Mother of Wasps

How he got there, and his mother:

The artbook shows Hoaxe as what looks like a larva when his mother deposits him. I'm going to say this was his first larval stage.

Conopids are parasitic, and while the awakening mitigates some of that, there's still some factors that need to be dealt with via replacements to the parasitism.

The Deadlands, creepy place as it is, has some plant-like things with a high protein content. Though getting to them is extremely risky, it was also the only option available to her besides letting Hoaxe parasitize her.

That, and... well, their village was under attack and occupation by vicious hunters. Invaders, slavers, nomadic raid caravans.... Better a chance that her baby get to maybe, maybe live, than grow up without a mother as a slave boy to monsters.

His mother and father both risked it. His father played the bait for their masters while his mother slipped away and fled into the deadlands. She made it to a plant - barely - and found a safe nook for him to burrow inside. There he would at least survive to be a pupa.

The plant's stench masks any scent of life, but if she stuck around, she'd draw attention. She tried to flee for her life, but the Deadlanders found her soon enough. The roaches found them not long after and drove them back from what little remained of her body.

Her name was Snow, by the way. His father's was Rook. Their enslavers tried to make them forget their names, but they would whisper them to each other whenever they could.

Hoaxe, however, doesn't remember them. He sort of remembers his mother's voice, maybe. A lullaby?

Hoaxe:

Hoaxe did indeed survive to hatch from his pupal stage.

He was also absolutely terrified when he woke up in what looked like a giant toothy plant mouth (survival instincts are primed and ready, at least?).

His fire magic comes from a crystal that used to be on his mother's necklace. She carefully embedded the crystal itself in him as a larvae. A mother's parting gift, if you will. A charm, even.

It shifted with him as he grew, and is now all but grafted into the skin of his thorax. You can see the tiniest sliver of blue on his chest if you look closely, though at a glance there's just a little discoloration.

This crystal also, very importantly, is the reason Hoaxe ever got anything resembling a mind and wasn't simply claimed by the Deadlands' blight. While in the Deadlands, he was in many, many respects as good as another Deadlander. But the land never managed to twist him, quite. They never managed to make him less of a bug, or claim him for their own. There was a strange way about him that even some Deadlanders didn't quite dare mess with.

Beyond that small protection, though, he had to survive same as them. For a long time, his wings were invaluable. High ground was precious and wings let him have it. He could take pot-shots at the floaters all day with rocks and a sling, but the diggers and brutes were something to be avoided.

Of course, that couldn't last forever. His wing got caught by a clawed Deadlander and - already brittle from Hoaxe's emaciated state - snapped in half. At least it didn't bleed too much.

Hoaxe spent most of his time scavenging for food and water, and what little else he could spare sleeping. There wasn't much else to work with.

His "clothes" at first considered of the large rag that was his baby blanket. Eventually he found other scraps of fabric here and there that he managed to make into a tunic of sorts. Still nothing very good. He kept them loose on purpose - easier to slip out of if they caught while he was running.

When he got cornered, it was because he'd stopped too long to stare at the blue light in the distance above him. He felt like it was calling to him. The chase ensued, he couldn't shake them, and he ended up in territory he hadn't been in before.

That light he was looking at turned out to be the crystal that fell on him.

Hoaxe is, at this point, in the vicinity of a mid-teen. He is also now in a kingdom of actual wasps who are... less than thrilled about this feral little impostor creature (but Vanessa I is trying not to pick fights these days so they can't just off him or leave him to die....).

This is also when that crystal's protection finally shows itself in full. Rather than being a feral Deadlander without much mind like the wasps had anticipated, he was - at least in some capacity - aware and sapient.

He was also in self defense mode and absolutely did not trust anyone.

Note also, Hoaxe arrived at the very tail end of Vanessa I's reign. Vanessa II was just a bit older than Hoaxe (if Hoaxe is tentatively 15 or so here, I'll (also tentatively) put Vanessa II at 17).

Other stuff about Hoaxe:

Hoaxe has an absurdly strong immune system.

He also knows how to kind of cook a mystery berry into something reliably not toxic.

His tastebuds are a little fried though. Between having to char stuff to eat it, scarfing it down while it was too hot, and just trying to survive how awful things tasted, his tastebuds darn near tuned themselves out of existence. (Not to mention he's supposed to be a nectar-feeder...).

That's actually part of why he likes spicy fries and burly chips and other "junk food" so much - whether or not they're good for him, they taste really good, and they're easy to get lots of. Also sodas. (The Wasp Kingdom had nectary drinks, but he never really uh. got any. Except when Jayde smuggled some away for him.)

Also he figured out how to smoke certain medicinal plants that grew in the Deadlands to get a painkilling effect. Never thought to brew with them because water was scarce enough and strictly for drinking.

Hoaxe doesn't really... scream? Or, rather, he doesn't scream in fear, or really make any noise when he's scared. He will express frustration with yelling if he feels safe enough to do so, but the Deadlands ingrained silent fear into him. Fear that can be heard is death. Silent fear is just fear, and might survive.