#older chocobros

[kodieshmodie]

Time to start moving art from Twitter to here! And first up is these practice sketches I did of Timeskip! Noctis, Prompto, Gladio and Ignis!

🎣📸🛡️⚔️

[firefallvaruna]

The Winding Road, Chapter 17

Chapter 17 Now Up!

Summary: Set after Dawn of the Future, Noctis and Lunafreya sneak off for a weekend alone in Leide. They soon discover a tantalizing clue to help the recovering world in Galahd and the Chocofam departs for a winter road trip. But what secrets await them?

Relationships: Lunafreya Nox Fleuret/Noctis Lucis Caelum

Rating: Explicit

Chapter Summary:

Cor Leonis begins an investigation to figure out what's plaguing the Royal Expedition, but finds more than he bargained for.

Photo by Kristaps Grundsteins on Unsplash

[charmms]

“The four of us around a campfire. How long has it been?”

“… An eternity.”

[blushingguy]

FFXV/ Beloved Older Noct 

[randomffxvpics]

I love his side profile sm

[the-blind-geisha]

The Bride of the Four Horsemen - Chapter 9

A/N: Commission for DestiniDestati! Thank you so much again for your support~!

Chapter 9: Should There be Hope

“Our king was trying to contact me, but I am unable to retrieve his message properly.” Ignis sighed, wondering the best way to go about this. “It’s very peculiar seeing as this has never happened before…”

A strange, dark cloud bellowed in the distance, drawing everybody’s attention to it. Ignis felt it odd that a storm would be heading their way, but he wouldn't ignore the perfect opportunity to use this cover for themselves.

He was aware that it would make catching certain sounds a bit of an issue all the same.

Before the tactician could even hope to urge everyone onward, he paused as his words halted in his throat. That was no ordinary electrical storm. At this point, he could practically sense that.

The lightning sounds were far too erratic and almost acted as though they had a mind of their own.

“What is coming our way…?” Ignis asked, hoping to have one of his men make the situation a bit clearer.

A hand touched his shoulder, making him tense in a fit of frustration and anger as he recognized that touch before.

“Oh, nothing of importance,” Ardyn’s voice slyly responded near the Horseman’s ear.

Ignis’ fingers twitched, the urge to summon his daggers were high, but he withheld the notion for some reason. There was something in his tone that made him uneasy. There was thought there that felt as though it had been calculating for hundreds of years.

“I was merely in the neighborhood, you see, and I thought I might drop in to have a little chat.”

That nearly made Ignis lose his temper—something that was difficult for any being, mortal or immortal, to do to him. His teeth clenched as he summoned one of his daggers to try and slice behind him to get Ardyn to at least step away from him.

“Oh, come now,” Ardyn taunted. “There’s no need for that.”

[ffxvheadcanonsnooneaskedfor]

Me looking at my boyfriend: oh look it’s my husband

Me looking at Noctis: oh look it’s my husband

[hypaalicious]

older noctis got so much disrespect. the team probably didn't do much for the timeskip because he was gonna die anyway and IM STILL MAD ABOUT IT AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!! but also bearded noctis over clean shaven anyday

I can only agree with all of this because… I’m…

I’m…

HE DIDN’T NEED TO DIE. HE DIDN’T. THIS IS FINAL FANTASY, WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO SAVE MAIN CHARACTERS WHO ARE DESTINED TO DIE. WE DID IT WITH YUNA IN FFX. WE EVEN FOUND A WAY TO SAVE THAT HO RINOA AS WELL AS SPARE EDEA FROM ULTIMECIA BS IN FFVIII.

but no, Squenix said “lol what if we really just ripped everyone’s hearts out and have it end like this.” AND FOR WHAT? 😤 A WHOLE GENERATION OF GAMERS NEEDS THERAPY AFTER HEARING “STAND BY ME”!! And not even a damn FFX-2 type adventure where the boys go on an adventure and somehow bring Noct back. I’m salty.

[glitchdecay]

I'm trying (and failing) to recall who said it first but Gladio being the one to flip out makes all the more sense when you consider it's his responsibility to protect Noct, and by extension, every single Chocobro. Not knowing how Ignis feels about the whole thing (because everyone was in a quiet tension until they fought the Malboro), and for the sake of keeping Ignis safe, the logical choice was to make Noct reconsider his path forward.

Sure, Gladio is the oldest of the four, but he's not that much older; and the amount of anger he let out felt realistic to me (at least in the Japanese voice-over).

[mrsmneme]

My Art Summary 2023

2023 will end soon. I faced a huge change throughout the year such as promotion, relocation, tougher schedule, etc. I was too busy to make arts, but I'm so glad that I made enough to create an art summary. Because my arts weren't finished in monthly basis, so I don't add names of months again. Thank you for all impressions and participations for my work. I'll keep practicing. 🥰❤️

The first one was the 2023 celebrating piece. I made the chocobros playing multiplayer game, the same composition as Comrade's advertisement, but they are older, in alternate ending appearances.

The second one was a happy birthday Ignis piece. I drew his much older self, as we had seen him greeting King Noctis in alternate ending end credit. Thanks @gakusa2 in x for the gorgeous reference.

The third one was a happy birthday Ardyn piece. I drew his chancellor outfit with his famous grin.

The fourth one was a comic I made in an Ignoct gift exchange 2023 campaign. I drew more realistic brotherhood Ignis for the first time.

See full work here.

The fifth one was a finished sketch, but I will color it later. The piece was a Gladio/Ignis romantic moment. I got my inspiration from my Gladnis mutuals and made such ship related piece for the first time.

The sixth one was one of [chocobros in Hellsing TV series outfit] series, I drew Noctis in Integral Hellsing's outfit first.

The seventh one was a part of [chocobros in Hellsing TV series outfit] too. I drew Gladiolus in Alucard's outfit.

The eighth one was still part of [chocobros in Hellsing TV series outfit]. I drew Ignis in Walter C. Dornez's outfit.

The ninth one was made for Ignis fashionweek 2023 campaign. It was first created in 2022 but I couldn't finish it, so I retried in 2023. The outfit was [shirtless under a suit].

The tenth piece was a happy 7th anniversary of FFXV piece. I drew 7 characters in top 100 Final Fantasy Big Vote.

The eleventh piece was made for Christmas-themed FFcolorwheel in x.

And the twelfth piece was the last one in [chocobros in Hellsing TV series outfit] when I drew Prompto in Seras Victoria's outfit.

[lunarlegend]

The Japanese Cultural Significance Behind Older Ignis’ Hairstyle

this is something i’ve touched upon a couple times before, but i felt like going a bit more in-depth and i have 24/7 blorbo brain, so here we go

for those who are unaware, the pompadour is a bit of an infamous hairstyle in Japan (taken from Wikipedia):

it actually first rose to popularity in the 50s-60s...

...and remained that way on and off up until the early 2000s.

(source is this article, which has a lot more great examples, but unfortunately is also pretty full of annoying ads, lol)

a lot of notable thug-type characters sported the pompadour hairstyle in anime/manga from the late 80s - early 90s...

...and the stereotype is still used in more modern anime, too.

but the way i first learned of the hairstyle’s significance was through the manga Shonan Junai Gumi (precursor to the more popular Great Teacher Onizuka series), where protagonists Eikichi & Ryuji...

...choose to purposely get rid of their pompadours so they can start trying to pick up women (it’s a shonen series from 1990, just bear with me):

but as soon as they step outside, they get challenged by some punks...

...and immediately fix their hair back up so they can participate in the fight.

it’s a huge statement on what it means to be a stereotypical “delinquent” in Japan (obviously taken to the extreme in this case for humor’s sake, but it’s a joke that’s intended to be immediately understood by the audience).

so, what does any of this have to do with Ignis Scientia?

of all the Chocobros, Ignis is definitely the most straight-laced. he’s had the responsibility of being Noctis’ caretaker from a very young age (six years old!) and prides himself on being the most practical of the group, making sure everyone eats healthy and stays out of danger. he drives the car, he manages the money...at 22 years old, he is wise beyond his years, and often joked to be the only true “adult” on the team.

but even as a teenager, Ignis looked far older than his age (pictured here at only 17):

quite the opposite of any of the thugs seen above, young Ignis dressed for his role as a servant of the Royal Family and never acted much like any “typical” teenager. in fact, in his Brotherhood episode, he’s already learning to take on some of the King’s parental responsibilities towards Noctis as Regis’ health noticeably declines...certainly not what one would expect of the normal adolescent experience.

Ignis didn’t really have a childhood (another topic i’ve frequently touched upon), and that’s part of what makes his post-timeskip hairstyle so interesting. instead of keeping his “cockatiel” hair from the main game or simply letting his hair stay down, 32 year old Ignis specifically chose a pompadour:

i’ve often seen it said that Older Ignis looks younger than 22 year old Ignis, and that’s absolutely true. but it’s more than just the softness of his features; it’s that Older Ignis sports a hairstyle you’d normally expect to see on a teenage punk.

given the very little information we have about the 10 Years of Darkness (laziness on the developers’ part imho, but i digress), i consider Older Ignis’ choice of hairstyle to be a significant clue to how he carries himself in the World of Ruin.

here is an Ignis who has accepted the consequences of his decision to wear the Ring, who has gained newfound confidence and stubbornly trained himself to navigate through an endlessly dark world. here is an Ignis who taught himself to hunt again, taught himself to cook again, who has honed his other senses to the point where he can fend for himself in a daemon-infested nightmare that would probably send a less-disciplined person running to their death. 32 year old Ignis quite literally rebelled against his own fate; he chose to survive.

considering that Insomnia is a Japanese city (based on Shinjuku), and that Ignis himself is from there in the original Japanese version of the game (no accent, born in the Kingdom of Lucis just like the others), i can only assume he would understand the cultural significance behind the pompadour hairstyle and what it represents. it’s also a lot of effort for someone who not only exists in a dark world, but who also cannot see himself...there is no doubt in my mind that Ignis chose this style on purpose.

and that’s why i find all of this so fascinating. especially considering what few details we are shown about each of the bros post-timeskip, here’s something about my favorite character that stands out to me as a form of deliberate symbolism and allows me to easily draw conclusions from it. to me it reinforces what a resilient person Ignis is, and it also fuels some of my headcanons that Older Ignis is less uptight and more confident (something that his younger Japanese version self struggles with).

it’s an aspect of Ignis that i feel is extremely significant, but i think has the potential to get overlooked by fans who are not familiar with Japanese culture, which is why i wanted to share it here.

[firefallvaruna]

Chapter 16 Now Up!

Summary: Set after Dawn of the Future, Noctis and Lunafreya sneak off for a weekend alone in Leide. They soon discover a tantalizing clue to help the recovering world in Galahd and the Chocofam departs for a winter road trip. But what secrets await them?

Relationships: Lunafreya Nox Fleuret/Noctis Lucis Caelum

Rating: Explicit

Chapter Summary:

In the aftermath of the disturbing visions, the Chocofam decide to hold their ground in the hotel. Tempers flare as Noctis and Lunafreya, sick and still in pain from the violent visions, have one of their first arguments.

Photo by Kristaps Grundsteins on Unsplash

Author's Notes:

Not going to lie, this chapter makes me so nervous. I'm not good at writing arguments. lol I decided to stop worrying and just post it today, on the anniversary of FFXV's release.

As always, feedback is always welcome! (And, in fact, might make me dance happily around the house!)

[rose-madder-gaze]

Besmirched - A Gladiolus/Noctis fic

The stories say that it was once wielded by a king of old to turn the tide of a great battle - that it could fell dragons with a single sweep of its blade that shone like daybreak - that it could rally the hearts of men, even when all hope had been lost. While the name of the king and the place of the battle have been forgotten, and dragons now only roam in legend, the storied Sword of Light has always been a part of Noct's life and the lives of the people who love him.

Besmirched is an Irish folklore AU originally written for the Gladnoct Big Bang. Rated Teen for swearing and non-explicit sexuality. Ships: Gladiolus/Noctis, Prompto/Ignis, Background Lunafreya/Crowe and Cindy/Aranea. Additional Tags: Older Chocobros, Slow Burn, Friends to Strangers to Lovers, Fluff and Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical Puns, Medieval Minutiae, Anachronisms Abound, POV Multiple.

Read on AO3!

The art in this post is by @omnificent-orion.

[tialinffxiv]

Toss a gil to your warrior~ 🎶

Bringing back yet another of older shots.

Btw, meet Tia's chocobro- Keith 🐤

[cactusprisms]

So tell me about the half-sister and the niece you are planning to give Regis.

yeeee

okay so Ira and Pax Silvarum are hunters. Very good hunters, Ira in particular is a jack. She’s older than Regis by a good few years, but looks markedly younger, due to not having to support the wall.

Pax is Ira’s only child, because Pax damn near killed her coming out, so Ira and her husband love her dearly. Ira meets the chocobros 1.0 on a hunt when Pax is a year old. She makes friends with this pack of idiots, all the while in the back of her mind is her mother cursing Mors’ name.

Ira knows Regis is her brother. She’s careful the entire time she’s around the bros, because their father is still alive, and her mother wouldn’t hate the man so much without a reason. (Wouldn’t have named her Ira without being so mad at the man).

she’s careful, but friendly. She introduces Regis to her husband and her little girl. She accompanies them on several hunts. She exchanges phone numbers with them. She keeps up communication over the years, even after Mors dies. She sends gifts for Noctis in the mail. Pax calls pretty much all of the chocobros 1.0 uncles.

Regis finds out she’s his sister when she saves his and Clarus’s lives during the fall of Insomnia, cursing out him and niflheim with the same vitriol. She might not be a soldier, or have trained specifically to use her magic, but if she is anything, she’s a Hunter. No one expects a second Caelum on the field. Her husband and child are out of reach of the imperials, and well, this might be her last chance to let loose. More people live than might have.

the Father doesn’t die, only because of the Hunter, teeth grit and feral as a woman pushing 60 can be.

Pax bursts into tears at the sight of her mother’s extremely beat up pick up truck, ‘glaives in the bed and ol’ uncle Reggie asleep on Clarus’s shoulder in the back seat.

@raven-6-10

[silverselfshippingchaos]

hi, ash! i'd love to hear about your ffxv s/i and your ship with gladio! also, what does iris think about your s/i? :O

YAY!! I love talking about this kind of stuff!!!

(Some talk of death, injury, drowning, a bit of blood + spoilers for the game)

F.FXV Ash was born in the Crown City to two members of the Crownsguard (eventually the Kingsglaive). Ever since she was young, Ash was always fed this idea that her kingdom was amazing. She loved her home so much and she wanted to grow up there forever with her parents and her sister. It all changed when she was 16. She parents were killed in combat.

(In Episode A.rdyn, there's a boss fight against two soldiers... Those were her parents.)

Ash stayed in the city long enough to graduate high-school, but after that, she just couldn't keep going. She felt hollow and empty inside. The murder of her parents shattered her in every single way possible, wrecked her faith and her love to kingdom, ruined her life. She's messed up.

And so, Ash leaves. She makes a name for herself as a monster hunter, drifting from town to town and protecting the people. She comes to be known as Eos' Rose. Beautiful, but with thorns too. She didn't choose to be called The Rose, it's just that part of her outfit is a long, red coat. I still need to work out the details of her outfit and all that, but she has a red coat and quite a few earrings. She has a chain threader going through two lobe piercings on one ear, and a dangling rose earring on the other. Both silver.

(Whenever she was about 20, she met a lonely chocobo chick. This chocobo stays with Ash for a long time. She is a green chocobo named Sage. Sage is Ash's companion and best friend. Sage is very friendly to everybody, but she has a distaste for Gladio and has tried to bite him on multiple occasions. She succeeded once, but more on that later.

Again, Sage is naturally green. Prompto asks about this once.

"Hey, Ash! Why is your chocobo green?"

"Well, I dunno, Prompto. Why are you blond?"

It gets a good chuckle out of everyone.)

Anyways, early into the game, the Chocobros run into Ash! She actually draws her sword on Noct at first and then she realizes "holy shit, you're the prince. Oh my god, I tried to kill the prince. Oh no, oh no, oh no-"

It's a bit of a funny moment, but she ends up allying with the bros and she gets especially close with Gladio. They get along really well, both protectors of people and absolutely dorks too.

Ash is a gamer, so she gets along well with Prompto and Noct. They actually all played Kings Knight together online! So it's a bit of a "WAIT WE'RE KINGS KNIGHT MOOTS?!" whenever they finally meet. She gets along really well with Ignis too! Ash is very close with all of the gang. It's not long before her and Gladio are falling in love, kissing and sharing Cup Noodles under the stars.

And as for Iris, Iris ADORES Ash! Looks up to her as the big sister she never had. Iris thinks Ash is so cool and strong! And she tells Gladdy that if he breaks her heart, she'll kick his ass! Ash really loves Iris too. She was always the youngest in her family too, so it means a lot to her to be able to be an older sister figure to someone. Ash teaches Iris a bit about how to use a sword too.

Anywho, back to the plot.

Ash accompanies the bros whenever they go onto the boat to Altissia. Her and Gladio have a sweet, romantic date there. But that happiness doesn't last. It's been a bit of a running joke that Ash doesn't know how to swim.

The last thing Gladio expected was to lose her.

As Altissia falls, Ash sacrifices herself to save Gladio and Prompto. They both have to watch as Ash falls from a bridge and into the water. They watch as Ash dies. But there's not enough time to save her. Prompto sobs, Gladio screams in horror. Ash is content. She's going to die protecting the people she loves, right? It's not that cute and her almost drowning to death was the scariest moment of her life. She's choking and gasping for air, trying to grab any rubble she can just to stay alive.

Ash isn't seen again for a while. It's part of the reason why Gladio lashes out on the train—he's mourning his girlfriend's death. Whenever he's sitting there across the table from Ignis, you can hear him crying.

However, a few chapters later... Guess who comes back. She's injured, has scars on her face, and her coat is in tatters. Gladio hugs her and cries, Ash tells him to loosen up a bit since she has a few cracked ribs.

"What's the matter? Not a fan of ghosts?"

Gladio tells her that this isn't the time to crack jokes, but he hugs her so tight. She was alive. She was okay.

(However, during this time, Gladio actually found Sage and told her that Ash was dead. Sage bit him hard that day.)

But... How exactly did Ash survive..?

That gets explained in Episode Ignis. I won't talk about Ash's involvement in every DLC just to not make this to lengthy, but in Iggy's... Ravus sees her drowning. He grabs her out of the water and onto land. He's not gentle about it, and the impact of being thrown against rubble isn't great for Ash's bones, but she's alive. Ash is nursed back to health by the survivors of the town. There's a lot more detail there, but that's the gist of what happens.

Ash's relationship with Ravus is fascinating. They bond quite a bit and have a chat under the stars much later, right before Ash reunites with Gladio. I had to dig through like two years worth of discord messages for this but it went something like this

Oh and you know that level that's just Gladio and Ignis? Yeah, Ash is there too. She cusses out Ardyn actually. Although I really like Ardyn, my S/I doesn't. He makes a comment that she's quite grown up now. You know how he gets those flashbacks of peoples' memories after he kills people in his DLC? He saw an image of a little girl with red glasses. And here she was, a grown woman.

She breaks off from the group before the Ravus fight. I don't want her to see him like that.

Anyways, then timeskip rolls around. Whenever Noct arrives at Hammerhead is met with a familiar "kweh-kweh!". Sage greets Noct after ten long years, and then Ash runs over. They have a cute hug scene.

However, Ash's outfit is different. Not only is her hair curly (pre-ts Ash had it straightened), but she's wearing... Kingsglaive armor?! Her outfit is vaguely inspired by Crowe from Kingsglaive, but Ash had become a soldier. Not just to follow in her parents' footsteps, but because she had spent her whole life feeling lost and she had finally found a purpose. Traveling with Noct and Co had made her realize that her life had a purpose. She wanted to spend her life protecting her kingdom.

After her parents died, she didn't know what to do with herself. Noct was both her best friend and her king. Noct says that the Kingsglaive outfit looks good on her. It makes her smile. Ash had finally come home to Insomnia, and she had finally found what she was meant to do.

Before the gang leaves, she gives Noct a long hug and tells him to come back alive. She gives Gladio a kiss too.

And that's basically it!