Insects are six-legged, compound-eyed, chitin-covered little creatures who populate most of the world
and usually sit at the bottom of the food chain. They come in all kinds of shapes, colors, tastes and sizes
and are so diverse they vastly outnumber the rest of the animal kingdom.
Now when I say "bugs", I include true insects of course but I also include arthropods like centipedes
who have more than 6 legs. I also include arachnids, and... just because I don't feel like keeping them out,
I also count critters like snails, slugs and other gastropods in.
Bugs have easy lives. They eat to grow and they grow to reproduce. And then they die. They didn't complicate
their existence with occult things such as "job interviews" and "governments". Well actually some of them did the latter but-
You get the point. Bugs don't work, don't exercise, don't vote...
And most of all, they don't feel.
Bugs act through instinct. Of survival of their species. There's no thought behind it, there's no
feelings to speak of, neither for themselves or others. That means you could spend your life with pet bugs, feeding and cherishing them,
and they will never love you back. Isn't that great? The thought that I could trip and snap my spine, and
none of them could give less of a shit... Maybe it's weird but it puts me at ease.
People could learn a thing or two from bugs. It can't be healthy to care so much all the time. But what do
I know, right?
- The story so far -
Echo Betula has been living as a recluse among insects in a bunker lost in the middle
of nowhere for more than 6 months now. Unfortunately, his misanthropic lifestyle came to
be disturbed by the arrival of Calembour Loiseau, a bird-shaped failed
lawyer, followed by the hiring of Maurice, a lost man of robust build, both resolved
to renovate the bunker's house up to living conditions.
As they finish work on it, they're approached by the Hierophant; a hooded traveler asking for help,
who urges them to search for the Icon of Dreams: an 'item' lost for more than 200 years whose every attribut
were forgotten to time down to its very nature, aside from its ability to bring dreams to reality.
However, thanks to his trusty Critter Compendium and bug knowledge, Echo brought up the possibility
that the Icon of Dreams may be an insect, a species unseen for a similar timespan
with nothing but cocoons as proof of its existence.
Wishing he hadn't said a word, and with now his new house turned into an automobile during an unexplained
week-long gap, Echo is forced to go on a hunt across the continent for an insect no one has seen for 2 centuries
with two people he scorns at best. Hilarity ensues.
Earning half of the inheritance of his previous employer was
all it took for Carbon Williams to leave his family home and install himself alone in the abandoned
mansion of his late favorite artist... if it weren't for the realization shortly after settling down
that the place was already occupied by a strange entity built of alloys and electronics.
Met at the hospital after a minor incindent, the so-called "computer" implores the newly moved to
let it live in the manor, but such plea would fall upon deaf ears, as Carbon already decided to call the house
his home as to follow in the footsteps of his hero.
However, the aspiring artist couldn't help but see passion where others would only see machinery,
and graciously settled on a deal with the now-named Caddy: cohabitation, with Carbon giving information about
the previous homeowner, the artist Mr Sandman, and Caddy acting as the muse, the inspiration for Carbon's art
that will grant him stardom.
