Mephiston was approaching the Saint Reymanaud Cathedral as he had so many times before, barely paying attention to his surroundings as he was dead set on the Scholasticate Library when he was stopped by Veldreth.
It was unusual seeing the scholar outside of the Library; Mephiston had grown used to seeing him there and only there, however before the old man could think any more about the strangeness of the situation, Veldreth demanded blatantly, "Follow me."
Not having much of a choice, as he was there for Veldreth anyway, he followed. Before he had the chance to question where they were going, they arrived at the Aetheryte plaza of Ishgard, when Veldreth started to explain, "You fulfilled your part of the deal, so I will now start fulfilling mine. For this, however, we will need to pay a visit to my tower. Due to the distance to my tower's Aetheryte and your stunted Aether, this will be quite a rough teleport, so prepare yourself."
Not quite sure what would await him, Mephiston said, "I suppose it's too late to turn back now! I will manage; we can go ahead whenever you're ready," to which Veldreth answered with a simple "Hm," as he took the old man's arm and started attuning to the Aetheryte.
What exactly followed right after is unknown to Mephiston, for he did not, in fact, 'manage'. All he remembers is the sight of a blue sky and the feeling of dirt in his face.
Waking up with a splitting headache, Mephiston scanned his surroundings and felt lost. What he saw was unlike anything he'd ever seen before; it was as if he was inside of a giant mushroom with corridors left, right, and even above. The walls were weird and twisted, and the air was strange. As he stood up from the bed he found himself in, it felt like the ground was moving beneath his feet, however before Mephiston had any more time to take it all in, Veldreth approached from one of the many corridors.
"It seems you were not quite prepared after all. You were gone for a day, but aside from the headache you're most likely experiencing currently, there shouldn't be any other side effects," he said mockingly, noticing the obvious confusion in the old man's face and continuing before Mephiston got a chance to talk. "This is Tel Dun, my tower off the northern coast of Ilsabard. All the equipment I require for the removal of the device on your neck is already ready in an adjacent chamber. I'd appreciate it if we could get it over with; I don't quite enjoy visitors."
Still a bit overwhelmed, the old man noted, "I'm guessing any questions as to the nature of this place wouldn't end up with me getting an answer, so aye, I suppose the faster we get it over with, the better," and followed the scholar, who had already gone ahead, through the maze-like corridors, ending up in what looked like a laboratory of some kind.
"Would you like to be conscious during the operation, or do you want me to put you to sleep?" Veldreth asked, to which Mephiston answered, "I've been out for a day already. I suppose another one won't be too bad on my track record," chuckling slightly and laying down on the table in the middle of the chamber.
Veldreth just nodded and approached the table, saying, "You know where to find me. I'll await you there once you're ready for the continuation of our deal," and putting Mephiston to sleep with a spell.
Once again waking up, the old man recognized his surroundings immediately. He was in his room in Ishgard, though he had been away for around two days. To him, it felt like it was just a few hours since he was last here, for he was unconscious for most of that time.
Standing up, Mephiston approached a mirror to see if the device was gone, and to his relief, it was.
Though he already felt much more energized than he had the past few weeks, actually seeing that it was gone gave him another boost.
Preparing to head out already, he found a note reading "Send my regards to Haustefort" in his pockets, so he decided that he might as well do that, surely he'd be able to find Antares somewhere.
Before he would go on that journey though, he really needed to find something to eat, for he was incredibly hungry.
Mephiston woke up early that day, the earlier he'd showed up in the Scholasticate, the higher the chance that he'd see Veldreth throughout the day, however, be it to his dismay or not, the mysterious scholar was already there when the old man arrived at the Library.
Approaching the familiar corner, Veldreth didn't seem to pay him any mind, be that because he was absorbed in his book, didn't care enough or chose to actively ignore Mephiston, whichever it was, it wasn't gonna stop the old man from making his point.
"I apologize profusely for not having shown up yesterday, I was quite unfortunately otherwise preoccupied, I do come with good news though." he lowered his voice and continued "I can get the corpse for you, albeit I had to request help for it, and that help is asking for payment in beforehand.".
Still not sure if Veldreth was listening, Mephiston chose to go on, simply hoping he wasn't being ignored "The...acquintance, that oh so graciously agreed to helping me, wants to meet you." finally showing a sign of life, Veldreth commented "Hm, and why would I fulfill a request of yours after you have continuously proven to be unreliable to work with?" to which the old man responded "Ah! Well, firstly I doubt you'll have opportunity to learn this much about Nightkin again anytime soon, and secondly, I am of sure mind that my acquintance and you will have plenty to learn from each other.".
Looking up from the pages of his book, Veldreth gave Mephiston a grim gaze and noted "Don't play yourself up, you are just that, an opportunity, if I had chosen to pursue knowledge of your kind before just recently I can assure you I would not have need of you right now.
Give me a location for the meeting with your acquintance, it seems the acquisiton of the corpse relies on this now, but do not think I will not just simply leave you to your troubles if you continue to bring nothing other than more requests to this table," to which Mephiston replied with a very slight smirk "The old Stone Vigil, it's abandoned, I've been there a few times when I needed some solitude, there's a room with an old map table, I'll tell my acquintance to meet you there, do you have any preference as to the timeframe?".
Closing his book and heading for the exit of the library, Veldreth said
"I'll be there. Just don't make me wait for a week."
The doors opened to a familiar sight for Mephiston, he had become a frequent visitor of the Scholasticate library ever since his return to Ishgard and following retirement.
Though he would have loved to mingle with some of the students and perhaps talk about the book he most recently read, the reason for his visit started giving him an awaiting glance from the dark corner of the room he positioned himself in, the moment Mephiston had entered.
Barely having sat down, the robed figure started talking to Mephiston.
"You're late." he remarked, taking his eyes off the old man and back into the book in his hands.
"Ah, a side effect of retirement, I barely keep track of the time anymore! I apologize." replied Mephiston, putting his hat down on the table next to them and taking off his glasses "Judging from your reaction to me being late though, I suppose you want to get right to business! Everyone does, nowadays." he stated.
The robed figure finished the page he was reading, closing the book and putting it aside before commenting "Mhm. Removing the device on your neck is barely a noteworthy feat, what is however much more worthy of my time is a way to surpress your conditions negative effects while keeping the positive ones, now obviously you're not making any progress with either of these yourself, so I'm asking for something in return for my, hm, help."
Before Mephiston had the chance to get a word out, he demanded "You said there was a victim to your urges, I want the corpse of said victim."
Shocked but not surprised, Mephiston took a minute to think before replying "I will have to sleep about this a few nights before giving you a definite answer, I don't even know if the body is still around somewhere." he let out a long sigh before following up, saying "Before I take my leave though, I believe we did not yet exchange names, therefore I will take the initiative, the name is Mephiston Godefroy.".
"Veldreth," the robed figure replied coldly, stating "I expect you here by the same time next week," before opening up the book in his hands again and turning his eyes towards the pages.
Not trying to get his attention anymore, for he felt that would be a hopeless effort, Mephiston turned towards the door and said "Aye, next week it shall be!" before leaving the library he had entered just a few minutes ago.
I apologize for delaying this for so long, but here it finally is!!!!
It's quite a lot so read at your own discretion....there might be a lot of nonesense in here but that's my OCs (and my writing in general) in a nutshell, really.
Anon, thank you for this, though I had my troubles with some of it and had to think quite a long time about things I never considered for some of these OCs, it was incredibly fun and I do love finding out new stuff about my OCs!!!!!!!!! <3<3<3<3
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Mephiston:
🎮 - what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?
Once upon a time it would have been training his swordsmanship or just training in general, working, even.
Currently he's enjoying the luxury of being retired, he loves to read, goes on walks (like the old man he is), mingles with other people all around the place and if his magical capabilities hadn't been suppressed recently, he'd be training his arcane skills currently! But alas.
💯 - share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.
Alright so I'm very bad at giving out random facts so I asked a friend of mine to supply me with three things to share:
A food they hate - Fish, he just doesn't like food containing any kind of fish.
A very random skill - During the boring parts of his career as a knight Captain, Mephiston sat in his office for weeks at a time to take care of paperwork his predecessor had left behind for him, any source of entertainment is a blessing at that point so he is quite good at stuff like....spinning a pen around in your fingers or hitting the trashcan with paperwork that doesn't matter anymore.
preferred sock color – Red, it's actually not too hard to guess, though he mostly wears black.
🔱 - can your oc swim? do they enjoy swimming?
During his youth Coerthas wasn't frozen yet so swimming in the wild during training expeditions with the Temple Knights was still very much an option that didn't result in freezing to death, and Mephiston very much took advantage of that!
Unfortunately nowadays he'd either have to leave Ishgard or go swimming in one of those heated pools in the Empyreum, neither of those options quite appeal to him.
❤️ - what are three of your oc's positive traits?
He's incredibly generous and loves to give away gil, items or anything really, though he often doesn't have much himself, he tries to be generous in other ways.
Mephiston is always ready to offer a helping hand, if people come to him and ask for help of any kind he'll hardly decline, they've put their faith in him and he's not ready to disappoint them.
Though Mephiston values many things, compassion towards others is the thing he puts front and center for himself, and I'd say he succeeds at it quite well.
💔 - what are three of your oc's negative traits?
Mephiston can be incredibly melancholic, letting most things that bother him eat him up from the inside, this can lead to Mephiston doing things like locking himself in his office for weeks at a time and focusing on his work, or a more recent example, disappearing in self-anguish both literally and figuratively for half a year.
He's disorganized to a comical extent, though he's able to get it together for work related things, everything else in his life tends to be quite wild, now that he doesn't have any work anymore, well......
Lastly, Mephiston will lie without second thought if he thinks it'll make the person he's talking with feel better and or stop a conflict from starting.
🍛 - what does your oc's typical dinner look like? do they usually eat dinner?
Though Mephiston can very much cook, he doesn't ever cook for himself (or anyone else for that matter, people never visit him to eat dinner), therefore he almost always eats dinner at restaurants or similar establishments.
As to what he usually chooses to eat; he loves a hearty stew with a good variety of vegetables, if he gets to choose the meat he'd pick lamb.
🤔 - what are some of your oc's quirks/mannerisms?
Mephi has an obnoxiously loud laugh, though most often he tries to hold himself back by just chuckling a bit, he's a bit annoyed by his own laugh.
Whenever Mephiston visits a venue for the first time he chooses one or two items on their menu and sticks with those until the end of all life.
No one has seen Mephiston without his signature lipstick and eye shade in the past century, no one ever sees him put it on either, and honestly, it's probably better that way.
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Ryker:
🎮 - what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?
Ryker is quite the athletic guy, he's in a fencing club, trains martial arts of many different kinds and loves to go running, unfortunately for his hobbies that's all he's really got going for him.
💍 - does your oc have any piercings? do they want any (more) piercings?
Currently Ryker only has earrings, I would say that other kinds of piercings would probably fit him, though he doesn't really concern himself with his looks so unless someone convinces him to go get more piercings, he won't think of it.
💯 - share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.
Ryker loves to make up stories as to how he lost his left eye, the truth however is much less heroic, he provoked a bar fight with some rowdies once, and one of them broke a bottle and slashed at Rykers face with it.
Though he is a Knight of Ishgard, Ryker was born in Gridania, his family still lives there but Ryker doesn't feel any connection to his birthplace.
He used to have quite long hair but he realized it got in the way during training quite often so he cut it off, nowadays he just keeps his very short hair.
🚫 - does your oc drink/smoke? do they do it regularly, or is it more on occasion or for special events?
Though Ryker often goes to bars he doesn't actually drink all that much, he loves the atmosphere and the social aspect of it, even if his personality and remarks often sour that atmosphere or even make him end up in fights, which is, of course, another reason why he loves to go to bars.
I'm not sure if Ryker would actually be aware of the existence of cigarettes, though if he was, he'd treat them much like alcohol, not smoking all that often but doing it whenever he feels like it, and who knows, maybe smoking would calm him down a bit.
🐈 - does your oc prefer a wide circle of friends or a few close friends?
Ryker likes to keep a large circle of friends, though it's hard to call most of them that, his friend group is primarily limited to his fellow Knights, he isn't too close with any of them and all they really do is go to places together in bigger groups, but it's all Ryker knew for most of his life.
When Ryker was assigned under Knight Captain Godefroy he was invited to dinner by Mephiston several times, apparently the Knight Captain wanted to get to know the Knights assigned under him a bit better and perhaps even reach a level of friendship with them, Ryker however always declined.
❤️ - what are three of your oc's positive traits?
Ryker is incredibly brave, often to his own disadvantage but brave nonetheless, he doesn't scare away from a challenge.
He's very loyal, the thought of betraying the people he serves, his few friends or anyone he's decided to be loyal to, would never cross his mind, in fact, maybe he doesn't even know that betraying is an option in such a situation.
Lastly, he's very simple with his needs, a few sets of clothes, some food, a bed and a task he's assigned to are all Ryker needs to live a happy life, everything else is a luxury to him.
🤩 - is your oc a planner, or are they more spontaneous in their actions?
Though many might think Ryker is unfamiliar with the concept of planning, he has proven to be able to plan quite a bit ahead to reach his goals, however most often he gets impatient and acts spontaneous towards the end of such a plan.
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Veldreth:
Quick exclaimer for Veldreth, he's originally an OC within the The Elder Scrolls universe, whoever submitted this ask will only know of him through his FFXIV au though, so I'll go on a bit about both of these versions in many of these answers!
🖊️ - does your oc have any tattoos? do they want any (more) tattoos?
He does have tattoos! Well, they're all kind of connected so I suppose he just has one giant tattoo?
Being experimental as he is, Veldreth thought "what if instead of having to enchant my clothes or accessories, I just enchant my own body?", and after reading through the dangers of it, hearing of failed experiments in the past and of horrible side effects for successful ones, he obviously had to try it himself.
Part of the process is covering one's own body in arcane runes, and since Veldreth wanted it to be permanent, well, he tattooed them on.
As fate would have it, his experiment was successful!....kind of, if he doesn't have a filled soul gem, or whatever the equivalent of such a thing is in other universes is, close to him at all times, the enchantment drains his soul.
Aside from that though, he now has a permanent bound/magical armor around his body.
But that's not related to the question so forgive me for going off topic!
📚 - what level of education has your oc most recently completed/is currently in (GED, undergraduate, grad school, phd, etc)?
So, neither TES nor FFXIV have any public schools or anything of the kind, however if we go by hypotheticals, I'd say Veldreth would have a PHD in....hmmm, Conjuration!
It is a bit silly saying that, if we go by his accomplishments, he was a valued member of the Vvardenfell mages guild until being banished from it and after a long and arduous journey through the ranks of House Telvanni, he became a Master of the House, I'd say he's far beyond any level of education!
I don't want to put him too high up in his FFXIV au version though, since I want to avoid making him seem too powerful, important or anything of the kind, I fucked up back when I made Mephiston the knight captain of House Fortemps within the city of Ishgard so I won't be repeating the same mistake by saying Veldreth is a "Master of a Great House somewhere in Ilsabard" or a "Grandmaster in Summoning magicks", he's just....quite skilled and knowledgeable on the arcane and all sorts of other things!
💯 - share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.
As you might have noticed, since I will barely ever get to talk about Veldreth this much again and most certainly not his original version, I tend to go off topic a bit and talk about other details about him at every occasion I can, so this won't be three random facts about him that are easily forgettable but more like....three bigger facts that I would probably not have gotten the chance to mention ever!
The people who met him in FFXIV might have noticed his first name, Voryn, and they might also have noticed how I only use the name Veldreth!
Well, Voryn *was* his first name, once he became a Telvanni Master (Or whatever he is in the FFXIV au) he forsake that name though, he deems himself the only noteworthy member of his family and therefore took the name for himself, using the name that was given to him by his parents, the weaker links of the family, would be a dishonor to himself.
Though House Telvanni is known for it's practice of slavery, Veldreth doesn't much care for it, he uses summons to take care of the tasks that slaves usually take care of in Telvanni society.
He has a wizards Tower, his former Telvanni Masters tower was on Vvardenfell but after said Master had....an accident with a pointy object in his back, well, Veldreth inherited that tower by pure coincidence! He didn't like it though so he grew his own on the Mainland of Morrowind, he called it "Tel Dun" which means something like Cursed Tower or Dark Tower in Dunmeri, I like to think he lives in a Tower in his FF14 au too.
🔺- does your oc know how to use any weapons?
Nowadays Veldreth mostly uses conjuration to take care of his problems, summoning things keeps his hands clean, he has been known to handle a dagger quite well in the past though, a good stab in the back can come in very useful at times.
🐉 - what is your oc's favorite mythical creature?
So neither TES nor FF14 really seem to have "mythical creatures" in the sense that they don't actually exist in some way, however I will just go by creatures that the general population might not see in their everyday lives.
For TES Veldreth is a big fan of various types of lesser daedra, due to him specializing in conjuration he has lots of experience in summoning them and even conversing with them, his favorite of the bunch would probably be Daedroth, Crocodile like bipedal Daedra, while Veldreth isn't all too brawny summoning a Daedroth usually makes up for that lack of brawn.
I suppose the closest for FF14 Veldreth would be voidsent, unfortunately I have no idea what kind of voidsent in particular for I don't know all too much about them myself, I'll have to look into it though.
🍎 - where was your oc born? do they still live in/around their place of birth or do they live somewhere else? how do they feel about their birthplace?
So in his original universe, he was born in Morrowind, specifically on Vvardenfell, for his FFXIV au I went with "somewhere in Ilsabard" for now, where exactly, well..... that's a problem for future me.
Both versions still live close to their place of birth, TES Veldreth moved from the Island of Vvardenfell to the mainland of Morrowind at one point while the FFXIV au version most likely did something similar, though he is currently exploring Eorzea.
He doesn't care all too much for his birthplace, he doesn't feel any strong connection with it and is sure he could have accomplished all that he has accomplished no matter where he was born.
🤍 - what are three of your oc's neutral/questionable traits?
Alright so, the difference between neutral/questionable traits and negative traits depends mostly on who you're talking to, so I'll just like three that I would think to be quite neutral, but I wouldn't blame you if you felt they were negative or positive instead of neutral.
While his lust for knowledge is never-ending, he's very content in general, he doesn't care to acquire "more power" or to reach higher ranks in House Telvanni or society as a whole, his current state of life is quite sufficient and the effort that would have to be put into changing it isn't worth it to him.
Veldreth is very absentminded, no matter if in private or in public places, once he starts thinking about something interesting to him he tends to disappear into his own mind, this even happens mid conversation from time to time, it could very well be that his tendency to not care all too much about others as long as he gets to do his own thing and follow his pursuit of knowledge is connected to the latter part in a way, offending people because he just starts ignoring them isn't a concern of his.
Though House Telvanni is inherently quite competitive, once Veldreth became a Master that sense of competition disappeared for him, ever since he's content with his state of life he's become incredibly uncompetitive and doesn't care to prove himself anymore, he knows what he can and can't do and what others might think of him, once again, doesn't matter to him.
🤔 - what are some of your oc's quirks/mannerisms?
Veldreth talks to himself quite a lot, it's a bit connected to him being incredibly absentminded for he often doesn't even realize there's other people listening and he's really just in his own little bubble of thought.
He has a habit of documenting every magical experiment, summoning, or significant event in his life. He keeps detailed journals, grimoires and even scrolls that serve as both a personal history and a reference guide for his endeavours.
😓 - is your oc open-minded or stubborn? are they inquisitive or do they prefer to keep to their bubble of knowledge?
Stubborn all the way, in all honesty, I don't think I need to go further into why and how.
He's very inquisitive, as you might have guessed from some other things I talked about along the way to this question, however he's dead set on learning and acquiring knowledge without direct help from others, if anyone dares try to teach him something his mood will become very sour very quickly.
