#rjoli

[pirpintine]

let's go dawntrail gamers!

[cosmicseashanty]

Art party sketches from 2022

#tmtobeachparty

#sepiaartparty

#MacArtParty

#MayaBeachParty

#EncoreArtParty

#oldwolartparty

#starlightdays

#YerenBirthday

[windupnamazu]

bolt to the blue

ffxivwrite2021 #15: thunderous

⮞ lunya, fistoflightning's zaya, blackestnight's hanami, verbroil's rjoli, and winduphaurchefant's reese. a mention of windup-dragoon's kirishimi! 921 words. ⮞ post-shb, but pre 5.3, with a spoiler for the ffxv collab event. ⮞ lunya may be less inclined to show it like zaya does, but she does cause problems on purpose. or: water/lightning aspected siblings pioneer the dumbest form of travel eorzea's ever seen.

thunderous: relating to or giving warning of thunder.

"I can't let you do this," Reese insisted, wringing her hands in her robes as she paced before them. "It's way too unsafe—what if you get set on fire, or—or—what if you fall?! You will fall! Oh, gods, what am I going to say to the Scions..."

Lunya rolled her eyes. "Calm down, Mom. I can give us a safe landing." She snapped her fingers. "Like this."

A warbled scream erupted from Reese as she slowly began to float off the ground, glittering with faint traces of stardust. "Please put me down please put me down please put me—"

Rjoli reached out and grabbed her sleeve, smiling patiently as Reese wrapped herself around him like a koala and clung to him even after Lunya returned her gravity to normal.

Dark clouds were beginning to roll in over the Floating City of Nym as the party stood on the cliff's edge, the winds kicking up fiercely as the rain approached. Lunya relished the feeling of an authentic La Noscean storm—it was too bad Wyda couldn't be home to enjoy it too. Kind of embarrassing, actually, that she was making her friends do something like this instead of heading back over to help out with the research. But Zaya was stretching at her side, a spark in their eyes that she hadn't seen in some time between everything that'd happened on the First. Their enthusiasm was palpable, rolling off them in static waves that raised every hair on Rjoli's body until he was a giant pink puffball. Every bit of movement any of them made created small crackling sounds.

"This is not how Noctis did his warping," Hanami said, crossing her arms as she eyed the storm warily. It was hard to tell if she was just as worried for them as Reese was or if she figured they'd learn their lesson the hard way.

"Well, I don't see Hien and Kirishimi warping around with 'the power of kings,'" snipped Lunya, unless Kiri knew something she didn't. Hanami and Zaya both made complicated expressions at the mention of the Doman lordling. "So we gotta do the next best thing."

Privately, Lunya knew full well that going out of her way to get hit by lightning wasn't at all the next best thing and nowhere close to what their otherworldly friend employed in battle. The technique she was going to use came from another of the Warriors of Light and Seven happened to use it without this dangerous aspect, which frankly just wasn't as fun. She sure as hells wasn't about to tell Reese that, though.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Rjoli signed, a bit stifled by Reese continuing to cling to him like an oversized stuffed bear. "Isn't Zaya's aether…"

"I know Zaya's whole aether situation is like trying to put a sweater on a greased goobbue, that's why they have me," Lunya emphasized with a wiggle of her incandescent, aether-coated fingers.

"That's why I have Lunya," Zaya agreed, giving them all a not very reassuring thumbs up, way more excited about this than any of the others felt they should be. Reese and Rjoli looked at them doubtfully.

The rain rushed in. When the first crack of thunder slammed above them, Lunya clapped her hands with glee, bouncing up and down on the spot. Zaya knelt on the dirt, her back turned to her. "It's time!"

"Like a frog," Hanami muttered, which Lunya luckily didn't hear.

Lunya climbed on Zaya's back. A iridescent sheen rippled across Zaya's scales and horns and down their skin as she pressed a hand to the back of their head, condensing her aether into a thick protective layer over them both. If her hair wasn't already a mess from Zaya's latent static earlier then it certainly was now as tension completely pooled around them and the rain began to soak them through. Every single hair on her body was standing on end and there was a low buzz that hummed in the air.

"At your ready, Cap'n Zaya!" she cheered. The others stepped far, far back, crammed together beneath Rjoli's Serpent of Ronka umbrella.

"Hold on," Zaya said raspily, teeth bared in a huge grin. Threads of aether swirled in Lunya's hands as she gripped Zaya's shoulders, electricity beginning to arc across their skin. The smell of ozone was overwhelmingly sweet in her nostrils, weighing metallic on her tongue.

Lightning struck them.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA," they screamed in unison, like idiots, because seriously why did she ever think this was a good idea—but Lunya closed her eyes and searched, following the lines of aether that swirled in the air. She grasped at the lightning aether, grabbed her own in the other fist, and slammed them together. The lightning strike launched them upward and with her aetherial manipulation she pulled another bolt close and Zaya propelled them forward, high, high above the floating city. Lunya whooped in exhilaration as they leaped to the next lightning strike and the next and the next and the next, and the storm swelled fiercer and fiercer above them until they were out of sight, the only sign of where they were being the intensified sound of the thunderclaps and the shaking of the earth with each following strike.

"Um, now that I think about it," Reese said, breaking the silence that followed the first lightning strike for the three left on the ground. "Why did we let them take any ideas from Noctis when we watched him hit his fiancée with a car?"

[whitherliliesbloom]

The sun shining on us feels good We're looking at each other and smiling

@bolt-from-the-cobalt​  ☀ @ofthesilverlining​  ☀  @windup-dragoon​ ☀  @windupnamazu​  ☀  @mintdrop​  ☀  @verbroil​  ☀ @earthlystar​  ☀ @windupalisaie​  ☀

Part 2 (x)

[blackestnight]

23: in the groove

Prompt: Shuffle

Word count: 993

Set in a goofy modern “main street” AU, which is just an excuse for Shenanigans and occasional pining. Featuring characters belonging to @winduphaurchefant @verbroil @windupnamazu @fistsoflightning and @windupcatgirl. Links are for flavor, not mandatory listening!

Control of the music is a point of contention among the squad.

Reese had become a master of tuning out background noise while she was working, so she didn’t bother to pay much attention to the rumbling of the road under the tires or the steady beat from the car’s speakers, occupied with her homework (spread across a hat box in her lap, lacking a desk as she was wedged in the backseat of Rjoli’s suburban). It was a little dark with the back windshield blocked by the hulking shape of the trailer hitched behind them, but with a flashlight wedged into the space between her seat and the headrest she had enough light to read by.

Unfortunately her ability to filter out noise didn’t help when the seat in front of her shook with impact, turning her note on Moenbryda’s essay into a sort of shaky loop.

She blinked herself back out of the haze that Moen’s aether transference lab reports always put her in just in time to hear Hanami snap, “Hands off, brat. I am driving. My music.”

One row up, Lunya sulked, hunching even further down in her spot on the hump seat. Zaya—who Reese assumed had pulled Lunya back from the center console—patted her head. “Your music sounds like a drum kit got mugged by a guitar amp while it was painting dramatic emo graffiti in a back alley,” Lunya said. “This song is its cry for help. Put us all out of our misery, please.”

“It keeps me awake,” Hanami insisted. Reese sighed and closed her binder, leaving her pen in as a makeshift bookmark. “Besides, you have just been listening to Starlight music for the last sennight. Do not tell me this is worse.”

“I’m feeling festive!” Lunya said. “I’m excited for winter break.”

“It is September,” Hanami hissed.

Rjoli laughed, careful not to jostle Lunya with his elbows. “You’re not a student, little jewel,” he said.

Zaya giggled when Reese leaned forward to prop her chin on the seat, flicking their fore and middle fingers up at the side of Lunya’s head, just out of her field of vision, like miniature cat ears. “She never said she was excited for her break,” Reese pointed out, half translation and half teasing.

“Hey!” Lunya howled. She turned to swat at Zaya’s hand, a visible flush creeping over the tips of her ears. “Why did I even bring you guys along?”

Sati—who had laid claim to the coveted shotgun seat in exchange for navigator duties, although Reese noted that her phone screen was flashing with one of her rhythm games, not the map—popped her gum. “‘Cause we’re easy to bribe in exchange for fast food?”

Rjoli flicked the sleeve of Reese’s ratty oversized Studium hoodie, draped over the middle seat as the car had grown stuffy. “Our fashion sense,” he said.

Zaya flexed one arm, patting their muscles, and Reese said, “Heavy lifting.”

Lunya slumped further down, her feet nearly colliding with the air vents. “Yeah, okay, all that,” she admitted. “And friendship and junk. But mostly the cheap bribes.”

Reese set her hat box-desk in the floorboards to stretch forward and pat Lunya carefully atop her head.

(If, after a pit stop for gas and a chance to double-check that Lunya’s trunk show pieces hadn’t been jostled too badly, Reese took over the AUX cord with her study playlist with the aim of putting the others to sleep, no one had to know. And if she passed the phone to Lunya after and let her play her sad holiday song on repeat, well...Lunya’s quiet humming was worth it.)

—

Zaya bounced on their toes to the rhythm of the squeeze-nozzle pull in their fingers, swaying from side to side as they spritzed down the display case that housed Rjoli’s braided loaves. They weren’t the only one dancing, they reasoned, glancing at Reese and Lunya where they were busy kneading out thick slabs of dough, Hanami elbow-deep in the guts of the industrial mixer. The speakers in the bakery were loud, usually blasting happy jazz tunes for the patrons, though with the shop empty of customers for the moment Sati had shoved the tables along the walls and set her own phone in the dock, pulling Rjoli into a sloppy jive to the electro-swing tune pumping through the speakers.

Zaya could barely make out the beat of the bassline through the stereo cuffs looped around their horns, but it wasn’t the one they were dancing to. Thancred was always finding new show tunes to send—Zaya had clicked on this one, attached to his morning greeting three days before, and it had been stuck in their head since.

It was...nice. Emotional. The words stuck, too, in a way they usually didn’t, in a way that sent their heart stuttering sometimes. They swept their arm in long, rhythmic motions, watching the cleaner dry on the backlit glass.

They lost that rhythm when Sati stumbled into their side, giggling and tugging at their wrist. “Zaaaya!” she cheered. “Come dance with us!”

“Or you could clean,” Hanami muttered, pulling at something inside the mixer. “Like you are supposed to.”

“We’ve mopped already,” Rjoli said, pulling out a chair from the wall and sinking into it, fur fluffed with exertion. “Let them have their fun. There isn’t much else to do without the machines running.”

“Come on,” Sati repeated, with another squeeze to Zaya’s wrist. “Put away your mooning music and let me teach you a real dance, please?”

Zaya felt themself fish at the word mooning—they weren’t, it wasn’t like that—but before they could fumble their hand free to sign Lunya said, “Ooh, I wonder what lover boy sent this time?”

Reese gave a contemplative hum, knuckles pressed against the counter while she worked the dough. “Thirty gil says a Wonderwall cover,” she said.

Sati broke into giggles while Lunya offered her own dough-sticky hand in a high five, and Zaya finally freed their hand only to bury their face in it.

[fistsoflightning]

COMBAT MODE // ZAYA QESTIR

★★★★★★★★☆☆  —  STRENGTH ★★★★★★★☆☆☆  —  OFFENSE ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆  —  DEFENSE ★★★★★★★★★☆  —  SPEED ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆  —  DURABILITY ★★★★★★★★☆☆  —  ACCURACY ★★★★★★★★★☆  —  AGILITY ★★★★★★★★★☆  —  STAMINA ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆  —  TEAMWORK ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆  —  STEALTH ★★★★★★★★★☆  —  MELEE ★★★★★★★☆☆☆  —  BLADES ★★★★★★★★☆☆  —  BLUNT ★★★★★★★★☆☆  —  RANGED ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆  —  MAGIC ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆  —  TRAPS ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆  —  MEDIC

OVERVIEW:

Zaya grew up on the Steppe where fighting was almost guaranteed to be a daily occurrence with how they commonly went out “adventuring”, hunting, or parleying with their older brother for “khan experience” (especially when the Naadam was on the horizon), and as such has the combat experience to match. They’re extremely quick on their feet, hit hard and fast, and rarely let their guard down. Most of their combat set relies on being within melee range, but give them merely a few seconds and they’ll pull out either their chakrams or their bow to hunt you down.

With fighting experience linking back to a good dozen Naadams or so plus hunting experience, it doesn’t quite matter whether their enemy is monster or human; a life is a life, and a fight is a fight. Zaya does not hold back in a real fight, especially if the lives of others are at risk. It’s seldom known, but Zaya can and will call their yol down to spawn a thunderstorm if they need the extra advantage to win. They can also shock people themselves with their tattoo inscription, but they rarely do.

If Zaya finds themselves cornered or losing a fight (ex. Zenos during Rhalgr’s Reach), it’s very likely that they’ll overload their tattoo inscription to call down a very large bolt of lightning to turn the tides at the cost of their wellbeing; it’s killed them twice before, actually. There’s a reason they tend not to rely on it.

INJURIES:

If one didn’t know them personally, it would be an easy assumption to make that none of their injuries have left their mark on them; after all, Au’ra scale patterns differ from person to person... right? 

Those who do know them well enough know that their body is littered with scars; they’re merely hidden due to the fact that their scars fill in with scales. Among the numerous scars on their body, the most major ones lie on their calves, upper back, and left arm and hand; from shards of Ifrit’s nails, Lahabrea and Nidhogg’s claws, and Zenos several times respectively. These scales are much softer than the rest of Zaya’s scales, and need extra protection, which is why all of Zaya’s melee armor includes a pauldron and full armor cover on their left side, plus metal boots.

Their horns also bear numerous scars from unfortunate snaps, but those seem to have healed much better than the rest. Their quick speed has saved them from more... fatal injuries, like being blasted by Nidhogg’s Ala Morn or Hades’ claws swiping through their neck; a trait that also fools others into thinking they might very well be untouchable.

FIGHTING STYLE.

[ bold for often // italicize for situational // strikethrough for never ]

commander /  duelist / “honorable” / dishonorable / would have others do their fighting /  stealthy  / long-ranged / melee / technological / sorcery / superhuman abilities /  has fought in an illegal tourney / a lover of fighting / a hater of fighting  / cowardly / reckless / strategic / uses underhanded tricks  / renowned for their skill / trained /  untrained / keeps skills secret / won a battle / lost a battle / ruthless / merciful

FLAWS.

moody | short-tempered | emotionally unstable | whiny | controlling | conceited | possessive | paranoid | liar | impatient | cowardly | bitter | selfish | power-hungry | greedy | lazy | judgmental | forgetful | impulsive | spiteful | stubborn | sadistic | petty | unlucky

STRENGTHS.

honest | trustworthy | thoughtful | caring | brave | patient | selfless | ambitious | tolerant | lucky | intelligent | confident | focused | humble | generous | merciful | observant | wise | clever | charming | cheerful | optimistic | decisive | adaptive | calm | loyal

tagged by: @whitherliliesbloom. but i took some inspiration from @lordofcrowns! 

tagging: @sati-ffxiv @to-the-voiceless @windupnamazu @winduphaurchefant @verbroil @ofthesilverlining @stars-bleed-hearts-shine @nuclearanomaly and you! feel free to tag me even if i didnt mention you; these are super fun to read!

bonus notes below the cut!

EXTENDED OVERVIEW.

Zaya is reliant on being all up in someone’s face in most fights, since their strength is most of what they have. All of their jobs do physical damage, if you haven’t noticed; they’re basically the equivalent of a DnD character with all their stats in strength and dexterity with nothing in constitution or intelligence.

Speaking of which; Zaya is magically inept. An incident in the Calamity where they faced off against a shard of the fallen Dalamud led to them 1) dying and 2) losing all magical capabilities they had beforehand. To make up for that (seeing as they can cast some magic today, like song and dark magicks), they have a series of magical inscriptions/tattoos on their body. It’s a little frightening to look at with all their scales, so most of them are hidden away with glamour prisms. The only one that isn’t hidden by prisms (instead hidden by an armband on their right arm) is their lightning inscription from a long time ago; it confers them a lot of lightning related benefits, such as full lightning resistance and the ability to discharge collected energy (Greased Lightning >:3). It also gives them a bond with their thunderbird yol, Ochir!

Once in a fight, Zaya will do everything they can to avoid extra damage; unlike most of their fellow Warriors of Light when under the effect of their Blessing of Light, they don’t heal over time. A setback from their aforementioned magical incapability, but it really does blow when they’re the only one around to fight [insert monster name here] since they have to rely on potions specially brewed for them by Tehra’ir. They’re heavily reliant on not taking damage at all instead of just eating it, which changes up parts of their dark knight skillset. The only exception to this is acting as a meatshield; if someone younger or more injured than them is about to take a blow (for example, Elwin or A’dewah), they will more than likely leap into the path of danger, whether they have The Blackest Night, Riddle of Earth, or nothing at all.

In most fights, Zaya will simply stick to one of their various skills to finish the job; most of the time, they’re not running the risk of death should they need to run. However, for fights such as Zenos, Shinryu, Innocence, or Hades, they pull out most (if not all) the stops. Rarely will they be seen using their dark knight soulstone, since the whole concept relies on one having mana to spare; instead of mana, their dark knight skills take from their health in exchange for longer protection/more damage. (Blood Gauge indeed.) They won’t hesitate to play dirty to win if it comes down to it, and are more than willing to die for a better chance of winning the fight for others.

Much of their fighting style is built on quickly defeating the enemy; long, drawn out fights are not their forte. In a one-on-one fight, Zaya will constantly try to trip up their opponent through quick movements and dodges for more free hits, but won’t go so far as to taunt. Hardened, scaley knuckles and kicks from metal boots are enough to knock most soldiers over easily, and their strength from years and years of training only adds to that.

Zaya actually does know how to fight on yolback; it’s dozens of times more complicated without proper magic, but it’s doable. As long as Ochir is in the area (a giant fricking bird that’s like. the size of a fairly small house.) Zaya has a variety of options that are all immensely reckless in nature.

[80mbeb]

srabai tu pasti...gy mutu keungulang m rjoli...✌️ (at Bandar Tasik Selatan) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEEh86FBwUeUk24XeqeYvU6ASCip_9D16vOB8g0/?igshid=3w2zors5qvuw

[heavyedhunt]

RJoly Artist #rjoly80 #edhunt #edhuntart #courthouse #harcourthousemembers #harcourthousememberssale #theworks #yeg #Edmonton #Canada #Canadian #painter #artist #artforsale #fundraiser #theworksfestival #yegart #photo #painting #thebloom #distressedbloom https://www.instagram.com/p/BzJVDy1AMn8/?igshid=yv5xjbfdjpad

[pirpintine]

rises from the grave to draw my wol once again before returning to the dirt

[cosmicseashanty]

A silly little old art trade with @verbroil... two nerds, and one tiny cookie thief.

[windupnamazu]

a bouquet of wols 💐

@windupnamazu | @winduphaurchefant @to-the-voiceless | @bolt-from-the-cobalt @sati-ffxiv| @bobacupcake @verbroil | @umbral-heart

[cosmicseashanty]

Some art I did for my Abyssos static! A little Starlight treat, and trying to understand how our RPR's Viera fit inside his Halloween glam

[cosmicseashanty]

Some more assorted 2020 Albi art, featuring @verbroil's art of Rjoli, for an event our FC ran!

Also included are some AUs (Crystal Exarch, NieR), Albi's parents Otho and Dehn, the period of time when Albi wore a different hairstyle for like a month, and a rough take on people designing their own AF gear sets.

[windupnamazu]

you shake up my heart, you shake me up i’m falling, falling for your love

@whitherliliesbloom 💖 @to-the-voiceless 💖 @bolt-from-the-cobalt 💖 @sati-ffxiv 💖 @nuclearanomaly 💖 @verbroil 💖 @umbral-heart 💖 @winduphaurchefant

— happy valentione's to my very cute friends!

[windupnamazu]

did some raids with some cutie pies yesterday and today!!

top pic: @verbroil | @to-the-voiceless | @bolt-from-the-cobalt | @sati-ffxiv | @winduphaurchefant last pic: @windup-dragoon | @whitherliliesbloom | @meepsthemiqo

[windupnamazu]

doing grand cosmos with friends? more like doing grand cosmos with chaperones :O(