• Published 26th Jul 2016
  • 1,013 Views, 184 Comments

Coarse Diamonds - Darkonshadows



Not hearing anything in space is not an excuse to never scream at all. Especially when you want to become famous, rich, part of high society and possibly find love along the way doing it.

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-118-

Of the things Rarity was purchasing, she was having some of the things delivered to the Caravel Boutique for pickup like the fabrics she purchased for normal clothing and specialized airtight fabric for EVA suit manufacture. Some of the things she’d be carrying herself like the multiple spools of wiring. So far nothing was going wrong, but Sassy had been oddly quiet. Rarity knew that something had happened and that it was a big concern. It’s just that nobody was telling her what it was and she was quite sure it related to Sassy’s blade intercepting something.

Was that it? Was something fired at Rarity and Sassy saved her from it, then followed it up by keeping her silence to preserve the trip and possibly Rarity’s sanity? Who else knew about this? Well she could say So’Grahd, Chrysalis and Opal knew about it. Coco seemed like the odd one out and… where was Coco? Oh she was just off to the side with Opal and giving her some kind of strange device. So’Grahd was doing something off to the side with Sassy and Chrysalis was sending either Sassy a scrutinizing look or a jealous one at their Dik-Dik minder.

Rarity decided not to bother with finding out the truth of what happened, yet. They were trying to keep things quiet for her and even if something was going on, if it wasn’t an immediate concern then she was glad for that. She decided to however ask what Coco was giving to Opal.

“What’s that Opal?” Asked Rarity as she approached her daughter. Said daughter was attracting some attention from the Dik-Diks, but nothing came of it yet.

“It’s a wearable computer that Coco got for me, I’m still in the midst of personalizing it.” Opal’s paws were busy tapping away at the device, battery life wouldn’t be a problem with Gilda and Greta’s help. Though she did wonder why the various species didn’t intermingle their technology to make a more efficient product. Personalizing it meant putting her own personal mental touch on the device, it even had a nifty defensive application. “Thanks for the gift Coco! Also if you need the help with the other two devices you got, then don’t be afraid to ask. Now I’m inserting mom’s data pad into the system and… there.”

“You’re welcome Opal, it’s not a very big...” It wasn’t a big deal, but Coco still appreciated the paws wrapping around her neck and hugging her. Coco usually put most of her money back into Rarity’s business and splurging on a gift for Opal was a nice thing to do. She nuzzled that cat trying to get her to let go. “Really Opal it wasn’t much.”

“It’s big enough a deal for me Coco. Mom would get upset with me for not showing my proper gratitude.” A little red in the face as the hug was going on for a little too long, Opal let go as she noticed Coco was looking rather self-conscious about their hug. “I really didn’t want to use one of Chrysalis’s disposable spares, she’s not good with any technology other than weapons. Not that she ever uses the data pad I reinforced anyway…”

“Yes, well that’s nice and all, but where to next? I want to see if there are places to eat and maybe chat up a stallion or two.” Not that she was going to expect a date upon first meeting any stallion, heavens knows that Rarity wasn’t having luck finding romantic love. “Though I will admit, I haven’t been able to really charm a single stallion in quite a while.”

“Yeah well, Frost and Tender weren’t exactly up to your standards anyway and I doubt that you’d want a close relationship based on saving their lives.” Opal didn’t like the idea either as she would never… wait. Now that Opal thought of it, what were her prospects for dating and what should she be attracted to? She was an energy being, there weren’t exactly much of her kind around to explain the details of being a sapient pile of energy.

“I probably wouldn’t and you’re right about that Opal, though if Braeburn didn’t have other prior arrangements… I might have tossed a few complimentary comments his way.” At least Rarity hoped Braeburn and Little Strongheart continued their slightly odd relationship as they were absolutely cute together. Almost as cute as Countess Coloratura and Applejack Apple were. “Are we ready to get moving Officer Grahd?”

“Hold on for a few more minutes.” There was something to So’Grahd’s voice, though it was kept at an even and no nonsense tone. As their minder turned back to Sassy, Rarity decided to strike up a different conversation with Coco. “Also stay within sight, I’ve got a call to make to a few of my friends in the precinct.”

“So Coco darling, have you ever met anyone that catches your fancy?” When all else fails Rarity was going to gossip.

“Can we not talk about that Rarity?” It was embarrassing enough that Coco was recently kissed by a large alien kangaroo. She didn’t want to think about wanting a closer relationship with anyone, though Greta did come to mind. She preferred to be married to her work at the moment and not think about that sort of stuff.

“Okay, then how about we talk about how you got into wrestling in the first place?” Another embarrassing topic and Rarity could see that Coco was quite reluctant, so Rarity shifted gears immediately. “What about some ideas for a few special utility based accessories I wanted to run by you?”

“That sounds like something none of us would mind talking about.” Opal agreed a second later noticing that Coco seemed a bit skittish about her mother’s choice of topics where it came to her love life or the more interesting one about why she liked wrestling. Opal knew her mom wouldn’t nose into Coco’s personal space too much.

“Okay, what kind of accessories?” If there was one thing Coco knew, it was that Rarity always came up with interesting ideas when it came to accessorizing with normal clothing or technology.

-

“Yeah, high grade metal material round, it would have killed one of our visitors had it managed to reach the target. Got anything about who would want to kill our visitors or a possible motive for this?” Looking up at the mare holding the material round So’Grahd took one quick glance around them and the various people going about their business. “Also is there anything else I should know, because I’m certainly getting paranoid that something else will happen soon. It’s been a while since the shot was fired.”

“We have nothing to report on a motive for the attempted premeditated murder at this time Officer Grahd. We haven’t found the shooter, but we caught the guy trying to subvert you at least and he isn’t talking.” Hearing this So’Grahd soon found Chrysalis putting her face in front of her data pad. “We also have the rifle that likely fired the material round, we’ll tell you more when we’re sure.”

“Oh, can I torture your prisoner? I’m really good at things like that, I can make him squeal real nice!” The cheerful tone Chrysalis spoke in made So’Grahd shudder, who could be this perky about torturing someone? “I mean pigs don’t even get to the vocal ranges I’m talking about.”

“Please do not interfere in official Patrol business, even if it does involve someone in your group.” The dark purple furred male Dik-Dik on the screen was looking through some documents as he spoke, he was one of the reasons that most didn’t believe these alien antelopes weren’t from Equus. “Officer Grahd, they are still ‘legally’ in your care as a minder even if you are a Triple P Officer first and foremost. Don’t let anything happen to them until they leave and are not our problem anymore. At least until we can solve this issue. Be careful, we don’t want another Princess Luna crisis.”

“Roger that, I will continue my duty to uphold the laws emplaced upon me by being pulled for minder duty and that of an officer of the Triple P. Call me if anything comes up related to this case, Grahd out.” So’Grahd turned off her data pad and put it away in the left pocket of her uniform before turning a glare to Chrysalis who just smiled innocently.

“So what do I do with the material round officer?” The material round sitting on Sassy’s left hoof was a spiral grooved rusty red spike and made of a something twice the strength of stainless steel, but half the weight. It would look more dangerous if Sassy hadn’t dented the pointy end slightly when she deflected it.

It had So’Grahd wondering how the mare kept her leg in its socket when deflecting the shot, much less still walking on that leg in general. People from Equus were talented in many extremes to say the least from Grahd’s point of view, Sassy especially so.

“Keep holding onto it, it may be useful to have at a later time.” So’Grahd was only equipped with three main things, a material pistol that fired sharp chunks of wood as ammunition being one of them. “Most manufactured material rounds usually are.”

Wood was both cheap and effective for keeping someone down, especially if it was left soaking in a soporific fluid for a while. Having a spare more dangerous material round never hurt and wooden rounds didn’t pierce armor all too well, the bright side was that the wood rounds were immune to being magnetized. Another piece of So’Grahd’s equipment was less noticeable, it looked like a metal bar on the right foreleg that seemed to be attached to her uniform. Said strange bar unfolded in a circular motion into a Dik-Dik projectile shield. At her right hip in a loose sheath strapped to her right hind leg was her melee weapon a high powered shock rod that was quite effective against a lot of things and built sturdy to act as a bludgeon if it ever ran out of power.

“Yes, but as I pointed out, if it was manufactured why doesn’t it have any form of identification on it?” Manufactured material rounds were not unknown to Sassy or even the curious Chrysalis. “More importantly how did this specific manufactured material round get in the station to be fired in the first place?”

“Wish I knew, the supplier of my wood rounds just takes an axe to whatever wood crafted junk he has lying around.” So’Grahd had two separate pouches full of small sharp wooden chunks on cloven hoof for a dragged out firefight, one of those pouches was specifically for the soporific rounds which had to be handled carefully. “Apparently it’s cathartic to tear up old wooden furniture with an axe and then give me the viable chunks left as ammunition. Okay, I’m ready to go, where are we heading to next?”

-

Dik-Dik cuisine was, to put it clearly, exceedingly strange when it comes to taste. There was a certain oily quality to the food, but it was also a bit salty with a fruity flavor. The one sure thing about it is that it was entirely vegan and safe for most species to consume. It was as odd as it sounded, but not too horrible. Rarity did ask So’Grahd if she knew a place that serves her races cooking out of cultural interest.

“Well this is an intriguing taste, is all of your food this oily?” Not that it was a bad thing to Sassy who was willing to partake in a cultural lunch. The grilled plants from the Dik-Dik home planet tasted good, if unique.

“No, it actually isn’t oily at all or doesn’t actually contain much oil really. It’s just an after taste to a lot of the food we make, a lot of the fruit from where my race comes from is just like that.” Not once had So’Grahd dropped her guard around them, she was quite tense even as she ate and took the time to look about every now and then. “The vegetables are where the real flavor is.”

Coco eating her own grilled vegetables didn’t want to comment that they tasted like some form of meat, it was apparently a popular form of plant found on the Dik-Dik home world. Everything was definitely vegan, but there were tastes that matched something like meat in the cooking. Coco did not want to ask about it or draw attention to how it tasted to her. She had enough Pegasus ancestry in her, so eating meat wasn’t unexpected. It was just something Coco never brought up around Sassy or Rarity, like the fact that she enjoyed the occasional fish. She wondered what Opal’s soup and dipping bread tasted like and if it was anything like her vegetables.

“I would have to agree, strangely flavorful and much more different to the vegetables from Equus.” Calmly patting her lips with a napkin in dainty manner, Rarity had relaxed when all the shopping didn’t lead to any more trouble. She did notice So’Grahd was on constant alert and would have thought it would be just her doing her job as a minder, but she wasn’t sure that was the case. “Tell me do those implants ever short out or fail in some way?”

“Yes, which is why I tend to rely on sight, touch and possible shifts in the environment via air pressure or vibrations. It’s why I record every conversation I think might be important, as I fear someone could mess with my hearing by hacking my cybernetics. Which is why I also learned to read lips and body language as well.” One would assume So’Grahd had learned body language because Parascine didn’t have lips to read and were for the most part psychic. “Should I see the lips or body move on someone in an odd fashion compared to what I’m hearing, then I’ll know something is wrong and that my cybernetics could be compromised. Be lucky you don’t have to live with metal on your ears for the rest of your life, though I suppose things could be worse for me. I could have lost a leg or an eye, those are much harder to get cybernetic replacements for. My species would prefer to clone what is missing to fix the body and I agree with that sentiment, but that technology is not perfected quite yet and we currently have a good handle on cybernetic prosthetics already. Still, cybernetics tend to mess with the mind and it’s a good thing none of you have to worry about that.”

Opal didn’t say anything, but she sent a glance to Coco, her mom and Sassy who in turn stealthily gave her a look as well. Opal was technically capable of making So’Grahd’s fears come true with her cyberpathic abilities

Chrysalis was looking bored out of her mind just sitting there quietly, but she did nip at the air a bit when a couple nearby kissed. She licked her lips in satisfaction at the flavor, apparently there was true love on both sides and who knew that a Parascine and Unicorn Stallion could get along so well. Well not Chrysalis who was actually enjoying the positive atmosphere, but she wasn’t getting the attention she sorely wanted.

“I know this might not be a good thing to bring up, but what did Sassy stop earlier?” While she might not have wanted to bring it up earlier, now was a good time as any to Rarity.

“A material round, aimed for your head which would have been a killing shot.” There was no sugar coating it, someone had gunned for her charges and attempted something with So’Grahd. Just because a clandestine plot had fallen apart, it did not mean that there wasn’t any danger anymore. “In my line of work danger is always a given. At best they could have just aimed at me, I’m only wearing an armored uniform graded for handling low grade material rounds and moderate energy emitting weapons. No it was aimed at one of you, specifically you.”

“Yes, well, I really don’t have any...” Rarity started to say before Opal cleared her throat loudly, Opal still had problems moving around on all fours and feeding herself. At most Opal was getting the hang of holding and manipulating things in her paws, which is why she didn’t need to be spoon-fed by Rarity anymore.

“Don’t finish that sentence mom, because you kind of do.” Stopping to take a bite out of the soaked bread and getting juices on her chin from it, Opal swallowed and waited for Rarity to finish wiping her face before she continued. “There’s the humans behind Tempest Technologies after what you did to that invasive facility on Applin Five in the Applon System, the Caballeron Cabal for what happened to Mind Field, the Hands of Midas you fought off on that train and just for the sake of covering all our bases there’s also the random Space Pirates we pounded with the Shining Jewel. We have no idea if the pirates were actually part of an organizational structure or not.”

“Shrike, what kind of life do you lead?” The word Shrike was a pretty common expletive among So’Grahd’s people. Shrike was a fondly remembered name, the reason for using it as an expletive was to make sure that a name was never forgotten.

“A very unlucky one for a fashion designer and lovely looking baroness it would seem, that doesn’t account for the MOM attack or a sifter drifter that could have classified as an apocalyptic event unto itself. I’d rather not relive the memories.” After all she went through, Rarity still had Luna visiting her nightmares about the real horrors she witnessed. Said horrors most certainly do exist and there were possibly more of them out there. Having nightmares about poor color choice or being forced to wear something really tacky just wasn’t scary anymore, compared to something like that giant brain monster with the repurposed flesh zombies. The horrible screech of that giant scorpion beast still haunted Rarity’s memories. “Rarity is my name, my name should not reflect my ability to get into ridiculously bad situations in an ironically ‘common’ fashion.”

“Never personally seen a MOM attack, but I know which sifter drifter she’s talking about and it does scare me that there are things out there that can access my mental network.” Even as she said this in a bored tone while running a hoof through her mane, Chrysalis really didn’t want to see another miasma spewing brain demon. She wouldn’t leave her hive mind completely open to another scary surprise like that one accessing her network in any given way. She was curious to know if a Parascine could access her Hive Mind, but didn’t cherish the thought of actually carrying out an experiment to find out. “The hive mind isn’t worth mentioning as there aren’t any other changelings around here to connect to.”

“So you’re like a trouble magnet? Just great, now I’m even more paranoid.” Why did So’Grahd feel like she had forgotten to do something? Oh right, the group that went off with Itenk and that had her somewhat worried, she could trust Itenk to have her back in a dangerous situation. She couldn’t say the same for him having the backs of Rarity’s friends. “Can you please call your other group and see how they’re doing for peace of mind?”

“I’ll get right on that, but I assure you that the Trapeze Troupe can take care of themselves.” Pulling her data pad out of her saddle bags, Rarity started it up and put in a call to Trapeze. “I’m sure they’re just fine.”

-

“Hello, oh hey Rarity, yeah we’re fine. Thanks for calling!” A hoof lashed out from an elegant rhythmic twirl and knocked the Parascine flat on its back from the force behind the blow, a standing Trapeze danced around a lunging Cacceran trying to claw at her face. She swiftly knocked the more rabbit like Cacceran on its face by tripping it up with her right rear hoof sweeping his legs out from under him and then she swiftly stomped down on his back putting him out of action. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I was in the middle of something.”

A bar fight wasn’t exactly fine at all, not that Trapeze would ever drag Rarity into any trouble that her Troupe caused and Rover was the only one that was armed with a ranged weapon. Rover was holding his own pretty well against the small male Macropussian without needing to pull his weapon, he was a brawler compared to the elegance of Bernard who was taking out guys three times his size with relative ease.

As far as Trapeze was concerned, you should never underestimate the toughness of a Lagotorphin who can take energy weapons fire with only some bad burns to show for it. Bernard leapt up and kicked a Plurt in the chin hard enough to flip the slug onto its back with grunt.

Well Trapeze would loosely call this place a ‘bar’, the place they were at was more like a nightclub really. In space it couldn’t necessarily be called a ‘night’ club specifically. Trapeze looked over to see how Itenk was doing, he and the other minders were holding their own pretty well even if Itenk himself refused to protect the Troupe. They were solely using their hooves to fight and were surprisingly tough for their small statures.

Seeing something coming at her in her periphery, Trapeze pulled her entire body into her hat confusing the female Macropussian who just hit air as the hat dropped to the floor. The Macropussian with shaggy blonde shoulder length hair flipped the hat over curiously to see nothing in it, then suddenly she was receiving a sharp right hook that knocked her down from out of nowhere by Trapeze rushing her from the left.

Bernard bowed to Trapeze from the snack counter before placing his hat back on his head. Bernard’s hat was a bit small for Trapeze to come out of, but she managed what looked impossible quite well. Bernard swept his hat forward before him in a bow at the ravishingly beautiful and talented mare, she was just simply that great at what she did.

Trapeze grabbed her falling hat out of the air with her right hoof, twisted it and tapped the top twice with her left hoof before moving it under the opening in the hat.

A cane fell into Trapeze’s left hoof and she swept her hat back up to where it belonged, the cane was quite long and it could be used to perform magician tricks, it could also be used as a balancing pole for her multiple pole stacking act. More importantly the cane could be used in a fight like this one, but that’s not why she got it out. She was the entertainment and their show was supposed to go on in the next minute or so and what better way to stop an entirely aggressive room than to show off her skills as a large distraction?

“Boys, come on, a true Trapeze Troupe member never misses a cue to do something incredible!” At Trapeze’s words Rover quickly knocked his opponent out with a swung stool to the head and disengaged from the fighting to the best of his ability, it made Trapeze wince because it was a solid metal stool. Bernard stopped punching a Parascine repeatedly in its nuclei and made his way through the room avoiding the wild fighting going on. Trapeze had to smack someone away with her cane as she made her way for the stage. “Hey piano mare, be prepared to hit it. Our show is about to go on and these jolly people need something to get their minds off beating each other senseless.”

Once Rover and Bernard made it to the stage Trapeze smirked. She tilted her hat slightly over her eyes and stared at the crowd. She stabbed her cane against the stage roughly to make a very loud noise, this caused everyone fighting to stop and turn to her.

“Something upbeat please, try to follow my mood if you will.” Standing on her hind legs, Trapeze started bouncing in place a few times. She then start to tap out a rhythm rapidly with both rear hooves and started to sing. Rover and Bernard nodded to each other, it was going to be one of those shows.

(Johhny C Bad plays FFVI)


“Hello everybody, my name is Trapeze Star! If you get to know me, then I will go far!” Trapeze started to tap dance on the stage and from out of nowhere she spread out a hoof full of Queen of Hearts with Celestia and Luna’s pictures alternating on them. “From card to card, I can really show you. How fast my tricks are, and how far away they’ll blow you!”

“Rover really believes, that this is his chance to sing.” Rover intoned humorously as it being his one short line, while nodding his head to the music and juggling seven balls one of each color of the rainbow.

“And don’t forget Bernard and that instant card house trick that he brings!” Trapeze pointed to a card house with the hoof loaded with the fanned out cards, the card house was already five cards high on the stage and Bernard was standing on it without it falling apart he waved his small top hat to the crowd with an insufferable smirk. The fighting had stopped in lieu of pure amazement at what Bernard had managed to get away with making while they were distracted by Trapeze’s singing and Rover’s juggling.

“My name is Trapeze Star, now let’s get on with the show!” With a twist of her hoof to show the back of the cards and when they twisted back the cards all showed Cadence and Twilight alternating on them, this mystified the audience as much as the audacity to throw on her show while they were all beating each other senseless. “My name is certainly~ one you should know!”

“Rover would also like, a bigger part on the go.” Rover caught the balls and they were ordered in a way to spell out his name in a big colorful rainbow with two balls having Quotation marks framing his name. “Singing is definitely not something, that Rover does like a pro!”

“If you really wish-want-need-or-however-you-feel… then let us The Trapeze Troupe put on a show for you!” Tapping out a rhythm, Rover and Bernard started following Trapeze in her dance with the cane as she tossed two canes to them to follow along with. It was at that point that the crowd noticed Bernard’s card house was gone and a lot of them were in shock, because they didn’t remember Trapeze putting away the card she was hold and she didn’t have any sleeves. “We’re going to dance…. we’re going to prance… we’re going to dance…”

“We’re going to prance…” Rover said putting his balls away somewhere in his red vest without it bulging and started to do a shuffle to left and right on the stage while tapping the cane, he was doing surprisingly well in not botching his parts at all.

“We’re going to dance…” Trapeze followed tapping out a rhythm and then Bernard followed it expertly, then Rover and all three of them at once prancing a short circle.

“Prance…” Rover, while smugly smiling, winked to Bernard who was also winking back at the same time as they twirled the canes behind Trapeze who was front and center.

‘Can we start some rants?’ Was written on the sign Bernard whipped out from behind his back, since he would have problems actually vocalizing his part. The audience started actually chuckling at his waggling brow.

Behind Trapeze, Rover would say dance while doing so and Bernard would pull out a sign while prancing around that said ‘prance’ on it and waved it for emphasis when necessary while tapping to the rhythm. Trapeze was busy doing her own thing in front of the two.

“Now come on all of you, I know you’ll want watch me do a trick or two.” As she sang she climb up her pole and balance perfectly on her back left hoof and started to slowly twirl, she kept singing even as she balanced and flipped from her rear left hoof to her front right in a hoof stand. She was looking at the crowd with a smile while splaying her other legs out wide. Her energetic mood was lighting up the room as she flipped into stand on the pole with just her back right hoof. “All while keeping in time to the beat, just so you know being an acrobatic magician is really quite neat. I can balance both too and fro, now I think you want us to keep moving on, so let me just say ‘let’s a go’ and here we flow!”

The music continued on and the crowd watched as Trapeze managed to get the pole to lean to the left at a forty five degree angle and then right at another forty five degrees before straightening it out without falling over completely. Having stopped distracting the crowd they noticed Rover juggling bowling pins now, when a second ago he wasn’t. Bernard twirling a lasso made of handkerchiefs above his head and started to expertly lasso the bowling pins out of Rover’s juggling pattern. Every time Bernard did so, Rover added a ball to the pattern without pause by pulling them from his vest.

The Trapeze Troupe had everyone’s attention in the room, hardly anyone could remember what they were fighting about as they were too distracted by the trio as they performed mystifying tricks and did strange several strange things on stage.

“We are The Trapeze Troupe, there are some names you should know!” Pulling out a pole and twirling it into a position across her back, Trapeze angled it so that the pole would catch Rover’s balls and they would roll along the pole, across her back and fall into Bernard’s waiting paws to toss back to Rover. “Bernard, Rover and Trapeze are the stars of this show!”

After that last line Rover tossed the seven colorful balls and they rolled along the pole which Trapeze evened out with a slight upwards bounce, the balls didn’t spell Rover’s name, it spelled ‘Tra’ to her right and ‘eze’ to her left the ‘p’ ended up sitting on her head in the middle. Trapeze actually had to use her other leg to brace herself for this one small stunt, but she pulled it off beautifully and it was insanely hard to get right in practice.

The mare was standing perfectly balanced on the pole, while balancing six balls on the pole and one on her head with their letters facing the crowd without so much as a wiggle. The balls were, miraculously enough, not going to fall off of the pole or Trapeze’s head.

Behind her Rover and Bernard were juggling eighteen slightly less round balls than what Trapeze was dealing with between them. When they let the balls drop to the floor and roll there were exactly seven in front of each of them spelling “ROVER” and BERNARD, they landed that way without having Rover and Bernard actively touch them to spell out their names despite the fact that they had been spinning through the air wildly. There was also the fact that the balls that spell Rover’s name in quotation marks were no long the right color they had been when Rover previously used them and the crowd couldn’t figure out where the extra fourteen balls came from given how small his red vest was, Trapeze had taught Rover well. The two males took a bow and Trapeze grinned widely to silent and relatively stunned audience.

Even Zel’Itenk couldn’t say anything nasty about all of that, it had been so amazing that he couldn’t find anything nasty to say to the two meat eaters or their wonderful leader.

The music petered off as the piano player stopped and looked at the crowd while wondering how they’d react. The Piano player was Vinyl Scratch, she just happened to be hanging out and watched the awesome brawl start. Then an even more awesome thing happened with The Trapeze Troupe taking to the stage.

Slowly the Parascine, the very one Trapeze knocked flat no more than minutes ago, started slowly slapping his tentacles together. Several Dik-Diks started to join in on the applause and then it became a rolling wave of acceptance. That had the trio brightly grinning from ear to ear, eventually Trapeze would have to roll the balls off the pole because her nose was beginning to itch.

Author's Note:

Yes, Paranoia is usually a sign of someone knowing that something is 'in fact' out to get you.

Other's trying to convince you otherwise are just not paranoid enough.

I hope the Trapeze Troupe part had fitting music.

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