[META PRP] What Matters in the End (Nahori & Trusci)

[saedusk]

 

[saedusk]

Looking up at the SRDPSL from the outside was just as intimidating now as it had been the night Nahori first arrived in Chittentown. The only reason she'd even left the building at all was for a breath of fresh air, but the relief was nearly outweighed by the pressure of new responsibility and confusion. It left her with a headache behind the eyes.

"What am I doing...?" she asked herself, wondering just as strongly if the doubt would ever be entirely gone. Even after sparring with Lieutenant Cincil, chatting with her fellow soldiers, learning in short order to awkwardly control her stutter as long as she wasn't actively dying... even after all that she still felt like she hadn't made much progress. When would that change? Would the trip to space make it any better or would it only prove to her once and for all that she'd made the wrong choice?

She had to believe in her decision, didn't she? If she didn't, she'd only crash and burn that much worse. Too bad it was easier said than done.

Melancholiesss

 

[Melancholies]

Nahori hadn't been the only one in need of some fresh air.

Honestly, Trusci took a long while to really study the orangeblood from afar; was it really her? The recognition had clicked, but one thing that made no sense was the military outfit on her person. Was it really her? It'd been a while since she'd seen her friend. Maybe the hustle of the impending space trip was messing up her thinkpan.

But she stared, and she stared, and honestly Trusci never forgot a face, nor a name, nor a voice. So she inched closer, and closer, and circled around a few times, and sure as s**t it was her. Well, she wasn't going to waste anymore time.

"TWWWWWENTY FOUUUUUUUUUR--" Trusci exploded onto the scene, "KAAAAAY-HAAAAAY Oh my god I didn't even recognize you from back there! Man Karat your hair got long!"

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

There was only one troll on Alternia who'd ever called her 24k. In fact, it was so rare a nickname that Nahori didn't immediately realize it was aimed at her until Trusci was literally so close there could be no mistaking it. "T-Trusci?!" Yep, she hadn't forgotten, either. How could she? The yellowblood was one of the few who made her feel good about herself for once.

"What are you... when did..." she fumbled over her words then shook her head, "I mean, um, yeah I... I've been growing it out." Pulling a handful of hair over her shoulder, she looked bashful. "Do you think it... it looks okay?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Okay? 'Kay, it looks great!" Trusci was beaming, a sunny smile taking her face, scrunching her cheeks, "It's been sweeps at least! man I can't believe I ran into you here of all places!" Without warning, she threw her arms around her childhood friend.

"You gotta catch me up on the who's-what!" Squeeeeeze.

saedusk

sh...or....t.

 

[saedusk]

It wasn't that Nahori disliked being touched, that was far from the truth. The real reason she tensed had to do with how little she'd been touched like this. She could count how many times she'd been hugged on one hand. Well, maybe that was an exaggeration, but it felt that way more often than it should've.

"Oh, um... uh..." she bumbled, but with each passing second her posture relaxed. Eventually—the coaxing squeeze helped—she relaxed and actually managed to hug Trusci back.

"I don't really, um, do a whole lot that... y'know... needs catching up on." Nahori laughed a tiniest little laugh, but it was kinda true. "Except, well-" Had Trusci heard about the whole party fiasco thing in the news?

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Except well what?" Trusci pulled back, but her hands still lingered on Nahori's shoulders. Her eyebrows were raised, her face still smiling just a little bit. Fact of the matter was, she had heard about the party (as much as the Crown had reported on), but she hadn't known Nahori was there, why would she?

Trusci herself had her own little experiences in the past sweeps too--namely the mangled up mark on her hand--but she wasn't as open to talk about that, unless Nahori happened to harp on it. Speaking of--she seemed a little more... put together, didn't she?

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"Except well..." Nahori shifted and her head dipped light she might look away, but in the end she managed to maintain eye contact. Were it anyone else, it might not have happened. "A while ago I... I went to this weird... party... thing." The whole event had shifted the way she thought about a lot of things, but it also felt like a weird, uncomfortable step backwards. One step forward, two steps back, as it were.

"I didn't leave my hive a lot after that... Weird stuff happened."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Trusci waved an eyebrow, "Weird... party thing?" Trusci's smile faltered too, just a little bit, more with uncertainty than anything. She looked around, eyes gleaning over the passing trolls. "Here, maybe we ought'a--"

She tugged Nahori off to the side. It wouldn't be the most private conversation, but with all the other activities going on around them, she figured it would serve them a moment of peace.

"You all ok up there Karat?" Trusci knocked on her own noggin.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

With surprise but no resistance, Nahori let herself be led aside. At least from here they'd have the wall at their back. Trolls still had the potential to come within earshot, but they couldn't be snuck up on.

"I... I think so," she assured, but it was obvious she was considering her own words only a moment later. "I mean... I dunno. I saw a lot of stuff at that party and... it... it made me think about things. About how life is and stuff... y'know? Nnn. I bet this doesn't make any sense..."

Tipping slightly to the side at the waist, Nahori looked forlorn, uncertain. "I was kinda... kinda scared I might die." Which was a touch dramatic considering how quickly she'd escaped the mansion. "S-Sorry... I'm getting all weird and w-we just met again..."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Nah." Trusci held her hand up in a submissive way, "It sounds rough K..." She sighed, her own eyes looking down at her marred up hand.

"I heard it was pretty bad, but y'know how the crown is. They only show you what they wanna show you, and how they wanna show it." She spoke fairly open, fairly frank. Why bother being hush hush? It was the goddamn truth and everyone knew it. "So I took everything with a grain of salt. I gotta wonder though..."

She grimaced. She'd started to say too much to back out now.

"I mean, why someone like you got an invite. No offense, but it seemed like it was a pretty fancy shindig, you know?"

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Yes, Nahori was still listening. It may have seemed like her attention waned just then, her eyes glazed over with a vague haze of curiosity and confusion. They followed Trusci's hand as it moved, the old, healed over injury suddenly very apparent. She didn't remember anything like that before. Had she simply not noticed?

She wanted to ask about it, but it felt wrong to blurt it out without context.

"I um..." she shook herself back to reality, "N-No, it's okay, you're right... I felt way out of my league there. I think... trolls who, um, helped with recent volunteering and stuff for the Empress might have gotten an invitation... I didn't wanna go, but my lusus made me."

Nahori sighed, her eyes still tracking Trusci's hand without even realizing.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Yeah, I guess maybe that makes sense..." Trusci said it with some amount of hesitation, like she wasn't quite convinced...

Her eyes were trained on Nahori's, watching as they obviously followed her gesticulating hand around.

"Either way. At least you're okay, yeah? Got out unscathed?" She smiled, tight lipped, "You know, K, you can come out with it."

saedusk

short tag!

 

[saedusk]

Ah, she'd been caught. "Y-Yeah, I'm okay..." Nahori mumbled, trying for a moment to pretend like she hadn't just been called out. It didn't really work.

"It's just... your... your hand. I don't-" It hadn't been like that before, right? It definitely hadn't. There was a flash of memory, a recollection of the time she'd tried to stop Trusci from messing with the highblood who'd been abusing another lowblood. That was when they'd met. Had something like that happened in the time they'd been apart?

Nahori's mind went to worse case scenario.

"I'm sorry..."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Trusci blinked.

"Yeah, some d**k thought he was better than me so I showed him what's for. Dice didn't really roll in my favor, y'know?" She was smiling, but it was all wrong, too tight lipped, too thin. "S'why I'm never going to join the military and why I'm never gonna pledge my life to some highblood. Trolls like us, we're expendable, y'know?" Her voice was hushed, but it hissed like a kettle, harsh and hot.

Y'know?

Well, Trusci knew deep down she wasn't. She had potential as a helmsman, and that alone would keep her afloat, slap her in a ship somewhere and make her a battery. But Nahori? She loved her friend, but the fact was there were millions of orangebloods out there, millions of redbloods, millions of yellowbloods too. They made up the enormous lower crust, gave the foundation for the cooler castes to build themselves up on. It made her sick.

At that last comment, the one about the military, Trusci gave a very pointed look to Nahori's new garb. Oh, she couldn't fault her friend for wanting to play it safe, but it made her so sad regardless.

saedusk