Jasprosesprite^2 found herself in the ruin of a battleship – acres of twisted metal in a crater that had pierced rock. The air was scented with exotic fuels that might still combust disasterously.
Nobody here had any right to pilot a spaceship.
There was a sob. And ugly sob, in the distance. And Jasprose bee-lined towards. A tiny fuchsia-blooded troll was inside a cage – by the looks of the mechanisms, some final level of crash protection that had sprung up. It would make sense. She had the owner’s DNA. Even if the proper owner though was a much larger person.
“Where are they?”
The troll didn’t point. She glanced up at Jasprose, and then were the bridge controls could have been.
A long search – Jasprose found bits of bodies. Jake. Jane. Dirk. Far enough along that blood had dried, to soon to start decomposing to any appreciable extent.
The troll’s presence would probably be twisted to interpret this as a Heroic death.
Dirk’s Sylladex was based on troll engineering, whether he had known it or not. And she a salvaged root access key ready in her own.
There were so many orange drinks in here. Ridiculous. Wait. There. “Organic ball”. How had he even expected to get this out, with his rap modus? She carefully extracted it.
It was what, a two centimeters wide? Warm. The texture of a wetsuit.
The troll was still crying. Well.. She wasn’t part of the agenda. Jasprose gently put the ball – which wiggled the slightest bit – into the palm of Dirk’s severed hand – to keep it safe a few moments more.
The cage was easy enough to squeeze into, Jasprose’s fluff bulging momentarily around the edge of the hole as she eased her way in. The troll – dehydrated at this point from so much crying. Nobody to care for her – and she very well knew what the Condesce would do to this child.
This was mercy. Really.
Like she had with so many juju before – down the hatch. A miniature tidal wave of plastic teeth and fabric consumed the child, who knew to start kicking and screaming at her, fighting what was unfightable.
Meenah’s mind calmed as her form started to break down to batting.
Jasprose had wondered several times if it could be considered a game-breaking bug, that a sprite could eat a God-Tier to induce perma-death. Instead, she clung to the fact that cleanup of all these errant timelines could be her final contribution.
Eventually, when the last sobbing stopped, when she could feel no more bony remains, she squeezed out of the safety cage, pushing a bit harder then on the way in, her form fuller than it had been in months. She usually spit some of the stuff out afterwards.
Maybe she felt the death of a child should stick with her for more than a few minutes.
The ball was retrieved. She momentarily tried to find some edge to pick at it with a claw, to try and pull it open, but it was tight. Well. At least she wasn’t stuck with only her own salvaged resources.
A fenestrated plane opened up in front of her, the haze of crash vapors pooled slightly into a sterile environment. A Lab.
Ah, yes, the Big Lady herself, even in that red suit that everybody knew.
Jasprosesprite gently tossed to ball to her – easily caught – before the plane disappeared. She already knew who it was, apparently wrapped up in some weird interaction of troll technology and void powers – and today in particular was a busy one.
Her lead.
Her Plans.
___
Wait, I need a Roxy for future plans…
Hmmm
I think I know where I can find one.
- Inspired by Did Anyone Ask Where “There” Was
Did Anyone ask Where “There” Was? – https://archiveofourown.org/works/19995571/chapters/47342752
Visit Jake – https://archiveofourown.org/works/19995571/chapters/47343958
Disagree – https://archiveofourown.org/works/19995571/chapters/47343550
Check it out – https://archiveofourown.org/works/19995571/chapters/47343949
TRY YOURS ON – https://archiveofourown.org/works/19995571/chapters/47343505
Have second thoughts – https://archiveofourown.org/works/19995571/chapters/47343424
GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF – https://archiveofourown.org/works/19995571/chapters/47343658
Since the parent work is a gamebook, this is the route to this work
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