#tw apiophobia

[thepatchycat]

So my job this past summer involved pollinator surveys and at some point I went what if clones was bugs? So. Hornet-human chimera Cody.

My first thought had been bees, because I'd looked at a lot of bees at work and honestly fuzzy bee clones would be very fun (did you know that some species of longhorn bee will do slumber parties on plants at night?). They'd be fluffy for sure. But then I went "no the Kaminoans would probably go for something more aggressive and predatory." Wasps are neat too, but some hornet species in particular have evolved to raid in groups, so they seemed most appropriate.

To be honest, I don't know how much of the armor is actually a chitinous exoskeleton; I was mostly drawing off vibes. They've got electric stingers that work well against droids (the stinger is likely formed of a material strong enough to puncture metal, at least to some extent). The wings are also based on hornet wings, but I added a couple features based on beetle wings because I think it'd be neat if they could also fold (though I'm not sure the particular shape and venation I put here would actually work), especially to fit in a jetpack-like shell.

Anyway. Fun to think about.

[this-is-phobia-discrimination]

I don't know if it counts but I believe I used to have an extremely intense fear of bees. I got a panic attack and had run away each time I've seen one; never walked outside as soon as they started to wake up, screamed, and a whole lot more, as bad as this sounds.

So, this itself was a big issue. However, I was also bullied in my school.

And of course, when my bullies had found out I was afraid of bees, they started capturing them to show it to me, or mimicking their sounds around me.

No teachers did anything btw.

This is phobia based discrimination