Zyr has never been the type to ask for more than he's been given. Or to aspire to more than he can be.

Contentment has been the absolute apex of his existence, ever since he found his queen. As it should be. Finding a Queen is difficult. There are drones who never find a Queen. Drones who are cast from society for coveting too much. Like this one.

"This court has determined the guilt lie with Drone Safferius," Magistrate Ullus pronounces. "As such, the effected Queens will be given compensation from his well of possessions before he is cast out with what is left."

Safferius stares ahead, eyes cloudy and uninsterested in the goings-on.

They are quite the spectacle, the two of them up at the front of the room. Zyr thinks he's not seen such a collection of color in quite a while. As most of his people are different shades of dark blue, teal, light blue, mint... shades of the ocean. But Queens are always different. They make up maybe ten or twenty percent of the population. And they're quite the beautiful spectacle.

Queen Malias is the Queen that Safferius belonged to, before all of this. She's a resplendent, deep velvet red. Her markings are orange and black in color. Her eyes the same deep black void as all Qupasol, but everything else about her is different. As it is with most queens.

Queen Deklas is the Queen that Safferius supposedly fell in love with. She has a deep purplish hide that has shades of pink and periwinkle markings all over it. And her expression is ill.

As most queens, they are both far larger and more muscular than the drones. Their bodies softer and more rounded. Their tails longer.

Being put into this kind of position, it's obvious that even if Safferius told the truth and Deklas engaged in the relationship-- it doesn't matter. A Queen has to uphold certain laws and rights-- not only for herself, but for the rest of her Pod. If she were to admit to her wrongdoing, her drones would be stripped from her. These drones would be unable to find another Queen, as pods are for life. Four lives hang in the balance on her side, and only one on his.

The choice to make, is obvious.

Zyr shivers as Lika, his queen, presses close to him and rubs his back with her hand. "Don't be too upset, Zyr. Outcasts don't die. They just live apart from us."

"The same thing, isn't it?" he says, leaning into her touch and her side. Seeking comfort.

She purrs deep in her chest, wrapping her arm around his waist and squeezing him once before releasing him. "You won't have to worry about that, Zyr. You're a very loyal Drone."

The point of contact is like all of her touches ever since she found her two favorites. Fleeting, barely intimate.

Loyalty is the pride of a Drone. But Zyr doesn't know what they're loyal to, exactly. Other than tradition, perhaps. Their Queens certainly aren't loyal to more than one or two favorites, and on rare occasions maybe three. Someone always gets left out. That's probably why Safferius did what he did. He probably figured his Queen wouldn't care.

Would Lika care, he wonders, if Zyr were to dally with another Queen?

"Now we will commence with the compensation," the Magistrate says as someone approaches with a chest.

It all happens very quickly. No one really thinks to defend the chest or the hatch. After all, the drone is getting kicked out anyway, why not allow him to jump in whenever he wants? But the end of his tail wraps around the chest and he drags it through the hatch with him. And a few moments after it's done, there is a flurry of activity as the guards swoop in and dart through the hatch after him. He's carrying a whole chest, so he'll be slow. But it's likely that taking the chest for his own wasn't even the point.

If Safferius is to be believed, then Deklas is the one who approached him first. This seems to support that, though no one will admit it as evidence.

The point isn't that he gets to keep everything. But rather that Deklas and Malias don't get anything more from him.

Some small part of Zyr feels... pleased, by this development. He's never really 'resented' his life. It's a better life than some, though not as good as others. But... he knows that some part of him has always disliked how Lika shunted him aside in favor of Kellis and Len. Even if he gets plenty of attention from his fellow drones, it's... somehow not the same. He never connected with them on a deeper level the way he did with Lika.

"Ah, that bastard is so petty," Lika says, her eyes narrowing and her lantern antennae glowing brighter for a moment. "Taking everything to the depths. He had no respect for either Queen, that much is certain."

Zyr thinks it's funny, how different a Queen's perception is, from a Drones'.

"Can we go home, now?" Zyr asks. "This is boring and depressing."

"Sure," Lika turns and slithers down the hall, assured that her loyal drone will follow along in her wake.

Zyr turns and follows.

His eyes flit around the corridor as they go. The old ruins are basically pristine, even this long after the Flooding and the Venting. How could one know ahead of time that a deep sea vent would destroy the very center of the complex and leave them without the answers they needed most? The Old Ones likely hid away a lot of knowledge in that place, just like the little bits stashed away everywhere else. It isn't their fault that it didn't last and they could no longer access it.

But this place had always made him feel strangely cold.

The sharp, featureless hallways. Made of 'metal', a stone that's been fired in a kiln of sorts and then shaped with hammers. Or at least that's how the shorelings described it when they asked what their speartips were made of. It was a fine work of engineering prowess, that much was clear. It was simply too bad that they could not do anything of the sort underwater. The halls and chambers were flooded with it, and it had to be kept meticulously clean. They couldn't allow these ruins to fall apart as others had.

"Kellis should be waiting for us, just outside," Lika pronounces. Obviously quite glad to see one of her two favorites again as soon as possible.

Zyr wonders why she brought him to begin with if she preferred their presence so clearly. But he already knew the answer. Being a Queen's first, is a position of respect. She could not cast him aside, ignore him or mistreat him. Tradition dictates that the first is the second most powerful person in the pod.

But if she were given an option...

"Lika," Kellis approaches as they make it out into the wider hub. A large, open area. They'd long since moved all the strange equipment in the flooded areas of the base to the 'research center' where the Sages tried to repair them and get them to work. The only part of the base that wasn't flooded. "The pod is getting antsy."

"We'll have to do something fun," she replies.

They move in almost perfect synchrony, arms locked together, hands curled together. A Drone is a full head height shorter than a Queen, but Kellis slithers on a different part of his tail so that he can make up the gap a bit. It probably makes him sore, Zyr thinks.

As they move to a nearby hatch, he wonders if they'll catch a glimpse of Safferius trying to evade capture, and hopes that they do not.