Daily #16 - Regali Nouval and Cohete Halcon (cowritten by Loren)
And it seemed something interesting was going on today.
"A fight? No..." a crowd was nearby, and Regali approached. A lot of space cleared for this highblooded troll, a lot of whispers behind her back. She inspected the scene before her.
When it came to creating a ruckus, there probably weren't many trolls as experienced in the matter as Cohete was. This time around he wasn't in a fight, though! Well, in a fistfight, at least. It was the semi-finals of the (Un)Official Totally Legit Street Racing Championships, and his shitheap- he meant, uh, his really good totally well built engine-powered wheelmobile was looking at clear chances of victory.
With the engine revving at the maximum power possible and the body of the machine vibrating around him, the tealblood zoomed through the streets of the city at a speed most trolls would shudder to contemplate themselves going at. His opponents flanked him, their own shitheaps adorned with varying weapons to hit the other racers with, but he was pretty sure they couldn't touch him. After all, he- did someone just throw a banana peel at him!?
Cohete swerved to dodge it, ramming his vehicle into his leftmost opponent; in their shock they fired their missiles directly behind them, collapsing the bridge the racers had just passed underneath and crushing three other racers in the debris. One wheelmobile exploded, raining debris across the street, with a particularly viciously airborne tyre speeding through the air and crushing the bonnet of the only racer still left in the game. Every racer not unconscious or dead reacted to this in the only way they knew how: climbing out of their vehicles and beating the everloving shit out of each other.
Well, he wasn't down for that. The tealblood bailed out of his machine and attempted to book it into the crowd, only to run headfirst into some beanpole and lose his balance.
"Watch it, assho-" He looked up. Seadweller. Oh shit.
"UH."
"Hmm," Regali looked past this troll to begin with, pointing at the fight. "They should be wary of the damage to their vehicles. Explosions will take them." The machines, smouldering and generally looking very unhappy, failed to explode. "What was that about?" she looked down at the troll before her.
"What? Huh? Uh... What." Cohete stood up and brushed himself off. He wasn't dead, so at least he hadn't run headfirst into one of the really bad seadwellers. What the hell was a glubgrub doing around these parts, though? A more tactful individual might have reworded that thought before vocalising it. Cohete did not fall under the parameters of "tactful individual."
"What's a glubgrub like you doing in this shithole?" At least he didn't say it maliciously.
A fair portion of the trolls gathered around began to back up now. If this seadweller was going to go ballistic they wanted to watch the carnage from a safe distance. Regali mainted her standard expression of a small smile, observing everything around her with interest. It was so different to her mountain.
"I felt like a change of scenery," she answered simply. "And my name is Regali, I will have you use it thank you very much."
"Welp. Miss Regali. I hope yer amused." Cohete shrugged, standing up to his full posture. He wasn't gonna let some seadweller outshadow him, no sir. Behind him, something finally exploded; he hoped it wasn't his car. "Are our lowblood shenanigans amusin' you?" That was punctuated by a laugh, which he hoped indicated to the royalty that he didn't mean any harm by it. A lot people tended to assume everything he said meant harm, which wasn't true! (Sometimes.)
"It is not something I had seen before." She considered the troll before her. Seemed rather undisciplined for certain. Still, the races had been interesting. It probably took a degree of wildness to provide the level of grit involved. Still, the fight raging before her was dull. Nothing to it. "You should tell me of these races, Coinet," she turned and beckoned. "Come with me."
Wh... what did she call him? Cohete turned around and looked at the other trolls in the crowd, his face the picture of confusion, but they just gave him a look of "you're so fucked". He shrugged and started following her, wondering what this was about. He was either about to get a gold-plated weapon to the face or a boring seadweller conversation: he hoped it was the latter, because at least those were easy to recover from.
"Where we goin'?"
"It has been significant time since last I left my hive," Regali probably remembered the layout of this city. This was definitely the right way to the markets. "While I visit I wish to purchase new objects to take back with me, alongside more exotic foods. You know this city and thus you will make an adequate guide for me." It had been more than half a sweep since Regali last had troll Italian food. She was looking forward to it.
"Must be great, just manhandlin' random trolls into doin yer bidding. Why are you heading towards the red light district if you want food?" Cohete paused, making a funny face. "Your definition of food is the same as mine, right? 'Cause if it is, you want to take THAT path." He'd heard funny things about seadwellers, man. He really didn't want to be dragged into the Randy Redblood Ranch again.
Regali paused. Wrong direction. "They've changed the layout since last I visited." The fact city layout changing was a bit bigger deal than Regali was writing it off as flew by her unnoticed. Probably for the best. "Which direction should we travel for the shopping districts?" This tealblood would be a benefit after all, rather than a companion to slacken her boredom and enjoyment of conversation. Most excellent.
Cohete's face was sorta frozen in an expression of bemusement now. If she was going to make him hold her hand through the entire commercial zone then there was no way he'd be able to get back to his prized shitheap before it got completely scrapped for parts by thieves. He hoped she didn't have a sharp eye, because he was definitely stealing some of her purchases. "Follow me, fishy. Whoops, I mean, miss Regali." He waved his hands at the street clearly marked "Shopping District Entrance" and walked off, assuming she would follow behind.
She fell in step behind Contae, looking about with interest as he led the way. What would she do first she wondered. Her Lusus would arrive for her in due time, and she wished to have a significant amount purchased to bring back with her. Some new foods that would expand her palette, although they would need to be foods that survived underwater, since her hive was at the bottom of a lake after all. Similarly some new decorations, her hive was quite bare and the small part she occupied she felt could do with more personality.
And perhaps some new reading material. Of course, all three of those things would need to be waterproofed. Honestly the difficulties she was beset by were most concerning. She stopped, now in the middle of the street, and looked about. What shops were where...
The tealblood shrugged. They were in the middle of a pretty big bazaar (by troll standards, anyway), with plenty of various merchants trying to hawk their goods. There were farmers from the countryside flogging authentic lusus wool pyjamas for fifty caegars a pop, mountain-dwelling hermits with mystic carvings (that they probably found in a dumpster somewhere), and at least three enterprising trolls had set up food stands. He could really go for a shish-ke-grub right about now.
"Well, welcome to the shops, lady. Go look at whatever interests ya." He couldn't help but feel a little anxious- the area was primarily dominated by low to middle bloods, and most of them probably wouldn't appreciate a member of their oppressing caste waltzing right into their place of business.
"Hmm, perhaps a restaurant first, it has been some time since last I had professional cooking." Regali paused as she turned, feeling something bounce off her head. Turning back around, she saw a trio of trolls, one tossing a rock up and down. He hadn't thrown it hard enough to do more than catch her attention, but perhaps that would change the second time around.
"Watcha up to fishblood?" The lead of the three sneered. "Visiting us poor lowbloods? Zoo's closed m'lady."
"I have no business with any of you," Regali showed the barest hint of annoyance. She was having trouble deciding what specific meal she would order today. "Be on your way."
"Oh shite." Cohete turned to the trolls and made quick throat-slashing gestures, attempting to convey that it wasn't a good idea to mess with a seadweller. He realised too late that, as a pseudo highblood himself, his message was probably distorted into "fuck off or I'll gut you." "Yo, fish princess, these guys are up for starting shit."
"Ya damn right now butt out, blueboy," the leader of the trio took a menacing step forward. "Fishes shouldn't come swimming in filth, it rubs off on them."
Regali finally paid proper attention to the lowblood. The corners of her mouth twitched, just enough, to give a faint smile. "You'll lose," she stated simply. "I have forseen it."
"Oh really now?" He laughed at her. "Seeing the future are we princess? Look at you coveting what you don't have. Pathetic."
Regali maintained her serene smile. This caused a look of annoyance at his lack of effectiveness to appear on the lowblood's face. Forsaking further banter, he simply took a charge in, swinging a fist around at Regali.
Moving around it was simple. Bending her knees Regali dropped her height below the lowblood and stuck out a palm, straight into his gut. Moving a leg forward, she then shoved him with the full weight of her body.
With incredible speed and force the lowblood flew backwards, crashing into his peers. Standing back up at her full height, Regali turned her back to them and beckoned to Colten. "I believe I remember the location of my favoured restaurant. Come along."
Fuuuuuuuuucccccckkkkk. Cohete had definitely been expecting something like that out of the seadweller, but seeing it in action was something else. A bead of sweat rolled down his neck: what had he gotten himself into?! He would have probably been in less danger if he'd stuck to the race brawl! Too late to flee now. Better just suck it up.
"Is it seafood? I bet it's a seafood joint." He stuck his hands in his jumpsuit pockets and walked after Regali, trying to divert his eyes from the sight of the broken lowbloods on the floor.
"Aha!" Against all odds, Regali had successfully located the restaurant. Troll Italian was hers once more. "I will cover this meal so order as you desire." she gave Contra what she hopped was a friendly smile, changing her default expression was not something she often had cause for. Oh well. Stepping inside, she savoured the smells. Ah yes, this had been a long time coming.
Troll Italian...? Well, at least she had taste. And was he getting a free meal out of this! Score!!! (Not that he was low on funds, being teal and all, but Cohete wasn't exactly the type of person to turn his smellsponge up at a freebie.) He flagged down a waiter and grabbed a table, flipping open the menu with a speed that would make you think he had some sort of acceleration power. "Oi! Waiter! Do you guys do woofbeast bags? Yes? Cool, I'll take everything." He grinned happily. If he was stuck making polite conversation with a crazy strong fish princess for the next hour or so, then he would at least abuse the hell out of her offer.
"Soooooo! Miss Fishgali. How'd you ever find a place like this in the first place?" He leaned back in his seat, putting his hands behind his head. He still wasn't entirely sure he was going to make it out of here alive.
"I have visited this city before," Regali replied simply, opening the menu. "It is the closest to my hive. Furthermore," she took a moment to lower the menu, making eye contact with the tealblood, "I would request you not take advantage of my generosity. My kindness is not without limits and bad manners are your best bet for wearing thing my patience. Something to consider." That said, she raised the menu again. Ah yes, this looked nice.
She placed the same order she made every time she visited the city. The waiter, having been on long enough to know Regali, rolled his eyes the moment his back was to her.
Cohete shrugged. "Alright, laaaaady." Whatever! That was only his first warning. He figured he could get away with one flagrant disrespect before he got the fish punch to his face. "Don't y'all have really fancy markets underwater, though? I didn't know you guys liked stuff that didn't come plated in gold."
"I do not live at the sea," Regali poured herself a glass of water. "And," she raised the glass to her lips, prolonging the gap in her sentence, "I do not believe I am popular among my fellows."
He snorted. "What! How can you be unpopular with seadwellers? Last time I checked, literally the only criteria for being a true glubgrub was "a) have fins" and "b) be capable of punching motherfuckers out cold." You seem to have both down just fine!"
"Well," Regali spun a knife between her fingers, waiting on her meal to arrive, "Consider this: you are currently still alive, are you not?"
"Yeah, but y'all can't just kill everyone you see, or else you'd be outta subjects!"
"Either way the amount of free reign I allow those lower than me is looked upon with disdain by the majority of the aristocracy. It is perhaps a consequence of my life being seperate from them. Nonetheless, I am not blind to the way others treat me." She smiled at the waiter bringing her her meal. She had been looking forward to this.
It took no time at all for Cohete to pick up his fork and stab his incoming food viciously. Like a true male, his trolltalian cuisine was shoveled into his face so fast that it left him no room for talking; a "silence" fell over the table as pasta after pasta met it's demise in his fangs. Eventually he straightened up, stomach full and plate empty.
"That political aristocracy stuff sounds like a dragggg. Why don't you just buy some friends? I bet you'd have plenty of folks fawning over ya if you slipped them a few caegars."
"Hardly my style," Regali raised a napkin, cleaning her face with her meal complete. "Whether fellows or mates I let the hand of fate guide me where it will. The results have yet to displease me."
"Oh, are you into that... spiritual stuff? I never had much stock with that. Some redblood bitch blew the top of my hive off with lasers, haven't been fond of mystic shit since then."
"Everyone has something they believe in," Regali took another sip of her drink. A discrete cough to her side made her look up, where the waiter was standing.
"Lady Nouval," he addressed her, "While I hate cutting short your meal, your Lusus is presently preventing any more customers from entering this establishment. If you would be so kind?"
Regali frowned and stood up. What was her Lusus doing, usually he waited for her at the city upper levels. She hadn't been here that long. Opening the door to the restaurant, a blast of fish breath and a loud roar momentarily stunned her. He was in a foul mood. "This is not what I needed," she muttered. Looking back to Cohtar, she nodded to him. "It would seem our time together is at an end; I thank you for your kindness in assisting me today. Perhaps, fate willing, we will have the opportunity to dine again in the future. Until then, Cohete."
Stepping outside, Regali hopped onto the giant flying eel that was her Lusus. He grumbled at her, and began rising immediately. Whatever was on his nerves she would have to deal with.
In the restaurant below, following Regali's whirlwind exit, the waiter brought Cohete the bill.
Cohete stared at the waiter, stared at the lusus, and immediately booked it as fast as he could for the exit. He got the distinct impression he wouldn't be allowed around these parts for a very, very long time.