Yes… the future can change in ways that would have once seemed impossible.
[After all, if someone had come up to her when she was a young troll and told her that she’d leave behind the duties of her caste to raise a mutant grub, she would have seriously doubted the integrity of their thinkpan.
Mindfang’s bluntness and tactlessness don’t surprise her at all, but the predictability of her speech doesn’t make her any less tense. Dolorosa’s hands tighten on her lap.]
Nothing at all, [She begins, speaking just as calmly as before, and turns her head to look at the other troll. Is that resentment she can detect in Mindfang’s voice, or is she imagining things?] But if I am embracing freedom, as you so correctly put it, then I will address you as an equal and not as my owner.
[Dolorosa watches her former Mistress quite closely, gauging out her reaction. Those words could have gotten her culled in Alternia faster than you can say ‘hemospectrum’, not only because of their challenging nature (a slave speaking in such a way to the one who owns her? Ridiculous!) but also because of how it implies that her caste is equal to Mindfang’s.
(And it is, but Dolorosa is well aware that not every troll has accepted the Signless’s teachings as truth.)
She isn’t afraid of what Mindfang can do, or of being attacked, but she won’t hesitate to flee or strike back in return if needed be; sweeps of fighting to defend the Mother Grub and her progeny have turned her into an excellent fighter.]
no subject
[After all, if someone had come up to her when she was a young troll and told her that she’d leave behind the duties of her caste to raise a mutant grub, she would have seriously doubted the integrity of their thinkpan.
Mindfang’s bluntness and tactlessness don’t surprise her at all, but the predictability of her speech doesn’t make her any less tense. Dolorosa’s hands tighten on her lap.]
Nothing at all, [She begins, speaking just as calmly as before, and turns her head to look at the other troll. Is that resentment she can detect in Mindfang’s voice, or is she imagining things?] But if I am embracing freedom, as you so correctly put it, then I will address you as an equal and not as my owner.
[Dolorosa watches her former Mistress quite closely, gauging out her reaction. Those words could have gotten her culled in Alternia faster than you can say ‘hemospectrum’, not only because of their challenging nature (a slave speaking in such a way to the one who owns her? Ridiculous!) but also because of how it implies that her caste is equal to Mindfang’s.
(And it is, but Dolorosa is well aware that not every troll has accepted the Signless’s teachings as truth.)
She isn’t afraid of what Mindfang can do, or of being attacked, but she won’t hesitate to flee or strike back in return if needed be; sweeps of fighting to defend the Mother Grub and her progeny have turned her into an excellent fighter.]