#rf4 volkanon

[rhinoyo]

how lonely it feels, to be in a house without its owner

[let-me-date-them-bracket]

Art credits: Buttons by Viktor Gogela, Backgrounds - Free Assets: Dreaming of Light, Textbox by afiniwind.

[vozchik]

[durotoswrites]

Winter prompts! Hmmm... what about Decorating and Vishnal (and the rest of the butler squad if you feel inclined)

I see what you did there! I'll have you know I played some RF4 this week, hehe. Butler Squad, roll out! I had a lot of fun with this one. Thank you for the ask!

Winter Themed Prompts - Asks are open!

Vishnal wasn’t sure how many times he had attempted to hang the pine boughs, but the muscles in his arms were screaming from constantly adjusting the garland.

This is just part of of the job. A good butler should never complain about any sort of discomfort.

He furrowed his brow.

Power through – no one else is complaining.

He felt sweat roll into his eyes as he climbed down the ladder to observe his handiwork. After wiping his face carefully on his handkerchief (after all, a butler should be as pristine as his castle), he stared at the greenery, frowning and turning his head.

“What do you think, Clorica?”

She blinked rapidly, straightening her posture. “Oh? The garland? It looks fine to me,” she replied with a heavy yawn.

He tilted his head, biting his lip. “It’s not perfect.”

“It’s not going to be exactly symmetrical with natural branches, though. That’s part of what makes it so pretty.” She continued placing delicate glass ornaments in the large glass vase before her. It wasn’t long before she closed her eyes, her hands deftly placing the shiny baubles in various containers.

Vishnal was about to chide her for “resting her eyes” as she liked to call it, when a booming voice emerged from the hallway.

“Has Vishnal finally finished that doorway yet?” The scent of spiced tea preceded the head butler. Volkanon had been busy with his specialty brew, still donning a spotless apron.

Snapping to attention, he turned to face him. “Y-Yes, Sir!” He held his breath as his boss appraised his handiwork.

The pine boughs had been hung around the door frame carefully, and an elegant wreath adorned the door, complete with a stylish and lavish bow.

“Not bad, but do you intend on leaving the area above the door so bare? This is our special guest’s room we’re talking about.”

Vishnal felt his cheeks flame. “O-Of course, I’ll fix it right away!”

After much precise measuring and several trips up and down ladders, two matching bows were placed at the top corners of the door frame.

Clorica clapped her hands with delight. “Aw, how cute! It kinda resembles Frey’s hair, doesn’t it?”

He let out an audible gasp. “Oh, no! I’ll have to take it down, and…”

“Aw, I like it.” Clorica’s voice had a sad tone to it. “Although, it would look nice with some ornaments spread throughout, and maybe it could use something for a centerpiece?”

Clorica sleepily shuffled through a box and produced a ball of greenery adorned with white berries. “She’ll be sure to like this!”

Glancing at Clorica’s pristine handiwork, he had a feeling that Clorica’s taste was more refined than his own. Thanking her profusely, he climbed the ladder again, hanging the final adornment as Clorica helped him center it. Volkanon’s commanding request for them to try the tea (which both butlers knew would take longer than a mere sampling) left Vishnal scurrying to finish the work, dropping and shattering one of the ornaments in the process. Clorica promised to buy some time for him as she went to Volkanon.

Sweeping the mistake off of the floor, Vishnal silently berated himself.

It looks like I still have a long way before even becoming a semi-decent butler… Why can’t I stop screwing things up?

A delighted squeal caught his attention. He turned his head to see Frey staring at the hall, her mittened hands over her heart as her jaw dropped.

“Wow… this is gorgeous!”

A smile crossed his lips before he knew it; Frey’s excitement always gave him that effect. “It was a group effort, and I’m glad that you enjoy it!”

“Enjoy it? I love it!” She whirled around, taking in the sights, her long pigtails moving with her. “Ah, and my door! It’s so pretty!” She stood in the doorway, looking up at the ornaments.

Vishnal set his broom against the wall and wrung his hands, his heart pounding. “I’m so glad you like it, Princess.”

Her eyes traveled toward the centerpiece hanging above her and her face went scarlet. “You did this?”

“I had some suggestions, but I assembled it.”

She shyly looked down at her boots. “Thank you. I really like it. Um… if you’re available, will you wake me tomorrow morning?” She looked back up at the mistletoe ball, not meeting his gaze.

“Of course! You can count on me!” His cheeks hurt from grinning.

“Well, it’s been a long day. I think I’m going to turn in early and have a cup of hot tea.”

“Tea?!” Vishnal’s eyes widened as he remembered Clorica stalling for him. “Ah, I forgot that I’m supposed to meet with Volkanon. Have a good night, Princess, and sleep well.” He flashed her a smile as he hurried down the hallway.

Frey clung to the door frame, watching him leave. Her face flushed deeply, but the winter chill had nothing to do with it.

[wordswithoutcontext]

[ungalobrando]

Some Rune Factory 4 Caregiver/Caretaker icons~

Likes/Reblogs if you use would be appreciated!

[nikkinikums]

Apparently, you cannot sleep anywhere you want. Even if you are- in fact, a prince.

[mayorsovereignty]

Rf4 Volkanon > Sebastian Michaelis

Too, bad , so sad ~ ☆★☆★☆

[satanslittlepup]

Volkanon propaganda?

He's literally so silly @butler-bracket

(gameplay footage ahead)

[beck-a-leck]

Writing Patterns/First 10 Lines Tag Game

tagged by @thychesters Thank you!!

Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there’s a pattern!

(I might break the rules a little bit, because a lot of my most recent fics are multi-chaps, and long running ones at that, or they're prompt collections. So I'll be taking the most recent opening lines, as opposed to the very first lines and I'm going to take from pieces posted within the last year. I'm also gonna repeat one fic, since I started posting it last year and it's been my most active WIP since then.)

1. Little Runeys - Ch 16 (The RF4/SW AU): “Dank farrik!” Frey swore sharply as she narrowly avoided taking a hit right up her thruster. “These Imps just can’t cut a girl a break.” She turned her head to look over her shoulder. “How are those guns coming, Lest?” 2. How Far Ahead The Road Has Gone - Ch 14 (The Hobbit): When Bilbo woke, she was burning up. Someone had draped an extra blanket over her while she had been sleeping, but considering the chill in the air, she shouldn’t have sweat beading on her forehead. It was dark, must have been the middle of the night, Bilbo couldn’t see anything around her except the shadows of whoever was on watch against the low glow of the fire, but from the snoring she suspected nearly everyone else was asleep. 3. Home For The Holidays (Grand Bazaar): Despite the bone deep exhaustion, the heavy pack on his back, the feet that ached with every footfall, and the remnants of a cold lingering in the back of his throat and sinuses, Lloyd still got a spring in his step when the familiar landmarks of Zephyr Town came into view. With renewed vigor, he hitched his pack up a little higher on his shoulders and hurried down the road. His heart seemed to lighten with every step forward, and a small smile began to curl across his tired face. 4. Earth and Rebirth - Ch 20 (Trio of Towns): Summer was in full swing, painting the mountain in shades of green as the plants spread out their broad leaves to soak up every bit of the hot sun as possible. Life was getting busy on the farms and in all three towns, as the first of the summer crops were ready for harvest, and tourists were flocking to the picturesque mountain for vacation. Holly was kept plenty busy herself. 5. How Far Ahead The Road Has Gone - Ch 1 (The Hobbit): When Bilbo Baggins left the Shire in the company of Thorin Oakenshield, she had not known she was pregnant. The thought of it being a possibility hadn’t even crossed her mind. 6. Adored (Rune Factory 4): Frey pushed blindly into her room. It was late, her heart was heavy, her soul weary. Tonight was her last night in Selphia, and as exhausted as she was of dealing with people, Frey so desperately did not want to be alone. Perhaps it was why she lingered so long with the others until she had to listen to Volkanon's good sense and turn in. Otherwise, she would be utterly exhausted tomorrow, and she would need to be sharp, embarking on this next journey alone. 7. At The End Of All Things (Spiritfarer): Buck didn’t see his death coming. 8. Our Dear Empress - Ch 9 (Rune Factory 4): Frey woke up early. Early enough that the sun had not yet risen, and she couldn’t even hear the quiet stirrings of life in the camp. She was accustomed to waking at the break of dawn, but even this was too early for her. She lay there in the dark, listening to Forte breathe steadily from her bedroll on the ground beside her. It would be wise to sleep some more, but even as the thought crossed her mind, Frey knew she was not going to slip back into slumber again. 9. Seedlings and Sprouts - Ch 29 (Animal Parade): Perry wasn’t expecting to be awake at this hour, but for reasons unknown to him, when he had laid down to sleep that night his mind refused to quiet, and he could not relax. So with restless body and mind, he got out of bed. If sleep was not coming to him, there was plenty of work he could do. Perhaps sorting through old church records would bore him to sleep. 10. And Omega Remains - Ch 2 (The Bad Batch): “You might know me better than you think.” The woman crouched down and removed her glasses. Brown eyes met identical brown eyes. "We’re sisters, Omega."

It looks like most often my opening lines are spent doing some scene setting and getting into the POV character's shoes. Occasionally I'll drop right into the action or pick up where a canon scene left off. But for the most part I get pretty quick to answering Who? Where? and Why? Not surprising for the prompt collections, where I'm usually getting right to the point of the prompt. And in the multi-chaps it's a good way to show that some time has passed between where the last one ended and the new one picked up and catch readers up. A lot of character action happening in the first sentence or two. And a lot of characters waking up 😂

I think the biggest exception to this trend is the opening lines of "Road" which is a succinct 'this is exactly what the story is going to be about' opening line.

Oh man I guess I should tag some folks. How about @jessi-08, @durotoswrites, @emeraldhazeart, @lookforanewangle, @jake-marshall

And if you want to play along and I didn't tag you, feel free to say I tagged you. My brain goes instantly blank any time I need to tag people in games like this and suddenly I don't know anyone who writes 😂

[agirlinsearchof]

Erm... huh?

The premise of RF4 is that your amnesiac character has been thoroughly mistaken for the local prince(ss), and acts accordingly until the real deal is found.

I decided to take a peek at what the dialogue does if the player character is female (since if the PC is male, Volkanon says that the prince is named Arthur), and ah... if the PC is female, he instead claims the princess is named Arthur. And since I know we meet Arthur, who is male regardless of your gender, it makes me wonder how Volkanon is able to think that he was a she. Was he raised as a woman only to then live as a man in adulthood? Is he trans, and Volkanon doesn't have the memo yet if you're female? (Was his name gender-neutral in the Japanese version, making confusion more plausible?) EDIT: Nope! His name is Arthur in both versions!

This is the one time I think having a character's gender depend on your character's gender makes sense. Either that or have twin siblings, with the vanished heir being the twin the same gender as your character.

[vozchik]

[ryuuseirune]

002- lest :^)

How I feel about this character:

homosexually! Lest is my primary blorbo... my beloved. I will never stop thinking about him. He’s cute, sweet, and a little bit silly, which makes him the perfect whump target lmfao. Make that ray of sunshine suffer!!!

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Dylas, Leon, Doug, Arthur, Kiel, Vishnal, Ethelberd, Forte, Bado, Barrett, Volkanon, and Porcoline.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Lest & Venti - self-explanatory. I have a real soft spot for our dragon BFF.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

he deserves more attention and appreciation in the rf4 fandom!! Everyone is a Frey main and I understand why people prefer her over Lest, but sometimes I wish people would give my little guy a chance too :( it's why I focus on commissioning/drawing him the most. I need to recruit people to the Lest agenda

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

gay marriage option wish we knew more of his backstory and that the guys would flirt with him more 😔

my OTP:

do I even need to say it? Dylas/Lest

my cross-over ship:

within the RF franchise, i think Lest/Ares or Lest/Raguna would be hot. otherwise, maybe he would look good with Aira from Ensemble Stars since they both have that feminine twinkish vibe? idk i haven't thought about this one much

a headcanon fact:

oh man it depends. I like to think of him as a gay trans man, but I also like to hc him as a he/him transmasc butch lesbian. i feel like all of my interpretations of him kind of exist at once so i will give multiple "facts" for each one :)

in situations where he's trans and he likes guys, i think he's a bit more subdued/reserved. he feels more societal pressure to fit in with the bachelors because of all the little comments that they make about liking girls. otoh i see him acting more like Frey if he's a butch lesbian – brash, earnest, and not afraid to speak his mind. he chills with both the guys and the gals at sleepovers and he doesn't care what people think!!

when both Lest and Frey are present in an AU, i like to think of them as siblings. sometimes i see them as fraternal twins, sometimes Frey is Lest’s younger yet more experienced sister. either way they have a pretty close bond! frey teases him a lot but he never complains bc he knows it's all in good jest and it takes a lot to piss him off. they joke about being bodyswapped at birth and team up to bully doug.

>ask game here<

[shadwife]

I couldn’t even finish RF4 because they wouldn’t let me marry Volkanon (pictured for your viewing pleasure):

The actual bachelors in this game were so weak. How am I supposed to focus on any of them when Volkanon is right there, living with me the entire time. Awful, awful nightmare of a game.

Don’t you worry, though. There’s a shota you can marry.

But old man enjoyers? Die, I guess.

[tinylantern]

On a whim, I decided to finally watch "Your Answer," Vishnal's marriage event

The Good

We're pretty quick to get insight into the motivations of why Vishnal decided to become a butler (he wanted to help people like his father, but didn't feel he was smart enough to follow in his footsteps and become a doctor, so he looked into other options.) As he is one of the least guarded of the marriage candidates, it didn't bother me that he revealed something so personal early on since it felt in character for him to openly talk about something like that.

While Vishnal doesn't have the most elaborate backstory, it was admittedly refreshing to have a marriage candidate who comes from a relatively stable background with a family that he loves and who not only loves him back, but supports his dreams. (For the other marriage events I've watched so far, I can't say the same for Xiao Pai, Amber, Dolce, Leon, and perma-husband Arthur, who all suffer from Issues(tm) due to things that happened in their pasts.)

Hearing Volkanon say how proud he is of Vishnal and Clorica, more like Selphia plz, stop giving me found family feels.

It is a fact that, depending on the character they're dating, Frey/Lest's personality is somewhat tweaked to better suit their partner, and the version of Frey we have in Your Answer is one of the better characterizations that manages to provide a fun twist on RF4's protagonist while still staying true to her general characterization in the main story, town events, and daily dialogues.

The proposal scene was absolutely sweet. I remain eternally glad my first exposure to RF4 was through Special because as far as I'm concerned, Michael Sinterniklaas is the only person to voice Vishnal, ever.

Areas of Improvement

Of the marriage events I've watched so far, it definitely is one of the shortest and the most lacking in plot. Vishnal's relationship with Frey also wasn't the most fleshed out.

The main conflict was resolved too easily, man. Vishnal is told by the butler judge AKA Beyer he can't be a butler if his lover is also his master, Frey selflessly decides to break up with Vishnal so he can follow his dream, but Vishnal decides as he's being given his title that Frey is far more important than his dream and proposes after denying the 1-Star Butler title, and Beyer is so touched by Vishnal's dedication he takes back what he said about how he can't be a butler if he's dating his employer.

Overall Thoughts

It is a fact that Vishnal is probably my second favorite of the bachelors after Arthur and while I wouldn't say his marriage event is anything to write home about, after watching Your Answer, I find myself appreciating him as a character even more.

Now if you're someone who highly values a strong narrative and exploration of character motivations and relationships, then Your Answer is not going to fit the bill. As mentioned above, it's very short, light on the plot, Vishnal and Frey don't have the deepest relationship, and (most glaringly) what conflict existed within was easily dealt with through pure passion. But, weirdly enough, the shortcomings of Your Answer highlight the exact reasons why Vishnal is so well-liked. If your perma-spouse is Vishnal, you're not marrying him because he has a sad backstory, or is dealing with crippling personal issues that threaten to tear his and Frey's relationship apart. You're marrying him because he's so dedicated to the people he loves that he's willing to give up a lifelong passion just to be with the one who matters most to him, and that is incredibly admirable.

It is ironic knowing that the primary source of conflict in Your Answer—the idea that it's wrong for Vishnal to be dating his master—is exactly why I've never actually made the effort to confess and then marry him in any of my playthroughs. I'm personally not a fan of romances that have uneven power dynamics and the idea of Frey dating her own butler is just hella awkward and does not sit well with me. BUT that is just my personal preference and I know a lot of people aren't bothered by that. So if you want a bachelor who is kind, energetic, endlessly supportive, shamelessly supportive, open about expressing affection, and would sooner give up his dreams than leave the person he loves, then maybe Vishnal is the right one for you. Just don't go into his marriage event expecting a long and heavy narrative on par with Arthur or Dolce's.