#liios: I DON'T LIKE THIS THOUGH...

[meowww-ffxiv]

Before they left for Ultima Thule, Ptolemy, Liios's younger brother, told him calmly it was going to be fine because if they were going into a nest made of pure dynamis, then in theory it would be a battle of will. And Liios was Freaking Out because he was a scientist and how could we counter something we cannot quantify?!

Ptolemy said, "Do you remember, when we were younger, you used to agitate an older student so much that he came down with a fever because no matter how thorough or clever his rebuttals, you would simply say, 'No you are wrong'?"

"Why are you bringing that up? I did apologize," Liios replied.

"Because you've always been the same person. You have gotten better and wiser on compromises, but the hills you choose to die on are littered with the bodies of those who think they can defeat your conviction with something as trifling as 'facts'," Ptolemy said. "It is more puzzling to me why you're worried about dynamis all of a sudden when you've outlived an innumerable amount of stupid arguments by simply saying 'I don't care, I'm right.'"

"But that's not the same as going to face a creature made of pure despair!"

"But is she, my brother? Was she made of despair, or had she simply fallen to it? You yourself told me of the hope her creator put into her, when he sent her to the stars. If she was a creature made and not born, isn't it possible that the core of her hasn't changed, after all these millennia? Even at the bottom of the Sea of Souls, Amon struggled with the nihilism he had apparently arrived at."

Ptolemy told Liios, "The reasonable, rational choice when it came to me would have been for you to let me die there in our homeland, and bury me, and grieve, and move on. Yet you severed yourself from our home, went against everything you had ever known, to carry me away for the chance that something or someone could save me.

"I wouldn't have hated you, if you had not taken me away to Old Sharlayan. In death I would have been beyond pain, beyond suffering. But in life I am greater and so are you. We were afforded the chance to meet better people, become better people ourselves. You seem to forget, but you saved more lives than you give yourself credit for." Ptolemy looked at him. "Now, setting forth to save everyone, is it even possible for you to fail?"

No. Of course not.

"I want to ask you something, beg you for something," Ptolemy said.

"Of course. Anything," Liios replied.

"I want to live. I want this star to live on, and you to come back to me."

"Yes, I can do that," Liios said.

"And on the way home, please make the Loporrits map the stars for me. This might be the one and only chance we get of being able to see the universe this close up."

"Yes."

"Will my request suffice as a protective charm, for the road?"

"It's a grocery list."

"It is not. But if you want to call it that, fine, be sure to grab some stellar rock samples for me, too. And cuttings of any plants you think might survive the journey."

(It was a GREAT charm for the road.)

[ask-lucans-ocs]

for the top 5 ocs, do you ever have recurring dreams/nightmares? what are they about?

Liio: "I have too many." He sighed "The one that sticks out the most is losing Terrie like I lost my bio daughter. I never want that to happen, but my brain loves to torture me."

Sage: Her ears pinned against her head in discomfort "The same as I've always had. The day I lost my foal. Because it wasn't just my foal who died. Many people did, and I couldn't help them. Kasey has to be with me when the nightmares happen, because she's the only one who can soothe them now."

Moose: Moose shrugged "What don't I get nightmares about? Though, Jade does like to have comebacks, and Vaughn too. They both screwed me over. It's not of the incidents. Not that I can remember much from them, especially Vaughns one. Turns out if I remember, that means I'm still brainwashed. Nah, my brain just melts the two guys together into some sort of creature. I know it's them."

Carter: Carter looked around anxiously. "Every day. No matter when I sleep, Göran plagues my dreams. I've went nights without sleep because I was afraid it was real and he'd take me again. I'm glad Christians with me. Sometimes Tim stays over too. When they're both too busy, Rick or Casey come over."

Morbius: Morbius hummed "I don't really have many nightmares. Doesn't really come with the job of coming back to life each time and dying in weird wacky ways. But...I do get nightmares of seeing my husband die. Me and the RED medic talked about alternative universes, and he seems adamant our nightmares are related to the memories of our alternative self, so I have a feeling Gustav didn't survive. I'm glad he's still here with me though. In this life, anyway."

[meowww-ffxiv]

Liios's health situation going from 5.0 to 5.4 much to the Scions' chagrin:

He was doing like ass through 5.0, then seemed to feel and do better through 5.1 even though G'raha and the twins were extremely careful with him when asking him to go with them to the Grand Cosmos.

And then 5.2 was a whatever kind of patch, Liios might have crumbled to his knees randomly while rifling around the market but that was just because he was sooo excited about some kind of research and forgot to eat, no worries. Please God don't worry about him he didn't know what to do when people worried about him.

And then 5.3 proper. Liios got everyone home while looking like he wrote a 42 pages research paper in 24 hours with no sleep. He woke G'raha up in the Tower, clasped his shoulder, then said, "I'm going to sit down", went to a tent in Sons of Saint Coinnach's camp, and the next time he woke up it was in a bed somewhere with blood filling his lungs while the walls looked like they were melting from how high his fever was.

Six to eight business weeks passed where "feeling like shit" really was the best way to describe how it went. And then Liios was fine. His friends were all back where they were supposed to be, that was the biggest relief.

He even went back to the First after some time to check on Ryne and Gaia, and finished the Eden raids. By the time the next problems started piling up with pirates and Telephoroi, Liios seemed back to his old self.

All of the Scions bought up Liios saying he was 100% okay because none of them really wanted to think too deeply how each of them had played a part, whatever it might be, in his near death and then subsequent suffering. And certainly none of them had wanted to believe that there was permanent damages to his health.

That entire ugly wound got reopened in 7.0 where Liios collapsed from what turned out to be, in fact, very permanent damages from all of that. Even though he did try to tell them that it wasn't their fault, that his heart defect was something from birth, it wasn't like any of them were fucking stupid. Liios could've gone his entire life with his condition dormant if not for--

G'raha felt especially rotten about it, and so deeply furious with himself. He had saved Liios! He had! And in so doing, dragged him down to a faster, more agonizing death. At least the Black Rose killed him instantly, in the other future.

"You know that it isn't about you or me, Exarch," Liios told him, because Liios had the Echo after all, and G'raha was an open book when he was hurting. "But rather everyone else, isn't it. Those who count on us."

"I wanted to spare you from that," G'raha replied. "Isn't it enough that I went through it? Why must you? You deserve... You deserve better than this."

"I've already gotten what I deserve," Liios replied. "There are children being born in Novrandt right now whose parents will live to see them grow old. There are stories being written that begin with, 'when the Light still hid the sky'. The Nightblessed can speak their true names to each other at sunset. My friend, you of all people understand -- the bliss that we've bought with every ounce of our flesh we had to cut away."

And G'raha did understand. And he did know also how much it fucking hurt. It was why he so dearly, desperately wished Liios hadn't had to know it.

But he also knew by this point that this had been an ongoing thing for the Warrior of Light. Before G'raha ever met him the first time outside the Crystal Tower, a lifetime and a half ago. When he was teasing him for a handful of aethersand. This was already happening.

After all this, once they had a chance to catch their breath now that Living Memory was behind them and Liios was once again confined to a bed for some time. And G'raha was once again sitting at his bedside...

Liios said, "Do you remember what you told me on the gondola, Exarch?"

"Yes," G'raha replied.

"I am getting to live that one more day, you know. And I am living it quite happily. And tomorrow, there will probably be another one. So, G'raha Tia--" Liios ruffled that scarlet red hair, "don't look so glum, okay?"

...Liios always cheered him up. Liios was always the self-assured, smiling, beacon of light in a sea of mist and mud. G'raha's hands dug into his knees until his knuckles were white. But he nodded.

[meowww-ffxiv]

Estinien had been side-eying Liios's voidsent since...

Well, since he first encountered him. Because he first encountered him while chasing after Liios into the ruins of his village, alongside the twins and Ptolemy. And that first "encounter" was of the voidsent, Maires, having already enshrouded Liios to form an abomination strong enough to fight back against the even worse voidsent that had eaten the entire village and therefore grown monstrously strong.

The gang left Maires there, in the cavern where the battle took place, since he was nearing total dissolvement anyway and seemed like he wanted to be left alone to the peace of his death. Estinien thought no more of the voidsent, and just understood it as his wanting a warrior's peace. Which, understandable.

What Liios neglected to tell him was that when he came back to his village again, by himself, like a murderer to the scene of his crime...he found the soul of that voidsent still lingering there.

Maires was originally in Garlemald at all because he had sworn a death grudge against the voidsent that had kept Liios's clan under thrall for centuries. He no longer remembered why he even held the grudge, only that it had been the sole driving purpose of his continued existence. Now that it was done, though...

The cavern where his enemy died was flush with small, glowing crystals. Walking across it would have shredded the feet of anyone who tried. But with the last of his remaining aether, Maires still stayed amidst it. When Liios asked him, he said, "They look like flowers. A field of flowers, beneath a sea of stars. She loved flowers."

Who was "she"? Maires no longer remembered that, either. But Liios didn't have the heart to let that specter mope alone in the cave, so he renewed the contract and stuffed his soul into the accompaniment node, and took him to see real flowers.

Estinien had no idea that accompaniment node was actually alive until after 6.2 where Liios went into the Void fighting as a reaper (he thought his aether bullets wouldn't be enough force to dissolve voidsents on their home turf).

Estinien: What the hell is all this.

Liios: It's my old pal Maires.

Estinien: The voidsent who helped you that was supposed to be dead??

Maires: I changed my mind.

Estinien, recalling how many times that stupid node had just been floating around in the room while he and Liios were having sex: Did you have to stay in THERE.

Y'shtola, who had not been informed of this but wasn't going to ask for details because Liios got all uppity whenever he was asked about his private fumbles, kept her peace. But then when Zero asked for payment in aether and Liios offered to chip in, only for Maires to be like, NO.

And Zero was like, "That's true. It's rude to feed from a contracted mortal without the consent of his partner."

Liios: It's okay. I consent.

Maires: I don't!

[Estinien disapproves.]

Vrtra footed the bill. Then they had to bring Zero back over to the Source anyway, so it didn't escalate any further than that.

Liios left him to guard Troia, since slaying their merry way through there allowed Maires to regain his true form with all the spare aether, not to mention his "feast" had actually allowed him to collect information on the castle itself.

Also to appease Estinien somewhat, whose face had darkened like a storm cloud when Maires physically pulled Liios away from Zero to prevent him from giving her aether.

Fat load of good that did them all, in the end. Maires was actually able to call to Liios across the Rift using that node, though, and teleported his soul right back into it like it was an aetheryte crystal when he lost the fight with whatever was destroying Troia. So he sulked for a week and, once again, no longer had his true form, but was at least "alive".

Estinien also kicked him out of the room whenever he and Liios needed alone time, now. He did tell Liios why, who laughed and said, "Voidsents don't know what is obscene and what isn't."

Which wasn't the point, Liios!

But he let him do it, and Maires indeed had no concept of what sex was or why it might be obscene. He did know that dern dragoon was suddenly getting possessive of his contracted mortal, though!!! What the FUCK.

So he'd taken to being snide with Estinien and trying to trip him every time he was around. The accompaniment node was made of Allagan adamantite, so it was a fair fight between Estinien's armored foot and the ball of doom.

Liios had no idea what to do about this. He'd never had this happen before when 2 people fought over being alone in his presence, never mind that it was a boyfriend v. dog situation.

Estinien won most of the time, and Maires was easily distracted with games on Liios's tomestones, but still.

But the dog sometimes gathered enough aether to turn into a nine feet tall voidsent that looked like one of those blackguard ones. Estinien hadn't seen Maires take his true form on the Source, but imprinted on his brain was that giant thing grabbing Liios's wrist and yanking him away when he tried to give Zero his aether.

And by the Fury but he did NOT like that.

[meowww-ffxiv]

Since Krile could sense others' souls, Liios asked her out of curiosity if his and Ptolemy's, his identical twin's, also felt or "looked" identical.

She giggled and said, "No, obviously. But if we're on the topic, you know whose tends to sing when you are close? Estinien's. Perhaps it was because of his time spent as Nidhogg's host, but the fluctation of his soul is very...audible to me, more than most."

Krile had thought it would cheer Liios up. Instead he suddenly looked anxious.

"What's wrong?" she asked him. The Warrior of Light wasn't shy, was he...?

"Nothing." Liios shook his head. Then, as though he thought better of it, he added, "Perhaps it's still possible, that when I die I will be like the other Warriors of Light -- my deeds remembered, but my face forgotten."

Krile was speechless. Not because of what Liios said, but because he said it like that was something he was hoping for. "Why? Why would you want to be forgotten?"

Liios glanced at the Rising Stones around him, at the Scions scattered to every corner of the room in small clusters, in their own private discussions but still ever within reach of one another.

"There is a terrifying number of people who will miss me," Liios said. "It would be kinder on them if they don't, isn't it?"

Thankfully, he corrected himself before she had to. He shook his head. "A vapid, selfish thought. I am only one part of their lives, and they will do with my parting as they wish. Who am I to dictate their grief?"

[meowww-ffxiv]

Dawntrail ending spoilers for further goofing and because a podcast I was watching pointed out...

...that apparently after Wuk Lamat hollered at Erenville to take over for her at the cannon, he then missed every shot.

Cahciua wasn't lying when she said her fussy bun bun wasn't good at fighting. Nor was the fussy bun bun lying when he said the same thing.

Being for real, the thought of Erenville following in Cahciua's footsteps and no longer being a gleaner -- meaning he would probably have to turn back over all proprietary equipment and whatnot, nor would he enjoy any benefits extended to them -- stressed Meowdred the hell out. If HE was a regional hero and his son couldn't shoot a fucking laser beam straight, he'd be keeping the kid at home.

But Cahciua wasn't that type of parent, and moreover Erenville was a grown ass man with probably more solid education than Meowdred was by that age. And if he was gonna go forth, well. It was his choice.

Erenville could tell. He could TELL that Meowdred was worried and was trying not to be overbearing about it. Because Theodore, who was very amused, said so. On the one hand, Erenville appreciated the courtesy. He had always liked Mordred just fine, no less for his tact than his generosity. On the other hand, he was torn between irritation and being touched that his friends were concerned.

Though it was not needed.

Liios was arguably worse. He looked Erenville over when he heard the news and said, "Hm." And suddenly Erenville was twelve years old again, saying he was going to do something and his elder was just like, "Hm." Like, yeah, you go out there to fuck around and find out, little boy.

What Erenville did not know was that Liios went to Estinien and told him about it. Since Estinien might be staying in Shaaloani for awhile longer, Liios asked if he could keep an eye out for Erenville and help him if needed.

Estinien: Why are you whispering?

Liios: I think that if he knows, he would resent it.

Estinien: This Erenville fellow seems a reasonable sort. I doubt he would perceive your attempts at ensuring his safety as a slight.

Liios: I don't know. I just worry.

Estinien: Alright. I will do it.

[meowww-ffxiv]

Finished Dawntrail main story! :}

Blorbo thoughts below.

.

It was thematically appropriate that Mordred, who was a funeral priest and had by this point in his life performed many a send-off, to both his most beloved Hydaelyn AND to his enemies, who spent that life after so much death during the Seventh Calamity helping others find comfort and dignity in their and their loved ones' passing, to be here in Living Memory.

He asked Cahciua to verify first. Theodore's Echo, when empowered by Mordred, could detect the melody of souls and not just the aether they were cocooned in. So with her blessing, they performed such a search -- and I'm sure they found it was just as she said. That all of Living Memory was a hollow echo.

And then Mordred agreed to her request.

.

Theodore accompanied Erenville for much of the time there, because they were close friends and because Theodore had also lost his mother. They didn't speak much during, since Erenville seemed someone who would rather weather his own pains in private, but he took great comfort in the fact that someone refused to leave him to his own devices. Someone unjudgmental and patient, and quiet.

They didn't speak after, not just yet, but one day soon they would.

Liios in his own WoL-verse did, though.

In a quiet moment afterwards, Liios caught up with Erenville in the dimming lights of a seaside street, and asked, "How are you?"

Erenville wanted to walk away. But the warmth and calm with which that question was asked made some already-fragile thing inside his chest crack. So he blurted, "I don't have a name for it. This-- This--"

"Mm," Liios agreed, like he knew exactly what it was Erenville meant, and so spared him the need to explain it.

They walked together, aimlessly, through those darkened streets. Until Erenville eventually said, "Ptolemy told me that you lost your mother too, decades ago."

"Yes. It was a good death. She was calm. We knew it was coming," Liios replied. He, too, sounded calm. The smooth surface of a scar healed over. "Her parting tore me apart in a way that unmade and remade me."

He left space in the silence that followed, for Erenville to speak. When he didn't, Liios continued, "Once the first wave of died away, it revisited me in fragments. Mum's favorite coffee mug on the kitchen counter. Her name cited in research papers that I read. Letters addressed to her from old students and colleagues that took weeks to arrive, so by the time they got to us, it was already months after the funeral.

"Seeing the casket lowered into the ground wasn't as hard as knowing that she will never drink out of that mug again. Nor will she be there to answer questions I have about those papers and her opinions on their findings. Nor will she ever sit by the window of our house, smelling of jasmine and incense, answering those letters. It overwhelmed me, the void that Mum left behind."

Erenville's steps faltered. Liios slowed too, adjusting his pace effortlessly so they were still together, shoulder-to-shoulder. His eyes were on the sea and its gentle ripples, diligently averted from the tears pouring down Erenville's face.

"I told the housekeeper to stay out of our home for six months," Liios said. "I couldn't bear it -- to touch anything in that house felt like it would erase the last traces of her in the world. In this corner of the world that we once shared. Ptolemy was still unwell then, so he stayed at the hospital most nights, though I think he did so intentionally because it was me that he couldn't bear and not the house, nor her loss.

"Days went by. The dust gathered. Everything was untouched, just the way it was when she left for the last time, inert and lifeless. She departed anyway. I scrambled to hold onto her presence, to the point of destroying every opportunity I'd spent decades to earn for myself.

"But then we went to Eorzea, and I found her again. Paradoxically, she wasn't in that mausoleum I'd made of our home. She was a forceful and assertive woman, you see. She traveled to the least recommended places to render medical aid to those who might not have any hope of such help even existing. And Eorzea, Coerthas, being the dangerous frontier that it was... When I hiked into the mountains with my students and made our aetherological engineering 'projects' into helping install self-functioning lamps so the locals wouldn't slip in the dark, or some such... There she was. Rhaya Suvalli, the Miqo'te scholar who sprung my brother out of the grave my clan had already placed him into, just waiting for him to stop breathing. Rhaya Suvalli, up to her elbows in grease or blood, helping people. Because it was what she'd set her heart on. Because she had decided this was the right thing to do."

The sea-winds were cold at night. Erenville blamed them for the way he was shivering and not because of the feeling of seams rapidly coming apart under his skin.

But Liios turned and shrugged off the short cloak he'd been wearing, and tossed it around Erenville's shoulders. He continued, like he didn't see the tears still, "I turn ninety-two this year. Believe me when I say that what I just told you is a universal experience. So long as you continue to live, you'll find those you have outlived in the things they loved and cared about. And Cahciua was obviously a remarkable woman, so I'm more than certain you will find her with ease. Never mind the fact that you're one of the finest gleaners we've had in a generation."

...Being honest, Erenville had always had a mild aversion to Liios. Some of it was exactly because Liios reminded him of the most exhausting bits of his mother. Someone who seemed nice and cheerful, but was in fact very pushy and always deciding things on their own. The other part was just Liios himself, who was talkative and high-energy in a way that made Erenville want to exit the room. The audacity of the Warrior of Light to be shocked that Erenville wasn't yet thirty, when Liios himself felt overly young for his age. Which, cringe.

But in that moment, Liios's lopsided smile and the paltry attempt at a compliment left a warmth in Erenville's chest that, just like the grief he hadn't yet untangled, could not be extinguished.

He still snorted and shook his head, sullenly wrapping the cloak up to his nose to hide his face. But when Liios laughed, the tears slowed.

Erenville had no clear recollection of how he got from the streets back to the palace and into his bedroom, only that he didn't feel crushingly alone during any of it which meant Liios escorted him. And he would claim no recollection of why there was a green-and-brown cloak among his possessions now, either.

Erenville considered passing it back through Ptolemy, but his friend giving him an amused look and asking, "Are you returning a gift?" had him rescind the thought.

But faces had to be saved. So Erenville told Ptolemy, "You should be proud. He managed almost an entire conversation about himself without mentioning you more than once."

To which Ptolemy only laughed, a little sadly. "I made him promise to try and live for himself, after he returned from Ultima Thule," he said. "I see Svalin is as serious about his promises as he'd always been."

It gave Erenville the nebulous feeling that maybe the invincible Warrior of Light might be among the least okay people in Eitherys. But they could unpack that later. Cahciua would most definitely have pestered Liios, anyway. Erenville might try his hand at it.

.

Coming back to Meowdred for a moment. Every time he saw the aftermath of an Umbral Calamity, Meowdred wanted to descend to the Underworld and beat Emet-Selch to death a second time.

It was pointless. He knew that. Ascians didn't give a fuck. Emet-Selch most of all. Everything for the glory of their past, etc. He couldn't make them hurt the way they hurt these worlds they destroyed, because they were only inflicting that very same pain they suffered on those around them. But Mordred wanted satisfaction so badly. He wanted Emet-Selch to be affected by the raw fury and hatred and agony Mordred himself feel, reprised over and over, in hearing these stories.

But Emet-Selch, once again, would never be sorry. Nor was Azem sorry all those millennia ago, for having walked out on Emet-Selch and his own people.

They all must shoulder their harvests, of joy or of blood.

Somewhere in this was the uncomfortable realization on Mordred's end that he wanted Emet-Selch to care about him; about how he felt. While knowing the fucker didn't. And he knew too where this desire came from; they were very alike, and Mordred sought in Emet-Selch a kinship. An acknowledgement all their own, between them, and not an echo of Hades and Medeus of the Azem seat.

Nasty. Awful. Hate it. But it existed.

.

Liios had licked the new macguffin bestowed upon him by Sphene and the plot at least once by now. He had also stared at the helix shape for a long, long time, and wondered if it had anything to do with the spiral silhouettes so favored by the Ancients of Amaurot.

While in Elpis the first time, Liios had managed to gather some information about Azem. Apparently he was also a technological whiz just like him, with a love for inventing ridiculous devices to solve people's problems. Liios had no idea if that Azem -- whose name was apparently Helios, the comedy that fate was -- knew about the Sundering beforehand, but if he did, wasn't it just like him to leave behind a means by which to bridge worlds?

Ah, well. That was food for thought. For right now, Liios was spending his time trying to puzzle out how to use electrope like the Living Memory's civilization did.

[meowww-ffxiv]

Dawntrail level 99 quests leading up to 2nd trial and a bit beyond, into the first quarter of the final area.

.

I wanna say, "Meowdred isn't that good with technology" but honestly the way technology functioned in FFXIV, it was just more regulated magic.

As Meowdred was someone who was masterful with all manners of magic and aetherial manipulation, and was a talented artisan, you'd expect he would as a matter of course be good at technology.

But somehow...there was a disconnect.

He could probably figure out what runes did what on the electrope ores given enough time, and would rapidly be able to incorporate them into his own spellcasting. But crafting or indeed designing large-scale processes and systems... Meowdred don't do. It wasn't that he couldn't, necessarily, but he just had no natural talent at it and would need to spend a stupid, frustrating amount chewing on his own tail to get it done.

--realizations I came to upon all this stuff about Solution Nine and especially the gate to the ??? reflection.

Liios, meanwhile, was indeed an engineer. More than that, he had the formal teaching of Old Sharlayan's aetherology and the indepth knowledge from Garlean machinery, as well as a fair bit of mechanical Thavnairian alchemy.

And he was specifically an Archon in designing complex systems. Because he worked on replicating entire environments in spaces that inherently did not support it.

So Meowdred was on the floor scribing down the runes used on the electropes. Liios was um.

He was trying to drill into the floor.

And he'd tried to climb on that gate under the Skydeep Cenote at least twice now. Once when he first saw it, and the second time when they were about to open it for real.

.

Y'shtola: We don't know which reflection this leads to.

Meowdred: It's likely the one that's swallowed by lightning. The Umbral Calamity that heralded its doom was the second recorded, and going by Raha's own records, it was probably the Twelfth.

Meowdred: Here in the Source, crystals become sapped of elemental aspect preceding a Calamity. So it also makes sense that electrope, a superiorly levin-aspected ore, makes its appearance on this shard in the old days.

G'raha, who sometimes forgot that Meowdred was also a historian: 😳😳😳

.

That gondola ride in the Unlost World with G'raha...

This was a bit more personal between him and Mordred (Theodore went with Erenville, because he was worried about him).

Mordred told virtually no one about the sheer scale of what he lost during the Seventh Umbral Calamity. He shared some of it with Alisaie, mostly to comfort her. And Theodore, whose soul at time brushed his due to their Echo, knew the details sort of against his will...

But a lot of those people lost to Mordred appeared in the Aitiascope, deep in the aetherial sea, to protect him. They numbered in the dozens, though not many still had clear forms anymore. And the Scions bore horrifying witness to Mordred breaking down crying and telling them he was sorry, that he lived instead of them, that it wasn't fair.

The topic of his survivor's guilt and depression made Mordred deeply uncomfortable, so none of his friends approached it outright with him. And in that way, he and G'raha were unfortunately exactly alike.

Mordred hadn't asked G'raha about his time as the Crystal Exarch, all the years he was in charge of the Crystarium. He didn't because he knew the death toll all too well, and the crushing grief it might have cast on G'raha's shoulders. And G'raha, likewise, had not mentioned it but rather kept to the silence gratefully.

So the gondola ride was the first time G'raha opened that lid a crack -- for all that they were close, for all that Mordred would risk anything and everything for this man. And the wound was as raw as Mordred had feared it would be.

They sat very close, side by side.

[meowww-ffxiv]

(Liios, hanging out with the twins)

.

Alphinaud: You never run out of bullets, do you, Liios?

Liios: I don't use physical bullets.

Alphinaud: ...Really?

Liios: The firearms I use convert aether into very small, extremely dense pellets that are then ejected through the barrel. They might pierce flesh, but after awhile they dissipate inside the body with little harm left behind. Aside from the bleeding hole.

Liios: Which was why I developed the Automaton Queen. 🤔 I thought the efficacy of dissipating bullets is too low. She is VERY real and made of solid Allagan adamantite, which as you know is extremely aether-conductive, so she can dish out attacks three times the weight of her actual frame without damaging herself...

Alisaie: How heavy is the Automaton Queen?

Liios: 827 ponze. I was thinking of a moose when I was building her.

Alphinaud: Good gods. And three times that weight in her attacks? She can level whole buildings.

Liios: She needs to do anywhere from sixteen to eighteen of her routines unassisted to deal enough damage that a primal might be dissipated, though. And I'd be long dead by then. So let's all stick with the plan of not having to deal with any summoned primals.

Alphinaud: Fascinating. Then you know how many cycles of your Queen you need to do to bring down each primal?

Liios: Oh, no. I don't have the luxury of knowing what I'm up against most of the time, or who will face it with me... These are just numbers from previous encounters.

Alisaie: You really like your numbers, don't you.

Liios: Only insofar as they allow me to perform meaningful upgrades. I am hardly some mathematical genius. You should see the way Ptolemy and some of his cohorts calculate the trajectory of heavenly bodies to tell the exact time some constellation would become visible, down to the minute. All so they could capture it in glass. For posterity.

Alisaie: I thought you like interstellar studies, or...whatever we are calling that now.

Liios: I don't, but I like to help my brother. You two know each other's interests, surely?

Alphinaud: Eukrasian Diagnosis IS useful, isn't it, Alisaie?

Alisaie: Hmph, true. I don't need to twiddle my thumbs while I wait for you to finish casting a shield on me anymore.

Alphinaud: I was trying to make sure you have time to think about what you were doing before you do it. Not that your mind ever changed.

Liios: Second-guessing is how you fail tests. Unless you know the right answer for sure, you're probably better off with the first gut instinct.

Alisaie: Can you say that to my old professors at the Studium?

[meowww-ffxiv]

Liios isn't here yet but honorary mention for him since he lives in my brain.

DT spoilers up to level 93, before 2nd dungeon.

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You know when Estinien walks off the stage so you can talk to Gulool Ja Ja. He veered off towards Liios, who stood on tiptoes to touch Estinien's jaw with the tip of his nose, hand on his arm, as usual.

It was very brief but everyone in the room was like WHOAAAH??? and Wuk Lamat's jaw was on the floor. But she was like, "So you and the guy are involved?" and Liios replied, "No. :)"

Everyone else though: Yeah he is.

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AND you can bet Estinien paid a visit to Liios's cabin before he left the MSQ to do whatever Estinien shit he was often up to.

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Ptolemy came with Liios, but didn't plan to be involved in the throne contest. He stayed with the Sharlayan gleaners and scholars who came over on that ship instead, so didn't see most of the shenanigans before they started setting out on the feats.

...Was immediately contacted by Liios over the Hanuhanu feat anyway because Ptolemy was a botanist. He ended up going there, but wasted the trip because Wuk Lamat and company had already deduced the ceremonial boat's purpose.

To make it up to him, Liios went with Ptolemy to complete the gathering leves in the region. Liios even transported all of them back to Tuliyollal for him.

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Liios had no opinion over the contest for the throne, honestly. He literally got involved because Wuk Lamat asked him if he could, and he had never learned how to say no.

Even Zoraal Ja didn't concern him. If the guy really got the throne and started acting crazy on some kind of conquest, Liios would kill him. Simple as that. Until then, they are simply uneasy acquaintances. <3

But as the journey wore on, Liios really did take a shine to Wuk Lamat. He liked her initiative in helping people, and in always thinking of ways to make life better for them. He did not think that she was ready for ruling the whole country, but could immediately tell what the "contest" was actually for, and spared no effort to answer any of her questions.

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And of course Liios very much liked Koana, especially after what happened with the kidnapping. He bumped the guy's shoulder and passed him a healing spell when they were getting out of the cave.

He also tried to offer Koana a bigger, better gun, but Thancred gave him the Don't-Do-It eye so Liios refrained. He understood. After all, they were in competition with each other.

Krile and errybody knew for a FACT that Thancred just didn't want Liios selling his arms of massive destruction to ANYONE. Worse yet, he'd give them these arms for FREE. But they were too nice to say that to his face.

Erenville said it to his face.

Liios: MY gun would've pierced Bakool Ja Ja's thick scales.

Erenville: And that was why we told you not to shoot and wait for Thancred.

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With his background and current expertise, Liios was really better suited to be assisting Koana. He had a nice balance between the allure of technological advancement and understanding the importance of traditions and what seemed like the "less convenient" means.

Wuk Lamat knew that, and commented on it to him once. But Liios knew she was saying it out of insecurity, and so he smiled and said, "But he didn't ask me, did he? Didn't travel all the way across the sea, meet me face to face, and present his case with earnest. You did. So of course I came with you."

The truth was, Liios was contacted by the scholarch who very reluctantly considered him to be an Archon, if he would ever fucking finish his paperwork to be reinstated. They did ask him to contact Koana to see if he was a good fit for what Koana was looking for.

But it was just a letter, perfect-printed, professional, impersonal. It could never compare to a princess who crossed the sea with the willingness and enthusiasm to not only request aid but to tell Liios why this was important to her.

[ask-lucans-ocs]

Hey Liio, what is your relationship with your kid like? what is your relationships to your family?

Liio thought for a few moments. "Well, depends on the kid, I suppose? Terrie and I get along, though she's still a little trouble maker. She's traumatised, and I'm doing the best I can. My bio kid, she's gone, but we got on well. I miss her. I unofficially adopted Lysander, and we argue a lot, but that's because he's our Captain now, and I'm considered the second in command, so it comes with both jobs. Both Lysander and Terrie grew up well despite circumstances, and are our most respected pilots and highest ranking people."

"My bio family, like my parents? Never met my mother. She died at birth. My father was an asshole. Claimed I was the reason she died, and he lost his job. I joined the military to get away from him as soon as I could. I do have a cousin I got along with, never met his parents though. We lost contact, and I don't know if he's still alive."

[meowww-ffxiv]

EW spoilers for first zone (Lv. 80-81) MSQs BOTH ZONES.

Meowdred havin' the okayest time.

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In case the Read More doesn't work on mobile LMAO.

- Mordred crawled onto that dock ngl. He hates ships and long voyages and then the uh. Yeah.

- Though even now, he trusts Hydaelyn. He thinks that even if he had known she was a primal, had known everything, he would've still chosen to believe in her of his own free will. For what she stood for. For the things she protected.

- Even when he's a black mage he's still a paladin huh LMFAO. Or cleric??

- That guided tour wouldn't have happened immediately. Thancred would've had to haul Mordred to the Baldesion Annex and let him sleep off the stress for like a day before Krile could then drag him back out with G'raha to explore the city.

- THEY ABSOLUTELY BROWSED THE BOOK STALLS. For a little while before Krile pulled them away by the tails anyway. :(

- Food at the Last Stand is still bland by Mordred's standards, who eats Thanalan faire and then Limsa Lominsa's better cuisine these past years. He's commandeered the kitchenette in the Baldesion Annex for this purpose. Spices exported from the Far East and exhorted from Carvaillain.

- Food in Thavnair agreed with him a LOT more tbh. NOT THE NAUSEA THOUGH.

- Estinien kldjfksdj Mordred would've crawled after him on all 4 again just to stop him from buying that shit. He gave the merchant the stink-eye too.

- Ok but Mordred did buy something from the poor fella who ran the consortium. And transported all of them back to Rhalgr's Reach where the goldsmith school Nanamo helped fund was built. His purchase was considerably large but still only a small portion of the stocks so it didn't change the course of anything. Still...

- And Meowdred sold no fish. Shame. Shame... But Liios did so I learned. Then again, he never had to seek out customers before. He usually shouted at people from a stall.

- Mordred definitely must have run into gleaners before. He just didn't know what exactly they did aside from being some kind of field researcher. He might've even helped a few in the past.

- And no he didn't notice Varshahn being. Well. That. "Looks normal to me." Estinien: Put ur glasses on. Meowdred: Don't tell me what to do.

- Erenville hot.

- That's not Mordred that's just me. But Mordred did take an immediate liking to him bc of Erenville's personality. And flicking bunny ears.

- THE TALK WITH HYDAELYN NEXT TO THE FLOWERSSSSSSSSS. "Walk free, for you are free. To go where you wish, and to believe what you will." YES MOM I WILL.

- Mordred did tell her then, I think. That even if he had known it all from the beginning he would have chosen to put his faith in her, and that he was grateful for her faith in him.