Daylight feels warm against my carapace. The breeze as soft as how the floating clouds look, drifting across the sky. My lipless smile shines as I continue the progress of my Hive's garden. Warm and moist, the dirt shifts within my claws as I dig a resting place for the seedling. 'Sunflowers' they called them. Read about them in the archives father keeps. 'Tall and big' father says, just like me.
"Crouton! Lunch is ready!" Father calls for me. "Clean up a little, so your not dragging dirt into the clan base. Alright?"
"Crouton is coming Father! Crouton will clean up." chirping in delight. Today Father used the tomatoes from the garden to make soup, though I wonder what are these 'Cheese gills' he speaks of.
The commlink stayed open, and Three knew the little shit was waiting for something, but she couldn't decide what "I told you so" she wanted first.
"You were right. She's a fucking guardian."
Instead of any crowing or glee, Freija sighed loudly with relief. "I was so afraid you were putting it on!"
"What, pretending? Why would I bother?"
~
"Shit, I don't know. Get an excuse to kill Jinx? Trying to avoid upsetting everyone at the party? Lots of shit that wouldn't be a change of heart."
Three had several things to say, and they raced each other to her mouth. "So you just took a bet that I wasn't going to get violent? You're not hunting for an ah-ha, I was right? Are you one of those Good People?"
Freija and Sunny left the comms on while they bickered, but they overlapped too much to pick out.
"Sunny says yes, but I say no, because she thinks you don't count the killing people thing, but I do."
"I got nothing good to say about you, Brute, but your Ghost is right. Killing isn't enough to take you out of the running. You're a Good Person. Trying to help and shit. You're gonna burn out hard like that."
"I'll burn bright while I do it," Freija declared shortly. "Anyway. Thank you. If you'll help teach her the Light, I can try to help her be a person, I guess."
Three growled irritably and sat back hard with her arms crossed, feeling childish. "She's a person, too," she sighed. "Pissed me off to see it, but it's there. Hive as she is."
"Yeah, but I mean like philosophy kind. Jinx got her out of the sword logic, but I just gave her the Traveler's Undead Army theory to run with. We don't know what Savathun might have done to her, we don't know if she might remember anything from her first life, with Savathun having the power she does to help bring it back. You can't be immortal with nothing to do, it hurts."
Three opened her mouth, then closed it, unable to come up with a good response and unwilling to throw out a bad one.
"I know you scavenge because it's better than starving, lots of us get with the Vanguard but that's not an option for her, the Lucent Brood would probably regard her a traitor, and she doesn't have a strong attachment to the Traveler like l grew, she didn't get the chance. She's got to have something to fall back on, or she'll do what we do all do when we're lost, alone, and scared-- fight. I've been trying to come up with ways to help Jinx contact me, but.... Never mind, I know you don't care. Sorry. I appreciate the help."
Letting Freija open up would mean letting whatever came out get all over her, and Three didn't want it, regardless of caring. Kid was a sap, that shit was sticky. "You're welcome," she forced out before she killed the comm and broke away from Freija's passive orbit to fly sunward.
"Protects the Hive by hurling its huge body at intruders."
"Like their smaller kin, their only instinct is to protect the Hive at any cost to themselves. Somewhat clumsy, they'll often damage the structure of the Hive when charging at intruders. Does this cause them shame? I do not know whether they have the capacity for such a thing." - The Hunter