shitposting rave 3: Dawn of the third rave

His eyes widen in surprise.
"...Oh. So soon?"
Simon's face scrunches up with barely withheld grief and sorrow before he can school his features into their usual mask of charming smiles. He briefly curls in on himself a little.

 

Huh!

I don't think there's any real rules for names for us? But my planet doesn't have a whole lot of rules in general, unless you count Sil bein' an overprotective jerkface :P

Like. There's names caretakers give protos just t'have somethin't refer to'em by? And sometimes those stick! And that's what I've got right now, and it's a pun in like eight directions I love it except that one of those puns is that it's a big obvious "THIS PERSON IS TINY!!!" word and I'll be bigger someday!!! Or sometimes when a sparkling learns to chime their note sounds like a word in some stupid-old language or something? And sometimes that gets translated into a modern language-- 'swhat Cogwheels uses-- or sometimes they stay in whatever language and just get. Uh. Whassa word, written down in sounds instead'a what the word means. And sometimes people just take a bunch'a different names so they can't be tracked or 'cuz they just like names or whatever, like, I think Sil also uses Dawnrider and Argensilio and like six other names when they Speak with crews we don't know yet!!

But like. Once you choose a sign, it's... you? Like. Sil can call themself any of whatever but when we leave our crewsign behind as, like, "we were here" or "this is our space" or "we agree to this thing," their part of it's always a big spiky arc! And that goes waaaay back, like, mil and mil back before even Cogs got forged, if we went back to Menson and things were intact we could find stuff with their sigil going back to before they even left their first crew! So like. Choosing it's... kinda important? Even if we don't get assigned'em or whatever. Assigning them would be weird. How could anyone else know every detail of your spark? Even crewmates aren't that close...

...uh. Did. Did anyone else see that?

 

-She looks over.-
...she could be back~.
I came back~.
I came back really soon in here even thought I was awake an entire day~.
So please don't despair~?

 

He quickly overcomes the brief slip, a smile that only barely seemed frayed at the edges plastered onto his face as he takes the cup.
"Many thanks, my dear, it smells delightful."

He rolls his eyes, hiding his shaking hands by taking a sip of the coffee.
"Please, my dear, let's not speak of this again, shall we? It's out of our hands right now, quite literally."
His voice breaks just a little on the last word and he frowns and clears his throat.

 

vwrong. slavwes and enemies of the crowvn get them stripped.

 

...d'you two have anyone else, or are you just paired? Sorry 'f it's rude, but... [Bit pulls a face, clearly worried.]

 

-She sips her tea, looking away from him.-

 

4nd 50m3 p30pl3 5k1p 0u7 0n g3771ng 7h3m 70 83g1n w17h, 8u7 17'5 r4r3.

 

He stares at the curious automaton, then laughs breathily, running a hand through the wet strands of his hair.
"We have a small daughter, Nephele. She is such a talented little darling... And she has her sister Sylvia, and Sylvia's companion Valentina. And of course Sophia and Samael and their twins, even if she is not on the best of terms with Samael at the very moment I suppose. She will be fine, I'm sure. Theresa could glare a volcano into submission."

 

hell, sometimes slavwes vwho ARE enemies of the crowvn. the tvwo ovwerlap fairly frequently.

 

C-could you please leave~?
Sir~.

-She hunches up.-

 

g33, 1 w0nd3r why.

4nd 831ng 0ff1c14lly 57r1pp3d 0f y0ur 51gn d035n'7 m34n 5h17 1f y0u d0n'7 r35p3c7 7h3 p0w3r d01ng 7h3 57r1pp1ng.

 

no. dont ask again.

 

I just think~.
That this place maybe isn't good enough for you~.
Sir~.
So you should leave~?

 

are you kidding? this place is the most interesting place ivwe been in billions of svweeps. im staying.

 

He lifts himself off his chair and walks, until he stand just a little too close to cA.
"My good Sir. The little lady asked you quite an easy thing. Have you lost all sense of propriety that you would be so rude to a gentle maiden?"

 

"Punny names are the best", Oneira grins. "I... I'm sorry, the whole 'choice' thing is still new to me. Hasn't had time to sink in much, yet. Our signs are assigned based on horn shape, hatch date, and blood colour, after a troll has proven themselves by surviving the trial caverns. ... Superstition has it that every troll has an Ancestor with the same name and sign, and that you're fated to follow in their footsteps and continue their work, so... If you could just up and change your sign, how would you know?"
"I suppose the Ancestor thing isn't very applicable to anyone but the trolls, though.", she frowns. "And I think the word you were looking for is onomatopoeia, which is at least two mouthful."

 

theres no such thing as a gentle maiden. not among trolls, anyvways. i dont owve the vwiggler jack shit and i havwe absolutely no reason to humor it.

*He straightens himself, squinting down at Simon with his single undamaged eye.*

 

She'll be fine. But earlier... Simon said he couldn't find her, couldn't even feel her? So-- are the others just as out of reach? Are-- is--

[She struggles for words for a moment before giving up and summoning a replica of the chocolate Oneira used for cocoa earlier and offering it to him. If he eats it, it will taste like very sweet cocoa, not normal chocolate.]

I know it doesn't help, but-- no one should be... like that. Cut off.

 

Some do, some don't? I know of kids who can't see and that's just sort of it, but it's definitely linked to the particular gene that confers, uh, 'powers'. But I also know people who are pretty much hulking powerhouses, and can't be taken down by conventional weaponry. It's sort of a grabbag of good and bad.

I mean, there have been people trying eugenics but. It doesn't always work out. People like me don't end up on the lists, and there's people who are pushing to get rid of the larger seventy percent if you can believe it. It's sort of fucked, either way.

Discovery of the particular meta gene was in the 80s, but we've been around for ages longer I guess. That was when they started having tests for who had it and who didn't though. So that could be one of your alternate points?

There's some guy who can teleport in my dimension. That might be like what you're looking for.