Caro

Caro was raised in a small, nomadic group of cors in the wasteland below Postinen. They were a very strict group: survival was all that mattered, and they passed that down to their children. Caro was raised under one principle: the only people you can trust are the people that need you. If you do not make yourself useful -- if you do not make yourself necessary -- then you will be abandoned or betrayed. And then you will die. This group recognized that they needed each other to survive, but they also held that they could only rely on themselves. Caro grew up cold toward the outside world, and only marginally warmer toward his family.

When Caro was 18 years old, his group took in an outsider. They were destroyed from within by the very betrayal that Caro had always been told to expect. By the time he was 20, Caro was completely alone: barely scraping by without any allies, but so deeply distrustful of others that he could never work with anyone else longer than a few days.

He lived like this for eight years, and then he met Soledad.

Caro returned to his small camp one day to find an unwelcome visitor poking around his things. He assumed, as he would in any other circumstance, that this guest was here to steal his things; he attacked them, insulted them, and when they fought back he realized that this was no wasteland cor: this was a scout from Postinen, the floating island in the sky which has always looked down on those barely scraping by in the wastelands. This realization only drove Caro to fight more viciously, and he soon overwhelmed his opponent and drove them away. He packed his camp and left, believing that to be the end of it.

But he encountered them again. And again: they recognized each other, and they didn't trust each other. They fought, and one of them was forced to escape. Caro was deeply unsettled by the way the stranger kept tracking him down, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep them away.

Eventually, after months, the two of them met and didn't immediately launch into a fight. Instead, the stranger tried to talk to Caro: they had questions about the things Caro had said during their fights. Things about what it was like to live in the wastes; the way others can't be trusted; his opinions on Postinen and those who lived there. Caro was wary, but accepted the temporary truce for what it was: a chance not to be forced out of his latest home, at the cost of allowing this stranger into his space.

Their meetings changed from there. Caro answered his stranger's questions, and in return he gained answers of his own. He learned that their name was Soledad; that they were one of Postinen's best, and not humble in the least. That their confidence was warranted, and that they were just as skilled as they claim to be. He and Sol grew closer, but Caro always had reason not to trust. He was raised to be suspicious, and had never seen anything good come of blind faith.

But one day, he caught Sol steering other scouts away from Caro's camp. He immediately knew what this meant: Soledad didn't want to be caught with him. And that meant that Caro had leverage: something to hold over their head if their relationship ever soured. Blackmail material.

With that, he began to feel more secure.

Soledad started to seek Caro out intentionally. They began to spend much more time talking than they do fighting. Caro might be bitter toward Sol for the way they were raised and for everything they don't have to want for, but he could not hate Sol's wit or the way they listen, with rapt attention, when he spoke. He had never been listened to like that. And listening to Caro changed Sol, too: Caro watched as they made a slow transformation from an arrogant prodigy to a thoughtful rebel. It was in spite of himself that Caro started to want to trust Sol. But trust was never for people like him.

One day, another pair of scouts stumbled across Caro's shelter. He could tell immediately that they weren't like Soledad: they were arrogant, treating him like a beast of the wastes and not a person in his own right. They rooted through his things, taking them for themselves. Caro didn't want to fight two enemies at once, but he had no choice but to defend himself. Just as he was beginning to be overwhelmed, Sol appeared.

Caro saw the future then, as clear as anything: Sol would join their fellows' fight, and Caro would lose the one friend he had ever had. Whatever their feelings toward him, they couldn't lose the faith of their allies. To avoid suspicion, they would have to turn against Caro, which spelled the end of their relationship. It was the only logical option.

Inexplicably, Soledad joined the fight on his side. They fought back the other scouts and talked them down, sending them both away, and all the while Caro was reeling with the shock. Sol had sacrificed their reputation and the goodwill of their peers for Caro -- and Caro had never done anything to deserve it. He closed himself off, tense and upset; he didn't know what Sol wanted from him, or why they would do such a thing. It didn't make sense.

When they were finally alone, he snapped at Sol about it, and Sol snapped back. In moments they were back to how they were at the start: fighting, sniping at each other, evenly matched. This time, Sol won their fight: they pinned Caro to the ground and snarled the truth in his face: they cared about him. They helped him because they're friends, allies; because it was natural to help the people they loved. They told him that they don't need a transactional relationship with him; they just needed him to stop looking over his shoulder for the time they would finally abandon him.

Caro fell instantly in love, if he hadn't already been before. Unfortunately for both of them: that was Sol's last day as a scout. The stunt they pulled, defending a wastelander from their peers, lost them their job. Caro didn't see them again for months.