SC ARPG Fills

It was a beautiful day at Green Acres. Dahlia was busy—as always!—but Hess was still making the walk up to the treeline. He was hoping to watch some of the other Green Acres residents at work. Some fuzzy, buzzy residents.

Hess was more than a little smitten by the beebs.

They were small and adorable and fluffy, and they were always so busy working on amazing things. They were cute when they were working! And when they were resting! They were cute when they buzzed around! Hess wanted to pet their cute fuzzy heads and watch them do their busy work. Maybe they could sense that he was over eager, because the beebs on Dahlia’s farm didn’t seem terribly fond of him. Attempts to approach had thus far been met with indignant buzzing or pointed ignoring. Hess had been coming around more and more often, and he hoped to visit even more! He loved the farm. He loved the farm. And since he loved the farm and wanted to make a good impression, he was hoping to win the beebs over.

What did beebs like? Hess knew what beebs liked to make, but it would be silly to give them honey. Plus he didn’t want to offend them! They probably liked to have flowers. Flowers were nice! Pretty! Um... tasty? Did the beebs eat the flowers or did they just use it to make things that were good to eat? It probably didn’t matter when it came right down to it. As long as they liked it!

Hess took himself out to the fields to look around. There was so much growing out in the world, he would have plenty of things to choose from. An overabundance of options was almost as bad as having too few. He would just have to work with whatever he could find nearby. He knew that beebs liked flowers that smelled nice. He thought they did, anyway. He knew they liked clovers because of the honey they made, and there was a lovely green carpet of clover here, but none of them seemed to be in bloom. They were still pretty. Hess spent a long few minutes wandering through the clovers, picking up any ones he found that were particularly pristine.

Along the edge of the field he found a line of purple flowers stretching toward the sky. Each long spear ended with a cluster of smallish purple flowers. They were wonderfully aromatic. It didn’t take much sniffing to identify it as lavender. He picked a few. Purple and green were nice together! And it was such a nice, soft color. Maybe something brighter would be a good addition? The tall grass that started up beyond the line of lavender had a few spots of color deeper into it, so Hess pushed his way into it to try and reach them. He found a brighter pink flower with a large, prickly center and a starburst of thin petals around it. The leaves branching off the stalk were jagged, but you couldn’t see them when he tucked the flower into the bundle he was gathering in his hand.

In trying to make his way out of the tall grass without falling, Hess nearly tripped over and squished a cluster of bright yellow flowers. The clusters of small flowers that covered the plants were golden puffballs, and they were the perfect intermediate size to add in to his bouquet.

Hess climbed back up the hill toward the bee boxes, doing his best to keep his balance on the uneven ground and careful not to drop any of the cuttings he’d collected. The beebs definitely noticed his approach, it was kind of hard not to see him making his awkward way up to their little houses. He looked around, picking a bee box to approach and sidling up to it. A fluffy worker beeb was perched just outside. “Hello?”

The beeb buzzed their wings at him and made as if to turn and fly away. It was a very clear sign of dismissal. Hess was interrupting their work! How rude of him.

“Wait! I brought you this!” Hess said quickly, holding out the bouquet in a quick thrust. The flowers bobbed and he lost a few petals to the movement, but it stayed mostly intact. The beeb looked back to him. Another one zipped over and landed on the same box, looking at him curiously. “Um. You like flowers? I hope. I thought maybe you’d like these.” He stepped closer and the beebs didn’t fly off, which was a good sign. “I don’t think we started out on the best foot, but I was thinking maybe we could be friends..?” he said hopefully.

There was a tense pause, and then both of the beebs took off from the box—but they didn’t buzz away. They came toward him! One hovered in front, inspecting his offering, and the other landed right on his arm! Hess suppressed an excited giggle, not wanting to scare them away. This was definitely a good start to winning them over.