Wintergreen<p>a drone swarm operator is cute when she's all "i am the spider hidden at the center of a web of metal and light, dare you walk into my parlor?"</p><p>and even cuter once you've shattered all of one's toys, peeled the lid off her bunker, plucked her from her command couch, and are holding her by her collar as she tries to remember how to hit you with her own two fists instead of the thirty or forty appendages she's used to.</p><p>if you decide to take her home, do remember that she'll need new swarm elements in short order. she needs to give orders as well as take them. you will not be remotely enough to satisfy her need for control in both directions.</p><p>they don't need to be the same specs or count as you found her with, and in fact, she will often be able to adapt to operating biologics or cyborgs with similar need for direction as her original drones, which can be very helpful if you're already a collector of such things. but if you're not prepared to provide replacements of some kind, however initially crude, it's kinder to finish her where you found her, and move on. □</p><p><a href="https://demon.social/tags/mechPilot" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mechPilot</span></a> <a href="https://demon.social/tags/microfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>microfiction</span></a></p>