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secretgamergirl · 1 year

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The Entire Plot of Final Fantasy 14, with all the expansions, and some serious analysis of how good it actually is. (Part 10 - Post-Endwalker... mostly.)

Last time, we covered Endwalker, the most recent expansion as of when I’m writing all these, and genuinely serving as an ending to the story. To date, the plot irons we’ve hard in the fire are the threat posed by this evil empire which was very much going for a nazi thing, this mysterious council of evil weirdos whose motives were never really pinned down until the third expansion, and this whole tragic cycle of races not considered to be human summoning gods that just exacerbate tensions with their neighbors, and we genuinely did resolve all of that. We also got uh... let’s say kind of ambitious, and established that basically all life anywhere in the entire universe has been wiped out except for the people on your planet and a few stragglers showing up at the cafe we’re helping some unstoppable killing machines set up as a change of pace. And I don’t actually expect them to walk any of that back, except maybe the god summoning, because I’m pretty sure the current writing team did in fact get the memo that people MUCH prefer the later relatively light-hearted self-contained adventures to the grim political stuff.

Also last time I tried to embed this cutscene from halfway through the final boss fight and it wouldn’t let me and I need to stick it in here because seriously it is hilarious how they just sucked all the tension out of fighting the would-be destroyer of all life in the universe to throw in this random silly nonsense.

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I also didn’t really get a chance to share my closing thoughts on the expansion, which are of course that it’s kind of a huge mess? Tonally it is all over the map in a really jarring way. That’s largely true of the game as a whole, but usually there’s a much smoother ebb and flow to it. You build up to a big tense dramatic moment, leave to regroup somewhere, have some lighthearted encounters with the locals, and build back up. Then major side content between expansions is either all silly, or a raid that builds things up then releases the tension with some super sappy happy ending. Here though? Intrigue with NO payoff, then some hijinks, then torture and suicidal nazis, then a big action beat immediately giving way to cute little moon bunnes, then tender gay moments with the past selves of villains, then a really legitimately dark climax, and this jaw-droppingly comedic bit with Zenos here. Just what the hell? Plus you know the actual major threat that this big old apocalypse is really going to actually destroy the world and all its splintered off alternate dimensions simply holds no teeth, because we’re coming DIRECTLY on the heels of the expansion where you pull one of those back from the bring of destruction, and nobody in their right mind would retroactively make that some sick shaggy dog story. Also it doesn’t really make sense how it plays out. We built up this meteor shower imagery forever but then it’s literally just an ominous skybox and we’re actually dealing with some sort of psychic attack.

It’s also a weirdly comedic expansion on the whole. I don’t know if I really properly conveyed it but basically every major scene has someone kinda taking the piss out of the whole conversation by being too self-aware about things in one way or another, and like, I’d honestly say it all lands. Anyway, I can’t get into the entirety of the next between expansions interlude because as of time of writing only 60% of it has been released, and again, that’s 60% of each plotline going on, so nothing has a conclusion right now. But I said I’d cover what there was to cover so here we go.

After getting back from the far reaches of space we have no outstanding crises to deal with for the first time ever, and have some nice relaxed conversations with people. Mostly Krile and Tataru who respectively are responsible for the cutscene above to some degree, and uh... from where I sit the biggest remaining threat to the world? While everyone else was off saving all life in the universe, Tataru was just aggressively expanding her personal business dealings all over the world. She’s got this international trade network going, status as a fashion designer, her own personal airship, and she’s just rolling in cash to a point where she just gifts you your own private island.

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The island is it’s whole THING where you basically play like Stardew valley in your downtime and I haven’t really personally gotten into it as I have work I’m trying to get done. Everyone else is off doing their own thing in semi-retirement. The twins are still doing relief work in what’s left of the empire, Krile and G’raha just sort of went back to college, with her clearly having a thing for him and him still having this hopeless crush on you. Pretty sure Thancred and Urianger are just shacked up somewhere and hanging out with the moon rabbits, and Estinein is hanging out with Vrtra and damn right do I ship’em. Hanging out in the markets though, he finds out about this secret underwater treasure vault which is another of the things Emet-Selch shouted out as something to maybe check out when you get home, and the most recent apocalpyse mainly hitting Thavnair means there’s a lot of orphans and such who could use rebuilding money. Y’shtola comes along too because any weird unexplored secret area could be of some help in her current personal project, working out how to hop dimensions at will, both because it just seems cool to do, and because she misses the cat man she was shacked up with in the First.

So you head to the bottom of the ocean, fight some guardian constructs, reach a huge treasure vault, and it has both heaps of gold and some big ominous construct which turns out to have a small stable portal to the void inside. Oh and then Vrtra walks in and basically goes “hey guys, you’re uh.... not seriously breaking into my personal rainy day fund to rob me are you?” And uh, whoops? We also explains what’s up with the gate, and turns out that forever ago, during the backstory to that demons and air pirates raid after Heavensward, he had a big sister who charged straight on through a gate duing a big demon invasion to take the fight to their leader. I’m not really cool with us continuing to retroactively give Midgardsomnr more children we’d just never heard of so hopefully five is our final count? Anyway, he wanted to rescue her, which is the reason he made his weird little kid spy body to begin with, but figured it wasn’t worth the risk. Y’shtola is all about taking a field trip to hell, because hey, portals one can actually walk through open up to there all the time, and this was even a thing in the First with the offensive caster role quest. Vrtra has misgivings, being a responsible adult, but all you have to do is take those new warding scales we have all over to keep the protagonist from being the only one who can do most things, have Cid add some extra protective plating, research how to create an artificial version of a hell-mouth demon to absorb this stable portal and make it bigger, and in you go. Vrtra wants to come along personally and gets an upgraded version of his weird kid body that’s an adult with a worse voice actor because again, these days actually playing with other humans is strictly optional and you need a switch hitter tank/DPS to round things out. Oh and for some advanced scouting Y’shtola sends in some nixies she creates with a ritual she came up with when she was like 6 and is now deeply embarassed by.

Before we get into that though, we have some side quests to maybe deal with, and we are officially way overdue to check in on Hildibrand. After your last interaction where people got sucked through an interdimensional rift, Gilgamesh went off to do Gilgamesh things, and Hildy’s body got spit back out over in Thavnair somewhere, but he’s in a coma, so Nashu took him to a doctor. Doctors can’t fix souls being stuck in the First, which is clearly what’s happening here, so you just... rinse out that soul container you’re still carrying around and head off to grab him, and uh...

He’s fine, he just never ditched his ridiculous getup from the last time you saw him and has amnesia again. You apply the traditional cure of throwing big cartoon bombs at him and drag his soul home. There’s a bit of minor drama with Dr. Lugae’s sort of back from the dead form which ends with a big robot head in a jail cell, and then Hildy being kidnapped by a badly drawn alien in a crappy little UFO. You, Nashu and this conspiracy theorist crackpot you’re hanging out with head up to the moon to look at him, and find him... several times over. The little alien he met just kinda made a bunch of clones of him for fun. You deal with that, there’s more random shenanigans, his dad randomly shows up, as he’s wont to do, and messing around with the big stone face of mars type structure on the moon causes it’s mouth to open and this to happen.

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Apparently this was a big welcoming party thing they set up and nobody remembered to call it off when people didn’t end up needing to evacuate to the moon. Also Godbert’s here looking for meteors to combine with his own extra manly sweat as the base for this expansion’s obligatory set of ultimate weapons with a very involved side quest. Kind of him to share his terrifying power.

Meanwhile, there’s those twelve gods people theoretically worship that you’ve never had a chance to kill. That’s not right. The nerd squad and some random wandering bard type guy, along with another glasses wearing orc girl nerd end up investigating a mystery spot that takes you to a big secret floating island right over Mor Dhona which turns out to kinda basically be Mt. Olympus. When you show up to poke around, a decent swath of The Twelve pop out and insist you fight them. At first they fake you out with this whole bit about being bent on taking over the world given the new power vacuum but after you go smack them around they just pop up again and apologize for messing with your head. They swear up and down that no, really, they aren’t actually gods someone summoned who are parasitic and mind controlling and all that (but yeah Louisoix totally did someone some of those based on his ideas of them the one time), and don’t actually have any evil plans. They’re just chill party people and they want you to beat them up, for reasons they’re all kinda weirdly coy about. Given that they have freaking adorable little animal alt forms they might have the same basic thing going on as the auspices, the cute animals in a cave who need to be beaten up periodically to not go berserk from post-Stormblood. They’re very upbeat in any case.

Again, this chain is only two out of three 24 person dungeon raids in, time of writing, but they’re super friendly and after you’ve punched roughly 8 out of 12 in the face, a couple ask if you wouldn’t mind touring around with them, checking in on things, as they help the nerds research what their actual deal is more. Somewhere in here Halone, the goddess they worship in Ishgard, asks you for your honest opinion on what her worshipers are like these days and uh... you are diplomatic enough that the list of possible responses doesn’t include being REALLY honest. What with the calling everyone heretics and casting them into pits and waging holy wars against the dragons and all. She’s pretty disappointed in them.

Our other raid meanwhile involves heading into the past again to help some random Ascians deal with daddy issues and some security breaches at the incredibly haunted looking prison for really super dangerous monsters people make that for whatever reason people don’t just unmake. It... really isn’t grabbing me at all, because as I’ve said, they’ve only ever managed to make one Ascian even a little interesting as a character and I particularly can’t for the life of me be made to care about the tragic backstory of Lahabrea of all people. I will note that at one point you pretty much fight Dracula though, and at another point you fight the prehistoric megafauna version of carbuncle, the very pikachu-like starter the summoner class gets. Slightly less cute than the standard variation.

Also the current cliffhanger to all that involves the whole prison appearing in the present, which is less than ideal, but again, resolution to this currently on hold.

Oh and there’s also some sort of choose-your-own-adventure dungeon with 12 possible storylines I... really should have gotten around to before I sat down to write this, and a bit where Alpha and what’s left of Omega are exploring around as the latter continues to struggle with trying to work out the whole power of love and friendship thing. Mostly though, the real meat on the bone here is getting back to that field trip to hell, and a serious extension to Endwalker’s tribute to FF4.

You pop out at this big and honestly quite beautiful gothic castle with twisted and warped architecture just kinda floating in a big cloudy void, and start just kinda charging forward killing any demon who looks at you funny to secure the area, eventually reaching its master, which is... for some baffling reason a nod to Beatrix from FF9? But as soon as you take her down, in swoops another demon you immediately have to fight after he absorbs the big smoke cloudshe desolves into, the archfiend of earth, Scarmiglione, who yes, is the first in a series of four bosses we are going to fight in rapid succession, who are all serving a big super-powerful guy named Golbez, who I guess fairly appropriately swung by to seize power after the last time you were here and killed the final boss from FF3.

Having dealt with that, you just sort of have free reign of the place. There’s still various weird looking demons running around, but while it’s not particularly useful, they’ll talk to you rather than attack. Mostly begging you not to eat them and wondering what they’re going to do now that their mistress is gone. They do however point you to a smarter than average demon they have in the prison in the basement who Beatrice was planning to kill and eat later, who as you go down and let her out, recognizes you and asks if you’re Zenos’ friend.

OK look. You can’t just go and ask a thing like that. Especially not with Y’shtola standing right there, she is definitely the type to be too perceptive and never drop it. Not a conversation to really have in front of Estinien and his new boyfriend either for the matter. Turns out that when Zenos picked up that scythe, officially switching to the Reaper class, he bound his soul to this demon (that’s just what the class’ deal with, you get one too if you take it, proving you somehow learned absolutely nothing about giving random sketchy entities a space key to your soul after Shadowbringers), and ended up back here after he died. Which... is a little confusing to me. Like he DEFINITELY died, but that was at the end of Stormblood, before these two met. Before the credits rolled, the protagonist just had a knock down drag out fist fight with him, and I didn’t get the impression AT ALL that he got punched in the face hard enough to kill him. You could make some kind of argument about him just like burning himself out to get there or not having a way back or something but... there’s a nice cafe right there. Get rest up, get a sandwich and a coffee, show up for an awkward third date in another expansion or two. You don’t go to all that convoluted effort to bring this sick freak back and then give him an implied off camera death. Anyway, you clear up how you know her, and a big light crystal someone suggested you take along for elemental opposition purposes flashes and changes her to a less demonic form.

She’s pretty apathetic and doesn’t really recall a name she feels like giving you, so Y’shtola just decides to call her Zero, and apparently the developers claimed to be incredibly shocked when a huge chunk of the fanbase developed an instant crush on her. Which is about as plausible to me as when Capcom put out that press release about not wanting to see sexy doodles of the giant woman with the cool hat from RE8 and then proceeded to list her exact height and shoe size. Don’t go pretending to be surprised when people are into the badass futch slow to open up half-demon woman who acts tough but is secretly all caring and dresses like freaking Vampire Hunter D. We all see what you’re doing there! Anyway she has plenty of useful info but explains that all interactions here in the void are contract work with payment, generally in the form of draining aether out of each other. Also that the reason she looks human is that she hadn’t been born yet when everyone in the world started turning into demons because look for real she’s just female D here.

Anyway Scarmiglione, as is his deal from FF4, does not stay dead and jumps in with a second boss fight. He and his minions just keep coming back no matter how much you kill them, and Zero explains that yeah, death never sticks here. Now, I already knew that, it’s something I’ve been griping about this whole plot summary, but like, it’s an official canonical thing in the Void. The connection to the whole great aether flow/lifestream from FF7 deal is just broken like a lot of the laws of physics and general state of matter in the area, so when you die either another demon eats what’s left of you, getting stronger but then also having your soul and memories stuck in their head forever, or you just... come back from the dead after a bit, totally fine, at full HP even. She doesn’t actually say “full HP” but she comes weirdly close. So the only way to keep Scarmiglione down, since you not being demons can’t eat him, and she doesn’t want any jerks all bound to her soul like some kind of protagonist of this game, that just leaves her using her super cool ancient artifact scythe that kills you and converts you into a big magic crystal. But you know, gotta pay her first.

Anyway, the other deal with this place is the world’s kinda missing but if you’re sufficiently cool you get your own personally little castle on a floating rock and minions to boss around if you promise not to eat them. Zero invites you back to check hers out and see if any of the loser demons she lets live their if they promise not to start anything know anything useful about this missing dragon sister or this Golbez guy who’s apparently a real big shot she’s not personally familiar with. All the demons look like horrible evil things and they’re all just massive cowardly dorks and I kinda love it. There’s a mindflayer hiding out in a corner who’s all traumatized having gone in for one of those summoning deals and turns out it was just some real Hellraiser type psycho who wanted freaky bondage demon sex and knife play and just nope, nope nope, screw that, back to hell, never getting summoned again thanks!

Anyway on schedule, your next boss fight is Bayonetta. I mean Barbaccia. Or maybe I do mean Bayonetta because she totally has magic hair and halfway through the fight makes a skintight bodysuit out of it and starts making her hands and feat all super huge to smack you around.

After the fight you get one of those Echo flashbacks but all it tells you is Golbez doesn’t do face to face meetings so you still don’t know where to find him, but he does have our missing dragon, who still hasn’t become a demon because dragons are just tough like that. Except for the dragons you fought the first time you were here. OK elder wyrms are tough like that, OK? Anyway, Zero overexerted herself crystalizing Barb and a significant percentage of her mooks, and not really feeling cool leaving her unconscious with always hungry opportunistic demons around, you drag her back out with you. I appreciate how the whole party apologizes profusely for yanking her to another dimension without her consent, it is kind of a rude thing to do. In order to help her recover you bring her some apples, and she just goes “OK the deal was supposed to be that I take your aether directly, but, I guess this still works, holds her hand out, and drain’s an apple’s life force out.

And this of course leads into this whole “no no, eat it all regular, get the flavor” and her not really being impressed, and you giving her a tour around the place, and promising to take her home, and her just being “I literally don’t care about anything that isn’t basic survival, we’ve been over this. You wanna keep paying me in apples to help with your thing, sure, otherwise I’ll just sit around wherever.” But then you’ve got a whole thing with Cagnazzo getting conjured through by demon summoners Golbez has an in with in what’s left of the empire, Vrtra feeling his sister’s presence over there, which turns out to just be her eye, but it’s something, and generally dropping everything to run up that way. And while you’re distracted with that, Rubicante slips through the other portal and smashes it so you no longer have the upper hand on travel. Oh and I’m just kind of assuming you’re on a first name basis with the major bosses from FF4 here. If you aren’t go play FF4 already, it’s an absolute classic. But yeah, Italian names, elemental themes. Earth zombie, wind woman, water turtle-guy, fire flasher.

While you’re being distracted up in what’s left of them empire, because you know, they also brought a whole horde of demons around and the people who are survivng out there are just barely surviving, you run into the twins again. Alisaie is super jealous she didn’t get to go to hell. And you encourage Zero to socialize with the locals a little, figuring maybe she’ll get along better with depressed former nazis than socially functioning people. And she kinda does. Bonds with that jerk from the one cutscene I linked last time a little over buuz. Spicy mongolian dumplings. Imported from the steppe here, and the absolute food worship from Endwalker continues. It comes in a paper takeout bag too.

We’ve got hair misaligned textures on hair that clips through people’s collars in cutscenes all the time still, but we are pushing these graphics to the absolute cutting edge to tear apart cheeseburgers and spicy dumplings. Like most depressed goth women I know, Zero is super into spicy food. Damn it I’m hungry now. Anyway people get spread around, Zero feels obligated to fight off a big horde of demons alone to pay back that free buuz. Partway through the boss does the fairly standard trick of dropping rocks from the sky that you need to face tank before they hit the ground, but there’s too many dropping at once to solo so down she goes (I have the same problem trying to solo a couple otherwise easy old bosses, it’s annoying). And then of course everyone else shows up to the rescue, heals her, and has a proper fight where she learns the meaning of friendship via standard boss mechanics. We get more of the spread out and catch the rocks, and some of the “everybody run to the person with the crosshairs on her to split the damage of an attack that’d otherwise kill her” thing, and yeah, thanks to the combined impact of that and spicy dumplings, she comes around to the concept of doing good things for people without a contract. Again I much prefer this sort of stock sappy love and friendship crap to the grey morality political crap from the start of the game.

That just leaves confronting Rubicante to ask about what Golbez’ deal even is, and fight him. And you know, then fight Golbez when these patches finish releasing. Turns out his plan is actually really straightforward. Every single demon has been alive and literally living in hell since the very first time Ascians tried to recombine things and messed it up, most are all screwed up from absorbing the souls of a bunch of wimps they beat to death, and let’s be frank here, a lot of them have real messed up bodies like just a floating head, or big wad of goop with a ton of eyeballs. Many of them would largely like to come over here where death at least theoretically sticks sometimes and properly get to he afterlife. It’s pretty hard to object to that, except you know, they’re also all big horrible monsters with the uncontrollable urge to eat people and it’d probably cause one of those cataclysmic elemental imbalances and also these guys are jerks literally delivering body parts of a hostage. And of course this is all in a big post-boss fight speech before Rubicante kills himself all honorable warrior style, so first we have this big fight with a fun gimmick tracing lines across moving puzzle pieces, and while the other three had pretty standard renditions of either the normal boss theme or the theme of Golbez and pals, when this fight starts we get the unmistakable strings and drums from an all-time classic remix.

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No really. In one of the most impressive fan service moves of all time, they actually tracked down Hyadain for an official commission to use this remix. That’s just great even if they DID chicken out on the lyrics. Maybe later for one of those tell-this-bard-about-it remix fights with the whole set or something. As is here’s the version we actually have.

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Anyway we leave off with a challenge to come face Golbez on the moon. The uh, moon in the Void to be clear. Which presumably has a nice Lunar Subterrane tribute going on. And past that, I don’t know. It certainly feels like we’re setting up dimension hopping for the next expansion, but if I stopped this far into the interlude after Heavensward I’d have thought we’d be going directly into Shadowbringers. This might resolve and then the last patch sets up some completely different thing. All I know is I’m not going to care about the whole Ascian prison raid, I don’t expect a real shocking twist to fighting the rest of the Twelve, and wow between Fray, Sadu, Gaia, Y’shtola’s class-change look, and Zero here, it is VERY clear the current head writer has a Type.

Short of double checking the last 10 levels of the few job quest lines I haven’t done for interesting bits, I have nothing left to sum up, at least until there’s another expansion to this. If you enjoyed all this though, again, money so I can survive would really be appreciated. I also have a wishlist of mostly games I’ll likely have thoughts on when I get to them. And if you somehow found this blog without seeing it, you might enjoy my also rather extensive multipart essay from a few years back about how Ranma, the character, is in fact trans, on top of the magic gender change stuff.

Past that, not sure what my next big project is going to be. Might get back to Twitch streaming, or just focus on this browser game I’ve been working on for a while. I have honestly enjoyed playing FF14 a hell of a lot more than most recent entries in the series and definitely more than any other MMO, so I could MAYBE be convinced to see what’s up with 11 if I can work out how to without costing me a ton of money and time I really don’t have? We’ll see.

#final fantasy 14 #ff14 #final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #it was legit tempting to skip this and just end on that last part's note #will this renewed interest in hyadain remixes finally give us wood man and air man?

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witchofthescions · 2 years

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It was nice to get back to her apartment and sleep in her own bed after spending the past few months on the road. Her armor lay haphazardly on the chair at her desk, her boots haphazardly kicked off and left at the foot of her bed. The armor was nice and warm when she was in Ishgard, but somewhere more arid like Ala Mhigo or Ul'dah? Absolutely sweltering. She appreciated the chance to take it all off.

She was slightly less appreciative of the sudden knock at her door. She leapt out of her bed and hurriedly pulled out a tank top and skirt to throw on. She tried to kick the door closed as she scrambled out of her room, but it didn't quite close completely.

There was another knock on the door as she made her way across the apartment. "Keep yer pants on, I'm comin'!"

Standing on the other side of the door were her companions. Her fellow Warriors of Light, who had fought beside her through thick and thin for so long. Cress greeted her with a grin and a wave.

"Wh... y'all?" Erna stared at them, somewhat dumbfounded.

"I apologize for the lack of warning," Lenar said. "This was something of a spur of the moment decision."

"We brought food," Cress said, holding up a basket filled with a good amount of food and snacks.

Ernastral blinked at the basket, before bursting out into laughter. "Well, that certainly makes the intrusion worth it! Come on in and get it all set up while I get changed into somethin' a bit more, well..." She ran a hand through her hair as she glanced down at her haphazard outfit.

"Appropriate for an impromptu get together," Gohnoh'a said, one eyebrow raised as he gave her a quick once over. Erna nodded, and moved aside to let them pass. She shut the door after them and disappeared back into her room to change.

You should take a bath later. Did you see the way Gohnoh'a wrinkled his nose?

Yeah yeah, she knew she stank. It was all the sweat and grime. She was getting around to taking a bath, really, she just wanted to get out of her armor and chill for a bit first.

She threw on a nice tunic and some sturdy boots before heading back to join the others. When Cress said they'd brought food, he wasn't kidding. Spread out on the table was an absolutely dizzying array of food. There was beef stew, some loaves of bacon bread, sausage links, cockatrice meatballs (she loved those, both to make and to eat), some meat miq'abobs (almost certainly Gohnoh'a's idea, since they're a traditional dish among his people), spinach saute, a platter of black mage-shaped ginger cookies, and a generous helping of mulled tea to wash it all down.

"Geez, where'd y'all get so much food from?" Erna remarked as she pulled up a seat.

"The markets, mostly," Cress said. "The miq'abobs came from some of Noh'a's folks."

Gohnoh'a glanced away, trying to play it cool even as his tail twitched behind him. Erna grinned at him.

"Well, thank you. All a' you." She reached for a serving of meatballs. "Let's dig in!"

The meal was a lively one even with only four people. It wasn't like the mealtimes back when Ernastral was a kid, with nearly a dozen people crowded around the dinner table, laughing and eating and talking all at once. But it still felt like home, and they still felt like family.

They talked, and laughed, and ate their fill for hours on end. Even Gohnoh'a, who always struck Erna as a little tense, seemed to relax as the night wore on. He smiled less and less, but she could see the way his posture relaxed, and the fur on his tail looked less puffy. Somewhere along the way Cress changed seats, moving to the one right next to Gohnoh'a instead of the far end of the table from Erna. She pretended not to notice.

Cress and Lenar burst into song several times, their chosen topics ranging from silly to bawdy. They even came up with a quick little epic to describe the events of the Naadam, and their eventual triumph over Zenos. Lenar even brought out the Morin Khuur he'd received from Cirina and the two tried to puzzle out how to work it. ("It's got strings, so you're supposed to pluck 'em, yeah?" Erna helpfully supplied. She soon learned that while that was the most basic way of operating a string instrument, there was a lot more to it than that.)

As the night wound down, she found herself glancing over to the chronometer hanging on her wall. That's when she realized it was approaching midnight.

"Seven hells, it's late." She stretched her arms over her head, suddenly very aware of how tired she was. "Y'all can stay the night if you want. Don't wanna force y'all to head out this late."

"Are you sure?" Gohnoh'a asked. "Do you even have the space for three more?"

"I've done some remodellin' and installed a loft area over my bed. It's a real cozy nook now, actually."

"I'd noticed that there was no longer an archway with a chair situated at just the right angle for someone to sit and stare at anyone who walked in the front door," Cress said, resting his chin in one hand as he grinned at her.

"Listen, I didn't know what I was doin' when I set that all up,'' Erna said, leaning back in her seat. "It was a dumb idea."

"I thought it was funny."

"Really? I seem to recall you nearly jumping out of your skin when you saw me sitting in The Chair," Lenar chimed in. Cress huffed dramatically while Gohnoh'a snickered.

"Regardless, now there's a door in the way and the chair's turned around, so no more gettin' surprised by the blind guy starin' at ya as you walk in." Erna got up from her seat and stretched. "If any of y'all need to hit the toilet, do so now while I get the bedding set up. I call first dibs on the bath, though."

"I certainly have no complaints about that," Gohnoh'a said, wrinkling his nose again.

"Yeah yeah, I stink, I know," she said. "That's what you get for showin' up unexpectedly."

"Apologies again for the lack of notice," Lenar said.

"It's fine. I wouldn't have invited y'all in if I didn't want company."

Erna led the way into the back, heading up to the loft so she could get the bedding arranged properly while the other three milled about. Gohnoh'a disappeared into the bathroom, while Lenar took a seat in the big comfy chair at her desk. Sapphire hopped up onto the desk and sat on the first pile of papers it could reach. Cress laughed and gave the little carbuncle a scritch behind the ear. Gohnoh'a perused the selection of books on Erna's combination bookcase and stairs, pulling one out and flipping through while Erna was busy.

"I didn't realize you read books," Gohnoh'a remarked, calling up to the loft.

"Course I read!" Erna called back.

"You weren't there when Ernastral spent an entire afternoon devouring every last scrap of information on the ancient empire of Sil'dih that the Thaumaturge's Guild had available," Lenar remarked. "She is, in fact, quite the avid reader."

"Huh," Gohnoh'a said, sounding surprised.

"Hey Erna, have you managed to add any forbidden tomes to your collection yet?" Cress asked.

"Not yet," she said. "The day I do y'all can bet you'll be the first to know."

"Because we'll most likely be there when you get your hands on it in the first place," Lenar said. Cress laughed.

"If we aren't the ones handing it to you."

Erna's laughter carried down from the loft. A comfortable silence fell over them as she finished setting things up and made her way back down.

"All set! If y'all wanna curl up there already, feel free. Me, I'm gonna go hop in the bath. See y'all in a bit."

She grabbed a change of clothes and a towel and disappeared into the bathroom. As she spent some time soaking in the bath, she could vaguely hear the other three talking amongst themselves. She didn't pay much attention to what they were actually talking about; she wasn't going to eavesdrop, after all. But it was nice to hear them getting along.

She found her thoughts drifting as she relaxed. Thinking about everything that had happened over the past couple of months. It was all a whirlwind of excitement with highs and lows she hadn't expected. And it left her questioning certain things about herself.

Zenos had said that people should "fight for the joy of it." Even in the moment, she had to admit she didn't disagree. She liked fighting, after all. There was a certain rush, a certain thrill to it all that she couldn't get from something like reading.

From the way he acted, though, it sounds like fighting was the only thrill he got from anything.

Erna opened her eyes and blinked up at the ceiling. Fray had a point, didn't she. Zenos seemed so... detached from everything around him. Even up to the end, it was as if he was off in his own world.

She found herself wondering about his offer of friendship. Why had he asked? He'd never really answered her. Had he done it without even understanding his own motivations?

What if she had taken him up on his offer?

You heard what he said. I doubt he really meant it.

Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever the answer, he'd taken it to the grave with him.

Once she finished the bath and changed into some nightclothes, she came out to see Lenar already passed out on the bed. He hadn't even bothered climbing under the bedsheets, much to her amusement. Cress and Gohnoh'a were still awake and chatting, but there was a sleepiness to it that said they were well on their way to drifting off themselves.

She pulled the sheets out from under Lenar so she could tuck him in as she got in herself. He shifted around, soon curling up beside her without fully waking. She wrapped an arm around him and settled in, falling asleep within moments.

#the unending journey (drabbles)#born in blood (stormblood)#((and a final drabble to wrap the storyline up))

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narrators-journal · 3 years

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Hello, I really like your work! and i would like to know if you can make yandere killua and yandere illumi fighting each other for the reader. The reader is a friend of Killua and is the same age as him, 18 years old.

Alright! This might be a bit iffy in parts because I never write actual confrontations, but I hope it's enjoyable! I couldn't really slip in some real yandere behavior, so I kinda implied it to keep things short lol.

Killua'd known you for a while now, about two years, from the age of 16 to now, his eighteenth birthday, and he liked you quite a bit. Because of this, the silver-haired man had begun to keep an even stricter eye on you than he had in the past. That's why you were tagging along to Killua's family home with him and Gon to let his family celebrate so that he could keep you safe and close. Besides, he'd rather you met Illumi under his watch than on the roads and by complete chance. So, Alluka was safely in a secure hotel room and you were walking up to the gates to Hades with him and Gon. "You sure you can't just do this over the phone?" You asked, your (e/c) eyes swimming with concern for him, it made his stomach flutter with butterflies. "Nah, my mom would have a fit if I didn't come home for my eighteenth birthday. But, if they try to introduce me to a 'nice girl', we run." That made you and Gon both giggle, but nod. Despite it being silly, the three of you knew it was highly likely. It would be too much to ask that Illumi and Milluki be the favored ones. Killua thought bitterly as he spotted the gates to Hades up ahead, but no. He and Illumi were something akin to the favorites out of his five siblings, the most 'loved' was Killua, he was the heir, so of course he was expected to breed and carry on the line, but Illumi was the eldest, so he too was expected to find a wife and have children. It was an awful fate that some part of Killua, deep down, felt sorry for his brother over, but it was a small portion.

With a firm shake of his head, Killua shooed the thoughts away and huffed at the doors that he now stood in front of, "We'll do our best to get out quickly," Gon chirped, giving the white-haired assassin a confident smile, which he returned, "Yeah! Real quick," he confirmed, before leading them to the testing gates and easily opening them all. "Y'know (y/n), each of those doors is supposed to be 2 tons each? and each bigger one is twice the weight of the corresponding one!" Gon boasted, bringing an astounded look to your face, "Holy shit, really?! Isn't that...128 tons though?" Gon nodded "Yep! Killua can open them all," he boasted, beaming with pride in his friend, ignoring the pink-cheeked glare Killua threw his way as they walked onto the mountain.

As to be expected, the Zoldycks had sent Gotoh, their head butler, with a car, so the trio was spared the miles of walking it took to get to the actual main house. So, instead, they spent the ride talking and joking, which helped to combat the knot of dread in Killua's stomach. Something just told him that this visit wasn't going to end well, but he couldn't say why he felt that way. When he got inside the manor, he got his answer.

It wasn't that he and Illumi were still on bad terms, he'd tentatively begun to mend fences with his eldest brother at sixteen after years of blubbering and pestering from his mother, but the way Illumi's soulless eyes locked onto you when he spotted you did not sit well with the silver-haired Zoldyck. However, his mother tackled him before he could stop his brother from approaching you and striking up a conversation. The only comfort he got was in knowing you were talking to him almost solely out of the need to be polite, you'd been warned enough about the manipulative snake to know to be wary. "you've grown so much! I barely recognize you anymore," Kikyo half squealed and half chided as if Killua could help himself growing to be Illumi's height, maybe a bit more, but the man just rolled his icy blue eyes, staying quiet to avoid his mother shrieking at him about how she was a good mother who loved him or something.

After his mother was done fussing at him, Killua returned to you, sticking close to you and Gon so he didn't lose his cool, doing so would only lengthen how long they'd have to stay. However, he also came over to interrupt Illumi's conversation with you, "Hey, (y/n), ya doing okay?" he asked, not bothering to hide his concern about his brother, which got him a pointed look from said brother, "Oh, yeah, just been chatting with your brother." you hummed, and while he could tell you were still wary, it was far less rigid as it was before. Of fucking course he'd do this bullcrap he thought, scanning over you to ensure his older sibling hadn't stuck you with a needle. Thankfully he hadn't, so that meant Illumi'd just charmed you. Disgusting.

Nonetheless, he bit back the urge to grab you and run and instead just talked to you and slowly led you away from Illumi. After that, things mellowed out for Killua and the day wasn't as much of a nightmare as he'd thought it would be, though that was mostly because he hung out with Gon and you more than his family. That wasn't to say he wasn't polite to his siblings, especially Kalluto, and nice to his parents, but he kept a distance from them. He especially kept a distance from Illumi, and he made sure you did the same so that the assassin couldn't put a needle in you or charm you anymore. However, Illumi approached him around evening, when you'd been drug off by Kikyo to 'have a chat' aka be interrogated for knowing her son so well. "I know why you avoid me nowadays," Illumi hummed in his usual bored, almost-sleepy voice as he watched the tv and acted as if he didn't notice his younger brother's evil look. "but what bugs me right now, is you keeping (y/n) away from me. You know that I need a partner, your friend is a viable option, you're just being rude to stop me from at least trying to date her." He continued, and Killua could almost taste the annoyance in his deadpan brother's aura, but all it did was put a spark of malicious joy in his soul. "First, my friends shouldn't be options for you, second, quit fucking talking about them like they're a piece of meat. (y/n) is a fucking human, not a damned broodmare for you." he pointed out in as cool of a tone as he could manage, both so no malice slips into his aura and affects Gon, who was next to him, and to further annoy Illumi. "Is it because you have a crush on her? No offense, Kill, but that won't stop me from making a move if she's available. they're very cute, and I wouldn't mind having her for myself." the dead-eyed man said coldly, staring down at the younger man.

For a moment or two after that, Killua and Illumi gave each other lethal looks, having a silent argument that was so palpable that Gon finally got up and moved, knowing better than to try and intervene or help his friend with family spats. It turned out the dark haired boy had the right idea, because almost as soon as he'd gotten up, the two went at each other like a pair of hostile dogs.

Killua was swiftly thrown to the ground by his older brother, but since he was no longer twelve, Killua's punch in response did actual damage instead of being ignored. Though he still stood no chance against him, Killua did his best to punch, kick, and bite his brother, managing to roll him over and slam his head into the floor before he retaliated with a punch to the throat. Meanwhile, Gon, Milluki, and the other siblings watched and cheered, either for Illumi or killua, encouraging them or throwing out advice for how to win the fight until Silva and Zeno finally came in and pried the two brothers apart. They ended up having to hold the two apart, because as soon as they were on their feet, Killua kicked his brother in the stomach and was nearly yanked off his feet as a result. "That is enough." Silva snapped, his voice not loud, but still firm enough to clear the wrathful red from Killua's eyes a bit and stop him from initiating another fist fight. "You two are now adults, having squabbles like this is unacceptable." he scolded, the brothers deflating in shame as they were finally released and further chewed out.

Finally, they were returned back to the social setting, and Killua was forced to put on a happy face for the rest of the night. He would've stayed pissed, maybe even attack Illumi a fifth time, but you were there, and he didn't want to worry you with the story. However, through dinner and the onslaught of gifts you and Gon helped him carry out, whenever you weren't looking or he was alone, Zeno and Silva once again would have to stop them from coming to blows before Killua finally left to go to a hotel for the night despite his mother offering his old room.

#yandere killua #yandere illumi #hxh #hunter x hunter #x reader #yandere #ask #implied yandereism

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cyberpunkboytoy · 2 years

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Fuck it, DMMD English dream casting

I doubt any of these actors would agree to provide an English dub for the game, but...I can dream. I can specifically dream of:

Sean Chiplock as Aoba

Ben Diskin as Noiz

Bryce Papenbrook as Clear (+ Alpha)

Chris Hackney as Koujaku

SungWon Cho as Ren

Linda Young as Tae

Johnny Yong Bosch as Virus

Keith Silverstein as Trip

Max Mittelman as Beni

Robbie Daymond as Ryuuhou

Zeno Robinson as Akushima

Yuri Lownethal as Sei

Rambling justifications & voice examples below

Typed in order of how strong my feelings are about the idea:

This whole list is purely because I was going through Koujaku’s route and had the thought “Robbie Daymond would fucking Kill It as Ryuuhou.” I think Yuri Lownethal would also be very fitting, specifically to match the original seiyuu’s sweet, light voice, but I’d personally prefer to see Daymond’s interpretation more. He could perform the hell out of cloyingly sweet to slow, crazed theatrics. He’s like, too good for this role. God it’d rule so much.

I always imagine Tae with Linda Young’s voice, primarily based on her performance of Genkai from Yu Yu Hakusho. That’s the OG old lady voice for me, and it feels so fitting sometimes I forget it isn’t already canon.

Noiz as Benjamin Diskin is a very biased choice (he’s one of my favorite VAs), & not the one I think most people would choose for the character. But he has a massive vocal range, including some low vocal performances, and I think would add a hint of boyishness that would compliment Noiz well. (also he’s been the English counterpart for another Satoshi Hino role so I just think it’d be funny.)

I knew Ren needed a low voice that was incredible to listen to, so of course SungWon Cho is the perfect man for the job. Also he rules.

I originally had Johnny Yong Bosch and Sean Chiplock swapped, with Chiplock being Virus (if only because he’s a furry and therefore it’s funny). But the more I thought about it the more I realized Johnny Yong Bosch seemed to suit Virus more. His voice just feels right in the role.

It was very difficult to think of an actor for Aoba. He needs a fantastic voice to listen to, very nice sounding, but also be able to have some grit and anger, and also be able to play Sly as well. I originally thought Johnny Yong Bosch because he’s well known for playing very different roles in the same media, but eventually I decided Sean Chiplock would be better suited for capturing Aoba’s unique charm and attitude. Sean Chiplock has massive range, so I kind of want him to be...everybody? He and Yuri Lowenthal could just do every single male extra and I’d be happy. But also Chiplock’s acting rules so he can’t just be extras, but he can nail any role so it was hard to chose who? I thought Toue and Sei and Virus, but I think he deserves Aoba. Ultimately I don’t know of a voice he’s done that screams Aoba to me, but I’m sure he could find it.

Like Aoba, thinking of a voice for Clear was similarly tricky (especially to also act as Alpha, who doesn’t share a VA with Clear in the original Japanese but I think would be a neat choice), but Bryce Papenbrook has the acting chops. Not only do I think he could nail that silly, boyish comedy-relief vibe, but also put himself into the more melancholic moments of Clear’s arc. And then get completely crazed as Alpha. (Papenbrook is incredible at playing diametrically-different roles within the same series and I wanted to highlight that.)

Chris Hackney can do a laid back, casual sort of friendly voice, but also perform incredible growls and violent anger. If he found the right voice for Koujaku he’d absolutely kill the performance.

Keith Silverstein could do a good Trip. Simple as that.

Zeno Robinson could do a good Akushima and also I just. Want him in things.

Max Mittelman could perform a really funny Beni, I think. The only similar role I’ve seen him do is Plagg but I bet he has more mascot character energy in him.

Yuri Lownethal could do a good Sei. Seems like a waste of his potential though. Have him do 50 extras as well, I need more Yuri Lowenthal.

You might notice Mink isn’t here. I am terrified to even begin the process of choosing an actor for Mink.

#If anyone has alternative ideas I'd love to hear them #Also I wanted to find a voice for Haga but don't know enough older male VAs with that kind of performance....Haga I'm so sorry I love you #DMMD #DRAMAtical Murder #fancast #voice actors #eng VA #voice acting #tempted to tag the actors but multiple of them are on tumblr so....no #Ben Diskin or Sean Chiplock could do Toue btw #probably many people could do Toue but I couldn't think of a definite actor #this took me hours. Why did I think so long about this?#(because it was fun)#also we are ignoring the official DMMD anime english dub. We are ignoring it.

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only4soo-won · 2 years

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Hi......if you don't mind me asking, can I ask your top 5 favorite characters from Akatsuki no Yona? And why? And your top 5 (or top 3) favorite moments from the manga? Sorry if you've answered this question before....Thanks....

Hello there! Sorry for the long delay….recently I’ve been very busy with my studies & other stuffs so didn’t get the time to reply……..

So here goes my top 5 favourite Akayona characters:

1. Soo-Won

Soo-Won is one of my most favourite characters of all time. He’s the only reason why I was so attached to the story. And why do I like him? Man I can write a whole essay on it but gonna keep it short

Well Soo-Won is a character that has so much depths, so many layers. Like you can't judge him by looking into just one aspects of him. There's a lot to explore about him & his circumstances. His character has been a mystery for me from the start & many of those have been unveiled as the story progresses....

The thing that I love sm is his strong determination & willingness to not give up to fate. His goal is clear & to achieve it, he doesn't hesitate to take tough decisions or face consequences. I love how he handles a dire situation, even if it goes against his plans or is unpredictable. One of his amazing traits is how he motivates ppl. He appreciates ppl's efforts to do smth by their own & tries to boost them up by figuring out their strong points(Lily, Kiyoga for example) & even doesn't hesitate to humble himself if it needed (like how he boost up GuenTae's lost enthusiasm by presenting himself as a stupid coward in front of the ppl of the earth tribe). He knows how to utilise his ppls strength which makes him a good leader. There's a lot to say about his other aspects but will talk in another post someday.....

Besides his bright sides, I also love his flaws. He's not a perfect human being, infact no human can be perfect! This makes him feel more realistic. His low self esteem issues, over exerting tendencies, unhealthy way of suppressing emotions & not valuing his own life....these are the major flaws of his character which he needs to acknowledge & get over with it.

Also I love his silly parts, esp how dense he is regarding romance & stuff. Also his attachment to books....I love nerdy(lovingly), genius characters a lot!!

2. Han Judoh

My fave general. I like his devotion to his kingdom & his ppl. But I love him esp for his grumpiness & short temper. The way he throws all his anger on Soo-Won is so entertaining! And I feel like Soo-Won deliberately makes him angry most of the time😂. And his relationship with GuenTae is another level of entertainment!! I miss those a lot!

3. An Lily

I love her for her willingness to do something for her ppl. She's aware of her shortcomings but still tries her best to fulfill her responsibilities. The thing I admired that despite being a general's daughter, she wasn't just a spoiled lil princess who only thinks of makeups, expensive jewels or comforts, she was always concerned of her ppl's wellbeing. Even if her father tried to cage her up, that didn't stop her from going outside world & exploring the situations. That's an amazing part of her! Also I love her interactions with Soo-Won. Even if they're not couple or romantically attracted to each other, their relationship is something sm appealing to me than the main romance couple of the story. And not to mention her weird tastes😂

Then not in particular order....I like General Guen Tae, Zeno & Keishuk. I love GT for his teases towards Soo-Won & Judoh. I enjoyed those moments sm. He's an honest person & cares for his ppl. Also Guen Tae-Yunho couple is so cute. My fave canon couple of Any!!

Besides Soo-Won, Zeno is another mysterious character of the story. What's he planning to do, what business he has with Soo-Won...I would love to see. They share the exact opposite fate....one is cursed to die earlier & another to live for eternity. Zeno-Soo-Won interaction is really an interesting part of the series. He's constantly testing Soo-Won, trying to know him better...like what's your deal you immortal grandpa?!

And Keishuk....the grumpy advisor who lacks empathy. I was neutral about him from the start & wasn't much interested in him until the end of the last war......when he proposed Yona & the dragons to form an alliance. That was a clever move & I was curious how he's gonna use them. That iconic moment when he said "Killing Il was a glorious night of victory" straight to Hak's face...I was sold on it...like this dude really has some nerves!!. During the flashbacks we learned more about him & got to know his reason for despising Il sm. But after the flashbacks, his character started to get inconsistent which is so dissapointing. It feels like his brain cells jump like a pingpong ball from one chapter to another. Like someome pls send him to a vacation already! Man has gotten so tired & needs to chill a bit, plssssss.....

Now time for my top 5 fave moments of the manga (It's kinda hard for me to rank but it goes):

This is my most fave of all!! The 1st time I watched it in the anime, this moment gave me goosebumps & lots of feels & literally after watching this part, I decided to dive into the manga.

Another iconic moment....it was such powerful message that he won't depend on the mercy of the gods but the strength of his ppl...so true king!!

Actually every Suhak moments give me so much feels, so much pain...they all are my faves

An example of how to roast someone in such a gentle way😂. Poor Gobi

This panel will remain in my heart rant-free!! Kei & Judoh are not only the clowns but the entire circus here really😂. Overprotective daddies!! Love them sm for this

Ok that's all. Thanks for the ask😊. Take care!!

#akatsuki no yona #soo won #soo-won #suwon #su-won #king suwon #judoh #lily #keishuk #guentae #ask #it reminded me of those good ol days

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hiislegacy · 3 years

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Starter | Muse: Fandaniel (and prob Zenos at some point)

"And just WHO are YOU?? To come here and LOOK AT ME with that silly face of yours!”

Fandaniel was already not pleased to see this one, getting a strange feel of his aura by just the mere presence of him. Though, this one seemed to not be really making much of a face at him, the Ascian just wanted to yell about anything. When did he not? There was something so familiar about this one, and it was taking him a moment to figure it out. Which just meant more time to see what made him tick.

“Are you just another dull and BORING husk of a mortal?? Wanting to rid the world of EVIL?”

| @brokenxfragments |

#brokenxfragments #rp #starter #c: Fandaniel #and prob #c: Zenos

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philosopherking1887 · 3 years

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Writer tag game

Thanks for tagging me, @ectogeo-rebubbles... 4, days ago, sorry; my parents are visiting and I haven’t had much time to myself.

How many works do you have on AO3?

(Why is the number so big when I post? @sapphosewrites said the same thing, so I know it’s not just me...)

What's your total AO3 word count?

515,575

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Mostly Zuko-centric ATLA fics because a couple were inspired by a BNA whom I tagged in the Tumblr post, then she reblogged and lots of people saw them.

Between the Salt Water and the Sea Strand

To Give Birth to a Dancing Star (didn’t get very far on that one, oops)

The Last Argument

Zeno’s Paradox (the only non-ATLA fic on this list; I posted it very shortly after Thor: Ragnarok came out, before I realized how terrible it was)

Shame and Necessity

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes, almost always (unless someone said something weird, or one person left a bunch of identical short comments on different chapters of the same fic; it seems a bit silly to respond to every “<3″ with “Thanks!”). I respond to encourage people to keep commenting, by assuring them that I’m reading comments, I pay attention to their content, and I appreciate them. I especially like it when people comment on specific themes in the fic or how it relates to some aspect of canon, so that it starts an analytical conversation about the story and the characters -- which is what a lot of us are here for.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I’m gonna say The Third Time, because Loki actually permanently dies.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Starting Over, I guess? That’s the hopeful ending of my Thorki series, taking place before some hypothetical version of the Infinity War storyline in which neither of our principal characters dies (because fuck the actual movies, and fuck Ragnarok too, while we’re at it). But there are other fics, sometimes intermediate in one of my series, that have hopeful rather than downbeat endings, even if more complications arise later. The Ninth Deadly Sin is a rare standalone fic with a happy ending (which I’d forgotten about until I went looking through my Works page for happy endings). Prince of Darkness also has a fairly happy ending that involves solving climate change with Frost Giants...

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

No, at least not yet. I have nothing against them in principle, and sometimes enjoy reading them, but since the target audience is the intersection of two (or more) fandoms, it’s necessarily going to be smaller than either fandom on its own.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really related to the fic. I did get a random nasty comment on a Garashir fic about a fan letter I wrote to Tom Hiddleston (and handed to his manager-person after seeing Betrayal in London) and then posted on Tumblr. Just someone being an asshole.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I do indeed! I write very chatty smut, with a lot of feelings, often angsty, and sometimes awkward, because sex can be awkward, especially if one or more of the participants is inexperienced (at least with bodies like their partner’s).

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes -- someone translated No Exit into French as Aucune sortie (though actually, the French title of the Sartre play that I named the fic after is Huis clos).

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I’m inevitably going to answer that kind of question with my current favorite ship, which is Garashir... but that might actually be my all-time favorite ship because the fandom is a lot more welcoming and chill than others I’ve been in before.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Hoo boy. All the people I’ve seen doing this tag game previously have said they don’t have any; I have 5 partially posted WIPs in old fandoms that I doubt I’ll pick up again. I think I’ve tagged most of them as “on hiatus” and warned readers in author’s notes that I probably won’t finish... Do I want to finish them? In theory, yes; in practice, no.

What are your writing strengths?

I’ve most often received compliments on my dialogue, which I also find the easiest thing to write; my favorite version of this compliment is when people say that they can hear the dialogue in the actors’/characters’ voices. Some people enjoy the philosophical discussions that I can’t help inserting into my fics...

What are your writing weaknesses?

Plots. Thing happening. I cannot come up with plots. All of my fics are just people talking and having thoughts and feelings about things.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Ask yourself: what does it add to have the dialogue in the language it’s supposed to be in rather than translated? If the POV character speaks the language, would it be sufficient to note that they’ve switched to a different language, or put it in italics or something to indicate that? If the POV character doesn’t speak the language, would it make more sense to just say that other characters have spoken an unintelligible string in another language, or that they just caught a few words, or whatever? That’s not to say that there’s never a good reason to include the actual language; if the actual words are important, or if it matters that the POV character doesn’t switch effortlessly between languages, or if it just adds some richness of texture that you’re going for, it can make sense.

If it’s a real language that you’re not fluent in, do ask someone who is to check your grammar.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter, of course; I am that age, after all. I wrote fics about Tom Riddle and/or Voldemort when I was in middle school in 2001-2. I’ve always been interested in the villain’s perspective.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

At the moment, Had we but world enough, and time. It stayed reasonably self-contained while also covering the issues I wanted it to cover, with some smut thrown in. Maybe my best fic is actually an older one, but my favorite is always in my current fandom, because that’s what I’m excited about... and I’d like to think my writing has been improving with practice.

Tagging: @delicatetrashstranger, @vermin-disciple, @hex-o, @judiops, @the-last-dillpickle... and @illwynd and @incredifishface (since I actually ended up talking about my Loki and Thorki fics in this one).

#fic writer tag game #my fanfiction

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vyragosa · 2 years

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I LOVE FANDANIEL SO MUCH UNIRONICALLY HGHGHGHGHGHGHH

he’s so comically evil with mannerisms and winks and hands on hips swaying but the fact remains that we have not a single idea of who he used to be in the convocation or who he even was before being a sundered minion miserably enduring and living eternally

really cannot hate the guy for being honest about it all? even zenos knows he’s being used but does it matter?

at the moment, nay, his funnyman shall be allowed his silly tricks for another endless night

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catte-bard · 3 years

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Heart’s Desire

(A scene that’s been in my head for a while about the rocky start to Bel and Thancred’s relationship.)

@ffxiv-writers

The last few days had been long and exhausting.

So much occurring in such a short span of time. Taking Castrum Oriens, trekking out to Rhalgr’s Reach, having to fight the bloody crowned prince himself.

And then was Y’shtola...

If Bellona wasn’t already certain she was awake, she’d assume it was all a terrible dream.

Her body was sore. Her limbs felt heavy. And her chest ached with the need to sob. All she wanted now was the comfort of a warm bed within the safe walls of the Rising Stones.

To close her eyes and forget all that had occurred...if only temporarily.

“You don’t have to escort me, you know.” She quietly told her companion.

She only meant to travel from Rhalgr’s to the castrum. The trek wasn’t very long and most of the wildlife seemed content with leaving travelers alone as long as they kept their distance. But she still made sure to keep her bow within easy reach.

“A gentleman never allows a fair lady to walk alone at night.” He simply replied.

Despite her lousy mood, that managed to get a smile out of her. There were very few people in Eorzea who would think to cause trouble for her. Few corners of Eorzea where her reputation was not known.

They were traveling in East End now and most of their journey had gone by uninterrupted. She doubted anything or anyone would cause them much trouble this close to an Alliance encampment.

“I’m quite sure I can handle a few beasts and bandits.” She told him. “Asides, there have to be a myriad of other more lovely maidens that you’d rather be spending your time with tonight.”

Though in truth, Bellona was glad for the rogue’s company. She put on a brave face, but the twist in the day’s events had greatly shaken her. The Reach’s chirurgeons had advised her to stay put and rest. But the miqo’te had grown restless in the infirmary.

And so she had left, at first intending to simply pace around the Reach for a while. But everywhere she looked, she was reminded of the attack. Reminded of her fight with Prince Zenos, and her wounds would begin to ache again.

Thancred—the damnable rogue—had of course seen her slipping out. And he insisted on accompanying her. Claiming that he was heading back to Mor Dhona himself. He didn’t voice it, but she knew it was because he was worried.

Everyone was worried after seeing what Zenos was capable of. And the fact that Thancred had been the one to pursue her warmed a small part of her. She was glad for his presence.

Thancred chuckled. “I don’t doubt there are many a pretty maidens who long for company this night. But there are none that I’d rather spend time with more than you.”

That surprised her. It shouldn’t have; Thancred was a friend. Of course he’d want to spend time with her over a stranger.

“Well regardless there’s no need to worry over me.” Bellona assured him. “Today’s events have been terrible but I’m capable of taking care of myself.”

However even as she said this her foot happened to catch in a root unseen in the darkness. And with a very unWarrior of Light yelp stumbled clumsily, losing her balance. But before she could make an embarrassing fall she felt two strong arms catch her.

“What was that about not needing an escort?” Thancred’s voice was laced with amusement.

Bellona felt her face burn with embarrassment and indignation. Of course it would be her luck! And knowing Thancred, he would never let her live it down.

“I only tripped.” She grumbled.

“And here I thought all miqo’te were of impeccable balance.” He teased further.

He was close.

Strong, tawny arms held her against his chest, cradling her as if she were some swooning maiden. His face was mere ilms away from her own.

Thancred was a rather handsome man. The thought occurred to her as her gaze flicked over his features. His roguish new look was starting to grow on her. Even that silly bandana he insisted on always wearing was starting to seem charming.

Her eyes met Thancred’s gaze, finding a tenderness there. He smiled fondly at her, seeming captured within a reverie of his own. Had he always looked at her like that? So...warmly?

It tugged at something within her. An odd emotion...

However, she quickly pushed it down, something within her fearfully flinching from it. Clearing her throat she found her footing again, pulling herself from Thancred’s arms.

“We shouldn’t linger here for too long. I remember Lyse saying that the bears were bold around here.” She awkwardly mumbled.

Thancred blinked, seeming hesitant. Another strange expression on his face. However, whatever was on his mind he bit back.

"Right." He agreed quietly as he followed behind her.

Quiet had fallen over them then as they continued their journey. A tense and awkward kind. Thancred seemed to have fallen back into his old habit of brooding. Stewing in silence over something. Every time she glanced his way his face was drawn and he seemed deep in thought.

Twice she thought about prodding him for what was on his mind. But found her own tongue heavy. And her own mind troubled; still wrestling with the strange feeling trying to bubble up within her.

The heavy silence seemed to make the trip to the castrum stretch on longer. Or perhaps she merely misjudged the distance?

“So what happened to your eye?” Bellona eventually managed, hoping to break the strange silence that had fallen over them. “You never told me. Get into a fight with a nutkin?”

Her friend’s new accessory had her curious ever since they first reunited in Dravania. She never thought to properly ask him about it. And opportunities had always been stolen away by duty’s call.

Thancred perked, whatever clouds in his mind parting. “I think the mystery of it makes me seem all the more dashing. Would you like to see it?” A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Bellona paused mid-step, her face scrunched into a grimace, but the morbidly curious part of her did perk up. “As long as it’s not...gross or anything.” She told him.

“Worry not, the injury has long since healed, so no puss or rotting flesh or anything like that.” He said as he reached up to undo the sash.

A gasp was already on her lips as he pulled it away, however it stopped short when she saw...just an ordinary eye hidden behind. She frowned, confused for a moment. And Thancred seemed rather amused by her bemusement.

With a chuckle he stepped closer, leaning down towards her. “Here, look.”

For a few seconds, Bellona wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be looking at. Her gaze must have looked over his features three times before she finally noticed. His eyes—they were two different colours. The left eye was almost like Y’sthola’s—pale and grey.

It was an endearing look for him in a strange way. Made him look more mischievous which matched his nature as a rogue.

But she also felt a pang sympathy for him. “Does it...hurt?” Without thinking, Bellona reached up to touch his face.

And as her fingers brushed against his cheek, Thancred winced causing her to jump. However, a smirk quickly broke out across his face and he winked at her. “No it’s fine. See?” He took her hand, guiding it back up to his cheek. His skin feeling soft and warm under her fingertips.

Bellona could feel her own cheeks growing warm. She prayed Thancred didn’t take notice.

“I can still see out of it...the light bothers it and sometimes I get headaches. But it’s nothing that has been too debilitating. I’ve learned to get used to it.”

“How did it happen?”

Thrancred shrugged. “Perhaps, a side effect of Y’shtola’s Flow spell. Prolonged exposure in the Lifestream can’t be the healthiest thing.”

Her thumb absently brushed across his cheek. At the back of her mind, Bellona scolded herself for it. However, Thancred seemed not to notice or mind the gesture.

He’d changed much since the last time they’d seen each other. This half-wild man before her was a far cry from the scroudral of a bard she had departed from in Ul’dah. There was a new hardness to him. A new weight he carried on his shoulders.

“Well I’m just glad you came back to us safe in the end.” Bellona said.

His thumb brushed against the back of her hand. The gesture sent a tingle through her.

And there was that look again...That soft, fond look he gave her. “Would you believe me if I said that it was the thought of you that kept me going when I was out there?”

The sudden confession left her speechless.

His hand slowly wrapped around hers and he closed his eyes. Leaning into her touch. "Every moment I doubted I would survive—that I would see my friends again. The mere thought of your strength, your conviction, even your smile gave me enough reason to keep fighting."

"Thancred…"

He opened his eyes and looked at her. There was a long pause between them, a heavy silence hung in the air. Something far too soft—far too filled with longing in both their gazes to be denied. And they both could sense it.

And perhaps that’s why it happened.

When Thancred leaned down, Bellona leaned against him, catching his lips against her own. Rough, calloused hands were gentle as they held her. As if she were something softer and more delicate than the warrior she was.

Her hands roam over his chest, resting over his beating heart. Her own racing along with it. It felt good in his arms, safe, warm. She had forgotten how good it felt to be held like this. And in that moment the weight of her travails lifted from her. All felt good and right.

But...

Bellona pulled away from him, her eyes squeezed shut.

What are you doing?

“I shouldn’t have done that.” She whispered.

She hadn’t been thinking when she’d done it. Only hearing her heart thudding in her ears. Listening to the intensity of the emotions rushing through her body. And it had been a mistake. A foolish, stupid, mistake.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that…” She mumbled again and stepped away, feeling as if her face had been bathed in Ifrit’s fires. Good gods, why did she do that?!

She felt a nauseating knot twist her stomach. Oh how she wanted to die on spot right then and there. Wanted to run away and hide somewhere.

“Bel…” Thancred breathed, his voice lace with astonishment. “Bel it’s fine.” He gently takes her by the shoulders.

His mere touch sends levin through her body. It sends her heart racing. “N-no it’s not.” She argued. “That wasn’t appropriate of me.”

And he laughed. The sound warms the air around them. “How is it inappropriate when I feel the same way?”

What? At that, her cheeks felt even hotter. She looked back up at him, searching his face. He was giving her that look again. That soft, loving look.

He meant those words.

“You...do?” Bellona blinked. She could feel herself shaking.

“I do.” His voice just above a whisper.

She was speechless.

Is this what had been stirring within her since his return? This strange feeling tugging at her heart? That flutter whenever he looked at her a certain way?

How had she been so unaware of her own emotions?

And when did her heart become so soft and so easy to enchant?

She should’ve realized what it was. And perhaps she had known all along what it was but had just been too afraid to acknowledge it. Because it felt too soon after Haurchefant. Because it felt like a betrayal to him.

Because she was scared of feeling that heartbreak again...

Love stung. And she swore never to trust it again; yet here she was...being a swooning fool again. Enticed by its seemingly harmless appearance and forgetting its barbs.

She looked up at Thancred. Why him? Why did it have to be him? And why now?

“Have I perhaps misread something?” Thancred suddenly sheepishly asked, noticing her distress.

Bellona winced, hating the pained note in his voice. Hating the pained note in her own voice. “No it’s fine...I just.” The words came to her slowly. What? What was wrong with her feeling this way?

Thankfully, the buzz of her linkpearl saved her from having to finish her response.

Giving Thancred an apologetic look, she quickly answered it. “Yes? O-oh, Alphinaud.” She did her best to keep the trembling of her emotions from her voice. “Yes...I'll be there shortly.”

The call ended, she looked sheepishly at Thancred. He still waited for an explanation for her reaction. Something she wasn’t ready to explain yet.

“I have to go.” She mumbled.

Disappointment fell across his face. “Of course.” He replied. “I suppose I should get going as well…”

She hesitates. “We’ll talk about this later…”

That seemed like the appropriate response. And Thancred seemed to accept it. Albeit reluctantly.

“Later then.” He nods.

If he had anything else to say, Bellona didn’t allow him the chance. Quickly turning away and walking off before he could. Mentally scolding herself as she went.

Her heart didn’t stop racing for a long time.

#final fantasy xiv #thancred x wol #wol x thancred #thancred waters #(To Open My Heart Again)#writing

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stardust-steel · 3 years

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Fading Eclipse

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29995131

“All the fighters from Universe 7 had been eliminated,” The Grand Minister announced. As per the rule of the Tournament of Power, Universe 7 shall be erased.”

Vegeta might have felt fear at various points in his life, but he certainly never acknowledged it. Right then, right here though, he could admit to feeling something eerily similar to fear. Because this time, the stakes were higher than ever before, and Vegeta had something extra to lose.

Vegeta’s newborn daughter, so terribly small, yet her smile lit up his whole world. Trunks and Goten, strong and proud. Bulma’s beautiful blue eyes, glowing in both challenge and faith in him, in their team. The unexpected trust Vegeta had formed with this team of misfit fighters around him, found family after the years of chaos and loss.

Krillin, whose courage eclipsed many, Tien; reliable and level-headed. Piccolo, reserved but true-hearted. Gohan, brave, intelligent and fair. Eighteen and Seventeen, the deadly fighting duo who reminded Vegeta of Kakarot and himself. Roshi, whose battle days should be far behind him, yet here he was taking a stand with them.

Goku’s presence beside him, his greatest warrior and trusted partner, the one that began it all.

Well, no one could say they hadn’t gone down fighting, because they did it with literally everything they had.

Vegeta lifted his head, holding it high. His tail loosened, relaxed. He was still a warrior prince, no matter that these weren’t the people he had been meant to lead. Vegeta would set the example.

Show no fear. Fear did not have a place here, because they had given everything they had, and so should -could- make peace with what comes next.

Goku stood level with him, the rest of the team (found family, Bulma had called it once-- silly earth term, but Vegeta supposed it was close enough) gathered around them.

“Oh no, Goku!” One of two Zenos - nothing more than children with destruction lighting their fingertips- cried out. “We’re sorry to see you go!”

“Sorry, sorry!” The other one/ Zeno 2 agreed. “Goku and friends go die-y!”

Vegeta supposed they should be grateful for these extra seconds. Goku gave them a small wave, calm as always. Unbelievable.

“Well, guess this is it,” Goku said. “It’s been nice knowing you, Vegeta.”

Sass until the end. Vegeta smirked. In the shadow or almost another lifetime, it would have irritated him. Here, fondness filled the space. “I can’t say the same. Well fought, Kakarot.” Ultra Instinct was not something to laugh about.

“Hee, you too, Vegeta.” Goku grinned, that grin that Vegeta had hated, because he had fallen so hard and fast for it, all those years ago on the plains. “You finally tapped into a form I haven’t yet.”

Once Vegeta would have bristled, seeing that kind of remark as mockery. Now he recognised it for what it was: true adoration and pride from his consort. “As if I’ll ever let you surpass me for long, you fool.”

Too much warmth in the last word for it to be scorn. Goku knew this, of course, and his smile softened. Vegeta looked away.

Goku’s tail twined with Vegeta’s, the warm ki of the team around them. Vegeta gave in and leaned against him. Their fingers clasped, as they have in countless instant transmissions, in rarer moments of vulnerability. In a show of two becoming one.

Zeno clapped, bubbly like the children they weren’t. The Grand Minister lifted his hands.

Goku’s hands tightened around his.

As the world began to fade in color and light, Vegeta’s eyes found Goku’s.

They were the hue of charcoal burning, but at this moment, it was all he needed.

-snippet for “Afterlife” prompt for @kakavegeweek, inspired by @engineerdz‘s AU, JUDGMENT DAY.

#kakavegeweek #afterlife #angst #goku #vegeta #ToP #tournamentof Power #kakavege

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autumnslance · 3 years

Text

5 Favorite Recent Writing Bits

Tagged by @kunstpause! Picking out a few passages I like from my most recent works, in no particular order. Under the cut, with links to the full work as hosted here on Tumblr (most of the posts also have links to Ao3 versions).

Tagging @phaedra-mero @anomaliewrites @eremiss @stars-bleed-hearts-shine @ahlis-xiv @raelly-writing @aethernoise @dragons-bones @punchelf @gunbun and anyone else feeling the need to go over some writing and think “I still kinda like this actually” (it happens more often than you may think).

1. Of Porxies and Pardons - Shadowbringers, 5.1-5.2-ish. After Eden 8 (Refulgence), Aeryn and Thancred had an argument. This one starts silly with Ryne & Gaia bullying Dadcred into buying a gift to give Aeryn, as an excuse to get reconciliation rolling.

He nodded. Then struggled not to fidget as silence briefly took over, the orchestrion quietly playing a semi-familiar melancholy tune. They tried to speak at the same time, words crashing against each other until they both stopped and blinked, the usual blush creeping over Aeryn’s face, while his own felt rather warmer than a moment ago. He gestured; she could go first.

She hesitated anyway, then quickly said, “You left that book you were reading, before...Um, before. It’s there.” Aeryn pointed to the small couch by the window, the aforementioned tome on the stand next to it. It was a collection of Voeburtite poems borrowed from the Cabinet of Curiosity he had meant to take along to the Empty to read while his more magically-inclined companions went about their tasks.

“Ah, of course; I was looking for that,” he answered, striding to the stand. On lifting the book, the marker he had left between its pages slipped out. Thancred managed to catch it, but his place was lost. He sat on the couch. “A moment while I find where I left off,” he said.

“Of course,” she replied, clearing her throat. He waited a moment, but she turned instead to her table and the organizing she had been doing when he arrived. She was definitely preparing to leave again for a time.

He took a breath but instead of speaking up turned to the book in his hands, slowly paging through to find where the verses became unfamiliar again, listening to Aeryn in the background. It didn’t take long before skimming became rereading, the words of long-dead poets filling his eyes and mind.

2. Only a Little Death for Now - Shadowbringers. Zenos fic that came outta nowhere, from a prompt I happened to see in Book Club and would not let me go. I see him as aroace, but his fascination with the one person who can match or surpass him crosses some wires. It’s short and violent, as one would expect. Also lemony for those into the murder prince. Used “she” for the sake of it but substitute in your own preferred pronouns; it’s all the same to Zenos.

His breath hitched and he nearly dropped his head onto the rail, thinking of her hair whipping as she spun, faster than his blades could strike. How he would push himself against her, testing her ferocity, the bloodlust to match his own. She would score him, again and again, each cut a command to yield, each bruise an edict to submit. The longer he refused, the fiercer her fire burned, until he was scorched by her Light, ripping away the shadows of his reclaimed birthright.

Another growling groan, the sting of sweat in his eyes as the heat of his bloodlust melted the ice and dusting of snow. It was nothing, nothing compared to the flame of their battles, drenching them both as they pushed beyond mortal limits, exerting wills to bend the Star itself in trying to make the other concede, to fall, to complete that final strike, the last stroke.

He threw his head back with a strangled cry, remembering the kiss of his own steel at his throat and oh what a fool he had been! How much sweeter, how much more worthy and final, would it be to have her wield the blade to end him, to give him that sweet release…

3. Girl Talk - Stormblood-era dialogue heavy piece of Lyse and Aeryn being pals and talking about relationships. Mostly Lyse needling Aeryn about certain rogues, and getting the dish on just what happened between Aeryn and Haurchefant...

“You are far from stupid.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t make stupid mistakes.”

“Well, sure. Still, you couldn’t have messed up that badly.” At Aeryn’s cringe, Lyse raised a brow. “Come on.”

“I did sleep with him—once.”

“Really?” Lyse rolled onto her stomach, chin propped in both her hands.

Aeryn rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t...It was a stressful day.”

“You’ll have to be more specific. Your idea of a stressful day is different from other peoples’.”

“Fair.” She grinned at Lyse. “I had to babysit Emmanellain de Fortemps.”

“All right, that does explain a lot.”

“He got himself kidnapped by the Vundu…”

“Of course he did.”

“I went ahead, while Honoroit ran back to get aid--so, Haurchefant and a couple Haillenarte knights--and that was the day we learned about Bismark, as Cid rescued us with his ever-exceptional piloting before we were eaten.”

“That is a stressful day, even by your standards.”

4. 15th Sun of the 1st Astral Moon - Shadowbringers, 5.3-5.4 spoilers. A very recent piece having to do with Aeryn’s nameday, but more importantly Thancred marking it each year he spent upon the First, and how. Letters, pining, confessions; all here.

Aeryn read through, noting he wrote it more like a conversation she had yet to answer. Memories of their adventures and companionship were woven through the words more naturally as he spoke to her. She smiled as he spent a good chunk of the letter not even realizing how he had gushed about Ryne and all she had learned and how she had grown in that first year they spent together, as if he were trying to ensure Aeryn would love the child as much as he so obviously did--even if the foolish man hadn’t been able to tell the girl so until it had almost been too late.

But then, that was Thancred; locking his thoughts and feelings behind stoicism, snark, and literally in a box on a shelf.

She traced her nail along the letters of his name--again signed “Yours”--before tucking that bundle away and picking up the fourth.

By this time the twins were somewhere in Norvrandt, though Thancred had no opportunity to see them as Eulmore’s hunters were ever close. He wrote to Aeryn of his frustration with how many Scions had come to the First but she was still so far away and still in so much danger, alongside the rest of the Source and this shard itself. If she couldn’t come to Norvrandt to break the Light’s hold over the realm then the girl would have to make her choice sooner rather than later--and perhaps face the same fate as all of her predecessors.

He admitted that he feared both of those outcomes. He seemed to have begun to cross out that line, but had stopped himself.

5. The Old Bargain - NOT FFXIV! An original, short, spooky tale written for a monthly artling challenge in @onyrica‘s Patreon Discord this past fall.

The wind moaned across the swampy meadows, long grasses and rushes hushing the rattling cart that slowly moved down the muddy road, pulled by a stooped figure in a wide grey hat and long grey coat. The clouds hung low and dark overhead.

To the left the forest rose from the brush, thorny and tangled even as autumn winds denuded the trees, gold and red leaves dulled and browning in the damp soil, floating on slow rivulets. Some eventually found their way to the distant river, others trapped in stagnant little pools until they dissolved into nothing.

Shadows moved and birds flit away from them. The insects had long gone silent, leaving just the wind and the rushes and the creaking of the cart wheels, the occasional groan of the wood when it turned to keep to the winding path.

The figure huffed, the air grown colder by the evidence of misty breath; faint, but noticeable. Even at this time of year, the temperature should not be dropping so, not while the sun still strained against the clouds.

The route was a dangerous one, but had to be completed. Tradition demanded it. The figure ignored the muffled whimpers from the bed of the small cart.

Where the marsh road met the woods, an old hill rose. Gnarled vines covered in dying leaves showed the stone arch of the ancient door, proof the hill, and those beyond it, had once been much more. The figure set down the long handles of the cart and puffed out another breath, stretching aching limbs. Too many times over too many years had the cart creaked to the door.

BONUS: 15th Sun of the 1st Astral Moon Outtakes - I wrote 3100 words of Thancred’s POV and him actually writing the letters each year before I was able to get to the actual proper starting point of Aeryn finally receiving them. It’s unedited, uncorrected, etc, but I shared it in a Throwaway Thursday post anyway, cuz man the effort I went to trying to get “15th Sun” out by the real world equivalent day in a little over a week’s time. I hope I can use some of these scenes at some point in something more finished.

Aeryn had discovered through Minfilia when Thancred marked his own “nameday”; it was the day Louisoix had given him the surname Waters to fit into his new life in Sharlayan. It was a reasonable enough date for legal purposes in the bureaucratically-minded city, and they had used a bit of conjury and basic observation to guess as accurately as they could at Thancred’s age at the time.

“So you see why I don’t concern myself with celebrating it,” he had said with an expansive shrug. It was during those moons after Lahabrea but before the Banquet, when they had truly become friends–more than he had thought himself reasonable to hope for, after everything.

Aeryn nodded, understanding. Then held out a small, neatly wrapped package. “Well it’s the only date we have, and this shouldn’t go to waste.”

It was difficult to argue with that, or her charming smile and the expected blush that followed when he teasingly told her so. That someone other than Minfilia did insist on noting the day, random as it was, stirred a tight warmth in his chest; he had been dismissive enough in their younger years that his fellow archons no longer made the attempt, and he wasn’t sure the twins even knew or thought of it; their junior members in the Scions certainly didn’t.

Aeryn’s first present to him had been an orchestrion roll from a favorite minstrel, a tune he had absently hummed or whistled as he went about his work after hearing it played while they were still in Vesper Bay. Of course Aeryn’s own bardic inclinations had remembered and she had found a copy. It had begun their habit of finding books and music for one another, for their namedays, holidays, or simply rare moments that felt right.

#Final Fantasy XIV #Thancred Waters #Lyse Hext #Thancred x WoL #Original Writing #Lyn Writing #Shippy Nonsense #Aeryn Striker #Zenos Galvus

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jenovahh · 3 years

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The Honey Pot - Ch. 19 - Tender

“Cid and I only want to help you, you know.”

It is almost noon, the sun high in the sky, but the day is surprisingly cool due to autumn beginning to settle in. Estinien is a furnace unto himself, your fingers trailing across the bare skin of his torso, drawing lazy patterns on toned muscle, your fingers tickling his abs. Held close like this in the aftermath of your coupling, you find that this tenderness is what you crave, and despite it being right in front of you, you cannot have it.

“I know.” You sigh, tucking your face into his neck, breathing him in.

“But…?” Estinien prompts, clearly not willing to let you weasel out of this.

“But...” You whimper, pressing a gentle kiss to his jaw, gripping him tighter, your nude form pressed snugly against his own. What could you say that would keep you out of Varis’ sights? Keep Cid out of his sights? Your choker feels like a brand against your skin. “If you are so smart, how would you help me? I doubt you could come up with a plan to stop anything Varis can do.” You smile bitterly, tears in the corner of your eyes at the despair you feel.

Estinien stiffens for a moment beneath you, before releasing a slow breath. “I see.” Is all he says, and it is silent for a few minutes more. Times like these, you wish he did not speak so much, want so much from you. He wanted far more than you could give, both because you couldn’t risk his safety and because of your feelings.

Your feelings for--

“I should make you scream louder then, huh.” He chuckles and you smack him on the chest for even saying such a thing.

“You brute.” You can’t help but laugh, even a little bit.

“I think they prefer the term savage.” He smirks, tilting your face up to him. Your eyes immediately look to the far wall, not wanting to meet his own, knowing exactly you’ll find there. “Honey.” The adoration in his voice is enough to pull your gaze back to him, his eyes boring into your very soul. “There is nothing I would not do for you.”

Tears finally overflow, a sob breaking past your lips. “That’s the problem.”

Standing in Varis’ office, you have no choice but to stand there and be humiliated as your own moans and sighs are played back for you to hear. Your face is not red from embarrassment or shame, but instead a righteous anger that even your most tender moments must be used against you like this.

You wish you could go back in time and slap yourself silly.

Lips pursed together, you glare back at Varis, hiding nothing, hiding none of your absolute loathing for him. That loathing shifts into disgust when you swear there is a note of enjoyment in his features at listening to the playback. Reclining in his chair, he throws you a vile smirk as your conversation with Estinien plays over the computer speakers.

“What had you called the bodyguard earlier? A friend?” He asks, twirling your choker between his fingers.

“I don’t believe I hesitated.” You ground out, parroting his own phrase back at him.

“This sounds far too personal for something as trivial as friendship.” He gleams, placing the choker back on his desk. “Do not think I did not see your attempt to protect him.”

Your heart seizes in your chest, body going stiff as time seems to freeze for a moment.

“You’re bold, little savage, to go against orders from your superior.” Varis’ tone is completely absent of any amusement, his golden eyes staring you down.

Fear stills your tongue, makes you question your actions and it is not fear for yourself; it is for Ardbert, for Cid, for Estinien--

“I-It is because perhaps I do feel something beyond just friendship for him.” While meant as a lie to try and appease him, you startle yourself with how much truth the statement carries. “In that moment I was not thinking of your orders, and only of my...feelings for him. To protect him.”

Varis studies you for a moment, before that sleazy smile returns to his face. “I see.” He chuckles, relaxing once more. “In that case, I will excuse this mistake, so long as it is the last. Am I understood?” You nod, which seems to please him. “Good. I will admit, I was growing...apprehensive at the sudden turnaround of your relationship with Zenos. But with this confirmation of your feelings for that savage, I believe things will resume according to plan.” He tilts his head slightly, pinning you with a pitying look. “Savages should breed with savages after all.”

Taking a deep sigh, you clench your fists tightly at your sides to keep your anger in check. “Is there anything else, sir?”

“Is there anything else, my lord.” He corrects, brows furrowed. “And no, you are free to go.”

You cannot turn on your heel fast enough to get out of there.

As tempted as you are to slam the door behind you, you allow the lock to gently click shut, power walking down the hall as fast as you can. It is entirely too early in the day for you to feel as stressed as this, and it is well past noon. Due to Varis’ orders, you have no need to go anywhere near Zenos and this is the only time you’ll ever feel gratitude for the monster that is Varis zos Galvus. The last person you want to see right now is his son, at least, not before you can take care of all these hickeys.

Never could you have predicted that taking on this mission would mean that your love life would also be in jeopardy. Gone were the problems of a guy not texting back or breaking your heart altogether. No, now you had to deal with pretty, rich boys and prickly bodyguards who treated you right.

You could already hear Y’shtola’s admonishing tone for even thinking of choosing Zenos over the man who actually treated you like you deserved. Had Lyse known about Zenos and what he did to you, you were sure that she would give him a piece of her mind. The thought makes you shudder, because while Lyse was also a trained fighter, you knew she could never lay a hand on Zenos.

No one could.

Grumbling about nothing in particular, you spend the rest of your day off watching whatever is on your tablet, filtering through cute cat videos and recipes you would never get to try. Before you know it, the sun has already set, and you’ve missed dinner, but it's not like you had much of an appetite anyway with how the day’s events played out.

Shrugging, you pull yourself from the comfort of your bed to pad to your bathroom to turn on the shower, needing to give it a few moments for the water to warm up with fall’s chill settling in. Heading back into the bedroom to grab a fresh towel, someone knocks on your door and you wonder who it could possibly be this late in the evening. Stepping to the door, you slide it open, gasping as you come face to face with a tattooed chest.

Following that tattoo upwards you meet an ice cold gaze, glaring down at you with the strength of Coerthan blizzard. “Zenos, what is,”

Saying nothing, he takes a single step forward and you take one back, letting himself into your room without permission. The door slides shut behind him, and you watch as he reaches a hand past his back to lock it shut. Trepidation fills you as you stare up at him, noticing how he’s already seemed to be dressed for bed. He wears a loose, silken robe, maroon in color, his hair loose around his shoulders. He wears no shirt underneath, and you bring your eyes back up before you can find the chance to see if he wears no pants either.

“It’s rude to barge in,” You try to start, but he takes another step towards you, reaching for the collar of your shirt. Acting fast, you quickly dodge his grip, spinning out of arm’s reach and closer to the bed. “What do you want?” You ask, gulping as you see no way out. There’s no way you’re getting past him and out the door without making a scene, and the circumstances aren’t so dire you need to break out your window.

He glares at you still, practically prowling toward you as he holds your gaze. “Why weren’t you at dinner?” He asks, and the question seems so random, you forget to keep distance between the two of you.

“Why does it matter?” You huff, crossing your arms across your chest. “I just forgot; after dealing with your shitty father, I wanted to just sit and enjoy the rest of my day without all of…” you gesture vaguely between the two of you, “this.”

Frowning, he pauses, a hand reaching to grab one of the bedposts as he gives you a heavy lidded look. “My father? What has he bid you to do this time?” He asks, the question innocent enough. You quickly debate on whether you should tell him though, given that his father hasn’t apprised him of his plans for you. Especially given that they involve Estinien--

“He sent me to collect information, as usual.” You reply, giving him a nasty look. “He was just especially shitty about it today.”

Zenos seems to consider that for a moment, almost mulling it over. “I see.” He takes another step toward you and suddenly you are aware of just how much distance he has covered between here and the door.

“Well if that’s all you wanted, you’re free to leave,” you continue backing away from him, checking behind you to make sure you don’t bump into anything. Edging away from the bed, you head toward the closest wall, the steam from the bathroom caressing your skin. “I was getting ready to shower and sleep for work tomorrow, and it seems you already have as well. I think we’re done here--”

“Oh, my beast.” He chuckles darkly, voice as thick as sin. “We are far from done.” He hasn’t stopped his advance on you, your mind addled from the day’s events to realize you had backed yourself right into the bathroom. His height allows him to nearly bump his head against the door frame, his broad shoulders nearly touching the sides. Stepping in, he shuts that door behind him too, trapping you both inside.

“W-What do you want?” You ask, voice trembling much like your body is, gasping as your lower back makes contact with the sink. With nowhere to go, Zenos stands before you, all muscle and good looks and gods, he smells so good--

“You’ve been with the bodyguard again.” It is an accusation instead of a question, a statement instead of an inquiry. Shame floods through you at this, cursing yourself for feeling trapped in this spot. To say you didn’t want to be with Estinien was a lie. To say you did was also a lie. You couldn’t tell the truth, not without putting Estinien or your own feelings at risk.

“So that is what my father put you up to, then.” Zenos murmurs, his hands resting on either side of you, gripping the shining porcelain, leaning into your personal space. You can feel his sigh against your cheek as his eyes jump across your face. The anger is still present in his eyes, though you notice it does not seem to be directed at you anymore, at least. But then…

“Please don’t...hurt Estinien,” You beg, but he shushes you with a finger on your lips, the action surprisingly tender as he continues to hold your gaze in silence. You stand there as he gazes at you, pinning you with a look so possessive it steals your breath away.

“How cruel are you to say another man’s name in my presence.” He mumbles, pressing his thumb against your lips, as if to test their softness. “No, I will not harm him. If there is anyone you should be concerned about harming him, it would be father.” As he leans forward you close your eyes, whimpering as he presses a gentle kiss to your forehead. “And if there is anyone you need to be worried about me harming...it would be father.”

Frowning, you reach out for his robe, enjoying the silk in your hands as you grip it tight. “I can protect myself.”

“This is true.” he whispers against your skin, his hand leaving your lips to instead snake around your waist and pull you against him. “But you cannot protect others from my father.”

You can already feel his arousal against your stomach, and though it is only half hard, it is impressive nonetheless. An ache of your own begins to grow between your legs, thighs clenching together as your body tries to press into his. Tilting your chin up, Zenos dips his head to press a kiss to your lips, biting down on your bottom lip in a way that has you melt into him instantly. Your hands clutch at him frantically to loop around his neck to bring you closer to him, needing to feel more and more.

Groaning, his hands immediately seek out your pants, pulling you off the sink enough to push them down your thighs, fingers grazing your already sensitive skin. You use your own to push his robe aside, exposing his chest as best you can while you kick your pants off as he works to shove your panties down as well. “Zenos,” you whine and he growls in return, hands hastily reaching for the hem of your shirt to wrench it over your head, taking no gentleness in the action that leaves your shoulders hurting for a moment.

You’re not in pain for long, his lips pressing kisses from your lips to your jawline, setting every nerve on fire in its wake as he trails down your neck where Estinien’s own marks lie. The force at which Zenos sucks on your skin is almost forceful, a mix of pain and pleasure as his hands work to divest you of your bra and dump it on the bathroom floor. Now naked, he grabs you by the hips and hikes you up onto the sink, placing himself between your legs and pulling you to him so you can feel his full hardness.

The way he nestles against your core is absolutely divine, your head rolling back as he continues to overwrite Estinien’s marks with his own. Feeling like things are unfair, you dig your blunt nails into his skin, wanting to leave some kind of mark of your own; after all, he did say he was yours as much as you were his.

Now that he has you naked, he’s feeling more agreeable to your hands trying to divulge him of his robe, his arms leaving you just long enough to get out of his sleeves before they are bringing you closer again. His hands immediately seek your breasts, squeezing and kneading, showing none of the initial gentleness he had just a night ago. His fingers pinch your nipples so deliciously it has you nearly jumping off the sink, your hips grinding along his length as you fight to get his robe all the way off.

To your surprise, you find that he was not wearing any underwear.

Face heating, you pull away from him as the robe falls to the floor, getting a good look at his length, before meeting his eyes. He arches a brow silently and you clear your throat before speaking what was on your mind. “Do you, uh...not sleep with pajamas?” You ask, watching as he huffs out a dry laugh.

“It depends.” he offers vaguely, humming as you take his dick in hand, feeling its satiny smoothness, its warmth and its desire for you. His hips jerk forward as you circle your hand around his cock, smearing the precum on the head before bringing your fingers to your lips to taste. It is salty as expected but you do not mind, eyes glazing over with lust as he brings his lips to yours to taste himself.

Your heart thuds in your chest as his hands rove your body, squeezing and gripping fiercely, yet so tenderly, that you don’t know what to think. The rush you had felt that night at the hotel as absent, and its place is something more...more…

Personal.

Too personal in fact.

Aware of this fact, you unconsciously try to pull away from him but he won’t let you go, pressing you further into the sink as he sinks his teeth into your skin. “Zenos,” you whine, your body wanting him, but, the way he holds you, it is not the way an enemy would. He does not hold you like one would in a one night stand with their boss. He does not hold you in the way a friend or a lover would.

He holds you like you belong to him, and him alone.

The thought alone tugs at your heartstrings, and you grip him that much tighter for it. “Don’t do this…” you whisper, not intending for him to hear, but he does.

“Do what?” he asks, licking a line between your breasts before he pulls you tight against him, hoisting you up from the sink. Your thighs tighten around his hips immediately as he walks you both to the still running shower, the spray washing over you both.

“I...I thought we weren’t lovers.” Is the only thing you can say without giving your own feelings away. Try as you might, you can’t tear your eyes away from how the water runs over the grooves of his chiseled form, his skin glistening before you as his hair sticks to his chest. Somehow his eyes are that much clearer here, an emotion you can’t name laid bare in his eyes, the intensity of it sweeping you away.

Grunting, he presses you against the wall of the shower. “We are not.” He agrees, reaching beneath you, trusting that you won’t allow yourself to fall. Taking his cock in hand, he fits the head past your lower lips, your breath hitching as he slowly feeds himself inside. “But you do belong to me.”

You hadn’t realized how ready you were for him, how wet you were that he meets little resistance as he pushes his cock deep inside you. Your head thumps against the shower wall as he pushes in ilm by ilm, your nails digging much more harshly into his perfect skin. He rests his forehead on your shoulder, breath hot against your skin despite the warmth of the water, a shuddering moan escaping him, your mind committing the sound to memory.

Something about this moment, makes you feel much more naked before him than you had ever felt previously.

Zenos had always been smart, always keen, as evidenced by him figuring out how his father was blackmailing you with you hardly having to say anything. He did not hae to say it, but you could sense he knew. He was able to read you like a book most days, to the point it was almost scary. That someone so vastly different from you could see right through you, begged to be believed. Underneath the spray of the shower, you feel as if all fronts are washed away, leaving the two of you raw with feelings neither of you know what to deal with.

Looking into his eyes, something in your heart yearns for him, your hands leaving his neck to cradle his face. Running your fingers along his skin, he remains silent under your inspection, eyes fluttering shut as your fingers graze across his lips, his nose. He truly was beautiful, all hard lines and soft edges, and undoubtedly yours. This man, this murderer, this monster, considered himself yours..

When you kiss him, it feels like you can’t get enough.

It is slow and heady, the feeling of his lips moving against yours, tongues dancing together as he fully hilts himself within you. He feels as perfect as he did the first time, your hands leaving his face to tangle in his wet hair, his grip on your thighs strengthening to hold you in place as he moves his hips to pull out before pushing back in, so slowly as if he is trying to carve out his place in your very being. Chest to chest, you moan into his mouth, your own hips trying to meet his thrusts but he holds you still, content on doing all the work.

“You’re so…” You rasp, taking your turn to trail kisses down his jawline, able to do nothing else since words fail you. Every part of his body you touch feels perfect, and you wonder how someone so awful could look how he does, hold you how he does.

“I know I forgot to ask last time…” he grunts, snapping his hips rather forcefully, burying his face into your neck, licking at the water that runs down your skin. “But you are on a contraceptive…?”

You nod, rolling your hips in a way so sweet he can’t help but groan. His hips snap into you again and you moan without shame, arching your back into him as he clutches you as if you’ll disappear. “Good. Because I’m not stopping. Not until it is clear to anyone with eyes just who you belong to.”

“Shouldn’t you have asked before,” Your quip is cut short as he gives a firm slap on your ass, the sting of his hand fading as he kneads the flesh, seeming pleased.

“Shut up, Honey.” He whispers, taking the time to meet your eyes, stealing another kiss as he begins to finally pick up the pace. Your ankles lock behind his back, holding you to him as his hips piston into your own, your sheathe so wet that he slides in and out with minimal resistance. His cock feels like it was meant for you and you alone, and the truth of that statement is enough to shake you to your core.

In your daze, you cup his face once more, meeting his stare, unafraid. “Say it again.” You demand, though with your lustful voice it sounds more like a plea. “Say my name again,”

“Honey.” He breathes, a realization shining in his eyes as if the very sound your name is magic. “Honey.” He repeats, pressing his forehead against yours, eyelids sliding shut as all his focus enters his third eye. “Honey.” The reverence that suffuses his voice makes you hold him tighter, to where air could not possibly pass between the two of you.

Reaching between you, he plays with your clit, increasing your pleasure as he fucks you. Your moans turn into high pitched cries of faster and more, kisses feverish as if the world is falling down around you. Paired with his fingers on your clit and his cock pounding you, it does not take you much longer to come undone, his name a prayer on your lips as you find your release. With your body gripping him so tightly he follows soon after, his seed shooting deep inside you as he moans your name against your skin.

The water has long since gone cold, something you thought impossible in this house, but you suppose you have been at it for awhile. The two of you stand beneath the lukewarm spray, a shiver racking your body as you keep close to Zenos for warmth. You both stand there in silence, unsure what to say, lest things get more complicated and this moment ruined.

Lowering your legs to the floor, you stand on wobbly feet much like a newborn fawn, the Galvus heir’s cum sliding down your legs, washed away by the spray of the shower. Shivering again, you press closer to his warmth in a rare show of weakness, the action making him go stiff before an arm reaches around your shoulder to hold you close. You feel his chin rest atop your head, the two of you standing there on the precipice of the unknown.

Gaining a courage you do not feel, you look up at him, finding he is looking right back. His hand brushes strands of your wet hair from your face, examining you much like you did to him earlier.

If you were asked who was the first to close the gasp and start that next kiss, you wouldn’t be able to answer.

As dawn breaks on the horizon, you groggily try to turn over to catch a few more precious minutes of sleep, confused as you find you cannot turn over at all. Thinking yourself tangled in your sheets, you kick your feet out to try and right yourself, only to have your toes brush against someone’s legs. Someone’s bare legs.

Gasping, the night comes back in a rush as you come face to face with Zenos’ sleeping one. That you have woken up before him is shocking enough in and of itself, considering he is always the first to wake and be ready to train every morning. His arm is like a steel band around you, his even breaths atop your head warm and soothing. Like this, no one would ever think him a monster, his face the very picture of peace.

Without thinking, you reach to press a small kiss to his lips, able to fully appreciate their silken texture now that you’re not in the throes of passion. The moment doesn’t last for long however, a sigh passing his lips as he holds you a little tighter and kisses you back. Despite the two of you being nude and pressed against one another, the kiss remains surprisingly chaste, simply enjoying the taste and feel of the other this early in the morning.

Seemingly satisfied, Zenos gives you a smug grin as he finally opens his eyes. “Good morning, my beast.”

Twelve above, what have you done?

“Good morning, Zenos.” You respond burying your face in his chest, unwilling to show him anymore than you already have. You’ve been vulnerable enough for a lifetime, you think.

“We should start our day, should we not?” He hums, giving you a firm squeeze. “As unopposed I would be to keep you in bed with me, we still have work to do.”

While a day in bed with him sounds wonderful, it makes you concerned for how much your feelings have changed. “Well, I’m in my room. You’re the one who has to do the walk of shame back up to your room.” You say with a rude snort, trying to pull away from his hold but he’s not willing to let go of you quite yet.

“It is hardly a walk of shame, my beast. It would not be the first time the staff have seen me stumble through my home naked after a night of fine drinks and fine women…” he mumbles into your neck, pressing a kiss there. This was getting way too personal, too fast. “I would not doubt that a few of them are winning some fairly large prize pools based on last night.”

You push on his chest to get yourself far enough to throw him an incredulous look. “A prize pool? Like a betting pot?”

Grinning as he snuggles into the pillow, the look he gives you is almost dreamy. “The greatest ‘will they or won’t they’ so I’ve heard. I suspect you’ve made quite a few maids happy.” He pauses to stretch, deeming it time to finally get out of bed. “It would not be the first time I’ve caught wind of my employees making bets upon my personal life. I suspect there will be a new bet soon enough.”

You don’t even want to begin thinking of what the staff could possibly be making bets on, knowing that it would never spell any good for you. Clutching your sheets to your chest, you watch as Zenos swings his legs out the bed, unbothered by his nudity at all. Your eyes immediately latch onto the sight of his ass, hand itching to release the bed sheet you hang onto so dearly and slap his backside much like he did to yours last night.

“I think you left your robe in the, uh, bathroom.” You cough, quickly averting your eyes as he circles the bed to go retrieve his silk robe. Now that he’s at least got some cover, it's far easier to look at his face, though that seems to only get your heart racing. “I will meet you in the gym, as usual.”

“Of course.” He purrs, giving you a sultry look as he makes his way toward the door. Pausing, he tosses you a smirk over his shoulder. “Though, feel free to let me know if we need to cancel today. I will be more than understanding if you find yourself unable to walk.”

You sit there gaping like a fish before your mind can formulate a response, cursing his name as you toss a pillow at the door just as it shuts. Grabbing another pillow you scream into it in frustration, legs kicking as you try to calm down. If he was going to be this egotistical every time you slept with him, you’d honestly just stop altogether.

Once you’ve calmed down, you sigh and finally roll out of bed yourself. Heading to the bathroom, you head to the shower to turn it on, spinning around immediately to make sure the door to your bedroom is locked this time. Your thighs are still sticky and gross from your all night session with your boss, and you can already hear Y’shtola’s judgemental sigh of disapproval.

With the water nice and hot, you step inside and release a blissful sigh, all the aches and pains and a certain soreness melting away. Hopefully it would be just another day sitting at the office as Zenos signed papers and made phone calls, giving you time to rest after he saw fit to nearly kill you with pleasure the night prior.

Now alone, you allow yourself to actually reflect on last night, the spray of the water putting you in a trance as it takes you back to your time with Zenos. His hands on you, almost worshipping your body, the surety of how he handled you as if he already knew how you liked it. The way he looked into your eyes as he sheathed himself inside you, as if you were the only person who ever mattered to him.

You wondered if he even knew what he was doing, knew the weight of his gestures, his staring, and how it was terrible for your heart.

There was not a shadow of a doubt that Estinien wanted to be more than friends with benefits; that he genuinely cared for you romantically, and wanted to give you more than just a sparring session on the weekend occasionally sprinkled with sex. Estinien was a man who deserved far more than just a weekend fling and a tussle in the sheets because you were too afraid to confront your feelings about your boss.

But now that you’ve also done the deed with Zenos, where did this leave you? Zenos couldn’t possibly be looking for anything such as commitment; in fact, you’re positive he’d laugh in your face for suggesting such an idea. But his feelings of possession were so strong you knew if you even dared to pursue anything permanent with Estinien, Estinien’s life would be forfeit.

Telling Estinien to back off for his own safety would be the proper thing to do, were you not trying to protect him from the son of a mafia boss.

With your thoughts getting nowhere fast, you decide it’s best to stop thinking about it, at least for now. Turning off the shower, you hop out to go and dress for the day, deciding to actually take Zenos up on canceling training.

A decision you would come to immediately regret.

“You want me to what?”

“I don’t believe I hesitated.” Varis sighs, flashing his son a bored look. Zenos, however, looks absolutely livid. “You will be shadowing me today.”

“But I am your son’s bodyguard! His!” You insist, resisting the urge to stamp your foot. “I told you that if I was looking to change my career path, I would talk to you!”

“I am not only your employer, but also the face of the company, I get to make the executive decision of overriding my son’s wishes of keeping you.” Varis replies in that even tone despite his son looking like he’s ready to slice his head clean from his shoulders. “I believe the two of you are in need of...some time apart.” He huffs distastefully, giving his son a once over. “Really, boy. A plethora of women to use at your leisure and you choose...the help.”

Zenos doesn’t back down, stepping to where he’s eye to eye with his father. “And you constantly choose to take things from me.”

Varis gives a slight shrug of his shoulders, crossing his hands behind his back. “Perhaps you shouldn’t have such refined tastes. I deserve only the best, and if I must take it from you, so be it.” Side stepping Zenos, Varis heads for the door. “Livia will be your bodyguard for the time being. Honey, come along.”

Glancing between Varis’ retreating form and Zenos, you can only give Zenos a worried look, though for him or for yourself, you are unsure. Deciding to just deal with it, you follow Varis out the door, becoming his shadow. A bunch of questions lie on the tip of your tongue, but you decide it is best to lie in wait and speak until spoken to for fear of saying the wrong thing or revealing something accidentally.

Opening the car door, Varis steps inside, taking a seat. Before you can make a move to shut the door and head for the passenger side, his hand grabs your wrist, stopping you in your tracks. “Where are you going?”

Frowning, you answer him simply. “To sit in the front seat.”

“And can you protect my life effectively in the front seat?” He asks, tugging surprisingly hard to pull you face first into the car. Quickly gaining your bearings, you sit up right, closing the door as gracefully as possible.

Unable to hold back any longer, you glare at him. “Why are you doing this?” You ask, though it comes out more like a demand. Varis however, looks undeterred by your hostility, crossing one leg over the other, steepling his fingers together in his lap as is his habit.

“As I had said before, savages should breed with savages.” He replies with a roll of his eyes, the action only making you angrier.

“Is this really about me fucking your son?” You can’t bring yourself to care about your cover when this monster has little care for your privacy. At this point, you’re surprised how he hasn’t found out you’re a cop yet for how fucking nosy he’s been.

“It is. I had hired a bodyguard to protect his image. Not to be a bedmate.” He sniffs, looking down his nose at you. You hardly feel the car pull away from the estate as he continues, “I was willing to look the other way if was to be a ‘one night stand’ as it were, but clearly I must keep you apart.”

You can feel the leather squeak and stretch under your grip as your nails bite into the seat, teeth clenched together as you are floored by the sheer audacity of this man. “And what about all that talk of ‘wanting the best’? Did you lie to your own son?”

“I have never lied to him. I have never needed to.” He huffs, relaxing fully now that you have exited the grounds. “I have never feared my son for despite his monstrous nature, I know he will never turn against me. I instilled in him since birth that we deserve only the finer things in life, but myself most of all. After all, it is due to my own work that he can live the lifestyle he craves.”

Confusion stills your anger for a moment, and you get the sinking feeling of something deeper running between father and son. “W-What do you mean?”

“Really, savage, do you think Zenos could live the way his heart desires as a common citizen?” Varis scoffs, once again rolling his eyes. “He cannot kill me, for once he does, his ability for The Hunt as he calls it, ends. All of my primary assets such as the company will belong to him upon my death, but for our more...underhanded dealings, they will remain out of his grip. I know he would only squander what I had worked so hard to build.”

Letting that sink in, you find that your anger has left you entirely, replaced entirely be sheer disbelief. “Do you...do you even love your son?”

Varis arches a single brow. “Why would I?”

What you had prayed was one day had turned into two, into four, into one week, into two weeks. Everyday, you woke at dawn, no longer allowed to train with Zenos, instead forced to do your morning exercises outside despite the temperature steadily dropping as autumn slowly took its hold on the city. Zenos had seemed to be sent out of the house more often as well, always doing his father’s bidding. What glimpses you caught of him were few, and when you did meet his eyes, they were so emotionless it broke your heart.

Being Varis’ bodyguard was every bit demanding as Zenos had warned it would be, your body exhausted from the first day alone. Everyone who was not Varis himself was seen as beneath him, and therefore subject to do anything he asked. From the most outrageous such as dislocating the wrist of a new subordinate who had forgot to address him “properly”, to simply pouring a fresh cup of coffee if his current one had gotten too cold for his liking.

Varis’ hours were not nearly as late as Zenos’ , meaning you got the chance to have more sleep, for what good it did you. As soon as you were finished with dinner, you would rush to your room and jot down notes about Varis that could hopefully be used against him in court. Miserable as you were, you had to remind yourself this was the chance you were looking for, no matter how much you hated it. You had learned Varis had little to do with his own gang, seeing fit to delegate others to handle matters for him and punishing them for their failures. It was a blessing in disguise that you at least did not have to go out and maim lesser gangs for no reason, but that did not make things you had seen any less horrifying.

Some days it seemed like Varis was trying to impress you, occasionally slipping you fine things such as a pocket watch glittering with diamonds, or treating you to lavish lunches with only you and him seated at a table. While disgusted, you knew there was nothing you could do to get out of this situation, sitting awkwardly as he would ramble on how he grew to be so successful. You couldn’t understand what he could possibly be trying to impress you for, seeing as he had split you and Zenos apart since you couldn’t keep your hands off of each other.

Seeming to realize that his usual methods of impressing women were failing, Varis decided to be awfully cryptic about his plans for this night.

“You’re showing me...what exactly?” You ask, the city streets far behind you as you once again enter a more suburban part of town. The sight is much more familiar than the sprawling gardens and three story mansions you’ve gotten used to since the start of this job.

“I realized that perhaps my prowess would not truly dawn on you until I had shown you something much more...substantial.” Varis hums, a smirk on his face as the car pulls toward an unknown road.

Something in your gut tells you that whatever he is about to show you is going to make you sick. “And what would that be?”

Chuckling darkly, he pins you with a fierce look. “I think I will let it speak for itself.”

The road quickly turns into rocky gravel, and despite you riding in a luxury car, you hardly feel a change in the terrain. Tall trees begin to sprout up all around you, the sinking feeling in your gut growing deeper as you wonder if maybe Varis has finally found out you’re a spy and is here to kill you.

Coming around the bend, a massive warehouse sits alone in the forest, seemingly abandoned but you noticed that every single window is blacked out. It is strangely lacking in cars, and yet you see a smoke stack that is huffing out chemicals just fine. Looking around, you notice a handful of black vans, their windows tinted so darkly, that no one would be able to tell if there were any passengers. A large wire fence surrounds the entire compound, taking notice that while it seems pretty shady at first glance, taking a closer look you can spy armed guards around the perimeter.

The car is allowed through the gate without being made to stop, the driver pulling up to the closest door. Parking the car, the chauffeur shuffles out and hurries to open your door, clearing his throat when you don’t realize you had been staring for far too long. Scrambling out the car, Varis elegantly steps out behind you, placing a hand on your back far too low for comfort. “Come. Let me show you just how powerful I really am.”

Clamping down on your instinct to dig your heels into the dirt, you allow Varis to nudge you forward, his hand on your back the entire way as the door opens before you. Cold air sweeps over your face, your eyes struggling to adjust to the incredibly low light of the first room. Stepping in, you notice a small receptionist window to the side, Varis standing before it and giving a small nod to the man inside. A loud buzz sounds as well as the sound of several latches unlocking, and an armed guard opens the steel door before you.

Nudging you forward again, you pass through, the door immediately slamming shut behind the two of you. You find yourself at the base of metal stairs that lead to a walk way that circle the perimeter of the warehouse. A pungent smell fills your nose, smelling similar to ceruleum, but worse. Gasping you watch as a handful of workers tend to multiple machines, and truly take note of how large the warehouse -- no -- factory, really is. It expands further underground, huge vats of boiling, blue liquid swirling below you.

“Welcome, to the Aetherochemical Research Facility.” Varis takes the lead by heading up the stairs, and you follow close behind, the guard following right behind you.

“Aetherochemical…?” You ask, unable to take your eyes away from the sight. The employees working the machines are dressed from head to toe in hazmat suits, goggles reflecting the flames.

“There are strange forces at work in this world, Honey.” Varis begins with no small amount of dramatic flair. “Things that should be impossible, that are written off as happenstance. Luck. The universe at work, and so on and so forth.” As you walk along the balcony, you notice toward the higher rungs of the factory there seems to be a set of assembly lines, whatever substance that lay in the goo being deposited into cube shape moulds and sent down the line. “When I was young, being a child of Garlemald, my family had written off such things. After all, our ancestors were never able to use magic compared to myths of other races, and thus, did we write off its existence entirely.”

He pauses to face you, giving you a triumphant smile. “But I knew better.”

Turning back toward the assembly line, he gestures to two of the large cauldrons holding the mystery goo. “Within these vats is a substance once thought impossible. One comprised entirely of aether.”

Confused and concerned, you take a closer look, noting that it does have an unnatural shine to it. “Aether…?” You prompt, grabbing onto the railing to steady yourself.

“Believe it or not, our world is composed of a thing called aether. It is in the very air, the earth, the water. It controls all living things. Ancient legends from savage cultures say that once we pass from this world, our bodies become the aether we once were, and our souls return to something called the Lifestream.” He continues on, resuming his walk further down the balcony. “Unfortunately, due to the lack of research, harnessing its capabilities is still near impossible. The forebears of savages did not think to document their magics and manipulation of aether, and thus, have I had to do everything from scratch.”

Unsure what to say, you swallow thickly, trying your best to look even slightly in awe. “This is...more impressive than I first thought.”

He buys the bait, and you swear you can see his chest puff out the teeniest bit. “It is good that you think so. It is my life’s work.”

Try as you might, you cannot stop yourself from needing to know more. “This...aether. Are you turning into a fuel source? Or something else?”

Varis gives a single chuckle at that, golden eyes pinning you fiercely. “That is classified.”

Nodding, you turn back to the scene before you, feeling as if you stand at the feet of something far greater than the police force could have ever realized. “If that is so, why tell me all this?”

It is silent for a moment, until you hear him approach you once again. His features are that much harsher in this dark factory, making him look truly vile.

“Because it would mean nothing to me to simply kill you if anyone found out.” He answers lowly, face relaxing for a moment. “Though I trust it will not come to that. You are a force of nature, Honey.” Reaching for your hair, he takes a strand of it between two fingers, much like he had when you first met him. “One I hope to claim for myself.”

#FFXIV #ff14 #Final Fantasy XIV #zenos yae galvus #zenos #THP

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starswornoaths · 3 years

Text

We Swear by Rote - Commission!

A commission done for the always wonderful @thegildenheart featuring Allie and her loves! Thank you again for your patronage, my dear! <3

4.5 spoilers!

Allie wakes following the battle with Zenos in the last place she expected, but swiftly finds that that’s not a bad thing.

word count: 3,794

Commission info!

Win or lose, the path you walk leads to oblivion. The better path leads you here. To me.

The words rang in the space between Allie’s ears as the glittering, ethereal vision in her mind grew dark. There was a weightlessness in that ensuing stillness that unsettled her, made her feel adrift at sea with nothing, not even flotsam from a shipwreck, to cling to. The dark that encased her was such a deep, permeating shadow that she couldn’t even tell if her eyes were open— or if it would even matter.

Eventually, she was pulled beneath that inky abyss by an unseen riptide, and at first she thought to fight it, to thrash and struggle, but then the pressure in her head lessened in that way it did when she floated closer to the surface of the sea— she was falling not deeper, but out, of the dark. It was a strange feeling to breach the surface of that abyss feet first, but that first gasp of crisp air tasted just as sweet.

Allie could only describe waking up as her consciousness sinking back into her body one drop at a time. It started with the pounding ache behind her eyes— ah, she had closed them— and slowly, feeling returned to her leaden limbs. Her whole body ached, pulsed with heat and pain, but with that agony came the relief of waking up at all.

Her body caught up with the rest of her at the last, when her eyes snapped open with a wide gasp, half against the pain, half to force her lungs to work through the burning. In a flash, it was as though she felt her soul click into place, and her nerves went alight with overstimulation. The scent of antiseptic burned in her nose, her skin itched from the scratch of bandages, and she was forcing herself upright before she had even realized she had moved.

Another gasp in the room— not Allie, she realized when she heard a chair skitter across wood. Even as the noise sounded too sharp for her ears at the moment, she looked at the source to see poor Honoroit staggering backwards in shock. Before she could remember how to form the words for an apology, he was dashing off through the wide doors beyond.

His presence here meant she was— ah, but this room was glumly familiar. She was in Ishgard, in the chirurgeon’s ward of the Congregation. In the very same bed Estinien had woken up in. Gods, but that felt like a lifetime ago.

The heavy thunder of footfalls fast approaching was enough to pull Allie’s focus back toward the door, though she couldn’t hide her shock at the figures that came into view.

Honoroit had left to fetch the Lord Commander and the Captain of the Watch, it would seem. All for her.

Faster than Allie could track with her eyes, Hilda closed the distance and practically slid the last half fulm of the wood floor on her knees to pull Allie to her, arms wound tightly around her hips.

“Allie— gods, you’re awake! We were—” Hilda’s eyes were wide, rubies glinting with the shine of unshed tears.

Her hands seemed not to know quite where to settle until they found Allie’s face and held it in her palms. Her frenetic jittering stilled, save for the heaving in her chest, as her eyes darted over her lover as if in search of blatant injury.

Finally, she found her voice again, quieter, almost trembling. “You’re alright, yeah? You’re— you’re here, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Allie managed to croak, throat dry as the Sagolii.

Though it was only for a moment, Hilda’s lip quivered. As if to hide the rest of her outburst, she wrapped her arms around Allie’s hips and curled into her torso, ear pressed as tightly to her chest as she could, as if she were burrowing down to her very heartbeat.

“You don’t have to fret over me, Hilda.” She tried again after a heavy swallow.

“I’m not fretting.” Hilda lied, pressing closer.

It was a paltry comfort, holding the back of Hilda’s head and rubbing her thumb back and forth in an effort to comfort her, but it was all Allie could do. She hoped it was enough.

Distantly, she heard Aymeric murmuring to Honoroit— a request to notify House Fortemps that she had woken up, and more of those fading runner’s footfalls. The weighty clack of armored boots against the floor were slower, more measured, as Aymeric drew close enough that those ornate boots came into the peripheral of her vision.

“Thank heavens you’re awake, my friend,” he said around a relieved sigh.

When Allie looked up at him, she saw the heavy bags under his eyes— nearly as heavy as Hilda’s. She wondered how long she had been out, but feared upsetting them with the question.

“What happened? Zenos—” Allie cut herself off with a frown, racking her brain for what happened and how she had managed to avoid death at the dancing corpse’s hands.

Hilda squeezed her arms tighter around her.

“You remember that, at least.” Aymeric said quietly.

As Hilda shifted to sit beside her, Aymeric explained what had happened— how Estinien had swept in at the last second to fight Zenos off and carry her to him, and how he had spirited her away. He went on to detail that Zenos quit the field after that, and the Imperials withdrew, allowing the Alliance to take back their position.

“But I have taken up enough of your time,” he said, and though his smile was tired, it was genuine. “I must needs return to the front— and I will be sure to notify Lady Ysayle once I am there of your condition, lest she fret herself into freezing the whole camp.” He paused halfway to turning and amended, “Before I forget, I was asked to deliver a message to you: when you are rested, you are to return home to the Rising Stones, where friends will be waiting for you.”

“I am home.” Allie insisted, and caught his hand in the one Hilda hadn’t had in a vice grip. “And friends were waiting for me.”

Aymeric’s smile warmed as he squeezed her hand faintly.

“Always, Allie.” He let go. “May we speak again soon, in happier circumstances.”

As she watched him leave and Hilda pressed all the harder into her side, Allie couldn’t help but think of the words that haunted her from that dream, the message that crossed space and time to reach her. Couldn’t help but dwell on the fact that she was watching so dear a friend walk back into the face of death, insisting that this was not her fight, and that she had more than earned her rest. He left for that darkness that Ysayle yet fought against, while she was left to wait and heal and pray.

Convalescing idleness rarely suited her in the best of times, and these were far from those halcyon days.

Win or lose, the path you walk leads to oblivion.

“C’mon. Tataru and the lot can wait a day at least. We’re gettin’ you home.” Hilda stood up abruptly, and held her hands out for Allie to take.

“You can stop fretting over me. I’m alright.” The Paladin reminded her, even as she accepted her lover’s hands and let herself be pulled to her feet.

“I’m not fretting,” Hilda insisted again, even as her hands came to Allie’s hips to steady her lest she stumble. “Home with you now, lass. There’s blankets and jim jams waitin’ with your name on ‘em.”

“I’m alright, really—”

“Allie.”

She froze at Hilda’s tone: low, firm, but splintering like firewood against an axe blade. Even in the cursory glances she had allowed herself as Aymeric had brought her up to speed, it had been clear how affected Hilda had been by what happened, but really taking her in with nothing else important to distract her highlighted how much Hilda was trying to put on a brave face for her. The near constant, worried upturn of her brow, the thin line she had set her lips in to try and keep herself together, the ever so faint tremble in her hands when she wasn’t moving, all of it spoke of how deeply this dark turn of events had rattled the otherwise unflappable Captain.

She needed for them to be home just as much as Allie did. If the Paladin couldn’t justify going home and resting for herself, she could always do it for Hilda. There was very, very little she would not do for her.

When Hilda spoke again, it was soft, the words half choked back with her unshed tears, “Let’s go home. Just for tonight.”

The better path leads you here.

“With blankets and jim jams.” Allie acquiesced, and leaned forward to gently rub her nose against Hilda’s. “And you.”

“You’ve always got me, silly.” Hilda sniffed, and let her away from the chirurgeon’s ward toward the lift.

Toward home.

Edmont had caught them outside the lift, and though he was no less fatherly in his concern and relief both, he ushered them both toward the door the moment Hilda mentioned they were heading home. It seemed all those dear to her conspired to shield her from the world, insofar as they were able. Perhaps with their combined effort, the realm could hold for a night.

The walk home was quiet, but far from cold for how closely Hilda pressed against her. Allie couldn’t help but feel like she were floating all the way to the front door— half in bliss for the intimate contact with her beloved, half out of the haze she still struggled to clear her head of. Even through that mental fog, Allie never feared something happening to them on the brief trip: there was no one in all the realm, save perhaps for Ysayle, that Allie felt safer with than with Hilda.

As Allie was ushered in ahead and Hilda took a moment to shut and bolt the door behind them, the Paladin wriggled her feet free of her boots and sucked in a deep breath. The scent of Ysayle’s flowers, well tended in her absence by what few staff came and went, filled her nose and sweetened that heady haze that yet clung to her mind.

“House is quiet.” Allie mused aloud when she realized no one had come around at their entry.

“Must have just missed ‘em.” Hilda replied, half distracted as she worked at a buckle on her boot.

With a grunt, the Mongrel was at last free of her shoes with one last insistent tug, and she haphazardly plopped them down next to Allie’s without a second thought. She seemed hellbent on getting Allie comfortable as fast as she possibly could, ushering her to the bedroom and pressing the plushest set of pajamas Allie owned into her hands.

“Hang on, let me help.” Hilda insisted, already working at the laces of her lover’s clothes.

On another sort of night, Hilda might have done so with that flirtatious smirk on her face and peppered in suggestive comments and kisses alike, laughing all the while. Instead, she disrobed Allie as though she were afraid of what she would find beneath, those ruby eyes of hers darting around every scrap of skin revealed in search for a sign that Allie wasn’t as well as she said. Though the bruising that stubbornly remained on her skin made Hilda’s eyes darken with concern, she seemed satisfied enough with it to finish helping her dress and gently nudge her into bed.

Gone was that jovial optimism that had dogged the Captain, and Allie wondered how long ago it had left when she realized she couldn’t recall the last time she’d been able to be home long enough to rest. With everything that had been happening with the Scions, and the headaches, and that voice from beyond the rift calling, reaching out to her, she’d gone and gotten tunnel vision. Ysayle had been no less busy, eagerly assisting in Ala Mhigo to hold off the Imperials.

And that had left Hilda to stay behind and lead the Watch. To protect their home to ensure they had a home to come back to, putting on a brave face and not leaning on anyone else, most like, if Allie knew her lover even half as well as she thought she did.

But this night was for Hilda, as much as she might argue otherwise, and the moment she had finished stoking a fire for them, Allie pulled her down to join her on the bed, ignoring the sputtering indignation from her lover.

“Hilda.” Allie said, matching that same soft, tentative tone that Hilda had given her before they had left the Congregation.

It had the same effect. Hilda stilled, lips wrapped around a word she hadn’t gotten to form, brows upturned in mild surprise. With care and reverence, Allie smoothed her hands down her sides, over the swell of her hips, and squeezed there to anchor them both. When Hilda looked a might less like she was wont to fall apart, Allie brought one of her hands up and pressed it to her own cheek. Hilda immediately molded her hand to its curve, thumb stroking along the apple of her cheekbone. Allie smiled as she leaned into the touch. After another moment, she took Hilda’s other hand and rested it over her heart.

“I’m here.” Allie said, and kept her voice soft. “It’s...it’s okay to not be tough right now.”

The smile Hilda gave her reminded her of broken glass. Those eyes shimmered faintly again, too bright and overfull with tears, but when Allie moved a hand up to brush her tears away, her smile eased into something gentler. With a quiet sniffle, Hilda melted against Allie, pressed every ilm of herself against her lounging lover, and softly rubbed their noses together.

“Hey, you know me.” Hilda murmured. A laugh, watery but genuine, bubbled up in her throat. “I’m no good with talking. S’Ysayle’s whole bit, innit?”

“She is better at it than the both of us.” Allie readily admitted with an affectionate squeeze to bring Hilda those scant ilms closer.

“And...and I know we both have things we need to talk about. I don’t have to be Ysayle to know that. And we will talk about it all, I promise, but…”

With a huff, Hilda deflated entirely, head falling into the crook of Allie’s neck. Any attempt to look at her was met with her burrowing into the pillow.

“S’not the same without her. She has all the words, and I don’t know how to find any of ‘em. And I don’t want to start looking when she’s not home. We should all be here.” Hilda said half into the pillows.

Even if she insisted that she didn’t have the words, Allie could hear the emotion behind them, the bitterness, the frustration, and it was all the Paladin could do to hold her closer and lament the unfair hand fate dealt them. Ysayle should be here, warm and happy and safe, and the Scions should be awake and safe, and Allie shouldn’t have to leave Hilda tomorrow to go and fix the world again, and the three of them should just be safe but they weren’t and that wasn’t fair to any of them.

“I’m s—”

Sorry, Allie had wanted to say, but Hilda pulled back enough to kiss her quiet. Despite not having a talent for words, Hilda’s mouth was no less clever for it, and she took her time in properly kissing her lover until Allie was soft and pliant and utterly senseless in her arms. Once Hilda decided she had made her point, she pulled away to sit properly in Allie’s lap. Her hips fit perfectly in Allie’s hands, and it took nothing for her to mold her grip flush against them. Gone were the tears, and though it wasn’t near so energetic as it could have been, there was a playful smile on Hilda’s face.

“No words, right? Not while Ysayle’s not home.” Hilda chided. “Not with the big stuff, at least. S’not fair to not include her.”

“Hilda, I’ll be gone before—”

Another kiss, pressed firmer this time. A definite, if gentle silencing.

“I know.” Hilda sighed against her lips before kissing her again, softly this time. “I know. So let’s not have those words right now. Let’s just have tonight. We can just...just be us tonight. Can’t we, Allie?”

The subtle tension that lingered in Hilda’s shoulders eased when Allie nosed at her neck to press open mouthed kisses to the warm, flushed skin there. As she melted against Allie, went all but limp atop her in a pile of contented bones, her hands slipped up Allie’s nape, soft as feathers, and came around to frame her face. Allie could feel her smile press against her cheek when she turned her head to promise against her skin, “Just us. With blankets and jim jams— which I notice you haven’t changed into.”

When Hilda laughed, it was, at last, as bright and effervescent as it should be, as Hilda deserved for it to be.

“‘Course you’d say that as soon as I get comfy.” Hilda teased with an affectionate nuzzle.

“I imagine you’d be even more comfortable out of those clothes.” Allie said without thinking.

Hilda sat up then, eyes alight with mischief and merriment, her grin wide as a coeurl’s.

“I’d normally ask for dinner first, y’know.” She teased, even as she reluctantly slid off of the bed and rummaged around for some sleepwear of her own.

There were at least a dozen other things that were going on that threatened to pull Allie’s focus away from this moment, things that she knew, in the back of her mind, that she would have to confront on the morrow. With the dawn, she would have to leave Hilda to be strong, alone, again, until Allie could piece the realm back together.

Win or lose, the path you walk leads to oblivion.

But such concerns were for the morrow. Allie need not walk a path at all, but take refuge in the dark. Right now, she was beholden to none but the women that she loved most in the world, and made a concerted effort to focus on nothing more than how gorgeous Hilda was as she shed her clothes and slipped into her soft sleepwear. Hilda seemed to be as acutely aware of how eager the realm was to tear Allie from her, too; she took no longer to change than was necessary, didn’t put on a show of flirtatious poses or lighthearted but suggestive flirting, but instead wriggling her way back against Allie’s side before anything could wedge itself in the space between them and vault the Paladin headlong into the next big disaster.

The realm wasn’t allowed to take her. Not tonight.

Tonight, Allie sat up on the bed and held out her hands to beckon Hilda back to bed. When she accepted those outstretched hands eagerly, Allie guided her into sitting down in front of her.

“Turn around.” Allie requested softly. At Hilda’s perplexed expression, she kissed her cheek and added a demure, “Please?”

“Oh look at you, battin’ yer eyelashes at me.”

Hilda feigned a sigh of resignation, even as she beamed like the sun and turned her back to her. Pleased, Allie, pressed a kiss behind Hilda’s ear. She took her time to carefully undo the high ponytail and side braids that Hilda always kept her ebon hair in. With each careful pass of her fingers drifting through her locks, slowly freeing more and more of them from to tumble down, Hilda eased by degrees until she was practically leaned bodily into Allie, back to chest, making very soft noises of contentment.

“There we are.” Allie gave a pleased hum, hands now idly, almost absentmindedly drifting through Hilda’s hair in gentle, slow strokes. “Cuddle with me in the blankets?”

When Hilda laughed, it was gentle, almost relieved. She tipped her head back to peer up at her lover for a long moment before leaning up to kiss her chin. She twisted in Allie’s lap, peppering more kisses along her jaw as she brought her hands up to cup her face.

“It ain’t often I get called on by glorious heroes such as yourself.” Hilda teased, and rubbed their noses together again. Her eyes drifted closed as she asked, voice little more than a whisper, “So tell me: what did I do to deserve you?”

“Being yourself.” Allie answered with a soft and unassuming kiss.

Hilda melted into her as eagerly as Allie drew her in, and it took next to nothing for either of them to sink down into the bed, against the pillows. The surrender was so mutual and so gradual it wasn’t clear who had led and who had followed, or if they had simply fallen in together, as they were wont to do, but as they took the time to bask in one another, they both decided that the hows and the whys of them being together in that moment didn’t matter. They never had. What was important was that they were, and that was enough. It was always, always enough.

Allie swathed them both in the downy soft blankets on their bed and burrowed down into the pillows with little preamble, and made a nest with her lover. Hilda practically laid on top of her, but let out a peal of delighted laughter when Allie used her strength to roll them both over and splayed half atop her, nuzzling into her with kisses and cuddles and a hand running through her loose hair.

“I know you need rest.” Hilda admitted around another kiss. “But—”

“But I need you. And we both need this. So let’s be together, like this, until we fall asleep,” Allie countered, kissing the tip of her nose.

The better path leads you here.

“Mmm, how long d’you suppose we can keep that up?” Hilda asked playfully, even as her hands showed no sign of slowing down their gentle caresses of what she could reach of her lover.

“Let’s find out, and just hope morning never comes, yeah?”

“Yeah.” With a hum, Hilda kissed her firmly, hands fisting in the lapels of Allie’s sleepwear to keep herself tucked close. “I rather like that challenge.”

So they stayed in their little sanctuary, where the world couldn’t touch them, swapping kisses, caresses, and murmured words of love until they couldn’t anymore and simply fell asleep, pressed close and closer still, lingering in the sanctuary of the night.

#ffxiv #writing commissions #thegildenheart #Hilda Ware #thank you again so so much for commissioning me!!!#I adore your girl and I'm so honored to get to write her being happy with her ladyloves ;-;#allie lindblum

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therovingstar · 4 years

Text

Like Flowers Aflame

Summary: “I took your kill.” He almost starts when she calls to him, turns her head, and meets his gaze across the distance between them, still poised as he is on the wide steps. He questions which strikes him first: her dark eyes, ringed by a fire all their own, or the mild smile playing about her lips. She shrugs a shoulder. “Sorry.”

Hien x WoL (pre-relationship), <2700 words, fluff and feels, mild descriptions of blood.

@ffxiv-writers

AO3 Link

It is pandemonium, still, throughout the city and beyond its walls. Soldiers, leaders, resistance volunteers; dozens cross his path without him once being able to put a name to a mien. ‘Tis little surprise; he and his are the foreigners here, and there is no one who would recognize his face anymore than he would theirs. There are exceptions, of course, in a precious few, but they are justifiably occupied with the small matter of their nation’s new freedom.

He knows the feeling well. He should be with his own, miles away across the seas. And yet…

Lyse was a beacon in red, waving them down in the crowd. “I saw her earlier,”she said, “helping the other healers. Then I heard she went up top.” The young woman pointed above her head, and he followed her finger to the top levels of the Ala Mhigan palace, gleaming white and smoky gray against the blue, early evening sky.

“For what reason?” Yugiri asked. Lyse shrugged.

“Something about sussing out the aether in the atmosphere? Making sure that primal doesn’t show back up, presumably. We’ve already removed Zenos’ body. Guess it’s a precaution.”

That was all he needed to hear.

“My lord, where are you going?” Yugiri called to his back. Hien looked back over his shoulder, offering a bracing grin.

“To retrieve our hero, of course.” And before anyone could respond, he rallied himself and disappeared back into the bedlam.

He should be with his people now, or at least crossing those great waters to return to them. And he will be, come the definitive end to this day of revolution. But first…

The Gyr Abanian sun begins its descent in earnest as he traverses the residents’ quarters and approaches the palace. It paints everything in shades of orange and gold, from the stone buildings to the cargo wagons to the dented armor of Garlean machina and the torn uniforms of Alliance soldiers. For a moment, one can almost ignore the carnage of the day, so effective the dusk is at casting it all in gilded hues. It makes him yearn for the sight of the Ruby Sea at such a time, when the waters are burnished with a fire to rival Hell’s Lid.

How surprised he is, then, when he enters the palace under cover of chaos, climbs the staircase, and steps foot onto the shore of another kind of sea entirely.

There is a garden aflame. Hundreds, thousands of them, pink and red and white blossoms swaying as if from the tips of candle wicks under a breeze that teases his cheeks and the white fur lining his collar. Water gleams in golden pools bordered by white marble and teeming with green leaves and lotus.

It is beautiful, a landscape painting turned reality, and made a portrait by the lone Raen woman standing at its center, still as a sculpture.

But first, I wish to find her. See her, speak with her. Just for a moment.

What a ruler he is.

“I took your kill.” He almost starts when she calls to him, turns her head, and meets his gaze across the distance between them, still poised as he is on the wide steps. He questions which strikes him first: her dark eyes, ringed by a pink fire all their own, or the mild smile playing about her lips. Odzaya shrugs a shoulder. “Sorry.”

Hien blinks once, perhaps twice, before he bursts with a laugh.

“Aye! I suppose you did!” He approaches, his steps light, and stops several fulms away from where she stands bracketed by blossoms. “‘Tis fitting, I think.”

She looks surprised. “Truly?” Skepticism coats her gaze and tone as she turns in his direction.

“Truly,” Hien confirms, and crosses his arms, considering. “Zenos yae Galvus took much from me, certainly, but I am hardly the only one. Every Doman, every Ala Mhigan, every person who lost a home or a loved one or a livelihood to the Empire’s greed and his supposed ennui…they all deserved a chance at his head.” His gaze finds the place where the man in question’s body fell; his spattered blood still shines unnaturally jewel-like under the evening sun on the marble, as well as the petals of nearby flowers. Beautiful in the most morbid of ways. He grins suddenly, and looks at her. “My heart warms knowing that you thought of me, however.”

“A brief thought as he attempted to eat me, yes,” she admits, half sarcastic. Hien chuckles.

“Conqueror of Bardam’s Mettle and proud samurai I may be, but I know well that my skills paled in comparison to the man who felled my father, renowned swordsman that he was.” His grin widens. “I could not have hoped to defeat Zenos with my blade any more than a farmer with her hoe or a merchant with his silver tongue.”

“Give yourself a touch more credit, ‘Fire Walker’,” Odzaya replies, a thick purple brow lifting as she smirks. “You would at least do better than the merchant.” Hien guffaws, and her expression turns curious. “Speaking of silver tongues, whose was it that convinced you to come all the way up here?”

“I looking for you,” he answers easily, “of my own volition. Lyse mentioned something about your doing aether surveillance.”

Odzaya shakes her head. “Nothing so pedantic; I’ve not the tools on hand, nor the patience to use them. I was merely satisfying my own paranoia, more than anything.” She shifts back to her previous position of facing the far end of the gardens, and Hien follows without thinking, unwilling to resist his own curiosity. Soon, they both stand on the site of the Garleans’ last stand, where Zenos’ primal – Shinryu, he overheard it called – was previously bound. “Here is where it is most concentrated,” she tells him. “Feel it?”

He does, slightly. Sees it, as well. A strange thickness to the golden air as it enters his nostrils, barely visible undulations of sickly green at the edges of his periphery. A taste on the back of his tongue, just this side of bitter. He cannot hone in on any of it, distant sensations that they are and try as he might, but it makes his skin itch, his lungs reluctant to expand for what they may suck in. He looks beside him to find Odzaya’s eyes closed, her nose lightly wrinkled. Little doubt she senses more, for better or worse. “I will say,” he begins, crossing his arms, “I am glad we have not to compete with such creatures in Yanxia.”

“Mm,” Odzaya hums in agreement. “Be glad they’ve taken so much to these lands, instead.”

Hien thinks, then grins. “Ah, but then we have no Warrior of Light, either. Perhaps it would be a fair trade to deal with the occasional evil being knocking down our doors, to have one such as yourself in our regular company.”

She snorts once, and her smile, having disappeared beneath her concentration, returns. “Selfish.”

“At times,” he replies, and grins wider at her profile. “As we all are.”

They share silence, then, but for the wind through the blossoms and the gentle trickle of water. If he strains, he can hear the din down below, but up here, they seem separated from it all. It reminds him of the Azim Steppe’s plains, where malms of grasses stretch into infinity. Where one could seemingly chase the horizon forever and never encounter a soul.

He misses it. Here, however, with her, it feels as if a small fragment of the feeling has returned to him, even on this foreign soil located on the other side of the world. A power she gained as khagun, her connection to the land allowing her to carry its essence with her? Or merely a power she has all her own and over him, to conjure fond recollections of those days that were as fraught as they were halcyon?

“On the Steppe,” Odzaya begins suddenly. Hien mildly startles, thinking for one impossible moment that she read his mind. Then she continues. “There is a belief, that to interrupt a hunt is to interrupt fate. It is a sacred bond, that of two souls opposed. Predator and prey, seeker and sought. A matter to be left to the gods and the gods alone.” She opens her eyes and shrugs lightly. “A silly thing to consider perhaps, given what soil we are on and my extensive record of solving others’ problems. But…”

“But?” he encourages.

“But unlike those others, who gave me their blessing to act in their stead,” she says, and looks up at him, her sun-red gaze keen beneath the clean cut of her braided bangs, “you did not. And I recognized the desire in your eyes when we fought together in the Naadam and in Doma. To meet blades with those to stole so much from you. Regardless of your chance at victory.”

I see. So that is her quandary, then, and why she has brought it back to the fore, despite his assurances. Hien sighs, thoughtful, and absently rests a hand on the hilt of his katana. “You are not wrong,” he answers honestly. “A large part of me longed to meet the man on the battlefield. Partly for my father, as well as my countrymen. But also for the sake of my own pride.” He huffs once in amusement at his own foolery, and his thumb plays with the catch, teasing a release of the blade. “Would I be able to hold my own against the warrior no other has? T’was a question I could not help but ask myself, however ridiculous.”

“I took away your opportunity to find out,” Odzaya says, her gaze somewhat regretful. Hien laughs aloud.

“Fret not, my friend! Regardless of our blades never meeting, I received my answer well from the ‘hunt’ I witnessed between the two of you.” He takes his gaze to the palace’s tower and surrounding spires, a broken beacon still smoking in the aftermath of their duel. “I could scarce imagine besting the man, let alone a beast of the magnitude he became.” He sobers, and his smile gentles. “No, I am content to have had you there in my stead, and the stead of all those who suffered from his deeds.” He faces her fully, then, and makes a show of bowing low. “Just as it was my honor to have you at my side during my country’s liberation, so it is my honor to have had my personal hopes met by your hand.” When he straightens, only to be met with her widened gaze, he grins broadly once more. “I daresay you are performing your role well. ‘Tis a khagun’s duty to fulfill the wishes of her people, no? And from what I’ve gathered since arriving here, you have many outside of the Steppe.”

To his surprise, the woman scoffs lightly. “As if they would know the title.”

“I am here, yes? And Lyse, as well as a contingent of the Xaela who chose to take the journey here in your name.” He thumps a fist to his armored chest in a warrior’s gesture. “We will inform them.”

Odzaya shakes her head emphatically. “Keep the knowledge to yourselves, if you please. The last thing I need is more unnecessary ceremony. They already make too large a matter of me on this side of the world.”

“Can you blame them?”

“Yes,” she replies bluntly. “And you and Lyse for making it worse if you talk.” When he merely shrugs in answer, she narrows her eyes and angles herself toward him once more, her mouth pursed. He notes the medic’s uniform she wears, identical to the one worn by others he saw about the field but for the extra padding about her torso and arms, her armored boots, and the white and red cloak clasped at her neck. An attempt to make her abilities known, perhaps, while still blending in. Frankly, it fails. She still stands out like a lone lantern in the dark, not just for her scales or the vibrancy of her hair, but for the understated grace and power with which she carries herself. Like the blooms around them, he reckons, his eyes absently finding them; far hardier than they look, for all the epic battle that just took place here put them through. Even the ones that bore the brunt of Zenos’ bloody collapse have sprung back up in a way the warlord definitely did not, bruised but otherwise unscathed, and no less beautiful.

His gaze returns to her, and his smile, for a moment, turns inward. “Fitting,” he says again, this time as a murmur to himself.

“You said that,” Odzaya replies. He forgets about those keen horns sometimes; even Yugiri still blindsides him with all she manages to hear. “Still thinking about it?” she inquires.

“Just wondering what it is like to face a dragon in combat,” he says, in effort to cover his momentary daydreaming. To his surprise, she answers immediately.

“Hot and messy,” she states with all confidence, as if it is a knowledge she is intimately acquainted with. “And terrible-tasting. The blood gets everywhere.” She absently licks at the thick width of her bottom lip, and Hien splutters before he can control himself.

For every substantial thing he learns about her, like her gift for healing or her war-torn past or her casually rubbing shoulders with some of the most prominent figures on either continent, it is the smaller things – the fact that she sharpens the decorative edges of her staves and adores children and has apparently tasted dragon’s blood – that set his heart racing for reasons he is not quite yet willing to ponder.

“I suppose we’re done here. You did come to retrieve me, yes?” Odzaya makes the first move for the rooftop’s exit, her cloak billowing briefly outward with the abrupt spin of her heels. Hien comes back to himself with a small shake of the head, and she lifts a brow. “Are you alright?”

“Aye,” he says, pasting an easygoing smile on his lips. “Perhaps it is the aether, along with the hectic events of the day. My attentions seem to be scattering themselves.”

“You did come a long way,” she replies, and pauses, turning to face him once more. When next she speaks, her voice is softer. “Thank you, for the record. For doing that. Coming.” Hien’s smile widens.

“I said I would come,” he says with gentle conviction. “T’was a promise, yes?” Odzaya shrugs.

“Crossing an ocean is a long way for a promise, especially for a king with a country.”

“I could not well leave my khagun to do battle alone,” he half-jests. “A small difference we ultimately made, but it was a difference, still. And it was the least I could do for what you did for me and mine. And what you have done now.”

It is practically nothing, for all that she has done for him. A hundred years he could spend in attempt to repay her, and he fears he would still fall short. It says something, he thinks, that he still wishes to try.

“Well, you have my gratitude,” Odzaya says, and lifts herself briefly onto her toes, her head lowered just enough for her locced bangs to cover her eyes. A gesture of shyness, he inexplicably recognizes, having seen it last on the Steppe, when her family made such a fuss over her return to their midst. The realization brings that earlier inward smile to his face in full, blatant force before he can stop it.

“As you have mine,” he returns. Their gazes find one another again, and when she returns his smile, it is warmer than the sun on his face.

He dares to think he would cross another ten oceans, just to bask in its heat as he is now.

A hundred years. Ten oceans.

Small prices to pay for her eyes upon him.

#hien rijin #hien x wol #final fantasy xiv #final fantasy 14 #ffxiv #ff14 #odzaya malaguld #otp: starry-eyed #storytime #reposting to try to get these tags and links to actually work

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