“ButtShot29: Have you seen those three babes in NS working together?

HaliaTron: yeah bro that one with all the weapons is real fine

Gemini2035: nah the one with the bow its where its at

ButtShot29: I like the short one, her pets are fucking awesome!

HaliaTron: shes a joytoy bro dont ask me how thats supposed to work with all those weird aliens

StickTheFiddle19: yeah dont try to get an appointment shes booked out for months and its not even clear if shell come back to the job

Gemini2035: i heard that she plans to i have a friend stationed at the gate he was there during the incursion and saw her summon this huge alien dog thing and he says she fucked some rando soldier because he asked her too

HaliaTron: brooo there is no way in hell that that wasnt a one time thing probably for morale or something

ButtShot29: You never know, doesn’t hurt to ask, right?”

- Page 1332 of the Samurai Forums, General Discussions - New Savannah

Once done I asked Kaysa for a fresh set of casual clothes, sparking a minor discussion about style and preferences which I ignored, mainly because I didn’t want something specific and also because it was a small discussion with only a part of the chorus. The results would be noted by the Burdened in their archive, and if we ever needed something specific they could show us.

Of course, Kaysa being Kaysa, she had delivered even with my limited instructions. All of them were from the basic Class 0 Catalogues, which meant they only cost a point each, but they were of exquisite quality.

The lacey panties especially were to die for, I couldn’t remember ever wearing a single piece of clothing that had been this comfortable. It was to the point I questioned if I would be able to ever take it off again. The only piece of clothing that could come close were my new socks.

She had opted out of giving me a bra, which I didn’t mind. I didn’t wear bras that often outside of work anyways, and with the shirt she got me it would look better without anyways.

Talking about the shirt, both it and the pants were similarly high quality. The shirt was a bit oversized, revealing our shoulders, and made out of a soft black fabric. It had “Myriad, the Living Weapon swarm” printed on the front, and one of the more feminine but still alien looking Hexclaw drones on the back in a seductive pose. Curiously this drone had kitsune ears and a kitsune tail, instead of the normal one.

The pants were a dark blue and a tad oversized as well, which made them very comfortable. Usually I preferred something shorter, either hot pants or a skirt, but today I didn’t mind going more casual, I would have more than enough time to show off to Chloe and Jenna in the future. One day of normal clothing wouldn’t kill me.

Fully dressed I cleaned my teeth, more so a result of habit than anything else, before making my way downstairs. About halfway down I started hearing the conversation the others were having.

“...been asking about you. Maybe you should give him a call.” The voice belonged to Chloe’s mother, an elderly woman looking just as I had imagined her.

She was basically an older, wiser looking version of Chloe, the only difference being that she was a bit shorter than her daughter.

“Not interested. He’s just going to annoy me again, I told him I want to be left alone,” Chloe’s voice came in reply, a bit of tension audible in her tone.

The door to the living room was open, revealing the others seated around the living room table. On three of the sides was a sofa, with Chloe’s parents in one, while Chloe and Jenna were on the one opposite theirs.

When I stepped through I was obviously the center of attention and I gave a small wave.

Seeing Chloe and Jenna filled me with happiness and affection, an almost drowning feeling that could have overtaken us instantly, if the chorus didn’t work overtime to suppress it and push it into a corner. We didn’t want to deny our feelings, but we had to make sure we could function around them. And that meant drastic measures, considering the intensity with which we loved them.

“Hey,” Chloe said with a warm smile.

“Hey,” I answered with the same, desperately clamping down on the urge to jump her right then and there, instead making my way over to sit between her and Jenna, before giving them both a hug that might have been a bit more tight and a tad longer than usually.

“We didn’t want to wake you up, especially after you fell asleep on us like that,” Jenna added, also smiling at me.

I blushed in embarrassment, “Sorry for that, we were quite tired.”

“We?” Chloe asked, an eyebrow raised, an expression mirrored by Jenna.

Panic rose up as one, and we tried to remain calm. Did we mess up this badly already?

The chorus was in full damage control mode, and I pushed down on my need to apologise profusely.

I sighed, “Sorry, still getting used to it. Remember that upgrade I did? Well, it completed while I slept. I am now a full Hive-Mind, which makes thinking of myself as, well just myself, a bit hard. I’m not just one person anymore, I am the whole Hive. Every Hexclaw is me, is us. We are the chorus.”

Chloe’s frown hurt, quite a bit really, but we clamped down on the urge to shrink away. This was as new to her as it was to us, we reminded ourselves, and she had made it clear from the get go that she was on the fence about it.

“You said it would change you, but that… I’m not sure how I feel about it.”

“But it’s still you, underneath, right?” Jenna asked, partly in hopes of lifting the mood, partly out of curiosity. Not that it hid the underlying… was that anxiousness or caution? Whatever the case, it greatly hurt to hear.

“Of course. Nothing about me has changed. It’s just that me now includes over seven hundred Hexclaws and the corresponding voices in the chorus. It’s hard to explain.”

“That’s… a bit weird, not gonna lie,” Chloe muttered, then shook her head and smiled awkwardly, “Sorry. I promised Atlas to be more open minded, but yet here I am, once more, judging.”

The small comment was enough to fill us with giddiness and affection, to know that she was trying to see us for who we were, no matter how creepy or alien it was to her.

I chuckled awkwardly, pulling her into a hug and resisting the urge to give her a peck. I wasn’t quite sure how she would feel about it right now and I didn’t want to push. A feeling mirrored by the entire chorus.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“No, it’s fine. And it is weird. I’m trying my best, and while it’s weird to be an entire Hive now, it is also helpful. You wouldn’t imagine how many things I can sort through in short order.”

There was an awkward silence for a moment, although luckily for me her father broke it.

“So, you are Seraphine then?” he commented, making me realise I had kind of skipped the introductions.

I turned and gave her parents a warm smile, noting the smile of amusement on their faces.

“Yeah, sorry. I’m Seraphine Bloodfallen, or Myriad if you want,” I introduced myself and pointed at my shirt, “It’s a pleasure to meet you both. Since we share all information with all drones, and the Queen’s Guard was here the entire time to keep an eye on Chloe and Jenna, I kinda forgot that I hadn’t had the chance to introduce myself yet.”

“Wait, they were here the entire time?” Chloe asked, looking around.

“Yeah,” I said, just as the Queen’s Guard revealed themselves for the first time, “They’ve been following you the entire time. Mind you, they didn’t share the specifics of your conversation to safeguard your privacy, but they’ve been here.”

Of course everyone was looking at the drones standing at parade rest, eyes open for any kind of danger. Part of me had feared that Chloe’s parents would be creeped out by them, but they simply checked them over for a moment, before returning their attention back to the three of us.

“Well,” her father said, “I’m Wilhelm, a pleasure.”

“And I am Sophia Vayne,” her mother followed, “Chloe mentioned that you ran yourself ragged in the undercity.”

“Most of that came from the upgrade I mentioned. Had to split my attention hundreds of times, trying to control my drones and whatnot. But I hope she didn’t sell herself short. She was instrumental down there. Just look at how she got her new name,” I replied with a smile.

Her parents looked at her with open curiosity.

“New name? You didn’t mention that,” her mother said with that gleam that parents get when there is news to be heard from their children.

Chloe blushed, waving a hand dismissively, “It’s not important.”

“Of course it is. Now, let’s hear it,” her father encouraged.

Chloe’s blush only grew more fierce. “Bloodhound,” she mumbled.

“You need to be a bit louder than that, dear,” her mother said with an impish smile.

“I said Bloodhound, for fuck sake!” Chloe almost yelled, throwing up her hands, “There, happy?”

Jenna and I giggled at her antics. She was utterly too adorable when she was embarrassed and we had to clamp down on our urges hard to not jump her in front of her parents.

“You should have seen her,” I added with a warm smile, looking at her, “Hip deep in dead xenos, weapons pointed in every direction and covered in gore from head to toe. Honestly, she looked like one of those old action heroes. The good ones, not those cheap knock offs that flitted about the net for a while.”

“Not to mention,” Jenna cut in, “The way she took charge of everything. Like a corporal in the army. It was kind of hot watching her.”

“Could you both please shut the fuck up?” Chloe asked us with exasperation, her face a bright crimson.

I giggled and gave her a quick squeeze, “You’re cute when you’re angry, you know that?”

Her pout only made it even harder for me to not kiss her there and then.

“So,” Chloe’s mother asked, successfully distracted from the previous topic, but with a dangerous glint in her eyes, “Are you two…?”

“MOM!” Chloe yelled, and I laughed out loud.

Even Jenna was chuckling along.

“I don’t think that’s a topic for here and now. For the moment, no,” I explained with a smile at Chloe, “We’ve only known each other for like two days, and I think we need to have a couple more talks before we can head anywhere near there.”

“Shame,” Sophia said unabashedly, “I had kind of hoped that someone finally pulled her in. She’s always been like that, you know, dodging any kind of advance and letting them all rot in some corner.”

To my surprise Chloe got even more red in the face, a feat I didn’t think possible.

“Do we need to talk about this right now?” Chloe hissed, not knowing where to look.

“Of course not, dear,” her mother said with a tone that said that she would very much like to continue this conversation.

“Anyways,” Wilhelm said, throwing his daughter a rope, “From what Chloe has been telling us so far you three have been working together? How did you meet anyways, she never mentioned that.”

Chloe looked panicked, and I laughed once more, just enjoying seeing her reactions. It was so nice to just chat and not have to worry about aliens pouring out of every conceivable hole in the ground.

“Well, we met on the job, so to say. We, by which I mean Jenna and I, work as Joytoys down in the redlight district. Your daughter and I were just about to enjoy some time together when the aliens showed up. Since I was drunk out my ass and so full of drugs that walking was an issue, I was sure I’d die then and there. She rushed off to help others, leaving me with about a half dozen xenos and only a gun to protect me and the people there. She told me that she’d be back soon, we weren’t the only ones in deep trouble. The problem was that the aliens didn’t wait for her. Took some doing, and a metal dildo to bash the last xeno's face in, but I survived. Afterwards Chloe helped me clean up the district, where we met Jenna. She had her own worries and to be honest was a bit of a mess, but once we got everything sorted we went ahead to kill some aliens and save the day.”

Her parents looked at me with amusement, which did not help Chloe’s panicked heart at all. Honestly, at this point I was a bit anxious that she might pop a blood vessel somewhere. Maybe we should keep our healer on her to make sure nothing happened?

“On the job, hm?” Sophia said with a smirk, “Do tell.”

“For fuck sake,” Chloe muttered, hiding her face in her hands.

I pulled her closer, slinging an arm around her comfortingly. Just having her close like this had the chorus singing in happiness, it felt like a swarm of butterflies had been let loose inside of us. I could practically feel the drones outside humming with content.

“Anyways,” I continued, finally allowing her some rest from all the teasing, “It was quite a busy couple of days and I’m glad that we’re finally getting some time off. Hopefully things will remain quiet for a while. I would very much like to just spend some time with these two. Then there is the whole district to take care of, I still have to check in with my friends… Huh… seems like there is more to do than I anticipated. Oh well.”

While I spoke the Burdened of course catalogued everything, updated the almanac they were building for our tasks ahead and what needed to be done to achieve them.

“There is always more to do, be it Samurai or floor cleaner. That’s just how life is,” Wilhelm said with a knowing smile.

“What are you planning on doing?” I asked with a look over at Jenna.

She just shrugged, “I’m not sure… Figure out living arrangements, I guess. Truth be told, I don't particularly like the idea of going back to my shared apartment. My roommate and I… we have some issues between us.”

“For the time being you can stay here,” Chloe said, finally calmed down a bit, “I have the room and it’s not like I’m hurting for money.”

“Thank you,” Jenna told Chloe with a nod, then sighed, “Apart from that, not sure. I don’t want to go back to my job, but at the same time I didn’t do much outside of my job either. Most of the day was spent working. To be honest, I’m a bit lost at the moment.”

“Take some time, dear,” Sophia said encouragingly, “Perhaps a few days off will help you sort everything out.”

Wilhelm nodded in agreement, “Especially after a drastic change in your life like this. I imagine becoming a Samurai is quite the jolt to one's life.”

“Talking about changes,” I mused, “I should probably check in with Tina and the Joytoys today, see if they need anything. Then see what I can do for the redlight district as a whole to make sure things go smoothly when they go back. Probably best to check in with Castas as well on that front. And I still need to decide if I want to go back to being a joytoy…”

I frowned, thinking about it.

“Why wouldn’t you? You like the job, right?” Chloe asked, looking at me inquisitively.

“I do, but…” I sighed and shook my head, “Not right now. We’ll talk about that later, okay?”

Turning back to the group at large I continued, “Regardless of that, it might make sense to check in with them today. They should still be at the shelter and if I can get things settled before they return, it would make things easier I think. Especially considering the whole gang situation… Oh well, I guess I have something to do later.”

“If you don’t mind,” Jenna said quietly, “I would like to join you.”

“Sure, I don’t mind.”

There was a moment of silence, but not one I minded. It was nice to just relax a little, especially with both Jenna and Chloe close by. The entire chorus agreed, if we would have to spend the rest of our lives like this, we’d jump at the idea.

After a moment Wilhelm spoke up, “Well, then how about you guys tell us what exactly went down in the undercity, now that Seraphine has joined us? You mentioned a few things, but never gave us the whole story.”