Ustuck: Get Recruited by Troll Mafia [Closed RP]

"I'm fine. It's fine, don't worry about it," you say, ignoring how weird it is to see your moirail among the trapping of Magrat's place. Normally you're waking Papa up like this and hoping you don't accidentally touch any weird fluids. Of course, thinking about your Papa just making the rage roil in your gut. It's becoming an old friend now, which is just...great. You push the thought away. "How did those Erotagrubs end up on the table out there? You guys didn't touch them outside of the packaging, did you?

 

"Packaging? Keeler found them in the slime of their recuperacoons. Why, what are they?"

 

You curse fluidly in Old Alternian, scrubbing your hand over your eyes. "They wouldn't have been in the slime itself. They're Erotagrubs. They fuck with your hormones, make you want to...well." Your cheeks feel hot. Papa's laughter rings in your ears. "Well. If Keeler wasn't acting oddly last night and just went straight to sleep, she might be okay today?" You think back for a moment, and feel your flush spread across your face. "Um. Well. Maybe not. She might be pretty. Tactile."

 

> Tilts in the past, but not many. Like, one. One tilt.

You pull yourself out of the recuperacoon while the sun is still setting. Sure, you could use the extra sleep, but you have trouble enough sticking to a nocturnal sleep cycle when you aren't having daymares about what could be happening to your lusus. Besides, this way you can get cleaned and dressed while Keeler's still asleep. You can see her horns poke out of her cocoon. You hope she got whatever those...grub...things were out of hers before she got in.

You clean the slime off your shirt and get your hoodie. The dried honey patch crunches as you sit on the couch. Now you just have to wait until everyone wakes up and you can set out. As you think, you retrieve your mace from its specibus. You've never had to use it on another troll before. You're not sure you can.

Then you remember the pool of blood in your respiteblock. Yeah, you think. Yeah, you can do this. Whether you can do it well is another matter.

 

-->

You hear someone moving around but you don't get up just yet. The sopor in this recuperacoon is just so much nicer than any you've slept in in a very long time. Well...you struggle to think of the last time you slept anywhere other than your recuperacoon with its watered-down sopor. Nothing comes to mind, and you're not quite sure if you've ever slept anywhere other than your recuperacoon. You fell asleep on your lusus a few times. Those were good times. Sheep wool may not be the most comfortable surface in the world, but it certainly is soft.

You kind of miss your lusus, actually, now that you think about it. You...really miss your lusus, actually. No one's headbutted you awake yet or let you hide your face in their wool while your lookstubs adjusted to being open again or let you cling to their neck while they dragged you to your thermal hull for sustenance or... It is possible you are not a dusk troll.

Your arms flail about for your lusus, and they hit something soft. Not the same texture as the fluff you're used to, but soft nonetheless. You latch on. It's so nice. Soft and nice and a little cooler than you're used to, but you snuggle your face into the softness.

 

> Lukasz: Seriously reconsider your life choices.

Nn. At the very least, you are reconsidering the decision to try to get something to eat from the mini-hull, Iglora's warnings be damned. You'd thought Keeler was too fast asleep to do anything...Keeler-ish, but apparently you were wrong. This is, what, the fourth time in three nights somebody's grabbed onto your hoodie? You take a breath. It's too early in the evening for a panic attack. You reach beneath Keeler's hands to pry her off.

"Keeler," you say. Her face is snuggled really close. "Keeler, wake up. Get off."

 

-->

Soft thing is talking. Your lusus never talks. You push your face in more as your thoughts start to pick themselves up and try to brush off the remnants of your dreams.

What were you dreaming about? You can't really remember. Something about high towers and crowded places and looking for something important, something that kept being taken further away. Your lusus? You freeze for a second before remembering that your lusus is right...

No, wait, that's not right. Your lusus isn't here, you're on a trip to find Lukasz's lusus. Lukasz! Lukasz your new friend! You look around for him before spotting him. You're already hugging him! You grin. "Hi Lukasz!" What a fortunate turn of events! Boy, sleepy you sure is good at this friendship thing.

 

Aaaaaand now she's awake. And smiling at you, for some reason. Fuck fuck what do you do now?

You smile back weakly, try again to tug off her hands. "Um. Hi, Keeler. You're, uh, hugging me. W--why are you doing that?"

 

Why wouldn't you be hugging Lukasz? He's your friend! Your...slightly prickly friend. Who...hates...being touched.

Whoops.

You retract your arms and offer an apologetic smile to him. Or, well, you try, anyway. It's starting to look more like a grimace. You give it up and verbally apologize instead.

 

"It's fine, it's fine," you mutter, taking one--no, two--steps away from Keeler and her grabby arms. You straighten out your hood.

"Maybe you should get cleaned up and then we can meet the others?" The sooner you get ready, the sooner you can head out.

 

-->

After cleaning up, which may have taken a bit longer than usual due to the fascinating products in the ablution block, you and Lukasz go knock on the door of the other room.

 

You hear the knock at the door. "Oh, sounds like they beat us to it." Keeler must be fine then. You check out the peep hole that it is in fact then and then open the door for them to come in.

 

"Kezria!" Your other new friend! Your other new friend who doesn't hate being touched!

You immediately throw yourself towards her and wrap your appendages around her. She's not as soft as Lukasz, but she's much less pokey, and very warm. It's like being wrapped around a heated pillow. You decide that you like this very much, and tell her so.

 

"Uhhh..." You have a Keeler wrapped around you like a clingbeast. She tells you that you're like a warm pillow and you blush. "Uh, hi Keeler. Maybe you shouldn't..." You try to peel her off with little success.

 

You're dumping salt on the still-squirming Erotagrubs - you want them dead and nullified before they cocoon - when Kezria opens the door. Keeler immediately throws herself onto Kezria. Salt flies everywhere as you drop the bag. It only takes three strides to cross the room, and then you've got one hand in the back of Keeler's shirt. You pull her up and away while pushing her arms down with your own free arm. You shove Kezria further into the room with your shoulder in the same motion. "Don't," you growl.

 

Your momentary disappointment in not getting to hug Kezria anymore is overshadowed by the overwhelming urge to hug your last remaining friend who hasn't been horribly kidnapped by Sufferists like Astroh. Poor Astroh. You stop to think about her for a moment. You only knew her for a very short while, but you know you two had a bond. Fellow goldbloods, united in your quest. Forging a path with righteousness and psionics, towards the glorious day of Ascension! You reminisce over the bright future you could have had together, on twin battleships, soaring in the void between stars, taking on enemies and exploring strange new worlds. Together!

But alas. Feeling overwhelmed by sadness at the loss of this glorious future, you turn towards Iglora for comfort, only to find that you can't move your arms. At least you have your legs though, and swing those wildly in the air, until you manage to wrap them around the appendage pinning your arms. It may not be very good, but it's as close as you can get right now.

 

You blink at Keeler, who isn't paying any mind to your clear anger or the fact that she is not touching the ground. That's one hell of a high - not that you would know, of course. You step backwards into the room and out of the doorway. "Has she just been clingy? Or has she done anything else?"

 

You follow after Iglora. This place gives you the creeps and you don't want to be out in the open any longer than absolutely necessary.

"No," you say. "Why? What else would she be doing?" There's a look in Iglora's eye that says she has an idea what's going on here. Not that it couldn't just be Keeler being Keeler, but--she's been mostly quiet since she woke up. That you'd call strange.

Oh no. What if it's the concussion? What if it got worse overnight and you didn't notice? You've killed Keeler with your terrible medical practitioning. Dammit, Lukasz, why didn't you spend more time learning first aid rather than wasting your life figuring out which shade of gray matched best with a slate interior wall (it's a deep silver, by the way, looks great with the light right next to it)??

 

You peer at Keeler's face. Her pupils are dilated, but not nearly to the point of almost no iris. "She's coming off of it then," you say, the last of that rumbling growl in your chest dying away. "Maybe she didn't get a full blast of the Erotagrubs' slime if she hasn't done anything terrifyingly sexual. Or maybe she slept it off? It's hard to tell."