Death to Bumble Bees

21: bee vs exposure

CW: sexual fantasies lmao

Listen to Gently Break It by Beck Pete

Chapter Twenty-One: Bee VS. Exposure

Try as Rathven might, every thought ended back at the ones pulling him home. The ones about the bumble bee girl; the words which Josmid had said to him. But that isn't to say he didn't put it off as long as he possibly could.

Homun, I would have liked to give you something proper to send you off with. Rath spoke into the being's mind as the two of them slipped into a passage leading to a dingy little bar in the undead community. Catching the attention of one of the pretty and bodied undead worker's at the bar, he circled his finger around his head, indicating a round of drinks on him for the whole room.

As you can probably imagine, my thoughts are quite dizzy at the moment, Rathven. However, I do believe I owe you thanks for the opportunity you bestowed upon me. The soul that was no longer attached to the name 'Jason' communicated with Rath; the confusion and exhaustiveness evident in the slurred sounds.

Soul transference was a tiring gig.

The soul's presence was mere sparkles and glimmering colours, and to the naked eye of a human, he stood out a little less than a blinking blinding ray of sun through a window. Yet, his celestial suit of non-existence stirred nothing greater than an amazement of beauty; a brief look at a beautiful light-show cast by something tangibly human before he faded from their sight. At least, that is what it seemed. In other parts of the cosmos, bodiless souls were a little more than something forsaken--a pitiful and belittled thing if not completely repulsive. Homuns--what the soul had been a moment ago--and the like, on the other hand, were creatures of disgust and something of an abomination. A monster species even to a monster universe. Considering they had mostly come from the undead souls, it was clear that none thought too highly of what the post-Jason soul was.

In fact, Rath was one of the few creatures in the universe that seemed to take pleasure in conversing and striking up deals with the bodiless undead beings. With his mostly-petty deals, came many IOUs; a list constantly growing always sitting in his pocket. The long list was rolled up with frayed edges with a seemingly random pattern of crossed out names every so often--the sign he had paid his IOU to that soul. And Rath always paid off his promises.

If the young man had anything, it was time to do anything (if he wanted to do the doing of said-thing). Perhaps that was why he enjoyed his fellow undead mates, they too had nothing but time and when things stretched on for forever, debts were not usually a rush to payoff.

Rath exhaled uselessly, the habit still so automatic despite his useless lungs not actually picking up any air (a nasty side-affect from being located between space and time--the movement of everything was rather limited and oxygen wasn't even an afterthought). I suppose. But I feel rather... strange. Like your companionship is one I'll possibly, just slightly... miss. He struggled to commune, the tight sensation in his gut an odd one for him.

The soul seemed to think about this confession as a barmaid stopped by their booth with sharp glowing green eyes and a forked tongue; taking Rath's personal order of a poisoned fae fruit-liquid as well as ordering his companion a substance made specifically to intoxicate bodiless souls. By the time the young fairie creature had left, the soul responded.

That is quite unexpected coming from you. Rathven, the girl, Beatrice... When he said her name memories that were both his and yet also not, flickered through him in images--accidentally sharing the mere seconds worth of intimate flickers of pictures with Rath.

Her many faces she wore with the many different emotions as she talked and laughed and flirted, how soft her skin felt under his as he caressed her face, the feeling of her hungry kiss against his lips and every inch of his flesh, and their passionate nights that at the time in Jason's body were filled with pleasures the soul could never have imagined awaited him. It was strange thinking about the feeling of her naked body on his and how Jason's body jumped to react to it immediately. A perfect duo that had been so in sync, and yet... not really him. He wondered if it even was him in those moments with her--something almost desperate had pulled at him and seemingly taken control when she was around. The feeling one that had grown stronger and stronger inside of him over the time spent with her; was it really him? In fact, the intimate thoughts left no wanting or even desire in him now. Despite the physical sensation at the time, it now felt almost wrong when he thought of the way she moved against him and how his hands seemed to sear against her hips as he guided her down and--what could only be described as--made love to her. Not just had sex or any of the other various terms meaning something only physical (which he had previous notions about as a mere undead soul), but had an emotional and connecting-to-her-soul moment as their naked bodies became one and--