#selfship: a love to last millennia (vanea/mera)

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🌙🌙🌙🌙 One for each of your Xenoblade selfships, maybe? To celebrate 3's release being (just about) here!

Hehe, that sounds like an excellent idea to me! Thank you very much for sending all of these in - since I've only finished these now, when you're probably already playing the game, I hope you are having lots of fun with it!~

(source: this post by nougatships)

Give me a 🌙 in my inbox and I’ll give you a random headcanon about my selfship, F/O, or self-insert. - Alright, here we go!

For my selfship with Pyra.. one of the places that means a lot to us is the Dragon's Whiskers, one of the secret areas in the Urayan Titan. After Pyra asserted that - despite being a fire-element Blade - she wasn't adversely affected by water, Sapphire took her down through the lake in the Cataracts of Rujah, and the two ended up in this secret outlook that Sapphire herself named and discovered. Pyra was amazed by the view from that place, because there are glowing Saffronia trees everywhere, and you can see across the entire Urayan Titan to Fonsa Myma.

For my selfship with Perun.. Sapphire isn't necessarily reckless, but she can be very chaotic and try to do things mostly for the fun of it, even if she generally will back out if it becomes too risky. Perun, on the other hand, is much more careful and more of a strategist, taking after her Driver (who is not Sapphire, since she lacks aptitude, but instead Mòrag). I like to think this makes us a good pair, since Sapphire can help Perun get less caught up in pushing herself too far whereas Perun can help Sapphire act less instinctively, for example so she doesn't try and throw Zeke off a bridge (again).

For my selfship with Lora.. it takes us ages to confess our love to each other, though it does happen eventually at some point on the journey, because Lora doesn't know how best to go about confessing whereas Aline is too worried about whether Lora likes her back or not. This inability to make things official, in tandem with our feelings for each other being extremely obvious to everyone else in the party except ourselves, leads to exactly as many exasperated awkward pining moments as you might expect. Something, something, disaster sapphics (when it comes to romance, anyway)

And for my selfship with Vanea.. since both of us are up in Agniratha (albeit Mera makes trips up and down occasionally while Vanea is working), but it had to be abandoned so quickly when the Telethia attacked, I imagine a lot of the Machina who used to live there would have left things behind. So, one of the things Mera does is go into Agniratha to try and salvage and archive some of the things that the other Machina had to leave, and bring them back to their original owners in the Hidden Machina Village, before then making her way back up the Mechonis to reassure Vanea that the other Machina are okay, and to bring her something as a souvenir of sorts. For example, Ice Kiwi Fruit from the Fallen Arm, since they are said to clear the head which Vanea would need after working on Face Nemesis for as long as she does.

I hope that all of those were alright!! Thank you so much once again for sending this ask in, and I apologise for how long it took me to finish answering it ;w;

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good news: all my romantic selfships finally have a tag because I finally got inspiration for one for Vanea (and my selfship with her) after way too long of having her on the F/O list without one

not-quite-as-good related news: ..Vanea’s new character tag is also the name of a song from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, and it’s been going around my head and making me a bit sad since I came up with the tag, because the song is sad .w.

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5 and 6 for Mera, 7 and 11 for Calanthe?

Ah, Xenoblade (and I suppose you could also say Xenosaga) time!!! Thank you so much for these!! ^-^

(question source: "Self-Insert Ask Game!" by clowned-prince-selfship)

5. Does your self-insert have a hobby or occupation related to your F/O’s universe? - I still haven't 100% decided how I want to fit into the story of XC1, but I'm thinking Mera might stay up in Agniratha alongside Vanea, where the main way she occupies her time is by trying to preserve things from the ruined capital - trying to go and collect records and things that the Machina left behind, even though the area is quite dangerous now. She also helps Vanea with her project of reawakening Lady Meyneth, both as an actual assistant and also generally because Vanea has someone that isn't Egil that she can confide in.

6. Give us a physical description of your self-insert! - Mera is a Machina, so she is considerably taller than humans and Homs (though slightly on the short side for Machina in general), with silver-grey skin resembling metal at a glance and a few darker striped thin markings running down her face. She has dark green eyes and ash-blonde hair that looks grey in certain lights, but it's not very visible under her headpiece.

Speaking of which, she has a large, triangular-looking headpiece with dark blue accents, and her outfit is complicated and mechanical-looking (like that of most of the other Machina), with a notable differentiating feature of her outfit being extra protrusions around her waist that make it look like she's wearing a skirt, as well as a slight motif of dark blue diamond patterns here and there. She also has shorter heels than most other Machina, since.. I can't walk in heels to save my life, ahaha

If trying to visualise her appearance creates a vaguely familiar image, that's deliberate - Vanea used Mera as part of the design inspiration when constructing Face Nemesis due to the close familial bond Mera had shared with Lady Meyneth, in order to try and increase compatibility between the goddess and the Faced Mechon designed for her to control.

..I think I might put the questions for Calanthe under a readmore so the post doesn't get too long.

7. What is your self-insert’s personality? What are their goals and values? - Calanthe is one of what I affectionally refer to as my "nerd"-type self-inserts - she is eager to learn more about the world and is not afraid to show off her knowledge, so she seems a bit like Adenine except generally a bit more peppy. She can however feel a bit out of her depth quite easily, especially compared to KOS-MOS' incredible nature as such a powerful entity, and also the fact that she is literally in a completely different world.

In terms of her goals and values, her main goal is to get back to her original world, but also learn more about Alrest and the mechanism through which she was brought into it, and this second aspiration becomes more and more prevalent as she travels with the party (although I'm not too sure how I want her to fit in with the story of XC2 given that I already have Sapphire as a self-insert there too). It means a lot to her that the party are welcoming and accepting of her when she runs into them, and she values integrity and honesty highly.

11. What are some of your self-insert’s favourites? (colour, food, music, etc.) - oh dear, here we go. I'm horrible at deciding specific favourites, but.. Calanthe mostly likes pastel colours of grey and green and purple, as well as both the pale pink of cherry blossom petals and the dark pink that ends up becoming KOS-MOS' eye colour. She only really eats food with simple sorts of flavours, nothing too spicy or fragrant - in terms of XC2 pouch items, her favourites would probably be the Grumbird Rice Bowl and Steam-Gel Ice Cream. Her favourite music isn't something that's really present in Alrest due to the nature of the world she comes from, and would be hard to explain to the people of Alrest - but it's a style of song that uses a digital voicebank rather than a real singer, and plays off of the characters behind the various different available voicebanks on the market; she's always impressed how realistic different producers are able to make those songs sound! In terms of other favourites, her favourite activity is playing games as well as programming, and she prefers warmer weather to cold weather.

I hope that all that was alright!! Thank you so so much again for sending this in, it really means a lot! ^-^

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As I explained on my previous post, I’ve put a little one-line summary for each of my romantic selfships on my carrd for them, but I thought it might be neat to share those here, as well! Some of them are more descriptive for my selfship as a whole, whereas others are intended to be read as something my F/O or my self-insert says to the other. They are as follows:

Luna: “there is still more to write of our fairytale, my love”

Aqua: “the stars will yet shine down on us again”

Anti-Aqua: “let the stars rain down, so that we may rise to rule them”

Pyra: “I will die to protect you; I will stay alive to love you”

Vanea: “in a world with no need for gods, is it so wrong to wish for their presence?”

Lora: “you’re doing so well to make it this far, you know that?”

Perun: “so what if they’re “important”? we matter just as much!”

KOS-MOS: “I know you are amazing, but you still never cease to amaze me”

Signora: “let’s take this all the way to the final act, shall we?”

Pavo: “let them say what they wish to, for we know we belong together”

Camellia: “and then, perhaps this would have to be secret no longer”

Serana: “forever I’ll find solace in your icy-cold embrace”

N: “if you ask me, this world is whatever you make of it”

Skye: “for all that there is to see here, I only have eyes for you”

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This is just a quick update post to say that I’ve decided I do in fact now see Vanea as a romantic F/O instead of a crush! I will be using my XC1 self-insert Mera to selfship with her. My laptop is currently in storage, so I won’t be able to add her to my carrd right away, but.. if the element limit allows, then I will do so as soon as I can! (I mean, I could try and do it on mobile, but.. that sometimes has limited success, so if things aren’t properly updated for a bit then that’s why.)

I still don’t know what I want her character tag to be, nor the tag for our selfship as a whole, but.. I figured out a way of structuring pending tags that I was happy with, so I’ll just use that system for now. Eventually I’ll try and work out some story points, but.. I just love her a lot, so that’s all I have for the moment, haha

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Well, it took the sacrifice of the title and introductory information (and it just fits within the element limit so I’m officially not allowed to have any more romantic F/Os /hj), but I’ve managed to successfully add Vanea to my carrd that lists my romantic F/Os and selfship information! ..I admit that I don’t actually have a ton of information set yet, but I’ve put something there, at least. Coming up with the right tags is going to be a pain, I can already tell, but that’s been the case for most of my recently-added romantic F/Os, so I suppose it’s nothing new.

Additionally, I’ve added (what I think is) a neat little line to the start of the information about each of my selfships that’s on there, because I thought it would be neat; the intention is that each of them could be read as a line said by either my romantic F/O or my self-insert for that selfship. Call them even shorter summaries, if you wish to. I might put them all on a separate post.

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2 and 15 for your xenoblade/xenosaga SIs? :0

Thank you very much for this!!

(question source: "ask game: self-insert lore" by inserthaven)

2. when in canon do your self-inserts come in? do you have a scene in mind for your entrances? -

Sapphire first shows up in Chapter 3 shortly after the battle with Vandham, when the party enters Garfont Village. I sort of have an image of her leaping off one of the roofs since she’s quite agile, spotting Pyra and blushing, and then Vandham introduces her as his daughter and then the cutscene goes from there.

Aline appears early into TTGC when the party are exploring what remains of Torigoth Village. She is scared of the party initially because she worries that they are the brigands that razed the village, only to then recognise Lora due to her resembling Rynea. When Gort appears shortly after, she and Avalon help the others to fight him and his allies, which is when they then ask her to travel with them because they are impressed by Avalon’s power. Aline agrees (mostly for Avalon’s sake, as they are her Blade), but also because a) she has nowhere to go with the village destroyed and b) because she wants to get to know Lora and the others more.

Calanthe enters Alrest during Chapter 7 of XC2, when Rex touches the third Aegis Blade in the Vault of Heroes and it resonates with the Conduit; this also affects the Zohar in the world of Xenosaga, which KOS-MOS draws power from, and Calanthe was working on KOS-MOS at that moment so the effect of that power overflow transported her across worlds. She actually appears in the Architect’s room, where she and the Blade version of KOS-MOS (that she awakened upon entering Alrest) talk to him for a bit before exploring the World Tree; however, the two of them fall off one of the skyports and down through the Great Void before it closes, so the party spots KOS-MOS’ distress shot before seeing the pair falling from above the Land of Morytha where Poppi flies up to catch them both.

Mera appears at the same time Vanea does, as the two of them had gone to save the party from Jade Face together. I imagine they would probably notice her underlying resemblance to Face Nemesis here, so she would explain her position as Vanea’s design inspiration and her bond with Lady Meyneth at that point too.

15. how do your self-inserts play a role in the plot of the story? do they help directly defeat the villain, support the heroes, etc.? - All four of these self-inserts are protagonists of some kind, working to stop the antagonists by either directly fighting against them as part of the playable party (in Sapphire and Aline’s cases) or indirectly supporting the playable party in stopping them (in Calanthe’s and Mera’s cases)!

Sapphire becomes a playable character after Chapter 4 of XC2, replacing Tora as Poppi’s “Driver” when he goes back home with his father. She does not have the ability to awaken Blades herself, but since Poppi is an artificial Blade, she doesn’t need to have aptitude to fight alongside her like a typical Blade-Driver pair. Notably, after the first awakening of Pneuma on the Cliffs of Morytha (which in my version of events was only possible since Sapphire filled in the missing piece of Pyra’s Core Crystal with her own ether crystallisation ability), Sapphire kicks Malos off the cliff during the fight, because.. he deserves it at that point.

Team Aline (which consists of Aline herself plus her Blades Avalon and Ursula) would be part of the party of TTGC after visiting Torigoth Village, although we might not become playable until later since Aline might find and awaken Ursula’s Core Crystal during everyone’s travels. She isn’t much of a fighter herself, but supports the party and wants to stop Malos to end the war.

Calanthe could in theory join the party as a playable Driver with KOS-MOS as her starting Blade, but since Sapphire is already playable and Calanthe would probably not be overly eager to resonating with other Blades despite having aptitude (as well as early Chapter 8 being really late to introduce a new party member), she might just remain a non-playable supporting part of the cast who travels with them. If she had remained in the world of Xenosaga, I again imagine her moreso as someone travelling with and supporting the party rather than a playable character in combat, mainly since I have no idea what type of weapon she would use.

I don’t especially envision Mera as a playable party member (though I reaaaally wish Vanea had been!!), but she wants the people of the Bionis and the Mechonis to be able to live peacefully together, so she works together with the party to help them navigate the Mechonis like Vanea does.

I hope that all of those answers were alright!! Thank you very much again for sending in the ask!!