Here's a timeline for the current stories in the order they occurred in fiction. I might be missing some stories on this list. If you notice any missing, please let me know.
Let Me Tell You How We Met, Part 1
Let Me Tell You How We Met, Part 2
The Headmistress' Chair
Coco's Dilemma
Acceptance
Captain Styrnsyn
Jaye Devale
Ikkobach
Jaye and Coco
First Meetings
Pearl Lane
Scythe
A Plea
How To Train Your Voidsent
Rough Nights and Sweet Dreams
I guess I live Here Now
Fruit Juice
Whiskey
Training Day
The Deal
Come Alone
Interrogation
Pearl Lane Redux
She's Not Who You Think She Is
Family
Carmen Weaver
Math is Hard
The Realization
Carmen and Athena
Fate
Smoking
Free Company
Pebbles
Sharlayan, Part one
I will do my best to update this list whenever we publish new stuff. Again, please let me know if there are any broken links or missing posts.
I'd also like to link my Carrd with, in my opinion, a much better layout.
give them a variety of exes. give them relationships that shaped who they are but did not last. give them people they tried very hard to love but it didn't work out. give them situationships that taught them things. give them something deep that was real but could not endure. things that hurt. things that ended amicably. people with whom hot passion cooled to warm affection and became undying friendship.
no more first and only. give me the context of what made them know the next or one after was final and right.
Toying around with eyepatch Jaye. Not sure how to handle the results of the last story, tbh. I dunno if I will be able to until I know for sure what the two new Evercold jobs are.
For now, She has both eyepatch and Ikko.
Jaye stands atop one of the two towers where the courtiers were housed. The other one lies in ruins below her. She stares down onto the rubbled heap and remembers it as it was: beautiful, and well-protected. Now, though, it lies a hollow husk of what it once was, burnt to black and lifeless.
The air up here is cold and whips across her face, chilling the salty tears onto her cheeks and nearly freezing them in place. Everything is gone. All of it. She will never have her revenge.
She stands, taking everything in. The sight of the ruined capital drains her of all emotion. She should be happy. Her father is surely dead, along with the empire he devoted his life to defend. She won… right?
…
She doesn’t say a word. Neither does Ikkobach, who hasn’t even manifested. It simply watches quietly through her dead eye. She feels empty and hollow, just like the remains of the city below her. The vengeance has burnt her hollow, and scarred the inside of her soul. She lived for this moment, for the kill. She lived to see the look on the man’s face as he met his end.
But she will never feel it.
She can never even be sure her father is dead.
…
The wind stills, and the quiet air brings sound to her lopped Veena ears. She hears a battle, far off. A battle she should be fighting in to save the land she now calls home. Instead she stands atop the one standing tower left in the whole city, regretting how long it took to return. She doesn’t turn to look at the battle. She cannot move.
Her scythe rests against the burnt stone on which she stands. The weapon was tuned for this purpose, tuned to kill. All the time spent funneling Ikkobach’s voidsent energy into it, wasted. She feels the chitinous snath beneath her fingers. It aches to destroy a life, but it cannot.
In the calm air, she breathes. The tears well up larger and fall down her cheeks, dripping off the side of the structure to scatter into the air. She focuses, sensing what Ikkobach perceives. She searches for aether in the area. Her dead eye springs to life, taking on a dark pupil-less purple appearance and she sees the energy in the air, remnants of whatever power was used to wipe out the town. She sees small specks of life in the distance. Surviving civilians, she presumes. She searches the tower below. Scanning… Hoping…
Nothing…
…
“Ikkobach.” She finally speaks.
The foul-smelling demon apparates beside her, somehow making the air feel hotter and colder at the same time.
“Yes?”
Jaye takes another deep breath inward and holds it for four beats, repeating what Athena had taught her. She lets the air out slowly, through her nose. The hot air turns to steam in the cold atmosphere.
“Ikkobach, I…”
Speak, Jaye.
“I release you from your contract.” She reaches forward, scythe in hand, and drops it from the building. It spins as it falls, striking the crumbled ruins of the once-great city far below. “You are free.”
The creature, without a word, disappears from view. Jaye’s vision returns to normal on her left, but blurry and colorblind on her right. She immediately feels colder, the slow wind cuts through her like a knife. She clutches her arms against her chest to fend off the sensation, collapses backwards onto the roof of the burnt-out tower, and sobs.
She feels all of it at once: the cold of Garlemald, the pain in her body from sore muscles, the despair at losing her way, and her own disappointment in herself, at the decisions she has made. She wails, loosing an anguished yell into the air, which is drowned out as the wind picks back up. She falls over to the side, clutching her knees in tightly, trying to stay warm.
She screams. The pain is too much. It needs out. She wants to tear away her flesh and open up her veins to let it go, but she can’t. She can barely move in the freezing air. She musters her strength and moves, finally. She pushes herself up to her hands and knees, and looks down over the edge of the building. She sees her cast-off scythe, far below, dashed against the broken buildings, and is reminded of Gridania.
She once stared down like this before, contemplating her end. Who would miss her if she were to toss herself off the side of the airship platform onto the jagged stone below? Who would even find her? Her body would sink into the lake, and she could be at peace. She considers the fall, and grabs at her locket.
Her mind returns to the present. Her hand grasps the same locket, the same as before. Last time, it gave her strength to keep going. “Be strong”, it said. The last message from her mother. This time it gives her no peace. She listens for something inside it, but it does not reply. She looks down at the words carved within, and cannot even read them through the tears in her eyes. She stands in a flash and yanks at the chain, snapping it under the pressure. Locket in hand, she rears back to throw away her pain, and the Soul Crystal with it.
“Be strong”, she hears from behind her in a calm and supportive voice. “Please… Be strong.”
Jaye gasps and holds the locket tight in her fists. She turns around slowly and lowers her arm to her chest.
“Be. Strong.” The voice repeats. The figure holds arms out towards Jaye, inviting her in.
The scared, lonely girl sees what is most likely the most important person in her whole life, having followed her here, to watch, and to support. She sees Athena Natlho, with open arms.
Jaye, breaking free from her stupor, stumbles forward into the embrace of her girlfriend. The two fall to their knees together, sobbing.
“I’m sorry!” Jaye squeaks out between sobs.
Athena doesn’t respond, but hugs Jaye tighter and pulls her cold form tighter. The mountain lion rests her cheek on the Viera’s head and breathes a sigh of relief.
The train tracks were made in 10-yalm segments and placed down one after another. It was a quick, efficient, and effective way to lay new track, especially in a war zone. The problem is that the connected rail parts made a “click, clack” sound every 10 yalms that made it near impossible to sleep. Jaye, and many of the other enlisted soldiers sit cooped up inside a train car headed north into Garlemald territory. They have all been told the front line work was already done, but they need bodies to help take the city proper. Back in Gridania, Jaye raised her hand in the lineup. She signed up as an enlistee Adder.
“For the cause.” She said, “For Eorzea!”
Once, and for all… She thought.
Now, she waits for her moment to slip away. Not for Eorzea. Not at first. She holds her scythe in her lap. The blade is covered in a thick cloth to keep its edge sharp and protected and away from prying eyes. It’s the same scythe she found out by the shed in Summerford Farms, but it feels different. It’s had work done, enough to transform it from a farmer’s tool to the tool of a killer. It started with added leather straps. Then a reinforced blade. Little by little, Jaye also started channeling Ikkobach’s power into the chine. The wood of the handle was long dead, but sprang to life under voidsent influence. The snath broadened, and found subtle natural curvature to fit Jaye’s grip and stance. The metal parts grew chitin-like spines and armor, and a dark orange color appeared across its surface, a clear sign of Ikkobach’s touch.
Right, the plan. My family’s home is in the northeast quadrant of the city, near the park. We break off as soon as the train comes to a halt, and head straight there. We use your shadows to keep us hidden.
Ever since Jaye split off from Athena’s training to do her own missions, she’s been perfecting her version of how to stay out of sight. Ikkobach’s shadow projection can hide Jaye in dark places. She will almost entirely vanish. If they travel at night, it’ll be near impossible to get caught. She thinks back to her memories of the city, and how things were before she left. She planned out a route that would take her around the east end of the city, and then would travel inward from there. Most likely the formal attack would come from the west, so she should have time.
Good. And when we get to your father’s home, what happens next?
The first time Jaye heard Ikkobach’s voice in her head, it gave her a splitting headache. Hearing the being speak out loud physically hurt Jaye’s ears, and it smelled like sulphur. The sensation overload made it difficult to approach the being with reason. Jaye found herself complying with demands out of fear, without really understanding what was even being asked of her. Speaking to Ikkobach telepathically, the sensation was as if the pain and the smell were entirely in the mind. The sensation was overwhelming just as before, and triggered a deep fear in the Viera. She can barely feel it anymore. It still hurts, but it’s a familiar hurt. One she can ignore.
We get to the stairs. If he’s still in the same home, it’ll be the fifth floor. I know the way. I knock on the door, and you find your way inside.
Her father, Gallos, was paranoid on a calm day. And now, the entirety of Eorzea’s military is on his doorstep. She would need to be careful. He would have some kind of plan to keep himself safe. She plans to send in Ikko in its small ahriman form to scout ahead. The creature will report everything back to Jaye in real time.
My eye is yours. Do you remember how?
Jaye nods, and closes her eyes. She takes a deep breath and channels aether between herself and Ikko, without moving her hands. She opens her eyes and sees two scenes at once, playing out atop one another. Her left sees the train car, the people sleeping, the sway of the nets from the ceiling, holding boxes and cases of gear and supplies. Her right, though, sees the outside of the train. Ikko grips its small feet atop the engine car, with its wings folded in to keep from blowing away. The harsh cold air stings its one large eye as it stares ahead. In the distance, she sees the glow of the city on the horizon. The sun is going down now and it will be the dead of night when they finally arrive. She sees the light, the city, the snow, and the track ahead, all in monotone grey. She blinks, and her sight returns to normal.
I distract whatever or whoever he has guarding him, and you find Gallos. Keep him alive, until I can watch.
Athena and Jaye have been practice sparring, and the now-proper Reaper is holding her own. During levequests, the Veena and the Demon have been facing off against large groups of bandits, monsters, or whatever else needs a blade through it. At Athena’s behest, she does her best to disable her opponents, rather than kill them. But sometimes an errant blade does the deciding for her. And in a way that delights Ikko to its core, each kill has helped Jaye come to terms with what she will be doing to her father.
And then what?
And then you kill him. But I want him facing me when he dies.
It has been a while since Jaye has come to terms with something. When Ikkobach kills someone, she does too. Those bodies found in that storage room back in Ul’dah. Those were just as much victims of Jaye as they were of her bound voidsent. Jaye knows she has to kill her father, but she wants to watch it happen. That’ll be much easier from across the room, with Ikkobach’s claws being the final parting gift from Jaye’s mother, Ralia fae Valus.
And THEN what?
The time has come to follow up on her end of the bargain.
The days had passed slowly between the news of the Garlemald invasion and the actual launch of the attack. The actual number of days had been few, but Coco had borne each one with stress and anxiety beyond what she normally could stand. Jaye was quick to prepare a bag and buy an airship ticket to Gridania. She wanted to join the Adders in the attack, in honor of the first city she knew in Eorzea. Athena was equally quick to use her freelance connections to make landfall in Garlemald at the same time as Jaye. There had been no explicit plans to try to protect one another, but something told Coco that if one of them needed help, the other would find them somehow.
The memories of Coco and Athena’s first meeting on the battlefield flowed into her head and stayed there for days. Whatever force moved them to find one another at the time was maybe something that could be sought. So she made a plan of her own.
Rapier on her hip, Coco rode atop the rented chocobo toward Outer La Noscea. The road from Bronze Lake is often a dangerous one, but for some reason it was mostly clear. Coco was glad. She was prepared to fight, but honestly didn’t want to if she could avoid it. She wore her adventuring armor, which felt stiff now after having sat on the shelf for so long. The short pathway up the hill curved to the right, and then the left again, and finally revealing a breathtaking view of the Wanderer’s Palace, the entire lake below, and a spectacular view of the western horizon.
She led the chocobo carefully around some active sprites and nearer to a large stone set just on the edge of the cliff. Carved into the stone is the green-painted symbol of Oschon. Coco dismounted, tied off her bird to a nearby branch, and approached the stone.
“I’m not…” She hesitated.
Looking at the distant sun reflecting on the lake below, she at least knew that her two partners were under that same glowing star, and felt its warmth and saw its light. If Azeyma’s grace could be seen so clearly, then maybe Oschon’s could too. She tried again.
“I’m not sure what to say.” She knelt and placed her hand on the stone. “But… Two people I love very much need the Wanderer’s protection right now.”
She took a deep breath and decided the whole formality thing probably isn’t necessary. She sat back on the grass, facing the stone a yalm or two away.
“When I was young, I looked to you for guidance,” She said. “I wanted to be taken far away from the stuffy little orphanage and brought across the sea. I wanted to see new lands and meet new people. And thanks to you, I have.”
She leaned back on her hands and looked up at the sky. Birds flew lazily in circles above the lake and a few white clouds gently floated by far above them.
“I’m not much of the adventuring type anymore. I want to stay home and build a comfortable place for my girls to return to when they are ready for rest.” She had been trying to fight the tears the entire time, but they finally won, and started falling. “I just need your help this one last time to help them actually make it home.”
The rented chocobo behind her let out an irritated Kweh! It was due back at the stable by nightfall, and it knew that. The sun by this point was nearing the horizon, painting the landscape and the sky in hues or orange.
“They’ll be nearing the war front at this point. And I probably won’t be able to sleep until I hear from them again.” She leaned forward and wiped at her face with her shirt sleeve. “But please… Please let me hear from them again. I can’t be alone again. Not now, after feeling what it’s truly like to belong. To be loved.”
After some time spent weeping, and then sniffling, she chuckled.
“I might be talking to a rock right now.” She smiled “But hells, the tree huggers in Gridania say the rocks are alive anyways. So maybe whatever spirit lives inside this stone can help me out. Either way, I’d appreciate it if you could find these two souls out there somewhere and help them any way you can.”
She stood up and fished in a belt pouch, retrieving a short white feather tipped in orange, and a small work knife in its sheathe. Jaye had worn the feather often, and the work knife was one that Athena had stashed on a bookshelf. The two items were bound with a red thread pulled from one of Coco’s tunics. She placed the bundle at the foot of the stone, closed her eyes and clasped her hands together in a small silent prayer, and turned away.
She mounted and headed down the hill as the sun set in the distance, feeling a little more at peace.
Pain was a common element in Jaye’s childhood. She remembers it well, good and bad.
Bad pain, like getting hit for misbehaving. Like the pain of her own nails digging into her thighs after she was old enough to be simply yelled at instead. Like a whiskey bottle being flung across a room, shattering, and sending a sharp bit of glass into her arm. Like her heart pounding as if it were trying to escape her chest when she watched her mother murdered.
And good pain, like smiling so hard it hurts. Like eating way too much food and groaning from it after a huge Garlean victory celebration. Like her mother gently holding her face, telling her that everything will be okay, even as the door was broken down.
Pain followed her into her adolescence. She fled her home at age 16, and spent a decade on the run.
Bad pain, like her feet hurting after wearing clear through another pair of boots. Like being attacked by wild beasts, who were just as starved as she was. Like stomach cramps from not having enough food to satisfy her own needs as well as her unseen attendant. Like being beaten not quite to death by desperate Ilsabardian bandits, who had just had their own home taken from them.
And good pain, like getting a sunburn for the first time in her life, after spending most of it in the cold of Garlemald. Like bumping her head when her train came to a stop. New towns always meant food was close by. Like…
She tries to think.
Like… Tripping and falling just inside the closing gates to Eorzea, as they accept the final few refugees.
Yeah, that’ll work.
She justifies this pain as a good pain, like all those old pains that made her a better person, a better survivor. This one is making her a better fighter.
“... And fifty! You can stop now.” Athena pats Jaye on the top of her head as she collapses onto her back after her fourth set of sit-ups. “Now take five and then we’ll go for today’s run”.
“Uuuugghh!” Jaye lets out a long and exaggerated sigh between heavy breathing, expressing her discontent to her Warrior girlfriend.
She lays back, catching her breath, and propping a knee as a perfect perch for Ikko, who rests and watches Jaye. The little shit is smiling. Must be nice to get all the energy and strength you need from someone else’s work.
Coco reclines about twenty yalms away in a beach chair, under an umbrella for shade. She likes to watch her girls and isn’t shy about it. Athena and Jaye would work out on the beach at the Mist about every other day. She also likes to wear out her different bathing suits she purchases with money from who knows where. Jaye doesn’t mind, though. She doesn’t think Athena does either, given the frequent glances.
A Miqo’te servant brings Coco a fresh cold drink and today’s newspaper, and she pretends to read it until the other two go out of sight on their run. Jaye is dragged to her feet by Athena and prompted to start running. She has barely caught her breath, much less stopped sweating. She grew up in a place that was cold all year long, and isn’t sure she likes the opposite all that much. Some moderation would be nice, she figures.
—-----------
After a couple laps around the Mist, the two return to the beach, both puffing. Athena is smiling, proud of her and her girlfriend’s accomplishment. Jaye thinks she is dying…
“Good pain. This is good pain.” Jaye huffs out between breaths, as she leans up against the leeward brick wall.
“What’s that?” Athena questions, realizing she has been staring over at Coco and missed the words of her out-of-breath girlfriend’s mantra.
“My ribs hurt when I breathe.” Jaye places a hand on her side, looking up at Athena from her shady spot she found. “It’s good, right? Means I’m getting stronger?”
“Kinda.” Athena leans against the wall and slides down to sit next to Jaye. “Running is for cardio, not strength.”
Jaye and Athena share a blank stare.
“But that’s not what you’re asking,” Athena realizes as she speaks. “... Yeah.”
“So does that mean we’re done now?” Jaye half pouts.
“Yep.”
“Yay.” Jaye says softly and with dripping sarcasm. She leans her head over against Athena’s shoulder and the two rest for a moment in silence, aside from Jaye’s labored breath. The exhausted Viera is comforted to realize Athena is breathing heavily as well, as her shoulder moves up and down.
The two rest together in the shade for a while, as the heavy breathing smooths and stabilizes. The cool of the shade lays on them like a chilled sheet, and they both fall asleep.
—------------
“Aww, how cute!” Coco practically squeals in delight.
The Hrothgar and Viera are startled awake as Coco stands in front of them, having watched them sleep for probably a while. She holds the newspaper under her arm and grips a glass in that hand. Her other hand is pulling down her sunglasses to get a better look. Athena and Jaye look at each other and both blush a bit before Coco sits in the sand in front of them, just outside of the shade. She giggles a bit and places her newspaper on the sand behind her. She takes a long sip from her colorful drink and takes a deep breath of salty air. The other two stretch and sit upright.
“So I’ve got a question for you.” Coco looks at Jaye as she delivers the question. She waits for a response to make sure the Viera is listening.
“Umm. Okay?” Jaye is too tired for this. Both from sleep, and exercise.
“What’s your plan?” Coco looks at Jaye with genuine curiosity. “I know I’ve asked you this before, really early on, and it… didn’t go well… But I think you have a different view of things now, so I’m curious. What are you gonna do?”
Athena is curious as well, and watches Jaye for a response.
Jaye takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, suppressing the desire to run away before it starts. She thinks for a moment before responding.
“For now, I’m training with Athena. I’m fulfilling guildleves and helping the locals, my neighbors. And…” Jaye opens her eyes and looks at Coco with sincerity. “And I’m waiting for the right moment… To go back to Garlemald and find my father.”
“Okay.” Coco glances at Athena to gauge her reaction. The Hrothgar doesn’t say anything, just watching instead. Coco continues. “So what are you gonna do when you get there? When you find him?”
“I…” She wasn’t expecting so pointed a question. She looks at Athena, who simply nods, prompting an honest reply from Jaye. She looks down to think and continues. “I’m gonna talk to him, and tell him that I’m better off without him. That I know now that he never loved me, and that I’ve found people who do. I’ll tell him that I pity him, and that I know he lives a sad and pathetic little life.”
Coco watches silently, making sure Jaye has said all she wants to say before replying.
“And…” Jaye’s brow furrows, and she looks up, directly at Coco. “If he wants me to, I can bring an end to his suffering.”
“Hmm…” Athena stares past Jaye, processing everything.
“Wow.” Coco downs the last of her colorful drink, and places the empty glass in the sand. “I did have a reason for asking, by the way.”
The clearly concerned Sea Wolf turns and grabs the newspaper she had folded up behind her. She unfurls it, showing a large headline: “The Grand Company of Eorzea to be formed; to Invade Garlemald.”
“I think it might be time for the fated conversation between Jaye Devale and Gallos het Valus”, Coco summarizes.
Athena brings a hand to her chin in contemplation, and closes her eyes.
Jaye’s focus zeroes in on the words. She reads briefly that the Garlean Empire is struggling enough to be invaded by Eorzea, that the war might finally be coming to an end. She processes her upcoming meeting, and feels her chest tightening. Coco notices her girlfriend shifting in place.
“Think you’re ready?” Coco looks at Jaye, a worried expression on her face. “You look like you’re in pain just from hearing the news.”
“Oh, I am.” Jaye’s face hardens into a scowl. “But this…
Does the character have other characters connected to them? Do you have a family tree and "offscreen" connections made up for them or do they exist in a vacuum purely for the purpose of the story?
Thank you so much for the ask! The wives exist in a canon alongside one another. They are a polyamorous triad. They do each have connection Individually, though! These connections range from incidental to character-defining.
Coco was abandoned as a child. Her parents are still living but do not stay in contact with her. There are stories I have posted about the parents you can find on my pinned post. They are called Captain Styrnsyn and Come Alone, the latter of which is the first part of a series.
Jaye has a biological family she never knew and a Garlean family she grew up with. Her adoptive dad is still living, but her mother was killed in front of her when she was young. Aside from them, she had no one until she met Coco and Athena after she had run away to Eorzea. Her motivation is to eventually return home to Garlemald and kill her adoptive father for his role in her mother's death.
Athena is an orphan, as her parents were killed in her youth. She has contact with some friends and other connections from Sharlayan that are not written about much, but definitely exist.
Carmen's mother still lives. Her mother, Glenda, is half Elezen. Glenda's father is on the Sharlayan Forum, but disowns Glenda and therefore Carmen, giving them hush money and a small house in Sharlayan out of guilt.
Love the questions! please feel free to ask more if you're interested.
