#Poor Rheika

[thebmatt]

FFXIV Write 2022 Prompt #8 – Tepid

Rheika Aliapoh, Warrior of Light and Darkness, secret hero that had returned the night to (most of) the peoples of Norvrandt, was not having a good day.

Bad enough that she’d now suffered two of these….attacks, she supposed, feeling like her insides were turning brittle and shattering, but to make it worse the godsdamned Exarch had shown up at her room and begged her to survive or some such nonsense. Like she wasn’t actively trying to do that.

She was supposed to be going to sleep, like Y’shtola had said. Or at least resting. But she couldn’t. She needed a fucking drink. So she’d come here to the Wandering Stairs, Glynard’s bar, studiously avoiding any of the other patrons eyes, and ordered the hardest thing he had.

She didn’t want to spend a lot of time here. She wanted to forget her troubles for a bit and fast. Just enough to sleep, anyway.

“Here ye go, lass.” Glynard said, sliding a glass with two fingers worth of a very dark brown liquid. “Best rotgut I got. Dunno why ye’re wantin’ that, but if ye wanna be deep in your cups fast, who am I to ask questions?”

Rheika didn’t even raise her eyes to him, just grabbed the glass and lifted it in acknowledgement, tossed him a simple “Thanks”, and downed it in one gulp.

It took her a moment to realize that she tasted nothing. No burn going into her throat, no flavor of any kind. Just a simple liquid

She yelled down the bar, angry. “Oi, what’s the big idea? I pay you for the hard stuff and you give me water?“

Glynard was affronted. “Hey! Don’t you accuse me of cheatin’ ye! That’s the liquor I give to Giott to shut her up for the night when I’ve had enough dwarven bellyachining!”

Perplexed, Rheika looked at the glass. She’d actually seen Glynard pour that for Giott before. Sure enough, this was that same brown liquid. She sniffed it.

She could smell the alcohol, all right….but it was incredibly faint.

Panic surged within her. “No…..nonono…that berry juice you gave me a week ago, whatever it was, pour me a glass, quickly!”

Other patrons and the other barmaid had noticed her behavior, staring at her in confusion. Glynard was likewise incredibly confused, but he found the bottle of juice she was referring to. It was an incredibly sweet berry mix of stuff harvested out of Il Mheg. He’d presented it to Rheika mixed with some incredibly high proof liquor the last time he’d served it to her, but this time he simply poured a small glass of it alone and slid it to her. Fearful of why she was reacting this way, he stepped back as soon as he’d done so.

Rheika grabbed the glass and immediately drank.

She tasted only tepid water on her tongue.

She screamed “NO!” as tears fell unbidden from her eyes “No no this can’t be happening!”

“Wicked white, girl, calm down! What’s going on?” Glynard yelled.

She ran.

Though Glynard and others called after her, she didn’t stop. She could feel it. That damned poison Light was breaking her. Her sense of taste was all but gone. She couldn’t do this alone anymore GODS she missed her brothers and sister, she was going to MURDER that damned Exarch for leaving her to save this light-infested hell all alone.

She hid behind a corner, breathing heavily, willing herself to calm down.

She needed to feel present in her body. Yeah, that was what she needed. Getting railed through a mattress. Nothing made her feel quite so alive like that. Where was Thancred likely to be, he was always good for that. She tried to think of some of the previous times they’d been together, get excited about what was coming….

….nothing.

What. The. Hells.

She actively pictured herself getting fucked by Thancred, or Jacke, or Sophie, anyone she’d bedded in the last year.

Nothing.

What the actual FUCK, she was Rheika Aliapoh, she lived her life in various states of horny, what was going on?

Oh. Oh no. No nononononono!

She slid to her knees and began weeping. That damned light. Umbral aether, static, unchanging, emptiness. It was breaking her. Taking away all of her senses. Would she not feel anything at all soon?

Belatedly she wondered how long this had gone on. Y’shtola had teased her with spanking, and she hadn’t even considered asking if that was a promise. A whole village of beautiful Viis women and she could barely recall even a hint of lust. Had she even flirted with Lyna the last time she saw her? Or Katliss? She couln’t remember, Twelve help her, she couldn’t remember.

A wail escaped her.

She didn’t know how long she had laid there, sobbing, before she felt strong familiar arms wrapping themselves around her. “Rheika? What happened?” Thancred’s voice.

She just clutched him and cried. Her body couldn’t muster a hint of desire, but his arms, at least, still felt good. She just clutched, wanting to feel as long as she could.

While she still could at all.

[thebmatt]

FFXIV Write 2021 Prompt #9: Friable

Word count - 1550

Friable – easily crumbled.

“Makoto, what’s going on? Why are we at this random warehouse?”

Makoto briefly stopped as she walked down the offices. She didn’t like lying to her girlfriend, but it wasn’t the right time yet to tell her the full truth. “You’ll….you’ll see, Fearless. Please, just trust me.”

“I do trust you, you know that. Oooh, is this a secret midday rendezvous?” Fearless’ voice became sultry. “Dilapidated office, eh? Didn’t know you’d be into this kinda thing. I like this side of you!”

Makoto giggled, in spite of her apprehension. “No, no, my love! We’re not here for that! Just…through here, please.” She gestured to a door.

Fearless opened it. Inside was a conference room, occupied simple table, chairs, and two miqo’tes seated at them. “Well well, Ranaa and Rheika? Okay, clearly not a midday rendezvous. So uh….why exactly are we all here?”

Ranaa Mhigo, her other girlfriend, stood up to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She was attired in casual Hingan dress. The blue tones matched well against her darker skin tone, Fearless noted. She’d have to remember this shade when buying her gifts.

Ranaa quickly embraced Makoto, and then she gestured for Fearless to sit in the chair opposite Rheika, dressed in one of her shinobi outfits. She and Makoto sat in the chairs that were flanking her.

Rheika smiled. “Heya hon.”

“Hiya, Rheika.” Fearless replied. She looked between the other two women. “You uh…wanna tell me what I’m doing here? What we’re all doing here? Why are you in Kugane anyway, I thought you were busy coordinating with the Bozjans?”

Rheika waved her off. “Things are currently cooled off there. Gave me a chance to deal with another matter. Remember those mercenary gangs that kept coming after you every so often?”

“The ones my parents kept sending after me? Of course I do. But they stopped. The last one was that Ala Mhigan outfit, right after the liberation. They confessed when they realized I was a Warrior of Light and said they would tell them they couldn’t find me. Why, did something happen?”

Rheika nodded. “A few days ago, Makoto’s people stumbled onto evidence that a mercenary group called the Emerald Marauders had arrived in Kugane in secret. Nasty bunch operating out of the fringes of the Shroud. She brought in a few of their people, and they confessed under interrogation that they’d been hired to retrieve someone. Someone that matched an old description of you.”

Fearless stood, slamming her hands onto the table. “Did they say where the rest of them are? We have to take them down, I’m not letting these scum-“

Rheika held her hands up “Hold on, let me finish, girl.”

Fearless sat down, but the determined and angry look on her face didn’t go away.

“The Sekiseigumi raided the warehouse they gave up. This warehouse, actually. The Marauders….did not go quietly. You can imagine how things went down. The Sekiseigumi killed them all”

Fearless turned to Makoto “Did anyone get hurt? Please tell me no one died!”

Makoto smiled lovingly at her. She would never stop being in love with her and her caring heart. “No, my love. A few minor wounds, nothing our healers couldn’t handle.”

Fearless sighed in relief, then turned back to Rheika. “All right. What happened next?

Rheika continued on. “After everything went down, they started going through the papers the mercs had left behind. They found copies of letters…sent to your parents. Ones that told them everything about you. What you’d done as a Warrior of Light, what you were capable of, and worst of all, who you lived with. These people knew you were in love with two women, and they passed that information back to your parents.”

Fearless gripped both of her girlfriends hands. “Oh, Twelve. If they decide leak that…”

Rheika shook her head. “Not good. But they also got greedy. They tried to shake your parents down for more money. Claimed that you were too tough and had too many allies for them to risk it at the previous fee. They demanded double.”

“Doesn’t matter how much they ask for, cause thei diots were never going to collect.” Ranaa snarled.

“They also found a reply from your father. Among a whole lot of language calling their claims about your deeds and strengths nothing more than lies, it was also full of veiled threats, and a notice that he was coming to Kugane to personally oversee your capture. He told them the exact day and time to expect him….and it was the afternoon of the same day as the raid”

Fearless looked confused. “Wait…my father is already here? When was this raid??”

Makoto gently squeezed her hand. “It was yesterday, dearest. And we….already handled it”

“What do you mean?? What…what happened?”

Rheika leaned forward. “Makoto called me. She wanted our help dealing with your father without endangering anyone in the city. So Franks, Dahk, and I teleported to the city and we quickly threw a plan together. I’d pose as a member of the Marauders, tell your parents we found out about their leader’s attempt to extort more money from them, and got rid of him and took over the crew. It worked, he bought it. Your mother was there too.”

Fearless’ grip tightened around her girlfriends’ hands, but she didn’t respond. Rheika continued.

“I brought them here, where we had the rest of ‘the marauders’, actually Franks, Dahk, and members of the Sekiseigumi. I separated them from most of their bodyguards to discuss the final plan to capture you, and we took them all down.”

“I gave your folks a choice, sweetie. I told them they were going to leave you alone, permanently. They could do so of their own volition, and never bother you again, or they could refuse and the Sekiseigumi would find them guilty of smuggling weapons into Kugane intended for the Garleans and bar their company’s ships from docking here. I’d recommend the Eorzean Alliance do the same.”

She folded her hands in front of her face, and closed her eyes. “Honestly, I fully expected it would provoke some kind of emotional reaction.Like….maybe faced with the real choice of giving you up forever or having their business ruined, they’d have some kind of epiphany and start to make amends. Maybe scream threats or whatever. But…they didn’t. They just crumbled. Gave up in the face of the loss of their business. I was shocked.”

Rheika reached over and covered Fearless’ hands. “Twelve, honey, I really don’t want to tell you this, but I don’t feel right keeping it from you. Your mom….she said ‘Syhrwyda is dead to us’. I remember being so angry, I wanted to just punch her. Instead I threw it back in her face. Said that ‘Syhrwyda’ died a long time ago, and the woman who rose from her ashes was someone they should have been proud of, and it was disgusting that they wouldn’t be.”

Makoto smiled at Fearless. “The exact words Rheika used were ‘confident, kindhearted, caring, and strong’.”

Rheika chuckled “Yeah, okay, that. Well it’s true. You are all of that. And they’re idiots for not realizing it. Or caring. Anyway, yeah, that’s the whole story. We wanted to tell you together, but we had to wait until Ranaa was available for us to bring her up to speed. Didn’t want to hit you and her with this at the same time.”

Fearless glanced over to Makoto, her face hurt. “Why would you not bring me in? Why keep me out of it until now?”

“I’m sorry, darling. I didn’t know how they would react upon seeing you. We felt it was best to keep you out of the situation so we could best control how and when we would stop them. You and I both know you wouldn’t have accepted that, and would place yourself at risk rather than us.”

Fearless looked down again. “No, I probably wouldn’t have. And yeah…you were right. You stopped them without risking any civilians or getting anyone seriously hurt.”

Ranaa wrapped her arms around Fearless’ bicep. “How…how are you doing, baby?”

Fearless turned to her and smiled. “You know what? I’m fine. I’m actually great. Honestly it feels really good knowing it’s over. They never cared what I want, I’m not surprised they didn’t believe what I’ve become, what I’ve done. I was nothing but another tool for them to use. Well, they haven’t been able to hurt me for a long time, and now they can’t ever again. So yeah, I’m good. Honestly? Thank you all for getting them out of my life. You guys are the only family I want or need. So, hey, ramen lunch on me!”

Fearless stood up, smiling, and held out her arms for her girlfriends to take. They both looked over to Rheika, who nodded happily. Ranaa and Makoto stood up and took her arms, and the quartet left the office to enjoy a lovely lunch together.

That evening, Fearless lay in bed at her home in Shirogane, quietly weeping as her lovers held her, stroking her hair and murmuring soothing sounds. Although she was not surprised by this outcome, the finality of that severed bond would likely always be a dull ache as time passed.

[thebmatt]

FFXIV Write 2021 - Afterward

Well, I made it. That’s my first FFXIV Write complete. Aside from missing the first two free days, I completed every single prompt. 

I really didn’t think I’d be able to do that. Trying to carve out the time on Day 1 was so stressful I almost gave up before I even started. I’m glad I didn’t. I was able to check off a great number of items off of my story idea list, including what would happen if Fearless’ parents found her, reuniting the Franks family, and dealing with some of Rheika’s turmoil in the First. 

Probably the one thing I’m sad I wasn’t able to figure out is “who the heck am I gonna finally ship my poor boy Dahkar with”. He’s got so many fun possibilities, I’m having a hard time picking!

Anyway, I wanna thank some folks 1. Everyone who gave me ideas for prompts, including my wife, my editor, and a number of folks in the Bookclub discord 

2. Everyone who read and reblogged my works on tumblr. I have to give a special shout out to @autumnslance​ for reblogging every single prompt response I posted. Thank you all so much, because I definitely know you got a lot more eyes on my work than there would have been, and I am extremely grateful.

3. @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast​ for doing this whole thing

4. And finally my wife and partner for supporting me and encouraging me to keep going. I love you, cabybakes

Now time for Stats

Total Word Count: 50,520

Shortest response: Day 11 - Preaching to the Choir (416 words) Longest response: Day 30 - Abstracted  (4465 words)

Number of Primary Appearances of my crew (basically any time they were the, or one of the, main featured characters of a fill)

Aleister “Old Man” Franks - 10 (Foster, Adroit, Preaching to the Choir, Oneirophrenia, Destruct, Devil’s Advocate, Fluster, Soul, Debonair, Abstracted) Rheika Aliapoh -10  (Baleful, Avatar, Friable, Heady, Commend, Thunderous, Devil’s Advocate, Day 19 Free Day, Day 26 Free Day, Bow) Fearless Willow - 7 (Aberrant, Avatar, Speculate, Friable, Crane, Feckless, Day 26 Free Day) Dahkar Darkspear - 8 (Scale, Avatar, Speculate, Preaching to the Choir, Thunderous, Illustrious, Silver Lining, Benthos) 

I think that’s pretty well balanced, I think. You could make the case that both OMF and Dahkar should also be counted for the Day 26 Free Day, but that fic was a more Rheika- and Fearless-heavy story so I counted it only for them. And of course, Petrichor didn’t feature any of them.

Anyway, thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoy all the other content I post here in the meantime!

[thebmatt]

Some thoughts on my multiverse canon

My original idea with my multiverse headcanon was that I would have a character, most likely Franks but I also considered the idea of creating a separate one, going on a Sliders-style journey through different universes, figuring out what was weird or different in each one, and then probably having some kind of wacky adventure or the like before being dragged into the next one.

The idea, or more accurately the hope, was that this would lead to collaborations with other authors where we kind of either RP or co-write out what happens and see what kind of hilarity unfolds.

Two things have happened to that idea. 1. My favorite co-writer in the entire world, my wife, has dabbled a bit in this game and helped me bring in her character back into my universe, which means I absolutely cannot send poor OMF traveling through the multiverse when I JUST gave him back the love of his life.. 2. I am absolutely terrified of the idea of even trying to approach the writers I follow and suggest this. Not any of your faults, I have no doubts you’re all lovely people,I just have a lot anxiety about it, and in a number of other areas in my life, so I think for my own health this idea probably has to give considering the others can’t.

So for now, at least, any universe playing will be done with AUs I create myself.

I have a couple of primary AUs that I’ve done some work on documenting, both of which have their own 4-WoL setup. I’m gonna try and elaborate more on them in future posts. One of them I just showed off in my newest prompt response, the one that has alternate universe versions of Rheika and Fearless, the other I kind of hinted at in my original version of this same setup, Champions from Beyond the RIft. That fic introduces 2 AUs, actually, but one of them belongs to my friend and editor, Lash. He talks a bit about his own characters, and some of his own mental health struggles over on his own blog, The Stash of Lash. Ya’ll go read it, if you like. 

Anyway, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of this month has been covering OMF and OLF’s reunion story, but there’s one final piece that I’m hoping in the last 4 prompts I get to tell. There’s a major plot point in that fill that’s gonna talk about that first AU I created, so I’m gonna hold off on saying anything about it until I can get it written, either this month or otherwise.

It’s pretty late as I’m writing this, I’m doing it to procrastinate going to bed, because I am irrationally scared of next week work wise, but that’s a whole other story. I’m gonna toss this in my tumblr queue and see all of ya’ll tomorrow

[thebmatt]

FFXIV Write 2021 Prompt #15: Thunderous

thunderous – relating to or giving warning of thunder, very loud, powerful, or intense

It had been something of an eventful few days for the Warriors of Light. A cure for tempering, found. A civil war within Limsa Lominsa, averted. The first step towards peace with a beast tribe, taken. Had it not been for the strange towers appearing all across the star, not to mention Fandaniel introducing them all to his new version of Bahamut, it might have actually been called a good few days.

It was all of these events that had brought them to Gridania on this day. Kan-E-Senna and her subordinates within the Twin Adder needed to be briefed on all that had occurred, so they could begin making plans for how best to use their soon-to-be arriving flock of porxies. Privately, Rheika thought it would be hilarious to just let them all arrive and watch the chaos unfold as the Elder Seedseer and the Hearers of Stillglade Fane attempted to figure out just why there was a sudden mass of flying pigs in their city, but alas, getting their beastmen neighbors untempered and beginning overtures of peace was too important.

They’d spent the past few bells getting her up to speed on all that had transpired, explaining how the porxies actually functioned, how to route any communications that needed to be passed to the Scions concerning the towers, describing the appearance and capabilities of this “Lunar Bahamut”, and the like. Many had offered to make the report in their stead, but for now there was little for the Warriors of Light to actually do at the moment, and since they’d been present firsthand, they felt themselves the logical choice to inform the remaining Alliance leader who’d not yet been apprised of recent events.

As they left the Lotus Stand, emerging from the path that led to the Seedseer’s private altar into Gridania proper, Rheika gave a brief nod to both the Serpent Officer and the Conjurer stationed there, and briefly looked around. As usual, there were plenty of blue-robed conjurers going about the business of dealing with the many bureaucratic matters Stillglade Fane was responsible for. Petitioners asking for blessings for their harvest, permission to sell new wares within the city, a few asking for healing. Rheika fought to keep a sneer from her face. Gridania was for all intents and purposes a theocracy, nothing allowed to be done without the blessings of the Elementals.

She didn’t particularly trust the Elementals. She might have been born here, but her community of Keepers of the Moon generally paid them no mind. They’d lived there for generations without so much as a thank you to the elementals outside of simply taking care of the place they lived in, not over hunting or despoiling the land, and no nature spirits or treants had ever so much as bothered them. Any talk she’d ever heard of the Elementals had long since come to resemble talk of Primals rather than some benevolent forest Gods that allowed people to dwell within their boughs.

Learning how Stillglade Fane actually functioned had made it far worse. The “Hearers”, the blue robed conjurers that made up the staff of Stillglade Fane, were barely able to actually  hear the voices of the Elementals. Mastery of that particular skill was unique only to the small population of horned humanoids known as the Padjals. Their small numbers meant they were spread out through the Shroud dealing with major problems, with the only two permanently in Gridania being E-Sumi-Yan (who was permanently needed within the Conjurer’s Guild as head teacher) and the Elder Seedseer herself. Both were endlessly busy, far too much so to handle all of the requests from the citizens that needed to be answered. Thus the Hearers had developed a series of rites and rituals to attempt to divine the Elementals’ will, which they utilized in answering the day-to-day petitions brought to their doors.

Rheika had never known what exactly these rituals consisted of, but Dahkar had attended a small class on them as part of his training as a Conjurer. As an adventurer, he was not expected to serve as an official part of the Fane, but the Hearers made the class open to all students of the guild, in case they perhaps wished to utilize them in their travels through the Shroud. He’d told her what he’d learned in the quick lesson, most of the rituals consisted of what was essentially the casting of lots using leaves and sticks, and using their best interpretation the patterns that emerged. It had all seemed utterly foolish to her, and she’d seen more than one instance of a Hearer going rogue and forcing his own interpretations of the Elementals’ will onto others, only to be revealed as incorrect later on.

Rheika hated this place. She wanted to get out of here and head back home to the Rising Stones as quickly as she could. Her fellow Warriors of Light were following behind her, chatting amicably about dinner plans. They had a few other matters to discuss, but outside the guild was a poor place to do it, the Hearers did not care for loitering without official business. She traipsed forward, making for the aetheryte shard placed not far from the Guild’s entrance, already envisioning her destination, the city’s main aetheryte plaza, in her mind’s eye. She’d almost reached the shard when a series of voices reached her sensitive ears.

“-please, you must do something!”

“The girl’s only seen twelve summers!” “I’m sorry, but such is the will of the forest.” “But that’s not right!”

Rheika stopped, her hand inches away from attuning range. The words played over in her head. “Twelve summers”. “Will of the forest”. “Not right!”. She turned to look in the direction they’d come from. An elezen, a hyur, and a lalafell, all similarly garbed with upset expressions on their faces were speaking with a Hearer. The Hearer, a hyur man, was making a series of exaggerated gestures as if talking to children.  Rheika wasn’t entirely certain what to make of the petitioners, perhaps a blended family or workers at an orphanage, but it was clear that a girl in their care was needing help, and their cries were falling on deaf ears.

Few things enraged the Warriors of Light more than the inflicting of suffering on children.

She turned to the others, who had noticed her change, and looked to her with anticipatory expressions on their faces. She held up her palm, then tilted her fingers away from herself twice, a clear back up and wait signal. The others immediately backed off and stood away, near the treeline. She nodded, and turned to walk up behind the Hearer. She tried to keep the anger bubbling within her down as she spoke, only mostly successfully. “Excuse me, but what is going on here?”

The hearer didn’t even turn around, simply sighed and waved his hands in a dismissive gesture. “Move along, outsider, if you’ve business with Stillglade Fane, you must wait, not interrupt-”

“Listen up, you moss-addled twat! First of all, I was BORN in this forest. Second of all, turn your ass around and LOOK at who you are talking to!” Rheika thundered.

The hearer turned “How dare you? If you really-”. His words cut off with a gasp. “Y-you’re Rheika Aliapoh. One of th-the Warriors of Light!”

“Good boy.” she replied sarcastically, crossing her arms and giving him a disapproving look. “Unfortunately for you, you used your turn to piss me off. So now, I’m talking to them.” She looked over to the trio of petitioners, her face more sympathetic. “Hi, I’m Rheika. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

The hyur woman wiped away tears falling down her face. “H-hi. My name is Lina….my daughter Dani is sick. We think it’s Greenrot. She’s holding strong now, but it’s getting worse. We came to the Conjurer’s guild for healing but…they’re saying it’s the Elementals’ will that she die!”, Lina said as she burst into tears. The Elezen male put his hands on her shoulders and looked at Rheika. “We’ve been friends with Lina for years, and we all moved in together when times got tough for us all. Mani’s like a niece to us. Please, can you….” he trailed off.

Rheika nodded to him and turned back to the hearer, absolute fury in her face. “And you’re just going to let that girl die?”

“I-it’s not like I WANT to, but-”

“It’s a fairly simple fix, hearer. One quick Esuna cast. Hell, I’ve only had rudimentary conjury training and I know it. Surely a big bad hearer like yourself ought to be familiar with it” she said, venom dripping from her voice. “Less than a few minutes of your time, and that girl gets to live. And you’re gonna sit there and let her suffer and probably die. A CHILD.”

His face contorted into an ugly sneer. “Look, I wouldn’t expect a keeper of the moon like you to understand, given how much your kind seems inclined to just take whatever they want from the forest without-”

Rheika reached back towards the gunblade she carried strapped to her back, stopping just short of actually grabbing the hilt. “You keep talking. Give me a reason.”

“You come here to this place and try to tell ME, who has trained to hear the Elemental’s voice for years, how to do my job? You can’t POSSIBLY understand-”

“And what about me, Hearer?” intoned Dahkar’s steely voice as he stepped towards them, coming from behind Rheika. “Surely you’re not such a tremendous idiot as to believe I cannot understand, correct?”

The Hearer spun to regard him, anger on his face immediately vanishing as he blanched. Dahkar was over seven fulms of very angry looking Au Ra, clad in the pristine white robes that the Hearer had only ever witnessed the Padjals wear. “Y….you’re…you’re the one the Padjals trained in the White? But…you’re not even of the forest!”

“Wrong answer. The correct response is ‘No, Dahkar of the White, Warrior of Light, I know you understand. Also I’m going to apologize to Rheika and throw myself at her mercy before going to heal the diseased child’. Do you see the difference?”

“I….I will not be spoken to this way!” the man said, stamping his feet. “I am a Hearer, charged with listening to the wills of the Elementals and ensuring the people of Gridania live according to their will, lest we awaken the Greenwrath! Who are you, a man clearly of the Far East, to question how-”

“Gonna stop you right there.” Dahkar growled. “First of all, you really should stop making judgements about where someone is from based on what they look like. I might have been born in the Far East, that’s true, but I’ve lived in the Shroud since I was a babe, just like Rheika here.”

Rheika smiled innocently.

“Secondly, I’ve been through Conjurer training, clearly. I’ve seen how the Hearers work. The only people who can directly hear the Elementals, much less communicate with them, have horns on their head, and I don’t mean this kind” he continued, tapping the large black-scaled horn on his own head. “You and I both know a lot of being a Hearer is using your own good judgement and hoping the rituals you’ve devised over the years give you the correct result. Lot of room for error there.”

The Hearer pondered that for a moment. “Well, yes, I suppose there are instances of Hearers being wrong. I do recall that kerfuffle with the animal exhibits outside the Leatherworker’s Guild…” He looked up in realization, then began delivering with the gusto of a professional orator.  “Ah, but even you must admit that if the people lose faith that the Hearer’s word is that of the Elementals, then chaos shall reign in the city! Every pronouncement we make will be endlessly questioned, or even ignored! The peaceful symbiosis we have achieved will be undone, and the Greenwrath will be upon us all! Yes, surely even you must agree to that?!”

Dahkar’s laughter drew the attention of other nearby Conjurers, who were suddenly very interested why their fellow was loudly arguing with a Warrior of Light and a White Mage, no less. “Or you could simply exercise better judgement and not leave the healing of the citizenry that are supposed to be in your care to blind chance, perhaps? Or are you going to seriously tell me you think the Elementals have an opinion on the health of a single member of the community?”

Rheika idly watched them continue to go back-and-forth with their arguments. In truth, she was hardly interested in the debate. She was more interested in keeping the count she’d quietly started running in her head ever since drawing the Hearer’s attention to herself.

Now, she reckoned, that count had gone on long enough. The Hearer was now going on a tangent about equilibrium in nature when she interrupted him. “Thanks for hopping in there, Dahk. I was afraid I was losing his attention”

Dahkar turned to her and smiled, crossing his arms. “Reckon we gave them enough time to get it done?”

Rheika turned towards the path that led from Stillglade Fane to the rest of Gridania. “Well, I can’t see any sign of them, so I’d say it’s definitely gotta be close enough.”

The Hearer sputtered. “What…what exactly are you two talking about?”

Rheika smiled ever so sweetly at him. “Aren’t you forgetting about someone, Hearer? Or rather, ‘someones’?”

The Hearer, shocked, spun around. The three petitioners were no longer there, and as he frantically looked around the area, he saw no sign of them. “What? Where…where did they go?”

Dahkar laughed again. “Well, if we timed this right, our companions have hopefully gotten them back to their dwelling by now and are using their own healing skills to cure the little girl! They might not know anything about Conjury, but they’re pretty good in their own right. Fearless is an expert in Sharlayan Astrology, and Franks has revived the teachings of the Scholars of ancient Nym!”

The Hearer was dumbfounded. He flailed about, as if he felt like he should do something, but had no idea what. “But…the Elementals…what if this angers them? What if…”

Rheika sighed through his abbreviated rant and cut in “If the Elementals get THAT upset over this, then I’m sure the Seedseer and the other padjals can calm them down, like they have to do entirely too often anyway. Given how little they seem to care about the million other things affecting the Shroud, I doubt they’ll even notice.”

She turned to regard the other assembled Hearers and other Conjurers. “But if they do? And Kan-E-Senna can’t get through to them?” She smiled. “Well, my friends, luckily for you, we’re the Warriors of Light. We have a fair amount of experience dealing with powerful beings made of aether that care little for the lives of the mortals around them.”

She crossed her arms and smiled happily. “So I wouldn’t worry. We’ll be here to protect the people of Gridania and the rest of the Shroud if it comes to that!”

She turned and walked out of the Fane. Dahkar gave a confident smile (which most non-Au Ra would agree looked more sinister than simply confident) and nodded to the assembled Hearers before turning and following her out.

The Hearers would spend several days debating their words and whether or not they should bring them before the Seedseer. In the end, they simply opted to wait and see what would come.

[thebmatt]

Details: Rheika Aliapoh

STATUS —

💰  financial: // filthy rich / wealthy / comfortable / modest / poor / destitute

🏥  medical: // fit / moderate / sickly / disadvantaged / disabled

👑  class: // aristocracy / upper / middle / working / poor / enslaved

🎓  education: // advanced / post-secondary / vocational (does apprenticeship fall under this?)  / secondary / primary / none / self-taught / other 

💣  criminal record: // yes for major crimes / yes for minor crimes  / yes but wrongfully accused (She’s a Keeper of the Moon from the Black Shroud, and the Wood Wailers are full of racist assholes) / none / has (technically) committed crimes but hasn’t been charged 

FAMILY —

🏠  circumstances: // orphaned / fostered / adopted / raised by birth parent(s)  / raised by other relative(s) / other

☯  kinship: // close with family(her mom and sisters, she’s never met her father)  / not close with family / antagonistic with family / disowned / has no family / doesn’t know family / family is deceased / other 

💗  relationship status: // married / divorced / widowed / in a relationship / it’s complicated / wants a relationship / doesn’t want a relationship (she’s aromantic) / indifferent

🚼  children: // has at least one child / wants to have children / doesn’t want to have children / can’t have children / indifferent

TRAITS & TENDENCIES —

♦ extrovert // introvert // balanced // contextual

♦ disorganized // organized // balanced // contextual

♦ close-minded // open-minded // balanced // contextual

♦ calm // anxious // balanced // contextual

♦ disagreeable // agreeable // balanced // contextual

♦ cautious // reckless // balanced // contextual

♦  patient // impatient // balanced // contextual

♦ outspoken // reserved // balanced // contextual

♦ leader // follower // balanced // contextual

♦  empathetic // indifferent // balanced // contextual

♦  optimistic // pessimistic // balanced // contextual

♦ traditional // modern // balanced // contextual

♦  hardworking // lazy // balanced // contextual

♦  cultured // uncultured // balanced // contextual

♦  loyal // disloyal // balanced // contextual

BELIEFS —

🌟  faith: // monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic (she’s not sure if she believes the Twelve are real after the events of 5.3, and she already hates the Gridanian worship of the Elementals)/ it’s complicated / other

🔮  belief in ghosts or spirits: // yes (entirely thanks to Ardbert) / no / not sure / doesn’t care

🌈  belief in an afterlife: // yes / no / not sure / doesn’t care

🌿  belief in reincarnation: // yes / no / not sure / doesn’t care

👽  belief in aliens: // yes / no / not sure / doesn’t care

❔  philosophical: // yes / no / sometimes

GENDER & ATTRACTION —

👤  gender: // male / female / nonbinary / genderqueer / agender / other

👀  attraction: // straight / gay / lesbian / bisexual / pansexual / asexual / aromantic / demisexual / not sure / other

💕  romantically: // adventurous / experienced / jaded / curious / neutral / inexperienced / naive / reserved / indifferent (she's aromantic, but not repulsed by romance. She doesn’t want it for herself, but loves helping her friends find it) / repulsed

🏩  sexually: // adventurous / experienced / jaded / curious / neutral / inexperienced / naive / reserved / indifferent / repulsed

ABILITIES —

☠  combat skills: // excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

💬  communication skills: // excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

📚  literacy skills: // excellent  / good / moderate / poor (in Eorzean) / none

🎼  artistic skills: // excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

🔨  technical skills: // excellent / good / moderate (she’s getting better thanks to Franks teaching her crafting skills) / poor / none

HABITS —

🍸  drinking alcohol: // never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / to excess

🚬  smoking: // never (at least not tobacco) / rarely / sometimes / frequently / to excess

💊  recreational drugs: // never / rarely / sometimes (her Keeper community had a shared patch)/ frequently / to excess

🍰  indulgent in food: // never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / to excess

💲  splurge spending: // never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / to excess

🎲  gambling: // never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / to excess

[thebmatt]

Character Development Questions: Hard Mode

1. 

Franks has no living family that he’s aware of.

Rheika has a great number of sisters and half sisters, none of them close to her age. Most are all older, a few are far younger. She has more cousins closer to her age group, but she hasn’t seen many of them in years.

Dahkar’s entire tribe was wiped out when he was a baby, and he was his parent’s only child when that happened.

Fearless has no siblings, and has never met any of her extended family

2. 

Franks was close to his mother before she died, which was long ago

Rheika is very close to her mom and visits her often. She spends much of said visits assuaging her fears and helping her care for her younger half-siblings

Dahkar was raised by his mother and was close to her until she died shortly after getting sick in the wake of the calamity. Since befriending Rheika, her mother has unofficially adopted him and he frequently accompanies her to visit.

Fearless is estranged from her mom since leaving Aerslant.

3.

The answers for Franks and Fearless are the same as in question 2.

Rheika has never met her father. According to her mother, none of the male keepers that ever brought food to her family was her sire. He apparently simply disappeared after fathering her. She stopped giving him any thought years ago.

Dahkar has no memory of his father, only the memories and stories his mother has regaled him with. He does idolize his memory, and it inspired him to take up the lance.

4. 

Discounting the events of the MSQ for this one, as most of the events there would apply to all 4 of them.

Franks has witnessed a LOT of them from his home world, plus finding the gateway that brought him to Hydaelyn transformed him in a very literal sense. No one else really knows that he’s not native to the world.

For Rheika and Dahkar, they’ve both witnessed Wood Wailers abusing their power to themselves and their community and get away with it, which has shaped a lot of their feelings on Gridania and abusive governments in the first place.

No one specific event changed Fearless, her path to adventure was brought forth by the circumstances of her family life

5.

Aside from the generic things they all usually carry, such as coin, documentation, and the like...

Franks usually has an assortment of tools, spar parts, or writing implements

Rheika keeps aether cartridges and extra snacks

Dahkar usually has a couple extra polishing cloths handy

Fearless keeps pretty stones she finds on their journeys

6.

Franks usually cannot remember his dreams, the few moments he can recall are of quiet oceanscapes or beaches,

Rheika generally has sexy dreams but almost never with people she expects

Dahkar generally never recalls his dreams.

Fearless sometimes dreams of good things happening that normally bring her anxiety, such as happy times with her parents or performing for cheering crowds 

7. 

All of them tend to have nightmares about Rhalgr’s Reach. Aside from that...

Franks generally has nightmares about getting killed by undead  and being eaten or raised into undeath himself (or watching his late wife suffer that same fate).

Rheika’s nightmares tend to be of the Calamity destroying her home, watching her friends get killed while she is unable to help, or turning into a Lightwarden

Dahkar only occasionally has nightmares about all the discrimination he’s faced, and rarely about the monsters that killed his tribe. His “darkside” in the form of Fray usually takes form in these and helps him move away from these.

Fearless’ most prominent recurring nightmares are about her parents finding her and her friends forcing her to go home with them, claiming they don’t want her around.

8. 

Franks was a fairly poor farmer most of his life before he became an adventurer on his former world. He’s got more coin now than he ever has at any point in his previous life

Rheika and Dahkar both grew up fairly poor in communities in the Black Shroud. Both are far more wealthy than they’ve ever dreamt of now, and try to send money back to Rheika’s family when they can.

Fearless grew up extremely wealthy, but abandoned all of it when she fled home and is far happier just being “comfortable” now.

9. 

Franks generally prefers more clothing than less due to how he was raised and the fact that his body was....well, dead for many years. He’s still mentally adjusting to the fact that he’s alive again, much less that he’s kinda swole.

Rheika favors lighter clothing for better movement, and is entirely comfortable showing her body off. 

Dahkar used to prefer hiding away his scales behind armor or robes, but since the events of the Azim Steppe, he’s grown more comfortable with Xaelan fashions which can sometimes show off more skin and scale.

Aside from her arms, Fearless generally prefers not showing off skin. Her Dancer costume is the opposite of this, and it takes a lot of mental effort to wear in front of others, but she’s been gaining more confidence in that arena.

10. 

Franks - being killed and the immediate aftermath of waking up in control but undead

Rheika - Realizing she was losing control of the Lightwarden’s aether and that she couldn’t turn to her fellow Warriors for help

Dahkar - The day he realized his mom was dying and it couldn’t be fixed

Fearless - After leaving home and hitting the point where she absolutely could not turn back

11. 

Franks is generally at his most calm when reading or dealing with botany matters.

Rheika is usually only TRULY calm when she’s trying to go to sleep. 

The calmest moment of Dahkar’s life that he can recall was staring out over the Azim Steppe after having won the Naadam. 

For Fearless, it’s generally any time she meditates like Musosai taught her.

12, 

None of them are bothered by the sight of blood. They’ve all spent too much time fighting or healing for it to bother any of them anymore

13. 

Franks is better with names, Fearless and Dahkar do better with faces, Rheika seems to be able to remember both with equal levels of clarity. She doesn't really know why

14. 

Franks cares about some of his material possessions, specifically the ones that allow him to study or create things. Money is just a means to acquire more knowledge or the ability to make new things

Rheika likes collecting unusual items or pretty/cute things to keep in her room, as well as cute outfits. She’s probably the most materially-inclined of the group

Dahkar and Fearless both only care about coin as a means to keep themselves fed, healthy, and their gear in good condition. Most of the rest they’re happy to give away to people in need.

15.  

Franks idealizes happiness the most. It used to be the other way around, he had found success and lost it all to factors entirely beyond his control. Now that he's had a chance to start his life over, quite literally, he's trying to focus on what makes him happy. Success has come as a byproduct of that

For Fearless, she was raised to view success as the ultimate goal, but never believed in it, and fled to Eorzea to find happiness instead.

Dahkar and Fearless, thanks to their childhood/early adulthood dealing with Gridanian discrimination, view success as being the opposite of that, which also makes them happy.

16. 

Franks couldn’t even begin to remember if you asked him

Rheika’s was a stuffed couerlkitten. She lost it a long time ago and has no idea what happened to it. She still collects plushies.

Dahkar didn’t really grow up with toys, he preferred playing with whatever rocks or sticks he found outside.

Fearless was never allowed to have many toys, the ones she did were model ships that she was allowed to admire, but would play with when her parents weren’t around.

17.

All of them would say wisdom. They’ve seen what ambition unchecked can do, and don’t like it.

18. 

Franks tends to take a long time to open up emotionally, and when he does, he can still be guarded on certain subjects.

Rheika tends to let first impressions stick, and is often unable to change her mind on people.

Dahkar has a temper and is prone to outbursts of anger

Fearless has low self-esteem and a hard time accepting that people legitimately have positive opinions of her.

All of these have caused friction for them with various friends, but it has yet to be the cause of destroyed relationships

19. 

For Franks, its generally an age thing. Though his current body is estimated to be in the mid-late 30s, his mind is far older than that, having lived through what amounts to two lifetimes already. He sometimes has difficulty relating to the other Scions because of this, with the exception of G’raha, who has likewise experienced this.

Fearless tends to compare herself physically and mentally to others, generally in the sense of “X person is so beautiful or smart, I wish I was”. This stems from her childhood and constantly being told her best was never good enough and to try harder. Her friendship with the other WoLs has helped with this

Both Dahkar and Rheika tend to compare themselves to others in how they treat other people, especially those they have power over or are just stronger than. Dahkar especially tries to emulate the behavior of those he respects in this regard, such as Aymeric. 

20. 

All of them have gotten pretty good about recognizing when they are to blame for bad situations and when to blame others, thanks to a long period of working closely together and building up a rock solid foundation of trusting each other when the others call them out on misplaced blame. When they AREN’T as good, Dahkar tends to blame others first, the rest of the team is quicker to blame themselves.