#✧ ▌ in character : x'kijin lyzej.

[crystalmarred]

"Don't worry, I can take care of myself." [X'Kijin]

— FROM FRIENDSHIP STARTERS ;; ( @lcstkey )

"I—"

A single sound came out of his mouth as he squinted at her, recalled that first time they'd met when she'd more or less slammed her face into a doorframe when he'd come around the corner a bit too fast.

"I mean... you're a little..."

He paused again to consider his words, to choose them carefully. She could summon her... rose... thing... if she didn't like what he had to say and he didn't know her well enough to say with any confidence that she wouldn't.

"Reckless," he said and then doubted himself as soon as the word was out of his mouth. "... Reckless? ... Wait, that's not the right word... Or... Wait."

[crystalmarred]

— CONTINUED FROM HERE ;; ( @theazureblade )

There was never a time that X'kijin had been good with cold weather. Rather, it was always a rather sad affair with him. He hailed from the hotter, more arid parts of Gyr Abania and later spent much of his time in the Black Shroud, which was certainly muggy come summer.

He did not do well in colder climes, but Ishgard had been hell even when he'd first come here. The cold cut through his clothes like they were made of wet paper, most especially when the wind blew.

Rhalgr preserve him, he had not expected a blizzard.

It was luck—or the lack thereof, given his title—that allowed him so many friends in Ishgard that kept their doors open to him, where the Forgotten Knight had shuttered its own to keep the warmth of the hearth inside instead of more snow blowing in.

"D-didn't check the weather," he said, though he evidently should have. It was a thought that had occurred to him far too late when he'd been out in the midst of it and noticed the sharp drop in temperature the biting wind besides. He'd idled for a few agonizing minutes, tucked away from the wind's wrath, before he realized there was little chance of a break in it.

They didn't get blizzards in the Black Shroud nor in Gyr Abania. This kind of weather wasn't even common to Coerthas until a few years past, when the Calamity brought to it unseasonably cold winters. So he'd ended up going to Aymeric.

The boots and the jacket came off, as instructed. One would think that shedding the extra layer would make him colder, but being guided nearer the fire made a world of difference.

"Thanks..." he said with a sigh that shook almost as much as he did. X'kijin cupped his chilled hands near his face and breathed into his hands in an effort to warm his poor nose. "Sor... Sorry... Should've..."

He paused, the words difficult and slow as he struggled to get around the chill to say them. X'kijin might've been embarrassed, if not for how cold he was, and he probably would be much later.

"I'll... I'll be more careful next time..."

[crystalmarred]

— CONTINUED FROM HERE ;; ( @diademreigned )

Wide, red eyes greeted X'kijin, the questions he asked clearly of some interest to the scholar, though it was little surprise that G'raha hadn't heard of it. After all, he was a scholar, not a miner nor a botanist besides. He hardly seemed the type to attend anything in the Firmament, even disregarding the professions that left he and Tykha covered in dirt and grass stains.

"Yeah, he's hanging out with his cousin."

D'tykha had asked if he might want to come along, but X'kijin hadn't. The two of them needed time alone, after all. They didn't need him there to hover over them.

Green eyes watched G'raha finish with his task, which... he guessed was reshelving all the books? It made sense, he supposed, given how often he saw several of the Scions surrounded by mountainous stacks of them, his husband included.

"Yeah, that's... part of why I'm asking," he admitted. His words slowed as he spoke and realization dawned on him that it... wasn't exactly the nicest sentiment. But G'raha smiled so... he didn't take offense to X'kijin's tactlessness, at least?

And when he agreed, well... X'kijin's ears sprang up, decidedly more excited about the prospect of introducing someone to something knew than he had been about... well, most things. Given how rare it was for the subject of crafting or gathering to come up, few of the Scions save Tataru and D'tykha had seen the way his eyes would light up at the prospect.

"I can teach you," X'kijin offered, the explanation barely out of G'raha's mouth before X'kijin spoke. "You can fish there, too. There's also skyfishing and—"

A pause as G'raha's extended explanation finally caught up to him, as did the offer to pay the toll for the airship.

"I can pay for the airship."

He'd asked him, after all. And teleportation costs were far higher than an airship, fitting for how instantaneous it was versus the sometimes hours pr even days of travel time. It was a boon that X'kijin was far too lazy to want to quickly be at destinations and that D'tykha was quite frugal or they might go broke in gil, if not aether.

[crystalmarred]

What types of meals does Kijin like to prepare the most? Is he more of an exact measurements kinda culinarian or an eyeball everything? How good is he at improvising? How often does he pick up new recipes?

— BASED ON CONVERSATIONS ;; ( @vierandancer )

"Uh..."

X'kijin paused, eyes wide and almost owlish as he gazed at the other person who had a... notebook in hand of all things. Something about it brought him no small amount of discomfort, given how little he liked to talk about himself and how infrequent he'd felt noticed in the things he did.

Hell, it had taken some of the Scions a while to figure out he'd helped more than a few times with meal preparation at the Rising Stones, most especially when they'd taken to helping Yugiri and the refugees.

"I... like making most things?" It was a non-answer, one he could tell disappointed the... reporter? Was that who this person was? What had gotten them interested in his cooking...? "I... prefer to make Ala Mhigan dishes, so... more often meat-based than not."

"You don't really need exact measurements most of the time," he said, slowly finding the same confidence he had in his cooking in his explanation of it. Though he wasn't about to confess that that was in part because he'd been unable to read half of them. Numbers only got one so far. "You can 'eyeball' seasoning. It's not like alchemy where too much or too little of one thing can effect the potency or the quality."

That answer came a little differently with baked goods, of course. He'd learned the hard way that too much yeast in bread was... not good.

"Some things are easier to improvise than others. Like coriander has some good alternatives, but apparently some people think one of them tastes like soap?"

X'kijin didn't really agree, but he just... tried to avoid it, best he could. Coriander wasn't rare enough to warrant feeding people what tasted like soap to them.

"You'd usually make flour with a grain, but you can also make flour with other things, like certain bugs, which is great for one allergy and horrible for another."

"But, uh—" A pause as he tries to come back to himself, to feel a little more like the person he often tried to portray himself to be. Calm, even, uncaring, despite the sparkle that appeared in green eyes when the subject had come up to start. "I like to try out new recipes as often as I can. Which... isn't that hard, considering how many places we go, but..."

He cleared his throat, repositioned his glasses on his nose.

"Is... Is that it, or...?"

[crystalmarred]

D'tykha walked up the podium, reaching his hand up to run his fingers across the blue-imbued zip line from the top of the zone.

However, when the Sage chanced to look down, a wave of unsteadiness and dizziness weaved about him. The corners of his vision spotted and enclosed in black as he stumbled back.

Straight into Kijin's back. His heart started to pound but he could only shyly reach for Kijin's hand without looking at him. His skin paled and it was obvious this was a bigger hurdle than he anticipated.

"It..." Tykha blinked rapidly, "it's quite — quite a drop. I — I feel. . ." Foggy. That's the word. He didn't spare a glance in the direction of the small group they'd accompanied. "I don't think I can..."

His hand shook, his temperature fluctuated. The ground suddenly felt unreal, and all he wanted to do was bury into X'kijin's chest until his heart thrummed normally.

— BASED ON CONVERSATION ;; ( @diademreigned )

Something about the "ziplines" had unnerved X'kijin the moment he laid eyes on them. At a glance, he hadn't been able to place why, but now that Tykha stood there, eyes set on the aetherial line that linked this platform to the next... It set X'kijin's nerves alight to see him there.

D'tykha wasn't good with heights. So often had he watched him look down in places like Fanow or the Aitiascope and X'kijin could see it on his face how his vision swam.

He approached and as he did, Tykha stumbled back into his chest and sought out X'kijin's hand.

"Tykha..." he said softly as he watched tanned skin grow paler, almost sickly in a way as blue eyes sought his own. The normally too-warm body in his arms proved colder than usual and the hand wrapped in his own felt cool.

"Hey, hey... Come here..."

X'kijin's free hand cupped the back of Tykha's head, wrapped around the shell of his ear and guided him into his chest.

"You can hang onto me," X'kijin said, words soft in Tykha's ear. A purr the vibrated from his throat in a small effort to calm him. It would be harder here to make his tea here, if only for the time constraints. Worst case scenario, they might need to stay behind while Wuk Lamat and the others went ahead for a bit.

"Do you think you could?"

[crystalmarred]

— “can… can i have a hug? please?” — smol Nier to Kijin ;;;;

— FROM TOUCH-STARVED PROMPTS ;; ( @diademreigned )

There was a part of X'kijin that understood Nier. He'd grown up without parents, just as Nier had, though X'kijin's departure had been voluntary and Nier's... had been anything but. And to make matters worse, he'd no time to mourn that loss in the way that X'kijin had. He'd not been allowed to grieve or to heal, thrown right into caring for his baby sister.

None of this he had known when first he met Nier in Seafront. Not once had he complained when he had every right to. Not once had he acted like a child, as would be expected of him. The moments where he could felt so few and far between, but had been made more plentiful since he had moved to the village.

It had become habit more than aught else that his free time led him to Nier's home, to Yonah during the day and startled blue eyes come evening when Nier returned to him being in the midst of making dinner.

Today had been no different, at least at the start, but something had seemed off when Nier and Weiss had returned home for the evening. They had tucked Yonah in and come downstairs. Initially, X'kijin had set about cleaning what he'd used to cook, tucking away whatever extra remained.

But he had not been oblivious to the way Nier hovered. It had been common when first this trend began, when he wasn't sure what to do when someone took care of him anymore. ... He hadn't done that in a while. He hadn't hovered.

"What's wrong?" X'kijin asked, unable to say aught else. Weiss wasn't with him, whether he'd slipped away to give them a moment or had stayed upstairs to tell Yonah a bedtime story that he would never admit to.

"Can... Can I have a hug? Please?"

Green eyes subtly widened, mouth dry as he looked over his shoulder. Nier, with his seemingly insurmountable strength in the face of the responsibility of caring for his sister, suddenly looked so... small, so young, like a boy of sixteen instead of one aged by the burdens he carried.

"Come here..."

He sat down the plate that he'd been in the middle of cleaning, as well as the towel to reach over as Nier approached him and pulled him into his arms.

Arms encircled around Nier and Nier's around him in kind. A hand came up to rest on his head, sought out an ear that X'kijin forgot for a moment that Nier didn't have.

"You're okay," he whispered, an attempt at words of comfort that he wasn't sure Nier wanted. "You're safe here."

X'kijin wanted to ask, wanted to probe and find out what had caused this momentary lapse in Nier, to finally stop and ask for comfort.

So much had happened since they'd met—and more before. What he wouldn't give to take the burdens from him, but he knew better than to think that Nier would readily or easily accept that kindness. Even the care that X'kijin put in now, the time spent with Yonah, the money spent on dinner...

Nier had hesitated to accept it, had asked over and over if he was sure. Though the people in the village seemed kind enough, had offered help where they could for the two children, it seemed few had the time, energy or resources to do much more than give him tasks that needed doing and a few spare coins for it.

X'kijin, on the other hand, had caught the eyes of people in the town for his various skills picked up over the years. Nier was capable with a sword, but X'kijin proved capable with a saw, a hammer, things that could be used to build, to repair.

His hand rubbed against his back, could swear that shoulders shook underneath the palms of X'kijin's hands, but he didn't call attention to it. He wouldn't.

"You're okay, I've got you..."

[crystalmarred]

It was a slow process to make an ether. To grind the leaves of the mistletoe and wings and to let it steep in the heated, distilled water took a bit, but it was simple enough and didn't take as much effort as some other recipes.

"Might as well," X'kijin said, voice easy and nonchalant. "Tinolqa mistletoe is only hard to tell from other mistletoe, but you shouldn't find anything but tinolqa in Greentear or Treespeak."

It was also one of the cheapest on the market, so lower chance of getting ripped off by someone. More often, it was tinolqa being sold in place of higher value types like Dravanian in an attempt to make easy gil off someone who couldn't tell the difference.

The mention of arcanima got his attention, if only brief enough for him to glance up from grinding the leaves and wings into a fine powder.

"That the guild in Limsa Lominsa, right? I've never been. Is it that intimidating?" he asked, opted out of acknowledging the part about conjury. How little choice he'd had in the matter, he hadn't found it intimidating to join, so he... likely wasn't the best person to ask about that.

Orion was somewhat fascinated by the process. He was not aware of the fact that X'kijin likened it to cooking, obviously, but he noticed the similarity himself. Which was just as well that he hadn't picked it up – he was bollocks at cooking as well.

The process was foreign to him, but he looked on with some interest as X'kijin worked. He wasn't really learning anything from it, but it was interesting to watch, nonetheless.

“I might pop into the botanist guild sometime, if you think it's that worth it,” Orion replied, shrugging a little. “And it's not hard to tell the...eh, the plant you told me about – if it's not hard to tell apart from other plants. I am...not so well versed in botany at the moment.”

Botany had some merit for his weaving abilities, he supposed – a lot of his clothes that he made used plants at their bases, so perhaps he would pick that up. It wasn't a half bad suggestion, honestly.

“I can understand why they would want someone with alchemy skills at the guild, yes,” Orion said, nodding.

“As for me, I'm going into arcanamia,” he replied. “I'm not certain it's my thing just yet, but I'm able to summon a carbuncle, so that is one thing going for me. I...got into it because a friend convinced me to try. I've always wanted to be an arcanist, but it's a rather intimidating guild to join. I suppose there is some of that with conjury too.”

[crystalmarred]

"Will you hold me? Just for a moment." — Kijitykha

— FROM ROMANTIC SENTENCES ;; ( @diademreigned )

It wasn't often that D'tykha's glee gave way to despair. While X'kijin was the more calm of the two, it was easy to say that D'tykha was the more optimistic one. So to come back to the space that they called home and find his gaze downcast, blue eyes set towards the ground, even as X'kijin's steps should have made his presence known.

The flick of his ears told him that he heard him, but the way his tail drooped long and low, he knew it was only partly a welcome one.

"Tykha?" X'kijin asked, voiced into the too-quiet room in the absence of the usual music that would play from their orchestrion. Claws scrabbled against the hardwood, looking for purchase as Marv eventually tumbled and rolled towards X'kijin's feet without another sound. Eyes blinked up towards him.

Concern, X'kijin thought, though there weren't thoughts enough behind those eyes to tell him so. He'd known Marv long enough now to know the difference.

He stepped over the rotund creature after he gave him an appreciative pat on his head. Had Marv screamed, he might have taken D'tykha for distracted—or perhaps even asleep, given he sat at their dining table—but the silence wove a darker tale, one that suggested Tykha was tired in a way that sleep could not fix, that a shower could not wash away.

"Tykha..." He whispered as he kneeled down before him and no sooner had his knees his the ground did two arms encircle him.

"Will you hold me? Just for a moment."

A simple enough request, one that X'kijin would never dare refuse, never question as he wrapped his arms around Tykha, returned the weak embrace with a tighter one, trapped there against his chest.

"I'm here now," X'kijin said as his thumb unconsciously rubbed against the fabric of Tykha's shirt. "Sorry I was late."

[crystalmarred]

" You've been staring at that page for the last five minutes, " Weiss grumbled before forcing it closed and eyeing X'kijin with the front of his body directly in his face. " Listen to me. Since we were on the topic of teaching you literacy are you aware some languages have both masculine and feminine words? It's quite astonishing, because — " Hold on. " Why do you look absolutely mortified ? "

— UNPROMPTED ;; ( @diademreigned )

X'kijin felt as though he should've grown accustomed to the grumbles of Grimoire Weiss in the few minutes after they'd met. All things considered, the man—er, book—was strange enough that something like how aggressively critical he was should have been easy enough to ignore. Every word that came out of his mouth—cover?—sounded near enough to an insult that it might as well be called that.

But after that quick jab came a revelation that took X'kijin entirely by surprise.

"Masculine and—"

He repeated the words, gaze torn away from the book he'd been in the midst of reading. No longer could he focus on the words on the page that got jumbled in his head.

"What do you mean there's masculine and feminine words? They're not people?"

Confusion colored his every word as he then wondered which of those would be which, if was Weiss said was true. He was a godsdamned book he should knew far more about language than X'kijin should, surely!

"It's a word," X'kijin said as he showed Weiss the book, pointed at words on the page as if he needed to remind him what they were. "Did you swipe some of Tykha's catnip tea? ... Actually, can you even drink?"

[crystalmarred]

Gaytanic. This is the stupidest thing we've done in recent memory and I was crying actual tears over it.

[crystalmarred]

"Yeah, uh, and you..."

Oh, this was awkward now that the common problem of her being hurt was gone, made worse by the not-so-subtle step he'd taken backwards. But she didn't call him out on that, didn't point it out even though it had slipped his mind that she'd dropped something. Green eyes glanced downwards and recalled the coins that had spilled out across the floor.

A part of him wanted to help, but now that the injury wasn't in the way and the bleeding had staunched for the moment, the pitch of her voice and the... everything else made his hair stand on end.

X'kijin didn't even want to glance at his tail, positive it had started to puff up like a startled kitten's.

"Not... busy, no, just... I have a thing," he said, as if that was an explanation, though he'd only recently felt more able to talk about his very apparent problem. Ages ago, it had been worse, when he hadn't known how to explain it or how to talk about it or how to react in a way that would even passingly be considered normal.

How many times had he singled out the women back in the Waking Sands, said they weren't needed for missions in an attempt to avoid them? How many times had he still done that in the Rising Stones?

"Kinda like with your weapon. Need a couple fulms of space."

Selena blinks in surprise as he accepts her apology, albeit as a question than a statement. He doesn't appear angry or upset about the earlier incident. How often has someone raised a weapon against him? She wonders, anxiously scratching the back of her scarred ear.

"...N-nice to meet you X'kijin," the keybearer awkwardly answers, noting the step backward and the lash of his tail. The thought of him being in a hurry and tight on time suddenly occurs to her. He must have been in the middle of a job when I accidentally bumped into him and now he's stopped to help me...

She accepts the explanation with a nod nonetheless. Selena has figured that if the injury would worsen if she touched it. In what felt like another lifetime ago, she recalls Mother Miounne and the Gridanian healers had given her a similar warning regarding her ear.

"I understand. T-thank you." Selena says then looks down at the spilled coin and frowns, suddenly remembering dropping her coin purse when she collided with the door, "I-I can take care of my mess here if you have other business to take care of."

[crystalmarred]

" You mentioned your partner taught you to read, did you not? There are no pictures. " If he could, Weiss would simply be rolling his eyes right now. " I cannot teach you the magic if you cannot read the magic. Now. Let us try it again. "

This was a Scholar right?

" I know you are brilliant. He said you were, I'm beginning to think you are simply imbued with laziness. This is an easy one, lad I promise. Severely. . . Promise. "

— BASED ON CONVERSATION ;; ( @diademreigned )

"You're a talking book, why do I have to read?!"

His confusion had begun to mount, as has his frustration with this odd sort of magic that the book wished to teach him. It certainly would be nice to be able to use magic and move, not unlike how some Astrologians seemed able to. He, too, had spells with no cast time, but they were a far cry weaker for that very same reason.

Lazy, he called him, and that stung despite its truth. It had been a while since anyone had used the word to describe him and he'd become unaccustomed to it, but he did precede it with a... compliment? Or maybe he was being sarcastic.

"Just because I can read doesn't mean I'm very good at it, you know. And besides, there's a lot of weird... symbols in here."

He flipped a page as he said it as his brows furrowed.

"Can you feel it when I flip a page?" he asked, curious about the odd nature of his newest companion. "Like does it tickle or...?"

[crystalmarred]

when did this start happening? — Kijitykha, trauma swap AU

— FROM HERE ;; ( @diademreigned )

A haze had settled over him. A fog as the world spun around him and the edges of his vision darkened. Despite the chill in the air, X'kijin had found himself tugging off the jacket as the world around him seemed to spike in temperature.

It was fortune that had led him to be with a newlyfound friend. It was blind luck that when he had stumbled back, a hand had braced him at his back, despite their height difference. Had it not been there, had D'tykha's reflexes not been as good, well...

That was neither here nor there and hardly mattered, in the wider picture, given it was no longer a concern. The hand on his back steadied him, then a body followed that he could rest himself against until he found his bearings again.

When did this start happening?

Such a simple question, yet X'kijin had no simple answer. A long time, he ought to say, though that was more of a non-answer, so he settled for something... Slightly more specific.

"Since I was a kid," he said, the words slow as a cool hand pressed to his forehead. He wasn't entirely sure when D'tykha had moved them so that X'kijin lay on the ground, rested against him.

Green eyes glanced upwards at him, though his vision still swam and he'd surely never guess what he was looking at if it weren't for the voice that gave away who he rested against. Their previous conversation had faded to the back of his mind.

"Sorry, I..."

A hand came to rest in his own, a surprise, but not an unwelcome one in the moment.

"Give me a minute..."

[crystalmarred]

i owe you my life. — Kijitykha

— FROM HERE ;; ( @diademreigned )

"You— Huh?"

His voice pitched upwards as did his brows, then knit together as the words sunk in—or perhaps it was the way that Tykha repeated them in the face of his confusion that allowed him to finally, properly hear the word that he spoke.

"You don't... owe me, I mean..." X'kijin started, words slow as he tried and failed to find a way to express his thoughts. But that was far and away from what he'd expected him to say. Of course he'd been thanked plenty of times in relation to his care in the clinic in Rhalgr's Reach.

But... to hear someone say that they owed him their life of all things...

"It's not... What would you even owe me for? I just..."

Another pause. He hated getting credit for things enough, much less in regards to a debt for saving someone's life. He fidgeted, shifted his weight to his other leg as his tail swayed and ears twitched with an unfamiliar unease. It was try that he had saved him, that he'd picked him up when he'd passed out and done his best to rehydrate him as best he could.

"Did what anyone would, honestly..."

[crystalmarred]

X'kijin found it difficult not to crack a smile. He couldn't say whether or not Estinien's exhaustion was because of the line of questioning or because the whole event had wounded some part of the Azure Dragoon's pride.

He reached out to take the armor as it was shrugged off, inspected the jagged that was definitely from a set of claws, but...

"Hell of a crab to get through dragoon armor."

That or smart enough to figure out where the weak point in armor was, but X'kijin didn't want to think about that reality where he could be outsmarted by his dinner.

"Shame you didn't get it. Bet it would've made a good crab cake. Fried in an oil made from perilla leaves, topped with a—"

He paused, glanced up at Estinien.

"You don't care about that part," he said, more as a reminder for himself then aught else. "It shouldn't take long to repair. How's your actual shoulder?"

"I mean a crab is a crab. Why do we need to split hairs?" Estinien responded with a bit of exasperation that hadn't been present in his tone before, "It was just a really big crab. I don't know what else to say."

He shrugged off the cracked and damaged shoulder pad. Luckily, he hadn't had his arm sliced off in the process. Crabs were nasty creatures, and the peak physical form for ocean creatures. He got lucky this time.

"The damn thing grabbed me when i was coming down from a jump and almost snapped my arm off. That crab was not normal. It was like... the king of big angry crabs."

[crystalmarred]

— FROM HERE ;; ( @diademreigned )

Perhaps he was a bit too pouty, given the circumstances. D'tykha had, of course, asked the aid of others in mending his gear many times, though that had primarily been prior to their meeting and before X'kijin had become truly invested in crafting. Though he had often shared the task with Tataru after, if only to ease the worries of his husband about him taking on one too many tasks.

What he had not expected was the admission that he had acquired the dark matter himself. The implication that he himself had mended the gear did not go unnoticed and the noise of excitement could not escape him.

The telltale mrp slipped from his pinched lips, green eyes nearly aglow, excitement evident in his voice as it pitched upwards as he spoke, "You mended it yourself?!"