Y'all want someValesscahcontent?❤️❤️❤️

ISN’TTHAT LAUGH BEAUTIFUL?! ❤️❤️

Did you know that today is an international holiday? That’s right— May 14th is International Centaur Appreciation Day! Followers of both this blog and my main know that I have something of a small affinity for centaurs from having a good few on my F/O list, so I just had to make a post in pertains to such a holiday!

But the real kicker is not the fact that such a holiday exists in the first place, as a matter of fact. Because of all days that International Centaur Appreciation Day happens to fall on…

IT’S ALSO MILES’ BIRTHDAY!!!

I knew the moment I came up with a birthday for Miles that I wanted to draw him again for his big day, and I am STILL in complete and total awe that I somehow chose the one day of the year pertaining to centaurs to be his birthday— if that’s not a fitting coincidence, I don’t know WHAT is.

With that said, happy birthday, beloved horse dork of mine, I love you beyond comprehension!

Happy Mother’s Day to Claiyen, the best mom I could ever ask for!

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been playing quite a bit of Winds of Change lately, and from being about two hours into the main story thus far, I’m enjoying it just as much as I thought I would! With its wide cast, there are naturally severalcharacters in the Winds of Change world that I haven’t met yet… though the characters I have met and ventured alongside in my quest to Mazeo have all been nothing short of wonderful.

And since both characters are wildly obscure compared to my other F/Os and have next to no representation on tumblr, I’d like to introduce the self-ship community to two new F/Os of mine that have become incrediblyspecial to me in the past few days…

Valessa and Fortaime!

Before we dive into talking about Valessa and Fortaime, I think it’s necessary to provide readers with a general overview of Winds of Change’s story so that certain plot points are fully contextualized before I begin gushing!

The game begins with a vision of your beloved hometown, Valinorth, in the midst of a heated onslaught. Fires run rampant, strange armored entities litter the townscape, and the screams that ring throughout town are unsettling to say the least. In spite of the horrors set before you, you can’t make sense of what is happening around you, as though you are thrown into the situation at hand without any recollection of prior events… but why could that be?

Throughout the carnage, you sneak around with two companions you have supposedly known for quite some time: the protective and burly Ulric, and the intelligent although inquisitive Valessa. While the two of them have some context as to what is going on, it becomes apparent to them that you don’t rather quickly, and a distressed Valessa takes notice.

She gently enlightens you that you play a significant role in the safety of Valinorth, and the world of Alestia as a whole— you are the sacred Seer, having been blessed with spirits which allow you to catch glimpses of visions of the future, as daunting as they may be. With this revelation, she also realizes that— because of how you’ve been acting— that the destruction you’ve found yourselves in is a mere vision you’re having, and that Valinorth is still at peace… for now.

Valessa encourages you to use this devastating vision to warn Valinorth of its impending doom. With knowledge that an attack is on the way, there’s a high chance that you as the Seer can stop it, no matter what it takes. And with a rather macabre conclusion to the vision, you wake up in the comforts of home, relieved that nothing you just witnessed was real after all… but action must be taken so that said events don’t happen whatsoever.

With that out of the way… who exactly is Valessa?

Valessa is a caring and emotive fox who is the Scribe to the Seer, and her job is to collaborate with the Seer on visions they may have in interpreting and making sense of them. It’s very evident that she has a close relationship with the Seer, and is often seen being supportive of them as well as uniting with them to get to the bottom of the disturbing vision the Seer caught a glimpse of.

Those who read the tags of my prior Winds of Change post might have read that all it took for me to give the game a go was one specific character in Winds of Change’s promotional artwork, and surprise surprise, that character is indeed Valessa! It should come as no surprise that adorable furry girls like herself are my ultimate weakness, though it was when I began playing Winds of Change that my feelings for her began to reallyblossom.

Valessa, as a contrast to many of my F/Os, is notable for having a major speaking role in her source material, so every image you’ve seen in this post so far has corresponding voice acting to go along with it (Save for the inclusion of my name, which is usually dubbed over as ‘Seer’). It’s one thing to imagine an F/O saying something sweet to you, but actually getting to hear them say it is on another level COMPLETELY.

As you can probably imagine, I have several screencaps of cute and sweet things that Valessa has said throughout my time in Valinorth thus far, but the above screencap may just be my current favorite. Valessa speaks in a calm, soft voice— which alreadyis perfect— but getting to hear her remind me to 'do my best to keep calm’ made my heart flutter, and it’s a reminder I’ve been keeping close to heart ever since I heard her say it.

Legitimately every second that Valessa is on-screen, I can’t help but smile. Every emotion she has artwork for is nothing short of adorable (Her thinking artwork featured in the promo art was what sold me on the game. Just LOOK at her), and I’m sure it’s more than obvious on how much I love supportive characters like her, so much like Zulius, Valessa was decided on being my newest romantic F/O on sight. ❤️❤️

Now that we have some insight on Valessa’s character, let’s talk about Fortaime!

Fortaime is an adventurous and kindhearted rabbit that serves as the Protégé to the Scribe of the Seer, and works valiantly under Valessa in the hopes to fully understand what it means to be a Scribe should the need of him having to step up to the position come about. Where Valessa takes her studies seriously, Fortaime has been known to become easily distracted during their lessons, though he still has a good grasp on understanding how to interpret visions regardless.

When Winds of Change introduced Fortaime to me as the player’s best friend, I at first knew that I was going to at least like him, but that quickly escalated into me actually seeing him as a best friend. His playful nature coupled with the fact that he is the first person to join your party earned him a spot on my list of platonic F/Os— and he is for certain one of my ultimate favorites.

Fortaime is never one to leave the player out of a conversation, and tells you time upon time again that you have his trust and that he’ll stick with you on your adventure until he very end. He may be a smidge more infantile compared to Valessa, but there’s something to appreciate about his bright outlook on everything and his unending love for his friends.

And how could you not appreciate Fortaime? LOOK at him!! He is absolutely adorable! I think my favorite artwork of him so far is when he’s overjoyed, of which you can see in WoC’s promo art— this man’s smile is everything to me. Fortaimeis everything to me. Valessa and Fortaime are everything to me. While I’m still early on into the story of Winds of Change, I couldn’t be happier knowing that I’m sent on such a journey with these two wonderful people whom I cherish to no end.

I’ve been thinking a whole lot about Absa in the past couple of days…

I don’t even know what it is, but like… getting to call her my friend is like the highest honor I can think of. I think what gets me the absa-loute most about her is that— in nearly all of her appearances in canon and fanart— she’salwaysgotthisgrufflookgoingon. Clearly, this portrayal isn’t without reason; she’s practically the most stoic character in Lovers of Aether, and perhaps even Rivals of Aether as a result, though…

… knowing that I’m good enough for her to consider me a friend? A best friend at that? That she might be against showing affection of any kind but makes an exception for me? That, in spite of her no-nonsense personality, that she genuinely cares about me deep down, even if she doesn’t like publicly expressing the such?

That’s so special to me.

She may as well be my ultimate favorite platonic F/O, and while I obviously love all my F/Os the same… Absa was the first character in the franchise I had feelings for, after all

Self-Shippers of tumblr, today is a very special day…

Today, January 17th, marks the one-year anniversary of me being with Clairen, my main romantic F/O. ❤️

It was on this day last year that I first downloaded Lovers of Aether to try out, and at the time, I had next to no idea that not only would I come out of the experience with a whole host of F/Os (That take up roughly 70% of my entire F/O list, in fact), but that I would also meet perhaps my most doted over romantic F/O.

I’ve spoken to great lengths about how my affection toward Clairen came to be a few times before, which you can read all about in these two posts hereandhere, so there isn’t a whole lot more I can detail in terms of how I felt when I first saw her…

… but what I can talk about was the impact she had on my life. I don’t think I’ve ever fallen for a romantic F/O harder than I did for Clairen. Immediately after meeting her in Lovers of Aether, she became my top fictional crush, bar none.

I pulled off theperfectplaythough of her route in Lovers of Aether, ultimately ending in her agreeing to go to the homecoming dance with me. I began using her as my go-to character in pretty much every Rivals of Aether match I played onward. I woke up at six in the morning to order her plush. I snagged every single issue of Tales of Aether once they released just to see her beautiful face.

In fact, I’m pretty sure that the biggest reason that I chose to make a self-shipping side blog in the first place was because of the immense love I had for Clairen, in addition to the other F/Os I picked up from the Aether franchise. Granted, what I’m about to say applies to all of my F/Os, but I’m sure you can imagine that there is something particularly special to me about her…

Clairen genuinely makes me happy.

Even the thought of her is enough to get me smiling like a complete dork. I have held my Clairen plush in my arms far more times than you might imagine, seeing as it’s the closest thing I have to being in her embrace… it’s a good thing her plush is the biggest of the lot. There have been days in this past year where life has been hard… so hard, that some days it was an impossibility to even keep my eyes open. But every time I felt that nothing was going right…

I would think of Clairen. I would think about the way she would hold her hand in mine. I would think about the way she would gush about me to other people. I would think about the way her face lights up whenever she laughs. I would think about those serene moments where it’s just the two of us, gazing endlessly into one another’s eyes…

Clairen makes me feel loved.

And for our one year anniversary together… I just had to draw her.

I am tremendously proud of this drawing of her, in part because of how much of an improvement it is over the drawing I made of her last year, but also keep in mind that I drew this all in one afternoon, and managed to finally perfect drawing Clairen in my artstyle.

I had also initially planned on writing Clairen a letter in this post in a similar fashion to how I wrote one for my big sis Ayala here, but… I feel as though this entire post is one big love letter in itself. My love for Clairen has been made more than apparent with how long this post is and the drawing of her that I made, I find.

Lovers of Aether might credit itself to be ‘a friendship game’, but to me, it’s more than that. It’s a game about friendship, family, and true to its name, love…

… which I managed to find therein.❤️

Imagine that you and your F/Os have travel-size plushies of each other.

heartfelt-rain:

Imagine you and your F/O(s) taking a nap together! Maybe it’s sleeping in a little extra in the morning, or an afternoon snooze, or accidentally dozing off with your F/O.. regardless of the time, know that they absolutely love getting to hold you or getting to be held by you.. just remember that they love you wholeheartedly and love falling asleep with you and waking up to your amazing face. ♡