( 𝑎𝑑𝑗. ) ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤.

charmed : to be strongly attracted or captivated; the feeling of love and affection.

           isabelle’s never been one to study. maybe it was the nature of her upbringing, a trait inherited from being raised in a village where knowledge was passed down not from books and scrolls but through observing then doing. even the wood, its voice an ever-growing whisper as she grew older, was more of a teacher to her than written word ever was; often gifting her with its ancient wisdom in her times of need... even if she stubbornly never actually listened to it. she had no use for dusty old tomes about long forgotten history and people she did not care about and yet ⎯⎯⎯⎯ here she was, wasting her time doing just that. but...if it’s time spent with him, is it truly that much of a waste? isabelle lets her curiosity get the better of her as she sneaks a glance towards the one who, frustratingly, seem to be a center of her thoughts as of late. honey-colored eyes studied g’raha as he gently hummed to himself, skimming through some worn book until his eyes flicked up and instantly meet hers. in a nervous panic her gaze shot back towards the bookshelf she was meant to be rummaging through, her search quickening as she desperately tried ( and failed ) to ignore that he had just caught her staring at him.

          never had isabelle been so grateful for the powered blush she wore every morning, its signature rosy hue helping to conceal the spreading warmth across her cheeks. still, the way the curves of the miqo'te’s mouth softly turned upwards when their eyes momentarily locked hadn’t gone unnoticed by her: his ears had begun to twitch in that excited way she secretly adored before he awkwardly cleared his throat ⎯⎯⎯⎯ almost like he was reminding himself of where his mind was supposed to be, refocusing his attention on the scattered notes and tomes that took up the majority of the large oak table he was hunched over. isabelle was surely reading too much into it all though. completely. entirely. g’raha’s like that with everyone. not just me. those had been the exact words she had stubbornly told y'shtola a week prior after he had somehow become the center of conversation during their tea time together. ❛ we are simply friends. nothing more. nothing less. ’ she remembered crossing her arms in a huff while she declared that, each and every word feeling hollow even to herself. 

        y'shtola had only listened to her with a smile, a twinkle of amusement in her tone when she spoke, ❛ no, he is not. ’ the mage countered matter-of-factly, pausing to take a sip of her tea before continuing her point, ❛ nor are you the same around him. but i shall not press the subject any longer if you do not wish for me to mayi. ’

                                       why was she even thinking of this now?

she and g’raha were just friends. friends who always left a seat open for the other to sit by them whenever the scions sat together for dinner. friends whose hands just happened to linger a little too long on top of each other whenever they both reached to grab the same thing. friends whose parting ‘goodnights’ at the end of the day left so much unsaid each time yet neither of them had to courage to say what they truly wanted so they got up each morning and repeated the cycle again...

❛ isabelle! ’ her false name is soft and melodic on his lips, gently pulling her out of her thoughts as she blinked stupidly at him. the scholar was waving her over, a finger pointed at some discovery he found within the fossil he dared to call a book. ❛ what do you make of this passage? ’

she’s not the scholarly type but isabelle can never refuse him so she abandons her halfhearted search at the bookshelf to look at whatever it was that he deemed important enough to require her input. the woman leans forward, tucking a few stray locks of hair behind her ear so she could read it without it in her face. ❛ ...g’raha? ’ she begins slowly with a frown, wrinkling her nose in thought as she continues to read through the ancient text. it was a passage entirely...about chocobos? what? ❛ i don’t think i quite under⎯⎯⎯ ’ she freezes mid-sentence once she feels g’raha’s lips press against her cheeks, a short and sweet moment that simultaneously felt like an eternity as he pulled away. oh. now she understood.

                              @lavendairs​   /    starter   !

“  In  my  defense,  I  was  quite  hoping  it’d  have  been  one  of  the  other  Scions  who  would  have  fallen  for  such,  I  never  truly  took  into  consideration  that  you’d  be  the  first  to  arrive.  "    sweats,  he  looks  down  to  where  she  was  now  on  the  floor,  covered  in  the  flour-like  substance  he  fully  intended  for  another  to  crash  into  and  take.  Mainly  Thancred.  That  had  been  his  hope  anyways.  Perhaps  his  time  was  better  spent  in  the  libraries,  or  truly  out  on  the  battlefield  before  turning  their  safe  haven  into  a  warzone  all  his  own.  Maybe.  ”  Alisaie  mentioned  it  being  a  good  idea.  "  one  thing  was  very  much  certain.  He  was  not  about  to  go  down  on  his  own  this  time.

        rage. it’s the primary, if not only, emotion coursing throughout the viera as she sits on the floor, covered in who knows fucking what as g’raha fidgets and rambles off before her. isabelle is only half listening ⎯⎯⎯⎯ partially because she’s trying to temper herself so she doesn’t do something she might regret ( such as wrapping her claws around a certain miqo'tes neck and strangling them ). ❛ why would you listen to alisaie, a teenager, about anything?! ’ her words are a sharp, bitter hiss, a far cry from the calm, lady-like facade she normally carried herself with. he’s free momentarily from her death glare once she finally looks herself over, her inner anger quickly replaced by frustration and horror when finally takes in the damage. 

i don’t do full on about pages on this blog so this is a general gist of basic information - any details that need to be elaborated on will be posted in a separate post. i’m taking my own liberties with viera lore since most of it is barebones anyway ( plus i’m at the stage of my life where i don’t care about lining up with canon 100% ). certain things are inspired/taken directly from matsuno himself ( + xii in general ) since he is the word of god(tm) when it comes to viera.

basic info.

her name : isabelle’s ‘forest’ / birth name is mayi ( you can hear the exact pronunciation here - listen to it in icelandic, not english ). isabelle adelaide is a stage name that becomes a permanent persona.

age : born in 1540 which makes her thirty-seven years old at the start of ARR. she’s very young for an adult viera but as a result of it 1). being rude to ask them their age directly and 2). viera looking young in general due to their age slowing after they reach twenty, she often makes herself seem older than she actually is. essentially, she’s young and very inexperienced about the world / life in general but pretends she is not(tm).

race : is a rava viera but was not born in a village within golmore jungle. instead, she is a child of two viera that left the wood at different points of their lives.

birthplace : neimrahava woods ( no longer exists after being burned by garleans ). at the time, mayi’s family were part of a tribe of woodless’ viera that sought to continue to live by the green word on their own terms despite being viewed as outcasts. as ‘isabelle’, she often lies and simply says she is from rabanastre.

on viera that leave the wood : it’s a subject that is not explored a lot within canon despite the complex dynamic that a viera would have with not only their families but the wood itself which they believe is 'alive’ ( ex. viera that leave the wood lose the ability to hear the ‘green word’ ). in xii, there are sidequests where you can help ‘lost’ viera find their way but realistically, not every rava viera that leaves their village is going to find happiness and satisfaction in the outside world. what happens to those who wish to return to the wood but cannot as they’re now permanent outcasts by law? do they continue to travel alone, trying to find some meaning in their lives as they figure themselves out? have some ravas tried to live with veena viera? do others form small packs of their own and try to survive together despite lacking a real home? in mayi’s case, her family fit in the latter example and it’s the reason she has a forest name despite not being born in the wood.

family : a father ( deceased ), a mother ( alive ), and a younger brother ( alive ). her father died when she was around twelve during the empire’s invasion of dalmasca. she leaves home about sixteen years before ARR and doesn’t return until the events of SB / around when rabanastre is destroyed.

personality : 

alignment : true neutral. 

zodiac : capricorn.

temperament : comes off as choleric externally / the surface but is melancholic internally.

tv tropes : action fashionista, affectionate nickname ( tends to give people these ), the chanteuse, commitment issues, drowning my sorrows ( with materialism instead of alcohol ), hates being touched ( but also: desperately craves affection ), it's all about me, silly rabbit cynicism is for losers!, social climber, sugar-and-ice personality, takes a level in kindness.

a quote that defines her : golden, glittering, everything gleamed. rules that let you win.

‘isabelle’ lives life by three simple rules: 

i. everyone dies. a lot of things about mayi are shaped specifically around a crucial moment of her life: the age of entering adolescence and the lessons that come with it. she was barely twelve during the height of the empire’s invasion of the kingdom of dalmasca but war doesn’t care about one’s age, it’s violence will reach anyone no matter how much you run. she learned that lesson in the middle of the night, her mother’s grip on her hand deathly tight as they, and m any others from their tribe, fled the fires that were razing across their home. there are times when she closes her eyes that she can see her father, his back to them as he and the other wood-warders that protected them disappeared behind a cloud of smoke and fire.

ii. never stop running. every since that moment, mayi’s never stopped running. she’s tripped and stumbled, her pace has occasionally slowed but she’s always ran - ran to forget ( or maybe so it couldn’t catch up and hurt ). there are times, however, when mayi gives in and let’s the bitterness fester; remembering what happened when she once felt like it was to stop and think you’re safe. she remembers all the eyes on them; eyes so very much like her own but harsh and cold as the one they called an elder cast final judgement on them: ' they are viera no longer. ’ she had said with an indifference mayi has never forgotten. ‘ they made their choice to part with the wood. ’

iii. you only have yourself. why lend out a hand when someone can easily break it? people will never but you first and even when they do, there is always an ulterior motive; it’s a fact that’s been proven to her over and over again in her short life. she can remember the sounds of pleading and sobbing as mothers, including her own, dropped to their feet and begged their former sisters to at least take the children in. despite their desperate and frightened cries, the answer remained the same. even when she was older, mayi’s never shook that helplessness she felt as her family were dragged out of a home she had never even knew.

appearance + other information :

hair color : her natural hair color is a dark brown like most rava viera; she often dyes / rinses it a lighter shade, ex. honey blonde.

hair texture : it’s typically styled straighter than her natural curl pattern ( ex. 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 ). an example of her natural hair curl pattern for comparison. also don’t touch her hair unless you’re sleeping with her.

clothing : is known for dressing in mostly white, black, and various shades of pink. her style board.

profession : is a professional singer before becoming an adventurer. her singing voice claim. this will probably be expanded on in a separate post but in case it doesn’t happen; here’s a tl;dr on how this happens : she earns the attention of traveling performers while doing street performances in rabanastre to earn extra coin once she’s of age. she accepts their proposal to join their troupe which is how she earns her stage name and travels with them a few years. eventually, she remains in eorzea as a club singer until the seventh umbral era which leaves her mostly jobless and wandering for the years leading up to ARR.

AUGUST AHN ,      the overseer.

BAD GUYS DO THE DIRTY WORK ,    depending on the perspective. crescent creek is a town ruled by the status quo and august’s tenure as the town’s overseer has essentially been a slowly dismantling of that. accomplishing this with his partner-in-crime, onyx ( who is essentially his dragon ), just so happens to be done through force ‘questionable’ means which lands him enemies in town and in hot situations. august becoming a prime suspect in a murder case happens directly because he was the last person seen with the victim...who he just so happened to be proceeding to blackmail when he was meeting with her.

SUB-TROPE : "THE REASON YOU SUCK” SPEECH ,    he can be somewhat dramatic, finds a lot of people around him incompetent, and constantly represses his emotions so he often has ‘small’ outbursts that lead to these happening - especially to other council members. they’re usually, however, well deserved ( ex. his brother gets one when it’s revealed to august that he’s been alive the whole time ).

DEFROSTING THE ICE KING ,    applies to any relationship he has really. his need to maintain his position as the overseer in town requires abandoning his normal, lovable jock / academic athlete-type personality  in order to survive the politicking and backstabbing that often goes. between that and other events over the years, he’s slowly developed into an alpha bitch ( type b: leans towards passive aggression and manipulation to further his own goals ).

SUB-TROPE : JERK WITH A HEART OF A GOLD ,    he does actually care about crescent creek and the people within it - he just has his own way of showing it ( and the process of him ‘caring’ is actively killing him in a way ). his softer side most often comes out with his younger sister and his cousin.

DON’T YOU DARE PITY ME ,     even without the knowledge of him being in the process of dying, it’s hard not to notice that he’s only in the position he’s in now because of significant losses: the death his brother, the collapse of one of his friendships, etc. although his death is a choice that he’s mostly accepted ( or at least that’s what he tells other people ), 'canonically’ only two people are aware of his condition and he doesn’t like them constantly hovering over him or worrying about him pushing himself.

SUB-TROPE : DEATH IS CHEAP ,    his eventual 'death’ applies as this because this a soap opera - no one that matters truly stays dead. they just get amnesia, trapped on an island, or something.

RED EYES, TAKE WARNING ,    as a mage ( or ‘wizard’ but doesn’t refer to himself that way ) he’s a natural magic user and as a result, he’s learned to use the spell that’s killing him to his own advantage: enhancing his own magical power. a permanent mark of that is his eyes glowing red whenever he uses his magic.

TALL, DARK, AND HANDSOME ,     most morally grey male characters in a soap opera, which august is directly modeled after, fit into this trope - it’s just that ‘dark’ becomes quite literal as they’re usually often the town pariahs / big bads to varying degrees depending on the show ( see: adam chandler, victor newman, etc. ). they’re typically rich and one of the most important people in town - most often a business executive - which is why most characters can’t avoid dealing with them. most characters of this type in a soap have the one true love that balances them out. 

SUB-TROPE : OLDER THAN THEY LOOK ,    he appears in his late 20s / early 30s but is around 70 years old due to not being human.

semi-unprompted ask.

        crafting a false persona around an idea, an illusion, is far from easy ⎯⎯⎯⎯ or so she had originally thought. all it takes is a little lie here and a little lie there; occasionally aiming her ever sweet and charming smile at the right target person to further sell the narrative she had weaved so carefully over the years. there are, however, occasions ( such as this one ) when her carefully woven narrative is on the verge of unraveling entirely with a single tug. ❛ well i am a viera that’s left the wood. ’ there’s an unspoken ‘duh.’ dripping from isabelle’s tone as she speaks, a direct contrast to the pleasant smile and innocent shrug that follows her words. ❛ of course, i’m hiding something. you truly think a mother of mine would give me a name such as isabelle? ha! ’ her words are said with such conviction and mock offense at someone daring to imply that she of all people could possibly be an intentional liar that it would be difficult to not believe her. 

      ( of course, in truth, she is a liar ⎯⎯⎯⎯ but how rude it is to actually imply such a thing? )

       the truth of the matter is that one can’t leave a village they were never born into. one can, however, be dragged away from the gates of a village that refuses to accept them ⎯⎯⎯⎯ not even when she comes to them begging, pleading, to take her in as the sky falls all around them and she’s left with nothing but the clothes on her very back. the corners of her smile become a tad bit tighter as the memory plays out in her head, a constant reminder of an important lesson she had learned that day: there’s no one you can count on but yourself.