#And here's Timaeus's nickname from his mother

[lunarosewood23]

FFXIVWrite2022 Prompt 7: Pawn

Zephirin reflects on the final fight and defeat of the blasphemy, and the cost his little brother paid in the process.

~~~

Zephirin frowned as he looked down at Timaeus, his breathing slow, almost too slow, but even. The final fight against Profane Fafnir was brutal, but they managed to win and put the former expungator to rest.

The cost of that however, was not something his little brother should’ve had to pay.

"I was supposed to be the pawn Bishop Vartinoux and the church would use to restore Ishgard to its former glory. Let me instead steer Ishgard towards her future." Timaeus says, his knight egis surrounding the blasphemy as he drew a massive blade from his grimoire. "To me my friends! Shining Ascalon!!"

Tears stung in his eyes even as he held them back. Haumeric said he was out of critical danger, but it would still take time for him to wake up.

“Zephirin?”

He looked up to see his mother, carrying a few blankets that they both knew Timaeus and his egis adored. “How’s my little changeling?”

Zephirin sighed as he looked down again. “No change. It’s only been a few days but it feels like sennights.”

Melisie frowned as she put the blankets over him and tucked him in like a child before brushing the bangs from his eyes. “Is there really nothing else we can do for the boy?”

“Unfortunately no, not without risking our own lives.” He replied as he slumped in his chair. “Blessed Fury...”

“I know what you’re thinking, my sunset wind, and I beg you, do not blame yourself for this.” Melisie pleaded with her son as she took his hands in hers. “Timaeus wouldn’t want that either.”

“Timaeus shouldn’t have had to risk himself for all of us. There were fifteen of us fighting the blasphemy, why was my little brother the one who almost died saving us...” 

“Maybe because he didn’t want you giving anymore than you already have.” Melisie replied firmly, making Zephirin look at her as she squeezed his hands. “All twelve of you have already sacrificed your lives as pawns for the Archbishop’s asinine ambitions. Aymeric has all of Ishgard on his back and Raven? Fury keep the girl she has the whole star upon her shoulders.”

Zephirin sighed as he looked back to his little brother and squinted when he saw the blankets suddenly begin to move. Melisie looked over and slowly pulled back the blankets to reveal the head of a golden carbuncle.

“Oh!” Melisie jumped, startled as Zephirin smiled and rubbed at the carbuncle’s ears.

“I hope this means he’ll wake up soon.” He mumbles as the carbuncle licks at his hand. “What do you think Angel?”

The carbuncle made a burr noise at him as it jumped over to sit in his lap.

[pazii]

here are some bits about eleanore that i’ve managed to come up with!

name: eleanore (ella, el, ellie [hates that nickname])

- comes from fontaine and is in 19-22 (her age will depend on who i end up pairing her with)

- she is a runaway! i know fontaine is supposed to be based on france and when i think of france, i think of their historical aristocracy, so a lot of her story is based on the idea that fontaine runs the same way

- ella is from a noble family of vision wielders (almost all of them are healers and have dendro/hydro visions) who are high up in the aristocracy and are VERY loyal to the hydro archon

- ella did NOT enjoy high society life, but she did as she was told and followed her family’s transitions and the rule of the hydro archon

- she dreamed of being free to do and be what she wanted, but she wasn’t even sure what she wanted to do or who she wanted to be, since she was never given the choice

- corsets and fancy parties and people fussing over her was too constraining and it made her miserable, but she bore this all without a word, since that’s what she was supposed to do

- since this strictness was forced upon her from a young age, she finds it very difficult to indulge in her desires for freedom

- she escaped her home when she was 17 with one destination: mondstadt

- what better place to try and be as free as she could?

- unfortunately, she found it hard to get rid of her uptight nature... it was quite difficult for her to try and act as freely as she wanted when she’d spent her entire life never being able to make a decision of her own. she was still rather rigid and proper and she is a bit awkward sometimes, and gets embarrassed extremely easily

- thankfully, a certain tone-deaf bard comes along to help her with that!

- she does have a bit of wit and she’s quite charming (she had to learn how to woo potential suitors or something at those silly parties) she’s still very prim and proper though, nothing too scandalous (she’s outraged at some of the things kaeya has said to her at the angel’s share before. absolutely improper!)

- she doesn’t like the taste of alcohol so her and diluc spend quality time at angel’s share watching the drunks make fools of themselves (mostly venti and kaeya). ella also finds comfort in that diluc has been to fontaine and knows about her culture. she finds she can relax easily around him

- has a HUGE soft spot for kids. this is how she initially meets both jean and albedo! klee escaped solitary confinement and mother figure 1 and brother figure 1 come searching for her, only to find ella sitting in front of klee with lots of colorful clips and flowers in her hair

- ella quite literally bumped into sucrose while she was bringing tea for her, albedo, and timaeus. she spilled it all over ella’s dress and she felt terribly guilty and promised to create some sort of cleaner that would rid the dress of any stains! a few hours later, sucrose returned with the cleaner as promised

- mona and ella are roommates. enough said. (i think ella would be interested in her since she has a hydro vision and she’s also heard of mona from her astrological column in fontaine’s magazines. they bicker often, but ultimately get along quite well!)

- upon arrival in mondstadt, she introduces herself as ella (since word of the missing noble eleanore was being quickly spread through the seven nations) and the nickname el eventually arises (venti is the only one to call her ellie and she despises it)

i don’t plan on shipping ella and venti! i think they’ll be quite wonderful friends though, and venti will help ella find her free spirit inside her! lots of ella scolding venti for doing silly things and venti dragging her out to windrise to enjoy the meadow under his tree.

i can’t decide who to pair her with at the moment though... diluc, albedo, or kaeya... mona or sucrose !? ughhhh i think all of them could fit her well in one way or another? i came up with little headcanons of how they would be connected to one another briefly but kept it very vague since i can’t make decisions.

i also don’t really have a story about how she got her vision! i know i want her to be out of place within her family, so she has a cryo vision that is more geared towards battle instead of dendro and hydro visions which are more geared towards healing. i think she’s going to be a bow user, but if i change my mind to anything, it’ll maybe be a sword.

i can give some info about mai in a little bit if you want hehe. her stuff is more head canons and relationship bits. even tho i know her backstory, i haven’t written much of it out just yet.

- adeptus anon 💖

Woah!! Another beautifully written OC! I swear all these Fontaine OCs is getting me excited for the nation itself!! I really like the idea for her story! It's quite intriguing! I'm glad she gets to live in Mondstadt freely with her new friends 💕

Picking the right characters for an OC can be hard sometimes! Don't rush, take your time to think it through!! Random ideas just pop out out of nowhere sometimes! That happens to me a lot haha

Would love to see how she progresses definitely!! Keep up the great work! <33