The second my bugs settled on the intruder and felt that familiar emanation of outward pressure, like a faint breeze, I calmed down.

That would be Grue. Hi!

I felt a mite embarrassed as I made my way downstairs to greet Grue.

It’s okay, he was probably expecting it.

“Christ, T- Skitter!” he exclaimed, the second he saw me.

…right. “Every bug” is probably a bit much.

“What?”

“Your, um-” he gestured at Sierra shaking his hand, agitated.

Drone. If it were up to me, anyway.

So what did Sierra do, when– oh! That’s not it. Taylor seems to have forgotten she’s out of costume.

Whoops!

“Skitter!  You’ve got company!”

Did Regent come with Charlotte, or is this someone else?

Most importantly, are they friendly?

I think the best scenario would be that it’s Tattletale, already recovered enough to be up and running.

Every bug I had in the cabinets and corners of the room streamed forth to check the intruder, my thoughts immediately shifting into a combat mode.  What escape routes did I have?  Could I help Sierra if there was trouble?  What tools and weapons did I have on hand?

It’s a bit paranoid, but it’s entirely justified right now. For the most part, Sierra and Charlotte wouldn’t know who is or isn’t friendly, with the exception of Grue, Lisa (in Charlotte’s case), the Coildiers (and as far as I’ve gathered, the Coildiers aren’t exactly uniformed) and the more obvious Slaughterhouse members like Mannequin, Shatterbird and Crawler. And none of the last three would be the type to stop politely at the entryway.

The uncertainties of the day, the worries about Lisa and Dad, having my routine disrupted and the spoiling of my breakfast and morning shower had put me in a bad mood.

Yeah, bit of a shitty morning after, this.

It would have been nice to say that it made me feel better, getting things in order again, and it did, but it wasn’t a cure-all nor was it a perfect distraction.  There was no way I could relax with the things I had hanging over my head.

At least it’s a little help?

But yeah… guilt time?

Doing this felt like I wasn’t doing something to help Dinah.

Boom, there we go.

It’s tomorrow, let’s go!

“I’m going to be upstairs, cleaning up the balcony and the other rooms.  Give me a shout when the rice is done, or if you find anything breakfast-ish that’s edible.”

“Okay.”

I guess that’s all she’s getting for now.

I headed up to my bathroom and began to sweep up.  I deployed bugs to help me find the shards that the broom wasn’t catching.

Handy!

I occupied myself with my other bugs as well.  I went out of my way to avoid using the spiders I’d employed to fight Mannequin, drawing from bugs in the streets and surrounding area instead.  I sent the weakest, smallest and most useless of the bugs to my spiders for a morning meal, then fed the non-spiders who were a little less reliant on protein.

Breakfast is served!

With the other nearby bugs, I started collecting the smallest pieces of glass throughout the house.

Using bugs to help do this is a very good idea, especially since she can multitask so effectively with them. It can help her get the cleaning done like a hundred times faster.

“Really, Armsmaster?  Is he that bad?”

“Bad enough that Mannequin wants him to be the ninth member of their group.”

That should be some food for thought.

‘Course, might want to avoid mentioning that you just sent Charlotte to someone with the same distinction. Though it’s a little different since Alec was nominated out of spite.

Sierra’s eyes widened.

I figured I wouldn’t mention that two of my teammates, including the one I’d sent Charlotte to meet, had also been nominated.  Regent had only been nominated out of spite, and Bitch… I wasn’t sure what the story was there.

Ahaha! I just said that, Taylor!

Well, I did deliberately leave Bitch out of it, but still.

Speaking of her, it seems Taylor is giving her the benefit of the doubt. I wonder if she’d still do that if Regent hadn’t been nominated.