DMC Week Day 7: College AU
For my final entry for DMC week, I chose to write the trio as college students playing Final Fantasy XIV – Nero, V & Nico.
A self-indulgent AU fic (haven’t played Final Fantasy XIV in years) based on a few college headcanons.
Thank you to everyone and all that’s read my works during this week! Your support means a lot ❤️❤️❤️ Here we go, hope you enjoy!
Nico as Machinist, damage dealer
V as Summoner, damage dealer
Nero nervously stared at his health-bar steadily going down as attack after attack scratched down his life despite all the buffs his character had on. The controller vibrated furiously in his hands, his jaw clenched. The boss would be dead at any second and the healer was trying their best but the bad connection they had so far had was making Nero nervous. Wasn’t a heal long overdue? Weren’t their character just standing still?
“If you perish, I got Resurrection ready.” V said, his voice ever so calm that it actually made Nero grin. Was he ever happy he’d gotten himself this new headset that let him regulate game and party sounds separately? Yeah, they were in a bad spot, but the boss was so close to dead now. They’d get through it.
“Nico!” He called the second the limit break chime could be heard in his headset.
“On it!” Nero could basically hear the buttons on her controller being slammed, together with her laughter. “Eat this!” Nico’s machinist character pulled out the crossbow, ready for the shot that would send the boss to oblivion.
“Dammit!” Nero shifted his character as an AoE marker appeared under his feet, along with certain death as his health was reaching less than 5000. Even if V revived him instantly, Nero as the tank dying now might just spell their doom.
The boss inched after him, leaving the indicated line of Nico’s limit break. Winds whipped around their characters, but they all managed to avoid more injury.
“Whoa, whatcha doing?!” Nico exclaimed in disbelief.
“Just aim again!” Thrill of Battle was back off cooldown, restoring some of his health. Sweet.
“It got used up, asshole! Healer dc’ed!” Nico’s voice snapped his focus back. Another buff off cooldown and he used it.
“What?!” Did that have to happen at this crucial moment? One quick glance at the party list said ??? for the healer’s status.
“Nero, your Holmgang should be ready for use. Just hold on.” V calmly stated and Nero blinked as he realized V was right. Had he been counting seconds since the last four minutes??
“Fuck!” The progress bar over the boss’ life told him a tankbuster was coming. Nero waited, his finger on the trigger for Holmgang, his sweet 6-seconds of almost invincibility to save him if needed. He pushed the button, the bright orange line above the boss filled the entire way, the hit connected, the controller in his hands vibrating valiantly. Hit points sailing down to zero. Swears bubbled up in his chest, flowed out of him like a sailor when the boss started to move towards Nico. But it had sooo little HP left!
“I pushed the button, I swear!” Nero shouted in disbelief, heart pounding in his chest, did they really have to redo this??
A sharp blast of white light engulfed the boss, sending it to the ground and the screen faded to black for a second before the victory cutscene played, with Nero’s own character magically on his feet. This was why he loved having V as a summoner on their team.
“Freaking finally! We did it!” Nico celebrated. Nero grinned, feeling as if a stone lifted off his shoulders.
“No healer means one less to compete with!” Nico singsonged, letting her character put her grabby hands on the treasure chest. A healer chestpiece popped up on screen. Nero’s sigh was mimicked by Nico, none of them were a healer, not even close. At least there was a Strength ring for him to grab.
Nero blinked as the notifications told him V had grabbed the healer chestpiece. Unprompted, the summoner spoke.
“Perhaps I should go as a scholar, for our next dungeon. Our luck with healers tonight has been… less than fruitful.”
“Nah man, continue with summoner if you want, we’ll be–”
“Do it!” Nico stated on the top of her lungs, her microphone bumping into her chin as she grabbed for a cigarette. “I wanna see the end of the next dungeon tonight!”
“I can go paladin for extra heals.” Nero shrugged, even if neither of his companions could see it.
“And give up that sweet damage, really?” Nico teased, making Nero huff.
“I can play defensively every once in a while.”
“Uh huh…” Nico snickered, while all he heard from V was a chuckle.
“What, I can! Come on, let’s go to the next one!” Nero prompted and grabbed for his soda, eager to go again. Leaning his head back for a sip, there were just two drops meeting his tongue. Damn, when had his beverage run out?
“As… enjoyable as progressing further would be, I am fairly certain you both have lectures in the morning?” V said matter-of-factly while there was a weak rustling of a book page being turned coming from his microphone.
“Yeah, so? I can do it for a bit longer–” Nero started, checking his phone for time. It was waaay too late! “It’s already FIVE?!”
Dry coughing made it clear Nico had just swallowed smoke.
“Y-y-yer…” Cough. “kid-ding!”
“Hell no!” Nero exclaimed.
“Why didn’t ya say somethin’?!” Nico coughed at the sole calm person.
“I did try to, both at one and three o’clock. You both were a bit too… absorbed in what we were doing.” V calmly stated, making Nero groan, oh yeah, they might have been into everything. It wouldn’t be the first time…
“I gotta scram, I’ve got an exam tomor– today!” With that, Nico’s character was logged out, her voice chat icon offline.
“Hope that works out for her. What about you V?” The sign out option showed up at the click of a menu and Nero clicked himself out, the calming music of the title screen trickling through his second-hand headset that smelled of energy drink. At most he’d be able to get what, two hours of sleep? Was it even worth it at this point?
“I will attempt to sleep. I do not have a lecture until the afternoon.”
“Lucky you, vampire.” Nero snorted, his dormmate’s chuckle meeting his ears. “Catch you at lunch then?”
“If I have awakened until then, yes.”
“Great.” Nero knew he should log off, get some sleep. But damn, he didn’t feel sleepy at all. He knew something would keep him up, if he went now.
“Hey V?” He tried, hoping the other hadn’t shut off his headset just yet.
“Yes Nero?” V didn’t sound bothered by the quiet inquiry, despite being about to head to sleep. Nero inhaled, through his nose.
“I told you my grade dropped a bit, right? From last exam?” During the day, he brushed it off, no problem. But at night, it was hard to not feel some… nervousness over what could happen, if his grades dropped too much. Nero needed to keep it up, if he wanted a new scholarship and he not only wanted that scholarship, he needed it so badly to stay.
“Yes.” A pause, followed by V softly closing a book. “Are you worried it might happen again?” He softly asked.
Nero scratched his nose, V even knew before he voiced the issue? He wasn’t sure if he felt relieved or called out.
“Yeah, something like that. I know our subjects are pretty different…” No shit, considering V was reading the classical poems and literary works of people whose names Nero barely could pronounce. But V had great study technique, always fixing his assignments on time, something that Nero had failed to do, several times. He admired that, about the dorm vampire with a love for classical music. V’s voice was always a joy to listen to as well. Maybe he didn’t say everything he was thinking, but his voice was deep, calming at this late hour.
“But, you up for studying together? Someday this week? I think I need someone to help me not procrastinate so much and Nico is not that…” If anything, she either sat with her notes and realized she had found out something brilliant for her own studying, or she was digging the rock music Nero always put on while studying, just as much as he was.
“I don’t mind.” V replied, making Nero grin with relief over having one guy in his corner. “We can start with hiding your headphones. Or your Bluetooth speaker.”
“Right…” Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea, Led Zeppelin did snatch his focus otherwise. Nero let out a small laugh. “But you’ll give the headphones back, right? I need those for my morning runs.”
“Hmm, perhaps.” His dormmate teased.
“Or you’ll come along on my morning runs to keep me company?” Nero tried, he had given hints to get V to join him in the fresh air, the early morning sun for weeks now.
“Too chilly for me, I’m afraid.” Was the soft reply. “I will retire for now, Nero. Do try to get some sleep.”
“Yeah, fine… Thanks V.” Nero’s eyelids actually felt a bit heavier now.
“You’re welcome. Goodnight. Or perhaps, good morning.” V replied with a chuckle.
Nero groaned, giving a goodnight before ending the voice chat.
