Difference between revisions of "Esredes Rosemond"
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spacing:0.2em;"><center>General Information</center></div></span></h3> | spacing:0.2em;"><center>General Information</center></div></span></h3> | ||
− | <div align=justify><div style="padding: 7px 4px;font-size:13px; color:#444146;font-family:Georgia;">Esredes is a former | + | <div align=justify><div style="padding: 7px 4px;font-size:13px; color:#444146;font-family:Georgia;">Esredes is a former Temple Knight turned heretic. After an incident with dragon’s blood from his childhood came to light and he was nearly killed as a result, he turned against Ishgard and became devoted to winning the Dragonsong War for the heretics by either taking over or destroying Ishgard. Now fueled by a mixture of vengeance and the need to liberate his people, Esredes continues to press on after years of fighting, refusing to give up the fight no matter how much it takes his toll on him. |
Nominated to take Iceheart’s place by his own people after the climax of the war, Esredes was later officially pardoned by Aymeric and allowed to return to his original home under the condition of adhering to the new law and government. In the wake of the ashes of the war and his movement, Esredes continues to operate in a delicate balance between law and necessity, helping the new Ishgard while being well-prepared for a potential resurrection of the war. Despite his many doubts about his own abilities, he has taken up the mantle given to him of Her successor- continuing to convert people to his side and ideology and carefully watch and infiltrate ongoings in Ishgard. | Nominated to take Iceheart’s place by his own people after the climax of the war, Esredes was later officially pardoned by Aymeric and allowed to return to his original home under the condition of adhering to the new law and government. In the wake of the ashes of the war and his movement, Esredes continues to operate in a delicate balance between law and necessity, helping the new Ishgard while being well-prepared for a potential resurrection of the war. Despite his many doubts about his own abilities, he has taken up the mantle given to him of Her successor- continuing to convert people to his side and ideology and carefully watch and infiltrate ongoings in Ishgard. | ||
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<div style="padding: 7px 4px;font-size:13px; color:#26212B;font-family:Georgia;"> | <div style="padding: 7px 4px;font-size:13px; color:#26212B;font-family:Georgia;"> | ||
− | * | + | * Esredes’ feelings on his own nation are complex. Much as he has come to loathe the nature of the people of Ishgard and how insufferable they can be, he knows it is a pot calling a kettle black for his own former ideology. He believes Ishgard and its people to be something that must be freed and saved from itself by people like him, whether it was in taking the place over and rebuilding the system as he believes the answer before the war’s end, or onward as him getting the people of Ishgard to truly embrace the truth for everything it is and go on freed from the shackles of Ishgard’s conditioning. |
+ | * While capable of admitting they were not right in everything, Esredes still fully believes in Iceheart’s cause for everything it stands for, and thus when it boils down to it, believes he is on as much of the right side as there can be in a war of this nature, even taking a lot of pride in the fact that if it were not for his people peace would never come. People who try to dismiss or belittle this quickly piss him off. | ||
* In classic Elezen fashion, he has a mild sense of racism towards Miqo'te. He won't say anything, but he will definitely think it, and occasionally make a racist comment to someone else. To him, he's almost never met a smart Miqo'te, and seriously wonders if they're just inherently dumber than the other races, on top of believing that most of them love to be scantily clad. He also is very ill versed in the culture of either clan, to the point he barely knows the differences between Seekers and Keepers beyond the eyes and one living in Gridania. | * In classic Elezen fashion, he has a mild sense of racism towards Miqo'te. He won't say anything, but he will definitely think it, and occasionally make a racist comment to someone else. To him, he's almost never met a smart Miqo'te, and seriously wonders if they're just inherently dumber than the other races, on top of believing that most of them love to be scantily clad. He also is very ill versed in the culture of either clan, to the point he barely knows the differences between Seekers and Keepers beyond the eyes and one living in Gridania. | ||
− | * Same level of racism goes to Viera and Hrothgar, though he has yet to form an opinion on their intelligence levels or sexuality. He just dislikes the look and vibe both give off. Still, like before, | + | * Same level of racism goes to Viera and Hrothgar, though he has yet to form an opinion on their intelligence levels or sexuality. He just dislikes the look and vibe both give off. Still, like before, it's often kept in his head and he's not outright hostile to any of the three races at first, if they prove useful. Often he pretends he isn't racist at all if they are. |
* He's no longer able to commit to any type of religious practice, not even that of Shiva. At most, he sees her as a beacon of hope, and any sort of prayers or thanks he gives to her are more just for the expression. This effectively makes him someone who doesn't deny the existence of gods, but does not waste time following them. | * He's no longer able to commit to any type of religious practice, not even that of Shiva. At most, he sees her as a beacon of hope, and any sort of prayers or thanks he gives to her are more just for the expression. This effectively makes him someone who doesn't deny the existence of gods, but does not waste time following them. | ||
* Regardless of his bitterness towards Ishgard, he can agree like most that the Garlean Empire is a much bigger threat that needs to be taught to stay away from Eorzea. He has no reason to hold back on them. He takes pride in the fact that dragons took them down the first time. This becomes even worse after Heavensward. However, he does have a more tolerant opinion of turncoats, considering several of them were his allies as a heretic. | * Regardless of his bitterness towards Ishgard, he can agree like most that the Garlean Empire is a much bigger threat that needs to be taught to stay away from Eorzea. He has no reason to hold back on them. He takes pride in the fact that dragons took them down the first time. This becomes even worse after Heavensward. However, he does have a more tolerant opinion of turncoats, considering several of them were his allies as a heretic. | ||
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* When it comes to his general view of people, he has a hard-pressed realist outlook. He believes that people are not inherently special or meaningful, but because everyone is born with willpower, it is the key to creating a person who has a purpose and a use. Your skills and mind are what matters more than background. And he definitely includes himself in this with a level of self-awareness that he too is a completely average person given shape by what he's learned to do. | * When it comes to his general view of people, he has a hard-pressed realist outlook. He believes that people are not inherently special or meaningful, but because everyone is born with willpower, it is the key to creating a person who has a purpose and a use. Your skills and mind are what matters more than background. And he definitely includes himself in this with a level of self-awareness that he too is a completely average person given shape by what he's learned to do. | ||
* This is one of many reasons why Warriors of Light inherently piss him off. He can tell they're all completely average people who everyone latched onto the special power of. It's an unfair and unhealthy way to cheat the system that he's only ever seen result in a fall. | * This is one of many reasons why Warriors of Light inherently piss him off. He can tell they're all completely average people who everyone latched onto the special power of. It's an unfair and unhealthy way to cheat the system that he's only ever seen result in a fall. | ||
− | * He | + | * He then believes he was born to be a soldier, and that people are, while inherently meaningless in birth, born with predispositions to being certain classes of people. To himself, he is the soldier build because he lacks talent beyond fighting, is disagreeable and thus perfect for inciting aggression on a battlefield and drawing the fight to himself, and because he also believes himself to lack the full depth of a person, he is the perfect temporary and disposable being to die so a more fully realized one can live. He believes this is the way the world works, and that people who aren’t fully realized like himself die for fully realized ones to keep the world in the best state possible. |
+ | * He also believes everyone similar to him or much worse- that is, people who are lacking empathy or morality to a sufficient degree and therefore a less fully realized person by his own standards- are also meant to serve this role of living and dying for better people, and if they go against this and be selfish they are instead a parasitic entity to be taken out. | ||
+ | * Furthermore, people who also live parasitically- that is, existing only to benefit themselves without contributing anything meaningful back to the world in pure selfishness- also should be eliminated or die for better people. | ||
+ | * He believes Shiva isn't a real primal. Even after everything. He will only describe her as primal-like or imitating one, but he doesn’t believe a person can become an actual primal, as he thinks that primals aren’t in the same class as people because them only existing based on the will of their summoner means they’re not truly sentient and alive, which Ysayle most definitely was. | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
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* Has a high pain tolerance. | * Has a high pain tolerance. | ||
* High endurance. Often able to press on and keep going at a task when others would succumb to exhaustion. | * High endurance. Often able to press on and keep going at a task when others would succumb to exhaustion. | ||
− | * Physically decently strong, especially in dragon form, where he is able to pick people up in his hands or fly them on his back. Not to mention he can muster enough force in the form to break some kinds of bones with his bare hands. | + | * Physically decently strong, especially in dragon form, where he is able to pick people up in his hands or fly them on his back. Not to mention he can muster enough force in the form to break some kinds of bones with his bare hands. |
+ | * Due to the Blood's presence, his sense of smell is somewhat enhanced. He can pick up on scents the average person cannot detect. | ||
* Melee ability in Elezen form is okay at best and not his strong suit. | * Melee ability in Elezen form is okay at best and not his strong suit. | ||
* Knows how to use a knife and a dagger. Neither is his strong suit. | * Knows how to use a knife and a dagger. Neither is his strong suit. | ||
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=Relationships= | =Relationships= | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div align=center><div style="padding:0px 0px; font-size:18px;color:#000000;font-family:Georgia;text-shadow: 1px 1px 3px silver;"> | ||
+ | ''Impart onto the collector the contents of your heart, and I will take it into my gentle hands… | ||
+ | </div></div> | ||
{| class="wikitable" border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 100%; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;" | {| class="wikitable" border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 100%; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;" | ||
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| <div style="font-family:Georgia; background: #850A10; font-size:14px;color:#FFFDCA; text-shadow: 1px 1px 3px black;letter-spacing:0.2em;"><center><B>RELATIONSHIP STATUS LEGEND</B></center></div> | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; background: #850A10; font-size:14px;color:#FFFDCA; text-shadow: 1px 1px 3px black;letter-spacing:0.2em;"><center><B>RELATIONSHIP STATUS LEGEND</B></center></div> | ||
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− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:9pt;"><font style="color:# | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:9pt;"><font style="color:#e57c2d;" size="2">♥</font> Family <font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1">–</font> <font style="color:#ae0016;" |
size="2">♥</font> Involved <font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1">–</font> <font style="color:#F02311;" size="2">♥</font> Romantic <font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1">–</font> <font | size="2">♥</font> Involved <font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1">–</font> <font style="color:#F02311;" size="2">♥</font> Romantic <font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1">–</font> <font | ||
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style="color:#6eea52;" size="2">♥</font> Unofficially Adopted By [https://crimsonfluidessence.tumblr.com/private/181386473841/tumblr_pk9li0vSFB1xen4jh [Explanation<nowiki>]</nowiki>] <font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1">–</font> <font | style="color:#6eea52;" size="2">♥</font> Unofficially Adopted By [https://crimsonfluidessence.tumblr.com/private/181386473841/tumblr_pk9li0vSFB1xen4jh [Explanation<nowiki>]</nowiki>] <font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1">–</font> <font | ||
− | style="color:#FA70BC;" size="2">♥</font> Platonic <font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1">–</font> <font style="color:# | + | style="color:#FA70BC;" size="2">♥</font> Platonic <font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1">–</font> <font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font> Counseling Client <font style="color:#6b6e72;" |
size="1">–</font> <font style="color:#b72a78;" size="2">♦</font> Friend <font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1">–</font> <font style="color:#692ab7;" size="2">★</font> Acquaintance <font | size="1">–</font> <font style="color:#b72a78;" size="2">♦</font> Friend <font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1">–</font> <font style="color:#692ab7;" size="2">★</font> Acquaintance <font | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Mother,</b> <i>Loving, but complicated</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:# | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Mother,</b> <i>Loving, but complicated</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#e57c2d;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b></div> |
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| <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"I appreciate all she did for me and all she put up with. But I can never again be the son she was looking for."</i></div> | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"I appreciate all she did for me and all she put up with. But I can never again be the son she was looking for."</i></div> | ||
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{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Father,</b> <i>Loving, but also complicated</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:# | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Father,</b> <i>Loving, but also complicated</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#e57c2d;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
| <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>" ."</i></div> | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>" ."</i></div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://heartofthefury.tumblr.com/ Seraphiaux Rosemond],</b> <i>Little Brother</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:# | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://heartofthefury.tumblr.com/ Seraphiaux Rosemond],</b> <i>Little Brother</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#e57c2d;" size="2">♥</font><b>) - The Broken, Lightless Pendant.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
| <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"There comes a point when someone has to give up on what is not possible. No matter how much it hurts.<br><br> | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"There comes a point when someone has to give up on what is not possible. No matter how much it hurts.<br><br> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Morven Rosemond,</b> <i>Dreaded Cousin</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#e57c2d;" size="2">♥</font><b>) - The Burdened Castle’s Watchman of Daggers.</b></div> |
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"I never really completely liked him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | That’s not to say I ''hate'' him, as I can’t really hate any member of my family besides Seraphiaux for a long time- but we really never had meaningful conversations, we never had much to connect on, and by the gods could he be insufferable. He often made me feel smaller, but then he’d also try to encourage and say he’s proud of me and just- I can’t with him. | ||
− | + | I really don’t want to see him again, out of both fear and respect. I know he’s not going to take my presence well, and I want to leave him to his own life."</i></div> | |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Morven is the sort of person Esredes never had a chance of having a fully stable relationship with. |
− | + | ||
− | + | When he was eight, he once got angry at him and punched him in the face for calling him slow in a game of tag. And while he regrets childish gestures like that, sometimes those urges don’t truly go away, for the man was ever the master of saying what was on his mind and having ''something'' to say about every family member, both positive and negative, but especially the negative, in a way that really grates at you. And it never felt like the more positive and loving gestures of the man made up for it, like he was just doing it in part because he had to. | |
− | + | ||
− | + | Combine that with not sharing many common interests and never really having a desire to spend quality time with Morven, and Esredes never felt like he had much of a connection or relationship with the man at all. And now that the ashes have been spread, he knows there will be nothing left to come back to, and honestly, he’s okay with that. He’s content to let it lie and leave it there and accept their relationship is over. | |
+ | |||
+ | Would it be the man could do the same in return, unbeknownst to his knowledge… | ||
+ | </div> | ||
|} | |} | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Nadia Rosemond,</b> <i>Knightly Cousin</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#e57c2d;" size="2">♥</font><b>) - The Fallen Pride.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>" | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"I liked her the most out of my cousins, I really did. Sometimes I even thought we had something meaningful, but ultimately… no. I don’t think either of us were the people we hoped the other to be, and honestly? It kind of hurts. It hurts more than the others. I’ve long moved on, as it’s as dead in the water as the rest- but a small part of me will forever wish she actually wanted to be there for me."</i></div> |
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− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Being only a year apart in age and with an aggressive shared interest, it was Nadia that Esredes wanted to talk to the most of the cousins. She wanted to be a house knight, and him a temple- they had so much to talk about. He was jealous she got to start training earlier than his parents would let him do, and even asked her to train him in secret- but it didn’t last long, for his parents caught them, and she withdrew to focus on her training after that, leaving him alone with just Seraphiaux. |
− | He | + | |
+ | They continued to bond over knightly activities, until sometime after Esredes achieved his own goal. He hoped she would be wholly supportive and want to discuss everything with him- instead, he found jealousy gripped her heart as he became the pride and joy while her achievements were thrown by the wayside, and suddenly felt as if they couldn’t discuss that which they shared without tension boiling. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Needless to say, Esredes felt rather hurt and crushed, and couldn’t find a meaningful substitute for their foundation. And so they drifted apart, even before his fall destroyed everything, and that ended that. | ||
+ | |||
+ | He expects she’d have a bitter, flaring hatred for him now like all the rest- if not for one questionable detail in his mind, anyhow. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nadia became a Temple Knight. And he only knows it because he saw her- out there in the battlefield, in mutual recognition of each other, and when she had the chance to end it, he watched her lower her blade. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After his escape from that moment, Esredes has been left unable to fully process or comprehend it since. He prefers not to think about it, as it’s certain to open up old emotional wounds. | ||
+ | |||
+ | He still wants to tell himself they’re best left apart, as he doesn’t want to face all of those emotions for what they might be. | ||
+ | </div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
+ | |||
|} | |} | ||
+ | <table style="position:center;" width="100%"> | ||
+ | <tr><td style="vertical-align: top;width:50%;padding-right:10px; font-size:9pt;font-family:Helvetica;"> | ||
+ | {| class="wikitable alphabetical" border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 100%; text-align: left; vertical-align: left;" | ||
+ | |- style="background-color: #821600; color: #ffffff;" | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; background: #850A10;font-size:14px;color:#FFFDCA; text-shadow: 1px 1px 3px black;letter-spacing:0.2em;"><center><B>FELLOW HERETICS</B></center></div> | ||
+ | <!--You can add new entries below this line--> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Ysayle Dangoulain,</b> <i>Sort-of Leader, Sort-of adoptive little sister</i>. <b>(</b><font |
− | style="color:#ffe73d;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The | + | style="color:#ffe73d;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The beacon of hope/ice daughter.</b></div> |
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− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>" | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"Everything about Ysayle is wonderful. She's taken such a large burden on her shoulders, but I believe in her to bring in the new age."</i></div> |
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− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Esredes remembers when Ysayle first came to the camp, a child who had lost everything. He remembers how everyone took an interest in the new heretic and the mystery surrounding her. And he remembers when she revealed to him, and eventually the rest of the camp, the nature of her power. Once she could prove it was real, all he could see in her was overflowing potential. The potential to unite the heretic factions under the charisma of her being. And he couldn’t be more proud of her for what she’s accomplished for their people. |
− | + | He sees Ysayle as almost a little sister of sorts. She’s still young, she’s still vulnerable in the mind. He wants to continue to be there to help guide her along and make her learn to love herself. Despite her being the leader of the heretics, Esredes sees her less as his leader and more as the one who’s guiding everyone along, to which he then inputs on and assists. She can’t exactly boss him around, with him being there longer than she has by a few years. It only works one way. | |
+ | But with her around, the heretics have hope to create their ideal version of the future. And she is the ship that will guide them to shore. And he, for one, will continue to be one of the navigators aboard.</div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[http://bowdownoverdweller.tumblr.com/ Reveilleux Averre],</b> <i>Much Needed Reprieve Fellow Harrier</i>. <b>(</b><font | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://stride-the-aether.tumblr.com/ Lycelle Monteaux],</b> <i>Ally In The Walls</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#CD950C;" size="2">$</font><b>)</b> - <b>Strange, but good to have around.</b></div> |
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"She's like a map with missing routes. You can't figure out where everything is by a simple glance. And yet, perhaps it's not important."</i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Having been an ally within the walls secretly sending them wagons full of supplies for them to raid, her contribution to the heretic movement is a very appreciated one. It’s always nice to find highborns who didn’t lose everything like him that are willing to assist and believe in the heretic movement. As for her as a person, she is rather intriguing. A glance into her eyes reveals cloudy mechanism he can't help but feel an urge to see clearly, but beyond that, she is by all means polite enough to ensure smooth interaction. | ||
+ | He also really wishes he could kill her family. They are awful people, the kind that one can’t resist the urge to murder.</div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[http://bowdownoverdweller.tumblr.com/ Celandione Averre],</b> <i>Pupil</i>. <b>(</b><font | ||
+ | |||
+ | style="color:#ffe73d;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Red Storm and The Ripples/Anger daughter.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"Dione has been through some rough times, but I want nothing more than to help her shine with her true potential."</i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Since he picked her and her brother up out of a chance encounter in the Coerthan wilderness, already heretics now wanting to join the Disciple's effort, this one has been a journey. A journey he doesn’t regret and is fine with going on, but a journey nonetheless. He likes Dione for her passion and dedication, and he thinks she’s a good kid- and boy does she act like a toddler half the time it seems- but she has to confront her inner demons and delusions and learn to control herself. Only then is she going to achieve a better sense of herself and be able to become the warrior he wants of her. | ||
+ | He also knows something horrible has happened to her in the past, and he doesn’t have a way of understanding it, nor does he want to know the details. There’s nothing he can do but feel sympathetic for her in that regard. But she’s making progress despite that. He believes in her, he really does. And with his guidance, she’ll become something great.</div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
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+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[http://bowdownoverdweller.tumblr.com/ Reveilleux Averre],</b> <i>Much Needed Reprieve Fellow Harrier</i>. <b>(</b><font | ||
style="color:#ffe73d;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The brother/Intelligent son.</b></div> | style="color:#ffe73d;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The brother/Intelligent son.</b></div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://syerraffxiv.tumblr.com/ Olivette Simoneaux],</b> <i>Dearest Ally | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://syerraffxiv.tumblr.com/ Olivette Simoneaux],</b> <i>Dearest Ally</i>. <b>(</b><font |
style="color:#FA70BC;" size="2">♥</font><font style="color:#b72a78;" size="2">♦</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Strength Of A Heart’s Fire.</b></div> | style="color:#FA70BC;" size="2">♥</font><font style="color:#b72a78;" size="2">♦</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Strength Of A Heart’s Fire.</b></div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https:// | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://axepopoto.tumblr.com/ Mumune Mune],</b> <i>Acquaintance</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="2">●</font><b>)</b> - <b>The axe lady.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"I don't really know her, but she seems all right, if not overenthusiastic. I can always foster a level of appreciation for someone who hates Ishgard. Wonder if there's any chance she has a favorable opinion of harriers. | |
− | + | <br /> | |
− | + | ....It turns out I was wrong. Oh so very wrong. And it's to her regret that I am."</i></div> | |
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− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"I don't really know her, but she seems all right, if not overenthusiastic. I can always foster a level of appreciation for someone who hates Ishgard. Wonder if there's any chance she has a favorable opinion of harriers. | ||
− | <br /> | ||
− | ....It turns out I was wrong. Oh so very wrong. And it's to her regret that I am."</i></div> | ||
|- | |- | ||
| <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">He met Mumune in the aftermath of his Coliseum match with B'ahm for the role of sellsword, with her for some reason wanting to fight him as the loser of the match. Though really, he barely got to do so with a third strange competitor deciding to interject into the match. Still, they talked a little in the aftermath, and she revealed how she didn't like Ishgard for how it called her dad a heretic and made him pack up and leave, which made Esredes like her at least a bit. Perhaps they need to have a more proper fight sometime. | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">He met Mumune in the aftermath of his Coliseum match with B'ahm for the role of sellsword, with her for some reason wanting to fight him as the loser of the match. Though really, he barely got to do so with a third strange competitor deciding to interject into the match. Still, they talked a little in the aftermath, and she revealed how she didn't like Ishgard for how it called her dad a heretic and made him pack up and leave, which made Esredes like her at least a bit. Perhaps they need to have a more proper fight sometime. | ||
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! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://thecalmnessandthestorms.tumblr.com/ Alastor Izunia],</b> <i>Friend</i>. <b>(</b><font | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://thecalmnessandthestorms.tumblr.com/ Alastor Izunia],</b> <i>Friend</i>. <b>(</b><font | ||
− | style="color:#ffe73d;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>Cat son.</b></div> | + | style="color:#ffe73d;" size="2">♥</font><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>Cat son.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
| <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"The kid is trying his best, and I for one find reason now to hope he succeeds."</i></div> | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"The kid is trying his best, and I for one find reason now to hope he succeeds."</i></div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://heartofthefury.tumblr.com/ Seraphiaux Rosemond],</b> <i>Little Brother</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:# | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://heartofthefury.tumblr.com/ Seraphiaux Rosemond],</b> <i>Little Brother</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#e57c2d;" size="2">♥</font><b>) - The Ghost In The Flesh, Pulled From The Air.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
| <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"You come to me at a time when I don't need you anymore. I can only hope you truly learned your lesson, because my heart does not drain easily of bitterness once it is full."</i></div> | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"You come to me at a time when I don't need you anymore. I can only hope you truly learned your lesson, because my heart does not drain easily of bitterness once it is full."</i></div> | ||
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Still. So be it, he supposes. Most people like to talk to him that way. And for what he's worth, he's tolerable most of the time. And certainly potentially useful, have Esredes ever the need for his seemingly endless abilities. It's just likely that something may eventually boil over that needs to be addressed for their relationship to be completely functional.</div> | Still. So be it, he supposes. Most people like to talk to him that way. And for what he's worth, he's tolerable most of the time. And certainly potentially useful, have Esredes ever the need for his seemingly endless abilities. It's just likely that something may eventually boil over that needs to be addressed for their relationship to be completely functional.</div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
+ | |||
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+ | | | ||
+ | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://thelemstar.tumblr.com/ Rusty Axe],</b> <i>Friend.</i> <b>(</b><font style="color:#692ab7;" size="2"></font><font | ||
+ | |||
+ | style="color:#ffe73d;" size="2">♥</font><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Never-Ending Journey/Nightkin Son.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"Rusty is the sort of staple presence in my life that will always come in and out, but always come back. He’s family, simply put. Family that’s grown emotionally, and no longer needs me as much- but I always am happy to hear about all the adventures he’s going on, even if sometimes I feel he goes backwards and has to be dragged forward by me, again."</i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Since the war’s end and the long stretches of time since, Rusty has been very in and out. He takes multiple journeys to find himself, only to come back, and then be off again, and Esredes has gotten used to it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Out of the many people Esredes has mentored, he feels Rusty is one of those who matured the most and came to grasp the world outside of his damaged shell far better- it was a beautiful evolution, watching him go from withdrawn and secretive to boisterous and outgoing. And while he can always give in to his emotions and be a little much, grates and all, Esredes loves him genuinely for how much he is and means to him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sometimes Esredes gets to see Rusty around social occasions and hear of things like his Blitzball championship- he has never quite fully processed that rescuing him once allowed a Blitzball star to be so close to him- and sometimes the two must come together in intimate spaces and discuss the nature of Rusty himself. As Esredes tells him time and time again, he does not believe him a monster despite his heritage, and he will forever stand by that and him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Esredes has learned to be more open with Rusty about himself, as well, after Rusty called him out viciously on his lack of doing so, more particularly about his past and the like. There are some number of his fellow heretics Esredes doesn’t believe would understand or get it, but Rusty is not one of them. On some level, he’s come to believe Rusty does genuinely understand who he is now. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Esredes is proud of who Rusty is, even through all the road bumps that will come and go. And while he need not be a constant presence for him, Rusty is a home to Esredes just as the reverse is true, and family always comes home eventually.</div> | ||
|} | |} | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[ | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[http://bloodsworn-marshal.tumblr.com/ Pipin Tarupin],</b> <i>Acquaintance</i>. <b>(<font style="color:#692ab7;" size="2">★</font>)</b> - <b>The Ul'dahn On A Mission.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>" | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"While I don't know much about him, I do sort of like him. He seems rather chivalrous and noble in his persona, friendly, reasonable. And he's amusing when he gets all excited. I think we could get along."</i></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">While he's likely heard mention of Raubahn having a son before, he doesn't recognize him or his name at all. All he does gather about the Lalafell man is that he's Ul'dahn, probably of the Alliance? And also has a reason to dislike and hunt down the Crystal Braves, though Esredes is sure his motivation is nothing like his own, even if it also seems to be revenge driven. |
− | + | Nevertheless, when he encountered the man out in Coerthas and helped him escape the cold, he seemed well meaning enough that Esredes agreed to help him hunt down the heretic-murdering fiends, as well as trust his Outsider mind with his special ability. Fortunately, true to being an outsider, his reaction was that of excitement and amazement at someone being able to transform into a dragon. He might be jealous. Esredes can't tell. That's fine. Be jealous, you should be. | |
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− | Nevertheless, when he encountered the man out in Coerthas and helped him escape the cold, he seemed well meaning enough that Esredes agreed to help him hunt down the heretic-murdering fiends, as well as trust his Outsider mind with his special ability. Fortunately, true to being an outsider, his reaction was that of excitement and amazement at someone being able to transform into a dragon. He might be jealous. Esredes can't tell. That's fine. Be jealous, you should be. | ||
He doesn't really know or is particularly concerned of what they might connect or learn on their little expedition. All that truly matters to him is delivering justice for all the bodies burned into his mind, one way or another.</div> | He doesn't really know or is particularly concerned of what they might connect or learn on their little expedition. All that truly matters to him is delivering justice for all the bodies burned into his mind, one way or another.</div> | ||
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| <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Fiona, or Asah Lye when she goes by her true name, is a Nidhogg broodling, and a rather young one at that, masquerading as an Elezen in Ishgard who Esredes met at a heretical ceremony. Through a later follow up, he came to learn of her story and told her in turn of his peoples’, and since then and through bonding with a few of his, Fiona has become an associate to his people, not someone who is directly one of his, but who is content to hang with them and help them out when needed. What he has come to understand is that Fiona admires him and likes his people, but she is still a dragon who has prior obligations to her company in the Knights- this means that there are aspects of both himself and his company that she dislikes or judges and he knows it, and thus, Esredes still has to put on a certain level of outward appearance around her to circumvent this, downplaying his more vicious or disempowered aspects. But really, what else is new about dealing with both another person and a dragon? He might not know Fiona that intimately, but he does not find her unwelcomed by any means, and more recent interaction has reassured him that despite anything, she looks up to and wants to learn from him and his, which Esredes is content with. She is a friend to his people, and that is what tends to matter most in Esredes’ mind. | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Fiona, or Asah Lye when she goes by her true name, is a Nidhogg broodling, and a rather young one at that, masquerading as an Elezen in Ishgard who Esredes met at a heretical ceremony. Through a later follow up, he came to learn of her story and told her in turn of his peoples’, and since then and through bonding with a few of his, Fiona has become an associate to his people, not someone who is directly one of his, but who is content to hang with them and help them out when needed. What he has come to understand is that Fiona admires him and likes his people, but she is still a dragon who has prior obligations to her company in the Knights- this means that there are aspects of both himself and his company that she dislikes or judges and he knows it, and thus, Esredes still has to put on a certain level of outward appearance around her to circumvent this, downplaying his more vicious or disempowered aspects. But really, what else is new about dealing with both another person and a dragon? He might not know Fiona that intimately, but he does not find her unwelcomed by any means, and more recent interaction has reassured him that despite anything, she looks up to and wants to learn from him and his, which Esredes is content with. She is a friend to his people, and that is what tends to matter most in Esredes’ mind. | ||
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</div> | </div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[ | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[[Lobeaux Lounent]],</b> <i>Sort-of Friend</i>. <b>(</b><font |
+ | |||
+ | style="color:#ffe73d;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Confusion Inside An Awakening/Pink son.</b></div> | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>" | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"What a poor soul. That's a terrible thing to have gone through. I find him all right, fairly harmless, fairly naive. But he's well meaning, and I can't help but be concerned."</i></div> |
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− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Sometimes in life, there's a half feral Dragoon running around the wilderness partially transformed, and sometimes in life, you're dispatched as part of a team to neutralize him and bring him back home. |
− | + | In reality, they could've just sent him, because Esredes handled calming him down singlehandedly with almost no effort, and damn if he isn't proud of it. But he couldn't help but check on the thing in the infirmary afterwards, even offering him a little box of chocolates as a sympathy gift. After all, you don't just leave someone forcefully injected to deal with their new form by themselves. And isn't he such a nice man with reason to exist further to offer him his services? | |
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− | In reality, they could've just sent him, because Esredes handled calming him down singlehandedly with almost no effort, and damn if he isn't proud of it. But he couldn't help but check on the thing in the infirmary afterwards, even offering him a little box of chocolates as a sympathy gift. After all, you don't just leave someone forcefully injected to deal with their new form by themselves. And isn't he such a nice man with reason to exist further to offer him his services? | ||
The kid's all right, though. He's clueless about a lot of things, clearly loyalist but trying to be better, and doesn't think before he acts, but what person his age is ever intelligent? There's nothing particularly new Esredes hasn't encountered, and the kid doesn't seem to mind his presence. So for now, he can't help but look out for him. He has a lot of rough adjusting to do, and needs a bit of a guiding hand. | The kid's all right, though. He's clueless about a lot of things, clearly loyalist but trying to be better, and doesn't think before he acts, but what person his age is ever intelligent? There's nothing particularly new Esredes hasn't encountered, and the kid doesn't seem to mind his presence. So for now, he can't help but look out for him. He has a lot of rough adjusting to do, and needs a bit of a guiding hand. | ||
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{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Rainier Vigneaux,</b> <i>Small Friend</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#b72a78;" size="2">♦</font><font style="color:#6B8E23;" size="2">✔</font><b>)</b> - The Prisoner of The Raging Shadow/A Piece Of The Cornucopia.<b></b></div> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Rainier Vigneaux,</b> <i>Small Friend</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#b72a78;" size="2">♦</font><font style="color:#6B8E23;" size="2">✔</font><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - The Prisoner of The Raging Shadow/A Piece Of The Cornucopia.<b></b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
| <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“That poor, poor kid. He’s really such a lovely, pure soul that doesn’t deserve to be burdened with the mental issues he’s been given. I really hope I can help him live a better life, because he really does deserve the best.”</i></div> | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“That poor, poor kid. He’s really such a lovely, pure soul that doesn’t deserve to be burdened with the mental issues he’s been given. I really hope I can help him live a better life, because he really does deserve the best.”</i></div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Tertia Bellator,</b> <i>Friend/Client</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#6B8E23;" size="2">✔</font><font style="color:#b72a78;" size="2">♦</font><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Little Gunblade Painted Red and White.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“Tertia was one of the rather unexpected ones, but I most certainly can’t be upset for any of it. I’m not sure I entirely understand all of why she sees me as highly as she does, but I think I can trust her back. It’s always nice to talk to her and see the true woman under the mask, and know we can confide in one another.” |
− | + | </i></div> | |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">At very first glance, Esredes completely brushed her off. She was a random, dumb foreigner with an annoying voice and attitude in the Knight and she didn’t make an impression on him beyond that, someone Esredes expected to fade into background noise as many people often do. |
− | + | Until he witnessed her being entirely exposed by another friend who figured out she was in fact faking her accent and most everything else, and was actually a Garlean defector. But it wasn’t until he saw her again after that, already intending to apologize for dismissing and lightly insulting her before, that the two could finally talk as people, and he learned much more of her story. Something about defecting for redemption for something- the details of which were never provided, but which Esredes did not feel inclined to push to learn the specifics of those blanks, instead opting to simply reassure her she seemed capable of being a good person and turning over the new leaves she desired. In turn, she seemed equally wanting of him to be comfortable talking about his own emotions and life as he felt fit. | |
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− | + | While fleeting, their interactions since were always something simple and pleasant, company enjoyed and pieces of heart exchanged. Then she took it a step further by signing up to come in and confide even more deeply than she had before to him in his counseling service, and since it has become apparent to Esredes he might need to play a somewhat deeper role in her life for the sake of her own well being going forward, forged on the soft trust they’ve built for each other over their scattered interactions.</div> | |
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Marcelle Petiot,</b> <i>Client/Friend</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Woman <s>In The</s> Out of The Bottle.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“Marcelle has always been a weird one to me. I think she can be annoying, but I also think it’d be unfair to say I hate her. In the same vein, I think she’s all right, not the best nor worst person to talk with, but I don’t know if she’ll ever be more to me than someone who will never register me in full, nor do I know the extent to which I can help her- but if I simply try to help her and then she passes on her way, then I will be satisfied with that. At the least, I’d consider her an amicable enough acquaintance. She’s okay to be around in doses, and I remain concerned for her well being.<br></br> |
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− | </ | ||
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− | + | I think as things have developed, I can solidly say we’ll always be friendly acquaintances, at least. More than that, I’m not sure, but her presence is fairly comfortable. | |
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− | I | + | Past that point, I'm proud of how far she's come. I couldn't be happier with seeing how much she's become her own person. Even if we don't talk much, I don't think we need to. I'm happy with things just as they are.”</i></div> |
|- | |- | ||
| <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A treasurer for the Holy See that Esredes originally dismissed and avoided completely because she gave off the feeling of believing the See’s lies, making Esredes assume she probably thought the worst and figuring she was just a harmless one to avoid. To add to it, she comments too much on his clothing and how it’s not fashionable, driving his opinion of her further down into apathetic indifference and no real desire to be anything but a passing acquaintance. | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A treasurer for the Holy See that Esredes originally dismissed and avoided completely because she gave off the feeling of believing the See’s lies, making Esredes assume she probably thought the worst and figuring she was just a harmless one to avoid. To add to it, she comments too much on his clothing and how it’s not fashionable, driving his opinion of her further down into apathetic indifference and no real desire to be anything but a passing acquaintance. | ||
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Much happened since that first session- each time, Marcelle slowly made a bit of progress, then got fired and jailed for stealing potions, taken in by a noble family, and was even temporarily paralyzed in the legs from the side effects of the potions. Esredes has sat with her through the ideas he held back from arguing with, the emotional breakdowns, and the discussion of how one gets out of the dark room, growing more concerned and emotionally protective of her each time in that slightly removed and professional way. | Much happened since that first session- each time, Marcelle slowly made a bit of progress, then got fired and jailed for stealing potions, taken in by a noble family, and was even temporarily paralyzed in the legs from the side effects of the potions. Esredes has sat with her through the ideas he held back from arguing with, the emotional breakdowns, and the discussion of how one gets out of the dark room, growing more concerned and emotionally protective of her each time in that slightly removed and professional way. | ||
− | While he doesn’t consider her really a friend and doesn’t expect her to ever be, he’s grown comfortable talking to her casually and just brushing off anything that might be slightly annoying. The interesting thing is, as she casually brought up during one session, she’s even aware without details he’s a heretic thanks to a certain someone exclaiming it in front of them both once- but clearly doesn’t seem to do anything about it considering she still came to talk to him despite originally believing in Thordan’s way. And that’s not a conversation he is ever willing to have with her, so he’s taken it for what it’s worth and continues to try and guide her out of the room with both direct and indirect measures.</div> | + | While he doesn’t consider her really a friend and doesn’t expect her to ever be, he’s grown comfortable talking to her casually and just brushing off anything that might be slightly annoying. The interesting thing is, as she casually brought up during one session, she’s even aware without details he’s a heretic thanks to a certain someone exclaiming it in front of them both once- but clearly doesn’t seem to do anything about it considering she still came to talk to him despite originally believing in Thordan’s way. And that’s not a conversation he is ever willing to have with her, so he’s taken it for what it’s worth and continues to try and guide her out of the room with both direct and indirect measures. |
+ | |||
+ | In the end, this task was successful- Esredes did manage to help guide Marcelle out of the room, and she's been doing much better for herself, having even started up her own café. While he can't recall if she's ever directly thanked him for his part in everything, he can tell by her giving him extra samples and gestures of those nature that she is silently speaking of a great gratitude. Now every time he sees her, he can't help but feel a little happier. It's nice to be reminded that his good deeds do pay off, and that healing even from such severe cases of brainwashing is possible. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The two never did talk about what he is, but he doesn't really mind. Perhaps it doesn't even matter, for they are simply something of friends regardless at the end of a long road, and nothing changes that.</div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://realdragoonhours.tumblr.com/ Vallerin de Tremont],</b> <i>Client.</i> <b>(</b><font style="color:#6B8E23;" size="2">✔</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Violet Bolster In Your Abyss.</b></div> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://realdragoonhours.tumblr.com/ Vallerin de Tremont],</b> <i>Client.</i> <b>(</b><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font><font style="color:#6B8E23;" size="2">✔</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Violet Bolster In Your Abyss.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“My favorite counseling client, as of right now, and the one that brings me the best feeling of job security. He’s got a good heart that’s had too much happen to it- I feel obligated not just professionally, but morally to heal and protect him. He is good, he is comfortable- and he trusts me to help him. I cannot let him down when he deserves so much more."</i></div> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“My favorite counseling client, as of right now, and the one that brings me the best feeling of job security. He’s got a good heart that’s had too much happen to it- I feel obligated not just professionally, but morally to heal and protect him. He is good, he is comfortable- and he trusts me to help him. I cannot let him down when he deserves so much more.<br> |
+ | The good news is I succeeded- but it turns out the happy ending is... surprisingly quiet."</i></div> | ||
|- | |- | ||
| <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">The first official and professional client for Esredes’ new counseling job, and therefore his first opportunity to prove to himself he can do his job properly, and for that purpose, Vallerin was the perfect client. A man who genuinely needs this service, horribly depressed and traumatized but not angry and unreasonable like much of his order, instead opting to be humble, kind, and most importantly, perfectly normal. Exactly the sort of Dragoon Esredes finds ideal. | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">The first official and professional client for Esredes’ new counseling job, and therefore his first opportunity to prove to himself he can do his job properly, and for that purpose, Vallerin was the perfect client. A man who genuinely needs this service, horribly depressed and traumatized but not angry and unreasonable like much of his order, instead opting to be humble, kind, and most importantly, perfectly normal. Exactly the sort of Dragoon Esredes finds ideal. | ||
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But that’s fine. He feels an affinity and security with Vallerin that he can reassure himself of his insecurity with his job through, and so no matter how long it takes, he will heal the man piece by piece. And lord help if anyone ever tries to even so much as remark negatively on the man in the hearing range of Esredes if they ever happen to be nearby in public, they will find out just how vicious the wrath of an emotionally protective counselor can be. Some things simply don’t change. | But that’s fine. He feels an affinity and security with Vallerin that he can reassure himself of his insecurity with his job through, and so no matter how long it takes, he will heal the man piece by piece. And lord help if anyone ever tries to even so much as remark negatively on the man in the hearing range of Esredes if they ever happen to be nearby in public, they will find out just how vicious the wrath of an emotionally protective counselor can be. Some things simply don’t change. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After several therapy sessions, Vallerin stopped having the nightmares that initially plagued him, and Esredes has gathered through seeing him in public that he has recovered enough to no longer need to come, for which Esredes is glad to see. Even if he's found it leaves these two with nothing to really talk about in public encounters and reduced them to mere friendly acquaintances, such is the price of professionalism in his occupation. | ||
+ | |||
+ | More recently, though, Esredes has gotten more anxious, as they've both signed on to the same combat situations, and it becomes harder to keep up his identity of a mere Temple Knight turned therapist to his original client, and given comments he's overheard about how Vallerin doesn't quite trust peace with the dragons to last- he has a bad feeling that this one isn't a keeper, if it ever comes out. | ||
+ | |||
+ | But so be it, right? The purpose of therapy was never to simply get himself more friends, after all, and he was only meant to be a solution to a problem. So is the job of a counselor... | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Hassan Black,</b> <i>Mystery Friend</i>. <b>(<font style="color:#6B8E23;" size="2">✔</font>)</b> - <b>The Shrouded Helm.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"Hassan’s a bit of an interesting paradox to me. He’s the sort of mysterious person with a clearly dark past you would expect to be more closed off and guarded, and I suppose he is to a degree, but to also be this friendly and generally here and there around? Not really normal for people like him. Gods know what kind of person from the past I am talking to, but given the sorts of people I’ve had to make friendly with… how bad could it really be? He’s clearly someone different now…"</i></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">An outsider of a source Esredes isn’t sure of, though he highly suspects Garlean in some capacity, who appears here and there around Ishgard, always wearing a helmet that obscures his face. If the Fourth Temple Knight Company is holding a for fun dodgeball tournament, there this man is getting hit in the face with a ball. If there is a friend of Esredes’ in need of rescue, there he is come to fight and help. If there is a party in celebration, there he is in the same helmet with a tuxedo. And here and there around the usual spots in Ishgard, there he is as well. Esredes has not really gauged much of Hassan’s story besides that he explores the world a lot at his own pace and seems like a free spirit sort. Beyond that, he is simply a very friendly and surprisingly philosophical entity who seems to take an interest in Esredes’ more recent work and general lifestyle, an interest certainly not unwelcomed. The two cater to both casual and deeper discussions of life and belief, and Esredes always finds himself having an eased and good time in the man’s presence that has made him come to care for his well being regardless of what he is hiding. |
− | + | He’s also gained a somewhat deeper level of trust for Hassan due to unforeseen outbursts in the group rescue meeting leading to the word heretic being thrown out and Hassan speaking up angrily about how such things don’t matter, and reaffirming that he supports him no matter what that truly means. Further conversation later had the both of them confiding in one another about how hard it is for people like them to win over others when seen as subhuman… all without actually divulging any details about their respective pasts to one another. But even without that laid on the table, Esredes believes it wasn’t truly necessary to lay it out. He feels Hassan understands his dilemma for the most part without him needing to say a word, and thus if he ever needed to put a great deal of trust in him, he could. | |
− | + | Though he still knows little of Hassan, he’s content to accept that will always be the case, and he doesn’t have to be thrust right into the deep shadows of a person for once in order to accept who they are and leave it there. It seems no consequence comes of chatting with the man and he’s had no trouble being accepted around Ishgard locally, and dealing with the claws people sprout is like breathing to Esredes. He’s definitely not normal, and he sprouts something very unnatural and which does not seem to be fully in control that Esredes got a glance at in combat- but by this point, Esredes is much less afraid of such a thing, helped by having to invent a special form of therapy just to ease people out of it, and has resolved that he will simply try to deal with it as he’s done any other similar situation over the years. As for what exactly it is- he doesn’t know, and isn’t sure. It could be any of several possibilities, and he’s not going to ask and does not feel inclined to theorize or make a large deal of it in his head like he sometimes tends to. | |
− | + | Hassan simply evokes that feeling- a content and respectful lack of care for the details. And if all of this is the case, what is a friendship between two individuals of shadows but simply that? Whatever comes of the future, Esredes is content with what both the man and his relationship with him is. | |
+ | </div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
− | Of course, Elouan is as much a lion as he is a sunflower when the circumstances allow for it, a Paladin on Esrey’s level of swordsmanship but lacking the mental control thanks to his days of fighting in the Bloodsands in Ul’dah, and in sparring with him, Esredes saw what he suspected- that no, of course a beast lurked in Elouan like anyone else. | + | |- |
+ | | | ||
+ | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://shieldbcund.tumblr.com/ Elouan Sauveterre],</b> <i>Client/Friend/Platonic Lover</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font><font | ||
+ | |||
+ | style="color:#FA70BC;" size="2">♥</font><font style="color:#b72a78;" size="2">♦</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Sunflower In Sand and Snow.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i> “I love Elouan a lot, simply put. His presence is delightfully sunny and soothing, and his personality is the sort that will never see anything but the best of mine own, so I have no need to worry there. He’s adorable, he’s charming in his naivety but not so much it becomes annoying, I don’t think he’s as stupid as he believes himself to be. All in all, I always have a good and enjoyable time with Elouan, and while I cannot pour all the contents of my heart into him like he does into me, I will nurture his heart- I need not protect it, though I will when given the opportunity. He has protected his own heart for years. | ||
+ | |||
+ | <br>Except I was wrong. Elouan is the truest sort of friend, and he does want all of my black heart. It's a comfort, and my, is it so rare someone makes me feel so much constant affection. I love my sweet tall Sunflower so much, and if it could all just stay right like so...”</i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A Gridanian born man from a very average background minus the Ishgardian nobility lurking a bit further back in his bloodline he never got any taste of, Esredes met Elouan at a party and chatted with him for a while, taking interest in the man’s sketchbook and his nice landscape paintings and having a pleasant little exchange before moving on with his life and mostly forgetting about it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It wasn’t until another pleasant little conversation alone with the man in a community center turned into Esredes doing what he does best and accidentally opening up an emotional can of worms that Elouan became of more significance to him. While the man had already described him as safe- a compliment Esredes felt was unearned but appreciated anyhow- having to sit there and ease him out of a very heavy crying made it clear to Esredes this man could use his help, and so he made another counseling client out of him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | But things would quickly get much more intimate than even just that. For Esredes was invited along with him and his boyfriend Baptiste to accompany them on a trip to Gridania in order to stand up to Elouan’s horrible, neglectful and abusive father for the first time, a task Esredes was all too necessary for being the only one of the three who could keep his emotional composure during the events that unfolded. After a day of lows and highs that by the end of it resulted in the father being physically assaulted by Esredes not once but twice, a new scarf and sylph plushie being gifted to Esredes, and the three of them sharing an inn room together eating dinner in their sleepwear, Esredes knew he was going to end up a friend that Elouan desperately needed in his life. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Elouan is a sunny man by nature- someone who always chooses to look into the brightness of life and people without being unbearable about it, a manageable energy level for Esredes, someone who is very open and expressive and affectionate. In other words, he’s the exact sort of person Esredes finds comfortable and that he is able to relax in the presence of, as he’s not only happy to listen to Esredes, but Esredes knows he won’t judge him and will accept him for who he is, helped by him being removed from the world of Ishgard enough that matters do not weigh on him like they do Esredes. To this end, Elouan triggers Esredes’ more affectionate side, both physically and behavior wise, while being someone who he can relax around with low expectations, such is the luxury of the easily pleased. Esredes also grasped his emotional patterns quickly, and knows how to handle his often sudden downpours of emotion and calm him back to a better state of mind. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Of course, Elouan is as much a lion as he is a sunflower when the circumstances allow for it, a Paladin on Esrey’s level of swordsmanship but lacking the mental control thanks to his days of fighting in the Bloodsands in Ul’dah, and in sparring with him, Esredes saw what he suspected- that no, of course a beast lurked in Elouan like anyone else. | ||
But what is Esredes if not a tamer of beasts? It only took one little therapeutic exercise to fix the lack of control Elouan had in battle, and so Esredes could go right back to being unafraid of Elouan and being content in having all of his patterns down to manage. He hopes to continue to help guide Elouan to a more stable overall state of being, but it remains to be seen how much of himself he is willing to give back. | But what is Esredes if not a tamer of beasts? It only took one little therapeutic exercise to fix the lack of control Elouan had in battle, and so Esredes could go right back to being unafraid of Elouan and being content in having all of his patterns down to manage. He hopes to continue to help guide Elouan to a more stable overall state of being, but it remains to be seen how much of himself he is willing to give back. | ||
Outsiders are a mixed bag that way- they understand some things Ishgardians don’t, but other things they simply can’t. And he’s not sure he wants to burden the rainy sunflower with too much of his harshness and true scope of cold. | Outsiders are a mixed bag that way- they understand some things Ishgardians don’t, but other things they simply can’t. And he’s not sure he wants to burden the rainy sunflower with too much of his harshness and true scope of cold. | ||
+ | |||
+ | That being said, he didn't really have much a choice. For Elouan could only go so long falling into his usual lures of being blocked from learning too much about Esredes before he confronted him rather harshly about it- probably not helped by Esredes trying to explain that Nidhogg's brood are hopelessly enslaved to the Song leading to the man thinking he could go out and befriend one and forcing Esredes to reveal to a man scared of dragons what he was and then think he could sweep it under the rug- and so Esredes tried confessing both what he was and that he had used this fact to physically and psychologically torture his father and an abusive ex girlfriend. | ||
+ | |||
+ | He watched Elouan's hand twitch. | ||
+ | |||
+ | And then he threw his arms around him and said they deserve it, and for the first time he seemed truly mad about the things done to him. Equally the first time, Elouan and Esredes actually talked fully on the same level, as themselves without masks. | ||
+ | |||
+ | While the hand twitch haunts him, Esredes has mostly put it aside in favor of being more relaxed and true to himself around Elouan since, even opening up about some of his troubles and letting Elouan care for him as well. And for it, Elouan has joined the narrow ranks of Esredes' truest companions and friends, and Esredes couldn't be happier to cherish his sunflower fully as himself. He plans to stick by Elouan's side and continue to throw himself as deeply into him as he has thrown himself into Esredes. | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Corris Amberwright,</b> <i>Friend/Danger Companion</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#b72a78;" size="2">♦</font><font style="color:#6B8E23;" size="2">✔</font><b>)</b> - The Cracking Gem.<b></b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts: </b> <i> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i> “Corris is a lovely little woman, for whom I feel so bad for. She really seems to always get the short end of sticks, but she keeps going and she has a deep kindness to her that I don’t think she even comprehends the weight and extent of. I don’t think she comprehends how much she means and impacts other people at all, and it’s sad. I can only hope there’s a way to make her realize what she truly is before she fully resigns herself to perish.” |
+ | </i></div> | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A healer from Gridania engaged deeply with Osiris, an old friend of Esredes’, Esredes had only really spotted Corris around a former congregation area of his with Osiris before she stopped in at Seraphiaux’s shop while the man was upstairs dealing with an ink spill, leaving him naturally the one to talk to her instead. |
− | + | She made for a very pleasant conversation at first, curious about his counseling business and about himself, worried for Osiris, but speaking a little too much lead to Corris catching on to Esredes’ own problems and immediately wanting to help him. Something happened in that exchange to allow them both to implicitly trust one another, a fact accentuated by Corris going on to bring him along on a number of missions dealing with an obsessed Garlean woman who feigned after, kidnapped, and brainwashed Osiris, and her equally monstrous brothers and their experiments that keep harming innocents. | |
− | + | Corris is definitely no fighter or strategist, and each of their targets always seems dead set on going for her in some kind of creepy fixation, compelling Esredes to be protective of her as a proper knight to a healer. But even outside of these little missions, Corris is a creature of the heart, who continues to try and get closer to his out of that persistent general concern for him and his person. And while he’s not able to let her all in at once due to his natural inability to open up, he feels it’s safe to do so in small waves up to a point, for now. | |
− | + | What concerns Esredes most is that Corris is on a timer- due to overusing her life aether in the past, she’s only got a year left to live, and doesn’t seem too concerned about it. He’s no aetherologist or an expert into these matters, but he isn’t taking her ease standing up. Surely there has to be a way, for a monster infested world like this one is losing stability the more its flowers fade away... | |
− | |||
− | |||
</div> | </div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Nivaar Swann,</b> <i>Client.</i> <b>(</b><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font><font style="color:#6B8E23;" size="2">✔</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Pillar In The Void.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“Nivaar is definitely one of the sorts I feel bad for. He’s an adult, but he is still but a mere kid trying to handle so many heavy burdens, and I know my task in his life is to but try and chip away at a great storm. |
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | I just want to be the one to tell him of the warmth that exists in the blizzard. To let him begin to see it for what it is. It’s not a feeling I can feel too deeply, but others like him deserve to.” | |
</i></div> | </i></div> | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A bastard of House Swann and a child soldier, left to be the one to take the house over after no one else was left, at least after Esredes encouraged him to talk to his staff to make the decision for himself. |
− | + | Before all of that, though, Esredes merely knew him as the withdrawn young man who walked into his office requesting his counseling services, of which he was happy to give a handshake and an overview before proceeding to make a client out of him. Every time Nivaar comes in, there is always something new and concerning to speak of, but that is often par for the course. Nivaar tackles a mixture of schoolwork, estate troubles, the trauma that comes from a neglectful and lacking childhood combined with being a child soldier, as well as the fact there is also a voidsent attached to him he doesn’t know how to get rid of. | |
− | + | As Esredes has come to know something of the man, besides the usual empathy and sympathy, he’s come to appreciate how well mannered and kind he is, keeping it together under such a premise despite everything that’s happened to him. He can tell Nivaar doesn’t truly comprehend how much he deserves in life, and he hopes to gently nudge him towards said comprehension. The young man needs someone in his life to be a pillar, and while he is not someone Esredes has psychologically come to see like a son, he does nonetheless feel Nivaar needs an older figure like himself to lean on, and he is happy to be leaned on. | |
− | + | His concern and worry for Nivaar always seems to be growing, however, the more things are thrown at the man. And all the same, he still wishes to be seen as nothing but composed and elegant and professional in front of him, and for that he shuts off a certain part of himself to him. He can feel Nivaar seems regretful of killing those like his own people in the war, and he wants to be able to tell him he is forgiven- but that is not a topic to breach until it is breached.</div> | |
+ | |} | ||
− | + | |- | |
+ | | | ||
+ | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Alphinoix Luitomiere,</b> <i>Client/Sort Of Boss?</i> <b>(</b><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font><font style="color:#6B8E23;" size="2">✔</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Angel Of Revived Flesh.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“Maybe it’s not as surprising as my mind makes it out to be that he is completely unafraid of my presence, yet still. Even the good sort are often hesitant. And to then want to trust me as an equal? ...I cannot let such an individual down. He most of all deserves my help, and I want with everything in me to see him fare well.” | ||
+ | </i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">High Inquisitor Alphinoix Luitomiere, a regal name Esredes had merely heard the deeds of throughout his years of heresy and made sure that in all of the snooping, spying, and setting up for traps his people did into Inquisitors, this one was strictly and completely off the list and left alone. For to do otherwise would be a crime in the truest sense, as Esredes has never witnessed an Inquisitor live up to the idea of what the position is supposed to be more than this man, almost to the point it doesn’t even feel possible or real. | ||
− | + | An uprooter of corruption, even within his own ranks, a man who truly stands up for the innocent and those who are usually crushed by the legal system, constantly working to pardon those unjustly convicted and work for justice in the realest of senses. The man is often regarded as the living will of Halone herself, and Esredes for one, even despite his lack of belief in Halone anymore, can’t help but be inclined to believe it himself. | |
− | + | But that is all Alphinoix is to Esredes, the name of a distant entity that while he is unsure is something he can be all right in the presence of, he nonetheless holds a deep and rare respect for automatically out of belief in the ideals of justice he embodies. | |
− | + | Until he found the man casually having lunch outside the Fortemps manor one day, anyhow, and like the fool he is, was left confused for a moment as to who this person could be calling him by his name and asking him if the city was treating him well until he introduced himself by name. True to all that was said, the man was every part polite and kind, even relatively relaxed as if nothing was wrong- perhaps not even believing anything was wrong in the first place with how eased he was about knowing Esredes’ careers and offering him a scone. That would have been a pleasant little encounter by itself, but the atmosphere shifted from Esredes trying to ease himself in the presence of a high representation of the law as the man unexpectedly, after asking about how it was going, inquired as to if his counseling services were open to members of the Inquisition. | |
− | + | It was one thing to simply have a respectful conversation with the High Inquisitor who seemed to hold nothing towards him. It was another to expect him to want to talk to him, of all people, with surely complete awareness, in such a manner as to open his heart. But then again, if even a bad Inquisitor could find a reason to do it, did a good one not only make sense? | |
− | + | Needless to say, Esredes shifted his demeanor to be much more confident, but gentle in reassuring he was allowed, losing the standoffishness inherent to him on such interactions. Yet when the man actually arrived to his space, he quickly made it clear to Esredes’ words he was just a man here, not the High Inquisitor of her most holy. As is his own duty, Esredes respected this request, and spoke with the man as if he were but a simple colleague, gauging more of just how alone and unable to trust or be close to people the man was in his life beyond the Inquisition. | |
− | + | A man who if he wasn’t perfect, his entire kind would be beyond hope and to be hated and eliminated. | |
− | + | Perhaps this was indeed the perfect matchup. | |
− | + | Esredes is now past his usual paranoia and even doubt stage and glided right into a quick level of sincerity that isn’t common with such new relationships. There is little for him to hide from the Inquisitor, so he thinks, and he feels it only fair to reciprocate the immense trust given to him on some level by being the professional version of who and what he truly feels. A true self for a true self. And while he was already in a sense protective of the man by keeping him away from his own vicious people, truly seeing him in the flesh and seeing the horrible, nasty scars on his chest from the time his boss sent him into a trap of a dragon and he was ripped apart and miraculously reappeared alive months later has made Esredes much more concerned for how he’s an easier assassination target now, and how much Ishgard could lose if such a thing were to happen. It’s unfortunate for himself, then, how little he can offer in that regard beyond a blue safe space here and there and the good will of a whole network of people. | |
+ | |||
+ | Nonetheless, in that restrained professional sense, Esredes has found himself falling into that pattern of behavior once more of investing a lot emotionally into someone he sees as a beacon of undisputable goodness. Perhaps he finally has a link to care about the ongoings of the Inquisition beyond his own monitoring and plotting, or perhaps he has the greatest shield of all, cracked as it may be... | ||
+ | |||
+ | Well the former turns out to be true to some extent, as Alphinoix hired him on to do counseling on prisoners of the Tribunal. And though it gives Esredes many conflicting feelings, ultimately he could not resist both the benevolence of the request and the opportunity to extract vengeances... | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Aludove Leauciment,</b> <i>Client.</i> <b>(</b><font style="color:#692ab7;" size="2">★</font><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font>)</b> - <b>The Night Sky’s Cold Strings.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve dealt with the void, dragon’s blood, dark magic, Garlean abominations, ascians, the echo, but whatever the hell fae stuff is? Absolutely not at all. |
+ | |||
+ | He’s well meaning, but by the gods does the man have issues, which I suppose is why I even know him. I can certainly help him, but I am going to have to be firm at times to get my points across. I just don’t want to end up regretting everything like I tend to because of magic I cannot deal with or foresee coming.” | ||
+ | </i></div> | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Esredes wasn’t sure what to think when he read the appointment form for this man’s name. It was the longest description of what to seek counsel for he had ever gotten, and it contained a long winded description of Aludove being murdered and brought back as a Fae of the Court of Night and needing to deal with his problems now that he was immortal. |
− | + | ||
− | + | He supposed it was only a matter of time before he got one of the complex delusional clients to show up, but Esredes read through what sounded like nonsense to him and decided it was his professional duty to be kind and try to sort through these delusions without trying to outright break them on the first session. | |
− | + | ||
+ | After a mix of writing down more terminology he didn’t quite understand and recounts of the man’s childhood and experience in Ishgard that was much more familiar and comprehensible territory, Esredes accidentally distressed Aludove enough that he transformed into some kind of starry humanoid creature and teleported away, and it was in that moment he realized that none of what his mind had been glossing over was simply a complicated fracturing of Aludove’s traumatic life. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Afraid he had blown it on a first session again, Esredes later received a letter- via a large moth no less- from the man apologizing and recognizing he was merely trying to help, a relief for Esredes’ record and personal esteem that everything was fine and could keep going. After all, the man even mentioned Esredes was not his first attempt at counseling, and seemed more professional than them, somehow. | ||
− | + | Even beyond all the things Esredes can only do his best to logic his way through by all the other supernatural and abnormal experiences he’s had, there is much he can relate to in Aludove. Mutual need for vengeance on the filth of Ishgard, though Aludove is much too past it in Esredes’ opinion, issues with being dominant over people Esredes is only half self aware of, redemption complexes- he certainly can’t say his own nonexistent love life is as tumultuous as the mans’, but he’s far beyond used to discussing relationship issues in this format by now. | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | Esredes’ feelings towards the man are all completely professional by this point beyond the usual stroke of empathetic concern- he’s mostly relieved to have somehow gained the man’s unsaid trust in so quickly a time after his previous experiences. Aludove is the sort that needs firm and plainly delivered doses of reality at times because of his own overindulged optimism in people, and Esredes worries his approach is a bit harsh, but it seems to work and not drive the man off. He’s mostly content if he doesn’t get blasted with a wave of fae magic again like he was at the end of the first session. | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | He has marked Aludove down as a no on the truth, however. At least the whole of it. While a former vigilante for bringing down the filth of Ishgard, Aludove has a traumatic incident with a dragon in his past, and Esredes does not want to traumatize any clients. | |
− | + | </div> | |
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Victoriaux Brisbois,</b> <i>Friend</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#b72a78;" size="2">♦</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Splintered Log.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“Victor’s… not always emotionally stable, but he is a stalwart companion of a friend to have around, and one I find quite comfortable. Moments aside, I consider him to be a stable decoration on the table, so to speak, and he is definitely someone I can call a ‘buddy’.” |
+ | </i></div> | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A lowborn carpenter with a glass eye from an accident involving a tree falling on him, Victor entered Esredes’ life as just some random stranger attending Elouan’s new little attempt at a social club, though not an unwelcomed one, since he was nice enough to carve a rabbit out of wood for Esredes as a little gift request. Esredes figured from this he was on his good side, only to have Victor try to blow up on him while overdosing and high for trying to help him, only to then apologize later. |
+ | |||
+ | Since then, they haven’t done much beyond bicker occasionally, and Esredes has gone back to being on his good side more permanently. Through the various meetings of the social club and also at Vette’s home, Victor has come to call Esredes his Rose Buddy and show that he appreciates Esredes’ presence as probably the only stable noble he knows, plus the only one that can explain noble logic half the time. | ||
− | + | While Victor’s tendency to switch flip to an emotional outburst irritates Esredes, it’s balanced by him being surprisingly level headed… maybe forty to sixty percent of the time, when he isn’t sleeping with things he probably shouldn’t or other miscellaneous stupid things. This allows for a mutual ability to lean on one another, in which Esredes bails out and helps Victor out of the various situations of physical injuries he gets himself in to, and Victor makes himself a comfortable space for Esredes to vent, even to the extent of his real self and not just the mask. | |
− | + | It’s not exactly a perfect balance, as it feels like Victor only ever spends so long stable before he’s off into this or that stupidity or injury again, but it’s enough for Esredes’ ever dwindling standards of friendships. He’s fun sometimes, he cares, and Esredes can be himself even when it’s unpleasant. He’s not sure what him and Victor really are beyond the club, hangouts, and occasional opening up to one another, but he’s not complaining. Victor’s a solid little friend for the simple things in life, and even though they are very different people, they still have something to offer one another. | |
+ | </div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Xavierre Chatelain,</b> <i>Friend/Client</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#b72a78;" size="2">♦</font><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Unknotted Thread.</b></div> |
− | |||
− | style="color:# | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“Xavierre’s a good, pleasant man- he just has some built up things to work out within himself and he’ll manage to find his way. I had high hopes for him, much too high- it’s for the best he does as he’s needed to, but I still enjoy his presence nonetheless. He’s lovely company, most of the time, like a sweet little puppy that won’t leave your side.” |
+ | </i></div> | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A noble and weaver who spent much time away and feels outcast and unbelonging in high society, Xavierre came to Esredes after making his presence known to him at a social club to inquire after Iceheart’s movement as one of those eager learners of the real truth, and Esredes was happy to oblige him in his office. Then he declared him a friend and offered to take him on a walk with his carbuncles- and the man’s enthusiasm and support for Esredes had him thinking he had a new pillar to lean on sometimes in the making, and he would make known his gratitude for it- |
+ | |||
+ | If the man hadn’t suddenly burst into tears at some question Esredes asked and brought the entire walk to a complete halt. And as he poured out his emotions to him, Esredes went as silent as he always does. | ||
+ | |||
+ | And so came the therapy forms, the sessions, the man crying every time they talked for a few times in a row, the repetitive reassurances and the water. And on top of that, the man confessing to him both drunk and sober that he found his serpentine like appearance attractive and had a crush on him. That was between Esredes having to escort him home drunk. | ||
− | + | How wonderful. | |
− | + | Xavierre at least eventually got a clue and apologized to him for all of it, but Esredes doesn’t have much to say back. He expected a new ally he could let support him, and instead got yet another therapy patient trying to lean on him wanting a relationship that will never happen. It is often a phenomenon with Esredes that if someone begins to declare they’ll consider him, they will go back on their word within two interactions, and so he’s not holding his breath and putting anything on him, or else the man will probably just break and cry more. | |
+ | Well, so is his path to navigate for himself. He still enjoys Xavierre’s company and recognizes his genuine care, but they’ve not talked of anything personally relevant to Esredes since that second meeting, and so conversation tends to be one sided or fall flat, and Esredes tends to forget about him among all the rest happening all the time. | ||
− | + | Perhaps he should finish what he started and be trying to make a loyal ally of him, but Esredes is unsure that Xavierre really has the fortitude or idea of what that actually entails. It’s a test for another time- for now, Esredes is still too busy forgetting about him half the time, and content to keep him more as something of an occasional, passing by friend. | |
+ | </div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Jude Lohengrinne,</b> <i>Friend/Limited Vocabulary Son</i>. <b>(</b><font |
+ | |||
+ | style="color:#ffe73d;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Broken Wings On Unsteady Limbs.</b></div> | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“Jude is a lot, but I won’t stop caring for him. Because not only does somebody have to when someone has been left so neglected, but getting to see beyond all the anger and unchecked emotions to the lost young man inside and to bond in that state of being has been all the rewarding, even if he’s overbearing sometimes. |
+ | |||
+ | Sometimes it’s like trying to put out a fire with an eyedropper with Jude, but I can’t give up on him no matter what happens. And oh, do things keep happening.” | ||
+ | </i></div> | ||
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Esredes | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A squire of House Swann who hails from another failing noble house, disgraced and kicked out of said house by his mother and left to find his way. Jude’s an individual in all senses of the term, the kind Esredes can’t help but empathize with because he’s been there before. When you’re nineteen with unchecked emotional issues, the world is a hard place to navigate without anyone around to help you make sense of it and how to be responsible. |
− | + | Originally encountering him at Elouan’s social club and then subsequently in little public places or at House Swann itself, it took a lot less time than Esredes expected to break through to Jude and be accepted as an emotional aid to the young man, and since then Jude has been a very frequent presence in his life, coming into his office to tell him about this or that problem of the week or asking him to go on little adventures, and in group settings, often seems to grab his attention for things Esredes doesn’t know how to respond to. | |
− | + | The two also have verbal arguments here and there, an inevitable consequence of them being mutually stubborn people, but they always come around to remind one another they love each other. While Esredes doesn’t completely trust Jude’s reliability as a narrator, he has come to learn he can trust him with himself, at least. Jude seems to have gotten over the truth of his being rather quickly and takes to learning more about it all in stride. He even wants to ride him into battle, which would be fun if he knew how to properly dismount from the air. | |
− | + | Jude is a cute little stubborn kid, but one that Esredes believes in to find his way despite everything stacked against him. And he for one is never going to give up on ushering him along it, because he knows firsthand how it feels to be left by everything. </div> | |
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://kainenmarlowe.tumblr.com/ Kainen Marlowe],</b> <i>Temporary Commander/Friendly Acquaintance</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#6B8E23;" size="2">✔</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Long Reaching Branch.</b></div> |
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts: </b> <i>“I was a little mean to him at very first glance, and I still feel a little bad about it. He was undeserving. In fact, he exceeded my expectations, and I was being paranoid over nothing that never existed. No, I quite like and care for this one- even if he is full of mysteries- and it’s a pleasure to join him in war.”</i></div> |
− | |||
|- | |- | ||
− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Endwalker Spoilers Ahead</b> |
+ | |||
+ | A knight commander Dragoon who it turns out is actually a native Gridanian recruited to Ishgard’s war effort, Ser Kainen summoned Esredes to the congregation to ask him to join Ishgard’s part in the Alliance in dealing with the mysterious new towers that sprouted up all over Eorzea. | ||
− | + | Alas, this was a game Esredes knew quite well by this point, and forever wary as he is of a Vampire’s Promise- that is to say individuals who think they can ask anything of him for nothing in return- he did not immediately accept the offer. Not before making the man voice how much he was needed and that the past didn’t matter, or something to that effect, and carefully analyzing each word out of the man to read his true intentions, where he stood in the quietly raging storm of the war’s aftermath. | |
− | + | It wasn’t long before his reservation went and melted away, though- for at the banquet between members of the Alliance’s Ishgard Faction, the man’s linkpearl sounded and he was quickly telling Esredes to come with him- to the cells where a tempered woman was yelling about how Shiva would rise again. | |
− | + | It would be many peoples’ call to do all sorts of unpleasant things in this situation, but Kainen allowed him to give her her rosary back, let her out the moment she was untempered, and allowed her to be escorted back home at her request. Between this and conversation afterwards, Esredes’ trust in the man and his character and judgement grew to new levels. | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | Other Dragoons were typically harsh and spiky, after all, and while his armor had spikes, his demeanor did not. There is a gentleness and reasonability to Kainen which Esredes finds comforting and well utilized. The hyur already being at a slight disadvantage for Esredes taking his authority completely seriously being younger and therefore presumably less experienced, Esredes instead ended up with something of a mutual respect underlined by his genuine trust of the man’s decisions thus far. | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | In turn, Kainen’s not very visible with his emotions at all. A welcomed break from quite a few types of people Esredes attracts, but the serpent in Esredes still wonders after what’s going on inside. He simply has the feeling there is a lot not visible from the surface. Still, it wouldn’t be right or his place to pressure the man into anything. Esredes is content to simply continue to reciprocate support and goodwill and see what happens. | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | + | Through adventures together in the aftermath in the battle of Carteneau and Garlemald, Kainen remained pleasant to him, even doing small gestures that mean a lot to him such as giving him a flower when he was injured, permitting him to use his dragon form for rescue of fellow Alliance members, and calling him a True Knight and asking how he could help his comfort in Ishgard. Esredes also found the two talking together quite a bit compared to the other members of the Ishgard Division. Even in those leisurely, non-military encounters out in the Ishgard common, the two end up talking rather casually and normally as if they were mere friendly acquaintances and there was nothing else to be said, which Esredes has accepted and just went with for what it’s worth. | |
− | + | All in all, Esredes has found a stalwart and unexpected companion in Kainen, which he intends to cherish for what it’s worth in the field of battle, and be content to remain friendly to him outside of it. Whether there is any more to be said, or that should be said, is a question Esredes will only allow time to take its natural course in answering. He only knows he will miss their time together when it passes and he must return to the shadows of ash. But at least he can speak to Kainen, bathed in the light as he is, from his position at shadow’s edge. | |
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Person Name,</b> <i>relationship</i>. <b>(</b> <b>)</b> - <b>Title.</b></div> |
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+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; background: #850A10;font-size:14px;color:#FFFDCA; text-shadow: 1px 1px 3px black;letter-spacing:0.2em;"><center><B>ENEMIES, NEGATIVES, NEUTRALS, AND OTHER RELATIONSHIPS</B></center></div> | ||
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− | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b> | + | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://mazinkhin.tumblr.com Mazin Khin],</b> <i>Unfriendly Acquaintance</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#692ab7;" size="2">★</font><font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1"></font> <font style="color:#C24640;" size="2">✖</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Empty Husk.</b></div> |
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− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>" | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"If this is what I have to deal with in light of the camp being gone, I’d rather be dealing with their idiocy. At least they had some respect and decency. This man has nothing but broken memories and an even more broken personality."</i></div> |
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− | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"> | + | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Having initially sought Esredes out since his speech at a heretic ceremony, Esredes was all willing to help this amnesiac man with his expertise on harrier camps to find his mother… for all of exactly one minute before the man proceeded to call him a monster and not take it back. |
− | + | It didn’t help that after he walked out, the man took to <i>stalking him</i> and demanding he still help him for payment or else he would keep this up. At that point, he wasn’t even going to accept his apology, just do the task to get him out of his skin. Upon witnessing his birth home shun him away due to the nature of his mother’s leaving, Esredes couldn’t feel that sorry for him- but he still felt the need to lecture the man on his own problems before leaving things off. | |
− | + | For there is nothing to like about this man other than to pity his suffering. And he doesn’t. His suffering and inability to feel things doesn’t excuse him being a disrespectful, annoying, persistent, creepy, and ultimately completely fake and unempathetic person with the density of a rock on the ocean floor. No, he could try to perform with the man as he usually does, his tried and true act of empathy and patience, but he’s already decided the man doesn’t deserve it until he acts like a better person and so he simply told him to do everything he could to improve beyond an empty husk. While not the worst person he’s ever had the displeasure of dealing with, Esredes has no desire to ever see him again until something changes. And maybe not even then, either.</div> | |
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+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://houserosaire.tumblr.com/ Silvaineaux Rosaire],</b> <i>Dislike</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="1"></font><font | ||
+ | |||
+ | style="color:#C24640;" size="2">✖</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Shades Of A Mirror.</b></div> | ||
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+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"What an unpleasant individual. I hope to every god for the sake of the people around him he learns how to manage those anger problems. I'll bet you he's hit people out of anger before. Either way, he's disgusting and I want to stay far away from him."</i></div> | ||
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+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">The only reason he knows of this man is seeing him visit Sui- something indicated only by Sui asking Esredes to hide away, an immediate sign that something was not right. | ||
+ | |||
+ | And oh, was something not right. For Esredes used his illusion to eavesdrop on their conversation, only to hear this other man as the exact kind of loyalist he really didn’t have time for- the kind who was self-righteous and set in their hatred, unpleasant, and overall just really not worth it. And he hated the way he talked to Sui, made worse by '''''witnessing the two kiss'''''. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This pissed Esredes off so much that he opted to pretend to enter the room again just to deliberately try and drive a wedge between them, and succeeded in pissing Silvaineaux off enough to make him shatter his wine glass and cut his hand. Because Esredes decided in that moment that Sui deserved much better than such an aggressive man with shades of controlling behavior, and if he wouldn’t realize how terrible the relationship was on his own, Esredes had to bring to light all the ways it was a terrible idea. As much as he respects Sui’s general neutrality, he draws the line at this. Esredes seems to care for Sui just enough to not want to lose him to some asshole loyalist. | ||
+ | |||
+ | He really doesn’t feel bad for what he did, in fact, he brags about it sometimes. What kind of man has anger problems bad enough to ''shatter a fucking glass?'' Even he would never do that. The whole thing is hilarious to him, but when you boil it down, he simply doesn’t care for Silvaineaux. He’d love to see him fuck off and leave it at that, because he’s not worth the time of day, and he’s not worthy of Sui’s gentle soul.</div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
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+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Liamont Arbeau,</b> <i>Begrudging Acquaintance</i>. <b>(<font style="color:#692ab7;" size="2">★</font>)</b> - <b>The Submission To Misery.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"It's really not easy being the only person in Ishgard sometimes willing to practice decent humanity. Case in point: this broken, pathetic sadsack of a loyalist. I have a few words to say to whoever allowed him to get ''this'' bad. He's a sentient headache and a pain in the ass. But by god, does he need someone to put up with him."</i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Esredes will never think of Sui as a pitiful or sad puppy ever again. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Because this man? This man. Is so much worse. In every conceivable way. Not only is he sort of a loyalist, even if not a bad one, but he is one dealt the worst hand. A poor little lowborn man who ran from the military after his parents were witchdropped, turned himself in, and was sentenced to pay off the debt of all the families of the soldiers who had been affected by his desertion. Something that Esredes, of course, could immediately point out, while encountering the man in dragon form out in Western Coerthas, was a complete load of shit. And which the man argued was simply his just punishment. | ||
− | + | Ohhhh boy. The more the man speaks, the more he reveals himself as completely brainwashed and practically brain damaged by Ishgard’s ways. He can’t think for himself at all, and is resolved to torturing himself with self-hatred because of the guilt over what he did and his status as ‘lowborn filth’. Esredes can see entirely through this man, and it concerns him deeply. If the poor man wasn’t an incredible source of headache for how delusional he is, he’d be a decent person, and Esredes can’t just let this injustice go on when he seems to be the only person to tell Liamont that he isn’t a complete waste of space. | |
− | Inquisitors really do think their lack of ability to understand human emotion allows them to treat people however they want, as per usual. | + | So in all of his gracious knowledge, Esredes took it upon himself to try and help the man. Which meant he essentially subjected himself to a patience test of the highest measure, as the man often resists every attempt he makes to be nice to him, says the absolute stupidest things, and accidentally says incredibly insensitive things to piss Esredes off. Esredes makes one thing clear to everyone: this man is not his friend. He is a charity case, something Esredes can look upon and think, ‘oh, a challenge, if I can solve this one, I am practically capable of fixing anyone.’ And a challenge it is, something to make Esredes feel better about his own life. |
+ | |||
+ | Still, while his motives aren’t entirely pure, Esredes is determined to help the man improve, and be absolutely nowhere near him the rest of the time in order to protect against brain ruptures. And if he succeeds, the man will be less unbearable, and Esredes can pat himself on the back. Clearly a win-win, right?</div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
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+ | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Gerivien Greystone,</b> <i>Even More Begrudging Acquaintance</i>. <b>(<font style="color:#692ab7;" size="2">★</font>)</b> - <b>The Boiling Pot With A Sealed Lid.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"Do I like that one? No. Do I get to express that? Also no. Make no mistake, I can't hate the man either, it would feel wrong knowing that he is just in severe need of help. But I expect it will be many headaches and too much effort on my part to see through all the way to his clouded heart.<br> | ||
+ | Surprisingly, though, the kid has gotten better. I dare say I even kind of like him in a non-forced way. Maybe there's still room for that to be ruined, but for now I don't mind spending time with him. Far fewer headaches than anticipated."</i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Just when Esredes thought Liamont was the most pathetic thing possible, he learned that the only thing worse than Liamont is a Liamont who is angry instead of meek. Enter Gerivien, another member of that awful Temple Knight division who is insultive and hostile to everyone around him and refuses in much of the same way as Liamont to have any conception of not digging himself into holes. Esredes does want to feel bad for him, as he’s clearly gone through a lot, but much like Liamont, he can’t actually like him as much as he can tolerate him in doses for the sake of feeling obligated to get someone out of a vicious cycle. Sure, there’s a visible softer core somewhere down under all that anger, but Esredes doesn’t expect to catch more than glimpses of it for a long while. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Fortunately, after bothering Gerivien and lecturing him once, he’s found himself on Gerivien’s ‘hold in my anger because I want to prove I can control myself’ side, which Esredes will take for now. It means Esredes is not as directly bothered by his presence as before, but he’s still going to find ways to make Gerivien a secondary healing project... | ||
+ | |||
+ | More interactions since have landed the kid more into Esredes’ like range. When the kid holds back his anger and just interacts like a normal person best he can, he’s actually not that bad, he can be talked to much easier than his pathetic sad sack counterpart, even, and made to do some things a little more. Esredes knows it’s going to be slow to try and help the squire- of which he still doesn’t even connect a name to- but the more he glances into the young man whenever he’s in distress, the more he wants to try in all the ways he comfortably can, and has decided to put aside his past irritation for being nice to him with all the patience within him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Clearly no one else has tried for the poor kid. Who else will, if not a fellow unfavored, wretched creature? | ||
+ | </div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
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+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Darcy Crawford,</b> <i>Acquaintance</i>. <b>(<font style="color:#692ab7;" size="2">★</font>)</b> - <b>The Rising Dove.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"She’s one of the few members of that unit I find pleasant enough to be around. I’m not sure if I can trust her or not, but she’s been nothing but kind to me. That woman is very capable and is going places, and for that I cannot help but admire her in a sense regardless of where she lands."</i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A recently promoted sergeant of the Fourth Company, from afar everything in Darcy’s life seems like it goes quick from Esredes’ perspective, not that he keeps up intimately. The woman was a squire when Esredes first vaguely recalled her existence, but eventually was knighted, and rose to sergeant and rumor has it even elevated from lowborn to nobility. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nonetheless, Darcy is a somewhat intriguing presence to Esredes. She displays most of the virtues of a knight and from what little he can observe takes the position as seriously as one should, which earns his respect. As has been Esredes’ default for dealing with the Fourth, he always approaches Darcy with a calm and laid back attitude, a passerby greeting a recurring individual like a passing neighbor from down the street. And she always seems to reciprocate, even working with him to teach a couple noblewomen pool, letting him send letters to inform her of when to deliver bread to a former workplace, and chatting him up about politics and her life after suffering injury just earlier that day. Regardless of where she might stand, Esredes feels it the right and moral decision to continue to be nice to her and lift her up in small and indirect ways- gods know, it seems like the stressed woman could benefit from it at times. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Until he has any more insight into her, Esredes is content to commend the knight for her efforts and chat leisurely about whatever ends up coming their way- not to mention play pool again, if it ever comes to that, as he’s still astounded by her beginner’s luck. Being a lowborn makes it clear she had to work hard to get to her position, and that deserves its due respect regardless of anything else. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the end of the day, though, he still perceives himself her superior despite being ‘retired’, and that underlies all of his interactions with her. Regardless of her competence, talent, and stances, she is still but a blooming flower to him, one he can only hope will be a beautiful plant in the mixed and wilting garden of Ishgard’s military. | ||
+ | </div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
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+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Matou de Liautroix,</b> <i>Enemy</i>? <b>(</b><font style="color:#C24640;" size="2">✖</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Silver Birdcage.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"I’m really getting sick of Inquisitors like him- which is to say, I am sick of Inquisitors. He really thinks he can just control and manipulate people and do as he wants and they will stick by him. His attitude is disgustingly arrogant, and it scares me how many people fall for it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Why are people more willing to excuse blood if it comes from people with no empathy? | ||
+ | |||
+ | In any case, I just want him never near me, ever, and everything would be just fine."</i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">An Inquisitor that by all means of Esredes’ very reliable perception and judgement, is a very typical one indeed. What makes him stand out from the next Inquisitor Esredes perceives to be a soulless husk lacking meaningful emotions is his connection to another of Esredes’ friends, a fact made clear by Esredes’ first introduction to the man outside of word being the man showing up at his office just to try and win said friend back, a friend who he had lead to commit heinous acts he was currently having a severe mental crisis over. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Needless to say, while not willing to directly challenge an Inquisitor, Esredes was not having it. He was all too happy to quietly remind his friend of all the ways Matou had been a horrible friend and drive the wedge further to keep them from coming back together, and then ask said friend to tell him to go. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It pissed Matou off, but it worked. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Since then, Esredes’ opinion has only continued to decline with every time he sees the man and witnesses more and more of his terrible characteristics, not to mention is, as he expected, passive aggressive and insulting to Esredes whenever he gets the opportunity. That much is nothing Esredes can’t brush off and not really care about as long as he doesn’t attempt to truly come after him; he’s mostly just concerned about his proximity to multiple people Esredes knows. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A little perplexing on top of it all is how the Inquisitor seems to keep wanting to lure him into an obvious trap- he has tried to invite him over as if out of ‘good will’ two times already, as if he truly believes Esredes is that stupid. And he even had the gall to ask his help reluctantly in a matter of Tribunal importance and then send back a mocking drawing of his face when he told him to inquire back with more information. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Inquisitors really do think their lack of ability to understand human emotion allows them to treat people however they want, as per usual. | ||
And so Esredes’ emotions land on complete apathy and avoidance. Inquisitors are fun to pick at the demented, deformed minds of- but he is no longer in the realm where he can kidnap one and sentence them to an ultimate fate, and the game has become much less fun beyond the first, immediate sense of pleasure from watching one fall apart. At least this one won’t dare to walk into his counseling space after harassing him in public- he should by all means, if he can keep him away from his loved ones, be able to simply avoid ever coming into contact with him again.</div> | And so Esredes’ emotions land on complete apathy and avoidance. Inquisitors are fun to pick at the demented, deformed minds of- but he is no longer in the realm where he can kidnap one and sentence them to an ultimate fate, and the game has become much less fun beyond the first, immediate sense of pleasure from watching one fall apart. At least this one won’t dare to walk into his counseling space after harassing him in public- he should by all means, if he can keep him away from his loved ones, be able to simply avoid ever coming into contact with him again.</div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
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+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://yvesoix-sellemontiere.tumblr.com/ Yvesoix Sellemontiere],</b> <i>Client/Frequent Acquaintance</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#000000;" size="2">�</font><font style="color:#6b6e72;" size="2">●</font><font style="color:#6b6e72;"size="1"></font><font style="color:#54b5eb;" size="2">♥</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Dagger of Fire.</b></div> | ||
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+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“It’s hard to describe how I feel about Yves in a single sentence, because I… really don’t know. By simple terms, he would be approaching friend territory, but I don’t know if he’s safe. I don’t know if he will turn against me or embrace me, in the end, I don’t know if I can pull him away from deeper darkness, and everything lurking beneath him. Perhaps I’m overthinking it, but I don’t know. As long as he remains attached to horrible people, I am but one of several trying to cut the strings, and I will never open up my heart to him. It’s too risky, and it may end up stabbed.” | ||
+ | </i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A brumeborn man who cut a deal with Inquisitor Matou de Liautroix deeming that if he apprehended heretics in his turf, it would be left alone. At least, this is what Esredes found out about the man in his first proper alone meeting with him, watching him tackle and hogtie a man then haul him off to a drop off point while inviting him to come along. | ||
+ | |||
+ | His actual first time encountering Yves was a bit earlier, however, mostly just watching him bicker back and forth with another man while standing next to Baptiste, and being content to write him off as someone he didn’t really like or have a reason to. This opinion decreased even further when the man tried to help a man Esredes despised escape Ishgard and even kicked Esredes for being an asshole about being ordered to heal him and putting snow on a burn when suggested. | ||
+ | |||
+ | There just wasn’t anything to like about a loud and obnoxious, gross-looking man who pelted him with insults, even if their second meeting had been relatively comfortable, much as he was only indulging it to gain intel on where the dropoff point for the people he was apprehending was. | ||
+ | |||
+ | And then the court sentenced him to mandatory counseling, at which Esredes quickly learned that was a thing that could be put upon him, and there was the man he didn’t want to perceive ever again stuck in his blue office. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Yet thankfully for Esredes’ sanity, Yves turned out to be far more amenable to therapy than he expected, and even apologized for the prior physical assault, which Esredes did decide to put aside with that. And between the therapeutic encounters and Yves’ presence in Elouan’s social club about bringing bees back to Ishgard, he’s effectively stuck with Yves being a recurring presence in his life for now. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Still, he’s found Yves seems to have warmed up to him more quickly than he imagined for himself being a heretic noble- for according to him he’s a ‘good heretic’, not like the ones he sometimes tortures in the dungeons… and that sentiment alone really summarizes how Esredes feels about him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Yves’ story is a tragic and brutal one, that is for sure, but the man himself is a dark bonfire. Esredes is convinced no matter how many times Yves calls him a comrade and even sticks up for him that if he knew the full truth of him, he’d do as Esredes notices he sometimes does and change his opinion in an instant and get exceedingly violent- as one thing Esredes has learned about him is he does not comprehend when to and when not to be violent half the time. Even when he finally admitted it doesn’t feel good anymore to torture heretics and he stopped after meeting him, Esredes has performed small tests of if Yves is willing to go deeper and found him to fail, despite already being willing to be taken to Anyx Trine to him to meet dragons and having a great time. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Sometimes, Esredes even emotionally leans on Yves slightly- but then closes right back up when Yves wants to try and go deeper with him. While he’s not caused a fuss about Yves’ presence despite how untrusting he is of Yves’ darker nature because the others like him and he himself feels it would not go over well for himself and how he’s supposed to be the therapist, he’s just found he simply cannot trust him yet. He doesn’t feel Yves comprehends the full weight of his actions and how Esredes simply doesn’t look past a bloody and brutal past where everything burns up in flames. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Still, because Yves is not going anywhere anytime soon, he’s going to continue on with this dance in front of the walls, and be content to leave it there for as far as the foreseeable future goes.</div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
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+ | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>[https://house-vulort.tumblr.com/ Gaël de Vulort],</b> <i>Ex-Informant, Enemy.</i> <b>(</b><font style="color:#C24640;" size="2">✖</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Arachnid Burned In Its Own Web.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“You don’t use my people as your playtoys and get away with it unless you’re a stupid child with powers you can’t handle, plain and simple. | ||
+ | |||
+ | He didn’t even try. Not that hard. Not to cover his tracks, not to be anything but blackhearted. He’s so demented and illogical in that murky, suffocating depths of a mind. And I delight in making it suffer. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Gods, how I long to pierce every part of his body, over and over and over again. And hear him scream. I simply don’t have a shred of empathy after everything he’s done.” | ||
+ | </i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A mysterious- not that that’s anything unique with dealing in the shadows- informant only going by the name of ‘Spider’ who came forward to deliver unto Esredes and his people the information about the caravans transporting crystals that were one of the last shipments they needed to summon the Lady- and then the same person who also first ratted them out to the Alliance. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In reality, he’s a noble tailor within the city that worked as an anti-corruption spymaster of some kind, at least before he took a hard turn into doing anything but with it. All of this, of course, Esredes didn’t know for the longest time- anything could have set the Alliance off, and it wasn’t as likely to be the one who warned them in the first place, right? Even if he is to be on the suspect list nonetheless. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At least not until he encountered the man’s brother, who proceeded to have an echo vision of Esredes’ single encounter with the man and inform him of his true identity, though Esredes waited by until he was informed the man simply ''admitted to everything'' to let his anger boil and rise, and oh, that it did. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Unfortunately, Esredes knew the age of the usual punishment for traitors to the movement had passed- that of public execution- and so instead he resorted to the next best thing: letting the Inquisition deal with it and sitting back… somewhat. He still couldn’t resist confronting and intimidating the man in the meantime. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the end, his unexpected connection to a High Inquisitor had the man assign Esredes to counsel the man in prison, of which he did anything but, and instead took the opportunity to reach his hand right into the murky and confusing, compulsively lying depths of his mind and dig around to see what disgusting goo his hand got covered in. And oh, it was a lot of goo. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Esredes doesn’t consider Gaël to really be a person. He lacks positive qualities entirely by his own definition- for Esredes writes off his charity work with the Brume as a way to defy his abusive father and use them for his own ends and won’t believe his claims otherwise. Not only is Gaël painfully stupid for being a spymaster who got away with it this long, to the point Esredes can easily manipulate him into giving away information if he doesn’t just spout it out freely, but he finds him to be more lacking in necessary human components than even Esredes himself, even if it might be due to malformed development and not naturally born so like him. He doesn’t seem to feel empathy or comprehend emotions on any level, nor can he cope with his own by doing anything but screaming half the time. He’s definitely lost his mind to the point Esredes can’t get a consistent tale out of him at all- and he really doesn’t even care what is or is not the truth at this point, because the man is so fundamentally lacking in living qualities he’s practically like talking to a bad simulation at a person and not a living being. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It’s a fun little study of a caged wild animal for Esredes to amuse himself with, but more importantly, a convenient way for him to take out his unending anger for not only the man himself but for his life in general on a pile of nonliving organic matter that thinks it’s still a person. And if he ever tires of it, he’d leave him to rot- but he’s not likely to tire of it. There is far too much to be angry for, and merely looking upon the man fills Esredes with an overwhelming urge to tear into his skin without fail.</div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Ciceroix Corentiaux,</b> <i>Certified Nuisance</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#C24640;" size="2">✖</font><b>)</b> - <b>The Worthless Glass Rat.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>"I want to bash that one’s face into a wall, over and over again. It would fix how absolutely disgusting he is. Nothing would change if he just dropped dead already. I wish he would LEAVE ME ALONE and stop trying to TOUCH ME. And if he doesn’t, I might have to resort to more extreme measures."</i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Some Temple Knight lowlife useless pile of flesh who spends all his time getting drunk and getting into fights and doing nothing meaningful with his time. This is Esredes’ impression of the noble man after he approached him in a bar while intoxicated and tried to pick a fight with him for standing around doing nothing. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Well. A shame for the man he got arrested for it, and that Esredes happened to be employed under a High Inquisitor to counsel prisoners, and his form to counsel him got approved. After tearing open the man’s rather unsympathetic and entitled mindset as to why he’s given up on life and opted to be useless, Esredes was content to leave him with a bit of actually helpful advice, and told him to never talk to him again. | ||
+ | |||
+ | And then got a creepy letter thanking him and saying they weren’t done, and then quite a bit time later he finally pulled him aside at a ball asking him to help him and immediately trying to punch him when he said they were even. And then going so far as to tackle him outside a social event later. | ||
+ | Needless to say Esredes despises the man and has many urges to do proper violence on him. He thinks him the sort of person who is beyond salvation and will never learn, and at that point, the resources he could be using could be going to someone more worthy. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Beyond that, why bother? There is nothing, simply nothing there. Nothing but a device for violent urges if he gets creative. It perplexes him most of all that an old acquaintance is friends enough with the man to stand up to their entire antagonistic relationship and want them to talk- who the hell puts up with something that awful? | ||
+ | |||
+ | Most of all, Esredes is simply pissed he’s still considered a Temple Knight. He’s no real Temple Knight. Esredes can and would kick his ass to remind him of that. | ||
+ | </div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Elias Mercer,</b> <i>Unsteady Acquaintance</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#000000;" size="2">�</font>)</b> - <b>The Torn Eye and Wing.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“I. Do not. Understand that one. He is somehow the most typical and yet confusing Dragoon ever. Is he an enemy? Is he a neutral? He’s got to be an enemy, the evidence is there, but his thought process makes no sense. What do people see in him? They tell me he’s just like myself, but… I don’t think that’s entirely true. <br> Sometimes I wonder if I should have killed him when I had the chance. But I know that wouldn’t have gone over well or been a good idea.” | ||
+ | </i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">A hyur Dragoon who is exactly what you’d expect of one. Quiet. Antisocial. Barely speaks half the time. Doesn’t want to get close to anyone. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The most interesting thing about Elias is his power. He’s a true Dragoon who can do the whole nine yards of abilities available to them- and this is what gets him respect and yet terrifies Esredes about him, combined with his general complete uncertainty about where he lies. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Elias will save Hilda’s life while knowing she’s fused with a dragon spirit, then go tell a fellow heretic of Esredes’ that he will kill her for just having the dragon essence, then apologize, then accept Esredes’ word at face value when he tells him he was forced the blood and even say he was a victim, then seem genuinely concerned when Esredes nearly dies from a chimerical experimental abomination and check up on him in the infirmary, then tell him a story of how he helped out dragonkind with a blight and has a dragon eye given to him willingly in his spear, then go berserk during a critical mission and almost kill him, and then apologize later- while coming into his office with a warrant to investigate him for Dragon’s Blood. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Others will tell Esredes that Elias is a damaged soul they look out for, that he’s given in to apathy because it makes everything hurt less and feels everything underneath- and while Esredes hasn’t not enjoyed their conversations, forced and awkward and stiff as they are, he doesn’t entirely get it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The two were even in multiple combat affairs together, from Dravania to Garlemald, each flittered with awkward conversation that was an effort at trying to connect, mostly on Elias’ part, oddly enough, for which Esredes has never quite understood the man’s seeming quiet interest in him despite his disinterest in getting close to people. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Now that Elias knows thanks to someone being too loose lipped that Esredes will give the blood to his harrier allies who ask, Esredes expects he is restraining an urge to kill him like most people are in this situation. And that is fine with him- as long as he never actually does or tries to stop him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Otherwise, there is a giant and very deadly problem on his hands. | ||
+ | |||
+ | For now, Elias seems to be honoring the law, which gives Esredes a measure of comfort, because it is a better battlefield for Esredes to duel him on. As long as he simply complies with his investigation, it seems he will not find his evidence to do anything to him, and Esredes can go about his life avoiding him completely. | ||
+ | |||
+ | For there was never meant to be a bridge here, and really, Esredes wasn’t interested in building one. He’s known for a long time that Elias would never find him ‘appealing’ and let him in- he’s not cute or soft enough for that. | ||
+ | |||
+ | What is one more to the piles of ashes, crunched underneath one’s foot each and every day? | ||
+ | </div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
+ | |||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | {| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: left;" | ||
+ | ! <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px; font-variant:small-caps;"><b>Mordred Jourdain,</b> <i>Uncertain Involved Acquaintance</i>. <b>(</b><font style="color:#000000;" size="2">�</font>)</b> - <b>The Double-Edged Blade Of Darkness.</b></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;"><b>Character's Thoughts:</b> <i>“I want to understand that one, I want to try, but I also don’t know if I can. I don’t know if I should. How can one man be so obvious and yet so completely confusing? He presents himself as a different man than he is, and I can see so plainly the man underneath- so why will he not admit to it? <br> | ||
+ | He can see right through me. That’s perhaps just as scary as the power he wields and that Dark Knight Justice nature of his that I don’t find as comforting as he wants me to. I don’t think I can trust him like he claims, so why do I keep pulling towards him in the moment? Am I really so pathetic?” | ||
+ | </i></div> | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | <div style="font-family:Georgia; font-size:14px;">Mordred is an open Dark Knight who renounces the vigilante ways of others and even allies officially with the Temple Knights. He’s also a former Dragoon. He also has an elder dragon’s spirit slowly fusing with him after passing one’s trial with his companions. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Esredes’ first proper impression of the painfully formal and permanent dramatic speech that's hard to understand at times Hyur was watching him take a temporary lethality order on a swarm of Gnath way further than he thought necessary, all the while acting like a storybook villain towards them. This was immediately followed by his first proper personal conversation with the man being one of Mordred dissecting him on the spot psychologically and emotionally with a quiet acceptance and understanding void of judgement- and needless to say, a case Esredes thought he had figured out immediately, completely blindsided him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It all went rather fast. A second meeting and Mordred was confessing to being a killer of his people and Esredes was drawing his blade and yelling for him to stay away and Mordred was giving a speech about wanting to make an ally and friend and that he forgives him and the world can forgive him and he should live for it as his own person- and Esredes should have known far better than to take this at face value, but in the moment he did, and proceeded to tell him far more of the story of his people than he usually does to new allies. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When the two later fought to stop a Garlean superweapon together- a mission Esredes was only put on because Mordred wanted the power of his dragon form in the first place- Esredes even allowed him on his back on dragon form. This was to be followed by one of the other party members immediately trying to kill Esredes and in the afterparty social, Mordred telling him to be quiet when he tried to explain to an Ala Mhigan member of the party about Ishgard’s true history. | ||
+ | |||
+ | It all makes perfect sense, to Esredes. It’s the most obvious ploy. Pretend to ally with a heretic and throw him to the wolves, so you can either use him or let him die and move on to your next heretic you want to bond with until they’re all gone. Because Mordred never stopped with his executioner mentality, and Esredes is a wicked thing to purge for his crusade. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Yet according to his girlfriend that isn’t at all the case, and people are still willing to tell him it’s some kind of genuine attempt at trying. Despite Mordred’s seeming complete unconcern that Esredes was almost killed by his companion. Despite his claim that Esredes should be his own person and then telling him to quiet like he’s just another tool for the man to use. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Esredes is convinced something is wrong with Mordred, and he doesn’t know what. He cannot be this two faced and try to pass himself off as genuine without some kind of lack of awareness, unless he simply thinks Esredes is that stupid. Esredes likes the Mordred that Mordred presents to his face- the reasonable and understanding man who wants to learn more of the shadow world and cares for others, but he really does not like the second Mordred- the entitled to his sense of justice executioner that will probably off him if he does something he doesn’t like, who probably has no remorse for killing his people, and who seems to just want to use him for his own grand goals of obtaining more and more power and shaping the world anew to his justice like every other vampire Esredes meets. And should he be concerned for the man’s condition, or is it a warning to stay away? | ||
+ | |||
+ | This leaves Esredes at an awkward fork in the path. One path is to simply shut it off and be done with it, to declare Mordred a vampire and move on- but that would be to discount the amounts of empathy he does feel for him, and the man’s genuine attempts at understanding and looking out for him, if they were just that, and he sure as hells hates when others do that to him instead of letting him explain. The other is to try more, to see if this can work- and most likely just end up putting up with someone who doesn’t want to give him his own place and voice and won’t apologize or ever see what he did wrong, because that is simply the kind of person Esredes pegs him down as, and that doesn’t seem worth it either. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Regardless of which path he chooses, Esredes knows he doesn’t need him- Mordred seems to have fallen for the idea that his pledge to protect Esredes means a lot when Esredes has plenty of other Iceheart aligned Dark Knights to do the job, as planned- and Mordred doesn’t need him either, even though he seems to want him for his personal rises to power. But how does one truly grapple with and win over a vampire that can see into your very heart, other than to simply run away? | ||
+ | |||
+ | And gods, Esredes knows he can never run too far from these types of situations on the neverending battlefield. | ||
+ | </div> | ||
|} | |} | ||
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'''''Please, forget me.''''' | '''''Please, forget me.''''' | ||
</div></div> | </div></div> | ||
− | <div align=center><div style="padding:0px 0px; font-size:18px;color:# | + | <div align=center><div style="padding:0px 0px; font-size:18px;color:#F3F5F7;font-family:Georgia;"> |
''I never had a place in your heart.'' | ''I never had a place in your heart.'' | ||
</div></div> | </div></div> | ||
Line 1,649: | Line 1,910: | ||
:<div align=justify><div style="padding:5px 15px;font-family:Georgia;color:#444146;">■ ''He keeps a list of people he encounters who he considers dangerous to the advancement of the new age of Ishgard. Inquisitors who won't let go, people who actively seek vengence against the heretics... But he can't clean up the filth himself with how he's being watched. But dark knights lurking in the shadows, however, don't have such trouble...''</div></div> | :<div align=justify><div style="padding:5px 15px;font-family:Georgia;color:#444146;">■ ''He keeps a list of people he encounters who he considers dangerous to the advancement of the new age of Ishgard. Inquisitors who won't let go, people who actively seek vengence against the heretics... But he can't clean up the filth himself with how he's being watched. But dark knights lurking in the shadows, however, don't have such trouble...''</div></div> | ||
:<div align=justify><div style="padding:5px 15px;font-family:Georgia;color:#444146;">■ ''One of his outfits has a Fortemps crest on the breast, and he can often be seen around their manor. Perhaps this supposed connection to the family may intrigue someone to ask about it.''</div></div> | :<div align=justify><div style="padding:5px 15px;font-family:Georgia;color:#444146;">■ ''One of his outfits has a Fortemps crest on the breast, and he can often be seen around their manor. Perhaps this supposed connection to the family may intrigue someone to ask about it.''</div></div> | ||
− | :<div align=justify><div style="padding:5px 15px;font-family:Georgia;color:#444146;">■ ''As of 5.3 onward, Esredes has taken up a part time position as a counselor | + | :<div align=justify><div style="padding:5px 15px;font-family:Georgia;color:#444146;">■ ''As of 5.3 onward, Esredes has taken up a part time position as a counselor in another room in his office. [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kHEkc2sww8192ruRoRy1iNMwSANUCYNwDlavyKVxvAw/edit You may talk with him about it or schedule an appointment anytime].''</div></div> |
</div> </div> | </div> </div> | ||
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[[Category: Heretic]] | [[Category: Heretic]] | ||
[[Category: Dragon]] | [[Category: Dragon]] | ||
+ | [[Category: Gladiator]] |
Latest revision as of 22:58, 2 August 2022
Contents[edit]
Esredes is a former Temple Knight turned heretic. After an incident with dragon’s blood from his childhood came to light and he was nearly killed as a result, he turned against Ishgard and became devoted to winning the Dragonsong War for the heretics by either taking over or destroying Ishgard. Now fueled by a mixture of vengeance and the need to liberate his people, Esredes continues to press on after years of fighting, refusing to give up the fight no matter how much it takes his toll on him.
Nominated to take Iceheart’s place by his own people after the climax of the war, Esredes was later officially pardoned by Aymeric and allowed to return to his original home under the condition of adhering to the new law and government. In the wake of the ashes of the war and his movement, Esredes continues to operate in a delicate balance between law and necessity, helping the new Ishgard while being well-prepared for a potential resurrection of the war. Despite his many doubts about his own abilities, he has taken up the mantle given to him of Her successor- continuing to convert people to his side and ideology and carefully watch and infiltrate ongoings in Ishgard. Perhaps there will be salvation in the ashes, or perhaps there is naught to do but delay the inevitable oblivion. One thing is for certain for the man: the war will never truly be over until he can make it so…. Or be forced to enact its resurrection. His blog is here.
Serious | Determined | Judgemental | Ambitious | Selectively Confident | Manipulative | Driven | Irritable | Reserved | Narrow-minded | Dramatic | Cunning | Calculated | Cautious | Snarky | Vicious | Selectively Hostile | Motivational | Protective | Selectively Empathetic | Selectively Compassionate | Selectively Polite | Selectively Blunt | Leading | Logical | Sadistic | Realist | Intense | Loyal | Selectively Deceitful | Hateful | Selectively Dense | Analytical | Introverted | Selectively Delusional | Self Sacrificial Esredes is a person for whom much is said or whispered about, often conflicting in nature. For many people, he is a dangerous, exploitative force of malevolence that no one seems to know how to stop and put down for good, an individual that one should stay away from or else they will either perish or be warped into another evildoer like himself. Yet for others, he is an unsung hero, a caring soul that heals the minds and hearts of people he passes, who many defend and stand by at all costs. But no matter what exactly is said about him, one thing is clear about the man: he is a driven individual with a cause in mind he will never forsake, wielding himself as an engraved, fancy blade with a sharp and rough edge against the opponents of his life’s mission, until such time as a blade finally takes to the fate of all its kind, to break in half and be discarded without a second thought. At first glance, Esredes typically appears as a serious and reserved individual, often even standoffish to a degree. He usually starts off with anywhere from a simple and sometimes indifferent politeness to a neutral form of a speech, and even at times an outright distinctly unfriendly demeanor. By default, he is someone who trends to using fewer words and prefers being somewhat blunt and to the point with a tone that is not particularly emotional, but this can shift to going on for several sentences at a time and even monologuing with much more passion in his voice the moment something strikes his emotional chord or brings up something he knows much about. He isn’t opposed to conversation by default, but his sociability often depends on how much a person is of interest to him, also typically indicated by his tone taking on more emotional inflections. Regardless of his level of conversational effort, his noble upbringing ensures that he speaks with some level of higher vocabulary, but his inability to fully pick up the grace that comes with it results in some of his speech coming across as awkwardly phrased, or when angered, partially foregoing this pattern in favor of much more swearing. Beyond conversation, the air that Esredes carries around himself has a certain powerful, elegant and regal feeling- regardless of how plain and ordinary he chooses to dress- yet weighs heavy with an unmistakable feeling of tenseness, shrouding itself in mystery all around him. Just beyond the fog and faint to the eye are the deep and dark depths within the man- but to approach them is to risk falling straight in, and perhaps some things are best left undiscovered. A soldier at his core, Esredes wields himself equally in mind and body, well equipped for either physical or mental warfare in whatever battle manifests day to day. His mind operates primarily in the medium of logical thinking, strategy, and a realistic outlook. Whether it is simple everyday life or a matter of life and death, Esredes prefers to have at least some sort of plan, and often evaluates his actions to figure out what is the safest, most efficient way to go about them, when to and when not to take a risk on something or someone. Years of operation in this mindset have allowed Esredes to most of the time end up as the person in the room who comes to the best plan of action the quickest, or at all, but it has also lead him to assess situations and people as threats in ways that cause him to behave abnormally at times, assume and react before he has enough information to go off of, or be controlled by paranoia. Esredes almost always takes situations more seriously than everyone else, and will always assume the role of responsibility when there is not a clear person elected to, having no hesitations about immediately shutting down anything that doesn’t meet his standards of safe or effective, no matter the social or emotional costs it has. He keeps his own clear standards for himself in all areas of mental performance from the strategic to the moral, and is reputable for being headstrong and stubborn in all of the ideals he holds in his own head. His secondary modes of thinking are those of emotion and negotiation with others, both of which are more hit and miss in nature. On one hand, he is skilled at using his more primary mode of logic and reasoning to sway people to his words and hopefully even to his side, and is able to fester doubt in peoples’ mind about the nature of themselves or their situation to trigger a realization. He can read and manage someone’s emotions quickly and effectively, defuse tense or hostile situations, and calm others down with effective communication. But he is just as likely to be at a loss for how someone is feeling and how to manage it, or say the exact wrong thing to make a situation worse. Depending on how a situation plays out, Esredes is either a clever and cunning strategist and negotiator… or a clueless and dense, socially ineffective fool. Yet all of Esredes’ constructed ways of mental operation, walls, and carrying himself melt away in certain circumstances, revealing the core, unfiltered person beneath everything. Esredes’ purest form of self is that of a perfectly ordinary, average person forced to use what he has to appear and live as much more. When he cannot be calculated or clever, he reverts to the only somewhat about average intelligence person he truly is that doesn’t actually possess the traits of extended higher thinking one would expect from his position. When he decides not to be serious, he instead either becomes a playful and amused, more snarky person, paired with frequent smirking and more remarks than usual, or he reveals a more dorky part of himself that is endearingly a bit slow to grasp some cues people give to him, and says things either intentionally or unintentionally more goofy in nature. Regardless of the perception others have of him and that which he projects, Esredes operates on the simple idea that he is but the same as any other individual- not a driving, singular force that alone can turn a tide, but merely a small part of a much larger whole, an easily replaceable tool. This reality does not stop Esredes’ unwavering determination and drive in life from being motivated by his need to put himself behind a cause higher than him and contribute to what he views as bettering the world. While many would do this for moral purposes, and he is no exception, for him it is also a matter of simple practicality. Anything less and more self-centered would be boring and unfulfilling and leave him restless. He puts his cause and his allies all above himself, and is more than willing to die for either. Combined with his undying loyalty, this leads to it being extremely difficult to put a stop to him once he is set out on a task in the name of his greater good. He doesn’t hesitate to save those he perceives as in peril, even if it means occasionally being fooled by a trap, and generally keeps his word and deals he makes with others. In addition, Esredes is a proficient leader to his people, preferring to foster a relationship based on trust in his capabilities over raw authority and drive his subordinates to become their best selves, even if it means taking the time to check in on them and ensure they are in the best condition to continue on and listen to him. In the same vein, he is willing to do what needs to be done, even if it is unpleasant and hard, to save others from having to do so instead. But his definition of what should be done… does not quite match up with a lot of others’. Esredes sorts people into categories- categories that dictate if someone is worthy of any consideration before being killed or not. And those who fail to meet his standards of consideration- such as people who are too self-centered or contribute nothing to the world or those who harm and destroy it and other people- are people he will kill without a second thought, often times even taking sadistic enjoyment in the act and believing he has simply offed a lesser being that is wasting space with its defectiveness. True to the form he gave himself, Esredes does not shy away from enjoying violence and fighting to a certain extent and being brutal when there is time and reason for it. While he keeps his calm and calculated manner about in fighting for the most part, the right combination of events loosening his mental restraints under too much pressure can plunge him into a state of mind pertaining to his more inherently chaotic side, a repressed spirit of his personality that controlled him in much of his childhood characterized by rash, destructive, and impulsive behavior. While in this state, Esredes will lose all of his calculated and effective execution in favor of hyperfocusing in on a single target no matter how wounded he is and trying to destroy it entirely, leaving him vulnerable to being wounded more and making his actions much more unpredictable. Fortunately, it doesn’t take much to snap him out of this state and allow him to regain his former composure. Even beyond the battlefield, Esredes has a somewhat selective form of empathy that only applies to people he deems complete enough to deserve it, and he has a strong tendency for manipulation, not opposed to stooping to deception, psychological tactics, and guilt tripping and gaslighting to get people to do as he needs, though he has more limitations depending on how much he genuinely cares for a person. Without those limitations and a particular distaste for a target, however, Esredes is prone to becoming emotionally and verbally abusive when he believes a person deserves it. He is even capable of inflicting harsh psychological warfare on others and breaking apart their very reality for his own warped sense of justice and pleasure. While not incapable of feeling remorse and trying to make up for his actions later if he learns he has distributed his twisted sense of justice unfairly, he otherwise holds none and even a lot of pleasure about tearing someone apart physically and mentally. Even without resorting to these measures, Esredes has plenty of other ways to appear generally unpleasant. He is very judgemental by nature, often looking down on people and seeing their flaws before their good traits and holding them in lower regard until they prove themselves worthy of a higher tier of consideration. He will often knowingly or unknowingly talk down to people, and explain things to them as if they don’t already know them or as if they were almost a child. This narrow-minded mentality of his is very unreliable and often too black and white, putting people in boxes and jumping to conclusions without proper evidence. It also contributes to a situational and mild form of arrogance manifesting in the man. Esredes also doesn’t hesitate when there are no consequences to let someone know he dislikes him, and openly insult them while having fun with it. A lifetime of letting hate fester in the black part of his heart has made it all too easy for him to give in and let it consume his actions. But there are two sides to every coin, and Esredes is no different. When he finds people in his good graces and worthy, he is just as capable of building people up as he would be tearing them apart, and quite likes encouraging others and building their self esteem, allowing them to see their positive traits and teaching them about what they’re missing. He is willing to give out love and affection to people who seem to need it in hopes of a return in the form of loyalty to him, and he can be surprisingly patient, kind, and even tolerant of the stranger and less effective parts of people, even understanding and a good listener on top of it. He has a particular soft spot for people who are abused, downtrodden, and vulnerable, and feels compelled to build them up into better people. After all, when you see a clearly broken thing in front of you, is it not common sense to fix it? Esredes’ inconsistent emotion reading ability also makes him capable of seeing into peoples’ issues easily and psychoanalyzing them, and he is blunt enough to tell people what their problems are and offer them advice and help. In the same territory, Esredes is a chronic worrier, unable to stop himself from always being concerned about his loved ones and their well being. Past a certain level of bonding, there is little he won’t do for someone he cares about. However, he will not hesitate to resort to weaponizing his affection and guilt tripping when he feels someone is taking advantage of or trampling on his kindness, or even falling right into verbally abusive territory if he feels particularly violated. But beyond the man’s great capability for both destruction and salvation, beyond his calculated and structured mind or fallen irrationality, and beyond the simple person at his core, lie the depths of a dark abyss left to fester for multiple decades until it became but the most ordinary thing. Esredes views himself as nothing but a weapon, the perfect soldier. And to be the perfect soldier, he believes he was carefully constructed from the beginning with an intentionally hollow center, lacking the true humanity of an ordinary person in order to be an acceptable disposable body and not be tempted into being anything more. In addition, he is not entirely lacking self awareness about his tendency to be perceived in a negative light, and believes he is meant to be an undesirable individual that attracts hatred in order to absorb it so others don’t have to. He has resigned himself to the fate of a soldier’s death on the battlefield from a relatively young age, and fights on until this inevitable fate take holds of him. Yet once the war ended, all of this went from being a simple truth to breaking down and overflowing into his regular mind, leading to greater difficulties in maintaining his usual composed and together mindset. In addition to believing he is a complete failure for not winning the war, he now questions if a worn down weapon has any place in a world that asks him to adapt roles he is ill-suited for, or if he should seek out another way to complete his fate in the wake of the ash… But be it towards his own, inevitable destruction or a hypothetical reevaluation and rebirthing of his very being, Esredes will always press on and keep going. For the sake of his cause or people, nothing short of death can truly stop Esredes from follwoing the path he refuses to abandon. For a soldier must live to fight, until his very last breath is past.
Esredes stands a little under average male Elezen height at 6'0, and is more widely built than the in game model. He resembles a Gridanian Elezen better than an Ishgardian one, with his light brown skin and crimson hair, swept back behind his head and forming into tips behind it. His eyes resemble a fire with their orange coloring, and when he is experiencing intense emotions, they often feel as if there is one burning within. In relation to the in game model, it should be noted he lacks the widow's peak, and the hair in front of the ears. His appearance is often geared to intimidation, and he gives off a distinct powerful, but uneasy aura. When not in his own version of the typical haubergeon uniform, he usually keeps his outfits relatively simple and not attracting attention, save for the ever present shade of red- but traces of his former highborn fashion sense still remain. He also keeps his sword and sheath on him in most situations.
His second form is that of a red and golden quadruped wyvern, standing tall at nine foot five and stretching outwards to eleven foot seven, though he occasionally takes on an in between form, in which he maintains his bipedal size and shape but with all of his draconic features intact. Despite the resemblance, he is not in any way related to Jannequinard.
Esredes was born into a noble Ishgardian family, and was raised on conservative and strict values, told he must uphold the dignity and honor of the family. However, as he developed, he began to exhibit behavioral issues and this eventually caused his family to try and hide him away from the public in their shame as they tried to get his behavior under control.
As his parents struggled to deal with the eldest child, elsewhere in Ishgard lied a small group of common folk with an agenda against the elite and the system, who were hatching a plan to bring the entire system into question, by slipping dragon’s blood into the drink of a few select elites at a party and letting the uproar dismantle the rest of their family and bring the entire elite under fire. The moody and impatient young Rosemond kid was selected as one of these targets, as not only was a kid an easy target, it would bring much more backfire if a child was killed. Though the actual process itself was a success, the group was then killed in a violent standoff a week later during another criminal act, thus letting their scheme die with them. Unaware of all of this, when Esredes began to experience the effects of the blood the next day, he was full of panic and terror, thinking he had been cursed, but he did not tell anyone about it. He was old enough to somewhat understand this would be taken badly, and kept it hidden and never tried to experiment with his ability to shift. Hiding this only increased his behavioral problems as well, and eventually peers began to turn away from him for fear of being brought into trouble, leaving him isolated. His parents eventually stepped in and forced him to behave at age fifteen after an incident warranted it being the last straw. After some resistance, he finally conceded and began to behave like a young adult willing to take responsibility for himself. From there, his family and social life returned to stability. He later joined the Ishgardian military upon reaching adulthood, as it had been his dream for a while to fight, and he was confident in his ability to hide his secret and still become a war hero. He began to win back family honor by becoming a formidable soldier and advancing in the ranks until he was near the top. However, one day during a battle, he was knocked off a cliff ledge to what would have been certain death if he had not shifted wings and glided to a lower ledge for safety, passing it off as a miracle survival. He thought no one had saw it when they rescued him later, but when a group of people showed up with weapons to surround his location later on, he learned very quickly someone must have said something. While he attempted voicing his innocence, it fell on deaf ears, and so he was forced to use the military skills and strategies he had gained, suffering several injuries and injuring several people to escape. Now on the run and lost without anywhere to go to, Esredes continued fleeing, aiming to make his way towards Ul’dah. He was discovered again in the process and suffered much worse injuries escaping from his pursuers, but was found by a band of heretics and taken for medical treatment. After being told their side of the story, he reluctantly agreed to help them fight against Ishgard, if they would help him achieve something. This deal was then fulfilled, and so he began to embrace his dragon side and become loyal to the heretic cause. He has since become a powerful member in the group and continues to lead sieges against Ishgard. After enduring countless hardships and countless witnesses of his people being slaughtered, the war finally reached its turning point and Esredes was left in the dust as it spiraled far beyond the heretic's control. He held down the faction after the death of his beloved leader, and was planning to disappear from Eorzea entirely as the war ended- only to be approached by an acquaintance and informed he had been pardoned by the new leader, legally able to return to Ishgard as a normal citizen. After much deliberation and hesitance, he opted to accept this offer, not so much for himself, but for the sake of his people who would do the same, and once purchasing a house in Foundation on money borrowed from a few highborn ally sources, he remains in the city-state working as a negotiator between it and dragons, all while dealing with frequent surges of depression.
Impart onto the collector the contents of your heart, and I will take it into my gentle hands…
On the day I crumble to ash and scatter to the wind, I never had a place in your heart.
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