Izolda and Luc

Luc is the taller, short-haired mechanic, while Izolda is the shorter, paler and dark-haired fatui. (both are fatui but Izolda is more obvious)

!!TW!! Mentions of abuse, mentions of experimental/surgical bodily harm

Izolda (from Snezhnaya) is born deaf in a small peasant village. He found the world hard to live through due to his disability, and often he was beaten by those who believed they were superior to him. He grew into teenhood successfully despite the disability and the abuse from his village, but was never treated more than a child.A travelling circus set up camp not far from the village when Izolda was around 16, boasting talented strongmen and exotic animals. When he attended one of these great shows, he was approached by a man needing talent. Izolda, desiring a drive in life and longing to leave his village behind, volunteered.Little did he know, however, that the ploy was a mask for the Fatui to take him to experimentation. He had been suspected of being the carrier of a dead god's consciousness or power, locked away within him. Though many tests were done, none were able to determine what kind of god had died. Perhaps an old god with powers that had dwindled, or a god who watched over trivial things, such as harvest or education. But the Fatui, lured by their curiosity for forbidden knowledge, could not run the risk of letting Izolda leave if he really did possess incredible divine power.Many of the tests performed upon him experimented on his body's resilience, and left him scarred and battered. One test had permanently blinded him.After many years of this treatment, the lab was raided by thieves, and the doctors had to leave with haste. In the chaos, Izolda was left behind in the freezing blizzard, still suffering the aftereffects of a particularly brutal test.Izolda did not know how long passed as he stumbled aimlessly through the blizzard, blind and deaf to the world around him. He could feel his body shutting down. When he finally found what he was looking for, a building in the middle of the tundra, an elemental vision appeared to him. He did not know what vision it was, but he clung to it all the same.As he knocked on the door, the person inside brought him in immediately, and he soon collapsed on the floor of the building.When he awoke days later, Izolda was met with a young mechanic working in the building. She had put him in the only bed in the safehouse and stitched up all of his wounds. She said her name was Luc.As he stayed in bed, mentally recovering from the years he had spent in the lab, Luc cared for him like no one had ever before.

Luc was born in Fontaine to a renowned blacksmith, but had harboured an enamouration for visions since childhood. Though partially deaf at birth, she still managed a healthy life behind the protective arms of her mother. As Luc grew up, her mother became very frail, and since she was a single mother with deceased or distant relatives, she was at risk of passing. Luc decided she would provide for her mother, and managed to get into the Akademiya to study vision sciences, as well as taking a side course in engineering. During her courses, she gained a Pyro vision for her passion for learning and helping those around her.After her studies had come to an end, she was enlisted by a Snezhnayan organisation to build mechanical items. Though the job was vague in its contents, and she would rarely see her friends or mother, she enlisted anyway, knowing it would at least provide her income to send home to her mother.Soon she was employed and very suddenly sent to work on enormous Fatui weaponry and suits. For a few weeks, she tried to leave the job or escape the area, but the contract with her job didn't allow her.Luc was also very aware that when this job contract ended, she would probably disappear along with it so the Fatui would not face the leak of information. And she had no idea what would come of her mother.So, she took care of Izolda, a random person who she had discovered half buried in the snow outside her workplace. The distraction was a great way to get her mind off of her impending doom. She kept an uplifted face when around Izolda, caring gently for their wounds and emotional vulnerability and never speaking a word of her affiliation with the Fatui. Soon, as Izolda left his shell, she didn't need to pretend to be happy anymore. She just was.One day, Luc realised that Izolda was holding onto a live vision, one still very new from the blizzard that had occurred recently. It was a Cryo vision.Through many a research paper Luc had written for the Akademiya, she knew this vision could help Izolda, however much he said he didn't need it or want it.And so, Luc began experimenting on his vision, helping Izolda harness it while also trying to see if he could---rather than see or hear---sense things around him to direct his powers. Slowly, he became more adept at using the vision, and the two grew closer than ever ( 😏 ). One day, however, Luc let it slip that she was working for the Fatui, and Izolda was shocked and outraged that his closest friend was working with his former nightmare. He left Luc, not wanting to hear her explain herself, wearing the only clothes that he could wear outside in the snow; Luc's Fatui uniform. He did not look back.

Their two names are both symbolically representing what they are doing for one another.Izolda's name means 'ice battle', referencing the blizzard he fought through, his role as a test subject and (later) employee for the organisation that most represents Snezhnaya, and the layer of mistrust or hatred he has for his vision being Cryo.Luc's name is Latin, and means 'light', and she is both Izolda's lighthouse and hearth. Her name, reflecting her Pyro vision, represents how she can melt Izolda's barrier against the world and become the candlelight he can finally see by. Perhaps her fire can also melt the ice that is forming around him, or in other words, help him break free from his past and the Fatui.

And, of course, all fires, no matter how fierce, are always prone to being extinguished. Perhaps fire and ice aren't meant to be.