Bee It Ever So Humble (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

They stood there watching the earthen beehives for several minutes before they became conscious of a low thrumming that seemed to come from the landscape all around them! Gaian Knight in particular could feel the rumbling in the earth as something gigantic erupted from the ground some fifty feet away! A jet of searing fire roared up to scorch the earth nearby as a sixty-foot monstrosity of a bee came clambering out of the hole, each gigantic footstep of the big-rig-sized insect shaking the ground as she rose to her full awesome height, shook herself off, and focused on Fleur and Gaian Knight. "HELLO!" It was Beatrizz. "FLEUR DE JOIE! IT IZ ZO GOOD TO ZEE YOU!" She bumped Fleur with a head larger than her body. "WE HAVE BEEN DIGGING TUNNELZ, BUT IT IZ NOT GOING ZO GOOD. WHO IZ YOUR TINY FRIEND?"

[Fox]

They breathe fire. They breathe fire. I wish someone would have mentioned that. "Um," he replied, awfully eloquently, raising a hand. "I'm...a friend of Fleur de Joie's. I can...maybe...help you with the digging problem. I hope." Preferably without being eaten! What kind of bee breathes fire? I'm pretty sure normal bees don't breathe fire. ...although, I guess I'm pretty sure normal bees aren't HUGE, either.

He coughed, and started to hold out a hand for a handshake before catching himself (How does one greet a bee, exactly...?) and just bowing, a hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "I'm...Gaian Knight. It's a pleasure to meet you."

[Electra]

"Gaian Knight is my colleague," Fleur said cheerfully, patting Beatrizz on her giant fuzzy head. "I'm sorry to hear the tunnels haven't gone so well, but I think we have an answer for you. Gaian Knight is an earth controller, he is going to help you build a home that is big and thick enough to keep you all warm. He would like to speak with you and the Queen about how it needs to be built, and what your needs are, now and in the future. Stesha was no bee expert, but she wouldn't be surprised if spring brought the humming of little (relatively speaking) wings to the giant beehive.

She caught Gaian Knights discomfiture and realized the source after a moment. "Only a few of them breathe fire," she murmured in his ear. "Don't mention it, it's considered rude."

[Fox]

"Erm," he murmured back. "Right."

He turned back to the giant bee, finding it difficult to maintain eye contact with someone when their eyes are bigger than your head. "Fleur de Joie told me a little about your troubles...I'd like to help, if I can. I'm afraid I don't know much about...er, bees, or beehives, but I am very good at digging and building." He gestured at the mounds, trying to be as diplomatic as possible. "The least I could do is lend a hand to some...ah, friends in need." I'm going to get eaten. I'm going to get eaten and turned into honey or something, and no one will ever know because it happened on some other dimension or reality. Life gets a lot weirder when a magic answering machine lobs a fancy sword at you and tells you to protect a place that hasn't existed for hundreds of years.

[Avenger Assembled]

"THAT WOULD BEE WONDERFUL!" exclaimed the bee in a voice like an aircraft engine backfiring. She turned and peered at Gaian Knight, looming over him as her mouth parts wriggled in glee. "IT HAZ BEEN ZO HARD LIVING WITHOUT A REAL HIVE TO LIVE IN!" The gigantic bee-monster looked...delighted to see him? "COME!" she said, putting a foreleg larger than the Knight's whole body behind him. "COME, YOU MUZT MEET THE QUEEN AND ALL THE OTHERZ ZO YOU CAN BEE INTRODUCED...OR I CAN ZHOW YOU OUR PROBLEMZ DIRECTLY! YEZ, LET UZ DO THAT! CAN YOU FLY?"

[Fox]

Gaian Knight was a little disconcerted having mouth parts that close to his weak, fleshy parts. "I, er. Yes, that sounds...wonderful." Turned into honey. "It would be pretty useful to see what you've made so far...."

Loose rock and rubble - most of it from the hole Beatrizz had made, so as not to disturb any plants - lifted up and pulled together, forming a flat-topped chunk of rock. He took the opportunity to step up onto it, away from the nudging leg. So very strange. He pulled his hood back up. "I can fly, yes. Not awfully fast, but usually fast enough. Er...Fleur?" He glanced at the woman, realizing he wasn't quite sure how she got around, aside from grass-scented teleporting. "If you need a ride...?"

[Electra]

"Thank you," Fleur said graciously, accepting a hand to step up onto his floating platform. "The bees feel sorry for me because I can't fly, but I do all right for myself most of the time." She laughed as they rose into the air, looking around. "I do think sometimes that it would be nice, though. Riding along is so much fun, I can only imagine what it would be like to actually fly on my own." She seemed entirely unconcerned about going into the lair of the giant bees. Perhaps she hadn't thought hard enough yet about giant bee honey.

[Avenger Assembled]

Beatrizz led the way to a clear space between the two great hives, where what the two humans at first thought was a new grove of trees turned out to be two massive leaf-fans built over the head of the reclining queen, who was resting on a massive bed of dirt and leaves assembled the other bees: the enormous, oversized queen was half again as large as her already gigantic peers, and she loomed over the heroes as they arrived. Beatrizz quickly made introductions, and the queen bowed her massive head in greeting. The greeting was unusually short for the bees, but then again this was a business call. After the introduction, Beatrizz began the tour.

"YOU ZEE," she said, flying up to the top of the hives, each as big as slumping skyscrapers, and gestured to the two heroes: "WE HAVE TRIED TO BUILD UP THE HIVEZ, BUT THEY FALL OVER WHEN ZEY ARE TOO BEEG! NO MATTER WHAT WE DO!" She sounded unhappy about that, as only a giant bee can: this was obviously a sore subject. "TUNNELLING HELPED ZOME, BUT WE ARE NOT ZHAPED RIGHT FOR IT. IF WE DIG TOO DEEP, IT WILL ALL FALL DOWN!" The buzz of the other bees working was obvious as she talked, all the ground hereabouts thrumming with the busy activity of the giant insects.

[Fox]

He put his hands in his pockets, frowning at the hives and trying to imagine them less as a giant building full of huge, man-eating insects and more as a really, really over-sized rock sculpture that was trying to hold up under its own weight. A sculpture made out of...what was it made out of?

He closed his eyes behind the goggles, pausing in flight long enough to reach his senses out into the hive itself. I can't actually feel part of this, so I assume that's...I don't know. What do bees normally use? Wax? The rest is...good god. How is this thing standing up in the first place? Whatever they're using to reinforce all this dirt must be insanely tough....without it the critical angle of repose on this pile would be just awful. Hmm. He opened his eyes again, idly fiddling with one of the little stones in his pockets. "You've actually done a pretty good job...I think if humans had tried to work with what you have, they wouldn't have managed something half this big. What do you actually need in a good hive? So far I just know that it needs to be warm and protected...what's the inside like, and how big is the...ah, ideal home?"

[Electra]

Stesha hugged herself,growing a windbreak of trees on Gaian Knight's chunk of earth, just to keep from freezing. "It would be nice if they could all fit into one hive," she suggested, "maybe something a little lower and longer than what they've got now. I imagine they'll want some room for expansion, too. This area should be tectonically stable, and with Little Bay a mile away, they've got water, but not too much risk of flooding. The walls will have to be very thick, though. It's cold here in the winter!"

[Avenger Assembled]

"WE...HAVE HAD TROUBLE LEARNING," admitted the gigantic bee-monster with a slightly guilty look on her massive face. "IT WAZ MANY MANY GENERATIONS AGO THAT OUR MOZERZ MOZERZ MOZERZ LIVED IN REAL HIVEZ...WE HAVE BUILT AS BEZT AS WEE REMEMBER. WE KNOW WE NEED COMBS FOR ALL THE BEES, AND PLACEZ TO PUT OUR HONEY. THICK WALLZ AGAINZT THE WINTER, AND POINT ZOUZ." She sighed. "IF YOU CAN HELP UZ WIZ ZE BUILDING PROCEZZ, THAT WILL HELP TOO. WE CANNOT EAT THIZ WHOLE LAND DRY FOR REZIN!"

[Fox]

Gaian Knight furrowed his brow, pulling out a group of little rocks and cupping them in his hands. Trying awfully hard to ignore the weather (Fingerless gloves were perhaps not the best choice for winter.), he willed them to flow together and wrap upwards, shifting between different designs as if they were made of clay molded by obscenely fast, invisible hands. He was glad to not be thinking about giant, fire-breathing bees - they seemed pretty nice so far, but you never know; instead he tried to focus on what he did know: rock. Building most of the hive out of proper stone - or really, really compact dirt - would solve a lot of the structural problems, and anything underground could be reinforced with dense, heavy rock and whatever building supports lurked under the soil. Aside from making the thing big enough and not likely to collapse under its own load, the hard part was trying to make sure the darn thing was suited to their needs. He just really didn't know much about bee hives, and they didn't seem to know much themselves.... What was it Fleur said? Caught between instinct and intellect? How can I possibly make sure tunnels and combs are the right sizes?

Unless I don't have to, came the little voice in the back of his head, that whispering spot where scientific breakthroughs and artistic inspiration lurk.

He frowned, eyeing the landscape and letting the little clay-like model collapse back into chunks of mixed stone, which he shoved back in his pockets to idly fiddle with again. "....hm. If I built a little hive - a scale model, big enough for a bee or two but not big enough to house all of you - could you tell me if it suited you?" And not turn me into honey to test the combs?

[Electra]

"What a good idea!" Stesha said enthusiastically. "Beeatrizz, perhaps you and Ebeebeezzer or some of the others could help with that? He can build you some tunnels and rooms and you can tell him what size feels right to you. We'll work with your instincts, and then you'll be able to see how Gaian Knight builds, too!" She gestured to the edge of the bee meadow, and suddenly more coniferous trees were rising up, killing a little more of the wind as they filled out. "And maybe we can test them out for warmth, too."

[Avenger Assembled]

Soon enough, several gigantic bees had joined Gaian Knight on the ground, where they eagerly pored over his work, pointing gigantic limbs and offering suggestions. Of course, when that meant four insects the size of Greyhound buses were looming over him, waving man-sized limbs around and snapping their jaws thoughtfully just a few feet from his soft, unprotected fleshy body, it was a difficult working environment. For all that, they were very enthusiastic, calling out suggestions and arguing with each other. "WE NEED MORE SPAZE TO LOOK AT THE GIRLZ!" "ZHUT UP BARRY YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! WE NEED A LIBRARY TO WRITE OUR BOOK OF THE HIVE!"

Across the way, Beatrizz was giving her friend the plant controller a curious look. "IZ ANYTHING WRONG?" she asked, even her whisper loud as a jet passing overhead. "YOU ZEEM ZTRANGER THAN YOU UZUALLY DO." It wasn't an unfriendly question, just a curious one. "ARE YOU GOING TO HATCH ZOON?"

[Fox]

Gaian Knight chuckled, half in actual amusement at their antics and half just to keep his nerves in check, trying his best to not be too close to those snapping jaws and sweeping limbs. More than anything else, he tried to keep his mind on what he was doing.

Little stones and clods of dirt had taken up an orbit around him as he worked, both hands and eyes glowing pretty much constantly as rock and soil pulled themselves into a much smaller version of the hive he hoped to build for his new...friends. For all that they made him feel like he was going to be made into 'rezin', they were pretty helpful; he'd underestimated how big they'd need tunnels to be, not to mention how broad some of the chambers would have to be made for them to be comfortable. Or was that bee comfortable? Oh god, it's contagious.

Before too long, at least, he had something that might work - the earth made itself pretty sturdy when he told it to, plenty of big, general-purpose rooms they could socialize in or repurpose, and most of the walls had a thick coating of nearly natural-strength dirt the bees could dig into for honeycombs or widened tunnels or whatever decorations they thought their hive would need. If it needed any. Are there bee artists? I think I like the idea of bees in giant artsy hats, arguing over poetry. "Well, ladies and gentlemen?" He dusted off his hands, most of his little orbiting rock friends settling back to hover behind his shoulders. "Anything else you want to make sure gets changed or fixed before I start working on the big version?"

[Electra]

"I'm all right," Stesha assured Beeatrizz, suppressing the face she wanted to make at the mental image the giant bee conjured. "No hatching till summertime, actually, when the world is warm again. The cold just bothers me. Let's go inside and see what Gaian Knight has done!" She teleported herself to the entrance, followed closely by a half-dozen surprisingly speedy bees, and walked inside. "It's a lot warmer already," she observed, with some relief. It was fairly dark, as would be expected in a windowless honeycomb, but the bees didn't need light to see.

Taking out a seed from her pouch, Stesha made a water lily grow in the palm of her hand, then reached inside it to pull out a flashlight. Flicking on the beam, she played it over the walls of the big inner chamber. "It's huge, and yet it's somehow cozy too," she said approvingly. "What do you all think?"

[Avenger Assembled]

The bees were very happy with Gaian Knight's design, peering into it and poking it with their giant limbs, buzzing to each other pleasedly in voices that nearly made the air blur. "HOORAY! YOU BUILT UZ A COMB! IT IZ ZOOOO NIZE!" They flew up behind him, coming perilously close to slapping him on the back with legs as large as his whole body before Beatrizz hissed at them. While some of the less intelligent ones were wondering how they'd all fit, the smarter ones seemed quite pleased with what had been wrought. Speaking for the others, she said, "IT IZ A BEAUTIFUL HOUZE, GAIAN KNIGHT! YOU ARE THE BEZT! YEZ, PLEAZE MAKE IT BIGGER!"

[Fox]

Gaian Knight held very, very still, entirely too aware of the legs like columns and the jaws like vices and the- It's probably best not to think about fire and stingers, he reflected. I think I'd like to sleep tonight.

Coughing, he edged toward the entrance. "I'm, ah, glad you all like it so much. I'll just leave this one here, then, at least until I have something bigger done for you. You can stay relatively warm and please, let me know if you notice anything you want changed, or don't see here. I'm going to go ahead and...er...get to work...outside. It's much easier that way." That last bit was only half true, he grimaced to himself, collecting some rocks together and hopping on, heading up into the air. Working the earth was always much easier on the ground, where he felt more connected...but it was much, much harder when he was surrounded by giant insects.

He sat cross-legged on his rock now, a soft earthy golden glow covering him, his platform, and the little bits of rock and dirt that were just kind of hanging out up in the air to keep him company. Hands in his lap, he sank his senses into the earth. Heh. Architect for some giant honey bees...ah, Ma, if you could see me now, he chuckled, and got to work, large masses of dirt and stone pulling themselves up out of the ground to begin the skeleton of a hive worthy of such interesting new...friends.

[Electra]

Stesha followed him outside to watch him work, though the temptation was strong to stay inside the new hivelet where it was already appreciably warmer. Beeatriz did her the favor of following her out, the massive fuzzy insect providing a very effective barrier to the wind. "It's looking great!" she called encouragingly to Gaian Knight. "You're doing a wonderful job! We all appreciate this very much!" Having the beehive finished would take a major load off her mind. With the colony intact and warm for the winter, all she'd have to do was make sure they had flowers now and again so they didn't starve in the winter. She could handle that part!

[Fox]

Gaian Knight had to grin to himself as the last up the upper part of the hive started to pull together. It couldn't hurt to show off a little, right? Besides, I want to find that water table...yes. That's a perfectly good excuse! Without budging from his 'wise man on the mountain' pose, and completely without warning, the earthmover dropped out of the sky like...well, like a rock, plummeting down through the top of the hive as it closed up over his head.

Deep down under the hive the earth could be heard rumbling, like tons and tons of dirt and stone were being shoved out of the way as something moved at impossible speed.

[Avenger Assembled]

"OOH, WHAT DO YOU THINK HE'Z GOING TO DO?" came a speculative question from behind Gaian Knight, the sheer bulk of the bees making a mockery of their efforts to whisper discreetly to one another. "I BET HE'Z GOING TO MAKE A HOUZE ZO BIG, WE COULD MAKE A DOZEN DOZEN BABIEZ!" "YEAH!" The bees really seemed to like that idea, especially the boys who'd stuck their heads out to look. "ONE DAY THIZ WHOLE WORLD WILL BE COVERED IN OUR HIVEZ! IT'LL BE GREAT!"

"BUT WAIT, WHAT WILL WE EAT?"

"NO, ITZ COOL, WE'LL HAVE PARKZ AND ZTUFF FOR OUR FLOWERZ AND OTHER ZTUFF WE EAT. AND OTHER ANIMALZ TOO, ZO WE CAN LOOK AT THEM. I HAVE THIZ ALL PLANNED OUT..."

[Fox]

At long last the grinding rumbling noise stopped, and after a moment of silence Gaian Knight reappeared...not over by the hive, but simply popping out of the ground over by where Fleur was standing, and where he could get a better look at his finished creation. The ground nearby just sort of...opened up, like it was moving out of his way as he floated up on his platform, and then closed again without a sign of having been moved. Even the grass was right where it should be, healthy and relatively undisturbed. "Well," he said, standing up and dusting himself off a bit, "I think that'll just about do it. I was kind of sad to stop - you just don't get a chance to build really big things much in the city."

The completed hive wasn't quite as tall as its neighboring skyscraper prototypes, but it was much, much larger, both broader and longer than what the bees had built. On the surface it mostly looked like dirt, but anyone who'd watched it come together would know that nearly ever wall was reinforced with solid, seamless rock - thicker on the outside to keep in the cold, of course, and while it had more than a few ways to come and go each made a few quick turns to keep the wind out. Its architect seemed awfully pleased with himself, hands in his pockets as he gave it a critical eye.

"You have a lot more space, for one," he said, feeling a bit like a real estate agent. Which, he supposed, he kind of was. "If you want more space, most of the tunnels and chambers are covered in a good layer of packed dirt - you can dig in or resin them to your hearts' content. I...wasn't really sure what you'd use all the space for, so you can dig around a bit and make what you want of 'em. You have tunnels and chambers going pretty far underground, where the ground itself should keep you warm and cool. I spent a little extra time down there, too - there's a really big cavern that I had a chance to fix up; it's completely rock-lined to keep vermin out, and has plenty of space and walls along the outside and in the middle for honeycombs or...ah, bee young, or whatever you want. Way down at the very bottom I messed with the water table a little, and grabbed some sediment and the like to filter some nastiness out, so you have fresh water down there. It won't fill up instantly, but give it a couple days to do its thing."

He couldn't help but grin. He wasn't actually sure how much space bees - much less bees that size - actually needed, but he'd seen a normal beehive or two in his day and was pretty sure they had more room than they could make use of for a while, especially considering the building-like hives they'd built on their own. The grin got a little wider, thinking of the air full of little (I guess 'little' is really, really relative.) baby fire-breathers. "I am really, really tired. That was a lot of fun."

[Electra]

"Oh, look at it!" Impulsively, Stesha grabbed Gaian Knight and hugged him. "It's wonderful! I can't believe how big and solid and wonderful it is! In the spring grass will grow all over it, and it'll look so natural it'll be like it was always there!" She was practically glowing with happiness as she and her bee tenants took in their new situation. "I really owe you one for this. You do good work, Gaian Knight."

[Fox]

Gaian Knight's grin got a little wider, but he had the presence of mind to tell the dirt he'd accumulated to stay on HIM, and not go anywhere, please. Not that dirt didn't seem to enjoy hanging around anyway, for some reason. He scratched the back of his head. "I figured they deserved somewhere nice to live, y'know. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing your best, right? Or...something like that. Besides, it really was fun."

He scratched the back of his neck, watching bees investigate their new home. "If they ever need anything, or you need other work done, don't hesitate to call. This place is neat - it's kind of like working in a really big sandbox. The scale of what you can safely mess with is just...." He blinked, and gestured at the massive hive. "Well...yeah."

[Avenger Assembled]

The happy bees continued their almost-deafening celebration for a while, then the majority of them ducked inside to explore their new home, the sheer vibration of their wings making the earth vibrate ever so slightly under everyone's feet. Beeatriz stayed out to thank the two heroes again, looking as pleased as only a bee-monster can. "WE ARE FOREVER IN YOUR DEBT, GAIAN KNIGHT! WILL YOU ZTAY WITH UZ FOR A WHILE AND BUILD MORE HIVEZ?" she asked ingenously, though from her tone she didn't really expect a positive answer. "OR AT LEAZT VIZIT MORE? WHEN WE HAVE BABEE BEEZ, THERE WILL BE ZO MUCH ZPACE!"