BugByte Games!

We start out with Bean recounting his birth. Unlike most other insects though, Bean actually remembers his mother, braiding his hair before flying away. As an aphid, he knows that he basically is a clone of his mother, and that all of his siblings are the same- and that their lives aren't that important, as all that's important is that one of them survives. As a result, Bean believes that nobody cares about him. We see that from a young age, all of the aphids were moved by the ants to a safe location, separated by gender. We see through interactions while Bean keeps up a cheerful and kind face, inside he is actually rather bitter and cynical. Oggie is moved in soon after, with Bean inviting him to bunk in his bed. Bean starts to get attached to Oggie as they hang out together, with Oggie making Bean a flower crown. Bean finally feels seen and not just one of the aphids in the nest and happy that he finally has a best friend and the two promise that they will protect each other. Oggie and Bean would often sneak out together to adventure around, with Bean trying to cover for Oggie whenever he did. We also get to see the origins of how the ants treated the aphids, initially being far less strict about when they could go out, until they started reinforcing their schedules.

Bean ends up seeking out Oggie one day and finds him playing with Harmonia, a baby ladybug and watching him make a flower crown for him as well. Bean gets extremely jealous and overprotective upon seeing this scene, seeing the ladybug as a dangerous thing that could hurt Oggie. Moreover, Bean attempts to rationalize this by making himself believe that Oggie was naive, that he didn't know that it was dangerous and that he was just doing this out of kindness. Instead of confronting him, Bean ends up running away, and continues to try to prod Oggie about it. He states that he wanted to hear the truth from Oggie but that he wanted to hear it from Oggie himself. This lingers longer and longer as the doubts in Bean's mind fester and fester, yet Bean never directly confronts Oggie about Harmonia, and Bean feels more and more alone.

Bean thinks about what to do to make Oggie realize that what he's doing is dangerous and more importantly so that he can continue being his best friend. To try to force Oggie to pay attention to him, Bean purposefully ignores him in favor of playing with other aphids. He does this in hopes of getting Oggie to realize how much he is missing, despite the fact that Bean doesn't care about playing with the other aphids. Eventually, Bean catches Oggie making a doll for Harmonia and his fear consumes him, fearing that if he did ask, it would reveal that Oggie cared more about Harmonia than him. Bean watches Oggie and Harmonia play again, with Harmonia asking if Oggie would run away with him, as the ants are getting more strict. Bean's fear of abandonment skyrockets to the point of basically outing Oggie to the ants that he's been sneaking out to meet a ladybug. We see that Oggie does plan to leave with Harmonia, but is stopped by all of the ants before the two can have a chance to escape. Bean tries to drag Oggie back, but ends up pushing and causing him to hit his head. Oggie is able to recover (thanks to his regeneration), however, seemingly has lost most of his memories, including his memories of Bean and Harmonia. Bean was able to befriend him again, and tried to protect him. This ultimately fails as Oggie still finds his way back to Harmonia.

Near the end of Bug Cycles, Oggie confronts Bean once he regains his memories. Bean seems desperate to keep Oggie by his side and tries to rationalize to Oggie that the ants will keep them all safe, though Oggie simply doesn't buy it. Bean is shoved off and clings onto some vines, only to watch Oggie and Harmonia walk away from him. Bean returns to look for the wilted flower crown that Oggie made for him all these years, only to have one of the ants give him the offer of basically raising him to a more powerful position thanks to his previous actions. The ants seem to believe they can capture and get rid of Harmonia, and save Oggie. With nothing else, Bean accepts the offer.

We really don't get to see that much of Bean in the original Life Cycles, especially considering his more yandere side, except for the one ending to which this game refers. I guess this means that the route where Oggie shoves Bean onto a vine is canon, and that Bean will end up as a continuing protagonist in the future. Two yanderes in a game? Always fun. I think unlike Harmonia, Bean is a platonic yandere, as not only does he only call Oggie his best friend, but at least compared to what Haromnia and Oggie's relationship is like, it does seem closer to just wanting to keep a best friend or younger sibling with you. Always nice to see platonic yanderes.

Compared to Harmonia, oh boy, Bean really is a two faced cynical person. He always keeps a happy face on the outside, with some sort of plausible deniability but on the inside he is incredibly cynical. He believes since aphids are essentially identical to their parents that it doesn't matter if he survives so as long as one of his siblings do, doesn't seem to care about any of his possible siblings, views the ants pretty much as the same person- easily disposable and finds pretty much everyone around him annoying except Oggie. That being said, it is pretty clear that he cares about Oggie a lot, and though his intentions are not in the right spot, he clear does want to make sure that Oggie isn't hurt and feels incredible guilt when he thinks that he's killed Oggie. A lot of Bean's issues with his relationship with Oggie come down to the lack of communication and sort of just assuming that Oggie will tell him things just because they're best friends. He inflicts a lot of pain onto himself by assuming and spiraling in his thoughts, which is pretty relatable as someone who will sometimes spiral onto their own ends. He refuses to ask Oggie outright as he fears that he will learn that Oggie really does care about Harmonia, which is just a self fulfilling prophecy. It is clear that Oggie does care about Bean but ends up being offput by his behavior as Oggie does get ignored by Bean and does hide things from Bean as well. I'm sure, just like Bean said, if he had decided to stay and confront Oggie and Harmonia, things would not have turned to the worst and Bean would be a lot less likely to become so miserable. What I do like about Bean's internal spiraling is all the excuses that he makes for Oggie, just like he does when he tries to hide the fact that Oggie is missing from the ants. Bean infantalizes Oggie as being naive and stupid, even though from Oggie's point of view, he is very aware of how dangerous Harmonia could be to him, thus why he tells Harmonia to not eat aphids. Bean can't accept the fact that Oggie could just be someone who knows the dangers but wants to care for another insect, and although he himself doesn't actually care about what the ants are doing (and in fact sort of is annoyed by it) he still uses it as a reasoning to why Oggie can stay, to be protected, to stay with him and to get him away from Harmonia.

Bean at least compared to Harmonia, is a lot physically weaker but is still much more manipulative towards Oggie and probably a lot more malicious (again, even if the intentions are good). For one, he very clearly never tells Oggie that he was the one that caused him to lose his memories, nor does he tell him about Harmonia. He tries to get the ants to take Oggie away from Harmonia as well, stating that it's for safety, when in reality it was just the fear that Oggie would leave him. Even in terms of really knowing him, Oggie never knows about his more cynical nature as even to him, Bean only shows a cheerful facade towards him, even when he feels betrayed or hurt. Despite how much he states that Oggie is his best friend, he never really shows the more cynical side towards him and still keeps on that fake smile. This fear really holds him back from talking to Oggie which is why its tragic that the two of them are seperated in the end, with Oggie no longer able to be close to Bean after what he does. Yet even after all these years, Bean still keeps the flower crown that Oggie made him and still tries to get Oggie back, even though he knows that the ants are simply using the aphids, even from a young age. He will do anything to have Oggie stay with him happily just as he did those years ago. I really like this approach because with tragedies, it is always down to the what if I had done something different, what if I had talked to them, what if I had tried to not hide things and the guilt of what happens afterwards. It also does a good job of explaining events in the past as well, like how Bean ended up the way he did, how Oggie lost his memories and the emotions that come with it. I think that @bugbytegames did a really great job of filling in what happens and fixing any plotholes unintentionally made along the way.