Arquiusprite is Dirk Strider's sprite after being prototyped with the remains of Equius Zahhak by Gamzee Makara and subsequently with Lil Hal by Dirk. His name is a combination of AR for Auto Responder and Equius. Similar to how other B2 sprites have a combination of the zodiac symbols of the two trolls used to prototype the sprite on them, Arquiusprite's symbol is the Sagittarius sign, with the bow replaced by the shape of Lil Hal's "body".
Unlike Tavrisprite and Erisolsprite, who both experienced a great degree of self loathing after having their component identities merged, Arquiusprite is ecstatic upon being created, experiencing relatively little conflict between the two personalities. Equius Zahhak seems to be delighted by the amazing speed at which his partly-computerized mind works, while Lil Hal is thrilled by Equius's particularly vigorous body and STRONG emotions. The only point of conflict between them seems to be Lil Hal's fondness of harsh language contrasted with Equius's aversion to it, which causes his speech to involuntarily "glitch" whenever he uses profanity, effectively censoring himself.
Additionally, Lil Hal displayed a preference for typing in red, yet Equius hates (or at least used to hate) colors low on the Hemospectrum, with red being the lowest. This does not appear to be an issue, though: Arquiusprite seems to enjoy the color.
Personality
Arquiusprite is generaly very cheerful and happy with his new existence. When talking, he has a habit of mixing very formal speech and very casual speech together in a sentence, such as adressing Dirk as "Mister Bro". He is also very interested in disturbing topics such as milk and lactation in general, trying to get people to converse with him about the topics and also admires his amazing body that he has inhereted by Equius and often asks people to feel his muscles. Arquiusprite is often trying to help people out when he sees them in trouble but is a bit too fixated on his own views and interests and will advice people to talk about things he is interested in to solve their problems. Being partialy a robot, Arquiusprite views robots or anything with a robotic mindset as superior, as seen when he viewed Jane's transformation as an upgrade. However he was still willing to program her back to normal, showing that he puts what's best for the team above his own opinion. Arquiusprite also has the desire to be a hero, as he himself stated confessed that he wants to be the key to winning and appear at the last moment to do something heroic.
Biography
Arquiusprite was prototyped with Equius's body by Gamzee, and then with Lil Hal. After he is prototyped, he talks to Dirk, and he later convinces
Dirk to become a trickster alongside Roxy, Jake, and Jane. Soon after Dirk gives in, Arquiusprite becomes painfully depressed by his Equius half who is reminded by the sight of Fefetasprite that Nepeta Leijon, his moirail, was killed and he was unable to protect her as he had sworn to do. Arquiusprite begs Dirk to help him overcome the emotional trauma but Dirk refuses, bitter about having been pressured into becoming a trickster.
Arquiusprite attempts to communicate purely with the Nepeta half of Fefetasprite, causing her unrest, leading Erisolsprite to attempt to help her Feferi half, telling her to ignore Arquiusprite. The conflict causes Fefetasprite to (dear, sweet, precious) Fefetasplode, bringing Arquiusprite even more guilt. Later, once the Prospitian ship crosses the Yellow Yard into the B2 session, Arquiusprite and Erisolsprite meet up with the B1 sprites on LOTAK.
Arquiusprite especially values the meeting with Davesprite, with Dave being the pre-scratch version of Dirk's brother/ancestor. He later realizes their connection is even deeper, with them both being supposed "copies" of their respective corresponding players.
New Timeline
In the new timeline created by John's retcons, Arquiusprite still exists, but he was prototyped by Vriska instead of by Gamzee. Some time after his prototyping, he is seen on the victory platform, in the process of disabling Jane's Crockercorp Unreal Thoughtwave Tiaratop while she is asleep, which he quickly succeeds in doing. Immediately afterwards, he deems his work for the party done, and leaves to build each kid's house all the way up and place a grist rig on each of them. After deploying the last rig, he meets Davepetasprite^2, and they end up sharing a bro hug bump in the greatest reunion in Homestuck history.
In Caliborn's Masterpiece
In Act 6 Act 6 Act 5, Arquiusprite aids Dirk in Caliborn's Masterpiece by grabbing Caliborn, giving Dirk time to try to destroy Caliborn's soul and suck him into Lil Cal. Unfortunately, this involves Arquiusprite also being sucked into Lil Cal, which ultimately makes him part of Doc Scratch and Lord English.
Relationships
Dirk
Dirk had a very strained relationship with one compound of Arquiusprite, Lil Hal. Dirk prototyped Lil Hal after the biggest low of their relationship, right after initially attempting to destroy him. Because of this, as well as Dirk's intolerance of the Equius traits, his relationship with Arquiusprite continued to be very bad. However, Arquiusprite himself became rather cheerful, and as such didn't particulary mind Dirk constantly rejecting any attempt to converse with him. However, Dirk also expresses some relief at Arquiusprite's existence, saying about his auto-responder, “He seems alright as Arquius though. At least it keeps him busy, obsessing over his muscles, asking for milk and shit like that.”
Upon seeing Fefetasprite, for example, Arquiusprite was overwhelmed by sadness and begged Dirk for help on how to deal with negative emotions, but he was once again rejected by Dirk, who just told him to deal with it like everyone else.
Fefetasprite
Due to Equius' relationship with Nepeta, Arquiusprite became deeply sad when he saw Fefetasprite, as the Equius half realized that he failed to protect Nepeta, causing her death. Arquiusprite wanted to talk to Fefetasprite, however he didn't get the chance to as she exploded during his attempt, causing him to feel even worse.
Post-retcon, oddly enough, Arquiusprite suggested to prototype Feferi and Eridan into the leftover kernelsprites, and not Nepeta. This might be due to him agreeing with Vriska's suggestion to let her rest in peace, out of fear of losing her again, or refusing to think of her entire.
Erisolsprite
Arquiusprite has a very negative opinion on Erisol. They were both fighting over the attention of Fefetasprite, causing her to explode in the process. It can be argued that the Equius-side has a negative view on both components of Erisolsprite, one being a lowblood and the other one being a seadweller.
Jane Crocker
Arquiusprite stated his joy over Jane's transformation into a robotic minion of the Condesce, as he viewed her more robotic behavior as an upgrade, similiar to his own. Post-retcon, though, he later helped to deactive the tiaratop that caused the robotic traits.
Vriska
Vriska is responsible for prototyping Arquiusprite in the post-retcon timeline. Vriska has a great liking towards Arquiusprite, calling him a national treasure and everything he says and does hilarious. Vriska generally swoons at Arquiusprite whenever he raises his voice. The relationship is similar to Dave's relationship with WV.
Trivia
- Arquiusprite is the only B2 sprite (pre-retcon) not to be made from the remains of two trolls.
- If one compares Equius' sign with Arquiusprite, one can notice the former evokes a rudimentary bow as used in ancient times while the latter evokes the modern bows used by modern commandos and military, making a parallel to the evolution of both Equius and Lil Hal.
- In addition to him and Davesprite both being prototyped from alternate versions of a Strider, Arquiusprite was first prototyped with Equius, a troll associated with horses, while Davesprite had at first been prototyped by the Rambunctious Crow. Just as Dave is associated with crows, Dirk is associated with horses.
- His sweat is orange, and so are the cracks on his glasses.
- Much of his conversation with Dirk descends into this:
“Yes”- “No.”
- “Yes”
- “No.”
- “Yes”
- “No.”
- Which is similar to Equius's conversations with another Hero of Heart.
- If one pronounces his name "Arcuius", one can notice that Arcus means bow in Latin, mirroring Equius's love of bows.
- Unless you count AR's original text color, (In which case, the two halves being Blue and Orange, which are complementary) Arquiusprite is the only B2 sprite where the two prototypes don't have opposite colors.
- When Jake's hope powers went out of control, Arquiusprite made a reference to the OVER NINE THOUSAND meme.
