Believe that change is coming soon (for orithore)

[ginnalka]

To say that trolls on the whole are superstitious is a fair summary that few of them are likely to argue. It's also why if anyone had told Abu'jia when she was a child that she would come to call one of the Forsaken one of her closest friends, she would have insisted someone had been working some kind of voodoo on them. She had always been slightly wary of the undead - anything that came back from death was unnatural and probably cursed or hexxed and she didn't want to be around when Bwonsamdi showed up to take them where they were supposed to be. When Saurfang summoned her and one of the Banshee Queen's rangers in Northrend to give them a scouting assignment, it was only her years of working with the Forsaken in the Horde that kept her distaste from showing.

When she found that the two of them worked together remarkably well, she actually managed to forget her old biases in favor of getting shit done.

After Northrend, Azeroth proves itself to be a small world, and the two run into each other more often than Abu'jia would have expected. As time passes, their occasional chance meetings turn into planned nights at taverns or local celebrations.

By the time Teldrassil burns, Abu'jia considers Atrosas one of her closest allies, if not one of her closest friends.

Abu'jia doesn't see much of the Dark Ranger during their time in Zuldazar (partly because she's a bit busy being gleeful to be surrounded by the Zandalari, learning of their history and their loa). That changes when the Blightcaller summons her. Her glee is slowly replaced by a sense of forboding. She wants to think the best of the warchief, wants to ignore the creeping doubt slowly making its way up her spine, but.

She's been at this for over twenty years, now. Her instincts are well-honed, and she's learned not to ignore them. Her doubts prove well founded when Sylvanas makes known her plans for the body of Derek Proudmoore. She has just seen the pain caused by Zelling's attempted reunion with his family; while she has no great love for Jaina Proudmoore, the idea of weaponizing such a thing is more than her sense of honor can bear.

The real kicker is that it won't even be the first time she's committed treason against a corrupt leader.

Who to reach out to is the first problem to be solved, and as she sets up camp one evening, it's the question she turns to.

"What do we do, my friend?" she asks Idai lowly in Zandali - and the cat just opens his mouth widely in a yawn that has her chuckling, leaning down to scratch behind his ears - and then sitting upright and grabbing for her bow as something moves just outside the ring of firelight.

Comments

[ginnalka]

Abu'jia laughs - she can't help herself, letting out a sharp noise of amusement. "If dat be where he wants t' go. But I tink dey be tinkin' more of... letting de Proudmoores make dat decision. Instead of de Banshee, I mean."

She won't be surprised if the Proudmoores don't want him back, considering the fact that he is supposed to be dead. But that will be there decision to make.

"If dey do decide not t' keep him, 'least he'll be buried in de family's way."

Instead of lost to the ocean.

[orithore]

She hums, still in no way optimistic, and lapses into silence for a moment. When she breaks it, a tilt of her head prefaces, "Is that why you're here, then?"

To find and free Derek Proudmoore?

[ginnalka]

Abu'jia shakes her head. "No. Or. Not at dis time. Still a lotta details to work out, an' it be somewhat above my paygrade," she returns, flashing her tusks in another grin.

She sobers a little a moment later. "I been asked t' take part. Just not sure what dat part be yet."

[orithore]

Another small, accepting noise passes her lips. Another silence follows as she struggles with her own part in all of this.

"I don't think the Blightcaller needs to know about this," she decides, finally. She's not sure she's ready to stand against the Banshee Queen just yet, even if she disagrees with the madness that's brewing, but she can't stand against Abu'jia either. Not when their autonomy -- Derek Proudmoore's autonomy -- is as much a pillar of Forsaken society as the Banshee Queen herself is.

[ginnalka]

A rush of air goes out of Abu'jia at Atrosas's response. She might not have been aware she'd been holding it, but it takes a lot of tension with it all the same. "Thank you. I be lackin' in friends dese days. It'd be nice not t' lose one more to dis."

[orithore]

"You're welcome," she offers, simply. She may not be as quick to admit it, but she considers Abu'jia something like a friend, too.

"And in the meantime ... " Maybe they should talk about something else that isn't Derek Proudmoore, just so that she has some plausible deniability if Nathanos does ask her about it. Or maybe she's looking for an out because she really doesn't want to keep thinking about Sylvanas and whatever madness has gripped her, right now.

[ginnalka]

Abu'jia hums - and then nods. "Y' been keepin' busy? How y' been findin' Zandalar?"

It's not entirely a shift in topics, but it does at least open a door to get them off Proudmoore specifically and into catching up.

[orithore]

"I saw one of your fellows eating a Goblin my first week here," Atrosas notes with some small amount of amusement. Clearly, she approves of that, if nothing else. That's as far as she seems willing to comment, however, instead turning the conversation back to Abu'jia. "This is your people's homeland, though, is it not?"

She seems to remember reading that all trolls originally came from Zandalar.

[ginnalka]

That response actually startles a laugh out of Abu'jia, and she grins at Atrosas across the fire. "If you hadn't seen dat already back home, den you hadn' been hangin' 'round da right parties."

Her grin fades a little and she nods, humming agreement. "Not so long before my time. Vol'jin had seen it. He an' his father and Thrall led de Darkspear to Kalimdor from de islands when dey were lost to attacks from de outside."

Those attacks are some small part of her hatred for the Alliance, considering the part they had played in many of them.

"It's interestin', bein' here. Feels home but not."

She knows this is where her people came from, feels it in her soul - but she's not from here.

[orithore]

"Like Silvermoon feels, now."

She's knows it's not the same -- Silvermoon City was home for her, once upon a time, unlike Abu'jia and Zandalar. It's as close as she can get to being able to empathize with the feeling, though. Silvermoon feels like home-but-not because it was once upon a time. No matter how welcoming the remains of her people have been, however, it never will be again.

"I wonder if a part of you mourns this place like I do." Like she mourns Silvermoon.