Ardene has a lot of dreams and goals, though she talks about some more than others.
Her first and foremost is one shared by just about all of her countrymen–To live to see an end to the Dragonsong War and learn what it’s like to live in a peaceful society.
A more personal dream of hers is to earn enough money to be able to purchase a home of her own. While her family’s home is very cozy, as is her apartment in Camp Dragonhead, Ardene would love to own her own house. It doesn’t need to be large, just a safe, warm place of her own for her to be comfortable with her wife is all she hopes for.
Another, and probably impossible dream of hers, is to live to see Coerthas return to what she knew it to be in her childhood, and what she knows it to be beneath the pall of snow that hangs over it.
december story-a-day challenge || day 4 || the soul
A person’s healthy aether was one of the most beautiful things Aleleyri knew. Its gentle murmur never ceased to fascinate her, their stories a quiet symphony of their varied lives.
Her friends were no different, songs that were now as familiar as they were treasured. Fatima’s pragmatic calm. Demistel’s dry mischief. Sy’era’s chippy bubbles. Marcus’ brash energy. Ardene’s tamed wilderness. She loved them, unique as they all were.
But her favourite was a soft rumble, stoic yet thoughtful. This was a soul that fluttered at her presence and spoke into physical silence words more precious than gold.
I know it’s died down but here have a needlessly long post of all the headcanons I’ve made for my Lala twins in this AU.
Backstory
Ale and Allen were born to Lalafellin citizens in Thanalan with no special indicators, and lived as citizens under the impression that while things weren’t all fine and dandy, they were at least not caught in between.
Ale first came into her Echo at school in her 14th year, while she was at school. She collapsed from the vision, and was flagged as suspicious due to the lack of context of her blackout and subsequent behaviour.
Their parents were detained for questioning; Ale receives a vision from the Echo and terrified of both herself and for her parents hastily hashes together a plan to free her parents. Having no combat training and little else to go by beyond what she was shown in her vision, Ale is quickly detained.
During the incident, while she did manage to free her parents, they both died trying to protect her, and resulted in Ale’s magic also awakening at that time.
Ale is transported to a research facility, where she spends the next few years as a research subject to learn more about the Echo. Due to the way it manifested in her, however, she also becomes a research subject into magical genetics, as she did not show signs of magic at birth.
Allen, in the meantime, is put under heavy surveillance due to Ale’s actions and history. He comes into his Echo abilities, and aware of what his twin sister is going through and of his newfound powers, he begins to plan a way to come in contact with the Scions. He does succeed in doing so, and though his interactions with them are very limited so as to not raise suspicion, he provides them enough information for them to help plan a rescue effort.
In the twins’ 19th year, Allen rendezvous with the Scions and launch a raid on the research facility Ale is being held at, freeing her and several of the Echo subjects there. To buy time and shed the Garlean eyes that have been on him for years, Allen stages his own death and escapes to hide outside of the Empire’s circle of influence for a time before making his way to Scion headquarters.
Ale spent her first few weeks in apathetic shock, after which she later became volatile and dangerous due to lack of magical training and her unstable mental state. It took several months for her personae to help fully stabilize her and subsequently her magic.
Allen
Allen came into his powers in his sleep one night at the age of 17.
His Echo manifested as an ability to survive the gravest injuries at the cost of entering a death-like state; it is how he managed to stage his own death during the rescue effort that separated him from his sister for a time.
His Echo abilities only trigger when he is mortally wounded, and depending on the severity of the injury leaves him weaker in constitution for a time. To this day he is still recovering from his stunt during his sister’s rescue, and thus remains at headquarters to serve as a guard and assistant in the premises rather than an active agent.
Ale’s Personae
Ale’s fractured personality stems largely from her time in the research facility. To protect her psyche from the physical, emotional, and mental stress and torture, she created different faces to cope.
To date, only two people know Ale as "Ale”; even the Scions closest to her only ever see her other personae.
Wisteria is Ale’s main persona and her public face to allies and citizens. Almost as if in defiance to her years of trauma, she is generally a gregarious and good-natured woman, prone to playful banter and teasing. She does openly flirt with males of the Scions, though it is very obvious she means nothing of it beyond friendly chatter.
Wisteria prioritizes the lives of the Scions and takes great pains to ensure that each of them are functioning at their best. While she is usually sweet, injuries, illnesses, and poor health habits bring out what has been dubbed in both jest and fear as “Wisterimom” for her serious, fussy mother-hen behaviour regarding such matters.
Wisteria has made it a point for everyone to call her as such; at this point, her full first name is all but never spoken, and her nickname (Ale) is used exclusively by her brother and Seir’am.
Moonflower is Ale’s in-field face and the one the Garleans now know best. While she keeps the playful, flippant attitude, there is a malicious edge to her. She sows mischief and mayhem to the point of malevolence, intent on sowing discord into everything she can.
Her one and only goal as Moonflower is to pay the Empire back for the years of hell she suffered under their hand, but it does her no satisfaction to do so in one fell swoop. In her mind, Garleans deserve the same mental and emotional abuse she went through, which is why her modus operandi is mostly causing long-term but not fatal suffering, and when in combat she chooses to toy with her opponents until they can no longer defend themselves.
White Shadow is a rarely seen but certainly known persona, and likely the one that is a very stark reminder that for all her appearances, Ale is not mentally stable. As WS, she is functionally without emotion, only the honed desire to kill.
WS’s triggers are very specific, but very easy to trip: that is, the severe injury or death of a friend. Traumatized by the death of her parents and the “death” of her brother, the high possibility or reality of losing a Scion is equivalent to breaking a part of Ale’s internal stability, and WS reacts accordingly.
Unlike Moonflower, who kills to satisfy malicious pleasure, WS kills for the sake of cold, hard justice - even if that justice is subjective to a fault. Her targets are ruthlessly and doggedly hunted down and executed; it isn’t uncommon for WS to be gone for days to weeks on her single-minded quest.
Ale & Seir’am
While Seir’am was on premises at the time Ale stormed the Garlean main base, he was not there to physically apprehend her, though they likely caught glimpses of each other during the event.
Their first official meeting was during the Scions’ raid against the research facility Ale was held at, as he was part of the rescue party along with Allen.
Seir’am is officially asked to care for and guard Ale during her recovery period, as he is a powerful mage and thus one of the few capable of keeping her untrained magic in check. It works far too well, as his status as an ex-Garlean soldier soon makes him the target of all of her emotionally unstable outbursts.
It takes Allen’s return and a few Echo visions for Ale to realize that Seir’am is not the kind of man she thought he was; she approaches him significantly less hostility, and is more appreciative of his efforts.
Once she stabilized, Seir’am was largely Wisteria’s teacher in controlling and honing her magic. Though he couldn’t help as much when it came to her specific specialization (which they quickly learned was healing), he did teach her the basics of magic use and how to keep it in check.
Seir’am and Ale’s relationship is largely kept to themselves, so as to not attract danger to the others. Seir’am enjoys chipping through Wisteria’s defenses when they’re together.
The two do engage in physical aspects of a romantic relationship, though they do so often. Most times, they’re content to cuddles and kisses.
Seir’am enjoys flirting with/teasing Ale to gauge her level of libido that day.
Miscellaneous
All semi-permanent to permanent Scion bases of operation are equipped with a set of distress signals set to alert healers of emergencies. As both a field agent and one of their best healers, Ale has a special encrypted commlink that rings with a unique tone whenever said distress signal is activated, giving her the source of the signal.
Despite magic being common in most races now, it is still dangerous to use and requires careful monitoring of one’s usage. While magical talent and cybernetic augmentation act as buffers, wanton use of magic actually eats away at a person’s lifespan. Thus, it is highly recommended that one who wishes to use magic is trained to do so safely, lest they overexert themselves unwittingly.
