“What exactly are we doing?”

“For now, just door to door.  I’m going to mark the places you should visit, where there are families or groups of people.

Ahh, giving out the supplies you promised? Seems reasonable to expect problems then. Not everyone is going to be on board with the Bug Queen’s reign, and then there’s those who would try to grab more supplies than they’re supposed to get.

I need the info I can’t get with my bugs.  Who are the people in my territory?  What do they need: Maybe medical care, clothes, more food, maybe someone’s giving them trouble?  You find out, take notes, then pass that information to me.”

Oh, okay. Not quite there yet – just recon for now. The first issue I mentioned still holds true, though.

“That’s it?”

“For now.  I’m going to ask you guys to travel as a pair, obviously.  You’ll be safer and there’s a better chance you’ll be able to signal me with the necklace if something goes wrong.  Not that you should need the cube, but I prefer having some redundancy.”

Makes sense. One of them could be incapacitated before she gets a chance to crush the cube, in which case it’s the other one’s turn.

The pair nodded.  Sierra bent over to pull on the rain boots I’d provided her.  Charlotte was already wearing hers.

Taylor gave them the booties.

There were nods from both of them.

“I can’t protect you from a bullet or a knife wound, but I can screen the people in your vicinity, feeling them out to see if they have weapons on them and give you a heads up so you don’t get in that situation to begin with.  If there’s potential trouble like that, I’ll warn you by drawing this symbol with my bugs…”

Seems like a very useful trick, this. Will you be making one for Sierra too?

I drew three lines that crossed in the center, using the flies and beetles that were working on a cube for Sierra.

Something like this, perhaps: x

“Okay,” Charlotte said.  Sierra nodded.

I got the bugs working on the second cube again.  “I’ll use numbers to inform you on the number of people nearby.  You’ll want to approach a situation differently if there’s twenty people than if there’s five.

Makes sense.

So does she only intend to do this if the box is squashed, or are these symbols just going to constantly be around Charlotte and Sierra?

Maybe have one of you hang back and be in a position to crush the cube, or just keeping your distance.  Or just avoid the situation.  Trust your gut, use your best judgement.”

Yeah, sounds good to me.

Also, yep, seems this is a constant thing.

Are they preparing for specific trouble here? Is Taylor thinking about the Slaughterhouse’s presence in Brockton Bay, or just wanting to protect and feelsafify her subordinates in general?

(Feelsafify is a word now, because I said so.)

“A necklace?”  Sierra asked.  She put her plate down in the sink and ran water over it.

“Or bracelet, or a key chain.  So long as you have this, I’ll know where you are, because I can keep an eye out for the fly in a box.

Ohhh!

That makes sense!

The real purpose of this, though, is when there’s an emergency.  You can crush the box and the bug inside, and the moment that happens, I”ll use my power to protect you.  It won’t be instantaneous, but you’ll have a swarm descending on whoever is giving you trouble in anywhere from fifteen seconds to a minute.

Provided she’s within range, of course. But yeah, that’s a good idea.

If it works out, I can make something a little more stylish for the future.”

When you get better at origami? 😛

Or maybe getting Coil’s help to make them out of a different material?

Also, one potential problem: Don’t flies need nourishment like most other creatures? What if the fly dies of starvation or, more likely, dehydration?

I suppose Taylor would detect the cause of death, but it’d still mean she’d need to put a new fly in there.

“Right.”

“But as far as bugs are concerned, at least, I figure anything goes.”

“It’s still creepy.”

Maybe anything goes as far as how you treat the bugs, but that doesn’t cover how you treat people using those bugs, right, Taylor? Like putting them in extremely uncomfortable places for no reason, Taylor? Like perhaps under the eyelids, Taylor?

Seriously, though, she convinced herself that was what she had to do to further her information-gathering mission, and sure, incapacitating Clockblocker was important to that. But there was no real reason to stick the bugs in the most uncomfortable places Taylor could find.

“Give it time.  You’ll get used to it.”  I picked up the tightly folded piece of paper that was the end result of my little experiment.

After so many Interludes, it’s an odd feeling to be back to first-person narration.

Also, “experiment” seems to suggest this isn’t just a hobby activity. I guess that was too much to hope for.

I pushed at two corners of the tight paper square, and it settled into a cube about three-quarters of an inch on each side, with holes on two opposing faces.

Huh. Some sort of decoration to be put on a string?

I directed a housefly into one hole and settled it inside, then fed a braided length of twine through the holes.  I handed the result to Charlotte and ordered the bugs to start making another.

Nice.

“What way?”

I had to stop to compose my thoughts.  I glanced at Charlotte, and Sierra, who was standing by the fridge, silently eating her breakfast.  “I don’t believe in shouldn’t, like there’s some universal rules about the way things should be, the way people should act.”

Oh! She’s extending this beyond just how the bugs should act – she’s going much deeper into the chaotic mindset than ever before. She’s denying the existence of natural law, the idea that there’s something beyond human social structures and ideas that dictates how things should be.

And honestly, I’m inclined to agree. There are ways the world naturally is as a result of how it has developed (and I mean all the way since the Big Bang), but that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s something that says it should be that way.

One thing I’m interested to see is what sort of influence this development of Taylor’s worldview has on her view of social law. Does the idea that there’s no shouldn’t extend to society and the rules humans set for themselves and each other?

Whatever the case, we’ve come a long way from Arc 1 Taylor’s attitude of “heroes are always good and villains are always bad and doing illegal things”.

I looked up from the laptop I was using to view a webpage on origami.

Oh, nice! Using the bugs for more artistic purposes. I like it!

So what got Taylor into this? Is she doing it to pass time and as an outlet for creativity? That would be a healthy change of pace for Taylor.

Alternatively, it might just be a way to train her fine control over the bugs.

“Is it?  I’m pretty used to them, so I don’t give it a lot of thought.”

“They’re so organized and human.  Bugs shouldn’t act that way.”

They’re basically a swarm of tiny bodies with a human brain when she’s controlling them, so it’s no wonder they act human.

I do like that it’s not the bugs themselves that creep Charlotte out, but the way they act nothing like bugs. They fall into the uncanny valley, bug edition, where they look completely normal for bugs, but feel sort of wrong.

“I don’t really believe in thinking that way anymore,” I said, absently.

I guess that’s fair.

The first beetle gripped the corner of the paper in his mandibles and slowly pulled it back.

Hello, there, li’l friend.

So is that a paper as in a newspaper, book or something like that? Is this Taylor using her bugs for utility purposes while reading?

Two more moved to the edges of the folds and held them firm.  The fourth and largest of the four beetles ran its head left and right along the paper until it was firmly creased.  Each of the four changed positions and repeated the steps at a different point.

Hmm. Sound more like folding the paper than turning a page.

“That’s really creepy to watch,” Charlotte said, from where she sat at the kitchen table.

Hehe, yeah, I can imagine.

In an odd way, this line is making me think more about Charlotte’s role in the story. She’s one who now works with Taylor, and knows her secret, but doesn’t have powers or as much of a personal stake in things as the other Undersiders, and she’s clearly willing to speak frankly to Taylor at this point.

That might make her someone who can act as a person on the sidelines who Taylor will be able to trust. Someone whom Taylor may eventually be willing to confide in at times when she can’t do so to Lisa or the other Undersiders. Someone who can and will call Taylor out on some of her more bullshitty moments without being – except through reluctant employment – a villain. Lisa has fulfilled those roles up until now, but Lisa a) has a mildly villainous perspective, and b) now has her own things to do when the Undersiders aren’t out fighting. Charlotte, on another hand, will be staying close to Taylor while Taylor is at the Hive and ruling her territory.

Sierra, meanwhile… I’m not sure yet. And hey, I might be completely off the mark re: Charlotte, too.