While I was typing about Gakane and Jimmy's conversation during the Hartan arc the other day, it really did occur to me that there is an alpha:omega ratio disparity within the Cavalry, and I began wondering why that is. Then I began wondering about the nature and origin of manifestation and why the Red Stone dishes out the types it does. And then I began thinking about "Beginning and End." And then there was Alik.
The Red Stone power seems to react easily to wishes and wills. Kishiar desperately wanted to live, so he reached out to it as soon as he saw it, and that energy gave his vessel an extra layer of protection. Elpkins was falling from a cliff and needed to fly, so he awakened as a flying creature. Ever needed to fend off a hoard of monsters and didn't have a weapon on her, so she awakened nimble super strength in her hands. Keilusa wanted to see and hear Faria one last time before he died, and he gained the ability to see and hear anybody that was near an object he inserted his power into. Just a few examples, and there are so many we could theorize about.
There's the Awakener power side of it, and then there's the omegaverse side of it. It's inherent to the Red Stone, but not all Awakeners manifest as an alpha or omega. It might have to do with proximity to fellow Awakeners, or it might be inherent to what they inherited from the Red Stone. My current theory for the Red Stone is that it's a concentration of "dregs" that the dead left behind as their souls moved on, and this phenomenon was part of the courting and mating ritual of one of the now-extinct species.
As it's a concentration of dregs, a magic or power that was inherent to one species might have been meshed together with this scent and heat phenomenon from another. Or it's only the powers that originally belonged to [insert your preferred extinct non-human species] that also inherited the heat and scents, and that's why there are Awakeners who never manifest, as their powers originally belonged to a species that didn't experience that. Or it's just sitting there concentrated as its own thing alongside everything else.
Early on in the timeline of this Red Stone phenomenon, whether one manifests as alpha or omega doesn't seem to be set in stone. Kishiar awakened and manifested at the same time, and he was recorded as the first Awakener in existence. Did he manifest as alpha because his specific power belonged to a being that was that when they were alive? Or was it something about what Kishiar was wishing for all at once while he thought he was dying and the Red Stone decided that it's what he needed to make his desires come true? Like a larger body for his vessel to work with. Or was it simply that the Red Stone noticed some dysfunction and was like, "I can fix that, you know?"
All that to circle back to why there's an alpha:omega ratio disparity within the Cavalry. Damn.
I still think when it's looked at completely neutrally, manifestation happens like the flip of a coin. If there are no particular thoughts about either result, it's anyone's guess. It changes when there's suddenly a strong will, though. As time goes on, people want to be stronger, and they see alphas growing, so they start to associate strength with "alpha." They lean towards that, desire it, and then they have a higher chance of manifesting as such. When you're a member of a military branch, having strength is important, after all.
What about those who still desire strength but don't have any particular thoughts about manifestation? You get cases like Yuder in the 1st timeline. He could have been either, but he manifested as omega. Simple enough. However, Yuder absolutely dreaded the possibility of manifesting in the 2nd timeline and he still came out as an omega.
Which brings me to the thematic motif in this story of "beginning and end." "Alpha and Omega" is a term in the real world that means "beginning and end" as well. Keeping this in mind, what if another layer to manifestation is the social and love life of an alpha, whether it's an alpha that loves someone or someone that loves an alpha?
There are two (a WHOLE TWO) examples of omega manifestation in the Cavalry: Yuder and Pruelle. (There's a woman in the Jung division that Ever danced with, but she might have already been one before joining. We simply don't know.) In both cases, there was an alpha they either admired or were close to. In Yuder's case, the alpha had a crush on him to boot. What if an omega manifestation has a higher chance of happening when an alpha is in the picture? Alpha = beginning, omega = ending. A mating pair is formed with the alpha being the front connector and the omega being the back connector. Like tying two ends of a string together to form a complete circle that symbolizes "eternity."
Now, this won't always be the case. If it were that easy, there wouldn't be such a disparity within the Cavalry because I'm sure there's room for love blooming all around there. There's also Alik, who manifested as an omega completely unprompted by the presence of a peculiar alpha, unless he has a secret admirer somewhere in the walls of the basement. It goes back to that "no thoughts, head empty" approach to manifestation.
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