Medeia's Cave 2} Medeia and Snacks

Medeia played by Dodo, Snacks played by Kiki

Even though it had ended on a lukewarm note, Medeia couldn’t help but smirk with mirth as she signed out of the memo, rising from her seat within her cave abode. While whether or not the chatroom would be entertaining enough to keep her interest had been hit or miss in the past, this was perhaps the biggest hit since her initial connection. The sheer insanity of the exchange had nearly put her in a tearful state, what with all the cursed images weaving through a metric shiton of jokes about Karkat’s bulge. The other hemoanomanious troll lingered in the fuschia’s thoughts for a moment. The whole discussion about blackrom had been a little awkward, but honestly it had been a treat otherwise. Medeia would not soon forget her grother, nor would she forget his miles long bulge. Well, as long as she didn’t get too distracted in practicing her magic anyways.
The impacts of her feet echoing on the stone floor as she walked, the seadweller made her way to a cleared out area near the center of the room, producing her staff from her sylladex once more. The object immediately hummed a soft red upon being released from storage, as if it was speaking a greeting to her. Even though it was just a crystal, Medeia was thoroughly convinced that the focus of her scepter was more than just a magical artifact from a bygone age. The way it behaved almost seemed alive in its own right, and she was always eager to uncover more of the secrets held within its milky white structure. Unfortunately she couldn’t really talk to it in a traditional sense to verify her theory, but the patterns which it glowed all but confirmed in her mind that it was just as alive as she was. More of a helpful partner then an object, a loyal sidekick who would help her literally light up these dark times.
Squinting slightly, Medeia raised her staff above her head, attempting to conjure her thoughts into reality in the form of hard light. As she brought it higher the crystal atop the scepter began to glow progressively brighter, until the soothing red from before had become a harsh crimson. Almost instantaneously, a meter sized cube of solid red light appeared into existence in the air in front of her, hovering perfectly still as it emitted a glow of its own. Allowing her raised arm to fall once more, the fuschia blood walked towards the newly created object, a toothy grin on her face. With her free arm she clambered atop it, struggling slightly to do so but managing after a couple attempts to hoist herself upwards. As she rose to her full height, the hard light projection did not waver, managing to hold her weight in its entirety with no apparent difficulty. This was something that Medeia had done many times before, but the seadweller had more plans than just making platforms for this session.
Now the magician pointed her staff extended in front of her, as if she was pointing to something in the distance. The white crystal atop the staff began to glow once more, and the cube that she stood on began to move forwards once more. However, this movement proved to be far too much for Medeia to retain her balance. The hard light construct jetted forwards, but inertia held the heiress back, causing her to fall backwards with a yelp. As the object dissolved into nothingness upon impacting a nearby cave wall, the fuschia blood fell squarely onto her back, knocking the wind out of her momentarily. As she struggled to her feet once more, it was clear that flying on her own platforms was going to take a bit more practice. Thankfully though her highblood vitality meant that the mishap didn’t stop her for long, and Medeia was back to practicing only a handful of minutes later.[/container]

Snacks had been foraging around near the cave, looking for fruits and berries, knowing there weren't enough nutrients in their body. They had finally gotten just enough to fill their small backpack, and was looking for a safe place to settle down and eat. They had found the bushes to be perfect, since nobody tried to brave the forests alone, and nobody could see them in there, and there they sat, contented with their fruits and unknowingly poisonous berries.
And then there was a loud yelp from a nearby bush as the platform smashed against the cave wall. Orange horns popped up from inside of it, followed by a grubby gremlin-esque troll head, looking all around the clearing before focusing on Medeia. They squinted their eyes at her, popped their head back into the bush, and seemingly ran through the rest of the bushes away from her.
Then after deciding they were bored, they came back, walking on all fours, and sat down next to her, uncomfortably close. A fuschiablood. A perfect snack for their seemingly endless hunger. They looked up at her, baring their teeth like a smiling dog, and pulling some berries out of their bag.

Too absorbed in her studies, Medeia had not initially noticed the crooked approach of Snacks as she worked to refine her magical abilities. These sessions were one of the few things that the fuschia blood really enjoyed in life, so she tended to get quite absorbed in them. A look of determination and focus on her face, the seadweller would slowly move her staff in an arc above her head, the crystal at the top buzzing with red energies as she did. It left a trail of solid red light in its wake, forming a crescent shape around a foot or so above Medeia’s head. It would hover there motionless after its completion until the mage thrust her staff upwards once more, as if directing the object. Instantaneously, the crescent catapulted itself upwards, colliding with the ceiling before fizzling out of existence in an anticlimactic fashion. Allowing the butt of her staff to hit the floor with an audible thud, the seadweller lightly frowned, appearing to be disappointed in the result. It would only be then, with her focus removed from her practicing, that Medeia spotted the troll sitting nearby.
Her reaction was both immediate and immensely startled. Letting out a shocked gasp, the troll visibly jumped backwards a foot or so, immediately moving her staff to point at the intruder as her grip on it lightly trembled. At least with Remlen she’d been able to hear the invader coming, but this time they’d managed to sneak up on her without so much as a sound. Unnerved by their dog-like grin, Medeia held her scepter leveled at the gold blood as if it was a gun, her fins pressed against the side of her face almost instinctively as she did. It was obvious that the fuschia blood was extremely startled of his appearance, if not outright frightened by it. “Where the hell did you come from?!” Medeia quickly yelped, her voice wavering slightly as she did.[/container]

They had been looking around the cave on the way in, picking up anything that caught their eye and shoving it in the pocket they had sewn in their bandana. Upon hearing her yell, their smile faltered, yet their teeth were still showing in a sort of frown. They held their tail straight up, startled by the sudden aggressiveness of the anxious fuschiablood. They slowly and cautiously sat up straighter, giving them the opportunity to use their hands to gesture towards their mouth, trying to indicate a lack of ability to speak. Their hands were covered in dirt and what seemed to be multicolored bloodstains, the dirt due to them walking on all fours, the blood... well, she doesn't quite know about that yet. They held their hand out flat and pretended to write on it, and then signed "can't speak", praying she would just know what they were saying. It was obvious that they could hear, though, due to their reaction to her voice, and that the crashing was what brought them here in the first place.

Although the rather dirty and bloodied appearance of the gold blood still gave Medeia pause, she seemed to settle down slightly upon realizing he wasn’t immediately springing to attack her. Truth be told, it wasn’t often that anyone actually managed to sneak up on her like this. Normally she was more alert, and normally her cave home was deep enough so that any noises she made would not reach the surface. It seemed though that her fooling around with hard light constructs had attracted an audience though, and not one that she was too keen on having around either. Although the fuschia blood was much cleaner than Snacks, owing to her frequent bouts of swimming in the underground lake, she still had a rather mangy appearance herself. Most of her clothing was frayed or torn in one or more areas, and her build seemed to be teetering on almost unhealthily thin. The two of them almost looked like they could go together, if not for one of them brandishing their weapon at the other.
“...What are you doing?” Medeia eventually questioned after several seconds of silence, appearing to be more confused by the gold blood’s attempts at communication more than anything. The seadweller wasn’t awfully familiar with sign language, but she did register it as some attempt to communicate. Just one that she didn’t actually understand, sadly. Continuing to hold her scepter at the ready, the fuschia waited to see what the home invader would do next, silently wondering to herself how bad her luck must be if two incidents such as this should happen back to back.[/container]

Now unfazed by her scepter, Snacks put their hands back down between their crossed legs, trying to think of what to say. "HEARD A NOISE." they croaked out about 20 seconds later, sounding like they obviously hadn't used their voice in weeks. It was surprisingly low, harsh, and somewhat nasally. "WANTED TO SEE." They grimaced sorely, pained by having to speak. They've had issues with their throat their whole life, but in the past few years it had been difficult and painful to even swallow, so they avoided using their voice as often as they could. Their tail shook, and they darted across the walls of the cave to the other side of her with an... unsettling, 4-limbed gait.

Medeia probably would have expressed her sympathies for Snack’s difficulty to speak based on the way her face began to shift, but whatever assurance she’d planned to offer was cut off as the gold blood scrambled around her like some sort of wild beast. Startled once more, the fuschia blood jumped around to face him again, continuing to brandish her weapon of choice in his direction. It was abundantly clear that she was anxious, as her earfins seemed to press against the side of her face and her gills seemed to be pulsing slightly, as if they were searching for additional oxygen. Despite her apprehensions, though, Medeia still did not make any other potentially hostile moves. It was rare that she would ever be the first to attack another troll, even someone as bizzare and menacing as Snacks.
“JEEZ!” The seadweller yelped in surprise as the lowblood skittered around her, voice seeming to crack slightly in the process. “Stop doing that! You’re freaking me out!” Medeia added a moment later, in more of a startled tone then a commanding one. Although the tyrian urge to kill others of her caste was still powerful within her, her worldview deviated from the average fuschia in many ways. This would work out in Snacks favor in this case, as she seemed unwilling to make the first move in initiating any kind of conflict. Though based on her body language, it was clear that she didn’t take too kindly to his presence regardless. How long would it take for her to ask him to leave? [/container]

Snacks stopped their tracks, hand still up in the air. They turned to look at her, nodded, then sat back down in the same position they had been sitting before. It seemed they were just trying to get away from the scepter being pointed directly at them. They pointed at the scepter, tilted their head quizzically, and lowered their clawed hand. They were definitely interested in the magic aura coming from it, but they were aware of the power it likely held. If Medeia knew how to use it, they were unsure, but there was definitely the potential, so it was best to be cautious. They started slowly scooting towards whatever furniture or item was nearby, still making sure to keep seated and seem as calm as possible.

All the animalistic moving around was definitely throwing Medeia off. Sure, she knew that some trolls were a bit more basal or basic in their behaviors then others, but Snacks almost seemed like he’d been a part of the wilds his entire life. Where the fuschia was at least mostly clean thanks to having a lake to wash herself in, the gold was covered in grime and what looked like faded blood stains, only adding to the seadwellers unease. His appearance was a red flag for sure, but she didn’t want to jump to any assumptions and exhibit a twitchy finger on the metaphorical trigger. Sure the other troll was probably bad news, and definitely so in the case that he was invading her hive, but Medeia was unwilling to attack him if he didn’t give her any further reasons. She kept her weapon at the ready though, just in case, its magical power humming within the crystal in an oddly menacing fashion.
“...You’re interested in my staff?” The fuschia eventually questioned, eyeing Snacks suspiciously as he scooted over towards her dresser slowly. Most people who met her tended to have questions about it, and while she did take great pride in her ability to use it, she really didn’t understand a great deal about it. The crystal had a great many mysteries within it she was sure, but it didn’t seem too keen on explaining them to her either. Medeia would briefly break her gaze to look down at the scepter, before looking up to the gold once more. “It’s uh. It’s pretty cool, right? I made it myself. Except the crystal. I sort of just found that. Obviously. You can’t really make a crystal yourself.” She rambled slightly, her tone tense and nervous as she did. The fuschia wasn’t the best at dealing with guests, especially when they were as suspicious as this one.[/container]

They slowly reached their hand out to touch the crystal, making sure to be very cautious, just in case the magic could burn them somehow. It became increasingly obvious that they absolutely could not reach it, and they sat back down. Despite their breaking in, they didn't seem to be too much of a threat to her, and didn't care about her nervous rambling. It seemed more.. normal, to them. Their social cues were not fantastic.
They tilted their head, and pointed towards it. They seemed to want a demonstration of what it could do,

Scene End