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Feferi

> PICK UP THE ROCK

Really? A rock? You're not sure about that, maybe you could just make a lasso out of kelp and drag him off before you take his lusus. A rock seems unnecessary, surely!

You tread water, looking at his wobbly face through the choppy waves. Your skirt swirls around you in the swift currently, the only splash of colour near this storm-torn rock. You don't usually come out this far, you prefer the coral reefs and clear waters around your hive. You can see the boy's hive, like a toy boat upended in a squall of tears, snapped clean through.

You don't think it looks very comfortable. The boy looks cold and miserable, too, hunched on rock all wrapped up in purple and blue. You wriggle up the sandbank to get a better view, until the water is lapping at your gils and you're forced to open your mouth.

He is reading a book with a heavy cover and pages fine like tissue paper. The pucker of his brow and the down turn of his lip as he scans the words is almost endearing. He is the first troll you've seen in four months, three weeks and twelve days. You've fed her cuttlefish and guppies and laver for weeks and you don't know how much longer that will work, but you're not sure you can kill his lusus now.

His lusus is bobbing nearby, chirruping and nodding its head in your direction.

You squirm back, digging down into the sand and hold still like a rock, but you're pretty sure your skirt will give you away. He looks up at his lusus, glowering.

wwould you please be quiet im tryin to do some readin if you cant see

His lusus chirps again and he turns his head to see you slithering amongst the rocks and seaweed. He starts up, book tumbling off his lap.

wwhat in grub fuckin hell is that

You poke your head up, frowning.

I'm a troll, silly! )(aven't you seen anot)(er troll before?

He recovers quickly.

yeah i knoww
i wwas just expressin my surprise a troll wwould be snufflin round in the blige wwater like some bottom feeder

You looked so busy wit)( your book I didn't want to interrupt!

You pull yourself up, standing against the full force of gravity for the first time in months, and pull the sopping tangles of hair out of your face. Your skirt sticks to your thighs unpleasantly and you tug it loose.

yeah wwell some a us

His eyes flick to your shirt - the symbol and colour on it - then up to the circlet of gold you've uncovered from a coil of hair.

... like books
your majesty
uh

I like books too! They're —-EXCITING! W)(at were you reading?

it is your majesty right
or should i say your royal highness

You look at his shirt. Oh. Seadweller aristocracy. It makes sense. You have very little to do with the other purple bloods, most of them take one look at your lusus and remember important reasons to be elsewhere. You think they would give you their lususes if you told them to, but that makes you curl up in the coral until you can think about something else.

Booooooring! I'm just Feferi Feferi Peixes if you want two names but it doesn't really matter! W)(at is your name?

He balks at your informality, mouth flapping like a guppy. Folding one arm across his stomach, he steadies himself and gives a small bow.

eridan ampora at your servvice

Pleased to meet you -ERIDAN!

His lusus has quieted, retreating a distance to hover in waiting. You settle yourself on a rock opposite the one he had been sitting on, pulling your legs up to lean forward, elbows on your knees and chin in your palm

So w)(at are you reading?

Vriska

> PICK UP THE ROCK

You weigh the rock in your hand, feeling the heft and shape of it. One sharp blow, you think, to the temple and any one would crumple. Can you swing it hard enough, though? Do you have the strength in your arm and shoulders? Will you miss?

You run your thumb along the sharp edge then lay it down by the side of the path. You're not sure you can do it. Your palms are slick already, gut churning as you watch the kid making a hive out of her own pile of rocks.

No. You'll have to find another way.

She is smaller than you, with frankly stupid horns, like someone tacked broom handles to her head. They run out a way before bifurcating at right angles.

You think: if it comes to it, you can grab her by them and drag.

Hey kid.

Kid looks up with big yellow fish eyes blinking slow enough you can count the seconds the lids are down.

Hey kid, you're 8uilding this mess of rocks on my land, you know that?

Doesn't know that by the look she gives you.

but my hive is just over there

Oh sure it may 8e, 8ut that doesn't make this your patch of turf.

She looks down at her rock hive.

i guess i'll go then...

No can do! You've trespassed and I've got no choice 8ut to punish you back at my hive. Hop-to.

punish me?? i don't think you're allowed to punish me. i'll tell my lusus on you.

You roll your eyes and stick your hand on your hip.

God! I was just messing with you. Lighten up.

The kid is all too happy to smile and laugh at your game. You take stock of the situation: how far it is back to your hive, how heavy she looks, how easy those horns would be to grab.

You have a limited set of lines at your disposal and you've already used one. So you try number two.

Do you like cool things? I've got something totally cool I can show you 8ack at my hive.

Please be dumb.

wow!! this is such a huge basement
i've never seen a hive with this big a basement!!

You toss your hair over your shoulder, bestowing upon her your best rakish look (you know it's good, you've practiced in the mirror).

Yes, this is where I keep 8ll my treasure.

treasure??

Yes, I have a awful lot of it on 8ccount of 8eing a pir8.

She looks at you with those big round custardy eyes, slow blinking again, and you imagine the jaunty cock of your tricorn hat as she backs directly under your lusus's mandibles.

Keep still, you're a8out to get the surprise!

wha-

She turns round at the last second and looks straight up.

You don't like the screaming.

You never get used to the screaming.

In your room you take our the journal of your ancestor and leaf through it. You find a particularly good section about a sword fight across the rigging of her ship, and you read it out loud and do all the voices. There's no way you can hear the crunch-clack-snap of your mother's jaws at work.

Feferi

He leads you across the channel to the coast that rises in coves and inlets, into a shallow beach fringed by a sloppily constructed hive. He rides on his lusus, scarf flapping in the wind like a banner, announcing his arrival. He tells you to hide yourself in the rocks and you do so, curling in amongst the pools with the crabs and starfish. You watch as he calls out, cupping his hand against the sea wind, and a small land dwelling troll emerges from the hive. He is a good sweep younger than the both of you, and his gull lusus flaps pointlessly around his head, keeping and wary eye on Eridan astride his own. The kid looks up at Eridan who says something you can't quite make out, then he pulls his harpoon, and the gull is hit by a beam of something indigo and azure that crackles and smells like ozone. The kid squawks and flaps his arms as his bird-lusus hits the sand. Eridan gestures with the harpoon at the troll, and after a second, he turns tail back through the door of his hive.

Eridan bobs over to you on his floating mount, mouth curled in a smug smile.

one hunk a lusus feed
as promised

T)(at was HORRIBL-E! I didn't ask you to do t)(at!

His expression sours.

you said you needed somethin dead to feed that lusus a yours
i provvided
wwhat did you think i meant wwhen i said i kneww a wway to solvve your problem

You clamber up onto the rocks so you're face height with him. The wind is slapping your hair into your face and tangling your skirt around your legs again. Land really is terribly awkward and you've had about enough of it for one day!

You should )(ave warned me w)(at you were going to do.

look
your heighness
feferi
you gotta feed your lusus like wwe all knoww
howw else are you goin to go that except by killin a fin or two?

You open your mouth, then shut it again.

seems to me wwevve got a situation wwhere as wwe can help each other out
like us seadwwellers oughta

I'm not sure I want your )(elp D8(

you goin to do it yourself

You purse your lips and fold your arms across your chest.

i didnt like him he wwas a sneak

-ERIDAN! T)(at's not funny and you're not listening to w)(at I'm saying!
If...
If we're going to do this.
And I'm not sure I clam yet.
T)(en we s)(ould make some rules!

they're all landdwwellers
a merciful death is more than they deservve

Like not saying t)(ings like t)(at to start!

feferi wwere the fuckin aristocracy wwe can do wwhatevver wwe wwant

Augh! T)(at is NOT TRU——-E!
Fine, all right.
I'm your —-EMPR—ESS and I say you're not allowed to kill anyt)(ing wit)(out a good reason!

i
are you serious

COMPL—-ET—-ELY

wwoww
so wwhats a good reason then
you clearly wwant me to get killin for you
so wwhat are these rules

You stick your chin up, levelling your gaze at him through your goggles. You've not thought this far ahead before, but you can't see another way round your problem.

Well.
T)(ere are some some creatures t)(at I t)(ink are pretty t)(reatening! T)(e ones t)(at attack ot)(er lususes and trolls. You can start t)(ere.

He studies you for a moment, gun still in his hands. With a nod, he slings it over his shoulder and gathers up the reins.

all right
i guess itll do
your highness

Feferi

feferi

He swings his skyhore away, skimming across the sand to the fallen body of the lusus.

you wwant a hand wwith this gull

You clamber down off the rock, feet squelching as you walk to join him. In one swift movement you heave the bird across your shoulders, and grin at the thinly disguised shock on his face.

No, I t)(ink I'm okay wit)( t)(is one!

2.

Vriska

> APPRECIATE YOUR GUARDIAN'S BENEFICENT INFLUENCE ON YOUR LIFE

Ha ha. Hilarious. Nice one.

Your guardian is a bowl of peaches and cream and you are just so thrilled to have her.

Whatever.

You have this one well and truly under thumb. You weren't sure you could do this - you've read about it and always wanted to try - but when you push against the spongey edges of his consciousness you don't expect it to give so easily. And then it's like his thoughts are all laid out in front of you like snacks at a buffet and you just need to reach out and pick which ones to toss and which to keep then shuffle them round so he's marching along behind you like a happy little toy soldier marching off to intergalactic war like in the bedtime stories he probably reads (he was almost as old as you and still playing with little plastic people in Hivefleet uniform, pathetic).

He tromps down the stairs of your hive and your stomach is buzzing because this is so easy. You're almost proud to show her. It flickers across your mind for a second that perhaps this is why she's doing it, she was trying to make your learn this talent of yours and you feel a smile break across your lips because you've done is so well.

You hop up onto a rocky out crop by her front leg and bring the boy round so he's standing directly beneath her mouth. The front of his trousers have turned a darker colour and his legs are trembling. She clicks her mandibles together, sizing her prey. Her legs shuffle and she makes a false dart down, measuring the distance. The kids mind is like hot porridge, and then it starts to slip. There is a sudden streak of white hot animal terror as your lusus chitters and bobs her gross head, and the porridge-mind slips through your fingers.

He squirms, trembling legs faltering like new born hoof beast. Your lusus lets out a shriek and you try and force the disparate strands of his consciousness back into one ball you can handle but he's taking shuddering steps back. Your own chest feels like it's been carved out with a melon bowler; you can't breath properly.

You jump down off your rock to run after him, but he's turned and pelting and your way is blocked by the legs of your mother. You try to dodge past, but she skitters them around, keeping you caged beneath her.

It's n8t my f8ult! You should h8ve 8ten him when you h8d the ch8nce.

You regret the words the second they're out of your mouth. She screeches and you see a white flash as her pincer-like mouth parts snatch at your head. You duck down, arms wrapped over your nest of hair and you can feel warmth trickling down your own leg.

You make a dart for a gap between her rear legs, but your toe catches on a stone and you sprawl out. She hovers over you.

Please.

She swipes her head down and you feel a sharp pain along your shoulder and collar bone

- and then she is gone.

You wriggle and squirm back across the rock strewn canyon floor and inside your hive. When you bring your hand to the hot line across your shoulder it comes away wet and blue. A little further investigation shows that the cut is not deep.

Just a warning.

Feferi

> APPRECIATE YOUR GUARDIAN'S BENEFICENT INFLUENCE ON YOUR LIFE

Well, hmm. You're not sure beneficent is the word you'd have picked. You think she seems to care, you're pretty sure she protects you. But it can be hard to tell.

The sea was a thick, blankety green, bottle green as opaque as the thick glass jars your new friend has lined up on the window sill of his hive. You surface and turn circles in the foam. It is too bright up top, the wind buffets you with unpleasant brusqueness, so you duck dive back down, beating your legs until you escape the push-pull demands of the surface currents. Your lusus blocks out your view of your palace hive, like a billowing white sail, pulsing and fluttering in the wind. She wants to talk to you, but you're not ready to sit down and listen yet, so you make a game of darting in and out of her tentacles, chasing sturgeon around her limbs until you're dizzy. You drift back round to the clacking mandibles of her hungry mouth and hang upside down.

Y---ES?

Deathh iss coming for you, princcess.

GLUB not t)(is again.

Deathh iss alwayss coming, princcess.

If it is w)(y do you )(ave to tell me all t)( time!

Thesse thingss musst be told.

T)(en tell someone else!

There iss only you, princcess.

She talks all this nonsense at you and you try and piece it together like a jigsaw puzzle, but like you've told Eridan, jigsaw puzzles don't work under the sea, they just get soggy and ragged at the shaped edges and he told you that was stupid but it's his face that's stupid. He asked why you weren't scared of her, and you said that up close she's just too big. Too big to see properly. Too big to mean anything, he had asked with his head cocked. No, just a big white blob. If it wasn't for the threat of her great GLUB you might just forget she was anything more than a snowy hummock of seabed.

You will unite the two raccess.

Oh good, you've not told me t)(at one for a w)(ile.

A princcess musst hear thesse thingss.

A princess can do w)(at ever s)(e likes! And I don't like talking to you. So glubbye!

You propel yourself with a powerful kick of your legs, spinning back down into the dense coral thicket around your palace hive. It's hardly running away. You're rarely ever beyond the reach of her tentacles. One flick and she could have you back, held up before her eyes like big shiny pebbles stuck into her leathery skin. She lets you run away, wiggling back up into your room to curl up around your cuttlefish cages. They are empty of course, you haven't gone out catching for days.

Peering out of your window, it is not so much a matter of spotting her as working out where she ends. Not a wall, more a cliff face lumbering past your palace. A cliff can't tell you what to do. You're the prophesied heir of the Empress, no one can tell you what to do. Not stupid land-dweller society with all its rules and not the fishystocracy and not some blimp with more tentacles than braincells.

You spot a flicker of movement, down in the curlicued arches of the kelp gardens, and quick as a flash you have your trident in your hand. The cuttlefish takes a minute to catch. You graze it with the outer prong of your trident which is okay because you're just catching it to look after it anyway. It moves in sluggish circles around the cage you put it in. The light through your window is cut off as she makes another pass. For a moment her big black eye is looking at you through the opening, and then she is one.

Vriska

You have an excellent collection of weapons in your room. There is snapped of branch which is actually a broadsword, and a lesser stick which is your fencing sword (because different battles require different things, and it's always best to be prepared!). Then there are your collection of pebbles (spear heads), reeds (arrows) and a big rock (which is your ultimate weapon, and you only need to bring that out if the enemy is being really stubborn, which they usually aren't because you're very good with your sword).

On the crest of the hill halfway between your house and the dried up river bed you defeat the invading hoards of sepia-blooded insurgents who have overthrown the port and are making for the free city of Bedroomopolis. You push your tricorn hat back on the crown of your head and survey the thronging masses thirsty for your aristocratic blood.

At first you were a member of the dread pirate Mindfang's crew, wreaked in a storm when your first mate mutinied, and only by your quick thinking were the crew saved from being pulverised on the rocks. Marquess Spinneret gave you your hat in thanks, but when you tried fighting the enemies on land, you got separated from the rest of the crew and were stuck up a tree for half a day trying to work out what to do next, and Vriska Serket felt all squiggly in her stomach and didn't want to go home, even though dawn was colouring the horizon. So Marquess Spinneret Mindfang climbed down from the tree, dagger clamped between her teeth, and takes down the waiting barbarians.

You find a kid untangling kite strings from a tree further along the edge of the forrest and march him back to your hive at sword point. He laughs at your sword, so you smack him with it so he can feel it should be as real to him as it is to you. He cries then, but that's okay. Marquess Spinneret Mindfang makes all her enemies weep for mercy.

But she shows none.

3.

Feferi

>COPE MASTERFULLY WITH ALL THESE BURDENS

You bring him a spare pair of your goggles and position them over his eyes as he squirms and fidgets on a rock by the shoreline. He looks beyond dubious as you pull him down into the soft waves. You've picked a calm day, the sea is a swirl of teal and azure over the gently shelving seabed. He splashes noisily behind you, trying to step over the waves and sending spray up into his face. He gives you a betrayed look when you laugh, and you take the opportunity to dunk him down. He rises shivering, hair flattened down on his skull.

He's made enough noise about this, ostentatiously swapping his usual outfit for a plum coloured wetsuit with his symbol picked out on his chest. His first full day under the water. You've teased him about being more land-dweller than proper fish-troll and he puffed up his chest and glowered at you through his glasses and informed you that he'd forgotten more about the ocean than any landgrub would know in its dry and dusty little soil-bound life. You can't turn upside down easily up in his hive, which is annoying because you're sure his scowly face would look so much funnier.

In the breakers you scull around on your back while he eases himself in up to his chin and does a breast stroke out to join you.

Ready?

fef you can stop askin
i wwas born ready

So prove it!

You wrap your fingers snuggly into the crook of his arm and duck dive under, taking him with you. He is tense for the first few seconds as you propel the both of you away from the bright moonlight filtering through the surface, and you wonder if he's trying to hold his breath. Then he lets out a great stream of bubbles and you turn to look at him and he's grinning at you, joining his legs to kick at your pace.

You take him round your favourite coral bed and to the edge of the great fissure in the seabed you've only ever gone a little way down into and to the wrecks of some old ships from back in the days of the pirates and you can even see encrusted remains of canons, and he loves those. He fingers the holes gouged in the sides of the ship and looks at the bones tangled in the hold with wonder.

Sitting on the edge of the crenelations on the roof of your palace hive, you show him how to suck out the wriggling morsels of food from the shells gathered in the basket placed between you.

Gl'bgolyb rolls up over the edge of the fissure, feelers reaching on and tugging at rocks for purchase.

wwoww
wwoww

He watches her progress, the clam in his hand forgotten.

... doesnt she need feedin more
isnt she hungry all the time

You prop your chin on your hand and watch her as well.

Probably.
But I think we feed her plenty as it is.

His initial shock dealt with, he sucks the meat from the shell and tosses it down to the sand bellow.

you just gotta say the wword an ill get you more
i tell you these kids are just beggin to be culled in flarp
its like they knoww they dont deserve to keep livvin theyre so stupid
doin them a favvour

—-ERIDAN!
How many times to I )(ave to tell you not to say t)(ose sorts of t)(ings!

sorry fef its in my nature
cant make a flounder change its stripes

You throw the oyster you were about to eat back in the basket and spin round so you are lying with your head and shoulders hanging off the edge of the roof. You were right, his stupid face does look better like this.

He finishes one mussel and starts on another.

but wwhat i dont get is
if wwere all goin to die like your big sea coww lusus says
wwhy bother feedin her
bit pointless aint it tryin to stavve off the inevvitable

Face might look better but he's still annoying.

Well if you want to ---ERADICAT-E -EV-ERYON-E t)(en why do you bot)(er kelping! Augh I mean helping. )(elping.
Augh!
W)(y don't you just let the great GLUB )(appen and be done wit)( it!

His face sours like he's been sucking on sea-lemons and you stick out your tongue.

cause youre my empress in wwaitin
thats wwhy

He's not looking you in the eye - his own gaze is flicking about and you think he's following the ebb and flow of your hair in the current.

Well I didn't ask you to.

He meets your eye then and you feel your cheeks heat up.

I didn't!

And now he won't stop looking at you and that's worse.

It's my burden, okay. Mine to do wit)( as I want.

Before he can say anything more you push yourself off the edge of the room and buck your legs to speed away.

Vriska

>COPE MASTERFULLY WITH ALL THESE IRONS IN THE FIRE

You hunker down by a patch of long grass and use it to clean the blood from your sword. It has gathered in the runnel down the centre of the blade, a slick mess of mustard yellow and muddy brown. It's ugly, the unpleasant shades marring the sleek line of your weapon. There is a familiar aerobic burn in your arms and legs. You've gotten used to the weight of the blade. When you found it amongst the twists of jewellery and stacks of coins that hid her journal you could hardly hit anything above your knees. Now you swing it like it is an extension of your arm - a crude, untutored extension, but against these snivelling morons crude is all your need to get the job done.

Your dice are a different story. You keep those hidden away in an inside pocket in your jacket, clean and safe. They've left octagonal bruises on your chest once or twice from landing on your front, but you like the feel of them, how the angles dig into your skin. You keep them close.

gallowsCalibrator [GC] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]

Well, you did not see that coming. You've got to know a couple other FLARPers, some rust blood with hornes like a woolbeast and a pretentious sea dweller with hideous taste in clothing. But a team. Working with someone. You roll your dice between your fingers and wonder whether their luck might rub off on you. Or your bad luck might rub off on them.

Feferi

From the coral bank which you've curled up in, you can still see him sitting on the top of your hive, a solitary purple speck against the indigo seascape. He's messaged you twice, but you're not sure you want to talk to him yet.

The pale blues and greens of your skirt look dull against the vibrant colours of the coral. You didn't mean to fight, that wasn't what today was supposed to be about at all. There is a current tugging at your skirt and wrapping it around a branch of dusky pink coral. An anemone by your foot is pulsing, tendrils quivering as a shoal of electric blue fish as big as your thumb flicker past. He is right, without him there's no way you would have been able to have kept your lusus fed. But he says things that scare you.

Trollian chirps again.

caligulasAquarium [CA] began trolling cuttlefishCuller [CC]

4.

cuttlefishCuller [CC]began trolling arachnidsGrip

CC: )(ello!
AG: 8g8n???????? What the fuck is this. Is my Trollian handle posted on some image board somewhere?
CC: W)(at?
AG: ... Never mind. I'm Spinneret Mindfang, who the hell 8re you?
CC: )(a )(a, no you're not. You're Vriska Serket.
AG: Damn.
CC: So apparently you are trying to get in a quadrant wit)( my moirail!
AG: ... Excuse me?
CC: ----ERIDAN silly!
CC: I'm Feferi!
AG: Oh great.
AG: Ok bye.

arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling cuttlefishCuller [CC]

cuttlefishCuller [CC] has started trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]

CC: Nope, sorry! Not going to go away!
CC: It's my duty as his moirail to investigate )(is potential caliginous matc)(es.
AG: 8lright. He is a fine enemy and I'm looking forward to eating his entrails after I defeat him in 8attle >::::D
CC: Ooookay Miss Spinneret Crazy Fangs, I )(ope you don't actually eat )(is entrails because t)(en I'd be pretty mad at you.
CC: But I am glad Eridan is getting out t)(ere and making friends.
AG: We're n8t friends! We're the most o8sidian of foes. 8ut yeah I guess he's pretty fun.
CC: )(e is! If you can get past all that genocide business )(e's really quite sweet in )(is own way.
AG: That's not a word I'd have picked.
CC: No I guess not! Waxing black and all t)(at!
AG: Malevolent little shit maybe. Whiny cry 8a8y needy can't-plan-for-shit purple gigolo nightmare. I like those w8rds 8etter. So do I pass?
CC: W)(at?
AG: Do I get a gold star in the 8lack column?
CC: O)( RIG)(T. )(mmm, well I've not decided yet.
CC: )(e said you've been teaming up together to kelp me wit)( my lusus situation D8(
AG: Yeah I guess we've been rolling, if you gotta know the deets. It suits me to use him for my own ends. There's a whole 8ack scratching situation going on.
CC: Yes )(e told me about your ends too.
AG: Oh wow lucky me!!!!!!!! I'm so glad my kismesis likes to go spilling all my priv8 information all everywhere. Why does Eridan have to suck so muuuuuuuuch. You're his moirail, you tell me. Ugh he'll 8e telling you my shoe size and reoccurring nightmares next.
CC: O)( I'm sure we'll get on to t)(at.
CC: But my point is I t)(ink it's great t)(at we can )(elp eac)( ot)(er!
AG: Sweet cheeks, I don't need any help. Spinneret's got it all sewn up.
CC: Of course you do.
CC: But you know if you ever wanted to talk
CC: We can talk!!
AG: Look, you've got your 8ad luck and I've got mine, don't need any talking further than that.
CC: It's not bad luck!
CC: Well I suppose it is in a way but our lususes picked us for a reason
CC: Because we're strong enoug)( to )(andle it!
CC: We've got our duties for a reason.
CC: It teac)(es us t)(ings.
AG: And sometimes those things are just shitttttttt.
CC: If t)(at's the way you want to look at it I can't stop you.
CC: But I )(ope you listen to someone.
AG: I don't need to listen to anyone D::::AG: I am in control of all my irons
CC: W)(ic)( are in the fire, yes Eridan mentioned t)(ose too.
AG: Well t)(en
AG: Damnit I mean then
AG: Then you know what a masterful genius at iron handling I am. Watch me do it all day long and not get tired.
CC: Vriska
AG: So don't worry you little salty head about it.
AG: I've got a pl8n.

arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling cuttlefishCuller [CC]