I Was Hurrying So I'm Not Sure If This Is The Most Accurate Representation, But I've Joined The Summary

I was hurrying so I'm not sure if this is the most accurate representation, but I've joined the summary and here are some of my favorite pieces from 2021!

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Drew this with the eight true gods of Myrialore (the area which MM/Mostly Mollusk takes place in, encompassing Taranoake, Citadell, Kelsik, Renin and Anemone Reef among others) to figure out their personalities and relationships a bit more

(It is Very Messy but I don't care :D)

Interestingly, the new flower god (Solif) is the only one not native to Myrialore and was instead created through the collective belief mostly of bees, wasps, beetles and assorted colonies further inland.

Both of my mad scientist characters, but drawn as the video game characters they were most inspired by (Ne'Mon as Monomon and Tawny-Buzzard as Doctor H.B)

Tell me an inside joke between you and a friend, without context.

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.

Uh.

I just found a bug? And have no idea what it is?? ??????

Under readmore because I listed everything I could about it (not including colors which are instead described using actual images)

-Winged/adult insect

-Setaceous antennae same length as body (using below measurement)

-15/16 of an inch (2.5 cm) exactly from head to wingtips

-Four straight wings folded over back, hindwings significantly longer than forewings, forewings are nearly 1/2 an inch (~12mm) while hindwings nearly 3/4 of an inch long (18 or 19 mm). Hindwings curve into a long bottleneck-like shape past the end of the abdomen, stretch 6/7mm past abdomen

-Two black compound eyes less than one mm diameter

-Head 2mm long and about a millimeter and a half wide

-The thorax (or whatever portion visible above the wings, though likely the full length) is just barely noticeably thinner than head and presumably between 2/16 and 6/16ths of an inch (I don't have an underside view so I can't see exactly where it ends) (3mm to 10mm)

-Abdomen roughly between 1.5 cm (9/16 inch) and 1cm (6/16 inch) depending on previous thorax debate, what seems to be a visible black ovipositor half a centimeter long, two tan cerci about a mm and a half long each

-Relatively long, thin mouthparts greatly resembling an Orthopteran's

-Hind legs assumed equal length to hind wings, mid and forelimbs have a tibia and femur of equal length and are about 7mm long total--all legs are smooth rather than serrated

-Wings are opaque but with visible veins

-For clarification, after I got as close as possible to a wingless view the thorax and abdomen are assumed to be equal in length

-This Specific Individual isn’t really moving much except its (her?) antennae unless prompted and hasn’t opened its wings at all.

Conclusion: The insect it most closely resembles is a grasshopper, so it’s probably part of Orthopterida if not simply Orthoptera but I am still left with so many questions