What better source of color was there than berries, and what better source of berries was there than Eridanus? Conveniently, the jungle-cave was also infested by Order, which made it an excellent choice of location for Jinyi's purposes.

After his unfortunate encounter here last time, Jinyi was careful to stay hidden. Sight and hearing alert for any possible intrusion, he entered the jungle in search of berries. Red, yellow, white: Order's favored colors. He shaped strands of organic polymer into small jars with snap-on lids in his hands. Seeing as how he didn't currently have pockets to tuck them in, his clothing having been cut off after getting horrifically stained and ruined recently, he fashioned a loop on the jars' lids and a hanger-like contraption that he strung them onto, to be able to carry them all at once.

Despite his efforts searching, nothing was turning up. Jinyi did come across one berry bush, but its berries were a deep purple. Not the right color at all, he thought, disappointed. But this was Eridanus; the right-colored berries couldn't be that hard to come by.

Unless--a flash of color from the corner of Jinyi's field of vision caught his attention. A group of three Rainbow Spinners, flitting around a patch of flowers and drinking the nectar. Perhaps... they could be of use instead?

Just one of the birds would have enough colors on its plumage to satisfy all of Jinyi's needs, if he could get ahold of one. Cautiously, he extended his magic to one of the fluttering creatures, trying to coax it to fly to him. It did not, and after a few seconds of vainly trying, the whole group flitted off to their next patch of food. Jinyi sighed, turning his attention away. Berries it would be, then.

Indeed, it wouldn't be long until Jinyi came upon the first color he needed: a large bush with dark oblong leaves and clusters of bright red berries hanging from its branches. He filled a jar with them and kept walking. Not much farther away, there was another bush with the same oblong leaves, but yellow berries instead--a different mutation of the same plant, maybe. Jinyi filled a second jar.

It would be a longer walk until he found his third and final color. White berries grew on a shrub with long stems and small green leaves barely bigger than the berries themselves. Jinyi filled a third jar and leaned against a tree trunk, considering. What other touches could he add to the figures? Maybe he could somehow reproduce the chitin texture found in Drones with some kind of dye featuring bugs. As for feathers and other body parts that didn't include chitin, perhaps he could make them sparkle.

Before he left this final berry shrub, though, Jinyi stopped to pluck more fruits from its stems. He carefully crushed them and spread the pulp on the ground, in a dark sheltered spot hidden from view by the tangled stems of the shrub itself. Then, he coaxed the Hive's fungus to spring forth in the soil-and-mashed-berry substrate. It took constant work to keep Eridanus in Order's grasp with all the corruption the Valkhounds were doing, after all.

To make things sparkle, Jinyi considered using the stuff from the shells of water-animals as a pigment. Their shimmering iridescence would look great on the music box figures, he thought. He followed the sound of water to a flowing stream and bent down to comb its sediments for shells. They were there--he dropped each one he found into a fourth jar--but they were few and far between. Perhaps he'd have to be conservative in his use of this material, and reserve the sparkling dye for the centerpiece only.

As he walked from the stream, Jinyi began to hear a faint buzzing that grew in intensity as he followed it to a loud hum. A few darting insects became visible in the canopy, then more, and eventually a small hive of Rainbow Bumblebugs came into view. Jinyi stared at it, considering. If he could get this to work, this could be a very quick way to get the insects he needed without spending so much time collecting them one by one.

He made a decision and darted forward, throwing a handful of twigs and leaf litter at the hive. At the same time, he extended his arm, palm thrusting forward. The hive shook upon impact and the Bumblebugs' humming turned angry, clouds of them rising from the hive to swarm and defend it only to be hit by a spray of glassy chitin from the Drone's palm. They fell like tiny rainbow hailstones to the forest floor, and Jinyi scooped them into his jar.

everyone say congratulations jinyi for not freezing himself to a tree this time.

He hated to waste things, and to destroy for no reason. That was the work of Chaos Beasts. So Jinyi would ensure that the Rainbow Bumblebugs would not only die for an artistic whim. Not all of the bugs had been caught in the blast--some still buzzed around the hive, confused, and some were surely still out gathering nectar and pollen. The hive was still full of honey and nectar.

Staying a safe distance away, Jinyi synthesized more of Mother's fungus directly into the Bumblebug hive. It was less than he hoped for; the distance he had to keep to avoid being swarmed again was probably responsible for that. But with the nourishment of the hive as a substrate, full of sugar and wax and pollen and protein, the fungus would grow. Whether it converted the Bumblebugs into Mother's eyes or consumed them for its sustenance, the Hive would become stronger either way.

Satisfied, Jinyi turned and began the trek back to Ursa.

exit