#because people will be running up to Ehll Tou with custom deliveries

[elizabethrobertajones]

A Dragoon's Work Is Never Done part... three? four? I did not caption the first in this series with that and so I can't even find it now.

Anyway the important thing is this seemingly completely normal diplomatic mission from Radz-at-Han where the Satrap has brought his sister for Fete Day over to visit the dragons in the other city state perched on a rock with a long history of dragon relations for good or ill. Estinien is refusing to dress up as a diplomat, which he is now when it comes to dragon things, whether he likes it or not. He claims he's just here for the Fete food. G'raha is here because he's glued to Frog and likes witnessing history happening in nice ways.

Day 6: Celebrations | Holidays

Oh, wait the above images were a spot the difference

#I'm so interested in Estinien's and Frog's relationship (platonic) and how he fits into the puzzle now that she and Aymeric are A Thing @lilbittymonster

OKAY this will be unnecessary long to explain why Aymeric is getting so smirky.

So way way way back I did actually ship Estinien and Frog a bit, because I'd done dragoon 50 before HW and was therefore Completely Normal about the Estinien/WoL relationship. But I couldn't quite make it stick in my heart, and for whatever reason despite Estinien actually being, I personally think, the character with the closest bond to the WoL on the deepest levels bar the characters who are literally part of the WoL (you know, like, the 3-5 of them we cram in there), it ended up feeling more like just an unbreakable platonic friend bond. *shrugs* sometimes your heart just decrees stuff.

In Frog Canon this translates to the Stormblood 70 Dragoon quest being a moment where after sharing the dragoon eyeball tether for the first time, Frog and Estinien are riding an absolute high of connection and feeling really good about accomplishing Good Dragoon Things (and the reason I keep captioning Estinien and Frog doing dragon stuff as "work never being done" is them chasing that high again by tying up loose ends like taking Vrtra to visit Hraesvelgr or Middy, or taking Azdaja and Middy out for curry together).

That night on the steppe, they camped out together and shared a drink and the spoils of a hunt, Orn Khai was asleep by the fire. And completely unprompted Frog and Estinien both decided at the same moment to swoop in for a kiss, which lasted roughly 3 seconds and they broke apart like "woah, no, that was weird. We don't need to do that again. Nope. Sorry." and they instead solemnly vowed their friendship, and then laughed about it and decided to take that incident to their graves.

(At this point Frog had no idea Estinien had literally ever had a relationship in his life, never mind having been with Haurchefant as well and technically at the same time as her since Haurche had only nebulously mentioned "other partners"; Estinien did know she had been madly in love with Haurchefant, and Aymeric, who in turn Estinien had his suspicions was madly in love with Frog since like, seeing them interact once even in early HW. So it was a bit of a shock to her but he'd been idly contemplating her place in all this now for a while. But since he, Frog and Aymeric were all technically single or on a break or whatever Estinien thought he was doing while ghosting Aymeric for his own mental health SB > ShB patches, there weren't any of those connections to actually like. Build anything on.)

Fast forward to Endwalker, and I'm fully on the "Ysayle needs to know she won and Estinien has gone full dragonfucker" train, because he and Vrtra are an incredible power couple and it really represents to me a sort of final stop on Estinien needing to come to terms with everything that happened to him ever in his life and having accepted all sides of both the grand scope of history and also his own relationship to dragons, Nidhogg, and relations with dragons. He returns to R-a-H post-EW very very intrigued by what Vrtra wants with him, and they pretty much immediately get together.

I think by this point he's also encountered Aymeric enough times to have started to realise they never really broke up so much as stopped seeing each other, and Aymeric is exactly as devoted to him as he was last time they met, and Estinien only actually feels guilty about avoiding him so long, and mostly because Ishgard itself gives him the heebie jeebies immediately after HW and nothing to do with what Aymeric has done or not. So he's completely ready to resume that and just needs an excuse.

Which of course is Vrtra suggesting gently that there's a valuable connection there for Estinien and for the future of the two cities. AND Frog is on his case about seeing if Vrtra wants to meet the Dravanian dragons. Which he does. And then it only belatedly occurs to him when standing in Ishgard with Aymeric that maybe Frog also was manoeuvring. (I actually credit more G'raha machinations that Frog enacted, if you dig deeper :P)

Aymeric sort of ends up the orbiting twin star to the centre of the Frogicule, since he's the connection to all that and brings this whole side in, and considering all the pining on Frog's side to others, he's really got the more stable side of it all somehow...

She's glad of it because most of why she broke Aymeric's heart in the first place post-HW is because she thought it was cruelly unfair how little time she could spare for him and that he would only be mistreated by her coming in and out of his life at random.

The solution? A SECOND partner who comes in and out of his life at random and has very little tolerance for being in Ishgard! \o/ Between the two of them, maybe they add up to one full time partner?

(cue both of them getting on ships to Tural without consulting each other)

I don't think she goes out of her way to avoid seeing Estinien and Aymeric at the same time or finds it at all uncomfortable (low boundaries between them after all), but also she and Estinien are mutually uninterested in each other romantically and only passingly physically so aren't really interested in anything more than perhaps sharing a bed for platonic sleeping with a nice comfy buffer of Aymeric. It's easier just to enjoy spending time with them doing fun things like hanging out in the Firmament chatting to dragons and eating fair food, then take her catboy and leave. To the catboy's eternal disappointment. (Sorry G'raha, now this post isn't about you and we're talking Estinien today!)

Aymeric is here at this party realising he'd bed literally anyone there including Big!Varshahn (jury out on how he'd take to actual dragonfucking but it's like. A Catholic guilt loophole meeting a dragon who looks like a guy.) I don't think Vrtra and Aymeric are quite ready for anything but the simple fact of his existence is like an accessory that's making Estinien 1000x hotter in Aymeric's eyes I guess. Ser, that's a fellow head of state, please stop objectifying him.

Aymeric can not believe his luck that in a matter of months he's gone from staring forlornly out of a window alone to glancing between his hot girlfriend and his hot boyfriend, and is suddenly thrilled to go down in history as Ishgard's most eligible bachelor (never married, so many close friendships, all his letters and diaries spontaneously combusted on his death, how sad).

... as stated before, I am such a fan of Aymeric being a messy bitch who lives for drama and also is full of Secret Yearning and Weird Thoughts and would do wildly unstable things while projecting an aura of control and calm. Literally who knows if five to ten actual years down the line he and Vrtra end up publically married to unite their countries forever or something, but for now, this is where we're at.

Frog is just happy everyone is happy, and lacking the Ishgardian upbringing had given zero thought to Vrtra as a sex object and actively restricts herself from patting big!Varshahn on the head like he is still tiny. Little-brother-gender dragon snares another big sister. Estinien's love life remains a blissful mystery to her except for occasionally comparing calendars with Aymeric and swerving around the weekends he's blocked off for Estinien.

[coerthanrobin]

FFXIVWrite Prompt #12: Tooth and Nail

Morgane Sejois wanders the streets of the Firmament.

It's busy - adventurers from across the realm are fast working on the next stage of the Reconstruction. Carpenters and blacksmiths and leatherworkers and even cooks. She'd passed by the most delicious-smelling food on the way over. People clamour all around, eager to proceed with the work and prepare enough materials for the sudden influxes of intense activity she knows to occur as ground is cleared.

Her fingers run over the stone of the fountain at Saint Roelle's Dias, and a smile graces her lips.

... only for the smile to slip away as she rounds the corner and catches sight of the being before her there.

[Spoiler warnings for the ending of Ehll Tou’s custom delivery questline below the cut!]

It's... a dragon. But not any normal form of a dragon. Not an aevis, or a giant dragon like those who have flown by in the peacetime, or one of the freakish ones who walk like men. Not even one like Nidhogg and his vile brood.

It does stand on two legs, but nothing like a man would. Instead, it clutches a hammer between its oddly-shaped claws, tapping away at a sheet of metal. There's a young boy standing next to it, and she stamps down on her reflex to try and protect the boy. It's peacetime, Morgane. And a crafting dragon is hardly a danger to the boy. What is it going to do, thwack his fingers with a hammer?

Still, she can't help the reaction.

Nor can she help the rest of what she feels.

Her fingers curl in on themselves, and she crosses her arms over her chest. Tugs at the cheap fabric of her coat, trying to breathe steady. Every ragged exhalation has her breath curl and mist in the air, a reminder of her failure to calm down for every moment that passes.

Control yourself, Morgane.

Do not embarrass us in public, child.

Control yourself. I'd ask what's wrong with you, but perhaps I should ask your mother that.

Halone, at this point I would simply give you away to the first man of status to ask.

She hisses a breath through her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Oh! Hello there!"

She blinks.

... The boy. The boy is speaking to her.

Without thinking about it, focused as she was on her breathing, she's.. approached the boy and the dragon.

"I don't think I know you, my lady. Are you another crafter here to help Ehll Tou?!"

She blinks, looking back and forth between the pair, then shakes her head.

"Oh. Well, then. My name is Hautdilong, and I hope to write about man and dragonkind's ongoing peace. And this is Ehll Tou; she's my very good friend, and a Crafter of the Firmament besides!"

She.

The dragon before her is a woman. Perhaps even a girl.

Morgane opens her mouth, making a few choked noises. Her claws talons nails scratch across her forearms beneath her coat.

Hautdilong frowns. "Are you alright, my lady?"

She closes her mouth; forces herself to nod. "Y-yes."

There. She found her voice. She's still capable of speech.

Through all of this, the dragon - Ehll Tou - has simply kept focusing on her crafting. Hammering carefully away at the bronze plate. Her tongue sticks out as she concentrates on her work, barely blinking. Do dragons even blink?

... This one definitely isn't blinking. So Morgane is going to go with no. Either that, or she truly is dedicated to her craft.

"I've... never seen a dragon like your friend before." The word friend comes out harsher than she intends, and she winces at herself, for how she must sound. "Nor one with any interest in creation."

That seems to enliven Hautdilong. He beams. "Oh, yes! She's quite unique for the moment. A peacetime growth. Dragons can grow up all sorts of different ways depending on what they need, it's honestly amazing. Who knows how she'd have turned out in the war; but because she was so interested in crafting, she ended up like this!"

They... grow based on their desires and passions? Morgane feels a chill sweep through her, and not simply from the air of the Firmament. She knows her fears are illogical, but she cannot help but feel them. "That is... certainly unique. You said 'for the moment'?"

As if on cue, a dragonet sweeps past, scampering over the statue of Halone behind them, then flies away.

Hautdilong beams. "As more and more young dragons grow their passion for creation, I hope we'll see more dragons like Ehll Tou! Peaceful dragons; something new and exciting to celebrate this new peace between Ishgard and Dragonkind."

Ehll Tou seems satisfied with her work, and makes a tiny growl of satisfaction before lowering her hammer. As she looks up from her work, she seems to notice Morgane for the first time. She looks back and forth between Morgane and Hautdilong.

Oh. Hello! The voice resonates through my mind, loud and clear. Morgane takes a shocked step backwards.

Hautdilong groans and thwacks Ehll Tou's arm with the back his hand, lightly. "Ehll Tou! How many times do I have to tell you not to do that when people aren't expecting it?"

And how, exactly, do I make them expect it?

"I don't know! Oh, maybe you could write a note to give to people?"

So I am to silently approach a man, hand them a note, and then, only after they have read it, begin to speak?

"... Hmm." Hautdilong taps his chin with the feather of his quill. "I'll have to think more about it."

The exchange is light. Jovial. But Morgane is petrified.

She takes one step back, then two. And before she knows what she's doing, she's walking away from the pair as fast as is deemed polite and appropriate.

"I'm sure I'll come up with-- hey, wait!"

She hears the boy running after her, and closes her eyes as she stops walking to allow him to catch up.

Breathe. In and out.

"I-I'm sorry about that. I should've warned you - dragonspeech can be a little surprising to people. Are you alright, my lady?"

She opens her eyes, and forces a wan smile. "Yes, of course. My apologies, it simply... caught me off guard."

Hautdilong nods. "I imagine it must've felt a little strange and unfamiliar. But I do promise you that Ehll Tou and every other dragon here is friendly, if you ever wish to talk with them."

Her nails clamp down on her arms. Her teeth dig into her cheek. "Of course," she says. "I'll do that. She seems a remarkable girl."

Hautdilong's smile grows, and he doesn't stand in her way as she begins to walk again.

As she walks away, she thinks about every step she takes. About her breathing. About trying not to cry.

She doesn't think about his words. She doesn't think about the fact that strangeness had been far from her mind as Ehll Tou spoke.

And she definitely doesn't think about how familiar it had felt.