>> You walk down the sidewalk, cloistered by a handful of other trolls going about their business.
>> You're only vaguely aware of your surroundings at present, exhausted from shifting almost every day the past few nights- It's left an ache in your bones, muscles tired from the strain of changing form, to say nothing about the lack of rest. It shows in the way you move, sluggish and dazed.
>> This results in you being largely unaware that a troll coming towards you from the sidewalk ahead is bottlenecked into your path. You realize this only at the last second, but not before your shoulder jams hard into hers, since you made no move to get out of the way for her.
>> There's a beat as you slow and glance back at her before a muttered "sxrry" makes it out of your mouth.
> You sit with your head down in the bar at Adderhead, the slummy lowblood bar that serves as one of the hideouts for the Fangs.
> There’s no one here except for you and the bartender, who felt bad enough for you to give you a few free shots and listen to your complaints. Everyone else has fucked off to their own bolt holes or the maze of tunnels that constitute part of Adderhead.
> You fucked up, plain and simple. You lost a fight you were supposed to win. Got knocked out cold. You hear the other guy got an earful too, but you lost your right to your winnings. That was your fucking rent money.
> You split your knuckles on the wall outside and fumed for a while, but now you’re too spent to be pissed and the bartender won’t give you enough booze to get drunk.
> You can’t be bothered to drag your sorry ass hive yet, so...Here you are.
Ankiro stepped into the office, and flicked on the light. As he walked to the desk, he rubbed his face with one hand, still half asleep.
He set down his cup of coffee and opened his laptop as he seated himself at the desk. He had brought in a new resident to the sanctuary last night, some sort of wolf hybrid.
He’d make his rounds after checking on the cameras that the thing hadn’t escaped- After watching it dig last night, it felt within the realm of possibility.
Tapping the key to flick through the channels, he sipped his coffee, and then choked as he reached a particular channel.
A troll was standing in one of the enclosures.
Trolls and undead got into the sanctuary sometimes, despite the walls, curious about the strange walled-off area in the middle of the desert and electing to ignore all the signs.
It was the first time one had wound up in an enclosure, though.
Ankiro squinted at the grainy footage- The troll was naked, but appeared alive, pawing at the enclosure door. The same enclosure he had put the wolf-thing in last night, and the wolf was nowhere in sight.
“What the hell?” Ankiro muttered at the screen. He flicked through the channels, but the wolf didn’t seem to be anywhere in the sanctuary.
He went to the infirmary bay, trying to fathom how any of this had happened. There was a reasonable explanation, and it didn’t take long to grasp one.
He loaded a dart into his pistol and prepared zip-ties, his whip, and a shock blanket from first-aid, and then pulled out his phone to text Kasora.
– ~\ Intruder in the sanctuary. GOt intO One Of the enclOsures sOmehOw. /~
– ~\ I think that wOlf escaped, and this guy gOt in. /~
– ~\ GOing tO try tO talk tO him. He dOesn’t seem sOber. /~
It was barely past dusk, Kasora was not likely to be awake enough to look at her phone. But he figured he should alert her so she knew what to expect coming in tonight, and so she could check on him if he failed to report back.
The enclosure walls flanked the desert beyond the sanctuary, making it entirely reasonable for the wolf to have dug its way out, and for the troll to have gotten in through the same gap- Perhaps to escape from the wolf, even.
Ankiro took a steadying breath, and headed outside to the enclosure.
The troll was on all fours, doing something at the door, but Ankiro couldn’t make out what. Digging, maybe.
“...Evening.” Ankiro greeted him, and the troll’s gaze snapped up. A rustblood.
Missing an eye.
Ankiro pushed aside the idea of a werewolf that wormed its way into his mind. Werewolves didn’t exist. He’d never seen any evidence to support it.
“Are you… Doing okay?” Ankiro hazarded, tilting his head slightly to try to get a better look at the troll. The bars were closely spaced and thick enough that it made the endeavor difficult. He could see some rust blood on the troll’s limbs, and olive blood smudging the troll’s face.
“Where the fuck am I.” The troll’s voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. He moved slowly into a sitting position.
“You’re at the Rising Phoenix Animal Sanctuary.” Ankiro answered. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine.”
The troll seemed lucid, at least at a glance. He hadn’t taken his gaze off Ankiro for a moment, wariness alight in his eye.
“How the fuck did I get here?” The troll continued.
“... I was going to ask you the same thing.” Ankiro paused, furrowing his brow slightly. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“I was at home.”
“Where’s that?” Ankiro pressed.
“Gutston.”
The same city Ankiro had picked the wolf up from last night.
“What time was it? What were you doing?” Ankiro continued.
The troll tilted his head slightly, gaze finally flickering away as he seemed to struggle to remember. “Nine, maybe. I wasn’t doing anything.”
“I’m not going to turn you in to the cops, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Ankiro said, shifting his weight on his feet. “I just want to make sure you’re okay and sound to send home.”
The troll seemed exasperated at that.
“I’m not on anything. Did I hurt anyone?”
“Not as far as I’m aware?” Ankiro quirked a brow. “You have some blood on your mouth.”
The troll thumbed at the corner of his lips, and looked at the bit of dried olive blood that came back. “Damnit,” he mumbled.
“So,” Ankiro pressed on again. “You don’t remember anything between 9PM last night, and now?”
“You said this was an animal sanctuary?”
“Yes. Can you answer my question real quick?” Ankiro tried to keep his tone gentle.
“Hang on a fucking second.” The troll growled. “Did you bring a wolf here?”
Ankiro stared for a moment, his werewolf idea dragged to the surface yet again.
“Going to take that as a yes,” the troll sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. “What was the wolf doing.”
“I... It was hunting trolls, for a while.” Ankiro said. “Don’t tell me that was...”
The troll didn’t respond, and just held his face in both hands. Ankiro pulled out the key for the door’s lock, and went to open it. He didn’t think this troll would be violent, at the moment.
The rustblood didn’t move. Ankiro draped the shock blanket over his shoulders, and remained standing.
Silans rounded a corner, and nearly ran head-first into Lloric.
"Oh- Uh... Hi." The words were barely out of Silans' mouth when Lloric turned on his heel, and walked away in the direction he'd come from. He was wearing an apron and clean button-down- Silans wondered if he were working food service or something now.
It was hard to imagine Lloric working any kind of customer service, with his temper.
His eye looked bad, too, infected still even after several perigees.
Silans jogged slightly to catch up with Lloric, necklaces jingling. He saw Lloric's ears pin back as he was obviously away of Silans following him.
"Happy new sweep, by the way. Uh,"
Silans waited hopefully for some remotely cordial response, and got nothing as Lloric continued to walk.
"Look, um. Do you want me to fix up your eye? I fixed Whistler's, so it's kinda only fair--"
"Stop following me." Lloric barked, without stopping nor turning to face Silans.
"Man, I'm just trying to help you out." Silans sped up a little to walk at Lloric's side, and Lloric stopped to face him, lifting his lip in the beginnings of a snarl.
"I don't want your fucking charity."
"Yeah, whatever, call it that if you want." Silans waved a hand dismissively, trying to rein in his own temper. "I said it's only fair. Whistler's got two eyes now, you've got one and no medical care to boot."
"Yeah, rub it in, why don't you." Growled Lloric, and Silans inhaled sharply through his nose.
"GOD, I'm trying to help you, you stubborn bastard! Goddamn, you've always been like this." Silans lifted his hands in frustration, as though resisting the urge to shake Lloric by the shoulders. "For once, just let me--"
"I don't fucking want anything from you, 'Champion'. Go fuck yourself with those fat stacks of cash they give you." Snarled Lloric, who turned on his heel again to storm off down the street.
Silans was stunned into silence for a brief moment as the gears clunked in his head, as he was only left to assume that Lloric had always been so hostile towards him due to some perceived difference in 'rank' and pay.
"Is that really-- I'm going to break into your fucking hive and shove a cybernetic in your eye socket while you're asleep just to spite you!" Silans yelled after him, pointing an accusatory finger, only to be ignored. He growled in frustration and turned around to find another route that didn't involve following Lloric further.
Missah felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, a steady thrum that told her someone was trying to call.
She assumed it was someone or another who wanted to yell at her or needed to be yelled at. That was usually how it went when people called her.
She didn’t particularly feel the call might have been from Lloric, despite his outburst a few nights prior. He never called. It was far more likely for him to come slinking in with his tail metaphorically between his legs.
But she was unoccupied, and had no reason not to check to see who it was.
Missah was surprised to see Lloric’s name up on the screen. A bitter feeling rose in her chest, and suddenly she thought maybe she did feel like yelling at someone tonight.
She stepped into the back room, ignoring the glances from the handful of patrons in the main room tonight.
“What the fuck do you want.” Missah snapped upon answering. There was a pause, as she supposed Lloric was regretting calling her.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, his voice sounding groggy and hoarse.
“Yeah, you better be fucking sorry.” Missah continued, and then bit her tongue. He sounded miserable enough that she probably really didn’t need to lay into him.
There was grief behind it, and she swallowed it down like a bitter pill. She’d be lucky if she saw him again, if he weren’t killed for what happened or if he didn’t skip town.
“Did I… Hurt anyone?” Lloric continued. So he was lucid enough to remember he’d shifted in Adderhead, but not anything else.
“Yes. You tore out someone’s throat. Took out Whistler’s eye before he got you outside.” Missah took a breath through her nose. Anger bubbled through her grief, but she was finding it harder and harder to feel that any of what happened was remotely intentional. “What even happened? Why did you just…Turn.”
“I don’t know.” Lloric’s answer fell like a brick through the air, his voice quiet. Missah waited a heartbeat for him to continue, but there was nothing but thick silence from the other line.
“Not even Runner’s sympathetic." Missah continued. "Everyone thinks you did it on purpose. That you thought you could get away with it or something because you’re our champion. Lloric-”
Missah pinched the bridge of her nose. “You fucked up. Not just this time. You’ve been fucking up. If you weren’t such a hairline trigger, violent asshole, then maybe more people would be on your side with this. Do you hear me?”
Silence. And then a choked “yeah.”
Missah sighed. The sound of him seeming like he was about to cry tugged at her heartstrings. She didn’t need to tell him how badly he’d just ruined his life. “Fucking hell, Lloric.”
Silence.
“Either get out here so we can get this shit over with, or get out of town. I’m done with you.”
Missah hung up, and leaned back against the closed door behind her. She put her hand to her face, and tried to hold back her tears.
> You stand in the dark kitchen, illuminated by the light of the open fridge.
> A crowbar leans within grabbing distance, but you’re occupied with the fridge’s contents. You’re just standing there eating anything you can get your hands on. You started with leftovers and moved on to any meat products.
> This is not your hive. You waited for the inhabitant to leave and broke a window at the back of the hive to get in here.
