#viana morkheim

[raelly-writing]

Running on three hours of sleep due to illness so I hope this word salad makes sense. :'D

Pick up a new MMO, I thought. It'll be nice to have something to look forward to while suffering through the most soul crushing summerjob, I thought. Joke was on me.

I didn't really get into the hm... RP aspect of FFXIV until a little into HW when I started considering Viana more as a character in the narrative rather than just my PC (I came over from WoW, it took a while to adapt and get into the flow of my character actually mattering in what was going on). And I didn't really feel like I knew enough about Highlanders to really settle on anything, but didn't want to risk spoiling myself on Stormblood stuff, so I ended up just headcanoning her as a orphan from Ul'dah. (Later amending it to her parents fleeing early on in the Mad King's reign and just falling foul of Ul'dah's shadiness)

... accidentally setting myself up for a whammy of my favourite tropes: Tank couples and "Finding home in each other" friends to lovers.

So midway through Stormblood I just had a moment where I, after careful contemplation of both Aymeric and Hien, popped out of my trashcan and pointed at Thancred. "That one. I want the disaster rogue with enough emotional baggage to fill a Olympic swimming pool."

I thought Thancred was entertaining in ARR, but he really grew on me in the HW patches. His emotional journey is interesting to pick into from a writing perspective, and the pull of two people looking out for their found family amidst all the losses they suffer, and looking out for each other in small ways that grows into something more, was a appealing one to me.

Love me a LI who is hypercompetent but doesn't always see that. Like many I deal with depression and impostor syndrome, so that aspect of Thancred is very dear to me, and I'm firm in that those things just haven't magically disappeared after SHB. Even when you're doing better, everyone have bad days.

I wasn't sure until I finished Shadowbringers at which point they'd get together, seeing either the 'FWB coping - oops caught feelings' point in the HW-SB patches, or two stubborn idiots quietly pining away until SHB. Latter won out, and I think it's for the better.

Their journey from a professional merc who isn't really sure she can trust this smooth talking bard to be there when shit hits the fan, to two gunbreakers sharing the effort of keeping everyone safe and supporting one another, is fun to explore. Both the low points and high points, because they certainly argue at times, but I tend to focus on the high points because this is my comfort ship and have you seen the past four years? No idea what I would have done without them.

... also heehee, tall girlfriend, short king boyfriend.

Another random WoLQotD/OC question

I thought I'd ask this while I worked on my other questions. :)

If you're a WoL x NPC shipper, what drew you to that ship and why? What makes that ship the pinnacle for you and your oc? Is it that you love the canon character you write them with, you find their dynamic interesting or something in between?

If you're not a WoL x NPC shipper, but you have a ship with another person, how did that come about? What makes that ship fulfilling for you? Has the ship impacted your relationship with that other person? Feel free to gush, I wanna hear it!

Oh, and pictures are a must (if you have them).