Absolutely nobody in the local bloodball rec league saw it happening folks, but the underdog team from the Crown-Ashell clinic(s) managed it! They’ve won the local championships and only had one possible fatality!
Art commissioned from my friend Silvy, please check out her other work and consider commissioning her the next time she has slots available!!!
Ullane, Thrixe, & Friday belong to @cloudbattrolls
Ashell, Linnae, & Katrin belong to @raitrolling
Amprus & Hannah belong to @ase-trollplays
Cheran, Cipher, Rotavh, & Helios belong to @goddesstrolls
Gerrel is juggling hanging out with Callan at the ball and also spending time with Villoh.
Yes, villoh, callan's face is. Like that. Don't worry about it. He's a cool guy.
Yarrex, dressed like a pirate, is eating snacks with Friday and gossiping about the Mistletoe Incident where his boss can't hear him. He's severely tempted to mention the Confession, but figures keeping half your secrets secret is a good idea.
Argumi is thrilled to be at a real live party! He has to keep stepping out though, his dampener is going through hell with this many people around. He's got a bottle of aspirin ready to go for tonight.
Nestled against the edge of the apartment building's rooftop, Yarrex fiddled with the scope on his rifle. It was a somewhat cloudy night tonight, which would make his job here easier. He was barely seven sweeps, and he really hated being seven sweeps, so he needed to do something to balance that out. He hummed a song with no melody to himself as he finished his adjustments, picking up the old-style rifle long since out of fleet service and jamming the butt to his shoulder.
He leaned up against the edge of the roof, closing his left eye as his right fully opened behind the glass of the scope. Below, the city continued to bustle with life. Pedestrians walked and talked. Buggies and cars sped by with barely a care for the former. A few people cursed and shouted at each other as occasional fights broke out.
Tonight, however, he cared little for any of it. His focus was instead pinpointed on the window of a distant apartment building. A hemoanon bustled around just behind it, dipping in and out of view. He had long hair that fell to his shoulders, and he wore a simple t-shirt and grey jeans combination that was quite popular with many trolls. His face was soft, round. It had no angles whatsoever, Yarrex realized, and the grip on his gun tightened.
He steadied his aim, breathing in and out with extreme precision. The barrel of the gun swayed less and less, the scope locking more closely on his target. He could not yet take the shot, of course. He needed to wait just a bit longer, just a little more until he could equalize. That would be his action movie quote, if someone ever made a movie about what he did. That was the thing about the living and the dead. Someone had to bridge the gap between the two opposites. An equalizer , if one would. Making extra money for it from dubious sources helped too, of course.
Some people could get really hung up on this sort of thing, he considered, as he patiently waited for his target to finish watching television. Many trolls were quite dedicated to violence, still others tried to avoid it. All of it was in the name of preserving life, and always the life of the decision maker's. Simply taking life for any other reason? That would get you called many things. A monster, an assassin, a hitman, a criminal, a coward, and so on. He hummed another bar to his tuneless song. Worrying about such things was silly.
There would always be someone who lived and someone who died. The universe demanded it. He was always happy to oblige it. Would he be so calm when his own death came calling? He considered he might shriek and scream in fear, that might be fun to do in his last moments. Then again, everyone did that. It was so boring.
That was the fun thing about this, everyone died in a new way. If death could be seen creeping up, then the reaction it would always be different! That was very good, never having repeats. It would be annoying to have repetitive reactions.
He paused in his song. The hemoanon inside had moved back to the window, staring out of it - seemingly directly at him.
Yarrex's eternal grin widened, the picture of a shark having smelled blood. The barest gleam of light bounced off his scope, deliberately shined to do so as bait. His eyes flashed behind his glasses, and the rifle went still as stone in his hands but for a moment. It relaxed just in time for his finger to squeeze back on the trigger.
There was a harsh bang as the rifle went off in his hands, recoil kicking back into his shoulder. As far away as the target was, he would not live long enough to hear it, instead seeing only the flash of light in the distance.
Yarrex saw the hemoanon's chest erupt in a spray of yellow blood. The shot had been perfect, placed directly over his heart. The troll staggered backwards from the combined impact and shock, toppling onto the floor and out of sight. The sound of the gunshot had been swallowed up by the city already. Those below who had heard it looked up, only to see nothing at all. Most of them dismissed it as someone playing video games too loudly, or perhaps thought it just the sound of a buggy's backfire being echoed around the buildings.
Yarrex remained watching the apartment for the next half hour, making certain the once-anon did not rise again. He resumed his little song as he did so, tapping a finger on the side of his rifle.
Yarrex jotting down notes on the people he has to work with/near now:
1. Friday - Funny mad scientist lady. Do not ever accept food from her except on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
2. Ullane - Very professional, never says anything. Be sure to hover ominously behind her whenever requested for security reasons because it’d be funny.
3. Cipher - neat black eyes, no idea what the hell is going on in that lab, has science experiments in that fridge. Consider adding local fungus to one just to see what happens
4. Xrumon - Angry cyborg, hates/likes/loathes/tolerates Ullane. Inexplicably not likely to kill her. should get a beeper and see if I can get friday or priori to make it page me whenever the two of them enter the same room just in case.
5. Priori - :>
6. Katrin - Isn’t that the one Gerrel was sad about? Looks like a wreck. Should change the locks on the medical alcohol cabinets.
7. Hannah - Challenge to a staring contest.
8. Amprus - Ask if Scooby Doo is an accurate portrayal of hauntings but for all villains being real estate scammers. also need to figure out way to ask them anything.
Yarrex, making Katrin sad, telling Ullane, deliberately asking Gerrel about why he thinks she hates him despite Ullane telling him not to, going back to gossip about this within earshot of Ullane but far away from Katrin, also going back to tell Gerrel that Katrin was Sad at the thought of him trying to keep an eye on her:
Yarrex lazily riding by on a skateboard, passing half-dragon troll having freshly knocked over a medicine cabinet: “I am telling Ullane on you,” he says, not looking up as he slowly rides away
