Crobot

Exurbia | 1x1

Luckily, you didn't fall completely onto your back. You're recovering from the slight shock of the wrenching movements, propped up by your palms. The ax is right near your feet, and you stare at it to grasp your bearings before you hear the troll exclaim, "Are you out of your mind?!"

In response, you give him an incredulous stare. It didn't occur to you as you were rescuing this troll that it could have been one out to kill you or get you in trouble. You often forget that trolls are inherently more hostile than humans. So, you muster the most stone fearless expression possible and scoff, "Are you out of your mind?!"

It was then that you get a good look at the troll. He's very chubby. So chubby that if it had been you, you would not have even thought about trying to squeeze through that hole. Though, he's not exactly fat. There's also some stone crumbs and dust sprinkled in his coarse hair and on his face, which is now reddened and slightly dirty from the fall. By the faint coloring of his pupils, you know he's a mid-blood, but you can't quite tell if the color is a blue-ish or green.

Return (Re-boot) | 1x1 |

Warily, Nicholas turned around when he heard Mattie re-entering the room.

"Wha?"

Exurbia | 1x1

As the sight of Lucy's house comes into view, you're stopped by a small sound. Sort of like someone struggling and panicking, which isn't too much of a common sound in human cities because they're far more hospitable than trolls, especially toward one another. Then, you hear a soft, acute, "Hey!" and you're sure someone around you is in trouble. It's not usually your business to help anyone, but that's when you're in the troll society. In the human society, you like to pretend you're one of them. That isn't not laughable and weak to help someone out even if they're not in your quadrant.

When you look around, you don't see anything unusual. At one of the small, shackled properties near the border, an older man stands in his garden, hoeing at the ground. You used to help him when you were younger and less involved with Lucy and her mother. But he doesn't seem to be in any trouble, nor does he look like he called out to anyone.

Looking further, you fully turn and look at the tunnel you came from. If your sight wasn't so sharp, you'd assume you were seeing things when you saw the peeking of the tip of a horn coming out your end of the tunnel. You walk a little further toward the tunnel and see the tops of eyes peering at you, and then a little further shows, indeed, the head of another troll poking out from underneath the wall. The only thing you can do as you increase your speed is gape. You can't even form a single word.

"How did you-" you finally manage to breathe out, stopping short because it's obvious that the troll didn't fit through the tunnel. Kneeling down onto your knees, you try to grip the troll's slightly-exposed shoulders and fail, as they're too lodged into the earth to get a grasp on. You frown, knitting your eyebrows together, before holding up a finger to signal him to wait. You don't know if he's being suffocated from pressure, so you run to aforementioned elder's tool shed and grab a significantly dulled pickax, which could or could not prove use to you right now. But you're a bit desperate, and you know your strength is superior to a human's.

The first swing could have proven fatal if trolls' skin weren't thicker than humans'. A lot of the stone wall crumbled onto the troll beneath it, but the hole was widened enough that you could throw the ax down and grab his shoulders. One hefty heave later, and you were sprawled on your backside with the freed troll next to you.

Return (Re-boot) | 1x1 |

Unfortunately, the stripes hadn't faded. In fact, they were sort of...pulsing. It was the most disgusting sight. Nicholas probably would have vomited if he could see it, because he felt like he was going to hurl just feeling it. He groaned, keeping his forehead against the wall, and closed his eyes. If it was a dull sting now, he couldn't imagine would it would be when he was completely aware and feeling again.

Exurbia | 1x1

When others tell you that you take too many dangerous risks, you simply tell them that stepping out of your house - er, you mean hive - is a dangerous risk in itself. Which, for you, it could be. You're not on the higher end of the hemospectrum. You're not even in the middle of the hemospectrum. No, you are cursed with disgusting yellow blood. A more saffron color, to be exact. You're a terrible, awful, inferior lowblood. At least, that's what you're told by every higher color. It doesn't make sense to you. You revel in the legends that there was a brief moment when all trolls and humans co-existed harmoniously. You like to think those times could re-ignite. Maybe. Probably not.

The most frequent apparently dangerous risk you take is wandering to the edge of the neighborhood. The neighborhood you live in is adjacent to the easternmost wall of the nearest human container, referred to as The Muck. There aren't very many trolls near the wall, save for a few older ones who are kind in comparison to the average troll. They've never ratted you out before, and you don't suspect they will any time soon.

Although, it isn't just wandering around the edge of the neighborhood. What you do is much more frowned upon, and it could get you fined or punished physically, if not culled altogether. But you don't care, for several reasons. One, you love the rush. Two...

You just love visiting the humans.

There's a small tunnel dug out underneath the wall that allows your small, wiry frame to squeeze to the other side. Even for you, it's a tight squeeze. You don't know if it was an attempt by a human to escape or if a curious animal just formed the hole, but it was enough for you. There's a family that lives not far from the wall. You don't know their surnames, but you know the woman and the girl well. The girl doesn't seem to be much younger than you in human years, maybe by two or three. They both have yellow hair, which is strange to you, but then you remember that your hair is white as opposed to the 99.9% black that other trolls sport. (You're the 0.1% by the way. It's you.)

You've been squeezing under this tunnel to visit this family ever since you were young. Ever since you can remember. They're like your own family, to you. Both of them are very friendly and optimistic despite their circumstances and living situation. You like to share the history you learn with them. For the better half of your life, it was the woman who listened intently to your lore and stories. Lately, it's been the girl.

That's where you're going now. You have a small, colorfully wrapped box with "Lucy" scribbled over the top in chicken-scratch human English writing. It's in your pocket, moving around slightly as you walk down the road that turned to dirt rather than concrete not too long ago.

Return (Re-boot) | 1x1 |

The second that the alcohol-soaked cloth touched the wound on Nicholas' back, his forehead slammed against the wall of the tub. He let out a whimper, but it wasn't quite the scream he expected to have been pulled from his throat, which was definitely fine by him. Although it hurt, it stung like hell, his senses were still numbed. At the moment, that was a great thing.

Return (Re-boot) | 1x1 |

"Hrm, mmk," he mumbled through barely parted lips, shifting around until his wounded back was turned toward Mattie. There was a slight dip in the skin where the shard had struck, surrounded by slightly blackening skin. The black skin branched out into lightning-like stripes, spreading out on every side.

Return (Re-boot) | 1x1 |

"Uh-huh," Nicholas grunted. The searing pain in his back from the wound that the poisoned shard left only intensified when water seeped into it. But he didn't show it. Although he felt it, there was something about whatever drug he'd been pumped with that made him feel just a little emotionless and apathetic.

Return (Re-boot) | 1x1 |

"Muh-wuh?" he peered at her in what he hoped was a skeptical manner, but just ended up looking like more of a drunk goof than he already did.

Return (Re-boot) | 1x1 |

"This is awful," Nicholas groaned, leaning back because he really didn't have any other choice. He was practically akin to a ragdoll in terms of mobility. It was a wonder he could even form coherent words, however slurred they were. If they were coherent at all. They were coherent in his mind, at least.