Seventh Ocean Media

Complicated Origins

Blake’s story begins long before she ever hatched, when Countess Babs was attending a semester abroad with little sister Billie at Princess Maddie’s Magic School, satellite campus. Babs had a pre-existing condition in her file, dyslexia, but this fact was ignored by the vice-provost who cared more about the reputation of the school than the students themselves. Babs fell behind in her classes due to her disability, but the provost’s spies overlooked the counseling sessions at the access office for the school and just saw pictures of Babs with the artsy students on the student quad. As her schedule was mostly night classes, a lot of her time was spent doing non-academic activities. Finally, one day the hammer dropped and Babs was expelled by the vice-provost with no provocation or warning whatsoever. By the time Billie learned that Babs was kicked out, it was too late, Babs was already long-gone.

Babs was too ashamed to return to the Neverhive, fearing what the scandal’s spin would do the Crown’s reputation. For a whole Neveryear, Babs became a drifter, going from Neverzone to Neverzone trying to survive. She fell into illegal substance use and a spiral of depression a while after Babs got pregnant by one of her johns. Babs was there when her little baby girl hatched and she wanted to keep her, but she felt the child would be better off with a foster family, the baby’s blood uncle was tracked down through B.L.O.O.D.Trace, an adoption agency in a few of the more modern Neverzones. Babs reluctantly gave up her rights to the child, then fell into postpartum depression and further drug use, until she was caught in an NSF sting. Babs was put on a chain gang and their work details brought them to the Neverscape. Going through her crippling emotional distress and drug-withdrawal, Babs tried to end it all by drinking pesticide, but she was knocked out before she got the chance. Demuria and Baxter had finally found her after a 3-year (Earth-time) investigation. With Dr. Beemer’s and Dr. Brainard’s help, Babs was committed to the Neverscape Queen’s palace hospital for observation. By the time she awoke, Babs was in a straitjacket and facing the dark silhouettes of Queen Aurora, Princess Maddie, Queen Beeatrix, and the rest of the royals for an intervention. Babs had either repressed her memories of her pregnancy or it vanished organically is unknown, but only Demuria and Baxter knew of the mysterious niece their beloved Babs birthed. While Babs spent years recovering in the Neverhive’s care, her ballet career took off by accident as a result of her therapy. One of the Neverbeings who looked up to this aspiring dancer during the following decade was none other than Blake Buzzington, unaware of her true connection to this hero of hers.

Childhood and Ballerina Ambitions

Despite their genetic classification as Neverscapian hornets, a discriminated collective of Neverbeings due to religious radicalism that was mistakenly attributed to the group, Bart and his combinoft were able to pass for Bees and immigrated to the Neverhivian city of Northtropolis. Blake was given all the love and support a kid could ever want or need, and it molded her into a vivacious young child, having inherited her blood-mother’s positive traits of empathy and knack for dancing. Blake followed the career of the Neverhive Countess with great interest, never missing a traveling tour, always attending fundraisers with her parents, she even came close to getting Babs autograph once or twice, but it was not the right time yet, she could somehow feel it. 

By the time Blake turned 10, Bart and Bitsy finally revealed who her birth mother was, and they debated whether or not it was the right choice that they finally introduced Blake to a mother who did not remember her. With some covert string-pulling by Princess Berna and her NSF connection Demuria Mousette, Blake was granted an audience with her idol, and even though Bart and Bitsy had Blake’s birth records and papers with them, Babs needed none of it to see that this little starry-eyed child was her daughter. Blake professed her adoration for Babs as her hero, but she had made her mind up that it was best to let things stay the way they were. Babs did not allow herself to feel heartbroken, she respected Blake’s wishes, and was honored that her daughter still looked up to her as a mentor; deciding that it had to be enough, for Blake’s sake. Blake transitioned to Southtropolis High school when she was grade-skipped ahead a couple of years for her academic excellence, and she met and befriended a slightly-older boy named Brendan Beemer who took her under his wing, knowing full well that this girl was secretly his cousin.

Winona Wasp’s Exile 

After the death of Belinda Bee in the Wasp Empire’s hive, Winona Wasp was exiled as a perceived threat to Empress Slugly’s rule for her unnatural desire to be a honey-crafter. Babs and Billie were contacted by Whitney after going after Winona in the cold weather outside the hive, pleading for their help. The four sisters were finally together and Winona was brought to their family in the Neverhive, fostered by their aunt, Queen Beeatrix and her daughters. Winona became acclimated to working in the Palace honey kitchen with Berna and Bailey, finally turning her life around after two horrible tragedies. Winona was enrolled in public school in Southtropolis as a way to branch out and make friends without needing to flaunt her title as a viscountess to impress others. On her first day, Winona was welcomed by Brendan and Blake right away, not tainted by their knowledge of her being their relative, and they helped the timid Winona blossom bit by bit. For a few months, the threesome’s friendship grew, but another grave injustice reared its ugly head when several reports of honey-related food poisoning surfaced along the Four Points and their Neverzone. When the toxin was revealed to be wasp venom, the citizens of the Neverhive wasted no time in pointing the feeler at the half-breed ward from the Wasp Empire, viewing her as a traitor. Winona was shattered and left Southtropolis High School to be mentored by the palace sages and her Uncle Boston. Blake and Brendan were appalled that their aunt/cousin would be mistreated for something she could not have done, but they were afraid to rise in her defense, and Blake carried this guilt for months. The day that Brendan revealed who Blake was to him, it just happened to be the day Winona was supposed to attend Petalia and Ross’s ToxAnon meeting, and as Winona opened up to the group about losing her mother and her hive in one fell swoop, the emotional trauma reached Brendan and Blake as empathic physical pain. Brendan pleaded with his mother to forget about them keeping their knowledge of who Buzz Beemer truly was (Duke Benjamin) and let them leave the Neverhive to check on Winona. With her Royal clearance, Bridgette opened a secret tear in the Nexus, leading to the treehouse of Magnolia Owl, one of her patients.

Magnolia was not expecting company, but she had a fresh bowl of kettle corn and was eager to welcome the two teens. Winona’s group was outside the tree, but Magnolia’s psicon powers projected everything to her two guests, both auditory and visual. Blake, amid her ladylike bites of the giant kernels of popcorn listened to Winona pour her heart out about losing her mother, her home, her siblings, and now the trust of her adoptive hive. Magnolia could sense that this was a sorrowful subject for Blake, but assured her that accepting Babs as her mother did not negate the parents she had grown up with from the beginning, promising to keep the knowledge of Blake’s true title as a viscountess to herself. After close call with Princess Berna passing through her own tear in the nexus to meet with her NSF connection, Blake and Brendan returned to Beemer Manor, and after excusing herself to the basement, Blake reached out to Babs via Psicon, finally addressing her as “mother”, declaring her love for her, and wanting to have a relationship. This was the best news that Babs could have ever received, and tearfully reciprocated, going even further by inviting Blake to be her stage hand on her next tour.

Qulliad Conflict

A few nights later, Whitney Wasp broke curfew from within the Wasp Empire and buzzed over to the Nevertribe Village to check on Winona. When she saw that her twin sister was safe, Whitney started traveling back, only to be captured by Quilliad Agents and taken to Subter 55, far below the island’s surface. Demuria Mousette and Chase Roadrunner invaded Quillios using Berna’s intel and saved Whitney from being fed to Entity Delta Four as a sacrifice by the Monks of Neskorse, and brought her to Lady Galatea’s clinic in the Black Forest. Babs, Demuria, and Whisper stayed at Whitney’s side in shifts, but Blake managed to breach the Nexus into Whitney’s room without being noticed at first. Blake felt her mother’s emotional anguish and was there to offer moral support, and to finally see her other half-aunt in the flesh as she slept in her clinic bed. Blake could not stay for long, as Babs had her return through the nexus for her protection. Blake complied, but not before blowing her slumbering aunt a kiss and hugging her mother. 

A couple of days later, Earl Boston and Queen Beeatrix were kidnapped and held by the Quilliad Elders as a ransom to lure Petalia into a trap. Blake kept Brendan and her Aunt Bridgette company during the Neverhive’s lockdown, tending to baby Brooke and sending her positive vibes to her missing family. 

In the Neverweek that followed the Quilliad lab’s destruction, Winona was reunited with Whitney and their sisters, and the arrival of a mysterious box that was willed to her by her late brother Baxter, Winona went into an emotional shutdown. Luckily, Viscountess Billie knew of a certain youth who would be able to get through to Winona, and she summoned Blake through the nexus to the former apartment of Celia the Neverspider. Winona was overjoyed to see her friend again, and that Blake had believed in her innocence. Blake opened up to Winona that Babs was her mother, that they were aunt and niece as well as friends. Winona was afraid to open the box, and face losing another family member that she never knew. Blake gave her the strength to face it, assuring her that Baxter was not lost to them as long as he was in their hearts. Winona opened the box, and read the note that Baxter had penned 12 Neveryears prior, right before his death. With guidance from Nevertribe Prince Silvadarten Sol, Baxter was shown an array of possible futures, all of them sharing only two links, that his mother would give birth to twins, and that Blake would be in the room with them when Winona finally opened the letter. Baxter encouraged her to keep her head up, not be afraid to love the girl who was falling for her, and that he would always be there.

Not long after this, Queen Aurora and the Neverhivian Royals held a mandatory meeting in the colosseum in Westberg, bringing evidence of Winona’s innocence via the confession of the true culprit, Q. Wisling Wasp, a Quilliad Black Ops war criminal, under truth serum. Despite this, there was still great mistrust of Winona and the Wasps by the Neverhivians, and it broke the Queen’s heart. Blake attended with her parents and Babs (who was clad in a trench coat and glasses). 

In the Nevertribe’s underground biodome, Blake and Babs attended the Combination Ritual of Princess Echochime Jones and her fiancee Dane Mousette with the other Neverhive Royals and their friends.