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New Hemisect, despite its vast size, was a relatively simple city to navigate. Even with constant, sprawling construction projects the city maintained its neat separation into districts corresponding to the dominant blood caste of the area. It made it easy to deduce where one could find fine dining, versus a good deal on consignment clothing.

Closer to the center of the city was where the greater concentrations of highbloods could be found. Simultaneously, the shops in the area were upscale. Even the local grocery chains carried higher-quality meats and spices that what could be found elsewhere in the city. While trolls of cooler castes were the main clientele, it wasn't uncommon to see mid and lowblooded tourists passing through to treat themselves to specialty items.

This night was no different from the others.


Only Bouquet of Diamonds is allowed to post in this thread. Please quote the mule for prompts/NPC interactions.

While the city was far from a peaceful place, it was well-monitored by security drones, especially in these nicer districts. The shrill noises of distress were just enough at odds with the regular chatter to be noticeable.

Across the street was a convenience store. It was a simple and unassuming building. Its appeal as a business appeared to be selling general goods to the locals without uglying up the picturesque neighborhood with a large chain establishment.

Currently there was a tealblood kicking a lowblooded child in the doorway.

"Give it!! It's mine! Give! It! Back!"

The pair were duking it out over a backpack. The child was clinging to one end of the bag, while the tealblood--barely more than an adolescent themselves--was attempting to heave the backpack out of the reach of the child. It almost would have been a humorous image if the child didn't look so distressed and the tealblood didn't look so mad.

"Get offa me you lil' pissant!" Said tealblood seemed to have attained the upper hand through grabbing the child by one of their horns. The pair's height difference combined with the lowblood's determination not to let go of their bag left the latter nearly lifted into the air.

The fact that both offenders were relatively young, unarmed, and not visibly bleeding led most of the foot traffic to simply cross the street and avoid the situation. The couple of trolls that bothered to so much as acknowledge the mess just chuckled. Kids would be kids.

The situation at the convenience store wasn't improving and both participants seemed to know it. The lowblood had taken to holding onto the tealblood's polo shirt as leverage against the older troll's grip on their horn.

Eventually a greenblooded girl about the tealblood's age emerged from the store to view the spectacle. She was dressed in a similar polo-slacks combo to the other coolblood and carrying a mop. They were apparently both employees of the store. Her voice was a regular speaking volume despite her coworker's predicament, making her much harder to hear from across the street. Whatever she said just seemed to upset the little redblood more.

The tealblood had lowered their guard at the arrival of backup. In her distress, the lowblood was quick to take advantage of it. She pulled herself up on the tealblood and bit his forearm with her sharp little teeth.

The tealblood dropped the backpack with a stream of curses. The greenblood just looked amused. The redblood wiggled out of their captor's grip and dove for their bag.

"Not so fast you twerpy s**t!" The tealblood was gripping their injured arm with the other. Compensating their lack of free hands, they kicked the child over as they were leaning over the backpack. They hit the sidewalk.

Taking pity on their coworker's sorry state, the greenblood went ahead and apprehended the child. They did so by planting a foot on their back as they reached over them to pick up the bag, and slinging it over their shoulder. They said something to the tealblood as they stood casually with the child slapping their arms futilely against the concrete. By the look of it, whatever she was saying it wasn't smoothing over the tealblood's mood. They reached down to retrieve the child from the ground by the back of their shirt.

The three trolls turned to Rastin with varying levels of surprise at the intrusion. The tealblood looked ready to snap at Rastin, but thought twice upon noticing his purple symbol. The redblood looked more confused by the delay in punishment than relieved. It had been ambiguous at a distance, but beneath the rumpled clothes and messy hair (made messier and more rumpled by their struggle), that the little troll was a girl. She dangled on her tiptoes from the tealblood's iron grip, looking much like an unhappy cat.

"Nothing to see here, officer," the tealblood replied snidely while shifting their weight to emphasize the few inches they had over Rastin. Considering their circumstances they clearly weren't feeling particularly benevolent towards younger trolls regardless of status.

The greenblooded girl, mousy with two braids, made no comment and was instead trying to covertly back into the store with the bag before more of a fuss could be raised. While the tealblood was too preoccupied staring Rastin down to notice, the redblood tried to wobble futilely in the direction her bag was going.

The greenblooded girl stopped midway over the threshold as Rastin addressed her. Though she was looking his way and listening, her expression was mellow. She may have been calm, but she wasn't amused with the turn of events either.

"Don't belong to you neither," she spoke with a slow drawl. The tealblood snorted.

"You be the one cutting our minimum-wage paychecks and maybe we'll start listening to you." The tealblood rolled their eyes and pulled the redblood along after their coworker. This caused the lowblood to panic.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Keep it just lemme goooo!" They yowled. The tealblood jerked on their collar, cutting off their shrill cries with a
"ooo- Hurk!"

The older trolls pushed their way back into the store without paying Rastin any further mind.

The greenblood had walked around the corner to the register counter where she dropped the backpack. She leaned the mop she'd been carrying against the wall.

The purpose of the mop had apparently been take care of the mess caused by a downed display of what might have once been condiments. The mix of colors on the ground was murky and off-putting, but the store as a whole smelled spicy for it. The tealblood stepped around the worst of the spillage while, maybe intentionally maybe not, dragging the redblood through it. At this point the little girl was already dirty and resigned to her fate.

The greenblood shot Rastin a look. In response, she grabbed the backpack by the straps and upended it. An armful's worth of canned food spilled out onto the counter. The tealblood winced as a couple of them hit the already filthy floor, but the greenblood continued to stare at Rastin.

"Don't let her go until the drones get here or she'll just run off again," she instructed the tealblood. The redblood in his grip was beginning to look faint.

This time even the placid greenblood looked surprised. She wasn't nearly as surprised as the other two trolls in the shop, but her eyebrows were at the very least raised in interest. She opened her mouth to say something, but the tealblood was faster. "What? Why?" The greenblood closed her mouth. Apparently she had been about to ask pretty much the same. "She shoplifted, tried to run, knocked a bunch of s**t over, and bit me. That the kind of behavior you wanna go around promoting?"

By this point the redblood's shirt was irreversibly stretched at the neck. They were almost able to stand comfortably so long as the tealblood didn't try to gesticulate too much. She didn't look quite as pale as before, but was still too nervous to speak, lest she make the precarious situation even worse. Her eyes flitted anxiously between all the involved parties.

The redblood seemed to take offense at Rastin's summary of her current state, but made no motion to refute it. He was trying to cut her a break after all.

The tealblood wasn't having any of it. "Course there are reasons! Everybody's got a reason to be doing whatever it is they're doing. My reason for being here is that I need money. With which to buy food. Legally."

"It's our job," the greenblood chimed in, "We let the neighborhood lowbloods think this place is soft and we'll get the lot of them leaving here with full backpacks. Then we'll be the ones out on the streets. Being nice isn't a practical business model."

"Should make the kid wait until the boss gets here. Old guy gets a kick out of 'making examples' outta lawbreakers. Maybe he'll give us a pass on all the broken s**t if we let him take it out on the troublemaker," the tealblood suggested. "How's that for a compromise?"

The greenblood sighed, straightening her posture as though it was great burden to be doing so. "If you're not going to buy something, then leave."