![](http://cobalt-company.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images/writing:2026-04-17-soft-but-useful/style="margin:/medium.jpg) |
| Details |
| Author: | Alli |
| Summary: | Anareline, Estel, and Shine continue their diplomatic efforts, which involves service to both the mantid and (unknown) the Shado-Pan. Along the way, they discuss families and child-rearing, like one does. ~1700 words. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
Shine is seated on one of the flat stones of the campsite, counting tiny, sinister-looking vials.
Estel wanders over to peer down at what he's doing.
Shine glances up at Estel and nods.
"You gather your own?" Estel asks Shine. "Shun does."
Anareline settles on the last piece of her armor, readying for the afternoon in the not-very-homey campsite the mantid have designated for them. She looks over to Estel and Shine, and then steps over. "How are you faring?"
Estel gives Anareline a thumbs-up. "Restless."
Shine shakes his head. "Not mostly. I stick with the explosives side of things. Counting to take stock." He nods to Anareline.
He collects a clinking handful of vials and tucks them into a belt pouch, then tucks the rest in his pack and rises to his feet.
"Do you have enough, do you think?" Anareline says, frowning slightly. "We could ask for more, if needed, by the rope."
"Depends how long we're here," he says, and shrugs. "I can make do another week or so, maybe."
Ana nods. "I hope we will have won them over further, by then. Though speaking of that…" Ana glances over both of them. "I was going to go speak with Kil'ruk. Keep communication open, see if there's more to be done. Will you two join me?"
Shine nods.
"Sure, okay." Estel trails after Ana.
Anareline walks with purpose towards Kil'ruk, who she can recognize easily now. A few days of practice.
"Hey," Estel says, waving.
Shine recognizes the dual daggers. He nods to Kil'ruk.
Kil'ruk looks over, and there's no telling what expression is on his face. "Soft ones."
Anareline looks down at her own armor, which is really kind of like an exoskeleton, but doesn't comment on it. "That is us. How do things fare against the empress' forces?"
Kil'ruk tilts his head, and then tilts it back. "Your soft Shado-Pan fights the swarm. That is well and good. But they are… distracted."
"Distracted?" Anareline prompts.
"Might be worried about us," Estel says dryly.
Kil'ruk stares at Estel, maybe trying to consider the idea that soft ones worry about one another.
Shine looks toward the distant wall.
"Perhaps. But also it is the spiders," Kil'ruk says. "They are not part of the swarm, but they are many. You could clear them out, allowing the Shado-Pan to focus on the correct enemies."
"Ah," says Shine.
"We have done this work for the Shado-Pan, and may do it for you as well," Anareline says, glancing at Shine and Estel for confirmation.
"Totally, let's do it," Estel says.
Shine nods.
Kil'ruk gestures to a pile of familiar-looking dragon guns, hidden behind the eggs. "We have found your weapons, from fallen defenders. Have no worry, we did not kill them. You may find them useful."
Shine narrows his eye slightly at the assurance of not-killing.
Kil'ruk does not offer further evidence to support his claim.
Anareline collects one of the dragon guns. "For the webs and the eggs."
Estel takes one. "Yeah, real useful."
"Thank you, Kil'ruk," Anareline nods politely. "We will return."
"See you later, Kil'ruk!" Estel waves.
Shine takes a gun silently and follows the two women.
"It was… thoughtful of him to secure weapons we could use," Anareline says. "I sincerely hope no Shado-Pan fell to the Klaxxi for them."
"I sincerely hope," Shine repeats dryly.
Estel shrugs. "They're good guns. Even I can figure out how to use 'em."
Ana nods. "Efficient and with low chance of backfire."
"Hey," Estel says, pointing as a herd of deer passes them. "Those guys have swirls kinda like some druids do."
Shine stares after them.
Ana peers at the nearby deer. "They… do. I do not think they are druids, though. Unless Lyalia has more forces than I thought.”
"Maybe that's where the, like, the design came from?" Estel shrugs.
Shine nods thoughtfully.
"It could be. The specific species our druids inhabit," Anareline says, pondering. "I will have to ask Caspis."
"If we're going to the wall, we get to check for mail," Estel says cheerfully.
"Ah, yes!" Anareline says. "I do not even know if they will have received ours yet."
Shine brightens. For a given definition of 'brightens.'
Estel burns some eggs with the dragon gun. (It's a flamethrower.)
"And we did not even need to make an excuse to come check," Ana says, nodding. "That is convenient, that we were sent here."
Shine sneaks up on some spiders.
Ana does not sneak up on any spiders, but she does slash them with a sword in an unsneaky manner.
Nearby, the form of a large mogu stands, still as stone. Or maybe it is stone.
"Is that a mogu?" Shine squints warily. "Or a statue?"
Estel shrugs. "We can go find out?"
"Even if it is a statue, I would take care," Anareline says. "I believe we've all learned that one, from the Vaults. If it is animate, though, we should break it."
"Bet the bugs would be pleased if we took out a mogu," Shine observes.
"Yeah, let's do it." Estel cracks her knuckles.
"Indeed," Anareline says. "Their enemy. It could only help our reputation."
When Ana charges in, the mogu lurches to life. Not a statue.
Shine appears behind it.
Very soon, the mogu is no longer animate.
Once the mogu is dead, Estel approaches the dead drop location.
"Is there anything new?" Anareline says, following after Estel.
Estel goes to check. "Oh! Yeah. Letter, letter, letter… Lena!" Estel hands one to Shine.
Shine takes it with more enthusiasm than Shine has displayed in the last two years, pretty much.
Estel grins at him and hands the rest of the letters to Anareline.
"Caspis and I have… a different relationship with time," Anareline says, looking at the letters. "Is there anything from the Cobalt officers?"
"There's one from Dane, a couple for Cole… Dane's probably writing to you, right?" Estel guesses.
"Ah," Ana says, rifling through to find it. There’s a package with it as well. "Probably. I sent a report to him and Ben Hazan, our officers in the area."
"Ben's here?" Estel sounds both delighted and disappointed. "I totally missed him!"
"I think so," Anareline says. "I have not yet spoken with him in Pandaria, but my understanding was that he would be coming to the continent, since the Captain is on parental leave." A spider runs up, interrupting her attempt to read letters. She tucks them in her bag. "Well, we can go through the rest of them back at Klaxxi'vess."
Shine looks up from staring at the envelope with his name on it. He nods and tucks the letter away carefully.
Estel blasts the spider with the dragon gun. "Yeah."
"We know how the Captain is?" Shine asks.
"Oh, man, Jo's gonna be a mom when we see her again…" Estel smiles fondly.
Shine actually smiles.
"Probably tired as hell, I'd guess," Estel says.
"I have no idea, unless there's anything in here," Anareline pats the packet of letters. "She was away from Pandaria before, but still in touch. I imagine once the children are here, she will be occupied for some time."
Estel tilts her head, looking at Shine. "You and Lena ever want kids?"
"Aye," he says. "We both come from big families."
"I remember those days," Anareline smiles faintly. "Long ago, when mine were small."
Estel grins at Shine and obliterates another cluster of eggs with the dragon gun without looking. Some grass catches on fire. She stomps it out.
"I owe Lena my life, so, like, if you need anything for 'em… We got a lot of hand-me-downs left from Almeiria's kids. Some good books," Estel volunteers.
"Oh, aye?" Shine raises his eyebrow and surveys Estel. He nods. "That's kind of ye."
Estel gives Shine a thumbs-up.
"It is amazing to me," Anareline says. "That your people can have multiple children, all young at the same time. It must be exhausting. What is a large family, for humans? I had a sister, and I have two children and a stepdaughter now. In my culture, my family is larger than usual."
Estel looks at Shine, who comes from a large family.
[Shine]: "Lena and I were each one of four. Back home now, I've got… thirteen or fourteen nieces and nephews."
Anareline raises her eyebrows. "So many. I also had not known Almeiria had children. Are they grown now?"
"Almeiria and her friend Alynnra both had kids with the same father, so they're basically shared kids," Estel says, shrugging. "They're four years old. There was a while back where Almeiria went to Northrend and I looked after 'em for a while. Now my sister Wisteria an' Alynnra are taking care of 'em."
Shine raises an eyebrow slightly at 'same father,' but does not comment.
Anareline looks at Estel and Shine as if puzzling things out. "Perhaps that is how. You might work together, help one another, when there are many children to care for." She does not seem to consider the ‘same father’ situation as particularly unusual.
"Yeah," Estel says, "but also some parents just have a !@#$-ton of kids." How many kids are in a %^&*-ton? Probably more than three.
"Four children, all at once," Anareline says quietly, looking at Shine.
"Aye. My parents didn't have help. The Fallons hire help. It all depends." Shine shrugs. "Sometimes it's economies of scale, I expect."
"Economies of scale," Anareline repeats quietly, seeming puzzled.
As they return to Klaxxi'vess, Estel waves to Kil'ruk and goes to put her dragon gun away on the weapon rack.
Anareline also puts her dragon gun away.
"Hey, we killed a lot of spiders," Estel says cheerfully. "And a mogu. There was a mogu there."
Kil'ruk looks over, and twitches with something that might be surprise. "A mogu? Well-done, spilling its blood. Even more than I asked for."
"He might have been a scout," Estel says. "He was holding real still, but close enough to the wall to maybe overhear stuff. He's dead now, anyway."
"You continue to prove useful, wakeners," Kil'ruk says. "We will have more tasks for you."
"Great," Estel says. "Just let us know when you need somethin' specific."
"I will call you when your skills are desired," Kil'ruk says, and it sounds like a dismissal.
Shine is readily dismissed. He has a letter to read.
Anareline nods, and heads back towards the camp.
"Cool," Estel says. "Later, later!" She waves to him and wanders off.