"Do you come in peace?"

"It depends."

"What do you mean 'it depends'? It depends on what?"

"On whether we are welcome in peace."

-Conversation between Bramis of an Open Mind and Jim Davis, circa 2049 A.D.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A ray of sunrise beamed through the window shades. It crept across the floor, crawling over short white carpet, an unnecessarily fluffy turquoise rug, and finally sliding up and over the massive pile of blankets and pillows in the center of the bedroom.

It was a sizable room. A raised desk occupied one corner, small wood projects and scraps of scribbled paper littering its surface. Two standing lamps were tucked beside a wardrobe on the opposite wall, and, barring a postcard-laden corkboard, the remainder of the room was evidently devoted to books. Shelves lined the walls, a personal library weighing them down with antique wisdom and modern allegory, along with a healthy sprinkling of fiction. Strings of lightbulb-clad wire were strung up along the ceiling in a variety of dull colors, dimly reflecting what scant light they could get into fractaled fragments glittering on every wall.

The mound of cloth and stuffing shifted as sunlight landed in its occupant's eyes, and a creature rose from its comfy depths.

The centipede yawning in the center of the room was easily a foot and a half in diameter, and although the remainder of her body was hidden underneath layers of blankets, she measured eleven feet from tip to tail. An iridescent blue-green carapace covered her back and sides, made out of layer after layer of armored chitin plates, and her beige underside was ever so slightly on the chubby side from two too many cups of hot chocolate. All three rows of her needle-like teeth folded inward as the yawn ended.

Raising her body, Killerie Meredith Parker stretched her legs out, the dozen or so limbs outside of the blankets kinked from sleep.

Gently rolling her stout neck around, she felt a chitin plate that had been bothering her slide back into place, wrapping her pleasant rise from sleep into a neat little package. With a relieved sigh, she sank back into the mountain of comfort, resting her head on the ridge of a squat cushion big enough to be considered a battering ram in a pillow fight.

Taking a deep breath, she pressed herself a little deeper into the mound. There wasn’t any reason to be awake today.

Granted, there were never any truly pressing matters, but Madeline liked exercise to keep both of them from getting fat, and motivation was more easily found in the earlier hours of the day. Killerie could practically feel the pillows leeching stamina out of her, pulling her back into their embrace where she could go back to sle-

“Breakfast is ready!”

Killerie's antennae snapped to attention as she half-stumbled out of the blankets, struggling to free her legs from their clutches. Two-thirds of the way down, a leg got snagged on a comforter.

Killerie found herself unbalanced as her momentum was shifted to her front, and she crashed to the ground in a heap of chitin and legs.

"Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine, Mom!" Killerie hastily called back, getting her feet under her. Carefully pulling her tail section out of the pile and inadvertently strewing blankets all over the floor, she paused for a moment to collect herself.

And then promptly charged for the door.

It slid aside as she came close, and she barreled around the corner into the narrow hallway that connected all of the rooms. She could smell breakfast, sizzling bacon, eggs-

Madeline leaned into the hall, freezing Killerie in place with a frown. Her brown hair was wrapped in a hastily-made bun, and while she was nearing her forties there was no sign of graying yet. "Did you brush your teeth?"

"Can I wait until after?"

Killerie's glossy black eyes were hungrily fixed on the food sitting on the kitchen table. Madeline followed her gaze and raised an eyebrow, radiating skepticism.

"Okay, but you'd better be thorough."

Killerie chirped in excitement, careful not to step on her mom's toes as she skittered to the table. She practically dove onto her bench, her tail end flopping over the side as she contorted to a comfortable position at the table. She ended up with a good three or four feet of body looming over the breakfast Madeline had prepared, trying hard not to salivate.

Madeline was more composed as she sat down, although her lips were quirked in a smile. "How'd you sleep?"

"All good!" Killerie readily answered, taking in the food. The bacon and eggs she'd smelled were present, but there was a half-full pitcher of orange juice she'd missed, along with a plateful of sausage.

Madeline started transferring food to her plate, bluntly stating, "Four pieces of bacon."

Killerie nodded, telekinetically removing the crispy pieces from their plate and putting them on their own, inwardly counting. There wasn’t any reason to count, but she found an odd comfort in numbers and tried to include them whenever she could. “Can we play chess today?”

“Of course.” Her mom didn’t even have to think about it, building a breakfast sandwich from a biscuit, sausage, bacon and eggs. It was messy and disorganized and it looked delicious, and Killerie started making her own as fast as she could. “Do you want to play traditional rules or house rules?”

Killerie considered the question as she upended the entire sloppy breakfast sandwich into her mouth, and three rows of teeth shredded it in seconds. The taste hit a moment later and she couldn’t stop a shiver of happiness from rolling up her spine. "House rules! You keep winning with the normal ones."

"That's because they don't change halfway through, bean," Madeline gently reminded her daughter, and Killerie made a face. She ignored the look and poured herself a glass of orange juice, offering the pitcher to Killerie.

The giant centipede shook her head, dumping another plateful of food into her mouth. She held her segmented mandibles in front of her teeth as she chewed in a facsimile of polite etiquette, but no matter how hard she tried it was impossible to entirely cover her mouth. It wasn't as if she could just close it while eating, after all.

Finishing off her breakfast, Killerie rolled off the bench and onto her feet. "I'll get the chessboard set up, okay?"

Madeline chuckled, pausing for a moment as she swallowed. "Hygiene first, board games second."

Killerie hesitated for a second, then gave up with a sigh as she headed back down the hallway. Madeline called after her as she walked. "Don't forget, you said you'd be thorough!"

"I remembered!" Killerie lied back, adding it to the list and mentally cursing her stomach for being so greedy. Taking a right before her bedroom, she went into the bathroom.

Here was the room where the difference between their species was the most marked. The bathtub occupying half of the room was enormous, easily seven feet square, and a small arsenal of brushes and bristles hung from the wall above it. The toilet didn't look unusual, but a sizable pink sponge lay soaking in a small bowl on the vanity beside a green toothbrush.

Killerie went to the vanity and checked her reflection with a sigh. Shedling teeth were not easy to clean via normal methods, but as with everything else, Madeline had figured out a workaround.

Killerie shoved the sponge in her mouth and felt her teeth sink into it, the foam gradually expanding between her teeth and filling every gap. It was a little uncomfortable, but it worked. Almost absently, she turned the bathtub on, and it started filling with hot water from several faucets.

She used her telekinesis to move the sponge around in her mouth, abrupt motions that usually got all of the gunk that accumulated. It still took a few minutes before the reflection of her teeth in the mirror was satisfactory.

Without further preamble Killerie slid into the tub, sinking under the surface with an irrepressible grin as the heated water seeped beneath her plates, warming everything from the chitin down and easing the persistent soreness at the base of her antennae.

With only her head above the water, Killerie closed her eyes. The heat, the slight pressure, the quiet sound of dripping water… it was almost as good as sleep.

Still, all good things had to come to an end. In Killerie's case, that was when the water cooled, and so it was with a dramatic and utterly unnecessary sigh that she withdrew from the tub and began to dry off with a towel.

Once she was done, she paused and glanced at one of the bigger brushes. Making a decision, she grabbed it and left the bathroom, the bristled tool bobbing along behind her.

Her mom had long since finished her breakfast and was seated in an armchair in the living room. It was a pleasant space, more than sizable enough for a centipede of Killerie's proportions with furniture built to match. Most of it was long couches and lamps, but plenty of natural light shone in through the massive windows on the east side of the room.

Madeline smiled as she came in with the brush. Killerie didn't need to say anything. She simply crawled onto the couch beside her mother and gave her the brush.

She heard a faint grunt as she rested the considerable weight of her head in Madeline's lap, but then she felt her mom's hand land a little further up her back. She started brushing Killerie's plates a moment later.

It was a comforting feeling. Madeline had a lot of experience brushing centipede chitin at this point, and the steady back-and-forth pressure and the dull sensation lulled Killerie into a dozing half-torpor.

"Did you really sleep okay?" Madeline murmured.

Killerie considered the question, along with the faint concern in her mom's tone. She hadn't woken up during the night, and she hadn't gone to sleep late, but...

"No," She finally mumbled.

"Do you know why?"

"No."

"Was it a nightmare?"

"I don't think so."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"...Not really."

Madeline quietly laughed. "You don't have to."

Killerie fell silent as her eyes slightly sank into her head, hard eyelids covering them as she closed her eyes. Her mom began brushing a little harder, working the bristles between the chinks as she gently rubbed her daughter's plates.

"Love you, Mom." Killerie whispered, pushing more of her head and neck into Madeline's lap.

"Love you too, cocoa bean."