Application
1 May 2016 06:14〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Ramen. (But Carolyn.)
AGE: 28
JOURNAL:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
maveth
IM / EMAIL:
PLURK: socalramen
RETURNING: Yes. But it's been awhile.
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Alveus, or "Hive". Also known as Maveth, The Beast,He who must not be named Will, Nathaniel, Grant Douglas Ward, but the being Alveus is known as Alveus, All of those other names and titles are a part of him thanks to his inhuman mutation.
CHARACTER AGE: Ancient. Incalculable. Q aged. He was one of the first inhumans on the planet, which means according to Marvel timeline he existed in the caveman era.
CANON ORIGIN: Marvel cinematic universe.
CHRONOLOGY: Post 3x18, just after purchasing a town for his followers in which to begin the inhuman experiment, or recreate the inhuman experiment in this case on the town's hapless citizenry.
CLASS: Hive is a villain. While some of his personalities might have been decent people he's bent on humanity's genocide. He's all for inhumans, as long as they follow his lead but the contempt that he has for his former species is palpable.
HOUSING: Let's opt in for housing and see where it goes!
BACKGROUND:
PERSONALITY:
Despite multiple memories and personalities living inside Hive's head, he has a unique personality that's all his own. Hive is driven. While he might have started out as angry, tortured, looking to take revenge on a world that mutated him, he sees himself as part of something larger now after centuries of isolation and exile. He's found a warped sort of peace and lives for his instincts and 'purpose'. Inhumans are motivated by instincts given to them by terragenesis, and Hive is no exception. He sees what he's doing as his duty and considers it an almost sacred drive. He doesn't see what he's doing as evil, it's simply filling a need by protecting his people.
That's not to say what he does isn't evil in comparison to human or inhuman standards. He's possessed human beings for thousands of years, but he sees them as weak and flawed creatures. Given that Hive was most likely one of the first cavemen, his standards for society are reasonably low, not to mention warped by the thousands of hosts that he's inhabited. If it can be assumed that the people who he possesses are a part of him then Alisha's declaration of "We're the superior species" in episode 3x18 is not to be taken lightly because that's how he sees the world. Hive is literally what happens when you move into a new environment and do not treat the locals with kindness. He represents the effects of prolonged occupation on the populace. He was once human, but he is now inhuman and embraces that fully.
When it comes to human beings hive is cunning and manipulative. It's not a stretch to say that some of the contempt he has for his former species has come from inhabiting hundreds of HYDRA hosts over the years. HYDRA's corrupt ideals can't have had a positive effect on someone who was literally beaten down by super human beings because they weren't good enough and then forced to be something different, molded and shaped into something terrifying. Hydra makes people like Bucky Barnes, the Kree made beings like Hive and no matter what their reasons Hive has surpassed the point of reasonable return. He's inhuman and proud and damn anybody who thinks differently from him.
The "Inhuman and proud" idea is worth noting because so far Hive has only encountered inhumans. It will be interesting to see what he might do with mutants, as mutants and inhumans are both the next stage of evolution. His default reaction describes his personality. He's here for inhumanity, in his mind they earned it. (And perhaps might have rightfully earned it given that inhumans were tortured, had their DNA modified, and were in some cases physically and painfully mutated to become living bio weaponry.) He's a self proclaimed survivor, able to adapt to anything. The one thing he's been able to cling to has been his purpose which is to seemingly unite the Inhumans together. As he tells Daisy Johnson "We'll make this the home inhumans have always deserved."
There's something positive, if not good to his actions. According to one of the other inhumans, James, Hive was designed to be the Kree's general of their inhuman army. He rebelled and it took a combination of inhumans and human beings to bring him down. He's a prisoner of his terragenesis given purpose. He has to bring inhumans together - his way. He doesn't see anything wrong with the lack of free will. This most likely motivated the inhumans to team up with humanity to bring him down. It's an imperfect solution to the problem.
Not that Hive cares. Honestly while Grant Ward's concern was taking out SHIELD, Hive's concern is much more global. He's seen organizations like SHIELD come and go (and probably witnessed individuals who knew Peggy Carter or at least knew of her coming through the portal.) Hive has lived and breathed for his purpose of returning home to build a kingdom for his people with himself as king.
Human beings continue to remain offal, or chattel. He uses their memories to gain access to everything that he wants personally. Brett Dalton described Grant Ward as "Kicking and Screaming, Fighting to get to someone he knows." Which can only meant that being a human host for hive isn't an entirely pleasant experience. He is used to being worshipped. Some human beings might chose to give themselves to Hive, which means that in death they're rewarded (Malick's brother Nathaniel is one of those. Having been betrayed by Gideon Malick and sent through the portal, Nathaniel returns like a ghost to take his revenge on his brother, murdering his daughter and fueling Hive's goals of taking down HYDRA.)
Conversely, Will Daniels, the astronaut and onetime love interest of Jemma Simmons has also seemingly made his peace with what happened. However it's soon made clear that Hive is using Will to try and get control of Jemma - but Will isn't actively resisting. These beings are alive in side of Hive, and like a skill set Hive deploys them to serve his purpose. We're told that Grant Ward is resisting, at least slightly, to what end we can only guess. Everyone falls to the Hive at one point or another and Hive considers it an honor bestowed upon human beings when they die and become his host.
The question becomes, does he see any other end to the conflict then living as King? could his 'purpose' be put to other use? What will he do when he encounters other super humans who have theoretically been mutated to give themselves abilities? All questions that going to mask or menace could answer for him. Lacking other inhumans (save for Raina and Daisy) Hive would initially attempt to create some but given that his experiments fail he'll be spending his time in a world where he can't fulfill the evolutionary directive that was forced on him. Will he continue to warp, like being sent into exile caused? Will he make changes? Make efforts to dominate this world or try and be the King the Kree tried to make him? (That's not a positive option either.)
Only time will tell.
POWER:
Hive is inhuman. That means he was tortured by the Kree, mutated, and given abilities. These abilities sometimes come with physical mutations. In this case, Hive's is incredibly extreme, resulting in him becoming a parasitic worm that inhabits dead human hosts. Given that some inhumans have ended up as doors or disembodied heads (one ended up as a dog) a parasitic corpse worm isn't entirely unusual but it's not a good thing either. He's a parasite that has the following abilities:
Causes Decay: Hive has the ability to physical devour human bodies and reuse that energy for himself. while he's living inside of a decaying corpse he uses this ability to regenerate. It's assumed he can also use it as an attack. For the sake of distance, he can destroy about five human beings at a time but it doesn't work on inhumans, with inhumans...
Inhuman 'Sway'. "We can't feed on our own kind." Says Hive, and in this case he's right. He can't physically hurt inhumans using his abilities. He can however possess them, in this case causing them to become addicted to his presence. This is the source of the majority of his power and his evolutionary directive. He's had thousands of years to justify inhuman superiority but what it breaks down to is that it's his purpose. Just like Lilo and Stitch, if he doesn't perform his purpose he gets anxious and slips into what amounts to a depressive state. He basically reverts to sleeping most of the time and trying to survive.
Possession and reanimation of human hosts Hive literally lives inside dead bodies and merges with human hosts. As a consequence he takes on their memories but he's able to use the physical being of the human beings that he dissolves to build up his own body and muscle mass. He can use this ability to rebuild himself. After being shot by Jemma Simmons it's assumed that he does this in order to rebuild himself.
Literally a Hive. Hive has access to a good portion of humanity's history and hundreds of different skills thanks to the fact that he possesses those human hosts. It's similar to a computer, he seemingly has the ability to access parts of his collection of hosts over and over again. In the case of Mask or Menace unless other hosts are revealed, Hive will only be able to access 3.
Grant Ward, able to speak six languages and called "the best SHIELD agent since Romanoff, Grant Ward turned out to be a HYDRA operative who's presence destroyed the team set up by Phil Coulson. He operated as an independent agent until, driven by revenge he returned to HYDRA in an effort to kill Phil Coulson. After killing Phil Coulson's girlfriend Rosalind Price, he was led to the planet Maveth where he seemingly 'found' and swore himself to HYDRA only to be killed by Phil Coulson. He was then possessed by Hive. Hive is shown accessing Grant Ward's memories and agreeing with his philosophy.
Will Daniels Astronaut, scientist, he died saving Jemma Simmons from Hive, and became Hive's new host. Will has seemingly made his peace with death, concerned only with protecting Jemma, but as Jemma noted it was simply Hive adopting his mannerisms. Will Daniels was an expert astronaut and good with propulsion systems. He and his father took the state prize in the science fair.
Nathaniel Malick: The rich younger son of the Malick clan, while his brother inherited the fortune, Nathaniel Malick was sent to Maveth to become Hive's new host. Has no other abilities beyond being rich and presumably well educated. He has a long history with HYDRA and no other known abilities.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[Hive has had time to think of a good first network post. He knows Daisy's here. He knows that SHIELD has no presence here but that many people who know SHIELD, and who know HYDRA are here. It makes things interesting. The only way to sway the masses until they learned his true plans, accepted his true plans, was to try and win them over.
When he turns on the feed, it's Grant Ward, former, but there's something distinctly off about him and when he speaks he doesn't sound like Grant Ward at all.]
That is not the first portal I've been through.
I feel as hollow, as the last time I left my world. As lost, as isolated, as alone. I didn't want to go then and I didn't want to go now. It's a loss. Brothers and Sisters. A true loss.
A loss compounded by the sudden mutation that shocks the system, people without abilities suddenly being gifted them. This is a pain I know too well. This is a horror that I...vividly remember.
[He's the picture of contrite, of touched, of sad.] I remember being outcasted, being called a freak, a monster. Losing friends and loved ones, losing family, and having my own people cast me aside for what they called damnation. I never asked for damnation. For this sense of...loss.
Here? Here the powers are random. With no training, no skill, no...support save for those few in this community who have stepped up to train those with gifts. I honor them. I honor those who see these powers as gifts, as tools to help others, to raise ourselves up above the masses.
Would that there had been people as brave as you, when I first received my gifts and powers.
[He lowers his gaze.] I have not...been called to teach. My people hold that there is a calling to be had to each of us. I have not been called to teach, but instead to encourage those who feel different, outcast...alone, to come together to become something better, and something stronger. To the rest of the new arrivals, do not be afraid. If you have been lucky to find comfort and succor here, rest with those who offer it to you. Take that as your benchmark, it is their kindness that will help you as you embrace your gifts.
You are blessed brothers and sisters.
To any, who might have no support in this Brave new world, I offer my ear and a sympathetic shoulder. I only wish I could do more. It is a hard thing to be torn from your home and forced into a cause that you perhaps did not wish to fight. I know this pain. And I will listen to your feelings should you have them.
My name is Alveus, and I am here to tell you...You are not alone.
[He's the very image of every doctor, every father, every teacher, ever friend that he has ever absorbed, the kindness of humanity written on his features as he turns off the feed.]
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
IN-GAME PROSE SAMPLE
They've given him a menial job he intends to change as soon as possible through whatever means possible. It's slaves work, and while he bites his tongue on the thought he keeps his head down. That is how it must be done. Wait and Watch, wait and rise. However they have assigned him pest control and it leaves him sick to his stomach. The man who runs the place is large, he tastes of sweat, he embodies pig and while he's ashamed to admit there have been hosts like that before, this man offends him. Three days into his profession he looks him over.
"This list of powers here is impressive as hell. You're - what. Some kind of superpowered hero?"
He's never seen himself as a hero, but the way the man says it makes it a joke and he won't have that. Daisy believed in him, and it was considerably more real then just his ability. He could be a hero if he had a chance. He would be again. This man isn't worthy of the gift I was given.
He put on a soft smile, "Not anymore. Now I'm employed by you."
"Seems like you'd be a hell of a lot more suited to some library work. Something where you wouldn't have to dirty your pretty girly hands." He flipped over the folder, "I'm fixing to send you back that way. Al. That's better then the fancy ass name you've given yourself. Alveus."
Hive watched. Hive waited. He had years to keep his temper in check. Folding his hands in his lap he tilted his head.
"I believe you're required to give me a test demonstration." 'Al's' voice was quiet, "Proof of what I could bring to your organization. If I fail to meet your standards, you're more then welcome to send me packing."
Five minutes passed with the big bellied pig staring him down. He grunted, scratched at his meaty neck before Hive tilted his head again. I can wait. I can wait for centuries.
"Alright girly hands. Let's see what you've got."
----
The house was a broken down apartment building, eight stories. Infested. The building stank of life and Hive stared at it before staring at him.
"Go for it. Clean 'er out."
He knew he'd be required to wear protective equipment. Spray with insecticide. Standing on the stoop, he looked to the man who might one day be his employer and swallowed down a nauseating sense of disgust.
"...See? You Imports don't know the first damn thing-"
Hive raised his hands. It wasn't as if he hadn't done it before. Fed on rats and smaller creatures during the worst of times. he adapted and survived. Adapted and survived. It was in his nature.
So he found them. Every single creature. Each ant, each rat, each snake - and there was a whole pit of them in the basement. He'd feel sick for days afterwards but there was a prize to pay as he worked, floor by floor by floor before he turned back to the man who's horror had given way to wonder - then to Greed.
He wouldn't need to sleep for days. He'd once been haunted by the screams of dying creatures. No longer.
---
"man I tell you that was scary as hell but once it was done? I had my guys give it a sweep. Not a thing! Lotta bones but that shit can be cleaned up. What'd you do? Dissolve them?"
I ate them. In a sense. It was the closest approximation of what he could accomplish, "...yes."
"Shit that's a scary power. And you've always had that?"
"Yes."
"Well I gotta tell you you're hired. Shit you could put my guys outta business. Hear that Lenny?" Lenny was a slim man who allowed himself to be whacked upside the head as the manager turned back to his newest recruit, "You gotta keep those guys in line. Y'know. Keeps out the pests."
"Yes." Hive purred, "Pests."
"Yeah but it's only to get ahead in life. Look. See?" drunk on the thought of making money he produced his wallet, "See that? That's Tricia. That's Penny. My lil' angel. Gonna grow up just like daddy. The business is hers."
Hive tilted his head and studied an overweight woman and a slim lonely looking child, "Makes a truck load. Tricia's my queen though. Though she'd prefer princess but she's at least a hundred pounds too heavy to be one. Get me pal?"
"yes." The girl with the hollow eyes. The overweight parents, drunk on their riches, their wealth.
----
The little girl is crying, when he comes for her. They came in through the window, she murmurs, hundreds of them, like a swarm of locusts. They ate mommy, they ate daddy, their bones were sitting at the table now.
"It's all right." Hive's hands are surprisingly gentle as he lifts the child into his arms, "It's all right. I work for your father. I'm in...pest control. and I'm going to take you somewhere safe. He left it all to you so it's my duty to protect you. You understand?"
She'd wrapped her arms around his neck and he stifled the uncomfortable tight feeling throughout his body, lifting her away from the scene of his carnage to take her to her true home.
OUT OF GAME PROSE SAMPLE
It's Daisy who flushes the pig out of the forest. The world is smaller then he remembers, much smaller and the great big forests and plains of his youth are given way to dirt fields and roads and small shanty towns that remind him in some small way of campfires. That's where they find the pig. There's some part of him that marvels that what would have taken him weeks takes days and that he's surprisingly delighted to discover that his skills haven't dulled at all. He tells Daisy what to look for and she seems delighted to be allowed to hunt for the creature but when she blasts it out of the brush it's head is mashed in, the front of it's body crushed.
One smooth clean thrust. A voice from the past whispers, One smooth clean thrust to the back of the head. A good warrior will learn, will aim, will see.
She drags the corpse to him, talking, always talking.
"It's a lot easier to use a gun if you want to go hunting. I mean, Ward should have told you that, or anybody else could have. Or just, when we've gotten farther in our plan..."
"Are you questioning me?" His voice is soft and dangerous. He'd tease, but he doesn't know how to anymore and he's surprised to find himself annoyed with how much of the boar is crushed, mutilated. It's a smaller pig. It's probably fed on scraps and trash from the shanty town. Everything is smaller then it was.
She's silenced and he shrugs, fastidiously out of his jacket, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt before drawing a long knife that he'd requested. He'd left the rest of his people in the shanty town, in the small bar, but Daisy had insisted on following. Daisy had insisted on being here.
He's spent so long living with hate and anger and isolation that when he sees her kneel across from him and feels a spot of something like affection he has to sort through the thousands of memories in his mind to realize it's coming from himself and no one else. Grant Ward's endless screaming is quieted. Nathaniel Malick's sadness broken, Will Daniel's stoic solitude faded. Daisy looks heartbroken and he sets to work butchering the pig.
"My father taught me how to hunt." the same way he'd told her what to look for, "He wasn't...father. In the sense that you would know of a father. There was no ...word for father." He's surprised at how easily it comes back as he makes the cuts across the pig to bleed the blood into the earth, how he almost finds himself kneeling to give thanks, to thank the pig's spirit. Life for the tribe.
"But he was my father." There are shades of him in every host that he's seen. Fathers all look the same from the ones in clothing that costs thousands of dollars to the farmers that take their sons through the corn fields. Grimly he shoves it all aside as he continues butchering the pig, searching for the man's face, "He was chief of our tribe. I wasn't his first son. He had many wives."
"Boy that..." Daisy sounds nervous, "That really was a thing?"
"Women died." The blood rushes out over his hands, "My mother died. Giving birth to a girl." the tribe hadn't mourned. Not in the traditional way, thousands of years. Thousands of memorials to the dead. She wasn't dead she'd just gone home.
"Did you miss her?"
Did he? I don't remember He began dividing the pig into strips, digging the knife in, peeling away the exposed flesh. Grant Ward's hands worked over bone and flesh.
"Sorry I asked."
"It's not missing someone." his voice is blunt, "For thousands of years I've watched humanity get smarter and dumber - more asinine at the same time. You assign so much importance to the wrongs that people do you. You assign so much to loss. Every day was a struggle for survival. It wasn't until I changed that I realized this. It is a gift that must be managed because..."
"...Because?"
The pig is in strips and he still almost kneels. He still almost thanks the earth for the gift of meat. Life for the Tribe. Perhaps this was a mistake. assigning too much importance to loss but he had to be ready. To bury ever single demon to assume the role that he was born to play, to assume, to become. It's such a small thing, this pig.
Perhaps that's what makes him drag his fingers through the blood and mud, rubbing fingertips together to reach across the corpse and press his fingers to her cheek. She freezes, instantly willing to listen, instantly willing to obey despite the undercurrent of horror in her soul.
"This is your kill."
"My kill?"
"Thank the earth. It's provided this meat for our tribe."
"Thank..."
"It's older then your inhumanity." Hive's voice is blunt, "It is the earth that moves within you. Thank the earth for your kill. She blessed you." He moved to the other cheek, drawing those same two lines.
"Thank you earth..."
"There aren't words not in this." His hand withdraws, "Thank the earth."
He feels it vibrate underneath the two of them then and presses both of his fingers at the spot between her eyes. It's a gentle vibration, almost a massage and it stops almost as soon as it began just in time for her to open her eyes and exhale.
"Life for our tribe."
Life for our tribe.
-----
The inhumans are quiet. James drives. Alisha keeps her hands in her lap, Daisy sits forward with rapt attention.
Hive speaks.
"The Kree gave me my first host. They told me what I was and what I would be able to do. what I had to do. I did the only thing I could think of. I fled. The body they'd put me in was decaying and old." And I was terrified. Half out of my mind with fear and horror. Broken and in pain. "I think sometimes that they knew. They knew what I had to become, what I had to see. It took me what felt like years but I found my tribe at last. The humans I had unceremoniously left behind."
Blind and stumbling he'd crawled out of the darkness. The women had scattered. The men fled, unceremoniously trampling over the fire rushing for their spears. The children were dragged to the center of the village. And out of the darkness I had come, dead and stinking and desperate for healing, for help, for aid...
"I called my father's name." The truck turned down a dirt road, "I begged him to heal me and I apologized." He chuckled, "I apologized for failing in my duty to bring the tribe food. The gods had punished me. I spoke to them about the blue angels."
His father came close, closer...and he hadn't believed him in his hands was a sharpened rock, a knife. He raised it to his chest and plunged it in.
"They didn't believe me." He realized his hand was over his chest and Hive closed his eyes, "My father tried to kill me. He called me...a monster."
"What did you do?"
Daisy's voice. Always Daisy.
What I was born to do. He'd raised his hands and there had been that sense of consuming fullness. The screams echoed in his memory. His hands had splayed out and he'd...fed. Grown. Changed. He felt strong, vital, healthy and alive. Very much alive but the skeleton that wore his father's totem was not his father and he had wept - oh how he had wept as he'd held the bones in his sticky hands.
"I became the first vampire." Hive chuckled, "Those who survived said that at any rate. I went down in history. Stop here." He jerks his head. It's a smaller rural farm. Of course. But he steps out of the car and into the back, "This is burying ghosts. before we return. Do you understand?"
They all nodded mutely as Hive slung the bag of meat over his shoulders and walked towards the edge of the farm.
It was...uneventful. No closure. Nothing that the act had promised. Why had he come here? Why had he allowed himself to fall pray to this? One day this place will be a historical landmark. Inhumans will come to this place to know it as the place I came from. But what did it matter?
He stared at the rotted meat and felt nothing but a sense of wasted time until he heard the shout and the shots. He doesn't think, he just acts. The farm belongs to resistence fighters. Men with guns. Before Daisy can draw attention to them or James can use his fire, His hands are spread and he devours.
His energy is overflowing by the time he's done. he won't need to sleep or eat again for weeks but Alisha is reconstituted, James is whistling, impressed at the destruction.
It's only Daisy who takes his hands for a moment, just a moment, before withdrawing and standing by his side.
There are different kinds of life. Alisha and James are kneeling before him and Daisy, Daisy looks pained and sad.
"...You saved us."
He just stares at her, "Life for your tribe right?"
Rain begins to fall and Hive, the Hive, allows himself the smallest pleased look on his face.
"Life for your tribe."
FINAL NOTES:
Hive can only influence and sway inhumans, however given that there's only two, if the mods are open to it he could perhaps sway other imports. I feel like there are enough powerful characters who can put the mind-whammy on him, not to mention whatever the government can cook up to stop him if that's ever a plot that people want to pursue. It's a touchy subject however which is why at the moment he's only truly dangerous to Raina and Daisy in that respect.
Again, Hive can only sway Inhumans However if the mods are open to it I'd like to offer the opportunity to have him sway imports, or perhaps somehow gain that ability at a later date. I'm putting this in the notes so that it could be discussed. Thanks guys!
NAME: Ramen. (But Carolyn.)
AGE: 28
JOURNAL:
mavethIM / EMAIL:
PLURK: socalramen
RETURNING: Yes. But it's been awhile.
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Alveus, or "Hive". Also known as Maveth, The Beast,
CHARACTER AGE: Ancient. Incalculable. Q aged. He was one of the first inhumans on the planet, which means according to Marvel timeline he existed in the caveman era.
CANON ORIGIN: Marvel cinematic universe.
CHRONOLOGY: Post 3x18, just after purchasing a town for his followers in which to begin the inhuman experiment, or recreate the inhuman experiment in this case on the town's hapless citizenry.
CLASS: Hive is a villain. While some of his personalities might have been decent people he's bent on humanity's genocide. He's all for inhumans, as long as they follow his lead but the contempt that he has for his former species is palpable.
HOUSING: Let's opt in for housing and see where it goes!
BACKGROUND:
Once upon a time...
Hive started out as a human, specifically a hunter gatherer of an unknown tribe. He was found, selected, chosen he might say to become an inhuman wherein he was injected with Kree DNA and became an inhuman. While he himself freely admitted that he did not become a warrior, he was put into a position where he became general of the Kree's armies, acting as an army in and of himself.
When you consider that he went from being early homo sapiens to something resembling sentience, you can perhaps see how it might have driven him insane. He's had thousands of years to think about that however and decided that he must fulfill his purpose at any cost - namely that of uniting the inhumans. Whatever inhumans he happens to find.
He's part of a world with gods and monsters and he's had centuries, indeed millennia to delude himself into believing that he's a god, or perhaps that divine inspiration created him. His "connection" to other inhumans was obviously seen as a threat (the elimination of free will and all that) so he was exiled to another planet where he attempted to recreate the same Kree experiment that made him.
The experiment wasn't a success - presumably - and he witnessed the same civil war that seems poised to engulf the Marvel universe - one that he caused. Doing this helped solidify his insanity - that he's helping people by having them become inhuman as opposed to just extracting revenge is the right thing to do. So he waited through most of the events of the MCU having put safeguards in place. What kind of safeguards? It's not reasonably clear. At some point Hive crossed paths with HYDRA, started a cult revolving around worshipping him (and his particularly unique facial feature set) and they collectively arranged for new hosts to be sent to Hive. This went on for thousands of years, presumably warping Hive further and further with more and more personalities added to his powers. This went on for millennia until Gideon Malick sent Grant Ward through the portal to bring him back. With Phil Coulson's help HYDRA succeeded. Hive returned to earth, one that was already going through change, on the brink of destruction, and facing a civil war.
In the grand scheme of things Hive's plans aren't really anymore different then a drop in the bucket of the bigger MCU. He's a grosser Loki with a more unique skillset and a semi-tragic backstory (being tortured and mutilated by the Kree, completely losing his free will to the will of terragenesis.) Things like Hive, and people like Hive happen all the time it's simply a matter of which enemies people end up fighting.
PERSONALITY:
Despite multiple memories and personalities living inside Hive's head, he has a unique personality that's all his own. Hive is driven. While he might have started out as angry, tortured, looking to take revenge on a world that mutated him, he sees himself as part of something larger now after centuries of isolation and exile. He's found a warped sort of peace and lives for his instincts and 'purpose'. Inhumans are motivated by instincts given to them by terragenesis, and Hive is no exception. He sees what he's doing as his duty and considers it an almost sacred drive. He doesn't see what he's doing as evil, it's simply filling a need by protecting his people.
That's not to say what he does isn't evil in comparison to human or inhuman standards. He's possessed human beings for thousands of years, but he sees them as weak and flawed creatures. Given that Hive was most likely one of the first cavemen, his standards for society are reasonably low, not to mention warped by the thousands of hosts that he's inhabited. If it can be assumed that the people who he possesses are a part of him then Alisha's declaration of "We're the superior species" in episode 3x18 is not to be taken lightly because that's how he sees the world. Hive is literally what happens when you move into a new environment and do not treat the locals with kindness. He represents the effects of prolonged occupation on the populace. He was once human, but he is now inhuman and embraces that fully.
When it comes to human beings hive is cunning and manipulative. It's not a stretch to say that some of the contempt he has for his former species has come from inhabiting hundreds of HYDRA hosts over the years. HYDRA's corrupt ideals can't have had a positive effect on someone who was literally beaten down by super human beings because they weren't good enough and then forced to be something different, molded and shaped into something terrifying. Hydra makes people like Bucky Barnes, the Kree made beings like Hive and no matter what their reasons Hive has surpassed the point of reasonable return. He's inhuman and proud and damn anybody who thinks differently from him.
The "Inhuman and proud" idea is worth noting because so far Hive has only encountered inhumans. It will be interesting to see what he might do with mutants, as mutants and inhumans are both the next stage of evolution. His default reaction describes his personality. He's here for inhumanity, in his mind they earned it. (And perhaps might have rightfully earned it given that inhumans were tortured, had their DNA modified, and were in some cases physically and painfully mutated to become living bio weaponry.) He's a self proclaimed survivor, able to adapt to anything. The one thing he's been able to cling to has been his purpose which is to seemingly unite the Inhumans together. As he tells Daisy Johnson "We'll make this the home inhumans have always deserved."
There's something positive, if not good to his actions. According to one of the other inhumans, James, Hive was designed to be the Kree's general of their inhuman army. He rebelled and it took a combination of inhumans and human beings to bring him down. He's a prisoner of his terragenesis given purpose. He has to bring inhumans together - his way. He doesn't see anything wrong with the lack of free will. This most likely motivated the inhumans to team up with humanity to bring him down. It's an imperfect solution to the problem.
Not that Hive cares. Honestly while Grant Ward's concern was taking out SHIELD, Hive's concern is much more global. He's seen organizations like SHIELD come and go (and probably witnessed individuals who knew Peggy Carter or at least knew of her coming through the portal.) Hive has lived and breathed for his purpose of returning home to build a kingdom for his people with himself as king.
Human beings continue to remain offal, or chattel. He uses their memories to gain access to everything that he wants personally. Brett Dalton described Grant Ward as "Kicking and Screaming, Fighting to get to someone he knows." Which can only meant that being a human host for hive isn't an entirely pleasant experience. He is used to being worshipped. Some human beings might chose to give themselves to Hive, which means that in death they're rewarded (Malick's brother Nathaniel is one of those. Having been betrayed by Gideon Malick and sent through the portal, Nathaniel returns like a ghost to take his revenge on his brother, murdering his daughter and fueling Hive's goals of taking down HYDRA.)
Conversely, Will Daniels, the astronaut and onetime love interest of Jemma Simmons has also seemingly made his peace with what happened. However it's soon made clear that Hive is using Will to try and get control of Jemma - but Will isn't actively resisting. These beings are alive in side of Hive, and like a skill set Hive deploys them to serve his purpose. We're told that Grant Ward is resisting, at least slightly, to what end we can only guess. Everyone falls to the Hive at one point or another and Hive considers it an honor bestowed upon human beings when they die and become his host.
The question becomes, does he see any other end to the conflict then living as King? could his 'purpose' be put to other use? What will he do when he encounters other super humans who have theoretically been mutated to give themselves abilities? All questions that going to mask or menace could answer for him. Lacking other inhumans (save for Raina and Daisy) Hive would initially attempt to create some but given that his experiments fail he'll be spending his time in a world where he can't fulfill the evolutionary directive that was forced on him. Will he continue to warp, like being sent into exile caused? Will he make changes? Make efforts to dominate this world or try and be the King the Kree tried to make him? (That's not a positive option either.)
Only time will tell.
POWER:
Hive is inhuman. That means he was tortured by the Kree, mutated, and given abilities. These abilities sometimes come with physical mutations. In this case, Hive's is incredibly extreme, resulting in him becoming a parasitic worm that inhabits dead human hosts. Given that some inhumans have ended up as doors or disembodied heads (one ended up as a dog) a parasitic corpse worm isn't entirely unusual but it's not a good thing either. He's a parasite that has the following abilities:
Causes Decay: Hive has the ability to physical devour human bodies and reuse that energy for himself. while he's living inside of a decaying corpse he uses this ability to regenerate. It's assumed he can also use it as an attack. For the sake of distance, he can destroy about five human beings at a time but it doesn't work on inhumans, with inhumans...
Inhuman 'Sway'. "We can't feed on our own kind." Says Hive, and in this case he's right. He can't physically hurt inhumans using his abilities. He can however possess them, in this case causing them to become addicted to his presence. This is the source of the majority of his power and his evolutionary directive. He's had thousands of years to justify inhuman superiority but what it breaks down to is that it's his purpose. Just like Lilo and Stitch, if he doesn't perform his purpose he gets anxious and slips into what amounts to a depressive state. He basically reverts to sleeping most of the time and trying to survive.
Possession and reanimation of human hosts Hive literally lives inside dead bodies and merges with human hosts. As a consequence he takes on their memories but he's able to use the physical being of the human beings that he dissolves to build up his own body and muscle mass. He can use this ability to rebuild himself. After being shot by Jemma Simmons it's assumed that he does this in order to rebuild himself.
Literally a Hive. Hive has access to a good portion of humanity's history and hundreds of different skills thanks to the fact that he possesses those human hosts. It's similar to a computer, he seemingly has the ability to access parts of his collection of hosts over and over again. In the case of Mask or Menace unless other hosts are revealed, Hive will only be able to access 3.
Grant Ward, able to speak six languages and called "the best SHIELD agent since Romanoff, Grant Ward turned out to be a HYDRA operative who's presence destroyed the team set up by Phil Coulson. He operated as an independent agent until, driven by revenge he returned to HYDRA in an effort to kill Phil Coulson. After killing Phil Coulson's girlfriend Rosalind Price, he was led to the planet Maveth where he seemingly 'found' and swore himself to HYDRA only to be killed by Phil Coulson. He was then possessed by Hive. Hive is shown accessing Grant Ward's memories and agreeing with his philosophy.
Will Daniels Astronaut, scientist, he died saving Jemma Simmons from Hive, and became Hive's new host. Will has seemingly made his peace with death, concerned only with protecting Jemma, but as Jemma noted it was simply Hive adopting his mannerisms. Will Daniels was an expert astronaut and good with propulsion systems. He and his father took the state prize in the science fair.
Nathaniel Malick: The rich younger son of the Malick clan, while his brother inherited the fortune, Nathaniel Malick was sent to Maveth to become Hive's new host. Has no other abilities beyond being rich and presumably well educated. He has a long history with HYDRA and no other known abilities.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[Hive has had time to think of a good first network post. He knows Daisy's here. He knows that SHIELD has no presence here but that many people who know SHIELD, and who know HYDRA are here. It makes things interesting. The only way to sway the masses until they learned his true plans, accepted his true plans, was to try and win them over.
When he turns on the feed, it's Grant Ward, former, but there's something distinctly off about him and when he speaks he doesn't sound like Grant Ward at all.]
That is not the first portal I've been through.
I feel as hollow, as the last time I left my world. As lost, as isolated, as alone. I didn't want to go then and I didn't want to go now. It's a loss. Brothers and Sisters. A true loss.
A loss compounded by the sudden mutation that shocks the system, people without abilities suddenly being gifted them. This is a pain I know too well. This is a horror that I...vividly remember.
[He's the picture of contrite, of touched, of sad.] I remember being outcasted, being called a freak, a monster. Losing friends and loved ones, losing family, and having my own people cast me aside for what they called damnation. I never asked for damnation. For this sense of...loss.
Here? Here the powers are random. With no training, no skill, no...support save for those few in this community who have stepped up to train those with gifts. I honor them. I honor those who see these powers as gifts, as tools to help others, to raise ourselves up above the masses.
Would that there had been people as brave as you, when I first received my gifts and powers.
[He lowers his gaze.] I have not...been called to teach. My people hold that there is a calling to be had to each of us. I have not been called to teach, but instead to encourage those who feel different, outcast...alone, to come together to become something better, and something stronger. To the rest of the new arrivals, do not be afraid. If you have been lucky to find comfort and succor here, rest with those who offer it to you. Take that as your benchmark, it is their kindness that will help you as you embrace your gifts.
You are blessed brothers and sisters.
To any, who might have no support in this Brave new world, I offer my ear and a sympathetic shoulder. I only wish I could do more. It is a hard thing to be torn from your home and forced into a cause that you perhaps did not wish to fight. I know this pain. And I will listen to your feelings should you have them.
My name is Alveus, and I am here to tell you...You are not alone.
[He's the very image of every doctor, every father, every teacher, ever friend that he has ever absorbed, the kindness of humanity written on his features as he turns off the feed.]
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
IN-GAME PROSE SAMPLE
They've given him a menial job he intends to change as soon as possible through whatever means possible. It's slaves work, and while he bites his tongue on the thought he keeps his head down. That is how it must be done. Wait and Watch, wait and rise. However they have assigned him pest control and it leaves him sick to his stomach. The man who runs the place is large, he tastes of sweat, he embodies pig and while he's ashamed to admit there have been hosts like that before, this man offends him. Three days into his profession he looks him over.
"This list of powers here is impressive as hell. You're - what. Some kind of superpowered hero?"
He's never seen himself as a hero, but the way the man says it makes it a joke and he won't have that. Daisy believed in him, and it was considerably more real then just his ability. He could be a hero if he had a chance. He would be again. This man isn't worthy of the gift I was given.
He put on a soft smile, "Not anymore. Now I'm employed by you."
"Seems like you'd be a hell of a lot more suited to some library work. Something where you wouldn't have to dirty your pretty girly hands." He flipped over the folder, "I'm fixing to send you back that way. Al. That's better then the fancy ass name you've given yourself. Alveus."
Hive watched. Hive waited. He had years to keep his temper in check. Folding his hands in his lap he tilted his head.
"I believe you're required to give me a test demonstration." 'Al's' voice was quiet, "Proof of what I could bring to your organization. If I fail to meet your standards, you're more then welcome to send me packing."
Five minutes passed with the big bellied pig staring him down. He grunted, scratched at his meaty neck before Hive tilted his head again. I can wait. I can wait for centuries.
"Alright girly hands. Let's see what you've got."
----
The house was a broken down apartment building, eight stories. Infested. The building stank of life and Hive stared at it before staring at him.
"Go for it. Clean 'er out."
He knew he'd be required to wear protective equipment. Spray with insecticide. Standing on the stoop, he looked to the man who might one day be his employer and swallowed down a nauseating sense of disgust.
"...See? You Imports don't know the first damn thing-"
Hive raised his hands. It wasn't as if he hadn't done it before. Fed on rats and smaller creatures during the worst of times. he adapted and survived. Adapted and survived. It was in his nature.
So he found them. Every single creature. Each ant, each rat, each snake - and there was a whole pit of them in the basement. He'd feel sick for days afterwards but there was a prize to pay as he worked, floor by floor by floor before he turned back to the man who's horror had given way to wonder - then to Greed.
He wouldn't need to sleep for days. He'd once been haunted by the screams of dying creatures. No longer.
---
"man I tell you that was scary as hell but once it was done? I had my guys give it a sweep. Not a thing! Lotta bones but that shit can be cleaned up. What'd you do? Dissolve them?"
I ate them. In a sense. It was the closest approximation of what he could accomplish, "...yes."
"Shit that's a scary power. And you've always had that?"
"Yes."
"Well I gotta tell you you're hired. Shit you could put my guys outta business. Hear that Lenny?" Lenny was a slim man who allowed himself to be whacked upside the head as the manager turned back to his newest recruit, "You gotta keep those guys in line. Y'know. Keeps out the pests."
"Yes." Hive purred, "Pests."
"Yeah but it's only to get ahead in life. Look. See?" drunk on the thought of making money he produced his wallet, "See that? That's Tricia. That's Penny. My lil' angel. Gonna grow up just like daddy. The business is hers."
Hive tilted his head and studied an overweight woman and a slim lonely looking child, "Makes a truck load. Tricia's my queen though. Though she'd prefer princess but she's at least a hundred pounds too heavy to be one. Get me pal?"
"yes." The girl with the hollow eyes. The overweight parents, drunk on their riches, their wealth.
----
The little girl is crying, when he comes for her. They came in through the window, she murmurs, hundreds of them, like a swarm of locusts. They ate mommy, they ate daddy, their bones were sitting at the table now.
"It's all right." Hive's hands are surprisingly gentle as he lifts the child into his arms, "It's all right. I work for your father. I'm in...pest control. and I'm going to take you somewhere safe. He left it all to you so it's my duty to protect you. You understand?"
She'd wrapped her arms around his neck and he stifled the uncomfortable tight feeling throughout his body, lifting her away from the scene of his carnage to take her to her true home.
OUT OF GAME PROSE SAMPLE
It's Daisy who flushes the pig out of the forest. The world is smaller then he remembers, much smaller and the great big forests and plains of his youth are given way to dirt fields and roads and small shanty towns that remind him in some small way of campfires. That's where they find the pig. There's some part of him that marvels that what would have taken him weeks takes days and that he's surprisingly delighted to discover that his skills haven't dulled at all. He tells Daisy what to look for and she seems delighted to be allowed to hunt for the creature but when she blasts it out of the brush it's head is mashed in, the front of it's body crushed.
One smooth clean thrust. A voice from the past whispers, One smooth clean thrust to the back of the head. A good warrior will learn, will aim, will see.
She drags the corpse to him, talking, always talking.
"It's a lot easier to use a gun if you want to go hunting. I mean, Ward should have told you that, or anybody else could have. Or just, when we've gotten farther in our plan..."
"Are you questioning me?" His voice is soft and dangerous. He'd tease, but he doesn't know how to anymore and he's surprised to find himself annoyed with how much of the boar is crushed, mutilated. It's a smaller pig. It's probably fed on scraps and trash from the shanty town. Everything is smaller then it was.
She's silenced and he shrugs, fastidiously out of his jacket, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt before drawing a long knife that he'd requested. He'd left the rest of his people in the shanty town, in the small bar, but Daisy had insisted on following. Daisy had insisted on being here.
He's spent so long living with hate and anger and isolation that when he sees her kneel across from him and feels a spot of something like affection he has to sort through the thousands of memories in his mind to realize it's coming from himself and no one else. Grant Ward's endless screaming is quieted. Nathaniel Malick's sadness broken, Will Daniel's stoic solitude faded. Daisy looks heartbroken and he sets to work butchering the pig.
"My father taught me how to hunt." the same way he'd told her what to look for, "He wasn't...father. In the sense that you would know of a father. There was no ...word for father." He's surprised at how easily it comes back as he makes the cuts across the pig to bleed the blood into the earth, how he almost finds himself kneeling to give thanks, to thank the pig's spirit. Life for the tribe.
"But he was my father." There are shades of him in every host that he's seen. Fathers all look the same from the ones in clothing that costs thousands of dollars to the farmers that take their sons through the corn fields. Grimly he shoves it all aside as he continues butchering the pig, searching for the man's face, "He was chief of our tribe. I wasn't his first son. He had many wives."
"Boy that..." Daisy sounds nervous, "That really was a thing?"
"Women died." The blood rushes out over his hands, "My mother died. Giving birth to a girl." the tribe hadn't mourned. Not in the traditional way, thousands of years. Thousands of memorials to the dead. She wasn't dead she'd just gone home.
"Did you miss her?"
Did he? I don't remember He began dividing the pig into strips, digging the knife in, peeling away the exposed flesh. Grant Ward's hands worked over bone and flesh.
"Sorry I asked."
"It's not missing someone." his voice is blunt, "For thousands of years I've watched humanity get smarter and dumber - more asinine at the same time. You assign so much importance to the wrongs that people do you. You assign so much to loss. Every day was a struggle for survival. It wasn't until I changed that I realized this. It is a gift that must be managed because..."
"...Because?"
The pig is in strips and he still almost kneels. He still almost thanks the earth for the gift of meat. Life for the Tribe. Perhaps this was a mistake. assigning too much importance to loss but he had to be ready. To bury ever single demon to assume the role that he was born to play, to assume, to become. It's such a small thing, this pig.
Perhaps that's what makes him drag his fingers through the blood and mud, rubbing fingertips together to reach across the corpse and press his fingers to her cheek. She freezes, instantly willing to listen, instantly willing to obey despite the undercurrent of horror in her soul.
"This is your kill."
"My kill?"
"Thank the earth. It's provided this meat for our tribe."
"Thank..."
"It's older then your inhumanity." Hive's voice is blunt, "It is the earth that moves within you. Thank the earth for your kill. She blessed you." He moved to the other cheek, drawing those same two lines.
"Thank you earth..."
"There aren't words not in this." His hand withdraws, "Thank the earth."
He feels it vibrate underneath the two of them then and presses both of his fingers at the spot between her eyes. It's a gentle vibration, almost a massage and it stops almost as soon as it began just in time for her to open her eyes and exhale.
"Life for our tribe."
Life for our tribe.
-----
The inhumans are quiet. James drives. Alisha keeps her hands in her lap, Daisy sits forward with rapt attention.
Hive speaks.
"The Kree gave me my first host. They told me what I was and what I would be able to do. what I had to do. I did the only thing I could think of. I fled. The body they'd put me in was decaying and old." And I was terrified. Half out of my mind with fear and horror. Broken and in pain. "I think sometimes that they knew. They knew what I had to become, what I had to see. It took me what felt like years but I found my tribe at last. The humans I had unceremoniously left behind."
Blind and stumbling he'd crawled out of the darkness. The women had scattered. The men fled, unceremoniously trampling over the fire rushing for their spears. The children were dragged to the center of the village. And out of the darkness I had come, dead and stinking and desperate for healing, for help, for aid...
"I called my father's name." The truck turned down a dirt road, "I begged him to heal me and I apologized." He chuckled, "I apologized for failing in my duty to bring the tribe food. The gods had punished me. I spoke to them about the blue angels."
His father came close, closer...and he hadn't believed him in his hands was a sharpened rock, a knife. He raised it to his chest and plunged it in.
"They didn't believe me." He realized his hand was over his chest and Hive closed his eyes, "My father tried to kill me. He called me...a monster."
"What did you do?"
Daisy's voice. Always Daisy.
What I was born to do. He'd raised his hands and there had been that sense of consuming fullness. The screams echoed in his memory. His hands had splayed out and he'd...fed. Grown. Changed. He felt strong, vital, healthy and alive. Very much alive but the skeleton that wore his father's totem was not his father and he had wept - oh how he had wept as he'd held the bones in his sticky hands.
"I became the first vampire." Hive chuckled, "Those who survived said that at any rate. I went down in history. Stop here." He jerks his head. It's a smaller rural farm. Of course. But he steps out of the car and into the back, "This is burying ghosts. before we return. Do you understand?"
They all nodded mutely as Hive slung the bag of meat over his shoulders and walked towards the edge of the farm.
It was...uneventful. No closure. Nothing that the act had promised. Why had he come here? Why had he allowed himself to fall pray to this? One day this place will be a historical landmark. Inhumans will come to this place to know it as the place I came from. But what did it matter?
He stared at the rotted meat and felt nothing but a sense of wasted time until he heard the shout and the shots. He doesn't think, he just acts. The farm belongs to resistence fighters. Men with guns. Before Daisy can draw attention to them or James can use his fire, His hands are spread and he devours.
His energy is overflowing by the time he's done. he won't need to sleep or eat again for weeks but Alisha is reconstituted, James is whistling, impressed at the destruction.
It's only Daisy who takes his hands for a moment, just a moment, before withdrawing and standing by his side.
There are different kinds of life. Alisha and James are kneeling before him and Daisy, Daisy looks pained and sad.
"...You saved us."
He just stares at her, "Life for your tribe right?"
Rain begins to fall and Hive, the Hive, allows himself the smallest pleased look on his face.
"Life for your tribe."
FINAL NOTES:
Hive can only influence and sway inhumans, however given that there's only two, if the mods are open to it he could perhaps sway other imports. I feel like there are enough powerful characters who can put the mind-whammy on him, not to mention whatever the government can cook up to stop him if that's ever a plot that people want to pursue. It's a touchy subject however which is why at the moment he's only truly dangerous to Raina and Daisy in that respect.
Again, Hive can only sway Inhumans However if the mods are open to it I'd like to offer the opportunity to have him sway imports, or perhaps somehow gain that ability at a later date. I'm putting this in the notes so that it could be discussed. Thanks guys!
