#zurven things

[sasster]

lie for achina? :0c

One word prompt please specify muse

-

“Everything is okay.” You hardly believe the words coming out of your own mouth as you rake your fingers through the curly mess of hair on the head of the troll that sat in your lap. Well, mess is a mean word for it, you and Thuein had just spent about two hours detangling it.

It was a good bonding experience. It was a better distraction from the fact that neither of the two of you knew where Persep ran off to with Lopard early last morning. “Have I ever lied to you?”

Zurven leans all the way back against your chest, tilting his head as far as he could go to get a real good look at you.

“Hmm…” He squints, and though you can see that his scrutiny is being played up for the bit, you feel a knot beginning to form in your stomach. You would say it is about the size of a peach pit, if you had to guess. Wait, aren’t those called stones?

You shake your head.

“Yeeessss Zurven?” The way you draw out the word is innocent enough, right? Simple enough that it does not betray the guilt that is slowly consuming you, right? Lying to the kid was hard enough, who knows what he’s already seen?

“Then where is Lopard?”

I don’t know. “I think he’s sleeping in today, bud.”

“Lopard?” Came his incredulous retort. “Sleeping in? Is he sick?”

Your voice catches in your throat, the words that already left your mouth having left a sticky residue in their place. Tacky and thick, like the sugary sweet of a homemade frosting made by an amateur. Lopard doesn’t sleep in.

“I hope he isn’t sick..” Panic starts to claw its way into the bronze blood's voice as he tugs your hand into his lap. He fidgets with it.

Behind you the door opens and closes with a soft click, it gives you a start but you try to conceal it for Zurvens sake.

“Who, Lopard?” Oh, thank god. It’s Thuein. You relax as he takes a seat on the floor across from you, the look he shoots your way tells you what you already know – You have a shit poker face.

Zurven sits up fully to turn his scrutiny onto him, not letting go of your hand.

“Mhm! Lopard. Is he sick?”

“Lopard doesn’t get sick. He beats pathogens up for fun.”

“Path-o-gen.” Thuein must have forgotten that this five sweep old didn’t get the most stellar school-feeding. You couldn’t imagine it, being raised in this glorified morgue. What would that boy do if not for the three of you?

“Pathogen is a big word for little guys that start diseases.”

“Why would little guys need a big word like that? Isn’t it better to just say that?” Zurven huffs his indignation for Alternian Standard.

Thuein looks thoughtful for a moment, and it dawns on you that this impromptu vocabulary lesson was not a mistake. He was using it to distract him.

“Well, we don’t call you little guy that sneaks snacks before dinner,” his voice is soft, he smiles. “We call you Zurven!”

“Hey!! I’m more than a little guy who sneaks snacks!”

“Oh, of course you are! You are a great deal more than just a snack thief.” Fuck, he’s good at this. “But we’re agreed that you’re a little guy, right?”

Zurven devolves into giggles, nodding his head into the palm of your hand, and you feel yourself breathe again.

#long post #achina things #thuein things #zurven things #roetrolls #askter #mlems #:)c #coko writes sometimes

[roetrolls]

Hello I’m new here… could I possibly get some context on the rings ur cute oc is wearing if it’s not too much trouble? 😊 thank you !!

Not too much trouble at all!!!!

Mallum used to be my blog's main villain, with an arc planned that would see him becoming a genuine big bad. Instead of that, though, he got dragged into the Icarus arc, where he came face to face with Redivi, the biggest bad in my and Chase's canon, and realized that uhhh.... Maybe he didn't want to be like that.

So he had a neat little redemption arc that landed him in the protected town of Ilioneus (Chase's creation) living with the Flashback trio (formed in our first arc together)

Each of the unique rings represents one of his new quads!

Peng-ring (designed by Greg @/lordtonic) represents Veylin, whose lusus was a penguin :] Officially, they're spades, but they cross quadrant lines quite a bit. (Battleship)

Little green ring is Hirsch (art and oc belong to @/damistrolls) who is Mallum's moirail! (Gentle Riposte)

The clock is for Zurven (Chase @/sasster) who's a bit of a red spade situation (Nobodies)

And last but not least, Benjin! A pretty straightforward spade (though still a bit red, because the Flashback trio are allergic to well-defined quadrants) (Heir Squared)

#putting the ship tags here for easy access #ben zurven and veylin were already partners #so the ship of mallum w/ them is #flashback + 1 #then the individual ships: #battleship #gentle riposte #nobodies #heir squared #mallum things

[mik-mania]

GOOD THING ZURVEN ISNT HERE TO SEE THIS

#im weak for young orfuse n harlan #something something grieving what could have been

[astrumocs]

2, 3, 4, 13, 14, :U

2. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what do you like to listen to?

I don't actually listen to a whole lot of music while I write bc it can be pretty distracting for me, but when I do it's either the character's playlist (if they have one) or just my general music playlist on youtube!

3. Are there any particular aus or plots that you’d really like to write?

I don't usually do AU's unless I'm really close with someone and we're feeling the characters a lot, but! Plot's I'd love to do would be June reconnecting with another escaped experiment, Julius meeting up with either of his old quads again could b fun, When Kilani's design is done I'd love to plot some stuff for her, and honestly, I would just love to plot more friendships/quads in general,,

4. What are some of your rp pet peeves?

When someone just assumes or claims that their character is better than mine at something/everything no matter what. It drives me crazy and upsets me so much lol. I also hate people assuming things about my character without consulting me and still treating it as fact like.. bro. :/

13. Who are five of your favorite characters? (In the rp community or otherwise)

This is a really really hard one...

Lekthi... i am on my knees for u and i have so many rings.... ( @quiescent-trolls ) And ofc King is a fave too bc he's my #1 blorbo

Marq I would kill for u ( @roetrolls )

Than... the first grampa I fell in love w/ ( @sasster )

The perfect man Zegrao has to be on this list bc I'm lowkey still obsessed ( @ask-the-troll-boys ) Honorable mention for Magpie too <3

Mr. Ghosts I think abt him a lot and he make me smile ( @lordtonic )

14. What are five of your favorite ships? (In the rp community or otherwise)

Obviously, Scientific tension (Me n' Kurt w/ Julius and King ) is my personal fave I can't help it,

Fucked up ( Dami and Kurt w/ Magpie and Lekthi ) I stan them so hard I get for real excited when I see them

Flashback ( Chase n' Roe w/ Zurven, Vey and Benjin ) They're just really sweet and silly together I love it

I can't list 'em all but all the ships I have with an in-person friend of mine deserve a spot (Sermon on the mount, Pipe dreams, Upper crust, etc. etc.)

Idk the ship name but Nobody and Planhz ( belonging to Dami and Sunne ) are sweet and I like seeing them talk abt each other... soft stuff

#i have too many faves from those people alone let alone from all the other blogs I adore #anyone can send me more 13's bc I can talk abt 'em forever #wren speaks #ooc #mun meme #quiescent trolls

[ask-them-bois]

musrio oliver and the hounding obviously

your turn

Points and laughs, you have a thing for morally grey dickheads

Anyway mine are Caenos, Persep, and Zurven.

#sasster #ask #ooc answers

[sunnetrolls]

Hi Planhz!! Where have your travels taken you recently?? Have you met any new people, seen any familiar faces?

"I have been travelling to visit Thanat more than usual as of late. Though, I will admit... more for the dears that hang about his hive than him, ahah...! I just think both Benjin and Veylin are wonderful. I have not seen much of their third-- Zurven-- but perhaps I will in the future. Time will tell."

"I know Ofelia would want me to ensure her little one thrives. And the opposite for Mahkir, so I will continue just to spite him."

You say all of this with the closest thing to a smile you can manage.

#the lamented things #posts this at garbage time so the people i want to see it may or may not who knows

[0bsidian5ire]

The One Who Commands the Gods: Chapter 1

Summary: Out of all the things you've done as a Summoner, fighting with a Garlean Legatus over what type of control one can have over eikons is certainly one of the weirder ones. Fortunately, the Allagans (and therefore you) have far more experience with eikons then he does. And then there's the fact that Bahamut and the rest of the eikons you know would really like Shinryu to stop copying them and do something original for once...

Originally posted here.

Chapter 1: To Kill an Eikon

There are times being a summoner is annoying. Over time, you've learned to not have the egis of well-known eikons summoned in major cities (The Warring Triad, nobody has a problem with). Ever since you preformed the austerities, you've heard the eikons in your head, and they often make more sense to you then normal people do (you're all beholden to other people's wishes, if simply because no one else could ever hope to do something). You'll never tell the Scions what you're actually doing when you enter the Dreadwrym Trance (except Urianger; he understands unsafe magics, and Ascians and using one against the other). And well... the less said about the first time you cast Teraflare in full view of everyone, the better (Alphinaud and Alisaie didn't speak to you for a week afterwards). So yes, being a summoner often lands you in awkward situations.

Standing in the Royal Menagerie before Zenos and the Omega-bound Shinryu is definitely one of those times. Bahamut roars within you and you know what it is to be curled up in that cage. Wings pressed tight against tail which curls around horns which scrape against claws which can't claw out! The Warring Triad rouse in response and for a moment you know what it is to be caged earth-wind-thunder-fire-ice. Stop it! you roar back, before Ifrit, Titian and Garuda can bring up the memory of Ultima Weapon. We'll get him out. You'll also send him on to the Lifestream and gain his aether, but by this time the eikons know not to argue with you. The fact that you have a tendency to address the very issues that caused them to be summoned in the first place helps immensely.

The only thing standing in your way is Zenos yae Galvus and you know he is weak. Or rather, Ifrit knows. Zenos may be an inferno, one that surprised you in its ferocity, but he's never been though a true inferno himself. It's obvious from the way he began melting into dross when your own tempered power (no, not that kind of Tempered) was finally a match for his. Now all that remains is to let that dross burn away.

You take your attention off of Shinryu to focus on Zenos. He's monologuing again, and obviously thinks he knows what you were doing. "...you are the true architect of our design. You who fought the very soul of vengeance to the edge and watched him fall; you who let slip the Allagan hound to drive this eikon into my arms!"

You nearly laugh. Between Bahamut, Sephirot, Sophia and Zurven you knew exactly what monster Nero was releasing. It wasn't like you could tell anyone what it was without some very long and damning explanations. That and there was no way to get into Shinryu's core like with Bahamut. You do hope Nero appreciates that the only thing you did to him afterwards was make off with his Red Baron; Bahamut really wanted (still wants) you to let him know what the full might of your Dreadwrym Trance feels like.

"...Forgive me, this... sensation is wholly unfamiliar to me." Zenos continues. "A question, then--and I should like very much for you to speak from the heart. If I were to stand aside, what would you do to this eikon?"

Now you really do laugh. "Kill it. Obviously." How else are you supposed to let its aether wash over you?

Zenos looks almost disappointed. "And here I thought you were different. Come now. You obviously have some power over the eikons; you wield their powers nearly as easily as you do your own." He eyes the Titian-Egi that looks like Sephirot-Egi hovering at your side. "How could you hope to bind them to you if they have been slain?"

"Oh please," you scoff. "Since when did killing an eikon and binding it to yourself have to be mutually exclusive?" For that matter, what surer way to gain an eikon's power then to pattern your own aether so closely after an eikon's aether that there is barely any difference between the two?

Zenos raises an eyebrow. "Then I suppose your never did master your abilities?"

You raise an eyebrow back. "What?" You're pretty sure that at this point you are inventing as many new techniques as you are learning them.

The look of disappointment is back. "I speak of the Echo, of course." Zenos looks you in the eye. "Does it merely render you immune to eikonic influence? or is it rather that your influence is far greater then theirs?"

Your jaw almost drops and you find you can't look away from him. All the eikons' presence in the Lifestream is riveted on you (not that it usually isn't anyway) and your internal response. You've never even thought of trying something like that. Why go though all that trouble of wrestling with the Echo when the Allagan summoning arts are so much more reliable and allow you to have plenty of influence as it is? Even if you did know how to have that much influence, you wouldn't use it in that way. You have too many nightmares of looking out of nurolinks, internment hulks and the Ultima Weapon to want that for someone else, even an eikon.

Zenos plows on. "When I read van Baelsar's reports, I immediately saw the boundless potential of the Echo. I saw how it could be instrumental in binding an eikon to one's will. Hence my research and the Resonant--and oh so much more!" You don't let on how much what he could be researching scares you. The eikons know though; they've seen you pour over Allagan research and know you don't see a difference between what Allag did and what you found in Castrum Abania. On and on Zenos goes. Apparently someone in Garlemald knows the danger the eikons really bring. From your experience, most don't.

Garuda's cackles bring you out of your musings. Madness! she shrieks. He calls for the reckoning! Will we indulge him!?

Yes! Ravana answers back. He claims he knows the glory to be found in combat! Let us test him! The rest of the eikons you defeated join in his sentiment in the back of your mind.

It warms your heart to know that they are including you with them. What they really mean is that they'd rather you send them on to the Lifestream when you find them then face imprisonment again. And Zenos has only ever imprisoned people in his own perception of them.

Which is what he's doing to you right now. "...you understand this. You and I are one and the same. Together, we could while away the quiet hours, as a friend and confidant... if you will accept me."

You refuse him easily. "No, I've never understood where you're coming from." Violence has only ever been the means to an end for you. Whether that be freeing people (Eorzean, beastman, eikon, it doesn't matter) or winning the respect of your faithful egis.

Zenos laughs. "... and yet, in doing so, you prove me right. We are warriors. 'Twas plain from the first how it would end." He's right of course, but not for the reasons he thinks. "You live for these moments--when all hangs in the balance... when the difference between life and death is but a single stroke." He reminds you of Garuda before the Ultima Weapon caught her; so drunk on his own power that he can't see another outcome then the one he knows will happen. "I live for them too! This is who we are, my friend! This is all we are! Ala Mhigo and Doma and Garlemald be damned!" He lifts Ame-no-Habakiri up and slices though one of the vertices of the Omega-prison.

It splits in two and Shinryu uncoils himself from the confines. Aether streams from his jaws in an effort to temper you and Zenos, to no avail. "We tower above the gods!" Zenos shouts at you through the aether. "You by your gift, I by my might! And before the resonant the gods shall be made to kneel!" Red-black aether rolls off of Zenos and onto Shinryu. It curls around the eikon and burrows into him before rushing out in a huge shockwave that nearly knocks you over. When you look again, Zenos is nowhere to be seen and Shinryu has a huge crystal growth on his chest with Zenos inside of it. "An ending to mark a new beginning!" the eikon roars in Zenos' voice. Instead of the golden red it used to be, Shinryu's aether is a sickly green. It's one of the worst things you've seen happen to an eikon since you saw Ultima Weapon devour Ifrit, Titian and Garuda.

It's also one of the stupidest things Zenos could have done. I knew he was deserving of judgment before this, Rahmu thunders, but this is nothing but foolishness on his part. You have to agree. Zenos could have bested you before as a man and there are men, Garleans even, you have refused to kill before. But as an eikion? There is nothing you are better at fighting, no eikon you have not sent on to the Lifestream, no eikon who's power you have not earned the right to wield. If there was any doubt you would triumph in this last fight, it is gone now.

You run away from the palace, looking for some place that is large enough to bear the force of a eikon. The entire time you're talking to the eikons in your head and trying to remember what Shinryu's aether felt like when he tried to temper you. It's a weird aether, and you don't know what elements it is. The fact that Nidhogg's aether is mixed in with it is not helping. Louisoix interrupts, which is rare for him; he's never approved of what you did with the Dreadwrym Trance, much less that you have no qualms about summoning Demi-Bahamut. I take it none of us want to deal with Zenos on a permanent basis? Dealing with the Heavensward is taxing enough.

There's an instinctive recoil from everyone, even the Heavensward. The Heavensward are the ekions which still hate you the most.

Nay, we do not. Ysayle pauses in thought. Zenos is only in control of Shinryu. He is not bound to him as you, I and the Heavensward were were bound to our primals before they were sent on to the Lifestream. So long as Shinryu is sent on first, that should not change.

So avoid damaging that crystal growth then? you ask.

Yes, Louisoix says. I believe the reason why Shinryu's aether is so hard to pin down is because it is comprised of more aspects of aether then you are used to sensing in a primal. With that, the regenerating fire of the Phoenix burns down to mere coals.

Shinryu's tail crashes down on the walkway behind you, reminding you of what you need to finish. You turn to look if you can go back, only to find you are stranded on top of a pillar of marble far from the palace. Beside you is Sephirot-Egi. In front of you is Shinryu, wings unfurled, teeth bared and tail swishing behind him like a coeurl. It's good enough. Everyone ready? you ask as you pull out Lemegeton, the most complete collection of Allagan summoning rituals you have found.

Thou sayest Shinryu is modeled in our image! Bahamut roars. Only I am the true judge of that! We shalt test him! And you do.

It immediately becomes apparent that while Ilberd did know how to make an eikon, he had very little knowledge of magical theory. No sooner do you cast Tri-Disaster at Shinryu does Leviathan call out, Tidal Wave! You look behind you and run into the wall of water that sprang into existence. It pushes you toward Shinryu, and you finally get a feel for his aether.

He didn't, Zurven crackles.

He did, you shout back as you dodge around a puddle of water left on the floor. Ilberd really did make Shinryu aspected to all the major magical elements. At least it majorly simplifies things.

At first glance, having an eikon aspected to all the the major elements seems like a good idea. Theoretically, it can attack with all the elements and can absorb them all as well. Practically, it leaves a lot to be desired. Shinryu may be able to attack with all six elements, but each element has only one or two attacks each. It ends up making him much more predictable then he otherwise would be. The eikons with the most complete knowledge of their element are the ones with only one elemental aspect. There are still few things you remember being more terrifying then realizing the first six elemental eikons you fought did things with their elements you didn't think possible. The ones with two elemental aspects often blended them together in new ways, but when they used their elelments singularly, they didn't have that level of mastery. For better or worse, Shinryu has only been able to use one element at a time. He also only seems to use abilities the other eikons have used and only when his aether becomes dangerously over-aspected.

Or it might be Zenos' influence. Whatever the Resonance is, you highly doubt advanced magical theory is something it provides; the Echo doesn't after all.

Well, whoever is in control could certainly be more creative, you grumble at Bahamut. You're half-joking. The most terrifying use of elemental aether you've ever seen was at Bahamut's hand. Or rather, the most terrifying use of aether, period. Tiamat was no fool when she created an eikon in Bahamut's image and gave him only one elemental aspect, that of fire. Only instead of Ifrit's meager Forging Fire or Louisoix's regenerating Fire of Rebirth, Bahamut's fire is the Stellar Fire that fuels the sun. And Tiamat gave him the strength and creativity to take full advantage of it. That's when Shinryu takes a page out of Bahamut's book and combines the elements to cast a black Ahk Morn on you.

Thou art correct! Bahamut roars. Thou shalt show him what a true circle of death looks like!

With that, your aether fully attunes to his and for a few precious seconds, the biggest difference between your aether and the Dreadwrym's is the amount of it that can be used at once. Your power is greater, your spells more efficient, the efficiency of the geometries you can calculate infinitely amplified. You pour the strength of your trance into one of your favorite geometries, (x-π)2+(y-Φ)2=02, better known as Deathflare, and release it. Pure aether shoots up through Shinryu and briefly reduces all the aether in its path to nothing. He roars in true pain before flying away.

Globs of aether rain down in Shinryu's wake and crack open to reveal dragons as misshapen and warped as he is. There are many, too many for you to take care of on your own. "Sephirot, cast Ein Sof Ohr!" you make out. The egi does and wind and earth aether grow into a field of life energy. Energy that heals you and strangles the non-life out of the dragons. Again the globs of aether come down and again dragons come out of them. There's only one thing you know of that can take them all out now: Teraflare.

Sephirot-Egi places a shield of rock and wind around you and you dig down into that reservoir of aether most mages know better then to touch. It's the last limit you have, the difference between being being merely tired and aether starvation, but Teraflare costs more aether then you can cast all at once and you need it now. You take all that aether and bring it into the trance with you. Your aether explodes into the form of the Dreadwrym and if anyone was to see your aether now, you're sure they'd think you'd done the same thing with Bahamut as Ysayle did with Shiva.

For Teraflare is like Deathflare. It can only be cast when your aether is a perfect match for Bahamut's. Unlike Deathflare, it is no simple circle of death. Instead, Teraflare is you diffracting your aether a trillion times larger as if though a giant lens. The amount of the energy you end up producing is monstrous.

For mere moments, it is as if a monster does live within your skin. You are at Carteanaeu again, but you are flying up above it, your wings free for the first time in millennia. You take the store of aether you have and refract it through the geometry of (-(1012)-1) * (-1/Φ-1/π)=1012. Teraflare screams down around you and everything it hits is punctured though with a trillion laser-fast lines of aether. The dragons don't die so much as they disintegrate.

When you come back to yourself, the platform is clear of enemies and Shinryu is before you again. Aether streams from him and begins to coalesce into a star. Sephirot-Egi barely shields you in time before the sickly green aether of the Resonance coils around and fits itself against your aether's vibrations, locking you in place.

Fury fills you. You have seen what it is to be trapped though the eikon's memories, but not like this. Not in nothing but a twist of someone's aether. It's not even like what tempering is; that at least robs its victims of the knowledge they should want something else. Zenos wants you to know he's trapped you. You can feel his delight in the aether surrounding you. Instinctively, you take your fury and shove it against the aether surrounding you. You are not going to let him win here. Not with power not his own anyway. The aether of the Resonance vibrates out of phase with yours and you push again. The two different types of aether grind against each other and you bring all the aetherial force you can muster down onto the Resonance. It shears apart and leaves you gasping on the floor. But Shinryu is gone.

Where is he? you shout, hoping someone saw.

Bismark is the first to find him. In the clouds below you. He's coming up fast.

There's just enough time to get your bearings before Shinryu rams up through the walkway you're standing on. You manage to hold on to one of his scales as he flies up toward the mass of aether-clouds that now surround the star he created.

So that is the Resonance. Bahamut's fury stokes your own. Where Allag usest metal and lightning, he usest aether. I knowest how this ends, Channeler. Summon me! It will not come to pass, not again.

Before you can answer, Shinryu corkscrews over a platform in the aether-clouds. You lose your grip and fall to the platform and barely manage to dodge Shinryu's dive-bomb. Alright, let's see how he likes fighting against you. You've accumulated enough Dreadwrym aether now anyway; it would be waste not to use it. And you love using Dreadwyrm aether.

In theory, summoning Bahamut goes against everything the Scions stand for. There simply isn't any getting around the fact that you are calling on a power higher then yourself to strike down your enemies. Only instead of calling Bahamut out of the Lifestream, you call him out of your own aether and power him with the Dreadwyrm aether produced in the Trance and the aether of your egi. In practice (and the Allagans were all about practice), it's no different then any other magic that makes use of your own aether. The result is a short-lived version of the eikon you base your Trance on that can't consume aether. Instead of merely being the essence of Bahamut given form, it is Bahamut, if one with partial skills. There's a reason you call him Demi-Bahamut and not Bahamut-Egi after all.

Demi-Bahamut coalesces out of your aether and blasts Shinyu with Ahk Morn on your command. Enslaver! Defiler! Wyrmwave after Wyrmwave follows in time with your own attacks. Your memory willt fade into the aether beyond recall!

Fighting with Demi-Bahamut is nothing like fighting with an egi. There is too much personality and no fine-tuned control. Like all the eikons, Demi-Bahamut does what he wants even when it is filtered though the desires of the person who summoned him. Fortunately, the only thing you have ever wanted him for is the extra firepower and Bahamut never has a problem with providing that. He's got a lot of (justified) wrath to get out and being summoned for few moments each fight to rage against something is better then never being summoned at all.

It takes one more Ahk Morn for the aether that makes up Demi-Bahamut to be spent. The demi-eikon collapses back into Sephirot-Egi and Bahamut is back where he belongs. By this time, your aether has attuned to his again and the cycle of trancing into summoning starts all over again.

As the fight drags on, something becomes apparent. Shinryu is modeled after the strength Bahamut displayed when he broke out of Dalamud. You might have grown far stronger then you were when you faced down Bahamut, but you never actually faced him the way you're facing Shinryu now. Instead you faced Bahamut in the eikon's literal heart, his corona. This feels about the same. Shinryu is far weaker then Bahamut was and you've got a feeling you know why. You didn't happen to be about this strong when you first manifested, were you? you ask Bahamut.

Perhaps that is the case. I gorge on the sun's aether for eras! He does not have that chance.

It's as good a confirmation as you will get. Whatever the case, Shinryu is incorporating more of his body into the fight then he used to. You dodge around his claws several times and he even tries to flatten you with his tail. It turns out he really doesn't like getting hit there, especially when it's Demi-Bahamut that's doing the hitting. He also starts bringing out other attacks, but all of them are ones the eikons within you have used before and the eikons he's copying enjoy letting you know what attacks he's using.

Finally, aether starts leaking out of Shinryu. Cracks start appearing and you finally get the opportunity to aim Deathflare at the corona buried deep in the eikon's chest. The aether making up Shinryu shudders before all of it, including the crystal Zenos is in, explodes outward. You eagerly reach out and absorb all the aether you can for later before looking for Zenos. He is falling out of Shinryu's cloud. You decided to take the saner route back and form a Warring Laner construct out of Sephirot's aether. It has no combat capabilities, but it is capable of carrying you back down to the Royal Menagerie.

I was honestly expecting more, you tell the rest of the ekions on your flight down.

Our forms depend on the beings calling on us. Many of us are based on beings that actually existed and are expected to have the same capacities they did. Ilberd hadst no such being in mind and only wanted power in abundance. Bahamut laughs. He wouldst do better to create an eikon in thy image!

Yeah, Bahamut. You'd know all about that, wouldn't you? You shudder at the thought and hope nobody ever tries that. Given the types of people most of the eikons are based on though, it is very likely that someone will eventually make the attempt.

Zenos plows into the ground right as you land. Before you can finish it, Lyse and Alphinaud arrive on the scene. "Are you all right!?" Lyse asks you. "We all saw Teraflare and..."

You nod. "I'm fine. Tired, but fine. It's nothing a little sleep won't take care of." You hope so anyway. Aether exhaustion will drive you to sleep like nothing else will, but the nightmares often mean it isn't as long as it should be. Hopefully the memory of being chained in the Resonance won't be among them.

Alphinaud gives you that searching look he always gives you whenever anything to do with Bahamut comes up. Lyse's attention is already elsewhere. "Zenos!" she shouts, fists clenched and teeth bared.

Zenos struggles to his feet and laughs in her face. "The hunter has indeed become the hunted. And yet... there is only joy. Transcendent joy that I have never known. How invigorating, how... pure, this feeling."

Lyse looks at him in a mix of horror and disgust. "Is that what this was all about? All the meaningless death and destruction? So you could feel something?" It's obvious that she does not, can not, understand.

You can't understand either. The very reason why you take action is because you feel (and hear and think). The eikons are no different for all that their feelings originally came from someone else. It's one of the main reasons you can even begin to understand them.

Naturally, Zenos mistakes what Lyse is outraged about. "Meaningless? Men die that others may live. Those who survive are stronger for it." It's the only thing you might agree with him on. "Not that you could ever understand. To have stood upon this great stage of fools... to have played my part to perfection..." He is holding Ame-no-Habakiri now. "Oh, this... this moment... let it be enshrined in eternity." Zenos places the edge of the katana on his neck. "My heart... beating out of time... So clear, so vivid, so real... So real." He slices.

"Coward!" Alphinaud cries out.

Lyse rushes forward. "Stop!"

Mid-slice, so fast that only the Echo can see it, Zenos catches your eye. "Farewell, my first friend. My enemy." Blood pours from his neck and Zenos crumples. This time, for good.

Balance has been restored! Sophia pronounces and you feel the rest of the eikons sigh in relief as the world tilts at the death of one who seeks to control them by force.

You sigh in relief as well, even though you feel uncomfortable when faced with Zenos' last words. You know what it is to make friends, or at least allies, out of your enemies. At its heart, that is what Summoning is.

It it different, Titan rumbles over you, his protective inclinations coming to the forefront. He did not wish to know thy own interests. Not only do thy desire to know ours, but thee hast done something about them when it is profitable for the both of us. Titan's words are a bulwark against your nagging doubts the way a cave is against wind and rain.

It looks like Raubahn and Hein have done the same for Lyse. "...You're right. Thank you." She turns to all of you. She's smiling now. "Without you... Well...you know." You all snicker. The after-battle relief is starting to hit. "So let's do it together. For Ala Mhigo!" She leads you all over to the balcony to proclaim victory.

Behind Lyse, you lean against Sephirot-Egi and take a deep breath. Zenos won't be threatening you again and you've got another eikon's power to experiment with. It's been a good day.

Author's Notes: This entire thing was inspired when Zenos gives the WoL a choice about a primal and I looked at my Job and the choices presented and wondered why I couldn't pick both as the two choices aren't always mutually exclusive for Summoners. Somehow it ballooned into a lot of headcanon and theorycraft on Summoner... go figure, I'm a total nerd...

I couldn't find any lore behind Demi-Bahamut anywhere so I made something up. The idea behind a "demi-eikon" came from wondering if there was anything that would piss the Ascians off more then a summoning method that didn't put strain on Hydalen. Going by the lore book, one of the reasons the Allagans turned on the Summoners was that they thought the Summoners were being influenced by what they were summoning. I just took the idea and ran with it.

Yes, I really did come up with some math for Deathflare and Teraflare. π is the symbol for Pi, which is the key raito for calculating the circumference of a circle. Φ is the symbol for the Golden Ratio which has a lot of fun geometry applications. I figured both would be pretty important for a magic system that is based on math and geometry. The math for Deathflare is the normal circle formula, but it is a "dead" circle whose radius is zero. Teraflare's math is based on the Thin Lens formula.

Ch 2: To Bind an Eikon →

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #ffxiv fanfiction #fanfiction #warrior of light #zenos yae galvus #ffxiv bahamut #theorycrafting #worldbuilding #math as magic #summoner #awkward summoner moments #pov 2nd person

[sasster]

Is there something that can be read to explain exactly why Zurven hates his ancestor as much as he does?

uhm! the entire flashback arc

Zurven started that arc entirely ambivalent to Orfuse and his existence, his whole life was kind of dictated by the mistakes Orfuse made in his life but he really wasn't aware of the extent.

Basically in an effort to stop Harlan from becoming what he became, Orfuse did a lot of fucking around with things that changed the timelines he saw so that those things wouldn't come to fruition.

He really only succeeded in pushing back the inevitable.

So his timeline meddling essentially put Zurven right into Perseps hands (bad), and then in Harlans hands (badder). All posthumously, of course.

The events of the Flashback Arc led to two things for Zurven. More experience with his powers, up to that point Zurven'd only used his powers to view the future because that's what Persep was obsessed with but Harlan exposed him to the part of his powers that let him view the past, and through that, he did a lot of viewing the world through Orfuses eyes.

Viewing the past through someone's eyes is different from viewing the future, you adopt their feelings and stuff along with it because the past is rooted in.. The emotions that surround the situation.

So basically he got to see Orfuse doing all the stupid shit he was doing that brought about the timeline everyone is occupying right now. and the reasons he was so persistent in doing it that way. He thinks Orfuse is stupid, selfish, and weak.

All of this could've been avoided, he thinks, if Orfuse just killed Harlan. And if he didn't write every single fucking thing down.

Hope this helps!

#zurven things #the evocator #anonymous #askter

[sasster]

Fun quastion.. which of your ocs suffers from the worst or most frequent nightmare & who tends to have the best dreams?

Honorable mention, up until about a few months ago I would said that Zurven had the most inconvenient dreams, since he had absolutely no control over his powers he would have a vision pretty much anytime he went to sleep. (Inconsequential. About people he doesn’t even know, we will never meet.) So while I wouldn’t call them nightmares, they would result in some pretty restless days. (Conversely, Orfuse does not have dreams at all).

Somnae also has inconvenient dreams because of their powers, and again while they aren’t straight up nightmares, all of the people that pop up in her dreams are people that well they are going to die shortly after her having the dream. Upsetting.

Reid, darling Reid suffers from night(day) terrors. He has PTSD from his stay over at casa de Lycaon, and was already a chronic victim of sleep paralysis. That’s not a good mix, if you were wondering. These days most of his nightmares revolve around that fucking man, but before he would have stress dreams about school, career, the future. He’s just a very nervous man. He hides it all under his inability to shut up.

I would Soleah has the best dreams. She’s one of my trolls that’s generally happy to let whatever stressors she’s experienced during the day roll off her back and stay in the past while she looks forward to the future. She sleeps relatively peacefully and at ease. I don’t have anything else to say beyond that!!

#zurven things #somnae things #reid things #soleah things #dis-asterism #askter

[sasster]

✂️ SCISSORS - what is the "last straw" for them to cut someone out of their life? how easily do they let go of people?

Sonny?

Zurven?

Okay well this one is easy, actually I was too damn exhausted yesterday actually answer it. But!

Zurven will cut you off for literally any slight. If he thinks you aren’t going to be good for his mental health, then he isn't going to give you the opportunity to have an effect on it. Zurven's life, even before the entire Flashback arc, was kind of traumatic. He'd been forced to make the company of people he didn't like since the day he opened his little grubby eyes, so naturally with the new freedoms he possesses in his life, he's not going to let people he doesn't like or want around stick around in his life for too long. It's stupid. It makes absolutely no sense to him.

So I don't think there's a "last straw", I don't think he lets it get to that point. As soon as you stop being someone who is positive to be around, then you are not someone is going to be around much longer.

--

Sonny, on the other hand, is a chronic giver of second chances. You might think that growing up where she grew up with the people she grew up with, she might have the same reservations as Zurven. But it's the opposite that's true.

She may have grown up in a town she has known from birth she isn't allowed to leave, unless she were to join the fleet, but she was never made to be around people that had a negative effect on her emotional development. She wasn't abused or mistreated or neglected, so she has a generally sunny disposition and positive outlook on life. Her last straw is when you hurt the people around her with your actions, the people that she cares about. And even then, she'd likely forgive you if she saw you making the effort to fix what you'd done.

I think even if she were hurt physically by you and you came around the next day apologizing she'd be like "Oh, yeah okay! We can put this behind us."

Sonny is one of my trolls that believes that people can change if you put them in an environment to do so, and she's fully willing to be there with them to see them through it.

-

Wow, these muses got motivations? Emoji ask meme.

#zurven things #sonny things #cotestuck #askter #mlems #siiiiiiiiiiighs

[sasster]

1, 2, 10, 19 fooor Zurven

Weirdly specific character building questions!

1. What’s the lie your character says most often?

You know, I don't think Zurven lies! He's pretty straightforward.

2. How loosely or strictly do they use the word ‘friend’?

Oh, brother. Good fucking luck, honestly. Most people he'll call them an acquaintance until he's seen that they're worth the energy expended to be friends with them.

He's also very vocal about whether or not he considers your to be a friend.

10. What fact do they excitedly tell everyone about at every opportunity?

It's very important that you know that fused silica has a melting point of 1715°C

19. What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?

You lock him in a room with Thanat fucking Lycaon and he is going to bite that man.

#zurven things #dis-asterism #askter #mlems

[sasster]

Zurven you like doing pottery right? Would going more full-time or professional with it ever interest you or do you think it's best left as a hobby?

"I feel like you've been around long enough to know that that's almost exactly what I was doing before something large and purple got in the way."

#zurven #dis-asterism #askter #(he used to make and sell things at taitals shop)

[sasster]

in case u forgot

#the post also has zurvens thing on it and it rly explains bothnof their interactions w mallum rn #but im not gonna bother reblogging it

[sasster]

Comfort

Here’s a continuation of the lover’s quarrel going on over here.

[Docs] —

All of the air leaves the room when Benjin storms out in his rage, leaving Mallum to throw himself on the couch, deflated. The minute exchange of looks between Veylin and Zurven tells him which quad he will be responsible for looking after.

Veylin follows on the heels of her moirail.

Silence quickly settles between the two that remain in the living room, a silence that Zurven very quickly decides that he does not like. It would be his first time experiencing this sort of heavy silence while in the company of this particular partner.

He prefers his useful boisterous demeanor.

It isn’t as though his own anger for the situation doesn’t weigh heavily on his chest, as if he didn’t have half a mind to swallow back all of the trust he’d poured into him and hole himself in the room until Ben and Vey get back. It’s second nature to run from problems, and ridiculously easy.

But that wouldn’t be fair.

He sighs and sits on the couch next to Mallum, now sitting with his own head in his hands.

“Mal,” Zurven says softly, softer than he expected.

Now worried that he might lose the nerve to talk about it, he fixes his attention on the wall across from them instead. When Mallum doesn’t answer, he sighs again.

“I was… I am so vulnerable with you. I haven’t kept anything from you in a long time.” Suddenly realizing his own hands are too idle, he begins to tap them rhymically on his thighs. “I wish you would do the same.”

There is more silence and Zurven finds the fear that they’ve already lost Mallum constricting around his throat, burning his lungs.  This can’t be what kills the trust, that idea tightens and becomes a ball in his stomach.

No way.

“I don’t like getting my news the way that Orfuse did.” He chokes out the second the thought enters his mind. The vision left a bad taste in his mouth, Zerkev’s wrath burned through him white hot. He flexes his fingers as the memory of the trident lingers between them.

At least it wasn’t Harlan. The smug satisfaction might have been enough to kill him.

Zurven blinks the dredges of the vision out of his mind and turns his head to finally look at Mallum again.

Mallum sits there, staring at his own hands, with tears spilling out of his eyes. The seadweller makes no sound, the cry is a silent one.

“It isn’t like that,” he whispers in a voice smaller than he’d ever been. “It isn’t about being vulnerable,” and it almost sounds like he is trying to convince himself of that more than Zurven.

There is silence again, but Zurven cannot stand to let it settle and instead turns to take Mallum’s hand in his. He leans his head on his tear-eyed partner’s shoulder.

“You’ve been good to us, Mal. And Lopard used to tell me that something like that can’t be one way,” he squeezes his hand. “Even if we need it at different times, or if it’s very different things, it doesn’t work if it’s one way. Will you let us be good to you?”

Mallum says nothing, then hesitates before turning to grasp desperately at Zurven’s arm and folding himself into the smaller troll as much as he can. Zurven wastes no time in wrapping his arms around him and holding him so tightly that anyone would be forgiven if they assumed that the position was the only thing keeping the pair from falling apart.

Mallum chokes out a sob that sounds nearly like an apology, Zurven shakes his head and moves to smooth out his hair.

“When he let us go we didn’t have anything. I had, uhm, I had the least of us all. No life to return to…” He hesitates as he speaks, letting his hand drift over and around Mallums fins in order to ground himself. Vulnerability about this point in his life never comes easy. “Even when Harlan took me, I didn’t care if I died because everything at that point was just… People were good to me, but it wasn’t mine.”

Now it is Mallum’s turn to squeeze, but he still says nothing.

“If I can’t be good to you guys, if you think I can’t hold your bad news for you, then what’s the point?”

Mallum’s shoulders shake in time with his sbos, but beyond that another silence falls over them. This time, Zurven gives him the time to collect himself before speaking again.

He is satisfied with the knowledge that Mallum knows what his safety and comfort means to him, that he understands it was no less important than his own, Vey, or Bens.

He kisses the top of Mallum’s head and mumbles into his hair, “I love you. Can you say something? About anything. You’ve never been this quiet before.”

A second passes before he responds.

“I’ve ruined you, you can’t live without me now.” He says with a small laugh, muffled into Zurven’s shoulder.

Then he pauses and reaches to lace their fingers together and very softly whispers, “I love you too.”

#coko writes sometimes #nobodies #<3 <3 <3 #zurven #i looove nobodies

[roetrolls]

Reined In

“Are you out of your mind? Are you stupid? What the fuck is wrong with you!?”

“Benjin,” Veylin interjects softly, ineffectual plea glancing off you as Mallum stares you down.

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?” He shoots back, defensive. “I was doing you a favor!”

“A favor? What the fuck do you mean a favor!?”

“You were better off not knowing.”

“Better off?” You echo incredulously, heart hammering in your chest, The way it pounds against your ribs, you’re half convinced it wants to kick them out and go strangle the idiot itself.

“What good would it have done?”

“What- WHAT GOOD!? How about fucking safety, Mallum? How about not getting ambushed?”

“You wouldn’t–”

“I think we deserve a little fucking warning, Mallum!”

“You wouldn’t have been ambushed!” He shouts, fins flaring outward 

“Oh really? You know that? You can see the future now, Mal?”

“Fucking listen to me!”

“Oh, I’m listening! I’m all fucking ears! Go ahead, what vision did you have? Was it anything like his?” You cock your head at Zurven, tucked silently against Veylin’s hip at the edge of the room. 

You hate this. You hate acting like this, hate that they’re seeing you like this, but you can’t seem to quell the fury that roars inside your throat. The heat of it is enough to make your hands shake, and you clench them at your sides.

“I told Aderae–”

“Oh! Great! Aderae got to know before we did, I’m so glad! What a bond you two must have, sounds really beautiful.”

“Would you let me fucking finish!?” he snaps. “I told Aderae I saw them. You were safe.”

“Okay!? And what about you!?”

“What about me?”

“They have your fucking blood, Mallum! They have means to fucking track you, you don’t think we need to know that?”

“No! I don’t!”

“You don’t.”

“It didn’t concern you.”

“It’s fucking Harlan!”

“Yeah!?” Mallum throws his arms out in some semblance of a shrug, fixing you with a bewildered stare. “He’s not your problem, Ben! It’s not your job to save us from him!”

“He is my problem, Mallum! And I don’t expect you to fucking get it, but I thought you could at least use your fucking brain. This isn’t the kind of thing you keep from us. That’s not your choice to make.”

“Well maybe it should be!”

A dark cloud seems to descend over the room, over you, as the words leave his mouth. 

“Excuse me?” you ask, voice startlingly low in your own ears. 

The tension, thick and binding, constricts around your lungs. You flex an antsy fist in hopes of shaking it while Mallum watches you with expression unflinching, stone cold in his conviction that he has truly done nothing wrong. It sends another wave of anger crashing over you, searing and violent.

“You weren’t there,” you grit, uncomfortably aware of your own hands. You relax them just to clench your fists again, arms laden with an energy you don’t know how to dispel.

“That’s exactly why! None of you are going to be objective when–”

“This isn’t the fucking time to be objective! You put us in danger, Mallum, you put yourself in danger! Do you seriously not understand how fucked that is?”

“You were safe,” Mallum huffs again, his impatient indignation like a slap to your face. “I wasn’t worried.”

“Gosh, well in that case!” your sardonic tone is offset slightly by the volume of your voice. Try as you might, you can’t seem to lower it, locked into a shout that leaves your head pounding and your lungs pumping. “My bad, you guys, Mallum wasn’t worried! False alarm!”

“If you knew, you would never leave the hive again.”

“For good fucking reason!”

“I’m telling you, Benjin, it’s not a big deal!”

“YES IT IS!” you shriek, arms tensing as you are hit suddenly with the impulse to swing. A voice in the back of your head urges you to get your frustrations out, to strike the wall and allow the white-hot rage buzzing in your ears to pour through your arm into the world around you. You can almost feel it, like a phantom’s touch across your knuckles, aching, begging you to drive them into something with the full brunt of your emotion.

Your breath catches in your throat, anger all at once replaced with stark, overwhelming fear. That instinct isn’t yours. It shouldn’t be yours.

Chest heaving and head swirling, you take a small step back, eyes wide, then spin on your heel and storm from the room without a word.

#benjin writing #mallum writing #veylin writing #<- for one line lol #writing #flashback + 1

[roetrolls]

Secrets, Secrets

Something was wrong.

Veylin knew before Mallum entered the hive, his dread seeping beneath the door like a cloud of creeping mist that coiled thick around her lungs.

Something had happened.

Zurven knew as soon as he laid eyes on him, saw the way his shoulders drooped with weight and his smile seemed to sag.

He was hiding something.

Benjin knew when morning fell and Mallum, always so keen on keeping his gills free while sleeping, began rooting through his wardrobe for a shirt to wear to bed.

The question hung like a sword above their heads, filling the hive with a looming tension he seemed determined to ignore. For all his efforts, though, there was an undeniable burden at his back, and his nonchalance felt paradoxically deliberate.

It was almost uncanny, the way he acted so like himself in a manner which felt so forced.

They knew, all of them, that something was wrong. How could they not? They knew him. For all the effort he put into acting just as normal, his unease rolled off him like a vapor, unobservable yet so tangibly present it was impossible to ignore.

There was one exception to this tense and uncertain knowing, one person who did not have to sit and wonder, one place where things were truly concrete.

Hirsch knew when Mallum told him.

"It could have been Zerkev. That's what's getting me," Mallum grumbled, arm crossed over his chest and thumb pressed to his teeth as he paced before his moirail. "He's not above psychological warfare. He would do this, if he thought it'd work, I know he would. But against me? He wouldn't. There's no way, right?"

Hirsch simply nodded along, listening attentively while the seadweller worked through his thoughts.

"But it'd be smart, that's the thing! I mean, think about it! You make me think Mahkir is after me, you get me scared, and I run home to safety."

Again, Hirsch nodded, holding both their swords and watching Mallum tread back in forth in the clearing they had long since claimed as theirs.

"But if it's not Zerkev. And it... It shouldn't be, he wouldn't," he continued, "then those three are never going to feel safe in the city again. Zurven can barely stand to enter public as it is, I can't... I can't do that to them."

Finally, Mallum's feet fell still, and Hirsch lifted himself off the rock he had chosen for a seat to pull the smaller troll into his arms.

"It's your choice. I won't tell them if you don't want me to."

The assurance was enough to ease at least some of the tension laced through Mallum's back, and he let out a sigh as he nodded into Hirsch's chest.

"I think... So long as you're vigilant," the jadeblood added slowly, "the how and why may not be important. There's no need to stress yourself. And if it is psychological warfare–"

"I can't let it get to me."

Hirsch drew back and held out Mallum's rapier.

"We can keep training," he offered softly, flashing his moirail a sympathetic smile, "so you feel more prepared."

#mallum writing #veylin writing #benjin writing #flashback + 1 #gentle riposte #writing #guest star! #zurven #hirsch #had to get this one outta my BRIAN #my brain even