For bugs that wanna stay out of trouble, you’d think that the fruit flies wouldn’t make so much fuckin’ noise. Even the termites never acted out like that; they just put up their defenses and stood quiet among themselves in their stupid colony. At least, while it was active. Far as we could understand it, the termites went out in a blaze of glory, within the all-encompassing grasp of Jammy’s emotional recklessness.
Speaking of those anti-social saps, we were actually pretty surprised once we recovered his body from out their colony; apparently, that crazy fuck of a termite queen was wrong about him being dead. Hard to see how she could’ve been wrong at all, honestly; he did have a pretty wide scar across his body, and he lost a lot of hemolymph, sure, but past that, he was fine. At least, acted all fine before we brought him in.
But before we could get to him, something else caught our attention first.
“Slider, the scouts just came back with some kind of… decomposing matter from the blowflies. It’s huge,” Torch told Slider that day.
“The blowflies?” he replied, “That’s rare. Bring it down.”
“We’re not really sure what it is, though…”
I’m quite familiar with the blowflies myself; those bugs were the only ones we knew who were brave enough to go after giants like the humans, sometimes even while they were alive; you just had to find the right weak points on them.
But Slider took a good look at what the scouts brought back, and was equally unsure what to make of it; fuckin’ thing was nearly twice the size of each of us.
“…Should I bring it to Kelvin?” Torch asked him, “She’s a scouter at heart, she’s bound to know what this is.”
“…Nah, she’s busy with the bees,” Slider responded, then thought, “What about Clover? She’s probably the best scouter we got. Bring it over to her.”
As you could probably picture, I felt pretty fuckin’ good knowing Slider said that about me. Once Torch brought it over to me, I immediately knew what it was.
“…I’ve seen this before,” I told him while inspecting that object, crawling up to the top of it and looking down at them in excitement.
“I’ve seen this before, it’s a human eyeball!”
Pretty fuckin’ impressive that the scouts brought back something as huge as an actual, decomposing human eyeball from those blowflies, who were just off the trail from the fruit flies. What’s more interesting, that eye looked just like the one I saw all those days ago, from that lonely human I saw far out in the forest, except now it looked all deflated, dirty, and almost yellowish-gray. Looked all wet, too, with white seeping out from all sides of where the blowflies bit into it; it looked felt like the thickest, slimiest nectar you could imagine. It was bearing some… leaked-out red liquid as well, similar to the liquids we saw when we dug Domino out all those days ago.
Anyhow, I promptly got to inspecting that eyeball, picking up the scent real closely, specifically in its odd greyish parts. That eye had dried-up red holes and cavities on the front and back of it, lookin’ all soggy. That liquid feeling on my tibia and proboscis from the center of that eye, from when I tasted it, felt much more light and cloudy than I expected.
“Torch, make yourself useful and pass me a splinter, will ‘ya?”
After I tore through the center of that eye, I dug into the whole thing and swam through the moisture. There was a lot I could pick up from eyeballs, compared to other parts of a body, and the humans had so much information stored there for me to take apart, it felt incredible. I kept swimmin’ around in that little rupture, pickin’ up all that I could. I got myself soaked a little, but that’s just part of the job.
“This eye… definitely came from the blowflies…” I told him while I swam around in there, and even chewed into it a little, to pick up more. “A piece of it got taken… by the fruit flies, at one point…”
“The fruit flies?” Torch asked, “What’s their business with a decomposing eyeball?”
“The fruit flies…” I trailed, until I caught something while inspecting it.
“Dice,” I said.
“Huh? The hell’s a dice?” Phido cutely asked, peeking out of an overhead burrow, overhearing our conversation.
“A fruit fly named Dice is carryin’ over a speck of this eye,” I said.
“How… How do you know their names?” Phido then asked. I was too busy to answer him, as I had just caught something else.
“…A ladybug asked for his name… That ladybug was Nino.”
“Nino?”
“Nino, from the fuckin’ cottonwood.”
I had no reason to lie; I knew Torch and Phido were impressed with how good I was at pickin’ up on things, on how those things operated, even in other colonies. I was the best girl ant, next to Kelvin, when it came to that kinda thing. I won’t deny, I always had quite a knack for it, but here, I must’ve outdid myself. But anyways, now we all knew: The ladybugs were in cahoots with those damn fruit flies, somehow.
As soon as I found out, the three of us had to tell Slider.
“Those motherfuckers…” Slider audibly thought to himself. “What do they wanna know, huh?”
“I’m… not quite sur–”
But I was then interrupted by another scout ant who scampered into our burrow, with a bit of a sadder tone to him. “Slider, we… we found somethin’ else.”
“…Don’t tell me it’s bad news.”
Phido, Slider, Torch and I slowly crawled up to the surface expecting the worst. But, instead of somethin’ bad, it made us have to hold back our laughter; it was Jammy, laying there on the ground with a deep gash on his sternum, having leaked out lots of dried-up hemolymph. Our younger scouts found that fuckin’ sap and, believe it or not, actually felt bad; I’ll bet he was yearning to join the termites by the time he woke up to see us.
After our usual interrogations we save for when somebuggy fucked up, we didn’t say another word to him. Why would we? He knew what he did; that little outburst he had at our queen earned him his new spot in the forest. And killin’ off all those termites? Yeah, great going; he just spoiled himself, no different from what Dot did on the daily.
Unsure what to do with him, Slider went back down and reported it to Kelvin, hardly able to contain his laughter.
“It’s Jammy,” he told her with a snide smile. “He said he saw Dot speak with that dyin’ termite queen; that’s all we could get from him on those damn ladybugs.”
“…Did the termites put up a fight?” she asked.
“Nah, they were all dead by then, thanks to Jammy.”
“He…” She stopped, “He killed them all on his own?”
“Yeah, then he tried killin’ himself. Didn’t work.”
She turned to her side, “Is that so? How did he cut himself?”
“Sideways, my queen. Across his sternum.”
“Sideways…” Kelvin repeated, letting out a long sigh. “…So we can’t use him for our entomology lessons…”
Gotta say, didn’t know Kelvin had jokes.
“Bring him down here, I’d like to speak to him,” she ultimately decided.
“…You sure? Don’t you wanna send him to Fuzzball?”
“Fuzzball… No, no. Not necessary.” she thought, then turned her head in a pause, forming what seemed like an idea. “…I’ll worry about Fuzzball. For now, bring Jammy in here, and let me speak with him, alone.”
Jammy had some more hemolymph to leak out from that gash on his sternum by the time Slider brought him to her burrow. I could only imagine how terrifying it must’ve been for him; he had to meet Kelvin alone, face-to-face, while holding his deep scar together. Just the two of them, alone, as she asked. Not to mention, the last time Jammy saw her was after embarrassing himself in front of the colony, being told that he’s basically good as dead.
You could never catch me in a position like that.
“Jammy,” she said, facing away.
“Yes, my q–… K– Kelvin…?” he quietly stuttered, fearing his life while holding onto his sternum. She then turned to him.
“…You’ve impressed me. I take it that you killed off the termite colony all yourself?”
“I… I did,” he affirmed, his tone noticeably changing. Kelvin slowly crawled around her burrow, circling him after pausing to think of what to say.
“You’ve proven yourself,” she continued. “Your outburst earlier was easy for me to forgive. You’ve won back my respect through your display of strength upon the termites. But, the display itself was rather senseless, borne in the complete absence of strategy. And worse, another action accompanying your conduct has placed steep limitations on my respect for you.”
Jammy grew stiff. “W… Which action, m-m– K-Kelvin?”
“Your attempt on your life.”
He shook, “I… I’m sorry.”
“Sorry is merely a word. That action completely undid the bravery you displayed in the face of those termites. If I’m to trust you again, I need to know that you won’t take refuge in your instability again, for the sake of my colony.”
“Y-Yes,” he pledged, still aching from his sternum wound. “Is… Is there anything I can do to… prove myself?”
Even throughout her conversation with Jammy in her burrow, her mind remained on the now-supposed connection between the ladybugs and the fruit flies. She thought on it, then spoke.
“There’s a fruit fly who goes by the name of Dice. He’s a nervous and shy type, and he’s small. The important thing is, he has ties to those cottonwood ladybugs, specifically Nino. There’s a strong chance that he’s inside their tree as we speak.”
As usual, without fail, she was right.
“Scout for him there and follow him where he goes,” she kept explaining. “Whatever his upcoming destination may be, reach it. Wait until he’s alone. Then, you’re to capture him, and come back here. I’ll take care of the rest. In fact, I’ll send Blackjack right behind you in case anything goes wrong. Do you understand what I’ve assigned you now?”
“Y… Yes, my queen.”
“Good… Now leave. I’ll take note of your compliance.”
Once that final deal between Kelvin and Jammy was agreed upon, he scampered out and got to it. I still remember the look on his face as he passed by us; he was lookin’ like he found new life.
Slider then came back into the burrow where Kelvin was. “I see that Jammy’s out of the burrow now. You gave him a mission?” he asked her with skepticism.
“I did.”
“But why? Wouldn’t that be letting him off easy? For that outburst? He called me a son of a botfly…”
She smiled to him, “I’m glad you remember. I never forgot what he was complaining about that day.”
I didn’t know what made Jammy so happy when I saw him walking out, but once all the details came to light, and I mean all the details, I could hardly contain my laughter, and I couldn’t be more proud of the mind my queen had.
Nino seemed pretty eager to get the meeting going between Dice and those parasitoids. When it finally came time to do it, Nino made sure to keep Dice in check during the flight over there, and actually did a pretty good job, according to what I could find on it.
“Alright, Dice, don’t forget what we discussed.”
“Y– Yes, I haven’t forgotten!” said Dice, while they both flew over to the colony.
“Good. You just ask ‘em why it happened, and don’t forget what they tell you.”
“Understood!”
Nino smiled a little warmly, seeing that the fruit fly wasn’t shaking as much anymore, “You seem a lot better, Dice. Not nervous?”
Dice stopped a little, “I… I still am, a little. But I can do it.” This prompted Nino to look over to the fruit fly more closely and ask, “Want me to tell you a funny story?”
He nodded, so Nino continued, “I remember when I was just a little larva; Rosie, one of the keyholders at the time, came into our tree after visiting Kelvin’s colony on negotiations. She told Ruby about this drone ant she saw while there; he had just gotten back from a scheduled mating session. This drone ant, the poor sap, was crawling, half-dead all over the floor of the burrow, all his reproductive guts leakin’ out,” Nino chuckled, “He’s this leaking hemolymph mess, and what’s funniest, he told the associates that the queen actually liked him! I mean, could you believe that?!”
“I…” Dice hesitated, “I don’t… get it…”
Nino smiled at the innocent fly, “Visit Kelvin’s colony next spring, you’ll see what I mean.”
Dice just looked more confused, which never wore off even as they reached that parasitoid colony’s entrance.
“Alright Dice,” said Nino, “I’ll wait out here by the entrance, you go on ahead. Remember what we said, alright?”
“Y-Yes sir! I w– w-won’t let you down!”
So Dice went inside that parasitoids’ colony, unharmed and uninfected; again, he was immune. The colony itself was more like a nest: A tight-knit nest where multiple parasitic wasps and parasitoids convened for hunting prey, like everybuggy else did. What they weren’t used to was a fruit fly looking to strike up a deal. The entire move was quite the risk, but the fruit flies were docile enough to give the parasitoids some assurance that it would be alright. However, as endearing as Dice’s dim wits were, they barely served a single purpose in something as sophisticated as a deal with another bug.
You see, fruit flies are remarkably stupid; you can tell one of them to do something one day, and on the next, it’ll do something else entirely. That’s all ‘cause of its attention span. Fruit flies have probably the shortest attention span out of any other bug in the forest. Dice did a pretty good job holding it together during the conversation when he could, but it didn’t last; It really, really didn’t. In fact, I’ll let you see for yourself.
“Hello, I… Nice to meet you, my name’s… Dice.”
One of the parasitic wasps looked around at the others, wanting to know what to say to this peaceful-looking fruit fly who, to them, seemed to have randomly buzzed in only for some sort of a chat.
“We’re… not very used to visitors, but… you’re welcome to speak with us, long as you come in peace. My name’s Jewel.”
“It’s… It’s good to meet you, Jewel,” Dice told him, his nerves dissipating a little. Now more relaxed, they each sat down within the relatively dark walls of that nest; it was pretty hard to see in there, even for me.
“So, Dice, what’re you here for?”
…And just like that, he immediately got nervous again, trying to remember what he and the ladybugs agreed to him speaking about; Jewel nor the other bugs knew that he was talkin’ on behalf of those ladybugs, and Dice couldn’t carry the risk of giving that away.
“I…” he trailed nervously, “…I wanted to ask… about Lucky.”
“Lucky? Who’s that?”
“One of your… p-parasitic wasps… got him,” he said, nervously trying to mimic how the cottonwood’s ladybugs would speak.
“Oh, you mean that ladybug. Yeah, I know what happened,” Jewel said, remembering the event with some bitterness. “We had this… other parasitic wasp who used to be with us, his name was Oreo…”
Dice listened intently, trying to capture as many of the new details as he could, striking a forced-looking attentive stare in the process.
“He got stuck in a spider web,” the parasitoid explained, “and… him and this ladybug named Berry were having a talk with each other on that web, I don’t know what it was about, but they hit it off pretty well for a pair of terrified bugs. But you see, all Oreo wanted to do was get out of that web, and Berry said he’d break him out however possible, if he got out first. That’s what he promised him. But then, all of a sudden, his friend came in and broke Berry free… Lucky was the bug who talked him outta that promise. He left Oreo there on that web… and as it goes, the spider eventually ate him up. Kelvin told me all about it.”
“…Oh. I… I see.”
“Fairy, one of our own, was the bug who got him back for that. He’s here now, if you wanna talk to him about it.”
Dice couldn’t stop hesitating; he never liked to get very close to anybuggy who killed other bugs. This, along with the new information that confirmed what he already knew about the ruthlessness of the ladybugs, made him more hesitant to do the business he was supposed to. Still, the ladybugs’ looming threats hung too high in the air for him to not comply.
“Y– Yes, please, I’d… I’d like to s-s-speak to Fairy…”
Catching Dice’s hesitation, Jewel paused for a moment, then said, “…I’ll bring him out shortly. Just… stay put if you can, Dice.”
While he waited, Dice looked around at the walls of the nest. Past the darkness inside, it was powdered with a particular scent. I couldn’t know what that scent was or where in the nest it came from, but the effect it had on Dice looked pretty soothing, like he was sittin’ in aromatherapy. Observing the walls, he knew it was quite a safe space, way different from the constrictive walls of that fuckin’ cottonwood tree.
Surprisingly, Dice actually really started to calm down in his wait. He might’ve also come more to his senses; his mind felt more agile than he was when under pressure.
Then, Jewel then re-entered the room with Fairy.
“Hey, this is Fairy. Good to meet you, Dice.”
“H-Hello…”
“Yeah, I was the one who got Lucky,” he laughed, “But really, I had no other choice; those ladybugs are the fuckin’ worst.”
Dice, now talking as though he was shaken out of sleep, held back, “The… The worst?”
“Yeah, of course they are,” Fairy said, surprised at Dice’s cluelessness. “Y’know what they’ve been doin’ to this fuckin’ forest?”
“Ah, it goes way beyond the stuff with Oreo,” Jewel added. “Dice, y’know anything about the sunflowers and the thrips?”
“Sunflowers and… thrips?” Dice repeated, conscious of what Nino would think of their conversation if he were involved. “No, I… I’ve no idea.”
“Yeah, of course he’d have no idea,” Fairy laughed while looking over to Jewel, “The fuckin’ cottonwood ate ‘em all UP!”
“W… What?”
“You see, Dice,” Fairy continued, “I like ‘ya; there’s a lot you don’t know, so I’ll tell you about it. The cottonwood’s got this… head ladybug named Ruby. I don’t know what she’s doing now, but back when we knew her, she was nasty; rumor has it she was out burying crows.”
Tough as it was to see inside there, I could detect Dice’s shaking after hearing that fact from inches away.
“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either,” Fairy laughed, then continued. “As the leader, she also had control over this other ladybug, Midge. Yeah, it was Midge and Luna. They fucked over the entire sunflower population for us back in the day.”
Dice sat there, now feeling like he had to listen to every detail.
“Midge, that fuckin’ she-beetle, had this bright idea one day: Only kill off the thrips at night; the rest of the day was for scrounging aphids and fruit flies: Fruit flies like yourself.”
Once Fairy said that, it got harder and harder for Dice to keep his composure.
“By only foraging for ‘em at night, when we were at our most tired,” Fairy continued, “Midge was able to get out of so many close calls. We could’ve used a clean sting on her, if we only had the chance; the honeybee queen would’ve been way happier that way. Jewel, you remember that honeybee queen?
“Ha, yeah, I remember the honeybee queen,” Jewel responded. “I still remember, Beatrice wanted to make deals with us and those thrips to keep the sunflowers alive. She’d send her bees to fly the thrips around for pollination, and she counted on us to make sure nobuggy ever hurt those thrips, while they were out doin’ their thing…”
“But the ladybugs, well,” Fairy then said, “…They never gave a fuck.”
“…And to make matters worse,” Jewel finished up the story Dice, “The ants later told us that the honeybee queen ended up killin’ herself… ‘cause of all the things the ladybugs had done… And that’s that.”
Dice grew increasingly anxious as the parasitoids told that story to him. In his head, it was hard to keep track of such a wide-stretching history (with an attention span like his, it’s easy to see why.)
But he got a good gist: A gist good enough for those ladybugs to terrify him deeper than any close-call ever could’ve.
“I… I think–” Dice prepared. Jewel and Fairy closely observed him as he formed what looked like, for the first time, his own independent thought, detached from the rest of the fruit flies he once knew. He looked like he overcame his speaking fears.
“I think I… get what y-you’re talking about,” he said, bottling up a lot of feelings. He was still terrified, make no mistake, but he was ready to let it out.
“N– Nino…” Dice continued, looking almost tearful, “Nino was the ladybug who brought me here. He f-forced me to. Him, and Basel, another ladybug. They… They wanted me to find information on all you bugs, to… to use against you.”
The two parasitic wasps, and pretty soon the entire nest, were now the ones listening intently to what Dice was saying. They couldn’t believe it, and neither could Dice, as he was pretty much sobbing by this point. He shook inside, knowing how those parasitoids must’ve felt.
“I… I’m sorry.”
“No, no, don’t apologize. Please,” Fairy assured. “You’re a victim. A victim of them, and the kinds of fuckin’ bugs they are.”
“I… I know now,” Dice assured. “You’re completely right. About all of it. There’s n-no playing nice with them anymore; they’ve fucked up our flowers, they’ve made fools of you, and me, and… made fools of th-the ants, too. I– I lied to them about knowing who Kelvin was.”
“Kelvin… She was the one who asked Oreo to be part of this,” Jewel remembered.
“W-What?!” Fairy jumped in shock, memories of Oreo flooding back to him while his speaking got angrier. “What the fuck’s up with that, then?! Why should one of our own take the brunt?! All ‘cause of the plans from somebuggy at the top of the fuckin’ food chain?!”
Dice remained quiet, not sure what to say to Jewel about what he just brought up. But thinking it over, a memory suddenly came to his mind that was too pressing to ignore.
“I– I remember… Kelvin…”
He had the parasitoids’ attention.
“One of Kelvin’s… ants… came in to ask our flies to… volunteer…”
Being watched by the parasitoids with a sense of care and sensitivity, Dice slowly kept speaking.
“I remember… Adley…”
His look gradually turned more distraught as he said that name. Jewel and Fairy knew that look immediately.
“Who… Who was Adley?” Jewel softly asked.
“My… my friend,” Dice revealed. “He was my friend. They asked him to be part of her deal.”
“It was heard that Lucky… Lucky broke a fruit fly from that web, and… brought it to the cottonwood… to be eaten.”
Dice’s graven look began to change to something even worse; the scent of the nest felt uncomfortable now.
“Dice…” Jewel softly asked. “Was that Adley?”
“…There… There was no other fruit fly there,” Dice confirmed.
The entire nest fell silent out of respect.
“Why do we all keep doing this?”
“Doing what, Dice?” Jewel asked.
“This. All of this, this entire thing. Everyone… hates each other, it’s a– it’s all a s-sick joke,” Dice continued, more tears and emotions welling up. “We’re all tools for these b-bugs at the top of the food chain, like Fairy said. It’s always hemolymph-shed…”
Fairy and Jewel couldn’t respond to that.
“I d-don’t want to die,” he kept stuttering, breathing heavier, “I don’t want to be caught. I don’t w-w-want this…”
“Dice…” Jewel said, understandingly but with reservations.
“I don’t want to be part of these fuckin’ DEALS anymore!” Dice finally raised his voice, back to that familiar, annoying tone. “I don’t want to be USED! I’m sick of this, this b-back and forth, all the hemolymph, I– I shouldn’t have fuckin’ VOLUNTEERED myself for this–”
“Dice, you’re– you’re spiraling,” said Fairy, reaching in to hold Dice still, as he was trembling pretty fiercely, “C’mon, the ants’re gonna get ‘em soon enough. After all, they run the policies, it’s not like Kelvin’s gonna let the forest fall apart. It never has.” he laughed weakly, hoping to calm him down.
“I’m prey! All this time, I’ve been prey, I just never knew it– Th-They don’t fuckin’ tell you that you’re prey, but you’re prey, I– I… I don’t want everybuggy AFTER ME anymore!” Dice shouted, starting to hyperventilate. His tarsi instinctively kicked around the room, trying to make space for himself as he kept breathing hard, as if the scented walls of the nest were closing in on him. The rest held him down.
“Dice, just calm down, n-nothing’s gonna change with you acting like this,” Jewel told him, a little panicked himself.
“I… I’m…” he kept trembling.
“You’re worried about Nino, right?” Jewel asked.
“Y– Yes…”
“Then calm down!” both parasitoids said at the same time. Fairy added, “You don’t want Nino reporting any of this, do you?!”
“I want you to s-sting him! If he gets in here! If– If he gets too close! Sting him!”
“Dice, stop, y– you’re acting a little out of line yourself, y’know, y-you have to calm down–”
“N-NO!” Dice quickly snapped. His loud, piercing buzz echoed throughout the entire room, bouncing off the walls while he continued his fuckin’ tantrum, “You’re out of line! Fairy’s out of line, Ruby’s out of line, Kelvin’s out of line, every bug in the FOREST is out of li–”
Right at that moment though, they heard a faint rumble from above. They each stopped what they were doing, when suddenly, the ceiling of the nest broke apart, and an ant fell out from it, landing hard onto the ground. That ant was Jammy, nearly carved up with new marks on him, two of his legs and both his wings missing, and leaking even more hemolymph than before.
He looked insane, and just about ready to die. He then got up for a moment and spoke, slurring in his speech as if he were drunk on honeydew.
“Fuzzball… It’s– I-It’s Fuzzball… F-Fuzzball…”
That was the last thing Jammy could mutter before he collapsed again onto the floor out of pure exhaustion, leaking out in front of everybuggy. Everybuggy in that nest listened in on those words, gasping at each other all confused and terrified.
“Wh-What the fuck is Fuzzball?!” Fairy asked desperately as he looked at the others. Nobuggy had any idea what that ant was on about, and that made it all the scarier.
From Jammy falling out of the ceiling to the parasitoids breaking into unknowing gossip, everything began to click for that fruit fly sap, and he promptly lost his fuckin’ mind. While they were sharing a short-lived silence, Dice was ready to swiftly break it, flying right back into panic to shake and buzz far more than he was before. He collapsed onto the floor in a manner that almost matched Jammy’s.
“Dice!”
“All of this is out of line! A-ALL of it! Y-You can’t fuckin’ trust anyone! They all want you to fuckin’ DIE! They’re t-t-too bored OTHERWISE!”
“Hey, HEY–” Fairy yelled in to shut Dice up, trying to shield his antennae from Dice’s buzzing. “You’re safe in here, Dice, relax–” Jewel hurriedly tried assuring him, “I promise, you’re going to be fine, you can stay here for as long as you–”
“No, I can’t!” he buzzed further, “Th-The ladybugs said they’ll kill everybuggy in my log if I stayed overnight!”
The parasitoids felt doomed for their new, panicking friend. They got closer to him, trying to calm him again, but Dice was breathing irregularly, blubbering still, “W-Why do we have to be the ones?! Why does it have to be us?!”
“Dice… Just... J-Just relax, okay? We have time now, w-we told you about why Lucky died, you can tell the ladybugs, and you should be okay!” Jewel said, hoping that would finally set Dice at ease. Thankfully, it started to work; by this point, he finally shut up a little.
“Just go back to the cottonwood when you're done here, okay?” Fairy added. Jewel kept talking sense into that fruit fly, almost sounding like he was begging, “Just… t-take it easy. Please. You can stay here until it gets dark.”
“I… I want to,” Dice said, his breathing starting to slow down as he finally started to hear them.
“Just sit still… You can stay here. Sit still, Dice.” After a moment of Jewel’s repetitions, Dice’s breathing slowed down to almost-normal.
“I…”
“It’s okay, Dice. You– You can stay here,” Jewel repeated. “W– We’re going to be okay.”
“Yeah, nothin’ to worry about,” Fairy assured, “Now that you know about Lucky, you can tell the others. You’re gonna be okay.”
“…”
“C’mon, say it.”
“I… I’ll be okay,” Dice finally said, trying to catch his breath.
“There you go,” Fairy smiled, which made Dice want to crack a little smile as well. Jewel smiled, too, and told him,
“Just remember that, alright Dice? Long as we got the ants, no matter what, we’re gonna be okay.”
After that, all of them were much more calm than they were before. More than appreciative of the honesty Dice demonstrated in that meeting, they sat there together in that nest, finally having made a lasting bond with their newly calmed fruit fly friend. There they were, just hugging it out in there for the night…
…
…
…CRASH!
…Until the ceiling suddenly broke apart again, this time into a much larger hole, and Fuzzball fell into it hard: Spared no expense immediately devouring every single fuckin’ bug in that room.
Dice, Jewel, and Fairy? More than half the parasitoids? Even Nino, waiting outside? All of them were torn apart. Limb from limb. Leaking hemolymph pools and exoskeleton bits all over the walls. It was a complete and total massacre.
Here’s how it happened.
Jammy was tasked to follow Dice around, wherever he was going, to see what the deal was between him and the cottonwood’s bugs. Little did he know, Fuzzball had been following Jammy around that whole time, absolutely starving. Wasn’t on Kelvin’s orders, either; that fuckin’ spider was probably the hungriest she-beetle I’d ever seen. You’d think that Adley, Oreo, and whoever else on that web alone would’ve had her set for about a hundred days, right? Wrong.
So now you have Jammy, that leaking mess of a sap, scampering for his life, begging to convince her not to take him. Did she listen? Sort of. Quick to think on his tarsi, Jammy held her back long enough to tell her about the fruit fly he was following, heading towards a nest with a bunch of wasps. Real wisefly; she easily bought it and bided her timel, agreeing to spare him as a bit of a compromise.
But at some point, on the way there, she couldn’t take it anymore and took tiny bites out of Jammy’s wings and a few of his legs; just some small bites, nothin’ crazy. Doing the best he could, he flew to the top of that nest and limped for his life…
“You’re out of line! Fairy’s out of line, Ruby’s out of line–”
…Until eventually, Dice’s little buzzing outburst stunned him, breakin’ him through the fuckin’ ceiling. It took a while for Fuzzball to get there herself, but by the time she was there, she had only one compromise left on her mind: Dinnertime.
She gobbled through that fruit fly in seconds. After that, she looked over at Jammy’s dying body, and figured he’d been through enough, so she ended up sparing him; those little nibbles she took were probably the best parts of him, anyhow. When she got to chewing down the rest of the bugs though, biting through each of their tiny little hemolymph-soaked bodies and flimsy exoskeletons, making up the pool of guts and slathered hemolymph that the nest was now swamped in, her chewing had to slow down a bit. As she was munching through their severed heads, she grew… weak. Then suddenly, frail.
Jammy didn’t tell her that those ‘bunch of wasps’ were really parasitic wasps. Again: Real fuckin’ wisefly.
Fuzzball couldn’t stand the stinging sensation of the scent; it went through her mouth, to her brain, and into an infection that left her writhing in agony, just like Lucky was. Through the sea of decomposing bug parts in that fuckin’ nest, Fuzzball grew unable to move anymore. She laid down and twitched, helplessly, until she truly stopped functioning.
Oh right, I almost forgot there was one more thing.
So, remember when Kelvin told Slider to let her take care of Fuzzball? Well, once Fuzzball stopped moving, a fuckin’ crow’s beak dipped into that giant hole in the wasp’s nest, and snatched Fuzzball right from it, just like that. That was the last time anybuggy ever saw that fuckin’ spider again.
It was revenge for overstepping during the Berry deal; Blackjack ate her up like she was a fuckin’ worm.
And y’wanna know the best part? Of all this? Aside from those bite marks from earlier, Jammy himself was completely unharmed throughout the whole ordeal. I’m serious, I’m not makin’ this shit up.
After Blackjack took Fuzzball in his mouth, after that panicking fruit fly and his parasitoid buddies all turned to mush, after everything in the nest got quiet, Jammy started crawling. That’s right; that ant, still leaking plenty of hemolymph himself, was fuckin’ crawling.
Pretty soon, after a good while of silence, he crawled out of the entrance, in a slow, pathetic limp over to the cottonwood. That crawl from the nest to the cottonwood took him pretty much the entire night.
And it’s all so fuckin’ odd; while my knack was getting to the bottom of things and finding out how those things worked, Jammy’s knack seemed to be nothing more and nothing less than playing dead when it was convenient for him.
But, he’s still crawling around after all that, still breathing, without even an infection on him. Worked out for both of us, I guess.