#v'tchos tia

[kingstealer]

v'tchos tia's fingers close around the haft of the spear he's just been handed, and he is home in a way he's never been holding a staff.

the spear is nothing special--a piece of filed metal, lashed to a weathered piece of wood. but it's familiar in his hands, and as he goes through the motions of driving it through hapless wildlife, it comes alive.

his skill is praised, his aptitude for the lance extolled. but he knows in his bones and at the base of his skull that he's done all this before, and is just remembering it.

-

when he's offered a position as the pupil of ishgard's former azure dragoon, it takes no effort to accept--a skill that is quickly put to the test as he is driven out of the only place he's ever known into the brutal winters of coerthas, to end a neverending war.

-

as the snow, and the war, thaws, v'tchos stumbles upon a corpse in a forgotten alley in the slums--a corpse that offers him a sword.

"i've only got the one," he says, with a flash of a smile in his glowing red eyes. "take it. it's yours."

a stone tumbles from the corpse's pocket as he stands, and the ache at the base of v'tchos's skull flares. he fumbles through the hallowed halls of the heavens' ward, shaking from the weight of the sword, fingers drenched in blood and darkness. and something at the bottom of his soul curls into a smile.

-

he had picked up a grimoire, joined the arcanist's guild, on a whim--etrii had said something half-seriously about how little he knew about magic, back when the pieces of the war were still being picked up, and his contrarian streak reared its head. with whispers from a voice he would swear was familiar echoing through his skull, he traces runes and sigils in the book, puzzling through it. trying not to think about how his friends lay a few rooms over, chests barely rising and falling, and how little he knows about anything that could be done to save them.

not for much longer. he will figure this out.

-

v'tchos is in ul'dah when a passing stranger offers him a job. he is barely surprised when it turns out to be a ruse, and curiosity leads him back to where the lemures keep their court. the woman in charge hands him a crystal, the pain in the back of his skull stabs, and--

a haunting hooded figure hangs in the air over her desk.

something deep within him opens an eye.

hands barely shaking, v'tchos accepts the scythe he is offered. it's familiar in his hands the way the spear was--which should probably scare him, but he doesn't think to be afraid.

-

he stands over the defeated body of a voidsent, watching it dissolve into ash. coerthan winds flutter his coat and ruffle his hair.

the voidsent he has come to regard as his own creeps up at his feet, like a coerl seeking attention. we could do that, it seems to whisper. we could be that.

the thing deep in his soul, steeped in blood and shadow, cracks open a second eye.

no, it says, echoing across the ancient stone.

no, you won't.

something shatters inside him, a cage thrown wide. for half a terrifying heartbeat he's convinced it's the Light from the Wardens finally killing him.

a flurry of movement whirls across the ground. a piteous scream sounds silently before it is choked off, and there is the wet crunch of snapping bone.

v'tchos draws a shuddering breath--and is enshrouded in darkness.

a familiar darkness, he realizes. a darkness he walks alongside.

that's better, fray murmurs.

and he agrees.

-

the first time he calls forth bahamut, drawn from the aether that tore through him all those years ago, g'raha smiles. there's enough joy in that expression that he can ignore the flinch alisaie almost manages to hide, across the courtyard. the demi-primal swoops across the sky, and the former exarch's eyes are alight with wonder.

"that one's from you," v'tchos says, arm draped over the other miqo'te's shoulders. a grimoire faced in allagan gold and blue dangles from the fingers of his other hand. "and those old books in your tower."

g'raha just grins, eyes fixed on the sky.

-

v'tchos startles awake from a catnap at the sound of books dropping onto his desk. he blinks the sleep from his eyes to see g'raha standing triumphantly in front of him, his expression only slightly marred by guilt at having interrupted a well-earned rest.

"i found something new--well, old--in the Tower," g'raha blurts, fixing the immaculate tie on one of his armguards. "there aren't many references, not to the machi, but. this codex survived." he picks up one of the books.

"they didn't used to be just summoners. they could heal, too."

any remaining thoughts of sleep are stolen from v'tchos with that turn of phrase. he pushes himself to his feet, reaches for the codex, and begins to read.

-

the first real interaction v'tchos has with the viera who showed up half-dead to their confrontation with elidibus, after pouring half his blood back in his body when he insisted on helping fight the warrior of light personified, is with a blacksmith's hammer in hand. helios takes a cursory look at him, polishing a botanist's scythe, and says: i wonder what you could do with a firearm.

and while he proves himself more than capable at the marksmanship, where v'tchos really feels at home in machinistry is the tinkering. he drags cracked and broken allagan constructs from the depths of the crystal tower and remodels them to fight for him, alongside him.

that doesn't stop him, however, from standing at g'raha's side in the bozjan resistance. while they always have more things to do, curing tempering and all, there's plenty of time to for one catboy from corvos and one who at this point might as well be to spend fighting garleans on dalmascan soil.

and of course, there's no keeping helios from a cause. helios, who quickly proves himself as capable with a gunblade as with a rifle.

so it is that in the trenches of the bozjan southern front, at the gates of castrum lacus litore, and finally storming the dalriada, it is helios leading the charge with his gunblade, with g'raha and v'tchos at his heels--g'raha armed with his fragment of the crystal tower, light and dark magic at his fingertips, while v'tchos takes careful aim with a custom-built firearm, ready to throw a repurposed allagan construct into the fray.

#ffxiv #shadowbringers spoilers #v'tchos tia #have had this text sitting around for a while. forgot i liked posting about the catboy in the tales from the shadow style until now #woe. catboy canon jobs lore be upon ye #(drk/rpr main with smn/sch and mch) #(started out with a tiny bit of blm then went drg through hw. picked up drk during the patches and played it through stormblood. #rpr for shb and ew. fitting in crafter/gatherer and mch lore where i can. mostly post-shb) #(this has a focus on battle jobs but he's also an omnicrafter/gatherer with a focus on botany culinarian and blacksmithing--for the mch)

[kingstealer]

there has been a catboy in my computer for one (1) whole year!

he's come so far

( ^ this is my first image of him. it was a snipping tool screenshot saved via being sent to a discord dm)

#ffxiv #v'tchos tia #why was it christmas eve i started playing this game? not sure how i managed that tbh #woke up this morning and went 'i have to take one year of catboy screenshots' #the drg and mch are my favorites i think. rpr despite being his canon-est job is annoyingly hard to pose. stop making silly faces catboy #(me vs time of day and gpose lighting) #god i need to get the dyeable version of that gnb coat. #anyway. happy birthday catboy

[kingstealer]

How about Number 2 for ffxiv geography and culture?

Most of us are travelers, but does your WoL/OC currently have a particular place they consider 'home'? Is it the same as where they grew up? If not, what makes it home for them?

tchos's home has been very fluid over the course of his lifetime--i don't know that he ever considered the V tribe where he grew up "home", and if so he certainly doesn't anymore. pre-game, he bounced around a fair amount, but did spend some time in gridania training as a lancer.

while he does have an apartment in ishgard's housing district, he uses that mainly as a workshop and a place to host people--and on occasion a place to crash, when a project stretches on longer than he was expecting.

other than that, currently, he spends a lot of time in the shadowbringers and endwalker hub citites. if asked, he would cite those as being "home".

#ffxiv #v'tchos tia

[kingstealer]

FFXIV asks thingy- 3?

How does your WoL/OC relate to the culture of their species as established in lore? Do they consider themselves a typical example of their kind? Are they in touch with their heritage? How does this affect their interactions with others of their own kind?

the short answer is--tchos is only incidentally a catboy, he's just a guy (which i mistyped originally as gay, also true).

the long answer requires some context about Seeker of the Sun Miqo'te:

The Seekers of the Sun are a highly patriarchal culture, with each tribe centered around a strong breeding male (nunh) whose duty is to form a harem and lead his people to glory and prosperity. Young males are born and raised as "tia," and must either assume the position of nunh by challenging and defeating an existing nunh in single combat, or leave the community to find a harem of his own. In particularly large tribes, multiple nunh may coexist in the same community, though such cases are rare. (https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Seekers_of_the_Sun)

(why catboy lore is like this i do not know. i work with what i am given)

tchos left the V tribe when he was in his teens, mostly for transgender reasons--they started talking about, oh you've got to start thinking about having kids, his older half-sisters started having kids, and he just went "no i'm okay actually"--and since he was getting old enough that being a male miqo'te meant he couldn't be very attached to the tribe anymore, he just left (probably without even really saying anything)

being a refugee is fairly common though, and nothing in particular is known about the V tribe, or catboy transgenderism, so really what happened is:

(catboy walks into the adventurer's guild) person behind the counter: just put your name in the book, and you're all set! v'tchos (has spent so much time agonizing over whether he gets to count himself as still being in the v tribe or not, has decided on yes): (fills in the first name section and bluescreens for a second when he sees he needs a surname) well i'm not a nunh so. tia it is

miqo'te are prevalent enough he gets away with it. i like to think that whole "if you aren't a nunh you have to leave" thing means you get a lot of tias who just decide they're going to do citystate things instead of participating in seeker of the sun society, which means for all that he's left Being A Member Of Catboy Society behind it's not an uncommon state to exist in as a catboy

anyway. the catboy himself:

#ffxiv #v'tchos tia #silver ignore the backgrounds on those images they're not important focus on the catboy #someone ask me about his eye color. so i can tag it endwalker spoilers bc it is #helios... is a whole different story and not fleshed out enough to really have an answer to this question #if you want me to flesh out the rabbit. ask about him i guess i've got Bare Bones of an existence

[kingstealer]

For the WoL culture and geography questions, what about 6? Specifically, what's the V'tchos eye lore and how has it affected his relationships, both interpersonal and with Seeker culture?

Has your WoL/OC ever canonically fantasia'd to another species? Have they considered doing so? If so, what made them choose that species? How does that affect their relationships with those who were born as the species they changed into?

v'tchos tia has one allagan eye and one hydaelyn-blue eye, as of the end of shadowbringers and endwalker specifically (though they only gave me one fantasia, so this is only model-accurate after i finished endwalker proper).

the main effect this has had is that he is more strikingly obviously the warrior of light wherever he goes--these eyes are very vivid, and hard to miss in anything more than passing. he's obviously hydaelyn's chosen: he has the crystalline blue eye to show it. even while acting as a particularly talented craftsman, he stands out (both for his skill, and his eyes).

he's also obviously allagan--if anything, the only faintly distinct from bloodred is more striking than the bright blue. through possession of something resembling the allagan eye, tchos also drifts closer to being of the G tribe. already a wanderer, estranged from the V tribe through his own doing, it's something he embraces when given the opportunity (though you can pry his V prefix from his cold, dead hands; some habits are very long-lasting) (plus g'tchos sounds pretty dumb imo). it's easier to work towards a massacred ideal, or justice, than it is to try to confront his place in Seeker of the Sun society, when he's already got a good thing going. particularly when all he had to do in that regard was apply his considerable battlefield prowess to the bozjan revolution.

as far as other species specifically... no, not really. i thought about swapping to elezen at one point while in the depths of heavensward, but that idea didn't stick, and i'm very pleased with how my catboy has turned out (other than that the proportions on the chivalric coat of fending are slightly off on him, so he can't do as impressive of a fray cosplay as, well, fray can).

#ffxiv #v'tchos tia #gotta get back to the bozja storyline. seemed pretty neat #i know corvos lore isn't technically until early endwalker but listen. i make the gay allagan catboy lore. #and i say that bozja as corvos revenge #it is late so this may or may not actually answer the question in full. too bad. catboy fact(s) be upon ye

[kingstealer]

he recognizes g'raha tia on sight, of course. a bit older, a bit wiser-sounding, a bit more covered in crystal the same blue as the tower, but underneath it all the bones of the allagan-blooded youth are visible.

he denies it--he would. and tchos doesn't have the heart to pry into a lie so flimsily constructed and held up as an unbreakable shield. he lets it stand. gives it time.

there are more important things to do anyway. so they end up colleagues, again. saving a world they aren't from but that belongs to the exarch, to the man who built a city from the bones of a scared (but not broken) people. a man who woke to a very different situation than be expected, but wielded the tower's might regardless.

but there are stolen moments, where that shield bends. any time the exarch mentions his old friend, his inspiration. and tchos recognizes the fondness in his voice for what it is (no longer idolization. an ideal, one that's here in the flesh now, and that scares him), and lets it lie. they visit the dwarves together, they share plans for the future on an outcropping in kholusia. tchos can't stifle the fond smile that time, or the thought that maybe there is still something here. if the shield, the hood, comes down.

which it does. brutally.

there isn't enough time to react before g'raha is torn away, tchos shattering from the inside out with rage and the sheer amount of Light in his bloodstream. something deep within his soul roils, gorges, but even that isn't enough to get him on his feet, to get him to stop coughing up light.

and the exarch is gone, but so is g'raha.

he gets him back--fights to the fading remnants of a long-dead civilization and the dying gasp of a man who's been tearing down worlds for so long he's forgotten exactly why.

and they're together, the catboys, but there's still so much to be done.

late night research and a few months of quiet yearning, of half-started conversations, does not a relationship make. but they know each other for equals now, even busy as they are, and there's an understanding--after this is over, when there's a break, they'll do this for real.

and then elidibus, clothed in the form of a long-dead hero, arrives.

and then, they're chasing him up the crystal tower, to end yet another ascian threat to this fragile, fragile peace.

i'll hold them off, the one who was and still is the exarch says. but rest assured you haven't seen the last of me.

and v'tchos grabs him by the robes and hauls him in. and kisses him.

i'll hold you to that, he says, and takes off up the steps, greatsword in hand.

elidibus is defeated, together, but at great cost--the exarch is now merely a statue. watching over his city.

but g'raha tia's story isn't done.

tchos is a maelstrom of energy, barely staying in the rising stones long enough to explain before throwing himself across the plains of mor dhona at breakneck speed.

perhaps leaving the soul vessel at the door to the tower would have been enough, and the tower would have done the rest. this doesn't even occur to v'tchos. he pushes the door open without stopping, not leaving until he can help raha stumble out of the tower back to the rising stones (his new home, as long as he needs it) and the scions.

he doesn't notice until later that one of his teal-green eyes has bled to allagan scarlet. aether, and souls, are often unknowable, as hard as we may try.

and finally, though there are still, always, many things to be done--these two catboys have time to just be.

(be gay, that is.)

#ffxiv #shadowbringers spoilers #5.3 spoilers #v'tchos tia #had a lot of fun doing this in sort of the tales from the shadows style with the screenshots #the gay allagan catboys #i guess they have a tag now! sure. why not #hands you self-indulgent character musings. they are yours now #at one point i had a writing tag. oh well. if i find it etc

[kingstealer]

King tell me about the transgender catboy's eye color (??)

so if you look at these two images:

you may notice. in one the catboy has teal-green eyes and in the other one is light blue and one is (as close to) red (as i can get in the character creator)

the green is his original eye color, which lasted through the end of the most recent expansion (though i'd been thinking about changing it starting at the end of shadowbringers, and decided it was happening near the end of endwalker).

in short: sometimes god dies and leaves you in charge, and unrelatedly you carry your boyfriend's soul and memories around in your pocket (this is a plot point) for long enough that his bloodline eye color rubs off on you--or to quote me from when i was first thinking about this idea,

sometimes you are gay and also carry a fraction of your boyfriend's soul around in your pocket for long enough that maybe you get to be a bit allagan too

(allagan catboy to allagan catboy communication) (the red eyes is the allagan thing)

god is both a person and a rock: but the blue is Her Color

from after you kill her to prove you're strong enough to kill the thing threatening the entire universe bc she tests your worth even though doing this fight is the end of her strength:

the red eye happened at the end of 5.3, because that's when the putting the allagan catboy in your pocket happens. but an argument could be made for the blue eye being either at the end of 5.0, from the absorbing another piece of Azem but on purpose this time, or after the hydaelyn trial--though i think after the hydaelyn trial is more compelling, and also fits close to the timeline of when i actually fantasia'd: after i finished endwalker

#ffxiv #v'tchos tia #endwalker spoilers #i don't even think i had done the hydaelyn fight when i decided he got a hydaelyn eye but boy was it a convincing argument in favor #thank you for asking about the transgender catboy #i think he is Neat but i'm bad at finding excuses to talk about him