#seraphicrose

[starcunning]

#30ShadowScreenshots 13. Your favorite 3.x location

“You are free to go wherever you want. But leave a part of your heart here in Ishgard. It belongs here.” — Edmont de Fortemps, Aus der Dunkelheit deines Herzens

[twelveswood]

[holds the other's hand when they think the other won't notice] dreyll/thancred

The crushing defeat at Rhalgr’s Reach weighed heavily on her mind. Running… She’d never had to run before. Not like that. Her chest ached, such a painful, lonely ache, something she was unaccustomed to. She had never felt so… heavy. Her feet kicked idly against the wooden crate she sat on, taking in this quiet moment on her own while everyone prepared for shipping off to Doma. 

She was surprised when he’d come and sat beside her, she hadn’t even seen him around before now. 

“Oh, Thancred-” she immediately perked up, a familiar smile finding her face, “-what are you doing all the way out here?”He brought a foot up to the edge of the crate, leaning into his knee as he looked at the redheaded Viera, “Urianger had a task to see to, and I offered to accompany him on his delivery.”Truth be told, he had simply wanted to see her. After what had transpired in Ala Mhigo, he knew even she could not resist the pull of heartache. Which he hated terribly to think on - she of all people… she should always be smiling.“I see,” she nodded, a soft smile keeping the glumness at bay."How are you?" He didn't wish to bring up the topic of Rhalgar's Reach, but he could not fight of his concern. Being that intelligence gathering was somewhat of his forte, he had been quick to find out the state of things, including her in particular. Never had she faced a foe and been laid low, not like that. It had taken all his better judgement not to rush there, but she was in good company and there was nothing he could do that they could not. "Hm? I'm fine," she seemed almost confused for a moment, before it dawned on her why he would ask. "Oh." she smiled a little forlornly, but refused to let the sadness reach her eyes. "I'm okay Thancred.. thank you for asking."He took in a deep breath - it was a strange answer from her, almost a formal answer that you might give a stranger. So he persisted a little more. "Do you want to talk about it?""No." Her quick response surprised him further, but he could understand, perhaps better than anyone, not wanting to recount something so devastating. He looked at her a moment, her smile never seeming to falter, but never shifting at all. Frozen in place, as if held there by sheer will. She also did not look at him, instead staring ahead at the open waters."Okay," his reply was short and concise and did not ask anything further of her. So he sat there in silence beside her, looking out on the waves as well. A moment or two passed in quiet contemplation before he very casually shifted the hand closest to her over, his fingers testing their touch against hers before his hand settled atop hers. Dreyll offered him a sideways glance, and for the briefest moment the facade began to slip away.She said nothing, but let their fingers lace together. After a time her expression seemed to warm more genuinely. They sat like that, in shared silence, for some time.

[castellankurze]

vita'ya: 😊 Would my muse ever ask someone on a date? & 💑 What are my muse’s requirements for a potential partner?

😊 - unlikely.  Vita’ya’s too timid to actually ask someone for an actual for-real like-actual-romance date.  His romances with Lyse and Shasi are mostly based around shared experiences as Scions or, in the former case, training as monks. (A competition jumpnig puzzle counts as a date.)💑 - he’s kinda still figuring this one out.  He likes tall people - which is good because most folks fulfill that requirement by default - and people around whom he can feel comfortable letting down his guard, which isn’t many and at the moment mostly consists of the Scions and some members of their hangers-on.

[mattelektras]

jessie pls never stop blogging bout elektra and mattelektra your commentary fuels me

kfsdjhkaj im glad my live shitposting is serving a purpose i couldnt shut up about it if i tried

[shroudkeeper]

4,11 & 12!

Favorite non-sexual activity?

Introducing him to the forest. Rivienne takes Sylvain on walks through the woods and shows him what plants are poisonous to them, what mushrooms would kill them, and would animals would tear them apart. It is all so very educational!

That, or teaching him how to cook, he is a spoiled Ishgardian who has retainers take care of it. It is rather adorable watching him trying not to burn their dinner.

Who tops?

Rivienne. She likes to be in a position of power where he can look at her entirely, where his hands can roam over every curve she offers. It gives her the opportunity to control the tempo and to enhance both of their experiences. Besides, she enjoys his expressions when she does something, a move he really enjoys.

Who initiates kisses?

Sylvain. He is very amorous and enjoys catching her off-guard, softening the maiden when she becomes aggressive. He knows exactly how to smooth over any rancor she may have, causing her to blush with the brush of his lips. He comes in for the kill fast, but is gentle in execution.

[starcunning]

At long last, it is finished! This was a labor of love, really, and certainly one of the most ambitious projects I’ve ever been asked to take on. I love working for @weaselmancer--she gets me. We have the same taste. And I get to make really, really cool shit.

From L-R: my Odette de Dzemael; @weaselmancer‘s Guillaume d’Hauterive; @seraphicrose-deactivated2019041‘s Colette de Dzemael--Echo-blessed champions of Ishgard.

[starcunning]

1. Voracious

My heart, being hungry

For @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast‘s FFXIVWrite 2019. [Title] [AO3 mirror]

It seemed suspicious.

It also didn’t seem like her business, exactly, but X’shasi had never met a problem she wasn’t interested in solving, so somehow she found herself acting the Yellowjackets’ cats-paw. There was a part of her that imagined she was far too public a figure for that to work—at least anywhere in Eorzea—but if the man had been abroad in the New World, as he’d claimed, then he’d have little reason to have heard of her. So if he recognized her, he was a huckster.

There was little sign of that. She’d gotten good at reading people, even without her preternatural sense about the whole thing. If he’d noticed her at all there had been no glint of recognition, no hesitation, no lingering gaze.

He was consumed instead by his passion for spellcraft—the legendary blue magic. Something tickled in the back of Shasi’s brain; something familiar. She’d heard of blue magic before, hadn’t she? But nothing about this explanation rang true to whatever it was that was bothering her.

Then again, perhaps it wasn’t the magic at all. The alleged mage—and suspected fraudster—was a midlander man and of little interest. His assistant, however … there was someone interesting. He had the same silver-blonde hair and pale blue eyes as her sometime-mentor X’rhun—and half her tribesmen besides.

It was for him that she stayed after the demonstration after its interruption by a pair of Mamool Ja. Their timing was too perfect, their attacks too coordinated. It felt staged, like most of this interaction. The only thing that felt real was the other miqo’te and the possibility of some connection to him.

“I do have to congratulate you on your choreography,” Shasi said. The mage—for he was certainly that; it was only what kind that she questioned—smiled nervously. “I really don’t know what you mean,” he said. His gloved hand tightened on the head of his cane, and Shasi found her gaze drawn to it. The finial was like a wolf’s head, carved of bone. That would be the ideal sort of tool for a thaumaturge, she knew; she’d seen enough of them about their work back in Ul’dah, of course. Her gaze snapped upward again. “Soul crystals are supposed to be priceless,” she said. “I’ve seen few enough in my life. Yet here you are, handing them out for a fistful of gil? Are they glass or simply hard candy?” “Neither,” replied a new voice. X’shasi turned her head toward its source and found the miqo’te man from earlier, dusting down his crimson bliaud. “Why don’t you get everything together, Martyn,” he suggested; “and let me talk to her.” “Ah,” she said, “the accomplice. You seem an odd sort for a ‘blue mage.’” He laughed. “How is that?” “You’re not even wearing blue,” she pointed out, gesturing to his rust-red garb. It made him resemble X’rhun all the more. “Really,” he said. Laughter sparkled in his tone. “Because I had heard you were a red mage, and you hardly look the part.” “You know me?” “You’re X’shasi,” he said. “Shakkal’s child.” Not the Warrior of Light; not the Champion of Eorzea. Her mother’s daughter. She closed her eyes a moment. “So you are Lynx tribe,” she said. “You must be from the Gyr Abanian sect too?” Whatever amusement had danced upon his face a few moments before faded. “Once,” he said.

“Someone tipped him off,” Shasi said. “And he hired you.” It seemed easier to believe than the thought of an unexpected relative. The miqo’te closed his eyes. “No,” he said. “I’m X’moru, and I’m a blue mage. I’m here of my own volition, because I believe in the work.” Shasi tilted her head. “Does it really happen how he says?” she wondered. “You can observe an enemy’s aetherial manipulations and replicate them?” X’moru nodded. “It’s not hard, once you know what to look for.” “I thought,” she said, some half-remembered story coming back to her, “blue mages were supposed to eat their foes.” The laughter that came in response cracked like a gunshot. There was no amusement in it, only a tired sort of exasperation. “What, like you were ready to eat the soul crystal?” He shook his head. “That’s a damaging myth meant to sow fear about the people of the New World that practiced this magic. Who told you that? Khilo? It sounds like him.” Shasi tried to stifle her annoyance. She flicked an ear anyway. “It seems like you know my parents better than I do,” she said. “Were you a Crimson Duelist too?” “Shakkal was my friend and Rhun is my brother, but no.” She wanted to know him, then—he who had known her mother; he who was kin to her mentor. If he was that. She wanted him to be. “He never mentioned you.” X’moru just stared into her face a long moment. The intensity of his bright blue eyes was unnerving. “I think there’s a lot he maybe hasn’t mentioned to you,” he said eventually. Then, breaking into a genial smile once more, he said, “So do you want a proper demonstration, or what?” Less curious about blue magic, and more about this unexpected tribesman, Shasi found herself nodding anyway.

[starcunning]

i saw your eyes and they touched my mind and though it took a while i was falling in love

featuring @seraphicrose’s Colette de Dzemael.