An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Hi! I'm Jade, and I write a normal amount about Starchfly. You can find my fics via the page above.
pfp and banner by @kaosithesecond
More specific links:
Dreams of Ice and Fire - Stelle, March, and Firefly fall in love, and navigate polyamory together alongside all the other complications of being Nameless and Stellaron Hunters.
Astral University - A University/Modern AU Starchfly story. Stelle and Firefly meet and quickly fall in love, but everything that comes after is far from simple as they navigate university life together.
Set the Princess Ablaze - A spinoff fic of Dreams where the girls play the visual novel Slay the Princess together.
Dreams of Earth and Sky - A Dan Heng/Hyacine spinoff of Dreams.
Loose Leaves - A Bronseele spinoff of Astral University.
Stellefly Week 2024 - My contributions to Stellefly week 2024.
Stellefly Week 2025 - My contributions to Stellefly week 2025
Expect spinoffs in each series alongside a main story, several of which are smutty. Not to mention, I write oneshots of various kinds too!
It's time for some HSR rambles from jade again. Going under the cut since I imagine it'll be long
To be honest, I love most of the Chrysos Heirs. I don't keep it a secret that Amphoreus was my favourite arc in HSR's story, and part of that is the strength of its characters. I want to focus on these two tho
Castorice
Castorice is such an odd character to me. Specifically, because I think her best character writing actually occurs outside of her dedicated patch.
A gentle, bordering on pacifist death (demi-)god is a fascinating concept. It's written into the foundations of her character: she's outright traumatised by the concept of death, because she's never been able to escape it.
She's touch-starved beyond belief, she's a writer, she loves to create things. She's constantly looking for inspiration in the world around her, which is very relatable. As much as 'death', she's tied to the concept of 'legacy'. She doesn't just hate death, she hates the emptiness that comes after.
So it felt pretty hollow when, in 3.2, she just kinda accepted her place in things. A millenium-long defining personality trait just kinda tossed aside. To make it clear, I'm not opposed to her 'acceptance' of death conceptually, just how quickly it came about.
I say 'acceptance' because I don't think she ever did accept death, she just accepted her place in the cycle of life and death. Some things she says later makes it sound a lot like she still rejects the concept of death?
By my understanding of things, threading these things together, she accepts that life and death are a balance, but rejects that death has to be cruel. Lives should be long, afterlives calm and beautiful, people remembered fondly and for a long time.
And while I think that is in the text... I just think they misplaced when she has her revelation a little. It still felt sudden.
But, there's no way I can talk about 3.2 without talking about Castelle (I think cas/caelus (Caestorice?) technically exists but I've never seen it lmao). Especially as someone who ships it.
I'm in an odd place with it. I actually didn't like the ship until .2. I thought people were jumping the gun before then. Then there was the marketing, which I'd be lying if I said didn't make me worried that she was going to get the Firefly treatment, and water down part of what I love about Stellefly.
So, when the patch rolled out and I played through, I found myself kinda laughing. You know what actually sold me on the ship? The fact it could easily be platonic. It turns out, it was just marketing. Sure, kinda weird and close friends, but it's Stelle she's like that.
I think it's doing Castorice a disservice to say she wouldn't move heaven and earth like that to save a friend. There's a very nice touch where it's canon that she leaves difficult tasks until a deadline looms (I thought her Autism/ADHD/AuDHD coding was pretty strong, bonus points to her), which makes it scan even better how much she's spurred into action by having someone only she can save, and only if she acts right away.
That gave me the freedom to choose whether to ship it or not. And ship it I did, because the tragedy was too delicious to not.
I made it clear in Memories, but I keep coming back to how lonely Stelle must have felt in Amphoreus. Even ignoring ships: she's missing most of the Astral Express, save for the least talkative. Stelle has friends all over the cosmos by that point, and she can talk to none of them.
So that leaves Dan Heng, and the Chrysos Heirs. She gets closer with Dannie, and she makes friends among the Chrysos Heirs. Castorice, I think, probably being one of her closest friends among them.
So, a lonely Stelle forms a close bond with someone, only to have said person sacrifice herself to save her? A Stelle already canonically traumatised by watching Firefly die in front of her?
it's a capital-T Tragedy.
Throw in a romantic spin on it? It twists the knife just a little harder.
Combine it with Starchfly. Firefly's not present, March is very sick. If you think about it, Morning Glories is kind of a cruel ship to inflict on Stelle.
Right up until the payoff, of course.
It was pretty obvious narratively that Cas would come back. And the ways they did that was very nice. They nodded to Stelle still thinking about Cas, and vice versa.
The message-in-a-bottle sorta deal Cas left for Stelle in the doomed loop sent me feral. A big part of Castelle is the Yearning, and that was pure undiluted yearning. Her appearing at the tree in the next patch? gold.
When Stelle gets to build her own cycle of Amphoreus, she gives Cas the ability to touch others without killing them. That was the greatest gift she gave any of the Chrysos Heirs if you ask me. It was not just grand and mythological, it was also personal.
It's all a big ramble, but the sum that part up? Part of what I love about Castelle is that you could make them just friends, but if you make it a romance, there's some fantastic depth there.
I can't really talk about 3.2 though without mentioning two things:
The Endwalk. I seem to be the only ffxiv player I've spoken to who thought that the Endwalk out of the nether realm was actually well executed. Mostly, because I think people were expecting it to be identical to Endwalker's Endwalk. I disagree. While Endwalker was showing the road the WoL took to get to where they were, HSR was showing what Stelle had to live for. March and Dannie, Firefly, her new Chrysos Heir friends.
Oh hey look more nuance for a Stellefly + Castelle multishipper - the agony of leaving one lover behind to return to another.
2. The scene at the Vortex of Genesis. An image of Castorice appears, Stelle goes to touch her, and she fades. HOW FUCKING CRUEL? Are we just not gonna dwell on that (I say a year late)??? I genuinely think that must haunt Stelle's nightmare too cos OUCH. Oh yeah then Anaxa goes and dies in front of her, to top it off.
I don't really have a conclusion there, beyond, I guess, what I've already written in my fics lmao.
So I'll start with this: if I had a gun to my head and someone demanded I name my favourite Chrysos Heir, I'd probably say Hyacine.
I'm not one to care about favourites like that though. I think stories are not about 'which character is best', but about the narrative. Also, why would I ever limit myself to one favourite?
I actually, genuinely think HSR 3.3 was my favourite patch (again, if I had to pick a favourite). Hyacine isn't solely responsible for that, but she's a big part of it.
Hyacine, I think, is one of the best takes on the 'gentle healer' archetype I've seen. I think it's very meaningful that we see the fierce warrior women in her ancestry, showing that her kind, gentle demeanour is not just expected of her through gender roles, but it's specifically who she is.
But to cut to why I find her character so intoxicating: it does not make light of how hard it is to be kind. She's exhausted from how hard she works to save people, she smiles constantly and genuinely even (especially?) when she herself is suffering.
Her love for people, all people, not just the 'heroes' is so important. She's arguably the most human of all the Chrysos Heirs because of it. That makes it hurt all the more when she has to give up her humanity.
But isn't that just another reflection of who she is? Her taking on impossible burdens in the name of kindness?
And to top it all off, the game lets her have her extreme badass moments just like everyone else. Hell, the fact that she, a gentle healer, walks into combat with world-ending monstrosities, where even hardened warriors are in danger, speaks of how brave she is.
I feel healer characters are rarely allowed to show such a range of emotions and personality. Especially not women, and definitely not those with a gentler disposition. Hyacine, meanwhile, is a fully-realised person.
And part of what makes that possible is how much she masks. She hides so much of how she feels, and it still peeks through in little ways.
So, inevitably we get to the Dancine part. Definitely feel like this ship has put some people off my writing, but I can't help it, I love them!
I started off shipping them as a joke, or as something Stelle would tease Dannie even if there was nothing. But, their interactions in 3.3 were so good!
They're both people who put their own feelings aside for the sake of others. The contrast, however, says a lot. Dannie kills his feelings entirely, coming across cold and stoic. Hyacine puts on a smile to put everyone at ease.
So that final conversation between them in 3.3? So much of what was said was actually hidden in what wasn't said. The sadness in Hyacine's voice as she subtly suggests Dannie should stay. The obvious yearning at the idea of spending to time with the nameless.
The way she drops Dannie's nickname and calls him Dan Heng when he suggests she's allowed to show her real feelings? I think that's the only time she doesn't call him Dannie. It feels like a warning, or a gentle demand to watch himself.
Again, this is a ship I think can easily be a friendship. But if you make it a romance, it's two people in love with each other, but unable to act like it. Not because they're idiots about it, but because they're being mature about it.
After Irontomb is defeated though? it's becomes two people used to hiding their truly feelings finally getting to show them.
Enough about him though. I'm going to end this on something that's not technically Hyacine but let's be real it's part of her.
Proi Proi is a fucking banger. I didn't think they could pull off the Wildfire trick twice, but holy shit did they pull it off with Proi Proi.
I do have a conclusion here actually: they knocked Hyacine's writing out of the park. What a woman.
It's time for some HSR rambles from jade again. Going under the cut since I imagine it'll be long
To be honest, I love most of the Chrysos Heirs. I don't keep it a secret that Amphoreus was my favourite arc in HSR's story, and part of that is the strength of its characters. I want to focus on these two tho
Castorice
Castorice is such an odd character to me. Specifically, because I think her best character writing actually occurs outside of her dedicated patch.
A gentle, bordering on pacifist death (demi-)god is a fascinating concept. It's written into the foundations of her character: she's outright traumatised by the concept of death, because she's never been able to escape it.
She's touch-starved beyond belief, she's a writer, she loves to create things. She's constantly looking for inspiration in the world around her, which is very relatable. As much as 'death', she's tied to the concept of 'legacy'. She doesn't just hate death, she hates the emptiness that comes after.
So it felt pretty hollow when, in 3.2, she just kinda accepted her place in things. A millenium-long defining personality trait just kinda tossed aside. To make it clear, I'm not opposed to her 'acceptance' of death conceptually, just how quickly it came about.
I say 'acceptance' because I don't think she ever did accept death, she just accepted her place in the cycle of life and death. Some things she says later makes it sound a lot like she still rejects the concept of death?
By my understanding of things, threading these things together, she accepts that life and death are a balance, but rejects that death has to be cruel. Lives should be long, afterlives calm and beautiful, people remembered fondly and for a long time.
And while I think that is in the text... I just think they misplaced when she has her revelation a little. It still felt sudden.
But, there's no way I can talk about 3.2 without talking about Castelle (I think cas/caelus (Caestorice?) technically exists but I've never seen it lmao). Especially as someone who ships it.
I'm in an odd place with it. I actually didn't like the ship until .2. I thought people were jumping the gun before then. Then there was the marketing, which I'd be lying if I said didn't make me worried that she was going to get the Firefly treatment, and water down part of what I love about Stellefly.
So, when the patch rolled out and I played through, I found myself kinda laughing. You know what actually sold me on the ship? The fact it could easily be platonic. It turns out, it was just marketing. Sure, kinda weird and close friends, but it's Stelle she's like that.
I think it's doing Castorice a disservice to say she wouldn't move heaven and earth like that to save a friend. There's a very nice touch where it's canon that she leaves difficult tasks until a deadline looms (I thought her Autism/ADHD/AuDHD coding was pretty strong, bonus points to her), which makes it scan even better how much she's spurred into action by having someone only she can save, and only if she acts right away.
That gave me the freedom to choose whether to ship it or not. And ship it I did, because the tragedy was too delicious to not.
I made it clear in Memories, but I keep coming back to how lonely Stelle must have felt in Amphoreus. Even ignoring ships: she's missing most of the Astral Express, save for the least talkative. Stelle has friends all over the cosmos by that point, and she can talk to none of them.
So that leaves Dan Heng, and the Chrysos Heirs. She gets closer with Dannie, and she makes friends among the Chrysos Heirs. Castorice, I think, probably being one of her closest friends among them.
So, a lonely Stelle forms a close bond with someone, only to have said person sacrifice herself to save her? A Stelle already canonically traumatised by watching Firefly die in front of her?
it's a capital-T Tragedy.
Throw in a romantic spin on it? It twists the knife just a little harder.
Combine it with Starchfly. Firefly's not present, March is very sick. If you think about it, Morning Glories is kind of a cruel ship to inflict on Stelle.
Right up until the payoff, of course.
It was pretty obvious narratively that Cas would come back. And the ways they did that was very nice. They nodded to Stelle still thinking about Cas, and vice versa.
The message-in-a-bottle sorta deal Cas left for Stelle in the doomed loop sent me feral. A big part of Castelle is the Yearning, and that was pure undiluted yearning. Her appearing at the tree in the next patch? gold.
When Stelle gets to build her own cycle of Amphoreus, she gives Cas the ability to touch others without killing them. That was the greatest gift she gave any of the Chrysos Heirs if you ask me. It was not just grand and mythological, it was also personal.
It's all a big ramble, but the sum that part up? Part of what I love about Castelle is that you could make them just friends, but if you make it a romance, there's some fantastic depth there.
I can't really talk about 3.2 though without mentioning two things:
The Endwalk. I seem to be the only ffxiv player I've spoken to who thought that the Endwalk out of the nether realm was actually well executed. Mostly, because I think people were expecting it to be identical to Endwalker's Endwalk. I disagree. While Endwalker was showing the road the WoL took to get to where they were, HSR was showing what Stelle had to live for. March and Dannie, Firefly, her new Chrysos Heir friends.
Oh hey look more nuance for a Stellefly + Castelle multishipper - the agony of leaving one lover behind to return to another.
2. The scene at the Vortex of Genesis. An image of Castorice appears, Stelle goes to touch her, and she fades. HOW FUCKING CRUEL? Are we just not gonna dwell on that (I say a year late)??? I genuinely think that must haunt Stelle's nightmare too cos OUCH. Oh yeah then Anaxa goes and dies in front of her, to top it off.
I don't really have a conclusion there, beyond, I guess, what I've already written in my fics lmao.
I've been chipping away at this March piece for the past week and a bit whenever I get a chance and finally was able to finish it! Super happy with how she turned out! She's so cute!
In other news I got into Birmingham Comic Con! I'll have prints of this and the Cyrene peice available, along with a bunch of other new art prints!
i am so so gently asking abled storytellers to try this little exercise: consider that maybe the main character doesn't miraculously get through traumatic event number 8277 with minor injuries. maybe they don't make a full, narratively-convenient recovery. there are tangible, long-term effects on their health. they are disabled. there are lots of ways to be disabled, and you can pick whatever makes the most sense. the point is that because they're the main character, they have to stay at the heart of the narrative. what happens to your story after that? just for the sake of this exercise, you're not allowed to have them spiral into helpless depression, or collapse under self-loathing, or turn their story into a quest for a cure or an uplifting recovery narrative. think it through instead. how can you tell this story with the character's disability? what needs to change? are there any reasons why these changes can't happen?
at the end of it, you might change nothing. but I think this is worth doing, because sometimes you'll find that the reason you didn't want your character to have a limp, or lose a limb or sense, or have some kind of SFF-appropriate fantasy disability is because of internalised biases. those are worth challenging & i truly believe that creators miss out on richer stories when they view disability either as a fate worse than death or as nothing more than a catalyst for tragedy.
There was an actual bracket, but reylo got obliterated in round one, and after the poll was done, someone suggested it would be funny to do a "bonus round" where every tournament contestant is pitted against reylo to see how many ships, if any, reylo can beat
the place I work at remodeled these split gendered restrooms into “inclusive restrooms” and never told us what they meant while construction was ongoing. I need you to know every atom of potential criticism or whining that could’ve happened disappeared when people found out this meant we got 10 fully separate private bathrooms with sinks inside. I’ve not heard a single person crack a joke about the inclusive signage. this is the world TERFs are trying to steal from you
This is called a "superloo" and terfs are actively trying to steal this from you, in the UK they changed bathroom regulations to mean new buildings have to prioritise gendered toilets rather than build superloos.
This also upset a lot of architects and designers who like the superloos. They're also typically more like small rooms rather than having doors you can look under.
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