moar bloodswap fic

"Heyyyyyy, limey!" The blueblood approached Cucali with a too-wide smile on his face. The fact that his three friends were circling her didn't escape her notice, and she reached over to try and subtly mix a couple of cards together --

-- he grabbed her wrist. "What's the rush? We wanna talk."

Cucali scowled at him. "Don't see what there is to talk about."

Moving far too quickly than he ought have, he took her by the wrist and flipped her to the ground, where the other trolls dogpiled her. One was on her legs, two were at her arms - she struggled, but their highblooded strength was too much for her.

"Fuck you, lemme go!"

"Honey, baby, sweets." The blueblooded ringleader stood over her, reading out from a list he'd uncaptchalogued. "We have a small list of grievances. Hamaya, Tedoki, Gerund, Yalyel..."

Cucali's expression paled as she realised he was listing out highblooded marks she'd taken down.

"Look, that was just business, alright?! You can't blame me for doing my fuckin' job!"

"On the contrary," the blueblood placed his boot on her chest, "I'm pretty sure I can do whatever the hell I want to you, greenery."

-

Paloma looked over as she saw a commotion in the street. Interesting, a gang-up.

Then she heard someone very familiar scream, "FUCK!", and all bets were off.

The seadweller strode towards the group and tapped the blueblood on the shoulder. He turned and smiled. Beneath his boot, Cucali groaned, "Paloma..."

"Yes'm?"

Paloma punched him in the face. He staggered backwards, off of Cucali, holding his cheek.

"*What*," her voice boomed, stopping the other trolls as they began to turn to her with viciousness in their eyes, "seems to be the *problem* here?!"

A tealblood spoke up. "What's your deal, ma'am?! We're just taking a little revenge!"

"My *deal* -" She looked at his symbol - "Mariek, was it? My *deal* is that I recall helping you out of a little revenge cycle of your own just recently. Is this how you repay my kindness?! By getting involved in making them pay again?!"

"And you," she turns to the blueblood, "your name is Kansto, isn't it? Your moirail called on me not long ago for assistance. Do you know how easy it is for me to forget you pathetic lowbloods in the flow of my night?"

"As for *you*," she glared to the rest of them and withdrew a rapier-tipped umbrella from her sylladex. "You're annoying me just by existing. Scram."

"You can't just march up and threaten us with an umbrella you crazy--"

Paloma plunged her umbrella into the blueblood's chest before he could finish his sentence.

"Who's threatening? No, don't get up on my account," she pulled out her bloody weapon, let the blueblood's corpse fall to the ground, and pointed it at a troll who'd begun to stand. "Let's sit and talk a moment. Everyone comfy? Good. Now, here," she extracted an instrument with her other hand, "is a drone pager. I can call them in here before you kill me, if that's really what you want to do."

She tapped her eyepatch. "By the way? If you're thinking of running and blaming it on the scumblood, remember that I record everything which happens to me. So let's review, kids: in your best case situation, you get your revenge and then get sent to trial for killing a seadweller. Does anyone want to go to court? Show of hands?"

No hands were raised.

"I thought not. Now, does anyone else want to die, or will you all leave like good little wrigglers?"

She stepped back and let the trolls run off. When they were gone, she crouched down to Cucali's level and examined her injuries.

"Tch." They'd broken her arm, and from the way she was curled up, it looked like they'd cracked a few ribs as well. Paloma looked disgusted. "Can you stand?"

"Shit... Paloma..."

For once, Paloma didn't berate her for her language. She slipped an arm around Cucali's shoulders and hefted her up.

"You're coming with me."

"But -"

"Do I look like I want to hear your complaints? I said you're coming with me."