#comments on or reblogs of what i've written are greatly appreciated but never required

[fell-court]

The Crystal Tower Alliance Raids for my version of events: a rather long post (approximately 1600 words)

Crystal Tower is important in flowering verse because it’s when the trio becomes a quartet!

Clio, Bryn and Tsutsuji run into the outlandish-looking man in Revenant’s Toll when they arrive there around the time of organising the Scions’ relocation to the Rising Stones, and from there end up offering their services to the Sons of Saint Coinach as a way of getting to know some of the goings-on in the local area. By the time everything has been prepared to be able to enter the Labyrinth of the Ancients, the trio have been placed into one of the three alliance groups.

So far, I only have five of the eight members of that alliance solidified, though - Clio as the tank, Brynblyss and a Lalafell scholar as the healers, and Tsutsuji and four others as DPS roles. One of these four others is a Miqo’te called L’nahri, a novice adventurer who particularly idolises Clio and her friends for the work they have done to help save Eorzea.

Labyrinth of the Ancients is initially a daunting experience because the trio are not as used to fighting in such high-volume environments, but Clio quickly picks up on how to work best with the other two tanks, and is able to hold her own even when the main group splits into three for certain sections. It isn’t easy, but everything goes relatively well, and the hold that Cid places on exploring the rest of the place gives the trio a good opportunity to continue things with the Scions’ relocation.

=====

Syrcus Tower, in turn, is where things take a turn.

The alliance raid itself was released during patch 2.3, so it could in theory have been set anytime between the defeat of Leviathan and the official formation of the Crystal Braves. Or I could throw that out of the window and put it anytime post-ARR, in theory. I'm not sure yet. Either way, when it finally becomes time for the tower to be stormed, the group of 24 is very similar to (if not the same as) the group who went through the Labyrinth of the Ancients, with all aforementioned characters present. L'nahri in particular is quite excited, as her work with assisting NOAH is really helping her feel like she's making a difference to something, especially as she gets to fight alongside the vaunted Warrior of Light herself as well.

Compared to the previous expedition, the process of climbing the crystalline tower is in some regards more straightforward - there are fewer foes to fight at once, and everyone can safely take a break when each new floor is cleared - but those that do stand in their way are often stronger or more clever. Finally, though, even the revived Emperor Xande himself cannot stand up to the force of all these adventurers working together, and the sunset-lit view from the summit of the tower fills everyone with a strong sense of accomplishment.

The voidgate's reappearance as Unei and Doga try to undo Xande's pact is sufficient to set some of the alliance members on edge, but nobody was fully prepared for any further fighting; the sudden appearances - and attacks - from the emptier dark clones (as well as a few voidsent forcing themselves through the rift) quickly throw everything into chaos. The Cloud of Darkness reaches forth to take the pair who would annul her covenant, dragging Nero with them in the process, and the dark clones fall dead as the voidgate closes, leaving the alliances to clear up the mess.

Said mess consists of a variety of injuries, but most notably, and fatally, L'nahri's.

=====

Clio, understandably, is agonised - she would have been in a better position to bait or take more such dangerous attacks for her team had she not been wracked by an Echo vision when everything kicked off, and this is the first time that someone she'd thought of fondly has died in her arms since the attack on the Waking Sands. Brynblyss and the other healer of the alliance had been doing all they could to heal her wounds, but there's only so much that you can do when a melee fighter's taken an unmitigated tankbuster from 60% HP huge blast of void fire directly to the chest.

The other alliances are eventually able to get all of their members in more stable states, and thankfully avoided any such incidents or injuries of the same severity - but that means everyone is all the more aware of the one who did get so severely injured, the one who was only just beginning her journey, the one who didn't make it. And so the impact is felt across the whole top of the tower, all attention held by the ripple of sadness and guilt - though perhaps least so in Tsutsuji's case, as she had noticed something materialise on the other end of the area.

This turned out to be an unfamiliar figure shrouded in darkness, introducing her(?)self as being able to provide assistance in entering the World of Darkness. It quickly becomes obvious that this figure is a voidsent, leaving most of the alliance on edge and unwilling to proceed with the conversation - but as someone extremely unaverse to doing things that sound like terrible ideas to everyone else, Tsutsuji decides to play her cards and asks the voidsent for her(?) terms.

=====

Tsutsuji stands before the others, and asks the voidsent for her(?) terms. In turn, this is how she(?) responds, wearing a wry smile on what little can be seen of her face through the shadows:

"For you, little student, I shall set them in your favour. Though I could by all means ask for more, I require from you only that which I must have in order to aid you. It wouldn't do for me to be unable to hold up my end of the deal, after all.

In return for my continued existence here in your world, and my assistance in recovering your three stolen allies from mine, all you must give me is that which will permit thus - the lifeless girl lying there behind you."

Suffice it to say, this causes quite a bit of outrage in the rest of the alliance members, as L'nahri's demeanour had made her well-liked by many people in the group. It seems too dangerous to go along with, even to Brynblyss and Clio to some extent - but to Tsutsuji, the one who's actually individually being dealt with, who does not set out to do things that everyone's happy with if they aren't what she's happy with (unlike the other two), the one who steps back and looks at this some-semblance-of-objectively ("well, she isn't using it now anyway, y'know?") - well, it's something she wants to kick off and see where it goes. Why not?

So the deal is made, and the voidsent - Lorenza, as she asks to be called - takes over L'nahri's dead body, subsisting on its remnant aether to maintain her presence in the Source. The group leave the summit of the tower to more properly recuperate from the long climb (and its suddenly-frantic ending), and the atmosphere has been quite irrevocably changed. Some are placated by the voidsent's intelligent and weary-seeming demeanour, others by the fact she is kept under the watchful eye of the Warrior of Light - but not all are ever going to be satisfied, whether out of raw scepticism or of simply being unable to see any face other than their dead friend's upon looking at her.

=====

To her credit, Lorenza remains true to her word, as it was interpreted by most of those present at the time - she remains within the boundaries of Saint Coinach's Find with the rest of the light party (as they have now, by technicality, become), and her insights freely shared with whichever researchers are brave enough to actually draw on the assistance she's trying to provide do help NOAH figure out a way of opening up the Crystal Tower's voidgate much earlier than anticipated. The World of Darkness can be entered very shortly after Syrcus Tower is cleared, almost as soon as everyone feels that they have fully recovered in fact.

Within the World of Darkness itself, Lorenza's familiarity with the void and its denizens proves instrumental to not only guiding the alliances to success, but in mitigating damage taken in the process, since - as Nero proves upon the group finding him - the sustaining of any sort of wound deep enough to touch blood would be sufficient for a being of the Source to quickly be corrupted by the astral Darkness of the void. The Cloud of Darkness is slain, and thus disrupted long enough for the trio to be saved, and the contract to be ceased, and for all else to go as it does in canon (as I have it at the moment).

Congratulations, demon, your worth to us is proven - our stolen allies are recovered, and so you need not remain. Cannot remain, even, now that your own contract has been fulfilled. So would say those who missed the first part of her terms, at least. The lifeless girl, in return for Lorenza's assistance, and her continued existence on the Source - an existence with no stated time limit. The wayward princess has won herself free perpetuity, in a world where she no longer has to starve.

Through her actions, Lorenza earns the tentative trust of Clio and Brynblyss, which is forced to grow during Heavensward. And so, the four become a true light party.

Who knows what she might have left behind in the void she came from, though..?

[maracujatangerine]

Hello!! I love your comfort-style writing and Coriander story, your whump recovery is honestly some of the best I've read (especially your collaboration with @whumpzone). I wanted to start a whump/recovery story page, but I wasn't sure how to start and go about creating a story and I'm not entirely sure of how to navigate my page to begin with. Any advice or tips for me? Anything is greatly appreciated! (no pressure ofc)

Hi! Thank you very much! I’m very happy to hear that you like my writing. 🥰 (I’m also tagging @whumpzone so that she’ll see the praise!)

This is just my five cents and I think there’s lots of ways to go about this, so feel free to use what you like and discard the rest. ☺️

How to create a story:

People have different strategies for writing, some are discovery writers who have the loosest of plans and then just write and see where that takes them, others make elaborate spreadsheets and mind-maps where they plan out everything they want to happen in their story before they start to write, and most people fall somewhere in between. This is a matter of personal taste and you could experiment with both to see what you like.

When I started writing about Lydia and Coriander I had the idea that I wanted to write a gregarious caretaker with lots of friends who also got involved in the whole recovery process, I knew that I wanted to try my hand at putting my own spin on some of the tropes that I had seen floating around the Box Boy Universe (First bath/First meal/wound reveal and treatment/etc) and I had written my very first post. After that I just improvised. 😁

Nowadays, I keep a few notes on new chapters I want to write and where I want the story to progress to, but I still mostly improvise. My advice to you would be to think a bit about the main characters, what you want them to be like, to think a little bit about what you want to happen in your story and and how you want to put your own spin on the recovery story, and then just start writing and posting. Just jump in! 😉

How to navigate your page:

You can only pin one page to the top of your blog and Tumblr only allows a set amount of links to each page. I made this master list first and when I had more links to posts than I could fit, I made this master list. (I see some people use Google Docs to keep longer master lists together, but I read Tumblr on my phone and that doesn’t work very well for me as a reader, so I don’t recommend that.) It is really important to have and update a master list so that people can find your work. I like to have chapter numbers, too.

How to get good engagement?

(I have got this question before by @poetryofdory and I’m reusing my advice to them here.)

The following are things that I think can help:

- Keep a good and updated master list of your work so that people easily can navigate your blog and find more of your writing.

- try to use relevant tags and to find tags which are popular in the genres you write in so that new people can find your stuff.

- In the beginning, I posted quite often, like every few days, and I think that made people find my writing more easily.

- interact with other people’s writing and be generous with commenting, reblogging, writing asks and so on.

- do participate in common events (such as Whumptober in the Whump community), it will help people discover your writing.

- people often do a post where they introduce themselves and tag their favourite blogs. I think that is a good idea because lots of people will see it. (And people get really happy to be acknowledged.)

- I think it is possible to try different times for posting, to make sure you post on a time when people are active and will see it. I also see some people reblog themselves for different time zones. (That requires a good master list not to get confusing.) I have never done any of those things because to me it seems too much like work and this is a hobby that I want to keep fun and stress-free, but that is one idea to try.

Best of luck! I’m looking forward to reading your writing!

Perhaps other people would like to share their thoughts and advice?