Deep within Ursa's tunnels, excitement glimmered along the Hive's link as Zero-Zero-Four Manager's mind sought out Zero-Zero-Six Juggernaut's and prodded for its attention. Where was Juggernaut? It should come meet Jinyi, who was already traveling through the tunnels to find it. He had a surprise for it!

And even though it totally could just peek into his mind and find out what it was, Jinyi highly suggested that Juggernaut did not look too closely. That was the point of a surprise, after all!

@Juggernaut

Where was the Juggernaut? It was not sure. It'd been staring at a wall for quite some time.

It'd settled some into this new, hollower shell. It tread with new caution, aware of the many open wounds peppered across its self. They'd never close, not without help, but the treatment required was far out of its siblings reach. Every time it tried to let them bear some of the weight, it threatened to crush them, so it would never force them to share it again. This was his duty. This was his purpose.

Jinyi had seemed in high spirits this cycle, a real up-and-comer. Acknowledged by Dontaceal himself, chosen to carry his words. Juggernaut had watched the battles in Eridanus from afar. He'd done well. He did not need to be told so, not by such a distant relative.

So the direct buzz down the line was a shock to a system. Why the Juggernaut? What business did he have? What use did it have to anyone anymore, aside from a cautionary tale?

It sent an image of its location, one of the larger chambers at the edges of the nest. It was... A little embarrassing to show. It was terribly messy, marred by dust and two (two!) stray piles of sediment. The drones compulsion towards Order was currently outweighed by the great exhaustion it struggled against. Perhaps Mother would intervene soon.

The Juggernaut tucked its legs politely, and waited for Jinyi's arrival.

@Jinyi im gonna update its table real quick

Juggernaut's thoughts were suffused with exhaustion. This worried its sibling, who wound through the tunnels toward its room according to its directions. Gentle concern reached over their link, accompanied by something that was more a fact than a directed piece of thought-speech. Its family, including Jinyi, would always be here to support it. He wanted to support it, in whatever way it needed.

At last, he arrived at Juggernaut's chamber. He did not knock, but instead beamed an I'm here! directly into the other Drone's mind before entering. Of course, it'd probably heard him coming already, but it was the polite thing to do. (?)

"Hi, Juggernaut." The dust around the room went unmentioned. Jinyi didn't have much in the way of words to say, but he did have an unassuming box wrapped in the same paper Dontas bags were made from. He held it out with a huge grin on his projected expression. "Um. I made a surprise gift for you!"

There might be more to say, but that could all wait until Juggernaut had unwrapped its surprise!

@Juggernaut

The gift inside the wrapping paper is: one music box, forged from shining metal, with the original figures that spin to music replaced with polymer likenesses of Juggernaut, the other Drones, a Cleaner, and a Praetor; painted with white, red, gold, and Glassy Chitin dye. Juggernaut's wings are painted in white Starlight dye. It is enchanted with Ordered magic that will automatically repair minor damage.

It gently dismissed Jinyi's worries in a practiced maneuver, tucking whatever had prompted concern underneath the constant, smothering hum of the larger network. There were more important things to attend to, more productive activities.

It noted the last-minute transmission as odd. It wasn't the kind of situation where the Juggernaut would need to be alerted like that - there was no deadline. This wasn't a meeting crucial to the hive's continued survival. Perhaps Jinyi was attentive to these kinds of details, more than the Juggernaut. He had been personally visited by the father, after all.

Mandibles clicked from somewhere deep in his mouth. For me? He echoed, rather uselessly.

A stinger snaked forward, hooking carefully into the strange material. It took it a moment to realise it was supposed to tear through this dry membrane, which brought a brief pang of dismay. But it proceeded, steadfast, cleaving the wrapping in two.

(if I were a crueler person I'd have made her roll to do this without damaging the gift.)

Inside the box was... Another box. A few eyes gave Jinyi a puzzled glance, before the rest of its brain caught up again and noticed the hinges. It caught the edge of the lid with the stinger's end, and-

Oh.

Oh.

This... This was so much. Nearly everything. Too much. He'd made this? For Juggernaut? Did he know? He had to. Why? Why? Why? Of all her sons, this one? The one who could... Who could barely accept it?

The dam threatened to burst again, but he held strong, as time had taught him.

@Jinyi

Jinyi silently collected the wrapping as it fell. Not to worry—he would make sure he didn't leave a mess.

He waited with bated breath for Juggernaut to open the box. Luminous warmth shimmered from him in their link when it did, revealing likenesses of them. All of them, together.

Why? "Why not?" Now that the surprise was revealed, Jinyi let his thoughts flow freely again. Who could really say what was the most important productive thing to do, in the end? Which one of them could say what was necessary or unnecessary? Would another infected rat in Eridanus, one more berry vine's harvest sown into the fungus, have saved their influence in the end? Would one more flavor of chips change the caves' opinion of them? He had thought it might make Juggernaut happy. That was why. That was reason enough, and entirely worth it, to him.

"It still plays music, too. Just..." Ah, he'd neglected to think of the larger Drone's dexterity when designing the gift, but Jinyi could wind it up for them this time. He reached out to turn the clockwork key, to make the figurines spin slowly like some angelic carousel to a chiming melody. Each of them moving in harmony with the starlit figure of the Juggernaut.

He'd intended it as a gesture of support, too. It was strong, yes, but it was not the only strong one in the Hive. They all were. They could share whatever joys and burdens had been placed on each individual one of them. It was what they were meant to do.

@Juggernaut

It took a deep breath, feathers rising and falling. Forgive me. It was a foolish... Question. Sure. That is all it'd been.

The figures were so small, so delicate, so lovingly made. She thought of her children - her children. They'd been like this, when they'd first arrived. With the twist of the handle, they danced to a gentle song. Together, in harmony, in a perfect clockwork world. The Juggernaut wasn't sure how to feel, so it tried to feel nothing at all.

Music. Like the Piano. (A curiosity that was best suppressed, considering its choice in company. It shared Mother's suspicion as best as it could.)

The gesture was... Appreciated, in part, but its reaction was strained by circumstance. There are things it couldn't share, not with anyone, no matter the kind gifts they left it.

How was it made?

@Jinyi

Jinyi gave a sort of awkward mental shrug. There was nothing to forgive when they were all family. What harm did a casual question do, anyway? (And he didn't think it was that foolish, anyway.) The Juggernaut still did not seem entirely comfortable—the interaction seemed a bit stilted overall—but Jinyi could not quite figure out why. Though they should have been entirely connected, there were still parts of it that were inscrutable. Jinyi wished he could understand it, but it seemed rude to pry when it continued to be adamant about not sharing.

He was happy to answer its question, at least. Jinyi showed Juggernaut a series of scenes: collecting materials for dye in the jungle, processing it in the factory, carefully tinkering with the music box's mechanisms and molding the figurines from magical polymer. Painting colors onto the figures, carefully dotting each scarlet eye onto the Juggernaut's wings and brushing it with starlight and glassy chitin.

Tentatively, Jinyi expressed the hope that Juggernaut liked it. He thought it might, from what he'd felt of its reaction, but... it could be hard to tell.

@Juggernaut

It absorbed the images sent to it with a touch of wonder, and a bit of envy. Something akin to seeing your cousin's posting about their awesome vacation on the family whatsapp group. The last time it'd wandered from Ursa to maintain Hive territory, it'd been attacked with an axe. Cyneweard hadn't even been a Valkhound, and he'd been quick to join the cause afterwards - the fear that its design alone provoked had driven it to immediate violence.

It was simply too large, too brutal for diplomacy. Silently, it wished it could've joined Jinyi on his adventures through those jungles, without its presence registering as a threat to the locals.

But then the Juggernaut remembered what had happened the first and last time someone had pushed past that immediate, instinctual terror, and it silenced that yearning immediately.

It did like the gift. It liked it very, very much. It struggled to not overwhelm the link with the intensity of the affirmation.

@Jinyi
i refuse to capitalise a brand name right now its just too far for me