[GRO] Chiara Moteku - Teen

[Hivestuck]

The paths that wound through this forest were only “paths” in the most general definition of the word. They wound out from all directions, narrow, subtle practically to the point of nonexistence. Some were only visible to practiced trackers. Others were paved with trees knocked aside in the single-minded trudge forward. Eventually the paths would meet like a river delta, forming a single pressed-dirt road that lead…

…To absolutely nowhere, apparently.

The forest ran the edge of a tall cliff in the shape of a massive crescent moon. Beyond the cliff was a vast wasteland of sun-bleached rock formations and whatever scrub brush could manage to pierce the barren dust coating it all.

Few trolls would ever lay eyes on that empty space, however. For starters, there was no pressing need to admire the utterly empty badlands at the edge of a forest a hundred miles from the nearest signs of civilization. The second was the border patrol. Only one type of creature was permitted to leave the forest and cross into the wastes, much less had any desire to do so. The path-makers themselves: lusus naturae. Beyond the cities, plains, forests, and dust—deep within the ground in a place unknown to even the patrolling drones—lay the brooding caverns themselves.

The lusii knew this instinctively and travelled across the planet from all directions out of an ancient compulsion to procure a troll child of their own to raise. Patrols paced the edge of the cliffs in order to prevent any ill-intentioned trolls from potentially following lusii to the location of the brooding caverns, wherever it might have been. The importance of the job bordered on sacred.

The forest, however, was another story entirely. That was orphaner territory.

Not all lusii were worthy to take on trolls. Some were too weak, sickly, or old. Those creatures were better served as food for the lusus to end all lusii: Gl’bgolyb. With her adequately fed, trollkind would live to see another night. After the last glub, every precaution was being taken to keep it from happening again.

One orphaner in particular had done his due diligence in capturing prey. An enormous quillbeast hung from an even larger net hooked to a tree that was larger still. The purpleblood poked at the spiky creature with the muzzle of his rifle, trying to see if there was some way to make the quills retract or something. This was going to be difficult to cart back to base camp like it was.



Only Micillia is allowed to post in this thread. Quote the mule for your next prompt.

Micillia

 

[Micillia]

Indica had been acting oddly ever since the quill-beast had saved Chiara from drowning. Of course Chiara had noticed, not that she led on that she had, but the blueblooded troll started paying particularly close attention to her lusus. Usually Indica ate, slept, and ignored Chiara as best she could. As of late the beast was acting restless. She would often be starring out the window, and Chiara heard her stomping around more both day and night. Indica was never awake during the day, and only awake one third of the time during the night. Something was wrong.

Chiara herself was not sure what to think of Indica saving her life. The troll had started to hate her lusus. The quill-beast was always looking down on her troll, disappointed with some stupid thing or another. "Don't act so aggressive." "Stop harassing highbloods." and as of late, "Stop wearing that one troll's blood." Chiara would sneer at Indica each time there was a comment like that. Chiara did not need someone telling her what to do, especially some foolish beast who slept all day and didn't really pay attention to her at all anyway. But now Indica had done something for Chiara. The quill-beast had saved its troll's life. Chiara didn't like this feeling. Did she care about her animal guardian? Did her animal guardian care about her? It was questions like these than influenced Chiara to secretly stalk her lusus when the quill-beast decided to go out of the hive one day without a word.

Chiara had been fallowing the animal for a while now. It had gotten boring really. All the quill-beast was doing was wandering around this forest... As Chiara was contemplating turning around to go wreak havoc on someone's life she heard her lusus's shrill cry. Chiara stopped dead in her tracks. Her lusus was rather big considering what most trolls had. This had to be quite a threat to make the quill-beast cry like that. Chiara ran towards the sound, panic, and something strange welling up inside her. There, here lusus was tied up in a net. Some weirdo lording over the beast. "What do you think your doing with that huh?!" Chiara demanded of the older troll.

Hivestuck

 

[Hivestuck]

The highblood perked up. He’d been too distracted examining his prey. (He could barely tell what it was all bunched up in the net like that. Some kind of pufferfish?) He hadn’t noticed he himself had been tracked down. Or was it the lusus? A look of recognition developed on his narrow face as he looked at Chiara and then the lusus in the trap.

”Oooh! Oho! This is a new one. Y’don’t see too many lusii with living kids out this way! You looking to adopt a sibling or something? ‘Cos that’s kind of frowned upon by the government.”

The man didn’t look the least bit worried about Chiara’s presence. He was armed at the very least, but had retracted his gun from Indica’s side and let it hang lazily from one arm. He was well-dressed for a hunter, especially one appearing as young as he did—perhaps only a few sweeps past adolescence. He wore a high collared, hemotyped jacket, leather gloves, and trousers that were clearly tailored. His boots were perhaps the only indicator that he’d been stomping around in the woods at all, covered in mud and flecks of blood that were clearly not his color.

He continued to smile congenially as he awaited a response from Chiara.

Micillia

 

[Micillia]

Chiara looked at her captured lusus, then at the troll. "No one here wants any "siblings" or whatever garbage that could be. Ill just be taking that, and ill be on my way." Chiara nodded at the beast. Of course Chiara knew what the word "sibling" meant, but not what it truly meant. That weird troll Zariah was always going on and on about his "sibling". As she stood there, glaring at the purpleblood, it slowly dawned on Chiara of what a sibling was, and what it meant to have one.

"Wait. Sibling? Like, another troll?" Chiara paused. She did not like this feeling. The feeling of the one being unsure and surprised by events. It was a wrong feeling she would work hard to never have again. The feeling was upsetting the blueblood. She needed to change the topic. Get the purpleblood talking about himself, purples loved that, then she could deal with whatever all this other stuff was. "Who are you? Why are you out here?"

Hivestuck

 

[Hivestuck]

The other troll gave Chiara a look of what was sardonic, or at least attempted pity at her demand. He held his gun out to the side, creating a barrier between Chiara and her lusus. "'Fraid I can't let you do that, sweetie." He took a step forward to more solidly plant himself between Chiara and Indica.

"This lusus has been rightfully captured by yours truly: an Orphaner of Her Royal Condescension." He examined Chiara with an expression that was quizzical, but also amused. "Do you even know where you are? What this was doing out here?"

The man repositioned his hold on his rifle so he could nudge Indica with its butt, causing her to sway slightly.

"Look, kiddo. Nah, you're not really a kid, are you? Your lusus wouldn't be out here looking for the brooding caverns if it still had a troll to take care of back home. Hey! This is your lusus, right? I was just assuming 'cos you look so young. If not I can assure you this thing'll be doing a lot more good staving off the Vast Glub for another night than whatever poaching jobs you may be up to."

Micillia

show spoilerhide spoiler

 

[Micillia]

Chiara tried hard to focus on what it all meant. The purpleblood's words were not quite sitting right in the blueblood's head. She didn't have time to be confused, it looked like her lusus might be food for something any minute now. she needed a plan, even if it was one she pulled out of her rear end, anything to stall and try to comprehend what was going on.

Chiara slowly stood up straight and crossed her arms, trying to look tall and confident. "Yeah alright, you got my target faster than i did. Congratulations, really, i can tell you deserve it." Chiara gave the purpleblood a "sincere" grin with the complement. "And really, you should be proud. Bringing a slow, stupid beast like that one will really impress Her Imperious Condescension. Its a real show of skill." Chiara shrugged and continued. "Why i bet that's the best thing you've captured all sweep, huh?" Chiara turned up her nose at her guardian, the only thing she had ever really known as a small child, and continued. "But how about we play a little game, okay? It will end up better for you whether i win or loose. I bet i can capture an actually good catch, something way better than the one in your net. If i win, i trade in whatever i find for that quill-beast. If you win, you get what i captured, and the quill beast to take home as prizes."

Hivestuck

 

[Hivestuck]

The orphaner's genial expression strained slightly as Chiara kept talking. He shifted his posture, becoming taller and more rigid as he regarded the younger highblood. His gun remained loosely held at his side.

"You really don't know who you're talking to, huh?"

The orphaner tutted despite his quickly deteriorating patience.

"These aren't 'gaming' circumstances, little lady. This is my job--and a damn important one at that. The empress's lusus needs to be fed. She needs to be fed a lot. When the alternative is the entire population being nuked by the psychic bellow of a hungry horrorterror, you and I really don't got time to be haggling over some stupid quillbeast. I know what it's worth. Approximately two-thousand pounds worth of meat."

By this point the orphaner had dropped all pretenses of polite conversation.

"Don't bother insulting a professional hunter with that kind of talk. You're lucky I'm nice enough to explain this positively elementary s**t to you. You're not a kid anymore. Hell, you stopped being a proper child the second your lusus decided to head back to the brooding caverns to exchange you for a new wiggler."

Micillia

 

[Micillia]

Chiara flushed. Her fists instinctively balled into fists. Her lusus was abandoning her, for some unknown wigglier, and now some purpleblood p***k was bashing on her for it. Chiara was ashamed. Ashamed her lusus even came out here. Ashamed she had even bothered fallowing the beast. Obviously Indica cared nothing for her. There was no relationship between them, why was she even bothering to "save" the thing at all. In fact, the purpleblood was wrong. It was not her lusus that abandoned her. It was just some animal, as it was all along, that Chiara had imagined had felt something for the troll child.

Chiara heaved a sigh and released her fist. Violence, it was the highblood way. Seadwellers inflicting violence on landwellers, highbloods bullying the lowbloods, all with the stupid animalistic rage driving their every move. Chiara steadied herself. "Your right." The blueblood replied as calmly as she could. "That is my lusus. And that is her, going to get another wigglier from the caverns. I guess I didn't turn out quite the way she liked." Chiara said with a smirk and a shrug. "And better yet, shes all yours. I just want one last thing from her. Are you going to deny me that?"

Hivestuck

Oh man. I think i wrote a few draft responses to this before i finally decided. The feels

 

[Hivestuck]

The orphaner seemed cruelly satisfied that he was making progress with Chiara. That progress being getting her to leave him to his business. His smarmy expression only tightened at her admission that he was right about her lusus.

Dubiously pleasant demeanor temporarily restored, the orphaner relaxed his posture, though kept his grip on his gun secure in case of any funny business. He was intrigued to see where Chiara was going with this.

"This is more the kind of deal I can get behind." He took a very slight step out from between Chiara and Indica and cocked his head towards the latter. "Knock yourself out."

Micillia

 

[Micillia]

Chiara finally looked up at her lusus, she had been avoiding it. The lusus tried to squirm in the net, but her quills were tangled in the webbing. Indica's eyes rolled in fear, finally locking onto Chiara's and the two stared at each other as the troll neared the net. Chiara's body went numb as her beast's eyes seemed to beg for help. She was close enough she could reach out and touch her lusus if she wanted. Chiara could feel tears threatening to be let loose. It felt like just yesterday Indica had rescued Chiara from drowning by the hands of a seadweller. Chiara's eyes hardened, and the blueblood reached into her bag. Ever since she obtained the weapons from the "war" on the rebels she had kept them close.

"Why are you even out here?" Chiara whispered, just loud enough for her guardian to hear. "Silly question really, I already know the answer to that." Chiara adjusted the shiny new Katar on her hand. This would be the first time she had ever used the weapon. "All those times i tried to leave you in the dust, now your finally doing the same. Funny how now im on the other end of this." Chiara grinned, but her eyes remained cold and hard. The Blueblood raised her weapon and dove it into Indica's exposed neck. The lusus's eyes widened and she screamed. Blue blood erupted from the body and Chiara was covered in her own color. Chiara's eyes were locked on Indica's as the lusus bled out, blood still drenching the now orphaned troll. Chiara only looked away once the quill-beast's own eyes finally closed in death.

Chiara numbly turned around to face the purpleblood. "Now if you don't mind, ide like to take the head home with me." Chiara said with a grin, the blood dripping from her smile. "You can keep the rest."

Hivestuck

 

[Hivestuck]

A minimally-concealed grimace drifted past the orphaner's mouth. He'd expected as much to come of this exchange. Subtly, he took half a step back to avoid bloodying his boots.

He gave Chiara's blood-drenched form a once over and meandered over to the pulley that had been keeping Indica's body aloft. With a flip and a whirr, the corpse unceremoniously fell the ground. The net bloomed out around the body where it hadn't been snagged around the quills. The orphaner hummed. "It's not exactly protocol, but I'll let it slide. Do take care not to damage the net too much. Those things are a b***h to repair."

The orphaner gave Chiara another long look before setting about dismantelling the mechanisms of the trap. His transport was to arrive shortly and assist with the unwieldly load.

"I've met my fair share of lusii with trolls. Not many have been so willing to do my job for me. Keep that up and you may have a place among the royal orphaners' brigade."

His tone made it difficult to tell if he was mocking or sincere.

Micillia

 

[Micillia]

Indica's last words left a harsh ringing in Chiara's ears. She felt as if she were outside her own body, and let the "other" Chiara take over. She saw the blueblood make some remark to the purpleblood, but couldn't hear anything. When the net came down the ringing changed to a dull fuzz of static. She watched herself raise the weapon again and it came down on the white lusus, now covered in blue blood, to sever the head of the animal. The troll bent down to grab a fist full of the quills Chiara had once admired for their defensive qualities, and heaved the massive head over the troll's shoulder. It felt like watching some sort of movie. Chiara stood next to the corpse of the animal she had once secretly considered a mother, and watched the now stranger drenched in blue blood turn and walk away. If this Chiara had a body, she was sure it would be crying, bent over the now lifeless form of Indica.

--------

Chiara ignored any other words the purpleblood bothered to say. She had Indica now, and the quill beast would never leave again. Chiara held a sinister grin on her face the entire walk home, blood still soaking her clothes and hair. She barely registered the reactions her appearance had on other trolls. This was not a time for outsiders. This was a time for Chiara and her guardian, to go home together, and never separate again.

Hivestuck