//------------------------------// // Generic hive-integrated lodging // Story: Loyalty // by Hazmat Man //------------------------------// His cubby was normal. Standard. Nothing special in the place he and his brother lived. It could fit more 'lings, yes, but there was no other family to live with. Not anymore. No 'ling had too dissimilar a cubby: same rooms, same area, same notch. Of course, the interior could be somewhat decorated. Chrysalis was quite literally the only one with special living arrangements, her room being vast and luxurious. Well, he supposed sleeping on the ground, homeless, was a special living arrangement for Pigeon, if it could be called that. It was a strange thought, seeing as to the hive provided and built a cubby for 'lings, and one didn't pay for it like outside of the hive-lands. It was just provided when you left the nursery. You were told 'hey, thats your cubby,' you said 'alright.' and slept there. He stopped at the entrance, Pigeon beside him. "An uncovered entrance?" Pigeon queried. Pharynx gave him the strange look he found himself constantly giving Pigeon. "Changelings have no need of doors. Why can you only remember basic infiltration knowledge anyway?" He didn't give him a chance to reply, turning to the entrance. "Thorax!" There was a small period of silence. He might have disturbed a sleeping Thorax. Hah! Good for him. "Pharynx?" Thorax's voice came through, a question clearly infused in it's tone, albeit a nervous one. "I'm going to have to question you about your contact with Pigeon. Just informing you so you don't freak out on me." He then entered without waiting for a reply, leaving Pigeon all alone. Pigeon stood in silence. Then he looked around, as if hoping Locust was to mysteriously appear and tell him what to do. She didn't. Was Pigeon supposed to follow Pharynx? Did he miss something? Pigeon sat on his bottom and waited patiently. Then he yawned. It wasn't that long before Pharynx came back to the entrance with Thorax beside him. "I told you not to freak out," He grumbled, "But that didn't stop you from doing just that!" "You didn't give me much of a warning!" Thorax protested. "I didn't know what was happening! Of course I freaked out!" "You should learn not to." Pharynx said disapprovingly. "Well, I- Oh, hey Pigeon." Thorax had noticed him. "Hello." "So... How are you?" Pigeon shrugged "I'm alright. Slept on the floor to rest. A good opportunity." "Really?" Pharynx asked "You should be more alert than that, Soldier." "...But I thought that I had to wait for you?" "Wait and be alert." "Sorry, Commander." "Don't let it happen again." "Wait." Pharynx and Pigeon angled their heads towards Thorax, the offender who had spoken the last word so far. "You sleep on the floor?" "...Pigeon here has no cubby." "What! Every 'ling has a cubby!" Pigeon gazed down at the grey, hard floor he had been resting in. "I don't." Was he sad? Bitter? "Well, that's just not right! What if you lived with us?" Silence was present for no more than a few moments. Both larger 'lings coughed simultaneously. "What?" They said, also simultaneously. "Thorax, are you insane?" Pharynx let out, throat hoarse. "You want Pigeon to live with us?" "Why not?" said Thorax, "We have room." "Wel- Ye- But he might as well be a stranger!" "Who else is going to take him in? Besides, it's not uncommon for 'lings to take others in if they have space." "We could assign him to one of the empty cubbies that line the hive since the massacre!" "The cubbies that we drones are dismantling daily to repair the constant mole attacks? The ones that are off limits to every 'ling, else there will be harsh consequences?" "Yes, but we don't know him well enough to trust him!" "If we can't trust our own guards, who can we trust?" "Literally everyone else!" "Does he seem like a bad 'ling to you?" "You are inviting a stranger to our home!" "He can't hurt us. He doesn't even know what his name was, or why he is a penal 'ling at all." Pharynx gazed at Pigeon, who was staring off into who knows where, looking as though he had watched ponies disguise themselves as changelings. "Alright, fine." "...What?" "I said fine." "But- No further argument?" "No." "I- I came out on top?" "Don't count on it, brother." Thorax was confused, as though waiting for his brother to laugh and admit a cruel joke of sorts. Why would his brother accept? Pigeon looked as though about to crumble at the weight of the hive-shattering revelations being thrown on him. Pharynx walked towards the entrance of him and Thorax's cubby- their cubby, then stopped and looked behind him, red eyes not betraying any emotion. "Well? You coming or not?" "So, this is a cubby." He looked around himself as though he had never been in the inside of a- oh, wait. He never had been inside a cubby, Pharynx realized. "Yes." It was humble. Grey walls, a room with a similarly grey table. Pigeon couldn't see the sleeping place. Thorax joined the conversation. "Yes! And that right there is our sleeping notch!" He said proudly. "Sleeping notch?" The sleeping notch was a rather large notch in the table room he hadn't noticed till now. It was big enough to fit about 4 'lings, if one had not a single problem with being hugged on all sides by either chitin or hethicus. In fact, there seemed to be no other room but the table room. "...This is the place we sleep?" "Yes." A blunt reply from the Commander. "Doesn't look that much more comfortable than the floor." "I can throw you out, if you want." Pharynx's reply was humourless. "...It actually looks very comfortable, on second thought." Pigeon stopped. "Wait. We all sleep here?" "Yes." "All of us." "Do you see any other sleeping notches nearby?" "..." "I am squished." "It's not that bad." "This was evidently not meant for 4, but 1. We 'lings were evidently all scammed." "Shut up." "Now you talk?" "Shut. Up." "...Fine." "I regret agreeing to let you in our cubby." "I stopped talking!" "You didn't stop taking up space." "Why did you think I felt there needed to be more sleeping areas instead of just one." "...You might be right. But that doesn't make you stop taking up space!" "You see Thorax! Even your brother agrees with me. However grumpily he did so." "But we still fit, don't we?" "Barely." "So, I need to guard the... Heth? The one you gave me directions for? What does it even do?" "The Heth produces hethicus. You should know this already. Even if you didn't, it's name is self-explanatory. You really don't need me to teach you everything." Locust was quite clearly annoyed. "Yes, I do need to ask you for everything." His first attempt at sarcasm that he could remember! "So, the Heth is where all the drones vomit out the the hethicus?" "Obviously. It also happens to be the place where we store excessive amounts of it." Indeed, despite her large annoyance, she happened to always be a gold mine of information that could simply not include more side notes for him. Never change, Locust. Never change. "We only have one "Heth", huh?" "Yes. If our hive was bigger, we would have more, but it isn't." "Is there even any more hives other than this one?" "No. Not anymore." "Really?" "The abandoned one in the winterlands doesn't count." "Winterlands? Winter - lands? We choose the best places to place hives, don't we." "A hive needs to be hidden." "So this hive in the "winterlands," how is it dead?" "Only the Queen knows." He sat stock still. "... And how old is the queen for her to be the only one who knows?" "A good few centuries or more, I don't know." Wonderful! The queen was the oldest living being to ever exist, apparently. They weren't even sure of her exact age, because apparently no 'ling had asked her! "... How do you know this dead hive even exists anyways? She tell you about it?" "Sometimes 'lings are sent there to pick hethicus or some other thing up. I was one of them. So was my cousin." "Really? How does it look like?" "Like it was abandoned a long time ago. If a 'ling isn't careful or has a bad sense of direction, whoever it is could get lost on the way there. End up in that area that used to have a city-state of sorts or on the frozen end of the Tibetian sea. It's why we are always sent in groups" "Tell me about this Tibetian sea and city-state." "..." "...Well?" "Go to the Heth and do your work. Don't get too bold. For all I know that is the reason your a penal guard." Pigeon winced. Collecting himself, he turned around and walked toward where she had said the Heth was. When he reached it. He decided he didn't want to know what was going on inside. The sounds that came out proved to him that his decision was rather wise, even if he only thought so himself.