#Kaningård

[cloudbattrolls]

Like all caverns, Kaningård (“rabbit warren”) has a lot of different positions. Its specialty is, on paper, the containment and study of mutants and limebloods to better eradicate their genes from mother grubs’ reproductive capacities.

In practice it aids them in survival, both in the cavern as well as preparing them for a healthier life outside of it.

It is a cold place suited to a maximum population of around a thousand consistent troll inhabitants and a few hundred grubs and wrigglers. It is located in the equivalent of troll Sweden, and best fosters land dwellers of varying mid and high castes, but cares for plenty of lowblood grubs as well.

Further roles detailed below the cut.

EGG TENDER: Trolls who first clean, survey, and catalogue any eggs that come in, as well as care for them during their incubations. There are only a few present at the moment, as Kaningård’s own mother grub is not yet of age to produce her own offspring.

WRIGGLER MINDER: Those who deal with the newly hatched grubs, responsible not only for their care but for recording information about their health, habits, and psiionic ability, as well as any other notable qualities.

TRIAL PROCTOR: Trolls specifically trained to administer and oversee a newly pupated grub’s cavern trials. Kaningård administers a variety of trials that take into mind a troll’s particular needs or disadvantages. It is important to ensure their more likely survival on the surface, but also to give every grub a fair shot.

DIETARY SPECIALIST: Grubs are, as much as possible, tested for allergies or any other health concerns and fed in account with such by trained professionals.

CULTIVATOR: With limited moonlight and a location unfavorable for farming, the cavern supports its own food supply as much as possible. It possesses various underground greenhives and keeps a small amount of livestock in shallower passages near the surface.

Some trolls also hunt and forage for the cavern in nearby forests to provide fresh meat and other plants they cannot grow themselves, but they still remain somewhat dependent on imports.

DROID/DRONE HANDLER: While Kaningård’s head matron frowns upon the use of imperial drones to cull and demand genetic samples, they reluctantly allow in robotic ones so long as they are strictly controlled by their handlers.

Simple droids, used primarily for sanitation, architecture, and general maintenance, pass without issue, and the cavern always needs a few trolls to handle requests for their use and maintain the ones in service.

MEDICULLER: Kaningård aims to preserve the lives of as many grubs and wrigglers as possible, but as always, not all of them can be saved. Those who do thrive will receive as much medical care as possible to help them do so, and a painless death if it becomes necessary.

LAB WORKER: Scientists of varying fields work together in the cavern’s laboratories, searching for ways to improve the life quality of all types of mutants, as well as to stabilize psiionics that cause health issues, and any other project the head matron deems useful. They also have the riskiest job, coming up with sufficient research and evidence to appear as if they are supporting Imperial casteism.

SECURITY DETAIL: While most caverns have trolls trained to defend both the other inhabitants and the young trolls they care for, Kaningård’s forces are equipped to also deal with the empire or supernatural threats if needed. The head matron gives few details, but assures their guards that there are many things that might try to attack them, and not all are mortal or natural.

There are also small organic constructs scattered all around the cavern to keep an eye on things, though they are rarely seen or admitted to existing. They seem to be able to change shape at will, if unobserved.

OUTSIDE LIAISON: Trolls who frequently come and go from the cavern for various reasons. Kaningård is not isolated as other caverns often are - trolls are welcome to come and go from the surface with the proper leave requests and notifications - but these workers perform some particular service for their cavern, be it making trips to other ones, handling imported supplies, or otherwise.

LUSUS TENDER: Trolls who ensure the steady flow of lusii to pick up their pupated charges, and that said lusii don’t eat too many of their fellows. They keep tabs on breeding seasons, general health, and any threats to lusus populations such as disease that might enter the area.

#Kaningård #cloud writes #long post #I cut it but still. this is cavern shit. I put everything I have into cavern shit #I’m probably missing some job or other but I can add more later

[bryantlongworth]

Kaninhus med kaningård. Kaningården kunne med fordel hatt tak over hele eller … http://bit.ly/2EYcLXj

#IFTTT #WordPress

[maelkevejen]

Det er i grunden ret hyklerisk

Selvom jeg prøver at indtage så få animalske produkter som muligt, er jeg desværre hverken vegetar eller veganer. Det er ret off i virkeligheden, for jeg vil i virkeligheden umiddelbart helst spise plantebaseret, men jeg tror bare ikke, jeg tør tage springet. Måske er jeg bange for, at det vil være besværligt i nogle situationer, men det kunne jeg godt tænke mig lige at komme mig over. F.eks. ville nu være et rigtig godt tidspunkt. Ikke fordi det er nytår eller noget, men fordi jeg lige har set et Instagram-opslag fra et af de små firmaer, jeg synes rigtig godt om, som beskæftiger sig med grøn udvikling. “Vi bygger kaningård”, stod der, og jeg tænkte sweet, jeg elsker, når folk har fokus på kaniner. Men så læste jeg videre: “om lidt er vi selvforsynende med kaninkød”. Og så var jeg sådan :))) 

Jeg plejer ikke at flippe ud, når folk snakker om kaninkød. Det er ikke sådan, at folk skal lade være med at tale om det, når jeg er i nærheden; jeg skal jo ikke bestemme, hvad de skal spise, og kaninkød er vel i og for sig mere bæredygtigt end alt muligt andet kød. Det eneste, der rigtigt prikker til mig, er når jeg i forbindelse med samtaleemnet kommer til at tænke på, hvor kummerlige forhold mange madkaniner lever under. Jeg forstår godt, at det ikke er kælekaniner, og alt det der, men derfor behøver man DÆLEME ikke at ignorere, at de også er levende, sansende, følende væsener. Og jeg har jo selv indendørs kaniner (som jeg vel og mærke ikke har tænkt mig at spise), så jeg ved, hvor meget personlighed de har. Det er som om, madkaninavlere har glemt det. Og så tænker jeg, okay men hvad hulen er forskellen på en madkanin og en kælekanin? I virkeligheden bare hvad ejeren beslutter (måske er madkaniners temperament også lidt anderledes, for det er ikke det, det kommer an på, når man avler - men nu er jeg i virkeligheden også ret meget imod avl under alle omstændigheder, så...), så mine kaniner er bare heldige, eller hvad?

Nå. Men den der kaningård, der var igang med at blive bygget af det her firma, så sådan set fin ud, så jeg kan måske godt tillade mig at gå ud fra, de forhåbentligt trods alt har styr på dét. Jeg kunne bare ikke lige dy mig for at kommentere og spørge, hvordan det foregår i praksis. Hurtigt fik jeg svar:

“Vi har kaniner, og når de bliver for mange slagter vi dem og spiser dem”

En emoji med en lige streg som mund indsættes her. Når de bliver for mange slagter vi dem og spiser dem. Altså det lyder jo ikke just som om, de har skide meget styr på, hvordan kaniner i virkeligheden trives. Altså uden at blive bims. Det lyder som om, de bare har tænkt sig at sjusse sig frem til, hvornår “der er for mange af dem” i den der gård. Gad vide om de bare køber et par franske væddere på den blå avis og sætter dem derud (midt om vinteren i øvrigt) og kalder det selvforsyning, at kaninens overlevelsestaktik er at producere en shitload at unger, fordi så er der større chance for, at der er nogle af dem, der overlever. Glemmer lige at tænke på, at det er en piiiiisse dårlig ide at have dem alle sammen gående sammen, når ungerne engang bliver kønsmodne - som de altså gør, før de er fuldvoksne. Jeg forestiller mig kaos og slåskampe og total mistrivsel på relativt lidt plads. Kaniner er jo ikke flokdyr - de er kolonidyr. Men... det kan da godt være... at de har styr på det... eller noget.

Så nøjedes jeg med at stille et nyt spørgsmål, lade som om jeg oprigtigt er interesseret i kaninselvforsyning og ikke bare i dyrenes trivsel: Må man godt selv slagte dem eller skal der en autoriseret person indover. Det har de ikke svaret på endnu. Jeg håber virkelig ikke, at det er noget, de bare lige selv klarer. Som om det ikke kræver særlige metoder, der eddermame skal sidde i skabet, før du begynder at bruge dem på rigtige dyr,  så kaninen ikke lider for meget.  Jeg så på et tidspunkt i fjernsynet et program om træning af hjemmeværnet eller specialstyrker eller sådan noget, og en af prøverne var, at de skulle kunne forsørge sig selv i naturen, så de fik udleveret kaniner, de selv skulle slå ihjel og flå for at tilberede. Og ingen kan bilde mig ind, at det var rigtige madkaniner, de fik udleveret. Så store var de ikke. Det der var kælekaniner. Og jeg kunne jo høre, at de ikke havde styr på den metode, de skulle aflive dem med Kaniner siger normalt ikke noget, så hvis din kanin pludselig skriger, så gør du noget seriøst forkert, for det er deres sidste udvej at skrige for at forsøge at skræmme det dyr, der har snuppet dem, sådan at de kan komme væk. Worst case scenario. Så er de skræmt fra vid og sans, de er i stor smerte og panik, og jeg ved godt, at kaniner nemt bliver forskrækkede, men det er ikke en lyd, en kaninejer hører. Altså det er det bare ikke. Og de der gutter, der skulle øve sig i at flå kaniner (FOR DE LEVER JO VILDT I NATUREN I DANMARK, RIGHT!?) der var mange af dem, der overhovedet ikke tog det seriøst og bare stod og grinede fjoget, og så har jeg det bare sådan, ved du hvad, så har du ikke ret til at tage et andet levende væsens liv. Det kan du ikke være bekendt. Den dør for at du kan få noget at spise. Hold din fucking kæft og vis den respekt. Det er ikke et dødt objekt, det er et sansende væsen. Kan du så opføre dig ordentligt.

Og så får jeg det dårligt. Folk lukker øjnene for de oplevelser, de dyr, vi spiser, bliver udsat for hele tiden. Kalve der bliver taget fra deres mor efter et par døgn og bagefter slagtet, så vi kan spise bøffer. Køer der bliver malket, til de ikke kan producere nok mælk længere til at det kan svare sig økonomisk at have dem, hvorefter de også bliver slagtet. Høns der er blevet optimeret så meget, at de vokser så hurtigt og meget, de til sidst ikke kan gå længere, bare så vi kan købe en stor lørdagskylling nede i Netto. Eller de høns, der til sidst ødelægger sig selv, fordi de lægger mega mange æg hver dag, indtil de dør. Eller de svin der ikke engang har nok plads til at vende sig. 

Jeg tænker på det, hver gang jeg ser en reklame for mælk eller kød, hvor der står “dyrevelfærd er vigtig, så vi har lavet et stjernesystem, så du selv kan vælge, hor godt dyrene har haft det”. Så tænker jeg... ja... okay, men hvordan definerer I dyrevelfærd, og hvordan kan det overhovedet gælde, når det er jer selv, der laver jeres eget stjernesystem? Hvad betyder det overhovedet, at jeg køber det med flest stjerner, hvor står der, hvad det indebærer for dyret? Siger det overhovedet en skid, at I giver jer selv stjerner? Tænker folk egentlig over det? Og så er der mange, der tænker, at vegetarer og veganere er ekstreme, og at de altid er aggressive, men er det ikke i virkeligheden resten af os, der er det? Når man bare lukker øjnene for, hvor hakkekødet og rullepølsen kommer fra, lader som ingenting. Fy for pokker. Vi burde skamme os noget mere. MEGET mere. Det er sindssygt væmmeligt at udnytte dyr på den måde. Som om vi i et helhedssyn overhovedet er mere værd end dem. Puha, hvor er vi egoistiske. 

[cloudbattrolls]

Damn I forgot database technicians and record keepers, of course I recognize that as soon as I post. I’ll add them later.

#kaningård

[cloudbattrolls]

Assimilation

Etuuya Vannyn | Present Night | Kaningård Cavern

This drabble is preceded by Aftermath.

Tuuya stared down the false Ardoat, who sat across them in their officewith her hands folded politely as if for all the world this was an ordinary meeting.

Only their coordinators knew the truth. They didn’t dare tell the rest of the cavern; all they’d said was that their new matron was not reporting to the empire after all, that everyone was safe to return.

They had felt the eyes on them, the curiosity and suspicion. They didn’t blame people for wondering.

But they barely knew more themself.

Time to fix that. 

“I can’t think you’re just going to tell me who you are or why you’re here, because I wouldn’t if it were me.” They said dryly. “I imagine you know who and what I really am.”

“Yes.” She said calmly. “Correct on both accounts.”

“I know better than to torture you. But if we’re going to cooperate, I do need a little information.”

She nodded.

“I’ll answer what I can.”

Tuuya squinted.

“Why so cooperative now? Why didn’t you tell me when I first met you in her room?”

“I hadn’t been able to check all her possessions for hidden imperial surveillance yet.” The impostor said evenly. “I had to keep up the ruse. If the empire realizes I replaced her, or that I’m lying to them, everything I’ve done is pointless.”

“So you did sabotage her spies.” The worm swarm murmured.

‘Ardie’ nodded.

“Why? Why are you helping us?” Tuuya said bluntly. “That’s what’s bothering me the most, honestly. What do you want in return for this? It can’t have been easy.”

“It wasn’t too hard.” The fake said calmly. “You may not believe it, but I don’t want anything. Foiling the empire is enough.”

They snorted softly. “I suppose I can relate to that. Still. You can’t think I’m going to just trust your word. Show me what you’ve sent to the empire; I need to know anyway if we’re to collaborate on this ruse.”

The jade nodded and took out her phone and tablet, presenting both to the matron superior.

Tuuya scanned the neatly written reports, mentioning she hadn’t had a chance to place the spybots yet but would soon, that she suspected possible illegal activity but had no proof yet.

They nodded in approval.

“Of course you don’t want to pretend you think everything’s fine. They’d be suspicious.”

The false Ardie smiled a bit eerily.

“Exactly.”

“I assume these spybots will be fake, or else relaying altered information?”

“Correct.”

“I would also like copies of that footage.”

She nodded.

“I will provide you with them.”

Tuuya didn’t speak for nearly half a minute, and their fellow seemed content to stay silent as well.

“The beetles. Are they yours? Or are you them?”

‘Ardie’ only smiled. 

“I haven’t seen them since.” Tuuya murmured.

“Or maybe -"

They looked Ardie directly in those eyes that were just slightly too bright green now, unlike when she had first arrived at Kaningård.

“- I have.”

“Curiosity killed the cat, Tuuya.” Said the impostor fondly. “And satisfaction alone might not bring you back this time. I protect you from the empire. You don’t poke and pry at me - at least, don’t be sloppy about it or I’ll rap your knuckles. That’s the deal.”

Tuuya smiled dryly.

“If I opened you up…what might I find?”

“Look in a mirror.” The false Ardoat said. The tone was blunt, but not flippant.

They raised their eyebrows.

“Isn’t that something. What should I call you, anyway?”

“Ardie or Ardoat is fine.” She said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Really. You take on her identity so thoroughly?”

“Of course.” She said calmly.

As if it was natural. As if she - or they - had done this before…

Look in a mirror, she’d said.

Not worms, of course. But beetles? Was there some other sort of strange swarm?

Yet she was still troll, Tuuya could smell it. Ardie herself was gone, but her body was the same, at least outwardly. If she’d been undead or a swarm, she wouldn’t be so appetizingly alive.

But they knew blood had been shed that day. Something had happened in that room to kill the matron they’d once known.

“You aren’t her.” Tuuya said softly but very firmly, gripping their desk under their hands. 

“I’m grateful for what you did. But you’re not her. I want to call you something else, when it’s just the two of us.”

Decades together, before Rivali had snatched them and dragged them back to Hanhai.

No, they had never been close, that was impossible. But Tuuya had still spent sweeps upon sweeps with Ardoat. Brought her ginger cookies from outside. Knew she liked newspaper crosswords but not word scrambles. Had saved her from a rockfall once.

The fake’s expression was unreadable.

“Call me Iaktta.”

“Iakttagare?” Tuuya asked with an amused expression, recognizing their native language from the pronunciation. “Is that a title, or a description?”

“Yes.” Said Iaktta, who rose to leave.

Tuuya contemplated trying to make her stay, but said nothing as the jadeblood walked away.

Watcher, was it?

The Svenskan word could also mean observer or beholder. 

What an interesting thing to call herself. 

“I won’t be sloppy, Iaktta.” They murmured, worms coiled in determination.

“Count on it.”

THE END OF

PAY HORROR UNTO HORROR

#cloud writes #etuuya vannyn #iaktta #was that your voice or was that me?

[cloudbattrolls]

Arrival

Etuuya Vannyn | Present Night | Kaningård Cavern

This drabble is followed by Aftermath.

Tuuya stared at the printed notice without really taking it in, their soft hands holding it limply. Their bright green eyes were blank, almost unseeing, their body still. They barely moved within their skin, worms leaden with shock and helplessness.

Hello Matron Superior Vannyn,

We are pleased to inform you that you will be receiving and maintaining Miss Ardoat Lentya as a full matron in Kaningård when she arrives on -

The rest blurred before them.

All that mattered was the name.

The name, and the red trident crisply embossed into the stationary the notice had been typed on.

“Ardie…” they whispered, as if saying her nickname with apology could undo the suffering they’d inflicted on the jade.

The worm swarm shook their head. No use staring at the wall and being miserable; they had to tell the others. She supposedly arrived tomorrow night; no doubt the empire hoped to catch them unawares.

Well, thought Tuuya as they grabbed their silver cane and rose to their feet, stuffing the notice in their sylladex as they walked out of their room, they were going to have to try a little harder than that.

As they walked, they took out their phone, texting all their immediate subordinates; the coordinators in charge of the lab, the kitchen, the young mother grub, the egg incubation room, and so on.

I want things spick and span! Don’t spare the sponges.

A true statement. Also a code to clean up and conceal any suspicious activities, shuffle any mutant grubs and wrigglers to the hidden containment areas or evacuation tunnels, disguise any jades who might be not entirely legal themselves, and purge all their message logs and call histories.

A clumsy job, and the absence of such things would certainly draw attention if investigated, but fortunately, they had an excuse for that.

Viruses could be so unfortunate, Tuuya would comment. Remarkable how this one managed to get even into a cavern system, wouldn’t you know it? Perhaps someone was a little too careless on an online gaming site…or, goodness, pirating movies! The sheer cheek, they’d say, shaking their head in imagined abashment.

Admit to a lesser crime, apparently embarrassed, to conceal a greater one.

Then they made a call, speaking a few sentences before hanging up

“Selene. Take Chroma for a field trip. There’s sandwiches in the fridge.”

Another code. He knew what to do, how long to stay away, to not communicate with them beyond this message until he got the all-clear. 

Then they called Uunive.

“Ardie’s coming.” They said lightly, as if the very name was not a heavy weight between the pair of them. “You know how she is.”

Again, they hung up quickly. 

Only the worm swarm and their daughter did in fact, know how she was. Or how she’d been, once, kept in this very cavern…

They made it where they’d been intending to go. Curse their slower pace, but they knocked on the door, and opened it to see a dear, familiar frown.

“You have to evacuate.” They said quietly to Ailene. “An imperial agent is on her way. One placed here permanently. You know where to go.”

Their human daughter nodded, the large moths she bred fluttering around her as she immediately went to grab necessities in preparation.

Tuuya noticed, as they left her, some beetles in the hall. Hardly unusual; Uunive had her own swarm of them she communed with. But as these scuttled out of sight, Tuuya noted they were not the same species; similar, but their carapaces were silvery gray.

Unease prickled through the worm swarm, and it took restraint to not start tying their insides in knots. No, surely if the empire was already here they’d be getting their doors broken down by drones this very moment. Or else it would have already happened.

Still. There was something about them…

But they weren’t swarm-white, and there no others besides themself, Gallen, Inshii, and Helixe.

Helixe…

Tuuya cursed themself in Svenska. How could they be so stupid! Their pupa needed them -

No. They forced themself to stop. Helixe would be fine. They had taught it about evacuations, it had learned just like the other at-risk wrigglers…

But they still ached to think of their youngest in other hands, no matter how capable those hands were.

Stress turned to hunger, as it always did. Tuuya sighed, impatient with their own body as ever when appetite struck while they were trying to get things done.

But there was no denying it. They made their way to the nearest fridge in a common room, bereft of other people as they heard distinct activity signaling their orders were being followed.

Ears flicking, they downed a gallon or so of chilled blood in quick gulps. Tuuya preferred it warm, but this was no time to be picky; they needed to stay focused. 

Right. Yes. Time to warn Crimew and Florah against visiting. They texted both of their children at once, wishing they had time to send personalized messages to each, but the basic code would have to do.

At least Melina was safe, totally unknown here as she was. Their quadrants were away; Jaskir never visited, Kamala and Vrayan were busy, and Channi rarely left his hive’s grounds to begin with.

They sent all four a warning to not contact them for the moment, again wishing they had time to personalize it to each one, but no, quick was the word when all their quads were mutants.

Tuuya sat down heavily on a chair near the fridge, propping their cane against it before stretching out their limbs and trying to make sure they de-tensed from gripping their bones so tightly.

Just a minute’s rest, then they’d -

Their phone chirped with a cheerful tone, a red trident flashing on the display.

They felt an eerie calm form from the pit of their anxiety. Yes. They had figured the empire had lied in the notice, hoping to make them think they had more time than they did…

…but this was still quite soon.

Ardie, they thought. You deserve to hate me, to punish me for what I did to you. But it’s not just me at risk here; it’s so many others who do not deserve what the empire would do to them.

The drinker hauled themself up, cane in hand, and strode as fast as they could to the nearest elevator to take them to Kaningård’s top floor.

Where all visitors were received.

The doors opened with a pleasant ding not long after they’d gotten in, and they gripped their cane tightly as they exited, a pleasant closed-mouth smile on their face. Wouldn’t do to show off their needle-like dentition right now.

She looked over to them, expression pleasant, her choppy chin-length hair so much more gray than when they’d last seen her. Her face had lines it had not shown before. Yet she looked as calm and relaxed as they weren’t, if intrigued and perhaps a little baffled to see them.

It was all normal. Sickeningly normal. 

“Tuuya…?”

Ardoat said in a questioning, almost amused voice.

“Is that you?” She added.

They blinked, then remembered how she had last seen them and chuckled despite their tension.

“Yes, I’m rather bigger than I used to be.” They said with humor, for Ardie had only seen them skinny and with fully black hair. That was three sweeps ago.

Three sweeps that they had, if unintentionally, abandoned her.

“Been through a few knocks.” They remarked, lifting their cane briefly. “But I’m still here, and I…I am sorry.” They said, sagging a bit.

Her face was peaceful. Unsettlingly so.

“It’s fine, Tuuya.” She said. 

Her tone was patient. Encouraging.

“Show me what you’ve done with my old home and we’ll call it even.” She added with a light laugh as she walked over to the elevator. They dutifully followed. 

“I admit - I got here early because I was so excited. But I should still get right to the incubation room; reports to write, you know how it is.”

They nodded.

“Of course. I’m sure you’ve picked up new brooding techniques we could use.”

She waves a hand. “You know I won’t be able to say until I examine the whole facility and see what needs to be done.” She said crisply.

Tuuya twisted up inside, dozens of worms gripping their ribcage; this was what she should have been doing for the hundred-plus sweeps they’d held her captive here.

Instead Ardie’s knowledge had only been good for tutoring Uunive, kept in a light fog so she wouldn’t leave - wouldn’t remember she’d seen worms or a limeblood, wouldn’t tell the empire.

Camouflage for a monster. A tutor for their child.

That was all she’d been for such a long time.

Because they’d put a worm in her head. Controlled her. 

All to keep themself safe.

Tuuya led her to the incubation room, praying the trolls there were ready.

They prayed they were ready.

For they had no idea how to send her away without arousing suspicion. They were trapped.

No harm could come to Ardie without the blame being laid on their head, her blood - literal or metaphorical - on their hands.

Their hunger rose again, but Tuuya had no trouble quashing it.

Guilt easily filled them up instead.

#cloud writes #etuuya vannyn #little voices buzzing poison. backward noise drowns everything.

[cloudbattrolls]

Aftermath

This drabble is preceded by Arrival.

Etuuya Vannyn | Present Night | Kaningård Cavern

They chattered to her as they took her to the incubation room, pointing out this or that in the cavern that had been renovated since her time, but while Ardie was polite she didn’t seem all that interested. 

Not that Tuuya blamed her. The fact that she was acting so polite was unnerving enough; her neutral responses to their small talk were a relief.

“The walls look nicer these nights.” She said, when they’d almost reached the place, placing a hand on one. 

The halls had been distinctly sparser with jades than usual, thank goodness. Everyone in charge of the evacuations must have made it out; they’d been worried the empire had only sent Ardie as a distraction, while cutting them off elsewhere by lying in wait. 

Those beetles…

But perhaps they weren’t some imperial creation after all. There had been no sounds of violence, no smell of blood. They hadn’t seen them again since.

“Oh! Yes. I had the whole place renovated.” They said, head bobbing as they remembered to reply. “You remember how chilly it could get.”

She gave them a strange smile. “Why didn’t you do it when we were here? We spent a lot of cold northern nights together, the rest of us.”

“I didn’t want us found out.” They said quietly.

“You didn’t want you found out.” She responded, even softer. “You really are just worms, aren’t you? Our comfort meant nothing.”

She turned away from the rainbowdrinker, walking through the door as they struggled to not slump in shame. 

They couldn’t afford to indulge in self-hate right now. 

They had to stay strong. Too many people were counting on them.

They followed her, subdued but still alert. No doubt she meant to distract them right when it was relevant, and they couldn’t let that happen.

Yet she behaved perfectly at ease and like an ordinary egg inspector, speaking with the incubation technicians and health experts in the hot, humid room. They’d shut the door behind them; protocol, to prevent as few outside germs from getting in as possible, and they sanitized their hands as well.

They watched her, and said a few hellos to the technicians…ah. 

Anleih was here…and they had their she/they pronoun pin on.

Ardie acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary, greeting her as she would any other jade. Her expression was pleasantly neutral as she extended a hand to shake with the cat troll.

Anleih extended theirs in return, and Ardie must have gripped it hard, for Tuuya saw her struggling to restrain a mew of pain before she put on a strained smile and let go.

Ardie’s gaze stayed cool. The other technicians tensed, but kept doing their work.

Good. 

As horrible as it was, they had to let it go. They couldn’t give the now-imperial jade any reason to keep digging. 

Tuuya only hoped the records were all in supposed, legally perfect order, that the warning they’d sent out had been enough.

At least Ardie seemed genuinely approving of their current technology; they’d have to send Mesier another thank-you piece of clothing later, for right now the purpleblood’s generous financial donations were saving them once more.

“Yes, there are technically more up to date versions of seadweller nutrient substrate you could be using, but given how few you have right now, it’s not something you’d want to invest in upgrading until you have a larger population of them. If that ever happens.” She said conversationally.

Tuuya nodded. “I’m genuinely not sure. We don’t know what this mother grub’s highblood production rate will be like when she’s grown yet.”

“Oh, you don’t have her lineage on record?” Asked Ardie with apparent innocent curiosity.

The worm swarm, however, knew a bear trap when they saw one.

“I’m afraid it was destroyed in the attack on Hanhai cavern.” They said delicately. “I believe you could ask Daudre Seward of Hanhai if you want more details…aren’t their lineages interesting? So slow, and yet they go back so far, and we have to be so careful tampering with their genetics or heaven forbid the matriorbs, and if we’re truly unlucky they become infertile or suffer inherited diseases…”

She nodded, but Tuuya wasn’t done.

“And of course, we’ll have to start collecting donations first before we can start to get a statistically relevant sample of her typical hue range and presence levels, and wouldn’t you know it we don’t actually have drones for that yet? I think it’s a shame, really, but I’ve been told we just don’t warrant it at the size we’re currently at and yet -”

Ardie’s eyes began to glaze over, and they saw the technicians and health experts suppressing smiles as they watched their matron superior use their strongest social weapon: babbling until their victim mentally checked out.

Tuuya wrapped up in a minute or so, to maintain plausibility, thanking Ardie for her expertise, and they hoped the time they’d bought had allowed the others to tie up any loose ends they needed hidden or altered. 

“Well.” She said as they left, wiping a light sheen of sweat off her forehead. “That was…illuminating.”

“Oh, I’m glad! I want you to have as much information as you need to do your job.” They said, nodding.

She squinted at them, probably checking for sarcasm, but Tuuya meant what they said. Exactly as much information as she had to have, and not a drop more.

She shook her head. “Where are your grubs?”

“Oh! Follow me. You don’t need any water or anything, do you?”

Ardie herself looked highly appetizing in the way of beverages, but Tuuya would sooner eat their own teeth than touch her.

If they did, they’d never be able to live with themself.

But if they didn’t kill her, what were they going to do?

If they did kill her, what were they going to do?

“That can wait.” Said the imperial, easily keeping pace with them.

They nodded, and the pair walked on a bit in quiet aside from the gentle tap of Tuuya’s silver cane on the floor.

“How is Uunive?” Ardie asked crisply.

Tuuya looked solemn. It wasn’t hard.

“Oh, you didn’t hear? She’s…no longer with us.” They said, voice cracking a bit.

It was not fake. Not when Tuuya remembered believing their first daughter had died from Klirro's bite, during that terrible night at the DeVille coven’s clinic.

Ardie looked surprised, then genuinely saddened.

She didn’t speak, instead giving Tuuya a sympathetic look that twisted them up even more inside.

Did the jadeblood genuinely miss their daughter? Was it just the remnants of when they’d been in her head, carefully editing out any memory of Uunive’s lime hue?

Or did Ardie, for all her imperial loyalty, still have a bit of feeling that was her own for the girl she had raised and taught, even if it hadn’t been entirely her choice?

This endangered Uunive. It endangered Helixe. Ailene. Everyone. They had to remember that. They had to figure out a plausible accident for her to have…one that would stand up to imperial scrutiny…

But then the empire would just send another. 

Should they keep her, because better the devil they knew?

Tuuya did not know. As they showed her everything she asked to see, their head felt full of static.

They could not find an answer.

They had to find an answer.

As they bid her good day and left her in her assigned hiveblock, Kaningård’s matron superior made up their mind.

—

“We found these.”

A grim tone came from Anleih as she tossed something small and mechanical into Tuuya’s hands. A few somethings.

They blinked at her blearily, having just sat up to go to Ardie’s block. It was the middle of the day outside.

Then they looked down at their dark gray palms and felt a chill.

Miniature spybots. Flat and camouflaged perfectly to blend in with the rocky cavern walls. 

But they weren’t functional. They were…overgrown, somehow, with tiny, strangely vein-like wires.

“Ardie planted them, but what…?” They said wonderingly.

Anleih shook her head. “I don’t know. Whatever it is, it saved us. We had the techs take a look at their insides; they were capable of broadcasting and receiving independently of her, but it seems like they didn’t get a chance to even start.”

Tuuya felt weak at the knees and leaned on their cane for support.

“Time to end this.” They muttered. “Thank you, Anleih…I have to go to her now.”

They nodded, grimacing.

“Do what you have to do, Tuuya.” She said softly.

“I will.” They said, resigned, as they left their room and made their way to Ardie’s.

—

The scent of blood struck Tuuya as they opened the door.

It was faint. Barely perceptible even to their keen rainbowdrinker’s nose.

But it was there.

Ardie herself wasn’t bleeding. No, the short-haired woman was unpacking her things further, setting up furniture and decorations. 

Tuuya saw no fresh scars on her, no bandages.

So why…?

She turned to look at them, head tilting slightly, and looked as politely neutral as she had yesternight.

But something was wrong. 

They stepped closer.

“Restless day, Ardie?”

They said, casual if a bit concerned.

“I haven’t slept here in a while, Tuuya.” She answered. “I thought I might as well begin getting myself settled.”

The voice. The voice was just slightly wrong, the cadence a little off…

Only they or Uunive would have noticed.

Yet the face was the same. Her possessions - a few they recognized from when she’d lived here before - were the same.

“Ardie.” They said casually. “Do you remember when Uunive was hatched?”

She blinked, looking them directly in the eyes.

“Don’t be silly, Tuuya, you brought her here as a grub. Are you feeling all right?”

Damn. 

“Splendid.” They said, experiencing the exact opposite. “Was just trying to reminisce a little, that’s all. It’s nice to have someone else here who knew her like I did.”

She shook her head. “I really must keep unpacking, but thank you for checking in.” She said in a polite but dismissive tone that made it clear the conversation was over.

It was. For now.

Tuuya waved her goodbye, and left. Once they closed the door behind them, and walked a short ways away, they sat down heavily against the wall and slumped against it.

“I don’t know who or what you are.” They murmured. 

Those eyes had been just a little too bright green. Almost close to their own hue.

“Or why you’ve done this.”

The impostor knew how Uunive had come here. They’d clearly done their homework.

Too bad the person they were trying to fool had also worn others’ faces in their time.

“But I know you’re not Ardie.” Tuuya whispered, then took a deep breath, ears flattened against their neck as they acknowledged the stark and terrible truth. 

“And I know you killed her.”

#cloud writes #etuuya vannyn #in the summer silence I was getting violent. in the summer silence I was doing nothing.

[cloudbattrolls]

“Hm. I haven’t heard from Florah lately…I should go check on him. I hope he’s all right.”

Luckily, you have things laid out in your cavern so that it’s easy for you to notify your staff and visit one of your three outside children without disrupting Kaningård’s routine.

But you worry about your son-daughter even so. It’s not like her to not answer you.

#etuuya Vannyn #worms McGee has no idea. alas poor flower mage

[cloudbattrolls]

"Etuuya Vannyn is from a cavern called Kaningård, and currently resides there as its head matron. They are indifferent to the spectrum, despite their former loyalty to the empire, but will pretend to adhere to it to cover for their cavern’s secret mutant-raising activities. It’s easy to get them chattering on many subjects, especially history and fashion, and they are usually the apologetic type.  They have a large, unconventional family that they love deeply and spend much of their time caring for, generally shunning the spotlight for themself."

#updated Tuuya's select description while I was at it #since it still said they worked for Chimer which is incorrect lol

[cloudbattrolls]

Brave New World

Rivali Tescin & Anleih Pewsey | Kaningård Cavern | One Perigee After the Defeat of Ozryel & Her Children

Rivali looked at the design plans and sighed. They were taking time off work for this?

If they weren’t being paid well…

“Whatcha frowning at, sport?”

Their ears flicked slightly in annoyance as they turned to look at Srevni, who smiled at them - in troll form, because right now the cavern was full of new people. Their silver eyes gleamed with amusement, their braids shifting slightly as they moved. 

“This is going to be difficult.” They said, pursing their lips. “I’m not sure it’s even worth it.”

“I dunno, I think it’s worth a shot. Maidel said it could work, and he knows animals pretty well.”

“I’m the one who actually works with lusii.” Muttered the jadeblood.

“Good for you.” Said the hybrid cheerfully. “Now learn to accept a second opinion from someone who’s handled animals for sweeps before you started learning to kill them.”

Rivali grumbled, and their acquaintance laughed and walked away.

They looked around, still amazed at how different Kaningård looked now. 

They stood in one of its recently cleaned rooms, the formerly near-empty cavern now bustling with construction droids and workers. Laughter and the noise of drills and material being hauled floated in from the nearby tunnel. 

They looked at the plans again. Breeding lusii specifically for mutants…was such a thing even viable? Not to mention the ridiculous idea of trying to train the beasts to cooperate with each other. So much effort for uncertain gain.

They sighed. They supposed they ought to find Maidel after all.

The komondor troll walked out and asked one of the workers where the cuspblood might have gone, and they waved a hand toward the nursery.

Well, at least they would get a nice walk in.

“Hey - um, sorry, can you help me? I’m looking for the matron superior’s office…”

It was a jade, one probably at least their age or older, but who moved with the nervous hesitancy of a troll several sweeps younger. Rivali wanted to turn a hundred and eighty degrees and walk in the other direction, but no, Daudre would chide them and Srevni would make fun of them. They resigned themself to playing tour guide.

“No use pointing you that way.” Said Rivali dryly. “Come with me.”

They blinked, their large ears flicking, but they dutifully followed as Rivali set a brisk pace deeper into the cavern, toward the nursery.

The jade, fingers nervously threading together, wore glasses and had a short bob, dressed in very boring standard issue gray clothing.

“Um, what’s your name? I’m Anleih…”

“Rivali.” They said with a sigh, then their ears flicked. “Forgive my lack of enthusiasm. This isn’t technically my job, because I am no good at it.” They said with a trace of humor.

Their castemate flushed jade and made an embarrassed meowing noise as they crossed into the deeper levels of the cavern, going down a somewhat winding ramp.

“Oh! I’m sorry! I just -“ 

“Don’t worry about it.” They said, shaking their head. “I know this place better than the others do. I might as well take you.”

They walked quietly together for another minute or so, Anleih looking around in curiosity at the murals that had begun to be painted on the cavern walls. Rivali would grudgingly admit they were beautiful, even if they had to look away from the depiction of themself heroically wielding a gun in embarrassment.

Anleih squinted at it.

“Hey, isn’t that -“

“Why don’t we keep moving.” Cut in the lusus wrangler.

“Oh! Uh, okay.”

Rivali walked ahead of their companion so that they wouldn’t see the faint dusting of jade across their own face.

“Soooo…” said the other troll slowly. “Where are you from?”

Rivali deducted some sanity points from tonight’s score preemptively.

“Hanhai originally.” They admitted. “I work in Temasek now.”

Predictably, the other jade’s eyes grew wide.

“Wait, so you really are -“

“Do not treat me that way - please.” They tacked on, pained. “I am not some…” they waved a hand. “Noble person. It was my home. It was threatened. I came to defend it.”

“But you -“

“No.” They insisted. “I helped. But I was not the one who gave up the most that day.”

Anleih looked extremely confused.

“Everyone says you killed that creature…”

“Everyone does, don’t they.” Muttered the jadeblood. “Well. Between you and me, everyone is wrong. That’s what we said for the official records. Since you are here…you know as well as I do that official records are often flawed at best.” They said with a dry smile.

Anleih did manage a smile, nervous though it was, and a nod.

“I shot Ozryel. That much is true. I helped take her down, and I helped get the matriorb to safety. But I was not the one who finished her.”

Rivali pushed open the nursery door, not bothering to knock.

Derelict for so long, the room next to the cavern’s young mother grub’s was now warm and cozy, bedecked with knitted blankets and soft toys. A tank of snails stood in a corner, and several sopor-filled cradles lined the walls. Vines hung from the ceiling, providing extra oxygen for the grubs, and patches of luminescent moss shone on the walls. 

Rivali walked toward the large rug in the center, where a person lying on their back was chattering animatedly to three grubs stacked on their belly in a comfortable pile. One grub had a cloudy eye, another was lime, and the third was missing two legs. 

“Then I punched the shark again! Knocked some of its teeth out - ”

“Ahem.” Cut in Rivali curtly.

Anleih looked at the - jade? Yes, there was a jade microscopium symbol on their chest - who looked back up at them with bright green eyes, their long wavy hair splayed on the floor shot through with gray, face round but with a pointy chin. 

They had a rather homely appearance, with the black marks on their face and their wide mouth, but they looked so friendly and enthusiastic that the newcomer couldn’t help smiling too.

“Get up, Vannyn, the new hire is here and I knew you wouldn’t be in the right place.” Rivali said, crossing their arms.

“Yes, mother.” Retorted the floor jade with cheerful flippancy as they grabbed for a nearby silver cane, one beautifully engraved with…beetles? And a crocodile, a butterfly, other animals too…

Then they gently shooed the grubs off them, despite the infants' protesting squeaks and chitters. Then they struggled to their feet, wincing slightly, showing themself to be slightly shorter than Anleih and a good deal rounder, with spiny horns that pointed back over the top of their head.

They were dressed in a beautiful jade and black outfit, with a shimmering green shawl over their shoulders, blue and pink studs decorating their ears.

“Hello! My apologies for the informal reception, but I assure you I’m quite happy to see you, mx. Anleih.”

They stuck their free hand out and the jade shook it, a bit bemused.

“So, you’ll take me to the matron superior…?”

“Oh! Right. Haven’t got my name tag on.”

They rummaged in their sylladex, and promptly slapped a small metal rectangle on their chest.

Anleih blinked, and read it.

ETUUYA VANNYN (MATRON SUPERIOR) 

There was also a little snail inscribed on it.

Then they blushed.

“I’m…I’m…oh my god…”

The microscopium jade didn’t seem bothered at all, instead laughing gently. The grubs trundled over one another on the rug, nibbling on each other’s horns.

“Do not fret! I don’t fit the traditional image, it’s true…but this is hardly a traditional place, hm?” They said with a knowing smile.

Anleih nodded.

“I’m, uh, I’m excited to help with grub development, and mother grub care…”

“Yes, yes, we definitely need you! Not a lot of trolls who’ve cared for a juvenile, and even fewer with our particular beliefs.” They said a bit dryly, making their slow way to the door. The younger trolls trailed behind them as they leaned heavily on their cane.

“Where’s Maidel?” Rivali asked impatiently. “I was looking for him to see if this plan of yours can actually work.”

“Oh, he left, but he’ll be back.”

They sighed.

“He better be.”

“Or what?” Said Tuuya cheekily.

“Or I’m hiding your tea.”

They gasped in mock affront.

“You wouldn’t dare!”

Anleih looked between the two in deep confusion. This wasn’t how any matron superior she’d seen ever acted with their jades - or any lower-ranked jades.

Tuuya noticed their expression and laughed. Another jade with a genet around their shoulders slipped into the room and began keeping an eye on the grubs, setting up water bottles for them. 

The matron superior waved to them, and got a smile in return before looking back at Anleih.

“I am a bit…different, as you’ve surely noticed, and will keep noticing the longer you stay! I do hope you’ll be happy here.”

“Oh, no, I’m - I mean, it’s great, it’s just - ” she paused.

“I can imagine what a jade with invisibility psiionics who isn’t strictly a woman would have gone through elsewhere.” They said shrewdly. “Not to worry. There’s none of that here.”

They nodded, embarrassed to be so easily read.

“Now! Let’s go see our fresh young progenitor.”

Tuuya lead, slowly but surely, and Rivali and Anleih followed.

#cloud writes #etuuya vannyn #rivali tescin #anleih pewsey

[cloudbattrolls]

Of Tuuya's kids, only Uunive and Ailene know each other, since they both live with Tuuya in Kaningård, and Tuuya is too shy to ever suggest their other kids meet one another, but they would be overjoyed if they did and they got along. They're just also worried it would go badly, and they never want to pressure their children to do anything they're uncomfortable with.

#made yet trickier by the fact that only three of them are trolls. and Florah and Uunive are drinkers #Ailene is a human #and Crimew is an alien #Melina can't even be said to be normal since she's possessed lmfao and technically undead

[cloudbattrolls]

Just Like We Breakdown

Etuuya Vannyn || Kaningård Cavern || Present Night

Tuuya drummed their heels against a rocky ledge high in the cavern wall, sighing. They’d let themself become bigger again…oh, they managed to think it was for practical reasons, and it was - a bit. But it was also because it was so much easier to drown their worries in the brief joy of eating, just for a little while.

How selfish. But shaming themself wasn’t useful now, not when it didn’t do anything productive, like they’d said to their matesprit.

Not they felt they did much of anything productive these nights, stuck as they were. 

The drinker looked out across the quiet, stony place that had once been their thriving wrigglerhood home.

What else could they do?

The proximity sensors they’d set up all across the cavern went off with a persistent high chirping.

Tuuya almost blurred from how fast they clambered down, leaping with no regard to keeping their form together fully, half flowing down the steep wall.

FOREIGN UNDEAD INSECT TERMINATED, reported the security system over its speakers.

Good, the little laser drones were doing their jobs and all the tweaking of the bio-sensors had paid off. 

Ailene and Uunive knew the drill - they’d gone over it with them at least a dozen times. Where to hide, where to avoid, how to use the swarm-killing weapons they’d given them. Tuuya had perfect confidence in their daughters.

Even if they worried a little for the limeblood, after what had happened the other night. 

The cavern rumbled.

Tuuya hissed and grabbed a remote from their sylladex. Kaningård was partially built on rock, but they knew very well the swarms could find a way in by tunneling underground if they tried hard enough. 

They deployed the stronger laser field around the entrance, but would have no way of knowing how effective it’d been until they saw the footage -

- a terrible noise came, a distant high shriek that pierced their skull so harshly they clutched their ears and their head, unable to not wail in pain. The remote clattered to the ground, and they curled up in a ball.

Then it cut off. They scrabbled for the piece of tech, entire body writhing from the aftereffects, writhing without their will into…spirals. 

Their eyes widened. No, oh no, why was she here? Why was she here?

How dare she be here.

Fear and rage warred in the worm swarm as they grabbed the rectangular controller and pressed another button. Futile, probably futile, probably they were all dead already, but they had to try.

They ran wide-eyed and barely troll shaped, surging across the rocky floor trying to get to their daughters as acidic gas was deployed, the rest of the cavern beyond the entrance sealed off to prevent it from spreading - 

- CLANG. 

As they ran past one of said walls, it burst open in a spiral pattern, and they leapt high in the air to dodge the shrapnel, one or two pieces still slicing them open as they hissed in pain. Ears flattened against their skull, they looked at the two figures on the other side of the torn remains.

There she stood, that DeVille wretch who’d turned Uunive, tall and thin and grinning her jagged smile. Her horrible red spiral eyes sickened them to see, churning and twisting, as her long, sharp black claws crossed together. 

The gas would come in here. The gas might spread, might hurt Uunive and Ailene, and then everything was pointless.

“You.” They breathed, soft and utterly full of hate.

Next to her was Gallen, in troll form and all over the place, but they didn’t care about him right now. 

Tuuya whipped out their laser pistols to riddle her with -

With a surge of white and the sound of endless skittering legs on rock, isopods surrounded the worm swarm.

They knocked the gun out of their hand after merely one missed shot. Tuuya struggled and thrashed to get out of the crushing pressure, trying to abandon their troll form and clothes to escape.

It was no use. Gallen was too heavy, too numerous; they couldn’t slip through, not even as individual worms.

His troll form scratched his neck, looking slightly apologetic.

Tuuya spat at him with a distorted, writhing face, only barely held together after their escape attempts and from their rage, troll features warped and misshapen as they began to dissolve, acid drifting toward them now. 

Gallen winced, but didn’t seem as bothered, and Klirro didn’t appear affected at all. 

“You fffucking missscreants! I willl chhhew you to the baressst shhredsss -“

“You might have had the chance if fortune had not favored another path! We have not come to undo you, second worm, do not threaten to undo yourself.”

Klirro interrupted.

She quickly stepped in a spiral pattern, spinning, her long gold toga billowing out with her, and the gas spiraled into a funnel cloud and then dissipated into nothingness.

No more pain. 

Tuuya paused, now baffled as well as enraged. They wriggled their face back into realignment, shaking their head in utter confusion. 

“Why should I trust you bastards?” They said, voice hard and still rough. “I would love to see you both dead! Though I’m tragically aware that’s far easier said than done.”

Gallen took out his phone, tapped on it, and held it up to play his words.

“I know my mother is dying, no matter how much blood she gets. She’s been dying for a long time, losing herself, and none of us wanted to admit it. What she did to you…I’m sorry I stood by and let it happen. I’ve been a coward.”

He bowed his head, retracting himself to free the worm swarm, and Tuuya blinked, completely thrown. Glad to not be pressed down with that awful weight of armored segments as they wriggled themself back into all the right places and shapes on their skeleton, but even more suspicious of the man standing across from them. Their bright green eyes shone warily, their ears flicking slightly.

The rest of him slowly scuttled around their feet on the stony cavern floor, his many sets of mandibles drooping sadly. While the tailor knew it was absurd, they could have sworn the creatures looked just as apologetic as their troll face did.

Suspicion whispered it was a trap, a trick, but why would the pair need to bother? Klirro was clearly strong enough to break in without Gallen, and the two drinkers together were far more than a match for the worm swarm.

They fixed the horrorterror with a glare.

“All right, let’s say I believe Mr. Woebegone’s sob story. What’s yours, you absolute hag? Why did you kill my daughter?”

Klirro pressed her long, narrow hands together, looking intent as she explained in her singsong, up and down voice.

“The lime needed to be turned or else have been consumed by Ozryel, died entire but for her soul and her scraps left to linger! I was her luck that night! She will be ours in return.”

Tuuya seethed, rippling beneath their skin in rage.

“Uunive’s not doing a thing for you, you great bloody wretched - ”

“The lime is gone to do for herself first.” Interrupted Klirro again, cheerful and unusually calm. 

“She must settle the death of the old self before she can be truly reborn. So the beetle ascends her shell! So a fresh resurrection halts an ancient one! How Ozryel undoes herself with her own distant kin.”

“Shut up.” Growled Tuuya. “Uunive’s right here and she’s not going anywhere unless she wants to.”

A silence filled the cavern entryway. Tuuya’s ears twitched nervously. 

Why had they both gone so quiet? Even the isopods on the stone had become deathly still.

“Uunive’s right here.” Said Tuuya again. They tried to not let their voice crack.

Right here.

She was right here.

Their baby, their darling, their little girl -

“She has gone.” Said Klirro, so soft and gentle that Tuuya wanted to cry and rage at the same time because how dare she?

“No! Why - why would she - “

Yet they stopped, breathless, considering…remembering…Jaskir, the fight…Uunive had been so upset, running away to her room.

They hadn’t seen her since.

Not even to bake, or to wander the cavern.

“No.” Said Tuuya, trembling. “No.”

“Such a weight on the mind.” Murmured Klirro. “It is easy to run one’s thoughts in bitter spirals, until it all wears down to the quick.”

The worm swarm turned and ran to their older daughter’s room, practically leaping down the rocky passages, clinging tight to their bones in sheer fear. 

They didn’t know if the other drinkers followed them. They didn’t care.

Their rapid footsteps echoed in the quiet passages as they came to a halt in front of the limeblood’s quarters.

“Uunive!” Tuuya called with forced cheerfulness. “Uunive, is it all right if I come in?”

No coughing or shuffling. No stifled sigh of impatience. No rustling of sheets.

Tuuya shook again, knowing they were at risk of disassembling. They gulped in air, forced themself to coil together again, and stepped into the room.

Empty.

The room’s emptiness hurt like a physical thing, it was so reduced in possessions, it was so crushingly bare.

A hole of all things lay in the middle of the room. They ran over. 

A tunnel. A deep, dark, roughly dug tunnel wide enough to fit a troll stretching down into the earth. They were unable to see the bottom, even when they flared their glow as high as it would go.

A letter laid next to it. Tuuya snatched it up and read it, clear tears bubbling up in their eyes.

As they finished reading, it slid out of their slackened hands to land back on the soil below. Tuuya did not care to pick it up.

Tuuya did not care for much of anything at the moment.

Only one hazy thought penetrated their gloom.

Ailene.

Leadenly, they turned and faced the door of their missing daughter’s room. Stiffly, awkwardly, as if a puppet used by an unskilled conductor, they went to find their younger child.

She was safe. Hidden exactly where she should be, a sealed alcove almost impossible to see from most angles. They whispered words of encouragement, a quick update on the situation, and sealed her back behind her cover, a protective shield.

They turned and found themself staring into Klirro’s eyes mere feet away.

Tuuya lost what little composure they had left and launched themself at the horrorterror-possessed corpse.

“GET AWAY FROM HER! AWAY! AWAY! DIN ELÄNDIGA STACKARE! DU KOMMER INTE ATT TA HENNE OCKSÅ!”

They clawed at Klirro as a troll would, bit at her like one, their form stable even as they sobbed between their yelling, because she would not hurt this one -

They were plucked off with a strangled yelp and squeak, into strong, thick arms that held them so gently, terrifying in their tenderness.

They struggled for a moment, then stopped, sobbing more. 

“No…no…stay away…” Their throat choked up, their body shaking, feebly scrabbling at Gallen’s arms.

They looked up at him, angry, yet pleading. 

“Let me go.” They said, barely more than a whisper.

Gallen merely hummed and rocked them a bit, and they shakily wiped their face with their sleeve. A few isopods crawled on them, and a few worms crawled out to meet their fellow swarm units. The individual isopods were just as gentle as their troll form, stroking the worms protectively.

Tuuya hated that they felt calmer, but they did. They shook their head, worms retracting. The isopods scuttled off of them, and Gallen set them down gently. 

Klirro seemed utterly undisturbed by the attempted mauling. Even as they watched, the wounds they’d left sealed, and it was as if they’d done nothing at all. 

Silence filled the air for a minute.

“Where did she go?” They uttered, completely lost, ears drooping. “Where did my little girl go? What did you do to her?” Their voice almost rose to a wail at the last sentence.

Klirro tilted her head, for once not smiling in her usual way.

“You ask if I have changed her further? No, second worm, not I. The beetle must experience the alchemy of the self on her own terms. We must not interfere, not yet. She knows so little of herself, and she must find her heart while looking with her own eyes and no one else’s.”

Tuuya gritted their teeth, a bit of stability returning.

“Where. Is she.” They demanded, hoarse.

Klirro looked down, to where spirals slowly fanned out in the dirt beneath her.

“Where there is one Semreh, there must be another. Luck is a dual thing, of ebb and flow. Blood always returns to where it came from for shelter.”

The worm swarm frowned. 

“She has signmates?”

They said disbelievingly. 

Limebloods were rare enough, and for there to be more of a bloodline extant that the caverns hadn’t somehow caught? How could this be?

“The first, second worm, the first of them! Back in times you would feel were ancient, when he was not hunted.” She corrected cheerfully.

Tuuya’s overwhelmed brain slowly put together the pieces.

“Her ancestor?” They said wonderingly.

Klirro nodded.

“He does not breathe! His paper words speak, they are his body and memory now.”

The younger undead considered this, trying to wrest meaning from it.

They sighed.

“We’ll never find her, will we? Not when it would be bad luck for her if she did, the way she sees it…I hope wherever she’s going, to this ancestral place, that it’s safe.”

Klirro smiled again, if not as wide.

“You came back from the firebird. You ate her heart, and it grew again. The cycle plays out anew, for it runs in the bloodless bond of your line.”

Tuuya closed their eyes, finding little anger left in them at the moment.

“What are we going to do?” They said quietly, scuffing a shoe against the rocky floor.

“I will return to my coven.” Stated Klirro, positive and direct. “I will tell them the things to accomplish if they are to break Ozryel’s cycle. Gallen will tell you what the butterfly is trying to do. You’re not alone, second worm. You have never been alone.”

With that, the ancient rainbowdrinker swept away. Gallen stood a moment longer, nodding to the worm swarm, before he walked out of sight - he signed that it was to give them space.

Tuuya stared at the rocky cavern ceiling, then down at the dirt below.

Klirro was wrong.

They were alone. They were empty. They were meaningless.

Unless Uunive came back.

#cloud writes #etuuya vannyn #children of ozryel #klirro #gallen #beginning of the end folks it's the start of part four #the last section of this whack ass plot #been long enough #uunive running away was Rory's idea and happened after she lost her temper and tried to attack Tuuya's matesprit #as is the ancestor stuff #he's a big help as always

[cloudbattrolls]

Scattered

Etuuya Vannyn | Dormir Facility | Present Night

TW: disassociation, trauma-related memory issues

“The thing is.” Tuuya said, slowly, picking over their words like a vulture over a corpse. “I didn’t want to be here.”

They leaned back in the plush couch of the therapy room, legs outstretched, cane loosely gripped in one hand.

Serine looked at them patiently. She was good at not making it look artificial, they thought, but also good at not making it too intense, of trying too hard to understand. 

They hoped the place paid her enough for a pair of eyes like that.

“Not because of you, or because of therapy.” They added. “That would make sense, right? It would be nice if it made sense that way. If it was as simple as running from my feelings. I know all about that.”

Tuuya closed their eyes, holding their head in their hands.

“I really wish it was that simple.”

—

I know how I came to Dormir, but I don’t remember.

You’d think the two were the same, wouldn’t you?

I know I took a ship. I know I stood on the deck, leaned on my cane, presumably watched the island come up in the distance.

But I only know that.

It is like a story I have told myself.

It is difficult to think I was actually there. 

—

“You see, I am being haunted.” Tuuya said conversationally.

Serine winced. 

“Tuuya. We didn’t find any signs of a ghost.”

They frowned. “No, that can’t be right. There has to be something.”

How had she known to look? 

Oh, right, she’d been told.

They must have told her.

“There’s nothing there. Sorry.”

“No, I, no. I mean. There has to be -“

She hesitated. 

“You can ask our psychics yourself.”

She said, calm again.

—

I know who I am.

I know who I was, as well.

There are so many things for me to hold onto.

So I must be possessed, for I feel my grip weakening all the same.

It must be that.

—

“No, I shouldn’t trouble them.” The matron said, eyes closing. “I need to trust you. Trust them. Trust someone.” They said, slightly desperate.

“I…I do not think I can trust myself. If it isn’t a ghost I’m possessed by, then…”

Serine looked gentle, sympathetic. That was good. They weren’t being annoying…

“Your disassociation is getting worse.”

She knew that’s what it was? How did she -

They must have told her.

“It’s impacting your memory, I think. At least, memories that are linked with it. Tell me the names of your children.”

“Uunive, Ailene, Florah, Melina, Crimew, and Helixe.” Tuuya recited immediately.

“Your quadrants?”

“Channi, Jaskir, Kamala, and Vrayan.”

“Your brothers?”

“Tantor.”

Serine nodded.

“You forgot Gallen. This supports my theory.”

Tuuya squinted. “Gallen?”

Their eyes widened.

“Gallen…”

He was there, he was there when -

—

They laid on the floor and realized part of them was outside their skin.

Hm. That seemed bad.

Why had they come apart?

They tried to make those worms go back into their skin.

They weren’t moving.

Why weren’t they moving?

Serine stood over them with a spray bottle. 

“I’m sorry. We had to take precautions.”

Right. Tekras’s immobilizing spray…

Hopefully they hadn’t hurt anyone, not like they had before when they'd been possess -

—

Tuuya stood up, gasping, and they were…outside?

In the sun. It was daylight.

For a moment they basked in the warmth, as most undead were wont to do.

They were forgetting something…

“Do you know how you got here?”

Serine again. Covered in day gear.

Led down a hallway. Taking their free hand to guide them. Curious faces.

“That was me, wasn’t it…” they trailed off, murmuring. “How novel…”

—

I know who I am.

I know who 

I know

There is someone else in my head

There must be an explanation 

I have too many people 

Relying on me!

Kaningård needs its head matron -

— 

“You need you, Tuuya.”

They blinked. 

Back in the therapy room. 

“I’m not sure I’ve ever done myself much good…” They said with a nervous laugh.

“Then you should start.” Said the indigo calmly but firmly.

“You’re staying here for two weeks, at least. Your cavern has been notified. The place will be well cared for in your absence. We will meet your needs for blood.”

“Oh.”

Tuuya said, ears lowered.

“I don’t - I can’t decide for myself?” 

Their tone was pleading.

The bald woman looked at them, sympathetic but stern.

“You have lost your troll form over a dozen times since you’ve been here and keep not remembering how and when it happens when you reform again. You are quite literally unable to hold together during any discussion of your trauma. You cannot go on like this.” 

The worm swarm blinked.

“Oh.”

The highblood softened slightly.

“We are working on ways to help you. We have asked others for their input. There is hope.”

Tuuya laughed, sad and amused alike.

“Oh, I know. If only it could put me back together.”

Unbeknownst to them, their hand started to break apart. 

Serine, her own hands gloved, calmly pointed it out to them.

Tuuya stared at the white worms writhing and shedding their dark gray skin, exposing the bones. They should be worried…but it didn’t feel real.

It should feel real, right?

Vaguely, they tried to think themself back together.

The worms stopped moving, though they didn’t re-knit into their mimicry of muscle.

Serine looked pleased. Tuuya smiled faintly.

Well, if she was happy, they ought to keep trying.

It never did to let someone down.

#cloud writes #etuuya vannyn #serine matshi #worms mcgee isn't well. which isn't news to anybody but they themself have been unaware #of the full extent to which they are not well until now #a fairly short one by my standards. mostly just to show What's Going On

[cloudbattrolls]

@condescensionsation (for the conversation ask that got ungraciously eaten by tumblr)

--

The silver desk in the middle of the well-lit office had once belonged to Jamie Abnale, but was now covered with duck knickknacks. Its pencil mug was decorated with a dancing kittycat meme, and it was dustier in the few spaces not covered by stray papers or notepads that had never been so disarrayed when the blueblood had used it.

It now held a nameplate that read 'Chimer Latrai' and the eponymous fuchsia was settled in a chair she'd brought in to both spin around and accommodate her tall stature.

On it rested a folder that had ‘RESTRICTED’ printed on it in imperial red.

Chimer looked at the man anxiously sitting across from her, his worry clear from his stiff posture and fins held at a determined neutral half-mast.

It was a little funny, though not the kind that made her laugh. More the ‘where did my life go’ type.

“So…I mean. Your résumé is good. Ullane said you’re pretty solid, a few incidents aside. I’m not gonna phone up Queenpin for a reference, but I’m sure she’d say the same. But why did you apply?”

“Tuuya recommended it to me.” He admitted, seeming sheepish about the fact, his glow spots flicking brighter and dimmer in turn.

The fuchsia snorted. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. You don’t eat people, right?”

The violet looked scandalized at the very thought. She laughed.

“Great. Already an improvement. But like, you’re pretty busy these nights already, aren’t you? What made you want to go back to your old gig?”

Thrixe shrugged.

“Money. I don’t charge the clinic or Kaningård too much, they’re both good causes. But also…I want to keep my skills sharp. I feel…restless.” He admitted.

“My life is great. Better than I ever thought it’d be. But even though I’m doing work I enjoy, it’s not quite the same.”

Chimer nodded.

“I know you can follow orders. Probably better than worms mcgee can, though I admit they weren’t always wrong when they decided to divert. Hurts to say so, but it’s true. More importantly…do you understand you’ll be going directly against the empire at times?

Tuuya’s said to me that you still have tendencies that way, which I’m not gonna lie, is pretty funny given your whole deal.”

The hybrid winced. “I…I am no longer loyal to the empire. I haven’t been since I faked my death and fled. Then they tried to kill me a second time.” He said with a sigh.

Chimer’s eyebrows raised.

“Yet you don’t sound mad about that.”

“I’m a threat.” Said the violet bluntly. “A major threat. From a security standpoint, trying to eliminate me made sense.”

She laughed softly, rolling a pencil between her fingers.

“You sure are, bud. You’re a threat I want on my side…because even though I’m out of my old politics now, there’s a whole new field I’m playing in. I know now that the only reason no one screwed with me before was the resistance’s protection, and the resistance is gone, thanks to a certain freckled moron hunting their leader.”

Thrixe blinked. This was complete news to him, and he had no idea who the freckled moron was.

“Corelo’s great, but he has his own stuff to deal with, and I prefer him close to me.” She continued. “He’s best on the management side. You I need in the field, when trouble comes calling, or when I need to prevent it.”

She straightened up, her gaze harder.

“But will you go against the empire? Not just ignore their rules. Not just slide under their radar. Actively step up and fight their forces. Can you do that, Thrixe?”

The violet thought.

Then he nodded.

“Yes.”

Chimer Latrai grinned.

“Great. Welcome to the team. We have doughnuts every other week.”

Thrixe looked confused.

“I don’t eat doughnuts.”

His new boss looked at him in mock horror.

“You are a sad, weird little starfish.”

The violet rolled his eyes.

#thrixe varzim #chimer latrai #cloud writes

[cloudbattrolls]

Made of You and You of Me

Etuuya Vannyn || Kaningård Cavern || Present Night

Tuuya grumbled, then sneezed as another cloud of dust got in their face.

Sometimes nostrils were overrated.

Sure, they were necessary for breathing and speaking, but the sensations one got with them sometimes made them glad they could dispense with a nose entirely if they felt like it.

Not that they would right now unless they were sure their daughters were asleep, or else fully occupied. They were fairly certain that Ailene at least was awake - hopefully not bothering her sister too much.

Besides, they had work to do, sorting through the rubble with only their hands and whatever tools they could scrounge up from cavern storage. They had no energy for extra constructs, and they didn’t want to risk either girl seeing worms.

Ailene didn’t mind so much…but they couldn’t risk her mentioning it to Uunive.

Uunive. Poor, poor Uunive. However long it took to get her adjusted and back on her feet, they’d do it. They’d offer her another chance at a cavern, if she wanted it. If not, they’d help her with whatever she desired, help her achieve independence from them if it would make her happy.

Who could blame her if she never wanted to see them again? She’d endured enough hardship because of their bad choices and worse luck.

Assuming the other swarms didn’t simply find and kill the three of them.

Tuuya knew perfectly well their life was worth less than nothing now. If Ozryel caught them she would never let them slip away again. Well. If she was capable of remembering that mistake, what with her crumbling sanity…

If that part of their memories had been true.

How could they question the other swarms’ mother much when their own recollections had been so warped?

They’d feared a few times that this was all another torment, that if they looked away too long they’d find themself alone, or worse, back with her.

They closed their eyes, putting a hand to their chest, feeling the comforting softness of their sweater.Their clothes were real, chosen under their own power. Their head was their own; they’d regenerated their whole brain and chewed her worms apart.

Never, ever again. 

They deserved to be locked up, but a prisoner in their own head was too far.

Locked up, though…what an attractive answer to their problems. Dead - that would cause too many problems. Shut away? That would solve so many.

It wouldn’t be the first time, after all.

Suddenly tired of the work, Tuuya dropped their shovel. They turned and walked away from the tool and their wheelbarrow, seized by an impulse.

At a very quick walk, they made their way deeper into the cavern’s tunnels. They hoped it wasn’t blocked off...no, the passage was still there, even if it too made them sneeze.

This dust had accumulated over far many more sweeps than that in the higher levels. It had settled and thickened so that their shoes left prints in it as they passed, but they didn’t care to clean these cold stone paths, so dark that they turned on their glow to light their way.

Down and down the drinker went, because it had been necessary to go this deep all that time ago in case the empire ever came calling. Clearly it had worked - even investigated, declared condemned, they hadn’t bothered looking very far.

Why would they? The empire had long since moved on from the supposed plague that had killed off Kaningård’s population, leaving a sole survivor.

Their lips twitched in morbid amusement, remembering what Wistim had done to the traitorous jades in her old abandoned cavern.

That humor died as the tunnel opened up and they finally came to the burials.

Tuuya took a deep breath. An unnecessary habit, but one that had persisted long since they’d lost their flesh.

Weeks of effort to get the soil down here, for there hadn’t been much to work with. Weeks of forcing themself to sort through the bones, doing their best to remember who had been who from the horns and clothing, scouring the records for names, getting stones of the right size to mark them with. Buying enough jade paint to dab on each and every symbol.

Dealing with the mother grub’s withered corpse, the dead and rotten eggs and shriveled grubs, the countless hours it had taken to bury everyone. 

Tuuya walked through the matrons and their acolytes now, gait delicate as if they were walking on eggshells. Their bright green eyes flicked over all the mounds, rows upon rows of long-decayed bones, all else picked clean from them over a hundred and fifty sweeps ago.

The silence hung in the air as heavy as it ever had. As heavily as it must.

This place should never become easy for them to walk through.

They wished they had flowers to leave, or some other way to pay respects. No doubt the ghosts were still here, lingering angrily around every rock and patch of moss. No doubt their spectral eyes watched their murderer walk through their remains, longing for them to die.

“Sorry.” Tuuya murmured. “I should, but I can’t. Not yet. Once they leave me, you know? They will, I’m sure. I’ll stay until they realize how much better off they are without me. I’ll have done my duty, and perhaps one of them will even kill me...not Channi, I don’t think. But Kamala could. Jaskir, even. Uunive has the most right.”

Ailene probably wouldn’t care what they’d done, nor should she. She deserved a far better caretaker, though. She’d move on easily.

So would their friends. People died all the time.

Tuuya kept walking, through and then away from the jades’ remains. Their mournful expression became a tight scowl, their ears pinning back.

No matter how long he’d been gone, it didn’t matter. They’d always feel an angry, sickened churning in every segment when they came back here.

Especially when they’d just seen his face again in Lleios’s memories, younger and happier than they’d ever imagined.

When Tuuya had been young, Rhomox’s wavy hair had been shot through with gray, his spined horns larger and starting to spiral around his head like theirs never would. His face had borne some lines, the jade veins on his hands more prominent. 

Old man. They’d teased him as a child, knowing he was only just into middle age for a jade, but he’d certainly looked older than most matrons of similar sweeps. 

They shook a little, unable to stop. They reached the room and put their hands on the cold, hard walls of the entryway to steady themself. Why? Why was it always like this?

They were almost as old as he’d been now when he’d died, bizarre as it was to realize. Rhomox had only been a few perigees away from his two hundred and sixth wriggling day when it had happened…

The worm swarm put a hand to their face, wiping away clear liquid reflecting their glow. 

Tears? For him? 

Why? 

Why cry for a man who more than anyone they’d ever killed had deserved to die?

Stupid, stupid, stupid. 

I didn’t mean to, came the thought, an idiotic plea they despised themself for. I only wanted you to stop because you were going to hurt me.

Their fear had been irrelevant, and their Cestoa hallucination had been wrong; better Rhomox had hurt them than the whole cavern have died. Better he have molded their mind to his preference like Ozryel did, even if it had made them into a tool for the empire. Surely someone would have killed them eventually.

Yet considering the truth of how they had been made…

Tuuya finally took their arms off the wall and walked into the room. 

Once this place had been a thriving laboratory. Flasks and centrifuges and equipment they couldn’t even name had all sat gleaming in even rows, perfectly arranged and maintained. 

Something had always been gently steaming or bubbling, or he had been working with the worms, ever altering them closer to his preferences. Neat as the man had been, his preferred chair had been nearly threadbare; he had never bothered to replace it. He’d preferred the scent of lemon sanitizer to nullify any lingering reek from his experiments, despite the special ventilation and fans that had been built in here to deal with such odors.

Now it only smelled of dust, quiet and dead as the matrons’ graves. The chair had been worried by moths so much there was barely material left, and all that remained of his intricate equipment were shattered glass fragments they had to step over carefully to reach their goal.

Rhomox’s skull.

It sat in a mocking place of honor atop the tank that had once held his altered parasitic worms. Before they had become Etuuya Vannyn. 

Of all the glass in the room, only that remained whole.

The worm swarm looked around at the walls. Every other bone of his had been crushed or strung up as if it were a decoration. Even the intact ones bore clear marks of their tiny teeth, cracked open for their marrow as they’d burrowed inside to suck it out. Small pieces of the yellowed calcium had fallen off or faded to dust as the sweeps had gone by. 

Almost reverently, they plucked his skull from its resting place, blowing off the dust that had accumulated since they’d last visited long ago. It rose in a cloud and almost made them sneeze, but they waved it away and it settled on the glass of the tank.

The bone was very worn and porous now, close to crumbling. Even in the dry, cold cavern, with nothing bigger than an insect to trouble his remains, they had nearly broken down after almost two hundred sweeps. Jade remains lasted longer than lowbloods’, but not as long as highbloods’ did. 

They let out worms to crawl through the old skull, to form an eye in one of the sockets, not that it could actually see anything with no brain attached. The pupil stayed unmoving, the iris the same bright green all Vannyns shared. They cradled it in their hands, gently as if it were the matriorb they had once sent Uunive off with when she first left.

“I don’t even remember eating you…but I wish I did.” They whispered lovingly, hungrily. “At the time I felt so bad! So horrified I passed out when it began to happen! Now I wish I’d been awake to cherish every drop. I’d love to bring you back to devour you all over again, Rhomox, just like Lleios should’ve. If only you’d both died that night. Imagine how much better things would be.”

They let that settle for a moment, as if having an actual conversation, before continuing.

“Look how much bigger I am, Rhomox.” They murmured. “Swarm instincts, you know? Eat and multiply. Sometimes I yearn to shed my skin completely, taste freedom with no restrictions! But I know what the cost is. All the lives that weren’t yours, who didn’t deserve to die. At least not like that.”

It wasn’t as if the Kaningård jades had been saintly; they let his project happen for sweeps without doing a thing, content to watch every other Vannyn die. 

Still. The children, the mother grub, the young matrons who’d struggled against the system…even the imperial loyalists hadn’t deserved such an end. 

“You.” They breathed, claws scratching at the porous bone. 

“You perverse piece of shit. Again and again, putting your lover’s remains into your bloodline no matter how they died from it, it’s a wonder the matrons never stopped you! But we both know why; it was a weapon ripe for the taking. A way to literally be in their jades’ heads. No more mutants. No more limes. You could prove you were worth something after all.”

They tilted the skull in their hands, admiring the eye they’d made as it stared blindly, nestled into the yellowed bone. It was a pity they didn’t have enough energy to try and recreate a full lookalike. Smashing it up would be fun. 

Their eyes flicked to the walls. 

They went over and snatched his bones, then stopped. No, merely destroying them wasn’t good enough.

If only they could summon his ghost…but they didn’t have that power, nor knew anyone who did. 

If they could…what would they even say? What answers could he possibly give?

Nothing that could change what had happened.

Tuuya put the bones back down, despondent again, letting the eye dissolve as their worms returned to their main body. It was all so pointless. 

The consequences of what he’d done would outlive him until they and all the other swarms were gone too. Killing the others would be wonderful…but they themself would still be here. The last wretched piece of his and Ozryel’s legacies.

They sniffed, and realized tears were dripping down their face again. Tuuya shook their head in self-disgust even as their hands quivered. 

Pathetic. What good did being sad about their existence do, when they were too cowardly to let someone kill them now? Clinging to life as if anything they did mattered when the bad would always outweigh the good. When everyone they cared for deserved so much better.

They screamed, glad they were far too deep in the cavern to be heard, hating their own wailing with a passion. 

As they’d told Cestoa, they had no right to pain, yet their suffering was the only scant justice this empty cavern would ever know. Perhaps the ghosts could take some faint satisfaction in it. 

If only they had died with Rhomox, their own bones rotting away next to his, everything would be better.

Tuuya curled up on the cold, hard floor, shivering as they wrapped their arms around themself. Their sweater wasn’t much use, really, with no body heat to trap. Their segments coiled around each other sluggishly, apathetically. 

Suddenly they wanted to leave, to run back to the upper levels and hug their daughters. They wanted to hold their snails, to text their quadrants, to have a hot mug of tea.

The worm swarm sniffled, rubbing their face on their sleeve, staining it with their clear tears. They really were a pathetic excuse for a monster. Wanting to be held and assured that they were still loved. 

What good was that to them or anyone? It didn’t make them a better person.  

They sighed, shuddering, swallowing roughly. 

Well, it didn’t matter one way or the other, did it? 

People were going to care for them, no matter how useless it was to do so. No matter how they warned them to be safe and to spend their time and energy on their own kind.

No matter if all their concern for others had merely been engineered long ago as a method to collect blood. 

Tuuya lay huddled there for a while longer. Exactly how long, they weren’t sure, but after some time, they got up stiffly and gathered the bones carefully, putting them in their sylladex. 

With a moment’s hesitation, they put Rhomox’s skull in last. So fragile. One night it would wither entirely, eaten away by microbes until there was nothing left. 

They went back up, hurrying more and more as they went. They shouldn’t leave their daughters too long, not when the other swarms must be looking for them. 

No matter how much their death would be justified, they couldn’t die yet. They couldn’t abandon their children and quadrants, and they didn’t want to leave their friends.

They weren’t good enough, could never be good enough, but they were necessary for now. 

Tuuya reached the shallow levels, where they and their daughters stayed. They looked in on Ailene and Uunive briefly - both were fine, thank goodness, nothing amiss - then found their way to the garden. 

Once it had been a waiting room, a place for important imperial dignitaries visiting Kaningård. Tuuya had long ago taken out the seating and magazine holders, acquiring carpenter droids to build greenhives instead and construct additional vents for sunlight and air. 

Now the soft click and splash of sprinklers filled the air, gently watering the edible plants and flowers. Moonlamps glowed a soft green and pink at strategic intervals, as the vents didn’t provide enough light for everything. They shone brighter or dimmer depending on the needs of each individual plant.

They took out their ancestor’s bones.

He wasn’t done being eaten. He deserved to be good for something decent, given he’d been nothing but a plague while alive. 

Yet…Lleios had loved him, hadn’t they. In some strange, twisted way.

“I loved you.” whispered Tuuya as they took out a trowel. “I wasn’t good at it, for we Vannyns never are, but I loved you enough that when you strapped me down to cut open my brain, I still didn’t want to kill you. I wonder if it was some last echo of Lleios that protected me. I wonder if it was them telling you that you’d gone too far.”

They knelt down, digging in the raised beds, letting some worms out to check on the other invertebrates in the soil and make sure there were no relatives chewing at any roots. 

“Not that that’s a cheerful idea; I hate the thought of owing that idiot’s remnants anything. But even they knew the caverns were corrupt. I can only imagine what you’d think of my girls. Your head would probably explode.” They chuckled.

Tuuya wiped their hands off, put the trowel away, and buried their ancestor’s bones in the rich earth, smoothing the dirt back over his remains. The vegetables would flourish, their roots twisting around his sockets. The tomatoes and lettuce would in turn be eaten by the daughters he would have hated.

“You loved the caverns, even though they never loved you back. You loved the idea of a pure, healthy empire with you to thank for it. Such devotion, utterly wasted.”

They sighed, sitting down on the stone next to the tomatoes, legs stretched out as they played with a few strands of wavy hair. 

“I hate to admit it, but you loved Lleios too, though I think you tried to convince yourself you didn’t.  It confused you terribly, which I can’t really blame you for, and goodness knows it wasn’t enough to stop you in the end.” They snorted, then chuckled softly to themself.

They sat there a moment, running their hands through the soil, feeling it with both skin and on their bare segments as they wriggled beneath the surface.

“There’s always someone, isn’t there.” They murmured. “Someone daft enough to love even worms.”

Was it Lleios they’d inherited that quality from, that inexplicable way people liked them despite all the reasons not to? Had that been part of their ability to charm trolls into giving up their blood?

Tuuya sighed. 

Who were they, really, in the end? 

Rhomox’s experiment? Kaningård’s bane? Lleios’s warped copy? Ozryel’s replacement for her favorite child? 

A call from Ailene came - Uunive right after her - and they jumped up and ran to their daughters, already clicking their tongue and wondering what had happened now.

THE END OF

PART THREE

#etuuya vannyn #give it up for 3.2k actually #not as long as I'd feared it'd be but still #cloud writes #finally done with the third part of Vampire Family Drama! #gonna be an interlude and then part four #the last one. hurrah #been almost two years

[cloudbattrolls]

Florah being so nice to his godawful bizarro worms mentor who has enjoyed killing some people but sadly I do have to give Tuuya that they have never felt anything but remorse over Kaningård and consider it their worst act.

Didn’t even know some of that fucked up Shit Florah did back when he was Vessel. Oof.