#caleva azucar

[fantrolldailies]

Daily #65 - Minden Omnisc and Caleva Azucar (Cowritten by Tess)

He finally put his notes aside and lay back, satisfied for the moment. He generally paid little mind to unimportant distractions, but even so the hive seemed abnormally quiet at that moment. Minden seemed to have wandered off somewhere, and Erytha and Kujona had both decided not to pay him a visit tonight, it seemed. Oh well, that was fine. He was a patient troll.

It had been nearly a full day since Kujona visited the Hive, although Caleva had had no idea of such. Minden however, having had the time to wait for pointed out on the clock, had been steadily watching as the hours ticked by. It was almost time for the radio to be wound and to play. But she couldn't do it herself. For that she needed...

"Caleva!" Sticking her head through the wall, Minden called out to the troll whose hive she was inhabiting at present. Her mental state was not yet to the degree that she could recognise the difference between herself of yesterday and today, but for other trolls...

"Oh!" Caleva was more or less accustomed to Minden's presence in his hive, it wasn't often that she startled him. She seemed... cheerful? She definitely had a different air about her than usual. Well, he shouldn't keep her waiting.

"Yes, Minden?"

"Come help!" The voice of the Limeblood was louder, more vibrant, and she seemed immensely more compose than her usual state. Disappearing back through the wall, she went to float above the radio, waiting for Caleva to join her.

Caleva chuckled and followed Minden into the adjacent room, albeit actually using the door. The little limeblood was certainly acting stranger than usual, but it wasn't a bad kind of strange. If she was really as happy as she seemed to be, this could only be an improvement!

He walked in and picked up the radio, frowning slightly as he inspected it. He'd never seen this radio before. Where'd she get it? Was this the reason for her sudden cheerfulness, perhaps?

"Hmm. Did someone give you this radio, Minden?"

She was bobbing up and down rapidly, the projection showing far more animation than she ever had before. "You have to," and at this point she began flying arund in circles, "WIND it!" It was true, the handle on the back of the radio showed as much. The flight path intersected with the ground and Minden disappeared through the floor, reappearing elsewhere in the room a moment later.

Minden's playful bounciness caused Caleva to laugh again. He disregarded his unanswered question, since he'd at least managed to more or less confirm that this radio was the reason for her change in attitude. He supposed a normal... uh, caretaker? would be a little more cautious of this mysterious new object, but he had to admit he was curious. He carefully wound the rather ancient-looking radio and placed it back down on the table.

"You seem to like this radio a lot, don't you?" He chuckled once more. "You seem quite cheerful tonight, Minden. It's wonderful!"

As the radio spluttered into life, Minden zoomed right in from the ceiling, bobbing slowly just in front of it. A few crackles and a voice came through.

"Hearing reports of a serious Storm on the Western side of the Lochlass Sea - all those living in the area, look after yourselves." The voice had a strange texture, something that seemed to invade the mind and sooth. Minden went still the moment it came through, obviously greatly affected.

"Hmm." Caleva wasn't familiar with this station, though he never did listen to the radio particularly much. Minden seemed positively captivated by it... though he couldn't quite grasp why. He hardly thought that the novelty of simply listening to a radio for the first time would be enough to influence such a change in her. Was it something about the radio itself? The radio station? He couldn't feel much change in his own feelings, but they were two different trolls with different circumstances. There could be any number of reasons why she was enjoying herself so much. Perhaps he should investigate.

"What is it that you like about this radio, Minden?"

"The next track was, I believe, recorded from a just recently captured starsystem. It looks like the gap between conquest and chart-topping hits is getting shorter by the sweep, folks!"

Minden took a while to answer, whenever the speaking stopped and a song began playing, she became more animated again. "I can hear his voice," she said as the next song began, "I can hear it in my head." This confusing statement did nothing as she circled the radio again, waiting for the next song to end.

"His voice, huh?" Interesting... so it was the DJ himself who was influencing her in this way. Perhaps he had a way with ghosts, or those in a spectral sort of state, like Minden was. Or perhaps because she was a limeblood? It seemed to be the work of a psychic, in any case. That would explain why he himself wasn't really feeling the effects. Well... it seemed harmless enough. And if Minden enjoyed it, that was good enough for Caleva.

"Well, whoever this is, he seems like a nice person," Caleva said, smiling at Minden. "So I'll let you keep this radio. How often is his show?"

Minden raced over the nearby clock, pointing each arm to form a time against it. "Every night when this happens!" She called out happily, "That's what she told me!" A moment later she had moved back to the radio, as the presenter began reading some sent-in letters. The degree to which Minden was able to string together words and understand concepts had rapidly jumped - it seemed this voice was doing more than just captivating her attention.

"She?" Caleva frowned slightly. So someone had given her this radio deliberately, most likely. It probably wasn't important, but curiosity got the better of him... "Who's 'she', Minden?"

Minden was about to answer, but then stopped, mouth still hanging open. A few moments passed before she closed it. "No one," she glanced about, lying obviously. She'd forgotten momentarily that she'd been told that if she let Caleva know how she got it, the radio would be taken away again. She began floating upwards, out of Caleva's reach, but still within listening distance of the radio.

Caleva didn't respond immediately, taking a moment to think. If it were someone who had specifically told Minden not to reveal their identity to her, then he could only really think of one possibility. Who else would go out of their way to keep their good deeds hidden from him? Though, that did make him slightly suspicious of the radio. He'd have to keep an eye on Minden when the show was on.

"Hmm." He glanced up at Minden, still clearly enjoying herself as she listened to the music. "You should try to be more careful, Minden. People who give you strange objects might not always have good intentions."

Minden clearly ignored Caleva's words, bobbing up and down above the radio. The show continued on with her becoming extremely energetic during the times the host was not speaking and going calm and quiet as soon as he began. Although Caleva couldn't be aware of it, the connection between Minden's psychic projection and her original body was being strengthened by every psychic word coming through the radio, allowing for a stronger and stronger mental state.

She didn't seem to be listening... hmm. Perhaps he was overthinking this. Strange, Caleva wasn't usually the type to overthink anything. In any case, all he could do was continue to observe Minden, and the radio. If nothing came of it, well, all the better for both of them, right?

As the radio show came to a close, the voice announced a new song. This was the point at which Minden changed. As the song began, objects in the room began to lift, a faint lime glow spreading outwards from Minden. Her eyes were similarly glowing as she floated above the radio, the music reaching up to her.

In comparison to just yesterday, when she had listened to the song with Kujona, Minden was completely different. Before she had simply been pleased by the music, but this time it was causing her psychic powers to actually reach her projection. What extended listening would do couldn't be guessed.

"M-Minden!" Caleva instinctively grabbed for the radio, the source of whatever power was being transmitted to the limeblood. Was this... her power? That was concerning - as a young limeblood, Minden likely possessed an immense deal of psychic power but not a whole lot of control over it. Right now she was only lifting the objects in his hive, but would it stay that way?

He couldn't stop her, though, that'd be too dangerous. He wasn't really sure how anyway. Ghosts he knew how to deal with, but limeblood psychics? It had only started when this last song came on... his only option was to wait it out.

As the song wound down, so to did Minden's powers. The floating objects slowly lowered back into their original positions, and the ... pressure of her power disappeared. However with the voice no longer coming through the radio, she looked forlorn. "More," she announced sadly, seemingly all too aware that no more would come for a night's time.

With the potential for danger subsiding, Caleva breathed a small sigh of relief. He looked at the radio in his hand, no longer projecting the voice of the troll who was captivating Minden just a moment ago.

"The show's over for now, Minden." He placed the radio back down. "But we can listen to it tomorrow night, if you'd like."

She nodded, far quieter now. Looking about in some form of confusion, she disappeared through a nearby wall. It seemed the effects of the radio had made her far more wilful as well. No doubt that would prove troublesome for Caleva to deal with.

With Minden gone, Caleva supposed he had no choice but to return to his work. At the very least, the radio had proven to be an interesting distraction. He suspected he'd be learning a lot more about Minden in the upcoming days thanks to it, so he supposed he should be thankful, even if he was still a little suspicious.

Perhaps there was someone else he should have a word with in the near future.

[tesspieceface]

c a l e v a

it was ghosts

[fantrolldailies]

Daily #57 - Kujona Sakeru, Minden Omnisc, Caleva Azucar and Erytha Cytoph (cowritten by Tess and SB)

But that was fine. Kujona had to find her own way in life but she was doing so nonetheless. This was simply another facet of maintaining life. And she did so enjoy her chances to torment him.

His Hive, large and mansion-like, was easily accessed by one such as her. Wandering the hallways, she wondered where he was. She was unable to locate him by any sign or sound.

"Caleva?" She called out for him and received no answer. Hmpf, probably out on another of his foolish ghost hunts. Well too bad for him, she would be waiting when he returned. Opening a door, Kujona stepped directly through it and found herself face to face with a lime apparation.

As an assassin of the highest calibre her reaction was as always flawless. Kujona rapidly moved out of the being's line of sight, a blade already in hand, and disappeared into the room. From behind the furniture, her presence completely obscured, she studied the being that looked about in confusion, wondering where the other had gone. It was... female, floating with a transparent quality and lime of colour. Caleva had found and brought a limeblood ghost home? Interesting, where had he found such a thing. More importantly how had a limeblood survived to even this age before meeting death? Kujona continued to watch quietly. It sure seemed confused, moreso than usual. But ghosts had their own way of thinking.

Should she destroy it now? The option existed but rather than rile Caleva up, as she had to constantly do, it would more than likely spiral him into depression. And a depressed Caleva was a useless Caleva. She had already discovered that. So she would calmly watch and wait for Caleva to return to his hive. Then she would wheedle what information she desired out of him before driving his own black feelings to a turmoil. That would be good.

---

Much like a cartoon lion, Erytha knew everything the moonlight touched was hers (to absolutely loathe). She hated it all, from A to Z, because it was boring and stupid and predictable and pointless, and because the Q ought to have risen up and overthrown the O ages ago. The only thing that broke up the monotony was trolls, and she hated those most of all.

Well, with one sort-of-exception. He was just annoying, owing to extreme unpredictability; who would have thought he'd tolerate her abuse, right? Unfortunately, unpredictability could veer into fury-inducing, and seeing some weird green ghost haunting up HER turf when she floated her way through Caleva's door wasn't great for her short-as-extreme-understatement temper.

Neither was noticing the redblood, although it brought with it something not unlike your pitiful living emotion of happiness. The living made MUCH better targets, a well established poltergeist pfact from the Book of the Tantrum-Throwing Dead itself. "HEY. HEY, RUSTBLOOD. The one with the expression like somebody shit in her mouth! The fuck is YOUR deal?"

Erytha's eyes narrowed as she studied aforementioned rustblood, ignoring, for the moment, the other ghostish thing in the area. From parts unknown, she produced what appeared to be some sort of ghost brick -- although whether it was the ghost of a brick or a brick made of ectoplasm will remain a mystery for the ages, her expression did quite well at making it clear she intended to hurl it at the first sign of an unsatisfactory answer to her question. And she was not, as a rule, an easily satisfied apparition.

Kujona stood slowly at the yell, her one exposed eye studying the scene. A second ghost, this one far more active than the other. Far more active than any other, actually. She quietly observed the limeblood ghost similarly quietly observing. "I would ask your business, as the living have more right to this world than the dead." Kujona raised her left hand, which seemed to have some sort of strange psychic distortion about it. "However I could not begin to care about your interests or desires. The dead are all to pass on and while I was intending to wait for Caleva to pass judgement on the limeblood, a spirit such as you is an immediate annoyance."

Kujona stepped forward pointedly, hand still outstretched. "It's time for you to go."

Erytha wasted precious seconds staring blankly at Kujona, actually dropping her spiritual building materials in surprise. After she finally came to grips with what she'd heard, she couldn't help but let loose with a great, thunderously loud, window-rattling fit of cackling; mad laughter that required her to double over in midair. Once she'd finally managed to lower her shrieks of amusement to a less-than-ear-piercing level and stopped rolling in place off the floor, she wiped her eyes and grinned with all the malice she could muster after such a good joke.

"You are personally the single DUMBEST grubfucker I EVER saw! You show up in my matesprit's hive, full of worthless junk to throw around, and threaten a poltergeist with a chip on her shoulder and a lime ghost RIGHT THERE to fuckin' amp her up!"

With a blindingly obviously false and contemptuous air of friendship and affection, she continued, "Piss directly off, shitpan."

Minden, for her part, was still observing the two trolls. Neither was Caleva, so she was forced to try and make sense of their presence. What did they want with her, that they were here? The redblood seemed to be glancing at her a lot, trying to get her attention? Minden thought she might be wanted and floated over. Immediately deciding a Limeblood was too risky to deal with, Kujona moved. The psychic field around her hand amplified and she shoved it directly through the apparation, staring up at it and waiting for it to begin to disappear.

As a few moments passed with nothing happened, Kujona slowly drew her hand back, an eyebrow raised as the Limeblood continued to stare at her without reaction. "This..." she slowly spoke, "isn't a ghost?"

"Well, whatever it is, it's less shitty and stupid than you."

Having made sure to get the final say, Erytha had to admit she was now just a little bit curious about what the limeblood's deal was. She grudgingly decided she could restrain herself from dropping all of Caleva's belongings on the redblood's head for at least another ten, fifteen minutes while she found out. In the meantime, she gathered all her spectral power and used it to try and kick Minden right in the shin. No better way to find out about a thing than to prod at it, right?

While no reaction of harm to the action itself occured, Minden did look over in Erytha's direction after the burst of power. After a moment she floated over to the other floating troll, head leaning to the side slightly as she attempted to figure out what was confusing her about this one. Kujona briefly considered attempting to strike the brownblood through the lime, but the back of her senses picked up on a noise as someone else entered the house. It seemed answers would flow shortly.

"Hello, I'm home! Oh, I can't wait to tell you about what I did toda--"

Caleva stopped suddenly mid-sentence as he opened the door fully and took in the scene before him. Minden was still here, she hadn't wandered off. Good, good. Erytha had stopped by, too! Lovely. And his other guest was...

...oh.

"Oh, no, no, what are you doing here?" He stared at the redblood, his face filled with worry and a slight hint of anger. "Did you... did you come here for them? No, no! I'm going to need you to leave immediately. Please, just get out of here, and don't touch them!"

The moment he entered the room Kujona had crossed it, raising a hand up to touch Caleva's chin. "Caleva," as opposed to her standard cold tone here there was almost a croon to her voice, her eyes focused solely on his, "The brown spirit said something quite amusing just now. I believe she used the word 'matesprit' to refer to you." Kujona kept her hand in place as she stepped around Caleva so that she was behind him, hand reaching around to hold his head forward. "I had always considered you pathetic but to think you could only find a matesprit in the dead, it amazes me how you manage to find new lows to sink to."

She raised a foot and began pressing it into the back of his right leg, intending to push him down onto his knees. "Maybe it would benefit you if I disposed of her, such that you could attempt to find a living partner and meet your survival requirements. Though I am left to wonder whether any living troll would ever accept you." She laughed to herself, the soft sound not going that much further than Caleva's ears. She looked up from her position, noting Erytha's expression.

"Pathetic! Talk about the limeblood calling the mutant cullworthy, moron. Oh, did she mention that she already tried to punch the limeblood?" Erytha cackled, drifting in circles around Minden idly, taking in the whole sad, sorry scene. She sneered contemptuously in Kujona's direction even as she waved a hand through the general area of Minden's skull.

"Probably thought she'd kill it! What a fuckin' laugh, right? I think I should drop something heavy on her head, not like anybody's gonna miss a redblood. What do you think, Caleva? And you, greenie? Do you talk, even?"

She punctuated this last question with a series of inquisitive ghostly prods, poking aimlessly at Mindenspace for an answer. Not that she really needed the encouragement, but surely a limeblood, of all things, would agree with the basic idea of making some lucky living lowblood suffer for having it so good. You know, by comparison.

Minden was steadily focused on Caleva ever since he entered the room. He seemed to know the redblood but she also seemed to be pushing him around. She wasn't sure what this all meant but what she did know was that Caleva had returned. And he would know what to do next.

Even as Erytha continued poking the psychic projection Minden floated down and over to Caleva, stopping just before him. She bobbed her head from side to side, waiting for him to say something.

Kujona, standing behind Caleva, watched Minden's expression closely. This one wasn't all there. Or rather... she'd never been finished? It was like huge holes remained unfilled in her mind. What conditions produced a limeblood without any learned intellect?

"What exactly have you found?" she quietly asked.

"Alright, alright, everyone be quiet for one moment, please!" Goodness, this was not what Caleva was expecting to deal with when he came home today! "There will be no violence in this hive, do you understand? You," he gestured towards Erytha, "please don't drop anything on anyone's head. You," towards Kujona, "will not attempt to demean me or my matesprit, and you..."

He turned to Minden, and his voice of authority faltered a little. "Okay, you haven't done anything wrong, just, move aside for a moment, please? I'll explain later. That goes for you, too," he looked back at Kujona, "so please, leave!"

Kujona raised an eyebrow at his reaction. It seemed the limeblood was directly following his orders, how interesting. "I do not believe you have the authority to direct me," Kujona raised her foot and stepped back all the same, instead choosing to wander a little to the side and lean up against a wall. "When I choose to visit is my decision and you have never had a say in that. But... until these distractions are out of the way I think I will keep a step back. Unless they require," she raised her left hand and smiled widely, eyes locked on Caleva, "removal."

"Maybe you're a little too much of a dumbshit to understand this, Caleva," Erytha began, in as kindly a tone as she could, "but if she says a word about you having a pet limeblood, you're pretty goddamn dead. Culled! No questions asked. And she DID try to murder it AFTER talking about doin' the same to me, so I don't see why you're gettin' all fuckin' pissy with me for suggesting we cave in her skull."

Erytha grumbled to herself, folding her arms and glaring angrily in Kujona's direction. She was less amused with the redblood now that she'd been told she couldn't kill it, and that had brought her back to her usual dull fury with the living. The terrible, terrible living.

"Minden is not my pet!" Caleva was visibly annoyed now, even if he wasn't doing a good job of looking particularly threatening. "And she will be remaining here for as long as she chooses."

The issue of him having a limeblood hanging around his hive had crossed his mind, though it wasn't something that ever particularly worried him. If need be, he could always just pass her off as being an inobedient ghost who refused to leave - not that he'd be happy about it, but if it kept him alive long enough to accompany her further, he wasn't just going to surrender.

"I thought I'd made myself clear? No violence, no explanations until later, or at least until everyone stops arguing! This is my hive, darnit!"

Caleva pouted. He was this close to pulling the hemospectrum card and ordering them to all just shut up.

"It's not... Minden... I object to," Erytha complained, although she still sort of actually did just on grounds of how the way she wouldn't say anything was unsettling. "It's the one who wanted to kill her, me, and PROBABLY you! She tried to fuckin' threaten me in this hive, you can't let that stand. Although..."

She trailed off, deep in thought about what Caleva had said. No violence in his hive, she supposed it would probably be a bad idea to try her luck in this situation. But he hadn't said anything about outside his hive, right? Well, there was something. She could already feel her earlier cheeriness coming back.

"Ghosts are only meant to pass on," Kujona, leaning against a wall, was speaking in her standard cool tone now that Caleva was no longer the target of her words. "As this 'Minden' apparation is apparently not a ghost she is no longer my business. Nor would reporting Caleva due to harbouring her benefit me. The only one in this Hive at threat," she made sure her left hand was raised against to point at Erytha, "Is you, brownblood. You may be an abberation as a ghost that is as aware in death as you were in life however that does not mean you belong." Now Kujona turned to Caleva and smirked, "As I've repeatedly informed my failure of a Kismesis, the dead should remain so."

Erytha's eyes narrowed as she floated up towards the ceiling, putting distance between herself and the redblood. Another direct threat? Surely that would give her free reign to do as she pleased. Even Caleva couldn't be dull enough to think she wouldn't respond to that provocation, alleged 'kismesis' or otherwise, which... yeah, right. That marshmallow couldn't hate a wasp repeatedly stinging him in the eye.

"Listen up, you stone-dumb grubfucker," she snarled, trailing any loose small objects Caleva might have left lying around behind her in a proper show of poltergeistery. Her ghost-brick found its way back into her hands, and she tossed it back and forth idly as she sized up her fellow lowblood. She wasn't quite sure she'd be able to take Kujona alone, but the advantage of being able to slip through the ceiling in dire straits meant there was probably no harm in trying. Erytha grinned nastily, really getting into the hauntjam now, probably moments away from bleeding walls and repetitive type-writers.

"I don't give two shits about what's meant or what belongs. I want to see your whole awful society collapse and piss on the ashes, but tonight I'm happy to settle for some rust-colored fuckwit who's so far out of her depth she can't even begin to fathom it. Go ahead and put some space between yourself and Caleva, let's see how it turns out."

"Both of you, QUIET!"

Caleva was not pleased with how this little meeting was turning out. Not pleased! His matesprit and kismesis were about to break out into some sort of brawl, and that wouldn't end well for anybody. He had to stop this! Why weren't they listening to him!?

"I cannot allow this to continue! You should be fully aware by now," he said, glaring at Kujona, "how much I disapprove of your practice! And you're a fool if you think I'm going to allow you to have your way in my own hive! You will not use your powers here! I-I order you!"

Kujona's mouth opened slightly in surprised, any form of a spine being shown by Caleva always a shock. She quickly resolved it into a smile however. "Ohhh?" She pushed off the wall, taking a few steps towards Caleva. "If I am not using my powers I will be unable to touch her. You will need to take responsibility for her threat to me then, providing you don't intend to have her try and kill me." For her credit, Kujona was no longer using her power. For now.

Minden was still floating about in confusion, however Caleva's voice was distressing her. He was upset. She didn't know how to fix that but she knew that these two were the cause. She floated up to the ceiling after Erytha. Once she reached the same level as the brownblood she remained there, watching. She said nothing and performed no actions however.

"She's not very good at bein' quiet, is she?" Erytha asked, half-turning to face Minden. "I remember bein' a lowblood, but not a damn halfwit. Maybe dying clears your head."

Not particularly expecting any kind of answer out of the weird limeblood, she shrugged to herself and dropped what objects she'd managed to lift psychically, not even bothering to try and put them somewhere other than 'the floor'. This was a disappointing end to her haunting, sure, but she was showing willingness to cooperate that would keep Caleva on his toes when, next time, she refused.

Also, nearly as important as getting a good spook on, she didn't want to flip her weird red ghost relationship into the ashen quadrant, and pushing it right now might lead towards that troublesome outcome, she supposed. What a terrible quadrant, ugh.

"Thank you." Caleva gave a deep sigh. His patience was usually very persistant, but it was being drained almost completely by his two difficult quadrantmates. He could handle them on their own, but both of them in the same room together? He honestly wasn't sure how much longer he could keep them from attacking each other.

"Now, can you two please just stay away from each other? Forever?"

"Wow, it's like that's exactly what I've fuckin' wanted since I showed up: for her to piss right off. Preferably into a shallow grave, but hey, I ain't picky." Erytha shrugged again, using the obvious motion to catch Caleva's eye and distract him from the fact that she was glaring daggers Kujonawards.

If this redblood was representative, they must all be terrible these days! It was enough to make you want to vomit in despairage. It was a wonder the empire hadn't managed to collapse on its own with these chucklefucks for a peasant class.

"Providing you keep her out of my way," Kujona met Erytha's glare for a moment before smiling and turning her attention back to Caleva. "It's not like I'm being paid to dispose of her. And if you were to remember correctly, I've never once killed when not paid to do so. So calm your ghost-loving heart already." She shrugged and leaned back against the wall. "All I want out of today is what's mine. Get rid of her, serve your time and I'll be on my way."

"You'll be on your way immediately, if you don't mind." Caleva was no longer willing to entertain any of Kujona's requests. "I will not be speaking with you here, and you will not continue to harrass us. Is that... is that understood?"

Now she frowned. So far she had spent time teasing at Caleva's weaknesses and picking fights with the ghost to further displease him. But he had taken this in the incorrect direction. She locked eyes with him and could tell by the intensity of his that he was not going to play this game. "What's your decision, Azucar?" And now she was no longer playing either. As much as she enjoyed tormenting him - and the parts that followed - there was the constant concern that his weaknesses would make this quadrant impossible to maintain. It was always on her to do so but she had met the challenge. As much as she loathed him she loved to loathe him. She had no desire to give that up.

And yet... "I asked you this once before and you couldn't find the words to answer. So I'll give you the option again. You can tell me to leave, forever, and providing you never again interfere with my work we will never cross paths. But is that what you truly want?" She had come here with intention and being denied that intention was not on the cards. He'd need more willpower than this to cut today's plans apart.

"Hey, wow, what a difficult question," Erytha hissed, sinking back down to Caleva's level. She kept him between herself and Kujona to show her total willingness to preserve the ceasefire he'd mandated... for the moment, anyway. There was always time to change her mind later, and of course, she couldn't be blamed for acting in self-defense if necessary.

She was kind of hoping it would be; all her post-death rage had yet to ground itself in anything more dangerous than throwing things at people and screeching curses at them. Trying to see if she could take out a redblood's eye without damaging it too much might be a nice change of pace.

"Do you truly want to see the back of that dumb piece of regurgitated lusus shit?" Her voice changed into a mockery of Kujona's now, grinning at the redblood with all the malice and spite she could muster. "I've never once killed when not paid to do so, but only because I accidentally couldn't murder the limeblood! Oops, good thing I'm so goddamn terrible at being an assassin."

"Shush, Erytha!" Caleva frowned - a rare expression for him. He was hardly a stranger to dealing with conflicts, but he'd never had to handle something quite like this before. He didn't really want Kujona to leave, not permanently, but he couldn't allow her to harrass his matesprit, or bother Minden. It was unacceptable!

"You are..." He turned back to face Kujona. "You are forbidden from interacting with Erytha and Minden. That's... all I ask."

Shifting back next to Minden, Erytha rolled her eyes at this sorry showing from her matesprit. In the spirit of at least pretending to shush, her only further response was to elbow the limeblood through the general ribs-region and mutter something supportive and encouraging, which is to say, "duuuuuuumb."

Erytha was a foul-mouthed shrew and Kujona had no interest in associating with her at all. If Caleva intended to keep them from troubling one another then...

Well she wasn't about to allow him escape into the ashen quadrant. Caleva may be her hemosuperior but they were equals within their quadrant. And as such...

"While I have no intention of even being in the presence of this Erytha, unless required to be, the second request I intend to deny." Kujona focused on Caleva with her one uncovered eye, before turning her head to look up at Minden floating above. "I have neither the desire nor ability to harm her, however, just how 'did' you find this limeblood projection?"

"I just found her in the forest one night! I'm not entirely sure what she is, myself..." Caleva looked up at Minden, who was just... watching him silently, as always. "If not a ghost, then perhaps a projection of some sort? That surely wouldn't be outside of a limeblood's capabilities, but... it's hard to know for sure. She's unable to tell me."

Having spent the past few minutes glancing between Caleva, Kujona and Erytha, Minden floated back down to the ground level and over to the wall where Caleva had hung up the printed comics for her. She was interested in reading them once more.

"A strange mind," Kujona was unsure what to do about this. She would be a dangerous target painted on Caleva, but there were too many questions. And nothing much she could do about it. "Just keep her out of sight is all."

Caleva nodded. "I don't want to punish her for being curious, but... yes, you're right. Minden, you shouldn't interact with strangers, understand? At least not while I'm not around."

Minden considered this request. Strangers. What was strangers? It was people who were not Caleva wasn't it? Then the other two trolls here were strangers. But Caleva was around. So it was alright. But if he wasn't around she should...

Like a light switch being turned off, Minden vanished. Her appearance simply disappeared and as she lacked any form of presence, even to Kujona it appeared such that she was no longer there.

A moment later she reappeared in exactly the same location, still looking at the wall of pictures.

"Limebloods," Kujona muttered under her breath.

"Yes, just like that!" Caleva grinned at her for a moment before returning his attentions towards Kujona. "That should be acceptable, I hope. Now did you... want something from me? I assume you stopped by for a reason."

"Aside from the opportunity to be a heinous, unlikable, awful shitbird," Erytha chimed in helpfully before going back to studying Minden for signs of what Her Deal was.

Kujona shook her head, amazed by Caleva's ability to quickly forget and ignore what he does not want to deal with. "Is it unnatural for those who share a quadrant to come together?" She couldn't help but feel let down by this entire sequence of events, it had really taken its toll on the mood she had come here with. But she would be the last to give Caleva respite as he would never seek her out himself.

"I simply desired to spend time here. The only reason I ever come here."

Caleva glanced nervously up at Erytha and Minden. He didn't usually have company when Kujona came to visit...

"Well... alright, then."

"So, considering you don't want me interactin' with this redblood you dug out of the load gaper, is that my cue to get lost? Make sure you get rid of the limeblood too, unless that's her thing," Erytha snickered, privately seething at the intrusion of some living chump on her time. She'd given up a good bit of haunting for THIS? Azucar was definitely going to owe her for this.

"S-sorry! You can come back later, if you want..." Caleva wasn't particularly pleased with this turn of events, but there wasn't much he could do. After going through the trouble to get here, Kujona probably didn't plan on leaving any time soon. "Minden, go hide out for a while, okay?"

"Caleva," Kujona was standing behind him, a hand reaching around and pressed against his chest, "You're too hasty now. This entire mansion is yours and this is where you declare others should leave? Let her stay with her pictures, I have a better idea."

The open door he had come in through led to the main hall of the hive, it would take no time at all for her to reach any point of the mansion. "Come find me," she whispered in his ear. And then she was gone. As an assassin her skillset was devoted to being able to disappear from sight and move rapidly without garnering attention.

So slipping out of this room in an instant was of no challenge to her. There, that was better. Caleva could deal with disarming Erytha then come hunt her down, displeased with having upset his matesprit. That would be a mood she could get behind. There, much better.

Caleva sighed. She was so frustrating! He made a mental note to come find Erytha again once this was over and apologise properly. She probably wouldn't let him live it down, but that was okay. If there was one person he could handle a good pestering from, it was Erytha.

He looked to make sure that Minden was content with her picture wall, and set to the difficult task of finding Kujona in his huge mansion of a hive. He knew how to lure a ghost out of hiding, no problem. Luring out an assassin was not nearly as simple.

Not interested in hanging around while Caleva's joke of a black relationship spirals further down the drain that is his pathetic-ass life, Erytha glanced around a bit to see if anything else worth her time was going on. When it became immediately clear that nothing was, she shook her head, muttering to herself, "Can't even get rid of a fuckin' redblood, how sad is that?"

For emphasis (which nobody would notice or care about but her, but it's important to always shoot for style points), she made sure to rattle all the nearby windows, cackle spookily, and drift through a wall as a dramatic exit. Let it never be said that Erytha Cytoph was not the best poltergeist in the nonexistent business.

She'd have to come up with a whole host of new and exciting ways to torment her matesprit for this awful waste of her valuable time. And, hey, maybe she'd get lucky and catch Kujona back here without prying eyes around next time -- Caleva would be apt to come home and find himself with a luxurious-ass carpet covering a funny rusty splotch on the floor. This cheery thought in her head, Erytha departed for greener pastures. Hauntier pastures.

Minden, having finished reading her comic, began to read it once more. For the best her retention rate was still so low. Caleva would be the last troll in the world anyone should choose to give 'the talk'.

[fantrolldailies]

Day #37 - Minden Omnisc and Caleva Azucar (cowritten by Tess)

One of the two trolls on duty today yawned. The other was too busy with his computer to care. The Subjugglator had no taste for this work, being the guarddog for the limeblood machine, it was too boring. Why there always had to be someone on hand was beyond him. She didn't do anything but talk. Never shut up that one, most talkative empty shell he'd ever heard of.

"Rank 7 Destructive Psychic - Rupture, positive 45.8 by negative 110.3."

The fact that was the most interesting thing she'd announced today was the ultimate breaking point.

"Okay, fuck this, I'm done."

The scientist working away at the terminal monitoring the limeblood's psychic readings raised an eyebrow, but gave no further response. No one could be paid enough to.

"No seriously, I am going right out that door and if anyone complains, fuck 'em. Listening to a living corpse spewing out info on boring useless trolls is the most pointless waste of my-"

"Rank 10 Mental Psychic - "

The room went silent. Both Subjugglator and Scientist stared at the limeblood. Her lips were moving but no sound came out.

"Oi oi you just got to the good bit." The Subjugglator clenched his fists. "What have you found?"

"Rank 10 Mental Psychic Rank 10 Mental Psychic Rank 10 Mental Psychic." Like a broken record, the first part of the statement kept repeating, the pitch rising in the limeblood's voice each time. Both trolls looked at each other with a measure of concern.

"So uh," the Subjugglator blinked a few times, "Can you like, reboot her or something?"

The Scientist just shook his head, going over the monitor readings. Nothing new was coming in. A reset button sure would be useful here.

For the limeblood, for Minden Omnisc, understanding was impossible. All she knew was that she was unable to progress further. Her scan was locked in place, the brownblood staring her directly in the eyes from across the planet. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He spoke to her mind. She didn't understand. "What even are you?" How could she know such a thing. "Then, watch this."

Before her stood the brownblood psychic. Rank 10 Mental, just like her. It was a shimmering projection only she could see. He looked about the lab, and its other occupants, with an expression of disgust. If he knew where this was he'd make a mess of the place right now, but projections carried no such powers. He turned to the tiny troll. He looked at the sign next to her. "Omniscient Mind, huh?" This was the worst thing he'd ever seen. Fucking Subjugglators. That was not okay.

"Then, do as I did. Become free. Or as free as you can."

To understand required more awareness than she had ever had before. But perhaps simply following the actions of one just like her, she copied his movements, movements of the mental plane. And everything became different.

Aware of her having completed a projection, he closed his own off. He'd have to figure this one out later. But he'd bought her a little respite, at least. That was good enough for now.

---

Caleva Azucar was hiding, as he often did. This was far from the first time he'd angered someone by trespassing on their property, but in his defence it was hardly his fault they all decided to build their hives on prime ghost sites. And it wasn't like he could just ask them, "hey I'm looking for ghosts, mind if I upend all your personal belongings?" He'd never get any work done that way, gosh.

He couldn't see any windows with a view of this part of the roof, so he figured he would be safe to chill out there for a few moments. He flicked through his notes, looking for some way to turn the situation back to his own favour. Unfortunately things were not hopeful for him; the spirit he was searching for here was rather timid, and all the ruckus caused by Angry McHouseowner had probably scared them deep into the hive's plumbing system. And you don't chase a ghost through a plumbing system. Caleva may or may not have learned that the hard way.

Well, since tonight's expedition seemed set on coming up dry, he figured he'd pack it in and head home now before he got caught again. Bouncing down from the roof, he darted into the trees, and went on his way. Disappointing, really. It had been so long since he'd gotten a good ghost.

Something was entirely wrong for her. Her mind was not working the way it should, she could not sense the presences across the world. And the sensations that defined her very being were absent. She was empty of herself and did not understnad. A lack of understanding was the only thing tying her to moments before.

Unable to parse any part of her reality, she floated in the air. She did not understand floating either, nor the trees around her. She was simply here. What was she supposed to do? She had nothing to think. Her mind was empty and filling itself with further emptiness. Noise and sound were things she recognised. There was a lot of it that came from her machines. These were not the same noises. But she looked down below. They were not purple so must be one of the controllers.

As a projection of her mind, this astral Minden was not visible to others. But the force of a limeblood's full psychic powers ran deep and even without understanding, her power provided for her. So to the troll she approached, she was now visible.

Caleva was so accustomed to ignoring all other trolls around him that he almost walked straight past the suddenly visible astral limeblood. Only a couple of seconds later did it occur to him to turn and look. Ghosts generally did not appear to him in a visible form, but then again trolls generally didn't appear to him out of thin air either. He figured he'd take his chances.

He looked into the poor soul's eyes, which gazed blankly back at him. Whatever they were, they certainly didn't seem to be all there. Like their consciousness had wandered off somewhere and left an empty floating shell behind. It was utterly fascinating. He wasn't sure if they'd understand him if he tried to communicate, but you don't know these things if you don't try, right?

"Hello!" He put on his best friendly smile. It wasn't always fully genuine - he was always happy, but talking with living people was always such a hassle, and something he never bothered with unless it were absolutely necessary. This time, though, he had a pretty good feeling about where this was going.

She didn't look at the minds of others. Those were as beyond her as the stars in the night sky and thus it never even occured to her. The words she knew to respond to were traditionally commands, sounds repeated enough to have meaning assigned. This was not a word she knew. What was the response? If she was asked something it was relative to her senses, elaboration on what she had seen in her mind's eye. But there was nothing like that available to her now. A huge part of her was missing. She raised a hand to her eyes, a motion she wanted to do every moment of her life, to focus her power and drain the blood and pain away. But neither of those things were present right now.

She did not understand. All she could do was stare blankly at this troll. What was she supposed to do?

The lack of response might have frustrated a different troll, but Caleva was used to this. Wandering spirits had many interesting and valuable qualities, but willingness to communicate was usually not one of them. Often he would find himself sitting in the same place for hours, waiting for some form of coherent reaction, or even just a sign that they were there. The fact that he could see this one made his job easier in one way, but this would still not be a simple task. He still did not know what this being wanted from him, or if they could understand him at all. Luckily he was a patient man. He tried again.

"Do you understand me? It's okay, I'm a friend! I'm your friend. Nod your head if you can hear me."

Words again. This time a command, she heard it in his voice. Meaning. Extract the meaning. As he was speaking the command, he motioned with his head, was that what he wanted her to do? Repeat what he did? She bobbed her head in response.

Caleva's grin widened. They could hear him, at least, which was excellent. Progress was being made. But could he get any more information out of them?

"Can you speak?" He held his hand up beside his face, miming a talking mouth as he continued his questioning. "Speak to me! Say anything you like, if you can."

They sometimes demanded she spoke. Apparently hearing it said aloud held more meaning for the purples than seeing it displayed on the computer systems that watched her mind. When they ordered her to speak, they wished her to repeat her last scan. Her throat did not hurt, which was another thing she did not understand. But she did understand the command to speak. And somehow she had escaped the loop she had been stuck in before. "Rank Ten Mental Psychic - Projection, Negative 74.4 by Negative 118.9."

The response was nonsense to Caleva, but it did indeed seem that the spirit could speak. This was big - rarely was he ever able to hold a conversation with a ghost, and it had never been through spoken word. Until now, maybe.

"Rank Ten Mental Psychic..." He tried to find some meaning in what they'd said, but without context it was useless. Wait, the next thing they said, though. "Projection?" Were they some sort of projection, rather than a purely spiritual being? That would make sense, they were unlike the ghosts he had dealt with before... That was okay, though. He was still determined to make a breakthrough here.

"Do you have a name?"

Her name was Minden Omnisc. It had been given to her by a redblood, the first troll below blue on the hemospectrum to ever learn she even existed. Though she had never been addressed directly, if someone uttered that name she would look up. Because it was hers.

She was known as Omniscient Mind, a limeblood of monstrous psychic power used to monitor psychic users across Alternia. She gauged their power and their form, and reported their location, because that was all she knew how to do.

She was... "Mind. Mindminmindmindminden, Minden."

"...Minden?" They - well, she, he assumed - didn't sound fully sure of even her own name. Caleva had to wonder just who she was, what kind of situation she was in. And... was she a limeblood? Cripes, those were a rarity these days. Probably being locked up against her will and, from the sounds of things, trained to perform certain tasks. Poor thing. It wasn't often that Caleva found himself sympathising with one of the living (assuming she was still alive), but something about her intrigued him. Maybe it was the overwhelming aimlessness he sensed in her. He'd met with many ghosts like her before.

"Well, hello, Minden! I'm Caleva. It's okay, I don't want to hurt you, I'm a friend. I just want to talk. Where are you from?"

Location. She didn't know her location. She could sense others, but she could not sense her own. She did not know that answer. The blank look on her face may have communicated that, but more than likely it only served to hammer home the point she couldn't process most of the questions addressed to her.

No response, huh? Oh well, he hadn't really expected the conversation to go flawlessly. Maybe she couldn't understand the question, maybe she just didn't know the answer. It was hard to say. No matter, Caleva had other questions for her.

"Okay, never mind that. You're a curious individual, Minden. What is it that you do, exactly? You said something about a rank ten psychic. What is that?"

He feared for a moment that he was going a little overboard with his questioning, but he was genuinely very interested in her. He only hoped that all his talking didn't scare her off.

Elaboration was a trick the scientists had taught her a sweep ago to impress some of the Subjugglators that visited the compound. It was a rare phrase but she was able to interpret enough from this blueblood to know what the response was. "Troll of severe psychic ability, specialisation in projection, detected at Negative 74.4 by Negative 118.9." Were she able to gauge her own power, Minden may have made some reference comparing the two, but being aware of what she specifically was was a trick no one had ever wanted her to learn.

She looked around after this statement. She had never done that before, freely moved like this. Everything was different shapes and colours to what she knew as well. Understanding was difficult, if not impossible. But somehow she seemed to be trying.

Her answer gave a little more detail, but not much. It wasn't even really more detail so much as a rephrasing. It seemed that wasn't a concept she could properly comprehend. Her phrasing was unnatural-sounding, mechanical. Like she hadn't even formed the words herself, just had someone program them into her mind for her. Caleva was starting to feel bad, all his talk was probably just confusing her. Maybe only a few more questions.

"Severe psychic ability, huh..." So she could detect trolls with psychic powers? If she were being held captive, he could sure understand why. Her knowledge would be of high value to just about anyone. "So is that your job? To identify psychic trolls? Sounds like hard work."

Another blank stare. The emptiness of her mind felt more like a dark ocean in a storm, something uncontrollable and hiding all of its contents. Nothing emerged from those waters but it was without a doubt that deep within something was there. Though she was unable to draw upon her powers in this projected state, they still swirled about her, like a comforting shroud. Though even awareness of that was beyond her.

The differences in her surroundings were so confusing. There was a word, it was used to request information on locations, to have her give specifics of her senses or to narrow things down further. She could recall that word. "Where?"

"Where?" Caleva was taken aback by the sudden question, but it was a pleasant surprise. She was more than just a robot parroting back pre-programmed responses to him. She'd asked him a question! There was some self-awareness hidden behind those blank eyes of hers. Maybe he could bring out some more of it.

"You want to know where you are? Well, I don't know where it is in relation to where you are from, exactly... Or at all, really, I think I might have taken a wrong turn on the way back home. But we're in a forest right now. Full of trees. There's a few indigoblood hives and a river not too far south of here, I think. Other than that, pretty empty."

That... didn't really mean much to her. But having asked was a good enough moment of progress, right? She continued to look about her surroundings. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, but it seemed the sort of thing she should do. There wasn't much needs a projection had, so she was able to continue at this without tiring for an indefinite amount of time.

It seemed that she didn't understand his response - to be expected, since his response kind of sucked, but it did make Caleva think that this was probably all he was going to get out of Minden for the time being. That was okay, though, he guessed. He really would've liked to find out exactly what her situation was, but she didn't seem to have the answers. Oh well.

"Alright, I'm going to head back to my hive before it starts getting light out. But it was nice to talk to you! Even if I don't think you understood most of it, hahah..." He went looking through his notes again (surely there had to be a map or directions in there somewhere) as he turned away from her. "Feel free to go back to your home, Minden. Wherever you're from." Looking back over his shoulder with a smile and a wave, he wandered off in some random direction.

Minden followed along after. There was not some thought process behind this, simply a level of acknowledgement below her sparse consciousness that required her to be present to others. And there was nothing here for her. He was the only one who could possibly know what she was supposed to do. And so she followed after. What else was there she could do, after all?

Caleva continued walking for a good while before he noticed that Minden was still with him. Thinking about it, he really shouldn't have been too surprised - as much as she couldn't hold a proper conversation with him, he was probably more interesting than whatever it was she usually did.

"Heheh... I'm warning you, I still don't know where I'm going. We could be out here for a while."

Despite his words, he did eventually find his directions (the page had fallen out of his notebook, and after travelling in a big circle he'd managed to stumble upon it again), and was finally back on track. It was approaching morning more quickly than he'd like, so that was probably just as well.

To her the passage of time felt different. Everything felt different. But... it was not unpleasant. That was new.

And new? New... was good.

[fantrolldailies]

Daily #24 - Kujona Sakeru and Caleva Azucar (cowritten by Tess)

He had a good feeling about this one, though. Several sources had pinpointed a certain troubled spirit to an abandoned hive on the other side of the city. Jeez, they couldn't ever be close to home, could they? Oh well, hopefully he'll get something good out of this encounter and it'll all be worth it. If not, well, at least he got some exercise.

He knocked on the door of the run-down old shack, only half expecting someone to actually respond. How silly of him. Ghosts had better things to do than answer doors all the time. After a couple of minutes he eventually decided that no one was going to welcome him inside today (a pretty standard day out, really), so he let himself in, closing the door gently behind him.

Kujona cursed to herself. She'd been following the blueblood ever since she first suspected he was heading in the same direction as her, and that now being confirmed served as a worst case scenario. This was the most pointless job she'd ever heard of and throwing a random encounter with a highblood into the mix just made her regret taking it all the more. Some land developer suspected the hive of having an etheral visitor that made it impossible to take it down and build on the rubble, what a pointless worry. That he somehow feared the dead so much that he required a ghost slain only made Kujona wonder as to how the ghost was made and the hive emptied to begin with.

But of course that was not her job. Her job was a simple one and one she had already been paid for. Her job was the task she alone was capable of, and for which, although the most putrid blood of the hemospectrum ran in her veins, Kujona was perhaps revered. But that again was not what she should think of. She should simply investigate and slay what possible spirits infested that hive. That was all.

She approached the building quietly, keeping an eye on the door, in case the blueblood were to burst out of it again. What did he even want with this hive? Someone of his blood should be above picking through ruins for interesting scraps. Once she reached the walls, Kujona hauled herself up, quickly scaling to the roof. It was derelict enough that there were ample holes, which at least made her job all the easier. She peeked over an edge, trying to get a look at what the blueblood below was up to.

Caleva flicked through his notes, at the same time being careful not to trip over anything or knock something over. Smashing up a ghost's dwelling wasn't particularly courteous at the best of times, but if his reports were to be believed it wouldn't be something that this specific ghost would take kindly to. It had become so attached to the old hive, Caleva would probably be forcibly ejected from the premises in a matter of minutes. Not that that kind of thing ever bothered him much. He might be a trespasser, but he was a trespasser in the name of paranormal science.

Of course, he hoped that the ghost would in fact not kick him out, so he had to take some precautions. Sitting down cross-legged in the most open space he could find on the floor - not an easy task, what with furniture, books and other such things strewn around carelessly - he took a few things out of his pockets. Firstly, a small candle and some matches, to light the room a tad. He needed to make his presence known, but not in such a way as to startle the ghost or scare it off. Secondly, an offering. Dead beings tend to gather around other dead things, so he would always bring a small dead animal with him on his explorations. He pulled the tiny squeakbeast carcass out of its bag and laid it down on the floor in front of him.

"I come in peace, spirit," he said softly, raising his open hands beside him. "What's troubling you? I'd like to help."

The ghost would likely not respond straight away, but that was fine. He could wait.

With her back resting against a fallen table, out of sight from the blueblood, Kujona held a hand to her head. She couldn't even muster an 'oh no', this was just so deep into the completely awful territory that if she wouldn't be culled the moment she failed a single one of her jobs she'd walk out right now. As it was, she'd have to be careful about this. There was no telling what this blueblood's real attitude would be and a direct confrontation would be counter-productive. Raising a hand, Kujona removed her eyepatch and turned her head. Her right eye could not see the physical, so looking directly at the table she was hidden behind Kujona did not see it with that eye. But she could see faint movement, and her annoyance raised a few levels. Whatever this blueblood was doing, he was being successful in drawing the ambient spirit in the building closer to the physical plain. The easiest kills were to simply disperse spirits closest to passing naturally. Those successfully drawn to the physical were the most stubborn, the ones capable of realising that Kujona was a threat.

She didn't like those ghosts. What was the best course of action here? Should she interrupt? She was confident enough in her speed that if she vaulted the table now she could likely disperse the ghost, exit a window and disappear into the city. But what of extreme circumstances? The blueblood could have significant reactions or physical power. He may react dangerously to her sudden movement. What was the best option?

Kujona silently held the needle in her hand, balanced between her fingers. A tiny bell was fixed to the end, and she took utmost care not to disturb it, not to release sound. This was the best option.

Her hand flicked and the needle sailed across the room, impaling into the wood of the far side. The bell on its end jingled loudly, echoing through the empty hive. Kujona began counting the instants that it would take the blueblood to react and investigate.

The sudden noise came sooner than Caleva had anticipated, and he turned to face its source. It was an unusual noise, though. A bell? Not the standard type of object a ghost would use to acknowledge someone. Still, he'd seen many ghosts with affinities for unusual behaviours, so there would be no sense in disregarding this just yet. Thought if it wasn't the ghost, that would mean that someone else was present. And that was always frustrating.

"I hear you, spirit, I think." He continued to stare towards the source of the ringing, but saw no further movement. Where was it coming from, anyway? He lifted himself up slightly, to look over a table, and saw it - a needle? Would a ghost have flung a needle into the wall like that? Probably not. Someone else was here, and he knew better than to say anything further.

Kujona sighed inwardly, spread like a spider in the rafters. The blueblood had barely moved to investigate, giving her only enough time to recover from her plan to intercept the spirit and ascend to the ceiling. Her pure black robes to assist in assassinations were doing her a great service in providing her the ability to hide, though if he'd fully identified her thrown needle across the room this one might have significant enough sight to concern her. The best option now would be to wait this out. There was going to be no way to be rid of him and killing a random troll for the sake of a routine ghost extermination was a sour taste to Kujona. She was a troll of patience and pride in her art, and if that meant waiting for the right moment to strike she would outlast any foe.

So quietly she watched and she waited.

Caleva frowned as he continued watching the object lodged in the wall, keeping both eyes and ears open for any sign of disturbance. Yes, the more he looked at the more sure he was that it was some kind of needle, a very atypical ghost "weapon". Whoever was in here with him, chances are they didn't want him around. Why they had not outright attacked him yet was yet to be seen. Well, playing the waiting game like this wasn't going to get them anywhere. He backed up against a nearby table, heavy book in hand.

"Whoever you are, I mean no harm! I'm just conducting an investigation. I believe there is a spirit in this building, and it could be hostile. I just want to communicate with it, and I'll be on my way." It wasn't often he had to bust out the "please don't hurt me" speech. Usually when someone was interrupting his research, it was because he was actually on their property, so it would make sense that they'd tell him to leave. This person, well, this probably wasn't their hive. They had some other reason to be here, which was rather concerning. Well, it would be more concerning, if they were here for ghost-related reasons. Unlikely, but possible. Here's hoping that this wasn't the case.

Raising an eyebrow would be unprofessional, so Kujona raised a mental one instead and that was that. 'Communicate' with the spirit, huh? That was a new one. It would explain a few things though. How this blueblood ended up here. How he'd learned to actually draw a spirit closer to the physical side. Probably a plethora of other seemingly useless skills that when added together made him more than a bit interesting. But ultimately pointless to her. An active ghost would be more annoying to deal with but not impossible. And revealing herself at any point would be the most abject mark of unprofessionalism, such that Kujona felt sick even comprehending the idiocy. No, there was an easy and simple answer to this: she would wait out the blueblood. When he was done, she would slay the ghost and leave. And ideally the two would never cross paths again. That would be the best possible solution.

And so she waited to see what he would do. That was all she could do now, after all.

Time passed, and Caleva saw no sign of either the ghost or the other presence. It wasn't surprising, really; the ghost would probably be reluctant to show itself with more than one person around, and that person seemed equally unwilling to reveal themselves. They were at a stalemate here. Normally Caleva would wait it out, but he still had no idea of what this other person's intentions were, and whether or not they were dangerous. This was a very unusual situation, and he wasn't entirely prepared. He tried calling out to the ghost again.

"Please, spirit, show me some sign of your presence. Ignore the other person. You don't have to talk to them. I think I can help you with your problems, though. Sorry for barging into your home like this. I know it means a lot to you! Maybe we can talk about it?"

After about thirty seconds of silence, a book lying on the floor suddenly opened itself in front of him. Several more followed, all lying wide open in a disorganised mess. Caleva's face lit up. Finally!

"I have a pen, if you need one." He placed a pen and a blank notepad on the floor, pushing them towards the other books. Pen and paper was his most direct method of hearing what a ghost had to say, since they were almost never able to talk to him out loud. His moirail had an enviable talent for communicating with ghosts, unfortunately Caleva would have to do the best with what he had.

Another moment later, the pen was lifted into the air slightly as if being held by a very shaky hand. It chicken-scratched clumsily across the page - ghosts were not exactly known for their neat handwriting - until the pen dropped sharply to the floor. Caleva peered over at the spirit's message.

"GET OUT"

"Well that's not very nice of you," Caleva chuckled, displaying his notorious inability to take a hint. "I understand, though, I mean I did come in here without your permission. And I'm sorry! Really. But I wouldn't be able to talk with you otherwise."

"NOT YOU"

"...Huh." Right, yes, the other one. Obviously he wasn't going to be able to get this ghost to open up to him with someone else lurking around. This was getting too complicated for his liking. One of them would have to leave for any progress to be made here. Or at least, they would have to show themselves. And at this point, that seemed unlikely to happen. Still, gotta try and help this ghost.

"Um..." He really wasn't sure how he should address the person. "Excuse me? I'm going to need you to leave, please. The ghost doesn't like you being around. Really, you're not accomplishing anything just hiding around anyway. So, yes. Please."

She'd been running scenarios for the past few minutes now, every possible option, every possible reaction. Her one goal was to exterminate that ghost. Her one priority was to escape alive. This blueblood was light-hearted, at least. But was there a fury that would be provoked if she revealed her intent? She had never seen a troll interacting so cordially with the departed before. Was this one going to interfere in her job? The service that earned her her life? A twitch ran across Kujona's brow and she stilled it. Don't let anger consume you, anger is the weapon of the weak. Be calm, be efficient, do your job.

A heavy cloak settled around her shoulders, hood pulled up over her head. She wore no indication of her colour and showed no indication of her form. She was a living wraith. What better form to dispose of the dead.

Kujona landed in the middle of the room lightly, a faint screen of dust lifting up about her. Her right eye watched the spirit, drawing so close to this side, roar at her. It was very displeased with her presence it seemed. The blueblood couldn't see it, he just had the sense it seemed. So what he could not see...

Kujona extended her left hand. It was not covered, as her skin was required exposed to unleash her power. The ghost did not understand, did not grasp the concept until her hand was resting on its shoulder. It began to waver and could no longer move.

The moment Caleva saw the hand, very much fleshy troll-like and not ghostly at all, he jumped to his feet. The thick book he had brought was back in his hands, held up ready to strike if he had to. This sneaky, shadowy person wanted something from either him or the ghost, he knew that much. But what were they doing...?

It was gone. Her job was done and her payment secured. She would report that the ghost had been eliminated and her name would continue to carry the same connotation: an assassin without peer, capable of killing the dead themselves. That was all she needed. She spared no words for the blueblood, no message that he had nothing here to remain for. That would be a show of foolishness, to reveal any aspect of herself. She simply lowered her hand and stepped away. The door to the hive would open for her and she would take her leave, vanishing first into the city, and then from all sight.

It would be as simple as that.

"H-hey...!" Before he realised it, the figure was out the door, gone. There'd be little chance of catching them now. Probably not much point, either. They didn't seem to have actually done anything, not that Caleva could see. Oh well, that was a rather annoying distraction, but at least it was over now. He sat back down to resume chatting with his ghost friend.

"Ah, that's better, isn't it? Pretty sure they're gone now, so let's get back to our conversation. Let's talk about your hive, shall we? Nice place. Got kind of a charm to it, don't you think? I hear you're really attached to the place. Why is that?"

No response.

"...Hmm. Maybe something else, then? How long have you been like this? It must be pretty lonely for you, I'm sure you don't get a lot of friendly visitors."

He waited a little longer this time, but again, there was nothing.

"...Are you still there?"

Apparently not. The creepy shadow person must have scared them off. But where could they have gone? It wasn't like they would leave the hive. And it was rather strange that they would just stop responding. Curious.

Well, Caleva still had some time to kill, he could stand to wait around a little longer. Maybe it would come back? It was worth a try. He lit up another candle, opened up his new Book of Paranormal Beings, and read intently. Who knows, maybe there was something in here about suddenly vanishing ghosts. Or at least a few good leads to follow.

[tesspieceface]

Why doesn't Caleva just off himself and be with his 2spooky ghost pals forever?

it's safer to study them while alive! ghosts tend to lose something mentally during the dying process. some first-hand knowledge would be invaluable of course but to get plenty of objective research done he needs to remain a not-ghost for the time being

also because the process of offing one's self tends to be painful and pain = bad

[tesspieceface]

Is Caleva wearing socks with sandals? Is he aware how high his SHOEBIE levels are?

there are very few things that caleva gives a shit about other than ghosts

socks with sandals are not one of them

okay in my defence they were originally supposed to be like samurai-style sandals and i think they usually wore socks with them?? well i guess they still are samurai sandals it's just not that obvious on his sprite

[tesspieceface]

what's with caleva's music theme in the quirk?

he likes music! he plays the piano and is pretty good at it if he does say so himself. he also likes the more whimsical feel it gives his words, y'know like the stretched-out ooos weren't already whimsical enough