shadowbringers

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shadowbringers

beneath the stars It's been a week since our newest expansion officially launched! And, I know, I know... some of you already have a lot of feelings that you need to air out. But canon updating in your games is a struggle! And so is finding PSL partners! Luckily, that's what we're here for. This is a post for you to play out all the Shadowbringers-related content you might be dying to write. Behind-the-scenes nonsense? Between-the-scenes angst? It's all welcome here! 1. Toplevel your character. Include any details you might think are relevant. Or don't. As always, we're not the cops. 2. Reply to other people's top levels! 3. Have fun! ⚔ Please clearly mark all spoilers in your thread subject lines. Clearly indicate whatever spoiler preferences you may have. We're only a week into the expansion, officially, and there's no shame if you're not far in it or haven't started it yet. ⚔ You are welcome to play characters who are new to Shadowbringers. However, please try to avoid topleveling with icons and descriptions that convey major plot-related spoilers. If you aren't certain about a character's playability, feel free to PM parser.

TEMPLATE CODED BY valoirs

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Minfilia | Oracle of Light | OTA

[lightblessing]

[all spoilers are fine; threads will have at least lvl 77 MSQ spoilers]

Hen | Canon Divergent Warrior of Light | OTA

[crystalbetrayed]

[ Want a WoL who's tired of losing people? Tired of fighting? Tired of championing a God who doesn't seem to care about anything but her with nothing to show for it but lost loved ones and trauma? Hen's the WoL for you then!

The right (or wrong) words in her ear are likely the only difference between her betraying Hydaelyn or...idk just bottling everything up some more.

Third Lightwarden taken down, slowly chugging through MSQ]

crystal exarch | the guy with the voice | OTA

[exarchal]

(( Any threads with this tired old man are going to be extremely spoilery, up to and including the conclusion of the game, unless specified. So please let me know if you would like spoilers or not! Additionally, please heed the spoiler warnings on my profile and avoid looking at my icon page if you would like to remain unspoiled as there are scenes from the end of the MSQ.

For WoLs, also point me to relevant information that he ought to know and any... ahem, relevant dialogue choices that were made, or specify if you'd like something else!))

spoilers all good, done with msq

[omnicrafter]

[Sure, Irhya could just teleport all the way to the Crystarium and avoid going the roundabout route... but admittedly, the Exarch's mirror is a fascinating thing for her to traverse through on one of her various whims.

And it is one of those various whims that brings her back in the first place. Certain materials are just easier (and cheaper) to obtain on the Source, hastening some of the work for the Crystalline Mean she's been devoting herself to, but there's also a particular errand she had to run on the side, and going straight back to the Ocular just cuts half the journey out.

...Hopefully he's not out. Then again, where else would he go? Irhya shifts the weight of the bag on her shoulder and looks around.]

Are you about?

[OOC: Basic info page here, and I'm also open to PMs if you have any other questions down the line? C: Tl;dr she's a dark knight who is an avid crafter and has a very dry sense of humor. I'll try to avoid anything super character specific to her beyond that, though.]

/salutes!!!

[exarchal]

[He wasn't... out, exactly, but out of the room. As she calls out for him, the doors to his chamber crack open and he sticks his head out.]

Ah! Irhya, back so soon? [He turns around and it becomes immediately evident that he has his hands full of books. Like, enough of them that he could never see where he's going.] I thought they might have need for you in the Source— [His stack wobbles, but he manages to catch it. Just... barely.] —or I would have been prepared to receive you properly.

Pray forgive my discourtesy; you have found me precisely in the midst of some research.

/legit just finished fourth lightwarden but still nyooming through msq

[heart_of_the_wood]

[It felt as if she were drowning. The aether in this land left her in a state of nigh delirium, skull pounding, ghosts and sin-eaters and Great Wood preserve her she felt like she were falling to pieces at the seams. She waited, weathering the japes of the soldiers with a shake of the head or a sigh, rushing to and fro like a racing chocobo and masking the bone-deep regrets whenever more lives were lost. There were always so many, and she felt as if she were never fast enough. Worse yet, if Adbert hadn't taken to appearing at a whim whenever she sought a moment's respite, it was her dreams themselves that plagued her.

Only now she had new worries. As if Eulmore and the light and the rejoining weren't enough to make her wish for another day's rest, she had heard enough. To be nearly struck down by one of her closest companions simply for the fact that she couldn't even be recognized, now she was hearing arguments behind closed doors because they'd forgotten how sharp her hearing was. Much worse to be confronted. Then the mines....her fingertips still felt wrong, somehow. Too much of her did, and it was not sitting right with her.

She was so tired, yet the work needed to be done. None could do what she did, so who was she to condemn an entire world? No. So she smiled, made lighthearted jests, did everything in her power to weather the constant battles and keep her companions in high spirits. Yet it was tiring.

So she waited, the red dust of Ahm Araeng still clinging to her sandaled feet, letting the others leave the Ocular ahead of her, studying the way the light played across the gold and crystal floor as she let her thoughts run their course. Until it was only her and the Exarch, the sound of the doors closing behind her traveling companions almost unbearably loud in her ears.]

Exarch, might I trouble you for a moment?

[Her words were a low murmur, her accent as thick as ever no matter how much time she'd spent away from the Wood. Soft spoken enough to hide the exhaustion and pain. No one who saw her would see her tremble, they worried enough, she would not add to their woes, but by the Great Wood and the blessed Twelve she wanted someone to speak plainly and without needless riddles and cryptic nonsense. Just for the once.]

[exarchal]

[He always watched them go.

He could turn his gaze to the mirror at any moment he liked and act cold, dismissive. But without fail, each time, he watched the Scions leave the room after the meeting was adjourned. Today the Warrior lingers, and he tries not to let his eyes linger on her either; he doesn't want to make her uncomfortable or Twelve forbid think that she has done something wrong.

He... needs her to trust him, to keep trusting him, if the mission is to go as it should. For the ones they have lost. For the worlds they can yet save.

His grip on his staff remains calm and self-assured. When he stands in this room he is the leader no matter who might be tagging along, no matter his height... He seems taller. It's his unerring conviction and open compassion that lends him the loyalty of his people, despite all his mystery.]

I assure you 'tis no trouble at all, Mykha, [he says with similar softness, aware that voices carry. She must have so much on her mind: all the doubts, the questions, the pain of holding so much Light... He wants to take it from her, to ease her burden. Not being able to do so is pain, too, but it's just part of his own burden-- hopefully one that she shall never know about.]

You may always have a moment of my time—though by your expression I venture you may require a few.

spoilers all good, done with story and did a certain previous quest line

[lyinglight]

[ooc: Sorry this took a bit longer than expected to get up! This is the thing we hashed out in PMs. If this doesn't work, let me know!]

This was all but the last thing he expected to ever end up or see. This deeply unfamiliar place, with purple trees and almost white colored grass, the sky so bright above him that it immediately drove him to dig out a pair of shades from his pack, tucking them on his nose and carefully hooked behind his ears. Tataru, my friend, you would not believe this if I told you...

After a deeply unsettling and confusing conversation with an otherwise good-hearted merchant and his handsome chocobo, Sigr found himself on the path towards what he equally could not have expected to see when he came through to the other side - the Crystal Tower. It sat bright and brilliant against the even more brilliant sky, glittering, taller than anything visible for malms and malms. What did it mean, any of it? The beacon with an Iron Works symbol. The Crystal Tower being here when he stepped out into an unfamiliar world.

And then, something far *more* familiar. Guards telling him to stop, halt, who are you, what are you doing here-

Why did it feel like the coming into Ishgard, all over again?

But, for better or worse, everything someone had set into motion was happening. It was just like nothing he was expecting.

Sorry this is late too, but I'll backtag into infinity.

[exarchal]

So he'd come. Finally, blessedly, his prayers had been answered-- and the centuries he'd spent trying to make this happen were about to bear fruit. Of course he wasn't counting his hens before they hatched, but simply having the vaunted Warrior of Light here-- here, and safe, and whole-- meant everything.

But he hadn't ended up in the Ocular. A quick glance through his crystal mirror showed Sigr just outside the gates. The Exarch dismissed the image and took off, sandals carrying him swiftly past the gates of the tower through the Crystarium's plaza, out another set of gates, and onto the selfsame road that the hero had been stopped on.

Right as Lyna was interrogating him. The Exarch still had an excited but low-key nervous spring in his step when he ran up to them.

"Ah, Lyna! I see you have met my guest." He looked at Sigr with a friendly smile despite the shadow over his eyes, a far cry from the desperate man who'd haunted the headspace of the Scions for a month or more. "Come, Sigr. We have much to discuss and not nearly enough time to do so." He added in a lower voice, so only Sigr could hear: "I will see to your undoubtedly numerous questions, but not here. We may speak freely within the Crystal Tower."

It was really only a short walk to the Crystarium, all things considered, but he took his time to allow Sigr's questions to simmer. This was one of those things that had to be seen to be believed, and he had already led the Scions through this drill before. After fetching them some clothes, that is.

"First, I would like to thank you for answering my summons. I was not sure you would do so, particularly considering the timing of it all."

ardbert | ota

[wearieroflight]

[[ warrior of spoop and 200% tired. all spoilers welcome, EXPECT spoilers in threads, also bear with me while i'm very much voice testing. ]]

Re: ardbert | ota

[crystalbetrayed]

[ooc: I'm imagining this is during the post!Il Mheg conversation]

What kept you going? When everything seemed hopeless?

lmk if this isn't ok!!!

[divinepurpose]

[Soon Vaeri will have to face Vauthry atop Mt. Gulg. But until then, until the Talos is completed, she has been touching base with other people back in the Crystarium who might need her help. When night falls, she finds herself longing for the abyssal black of her home sea when she catches a glimpse of the sky, and she returns to her room in the Pendants.

Sunless sea, indeed.

She pauses with her fingertips hovering over a basket of fruit someone has sent along anonymously. With the recent pain she's been experiencing, she's not sure she has an appetite. But she can always, always make time for the Warrior of Darkness who once faced her alongside his comrades-- for the one with the axe soaked in blood. The more Vaeri finds out about the white mage who traveled with Ardbert, the more she is sure that they should have lost that battle. Lamitt was truly incredible. But she is gone, and only Ardbert walks the First now, trying to find some sense of purpose. She-- feels for him, in that. Ever wandering, not understanding why the cogs of destiny turned as they might...]

Ardbert? [She hesitates, perches on the edge of the stool.] Ah... maybe he's...

Lyna | Crystarium Guard, no-nonsense rabbit with chakrams

[crystallyna]

[all spoilers are fine! well done with the msq and looking to voice test and hoping i do her justice.]

Re: Lyna | Crystarium Guard, no-nonsense rabbit with chakrams

[crystalbetrayed]

[ooc: hi, have a curious WoL]

So how do you do all the...

[she pantomimes throwing chakrams]

More importantly, how d'you throw them to ensure they come back?

[crystallyna]

[Lyna prides herself on not being so easily startled but she was so lost in thought she missed the approach of another. She buries a little jump and turns hard at the question-

About fighting. Of course.]

I was trained in the art when I took up with the guard here. You get your preference of weapons, as long as there's a teacher.

spoilers, post-msq

[epodic]

[His visits to the Crystarium tend to be brief, and he assumes this one will be no different— though they've certainly earned a rest after their recent sojourn to the bottom of the ocean, there are still mysteries left unsolved, loose ends to be tied up, and aquatic dentistry to tend to. These reprieves, as he's learned through both experience and observation, are never as long or as restful as they ought to be.

In need of just such a reprieve is the Captain of the Crystarium's Guard, a thought that occurs to him as he catches a glimpse of her on his way from the Ocular to the marketplace. Though her contribution may have been met with less fanfare than that of others, she had played no small part in their friend's victory, an effort well worth recognition as well as thanks. He smiles wryly as he adjusts his course to approach, noting that she walks with purpose, as she always does— no rest for any of them, it would seem.]

One wouldst think thou might take a day's reprieve from thy duties, Captain. Thou hast worked and fought harder than is thy due, I am certain.

['Take a day off, and also a nap.']

[crystallyna]

[Lyna had little at all to do with the final push of the Warriors of Darkness. Like her fellows, she stood in defiance of the Light’s return, and in awed relief as the stars burst back into view over the Crystarium again. Held her breath waiting for news of the Exarch, of the Warriors from beyond the stars, of whether this victory could be called final.

One does not pass such a hero in the streets without acknowledgement. On sight of Urianger she stops and salutes at once.]

I appreciate your concern. [In case he somehow thought she might dismiss it.] But we haven’t come this far in idleness, and so I can’t abide it now. I’m sure someone like you understands.

hope this is okay! lemme know if I need to change anything

[rewritten_history]

[There was no point to keeping the cowl on now that the proverbial coeurl had been let out of the bag. With the eternal Light's final departure and night's return to Norvrandt, the veil had been lifted on everything he had kept so close to his chest for nearly a century from the people of the First, most especially from their newest arrivals in the form of the Scions and the Warrior of Darkness. One would balk at knowing while the others sought to undo everything he had worked toward since his own arrival on the reflection of their home.]

[The truth of the thing was that the First had become as much of a home to him as the Source itself. Oh, he could still smell the breeze coming off the rivers in Dravania when he let his mind wander; he could still feel the weight of the bow in his hand, the grip of the quiver's belt across his chest. But those memories dulled with time and too much distance, the bow lighter than it should have been, the belt looser than it needed to be, nudged aside and away by the real and firm weight of the staff at his back.]

[The Crystal Exarch was what he was now, an identity given to him in the First after those first few protective and primitive structures rose in what would one day be called the Crystarium. That he had not been erased completely once the match set to spark the Eighth Umbral Calamity had been extinguished stood as testament to that. He wondered, not for the first time, if in his effort to save the First and the Source, he had not accidentally somehow established himself as a part of this world forever.]

[It made sense, in a strange way. His own reflection here on the First had not survived the Flood. Of that, he was fairly certain, though he kept the cowl on anyway until very recently, just in case. His soul would never replace that man, whoever he had been, just as it could not replace a younger G'raha Tia still slumbering in the Crystal Tower on the Source.]

[The thought did not bother him as much as he imagined it might, not until the exhaustion finally caught up with him late into the true night after everything that had happened and he made his polite excuses and parted from the crowd to retreat to the Tower and a moment of lonely meditation. It worked well enough - they were all impossibly weary and sorely needed rest that more than enough sleep couldn't provide. For him, it was different. Physically, he was fully recovered, the strength of the Tower reaching out to him to replenish what he lacked the closer he was to it. It would always be that way, now that he was a part of it. Before he ever set foot in the Crystarium proper, he felt right again, in body.]

[In soul and in mind, he could sleep forever and never know peace. Days later, now noted by the passing of night to the return of the sun and back again, after the Warrior of Darkness was returned to the Source and the Scions parted ways to tend to matters of their own on the First and life had returned to some semblance of normalcy with a renewed sense of hope, he felt it wearing on him. With or without the Tower's energy, his own sense of purpose had refreshed itself. His people sensed it, let it bleed over into their interactions with him as he let theirs catch onto him. Their joy, their relief. To them, he was the Crystal Exarch still, ever firm in his resolve to see the Crystarium and the First healed and her people well and truly happy. He was their leader, their protector, their voice with other nations, keeper of the Crystal Tower.]

[Inside the Tower, within the Ocular, where he stood alone, watching over his new home and his friends from afar while he yet had to remain or risk becoming a burden when his strength was too far sapped, he was one man pushed under a heavy mantle that had only been easier to wear in time - cruel and necessary time. And somehow, it was all exactly as it should have been. He needed only to see the smiles on his people's faces, to hear the laugh in their voices to know it.]

This is great! Also end of 5.0 spoilers alert

[crystallyna]

[When he first retreats, Lyna knows to let him be.

She’s spent the past days attendant, at times outright fussing, though the physicians at Spagyrics declared him well enough as did his healer friends from beyond the stars, and the Exarch himself only repeated that he was well, he was fine, the blood washed off clean enough and his tattered robes found replacement. What injuries he might have carried back to the Crystarium remain only upon his heart, and those are mending.

And when he looked upon his people, his ears twitched. It was such a remarkably ordinary mystel expression of pleasure she found it then so odd - and continues to do so as it happens throughout the celebration and the walks he takes in these new days, hood lowered, a tentative smile bringing blessed shadow to his crimson gaze. Lyna returns to her post by day - and walks the road to the city at twilight, eyes ever on the first blossoming stars.

This night those steps bring her to his Ocular door. There is no report. No emergency. No crisis or unwelcome guests. Yet here she is, ready and waiting to serve under his distant, considerate command.

Lyna lifts one fist and knocks gently.]

k'pandolu/sapphire | a wol

[undauntedspirit]

[MNK/DRK, was a miqo'te, has been a roe for a while now.

I'm mostly aware of main scenario, but still plugging through slowly (got done with the 75 dungeon, for reference).]

Thesa | yet another WoL

[verthunder]

(( pretty much straight up RDM. been done with msq for a while and really just generally up for anything? ))

Peryn Tattersall | More WoLness (spoilers for like... level 70 content in the toplevel)

[skysinging]

[ Silence never really sat too well with Peryn. When she was trying to sleep least of all. The orchestrion helped, it was true. But people were the thing that she always took more comfort in. The room she'd been given at the Pendants clearly had privacy in mind, but it also meant that they were quiet more often than not. The unfamiliar schedule the Crystarium ran on didn't help, the everlasting light having thoroughly disrupted the usual cycle of day and night that she was used to from home.

It put her in mind of the times she'd ended up in the parlor of Fortemps Manor, during their time spent up in Ishgard. Because that's what she ended up doing here too. Wandering out of her room after an hour or two of tossing and turning, and gravitating towards where people would gather. And once there, finding an out-of-the-way spot to sit and drift. Often for longer than she meant to.

It wouldn't have been an uncommon sight for Crystarium residents, or anyone else of note passing through, to find her dozed off in what she no doubt thought was an inconspicuous spot. Try to move her? Wake her up? Wait and make sure she isn't disturbed? ]

===============

[ 100% spoiler-friendly, pick a canon point they're at the Crystarium and come at me. If you need help picking, my current favored points are either the 77 or 75 lulls.

notes: Originally a BRD with strong WHM leanings, turned DNC right before jettisoning off to the first. Also a strong DotL/H background. Gets very attached to found families and draws comfort from being around people. More information is in her journal - it's a wip but has her backstory/major decisions ]

Tataru Taru

[alittleditty]

[ same mun as skysinging, so all spoilers are fine

I KNOW SHE WASN'T THERE but like? Convos with the WoL at some point? AU where she got brought to the First too? Hypothetical phone line between the First and the Source? idk come at me ]

[undauntedspirit]

[It's… kind of weird coming back to the Source? It just… it feels different. She pauses for a moment to shake it off, and then approaches Tataru. She does have a question, but-]

Tataru. How've you been doing here?

gonna assume this is after the first initial reunion at the end of ShB if that's okay?

[alittleditty]

Oh- goodness. [ She can just... pop right in and out from the First now it seems, can't she. And Tataru had thought the first time had been quick. ] That was quick! I haven't even had the chance to get in contact with E- with our ally.

[ Which. Happens sometimes. Sometimes because it's covert ops in hostile territory. Sometimes because it's Estinien she's trying to get in contact with. Not that she quite wants to spoil that surprise yet - she still wants to see Drifting Sapphire's face when she finds out! ]

Not much different than last time, really. Things have been tense, of course. With the stalemate and the Archons still missing and everything. But the others have all really risen to the occasion!

[ Honestly, she's quite proud of her fellow Scions. The ones who - like herself - had every reason to feel dwarfed standing next to legends. The Archons, the Warrior of Light... It was a lot to live up to, and she knew that better than most.

And then of course there's her. Running that tight ship. Keeping everything together. Although that makes her realize, and here she pauses, uncertain- ]

Unless, ah- you meant me?

[ Like her personally? ]