You are not wood, you are not stones, but men.
They've let you off of the ship for the time being, having safely docked at port and decided it was safe enough to allow their loyal pilot to wander, and you walked to a broken-down side of town without realizing it, a lowblood quarter allowed to fall to seed. The first thing you notice is the acrid scent of smoke, carried by the breeze.
You duck into a dark side alley when the sound of screaming and shouts carries to you with the smoke. You shouldn't be here.
You really shouldn't be here. This sentiment is doubled when two trolls round the corner, tumble into the alley that you've claimed as a hiding spot, and dash behind a large trash can in a panic. You bristle- you do not like intruders, which maybe comes from your time spent as a ship enforcing security- and your eyes begin to crackle and glow slightly. There's a muffled curse from behind the trash can, and a head pops up- a male troll in the midst of panic. He curses again once he sees you, but stands up and, in a motion much faster than you expected, sidesteps from behind the dumpster, grabs you, and drags you back behind the meager shelter. His hand is over your mouth-he reeks of sweat and smoke- and before you can bite him or blast him off of you there's a hoarse voice in your ear telling you "If you cause a scene, you'll get culled." Your reply of "By who and what army?" is muffled to barely a whisper.
Which is pretty lucky for you, considering this is the time that a few trolls race past the alley's opening, followed shortly by a pack of what are probably subjuggulators. Thankfully none of them peer too closely into the side street. There is no way any of you would have escaped that one.
Once they pass, the mysterytroll removes his hand from your mouth, correctly assuming you've been scared into not causing a problem. "That army." You nod. That army. You extract yourself from the pile- you'd all unconsciously pressed together and become a bit tangled trying to keep everyone as out of sight as possible- and stand. There's the occasional pitter of running feet, and the smoke is getting more and more visible, but you judge it safe to stand at the moment. "I need to get back to the ship, this is..." You're mumbling to yourself, and you never get around to saying what this actually is, because curiosity takes the better of you and you let out a blob of psionic energy to get a better look at the group. The two intruders are bathed in blue light coming from your hand. "A psionic," the smaller troll crouched in the corner breathes out.
"I am the Psiionic." (Mercifully your tongue only trips up a little) "And who might you two be?" The male troll stands, then helps his companion up. You take them in. The first one's small, shorter than you, but not anywhere near as skinny as you are, although that could just be the numerous folds of fabric he's got on as a cloak. The one next to him is a slightly taller and rather shaky female with a wild mane of hair. "I'm called the Signless. She refers to herself as the Disciple." He accompanied the introductions with a wave of the hand. "And we'd both be very much obliged if you would refrain from injuring, reporting, or otherwise inconveniencing us." You nod, not really aware of what you're agreeing to but instead trying to remember where you heard the title Signless before. That's right. This guy's the one that- oh, 2hit.
You grab the Signless and Disciple by the back of their necks, forcing them back down, just as there's a shriek that is abruptly cut off with a sniickt sound and the tump of a body falling to the ground. No one breathes for a good minute. Hearing the voices of the soon-to-die is a skill you've unfortunately been given, and for once it actually proved useful, for you doubt you'd all have escaped this executioner without the victim's voice yelling in your ear to move. You now judge it safe, and let them back up. The Disciple turns to you, eyes huge and pupils enormously dilated. "Thanks."
"Y-" You're cut off by the Signless grabbing your arm and yanking- he's fairly strong, you realize, as both you and the Disciple are pulled back towards a low fence. Disciple leaps over easily, and the Signless looks at you, offering a hand. You don't take it, instead getting yourself over with a psionically-boosted jump. You never said you couldn't help yourself. Signless rejoins the group in an instant, taking the lead once more as he runs along a dizzying path of interlocking roads until you are all well out of the city's range.
When you stop, you realize how utterly spent you are, and rest your hands on your knees trying to get your breath back. "What was that all about?" you pant out, neglecting to ask the glaringly obvious question of 'why the fuck did I follow you'.
"I was making a speech," -you're somewhat vindicated to notice that the Signless is also out of breath-, "and things got a bit out of hand."
"No shit."
"It's not his fault!" The Disciple's voice is higher than you expected. "His speeches are always purrfect!" She pouts. "It's just that some clawful people decided to get angry! And then the people he was talking to decided that they should go burn highblood stuff and then it got out of paw..."
You can't help it.
You start laughing.
The Disciple gasps and starts berating you for laughing at their misfortunes, but is stopped with a wave of her leader's hand. "You are that idiotic troll after equality for blood castes." You lisp and breathless laughter mangle the last word almost beyond recognition, but it gets by. The Signless just grins at you.
"Yup. I'm the idiot out for peace."
You almost smile back when he asks "How about you join us?" and your face falls.
"What?"
"You heard me. In selfish terms, you've already been helpful tonight; it'd be nice if that were a regular thing, and in non-selfish terms, wouldn't you want to be free? Become an equal, a troll just like any other instead of being forced to be a ship?"
You pause, legitimately confused. You have never actually thought about that before. You thought you'd just get this done with, go back to the ship, and wait for it to set sail like planned in a few days. "What on Alternia do you mean? I can't just abandon my ship."
"But the thing is, you can. You can and you've just never thought about it before. Come with me. We can talk, and then you can decide. Just.. let me talk first, okay?" He smiles again and holds out his hand.
You want to refuse. You honestly want to refuse and go back but something keeps you there. Something about this troll who is risking his life for others, something about the fervent excitement and passion that are already visible in his voice, his eyes, his movement, keeps you here.
So you submit.
You follow the Signless.
He leads you to a makeshift camp in a woods a few meters away from where you were standing. Waiting there is a tall woman, dressed in jade and black (a jade blood? Here? Amazing. You remember the Disciple is a green blood as well. The height of these people on the spectrum adds to your surprise that they follow the advocator of hemoequality). She appears to have been expecting the Signless and Disciple, but your appearance does not give her any outward expression of surprise. She simply nods in your direction, informs you she is called Dolorosa, and hands all three of you a small bowl of stew from the pot she had been standing over. You thank her, make cursory introductions, and are pulled over to sit in the corner by the Signless.
His story is long. He tells you of everything he can possibly think of. The food given to you grows cold as he explains his visions, his hope for the future, his honest belief that you can help bring about this new Alternia.
It is not the speech that convinces you, although it does help.
What convinces you the most is the borderline manic passion the Signless puts into every word and thought.
For once, you are almost convinced you are something besides a living steering wheel. You give in. You tell him you will stay, and he hugs you, bending back and suddenly lifting you up off the ground.
That both startles and flusters you, and you stand spluttering until the Dolorosa rescues you by stopping by and informing you she is "quite happy to have another troll added to our meager band", then leading you away. She's kind, and certainly loves the Signless, although in an odd way of love you've never seen before. Everyone is close, but you are welcomed.
And you follow the Signless.
AN
urgh if there's any more stupid grammar things I missed like in the last one I'm gonna punch myself.
finally got off my ass and wrote some signless/psiioniic interaction thank u experi. I should be continuing my steelfedora but I lost the drafts.