Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

Oh! Hello there, my dear! I do not believe we've had the pleasure of meeting yet. My name is not important, all that is important is that I get you up to speed.

Tick.

Do not mind the clock; that is just an heirloom I inherited from a former version of myself, one who lived in a different time all together. Allow me to introduce you to my home, a place I have lived in since the dawn of humanity. Though when I finally found my grandson, or technically my son, I finally found myself a companion to live with.

Tock.

Never-the-less, I am nothing if not a good host. I mean what kind of grandmother slash omniscient super being would I be if I didn't entertain my guests? Allow me to show you a story. A story about a Mage, a Thief, a Prince, and a Witch. A story about the destruction of a session, and the destruction of a fragile Heart. Please enjoy while I entertain other guests, ones that are much rowdier than yourself. And trust me when I say we shall see each other again. Too Doo Loo!

Jaloon leapt out of the gate, landing on his hands and knees with a hard thud. Why did she have to go after him? What did she see in fish-boy anyway? His head spun with questions as he stood up on the roof of a large, looming castle, fit for only the classiest of blood-castes. Gertrand's castle. It's a surprise the guys' home actually made it into the game. No matter what he did back on their home planet before the game, the guy sure had a good sense for imposing castles; the grey brick walls and spiralling towers made more menacing by the various coils of barbed wire and spiked poles set upon them. Quite extravagant for an Indigo blood. Jaloon gazed down upon Gertrand's land from the roof of the castle, which had been significantly built up by that point. This was it, the place where Yemen and Mahnda had run after Gertrand after he lost his temper and claimed to want to eliminate everyone's denizens. Gertrand's planet, the Land of Narrow Paths and Sunlight. God the place was bright.

He saw the various consorts below the castle, but couldn't recognise them from his current position. So instead, he ignored everything and entered a doorway down into the castle, rushing down the steps to catch up with Mahnda. Hopefully he could do something to convince her against following that ridiculous Violet blooded Thief around any longer. He spiralled down the steps, jumping the last couple of steps and turning a corner, entering a large hallway filled with various pictures of Gertrand's various journeys that he'd had Tarlia draw for him. He jogged down the hallway, the heavy steps from his boots echoing in the hallway as he did.

Yelling could be heard down another hallway, and Jaloon eagerly followed it. He eventually found the source, and the reason he'd come here; Yemen, the Thief of Space, Gertrand, the Prince of Life, and Mahnda, the Witch of Light. Mahnda was the obvious centre of attention, her long and frivolous dress falling around her five foot six stature. The Jade blood's hair fell in front of her face, half of it shaved of as a sort of fashion statement and one of her curly horns poking out from it, as she made a concerned frown towards the two others in the room.

Yemen, the Violet blood, stood to her left, a scowl of disgust directed towards Gertrand on the other side of Mahnda. He, like the other fishy troll in their session, was decorated in various pieces of jewellery ranging from necklaces to rings to earrings. His robe's popped collar covered the base of his chin, and covered the entirety of his five foot nine body except for a pair of lace up boots on his feet. His slightly curved horns extruded from his head, pointed towards his aggressor.

Meanwhile, Gertrand, the Indigo blood, stood on Mahnda's other side, his cane-sword sat in one of his hands. Unlike everyone else in the session, Gertrand had ascended God Tier very early into the game, but had swapped his quote unquote "fruity" outfit in favour of his own style of clothing, which could barely be passed as an outfit. He preferred to leave his chest bare, painting various coloured streaks in reference to the different blood castes in troll society on his torso, while only wearing a pair of dress pants that showed off his bare feet. The curly hair that sat upon his head mostly obscured his nubby horns, though the ends still poked out the top.

Mahnda finally noticed Jaloon stood watching them, and gestured towards him. "Finally!" She exclaimed, "Jaloon, as the dear leader of our session, could you talk some sense into these dipshits?"

Yemen stepped forward, waving an arm out in front of him, "Stay the hell out of this, Jaloon. And Mahnda, honey, I get the whole "Mary Sue" complex your having, but leave this situation to the men, okay?"

Mahnda snarled at him, "What the fuck does that mean?"

"I mean it's cute that a Jade-blooded woman like yourself thinks that she can get involved in business meant for the males, you know?"

"Oh don't you fucking dare start with that, fish douche!"

"Guys," Jaloon said in an authoritative tone, "we can sort out this little Kismessitude later. For now, we have to deal with whatever you guys are feuding over." Jaloon turned to the Indigo blood. "Gertrand, what's wrong? Why are you so intent on killing everyone's denizens?"

"It's hard to explain," Gertrand sighed, "my consorts were sort of vague about it, and my sprite wasn't much better, but from what I got the denizens are basically genocidal maniacs who rule over their people with an iron fist. And god damn it, the only one around here that can do that is me."

"You're just jealous because they're better warlords than you!" the Thief added.

Gertrand growled, and unsheathed his sword from his cane, but Jaloon interrupted him before he could go any further. "Okay then. Yemen, why do you even care about it? They're bad guys, so they should die, shouldn't they?"

Yemen bore his sharp teeth. "Hell no! The things are too important to die, and maniac here wants to doom our session by killing them!"

"How do you know their important?" Jaloon questioned.

"Because Tarlia's lusus told me!"

"Wait, what?" Jaloon replied.

"Yeah, the thing just turned up in my room one night and expositioned the shit out of me. I don't understand why Tarlia was so insistent about keeping us from it!"

Mahnda gestured a hand at him. "But shouldn't her lusus be with her in her session?"

"I don't know, and I don't care. But if Gertrand is willing to doom us all, how long until he murders us all personally? He was going to kill me if you didn't step in!"

"Because you're pissing me off!" Gertrand intruded.

"Gertrand, please," Jaloon plead, "Don't kill him. We can't show him that he's right."

"God damn it Jaloon. I hope you realise the only reason I won't snap his scrawny neck is because of you."

Yemen took a couple of steps towards Jaloon. "Now order him to not kill our denizens!"

Jaloon tentatively stepped back. "Well, I honestly don't see the big deal. It's your word against his, and I trust his word a lot more than yours."

"Oh you're fucking joking! You're a fucking pathetic excuse for a leader!"

Mahnda walked up and pushed him away from Jaloon. "Don't say that! Jaloon's got us this far! It's your stubborn nook that's refusing to spend weeks on the breeding of the Genesis Frog!"

"Did I ask for the input of a middle-classed woman?"

"Hey!" Jaloon shouted, "Don't you dare speak to her that way!"

"Oh yeah? And what are you going to do about it? Are you going to protect your little flushed crush?" Yemen gestured at Mahnda. "You knew, right? It's not like he never made it obvious. The nice gestures, all the presents and hanging out, you had to know those were signs? But of course none of them would work, right?"

Jaloon kept quiet, an uncomfortable frown on his face, as Gertrand attempted to interrupt him. "Yemen, shut the hell up before-"

"Oh, that reminds me! What about his little wannabe Moirallegiance with you? How he was trying to slide into the Pale quadrant with you, but since he's too fucking pathetic to make a move he never stood a chance. In fact, how many failed exploits do you have, Jaloon? Let's count. There was that absolutely adorable flushed crush on Carthus, the other Pale crush on Pially, the weird hate crush on Hysees, and so on so forth. I mean, Christ, Tarlia wouldn't even have intercourse with you like she did with everyone else!"

Gertrand's anger grew as Yemen talked, but Yemen continued, "And you know why you can never find someone to love you? Because you're a pathetic excuse for a troll! Because you can't grow a bulge and just ask someone out! And you're going to end up alone, Jaloon. You're going to end up dead and alone, because literally no-one could ever love you, you pathetic piece of fucking shit!"

That was the moment Gertrand snapped, and he unsheathed his sword, rushing forwards at Yemen. Gertrand could've sworn he heard someone scream no as he did, but that wasn't enough to stop him as he raised his sword in front of him, and ran it through the body in front of him. Gertrand closed his eyes as his target grabbed at the sword in pain, but eventually fell limp. As Gertrand opened his eyes, he heard a gasp come from Jaloon, and saw the Jade blood on his sword. Wait, Jade blood?

Gertrand's head slowly tilted up, and he saw Mahnda instead of Yemen at the end of his sword. Her body was completely still, any type of life drained from her. Gertrand slowly looked over at Jaloon, who had a few diluted blue tears falling from his face, then at Yemen, whom had a surprised expression. Eventually, he pulled his sword out from Mahnda and let her body fall to the ground, a pool of blood forming around her.

Yemen was the first to speak up, pointing a finger hastily at Gertrand, "SEE?! I told you! I wasn't even insulting him and he went to kill me! See Jaloon!" Jaloon wiped the tears from his eyes, and looked between Yemen and Gertrand before beginning to walk towards Yemen. "I mean, he didn't even kill me! He killed the little crush of yours! I mean personally, I'd say good riddance, but I feel like that's disrespectful to the recently deceased. Come on, the idiot shouldn't of have got herself involved in issues for boys, am I right?"

Jaloon stopped in front of Yemen, his height an imposing factor towards the Thief, and picked him up by the neck with one hand. Yemen struggled a little, letting out a series of grunts, and made a weak kick into Jaloon's gut. With a flick of his wrist, Jaloon snapped the fish's neck, and let his limp body fall to the ground. He then turned to Mahnda's dead body, and picked it up, cradling it in his arms.

"Jaloon," Gertrand mumbled, "I didn't mean to kill her. She just got in the wa-"

"Gertrand," Jaloon said angrily, "I don't want to see your face around me or my friends ever again. If I ever see you, and I mean ever, I will kill you."

"But I-"

"Do you understand?"

Gertrand nodded slowly. "Yeah, I understand."

"Good." Jaloon made his way past Gertrand, keeping his eye contact off of him still.

"Hey Jaloon?" Gertrand stopped him in his tracks. "I also think, and this is just something that one of my minions mentioned off-hand, that our session and Carthus' session may be the same session."

Jaloon finally looked at him, a dead-pan look in his eyes, and replied, "Okay then. I'll trust you on that. I'll warn Carthus of our impending arrival."