ArchivedLogs:Bee-ing Strange

Bee-ing Strange
Warning! Adorableness and BEES.
Dramatis Personae Ivan, Kai
In Absentia	2013-05-11 Kai goes looking for Ivan, and finds him -- sort of.
Location <XS> Forest
Quiet and shady, the trees rise all around here high and thick. In stillness, woodland creatures make appearances, though sudden noises scare them back into the cover. Dappled sunlight filters down between the thick foliage, and the ground underfoot is heavily overgrown, though here and there paths have been worn, by deer or years of students wandering familiar trails. Saturday! What a lovely day. Except for the fact that the school is on lockdown and there's kids missing and really just overall it's kind of a crappy day for a lot of people, even if they may not have classes. Ivan seems to be part of that particular group of people, this late afternoon. He /has/ tried to keep himself distracted, but the boy's been a bit of a mess. A bit paler than usual, circles under his eyes a bit darker due to lack of sleep, hair tousled! Even the jeans and white dress shirt he's wearing have some greenish smears on them, like he's been lying down in the grass. Which might not... actually be that unlikely, seeing as he's currently sitting on the forest floor with his legs stretched out in front of him, only just off the trail most often used by students. He's also... got a harness of some sort on, five-point and keeping a milk crate-sized box up on his back. It-- it's covered in bees. In fact, the ground around it is covered in bees. A good part of /Ivan/ is /covered in bees/, staring ahead of him with his knuckles resting on the dirt between his legs. There are literally /thousands/ of them, reaching about 15 square foot of forest floor in patchy groups around the boy. Not one of them is flying. Or... in fact... moving. If not for the wind occasionally lashing passively at the leaves of plant life nearby, it'd almost look like someone just went and just stopped time. He... may have been sitting there a while. " Kai doesn't go into the forest, much. It is not his usual haunt, mostly because it borders on actually /leaving/ the school, and he's a kid who's trying to avoid trouble. But, with the mood in the mansion being what it is, and Ivan having been hard to track down, he is out in the woods, now. Dressed in jeans and a baggy t-shirt, he's even agreed to wear shoes. The clunky sneakers on his feet make his movement awkward, though, and he's not quiet as he comes down the path. When he comes upon the spot where Ivan and the bees sit, he stops dead, the noise of his approach ceasing. He stands there, on the bee perimeter, chewing his lip with a worried look at his friend. "Ivan." It's soft, but loud enough to reach the other boy. "Ivan, what are you doing?" "{Sitting.}" Ivan replies readily and in a tone for that's almost... an empty sort of cheerful, considering the smile on his face, but rather unhelpfully in Russian. Save for the slow expanding and contracting of his chest, he's almost /perfectly/ still. "{Hello, Kai}." An inch of movement finds him, in his head turning to look into Kai's direction properly. "{... Or Foom.}" Kai shivers at the reaction from Ivan, the language bringing an involuntary moment of panic to the boy's face. It comes right back when there's one word he /does/ recognize, and he frowns deeply. "I do not speak that language," he says petulantly, and folds his arms across his chest. The bees get a wary look, but the smaller boy makes no move to step forward. "Why do you speak this language at me? What is wrong?" His petulance fades, and his expression softens. "Are you still sad about Peter?" Suddenly, the bees spring back to life. In the most passive of ways possible, though. Cleaning their little faces, or turning place, just /slightly/ sifting their weight. It's a wave of movement that starts near Kai, then /spreads/ to the rest of them. "I am sorry. I forgot." Ivan's voice does not /sound/ particularly apologetic, but his brow furrows a second after he's said the words. "I am sad. But I am okay." As if to illustrate just /how/ okay, there is more movement from the bees as they move to clear a path! Crawlin' their little, slow crawls. To leave Ivan surrounded by a blotchy, bee-made Pacman shape. Slightly better? Kai shifts as the bees begin to clear a path, and he slowly steps forward, heading towards Ivan. "That is a strange thing to forget," he says in a doubtful tone. "You do not use that language to me, usually. You must be very sad, if this is a thing you are forgetting." When he reaches the center of the bee horde, he moves around the other boy to examine his harness-box thing. "This is a very good thing that Peter made," he says gently, laying fingers on the wood as if attempting to memorize the tactile sense of the thing. "You do not sound okay," he offers, finally. "And you do not act it." Then he's moving around to face Ivan dead-on. "I am concerned." Ivan's head tilts to the side, ponderously. "They are very loud." The bees give another /wave/ of movement, this time from the center outward, rising and falling where they sit. He turns his head to look at the ones in front of him, as a mass of them starts to move across his back and off of the box Kai is examining, migrating to his stomach instead. Taking up most of his front, shoulders and upper arms and all. "It is difficult." His voice sort of... lingers neither here nor there, but the next sentence has a bit of /straight/ added to it, like he'strying to /force/ it into sincerity. "But I am doing what mister Jackson has told me. I am thinking of me-things. It is easier here. Where it is quiet." He peers upward again, at Kai. A little distracted, a little sad, but timidly smiling. If he's /not/ okay, he doesn't seem to be aware of it. It takes a minute for Kai to process what exactly Ivan is talking about, and when he does, a deep FROWN is given to the other boy. "If they are too loud, it is too many," he says, pressing his lips together. "You must let some of them go." He doesn't sound happy, at /all/. Like he might cry, if Ivan doesn't start acting like /Ivan/. "You are acting strangely, and I do not like it." The smile fades from Ivan's face, eyebrows pushing together in an expression of mild panic. Suddenly all of the bees jolt into action, moving in twitchy little paths as they zigzag their way to nowhere. They stay within the radius that had been established before, but Kai will soon be surrounded. And clambered onto, if he stays still! Ivan just /stares/ at Kai, like he may just start to cry, himself, out of sheer /not understanding/. A mass of bees moves across /him/, too, on of his clothes as well as under. Kai does stay still, staring at Ivan with a sad sort of expression, allowing the bees to crawl over him without flinching. He closes his eyes slowly as they move across his face, and when his eyes are clear again, he opens them solemnly. "Ivan." It's a gentle nudge of Kai's voice, though he doesn't move. "Ivan, please do not be sad. I know that it is scary to not know, but..." he lifts a hand, ignoring the panicked bzzzs! of the bees as they avoid the sudden obstacle. "Ivan, you must /talk/ to me about things which upset you. It is what good friends /do/. You have made me scared, these past days." He frowns, and crouches in his flat-footed squat, staring Ivan in the eyes. "You must let me share your burden, as you have shared mine." Ivan's eyes stay on Kai's, even as bees slow their pace and cover half of his sight. Then, preceded by a /buzzing/ noise from all around them, the bees SCATTER in all directions, some of them sort of bumbly, ricocheting into Kai and Ivan sometimes several times before they manage to find their way around and away. Ivan blinks, still peering at Kai, but does not look very different. Still tired, still a little out of it, still mildly panicking. Perhaps on the inside moreso than out. But he drags his legs closer, knees pulling up to his chest. His voice is quieter, but succeeds more easily in denoting concern. "Hello, Kai." He may have said that already. Kai studies Ivan's face, ignoring the pelting by bees, or the sudden SWARMING that takes them away. The Korean boy tilts his head, as if listening (or maybe thinking), and purses his lips. "Hello, Ivan," he answers in a rush of air that's equally frustrated and relieved. He inhales deeply, and exhales in a slow hiss, his body relaxing slightly. "You do not look okay." He might have said that, too. Ivan seems unbothered by the repetition, though once the bees are gone, he somehow managed to look even /more/ tired, eyes half-lidded and expression resetting to largely blank again. His head dips, forehead thunking on one of his knees. Leaning ever so slightly in Kai's direction even if there is a gap between them. "I do not know if I am okay." Then, "Thank you." Kai studies the other boy more closely, when the bees have left the area, duck-walking forward to touch Ivan on the shin lightly. "It will be better," he says gently, and frowns as the other boy leans towards him. There's a moment of frozen indecision, and then the Korean boy is shifting his position, easing into the grass next to Ivan, and sitting on his rump. "I am certain of it." He falls into thoughtful silence; watching Ivan carefully. Then, slowly, a thin arm is raised, and slipped along Ivan's shoulders, dislodging a few stubborn (lazy) bees. "I am here for you, Ivan."