I actually wrote something. Rare for me these days, I know.

After finishing Endwalker, I ended up going on a raging Zenos bender that has no signs of slowing down, so this happened!

Title: Simulacrum

Rating: E

Words: 3563

There are spoilers for main story around level 83 in Garlemald, so please beware if you haven’t finished that area yet! Please mind the tags!

ReadSimulacrum on my AO3!

(I wrote this blurb because the quests completely inspired me, however, I’m also falling asleep so don’t expect much, lmao. It’s not done.)

He’d left her.

He’d actually left here there, like a jackass.

The timing was horrid. Absolutely hellbent on destroying everything before that vital moment when he’d have to leave again. His mind was torn between an actual connection, lust, desperation, and a call to duty he’d never felt himself pulled to before.

Nyx hissed through his teeth as the frigid air of Ishgard lashed against the stubble on his face. He tugged the thick, lined coat that concealed the inkings on his neck from the world further up until his face was obscured enough to begin this trek home. It was well past the twelfth bell and nay a single life could be seen on the streets.

She’d been wanted by a thug, a man who couldn’t be scorned by a woman, and he’d mentally left himself back in her room, that instinctual need to protect springing into action. But instead, his body had moved of its own accord. His heart had a mission that his mind disagreed with.

Rook had already placed his preparations at an undisclosed location and he found the pack with ease despite the snow having drowned it from prying eyes. It smelled like the bar. Like Rook. It comforted him to some degree even though he would never admit to it.

The Seeker hoisted the thing into his back and reached into a coat pocket for a pair of leather gloves fitted with fur from some fiber bearing creature, and began pulling them tightly over each finger. He’d only snapped out of the early process of travel when something fell to the ground. The red spade shone brightly atop the corporeal bitterness that lined the street and he reached for the card that hosted it. The ace of spades. She’d tucked it into his coat as he left and even now he wondered why she’d been content to lose a card from her deck. What did it mean to her? The explanation had been lost in his haste to get moving.

Some stirring in the chain of rumor had hinted that all who were willing to offer a hand in Garlemald were to convene at a specified place and time, but he’d missed it by several suns. His only choice was to pay for a private service to drop him in the wilderness outside of the main city. Regio Urbanissima. He’d manage to find someone, but only by the skin of his teeth. He’d not be arriving with the others, but he’d still manage to get to Garlemald no matter the cost.

—————Several suns later————-

His feet landed on solid ground after far too much time in the skies. Nyx wasn’t quite fond of leaving it for extended ranges towards the heavens, but he’d endured. Much to the disapproval of his stomach and his head.

They’d named the Camp “Broken Glass” and as he treaded ground, his coat pulled as close to his body as possible, he realized why the name had stuck.

The sun had already begun to disappear beyond the mountains when he’d arrived and to his surprise, someone amongst the machinists had prepared a cot for him in one of the annex buildings just south of the aetheryte. What little fire they could conjure up managed to keep the cold at bay enough that everyone inside would be able to sleep with some degree of comfort.

Golden eyes analyzed every soul within his temporary housing and he eventually laid back on the cot, one that might have been a touch too short for him. After all, telling organizations that he was a Miqo’te often led to… misunderstandings about height. Nyx had been about to roll over when the voices of two Garlean refugees made his ears raise the slightest bit. He’d almost failed to notice their allegiance until he noted a very familiar insignia across the shoulder of a jacket.

His jaw set and he went deathly still, finally rolling over just so that they wouldn’t know he was eavesdropping.

“Do you really believe they’re here to save us? Have you lost all sense? We’re going to be delivered soon and then we can fight back… These savages won’t pull masks over all of our eyes… You’re too soft.”

“You’ve lost all reason, all sense. We can’t do this on our own. It’s certain death if you run from them and deny their aid… Do you want to end up like your family? Stubborn… and very dead.”

Nyx’s eyes widened as the conversation continued on, but more to his horror was the realization that he’d been misled to attend a Garlean recovery process. He sucked in a breath and his fingers dug into the cotton of the cot. Tonight, Grace would remain at his side, her body polished and her chambers filled.

A hushed breath spoke into the fabric and a huskiness settled in his chest, one that came out in a whisper, “Garleans… they’re helpin’ tha Garleans… Wha’ fresh hells is this?”.

okay this might be pot kettle because im a emet/zenos enjoyer but people who are really Really into the garleans and make them their whole deal are fucking weird as hell dude

endwalker screenshot redraws from a while back

xenodile:

I’m absolutely certain that Deryk and/or the baby monkey are also divinities, and that The Twelve are supposed to be idealized visions of the Convocation.

Also, hearing that Nald and Thal have the same voices as Hythlodaeus and Emet-Selch respectively, normally I’d just write off as getting voice actors to do multiple roles, pretty typical, but those two voices together is giving me pause. Especially with Thal being lord of the dead and the afterlife, like Emet-Selch’s seat on the Convocation being related to the Underworld, while Nald is the guide of the living, like Hythlodaeus was head of the Bureau of the Architect that decided what creations/concepts would be preserved and propagated.  And together, Nald’thal weigh the souls of mortals to determine their worth, just as Emet-Selch had been judging mankind for so long.  I just feel like there’s something here.

xenodile:

Talking about how Sadu is a shark got me thinking about animal motifs as a concept, as it is an idea I find fascinating, the way we look at things in nature that do not have human values to personify human values, both virtues and failings. A dog is loyal, a tiger is fierce, a snake is duplicitous, an eagle is noble, and so on.

So naturally my next consideration was Zenos as I had directly compared him to Sadu, but found myself unable to come up with an animal that suited him. Then it dawned on me, that may well be the point. In Ala Mhigo, he describes the WoL as “the beast he has longed to face” and when he accepts them as his “friend” he states that beasts fight for food, shelter, survival, etc. whereas you and he, who stand above the beasts, crave violence for violence’s sake. He doesn’t have an animal motif because he is so far detached from the natural world that he could only ever be human. Purely, malevolently, frighteningly human, in the sense that if identifying with nature is humanizing, then to be completely removed from nature is dehumanizing. This is further reinforced by his choice of weapon in Stormblood being a katana, a style of sword with no utility or greater functionality, just a single cutting edge, and again in Endwalker as a Reaper, his voidsent Avatar is distinctly human looking, compared to the players’ decidedly more monstrous, dare I say bestial Avatar.

Flashforward to Endwalker, where Zenos gives his speech about how seeking meaning or justice in life is the behavior of beasts, chiding Jullus for hoping for some justification for the atrocites Zenos committed. Once again he asserts himself as separate from the beasts of mankind by being unmoved by our values and ideals, seeking only his own gratification by any means necessary. At the time, we may even agree with him, given our recent adventures in Elpis and Garlemald have left us a better look at the full cataclysmic scope of the quest for meaning and answers, but Alisaie rebuffs him. For whatever Zenos believes, he is alone, set apart from the beasts that fight for love, hope, and survival, so he will never achieve the battle against a true equal he longs for.

It is only until he accepts this, that you are not like him, you are a not a lonely human amid a world of beasts, that he he finally lets go of his notion of superiority and in the same breath lets go of his “humanity”, becoming Shinryu to fly to the WoL’s aid.  It is not until the end of the story, when his perspective has truly changed, that he is able to become a beast like the rest of us, and see that the bestial things that drive us; our love, our rage, our ambition, and our grief, is what elevated us beyond him, rather than him sitting above us as a “pure” human.  Zenos is a dragon.  Greedy, majestic, powerful, and unforgettable.

new endwalker charms✨

holographic charms are now up to pre-order on my store!

>>https://etsy.com/shop/gefiki<<

✨STORE UPDATE✨

New endwalker stickers of our beloved friends are up!

>>https://etsy.com/shop/gefiki<<

little bird

To transform in the presence of others is considered vainglorious in the extreme. As uncouth and unseemly as running about robeless. Shameful.

(Emet-Selch, Hythlodaeus, Azem, Elidibus)