#beette | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

evita-shelby · 2 days

Text

They didn't know we were seeds

Chapter 11

Cw: nightmares, mentions of torture and mutilation

Taglist @emotionalcadaver @justrainandcoffee @peakyswritings @call-sign-shark

Lucy Winters belongs to @emotionalcadaver

He’s not had a good sleep since they talked.

If it's not him back in the arena with Juno and the girl from 5 trying to kill him, he’s watching Gina die in the rubble of a city or worse, being tortured to break him.

They’re all bad. He sees Eva be shot and pulled away by a cable from his arms as he reaches her farm. He sees her be tortured and having her tongue removed for her treason.

Those where he sees the people he loves be tortured are the worst.

Last night, he dreamt he’d gone to the farm and found his family all without tongues. He hadn’t known until he’d greeted Eva with a kiss and found her missing her tongue, as if she’d never had one. No one behaved out of the ordinary. They were just silent, using signs to communicate, and he was unable to understand them.

There’d been a baby crying soundlessly in Gina’s arms, an L for Laurie stitched in a yellow blanket and when Jack had picked up his imagined son, he’d found that they had all been made Avoxes.

It had been so unsettling that the victor had spent half an hour trying to get the images of it out of his head. He thinks the baby in the dream may have been caused by the dread he felt when Cecelia mentioned her baby back home and asked him how old Gina was.

It was barely dusk when he picked up the phone and dialed a number he’s known for a year, but only pretended to find out a month ago. The games had lasted nearly fifteen days this time, and while he’d been busy with his tributes, knowing they’d be mincemeat for Braun, he had avoided her in private.

“Couldn’t sleep either?” She sounds drowsy and yet alert enough to tell him she hadn’t been sleeping for as long as he had either. He doesn’t tell her about the nightmare. He didn’t want to burden her with it nor risk getting caught with information no one in 2 is supposed to know.

“I miss you.” There are few things he can say through a phone call, a few things he can freely say without arising suspicion from those spying on them. Beette had assumed he’d agreed to join them and confided that he was working on something that would allow them to communicate without interference.

Wiress, in her strange, odd way, had given him a stud earring that matched the pair she gave to Eva. Her husband had then explained what it did.

Jack never agreed to be a rebel, and yet most of them assumed he had. Oh, if the rest were like Nuts and Bolts they were fucked.

“Me too, felt so lonely back there. For a while, I thought we were over.” Eva admits her biggest fear.

“No, never.” Jack hides his fears of what could happen and instead tries his best to have the most innocuous talk with his girlfriend while setting a date for their secret weekend together.

When he gets to the farm, he makes sure Eva still has her tongue and that there is no chance in hell that she could get pregnant.

Their first anniversary is celebrated late, but to make up for it, he stays an entire week with her. The weather had been shit closing the farm and making the trek back dangerous for him, and neither had been happier to hear reports of bad weather that Friday.

He’d brought wine, chocolate, and with a cheeky grin presented a gift: skimpy lingerie he wanted her to wear for him.

Eva’s gift felt little compared to his, while she had more wealth than she could imagine, things were still hard to come by even in the main city. She paid through the nose for a cowhide leather jacket lined with fine wool that matched a pair of boots he had been given by his mom on his last birthday.

They’re lying in bed together, naked as the day they were born and enjoying the thunder outside when he tells her of what the Peacekeepers do to traitors.

“Have a recurring nightmare where they make you an Avox, not just you but a kid we have in the dream. Its not as horrific as the ones where they torture you and Gina and my folks, but somehow its just as bad.” He tries not to look at her as he speaks, as if he might see it come true the moment he looks at her. plays with her hair as he tries to push it out of his mind, and when that fails, she kisses him with a whole lot of tongue to remind him it isn’t real.

“That won’t happen. Whatever children we have won’t fear an arena nor losing their tongue. I feel it in my bones, Jack.”

Jack won’t come around until it’s personal for him, until he has no other choice but to join them. They can’t afford to wait until the 73rd game for him to see reason. There’s still five years to Gina’s 12th birthday.

What if the rebellion happens before then and he is stuck on the wrong side?

“Did you know Cece got removed from the roster because they don’t like how pregnancy changed her body?” Eva brings up after he helps her erase any trace of the man she was sold to for the evening in her shower.

Jack’s jealousy was adorable, hated when other people demanded her so much so that he’d fuck the memory of those encounters out of her head after she told her it . Likes leaving marks where only he and the clients can see it, as if too show them she doesn’t belong to them.

“Is this your way of saying you want a baby? I was hoping to be romanced into it, babe.” Jack jokes as if this will pass. Babies were serious things. Can’t return them when they come, and you can’t save them once they turn 12.

“I want you to make me fat and ugly so no one else can fuck me except you.” It’s not the best reason in the world, but it gives her a damn good reason for wanting to take the risk. She only has this month to try, they can’t afford to get pregnant before or after the games.

Game 68 wouldn’t last long. Most children had died in the first four days, but the careers had yet to find the boy from 6 while they succumbed to the new arena events made this year.

“I’m going to tell Cece you called her fat and ugly.” The career tries to change the topic, but still lets his hands wander on her wet and naked form. They were ravenous for each other, and both struggled to keep their hands off each other to pay attention to anything beyond them.

“We’ll only have to give it a try this month. If it doesn’t work, I won’t bring it up again.” She compromises knowing he’ll forget when she brings it up next year if it doesn’t take. “I want a baby, Jack. I want them to know I belong to you and only you, love.”

A month after the 69th Games, Eva finds their herself pregnant. The joy they should feel is completely smothered with terror.

“What if it fails?” Jack asks her quietly as they feel the baby kick on their second anniversary.

“It won’t, Laurie won’t ever be reaped. He will never suffer like we do.” Now she begins to comprehend why Cecelia is so hopeful because the reality is too horrible to even consider.

Laurie Smith is born in April, his paternity a mystery to everyone except those who won’t reveal their secret. He doesn’t meet his father until late May, once the coast is clear for his monthly visits.

It's the first week of June when Lucy Winters’ prediction comes true.

“I’m not gonna have a choice about this, aren’t I?” Jack is so distraught by what April brought about at home that he agrees to join them. Not just him, his mother too.

Some volunteer as young as twelve thanks to Finnick’s win years ago, and to ensure they have a fighting chance, training begins at eight years old for those who’s parents allow it. Carrie, her young mother, had been thrilled at the idea of Gina becoming a victor like her uncle.

His mother had been horrified at how excited Gina was at dinner that Lyme had no trouble recruiting them the next morning. Laurie’s birth had both Nelsons agreeing that the two children would be spared the arena at any cost.

“Bring your mother with you next time you visit, she should meet her grandson, Gina too, maybe we can wean her off the idea of the games.” Eva comforts him when his nightmares of the arena feature eight year old Gina fighting for her life while they watch from the mentor’s room.

“After the games, I need to convince her first.” He pressed a soft kiss on Laurie’s little head and kissed her goodbye. “See you in July.”

#evacore #jack nelson #they didn't know we were seeds #jack nelson x eva smith #9th

5 notes · View notes

amiketmegaterapeutamnaksem · 10 months

Text

Jött új munkatárs.

Már az első pillanatban sem volt túl szimpatikus, de azóta még rontott is a helyzetén, tekintve, hogy bármely beszélgetésben mindent IS jobban tud, mint a beszélgető partnerek bármelyike.

Ez elég idegesítő.

Viszont állandóan velem akar ebédelni, ami azt jelenti, hogy még a szabadiőmben is engem terhelne.

És büdös is. Nem tudom milyen cigarettát szív, de az beette magát a ruháiba, a bőrébe, eszméletlen büdös.

Hogyan lehet valakit úgy leépíteni, hogy ne sértődjön meg?

Azt mégsem mondhatom neki, hogy figyelj, te egy kivagyi faszkalap vagy, ráadásul még bűzlesz is.

11 notes · View notes

mega-aulover · 9 months

Text

Wire & Bolts

Which one do you think was Wire and which one was Bolt? Was Beette Bolts or was he Wire - he after all was known for his use of wire.

#beetee latier #Wiress

8 notes · View notes

sronti · 7 months

Text

Én nagyon sokáig abban voltam, hogy egy ilyen konstrukciót, mint a PiS, vagy a Fidesz nem nagyon lehet választáson leváltani, ha már beette magát az intézményrendszerbe, de ezek szerint tévedtem. Érdekes lesz nézni, hogy mennyire tudják majd kipiszkálni a beépített embereket a különböző intézményekből.

Azon is csak néztem, ahogy exit pollra győzelmet hirdetett Tusk, és a Harmadik Út simán elküldte a picsába a közelítő PiS-t. Taktikailag egyik se valami ügyes dolog.

Ki az az angolul vagy magyarul író újságíró, akit érdemes követni lengyel belpolitikáról? Magyar szempontból szerintem nagyon tanulságos lesz a következő évük, de biztos vagyok benne, hogy bonyolult ügyek lesznek, amiket csak a szokásos forrásaimból nem fogok tudni megérteni.

3 notes · View notes

aquilamage · 2 years

Text

new fic In Which Team Snakemouths New Home Is Not Quite As Ideally Set Up As Canon

It took a lot of work to get there, but finally they’d gathered enough berries to pay for a house.

“Mhm. It's good to not be homeless anymore.” Leif remarked. “We’ll be sleeping on the floor, but at least we’ll have a floor to sleep on.”

Beette narrowed her eyes at her, “...Oh!” She huffed, going back to her resting (lightly smug) expression. “Did I not mention? You can have the furniture too.” She waved a hand dismissively as she spoke. “It’s just not worth the berries to have it shipped all this way, especially when none of it was anything special.”

“Gee, thanks,” Vi muttered.

“You could have been a little more gracious,” Kabbu told her as they made their way toward the Hive’s exit. “Anyway, I would have thought you’d be excited to get something for free.”

She crossed her arms. “Technically, we bought it with the house.” A sigh. “Of course it’s good! But that doesn’t mean I have to like how she said it like she was being all charitable. Ugh.”

“So, your usual problems with other Bees,” Leif said.

The sun had already set as they got off the elevator, the town dark and the desert chill settling in.

“Hey!” Vi called, “Where do you think you’re going?”

Leif pointed just ahead of where she and Kabbu were walking. “The inn. To sleep.”

“We just bought a house , with beds, and you want to waste money on an inn?”

With an overdramatic groan, L eif l eaned against the wall.

“... She does have a point,” Kabbu said, although he snuck another glance toward the entrance and the light emanating from it.

“But it’s so far .”

“We don’t have any berries left to pay for it anyway,” Vi said.

Leif flopped to the ground. “You planned this, didn’t you.”

“No?! How would I know how much of a reward we’d get for that last request?”

She grumbled, but got up and followed the other two.

The mine tunnels cut down travel by a lot, but it was still long enough that even Vi was slumping by the time they exited the Palace. She leaned her head against the doorframe of the house – their house – as Kabbu figured out which way the key went in the lock. When he got it, they all practically fell inside.

The house wasn’t particularly wide, but it went pretty far back, and the height of the ceiling bordered on r idiculous . The open front took up most of the floorspace : living room, a small dining area, kitchen, and a ladder up to a hatch in the ceiling in a single space. More importantly to them in the moment was the back rooms. One, a little small, appeared to have been used for storage. The other, the bedroom...had a single, oversize bed.

For a long, silent moment, they all stood in the doorway staring in at the room. The Leif and Vi yelled “Dibs!” at the same time and ran for the bed.

Vi shoved at Leif, but it didn’t knock her far, so by the time Vi flopped onto the bed, she was right behind her.

Leif managed a tenuous grip around her, but Vi wasn’t holding back her flailing. So she collapsed forward on top of her.

Which did quell her for a moment, with a sharp yelp. But then she was back, and managed, with a pointed jab, to shove Leif off of her.

Except she ended up on the far side of the bed instead of off it.

“H-Hey now, there’s no need for that!”

They halted mid-tense for lunging at each other to look at Kabbu.

He was still in his original spot in the doorway, waving his arms. At the pause in their tussle, he relaxed a fraction. “There’s plenty of room. Can’t you just share, at least for tonight?”

They both looked down at the mattress. He wasn’t wrong .

With a huff, Vi fell back onto what she guessed was her side now, limbs splayed out. “Guess Bee extravagance comes in handy every now and then,” she muttered.

Leif had started to melt into the covers, but suddenly perked up. “Wait, where are you going?” she shouted at Kabbu.

He stepped backward back into view. “Getting ready to sleep?”

“You’re not going to fit on that couch.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me! I’ll figure something out!” And then he was gone again.

They both settled in under the covers, but despite their earlier exhaustion neither fell asleep.

“If it was anyone but Kabbu I'd think he was guilting us on purpose,” Vi said, curled on her side facing the wall.

Leif also didn’t move, laying on her stomach. Her “mm” was heavily muffled by the pillow.

Another long silence.

Vi shifted around three times, increasingly more agitated, until finally she kicked her blankets off.

“...You know, we’re pretty sure you could fit on the couch.”

For several seconds, she glared up at the ceiling. Then, still without looking, she smacked at her.

“Ow,” Leif said, in possibly the most sarcastic tone she’d ever used.

Vi ignored her, getting up and trudging toward the door. “Kabbu!”

From the other room, scuffling. “Vi?” His voice was slightly higher than normal. What seemed like the exact next second, he dashed around the corner, skidding to a halt in front of her. “What happened? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” She batted his hands off her shoulders. “Just...get in here.”

He followed, but stopped in the doorway, clearly still having expected something to be wrong.

Leif patted the empty side of the bed. “Get in.”

“But-” He looked at Vi.

She sighed heavily. “We wanted to at least c heck to see whether we’d actually all fit.” She had no intention of squeezing in with her teammates, but knew it would be the fastest and easiest way to get Kabbu to agree to lying in the bed .

It turned out they did fit without having to be on top of each other, although they couldn’t avoid brushing against each other (much to Vi’s annoyance, since she’d somehow ended up in the middle).

Kabbu sighed contentedly as he settled in. “Thank you for checking, Vi; I appreciate it.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it.”

He shifted for a moment like he was going to comment on that, then stilled. “Goodnight, Leif. Goodnight, Vi.”

“Good night,” they both murmured.

Now all Vi had to do was wait until Kabbu fell asleep and climb out to sleep in the other room, unbothered. Which shouldn’t take too long. The bed was obnoxiously comfortable, she noted, now that she was less distracted, and it was cozy-warm (even for her, since she’d shoved a blanket between herself and Leif). Even if they weren’t already tired, it was a perfect setting to just doze...off…

Next thing Vi knew, she was blinking awake in morning sunlight. Because of course in typical Bee fashion, the curtains were slightly more decorative than functional. (In her own room back at the Hive she’d managed to get them thick enough it could look like night at any hour. Just how she liked.)

As she got over the brightness, the immediate next problem she noticed, as she tried to move, was that she was now squished between Leif and Kabbu. Even more annoyingly, Leif had grabbed one of Kabbu’s arms, hugging it to her front (faced away from the other two), which effectively trapped Vi there.

“Ugh.” As much as she could manage, she started poking at Leif to get her to move.

She stirred, mumbling incoherently, but then just snuggled in tighter, if anything.

So she renewed her efforts, until finally Kabbu pulled his arm back and rolled over –

Vi grinned, stretching. Now, she could-

– and onto the floor, a loud crash as the movement knocked over the small bedside table.

Swearing under her breath, Vi crawled to the edge of the bed. “Kabbu? Are you okay?”

It looked like the table had fallen away from him, which was good. He wasn’t facing her, but he was moving a little and groaning, which was...at least better than being unconscious or screaming. She was pretty sure on that one.

The mattress sank down just behind her. “What did you do this time,” Leif said groggily, as she draped herself over Vi.

“It was an accident!” she yelled, at the same time as Kabbu sat up, mumbling “I’m alright.”

With a laugh, she slid down to check on Kabbu. “Guess that means we need a bigger bed.”

Vi sat completely still for a moment, eyes narrowed as she tried to process the remark. “...Why?”

“So we can fit better.”

She scowled. “I am not sharing a bed all the time.”

Apparently satisfied that Kabbu actually hadn’t gotten hurt, Leif turned to face her, draping her head and arms across the bed. “Then we’ll keep this one and you can get your own.”

“...Um,” Kabbu said in the background.

“Why do you get the nice expensive bed?!”

“Because you don’t want to share.”

“Oh, so I have to pay-”

“Alright, hold on.” Kabbu stood in between the two of them, blocking sight lines. Using the same firm tone, he said, “We will figure out something that works for all of us. Okay?” And then he stood there expectantly.

“Okay,” they both agreed, in different flavors of mild exasperation.

“Good.” Then, he deflated, sitting at the edge of the bed with a huff. “But can we please at least eat breakfast first? We have a kitchen to make it now and everything.”

“Do we have anything to cook?” Leif asked, sticking her face back in the blankets. “We doubt there’s anything here already.”

“We can go shopping,” he said, undeterred. “Maybe even get a little extra of things that’ll keep.”

Vi kicked her legs out. “Ok, but we have to check the kitchen first, ‘cause my berries are on there being just enough cooking stuff to make it look nice. She seems like one of those you ‘shouldn’t have to cook at a vacation home’ types.”

There was a stretch of silence.

“Fry’s,” they chorused, and went to head out.

#an aquila original #bug fables #vi bug fables #leif bug fables #kabbu bug fables #fanfiction #my writing #also up on AO3 if that's your preference #genderfluid Leif pronouns of the fic: she/her

15 notes · View notes

nginiamhim · 1 year

Note

How ffar can you get for Cortex?

n.gin can go 18 miles on foot before hees leetle legs break. from there on n.gin has calculated he could crawl a few hundred meters more for Master and finallee collapse. the explosion from n.gins failsafe might launch beetts of n.gin an additeeonal hundred meters. so…

n.gin ees counteeng on 30,5 kilometers for Master. thees ees not nearlee enough now that i am bringeeng thought to eet… hhhrrh…

#need to get eh-#runneeng shoes…#solutions solutions….

7 notes · View notes

theghostofohio · 2 years

Text

but with every sin, i still wanna bee holy 🐝

presenting: black veil bees! my intrusive thoughts sometimes yield humorous and silly results.

featuring andbee biersack as the prophet, jerebee ferguson as the mystic, jake beetts as the mourner, and cbee as the destroyer. the position of the deviant is filled by lonny beegleton.

i wanted to edit specifically the wild ones, as the thought this stemmed from was in the end but as nightcore. the resulting song sounded very much like bumble bees preparing for war. however, i did not want to edit you know who as a bee, so lonny beegleton was the solution. please don’t come for me over that.

black veil brides - in the end (nightcore)

stream legion of the black on youtube

check out how you can help save the bees

25 notes · View notes

olelni-szavakkal-erintes-nelkul · 2 years

Text

Annyira beette magát a szívembe, hogy ha akarnám se tudnám onnan kiverni. Folyton aggódom érte, és azt akarom, hogy biztonságban legyen. Szeretném már a karjaim közt érezni, és vigyázni a kis szívére. 💙

3 notes · View notes

keresztyandras · 5 months

Text

Családi kör

Tardos János >Sokszor hallani elkeseredett megjegyzéseket, melyek szerint manapság a politika beette magát a családok lelkébe is, ellentétet, gyűlölködést szül, ah, oh. Persze, ez szomorú. Csakhogy korántsem új jelenség. Vegyük példának okáért a mi családunk történetét, s annak is csak 1945 utáni fejleményeit. Már eleve, hogy nem azt írtam: a felszabadulás után, mint azt tettem volna,…

View On WordPress

#Tardos János

0 notes

yatau · 3 years

Photo

7th day of risetobe: blue I had zero ideas and it shows...

#ugh #really don't like this one #totally could do beette

74 notes · View notes

hicapacity · 2 years

Text

Ha valaki nem érti, mit is jelentenek az Oroszországgal szemben hozott szankciók, akkor nagyon röviden elmondom, mintha velünk történne.

Képzeld el, hogy bezárt minden bevásárlóközpont és minden autókereskedés, valamint külföldi tulajdonú étteremlánc.

Ennyi.

Az orosz gazdaság azért nem döglik meg, mert olyasmit vettek el tőle, ami a jólét felső szintjén fontos, de magához a létezéshez nem szükséges. (Lesz gondjuk, rengetegen kerülnek bajba, vesztik el az ��llásuk, stb... de túlélik.)

Mondok négy szélsőséges példát arra, hogy meddig élhet Oroszország ebben az állapotban:

- Kuba az amerikai embargó alatt él hatvan éve. Nem ment csődbe.

- Észak-Korea sem ment csődbe, pedig ott aztán tényleg a fű is ritkán nő.

- Görögország hitelekből élt majd egy évtizedig és még most is az EU tagja.

- Törökországban, jelenleg is 70%-os az infláció és elvannak, mint a befőtt.

Az orosz gazdaság az olaj, gáz, szén, nehézföldfém, nukleáris elemek, stb... tehát a természeti kincsekre épített gazdasága, akár még évekig elvegetálhat, miközben a szankciókba nem csak Európa, de Amerika is beledögölhet.

A covid által legyengített világgazdaság, a világot vezető egyre tehetségtelenebb politikai vezetők, az egész fejlett világot uraló dekadencia, párhuzamosan, a társadalom szellemi leépülésével, az iskolázottság és intelligencia pusztulásával, nem Oroszország csődjét vetíti előre, hanem a mi létformánk, életmódunk totális bukását.

Bevásárlóközpontok nélkül lehet élni. Mezőgazdaság és ipar nélkül nem.

Oroszországnak van bányaipara, nehézipara, és jelentős agráriuma.

Félek hamarabb fog Európa sírni kenyérért, mint a puccos Moszkvaiak Gucci cipőért.

Mint mondtam nem fogok politizálni. Épp azért nem teszem, mert az emberek nagy többsége szeret egy illúzióban élni, egy a hírek, információk által rajzolt világban, ahol a valóság és a festett mátrix között már képtelenek vagyunk különbséget tenni, így megyünk a kényelmesen elfogadható dolgok felé, fittyet hányva arra a valóságra, ami amúgy a szemünk előtt játszódik le.

A covid miatt az „okos, művelt” társadalom megvetette, megbélyegezte a világ teljes tudóstársadalmát, kétségbe vonta erőfeszítéseiket, legyintett összefogásukra és vonakodott elfogadni, amit félmillió magasan képzett orvos állított. Napjainkban ugyan ezen csoportok az ukrán háború kapcsán mondják a legvadabb ökörségeket és az önmagukat szkeptikusnak nevezők, győzelmi ezánt énekelgetnek. (A jelen poszt alatt is főleg a témától eltérő - vírustagadó, háborútagadó hozzászólások fognak megjelenni, mert a tudatlanság és félrevezetés rendszere már beette magát a fejükbe és képtelenek látni mi is történik. )

Jelenleg a tudást börtönözzük be, amikor nem vesszük észre azt a geopolitikai, szerkezeti, gazdasági, értékrendi, morális átalakulást, ami történik 2019 vége óta a világban, és amihez ez a háború úgy passzol, mint egy könyv lapjai egymáshoz. Milliárdnyi ember asszisztál ahhoz az őskáoszhoz, ami a szemünk előtt alakul, formálódik, teljesedik ki.

De a legfontosabb hír: A Szállodákban húsvétkor megint csúcsforgalom lesz, azaz jólét van, azaz nincs gond, azaz amíg vásárolni tudunk, a jelen valósága tök jó dolog.

Ez a forgatókönyv már lement a történelemben.

De mintha senki sem akarná ezt észrevenni, felfogni, elfogadni. Úgy sodródunk, úgy menetelünk a végzetünk felé, ahogy megtették a nagyszüleink és a dédszüleink.

Nem gondolkodunk, nem tanulunk, követjük a hazudott kényelem, a hazudott valóság, az alkalmatlan vezetők középszerű döntéseit.

A gond annyi, hogy amikor eljön az ébredés, megint túl késő lesz.

Ha megosztod, megosztod.

#juhász zoli #juhász zoltán #Shepherd

13 notes · View notes

csorbade · 2 years

Text

A kovászos uborkáról mindig a Moszkva tér, a Nautilus és Robin Williams szőrös alkarja jut eszembe.

De kezdjük sorjában. Valamikor a 10-es évek elején a Moszkva téren volt egy all you can eat kajálda, ahol 1400 volt a korlátlan trakta és ha éjfél után mentél, akkor csak 990. Hogy be tudd lőni, hogy mennyit érhetett az a 990 Ft, asszem a szomszéd mekiben akkor 2 sajtburgert kaptál. Itt meg korlátlan vadast, madártejet, meg homeopátiás babgulyást kaptál, aminél hasonlóan a víz emlékező tehetségére volt hagyva, hogy az ízét átadja a betévedő vendégnek.

Alap, hogy éjfél után a környéki szórakozóhelyeken lealjasodott, meggyötört, megrágott majd utána utcára taszajtott maréknyi merész brigantija ide szivárgott be.

A félelem és reszketés las vegasban bármelyik snittjét, bármelyik nap le lehetett volna forgatni, ahogy próbált mindenki normálisan viselkedni és ennek köszönhetően egyre groteszkebb, a valós emberi viselkedést mímelő pantomim előadásokkal elkápráztatni a többi sorstársat.

És itt jött az a koviubi a sztoriba.

A rántott húsokkal körberakott küzdőtér közepén volt a savanyúságos pult. Itt is mindenki azt ehette, amit és amennyit akart. Az egyik szerencsétlen, valami szafaris tripben maradhatott, mert a szedőkanállal kelepelni kezdett, és gólyajárást imitálva vonult el az asztalok irányába. Ez volt a problema gyökere és az emlékbetöréseket okozó trauma ekkor keletkezett.

Az egyik midnájt-kábboj egy fogpiszkálókkal megtűzdelt, emberkét imitáló főtt krumplival a tányérján berobbant a csemegepulthoz és hallottam, ahogy Johnny Depp szinkronhangja visszhangzott a hallójárataiban: legyőzhetetlen vágyat érzek a zöld, lédús kovászos uborka iránt. Körülnézett, majd proaktívan feltűrte az ingujját és egy olyan szőrös alkart villantott, ami medencébe csobbanás esetén teljesen impregnálja a bőrfelületet. Vízhatlan a MUKI!

Majd vállig alámerült a fagyizókból és vidéki söntésekből ismert alumínium tégelyben és rárabolt egy uborkára. Amikor újra felbukkant, a kovászos lé úgy csurgott le róla, mint amikor Némó kapitány szárazdokkba emelte a Nautiluszt. Hömpölygött a csatakos alkaron az opálos fluidum. Miközben olyan megmagyarázhatatlan gyermeki öröm ült ki a figura arcára, mint Szméagoléra a Végzet Hegyén, amikor az egy gyűrűt újra a markában tarthatta. Az alkarról persze annyi szőr ázott le, hogy egy teniszlabdányi golyócskát simán lehetett volna belőle nemezelni.

Ez volt az a pillanat, ami örökre beette magát a kovászos uborkával kapcsolatos memóriarekeszembe.

9 notes · View notes

barbaracleboy · 3 years

Text

So, because I’ve been seeing a few different takes and opinions on Vi’s relationship with The Hive, I thought that maybe I could give my take on it too, because why not? Please keep in mind that I’m a little stupid, and I tend to not dig deep when analyzing things: I like watching or reading in-depth analyses, but I tend to think about stories or gameplay mechanics largely on what I can see, and I don’t think that hard about the complexities or realities or whatever of most things. So forgive me if many of my points are obvious, or if some of what I say isn’t that well-thought out or anything like that. Also, as always, I have absolutely zero intention to insult anybody or tell them they’re viewing the game wrong: we all view things differently, and I thought it’d be nice if I talk a little about how I viewed Vi’s story, if for no other reason than to just explain why I say or draw or do what I do. With that in-mind, hopefully my analysis isn’t too simple or whatever…

Vi didn’t like The Hive, we know this. The reasons she gives, if I remember, are mainly that nobody believed in her dreams of being an explorer (and many made fun of her for it). With this “analysis” I wish to get into why I felt the Bees didn’t believe in Vi and why Vi said what she did.

To start off, the fact that The Hive discouraged Vi’s exploring, and the behavior of The Hive in a couple other ways, seems to be based on IRL beehives, and how Bees in general aren’t aggressive. As such, it could make sense that they didn't approve of the idea of one of their own going out to go exploring, potentially looking for trouble and getting themselves hurt. A more unique, in-universe reason also exists: Snakemouth Den. Now, while Snakemouth Den has also been known to be scary to the Ants, they had a reason not to discourage exploration: it held an artifact that the Ant Queen wanted. The Bees clearly didn’t care as much about the Sapling or anything that can help them obtain it (considering they used an artifact to make their factory and didn’t even know it), so when they heard of their kind going to Snakemouth Den and never coming back, their reaction was likely something like “Holy shit, stay away from that place and any place like it.” They didn’t want treasures or immortality (at least most of them didn’t), and if trying to get it meant death they’d rather stay away from it. Speaking of Queens, Bianca probably also plays a hand in why the Bees were so against Vi becoming an explorer. By Vi’s own admission Bianca is a pacifist, and that coupled with Bianca (trying to) treat her subjects more like her children than most Queens seem to points to the idea that she feels her little babees would be safer and happier at home than exploring. This care for safety can be seen as soon as and even before you enter The Hive: there’s a little room to scan for anything that could potentially be harmful to The Hive, and you can’t even enter without having a guard start the elevator for you. They clearly want danger as far away from them as possible. “Why does Bianca have a military if she’s a pacifist and cares for her kids’ safety, then?” Honestly, that’s a good question, and the best answer I have is that it’d be stupid not to have a defense force, especially in the Lost Sands (which are home to all sorts of Bandits and monsters) and with the close proximity to with The Wasps (who are known to usually be aggressive, and have particularly been so since some time before the start of the game). That’s not even getting into Vi being a teenager, which would probably further discourage The Hive from supporting her wanting to be an explorer: you should support the dreams of young people, but there’s a difference between a kid, I don’t know, wanting to be an engineer and wanting to be a bounty hunter. One is notably more dangerous (and probably less common) than the other, and while stomping on a kid’s dream is mean it’s perhaps better, in some scenarios, than encouraging them to do something that can get them killed. Hell, a large part of why Vi became as successful an explorer as she did was that she had a team to help her out, and she initially didn’t seem to want that. A young girl, in a society that cares a ton about being safe, trying to go off and fight monsters and bad guys on her own (probably just in the hopes of getting rich)? It’s no wonder her peers wouldn’t support that.

All that said, do I think Bees were justified in denying Vi her dream? That she should have just shut up and sucked it up? No, of course not. They clearly cared too much about safety, to the point that they let one of their own leave anyway due to her feeling so out of place for thinking differently. There was clearly a lack of empathy for her, and I highly doubt that their responses to Vi were all variations of “Now, now, don’t hurt yourself!”, there probably was a lot of teasing and even some bullying. Now, I don’t think Vi is invalid or wrong for leaving or being upset...but I also feel like she may not be too reliable a “Narrator”.

That’s not to say she was lying, that she never experienced anything bad in The Hive...but to be frank, she is a [bit of a stupid d:] teenager. She’s a little selfish, she’s a little reckless, and she probably said and did a lot of what she said and did due to big teen emotions. She talked about Bees like they were all bullies, and pompous, but does The Hive really give that impression? Do the Bees? When she returns almost none of them seem to bring up anything bad, they don’t seem to be making fun of her, there doesn’t seem to be any animosity towards her from them, despite how bad she tended to speak of them. “Well, Vi probably didn’t know a lot of them, and vice versa.” That could very well be true, but most of the ones we see in-game seem to have experience with Vi: even ignoring all the ones that have a notable amount of screen time or mandatory dialogue, Vi seems to know multiple of them by name, and many of them know Vi’s name too, and if she’s been gone so long you’d think one would have forgotten the other unless they had spent a non-insignificant time together. She seems to have formed relationships with multiple bees, and while few if any of them were as close as the one she formed with Jaune they probably existed, it’s not like she got along with nobody but Jaune. The point I’m trying to make by talking about relationships is that you’d think there would be multiple Jaune-type situations, of Vi being very mad at one of the bees and vice versa, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Vi’s anger is mostly general, she mostly talks crap about The Hive as a whole, while few if any of the bees seem to hold a grudge against her. This leads me to think that Vi makes a big deal about all the other bees bullying her out of hyperbole, and her emotions making her think the situation’s worse than it is: I mean, she claims that all bees are pompous, but really only Beette fits that description, right? And even Beette is noted to not be that bad, for selling you the key to the house of whatever (though personally I feel she still seemed pretty rude, but eh). Vi is very upset, to the point that she says things that aren’t entirely true and kind of throw multiple people under the bus (I know that type of anger, let me fuckin’ tell you). This anger, of course, comes because she was so close to Jaune, and enjoyed time with her more than any other Bee. I assume Vi was hoping Jaune would support that dream more than the other bees would, but when she didn’t Vi was really hurt, and in her anger she said bad things to everybody in The Hive and left. She probably wasn’t thinking about what she was saying or how leaving would affect her or whatever, she was just having angry teenage angst and she wanted out (having said that, you could totally make the argument that Jaune was a jerk for being so upset about a little insult, but again, eh). I feel like Vi might have even felt she was being irrational, at least deep down, but what she was feeling at the time of her leaving took priority. When Kabbu falls through the trapdoor in Snakemouth, Vi says something along the lines of “This is the perfect time to go home.” It’s probably a throwaway line, maybe I’m overthinking things for once, but what if that was her going “Okay, I know I said all that stuff but things are really bad now and I just wanna go home.” I can believe that, when I was young I said and tried to do some stupid things, but it didn’t take long before I decided to at least try to calm down, do something less intense maybe. I can believe that a kid like Vi would try something crazy in order to stick it to everyone who said she couldn’t, but would perhaps think twice upon seeing the dangers. Vi and Kabbu had barely spent any time in Snakemouth before he fell, so I imagine that when Vi saw there was some actual danger in exploring she at least briefly thought about how she behaved, thought that she might have been letting her emotions get the best of her, and considered going home where she probably was safe. Even if she didn’t intend go all the way back to The Hive, the point is that what she said and did when leaving could very well have been her just acting out in frustration. In the end it’s for the best that she continued with exploring (for a wide variety of reasons), but my point is that her initial push to do so came largely from that initial bout of frustration.

So, to make a long story short, I feel that The Hive cared very heavily about safety, for many reasons, and as such wished for Vi to not be an explorer for her own good. Things were not that bad for Vi, but when much of her society, including her closest sister, didn’t approve of what she wanted she threw somewhat of a fit and ran off, perhaps feeling that she was overreacting a little but being too young and headstrong to not do exactly what she wanted to do. Once again, my point here is not that The Hive was right, Vi was wrong. It’s more that the situation was complicated and bad, and both Vi and her peers had a lot to learn (which, in my opinion, they mostly did learn by the end of the main story).

I don’t know, I think a big part of why I go to bat for The Hive so much is that I very, very much value family. It’s kind of how I was raised, I feel that the people that share your blood, that likely live with you and likely care for you and likely know about you way more than most other people are special, and that the relationships with them are also special, so it’s best to try and keep things as good with them as possible. I’m not saying that you should be a slave to people, or you should take abuse from people, or that you should support bad behavior, all because those involved are related to you. I just feel that it’s important to try and understand the feelings of those you’re close to, and that (when fair and applicable) we should always try to have the best possible relationship with our family. Vi initially failed with both of these, and so did Jaune and many of the other bees.

To go on a little tangent, I think the family stuff is a big part of why I love The Hive as much as I do. With how many of the Bees seem to know each other (compared to the Ants, where there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of interactions implied or otherwise), how Bianca views The Bees as her children, and how Vi’s formed a close relationship with one of her many, many sisters, The Hive just seems to be a family much more than any other kingdom: this is in both good ways like Bees being closer, and less than good ways like having unfortunate situations (failures to communicate, misunderstandings, and feelings of being ignored or unsupported) like many families do. I think I like all that a lot due to my aforementioned value of family stuff, and one can even give lore-y reasons for it being neat. Like, real life bug colonies don’t really do family stuff, right? They just work to care for the colony, that’s it. That The Hive holds much more in the way close bonds could be a sign of the change from crystals continuing, and having more effects than immediately obvious: not only are bugs losing limbs but living longer, they’re gaining their own wants, and they’re former closer bonds to each other than “This is my fellow worker, we both will make the honey.” I just find that sweet, I think, and with what’s shown of Vi and how she interacts with The Hive in-game I think it tells a sweet story of a girl feeling separated from her home and family but learning that things weren’t that bad, repairing bridges that could have stayed burnt, and probably bringing about changes that will make the people there happier. Bianca mentions how “We have heard of [Vi’s] exploits”, and how “the outside world did [her] some good”: from the sounds of it multiple Bees were proud of Vi for her success as an explorer, and one can imagine that leading to more explorers coming from The Hive, as well as the Bees learning to support unique ideas more. For as sad as the situation with Vi and The Hive was, it seems to have with her learning to like her old home again and it will likely lead to it getting even better than it was before.

Hoo, that was a whole lot of talking and I can’t help but fear that a lot of it is either rambly, repetitive, or illogical...but, uh, if you read all the way through it then thank you so much! I appreciate it, and I hope it wasn’t too difficult to read. I bet there’s all sorts of stuff we don’t know that could be for or against my reading: for all we know Bianca kept Vi in a cupboard back when she lived in The Hive, for all we know Vi set multiple Bees on fire on purpose. But, based on what we do know, that’s how I feel about the situation. Once more, I do not intend to insult anybody that thinks differently from me or anything (tbh I get the impression a lot of people may think different from me, ha): I just prefer funnier and happier stuff (as I feel I’ve said many times before), and I just felt like showing why I viewed the deal with Vi and The Hive to be a sad one, but one rife with misunderstanding (amongst the bugs involved at least) and one that ended quite positively. If you disagree that’s perfectly fine, I just hope I explained myself in a way that makes sense and isn’t like, stupidly simple or ignorant or whatever. Even if it is, I apologize. I just think the Bees are all cute and I like to think that they’re happy, ha.

#bug fables #lots of text #maybe this is just me trying to sound smarter...#also sorry that I beat myself up a lot here #I just like bees and I don't think I'm great at showing it beyond drawing queen bianca doing silly things lel #also sorry I say lel ha and use emoticons so much :>#also sorry I aplogize so much #ok I'll hush now

14 notes · View notes