=> CAMRON: CONTINUE (NOT) PAPPING PEOPLE

Ooh, looks like he caught that.

"I, uh. I see."

You don't see. You take a moment to thank the Sufferer for the lack of pale affection in your personal life. Might seem weird for a pale worker like you to not have any real experience papping, but at least you'll never get a whore sent to your doorstep.

"Messy breakup, then?"

What the shit is coming out of your facegash. 'Messy breakup?' Seriously? Do clean breakups end with one party sending the other daytime companions? You were sent here as either a meanspirited prank or by an obsessed person trying to get close to an ex. Sufferer's most enlightened and holy nipple pants, why this.

 

On one hand it's disappointing that he didn't catch the pun. On the other, what the shit is he talking about? Messy breakup? You shudder at the dissonance from that understatement. "Pretty bad," you force out. "I lived."

...You have a bizarre urge to spill on what all went down. And why shouldn't you? He's heard plenty of fucked up shit, and it's hardly like his opinion of you can sink lower. This is as good a time as any to tell someone. You bite down on the inside of your lip, though, and hold your tongue. No way.

A subject change would be amazing right now. You clear your throat and reach for a remote. "Ever seen In which a group of rebels travels the outskirts of space aboard their ship, Serenity, outside the reach of the Empire, featuring a fugitive highblood mediculler and his psychic violetblood moirail pursued by-" There is no way you're saying all of that, you decide with a small disgusted noise. "Its shortened title is Serenity. A friend rec'd it."

 

"You know what, doll, I haven't. A friend rec'd it to me, too. Now's as good a time as any to see it."

Now's also a good time to hide in small, dark block and get your bearings futz with your stupid contacts. Fuck these cheap things, why did you not spring for a nicer pair.

"I'm going to use the ablution block real quick, you mind?"

 

You shake your head. "Out the door behind us, turn right, first door on the right."

He leaves, and you rub your temples and take several long, luxuriously deep breaths. Time to get the movie set up and chill your fucking fishtiddies while he's gone. Possibly get a snack. Yeah, the kitchen is just over there. You're making fucking popcorn, and hey, might as well get a couple glasses of water.

 

You beat a hasty retreat and, after fixing your contacts and taking a couple moments to scream silently, go straight for the medicine cabinet. Going through peoples' medicine cabinets is a hobby of yours- some people would call it a gross violation of privacy, mind, but those people are total fucking squares.

Ilbodo's cabinet is mostly normal -boringly so- with one glaring exception. You stare at the bottle and get a sudden, unpleasant rush of understanding on why he's been looking at you like you're the wader and he's the mutant all day. Messy breakup indeed. You futz around for a couple more minutes, just long enough so that he doesn't figure anything odd, and carefully close the cabinet.

Once you're back, you knock on the entertainment block doorframe to give him a heads up.

"Hey, dollface. You ready?"

 

You hold up the bowl of popcorn and shake it a little. The movie is paused on Netflix at the very beginning. "It's set."

"I'm, ah, sorry," you say gesturing to the glasses, "I know I offered tea earlier, but-" You cut off. No point freaking yourself the fuck out all over again. You give yourself a mental shake and pick up the remote. "Good to go?"

 

You dismiss his concerns with a wave of your frond, looking significantly more relaxed than you feel. Anhaga's going to have your hide for walking into something like this unprepared, you just know it. It'll even be deserved.

"It's fine, it's fine. Wasn't that set on tea."

When you sit down, you sit as far away from him as you can while still being on the couch, mind lingering on the pill bottle in his ablution block.

 

"So," you begin as you hit play, "do you think they kill the helmsman during the first, or the second half of the movie?" Your tone is lightly sardonic. Killing the helm is the oldest and most overused trope for kicking up the tension there is (not to mention it's always treated like any other important-but-inanimate part of the ship has broken, but you're too accustomed to keeping that kind of thought unspoken to say it even now). You start the movie.

You're hooked minutes into the story, and yeah, it's subversive as hell. The Empress is dead, and the remaining trolls scramble to restore a form of order. It's obvious, though hints of blood color on their clothing are understated at best, that the Alliance is mostly warmbloods. That powerful lowbloods are thevillains isn't shocking, what's shocking is the blatant way it parallels the Empire. What's shocking is that the protagonists are 'too desperate' to delegate tasks by blood. What's shocking is the seadweller wired to a repurposed helmsman programming module.

...The operative with no symbol, no color, and filed horns looks disturbingly familiar.