"We're here, that'll be 20" The carapacian carriage driver asked hoarsely as he looked back at the cloaked figure. The figure was tall. This normally would've meant nothing, plenty of lowblood trolls were now doing such things to prevent any obvious indications of their blood colour setting off the violent tendencies of any of the highbloods watching. However he'd seen how much money she had slipped the shuttle driver. She was loaded and from the moon, likely some naive upper class prissy troll, quick way to make some easy money.

Feferi looked up.

"Oh." She replied, before fishing the appropriate amount of money out of her small satchel and handing it over. She then anxiously climbed out of the carriage and watched it pulled away by its horses. A sigh of relief slipped out of her lips as the carriage driver didn't give her a second thought. He didn't recognise her. Thank goodness.

Not that it would've been easy. She wore a piece of cloth that covered all of her but her eyes, and the baggy grey buttoned up cloak kept the rest of her hidden, even the horns, though they held up the top of the hood like a tent. She just had to make sure not to make eye contact with her and they wouldn't recognise her blood colour. Simple, or so she thought. Attempting to bribe the shuttle driver to forget he had brought her down was hard enough without trying to make direct eye contact. Though even if he did report to the Condesce, she was on Derse now, and that meant she had time before a recapture.

She looked around the low district. This was...terrible. Absolutely terrible. How did people live down here? Everything looked...shady. The alleyways contained menacing looking individuals; the buildings looked shabby compared to the palace. Feferi inhaled sharply. Was she becoming...a snob?

She shook her head and quickly began to stride on. Sollux would be here, she was sure of it, but the low district was a big place, and she was becoming increasingly aware of how hard it might be to find him. She'd surely find someone....right?

The people who had freshly arrived from the shuttle quickly dispatched themselves to go about their own business. Lingering around the low district’s streets were not a thing many risked doing since the coup d’état. Hurried steps of the two individuals echoed in the now empty streets as they passed by what Sollux first acknowledged as a “misplaced pile of textiles”. He didn’t pay too much attention to the strange figure as he was trying to keep up with his friend’s pace. She seemed rather eager to make it to the liquor store.

He took a quick glance over his shoulder when he finally started doubting the true nature of the black silhouette. It had eyes and they were following him but quickly looked away when he glanced back. A jolt of anxiety caught him off-guards. What if he were being followed? He stopped for a little bit and looked over his shoulder again, trying to analyse what might be under those drapes. Judging from the way the drapes fell on the unidentified being, he or she certainly was not a carapace. It was more likely that they would be a troll considering the way the drapes fell on their head.

The sound of his friend’s voice made him snap out of it.

He took a deep breath, tried to calm keep his cool, but he couldn’t help but find this strangely dressed individual’s presence rather alarming. He swallowed nervously and caught up with his friend, picking up his walking pace a little.

The deserted streets were growing colder as the night settled on the purple planet and he wanted to reach the liquor store as soon as possible before he decided his plan for the night. Hopefully, his friend could lend him a hand with that.

A light snow started falling from the sky as he ventured towards his destination with his companion…

Acting without thinking was not proper behaviour for a princess, especially not one currently sneaking about Derse illegally, but as Feferi stopped and turned to examine the troll walking away she doubted it would've ever ended any differently. Her heart sped up, her stomach tightened in knots and she began to feel her head pounding with just sheer excitement.

The shades she glimpsed him wear, the four horns she could see now, and he was the right height too. Her height. It had to be Sollux, Feferi was too much of an optimist to decide any differently. She'd found him! She'd found him! Oh how spectacular she was feeling. She opened her mouth to call out, before quickly clamping her hands around the cloth covering her face. What if the highbloods were watching? What if they saw her eyes? What if they wanted to kill Sollux?

Excitement turned to fear.

She risked looking around, thankful her goggles had remained in her satchel so as to not give her away. Her gaze quickly scanned along every dark alley and all of the dizzyingly high windows she could find. She seemed to be alone. She looked back at Sollux as he got smaller and smaller in the distance.

No, no this would not do at all. She did not sneak out of the palace just to let him walk by. She broke into a sprint, her long legs coming in useful as she quickly caught up to the psiionic, and threw her arms around him. She pushed her face past him and gave a huge toothy grin hidden under her mask as she let out a small squeal of joy.

...

But what if it wasn't Sollux?

She pulled back to stare him in the eyes. Oh it was him! Her tyrian purple tinted eyes continued her squeal silently for her as she just looked....happy. Yes that was it, being stuck in the princess's tower had been boring at best and horrific at worst, but here was Sollux! Mr Grumpy gills! She giggled and pulled down her face cloth, revealing the huge shark-like grin she had wore in his presence for so many years before.

Her fear amplified the further she went into the low district, Sollux in tow. Night was falling, and flakes of snow floated down from the black sky. It was insanity for two trolls of such low caste to be wandering the streets alone after dark.

Sollux kept looking back. "Hurry, hurry," she urged him."Sollux come on, there are only a few blocks left to go. We're going to make it." Her hand tightened, vice-like, around his. What was he looking at?! She glanced backwards too, and felt a shiver run through her body. Who was that? Were they being followed? Not now, please, not now, when they were so close.

Before she knew it, the figure was upon them, grabbing Sollux around the middle. It looked ridiculous... the shadowy person was... giving him a hug?! Her eyes widened as the person dropped her mask to bare a white crescent of shark teeth. She thought she could make out seadweller fins. What in the world was happening?! Her grip on Sollux's hand was far too tight, she was probably cutting off his circulation.

"What is going on?!" she demanded of both of them.

His ears twitched a little when he head the sound of hurried footsteps coming towards him. "Hurried" wasen't even the word. They were running towards him. He was ready to turn on his heels and defend himself, his eyes sparkling red and blue from behind his shades when a pair of familiar little arms wrapped around his waist. He calmed down, the light in his eyes going out as he turned around to face a familiar toothy smile.

" Feferi?!"

He couldn't believe his eyes. He lifted the veil covering her face to make sure he wasen't mistaken. He could only return the smile when he confirmed that the troll concealed under the pile of cloths was indeed his friend. He smiled a little and hugged her. It was her. The princess was still there. It was such a relief to know both his childhood friends were still alive. He let the veil fall back in place, not wanting to compromise his friend's identity.

He turned to his other friend, still smiling a little.

"Aradia. This is my other friend I had told you about a while ago."

He glanced back at Feferi.

"Would it be okay with both of you if we did proper introductions at the liquor store?", he inquired. He was getting nervous again, the voices were bearing terrible news...

Cancer will spread upon you all
Search and destroy your peers
One by one they will fall
Silence the mutineers

Her eyes flickered excitedly between the two trolls. It was Sollux! It really was! And this! This was Aradia! Feferi's grin remained at its largest as her eyes looked over the red blood. She was wonderful! The curly horns, the fuzzy hair. She wondered if Aradia would let her brush her hair. She quickly pushed the thought to the back of her mind as she turned back to Sollux. He wanted to go to the liquor store?


"Sure!" She perkly responded, as if they weren't in the middle of a darkened street with the threat of death or worse looming over them. She then frowned slightly and looked off to her right before glancing back at Sollux.


"Um...Where is the liquor shore exactly?" She asked, tilting her head slightly to the left as she did so, as it dawned on her she had very little idea of where she was, or indeed how to get back to the moon. She forced the panic to the back of her mind to the join the thoughts of hair brushing.

Aradia closed her eyes and sighed in relief, feeling a tonne of anxiety drop from her shoulders. So it wasn't a ferocious seadweller. It was Feferi, the girl Sollux had talked about quite a bit, before she'd lost contact with him. Aradia had always wanted to meet her. She was sure Feferi had to be something special - after all, Sollux wasn't generous with compliments in the slightest, and Feferi had apparently earned a few.

Feferi did not disappoint. Aradia felt herself automatically warming to the girl's contagious grin, even if it was a tiny bit too pointy for her preference. She liked this seadweller already - Aradia decided that her opinion of Feferi was probably already partially influenced by Sollux, but she really did enjoy the genuinely cheerful disposition Feferi had exhibited so far. There didn't seem to be any pretending in her actions. Aradia thought it made a welcome change.

Opening her eyes after a moment's reflection, Aradia presented Feferi with a big smile. "All right, I look forward to being properly introduced. Follow me!" She took their hands, one in each of hers, and pulled them forward, feeling greatly reassured.

(OOC: Sorry for the long wait! I just started my exchange and it's insanely busy!)