23) If there's something they could forget, what would it be?
For Ellie: As little as I've actually figured out about the details of her Pearl Lane era, I'm 99% certain it's that. If losing her parents and getting rejected from the Studium was the first crack in her view of an ideal life, whatever happened on Pearl Lane ruined her so much that she refuses to acknowledge it even to me dammit woman help me out here. Whatever it was, it drove her to abandon everything and run away again and killed her drive to make anything of herself; it was extremely easy to fall into a ditch when she didn't think she had any reason to climb out of it. she very much wouldn't have if Raya-O-Senna hadn't found her in it. With pretty much anything in the MSQ giving her A Reason to Go On, she really doesn't like thinking about the time in her life where she had no reason.
For Mia: even after confronting him and killing him...Mia feels sick to her stomach thinking about her father. She wasn't mistreated as a child or anything; as far as she's concerned, she lived a pretty decent childhood...because she was unaware or unable to confront the sort of work her father was doing for the Empire. and right when she was able to start considering it, he threw her out. thinking about what she grew up ignoring, what she might've been able to do to stop him (she couldn't have done anything, she was a kid, but that doesn't stop the self-guilt-tripping), what her father would go on to do (kill her mother in an experiment, run the war machine for the Empire's occupation of Ala Mhigo, develop the Resonant by torturing Krile and Lily and imbuing it into Fordola and Zenos, create the souljacking technology that Fandaniel uses to swap Ellie's and Zenos's bodies...)... She doesn't have any regrets about killing him during the battle for Ala Mhigo. But she blames herself for "letting" him do those things that grievously harmed her friends, and on some level is bitter that her father couldn't have been a good person like Ellie's or Lyse's fathers.
So if she could forget anything: it's Aulus mal Asina.
For Lily: the traumatic event that drove her to leave home was a toxic boyfriend who had enough of a social cachet in her clan--he probably eventually goes on to claim nunh--that she started getting dirty looks and rumors spread about her after she broke up with him, and even her own family struggled to believe he was such an awful person, and fuck if she's willing to subject herself to that atmosphere, having to constantly hear about how great he is and being treated as a pariah for something she doesn't believe was her fault (...entirely). so honestly? her entire story arc kind of is "i want to forget my fucker of an ex, not realizing that doing so would prevent me from learning developing and growing as a person and allow me to actually move on."
which on some level is true for all of them. the question is what they would forget, not whether it's healthy, after all. :V
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26) I answered the elements for Ellie here, so I'll answer for Mia and Lily. Mia, as someone who values stability and is dedicated to protecting what she loves, feels pretty strongly associated with earth. Lily, as someone who is not only graceful and agile in combat but is trying to learn how to move with life's flow, has a strong association with water. I don't know if this actually manifests for either of them as literal "aspected to this in-universe," but I like the themes of 'em, at least. also an easy answer for "which elements would they bend in the ATLA universe" lmao.
Finally finished up some outfits and names for the other half of the New Orphidian Wrestling Federation. They might be the biggest wrestling org in the country, but damn if it's not a small country.
General plotline thoughts and gimmicks under the cut
NOWF (not the best acronym) is the national wrestling federation for New Orphidian, which is a tiny little island nation. A tax-haven of an island nation, mind you, so it does have some stars, but it's nowhere near the biggest league around. It's got a decent budget, but is sufficiently gimmick-heavy.
The current major storyline features relative newcomer, Chromium Mono, styled as The False Idol. He was a massive get, and is effectively playing a fictionalised version of himself. It'd be hard not to, given his prior celebrity.
He came in swinging as a heel, doing a Dr Jekyll-Mr Hyde style bit, where he is a malevolence overtaking the sweet and corporate pop musician he was previously known as. What helps supremely with this, is that his real-life husband, Tabitha Boss has been folded into the story too, being quite literally his old manager-- And, a relative of the skeevy owner of NOWF, Casper Jr.
(Guys who didn't make it onto the picture vvv. Lightning strike is long retired after a... legal scandal.)
Playing the part of an evil corporate overlord, Tabitha mostly just stands there and looks scary. In Kayfabe, Chrome was literally manufactured as part of their schemes, and his lab-grown nature is what has lead to his eeeevil side.
He is presently involved in the 'brainwashing' of several other wrestlers, and must be stopped before the whole establishment loses their free will...
Next up, an even more recent newcomer (who is not long for the business), is Weapon M. Scouted out by Chrome himself, they were quickly snapped up by the establishment after demonstrating honest-to-god super-strength. Kid can bend a steel pipe without breaking a sweat.
They're a bit of a clumsy liability, being rather untrained, but they fit in perfectly with the whole supersolider narrative they're starting to build, so a rather generic costume was quickly altered to fit them and into the ring they were tossed.
Now, as for more established wrestlers...
Baron Prince, a guy who is so averse to breaking Kayfabe, it's honestly unclear if they are even doing it. This might just be the way they act for real.
Speaking and acting like 18th century nobility, Baron is not really a Heel, moreso just the kind of coward who always tries to pick the winning side. Obviously, this means they get their comeuppance for their treacherous nature quite frequently, and is a great guy to love to hate, even if sometimes. they're on the 'good' side.
Now, poor Bunnyhop is just a regular ol' face. They just also happen to be a jobber, given their skittish demeanor and lanky frame. You always feel bad watching them get thrown around-- and quite often, betrayed by Baron-- but they do a really good job selling it.
The Fence was once a heel, being as imposing as they are-- but sometimes a guy is so lovable outside the ring, it bleeds into their image. They, along with Miracle, are the most prolific in terms of charitable acts and appearances.
In the ring, their actual moveset hasn't changed much since their heel days, still acting as an immovable slab of raw muscle and fat. They aren't all too much taller than their opponents-- in fact, being shorter than bunnyhop and several others-- but their presence is overwhelming. Much like their name would imply, they act as a barrier, stopping anyone from getting past.
Miracle Okami, however, is The Big One. He's the face of the company, and if he didn't have such upstanding moral fibre, would've been snapped up by bigger and better circuits long ago.
Beloved by children across the nation, Miracle too never drops kayfabe-- Since he's just that cool in real life too. The only thing that really changes are his soft jelly-plastic shades being swapped out for real ones.
He is practically a superhero, and has obviously won many a major tournament, only ever tapping out to give someone else a well-deserved win. He even has superpowers, often being allowed to "control electricity" and "create sparks from his hands" via use of light pyrotechnics and lights shows.
He's just impossible to hate (unless you're an edgy teenager, of course, but that's more on them than him).
5-tonne and Bug-squasher are, traditionally, a tag team, albeit one with slightly unaligned goals. 5-tonne is a rude little man, who isn't opposed to fighting dirty, where Bugsquasher is a brute with a heart of gold.
She is, however, often allowed to bring the severed plane tail fin into the ring to use as a weapon.
Allegedly, 5-tonne is similarly a pain backstage, too, and is thus not super good friends with the rest of the performers-- a spot that would otherwise be taken by Baron Prince. Even Bug-squasher, who has been partners with him since the local leagues, has started to take umbridge with him, though she's keeping it civil.
Harley "Heartstopper" Sorell is yet another face, though she's very much the scary kind. A bringer of justice, she's probably best described as being a cop. It helps that she hangs out with them in real-life too, which is, uhhhhh. She rides motorcycles okay.
She's obviously a bit of a fan favourite, as people love cops who Take Justice Into Their Own Hands, but backstage she's seen as a major narc, and will be the first one to tattle on you to management if you start badmouthing them. She's a suckup, but unfortunately she's also one of the few in the federation who comes from an MMA background, rather than theatre, making her a force to be reckoned with.
Diamond-eye Jack is presently here on loan from halfway across the world. A bit of a peace offering between corporations, y'know.
He's the butchest woman in a 500 mile radius, and plays a traditional western cowboy. Very exotic for New Orphidian-- They don't have those here. He can even use a lasso! How exciting.
He is however, acting as an excellent foil for Chrome right now. Pop music vs Country is a classic little culture war, and Jack's cool, calm and suave demeanor plays great against Chrome's ruthless posturing.
They've also got a kind of, cowboy-ninja thing going on with Miracle. A beautiful alliance between cultures. Love wins.
Selene Dulcibel is not yet in the ring, but will be soon. One of Chrome's genuine ex-girlfriends from back in his 20s, the two had a viciously public breakup that was the talk of tabloids for months.
They were also, however, both deeply traumatised people. While Chrome has gotten over it by becoming numb to the whole ordeal, Selene is still very, very hurt. She knows, logically, now, that none of it was his fault-- But-- Well--
A good friend of The Fence outside the ring, when she found out Chrome was back in the country and had become her bestie's co-worker, she kind of, maybe, suggested the storyline.
The Fence thought it was a bad idea (it is), since Selene isn't in a great place mentally, but Casper Jr. LOVED the idea. You can't manufacture bitterness this real and true. She'll be making her debut soon, and it's probably not going to go well for anybody.
The Mad Doctor is not really a wrestler, but is allowed to be gently picked up and thrown around by Chrome. It's all in good fun.
They aren't really canon, being, under the mask, Ali Alighieri. A character who only exists in Purrgatorio. In this continuity however, they are basically Chrome and Tabitha's weird adopted teenager that they found, and so they play a supplementary character to their acts-- The Mad Scientist who 'created' Chrome in the first place.
(The Mad Doctor and Weapon M are effectively mutually exclusive, Chrome only has the capacity to mentor one nonbinary teenager per timeline, oops.)
... Mostly though, Casper's writing quality tends to come out a bit like a guy smacking action figures together, so the circuit isn't held in much high regard by international fans. Everybody loves Miracle, though.
how are ellie, mia, and lilyana doing in arcadion? having fun, stressing out, secret third thing, secreter fourth thing? isk if ive seen you post about it yet... but if not consider this a loose writing prompt?
i thought i had posted something but turns out nope it's just in the one scrivener doc of random notes and even then it was just the barest hint of something lol. so thank you for prompting! <3
I had that hint of something but not many details, so this is the result of more thinking about the Arcadion storyline than I ever thought I was gonna do (i was just along for the crazy-ass fights before, but now i'm legit invested in and hooked by the actual story?? wild lol).
but one thing I know for sure is Ellie is in for the fights and the show of it all from the beginning...
This got long, as expected, so under the cut:
I don't think she's aimless in Dawntrail and she's finding some purpose in mentoring Lamaty'i, but she's definitely getting a little antsy after defeating Sphene and mulling over the key with Y'shtola. so when doug dimmadome owner of the dimmsdale dimmadome Metem approaches her, she realizes she's been slacking a little in exercising that muscle that only two people have ever really gotten her to flex: Zenos and Gulool Ja Ja. By this point, she's come to terms with sharing love for the thrill of the battle with Zenos. So if this dude's offering a no-stakes environment to test her limits, and people are going to cheer for her to do so? she is pumped and ready.
and I don't think she's just turning down the regulator, she refuses to accept even the slim justification for other MMO players - none of the girls are impressed by the soul economy of Alexandria and they all vowed to never use them like that. I think she just says straight up to Metem "I don't want them, I don't need them, and don't you dare hold them hostage on my account, just release them anyway if I win." She'll go it solo or not at all. Metem protests "No, you really cannot stand toe-to-toe with them without help of some kind! Do you maybe have any friends who could accompany you? We could sell that as a team with an unbreakable bond!"...
(and there's my slim justification for working Mia and Lily into it. if the Arcadion audience can accept "one warrior backed up by seven 'soul simulacra' of previous champions" then they can accept a 3v1+ lol)
...Mia is not happy about it. She did her time on the Ul'dahn bloodsands, and she hated it there too. She was tired of fighting and wanted to retire after Endwalker, and even moreso after Dawntrail. She promised herself she'd only fight again if there was a good reason to, and while she did help Wuk Lamat with the succession (happily) and the conflict with Alexandria (reluctantly), "her wife diving headfirst into the deep end against superpowered tournament rivals" might not actually clear that bar.
This... becomes a point of contention between Ellie and Mia and they have a massive fight the likes of which haven't been seen since the days of their rivalry, except now it's worse because they're married now and poor Lily's stuck in the middle. Lily has no objections to fighting and loves Ellie too much to let her go solo, and Mia loves Lily too much to not want to protect her from any consequences of Ellie's hubris. Mia agrees to fight too, but she makes it clear it's for Lily's sake and she's still furious at Ellie for forcing her into this situation, and now all of them feel like shit, with a hefty amount of guilt on Ellie's part.
That guilt spurs Ellie to at least take the vanguard so their foes are focusing on her.* They go in as the holy MMO trinity: Ellie takes up her dark knight greatsword again (guilt is a powerful fuel for darkness!!), Mia uses sage soumanotics, and Lily mixes up rogue, ninja, and pictomancer abilities. Despite Mia being furious with them, she saves their asses several times over and they easily claim the Light-heavyweight championship.
and then Eutrope barrels in and changes everything. now there's three super-dense souls for her to hone in on. bam, Mia has her reason to fight. Ellie has her justification for testing herself and thrillseeking. Lily's here to pet other cats and stab people who look at her wives funny.
This isn't gonna let Ellie off the hook with Mia, though, because it's not like they knew all that shit going in. They're definitely going to need to have a talk about their emotions. 🥲
*in reality I'm doing em as a melee (going monk this tier 💪) but by this point I'm also not inexperienced at tanking Arcadion lol
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I'm still mulling over how Cruiserweight advances all of that aside from giving Lily even more cats to pet. But I think there's juice in at least matching Ellie's readiness to fight against Hector's and Retsarra's. mwehehe. we're definitely getting to the point of "if anyone touches another hair on these children we will kill everyone in the room and then not ourselves because we're better than that" too, and maybe even needling this wet blonde catboy for fumbling Eutrope so hard lol.
Details still brewing, but hopefully this answers your question with...I'm pretty sure this is "secret third thing" :V
that wolqotd got me thinking that all three of the girls probably would actually make extremely competent scholars. they're all extremely smart, they'd be able to comprehend arcanima and how to weave it, they'd be good with carbuncles and fairies. mia literally can't, but if it wasn't for garlean she totally could.
scholar is by far the job i am worst at. cannot remotely wrap my head around it. leveling it was harder than any other healer and i wiped the party multiple times. lmao.
also extremely funny that ellie thinks paladin is boring and won't bother with it because i have extremely been on a paladin kick recently and have been doing all my roulettes with it.
i think this is healthy, to let your ocs consider doing and being good at things that you yourself are absolute dogshit at.
because of his alchemical focus avery probably does like ghost hunting and seances and a lot of the ghosty stuff. rip mr fencer you would have loved phasmophobia and horror movies
What was it like for Mia going back to Garlemald and seeing it in the state it’s in? And I think she’s friends with Jullus, if I’m remembering correctly. if so, what was it like for her to see him again?
hooooh my god Ube do you know how many words I've written about this precise subject. it is literally the second-longest document in the scrivener project.
maybe one day i'll actually post that part of the fic lmfao. but for now i can rant about what's in it i guess, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to :D
TL;DR: SHE DOESN'T HAVE A GREAT TIME
The whole core of Mia's personal story is realizing the evils of the imperialist, colonialist ways of her country, how she benefited from that as a citizen and how her family actively contributes to it, and how she gets the fuck out of dodge and figures out how to fight back against it. Something she didn't expect, though, is how distancing herself from where she used to live figuratively and literally let her somewhat dehumanize where she came from. It was very easy for her to convince herself once she was out that Garlemald deserved anything she brought to bear against it as a Warrior of Light, that it deserved whatever wounds the Alliance would inflict whenever it managed to fight back. It was a little easy for her to forget that she grew up next to a nice guy named Jullus and helped him babysit his siblings and had a Totally Normal Childhood Friendship with him (...albeit one built on the luxuries that can only be secured by an empire bent on conquest).
(I would like to confirm that I put together her backstory - her father being Aulus mal Asina, her growing up basically smack in the middle of the capital - before Endwalker actually came out and confirmed there literally was a district where loyal R&D engineers were awarded estates smack in the middle of the capital, and that there's a boy roughly Mia's age who lived there. If I didn't know better I'd say Jullus was hand-crafted and served to me on a silver platter to be the "childhood best friend" that helped me put the rest of that backstory together. :V)
When the contingent starts forming and all the people in charge keep affirming "we're not going in as invaders, these people are victims," it sort of slaps her across the face how much she's forgotten she grew up among real people with real depth to their lives, and seeing what the Telophoroi have done to other civilizations, she suddenly feels sort of... hollow. When they get to Garlemald and look out at the ruined capital beneath the Tower of Babil, she gets a twisting sensation in her stomach and she starts feeling sick. Her initial thought is "I wanted Garlemald to fall, but not like this" - and then she feels even worse for wishing a fate like this on people she knew. She starts having to reckon with having dehumanized Garlemald's citizenry, the bas's and cen's and aan's and even many of those above who still held no real power in their military dictatorship, as much as Garlemald decried Eorzean peoples as "savage."
Because if she had stayed, how likely is it that she would act any different from the Garleans that now hurl curses and wish death upon the Ilsabard contingent and the Warriors of Light? Not very. That's proven very decisively when her childhood best friend suddenly turns up.
When they find Jullus, she grows even more bitter, because she had started to cling to a little hope that maybe he had the same realizations she did, or maybe that he did so even better - that he didn't forget his own humanity. She's certain he had it in him, knowing how kind he was from growing up together. Finding that he's deep in the nationalistic sauce makes her feel even more wretched.
She wants to genuinely help the people she grew up with, but that's clashing with how lost in that sauce they all are. She bites her tongue when Jullus lashes out at her and calls her viator (<-oh look a small amount of foreshadowing for Zenos later being so branded :V). She doesn't rise to Quintus's bait. She just keeps moving forward, doing whatever the Ist Legion demands of the Eorzean envoys, and jumps headlong into the pool where once upon a time she and Jullus watched his siblings splash around in order to pull out the ceruleum heater. She doesn't expect Jullus to change his spots, thinking him as ruined as the city they're in the middle of...but then he starts to. That little hope starts flickering within her again, and it would make her so happy to see it realized. She doesn't miss her parents - she's long since written them off as inextricable parts of the Garlean war machine, and long since reckoned with killing her father in particular. But if her old best friend can come around...
But he continues to carry out Quintus's orders. His thumb wavers above the trigger that would seriously injure the twins that she thinks of as little siblings. She fixes him with a cold glare as he marches her and Ellie back to Camp Broken Glass. When they learn what happened to his family, she demands to know whether their sacrifice was worth Garlemald's pride. He punches her in response - Ellie has to pull them apart.
She sees her friend careening towards the precipice, and she doesn't know if she can stop him. And then the legion loses their bargaining chip, and he orders the ambush on the contingent - and she lunges at him and wrestles him to the ground. She can't take this anymore. She could easily write him - and Garlemald - off here. His neck is within her grasp. But instead she practically screams into his ear that "you're better than this!" And the force of those words put a halt to the ambush, and she goes on, furiously blaming the imperial ideals that brought them here - "those ideals don't give a damn about you and you deserve better!" That's the realization she had so many years ago, and she tries with all her might to impress it upon the friend she knew and loved.
Everything else kinda plays out as usual from the MSQ: Lucia gives Quintus the Xth Legion's message, and Quintus releases the Ist from their duty. But on the fringes of the camp, having all this thrown in his face is too much for Jullus and Mia.
And Ellie awkwardly comforts them both as best she can as they sink into each other and weep for everything they've lost - though there might be the small hope that, with things the way they are now, they might be able to start patching that friendship back together.
