She's been in those once or twice, when she slept off-grounds for a night. Drones came into the hivestem and collected all the residents, straight in a line, and did a health inspection for blood abnormalities, any incurable communicative diseases.. anything that might warrant a culling, so their apartment block could be freed for a new, healthier child.
At the time, it was terrifying. The air had been thick with fear pheromones, and the sound of children weeping: she had watched one child culled in front of them, and then watched her moirail demand the same.
(The drone had done it, under code five hundred and eighty two. Marduk had looked it up, afterwards, and all of the rest of the culling qualifications, just in case.)
But now...
They're all healthy. No blood aberrations, no disease: she might wonder about Hinnom, the way that they live in the sewer, but ze spends too much time with her. She'd have noticed if ze was sick, or sported any unusual mutations.
"Culling sweeps are a perfectly normal and routine part of the day," she says, trying to sound soothing. Ze's practically vibrating with anxiety, and the way fear pheromones that are coming off of zim in waves is making her horns ache. "I've been in several, and come out fine. There's nothing to be worried about."
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She's been in those once or twice, when she slept off-grounds for a night. Drones came into the hivestem and collected all the residents, straight in a line, and did a health inspection for blood abnormalities, any incurable communicative diseases.. anything that might warrant a culling, so their apartment block could be freed for a new, healthier child.
At the time, it was terrifying. The air had been thick with fear pheromones, and the sound of children weeping: she had watched one child culled in front of them, and then watched her moirail demand the same.
(The drone had done it, under code five hundred and eighty two. Marduk had looked it up, afterwards, and all of the rest of the culling qualifications, just in case.)
But now...
They're all healthy. No blood aberrations, no disease: she might wonder about Hinnom, the way that they live in the sewer, but ze spends too much time with her. She'd have noticed if ze was sick, or sported any unusual mutations.
"Culling sweeps are a perfectly normal and routine part of the day," she says, trying to sound soothing. Ze's practically vibrating with anxiety, and the way fear pheromones that are coming off of zim in waves is making her horns ache. "I've been in several, and come out fine. There's nothing to be worried about."