Nobody's Servant 1.0

Jen

"Who in the SHIT–"

I hear Kyra's outburst in the other room, immediately followed by the sound of crashing furniture, maybe a table overturning. I'm startled by it enough that I nearly knock over my open bottle of coagulant resting on the sink's edge. With a shaking hand, I lunge to catch it, and I do keep it upright though I myself end up on the floor, curled over from the pain of ingesting too much. Let me tell you, it did not go down smooth and I have no idea if it'll even work, but Suraokh seemed to approve. I'm handling it better than the first dose last evening, at least.

I stabilize myself, quickly recorking the bottle and rifting it for remote storage, before clumsily picking myself off the floor and bursting into the living room.

"Heyheyheyheyhey, it's okay!" I assure, hurrying in between Suraokh and Kyra's makeshift barricade. The former is simply standing there, and the latter is feeling around the floorboards, pulling up a loose one and retrieving just the most unreasonably large pistol from the hiding space beneath it. It's not even the kind of thing a soldier would carry, only an enthusiast.

"How did they get in?" she demands. She doesn't quite take aim since I'm standing there but she's got the barrel rested against the table's edge.

"I don't know, he just kind of shows up whenever he wants."

"Yeah, I don't like that! What's he want?"

"I am here for Merion," Suraokh explains, but offers nothing more. He's not dressed for the Ulgengir district anymore, back to trying to imitate my look, but the scarf still isn't quite right.

"What's going on?" Yhana yawns, coming down the ramp. "Oh. You."

"Good morning, thank you for not pointing a weapon at me," Suraokh greets.

"Yeah, don't worry about him," she says to Kyra, looking over to her, unsubtly crouched behind the table. "He just shows up in peoples' rooms unannounced. Please put the floorboards back."

"Jen has arrived. Merion is required," he iterates to Yhana.

"Yeah, let me throw on my sweater, I'm almost ready," I tell him. Sitting down on the sofa, I slip into it, and place the scarf, still knotted into a bow in the back, over my head and onto my neck. The vith charm I bought is still nestled into it, hidden from view.

"Are you coming back?" Yhana asks, moving past to upright the table again.

"Oh, maybe," I say in as reassuring a tone as I can, but truthfully I'm not sure of that.

"Nym can probably pull some strings for you. Don't worry about doing this on your own, you've got friends."

Oh right, I might get to see Nym! I was dreading his brother so much that it didn't even occur to me.

"You're welcome back anytime but please get your..." Kyra stops as she tries to place Suraokh and I. "Sorry, what are you two to each other?"

"'Associates' is sufficient," the kangaroo clarifies.

"Oh, that's a relief. Please get your associate in the habit of knocking."

Suraokh slowly turns to look over his shoulder at the contraption bolted into the ceiling by the door.

"I find your reverse battering ram quite deterring, I'm sure you can understand my desire to not be in front of it."

"Yeah it's to keep people from suddenly entering unannounced but I guess I gotta put em up fucking everywhere!"

"Kyra, please don't, the ceiling can't take much more," Yhana reminds her, gently tugging the gun from her grip and placing it back into its hiding spot.