#skcklach

[notjustalittlekid]

@skcklach​, continued from here

⌑ Words fell sharply like a paper wasp’s sting, but further viewing of the Collector’s evident misery softened the blow. Like most children, Jenny was no stranger to sickness like the common cold or the occasional stomach bug. And she remembered—vaguely, in some cases— how positively miserable she felt. How her sinuses were clogged and her head felt as if it were on the verge of exploding. Or when she couldn’t keep any food down in her stomach. Surely feeling any of the sorta would put her in a short-tempered mood.

⌑ After a pause, the child dug one freckles hand into her pocket, fishing out a fistful of miscellaneous items. Although it had been probably forbidden— ‘probably’ only because the Emperor hadn’t explicitly said so— Jenny snuck out under the veil of darkness to explore the grounds around the fortress. Never venturing far, in case the Skeksis realized her absence. But enough to quench her wanderlust. Besides, the hallways started looking the same after a few days.

⌑ “What’s your favorite thing to collect, by the way?” They were called The Collector for a good reason, Jenny assumed, and she tried not to keep her question too simple. She opened her hand— revealing a few brightly colored feathers, a shell that once belonged to some sort of snail-like mollusk with a beige matte and azure banding in a spiral, various pearly white animal teeth, and a rock that reminded Jenny strongly of clear quartz— and held the items aloft towards SkekLach.

[heartxofxthra]

(Skcklach for Brea) “are we really starting the day with a game of twenty questions?”  @skcklach

“Only if your lordship wishes to” Brea says with a tempting tone, and an inquisitive gleam in her eyes. 

You were more likely to get answers when you weren’t the only one asking the questions, that social subtlety not lost on her from watching the interactions unfolding at court. 

She waited patiently for an answer.

[sundcred-and-undone]

continued: X

“The travel will do you good, Collector.” skekYi says, politely masking her disgust but keeping her eyes ahead, aloof and at-length with skekLach as she is many of her cohorts. She seems on edge and eager to be away from the castle’s clutch.

“You re going because the Emperor would rather more hands were available.” Or rather, he didn’t want to give skekYi a moment’s peace, as he knew certainly that she preferred her own company. Didn’t want another Skeksis going hermit and isolating themselves, like the Mariner or the Hunter.

skekYi adjust her hands on her lap and refrains from an eye roll. 

“The bright side is that skekOk isn’t here to talk our ears off and superfluous use words I am quite sure he makes up.”

[thehopcful]

@skcklach [x]

Hope draws her hand back when the shell is taken. Just as saying thank you is foreign to the Skeksis, being thanked is not something that the young Grottan is used to, so she takes no offense from the gesture. Masked gaze falls to the rest of her (likely temporary) collection. She has no knowledge of the rarity of any of these shells, just as she isn't aware of the rarity of a Grottan staying above ground. Similarly she has no knowledge of the Resistance; avoiding other Gelfling as she did left her in the dark about the current situation between the two races.

"I found them on the coast, a few days ago." She replies, considering the shells lying before her.

One ear flicks as she makes a decision and scoops up the shells, rising to her feet soon after. She turns her gaze back up to SkekLach, offering up the remainder of the small collection in both hands. The Collector seemed to like the one she had already given, so perhaps these would be appreciated as well.

"Here. You can have them." She chirps, a smile spreading on hidden features.

[vliyarchive]

@skcklach​   /   cont.

there's  many  things  the  scientist  should  do,  many  things  it  could,  but  they  all  end  up  discarded  like  balled  up  notes  stained  with  too  many  ink  blotches.  it  remembers  the  HALCYON  TRINE,  a  skekLach  covered  beak  to  talon  in  fluff  gracing  it's  lab  with  some  new  specimen,  it  remembers  being  even  lighter  on  it's  feet  and  already  spouting  off  theories  before  it  even  had  the  work  station  cleared,  it  remembers  everything. 

but  memory  isn't  soft  anymore,  it's  gone  black  and  hard.  which  is  exactly  why  skekTek  dropped  it's  charcoal  with  a  soft  clatter  and  let  it's  hands  follow  suit  atop  the  desktop,  it's  countenance  smeared  with  ash  that  was  messily  and  halfheartedly  scrubbed  at  and  looking  nothing  short  of  irritated.   (  but  if  one  looked  closely  they'd  spy  an  also  stained  glove  shoot  out  to  cease  the  charcoal's  rolling,  tapping  thrice  as  it  pulled  away,  odd  force  of  habit.  )

"  YOU'RE  RIGHT,  COLLECTOR.  i  really  don't  care !  in  fact,  i'm  sure  whatever  it  is  can  —  "

oh.

"  ...  where  did  you  find  this ?  "  how  messy  of  it,  ' too  ready  to  bite  and  snap '  one  such  as  the  chamberlain  may  say,  he's  always  prodding  like  that.  "  both  may  prompt  numbness,  skekLach,  and  worse.  don't  tell  me  you  discovered  this  ...  how  did  you  describe  it ?  this  saccharine  toxin.  don't  tell  me  you  discovered  it  the  hard  way  now.  "

[aughraknows]

(skcklach) “This is my punishment. I deserve it.”

“Punishment! Hmph! Always punishment, never consequences,” she begins in her usual brusque tone (though one who knows her well will note that it is a mite gentler than her usual wont). “And why is that? Hmm? Because punishment does not teach.”

@skcklach

[thehopcful]

(Skcklach) “use a tissue like everyone else.”

At first there's no answer from the childling, buried in a pile of silks and cushions next to the Collector's own bed with only her head poking out. Her mask lies on the floor within reach, set aside for the moment because of her frequent sneezing. Ears twitch at the Skeksis's words, and Hope shifts her gaze to stare up at them with watery eyes. A tissue? She sighs quietly, but relents and tugs one arm free to grab a tissue.

She's only been in the castle of the crystal for a little over a week, but already she's gotten sick. She's not even sure how; it wasn't often that she got sick while she was on her own wandering Thra. Was it something she ate? Or perhaps one of the podlings here had passed something on to her? Or...is there something else here that could be effecting her? Whatever the case, the young Grottan is far from happy.

"I don't like this..." She whines, sniffling. "I feel awful."

@skcklach // Sick Starters

[trophykept]

@skcklach​ cont. from here.

He gives out a low huff, entirely unmoved by the Collector’s cajoling. Childishness is not a trait he considers unique to skekLach, yet it is unusual that one of his brethren dares flaunt such behaviour in his presence. Not so brazenly, at least.

“Just one more reason why I rarely see fit to come here at all.”    

He regards the other’s movements in much the same manner as a Nurloc might watch the Z’nid bird, perching oh-so-innocently on the rocks above, waiting for a chance to swoop down and arise with a beak full of struggling grubs. Not that he considers skekLach capable of taking his newest trophy from him, but he would prefer to avoid having to explain to skekSo why his Collector would now need to undertake tithing duty one-handed.     

He pulls the skull away --- polished fangs shining like daggers in the light before vanishing into the depths of his cloak. Yet he cannot deny that the other’s awe, on some level, pleases him. It is seldom enough that another skeksis responds to his triumphs with anything other than disgust sloppily disguised beneath a mask of feigned politeness.

“I did not find it. I hunted the creature it belonged to across the Claw Mountains and tore it from the carcass when the beast breathed its last. If you want one, you will have to do the same.”