Evolving from ancient oceanic odontocetes off the northwestern coastline of the Frontier supercontinent, the Audi are gentle giants and reknowned for their pride, curiosity, and hospitality. Audi have exceptional hearing and tactile awareness to offset their incredibly poor eyesight that gets worse the older (and larger) they get. They also sport a handsome melon to assist in their own form of echolocation, a frequency too low for the human ear to parse. Species with more delicate hearing have often complained of Audi cities being the one of the most audibly overstimulating experiences due to this rumble being incessantly present.
Audi lack any form of dymorphism, as every individual has the capabilities to become pregnant and induce pregnancy.
More about the Audi life cycle under the cut.
The Audi are (assumedly) the longest-living species of sentient lifeforms in the Laurelai Galaxy. It is difficult to pinpoint age in any Audi due to their complete lack of any calendar system; Audi view time as constantly moving forward instead of cyclically repeating, and age records were never anything of value.
Because of their lack of birth dates, Audi categorize their lives into phases. Their first official phase is childhood, with their lack of an 'infant' category caused by the species having two fetal incubation periods: the first organic and the second synthetic. Audi give birth incredibly prematurely due to their narrow pelvic gap, and, to prevent damage and even death to the parent, birth is induced within a two-to-three month time period. Full fetal growth is achieved at ten to eleven months, with the second incubation period done with the asisstance of advanced medical technology that simulates a natural womb. Due to this technology, Audi's infant mortality rate went from 80% down to 25% with three out of four Audi infants reaching childhood.
The second phase is adulthood. What criteria needs to be met for this phase is up to speculation, as Audi seem keen on keeping that information private. What can be assumed is that it's personal for every Audi, and every Audi reaches adulthood at different times. Height ranges anywhere from 6'8" (203cm) to 9'11" (302cm) on average, with older individuals being on the taller end due to Audi constantly (albeit slowly) growing their entire lives.
The final phase is She, a coveted example of Audi excellence and potential. Reaching the phase of She takes an impossible amount of time and physical growth. Every She, of which there are currently six, has a leadership role, ranging from cultural preservation and the arts to science and engineering, with each She taking a 'mastery' of one of these core values of Audi society. An interesting note is that every She is referred to as 'She', making it difficult for outsiders to deduce which of the six She is being referenced. She cap out the Audi height range at an even 10' (304cm), though why this is considered maximum height or how they suppress growth past this point is still being studied.
Yeeting both Ingo and Emmet into Hisui and having them get taken in by the Pearl Clan and Diamond Clan, respectively, is fun, but what if they were both taken by the Pearl Clan.
And then became Lady Sneasler's Wardens (coughadoptedkidscough).
And proceeded to tell absolutely nobody that there were two of them.
As far as anybody who isn't from the Pearl Clan or who hasn't been introduced to the twins by Irida -- the Responsible One -- knows, Lady Sneasler has a really weird Warden named Emmet who just abruptly swaps coats and demeanors seemingly arbitrarily.
And is terrifyingly good at getting around the Highlands quickly.
Honestly.
It's almost like he's in two places at once, sometimes.
Yeah, they went off to the Highlands and one of them (probably Emmet) was like, "Hey what if we just didn't tell anyone that there's two of us," and the other (probably Ingo) was like, "That's a horrible idea. I love it. Let's do it."
The player character knows that there's two of them because Irida herself introduced Ingo or Emmet as one of Lady Sneasler's Wardens, so the player character was basically directly informed of the fact that there's two of them.
Nobody else is aware of this.
Warden Emmet is just a mysterious cryptid lurking around the Coronet Highlands, and everyone is very confused by him. And maybe a little afraid.
Except for Melli, Melli is just exasperated with him. As usual.
And due to the distance between the Highlands, the Pearl Settlement (full of people who know) and the rest of Hisui (the people who don't know), it never really gets properly stated that there are two identical Wardens running around the Highlands. Irida just thinks that people talk about Emmet a lot and chalks it up to him maybe being the weirder of the two. Or maybe Ingo's shy, or something. Who knows.
More explorations of Red for Galaxies Below because apparently my brain wants to do everything except actually write this fic even though I WANT to write this fic
possibly one of the biggest teenage girl moments Jack has ever had is the scene where he’s looking at the carved initials on the library table, gently traces Mary’s and then claws his hand away from it like a cat on curtains :
"Llyr knelt down to the ground in front of the crying child and smiled softly at them, folding her hands in her lap and trying to make herself as approachable as possible; she was releasing calm and peace into the force, and she knew it worked as soon at the toddler--no older than 3 or 4--looked up at her as their hiccoughing stopped. She smiled more at the sweet little thing, reaching out to steady them as the child walked towards her, one step at a time.
"Hey punkin'," she said, as she gently rested her right hand on the child's arm.
The toddler giggled as they replied with a shy little "hi..."
Llyr knew then that this child was going to be her undoing."
here's llyr and thetra's first meeting :)))
theres a pull in the force that llyr could feel; thetra was calling out and llyr answered. (thetra is around 3 1/2 and llyr is between 28-30)