Chapter 6: A Name For You
Nothing, nothing and a whole lot more nothing. Eventide let out a heavy sigh, leaned back in his chair, and ran his fingers over his face. There had not been a single picture, reference, theory or even illustration that brought him any closer to figuring out what the bug was. Anything and everything he found that even seemed remotely promising just turned out to be wild conspiracy theories about completely unrelated matters. How could one even leap to the conclusion that cockroaches were government spies? Sure, they were hard to squash, and they were always there, but come on!
Letting out a tired groan, Eventide stood up and made his way back out into the living room to check on things. Once he got there, he saw that Fluttershy was crouched down next to the chair where Buddha and the bug were still resting. She was watching the two of them in silence, her face turned away from him. He paused in the hall for a second to take in the sight before clearing his throat, getting Fluttershy’s attention. She turned to look at him curiously. “Hey. Did you find anything?” she asked while standing up and walking over to him.
“Nope,” was his blunt response. He gave a shake of his head and looked over at the bug on his chair incredulously. “It’s like nobody’s ever seen or heard of a creature like this one before. No sketches, no forum ramblings, no documented encounters. There weren’t even any videos of shaky cam footage, and there’s always shaky cam footage!”
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow at that last point, but chose not to comment on it for now. “Uh, well, what do you think you’re gonna do now?” she asked softly, her expression one of concern and curiosity.
He placed his hands on his hips and studied the bug on his chair with a creased forehead and pursed lips. It looked back at him and made a little gurgling sound. “Well…” he finally sighed, glancing over at Fluttershy in resignation. “I said that I’d take care of him until he’s ready for the wild, depending on what we found. So…”
On hearing that, Fluttershy’s eyes lit up like the night sky on the Fourth of July. An ecstatic grin appeared on her face. “So you’ll do it?!” she asked, clapping her hands together a few times over her chest.
Eventide managed to take some comfort in her display of enthusiasm. He shot her a smile and a thumbs up. “Yeah, I guess I am. You’re helping me, though, don’t forget,” his thumbs up turned into a pointing index finger.
Fluttershy nodded, clearly happy with this arrangement. “Oh, of course! I’ll come over every day to check in on you two and see how he’s doing,” she suggested before glancing over at the bug. Her smile was replaced with a small frown. “Although, uh, if you’re taking care of him, we’re gonna need to name him.”
Eventide snorted with a small smirk. “A name, huh? Sure, I’ll get right on that,” he said before walking up to the chair and crouching down in front of the bug. It smiled back at him and reached its little legs out. Getting the idea, he reached out one of his fingers, and the bug wasted no time in latching onto him and crawling up his arm. Buddha quietly growled in her throat and looked mildly offended by Eventide’s apparent abduction of the tiny creature, but she otherwise did not react except by glaring at him.
He slowly stood back to his full height, watching as the bug climbed up his arm, then his shoulder. It stopped at his neck, where it curled around the back of it to rest its chin on his other shoulder. Fluttershy, from where she stood, watched this transpire before clasping her hands over her heart and letting out an adoring ‘awwww.’ Eventide gave her a deadpan look. “You gonna swoon over there?” he asked tauntingly.
“It’s just. So. Cute!” Fluttershy squealed, hopping up and down a little bit. However, any farther gushing from her was cut short by the tell-tale ding of her cell phone receiving a text. With her lips tightening into a line and her smile fading away, she withdrew the small device and checked her message. As soon as she saw what it was, her eyes widened. “Oh, shoot… I’m so sorry, Eventide, I completely forgot. I’m supposed to be meeting up with the rest of my friends in a little while. We’re going into the city to celebrate, uh, not getting fried by a giant raging Sunset Shimmer,” she explained before stuffing her phone back in her pocket.
Eventide sighed but nodded. “Okay, I understand. Go on; I’m sure I can manage this guy for a while-” he stopped mid-sentence and looked at her in disbelief. “Wait… that demon was Sunset?!”
Fluttershy gave a sheepish nod while heading for the door. “Uh, yeah. It’s a really long story. I’ll tell you about it later if that’s okay? I really gotta go,” she replied in a slightly rushed voice. Eventide, still gobsmacked, just nodded.
“A-alright, go. Thanks for coming by,” he said to her. She smiled back at him, opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind her. Her exit plunged the room into a deep, contemplative silence. For several seconds, Eventide just stood there, looking at the door and pondering his day so far. Then his facial expression morphed into one of exhaustion, and his body slumped in agreement. The bug on his neck, seemingly sensing his dismay, pressed the side of its head against his cheek while letting out another one of those weird chittering purrs. The kind gesture was enough to make him relax, and he reached one hand up to give the bug a few scratches behind the ears.
“Heh. thanks, bug…” he mumbled appreciatively before straightening his posture and clearing his throat. “Okay, I got to name you something. Bug, Basement Bug and ‘it’ just don’t really work well, do they?” he continued before gently prying the bug off of his neck and heading for his room. “Tell you what; I’m gonna hop in the shower real quick and think about it while I’m getting cleaned up. Then, once I’m out, I’ll let you know what I came up with. Deal?”
He wasn’t expecting any understanding responses from the bug, but he took the little squeaks and chirps from it’s smiling face as an indicator that it had no objections to this plan. He set it down on his bed next to his pillow, then backed away to let it explore. It immediately sprang into its survey of this strange, foreign land called ‘the bed’ with great enthusiasm. It crawled around, eagerly sticking it’s muzzle into every single wrinkle in the blanket, sniffing at it and flicking it’s long, forked tongue out in the air. Eventide watched it for a second from the foot of the bed before spotting something on the floor.
Smiling, he leaned down and picked up one of Buddha’s oldest toys, a large plushie of an ant. She hadn’t really had much interest in it before, he remembered, only chewing on it very rarely. When the squeaker inside it died from a particularly enthusiastic chomp, what little interest she had in it had very quickly faded away, and she had soon moved on to newer, better toys. It had just been lying around for months at this point, collecting dust and getting kicked about whenever he walked into the room. Now, though, maybe it would have another use. With an absent shrug, he lobbed it onto the bed near the bug and studied its reaction.
The creature eyed the plushie for a few seconds, then slowly and cautiously approached. It sniffed at one of the ant’s antennae for a second, flinched back, and then tackled the stuffed animal. Eventide was half expecting it to start gnawing on it like a dog, but instead, he saw it curling its legs around the stuffed ant and hugging it tightly. He raised an eyebrow at the curious display. “Huh… you are just full of surprises, aren’t you?” he mused to himself. With a huff of amusement and content that the bug would be alright for now, he grabbed some clothes from his dresser and made his way to his bathroom.
Before long he was under the shower, letting the hot water run over his body to ease his still aching and cramped muscles. Through all of the excitement and confusion of having a weird bug in his house after the school across the street had exploded, he hadn’t really given much thought to how sore he was for sleeping against his living room wall and floor. But now that his muscles were relaxing, the transition they went through could be described as ‘from frozen rocks to warm, rich butter.’ He let out a content sigh and just enjoyed the sensation for a minute before letting his mind drift back to the bug.
He’d need a name for it, of course, since it was sticking around. But what could he call it…? He began to give it some thought. Silky, maybe? It kinda looked like a silkworm, after all, but it also looked like a really big larva or grub. Maybe he could call it that? But then again, if it was a larva, what would happen when it matured? What would it change into? Would it even change? If it did, then he’d basically be calling it a baby every time he said its name, and even if that wasn’t such a big deal for him, he knew he’d catch flak from Fluttershy for it if he named this guy poorly. He could just see it now: Fluttershy flailing her skinny little arms at his head after hearing him utter the bug’s new name for the first time. “Bugsy?! You named him Bugsy?! Shame on you! That’s so demeaning!”
Of course, his immediate retort would be “At least I didn’t call him Buggy McBugface,” and to be fair, he would be right on that account.
But as amusing as those exaggerated idle thoughts were, they didn’t bring him any closer to figuring out a good name for the bug. With a slight grunt of frustration, he set about applying what little shampoo he had left to his hair, closing his eyes in the process. The name had to be something fitting, he knew. So he began to work through everything he knew about it, everything it had done, everything he had seen. He was just about to give up for the time being when he recalled what he had called it when it was on his shoulder a little while ago.
“Basement bug…” he muttered to himself while rinsing the suds out. “Basement Bug…”
A tiny smile began to appear on his face when the name finally came to him. Finishing off his shower with a quick scrubbing of his body with a bar of soap and a rinse, he was soon dry, dressed and stepping back into his bedroom. The bug had gotten rather adventurous in his absence, and it had made a friend. With the stuffed animal somehow sticking to it’s back, the bug was climbing up the back wall of the bedroom, although it’s face was twitching with strain.
Deciding that it had had enough exercise for now, Eventide walked over and pulled the bug from his wall. It seemed startled by his sudden appearance, squirming and squeaking in his hands, but it quickly relaxed when it saw his face. He set it down on the edge of his bed before dropping down to one knee in front of it. “Hi,” he greeted plainly.
The bug chirped at him, holding out its legs as if it wanted to hug him.
“Want a name?” Eventide asked, to which it wiggled its legs and tilted its head in curiosity. With a small grin, he lifted a finger and pointed it squarely at the bug’s nose. “Because I’ve got a name for you.”
The bug set its legs down and tilted its head in the other direction, clearly trying to make sense of the noises he was making. Then, without any other warning, Eventide poked its nose with the tip of his finger. Its entire face scrunched up from the contact, and an indignant hiss slipped out of its tiny mouth when he pulled back. Eventide took the look it was giving him with a wry grin before nodding. “I found you in my basement. You’re the basement bug. But that doesn’t really roll off the tongue, does it?”
The bug didn’t seem to comprehend his meaning, but it was clearly listening with great interest. Well, it was intelligent, that much really couldn’t be denied after everything Eventide had seen it do today. With his smile growing, he reached his hand out for it to sniff. It decided to just latch on with its legs, hugging tightly onto his thumb. “Heh. Basement Bug is too long. So let’s shorten it down…” as he spoke, he gently lifted the bug until it was eye to eye with him. His smile grew.
“Hello… Beebee."
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Dawww. That's all I have to say. Beebee is absolutely adorable.
Hoo boy, that's gonna be an interesting conversation.
bad dog.
Not bad and if I forget about all those cartoons, then that name is really not bad. I hope the dog isn't taking the toy away from Beebee.
I also hope if he takes it outside at some point maybe, the story works without an evil human army trying to capture that thing. If they can work without trying to do much to Fluttershy and her friends after what they were able to do, I think they can let both of them live in peace too.
I don't know for how much else that should be good anyway.
I like it again.
Promising premise (and some other alliteration) .
I'm curious how BB's lifecycle will develop, and how strong the screaming shall be once Twilight gets wind of it.
This is certainly worth being followed.
Interesting. We wonder if Flutters was projecting when she called the ling a "he". BB is fairly good either way.
Keep going! ;)
9115843
Princess Twilight might have issue but SciTwi will just geek out and want to study BB. As for roaming outside, he'll be walking "two" dogs probably. I can't wait for BB to molt into a fully articulate changeling and start cricket-chirping when content/safe. I just might die from Dawwwabities.
9115843
My money is on Fluttershy showing Twilight a picture of Beebee when she returns to deal with the Sirens. While the screaming will definitely be strong. At least Eventide will get some answers on the little guy's origin.
BeeBee i like it.
"Eyo bb whatchu doin 2nite?"
So, the mom remained in Cumsalot for about a year, according to the release dates of Canterlot Wedding and Equestria girls?
9116716
*Canterlot, first off. And whatever she has been up to since the portal first closed is not going to be covered or discussed for a good long while. I will say that she did not stay in Canterlot.
And yes, it is Canterlot.
9116733 Hopefully you'll have an actual explanation vs MLD which had no reasoning for 15 Equestrian days being 15 earth years.
Oh, and yes, it most certainly is Canterlot, I was clearly messing around.
9116739
If you look at the timelines, the EQG world and main MLP world do not line up at all. As such I am operating under the theory that, so long as the portal is closed, blocked or inactive, time flows at different speeds.
9116741 Makes sense
Aaaaaand here comes the train! All aboard the Feels Express! Destination: Gutpunch City! Choo choo!🚄
9116741
I see you are operating under the convenience theory. That is where time flows exactly as fast, or as slow, across dimensions as is most convenient for the author.
bee puns intensifies
puntenialtimes.com/images/animals/TwoBeeOrNotTwoBee.jpg
"With the stuffed somehow sticking to it’s back" should be "With the stuffed animal somehow sticking to its back" (missing a word, and improper use of an apostrophe). Same for "it's face was twitching" (its face was).
"The bug set it's legs down" > "set its legs down"
"it’s smiling face" > "its smiling face"
"sticking it’s muzzle" > "sticking its muzzle"
"flicking it's long" > "flicking its long"
"bug set it's legs down" > "bug set its legs down"
I caught these out of order, but that's all for this chapter. You should also change the story description at the top:
Should be "its mother". You should install Grammarly on your browser.
9119238
I did install Grammarly. Guess what? Missed all of those.
9119244
It should look like this:
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/456634218919755785/480632028874932224/unknown.png
The reason it's not catching everything in my text box is because I stripped a lot of the context away, but in the full thing, Grammarly should detect the context and give you a red underline. And Google Docs checks spelling, too. I think some web browsers or some websites have a spell checker built in. The Discord messaging app checks spelling now, too.
Really though, for you, I think you just need to memorize that "its" is possessive, and "it's" always and only means "it is" (a contraction).
9119251
It does look like that. And it does point out several issues, but it seems to have a hard time with 'its' and it's'
9119287
You can be better than software, though. You can be the one that doesn't "have a hard time with 'its' and 'it's'."
You also still need to update the mini summary.
9119287
Yeah, It's is a really hard to get its right.
(here it's just pointing out "a really" as a mistake)
Okay, so my thoughts went like this:
Bugsy, hey that's like bugs bunny, maybe BB would work.
And then I get to the end of the chapter. I was soo close :)
Yeah, that's pretty dumb.
Everyone knows they really work for the Illuminati.
Oh, little does he know that rather than adopting a pet he's just adopted a fully sapient child.
What?
This is pretty entertaining so far, but please tell me you're going to fix all these "it's" where they don't belong. It's pretty distracting.
EESA KYOOT WIDDWE BEEBEE
Boaty McBoatface wasn't even a thing in 2013!
ITS NOT FRANK (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
9285154
memecrunch.com/meme/8JG79/just-back-away-slowly/image.gif?w=400&c=1
Beebee, heh. I wonder if Deedee would like to hold him.
9374116
It's so sad that I had to go to google to remember who Deedee is. I feel ashamed of myself...
But chances are, yes, she probably would.
I find it strange he didn't find anything
Since Changelings exist in mythology IRL and the human world is similar to ours.
Although maybe mythology is different in this world
Who remembers the "Boaty McBoatface"
Meme?
9285154
Or Franklin the 157th
I have a soft-air gun that shoots beebees. The mental image is rather amusing.
Pew! pew!
9472033
Changelings in folklore don't have a connection to insects or equines, and no shapeshifting has occurred yet. No reason to have the term come up in his mind, let alone think it had any relevance to Beebee. And without that much...
when you have fnaf on the brain
Beebee
balloon boy basement bug
just put the baby changeling in a bb costume and boom bb Beebee
or Beebeebeebee
10695205
i had the same thot