The statement was in protest to an unasked, unsaid statement. Xadai sat on his old hand-me-down couch, leaned back, arms folded over his chest. He spoke to the other figure with a distinct slur to his speech, indicating that he was, in fact, tired.
Still, he chose to stay awake for as long as possible. He'd go days without sleep if it meant spending more time with her. He learned that time was precious - there was no telling when she'd be dragged away to save the world again.
He shifts, uncrossing his arms to wrap one around her shoulders. Xadai leans to the side slightly, carefully pressing his lips to the top of her head, between her ears.
"...Don't wanna go t' bed yet.." He mumbles, unable to resist resting his head atop hers. Giant lizard boyfriend will certainly not complain about, nor resist the urge to steal some of her body heat.
4. What is their size and build? How does it influence how they use their body, if it does? & 14. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings, or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed? / for l'chai !!
18. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take (best, worst, most likely)? What would cause them to come to pass, and what consequences might they have? What paths would you especially like to see, and why? & 31. Is there anything that counts as a “dealbreaker” for them, positively or negatively? What makes things go smoothly, and what spoils an activity or ruins their day? Why? / for arabuccha !!
putting this under a cut because wow sorry some of these answers got AWAY from me lol........................anyway thank u so much for asking and letting me yap!! you chose rly good questions for both of them...................
for l'chai!
4. what is his size and build? how does it influence how they use their body, if it does?: l'chai's build is fairly average. he still has some muscle leftover from when he spent more time actively questing, and baking unironically takes a lot of strength as well, but he's softened a lot over the years. on top of that. he likes to keep mostly in shape just in the case of emergencies, but at the moment he's found his peace in rolling and munching cinnamon buns LOL. he's fairly tall for a mi'qote, just like his twin sister.
14. what do they care deeply about? what kind of loyalties/commitments/moral codes/life philosiphies/callings/spriitualities/faiths to they have? how do they tend to be expressed?: this is probably going to get very long so bear with me!!! i've thought a LOT about this with chai over the years, it's a lot of the driving force behind my motivations for him as a character! first of all, most simply, l'chai is fiercely loyal. to a fault. for brief context i'll introduce some basic lore and his twin sister as well, sahja jawaal. they were separated in their youth by a forest fire in the shroud, a case of angry elementals. in their separation, she becomes the warrior of light. he finds her in ishgard, because he's a well-renowned fortune teller. specifically, he was taken in by an elder of his little clan or whatever they're called i'm blanking rn, l'kahmuli. she saw his potential for divinatory magics and basically raised her himself, teaching him a localized tradition of divination and spirituality. he's really good! and he knows damn well his sister isn't dead. still kinda fucks him up, but it's a subgoal of his to find her as he journeys the world.
he's curious to learn more about everyone he can see, and more than happy to share his talents with people. he LOVES people! he would do anything to make sure his loved ones are happy, and sometimes the loved ones are just the dudes he sees on the street. he cares deeply about serving others — not in a self deprecatory way. he knows his own worth as well. he doesn't necessarily put himself beneath others, but he's dedicated to giving people all the legs up he can. he was a healer for a long time, too; it's a part of why he gravitated so strongly to ishgardian astrology when he was offered the opportunity to learn. he's very self aware of his own calling, which is in a lot of ways simply to help others. most of the time, it's a simple enough matter. most daily frustrations are easily cured with a tasty treat or a few kind words. but chai sees everything — it's easy for him to pierce through the masks people wear, and his echo is extremely sensitive on top of it. a large part of why he's so able to help is because of how intimately he can see through people. his dreams are often also helpful in some ways in this regard, arguably to chai's own detriment. sometimes, chai almost breaks under the weight of knowing so much, but it's equally as much why he takes his place in life so seriously. not many people can handle what he does, but he can, and he thrives.
he places a lot of faith on a lot of the things many eorzeans do, such as the lifestream, the twelve (at least originally — l'chai has a lot of...complicated feelings post the aglaia raid questlines. that's not to say he's UNfaithful now, but...it's one of the few things to shake him to his core, we'll say). the people, as mentioned, especially his sister and the rest of their party. he places more emphasis than others might on fate and on the internal spirit of someone, especially after the developments of shadowbringers. at the end of the day, i'd distill it all down to a deep faith in love for the people. hydaelyn struck a deep chord with him for this reason, so he also clings to her dearly. l'chai is also, in general, probably more spiritual than the average eorzean, in terms of superstitions. i believe he also has a few he carries specifically from the l' clan, but i don't know anything in specific off the top of my head. and to be clear, with regards to his divination, chai is not under the impression that things are unchangeable; he knows many things about the future are malleable (i mean hell he has a bad end au where he becomes a sort of reaper after trying and failing to bring sahja back from the dead), but he believes that certain things he sees are not, like things that nag at him incessantly.. ouhh i could probably keep going but ill stop there sorry
tldr chai is driven by love, very superstitious, very loyal. has a very high moral code, but at the end of the day boils down to "do more good than harm". it shows itself in how giving he is, and how empathetic.
for arabuccha!
18. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take (best, worst, most likely)? What would cause them to come to pass, and what consequences might they have? What paths would you especially like to see, and why?: this question to arabuccha is so funny to me because i really do go back and forth and back and forth. i started developing arabuccha around when dawntrail was gearing for release, and my initial plots for him back then were....so different lmao. they're such a chameleon because while chai is my exploration in what it's like TO prophesize etc, arabuccha is very much so the opposite side of the coin.
he's a mol, and while i'm still working out what exactly was said by telumun when he was young, but especially among the mol — not exactly known for their strength, collectively — they are a bit of an anomaly. and it's a reputation that follows arabuccha in the way the other kids whisper about them in their youth. i don't think there was malintent, there, but he's heard he's supposedly been walking a tightrope for as long as he can remember. i think he and everyone else assumes one day he's going to eat himself alive with his magic, and that's certainly not off the table.
but ironically, i think that would mostly begin to happen in a universe where he becomes a bit kinder, for some reason or another. he's a black mage, and he has ties to the void; he's smart enough to be careful with it for his own sake. i could, though, see a timeline where in his newly renewed dedication to save the day or whatnot he becomes being more aggressive and less careful in the way he allows the voidsent to borrow his body, prompting a slow transformation not unlike the ones you see with the light-infused creatures of shadowbringers, just sort of reversed. (ironically, speaking of, i feel like if you were to douse arabuccha with light aether like that you'd essentially be nerfing him, but to his benefit with a more stable balance of aetheric energies inside. just a small note but sorry shb was just Peak so i think ab it a lot).
worst...i kind of struggle to think about? not in a weird way, but just because i'm still narrowing down his like motivations yk, but it's easy to see arabuccha just...never really growing beyond the way others percieve him as 'monster' because if at the end of the day that's all they see, what's the point? he's barely opened his mouth before people are making judgements — in the steppe, the mol tribe is small enough that everyone knows him. and then their body begins changing, their tail growing, more scales sprouting, claws lengthening, fangs barely staying in their mouth and it's impossible to ignore the stares. why push himself to be better when everyone expects otherwise? when he's so isolated the only thing that makes him feel alive is another discovery, another breakthrough? part of him knows he could use his studies and his magic for a lot of good, but for the most part it's hard for him to bring himself to care for a world that's just as happy to chew him up too. so in a way that calm worst end is probably the most likely too, where he just kind of wanders the world as a general like. like it's not like he's causing pain just to cause pain or anything, but he becomes a very dog eat dog douchebag over time.
i could see also like a "worst" end where he finds something that could cure/rid him of this. and while ultimately i think in his main timeline he would never take that, prefers being like this not in a weird selfish way but in a he's come to love himself despite everything way, but maybe in this timeline he's less at peace. maybe he hurt someone deeply once and he can't forgive himself for it. maybe he's trying to steal that light for himself at all costs, just for a sense of normality. maybe there's the warrior of light in play and he's after their ass for their light aether idk...very interesting to think ab thou
31. Is there anything that counts as a “dealbreaker” for them, positively or negatively? What makes things go smoothly, and what spoils an activity or ruins their day? Why?: he actually has.....SO many pet peeves it's hilarious. he spills water on the page on accident? day ruined. his tea gets a little too cold? ruined. hes stuck behind someone walking way too slow? day ruined. debating simply Stepping Over this lalafell. but i think he doesn't even realize like. while there aren't near as many, there's quite a few just as minute things that elate him very deeply as well. seeing his favorite flowers, finding feathers to keep on the ground, when his tea is Just The Right Temperature. arabuccha thinks of themself as very negative, but in an ideal world more accurately i'd call them very moodswingy eiudhiuasd. he finds the book he's been hunting for????? literally anything bad could happen that day and he's still out there grinning from horn to horn. he really likes when he wakes up and gets a good start to the day — with little difficulties in breakfast, travelling, dressing, etc, after a night with no nightmares. somehow it's very hard to bother him on those days sometimes.
The restaurant was busy tonight, but of course Xadai had been smart enough to make their reservation ahead of time. He had sent her a message to meet him at a certain time - but of course his luck was shit. He was about ten minutes late, which meant she was likely sitting alone for a little while.
So, Xadai was more than a little frazzled when he stooped through the doors, an unhappy frown on his face as his eyes search the tables for her - only for his frown to deepen into a scowl when he takes note of another figure sitting at the table with her. In HIS chair.
It was obvious that the guy was trying to flirt with her. It was Valentione's Day, after all, and he was probably single and trying to score. Too bad, so sad.
"-he obviously stood ya up, why don't we ditch this lame joint for somewhere a bit more qu-"
The words are cut off with a gag when a scaled hand grabs him by the back of his shirt and yanks him up and out of the chair. Others around them gasp as Xadai tosses the man aside, glaring daggers at him.
"You're in my chair, punk. Beat it." Comes Xadai's growling voice, before he abruptly turns and sits down in the chair across from Kehda. Paying no more attention to the stunned man, he glances at her, and his brows furrow upward into a less-hard expression.
"...Sorry I'm late. Something came up." Will he elaborate? No. More likely that he simply couldn't, judging from the tension in his features.
"what do you think of chocolates?" kehda rolls a wrapped chocolate between her fingers, "you're welcome to the ones i have been gifted. i've no use for something i cannot even taste." they had been a gift from one of the more festive scions. no one should feel alone during valentione's, they had said. if only they knew that she wasn't always alone. / for xadai !!
"Depends on what kind they are." Xadai shrugs, seated comfortably with a certain Miqo'te sat at his side. He hadn't expected to spend Valentione's Day with anyone. He was almost certain that Kehda would be up to her eyeballs again in potential suitors bombarding her with gifts. He supposed he wasn't entirely wrong, though, and part of him felt amused that she would take a gift from someone else and opt instead to share it with him.
A heartbeat later, he continues, as a scarred, scaled hand plays idly with some of her hair:
"I'm partial to dark chocolate myself. Unless it's got caramel in it." He makes a face, his nose scrunching in distaste even at the thought of the sugary substance. "I guess I like my sweets, a little less sweet."
blood, sender cleans blood off of receiver. / to xadai !!
He sat in silence for a long.. long time. The blood on his hands and clothes had long since dried when she found him, sitting on the floor in his apartment with his back against the wall. There wasn't much of a reaction from him, when she approached with a bowl of water and a clean, wet cloth. Though, as it touched a spot that harbored a gash on his arm, he hissed, and winced, before his face fell neutral again.
"...You don't have to do this.. but thanks.." He says, his voice soft, but still ever as deep. He watched her for a long few moments, a deep frown pulling at his features.
"...I was tasked with a job. Some poor sod in Tailfeather with a bounty on his head... I got him, but.. not without my fair share of wounds."
“I know you can manage it, but you don’t have to.” / for xadai !!
She was half right, half wrong. Xadai grunts in response to her words, holding up his bowl of leftover stew that wasn't quite as warm as he would have liked it. Still. He was hungry, and he wasn't going to let his wounded leg keep him from getting something to eat.
He had opted to let her sleep while he got up for his late (late) dinner. Though his efforts to remain quiet had failed it seemed, and he considers her as he chews his meal, notably keeping his weight off of his one leg. It hurt like a bitch, but pain was nothing new to him.
Finally, he swallows his bite, and shrugs his shoulders.
"I wasn't about to wake you up in the middle of the night for something dumb like this. Leg might be broken, but I'm not totally helpless..."
A pause.
"...Besides, I don't like the taste of the painkillers."
@idealhost said: "I don't know what I did to have this fate, I'm drenched in it." / hlynur ! / prompt.
What was he meant to say? In truth, there was certainly a burden placed upon her shoulders. One that Hlynur could not fathom. He had not known her that long. He had killed plenty of supposed heroes. None had the same measure of idolization that she did. Not were any as remarkably capable.
Fate though... No. Hlynur didn't believe in it. People made their own fates. If it was by design that his mother died in the snow. That he was left all alone to be preyed upon by a voidsent... Then what was the point of anything? Fate was something either you chose or others chose for you. His fate was sealed long ago.
"If you don't like, why don't you just run away? Fate is something that you either choose or is chosen for you, isn't it? You're strong enough to choose your own. It isn't about deserving it."
i'm afraid for you. afraid you're making a terrible mistake. / also xadai ...... (:
"Yeah, well, that's future me's problem."
Xadai had a pretty decent tolerance to spicy food. But when he heard about the curry that Kehda herself had chosen the spice for, how could he NOT try it? Besides, someone had to show up all these weaklings sweating bullets just off one bite of the stuff.
