A short history of Bumblebee the Tiger
Jan. 22nd, 2003 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beetigerI understand the tiger - Why the bee?
Bumblebee’s a persona who developed around me in 1999 or so. She started out as a costume for Anthrocon, based on my affinity for big cats and my natural talents for cuteness. The bees got put on to her originally for cuteness, for the playfullness of the double yellow-and-black stripes, and because it’s impossible to ignore someone with a bee in her cleavage.
She eventually started talking to me, and developed a significant backstory at the same time she became much more of an “alternate personality” for me. She’s a dryad who was gradually transformed from a tree-bound forest spirit to a series of shadowy stripes on foliage to a tigress. She also became some sort of a beehive or queen-bee or free-ranging group-mind in the form of swarms of bees. The bees are very attracted to raw energy; the version of Bumblebee who is on FurryMUCK got there when the bees flew into a public terminal to look inside.
In roleplay, the bees function as both superego and id, as reptile-self and guilt-self, as spirit guides and children and lovers, in their own ways. Bumblebee’s always in relationship, her internal dialogues externalized.
I used to be very afraid of bees. Several family members are allergic to bee stings, and I may be too. But since I’ve worked with Bumblebee, they’ve really become a friendly warm piece of my summertime world, and they seem to gather around me peacefully fairly regularly now.
Bees are both a source of sweetness, and a force of aggression, both sacred and mundane. Perhaps, I aspire to these too.
You can see a picture of me as Bumblebee
here.
Bumblebee’s a persona who developed around me in 1999 or so. She started out as a costume for Anthrocon, based on my affinity for big cats and my natural talents for cuteness. The bees got put on to her originally for cuteness, for the playfullness of the double yellow-and-black stripes, and because it’s impossible to ignore someone with a bee in her cleavage.
She eventually started talking to me, and developed a significant backstory at the same time she became much more of an “alternate personality” for me. She’s a dryad who was gradually transformed from a tree-bound forest spirit to a series of shadowy stripes on foliage to a tigress. She also became some sort of a beehive or queen-bee or free-ranging group-mind in the form of swarms of bees. The bees are very attracted to raw energy; the version of Bumblebee who is on FurryMUCK got there when the bees flew into a public terminal to look inside.
In roleplay, the bees function as both superego and id, as reptile-self and guilt-self, as spirit guides and children and lovers, in their own ways. Bumblebee’s always in relationship, her internal dialogues externalized.
I used to be very afraid of bees. Several family members are allergic to bee stings, and I may be too. But since I’ve worked with Bumblebee, they’ve really become a friendly warm piece of my summertime world, and they seem to gather around me peacefully fairly regularly now.
Bees are both a source of sweetness, and a force of aggression, both sacred and mundane. Perhaps, I aspire to these too.
You can see a picture of me as Bumblebee
here.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-01-22 06:26 pm (UTC)I'm still terrified of bees, though. Specially the Africanized ones. They are seriously vicious. They will chase you. If you go underwater they will wait for you to run out of air. *lol* The stuff nightmares are made of, literally.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-23 11:04 am (UTC)I made peace with them while meditating on a hill one summer morning. A bee came to feed on a flower near me. I felt stirrings of fear, but I pushed them away- why fear a fellow creature? We've gotten along ever since.
Bees and thoughts
Date: 2003-01-26 04:31 pm (UTC)I seem to have missed you logging in this weekend; pity. I suppose someday I should write down more of BJ's backstory; it's there, and there's a lot of it he never tells most people (they never ask). Dunno.