Post by Bixir on Feb 17, 2023 7:05:02 GMT
General Information
Full Name:
Petra Price
Codename or Alias:
Chrysis
Honeybee
Maia
Swarm.
Anonymity
Petra is an accomplished scientist within Advanced Idea Mechanics, prodigally so. Her expertise and insight is nearly unprecedented in the history of the organization, as is her fierce demeanor towards her peers and especially superiors. Though A.I.M. itself is hardly a known quantity, the name Petra Price has become commonplace in scientific circles, least of all in Manhattan. That kind of reputation can only blossom into something greater still... even though she is believed to be dead.
Gender:
Female
Race:
Parahuman (Tinker 8, Master 7)
Age:
Twenty-eight
Place Of Birth:
Oxford, England
Occupation/Status:
Mad Scientist
Supervillain
Hive Queen
Alignment:
Villain
Factions:
H.I.V.E.
Advanced Idea Mechanics (former)
Canon Or Original?:
Original
Powers/Abilities:
Super Genius
Petra is a genius, plain and simple. While she was educated at Empire State University, her formative scientific knowledge and expertise lies in prodigal intuition and latent understanding that would not come until after she had her trigger event. Just the same, Petra has a Ph.D in melittology, with an emphasis on genetics in honeybees and similar genus. Petra also has a major in chemical engineering and computer science. She is a well-rounded polyglot of applied sciences, more than capable of carrying out her experiments practically singlehandedly. There is little doubt that she is the most talented in A.I.M. when it comes to biology, biochemistry, chemical engineering, and where these fields intersect.
Linguist
In addition to her multitude of scientific expertise, Petra is well-traveled, having managed numerous projects across the globe, including working with numerous dialects via her staff. As such, in addition to English, Petra is fluent in Spanish, Japanese, German, Afrikaans, French, and Mandarin Chinese.
Parahuman
Petra was born as a latent Parahuman, though the signs didn’t manifest until well into her young adulthood. Given how long it took for her trigger to manifest, Petra emerged as an exceptionally powerful Parahuman. This grants her a wide array of features that factor well into the superhuman, as well as the monstrous.
Petra’s traits that fall under her Master classification are:
Wings
A set of leathery wings that allow her to fly at near-supersonic speeds.
Mutagenic Physiology
Mutagenic physique, allowing her to apply physical forces up to hundreds of times her weight, capable of exceeding fifty tons. Petra’s endurance is similar, excreting toxins that reduce her fatigue to a point where it is virtually impossible for her to become exhausted.
Compound Eyes
Compounded eyes which, when focused on a single target, may subject them to an advanced form of hypnosis, folding a spiral motion over itself thousands of times, trapping the subject in a visual wash. This may be used to temporarily subdue a target physically, or make them pliable to further suggestion. These eyes also allow Petra to see on hundred of spectra, including the ability to see invisible or cloaked objects. Petra is currently unable to turn this ability off; as such, she wears prescriptive lenses to keep this ability in check.
Pheromone Control
Pheromones that may be released from the pores on Petra’s skin. Once the pheromones make contact with an organic subject, they take effect almost immediately. While primarily used to make a subject more reticent to Petra’s will, they may also induce paralysis through the distribution of neural toxins into their bloodstream, prevent metabolic processes and metahuman abilities from triggering, and even force weaker subjects to faint. These pheromones appear to be effective on metahumans, including those with strong wills and mental resistance.
Drone Queen
The ability to direct hordes of “super-drone” insectoid creatures. At a glance, these creatures appear to be no different from a standard worker bee. They can be told apart in that they are on average larger than a normal bee, and the insignia of A.I.M. - a grouping of three black hexagons against a golden background - is imprinted on their thorax.
Petra’s abilities that fall under her Tinker classification are:
Honeypot
The ability to synthesize a honey-like substance, either in a laboratory or from her person, which has hallucinogenic and addictive effects when consumed. It does not appear any different from normal honey, though closer chemical analysis will reveal a much more complicated compound. This “honey” can be laced within other substances, such as food or drink, and leaves no trace once it has been applied. A single drop is sufficient to pacify an ordinary person’s willpower. Increased volume amplifies the effect manifold; a handful is capable of overwhelming most healing factors. Petra has not experimented with higher volumes, though it is presumed that excessive application of the substance can render someone irreversibly comatose.
Beeswax
Adjacent to honey synthesis is the ability to weave a wax-like compound, with uses similar to conventional beeswax. In addition to serving as an energy storage device for honey and other sugar compounds, the wax can be adapted to various energy sources, including acting as a highly advanced portable battery if integrated with the proper technology. More than that, however, this wax can be applied as a high-quality polymer plastic in constructing custom materials, structures, and even entire facilities, given enough time and resources. Extracting the wax from Petra's body can take a significant amount of time (usually at least one week for substantial products), though once it is prepared, the compound may be used by others instead of needing to be applied directly. Most of Petra's equipment, especially her Swarm Suit, uses this compound as a core component.
Drone Cultivation
The ability to create the aforementioned “super-drones”. The process of cultivating these drones is not unlike bee-keeping, in that they must be carefully maintained in controlled environments where they are allowed to grow. It is a cumbersome period that takes place over the course of days and weeks. Depending on how long the drones are allowed to incubate, they have the potential to become more developed, and thus more difficult to dispose of. A typical incubation cycle for a batch of Swarm Drones is one week of uninterrupted time in one of Petra's labs.
Cocoon
The ability to incubate herself into more advanced lifeforms. Petra's shard is tied to an evolutionary instinct to adapt, which has manifested in her hybrid "melissosapient" form and abilities. As Petra gradually understands her abilities and how they pertain to herself, she may eventually be able to incubate herself within a cocoon of her own design to evolve herself further. Though only the first stage has taken place, Petra theorizes that subsequent stages will make her more and more like an "alien honey queen", to quote one of her peers' frequent japes. She is likely to genetically become less human and more in tune with the honey bee-like life form catalyzed by her Trigger Event, improving the overall capacity of those abilities. How Petra may accomplish this, or when, even she doesn't know, but she
Weapons/Items:
Glasses
Petra wears prescription eyeglasses. At times, she opts to wear contact lenses, if she needs to present herself thusly. Both versions of these lenses are designed to filter her compounded eyesight, so that she does not naturally induce anyone that she makes eye contact with.
The Honeycomb
A modular hexagon-shaped mobile device that can be as small as a compact mirror or as large as a tablet, depending on the present function. It is an all-purpose PDA that Petra uses to facilitate her operations and general communication, on-site or on-the-go. The Honeycomb leapfrogs off of A.R.G.U.S. satellite redundancies, which allows her to access her technology remotely from anywhere on the planet. The Honeycomb may also be used to conduct hacking operations and similar acts of sabotage, processes that either use the device's onboard A.I. for automation or input from Petra directly. The Honeycomb is coded to respond to Petra's unique genetic signature. If anyone else attempts to access the Honeycomb, at best, it will not acknowledge the command and alert Petra's systems to the attempted intrusion; at worst, it will release a synaptic shock to paralyze the intruder.
A.I.M. Resources
Petra is no longer affiliated with A.I.M., and as such has lost a considerable amount of her previous resources. However, Petra has been able to reclaim some of those resources, either through hacking reclamation or using prior access that was never revoked from technical oversight. Petra's wealth and technological and manufacturing potential is steadily increasing as she renews her operations to fund her burgeoning enterprise.
Appearance
Image:
Physical Appearance:
To most people, Petra appears to be a bookish young woman of average height, with long blonde hair that frames an otherwise sharp face. Though she may be considered to be attractive, even beautiful, not much attention seems to be taken towards said looks by Petra herself. Her physical presentation is cold, more like a machine wrapped in human flesh than a person. Were you to see Petra on the street, you could easily mistake her for any other middle-class white woman in the corporate world, a stereotype among stereotypes. It is a reserved, milquetoast persona that is so routine it borders on the surreal.
Because that is all it is, a persona. Upon closer inspection of the woman known as Petra Price, three things become clear: first, her skin appears unnaturally warm. So warm, that on the right mood and day, one could even say that it radiates like golden honeycombs. Second, those who remain in close proximity with Petra will pick up on her presence. In a way, this means her perfume that she uses, a lofty honeydew-orange scent that draws you in. Though if you spent enough time around Petra, you would eventually realize that this was not perfume. Third, Petra's pristine blue eyes may give way to something else. Between blinks, for a fraction of a second, her beady, hive queen eyes fold outwards before folding back in. It is rare for Petra to do this incidentally; after all, compounding her vision like this is how she entrances her victims.
Clothing and Armor:
Swarm Suit
When Petra is acting as Swarm, she wears this full-body uniform. It strongly resembles a queen bee in its visage and design, from the helmet depicting a bee head to the accoutrements allowing for Petra's wings and other insectoid traits. The armor uses high-quality metals and plastics, including Petra's custom wax polymer, making it lightweight and nearly as durable as an exoskeleton armor. The suit is sealed to protect against hostile environments and attempts to rip the armor open. The armor itself cannot fly without Petra's own wings, nor does it boast offensive capabilities that Petra does not already have. However, it is designed to emphasize these characteristics and act as a complement to them, such as featuring additional containers and even weaponry that disperses Petra's organic substances.
Personality
Sexual Orientation:
Homosexual
General Personality:
Petra is a serious woman living in an unserious world. The world is indeed unserious to Petra, filled with colorful adventurers and self-proclaimed defenders of a righteous society that never existed. She is numb to the purported morality that these larger-than-life figures seem to live in. Petra addresses most things with a dry canvas; anything that does not pertain to her interests or her research is met with cold indifference at best, and bitter vehemence at worst. Petra is not a social animal by any means, something that meshes poorly with her obsessive desire to assert her authority over others as a means of doing her work. She is painfully aware of this, which only drives her to further disgust towards others. As such, Petra has difficulty seeing others as more than tools, especially men. She doesn't seem to do this as often with women.
These days, the distinction between Petra Price and Swarm is at best a blurred line. Any humanity that she still possesses is a pragmatic veneer, existing solely to facilitate her ongoing operations as a bona fide supervillain. After her Trigger Event, Petra no longer recognizes a difference between right and wrong. In spite of that, she has most certainly committed countless wrongs in pursuit of her research, and more personally, her vendetta against Spider-Man. Murder, seduction, kidnapping, sabotage. These are but a few things she has done without a second thought. Petra stands apart from the thoughtless thug in that she has extremely logical explanations for justifying her actions, as well as the scale and severity of her crimes. She has become the last kind of person this unserious world wants: someone with vision, and the conviction to execute that vision, wholly and completely.
Face/Voice:
Olivia Taylor Dudley
Anything Else
Character's History
Siblings:
Penelope Price - Younger Sister, Member of Excalibur, the U.K. superhero team (Open)
Mother:
Phoebe Price - Biologist for Planetary, Europe Division (Open)
Father:
Richard Price - Business professor at Oxford (Deceased)
Other Family:
N/A. Petra's extended family are estranged, mundane people, many of whom have passed away from natural causes.
History:
Egg
Petra Price's upbringing was far from humble. Her mother was an accomplished biologist, doing work for groups that Petra couldn't even pronounce until she was ten. Her father was a business professor at the university in town, which oddly shared a name with one of the most prestigious institutions in the United Kingdom, if not the world. The expectations for their eldest had been set from the start, promptly so. Even when Petra was joined by a younger sister, these lofty standards were set for her as well, though not to the same extent as Petra. They were daughters of scholars, rigid ones at that, who would not show them the world, never mind give it to them. They would have to seize those dreams for themselves.
True to Price form, that was exactly what they did. They excelled in their studies, pursued opportunities. None of these things were afforded to them by their parents. If anything, it seemed to Petra like they were actively working to stymie her and her sister's efforts. Those suspicions only became validated as they were transitioned into private schooling, and even then, not by their own parents. They were "too busy" to afford time for their own progeny. Typical. So typical, Petra and Penelope both were diagnosed for aniety disorders before they turned ten. There probably weren't any related variables there.
Surprising no one, this neglect bled through their adolescence. To the extent that they even wanted to share space with one another, Petra and Penelope's social adustment was poor, to say the least. For reasons that eluded Petra, Penelope still thought that proper society was worth contributing to. Social work? Worse, being a superhero? No bloody thank you. Petra only grew more distant, from her parents, her sister, and whatever else that tried to pry her away from the rare science that could make her feel something. When it came time for them to pursue careers beyond the meager offerings that their parents had deigned give them, both of them had already decided. Penelope would go on to become a tool for Labour (typical), while Petra would pursue academia as far away from home as possible (typical, but classier)... unfortunately for Petra, the extent of the tuition that her parents were willing to pay (which is to say, none) only allowed Petra to get as far as Empire State, in New York City. The Yankees would have to do.
Thus far, Petra had managed to carve out a routine for herself that was dependent on no external variables. It was how she had survived beneath her parents' roof in Oxford without going mad from the isolation that had been equally mandatory and voluntary. Rigorously applying her mind, she would set herself to things beyond the mundanity of adolescent life, so that she would not have to dwell on the existential despair of the latter. Those luxuries evaporated once Petra started attending Empire State. Her roommate never let her have a moment of peace, going so far as to push her to atten social events. Petra entertained one or two of these, but it was quickly apparent that all of these people, least of all the girl that she was sharing a dorm with, were beneath her in every way that mattered. Lecherous men (and some women) began advances on Petra that she had had the liberty of not knowing was even a possibility. Simply breathing the same air as these simpletons in classes was a significant mental strain. At least when she was home with her boorish parents, Petra had a sense of self, left alone by the rest of the world. No longer.
These trials and tribulations haunted Petra throughout her time at Empire State. The more she learned of America - chiefly the city beyond Empire's campus - the less reason she saw to care for anything that did not give her personal fulfilment (a criteria that was rapidly shrinking by the day). Petra's expectations for her own future did not fare any better. With no one to relate to, or offer support in a meaningful way, Petra's spiral of self-isolation was inevitable. This was the other side of Petra's intellectual coin. She could not reach her dreams without some kind of pain, sacrifice. In spite of the world itself seeming to work against her, Petra excelled in her studies. She maintained her Valedictorian status through her program, and the reputation that came with it. She never cared for it, of course, though it followed her just the same. The gossip of the student body meant less than nothing to her. The only thing that dared to give her pause was a call from her father. Her father never called her. He never called anyone he claimed to care about. The call was personal. He had cancer. Everyone was being called back to visit him... yes, even her. It was a rare opportunity to tell her father what she really thought, and to his ailing face at that. Instead, something in Petra's mind... snapped. With smug venom on her lips, she hung up on her family. She never needed them anyway.
Drone
In hindsight, most could consider such a snap decision to be incredibly reckless, considering that it was Petra's parents that had been bankrolling her education. Petra had no such doubts. In fact, she had stopped needing them for quite some time. A woman of her intellect and pride had attracted a fair share of lucrative scholarships to keep her tuition afloat. More importantly, she drew the eye of many interested parties who had need of women like her. Petra would be happy to answer these calls, once she had the credibility to stand on her own too feet. She was painfully aware of the long-running stigma against women in STEM, particularly when it came to women having a backbone against their male peers. She needed to finish her program before running off to the next part of her life, as much as her heart burned to get started. As a result of this caution, many of Petra's offers passed her by. It seemed that the meek had no interest in you if you weren't a swaddling babe, desperate for mother's milk. Her bitter vindication only hardened in its ways, ever contemptible against the world. Needless to say, Petra faced all of this alone, more than she had ever been before. For her, it was comforting.
As much as Petra's ego could be justified, that comfort could only be taken so far before reality caught up with her. As she neared the end of her graduate program, many of the windows that had been open to her before had closed. It did not matter how smart, cunning, or uncanny Petra was as a candidate. Her inability, or perhaps refusal, to play with others kept her inches away from her finish line. Fortunately for Petra, she wasn't entirely out of options. There were still groups who wanted to cultivate her talent for science. Unfortunately for the world, the group that recruited Petra was none other than Advanced Idea Mechanics. Petra was well aware of A.I.M.'s reputation, never mind the fact that they had been placed on the federal watchlist more than a few times for their repugnant work in the applied sciences. None of that mattered to her, especially when they were willing to give her a chance when no one else would. It didn't matter if she had felt desperate in that moment; she never let it show in the interview. They already knew what they were getting. What mattered was whether she could prove it to them.
Petra excelled in her new environment, more in some ways than others. A.I.M.'s labs had everything that she had been looking for. The freedom to pursue her ambitions (and the resources to do so), goals worthy of Petra's intellectual caliber, and of course, like-minded people. Genuinely like-minded people. This was to say that Petra's coworkers were vindictive, petulant megalomaniacs. She seldom got along with them, and was undercut more than how often she tried to undercut them in turn. It was an actively belligerent environment, whereas before Petra had skated by in passive contempt of those that she was forced to share a space with. Truly, it was everything that she had been looking for. Here, people were honest about themselves, about their ambitions. She could finally be candid with how she really felt about the pig-headed morons who actually thought they had a chance against (or with) her intelligence.
Her cohort wasn't completely antagonistic. There were a handful of people among their ranks that Petra saw herself getting along with, to the extent that someone like her believed in amicable relationships. Many of these relationships were little more than brief exchanges, rote business transactions for Petra as she continued navigating the world of A.I.M. There were several, however, that stood out, exceptional, like-minded individuals with whom she could afford to share her time and attention. There were times that these relationships appeared to be more than what they were, men and women alike taking a deep interest in what she had to say. Petra leaned into these daliances, presuming it to be a part of her natural charm. A product of the sublime woman that she was growing into. It was not much at first, especially for one as socially stunted as Petra, but even she recognized the value of intimate networking at this point in her career. If something ever happened to this enterprise, she would have nowhere else to turn to if she did not build connections along the way. Desperation, lack of control; Petra Price needed these things least. No one wanted to be the next Klaw.
The year rapidly accelerated towards the annual research summit, to which A.I.M. had managed to receive an invitation. In the short time that Petra had been with the organization, she had earned herself the privilege of being among those who would not only attend, but present. For Petra, this was simply the way of things, being duly recognized for what was obvious to her. For most of them, least of all Petra's peer within A.I.M., it only further incensed them against her. Such was the nature of superior minds. Her project was something that she had been working on for many years, long before she had joined A.I.M: a "virtual honeycomb", a cutting-edge techno-organic module that boasted processing power many times that of the latest smart phones, as well as connecting neural pathways from the user to linked technology. Her inspiration for this was from a source few were willing to embrace: a former A.I.M. senior who was sadly no longer with them. Fritz von Meyer, a bona fide genius, condemned to the furnace by a bygone assailant, possibly for his role in that affair with the Brotherhood of Mutants. Who cared what he thought about "inferior races"? Maybe he had been onto something. What mattered to Petra was that the world had lost one of its finest minds. Fortunately, it was about to receive another.
Petra had received numerous setbacks as she had tried to propose this project for grants in her time at Empire State, as well as other research groups. None of them could see her genius for what it was, and had on a few occasions nearly reported her to the authorities. Work like this demanded sacrifice, at the very least risk. There were trials for a reason! And yet, the way they looked at her, knowing full well that she was in the right... These boorish academics were short-sighted fools. As it turned out, the greater science community were the same. Again, Petra faced rejection. Again, Petra's dreams, which she knew to be true, were turned aside... and for what? These people would rather gawk at metal men and crackpot physicists. Petra didn't make it out of the event before she fainted. Another episode.
Worker
Another...? Petra had no memory of these things, but her peers insisted that these had become frequent occurrences that they had started to work around. Lapses of judgment, uncharacteristically erratic behavior, and numerous biological symptoms that made her sound more like a carrier than someone who was mentally unstable. None of it made any sense, and yet upon reflection, Petra could not deny that she had exhibited these patterns, even though she had been entirely unaware of them. This was no ordinary mania, and she was going to get to the bottom of it. Whatever was happening to Petra, now that she was "in on it", many of the social pretenses towards Petra were dropped... or so they tried. Whatever was happeing to Petra did not only have adverse effects upon her body and mind. Something within her was changing. She had not manifested an X-Gene, or even become an inexplicable metahuman. It was enough to give the rest of A.I.M. pause, and that was enough for her. Petra Price was not weak.
A.I.M. at large was dealing with its own share of hardships, and not just because of what had happened at the summit, between the failures of Petra and those who had attended with her. Numerous disagreements within the organization had prompted disparate cells to branch off, no longer interested in the collective vision that the organiation had been founded on. The most significant loss among these was the cohort of David Robert Jones, that European prick with the obnoious purple helmet. He was one of A.I.M.'s finest, and worst, had the brilliant plan to go up against Planetary of all people. After his master scheme ended in disaster, A.I.M. was half of what it had been ten years ago. And who better to turn to as the latest scapegoat than the outspoken shrew who was still getting things done? It was like poetry.
To say that Petra was demoted would be a gross understatement. It was as if she was a new scientist at A.I.M. all over again, to the point that she was no longer assigned to A.I.M. facilities, but rather to institutional laboratories that A.I.M. recruited from, the same way that she had been brought into the fold. Forson always knew how to twist the knife. Starting from scratch wasn't exactly a blessing, though neither was it as calamitous as it had seemed at the time. It was an opportunity to build something new upon the remains of what had been stolen from her; and it had been stolen. Petra Price, and these strange behavioral (and biological?) patterns that continued to follow her, would never forget these wounds.
To that effect, Petra had learned her lesson. Pride was a
Again, Spider-Man was there to stop her. Again, she was reminded of the futility of greatness. Again, she was brought to reckon with the enormity of mediocrity and ignorance that this world obsessively defined itself by. The meek and foolish triumph, and the enlightened few fell. Again... and again. Even now, on the precipice of self-realization, she was but one more notch in the Spider's long list of obsequious drivel, that which he would surely forget in the span of a few days. This storm of despair was the last thing dominating Petra's thoughts as the bank came down around her during their battle. To this "superhero", Petra's ambitions were an afternoon exercise.
Trigger.
Queen
Petra Price was dead. Her body was never recovered from the rubble. There was too much damage and debris to recognize any body that could have been pulled from the wreckage. This failure had been her last. To the authorities, to Spider-Man, to A.I.M., Petra Price was dead; and Petra agreed. Whoever, whatever that woman had been before was gone. A cocoon had sprung forth from her body, enveloping her and plungng her deep within the earth. How or why she survived, the woman formerly known as Petra Price had no idea. SHe had only her thoughts to keep her company, bitter dregs that they were. Only at the end of this journey did things begin to make sense. Who she took ater, what she wanted to do. Her patterns were clear to her now. She was the pride of the hive. She was the queen bee. She was Swarm.
For a time, Swarm isolated herself deep within the Manhattan underground. Scrounging parts for herself, gathering materials for her new home. Many of these resources came from her new body, evolved into something beautiful and twisted. Some of it came from the people the city would not miss. Swarm's obsession with accelerating the human condition remained at the core of her hypothesis. The only difference now was that she was the control variable. The animal kingdom had proven itself to be quite the menagerie of opportunity. Spiders, rhinos, scorpions, bees. Swarm was convinced that they were connected. Why else would she have been given these gifts?
In the few years since her transformation, Swarm has been working subtly and quietly to prepare her research for public viewing. She has gone so far as to reach out to old connections, re-establishing the partnerships that were worth renewing, as well as dictating terms to those who thought themselves to be in a negotiating position. Her H.I.V.E. is ready to hatch, and she will make sure that everyone who ever wronged her truth will receive their due. Especially Spider-Man.
Role Play Sample:
A distinct chirp echoed through the room as the door opened, then closed. Swarm was nearly halfway to her destination before the door alarm finished its cycle. She moved with purpose, maintaining a stiff gait on amber heels that elevated her above the menial eyes of the workers tending to their stations. It was a recent change; one of many, perhaps, though it was (to her) a trivial one. Her eyes met none of the workers', nor their hers. The room was a wide, open chamber, arraigned in a hexagonal pattern, from the outright shape to the tiles on the floor and walls to how the furnishings were organized. A dull gold filter pervaded the air, this light emanating from several panels in the walls. There was no escaping it.
Swarm made her way to the fourth sextet of the room, where one woman dressed in a sleek gold-black full-body suit directed another man wearing a garish outfit of orange and yellow colors. His face was placid, though his movements on a mounted blueprint in front of them appeared strained. Forced, even, as a dollop of golden dreck passed his lips. The display depicted a fascsimile of weapons, surrounding a suit of armor, like and unlike the outfit the subject was currently wearing. Upon Swarm's approach, the attendant snapped to attention, forgetting the subject entirely through a gesture known only to her and Swarm.
He is progressing, my Queen. But... They pause. Apprehension tenses in her gloved fingers, then unflexed them towards Swarm, herself apprehensive of how her Queen may respond. Swarm nods coldly, allowing the attendant to proceed. His mind is pliable to minimal levels of suggestion. Why do we not subdue him entirely? The H.I.V.E. is always in need of stock.
Swarm's eyes move to the subject. He remained oblivious to their presence, working diligently on the blueprints. It was nearly complete. The subject needs to believe this work is of his own will, his own hands. Simpletons are taken at their word.
The suited woman pauses for a moment too long, then steps back, offering a half-bow to Swarm. Glory to your H.I.V.E., oh Queen.
Swarm's gaze remained on the plans in question, slowly worked upon by the lethargic criminal. His expertise in chemical adhesives was perhaps his one remarkable trait. More to the point, unthinking labour made for unpaid labour. It was simply good business sense.
