first off, let me say holy crap. iāve been writing ardyn since the middle of march of 2018 ( march 16th was the day this blog launched oh my god ) and iāve come such a tremendously long way since then in terms of both being his handler and as a person. iāve changed a lot over this year; iāve let some very old stuff go so itās no longer dragging me down, iāve learned to be gentler and kinder to people and most especially to myself, and iāve fallen so deeply in love with ardyn that itās ridiculous. oh, not a romantic love by any stretch, but justā love. heās such a complex character and iām having so much fun pulling him apart. ( boy, lucifer, calm your sadistic ass down. )
i honestly never anticipated falling for ardyn as hard as i have, despite the fact that heās very much the kind of muse that iāve always favored over the years; if thereās a villain in something, usually, i go for them pretty hard. and boy oh boy, did i go hard for ardyn. i genuinely first stepped into the fandom writing gladio, but that didnāt last. i donāt remember what point it was that i yelled out ā fuck it ! ā and picked ardyn up in the process of playing the game, but it mightāve been close to the end. it was certainly during that playthrough, though, that i found myself becoming absolutely fascinated with him. my twin knew. she knew. she absolutely knew i was going to fall head over heels for him. honestly, itās kind of interesting i never went for him first, but he kind of snuck into my head and made himself and home and now he wonāt leave and iām too happy to have him around to make him go away.
and boy, i look at how i was writing ardyn at the start of things and then how he shifted profoundly in my portrayal and now i think iāve got a great grasp of him overall. but honestly, i wouldnāt have done so well with him if i hadnāt gotten such amazing folks to write with along the way either! seriously, i get to look at some of you and i just grin because without you guys, i wouldnāt have made it this far. so i suppose i should shut up and show yāall off, right, those of you whoāve been a lot of impact on myself and the muse!
first off, the people that i just gotta yell about!
@somnalhymn / @defial / @necrtic / @fatedhymn : hey ezra, guess what, youāre first indeed. like, honestly, i think i had to put you first. you were a major, major inspiration for a lot of stuff that came through with my muse recently ( especially that headcanon i wrote ) and i honestly adore talking to you. youāre one of my best friends and i love seeing your writing on my dash. marcel is one of my favorite characters to read, youāre writing the antichrist, AND you also bring around the one person ardyn wants to fuck up more than anything. how could i NOT adore you? your writing is always a genuine treat to read and you give your characters such great personality that itās always fun to get into things with you. guess what, youāre stuck with me.
@pistolhymnā / @unhclybeastā : hi vic! i know we donāt talk as much as iād like to but i always notice you around on the dash and grin because youāre fun to watch. honestly, i love seeing whatās going on and i really should bother you and your prompto a lot more often because woo boy ardyn is an asshole and he likes to terrorize him a little too much and thatās how it goes. shoot him in the face, though. just do it. please. someone needs to. but seriously, iām super glad iāve gotten to be friends with you! youāre amazing!
@stealsfaces : hey, viral, youāre on here too! i know we donāt talk much but itās always great to talk with you, period, and iām always happy to see a fellow phan around! i honestly just wanna chuck ardyn at all of your characters and see what chaos can ensue from doing so, but iām a little awful like that. well, a lot awful actually. but itās fun listening to you talking about your characters and seeing your art and i absolutely have to spend time laughing over seeing whatās going on with pavi too! you make him so adorable and so cute and i love it. keep on beinā awesome!
@tempcsts / @stcrshell : so, hey, hey, a.k. iām so glad i sent you that ask that got you following me that one night and that you DID decide to do so because holy heck iāve gotten to plot things out with you and you better believe ardymās ready to do bad things to both gladio and prompto. iām also so happy that i got to be the exception to your no ardyns rule and that iāve successfully devastated you with this old bastard. getting to harass your gladio and prompto always puts a smile on my face and iāve formed a pretty good modern version of ardyn in my head thanks to you. i look forward to seeing what we can get into in 2019 together!
@sagcfire : yo, mash. i just found you out of the blue one day ( probably through a.k. ) and just clicked follow and then. then. THEN i dragged you down into ardnis hell and iām absolutely not sorry in the least. youāre such a fun person to write with and i love all the stuff we have going on. your ignis is such a sassy person and i adore the way you handle him and give him that caring edge while making it absolutely clear heās ready to cut a bitch. iām so slow sometimes and i apologize but you put up with me and share pictures of your pupper and iām grateful for it. so hereās to finding out what will happen come the new year, right?~ letās do it!
@pikacheeka : and of course you are on this thing. pika, you are one of the most amazing people iāve met over 2018. i found your first fic on here by pure random chance, had to reblog it and scream about it, and then i went and read it on ao3 and screamed about it there, and then we started talking and i dragged you into the fun times of roleplay. and what roleplay weāve done! weāve done so much in such a short period of time and weāre both ardyn fanatics and weāre both more than happy to discuss some of that stuff that we both know would make other people sideeye us. but honestly, i love that i got to talking to you and writing with you and just having you in my life. youāve got such a fantastic grasp on ardyn and ignis alike and i just try keeping up with you on things as much as i can. i know stuffās been hard for you but hopefully 2019 will produce better results. youāre my partner-in-crime and i adore you to pieces when all is said and done. you make me think about how to reinterpret ardyn constantly and i love it. we can bounce off of each other and while i know youāre a stickler for canon and i play fast and loose with it, we both agree on many things regarding him. so hereās to 2019 and seeing what will come. and, you know, itāll be the year of our death when the episode drops. no biggie!
@ofrhapsodes : so amor has to be on here too because, guess what, youāre one of the most fantastic writers iāve seen! your genesis is fabulous and i also admire versus from afar as well. i love that i can already hear you screaming at me from the future for what iām going to write and knowing that itāll be a fantastic time because iām a liiiiiiiittle mean like that, but the chemistry between your genesis and my sephiroth is always dazzling to me. they click so well and i honestly would love to see us get something written in a time frame where itās just them being softer and kinder to one another. but youāre awesome and i always love seeing you around on my dash. itās superb!
@luciantechnophile / @crownblackbird : hey, you two, iām smooshing you together in this because i canāt have one of you without the other. i honestly remember just following alex at a casualĀ āoh hey another promptoā glance and then things just exploded. ardynās got a son, and a nephew heās not so fond of ( but thatās normal ) and you two are amazingly cute together. i love getting to hear about both of you and what youāre up to and itās so much fun to have you both on my dash. we need to all sit down and properly write some stuff out, of course, but i just love getting to be friends with both of you. keep on being amazing. you two give me hope for myself. that and i get to cackle about some stuff that i toss at you guys. alex, ollie, you guys are awesome and i hope you both know that! keep on being amazing together, yeah?
@glysimachiaā : djaq, i had to throw you on here too. you just blasted onto the scene with gaea and iāve been enthralled with her ever since. sheās so gorgeous and beautiful and your writing is fantastic. we just started throwing gaea and ardyn together without any hesitation and i adore seeing what you toss out there so much. you draw me in with everything you write and youāve just got a beautiful presentation on your character. honestly, you always make me cackle in glee so much and i consider you one of the better friends iāve got, even if we donāt talk as much as we should. but iām hoping that 2019 will help change this! some day, weāve got to sit and make a proper thread happen! until then, though, itāll be great to just hang out with you!
and now, onto the honorable mentions! ( which means i notice you out there; you might not think i do but i do! )
@dragonaeaā / @bladestruckā / @ultimabladedā / @guncoboā / @gotitmemorisedā / @triggerxhappyā / @scientiadelicacyā / @gldius / @antimundi / @leorugiet / @sixba / @auraculxm / @rexcrystallis / @argentumtonitrua / @astralwritten / @chainedvaliance / @hayareach / @heroicglaive / @pitofgloom / @dvoveo / @avengeir / @thexrightxhand / @ardorminerva / @dawnryse / @petiitpriince / @igtia / @bladestruck / @onuscientia / @vxmpirehunterd / @khresme / @chosenbythecrystal / @falsecoded / @chainedempire / @photowove / @nomadicnovice
& everyone else that follows me and i follow in return! thank you all for a wonderful 2018! hereās to doing even better in 2019!