Post by Reyn on Jul 29, 2022 19:03:14 GMT
'N-Hance' Bar and Lounge.
It was midnight when the swarm arrived; descending upon the hive of hedonism like ravenous larvae, to feast upon all its thousand mouths could touch. The plague, as ever, took the form of a human woman. Tall, pale, and thin- the type of thin only found at the end of neglectful years or some terrible, all-consuming sickness. She looked like death, with famine a close (and perhaps more fitting) second horseman, though the stares she drew seemed to be left at the door. Her type must have been common at a place like this. Young professionals on chemical lunches, days starting at one AM sharp; night owls with enough of a head start to wipe out the worms before the early birds could wake.
Though, sharp as those beaks were, they could never feast on her.
Nothing could.
The Hivequeen was as lasting as the oceans, and as hard to kill as the gods who commanded them. In the short month since her rebirth, none had even tried to contest her power; indeed, perhaps none ever could. She was secure in that knowledge. In her crown. And, as her power grew ever stronger, her constituting legion ever more vast, perhaps the world would be as well. For now, however, she could wait.
She drifted elegantly across the marble-patterned floor, taking her throne upon a velvet-esque stool, arm stretched across the bar. Her compound eyes observed the crowd—a static, unblinking panopticon—whilst her human lenses settled upon the barkeep. The Queen, the swarm... it needed sustenance. She pressed her tongue against her teeth and summoned forth a miracle; a thousand voiceless voices singing in perfect unison, their buzzing wing-beats giving rise to a perfect symphony, an indistinguishable copy of a human voice, as the Hivequeen finally greeted her subjects...
"I'll have a rum and... ah..."
She retracted her hand.
"Excuse me? Excuse me! Yes, hi, I'll have a- fucks sake."
God, the service in here...
"Hello, um- over here, hi, yep, this one, hello. Sorry for the trouble."
"Y' don't need to apologise."
Edain either smiled or grimaced, depending on how much the barkeep drank on the job.
"Right, uh. 'Course. I just wanted to order a rum and coke, is that al- is that... alright?"
"Diet, I assume."
"No, no, not tonight. It's... ah, it's my cheat day."
"Mhm."
"Not that I'm dieting. I'm not dieting. Just not something I usually go for, but, I mean- what the hell, it's a Friday nigh-"
"Do you want ice in that?"
Edain blinked.
"Yep- ah, yes... that would be good. Thanks."
A quick thumbs up, like she was twelve, and the barkeep finally turned around.
Edain sighed as quietly and as deeply as she could. Her therapist had told her to do that, back when she had one- consciously releasing all the tension in your body whenever you catch yourself feeling nervous. Of course, it didn't really serve her that well anymore, now that the muscles which once held the tension were spread across multiple tiny insects, but there were worse habits she could afford to get rid of first, so she hadn't really paid it much mind.
Besides, there were certain external problems she needed to sort out before she could work on those internal ones (that's the order people always say to do them in, right?)- like, for example, installing those new locks on her windows. Perhaps it was paranoia, but she couldn't shake the feeling that the sanctuary of her home had been breached some weeks prior... although, she could concede, that may have been residual nerves from the shock of her metamorphosis.
Jeanne had helped, at least.
Thank fuck for Jeanne.
Edain was here now. The barkeep was just returning with her drink, the doors in her house were locked, and the insects that made up her body were both healthy and venomous. Though the need for self-defence would likely never arrive, it always helped to be prepared.
You never know who you might run into in a place like this.