#garlezen

[aces-and-kings]

"Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it." - Katherine Whitehorn

[talechaser-ffxiv]

What Smell Are You - P’shali, Arjeant, Athanasius

( I got tagged three times, so you get three!)

P’shali Talechaser

Arjeant Greystone

Athanasius (Lysander oen Lysidulus)

...Sounds about right.  Nasius doesn’t smell anywhere near that nice, though.

Take the test: HERE

Tagged by: @shur-kha-ffxiv, @spotofmummery, and @thedarkestdragonknight

Tagging: @theaetherhealerffxiv, @skyysinger, @jarethnunh, @benes-diction, and anyone else that wants to try it because my tags are being a tad difficult right now!

[talechaser-ffxiv]

Trust NPC: Athanasius

Selection: “Why are we fighting?”

Job: Duplicarius (Tank)

Weapons: Two-handed swords

AI Behavior: Athanasius is unstable and unpredictable as a trust partner, with a greater than average range of aggression.  Any enemy that enters this range is immediately targeted and attacked, regardless of whether the party is already in combat.  If any other party member is attacked, he immediately targets the attacking enemy to draw its attention.  He is not the best when it comes to maneuvering enemies away from allies, so party members will need to adjust to avoid any AoE attacks. Athanasius himself tends to stand in AoE attacks due to a lack of awareness, though he will use damage-mitigation abilities for more powerful attacks.

At random points in battle, Athanasius will experience an increase in damage output while also taking more damage during the fight.  Healers will want to be aware of this so they can react accordingly.  Athanasius also has a unique “Panic” debuff that stacks depending on the cumulative amount of damage he has taken in combat.  When a certain number of stacks is reached, Athanasius loses control and goes into Frenzy, unleashing a flurry of attacks dealing a large amount of damage to all enemies within range while reducing his health to 1 HP with a temporary invincibility ability (this ability will not prevent a party wipe in the event of a DPS check).  However, Frenzy also damages allies within range, making combat in enclosed spaces hazardous.  Healing actions will reduce the risk of adding Panic, shielding abilities will mitigate damage contribution to the Panic debuff stat, and if enough time elapses after receiving enough damage to trigger the debuff, his Panic will reset to 0. This makes Athanasius a dangerous ally to party with, though if a player is willing to put in the effort of assistance and exercise patience in allowing Athanasius to recover between battles.

Due to his lack of awareness, Athanasius will almost never use a limit break.  However, if his health is dangerously low when a high-damage attack is incoming, Athanasius will reflexively use limit break if it is available.  If Athanasius is in Frenzy when the attack is triggered, limit break will not be used.

 Battle Lines:

“Fight me, savages!” - Starting Attack Line “You will fall!” - Using Specialty Skills, Variation 1 “We will not lose!” - Using Specialty Skills, Variation 2 “Keep fighting!” - Assisting an ally “Why…?” - Panic, Variation 1 “I can’t…. I…”  - Panic, Variation 2 “They won’t stop…”  - Panic, Variation 3 “Hah… haha…”  - Panic, Variation 4 “AAAAAAAH!” (panicked scream)  - Frenzy, Variation 1 “AHAHAHAHA!” (maniacal laughter)  - Frenzy, Variation 2

Limit Break:

“NO!” - Using limit break

KO’d:

“Finally…” - Variation 1 “…Celia…” - Variation 2

Revived:

“No…” - Variation 1 “Where…?” - Variation 2

Bonus:

If left idle, Athanasius tends to cycle through     idle stances regularly.  Occasionally,     he will do /panic and /aback

Rarely, Athanasius may /chuckle or /laugh.  Athanasius does not need to be idle for     this, and may even do so in combat.

Okay so technically I did this already for P’shali and Arjeant, but I knew I had missed a tag (I was tagged by @thorcatte but on my main account, hence why I didn’t see it when doing these), so I was planning on doing this anyways.  It just took me a while because work is exhausting.

I couldn’t help but try and think about how Nasius’s madness would work in a game.  I don’t know if these mechanics would work in game (let alone if they’d be balanced) but it was fun to think about.

Blank templates can be found here.  (Thank you once again @spotofmummery)

I’m also tagging @benes-diction.   Just because I can.  She doesn’t have to do it.  I’m just tagging her.  For reasons.

[talechaser-ffxiv]

“...my kitten...”

So @thedarkestdragonknight and I have been rping these two for a bit, and it turns out Xheta’ra is just pathetic and timid enough that he looks like a scared kitten to Athanasius’s broken brain.  This has led to uncomfortable situations such as being petted with bloody hands and offered dried meats that are probably well beyond their best-by date.

At least this means that Xheta is safe from Athanasius’s sword for the most part.  Athanasius would never hurt a kitten.  In fact, he’d most certainly hurt anyone that does.

[talechaser-ffxiv]

✍ Favorite thing about writing the muse? 📑 Favorite part of your muse’s backstory?

(The RNG Gods have spoken: You have been given Athanasius and Arjeant respectively)

My favorite part of writingAthanasius is, interestingly enough, his mental illness.  After struggling with mental illness for solong, it’s fun to just cut loose inside someone’s head and think about just howbroken the world can seem through their eyes. It’s cathartic, and it helps me feel better.  A lot of Athanasius’s issues are my issues,but taken to severe extremes.  That said:while I joke about his mental state, it’s only because I see him as anextension of myself.  Anything I do laughat is stuff that’s more or less something I’ve experienced myself.  I also tend to simplify to downplay the horrorof what he’s really going through.  Soyou might see me laugh about him being scared of trees, but what I really meanis “trees look like screaming fleshy abominations that wear the faces ofeveryone he’s failed to protect.”

My favorite part of Arjeant’sbackstory would be his connection to the knight ‘Lazuli.’  It’s been said before that Lazuli is mycharacter from FFXI that I played from 2006 until roughly 2011 or so.  When I first made Arjeant, he actuallystarted out as Lazuli waking up in Eorzea (just like Iroha from the FFXI crossoverevent).  Even when I decided to make Lazuliinto Arjeant, I decided to just make him look as bedraggled, tired and ‘done’ aspossible (unintentionally making him look like Haurchefant in the process).  As I built him up more, he became less Lazuliand more his own character, but I wanted to keep that connection.  Once I came up with the idea to have himconnected to her through the soulstone, everything just fell into place and Ijust feel so happy with that.  I can’teven begin to describe it.

Mun Talks About the Muse

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29. Does what they cannot see scare them?

(Choice of the RNG gods: Athanasius)

YES.  Athanasiushas been fighting in battle after battle nonstop for the pastwho-knows-how-many years.  He’s been onthe receiving end of ambushes, he’s had people attack his camps in the dead ofnight, seen food and water supplies poisoned, and seen the aftermath of areasthat had been targeted simply for being supply outposts, infirmaries, ormagitek maintenance areas.  He’s beenlucky enough to come out alive, but this is how he’s lost most (if not all) ofthe few friends he’s ever had.  This,along with just about everything else in his life, has left him with a heftyamount of PTSD to exacerbate his psychoses. He fears the quiet, he fears the dark, he fears the blind spot justbehind his head that he can never see no matter how hard he tries…  He fears. He fears with every fiber of his being. And he doesn’t know how to Make It Stop.

Not-So-Nice Asks

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By anonymous request (*cough @thedarkestdragonknight cough*), here are some screenshots I used in previous asks.

If any of them look different, they’re alternate variations due to me mashing the screenshot key when I try different color settings, and I picked the wrong one.

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13. Which of the 7 Deadly Sins best describes them?

(Choice of the RNG gods: Athanasius)

Wrath

 Athanasius is best ascribed to the sin of wrath,because it drives a lot of the harm he does, even with his mind so horriblybroken.  He holds a lot of hatred in hisheart—hatred toward his mother for blaming his father for a crime shecommitted, resulting in his execution; hatred towards Garleans for seeing himas a savage simply because his father was aan; hatred towards non-Garleans forseeing him as the enemy simply because he’s Garlean; hatred towards thenameless, faceless ‘savages’ he’s had to fight, especially due to the number offriends he’s lost to the war; and hatred towards himself for being such a wreckand not able to understand the world around him anymore.

This is the main reason why his breakdowns can resultin violence.  However, he’s just aslikely to break down crying or collapse into fits of maniacal laugher, so hisreactions are very unpredictable. However, very certain triggers will likely lead to a fight simplybecause that’s all his brain knows how to do anymore.  He usually feels bad about it afterwards—withvery, very specific exceptions.

Not-So-Nice Asks