#watcher alfaris

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raedric: says pretty much anything

alfie: 😡😡😡 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

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i like how randos in defiance bay have already heard that alfie is a Very Honest Man even though he only just arrived there

did some sucker from gilded vale decide to go to the city ahead of him and be like “let’s make that nice aedyran fellow the talk of the capital!!” and succeeded too

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Watcher Alfaris & Inquisitor Caolan + MBTI

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30 day Watcher challenge part 5

5. background: what’s your watcher’s culture and background? tell us a bit about their life before traveling to the dyrwood!

Aedyr and Aristocrat :D Specifically, well, Prince of the Aedyr Empire and youngest child of the Mecwyn.

For the most part, he has the education and training you’d expect from a Prince, the former coming in handy when navigating the more political aspects of his adventures as well as administering Caed Nua, the latter during the fights. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t nearly get to attend as many parties as the in game blurb for Aristocrat implies, thanks to the whole trying to hide his awakening and Cipher powers thing.

For the most part he actually spent his free time either with his family, reading or playing with the cats and dogs (and other animals) kept at the palace. Which is were his enduring love of all animals and tendency to collect any he comes across that look like they need a new caretaker comes from, as well as the reason why his parents decide to get him a (trained) lion companion after the first game. If he already insists he doesn’t wanna come home yet, they can at least give him a pet that will tear apart anyone who looks at him wrong, right?

The copious amount of books he’s read has also lead to him being well versed in a variety of subjects, though admittedly his favorites were fiction or fictionalized historical accounts centering around heroic figures and their deeds, which is where his enduring obsession with being a hero himself comes from, in part. A few of them his family actually outright commissioned as gifts for him.

[aedyre]

many a sleepless night

Decided to do something for @pillarspromptsweekly this week because keep meaning to write about Alfie’s family anyway :’D

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The Mecwyn woke slowly, her mind struggling to pull herself out of deep, dreamless sleep, until suddenly the tiny hands shaking her and the desperate whispers of, “Mother!” penetrated her consciousness and she shot up.

Alfaris stared at her wide eyed and wet faced, his curly, blond hair standing away from his head in every direction “Mama”, he sniffled, and crawled up on the bed now that she was finally awake.

She helped him up and then pulled him into her lap and wrapped her arms around him. She was tired still, but exhaustion took second place to alarm. “What happened, Alfie?”, she asked and rocked the both of them back and forth. She knew the answer. She knew, but she still hoped it was something different this time -- an unexpected noise or movement in the dark that had just been a cloud snuffing out the moonlight, anything that had driven either of her other children to seek out their parents at night when they were Alfaris’s age.

“I-- I had the nightmare again”, he whimpered and clung all the tighter to her. She closed her eyes for a moment. Of course.

“I see”, she said and kept rocking. “Do you want to stay here tonight?”

He nodded against her chest and she moved a hand to card through his curls. Beside her, her husband stirred.

“There has to be something we can do”, the Ferscönyng said, one hand pulling at his beard as so often when something agitated him.

“But what? I’m not letting some animancer near my child. We banned them for a reason.”

Her husband was pacing restlessly, dark circles under his eyes from sleepless nights. The Mecwyn knew she looked just the same.

“What about a Watcher?”, the Ferscönyng’s wife suggested.

Her husband pinched his nose. “What would that do? I’ve never heard of a Watcher suppressing an awakening, just causing them.”

She sighed and moved over to the window. “If we don’t try anything, we can’t help him”, the Ferscönyng said and sounded as tired as she felt. He wasn’t the one woken in the middle of the night, but she knew he worried about Alfaris just the same.

She gazed out the window and spotted him playing with his siblings in the gardens, the three of them building little sandcastles together. Behind her, the others were still arguing; none of them were wrong and there seemed to be no good choice.

Tradition said anyone with an awakened soul was to be shunned, treated as a criminal might. She didn’t know why. Maybe because so many awakenings were tied to violent pasts and sometimes a violent present too. And it was no different with Alfaris, wasn’t it? What would the people think, if they knew their youngest prince dreamed of torture and death so vivid and foreign to his experiences it could come from nothing but memories of another life?

The faint taste of bile permeated her mouth. No. Her son-- he was as good and innocent as any child. How could he be to blame for the transgressions of another, shared soul or no? Below, Alfaris was getting distracted from his castle by a cat, one of the many that stalked the palace to keep the rats in check. It flopped onto its back when he reached for it and he enthusiastically started scratching its belly.

They couldn’t know. She wouldn’t allow him to face that. He would be happy and loved and safe, whatever it took.

“First of all”, she said and finally turned back to the others. “We make sure no one finds out.”

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30 day Watcher challenge part 4

4. sexuality & gender: how does your watcher identify? is this important to them, or have they never given it much thought?

A gay cis man. He hasn’t thought much about his gender, because he’s comfortable with being a man, but it did take him a while to figure out his sexuality because of his stunted social life and fewer chances to experiment. Then once it started to dawn on him that he hasn’t just not found a woman he’s really attracted to, he’s not attracted to women, period, there was some waffling about what he should do since being royalty usually comes with expectations regarding marriage and carrying on the line. Eventually he decided that since he’s a thirdborn child it’s not that important and informed his parents, who were like, “sure, that’s ok, baby”.

(Considering they had been purposefully keeping him away from people to help keep his awakening and cipher abilities a secret they were never planning on having him marry because trying to vet any noble family for whether or not they’d use that info to cause a scandal or other political maneuvering would have been a nightmare :’D)

(Fortunately for both the incarnation he awakens to is also a gay guy so the bodysharing never comes with additional issues there, they just become boyfriends instead 👍)

[aedyre]

Ohhh, I was about to go to bed when I saw @ariela-of-aedyr‘s ask meme :D decided to do it now and not wait for asks since well... bed, and technically it’s Thursday here already :’) also i just wanna babble about my baby

1. What did your Watcher make of the Deadfire Archipelago? Was it their first time there, or had they been there previously? 

First time! Alfaris had never actually left the Aedyr Empire before the start of POE1 and hasn’t even seen all of the Empire at that. His first impression was pretty much “ugh so much ocean and see travel I don’t like boats-- OH GREAT I’M ALREADY STRANDED. awesome.” He... still isn’t that keen on it by the end, though he gets used to it. He also doesn’t like how the archipelago is run very much and could do without everyone and their mother vying for power against each other instead of addressing the very obvious problems being had. He did like the weather though! At least better than the Dyrwood’s.

2. Did they have a favourite location?

Not... really. Neketaka probably comes closest by virtue of being the biggest city around, but it also has both the Gullet (which pisses him off because the Roparu have such shitty living conditions) and the Kahanga palace (which pisses him off because he does not get along with the Kahanga royals :’D). Other than that he liked visiting small, unimportant villages that just peacefully existed. And the Engwithan ruin the Wahaki live in, because of the Thaos mural.

3. How about a favourite companion? Or a favourite NPC? 

Of the new Deadfire crew, definitely Tekehu 😛 He’d endeared himself to Alfaris by the time they entered the Gullet together and Tekehu expressed his shock and dismay about how the people there are treated, and after that they got to comforting handholding really fast which was some wonderful gay shit. (...Also I just like it as a romance trope. Loved it with Aloth in the first game, loved it here, it’s good.)

As far as NPCs go... he rather likes Director Castol and Flaune Elette because he likes their idealism and vision. It’s why he very firmly sided with Castol during the company meeting, which should have been clear to the governor from the beginning -- “Ah yes, this extremely idealistic person who wishes to help people and has no interest nor need in making money (because he comes from money and is essentially never without it) will surely side with my profit oriented leadership over another idealist visionary!” ...Yeahhhhhh, no.

4. Was there a companion or an NPC that they just couldn’t stand? What was it about them that irritated your Watcher? 

None tbh. Alfaris is relatively easy to get along with and to go into the “I can’t stand you” category you need to be a huge dick. (And if your name is Thaos, even that isn’t enough :P) He’d butt heads with Vatnir and Ydwin over ideology, philosophy and theology --though in Vatnir’s case he’d mostly want to help get Vatnir away from Ryrmrgand and more comfortable -- with Ydwin he’s lowkey “well you’re wrong about the wheel but I guess you’re entitled to your wrong opinion :/”, but he doesn‘t dislike either of them. He also wishes Serafen would “talk normally” and Maia ends up leaving because he sides with the Vailians, but they get on well until then.

5. Was your Watcher glad to have Eder, Aloth and Pallegina back again (if indeed they did)? Was there any other companion that they would have liked to have back in their party? 

Yes!! I mean, Aloth is one of his bfs and Edér and Pallegina are his bffs. He wouldn’t mind any of the others except Durance back, though he especially misses Sagani and Kana.

6. What was your Watcher’s ship(’s) name(s)? Did they enjoy being Captain of a boat? Would they rather have been back at Caed Nua?

.....I can’t fucking settle on a name tbh. Last playthrough it was The Prince, named by his mum the Mecwyn when she heard that he would like a nice big ship with maybe a lot of cannons because there are pirates everywhere here, mother, can you believe it? But that wasn’t all that creative and is subject to change if I think of something I really like after all :D

He... didn’t exactly enjoy being a Captain, because traveling by ship is not his preferred method, but he also wouldn’t have preferred being at Caed Nua -- he was getting close to done with what he could do there to help and would have installed a steward before long anyway, and the Deadfire is where he was needed now.

7. Did they have a favourite quest or side quest? How about a least favourite? 

I’d say no real favorite -- there were moments he enjoyed, like being able to help Biha, or get medicine for the sick Roparu, but nothing where I would say “Yes this entire quest is something he loved”. Similarly there were a lot he really did not like, but it’s hard to point to a specific one -- shoutout goes to Nemnok’s though because he got really damn pissed about the whole “oh let’s sacrifice our children to our new god” thing. a) No!!! Just no!!!!, b) dammit Thaos, once again proof your entire plan didn’t work because people are *still* doing this shit. The sacrifices ended up being all right after all, but the spirit of it still made him mad :P

8. Did your Watcher find romance, or close companionship, in the Deadfire? If so, who did they get close to, and how did that relationship develop? 

HOO BOY does Alfie ever have companionship :D I don’t often care much for polyshipping, but he’s a big exception to that. Admittedly, hc wise he was already in a relationship with Aloth, because screw this dancing around your feelings for 5 years stuff in their case (and honestly, no way Alfaris wouldn’t have made sure to keep in contact with Aloth, while Aloth was off hunting down the Leaden Key!). He’s already close to his past incarnation too, though Caolan’s part of their soul ends up being kidnapped by Eothas and thus not around for a big part of the game.

And then there’s Tekehu, who, along with Aloth, is basically tailor made for Alfaris :P Sweetheart who wants to help people? Sad woobie who needs emotional support? A big sub? Yes. Good. Perfect. Alfie was making hearteyes at him by the time they left Neketaka together after dealing with the mess in the Gullet. Tekehu was similarly drawn to the Watcher rather quickly (he’s so easy to raise affection with...) and they talked a lot about the Deadfire and about the Huana and whatever was going on in their quest(s) at the time. Then his last fears that maybe Alfaris wouldn’t want to or couldn’t give him what Tekehu wanted were laid to rest when Alfaris revealed that yeah, actually, he is a dom and he likes taking care of people and giving them what he needs and literally everything Tekehu just described as seeking in a romantic and sexual partner is something he’s happy to give.

9. Which faction did your Watcher side with in the end, if any? Was there a particular reasoning behind their decision? 

The Vailians! The pirates were never in the running despite Furante’s attempts, Alfaris was already annoyed with Onekaza and her brother over the Gullet and Onekaza’s behaviour (please stop trying to do ~banter telepathically kthxbye), then she sent him on a menial errand to get Mairu (”I’m a visiting foreign Prince but ok, maybe this is some cultural difference I don’t get”) which resulted in him freeing the dragon and then him and Onekaza slinging insults at one another. “It’s a poor ruler who doesn’t recognize what is under her feet” gave me life and him too for getting it off his chest :’)

And when it came down to Rauatai vs the Republics, he decided that animancy was more useful to deal with the crisis at hand. Which admittedly was also helped by Pallegina being his bff and very much influencing his opinion of the Republics towards being more positive.

10. Where do you imagine your Watcher’s life takes them after the events of Deadfire? 

He would absolutely keep an eye on what’s going on on Ukaizo, considering how important rebuilding the Wheel is (especially since he’s such a big fan of reincarnation too!), but since he can’t exactly help the animancers fix it faster... I think he’d visit home, try to spread the truth about the gods more (which is helped, I imagine, by Eothas’s actions), help Aloth with the Leaden Key, and just generally keep an eye out for the next crisis to lend his hand, since his overarching goal is to make the world a better place and prove to Thaos that kith doesn’t need the gods for that and isn’t as bad as Thaos has come to believe.

(Though my money for a potential sequel plot would be something involving Yezuha considering the storms are now gone.)