The Hive of Mischief

Hive of Mischief

Located in the Minotaur Republic

Ruled by Queen Viola
 

Primary Emotions: 

Laughter, Surprise, Confusion and their personal favourite yet disappointingly harder to collect especially with Minotaur's, Mischievousness.

 

Occupations: 

The hive is split into four sections. The Heart, Mind, Soul and Body.

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The Heart deals with everything to do with emotion gathering for the hive. This can include a number of tasks such as Circus acts, Street performing, Comedy shows, Court Jesters and the Prank Patrol (or Revenge Machine as it is otherwise known).

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The Mind are the brains of the hive. They deal with a number of high value missions or high costing tasks. They can also look into the best advertising avenues. Anything outside the hive that deal with hive safety in a non-physical way such as Intelligence Operatives, Scouts, Infiltrators and Changeling relation officers also fall under this bracket.

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The Body are where all the Changeling's who work in the main hive stay, such as the Queen’s Royal Guard and the Nymph (child) Caretakers but also the Changeling’s who keep the hive clean after their numerous parties.

 

The Soul do some of the heavy duty work. They are the best of the best and rightfully so. Their main time of work is during Minotaur Election Time. They also perform Swapsies (where they swap public items for surprise purposes) and when Emotion reserves are low the soul Changeling’s like to paint a city. Literally they go around painting cities in random colours so that they can get as much surprise as possible afterwards.

 

Unique Abilities: 

Compared to the usual Minotaur hives these Changeling's have an above average magical capability. This is used to assist in street and Circus performances. Their smaller size to the usual Minotaur Changeling also helps them sneak around much more effectively.

 

Having gradient colour design that differs slightly from Changeling to Changeling vs a primary colour design makes them easier to recognise than most other Changeling races.

 

Naming System: 

On that topic Mischief Changeling's have a mix between the standard Changeling naming system and the pony / most other species naming system. The first part of their name is in reference to their job while the second part is made by the Changeling's parent at birth. For Example in the name Soul-aris we have Soul referencing that the Changeling is in the Soul section and Aris which is the Changeling's chosen name. Other names could include Body-less, Mind-map, Heart-ache or High-mind. Yes the Changeling's love to turn their names into puns but sadly with so many Changeling's in the hive it does become a competition to grab names.

 

Hive Structure: 

The hive have a very weird living arrangement. While they have a main hive out in the middle of nowhere their main hive is actually split into many. It is possible that they took this idea straight from Tempest and her hive in the sky but their hives actually come in the form of Circus tents. Three of them to be precise. These three Circus's tour the country by the rails and set up shop in a location for a term (season) to perform shows for the population there and cause a little mischief. When the season is done and their job is over in that town they move onto the next.

 

Queen Status: 

Name - Viola

 

Name Meaning – Her name comes from a musical instrument showing off her creative side. Although Viola is skilled in art, not music like Queen Eupha of the Joy Hive. Her name is also a reference to a rare greeting generally used for show.

 

Approximate Age – 727

 

Summary - Viola is just as mischievous as her fellow Changeling's. In all honesty she has a terrible problem with not acting like a Queen really should. In fact most of her work is passed down to other Changeling’s to do it for her. Not that she is not that bright but rather because she does not like to waste her time with “politics”.

Queen Viola loves to laugh and joke around especially with Changeling's from other hives who know very little about her. In particular she loves to act all serious (with varying results) and then surprise them with silly little pranks before bursting with laughter.

 

In terms of occupation the Queen has none. Well that is to say that she prefers to change up her appearance every time she leaves the hive and gain her fair share of emotion by doing simple street performances. Oh wait… did I say simple. Oh no. She is the Queen for a reason and when she performs let's just say that even her Changeling's all stop to marvel at her brilliant skills in comedy and magic.

Viola actually dislikes the Democratic system of government and at any opportunity she gets likes to put her changeling's on tasks that make a joke out of it. This can get her in some trouble from the other Changeling hives of the nation who in general prefer the democratic system. Deep down Viola dreams of ages long ago of heroic knights and kingdoms and of course jesters a plenty. It is well known that historically Mischief Queens are well known for being Minotaur King Jesters in desguise. Perhaps she wishes she could have performed such a role too.

 

Lineage Summary: 

No Daughters Currently, Mother passed away long ago.

 

Rise to Leadership: 

In this hive princesses are not assured the title of queen from birth although their chances are pretty high. When a princess reaches the age where queen-hood can be applied the current queen hosts a Silly Queen Contest! The contest tests each Changeling who is willing to take on the role of queen-hood to a series of mischief hive challenges ranging from massive Swapsies to questions on what they plan to do as queen to comedy routines. Then every Changeling gets a vote on who they want to be queen. Just like the democratic country they live in.

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However the contest is definitely in favour of the princess for a number of reasons. Firstly the current Queen loves her daughter usually which means that the Changeling population love her as well because they love the Queen (It's a bit of a natural changeling response to love their queen). The princess is trained from birth for this contest so she is most likely to emerge victorious. The princess gets the best propaganda due to her position and is almost guaranteed to be the most well known of the candidates.

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If the princess does lose there is no harm done and the winner gets the spot as their bloodline must be superior if an ordinary Changeling can beat a princess (The contest has been done for centuries so the wording is still a little ancient at times). There have been times in the past where a princess had to get her memories wiped of princess-hood after her loss due to poor reactions to loss.

 

Public Relations: 

In the public relations department they receive mixed feelings. Particularly in the Minotaur lands they can receive three different nicknames. The most positive of the three is the Emoting hive because they really try to get Minotaur's to react compared to the others that simply get emotions from the Minotaur's as they go about their business. The second and more common is the usual Mischief Changeling's. Obviously this is because that is what they are surpassed to be called. If a changeling hates the hive they will refer to them as the Bugs of the bugs. This is because for many Changeling's in the Minotaur Republic the Mischief Changeling's annoy them with their mischief and silliness.

 

Historical Facts: 

Despite their carefree nature they do play an important role within Minotaur society, “they push through the hard exoskeleton of an emotional barrier that keeps Minotaur’s emotionless and release the Minotaur’s inner spirit”. Words spoken by an Honour Changeling who watched over them for some time to make sure that they were not ruining the Changeling secrecy policy by order of the Minotaur Republic High Queen.

 

Wait were they that bad that they needed to be spied on. Well let's talk about that.

 

So the problem with mischief Changeling’s is that their mischievous ways lead to a great deal of emotion from them especially when the Changeling's are also known to work in large scale events like circus acts and street performances. Compared to the usual Minotaur these jobs show a lot of emotion from the performer which could make Minotaur’s question if they are really Minotaur’s due to their emotional showcasing (usually when they laugh at their own jokes).

 

Extra Points of Interest: 

I also find it funny how for all their mischievousness the hive seem so focused on security of their hive. Think about it. They have four hives (three circus tents and a smaller main one) three of which are moveable meaning that they can retreat to one of them and escape from the nation if things turn sour. They also have a queen election system that can still work in the absence of a princess. All in all for the hives silliness they seem to have some pretty well thought out backup plans. They are obviously smarter than they seem. I would think it comes from the fact that their usual day jobs are so risky for changeling secrecy that they really want their home to be safe and sound after a hard day’s work.