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 Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:36 pm
 x Where: Busthind Mountain, exploring the desolate crags...
When: Sometime after the meta but before Bloodfest, a few hours after sundown.
What: Zeffer goes exploring on the mountain again only to stumble upon a strange cave...I WONDER WHO LIVES THERE!!??
He'd picked a rather calm night to visit the mountain, but the snow still drifted down peacefully, sifted from the dark clouds above like powdered sugar. Brilliant orange and black eyes shifted up to look for a moment before looking back down to gaze at the wintery world laid out before him. There was a certain something the mountain had that Zeffer loved. It was almost always so eerily quiet, and he could make the best kinds of echoes when he called out down the mountain. He wasn't yelling at the moment, however. Shouldering his pack, and his circular sled atop that, he trudged through the snow on a down-sloping hill, next to the face of another very steep hill.
With the rocky cliff face to his left and the scantily forested slopes to his right, he tried to avoid the wind. Every so often he'd find a little divot or crevice, which he never failed to take a look at. Wouldn't it be neat, he thought, if he managed to find a cave? He knew there were other trolls up here living in the mountains, but he'd never managed to stumble upon any of those hidden abodes. Surely not all of them could have hives that were as sprawling and extravagantly sized as a certain blueblood he knew...
Lost in his thoughts, his gaze had drifted back up to the sky. Of all the places he visited, Busthind always had the most lovely cloud cover, always so dark and foreboding. Unfortunately, as he pondered about hidden hives and past acquaintances, he completely forgot to watch where he was stepping...and that's all it took. One simple trip to send him on a perilous tumble down the slope. It so happened that the tip of his boot caught under a root hidden under the snow.
"
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Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 6:03 pm
Someone with a dirty mouth was hanging around outside. The truth was, naturally, that Alifax didn't object to dirty mouths. (He didn't object to much, actually.) But someone with a dirty mouth was likely to be careless, he thought, and that meant they were likely to...well, he wasn't sure what they'd do, but he was certain that it would be unpredictable. Alifax disliked unpredictable.
What was he supposed to do?
Flambe was still, well, asleep. Alifax couldn't actually open the door. And he couldn't help but feel that whoever was outside would pass by eventually.
But the various deceased biological matter that he ordinarily used to hide his hive's rather clumsy entrance had been blown away by the storm, or else drowned enough in snow that it no longer mattered. And the troll who was swearing was leaning against it - the boulder that served as the cover for the mouth to his (rather shabby) greetingblock did not fit perfectly, after all, and through the cracks he could make out a grey hand in a large grey coat.
Blind to the stranger's hemostatus, he called, "Is something wrong?" He was probably not visible to Zeffer, but his voice was, he thought, audible.
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 8:40 pm
The someone outside the poor redblood's hive was indeed unpredictable. He strove for it, in fact, but he wasn't necessarily malevolent about it either. Zeffer shook himself, dislodging some of the icy snow that had found its way into his coat and pants during his tumble. It wasn't like him to be so clumsy, but it served him right for not watching his feet. He had to laugh for a moment, too, because if he had to guess it probably would have looked hilarious to anyone watching.
When that voice called out though, Zeffer yelped, and nearly leaped out of his skin, another curse escaping him and echoing down the mountainside. He spun around, staggering from the boulder.
"Is someone in there!? Holy s**t!" Zeffer laughed, slapping a hand over his chest as if to still his pounding blood-pusher. He certainly hadn't expected that, not at all. Was this some troll's hive!?
"Nothing's wrong, I just tripped, is all...do you live here?" he asked, and sidled up to the big rock again, peering about for a crack or an opening. Such a well-hidden spot...nothing like some of the homes on the mountain were. That was instantly cool in his mind, because there was nothing neater than a hidden hive...but where was the doorway?
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Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 3:24 pm
Alifax wasn't quite sure what was going on, and was beginning to regret having spoken up - he heard someone fumbling, bumping into things outside. Asking - wait, no, Alifax could lie.
He could do this.
"No hive, just uh. Just a boulder," he lied. "There was a cave-in!" Yeah. That made sense, right?
Actually it had made very little sense, since he'd only just asked if something was wrong. But he couldn't think of a better excuse. (It'd make even less sense if Zeffer actually got to see the inside of his hive, since - okay, yes, Alifax would work to prevent that happening. But the furniture was sparse enough that he could just...pretend he'd found it there. Yes. And seal his other doorways, and stick the incredibly accurate portrait of Flambedad under the rock he sometimes used as a reclining platform.)
He made frantic hand gestures at his lusus, as if telling him to set this plan into motion. He wasn't quite sure Flambedad got the picture, though - he was still sitting there. Finishing off Alifax's supply of - hey! That wasn't fair.
But it wasn't as if he could say anything - another troll was right there!
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Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 4:10 pm
"A cave in!? s**t! I'll get you out!"
Zeffer immediately forgot about his ouchies in lieu of what he'd just been told. A troll trapped in a cave on the mountain? It sounded dreadful, really. He would've hated to be trapped on Busthind. "How long have you been stuck in there, man?" he called out, starting to dig around the boulder, unaware of how badly he was making Alifax's plans backfire.
"This boulder's ********' huge...but don't worry. I'm sure there must be some way..."
Zeffer flopped down to sit in the snow a moment and think. There was no way he'd be able to move that boulder by himself. He wasn't even sure if Arcus would be able to shift it, if he were even around. He crossed his arms and tried to think it over, simultaneously waiting for a reply from the unfortunate soul who was 'trapped' in the cave...
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Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 2:01 am
"You don't need to worry about me!" Alifax called, almost immediately. Wow, that had been the wrong thing to say. And here Alifax had thought the other person would be a nice, sane troll and leave his (the voice sounded male, okay) theoretical fellow Alternian to die, and then never return.
That was certainly what Alifax would have done, if it hadn't been...Frossa, or Hazzan, or something. Or his partner.
Okay, yeah, he might be attached to them. But it was a purely business thing - it was nice to have friends in high places sometimes. Really, really nice; he even got to set foot in Frossa's highblooded "restaurants" sometimes. And then watch her eat her strange highblooded food off strange colored highblood nutrition plateaus. It was...well, it was interesting. Even if other patrons gave him strange looks, since he tended not to directly serve her like a slave would have (and he actually sat at tables), and he never ordered anything past the complimentary tap, like a too-low quadrant fill would have.
"I mean, ah, I can handle cave-ins on my own," Alifax clarified lamely, after realizing he'd let the silence steep for too long. He glanced back over at his entrance block and decided to throw Flambedad's portrait into his hive's main tunnel. Displaying it here had been a terrible idea anyway.
He moved away from the rock to do that, watching Flambedad yawn and stick another leaf into his mouth.
Ugh. Parents.
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Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:31 pm
"But what if you run out of water? Or food? My lusus is around here somewhere, he can probably get this rock up." Zeffer said as he leaned against the massive stone, pondering. If Arcus didn't arrive soon, he would simply have to think of another plan. Perhaps some leverage, but where was he going to find a piece of wood strong enough for that? Zeffer didn't seem to notice the pause at all, idiotically pondering a way to get the rock up - unaware that he would actually be breaking into a hive in the process.
"Don't worry man, I got ya covered. HEY ARCUS. ARCUUUS!" he hoped forward, straightening up and putting his gloved hands to either side of his mouth, calling out to his snakedad by name. He sighed as his voice echoed down the mountain, and he shoved his hands into his pockets. He had to be hovering around up there, somewhere. It wasn't that Zeffer was trying to rescue the trapped stranger out of the kindness of his heart...but he was curious about who was stuck!
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Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:46 pm
"I'm in a cave; I'm sure there are huntable beasts or an underground water source somewhere," Alifax called, already deeply regretting having vocalized at all. He should've figured it was just some idiot passing by...
"Oh, um, you don't - " The other troll was calling his lusus. This was the opposite of what Alifax had wanted - the call would probably draw attention to the area, too. On the other hand, Flambedad finally looked up from his meal, and he emitted a grumbly salamander call, probably incomprehensible to Zeffer. Alifax understood the message pretty clearly, though. He was supposed to make a run for it, like he'd always assumed he would provided the cavern system he called a home was somenight discovered. But Alifax wasn't quite ready, and the nearest exit was the one the other troll was calling his name through.
What were those wet smacking noises? Oh, yeah - Flambedad was making his own escape. His lusus had always believed in the philosophy of every organism for himself, so Alifax couldn't blame him. He sighed, turning back to the troll outside. "Hold on, I'll...just, uh, try to find another exit. I can see pretty well in here." That was due to the torches that lit Alifax's way - only a few of the many reasons Alifax needed the other troll to go away. He could set them out, sure...but it'd taken ages to get them started, and unlit torches would call up just as many questions as lit ones did.
There was a crash from somewhere further within his hive: audible to Alifax, and possibly audible to Zeffer.
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