refiningspacetime: (Default)
refiningspacetime ([personal profile] refiningspacetime) wrote in [community profile] fleetlogs2014-11-25 01:55 pm

=> PHERES: Abscond.

=> PHERES: Abscond.
SUMMARY: Taking drinks from strangers is generally a bad idea. Pheres needs to be picked up from a party, but life is hard when your moirail is out of town and all of your friends are terrible. Luckily, there's always Fleetbound!

WARNINGS: None! Except for Pheres being thoroughly depressing in Lead him home.

THIS HAS BEEN FINALLY EDITED. For like the third time. Due to POV-switching shenanigans, you may occasionally encounter weird shifts / incorrect verb pluralisation at points that I missed in switching from 3rd person to 2nd person POV. Sorry! :c

For the most part, though, typoes should be fixed and continuity is now more accurate!

ALSO:
  Follow the story through the links above to ensure you're reading the correct, edited threads, please and thank youu
obstructedantiquity: (displeased)

[personal profile] obstructedantiquity 2014-12-01 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
"Mm."

It's not much of a response, but they don't have much to say. They get to waste their day guiding some rustie home, and it's not like they've got anything to talk about. He doesn't go to Carnival, and they don't give a shit about books or history, which is apparently what he and Liyiji talk about.

They could grill him about his moirail, but fuck that noise. The thought has merit, though, and that reminds him there is something they need to ask.

"Where the fuck are you staying at?"
obstructedantiquity: (sneer)

[personal profile] obstructedantiquity 2014-12-01 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
Hello, there's a tiny-ass rust attached to their arm. They slow, looking down, and he's grinning up at them, looking apologetic as fuck.

Whatever. It's not like they're going to complain about arm candy, even if it is too hot for this shit. Even through the oiled fabric of their cloak, the sun is making sweat bead, and they just want to get the fuck hive.

They listen with increasing incredulity as he talks. He lives in his cart. And --

"You lost your cart," they repeat. "You lost your cart, and you get drunk at fucking sunlight parties, and -- how the fuck aren't you dead?"

It's a rhetorical question. They don't have time for this bullshit, and they're ready to go the fuck to bed. "Whatever, you're just staying in my hive. Come on."
forgottensebayt: (uncertain)

[personal profile] forgottensebayt 2014-12-01 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
Sunlight has never felt so good.

Hinnom scrambles up the ladder first, and then loiters by it, shouting down encouragements. The climb up the ladder is difficult - legislacerator training is a lot of things, but physically taxing is not one of them - but it's worth it, when she crests the last rung, and emerges, huffing and puffing, to the light warm on her face.

Her eyes adjust quickly, and it's marvellous to actually be able to see again. "Oh," she says, pleased, "I know where we are! I can lead from here - we're only a block away, now -"

There's no objection, so she takes off walking. It's hot, but right now, fresh from the chill of the underground, the heat is a refreshing change.
postalprestidigitation: (bluh)

[personal profile] postalprestidigitation 2014-12-01 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, god, it is so fucking hot.

"You should make this quick," Castor says from behind zim. Ghosts aren't affected by the sunlight: they're just psychic imprints! There's no ganderbulbs to be bothered by the changing light, and so he's trailing Marduk, and ze's following him, eyes unfocused just enough to for his outline to solidify.

Ze ignores him. Marduk gets weirded out whenever ze starts talking to ghosts, and it's not like he cares. Castor died long before ze was even in the slurry, and sometimes ze thinks he's not really talking to zim: he's just talking to be talking.

But sometimes he says things worth paying attention to.

"There's two people up ahead," he reports a few moments later. "A lowblood.. and a highblood?"

That's weird. It's way past noon: almost no one's awake at this time of day. "Hey, Mardie," ze chirps, darting forward until ze's walking in step. "I think we seen your boo."
forgottensebayt: (BLUH BLUH BLUH)

[personal profile] forgottensebayt 2014-12-01 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh?" She can't see anything off in the distance, and she tilts her head to the side. But Hinnom isn't joking.

A few seconds later, the two forms come into view.

"How did you know?" she asks, surprised. They're both swaddled in suncloaks, and, yes, the one is highblood huge. For a moment, she's hesitant: maybe it's not the right troll? Sipara hadn't mentioned he'd be with a friend. But then the light catches the smaller one's horns, and the caps flash white in the daylight.

The academy is full of highbloods: there isn't a single teacher in her hall that is lower than teal, and even after two sweeps, talking to them makes her feel like she's swallowing nails. But Sipara asked her, and she said yes, so she squares her shoulders and steps forward.

"Greetings," she calls out. If she pretends this is one of her mock trials, then maybe her voice won't shake. "My name is Marduk Lector, of the Imperial Legislacerator, division eight under Proctor Sungazer."

"I was sent to collect Pheres Dysseu?"
obstructedantiquity: (capricious)

[personal profile] obstructedantiquity 2014-12-01 03:27 am (UTC)(link)
It's a miracle, he says.

"If it was a fucking bother, I wouldn't have offered." They look down at him, and when he tilts his head to meet their eye and grins, OA remembers why they found him appealing in the first place. Nice rack, nice face, and nice manners. It's just a shame about the eyes.

But luckily, they already thought about that. Fishing around in their pocket, they pull out the sunglasses and present them to him with a flourish. "What's a miracle is that those wicked monstrosities haven't gotten your chump ass culled," they say, amused. "Put these on, before some fucker starts getting ideas."

Their timing is impeccable, because there's two trolls walking towards them right now: a kid who's actually smaller than Pheres, which seemed pretty fucking impossible even a minute ago, and a jadeblood, who seems kind of familiar.

It's fucking weird. OA doesn't associate with jades: blue and up, or yellow and under is their rule of thumb, because if life in Carnival has taught them anything, it's that olives to ceruleans are a bunch of uppity motherfuckers that make good paint, and pretty much nothing else. Of course, you can't make paint from jades - they're too rare, no matter how much the painters bitch - but the point remains.

And then she opens her mouth, and the mystery is solved. Right. Imperial trainee: that's what was tripping them up. The tunics they wear aren't exactly unique, but the belt holes for the sashes that bear their proctor's caste pretty much are, even if she's missing hers.

"Riccin Kāyata," they say, stepping forward. There's no need to look intimidating: when one's got over a foot of height on their side, it's impossible not to. "Of the Imperial Helms program, division six, under Proctor Shepherd. If we're dropping rank."

"But I don't see why the fuck we have to start up that raucous noise." They smile, showing their teeth, but there's nothing friendly about it, or the pointed lift of their eyebrows. "Who the fuck sent you?"
Edited 2014-12-01 03:28 (UTC)
postalprestidigitation: (disconcerted)

[personal profile] postalprestidigitation 2014-12-01 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
"Stay away from them," Castor tells zir, wary. "They look dangerous."

He doesn't need to say it twice. Hinnom's a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them: the highblood-looking fucker might as well be twice zir height, and the sort of lowbloods that associate with highbloods aren't the sorts you want to lift your spirits with.

Marduk - little, round, chubby-cheeked Marduk - has stepped between zim and the older trolls, and ze is comfortable with that. If it came to strifing, ze's got zir sword, and Castor, and zir centispidermom, sleeping under the collar of zir cloak... but no way it'll come to that.

Marduk'll make sure of that. Right?
Edited 2014-12-01 03:35 (UTC)
forgottensebayt: (fed up)

[personal profile] forgottensebayt 2014-12-01 02:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh.

The Shepherd is a name that she hasn't heard often, but it's impossible not to recognise it. Her face and symbol are everywhere, after all, as the current dean of the Imperial Education Programs.

Marduk hadn't realised that she was a proctor as well.

She's never seen a helmsman trainee before, either, and now that Riccin has identified themselves as such, she's desperately curious. Everyone knows they start the wetware installations at a young age, but if there's apiculture integrated into Riccin's flesh, there's no way to tell: they're swathed head-to-toe in cloth, from the suncloak to the boots to the gloves on their hands, and there's nothing to see on their face save for the blue spark of their eyes and the white dabs of paint.

It's not the time to ask, anyway. They've drawn themselves up to their full height and they're looming over her, their lip curled in a sneer. If they're trying to intimidate her - well, it's working, because Marduk has to steel herself to keep from stepping back. "Who the fuck sent you?" they ask, voice flat.

Their eyes might be blue, Marduk reminds herself, but if they're part of the helmsman program, then that means she's the highblood. Most of the kids in the legislacerator program are jadebloods, like her, but there's more than a few violets and indigoes: all the isolated castes, that can't be regulated by tealbloods for one reason or another.

Her roommate is one of them, a snotty indigo cusp with her nose perpetually stuck in the air. She can't think like Marduk right now, because all she wants to do is duck her horns and leave. No, she has to be her roommate. What would Sappho say?

"His moirail," she says pompously, and her voice doesn't even crack, because she's Sappho, and she wouldn't care about a helmsman, even if the proctor was the Empress herself.

It's that thought that sends her stepping forward to the smaller figure, chin up, horns canted.. not defensively, but assertively. She doesn't have to be defensive, not when she's the highest caste here by two.

"Your handle is RS, isn't it?" She holds out a hand, and she steadfastly ignores the way it's shaking. "My online personal identification tag is forsakenSebayt. We've engaged in prior communications."
Edited 2014-12-01 14:09 (UTC)
obstructedantiquity: (capricious)

[personal profile] obstructedantiquity 2014-12-01 02:27 pm (UTC)(link)
The little jadeblood steps past them, like they don't even matter, and Riccin's temper flares. Trainee or not, they're apt to knock those fucking horns off. It's one things when indigoes act like that - it's their fucking right, as top of the rung. But they're not about to let some rotblood stick their nose in the air like a goddamn blueblood.

But Pheres speaks up first, and a better idea strikes them instead. Sipara wants this fucker to lead her poor diamond home? Well, fuck that.

"Drink, my ass," they say, sharp and pointedly cheerful. "Some greenblood slipped him some honey and shit ain't going too well for him. He's an out-of-towner, so I was going to take him to my hive.. but fuck, if you think your dorms'll enjoy the lightshow, go the fuck ahead."

They won't. Bringing a free troll onto academy grounds after hours is a great way of getting reprimanded. Sneaking a sparking lowblood into the dorms, though - that's some cullbait shit, right there.
forgottensebayt: (fed up)

[personal profile] forgottensebayt 2014-12-01 02:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Sipara said he had a hive. Was she expecting Marduk to take him all the way to the city outskirts? It's distressingly plausible: the rowdy rustblood is a lot of things, but considerate is not one of them.

She can't bring him back to her dormitories. If he were a caste or two higher, she might be able to pass him off as a quadrantmate, and gain an exemption that way.. but Proctor Sungazer disapproves of caste gaps, and expects his creche to abide strictly by the three castes or less rule. And she can't bring him in without that.

She wouldn't get culled, of course. Marduk is jade, and they're too rare to cull, for anything short of a debilitating mutation, or outright treason. But he likely would, and the consequences for her would be... unpleasant.

Marduk chews on her lip. Her confidence is slipping, she doesn't know Sappho nearly well enough to decide what she would do now, and she doesn't know what she should do. This is why she likes staying in her dorms, with her books as company. Books, like the laws, are predictable and precise: they follow rules, and if you only pay attention, you'll always know how the plot will go, and what the characters will do.

She wishes life was that simple.

"No," she finally says. "I don't think they would."
postalprestidigitation: (ghosts)

[personal profile] postalprestidigitation 2014-12-01 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Castor is quiet while they talk, and although ze looks to see what he's doing, he's just.. listening. When he catches zim looking at him, he gives the same half-shrug he always does. His horns must've been fuck-huge, when he was a troll: he always acts like he's going to hit them, even after centuries of being dead.

"Offer to walk with them," he says, flat and disinterested. "If you must."

Hinnom thinks ze probably does. The conversations been hard for zim to follow: all names they don't know and shit they never got fed about, like helms and proctors and dorms. But Mardie started off swaggering and now she looks like a deflated balloon, and that's no good at all.

"We'll walk with you, then," ze chirps, and everyone turns to look at zim, like they plumb forgot ze was there. Rude fuckers. But, as zir mom stirring under zir collar reminds them, ze's still got manners, so ze trots straight up to the short lowblood. Mardie moves out of the way, giving zim one of her looks like 'the fuck you doing,' but Castor gets it.

He steps in real close, big paws hooking around Hinnom's waist, and ze can feel the familiar tug as he uses zir psionics to lift them up so they can touch horns to the other lowbloods. "Hi! Hinnom," ze says, and boops their nose for good measure.
Edited 2014-12-01 15:02 (UTC)
postalprestidigitation: (disconcerted)

[personal profile] postalprestidigitation 2014-12-01 03:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Pheres's skin is fever hot against zirs, and if it weren't for that, ze'd wonder if he was dead. His eyes certainly look like it: they're ghost white and shining, the pupils little pinpricks of black ze has to strain to see even at their close distance.

"I like your eyes," ze tells him as he touches his second set of horns to zirs, and ze's about to say more, see if he's maybe only part dead, but then Castor drops zim.

It's not a big fall. Ze lands effortlessly, knees tucking to absorb the impact, and pivots around to hiss at the big blueblood. Castor looks unimpressed. "He's sparking. And you'll tire yourself out if I hold you up forever," he points out, folding his arms.

It's true enough. Hinnom can't use zir own telekinesis, although no one's ever been able to explain why: only the leashed ghosts can, and even though ze's not doing anything, it still takes a toll. And after a morning of mail delivery and no snacks or sleep, even the small stuff matters right now.

"Besides, you still need to greet the other." Castor's still talking. Hinnom squints at him, and he explains: "Their symbolhight is yellow."

Huh. Well, okay.

Ze turn to the big yellowblood and trot over, but once ze's standing in front of them, shyness strikes. They're really, really big: only a few inches shorter than Castor, and he's the biggest troll, dead or alive, ze's ever seen. He's standing right behind zim, and they can feel the impatience radiating as he waits for zim to give him the sign, but all ze can do is stall.

They might be yellow - but they're still really, really big.
obstructedantiquity: (sneer)

[NEW ICON NEEDED: 'oh no hes hot' 'literally AND metaphorically 8(']

[personal profile] obstructedantiquity 2014-12-01 04:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Marduk is all hot air, and Riccin can watch as she processes their words and gradually deflates. It starts with the chin, and works its way down: her horns tuck in, her shoulders slump and her posture curls, until there's no sign of the shirty jadeblood, and she's just another defensive lowblood.

"No," she says, each word like someone's pulling a fang, "I don't think they would."

Riccin smiles. "You're fucking right," they say, pleased as punch, and they're going to say more, but then the tiny-ass kid hops out from behind her, and chirps: "We'll walk with you!"

The kid's dressed up like a punching bag at Carnival, horns slathered in white paint and wearing some shabby cloak that's got more holes than fabric. But they're all confidence and no hesitation. They stalk up to Pheres like they fucking know him, and Riccin feels the pulse of active psionics before the kid even jumps. Their eyes are baseline flat, all cluckbeast yolk yellow and grub gray, but they're strong.

They're expecting - who knows, some kind of attack. But all the kid does is use them to boost themselves up to eye-level, and slap horns with him.

What the fuck?

Pheres acts like this is fucking normal: he actually laughs as the grub goes as far as to box snouts with him, and there's a quick exchange of names and words before the kid drops back to the ground, knees bending like they were dropped.

And then, apparently, it's their turn, because the kids standing in front of them, patient as a churchmouse, and Pheres is watching with the same loaded expectancy. Riccin shakes their head, lip curling. "No," they say flatly. There's no way they're going to let some paintsplattered gutterrat touch horns with them. That shit is weird.

Pheres tugs on their arm, and then, bracing his free hand against them, arches up. The way they duck their shoulder is instinct, and he immediately takes the opportunity to nestle his chin on it, so that his face inches from theirs.

His breath smells like cheap liquor, and they can feel the heat of his skin radiating even across the short distance. Psionics run hot, and the honeypill makes him feel damn near feverish, so that his very proximity is uncomfortable in the heat of the day. They should shrug him off.

"Bend down, please?" he asks, his voice breathy with amusement, and they're not going to shrug him off.

They bend instead.
Edited 2014-12-01 16:08 (UTC)
postalprestidigitation: (bluh)

[personal profile] postalprestidigitation 2014-12-01 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Castor makes a disapproving noise from behind zim, but ze can't imagine why. The yellowblood bends just as Pheres asks, and they're eyeing zim like ze're going to bite, which is rude. But they seem like a pretty rude troll overall.

"I don't think they're used to lowbloods," Castor says, as he lifts them.It's only a boost, one ze could've made on zir own, but Castor's always doing stuff like that. Says it's important for Hinnom to make sure ze's keeping zir psionics exercised, even if ze can't use them zimself.

Ze shrugs, and makes the greeting quick: ze turns each cheek, so ze can properly tap each horn with zirs. "Hinnom," ze says, prim, and then ze twists so Castor'll drop zim, more carefully this time. This troll is weird, and ze isn't eager to stay close.

"You yellow?" ze asks. "'cause I'm yellow too!"
obstructedantiquity: (ambivalent)

[personal profile] obstructedantiquity 2014-12-01 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
This is so fucking weird.

The familiar tingle of psionics again, and then the little troll is lifting up to eye level. The greeting is perfunctonary, and Riccin holds 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 they drop back to the ground.

This has to be a fucking lowblood thing, because when they cant their eyes towards the jade, Marduk's got the same wigged out face going on. Well, whatever. Getting bagged for the programs early meant Riccin never spent much time with lowbloods: before that, they spent their time with Myrrha and Liyiji, and after that, they spent their time in church. But if these fuckers want to play rustbuddies, it's no skin off their back.

"I'm yellow, too," Hinnom says, and Riccin frowns. They're all decked out in maroon, from the lips to the eyes to the twice-painted horns, and that shit is 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," they say, and then they stop.

There's a vibration against their side, almost like diagnostic pulse from their ports, and it's only when they lean towards it and it increases in response that they realise what's going on. Pheres is fucking purring, too quiet to hear.

Yeah, they're.. definitely not shoving him off. Maybe they'll let him just stay there, for the rest of the walk, although managing that slouched like this would be a fucking miracle.
Edited 2014-12-01 17:35 (UTC)
postalprestidigitation: (unimpressed)

[personal profile] postalprestidigitation 2014-12-02 02:14 am (UTC)(link)
"Since you're all evidently just going to stand around in the daylight," Castor says, "I'm going to check the perimeter."

He doesn't walk away so much as he dissolves, his outline growing more abstract with each step. Ghosts can do that, when they don't want to be seen, and Hinnom could force him to refocus.. but ze doesn't bother. Castor's allowed his space! And besides, it isn't as if ze can't feel him just by thinking about the leash.

Riccin has trailed off: for a second, Hinnom thinks they're going to say something else, but Castor was right. They're all just standing there! Welll, whatever. Not like they can walk until Castor gets back.

"Is it?" Ze leans in, peering at their cloak, and oh, now ze can see it: two overlapping yellow circles, on the edge of their collar. It looks neat! Ze doesn't have any clothes with those, and although trolls have made noise about the lack, the only colour ze'd want a symbol in is maroon. But Castor said it wasn't allowed, and that was that.

"You got any powers?" ze asks, more to talk than out of real curiousity. The silence is dragging on and on, and they're not sure why, but it's boring as fuck. "I do! I'm a psychic."

A beat, and then ze adds: "That means I talk to ghosts."
forgottensebayt: (uncertain)

[personal profile] forgottensebayt 2014-12-02 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
Marduk's starting to think she'll feel excluded from any group. All of her highblood classmates look down on her for blood, and many refuse to talk to her outright: they'll all be heading off to ships and colony planets, but she's the only student, save for the four sweep old Dammeo, who will be sent to the caverns. Why bother making connections with the girl you'll never see again, when you're surrounded with children you might be stationed with?

She's never had that problem with lowbloods. Jade is rare enough that most think she's just olive, and she's always been treated like one of them. But at times like these, when they're all doing strange things like they're perfectly normal...

It's almost a relief when she notices the way that Pheres is drowsing, half-perched on Riccin's shoulder. She's read about the dangers of sunlight: it's important to know, for all that it doesn't apply to her. And sleepiness, all of the guides said, is one of the first signs of danger.

Marduk gently tugs a water bottle free from her decimal sylladex, where it's been catalogued as 600.641 (Food & Drink), and heads over. She taps him on the shoulder, carefully, and holds out the water bottle. "Excuse me, Pheres," she says. "Um. You should drink this."

"It's water with additional electrolytes added in order to prevent dehydration." He's already drank contaminated liquid once tonight, and she doesn't want him to be unaware. "You've been in the sun for a great deal of time, so you should rehydrate."
Edited 2014-12-02 02:52 (UTC)

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