#｡･ﾟﾟ･ — 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 : azuma

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Fayth, without end, grant us prosperity.

(Count)Down to Dawntrail [SB].

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...The WoW name generator. For most of them.

SDFKGJHSDFKJGHDFS. That or I used to pick real world names that I liked and got very creative on the spelling (Aryele = Ariel. Alaice = Alice, even if it's not pronounced close to that.)

That being said, Ashe was originally called Riylee when she was in WoW, and I wanted keep the trait of her having a gender neutral name when I carried her over. I loved Ashe as a nickname, so Ashley was an easy choice!

WoL QotD: What made you choose your WoL's name? Does it have any important meaning or did it just sound nice?

Follow up: Is it lore accurate? If it isn't, why not?

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🌸

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fat tail nation rise UP.

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LOOKING FOR CONTACT: AZUMA YUMISHI.

The sole daughter of renowned Doman samurai Kaito, Azuma grew up in occupied Yanxia during the Garlean occupation alongside her childhood best friend, Siyoh. Though trained in the samurai art, Azuma deviated from her family's craft by honing her abilities as a shinobi through partaking in Doman art, dancing and tea-making. She was critically injured escaping her homeland in the years preceding the emperor's death, losing much of the mobility in her legs, and spent many years in Mor Dhona helping to reunite refugees. When the Warrior of Light helped liberate her home, Azuma travelled back with Siyoh and they opened two establishments together - the Doman Dragon and the Umbral Udon. They provide hospitality to new and returning travellers to Doma, as well as assist in the relocation of their people.

I said I was going to do it and now I am! While all my characters are available for roleplay, I'd like to focus on forging a few connection on my Doman baby, Azuma. With her story pivoting back to Eorzea through @riftdancing's development with Siyoh, it allows me more flexibility to play her in Western settings and meet new people (Plus, lets be honest, we're kind of a package deal. You get me, you get Pepper. It's a two-for-one special!)

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: If you are looking for a roleplayer to go to events with or engage in heavy in-game roleplay, I may not be the best player for you. I work full time and exist in the GMT+8 timezone; a fact that heavily restricts the kinds of roleplay I can attend. While I try to be active in posting regularly over discord, for example, I can't go to prime-time events during the week unless I'm on holidays.

PRE-ESTABLISHED CONNECTIONS?

While all of these will require some element of ooc discussion beforehand, I am more than happy to work with pre-established connections and tid-bits of Azuma's personal history that players can use to connect with her quickly.

DOMA. Azuma grew up during the Garlean occupation of Doma, thus it is extremely plausible that other Doman's during this time would either recognise or know her. Her father played the role of a senile old man in order to not be drafted for the various Garlean corps as he trained young samurai in secret, and Azuma was pivotal in assisting his efforts as well as honing her own skills as a shinobi. If your character was a Garlean posted out to the east, they might have come into contact with her. If your character was a yakuza or any other blend of criminality, Azuma would not have hesitated to trade what little goods she and her people had in order to gain supplies and weaponry. Basically, I am entirely flexible with people knowing her in Doma during the occupation.

MOR DHONA. Azuma was one of the first refugees into Mor Dhona in the raids preceding The Warrior of Light's foray into the East. With Garlean forces onto her father ruse, and fearing for his daughter's safety, Kaito attempted to ferry Azuma onto a boat to Eorzea that was attacked by the occupying forces. He died, Azuma was critically injured, and she nearly died three times over on her trip to Vesper Bay. Separated from Siyoh for a time, she was moved to Mor Dhona with the other refugees and began to try to reconnect displaced families in the wake of her disability limiting the direct impact she could make to the resistance. Much like Doma, I am down for your character to have known Azuma in this period - whether you were one of the people that healed/rehabilitated her, she helped reunite your family, or anything in between.

RETURN TO THE EAST. Having managed to find Siyoh in Eorzea after some time apart, the two would look eastward in order to try and return home. With much of her battle prowess limited in her injuries, Azuma took a more commanding/advisory role in assisting her people snatching back their freedom and driving the Garlean's out of her homeland. She had no qualms dealing with the various metaphorical 'chess pieces' on the board, and this would have given her many connections in both Kugane, Doma, Eorzea and beyond. Basically, if you were willing to help her cause, she would negotiate whatever terms were put on the table no matter your personal alliance.

Azuma and Siyoh were one of the first to return back to Doma. Canonically, they established the Doman Dragon and Umbral Udon in the heart of the Doman Enclave, and much of the time towards the end of Stormblood / Shadowbringers was them rebuilding their homeland and tooling their establishments for locals and tourists alike. Taking a loan from Rexonus Fira'lux, patron of Firelight Trading Company, kept them tied to Eorzea as they worked to pay off his debt whilst also tying their businesses to the company at large.

LOOKING BACK. Though Azuma was contented to stay in Doma, Siyoh's affiliation to Firelight Trading Company manifested in the unintended consequence of falling head over heels for it's patriarch (oopsie!), and she appealed to Azuma to come with her and spend some more time in Eorzea. Reluctant at first, she relented only due to the close bond she shared with her best friend and the opportunity of extending their business deals with other people across the star.

WHAT AM I LOOKING FOR?

Friends — Azuma is a sweetheart but struggles with the idea that people don't 'see' her anymore because of her injuries. Having people who support and look past that, whilst still offering her the autonomy to thrive, would be amazing. Come and hang with her and Siyoh! They're fun, they'll share a little gossip and welcome you into their circle.

Ships — Gonna be perfectly honestly, I play loosely with ships. My time zone isn't friendly to that kind of commitment, so I have to really trust and connect with the person I'm writing with if we're planning on pinning down something other than an au. It's not out of the realm of possibility, especially considering Azuma leans into poly, but I'd like us to be writing semi-regularly if this were the case. Crushes and the like are totally fine, though!

Enemies — I'm down! This would require a lot of planning and negotiation, but I don't mind playing around with someone who has a vendetta against her for some reason. Maybe she crossed the wrong group in Kugane trying to ferry supplies to Doma? Maybe they're a Garlean whose friend she murdered in the resistance?

Other — If anything here has sparked you, but you're worried you don't 'fit' into the categories above, please reach out! I'm so flexible with rp it isn't funny, and I actively bend lore for fun. Let's see what we can do!

CONTACT?

Feel free to IM me here if you're interested! My discord is open to interested parties, though I don't like to give it out in public. You can also message me on Azuma or, if you see me on my main, Ashley Hawke on Balmung!

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Sister location to the Umbral Udon, The Doman Dragon (Balmung, Shirogane; Ward 3, Plot 51) is an eastern-inspired Bed and Breakfast run by Azuma Yumishi, offering an authentic stay for first-time travellers and returning Domans. Full amenities, including showers/baths, are provided in the Dragon and at its bathhouse located just down the street in the Dragon's Den, Apartment 12.

The Umbral Udon / Doman Dragon have been @riftdancing's and my pride and joy for some years now and exist as roleplay locals for people wanting to roleplay somewhere other than Kugane / Doma! Feel free to message me if you'd ever like Azuma to tend to the Dragon, otherwise you can NPC the Lalafell at the door, Kokoya, for someone to show you around.

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Send 🎵 plus a muse and I will share a song from their playlist & some lyrics that stand out -- Azuma

I hate to admit it, but Azuma is my smallest playlist! I'm also the pickiest when it comes to her, so I tend to default to instrumentals rather than full songs. I did enjoy this was the one I randomised, however, because it technically does have lyrics.

Kingdom Hearts as a medium is very close to my heart. Though I haven't kept up much with it recently, it was a dear companion of mine through my childhood, and a lot of Azuma's quiet but resolute nature was based off characters like Naminé. She is someone who possesses within themselves a strength that is not always apparent, especially when in comparison to her peers, but holds a remarkable capacity for kindness, forgiveness and compassion. She is someone who has known a deep, profound hurt in the loss of her homeland, identity and mobility, but she does her best to move past it and not let it define her. It is not so much that she seeks to better herself despite it, but work within her limitations to achieve the same outcomes in a different way.

It's in the English lyrics: "Regardless of warnings, the future doesn't scare me at all. Nothing's like before." She wants to hope for a better tomorrow because she can see it in today; because she's seen so much horror in her past that nothing can come close to what she's known before.

The Japanese lyrics also hold a similar kind of hopefulness: "Let's talk some more about the tomorrow before our very eyes." She wants to strive for and achieve the things she knows are just out of reach; she wants to talk about the future, what she can accomplish, and who she can meet along the way.

It bleeds into that overall motif that Kingdom Hearts has about the power of friendship and strength of heart. I believe she has that in abundance.

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05. undone | azuma yumishi

Do you want to read all of my FFXIVWrite prompts? You can do that here!

BARBAROUS. primitive and uncivilized. extremely brutal. DISCLAIMER: Azuma takes direct inspiration from Japanese/Chinese culture, with respect to Doma/The East and her general themes. I am neither Japanese nor Chinese. While I always endeavor to write to her as respectfully as possible, there are times where I will mess up. If I have written anything from a place of ignorance, especially if it's egregious, please don’t hesitate to correct me. I’d rather suffer momentary embarrassment to ensure I don’t repeat my mistakes.

Assimilation was the desire of the tyrants who dubbed them savages, an irony cloistered in steel as they stripped identity from the outer provinces and churned them through their war machine. ‘Doman’ had been synonymous with ‘savage’ for as long as Azuma could remember; spat from barbarous tongue; heralded in fire, wire, stone and steel; twisted and defaced in the lesson that safety was second only to allegiance, and they were loathe to defy the second if they craved the first.

A tokonoma was no temple, though they were too ignorant to suspect the smaller sibling. As was their way, they had gone for the tera first; expelling the monks from her walls, tearing down her foundations and salting the earth. As the bones of the elders fermented in the earth they laughed at the miko distraught at the carnage, goading them as they grabbed their limbs like the jaws of snapping dogs.

“You wouldn’t know civilization if it looked you dead in the face. Try to call upon your kami now — prove to us your primal nature.”

Her first kill had come that way, a blade in the belly of a soldier who thought her easy prey. It was not clean, but it would suffice. The blood in her obi was the smallest price. The obi, the tokonoma; the ever-constant chant of lesser. Let them take their larger prizes. Many a serpent had still killed a man when freshly hatched from the egg.

As she lit the incense and gave her offerings, Azuma clapped her hands gently together. Even in this place she could feel her ancestors and feel the soft beating heart of her home.

We have always been here and will continue to endure when they are undone, undone, undone.

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08. a quiet intimacy | azuma yumishi

Do you want to read all of my FFXIVWrite prompts? You can do that here!

SHED. (of a reptile, insect, etc.) allow (its skin or shell) to come off, to be replaced by another one that has grown underneath. ahmahgawd i'm tagging the best pal @riftdancing because it's our GIRLS.

It was a quiet intimacy between them.

Siyoh was no stranger to her shed, though Azuma used to need little help with it. The first time her best friend noticed, she laughed at the way she marveled; the ecdysis peeling clean from the fresh scales, the way her hand drifted over it and then her tail; the way she remarked “Wow, that’s soft!” as Yumishi-san laughed behind them and explained a process ordinary for the auri.

“In the same way you shed skin and hair, we go through a third.” The weathered samurai took his daughter’s hand in his, gently massaging a little of the shed stuck to her arms. “We must be mindful that we tend to it properly, ‘less we risk hurting our bodies.”

After the accident, her body healed wrong. The gnarled, burnt flesh of her legs grew back in an amalgamation of scale and skin — knitting back together in any way it could — and the shed was equal parts awkward and painful. She locked herself in the bathroom for nearly four days, daring not to cry for help as her skin bled and scales peeled in awkward clumps no matter how much she soaked. When she emerged, red-raw and haggard, it took another three for her to recover in the infirmary. All she really remembered was staring up at the roof, watching the sunlight pour dappled from a tree she did not recognise — from a western bed that was not her own.

Siyoh looked after her so tenderly. The bath was run and tea-tree oil poured; she helped her out of her wheelchair, caring not for how she hobbled, and lowered her into the water. She sat with her — sometimes in the water, sometimes not — but she was always there with a cup of tea or some mochi to keep her energy. Always with a bit of gossip. Azuma found she could prise the better stories out of her when she had no one else to tend to.

Then, when it was time, she helped her out of the pool and dried her off, running the towel gently over her tail. Siyoh picked away the little pieces still stuck to the skin, checked her over for any injuries, and Azuma held her hand and weathered the anxiety that came from needing help.

Always the silent but known sentiment between them.

I love you, thank you for doing this for me. I love you, I���m here no matter what.

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The skywatcher had predicted a clear night.

Yet, when the dragon of humidity coiled around the valley, the last of the fading light refracting colours from it's prismed waters, it was all the people could do to rush inside from billowing clouds. On the seventh bell it roared, bellowing a monsoon down on Doma that shook the shoji and threatened to snuff the meagre ember from the woman's cigarette. Azuma didn't mind.

The air was cloying thick, keeping the smoke near her lungs as the distant orchestrion roll teased out a scratchy tune that once belonged to her father — to his father and his father before him; weather-worn from the occupation, but familiar all the same. Little things that, when she was in Eorzea, she had missed so dearly.

"Would you be willing to spend more time with me in Firelight?" She misliked how the words rotated in her mind, rumbling through her like the distant roll of thunder that brought moments illumination to the garden. She agreed, at first — where Siyoh went she was bound to follow, so intricately tied was their string of fate — but, in the commonplace unpredictability did she find herself uneased. Aether-drained soil seldom fed the skies rain and, in the meagre times she'd spent near Vesper Bay, she could scarce recall a time where it poured.

Firelight. Back to the place that harboured so many ill memories; a temporary home full of kindnesses that did its best to supress her feeling of being othered, but nonetheless represented a period she'd done her best to forget. Could she go back?

The auri girl sighed, tapping the last of the ash from her light before she held it out to the heavens like ceremony and let it be devoured. She was a water spirit; a fox in the field. Where she could not bend, she would rend.

It is not so terrible a thing to redefine your past, Zumi?

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Thanks to everyone who came out for The Fireside! As always, it was an resounding success. @riftdancing wants to completely overhaul the cafe's layout, so stay tuned for next time. ♥

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what is the river? to carve the land or drown in? | azuma yumishi

Do you want to read all of my FFXIVWrite prompts? You can do that here!

FISH OUT OF WATER a person who feels awkward or unhappy because they are in a situation that is not familiar or because they are different from the people around them. Mentions of behaviour directly related to PTSD. The drabble doesn’t reference it as such, but you can get the implication. Also mentions of racism/terrorism/war crimes/etc. as it pertains to the Garlean empire and their treatment of their occupants.

A sense of helplessness was what possessed Azuma to wonder if the accident had affected her brain as well as her legs. She had always thought herself relatively adaptable; she was able to live a blended life as a second-generation Doman — one foot on land, the other deep in Sui-no-Sato — and when the Garlean’s invaded she was able to pantomime their desires enough they believed she might have the chance of assimilation. Her entire life had been a series of adaptations; the loss of her mother, her homeland, her father —

Then, just as suddenly as her adaptability started, it stopped. 

She could barely think about the death of her father. It was as if a serpent had woven its way around her heart, its body constricting the muscle until she couldn’t breathe, and she swore she was dying anew. The first time it happened the chirurgeon thought it a product of her injury, and she dared not choke out the panic of seeing spots of black as they whisked her back to bed.

She did not think about what might have become of her best friend. The thought that Siyoh could be dead, or worse — worse, more than anything, knowing the Garlean empire — had her lying in bed for days, panicked and catatonic in one. What if she was conscripted to some far-off land or forced to warm their bed? What if she was alone? What if she was afraid?

Then there was the torment of trying to adapt to Eorzea. It was the angst of knowing she should be grateful for everything they offered her, knowing she could give them naught, and she did her best to convey it whilst also feeling so alien she felt as though she were merely the audience to her own story. 

She listened to strangers converse in a language she could barely understand, so used to Siyoh’s patience as she tried to translate, and her concentration so often ebbed before her body did.

The bed she laid in was not her own. Only in the deepest of sleep did she feel like she was home, until open eyes to an elevated perch made her feel as though she were falling. Some of her countrymen had come to bed on the floor, but it wasn’t like she could get there now, could she?

A few of the able bodied had come to making their own food, but the ingredients were different and lacked many of the usual spices. It wasn’t bad, she had to remind herself of that, but it wasn’t the same.

Everything was different, different, different. She wanted to scream — why couldn’t she manage with one thing? Why did it feel like that one thing was the tipping point that threatened to sent her over the edge?

Her father had always commending her on weaving like the river, able to carve the land to suit her. Now, Azuma felt as if she were drowning in it.

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baby you're my AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL.

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                                     THE HOUSE OF THE FIERCE

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pinterest aesthetic challenge ✧˖°.

You thought I was done? Oh, you sweet summer child. I was tagged by the bestie @riftdancing. So, again, I delve back into the temptress that is Pinterest.

Azuma.

...Listen, I had to set aside Siyoh's best friend for her.

Elandervier.

Me, slapping her pinterest board: This baby can fit so much slime in it. I didn't even get to a lot of her purple/blood aesthetic!

Alaice.

I was torn between doing Seelu or Alaice but, in the end, I picked Alaice for the tonal shift. I also enjoy putting El and Alaice next to each other because they hurt me personally.

Tagging: @varrok, @cylleona, @aethergazing, @allyennah, @magus-noctis, @umbralaether, @eorzeanflowers, @ainyan & you!

If you'd like to be tagged in any dash games I participate in, I highly recommend you like my permanent interaction call here!

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Azuma is going to be at the Obon Odori! Unfortunately, the Doman Enclave is not nearly built up enough on her to have nice screenshots, but she will be a vendor for The Fireside if you'd like a coffee!