#tiildeath

Drabbles || Accepting || @tiildeath

"I'm supposed to be your death."

Cairis gaped up at the massive, furry being that stood across from her.  He was terrifying - when he'd caught her while she'd been walking the local streets; and now, as he stared down at her with a cold gaze.

"I was hired to bring you to someone," the being said to her.  "His plans for you are... terrible.  Ordinarily: I would complete the assignment, collect my pay, and move on.  One less Galra in the universe is not going to bother me, after all."

The assailant's tail flicked lazily behind him.

"Only you're not the typical Galra," he announced.  "You don't have that edge of cruelty and despicable existence that most of your kind seem steeped in.  I've observed you for days.  You've been decent to others, even helpful on occasion, and I hate to see such decency wasted."

"...Thank you?" she croaked out.

He nodded.  "As I said: I'm supposed to be your death - or, at least, putting you on the path toward it.  I think that would be a waste.  I'd rather recruit you, instead."

Cairis stiffened.  "I don't want to be a murderer."

"...As I said: not the typical Galra."  He shook his head.  "I'm not talking about murder, Cairis of Snilia: I'm talking about freedom.  I'm talking about helping people."

"I--"

"What else do you have to do?  Where else do you have to go?  The Empire is in tatters.  You, yourself, have changed your mind about the side you chose - have fled from Sendak.  You have no one and nothing; nowhere to be.  At least with me: you'd have that and you'd be rescuing others from the nightmare of cruelty."

Cairis frowned.  All of that was true.  But...

"I’ve caught you.  Let me keep you," offered the being across from her.  "Let me teach you what you need to know to do something right instead of something wrong."

She stood still and silent as she thought about her current situation and everything he had said.

Morvok likes tilfs*

I see my legacy does live on in some minds.

The Kasideer is comin’ to town, ready to mule kick any naughty children into Krampus’s basket.

My half of an art trade with @tiildeath

[The text is a mixture of chicken scratch and notes in short form. The entire page seems disorganised and hard to follow. Strings of words in Idemis following footnotes of galran common. The Common is neat in a cursive form that seems far too elegant while the Idemis looks like a wreck. Small sketched in graphs follow along margins and through blocks of text. It’s only a page, but it looks like the ravings of a mad genius. Idemis is indicated in italics while galran common is in plain text, translated for easier reading.]

Strange consequences of blood mixture seems to be bizarre bio-luminescent glowing when clots collide in test tube. Both fascinating and completely useless. Would be worth keeping if not for cancellation of species genetic hybridisation due to unforeseen circumstances. Keratin project batch one complete. Batch two complete. Batch three complete. Batch four complete. Batches Five through eight started. Batches nine and ten unfinished. Success rate 84.069% thus far. Minimal concern for project results. Minor issues due to user error. Failure on staff competence to be dealt with. Personally.Running out of room in cadaver containment due to frozen cell regeneration testing. Despite increased curiosity in potential, multiple unwarranted comments from higher ups on “waste of resources” due to minimal use of potential outcome. Higher ups can go (REDACTED) with their baseless assumptions. Recent talk of colonising outer rim planets by dying star in sector 4-5K quadrant 88N9G brings potential for freezing due to incredibly low temperatures in night hours. Not my fucking department I guess. Will be keeping smaller version of project should larger scale be deemed “unnecessary.”

(The bottom text seems to be pre-translated.)

Whomever it is that keeps breaking into my journal for spectator purposes can kindly get lost. Further breaking of privacy and potentially leaking incredibly sensitive information will result in a warrant for your capture and your swift and painful demise.

[LIFTS UP FOOT AFTER ACCIDENTALLY STEPPING ON SOMETHING... jkjk]

      Inhale.

He jumped in surprise at the sudden smack, not that he shouldn’t have been expecting something from the other galra. After all if anybody was suspicious, it was the lieutenant. He flailed his arms out and smacked the other’s hand away, “The fuck!?”

Worldbuilding || Accepting || @tiildeath (and @deception-and-disgrace since you asked A1, too)

A1:

There are no “capital” cities in the way we consider such.

The city-trees of Snilia are enormous; they’re space scrapers, the size of small mountains.  The bottom branches could fit a cruiser inside them, easily.  They’re generally grouped in clusters of five: four in a square and then a single tree in the center.

The most “capital” tree of Snilia is Cairis’ home city-tree: Ialiv (ee-ah-liv).  The four trees that are grouped around Ialiv are the main producers of the noushin fungi and the jylax (avian) herds that clean the fungi of parasites that would otherwise damage the aloe nutrient gel.  All produce is sent to Ialiv for processing and then distribution throughout the Empire.

B1:

In terms of “higher life forms,” it’s Galra on Snilia.  They’re the only sentient life-form capable of speech.

The other life forms are jylax (think super fat, dim-witted alien chickens) and tree rats (as big as three to five Rover drones stacked end to end).  Tree rat is the main source of food for lower-branchers.  Cairis kept herself and her parents fed on them by becoming a proficient tree-rat hunter.

C4:

There is no religion practiced on Snilia.  There is only the Empire and Lord Zarkon (which is close enough to religion and a god).

Certainly, there are notable figures in Snilian history (Snilia having been found and settled shortly after the destruction of Daibazaal), but there is no religion adhered to any of them.

D9:

The societal hierarchy of Snilia works like this:

Each branch is a district and where your branch is located dictates your social status, broken into three sections: Upper, Middle, and Lower.

The upper-branchers are the elites; they control pretty much everything and may go wherever they wish, whenever they wish.  They’re the “Wall Street Bankers and Brokers” of Ialiv and the surrounding city-trees that make up their quadrant.

The middle-branchers are the middle class and are allowed to ascend to the upper branches occasionally and to the lower branches whenever they want.  

Lower-branchers are the lower class and may only ascend to the mid-section branches on Ascension Day and never the upper branches.  Even within the lower branches there’s a social hierarchy.  The bottom branches are considered the slums and anyone from there is disdained by literally everyone else.