Alice was playing with her doll when Cleo came into the rec room. Cleo went over to the couch, which she flopped down on, watching Alice make the doll spin and dance. She was munching on something similar to potato chips she and Scott had created and spoke between mouthfuls. "Whatcha doing? Teaching Charlotte how to dance?"

Alice looked up with a proud grin. "Nope! That's not Charlotte, at least not right now. It's me! I'm controlling it!"

That grabbed Cleo's attention, and the older girl sat up and leaned forward. "Woh! Really? That's cool! So what, will you be controlling a whole army of spiders like Charlotte soon?"

Alice held up the tiny spider in her hand. The weird double vision was less disorienting with practice, though it still made her a little dizzy to pick herself up and move herself, but even that was getting easier with practice. She made the spider doll take a bow. "Nope! Charlotte said that since my mind couldn't 'expand' like hers, I'd probably only be able to control one doll at a time, but it's still pretty neat! Don't you think so?"

Cleo nodded, looking closely at the doll. "It's really neat! So what, can you only control little ones like this? Or can you use some of the bigger ones like Charlotte has?"

Alice scrunched her face a little and thought of how to explain it. She resumed making the doll spider hop up onto its hind four legs and spin in place while making its front limbs wave about as she spoke. "Size doesn't really matter, but you have to learn how each body works. Charlotte's bigger bodies are a lot more complex than her smaller ones, so the small ones are easier to practice with."

Cleo nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, that makes sense." Then, looking up and around, she changed subjects. "So where's Scott anyway? I thought he'd already done his job?"

Alice shook her head. "Nope. He said that now that Charlotte's people agreed to get to know humans, the hard part was just getting started."

Cleo seemed to stop and think while munching on more chips and nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense." Then, looking back at the spider doll, she added. "Hey, can you make it do tricks?"

-

Scott was ready to resume pounding his head on the table, stopping himself by what was quickly becoming more habit than force of will. "Listen, I know you worked really hard on that body, but I promise you, it's even more horrifying than the first! Now, if that's what you're going for, great job, but otherwise, you either gotta make it look more human or less. Right now, that's just gonna give anyone who sees it nightmares. Hell, it might give me nightmares, and I thought I was used to you all!"

Goldie, who currently looked like some sort of nightmarish child with six-inch teeth, four arms, and beady little black eyes plastered all the way around her hairless head, made an expression Scott thought might be contrition, but he wasn't sure. "What should I change to make this body less intimidating to humans?"

Scott took a deep breath and reminded himself they were trying. "Well, at the very least, you need to rework the mouth and eyes...smaller teeth and fewer eyes. Remember, this body isn't worried about hunting or surviving against predators. Right now, you look like you're gonna tear someone's throat out. Maybe ditch the claws and round off those fingers a little. Also, if you're going for a humanoid appearance, go for an adult. There's just something extra creepy about a kid that doesn't look right."

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Goldie nodded. "Very well. I shall see what I can do."

Next, Hopper walked over. "What about me? How do I look?"

This was a little harder to decide, and Scott gave her a once-over. She looked more or less like a giant jumping spider with a humanoid-ish torso, which made sense since that's why Alice had chosen the name for her to begin with. "Well, it'll still frighten some humans, but I'm pretty sure a bunch more will make plushies of you. Honestly, it's pretty fine. Maybe reduce the fangs a little and make the primary eyes a bit bigger if you really wanna make a good impression. Humans are suckers for big eyes on fuzzy animals."

Hopper nodded and stepped away. Scott looked at Charlotte, "So what, will you join the diplomatic group? After all, you're more familiar with humans than anyone."

Charlotte tilted her head to the side as if thinking. "I have considered it. However, my primary concern at the moment is your and Alice's safety. I could not adequately provide protection while within the diplomatic party's range."

That made Scott hesitate, stopping to think about it. When would it be safe for him to go home? As much as he was coming to enjoy the company of these slightly crazy giant bugs and spiders, the thought of never seeing another human again wasn't exactly pleasant. Not to mention, he couldn't exactly leave his mom in the hands of the pirate who'd made their lives a living hell, even if he was Scott's grandfather. Still, there wasn't much he could do about it now. Scott sighed and nodded.

Apparently, Dotty had been close enough to overhear. "What's this? You and Scott won't be joining us?"

Charlotte shook her head. "No. A rather powerful rogue human is looking for Scott and currently has his mother held captive. Until this is dealt with, Scott and Alice will remain in our territory."

Dotty seemed contemplative. "And just how powerful is this rogue human? Surely, we could combine our strength to deal with him like any of our Rogue people."

Scott shook his head. "Well, he's pretty strong, but hypothetically, you're right. You could overpower him with enough of you. That being said, it would be a disastrous way for you to introduce yourselves to humans. At this point, I'm pretty sure some damage has already been done by the videos of Charlotte and my mom fighting against a bunch of pirates, but that could be explained away as you trying to protect yourselves. However, if you were to go in and wipe out an entire fleet with tens of thousands of humans, that would be something else. I don't think you'd easily come back from that, politically speaking."

Dotty didn't seem convinced. "Still, if this rogue human is a threat to you and Charlotte, he is a threat to us all. We must do something about him."

Scott shook his head. "Well, that sounds great, but you can't exactly go in, guns blazing again. Er, whatever you call your projectile weapons."

Dotty looked perplexed. "Then what would you recommend?"

Scott sighed. "Honestly? I have no idea. Not really, anyway."

Charlotte turned and looked at him. "From what I know of the context and the way you said that, it means you do have a plan; you just don't think it's very good."

Looking over at Charlotte, Scott nodded. "Well, yeah, isn't that more or less the same thing?"

Charlotte shook her head. "No. Having no plan means we don't have anything to work with. Having a not very good plan just means that maybe you need some help making it a good plan."

Scott shook his head. "I don't know. I don't think this plan can be salvaged..."

Dotty didn't seem put off. "Well, we can't know that until you share this plan with us, can we? So how about you tell us what you're thinking, and we'll decide whether or not it can be salvaged."

Scott sighed. "Well, alright..."