| La'ro Ri' |
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| "Yeah, yeah, I get it, you're cute and hungry, now geddoffa me." |
| Destination |
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| The Refugium |
| Name: | La'ro Ri' |
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| Age: | 27 (50 year lifespan) |
| Sex: | Male |
| Species: | Apidae |
| Caste: | Drone |
| Height: | 7'2" at the shoulder |
| Color: | Blue |
| Residence: | The Alveary |
| Occupation: | Child-Minder |
| Abilities: |
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| Personality: |
All Apidae drones are born to have a soft spot for children, but La'ro keeps his pretty well camouflaged. He presents himself as a fairly gruff character that tends to the children of his kind simply because he was born and raised for the role, but inside that sometimes-crotchety shell he's as devoted a caretaker as any. He's just not all sappy about it! No matter how indifferent he seems to be or how much he mutters and complains as young larvae climb up his legs or hang from his long tail, he never actually loses patience with them, and he's never slow to respond when the larvae are in need of anything. At least, that's how he was before the Drift. Since then, there have been no children. He and his sister Ac've are, to their awareness, the only apidae left in the Nexus. The larvae that she fed and that he tended are gone, and there are no more apidae queens to make more. This absence eats at him, an aching hole that he does not keep well concealed behind his bitter demeanor. |
| Biography: |
Ac've and La'ro were born aboard a warship called the Pamiec Sta, where they and countless others of their kind were kept and protected by their savior species, the Pan Smok. Their entire species lived, bred, and died under the care of the Smok, never knowing anything different. Something about this always bothered Ac've, even as she served the Smok faithfully, obeying her mother-queen and cooperating with the hives of the many other queens. Maybe it was just because as a forager, she had a keen drive to roam and explore that she could not satisfy living their shipbound life. Though she was regularly allowed planetside to forage with her sisters and cousins, these forays were always limited and under very strict orders from their guardian Smok. Ac've often found herself fighting down the urge to just fly away and take off on her own, but her loyalty to her family always stopped her. She could never quite put a pseudopod on what it was about the Smok that agitated her, but she could never get rid of the feeling, either. Then came the day that the Pamiec Sta was attacked, invaded by alien species, and Ac've and La'ro were among the few of the Ri' hive who heard their queen's command to escape the chambers where they were kept and go to find these aliens, so that all of their kind might be freed from the Smok's captivity. All of the apidae guards had been pulled away by the Smok to fight the invaders, which left only the drones and foragers like themselves to obey her. The battle was long and hard, much of its record lost to time -- and then came the Drift. The separation and reunion of the Nexus did many things to many peoples, no two necessarily the same. In its aftermath, Ac've and La'ro found the world shockingly empty, devoid of the pheremones of their kin. If any apidae beyond themselves still existed, they could not find them. Eventually they came to the Alveary, where time in turn brought to them the knowledge of a place called the Refugium, dedicated to the preservation of endangered species. The two of them went there together, in hopes that they might somehow learn more of what had become of all the other apidae. They were not successful in that regard, but they instead encountered members of a species that had superficial similarities to their own: Myrmex. They were present still when Queen Gleam announced to the Nexus at large that she was ready to breed again... She accepted La'ro as the next sire of her children. As word spread throughout the Nexus of the impending clutch, it led to a small but welcome reunion. Two of their Apidae sisters remained in the Nexus as well: Ez'de and a new Queen Ri'. But it confirmed a sad truth, too: the only Apidae left in La'ro's life were his sisters. He knew, too, that his incubating children would all be Myrmex like their mother. If Apidae as a species were to survive, something else would have to be done. And then the staff of the Refugium reminded him that that was exactly what their work had begun for. |
| Hive: |
| A Story in Short |
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La'ro's tongue was so dry it was getting hard to see, but he couldn't bring himself to retract it. If he did, he would have to close the beady black eyes that lined its length, and if he did that, then he would be taking his eyes off his children. It didn't matter that he could still smell their pheromones, could reach out with a pseudopod or uncurl his tail to touch them. He had to see them. If Croke or Boldly got too distracted by a visitor, or if Tempered turned his head away at just the wrong moment, then only La'ro would be watching to see if-- His tired, dry eyes were so dedicated to the gleaming mounds of eggs around him that he somehow -- despite telling himself he was vigilant, these were his children -- still managed to miss the hulking form of his sister as she strode up to him. His scent receptors caught pheromones of greeting and attention-seeking, but they were so familiar to him already that they failed to register against his frantic study of new and different and was it too warm in here or should be bring down the temperature a bit more or-- But he couldn't miss the sudden barrage that fell on him from above. His skin crackled with surprise as he hissed and spun to face it, thickening the air around him with a burst of alarm-scents, only to find that he had been struck by-- "Breakfast!" Ac've declared, shaking out her gathering psuedopods before curling them up against her ribs once more. The forager had assaulted him with her fetchings of meat and fruit as provided by the Refugium's staff. "Put your tongue away and eat something already! I'll shove it down your throat myself if I have to, La'ro!" He couldn't. He didn't have the time. He rumbled a negative at her, using electric bursts and scent far more than the accompanying sound as he focused on his work again. Ac've might mean well but now there was fruit in the insulating mucuses around his eggs. He couldn't leave it there, it would rot and grow bacteria, they had no idea how myrmex and apidae genes were going to interact so he had to-- Up came a dark red foot, and down came a dark red foot. Ac've was over three times his height and even more in bulk; it took very little for the forager to forcefully roll him over and pin him to the moist and carefully tended earth of the subterranean biodome. She followed through on her warning, leaving La'ro blinded as she crushed a fruit in one small manipulator and smeared the mash all over his mouth with it. It... tasted much better than La'ro expected it to. Reflexively pulling his tongue back, his was blind once again as he the muscle back over his eyes, but the juices of the fruit brought a surge of saliva that further eased the ache of dryness -- and quite despite himself, he needed very little encouragement after that. Ac've pushed a hunk of something raw and bloody towards him and he threw himself at it as if he hadn't eaten in days. Maybe he hadn't. Ac've lowered her bulk to the ground, making herself comfortable as La'ro attacked his meal. She curled in her feet, wings, and tail, and regarded the eggs around them. "Your dad's a worrywart, kiddos, but don't hold it against him," she told the quiet, gleaming shapes that surrounded them in all directions, even up the earthen walls. Queen Gleam truly excelled at fecundity, huh? "I'm looking forward to meeting you all, too. Maybe you won't be apidae... but maybe you'll let us be honorary myrmex instead?" |
| Family Tree | |||||
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Father (???) Apidae Drone |
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Mother Ri'Yellow Apidae Queen |
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| Known Clutchmates | |||||
| Offspring | |
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| Mate & Locale | Children |
| Queen Gleam Decay Myrmex - - - The Refugium Clutch #5 |
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