#varza snapspark

[axe-trio-commanders]

Helloooooo can I get 7, 11, and 13 for lovi and varza :3c

@mystery-salad

man yea you weren't lying, tumblr was being /weird/ abt u sending these asks;; there's like 3 of em now... all very slightly different... rude of tumblr 2 do that to u. will hope it's gonna be normal about the answers at least :P

anyways!! speaking of answers. uh. They are Long. And also talking about Varza's experience in His Neck Of The Woods' Flame Legion involves talking about like, Lasca and generally How They Treat ''''''females'''''''', which. Not going to go into incredibly explicit detail in these answers, but. putting the whole thing under readmore w a Significant TW for Abuse, for especially varza's answers, for safety;;

7. What's their approach to romance?

Lovi

Hoo boy Lovi is. Uh. Between never really connecting with anyone outside Enkkioh (who's like. deeply aroace) when she grew up in Rata Sum more than as, like, moderately positive aquaintences, barely trying to get along with anyone during her short stint in Iron, and then effectively becoming a Vengance Hermit holed up in Flame legion lands, Lovi is. Uh. Not very socialized, to put it lightly? All that to say she's never really had to think about romance in terms of what she thinks about it...

She's made fun of other progeny for it, and during her time hiding around flame, she'd start (in lower stakes attack runs) just. shamelessly, tactlessly flirting at flame charr. with the express intent of making fun of them about it before stabbing them/hitting them with hardlight hammers/firing a Big Laser at them. Which. the shameless flirting For The Bit is not a habit she lost when she finally started hanging around people she didn't want to kill???? Which Enkkioh can take in stride bc she's kinda used to Lovi being like that and doesn't really care, but like. Eventually those Conses are gonna Quence, and someone she actually somewhat values the opinion of even slightly is gonna fire back, and she will take it with all the grace and poise of a jenga tower hit with a pillow. Just. Full cease of function, hour-long recalibration, What Do You Mean That's A Thing That Can Happen (Enkkioh has been warning her of this exact scenario Literally since they reunited. she just. fully did not believe it. In part bc she quickly came to the Base Assumption in rata sum that no one Actually liked her except Probably enkkioh and her parents and kinda never managed to let that go).

I have yet to like. make a solid decision on How and When that happens beyond 'Lovi is bisexual and probably poly but will not be addressing the 'attraction to men' bit for as long as possible due to Flame Legion reasons',, probably eventually she'd like settle on one or two solid, steady relationships w the occasional fling, but. It's gonna take a Lot of figuring things out and settling into the concept of that being a Possibility At All before then;;

...as far as cubs go. I think she's also avoiding thinking about Having them (also for flame legion reasons) but like. I think if someone asked her to take care of someone else's cubs she'd be pretty ok at it? She'd like 'em well enough, and even if she isn't great at it for her own safety, she knows to be strict about lab safety for others, especially kids. She'd probably much prefer to be a 'fun aunt' than an actusl parent, though, even after getting through the initial panic of 'why would you leave? a child?? with me????????'

Varza

Ok so. The fun thing with Varza. Is that asking him about romance or cubs or anything related will Set Off All Of His Anxiety Immediately. The part of Flame he's in up until some point Very recently is like, fully Mysoginistic To The Point That It's Just Slavery (like. both Lovi and Lasca were declawed for acting up, lovi as a cub, and at the point Varza met her and helped her get out, Lasca had been drugged, for days, by then, and probably off and on for most of her adult life up to that point. like. the kinda flame salina scorchrazor came from vibes,,,)

He Also grew up being Actively Reminded that 'hey, this is probably what happened to that sister you care about, lol', in order to make him act out about it, bc it was the easiest way to get him to fight back

So. Uh. Varza has absolutely No concept of a healthy relationship whatsoever, and Fully avoids thinking about ever having one At All. any thoughts of yearning in his head are shut down Violently and Immediately, and being flirted with has him just. Deeply, deeply uncomfortable...

...He might, though, with time and patience and probably a significant amount of therapy, be happy in just. A lowkey, singular, committed relationship, though he'd probably still struggle Immensely trying to advocate for any of his own wants or needs;;

....also no cubs, cubs scare him, who let the tiny thing in here what does he do what if it gets hurt oh oh oh no oh no its going to explode and die somehow he just KNOWS it-

(i think he'd enjoy taking care of, like, an aquarium, though... varza n him favorite fishes,,,)

11. Do they respect the chain of command, or are they a bit of a loose cannon?

Lovi

Lovi thinks the chain of command is Stupid and thinks everyone who follows it for no reason is Also stupid. She does not Care what your fancy title is, you are Just Some Rando, and if you can't prove Why she should respect you, she won't. Like- being higher in command doesn't actively make her dislike you, but it doesn't really give you any points, either. If you're cool, you're cool, if you suck, you suck. End of story.

...Funnily enough, though, she never actually got into any Significant Trouble with any of her superiors, because both in rata sum and iron legion, she just. Packed up and left before anything actually boiled over... she left rata sum only a few months before enkkioh Shot At A Council Member With A Rifle and got Banned From Rata Sum over commentts made about Lovi, and probably left iron only shortly before her 'band would've attempted to report her for using magitech. (she told them she was 'real good at tech' when they agreed to let her join in the first place. She did not think she had to specify what kind of tech, what other tech is there????? honestly though between the lack of respect, lack of decorum, and her voice naturally being in that humaney midrange none of them could hear without straining, they just Didn't Get Along anyways. the magitech was really more just an excuse to get rid of her without losing face over the whole thing)

Varza

...Ok so, here, on the other hand, being in a position of power will actively make Varza dislike you more. It's not... quite as bad as his experience with relationships- his main point of contact outside of Flame, for a while, was getting the Vigil's help in getting flame escapees to safety, and like. helping them recover. And they all seem... fine enough, at handling that power responsibly, especially relative to the charr he grew up around. The bar is clearable, it just gets steadily higher the more power you claim to have. (...I uh. Don't think he'd get along with Isgarren. Varza may or may not be constantly two inches away from Attacking him whenever he remembers he exists)

Varza is very... very careful not to get in trouble with his superiors in flame, though. As far as they can know, Varza is a messenger, and only that. Doesn't know how to fight, too anxious to be a threat; just a messenger and an only mostly passable healer, who wouldn't dare act against them. If Varza needs to act against them in any obvious way, he will ensure there are no witnesses left to prove he was ever there in the first place.

13. What was their first experience with other races?

Lovi

Lovi's first experience with other races was accidentally hijacking a waypoint teleportation (by crashing into someone as they tried to teleport), which she kinda did not comprehend at the time, or really remember much later... she does somewhat more remember, afterwards, clambering into an asuran shipping cart to hide from someone yelling about 'transport fees', listening in on the conversations of the transport krewe off and on between bouts of unconsciousness, and being kind of amazed these weird things were talking like people... then slowly coming to the alternate conclusion that, instead, maybe these were the real people, and she was actually surprisingly intelligent for mostly understanding what they were talking about. (She uh. Pretty quickly started repressing Most of her childhood before that point. The only thing that occasionally reminded her any of that was real was how much her paws hurt)

That alternate conclusion kinda... continued to linger. Enkkioh always treated her as a full equal, but she was one of very, very few who did. so Lovi kinda. never really felt like quite as much of a full person as the asura around her, which. Beyond the Everything Else kinda colored her later interactions with other charr, too

Varza

Varza had known about other races before ever actually meeting any of them; one of the first skills he learned was how to open a sealed letter, read it, copy it, and then re-seal it without any evidence it'd been tampered with- so he knew plenty about any of the other race's opposition to his area of flame, if gained through a deeply biased lense. (He knew where to drop off letter copies so they'd be picked up by whoever he thought could do the most damage with the information, but never actually interacted with anyone to do so...) Even at the time, he knew to be... suspicious at best of his superiors' opinions on anything, but even still, there's probably a number of biases and factually incorrect information he still hasn't unlearned, just bc those letters were all he had to interpret from for a while.

The first time he actually met other races, though... is actually the same time Lasca did. He had just discovered his magic's more Willbender esque abilities in the process of massacring an entire (mostly unconscious, granted) camp of 'fellow' flame legion, realized in short order he could Not leave this other charr here to face the consequences of His actions (especially after he'd Just finally snapped over the condition she was being kept in); so he's gotta sneak her out, but? To where?? He doesn't have the resources to help her recover himself, and taking her back to flame in any capacity is just. Entirely and completely unacceptable, so... he hedges his bets. Takes her to the closest not-flame outpost he knows about (which happens to be one of the Vigil's), and... admittedly just stands w/ her somewhere conspicuous until they notice and take Lasca along. and then he just kinda. Stands there on the periphery, refusing help, not talking to anyone, just. Watching in silence. Listening. Glaring at anyone who gets too close, snarling whenever Lasca flinches.

...And like, once he's sure she'll be okay, he fully leaves without saying anything, but. He was listening, and comparitively, these people seem... genuinely kind? Somehow?? He knows they're tough enough to cause flame issues with a frequency, but being able to do that without sacrificing the kindness is... genuinely impressive in a way it takes him a while to actually Believe.

...But. If the Vigil can be like that. If the world outside can be better. Then... doesn't he have a responsibility, at this point, to try to help as many charr like Lasca out of flame, to see it, as he possibly can? ...It'd been so long since he felt like he could do anythimg substantial about any of this...

...But he has a clear goal and purpose, now. A way to fight. A path to fight towards.

...If things outside were really that much better- the mutual respect, cooperation, tenderness, despite how much more vastly different each member of the vigil was to each other than Lasca was to any other charr...

...He was going to get as many of them out as he could.

And then he was going to burn this whole cesspit of Flame into the dirt.

[axe-trio-commanders]

ok so in the process of updating and pinning the Character Post(tm) i realized theres like. a billion old art i never posted. doing that

we got;

Soulbeast merging and pets lore (from an au where zori isnt the commander but other than the scar placement and the fact that commander zori has More pets than this the lore still stands)

Lasca ref I couldn't fit in the Character Post bc of the image limit

Zori in tha priory

Character expression practice sheet where you can watch in real time as i figure out how in heck to even draw seremnis (the solution is :3)

Seremnis as other things (minecraft origins furry and Dragon(tm))

Zori at her wedding not understanding how the boquet throwing thing is supposed to work and trying to support albas and traheane

tha siblingses (first art of lovi and varza, not 100% accurate to current designs for 'em anymore (mostly lovi's armor and weapons are off) but like. pretty close)

cannon lws4 event in all universes

low effort zori with tha whiteboard marker

[axe-trio-commanders]

oki have. a headache and maybesick so you're getting more character lore

I don't remember how much I've elaborated on the Lovi Lore (tm) so. Before Lovi and Varza were born, their mother escaped flame and ran off to try to get her cubs away from the legion. They lived in a cave for a bit, living off food that was mostly stolen. But eventually- notably when Lovi and Varza were old enough to remember it- they were found by the flame legion (specifically their father), who killed their mother and dragged them both back to flame

Neither of them really. Uh. Adapted well. Lovi consistently acted up and resisted to authority to the point that she ended up being declawed, and managed to run away soon after (managed primarily by a Lot of luck, hitchiking in various legion, then asuran transport to get as far away as she could, doing her best to hide how much it hurt to walk)

Lovi ended up at Rata sum, and got further lucky that the first asura she met was a young Enkkioh that found her hiding amongst a pile of boxes, went "Oh neat, I've been asking my parents if I could have a sibling anyways. Come on, we're having pasta tonight :D" and carried Lovi home (in the box). And because even at this point that's one of the tamer things Enkkioh had done (she'd become quickly infamous in school for biting a teacher) her parents just kinda. Let this one slide,,

And then as they grew up together. Nothing really challenged Enkkioh's perspective of Lovi as basically just a fuzzier, weirdly proportioned asura- like, yeah, her sister's a charr, she's been told, but she's talking and learning early advanced metamagics just fine, so like. Why is that an issue. Maybe the issue is she's getting better test scores than you and you're jealous.

One of their first collaborative school projects was actually getting Lovi prosthetic claws, after Enkkioh realized why she avoided walking so much; starting with just the goal of 'doesn't hurt to walk anymore', ending up at 'hard metal claws with cloaking tech to make them look real and also they contain tiny lasers for intricate soldering work and detachable and recallable and-' because they are nothing if not overachievers

and like

by this point their parents don't see an issue bc. yeah that's lovi, enkkioh's sister, look at how much fun they're having with this project

But to everyone else in the class. Enkkioh just gave the charr she'd already taught to bite her claws back. Which was uh. Widely regarded as a controversial move,,,

Unfortunately for them they couldn't find grounds to expell her about it. And Lovi was never officially accepted as a student anyways. And also Enkkioh was keeping up stellar grades. And Zojja liked her. So, officially, they couldn't do much.

Unoficially they could put in effort to make her a social pariah, which (outside Zojja and a few krewe members she managed to scrape together that at the /very least/ would tolerate Lovi) did mostly work, and in the process Enkkioh and Lovi both gained a talent for sniffing out misleading, half-truth bull. And eventually, close after graduation, Lovi decided she did need to just. Leave, if they really hated her being here so much. Maybe see what the legions were doing, if she'd have a better time there

(From that point on is basic personal story for Enkkioh, except that in the final mission councillor Flaxx offhandedly mentions Lovi, and Enkkioh fires a rifle shot through his ear and gets summarily barred from ever entering Rata Sum again about it)

(Other fun Enkkioh notes: in the Vigil, she ends up doing a fair amount of weapons development work, as well as prosthesis design. There's a fair amount of rifles and easy affix-removable-summonable-doubles-as-a-mace limbs with her trademark on them- though for the latter she's made construction and repair info as widely available as possible, bc. Like. That's medical equipment. That should be free. You start charging for her designs and she starts Approaching Your Location With Violent Intent. The weapon designs, however, and most other things, are on as heavy a lockdown as she can manage, bc otherwise historically the inquest will find them and use them in the Worst Possible Way.)

Lovi meanwhile heads off, joins the Iron legion bc they seem. As close to what she's shootin' for as she can get. Except the 'band she joins is just. So deeply weird and annoying about magic??? (And it's not the 'Ley' or 'Spark' warband, they just told her to pick a name and Lovi, not really recalling how 'band names worked, just picked smth that sounded right). And like. Maybe a month or two in she gives up and leaves without a word. Heads up into flame legion territory with the vague plan of 'some sort of vengance probably', steals a cool volcano lab, and gets to work developing her own tech. She becomes a pretty skilled holosmith in the process (made weapons tech that runs off of her own otherwise-unused smokeshaping magic), starts developing and selling defense systems that she can backdoor into for surveilance purposes in case her stuff's being used for some kind of. say. Inquest Bull. So she can hop over quick to make it significantly more exploded. And in the meantime, she starts crafting a sort of alternate persona as The Crow to run around flame, distributing vigilante justice, then vanish back to her lab without consequence.

Which. Y'know. Kind of lonely. And she's kind of never been properly socialized. But she's keeping herself busy enough that she never really dwells on it

Varza, on the other hand, never managed to leave flame, and has acquite miserable time of it. While Lovi has mostly been repressing it, Varza is consistently reminded of what happened to his mother and what could have happened to his sister, because it's the only way anyone can get him to fight back about anything as a cub, nd, well, what use is he if he won't fight? He's pretty consistently seen as an anxious coward as he grows up regardless, which he kind of ends up leaning into, figuring out his guardian magic, leaning into the healing aspect, and (because his sire is embarassed of him and wants him out of sight as much as possible) gets tasked primarily as a messenger; because even if he isn't going to win any fights, he is fast, and information is critical in war.

...This does leave Varza with more opportunity than most to get brief stints outside of flame territory, if he can consistently convince them he isn't quite as fast as he actually is. He uses the time, at first, just to learn about the world outside, try (and fail) to get any info on his sister. Then, he starts sneaking notes from the information he's been transporting to the legions.

...And then he snaps inside flame legion, once (he's part of the Snap warband, after all :3c), finally swapping from his trademark staff to use the dual-sword training he was forced to endure as a cub to slaughter an entire small, unsuspecting encampment of flame, over comments about Lovi and the 'female' they were keeping there (hi lasca. fun fact lasca also has prosthetic claws. Significant chance they're vigil make based on enkkioh's design). In the process, he discovers:

a) not only can he use his magic to remove the effects of a drugging, he can use it to boost his own magic

b) he can teleport? Apparently??? (He's a willbender ingame, but like. Bc he doesn't share that lore or have the training it's effectively in lore just a close mimic of that)

And so he comes to the conclusion that he. Doesn't need to only do indirect things like deliver messages a little slower, leak a little info to the legions, subtly refuse to participate in the worst of the cruelty; he can take direct action. He can stop some of it entirely. He can save the charr he keeps imagining his sister sharing the fate of, and if he finds her, he can save her, too.

So now he's also using his free time to train in combat, to set up a System to get charr out of flame once they're free, to get himself his own alternate identity based on that Crow he's heard whispers of (he bases his own on the Hare after a few conversations with some norn in DR about the Spirit, and it seems to... fit. Fast, alert, a better fighter than you'd think...)

.....Anyways i don't know when exactly in canon timeline they'd meet each other again. Or whether or not enkkioh would also be there (she approves of these vibes they're cultivating here), but the first time Lovi and Varza meet up again is in the process of killing their sire

so like

bonding(tm)

(this is what I imagine as the ending to the hypothetical Hell's Coming With Me animatic that plays in my head whenever that song comes up on the playlist;; most of it is Varza narrating, first about her running away, then about her coming back with. well. a bang, as it were)

(bonus image of The Siblings(tm))

Lasca is based on a hyena (Cackling (hyenas do that when nervous, and Lasca used to, too, but she figured out that it unnerves people when you laugh at them when you're supposed to be scared, so she leaned into it), jaw strength good enough to crack bones, fond of Cooperation(tm)) with a bit of jaguar added in (Jaw Strength 2, swimming)

....anyways bonus points i based all my charr on specific cats/species that are like pretty close to cats,

Lovi and Varza are based on Cheetahs (Fast(tm), Anxious (they just handle it Very Differently,, fight vs flight. Lovi bites when scared), unretractable claws. Their voices are also, naturally, high-pitched by charr standards, in that middle range that's irritating for other Charr to hear. Lovi never had reason to change her own voice, having grown up around asura, but Varza pitches his down, and as a result doesn't talk much and is soft-spoken when he does bc it hurts to do for too long (boy did Not get proper voice training). Also housecat pitch meows and purrs and birdchirps and Slapping the ground as intimidation. Though in their case it's more of a stomp bc, bipedal,,)

...Olirus is. uh. I don't actually remember. I think I gave Olirus tiger vibes. So. Another ambush predator. Hella Jump. chuffs, The Roar(tm). Which they get to share with my interpretation of Reeva because i do what I want

Zori's based on a mountain lion (good climber, retractable claws, ambush predator, purrs, squeaks)

Torbern is based on a melanistic leopard but I'm. uh. not exactly sure what I'm doing with her or her lore?;; uh. She likes bears,, she just thinks they're neat,,,, many kinds of bears. That's unrelated to the leopard bit, except that leopards and black bears both climb trees ig

...also if Varza ever gets the opportunity to just like. Sit down and think about it. There's definitely some Gender Shenanigans happening in there. But given the fact the fact that he will Not be sitting still unless forced. and also the. Gesturing vaguely at Flame Legion's whole Deal. He will not be doing that introspection for. A while,

Amiaza is based mostly on a mountain lion like Zori, but Strea has a bit more Lynx (Big Pawbs, fluffy, Screams)

(...i forgot i have like. a reference lineup of all my cats now,, look at them catses. Lovi isn't entirely on model in lore (she's got cheetah spots that're mostly only visible on her white fur, and a heart-shaped spot on the top of her muzzle that she shares w Varza))

...and also i have not yet figured out the exact nature of those Gender Shenanigans so. does a little jig. yea

[axe-trio-commanders]

Need to character ramble more so

Seremnis and Zori both have a skill for mimicry! Zori's gotten incredibly good at mimicking the sounds most of her pets make, and through ranger/soulbeast bond, knows what those sounds mean well enough to facilitate an approximation of actual communication, which makes it a lot easier to handle animals in general

Seremnis on the other hand mimics more like a lyrebird. She can't mimic a voice, and doesn't instinctively know what the sounds she mimics mean. But she absolutely has a habit of picking up Sounds. She picked up hissing prettty early (from Zori), then growling (from hanging around Garm w/ Braham), and in more recent days has picked up a few more cat noises (Chirping from Lovi and Varza, squeaking from Zori, chuffing from Reeva). She also doesn't really differentiate between which animal she's supposed to be mimicking, so she tends to use a mix of several at once based on Vibes

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When Seremnis first awoke, she had an excessively strong empathetic connection, to the point where existing in or close to the Grove ended up blurring all the noise into a sort of collective mush. Which was... okay-ish, until the first time she died (fell off a ledge just a bit too high. There's a railing there now), and came back, and it Shifted, and she could Tell they were afraid of her. She started spending most of her time outside the grove after that, where she was a Celebrated Valiant instead; though she'd still venture into the Grove to spend time with Malomedies pretty frequently early on. It was Quieter there, and she liked learning about the stars, and bringing back sketches of constellations she'd made back to show him

She latched onto Trahearne pretty quick upon meeting him, too, figuring he and 'Marshmalo' had similar vibes (ie. Big Nerds who aren't very social that The Grove (collective) sees as Kind Of Weird), and while Trahearne appreciates being able to talk in-depth and at-length about Orr to someone enthusiastically willing to listen, both he and Caithe in tandem are both kind of feeling. Quietly, pre-emptively guilty about bringing this sapling into their sad, sad little group of 'sylvari with terrifyingly huge Wyld Hunts that honestly might outright be impossible', so it's. Uh. A bit awkward. Between them and Malomedies they figure out there's also a... worrying number of holes in the knowledge Rem got from the Dream that they'd already had to help fill in. Which. Now they're all having to toe the line between entertaining Nightmare Court Ideology and side-eying the Pale Tree bc. Why Did You Make Her Like That.

(for bonus points: Rem wasn't made with the ability to cry. The emotions are there, the buildup, but there's no tears and no chemical/magical release. She just sort of curls up and shakes until she exhausts herself instead...)

Her empathetic abilities don't take much of a hit until HoT, where it tanks heavily as she has to actively repress it in the attempt to block out not only Mordremoth, but the Mordrem, and the remaining Sylvari dying all over the jungle

The next hit is in that one big long fanfic arc where she has to fight Mordremoth 2: Dream Bogaloo in trahearne's dreams w/ canach to finally and officially vanquish it, where she loses a bit of her empathetic link in order to get a handle on controlling her dreams, which leaves her with pretty close to no link at all to anyone but canach and trahearne, and a new empathetic link to Zori (and later, Caithe) through aurene

...Really, thats kinda how the empathetic link stays. But partway through lws4, she has an. encounter. (kidnapping) with a subsection of inquest, working with a sect of the nightmare court, aiming to force their way directly into the dream by using an unconscious dreamer as a conduit, and then controlling that dreamer's magic to cause Problems.

They succeeded Once, killed a sapling before it'd ever emerged from its pod, and Seremnis immediately, violently, and Permanently severed her own connection to the Dream

They'd stolen that same machine that Enkkioh built to help get Mordremoth out of Trahearne's head for the experiment, so between Enkkioh and Canach the place gets discovered and Incredibly Exploded pretty quickly, and they manage to save Rem (except in the au where they don't), just. Not before the whole event had irreparable consequences,,

...The thing is tho. For the most part, Rem hasn't even really noticed; canach, trahearne and caithe are the only other sylvari she regularly interacts with anyways, and she's been avoiding the grove like the plague since lws2 (as much as she does feel bad abt not visiting Malomedies, she can't ask him to leave the grove just for her, and she. She really doesn't want to know what they all think about her now.)

As far as she's concerned, she's just not focused enough to connect to any other random sylvari they meet. If she were to visit the grove again now, she'd probably have an outright panic attack, bc it'd feel like the grove, the Pale Tree, and every sylvari in there is dead, despite her sensing of life force telling her otherwise. Which. Kind of hard to willful ignorance her way out of that one,,

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Zori's first warband was formed as a ragtag, last-picked at dodgeball kinda group in the fahrar. Specifically, no one wanted Zori in their band bc she was seen as a big ol' crybaby (which. I mean she'd cry bc someone stepped on a frog,, so not an entirely unearned reputation). And they wouldn't take Reeva bc the two had bonded p early on, and she refused to join a warband without Zori... Howl wrangled them all together and managed to make them feel like the other groups were missing out by not picking them, diamond in the rough style. Zori did kinda remain the 'baby' of the goup, which. She kinda alternated between resenting it, appreciating it, and weaponizing it. So long as they trusted her with the tasks she did end up getting skilled with, it was fine- and they did, after a few rough patches. (She was also the youngest of the group, a year younger than Reeva)

Relatedly, in an overcorrecting kinda way, Zori's instinctual reaction to feeling overwhelmed or otherwise emotionally unstable was (and still is) to sneak off and hide, so no one would see it. Being ash legion, the warband's solution to this became making it a trial to find her, sneak up, and pounce, holding her there until she'd actually talk things out so they could help resolve whatever was going on. This spread around the 'band, and pretty swiftly made the whole group /fantastic/ at tracking, stealth, and detecting an ambush, as well as an instinct to keep track of the whole group to clock when someone was missing. Also the bit of roughousing helped dispell a bit of energy before hashing things out, to the point where wrastling became customary to venting any kind of emotion, including just. Happy to be there and to be loved,,,

...That tradition more-or-less died with Howl, though. Both Zori and Reeva were performing professionalism as well as they could for the New warband, and playfighting like cubs didn't fit. Zori never managed to gather the willpower to talk about any of it with Reeva before leaving for the Priory, nor on any of her few visits after; just short visits, surface level status updates and light, fluffy stories.

She only visited once after Claw Island. There wasn't anything pleasant to talk about.

(Roughousing has remained a pivotal expression of friendship and love for Zori up to present day, but she's terrified to ask for it. She's utterly, paralyzingly terrified of hurting someone on accident. (Her fault. Always her fault. It has to be. She'll become something Worse if she ever considers an alternative.))

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Zori was born 1308 AE. She gained a number of scars over the years, but upon being revived in Elona, was sort of reset to an 'ideal' state and lost the scars (which. She was a barely identifiable charred lump before that. Balthazar drove the affects of the idol she'd used just after Claw Island (that they'd /just/ gotten back under control at that point) to their limits, and. well. the idol never made Zori fireproof)

She's gotten a number of scars after that, but she's in full leather armor most of the time, so most aren't visible. The exception is a large, ugly scar across the face, nearly taking out an eye, that she got in the airship crash into cantha. (She could have outright died if her wife Ev hadn't pushed her way out of a worse collision.) As it stands, she got a traumatic brain injury that the Recovery Machine(tm) couldn't exactly fix that comes with some pretty significant impact to her short term memory. (As a historian who was already getting more and more obsessed with a thorough and /accurate/ record of events and remembering every name and face who's ever fought and died in the fight she's been leading. she uh. shes maybe not. handling that very well,,)

She's also starting to go grey at the muzzle. just a little. from Sheer Stress. she's like 30,,,

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.....On the complete other end of the spectrum, Enkkioh's parents are still alive and... more or less supportive, though Enkkioh hasn't exactly told them about joining the vigil or becoming commander. Or. Really anything after leaving rata sum?? Enkkioh kinda figured they wouldn't want to hear about all the. fighting and the violence. I don't have exact characterization down but Enkkioh definitely thinks them as more. Casual research types. Math and theory and controlled experiments and all

.....and then they just. show up on the boat to Castora. bc it turns out they were Also pretty miffed about how Lovi was treated in rata sum, and then how Enkkioh was treated in relation to that, and joined the priory soon after Enkkioh left for the Vigil, and discovered they had a knack for field research, and were hoping they could dig at Isgarren for some info while he was trapped on a boat with them.

They met Zori once. She seemed kinda sad, but nice, and they liked talking to her about some of the artifacts she'd helped recover

(Lovi and Enkkioh are both there and Avoiding Them bc??? ?????? how to explain any of this. Lovi was like. A Vigilante for Years. Enkkioh is the Commander Wayfinder. They have a new brother. Why Are Their Parents Here.)

(Seremnis, whose parent is a tree, is watching this situation like a soap opera. How long can they dance around this when there is only two boats. Such a weirdly, fascinatingly mundane problem.)

(Zori was banned from joining the castora trip after joining Enkkioh in Janthir went. poorly. (Full out crashout abt going to a cool new place and encountering /literally the titans/?????). She is, theoretically, supposed to be relaxing. She is, in fact, Very Bad At Relaxing, bc if something Happens and she isnt There its Her Fault Again, and Oh Flames What If Something Happens, What If,)