Psiioniic x (gn)Reader (Platonic)
A/n: this was tricky cause I haven’t written for psiioniic in so long but this was rlly nice and fun ty
Your feet pounded the ground with as much force as you could muster. Having had just stolen a few fruits and some grubloafs from a random merchant, you were currently looking to make an escape to a crawl space that you had to call home. In all honesty, you weren’t expecting to put this much effort into your getaway as the merchant looked lazy and was practically sleeping when you even got to his table. Regardless, here you were, your heart pounding and your feet throbbing.
You quickly round a corner after ducking through the busy crowd of the villages Main Street hopefully losing the angry merchant. Unfortunately you made the mistake of looking back instead of in front of you as you immediately slam into what felt like a wall. You groan softly cradling your nose before gasping at what had happened. Your spoils of the night scattered the dirty floor and what was in front of you wasn’t even a wall, but a cloaked troll. Four of them, to be exact. His red eyes scanned you, concerned, not that you were able to pick up on it. Not only was your food ruined, but you also managed to misjudge exactly how far away the merchant was from you. He had practically been at your heel this whole time. You didn’t get the chance to react as you were yanked up into your feet by the collar of your shirt. All you could hear in your ears were utter obscenities and the merchant practically mocking you for not only being a thief, but a lousy thief at that.
You go to yell and thrash around to wiggle free but the red eyed troll thrusts his hand forth to capture both of your attention, “Excuse me, what are the costs of these goods; whatever it is I’ll cover it.” It was clearly in exchange for your release, but your eyes still shifted between the two looking for a way out.
His voice naturally carried throughout the alley and was enough to quell the merchant. He had to grumble to himself in thought before ultimately deciding to toss you towards the troll. Once costs were discussed the red eyed troll hands him a pouch of coins, thus allowing the angry merchant to leave in a huff, although not before shout at you from over his shoulder, “If I catch you near my store again I’ll gut ya, vermin!”
You could only gulp as now you needed a new target and you were sure everybody was now hyper aware of you. You groan having had skinned your knee from the fall. The hooded troll offers a hand to you before speaking more gently this time.
“And what is your name, my child?”
You only blink at him before giving him your name. Huffing lightly, you state in a neutral tone, “You have my thanks, but I’m off to-“ as you take his hand his eyes soften at you whilst he gently hoists you up. The others seemed to pick that up as it was lost on you quite easily. Dual colors eyes glare at you as a weak hiss crawls up his throat, “Come on you cannot be serious.” His lisp is prominent.
“Truly, my son, do you think it wise to-“ A much gentler voice tries to reason with the red eyed troll as well, but their efforts are fruitless as he interrupts.
“Hush the both of you. There’s potential in this one; I can feel it…” his eyes almost literally sparkle at you as he says this, much to the dismay of others. The yellow one groans before adding, “You say that about everybody you meet!” He bares his fangs to you as he goes on, “They’re just trouble, still a criminal and a thief. They might even expose us to loyalists of the empire! You can’t seriously be thinking about taking them with us, I won’t allow it.” The red one released your hand to calm his friend but before you could bolt towards the busy street an olive blood is quick to hold onto you before giving you and apologetic smile, “A-paw-logies haha… but mew’re stuck here until we settle this.” Her grip is vice, but you’re sure it’s more or less to secure you in place rather than to hurt you. Despite the pain you keep your mouth shut and look on.
“Please, my kin, just trust me in this one I know it will be different.”
“They’ll get us all culled!” The yellow blood continues to freak out until, what appeared to be a jade blood, stepped in to caress his arm. “Please, Psii, you know as well as I do that he would never want to put any of us in danger.”
“Just give them a chance…”
Dual eyes shifted to you before he huffs, looking towards the ground. “Do whatever you want…”
They seemed to take that as a positive response as the red eyed one finally spun back around towards you to properly welcome you, however it was your turn to thrust your hand up defensively.
“Uhh, many thanks, seriously! But I like my chances of survival here more than joining the cause.” Each of them perked up at that, not realizing that a bit of their reputation had proceeded them. They didn’t seem to give you enough credit as it didn’t take too much to connect the dots.
You expected him to scramble, to make an attempt to further sell his point, but his eyes only softened once more. He was clearly disappointed, despite this he just nods to the oliveblood, signaling her to release your hand.
She does so with a bit of a disheartened look. Maybe she was looking forward to you joining; you couldn’t be sure. You turn on your heel and begin treading towards the loud streets.
Although something stops you. A gut feeling that pulls you back into staying in place. ‘Is this a mistake?’
You were second guessing yourself which wasn’t good. You were having such a good streak of hard and fast decisions too. With a mental groan and a bashful look over your shoulder, you humor them, “What exactly would you have me do?”
The red eyed troll beams at you with a solid wide grin before trotting up to you, “Oh you wouldn’t regret it! We are going to save this world,” the way he says your name lights a fire in your eyes, “We can talk more once we head back to the inn. It isn’t necessarily safe to talk here, we were really only just here to stock up before heading to the next village.”
You hummed lightly as that seemed to make sense. You shrug your shoulders, giving him a lazy smile and agreeing to come along. The weak snarl behind the three of them doesn’t go unheard by you yet you elect to ignore it as you all begin to head out. Your first impression was already pretty messy.
From what you had gathered, the red eyed one went by The Signless, the oliveblood, The Disciple, the jade, Dolorosa, and finally the stubborn yellow one went by Psiioniic. They were all on a mission to collect followers for their cause and had many pledge their alliance already. They still had a long ways to go unfortunately, but they’re proud of the progress so far. His message is one of peace, a vision he has for this crumbling world. One where everyone gets along and works together. It was a little too soft for your liking, but every time he preached it to you, you could see it to. So you might as well fight for it too.
Signless, Dolorosa, and Disciple were happy to answer many of your questions, however there were one too many instances where Psiioniic would scoff or comment on your lack of school feedings. He was quick to reach your boiling point as you already had enough of him. You bite back at him the second you hear him begin to scoff again, “Just choke already! If you don’t settle down you won’t last long here…” in your professional opinion that didn’t have nearly enough bite to it but it seemed to do the trick by the look he was giving you. The other three gasp lightly.
You prepare yourself to be scolded from all sides, but Psiioniics voice dips into a growl as he sizes you up, “Is that supposed to be a threat?”
Being all too quick-witted, you fail to hold back a snide, “So what if it is?”
“Oh bring it on, vermin!” He eyes spark as if to emphasize.
“Enough the both of you!” Dolorosa is swift in mediating both sides. You don’t notice Disciple already appearing behind you to pull you away. You really liked Disciple so you don’t find it in yourself to fight her. Psiioniic on the other hand was giving Signless quite a hard time. He refused to be dragged away from you and still managed to growl despite Dolorosa’s booming voice.
“Fighting solves absolutely nothing, so for the love of Gog, behave yourselves! Psiioniic, I understand you’re upset, but they’re part of the team and no amount of whining is going to change that. So please calm y-“
Psiioniic retorts with a strangles sound, ”No, Rosa! I’m not going to calm down! They’re going to get us all culled I just know it! What security do we have that they won’t just sell us out!”
“Hey!” You were really tired of being pushed around. Not that she needed to, but Disciple tightens her hold on you and calls out your name in a quiet whine almost pleading that you don’t say something stupid. “I don’t have to prove my loyalty to you, asshole! I don’t actually like running around scared of dying all the time so whether you like it or not I’m here now…”
He seems to have run out of things to say as he simply throws his hands up before leaving the room, possibly to the nearby washroom. Nobody was too worried as they would be expecting him to come back in time to sleep. Disciple is the first to break the ice with a relieved sigh; glad that things didn’t escalate further. She settles on holding your hand to help you relax. Dolorosa moves to the seating arrangement on the other side of the room, pinching the bridge of her nose in a stressful gesture. Signless however is quick to lecture you on picking your battles. “Please, have more patience. Psiioniic may be stubborn but he comes from a dark place! Be more civil is all I ask of you…” you scan the faces around the room and notice all eyes are on you, somehow riddled with guilt…
“Alright. I’ll try to be more considerate.” You said this more or less to appease them as you were sure Psiioniic was going to continue to make this very difficult for you no matter what. Nevertheless this seemed to work out as each simultaneously relaxed upon hearing your answer.
It was going to be a long couple of nights…
True to your word there was much less chaos between you two, but more backhanded remarks. This clearly irritated everyone, nonetheless after Signless managed to take care of business in the village it was time to restock and do a bit of scouting. Just to check on whether or not it was safe to travel to the next village. Dolorosa was tasked with the shopping with what little money they had while Signless and Disciple, out of habit, mindlessly wondered off together in search of any information they could get their hands on. You could hear Psiioniic grumble and curse under his breath once he noticed he was left with the task of taking care of you. This happened to include showing you the ropes on how to get information without exposing who they were affiliated with. He grabs you by the back of the shirt to get you to follow.
You can’t stop the growl that bubbles up your throat but it dies down rapidly in response to Psiioniic snarling in return. Without much thought he easily states that he does not like you. Unfortunately before he can elaborate you’re swift in your rebuttal, “Oh, you wound me so. Look, I’m crying.” You pull at your bottom eyelid with your middle finger to drive your sarcastic point home. He seems shocked at first until it settles back into his usual scowl. He growls lowly and returns his focus to the task at hand.
After looking around for some time he finally huddles close to you and reluctantly gives you a basic rundown of code words, signals, and things to look out for before approaching anybody. He makes one demonstration with a merchant but you hardly pay attention as you eyed the food stands. You’re snapped back into reality when Psiioniic lightly snaps at you, “Did you get all that?”
You pause for a minute, “Sure did…” you were too embarrassed to admit the truth. However he already gave you the rundown, truly how hard could it be. By his expression you could tell he didn’t really buy it, “Alright, go talk to someone then.” He challenged.
You gulp and take a moment before sizing up a merchant that was honestly just a carbon copy of who Psiioniic chose. You pointed to him quizzically, but didn’t really get an answer. The only thing he offered was a raised brow and crossed arms. You huff and march over to the nearby food stands, pretending to look for something to buy. This felt rather dangerous to you somehow, but Psiioniic hasn’t come to correct you on anything yet so you proceed with clearing your throat before tossing up whatever you could.
However you seemed all too nervous and kept forgetting actual terms that Psiioniic had taught you. You resorted to asking about a specific item that would have the merchant reply with a narrowed look, “Aye, come inside. It’s in the back.” His voice was deep and menacing. You pressed on regardless, however you failed to notice Psiioniic trying to push through the crowd to get to you.
Once you ended up inside the small tent-like shop you heard the unsheathing of a thick knife. It had you whirl around this a wide eyed glance. “Woah woah-“
“Ya think you can get passed me with all that fancy talk? Yer part of the empire forces aintcha? Well the heretic group is long gone and I’m not about to letcha leave…”
“No wait I am a follower! Look!” You flash the hand sign Psiioniic told you about but no dice.
As the merchant charges at you, you duck and roll past him and try to leave. Unfortunately he pulls you back in and you can’t help but scuttle before actually getting free and ducking out of the tent. Suddenly this was all too familiar as your feet were once again pounding and you were once again running from another merchant. Out of habit you turn another corner and reached a dead end. You knew this because of the wall you smacked into; except it was actually still just a wall. You really needed to stop doing this. You regain your wits and press your back to the wall to face your attacker. Might as well try and fight your way out. As you raise your fists something practically squawks from behind the merchant.
In rushed Psiioniic, sweating, panting, and holding up the hand sign he had taught you. “T-that ones with us…” his lisp was unmistakable as you sigh in relief.
It took the merchant just a moment before howling in laughter at the situation. “Aye good thing ya came! Was about to make a stew outta this one.” You shudder at that.
Psiioniic and the merchant exchange a few words before you finally peeled yourself off of the wall once the merchant began to head back to his shop. You approach him with a bashful look on your face. He gives you a very stern look before scoffing and ruffling your hair, “You better have learned something from this.”
You only laugh and bat his hand away, “Yeah, I have actually!”
He didn’t seem to expect that answer as he waits for you to continue, “Enlighten me.”
He takes a moment to choke on his spit before he whirls his head back at you to object. The face you make at his is full of jest; he can’t help but comment, “Ha! Please, Sign would cull me if I let something happen to you.”
You could only chuckle at his reaction, “Yeah yeah, tough guy! I’m sure I would have made a great stew.” You joked.
It was Psiioniic’s turn to laugh “At least you didn’t pick a loyalist, Gog help us if you screwed up that bad!” You both continued to poke fun at each other as you head back to the group. It seemed a friendship blossomed that was sure to last…
