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“Once upon a time, there was a troll named Cronus Vantas.”
“Vantas?” you perk up, wide eyes staring at the older troll in awe. “Like me?”
“Yes, like you, Second Signless.” The old troll, the Overseer, replies, smiling. They’re looking at you really hard, so you look away. “He lived in a planet called Alternia, where trolls were divided by their blood colors.”
Alternia sounds like a strange planet. You’ve seen trolls of all blood colors here, taking care of you one by one, burgundy and cerulean and indigo and jade and gold and everything else. And the Overseer is a Purpleblood.
So why is Alternia different?
You ask the Overseer just that.
“Alternia is nothing like this place,” they answer gravely. “It was ruled by the evil Damara Peixes, who wanted the lowbloods to work for the highbloods, forever, without thanking or paying them.”
Highbloods? Lowbloods? You scrunch your face, digging in your thinkpan for your recent schoolfeeding… you squeeze your eyes shut so you can think better…
And when you open your eyes, you see dots of lights all around, blinking blue-green-blue, depending on where you turn your head… like little stars!
They’re so cool!
You look at them, small hands reaching to touch them, curling into fists- ah! You can’t catch them.
The words “lowblood” and “highblood” float in the back of your thinkpan, not nearly as hypnotizing as the dots around you. You walk forward in the sea of tiny lights, just like the stars outside this ship, waddling straight towards the door-
The lights disappeared!
Nooooo!
“Second Signless!”
Your ears catch the older troll’s voice, but you don’t hear the words. You’re closing and opening your eyes again, trying to get those lights back, but it’s not working. You shake your head and close your eyes tighter.
A name – your name – is called again.
You don’t look at them, because your eyes are closed you want to see the lights again-
Something is touching your shoulders.
You jolt with electricity-
You don’t want to be touched!
The lights become bright pink and bright blue and you scream, you want the hands off you you want the hands off hands off hands off!
The buzzing is going further and further back, pushing them away…
Then, when you open your eyes... you see pink and blue lightning everywhere!
Wow!
That’s the coolest lights you’ve ever seen!
The right side of the room is pink and the left one is blue now, like you're seeing it with two-colored glasses! Woah!
You turn around to tell the older troll about it, but they’re now on the far side of the room, lying down.
Are they asleep?
The room smells so… bad. You cover your nose.
It smells like a kitchen, like that time the Hearthive used too much electricity to cook and made the stove all black.
You walk closer to them.
They’re…
Their clothes are all black .
Weren’t they purple before?
Little pink and blue lightning jump around their skin, just like the lightning show around you, and-
Fshhhhhhhhh!
Water sprays down the room like rain, you look up and the water is sharp and you’re wet now, and so is the older troll, and the lightning is gone, and the room looks normal now…
You hear the door hiss open.
“Fire in Room 11ED!”
“The Second Signless is there!”
“Where’s the Overseer? They should be helping the Second Signless!”
“There she is!”
You flinch. But you turn around anyway, and see the… dark blue, Indigo troll that helped you with schoolfeeding yesterday. The Instructor, right?
“Hi, Instructor,” you greet him. He’s really tall, so you’re glad that you’re not tall enough to look him in the eyes. “I’m really wet. There’s water all ‘a the sudden.”
“Second Signless!” The Instructor cries, sitting down. You turn away from his weird, frowning look. "Are you alright?”
You can't really answer. Everything is too loud. The steps of people, the clanking of boots, the wet shirt sticking to your skin, your wet socks inside your shoes, ew, ew, ew…
“You gave us a scare, little lady,” the Instructor says, louder now, and it makes your chest hurt.
You don’t like it when people call you “little lady”.
You look at the door instead of him, watching more trolls get inside with bags and a long thing around their hands. You see another troll make lightning like you to turn off the water shower up there, their eyes glowing purple and green.
“How did you two even start a fire?” the Instructor asks. “Weren’t you studying history ?”
“Instructor,” another troll says. The voice comes from behind you, where the Overseer is laying down. So you turn to look at that troll. It’s a Jadeblood with a bag full of bottles. You wave them a hi. They don't wave back! How rude!
“Ma’am, I’m talking to the Second Signless here.” The Instructor sounds like he’s growling. You look at him, and he’s got his eyebrows meeting each other, mouth open wide, pincers too.
“I know,” the Jadeblood replies, “But the Overseer is dead.”
“Dead?” The Instructor’s mouth opens even wider. “How?”
"She can explain, I'm sure," the Jadeblood says, pointing at you.
He looks at you again. You look to the side. “Dear, did the Overseer burn themself? Did they touch any electronics or outlets?”
You shake your head.
“Look at me, Second Signless.”
He holds the sides of your head and turn it to look at him. You scrunch your face again, but he presses his claws on your cheeks harder, so you meet his eyes.
“No,” you answer, “They were tellin’ me about Cronus Vantas. Then I closed my eyes ‘cause I wanted to see the lights, so I walked around. Then they touched my shoulders. I didn’t wanna be touched, so I close my eyes hard and then there’s this buzzin’ and I push the hands away, but when I open my eyes, they’re layin’ down and their clothes are all black.”
The Instructor lets go of your face, but his open mouth goes really frowny. Their eyes are looking at you harder.
The other trolls… start whispering.
But when you look around, they stop.
“Why is everyone whisperin’?” you ask the Instructor. “Did I do somethin’ wrong?”
He stands up and pulls you by the wrist.
“We need to tell High Command that your psionics are getting out of hand,” the Instructor says. He's walking so fast that you have to run. “But before that, let’s get you some dry clothes.”
The Instructor drags you to your respiteblock, not answering any of your questions. What did he mean by "psionics"? What did he mean by "getting out of hand"? Was the Overseer really dead? Will they ever wake up again?
All his answers were "later, little lady, High Command will know what to do with this".
As the Instructor waits outside your door, you shut your mouth. You dry yourself with a towel and change into some clean clothes. You don't like any of your clothes very much… too many dresses and not enough pants. But you don't have time to complain. So you change fast to the dress that isn't too bad, and exit the room again.
This time, though, the Instructor looks less… like before. Now his lips are just flat and the same as his eyebrows. You don't know what to say.
"Follow me," he says, walking towards what you think is High Command's room, and you follow one step behind.
High Command's room is called the "Courtroom". When you enter, you gasp because of how big it is.
It's not as big as the cafeteria, but it's so big, you can't even see the ceiling, and there are so many chairs! On the walls are so many computers with trolls manning them, and colorful paintings of people. You really want to know what it's about.
But, lit by spotlights in the center of the room is a curved table with ten seats full of old landdweller trolls.
And in front of it… is… a bed with wheels?
There's someone sleeping on it.
Someone in all black.
You run forward, and crane your neck to see the Overseer…
Not sleeping…
Dead…
And you catch what the other trolls are saying. Trolls on the seats that are outside that curved table.
“...experienced with psionics,” says the Gold troll who turned off the water shower, "this is pure psionic burns, sirs, ma'ams, and honored trolls."
"You can't be serious," says the troll in the middle of the curved table, a Bronzeblood, knowing from their clothes. "Are you saying that the Second Signless, a three and a half-sweep-old, burned an adult Purpleblood to death with her psionics?!”
"They are electrical burns," says the Jadeblood you saw before, though they're not carrying that bag anymore. "But neither the security footage, the Instructor, nor the Second Signless told us that the Overseer did anything with an electrical socket or anything of the sort."
"Second Signless!" the Instructor hisses.
You're not given any time to react before he pulls you backwards. You stumble, but he steadies you, pushing down on your shoulders, no no no, you hate being touched!
You squirm, you squeeze your eyes closed until tears come out, come on, you feel buzzing in your thinkpan and your eyes are heating and-
"Look out!"
The buzzing fills your ears, and when you open your eyes, fill the room, too. And the room is half-pink half-blue again…
Like when you made the Overseer dead .
They're not waking up again.
You're shaking, buzzing, you can't feel your hands as bright pink and blue sparks jump around between your fingers, your feet, the floor…
Everyone is whispering again.
And they're getting louder, louder, louder- you're in trouble, aren't you?
You close your eyes again, you don't want the pink and blue, you want the lightning to stop…
Please…
Everything is too loud already! The voices! The dress! The people closing into you…
"Second Signless," someone says, and you don't dare look. "Go back to your respiteblock. We'll talk about the Overseer later. But for now…"
Someone pulls your chin up.
You open your eyes, because you don't want anyone to press your cheeks with their claws again.
"You should stop using your psionics for now," they say. Their cerulean eyes are looking at yours, really really hard, and you want to look away, but you can't . "No more lightning, okay?"
So the buzzing pink-blue lightning is called psionics!
"We don't want you to kill someone with it again," someone else says. "You know what 'kill' means, right? It's what you did to the Overseer."
"To…" You look at them and frown. "To make someone dead? Never wake up again?"
"Yes," the Cerulean troll says, "You don't want to make someone dead, right? That's not very nice."
"And that's not how your ancestor acted when he was your age," another troll says.
"My ancestor?"
"Yes, the Signless," another different voice says. "Cronus Vantas."
Your eyes widen. That's who the Overseer was going to tell you about!
But you killed them…
You feel cold.
A familiar voice, the voice of the Bronze? The first troll you see in the room, scoffs. "The Signless would've been ashamed of you."
He would, wouldn't he?
"Cronus Vantas was loving and compassionate," the Bronze continues, "He wouldn't kill someone just for touching him lightly."
"Don't be so hard on her," another voice says. "But Second Signless, my dear, you should let others touch you if you're wearing all your clothes. They don't do any harm."
If they don't do any harm, why does it hurt you so much?
You don't say it, though.
Everyone's voice makes the insides of your ears hurt, like you're really in big trouble now.
"No more psionics until you're nine sweeps old," the Cerulean says again. You feel like you have to look at them. "Understood?"
You have to do what they say. You're scared of what'll happen to you if you don't. Your thinkpan feels weird, and your mouth moves on its own to say, "Okay."
"Good girl."
They smile, patting your head. You don't like it, but... they're not hurting you, so... you like it, right?
"We'll discuss your future tomorrow."
This is good.
You are good.
Just like your ancestor.
END