Day 5 - Standard procedure: 1/8
The three-room suite is dim this early in the morning. The curtains aren’t drawn over the windows in either of the two bedrooms nor in the living room between them. On the first glance, all three rooms are empty, and there’s no one in the bathroom. The four large beds, two in each bedroom of the suite, are neatly made, showing no signs of anyone having spent the night in them. That should be strange, since the guests certainly arrived at night.
Sudden shuffling and scratching from the top part of a large, heavily decorated, wooden, two-part wardrobe by the wall might freak out any potential observer up until the point when, with a bump, the small door opens, revealing a pair of glowing teal eyes on a small, black head.
10013 looks around, woken up by an unidentified sense of strangeness in its hive links.
Hmmm, nothing out of the ordinary.
Something is off, something…
A presence!
The instant 10013 concentrates on the faint and unidentified presence within the hive mind, it vanishes without a trace, leaving the drone questioning if it’s ever been there at all. Eventually settling for a shrug, 10013 flies down from the top section of the wardrobe and lands on the soft carpet, hopping around a little to enjoy the tickling on the frogs of its hooves. It’s like fresh grass but so much softer and warmer!
Whoah, we must have been more tired than we thought. It’s way past sleepy time and everyone's still out.
Its touching of the other hive links is immediately answered by 36658’s head peeking from under the bed. A second of violent struggling later, 20100 slides out from a bottom drawer of a metal filing cabinet in the corner.
“Hi, guys!” 10013 smiles, “Did you sleep well?”
“Mhm,” 20100 nods, “This sliding thingy was super cozy once I took the papers out,” it points at a stack of binders neatly set down on the floor next to the cabinet.
“Do you think someone’s gonna need those?”
“I’ll put them back in for the day,” 20100 flies out and gets to cleaning up, “Though I doubt anyone’s going to be using these, they’re all blank.”
36658 yawns.
“Then maybe they’re for us?” it suggests, “You know, so that you can draw as much as you like.”
“Ohhhhhh!” 20100 stops, pondering the idea, “If that’s the case then there must be some drawy rocks or paints around here too.”
“You’d better put those papers back anyway until we confirm that,” 10013 nods its head towards the cabinet, and 20100 resumes cleaning up.
“Whoah!” 36658 checks the hive mind, “We’re way into worky time.”
“Aren’t we on shippy time?” 20100 finishes putting the papers back.
“Can’t be,” 10013 shakes its head, “The ship sunk, so I think we’re back on standard time.”
“Huuuh,” 36658 taps its hooves on the carpet, “Nope, definitely not. There aren’t any hive mind markers about digging or carrying.”
“I think we should stick to being on breaky time until told otherwise,” decides 10013, “Besides, we can always hunt for points.”
“Ah!” 36658 facehoofs, “I can’t have High Score be forgotten due to the actions of that hairy tick. If you don’t have any leadershipping for us, then I-”
“I actually do,” 10013 laughs nervously, “But for that we need everyone. How about we first explore this place? The hive mind map is pretty empty.”
After they arrived at night, 387 just led the drones into the suite and ordered them in no uncertain terms to shut up and go to sleep.
“Should we wake the others up then?” asks 36658.
“Give them a few moments,” 10013 shakes its head and enters the living room which is roughly twice the size of the bedroom and filled with various pieces of soft furniture. One entire wall is made of glass, in the center of which is a sliding door leading on a balcony that immediately draws 10013’s attention.
The drone sits in front of it and tilts its head.
“A magic wall like on the ship! Do you think we can open this one?”
Some collective poking and bumping into the glass later, the drones notice something resembling a knob on the thicker, vertical, non-glass part of the wall. After a deep breath to gather courage, 10013 turns the knob and, with a click, both wings of the door gently slide to the sides.
“Whooah, you unmagicked it!” 20100 starts sliding the door back and forth while examining the groove in the floor which it seemingly follows on tiny wheels, “I wonder how it works…”
36658, in the meantime, flies up onto the parapet and breathes out:
“Wooooooow…”
Hearing that, the two drones hop next to it. The view is breathtaking, doubly so to the drones used to narrow, dark tunnels and caverns.
The Ataraki island is shaped like a boot viewed from above, with the resort forming a circle, half on the upwards-sloping ground and half consisting of water bungalows in the sea connected by a long pier. Halfway between them lies the crescent of the beach, empty at this time of day. As the drones look to the sides, they see a bunch of other balconies presumably belonging to the suites of other delegations. There are other buildings scattered all over different levels of the slope which form concentric half-circles ending with the beach itself.
10013 compares what it’s seeing with the current state of the hive mind map, and finds that there are no notes or descriptions of the buildings, leaving the drones in a completely uncharted territory. Well, with two exceptions - the drone suite is marked “Drones” and one of the water bungalows is marked “Chrysalis”. Interior maps are missing as well, and the whole mental world is lifeless and empty, meaning that there are no high ranks serving as hive nodes nearby to provide live feed.
“Good morning, guys!” 99526 calls out, leaving the heretic bedroom and waving at the four other changelings on the balcony, “What time is it? Are we late?”
“10013 decided that now that the ship is gone it’s a big breaky time,” 20100 beams and waves back, “And you’re not late. We’re just looking around. There’s so much more to see than on the ship and this place is much bigger than any cave ever!”
Two of the newbies trot over and look over the parapet as well, while 99111 walks over to a table by the main door of the suite.
“Woooooooow!” 99380 beams, “Hey, 99111, come look at this view! The big shiny is rising and making the sea all sparkly!”
99111 arrives a moment later, carrying a laminated map of the island, which it swiped from the doorside table, and puts it down on a table on the balcony.
“Look, we could use this in place of the hive map for now,” it says.
“Neat!” 10013 hops down from the parapet and examines the presented map, “Good job. What could all the numbers mean, though?”
“Is there more?” 36658 grabs the map and turns it around, revealing a long list of numbers with notes.
“Sooo… this big building we’re in is number… 4, floor 2,” 10013 concludes, “And that’s supposed to be the ‘Accommodations’, same as floor 3. Floor 1 is called ‘services’.”
“Hey, 99380, do you have a moment?” 20100 pats the newbie.
“Yup!”
“Can you try calling for Smiley? I can’t sense it at all.”
“Smiley! Smiley! 20100 says it wants you to come over here!” 99380 sends out a mental call.
“Anything?” 20100 looks around. The others only shake heads, “Keep calling then. Maybe it’s just wandering around and can’t reply from so far.”
“Yeah,” 10013 puts the map down and nods, “On an unrelated note, I took a quick look through everyone’s head on the boat here, and I think I figured something out.”
“What?” asks 36658.
“That 99380 isn’t stupid.”
“I’m not?” the drone in question asks after the usual small delay present whenever it speaks, “But it always takes me a while to gather myself. I’m kinda slow.”
“Yes, you are,” 10013 nods, “But I’ve been thinking and I have a guess as to why,” it waves the overturned map in front of 99380’s confused face, “Commit this to memory, please.”
“Done!” 99380 replies shortly.
“Everyone else, tap into it, take a break, and then try to recall it without, umm, recalling it.”
“Uhh, what?” asks 99111.
“Ohhhhhh!” 36658 smiles, “I get what you mean! I can feel it in my hooves.”
“I’m confused…” 99380 frowns, “Are you making fun of me? I want to be in on the joke too. Can you explain?”
“I’m feeling something, but I’m not sure what,” 99526 scratches its head.
“GOT IT!” 20100 suddenly jumps up, “Got it got it got it! Took me a while but I got it too!”
With an excited smile, 10013 hugs 99380.
“You can do what none of us can! You’re not just a radio ling, you can use the drone section of the hive mind that 387 set up. That’s why you can contact others better and now we won’t need to remember the big stuff like this map and all the notes on our own. Speaking of which, can you save the batball and curling rules for us?”
“S- Sure thing!” 99380 beams, stunned by suddenly being important, “I- you know- I can store your Scufflestick factions and details there, plus all the numbers that Mister Shiny promised he’ll help with.”
“That’s a great idea!” 10013 nods, “We’ll go see him later. I think he might still be asleep now.”
The excitement is interrupted by Smiley landing on the floor, happy as usual.
“There you are, buddy!” 10013 greets it, “Where have you been this early?”
*Puzzled face* *Happy face* *Confused face* *Stripey face* *Woozy face* *Tired face* *Happy face*
“Ooookay, that’s way too tough for me,” chuckles 10013, looking around and seeing zero understanding in the faces of others as well, “Let’s make it simple - any problems or danger?”
Smiley shakes its head.
“Anything we can help with?”
Smiley gives it a blank stare.
“Too complicated of a question, got it,” 10013 nods, “Well, I guess we can start now that we’re all here.”
“Oh right, you had some leadershipping to do, you said,” 20100 stops examining the map, sits down, and looks at 10013.
“Yup,” 10013 nods, “So, I had this idea, right? We all want points-”
Everyone but Smiley nods, and 36658 glares at 99111 who returns it with a frown.
“-but we all gotta work for the good of the hive and us drones. Now, since the newbies just don’t have our experience and we could also use a fresh perspective on problems, I decided that for today we should pair up - newbie and a veteran, and try to be useful together. You know, teamwork and so on, like when we were trapped inside the big bad starry pony and High Score split us up-”
Smiley wibbles at it. 10013 gives it a brief hug.
“-I know, buddy, I know. Any questions?”
“What are we supposed to do?” asks 20100.
“The same stuff we’ve been doing up until now, just in pairs,” clarifies 10013.
“Can I pair up with you?” asks 99111, nodding at 10013.
“I’d like to stick with 99380 for now to figure out how we could use the hive mind drone section, and hopefully learn how to allow everyone to fully access it too. We’ll take Smiley as well,” 10013 shakes its head.
36658 looks at 99111 with a sigh.
“Fine, we can-”
“20100, wanna pair up?” 99111 interrupts it.
“Sure, let’s roll!” 20100 nods.
“I guess that leaves us, 99526,” 36658 nudges the final drone.
“Yaaaay! Let’s work together for the good of dronekind!” 99526 hoofbumps the air.
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Gee 387, what are we gonna do today.
Same thing we do every day 10013, try to stop this lot from eating the world.
I know I've said it before, but 10013 is really doing four digit work at this point. I doubt Chrysalis will notice, but 387 ought to twig to it if he ever takes a break from his entirely justified paranoia.
Oh, and I seem to have chilled out from being angry at the other stories. I only had a little PTSD freakout when I was afraid for a minute that you were killing off Smiley.
Good chapter! Have a strange triangular blueberry pastry I got instead of donuts! -throws said pastry at you-
What, 387 didn't do anything to try and update it, make sure he knew the whole layout so there would be less potential for unforeseen surprises?
Does that mean 99380 can serve as something of a hive node for them? I mean, I'm sure it won't be quite as capable as the higher ranks when they serve that same role, but considering that drones aren't usually the first choice for this sort of role, I would consider that somewhat significant.
I'm picturing a superhero landing here. You can't stop me.
Smiley seems to be getting a little more verbose...well, "verbose" in the sense it seems to be using it's emotes to try and convey more complex thoughts, ideas, or chains of events than it had before.
11304368
For a split moment there, I thought you were going to make a Phineas and Ferb reference instead.
"10013, I know what we're going to do today!"
"Hey...where's Smiley?"
11304368
Unfortunately, now they don't have the shinies to buy anything. That's bound to need fixing.
11305006
- I'm pretty sure that if 10013 took the rank of 9999, 36658 would eat it in its sleep. And if it went lower, we would lose the High Score name pun.
- Whaaaat? This early in the story? Nah, that's what the final three chapters are always reserved for.
11305157
I summon 99526 to eat it! Now I have infinite supply of gooooooop!
11305162
- No. "DUN DUNN DUNNNN!"
- Yes. "DUN DUNN DUNNNN!"
- But why? "DUN DUNN-crack!" Hey, who broke my sound board?!
What a player! Smiley gets all the hot mares.
11305612
Oh dear
11305724
Smiley reminds me of Rodger Rabbit with all the Jessica Rabbits; almost clueless about how hot they are while they adore him, "...because he makes me laugh."
11310085
Huh, I'm clearly reading this in the wrong order! I'll be sure to check out your other stories regarding Changelings, thanks! :)
11310134
Nooo, I think you're in the right order. Imbalanced is my first story and the start of the main storyline of my entire library. If you want to stay in the semi-good vibes stories, stick to the changelings. The rest is dark.
Anyway, the reading list is on my profile page in a somewhat updated state.
Noo not the wibbles! *gives all the hugs*
Ok, so Smiley can remembering things better then others or Gem isn't bothering wiping his mind since he's not very sentient.