They're... ON HOLIDAY?

by Nameless Narrator

Day 5 - Standard procedure: 6/8

If nothing else, 36658’s and 99526’s trip has been peaceful albeit shockingly long. With calm and sparkling sea around, the sun taking its trip across the sky to their left, and the jungle lively with unidentified noises, the drone duo had very little to do past chatting about Scufflestick and their current situation. Unfortunately, their clue to finding 387 in the form of the only explored noodle of the hive map lasted only briefly, but they just kept walking along the beach, in the shade of the jungle, and safe in the knowledge that they remembered the basic touristic map of the island that was in their suite. Despite the island being fairly large from their point of reference, the map didn’t show any forbidden areas, so they should be okay without any special precautions beyond simple listening-

“What the holes are you two doing so far from the resort?” 387’s stern voice interrupts their chatter.

“AAAAAAAAH-!”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEP-!”

“-AAAAAAAAAAH!”

“-EEP EEP EEP EEP!”

Sand sprays everywhere, including all over 387’s face peeking out of a bush, so quickly that even he barely manages to close his eyes in time. Not that changelings particularly mind, hardened eye membranes and all.

“Huh…” 387 tilts his head, staring at two newly grown melon-sized piles of sand in front of him with amazement, “Well, if nothing else, you sure can still dig,” he rolls his eyes, walking out into the open, and shoves the closer pile aside with his foreleg, revealing the top of 99380’s head.

“Get up here!” he orders mentally in case of the drones’ ears being covered.

The sand underneath shifts, and both drones crawl out of their instantly-dug shelters. A brief moment of shaking sand out of various cracks later, 99526 is the first one to say:

“Hello! We were just looking for you.”

“Really?”

“Yup! Specially 36658,” 99526 nods.

“Specifically,” 387 corrects the drone automatically.

“That, yes.”

“And how did you figure out I would be here? That’s… concerning, to say the least. Am I getting old and careless?”

“36658 figured out the secret of map noodles. It’s a very smart drone.”

“Clearly,” says 387 in a slow, thoughtful tone which manages to shake 36658, compouding with its preparation to say what it means to, “However, I’m noticing that the one smart drone with something to say is still the only one remaining silent.”

“It said that what it wanted to say could be really dangerous and I didn’t want to leave it alone because drones stick together.”

“Admirable, in a way,” says 387. Now somewhat fascinated, he carefully jabs 36658 in its chest, making the drone shudder, “I KNEW you sank the ship and somehow managed to keep it a secret!”

His obviously joking tone finally breaks the ice and 36658 sighs, following it with:

“99526, put your hooves over your ears and cut your link, please.”

The second drone does so and turns away for good measure.

“I’m pretty sure you’re making much ado about noth-”

“I think there’s something bigger and much more important than the Queen!” 36658 blurts out. No matter how much it wants to just close its eyes and wait for its impending doom, it forces itself to look straight at 387’s blank face, eyes beginning to tear up.

Slowly, 387 breathes in and out.

It can’t know, can it? No, of course not. How would it? Am I overthinking this? It’s a drone, so there’s roughly ninety-eight percent chance that this is just some stupid thing they made up again.

“Elaborate,” is all he says.

I swear that if it says High Score or Great Shiny or whatever…

36658 mimics 387’s slow breath in and out. When it does so, it realizes why the warrior did it, as it both gives time and helps one calm down. Despite his certainty that all this is a misunderstanding at worst, the grim but determined look 36658 gives 387 genuinely gives the ancient warrior chills.

“If you decide not to eat me, I’ll tell you the entire thing, but what really made me think was something 93 said when she was dazed by Miss Gem’s anguishdecimators - she said that ‘the complete entity was not a changeling but the hive’ and that the unique special abilities of the drones other than our digging were a way for the hive to decide what it needed at the time.”

The warrior and the drone sit there, looking at each other, one with determination and acceptance and the other with…

36658 waves its foreleg in front of 387’s face when the warrior seems to stare blankly ahead for just a little too long.

“Haze, you absolutely glorious bitch…” he breathes out before bursting into laughter.

“What is it? I wanna hear it too! I like jokes!” turning around, 99526 stops covering its ears.

“No!” 36658 raises its forelegs to cover 99526’s ears itself, but gets carefully but irresistibly pushed back by 387.

“Link up again, 99526,” says the warrior, “I don’t think precautions like that are necessary, especially because 36658 is wrong.”

“Huh?” the drug drone stops and blinks.

“Eeeh, maybe ‘not entirely correct’ is more accurate,” 387 stands up and stretches, “Let’s go back and we can talk about it. First, though, tell me why you two are here.”

“Uhh, I already told you we were looking for you because I wanted to tell you… what I just did,” replies 36658, scrunching its face in confusion.

“I meant why exactly you two. Sort of an unusual pairing, to be honest.”

“10013 said that it wanted veterans and newbies to work together so we split up into pairs and 10013 took Smiley on top of 99380,” explains 99526.

“Smart call,” 387 nods with appreciation.

“We were looking for ways to gain points, but it looked as if we woke up too early and everyone was still asleep, so 36658 had the idea to look for you. What are you doing here anyway? Mapping?”

387 shakes his head and begins leading the way back to the resort.

“I wanted to check something in the jungle. Last night, I was going through my memories of our stay on the beach and I noticed that some of the bigger pieces of wood which our shelters were made of had been cut in a way which to me resembled a saw. On top of that, when I was foll- exploring the jungle with 99380, I found a stash of tools. I wanted to check if I was right, but the site where we were shipwrecked had been properly cleaned up.”

“Huh?” 36658 scratches its head, relieved that its imminent execution seems to have been cancelled, “Couldn’t that have been 1313 and the nice zebras? 10013 and 65536 saw 1313 make chitin saws by breaking off pieces of himself which they used to build their own shelter.”

“Wait, really?”

“How come you don’t know that?” 36658 shoots the warrior a genuinely stunned glance.

“Don’t look at me like that,” 387 frowns, “After what happened with Ten and the paladins I didn’t want to bother 1313 so I purposely avoided him and his group. He’s happy where he is, all he wants is to be left alone, and his group has never been hostile to us- well, changelings in general, unlike the paladins. Unfortunately, now it looks like I’ll have to bother him,” 387 sighs, “Wait, how do you even know what a saw is?”

“I got a lecture about tools when I was building a fence for my poppy patch!” 36658 beams proudly, “And afterwards I had to explain it to 57999 and other drones who helped me build it so I put the information together the right way inside my head.”

“I know what a saw is too!” 99526 hops up and down, pointing towards the jungle, “I’m sawing a lot of trees that way.”

“36658-” the warrior takes a breath.

“I’ll link up and synchronize with 99526 while we walk,” the drone replies instantly.

A short while of walking and hive link traffic later, 99526 simply says:

“Oh… that makes sense. I got a bit excited.”

“That’s okay,” 36658 pats its back.

Misunderstanding solved, 387 steels himself for the second incoming conversation. He knows 36658 is too smart to simply let its theory about the hive go despite being told it’s not correct.

I could have told it to just drop it and that it’s completely wrong. I could have, but… just like the theory, that wouldn’t be entirely correct.

“Now, about your idea, 36658,” the warrior approaches the subject. Surprised that it’s coming up again, 36658 lets out a quiet ‘hmm?’.

“Should I cover my ears again? I’m not sure how I’ll walk but I can figure something out,” offers 99526.

“No,” 387 shakes his head, “I think it’s time the idea of a top-down structure of the hive shifted a little, but in a way which won’t cause more harm than good. First things first - the Queen is the head of the hive, no point in denying that. However, a head won’t survive without a heart, lungs, exoskeleton, and so on. You get the idea… I hope,” he adds after a second.

“And which part are we, the replaceable drones fit for a snack?” asks 36658 bitterly, which clearly annoys 387.

“A changeling not adapting to the times? Maybe you’re not as smart as I thought.”

“Hmph!” huffs 36658.

“Look, you can either live in the past and be the untreated, festering wound of the hive just like the old Queens-” 387 takes a deep breath and starts again, “36658, what happened can’t be changed. The rigid top-down structure was created during the times of starvation when we were the enemies of everyone. Was any of it the fault of you drones? No, I can say that without a doubt, but it happened and its consequences made us what we are now.”

“My point is that we, drones, can’t stop it from happening again!” 36658 points at 99526, “These guys never lived through it and I don’t want them to, but they still… they still… they still just do things only because it’s an order or because they get a reward! They haven’t discovered a purpose of their own, which is something I’m trying to persuade them to do using High Score stories, and now 99111 is trying to stop me! If it wins it’ll just be the same stupid cycle - work to get love until you get munched!”

“Well, a carrot and a stick is a method that always works,” says 387 with a surprising smile, “Look, you’re young.”

“Not for a drone!” objects 36658.

“No, not for a drone, but still young, and some ways of thinking only come through experience. Thanks to what you survived, you have ideas and convictions of your own, radical they might be. However, they-” he pats the head of eagerly listening 99526, “-don’t. To them it, on some level, feels like you’re forcing them to believe something they have no reference for and can’t identify with, and that’s why you’ll eventually but inevitably fail. I know what forcing a… religion on others leads to. Whether you mean well or not.”

“But we die too easily! We can’t afford to start over with every new drone and hope that it somehow survives long enough to understand that there’s more to life than digging and running away. I’m trying to bridge that gap! High Score showed us we can be more! We need to build a system that’s more than getting an order and going away to fulfill it.”

“And that’s why Chrysalis and I changed your schedule and now you have your break time instead of working until exhaustion and then sleeping. In four years, you’ve made a lot of progress, but in terms of civilizations that’s a blink of an eye. Besides, if your point is setting an example with those High Score stories, you’re doing it wrong.”

“What?!” 36658 snarls, briefly completely forgetting whom it’s talking to.

Open hostility from a drone. That’s new.

“I received a full report from 1988 after returning to the hive, and so did the Queen. Do you really think we haven’t known that it lied to 1988 in order to save 17070 since then? Seriously? Did anyone get punished for it? Hmm?”

“...no…” admits 36658.

“There is a major lesson you still must learn, one which 9999 and 10013 did and you didn’t. You keep talking about someone whom you consider to be an example, but 9999 was the example in almost everything it did, and 10013 is doing the same. Now, we don’t want disobedience and lying to spread, do we?” 387 leans closer to 36658 who, however, glares back.

“What is more important to you, 387? Mindlessly obeying orders or doing what’s right?”

“That, 36658, depends on whether you trust whoever is giving you the orders, because if it’s someone more experienced, there’s a chance that they know what’s the right thing to do better than you. But you know what? I’m not against you on this one, holes know I understand how badly the powers that be require someone to keep an eye on them.”

“Then why-”

“36658, you are four years old,” the look 387 gives 36658 is somehow physically heavy, “The Queen is around eight hundred, and I am… one and a half thousand, give or take.”

“Gasp! You’re older than the Queen!” 99526’s jaw drops.

“How- How is that possible?” 36658 stumbles but catches itself before faceplanting into the sand.

“That is something entirely beyond your point of reference. The reason why I’m telling you this is not because I want you to see that the hive is in good hooves and to not worry because everything will be okay, but because despite its problems I’ve never lost hope that one day we might crawl out of the dark hole dug out for us by others, but mostly our own leaders,” to 36658’s surprise, 387 pats its head, “You want everyone to reach for the sky, metaphorically, to be as good a representative of their species as they can be, but that’s not how… anyone works. Most creatures will be average, that’s how averages work, and they’ll be okay with that, or maybe not okay but the effort required to get better will be too much.”

“But we can raise that average!”

“Not by force. At least not by force without pushback,” 387 shakes his head, “And there will be far more average creatures than the exceptional ones. I mean, that’s how language works - exception to the rule. Which brings us nicely back to when I told you you will inevitably lose if you push too hard.”

36658 slowly breathes out, its shoulder slumping.

“Is this your way of telling me I should give up? To just do my digging, carrying, tending to my patch, and be done with it? To hope that the high ranks will make the right choice that won’t keep getting us little guys killed?”

“Now that’s a tone of voice which clearly says that if I said yes you’d walk into the sea without gills,” 387 sighs, “Luckily for you, you misunderstood me completely.”

“Huh?”

“Think. What can you do if you can’t force someone to do something?”

“Trade with them or persuade them.”

“And which method would be the lasting one if you, let’s say, wanted others to believe that High Score existed and its way of doing things was right?”

“I guess giving them stuff wouldn’t really work in the long term,” admits 36658, pouting, “That’s why I’m not doing it.”

“Are you sure?”

“What do you mean?”

“Aren’t you just giving other drones stories they enjoy in hopes they’ll act the way you want?”

“NO!” 36658 raises its voice.

“Eeeeeeh…”

That hesitant noise doesn’t come from 387, rather from 99526 listening to the conversation and trying to make whatever little sense it can from its philosophical nature.

“...99526…?” 36658 looks at it, voice weakening.

“Drones shouldn’t hurt each other, and I might be young but I can still see it would hurt you if I answered that. And we’re not supposed to lie unless it’s to tell a good story, High Score said it in more than one of your examples…” 99526 scratches its head as its voice trails off, “Ummm, but I didn’t know about 17070 before. That kinda ruins the lesson because there might be good times to lie. 387?”

36658 looks away and simply keeps walking forward, head hung low.

“See, 36658?” the warrior resumes talking, “You gave them a story, and thought that would be enough. How could they believe you’re telling the truth?”

“I said openly that I’d show my memories to anyone who wanted it! But… but no one did… so I started with the stories,” says 36658.

“So let me ask again - why would they believe you? Especially when you yourself admitted that you, let’s say, added some flair to them.”

“BECAUSE I WAS THERE WHEN THEY HAPPENED, AND I WASN’T THE ONLY ONE! Isn’t that enough?!”

“When High Score turned the world around instead of walking through a narrow tunnel with a hurt drone on its back, so that it wouldn’t hit the ceiling with it on its back,” 387 hums to himself, “Still not seeing the problem?”

“It’s a mutant amphora!”

“It’s not a metaphor, 36658, it’s a jumbled mess of truth and absolute nonsense.”

“Kiiinda what 99111 was trying to tell you,” peeps 99526.

“That’s why you’re not persuading anyone, or at least not to the degree you want. You’re not giving them what they need, you’re giving them entertainment,” 387 nods.

“Then what do they need?”

“10013 understood it immediately.”

“A leader? I told you my entire problem was doing things only because of orders or rewards,” 36658 rolls its eyes, “and not because of a greater good or a long-term benefit as the case should be.”

“No, 36658,” 387 shakes his head, “They need exactly what High Score was for you - not a preacher, but an example.”

Comments

[Booster Spice]

The hardest lesson of all to learn, especially for those who wish, desire and demand to rule?

[StuffBuddy]

I realised just now that this whole "special drone ability" thing explains Three. His special ability is being a love generator.

[Screw]

I really enjoyed this philosophical talk. You're doing great, Wordsmith!

[Scyphi]

“The Queen is around eight hundred, and I am… one and a half thousand, give or take.”

...I wonder if 387 has lost track of his exact age...I mean, after that many years, I imagine it would all start blurring together enough that it becomes hard to keep it straight...

11339357
Concurred, this was very thoughtfully crafted.

[Nameless Narrator]

11339324
People who wish, desire, and especially demand to rule rarely wish to learn. Their narcissism and the self-assurance that they are already perfect and know best is what drives them to want leadership and power. That's why most managers suck and most CEOs psychological profiles are sociopathic.
11339332
Nope. Close and in the right direction, but nope. His specialty is a little bit different.
11339357
Considering that I entirely missed the point of what I originally wanted to say, I'm more of the wordsmith equivalent of a grandma who wanted to knit a sock and ended up with a fleece condom. But I guess 387 steering the conversation away from anything that would get 36658 black-bagged if Bugbutt ever found out, and getting to a relevant point nonetheless worked out fine.
11339637
On top of that, it really doesn't matter. It's not as if he's going to get a cake the size of Canterlot castle to fit all the candles.

[Scyphi]

11340034

Considering that I entirely missed the point of what I originally wanted to say, I'm more of the wordsmith equivalent of a grandma who wanted to knit a sock and ended up with a fleece condom.

From one writer to another--this is normal. I can't tell you how many times I've gone into writing something with a specific point to be discussed, and end up somewhere totally different from where I'd expected, simply because the flow of the story took it there instead.

But this is good, because it means it's not just you dictating what happens in the story, your characters are getting a say in it too, and since it's through them that the reader gets the story, that just makes it all seem more natural. Better to let it flow naturally and end up somewhere not quite expected than to try and force it and end up making it feel...well...forced.

[PiMan]

11339637
He'd have to measure it against historical events with known dates, rather than simply keeping his own count.