The "Be My Valentione!" Creative Writing Contest (NA) - OFFICIAL ENTRY THREAD

[RhoeAmariyo]

Fordola,

I find myself conflicted. In the streets they jeer and call you “Butcher.” Even I bore witness to actions which oppressed your own people. Yet, after that moment we experienced the Echo, my thoughts often linger on you.

You claimed that I did not understand; by that vision alone, you are correct. How does a person who clearly loves her country turn on her kinsmen? How is it that even as you took tithes, you sought to shelter them in a way? Upon reflection, am I so different? Even as my Astrometer soothes wounds, how many forced conscripts from other lands have I slain? Would I have done any differently than you, in the same position? What is Good, if not saving who we can, however we can?

You are so strong, in more ways than I can express. Saving the Council and me from the treachery of the Qaylana only reaffirmed this. I see your fire and resolve and can’t help but admire that.

I find that I don’t wholly understand, neither you nor myself. But I want to. I want to know you. I care about you Fordola. I will wait for you. Will you wait for me?

Alice Reis

Character: Alice Reis (Midgardsormr)
Desired Prise if chosen: Scarf of Wondrous Wit



For additional flavor not part of the official entry above, please see this Lodestone entry.

[Kakure]

It seems like eras since the day I first stumbled into your tent-ring. Do you remember it, my dear?

I was so young then, on my first class and not yet level 20, a lamb lost and uncertain. My gear was shinynew and upleveled, but there was always this lingering... not-there I couldn't quite put my touch-finger on.

And then I met you, my special-close teachy-one, and bigeyes!: it all started to fit together, like the interlocking gearteeth and cogwheels in one of your contraptions. They say the eyes are a window to the soul; it was in the reflection of your gobbiemask that I first came to understand the truthsense of those words. When you showed me how fighty-tools drink in airyself to make stonyshine, name of materia, you hand-led me on the first steps toward understanding myself and my place in the world.

Your tongueflaps filled my braincase with knowings and my stomach with flutterbugs as your stonyshines filled my gear, and through it all I came to understand, little by little, the subtle, furtive threads among and between -- the echo and the aether, the lifestream and the soul; all the airythings and oncethings and not-yet-things that bind us together in this crazy world.

And so, on this special day, I return to The Bonfire, to the place it all began -- not as the lost lamb I once was, but as a Grandmaster of Magic, wielder of weapons of legend and slayer of eikons -- to ask you a most important question:

Mutamix Bubblypots, will you be my heart-Elezen specialfriend?

(Also, do you know where I could get a set of Noble Barding?)

C'saka Kahjai of Balmung

[Pepper_Somerset]

Baderon,

You saw the Light in me when I was no one. You didn't give up on me when I struggled with my greataxe, or when I spent nearly a whole moon moping around the Wench. You cheered me on when I was just Pepper- not the Warrior of Light. You kept me company while I tried to write the funniest Raise macro, and listened to all of my ale addled stories and fears without interruption. You sat patiently while I fretted about putting down my greataxe and picking up what would become my beloved rapier.

You provided the spirits while I sat and shook, telling you about Bahamut Prime and how it felt to die.

Through all of it, you were patient and kind; a man as strong as stone against the ocean tide. You know so much about me, and yet I cannot even say your nameday with certainty. I want to know so much more about you, and who knows? Maybe the next time I'm visiting the Wench I'll gather the courage to ask you on a real date, to ask you all those little things about yourself that I lie awake pondering.

With a New Sun rising, I'm penning this letter in hopes that my affection will reach you before I'm in the thick of trouble once again. Know that I will always have a story for you, because while I'm out there helping the inhabitants of this star solve their problems, I want nothing more than to be by your side once more.

Until we meet again,
Pepper

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|Pepper Somerset|
|Sargatanas|
|Bluebird Earrings|