Ty spoke. Hornet hadn’t put his hearing aids in, he refuses, but he told Ty that he did. He couldn’t stand hearing his voice. He didn’t want to know what he had to say.
It was hard to ignore his lips, though. The words falling out of his mouth, exaggerated and harsh. He understood them, clear as day. Another consolidation experiment. Xe heard a fight break out in xets head. Screaming and scratching at the cell that is his skull, telling him to fight. Telling him that Ty can’t stop him, that Ty is helpless now. Has no weapons. He knew it was a lie.
Hornet lurched forward, unable to bear the weight of the six on xets shoulders. He had to do something. Had to move. Ty laughed (or at least it looked like he did) and tucked his hands into his pockets like he wasn’t scared at all. Elijah knew he wasn’t scared. Mike told him he was. Another fight breaks out.
He wants to scream. Chitter, make calls unable to be heard by the human ear to get all the thoughts out of his head. Cicada’s quiet. That makes it worse. Every word running through his headspace sounded like a gunshot going off and he just wanted them to be quiet. Ty stared at the writhing mass of maggots that was Hornet with something that could be seen as pity. He said something. Hornet told him to shut up.
Xe tells Ty that xe wishes he was dead. Ty laughs again, answers slowly. Impersonally. It was time for consolidation experiments, he says. Xe nods. It was time for experiments.