IGN : purretao
Genre: Dark
Word count: 955
It all started when Marvin got his first Robobee. Of course, he had never seen a real living bee. All his life he had lived in a big city, never managed to go to one of the countryside bee preservation areas and all he knew about them was from his biology classes and the occasional documentary. Yet he found those almost extinct creatures pretty fascinating. So when in the online game he was playing one of his pets evolved into a mechanical bee, he had a blast.
The image was small and not particularly special, but for Marvin it transcended beyond game mechanics and character progress. He enjoyed watching the little sprite on the screen, spending time after time marveling its details. The yellow and silver body, the translucent wings and the pronounced scary looking metallic stinger. Sometimes he imagined the virtual pet to be really angry at humans for managing to eradicate its real life sisters. Rising its tiny fists against the oppressors, burning hatred in its menacing look... And other days he just stared mesmerised at its animation on the screen, 'hitting' the virtual monster, helping its master's progress to another level...
Some might find this weird obsession with a pet in an idle game unfathomable, but stranger things happen every day in gamers' lives. As for Marvin, the natural course of logic demanded him to get his second pet evolved to a Robobee as fast as he could. It didn't take him long to acquire a matching set of mecha-insects, his greatest pride and joy. Then he went to 'upgrade' them. Most players' strategy was to start feeding one of the pets only, leveling it until it eventually evolved into a new pet creature. Yet for Marvin it now seemed sinful to treat the bees differently. After all they were now a pair, a mini hive and all bees should be equal in a hive, or at least that was his inner logic. So he proceeded playing by rationing the pet food very carefully and strictly dividing between the pair.
Eventually, he would have gotten to the point where both his Robobees would have reached max level and be ready to evolve in the game food chain. Would have he been willing to sacrifice his game progress in order to keep his virtual favorites? It's unclear how Marvin would have handled this paradox because the buzzing started.
Maybe it had already been there for a while, just not loud enough for him to notice it. The first time he sensed it, he naturally thought a fly or something was in the room. But after careful inspection and walking around, looking at the ceiling, waving his arms, the room turned out empty of any other life form but him. Yet still, just near his left ear, barely audible, he kept hearing it - bzzz-zzt-bz-zzz. Trying to equalize pressure in his ear channels and thoroughly clearing both ears with cotton swabs didn't help either. Even worse, he started hearing the buzz in his right ear too.
Looking back at the bees on the screen, he somehow started to hear it louder and more distinct. Bzz-zzt. Zz-zzzz! Bzzt? Bzzz-zzz!!! It all, surreal as it was, seemed to appear as if the Robobees were communicating with each other... and he was hearing their virtual chatter in his very real ears. What would two pets in an idle game buzz about? The impotency of their owner's attacks? The weather on this nicely drawn yet quite uninhabitable planet? Maybe they were plotting... Yes. Plotting to take control over Marvin's body and proceed to take back the world from the puny human race...
At about that point, the puny human in question decided he probably had stayed a bit too long online for the day and decided a good night sleep would fix all of the buzzing bees nonsense. He logged off the game, a rare occurrence, and ever turned off the PC. The room felt in blissful silence. Reassured Marvin went to bed.
And lunged up three hours later, awoken by the weirdest nightmare of thousands of mecha-bees swarming all over his body. The bedroom was completely dark and he just sat there in the tousled sweaty sheets trying to catch a breath. His heart was frantic, pounding in his chest, he was desperately gulping air, his skin was cold and clammy. Marvin sat there shivering in his bed, still feeling the tiny robotic insects crawling over him, their cold metal bodies, the sharp stingers... and he kept hearing their buzzing. Loud and clear and real. As if his whole head hummed with the angry BZZZ-ZZ-ZZ! The sound of millions vengeful ghost-bees raging in his ears, making the mad throb of his heart faster, louder...
Marvin closed his eyes and desperately tried to calm down. After few long minutes he took a hold on his breathing. Long deep inhales and exhales... The world slowly settled and fell deadly silent. He opened his eyes, as if waking up for the second time. Darkness... cool and peacefully silent. He let out a soft chuckle. It was all freaky nightmare that almost gave him heart attack. His throat felt parched. He started to get up to to get a glass of water when he saw a faint shimmer coming from under the sheet.
The panic grabbed him back instantly. Yet he braved up and threw away the cloth. There, on his leg, just above the kneecap, was an eerie pinkish light, coming right under his skin. Tiny, about the size of a pea. He touched it with shaky fingers - lumpy, hard and... moving. That... thing was crawling under his skin, climbing up his leg... And softly buzzing. Marvin started screaming...
Genre: Dark
Word count: 955
The Buzzing
It all started when Marvin got his first Robobee. Of course, he had never seen a real living bee. All his life he had lived in a big city, never managed to go to one of the countryside bee preservation areas and all he knew about them was from his biology classes and the occasional documentary. Yet he found those almost extinct creatures pretty fascinating. So when in the online game he was playing one of his pets evolved into a mechanical bee, he had a blast.
The image was small and not particularly special, but for Marvin it transcended beyond game mechanics and character progress. He enjoyed watching the little sprite on the screen, spending time after time marveling its details. The yellow and silver body, the translucent wings and the pronounced scary looking metallic stinger. Sometimes he imagined the virtual pet to be really angry at humans for managing to eradicate its real life sisters. Rising its tiny fists against the oppressors, burning hatred in its menacing look... And other days he just stared mesmerised at its animation on the screen, 'hitting' the virtual monster, helping its master's progress to another level...
Some might find this weird obsession with a pet in an idle game unfathomable, but stranger things happen every day in gamers' lives. As for Marvin, the natural course of logic demanded him to get his second pet evolved to a Robobee as fast as he could. It didn't take him long to acquire a matching set of mecha-insects, his greatest pride and joy. Then he went to 'upgrade' them. Most players' strategy was to start feeding one of the pets only, leveling it until it eventually evolved into a new pet creature. Yet for Marvin it now seemed sinful to treat the bees differently. After all they were now a pair, a mini hive and all bees should be equal in a hive, or at least that was his inner logic. So he proceeded playing by rationing the pet food very carefully and strictly dividing between the pair.
Eventually, he would have gotten to the point where both his Robobees would have reached max level and be ready to evolve in the game food chain. Would have he been willing to sacrifice his game progress in order to keep his virtual favorites? It's unclear how Marvin would have handled this paradox because the buzzing started.
Maybe it had already been there for a while, just not loud enough for him to notice it. The first time he sensed it, he naturally thought a fly or something was in the room. But after careful inspection and walking around, looking at the ceiling, waving his arms, the room turned out empty of any other life form but him. Yet still, just near his left ear, barely audible, he kept hearing it - bzzz-zzt-bz-zzz. Trying to equalize pressure in his ear channels and thoroughly clearing both ears with cotton swabs didn't help either. Even worse, he started hearing the buzz in his right ear too.
Looking back at the bees on the screen, he somehow started to hear it louder and more distinct. Bzz-zzt. Zz-zzzz! Bzzt? Bzzz-zzz!!! It all, surreal as it was, seemed to appear as if the Robobees were communicating with each other... and he was hearing their virtual chatter in his very real ears. What would two pets in an idle game buzz about? The impotency of their owner's attacks? The weather on this nicely drawn yet quite uninhabitable planet? Maybe they were plotting... Yes. Plotting to take control over Marvin's body and proceed to take back the world from the puny human race...
At about that point, the puny human in question decided he probably had stayed a bit too long online for the day and decided a good night sleep would fix all of the buzzing bees nonsense. He logged off the game, a rare occurrence, and ever turned off the PC. The room felt in blissful silence. Reassured Marvin went to bed.
And lunged up three hours later, awoken by the weirdest nightmare of thousands of mecha-bees swarming all over his body. The bedroom was completely dark and he just sat there in the tousled sweaty sheets trying to catch a breath. His heart was frantic, pounding in his chest, he was desperately gulping air, his skin was cold and clammy. Marvin sat there shivering in his bed, still feeling the tiny robotic insects crawling over him, their cold metal bodies, the sharp stingers... and he kept hearing their buzzing. Loud and clear and real. As if his whole head hummed with the angry BZZZ-ZZ-ZZ! The sound of millions vengeful ghost-bees raging in his ears, making the mad throb of his heart faster, louder...
Marvin closed his eyes and desperately tried to calm down. After few long minutes he took a hold on his breathing. Long deep inhales and exhales... The world slowly settled and fell deadly silent. He opened his eyes, as if waking up for the second time. Darkness... cool and peacefully silent. He let out a soft chuckle. It was all freaky nightmare that almost gave him heart attack. His throat felt parched. He started to get up to to get a glass of water when he saw a faint shimmer coming from under the sheet.
The panic grabbed him back instantly. Yet he braved up and threw away the cloth. There, on his leg, just above the kneecap, was an eerie pinkish light, coming right under his skin. Tiny, about the size of a pea. He touched it with shaky fingers - lumpy, hard and... moving. That... thing was crawling under his skin, climbing up his leg... And softly buzzing. Marvin started screaming...