#all these prompt responses of my WoLxThancred ship

[autumnslance]

FFXIV Write 2020 #26: When Pigs Fly

((Felina is a caster of the Night’s Blessed--and Dark Autumn’s doppelganger on the First--who helps out the Warriors of Darkness. I’ve written about her a couple times, including her threatening Urianger when they first met. This is sometime during the 5.1-5.3 patches. Suggestive themes with a hint of citrus.))

“Something has occurred to me,” Felina said as she closed a heavy tome and set it on the pile to her left with a sigh.

“And what, prithee, may that be?” Urianger asked idly, still engrossed in his own reading.

Outside the Bookman’s Shelves a steady rain fell over Il Mheg this evening, keeping people and pixies indoors. The pair of scholars had retreated to the smaller study between the kitchen and the bedchambers, to enjoy the warmth of the fire in the large hearth. It was likely this was once a dining room for the manor before the Flood, but its current occupant--when he remembered to eat, or had company who required food on a more regular schedule--usually took meals in the kitchen, or in whatever room research was happening in.

Felina stood and stretched. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the darkened windows; the white dress contrasted and complimented her brown skin, and the low cut left quite a bit of her shoulders and chest visible, the ends of her dark hair barely brushing her collarbone. It ought to be more than distracting.

“I was just remembering when we first met,” Felina said as she turned her gaze back to Urianger and began to walk around the table.

“Any particular moment in mind? I confess to not recalling aught that would pertain to our present study.”

Felina leaned on the edge of the table next to him. He was still pouring over the tome, bless him. The firelight danced along the strands of his silvery hair and glinted off the jewelry keeping that robe together. She was very nearly distracted by the way the light and shadows played across the muscles on his arm.

“Mostly, how we argued,” she said. “I didn’t trust you then, and felt certain you and Master Matoya may not have had the Night’s Blessed best interests in mind.”

He did pause his reading now, a guilty frown furrowing his brow. “Thou were perhaps correct in not extending me thy trust, given circumstances.”

Felina laughed. “You and your friends only gave us our greatest desire! Even if it were a roundabout road to get there. There’s naught for you to feel guilty over--not with me, in any case, as while you held much in reserve, you never lied to me.”

He finally looked up from the book, blinking as he looked her over, almost as if seeing her for the first time this evening. But then, she had not been so close to him before this. “If I could take back my deceptions and half-truths, to thee as well as my friends, I would,” he said.

She shook her head. For such a brilliant man, he could be adorably dense. “If anyone is owed an apology, Urianger, it is you; I was rather quick to judge and threaten then. Enough that Runar asked what it would take for us to get along.”

“Ah yes; I do recall thy response,” he said, smiling now. “I believe it was ‘when pigs fly’ in the most venomous manner. Had but a touch of thy considerable aether been expended, I would have been cut down then and there,” he teased gently.

Felina laughed. “It was a possibility! And I simply find it quite amusing now, because…” She gestured to the other end of the room, where among the books and old maps, one of Beq Lugg’s porxies snored, wrapped up in its own giant ears. “We were both of us, I think, unaware of their existence at the time.”

“Technically porxies, whilst similar in shape, and certain features do resemble the farm creature, they are not truly porcine in nature, being comprised—”

Felina leaned in and placed a finger against his lips. He paused, surprised. “Urianger, I know,” Felina said. She waited a moment, then before he could collect himself--and before she lost her nerve--she straddled his lap. “I just find it interesting, how very much has changed since.”

His eyes grew wider. Urianger cleared his throat as she removed her finger from his mouth, her arms instead draping over his shoulders. “It is uh, indeed a most unexpected development,” he said, clearing his throat again.

“Is it also unwelcome?” She asked cautiously.

He waited a beat. “I did not say that.” His hands hesitantly found their way to her waist. “I simply did not expect thee to be so...forward.” He smiled wryly. “Particularly after said disagreements as we so often had between us in the beginning.”

“You’ve won me over,” she said, then leaned in, until her forehead was nearly touching his. “If you like, I can continue to be forward.”

He drew in a breath, then broke the tentative almost-contact, frowning as he looked away. “We labor to find a means by which my comrades and I may return to our own home. My time here upon this world--with thee--is limited.”

“I know,” she said, keeping locked away how much she had recently realized that was going to hurt. “I just thought, I’d rather not regret any lost opportunities--assuming they exist at all.”

A strange expression flit across his features, his gaze far away. She was about to ask, perhaps even move off him and apologize, when Urianger suddenly cupped Felina’s face with one of his slim, strong hands, and pulled her into a fierce, hungry kiss.

She melted into his touch, vaguely noting he tasted of the tea and cinnamon biscuits they’d idly snacked on through the evening. Fewer words were needed as desire took over, hands exploring, the sound of the chair scraping, books and papers pushed aside as they found a better position that would allow them to get past clothing and answer to the finally acknowledged heat between them.

Across the room, the porxie snuffled awake at the sound of Felina’s pleased laugh. The familiar peered blurrily, then decided it ought to find a far quieter location, flapping its ears to fly out of the room, corkscrew tail snagging the handle to pull the door shut behind it.

[autumnslance]

Hi Autumn! Question! A friend of mine has me looking at my WoL and imagining her life back on Etheirys before the Sundering. I am calling my Azem, Artemis. I love the moon and did her and Orion’s story in middle school. (Headcanon Thancred was on Etheirys as Orion) My question what is the name of your Azems for all your characters? (Sorry for the ramble I got excited talking about my WoLxThancred ship! 🥰)

I completely understand! I can talk about my wolcred ship too, given a chance (FC's even gotten me to do it during content before I remember we're streaming on Twitch...). I don't do non-Echo-users in the Ancient times myself, but can see why folks headcanon it; there's some fun to be had there if leaning into the fated romance tropes. For my Azem though, I take a different angle.

I've really only figured out Aeryn & Zaine's past lives; since Aeryn's the only Actual-Capital-Letters Warrior of Light I run, the other 3 ladies would have their own Ancient selves but I've not considered them before. They would have been friends and companions to Azem.

Azem was Pandora, who looked like she had it all together and was cool and collected...but right under the surface was a chaos gremlin. I give her iridescent hair (light or dark depending on her mood) and multi-hued eyes cuz why not. She was also very aroace (and while using feminine pronouns, really just threw gender into the bin) and tended to adopt close friends into familial cuddle puddles; she had a "we've known each other since we were kids so are like siblings" relationship with both Hades and Hythlodeaus. She looked up to and adored Venat--but her most important relationship was with Icarus.

Icarus was Pandora's younger blood sibling, and they were very close. I don't know as much about him, except he was prophetic and saw some of what was coming in flashes of nightmare that left him a bit neurotic. He traveled with Azem often, along with a few other friends of theirs, on both Convocation business and on their own adventures. Icarus Saw that he and Pandora would always be reincarnated together through time--but his soul would always return to the Lifestream first.

In my headcanons, Ardbert had a sister who unexpectedly died in an accident alongside her young child, and he didn't know until seeking her advice and comfort when realizing he'd doomed the world to the Flood. And of course, Zaine was lost in the Seventh Umbral Calamity after struggling to protect the realm from it. Both the sister and Zaine were shards of Icarus.

I don't really recall a reason I chose "Pandora"; the name popped into mind alongside a very random need to tell A Version of the Hydaelyn summoning, back in 5.0 before we knew a lot. One regular reader mentioned "the last gift of hope" and y'know, it works.

I don't recall a particular reason for "Icarus" either; it also simply came to mind when filling a prompt response with a Final Days ficlet about the siblings through time and across shards, but he is the guy associated with flying too close to the sun, even if it meant personal disaster.

I'll just blame a lot of nerdy study of the ancient Greek stories as a kid.

However, the Ancients aren't a big focus for me; I prefer "modern day" Eitherys (and I only use that older name for the world for clarity's sake). Though now that the question's been posed, I'll maybe end up noodling something out for Dark, C'oretta, and Iyna; we'll see!