For the ask meme, 5, 20 and 22 for Deirdre if that’s alright !! Hope you’re having a good day ✨
5. How affectionate are they? What are their top love languages?
Deidre is a (surprisingly to most people,) very physically affectionate person once she gets comfortable enough with someone who doesn't have an issue with it. She's a huger, she likes to cuddle or share leg space on the couch, that sort of thing. Most of the Scions only ever see her act that way with Caelen or Haurchefant, and eventually Alisaie (Edmont too they just aren't there for that). People like Alphinaud, Ryne, or Arenvald get more brief contact-affection like ruffled hair or a pat on the shoulder if shes passing them in the hall or something. She also enjoys quality time which could be an actively planned activity or simply sharing the same room doing quiet activities. She also tends to give handmade gifts that serve a specific purpose so that they're useful to the person she's giving it to (totally not a projection of some sort of childhood related issue nah no no way) for example, the daggers she crafted for Thancred to replace the pair that was lost during possession, or the fact that she keeps making Arenvald new armor and weapons to help keep him safe.
20. How many friends do they have?
This is slightly loaded since she perceives relationships and "knowing people" with different standards than most would expect. She can care about someone and their well-being without considering them a Friend, even, which is kind of her relationship with the Scions even now with Endwalker coming up, and even with them considering themselves closer to her than she considers them XD.
Friends Category: Haurchefant, Alphinaud, Jackson and Mihko'a (childhood), Her younger siblings(7), Alisaie (GF), Edmont (New Dad), Sid and Rielle, Her Chocobos and Maggie,
People she likes and chills with: Estinien, Emmanellain, Artoirel, Main Job Quest NPCs, Aymeric, Arenvald
Coworkers (Positive): Lyse, Y'shtola, Tataru, her retainers Xoze'a and Mary (they've seen a LOT), Thancred, Urianger, Yugiri, Gosetsu, Lucia
Coworkers (Derogatory): Papalymo, G'raha Tia
Coworkers (Complicated, aka not Derogatory and she feels kind of bad about it): Fordola, Zenos, Gaius
Coworkers (Neutral): Ironworks NPCs, unmentioned City State Leaders
Pretty much all of these people would consider her a Friend, close friend, or comrade for what they've all been through together (or for what She has been through For Them). She's got atypical requirements. Friends are family here not everyone gets to make that cut.
22. What is something others admire about them? Are they aware that people admire them for this?
People tend to admire her for her more heroic traits like her resilience or compassion or her courage, and consider her to be a noble person. As the Warrior of Light she really has no choice but to be aware of this, and she hates it. She doesn’t think she’s a noble person at all and the fact that she was mythologized as great and virtuous hero for her deeds, and still will be even when the 8th umbral calamity doesn’t kill her, really eats at her. She never wanted to be what she is, and it will not be in her character development to start to want to be the hero. She is with the Scions because there is quite literally No One Else. No One can replace her, she cannot pass the torch, and she cannot escape Hydaelyn either. So Eorzea still has their weapon of Light. Her conviction, beyond the dawn of the 7th astral era, is fueled entirely by what she believes are selfish means. There are specific people who she cares about, and each grand issue she is pointed at is the issue of one of them, and so she helps for Them, rather than for the sake itself of what she’s stopping. Those aren’t noble motivations.
This dragged onXD Thank you for the questions!