepts.

He mentions he already disinfected it and doesn’t want to catch flesh-melting diseases, to which Ullane laughs and mentions how sensible that is. She appreciates his cooperation.

Hovend smiles nervously and he hopes she can survive her trial. It won’t be pretty.

Ullane dryly comments that her life is not a pretty one, and Hovend nods and agrees his isn’t either. He hands her an origami crane.

Surprised but pleased, the medic shows a rare, open smile of delight and makes the wings flap. 

He smiles weakly and says he doesn’t take any joy from doing this. Ullane assures him she does not blame him, that she knows a man who was once a legislacerator herself. 

She bids him good night, and leaves.

Back to send her own specialized investigators out after Jixill Vladim.

--

Ullane knew what she might be getting into, setting foot into a dark web she had been part of once.

I will say that she did hesitate when presented with the inevitable decision to go yet deeper. I will be fair to the not-so-good doctor.

It still didn't matter in the end.

[cloudbattrolls]

Left Hand Free

Jikiro Takami | Gliese Benral’s Territory | Present Night

Notes: The prior drabble to this is You & Me: Part Two. Yarrex and Reality’s Song belong to @trolloled!

He had to admit, this wasn’t quite how he’d imagined returning to fight Gliese, with a nervous-looking olive and smiling brownblood in tow. Gerrel had been a big help in recommending the cheerful sniper. 

Maidel hadn’t said much as they’d met up at Viltau’s, her eyes flicking around nervously, but Yarrex seemed like a fun guy. A little weird, but hey, who was Jikiro to judge? He was strange company’s CEO by this point. 

The three of them had just teleported to the edge of the hedge maze, the blueblood’s mansion dimly visible beyond the foliage. The weather wasn’t too bad, thankfully - some clouds, but there was enough moonlight to see by, and the wind was mild. It was a bit chilly, though the tealblood barely felt it; a benefit of being undead, he supposed. 

Maidel wore a jacket and a scarf, but he felt comfortable in some simple pants and a shirt; he couldn’t wear anything too restrictive anyway for his part of the plan.

Gerrel and Maidel hadn’t reported any security drones or guards or anything; while Gliese was high on traps she was low on troll power, so they should be safe here for the moment. 

Then again, with powers like she and her signmate - good god she had a signmate - had, the pair didn’t exactly need a ton of backup.

“I don’t sense her.” Maidel confirmed in a soft voice. “She can’t be close. That’s good, but we’ll have to draw her out.”

Jikiro grinned.

“Oh, I’ll draw her out. Let’s get Yarrex in position first.”

Following a short exchange, the brownblood was given a psiionic shield made from Maidel’s powers and teleported off to the hive - but there was no telling how well said shield would hold up against a psychic as powerful as Kit. 

Ullane had provided them each with a backup nullifier, but it only had so much range, and the machines couldn’t be on when Maidel had to use her own psi again. 

Especially since the pangolin-sheep troll had to conserve her energy for nullifying and restraining Gliese once Jikiro triggered a seizure, then taking them all back. 

They’d have to work quickly.

She returned, put the last part of their plan in place with his help - within minutes, they’d ensured all the devices were pointed in the right direction and the sound barrier (though it wasn’t perfect) was in place. Maidel moved away, ready to activate it remotely when Gliese was in range. 

The tealblood cracked his knuckles. Time to do what he could do very well when occasion called for it, having learned from the master since wrigglerhood.

Be annoying.

He pulled out some sheets of paper - kozo, the good old-fashioned kind, with spells already drawn on them, ready to be activated with a touch. 

He downed some ink with a quick gulp from a bottle, then brushed his hand across each page and watched as the symbols wriggled, lifted off the paper, and knit together into small, simple creatures. They weren’t direct analogues of animals, but most resembled bugs in some way - dark, quick and skittering. 

At a gesture from him, they went to locate the cerulean, zipping away through the air. 

The little constructs would find the hare troll, bother her, and corral her to where he needed her. They’d dissolve once they achieved that, but they had the important utility of being impervious to anything she could throw at them.

She’d be forced to pursue the things if she wanted them gone, with a few instructed to “die” to egg her on, make her think she had a chance of getting rid of them if she followed and kept trying.

He took out a cigarette to smoke while he waited. He hadn’t had the chance in a little while. 

It wasn’t long before he heard the telltale sounds of cursing, the thudding of her lusus’s feet, and took a final drag before lowering it and putting it in his sylladex. His lusus hadn’t gotten him to quit, but he could never litter without knowing she’d kill him for it.

Gliese Benral came within range, looking at him with utmost hatred in her glowing orange eyes. Again she sat atop her lusus, the giant hare matching his charge’s glare as he strode closer, fangs bared. The last of the constructs fizzled away into ink, which returned to the teal, symbols swirling on his skin. 

Maidel flipped the switch on the reality’s song setup loaned to them by Ullane, rigged into a network of speakers surrounding the tealblood and the blueblood.

The sound hurt his ears, even muffled and at a distance as it was. It was carefully sealed to only be focused outwards, so he could still use magic, as long as he was careful to not get too close to the edge of the barrier.

Gliese too still had her powers, with one very important limitation: there were only so many ghosts she could draw on now, and the noise itself would make it hard for her to retreat.

Sure enough, she gritted her teeth as it was activated but sat up straight and haughty on her lusus anyway, large ears flicking. The animal stared at him with narrowed eyes, baring its fangs and pawing the ground as if it wanted to charge at him.

“Should I even bother asking why you’re back?” She spat. “Or should I just kill you again?”

“You could make this easy and just come with me.” He said, shrugging. “But let’s be real; neither of us really wants that.” 

“Goddamn right.” Snarled the blueblood, whipping out a flamethrower.

Huh. He hadn’t expected that, drawing a quick symbol on his shirt. 

As she activated it the flames only got so far before it sputtered and died, gushing ink. Jikiro relished the look on her face for all of five seconds as her lusus ran forward and she leapt off, putting that weapon away and whipping out her scythe.

He dodged as best he could, jumping away, but she sliced open his side, raising her blade to try again. He winced, gritting his teeth. 

Stopped a hair’s breadth from his skin, he held the weapon in place with sticky restraints of his own ink-blood, trailing from the slowly bleeding gash. 

Gliese’s face twisted in disgust and frustration, and she yanked on the scythe, pulling it free with a few good tugs - only to have it snatched by the teal and thrown over her head. 

She snarled, orange sparks crackling around her, and despite his wound Jikiro smiled. 

A zombie rose and tossed her scythe back to her, but he wasn’t there. He sealed his wound and drank more ink, pooling it below him and using the liquid to slide at speed, making a trail where he went and sealing it dry in his wake, making sure it adhered to the grass.

Air swirled around his skin where her scythe nearly got him again, and he spun around another zombie that popped out of the ground to grab at him. Giddy from the thrill as the wind tossed his ponytail around, Jikiro dodged more undead bursting around, trailing more ink behind him as he looped and zigzagged. 

The pain of his wounds lessened as he focused on his footwork, as he taunted the growing ranks undead and their controller as she pursued him, and the tealblood grinned. 

Until the giant hare’s powerful back legs sent him flying, skidding across the ground, wheezing as the air left his lungs in a sharp, painful blow. He felt the painful increase of the grinding notes, close to the barrier, and gritted his teeth. He felt the world trying to purge him as he struggled to rise. 

No, not yet. He wasn’t quite done.

He looked up as he heard a horrible cracking, squelching noise and a terrible stench filled the air.

Ah, shit.

Gliese stood atop a structure of warped undead corpses over a dozen feet tall, supporting her as she glared daggers down at him. It grew further as he watched, just far enough from the barrier to work, and he felt the presence of ghosts again. 

The lusus kept its distance from its charge’s creation, ears flattened, and Jikiro gritted his teeth. He didn’t like doing this.

Unfortunately for the giant hare, it stood directly on some of his dried ink.

He liquefied the material again, and bound the beast as it kicked and struggled. 

Gliese’s head whipped around to watch her custodian writhe, and Jikiro forced himself up, panting from his bad lungs - maybe he really should quit smoking - and summoned his ink again, forcing himself onward across the grass, breath misting the air from the chill. 

He managed a final few swirls and lines until Gliese forced him to the ground with both phantoms and the clawing fingers of a pair of zombies

The corpses pinned his limbs and forced him to look up at the psychic, her lean arms crossed as the wind tossed her hair around. 

He would have done so willingly. 

Blood and ink running down his face, missing a few fangs, covered in dirt and leaves - Jikiro grinned the vicious smile of a hunter whose prey just tripped the snare.

The teal snapped his fingers as the blueblood jumped from her morbid tower, blade raised to chop the tealblood’s head off.

The extensive symbol array he’d been drawing with his ink the whole time activated.

A series of flashing lights, a far larger-scale version of the symbol he’d drawn when they’d first met, with other colors, shone brilliantly through the cloudy night. 

The exact sort of sequence that, as Ullane had informed him, would trigger a seizure in any sensitive psiionic.

Jikiro’s eyes were shut, prepared, and he opened them the moment the sequence was over.

Gliese lay prone on her macabre structure, which crumbled to loose flesh and bones and as he watched. With a weary, satisfied smile he slid over on a small wave of black to catch her.

As her lean body fell into his arms he realized she really was quite small, especially for a highblood - she barely weighed a thing. How old was she? 

He took out another drawn symbol from his modus to tap and activate, and Maidel appeared moments later.

Eyes alight with lime energy, he bound the cerulean with his psi, shutting off the terrible sound barrier right after with a sigh. 

The tanuki troll stood there for a moment in the quiet, catching his breath as adrenaline coursed through him still. 

Despite his pain and fatigue, he couldn’t stop grinning. 

“Get Yarrex, and let’s go back.” He said. 

The olive returned with the sniper in short order, the lowblood unruffled as ever. 

In a burst of lime sparks, all of them vanished once more. 

–

Jikiro couldn’t have been happier to see the main hall of Viltau’s hive. He set down Gliese in a chair as the indigo had instructed, and then collapsed into one himself. 

God, he should get out of sight before someone tried to force him to change into clothes of his choice again - but he was tired, aching, and didn’t want to move. Not for a little while, anyway. 

He’d clean up the chair later as an apology, but right now, the tealblood could only doze.

Yet a smile remained on his sleeping face, the hard-earned satisfaction of a job finally well done. 

THE END OF 

THE DEADCRUSH ARC

PART OF THE RIPPLE EFFECT PLOT

[cloudbattrolls]

the real saddest part of MtL so far is having to cut Ullane and Yarrex's lawn darts conversation in the actual writeup

[cloudbattrolls]

Yarrex is giving Thrixe an Education

[cloudbattrolls]

Following the sudden and inexplicable death of a blueblood from the specialized nanotech used by Crown Clinic, Ullane Wistim takes the fall for her employee who created it, Friday Lovely.

She then descends into a tangled investigation to figure out what truly happened and why, all the better to defend herself in court.

Her life hangs in the balance, and even if she lives, she will be barred from practicing medicine.

It is it has always been: there is no sin she can escape the consequence of.

There is always more to lose.

CHARACTERS:

Ullane Wistim, Friday Lovely, Yarrex Fissaa, Priori Poster, Hovend Jegder, Gerrel Mitius, Indrid Dynast, Xrumon Arigah & assorted others and NPCs

STORY PARTS:

PART ONE: THE INVESTIGATION

Shattered

Picking Up The Pieces

The Waiting Game

Digging Deeper

Dead Silent

Abrasion (optional reading)

Chasing Shadows

Malpracticer

Apprehended

The Art of Knowing

Last Call

PART TWO: THE TRIAL

A Rough Start

Cutting Commentary

Setting the Snare

Grey Tidings

Fear No More

[cloudbattrolls]

Humorously it’s the lowbloods who tend to be more blatantly wacky at crown clinic. Sure, Hannah is cursed, and sure, Linnae is magic and can turn into a dragon, but they’re both quiet/friendly individuals.

And then you have Friday, the best intentioned chaos causer, Katrin (Katrin), Yarrex “I am great at security and at being extremely weird” Fissaa, and Ullane herself. Cheran isn’t weird as a person but he IS a zombie.

[cloudbattrolls]

CROWN CLINIC

A medical care facility and scientific engineering lab network in one, Crown Clinic is located in the city of Block 136. (City created by @raitrolling)

STAFF:

Administrator & Chief Medic:  Friday Lovely (created by Bel a.k.a anontrolls, currently used by me)

Security Detail & Administrative Assistant: Thrixe Varzim [current affiliate, but not directly employed]

Receptionist & Surgeonhiliator: Cheran Zaurok

Bioengineer: Cipher Tegiro [former employee]

Psiionic Test Subject & Receptionist: Katrin Rissah

Lusus Caretaker: Linnae Ishimi

Prosthetist: Sorzae Laelee

Surgeonhiliator: Hannah Descur

Security Detail: Yarrex Fissaa

Microbiologist: Bellam Xavier

BATHRE CLINIC STAFF: (an affiliate of Crown Clinic)

Administrator & Chief Medic: Ashell Bathre

On-Call Surgeon: Rotavh Suloch

Security & Receptionist: Helios Fenjun

SERVICES:

Crown clinic provides a variety of products and care for its clients. Trolls who need routine health checkups and medication prescriptions can find many of them here without need for a pharmacy. The staff are also capable of various types of surgeries, and if they cannot provide a specific type, they can easily direct clients to specialists.

Prior to the arrival of Xrumon Arigah, their prosthetic services were only middling, but have sharply improved as of late.

Psiionic testing of powers and care for related ailments is available, and all data related to such is kept private and not disclosed to the empire if a troll wishes to avoid helming. Even unusual powers or those with harmful side effects can find treatment and handling here.

While it is not openly disclosed, the clinic can and will treat mutants, aliens, and other non-troll entities.

ROBOTS:

The clinic has several small robots of various kinds for administration, maintenance, sanitation, security, and other miscellaneous purposes. Most are roomba-like and have basic intelligence as well as faces painted on them.

LUSII:

The clinic has a number of lusii taken care of by Linnae Ishimi while their charges work, and some have their own duty of comforting young trolls who either have no lusii or cannot bring theirs to the clinic. They are as follows:

Porcupine-firefly dad: Ullane’s lusus, about the size of a medium dog. Friendly, a little dim, often forgets he is very spiny but doesn’t want to hurt anyone unless they hurt his daughter. He can glow at will and fly short distances.

Beefly dad: Friday’s lusus. A cuddly, fluffy giant beefly (about basketball sized) that pollinates floral revenants. Despite that morbid ecological role, he is nevertheless friendly to trolls.

Raccoon mum: Katrin’s lusus. Comes to the clinic mostly to be fed while her charge works.

Fungidad: Cipher’s tegu lusus. Usually kept with him while he works and not seen in the wider clinic.

Hedgehog mum: The lusus of a friend to Thrixe and Ullane, Glasya Elliss, she is cared for at the clinic when her charge is too busy with work to be at hive.

OTHER:

The clinic is sometimes haunted by Amprus Dorzuh, friend to Xrumon Arigah. Trolls who can see or hear ghosts may perceive her presence.

The clinic is owned by Chimer Latrai, and occasionally she and her two main guards will be seen there.

The clinic was founded and formerly run by Ullane Wistim.

[trolloled]

Gerrel gathers advice from his other friends about what he should do.

Others’ characters referenced, in order:

Katrin Rissah ( @raitrolling ) Callan Ranpoe (Raitrolling)

My characters referenced, in order:

Argumi Varsan Charsa Ulteri Yarrex Fissaa Remune Nersco

[trolloled]

Yarrex dating sims

Name: Yarrex Fissaa Their Profession: Chief of Security for the Crown Clinic, occasional gun for hire. Where they can be found (e.g. park, café, gym etc): At the Crown Clinic most nights, he can also be found at parks, sitting on rooftops, still trying and failing to get the hang of yoga at the gym Favourite food type (breakfast, junk food, veggies, etc): He eats every food group in equal amounts, but he especially likes sandwiches since it lets him eat a bunch of food groups at once. He's prone to making very large sandwiches and having to split them up so as to physically be capable of eating them. Favourite alcoholic drink: Bloody Marys, because he gets to giggle about the name referencing an urban legend

Favourite trait (romance, passion, sexuality, talent, flirtation, sentiment, joy): He prefers people who have a good sense of humor. I insert 'humorous' as a trait. Buzzkills are fun to mess with, but hard to play off of.

Where they would go on a date: He'd like to visit a park, maybe go on a walk or two. He has no particular qualms against going anywhere, though he'll caution against underwater since he left his fins in his previous life.

Ideal gift: A funny hat, as in either funnily shaped or having a funny slogan written on it. Hats can say so much about people without needing to speak any words at all.

[trolloled]

THIS IS YOUR LIFE NOW GERREL

E  N  D  L  E  S  S   S  U  F  F  E  R  I  N  G

[trolloled]

In the end You dig yourself the hole you're in When you don't know what you want You just repeat yourself again In the end

[trolloled]

ღ ♠ Famynn, ♦ Charsa ❣ Yarrex (including old crushes maybe???) ♓ Kormut

What’s your lusus like? 

“[ My lusus Is quIte fragIle, but He Is also very cute. He’s unfortunately usually In a poor state of HealtH, so I usually carry HIm wItH me for HIs own good. He’s very small, after all, I don’t want to mIsplace HIm by leavIng HIm by HImself. ]”

What do you look for in a kismesis?

“[ Good looks. Hopefully blood tHat Isn’t too trasH. Some form of IntellIgence to matcH wIts wItH. THere’s just no fun to be Had In dealIng wItH someone very, very dull. ]”

What do you look for in a moirail?

“…_aybe so_eone who has _ore energy than i do. …probably too _uch energy, since rails are supposed to balance each other or so_mething.”

Any crushes?

“| I was onc- a li++l- pal- for a +iny blu-blood. Sh- r-ally n–d-d my h-lp af+-r +h- m-ss sh- go+ in+o wi+h h-r kism-sis. Alas, I los+ con+ac+ wi+h h-r. As for righ+ now, no, I harbor no f–lings for anyon- in par+icular. Hop-fully +ha+ chang-s. |”

Have you ever killed anyone?

“Ki~~ed someone?!! U-uhm!! Yeah!! Tota~~y!! You gotta get sacrifice materia~ from somewhere, right?!! Heh heh, b~ack magic isn’t cheap!! Nope!!” (No. No he has not.)