#ania straka

[caragaffneyart]

Y'shtola's very weird family accompanies her to a research expedition to Tural. Or at least I assume that's why she ends up there

Rin and Ania have an extremely busy few years in between Endwalker and Dawntrail that may or may not include: one marriage, one PhD Archonship, two kids, one Syndicate seat buyout, and a lot of bullying on behalf of the Ala Mhigan diaspora.

Happy Dawntrail maintenance to all who celebrate!

[rin-khatayin]

FFXIVWrite2023 Day 2: Bark

They’re in the Beta Quadrant when they reach their goal - a quadrant that even Ania will agree is a miserable place, riddled with chimaeras and their malfunctioning keepers.  Thankfully, she spots her quarry after a mere half hour’s search. It’s a tree with a wide, twisting canopy, its bark a little more silvery than its neighbours. A closer inspection of the leaves seems to confirm it.  "Is this it?" she says to Rin, out of habit. Rin squints. "Uh…" Right. If Ania found the tree hard to discern from the others, her plant-blind companions don’t stand a chance. "It is," she decides. 

Not long after the end of the Dragonsong War, Ania uses her botanist skills in the unlikeliest of environments.

[caragaffneyart]

Having au ra kids, or, those eyes are a lot more cute when it isn't 2am

[caragaffneyart]

Oh, I really love messing around on the ipad now... I was going to do a few different sketches and post them all at the end of the month, but then I got carried away with this one.

Rin (Au Ra) is my Warrior of Light, Ania (Roegadyn) is @inremote 's!

[caragaffneyart]

Still not making much progress on any Projects™, but I HAVE been having fun writing/doodling the relationship woes of my Final Fantasy XIV Warrior of Light, Rin, and her fellow WoL, @inremote's Ania Straka, the winner of the 1572 "Most Emotionally Repressed Survivor of Carteneau" award. Thankfully Ania's other girlfriend Y'shtola is happy to lend an ear.

Follow @rin-khatayin for my FFXIV sideblog!

Bonus:

[caragaffneyart]

The interminable wait; the years-long cycle of hope and disappointment, as the Exarch recovered his strength, only to reach across the void and once again retrieve the wrong soul. I consider myself lucky to have only gone through it once, when Alisaie arrived. I cannot imagine what it was like for my friends, to have their hopes dashed again and again.  And surely none suffered more under that grim yoke than Ania. First to be called across the void, with only Thancred for company, separated from the realm that she had tirelessly worked to save, at great cost to her body and mind. Sentenced to wait, and wait, and wait.  Small wonder, perhaps, that she reacted as she did. Though I fear, dear reader, that my account thus far has led you to a poor outlook on her actions, I would caution you against the assumption that you would have behaved with any more propriety.  For in the absence of duty, what was the Source’s sword to do - but to lose herself fully to the deadly purpose for which she had been honed? -- Excerpt from ‘For Those We Can Yet Save: Journeys of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, Vol III’, by Alphinaud Leveilleur

More digital practice using a scene from Umbra Dei, the Shadowbringers rewrite I'm doing with @inremote!

One of the two Warriors of Light arrives in the First alongside Thancred, and does not take it at all well.

[rin-khatayin]

FFXIVWrite Day 15: Portentous

They are on their way back to the Rising Stones from a day spent making careful inroads through the no-man’s-land of traps surrounding the Crystal Tower, when Rin halts in her tracks, looking up at the sky.  Ania stops beside her, and follows her gaze northward, past the crystal-studded mountains in the distance. Though the land around them is still bathed in the golden light from the sunset, deep, black clouds are gathering on the horizon. "A portent," Rin says. Ania snorts. "Of the expedition tomorrow being rained off, aye. Since when have you cared about portents?"

Dark clouds over Mor Dhona reminds Rin of omens she's tried to forget.

[rin-khatayin]

I like writing Rin and Y'shtola's relationship because they are friendly coworkers right up until Shadowbringers kicks off, and then during Shadowbringers a lot of intense stuff happens at once, including:

Ania and Y'shtola starting to date before Rin makes it to the First,

Ania telling Rin about their relationship when she thinks Y'shtola's just died (Ania and Rin are not yet dating but everyone knows they've been holding a torch for one another for YEARS),

Rin immediately dragging Emet-Selch into saving Y'shtola's life,

Rin extracting a promise from Y'shtola a week later that she'll keep Rin's "slowly being overcome by Light" condition secret from everyone else,

Y'shtola discovering 5 minutes later that Rin Knows About Her And Ania, Therefore Knew Full Well She Was Asking Y'shtola To Lie To Her Girlfriend,

complicating their relationship with one another somewhat.

And they're not close, pre-ShB; Rin gets on better with the 'new Scions', i.e. primarily Alisaie and G'raha, whereas Y'shtola is part of the old guard. But they are very similar people, in that they're both quick thinkers and extremely academically minded and love teasing Ania. So writing them navigating being metamours and becoming part of one another's chosen family is a lot of fun.