Avalas Blackstone

FFXIV - CRYSTAL / MATEUS | Thaumaturge | Academic | Tradeswoman | Thorned Rose avalas.carrd.co [Asks / prompts loved!] [NSFW images and posts] [likes/follows/asks from @pariker] [icon art by @sangetvin]

[avablackstone]

#FFXIVWrite 2022 Masterpost

[Master Prompt List]

01 // Cross 02 // Bolt 03 // Temper 04 // Present {free prompt} 05 // Cutting Corners 06 // Onerous 07 // Pawn 08 // Tepid 09 // Yawn 10 // Channel 11 // {free prompt} 12 // Miss the Boat 13 // Confluence 14 // Attrition 15 // Row 16 // Deiform 17 // Novel 18 // Nameday {free prompt}

[2020] [2021]

[escuerzoresucitado]

[teratocrat]

girl you would flourish under my dark tutelage

[avablackstone]

The Truth on All Fronts

cw: blood, violence

"You are the single most confident mortal that I've met this side of the Rhotano Sea, and beyond, my dearest. That such an unshakeable pillar faces unsteadiness is... curious." "Is it? Knowing all that we know, the truth on all fronts, and still it seems a curious thing? There's a danger in it, Avalas." "Everything is steeped in danger, my dearest. My very existence is dangerous. Your business is dangerous. There is danger here, sitting in the heart of this jewel of a city. If this is a risk you do not wish to continue taking... I understand." "That's not what I intended, lovely. I don't want it to stop -- not now, and with each day that passes, more and more I tip towards not ever. And therein rests the real danger of it all."

Lady Blackstone’s painted lips curved into a sharp frown as she walked from the Gold Court, stiletto heels clicking loudly on the sandstone tiles. Each step echoed in the grand hallways, and she walked with such purpose that the late-night crowd of Ul’dah crossed to the other side of the corridors as she approached. With her head pointed down just enough to hide the trouble in her eyes, she kept walking.

Each echoing step punctuated a voice in her head, which belonged to her and yet somehow did not.

You gallivant around this city with your Viper pets, to what end? Yours? The Consortium closes in all around you. Dalmasca is poised to seize part of your operations in the north. The Eyes have infiltrated your port and your Commodore and Knight is yet out to sea.

The thaumaturge’s tattooed hands curled into a fist, long nails cutting into her palms as she endured her own quiet self-loathing.

And you entertain pets. Disgraceful.

“Shut up,” Avalas hissed through clenched teeth, catching the attention of a nearby man. He was much taller than her, with broad shoulders and a tattoo that proudly proclaimed his Ala Mhigan heritage. He leaned against a lamp post to steady himself after a long night.

“What was that, little lady? The rich come to grace us with their presence? At this ungodly hour?” The flickering flames of the streetlights reflected in the man’s eyes. Avalas stopped.

“Shut up,” she hissed again, though it was unclear exactly who she was talking to.

“Oh, so you’re a rude little thing. Bugger off. You’re not welcome here,” the man scoffed at her, which earned the witch’s ire.

“I said shut the fuck up, you miserable bitch!” Avalas snarled and then shrieked, blinded by the rage that only the fever pitch of inner conflict could elicit. It took only an instant, but the hands that had been balled into fists opened and those long nails tore into the man’s throat like a knife through butter.

Blood spattered from the lacerated artery, hitting the wall beside them and spraying her front with red. Then came the gurgle of surprise from the man who had only the misfortune of being in her way. His hand came to his throat and he slowly sank to the ground, life fleeting from his face as the blood flowed out of his wounds.

When the witch came back to her senses, she realized what she had done. Rivulets of crimson ran from her fingertips and the growing puddle encroached around her stiletto heel boots. Panic crossed her bloodstained features as she ran for the nearest aetheryte. She teleported mid-stride, before her bloodied hand could touch the crystal proper.

There in the Pearl Lane, the victim lay face down on the sandstone. The incorporeal aether of his soul lingered above his body for a few moments longer before dissipating, returning to the aetherial sea from whence it came.

You killed a man.

Not the first, and certainly not the last.

The first you haven’t left as a pile of ashes.

You’ve made a mess of things, Avalas. Killing your own kin without a second thought...

Enough, Thelryss!

[avablackstone]

04 // Baleful

[FFXIV Write 2021 Prompts] \ [Entries for Avalas Blackstone] 

“Gather ‘round! Let me tell you another story… this time, about the baleful gaze of Lady Blackstone,” a Highlander man with a scruffy beard lowered his voice conspiratorially as the unmistakable silhouette of the new proprietor of the Ruby Roost brothel made her way from the entrance to a back room. He leaned his bearded chin on the shoulder of the woman who sat in his lap, wearing scarlet lingerie. She giggled as his beard tickled her bare neck.

“You mean the new owner? I heard she killed a man in cold blood, right there in the champagne room!” the woman crooned, exchanging a brief glance with her fellow working woman on the stage in front of them.

“Aye, one and the same, lass. She’s got the ruthlessness of an Ul’dahn businesswoman, but with the kind of determination you’d only see from the saltborn!” the man rested his hand over his chest in brief homage to the lands from which he and Lady Blackstone hailed.

Keep reading

[avablackstone]

Faith

Since leaving the Arrzaneth Ossuary as a young adult, Lady Blackstone’s skills and reputation soared to dizzying heights. A master thaumaturge of the Order, a renowned academic in forbidden circles and an up-and-coming tradeswoman in the underworld, it was rare that she actually returned to the sanctuary that nurtured her talents.

One such day could always be counted on, though: the anniversary of the Seventh Umbral Calamity. After the shards of Dalamud fell and the dust settled, the dead fortunate enough to meet their ends in Ul’dah were brought to the Ossuary.

On this solemn day of remembrance, Lady Blackstone always performed the funerary rites on one corpse. This one was a woman about a decade younger than herself, killed violently in the crossfire of an exchange gone poorly in the Pearl Lane. The corpse laid supine atop a stone slab, cool to the touch from its remaining aether being shifted toward umbral ice for preservation. Lady Blackstone’s painted nails traced over the woman’s collarbone, down her sternum and to the open wound just above her belly.

Tragic and avoidable, but the ever grinding gears of Ul’dah cared little for those who got crushed between them.

 “A freezing blizzard to halt corruption,” Lady Blackstone began to recite from the ceremony she memorized as a child and performed regularly through her adulthood. Aether sparked at her fingertips over the corpse’s midsection.

“A raging fire to cleanse the corpse,” she continued. Flames erupted from her outstretched palms and engulfed the corpse with the ferocity of a wildfire.

“A bolt of lightning to expel the sins of mortal life!”

The air within the Ossuary crackled with astrally-charged aether, coalescing into a bolt of lightning that struck the burning corpse. In that instant, flesh and fat and bone was turned into a smoldering pile of ashes.

Lady Blackstone clasped her hands together, tattoos faintly shimmering from the spellwork. “Keep the faith and know that these dweomers in preparation of the dead are equally as efficacious against the living,”  she finished her recitation, bowing her head low in respect for the ash that was once the corpse, the moment, and the auspicious day. The brim of her hat covered her eye and the feather atop it bowed forward just as she did.

“As above, so below.”

(ty for the prompt @coinandsteel )

[avablackstone]

back on this bullshit for now i guess

oh /gpose how i missed you 🖤

[babblzoom]

[devils-queen]

✞ 666 ✞

[theabstractbard]

she’s a man-eater, gentlemen  🍷// please do not repost // ig

[eaotheelf]

Reblog if your an FFXIV blog!

Help the lost Twitter spirits find us all.

[ladybluefox666]

Chase Ring in Mirror Steel by Rogue and Wolf

Use code RWZAHAV for a discount 

[avablackstone]

18 // Nameday {free prompt}

[#ffxivwrite2022 master prompt list] [entries for Avalas Blackstone] 

“My Lady, have you decided what celebration you’d like to have for your nameday? The month of Nald’thal fast approaches. If we’re to top the festivities of last year, we’d best let staff at the Ruby Roost know. There’s costumes, cocktail menus and decorations to be concerned for...”

Avalas didn’t seem to notice when Juliette spoke to her until the dark-haired elezen cleared her throat. The violet-eyed witch, lounging in her bathtub overlooking Vesper Bay, gazed longingly at the sea. The Commodore was due to return soon, and she wanted to be there the second she could spot the sails of the Scarlet Duchess on the horizon.

“My lady,” Juliette repeated. Avalas finally snapped her gaze from the window and rested her arms on the sides of the clawfoot tub.

“I think I may join the Commodore at sea for this nameday, Juliette. Although if the Black Hand wishes to celebrate in my honor, please help them facilitate. Their liege’s nameday should be an evening off, don’t you think?”

Juliette’s brows twitched. She knew the Dreadlord became seasick quite easily. Avalas caught the small twitch of her receptionist’s brow and smirked.

“Worry not. I love the sea when I am with her.”

[avablackstone]

17 // Novel

[#ffxivwrite2022 master prompt list] [entries for Avalas Blackstone] 

The library at the Lunaris Estate boasted a vast collection of arcane tomes, literary works, scrolls, archeological catalogs, collections of letters and ledgers and Lady Blackstone’s personal favorite: the steamy romance novel. It always came as a surprise to organization members and guests perusing the library to find that despite the meticulous organization of subjects into sections, the trashy novels were littered throughout the entire collection.

Hardbound novels from authors of note were filed next to the numerous copies of The Yawning Abyss, and it was not uncommon to see a pornographic illustration Frontline Titties of the Flames shelved next to all one hundred and eight volumes of Fundamental Thaumaturgic Principle. Cultural guidebooks for how not to offend even the most conservative of Ishgardian nobles rested right next to Romance in the High Houses: Heroes and Heretics. One particularly tattered copy of a modern-era Coliseum novel, The Gladiator and the Maiden sat next to Aetherological and Leyline Confluences of Eorzea, Vol. 3, The Yafaem Saltmoor. The latter two books were meticulously noted with tabs, folded pages and underlines.

Newer visitors to the library often blushed profusely when their fingers traced over the spines of more scandalous novels. Juliette, secretary and sometimes librarian to the Lunaris Estate, only chuckled when it came time to put them back on the shelves. Despite the terror her Lady struck in the hearts of many, she found the choice in literature to be both humorous and endearing.

[iillyada-deactivated20220428]

[avablackstone]

16 // Deiform

[#ffxivwrite2022 master prompt list] [entries for Avalas Blackstone] 

Reminders of the Traders littered Thanalan, if one knew where to look. From the grand monuments, temples and disciples to Nald and Thal to the simple exchange of coin, all of it was done in reverence to the Traders. And all of the coin, eventually, made it to the Arrzaneth Ossuary.

Flames, conjured by adepts of the Thaumaturge’s Guild, cast bright highlights and deep shadows over the statue at the ossuary’s entrance. Here, both rich and poor met their deity at their knees. The rich spared no expense to ensure favor of the Traders when it was their time to step upon the scales. The poor spared what little coin they could, in hopes of the same.

Avalas always preferred taking coin from the rich. The Monetarists that sneered upon her, and other refugee children that made it out of the camps surrounding the city. She could never help the smirk that crossed her painted lips when coin was placed into her hand by the reverent rich.

“Please; thaumaturge, priestess, an offering to Nald’thal,” they’d say with bowed heads and hushed, humbled voices.

“Blessed be to those who spend their coin in honor of the Traders,” Avalas would say with a polite bow as she curled her fingers around the golden discs.

Some of the gil would make it into the temple’s coffers. But not all.

[avablackstone]

13 // Confluence

[#ffxivwrite2022 master prompt list] [entries for Avalas Blackstone] 

The marble creatures watched over her, still dripping from the blood of dead magi that had animated them. Floodwaters lapped at their clawed feet, but they stood unmoving over her coffin. Her hands were bound; what were originally the delicate wrists of a highborn had withered into little more than a skeleton with pale blue skin stretched over it. Claws, sharp and black, dug into her skin, pinned there by chains.

She could taste the lingering aether of the dead mages and their guardians. It hung in the air, thick and intoxicating like a perfume, yet just out of her reach.

It was enough to drive her mad.

Maybe it did.

She screamed a scream that echoed through the crypt. With each echo and reverberation of her voice, Thelryss, nobleborn lady of the Thirteenth, summoned through the veil by mages of war, captured and sealed by the Amdapori, crept ever closer to insanity as the water rose higher and higher.

Before the water rose over her nose and mouth, she uttered a single name in terror, desperation, regret and love: “Calemund...”

---

The confluence of souls following a pact was a different experience for each who extended their hand to the void. Avalas lay awake in her bed, hearing the disjointed thoughts and vividly experiencing the last corporeal memories of the succubus known as Thelryss.