She did not venture out from Orion often, though she often yearned for someplace brighter, warmer, greener, filled with more life than the Room of Stars. An intense feeling of… homesickness, or whatever it was, tethered her to that place. She feared that if she wandered too far, something might happen to the colony of bats that had become her family, sort of. It didn’t make very much sense to her, but a gnawing sense of anxiety and loneliness always drew her back before she spent too long away from home.

But this tunnel didn’t count as wandering far, did it? The ivory dog made her way through it with slow, hesitant steps, craning her neck to look around her with wide eyes and a twitching nose. The moss here glowed. The air was sweet. It was so… lovely.

When she had traveled the length of the tunnel, from the proximal Orion entrance to the distal Polaris entrance, though, she stopped. Somehow, stepping into another room entirely felt terribly scary and new, and she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Her ears twitched uncertainly, and she lifted a paw only to take a slow step back from the entrance.

Maybe it was time to go home? She didn’t like to go terribly long without company, even if chirping, wordless bats were the only form of company she’d known.

@Legion

Legion was busy.

Not busy busy, but the sort of "busying themselves" constant activity someone might do to distract themselves from other things. The mites were industrious; one had to give them that. Though only their Queen had experienced terrible things, the rest knew of it all from her memories and when she directed them to work, they (sad, solemn, and dutiful) obeyed.

The hive as a whole was a sad creature, then, an organism of refugees, in a way. Greaters did not often come close enough to warrant a greeting; indeed Legion's number tended to watch suspiciously and from a safe distance anyone that they might glimpse. Today, though--busy as they were scrambling along the mosses, gathering up anything edible and sweet they could pick from between the glowing tendrils--they very nearly did not see Parthenium approaching. Only one or two more highly alert drones saw her shape, the white fur pausing with paw in the air. A brief flicker of magicka rippled through the mites, and the thought quickly followed from mind to mind like an echo: safe. There was no sign of a deep fungal infestation the way Mother would produce. After a moment's silence, hushed conferring, the swarm decided (however reluctantly) to introduce itself.

It didn't do to remain alone forever.

They swept down in a vague and cloudy blur, choosing to form themselves in a shape that would mirror Parthenium: a large dog, albeit indistinct and hazy, seemingly formed of grey-brown dust that floated in the air.

"Hello?" Legion offered, their combined voice a soft buzz. The reluctance--even the dislike--of their bitter Queen couldn't quite quell the innocent, friendly curiosity in the drones, and she let them take the lead, for now. "We are Legion--we mean no harm. Are you lost?" the hive asked, after a moment's pause of taking in the dog's uncertainty.

@Parthenium

There was this kind of... indistinct buzzing sound filling the tunnel. Parthenium's ears flicked once, twice with irritation as she craned about to search for its source. She went very still as, right before her eyes, what looked like specks and clumps of dirt dropped out from the moss on the tunnel walls and coalesced into... something that looked vaguely like her?

She had never seen anything like it before, and simply stood there, frozen with confusion. Her first thought was that maybe... she had done something to trigger this hazy mirror image? Pools of water reflected a distorted version of herself sometimes, so maybe this tunnel was somehow special, and made reflections of the people who walked through it out of the very dust and earth that formed it?

Oh.

And the reflection spoke, too.

"Huh-hello," she answered tentatively. This was unusual, too! It spoke words, like the words that flowed through her head when she thought about things sometimes. The bats never did that. The syllables tumbling out of her mouth felt clumsy; she had never had the occasion to speak out loud before. "I am Parrt--Parthenium. I am... not lost? Who - are - you?"

Legion was perhaps a name, like her own. But knowing it did not make Parthenium feel any more enlightened about what exactly this indistinct cloud was. "I mean... beyond Legion. I am a dog. 'm friends with bats," she added by way of clarification.

@Legion

The dog responded. Much of Legion's swarm buzzed softly, rippling with excitement: a new friend? The Queen's bitter fear dampened it, but not enough to quash it out entirely. The voice, despite being an insectoid hum, held excitement in its words. "Hello, Parthenium!"

"We are-..." Another pause, as they asked one another what Parthenium had meant by 'who are you.'

Do they mean... what? What are we? Or--who we are aligned with? Or-... A pause, a ripple again through the dog-shaped cloud, and they offered an attempt at an answer. "We are many. We are small," they went on. The swarm then split, myriad tiny mites spreading apart from one another, the dog-shape dispersing into a fine gray-brown cloud. Then it was coming together again, its various parts shivering a little too much to be a coherent single animal. They tried to turn white, as well--to mimic her thick coat--but the magic failed, a flicker of shadow passing over them and then fading. They gave it up at once as unimportant. "We are alone. Together--but alone. We are lonely," they admitted, abruptly.

The Queen felt a surge of sadness at this admission--a feeling that always lingered through the swarm, but was very rarely voiced. They did not think about it, because dwelling on it would only make them sadder, but--the Queen had kept them isolated too long. She remained silent, allowing the rest to joyfully voice their questions to this stranger.

"With bats? Are they good friends?" A pause, a ripple, and then a hushed, excited, hopeful question: "Do you want to be friends with us?"

@Parthenium

Hello, Parthenium! How strange, that a simple greeting should send such a thrill through the ivory dog. Her heart thrummed with joy at the excitement in the strange cloud's buzz; here at last was someone who would speak to her, and who would maybe... be her friend?

The bats were her friends, of course, and she loved them dearly. But here was a chance to make another!

"Ah!" she gasped, softly, in wonder, as the her-shaped cloud became thinner and more amorphous, and she could even single out individual mites for a moment. "I have never... seen someone like you before! But you have one name." One name, for so many little mites. Parthenium wondered how many there were--how long would it take, if she were to try and count them all? She tried to imagine what such an attempt would be like. Orion was so dark, so she pictured spending an entire afternoon somewhere well-lit--like this tunnel, perhaps, but she liked the weather a bit warmer, though the sweet air and the greenness of the moss had her heart thoroughly enraptured--with this cloud, Legion. The image was enchanting.

Legion's admission of loneliness, and the delicate hope and excitement of its subsequent question, sparked an emotion that felt so warm and yearning and yet so much like someone had dipped her heart in acid. Parthenium's heart broke for the little cloud at the same time as she craved its friendship. "They are very sweet," she told it, sitting down and tilting her head to look up at the swarm with deep brown eyes. "They do not speak, but they chirp at me when they come and go, and make comforting chitters when I'm scared. They let me have a little of their food, sometimes." It was really very kind of them, to take her in when she had been nothing but a helpless puppy, terrified of falling. "Yes! I want to be friends with you. I want--" She floundered for words for a moment. How could she describe the immense desire to love, and be loved? To always have someone by her side--never alone?

She settled on "I think you're really nice," though it did not seem like the best way of expressing what she felt. "I want to be friends with nice people. I think we should all be friends with one another and-- and-- and then people would have lots of friends. And no one would have to be lonely, because loneliness is awful, and we'd all love each other and explore bright pretty places like this tunnel with lots of friends, and--" She realized she was rambling. "Ah, I'm sorry. It just seems like a happy image. You know?" she tried hopefully.

Legion knew what she meant, right?

The bats never responded with words when she spoke to them. She picked up on subtle hints through tone: this chirrup was meant to be reassuring, that squeak was surprise, those chirps were totally uncomprehending. She stared up at Legion, eyes wide, wondering what the response of someone who could speak would be.

@Legion

"We have one name," they confirmed, "but it means many!" Hum, buzz. They were very proud of that fact--of their name.

Most of the swarm responded warmly to all that Parthenium said otherwise. The hum was pleasant, and they considered--again consulting one another, hushed--before formulating their responses. "These bats sound very nice! Nicer than the ones we have met." They were pleased by this, the ripple through the swarm almost like a shiver, rapid and excited.

Oh-! And Parthenium would be their friend!

"Our friend Parthenium!" they chirped, as one.

As for everybody being friends-?

We could all be friends with everyone. But Mother- ...She was bad. Was she 'nice?' She acted nice. But she was not really nice. She tricked us, came the barrage of thoughts, questions and answers jolting through the hive like sparks from neurons.

"We would like it... if everyone were nice," they concluded, a little sadly. "But we have met those who... tricked us." They paused, another sad buzz--slower and lower-pitched--thrumming through the dog-shaped swarm. "But we are nice. And you are nice! And we are friends. -What should we do now?" they then asked, an innocently blurted question.

The dog-shaped swarm's head turned to peer at what Parthenium had been doing. She had been--what, moving toward the tunnel mouth?

"If you were not lost: were you afraid?" they hazarded, unsure. Then--more certain--"We can come with you. Then you do not need to be afraid! We can go together?"

The swarm rippled once more, the dog-shape blurring indistinctly for a moment, an attempt at matching Parthenium's shade again turning them a rusty brown instead--had they said the right thing? They were fretting, hopeful, nervous--would Parthenium be pleased..?

Legion wanted to be a good friend.

@Parthenium

Our friend Parthenium! Her heart sang with joy at that, and she echoed back, "My friend Legion!" tail wagging so hard it thumped against the soft, mossy earth. Her ears pinned back momentarily, drooping with sadness, at its mention of trickery, but any unhappiness was just as soon washed away by Legion's renewed declaration of friendship.

"I-- kind of," she confided in a low voice. "The bats do not come outside of Orion much. I didn't want to go too far from them. I'm afraid of... being lonely." Something stirred deep inside her, all kinds of scary, unpleasant thoughts surfacing at the word lonely. The world is so big. We are so alone. Is there anyone there? If only there were someone with me...

Well, now there was, and Parthenium would cling to her new friend with all her might. Neither of them would be lonely! "Yes," she breathed, eyes shining. "I'd love that! ... Where should we go?" She had not ventured outside Orion and its surrounding tunnels much, and had no idea what there might be outside of the Room of Stars. What would she think if she knew that the entire south-west quadrant was only a fraction of the greater world out there?

"You sound like you've been to a lot of places... where do you think we should go? Or--! Maybe we can try to find a place neither of us have been, and see what it's like together?" she suggested. The thought of exploring someplace totally new had her heart beating faster with excitement, and it was even a little scary.

But with her new friend by her side, surely things would be all right! Not just all right; it would be fun.

F E V E R F E W
Will you stay with me?

@Legion

Excitement, from the hive drones, who had never had a friend.

Fear, from the Queen, who had, and had been betrayed.

But again, she clamped down--quiet, unwilling to ruin their fun. In a sense, Legion was in this way not much different from a single organism with distant trauma: hopeful and afraid, excited and full of trepidation all at once, roiling through their myriad tiny minds.

At the mention of bats, again, Legion paused and tried to change its form. The swarm dispersed into an indistinct, dusty brown cloud, then reformed into something vaguely resembling a Pixie Bat. The bat was tiny, only a few inches long--and given this small size it was easier to get the details right. Legion had seen these bats close up, and they were a beautiful iridescent shimmer of colors: greens and pinks and creams. Legion was able to imitate the iridescence with constantly-shifting movement of their individual mites. "Do your bats look like this?" they asked, hopeful--their internal logic going that if Parthenium's friends were bats, she must be more comfortable with a bat as a new friend, too.

As for caves-? Legion thought back. A lot of caves had horrible memories attached to them--Pisces had seen the Hive gather for the first true time, Cetus had seen outright war. Others didn't, not much; they'd infested people with Hive fungus (a horrible thought, now) in... had it been Eridanus? And had initially hatched in Monoceros.

But past that, they didn't know much of the caves.

"We do not mind where we go! We want to go with friend Parthenium," they suggested. But their method of decision-making generally involved going over all available information first, so maybe it'd help Parthenium to know EVERYTHING they knew-? "We hatched in the dry hot stormy cave--windy cave!" they corrected. "We have been to the Core and it is full of light and magic! It is very pretty! We have been to Pisces and that is bad, there was Hive there and we do not want to go there but it was pretty too and it had ice and water and it was cold." (Excitement led to a rather ridiculous run-on sentence.) "We have been to the cave of forest and jungle and it has food and bats and bugs and plants! And there are other places--we know a tunnel, a place that goes past a cave of snow--another bad place!--" (too much to explain now) "--but we don't know what's past that! Maybe adventure. Maybe danger. It is far," they added, in case Parthenium wanted to stick closer to her bat friends. "But we have not been much in Orion, either! This place! We can go there with you and explore!"

They were like an excited swarm of children, really, and behind it all, the Queen directed them gently to silence. The more mature part of her, the elder part, realized they might overwhelm this kid--much like a single entity, again, might suddenly remember themselves and their manners. "We are happy to go anywhere, with a friend," they concluded, more gently now.

@Parthenium

She watched in silent wonder as Legion's shape shifted, from something vaguely like herself to something that looked remarkably like a tiny, rainbow bat. It was so pretty. "You are still... Legion?" she breathed, staring at the bat-shaped swarm's shifting colors. Impulsively, she stretched her nose toward the 'bat', as if to touch it, or to try to sniff its nonexistent fur. She didn't know what she was expecting--but it was so unlike anything she'd ever seen before that she didn't quite know what to expect.

"It-- My bat friends are bigger," she tried to explain. "And, um, they're dark, and they have many eyes, and they're a bit scary looking at first but they're really very nice to one another! They take care of one another, so even though their teeth and claws and faces look intimidating there's nothing to be afraid of. But I haven't seen bats like this! This one doesn't look scary at all. It's, ah--pretty. And cute."

She listened intently as Legion launched into a detailed description of all the caves they'd been to. It was fascinating, but it was more than the information itself that drew her in. Legion's very voice mesmerized her with its humming tones. For the first time, someone who would talk back to her with the words she knew and spoke herself! Parthenium thought she could listen to Legion forever.

"It sounds like all the cold places are bad places?" she suggested tentatively, when Legion had finished. That made sense, she thought. She didn't ever like to be cold. "We should go someplace warm, then! --but it would be cool to see what lies beyond the cold place, too. I've never gone far before," and this was said with a wistful note. She wished she was strong enough, brave enough to venture out like that! "... But do you think it would be unsafe? If we had to go past that place?"

She didn't ever want to put a friend in danger. If only she was strong enough, had enough magical power, to stop whatever danger there was... then we could go wherever we wanted.

F E V E R F E W
Will you stay with me?

@Legion

Legion hummed, the swarm thoughtful. They tried to match the description--reforming a little larger (and thus less solid, and more hazy); with more eyes and slightly darker color. The overall result was still fairly wrong, more looking like a big, dark, multi-eyed pixie bat, but they seemed pleased with their own result, buzzing and humming excitedly.

The mention of the warm cave left them wondering. Parthenium had a point, and one they hadn't considered: cold places, apparently, were bad.

"We can try," they settled on, at last. It was tentative, afraid, but excited, too. "Do you want to go... now?" It was half-hopeful, but then the buzzing paused, Legion's bat 'head' peering upward. "...Do your friends... want to come?"

@Parthenium