FFXV NPC Appreciation

The prompts for NPC Weekend today were Chocobos, Aranea Highwind, and Crowe Altius, so here’s the next chapter - it’s got all three (ok, the chocobo is just a mention).

Title:  Cherry Blossoms and Choices Rating: Explicit Warnings: None Apply Pairing: Aranea/Crowe Summary:  Aranea and Crowe settle into familiar patterns, and discover more about one another.

Day 3: Chocobos

Bonus Characters: Aranea Highwind and Crowe Altius

Let it be known that Crowe Altius does not like chocobos. They smell, they have to be fed, and they make awful noises. (Libertus says the same thing about her bike, but at least her bike isn’t using the bathroom wherever it likes). So this mission was not at all one she wanted to be a part of, because it would require riding chocobos through most of Duscae and Leide.

Crowe preferred the missions that didn’t require her to leave Insomnia, or at least the ones that let her choose her mode of transportation. This was almost insulting. But it was her job, and if there’s one thing Crowe did well, it was her job.

Of course, all the complaining she did on the way to the outpost didn’t help her case, but she stopped complaining when she got their and met someone she hadn’t expected to.

Aranea Highwind was a name Crowe only really knew from stories. The commodore was fierce (as fierce as she was beautiful, if you asked any of the men) and lethal. She started as a mercenary and eventually worked her way through Niflheim’s ranks (supposedly) killing anyone who stood in her way and making it look like an accident. Crowe had always wanted to see such a woman in person.

She just hadn’t expected to see her for the first time while she was petting a chocobo blacker than the night sky.

First of all, that would definitely be the chocobo Crowe was using, because she was not going to be seen on one of those fluffy yellow chickens.

Second of all, Aranea really was as beautiful as the men had said.

It took Crowe a full minute to come out of the small daze she’d been in, and even then it took her awhile to approach the woman. The men were hanging back, either because they didn’t care or because they were afraid of Aranea, as they should be. But Crowe had always been in the habit of finding trouble.

Aranea grinned at Crowe wickedly as she approached, still lazily petting the chocobo. “This the one you want? She’s a sweetheart. I think you two will get along famously,” Aranea spoke, and maybe Crowe’s knees went a little weak.

“You think so? I’m not the biggest fan of oversized birds,” Crowe said, avoiding Aranea’s eyes as she approached, reaching a hand of her own up to the chocobo. “I feel like I’m gonna fall off every time I ride one.”

“Maybe I’ll just have to teach you how to do it properly.” If Crowe had been looking, she would’ve seen Aranea’s wink.

When the Glaives came back to drop the chocobos off a week later, Aranea was there again. Crowe smirked when she saw her, and told the others to go on ahead.

She’d catch up.

—-

Day 3 of the FFXV @npcweek ~  For this day, I choose to write about Aranea and her perspective of the interactions she had with the Chocobros in the game along with what she was up to during the 10 years of darkness and post light returning to Eos ^^

The prompts were:

Day 2: Returning the Favor (helping the Chocobros)

Bonus Characters: Monica Elshett and Weskham Armaugh

Okay, so Vyv wasn’t exactly the most giving of people. He had opinions and things he needed to say, and he was going to say them, dammit. He adored his company, and he was going to use his publications to get his messages out to the world. It helped that Prince Noctis and his entourage were kind enough to bring him some material so that he didn’t have to go out and get it himself. And he paid them pretty well for it, so he was a least a little giving.

Prompto was a nice enough kid, and he had quite a bit of talent from what Vyv could see. It started out as him just asking them for extra photos so that he could get his articles out ASAP, but then he started really admiring the kid’s talent. Vyv started asking for pictures that he didn’t really need, just to see how good the blond was. What really caught his eye were the landscapes Prompto took. Vyv’s favorites so far were the photos he’s had taken of the Disc of Cauthess, and Vyv left copies of them pinned up next to his desk.

One day, instead of letting the Prince and company to come to him, Vyv made an effort to search them out. And luckily enough, he found Prompto all by himself taking pictures of the view from Lestallum, which was perfect for Vyv’s intentions.

Paying them enough gil for a night’s stay at Galdin certainly made their time worthwhile, but Vyv wanted to pay them back in a more personal way. More specifically, he wanted to pay back the photographer who had gotten him all of those gorgeous pictures for his publications. Especially since climbing Ravatogh and going to an Imperial base just to take pictures were no small favors.

A quick conversation with Prompto settled it. A week later, Vyv had enough photos to fill an entire page. Another week later, and there was an entire spread in The Meteor with Prompto Argentum’s name on top, all of his best photos filling the pages, captions with pretty words and embellished stories written beneath or next to every one of them.

Prompto had some extra work every time he passed through Lestallum now, whether it was for Vyv or a local that had seen his work, and Vyv was confident that this would be a good start for the blond once he was done with his journey.

Vyv made sure Prompto knew that if he really wanted to be a professional photographer, there would always be a job for him at Meteor Publishing.

—-

This was fun to write! I think it definitely needs to be more polished, but I adore the idea

Day 2 of @npcweek :D  For this prompt I literally took the theme and wrote as many people as I could think of showing appreciation to the chocobros ^^

The options where:

Day 1: NPC Friendships/Rivalries

Bonus Characters: Dino Ghiranze and Vyv Dordan

Being a freelance jeweler isn’t all fun and games. Especially not when you don’t exactly have access to the resources needed for such an occupation. Or when the town you’re trying to set yourself up in doesn’t have the sort of folk you’re trying to cater to. Duscae wasn’t known for its wealth, but Dino had started there because there was an abundance of precious metals and gems to harvest from the area. When it came to actually selling his wares, however… no such luck.

After setting himself up with a nice inventory—a good number of materials, tools, and pieces he’d already made—Dino set out for Galdin Quay, hoping to appeal to the wealthy that passed through and stayed the night. It took awhile for him to be noticed. People weren’t exactly going to Galdin to buy jewelry, and they often passed him by without so much as a second glance, even if his jewelry was rather nice (and with all of those status benefits? Who could turn that down?)

About a week and a half into his stay at Galdin, Dino finally made enough gil to try one of the fancy dishes at the resort. He figured it was probably a bad idea to spend so much gil on just a meal, but he’d earned it. Dino had only sold three or four items in the last couple of days, but that was better than the zero items he was averaging at the beginning of the week.

Dino wasn’t sure how to feel about Coctura when he first met her. She was nice, but that was the weird part. Being around all these demanding, rude people all day usually caused people to be the opposite of nice. Dino, well, he was the opposite of nice most days just because he could be, but it didn’t help that he was around such folk all the time now that he was in Galdin. And yet she was a literal sweetheart.

After that first meeting, whenever Dino was giving himself a break or there weren’t a lot of people in the resort that he hadn’t already tried to peddle to, he’d go and visit Coctura. He usually couldn’t afford to eat anything, but it was still nice to have someone to talk to, someone that he could call a friend. She eventually started giving him the plates that “didn’t turn out”. (Dino wasn’t sure what she meant by that—every dish she gave to him tasted marvelous).

So it became routine. Every day Dino would find time to visit Coctura and keep her company while the restaurant wasn’t busy, and she would give him a free meal, her pretty smile included at no extra cost.

Everything was going swimmingly until Dino ran out of materials. He’d been doing so well (after he’d reluctantly dropped his prices, at Coctura’s insistence) that he’d run out of all of his pre-made jewelry, and was having to make new pieces every other night or so to keep up with the demand. Now he had about three pieces left and no extra materials, and he needed more. He’d already been to all of the local spots he knew of to gather any gems and metals. He’d have to go back to Duscae to be able to find a enough to keep himself from having to harvest anything more for awhile.

Coctura frowned at him when he told her. “It’s going to be lonely around here without you,” she told him.

“I’m only gonna be gone a couple-a days.”

“And what if you get yourself into some trouble? You’ll be gone longer.”

“And miss out on your cookin’? Who d’ya think I am? I won’t be causing’ no trouble, I promise. I’ll be back in a couple-a days tops.”

When Dino came back, a sack of materials in tow, Coctura informed him that she’d started asking all the hunters that passed through to bring her any precious stones and materials they found along the way in exchange for a little bit of extra gil. She’d said it with a smile while she handed Dino a plate before he could even say hello.

“I missed you too,” he said instead.

—-

My first piece for @npcweek’s #npcweekend

My Friday prompt for @npcweek ~  I choose to write about Cor, Cid, and Weskham for my story, focusing on their friendship.

The options were:

The prompts for the weekend are as follows:

Friday, May 25th Voted Prompt: NPC friendships/rivalries  Bonus Character Prompt: Dino Ghiranze & Vyv Dorden

Saturday, May 26th Voted Prompt: Returning the favor (helping the chocobros)  Bonus Character Prompt: Monica Elshett & Weskham Armaugh

The prompts for the weekend are as follows:

Friday, May 25th Voted Prompt: NPC friendships/rivalries  Bonus Character Prompt: Dino Ghiranze & Vyv Dorden

Saturday, May 26th Voted Prompt: Returning the favor (helping the chocobros)  Bonus Character Prompt: Monica Elshett & Weskham Armaugh

The prompts for the weekend are as follows:

Friday, May 25th Voted Prompt: NPC friendships/rivalries  Bonus Character Prompt: Dino Ghiranze & Vyv Dorden

Saturday, May 26th Voted Prompt: Returning the favor (helping the chocobros)  Bonus Character Prompt: Monica Elshett & Weskham Armaugh

The prompts for the weekend are as follows:

Friday, May 25th Voted Prompt: NPC friendships/rivalries  Bonus Character Prompt: Dino Ghiranze & Vyv Dorden

Saturday, May 26th Voted Prompt: Returning the favor (helping the chocobros)  Bonus Character Prompt: Monica Elshett & Weskham Armaugh

The prompts for the weekend are as follows:

Friday, May 25th Voted Prompt: NPC friendships/rivalries  Bonus Character Prompt: Dino Ghiranze & Vyv Dorden

Saturday, May 26th Voted Prompt: Returning the favor (helping the chocobros)  Bonus Character Prompt: Monica Elshett & Weskham Armaugh

The prompts for the weekend are as follows:

Friday, May 25th Voted Prompt: NPC friendships/rivalries  Bonus Character Prompt: Dino Ghiranze & Vyv Dorden

Saturday, May 26th Voted Prompt: Returning the favor (helping the chocobros)  Bonus Character Prompt: Monica Elshett & Weskham Armaugh

The prompts for the weekend are as follows:

Friday, May 25th Voted Prompt: NPC friendships/rivalries  Bonus Character Prompt: Dino Ghiranze & Vyv Dorden

Saturday, May 26th Voted Prompt: Returning the favor (helping the chocobros)  Bonus Character Prompt: Monica Elshett & Weskham Armaugh