The familiar tingle of psionics again, and then the little troll is lifting up to eye level. The greeting is perfunctory, and you hold perfectly still for the duration of it: they tap left horn to left horn, and then right horn to right. "Hinnom," they say, prim as a schoolfeed, and then the kid drops back to the ground.
This has got to be a fucking lowblood thing, because when you cant your eyes towards the jade, Marduk's got the same wigged out face going on as you. Well, whatever. Getting bagged for the programs early meant you never spent much time with lowbloods: before that, you spent your time with Myrrha and Liyiji, and after that, you spent it in church, to better prepare for your position on a Carnival ship. But if these fuckers want to play rustbuddies, it's no skin off your back.
"I'm yellow, too," Hinnom says, and you frown. They're all decked out in maroon, from the seedflap to the bulbs to the twice-painted horns, and ugh, fuck, you just want to go home already, because this shit is too weird. Maybe it's quad colours, but there's no insignia on the coat, in either maroon or yellow. Bluebloods play this game occasionally, but it seems weird for a yellow: their blood is shitty enough, why chance someone making the mistake it's the one hue worse?
"'course I'm fucking yellow. That's what the symbol says," you say, flat as a board, and then you stop.
There's a vibration against your back, almost like the diagnostic pulse from your ports, and it's only when you lean towards it and it increases in response that you realise what's going on. Pheres is fucking purring, and if he wasn't pressed against you, you wouldn't have noticed - but it's impossible not to, when cloth is the only thing between your skin.
This is getting awkward, fast. You're not about to haul him on your back like some sort of glorified pack animal, but you're not exactly keen on moving him, either, because holy shit, that's a great fucking noise.
(It'd be better if he wasn't completely fucking sloshed.)
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The familiar tingle of psionics again, and then the little troll is lifting up to eye level. The greeting is perfunctory, and you hold perfectly still for the duration of it: they tap left horn to left horn, and then right horn to right. "Hinnom," they say, prim as a schoolfeed, and then the kid drops back to the ground.
This has got to be a fucking lowblood thing, because when you cant your eyes towards the jade, Marduk's got the same wigged out face going on as you. Well, whatever. Getting bagged for the programs early meant you never spent much time with lowbloods: before that, you spent your time with Myrrha and Liyiji, and after that, you spent it in church, to better prepare for your position on a Carnival ship. But if these fuckers want to play rustbuddies, it's no skin off your back.
"I'm yellow, too," Hinnom says, and you frown. They're all decked out in maroon, from the seedflap to the bulbs to the twice-painted horns, and ugh, fuck, you just want to go home already, because this shit is too weird. Maybe it's quad colours, but there's no insignia on the coat, in either maroon or yellow. Bluebloods play this game occasionally, but it seems weird for a yellow: their blood is shitty enough, why chance someone making the mistake it's the one hue worse?
"'course I'm fucking yellow. That's what the symbol says," you say, flat as a board, and then you stop.
There's a vibration against your back, almost like the diagnostic pulse from your ports, and it's only when you lean towards it and it increases in response that you realise what's going on. Pheres is fucking purring, and if he wasn't pressed against you, you wouldn't have noticed - but it's impossible not to, when cloth is the only thing between your skin.
This is getting awkward, fast. You're not about to haul him on your back like some sort of glorified pack animal, but you're not exactly keen on moving him, either, because holy shit, that's a great fucking noise.
(It'd be better if he wasn't completely fucking sloshed.)