Playlists

(Below are the dedicated playlists of songs associated with Arahk'ne. Each playlist corresponds to a specific event or the relationship a character has with Arahk'ne. The music chosen has been carefully selected by me over the years to best fit the situation or relationship. Playlists may update at any given time. If interested in reading and listening to playlist options at the same time, scroll through and open the links in a new tab. Some of the tracks are considered explicit.)

Amethyst Crystal Item Data Known Aliases: Amethyst, Sinoatrial Hunter Item Type: Weapon Creator: Xi'on the Seer Creation Date: 1982 Known Owners: Arahk'ne Item Speciality: Mystical Height: 2.5" Weight: 8 ounces Unremovable; will inject fatal poison into any living thing that touches it (*Does not apply if assailant has a Crystal). Capable of changing Arahk'ne into a specified form via illusion.

WARNING: The information on this page is considered MATURE. Some content may be considered unsettling, dark, or heavy for some readers. Please take care in what you involve yourself with, and do not hesitate to abandon something you don't trust.

Backstory

The Beginning

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Her mother was a mute artist, and her father was a deaf fictional author. Sonnet Elaine Baxter was born into a home structured around sheer artistry. This home offered her love and care, easels, occupied writing spaces, paintings on the walls, sculptures in the halls, and excessively-stocked shelves. Sylvia Baxter endearingly called her daughter "Snow White" for her Albinism, which gave Sonnet wispy white hair, very pale skin, and sky-blue eyes. Mason Baxter was hoping to inspire his young daughter to be a writer, but his efforts fell futile, as tiny Sonnet was more drawn to the image of her mother toiling away on a canvas, creating colorful images on a sheet of white.

Often lost in an imaginative world, Sonnet was a very quiet girl, homeschooled and living on a strict set of boundaries and privileges. Both parents worked together to teach Sonnet English and basic sign language. Sonnet was given few "typical" toys to play with--she spent her time practicing the piano, or drawing, or finger-painting, or playing in the front yard. She rarely cried, and if she did, her mother told her to do so quietly, in order to not disturb the peace. She was ultimately excluded from a harsher reality--her home became a safe haven she rarely ventured out of, which her parents didn't seem to mind in all of their coddling. Unfortunately, because of this, she developed a poor set of social skills. She was too shy to uphold conversations, to the point that she was only able to speak to her parents; if she was forced to speak to a stranger, it would only bring averting gaze and her frustrated tears. In spite of their coddling, Sylvia and Mason did their best to encourage Sonnet to interact with people, in an attempt to put to ease her Selective Mutism. Despite their efforts, Sonnet readily refused to speak to strangers or family friends she had recently met, when the rare chance occurred. By the age of five, Sonnet was most often hidden away in a comfortable head space.

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The Web's History

A few years before Sonnet's birth, a five-year-old girl by the name of Marigold Chase was found to be taking on strange mutations. The cause was never specified, but Marigold began to sprout extra limbs, form more optics, and have fits of minor illness, slowly mutating into some sort of arachnid metahuman. Her parents, devastated by their daughter's mutating, found themselves out of options after doctors told them that there was no reversing the effects--the mutation was entirely natural for Marigold. Jeremy Chase, Marigold's uncle and her father's brother, was a geneticist studying the process of cell mutation. Unbeknownst to most of his relatives, his methods of study were considered unethical, although successful. Marigold's mother demanded to her husband that they seek his brother's help, and void of all other options, Marigold was taken to Jeremy.

Jeremy claimed he could find a way to reverse the metahuman mutating. He gathered a team of trusted--and equally shady--scientists. Among the prominent team members were Misty Shore and the fraternal twins Sophia and Barry Smith. Receiving payment from Marigold's parents and gathering enough funds to spark the project, intense experiments and hardships befell Marigold, as she was left to the mercy of her dedicated uncle.

While keeping Marigold's parents at bay with sugarcoated lies and false updates on their daughter's condition, Jeremy studied the child under a new light. The information they had collected on Marigold indicated superhuman properties--something which, if developed into a blood-based serum, would make he and his team very rich. If they were able to create supersoldiers with the serum, then they would be able to not only bring in millions of dollars, but also take a huge step for the world of science. With this plan in mind, Jeremy Chase settled with the name Project: MARIGOLD and introduced himself as the founder of "The Web." Marigold was replaced with an icon dubbed as "Athena," with the intent to call her supersoldiers "Athena's Poisons."

Using blood samples drawn out of Marigold, The Web developed their Marigold Serum. It would supposedly provide superpowers not unlike the powers Marigold was developing. However, the serum itself was heavily tweaked to allow other traits of specified arachnids to affect the host, as well.

The testing of a serum would take volunteers. The most prominent member to volunteer for Project: MARIGOLD was a middle-aged homeless man, known simply as "Vernon," who was unaware of a locked superhuman potential he, too, possessed. He met Marigold and quickly befriended her during his time in the facility, establishing a grandfather-granddaughter relationship with her. This was sadly not something which would last. Vernon was administered the tweaked Marigold Serum and separated from sweet little Marigold, in order to be studied under surveillance.

In short, the Marigold Serum was unsuccessful with all volunteers--Only Vernon seemed to come closest to the desired results. The concoctions, though successful in administering superhuman abilities, also had major negative side effects, including monstrous mutations, mental and physical degradation, and even death in certain cases. The serum seemed to react on a person-by-person basis, which made it extremely difficult to perfect. Project: MARIGOLD only began to, more or less, "recreate" horrible versions of Marigold's mutations--mindless, murderous arachnid mutants of different subspecies.

Marigold's personal study took a dark turn. Bodily mutilations and other horrors caused Marigold to begin falling apart. In realizing the amputations and chemical therapies were not reversing the mutating cells, Chase became even more hard-pressed to not let their months of effort go to waste. Marigold was a cash cow to him, and he was dedicated to the serum itself over his niece. This hardheaded attitude and apathetic nature drove the project too far, and Marigold passed due to neglect and physical trauma. Upon his discovery, Vernon snapped, and Chase bore witness to the true nature of the Araneoids he had created. Several of his team members were torn apart by their Phoneutria nigriventer Poison, "The Wanderer," Vernon himself.

Vernon took a couple elephant tranquilizers to go down. Jeremy made the executive decision to use anything left of Marigold that they could, and study the behavior of one superhuman's blood mixed with another. Using samples drawn from their Phoneutria nigriventer Poison, a secondary version of the Serum was produced. Once Marigold's body was returned to her parents, the funeral came and went, and once grievances and threats passed, Jeremy was ready to tackle his ambitions.

Misty's Mistake

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Sylvia Baxter was familiar with Misty Shore, as they had originally been college roommates. A dynamic duo, although the two butted heads on the practicality of science and the formless ways of art, their friendship had outlasted their young adult years. In the years after college, Shore was a strict albeit sociable woman, and when allowed, she would visit the Baxter household anytime she was off work. Mason was against smoking and alcohol in the home, and neither parent wanted it near their child, so cigarette breaks had to be taken outside. Misty had attempted to interact with Sonnet ever since she was a baby, and with years of exposure, she was eventually able to draw out small conversations with the girl by the time Sonnet was five.

Misty was deeply involved with The Web. She was the head scientist of Project: MARIGOLD, second only to the founder, Jeremy Chase, whom she had been recently engaged to. Misty knew how to separate work from her time with Sylvia, though The Web had a habit of infecting the lives of those around it. Misty never disclosed information about her workplace to Sylvia's family in detail--All the Baxter family knew was that Misty was in a high position within her company, and that she and her team were working on a confidential study.

The art profession can often result in poverty. Sylvia and Mason got a taste of this during a financial crisis. When the threat of losing their house came up, Misty became very concerned for her friend's family's well-being. She took on the obligation to draw funds from The Web's vault and provide it to the Baxter family. So long as they would agree to pay it back in due time, Misty saw no issue. Of course, Jeremy wasn't pleased, which caused the beginning of his and Misty's disputes. Jeremy let Misty get away with it, but on the grounds that she would let the Baxter family know they needed to pay some compensation in addition to the lost funds.

Sylvia was compliant to the change of agreement, but it gave Mason pause. He was unwilling to give more money than what was agreed upon, especially given their recent financial struggles. Misty highly advised he conform, which only caused Mason to resist even more. Sylvia did not get in his way when he opted to withhold repaying The Web, demanding that the terms be changed back to the way they were.

Warning after warning, Misty urged the Baxter family to pay up, but soon she found that Sylvia was agreeing with Mason. Crestfallen, Misty began to realize the mistake she had made. When the final demands were not met, Misty was rendered powerless. She carried the intent to try talking Jeremy into changing the terms, but she would never receive that chance.

One late evening, a team of hired mercs invaded the Baxter home. Misty was informed by Chase that such a team had been dispatched, and that he wanted her to stay out of it. Naturally, she refused. Rushing to the scene, Misty found Sylvia's and Mason's body, but not Sonnet's. Grieving, she became hellbent to find Sonnet before the mercs could, not wanting the guilt of her best friend's child's murder on her shoulders. It was understood that the mercs had no intention of killing the child, though they had no idea what to do with her. Misty took it upon herself to retrieve Sonnet, who was sound asleep in her bedroom. She took Sonnet back to her apartment, distancing herself as far as possible from the scene. Shortly after the incident, the agents apprehended the money and tossed the bodies of the parents into a lake, located in the deep forest which surrounded their city. This lake had been cut off from the main river, resulting in a swarm of sea lamprey, which had become trapped after traveling upstream to spawn. There, the bodies of Sonnet's parents were reduced to bones and buried in the muck.

Misty knew about Sonnet's upbringing and Selective Mutism. It was too difficult for Sonnet to live among complete strangers. As penance for the deaths she had inadvertently caused, she elected to take care of Sonnet herself. When Sonnet woke the next morning, many questions and crying ensued, but after a few hours of Misty trying and failing to be a decent parental figure, something clicked. Misty got Sonnet to calm down, feeding her simple white lies about how her parents "had to take a trip and said that Sonnet could stay with her for a while."

These days, The Web had begun accepting younger volunteers for the Marigold Serum, under the theory that the Serum was more likely to take to a younger host. As a result, Chase looked to foster homes, orphans, and more of the homeless. He researched an education program; one which would both bring in money and subjects. He hired Rebecca Orchid, a child psychologist, to the team, though he kept her oblivious and separate from The Web's ploys. Rebecca received a scholarship from the city, which would allow her to study the psychological effects an alternative schooling method would have on a child without certain parental reinforcement present. It was the perfect disguise for Chase to use.

Shore tried her best to provide for Sonnet. Unable to leave her with a babysitter, she was forced to bring the child to work. Sonnet was kept safe in Misty's office, excluded from the Araneoid horrors of The Web's facility. She was taken home at night to sleep on the couch in Misty's apartment. Noticing Misty's efforts, although oblivious to the ties she had with Sonnet, the rest of the team--including their newest member, Rebecca--pitched in, growing fond of the adorable child. They helped where they could to look after Sonnet, even opting to babysit for Misty or let Sonnet have "sleepovers" at their homes. Rebecca even helped Sonnet with her social skills and used spare material from The Web's education program to teach her some basics. Of course, Jeremy ignored the child altogether, even insisting Misty find a way to get rid of her.

All the while, Sonnet was confused, and not at all sure what had become of her parents. This was not where she was meant to be. Still, Misty took her in like her own daughter, and each scientist involved brought something important and helpful to the table.

Project: MARIGOLD: Part I

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Utilizing the scholarship she had been granted, Orchid visited foster homes and institutes to offer access to the program. Any children of the ages 7-15 qualified for the experiment. Once Orchid had the go-ahead from the overseers of the establishments, she opened up the opportunity to the children, a completely voluntary offer. A new wave of children were escorted to The Web's campus. To accommodate for this program, the first sector of The Web's facility had been upgraded to allow dorms, an eating area, a play area, restrooms, and other basic needs for the children. All research and the unspeakable were located in the second sector, barricaded and preventing children any access. Orchid was extremely pleased to have such a large area to herself, and looked after the children with genuine care.

Misty spotted an opportunity and moved Sonnet in with the children. This eased up her burden and, by Rebecca's suggestion, gave Sonnet a chance to interact with the "big kids." Sonnet was excluded from the typical education program, still taken home at night, and had less strict rules than the other children, but her burden remained heavy; she was expected to stay with these big kids and socialize outside of her comfort zone. As a result, Sonnet stayed as close to Rebecca as possible, more willing to talk to her sweet babysitter than a swarm of rowdy kids. Rebecca allowed this, though she would make efforts to usher Sonnet towards any onlookers. For being so sweet, insecure, and bizarre in appearance, Sonnet attracted the attention of many children initially, but when she would refuse to speak to them or exclude herself from play, the children gave up trying to interact with her.

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Meeting Aaron

Orchid had set up a system which would rotate through a list of chores for specified children to do. One of the more willing preteens by the name Aaron Lister seemed to enjoy the tasks he was given, especially if it involved him assisting Rebecca. He was naturally fond of an adult's praise, and Rebecca was never one to withhold such. Because of his eagerness to help, he started to assist Orchid outside of the chore list, carrying books and papers between the study rooms and Orchid's office. It was here that he met Sonnet, and he attempted to interact with her, but Sonnet was put off by the tics of his Tourette Syndrome. Rebecca communicated Sonnet's severe shyness to Aaron, and Aaron decided that he would find a way to make Sonnet his friend.

So began a process which took three weeks of consistent exposure to Aaron. Aaron would practically have conversations with himself, though they were always directed to little Sonnet. He made attempts to educate her about his disorder, even trying to make her laugh at his tics so she wouldn't be scared of him. This was occasionally successful. With some time, when Aaron was busy pretending to have forgotten Sonnet's name, he finally got an answer out of her. Overjoyed, Aaron reacted positively to this, which encouraged Sonnet to continue responding. Sonnet clung to this newfound security, and began to follow Aaron about wherever he went. He became like a big brother to her, and she, his duckling.

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Meeting Leon

Among a number of the children in the facility, a sort of "ring leader" had been established. A ten-year-old ornery troublemaker had made himself a name within the community's social circle.This was Leon Jou, a young boy of mixed Hispanic-Korean race. It turned out that the brains to his brawn was Aaron himself, though Aaron was a more peaceful sort, and constantly tried persuading Leon out of being a big bully to others. Given Leon's nature and the hardships he'd endured through childhood, this powerful position was addictive. The ultimate test of the metaphorical leash Aaron had on Leon was to come when Leon found out about Aaron's little duckling.

Aaron had done his best to keep Sonnet secluded from the other children and Leon's eyes, but just when Sonnet was getting comfortable with him, Aaron slipped up. Leon was growing suspicious of Aaron's distance from him and followed him one afternoon to confront him. Leon found Aaron and Sonnet gathering some art supplies for Sonnet to play with, and Aaron spilled the beans. Immediately, Leon began bullying Sonnet into a corner, tormenting her with the social pressure until she cried. Sonnet fled, leaving Aaron to bicker with Leon over the situation. Leon was against Aaron taking Sonnet under his wing, but Aaron refused to listen and demanded they let Sonnet tag along with them wherever they went. In the end, Aaron won out, to Leon's dismay.

Sonnet was pulled into the boys' social circle. Protected by Aaron, Sonnet didn't necessarily come out of her shell, but she stayed close to his side. Leon found her Selective Mutism to be an easy source to vent on, and continued to execute creative pranks on the child until either Sonnet grew upset or brotherly Aaron stepped in the way. Leon's bullying didn't help her shyness on the surface, but the constant challenge was slowly building up this resisting force within. It would be some time before this resistance came out. Leon was due to get a taste of his own medicine.

Within the next few months, Sonnet was able to start thriving among the children and scientists. Coupled with the special attention from Shore, Orchid, and the other scientists, the friendship of Aaron was irreplaceable.

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The Price of Human Greed

!!WARNING!! DATABASE IS BEING REWRITTEN. Information beyond this point has not yet been updated to match info found above!

A new order was issued by The Web about three months later. The Web was ready to test the Marigold Serum among the older children. A few of the braver souls took the first step and crossed over to the second sector of the laboratory, but were mysteriously never seen or heard from again. The scientists insisted that they were doing well in the line of work, but among the wiser children, there was dismayed conversation. Soon the scientists began to push for children to step up. The world began to grow darker and darker around Sonnet, as in-fighting between Misty and her fiance ended in a break-up, which turned Misty to be a more spiteful spirit. She and the others began to visit Sonnet much and much less. Soon, children were being forced into the experiments, and after a few more months had passed, the children officially knew that they were no longer orphans in housing, but slaves in housing.

Unfortunately, Aaron was one of the children chosen to be an experiment. Sonnet was unable to understand that it wasn't Aaron's choice, so Aaron gave up trying to explain the situation, and instead turned to Leon. He asked in his final wish that Leon look over Sonnet and make sure that she stay safe, before bidding farewell to his best friend. The next morning, when Sonnet woke up, Aaron was gone. Sonnet was confused by all of the people she enjoyed disappearing around her, and lonely, tried to cling to Leon for security. But Leon was stubborn, and continuously refused to be a friendly face. Sonnet tried and tried again until she began to treat him the same way. Amused by this, Leon turned it into a game. Soon, the two grew mutual. The change in Sonnet's childish behavior allowed Leon to grow friendly toward her and live up to Aaron's wish. Leon managed to grow a little closer to Sonnet, and Sonnet founded herself a childhood crush. Leon ignored the extra attention and simply carried on with his duty.

Project MARIGOLD: Part II

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Misty's life began to fall downhill. Unable to bear the blame on her own shoulders, she began to direct her spite onto others. Flogged by the responsibility of taking care of her friend's own child--the friend she had caused the death of--she could no longer bear it. She brought The Web to the conclusion that they needed someone as close as possible to Marigold's age group for the serum to adapt in the best possible way. Without realizing it, she had just volunteered Sonnet for that cause. Swallowing the irony, she ventured out to retrieve Sonnet.

Leon did all in his power to keep Sonnet safe, but when the time came, Sonnet was torn out of his arms and carried away by the Web's squad of scientists. Panicked, Leon ran to Rebecca to cry for help, but by the time Rebecca had arrived in the laboratory, it was too late. Against their own morale, and too familiar with the child they had chosen, each and every scientist turned Sonnet's world inside-out through excruciating experiments. Despite any anesthetics, Sonnet still went through great suffering, and because her body was so fragile she suffered more than any other. Still, the serum reacted better to her than it had the others. But it was not enough. Sonnet began to mutate into one of the failed experiments, dubbed Athena's Poisons, or by the general term, Araneoids. Crippled beyond human repair, Sonnet's heart fell into critical condition, and eventually stopped. Rebecca managed to force the scientists to halt the process and revived Sonnet by a stroke of luck, as though death had denied the child. Sonnet's brief face of death was too much to bear, and so the experiments remained at a halt. Sonnet was kept under medical attention and surveillance.

After losing his two best friends to the greed and hatred he had been exposed to all his life, Leon made amends to free the other children and Sonnet and Aaron from captivity.

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Aftermath

When Sonnet had recovered enough, she was escorted to a quarantine to avoid disease and build up a better Araneoid immune system. Inside of the quarantine, the researchers--including Misty--continued to study her, slowly degenerating the concept of Sonnet once being a little girl they all enjoyed and turning her into their pet project. Initially Misty took care of Sonnet begrudgingly, and when Sonnet, desperate, tried to open up to the woman who had betrayed her, she was denied affection. Sonnet's need was the last straw, and Misty turned violent. Day after day, Misty became physically, emotionally, and verbally violent towards Sonnet, exposing Sonnet to a life she had never initially known: the dark side of the world. This and previous traumatic experiences from the experiments began to wear on Sonnet's five-year-old mind. Combined with this was the serum, which was trying to drown out the last of Sonnet's humanity and break her sanity, in order to expose her to pure instinct. One last punch meant one last straw, and her psyche snapped. Sonnet's flight-or-fight response, now impaired by the serum, clicked automatically to "fight" one day, and before Misty knew it, Sonnet was biting her. Fearful and enraged of the changes she was seeing her friend's daughter go through, she shacked and muzzled Sonnet and left her to darkness.

Sonnet crawled inside of her mind; empty on the outside and hiding on the inside. Her fervent imaginary world grew as dark as the room around her, and joy in the world was found with the image of Sonnet repeatedly harming herself to find an end to the madness and pain and unfamiliar illnesses brought on by the serum. Sonnet's mind seemed to evade her, and human thought fled her body. Project MARIGOLD's last stand had failed. It was over. Sonnet became more animal than human, and grieved when alone for brighter times in her life. Her instinct felt her body collapsing under the strength of the harness, and horrifically, suicidal thoughts dwelt around the corners of a five-year-old little girl's mind. Sonnet began to mutate further, and soon she no longer felt the pain in her empty sorrow. There was simply nothing left.

Suicide vs. The Amethyst

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Freedom rolled around the corner. Leon showed up at Sonnet's cage what seemed to be weeks later and managed to hack the system to get inside. The rest of the orphans had gone rebellious against The Web and were shutting down the lab's security to escape--led by Rebecca and Leon. Araneoid-turned children were set free, and a surprising, full-blown Araneoid Aaron helped Leon to break Sonnet out of her harness. However, by then the boys were too late, and Sonnet was no longer mentally responsive. Initially, Leon was terrified of the changes Sonnet had gone through, but Rebecca begged him to give her a chance, as she believed there was still a light inside of Sonnet.

Misty made it a personal job to show up to Sonnet's cell with the rest of Sonnet's familiar squad following. Aaron and Rebecca posed a distraction while Leon escaped with Sonnet, and carried off, Sonnet watched as Aaron was shot through the skull by Barry Smith. The final thing Sonnet needed to completely lose her mind was to literally hear Aaron's heart stop, to see the blood, and be witness to cold-blooded death. However, Aaron's sacrifice was not in vain. Leon escaped with Sonnet, following the river into the woods for cover. Afraid of her own insanity, Sonnet came out of her head to beg Leon for security, and she received it. Leon led Sonnet through the woods to try and escape The Web, but they found themselves at a dead end. It was the body of water where the lamprey were trapped. But something else was there, as well, and it was calling her.

The Amethyst was located at the bottom of the lake beneath the skeletons of her own parents. The Amethyst itself emitted an ill-inducing aura, and this combined with Sonnet's state of mind fully pulled her under its parasitic influence. Sonnet's longing for an end became too great. Sonnet fled from Leon and flung herself at the lake, despite his screaming in protest, and was immediately engulfed by the lamprey and dragged under. Sonnet blacked out and remained in a mysterious coma. Against her own will, death did not accept her. Leon went missing, having fled from the scene.

The Athena Massacre

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Cold Cases

[WARNING: Violent details under this section]

The following reports of the Athena Massacre were accessed through the city security's database. Files have gone cold as of 11/20/1993.

INFORMATION BEYOND THIS POINT IS UP TO DATE. Ongoing revisions end here.

Social Aspect

RP Hooks/Traits

• Spitter! - Arahk'ne's DNA belongs in part to the scytodidae thoracis! (That's the scientific name for the "spitting spider.")
• Patience is Key. - Arahk'ne will hang back before engaging in direct combat to apply as many debuffing and incapacitate spells as she can on her prey.
• Tastes Metallic... - Arahk'ne's venom will liquidate her prey's internal organs. She consumes the heart and all blood before leaving the softened flesh for the Bloodstone and/or the Opal.
• Pristine! - Arahk'ne is always clean and tidy. She gets after others who are not. She loves to preen or be groomed by Loh'kar.
• Too Many Joints. - Arahk'ne often gets muscle cramps and feels taut at the base of her additional arms. It is unbearable for her some days, and so she spends those days exercising and stretching the pain away. (Massages from people she trusts are always pleasant.)
• Sp0oky. - Arahk'ne leaves many people shook. Lots of people do not like spiders!
• Intelligence Abound. - Arahk'ne is, in spite of being an unfortunate mix of monstrosity, very smart, and has quite the personality about her.
• Lone Hunter - Arahk'ne doesn't really do the whole "friend" thing very well.
• Chaotic Neutral and...A Little Misguided - Arahk'ne is Chaotic-Neutral. She was raised from a very young age in the hands of unsightly sorts, so how "evil" she is has no defined line. However, there is no excusing the evil she ends up doing. Arahk'ne classifies as a Chaotic-Neutral Villain.
• The Undertow Civilization's "Wedding Ring." - Arahk'ne has no engagement ring, and she and her fiancé would not have wedding rings when married. Instead, a cultural enchantment is placed upon the to-be-weds. It appears as a rune over the left ring finger on either couple. When the knot is tied, the rune changes form, and becomes a bioluminescent tattoo directly on the heart's right atrium, traveling the length of the vena amoris. (This tattoo is visible most clearly in the dark.)
• Not Only Blood! - Arahk'ne does not only eat/drink blood. She also enjoys: blue kool-aid, strawberry milk, fat and grit from cooked meats, shrimp pulled from its shell, kiwi fruit, chicken liver, fatty veal, marshmallows, and fish. She is extremely picky and will only eat these foods a certain way, however.
• Cardiophile - Arahk'ne is a cardiophile--Not to be mistaken with cardiofetish. She is interested in all things having to do with the heart, and holds the organ in high importance, believing it to be more important than the brain.
• Baby Blues - Arahk'ne's eyes are black as ink at first glance, but if a light enters her anterior eyes, the light blue rings of what can be likened to her irises are seen within. These rings are key in knowing her level of consciousness.
• Sharp Nose - Arahk'ne's nose is superb. She can smell alcohol, recent flesh wounds, or other liquids from up to three football fields away. However, the smell of alcohol puts Arahk'ne off, and she avoids it like the plague.
• Caffeine, Begone - Arahk'ne can get "drunk" off of caffeine if she ingests enough of it. Rather than becoming sluggish in the way one might with too much alcohol, her mind begins to race, and she becomes significantly more vocal about her inner thoughts.
• Thump-Thump-Thump. - Arahk'ne's heartbeat includes three rapid pulses between intervals. it's speculated that this is due to the crazy mutations she's taken on.
• Six-Eyed - Marigold was an Agelenopsis, AKA a "grass spider." This is a spider with eight eyes. However, Arahk'ne inherited only six of the eyes of an Agelenopsis and maintained the same eye pattern Marigold had. :0 0:
• Stick in the Mud? - Arahk'ne gets called this all the time, and despite her efforts to understand what it means and change it, she to this day remains a stick in the mud.
• Touchy - The Syren communicate very intimately with each other, platonically or romantically, by touch. A human gesture might mean something very different to a Syren. It's best to not touch Arahk'ne until you understand what means what.
• Self-Sufficient - Arahk'ne's room has a stream running throughout, and it is full of fish of similar species. She has a trap in her web which, when set up, allows for fish outside of the Temple to get caught in the wrong current and be pulled into her web. From here, she distributes the fish into the stream to spawn and provide her means of consistent food access. Sometimes, she will make certain species fight for her amusement, consuming the victor afterward.
• Nocturnal Creature - Arahk'ne's is nocturnal. She is most active in the evening until sunrise. She can stay awake for two or three days straight with little to no side-effects. However, when she does sleep, one cannot find her awake at any time before noon; she leaves her room, on average, around 2:00pm.
• Web Bed - Even out-of-web spiders need at least one web to come back to. Arahk'ne cannot sleep well or even comfortably on any surface unless it is her own web. Her body cannot be fooled by a hammock made to mimic her web. The imprint of her web is significant. The structure of her web mimics a funnel.
• Phobia Amalgamate - Arahk'ne's character concept plays upon different phobias, such as arachnophobia, aquaphobia, hemophobia, and ophthalmophobia.
• Broodmother - Arahk'ne has been given a Broodmother necklace by her Host. Her necklace has the toothless skull of a male Syren whom Loh'kar defeated, with precious jet in its eye sockets. Along the cord of the necklace runs shapes like teeth, which are cast in gold. Emerald shards are fastened to and wound about the cord. Clear quartz is strategically adorning areas where dangling, pure marble resides with bone-like shapes.

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Although Arahk'ne will wander into Club Caprice on rare occasion, it is strictly to meet someone or work on being less of a "stick in the mud." She detests the smell of alcohol and the effect it has on the body, which is why she does not go to Caprice to hunt, and she will avoid the bar at all costs. Although Club Caprice (in lore) is part restaurant, she seldom orders anything to eat here. She will pass the time being a people-watcher or lurking in the back in a very introverted manner. Some may wonder how it is she got past security, but as long as she maintains her illusions, does not provoke any fights, and continues providing her fake ID, it's easy for her to slip past the security.

There is only one account of Arahk'ne hunting and killing a patron who was coincidentally last seen at the time in Caprice; it's possible that this event tied into the Westside Territory arc, as it was one of FinnCo's mobsters. Under no circumstance would Arahk'ne select a patron at random for assassination, as much of her assassin work occurs when a non-Maruloix begins to meddle deeply with Maruloix affairs. It is wholly safe to approach Arahk'ne, although she may come off as unfriendly, or the aura of the Amethyst may cause unease in close proximity. It is possible to befriend Arahk'ne; some have seen it as a challenge before.

Out-of-Character Q & A

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Various Quotes

Some quotes may contain mature language.

Friends, Family, & Enemies

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Events

Non-Roleplayed Events (Key to Development)

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• Distributing the Opal: Directly following the Athena Massacre, Seeker Vynn'trikol came to the surface to retrieve the Amethyst. With no memory of the past few days, and physically weak, Arahk'ne succumbed easily to the motherly care of Vynn'trikol and was carried off to the Atlantic Ocean. In the Maruloixs' Deep Sea-Abyssal Plains region, Arahk'ne was allowed to live normally with Syren children within The Seer's Temple. Xi'on's intention was to let her grow up with the Syrens to learn their ways and eventually select an inheritor for his Master Crystal, the Opal, which was within the Amethyst's ability. She lived in the Deep Sea-Abyssal Plains until the age of nine, which is when it came time to choose her Opal. However, the Broodmther of a neighboring Syren colony, at this time, was slain by a teenage human male they had attempted to lure, and the remaining Syren colony apprehended him. This being the first time a Broodmother was murdered by a human, they wished to hear Xi'on's thoughts on execution. However, Xi'on was more amused by the ornery boy's attitude, and instead had him be infused with the region's Blood Coral, so that he could breathe easily underwater, and be kept there for the remainder of his human life as a servant. Following this, Xi'on went to Arahk'ne, telling her that she was to choose her Opal among the male Syrens, and to choose carefully, as her Opal inheritor would be rendered nigh immortal, and be her future brooding mate. (They were unaware at this time that Sonnet was born infertile.) However, when Arahk'ne was presented with the best males of the local brood, she refused to distribute the Opal. She had noticed the human boy in the Temple, and while keeping out of his sight, she felt within her that same childish innocence she once knew long ago as she watched him. With a powerful desire to ensure his immortality and claim his heart as her own, Arahk'ne cornered her long-lost Leon and forced the Opal onto him. It rejected him, and the situation began to spiral rapidly out of control as Leon was being killed by the Opal itself. In a last-ditch effort to save her childhood best friend, Arahk'ne provided her magic's support to her Master Crystal, maintaining his heartbeat for him, and forcing the Opal to...tolerate its inheritor. In a zombie-like state, the new Biolacex Syren tossed aside his betrayer, and when Shaper Xi'on arrived to slay the false inheritor, he was eaten by his own Opal. The half-conscious creature, terrified and in a rage, fled the Seer's Temple and abandoned Sonnet. With the weight of guilt on her back, Arahk'ne fled the Deep Sea-Abyssal Plains herself, to later be retrieved by a Master Crystal, the Diamond, Raakorahn.

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• MARIGOLD: Night Terror: Intended to be a very developmental event for Arahk'ne and to entirely introduce Loh'kar. When Arahk'ne was 23, an agent-for-hire scientist by the name of Mygalo managed to abduct Arahk'ne to attempt to perfect the Marigold Serum. He lured her back to The Web, and Arahk'ne was thrown back into treatment. The presence of the Amethyst awoke something else that lurked in the cobwebbed halls of the abandoned institution. Driven desperate as a second dose of the Serum was going to put her into cardiac arrest and trigger a rampaging state of mind, and becoming acutely aware of her demons stirring within the institution, Arahk'ne's sanity began to shatter a second time. She resisted for as long as possible before the Opal forced his way beyond her veil and re-established a connection. As Arahk'ne fell into a sort of dreamscape, Loh'kar came forward for an attempt at her life, and tormented by her own guilt and sorrow for her childhood friend's pitiful physical condition, she reached out and begged him to kill her. Her showing emotion meant that she was still capable of help as an Araneoid, and Loh'kar faltered. Arahk'ne's sleepwalking body hunted down every last heartbeat until the sound was no more, before she stumbled into her old quarantine zone. Myx'ulas, who had been following the Amethyst's trail via his Seeker blood and the Bloodstone, found Arahk'ne in her monstrous state, and before she could kill him, Loh'kar engaged in combat with her. In the end, Loh'kar won, and with his Opal keeping her alive beyond normal reason, he drained the new serum fluid from her body. Shortly after, Loh'kar attempted to kidnap the vulnerable Syren, but Raakorahn and Peridot caught him before he could escape the institution.

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• Elegy of War: Story Arc can be found here.

Roleplayed Events

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• Westside Territory: Arahk'ne had begun hunting down members of a gangster organization known as FinnCo Seafood Shipping and Storage controlling the northwestern half of Westside's docks. She killed off a few disposables, but the easy prey was not tolerated by Finn, who was the organization's leader. Security was bumped up, causing Arahk'ne to have to bring Loh'kar and eventually By'zlis for reinforcements. This mild war persisted for nearly two weeks off and on until an easier hunting area was discovered, and Arahk'ne, Loh'kar, and By'zlis disappeared from the FinnCo docks.

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• Lost and Found: Problematic instances occurred when the brothers Raakorahn and Fizzu'rohk somehow ended up with the Soul Engine of a F.I.N.A.L. project dubbed as S.I.E.G.E.. Not wanting to create a deeper fissure in the relationship with the Sapphire, before Yien'vela could figure out that S.I.E.G.E.'s Engine was in the hands of her fellow Guardians, Xell'kurak suggested a team be dispatched in order to plant the Engine within an Argent bunker to detour attention away from the Crystal Guardians. Several of the Guardians were dispatched to remedy this issue; Arahk'ne was among the numbers. Aside from the constant messing around done by Loh'kar and By'zlis, the Soul Engine was planted accordingly, and Arahk'ne was able to escape the bunker before F.I.N.A.L. agents arrived. [EDIT: 12/1/18 -- Certain details of this RP have been retconned to fit with certain revisions.]

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• Civil Rights: A company by the name of TreyCo Shipments was growing lazy in handling their shipping crates with care. Arahk'ne's dedicated method of entering Millennium City became compromised when chemicals from leaks and intentional dumping began to pollute the bay. Angered to find the fish--her main source of food in MC--being infected or dying off, and she herself becoming quite ill, Arahk'ne attempted to take the issue into her own hands, assuming that the humans would ignore a Maruloix's plea. The monster's hostile presence summoned a member from Department 17: the blind, mute, and albino psychic known as The Oracle. Oracle attempted to diffuse the situation and reason with Arahk'ne via telepathy, promising a peaceful solution to the problem. In the end, Arahk'ne sided with Oracle's solution--TreyCo was shut down due to bankruptcy brought on by fines, and several members of the company were arrested. Having Oracle (AKA Hannah) see eye-to-eye with Arahk'ne allowed the two to begin bonding, and through determination, Hannah has managed to befriend Arahk'ne. ...Sort of.

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• Opalescent Valentine: Haunted by memories of Aaron's death, the deaths of several children, and Sonnet's suicide, Leon found it especially difficult facing Valentine's Day. On top of these things came the guilt he felt over having slain several of the males in Cori'beaux's brood during the "Elegy of War" arc. In a desperate attempt to hold himself together, he ventured out with By'zlis to the amazon, where he gathered natural clay, and attempted to craft something, in memory of Mr. Youn. After leaving the figurine he made of himself and Arahk'ne at Aria's altar, Loh'kar further succumbed to the Opal, and this time, did not come back out. Alert to Leon's presence in absence, Arahk'ne followed the Opal's pulsations all the way to South Korea--and found herself outside of Mr. Youn's shop. Pursuing the sound of Leon's terrorized, half-sleepwalking wails, Arahk'ne came face-to-face with a new form of Loh'kar's--one which the Opal had generated, when it seized the reigns of control, as Loh'kar had been trying to tear his heart from his body moments before. With the Amethyst's assistance, Arahk'ne coaxed Leon to wake from his self-destructive PTSD episode, and put the Opal back in check. Arahk'ne apologized for the first time for trying to kill herself as a child, and Leon exploded, piling all blame onto himself, including the Athena Massacre. When he began to weep over the carnage he had created in Cori'beaux's brood, Arahk'ne asked him the most important thing he needed to answer - "Do you regret your need to protect me?" To this, Leon admitted that he did not, and reminded of the good he did in protecting Sonnet all of this time, consoled in his Amethyst. The two of them slept overnight in the shop, before returning to Aria's Temple the next morning.

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• Opal Integration: Over the course of a month following the Opalescent Valentine event, Arahk'ne was finding Loh'kar to be growing even more distant. Although he was not afraid to be around her, his own self-hate and cowardice brewed on the surface, and it had begun to impact their relationship. Driven desperate to avoid uniting with the monster that the Opal made him, and desperate to protect Sonnet from himself, Leon became unable to hold intimacy with Arahk'ne. This, and the way she understood his suffering so easily, drove him mad. Arahk'ne knew that healing could never begin until he was forced to change, and so she invited him into her quarters one late evening and locked him inside. With this, she began to pressure him; challenge his cowardice, inquiring why he was afraid to unite with the Opal, why he "didn't feel like himself in his own body." Tormented with mental and emotional pain as she bore down on him, Loh'kar lashed out--Something which he would later deeply regret, but Arahk'ne had seen coming. A madness overcame them both; Arahk'ne desiring anything and everything that would make Leon utilize the Opal and bond that much more with the Crystal. Loh'kar's madness was driven by sheer love and rage; the Amethyst brought to surface memories of his father abusing his mother in front of him, while he verbally and physically pummeled Arahk'ne, roaring out a twisted tale of her life until that point, while also demanding to know why she wasn't afraid of him, why she adored him. In the moment that Loh'kar had Arahk'ne on her stomach in a dominant display, the sight of tears in her eyes and blue rings within the sea of black brought him away from this toxicity. He grieved, violently, once more trying to rip the Opal out, right in front of her. However, she began to sing to him, forcing him to stop the suicidal display. Arahk'ne stopped the Broodmother's song immediately, and urged Loh'kar to "come to be who he is on his own," giving him the reigns of control. And...Loh'kar used self-control. Loh'kar shapeshifted, evolving, becoming physically healthier and allowing the Opal to sit within his flesh, where it dimmed in peace. Immediately following this, Loh'kar sought out Myx'ulas to help heal Arahk'ne. Within the next twenty-four hours, he followed Arahk'ne back to her living space, making up with her for his unforgivable behavior. Arahk'ne accepted his profuse apologies, also offering her own.

Developments, Retcons

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• Sept. 26th, 2011 - Arahk'ne concept is first introduced; weird birthday present.
• Early 2012 - [RETCON] - Arahk'ne's more snarky personality is removed and she is placed under observation for a more fitting personality.
• July of 2012 - Vocal reference is decided on for Arahk'ne; lead singer Chibi of The Birthday Massacre is her dominant point of reference.
• June of 2014 - [RETCON] - Arahk'ne is no longer restricted to a child form for illusion purposes. This was to eradicate the "child monster" cliché and fit to Arahk'ne's personality revision.
• February of 2015 - @mortalbound shares Peridot character ownership with @ph0toncann0n and assists in the development of her personality and backstory. (@mortalbound is 10x better than @ph0toncann0n at playing Peridot.)
• October of 2016 - [RETCON] - Arahk'ne's 100% emotionless personality is re-evaluated to make for a more relateable and interesting character to play and interact with. She was not fun to RP with and little interest was taken in her by other players.
• December 12, 2017 - Peridot is given a dedicated Freeform slot and made into a crowd-controller for Cosmics' Kigatilik, Qwyjibo, and Eidolon of Destruction.
• Jan. 3rd, 2018 - [RETCON] - Arahk'ne no longer can use magic to turn herself into a human; everything is strictly illusion. Arahk'ne would not enjoy a human body, and she is not powerful enough to alter her own genetic make-up when she has no Biolacex DNA.
• Nov. 8th, 2018 - Story arc with Shakk'pae and Sp'hel is revisited for development of Maruloix lore. Arahk'ne's role as a government assassin for the Maruloix peoples is examined for character development.
• Nov. 28th, 2018 - Guardians' stance with Yien'vela (Angelfish) is revisited. Arahk'ne's view of Yien'vela is considered and revised.
• Dec. 29th, 2018 - Much more information on the Syrens is developed; more Broodmothers and mates are made.
• Feb. 9th, 2019 - @ph0toncann0n belatedly realizes that, coincidentally, the day Sonnet attempted suicide was on Valentine's Day. This sparks a series of retcons from @datbooster and OOC discussion in preparation for the upcoming trauma-heavy RP to occur.
• Feb. 14th, 2019 - The first modern-day Valentine's Day RP occurs for Arahk'ne and Loh'kar. The fresh retcons are applied; a major RP event occurs, in which Leon attempts to commit suicide himself, out of self-hate and guilt. A new monster form for Loh'kar is introduced as an expression of his grief.
• Feb. 20th, 2019 - [RETCON] Heavy attention is paid to Loh'kar's and Arahk'ne's relationship; due to specific childhood traumas and specific retcons which occurred to Loh'kar and the Opal, the progression of their relationship has backpedaled OOCly to study more in-depth ICly. Arahk'ne and Loh'kar no longer consider themselves engaged, but they are steadily working towards it, and wear the status for Loh'kar's own protection. Only now are Arahk'ne and Loh'kar beginning to attempt the warm-up to the more physical and intimate parts of their relationship.
• March 5th, 2019 - The Deep Sea Trench region is officially introduced in RP; a couple more Broodmothers--specifically Bori'cyn and Cyr'nakna, as well as their broods--are introduced to Raakorahn.
• March 6th, 2019 - [RETCON] New story arc name for the modern-day Project: MARIGOLD incident has been renamed to "MARIGOLD: Night Terror" to separate the incidents more clearly.
• March 12, 2019 - Loh'kar becomes united with the Opal following an intense fight between him and Arahk'ne. Arahk'ne's bond with the Amethyst strengthens even further and new potentials are unlocked with the Opal's official integration.
• March 31st, 2019 - Arahk'ne follows Loh'kar into Mariian and the Trench, as he seeks Blood Coral for his new body, attempting to and failing to stop him. Several Broodmothers are officially introduced in RP, including Nevai'rux, Ju'brixas, and Kohr'nasys.
• April 15th, 2019 - Arahk'ne receives her Broodmother's necklace from Loh'kar. Progression is made within their relationship.

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Artwork

Real-Life Comparisons

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  Sonnet reference (Heather O'Rourke) (5 yrs.)

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  Sonnet reference (7-11 yrs.)

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  Sonnet reference (Aurora) (teen yrs.)

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  Sonnet reference (now)

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  A scytodidae thoracis

References/Inspirations

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  (Visual reference: Koko from Jormungand)

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Gameplay Artwork/Screenshots

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  2015 costume (??/??/2015 - 7/28/2016)

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  2016 costume (7/28/2016)

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  Most recent costume (4/9/2018)

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  Sonnet's Cloak of the Amethyst

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  Misty Shore

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  Loh'kar in the Abandoned Temple

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  Myx'ulas

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  Xell'kurak the Topaz

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  Seeker Elegy the Warmonger

Artwork

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  Arahk'ne sketch (unfinished)

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  Drawn by @ph0toncann0n (unprofessionally)

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  Commission done by Gaingator

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  Arahk'ne and Loh'kar meme

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  Arahk'ne and Oracle@ultrarankgrunt

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