#tsutsuji (fell‑court) 🜸

[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..?

[fell-court]

so, no, I don't need saving.. a pity dawn won't rise over your broken corpse. and with each life, comes a new meaning.. and it seems "this one likes to take it to heart"- yeah, no

A quick /gpose of a hypothetical Ascian Tsutsuji. This was a bit of a tricky one to set up, given all the effects, and very much something that won't be canon, but it's fun to play about with nevertheless - plus, the vibes match the song well ^-^

[fell-court]

Today's gameplay progress:

I finished patch 3.4 as Clio! (I started it earlier today, actually, so I did it in basically one go.) I'm hoping to keep up the same rate of progress for doing all of 3.5(5) tomorrow, so that after my last exam I can make a start on Stormblood!

I don't think I levelled up as her today, but in terms of her levels in general: she's a level 73 gunbreaker, level 64 dancer, high level 63 red mage, and still level 70 reaper and sage. I intend to use dancer and red mage for the Stormblood story where possible, especially after figuring out that Clio could canonically pick up the class (via Iris, one of my OCs) during 3.2!

I did also play as Lorenza today, but that was not for the purpose of making any progress as her - instead, it was simply so that I could accompany @snow-system-wol in the final area through to the end of the game. Congratulations on making it there!! You did super well!!!

As part of this, I of course took many screenshots. The ones I will be posting here in this post are quiiiite vague, hopefully; all they have in them are characters and backgrounds. I will however be putting all of them under the readmore, because of the "being taken in the final area and boss arena" reasons.

Some close-ups I managed to take of Lorenza, Nimda (@soothingmind) and S'ria (@snow-system-wol) =3

..Some brief interruptions to the plot in the form of Nimda and S'ria doing some gathering =P

Some post-final-boss-defeat shots while everyone else left the instance~

And finally, some very hastily-taken shots of my light party, after everyone had left. I didn't want to stay for long, but I still thought it would be neat to put everyone here ^-^

[fell-court]

As mentioned in my last post: the other four characters that I came up with today for flowering verse!

Given that Shadowbringers takes place in another world, the previous four wouldn't be able to accompany Clio, Brynblyss, Tsutsuji and Lorenza to the First. Therefore, I came up with four new characters to make up a full party for that expansion's trials, normal raids, and alliance raids! I have less actual lore for most of them, but I'm always happy to take questions if anyone has any~

The red-haired Mystel with the prosthetic right arm is Sasha-Bea, a strong and beautiful swordfighter whose fighting style would be comparable to the samurai of the Source. I've been envisioning her as a runaway noble of sorts, fleeing Eulmore in favour of the Crystarium and taking whatever wealth she could with her.

The strangely-still Viis is known only as Anhedonia (or Anhe for short), a taciturn fighter whose skill with a scythe is as uncanny as their affinity with sin eaters. Born around a hundred years ago somewhere to the east of Norvrandt, they and their mother were both irrevocably corrupted by Light before their birth - yet they seem to have been able to stave off turning somehow, and can even draw sin eaters to their side in combat. (So, like a reaper of the Source, but associated with sin eaters instead of voidsent.)

The silver-robed Ronso is Ilya, originally born in Slitherbough but who has since left the Rak'tika Greatwood in the hopes of finding a way to restoring sight of the night sky his astrologian techniques still try to connect with. He harbours some guilt for feeling like he has turned his back on his fellow Night's Blessed.

The shield-bearing Drahn man is currently named Vonric, an aspiring knight descended from the people of what was once the Kingdom of Voeburt. He is chronically unlucky, but the constant mishaps he runs into have forced him to learn a wide variety of crafting and gathering skills, which he almost favours more than his combat prowess.

That's all that I have for these four at the moment! However, I'm very happy to take questions on any of them if anyone wants to ask something, as it's a really good way of developing them!!

[fell-court]

actually while i'm here (since for some reason this feels like the only blog I can actually use/post on at the moment)

I keep forgetting to mention I currently have one more FFXIV character! She's currently my other retainer while playing as Lorenza, so that I get to see her in-game a lot. Here is what she looks like, although I may not keep her in that outfit:

Her name is.. well, a very well-kept secret, for reasons entirely unknown - perhaps there isn't a big reason for it, or perhaps there is! However, she says everyone calls her Tsutsuji (or sometimes this gets translated to Miss Azalea, since tsutsuji is the Japanese word for azalea flowers). She gives off a very flyaway and carefree impression, never really making it seem like she remembers people's names and often having to interrupt herself so as to not give the game away; as a retainer, she has the carefree female Au Ra personality, to give you an idea of how she acts!

But that's the thing with Tsutsuji - she acts like everything's fun and light-hearted, but that fun-loving personality does not mean she isn't actually extremely magically powerful and also very chaotic. For example, outside of crystal verse, she's actually the one who summons Lorenza to the Source, which is a pretty mean feat considering she arrives as herself rather than only her essence getting through into Eorzea. And Tsutsuji's reaction to achieving this was essentially just "Oh! Hey, that worked! Cool!" before promptly moving onto the next thing before Lorenza could ask her what she'd just done. This general level of ability combined with her chaotic approach to everything is how you end up with more people being scared of her than perhaps makes sense if you've only just met her.

If you couldn't tell already, her character idea is maybe a bit silly and random, but I love her anyway. Also, in a game with such randomness as the Manderville quests, I like to think she still makes at least a slight amount of logical sense =P

[fell-court]

(late shadowbringers spoilers ahead)

I remembered a certain detail that means that my idea for Lorenza’s (and/or L’nahri’s) ancient probably wouldn’t work the way I had been envisioning it, which has since resulted in me now feeling unbitten by the ancient bug, so to speak. Maybe my own interest will flare up again when I actually get to story quests that explore them more, but for now it’s moreso a thing I’m fine with hearing others speak about for their own situations, without having much lore for it on my own end or wanting to care as much for it on my own end.

(The fact my brain has decided to associate a certain ancient’s name with one of the things that sets me off the most also REALLY doesn’t help, but that’s my own problem, not anyone else’s.)

I do still think that my other concept of “Clio holds the Azem crystal because it’s more fitting for her to have it than Tsutsuji, but it’s Tsutsuji’s ancient who had held the seat of Azem, and not Clio’s” is fairly neat, because it works as a potential reason for why the two would actually have been interacting with each other the whole time, if nothing else. Something, something, the threads of fate and repetition got tangled for no reason and now the two keep tagging along with each other as a result, I don’t know. I still need to figure out how the two would actually interact in my version of events, but this at least could serve as some sort of underlying reveal of why? I don’t know

[fell-court]

Hmm

On the one hand, I still like the idea of Lorenza not having an associated ancient. It sort of plays a lot more into the idea of her being a product of the sundered shards and their calamities, a sign that the worlds can still create brand-new life that is significant and unique. Or something.

On the other hand, I do have an idea for who it’d be if I did give her one, and I do keep thinking of more and more things I could do with the concept. So, maybe I can do more with her having had one than not

(It’s Linaria, again)

[fell-court]

The game itself may be down for maintenance, but at least the benchmark test isn't!

I had a go at making a design for Ajisai (with Tsutsuji for comparison - I used her as a starting point for Ajisai's design, because the two are sisters)! The screenshot is perhaps a bit lackluster, and the outfit is very placeholder given that the benchmark has all of about two non-armour options, but it's a start!

[fell-court]

I could do something rather dark for Lorenza’s entry to the Source outside of crystal verse, but I don’t know if it’s too much

If you want to get an idea of what it would be, take a look under the readmore

(to explain more directly: Tsutsuji joined the adventurers who cleared out Syrcus Tower, but after all the other clones of Unei and Doga appeared, one of the alliance members - a Miqo'te - got killed in the fighting (since everyone was caught off-guard and already injured from taking down Xande). "The figure" here is Lorenza, who slipped through the voidgate while Nero was being pulled into it - and is now aiming to use the aether of the adventurer who got killed to sustain herself. This would provide an explanation for her looking human enough to pass as one - she isn't possessing anything because the voidgate was large enough for all of her to go through it, but by consuming the body's aether, she would be able to take on its form somewhat.)

[fell-court]

please join me in taking a moment to mourn my augmented cryptlurker’s casting gear, which I’ve spent the past few weeks and all of my tomestones on acquiring only to have had to pass the entire set over to Tsutsuji

Time to start using dancer again, I suppose

[fell-court]

Today, I would like to present: the flowering verse light party, as of Shadowbringers!

Clio, leader of the party and recipient of Hydaelyn's Blessing of Light. Her normal fighting style is like that of a gunbreaker, but recent events have encouraged her to walk the path of the dark knight, in the hope she can help the First in this way. Despite the weight of the current circumstances dampening her natural friendly demeanour somewhat, her goal of helping people in whatever way she can hasn't changed. She and Ardbert get on fantastically.

Brynblyss, the party's healer. I would say he's probably doing the best out of everyone, even if he is also very worried about everyone as a result of them being in worse places than him comparatively. He gets on very well with the fae folk, and is able to grow a lot closer to Urianger over the course of this expansion as well; I think the two would already be in a relationship by this point or begin it at the start of the story here, and they get married after coming back to the Source together ^-^

Tsutsuji (as she is still known), who is feeling decidedly overconfident after the events of Stormblood left her with yet another mighty summon to rely on in combat (in the form of Shinryu). Her pride in her own capabilities starts to leave her somewhat dismissive of others' limits, as she insists that the combination of Clio's blessing and Lorenza's Darkness render the Lightwardens a relative non-issue. This will later come down on her head, so her turning point is moreso at the end of Shadowbringers instead of the beginning. Emet-Selch's worst nightmare, courtesy of her similarities to Kirsion.

Lorenza, if you can tell that that's her beneath the mask and robes. As may be evident from the mask and robes, as well as the state of her wings, she's not in a good place (from a physical perspective) when Shadowbringers begins - an entity from a world destroyed by Darkness brought to a world nearly destroyed by Light is not generally a good combination! She is lucky enough to have pity taken on her by Lyna, who teaches her how to wield a spare pair of twin sickles in a similar style to her own method of combat. Shadowbringers is definitely where the rest of the party see her at her weakest, which does a lot to bring everyone together because she finally shows them (or, well, has to show them) that side of her; it's sort of where she most properly realises how much they care about her wellbeing, and in turn how much she cares for theirs.

[fell-court]

I know I've said this before, but:

This is Tsutsuji's "villain arc"/"done with the world" song

[fell-court]

Actually I was going to put this in the last post I made but it can probably be its own post instead. No spoilers this time, other than any that are implied by Kirsion’s existence.

I realise that I probably haven’t been very clear on Tsutsuj’s personality yet, but i definitely think that she and Kirsion would get on very well (and probably cause all manner of calamitously-strong things to happen if they ever actually met, haha). The main difference between the two is that Kirsion is louder and more extroverted, and possibly comes across as quite airheaded, whereas Tsutsuji is more cunning and closed-off by comparison, and you can always tell that she is very intelligent and capable even when she’s treating everything around her so unseriously or dismissively.

They both come across as very chaotic, but in different sorts of flavours? For example, if they were both trying to look for something to use to solve a problem, then Kirsion would be very disorganised and not be able to find what she was looking for - but she would still be able to solve the problem with whatever she did end up finding instead, and it comes across as more by luck than judgment. Conversely, Tsutsuji’s workspace appears similarly disorganised, but she knows exactly where everything is that’s in it, and would be able to find and grab the perfect thing to solve the problem in seconds - whereas anyone else trying to look through her things would have no idea where to start. That’s sort of the best way I can think of to describe how the two are different; I hope that it makes sense?

[fell-court]

I really need to design Ajisai, actually

[fell-court]

I have some new pieces of trivia to share, courtesy of a post I saw on twitter:

Clio's favourite plants are clovers - she's always really loved the idea of them bringing good luck, to the point that she actually basically named herself after them! (I keep going back and forth about whether her full name is actually Clover and Clio is technically a nickname, or whether Clio is her full name, but the idea still stands either way I think.) She just really wants to be the type of person who can help things be better for those around her, like a little good luck charm to help things go their way. Additionally, she can always be seen wearing a clover flower in her hair, which I represent in-game using a white dahlia corsage because it sort of resembles a very large one. From what I have read, in terms of plant symbolism, white clover flowers mean "I promise", and clovers in general obviously have that strong association with luck, especially when four-leaved.

Lorenza's favourite flowers are lilies, which is perhaps ironic considering that lilies are toxic to cats and she gets mistaken for a Miqo'te. They are also a common Italian flower, which fits the fact that Lorenza is technically supposed to be Italian (since, I am in part)! I specifically associate her a lot with the concept of purple spider lilies, which.. I'm not sure are actually something that can or do exist IRL, but I threw the Makai Moon Guide's Circlet on her at one point while the dye was still there and it looked too cool not to try and spin something fun out of (plus, the idea of her being associated with a flower that doesn't technically exist is also fun). Spider lilies, especially the classic red ones, symbolise things like death, loss, separation, and abandonment - which definitely fit a good few of the themes of Lorenza's story when you think about it.

Tsutsuji is very heavily associated with azalea flowers, to the point that they have since become the alias that she is known by. Most people assume that they are her favourite flowers for this reason, and she does definitely like them, but her actual favourites are citrus blossoms. Azaleas can represent things like patience, modesty, temperance, and fragility.. none of which match Tsutsuji very well in the slightest.

Ajisai's name may mean "hydrangea", but her actual favourite flowers are thistles. This tends to baffle people, as nobody would expect such a timid and gentle girl to have a soft spot for such a prickly plant. Thistles represent nobility and endurance, but many of them are also important plants for pollinators like butterflies.

[fell-court]

Sunflower and cherry blossom for tsutsuji and/or Lorenza (I hope I'm remembering those names right)?

You are, don't worry! Thank you very much for sending these, friend!~ Sorry that these questions took me so long to get to; I had forgotten I'd saved them in my drafts .w.

(question source: "OC Interview Questions - Nature" by marnie-mixs-meteors)

🌸 [CHERRY BLOSSOM] Does your OC (+ self-insert) believe in legends/myths? - I would say that Tsutsuji probably doesn’t believe in most of what she hears, but at the same time would be fine about being proven wrong if there was sufficient evidence; she’s sort of the opposite of Clio in that regard, because Clio assumes things to be true unless proven otherwise whereas Tsutsuji assumes things to be false unless proven otherwise. She also doesn't really dismiss things purely because she thinks they aren't true if she also thinks they sound interesting enough - she isn't going to think there's actually some horrifying monster in that cave (or whatever the given legend is), but she is going to raise her eyebrows and storm in anyway, just out of curiosity as to what actually resulted in that legend becoming a thing. I hope that that makes sense!

As for Lorenza, I think she might also find it difficult to believe a lot of legends or myths that she hears, but for the reason that - being relatively unfamiliar with the Source - she doesn't always have a decent sphere of reference that would enable her to envision what's being talked about, and not being able to do this makes it more difficult to think of what she hears as true. She is also naturally somewhat more on the sceptical/not-innately-trusting-of-others side, which might also contribute to her not automatically taking myths and legends at face value.

🌻 [SUNFLOWER] Where would your OC (+ self-insert) get lost in the moment/beauty of the place? - It’s very difficult to catch Tsutsuji being awe-struck by something, as she keeps a very close grip on her composure (not that she often comes across as being composed in the typical serious or stiff way, though). For her to actually be lost for words would really take an astonishing sight, but I think something like the Great Gubal Library might do it - though not perhaps for reasons of conventional aesthetic beauty. So much potential for all sorts of incredible secrets and knowledge that hasn’t been accessed for ages.. She’d have a whale of a time thinking of ways to make use of everything that’s written in there!

As for Lorenza, I actually think a lot of areas would have this effect on her, simply because they’re so different to the world she knew before reaching the Source. Somewhere like the crystalline terrain of Mor Dhona for how uniquely its environment stands out, or a quiet and foggy afternoon in Ul’dah where there are people on the streets but it’s not super bustling and busy, and everyone has their objectives but they’re at peace and not rushing about or stressed by everything that was once going on. Those are the kinds of moments she could find herself really appreciating and taking in much moreso than she would ever have expected to.

I hope that these answers are alright!! Sorry again that they took me so long to actually post ;w;