actually i just remembered that i can do whatever i want . i'm going to ramble about the bards and be free (also im including elinor bc my illnesses make it so i cannot separate them)
guydelot is 22 according to the encyclopedia eorzea so i think sanson is 21-22 as well. they're both idiots so them being in their early 20s makes sense
meanwhile elinor is about 68 in heavensward when he joins msq, but bc of viera aging being so wonky (in my mind) he's like. in the developmental equivalent of mid 20s
sanson grew up in gridania being raised by his grandparents + older sister after his parents died when he was super young. his older sister was his hero and where he got his fascination with bards. when she died in the calamity, he joined the twin adders in her honor
guydelot grew up in a family of merchants as the youngest of five and essentially raised himself; he learned archery from the keeper miqo'te he ran into as a kid in the shroud, and eventually met jehantel the same way. he initially joined the twin adders/gold bulls as a way to seek his parents approval but then started to resent it after it didn't work
elinor comes from a village on the very fringes of garlemald, where he was a warder of the wood for years until the empire destroyed his village soon after the fall of the praetorium. he came to eorzea just before heavensward started and stayed in gridania bc it reminded him of home
in my mind palace elinor meets sanson + guydelot and starts the heavensward bard quests after 3.0 concludes, and the quests interweave w the patches. i even wrote a fic abt elinor meeting guydelot in the level 50 quest
this Does mean sanson and guydelot are there when the protest breaks out during the peace conference at falcon's nest in 5.2 and elinor gets his drink spiked. im also writing a fic about that lmfao
elinor initially likes guydelot more than sanson but eventually warms up to sanson more. it takes a while for him to fully trust guydelot after he "leaves" sanson alone in tailfeather (while actually just watching him like a creep lmao)
im realizing that if i talk about their full timeline this post will be 50000 pages long so i'll cut it down for time LMAO essentially:
sanson and guydelot get together after the hvw bard questline is completed. elinor stays friendly with them afterward but is very much in denial that he likes both of them and has convinced himself that polyamory in eorzea is Not Allowed
the starting quest for the stb bard quests happens before baelsar's wall, but then Shit Happens and elinor can't join them for a while. until the attack at rhalgr's reach happens and elinor is nearly killed by zenos
the stb bard questline happens at the same time as the doma arc, but elinor is basically on bedrest for most of it. he gets pissed off that sanson and guydelot keep treating him like he's fragile and decides to confront nourval by himself and promptly gets kidnapped instead of sanson
he's successfully rescued but has now pissed off both of them And my other two wols who were like "We cannot leave you alone for two goddamn seconds" and ban him from doing anything outside of helping with the final ala mhigo fight
he stays and mopes in gridania for the stb patches and eventually reconciles w sanson and guydelot. they try to tell him that they like him and fumble it so badly that they proposition him for a threesome instead. He agrees and they start a fwb thing
Shadowbringers Happens. elinor is miserable and suicidal for 2/3rds of it and only keeps going bc he wants to make it back to sanson and guydelot. he does after 5.3 and goes straight back to gridania and finally confesses
more happens after that but this post is long enough HDBBSBCJCKDJ those are the important points though. There's a lot more yearning and awful communication in the interim but they figure it out eventually
his pulse plays an erratic melody under your palm. you feel it quicken when your fingers trace his skin and it slows down when you inhale, then exhale; heart and mind always at odds, part of him cannot stand the closeness of your body against his. the other craves to breathe with you, fill in the empty spaces of your silhouette with his own.
you cannot give what you have a name, it cannot be bound by the language of letters and sounds. by the structure of definitions and guidelines.
there is no word to describe that fleeting second when three become one.
REPOSTING! BC IT WASNT SHOWING IN THE MAIN TAGS! BECAUSE THIS HELLISH SITE DID NOT LIKE MY FUNNY TAGS ABT THE POLYCULE'S DYNAMIC! SO IM PUTTING THEM HERE FOR EVERYONE TO SEE!
sometimes you just gotta shoot your shot and see if this on and off platonic? romantic? situationship? is gonna lead anywhere
and sometimes you gotta accept the guy you both are into is a lost fucking cause! ! ! ! the polycule is in shambles! ! !
i wanted some fun gposes for the polycule :]
specifically in whatever period of time between stormblood and shadowbringers in which guydelot FINALLY gets over his brooding hesitant bullshit emotional baggage and grows enough balls to admit he's into sanson and m'ozzie. so now sanson doesn't have to suffer alone trying to figure out what the fuck is going on between the three of them!
now their only issue is fighting m'ozzie's internalized homophobia and incredible denial skills! he understands he cares about both of them, but yknow. The Divorce, Losing Haurchefant, Whatever Cocomelon Shit Zenos Is Doing To Him aren't exactly helping him figure out what he wants in the whole relationships department
i like to think that right after this specific era of their friendship, they get into a pretty bad dynamic of one night stands they all regret while trying to drag m'ozzie out of the closet. and sometime during endwalker or dawntrail, they finally sort shit out and get into a proper QPR that doesn't revolve around physical intimacy only
I've been itching to answer these questions from this post by @caffeinated-moogle that I saw awhile back! (tysm for the questions if you're reading this!!)
it just took me so long bc I wanted to make a relationship chart but I have so many things in the brain, it's was really hard to make it coherent! but now I can go feral writing abt them hehehoho
it's all under the read more o7 I didn't answer in order since my approach to shipping & dynamics is. a mess LMFAO
Whatever you consider the most pivotal or poignant connection(s) forged between NPC and WoL, be it friendship, familial, mentorship, rivalry, and/or so forth! What made that connection stand out so much that it's essential for your WoL's lore?
OK SO. a big part of M'ozzie's core as a character revolves around his internalized sexism, misogyny, homophobia/transphobia, etc etc as a result of his upbringing as a Seeker in a patriarchal society--or rather, what he PERCEIVES to be the ideal of a "proper" nunh based on his strained relationships with every male figure in his life since childhood. he clings onto an idealized version of how men should be in his head, desperately and clumsily attempting to recreate it for himself because "men in positions of authority don't get hurt, and they have the power to protect those they care about"
the emphasis of his character is that Everything he believes in is factually wrong, born from trauma and misconceptions that are easier to reinforce, rather than face the truth of what happened to him & take responsibility for his actions. he forces himself to be something he isn't as a way of self-punishment and sabotage, but also because it's easier to weaponize his incompetence that way and not engage with difficult topics. it can't be that deep if he himself is shallow and lacking nuance!
so the most pivotal connections for M'ozzie's are, ironically, those who actively show and defy everything he believes in. because he is subconsciously attracted to these types of people, which he perceives as symbols of defiance and strength, while simultaneously fearing and rejecting them because they don't adhere to what he thinks is "normal"
and because his idea of "normal" is forced and extremely limited, claustrophobic and stiffling (men = strong vs women = weak, etc etc) he gets his shit rocked with every single character he encounters; this in itself highlights how fragile and nonsensical his values are, and how the real root of the problem is the lack of solid relationships and support system in his life!
the most pivotal relationships in M'ozzie's life canon wise are Haurchefant, Zenos, Minfilia and Lyse!
without getting too into details (bc I could run out of space writing about why they matter so much to his character) Haurchefant and Lyse appeal to M'ozzie's more humane side; the idea that he is just as human as anyone else and thus, has the same potential for good and nuance. Haurchefant serving as a connection to the future, a gentle introduction to friendships and relationships that carry no expectation nor baggage, a bond that doesn't even need to be named nor understood by outsiders, let alone be defined by them. Lyse serving as a connection to the past, a reminder that there are dozens like him out there that feel the same or a similar type of loss because they cannot truly connect with their homeland (in this case, gyr abania) by virtue of Having Left So Long Ago and missing out on those shared experiences (in this case, enduring garlean occupation). he saw himself in her, saw her as a sister figure and stand-in for himself. and when Lyse was inevitably forced into a role much bigger than her during Stormblood, M'ozzie resented her bc he could NOT rise up to his own struggles, UNLIKE HER.
Zenos and Minfilia appeal to a much more spiritual or darker side of M'ozzie, the higher powers that enforce ideals and divine plans that require a lot of sacrifice at the cost of individuals for the greater good or personal gain!
Zenos usually goes hand in hand with Parmesan (M'ozzie's ex-spouse) to act as a mirror and reflection of darker desires and thoughts M'ozzie has and refuses to engage with, the consequences of living a life of repression and unfulfillement. I haven't finished Endwalker yet BUT so far, Zenos embodies everything that M'ozzie wants to be (his flawed idea of what men should be like) and this in itself scares the shit out of him. On the other hand, Minfilia appeals to the roles imposed on them, the powerlessness of being forced to choose what's good and right for the world at the cost of your own self, higher callings and the loss of the mundane & domestic.
M'ozzie has not seen the journey and experiences that essentially nurtured and raised Zenos to become Like That (ironically, through Varis' own lack of nurture and direct involvement in his own son's life lmfao) and he doesn't want to, because that involves coming to terms with his own similar journey and aimless, near-obsessive focus towards the one thing that he believes will make him feel fulfilled. but he HAS seen, experienced and heard about Minfilia's journey into becoming the Antecedent AND the Word of the Mother. her fate scares and hurts him in a very personal way because he believed that by enforcing gendered stereotypes (he's the strong warrior man, he should go and kill primals in her name) he was, to an extent, relieving Minfilia of some weight in her responsibilities. but this only pushed both of them deeper into the clutches of Hydaelyn and Ascians and whatnot
okok stopping myself there bc I wanna answer some other stuff too!
Why did that specific NPC (or group of NPCs) make your shipping brain go "bing" like a microwave? Did it have anything to do with player preference? Was the decision immediate, or did you have to come around to the idea?
I don't really care much about shipping when it's just romantic for the sake of making blorbos kiss! it's just not for me to think about them in a healthy, committed, loving, monogamous, romantic dynamic!
i really like QPRs and other non conventional relationships that cannot be so easily described or labelled!
so when it comes to shipping, I mostly think about what the dynamic between the characters can offer overall to their respective stories and characterization, how can I make this as insufferable as possible for everyone involved, in what way the relationship would make sense for the characters and how they would present it etc. it just kinda clicks in my head as I play and read more on the characters! if it was up to me and the characters I like, I'd be shipping M'ozzie with 80% of the cast LMFAO
but if i have to choose, M'ozzie's main ships are with Haurchefant. and then with Guydelot & Sanson. both of these are QPRs that only make sense to them! I do love shipping Urianger, Thancred & Y'shtola together, and since M'ozzie has very strong dynamics with Thancred & Y'shtola, I thought it would be so fucking funny if he just kinda got roped into it without realizing, but that is pretty much M'ozzie's approach to relationships LMFAO. Zenos is also there but he would go with Parmesan to ship with M'ozzie in another weirdly homoerotic platonic non conventional relationship. World's most toxic polycule, nightmare blunt rotation. They're Not Dating, it's something much more sinister, etc etc.
Did it feel like work to maneuver your personal canon so they fit together, or did it just evolve naturally? Are they your sole ride-or-die OTP, or are there AUs/alternate storylines where your WoL falls in with someone else? If so, what made you curious to explore those other ships?
I'm a firm believer of multishipping and that any character can have whatever relationship with any other under the right circumstances. it's like the whole thing with "he would not fucking say that," you just have to find out the perfect situation in which he WOULD say that!
I also love having ten billion AUs, or thinking too deeply about the unseen, so my personal canon is not even something strict I adhere to. if something doesn't evolve naturally but I want it to feel natural, I can just shove them somewhere in which it is natural. but it's also very very fun to try and see how things will work with what canon establishes. not sure if I'm making much sense! I just like playing with tuoys!
AUs in which M'ozzie falls in love with A instead of B are not interesting for me, since he can just fall in love with A and B within the same universe. the idea that characters can only fall in love with One Person each time is boring to me! besides, it works for me bc M'ozzie is polyamorous even if he doesn't know this abt himself LMFAO
If your WoLship is with another OC, what made them a better fit than any of the NPCs? Could your WoL have connected with an NPC if not for that OC's presence in their life?
Parmesan is not the better fit for M'ozzie, but they are as pivotal as they are detrimental in his life!
it's not that M'ozzie could've connected with others if Parmesan weren't there--it's that knowing Parmesan and going through The Torment Nexus Lambs of Dalamud Voidsent Murder Suicide Cult with them is the reason M'ozzie is able to have all of these other dynamics and relationships in the future!
I wrote them both to be intrinsically linked with each other, regardless of how they end up, so it's impossible to get rid of one of them without getting rid of the other. it's also very important to me, because they're foils of one another!
M'ozzie represents someone who self-sabotages himself yet continues to connect with others subconsciously because it's in his nature to find love and communities in others, since he was raised in Seeker culture in which Big Groups Are Good, Big Groups Are Safe And Being With A Lot Of People Brings Joy To Him. the problem is that he himself cannot remain there for long, he eventually feels the need to leave or ruin these relationships, platonic romantic or what have you, because of the responsibility that love brings. people will EXPECT something from him, and he thinks he's too broken or too lacking or too shitty to deliver!
on the other hand, Parmesan is someone who actively manipulates and ruins other people's lives so that they stay with them because--just like mozzie--they seek love and community as someone who was raised in Viera culture, extremely isolating and strictly gender segregated DESPITE what their ideals of gender say. Big Groups Bring Them Joy Because They Never Had Any To Belong To. Isolation Is Bad So Big Broups Are Good. their problem is that love cannot be taken through force. people dont stay because Parmesan only knows how to force themselves onto others, integrate them into their group and what they think is right. people leave because they're expecting a type of support and community that cannot exist the way they want it to!
it's not that they're the ultimate OTP or the endgoal, moreso than they're forever linked and obsessed with each other bc of what the other represents. if Parmesan wasn't in M'ozzie's life and viceversa, they will miss a key part of their character that allows Everything Else to work out! and where would M'ozzie be if he cant use his status as a divorced man to earn pity points!!!
