Apologies, this chapter is gonna be long, but I promise this is the last overlong exposition chapter before the good stuff starts.
Patior Abrica, known online as ExpertofExperts, had just learned that he would be the leader of his team in the upcoming game. He would be the villain team leader, which he didn't mind. Assigning value to such concepts was a waste of effort, and as a pure blue indigo blood, he refused to waste effort, or even thought.
With Brendon already having one of the ten potential team members, he had to act quickly in order to assemble his team of five others. He'd already convinced LS to join him with very minimal prodding, which had brought CD as well. He'd also staked his claim on MW, but though he disliked admitting it, he knew she'd be difficult to actually cooperate with. She was rather rebellious for a bronze blood.
He stepped away from the grubtop momentarily to deal with a few external things. As much time as he spent online or at his desk generally with either machines or coding, he refused to allow his body to become weak because of it, and had several tests set up throughout his well structured hive to make sure nothing deteriorated.
He observed himself in the mirror to check or visible discrepancies. He saw no bags under his blue tinted eyes. His teeth were still pointed, not yet worn down by his grinding them in frustration. His angular, symmetrically pointed horns still matched and were in their usual condition. His hair was still well kept and had not succumb to any effects of stress or frustration.
Content with this, he moved to his window, where he kept his rifle. It was a sniper, as he saw no point in being up close to a threat unless necessary, and had always used sniper-kind for this reason. He also had bayonette-kind in the unlikely but admittedly possible event of an up close attack.
He looked through the scope, lining his shot up to the target he'd set up a good distance away from his hive for the purposes of an accuracy test. He took his shot and found that his sight was as accurate as ever.
He continued through his hive with various physical and mental tests he'd set up for himself. Unlike most trolls, he was unhampered by an overprotective or under intelligent lusus, having lost his as a wriggler.
Unlike Furlok, who to his knowledge had rather vivid memories of losing her lusus, Patior's earliest memories were of the robotic lusus that had been constructed for him, and which had led to his love of building and maintaining machinery.
He did not know who actually built the machine, but he had often believed it was one of the creators themselves, as none in his kingdom confessed to any knowledge of the machine, claiming the mental man lusus had just sort of appeared with him one day and begun constructing his hive.
The machine lusus now patrolled outside the hive, its sensors on alert for any possible threats. If he was in danger, he would know well before he was actually in danger, and his sniper rifle would handle anything his robotic lusus was unable to.
With his personal examinations complete, he returned to his grubtop to begin recruiting. A group chat was currently in session with several different viable team members. This would be easier than he assumed.
Java Vetaber, known online as Born2Fly, was excited for the game that was about to commence. She didn't know very much about it if she was honest, but she doubted she needed to. If there were any pressing matters to deal with, she'd have been told.
She still wasn't sure which team she was actually on, and figured she would be told today now that Jeff had elected team leaders. She didn't mind which side she was on, but was kinda hoping she ended up on a team with a certain someone..
No, she couldn't let herself get distracted. That was perhaps the worst possible thing one could do while operating a plane. Granted, it was only a simulation of a plane displayed by her trusty pilot figurine, but it was excellent training, and as far as she was concerned, she was currently the onboard pilot flying over her home in the human kingdom, and she saw no good coming from a sudden crash landing.
Granted, she did eventually crash anyway, ending the simulation, but that had nothing to do with her being distracted. There was only so much power in her house and if too many things happened at once. Things started shutting down.
The messenger on her laptop crashed her pilot figure's fancy display, leaving her sitting on her bed, illusion ruined. She was tempted to attack her laptop, but thankfully unable. She had brassknuckle-kind, and for this specific reason kept her actual brassknuckles, given to her as a gift from Brendon, in her charm modus.
If she got riled up and wanted to hurting something/one, she'd have to go through the process of sorting the charms in her modus to get the weapon out. This would give her time to cool down and decide if cracking teeth out was really called for in this situation.
She decided that of course it wasn't and went over to join whatever conversation had started up, finding that three others were already on. She guessed correctly that they were talking about the game and logged in.
[Born2Fly has joined the chat with Mighway, LuckyStar, and ProduceNinja]
MW: Glad ya could join us,
BF: Anytime, what's everyone talking about?
PN: MW is suggesting we form a sort of alliance, then all pool to be on the same team.
BF: Sounds cool, but uh.. What for?
MW: So we can all get ahead why else?, This way no matter who's 'in charge', we can still run the show,
LS: you mean you can run the show X:?
MW: I didn't fucking say anything like that!, We'd all be in charge, Like our own personal Round Table,
BF: She's kinda got a point. No matter who's team we're on, if what DT said is true, the team leader isn't really a leader, just the first person in the game. If we all pair up, then we can get things done for real.
LS: fair enough is guess, but if no ones in charge of us, then how do we make decisions X:?
PN: I suppose we could go the democratic sy-stem and put things to votes. There's four of us here, so if we end up in a tie then we can take it to the actually 'team leader' for a tiebreaker.
MW: Oh, So you're down with the system now?,
PN: I'm just trying to find a balance between smart and morale here, balance is key to most of my choices actually, just like-
MW: Make one more referance to your garden and I'ma reach through this screen and smack ya,
LS: much as i'd rather not side with the wicked bitch of the west over there, i gotta agree X:X
MW: Oh so I'ma bitch now?,
LS: now? you make it sound like some new development XXP
BF: Cut the pitch flirting or I'll sick OP on ya. Anyway, alright, I'm in. Who's team are we gonna be on.
PN: I believe LS has already agreed to be on EE's team.
MW: Oh now what the fuck!?,
LS: dont like it, kick me out of the alliance. oh wait, if you do i can tell everyone else about it XXD
MW: You clown worshipping fuck,,, alright, fuck it, we're on EE's team now.
BF: Well, fine I guess. Is the last spot on his team taken?
PN: Yes, CD took it. Shortly after LS joined him funnily enough ;)
LS: none of that now, dont you have plants to go talk to?
PN: … maybe.
Risura Inatag stood up from his desk, exiting the chat on his grubtop. EE had been baffled to find that he suddenly had a full team with basically no effort, but he chalked it up to his being incredibly smart and everyone wanting to be on his team.
He 'd gone rather immediately to brag to FS, not making the connection that if half the people were his now, FS's team was just as full as his own. Risura was near certain there was something genuinely wrong with the guy's head.
Then again, Risura supposed people often judged him for his seemingly bizarre actions, all of which made perfect sense to him. Most jade blood trolls would choose a home below ground or at least in an area of low light, if only to appease their inevitably light sensitive lusus.
Risura, following the teachings/insane ramblings of the book that had dictated most of the decisions he'd made throughout his life, had instead opted to live rather specifically in an area of high light, his hive built with several sunroof areas so light could keep the place lit.
It was this same book, which had grown worn over the years, that also lead to his choosing the dice modus, convincing him that certain things, like probability, could absolutely be controlled with enough effort. He'd never failed to get what he needed out of his modus, so he supposed it had to be right.
It had also led to his choice of strife specibus; fist-kind. It told that any warrior who wasn't willing to get their own hands dirty in a scrap could hardly be called a good warrior at all. He'd opted to tip the scales in his favor a little on that one, working out more and more frequently to make sure punches from him would actually do something. He supposed he might well have been the most physically capable jade blood ever, which wasn't saying much but still.
Some accused him of being a moron for following the teachings of a book whose origin he couldn't even pinpoint to dictate his life, calling him cruel for subjecting his light sensitive lusus to such a well lit area.
To those people he reminded that his lusus could dig a pit four times his size in less time than he could fill a glass of water. The lusus slept underground during the day, the network of tunnels he'd built having an entrance into the hive so Risura could go inside to feed and spare with him.
Speaking of which.. It was getting to be about that time. He rolled the dice, getting a naturally twenty and receiving the mole-treats instantly. He pulled up the hatch and jumped into the pit. Once in the near entirely dark environment, his skin began to glow.
He was no rainbow drinker, but all jade bloods glowed at least a little if it was dark enough. He shook the bag of treats, drawing out his lusus. He was large, almost five times the size of Risura himself.
Between that and the claymour length claws, fighting with him was always very… tricky.
Valtina Vitria, known online as ProduceNinja, resented the mocking of her craft rather vehemently. It was for this reason she did not mock LS's bizarre book-based religion, FS's strange mafia fixation, or CD's unsettling love of clowns.
She sighed, getting up and walking out of her house and into the garden. Well, she stepped outside of her house, entering the massive tangle of vines and plants that occupied her yard. She wasn't sure how she'd managed it, but it was glorious, a dozen or more different plants all connected by a single root vine, a massive organism.
Said organism grew things benign like more vines and flowers, beneficial like fruits and vegetables, and even malicious like several toxic and carnivorous offshoots growing in different directions.
Part of her was aware that, technically speaking, all these different plant structures should not have been capable of sprouting from the same plant, but her parents had been amazing, and this had the plant they'd left her for care, and it in turn took care of her.
In this way she felt like she very nearly understood the troll concept of having a lusus. She even spoke with the gardenvine; though both her friends and neighbors alike found this rather odd. She was less offended by the neighbors though, as they were all carapacians, and she could convince herself that anything she said or did would be odd from their perspective.
Curiously, she'd found herself having strange dreams about the carapacians recently. Only the dark shelled ones, but it was still odd. She dreamt of high towers, deep purple with dozens of the chess people below, whispering nervously.
She shook her head, refusing to give the recurring dreams any of her waking thought. She took out her strife specibus, or rather she took them all out. Her garden had inspired her to choose more than one specibus, and she was armed to the figurative teeth.
She now had a catch all strife specibus of garden-kind, holding any gardening implement. Before she'd had to individually carry shovel/trowel-kind, shear/lopper-kind, glove-kind, and her favorite, pitchfork/sai-kind.
It amused her to no end that her sais, a pair of replica ninja weapons she'd gotten for her birthday, fit in the same category as her pitchfork. She'd thought at first it was just because of similar shape, only to learn that it actually worked because the sais were in fact gardening tools to start with. She supposed this meant she could also fit nunchucks in, but she knew she'd give herself a concussion if she tried.
This had also influenced her to get the tree-modus, but as much as her borderline phytophilia drove most of her decisions, her frustration with tree-modus eventually led her to switch out for stack, which she found easier.
Mutosi Fimgil, the brown blooded troll who went by MighWay online, was still remarkably pissed at Risura for just deciding to go with Patior before they'd discussed it. Probably that stupid book again. She made a fiftieth mental note to fucking burn it. Maybe then he'd get some sense into him.
Then again, if he did, he would be as fun to argue with. All but growling at the unintentional implications of that thought, she took out her scramble-modus. Not even to get anything, sorting the scrambled objects in the rubix-cube like inventory just calmed her.
She took a breath and figured she might as well get ready for the game. According to DT, who she'd actually had the good sense to check with unlike the others, she would in fact need her strife specibus and would want everything she wanted to keep in her hive at the time of the game's beginning.
She wasn't sure why, but didn't see any point in arguing with that brick wall. She looked around for her strife cards, having two. One was blank, as she'd never felt the need for a second weapon. The first was broom-kind, an ironic statement that let her turn the expectation of the blood cast into a weapon against them.
Never mind the fact that there wasn't actually a blood cast left at this point. She still believed it was there, just out of sight, and she had to be ready for it. Thankfully, they'd have to get through her lusus to get through her.
In addition to being roughly the size of a buss, her lusus had massive pincer claws and a tail stinger with enough venom in one stab to kill a fuscia blood. The massive scorpion was extremely territorial, moreso than most lusus, likely do to her instinctive knowledge that her chosen troll was a brown blood and thus extremely fragile by troll standards.
Mutosi didn't much care for the fragile treatment, but appreciated the protection. She very much wanted her lusus with her in the game, and used her powers to call her inside. Thankfully there was an entrance in the back of the jagged structure that would let her come in without having to rip a hole in the place; which is how the entrance in the back was formed.
There, next time we can get to the interesting stuff. I mean, hopefully this has been at least kinda interesting otherwise I've written a terrible introduction. You get what i mean. In the meantime, head over to sinful's drabbles for this chapter's lemon. Yes, there's on in there, enjoy ^^
