How doth the little busy bee...

[replicatedcourage]

Who: Psiioniic and Dark Link Sola
Location: Roof of Larmline apartments
Time: Backdated to the afternoon of the 20th, after this
Style: Prose plz
Status: Closed

Psiioniic's bee keeping operation, Sola was surprised to find, was at the top of the very building where he lived. That certainly made travel much easier, at least. The Hylian climbed the stairs and went out onto the roof, warily watching for any stray bees that might decide his backside was a perfect place to rest a stinger or two. His experience with the insects was very limited. Actually, come to think of it, he had no experience with them at all himself, but he remembered his original's. Link had a love-hate relationship with bees, wherein he loved their larvae for fishing and the honey for eating but hated the bees themselves for the pain they inflicted. Sola, however, was determined to create his own memories, and that started with building a relationship with... bees.

He guessed.

And if anything maybe he could come out of this with some nice honey for his bottle. He looked around the roof, seeing if his friend was present.

"Psiioniic? Are you here?"

Comments

[p2iioniicii2t]

Bees were excellent candidates for building relationships, if one were to ask the Helmsman. As it was, the psionic mage was kneeling by a decent sized moveable comb hive, just out of sight of someone reaching the rooftop.

"I am here, Sola," there is a distinct deliberateness to the way he says the young man's name, barely suppressing his lisp to more understandable levels out of what courtesy he could offer. Well, that and the fact that it's rather embarrassing even to this day. There's a reason he prefers text. Bees buzz around with a notable laziness, as if left weighted down or drowsy. Psionics had their uses, and it seemed a better introduction to have his hive remain a little more calm this time around.

[replicatedcourage]

Sola trots right over, though he gives the bees a distinctly wary look, very much getting across an air of 'if you don't bug me, I won't bug you.'

"I was surprised. I live right below here. I didn't know your bees were so close." If he had known, he wouldn't leave his windows open so much!

[p2iioniicii2t]

"I wath unaware of thith," Psiioniic notes, looking the young man over. The youth looks particularly cheerful and he can appreciate that. Not that his own expression manages to change any, but he's got something of a problem with, well, outward indications of his feelings in general. "You do not need to fear. They have been pathified for now."

lkshfkhla Sola doesn't know any better, sorry for this!

[replicatedcourage]

As Psiioniic speaks, Sola scrunches up his nose with effort.

"How come you talk all funny? It's hard to understand." Really, it's a question born of ignorance; Sola hasn't met many people and he's unaware that they may have things they're self conscious about.

[p2iioniicii2t]

As self-conscious of his lisp as he is, it's not exactly something he's unused to people pointing out to him. This was one of the more inoffensive ways a person could point out that what he views as one of his many defects was terribly noticable.

"I have a lot of teeth and not tho much room for them," he points out in that same bland tone he tends to use for the most part, gesturing to his oversized fangs. "Therefore I have a lithp."

A pause and, for the first time since the young man joined him, he actually looks a little irritated..

"A listhp."

...close enough.

[replicatedcourage]

"Oh. Wow, it must be kind of hard to eat with all those long teeth, and it's gotta hurt really bad if you ever bite your tongue! That sucks!" There's sympathy there, down in the uncensored childish thought process.

Answer learned, Sola turns his attention back to the bees. "So how do you get the honey or the larvae out without getting stung?"

[p2iioniicii2t]

Sola didn't know the half of it when it came to the inconveniences of huge teeth, and he nods. Gently, he lifts the lid off of the hive, carefully revealing a set of frames slotted parallel.

"Gentleneth and care are recommended ath you do tho. It ith important to firtht inthpect." with great care, he uses his psionics to lift one of the frames up, revealing the honeycomb. Each cell is filled and capped. He slides it back down and repeats the process. "When they are very productive, it harmth nothing to take thome honey, but it ith betht to dithturb them ath little ath pothible."

The might have been the most talkative he'd been in a good while, but the subject was bees.

[replicatedcourage]

The lifting of the frames with no hands doesn't faze Sola at all; he's seen his master do magic like that many times, but the bees being so calm about their home being moved about, that was impressive.

"But they don't mind that you're moving things?" He peers at the combs, not getting quite close enough to touch unless he stretched out his arm. "And how do you get it out?"

[p2iioniicii2t]

"When you want to do thith, you would uthually uthe thmoke to calm them. It triggerth an inthtinct that leaveth them lethargic," he explains calmly, indicating the surprisingly slow and unaggressive bees. "If you move deliberately and with care, they have no need to mind."

Once he has repeated the process, he slides the first one up, reaching out and brushing bees away from it with a gentle hand. A few land on him, crawling about his fingers and along his arm with a lazy satisfaction. He gestures for Sola to come even closer, he can't exactly provide him with honey if he's staying at a distance.

"If one is killed, they will all know. If one attackth, they all attack to defend their home and queen."

[replicatedcourage]

Ears straight back and betraying his nervousness, Sola crept nearer to Psii as he brushed the bees away from the comb, producing the bottle for the honey to be deposited into. He keeps his voice at a whisper, as if afraid to offend the bees and incur their wrath.

"Don't you mind them crawling on you? I don't really like things crawling on me."

[p2iioniicii2t]

"They are not dangerouth. You become accuthtomed to them," he murmurs in response, holding his hand closer to his face to watch a particularly weighty worker wander its way across his fingertips before launching into flight.

"What ith important here ith to leave ath little impact ath you can."

A hum of red and blue surround the bottle and he pulls it from the boy's hands to settle beneath the floating combs. One gesture, and the wax chambers along a strip of the comb are all uncapped, honey slowly dripping downwards.

"It ith eathier to make honey than wax, tho they will refill the emptied comb fathter if it ith undamaged."

[replicatedcourage]

"Ah! Be careful!" Sola jumps a bit as Psii takes the bottle, slightly distressed at the lack of warning. It's his most prized possession and he hasn't let it out of his sight since Zelda gave it to him earlier.

"Wait... they make the wax, too?" He creeps a bit closer, standing to be protective of his bottle, but also because the lack of the bees swarming at him has made him a little bolder and he wants a closer look at the fat little striped insects.

"Up close they're kind of cute."

[p2iioniicii2t]

The psionic takes extra care when he realizes that he alarms the young man. He nods in acknowledgement, holding out a hand closer to Sola where one of the bees wandered along his fingers.

"Yeth, it ith a more difficult proceth for them to do," he murmurs softly. "They convert the thugarth of honey within their bodieth to create wax."

[replicatedcourage]

The young Hylian goes almost crosseyed face to face with the bee plodding its way across Psii's finger. Up close they aren't scary at all, just kind of fat and fuzzy and the way their little antennae moved is even sort of endearing.

"They can make so many things! It's pretty amazing. I'm kind of sad for all the ones I- I mean, Link bothered over the years."

[p2iioniicii2t]

"They are talented," he agrees. The honey from the uncapped comb is pooling in the bottle, slowing now that most of it had filled up. His expression is very soft, particularly gentle. He has a strange wealth of affection for the insects, and it always brings him joy when someone else can come to at least appreciate them.

"What otherth have done ith not tho important. What you do will be."

[replicatedcourage]

"Well I don't really want to hurt anyone. Not unless they hurt me or Zelda or my friends first." He shifts a little, watching the last drips of honey slowly seep down into the bottle. "People keep getting mad at me for no reason, though. I don't get it, just because I don't understand a few things.."

You know, like personal property, others need for privacy, or manners in general.

[p2iioniicii2t]

"You are young yet," the Helmsman encourages gently. When the honey finishes, he carefully floats the comb back where it belongs and the bottle to the young man's hands. "There ith much to learn. Tho long ath you apologithe for any errorth, few will ever hold it againtht you."

[replicatedcourage]

"You think? 'Cause Shizuo still keeps looking at me like I'm gonna hurt everyone." He takes the bottle and looks at it pensively, staring at his reflection in the gooey amber. "I'm not actually even supposed to be alive, really... Link killed me, but somehow I woke up here anyway. I don't mean I want to go die or anything; that was really scary and I don't want to face nothingness like that again, but I can't help feeling that maybe I just keep messing things up because I don't belong in the world anymore..."

He lets out a heavy sigh, somehow seeming his physical age for the moment. "Everyone keeps talking about escaping and getting back to their worlds but what if Vatheon is the only thing keeping me alive? I already have to touch the coral more than everyone else. I want to see Hyrule, I really really do, but..."

He looks up at Psiioniic, ears drooping slightly and the hands holding the jar of honey trembling slightly. "I don't want to die, but I don't want to be left here alone."