I made a sort of AU swap-evil AU hybrid and the brainrot hit a little too hard. I blame @kasimova-dariia for inspiring me with her evil wysma art first (third pic LOOK AT HIM)
I haven't thought it through BUT I’m imagining a Tyria where Wysma somehow ends up as the de facto Inquest Director, and Vloxx/Isgarren are the ones dealing with the Elder Dragons instead (and stalling, because they don't have Aurene).
I think the most interesting version of vloxxmander to me is one where Vloxx has spent a lot of time looking up to and respecting the commander but refusing to allow himself to fall into anything like a parasocial relationship with them. He gets that the person on Pact recruiting posters and news reels is an Image, one that is being used for a lot of goods things but could very easily be put to other uses by the Alliance. So he is determined to keep things Polite but Formal as he figures out what this walking legend is actually like….
And then takes one look at this exhausted, scarred, traumatized beacon of a force of nature that pets any animal that holds still for more than 3 seconds and gets in hot wings eating contests and is so overcome with love/lust/religious devotion he hits the Family Guy death pose hard enough to register on the Richter scale
Taken from here!
Gonna answer these for Commander Enn!
1. Which dragon scared your commander the most?
Kralkatorrik, hands down. Everything about him, the stories she's heard, the very clearly giant branding going down from through Ascalon and into the Crystal Desert, the whole mess with Aurene... everything about him and his existance freaked her out.
And, after everything was done, he scared her in the sense that talking to him changed some fundamental understandings she had of the world and this shift changed, well, everything.
2. Who is your commander closest to now?
It used to be Rytlock, for quite a long time, but then Things Happened ™ and it became Yakkey!
In general, after Icebrood, Enn wanted to give Rytlock all the space he needed and, while they still talked and kept each other updated on things going on with them, a rift inevitably started forming. That rift became huge once the Wizards got involved. Being sucked into a completely different world with no real way of communicating with anyone will do that. But you know who else was there and got sucked in? Yakkey.
That whole experience brought them together more than any of their other shenanigans. While before, they worked more like colleagues, with Yakkey keeping a very strong boundary (what with him being her doctor), being alone together in SotO kind of forced them to open up to each other.
And so, with everything that happened, plus all of their adventures and misadventures from before, they became very good friends.
3. Who was your commander closest to prior?
Rytlock! They didn't have similar views on everything, but they did still agree generally. They formed a strong friendship overtime and still talk regularly!
Enn was very happy when Rytlock surprised her by joining the expedition to Castora.
4. How does your commander remember the fallen?
She would light a few incense sticks by the window and just sit down and take a moment. Nowadays she's busy with, well, everything, but she still tries to do it every now and then.
5. Which death caused your commander the most grief?
Tybalt.
The two of them became good friends while working for the Whispers! His death was the first time she ever had to witness a sacrifice made willingly by someone she was close to in the fight against the dragons. It fueled her to want to be more involved and proactive in dealing with Zhaitan and, later, the other dragons.
6. If your commander could revive one person, who would it be and why?
Actually... no one. She's had a long time to think about death and what it means and she's reached a point, now, where she accepts death as an inevitable aspect of life. While there are many people she misses and that she thinks could have done great things for the world, she also understands that their time has passed.
7. How does your commander feel toward their position of power?
She's gone through a few feelings regarding the matter... First she was quite smug about it, proud in her title and power and what it represented. Then she resented it and the shackles it brought with it, the expectation, the fear...
Nowadays... she's almost indifferent towards it. Nothing will change the reality of what she is and represents and people will look at her as they choose. She's accepted it and, while it still irks her sometimes, especially now with yet another title thrown on her head, she's just trying to live her life without thinking about it too much.
8. Does your commander fear death?
She used to, but not anymore. The fear started ebbing away after her actual death at Balthazar's hands, and it almost completely went away after everything that happened with Soo Woon.
Right now she's at a point where she'd willingly accept death if it came, but she'd still fight tooth and nail before getting there.
9. Does your commander believe they’re on the right path?
For the longest time, yes. But... once the wizards got involved, she's been questioning it. She wants to believe she's doing the right things, taking the right decisions, saving the right people, but the wizards kind of threw her for a loop.
Now, on Castora, with Isgarren and his weird attitude, with Vloxx and everything that hes saying, with everything that she knows about the wizards and their fractals... she genuinely isn't sure anymore.
10. When alone, how does your commander handle grief?
She's kind of... stopped doing it? She used to overthink it and what led to anyone's death and try to think of what she could have done differently. Sometimes, when it got too much, she'd take a moment to herself and just cry it out.
Now, at most, she'll go have a drink. She's too surrounded by it to be that affected by it unless it's someone she really cares about.
Sometimes she worries about her apparent apathy, but she doesn't really know how to fix it. Or if it's even something she should fix.
11. What is the proudest moment your commander has experienced?
Aurene becoming the Prismatic Elder Dragon. She really was sitting there feeling like a proud mom X)
12. How does your commander feel about Braham?
She cares about him dearly. She feels a lot of guilt for how things between them transpired for a while and sometimes thinks on if there would have been a way for their relationship to not have suffered through that patch.
She tries to go visit him sometimes, but isn't even sure if she's welcomed or if Braham's just being polite. However she will continue to go until he tells her to stop. She's proud to see how far he's gotten on his own now :')
13. How does your commander feel about Caithe?
She has... mixed feelings. She will always do her best to respect Caithe in relation to Aurene and appreciates all that she's done for the dragon. However she still struggles, sometimes, to get over all the times Caithe acted without (in her opinion) thinking properly of the overall situation and context.
Enn can't say she goes out of her way to keep in touch with Caithe, but as they're both involved with the Tyrian Alliance, they do see each other and exchange pleasantries ofthen enough.
14. How does your commander feel about the dragons?
Her feelings have changed quite a lot over time. Initially she hated them, as most probably did, for what the world became because of them and all of their destruction.
With time though, and all that she's learned, she has a much more sympathetic view of them. She now understands the many many factors that led to them becoming what they did.
Sometimes she will worry about Aurene, if something were to happen and she'd somehow end up down the same path... But she trusts that she will do her best if such a situation were to come down the line.
15. How has your commander changed overtime?
She's changed a lot in many way; her outlook on life, her priorities, her motivators, her general attitude... Full of ups and downs.
She started off as a pretty optimistic kid, happily going through school and collage. When the dragon thread became more real to her, she joined the whispers and started to properly feel the ramifications of what was happening. Zhaitan made her anxious, Mordermoth made her furious. Kralkatorrik was when her views were challenged entirely, when she went from pure anger to a deeper understanding. She became calmer, more collected and calculating.
The next big shift was when she found out about the Wizards and... everything they were doing and/or dealing with. Isgarren is a lot. She doesn't know how she feels about him to be completely honest. In some ways she understands him, in others she thinks he's delusional. She kind of thinks that he's too high up on his power trip to realize all the consequences of the actions he's taking.
She can't help but compare him to herself and all the mistakes she's made because of her overconfidence.
Their relationship in Castora has been... rocky. He's pissing her off and while she tries to understand the implications of everything for him now, it's a bit hard to really do it when he goes out of his way to tell her nothing. And now with Vloxx and the things he's saying...
16. If given the chance, would your commander give up their fame and power? If so, why?
Yes and no. She'd love to be able to get rid of the weight and responsibilities that come with the title, but she also worries about what would happen if she did.
Would someone else take up the mantle? Would they be able to? Would people trust them? What if they gave way under pressure? What if no one took the mantle in the first place?
There's just too many what if-s, so while she would love to get rid of the fame and power, she thinks she's in a place of too much responsibility and expectations to realistically do it. Many people rely on her now, after all.
17. How many people truly know your commander?
Nowadays...? Not that many. But, in a way, she feels like she doesn't know herself that well anymore either.
18. How does your commander handle stress?
She's a bit low on patience nowadays, after everything, so now she'll manage for as long as she reasonably can and then just get pissed. Depending on the source of her stress, she'll either argue, go rant to someone or, more ofthen than not, grab her weapons and go kill some things :'D
19. How does your commander unwind?
She sleeps like a log lol
20. Can anyone calm your commander down, no matter what? If yes, who and why?
It used to be Aurene. Now that she's off doing her own thing... I don't know actually. Maybe, depending on circumstance, some select people (Yakkey, Rytlock) might be able to calm her down.
