Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When VR-LA awoke, there was nothing. He was alone on some sort of ship, drifting through an unfamiliar sea. It appeared to be night, the stars were out, hundreds of thousands of them, all shining brightly, making it hardly dark at all. He slowly got up, joints heavy, barely managing to stand up. Below the starry sky, there was an ocean. Water (if it could be called water, there was something different about it) shining, reflecting the astral light, blues and purples and yellows all mixing together. The Astral Sea.

VR-LA didn't know how he knew that, but he did. The Astral Sea. That must be where he was. He looked around the ship. As he looked, the name 'The Per Aspera' popped into his mind. Where did that name come from? He racked his mind, but came up with nothing. That must be the name of the ship he was on, but how did he know?

He shook his head, and instead examined his body for damage. Aside from cuts and gashes, he saw marks on his arms, almost like paint, but it didn't flake with scratching. On his right arm, an image of a brass gear engulfed in flame, a shield with an unfamiliar symbol on it surrounded by flowers, and a golden figure with indistinct features curled into a ball with darkness surrounding it.

On his left arm, there was a picture of a bolt being turned by a wrench marked with strange writing, and a sickle with tiny glowing figures with wet wings dancing round it.

He didn't know what they meant, but he knew they were important. He thought he remembered a hint of why, but as soon as he chased the thought, it was gone. Why could he remember they were significant, but not why? Why did he know the name of the ship, but not who was on it or why he was there? And why couldn't he remember anything else?

All he could remember was the sea and the soulmarks.

-

When Dani woke up, it was around an hour before she usually did. She hissed in pain as she felt the sensation of a new soulmark etching itself into her arm. She quickly rolled up her sleeve and inspected the new image, right below her left elbow. An orb with arcane engravings, lying shattered on the ground, drawn in silvery blue ink that stood out against her orange skin.

She wondered what the orb meant as she scanned her other marks, surveying them for noticable changes. They were the same as before: A golden figure shielding themselves from inky darkness, an engraved shield surrounded by flowers, a sickle with butterflies around it, and a long bookcase curling around her wrist filled with all sorts of scrolls and tomes. She noted that the bookshelf now looked slightly grainy, like an old photograph, compared to yesterday. Weird.

Dani got out from under her covers and sat on the bed, thinking about what the orb could mean. Maybe her soulmate was in trouble. Maybe the broken orb meant they lost something. Maybe…. No! Stop thinking about that! Her soulmate was fine. Maybe they… dropped something! Yeah. That must be it.

Shit. She probably wasn't gonna get more sleep tonight.

-

Finbar was tending to the back garden outside his house when he felt the stinging sensation of a new soulmark burning its way into his arm. He winced, coming to a stopping point with what he was doing before rolling up his sleeve and inspecting the new image. A broken glass ball with patterns all over its surface printed in silvery blue ink. Finbar wondered what that could mean. Maybe his soulmate was a magic type person. Maybe they were, but then decided to do something else. Maybe…. Maybe his soulmate was broken. Shattered, like the glass ball.

Finbar shook that thought out of his head as quickly as it came. If they were hurt, and he wasn't there to help, what kind of soulmate would that make him? He distracted himself from these thoughts by looking over his other marks. A bookshelf curling round his right wrist. One of his soulmates must be pretty smart. A flaming cog, on his right forearm. Maybe they liked fire. A golden humanoid, curled in on themselves, surrounded by inky black, right below his right elbow. It looked so sad, he just wanted to hug them. And it looked kind of spiky, maybe it was a Dragonborn? Then, a wrench turning a brass bolt, inscribed with unfamiliar writing. Maybe they fixed things, and spoke a different language.

Wherever his other soulmates were, he hoped they were okay.

-

Kyana was in the middle of sparring when she felt the stinging burn of a new mark singeing its way onto her arm. She faltered in the middle of a block, distracted by the sensation, and felt a stun take hold as she fell prone. Thankfully, the stun didn't last long, and the other initiate helped her up. A pretty young woman with long dark hair in a simple braid and a light green monk's uniform.

Kyana knew her, like she knew all the monks in her monastery. Half remembered faces and names that she had to search for in her memory in order to start a conversation. This monk's name was Ione. They bowed to each other, as was customary after a spar, exchanged a few words of encouragement, and went their separate ways.

Later, after Kyana was tucked in her solitary room, she unwrapped the bandages around her arm and finally took a look at the new mark. It was a glass ball, shattered on the floor. It looked really fancy, she had never seen anything like it. She wondered if the ball was something that other non-monks used, or if it was a decorative thing. Either way, it seemed like a shame that it broke, it had all sorts of pretty markings on it.

But Kyana knew that it wasn't a shame. She knew what these marks meant. When she got her first one, she went to Priar Sephrum and showed her. Then Priar Sephrum explained that those marks represented things she needed to work on. Each mark meant she needed to train harder. When she mastered them, they'd go away.

She was only around 6 at the time, so she only had the flaming gear, bookshelf, and shield with flowers on her right arm. But over time, it got worse. She now had 6 marks and each one of them was something she needed to overcome. Something she needed to master, in order to perfect her training. In order to get out. But it was hard. So, so hard. She trained as much as she could, worked harder than ever, and now she got another one. Another thing to beat. Another problem to solve.

And they were all so pretty! The bookshelf had more than she would ever be able to read in a lifetime, and it was so colorful. The gear was so shiny, like it was just polished. The shield had a pretty pattern on it, and the flowers looked so delicate and real. She never saw flowers in the monastery. The wrench and bolt were so cool, they looked like they made up something really special for the writing on the wrench to be that fancy. And the sickle with fireflies looked like it was glowing purple, and the little fireflies looked so pretty! The orb looked important. It was covered in pretty patterns and markings, and she was almost sad that it was broken.

But no! Kyana shouldn't be sad. These were symbols of things she needed to master. They represented her failure. She shouldn't feel bad for them, she wouldn't! But now she was tired, and frustrated with herself for thinking so much about it. She gripped the covers around her and buried her face in her pillow, and slowly fell into sleep.

Chapter Text

Tap.

Tap tap.

Tap tap tap.

VR-LA's eyes clicked and dilated open, and he was momentarily blinded by the light shining right into them. Slowly, he blinked, and adjusted his eyes to the light. Standing in front of him, tapping his faceplate with a screwdriver, was an orange fire genasi. She wore a dark, almost black, turtleneck tank top sweater with loose worker's pants and boots, and gloves to protect her hands.

"Hey uh, welcome to the world of the living buddy." She tapped again on his faceplate, but slightly lighter this time. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a mechanical cat with a long plug tail leap from a definitely not properly secured shelf onto a desk.

"Ah, interesting choice of words. But I will take them all the same." He paused, not sure if he was missing something. "Why are you.. Tapping me?" "Well you, you seemed like you weren't really, uh, working. So I thought maybe if I, uh, tapped you with this screwdriver I could figure out what was wrong, and uh... somethin' worked. So... that's science for ya." She grinned almost crazily, and right there VR-LA decided that he never wanted to get on her bad side. She had dark circles under her eyes clearly tattooed there long ago, along with black bands around her neck and arms to match.

"Trial and error, y'know? You test things out and sometimes they work, and some things happen to work 'cause they kinda work. I know what I'm talking about." She said all this confidently, despite just how awkward her reasoning was. "I know what you're talking about." VR-LA decided to be polite. He tried to move to get better bearings of where he was, but a belt around his torso stopped him halfway. That made sense, as he was made of metal and quite heavy for his size, he must've been wheeled in. He started to undo the clasp as the fire genasi leaned against one of the tables. "Oh cool, you can move."

He stepped out, somewhat shakily, and noticed there was a jacket around his shoulders that wasn't there when he fell asleep out on the Astral Sea. It seemed familiar, but he definitely hadn't put it on…

"Great," the orange genasi continued. "could you do like uh... like, a wave for me, maybe…" the corners of her mouth twitched up, "The wave?"

VR-LA had no idea what she meant by that, but he raised his hand and did a wave in the vague shape of a square. She nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Okay good, all the joints seem to be functioning." She scanned him over, and her eyes stopped near the middle of his chest. "What's the big hole in your chest do? S'been buggin me."

He looked down at his chest and saw the concave outlet she was talking about. It wasn't very large, but it certainly wasn't one of the many dents and scratches littering his body. It was encircled in arcanic runes and engravings, and he somehow knew that no mechanite he had known had something quite like it. "Ah. Um... when you recovered me, did you happen to find... I can best describe it as a glass sphere with arcanic engravings on it?"

She paused, seemingly putting pieces together in her head. "Yeayeayea, there were a bunch that were like smashed up and stuff and you had like, - a secret box and there was a... orb in there– you gotta tell me about your ship– actually, is it your ship or is it like... up for grabs?" She almost whispered that last bit and VR-LA caught a glint in her eye that looked almost hungry, yet.. not in a threatening way. "D'you need– I- 'cause if you need it fixed I- I know a guy. Uhhh... it's me. I'm the guy."

VR-LA leaned forward and tilted his head. He liked this genasi. She had…. Drive. He liked that. And she was willing to fix him and his ship seemingly for fun, and hell if he was going to turn that offer down. "You... you have the ship. You did not just recover me, you recovered the ship as well?"

"Yea, you were on the ship."

Hope stirred in VR-LA's chest. "May I- may I see it?"

"Yeah! Yeayeayea, c'mon man." She waved him over and they began to make their way through the piles of clutter and junk and out of the workshop he had awoken in. VR-LA explained some of the mechanics of his memory spheres, and the genasi listened closely, deeply interested in the workings of how exactly they worked.

"I remember.. liking to view them; revisiting them every so often." he said, "To hear that many are gone is.. saddening." The woman gave him a sympathetic frown, and reached up to give him a firm pat-pat on the arm, bringing his mind back to the jacket.

"Ah- forgive me, I don't.. I don't remember your name. Do I- have I known your name?"

"Oh, well- uh, probably not. I'm Dani. I do a lot of uh.. ship stuff." VR-LA nodded. "I am VR-LA." He began to roll up his sleeve to show her his designation, but she quickly put an arm over his hand and stopped him. "You uh, might not wanna do that." VR-LA tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

Dani pursed her lips, still holding onto his arm. "Well, uh, you got some soulmarks, and I don't think anyone around here would use that against ya because that's like, illegal an' shit, but you might not want to uh, just have 'em on display like that."

VR-LA nodded in recognition. He had the vaguest idea of what she was talking about, but as soon as he thought about it and tried to recall the information, he reached a dead end. "Would you.. I don't seem to remember what exactly a 'Soulmark' is. Would you mind explaining it to me?"

"Okay, so uh, a soulmate is when, uh, two or more people's souls are like, connected. Think of it like uh, like a string! It connects those people's souls together, and a soulmark is like a picture on your skin that represents your soulmate. You can have a bunch of em, and you don't have to be like, dating. You could just be like, Really Good friends. You can have more than one but that's pretty rare, uhhhmmm…."

She frowned, like she was trying to remember something told to her long ago. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! You're like, destined to meet your soulmate, and spend like, a lot of time with them. Cool, huh?" VR-LA nodded. "Why would showing them be dangerous then?"  Dani hummed, sticking her hands in her pockets. "Well, you and your soulmate have like, matching soulmarks, right?"

VR-LA made a hum in return of affirmation, making a gesture for her to continue. "Someone can use your soulmark to find your soulmate, and like… hurt you, through them. I'm pretty sure it's illegal in most places, but also I kinda don't want you to risk that since ya just woke up." Dani finished, taking her hands out of her pockets immediately to fidget with some kind of bolt.

VR-LA nodded again. “Interesting. I will have to do more research on this. How would one find your soulmate?” Dani hummed in thought. “Well, there’s a couple different ways. You can put your trust in the gods and just wait. You could ask around if anyone’s seen a soulmark like yours? I’ve seen some people do that. But most people tend to do the waiting option.”

VR-LA nodded once more. (He seemed to be doing a lot of that recently.) "I guess I will just wait, then.” Dani smiled at him, and it made his heart feel a little bit warmer. It was a nice feeling, being around her like this.