The first thing a Vrul child ever learns is fear. Or at least, that was the first thing Krill ever learned. Under the eyes of the council, all young Vrul just out of Larvae state came to know that the universe, even their own world, was dangerous, uncaring, and full of hostility. And, at least to the Vrul, this was somewhat of a reality considering that the central cities and the councils of the Vrul homeworld had been made in response to a sort of fungal zombie apocalypse that occurred over thousands of years ago, so long that their people somehow managed to forget up until recently.

For these reasons, though they had been unknown to the universe at large, it was once assumed that Vrul neuroticism was simply a natural trait of their species, prone to overstressing and nervousness, but it turned out the behavior was a product of learned helplessness, repression and something like brainwashing that had been carried out for as long as anyone could remember.

The result?

Krill had never not been afraid.

Once upon a time he had spent most of his energy being afraid for himself, what could happen to him, what would happen to his career, what, what what, but when he had finally broken from the council and fallen in with a group of humans, that fear had turned into the fear FOR someone else; who would get hurt next, how could he protect them, what would happen if he didn't manage to.

That fear had continued with him for the better part of a decade or so, but now..... Well Krill had a new fear.

A fear for the entire universe: what would happen if the void won, how would they stop it, and what could he even do to help. Ever since taking a step back onto arcadia, and becoming the dean of medicine and the chief of surgery, Krill had been happy enough to take on a more supporting role. He had mostly given up his active participation in everything that was going on content to do what he was best a.

In a time of peace, Krill really thrived, because in a time of peace there was no greater enemy than the reality of mortal frailty.

But now.

Things were getting bad again, things had gotten bad on a cosmic scale, and now he found himself back where it all started, on a ship headed towards the unknown, possibly death.

And he was terrified

He stared out at the vast darkness, the wash of black that dominated the reaches of the night sky. One of his cerebral hemispheres idly tried to count the stars but lost track somewhere in the thousands, and eventually gave up, his thoughts petering away into concern and frustration.

Krill the support class, he mused idly.

He had taken that metaphor from one of those tabletop role playing games Riss had roped him into. Krill had recommended it to his colleague once, and ever since Riss had roped him into a game every tuesday night with a dedicated band of very nerdy humans at the nearby dice shop.

Krill had chosen a barbarian as his incarnation, and Riss hadn't failed to point out later that evening that the choice was somewhat telling about Krill's own psyche. Krill had rolled his eyes at the shrink, but Riss had continued undaunted.

"You feel physically inadequate in your everyday life. You are surrounded by people and beings who have the capacity for immense strength, durability, and combat skill, and despite all your intelligence, all your knowledge, you are easily squishable, like a support class wizard." he tacked on thoughtfully to the end.

Krill did not like being psychoanalyzed, which was funny considering the person he had chosen to cohabitate with.

What Krill was to medicine, Riss was to the mind. Krill admired his dedication, intelligence and ability to have a rousing argument, but sometimes the little vrul was incredibly punchable. The more annoying part was that Riss was actually bigger than Krill, by about an inch, and thicker in the limbs, so even if Krill wanted to punch him, it probably wouldn't do any good.

Krill, like most medical professionals of the body, had thrown away Riss's opinion out of hand and grumbled about how his "analysis" was simply a matter of opinion and not a very good one at that, while also secretly knowing that Riss had just been pointing out an obvious truth that krill himself refused to acknowledge.

He was weak

And he hated it

He told everyone he was fine with staying behind where it was safe, and he wouldn't have been lying if the others he cared about were willing to do the same, but he was surrounded on all sides by a bunch of self sacrificial heroes, and none of them ever did anything unless it was to their own detriment.

And krill could do nothing.

Not until after the fact when things might have already started to get out of hand.

He hated watching them go off without him to do dangerous things only to sit there and twiddle his antenna while he waited for them to return. Not to mention, when you are support class stuck in a group of tanks, you sometimes tend to get left behind through not intention of the tanks.

It's just, he simply couldn't keep up.

Oh and this was not even to mention all the fear he had surrounding his own progeny: Clotho, Atropos and Lachesis, but if he opened that can of worms right now, he would probably drown in it.

"Now that's a brooding face if I ever saw one." Riss said from the doorway.

Krill looked up from his warm cup of sugar water, and turned away from the vast reaches of space, and the shattered carnage contained within, "This is just my face."

Riss shook his head and stepped further inside, four legs dancing easily around the door before shutting it behind him, "No, that's a brooding face."

"I am always brooding." Krill shot back stubbornly

Riss smirked, "Yeah but this is the more serious kind of brooding."

Krill huffed, "Next time I will attempt to wear my less serious brooding face."

Riss, Krill's most tolerable cohabitant, took a seat across from him.

The two of them had met a few years ago after Riss had risked his life to get away from the Vrul council, and a termination order had been placed on his head. Technically they had met before that briefly on occasion many years ago when Riss had fallen in a river and Admiral Vir had jumped in to save him, but Krill hardly counted that.

Riss hadn't been very old at the time, and Krill didn't see that it counted.

Since meeting more officially, the two of them had made an agreement, an experiment meant to defy the Vrul council and prove the brainwashing that they knew had been happening all along. Each donating genetic material to the project, they had come up with the triplets, progeny to observe and learn from in a stable environment to see just how the average Vrul might actually behave under low-pressure upbringings.

They were the first Vrul to be born and raised without the influence of the council.

They were little monsters.

And now Krill was stuck with a cohabitant, though he tried not to argue as it was occasionally nice to have someone to talk to.

He supposed he liked Riss enough.

Maybe.

"So are you going to talk to me?" Riss asked, slumping back into his seat.

Krill snorted and took a sip, "That depends, are you going to try and use your jedi mind powers on me."

Riss held out his hand, and krill reluctantly handed over his sugar water. Riss took a gently sip before passing the cup back, "Adam is rubbing off on you."

Krill snorted, "How can he not. The amount of ancient pop culture references he uses is astounding."

"Or could it be that you miss your friend, and are trying to find a way to reconnect with him on some level?" Riss said, the nonchalance just oozing out of him.

Krill had to fight down the sudden desire to throw a brick at his head but refrained.

"I thought I said no jedi mind powers."

"I'm not using my jedi mind powers. I am using my "we have lived together for over four years'' powers, and I think you are frustrated that the current circumstances are not conducive to you being involved. The stakes are too high, and you are not equipped to handle it. In the end that results in all of your friends leaving you behind to protect you, and you have to sit around and wait for them to come back. Back in the old days the stakes were low enough you could sometimes be involved, but now a war is going on and there is no place for you on the front lines where all of your friends tend to go."

Krill actually had a medical textbook in his hand before deciding better of throwing it at Riss and set the book down.

Riss waited.

Krill waited.

"Talk to me."

"Why?"

Riss huffed, "For architect's sake krill, I don't know, we live together, we have children together, we spend an inordinate amount of time together, oh and listening to people talk is my actual JOB. IF none of those reasons are good enough than CLEARLy I have misread this situation."

Krill lifted his head chin jutting stubbornly, "Maybe you have."

Riss rolled his head in a mimicry of eye rolling, so hard Krill thought he was going to snap his spinal column, "Rings of Nebulon you are stubborn."

Krill huffed but went quiet.

Riss waited patiently.

Krill hated it but somehow the stupidsmugness of Riss worked it's magic and he wilted, "I detest being useless. The most work I do these days is to give other people magical powers on occasion and sit in on the war meetings, which I know Adam only does because we are friends, and not actually because he needs my opinion. I am not a tactician, I am a surgeon."

Riss tilted his head slightly.

Krill threw up his hands. Now that he was going, he wasn't going to be able to stop, "I am useless in all of this. I wish there was more than I could do to PREVENT people from getting hurt instead of just dealing with the aftermath. I wish there was something that I could do."

Riss reached out and took the cup Krill offered to him, "Mmmmm...." there was a long silence between the two of them. Krill really didn't expect Riss to offer a solution, as there were no real solutions to be had, "Have you ever thought about undergoing the surgery yourself."

Krill nearly spit out his mouthful of sugar water, "What!"

Riss looked up at him and shrugged, "You want to help so bad, why not unleash your anima power and get the surgery."

Krill frowned, "I can't do surgery on myself."

He shook his head, "No, but, Dr. Katie has been working for you for years. By all rights she is an incredibly talented surgeon."

Krill shook his head, "She's talented for a human, but it takes all four of my cortical hemispheres to perform the surgery without killing anyone. As good as Katie is, which is very good, she is still human. The surgery would require her to stand in one place for nearly a day straight, no eating or sleeping."

Riss shook his head, "No she doesn't, the hardest part of the surgery is the last part of the surgery. Plenty of people can perform the first part, you have just always insisted on doing it yourself. Katie has done microneurosurgery on plenty of occasions."

Krill still shook his head, "I allow Conn to connect to one of my hemispheres independently so I can see where I am going when I make that last cut, that is not something a human can do."

Riss held out his hands, "Look, you can shoot down the idea all you want, but I think Katie can do it, and i think it would be the answer to your problem. Imagine Krill, you could help your friends on the battlefield not just as a support."

Krill paused, "And if Katie fails, my soul goes to the necrotorium."

Riss frowned, "Risks in all things I suppose."

Krill found that to be a bit of an understatement, but still, the idea was at least interesting.