Pylo had finally finished the brushies, it was a lot of work. Normally it would have been quite a delay in departure, but with the incredible haul of filling tunie’s stores it would take ser more time to finish loading.

Nevermind that they had to rearrange one of the holds for an impromptu habitat for refugees. Still it was relaxing and pleasant to be finished and with nothing more pressing to draw her attention. In fact it meant that besides talking with Tunie there was little else that she technically was required to do.

Which meant Pylo had time for a nice break.

Sure she could try leaping into work and plotting updated courses, but that would keep for a while and besides Tunie deserved to simply luxuriate and soak grist too. Pylo could try organizing and cleaning up one of the holds. But after spending so long dragging the brush over every single one of Tunie’s massive feathers Pylo really did not feel up for it.

In fact she was outright exhausted. It would all keep and she could probably pick up a nice nap in just a bit and then get up in time to maybe clean up a bit of her-

“Hey! Pylo! There you are! Have you met this little grubby person?! They don’t even have a name they just chirp and ask for ways to help me out! And they don’t mind moving in or out of oxygen and I’ve been showing them how to do maintenance work on one of the hydroponics and they really pick it up fast!”

Pylo tiredly turned to her passenger and offered a terran smile of bemusement.

Aleph was in the walker, with one of the clerk juveniles in her arms, inside of the bubble.

She tilted her head a bit and boggled at the clerk, who seemed delighted and happy for the attention Aleph was giving it and had probably already given it.

“That’s a clerk... do you have any idea what telling it to do things means Aleph?”

Aleph made a face and blood rushed to her cheeks but Pylo was pretty sure she was rolling with whatever she had assumed Pylo to mean with her accent.

“Oh yuck no I’m not going to use it for that! That would be gross! No I’m just showing it how we do stuff as a kind of cultural exchange... Ya know? And it’s not like it’s against the little gal’s will... She was eager to do something, asking me if there was any way it could help!”

Pylo scratched at one of her oviriticuli vents along the dorsal of her neck and cycled some coolant through her body.

“No I mean that is a clerk, the young ones are always looking for jobs to do, it’s how they survive. They embed themselves into port economies and find services to provide. Then look for ways to expand and integrate themselves further until they can afford to mature and shed unnecessary organs and anatomical features and focus on whatever tasks are available or manage their offspring to do the work they discovered as their niche”

Aleph blinked several times, opened her mouth then closed it and just looked simultaneously confused and kind of uncomfortable. Her face had also gotten extremely hot and discolored. It was honestly the strongest reaction Pylo had seen since the terrans had been taken aboard.

Well besides passing out and suffering brain damage that is.

“Yeah, I have no idea what you could possibly be trying to explain there, I think I might have to go get Quarti for this one! But I just wanted to let you know that we are getting along with the new passengers and I think they're really fun. Uh and I guess to remind you we have a translation box thingy now? You know? Um you could totally just try to use that right? Instead of like. Shoving ideas directly into our heads? Well Bye!”

Everything seemed to just crash together in Pylo’s tired cortices.

Had Aleph really just said that?

She was too shocked to say or do anything in response. She just held her position, slightly drifting from errant momentum and currents of rarified vapors all around her. Had Aleph really just done that?

To her face?

Just?

REALLY?!

By the time Pylo had gotten a hold of herself enough to coherently and fully consider what the terran had implied the walker and its cargo had gone down a corridor back to the terran’s habitat.

“B-but... Sh-she just... she... I thought we were friends... TUNIE! Aleph j-just... She just! She...!”

“◬⑆ ◬⑇?⌒ ⎌◎◍?”

“She said she wanted to listen to a squawker box instead of me! She Hates me!”

“◬!?”

“She really thought that! She thought some dumb brick was BETTER than me!”

Tunie’s bulkheads faintly rumbled and buzzed in agitation. The entire mass shifting enough to disturb the various crews and fueling systems. But Pylo was honestly too distraught to pay attention to that.

She was clawing and tugging her way back to her chambers wailing indistinct and undifferentiated distress over the resonance to her only friend. This was a time for solace and cake! She had been intending to take a break and a snack anyway. But Really?! Aleph thought she was lower than a worthless block of canner metal and hydrocarbon casing?!

That was...

How could she be so awful?!

It didn't really fit with the rest of anything Aleph had said or done! But then again what if Pylo really WAS so bad and dumb and stone daughter stupid that she had not been noticing? What if it wasn't that the terrans were fragile about a little yelling at them and instead it was Pylo being some awful person?

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

She... She thought she was very good at speaking. She was perfectly fine with all the Clerks and the Stalwart. She spoke with Tunie fluently. She communicated with the common trade ways and the uplifting operations and so many hundreds of others. The terrans should have been easy! All the other ones were!

But...

What if she wasn't good at speaking to any of those people after all?

What if she was just bumbling along and thinking she was doing good?

What if even Tunie hated her or just could barely understand her?

Pylo curled up in her chambers with a cloud of boxed cakes and swallowed all of them in her digestive fold all at once. If that was the case she WAS awful. She had probably hurt Aleph because she was too stupid not too. And now that she knew how awful she was there was only one course of action. She had no choice.

Pylo was going to just stay in here with her cakes and not come out ever again.

No one needed a Siren who couldn't actually speak.

Tunie would be better off without her.

She curled up and refused to listen to anyone.

Tunie was a big girl and a great friend and would be better if she just left her alone.

...

Some time passed, and she slept, but Pylo still felt awful.

The pile of canner boxes and all three of the Terrans in their walker were here. She thought she had locked herself in? How could they be in here if she locked herself away. No of course she had forgotten like the stupid stone-rape-spawn she was.

“H-hey Pylo? Um... Tunie called me. She said you were very... uh unoptimal-acceleration-curve on a spline of negative-fun? It seemed pretty bad. Like spinning off and crashing into something at full thrust kinda bad. And she was very upset and kinda erratic... Oh and I kinda had to tell her a lot of times to not run away with a fuel line still attached.”

Pylo threw something half formed and befitting how awful and terrible and unable to speak civilly she was. It was hardly words. It was a vague lashing collection of impulses. Modulated of course to not actually hurt the terrans. She might be as stupid as a stoneborne but she was not a monster.

"GO'AWAY"

The terrans flinched and Quarti even pulled the walker back from her at that. Good she was awful no one should be near her.

▙◀ spoke next though, and after the canner assembly’s words the terrans seemed to decide to inch closer to her.

“Flight mistress Pylo... I believe there may be a misunderstanding here.”

Pylo shuddered and curled into a tighter seedling position whimpering. She knew it! She was a failure, she was a failure and a horrible daughter and she deserved all of this and she should never have left home and maybe she was even wrong about everything that happened and they weren’t trying to hurt tunie back then and she killed them all for no reason and she was just a liar and awful, awful, awful-

▙◀’s words broke into her spiraling thoughts.

“Pylo Courtesan! You were very well spoken in every dialect of thought within the trade tribunal! You were also admirably capable, skilled and incredible as befits one of clan Courtesan during our investigation together!”

Pylo loosened her body spiral a little bit. That, sounded nice... But maybe she was just convincing herself that she was-

“You are a beautiful and kind host, your actions have spoken of your character and intent and although your language is flowery and complex it has never been less then clear to me that you always intend well by us your passengers and charges!”

Quarti was of course as always perfectly polite, that had always been rather strange. Pylo wondered about why one of the terrans seemed to be so different from the other two in her speech. It was probably just a delusion pylo was telling herself so-

“I don’t really know anything about what has you so upset... And you are some kind of crazy frightening rape monster alien... But this looks a lot like a panic attack. Aleph seemed insistent that Tunie... Your ship... cares a great deal about you. And I know that, you do really care, you can be kinda arrogant and you seem a bit clumsy but you don’t WANT to hurt any of us. You are trying your best... Um and honestly I don’t get what got you so upset. But you were able to help me save Aleph. You should feel good about that”

Omega was never particularly nice, and yet that fit together, it fit with their actions. The words could only really fit with their actions. Right? The impulses in their spines and skulls and bodies could not really make any kind of sense otherwise right?

Pylo unfurled enough from her seedling position to face the terrans with a frown.

She thought to speak, then just let it slip and turned away from them.

▙◀ had unfolded a bit to get more eyes on her at some point. Its intent was so simple and clear and obvious. So blatantly obvious. Pylo was not worthless as a Siren. She could understand them. And she could speak.

She tried again to form a simple ideas for the terrans.

“I’m sorry”

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