Jethro, Bel, and Erskin: have feelings and problems

Discussion in 'Boat Trolls RP' started by roach, Aug 12, 2015.

  1. Erskin Aspera

    Erskin Aspera flintlockGallivant

    You shrug off his ill-temper with another pat — it hardly concerns you— and wobble off to the kitchen block to raid the tiny suite fridge. It yields a very pleasing amount of meat pieces, and you sit down in front of it and help yourself, picking the meat from out between vegetable and bread as necessary. You think you would like another juice, and then to float around in the pool, and then perhaps cuddle Jethro when he's done being angry about things. The night is full of pleasant possibilities.
     
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  2. Jethro Makwaa

    Jethro Makwaa armchairDesperado

    Growling softly to yourself, you turn the phone on. It's brand new and empty except for one contact. So, what the spy movies call a 'burner', you think. Not a good sign. Like, sure, trolls are mostly awful people, and protecting yourself by not giving out too much information to a casual hookup makes sense. But when that casual hookup is Erskin...

    You select the contact and hit 'call'. "Paw," you say while it rings, "how bout you make sure you got her scent."
     
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  3. roach

    roach hump rumpus professional

    The phone is answered after three rings.

    "Hello, this is Aurora," a soft, amused voice says.
     
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  4. Jethro Makwaa

    Jethro Makwaa armchairDesperado

    "Hello, Flighty McQuickfade," you growl back, "way to turn my moirail's brain to puddin' an' drop him on the doorstep like fuckin' garbage. You happen to know what happened to Cloris Vhines an' why? We're a lil tetchy 'bout drinkers up in here right at this particular time. So you an' me are gonna need to lay down some ground rules iffen you wanna keep seein' my diamond bro."
     
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  5. roach

    roach hump rumpus professional

    "He did take particular care to let me know about you two-- good job, by the way, much obliged," Aurora says, "but still, please do excuse me if I didn't care to risk walking my newest friend all the way back to his door.

    "As for ground rules, lay them out for me, sugar. We'll see what arrangements might be made."
     
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  6. Jethro Makwaa

    Jethro Makwaa armchairDesperado

    That 'much obliged' tempts you to soften, but only a little bit. "Rule one: he calls you, you don't call him. I know it's a addiction, I know he's gonna wanna get bit, but you ain't gonna make it worse by wavin' it at him when he ain't need it. Rule two: you walk him all the way to the door from now on, an' you hang out til he's safe inside or with one of us, or you keep a eye on him til he's steady enough to defend hisself. Rule three: no quadrant shit. That bite addiction shit gives you way too much control over him, no fuckin' way we're lettin' another Cloris get up in his life. An' this ain't a rule, this is just a thing you prolly already know, which is me an' Bel love our bro like to go crazy on it, an' we saw him get dragged real hard not long ago, an' if it looks to be happenin' again we're gonna start turnin' folks into wallpaper. Dig?"
     
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  7. roach

    roach hump rumpus professional

    "Dig," Aurora says, and laughs gently. "Alright, cocoa puff, here is my ground. One: I simply don't have time to dance attendance on one needy child or another, unlike certain absent parties who liked their playmates on a short leash and an even shorter meal timer. If your sweetness calls me, I check my schedule, and you get to handle his case of the itchies if I decline to fly to his side like some common delivery drone.

    "Two: I haven't the faintest desire to parade around in front of you and that trigger-happy Troll Hellsing you've got lurking about. I know how to keep a companion alive and well and if you don't care to trust my discernment in these matters I shall move on and you can take your chances with any other bloodsucker as cares to get your darling alone in a bright alley some morning. Cloris was a twisted bitch with a rotten old lemon where her conscience glands should have been but she was not, I promise you, the worst of our lot.

    "Three: I don't fuck wigglers. I'm four hundred sweeps old, sugar, what do any of you bright young things have to offer me but a few dinner dates? My quadrants are my own affairs and you shan't speak to me as if I'm anything like one of your corners. I do as I like, when and where I like, and I am in no ways subject to your tiresome, petty little romantic entanglements.

    Another soft, breathy laugh. "Dig?"
     
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  8. Jethro Makwaa

    Jethro Makwaa armchairDesperado

    "Dig," you say simply, grateful for her open nastiness. Erskin is nothing but a snack to her, but at least she's honest about it. Since she's refusing condition two, you're keeping the phone, and Erskin can ask you for it when he's jonesing too hard to have any sense of self preservation. By that time you will have had a serious conversation about this whole thing. And possibly arranged for Bel to plant a tracker on him, if that hasn't already happened.

    You're about to hang up, but half against your will, you blurt, "How old was Cloris, anyhow?"

    Out in the hallway, the elevator dings. Your lusus gets to his feet. If that's the drinker back again to teach you some respect for your elders...
     
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  9. Erskin Aspera

    Erskin Aspera flintlockGallivant

    "Oh, she was still an ankle-biter," Aurora says carelessly. "It's generally rude to pry into exact dates and circumstances but I think she was thirty, forty? She kept company with a very young crowd, as I recall, the sort that still play with their meals, though she did put on any number of airs with the rest of us. I expect the bulk of her little flock to come to much the same end, really, and good riddance."
     
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  10. Belatu Kadros

    Belatu Kadros crossfireHurricane

    You walk in and find Jethro with a phone to his ear, scowling like a little green stormcloud, with his lusus all protectively huffed up behind him. In the little kitchen area, Erskin is sitting on the floor among the remains of a number of sandwiches, eating a plain piece of ham with the blissful blankness of a grub. Somehow, you have a feeling no one will want to hear about how you and Lainey went shopping and she made you buy her a skirt so ludicrous that you had to get one for Pancho too.

    "What's --" you begin, and Jethro makes an imperious pinching gesture that shuts you up so neatly that he might as well have stuffed a sock in your mouth.

    You have to get him to teach you how to do that.

    Into the phone, he says tightly, "You reckon the rest of her 'flock' has folks right now they're treating the way she treated Erskin? Locked in a basement maybe? Gettin' fed to lusii?"

    So much for your night of happy friendship funtimes. You set your shopping bags down silently and begin changing into your combat gear right there, nestling the dozing fluffcheep into a nest made of your balled-up wool coat.
     
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  11. roach

    roach hump rumpus professional

    "Oh, undoubtably," Aurora says. "They're idiots."
     
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  12. Erskin Aspera

    Erskin Aspera flintlockGallivant

    You notice Bel and gesture him over. When he won't come, you lurch off the floor, catch your balance against the counter, and set of for him.

    "Hallo there!" you say warmly, and hook your arms around his bared neck. "Bel. I set Cloris's hive on fire, tell Jethro. I set her hive on fire."
     
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  13. Belatu Kadros

    Belatu Kadros crossfireHurricane

    "Good on you," you approve, and kiss him soundly. "No fair getting so drunk without me, though."

    Jethro says, "Thanks for the tip, Chompy-Chan. We'll talk again." He hangs up. He gives Erskin a Very Serious Stern Disapproving Moirail Look -- he's not as good at it as Pancho, but he's just starting out, he's definitely got some talent already -- and waggles the phone at him, then puts it away. "Your dealer hotline stays with me. When you need a fix, you talk to me about it. I am not puttin' up with any more goddamn suicidal shit from you."

    You look from one to the other, eyes narrowing. "Okay, what is going on exactly?"
     
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  14. Erskin Aspera

    Erskin Aspera flintlockGallivant

    You wave a vague dismissal at Jethro. If he insists on hiding the phone you'll go and find someone else, you figure, it's hardly important.

    "Jethro showed me the souvenirs and I was jolly well upset about it so I went and burned down Cloris's hive so it's all over with now," you explain. You rest your forehead against Bel's shoulder. "And I met a lady who wasn't a particular fan of Cloris either but she, mm, she helped me out, after I, I said about— you, that you'd take her out as well, if she, if she did anything to cross any of us and so she didn't and now, the bites don't— her bites, Cloris's—they're fine, now. They're quiet. I'm fine. Everything's fine. Put me on the couch."
     
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  15. Belatu Kadros

    Belatu Kadros crossfireHurricane

    You look at Jethro, and he echoes, "Put him on the couch. We're gonna wait til he sobers up a bit, an' then we're gonna have a talk."

    "Fantastic," you say glumly, but you guess he's right. Now that you know -- "It's addictive, you know that?"

    "Everyone knows that," he says, which makes you feel just great. You steer Erskin over to the couch and push him over onto it, then sit on him.

    Jethro, still doing his stormcloud impression, waves a water bottle in Erskin's face. "Hydrate."

    (INTERVENTION TIEM!!1)
     
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  16. Erskin Aspera

    Erskin Aspera flintlockGallivant

    "Right, yes, thanks," you say, and gladly drain it. "There was juice. I want more juice."

    Then you shuffle Bel off of you so you can curl up around him, which is a very great deal more comfortable, and hook your claws in his damp, tangled hair. You're full and warm and sleepy and your marks have finally all shut up, and you idly pick at the tangles in his hair in between stretches of hazy, comfortable unconsciousness. He'll keep you safe. He promised.
     
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  17. Jethro Makwaa

    Jethro Makwaa armchairDesperado

    The besotted-yet-conflicted look on Bel's face is hilarious despite your bad mood. You fetch Erskin some chocolate milk, the closest thing the fridge currently contains to juice, and beers for yourself and Bel. You sit down on the coffee table, take a long swig, and tell Bel what happened. Erskin's twitchy mood, the way he wouldn't let you take care of his bites, and how you showed him the husktop. How he reacted. How long he was gone. What the girl who brought him back looked like, and what she said on the phone. Thanks to having trained yourself to memorize scraps of conversation for writing dialogue in your stories, you have that last bit almost verbatim.

    When you're done, Bel is ignoring Erskin messing with his hair, his face chilly and calm. You know what a bad sign that is now. "So," he says slowly, "this Aurora woman seems confident that Erskin will continue to place his life in the hands of rainbow drinkers with some regularity until one of them uses him up. She sees him as a junkie whore. While this is better than sadistic possessiveness, it is still unacceptable. This whole situation is unacceptable."

    He stands up, and looks down at Erskin. His face is icy, but his voice cracks: "Sober the fuck up, Aspera, things are not remotely okay."

    Shit. You wish he'd stayed out another half hour. You're afraid he's about to make things worse.
     
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  18. Erskin Aspera

    Erskin Aspera flintlockGallivant

    "I'm up, I'm up," you mumble, then catch sight of Bel's dark, intense gaze and you go very still.

    "I'm alright," you tell him. You brush your fingers against his jaw. "I'm here. I came back. It's alright."
     
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  19. Belatu Kadros

    Belatu Kadros crossfireHurricane

    "Is this going to keep happening?" you demand.
     
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  20. Erskin Aspera

    Erskin Aspera flintlockGallivant

    "What?" you ask. "I— this? Us— oh." you touch your throat, the stiff new tape. The calm satiation of your bite marks, the peace. "Yes, I expect so."
     
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