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ArkantiTo those unaware of it, there are a few places in breedables considered to be holy ground they are THAT elite and sought-after. A prime example of this is the Fa'e, which is home to an excellent concept, top-notch artwork, and one of the most intensive RP communities you'll find on Gaia. In a nutshell, the spirit of the Fa'e community is this: We live in a world where chaos is slowly dying away into normality and, as a last ditch effort at living on, it occasionally spawns children from within itself. Their blood is pure chaos, their flesh and bones are woven of history's myths and legends, and they are returned to Gaia with no knowledge of who they once were or what they can become. It is up to the guardians chosen to look out for them to guide them through life and help them achieve their full potential. They are very rarely given out anymore and the only way to obtain one is to win a writing contest or to recieve the offspring of two existing Fa'e. Because of this, you can't throw a stone in breedables without it hitting someone who very much wants to have one. Myself, I'd been on a continual teeter-totter about it. There would be times when being a fa'e guardian was what I wanted most on Gaia, and then there were times when I'd overhear something unsavory going on among the owners and think "Thank god I'm not part of THAT". I'd entered the first writing contest and failed abyssmally, so I was really very wary about trying to enter the second. Eventually, with the cajoling of my friends, I decided to give it a go. And lost. Ah well. After the aftermath of disappointment, upset, and general whining had receded from the people who hadn't won the contest, life went on as normal. I heard that Youko would be recieving his own fa'e soon from one of the resident pregnant couples and did my best to be happy for him while not being bitter at my own lack of fa'e. I'd finally resigned myself to the idea that it just wasn't going to happen. Ever. There were just some exclusive clubs that I wasn't meant to join and the fa'e were one of them. That's why I was really very surprised to recieve a Private Message from Anya (owner of the fa'e center) in my box one day. She stated that she now had some more time that she could devote to artwork and was wondering if I was still around and willing to devote my time/effort to being a fa'e guardian. I really don't remember what I wrote in reply because I was too busy shaking, but she wrote back informing me that the last contest had resulted in a five-way tie of which she could only choose two. My concept was one of the five in question.
She said to expect his arrival in the coming days, and I happily went off to introduce myself to the fa'e thread properly. I won't go into detail, but I'll say that some people weren't quite as happy as others to hear that three more fa'e children were to be given out and...a rather ugly night was had by all. At the end of the night, however, a particular green bundle of joy arrived in my inbox. I cannot simply describe to you how I felt that night, but I'll put it this way: If anyone in Europe picked up a high-pitched squealing sound on their radio frequencies, that was most likely me. And then I laid eyes on him for the first time:
He immediately didn't follow the norm of fa'e babies. For one thing, he hadn't come wrapped in a blanket and instead was laying there shamelessly for all to see. For another, he had more definition to his body and face than most fa'e infants. Not only that, but he went more for "smarmy" than he did "cute". Already, I loved this kid. For those of you wondering, Arkanti is a kelpie. More specifically, the kelpie who inspired the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. My own creative liberties were taken with the myth and splicing of the legends, but I won't waste space describing them here. So I finally got the chance to play among people and characters I'd admired from afar as well as keep a diary on various goings-on. I would also like to add that the tag shown above had been the traditional tag for the fa'e ever since they had opened, but recently, Anya had held a tag design contest and had chosen a new look for them. Ergo, Arkie was soon switched over to this:
The new tags were pretty, but not my cup of tea, so I asked to keep the traditional one. A month or so after being granted guardianship, I recieved a message stating that it was time for Arkie to become a toddler and was given a quest to find him more than ten green toys and a full scottish getup. With the help of my friends, the quest was completed in a matter of hours and Arkie grew up.
Aww...just, AWWWW!! I'd honestly fretted a little as to what he'd look like when he grew, but this nearly bowled me over with the sheer power of its cuteness. Arkie became much more fun to RP now that he was old enough to start walking and talking. At this point, he'd started to show off his penchant for troublemaking, devil-may-care attitude, and being a little smartass. |
