“Maybe back away from the crates.” GiDi said as they linked an arm with TO’s and pulled them back. “And maybe let go of the spoon.” They gently pried the spoon from TO’s hand and held it up towards the ceiling, tilting it towards the busy cook. “Here you go Lake.”

“Thanks.” Lake the Arachnoid said as they let go of TO and took the spoon with their newly freed hand. “They looked like they were about to go make mashed cocopod. You’re supposed to cook them first.” The chitin around their face seemed somehow more flexible, and so a brief smirk could cross their features.

Avery quickly lifted the lid of the container and slipped the captured cocopod inside. It let go of Avery’s hand easily enough, but the problem was that in that ‌moment when Avery opened the lid, TO glimpsed the contents of the container; a chaotic mass of chitin and legs writhing around.

The container was full of cocopods, and at a glance, they could see at least four more containers behind Avery. They were all closed, but given what they had been eating since arriving underground, TO could guess what the containers contained.

Seeing that one writhing mass, and seeing Avery with his hand free of the cocopod, seemed to break the trance that TO had fallen under, from their determination to help Avery. No scream escaped their mouth, but they could feel the muscles of their neck tense as though a scream wanted to come out. Their ears flattened, and their wings wrapped around them as they suddenly stumbled backwards. Something caught their feet and they would have fallen over were it not for a chair that Lake suddenly grabbed and placed behind TO.

“Careful.” Lake said as they crawled on the ceiling towards the large stone table. “There are too many sharp objects and hot things; it’s not safe to just stumble around.” They put the spoon back down on the table, latched the now free hand back onto the ceiling, and continued to mix. “You’d get hurt.”

“They’re afraid of bugs.” GiDi said, “Sorry, I didn’t even think of the cocopods-”

“Why would you, you eat them every day?” Lake said. They turned to Avery. “Speaking of eating, though, did you find a few nice fat ones?”

Avery stood up from their spot on the floor and already had the thick rubber glove off. “Oh… no, sorry, I only just started when TO came in. I put it back.”

“Well, if you’re still looking for a distraction…” They set down the bowl, — which now TO could see had a strange cream in it — and picked up a long, narrow metal fork. Over the little electric stove there was a large pot boiling; they removed the lid and poked around until they brought up a dripping wet package, wrapped in seaweed. “Here. You can prep and clean this one for me then. You remember how to do it?”

“I do…” Avery said as Lake set the package down on a plastic cutting board, “But… TO hates even the look of them.” They glanced up apologetically at TO, “I should wait for them to leave”

All of Lake's busy hands paused. They turned from Avery to TO. “Is that right?” They asked, their eight eyes wide as they stared, “You don’t even like looking at them?” A slight flush crept up the back of TO’s lowered ears as they nodded. “But you’ve been eating them?”

“DH, my mate, they’ve been peeling them for me, and-”

TO didn’t get to finish their sentence. Lake sighed, dropped the bowl, and picked up the fork again. He shook it like an admonishing finger at GiDi.

“You could have said something.” He said before turning and grabbing the small bundle again. He took a nearby knife and cut apart the string that held the seaweed together. The sodden leaves fell apart, revealing a curled cocopod covered in a collection of strange herbs.

“They can eat the bugs!” GiDi insisted. “You’re so busy-”

“We have little enough food here, and it’s hard enough to nourish all the lot of you. Last thing I need is one of you getting sick because you can’t handle how something looks.” They took a large knife from a plastic block and with careful, quick movements started cutting the segments of the cocopod apart to create smaller segments of shell, each one with four legs attached.

Feeling the bile rising in their throat, TO looked aside, breathing heavily through their nose.

“See.” Lake said, “Look. How are they supposed to eat if they can hardly look at these things? Honestly, GiDi, you should have said something to me.” The knife continued its work. The sound of the blade against the bug's shell was clear in TO’s ear. “TO, was it? Don’t worry. I’ll put this together in a way you won’t even recognize.”

“I-I’m sure I can eat anything you prepare.” TO said. “There’s no need-” They looked over, intending to prove that they could in fact look at it, and that the arachnoid Lake didn’t need to go out of their way for TO, but the moment they did was when Lake started breaking open the shells. Unlike how DH carefully peeled the cooked shell off after removing the legs, Lake just smacked the shell with the flat of his blade. TO was positive that the legs twitched as the shell cracked open, allowing Lake to scoop out the meat inside.

A gag threatened to escape them. They reminded themself that they had been eating those things for days, and though they intended for that to calm them down, it didn’t work.

“I think the proper response is, ‘Thanks Lake! I appreciate it!’”

TO took a deep breath to calm their stomach, then with their ears down they nodded, “Thank you, Lake.”

A low chuckle, accented by clicks, escaped Lake’s voice. “There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” they asked. “GiDi, why did you even bring them here? You know I have all kinds of… supplies in my kitchen.”

“We were looking for Avery.” GiDi said, “And I thought it would be fine, for a minute anyway.”

“Well, you found Avery, but I can’t let you take them away.” Lake said, “They’re far too helpful. I have a new kitchen assistant now. Too bad.”

“I just wandered in here.” Avery said, their own ears flicking down. “I just wanted some quiet, but I didn’t want to go back to my room, so-”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Avery can enjoy someone’s company without needing to make conversation.” Lake said, “They can stay and help with the cocopods.” The sound of the knife slapping against the shell suddenly stopped. “That is, if you want to, Avery.”

“I… I’ll think about it.” Avery said. “But, thank you for letting me stay here for a while-”

“You’re welcome anytime.” Lake said, “But please, get your friends out of here before TO throws up all over my floor. I don’t know what synth vomit looks like, and I'm not super excited to find out.”

Avery nodded, removed their gloves, and set them on the table before getting up and heading over to TO. They put a hand on their shoulder and gently guided them up.

“Come on, let’s go.” They said.

“Lake, we’re heading to the dorm. Do you have-”

“Prepped meals in the corner in plastic containers. Bring the containers back. I’ll have a meal ready for TO later. When it is done, I’ll send you a message.”

“I can get them.” TO said as they got up, being careful to move so they wouldn’t see the bits of cocopod on the table.

“They’re full of cocopods.” Avery warned, “I packed some of them myself-”

“I can’t see them, so it’ll be fine.” TO said as they went over to the stacks of opaque containers. They picked up two and balanced them in their arms.

“Are you sure?” GiDi asked, “Avery and I-”

“I’m sure.” TO said with a smile, “Positive.”

They might have been afraid of insects, but they could at least help carry them. They weren’t that bad. At least, they hoped they weren’t.

======

“So… How’s the procedure going?”

Avery and TO were passing out the meal to the survivors; TO passing out the filled water bottles, Avery dealing with the containers. TO had gotten to the room just fine, but if they had to choose, they’d rather handle the water than the containers of bugs. They worked in silence mostly, but now ‌Avery spoke with TO in synth speak, to keep their conversation private.

“I don't know.” TO said, “They didn’t want me around.” Their ears flicked down. “I was going to chase after you, but Snout asked me to talk to Flit…”

“Right…” Avery said as another civilian, this one a legged human female with a tentacled child, came up to take a container of food. “I can understand that.”

“You can?” TO said, their ears tilting up in confusion.

“Well, yes.” Avery said, “You’re their offspring, right?”

“That has nothing to do with anything.” TO said, their ears flattening out. “It only means I was one of the synths that they disconnected. You’re the same, just by chance-”

“I don’t know…” Avery said, their ears twitching in contemplation as they passed a container of food to the next person. “In a lot of my books, parents have some kind of instinct to protect their offspring, and they have been more involved with you, GiDi, and DH-”

“DH isn’t their offspring.” TO said as they passed a bottle of water to the person who had just received their meal. “So there goes that idea.”

“True, but DH is Snout’s offspring. Snout is Flit’s mate. Relation or not, wouldn't they want to help protect someone that’s close to their mate?”

That was true, at least. It was the same way that TO felt some need to protect Tham; He was Pearla’s brother, and Pearla was GiDi’s mate.

It suddenly occurred to them that GiDi was their half sibling; that they were literally family to the smaller synth. They had always considered GiDi to be family to them, but that idea that it was biologically true made their head spin.

“I’m just saying, if you’ve been angry at them, and they feel some kind of need to protect you, or help you, or connect with you… then they’d be upset that you’re angry at them, wouldn’t they be?” They passed a meal to the next person. “Of course, I don’t know. This is just from fiction, and fiction often either glorifies or understates things. In the same vein, I’ve read plenty where the parents were entirely and thoroughly disinterested in the offspring; to the point of hurting them.” They shrugged, “So I don’t really know. But, if you being upset has bothered them, it makes some sense, doesn’t it?”

Did it? The idea of having a parent of any kind was entirely foreign to them. The closest they had was King Decon, who supposedly created them. That was why they served King Decon, why they owed everything to King Decon…

But that was a lie. King Decon didn’t create them.

“... Do offspring normally have to serve their parents?” TO asked. They didn’t pay as much attention to the parent-child relations in their shows, but the children always seemed rather obedient. Of course, they were also young.

“No.” Avery said, “Though some parents expect their children to. It never turns out well in those cases, though. It’s not…” Their ears twitched as they thought about it, “Apparently it’s not healthy. But again, I only know this all from fiction.”

That was a relief. TO didn’t want to serve Flit. Though, now that they were thinking about it, they wondered… Was it healthy for them to be expected to serve King Decon? They knew that the proper answer to that would be that they didn’t need to be ‘healthy’‌. King Decon did not create them to do anything other than serve.

That answer seemed so wrong to them. They had felt such things, such thoughts had been wrong before, but now they only had the vague feeling that it was so, and had no logical reasons they should feel like that. Now, with the outrage that Lendulin and Petra had shown when they told them about their training, and everything else they had learned since being taken by the insurgents, they had some solid reasoning ‌for their feelings.