#finally give her a cannon wolship

[catsidhesilvie]

~Fleeting Moment~

Decided to do post-processing on this one bc I wanted to stomp her little heart into the dirt :)

Here's the closeup without the glow bc I spent too long reconstructing her eye bc of whatever tf it is that happens to face 4 miqo eyes when you look at them from any angle other than straight-on. Also had to fix clipping from her silly hat and his arm fabric:

Side note, I really need to look into how to make my screenshots higher quality. I need to play with my graphics settings but remember to lower them back down before raid ahaha.

I mayyyy go back in and actually paint over this for prettier lighting/details with a real tablet pen and not just my mouse ahaha. We'll see.

Lore/story stuff:

Wyra is demi/bi but never allows herself to get into a relationship (despite being an avid supporter of her friends pairing up/being a romance-reader in her own right) because she is too focused on being the WOL. She doesn't want to place a target on anyone's back. Luckily, she can get by with just a few crushes she has to stomp down since she is never attracted to anyone until they've been friends.

Wyra's Azem, Iris, was also ace, but was in an unspoken LDR/non-exclusive relationship with Themis. They were similar in age (Iris very slightly older), and both had been child prodigies with magic who grew in their roles on the Convocation. They had become friends before, when Iris was still Venat's protégé. When Iris was promoted to Azem, they were attached at the hip when duty allowed, and otherwise kept contact while Azem traveled or Elidibus was too busy with his own duties. The only reason they didn't make it official was because they were both too committed to their duties to commit to each other. Everyone else still viewed them as a couple.

Wyra is very similar to her Azem in personality, though she is more straightforward (Azem has the power of prophecy and tends to speak somewhat cryptically/be more erratic, generally), less confident, listens to others' opinions more before acting alone, and is a bit less stubborn; she does retain her predecessor's habit of leaping to self-sacrifice over the idea that anyone else dare risk themselves.

When Wyra goes back to Pandaemonium, she is slammed with the soul-baggage/vague memories/emotion of Azem, most of all when meeting Themis. She immensely struggles with this instant crush, as she had hated and pitied Elidibus in her own time... and love at first sight was very much beyond her usual experience.

As they continue the Pandaemonium story, Wyra admits that the Themis of Elpis is basically a different person from future Elidibus, in the same way or even a sadder way than Emet-Selch had been, since Themis had lost part of himself to Zodiark. After this admission, she stops resisting his friendship. Still, Wyra doesn't know what to do with her misplaced Azem feelings, and Themis's overt flirtation and flattery don't help it.

Add the mild inferiority complex Wyra has with her hopes to live up to Azem's legacy, and she spends a lot of time wondering if Themis treats her this way because he is conflating the two women, because he is a creep who likes to be overly friendly with familiars, because he is trying to manipulate her, or because he does truly see her as an individual and likes her for her. She also harbors guilt that only she had the knowledge that she would one day be the one to kill him, so she keeps some walls up partly out of what she deems respect for his Elpis-self.

Finally though, after defeating Athena in the Aetherial Sea of the present, Themis/Elidibus's memory form admits that he does care for HER. Not just as the inheritor of Azem's soul, now that he fully understood that, but as Wyra, and he points out that they are quite different despite their similarities. He expresses mild annoyance that he was fated to forget her until it was too late, though he knows that it all was worthwhile and he couldn't harbor regrets as long as it led to her saving the star. Then he gives her her first kiss before dissolving into aether :)

I think that the real past Themis's friendship and adventures with Wyra in Pandæmonium lead to him withdrawing a little from his relationship with Azem, which is ultimately broken when he becomes the heart of Zodiark despite Azem's insistence that they find another way. She is deeply offended by the idea of sacrificing so many -- especially him -- and is certain there is another option. Azem is off trying to save the world by herself when she dies in the first final days, and no one knows since she refuses to summon friends to a fight she views as unwinnable. That's why she doesn't respond later to invitations to summon Hydaelyn.

After the Pandaemonium story, Wyra is left in a bit of a funk because, while Themis's words helped her to move on a bit from her constant self-comparison to Azem, she obviously was left in an odd place of mourning yet another enemy-turned-friend -- but this time with tragic romance stirred in.

She does move on, though, and I think she may be more open to romance in the future since her soul has finally gained some closure.

[lilbittymonster]

asking about the 5.5 battle instances 👀

(so I had to scroll back to find what I had even tagged this with for context and YEAH LMAO THE 5.5 INSTANCES I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT THE 5.5 INSTANCES. I think about them a normal amount.)

So we've all done the patch 5.5 battle instances where they split the party of Scions to fight off the different primals and they do the really cool cinematic battle table mini simulation? Yeah? Okay.

So the final party is us, Estinien, and I think Alphinaud fighting Ifrit. And at the last fucking second Estinien does his draconic replicant thing and singlehandedly one shots all nine of the infernal nails with Stardiver.

I have massive fucking brainrot about the Stardiver dragon double thing with him and Kitali because the first time we see him do that is on the Final Steps while he's still 'Hogged and trying to kill her, and then the next time (in my canon at least) is when he saves her out from Elidizenos' blade in the Ghimlyt Dark. And then the third time is a last ditch effort to protect both her and Alphinaud from this pseudo-primal.

And it's very much a running theme of Kitali being far more comfortable using her draconic abilities than Estinien because hers were gifted and freely accepted while his were the result of a hostile takeover. And he had also spent probably at least a decade under the influence of the Eye, and having to train himself to be under full restraint at all times, so big bursts of emotion are not something he's used to. And Nidhogg's whole self determined creed was to be the protector of the star, and now Estinien has taken it upon himself to continue carrying that mantle of guardian. He always walks at the back of the group like a shepherd protecting his flock. He is the Great Pyrenees of the Scions.

And so every time he has a huge burst of Must Protect My Loved Ones and uses the big Nidhogg guns I go a little feral for it (I am STILL. NOT. RECOVERED. FROM THE 6.5 POST TRIAL CUTSCENE. HOLY FUCK. LAHFOLSHS I'M SO FUCKING GAY anyways-) OH AND THE FUCKING CANNON THING IN STORMBLOOD I FORGOT THAT WAS ALSO STARDIVER.

So yeah four times he's done that, and three of them were to protect Kitali. He is full of love and guardianship. I am so very incredibly normal about this man and my wolship they give me immense psychic damage (affectionate). Thank you for indulging me lmao.