Gren was confused.

This was hardly an uncommon occurrence, all things considered, but in this case he was particularly confused. And concerned. And possibly a good amount of worried.

Bain was acting very much not like his usual self. He was sitting in his special cave that Nahma told them not to go in, and talking to himself about the corpse and why he wasn't acting like his usual self. A rather hypocritical situation in Gren's opinion. But what was he supposed to do? He was just a lowly shedding. It wasn't as if Nahma himself would have any ideas.

Gren reconsidered that thought. Nahma had been taking great interest in the actions and reactions of humans as of late, and especially when it came to anything involving either the corpse or Bain. Gren still hoped for the day that Bain would come back to the tunnels and stay home for good, and also for the command to eat the corpse.

He really hated him.

Shaking his thoughts away like a giant moth, Gren slid to Nahma's location. The Beginner was once again playing a game with the Secondbest and the Children, antennae quivering as he absently annihilated hundreds of rats so far below Gren's perception it might as well be on the other side of Whiteball. Hetty, of course, was unaware of any of this. As far as she was concerned, she was playing a card game. For her, that was true. For Nahma, it was a pleasant way to pass the time as explosions and rifts in space tore through his ancient enemies.

Gren was unsure how long Nahma and the rats had been fighting, but he knew that the rats grew bigger the further down they went. The rats he'd seen Goodest fighting were on the bigger side, and that the Deep sheddings were given much power to suit their role, but why would Nahma not go down and end them once and for all? Was the Imperial Rat, mother of all rats, truly so dangerous?

It didn't matter, in the end. If the Rat decided to come up and fight Nahma, it would die. Anything that tried to fight Nahma seriously would die. That was how the world worked, insofar as Gren was concerned. Although he was forever confused as to why Nahma had spared the humans from long ago. The centipede had never bothered to provide an explanation. Perhaps there wasn't one.

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GREN.

Gren's head snapped up as he heard his name shouted within his mind. One of Nahma's many eyes was watching him. GO INVESTIGATE THE CORPSE. HE DOES NOT ACT AS HE OFTEN DOES. DO NOT ALLOW HIM TO SEE YOU.

Any doubts Gren might've had at that moment were utterly banished, and he slid to Bain's territory in high spirits. Nahma had a task just for him! Granted, it was a task involving Gren's least favorite anything, including rats, but the Beginner had specified him! He'd even said Gren's name!

He was preening as he turned invisible, crawling to the surface to where the corpse was. There were sheddings tracking every human of interest in Centropolis, including the fiery person Bain sometimes liked and the explodey person who all the sheddings liked, along with the most dangerous human, the one who gave Nahma his permission to watch him. The explodey person had a name too! While the sheddings didn't often care for human anythings, Mike was an interesting human. Partly because he liked the taste of rats just as much as they did.

The corpse was talking on his phone in his office, which in and of itself was not a strange thing. What was strange was that he had some kind of field that felt uncomfortable to go through. It gave Gren the feeling that passing through it would set of an alarm of some kind. Instead of touching it further, he slid outside of everything and came back inside the office, smugly congratulating himself on a stealthy job well done. So what was the corpse up to?

"...cation going just fine. I don't think anyone's noticed. How about the original? Keeping him healthy?" He waited for a moment, then laughed. "Good point. Do you have any news?"

Gren's eyes narrowed. Something was... off. The corpse didn't usually talk like this. At least, Gren had a feeling he didn't. As a rule, the sheddings tried not to listen to the corpse, but this still sounded strange.

"Yeah. Yeah. No, I don't think so. Well, they're not telling me where he is. No, I can't just ask."

"...Well, our info was off! The Followers don't like Stitches at all! Do you know how frustrating it is to have demigods such as themselves in such close proximity, and for them to despise looking at you? And I can't get a handle on the Adoption. I thought if I offended him, it'd make him listen a little closer, but instead he just left! He said he was off to visit the Infinite One, but - yes, I know how important that is, but I couldn't just follow him! The demigods were all watching."

Gren was even more confused than he had been before, but whatever he was thinking was driven from his mind as he realized what was wrong.

The corpse.

He wasn't dead.