#from pre-arr to post endwalker

[sae-mian]

j o u r n e y

[plounce]

rob plounce's ffxiv fic reclist

this will update as i continue to find stuff i enjoy. (it also exists as a page on my desktop blog!)

disclaimer: this is just stuff i’ve read that i’ve enjoyed! i have my own favorite characters and pairings, so my reclist skews heavily towards those. i’m not super into in wolshipping, so there won’t be much of that, sorry! i have not read everything in every pairing and character tag, so don’t take this as a comprehensive guide. these are just things that i liked and think are worth reading.

fics are noted with wordcount, pairing (or as gen), and rating (e = explicit). * means it's been recently added to the list.

spoilers ahoy!

scions

*flight of an anorak (17k+, G) gen - urianger childhood backstory fic with transfem urianger! incredibly well-characterized urianger narration. breaks my heart and brings a smile to my face with every update.

lost and found (8.8k, T). gen, light moenuri - you know how moenbryda’s parents basically adopted urianger after they basically abandoned him? this fic is about that. also urianger autism :)

while eating (2.2k, G) gen - more baby autistic urianger with bastard parents. sob. at least moenbryda’s parents are there.

foster (1k, G) gen - pre-canon, thancred overhears fourchenault and louisoix talking about him.

second impression (4.8k, T) gen - fourchenault is a bit more of a classist bastard than in canon and is a dick to thancred, but gets past it. mostly. thancred does his best.

the stars in their abundance (2.7k, T) gen - pre-canon from the perspective of g'raha’s mom in corvos!

cross (1.1k, G) gen - minfilia and thancred clean up the mess of thancred’s possession.

your song, carried onwards (4.9k, G) gen - thancred’s rescue of alisaie from the WoD in the hvw patches.

a stranger in the woods (4.3k, E) thancred/marcechamp - you know, the guy from tailfeather in heavensward? they hook up. thancred gets taken care of.

dust in your eyes (8.8k, T). background ships include wolchefant, wolcred, and haurchefant/urianger, but is mostly about thancred being a sad bastard who is always too slow, too late, and trying to be his best self but not totally succeeding. and haurchefant being a great guy. good character stuff.

how massive is the spirit in us (2.2k, G) gen - ryne character introspection… makes my heart hurt.

testing the waters (1.8k, G) gen - thancred teaches ryne to swim.

the shimmering light (2k, G) gen, light thanuri - urianger settling into the bookman’s shelves. fun il mheg worldbuilding.

almost crystal, almost ascian (10k, T) gen - minfilia and the exarch meet up a few times over the course of a century. their parallelisms. the horror of being “minfilia.”

off the hook, provisionally (974, G) gen - y'shtola talks to the exarch in the wake of 5.0 about his deception.

among the shelves (5k, G). gen - the twins and ryne hang out and talk about the other scions.

portentous news (842, G) gen - urianger’s first morning on the moon in the middle of endwalker.

adventures in unlikely friendship (23k, T) gen - wol+cred friendship! i really like these. the bozja one is delightful. passively-suicidal bestiessss

void parsley sojourn (4k, T) gen, light thanuri - urianger hotboxes the rising stones. very charming depiction of urianger as a weed nerd. makes me laugh and smile every time i read it!

there is (maybe) an ascian among us (11k, T) gen, minor side pairings - post-endwalker, the scions try to get to the bottom of a conspiracy about thancred, who just wants to grill for gods sake! comedy.

two scions walks into a bar… (26k, T) gen, but eventually thanuri - a series where the author intended to just analyze and write about thancred & urianger’s relationship as gen, but then slid into shipping lmao. covers ARR-early STB with a bit of post-SHB. great character work for both of them!

respite, despite (25k, T) thanuri - urianger pining from pre-5.0 to the close of endwalker… good pining, good urianger misery, good romance. wagh!

erasing all the lines in the sand (30k, E) thanuri - mutual pining, miscommunication, coparenting! bookman’s shelves fic.

(in parantheses) (9.9k, M) thanuri - thancred's rescuing of minfilia, time in the first, and the mental stress that emet-selch gives him due to ascian trauma during shadowbringers. also getting together with urianger.

sleepy-eyed soldier (4.6k, M) thanuri - elidibus puppetting ardbert's body brings thancred’s ptsd over having his body used by lahabrea roaring back to the surface in the form of nightmares and hypervigilance. (mind the CWs)

trouble in paradise (2.3k, E) thanuri - transfem urianger!!!! :D :D :D great kind-of-an-asshole thancred character work. hurting each other but trying to fix it.

sole conundrum (412, G) thanuri - pre-edw garlemald scouting mission. urianger autism :D

three of swords reversed (3.2k, T) thanuri, moenuri - urianger dealing with grief over moenbryda and thancred in the later half of endwalker.

another sunrise (5.8k, T) thanuri - post-edw wanderings - urianger deals with a mystery, sudden solitude, and a crisis of doubt! ends happily.

take root in this barren soil (and grow back stronger) (7.4k, E) thanuri - thancred shares what the training regimen of a sharlayan spy entails, not expecting urianger to react so strongly.

to wander is a dream (46k, M) thanuri - post-edw. i don’t tend to enjoy hanahaki fics but this fic is so so so good. thancred being an emotionally stunted asshole, urianger being the world’s most beautiful martyr (for better or for worse), lots of fae stuff, both of them struggling to not be repressed.

why do we forbear? (9.3k, E) thanuri - modern au fake dating, which would usually not appeal to me but this one’s real cute. (currently unfinished)

*to care for those we love (11k, T) ryne and her parents, thanuri - ryne drags thancred to the bookman’s shelves and does her best to administer first aid in urianger’s absence. each chapter is from one of the trio’s pov - i’m usually not super into 1st person, but this fic uses it really effectively in imparting each character’s mindset. it’s very sweet!

ancients

on call (2.5k, T) hythades - emet-selch goes out of town, and hyth is asked to step in for a soul-seeing duty. and he futzes with emet-selch’s office.

mail run (840, G) hythades - “A young archival intern keeps finding completely legitimate reasons to do all the deliveries to a very specific Bureau of the Architect clerk. For no reason at all.” young love!

as stars to a sky (1.8k, T) hythades - little vignettes about life in the pre-sundered world.

the seat of destruction (13k, M) hythades - canon-divergent au where hythlodaeus is the one to take the seat of emet-selch, and the sundering still happens. my favorite ascian!hyth work.

affective memory (9.3k, T) hythades - pov from the shade of hythlodaeus as he wanders around emet-selch’s reconstructed amaurot.

for good health and opportunity (14k, T) pre-emetexarch - emet-selch visits the crystal exarch numerous times over the course of a century. frenemies!

other characters

“nero tol scaeva did nothing wrong”… (5k, G) gen - a bunch of job npcs try to arrest nero for driving without a license. goes about as well as you might think.

biohazard (1.1k, G) gen - nero hates valens’ ass. not because he has “morals” or anything he just thinks valens is a dogshit project manager.

left in the dust (3.9k, T?) cidnero - ARR nero finds amnesiac marques working in the lichyard. miserable little man.

adrift in memory’s fog (16k, T) cidnero - cid’s frequent bouts of amnesia have led to a patchy memory - enough where he forgets that he and nero were betrothed as teenagers. (trans cid!)

the troubled envoy (1.3k, T) gen - maxima’s diary entries during the stormblood patches, including his thoughts on his weird boss.

the last abandonment (1.9k, M) gen - maxima wanders the ruins of garlemald and reflects on his time in the garlean left. by the same author as above - i really rec all their maxima fics.

this cathedral where your face stains the windows (2k, G) ysayle/igeyrohm - “Someone had to teach Ysayle summoning.” great ysayle heresy stuff + toxic yuri.

this blessed day (80k, M) gen - lucia’s journey from a captured garlean spy to aymeric’s right hand. lucia……

cadavre exquis (6.4k, T) gen - emmanellain helps pack up haurchefant’s things at camp dragonhead ft ishgardian homophobia and an underground queer zine scene.

the lantern jar (19k, T) cirisadu - OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDD. this fic is so good. cirina and sadu growing close. lots of development of steppe spiritual traditions and beliefs.

duet (13k, T) estivrtra - estinien encourages vrtra to live more fully as a dragon. cool dragon stuff.

a view of you (14k, M) estivrtra - estinien gets fatally wounded, and vrtra keeps him alive via a great sacrifice (sadly unfinished, but what’s there is a great read)

veteran advisor (15k, E) vrtra/estinien/gaius - really great gaius character work here where he and allie are on vacation in radz-at-han, and the impact that has on both of them. but also? it's mostly about big!varshahn getting railed. good for him!

this home wrested forth (2.5k, T) gen - sidurgu from DRK quests and alaqa from WHM quests meet up and deal with some gridanian wrongdoing.

a fervent desire (111k+, E) sanson/guydelot - an incredibly in-depth retelling of the BRD quests. great work developing these characters and giving them really in-depth motivations!

and love you shall find (9.8k, E) sanson/guydelot - BRD quests, but what if sanson journals as an accommodation for short-term memory loss?

[wind-up-thancred]

bit of thancred character musing under the cut that im gonna try to approximate from a 6am discord rambling into something i can actually post. both SHB and EW spoilers included

i saw some folks talking on twt about how guilt seems to be a very important factor in his life and i agree. i think a lot of major parts of his character and arcs have been due to guilt over something he did (or didnt even really do, re: the whole goobue rampage situation). it's driven him to work his ass off after louisoix which lead to him getting possessed... but its probably also what motivated him to do better for ryne after being forced to look his fuckups directly in the eye instead of just wallowing about them. but i think, at the same time, he doesnt really seem to, like... actually be proud of himself for a lot of the stuff he's done in order to work off that guilt? the biggest giveaway for that being the line in endwalker on the ragnarok where he talks about his "good deeds" cynically and seems to insist that they were never really that impactful in the first place. that they'll just go to dust when he dies.

in shb, during the ahm areng segment, not only does he talk down on himself in general, but also puts down his attempts to help OG minfilia back in the pre-ARR days... when i'm pretty sure she never even blamed him for the goobue rampage in the first place.

it's all a little bit sad to me, tbh. i've seen some people reason that, because he was only able to escape poverty due to louisoix seeing potential in his thieving skills, he's essentially internalized the idea that he's only really worth keeping around by ANYONE if he's actively being productive, either helping others or trying to fix whatever fuckups he feels he's made. i think that would explain a lot of this

note the "few positive traits" line, which to me comes across as "i was only picked up out of childhood poverty because he thought my skills were useful." though i don't really know how much of that mentality he's managed to work past by post endwalker. he IS able to go off on his own, and mentions that he trusts the scions to keep themselves safe now... but as i ranted about before, the short story points out that he's only really content to rest briefly before he feels obligated again to seek out unrest to try and help, specifically mentioning minfilia again. also, a couple times during the story, notably post ARR after his possession, mid SHB after he's wounded in a fight with sineaters, and post SHB after he passes out due to the weakening soul-body bond, he seems to dislike even having to rest for medical reasons

it's a pretty interesting part of his character to me. idk if the writers specifically had his rigorous upbringing in mind when they wrote these parts of his character, but to me it would make a lot of sense as an explanation for why he's so averse to rest and why he carries so much guilt and why he's so passionate about keeping the folks around him safe. that's kinda been his whole reason for life since he was a kid-- using his skills for the benefit of others. to him, doing anything other than that would be a waste, it seems.

idk. funny guy makes my heart hurt. yes i had all these dialogue screencaps saved and on hand. yes i am a little insane. what of it

[mothsolar]

im fairly certain thancred loses 90% of any flirtatiousness and fun loving he had in the 5 minutes you knew him (before hes posessed) after he gets got in heavensward though

he was already depressed after arr and then he gets even more serious after hw and weighed down by minfilia's "death". they do set him up pretty well for his arc in shb, maybe not the best though, but its there. yshtola is understandable though. she gets a small amount of development in shb, aside from that shes mostly unchanged from when we first know her.

I know the post and the tags you're talking about and his depression has nothing to do with his disability, that being his lack of aether control. further explanation and more general ff14 spoilers below the cut

The nature of being able to control aether is that it is so ubiquitous in the world of ff14 that just about anything you do in the world involves manipulating aether, not just spells. Being able to overpower a creature more than three times your size? Physical augmentation via aether. Jumping from the ground to more than a story into the air? Physical augmentation via aether. The chakra monks use is just your personal aether pool. Samura midares are all from aether focused in the sheathe. Dragoon jumps are from aether controlled in their legs. Literally every tank uses aether in some way as a part of their defensive skills. Just because it doesn't use MP in gameplay doesn't mean it has nothing to do with manipulating aether in lore. His sudden inability to channel aether is initially presented as a pretty big deal as he couldn't just teleport out and was stuck naked and afraid for ages while just having that handicap. The problem is that it doesn't really change anything.

Heavensward patch content doesn't bring it up as he takes down a gobbue solo (no aether control to augment his jumps or strikes btw) or rescues Alisae (no aether control to help hide him, tho i guess it could work since it masks his presence i guess???) That depression he has? Take your pick of guilt over being possessed or grief after seeing his surrogate daughter become the voice of god and effectively die. Explore that thread more in shadowbringers.

So what about Stormblood? Do we explore that at all during that expansion? I'll be honest, I don't remember stormblood well and won't pretend to. Through looking at the wiki, not really. He takes a major backseat as he continues with the role of sneakman being in the shadows and doing sneakman things. Great and necessary role, still not exploring the fact that he cannot control aether.

Shadowbringers gives Thancred a shining spotlight on him to talk about a lot of what's going on with him. His grief about his dead daughter is basically it. Again, not a bad thread. It's a very good direction to go with his character and great to see. In terms of how this plays with his disability, he needs to use enchanted cartridges that are pre-loaded with aether to use the gunblade's explosions instead of just using his personal pool which is provided by Ryne. Now this, this is a good point. This highlights his disability and how it alters his life beyond his inability to use aetherites (which also isn't brought up because no npcs use aetherites save for that scene in endwalker). It is something that he needs an aid to make up for that any other person would be able to do regularly. Common ShB dub.

Endwalker? Yeah I dunno chief. That long distance teleport wasn't from him casting and wasn't used as or brought up as a way for people without aether control to use aetherites as far as I remember. It could've and I could just be wrong, but if they didn't that's a pretty dumb missed opportunity.

Dawntrail just has him take a backseat too so it's still not brought up at all.

In terms of gameplay, him not being able to use magic does nothing. He still has the same tank skills and needing pre-charged cartridges is fluff. Of all the skills that would come to mind that would need some bit of magical augmentation, it would be the front line taking the hits. They could've given him magitech or made him a machinist or done something more with it beyond "if ryne isnt in the party he doesn't use his spenders in shb trusts". It's such a wasted opportunity to me, especially when machinist and the skysteel manufactury is right there in HEAVENSWARD as a possible path for him to go down.

So yeah, Thancred's disability is a very interesting thing to explore as the one guy who can't use magic in the magic world where everything requires magic. It's a shame they don't because anime pretty boy doing anime flips is cool and giving him magitech anything to facilitate those flips is not I guess.

[ragnarokalypse]

I am usually a lurker. I don't really post anything...ever, anymore, but I am so incredibly disappointed by this expansion that I felt the need to chime in my sentiments, just to get it off my chest.

I am one of the few people that loved ARR, before the "streamlining." I was hooked in the first 10 levels and the game had me in a stranglehold all the way through Endwalker. Everything after 6.0 was...eh...but I love the game so I stuck with it. I also loved Stormblood, and I've walked away from Dawntrail loving it even more, because hoo boy, does Wuk Lamat give me a new appreciation for Lyse.

I don't have a problem with low stakes. I don't have a problem with fetch questing, building my reputation, and just generally doing menial tasks even when people should be acting with a little more urgency. My beef with this expansion isn't that it's "new", "low-key", "a reset", or anything like that. My beef is Wuk Lamat.

This entire expansion is basically the Wuk Lamat show. The WoL does not really forge any new relationships, they don't really explore anything, they don't really do anything, and when they do, it's hijacked by Wuk Lamat. I swear I think my character was introduced by name to a citizen maybe...once. Instead, we have to sit there watching Wuk Lamat do everything that I want to do in a story that is supposed to be about the character I've spent years investing time and emotional effort into. I want my character to be the one making friends, exploring new cultures, and building a positive reputation with the people. When the first half ended and we FINALLY got to go do something without her, I was excited. I was willing to forgive the first half because it felt like the REAL journey was just getting started.

But nope, back to Wuk Lamat. Back to her being the main character and my character, the character I actually love and have painstakingly developed over years, being sidelined. In the final battle, I was again excited because FINALLY, a good old fashioned WoL vs The Enemy showdown. But what's this? Oh, Wuk Lamat again. In the epilogue, everyone celebrated for three days and three nights to "hail the Dawnservant's victory." Like, what? She shows up in that last 20% and gets the credit? Excuse me? I don't dislike Wuk Lamat even if I do deeply dislike her type of character, but I do resent the massive amounts of space she takes up in what is supposed to be my character's story.

Maybe I'm selfish, maybe it's just a me problem, but I play MMOs to tell stories about characters in fun worlds that I get to craft to my liking. If I wanted to play a game of pre-existing characters and watch/experience their journey, I'd go boot up literally any other Final Fantasy game. I have seen people liken this expansion to World of Warcraft, and I agree, to an extent. However, even though WoW doesn't have your character be center stage, I have always felt like the world was expansive enough for you to tell your own independent stories in the background. I have a whole host of characters in the WoWverse that I've developed over the years, and I never felt like I was held back from being creative because of the overarching narrative choices made by the game because, ultimately, my character was not a central figure and I could do what I wanted.

Here, I'm trapped. I can't say my character is off doing something else because she's literally tied to Wuk Lamat through the entire expansion and the shard key will probably be important later. I went through 3 days of cutscenes and walked away with pretty much nothing that I feel inspires me creatively or gives me any new material to build my character's story. Instead, I'm left feeling like I'm having to struggle to explain why she's being so passive and out-of-character. Is it trauma? Is she drunk? You got me. I'm still figuring it out, and figuring it out is a struggle that I have never experienced in this game. It isn't fun, which kills the creativity even more.

I might have been more forgiving of the story if it were reframed around the characters I actually care about and I got to experience the world instead of sitting back and watching Wuk Lamat experience it for me, but as it stands, I didn't really enjoy any of it save the American old west town where we got to hang out with Erenville, blissfully Wuk Lamat free. I swear they're the only people in the story that actually talked to us and learned our names. I think the best example of how little I enjoyed myself is in how many screenshots I took. I took almost 3,000 screenshots throughout my first Endwalker playthrough. Here, I took less than 100.

I will continue to stick with XIV for a while to see where it goes from here, but if this is the new story direction and philosophy - tell a story through other characters first - then I may just have to sadly resign myself to the fact that my character's story ended with 6.0, and go off to greener pastures where I can craft characters and build stories in ways that are more to my liking.

Overall, 1/10. I can't even rank it amongst other expansions because even the lowest ranked expansion for me is one that I love. Dawntrail is in a league of dislike and resentment all its own.

[tritoch]

I've also seen it suggested that Zenos is a flat character, and I think that's true! I think he is intentionally drawn both sharply and flatly to make him stand out and to play up his symbolic and thematic role. But I think, especially post-Endwalker, he is frequently reduced to the aspects that serve as metacommentary on gaming and MMOs and FFXIV itself, but equally important (and more important up through Endwalker itself) is his role as imperialism's final output.

Zenos initially feints at being a certain kind of rounded villain. He has cool armor and a signature weapon (these things matter in a game like FFXIV), he's presented as a genuine believer in merit in juxtaposition to his sexist and racist officers, he's well-spoken and takes a personal interest in you. In fact, he's a lot like Gaius van Baelsar, whose brief but charismatic (and, due to MSQ roulette, repeatedly viewed) appearances in ARR suggested to some the impression of a noble figure in service to the wrong ideals, one of gaming's favorites kinds of Rounded Characters With Nuanced Writing.

It's possible to mistakenly believe through just about the Ala Mhigo dungeon itself that maybe Zenos will have a turn, that his relentless torture of conquered peoples accomplishes some greater end in his mind. After all, wasn't Gaius also fixated on violence and strength? Didn't he also believe that man raises himself up through conflict? And Gaius's Praetorium speech has fans and defenders to this day!

This is why the Royal Menagerie and the ultimate flattening of Zenos's character is effective, compelling, and ultimately necessary. Where ARR ends still pretending that maybe Gaius was an interesting dude with things to say, Stormblood finishes the job of (literally) stripping violent imperialism of its mask and showing it for what it is. Prosperity, the Roman peace, technological progress, all of those are incidental outputs to this, imperialism's true engine: the naked exercise of power and glorification of violence for their own sakes, as ends in themselves. Zenos fights so he can fight more. That's the punchline.

And importantly, Endwalker confirms it's always the punchline. Garlemald is drowning in recurring symbols and archetypes. Corvos and Goug and Amaurot and (after its destruction) Garlemald proper all at various points represent for different characters a mythical pre-collapse Eden, the reclamation or realization of which (through the right kind of violence applied to the right kind of people) is the putative goal of the empire. There's multiple ideal imperial men, multiple evil scientists, multiple conflicted collaborators. They serve to enrich each other's stories because you can set Yotsuyu's story against Fordola's against Gosetsu's and learn something from it.

But there is only one future for the Garlean Empire (distinct from the nation and people of Garlemald). Zenos is the Crown Prince when he enters the game, and (probably) the last direct male heir in the line of Galvus when he dies. He is the nameless assassin who commits regicide and the opportunistic tyrant who seizes power in the aftermath. He is both the last corrupt emperor and, through the Telophoroi, the barbarian hordes raging at his own gates.

Zenos is the endpoint of the Garlean Empire. Anyone who has survived him will be part of something different; there are no alternatives to him (most notably, Nerva never appears, except as a blasphemy, and Gaius explicitly declines further involvement with Garlemald). He is the nihilistic, violent dead end that lies at the heart of empire. If you feel his aims are hollow and venal, then all is as it should be.

[shadowed-vigil]

a directory of sorts - all 2024 entries

all entries have been posted to ao3 here. below the cut are descriptions and direct links to each individual chapter.

1. steer - tumblr / ao3 verb: to guide the movement or course of (someone or something) characters: warrior of light, emet-selch, azem word count: 582 notes: endwalker spoilers for post-level 87 dungeon.

after elpis, arcelia considers those who came before.

2. horizon - tumblr / ao3 noun: the limit of a person's mental perception, experience, or interest characters: warrior of light, word count: 514 notes: no spoilers, primarily pre-arr. 

a child of the twelveswood longs to see more.

3. tempest - tumblr / ao3 noun: a raging storm characters: warrior of light, carvallain de gorgagne word count: 562 notes: takes place at the start of stormblood. 

carvallain considers his new guests. 

4. reticent - tumblr / ao3 adjective: not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily. characters: warrior of light, carvallain de gorgagne word count: 911 notes: a direct continuation from horizon.

carvallain and the warrior of light have a conversation.

5. stamp - tumblr / ao3 noun: a distinctive character, indication, or mark characters: warrior of light word count: 571 notes: takes place post-heavensward.

arcelia considers what’s worth holding onto. 

6. halcyon - tumblr / ao3 adjective: denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful. characters: warrior of light, grinnaux de dzemael, paulecrain de fanouilley (i guess? barely to the guys) word count: 690 (nice) notes: spoilers through endwalker. 

arcelia contemplates her journey and what yet lies ahead.

7. morsel - tumblr / ao3 noun: a small piece or amount of food; a mouthful; a small piece or amount characters: warrior of light, vague mentions of grinnaux and paulecrain word count: 158 notes: heavensward era. 

they can be anything they want in the dark.

8. inquire - tumblr / ao3 verb: ask for information from someone. characters: warrior of light, paulecrain de fanouilley word count: 537 notes: heavensward era. 

arcelia and paulecrain and some (harmless) pillowtalk. 

9. lend an ear - tumblr / ao3 phrase of lend: to listen sympathetically or attentively. characters: warrior of light, thancred waters word count: 969 (nice) notes: post-level 87 dungeon. 

arcelia is reeling. thancred does what he can to help.

10. stable - tumblr / ao3

adjective: not likely to give way or overturn; firmly fixed; not deteriorating in health after an injury or operation. characters: warrior of light, word count: 702 notes: endwalker spoilers. 

the warrior of light does not wake up on the ragnarok. 

11. surrogate - tumblr / ao3 noun: a substitute, especially a person deputizing for another in a specific role or office. characters: warrior of light, carvallain de gorgagne word count: 1614 notes: takes place just before stormblood; a continuation of sorts from reticent. nsfw, explicit mentions of sex. (sorry, carv.) carvallain entertains an unexpected guest. 

12. quarry - tumblr / ao3 noun: an animal pursued by a hunter, hound, predatory mammal, or bird of prey; a thing or person that is chased or sought. characters: grinnaux de dzemael, paulecrain de fanouilley, warrior of light word count: 963 notes: takes place early heavensward, after the tribunal. an alternative pov of blasphemous. teehee.

grinnaux and paulecrain attend a ball. the warrior of light attends, too. 

13. butte - tumblr / ao3 noun: an isolated hill with steep sides and a flat top characters: warrior of light word count: 332 notes: stormblood era.

arcelia takes a moment for herself.

14. telling - tumblr / ao3 adjective: having a striking or revealing effect; significant. characters: warrior of light, grinnaux de dzemael, paulecrain de fanouilley word count: 754 notes: takes place during endwalker, sometime after the level 83 quests.

arcelia wishes that things were different.

15. interlude - tumblr / ao3 noun: a pause between the acts of a play. characters: warrior of light, grinnaux de dzemael word count: 89 notes: heavensward era. pillowtalk fluff.

softness where it shouldn’t be. (so she thinks, anyway.)

16. third-rate - tumblr / ao3 adjective: of inferior or very poor quality. characters: warrior of light, paulecrain de fanouilley word count: 974 notes/warnings: heavensward era. explicit nsfw; she humps his leg :/

arcelia tries to be a little more honest with herself.

17. sally - tumblr / ao3 noun: a sudden charge out of a besieged place against the enemy; a brief journey or sudden start into activity. characters: warrior of light, grinnaux de dzemael word count: 1977 notes/warnings**: rape/noncon; consensual nonconsent if you squint. takes place during the vault. a bad end au/noncanonical for my wol.

against her better judgement, arcelia holds her shots.

18. hackneyed - tumblr / ao3 adjective: lacking significance through having been overused; unoriginal and trite. characters: warrior of light, grinnaux de dzemael, paulecrain de fanouilley word count: 473 notes: heavensward era; general fluff. arcelia wonders how long things will last.

19. taken - tumblr / ao3 verb: capture characters: warrior of light, paulecrain de fanouilley word count: 878 notes/warnings: a (sort of) continuation from sally. nothing explicit in this chapter, but as it does reference the previous entry, there are mentions of past noncon/implied noncon.

arcelia wakes up somewhere new. 

20. duel - tumblr / ao3 noun: a contest with deadly weapons arranged between two people in order to settle a point of honor; a contest between two parties. characters: warrior of light, grinnaux de dzemael, paulecrain de fanouilley word count: 659 notes: heavensward fluff. grinnaux considers the tribunal and what comes after.

21. shade - tumblr / ao3 noun: a ghost. characters: warrior of light word count: 123 notes: post-hw era. 

arcelia considers her shadow.

22. take - tumblr / ao3 verb: remove (someone or something) from a particular place. characters: warrior of light, mentions of grinnaux and paulecrain word count: 424 notes: post-heavensward era; an alternative idea for the "taken" prompt day.

arcelia loses more than she thinks. 

23. on cloud nine - tumblr / ao3 idiom: blissfully happy. characters: warrior of light, grinnaux de dzemael, paulecrain de fanouilley word count: 348 notes: post-endwalker.

arcelia experiences an emotion.

24. bar - tumblr / ao3 noun: a measure of music or the time of a piece of music. characters: warrior of light, her mother, grinnaux de dzemael word count: 1011 notes: pre-arr into early hw. arcelia’s mother teaches her how to sing. arcelia keeps the practice close to her heart.

25. perpetuity - tumblr / ao3 noun: the state or quality of lasting forever. characters: grinnaux de dzemael, paulecrain de fanouilley word count: 92 notes: post-endwalker.

grinnaux and paulecrain go shopping. 

26. zip - tumblr / ao3 verb: to fasten; to move at high speed.  or, the idiom, zip [your lip]: to say nothing or stop talking.  characters: warrior of light, her father word count: 448 notes: endwalker spoilers; takes place sometime post-85 dungeon.

arcelia says hi to her dad after all these years.

27. memory - tumblr / ao3 noun: something remembered from the past; a recollection. characters: grinnaux de dzemael, paulecrain de fanouilley, warrior of light word count: 569 notes: takes place sometime between hw and ew.

grinnaux thinks of what was. 

28. deleterious - tumblr / ao3 adjective: causing harm or damage. characters: warrior of light + another warrior of light :^) word count: 338 notes: an au of an au i’m cooking with a friend…hehe. references to being held hostage/implications/etc. cw stabbing. (yes, utena is on the moodboard.)

arcelia’s escape attempt doesn’t go as planned. 

29. lapse - tumblr / ao3 verb: come to an end. characters: paulecrain de fanouilley, warrior of light word count: 664 notes: endwalker spoilers.

one last night before the end of the world. 

30. two heads are better than one. - tumblr / ao3 idiom: used to say that it is easier for two people who help each other to solve a problem than it is for one person to solve a problem alone. characters: grinnaux de dzemael, paulecrain de fanouilley, warrior of light word count: 1007 notes: endwalker spoilers.

after so much survival, they’re finally afforded the chance to live.

[lavampira]

D’ALIA + ROMANCE

VELLE

her first relationship from mor dhona concurrent with becoming an adventurer. there wasn’t love between them, but there was a great fondness, and flighty wanderlust pulling them apart. how could alia give them her full heart when it was so set on the horizon? things end in a mostly amicable split, any residual bitterness fading with time.

[velle is a they/she nb lesbian viera and a botanist developed from a retainer I’d made in my early ARR days which inspired the idea of a pre-game relationship and spiraled into a side oc]

K’LYHIA

a fleeting crush turned good friend. quiet companionship in the arcanist’s guild leading to a few nights out in limsa restaurants. initially an appeal of something more, but scions business again pulling alia away before she can really invest in anything together, and the what ifs of if there’d been more time. still the occasional meeting and letters recounting each other’s ongoings despite the lapse.

MINFILIA

her first love and first real heartbreak. mutual confidantes and each other’s hope, friendship formed through an understanding of the echo and responsibility to the realm, and love grown in the sanctuary and reliance found alone together. not nearly enough time in each other’s arms before it ends in selfless sacrifice and loss. an echoing love that carries in alia’s journey, never truly without minfilia’s influence on her or the lives of others, and a continued strength even without her there.

SIDURGU

her second love, but no more or less meaning than her first, only different. the exact person whom she needs at the exact moment that she meets him and the same in reverse. not a soulmate, but an active choice, one of constant trust and vulnerability and love forged through unconditional support in each other’s growth and hardships, no matter where duty or distance leads. always committed and eloped post-endwalker.

[genderdotcom]

fickle's list of classes

gladiator/paladin: got basic sword/shield training in imperial army, so it was the perfect jumping off point when she decided to become an adventurer. main class through ARR

ninja and lancer/dragoon: picked up during ARR after she started traveling around eorzea more and exploring the other city-states

dark knight: picked it up immediately at the beginning of heavensward and started maining it after the vault, abandoning pld. (if a shield couldn't save him, what use is it?)

red mage: learned it in bits and pieces over post-hw, but kind of stalled around level 60 bc magic just doesnt come naturally to her. alisaie practices with her

gunbreaker: got it in pre-stormblood, used it a lot through stormblood and shadowbringers. she thinks thancred copied her

dancer: picked it up from lyna after shadowbringers because she realised that not having any ranged options is a bit shit

reaper: got it in post-shadowbringers, at the same time a certain someone else did, without either of them knowing. they're the same, after all. mained it through endwalker

warrior: started it after endwalker bc she was itching to hold an axe again for the first time. progresses very quickly bc of ardbert

[ffxivlucio]

OC sheet: The Hopesinger, Lúcio Dossantos

Gods, finally have this ready to post proper, been working on and off on it for wayyy too long. I'm sure there's still stuff I'm either forgetting, or unable to write out in a way I like, or without being way too nervous too. Feel free to ask questions though! Also, spoilers for a lot of major expansion events other than Dawntrail, so you have been warned.

×—ʙᴀꜱɪᴄꜱ—×

ɴᴀᴍᴇ: Lúcio Dossantos

ɴɪᴄᴋɴᴀᴍᴇ(ꜱ): Lú (close friends)

ᴛɪᴛʟᴇ(ꜱ): The Warrior of Light (gained ARR), The Warrior of Darkness (gained Shadowbringers) The Hopesinger (Given by his father, he began using it during Endwalker)

ɢᴇɴᴅᴇʀ / ʜᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇʏ ɪᴅᴇɴᴛɪꜰʏ: Cis Male

ʀᴀᴄᴇ:  Hyur (Midlander)

ᴀɢᴇ: 26 

ʙɪʀᴛʜᴅᴀʏ: 3/20 

ʙɪʀᴛʜᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ: A small village in Yak Tural

ɢᴜᴀʀᴅɪᴀɴ ꜱɪɢɴ: Byergot, the Builder

ɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ: Eorzean 

×—ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀᴀɴᴄᴇ—×

ʜᴇɪɢʜᴛ: around 5’3”

ᴡᴇɪɢʜᴛ: 125 pounds, give or take

ʙᴏᴅʏ ᴛʏᴘᴇ: Ecto-mesomorph

ʜᴀɪʀ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ: Black

ᴇʏᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ: Brown

ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇxɪᴏɴ: A dark brown

ʙɪʀᴛʜᴍᴀʀᴋꜱ: None that he knows of

ꜱᴄᴀʀꜱ: A sword slash crossing his chest from his right hip to left collarbone from Zenos in Stormblood, and a reaper’s cleave crossing the tattoo on his throat from Zenos again in Endwalker.  ᴛᴀᴛᴛᴏᴏꜱ: A special tattoo given to him by his people, it glows yellow when he uses his magic, and in high concentrations of aether; and it glows green when he sings and in high concentrations of dynamis. It has the appearance of a frog. High concentrations of aspected aether will also tint the base black color of it. It does have a more complex design that is usually unseen, but appears when he’s using more of its power. As of Dawntrail, it has a thin line crossing through it.

ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ 🇺​​🇳​​🇮​​🇶​​🇺​​🇪 ꜰᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ: Two stars painted on his face, just bc he likes it

ᴄʟᴇᴀɴʟɪɴᴇꜱꜱ / ɢʀᴏᴏᴍɪɴɢ: Very clean, well-kept dreadlocks

ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴅᴀʏ ᴄʟᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ: casual and loose, lime green/yellow/dark blue for colors

ᴀᴄᴄᴇꜱꜱᴏʀɪᴇꜱ: green and yellow jewelry

×—ʜᴇᴀʟᴛʜ—×

ᴀʟʟᴇʀɢɪᴇꜱ: None

Ɪʟʟɴᴇꜱꜱᴇꜱ: None

ᴅɪꜱᴀʙɪʟɪᴛɪᴇꜱ: None

ᴇɴᴇʀɢʏ ʟᴇᴠᴇʟꜱ: Rather high, but can be controlled

ᴇᴀᴛɪɴɢ ʜᴀʙɪᴛꜱ: Does like sweets and chocolate, but relatively normal, also enjoys coffee and fruits

ꜱʟᴇᴇᴘɪɴɢ ʜᴀʙɪᴛꜱ: Rather quiet in his sleep, shockingly

ꜰɪᴛɴᴇꜱꜱ: Works out, has quite the fit legs

×—ᴘᴇʀꜱᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ—×

ɪɴᴛʀᴏᴠᴇʀᴛ / ᴇxᴛʀᴏᴠᴇʀᴛ: Extrovert

ᴛᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴀᴍᴇɴᴛ: Calm, positive, eager to learn and listen

ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ: verbal over all else, has a good way with words, always trying to share his thoughts and feelings

ɢᴏᴀʟꜱ / ᴅᴇꜱɪʀᴇꜱ: To inspire people with his music, and his actions

ᴠɪʀᴛᴜᴇꜱ: Brave, always willing to help others, forgiving (at least once), positive

ꜰʟᴀᴡꜱ: Can be stubborn at times, and if overcome by severe emotion, can become unable or unwilling to speak

ꜱᴛʀᴇɴɢᴛʜꜱ: Very good at music, playing and singing, good with children, very flexible 

ᴡᴇᴀᴋɴᴇꜱꜱᴇꜱ: Can be overcome by emotions, if he cannot control them, it will affect others around him

ꜰᴇᴀʀꜱ: Drinks prepared by an unseen party as of Heavensward, losing those he cares about, 

ᴏʙꜱᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴꜱ: Was briefly obsessed with training during the time when his friends were disappearing pre-ShB 

Qᴜɪʀᴋꜱ / ᴛɪᴄꜱ: Always humming or tapping out a beat, seems restless at first glance

��ᴇᴄʀᴇᴛꜱ: He doesn’t know the full extent of his power, and it should scare him more than it does. 

ʀᴇɢʀᴇᴛꜱ: Being unable to save Harchefaunt, and Tsuyu, though he doesn’t know if he ever could have.

×—ʀᴇʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱʜɪᴘꜱ ɪ—×

ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ: She passed away when he was young, he barely remembers her. 

ꜰᴀᴛʜᴇʀ: Bencio dos Santos, his father is a renowned bard and revolutionist from a small village in Yak Tural. His tattoo is that of a bird’s. 

ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴘᴀʀᴇɴᴛᴀʟ ꜰɪɢᴜʀᴇ(ꜱ): Jehantel, in a way

ꜱɪʙʟɪɴɢ(ꜱ): None

ɢʀᴀɴᴅᴘᴀʀᴇɴᴛꜱ: Both deceased

ᴄʜɪʟᴅʀᴇɴ: None

ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ꜰᴀᴍɪʟʏ: A few cousins 

×—ʀᴇʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱʜɪᴘꜱ ɪɪ—×

ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴛɪᴄ / ꜱᴇxᴜᴀʟ ᴏʀɪᴇɴᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: Panromantic Bisexual, open to polyamory with the right partners

ʀᴇʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱʜɪᴘ ꜱᴛᴀᴛᴜꜱ: Single, open but not really looking with intent

ꜱᴘᴏᴜꜱᴇ: N/A

ᴘᴀʀᴛɴᴇʀ/ ꜱɪɢɴɪꜰɪᴄᴀɴᴛ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ(ꜱ): N/A

ʟᴏᴠᴇʀ(ꜱ): Briefly wished with Harchefaunt, never got there, none at present 

ᴄʟᴏꜱᴇꜱᴛ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱ: Yda, Hien, Alisae, Alphinaud, Aymeric, Estinien, Krile, Riol, G’raha, Wuk Lamat, Jehantel and the rest from the Bard questline, Gulool Ja Ja, Gosetsu, Ardbert

ᴀᴄQᴜᴀɪɴᴛᴀɴᴄᴇꜱ: Count Fortemps and his family, Yugiri

ᴄᴏᴡᴏʀᴋᴇʀꜱ/ᴄᴏᴍʀᴀᴅᴇꜱ: Thancred, Papalymo, Y’shtola, Urianger, Tataru, Erenville

ʀɪᴠᴀʟꜱ: None at present, though he’d be open to a more friendly one 

ᴇɴᴇᴍɪᴇꜱ: The Ascians, Asahi, sas Brutus, Zenos, Zoral Ja, Sphene

×—ʟɪꜰᴇꜱᴛʏʟᴇ—×

ᴏᴄᴄᴜᴘᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: Warrior of Light, Bard on the side 

ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ʀᴇꜱɪᴅᴇɴᴄᴇ: Tural

ʜᴏʙʙɪᴇꜱ: Singing, Dancing, Capoeira 

ᴠɪᴄᴇꜱ: Chocolate, and good coffee 

ᴄʀɪᴍɪɴᴀʟ ʀᴇᴄᴏʀᴅ: Aiding in a revolution 

ꜱᴘᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ ʜᴀʙɪᴛꜱ: On the simpler side, he doesn’t want to get on Tataru’s bad side, will splurge for musical expenses though

ꜱᴏᴄɪᴀʟ ᴏʀ ʟᴏɴᴇʀ: very much a social person, barring when he’s overcome by negative emotions, so he doesn’t hurt anyone

ꜰᴀɪᴛʜ / ʀᴇʟɪɢɪᴏɴ: Believes in the goodness of people

×—ʟɪᴋᴇꜱ // ᴅɪꜱʟɪᴋᴇꜱ—×

ꜰᴏᴏᴅꜱ: Chocolate, good coffee, quite a few fruits, quite a few meats

ᴄᴏʟᴏʀꜱ: Green, yellow, and blue

ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇꜱ: Tural, Ishgard has grown on him, The Black Shroud. The Azim Steppe

ꜱᴏᴜɴᴅꜱ: Music of any kind, his friends laughter, birds chirping. An enthusiastic crowd, an awed crowd, a busy crowd // Too much Light, too much silence, the Tower of Babil, anything that’s far too high pitched

ꜱᴍᴇʟʟꜱ: Flowers, the land after it rains, a calm evening // Smoke and ash, burnt things

ᴛᴇxᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ: Strings, loose fabric, smooth wood // Being roughly grabbed

ᴡᴇᴀᴛʜᴇʀ: Sunny with a breeze, rain

ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ: His friend’s touches and affections, however little

×—ᴄᴏᴍʙᴀᴛ—×

ᴊᴏʙ / ᴄʟᴀꜱꜱ: Primarily a Bard, but also a White Mage, and can dip into a Dancer-like class of his own

ᴀʀᴍᴏʀ ᴛʏᴘᴇ: Looser clothing, and armored legs

ᴡᴇᴀᴘᴏɴ(ꜱ): His own bow crafted with the help of Gerolt, it took him a bit to learn it and its specifications, since he wanted it to be a harp as well, and it’s less flexible/cannot handle overdrawing (is that a term?) as a result

ꜰɪɢʜᴛɪɴɢ ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ: Fast, agile, accurate. With a bow, he’s scarily accurate and rather stylish, and with his style of capoeira, he drops the style quite a bit, but is even quicker and rather brutal if he’s fighting for real. 

ᴍᴇʟᴇᴇ ᴄᴏᴍʙᴀᴛ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: I’d describe it as Monk, if the skill was more leg-focused. He stays low and constantly on the move, delivering strikes with a surprising amount of strength and flexibility, able to strike as he dodges a returning blow. He carries around a small knife if he needs to, but very rarely actually uses it. 

ʀᴀɴɢᴇᴅ ᴄᴏᴍʙᴀᴛ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: His preferred style of fighting in Eorzea, he is quite the good shot. He took a noticeable increase in skill during Pre-Shadowbringers, when his friends were “disappearing”. 

ᴏꜰꜰᴇɴꜱɪᴠᴇ ᴍᴀɢɪᴄ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: The standard WHM offensive magic stuff, blood for the blood lily!

ᴅᴇꜰᴇɴꜱɪᴠᴇ ᴍᴀɢɪᴄ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ: Where he excels, with buffs for the party, or skills from the White Mage class

ꜱɪɢɴᴀᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴀʙɪʟɪᴛʏ: Sound Barrier, an ability that’s like if he could cast a Crit-Shield (Differential Diagnosis, or Catalyst for example) at will that rapidly decayed. Used to weather a high damage blow to the party. If he’s a WHM, after Har’s death, he can cast Benediction on reflex, which saved his life when Zenos slashed at his chest in Stormblood.

×—ᴍɪꜱᴄᴇʟʟᴀɴᴇᴏᴜꜱ—×

ᴘᴇᴛꜱ / ᴀɴɪᴍᴀʟ ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀɴɪᴏɴꜱ: Concert, his yellow chocobo; Harmony, his black chocobo; and Low, his capybara mount (I’ll get it one day ;-;)

ᴘʀɪᴢᴇᴅ / ᴘʀᴇᴄɪᴏᴜꜱ ᴘᴏꜱꜱᴇꜱꜱɪᴏɴꜱ: His bow, and his lute, made with materials from his home.

ʟᴀɴɢᴜᴀɢᴇꜱ ᴋɴᴏᴡɴ: With the power of the Echo, and his tattoo, he can effectively understand and talk in every language, through understanding comes easier than talking. He can speak the language of dragons, but had to be taught by Hraesvelgr. His tattoo is the thing that allows him to speak it. He can also speak in sign language, and has been able since he was a child.

ꜱᴘᴇᴄɪᴀʟ ᴛᴀʟᴇɴᴛꜱ: The language thing, but he’s also remarkably skilled at playing and composing music. He can pick up and play nearly any instrument. He also is a pretty good swimmer, to the surprise of the Scions.

ᴘʀᴇꜰᴇʀʀᴇᴅ ᴍᴇᴛʜᴏᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴛʀᴀᴠᴇʟ: Mounts, or airships.

ɴᴏᴛᴀʙʟᴇ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴍᴘʟɪꜱʜᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ: Other than the usual WoL stuff, rewriting and singing the Dragonsong, and singing against the Endsinger, a musical battle that spreads throughout the cosmos beyond Eorzea

ᴀɴ ᴇxᴘᴇʀɪᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ꜱʜᴀᴘᴇᴅ ᴡʜᴏ ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴀʀᴇ: ARR: Dying to Lahabrea; never forget what you have HW: Harchefant’s death, and the rewrite of the Dragonsong; always tell your loved ones, even just friends, how much you appreciate them. StB: Freeing Doma, and my god, Yotsuyu’s entire arc; Give even the worst people one chance to redeem themselves, but no more than that. SB: Nearly becoming a Lightwarden, and seeing outside the window after he woke up; It is never the end, even if it seems like it. EW: Meteion’s entire arc, Elpis, the Dead Ends, Zenos’s final battle ...quite a few here; Your comrades will save you, no matter the distance.

- Unsure how to, or if, I can add images in the middle of this so I'll out his tattoo ref here

There's a good chance I'll try and go more into his tattoo and stuff in a later post, if I find the motivation to try and make it coherent lol. It's in my head, I just dunno how to write it out. Thanks for viewing!

[autumnslance]

Year of the OTP 2023 - Thancred & Aeryn Masterpost

Originally started by a Batman fandom group, Year of the OTP is a challenge to end up with 12 new fics from a series of prompts for one's favorite ship. They've been gracious enough to open it to anyone and everyone, however, so a few of us decided to add our Final Fantasy XIV wolships into the mix.

So here are 12 fics/screenshot sets for my OC Aeryn Striker with that canon rogue, Thancred Waters. Also migrating the stories onto my Ao3, mostly in "Unexpected" and "Despite the Gods We've Outlived", though a few stand alone in my "Aeryn Striker" series.

January - Dual Perspectives (ARR, Pre-relationship) February - Linkpearl (Stormblood, early relationship, long distance) March - Ladyhawke Fairy Tale AU (image set, plot summary) April - Desert Divergence (AU/Canon Divergence, Love Confess) May - Illness (ARR pre-relationship, sick fic/comfort) June - Confession (Shadowbringers Love Confess, poorly timed) July - Stars (Yearning at the start of Shadowbringers) August - Snowstorm (Heavensward pre-relationship comfort) September - I Wrote This For You (A letter of yearning, Endwalker) October - On A Dark & Stormy Night (Dark Fairy Tale AU images) November - Missing Scars (Post-Shadowbringers readjustment) December - Home (post-Endwalker holidays & belonging)

Some of these did get written later, going back and filling in months I'd missed. Life happens! Also original story writing eating up my brain, but I cannot complain about more writing productivity!

This also let me get in at least one long-sitting WIP completed finally ("Snowstorm"; we're not going to talk about how long that's been in drafts...), while others still didn't mesh ("Meeting the Family" is being a rambling monster) but led to entirely new things getting written. And it got me to play with a few AUs, which I normally don't do, aside from the Halloween silliness, which found its way into this set as well.

Thanks again to YOTP for hosting and opening up this little challenge, and here's to a new year of creativity around all our blorbo pairings!

[elf-simp]

With the advent of the benchmark and the information that's given us in way of textures, models, and materials: This is going to be the final experiment with this specific body texture before Dawntrail. If I can help it I'm going to be directing my efforts to making a new texture entirely, hopefully one that's completely custom made.

Fullbody + Kinda shitty closeup under cut lol (also very scattered and chaotic exposition)

So why this design? Well the short answer is that Seiei is a monster/demon. Even in early drafts of her lore she fell to corruption and had her entire being changed irrevocably.

The long answer is given both the nature of her being, her past, and the area she lived in I wanted to try and draw upon specific themes she has when designing this more beastial form to get a more truly finalized picture of this character.

The biggest themes being Corvids, Emotions (namely rage), Tengu, and the final player that spurred the decision to add scales: Alatreon (yes, from monster hunter). Going in reverse order to explain starting with Alatreon; it was the final piece of the puzzle as every aspect of it fits Seiei nearly to a T with a short blurb of it stating: "Known as a symbol of destruction, people fear even uttering its name. It’s rumored to control all of the elements, but most, if not all, records of its existence have been burned." Going hand in hand with much of what is stated in this writing I posted a while ago. This on top of the fact that when fighting, Alatreon is inherently chaotic and easily enraged, much like Seiei.//

Given the area that Seiei is from—that being Doma—Tengu seemed to fit the bill as well. The decision to include this only reinforced by Swallows Compass.

There is significantly more to unpack here than with Alatreon as well as some still loose ends but the main reasons Tengu play into her design are because they are often depicted as yokai, sometimes even 'evil spirits.' In art and media they are portrayed very commonly with avian characteristics which ties into the whole Corvid thing. I could very well argue that the evolution from Corvids to Tengu is due to her corruption twisting that aspect of her into something monstrous. Oh and the big nose...

But more than that there, are a few stories that portray Tengu as legendary martialists that can employ extremely powerful and dangerous magics, which Seiei has in the form of her prior kenjutsu training and "black smoke". And yes, keeping with typical depictions, she does also have a feather fan, but I'm not sure I've really ever posted her with it.//

Emotions, specifically rage, was the baseline theming for her when I was drafting up her original lore (that needs heavy refinement now but I'll worry about that later). As one might guess this also hooks into 'Dynamis'. You see; Seiei was created shortly after I'd finished Endwalkers MSQ and the idea of "Dynamis" was still fresh in my head. Specifically it's observed ability to spiral out of control (much like real emotion) and create horrid abominations that the people of etheirys do not understand (Much like how rage causes people to do things they otherwise wouldn't with no sound logic behind it).

I'd never been invested in FF's magic system until this point either as it seemed very straight forward and bland to me even with astral and umbral alignments. But with the introduction of Dynamis as the sort of 'antithesis' to Aether I was locked in. My mind had interpreted it as a sort of matter vs anti-matter type of deal given that where one is abundant the other is near absent and they do not generally play well together, so naturally I wanted to try and explore that avenue more.

It was difficult trying to figure out how to get a character to reasonably function with Dynamis at first, especially with her lore being from pre-arr. However, if you know about "The Burn" and it's alleged lack of Aether, one needn't stretch very far to see how Dynamis could have affected Seiei. Or really any character from Othard. I'd love to do a real deep-dive into this at some point but for now you get my very scattered and very raw exposition.

As a sorta related aside, this was all thought up during a very difficult time in my life. So in a way this character started out as 'vent art' to release pent up emotion.//

Anyone who's been around a while knows Seiei's original last name was 'Warcrow'. When I'd made the character at first this had literally zero meaning outside of "I like bird :) " but as time went on I started to see where it could fit.

Without going into an insane amount of detail though because I'm sleepy: The crow motif is more closely tied to her adoptive father (The bunny man) who was exceptionally clever and tricky much like crows are. However, when he had passed our Seiei inherited much of what made him who he was and subsequently twisted it (cannot emphasis enough how much I love corruption). As a result for our Seiei, the meaning of crows is no longer relates to their intelligence or trickery but their more superstitious interpretations of approaching disaster and death. Also because I like the bird and it goes hand in hand with the Tengu thing lol.//

Also:

[jazzpostsrandomthings]

I had to finish some pre-exam homework today and then stomach ache was killing me so I wasn't able to complete Journey Retold entry today, sorry ;w; I will compensate with some fun trivia for my WoLs because I feel like doing it.

Pi Peataan

Pi is Sharlayan by birth but he doesn't remember much of his early childhood here because he was very little;

Pi's birthname is Piyu Lazuyu;

He is 97 cm tall (postEW);

He is a good swimmer;

He plays a flute (picks it up preSB and gets better at it during ShB);

He likes to keep his diary (in addition to sending the letters to his family that usually recount everything that happened within a week);

He also scribbles small drawings at the sides of his letters and sometimes diary pages. Not nearly as good as Alphinaud at art, but they are not an eyesore either;

Pi likes citrus fruits, specifically the oranges;

His favorite flower is a dandelion and his favorite bird is a doman magpie;

Pi wore a few different hats over the course of his journeys (I will probably make a funny post about the hats he officially wore in the story itself tomorrow).

Haru Hataori

Haru looks almost the same as his mom (horn type, tail type, eyes (partially)) and he only got the skin color from his father;

His mom expected him in Spring and wanted to name him Haru;

He is 203 cm tall;

Haru has heterochromia;

He was taught to sew since he was 6, and despite of mainly being a fighter, he is actually great at making clothes;

He was growing pretty much unsupervised which resulted in him growing up to be the dork everyone knows him as now;

That also resulted in him getting a book about the brave Ishgardian Dragoons which inspired him to pursue the craft;

Haru started to dye his hair and do makeup in his teens;

His family is quite rich and thus he has bad spending habits;

He can draw patterns pretty well but he is awful at drawing people and animals;

He is very bad at wistanding cold (even if he says otherwise);

He wore new clothes designed by his father every time He met Pi from ARR to SB. He stopped doing that after he journeyed to Eorzea on his own near the end of SB;

Haru likes sweets and spicy food but he doesn't overindulge in them and most of his meals are actually quite healty;

His favorite flower is a sakura flower and he carries around a sown trinket shaped like one everywhere he goes;

His favorite animal is a chocobo. He absolutely adores the horsebirds, especially his girl Chyunchyun :)

Also did you know that his chocobo laid eggs after Endwalker---

[rose-from-ashes]

PSSSST HI HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIEND!!! slides over this character building question for vyn, cei, and vukmir! if they existed as npcs in the game that give a quest (or a quest chain maybe?), what would it be? and would there be a special item you get for completing it?

THANK YOUUU

Vyn:

He gives a quest chain asking you to infiltrate someplace, possibly Ishgard, Ul'dah, Eulmore, or Garlemald in order to seek and rescue unfairly prosecuted or imprisoned individuals and such inside, giving them a safe out where he would not be able to due to his distinct appearance and reputation as a ruffian/warrior/beast/danger. Basically an underground railroad situation. He feels awful about being unable to save those people directly, and joining with someone less prominent would allow him to at least bring those people into an area he can actually defend. Mechanically, this would be dialogue, fetch quest, and sneaking quest heavy. He wants you to avoid combat, because he'd rather do the combat himself.

The special item would be a glamor garment or weapon from him of your choice, and repeating events would allow you to get the full set. Once you attain the full set, there would be a bonus quest wherein you get to speak to the people you've helped along the way, similar to the level 80 dark knight quest.

His npc name on first interaction until he introduces himself would be "Tall Stranger". The questline would be called "Cries in the Dark" and begin with a quest named "Hidden Injustice".

Cei:

They give a quest chain where you help them for various experiments by gathering components or doing tasks, similar to the post arr urianger quest chain with the extreme trials. Just like with that questline, finishing it unlocks the ability to turn in components from the content of that questline in return for high quality equipment. There is a daily limit.

Their npc name until they introduce themself would be "Unnerving Garlean" and the first quest would be called "Hardware Requirements". This quest could exist in a theoretical pre-destruction Garlemald or Mare Lamentorum post-Endwalker. You would also meet their adoptive mother Herse at some point, if it takes place in Mare Lamentorum.

Vukmir:

His quest/questline (either a very long quest or a questline with the same length just split between multiple smaller quests) and involve following a series of echo flashbacks in the Thirteenth following the Contramemoria from his perspective. At first he appears as a shadowy, vague figure, the vision distorted by centuries, but throughout it, he would grow more and more clear, until the player sees him in full just before the Calamity. Finally, we would see his Voidsent form after in the form of a statue that the visions lead us to with a description of his deeds as a Voidsent below, describing how he remained a great ruler afterwards, but eventually slipped into the Source, and has not been seen by his followers since, though spectres remain to guide them. The special item would be a statuette of him holding his sword high in defiance of his impending doom. The quest/questline would be called "Shadows of the Lost King".

[the-rogue-mockingjay]

6 + 10 for the wol questions 🥺

ty gigi!! /dote 🩷

6. how does your wol feel about romance? are they a hopeless romantic, waiting for The One, or are they more casual? do they believe in soulmates?

O'ravi has some mixed feelings on it lol. In her youth she was something of a hopeless romantic, though it wasn't something she actively searched for (her priorities were more on traveling and learning every piece of music, art, and folklore she could get her hands on). She's always wanted a good, solid relationship, but she also hasn't considered it something attainable for most of her life tbh. She also just never really met anyone she had a connection with/felt attracted to (she's ace and autistic so it's a double whammy of not only are such feelings extremely rare, it's super difficult for her to identify what those feelings are when she has them ldkjfhdkjg).

Her feelings for Haurchefant had started shifting into the romantic in the time leading up to the Vault but she didn't recognize it until. Well. 🥲It was too late. She'd had a very fleeting like 3-day crush on Aymeric when she met him in ARR but after the initial 😳💕 he was just an ally/friend to her. She did eventually fall in love with Aymeric for real (in the days after the Royal Menagerie to be specific; it had been building for a while), and it tore her to shreds inside because she felt that even just being friends with him was putting his life in danger, by virtue of the death and chaos that follows her, Twelve FORBID she became romantically involved with him- in her mind, that'd be no different than going and personally shooting him dead fldgjkhfdkjgh. She didn't stop believing that until after the ENW finale, when she was finally, decisively free of her fate.

She wholeheartedly believes in soulmates, but not in the romantic sense, necessarily; her definition of it is someone who you will reunite with and love in every lifetime, regardless of the type of that love. The list of people that she considers soulmates includes Themis, Aymeric, Haurchefant, Hythlodaeus, and Emet-Selch. Zenos goes on that list too depending on the day, other days she hates him and finds him repulsive lfkjghfdjkgh. Regardless of how she feels, she fully expects to see him in every lifetime from here out, though. She has very mixed feelings about that.

10. how does your wol sleep? very light? very heavy? do they need a specific item to fall asleep, or does it take them forever? where do they prefer sleeping?

O'ravi's a very light sleeper, always has been, and she hates sleeping alone (her tribe doesn't do that, they typically prefer to share space or sleep in sort of cuddle piles if the temperature gets low enough where that's an option). When she first left home and began traveling Eorzea alone, it was a huge adjustment. She's also always been someone who dozes off for 5-10 minutes in the weirdest places (a la those pics of actors sleeping between takes in random nooks on movie sets), and now that she has fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue post-ENW, she's doing this more than ever. Catch her taking cat naps in the sun in between Dawntrail MSQ objectives 😂

After Operation Archon, she started getting nightmares on a regular basis, and this just continually got worse over time. I think she also struggles with insomnia, the intensity of which varies but was worst during Endwalker and Stormblood. Now, a year or two post-ENW, she still has these problems (and will for the rest of her life), but they're semi-manageable.

Her favorite place to sleep is cuddled up to Aymeric 🥹 she unofficially moved in with him a long time ago (sometime between Final Steps of Faith and Post-Dragonsong MSQ) and originally had her own room, but after ENW his room became her room too and it's probably the place she feels safest tbh

[pre-dt wol asks]

[windupnamazu]

—no matter what fate awaits us, i'll take your hand in mine and never let go next to you (next to you), here by your side, our souls cry out that this is where we belong!

01. ENVOY: could be the distance made this love visible Lunya & Hancock | Post-Shadowbringers | 969wc Lunya Lanya, Hancock Fitzgerald, and the art of lacking subtlety.

02. BARK: don't be so awoof! Lunya & Zaya | Post-Endwalker | 371wc Argos wants a little snack, as a treat. Sorry, Zaya.

03. UNION (free day): something about making cantaloupes into can-elopes Lunya & Kotone/H'lios | Post-Endwalker | 486wc Kotone and H'lios have a surprise for Lunya. Maybe even two surprises, if she's unlucky.

04. OFF THE HOOK: twelve forbid girls do anything! Pancake & Linnet | Post-Stormblood | 1423wc Just girls being girls.

05. BARBAROUS: like swords to the pit of my belly Lunya & Themis | Pirate AU | 909wc More than friends but less than lovers to enemies.

06. RING: like the hands on the clock, they'll go in circles back to their places Lunya/G'raha | Endwalker finale | 1143wc Fourteen years ago, a little girl learned something from the man who would give his life for hers.

07. NOISOME: smells like sardine spirit! Lunya, Babycorn, Cherrypit, & Himbo | ARR, flowrverse | 1155wc A little deodorant would go a long way, but I'm not sure you'd remember what that is either.

08. SHED: the gentleness hidden in the night Lunya/G'raha | Howl's Moving Castle AU | 244wc You found me in the future, and now it's my turn to find you.

09. FAIR: if we listen to each other's heart! Butter/Babycorn & uninvited guests | Post-Endwalker | 1202wc The tornado potato popoto chronicles.

10. DIVINE (free day): you, the destroyer (you, the destroyed) Lunya/G'raha | Crystal Tower quests | 763wc G'raha Tia and an uncomfortably close encounter with the deific kind.

11. ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY: you're the only one i wish would understand Rhea & Honoka | Post-Endwalker | 1240wc My heart is always filled with unrequited feelings for you.

12. DOWDY: dressed to impress (and distress?) Lunya & Babycorn | Castle in the Sky AU | 694wc Walk, walk, fashion baby(corn).

13. CHECK: i don't get intimidated (girl, i celebrate it) Tsuna/Hancock | Post-Stormblood | 993wc Checklist, 1 2 3 / you can tell me what you need ♫ (can it be me?)

14. CLEAR: got a secret (i can't keep it!) Coco & Reese | Endwalker | 1087wc There are better places to give your friend a crisis than the ground, you know.

15. PORTENTOUS: i can't sit idly (no, i can't move at all) Lunya/G'raha | Pastoral AU | 582wc Some people hear a scream in the middle of the night and close their curtains. G'raha runs toward it.

16. JERK: loot it or lose it! Lunya & Vertical | MMO Gamer AU | 272wc EVEYBODY SO MEAN 2 ME

17. TEASE (free day): i bet you play soccer 'cause you're a keeper! Lunya/G'raha & Zaya/Thancred | Misc high school AU | 782wc Two sets of teenagers, both alike in teenage cringefaility, On fair soccer field, where we lay our scene,

18. FISH OUT OF WATER: walking around on those—what do you call 'em? Lunya/G'raha & Cherrypit & Babycorn | Aquarium AU | 993wc Up where they walk, up where they run, up where they're just trying to leave their workplace so they can go on a date but you're like six and too cute to ignore—

19. WEAL: three of swords Felis | Pre-Calamity | 517wc They say bad luck comes in threes, so it makes sense that all three of them ended up in a shitty place by shitty circumstances.

20. HAMPER: cubone applin sinistea! Lunya & G'raha & Babycorn & Butter | Pokemon AU | 523wc Just because you can eat it doesn't mean you should.

21. GRAVE: the weight of living Lunya & G'raha | Pacific Rim AU | 393wc There's an albatross around your neck.

22. FULSOME: absolutely smitten Tsuna/Hancock & Lunya | Post-Endwalker | 586wc Live Lunya Lanya reaction.