To continue on from the sort of biocomputing theme from last night, I’ve been putting a little thought towards the parallels between Sollux and his own computer.

First off, there’s the obvious thing I’m a little disappointed in myself for missing up until now - the mainframe bees do a little binary eye-flashing thing immediately reminiscent of Sollux’ own inversely-flashing eyes;

The fact that Sollux later calms the bees down using a flash blue and red could be taken as implying that Sollux is at least capable of using his binary colours to communicate with the binary bees for commands he’s fluent with.

(hehe. 2nap. because he’s sending them to nap)

In any case a beehive wasn’t chosen for no reason; the produce of the insects’ labour that runs through the heart of the beehouse machines is gold like the blood that runs through Sollux’ own veins. And when you look at him with the deadly concoction he’s got on himself, he really does stare down at it like it’s blood on his hands - compare this page with this deliberately paralleled page.

And with good reason! Because the two (two!) times he’s become too entangled with the stuff, someone he cares about very much has died at his hands - not only this, but each time is a demonstration of his mechanicalness; his being part of a machine, just like the computer bees are.

The first time, he’s under the explicit control of Vriska, and his close friend Aradia is the one put under the beam - the second time, his lusus was destroyed in an energy blast deemed inevitable by a curse that would have all of the lusii killed. If it were not for the overarching fateful forces that are Vriska Serket and Paradox Space, neither of these events would ever have occured.

And I just think this is pretty nicely (though likely unintentionally) symbolic of the role that was later revealed to be not uncommon for members of his caste and trolls of his level of power; becoming part of the empire’s machines. And the idea of the beehouse as a microcosm of the mage’s role in Alternian society gives a lot of food for thought.