iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

"If you ask nothing of me, allow me instead some manner of insight to your goal. To what place do we travel? Cold was mentioned, but little more. Do you have a destination in mind? Or do you consider yourself a wanderer, perhaps?"

000

Her words are calm, unfazed, both by Jinx's insistance and the implications behind it. "To accept your hospitality unchallenged when I am yet able to provide some manner of use would make me a poor companion, however." She lifts her head, then, confident and willing, but not pressing.

100

She does not pity her. Does not project onto her her own history, or assume intent or expectations. She merely observes, and processes, and extends her own neutral patience. "Unless the forces which brought me here have intentions with me, I've no interest in meddling into your kingdom's affairs."

100

extending the means to flee from merely the signs of it, with warnings and tolerance—however thin—despite the uncertain start, and the complete unknown ahead. In her, Hornet sees some small part of herself; younger and angrier and dangerous with sharpened edges first—apologies later or never.

100

It's the desperate cry of a creature betrayed, misused, left to rot or suffer or pick up the pieces alone. So she can only theorise, anyway. But such things are not indicative of an unkind person. This world is unstable, dangerous, unwelcoming, Hornet has come to understand, and yet here is Jinx,

100

Her travelling companion's notable abrasiveness hardly seems to bother the smaller bug, though the potential reasoning for it is inwardly noted, examined, picked apart. Such anger, such resentment, and this complete reluctance to accept the good word of a stranger, is not born of average suffering.

100

"Designs for traps, tools, or things more precious still... I expect to be inspired by your knowledge. If more materials of greater interest may be secured with reasonable certainty," she concludes with confidence, "I might aid you as I am able."

Job done, she turns her head to regard her companion with an expression no different than normal, and yet somehow still hopefully expectant. "Spare no detail," she encourages, some of that hidden enthusiasm just barely beginning to slip through.

"Allow me a place on the left," she confirms, already beginning to tidy the mess to provide a hospitable surface for whatever samples may be produced, "that I might catalogue by certain criteria what metals are to be presented. We may speak of their compatibility with blueprints of mine after."

Relieved in some small part to see her react so openly to the unspoken idea, Hornet continues on without hesitation. She sweeps past Clive to claim her seat on the bench with a calm, polite modesty in her hurriedness; no more a wordless answer than a prelude to her explanation.

Though far from any shy creature requiring approval, she hopes, almost, for recognition in the implication this change had been done with her fellow artisan in mind. An indirect invitation—nay, desire—to sit together as they discuss and plan and work.

At the foot of it all; a long bench, padded red with a cushion to match the drapes overhead and sheets of her bed. Newly added in place of what was once a singular stool, cold and uncomfortable with room for her alone. "I took initiative to have it replaced some time ago," she reveals simply.

Connected to its left side is another surface, this one flat and home to tools made for cutting and reshaping and mending. A bit messy, each thing left where it was last used, but congruent, creating a comfortable lived-in feeling as opposed to a disorganised pile.

100

Once through the door, she motions to the nearby desk, ever adorned with notes and blueprints stacked and pinned across its upright board or nestled within the trey-like ledge beneath, itself holding a singular worn writing utensil and stray fragments of common local metals.

100

"Inside," Hornet decides with ease, bringing herself to a stand in preparation to see her guest through the door. Though eager to learn of the metals of other worlds and allow her mind to run, she lacks any outward enthusiasm to be mistaken as impatience.

100

Hornet. @bellhearted.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

With merits to both, she answers only after a glance backward to consider the amount of surface space on the decks out here and inside. A laughable comparison, but where one lacks proper lighting, the other lacks any walls to prevent their subjects of interest from falling and striking those below.

100

Too matter-of-fact to be disappointment or polite indication the reason for its absence (for surely, if it were not, it would be just outside its own door listening in much the same way) is negative. "We are free to peruse your collection at length. Some blueprints, too, I may ask you to review."

100

Hornet. @bellhearted.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Rather than rush or demand Clive to relocate, she instead settles down to a sit nearby, legs dangling over the edge of the suspended platform. "Hallow won't be joining us this day," she informs preemptively. "It has developed a fondness for the forest nearby, and spends much of its time there."

100

Hornet. @bellhearted.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

"Your choice of instrument is, as always, a welcome departure from the strings of a different sort which plague these lands." Arriving seventeen or so minutes after her, Hornet stands for a moment on the walkway leading to her bellhome to admire the sound, hand still on her teleportation bracelet.

100

Hornet. @bellhearted.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

I can be. No pressing matters keep me afield that I cannot revisit another day. Arrive when you are able, and I'll not be short behind.

100

Hornet. @bellhearted.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Your knowledge on the subject is commendable. The passion with which you regard it is plain to see. Be it for weapons or for tools, I find myself drawn to the prospect of alternatives to design with. A meeting to see them, if only for the fantasy, would be well worth it.

Hornet. @bellhearted.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

The concept of metals beyond common ranges in hue is a difficult one to grasp. Are you familiar with them enough now to utilise them within your own craft? Are they sturdier, perhaps?

100

Not one for physical gestures such as bows or handshakes, she does little more than return to a stand, more confident on thin claws now that the movement of the vessel beneath them has steadied. "Will you tell me more of your world? Perhaps I might be of some assistance to you."

100

"I am Hornet, daughter of a kingdom called Hallownest," she supplies at last. Despite her implied title, her tone is too neutral to be that of some proud noble expecting blind respect. It is plain fact; only that and nothing more. "Our meeting was an unexpected but fortuitous one, Jinx."

100

In the chaos of the situation, the deluge of new sights and concepts and potential, something so basic had completely and utterly slipped her mind. "Forgive me," she prompts broadly. "Yours is a world new to me, and I find my curiosity has taken precedence over manners."

100

Here she is, so far into following a shell-less bug onto an unknown craft to places even more unknown, in an already mysterious world, begging questions as inconsequential as they are impersonal, only now asking her company's name—and realising with mild humility she had failed to ever give her own.

100

"The reaction you witnessed may be the fault of none but its troubled history. I beg you not allow that to deter you from future conversations with it, should you wish to meet with it again. Like you, it has much to learn in the way of conversing with others and reacting to uncertainties."

010

and so too are they unaware of the prior objecthood imposed upon it. They refer to it with polite neutrality, cautious only of its size and nature." An attempt, it would seem, to explain that neither are the bugs of Pharloom at fault for its uncanny self-correction.

100

"Not many remain with their minds intact within the kingdom from which we hail," she continues, hoping both to assure and perhaps defuse, "but the bugs of this land do not uphold the expectations placed upon my sibling. They are unaware of its intended purpose,

100

But to doggedly pursue it, to dig deeper when she may not yet be ready to confront it, is an unkindness Hornet is not willing to wield against either tortured god-born bug. Not this time, not when what it could be or may even not be is too unclear.

100

may come from, especially not when efforts to communicate them may be fragmented or misled or simply impossible. As much as the matter seems resolved, so too is she unable to quite shake the feeling there is more to it, another layer (or ten) which Lace herself is as of yet unaware of.

100

this harsh world, on the other side of her own chains, comparable to her sibling's. A complex thing, oftentimes chasing itself in circles, with no rhyme or reason to the observer—and all the social complexities that come with it. Hornet can never know exactly why or where an accusation or pain

In its entirety, she had, perhaps, misjudged the situation. But Lace hardly needs to know that, when Hornet had herself gone to great pains to make no assumptions of her own. Verbally, in any case. In ways, she finds the would-be child's situation and process of coming to terms with her place in

100

"You made no assumptions, then," she summarises, almost relieved, almost praising, though the tone is too neutral to be easily read as either. "Requesting that knowledge without assumption is good practice, Lace. That approach is one I can appreciate."

100

"Would you tell me of why this distressed you so, Lace?" Disguised as simple ignorance, she challenges her to reflect on it herself instead, without any leading questions or expectations or ideas indirectly instilled. "Of what aspect surrounding your assumption brought you to me with such haste?"

100

That, even after a century and decades more, there may still be aspects of herself she may not know or have the means to know or understand—and that, too, is okay. But here and now, largely unprompted beyond her precise calculations and internal monologue, is not the time to divert to that.

100

Each phrase now, a subtle acknowledgement, a subtle lesson; that though Lace may not yet understand aspects of herself, or find Hallow's perspective befuddling, they are decades and a century apart in their freedom, and such level of self-understanding does not happen overnight.

100

"but even now it continues its journey of self-discovery." Unwilling to outright declare the disparity in growth between the two god-made bugs, at least for now, instead she only sows the seed of the notion to allow it the chance to take root and pave the way for future conversations.

100

A balance Hornet takes great care in maintaining, demonstrated now in allowing them both the space to experience the world as any other—and be a stable presence to return to should guidance or comfort be needed. "No small amount of time has passed since its freedom," she begins carefully again,

100

for Lace unwittingly stumbling into it unprepared. Part of her wishes, almost, to apologise for at least not warning her, for not introducing them under more controlled means. But she is not Lace's or her sibling's chaperone, and to act as one would be to patronise and diminish their individuality.

100