HIVE

**HIVE** is an authoritative hive-minded entity made up of the hundreds of 'Exceptional' citizens that Autodale has produced in its centuries of existence.

Forming a sort of council, HIVE serves as Autodale's overseer, maintaining order via the Handymen and Friendly Shadow as well as implementing new ideas to further Autodale's agenda. They presumably serve and report back to the Mayor, acting as his right hand in the affairs of the city.

## Description

HIVE is an ancient entity made up of hundreds of new and old human bodies suspended in a cavernous room inside the Tower.

HIVE's various component bodies are composed of only the barest essentials for them to survive. Often, this leads to them being reduced to severed torsos with bare ribcages, their vital organs exposed. The area behind their faces appears to be a mass of biomachinery and lights. When one of HIVE's various consciousness speaks, their mouth remains closed while the lights encircling their face glow in time with their words.

## History

HIVE initially began as an individual known only as the Exceptional Woman.

Unlike her fellow citizens, the Exceptional Woman steadily became aware of the horrors of Autodale's dystopian society, being the first citizen to see through the lies and propaganda. She became obsessed with it, seeking to uncover the dark secrets of the city and understand how it worked. Eventually, however, she was discovered by the Handymen and brought before the Mayor.

Impressed by her efforts, the Mayor would go on to tell the Exceptional Woman of the origins of the town and explain the reasons for the atrocities committed. He even brought her before the Matriarch, explaining how the deaths of all those deemed 'Ugly' helped keep her alive.

Seeing all this, the Exceptional Woman then grew intrigued by the system she once sought to dismantle, though she was quick to discover flaws in its workings. Taking up the cause, she volunteered to become the Mayor's assistant, being the first to be assimilated into what was to become HIVE.

Now granted power as overseer of the city, one of the Exceptional Woman's first orders was to initiate a search for other Exceptionals so that they may be assimilated into the HIVE. She also arranged for her story to be adapted into a children's book titled 'The Exceptional Girl,' encouraging young children to strive for Exceptionality so that they may grow up and be assimilated as well, their unique skills contributing to HIVE's centuries-old and ever-growing arsenal of knowledge.

## Personality

### The Exceptional Woman/Neutral Hive

The oldest member of HIVE, the Exceptional Woman herself is pragmatic and analytical. She was originally a normal woman before she started realizing and becoming obsessed with the flaws behind Autodale. As the first of the Exceptionals, she holds a degree of authority over the rest of her counterparts. She is relatively calm and reasonable in comparison to her fellows as shown during the trial of the Friendly Shadow, and she possesses an unwavering admiration for the Mayor. However, she seems to lack a moral compass, as she was more intrigued than horrified upon discovering the sins the Mayor committed, despite being initially shocked. She also proved to be very unsympathetic to the major flaws that unknowingly devastated the dystopian society, as shown by her ordering Shadow to kill a little girl for not having a family and befriending a freak, along with being fascinated with experimenting on an innocent creature. Although, whether or not this came from becoming the first of the HIVE, understanding the Mayor’s reasons for Autodale’s sins, or was always like this even before discovering the truth is unknown. Additionally, the Exceptional Woman appears to have a fascination with experimenting on the Freaks, and referred to them as beasts before discovering their consciousness of their world, immediately going on about running tests on a child Freak rather excitedly. She often acts as an AI sidekick for Shadow, and knows him rather well, at least enough to know of his tendency to follow his morals over orders.

As the first to be assimilated, all succeeding members of HIVE use her voice when she speaks.

The rest of the HIVE, however, are not nearly as calm as the Exceptional Woman is, often telling jokes haughtily and possessing a rather sadistic and merciless streak, as they mocked Shadow for his selflessness and contemplated stripping him further of his humanity. The only thing they have in common with all of each other is that they were smart enough to look through Autodale’s distorted way of life, although is unknown if they were obsessed like the Exceptional Woman was at one point or if they even bothered to snoop around for answers.

## Trivia

* HIVE is just one of many, many characters in the Autodale universe that are voiced by Adrienne Cox.