Taking a long look at Blue Poison
In Arknights’ closed beta, Blue Poison was counted among the Abyssal Hunters. Possibly Deepcolor too.
To this day, Blue Poison retains her “Network” identification as AA03 despite being neither an Aegirian nor an Abyssal Hunter. Deepcolor is AA04. Specter is AA02, with Skadi being AA01 despite debuting after the game’s launch (and quite possibly despite onboarding after Specter, apparently).
When Gladiia debuted (as AA05), a glitch in her base skill included Blue Poison as an Abyssal Hunter, but also included Deepcolor, Weedy, and Whisperain. This was quickly patched out.
In any case: When Arknights launched, only Specter was counted among the Abyssal Hunters. Deepcolor and Blue Poison were rebranded with the logo of Rhodes Island, though their places in the “Network” map remained close to Specter’s, and Blue Poison had a relationship link to Specter.
When Hypergryph updated the “Network” map (for [Under Tides] on CN servers, and [A Walk In the Dust] for Global servers), this changed further. Deepcolor exchanged her Rhodes Island brand for the brand of Aegir (with only Skadi Alter for company); Blue Poison became associated with Iberia and lost her link to Specter.
While we now have a fairly solid and rigid idea of what an “Abyssal Hunter” looks like, we did not have such notions until Skadi’s debut in the game’s first side-story event. We would have accepted without question that Abyssal Hunters could have such wildly varying coloration, talents, and weaponry. Also that some Abyssal Hunters would have publicly known races (Anura) and not always allude to sea creatures (tree frogs).
Only when Skadi joined the roster did Hypergryph’s intent (old or new) for the Abyssal Hunters become more clear.
Guard-class Specter never had a faction-buffing Talent; Skadi started that trend. Skadi also established the Abyssal Hunter “look” by matching Specter’s color scheme so completely. Where Specter’s white hair, red eyes, black clothing, and absurd physical condition might have been particular to Specter before, with Skadi it became part of a ‘uniform’.
Andreana’s design would later violate that ‘uniform’ in smaller and more deliberate ways than Blue Poison. Though Andreana would also be a Sniper, she would have a much darker coloration, be an actual Aegirian based on an oceanic creature, have a “faction-buffing talent”, be physically stronger, and use a weapon that required brute strength rather than clever toxicology.
Alternatively: Blue Poison was never meant to be anything more than an “honorary” member of the Abyssal Hunters, for possible reasons I’ll get into later. But before the game launched, Hypergryph had decided that Skadi and future Abyssal Hunters should have faction-buffing Talents, so “honorary” members would only introduce confusion.
The only way it could be significant for Blue Poison to speak Specter’s real name is if it happened before [Under Tides], or at least [Stultifera Navis].
It’s my current theory that Laurentina is the first Abyssal Hunter to onboard with Rhodes Island. Since the primary purpose for imposing the ‘Specter’ persona upon her was to make Laurentina obedient and willing to divulge information, Specter would inform Kal’tsit of everything she knew regarding Aegir, the Sea Monsters, the Deep Cult, and the Abyssal Hunters. Canon has given us no other reason why Kal’tsit would have known to look for other Abyssal Hunters on land, and thus seek out Skadi and Gladiia.
If my theory is true, then we could assume Blue Poison onboarded Rhodes Island before Skadi, and well before [Grani and the Knight’s Treasure].
In fact, it might be that Blue Poison brought Specter to Rhodes Island herself.
See, the problem with Blue Poison knowing Specter’s true name is that Blue Poison has never visited Aegir, and Laurentina never visited dryland until she was captured by the Deep Cult. That means the only way that Blue Poison could have met Laurentina before Rhodes Island, before Laurentina lost her mind completely, is if Blue Poison met her while she was still being held captive, or just after Laurentina escaped.
If Blue Poison helped Laurentina escape the Deep Cult, then the Deep Cult might plausibly seek revenge by sending ‘giant monsters’ to hunt her. Both situations could merit future Abyssal Hunters considering her an honorary member, at least before Hypergryph decided to emphasize the importance of the “bond of blood”.
But how did Blue Poison run across the Deep Cult? Before I continue that line of thought, we need to step back into Blue Poison’s history.
The Anura people, or at least the specific tribe from which Blue Poison descends, lives in the Kerthun Valley in one of the vast rainforests of Sargon. Sargon’s lords ameer have always tried to conquer the region for its natural resources, but have always failed. Though they appear to have at least succeeded enough to take some Anura captive and sell them as slaves.
Despite this history of unprovoked aggression against their people, and despite the tribe’s terrifying ‘toxic’ ability to give them a fearsome reputation, modern guides claim that the folk “aren’t too hard to get along with”.
100 years or so before Blue Poison left Iberia to join Rhodes Island, and 30 years or so before the Profound Silence, some of the Islander Aegirians living in Iberia traveled to Sargon and purchased many Anura slaves.
[“Untouchable”] “We were sold to Iberia as test subjects.”
“Forgotten Lighthouse” [Preluding Lights] “The bones of the Aegirs who took my ancestors away to Iberia have long been eroded by the sea waves.”
These Aegirians brought back to Iberia enough Anura that the captives could breed stably with each other until Blue Poison’s generation.
Most Islander Aegirians knew nothing about this, especially those born on land. As Blue Poison explains in “Forgotten Lighthouse”, the Islanders decided to collectively suppress discussion of, and forget about, the Sea Monsters. Those refugees not involved in researching how to deal with the Sea Monsters would not tell their children, and only those children inheriting the research would be told.
BP: Do you know why the Aegirs came ashore?
G: I… don’t know. I thought we were meant to be here to begin with, though it seems most Iberians don’t agree with that.
BP: I’m not too familiar either.
G: Yeah… but you know more than we do, at the very least.
BP: It’s funny. The history slowly disappeared from the Aegirs’ memories, and we are the ones who still remember any of it.
BP: My ancestors were taken away by the Aegirs some hundred years ago. They wanted the ‘toxic’ ability that we are born with.
BP: They kept extracting the toxins for experiments. They were trying to figure out whether these subterranean [infernal? hellish?] toxins could be used as some kind of weapon…
G: What were they trying to attack with that?
BP: I have no idea. How could I have seen it? From what my elders tell me, it was an enormous, terrifying monster that doesn’t exist on land.
BP: All I can say is that it is extraordinarily likely.
These Anura, too, experienced their own generational forgetfulness. If ever the captives could have found their home on a map, or retraced their captor’s journey to Iberia backwards, their grandchildren could not. Still, the Anura tried to pass on as much knowledge as they could, keeping hope and home alive in stories. But after the Profound Silence, the captives’ situation changed again, and even their captivity became a story.
“Truth is, I’ve only heard about those experiments secondhand. Ever since the disaster [Profound Silence], Iberia’s been too busy sorting out its own mess to deal with outcasts like us. That cruel past is now nothing more than stories passed down by the older generations, and Kerthun is even more of a legend to us.”
Her grandmother, the oldest Anura Blue Poison knew, admitted on her deathbed that she had never seen Kerthun herself. She had only known passed-down stories, and told her own stories based on those and her own wishful thinking.
In "Forgotten Lighthouse" Indigo states that the Profound Silence happened something like 70 years ago. So the Anura slaves might only have been held captive for around 30 years before escaping into Iberian society. Which would give Blue Poison's elders roughly 10 to 20 years to achieve some kind of living before she was born, depending on how old she is now.
Blue Poison says very little about her childhood. Clearly, she didn’t grow up as an Aegirian’s captive, test subject, or toxin milking-cow. Perhaps as the Iberians turned on the Islanders and shut down their research, the Anura managed to escape into Iberian society. The Inquisition perhaps ignored them in favor of dealing with the supposedly-treacherous Aegirians as well as actual big problems.
(Certainly, Blue Poison speaks about the Inquisition as something that frightens native Iberians more than it concerns her, personally.)
But even after gaining their freedom, Blue Poison’s family didn’t really know how to go home after generations born and raised in Iberian captivity. So they apparently attempted to integrate into Iberia in its years of greatest civil unrest. Neither fully foreigners nor truly native citizens, not Aegirians but still tainted by any hint of association with them, and feared for their toxicity.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire, her family continued to pass down legends of Kerthun to keep up their spirits.
“My grandma always said our life of ostracization and fear was just a trial for us to endure. Once we were back in Kerthun, everything would be better.”
“Only there are we not treated as outsiders. Only there can we truly live a peaceful life. Only there are we not burdened with being a ‘poison’.”
Whatever their economic situation, Blue Poison grew up as an expert baker, whom Ambriel says could out-compete half the dessert shops in Laterano. Despite her alarming ideas about what colors her baked goods should be.
(In “Hardcore Drink”, Indigo reveals that if Bloop’s ingredients don’t naturally produce a dessert with an alarming color, Bloop will resort to food-coloring to achieve her frightening artistic vision. Though Glaucus and Blue Poison are not above acting like the food-coloring is actually a poison, as a joke, before coming clean.)
[Archive File 3] In her spare time, Blue Poison is interested in much more mundane variety things, such as baking. Operator Gummy, currently assigned to kitchen duty in Logistics, has claimed that Blue Poison’s desserts are so good, they could ‘convert someone who hates sweets!” Another unnamed operator who has also tasted her treats echoed the sentiment that Blue Poison is proficient enough to start a bakery — if she made better choices in visual presentation.
Whether Blue Poison’s elders had learned anything about toxicology from their captors, received tribal knowledge from their predecessors, or relearned everything from scratch, we don’t know. Whichever way, Blue Poison’s family raised her as a skilled toxicologist, with the knowledge of how to extract her own toxins and turn them into various poisons, antidotes, and medicines.
Whether under their guidance or independently, Blue Poison additionally trained in marksmanship with a small one-handed crossbow for self-defense. She attests that she has no combat experience, and all of her evaluations score her as substandard (‘Normal’) except for her ‘Standard’ Mobility and ‘Excellent’ Combat Skill. With her poisoned darts as both a threat and a promise, she wouldn’t need much in the way of brute strength to protect herself.
Her Originium Arts evaluation also ranked ‘substandard’, but her performance in “Forgotten Lighthouse” confirms that she canonically can duplicate her projectiles in flight to increase her chances of hitting her targets.
The small crossbow she uses has proven to be a powerful long-range weapon, and the tips coated with her toxic serum make a hit even more lethal.
A bolt whizzes through the air. It strikes the fuzzy white light. No, not quite. Just as it was about to strike the object, its trajectory curved to the side. It’s no problem. No one can see it. The bolt split in two soon after it was shot, one in the front, and one in the back, capturing the white light.
Blue Poison loves toxicology as much as baking, and she does not have the slightest qualm about using her poisons to kill enemy combatants or to destroy their mortal remains. Neither is she shy about using the threat of her poisons to taunt and intimidate the enemy.
[Watching Battle Records] “I think I hear the sound of toxic liquid boiling, like music to my ears.”
[Enemy Spawns / ‘Begin Operation’] “I’ve prepared a ‘gift’ for you. Like it?”
[Battle 1] “My toxins will slowly burn your life away.”
[Battle 3] “Honey to me, poison to you.”
[Battle 4] “Poison Kiss.”
[3-Star Victory Result] “I’ve got a poison to melt all these remains away in an instant. Want me to show you?”
“Thinking back, after all these years, I haven’t once thought of giving up my abilities to use my toxin.
“Perhaps I’ve never managed to break free of the souls of those Aegirs who enslaved my ancestors, and, deep down in my heart, I believe that the toxins in me will get the enemies they’re meant for.”
"I've got ways to make you talk."
However, Blue Poison is merely ruthless, not sadistic.
[Archive File 1] …her personality is quite lovely…
...when she finishes her combat work and quietly undertakes the medical task of curing poison, the sincere, peaceful girl behind her deadly abilities shows through. …Blue Poison never lets an enemy die in agony, deeming that far too cruel.
To this end, Blue Poison habitually carries antidotes to her body’s natural toxin in her daily life, and brings antidotes for her combat toxins when she goes on armed missions. She also gladly assists the Medical Department on a regular basis.
[Talk 2] “Actually, the toxin in my body is an ingredient in some high-quality medicines. That’s why Dr. Kal’tsit needs me in her lab a lot.”
Furthermore, Blue does not love toxicology to the point of reveling in chances to test her products on other human beings, or approving of others doing the same. As she states in Indigo's second Archive File, in regards to Indigo's unusual tolerance to Blue Poison's serums:
"No, please don't get the wrong idea. I'm not planning to run any experiments on her. She's my friend, and I'm not like that either. Of course... I ask you to please not have any funny ideas either."
Highly Venomous, But Only Mildly Toxic
For all that Blue Poison values the field of toxicology and her efforts within it, she hates the fact that her body uncontrollably produces a contact poison, as well as how people tend to respond to that.
Rather than hating other people for their instinctive revulsion, Blue Poison admits she hated herself. [Forgotten Lighthouse]
Across her archive files, her Operator Record, and Indigo’s Operator Record, it is repeatedly made clear that making minor, brief contact with Blue Poison is not enough to transmit her natural toxin.
But when Blue Poison responsibly warns people that she’s toxic and that prolonged contact with her (such as Goldenglow offering to cut her hair) has an unlikely but non-zero chance of transmitting some dosage of her natural poison, most people reflexively shy away from her. Especially if they have seen her techniques in battle.
While understandable, this is an overreaction.
“Archive File 3” In fact, her ‘poison power’ manifests mostly in her skill with and knowledge of poison.
In other words, her natural toxins are merely one ingredient in the serums she uses against enemies with her crossbow, and therefore not nearly on the same level. Most anyone giving Blue Poison a hug isn’t going to keel over and die like someone shot with several of her coated darts.
Ambriel eats one of Blue Poison’s alarmingly-colored cakes with no side-effects, as Blue Poison expected.
Of course, when dealing with someone as highly-ranked and medically-unique as the Doctor, Blue Poison’s fears rise to the surface and she treats herself as though she were as toxic as others believe. She warns the Doctor against eating the same cake that Ambriel enjoyed, at least until she offers them a preventative dose of antidote (then hesitates, wondering if even her antidotes might poison the Doctor), and even when the Doctor (ignoring the offered antidote) keeps happily eating more cake with no apparent ill-effects, she remains ill at ease. She later freaks out over her hand briefly brushing against the Doctor’s.
Sweet personality aside, Blue Poison isn’t above being a little bitter or a little mean.
It seems to be (or at least I imagine) her habit to relate her own experience as a toxic pariah to anything else people avoid or shun out of fear. Such as the ruined coastline infrastructure that common Iberia avoid in the present day, rather than seek to loot or squat within.
In “Forgotten Lighthouse”, Glaucus compares the way Iberia abandoned and neglected its surviving structures along the coastline to the way she would avoid looking at her deteriorating legs as a child.
Blue Poison chides her, tongue-in-cheek, saying, “Look at you, using yourself as an analogy again. I’m starting to feel bad.” Blue Poison knows she’s acting hypocritically, because Glaucus was only responding to how Blue Poison herself bitterly analogized people’s avoidance of the defunct tower with how people avoided “toxic” things… by implication, herself.
But Glaucus brushes Blue’s comment off as her friend’s sense of humor. “Hm, I can tell you are joking, this time.”
Inside the spooky tower, Blue Poison deliberately spooks Glaucus by saying, “Say, if we don’t talk, do you suppose we’ll hear ghosts screaming?”
G: ”At least there isn’t another pair of eyes staring at us.”
B: “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
G: “Stop trying to scare me.”
B: “Okay, okay. I’ll stop.”
In Indigo's Operator Record, when Goldenglow weighs the risks of eating a lake-blue cake, Blue Poison and Glaucus pranked her by pretending the alarming color resulted from a poisonous ingredient, before they come clean that it's just food-coloring.
Revisiting Laurentina and the Deep Cult
Did the Deep Cult seek out the Iberian Anura? Blue Poison’s elders would have no love for Iberia, but neither would they have much love for the sea and its monsters. Perhaps the Anura heard rumors of the Deep Cult and did their best to steer clear of it, so that the Inquisition might continue to ignore them.
We have no evidence to suggest that Blue Poison ever joined the Deep Cult, or knowingly interacted with them. Perhaps Laurentina escaped the cult entirely on her own, or perhaps slipped away during an Inquisition raid on the convent where the cult hid her away.
Perhaps, like other Iberians, Blue Poison had heard about Rhodes Island and reasoned she could get a job at a pharmaceutical company, and on her way out she coincidentally happened to run into Laurentina, who had regained enough lucidity to introduce herself by her true name, and then the two of them escaped to Rhodes Island together. And perhaps Rhodes Island then agreed to keep Blue Poison’s role in this escape a secret, to protect her from possible attention from the Inquisition.
Perhaps the Deep Cult nevertheless managed to learn about Blue Poison’s interference, and sent large Sea Terrors after her in reprisal, if she ventured too far away from the landship. Thus explaining the first half of her fourth archive file.
According to a report leaked from certain sources, Blue Poison has been spotted in several battles against gigantic creatures. There are no images or any concrete evidence to corroborate these accounts, however.
Blue Poison has indicated no signs of involvement in such battles, nor has she mentioned them.
Perhaps, because these monsters were not so large as the Leviathans that Blue Poison had only imagined based on her family’s legends, she never made the connection between them. Or maybe she simply refuses to connect the dots.
BP: I thought about asking the Doctor or Dr. Kal’tsit [about the Leviathans]… or even the [Abyssal] hunters directly.
BP: Once, I happened upon Operator Skadi. This question immediately rose to the top of my mind.
G: I doubt she’d tell you.
BP: Right, I don’t think so either, and I didn’t ask her in the end.
BP: I’m not sure I have the courage to find out the truth…
[Archive File 3] Aside from dessert making, Blue Poison has a keen sense of and passion for fashion, having already made several suggestions about her costume to Logistics and Trade.
I imagine that it’s hard for the Iberian working class to indulge in much fashion, right now, and thus that Blue Poison could only really pursue this passion after joining Rhodes Island.
[Archive File 2] Blue Poison feels better about Rhodes Island's diversity, and the group's open-mindedness to her abilities such that she can use them to her full potential.
If anyone would be willing to believe the Infected aren’t as hazardous as most people say, it would surely be Blue Poison. Furthermore, if Blue Poison didn’t want to hire out her skills to work as an assassin or an assassin’s supplier, there are few better options than reaching out to a pharmaceutical company.
[Archive File 2] The toxin produced by her venomous abilities is monitored and sampled daily by Dr. Kal'tsit personally.
[Talk 2] “Actually, the toxin in my body is an ingredient in some high-quality medicines. That’s why Dr. Kal’tsit needs me in her lab a lot.”
[Module "Standard Color-Chart"] As of now, though, Medical has developed several successful formulations with this operator's help. Making use of her precise grasp on flavor and color, she's not only been able to conceal the uniquely offputting taste of these drugs, but has taken full advantage of the opportunity, using these medical flavors as a base to create aromas that make your mouth water. Following strict safety tests, these preparations have been provided to the children to immediately fantastic results. According to the little patients, taking medicine on time has suddenly become something to look forward to.
Kal’tsit would surely try make Blue Poison feel good to be Anura, but she’s not the cuddliest person. Offering comfort isn’t her strength, and it certainly isn't a part of her busy schedule.
She is more defensive on the issue of describing herself as 'toxic.' The question was if would she accept her poisonous nature if the other operators accepted her and no longer kept their distance? Blue Poison didn't give a straight answer, politely deflecting the question as usual.
Does she still hate her powers? Or has she accepted them while still feeling [] about her relationship with other people? It's something only the Doctor can figure out with Blue Poison.
Blue Poison struggles with the paradox of hating her poisonous self while loving toxicology. She doesn't enjoy combat or hurting people, but she knows that using her abilities to the fullest means employing them in battle.
Furthermore, she has become a true believer in Rhodes Island and its mission of making the world a better, more accepting, more peaceful place. So when Rhodes Island needs to fight, she is willing to fight for it.
[Promotion 1] “Thank you so much… I’m glad I get to help out in all of these battles. It’s like a dream come true.”
Even when, by surprising accident, Rhodes Island discovered her ancestral homeland and tribe in the Kerthun Valley, Blue Poison only filled out a request form to transfer to the safehouse Rhodes Island was constructing in the area, rather than contemplating leaving the company entirely.
Ultimately, it was the Doctor who unwittingly convinced Blue Poison against submitting the transfer. The Doctor willingly employed Blue Poison as a combat operator, placed trust in her to lead teams as a captain, did the research to know the difference between Blue's serums and toxins, showed nothing but enthusiasm and appreciation for her baked goods, and wasn't afraid to make casual contact with her despite having a delicate condition and no special resistance to poison.
Glaucus Archive File 3: Something worth mentioning is that Glaucus was born with antibodies that fight against irritants and poisons. Apart from conventional poisons, nerve paralyzes and hallucinogens are essentially ineffective. Glaucus is eager to accompany the medics’ research. To put it more precisely, she pretends to understand what they’re saying and nods along. Sometimes they are concerned whether she is even really following along with what they’re saying…
“Forgotten Lighthouse” makes it explicit that Glaucus is practically immune to Blue Poison’s natural toxin, and possibly even her combat venoms. Therefore, she is one of the few operators who regularly keeps Blue Poison company, eats her desserts, and voluntarily joins her on missions.
Indeed, Indigo’s Operator Record confirms that Blue Poison makes special, color-coded foods and beverages for Glaucus. Anyone else consuming these would be severely poisoned, but for Glaucus they are merely spicy delicacies.
Glaucus sympathizes with Blue Poison and her Anura ancestors, apologizes on behalf of the Aegirians, and makes it clear that Blue Poison doesn’t have to talk about her past if she doesn’t want to.
Blue Poison, for her part, dismisses the idea that Glaucus or the Aegir and Iberians in general share any responsibility with the specific people who wronged her family.
“What are you [Glaucus] apologizing for? The bones of the Aegirs who took my ancestors away to Iberia have long been eroded by the sea waves.
“I don't hate Iberia, nor do I hate the Aegir people. Now, I suppose I don’t even hate myself as much anymore. This is all thanks to the Doctor and you, Glau.”
It’s unclear if Blue Poison means that Glaucus and the Doctor helped her get past any generalized hatred for others, or only Blue’s self-directed hatred.
Glaucus's friendship alone was not enough to dissuade Blue Poison from transferring to the new safehouse in Kerthun Valley, even when Glaucus showed distress over the idea that Blue Poison might consider it.
After all, having just one friend who happened to drink her toxins like wine couldn't make Rhodes Island a place where Blue Poison could feel accepted by anyone. Thus the importance of the Doctor's wholehearted acceptance.
Blue Poison and Glaucus would not meet Indigo until after this crossroads. But also — and this might be my imagination — Blue Poison does not seem to value Indigo's companionship as much as Glaucus'.
The length of time she has known them aside, Glaucus is wise to the ways in which people can be cruel, and thus she and Blue Poison share an understanding. They both consider Indigo, while intelligent and learned in her fields, to be woefully naive and gullible, as well as clumsy.
There's also the fact that Indigo is merely resistant to Blue's poisons, rather than practically immune. A risk compounded by her clumsiness and lack of caution.
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