#terizzi

[mystery-salad]

Listen, I'm a simple gay.

[mystery-salad]

Had the wonderful pleasure of commissioning @spindlewit for a couple pieces of these two!

Commander Quaille (asura, mirror pronouns) and Terizzi (sylvari, she/her) are a patchwork couple who've been haphazardly figuring things out together, but in the long run they're so sweet and an island of stability for each other in everything.

The first piece is a tender kiss I've wanted to capture for a while, the second is a more specific moment within their story just before a relationship started sparking, and Spindle captured both so beautifully. It's always such a delight to work with them!

[mystery-salad]

Terizzi

(She/her pronouns)

Doomed from day one, her pod contracted an unfortunate rot to the extent that she was believed to have died before fully forming. As her pod was pruned from the tree and discarded though she continued to grow through a prowess of innate necromantic ability. She emerged not long after, still under-grown and sickly, much to the shock of the pod tenders.

The rot has stayed with her, rooted deep in her body and causing an immune deficiency that easily allows other plant maladies in. She's a petri dish of rots and parasites that make her ill-advised for any contact with other sylvari. The first mender who tried to heal her did not survive the extended contact sadly.

As such, her physical state and maladies:

Blight spots dot her body but primarily show in her longer hair leaves.

Canker in her back that has created a large hollow some bugs have nested in. You can visibly see remnants of spinal column bones and a few ribs she's woven herself through to create a trellis for her own spine to still connect through, visually obscuring the canker a little though it's still hard to miss.

Powdery mildew dusts the cracks in her body and face, an almost freckled appearance that shows best when she glows underneath it.

A variety of crown/root rot sees to it that her limbs are always deteriorating. She keeps them lasting as long as possible, but inevitably she hits the point of having to prune one every so often. She'll find a nearby bone to place in the stump as a stable guide for new growth. The cycle is endless but she can manage.

She has a variety of bugs that live in and on her, as both helpers and simply a byproduct of her being easy to nest in. A yellow spotted millipede, pillbugs, a small social nest of carpenter bees (they also function as one of her swarms in battle), and dampwood termites (these have made the nest in her back, function as her other swarm in battle)

[mystery-salad]

"Come sit with me a while."

"You sure that's smart?"

"Hasn't mattered before."

[mystery-salad]

If we're both doomed anyways, we can at least enjoy the journey. Together.

[mystery-salad]

Thinks about Quaille being at ground zero with everyone when the first dragon death went horribly wrong, when they all got more than they bargained for.

Thinks about Quaille waking up as one of the few survivors and realizing that this was a task far beyond what anyone expected...

Thinks about Quaille in the med bay for the fifth checkup that month...the long-term effects need to be monitored, it wouldn't be hard to die from this even years later.

Thinks about Quaille deciding that...if it's fucked anyways, may as well be the one who handles the rest of the dragons too.

Thinks about Quaille making sure the Pact evacuates Maguuma before it strikes the final blow, again its vision going white and waking up badly injured in a wasteland...not of decay, but greenery this time. Quaille can't move, laying there until the Pact chances a rescue carefully. The ones who got it out still suffer lifelong side effects too.

Thinks about Quaille getting a tag-along weird Sylvari who's weirdly intrigued by all of this. A plant who looks on the brink of death and decay herself at every waking moment.

Thinks about Quaille going after a third dragon, getting the area evacuated again. Things go white, things go dark... and Quaille wakes up in its own bed with that strange sylvari sitting beside them.

Thinks about finding the only other living being that can match your martyr freak as you keep trying to save the world.

Quaille uses mirror pronouns, if you talk about it use your own. If your character talks about it, use your characters.

[mystery-salad]

...what if the nightmare tree was whittled not just from any wood, but specifically a stolen root of the Pale Tree herself? What if because of this it could potentially bear pods of its own and by natural reflex produced one?

What if firstborn of the Nightmare Tree, from the only pod it managed to make before being killed in the twilight arbor story, and rather than being cruel like the court simply longed to be free and independent like those who first followed Nightmare.

What if I made that Terizzi's origin and the reason she's so malnourished and falling apart, cause she was born from a tree that really wasn't prepared to bear a child 👁️👁️

What if many dreamers nickname her "curseborn"

[mystery-salad]

*grabs you* Gimme that Mildew mystery lore please and thank you

I feel like I've given yall SO MUCH of their trivia already but! I will give more! After all, look at how cute they are. They deserve it uvu

The two are Bad To Smell in an enclosed space. Concentrated magical radiation and rotting plants. They're genuinely a nauseating experience, do NOT hold meetings without ventilation.

It took Quaille a little time to come around to a romance with Terizzi, but in the end it made sense and the feelings were there. It realized it wasn't really going to have another chance to find someone who won't die from prolonged exposure. The two do love each other dearly, but there's a convenience about this too.

Quaille bonks its respirator on Terizzi as a facsimile of a kiss whenever the urge hits, and in response Terizzi will ruffle her hair or kiss her hand.

Terizzis bugs is irradiated :)