lettersnorth

[lettersnorth]

After the picnic

#riylli aliapoh #g'manafa rhouse #ffxiv #such a gorgeous shot

[lettersnorth]

Character Associations: Aislinn

EMOTIONS/FEELINGS:

Curiosity

Love/Devotion

Wary

Cunning

Pride

COLOURS:

Blue

Brown

Amber

Red

Dust

SCENTS:

Machine Oil

Astringent

Old Books

Herbal

Smoke

OBJECTS:

Glasses

Firearm

Emerald Pendant 

Leather Notebook

Aetherochemical wrist cuff

BODY LANGUAGE:

An owlish blink

Fidgeting fingers

A closed expression

A quick, assessing, sharp gaze

A quiet and purposeful voice. Nothing wasted

AESTHETICS:

Desert sunsets and muted tones

Machinery and circuitry

Schematics

Dusters, leather boots and six-shooters

Potions distilling

SONGS:

Bluebird - Alexis Ffrench

Settling Down - Miranda Lambert

My Silver Lining - First Aid Kit

Your Bones - Chelsea Cutler 

I am not a Woman, I’m a God - Halsey

Borrowed from: @scholarlostintime - Thank You!

Tagging: Anyone that wants to do this!

#character meme

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Sun

#ffxiv #ffxiv screenshots #febhyurary #febhyurary 2024 #ff14 #gpose #hyur #just a girl and her carbuncle

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Voice

“Aislinn, love. I know it’s late. Are you still awake?” The low voice coming from the linkpearl broke through the woman’s concentration like little else could, immediately pulling her head up from her work with a soft inhalation. There he was. Another day in which Locke was alive and safe. Now she could rest easy.

#ffxiv #ffxiv screenshots #febhyurary #febhyurary 2024 #gpose #hyur #birds of a feather

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Element

“Alchemy is a science, but a science that acknowledges certain principles of magic. Transforming simple elements into quintessence."

#ffxiv #ffxiv screenshots #febhyurary #febhyurary 2024 #gpose #hyur #ffxiv alc

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Companion

"You don't ask Barnabas to do anything. You negotiate. It involves a lot of cursing and posturing. On both sides."

[lettersnorth]

neurodivergent and queer people how are we feeling?

[lettersnorth]

Companion

"You don't ask Barnabas to do anything. You negotiate. It involves a lot of cursing and posturing. On both sides."

#ffxiv screenshots #ffxiv #febhyurary #febhyurary 2024 #gpose #hyur #thrown together by circumstance #not choice #just too stubborn

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Faith

"Faith is, at its core, trust isn't it? You take a leap of faith and you are trusting that something or someone is going to be there to break your fall."

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Dream

“There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.”

#ffxiv #ff14 #ffxiv screenshots #febhyurary #febhyurary 2024 #gpose #hyur #Aislinn North #Jorund Ironfist

[lettersnorth]

Faith

"Faith is, at its core, trust isn't it? You take a leap of faith and you are trusting that something or someone is going to be there to break your fall."

#ffxiv #ffxiv screenshots #febhyurary #febhyurary 2024 #gpose #hyur #birds of a feather

[lettersnorth]

Being attracted to someone’s voice is a real thing

#birds of a feather

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#aesthetics

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Start

“This is how this is gonna go.” Stark Oak rasped as his thick fingers loaded the bullets into the cylinder of the revolver one right after the other, just as easy as you please. “It’s real easy. You pick it up. You aim. You squeeze the trigger.”

#ffxiv screenshots #ffxiv #febhyurary #gpose #hyur #learning to shoot

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I've not seen anyone post this to tumblr yet - a Febhyuary prompt list from eliara_wol over on twitter!

#it’s that time again! #febhyurary

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arcanists: we wield the most complex form of magic... arcanima. one must master arcane geometry to weave patterns that respect the flow of aether, which in turn will create powerful creature that can help you in combat. this is very dangerous and very powerful, it's not for the weak of mind

also arcanists: anyway we use that power to inspect ship crates lmao

#and they originally had magitek staves #that fired elemental magic #guns. They had mage guns.

[lettersnorth]

The Gift

To the untrained eye her study had become a disorganized mess. A collection of mechanical contraptions and spare parts spilled across the desk of her terminal. Books lay splayed open, scattered on nearly every available surface as though the reader had stepped away for a moment. Maybe to write a note or sketch a quick diagram in one of several notebooks that were piled haphazardly across her writing desk.

But to Aislinn there was order in this chaos. She knew the location and title of every book scattershot around the study, the purpose of every mechanism she had pulled from her workshop. She was working, thinking, racking her mind to try and make any of this problem with Lewra and the other seemingly lifeless bodies make sense. She barely ate, slept in short fits when she’d succumb for a bell or two at her desk and generally had no time for anyone in Heartwood outside of those that needed her attention in the clinic. 

A planning meeting had been called of which she did not attend. She’d been around long enough to know how “planning” meetings went when Heartwood’s group of mercenaries got together. They never met a meeting they couldn’t turn into an opportunity to bicker and argue. She may as well go outside and wander in ever-maddening circles. Instead, she was in her study digging through her shelves and cabinets of spare parts she kept on hand for Sergius. Finally she found it. The aether signature creator. 

The inconvenient truth was that everything that had been happening was creeping up on Aislinn like a rising tide. Lewra. The Kugane job. Sterling. Stark Oak. Yami had said to let her anger out but when had that ever in her life done her one lick of good? Anger didn’t bring Lewra back. It didn’t untangle her complicated feelings over watching Sterling bleed out in the dirt. It did nothing to the knowledge that she could do no more for Stark Oak than hope the monks followed through on their promise or the low grade anxiety that was ever present when Locke was away on a voyage, wondering if the last time she saw him would end up being the last time. Because one day, it would be. 

No. Anger changed nothing. All her life it had been a luxury she couldn’t afford. So instead, she worked. She worked until all these thoughts became nothing but background noise. Until there was just her and a problem to be solved. 

She powered up the signature creator, letting the mock aether stabilize and then she opened her senses. The signature wasn’t a perfect replica. If she focused on it she could pick out the wrongness, the sour, artificial note, but for most applications it would do the job of fooling anyone but the extremely versed and aetherically sensitive. 

She had no idea if this would end up being of any use to her, Yami or Tynos but in her experience it was better to be prepared than to find yourself wishing for something you didn’t have. 

She turned away from the row of cabinets and bumped against a work table. Hard enough to jostle a round sphere decorated in Starlight wrapping paper. A gift from Lewra. It rolled until it hit a book and stopped. Guilt washed over Aislinn. Yami had given it to her days ago and she hadn’t brought herself to open it. She had missed the family Starlight gathering, off on the Kugane business. It wasn’t something she could have explained in a note. Or in person. Or…she just couldn’t. So she just sent her regrets. That life wouldn’t intrude on this one and with any luck it was behind her for good now, anyroads. 

She set the signature creator down and picked up the sphere. It was heavy and solid, whatever it was. Slowly, she unpeeled the wrapping to expose a brass metallic sphere. She didn’t know what else she was expecting, after all the wrapping had done little to hide the shape of the object underneath. Etched across the interlocking plates of the sphere’s surface were geometric designs not unlike constellations but no matter how she looked at it, its purpose eluded her. Lewra had to know one of the only ways to stop the woman she loved like a daughter in her tracks was to present her with a puzzle. 

Sidetracked by this new development Aislinn ran her hands over the sphere, testing the interlocking plates as she slowly made her way to the couch and sank down to sit and solve this new problem. Something about it soothed the frazzled edges of her tired mind. 

Time slipped away like water through cupped hands as she sat there on the couch, head bent over the sphere in her lap, her deft fingers and agile mind moving in concert over the sphere’s puzzle until all at once with a satisfying click two things happened. Green aether pulsed out of the sphere in a rush and a panel popped open, revealing a note that had been tucked inside. Still images formed from the aether in the air around the sphere. A multitude of ghostly projections, hovering in place. 

'To my oldest,

Happy Starlight, and I hope you enjoyed the puzzle to get to your gift. Keep it close for when those dark times come to keep you going, and don't worry, I'll teach you how to add more memories to your aetherical album when you're ready so you can have more of you and Locke. I only had one to start it out. I have a feeling you're wondering how this works, I'll go over that with you don't worry. Other family members have one as well, and memories can be exchanged to add to your own album.

You may not be mine by blood but I'll always love you, and be so proud of you like you're my own.

Love, Mom’

Reaching out, Aislinn touched one of the images and at once it came to life. A memory. Lewra’s memories. 

Their first meeting. Her first medical lesson. The way Lewra had patiently taken her alarmingly unscrupulous and criminal alchemical knowledge and honed it against her own Sharlayan practices. The moments Aislinn opened up to Lewra. Talks over tea and baklava. Aislinn introducing her to Locke for the first time. She had gently teased her all while overjoyed by the casual way he could reach for Aislinn’s hand, understanding it for the feat it was. All of it. It was all here. 

These were shared experiences but as seen from Lewra’s perspective. Memory was not so much a camera as a filter. The particulars it held on to was nothing compared to what bled through. 

She hugged the sphere tight against her body. As though it could fill the gaping hollow that had been carved from Aislinn’s chest. Too much. The grief and very real possibility that she may never speak to Lewra again threatened to drown her and she struggled to keep her head above water. Her searching hand dove into the pocket of her coat, wrapping tight around Yami’s crystal she found there. For when it all became too much, the Seeker had said. And now the crystal siphoned the waves of emotions before they could buffet Aislinn to even darker depths. A burden shared.

Aislinn was not good with words. The ones she had were unwieldy tools improperly calibrated for the swirling riptide inside her. Anger was too small a word. Grief, too vague. Sadness was an insipid and reductive term. But Yami knew that. Hence the crystal. Through that tether Aislinn’s outward silence was shown for what Lewra always understood it to be, a barrier to be navigated and nothing more. She felt drained and yet her whole rib cage ached, her heart banging around like it was angrily trying to find a way out of her chest. Fiercely, savagely reminding her in case she had forgotten; 

She had to get up. She had to get up, there was work to do. 

#ffxiv writing #ffxiv rp #balmung rp #The Hubris of Peace