#Got that landsknecht fit

[heroofkvatchofficial]

The pathological need to put my Hero of Kvatch in a silly outfit

[petermorwood]

Amused to see that long post about Landsknechts and their bare-legged battle shorts surfacing again. There’s another example in that pic and, given battlefield medicine of the time, a chap in shorts would probably be less at risk of infection from a injury to his bare leg than a man with lots of unwashed clothing fibres driven into the wound.

*****

As usual, there’s a lot of interest in the codpieces, which were of course the fashion of the time as well as projections (hah!) of aggressive masculinity, all of which suited Bad Boys like Landsknechts to a tee.

Nine years ago I reblogged and commented on a picture called “Young Man in a Landscape” by Vittore Carpaccio, which is a great reference for how Maximilian armour fitted a human being rather than an armature in a museum, and how a knight can be in shining armour without looking like he’s been chrome-plated.

So what has this to do with Landsknechts and codpieces?

(1) The mounted man in the background is wearing a “civilised” version of Landsknecht costume; it became fashionable and started being worn by other soldiers than the original mercenary roughnecks. The Papal Swiss Guard (mercenaries yes, roughnecks not so much) still wear a version of it to this day.

(2) Our knight is carrying a sword with the distinctive and typical Katzbalger hilt favoured by Landsknechts, but a much longer (more knightly, certainly more cavalry) blade.

(3) He’s got a codpiece. The funny part is that he’s using it as a mailbox. Why? In a painting this full of symbolism, your guess is as good as mine.

[nightbringer24]

Estalian Tercio WIP

So with two boxes of Wargames Atlantic's Conquistadors, I have assembled what passes for an Estalian tercio. Using the Empire of Man army list, it is a 21 strong Mercenary unit of State Troopers with spears with full command group, backed up by a detachment of 10 State Troopers with swords and a detachment of 12 Missile State Troopers with crossbows.

I even had an armoured body left over to build a captain figure, the guy with the big hat who I gave bits from various Warlord Games Landsknecht sprues I have, and I've got six more lightly armoured bodies left over which I can use on the next batch of Estalians.

For anyone wanting to get it, it is a good kit but... take your time building it. Test and dry fitting is always a must since there are no instructions and no labelling of pieces. Also, as a word of warning: some of the sword blades are very weak so they can snap when being removed, same with the stirrups of the crossbows.

Now just comes the hardest step: painting them.

[scuttledusk]

@shrimpnymph HELLO. i spent a while Fermenting This Little Guy so now i can proudly present you with yet another gestalt cast member who i have carefully crafted via several sessions of sleep deprived writing in a google doc that is 7 pages long:

Simas Astrauskaitė!

He was born as Daiva Astrauskaitė (which I’ll be using to refer to him along with she/her up until the point where he transitioned, you’ll see why later) in Lithuania on October ninth, two years before Awakening Night. Both of her parents got, you know, evaporated, so she spent as much of his early childhood as she can remember in the adoption system. That is, up until the age of eight, when she was bought and sent into WW3 as one of the Landsknecht! Yay! Surely spending her formative years as part of a vicious war machine will have no negative effect on her mental state whatsoever

It was very quickly apparent that Daiva was incredibly well-suited for war. She was already scrappy and resourceful, having had to fend for herself her entire life, and if killing the other guys meant it kept her alive, then so be it. Plus, she was already hyperactive before being given the stimulants, so it wasn’t particularly difficult for her to become a killing machine of sorts. Was it shitty? Sure! But she dealt with it! In fact, Daiva slowly but surely conditioned herself to even enjoy the fighting and the feeling of adrenaline (mostly as a way to cope with it). Unfortunately, that also made her even more reckless and trigger-happy than she already was. It was a miracle that she went as long as she did without getting permanently injured or killed.

After ten years of being a soldier, Daiva had allllmost made it to the end of the Unification Wars. Almost. And then, in a cruel twist of fate, she stepped on a landmine and was grievously injured. They had to use cruor to keep her from Straight Up Dying, but her leg had to be completely amputated and she was comatose for a couple of months. By the time she woke up, the war had already completely ended.

Although she was still under contract to be a soldier, the Knights took one look at her in the awful state she was in and decided she was not fit for duty, so she was given an order disguised as a choice - she’d be given full ownership of her own contract, but have to pay off that debt to the Knights. She was not given the option to refuse, and thus Daiva was forcefully removed from the army.

ANYWAY!!! 18-year-old Daiva, now stripped of both her leg and her purpose in life as well as in deep lifelong debt, was enrolled into Vermilion University (mostly against her will) and immediately Hated It. She’d spent the past decade at war, killing anything that moved without hesitation, and now she was expected to sit down and do schoolwork? AND after she’d just been cast out by the closest thing she’d ever had to a home? But she did quickly come to a realization that helped her come around - nobody knew her here. As far as anyone else was concerned, Daiva Astrauskaitė barely existed. So maybe she didn’t have to be Daiva.

Being Landsknecht didn’t leave a whole lot of room for self-reflection, so she’d never had to think about it too hard, but somewhere she had always been certain she was Not A Girl. She just hadn’t had the time to consider that there were alternatives. Within a few months at Vermilion, she fully switched her shit around, and Simas Astrauskaitė was created.

Now, the reason all that was written the way it was is because Simas views Daiva as a whole different person, completely separate from himself. In his mind, he essentially killed her, and it is worth noting that he does not feel any kind of remorse for it. He’d do it again lol

There are still some problems, though, mostly in the realm of “how do i hack biology to make this body into my body” combined with the whole never ending debt thing. He absolutely could not afford surgery of any kind, so he had to figure out some roundabout solutions for certain things.

Boobs? Well, he got some rudimentary first aid training in the army, and he had steady enough hands, so he wound up doing his own top surgery in his dorm living room. He is honestly incredibly lucky it didn’t go extremely wrong, but miraculously, he came out of it having achieved the intended outcome for the small price of some TERRIBLY janky chest scars.

Period? He had a simple solution for that: black market hysterectomy, which he then paid for by selling the organ he’d just had removed. Easy peasy.

HRT? This is where it got tricky. HRT is expensive, difficult to get, and also takes a while to reach its full effects. He does NOT have the money or health insurance to pay for T shots every month, especially when it could take up to eight years for him to be done with it. So what can he do? Well, he knows vaguely how alchemy works, and also knows that there’s a child prodigy alchemy genius who goes to the same school and lives nearby. Bakari.

Thus begins a long and weird friendship between the two of them <3

Simas explained his whole Grand PlanTM, and even after Bakari went through every individual danger of it with him, he still wanted to go through with it. His options are a) nothing at all and be miserable, b) expensive monthly injections for potentially years, or c) one-time experimental cruor medicine that risks turning him into a weird fucked up beast thing. Given Simas’s impatience and zero self-preservation, the choice seemed pretty clear to him.

Considering that he already had somewhat high cruor toxicity in order to keep him from dying, there were definitely a few odd side effects, but he doesn’t mind those much and they’re easy to keep hidden, so as far as he’s concerned it went perfectly! He also still hangs around Bakari and thinks of them as friends <3

That’s a fairly basic backstory out of the way, so now for an actual description!!

Behold. a dumbass. Simas is about 5’5, with a dancer sort of build - all muscle, but slim and definitely a bit malnourished. He’s got spiky, overgrown dark hair and gray eyes, with thick eyebrows and the barest bones of a beard that does Not look as good as he seems to think it does. As for his leg, he usually wears a prosthetic, but he hardly makes an effort to hide it. The clothes he wears vary, although his collection of awful graphic tees never seems to end, and there are two things you’ll never see him without. The first are his old dog tags from the Landsknecht. He never takes them off. The second is a red beanie, which covers up a pair of small hornlike growths on his head that started growing in after the cruor treatment. His hair is thick enough to hide them, but the beanie helps.

Speaking of cruor side effects, the main changes to his appearance (aside from the Boy Juice) were fairly small, but all contribute to making him look Generally WeirdTM in a way that nobody can seem to place. His teeth are sharper than most people’s, and his hearing is incredibly good. He’s also much more stealthy than one would expect for a guy on one leg. Simas has much thicker body hair than he did before, and he jokes about it being fur, but it genuinely might be. He also has tapetum lucidum, meaning his eyes do that weird glowy thing when they have light pointed at them, like deer or raccoons. My man is a sprained ankle’s worth of cruor away from becoming something that is entirely inhuman, but he doesn’t seem to care in the slightest.

Simas has very little concern for his own safety. He’s trying so hard to be the “cool chill friend,” bless his heart, but unfortunately for him and everyone around him he has the overly energetic and aggressive nature of a jack russell terrier. He’s just a goofy little guy! A little jokester!! Who keeps picking fights with guys three times his size! Simas never really got past the whole “fighting is fun” coping thing that he beat into himself, so he sees violence as just a fun little pastime, a love language even. If he likes you then he’ll beat people up for you (or get beat up, because as skilled as he is, he is also built like a jack russell terrier). He may also attempt to pick fights with the people he likes, but that’s always out of affection. You could break his nose and he’d be like “ah yes we are bonding and i am achieving a Good Grade In Friendship!!!” he also gives nicknames to everyone, forming the holy trinity of einhardt (endearing nicknames) remzi (mean nicknames) and simas (nicknames because he can’t fuckin rember anyone’s name)

He’s not an idiot, exactly, he’s just impulsive and doesn’t seem to understand that the other guy could wreck his shit. Or maybe he does understand it and he’s just into it. That’s also an option, and it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing he’s found attractive tbh. Simas also couldn't care less about rules or guidelines. He has absolutely NO respect for the Knights or their rules and has gotten into trouble Several Times for making pig sounds at them (he will never stop). He thinks it’s especially fun to go walking in the woods way after curfew - sure, it’s dangerous, but you know he keeps that mf thang on him 🔫🔫 so he’ll probably be fine. The second someone with any kind of authority over him starts speaking he Will zone out. On the other hand, when someone he likes needs something, Simas will do it no questions asked. If you can get him to like you (which isn’t hard) then he’d be really easy to manipulate.

He’s also really fucking annoying, both on accident and on purpose. He’s good at figuring out what makes people tick, and he thinks it’s funny to toe the line and see what it takes to make different people snap. If someone is easy to provoke, then he’s going to have a field day with it! If not, then he’ll probably get bored and knock it off pretty quickly. He also generally won’t purposely irritate people he likes that much; there’s always at least some light teasing, but it’s much friendlier. Alas, he also never thinks before he talks, so he regularly says the wrong thing at the wrong time and pisses people off unintentionally. Oh well!

In complete fairness to Simas, he’s not a bad person. He won’t actually hurt someone unless he’s been given good reason to, and he does actually have pretty strong morals that he won’t go against. Violence and rule-breaking just simply are not at all against those morals. He fully believes in helping those in need, even if that help requires extreme violence against the problem, and he’s loyal like a dog if he decides someone’s earned it! He may be loud and annoying and violent and kind of an idiot but he’s also a genuinely kind person when he needs to be.

ANYWAY! that’s enough reflection for today, here’s wonderwall AKA how he’d be involved in Katrin’s story!

Their first few meetings would likely be some of the many times he’s hanging around Bakari! Probably just small conversations in passing ft. some mildly obnoxious joke-flirting from Simas that goes way over her head before he leaves and lets her be alone with Bakari. For the first major arc he’s really just kind of a weird side character? Just. Some GuyTM who happens to be friends with Bakari. Are there odd things about him that would catch Katrin’s eye? Probably, but between school, learning to Be A Person, and all the demon dream realm stuff, Simas is un-suspicious enough to fly under Katrin’s radar for a bit.

Then comes the Fall Dance that gets crashed by a bunch of shotgun-wielding Convoluted! Uh-oh! Simas still doesn’t play a huge role here, but it’s difficult for Katrin not to notice how efficient he is in combat, and also that he just carries both a pistol and several knives on his person at all times. Like seriously where did he even get those why does he have them on campus what

It's also somewhat freaky that he seems to be genuinely enjoying the fighting, instead of being scared. Huh! Still, there are once again more pressing issues, and by the time Katrin is able to speak to him, she very quickly learns that he is Not an easy person to find!

Simas isn’t antisocial, really, he just doesn’t have many friends aside from Bakari and he very rarely stays in the same place on campus for longer than a few minutes just because he gets bored quickly. As previously stated, he’s also Super StealthyTM without meaning to be. Around Vermilion, he’s one of those people who everyone seems to know of but nobody actually knows. The only reasons anyone Does know of him are because he keeps picking fights with literally everyone, plus there are the not entirely unfounded rumors that he’s an addict/criminal/fag/many other things! She keeps seeing him around here and there, but he just vanishes every time she tries to actually talk to him. And the most irritating part is that he’s not even doing it on purpose! He has no idea that she has any interest in his bullshit, he’s just a really inconsistent person with the attention span of a yappy little dog.

Then, through a mix of detective work and sheer luck, she manages to catch him on his way into the woods just before curfew.

It should be noted that Simas is not at all important to Wands, or to any of the other Aces. He knew Roxanne back when they were both Landsknecht, but they weren’t close, and he looks vaguely familiar to her but she doesn’t recognize him because. Well.

It’s funny how experimenting with cruor can do that to a guy! But he is of no importance whatsoever to any of the secret organization conspiracy things happening. He’s just A Guy who happens to be really weird for entirely different reasons. It’s okay he’ll get plot importance later as a treat.

ANYWAY. Our beloved Katrin follows him just a little ways into the woods before he hears her and turns around, gun in hand, fully expecting her to be some Convoluted trying to ambush him. You can imagine the surprise when instead he finds that weird cute American rich girl that hangs out with Bakari a lot! He does warn her that it’s dangerous to be out here so late, to which she responds that he’s out here, and he can’t really argue with that. He’s just out having a late-night smoke, so he offers to share a cigarette with her and hang out for a bit! He has no idea that she was following him, so they chill together and she’s able to subtly get all the answers to the questions that have been bothering her. It’s not even particularly difficult! Simas is an open book; he doesn’t go around advertising his personal shit, but he has no issues telling people things when prompted. Aside from the whole freaky cruor transition thing. That’s the only secret he’ll keep about himself, but it’s also not something anyone would think to ask him about, so it’s never been an issue.

After a short talk/smoke break, Katrin is mostly satisfied with what information she’s gained - he’s good at fighting because he used to be a soldier, he got out of being a soldier by getting his leg blown up but now he’s in a stupid amount of debt, and he knows Bakari because he helped him with something a couple years ago. He will not go into details about the something, which is a bright red flag in Katrin’s information seeker brain, but at least he’s marginally less suspicious now! But she has still made at least some connection with him now, and it seems like he’s decided he likes her - especially since he asks her if she wants to join him in the woods more often! Oh boy! At this point he’s not really directly flirting so much as like. Doing some kind of weird intricate bird dance mating ritual that only makes sense to him (including bringing her random shiny things he finds because she likes them. crow gifts.) Schrodinger’s flirt, both genuine and joking depending entirely on her response.

Meanwhile. Roxanne is becoming increasingly suspicious of this weird looking dude, especially since he’s started showing up at the door to their dorm building every now and then. She recognizes him from somewhere. He looks so familiar. It’s in a conversation with Demetri where she finds out that he used to be called Daiva a long time ago, and then she knows EXACTLY where she’s seen him before. and she’s kinda really pissed off about it. The next time he shows up to chat up Katrin, she is Instantly in his face yelling at him. Nobody else knows what they’re talking about. Simas is also smiling while he’s getting shouted at and threatened? What a freak lol ANYWAY. At Simas’s own suggestion, they wind up fighting each other in the parking lot of some little diner near the school. It is not a random thing, they fully scheduled it and now the whole gang is here to watch

After a long and very violent fight, Roxanne fully wrecks Simas’s shit, but he seems to be like. enjoying it?? he is Actively encouraging her to kick his ass, which only pisses her off more. after the fight finally ends, he tells her - and the whole Wands gang by proxy - about the whole cruor thing. He doesn’t bring up the weird side effects (although he does tell Katrin about them later) because. well. as much as he enjoys fighting you can never be too careful as to who will genuinely kill you because you’re freaky and mutated. <3

After the fight, though, he does ask Katrin to go out with him when the others aren’t within earshot! And thus he is officially added to her reverse harem.

And then he gains relevance entirely by accident! He had absolutely no clue about Wands or that Katrin and her friend group were apart of it. Not even a vague suspicion. A few weeks after he starts dating Katrin, he accidentally left his hat in her dorm room one night. The next morning, he realized it was gone, and. well. he kinda needs it to cover up his lil cruor horns. There’s a reason he doesn’t go anywhere without it.

But he doesn’t want to interrupt her and the others, either! They’re probably busy with something and he doesn’t feel like getting his ass kicked by Roxanne this early in the morning. Plus, as previously mentioned, they were Not Told about his mutation things. So, in order to avoid that whole mess, he snuck in through a window, grabbed his hat, and was just about to leave when he overhears some things that he Should Not Have, about Wands, Frederica, etc etc. He should’ve walked away, but he is unfortunately nosy as hell, so he stayed and listened for at least a few minutes before Einhardt saw him hanging out in the doorway looking like that one tails gets trolled comic

He did NOT intend to spy on them or find any of this shit out. He just wanted to get his hat man :( BUT hey! All things considered (once he gets escorted down to the Wands base Very Roughly) he’s pretty chill about the whole situation, as per usual. Being good at the mildly suspicious bullshit that he is, Simas would actually make for a very valuable asset to Wands. He helps Katrin and the gang in espionage and information collection, and as compensation, he gets his massive debt to the Knights paid off by an “anonymous benefactor.” Neat!

And of course, he does find out that he’s not Katrin’s only boyfriend, but he doesn’t actually have any problem with it. His reaction is mostly just making a few jokes and admitting that that’s “actually kind of hot.” Simas also takes it upon himself to flirt with all of Katrin’s other boyfriends (to varying degrees of success). If she’s banging other guys then as far as he’s concerned that just means he is also allowed to bang the same other guys. Or attempt to, because some of them genuinely hate him lol

ANYWAY!! that’s his timeline for very early gestalt- I will maybe write more actual story stuff for him later but. Yippie!

[acradaunt]

Acra's EO Guild Card Megapost

Guild Cards are a neat thing in the most of the Etrian Odyssey games. Sometimes, they're pretty pointless, but in some, they actually do some neat stuff. I… have a tendency to do multiple playthroughs, to try different team compositions (as seeing how different a game can feel based on your builds is one of my favourite things ever, and I also like abandon them before the big fights, on the hypothetical urge I want to re-fight a boss at an appropriate level an infinite number of times), so I've amassed a fair few of my own.

Why am I uploading these now? Apparently the Nexus database got borked a couple days ago, so this is the perfect time for me to get a few feet in the door. I also swear this is the last time I'll ever post about these, seriously.

EO Nexus -A total of 100 Guild Cards are needed to unlock the Vampire pseudo-class. Obviously, 100 is a lot, so they obviously expected the community, paltry it may be, to come together to make a database. And they did. And then they locked it the second they got 108. And then it died. So now I finally get a second chance to contribute.

Galeforce

-My first (main) playthrough. I actually uploaded a card weekly to help out, but I think only the first one made it on in time. It's not Heroic because it's like a NG+++++ file. This is the final card, but for the weekly set of them, um, here:

Week 0 || Week 1 || Week 2 || Week 3 || Week 4 || Week 5 || Week 6 || Week 7

Stardust

-Filled with all my C-listers that couldn't fit into Galeforce. I ran them as two separate teams; the Boss Killers (shown here), who fought the FOEs/Bosses, and Team Midriff, who did all the exploration.

Sunstorm

-A Guild consisting of classes I mostly avoid using, and portraits I hadn't (as of its conception) used before. As always, there's like another three members that get used that aren't here, including a Survivalist, Nightseeker, and an Arcanist.

Maelstrom

-An attempt at a Nuzlocke-esque run, and also an 'evil' party. Characters stopped being used if they died, but only until the end of the stratum, to not make it overbearing. Being an evil party lacking in support and healing, this was an absolute slog that I considered a total failure by the Jungle.

Brilliant

-An idea for a mage-guild that kinda went askew. Starting as a Sovereign, three Zodiacs, and a Farmer, I ultimately turned this into three single-element teams; Each consisting of a unique Sovereign, a unique Zodiac, two other characters that get earlygame elemental skills (Survivalist's Flame Arrow, Landsknecht, etc.), but the same Farmer (Hazel) across all three. Didn't take it all that far, but worked kinda well!

EOV -Definitely where Guild Cards are seen the most. About 2-4 times every floor, there'll be an event that'll use you GC database to have another guild interact with you in the labyrinth. If you have none, you'll be introduced to memelord Conrad of the Freeblade Guild about 110 times in your course of a playthrough. In stark contrast, Nexus only has GC events maybe a dozen times across the whole game.

Starlight

-Main guild. Not a lot to say. It's a Chain-oriented party, because I love Fencers/Landsknechts.

Bundt

-Cake pun. See, bundt is a type of cake, and the guild is filled with Brouni. As in Brownies, the fairy/pixie/sprite, but I'm punning off the--- ANYWAY. Horrific offense, but don't die easily. Kinda miserable against a few specific enemies like the coffin jerks on 15F, but otherwise worked astonishingly better than you'd expect. Which is; not GOOD, but totally serviceable.

Necrocosm

-My original 'evil' guild, featuring two Necromancers, and edge as far as the eye can see. Two Necros work pretty well together; typically Velvet summoned them and Rue made them explode. The fact Necros heal and have evil vibes let them succeed where Maelstrom would totally fail. I also didn't bench anyone for dying, so that probably helped too.

Firebird

-This playthrough is only saved at Amalgolem and took like a single weekend to get there, so I didn't remember squat about it. Amalgolem is like my single fave boss in the whole series, so I just had to leave a file there. It's heavily skewed towards non-humans, and the bottom deck of the guild is just full of nigh-on unusable cross-classed horrors, like a Celestrian Pugilist and Therian Warlock.

EO2U -Probably where Guild Cards are the most functionally useful. Lets you get the Grimoire Stones the attached character has on hand as many times as you can afford. Pretty nifty, as Grimoires are semi-random in spawning.

Skyquake

-So I didn't actually buy EO2U when it came out for a variety of factors, not least being unaware how different it was from the original EOII, my first EO game. So I've only started this and Untold I fairly recently.

Ironroot

-Holy Gift gives you extra experience, but each level costs twice as much to trade as the previous. That is, you need two level 3 Grimoires to get a level 4. Or 128 level 3s for a single level 10. So having a Guild Card with lowish level Holy Gift is actually pretty dang useful to have.

Untold

-Story Guild. Haven't… uh, haven't exactly been Motivated to do Story mode in Untold 2. On paper, I really dislike the team composition. In practice, hasn't been so bad, but still not enough to make me play them more than necessary.

Fellbloom

-Now legally required Evil Guild. Probably won't ever get past Chimaera.

EOU -Unlike the sequel, Guild Cards don't let you choose what to get from the friend's Guild Card. You just get given a random Grimoire Stone once per playthrough per Guild Card. Kinda lame.

Untold -Unlike later games, only one save file here, and the game nigh-on requires you to play through the Story Mode before doing Classic in NG+, so, that's where we sit.

EOIV -First game to use QR codes. III had Guild Cards, but I don't know how you'd trade them. They do serve a purpose here; each Card gets given a random treasure, and having a Card lets you find that treasure in the overworld. Most are crap, but some are circumstantially useful, and some are permanent stat-boosts, IIRC. I don't think mine was very good…?

Zephyr

-Uh, EOIV had a glitch where your Ventured Days would go up dramatically every time you paused. I think it comes into affect if you ever do NG+. So I haven't actually played for 48 in-game years. Truth be told, now knowing of a way to back up save files, I am admittedly tempted to make a new EOIV playthrough, since it's been like a decade, but for my own sanity, I really probably shouldn't.

[hunlarpfag]

Just in the defence of the Landsknechts, they did had skirts too in the form of a knee lenght dress, called waffenrock. I mean it wasn’t specific to them, as it was basically just a form of gown if we want to generalize, but they obviously pimped it out as with everything

And a little interesting detail, it was SO fashionable that it got represented in armours too. Here is the thing about armours: they are first and foremost functional, but if you have enough money and important enough you obviously want to pimp it up and also follow the latest trends. Basically if you know in which period what kind of clothing was fashionable, you could roughly tell what plate armor belongs to what time period. 

Here is another thing: protecting your groin and legs isn’t the easiest thing with plate. Lots of moving parts there that bend in all kind of ways, so to make it work it has to be well engineered and designed. In the transitional period from chain to plate they just left the chain there most of the time, or just a few pieces of plate. 

But obviously as warfare evolved more protection was needed so more and more plate was added to the flexible places (though chain remained basically forever both for high and low end armors in some form) The problem is as I said it’s very hard to put plates in that area that would move correctly. Not an unsolvable problem but requires knowledge, time, and lots of work. So the easiest solution was a Tonlet.

it’s relatively easy to put it together, you still have mobility and covers all the vital areas like groins and inner tights where you could get serious bleeding injuries.

Anyway it was relatively short lived as it had the drawback of needed more material than a form fitting armor thus being heavier, and also armor technology advanced quickly. So the proper stereotypical full plate came after that

Or sometimes even more closed

Also honorable mention one of the tournament armors of Henry VIII. (technically the ass armor is his too but anyway) It’s from 1520 and tonlets are kind of out of style by then armor-wise (but as I said in clothing fashion the waffenrocks and whatnot getting strong again), but according to legend the original armour he would bring to the tournament (which was held by the French king) was banned for various reasons (that too is a funny story but probably even less is true about it) so he needed a new tournament armor FAST so this is what they come up with because it was easier and faster to do that in that timeframe. Great story, though I’m kind of sure that wasn’t the main reason.

Anyway as I said waffenrocks and the various other skirt and skirt like clothings in german fashion got so popular that the skirt armor COME BACK, even though functionally it isn’t peak performance. I mean, it was mostly for tournament and decorative armors, but here and there got into the battlefield too (mostly for higher ranking officiers though, so there is that)

The cutout in the middle is so the wearer can sit on a saddle

So I got this tag on my answer to an ask about when it became acceptable for western women to wear pants, and you know it's all I need to go on a tangent.

I think the short answer here would be men have worn skirts as long as people have worn anything, so pretty long tbh. But since I am incapable of answering anything shortly, I think we can re-frame this question:

When did skirts stop being socially acceptable for men?

So let's start with acknowledging that tunics, togas, kirtles and such men wore through history were, in fact, skirts. I think there's often a tendency to think of these as very different garments from those that women wore, but really they are not. Most of the time they were literally referred to with the same name. (I will do a very broad and simplified overview of men's clothing from ancient times to Early Middle Ages so we can get to the point which is Late Middle Ages.)

Ancient Greek men and women both wore chitons. Even it's length wasn't determined by gender, but by occupation. Athletes, soldiers and slaves wore knee-length chitons for easier movement. Roman men and women wore very similar garment, tunics. Especially in earlier ancient Rome long sleeves were associated with women, but later became more popular and unconventional for men too. Length though was still dependent on occupation and class, not gender. Toga was sure men's clothing, but worn over tunic. It was wrapped around the waist, like a dress would, and then hung over shoulder. Romans did wear leggings when they needed to. For example for leg protection when hunting as in this mosaic from 4th century. They would have been mostly used by men since men would be doing the kinds of activities that would require them. But that does not lessen the dressyness of the tunics worn here. If a woman today wears leggings under her skirt, the skirt doesn't suddenly become not a skirt.

All over Europe thorough the early Middle Ages, the clothes were very similar in their basic shape and construction as in Rome and Greece. In Central and Northern Europe though people would wear pants under shorter tunics. There were exceptions to the everyone wearing a tunic trend. Celtic men wore braccae, which were pants, and short tunics and literally just shirts. Celts are the rare case, where I think we can say that men didn't wear dresses. Most other peoples in these colder areas wore at least knee-length tunics. Shorter tunics and trousers were worn again mostly by soldiers and slaves, so rarely any other woman than slave women. The trousers were though definitely trousers in Early Middle Ages. They were usually loose for easier construction and therefore not that similar to Roman leggings. However leggings style fitted pants were still used, especially by nobility. I'd say the loose trousers are a gray area. They wore both dresses and pants, but still definitely dresses. I'd say this style was very comparable to the 2000s miniskirts over jeans style. First one below is a reconstruction of Old Norse clothing by Danish history museum. The second is some celebrity from 2005. I see no difference.

When we get to the high Middle Ages tunics are still used by both men and women, and still it's length is dependent on class and activity more than gender, but there's some new developments too. Pants and skirt combo is fully out and leggings' are back in in form of hose. Hose were not in fact pants and calling them leggings is also misleading. Really they are socks. Or at least that's how they started. As it has become a trend here they were used by everyone, not just men. During early Middle Ages they were worn often with the trousers, sometimes the trousers tucked inside them making them baggy. In high Middle Ages they became very long when used with shorter tunics, fully displacing the need for trousers. They would be tied to the waist to keep them up, as they were not knitted (knitting was being invented in Egypt around this time, and some knitting was introduced to Europe during middle Ages, but it really only took off much later during Renaissance Era) and therefore not stretchy. First picture is an example of that from 1440s. Another exciting development in the High Medieval era was bliaut in France and it's sphere of influence. Bliaut was an early attempt in Europe of a fitted dress. And again used by both men and women. The second illustration below from mid 12th century shows a noble man wearing a bliaut and nicely showing off his leg covered in fitted hose. Bliaut was usually likely fitted with lacing on the sides, but it wasn't tailored (tailoring wasn't really a thing just yet) and so created a wrinkled effect around the torso.

In the 14th century things really picked up in European fashion. European kingdoms finally started to become richer and the rich started to have some extra money to put into clothing, so new trends started to pop up rapidly. Tailoring became a thing and clothes could be now cut to be very fitted, which gave birth to fitted kirtle. At the same time having extra money meant being able to spend extra money on more fabric and to create very voluminous clothing, which gave birth to the houppelande.

Kirtle was once again worn by everyone. It wasn't an undergarment, for women that would be shift and men shirt and breeches, but it was an underlayer. It could be worn in public but often had at least another layer on top of it. The bodice part, including sleeves were very fitted with lacing or buttons (though there were over-layer kirtles that had different sleeves that changed with fashions and would be usually worn over a fitted kirtle). Men's kirtles were short, earlier in 14th century knee-length but towards the end of the century even shorter styles became fashionable in some areas. First picture below shows a man with knee-length kirtle from 1450s Italy.

Houppelande was also unisex. It was a loose full-length overgown with a lot of fabric that was gathered on the neckline and could be worn belted or unbelted. The sleeves were also wide and became increasingly wider (for men and women) later in the century and into the next century. Shorter gowns similar in style and construction to the houppelande were also fashionable for men. Both of these styles are seen in the second picture below from late 14th century.

In the very end of 14th century, first signs of pantification of men can be seen. In France and it's sphere of influence the skirt part of the kirtle became so short it barely covered the breeches as seen below on these fashionable musicians from 1395-1400 France. Long houppelandes, length ranging from floor to calf, were still used by men though (the second picture, 1414 France), as were knee and thigh length gowns of similar loose style.

The hems continued to be short through the 15th century in France, but in other places like Italy and German sphere of influence, they were still fairly long, at least to mid thigh, through the first half of the century. In France at some point in late 13th century the very short under-kirtle started to be called doublet and they are just getting shorter in 1400s. The showing underwear problem was fixed by joined hose and the codpiece, signaling the entrance of The Sluttiest Era of men's fashion. Below is an example from 1450s Belgium of doublet and early codpiece in display. As you can see from the other figures, the overgowns of the previous century were also getting very, very short. In the next French example below from 1470s we can see the skirt shrink out of existence right before our eyes.

The very skimpy doublet and it's accompanying codpiece spread to the rest of the Europe in the second half of 15th century and it would only get sluttier from there. The Italians were just showing their full ass (example from 1490s). The dress was not gone yet though. The doublet and codpiece continued to be fashionable, but the overdress got longer again in the French area too. For example in the second example there's Italian soldiers in a knee length dresses from 1513.

But we have to talk about the Germans. They went absolutely mad with the whole doublet and codpiece. Just look at this 1513 painting below (first one). But they did not only do it sluttier than everyone else, they also changed the course of men's fashion.

Let's take a detour talking about the Landsknecht, the mercenary pikeman army of the Holy Roman Empire. (I'm not that knowledgeable in war history so take my war history explanation with a grain of salt.) Pikemen had recently become a formidable counter-unit against cavalry, which earlier in the Medieval Era had been the most important units. Knights were the professional highly trained cavalry, which the whole feudal system leaned against. On the other hand land units were usually not made of professional soldiers. Landsknecht were formed in late 15th century as a professional army of pikemen. They were skilled and highly organized, and quickly became a decisive force in European wars. Their military significance gave them a lot of power in the Holy Roman Empire, some were even given knighthood, which previously wasn't possible for land units, and interestingly for us they were exempt from sumptuary laws. Sumptuary laws controlled who could wear what. As the bourgeois became richer in Europe in late Middle Ages and Renaissance Era, laws were enacted to limit certain fabrics, colors and styles from those outside nobility, to uphold the hierarchy between rich bourgeois and the nobles. The Landsknecht, who were well payed mercenaries (they would mutiny, if they didn't get payed enough), went immediately absolute mad with the power to bypass sumptuary laws. Crimes against fashion (affectionate) were committed. What do you do, when you have extra money and one of your privileges is to wear every color and fabric? You wear every color and fabric. At the same time. You wear them on top of each other and so they can be seen at the same time, you slash the outer layer. In the second image you can feast your eyes on the Landsknecht.

Just to give you a little more of that good stuff, here's a selection of some of my favorite Landsknecht illustrations. This is the peak male performance. Look at those codpieces. Look at those bare legs. The tiny shorts. And savor them.

The Landsknecht were the hot shit. Their lavish and over the top influence quickly took over men's fashion in Germany in early 1500s. Slashing, the technique possibly started by them, but at least popularized by them, instantly spread all over Europe. That's how you get the typical Renaissance poof sleeves. They at first slashed the thighs of their hose, but it seems like to fit more of everything into their outfits, they started wearing the hose in two parts, upper hose and nether hose, which was a sort of return to the early Medieval trousers and knee-high hose style. The two part hose was adopted by the wider German men's fashion early in the century, but already in 1520s had spread to rest of Europe. It was first combined with the knee-length overdress that had made it's comeback in the turn of the century, like in this Italian painting from 1526 (first image). At this point knitting had become established and wide-spread craft in Europe and the stockings were born, replacing nether hose. They were basically nether hose, but from knitted fabric. The gown shortened again and turned into more of a jacket as the trunk hose became increasingly the centerpiece of the outfit, until in 1560s doublet - trunk hose combination emerged as the standard outerwear (as seen in the second example, 1569 Netherlands) putting the last nail on the coffin of the men's dress as well as the Sluttiest Era. The hose and doublet became profoundly un-slutty and un-horny, especially when the solemn Spanish influence spread all over with it's dark and muted colors.

Especially in Middle Ages, but thorough European history, trousers have been associated with soldiers. The largely accepted theory is that trousers were invented for horse riding, but in climates with cold winters, where short skirts are too cold, and long skirts are still a hazard when moving around, trousers (with or without a short skirt) are convenient for all kinds of other movement requiring activities like war. So by adopting hose as general men's clothing, men in 1500s associated masculinity with militarism. It was not a coincidence that the style came from Landsknecht. I may have been joking about them being "peak male performance", but really they were the new masculine ideals for the new age. At the time capitalism was taking form and European great powers had begun the process of violently conquering the world for money, so it's not surprising that the men, who fought for money and became rich and powerful doing so, were idealised.

Because of capitalism and increasingly centralized power, the feudal system was crumbling and with it the feudal social hierarchy. Capitalism shifted the wealth from land ownership (which feudal nobility was built upon) to capital and trade, deteriorating the hierarchy based on land. At the same time Reformation and centralized secular powers were weakening the power of the Church, wavering also the hierarchy justified by godly ordain. The ruling class was not about to give up their power, so a new social hierarchy needed to form. Through colonialism the concept of race was created and the new hierarchy was drawn from racial, gender and wealth lines. It was a long process, but it started in 1500s, and the increasing distinction between men's and women's fashions was part of drawing those lines. At the same time distinctions between white men and racialized men, as well as white women and racialized women were drawn. As in Europe up until this point, all over the world (with some exceptions) skirts were used by everyone. So when European men fully adopted the trousers, and trousers, as well as their association to military, were equated with masculinity, part of it was to emasculate racialized men, to draw distinctions.

Surprise, it was colonialism all along! Honestly if there's a societal or cultural change after Middle Ages, a good guess for the reason behind it is always colonialism. It won't be right every time, but quite a lot of times. Trousers as a concept is of course not related to colonialism, but the idea that trousers equal masculinity and especially the idea that skirts equal femininity are. So I guess decolonize masculinity by wearing skirts?

[coldchary2468]

For today's Rate their Fit, how about....Centurii-chan's Gyaru Landsknecht.

PIIINKKK!

Also you showed me her earlier we thought she was a good idea to be included with Lolita knight and rune knight

Anyhow this is lovely and I got nothing else I just like looking at this

I’m not a character designer

[red-dyed-sarumane]

so obviously bc im gay the first thing we need to do is make my wife tenshi. theres a lot that could fit her but im saying arcanist bc its my game

so then we need to add her gf who we know likes to get out of things & doesnt really care what she needs to do or say to not take responsibility so bc of that and bc the pic fits she can be a ninja

her out of the way i just realized ronin fits shuuen touhikou perfectly except the pic with hair like hers means she doesnt get a shirt sorry girl

now for who i want the medic for. the kyuuyaku chara. it just FITS. we got the short hair the test tubes its her this was made for her

i feel like zodiac fits ashura chara maybe bc the pic sort of works but also i think she should get elemental skills

laboratory could be either hero or harbinger for the sale of balance i should choose hero but consider: i am bad at this game and she should get a scythe.

i think the shoushitsu chara can be a survivalist i think thats fitting enough

hear me out i think maximizer chara can be a landsknecht bc the pic with the braids looks like she had enough energy to fit the song

canon chara can be a highlander bc i want to use one thanks for ur understanding

[stalksbyakuyatogami]

Could you do the V3 boys with a female S/O who is really strong and is able to use medival weaponry, because of her talent (Ultimate Woman-at-arms/Knight/Landsknecht)?

V3 Boys With A Female Medieval Weapon User S/O

OQNSKAKXKANXKNAJXNAJCNSN yes pls

Shuichi Saihara

•He is very curious. You were curious.

•But at the same time, amazed.

•He thinks it's kinda outdated, but it's amazing nonetheless!

•It's rare to see people like you nowadays, now that we moved past from the medieval times.

•He likes to see you move with it. When you spar or at least swing it, he feels like he could die anytime.

•"slice me ma’am"

Kaito Momota

•Is very amazed. Like a child that came to Disneyland for the first time.

•He thinks that it's pretty cool. It was like you were Maki, but more intimidating with the weapons you were using.

•He wants him to be your sparring partner.

•So one time he asks you to let him borrow a sword. He was quick to let it down lmaooooo. It was hella heavy for him.

•He's proud of you and flaunts you to everyone, honestly.

Kokichi Ouma

•"Yeah, I fire crossbows." "Woaaahhhh that's so awesome! Lemme shoot one on other's heads!"

•He steals your arrow(s). HE STEALS THEM!!

•But fr, he is very awed. He's quite proud that he has a S/O like that. He takes pride in that HAHA.

•He always asks to spar with you, even with just a dagger. And at that one time, he almost stabs himself. Since then, you didn't want him to get near your weapons ever again.

Ryoma Hoshi

•He thinks it's cool. It's really cool. It's hella cool.

•You encouraged him to learn, despite his height... He felt a little insulted but he brushed it off. He also denied your request.

•He's chill with it, honestly.

•Tries to polish weapons with you. It's the least he can do, right?

•He comes to your lab both for the purpose of seeing you and seeing your weapons lined up the walls.

Korekiyo Shinguuji

•He thinks it's とても うつくし very beautiful. Especially that it came from medieval times.

•He lectures you about every legendary weapon that humanity came across with. Along with their special features and such.

•He says he'll pass from handling your weapons. He can't lift it, jfc.

•So he just observes your form when you use these weapons.

•He never thought that a woman could be so beautiful while holding such brutal weapons.

Rantaro Amami (MAH MAN AKZJDJXNNXNX sorry)

•"Oh. That's pretty cool!"

•He likes the idea of you having that Ultimate Talent. He thinks it fits you.

•You asked him to spar and miraculously, he agreed.

•But it wasn't like your kind of sparring. He was inexperienced so of course, he wouldn't know how to do it. So you guys just made swings and played with it.

•Surprisingly, he can lift it and even knows how to hold it. He can't hold it for too long though. Could he be one of your people? :00

Gonta Gokuhara

•He's just mind-blown. He never expected you to have a talent like that. But he's so excited about it

•110% sure he can lift your sword. You told him to not swing it around though; since it's dangerous and he's not as experienced as you are.

•See that spiked ball what is it called again? Spike ball flails? That's his favorite.

•You make him spar with you. He can only block. It'll be trouble for you both when either of you gets hurt.

•He tries to stay away (if it's not needed for anything) from them when you two almost injured someone. He's anxious pls—.

•All in all, very supportive and curious of you and your talent.

K1-B0 (keeboi)

•He is threatened by them. I just—

•"Please don't swing it around so carelessly!"

•Kokichi almost hit him with a crossbow one time, that's why he's so traumatized.

•So you teach him to "tame" the weapons. He doesn't really hold them, but at least he got used to it.

•He's actually quite proud of you. And he's worried at the same time.

raises hand I wanna have a sword too. Thank you for requesting, anon!

-Mod Toko

[sides-of-demigods]

Character Profiles

ROMAN PRINCE (16)

Son of Apollo, god of...let's just say the arts, archery, and medicine.

Apollo? God of music? Theatre? The arts? And just all around extraness?

Yeah he's the son of Apollo.

Roman is skilled with anything involving missile projectiles, from archery to basketball, and is a natural musician and actor.

He can actually charm people with his singing voice and, if he is focused enough and has the energy, can almost cast spells with songs. For instance, when he used it in the forest incident to lead him and Virgil out of the woods.

For weaponry, Roman is the only one with a magic weapon. Most often it's a double bladed sword, but it can be separated into two swords, used as a spear, or melded into one single sword.

Also, for some reason no one can explain, it's actually made of Imperial Gold instead of Celestial Bronze, but there's red detailing in the hilt and designs on the blades.

Of course he also has a bow, he's the son of Apollo, but his sword is his signature weapon.

His smile is like sunshine and he has ALL OF THE FRECKLES

He has Auburn hair and is the second shortest of the main four, much to his annoyance, though he's still tall at 5’10 (177 cm)

His eyes are green and he's the pretty boy of camp, giving all of the Aphrodite kids a run for their money.

Roman has been going to Camp Half-Blood for 10 years, ever since he was six.

Roman knew since he was brought to Camp Half-Blood for the first time for the summer by his mom when he was six, because he was immediately claimed by Apollo.

His mom told him early on that he was a demigod but it wasn't until the golden sun with it's arrows for rays that he knew exactly who he was.

But knowing he was a demigod he became obsessed with the magic and fantasy of Greek mythology, and as a kid who had already heard so many fairy tales, he had...strong opinions on the gods.

And their children.

And that included his brother.

He's getting better, especially since the forest incident, which resulted in him befriending and pining after Virgil.

Him and Patton fangirl over Disney and dashing heroes and stuff such as that.

Him and Logan it's all sass battles and such and they act like they hate each other but literally the entire camp knows that's die for each other in a heartbeat. You boys aren't fooling anybody.

LOGAN BRADFORD (17)

Son of Athena, goddess of wisdom

He's??? So smart??? Like there's Athena Cabin smart, and then there's Logan smart. The dude is on a whole nother level.

When it comes to weapons Logan uses twin landsknecht daggers, as they are weapons that require you to be precise and calculating. They aren't really anything special, with navy blue hilts and Celestial Bronze blades, but that's perfect for him.

Logan has black hair and blue eyes, and is the second tallest of the main four, at just over six feet. (182 cm)

Logan was the second most recent to arrive to Camp, arriving at 12 and having been at Camp for four years.

Logan took, surprise surprise, a much more logical standpoint on things than Roman.

He was from a long line of legacies. No one, even his father, knew he was a true son of Athena not just her legacy

So you can imagine his surprise when he got to camp and was properly claimed.

He adapted to this new development rather quickly and got on with his life, electing to, with the support of his family, to stay at camp year round and visit his family once in a while, usually for holidays and such.

It was actually so that his friend and totally not crush Patton wouldn't be lonely most of the year.

As a legacy, Logan dove into Greek Mythology similar to Roman, but rather than focus on the story elements Logan memorized as many stories, weapons, and monsters as he could.

He's like a walking Mythapedia.

The counselor of Aphrodite, Valerie Torres-Rosario, once set him up with Patton as a sort of joke (but everyone at camp low-key shipped them) and Logan was so astonished.

How can anyone be so happy? And pretty? Wait pretty? Wait, shit, 404 error, Logan.exe has shut down.

Nowadays…

Well can you say POWER COUPLE?

Battle couple, leader couple, just all around the most badass couple at camp that literally everyone loves.

Random fact: Logan has a southern drawl that he often dials down, worried it'll cause people to not take him seriously. But sometimes he let's it out with Patton, and yes it makes the poor boy melt.

PATTON HAILEY (16)

Son of Hebe, goddess of youth

Patton is kind of the definition of “looks like a cinnamon roll, and is a cinnamon roll” but when it comes to his abilities he's probably the most powerful of the bunch.

He can manipulate age, sucking the youth out of people and monsters with only a touch. He can almost always control it, but he usually wears gloves anyway. No one actually knew the extent of this until Capture the Flag one day.

Logan ran afoul of an orthrus (a two headed dog the size of a pony) and Patton without even thinking ripped off his gloves, holding on until the monster aged into dust.

He tends to not his powers much after that, so he instead studied with the Apollo cabin to be a healer and learned to use a slingshot and crossbow.

Also while not having a magic weapon persay, Patton does have a magic pouch with Celestial Bronze spheres for his slingshot that can hold way more than it seems. It's not bottomless but it can hold way more than you'd think.

Patton, poor baby, is the shortest of the group at 5’8”. (172 cm)

Patton and his brother were the second to arrive, Patton being 10 when he arrived at Camp, therefore being at Camp 6 years.

Patton also stays year round with his younger brother Dennis but that's because of a less happy reason.

See Hebe is a beautiful woman who Mr. Hailey fell in love with, but only for her beauty and they only had a one night stand. So he was not happy when a baby showed up at his door.

He got even worse when it happened again (although with a different goddess).

One day Patton took Dee and just left. Thankfully they were quickly found by a satyrs, Talyn, who escorted them to camp.

They stayed in the Hermes cabin for quite a while, Dee even longer than Patton, before being claimed.

Patton fit in quite quickly with his cabin mates. The children of Hebe are “highly sociable, take pride in community service and happiness of others, enjoy parties and feasts, tend to maintain a youthful appearance throughout their lives, are known to be fast healers, and are very good at planning social activities and parties.

That sure sounds like Patton to me.

Obviously is the dad of the entire camp.

Him and Logan, though Logan won't admit it, totally are mom and dad of CHB.

Random fact: Patton is next in line for counselor of the Hebe cabin.

VIRGIL CAMDEN (16)

Son of Phobos, god of fear

He can instill fear in people, as well as make them see their worst fears. He can look at someone and know what their afraid at that moment and their worst fears. He can also sort of sense fear of all kinds, from nervousness to anxiety to terror.

Virgil has a sword made of stygian iron, with a hilt of onyx inlaid with amethysts.

Also, he's the only one who had the sense to have a freaking shield. He doesn't always use it, but it's usually at least on his back if he's going into combat. He also has a small hand crossbow, but he doesn't always bring that with him.

Virge has brown hair, dyed purple, and actually tends to not wear much eye shadow, since the sweat from training can make it run.

He also straightens his hair but has Hobbit hair that only the other three have seen because he's kinda self-conscious about it, and each time was an accident. (Aww that might the a cute fic idea. “3 times Virgil accidentally showed his curly hair and one time it was on purpose”. Might write that if y'all want, idk.)

Moving on from his hair, he's got brown eyes, and while he doesn't wear a lot of eyeshadow (think the much less intense eyeshadow from his first few appearances) he still tends to wear white foundation and such. Idk anything about makeup.

Virgil is actually the tallest at 6’3” (190 cm) but is often so slouched he seems to be as tall as Logan if not shorter.

Virgil arrived at camp at 13, the last to arrive, and he has been at Camp 3 years.

Virgil and his parents didn't even know he was a demigod, not until a satyr named Joan showed up at his doorstep on his 13th birthday.

So he shows up to camp for the summers although when everything at home becomes too much he is known to stay at camp for a week or two.

His family situation is okay, but it's pretty tense and that just overwhelms him sometimes.

Him and Roman didn't get along at first, Roman convinced he was the son of an “evil” god. Then the forest incident happened and Virgil released maybe Roman wasn't the stuck up brat he seemed to be. They became friends and now Virgil is slowly falling in love. Curse those damn freckles.

Him and Logan get along pretty well and tend to hang out when everyone at camp is being a little too much. When they just need some practicality.

Patton is his best friend ever, they're totally bffs.

They're like the most wholesome friendship ever and honestly, even before Roman became Virgil's friend, people were starting to question if Virgil was really that bad, because if he was how could he befriend someone as precious as Patton?

Random fact: He somehow always manages to wear black and purple? He somehow even managed to get a hold of a black Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, something no one can explain considering they we're all supposedly bright orange.

DENNIS HAILEY (14)

Son of Apate, goddess of fraud, deceit, trickery, and lies.

Children of Apate aren't known as being powerful in a flashy way. They can't raise the dead, or summon hurricanes, or call lightning from the sky. Their powers are incredibly subtle.

Obviously they can lie their way out of almost any situation, they can blend into crowds easily, they can sense weakness, motivation, and lies. They can twist people's words around.

But just as some children have Aphrodite have charmspeak and some children of Hephaestus can control fire, certain children of Apate have another ability I'm calling Mimicry.

They can take on the form of another person to a level somewhere between an illusion and shapeshifting (meaning they can get stuff wrong), and mimic some speech patterns, quirks, and mannerisms. But not memories.

Dennis uses a rapier. The handle is black, but the area around the handle is gold (if you look up a rapier you'll know what I mean). The blade itself is the usual celestial bronze. That's his signature weapon but he's also good with various knives and daggers, including throwing knives.

He has black hair like Logan, but his eyes are grey, and he has a nasty scar on the side of his face from when him and Patton were fighting a monster before Talyn found them.

He's even shorter than Patton, but he's also not done growing yet, so cut him some slack.

Okay now the good stuff. You already read the gist of his back story with Patton, but once Patton got claimed their stories kind of separated.

See after Patton got claimed Dennis was still stuck in the Hermes cabin for a while. But while Patton was getting to know his other siblings, Dee was kinda left behind.

He took care of the rest of the distance when he was claimed by Apate.

It's a mostly one sided hate, because despite what Dennis has done, Patton just can't bring himself to hate his brother. And, no matter what he tells people Dennis really just misses his big brother but feels betrayed and can't risk that.

So instead he befriended a son of Eris, a boy also scorned by his brother (more on him soon). Although honestly, it's more like Dennis is the one keeping the older boy even semi under control.

Other than that, Dennis is still the manipulative, lying, GOOD INTENTIONED snek we all know and love.

He still causes chaos, but he's kind of true Neutral.

He's like this because that's how he came to believe was necessary for survival.

He was a child of the god of lies.

They wanted a snake?

He'd give them a snake.

But Patton won't give up on Dee. So maybe, just maybe, Dennis won't give up on himself either

Random fact: The one night (after Dennis was out of the infirmary for his injury) while the Hailey boys were still in the Hermes cabin, Patton and Dennis managed to sneak into the kitchen and Patton made chocolate chip cookies. Much to his annoyance, even to this day Dennis's ambrosia and nectar tend to taste like those cookies.

REMUS DUX (16)

Son of Eris, goddess of strife and discord

Remus is stronger in chaotic times, can create a golden apple that can cause people to fight over it, and cause fights between weaker-willed people.

His most powerful ability is a Strife Storm which causes things within it to break, change, or warp.

Remus uses a mace. Plot twist, right? He uses a sword more often than his signature weapon though.

The Mace is black with green designs on the handle. The head is celestial bronze, but Remus painted it black.

By the way, the following actually happened:

Thomas: What do you have?

Remus running wildly: A MACE!

Thomas: NO!

Roman: Oh my gods, why does he have a mace.

Remus has Auburn hair like Roman, but has black eyes and dyed lime green streaks into it.

He and Roman are the exact same height, and this annoys the shit out of both of them.

So now the family stuff. It seems complicated but it's really not, I swear.

So remember Roman's mom? So she met Apollo and had Roman.

But on the exact same day as Roman, Remus appeared on the doorstep of Mr. Dux. He knew it was his child, based on the note from Eris. So yes, the two have the exact same birthday.

But THEN, like not even a year later, Ms. Prince and Mr. Dux met and soon, they got married.

Roman and Remus got along like real brothers, and were the best of friends. Until, they were six years old.

You may remember that six years old was the first summer the boys arrived at Camp Half-Blood.

Roman was claimed practically as soon as they crossed the border. Remus was claimed in a few weeks, but during those weeks something...something happened to him.

He began to...change.

He began to become more chaotic, cruel, just plain old mean.

Roman was trying so hard to excuse this. Maybe his brother just missed their parents? Maybe if he spent more time with Remus than his cabin mates?

But then Remus was claimed, and Roman finally snapped, turning his back on his brother for good.

This was the last straw for Remus too.

The two finally decided, subconsciously and unanimously, that despite their parents love for both of them, despite their marriage, despite their childhood, they were no longer brothers.

Both boys cried that night.

But now Remus channels his energy into destruction, pranks, and honestly horrible things.

Dennis is quite honestly the only thing keeping him from actually killing someone.

That orthux that attacked Logan? That was Remus.

The forest incident? Remus.

Random fact: Remus loves bananas, and of his favorite things to do is eat a banana and leave it on the floor of the dining pavilion right before the dinner rush and watch an unsuspecting demigod slip and fall.

THOMAS SANDERS (20)

Son of Iris, goddess of the rainbow

Okay I know what you're thinking, but I SWEAR this isn't a gay joke. Honestly it started that way but I did actual research and I decided to actually keep it.

Okay so children of Iris have good communication skills, are often nice and good at making friends, are creative, have good color coordination, and are good with animals. Sounding familiar yet? YUP IT SOUNDS LIKE THOMAS FUCKING SANDERS.

Sorry I'm just so excited this worked out so perfectly.

Anyway onto the next part: powers.

Thomathy over here has the power to generate and manipulate light and color, he can change the color of things with just a touch (people suspect he's behind Virgil's black Camp t-shirts), he can see the whole spectrum of light (thankfully he can turn this on and off), and because he's special, he can summon rainbow wings that he can use to fly.

Thomas uses a bow and arrow. There isn't much special about them. It's a recurve bow that's a magenta color, the feathers on his arrows are all different colors, the arrowheads are celestial bronze but there are celestial bronze bits on the ends of his bow just in case a monster decides to get up close and personal.

He has a short sword as well, but he prefers to use the bow.

Thomas looks the same as our Thomas: brown hair, brown eyes, 5’10” (177 cm), etc.

Thomas honestly has a pretty good family life, and actually has been known to bring campers home with him for a week or so if needed? His family is welcome at camp, people call Mama Sanders “mom” even more often than they do Logan, it's pretty amazing.

As for demigod stuff, well Thomas was on watch for a while.

He was special for a child of Iris already (the wings ain't normal), but his best friend and his protector (Joan obviously) could tell he had potential to be a leader and a role model for all the kids at camp.

So at twelve, Thomas arrived at Camp Half Blood for his first day at camp.

He wasn't the best when it came to the physical attributes. He could fight, otherwise he'd be dead by now, but he wasn't exactly gifted at it.

Yet somehow he was counselor of the Iris cabin by the time he was 15?

He is just great at making friends. Even the Ares cabin likes him! He can actually talk them down!

No one understands it!

Literally the only one he can't control is Remus.

Soon, Dionysus was able to somehow cut a deal that got him out of camp director. That title went to Chiron and Thomas, at age 18, became the activities counselor, taking over Chiron's now vacant spot.

Literally the entire camp cheered when this happened.

There wasn't a single unhappy camper in sight.

Random Fact: Thomas's eyes actually change color sometimes, like a holographic image. They're usually brown, but campers swear they've seen them multiple other colors, even colors that shouldn't be possible like red and purple.

Tag List: @coconut-cluster @stop-it-anxiety @wizzo-the-motherfucking-wizard @planetkookie @winterrs-child @thgjclw @dragonsaphirareads @jessadamsdraws @landofsaltandshade @just--potato @that-one-sunfish-with-a-wig-on @withspaces @demoncrownqueen

[burningfestivalpersona]

Rune Factory 4 Characters as Etrian Odyssey Classes

So, having done the RF3 bachelorettes... let’s see how the marriage candidates and main characters of this game stack up!

.

Lest/Frey: Like with Micah, the biggest problem with these two is that they have too many options. Lore-wise, however, any two of Farmer/Hero/Sovereign would probably work.

In EOIII, Farmer and Sovereign are a decently popular combination, as two support-based sets that mesh well together. Hero doesn’t pair quite as well with either of them, but makes up for it with actual combat capabilities.

If the Hero class is in use, it should probably be the main class, but aside from that, the specifics don’t really matter.

Vishnal: I honestly believe he could make a good Arbalist, and I’m not entirely sure why. He’s not exactly the first person I’d trust with heavy artillery.

Clorica: ...If weapon choice were a factor, she’d be either a Wildling or a Highlander. Given that it’s Clorica, neither of those quite fit.

The Farmer, however, learns a skill at low levels called Lullaby. The song puts all enemies on the field to sleep... as well as the user.

For someone like Clorica... is there really any other option?

Kiel: ...Sadly, just because someone uses magic to attack doesn’t mean I can give them all Alchemist/Zodiac/Runemaster/Warlock and be done with it. There’s just too many of them.

So, for Kiel, let’s go with Gunner. He still has his elemental attacks, it’s just that now it’s backed up by firearms, for some reason. And, also, can somehow heal people by shooting them. I don’t know, either.

Forte: The Protector class and its descendants share a specialty in one thing- shields, and protection skills. The actual weapon used varies, of course, but the initial Protector equips a sword, and Forte also has a sword. The fact that Forte, a knight, should belong to a class focused on keeping others safe has never been in question.

Xiao Pai: She is an axe-using Landsknecht. I don’t know why. She just is. Next!

Arthur: Zodiac. He’s got the coat, he’s got the magic, and he has the analysis skills required to take notes of enemies’ weaknesses, which is sort of the whole point of the class.

...He’d also focus so much on acquiring the quickly-burned through skill points that he’d forget to sleep. Someone go get Porcoline...

Margaret: This one, at least, is obvious. The Troubadour is the original buffing class, providing stat increases for the entire party through the power of music. The stats that can be increased include Max HP, all offensive stats, all defensive stats... or movement speed.

The only real downside is that certain enemies will mix up their attack patterns if the party has, overall, more than a certain number of status effects, and buffing the entire party goes over that limit, but that’s only a thing for the really high-power opponents, anyway.

In later games, the Troubadour’s effects can be emulated by whatever class is currently in charge of buffs. That part, at least, is not complicated.

Doug: He wants to be the hero class. He has some of the skills to do so. But Landsknecht just fits so much better for some reason.

Amber: Her cuteness and happy outlook bring the Medic class to mind, while her actual battle performance suggests something that deals huge amounts of damage, like Dragoon or Highlander.

They’re all useful. It’s just that one option is a lot less terrifying than the others.

Dylas: This is another obvious one. Pugilists attack with their fists, and have a powerful skill that inflicts volt-based damage. There shouldn’t need to be any further explanation.

Dolce: Arcanist. Like the Hexers before them, Arcanists inflict ailments and binds, this time as the result of powerful magic circles that can also be dismissed for extra effects. For best results, pair with War Magus or Nightseeker. She’ll be squishy, but she’ll lay all the hurt on her opponents.

For those more interested in adventuring on Mars, Necromancer is also a good choice, given the existence of Pico. In that case, Dolce will call up Wraiths and throw them at her enemies to poison and/or explode them.

You just know that, if she could do that with Pico, she would. Pico, meanwhile, would probably be just a smidge less enthusiastic.

Leon: The War Magus is the red mage of the Etrian Odyssey series, requiring high skill point and equipment investment for the sake of both healing and attacking. Again, I can’t give everyone a dedicated elemental magic class just because they use magic.

If you want to go for it, though, Zodiac does make a good subclass, if equally as skill-intensive. But that’s what the Rest feature is for.

[lex-cursus]

So with the help of some, thoughts are coalescing into a proper idea and so far I got. 

Wandering warrior whose borderline hunger for battle overshadowed their sense of purpose, to the point that those who once heard their name can’t even recall, and ferocity and will to survive was more like a monster than a soldier. Eventually making a contract with the world for the power to keep on fighting, they kept stalking battlefield after battlefield, unsure of why beyond blind compulsion and a yearning to grow stronger. 

The wish they’d have for the grail would most likely be remembering what drove them to fight in the first place, but for the most part they’d just play the role of a loyal, albeit not the most noble defender. Often times breaking rank if they see cause for it and having to be dragged back. Essentially someone barely holding themself together until their next fight. 

Lancer: “Landsknecht” seems to fit them best but we’ll see how things develop

[thegreatpikminzx789]

A Gathering at Jail Rock - Etrian Odyssey Mobile Mythos - Chapter 1 - Runaway to Freedom

Wattpad|AO3

Beginning (You are here)|Next Chapter

Taking place on a remote part of Earth, somewhere vastly surrounded by the sea, with no sight of other land masses, the island known as Jail Rock, housed a tall tree within a forest surrounding a pioneer-built village. Many of the inhabitants called the mighty tree, the Forest's Jail. It is rumored that everyone that investigated the World Tree disappeared overnight, and not a single person outside the island knows why this event occurred.

A study team was formed in the village with the intention to  investigate the Yggdrasil tree. Once word spread, many people traveled from their homelands to visit Jail Rock, hoping to climb the Yggdrasil Tree there. Some adventurers dare to seek the truth, some seek wealth and honor, and some seek the fight of their lives.

Summary: A man known as Elibom ran away from home in order to find a new life that would fit him the most without his past haunting him like a disease. What kinds of people and enemies will he make along his path to a new lifestyle? What kinds of length will he go to make sure his friends are well protected under his care? And what will he think of the new lifestyle once he reaches his destination: Jail Rock?

---------------------------------------------------

AN:  Due to this being an unofficial Etrian Odyssey game with a vastly unknown amount of origin and questionable ideas, I'm going to take liberty by making things different to make sure it's more original, both in monsters and in labyrinth theming.Also because the class choices, for some ungodly reason, is using the EO1/2 classes, I'm going to expand this to have a variety of classes/races, much like Etrian Odyssey Nexus. Keeps things interesting, this way. That, and this is pretty much my first attempt at creating something based on something so obscure, so I’m going to try my best with world building.

Near the city of Etria, the morning sun had just risen in the azure sky. Its rays, shining ever so brilliant, casts itself upon the planet, as a tired, exhausted man with white hair, blue and red eyes, and seemed to be ragged to the core. He had ran for who knows how long, far from the place he had ran from...his home. Though he could potentially enter the city and rest, he much preferred to rest while heading to whatever fate took him next.

He looked back upon the land behind him, knowing that whatever transpired there will be the only thing he has left to his name, apart from his possessions and money he was able to acquire. Very, very, far from where he stood. It wasn't a popular kingdom as opposed to Etria, but when you had ran for several hundred miles away from a place you formerly called home, you start to lose track of time.

"Fuckin' hell," Elibom groaned, leaning into the shade of a nearby tree, gasping for air. "Haven't ran that fast since I was young..."

It doesn't help that the memory of what he last saw of his parents lingered in his mind... lying on their bed, unable to move, and devoid of life. The kingdom he left behind was gradually falling to an illness that had no held record of a cure. It felt...wrong.

To run away from the life expected from his parents...but he didn't like dying to a disease that no one was able to cure! But not even he knows how far it will linger in the land he left behind. He had to run...find somewhere else to hide, and never return...

Most of his kingdom expected him to rule the throne should his parents pass away. Instead, he decided to run from his responsibility. For he had dreams far better realized elsewhere than having it be wasted on ruling a kingdom which was slowly dying on the inside. To explore the world...to explore...

He checked his pockets for the money he was able to acquire from his parents' account the moment he was able to find their vault. It wasn't enough to get him some strong as hell weapon, but it was more than enough to probably get a ticket to a boat. Hopefully, he wouldn't run into anyone who has the disease from his land in whatever town he's lucky enough to find.

After regaining his breath, and taking a moment to mourn the loss of his parents to himself, he noticed a bunch of people walking on a nearby road, getting onto a carriage of sorts. Perhaps it will lead him to a town that is capable of traveling by boat. He wouldn't be able to represent himself as the prince of the land to the commoners... They could get the wrong idea.

Not like he could do something about it now. He wanted to get as far away from his kingdom, now. He gathered the strength in his legs and ran to the carriage. It was the only way he could catch up to it.

"Last call for the carriage trip to city of Niranjan! Repeat, last call for the trip to Niranjan!" The man standing beside the carriage beckoned, before accepting the cash from an approaching adventurer, standing aside so that they could enter.

Niranjan... It was far beyond the city of Etria, yet it also was harbored near the edge of the ocean. Perhaps he can get a boat and sail out of the country... Elibom panted as he approached the man, taking a moment to catch his breath.

"You alright there, good sir?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm just...exhausted..." Elibom replied, standing up straight after moving his hair aside. "H-How much is it to ride to a nearby city?"

"One hundred fifty Ental, sir." The man confidently replied. Seemed a bit cheap for anyone that wasn't rich enough to get Ental. But considering the carriage was likely filled with adventurers, he was sure that they had enough Ental with them.

He took out the money from his pocket and handed it to the man. "I'd like to head there, myself, if you please." Elibom explained, as the man counted the Ental in his hand.

"Fancy yourself an explorer, eh?" The man smirked, noticing Eli's bag on his shoulder. The prince couldn't find it in him to explain his situation well enough to another individual, so he simply nodded in response, hoping it was enough to satisfy the man's curiosity.

"Then get in the carriage, sir. It's only an hour away, so please make yourself comfortable." The carriage man motioned, as Eli didn't hesitate to go into the carriage, as he closed the door behind him, and finding an available seat where he can contemplate alone.

After a couple of seconds, the carriage began to move. The scenery before him moved on by, as he took solace in seeing off the land he would never set foot in again. The forest his family often visited was going off in the distance the further the carriage got.

And with the forest behind him, so too, did the kingdom his family expected him to rule. He wasn't quite yet free from the land he was ever-so-proclaimed to be its future king, but it'll come to him soon enough. For once...he took a deep breath and a sighed in relief.

Although...it also did no harm to look upon the other explorers that he was heading into town with. Occasionally, he would glance over to his right, seeing the other explorers converse with the other. Medics, Landsknechts, two Hexers, a War Magus... Not a lot of variety of classes to look upon.

He did notice one of the Landsknechts had pink hair, which was an unusual color for a boy to have. They also had heterochromia colored eyes, much like Eli, except the Landsknecht's eyes were yellow and purple. For some reason, the colors of the Landsknechts eyes and hair felt somewhat soothing to look at. Turning away from the landsknecht, his eyes turned to gaze a Medic reading a book, sitting far away from the other explorers. Perhaps she didn't like the noise of chatter?

Eli noted to himself that the woman had brown eyes and black hair, ending in a ponytail that she had placed on her lap. From what Elibom could glance, the book she was reading was one of myths and legends, and not the typical medical guides or books Medics would normally read daily. She, too, seemed to be by herself, away from the noise.

Well, two's a company, as they say. No way in hell he was gonna stay silent and stare off in the distance. Gotta spruce things up every once in a while!

He got up and approached the Medic, seeing her flip over to a new page of the book. "H-Hey, um, do you mind if I sit next to you?" Elibom inquired.

"As long as you aren't distracting, like the others over there." The woman responded without looking away from her book, only adjusting her glasses to prevent the sunlight from the window getting into her eyes. The prince sat down, placing his bag on the table, sighing as he sat back on the chair, removing some of his armor on his hands.

The woman had only but took a single glance at Elibom to notice how bruised and injured he had been. "Hold on a moment,  how long have you been like this without any medical attention?" She questioned, throwing the prince off guard as he turned to face her.

"U-Um," Eli began to stutter, having not realized the major bruises he had gotten when he was stumbling through thorns and concrete. "I haven't... I thought they'd heal on their own, with what limited medical knowledge I knew of..." He admitted, seeing the female medic groan and closed the book in her hands, setting it aside and grabbed his hands, bringing them towards her, scanning them and checking for any recent injury.

"Well, I'll admit, you have some medical skill, but these aren't effective in the long run..." The medic sighed, as she began unwrapping the bandages and medical tapes he had got on and started to replace them with a much better medical tape, casting some sort of healing spell on him before applying the medical tape.

Elibom stood completely still as the medic tended to his injuries. "S-Sorry for making this rough on you, miss..." The prince apologized.

"Medics are around for a damn good reason, you know." The medic adjusted her glasses, as she puts the medical tape back in her bag. "Sothym."

"Huh?"

"My name's Sothym." Sothym repeated herself, slightly annoyed about having to repeat herself. Her glare towards Elibom made him shiver a bit. She seemed quite intimidating, despite her friendly appearance minutes earlier.

"N-N-Name's Eli." Eli introduced himself after he built up the courage to speak. Sothym's glare quickly stopped as she took a bit to ponder about the name, as if it struck a familiarity with her. "Eli, hm...?"

She took a glance back at Eli, trying to get a better idea of his appearance. Apart from the hair, and earrings, hardly anything about his clothes screamed 'princely'. It seemed like he just grabbed whatever clothes fitted him for the day. But the name was quite familiar, no doubts there.

"Your clothes are quite shabby for a prince, you know?" Sothym remarked, doing her best to keep any mention of royalty to a minimum around the other explorers. Eli sighed and looked down at the table.

"I-I'm sorry... I just...something terrible happened back at home, and I-"

"Ran away to try and find freedom elsewhere?" The medic interrupted, seeing the prince nod in response. He seemed like he wanted to go more detail, but is holding back on information that he didn't want to dump onto another.

"Can't say I blame you. I once had to run a medical center in a part of my town." She began, flicking her hair aside.

"Sold medicinal soaps for a time, before I found it boring and went around to several towns, being a medic for several other medical centers and hospitals before I saved enough money to get off this damn continent."

"Medicinal soaps...?"

"Some man-made soap that, when made with the right ingredients, can cure certain properties of the human body. My parents always tried their best to make the best ones around." Sothym explained in short detail.

The black haired medic sat back against the chair she was sitting in, letting out a sigh. "Sorry, I tend to ramble on whenever it comes to a particular subject." She apologized.

"H-Hey, it's perfectly OK. We all have things that we tend to ramble on about." Eli chuckled, not minding the tirade she was going on. Sothym lets out a chuckle of her own as well.

Gods, it had been so long since he had spoken to another commoner without fussing too much about his title as a prince. People back in his home would refer to him by his title on an almost daily basis. Given his brother had left long ago, ignoring the social status of the rich, the poor, and the common folk felt...exciting, now that he is experiencing this first hand. A question sneaked into his head, attempting to get him to think of a different subject.

"So, why were you studying that book about myths and legends earlier?" The prince inquired as she looks back at the book she placed down. "Ah, well..." She began, taking a moment to take a deep breath.

"I've been interested in trying to find out the truth behind myths and legends, as far fetched as that may seem. Truth is...the myths in that book seemed to be 'real and hard earned myths and legends' about an Yggdrasil tree far from this continent. I bought it recently so I could decipher the myths behind it."

Eli had only heard about rumors of the Yggdrasil Tree that were said to be around the world. Tall trees that were said to reach about as high as the sky itself. Though to think one could be near the very continent he was born and raised on? Who'd have ever thought he could hear of such a thing once he was outside his own home?

"What's so special about this Yggdrasil, apart from the myths and legends the book tells?" The prince inquired, wanting to know a bit more about the mighty and legendary tree everyone seems to know.

"Hell if I know." Sothym shrugged. "But if there is something, I'm going to expose the truth with everything I got. And what a better place to investigate than the Yggdrasil in Jail Rock."

Jail Rock? There was so much questions going through the princes' head, he wasn't sure if he could have them all answered before the end of the day.

"I...don't know about Jail Rock. Is it some kind of place or city?" Eli pestered Sothym with another question, seeing the medic sigh. "You sure don't know much about the outside world beyond our own continent, don't you?"

That was something Eli was not afraid to admit. His parents kept wanting him to be a ruler, and that any information about an Yggdrasil, or myths or legends of any sorts never held any merit to being a long term kind. His lifestyle was much more different than his brother, who was more in line of being the next king of his former home than Eli himself.

"Well, if you must know, Jail Rock is the name of an island that houses the Yggdrasil tree this book claims to know the myths and legends of. Monsters unlike any other Yggdrasil tree has ever held within... And a mysterious rumor that I'm most curious about to confirm for myself." Sothym looked at the prince, who urged the medic to continue speaking.

"The rumor, albeit strange in nature, states, 'One day, an investigation team that had entered Jail Rock's Yggdrasil vanished one day. Anyone involved in the investigation team was also taken in the dead of night.'"

The prince gulped upon hearing the rumor that people vanished mysteriously. It sounded like a scary story his parents would tell him to get him to behave. "H-How did...how did that happen?"

"Nobody knows. That's why there's so many adventurers heading to this city to get to the boat that will take them to Jail's Rock." The medic motioned to the other explorers, who were happily content chatting away the hour until they reached their destination. "Fame...a fight against the monsters living inside the tree...or even to find the truth. Whatever their reasons are, there's no denying that this has caused the rising buzz of explorers to heed the call."

"I see..." The prince looked out the window again, then back to his bag, wondering if this could be the opportunity to be free from the burden of being the prince that abandoned his kingdom... To runaway far beyond home and live elsewhere...

"I...I want to be an explorer, Sothym." He declared, seeing her turn to him once more. "You sure you want to live in that kind of lifestyle? It won't be easy, unlike most royal people... That, and you'd need a new pair of clothes." Sothym argued.

"I want the freedom to do what I want... If I must take up arms and explore the Yggdrasil tree, then that's what I will do!" Eli spoke, a look of determination showing on his face.

Though he had little experience, he felt like this was something that could get him out of the land that was more than likely doomed to fail under his leadership. Sothym placed her hands in her pocket as a small smile formed on her face. "Alright then, Eli. If you have what it takes to lead a guild, then we gotta find some explorers willing to join our guild." Sothym began, adjusting her glasses once more, feeling it slide off a little.

"We got plenty of time before we enter town, so why don't you rest for a spell?" She suggested, estimating that only fifteen minutes had passed when she looked out the window. Eli looked out the window and settling back against the seat.

"I suppose I'll take your offer, Sothym. You'll...let me know when we're in town, right?" The prince wanted to make sure that he wasn't dozing off well past the intended time.

"Of course I will. You just seemed pretty tired, so resting is generally a better idea than wasting energy on staying awake. A good Medic can see these sorts of things far often than a rookie can."

That was more than reassuring enough for the white haired prince. He had ran for quite some time, and the weight of succumbing to sleep was getting to him now that he wasn't running as much as he was. With a yawn escaping him, he grabbed what Sothym assumed was  a medium sized cloth and placed it on himself.

Strange how he finds comfort in doing this around other people he doesn't know, but Sothym was gonna look out for him. Closing his eyes, he dozed off to sleep, hoping to rest from the tiring trek he made through his own land...

Still, it baffled the medic before him. If Eli, a supposed prince of the land, doesn't know much about the outside world, it's going to be a pain to teach him all about the things that he's unaware of... But regardless, who knows what they were going to encounter out there, and the land of Jail Rock is sure to be a mysterious land to explore for the both of them. It would probably be good to find at least one member before they get inevitably stuck on another long trip to their destination.

.................................................................

"Hey, get up. We're here."

Time flew by since Eli fell asleep, and Sothym's voice, along with shaking the runaway prince awake, nearly startled the man. Had he not caught sight of the nearly empty carriage, he most likely would've been kicked out. "S-Sorry, I-um..." Eli stuttered, quickly folding the cloth that covered him to put back into his bag.

The woman could only sigh at Eli's rush to get up. She didn't expect him to be that tired. Grabbing his bag, the two finally left the carriage. The prince looked around, taking in the sight of the city.

"Niranjan... Never thought I'd set foot in this damn city of all places... This place is notorious for being a city where living here can either be a blessing or a curse." Sothym groaned, adjusting her own bag on her shoulder alongside adjusting her glasses once more.

From what Eli could glance, she wasn't wrong. The city, while not shabby, was quite mixed, with buildings either built with such attention to detail, or buildings that have been stripped of its unique appearance. Some people were even trying to get enough money to get by with just to survive. Seeing a place like this himself, honestly worried if Jail Rock was potentially going to be like this when they get there.

"I've heard some people are more rich here than in my own land... And that they've even claimed to be adventurers, too." Eli commented.

Sothym could only assume he must have heard outside rumors about such people living here. "It's hard to tell when the rich can manipulate the weak commoners. That's why I tend to stick to my own damn business." The Medic argued, motioning for him to follow her to a clothes store.

"We have plenty of time until we have to get our tickets to get to our boat to Jail Rock." She began, looking back behind her as she saw Eli walk beside her. "Tell me, have you been experienced in using any kind of weapon?"

"My father was once a Hero among my people, so he often trained me in the ways of the sword..." Eli began to recall, sticking as close to the medic so as to not stray from her. "He also taught me some skills based around the Hero class, but we hadn't really practiced them in a while."

"Not proficient in the outside world, but proficient enough to wield a sword... What kind of family did he grow up with?" Sothym muttered to herself, shrugging it off so as to not bother him about it now.

A few seconds later, and they arrived at the clothes store. "Well, we're here. If my calculations are correct, you should have enough money inheritance to afford some clothes befitting of a Hero class. Or, just whatever doesn't make you stand out as a royal figure." She began, stopping Eli from moving before she continued from where she left of.

"Of course, if there's anything too overpriced, we aren't getting it. Those tend to indicate that one is quite rich around this city, and we don't need that type of attention on ourselves, including you. Assassins can easily distinguish their target from the public eye." Sothym added, seeing the prince nod and began to walk around the store.

Still, assassins, in a city like this? This continent was a lot more dangerous than his parents had led him to believe. Would anyone truly want to assassinate him for wearing something so pricey as clothes? Or for being a runaway? What if-

"Hey, focus, Eli. We don't have time to stand still and daydream." Sothym's voice rang in Eli's ears as he turned to her.

"S-Sorry..."

The medic can only sigh as she encouraged him to continue looking around. They wandered for several minutes before Eli's eyes gazed at a red and blue armor set for a Hero class. It was just the armor set just for him. And the price was just enough to afford. It also came with a sword and a shield as a bonus for purchasing the full set. He assumed that armory and weaponry were all just sold in one shop, so it was a pretty great deal to get.

Sothym followed Eli's gaze as she stared at the armor for a moment before looking at Eli. "Content with something that matches your eye color, huh?" She mused, seeing him nod in response.

"Yeah...the others just didn't feel right for me to wear." Eli admitted, as he began to gather the armor and taking it to the shopkeeper and exchanging the money, before heading off to a changing room. Not that Sothym didn't mind the idea, but something as easily distinct as matching eye colors felt...off, in her opinion.

Assuming the man she was going to travel with was a runaway prince, she would at least think that he'd have the idea of blending in more with the public. Then again, given her own description on how assassins worked in this city, she felt it would've been a lot harder for him to hide had he not be by her side.

Nevertheless, she waited for Eli to come out, waiting for what seemed like an eternity before the prince came out of the changing room with his new appearance. She noticed his hair was more refined than it was minutes earlier. "...Not too bad for someone who desperately wants to be an explorer." Sothym commented, seeing the prince grin in return.

"Heh, this is nothing. It's like I've become like my...father, in a...way..." Eli's cheery grin started diminishing when he began to speak about his father. Sothym was quick to notice the change in his voice real quick.

"What's wrong?"

Eli didn't respond for quite a while, even when waving her own hand in front of him didn't garner his attention. Letting out a sigh, she grabbed his hand and pinched her index finger and thumb on a part of his palm to pinch him, as he lets out a yelp of pain and retracted his hand away from the medic.

"W-W-What was that for?!" He exclaimed, thrown aback by Sothym's action.

"To get your attention, duh." She countered. "You looked distraught speaking about your father. Did something happen to the king of this land...?"

The silence that filled the air between Sothym and Eli didn't help the tension that the prince felt about revealing about. But now that he said it aloud, there's hardly a way of avoiding conversing about it in full without tabling it for another day. With a sigh, he placed his own hand on the hilt of the sword attached to his belt.

"Mom and Dad...both fell to a disease that couldn't be cured in time." He finally admitted, seeing Sothym taken aback a bit by the news. "I ran away not because of a terrible life, but because I didn't want to fall to the same disease that killed my parents." He added, his eyes gazing to the floor as some tears escaped his eyes.

The medic took a bit longer to compose herself than she normally had. "Well, no wonder everyone back at home was debating about what happened at the castle... I had ignored the news and thought they were spreading rumors again." She began, looking at Eli in the eye and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm terribly sorry for the loss that happened for you." Sothym sighed, patting Eli's shoulder to try and comfort him. "If only I was there, then maybe..."

Maybe the whole situation would've been different. Would it have been for the better, or would Sothym too, fall to the diseases' grasp? Too many thoughts ran through the princes' head that by the time he wanted to respond, both he and Sothym had noticed that there was a huge fight going on outside the store. Normally a huge fight wasn't enough to stop a public crowd, but everyone seemed to be watching the fight, as if fearing what would happen if they stepped forward.

Eli saw the pink haired Landsknecht attempting to converse with two buff-looking men who seemed more than ready to pummel down the poor Landsknecht who was trying to talk to them. "What exactly is-?" Sothym began, before seeing Eli rush out to try and stop the fighting from prolonging itself. "H-Hey, wait up!" She yelled, following after him.

"You think you could try and get some of our money while we weren't lookin', weren't ye?" The red haired tall guy growled, grinding his fists together in a threatening way. "Yeah, anyone who tries to borrow our money has to go through the boss!" The other man added, standing rather close to the landsknecht as they attempted to back away.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"There's no excuses, boy! You brought this upon ye'self!" The red haired Pugilist exclaimed, winding up for a punch, feeling his fist get charged with electricity.

"Now you'll feel the wrath of Ira's Thunder Fist!" The man named Ira yelled, as the pink-haired landsknecht looked away and tried to shield themselves from the impact of the attack.

It wasn't until the Pugilist's fist hit something metal that the landsknecht opened their eyes to see Eli standing right in front of him, guarding with the Hero's shield he bought not too long ago. The landsknecht was rather speechless... Why would he...?

"What the bloody hell?!" Ira grunted, surprised at the sudden appearance of Eli as he regained his stance from bouncing off his shield. Eli looked back at the landsknecht, once he backed off from guarding the attack.

"Are you OK?" The prince asked the landsknecht, before hearing the other guy make his way toward him and faced the tall Pugilist. "'Ey you punk with the white hair; this ain't none of your business! Buzz off!" The Pugilist with dark green hair insisted, readying himself to pummel the intervening prince for stepping into a fight that wasn't his.

Eli gripped his shield, tightly a little shaken up from trying to think of a way to peacefully resolve this. He wasn't gonna let the landsknecht get hurt, no matter what. And that was what he intended on doing.

"Not talkin' eh?" Ira proclaimed, taking the princes' silence as a declaration all on its own. "Fine, then feel our wrath, ignorant brat-!"

"Hiyaah!"

As if in sync with the Pugilists taking a couple of steps closer to Eli, two bottles which emitted black smoke struck the tall men, as they recoiled back and tried to fan away the smoke that was emitted from the bottles' impact. Eli and the landsknecht turned to see Sothym wave at them to follow her.

"Come on! We gotta run, now!" She yelled, placing the bottles of Blind Gas back in her bag.

Eli and the landsknecht looked at each other and nodded simultaneously, letting the landsknecht run towards Sothym with Eli following right behind him. People that witnessed the scene also ran or tried to mind their own business, as if they wanted nothing to do with what had happened before them.

"Sothym! Who were those two?!" Eli questioned as he caught up to Sothym.

"The Twin Pugilists: Ira and Gori. They're two Pugilists who serve the higher up everyone refuses to name aloud in Niranjan!" She explained, looking back for a split second to see if the Blind Gas still affected them. "It should take them a bit for the blind gas to wear off, so we best get out of here, quickly!"

"But what about getting more guild members?" The prince asked, seeming to be full of questions today.

"Not the time to be asking those questions, Eli!" The medic complained, wanting to focus on running before the Pugilists can recover and track them down.

From the top of the nearby building, a lone figure stood witnessed the scene before them, wearing a cloak of sorts to prevent themselves from easily being identifiable. Their eyes were locked onto Eli, running alongside Sothym and the landsknecht that he had saved, seeing them run as fast as possible, before disappearing behind several buildings that blocked the figures' sight.

"...Target acquired."

............................................................................

Eli took several deep breaths, after the group determined they weren't being followed. Sothym handed him a bottle of fresh water that she more than likely intended to drink prior to the situation. He took it and took a few sips from the bottle.

"Next time you see someone in danger, don't recklessly charge ahead, Eli. Had I not helped, you would've ended up severely wounded." The medic warned, before turning to the landsknecht and looked for injuries.

"Well, now I know not to try and pick up random Ental of the ground again..." The landsknecht sighed as they stood up from having to sit down, their voice sounding a lot more feminine than their appearance led to be.

Eli was straight up confused by the landsknecht's voice. He assumed the landsknecht was a boy, but the voice clearly didn't match their appearance.

"What were you thinking, trying to steal money from those two? That's even worse than having an assassin on your tail." Sothym glanced at the landsknecht.

"H-Hey, I didn't know that they worked for someone higher up than them! It isn't my fault for not being told ahead of time!" The landsknecht replied, being honest with how little knowledge she knew of the city.

"So, um..." Eli intervened, wanting to change the subject from the two big Pugilists. "W-What's your name?"

The landsknecht turned to look at Eli. "Ah, right... It would be best to introduce ourselves now that we're out of that mess." They chuckled, scratching their head as they took a few seconds to compose themselves.

"The name's Chimo." Chimo began. "I may look like a boy, but never underestimate one's looks! I gotta find whatever money is lying around that World Tree!"

So, Chimo was not a male, but a female... Ouch. Guess even he doesn't know some people dress differently than the norm he was expected to see.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Chimo. I'm Elibom, but you can call me Eli." The white haired prince introduced himself, shaking Chimo's hand for a few seconds.

"Sothym." Sothym simply said, hardly in the mood to explain much about herself for the time being. She wanted to be aware, in case the two Pugilists were out on the prowl for them.

There was nothing wrong with being safe than sorry, after all.

"So, what were you two up to before that escapade occurred?" Chimo inquired, wanting to know the people she ran off with. Eli scratched the back of his head as he placed a hand on his waist.

"Clothes shopping... Nothing too major..." He responded as his eyes glanced at Sothym looking around the corners and keeping an eye on anything the Pugilists might use as cover to corner them when they least expected it.

"Ah, I see." The pink haired Landsknecht sighed, placing her arms behind her head as she leaned back against a wall, standing near the prince. "I've been kind of wanting to find some people to join with, but most of the people in this city wanted money, or something else that's precious to me. And both things I'm not willing to part with."

Well, she wasn't wrong. It would've been a pain for Eli and Sothym to try and find more people in this town, considering...well, Eli himself is royalty. He's a flat out easy target, and if they learn he's rich with money, who knows what would happen next?

Seeing as Sothym wasn't involved in the conversation for the majority of the time they were standing there, Eli figured this could be a chance to have someone join them so they can form a guild. "Say," Eli began. "You wouldn't mind if you tagged along with us, would you?"

Chimo glanced up at Eli with a confused look on her face. "Y-You want me to join you?" A hope glimmered in her eyes for a moment, but then she stood her ground. "Wait...what's the catch?" She added, thinking Eli could be doing this just so spite her.

"T-There is no catch," The prince exclaimed. "Just a pure and open invitation to our upcoming guild!"

Although it wasn't an entirely fair explanation of what he was telling her, Chimo did feel that his words held some truth. Considering he DID save her from a Thunder Fist from a Pugilist that was probably gonna beat her up for merely touching Ental that wasn't hers. Honestly, being alive was a much better debt than being dead; or on the edge of it.

"Alright, I think you got yourselves a new member, sir~" She hummed, a beaming smile forming on the landsknecht's face. Eli smiled back, shaking her hand once more. That's two more to find, at least, from his prior knowledge on how guilds work.

The prince had hardly felt Sothym's pressense, as he quickly noticed her standing right next to him. "You two done with your little meet-and-greet?" The medic inquired, as both the prince and landsknecht separated their hands from the other.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Chimo, but I'm afraid Eli and I must-"

"She's coming along with us, Sothym."

"She's what now?"

Sothym blinked as she and Eli glanced at each other. "She's coming along with us; as part of our guild." Eli explained, smirking a little as he watched Sothym silently question how she wasn't hearing the conversation behind her.

She eventually lets out a sigh, seeming to discard the question she was thinking about. "Okay then, guild leader," Sothym began, wanting to get back to her prior point of discussion. "With one guild member down, we'd need at least two more to properly form a guild."

"I know two people who we can get on the guild!" Chimo chirped, as the prince glanced back at the cheery landsknecht. "You do?"

The pink haired landsknecht nodded in return. "You see, I was invited here by a friend so we can set off to explore to lands unknown, and he wanted me to try and find any potential guild members on my way over." She started, as Sothym placed her hands in her pocket as she listened to Chimo.

"He should be waiting near the ticket center, so we should head over there right away." Chimo continued, walking past Eli and Sothym. "C'mon, I'll show you the way to the ticket center!" With that, the landsknecht began to walk on ahead, as Sothym and Eli soon followed behind.

To think that had he not ran away from home, he would have not met up with these two at all. He would have likely had a damn terrible time trying to get by all on his lonesome. The prince had no idea what awaited him from the remainder of today onward...

[petermorwood]

Your recent comment on the painting 'Her Lord's Protector' made me wonder - could the sword just be a still-in-use antique? How long was any given sword's useful lifespan? I'm assuming that any given sword used in combat didn't last all that long, but I have no reason for assuming so other than the gut feeling that even in ideal conditions combat wear-and-tear is pretty rough. (I know that artists take a lot of license and that's not the reason for this sword, but could it plausibly be?)

That sword wouldn’t have been still in use at the time “Her Lord’s Protector” was painted.Charles Edward Hallélived from 1846-1914, which means any medieval sword (or indeed, the knight’s plate armour) appearing in his painting was most definitely a museum-piece.

A sword’s working lifetime could be quite long: I remember reading about a Landsknecht katzbalger short sword (about 1550s) that was found to be fitted with a cut-down Norman blade (about 1050s); but by and large swords went out of use once armour changed so the sword didn’t work any more.

The one in the painting was a wide cutting weapon for use against mailed or padded-fabric-wearing opponents, once plate came in swordblades became narrow and pointy designed for stabbing into gaps because shearing through plate is not an option. That’s one of the reasons why maces, picks, poll-axes and war-hammers intended to irreparably dent it and the person inside became so popular...

(Interesting side-note: modern repro swords used by HEMA, re-enactors and renfair-ersget much more protracted use than real in-period swords, but the real ones got more more severe use  since HEMA etc. aren’t (I hope) using full-power killing force with every blow.)

Victorian painters were VERY fond of including museum-piece armour, though their grasp of “period-appropriate” could be a bit sketchy, and  occasionally the knights wearing them are so clearly Victorian gentlemen that the effect is more like cosplay or fancy dress.

Like so: the Black Prince tomb effigy shows he had a similar moustache, but this chap looks much more at home in 1860 than 1360...

[acradaunt]

Etrian Odyssey Nexus Playthrough - Week 1

I thought it would be a fun idea to record weekly my progress through EO Nexus. Why? I enjoy reading people's experiences where multiple options are available; what they chose, and why, and how exactly that turned out for them. It's something this EO has more than ever before, and it's such a central concept to my own work on DR, so in its own way, it's research. And since there is a need for people to have 100 QR codes, it serves a purpose there, too.

I'll try ultra-hard to avoid any form of spoilers, so expect me to be vague as hell about stratum or FOE names. To make the most of all these fun class options (and the extremely early Memory Conch), I'm rotating characters around as I see fit, but mostly in accordance with when conditionals are needed or interesting weapons are available. I mean, that kind of class-switching has been the norm for things like Final Fantasy since III, so why not do it here? Between these two things, I'm going to be writing about how characters are faring and where they shone, rather than going on about each stratum.

Couple general notes before character remarks; I'm playing on Expert (which is the norm for EO), and I just punched into the fifth stratum. On that, things are really coming together, as I'm now seeing enemies from three different regions of III and IV at the same time. Lush Woodlands was so aggressively a carbon-copy of its EOIV incarnation it made me really worried. Those fears seems fairly quashed at this point. Also, um, character remarks in Read More, because they're actually kinda long.

Imperial / Arcanist / Harbinger / Shogun / War Magus / Nightseeker - None of these have seen any use yet. Of 19 classes, some just might not fit in a first playthrough. The first three definitely'll show once subclasses come along, but right now aren't super-appealing for various reasons; Imperial's ridiculous TP requirements make it sound like a non-starter in early game, I don't trust turn-end heals when most random battles last 1-3 turns, and, well, I feel it'd be wrong to use my #1 Harbinger without also bringing along a certain Dragoon (Hero) and Masuaro (Ronin). That debuffer role has also lowkey been stolen by Landsknecht, of all things.

Klein the Hero - Klein has been absolutely devastating in random battles, but has generally floundered during bosses and FOEs, with Hero mostly being about multi-target attacks and a bit of a TP-hog. After netting the 3rd stratum boss' weapon, his damage output has been fairly ridiculous, and Shock Strike is nothing short of amazing. He's definitely not going anywhere, but I wouldn't say he's irreplaceable, either; that sword's nutso damage is innately amazing in anyone's hands. In a lot of ways, Hero is a remix of Dragoon, and while I definitely didn't like Dragoon at first, it grew on me quite a lot.

Iris the Protector - Iris came in strong against the 2nd stratum boss, and only got better with that boss' weapon able to shoot cheap line-piercing Fire attacks that could sweep most of the 3rd stratum. Ultimately, circumstances made her not very appealing for the 4th stratum, and I haven't seen any remarkable new spears, so she's mostly waiting for that. Or a Boss/FOE where Taunting is effective to return to the forefront.

Terra the Highlander - Terra was off-and-on for the early part of the game, trading said spear with Iris as was convenient. Veteran Skills haven't been particularly kind to her, but Master or Subclasses might still change that. She's certainly strong and sturdy enough to handle the frontline, and there's something to be said about how tricky it is to shatter a three-person front-row that doesn't need to rely on Protectors.

Stella the Zodiac - One of my starting five, Stella repeatedly died in one shot in the 1st stratum and burnt through TP way too fast, and performed similarly poorly in a brief stint in the 3rd stratum. I considered bringing her on again for a specific FOE, but ultimately didn't. After Warlock's same-turn Charge and Runemaster's Runes, this class just feels tremendously disappointing.

Coral the Landsknecht - Easily the most all-around reliable, if never the shining star. Extremely burly and with a diverse array of skills at hand, she's always useful. Primarily though, she shield bashes to cripple foes with Debuffs then Links away when they can't possibly do enough damage to kill anyone.

Erika the Ronin - Absolutely the core damage dealer for the 2nd's Boss and the 3rd stratum, primarily due to an incredibly good Katana you get midway through the 2nd Stratum. She was all about Air Blades from the back-row, then dashing to the front-row to regain her stance, drop offenses, or go for a strong arm-bind. It's a really fun class, all around. However, getting caught by a single good attack, even when in the back, is usually a death sentence for her, so it's a bit tricky, too. That said, she still came through big-time in both the 2nd and 3rd Strata Bosses, which were more endurance matches and about conserving TP more than anything, so there's something to say about that.

Laura the Medic - Not a ton to say here. Medics heal and revive; lifesavers when things get hairy during FOEs/Bosses. What is no joke is her Star Drop's ability to ruin defenses. Like Erika, she did occasional row-switching when things were safe. Not something you'd expect from a Medic. During initial planning, she was gonna be a Medic/Landsknecht, for high-speed Star Drops, but Star Drop is a normal debuff now, not a one-turn affair like it was, so I'm not too sure what her endgoal is anymore. I'm considering swapping her for Adam, who's designed to be a Medic/Zodiac, so I would at least have SOME form of normal mage (not to mention cheaper TP for heals via Free Energy). Laura's a dumbass though, and I love her for that, and right now, the Medic is hitting stuff in her free time, not casting, so she fits the bill better right now, especially as conserving TP is still a huge deal. STILL can't buy Amritas.

Juri the Survivalist - Probably the overall MVP for the first four strata. Blinding Arrow was vital against most Lush Woodlands FOEs/Bosses, and doubling all harvesting for a single skill point is nothing to scoff at. Add in cheap on-field healing, and she was good enough to kick Laura out for the whole 3rd stratum (until FOE/boss time). She's definitely starting to feel like she's falling off, though. Veteran added some nice moves for random encounters, but Master skills sound very lackluster, with only Disabling Shot sounding appealing (though Disabling Shot [Add Leg Bind to ALL Bow Skills] is VERY appealing). Master's still a long ways off though.

Yai the Pugilist - Yai wound up coming in for some conditional-drop hunting near the end of the 3rd Stratum, and with another great fist from a FOE on the World Map (making it a... WOE? MOE?), has stayed around off-and-on since then. Binds can always completely swing the flow of a fight, but they're not super-reliable, and she suffers from Erika's frailty, with none of the row-swapping tricks to keep her alive. She isn't terrible, but she's failing to live up to her EOV self. That said, she actually combos amazingly with Coral this time, as opposed to last time where she was the only one who DIDN'T play into Coral's pierce-a-thon.

Olga the Gunner & Leon the Sovereign - Neither have seen significant use but bear mention. When Bind conditionals first came up, it was an immediate coin-toss between getting Olga or Yai ready. Yai won because the current array of Guns failed to impress. However, with Yai's questionable performance and Juri's waning damage, a solid Gun could easily make Olga a mainstay. Leon, likewise, is basically waiting for more Skill Points and a weapon with a decent Skill to use to come in on. Leon definitely hasn't felt as sturdy as he did in III, which is also holding him back a bit, as I'd prefer him to be a part of the front-row wall-of-steel. Still, using the same gear as Klein and Klein's own iffy performance against bosses means he'll probably push through for the 5th or maybe 6th's Stratum bosses.

Kagura the Ninja - Brought in for a bit during the 4th stratum, when I was wondering if I was overlevelled, as upon first arriving, I was seeing yellow FOEs. I don't think I was. She actually served pretty decently in random encounters, essentially being able to mass-sleep an entire wave of enemies, which came in major handy, as the 4th just loves throwing 4+ enemies at you at once. Having her mother's (now retconned to being her sister, I guess) badass Katana to swap to definitely eased her entry into the group. Not material for FOEs, though; her overall damage output remained quite poor.

Kahna the Landsknecht - It's no secret that I'm a huge sucker for Landy's Links and especially Fencer's Chains as a primary form of team synergy. I'm seriously considering the possibility of running TWO Landsknechts; Coral on Shield Bashing debuff duty, and Kahna as a high-speed Linker. Truth is, Coral spends so much time with the shield keeping foes down, she has little time to lift herself up, and Landsknecht has no shortage of damage buffs, to boot.

[theshatteredrose]

The Softness of You (Axel/Lynus) - Etrian Odyssey 2 Fanfiction

Summary: Just some Axel/Lynus fluff because the world could always have more of these two being extra fluffy~

Pairings: Axel/Lynus

AN: Had a rather frustrating day so decided to distract myself by writing something ungodly fluffy and I think I achieved that :3 Been a while since I wrote just mindless fluff, so here we are. Really nothing more to say other than enjoy!

~*~*~*~*~

Rain rattled against the window panes as Axel drew the blinds closed. It was incredibly dark outside, the thick rain clouds obscuring the half moon. It wasn't extraordinarily late and the sounds of rowdy guilds returning to the inn were still being heard from downstairs. But Axel and Lynus were preparing for bed as they needed to get up early the next morning and head into the labyrinth for some much needed supplies while fulfilling a few quests.

Nothing major. Just a relatively easy jaunt into the labyrinth. Still getting some sleep was a priority. No one wanted to deal with a few cranky, weapon wielding explorers after all.

Axel turned from the window and idly made his way over to the door to check the lock and ensured that his axe was resting in its usual spot by the foot of their spare bed. There it was out of the way, but still within reach should Axel need to grab it for any reason. Be it an emergency jaunt into the labyrinth to chasing some creep out of the inn.

As Axel tested the lock on the door, Lynus stepped out of their bathroom. “Remind me to get some more shampoo tomorrow,” he said idly. “We’re almost out.”

“We need more toothpaste, too,” Axel added as he turned away from the door and face Lynus.

“Oh, that’s right,” Lynus said as he ran a hair through his hair, of which seemed to be growing just that little bit longer every day. “I knew there was something else.”

Axel folded his arms across his chest and rested back against the door as Lynus hurried over to the desk and opened his bag. He had a nightly ritual of checking the stock in his bag and making a list of what needed to be restocked or replaced.

And Axel took this time to simply watch the beautiful medic.

They wore a pyjama set between them; Axel wore the bottom half with a simple dark blue tank top while Lynus wore the top with a pair of sleep shorts. The pyjamas were made of cotton with a simple blue and white striped design. The top was, of course, far too big for Lynus and he had to roll the sleeves up several times to his elbows so that he could use his hands. And despite his best efforts, the collar of the top always managed to slip from his shoulder, exposing the creamy white skin. His dark blue sleep shorts were just barely seen under the hem of the top, of which ended mid-thigh to again reveal a pair of slender, creamy white legs.

In moments like these Axel would always openly admire how gorgeous Lynus was. And feel rather smug that he was the only person who can (and ever will) see him like this. With his hair down around his shoulders and revealing more skin than he would in the 'outside' world.

Lynus never liked to show more skin than necessary. He openly referred to himself as plain and scrawny. But Axel never thought so. No, to him Lynus was beautiful. Everything about him was. From the top of his head right down to his toes.

He honestly had no idea how beautiful he truly was. Or adorable. The way his hair fell over his shoulders and framed his face, to the way he would constantly tug at his sleeves, idly pulling them up only to utter a small huff when they rolled back down. He was truly beautiful.

And Axel would tell him that whenever he got the chance. Thankfully Lynus had started to accept that Axel did see him as the most gorgeous being on this planet. Before he would flush and adamantly deny he held any kind of beauty. And now, while he still blushed that adorable pink, he wouldn’t say anything in return. Just smile that shy smile of his.

Axel pushed away from the door and walked over to Lynus. He stepped up behind him and slipped his arms easily around his slender waist. Lynus hummed a little as he leaned back against his chest and continued to idly sort through his bag. Axel unfurled an arm from around Lynus’ waist and reached up to curl a strand of his soft orange hair behind his ear. As he did so, he exposed the sensitive skin of his throat. And there he placed a soft kiss, earning himself a very soft giggle from the man in his arms.

“I love the fact that you’re growing your hair out,” Axel said as he twirled a strand of Lynus’ hair around his finger.

“Hmm,” Lynus hummed softly in reply. “I’m going to see how long I can grow it before I get frustrated with it.”

Axel chuckled as he rested his chin upon Lynus’ shoulder as he moved to slip his arm around him once more. But a soft sparkle of red caused him to pause and he immediately glanced down at Lynus’ hand that sat atop of his bag.

The garnet stone set upon silver sat comfortably upon Lynus’ finger. The garnet ring Axel had given him. It fitted and suited him so well. It was the only piece of jewellery that Lynus refused to remove. Only under the strictest circumstances would he pry it from his finger.

Axel was the same. He refused to part with his own garnet ring. He wore it under his gauntlets while in the labyrinth and had it on full display when he was around the town. He had received a few compliments about it, as did Lynus. It honestly didn’t take people long to realise that their rings were identical.

Surprisingly, it was Cass who appeared the happiest at their engagement. Though he also mentioned something about “rolling in the dole” so the opportunistic bastard probably had a bet or two going on in the background.

Axel unfurled his left arm from around Lynus and placed his hand atop of his. Lynus paused what he was doing and glanced down at their joined hands. He then shifted his hand ever so slightly so that he could entwine his fingers together with Axel’s, their rings gently touching.

Axel’s hand was so much bigger than Lynus and held a few welts and callouses from his years wielding an axe. And Lynus’ hand was slender, his fingers long and bony from his years of healing and writing. Though Lynus’ hand felt so fragile under his own, it also felt as though his hand was created for him to hold.

He couldn’t help but chuckle as that thought crossed his mind. Heh, he was such a sap. But he couldn’t help it.

“Hmm?” Lynus hummed in a questioning way as he turned his head slightly to look at him. No doubt he had heard him chuckle.

Axel kissed Lynus’ cheek. “Nothing. You’ve just turned me into a total sap, that’s all.”

Lynus arched an eyebrow at him as a gentle smile slipped across his lips. “Oh, have I?”

“You have.”

“How much of a sap?”

“A total sap.”

Lynus turned slightly in Axel’s arms so that he could face him and he gave him a playful smile. “Prove it.”

Well, there was no way Axel could back down from this challenge, could he?

Axel tightened his hand around Lynus’ and brought it toward his lips. He gently kissed his fingertips before he trailed to his palm and then to his inner wrist. Lynus’ violet eyes watched him carefully, half-lidded and relaxed. He sighed softly as he leaned back against Axel, snuggling into him.

Although somewhat reluctantly, Axel released his grip on Lynus’ hand to instead cup the side of his face. His fingers slipped under his hair to gently cradle the back of his neck, slowly tilting his head back. Lynus lifted his chin up willingly and his eyes closed as Axel tightened his arm around his waist and leaned forward.

Lynus always uttered a soft sigh whenever Axel kissed him. Especially like this; slow, soft, but warm and passionately. Lynus’ lips were soft and supple against his. They were intoxicating in a way. The way Lynus would kiss back, so willing and trusting just made Axel want to kiss him more.

A sharp and sudden knock at the door, however, caused Axel to pull back in surprise while Lynus jumped slightly in his arms. Axel felt an expression of agitation slip across his face as Lynus habitually clung to him as he glanced at the door.

While Axel was annoyed at the interruption, Lynus appeared confused. “I can’t sense anyone,” he said.

That was a little disconcerting. If it had been any of their guildmates, Lynus would sense them. And they would have announced themselves after the knock anyway.

“I’ll check it out,” Axel said as he kept his eyes on the door and unwound his arms from around Lynus. “Stay near the bed, ok?”

He could all but hear Lynus roll his eyes at his protectiveness, but he complied. He slipped from Axel’s arms and walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge, out of the sight of the door. Axel walked over to the door, idly pulling the handle of his axe into his hand as he did so.

Slowly, he unlocked the door and opened it enough to stick his head out. Instinctively he looked up and down the hall, but he couldn’t see anyone or anything. He opened the door a tad wider and made the motion to step out but immediately paused and looked down. He felt his eyebrow arch toward his hairline when he noticed that there appeared to be something at the foot of their door.

Two things, actually.

On the floor, sitting side by side and leaning against one another were two dolls. No, plushies. Made of soft materials. One had red hair while the other had orange. And they appeared to be dressed in the attire of landsknecht and medic. Or more specifically, in the attire that Axel and Lynus usually wore.

And on the floor in front of them was a simple white cardboard with the words “Enjoy~” across it in black ink.

Axel dropped his axe back into its usual spot before he crouched down and picked up the two plushes. He was understandably cautious at first, but he soon realised that they plushies were just that; they were two stuffed dolls.

“What is it?” Lynus asked behind him.

Axel stood up and turned to face him, idly kicked the door shut behind him. He then lifted the two plushies toward Lynus, holding one in each hand. Lynus’ eyes widened slightly as he stared at the two dolls.

However not a moment later a laugh escaped his lips and he jumped to his feet. He plucked the redheaded one that Axel assumed was based on him and held it in two hands.

“It looks like you!” Lynus said as he laughed again and held the doll high so that he could get a good look at him. “It has your armour. And look! It even has a small axe on its back!”

Axel turned his attention to the tangerine haired doll in his hands and quickly realised that it was wearing a small white medical jacket and had a bag that looked just like Lynus’ strapped to its side. However it was the small pair of pearly white wings on the back of the white coat that made Axel chuckle.

Angel wings would suit Lynus so well. They were probably already there, just hidden from view or something.

“And this one looks like you,” Axel commented as he showed Lynus the plushie based off of him. As Lynus looked at it in bemusement, Axel couldn’t help a playful smile from slipping across his lips. “It’s almost life sized.”

Lynus automatically pouted at him as he cradled his plushie in his arms. “You’re mean.”

Axel chuckled again as he carefully cradled his Lynus plushie in his hands. “And you’re adorable,” he said as he crossed the distance between them and tugged Lynus back into his arms. “I do wonder where these guys came from, though.”

Obviously someone they knew made them, but there were several possible culprits. The dolls were cute though, especially the Lynus one. Not at adorable as the real thing, of course, but still very precious.

“Oh, it was probably Abigail,” Lynus replied as he hugged the plushie against his chest and leaned against Axel’s. “I overheard Thompson joking about making Guardian merchandise to sell at his store and Abigail looked enamoured about the possibility.”

If that was the case than the pinkettes were likely to be involved in some way, too.

Ah, it didn’t matter. As long as they didn’t make any more Lynus’ plushies. They were too cute, after all. And he didn’t want some creep to get their hands on one.

Lynus pulled the Axel plushie from his chest and made a grab for the one that Axel held. “Well, we’ll just have to wait and see who comes sniggering to us tomorrow,” he said as he slipped from Axel’s arms and walked over to the desk.

He sat the two plushies down before he began to clear a spot on the desk for them. He positioned the two together in back centre of the desk, facing anyone who would sit there at the table. The two plushies sat side by side and leaning against one another, much like how Axel found them.

“It’s a sweet gift,” Lynus said as he idly straightened armour on the plushies. “I’m sure the others will be jealous of them.”

Axel had to laugh as he made sure the door was locked once more. Some of them wouldn’t admit it, but they would love to have a plushie of their own significant other. Though Magnus carrying around a plushie doll based on Shen would give the ronin an aneurysm. Not to mention Tobyn being furious at how cute a Jhon plushie would be and then seeing Jhon carrying a Tobyn plushie.

Ah, should be fun to see actually.

Never mind that for now. That could wait for later.

“Now,” Axel said as he pulled Lynus into his arms once more. “Where were we?”

Lynus smiled and wrapped his arms around Axel’s neck as Axel flopped onto the their bed, dragging Lynus with him. Letting Lynus lay a top of him before he pulled him down for another kiss.