The Rendering Pit - Chapter 28 (Patreon)

Deciding it's time to track down Genevieve, Nathan and Rigel's methods may be unorthodox, but they'll probably get the job done! 

This story was written by RabidBadger and illustrated by me! We thank you for your continued support, you've helped make this series what it is <3 

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Nathan hit send, and then immediately regretted it. It wasn’t because something immediately went wrong, but the instant he zeroed in on what he was pretty sure was the bee drone that their room mate kept company with and sent out a call he remembered a half dozen ways for this to go wrong. It being actively helping Genevieve, or having security protocols for this, or her just not wanting to be found, or-

The list was still going through his head in a parade of flashing disasters when a buzzing sound got the giant azure drake to open his eyes back up and left him staring into the gleaming, multi-faceted jewels the bee saw with while it hovered not two inches from his nose.

To its credit, the bee didn’t flinch nor attack when Nathan let out a high pitched shriek and began wobbling in place, arms twisting around – eyes slowly widening as he realized somewhere in the display he’d shifted his center of gravity just a tiny bit too far and was starting to ‘flow’ off the side of the bench he sat on. It would’ve been an inevitable fate, him in a loose heap on the floor, had he not felt a pudgy and cool-scaled hand catch his own and give it a solid tug. 

“Easy there! Can’t do this from the – well no, I guess you could, but I doubt you want to.”

It was a close thing just the same. Nathan was grateful that his fellow blue’d student was actually larger than he was, and then instantly guilty over feeling that, but it was probably the only reason he was able to be pulled back up. There was still one moment when even that was a bit of a worry as it felt like he might overcompensate and tumble right into Rigel’s side, but with some effort Nathan managed to stabilize himself. 

“R-right. Thanks. Uhm, hi there little… well, not guy I guess, but- well, I should get started with this I guess? Here goes.”

*** 

It did not blink. It understood the gesture’s purpose – cleansing. Clear and maintain visual sensor surface and apply a break to input allowing the compiling and caching of data. It did those things without eyelids, the meat thing clumsily singing to it did them with meat things and meat sensors. 

It was not sure if it ought to be calling it singing even, there was so much discord. So much dissonance. No dance, no wiggle, no harmony of purpose. Just pudgy end-things for tools and a flat thing that barked noise into the air. Blurting out radiated intent and purpose and forcing it to ‘blink’ frequently to sift through the conceptual refuse.

Finding the purpose in the chaos was not the hard part per se, the blue thing was practically screaming his directive. It was not elegantly phrased. Query: Location: Queen. 

***

“Oh hell, oh f- Chrome – I’mreallysorrymisterbeeIdidn’t-“

A sharp smack against Nathan’s side left the drake twitching and clenching his hands hard against the cushions, but nothing else just yet. Mostly because with the bee buzzing directly in his face Nathan was terrified if he moved more than that he’d be stung with some horrifying nanotech solution or tazed or something else awful.

“Focus man! It knows us, it has to – it also probably doesn’t have a clue what you’re saying so talk with the tablet!”

That made all kinds of sense, which was probably why Nathan was able to latch onto it through the sheer panic and keep the outburst from himself to a high pitched but quiet whine while he clumsily fumbled with his tablet to generate the right kind of code broadcast.

A loud and angry sounding BZZT from the drone in his face forced Nathan to wince his eyes shut and try again, slower. Simpler. With context.

*** 

It understood, after its time with its Queen, that there were differences in its operating parameters and those of all the meat entities. Some more so than others. Queen had bridged the gap though, could spin signals that created elegant request and priority lists and acted in the best interests of the hive with reliability, loyalty, devotion. It didn’t remember having those parameters defined before meeting Queen, but it didn’t remember a lot of things before some of the signal code she broadcast came into its runtime. This blue thing that cohabitated with Queen could stand to learn a lot about elegance from her.

That notion gave It pause. The aggressive stance it had taken wavered as it reconsidered the haphazard fumbling of language this thing was producing, and almost immediately thereafter the intent clarified itself. 

That was precisely what it wanted – exposure to Queen. Which could only be for everyone’s benefit. They were not blessed with Queen’s constant attentions like It was and sought It for assistance.

This was efficient, and elegant, for It craved Queen’s presence as well. 

*** 

“…I think it worked. Rigel, it looks like it worked, right? Please tell me it worked and that thing on its butt isn’t going to kill me.”

A heavy patting at Nathan’s shoulder offered reassurance; or tried to – or maybe that was just the extent of Rigel’s reach. Either way the bee thing pulled back slowly and seemed to be acting a lot less threatening – and the sharp spike its butt had grown was indeed shrinking gradually. 

“Pretty sure it worked… no clue on the butt though. Good job either way man. I think. I mean… uh, it looks like it wants us to follow?”

Both students realized the next problem they had when the bee drone buzzed once as if to say yes before it darted off a short distance and waited expectantly. They had to somehow get off their own asses. In Nathan’s case that was a struggle, gravity had a merciless grip on him and it took a few long moments of grunting and breathing hard as he braced against the booth and table both, pushing up with everything he had. He wanted to get the painful ordeal over with quickly, suspecting he might have to help Rigel along a bit after – which was only fair after the much-altered student helped him not tumble out of the seat. 

The intention was there; but finding Rigel up on his feet ahead of him and without all the noise spoiled the plan a bit. It would’ve been cause for some incredulous questions if the bee weren’t getting a bit more impatient by the moment. So that question would wait, the other one was more pressing anyway. 

Approaching the bee, Nathan descended right back into confusion as he watched the little drone flutter over to the food kiosk and sit there expectantly. The drake glanced at Rigel, who could only offer a shrug as the pair of them awkwardly waddled up to the edge of the circular fixture. 

“Maybe it’s confused too-”

Nathan froze up and blinked hard again, watching as the bee ‘hummed’ something and the kiosk answered with a heavy grinding and the gradual opening of two segments of the structure. The hinges they were moving on hadn’t even been visible to Nathan before, which struck him as an odd place to spend money on that kind of engineering, but the thing did the job – it opened into an entrance more than wide enough for him and Rigel to step through. Which they did, at the same time, causing a brief and thoroughly embarrassing pileup while their hips mashed softly together. 

There was a moment where Rigel and Nathan got properly stuck, asses pressing into each other, that left both scaled boys glancing about in embarrassment before Rigel visibly forced himself up tighter against the side of the opening and let Nathan squeeze on through. The dislodging almost left Nathan stumbling into things on his way through, but the inside of the kiosk had firm walls to brace on. It was, however, a tight fit once they were both there. Nathan couldn’t find any way to stand that didn’t leave his and Rigel’s guts touching, so he had to struggle to ignore that instead and return his attention to the bee.

“That… okay. What now? I don’t- ah!”

Nathan wobbled as the floor jarred loose under him, leaning forward and finding himself suddenly glad Rigel was in so close as the floor sank, the room slowly rising up away from them and a dark, humid air creeping in around their feet. 

“Whoah, that – uh. Rigel, you know what’s up with this?”

The larger of the two students looked to be maintaining more of a casual air about things, but he did seem curious about what was happening. Carefully balancing himself, Rigel tilted a bit in an effort to see what was coming.

“Looks like the underworks… pipelines, storage, power cables. Maintenance area.”

The sharp twist in intensity of the place struck Nathan. All that humid air clinging to his skin, the aroma of the entire menu at once hammering his nose mercilessly – it left the drake wincing a bit and looking to Rigel for some kind of support or confirmation that they should keep going. The larger, bluer student seemed just as uncertain but offered a nod in answer – and then found the whole gesture made moot when the bee drone descended and excitedly buzzed by their faces. Something that damn near left Nathan tripping backward again as his heel slid into a thick power cable, but he had time enough to catch himself. As well as time enough to wonder if he’d made the bee angry after all and this was some kind of trick.

Worrisome as that thought was, Nathan followed along when Rigel closed pudgy fingers around his shoulder and gave him a squeeze there. The fruit-infested reptile took the lead, and left Nathan to stare at the immense azure orbs glued to Rigel’s backside as they swayed around with each labored waddle.

At least it was hard to see the blushing down here, Nathan had time to get that under control – or he thought he did. Running belly-first into Rigel’s gigantic ass did not help the matter along at all, it just startled Nathan and led to more teetering mounds of blubber trying to make room around each other as their eyes adjusted to the light enough to figure out what they were looking at.

It had the right coloring – the ruddy orange fur and the white patches here and there – the right hair and the little crystalline horns, but there were details that were wrong. It was significantly fatter than they remembered Genevieve being last time they saw her – though that was not outside the realm of possibility for this place, but the issues didn’t end there. A fox’s ears were pointy things for starters, not loose and floppy. Mostly though, it was the nose. The upside-down heart with the thick nostrils and the little ridges on it that was quietly twitching and snuffling as the curled-up lump of a girl snored gently in her haphazardly arranged nest near what definitely looked like a trough. 

Mostly, though, it was the student’s tablet laying right next to her flashing with several unread messages from Rigel and himself that removed the last bits of doubt – that and the bee fluttering down to curl up on Genevieve’s belly with a contented whirring.

Nathan utterly failed to control the impulse that struck him as he saw this and would’ve been mortified beyond all reason if Rigel hadn’t had the exact same impulse and shouted out into the underworks in perfect unison with him a question that seemed to be haunting their little group lately.

“What the hell happened to you?!”

                “What the hell happened to you!?”