#zeno backstory

[realclever]

Yona of the Dawn Ch 257 Manga page coloring

Spoilers!! And blood and violence trigger warning!

[starrysharks]

10 months after gym + mewing ‼️‼️💯💯💯💯🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[luckycheesefoodie321]

PUKYUU WATCH CH 42

The introduction of what I wager is one of the most complex written characters I have ever personally read about.

My guy, genuinely asking, how long has it been since you last ate?

BUT ALSO LOOK AT AO ALSO WITH HER LIL HANDS PRAYING FOR THE DEER

[myreia]

FEBHYURARY XI: RAID

Acrid smoke lingers heavily on her tongue. Ash chokes her lungs, searing the insides. Her blue and gold uniform is stained and torn. Aymeric’s scarf—a parting gift, was it that long ago now?—trails in the wind, its tattered hem fluttering pathetically behind her. The raid came quickly, overwhelming them in minutes. She is furious she didn’t see the signs beforehand. And so, battered and bruised, her eye stinging from blood that drips from a forehead wound, she stakes her broken lance into the ground and pushes herself up onto one knee.   The monster—impossible in his strength, his size, his speed, an enigma forged of blood and steel—approaches her from behind. Slow, methodical, each step foretelling her doom. But he is not a monster, not to her. For she knows exactly what man lies beneath that armour and she hoped she would never encounter him on the battlefield. Fool.   She knows exactly what face lurks beneath that helmet. She had the dubious honour of fighting the crown prince many years ago—a test of strength and a battle of wills to prove the worth of her fellow savages. When their contest ended in a draw, he told her the memory of their fight had seared itself on him like a brand. Permanent and eternal. Few managed to make such an impression. Her reward? Sanction for her unit to operate—a unit she would later massacre during her defection. Does he still remember? When he glimpses her unmasked face, what will he see? Eorzea’s champion or the Garlean defector? Both? Neither? She licks her dry lips, tasting salt and iron, and hefts her lance, the first embers of vengeance flickering in her heart. It will not end here. In crimson it began… and in black it will be complete.

[tenebriism]

// I am forever a sucker for writing "evil" characters, with traumatic backstories that made them into monsters, getting a fresh chance at a better life and experiencing good emotions. Getting to have that good, FAT cry that they've needed for so, so long, and finally being shown love.

It's such GOOD. MATERIAL.

[andrewhq]

(i wanted to write a conversation g'raha would have with my wol that i might turn into a comic someday)

- G'raha enters Ziero's cabin in Tuliyollal, after some idle chatter, he pauses before speaking again. -

G'raha: You know, I realized after our conversation on the gondola, that I do not know much about... you. The current you. Most of what I know about you, I gathered from various pieces of your legacy. I don't think I've ever sat down with you and gotten to know you.

Ziero: Hah! Aw, it's very sweet that you're asking, but truly there isn't really that much to me than my legacy. Most of my life was... this.

G'raha: What do you... mean?

Ziero: Well, before I became the Warrior of Light, I was just a simple tailor, like one of my fathers also is for my tribe. And on top of that... I was a child. Even when I began adventuring. I just so happened to be in Thanalan when I ended up helping Brendt fend off his camp, and he suggested I should talk to the Adventurer's Guild because he just had this strong feeling I'd be able to help.

G'raha: Wait, wait. You were a child?

Ziero: Yes, I only turned eighteen less than two months before my tribe arrived in Thanalan!

G'raha: Like... Viera years' eighteen?

Ziero: There's no such thing! We mature about the same Hyurs, so...

G'raha: So that means you're...

Ziero: Twenty-one, now? Yeah!

G'raha: I thought you were so much older...

Ziero: I suppose constantly being at war and saving people ages you. I suppose if we're being technical about it, I'm twenty-three, given that I was close to turning twenty-one when you called me to the first, and I spent about a year there.

G'raha: That's still so... young.

Ziero: I suppose it is!

G'raha: Does it bother you? That you never really got to live your childhood until the end?

Ziero: Not really, no. Maybe if I was forced to do it, I'd mourn what I never got the chance to live, but instead I see it as living as the folklore hero people tell to impress children!

G'raha: I cannot fathom how you can stay positive so easily... Did nothing ever break you?

Ziero: Ah...

- He instinctively reaches for the eye under his eyepatch. -

Ziero: I... ought to be thankful for my parents being positive beacons in my life as well. I know it hurt them to know I was risking my life out there, and my mother never did hide the fact that she was worried for me, and neither of my fathers would let me go back adventuring until they were as certain as possible I wasn't hurt. But the three of them loved me so much, and cared for me so deeply, so I could always go to them when things were too much. But there was, ah... two times when I was completely inconsolable, I suppose.

G'raha: I do not intend to pry, so you do not have to answer, but I must ask what got you to that point?

- Ziero pauses for a long time, clenching his fists. -

Ziero: It... it was Zenos.

- G'raha's ears perk up. -

G'raha: Zenos? Did he—

Ziero: I loved him in a way that words could not describe.

- G'raha goes quiet. -

Ziero: I cannot deny the fact that we were always meant to be mirrors of each other. I always wanted to understand him, and I struggled with it for a bit, when someone just so happened to tell me his age... And I quickly realized just how similar we are. We were both children when we got roped into the war. Our differences were also our similarities. I grew up in a peaceful, loving family that was always there for me when I needed them, he grew up in a family that was disgusted with his very existence and only saw him as a weapon of war. And yet... we were both outsiders, fighting for causes that weren't our own, but we had enough motives to push through them.

G'raha: I had heard he was a cruel man...

Ziero: Funny how people say that, yet I could count on my fingers how many people Zenos actually harmed, because he never fought or killed anyone that couldn't stand a chance against him. Meanwhile, the blood on my hands is endless, from people who were much weaker than I. Is that not ironic?

G'raha: I... I suppose, when you put it that way... And yet the calamity—

Ziero: Was Fandaniel's plan. And I do not blame Zenos for following him. After being only seen as a beast, a dog that should be beat and put in a cage, do you truly think he would not resent the world? He truly thought he was being merciful, just like Meteion.

G'raha: I never thought of Meteion and Zenos as similar, and yet, based on what you told me in the past, it all makes so much sense... It's like we were being foreshadowed of her existence.

Ziero: Hah, pretty much. Still, I've made my point, so to actually answer your question: When Zenos killed himself, it ruined me. Not only did I feel like I failed him, but I felt like I failed myself as well. We had secretly spent a lot together, because I so desperately wanted to get to know him, to understand him. And he'd always let me in, sometimes with the promise of a spar, sometimes... because we were both lonely. I was such a mess in love, and there was that air of forbidden romance like in stories I'd hear around Kugane. Since my tribe decided to follow me to Othard, I'd never miss a chance to go speak with my parents and tell them all about this wild romance I was having. Truly, I felt the most like a hero back then. And yet when I lost Zenos, it crushed me beyond words. I cried for days in my mother's lap and did not speak to anyone else. I had to keep strong and let the Ala Mihgans celebrate their victories. I almost began to resent Lyse for being so... content with his death, but it was just misplaced grief.

G'raha: I can certainly empathize with that... Then, was the second time still Zenos, I assume?

Ziero: Yup. Though the second time was... a little bit different. I realize now, in retrospect, that I could have just denied him that fight, and he'd have to keep living. Yet I was so... selfish. I held on to that last bit of grief for him and ended up taking it out on the exact person I was grieving. I was angry when I found out he was still alive, it felt like everything he did was to mock me, but... No, it never was.

G'raha: I'm sorry... You must miss him greatly, then.

Ziero: Well, about that— I didn't actually... let him go... I hold his soul, you see. And I can always channel him as my avatar.

G'raha: You what?!

Ziero: Hahah, oops!

G'raha: Why didn't you tell anyone!

Ziero: I didn't want to put anyone in a panic, given how many people despise him. Plus, it'd be insane to explain either way. Zero knows, though. It was because of her that I managed to figure out how to make him my avatar, and she certainly got some enjoyment knowing how he would feel being bound to someone like that. And now you know too.

G'raha: I'm starting to become less surprised that you are as young as you claim to be.

Ziero: I'm not lying! I never even learned how to read!

G'raha: YOU NEVER LEARNED WHAT?!?!

[sidsinning]

He made me cry

[fooltofancy]

ive been waffling for two years on the circumstances of ilya eye loss between dragonsong and some point in stormblood (many options little brain etc), but it is like. narratively satisfying for stormblood to have to be a point of recovery already after the hell of dragonsong, all that loneliness and hope and loss you've gotta piece back together

but also now you've got no depth perception. also zenos is there.

[urlocalbitchboy]

*impatiently waiting for demon slayer s3 ep6 english dub to drop*

[animebw]

So, uh, the Yona of the Dawn OVAs are a better To Your Eternity than To Your Eternity.

Goddamn.

[voidedleylines]

FFXIVWrite 2023 Day 5: Barbarous

Welllll this one got a way from me a little bit lol. Finally had the inspo to focus on my girl and i. Gave her a real bad dream lmao. Zenos & WoL focus. Allusions to Hien/WoL

Enjoy?

Rating: T+ CWs: violence, character death

She misses sleeping. It’s not something that comes easy to her as of late. Her head feels like it’s filled with lead and it hurts to move it around too much. It’s a humid day in her room at the pendants and the beads of sweat accumulating on her forehead and rolling down her neck don’t help her need for sleep.

She crawls out of bed and walks to where there’s a pitcher full of cool water at the table and splashes it on her face, soaking her clothes in the process. She’s too tired to care about the mess as she wanders back over to the mattress and lays down again. Her heart beats loudly in her ears and her jaw aches with how hard she’s biting it closed. “Please,” she whispers, “Not tonight.”

Whatever god she was praying to, it was obvious they weren’t listening as she sees herself in the same venue as before. He’s waiting with open arms, a smirk dripping from his face. “Ah! My friend you’ve finally come,” he says. As she always does, she stays silent.

Zenos’ face falters only just as he lets out a hum, “Very well. I see you still play the role of the stoic hero,” he walks towards her and his eyes linger on her up and down. A rage begins to bubble in her gut. “But as I say again and again you don’t have to take that facade with me. Lest you forget I am the only one who knows you. The real you.”

The venue changes and she’s back in her village, up in the mountains of Southern Thanalan. The smell of sulfur hits her in a wave that makes her cough. She sees herself, small and dirty, barely five summers old. She hears whispers from the room outside. Voices she barely recognizes. Her mother and father.

“We have to leave this place,” her mother begs, “It’s not safe here. No one cares or listens to me. We have to go.”

“It’s not that simple-” her father begins.

“The hells it isn’t. I don’t want to be around that thing. Don’t want to be killed in my sleep by it one day.”

The other voice is quiet. Freyalin stares at the small child as she sleeps. Her face twists in discomfort. Hands glow red for the briefest of seconds. She looks down and sees her own doing the same. She hides it behind her back. “Alright,” her father says, “We’ll leave tomorrow.”

The scene shifts again and Zenos laughs from behind her, her spine tingles with his breath.

“Get out of my head,” she growls. He responds with more laughter.

She’s still home in her village, only now a friend is dead in front of her. She chased after a voidsent too powerful and something happened. She stopped in the middle of a cast. Light blinded her, head pounded. She saw a vision of another voidgate close by, people slaughtered. There wasn’t anything she could do for them though so why watch in fear. When she came to, she was too late. Her squadron around her cried out in confusion, asking why she stopped, why she left him defenseless. She couldn’t answer. Her hand turned red than black until the light dripped from between her fingers.

“It was the Echo,” she whispers. Again Zenos laughs with such sincerity she turns and swings a punch at where she thinks he is, but he’s gone.

“Now now adventurer. That’s no way to treat a friend. An equal,” he says.

It feels like there should be blood pouring out of her mouth when she speaks, “we are not equal,” she says.

The scene splits into two now. A side by side. Zenos rips through soldiers on a battlefield. The smell of hot blood hits her nose. She winces. The other shows herself fighting through many different scenes so far. Preatorium. Doma castle. The Ghimlyt Dark. Her movements match his, they’re just holding different weapons.

The scenes merge into one. Her blood runs cold. It's one she's never seen before

Hien stands before her. Before him. That scene when Elidibus still took his body, though this time it's her inside. “Zenos,” she tries to scream but he's not listening.

His arm moves, readying his sword, she's helpless to try and fight him. She's trapped in the motions as they fight Hien blow for blow.

“Freyalin will be here soon my lord,” Yugiri calls out from somewhere beyond her current tunnel vision. Zenos’ laugh rings loud around her. She feels every vibration.

Steel meets steel and faulty ground twists Hien’s ankle and he screams out as he falls to the ground.

She looks down at him as his chest rises and falls. She watches in horror as her arm rises and places the sword on his chest.

Directly above his heart.

“Zenos,” Freyalin cries out again, “You can't win this. This will not break me.”

Again all he does is laugh, deep and long, “I’m not looking to break you, my friend, that was never my intention,” he says. Weight is put on the sword. Hien’s face is stoic and his jaw is set; but his eyes shine with tears. Show how he’s scared. “I’m looking to see how long I have until you realize how meant to be we are. As equals,” he presses down, breaking skin, “as partners.”

She's too slow to react as the blade cuts through Hien. She feels every thrust and twist of it. Her eyesight goes blurry, her head fuzzy. Hien chokes out his last breath before his green eyes go lifeless.

She feels numb.

The scenes shifts one last time and the two of them stand in a dark space, a void with no light. He is smiling at her. She is standing tall across from him. After a moment he turns away. “Until next time, adventurer,” he says. He walks on, the echoes of his footsteps the only sound.

She wakes in a pool of her own sweat and her throat sore from screaming. She quickly flicks her hand to light the candles near her bed. Her chest feels heavy and she takes deep breaths in and out. There's a knock on her door, now doubt the manager or a concerned neighbor coming to check on her. She doesn't answer. She stays up the rest of the night, a low fire burning in her chest.

In the corner of the room a sad soul watches over her, wishing there was something he could do to help.

[impossible-rat-babies]

i think deep down for eyrie they don’t desire Zenos in a traditional sense, but more what he represents: a person unbound by duty or expectation, living unto the winds of deciding what he wants—the kind of person he is going to be, free of expectation. denying expectation. eyrie’s life has been much the opposite and as given as they are to embracing that as their identity (“I do not deny my duty”) Zenos reaches in and pokes at that part of them that has always craved to be the opposite.

it’s kinda funny in a way they both crave the Idea of each other—something that is both a facade and a deeply hidden truth.

[forgivenfolly]

trying and failing to sketch out thing floating around in my brain and not sure if i want to take the time to make it into anything polished lmao

[kidfoundonstreets]

so i havent gotten to black turutlneck crying yet like in that one emoji in the server and thats how i just know my heart is gonna be ripped out

[kamisatoayato]

its so annoying that yona of the dawn doesnt have a season 2 like theyre so clear that its just a promo for the manga and thats it.. like majority of the show is yona assembling the four dragons and then when zeno finally joins the crew it ends?? thats it?????? and when some of the arcs after this point are saur good....its just cruel!

[contentiousprince]

two pictures i took of my WoL when i was in hw vs two i took yesterday (post endwalker)