#but as clio? it’s not happening ahaha

[fell-court]

Today’s gameplay progress:

I did 8 quests as Clio, starting with reuniting with Y’shtola and finishing with the Great Gubal Library! I’m currently trying to do at least 5 story quests per day in order to achieve my goal of reaching Shadowbringers before Dawntrail comes out; this is my goal because if Dawntrail’s release makes things look different due to the graphics update, if this coincides with entering the First, then it won’t seem quite as jarring/I can pretend there’s story significance to it.

In doing this section of the story, I’ve also unlocked Wondrous Tails as Clio! ..I can’t actually do a lot of what it asks me to do because of wanting level 60 content that I don’t have access to yet, but I was able to make some good progress on my first one thanks to Camellia and S’ria’s help (thank you, Selwyn and Orchard!). Having the experience from this will definitely help a lot with the levelling process!

And speaking of the levelling process.. I want to have at least one class per role levelled up as Clio, so that I can do all the role quests (especially the Shadowbringers ones). I’ve chosen all of the pre-levelled classes to do this, so that I don’t have to level up quite as much. At the moment, she is level 70 as a gunbreaker, sage, and reaper, and level 60 as a dancer and a red mage - my current plan is to level up sage as much as possible without actually playing it, and use gunbreaker for actual playable content like duties, so that this can be levelled up to provide the armoury bonus and I also won’t have to worry as much about tanking higher-level content as it. It still doesn’t really click for me as a class.

I think that’s everything! My aim for tomorrow is to try and complete the main story of Heavensward~

[tiny-cloud-of-flowers]

someone please remind me to clean up the Clio rambles from earlier and put them here somewhere for safekeeping

[void-kissed]

My understanding of Clio and Aria's dynamic from osmosis is that they care for each other very much but at times struggle to allow themselves closeness due to the Darkness Within 💔💔💔

Hello Hope!! Thank you very much for sending this!!

(source: this post by 1980ssunflower)

send an ask about your understanding of any of my F/Os that you’ve received through osmosis of all my posts - ahaha, yes, this is definitely very accurate ^-^

There is definitely a large amount of rather literal Darkness Within going on here, yes, courtesy of it being Kingdom Hearts. And quite a bit of literal Darkness Without as well depending on the AU, ahaha. Aria definitely has a lot more of it than Clio, not only by virtue of what she is - i.e. a Heartless, which is an entity created from a heart consumed by darkness - but also generally due to having a somewhat messed-up moral compass and blood on her hands more.. the word I always use is "defiant", personality. She doesn't hesitate to tell people what she thinks of them, or be cold with her words, or take vengeance against the deserving - and I feel like that would probably harbour a fair amount of darkness. She'd be able to control more of it than most Keyblade wielders without suffering negative effects as well - you don't have to risk your heart falling to darkness if it already has, after all.

Clio, on the other hand.. does have internal darkness too, but only really by virtue of simply existing, since - while humans are beings of worlds in the realm of light - they do all naturally have some darkness in their hearts. Even then, I think she would have fairly strong light by comparison, due to her skill and experience with the Keyblade - but, importantly, she hasn't let it overencompass to the point where light becomes too much in excess, as happens with some of the fairytale wielders who obssess far too strongly over Lux collecting and competition. Still, with the culture of Daybreak Town being what it is, I do imagine that any rising darkness - which, in itself, stems often from negative emotions - would be seen as a problem to be stopped, rather than something to be properly understood and potentially channelled in a safer way. Which isn't always very helpful.

..I'm rambling. Oops. This may continue.

Regarding what you say about struggling to allow each other closeness, I think that is definitely a factor! It stems more from Aria's end, since Clio doesn't initially know what she is, and she's terrified of being rejected if she ever found out (or, worse, killed, since.. Keyblade wielders are supposed to be destroying Heartless, that's what they do on a daily basis to collect Lux). She'd be scared of adversely affecting Clio (or, worse, hurting her) due to her own darkness, but she's definitely someone who wouldn't show or admit that fear very easily due to trying to maintain a more cold and confident external demeanour, so.. it's tricky! It's also tricky because Aria herself isn't actually particularly apologetic for what she is or anything, in herself. She hides only because she has to - it's because she lives in a world of people who wield the literal one weapon that can destroy her, Clio (and Aria herself!) included. She doesn't regret the things she's done, except for the very first thing she did. So she wants Clio to know, so she can be more herself without having to hide around one more person at least.. but, she doesn't want to lose what she already has with her.

..It is gone two o'clock in the morning, but, thank you so much for sending this to me!!~