#Solavet the human

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Rough doodle of Ares vs. Ajax size comp

ft. Gregor, Boots, Temp, & Solavet.

I made Gregor, Boots, and Temp too big. Solavet is to scale.

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All of this yes and I’m sobbing. Also… Solavet doesn’t want the fighting to stop. She needs Ripred so the humans survive to fight longer. Ripred could easily spike the humans and help the gnawers win quickly. But. They don’t want him. Everyone’s afraid of him. His rank is gone, his friends, family, reputation… he’s literally a terrorist. Solavet reached out at his lowest. The only other living things willing to interact with him, share a meal, call him a friend. He knew Luxa as a baby. He knew Hamnet. He knew Luxa’s parents. They were his new pack… and Solavet took them away too. But still she feeds him. Makes him feel important, needed, included. Wanted. Obviously she only does this to keep him on a leash. But he’s alone. He’s desperate. He NEEDS the human’s companionship. And they convinced him it’s the best way to make the fighting stop. Convinced him Gorger’s evil. Ripred is every bit as manipulated as pearlpelt… And I think he knows. And he doesn’t want to think about it. He hates himself for it nonetheless.

When Ripred says [paraphrasing] "mutual need is stronger than friendship, stronger than even love"... You know he's talking about himself, right? It's self deprecation. Solovet broke the peace, maimed his face, and killed his family. He gave up on revenge. Both him and Solovet have mutual need for the fighting to stop.

In so many words he's saying "Yeah. I sold out. Everyone's a faker, just like me."

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Solavet's sheer A U D A C I T Y to be mad at Hamnet for running away, insinuate HE hurt HER, and saying he abandoned his family and can't grieve his twin sister has to be studied with inhumane research methods.

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Speaking of hair symbolism in the series.

The fact that Luxa had to shear her hair before Solovet. Who we don't hear she ever did in the series...

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I just spent an hour in my grandparent's field playing with King (the horse being boarded there) Because he's all alone. He's so so sweet and tries so hard to play people games and engage. He pins his ears alot cause he's a natural grouch, apparently he bullied other horses.

But he's the sweetest most needy horse I've ever met. He forcefully pulls you into hugs with his neck, rests his big head on your shoulder and nuzzles into you, kisses your face and tries to give you scratches by rubbing his lips on various parts of your body. He follows you like a puppy and gets the zoomies. When you walk to the fence he convinces you to cuddle one last time so he can hold your jacket in his teeth to keep you from goinng.

I'm working on getting King a friend but *SOBS It breaks my heart. He really is a brilliant and wonderful horse. He's a retired barrel racer at only eight (Still barely an adult) And he loves to go riding, loves to play and learn and just fucking loves not being alone. I'm gonna start visiting him daily if I can and playing with him. Cause dammit someone's got to.

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Also hey fun HC that has zero supporting evidence:

What if every year during the fliers mating season, their fur gets thicker because hormones, ornamentation, and protection fighting but AFTER they shed it like a winter coat and the humans help groom them/brush it all out? Good way to keep track of the year cycle and there's a need for the fliers to visit and depend on the humans? BAT SALONS?? The humans get tons of fluffy bat fur they organize by color and texture, bonds keep their flier's fur for their own, and you can take it to get spun into yarn or woven into fabric? It's so warm you don't really need it but imagine giving your child a toy bad that looks exactly like your bond? getting a downy flier fur blanket? A sweater or piece of clothing so you can match your bond? CUTE. Imagine all the beautiful gold things Luxa would have, or the edgy black cape Henry had. Solavet wearing a dark dress with deep blood red fur lining/embroidery and Vikus wearing soft silver robes. The bonding time of Gregor spending hours brushing Ares and learning to groom him. And getting a cute Ares doll made or a new jacket cause Ares wrecked his.

Vikis' cape has a soft swooping shape, like it's giving him a hug. Henry's cape is big and showy and open, like it's framing him. Henry never got a doll made. Vikus had one made for his children. Luxa's mother's was passed onto Luxa as well as a doll of each of her parent's bonds. Her swaddling blankets were made of their fur. Fliers getting dolls made for their own pups. The dolls and blankets being passed down for generations. Bond shit.

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Okay but did Solavet INTENTIONALLY domesticate Ripred or did he completely fuck himself over all by himself.

Like. Did she invite him to regalia or secret meeting places outside of political or scheming (outright)purposes, introduce him to her family and get him attached, make him feel welcome and treat him like a friend? Out of her way with the intent of training him to be brainwashed loyal to and dependent on the humans, namely her and vikus?

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G U Y S I’M ONTO SOMETHING

Ares, when gregor isn’t around, has no one. sure luxa and aurora do their best but he just feels like he can’t/shouldn’t be a burden to them or be selfish by dumping all of his problems on them(this is horribly toxic thinking if you experience this GET. HELP. you are NOT a burden and you DESERVE LOVE.)

but back to the sad fictional bat: Ares just has no one. he finds he’s most comfortable alone, although rather lonely... but well, chased to the outskirts to hunt due to ostracizing from his peers, he runs into Ripred doing the same thing and Ares, while apologizing for trespassing finally just breaks.  The gnawer asks what he’s bawling about and it all just comes tumbling out.

After a good long time of just gushing out all the pent up pressure, Ares shifts uncomfortably and apologizes again. He thanks the older rat for listening and being so kind when Ares had done nothing for him. Ripred cuts him off. “Ares you have been invaluable on every quest you’ve been apart of. and even aside from that, you are a friend. I like you actually, you keep your head on your shoulders and out of those prophecies.” there’s more to it but that’s what I write down. Ares just shakes his head. “you’d be the first to think so.”  “dear bat I doubt that, luxa and her flier quite admire you. the boy loves you to pieces. but of course there’s only so much it can do. especially when they’re around so little.” Ares nods. “you are a good friend, Ripred. thank you.” The gnawer almost smiles. “I sure will be.” and leaves the bat bewildered. but with a mixture of fear and hope. Ripred’s tender moments are rare. being around him often could make everything worse. he’d be even MORE ridiculed for associating with a gnawer, and he could just get a whole new layer of abuse added to his plate. or... or maybe Ripred could be his friend? they understood each other to a degree. both ostracized by their peers and alone, abused and depressed. scraping at the bottom. but Ripred didn’t care what anyone else thought, right? He surely wasn’t pining for affection. but... maybe he was a little lonely too.

Ares returns home with a bit of weight lifted off his chest. he’d finally talked about his problems... and hadn’t been ridiculed. he’d been comforted and validated. what a beautiful feeling.

a week or so later, Ares is training in the arena. alone. he was the only bat without a rider and ajax constantly reminded him about the empty space on his shoulders and in his heart. He knew he was top of his class in strength, speed, and near top on agility. but it was never enough. he was always ‘stupid.’ ‘clumsy’ and ‘arrogant.’ whatever. all the flier’s suddenly stop. a gnawer approaches the entrance. It’s Ripred, as per usual to meet with the council and royal family. everyone is wary and Ares ignores him. ajax goes with his bond to greet their guest but the rat brushes them off like last nights stand.

he looks up. “Ares!” he calls “Ares my swift death on dark wings, my epitome of aerodynamics!” The entire arena stops. all eyes on Ares. he felt himself shrink into his fur and flush with embarrassment and rage. the last thing he needed was more attention. especially for this. was this his way of being a friend? humiliating him? Ares, as professionally as possible, coasts down to see what the old rager could want with him.

Ripred just... talks to him. and coaxes ares to talk back. he almost completely ignores vikus and solavet. he even insults ajax to his face, berating and belittling him until the large red flier visibly cowers. that’s his specialty. he attacks ruthlessly and furiously about his abuse towards Ares. and the smaller fliers inferiority to him. Ares literally begs him to stop. the rat is having too much fun. after his meetings Ripred finds Ares again, and even drags him to dinner in the great hall. Ripred can actually be rather charming and kind. and Ares actually talks tenfold what he normally does, speaking in real sentences. 

months go by and the two keep in touch. Ripred visits the flier’s hunting grounds often, and the Arena as well. Ares visits him too. at first ares tries to avoid him, given that the rat is very loud and boastful about his big buff handsome flier friend. calling him pet names and advertising his infinite endeering qualities to any regalian or flier in earshot. 

but Are can’t help but laugh and smile. it honestly feels kinda good to joke with someone and have them care, have the be proud of him. the abuse over it fades and he starts being recognized as the trusted friend of the most dangerous creature in the underland. Ares only gets stronger as he occasionally carries his new friend around and they even did a training session together. no one could deny his impossible strength. Ripred won’t shut up about his incredibly studly bat babe and Ares just gets used to it. he talks more, he laughs more he moves in with ripred’s gang and even has a group of bat friends. but he will always spend his nights in Ripred’s den and hunt with his pack. 

He learns to speak gnawer and knows the deadlands like no bat ever has. Ares befriends all 32 of the gnawers in their possey and they all share a slightly sadistic sense of humor. they laugh and joke together and protect eachother. He heals emotionally and learns to let peoples words roll off his shoulders in a healthy way. and there will always be bad people who are cruel to him but with Ripred’s protection and influence, it becomes less and less. 

Living with the pack Ares gets to know pearlpelt. and they have more in common than they thought. loneliness, abuse, and deep rooted mistrust. Ares becomes a mediator between Ripred and the pup. Ripred lets it happen. as long as Ares helps babysit. Ares adopts pearlpelt full time but forces Ripred to help. there’s arguing there’s fighting but for the pup and future of the underland. and for their unspoken bond. they make it work. With Ares help a huge load is taken off of Ripred and he pushes himself to be more patient and kind.

they train together and talk together and ares even sleeps with the pup to help comfort him. He listens to his trauma. he teaches him rhymes and all about the humans and fliers. the good and the bad. he makes sure pearlpelt won’t blame them for what happened to him. he gets it into his head that his white coat and massive size are a mere coincidence of the double Y chromosome and albanism. Prophecies are dumb. he gets there before twirltongue and helps him see through her deception. Ares, in trying to train the pup to survive, is endlessely patient and affectionate. Pearlpelt will never go a day without someone saying ‘I love you’ or giving him a hug. because he knows what it does to your head. Ripred and Ares actually co-parent the bane. it doesn’t get between them. Ripred and Ares still fly talk, and laugh together. Pearlpelt quickly becomes too big for Ares to carry, but pearlpelt works harder than ever so he can carry his big black friend. Ares brings him human food from Regalia (as well as ripred, can’t forget his bestie) And the bane grows up a lot more stable and a lot more open minded and informed. Pearlpelt will never accept the humans. but he will not fight ares. he even meets luxa. they talk. they hear eachother’s pasts. they feel an understanding. they argue but come to an agreement.  Ripred is always there to jeer and coo over him and Ares does it back. Ares and Ripred still visit regalia once a month for dinner and they bring pearlpelt with them. only after solavet dies of ‘mysterious causes’ all species start to form bonds and a multi city city is built. the dam is rebuilt and the garden of hesperdes is restored. pearlpelt matures and mellows out into the perfect hybrid of his two adopted dads. Aes goes from glossy black to silver and finds it difficult to fly. pearlpelt carries him wherever he wants and often to his own den to play with the heirs to the gnawer throne. ripred a lighter shade, is always with him. you’d thin they were bonded or married by how they smiled and talked or just sat in silence together. they are both less afraid and less lonely.

everything is a little more alright...

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K but looking back, the underland chronicles as far as conflict and villains go, is perfect. but one thing that would have been interesting for the series, but alas impossible, would be seeing more of king Gorger. see he's a bloodthirsty psycho but with a reason. He was minding his own frikking business when solavet attacked the gnawers in the garden of hesperides out of the blue. he became king because he was absolutely haywire after what she did. slaughtering innocent civilians and pups. I don't blame him.

his vile and controlling behavior to the other rats and allies was not justified, hence still a villain. an underland attack? nuts. he's crazy. but he was attacking the ones he percieved to be helping the humans. the killers. the ones who have been attacking the underland since day one (lets not forget the diggers)

something Gorger DID do is ally himself with the crawlers. the gnawers prey. He knew as long as they were allied they would not do anything against them. He made a safe but sacrificing decision.

Honestly as soon as he showed up I was so ready for this dude to be the series main villain because he's A SASSY DIVA AND A MADMAN.

He strolls in casually, sprawls out on his side like a victoria's secret model, and ha's this dangerous elequence to him. he will mock you to your face. he will skip the niceties (aside from a dramatic entrance degrading villainous introduction, and a little idle chit chat to let you know he's calm and totally in control) he will do this like a freaking sherlock holmes villain. i. loved it. 'you're a nice fellow, I hate to kill you.' type of guy. but behind that relaxed, poised, and very elegantly royal appearence, you don't have to look closely to see that it's all frail as glass. he'll flip on a dime and lash out like a wild animal. he's brutal. he's toxic. he's king for a reason. HE ACCESORIZES WITH THE CROWN OF HIS FALLEN ENEMY AND WEARS IT TO MEET HIS DAUGHTER THIS MAN IS HERE FOR THE APPLAUSE. he likes to play with his prey and wants everyone to be afraid. once someone counters that, he starts to crack. MAN I LOVE THE COMPLEXITY AND POTENTIAL AND PERSONALITY OF THIS WRETCHED MONSTER I WANTED MORE OF HIM WHY DID HE ONLY GET TWO PAGES.

THE WAY HE WAS SO CONFIDENT TOWARDS RIPRED AND SEEMED TO KNOW HIM PRETTY WELL I THINK GORGER RATHER TOOK A SHINE TO HAVING A RAGER MERCINARY AND PUTTING HIM IN THE DUNGEON TO CARE FOR GREGOR'S DAD WAS A SURE-FIRE WAY TO KEEP HIM LOW ON THE PODIUM AND CLOSE

AND HE ISN'T STUPID. HE KILLED THE CRAWLER WHO SAID RIPRED DROWNED GORGER WOULD HAVE KNOWN WHO RIPRED PICKED TO GO ON THAT RAID HE WOULD HAVE KNOWN THEY WERE COWARDS AND WEAKLINGS AS SOON AS HE HEARD THE CRAWLERS NEWS HE MAYBE ASSUMED THAT RIPRED HAD FAKED HIS DEATH AND WAS HELPING THE HUMANS THAT'S WHY HE SHOWED NO SURPRISE OR FEAR WHEN RIPRED BETRAYED HIM H E K N E W. HE PULLED THE GUARDS FROM THE PIT AND BAITED THEM IN HE KNEW.

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so i had a dream

So Ripred realised that he just was not able to keep track of everything he needs to because well, it's all in his head. names, people that piss him off, specific details about meetings, ties he's supposed to be places, you name it. he was NOT getting sleep and was often late to many meetings because well he had to EAT first and just didn't have the time. He learned than many humans have pet humans that run errands for them, keep track of and organize information, and do just about anything else they ask and he thought "I gotta get me one of those" but all the underland humans are brainwashedly loyal to Solavet. he can't have them messing with his schedule or private information/messages.

So he put in an add In the overland. he paid with some kind of crystal they find in their caves that's actually very valuable in the overland. Really good money and free housing, medical, and food.

like 200 people sent in resumes and answered the questions he posted as well s sent in video links of them showing off speed, agility, and streangth.

He rooted through them with Vikus' help and they narrowed it down to like twelve. I was one of them. I showed up and waited for my in person interview and almost had a panic attack (like the rest of the people there) part of the intrview process was seeing how well they adjusted when their schedule was abruptly changed. someone would come in, call the name of whoever was next, and after they left the room and informed them that the interview had been moved and gave info on how to get to the high hall. so you had to run. Solavet, for like no reason, got these two massive glass doors in the high hall cus she liked them. every single person without fail, hit them. why didn't they open the doors? Ripred thought it was funny.

I got called, and they told me to run so I frikken BOOKED IT. So Ripred, Vikus, and Solavet are sitting at the table waiting for me to get there when they just hear a C R A SH. I ran smack frikking through those glass doors. I didn't fall over, I had so much adrenaline I just straightened myself out and acted like it didn't happen. Glass in my face and blood EVERYWHERE. They asked if I was ok and I just waived it off. we went through the interview process which involved planning a mock battle. apparently I was the only one who asked for their help. I wrote stuff down and answered questions and after about fifteen minutes I stood, thanked them for their time, and walked out (through the hole i made.) and passed out from bloodloss/ head trauma right outside the doors. I woke up i the hospital wing and the doctor said Ripred was waiting to see me. I tried not to cry and assumed I wasn't getting the job for obvious reasons.

He walked in and asked if I was ok. I just snickered and said I'm pretty dense so i'm good. He just laughed until he cried, shook my hand, and said he was very excited to work with me. He didn't even interview the other six apparently I was physically durable and funny.

I cried. a lot. He just lay there on the floor wheezing holy crap it was a MESS but hey I got a job.

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Ripred: :) well i know my baby is safe in regalia and i’ll be able to see him again after a long week of fighting. :)

solavet: i locked the brat up with zero human contact and high risk of hypothermia for three days. didn’t even have his bond.

ripred: 0w0 >daddy instincts activate< is that so???

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whoah this got a lot of attention! (dang u guys write well, thanks for the additions!)

it's not that he just doesn't like her;

1. It wouldn't be hard to tip off her location anonymously, especially now that they know the COC. this gives them the advantage of the spinners joining their side for the final battle.

2. HOLY FRIKK there is ZERO CHANCE of peace with her alive. Ripred likes vikus but honestly? he's a big picture guy. the wicked witch has gotta go. probably used a possey member to relay the message anyhow.

3. yes he DOES own up to all his murders and assaults cus he's a shameless DIY dude but this is more delicate. he NEEDS luxa to stand with him. she's the QUEEN. if she knew he was responsible for solavets death that would be game over.

4. honestly he ran off to 'fetch something' and the regalians never once thought it would be the bane. he could get away with any and everything right under their noses if he put his mind to it.

5. GARDEN OF HESPERDIS BREAKDOWN:

garden was given to the rats as a gift. like a hundred years went down and everyone was fine. solavet wanted the garden back. that's what started the war. no aggression from the rats. they could have asked to share and the rats probably would have been like "yeah sure" and we'd be in a way better interspecies relationship point for it but nooooo. solavet launches a sneak attack and DROWNS THEM ALL. yeah i can't imagine ripred ever being able to look at her without feeling her knife across his face. the water in his lungs. smelling the blood of his mate. hearing the screams of his own pups. seeing hamnets body in the jungle. the scars over Ares fur from the plague. feeling the starvation from when she blocked off the rivers even from her allies. 'i would seldom miss a chance to break bread with you, ripred.' but she would let her own most valuable ally rot and starve because he was a rat.

he'd have been plotting this for years. and finalizing the plans once he knew the logistics of the final battle and everything leading up to it. it would be easy to assume an ambush and he was RIGHT with the hmans when it happened. he immediately had perdita lined up and ready to go when the news came and he just, "well at least whenever i touch my face or look in the mirror THE ATROCITIES OF HER MEMORY LIVE ON AMIRIGHT??" after he and luxa had their whatever bonding trip i need a whole seperate book on, he knew she trusted him like a father. it was a pretty safe and solid plan. either everything is mended and the war ends or he easily takes out the humans because with vikus AND solavet off the table they can't afford to fight him once he bacame king. which didn't take much. also the whole 'peacemaker thing' would sway the humans and that was obviously planned.

OK PEOPLE

no one can convince me Ripred wasn't directly linked to solovet's death. his entire cause is peace. she is the cause of every underland problem. garden of hesperides, plague, etc etc, THE DEATH OF RIPREDS FAMILY AND HER OWN. when she died Ripred made sure vikus was taken care of and he said that HIS SCAR WAS WHAT HE HAD TO REMEMBER HER BY!?!?!? THAT'S NOT FRIENDLY. i'm assuming he got it fighting at the garden of hesperides. if anything was ever going to get better, she had to go. he was not sad. she killed his family. this would be the perfect time.