🍂

Hive Awakening

so I wrote hive knight fanfiction

(Under the cut, it’s relatively short but I still like it enough to post, takes place post-Embrace the Void)

The Old Light... was fading.

My Queen.

She stood there at a kingdom’s heart, arms crossed in eternal rest. Stood, watching over her beloved Hive just as she had been since...

She had been there for far too long. Uncountable days, him staring up at her in wonder, him reporting whatever notable feat had been accomplished (of which there weren't many, the bees were tense and more restless than ever, though the stasis Hallownest has fallen into in recent times impacted even the ones who wished separation from it), holding one claw raised in a salute as if nothing had changed, him resting by her side and wondering when her dreamless sleep would end...

But the golden heresy seeping into the corners of his mind and vision had left him.

And his thoughts were only his own again, whispers of forgotten light gone now and forever, and he'd had to admit it. The Queen... Queen Vespa, the one he had waited to protect for so long, it was all for nothing, for she was dead. 

Some part of him knew. The same part that had already given up. But he wouldn't, not when he and his kin were dependent on her return. Not when there was a threat to their colony, a pale little wanderer bearing a silvered nail…

He hadn't heard from it in some time. It held no significance now.

With her unmoving form revealed a corpse, the Knight of the Hive couldn't bring himself to stay any longer. It'd be some form of torture, keeping the reminder of his failure fresh in his mind.

He needed to leave.

How could he? That would be the most selfish thing he'd ever done, leaving the Hive in disarray without their most skilled knight to figure out what in the Queen's name they were supposed to do now. He was her protector, though almost equally her second-hand. Every worker had their own part to play in keeping their Hive strong (though it was easy enough to hide from a citizen of Hallownest, it was obvious to those who shared his blood that his duty was not one of a drone), and the Hivelings were content with carrying out short tasks while the rank of a Soldier or Guardian called for their unwavering loyalty, defense for their weaker kin. The Hive Knight was Queen Vespa's closest thing to a diplomat. He wasn't occupied with anything other than the promise of cutting down any foe who'd dare to hurt their dear Queen, leaving him free to be granted the highest honor of the more important work, that which concerned Vespa herself.

The thought of him now being...possibly the most important living bee in the Hive by any standard at all was one that hurt almost physically, seemed to leave a pain in his thorax to wonder, considering what he had to lose.

The most important...

Queen Vespa could produce no more heirs, a fact that should go without saying as of her status. New adults were emerging slower than ever, and the number of eggs was gradually dwindling as more were raised to replace them.

A Queen, in her youth, is no different than a worker. A royal diet is all she needs.

If the Hive were to survive, a new queen must save them.

The Knight sat up. He offered one last, pained and prolonged goodbye to the Queen he'd been willing to lay down his life for.

It had been a while since he'd left her chamber. Longer than usual by...what must've been a few days, a few weeks even, he couldn't judge. The warmth and droning buzz of his sisters' wings comforted him, calmed his tumultuous mind. A Hiveling quickly accompanied him, brushing her soft setae against his own, smelling of honey and... and lacking something else.

The orange haze seemed to have lifted.

The radiant sickly-sweetness of Hallownest's blight no longer bombarded his senses upon his departure from the Heart of the Hive, leaving only traces of what once was.

He whispered a command to the Hiveling, who drew her antennae down in a brief nod, before taking off.

Perhaps the Hive would be alright without him.

Perhaps, he would wander. He would return to serve the new Queen, wouldn't he? The Knight's allegiance lasted longer than the reign of one ruler.

Perhaps Vespa was wrong, and the Hive would not be killed so quickly.

I find it funny how in the Stray fandom right now, one character (Guy A) is being shipped with two different people (Guy B or Guy C), which is obviously otherwise normal in any media that involves more than two unrelated characters, except Guy B is Guy C's dad. Neither side of shippers has acknowledged the other's presence and both are equally prevalent

my take on an angel v1 design

Just as a note: while it's pretty straightforward on its own, here's more detail on how to navigate my tags (as I've prioritized them mostly for my own use).

-"Peridots-Art" vs "Not My Art": There's always one or the other. Peridots-Art is... pretty obvious (includes digital art, pixel art, written work, etc.) and Not My Art usually refers to reblogs or me just talking about a random subject.

-World Tags: Pretty much always on anything with the Art tag. Can either be a fandom (Bug Fables and Hollow Knight, or WoF for Wings of Fire), or one of my personal worlds (Tonpterus, Mostly Mollusk).

-Character Category: Most posts with the Art tag will either be labeled "Canon", referring to a canon character from a fandom, or "Character", referring to my own characters--whether completely original or a fan-character.

-Specific Characters: Canon characters will have the respective fandom after their name, not always stylized the same as the fandom's tag (e.g. Quirrel HK). Characters of my own creation will only be referred to with their name, regardless of whether they belong to a specific original universe or not.

-Creature Category: Unlike the above three tags, this doesn't always pertain to art. They describe the (currently, only three) categories of species/characters in the post: Humans, Dragons or Bugs. That's all

The Finale!

[Start ID. An extremely sloppy and fast drawing of Hornet from Hollow Knight, with a clown's wig and nose, and the words "SLINK SLOG" beneath her. End ID]

nintendo direct started.

ok so i watch a lot of youtube videos about chess despite barely knowing how to play and something really funny happened on chess.com which is the site people go to to play chess online

basically they have a bunch of chess bots you can choose to play against at various different power levels (~100 is total noob, ~2500 is like, mega grandmaster). and recently they released a bunch of…cat themed bots?

but the noteworthy one is the cosmic horror known as Mittens.

Mittens has a listed power level of 1. However, that is a deception. Mittens is actually incredibly powerful, defeating top players with ease, and actually holding his own against the most powerful chess bots in existence.

also he sends you these weird messages like

absolutely wild

Birthday gift for the wonderful @hollypies ! I really would've done something bigger, but didn't remember it was coming up for a while and I knew I'd be busy all weekend!

Anyway. Family :)

bonus

The youngest Palestinian journalist is a 9 year old girl.

Her name Lama Jamous.

Lama has been reporting on tik tok what has been happening in Gaza. Her father is a journalist working for Al Jazeera and is trying to get her out of Rafah.

Link to the gofundme from the video

Please share her story.