It had been many cycles since Shrike had met the... oh, what had it been? The one with the... chips. Dusted, flavorful. She knew now that it'd been representative of some sort of special magic, Order magic; asking around had offered only horrified murmurs of things like hiveminds and mind control. She doubted it was all that bad, but even so--the power it offered sounded like her thing.

Morality didn't factor in. The truth was, she was bored; simply surviving wasn't enough. She wanted a chance to twist fate, to manipulate, to control others. If this Hive did control Gembounds, then she wanted in--as a master, not a slave.

She was patrolling Pegasus now, having gradually made her way from cave to cave. The only word she really remembered was the one about the chips... Dontas. So now she rose up, wings flapping, and circled in serpentine grace, calling out: "DONTAS? I SEEK DONTAS. ...DONTAS?"

She didn't, of course. She couldn't care less about Dontas. But it was a code word, sort of; if someone recognized the name, perhaps they could point her in the right direction. In the meantime she swept lower, scales glittering white, and scoured the fields for anything hopeful.

Ace's appearance left Shrike wide-eyed--at first by virtue of the sudden, loud voice and then, secondarily, his appearance. She stared up for a beat before offering up a breathy, amazed greeting: "Oh, I love you." It wasn't in the romantic sense, though. She spoke the way someone might upon spotting a beautiful gemstone, or a nice car--in another world--and maybe that wasn't a great thing; maybe objectification to that level wasn't any better than being creepy. But then, Shrike had never been an expert at personal relations, either.

Still, the more flexible corners of her beak turned upward in a smile, eyes glittering with a sort of empty desire. She wanted that power, that spiralling confidence Ace seemed to exude, and she wanted the backing of the powerful, too.

"Actually," she called up, a little more loudly (though Ace might well have heard her other comment), "I wanted to discuss something else--if you have a moment? 'Dontas' just seemed to be something that only a select few would recognize." She showed no fear, because--foolish or not--she felt none. She was purely fascinated, held rapt even, by the sickles and spines and plating.

Could she ever hope to compare..?

"My name is Shrike," she added, and allowed herself to drift down into a serpentine coil to the grass below. She settled there, half sitting and half curled upright. Easier, she thought, to have a conversation on the ground rather than shouting back and forth--particularly if the conversation might be one that Ace would prefer be kept quiet. And from all she'd heard of the Hive, that was likely to be the case.

"Squares," was the first thing Shrike repeated back, a quizzical smile (or as much as one could manage, with a beak) plastered across her face. The magic that had granted her some understanding of language, as a hatchling, fell short with this; she knew it as a shape. But it seemed to be... maybe an insult? That was a guess, though; maybe the Hive had a lot of Gembounds of square shape..?

Ahh--but professionalism had descended like a funeral shroud, turning crowing brags into stiff attention, and Shrike shifted a little more upright to match and to compensate. Part of that was her typical habit: she didn't really feel as others did, so mimicry was her natural response. And part just felt it'd be rude to slouch and chat while Ace was offering businesslike regard.

She cleared her throat and tipped her head, considering her phrasing before she answered. "There's no particular... situation, really. I've met--ahh--the one who dealt in Dontas. The--Customer Service Agent?" she added, head tipping farther. She wasn't sure what kind of animal a Customer Service Agent was, but that's how the introduction had gone, anyway. "Jinyi. That was his name. And in looking for him later, I heard some things about Order. Hive. Do those words mean anything-?" she asked, pondering. "It said something to me that those who spoke them did so in hushed tones." There was as glitter in her eyes, now--playful? Zealous? Malicious? It was hard to tell, and may even have just been hope, or envy. She wanted some of Order for herself, that much was becoming clear. "I was... interested. I'd love to become something more than I am--I feel that something is missing? If that makes sense to you," she added, and her demure little chuckle was one imitated from a dozen others, empty and cold as her diamond. "So what I'm asking, I suppose, is... are you recruiting?"

She shifted position, a little, raptly watching Ace. She hoped that he was right; that Order was the best choice. She had a few questions to ask, of course, but oh yes, she was interested.