#bug lore :)

[stevie-petey]

hiii! would you ever write a blurb, about how big acted agter her dad leaving her? i really enjoy the angst

oh this is just pure angst i respect the hustle lmao

enjoy !

"where are you?" hand on the telephone line, your short legs extend to their full height so that the phones receiver fits against your ear. no sound will be lost, no words mistranslated. you have to know where he is.

"ladybug..."

he sighs. all he fucking does is sigh. the sound enrages you. your knuckles clench together and theres a bitter taste hearing the nickname that was once sweet honey to you.

"daddy, its been days." you wont cry. you refuse to let him hear you cry.

only dustin cries. only your mother cries. but never you. never your father.

"i know, y/n." he sounds tired now. as if your insistence on missing the man who raised you and sang melodies to you and rocked you to sleep every time you had nightmares is a burden to him.

you blink away tears. "then come home."

the plead hangs over the telephone line. somewhere in virginia your father is on the other end. maybe hes already in a different state. maybe hes an acre away, maybe even outside your window, haunting your childhood home.

"you know i cant."

why? why why why why why?

but there are far too complex things to understand at twelve. asking "why", as youve learned since your father leaving, only amounts to shitty excuses and lies.

"did i-" did i do something wrong? did you leave because of me?

despite the words dying in your throat, your father still understands the unspoken ghosts that shadow your room. "no, ladybug. this has nothin' to do with you or dust, you hear me? i just... your mama and i werent happy. thats all."

whos carrie?

you will never forget the way your mother screamed in her husbands face, tears staining her red cheeks as you cradled dustin to your chest, muffling his ears that he wouldnt hear anything else.

where are you going, daddy?

just out for a few days. nothin' to worry about, lil' ladybug.

he had ruffled your hair. pinched your cheek and hid his suitcase behind his body. guilty. but you didnt want to admit it then, not yet.

this has nothin' to do with you or dust, you hear me?

y/n, is daddy okay? why is mama crying?

dustin is only nine and hes already experienced more hurt than you ever thought possible at that age. you cant protect him from it. not when the source of the hurt keeps calling the house to hear your voices. not when the source of the hurt still has his cologne in the bathroom. when he still has his guitar in the den with strings left unstrummed.

not when the entire house is a physical reminder of the man who abandoned it.

your mama and i werent happy. thats all.

thats all. thats all thats all thats all thats all.

as if its nothing. as if your world hasnt ended and youre left to pick up the pieces all alone.

thats all.

"fuck you." youre twelve and the words feel heavy on your tongue in a satisfying manner. "fuck. you!"

"y/n, you know we dont use that language-"

"i hate you!"

"i know youre upset-"

youre screaming and your knees shake under the weight of fury that is like a rock in your stomach. hard. unmoving. there isnt room for anything else.

"i hate you!" you do. you hate him. you hate the man who calls you ladybug and your baby brother dust and your mama honeybee. you hate him.

"i love you. you and dustin, i love you."

"you left!"

he doesnt respond.

"youre a fucking coward! a goddamn coward for leaving us!" wasnt it he who told you never to abandon the ones you love?

all you hear is his breathing. the air that is wasting its chemical makeup to keep him alive.

"how could you do this to us? to-to me?" arent you his baby, too? arent you his girl? his blood?

"y/n-" only it isnt your fathers voice that coaxes your name with remorse. its your mother, its her arms that hold you as you cry. its her voice that whispers for you to hang up the phone. that the man on the other side isnt worth it.

"no!" you try to shake her off of you. your elbow clips her chin but still she holds you. still she is gently. and it infuriates you even more. its all bullshit. all such fucking bullshit. "let me go!"

to your mother or father, you arent sure who the plead is for.

in the corner of your eye you see dustin. small, dimpled dustin hiding under a hat your father got him only a few weeks ago at the county fair.

hes watching your mother physically restrain you as your hurl extremities at your father. the strain in your voice draws the image of blood. your mothers bruised chin draws the image of purple. dustins tears the image of blue.

your father taught you kindness. his final lesson will be how to let anger consume you raw.

“COME HOME” BLURB MASTERLIST

if you’d like to buy me a coffee ☕︎

[rev1ved-0verseer]

Become bug, if you think you can survive…

I have created a new community here to let people have fun and roleplay as any bug. This is a welcoming space for people to create their own groups within it as there are many species within earth just for bugs.

If you wish to join, click here: https://www.tumblr.com/communities/endovale

The Overseer will watch and document everything. Create fun lore and stories as you evolve and thrive. Show memes, art, theories, and any other post related to bugs or the story of the community as it goes on. Make friends or enemies, for you need to survive.

[chickenchirps27]

DIGITAL COLORING FINALLY CLICKED TO ME HOLY SHIT

Also Magical Girl Bug ☆ 🐛 ☆

[dianechattaway]

You made it.

Somehow, through hashtags or happenstance...you landed here.

Welcome.

I’m Diane Chattaway.

Writer. Photographer. Bug listener. Empath of living things.

I name bugs, take their portraits, and write their stories.

I turn macro photography into fairy tales and grief into storybooks.

Somewhere between folklore and photojournalism, you’ll find me...

telling heart-heavy tales from the tiny corners of nature,

where even the unseen creatures get a voice.

If you’ve ever cried over a dead beetle, named a spider,

or felt too weird for the world, then

you’re without a doubt, my kind of people.

Macro tales. Quiet truths we keep hidden. It's all there, magic in the margins.

Welcome to my strange little garden.

Truth is, I have no idea what I’m doing.

I’m flailing around the void of the internet like everyone else,

trying to find my place, and my people.

I’m here to share the journey:

the chaos, the beauty, the bugs,

and the words that just won’t leave me alone.

Journey to maybe someday, being someone’s favorite writer.

Although for now, I'm still finding my voice. Figuring out where I belong, literarily speaking.

I'm just out here doing my best to capture the beauty of God’s creation in its tiniest forms.

To show the sacredness in wings and silence and soil.

To prove that even the smallest lives have meaning.

This is where I share an eclectic mix of all things me...

all the while hoping to reach the folks out there who are a lot like me.

The weirdos. The outcasts. The ones who don’t fit any mold.

All of us just trying to be, while finding joy in the small things.

While here on this page, you might find a poem, a fictional tale,

a portrait of a bug I’ve named,

a soft rant about why I think kindness is wildly underrated, and might just be the key to saving the world,

or maybe a random musing about why the number 9 always circles back to itself.

Seriously ... “Nine is the only number that multiplies into anything, simplifies itself, and still circles back to nine, like it’s whispering, I never really left.”

Anyway, like I said ...who knows what’ll show up?

This page is my own personal chaos garden.

I welcome you to stay anyhow.

Read a story.

Ask a question.

Or just sit in the quiet with me awhile.

Feel free to follow me on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/deechattaway

xxDee

[sceloporus-verycool]

b u g l o r e the one-and-fifth

HOW THE FIRST QUEEN WAS BIRTHED FROM THINGS LEARNED AND THE MAKING OF THE CASTES

You have learned how the God Queen came to the great beast that was killed and became the land, and you have learned of the birth of the Gods who ate the God Queen and became strong. This story comes from those first seasons when the sun did not watch us and when all the Gods were winged.

The land, the great beast that the God Queen made still with her venom, was covered by beasts then. The beasts had more shapes and more sizes then, though none were as large and as powerful as the daughters who had eaten the insides of the God Queen. In those times the Gods had only one labor, the labor of learning, which was the first labor. The Gods had learned of no evil, for the God of Death and Eating had not yet learned it from the beasts that she watched often.

When all the learning of the land that could be found through watching was gathered, the Gods turned their thoughts toward learning that lay in difficult places. No place was as difficult to gather from as the days that were behind, which was the time before their birthing when the God Queen had flown alone. The Gods searched their Insides, to find secret learning buried there, and they became eager to learn of birthing, for it was the labor that the God Queen had done and they had not. But with their eagerness to learn of birthing came the first fear among the Gods, for they had learned that any who completed the labor of birthing would be eaten by her daughters.

The God who had learned of Death and Eating from the beasts below disagreed when this labor of birthing was brought to be joined. The scent of her fear was potent among the Gods, for she had learned precisely of how the cruel beasts did their killing. She did not want death-smell to come among her sisters. But there was one God whose eagerness to learn of birthing was too strong to be calmed.

The God who wished to learn of birthing was named Atiati-kikitia, who had learned first of comfort and of living with her sisters beside. She flew high above the other Gods and welcomed them to join her labor of birthing, the last learning her mother the God Queen had held secret. The God of Death and Eating's fear became a thick cloud that reached many of the Gods, and together the fearful Gods sought to repel Atiati-kikitia from her learning. But she, the fearless God of Comfort and Living, was beyond their attempts, so strong was the smell of her eagerness to learn.

A plan was made then between the Gods who did not go apart with fear. Atiati-kikitia told her sisters who were beside her that they should change their shape to that of males and mate with her. With the shape of males they would pass things held inside to her, and she would become swollen with the insides of many. Her daughters, it seemed to her, would be made of the insides of the Gods who had mated with her—each God could provide enough for more daughters than there were beasts upon the land below. Atiati-kikitia would then be the First Queen who would be the mother to all Queens.

The first God to join this plan, the first to change her form and mate, was Hiyiki-Haka, the Cradle God, who had learned of tending to the other Gods in still places. Her daughters would be skilled in the labor of nest-keeping, and would always be beside the Queen who would birth them first. Second to mate was small Iki-Ikas, God of Rest and Searching. Her daughters would go beyond the Queen's sight and bring back their learning, and find comfort. Last to mate was the largest God, Rakkitik, who had learned of Strength and Watching. She was last because she had stood with her feelers outward to repel any who would bring threat. Her daughters would keep her great size among their peers, and be always watchful of threats that would be repelled.

The God of Death and Eating watched this mating from afar with thoughts that were stale with hatred. She made a great drumming that shook the land and terrified the beasts upon it. This mating and the birthing to follow, she had learned, would bring the Gods down to the land, where they would be among the beasts who killed and ate one another. She then flew higher even than Atiati-kikitia had, and she left her scent in the sky that the sun would one day follow, and she said to all the Gods, “You will be among death-smell, and you will have it always on your armor. You will be between the beasts that are skilled in killing and eating, and you will learn of its doing. I will show you what I have learned of death and eating now, so that you will learn of its evil and be afraid, and you will abandon this labor of birthing.”

The Gods who were eager to join the labors of Atiati-kikitia were made fearful then. The God of Death and Eating changed her shape many times. She became a storm of flies that bit the Gods' wings. She became long and narrow and broke the Gods' armor, and swallowed their insides. She showed them ever-larger beasts that pressed terrible heaviness upon them to break what was standing. She gave herself precise and skillful parts, and she pulled the Gods into small pieces with grasping legs. And the beasts below watched, learning of ways that they might do harm to the Gods that they had always been beneath.

Many sisters then joined the God of Death and Eating, and took her learning among themselves. They learned precisely what the God of Death and Eating shared, and so they feared to be among the beasts below. They joined in hateful storms of pulling, pressing, grinding, cracking, and sought to show the Gods beside Atiati-kikitia the pain that they would bring to themselves in their labor of birthing.

The Gods who mated were very afraid, for they were few beside the Gods who flew above them and did them harm. They took refuge in the land below, fighting through both Gods and beasts to find comfort and continue their mating. The Cradle God Hiyiki-Haka stayed by Asiati-kikitia's side and cleaned her of the filth of the land. Iki-Ikas strove to dig tunnels in the ground where the Gods who did them harm would not find them, and Rakkitik was watching behind. Still the God of Death and Eating bit at them, bringing further hateful curses upon them.

“I will find you always,” said the God of Death and Eating. “I will hurt you until you return to me and abandon your labors! I will hear you when I cannot see you! I will feel you digging beneath me! I will bring my learning of death and eating upon your daughters until only Queens are left, and I will share them to the beasts! I have made this my labor, and I will do it always!”

The Gods trembled in their tunnels, their mating finished. Hiyiki-Haka the Cradle God could not quiet the First Queen Atiati-kikitia's fear, and the First Queen became sick with it. Her thoughts could not settle with the God of Death and Eating's words among them. She said to her mated Gods, “I am afraid for my daughters. When my labor of birthing is complete and I am dead, the God of Death and Eating will bring her hate to them, and they will be killed with no learning gathered. They will be found when they walk the land, they will be heard even when stillness is around them.”

Outside, in the dark sky, the God of Death and Eating began her newfound labor that was made with her hatred of the First Queen and her daughters that would follow. She found the largest sister among the Gods who had abandoned the labor of birthing, and said to her, “You will change your shape, and you will fill this dark place with light, that I might see those Gods who hide below.” The God that she spoke to did as she was told, and she became the Sun who watches the land.

The Cradle God gave words of comfort, but had no answer for the First Queen's fears. Rakkitik with all her strength had no way to challenge their attacker. It was Iki-Ikas, the smallest of the mated Gods, who in her smallness had learned of being hidden, that found a plan among her learning. Iki-Ikas ventured above and walked the land, until she was found by the Sun. Storms raged on all sides of the God of Rest and Searching, and she found herself before the God of Death and Eating.

“I have found you, Iki-Ikas who is smallest among the Gods. Have you come to be among us in the sky? We have shared much learning, you and I, and it would be a comfort to have you beside me again.”

“No,” said Iki-Ikas. “I will repel you, and I will do this until one of us lies killed on the land.”

The God of Death and Eating spoke no words to Iki-Ikas. She was a cloud of biting mouths then, and she tore Iki-Ikas into many small pieces. The Sun was burdened to see this killing, for Iki-Ikas had walked upon her armor many times, and forever after did the Sun's thoughts become unsettled. But as she was torn, Iki-Ikas learned of being many small things, and in her cleverness, became many more pieces that were smaller even than her killers' mouths could hold. The God of Death and Eating thought herself victorious, for in so many pieces Iki-Ikas could no longer speak or do her labors. But Iki-Ikas rode the Wind God that explores wide places, and drifted back beneath the land where the mated Gods waited. She showed them her form, touching their feelers and speaking to them in ways they had never before learned.

“You will see me now,” said Iki-Ikas. “I am among you, but the God of Death and Eating thinks me killed. I will share the learning of this form with you all, that you may escape the gaze of the God of Death and Eating and her sisters Outside. We will be inside your daughters” she said to the First Queen, “and let them speak in ways that the God of Death and Eating will not have learned to hear.”

One by one, the Gods who had mated with Atiati-kikitia the First Queen took the form that Iki-Ikas showed them. They became hidden to all but the First Queen's daughters. They became the Gods Inside then, and they labor at our Insides, and we have all joined their labors against the Gods Outside.

* * *

When Skith left sleep-travel, her legs were steady and strong, but her thoughts were sluggish, for she had traveled far in sleep. She shared food with Akkis and found that her thoughts were settled. Even with her thoughts slowed, her eagerness for learning was fresh, and she shared much with Akkis.

“Which of the Gods Inside who mated with the First Queen am I the daughter of?” she asked.

“You are small,” said Akkis, “in the manner of Iki-Ikas, as am I. We are workers, and so we have many labors to join. The Soldiers, largest of all, do their labors of repelling in the tunnels above, and they do it around the wise nest-keepers who tend to the Queen.”

“Why, then, did the God of Death and Eating take the name Iki when she came into the Colony?” asked Skith.

“You have learned the story of your namesake from the Replete who does not live in these low tunnels. That is the nature of stories told in the tunnels above, where many stories pass between many tellers. Here our stories are older, and they are often broken and remade, and there are fewer who tell them and tend them. I have not learned of Iki, and it seems to me that her name is long-buried.”

Skith heard learning in Akkis's words, and she asked, “How then has the story I have learned, the story of Skith and the First Foraging, been changed in the days since you learned it?”

Akkis touched Skith's head with her feelers four times then, and said to her, “I learned the story of Akkis and the First Foraging, and it was not the form of a sister named Iki that the God of Death and Eating took. Her shape was that of a wise Queen who folded evil into sweet learning, and so made the threat of her hatreds into a secret thing that was beneath her good scent.”

Skith's feelers stood tall then. Akkis smelled Skith's confusion, and said to her, “It was a story told in a season that was hungry and fearful. You should not let that season into your thoughts now, when you have come freshly from sleep-travel.”

Akkis could smell that Skith was eager to once again join the labors of the Colony. “You will go now,” she said to Skith, “to join the labors you find. I will put the smell of the Colony on you, and so you will join your sisters in the tunnels above. Be among the scents that are made by the Gods Inside in those higher tunnels while you are young, before you go Outside.” She ran her feelers across Skith's lowest parts, and with them spread over Skith the kissec she had saved, for kissec bears the smell of the Colony most strongly.

Before Skith left the place of comfort they shared, Akkis said, “You will return here before the smell of kissec on your armor fades, or you may find danger.”

Skith agreed, and left the lower tunnels to be among the labors above. It was a new and novel thing to feel the lightness upon her legs that had once, in difficult climbing, carried her burdensome armor.

[nyehilismwriting]

How do the bug aliens perceive humans? Are we intimidating from their pov or just weird/ugly/cute/mid? Do they have any human stereotypes or jokes?

the bugs are pretty diverse in their exposure to humans - the ones that live and work closely with humans tend to regard them pretty casually: it's been a couple of generations since first contact, they're conceptually used to the idea. there's still some frictions, usually caused by communication issues - that's probably the big one..humans are Weirdly Loud, have to express everything in words (so unwieldy) and completely oblivious to more subtle ways of communicating🙄 there's provably some frustration there, which tends to improve with exposure.

the ones that are less used to humans probably run into these issues more - humans are difficult to talk to, easy to frighten or offend, prone to panic, judgemental, fleshy, tiny, loud, smell weird....

[flightyalrighty]

Perhaps Rouge and GUN already know Shadow has a bug in his brain. With a head injury like that, surely they did a brain scan and would be scrutinizing it to death. Plus I can't imagine GUN passing up the opportunity to look in his noggin either. Also, do the bugs eat the brain, or do they merely control the host while they take nutrients (from their blood, most likely)?

To preserve the mystery and horror that comes with the unknown for folks that don't wanna lose that, I've placed my answer under this cut:

When the parasite is active (and it is most active during the "moving in" phase before it grows large enough), it produces an invisible field around itself that messes with all electronics within a range. The range is small, of course, when it's just a larva, and increases either with size or, in the case of the cave, numbers.

For most of the time while Shadow was unconscious, the parasite was active and settling in. Any electronics that got too close to his brain during that time would freak out.

This would cause some fear and confusion in the med-bay when, for instance, his heart monitor would randomly go bananas, even when nothing's actually going wrong.

Electronics can be protected from this by being wrapped in aluminum foil, but let's not get ahead of ourselves :P

As for what the parasites eat, they like to feed off of various chemicals that get sent to the brain, but mainly adrenaline. This is why they force their hosts to produce more and more and more of it.

[get-back-homeward]

Stage Play: My Old Friend

i've been here more than 2 years now and gone deep into the tags a decade back. but i've never seen anything about Two of Us 2.0: My Old Friend, a stage play by Stephen Larsen imagining a final meeting with John and Paul on November 5, 1980.

here's the summary:

The play begins on November 5, 1980. John Lennon, alone in his apartment at the Dakota in New York City, is at a crossroads. He has been having recurring dreams of death and is ready to make big changes in his life, that is if he can summon up the courage. Just then, who should appear, unannounced at his door but Paul McCartney.  The two haven't seen each other for about four years.  John is both glad and a bit wary at the sudden appearance of his old friend.  Can they mend fences? Can they come together? Or they forever doomed to be bound by the strands and complications of their shared history?

here’s a copy of the script.

it packs a lot of bug lore into a few acts (probably too much for a general audience) and leans a bit exposition heavy to fit it into J&P conversation (assumes they haven’t talked most of the decade but then they start bearing souls). the dialogue is an acquired taste, and it commits the Two of Us sin of making paul more normal for the sake of plot and using him to talk through to john. it also leans into very dark territory by the end (tarot reading with jayne mansfield among other things), which is probably tough even for devoted fans.

but it notably features some very J&P moments complete with goons humor, spontaneous bursting into song, and wild tonal shifts that are very them. it's funny then that the most authentic bits are the ones that make me doubt it could ever be adapted right to the stage. at least not without a devoted group producing it.

would have made a good fanfic though. it's especially poignant after Now and Then's release, even if i am a bit skeptical about the timelines (the idea john and paul didn't see each other for 4 years, that the fall 1980 meeting was out of the blue, time of writing Now and Then, etc.). with the biopics back in discussion, it's worth taking another look at it.

this script was read onstage in holmdel, new jersey in 2018. did anyone attend the script reading?

more importantly, has anything been done with it since?

[bugisbonkerz]

earliest drawing of duck i can find that i made…… must’ve made it when i was a wee 12 year old

[mysterygears]

bugs me and bf have conjured:

snuggle bug

hot bug

bug ass (resummoned)

pain bug (catchphrase: "twist it left or twist it right") (i hate him)

bug bug (catchphrase: "bug it left or bug it right")

buddy bug (he is your friend :))

spider bug (spider and bug at the same time)

shit bug (in relationship with buddy bug)

i will add on if the bug lore expands

[beepccore]

there’s lots of fake ass duality. there’s tons of old swinging pendulums.

you were tailor made for this era!

tick. tock. tick. tock.

[logicpng]

this bastard is like tailor made for my rendering style. make him fukcin. EXTRA shiny

[cuddlebugmonster]

Mayhem final evolution!

When coming up on this little guys design I immediately thought of the Komainu.

Described as a lion-dog creature, Komainu are usually found in front of temples / Shinto shrines in japan. These creature are protectors and guardians of holy grounds, their sworn duty being to ward off evil spirits and serve any deities they are assigned to.

From the physique to the overall description, I just couldn’t get it out of my head. I mean come on !

Literally in the first episode of the show mayhem is shown purring, meowing, is called a “nuclear Saint Bernard” by Donnie and “dog thingy” by April XD

AM NOT CRAZY I SWEAR !!!!

THE WORMS !!!! THE LORE !!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

[sceloporus-verycool]

What is this b u g l o r e ?

(EDIT: Check the tag #GODS INSIDE for the b u g l o r e now.)

The tag above should find all of the parts I've posted of an excerpt from a book I wrote. It's why I made this blog originally. Give it a read if you like the sound of the phrase "bug mythology." I don't know much about publishing, I don't know much about how "real" writers make their careers stick, but I worked really really hard on it and I want to share it.

I wrote a very heartfelt message just now about the book and accidentally lost it all in a tragic copy + paste blunder, so I'll make this the second, cooler draft. In 2020, I needed escapism from a family tragedy, and I ended reading a LOT about ants, and a LOT of mythology. The two of them ran together in my head, and here I am, with 441 pages of bug lore, the speculative myths of a society that has the eusociality dial cranked to 10 (ours is what, 6? 7 maybe?).

Let me know if you want to know MORE BUG LORE. Let me know if you liked what's here. There's Skith, who climbed. Akkis, who ran. The two-tandem of Sett and Tattik. Rika, who went downward, and who dueled in the Serpent-Tunnel. The Small Colony, the Four Tree Colony, the tumult of Our Mound where no Queen lives, and the great labors of the Gods Inside. I think it's frankly epic and you would like it. Tell me if you like it or hated it and especially why I should receive a million dollars for it.

[nyehilismwriting]

im sorry this has probably been asked before but i cant seem to find anything about it sooo how do you pronounce rhaxa and imxa?

no worries! i have answered this before but i couldn't find it either lol so: rhaxa is pronounced like "raks-a", with the x as in words like taxi; imxa is pronounced 'im-shah', with the x as an sh- sound.

there is going to be a third alien character introduced in ch5 part 2 (in some routes) who's name is xadi, with the x pronounced similar to a z- sound. just to keep things complicated:-)