The deep rouge-colored walls of a cave had gone untouched all evening. If the walls could feel, they would have recognized the absence of interaction between them and their resident. They would have remembered that she was gone throughout half of every sweep during the day. It wouldn't have been too much of a problem. She had always left to hunt in the evening. But when she returned, she would always stroke the rough carmine stone in careful patterns, spreading the blood of her last kill into works of art. Masterpieces. If the walls had known emotion, they would have dearly loved her artwork.
But when Nepeta entered her hive, she brought no kill. No new fur rug to walk upon or wear on her shoulders. What she had brought home was instead aching feet and tired eyes. Her tail dragged on the ground, collecting the dust from the cave floor. She didn't stop to feel the fur of one of her rugs. She seemed altogether to be devoid of her characteristic functions. The walls, of course, didn't care. Walls can't feel. But her lusus was quite concerned.
Pounce de Leon pawed curiously around Nepeta, sniffing her out for problems. Even as Nepeta was riding her back to her hive, the troll was unusually unenthusiastic. Nepeta ignored her lusus, just intent on getting into her recuperacoon and succumb to the siren song of a good night's sleep. Pounce, however, would not stand for this. She thrust her head under Nepeta's arm, demanding attention and explanation. Nepeta smiled weakly.
"Sorry, Pounce. I can't play with you tonight. My feet are too sore from all that skating." Pounce's whiskers twitched in understanding. Of course. Skating always left Nepeta exhausted. The troll-sized cat wandered off into the corner of the cave, making the decision to let Nepeta rest. And rest she did. Daintily lowering herself into the slime inside her recuperacoon, she relaxed in the warm embrace enveloping her body. What a day it had been. Skating all afternoon. Being drilled again and again by her choreographer. As she lay there enveloped in slime, she recalled vividly what Vriska had instructed her to do.
"All right, you two have great chemistry, I'll give you that," Vriska had told Nepeta and Equius.
"What about… everything else?" Equius had questioned.
"Well, if I had to make a list…" Both of the students braced for the impact of Vriska's next words. "Your strides don't match, you're always off beat, and you don't go the same speed. Equius, your communication skills need work and your rhythm and balance are terrible. Nepeta, you need to extend your motions and build your strength."
"Strength?" both the students inquired, puzzled. Nepeta had always considered herself strong, though more in the aspect of hunting than Equius was.
"Unless I said something different, yes. Strength. You're a runner, aren't you, Nepeta?"
"Um, yeah… did Equius tell you?"
"He didn't need to. You're strong entering a lift, but once you're up there, you turn into a limp grub. Your legs and arms are fine, but there's no way you'll survive in the next competition with your core muscles like this." Nepeta's brow furrowed in concern.
"Well, what do we do? Is it pawsible at all fur me to get strong enough before the furst competition?"
"Normally, no. But you're lucky this time. You could have a personal trainer by tomorrow." Nepeta tilted her head quizzically.
"Really? Who?"
"She might be referring to me," interjected Equius.
"Bingo."
"Equius… as my purrsonal trainer?" Nepeta's speech slowed, tail rigid and unmoving. Both of the highblooded trolls waited for Nepeta to give a hint as to whether she was excited or unhappy. But by something in her posture, maybe the way she locked her knees, Equius figured it out before she gave the obvious sign of speaking her feelings.
"That's… purrfect! We can spend our time together and have fun getting strong and visit each other and he can show me his robots!" By the time she had finished this sentence, she was hopping up and down, almost in danger of slipping.
"Nepeta, I think you're seriously overestimating how fun exercise is," commented Vriska.
"Let her have her moment," said Equius, motioning for Vriska to stop talking. Nepeta continued her enthusiastic spell.
"It'll be so much fun with you! I can't wait!"
At the memory of this moment, Nepeta stirred in her recuperacoon, chirping in delight. A smile danced across her face as she thought of all the fun she would have in the morning.
Equius woke to the sound of shattering glass.
He stood up in his recuperacoon, slime dripping off his muscles. Something was off. Arthour never dropped his tray of lusus milk. The only glass that ever shattered in this hive was the milk glasses that met their fate at Equius' own hand. Something had to be happening outside the room. Not taking the time to shower the slime off, Equius burst out of the door of his respiteblock.
Arthour was, to Equius' relief, not injured. But there was, however, an intruder.
The scene was almost like a painting, each participant frozen in action. Arthour was standing there with his tray ever so shakily held high. One of the glasses was absent from the tray. Rather, it was on the ground in more pieces than it had begun in, milk spreading slowly across the floor. And the perpetrator, or rather, purrpetrator, was standing right by the crime scene, her tail puffy in surprise. She glanced with dilated eyes towards the owner of the hive.
"Sorry, Equius!" she squeaked. "I don't know what came ofurr me! I just wanted to touch the shiny glass!" For several seconds, both trolls didn't speak. But then, in a glorious twist of fate, Equius smiled, showing every cracked tooth in his mouth.
"That's fine. Arthour cleans up well."
Nepeta, now fully recovered from her initial shock, softened into complete and utter excitement. Equius knew that he was in trouble once he saw his friend's catlike smile begin to spread across her face.
"So when are we gonna start?" she asked excitedly, making rapid motions with her tail. "Can I see where you build robots? Where does your lusus get all that milk? How often does he clean? Oh, I really wanna see your respiteblock! What's it like? Lemme see!" With each imploring question, she stepped the slightest bit closer to the door to Equius' respiteblock. He, with a start, began to recall the things that he didn't want Nepeta to see. The musclebeast posters! He began shifting in his position a little, moving to prevent his insistent friend from passing him.
"Nepeta, I don't think…"
"Don't think what?"
"I, uh…" Equius began fumbling for words, sweat beginning to make its moist path down towards the ground. He had to think of something quick, before she somehow nosed her way past him.
"The sopor slime. I need… to wash it off." He wasn't lying. Traces of green slime marked every bit of his body, accumulating in globs at joints and dripping off his long hair.
"Do you need a towel? I can grab you one right now. They're everywhere!"
"No, no! I'm fine, I just…" Equius inched towards his door, grasping at it with his massive hands. "... I have towels in… here…" The door was embedded in the wall, nesting snugly in a door-sized nook that Equius had created by his quick exit.
"Can I come in?" Nepeta begged.
"I… would appreciate a bit of privacy for a few moments," Equius rumbled, yanking the door free of both the wall and its hinges.
"Purrivacy. Right. I'll wait!" Success. Equius balanced the door in its former frame, hoping with all his strength that it would stay upright during the flurry that was certain to follow.
With all the care and stealth of a charging musclebeast, he threw himself at the wall, grasping at its decorations desperately. Perhaps it was the exercise, or possibly the sheer embarrassment Equius felt on almost revealing his deeper interests, but the room was sprinkled in a fairly even layer of sweat before long. He heard a few wires sizzle with electricity as some of the exposed robotic parts came in contact with the salty fluid, but that wasn't what was on his mind right then. He just had to hide everything before Nepeta's innocence was destroyed.
Every single one of the numerous portraits whisked off the walls, glistening muscles and strong imagery flying through the room like falling leaves. Equius heard a tear as he ripped one down, and he came to more of a canter to examine the damage on the poster. It wasn't the most grievous of damage, but that one tear in the fabric of the artwork's overinflated reality cautioned Equius to be more careful. More slowly this time, he succeeded in removing the last poster from the wall. He hurriedly glanced around in an attempt to find a suitable hiding place for these precious yet M-rated artifacts. Settling for a pile of metal limbs, he stuffed the papers underneath them, more concerned about speed than preservation.
"You're making a lot of noise in there! Are you hiding something?" called a voice from the other side of the poorly reconstructed door. She was onto him!
"No, I have nothing to hide! I'm simply… having trouble finding a towel in here!" He heard an unconvinced giggle from the direction of the door. This, of course, was entirely untrue. Towels lay strewn about as if his respiteblock was some sort of towel factory. He stooped down and snatched a towel off the floor, rubbing his great, sweaty head vigorously. As he was passing the coarse fibers of the well-worn towel across his arms, he came to the realization that he would have to hide the towels as well. If Nepeta saw that he had no trouble finding a towel, she might start looking! Equius exhaled through his nose with exasperation. The price he had to pay to be a good moirail!
On the other side of the door, Nepeta was very aware that Equius wasn't simply finding towels. Nothing made him move that fast. She could hear it in the thunderous footfalls echoing from his room. The thought made her smile. Tucking her slight hands into the long, enveloping sleeves of her jacket, she waited patiently. She was incredibly curious as to what he was hiding, but she wouldn't make too much of an effort to find out. Still, she would keep an eye out.
Twenty or so paces away from her, Pounce de Leon pawed around Arthour, rubbing her sides and tail on him like cats do. Arthour, like the saint he was, bore this with cautious acceptance. Stiffening on his four equine legs, he held his tray up high to keep it from the inquisitive muzzle of the giant double-mouthed cat. The movement of the tray, however, only made Pounce more curious. She stretched her neck up to try and peer at what sat upon the tray. As delicately as she could, Pounce placed a paw upon it. She probably didn't put much pressure on it, as Nepeta knew, but Arthour wasn't so accustomed to cat behavior. He jumped, retracting his arm and releasing the tray and milk glasses. They crashed to the ground with twin cacophonies, part clashing metal and part shattering glass.
The seconds following would have been silent if Nepeta hadn't chirped out a giggle. As Arthour hurried down a flight of stairs in an attempt to gather cleaning supplies and Pounce turned quizzically to Nepeta, a cluster of thudding footsteps approached Equius' door. The steps halted for a moment as the troll behind it contemplated what he would do with the door. He knew that the door only swung out, so pulling it in upon himself wasn't an option. Pushing it out wasn't either. Nepeta might be on the other side. After puzzling it out for a few seconds, Equius finally arrived at the conclusion that he would have to communicate.
"Um, Nepeta?" he gingerly called.
"Purresent!" replied Nepeta.
"You can come in now."
"Okay!" Equius wiped his brow with a towel he had left over from the last ordeal. Phew. His respiteblock had just undergone a moirail-proof makeover that should have been done in hours. Silently, he commended himself for having the strength to do so.
Nepeta grasped the doorknob, feeling its metallic coldness. Pulling the door forward and jumping out of the way, she dodged its submission to gravity. For the first time, she was free to explore her best friend's living space! Taking everything in, she stepped through the now-vacated portal slowly and deliberately. The room wasn't as big as she had imagined, being about the size of her own. But the contents were quite intriguing in her opinion. The first thing she noticed was the pile of robots and robot parts located squarely in the middle of the back wall. It was hard to miss, as it was taking up a lot of the room. A basic computer sat on a desk to the right, fairly nondescript as computers went.
Nepeta gaped at all these components, despite being commonplace among trolls of Equius' caste. But the thing she was drawn to the most was the sizeable modulated window on the leftmost wall. She put her hands up to the glass, gazing down on the chasm below. It was so high up! Not even her cave was that high in the cliffs. Hands still on the window, she turned her head to look at Equius, her hair swishing cutely to frame her excited expression.
"Good view?" Equius asked, smiling at his friend's reaction.
"Is it efurr!" Scanning up the cliff, Nepeta's gaze fixated upon the target in front of her. It was another hive, towering high on the opposite cliff. It was incredibly similar to Equius', as she had found on her way up to the hive. She marveled at the architecture almost as she marveled at Equius' when she had seen it for the first time. "Is that where Vwhiskers lives?" she asked.
"Yes. Her lusus lives in the ravine."
Nepeta, getting distracted by all the new sights to see, said no more on the topic. "How many robots have you made?" she quickly inquired, padding over to investigate the pile of mechanical components.
"I lost count a long time ago," Equius replied.
Nepeta mischievously grinned. "I can't imagine what your room looked like befur you cleaned it!"
Equius frowned. "...What?"
"When you were cleaning before! You know, when you made me wait to come in?"
"Oh… yeah…"
"You missed this whole pile of arms and legs!" Nepeta continued, picking one up and feeling its weight in her arms.
"Don't touch those," Equius hurriedly commanded, being all too aware of what lay underneath that particular pile. Nepeta understood that he wasn't making a joke, and so tossed the metal arm back in the pile. The weight reminded her of the reason she had come in the first place.
"Oh!" Nepeta exclaimed in her sudden remembrance. "Are you gonna show me how to get stronger? I can't wait to see how you do it!"
The other troll was prepared for this question, however uncharacteristically. This was partially because Vriska had encouraged him. But mostly because strength was the sole occupant of his thoughts anyway. "I'm glad you asked," he said, showing multiple fractured teeth as he smiled at his new student.
As she strutted from her hive, a certain spiderlike troll chuckled to herself. She had given those two so much more confidence than they deserved. Vriska almost found it funny. No, she definitely found it funny.
Yes, they were talented. Yes, they worked well together. But to refine their skills in such a narrow time frame? It would take a miracle. Of course, Vriska knew too much about miracles. Her last discussion with her main rival had gone so far off track into the topic of miraculous happenings, she barely accomplished her purpose.
But luckily, she did.
She knew exactly who else was competing in the pair skate event.
The sea breeze stirred her hair into its breezy currents. She knew the salt wouldn't wash out anytime soon, but she figured it would be worth it. On the horizon, a familiar dark, spiky shape began to increase in clarity. The mast. The ropes. The polished woodwork on the deck, glinting like deep cobalt marble.
It was good to see the old girl after so long. It all felt too familiar to Vriska, memories of her adventures on the high seas flooding her vision. And she was going to sail once more!
Because Vriska had a bone to pick with an old kismesis.