oh i've been everywhere
through every undefended door
you'll know that i was there
you'll see the writing on the wall
i took it too far
and i could never get enough
i did a good job
and now i'm finally out of luck
so hey does anyone remember that one theory post i made ages ago. because i have shrimp emotions about it, specifically in the context of Arkose and Shale being friends.
(bonus closeup because their expressions turned out really cute)
In honor of Mother's Day, I bring you Arkose's mom (and Cahciua's younger sister), Yyocaua!
(Hair mod: Indigo Braids by ccrow)
Lore rambles under cut :)
Before the dome, Yyocaua, like her sister, was an avid traveler and explorer, though a much less famous one. She is also a skilled hunter, though not as extraordinary as Cahciua. Although the constant comparisons would get annoying at times, Yyocaua is more reserved, less outgoing, and doesn’t enjoy being the center of attention, so she held little resentment towards living in her older sister’s shadow. Being several decades apart in age, and rarely in the same place as adults, Yyocaua and Cahciua didn’t have the closest relationship as sisters, but it was still a solid one.
Yyocaua had recently returned to Tesh'pyani intending to start a family, after learning from her sister that trying to travel and raise a small child at the same time was a logistical nightmare. As such, she was trapped when the dome went up.
After the towns further from Everkeep were abandoned due to the danger of lightning strikes and frequent monster attacks, Yyocaua lived in the Outskirts and found solid employment as an official hunter employed by Alexandria. She dislikes regulators and doesn’t typically wear one, but was required to wear one on-shift in order to work as a hunter for liability reasons, even if she didn’t use souls to enhance herself like most Alexandrian hunters.
Because of the mandatory regulator use, Yyocaua had no memories of Cahciua from when she was alive. She also had no memories of Arkose’s father. From what she was able to piece together, based on context and the gifts he had left for her and Arkose, he was a fellow hunter, and was likely killed after being swarmed by monsters and running out of soul cells. (When given the option after 7.3, she chooses to have those memories restored, as she didn’t want to lose them in the first place.)
Yyocaua chose to move from the Outskirts into Solution Nine after she became pregnant with Arkose, when standard screenings turned up positive for levin sickness. Even though Everkeep’s interior obviously still has very high amounts of levin, it’s better contained, unlike the highly volatile ambient levin outside, and therefore a much safer environment for anyone with levin sickness. She doesn’t especially like the city, finding it unpleasantly crowded and artificial, but being constantly outside for work makes it more tolerable. Now that Arkose’s health is no longer a concern, she’s moved back to the Outskirts, and plans to start traveling again now that the dome is open.
She’s very close with Arkose, and has always done her best to support them however she can. They are her pride and joy, and she feels that everything she’s been through with being trapped in the dome and her own personal struggles has been worth it to see them happy and thriving.
Yyocaua was, however, extremely suspicious of Ardwin at first. Which is, frankly, the only sane response to “extremely powerful stranger shows up out of the fucking blue claiming to be my 23-year-old chronically ill child’s literal soulmate, allegedly capable of treating their incurable condition because of said literal soulmate status, and promising to whisk them away on Adventures!!11!!!!1” The sole reason she gave Ardwin enough benefit of the doubt not to immediately and strongly advise Arkose to avoid her at all costs was because she was traveling with Erenville and Wuk Lamat, and she trusted Erenville as a judge of character. She still gave Ardwin the shovel talk, which resulted in her being added to the incredibly short list of “people Ardwin is genuinely intimidated by,” and also resulted in Arkose absolutely dying of embarrassment.
Little snippet that resulted from me trying to figure out Arkose's opinions on Halmarut and the Solstice. Also on ao3. 1.2k words.
With the Scions’ official meeting wrapped up, Ardwin flops into one of the Rising Stones’ well-worn chairs with an alarming creak (from the chair) and an exhausted groan (from her). “Back to business as fucking usual, it seems,” she grumbles. “You know, just once, I’d almost like to have the world try and end without any Ascians involved. Just for the sheer novelty of it.”
“So…” Arkose says, sliding into the chair next to hers, “how worried do you think we need to be about this whole Solstice thing? Like, it sounds about as bad as it gets to me, but I dunno, you’re the one who’s in the business of dealing with impending-apocalypse stuff. Maybe it’s not as bad as it sounds…?”
Ardwin sighs. “No… if she was telling the truth, this one’s… pretty fucking bad. Scale of one to ten, where ten’s the Final Days, I’d give it a nine. And only that low because it’s a natural process, not something actively malicious. Though I almost wish it was something malicious. Then I could just fight it.”
Arkose feels something sink in their stomach at the confirmation. “Great.” They slump in their chair. “Well. At least this one’s not powered by a bird with depression, which means, I assume, that we’re free to freak out as much as we want about it.”
She barks a laugh. “You know what, I’ll take it. It’s an improvement on that front, I’ll give it that much.”
“You think she was telling the truth, then? Halmarut?”
“Ascians stretch the truth like taffy, in my experience, but they don’t usually lie outright. I think it’s a tactical choice; harder to prove them wrong if there’s a core of truth at the heart of their bullshit. I guarantee there’s things she’s leaving out, though – how long we’ve got, for one. Maybe she figures if we’re panicking, thinking we have no time, we’re more likely to slip up.”
“She seems, like… rational, at least,” Arkose points out. “She’s not going to be obsessed with rejoinings to bring back the old world, like the Unsundered. She’s not completely batshit like Fandaniel. She mostly seems like she’s trying to do the best she can with what she knows.”
“Key word being seems.”
“Okay, but hear me out. I assume we’re going to try and figure out a different way to stop this that doesn’t involve Rejoinings. Right? If we do, maybe we can even talk her into helping us.”
Ardwin stares at them in disbelief. “Arkose,” she says, slowly, “she’s an Ascian. She has spent thousands of years, most likely, figuring out the best way to manipulate people to make them dance on her flowery little puppet strings. She cannot be trusted and she is not your friend. I mean, fucking hells, just look at what she’s done already – she’s almost certainly responsible for the levin problem on the Ninth, she’s responsible for Calyx, and that would make her the reason Yyasulani’s a godsforsaken wasteland. ‘Cute and sweet’ doesn’t mean ‘harmless,’ I thought you would have learned that already with Endless Sphene!”
Arkose stands with a screech of chair legs against floor, smacking their hands on the table. “Don’t bring her into this!” They don’t care about the Endless queen’s reputation, but the reminder of their own mistake in trusting her, before they knew better, cuts like a knife.
“Then don’t be so fucking naive!” Ardwin snaps back. “We-” she smacks her own chest- “-have tried working with Ascians before! And every single time, at the end of the day, we have ended up getting completely fucked over, along with our worlds!”
Not “we” as in the Scions, they realize, but “we” as in Ardwin and Ardbert. Elidibus for Ardbert, and Emet-Selch for Ardwin, if they’re remembering right, though the latter was less ‘voluntary cooperation’ so much as ‘invited himself along and wouldn’t fuck off.’ No wonder she’s touchy about it, Arkose thinks, especially when it comes to me. She's scared I’ll make the same mistakes.
They take a deep breath, and sink back into their chair, hands pressed together. “I’m not saying we play by her rules,” they emphasize. “I’m saying we get her to play by ours. I’m not saying that we should trust her, only that we could, potentially, make her useful. Let’s assume we figure out another solution. One that protects the Source, and the reflections, and – ideally – will work whether she helps us or not. She’s powerful, that’s obvious. If we can make a good enough argument to convince her, then whatever the plan is, having her on board – or at least not working against us – will probably make it go smoother. Am I wrong?”
“…Assuming that she would actually be on our side, and not using it as a way to get more leverage over us,” Ardwin says, begrudging, but thoughtful. “How do we know we aren’t playing into her hands by doing that?” She sighs, rubbing her face with a hand. “I’m… kind of worried she might be targeting you, specifically. In which case, ‘working’ with us may well be part of her plan.”
“What do you mean, targeting me?”
“She’s got Calyx. And Calyx underestimated you once. We thought he had probably pulled your old records and assumed you weren’t a threat, right? He’s smart enough not to make the same mistake again – anything new he can dig up on you, I guarantee he has. He’s seen all the landscape photos you’ve been putting up. He might know we disagree about violence sometimes, because I think we’ve had some of those arguments in Solution 9. He knows about you and Endless Sphene being friends, because he had full access to her memories – I was out of line before, I’m sorry, but you’ve got to admit she’s relevant. And everything he knows, I’m sure Halmarut’s making him share.”
“So, what, you think her whole cutesy plant-pacifist schtick might be trying to get on my good side?” Arkose says. “I’ll admit, I kind of liked it, but I’m not that impressed. It’s all illusion shit. Show me some real plants and we can talk-” Ardwin scowls, looking as though she’s about to launch into another lecture, and Arkose rolls their eyes. “I’m joking, gods. And she’s probably going for pacifism because she knows we could kick her ass, easy. The whole ‘turning Calyx into a marketable plushie and then dropping him on his face’ thing was actually funny enough to make me not want to set him on fire for five whole minutes, though, I’ll give her that. But also, I’m still punting that little fucker into the sun the second he gives me an excuse.”
“Oh no, by all means, punt him into the sun,” Ardwin airily agrees. “I’ll admit, I might be overthinking how far she’d go to win your favor.” (Arkose momentarily imagines Halmarut showing up with a full rose bouquet, and snickers at the idea.) “Just… don’t underestimate her, and don’t trust her.” She tilts her head. “What were you thinking about, for convincing her well enough to be sure she’s trustworthy?”
Arkose shrugs. “Mostly just having a better plan than what she’s got. I was thinking of how you convinced the Forum to hand over the ship. Give her a plan, and make her believe it’s possible. But…” A smirk spreads across their face. “We’ve also got a secret weapon.”
“What, Ethos?”
“Better,” Arkose says. “Someone who could talk anyone with so much as a shred of decency around to the ‘good’ side.” The smirk grows into a full-fledged grin. “We have Zero.”
really funny to me sometimes that Arkose is Fucking Tall Actually. they're like a foot shorter than Ardwin so I'm like "aww. short :)" except actually they are max m!viera height which is like six feet (not counting the ears) lmao.
writing prog: added like 4.5k words today to main Arkose fic which is very good for me!!
also Arkose and Azdaja met and somehow ended up bonding over mutual Gender Admiration and also over the deeply shitty experience of being trapped in hell for a very long time* (*relative to lifespan), and now they're like, immediate besties. i did not plan this before now but i am enjoying it immensely.
Or: the absolutely bizarre experience of growing up in a society that's completely dysfunctional about death, and suddenly meeting your soulmate who's perfectly comfortable with the fact that she's killed countless people. (Including your ex-best friend, depending on your definition of "killed.")
