Market 2} Julwae and Damara

Julwae played by Kiwi, Damara played by Dodo

Julwae as she is was around in a public place with her sketchbook. The sun had set and it was a nice breezy night to have a walk around the market. She grabbed a couple things she needed at home though she wasn't really here to shop. As usual she wanted to draw the surroundings. She sat down on a bench and got out an apple that she bought. She took a bite out of it before starting to draw the surrounding area. might as well work on backgrounds since their weren't a lot of people here.

If it were up to Damara, she probably would never leave her hive again. The place was disgusting thanks to her neglect in making any serious attempt to clean it, but the alternative of going out and having to interact with other trolls or humans made her face reflexively scrunch into a grimace. Her dealings with her fellow Beforian SGRUB players, alongside the stresses of being a rustblood in the chaos of the initial months of the merge and the Reign that followed, had left her perfectly content to never see another person’s mug again for the rest of her relatively short lifespan. Unfortunately, though, her warm blooded body demanded sustenance. So every now and again, Damara would have to drag together some semblance of an outfit and haul herself to the store, before fading back into obscurity once more.
Rather than bothering to put together the red garb she was most known for, the burgundy blood had gone for an approach that screamed “I can’t be assed right now” to anyone who looked at her. Her hair had been allowed to fall ragged past her shoulders in a similar manner to her Alternian counterpart, crudely trimmed raven locks serving to somewhat obscure her gaunt face. A simple black T-shirt with her zodiac emblazoned on it in the color of her blood served to cover her chest, while a slightly stained pair of grey sweatpants which she hadn’t even tried to change out of before remained placed around her legs. To complete the look was a ratty pair of red sneakers that were a size too small, which Damara had never bothered to replace on account of not wanting to go anywhere she could help. As the begrudging burgundy made her way towards the entrance of the store, touching down after flying herself there using her psionics, a crunching sound would prompt one of her ears to raise. Casting a glance in the direction of the noise, her gaze would settle upon another rust blood who’d sat themselves down on a bench outside the marketplace. They seemed to be lost in thought, occasionally glancing upwards to note their surroundings as they scribbled something on their sketchbook.
Something about how content the other troll looked almost immediately got under Damara’s skin, as if she was jealous for how alright with life they were. A light frown curling into existence, the Witch of Time would bark out a statement in Eastern Beforian, appearing to be trying to get their attention. “何してるの。あなたは疑わしい売春婦ですか？” She questioned rather rudely, her harsh, narrowing eyes still clearly visible despite the deep black hair that particularly hung over them.

Julwae heard the noise however it took her a moment to register the fact it was speaking to her. She blinked a couple of times before looking up and over towards the sound of the voice. She spotted Damara and tilted her head to the side. Whatever the other rustblood said she couldn't understand and so she thought it must have been a mistake. The girl was not talking to her there must be someone else. She looked around the outside realizing that there was no one else. She swallowed and brought her eyes back to the burgundy. She fidgeted with her hands for a couple seconds before opening her mouth. "U-um excuse me?" she asked sounding and looking confused as she was.

Oh of course. Damara had nearly forgotten how uncommon her native tongue was for a moment there. Eastern Beforian, or Eastern Alternian as it was known to other trolls, was rather rare amongst trolls. The Lost Weeaboos had been only one of a handful of groups on Beforus who still practiced Eastern by the time that she’d arrived there, with it having mostly fallen into obscurity by the time of the merge. Although it was slightly more relevant nowadays due to humans from the island of Japan speaking something roughly similar to it as well, Damara was still yet to meet a great many who could understand her without a translator or a tool. It was nice for slinging insults behind an artificial barrier, but not so much when you actually wanted to convey something in a comprehensible fashion.
Letting out a frustrated grumble, the other burgundy would pinch the bridge of her nose, tilting her head downwards and shaking it impatiently as she tapped a foot against the pavement. Clearly she had quite the temper, if she was already getting so worked up over something as common as another troll eating a piece of fruit. “YES. SPEAK TO YOU. GIRL WITH BOOK.” Damara was quick to reply, her words still somewhat difficult to grasp given how heavy her accent was. “WHAT YOU DO? SIT THERE. SUSPICIOUS.” She elaborated a moment later, crossing her arms thereafter. The Witch wasn’t exactly sure why she was even bothering with this person, but throwing people off like this tended to at least make her feel a bit content. Misery loves company, and all that.

Julwae watched her and she scratched at her hand. She looked down at her lap getting more nervous. She looked back at Damara and shakily said. "W-well I like it o-out here and um I-" she stumbled over her words and took a deep breath. Her tone and her agression was making Julwae uneasy and she didnt really know how she was supposed to react in this situation "I-im not suspicious I swear I'm just drawing." She moved her hand to scratch the back of her neck.

Either this other burgundy was a nervous wreck, or they were actually up to something suspicious and Damara had caught them flat footed. For all intents and purposes, though, those both added up to the same end result. She was putting the other troll in an uncomfortable position, and the journey to get to that point didn’t matter so much as the end result in this context. Damara was one who truly took the name of their species to heart. She thrived off of the discomfort of others, driving her enjoyment from watching them squirm in the face of her behavior. Sure it had her branded as a massive pervert at this point, but that hardly mattered. Everyone who mattered had already made up their mind on her, so digging the hole deeper was all but meaningless.
Appearing not to be satisfied with the answer, Damara began to stalk closer towards the artist, eyeing them as if they were one of a handful of unsightly stains that dotted her own clothing. It was fairly obvious how miserable she was, what with the poor standing of her outfit and the way her hair looked as if nobody had tried to so much as comb it in weeks. She almost looked hiveless to be perfectly honest, although in reality she simply hadn’t the care to maintain either herself or her dwelling. “YOU SAY DRAW? SHOW ME.” Damara would demand as she got closer, craning her neck to try and get a look at the notebook as Julwae clutched it.

She pulled it to her chest and stood up. Normally Julwae would be pretty okay to show someone what she was working on. She liked it when people took interest in art after all. However this troll didn't look like she was very interested in the art. She quickly grabbed her bag of grocery's. This whole deal probably made her look even more suspicious but she wasn't thinking clearly in her fear. "L-look I don't know what I did to make you upset so-" she swallowed "Whatever it was I am ex-extremely sorry. I was just here for grocery's and I sat down to draw before leaving"
Julwae was being more cautious because after getting kidnapped her whole demeanor was thrown off. She hated coming out of her hive even more now and she almost didn't, but her fridge was empty and both her and her Lusus were hungry. They needed food so she had to come out here. She shouldn't have stopped and sat she should have just went straight back to her hive but the lighting was so pretty and she just had to get it out on paper before she left. She mentally cursed at herself as her hand fiddled with the handle of her shopping bag.

Unfortunately, Damara was unable to understand the context of Julwae’s actions, given she had no way of understanding the trials and tribulations the other burgundy blood had suffered through in the past. Although even if she was aware, it was unclear if she would have stood down regardless. After all, since when did the same person who hounded anyone who spoke to her in the memo with horrendously crude solicitations give a damn about the comfort of others? The rustblood was only in it for the kicks at this point, really only invested in making everyone else feel as awful as she did. Life had not been kind to Damara over the years, but that didn’t change the fact that her treatment of everyone else made her difficult to be around or sympathize with in any serious capacity.
Grimacing as the other lowblood jerked away, the Witch of Time gave the Maid of Life an unpleasant glance, as if she had ripped an object out of her hands rather than simply hiding one from her sight. The two of them were similar in that they only left their hives to get food after being jaded by the actions of others, but their feelings towards the world afterwards couldn’t be any less different. Damara was aggressive and nasty, while Julwae was meek and nervous. They were like two opposite sides of the same coin, a kinship which was also lost on the Beforian iteration of The Handmaid. “NOW YOU NOT SHOW. YOU MUST DO BAD. HIDING AWAY SECRETS. SNEAKY BITCH.” Damara sneered, still trying to maneuver herself in a way that she could gaze upon the contents of the notebook. “NOT SHOW. ONLY MAKE ME MORE ANGRY. SHOW. NOW.”

Julwae felt a chill run down her spine and she stood there stunned for a couple seconds. She was shaking with fear the anxiety rising in her chest. She could continue to deny her fellow rustblood a look at her drawing and risk some sort of unpleasant experience. Could be from getting yelled at some more to something physical. Or she could show this woman her drawing and risk her work getting torn to shreds. She had no idea what Damara was capable of and she really didn't want to find out.
A whimper escaped her throat as she slowly turned the sketchbook around to face Damara. She still kept it close to her chest but the drawing of the scenery around them was shown now on the page. "P-please I was just drawing" The book shook with her hands as she nervously awaited whatever Damara had planned.

The surrender was rather disappointing to Damara. Admittedly she’d been sort of hoping this phase of the exchange would last a bit longer, so that she could continue raking the nervous wreck that was Julwae across the coals of her stern glare. Though really it wasn’t all too unexpected. This other burgundy blood seemed pretty wimpish in their terrified reaction, even if it was a bit understandable to be afraid of the hiveless looking troll who was accosting you for seemingly no reason. Well, no matter. Even if she didn’t intend on ripping the piece of art to shreds like Julwae had feared, the Maid wasn’t exactly going to be let out of the dog house just yet either.
Spending a moment in silence, Damara studied the sketch of the landscape with ominous stillness. She almost looked like a coiled snake on the verge of a strike, the only movement she exhibited being in the dance of her eyes as they scanned the page in front of her. After maybe a dozen or two seconds which probably felt like sweeps for the fearful Julwae, the other rust blood would begin to speak again. “YOU HIDE FOR THIS? TERRIBLE.” Damara sneered, overlooking the quality of the piece just to stick it to the artist even harder. “TAKE BACK. NO WONDER YOU HIDE. MAKE EYE SICK LOOKING.” She changed her mind a moment later, letting out a nasty sounding chuckle as she shook her head in disapproval.

Julwae was wracked with fear as she stood for what felt like hours. As Damara looked over the page she felt herself starting to sweat. When her fellow rust spoke again her words hit Julwae like a truck and she seemed to deflate. Shakily she closed her sketchbook and put it back in her bag. she stood there and looked at Damara this whole interaction just made her want to curl up in a ball and die. She was still anxious but now just sad. Her artwork was her life. She'd spent countless hours working on her technique her skills her everything. It was more than a job to her it was her passion and she wouldn't give it up for the world. To hear someone make comments about it hurt bad.
She pushed her glasses up on her face and messed with her hands. She looked at Damara noticed her demeanor her anger. She scratched her palm and sniffled. No no way she wasn't going to cry not right here not right now. It was too late and she felt the red tears run down her cheeks. "fuck" she mumbled to herself bringing her hands up to her face and under he glasses to cover her eyes. She didn't make anymore noise but tears slipped out from under her hands and fell to the pavement that was under their feet. As she stood there weak and vulnerable she knew it was just going to get worse for her. She hiccupped and let out another sniffle. Everything was loud and her head was pounding and she just wanted to leave but she couldn't. She was frozen in place as she cried.

Well, that sure didn’t take a lot of effort. The other troll had already begun to sob in response to Damara’s criticism, trying and failing to hide their dark red tears from the other member of their caste. It was almost a little bit surprising to see that Julwae had fallen apart this quickly to be perfectly honest. Burgundy bloods weren’t exactly the most durable trolls out there, but that was more in terms of the damage their body could take, not their mental status. Though Damara didn’t really feel bad about making her cry. At least more than a tiny bit, anyways. If anything she was disappointed. It felt akin to swallowing a hundred dollar piece of grub steak in one bite. This prime opportunity to give someone a hard time had already reached its climax with minimal fanfare, and the disappointment on the adversarial lowblood’s face was obvious.
After watching Julwae cry for several moments in silence, the boredom began to set in. The damage had already been done, and as far as Damara was concerned, it was enough for now. Sure she was the one getting enjoyment out of other people’s suffering here, but she wasn’t about to go and ruin someone’s whole life in one swoop. Maybe the lives of one of her “old pals” sure, but not that of a random stranger. Letting out a displeasured huff, the Witch shook her head a final time before beginning to stalk away, muttering something nasty in Eastern under her breath. The encounter hadn’t left her feeling nearly as satisfied as her exchange in the memo earlier that day. That was probably a sign that she should just get the food she needed and book it back to her treehive. A sign which she took, leaving Julwae to cry alone.

She uncovered her face and watched as Damara walked away. She was so angry at herself for crying over nothing. Why was she so nervous about everything why couldn't she just be normal. She wiped her face off and glared at Damara. She pulled an apple out of her bag and held it in her hands. She'd had enough this week was the worst and she was done. She reeled her arm back and threw the apple at Damara. This was the last straw for her and she didn't realize the world of hurt she just inflicted on herself. She was a scrawny week nobody and here she was chucking an apple at a stranger.
The apple hit Damara in the ankle but it wasn't hard enough to hurt at all it felt like a gentle tap.

Damara barely felt anything when the apple tapped against her ankle, but she felt just enough to notice that a projectile had, in fact, been tossed towards her. Blinking in surprise before coming to a stop, the burgundy blood bully was quick to glance around herself, gaze shifting over Julwae in the background before noticing the apple at her feet. Expression darkening, she crouched down in order to pick up the improvisational, fruit based weaponry, turning it over in her grasp as she looked it over like it had insulted her lusus. She hadn’t expected the nervous wreck of a rust blood to do anything as she left, so you could imagine her surprise when she put two and two together that Julwae had attempted to hit her in the back with the food item. Eyes slowly raising back up to look upon the owner of the fruit, Damara would clench the apple in her hand. Although she did not have the strength to do such a feat on her own, a careful application of her psionics allowed her to seemingly effortlessly crush the apple in her hand, causing chunks of pulp and juice to go flying all around her. It may have stained her clothing further, and definitely stained her palm, but she didn’t care too much about that right now.
She cared more about the other rustblood who’d had the gall to challenge her in such a brazen fashion.
“OH. YOU WANT FIGHT? THOUGHT YOU BITCH. NOT WANT FIGHT. BUT IF YOU WANT. I GIVE.” Damara growled, raising her wet hand into the air to signify the use of her psionics further. Several moderately sized rocks and other bits of debris that had been scattered around the parking lot suddenly rose to life, flying towards the aggrieving burgundy blood before coming to a halt a foot or two away from her. The surrounding pieces of junk began to orbit Damara’s wrist as she started to walk back over to Julwae, not yet attacking, but very clearly forecasting her intent to do so. Good luck, artist. You’ll need it.

Julwae swallowed her flight or fight responses kicking in. It was too late for flight and even she knew that. She had to think and she had to think fast. she tossed her bags on the bench. "I want to k-know what gives you the right to be an asshole to someone you've n-n-never even met!?" she yelled at Damara stuttering in her response. She again was shaking but she was doing her best to look as put together if she could. "I just wanted to get f-food and you just- you come over an-and you yell at me! What did I ever do to you! I mind my buisness and I-I do-" she took a deep breath. "What is your problem!" this was a bad idea and Julwae knew it oh she knew it. She was mad though and she wanted to know why this was happening to her. If she was going to get her ass kicked she might as well figure out why she was being harassed outside of a store. She had her hands in front of her palms up. It looked like both a defense and also her holding up a white flag.

The aggressing burgundy blood was largely silent as the defendant yelled in confusion, slowing her advance forwards as if to allow them to finish their monologue. Her expression seemed to fade from anger into a cold and indifferent, almost blank look as she studied her fellow, perhaps still surprised by their sudden bout of bravery. In a way, Julwae’s transition almost reminded her a bit of herself. There had been a time when she was meger and meek, and someone who thought they were stronger tried to tear them down at no fault of their own. Unfortunately, though, though, the similarity did not elicit any sympathy from the bruised heart of Damara. In fact, it seemed to amuse her. Coming to a slow stop, the Witch begins to emit a low throaty rumble, accompanied by the occasional snicker. The unpleasant sounds soon boiled over into a cackle that truly lived up to her classpect, the time player howling as if Julwae had told her the funniest joke she’d ever heard.
Regaining her composure somewhat several moments later, Damara was now grinning wide, a drastic departure from her previous demeanor. However, just as it seemed she was about to call it all a jest or a sick prank, she abruptly made a rising motion with her free hand. Julwae would find her feet betray her as she was suddenly flipped into the air, landing hard on her behind as Damara began to burst with laughter once more. “MY PROBLEM?” She wheezed, words interrupted by bouts of schadenfreude. “MY PROBLEM. FOOL. NOT ABOUT ME. ALL ABOUT YOU.” The rust eventually finished with a sigh, allowing her left hand to retract as she raised her right further. The orbiting objects came to a rigid halt before several pieces of trash would jet forwards, aiming to smack Julwae in the face as the rocks Damara had picked up simply sank back to the ground.
With a low hum, Damara spent another moment otherwise silent to study her hand picked enemy. Then, she spoke for the final time. “I LEARN VERY QUICK. WORLD NOT WANT YOU. WORLD TEAR YOU DOWN. YOU FIGHT WORLD. OR WORLD KILL YOU.” She said in a more somber voice, giving Julwae one last disdainful look before turning on her heel to make a definitive walk towards the store. If the artist tried again, she could always put her down with the rocks, but Damara was confident that she’d done enough. And at this point, all of these theatrics were starting to work up an appetite. She hadn’t come here for no reason after all.

Julwae laid there on the ground for a few moments before sitting up. She wiped the trash off her face and stared at her lap. She got up and grabbed her bags. As Damara left her eyeline Julwae started to make her way home. That was painful for her and for her mental heath. First kidnapped by a stranger and mocked by another one another one in the same caste as her at that. The world was curl and Damara was right it didn't want weaklings like her. She glared at her feet as she walked. She looked back at Damara one last time, she might have one this battle but she won't win this war if Julwae can help it.

Scene End