somnia app

[beaffrayed]

PLAYER INFO

Name: Ruka
Preferred Contact: PM this journal or plurk at rukafais, you don't need to add me to play with me though o7
Age: 21+
Invite Link: Here!

CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Fray Myste
Canon: Final Fantasy XIV
Age: Ambiguously late-twenties/early-thirties depending on how long each expac takes. 25 at death allegedly, but since Fray is timesharing with Meteor-WoL, we'll go with how old the wol is.
If Under 16, why is this character a good thematic fit for Somnia?: N/A
Canon Point: Post-Endwalker, just shy of starting Dawntrail
Wiki Link(s): Wiki link

Notes: While Fray's answers are sort of defined by his role in the Warrior of Light's head at the starting point, Fray is very much his own character with his own stuff going on and is not meant to be (and won't be played as) an extension of the WoL or anything. He is their roommate who complains when they do stupid shit and he happens to live in their house (the house is their soul).

SOMNIA-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

1. Dreams are how Sleep chooses you. What might draw your character into Somnia— a wound, a wish, a weakness? Would they follow the dream, or run from it?
In other points in Fray's existence, it would have been his own wish that drew the dream forth; the frustration to be heard, to be separated, to be permitted to act on the repressed feelings of his 'other half'. If taken from the last moments of his time as a wholly mortal man, it would be that desperate desire to live.

Fray as he is now, however: for as much griping as he does, he is a protector of the Warrior of Light - and through the WoL, he has some familiarity with strange dreams calling someone to duty. It's entirely likely that the dream wasn't summoned entirely at his behest, but he would chase it simply to ward it off from choosing his 'host' instead. Running is no option at all to him; he would face it without hesitation.

2. Somnia is a slow unraveling—of worlds, and of selves. How does your character respond to fear, transformation, and losing control? Do they fight, adapt, collapse?
Ceding to the abyss is both what Fray once did for power, and what he now represents. To be a dark knight is to accept that some things are wholly beyond your control - that the power that you wield comes from vivid emotions you must accept - and if nothing else, Fray has been moulded into one who can wield it like a master. When it comes to fear and letting go, Fray is able to adapt as if he was born to do it, though even for him it's no easy task.

Transformation, however, is a different beast entirely. To him, be transformed is to lose some part of yourself; Fray's own transformation and subsequent line-blurring is proof of that, but so too are the things he has experienced alongside the Warrior of Light - the horrifying Sin-Eater transformations of the First, the monsters that Voidsent make of mortals, the mind-shattering effects of a primal's power, the concept of soul-shards and the Source -- and even the simple fact of being chosen by Hydaelyn at all.

To be touched by the overwhelming power of another is to be sculpted in their image, unknowingly or not, no matter the intent. Fray does not begrudge his new role or existence, sympathetic as he is to the Warrior of Light's anguish and the pain and heartbreak caused by self-sacrifice, but neither can he deny that it has changed him beyond what he originally was, and there is no returning. By no means is his continued existence a return to life, and he's not blind or naive enough to see it as such, not even for his own comfort or the comfort of others. Thus, he views further transformation as uncomfortable and disquieting; how far can his essence be stretched until it fundamentally isn't him any more? He has, after all, already changed so much.

3. Connection is the only constant. What kind of bonds does your character form— fast and burning, slow and wary, deep and desperate? How might that shape their time in this world?
Fray is quick to form bonds of protector and protected with others, both due to what he feels is his duty and because it's simply who he is. A dark knight's creed is to guide the meek through darkness, to serve as a deliverer of justice and stalwart defender, and many of his connections will be forged with that in mind as someone reliable, who can be depended on in times of crisis. An exemplar, a mentor, a man who not only follows the ideals of the dark knight but has become it; that is, in part, what Fray has become due to his unique circumstance, and it can often be difficult for him to be otherwise.

Deeper, more personal bonds are slower and slow-burning. Fray is a reserved person, and the description he was once given in human life as 'a serene lake' is still true enough for who he is now; it's rare for him to bare his heart or innermost thoughts to another. Still, his care and love runs deep, even though he now often shows it through stress or complaint, and those bonds, once formed, are not quick to extinguish. Though his role was and still is to speak as an advocate of individual selfishness for another, there is a vulnerability to Fray underneath the armor that speaks to his quiet longing to be simply remembered; once he sought to be seen and heard, before as a manifestation and vessel of another's buried pain and now as a separate individual with his own identity.

4. What are two major forces in your character’s personality that are often in conflict? (Ex: logic vs emotion, power vs guilt, obedience vs rage, etc.)
A Dark Knight's duty is to protect the weak and deliver justice no matter the personal cost - but Fray's driving force as a now semi-separate part of the Warrior of Light is the urging for selfishness and prioritization of the individual self over the other, a defensive mechanism to protect his long-suffering host from the ravenous toll of saving the world time and time again.

While Fray has promised, at this point, to let the WoL permanently take the wheel (for now), the itch to speak out against what he sees as other people taking constant advantage of his host's eagerness to throw themselves into selfless heroics is always there. Sacrifice, as Fray has said, is to renounce that which binds you, to recognize what matters and forsake all that does not - but bound to someone for which the whole world and all it contains is important, Fray finds himself with the headache-inducing dilemma of trying to make the Warrior of Light tone it down even a little. Even for the tenets of a Dark Knight, Fray will always consider it far too much for one person to give, even though he acknowledges begrudgingly that it's the WoL's bonds with others that also has the capability to save them.

This is somewhat hypocritical, of course; as a mortal man Fray went above and beyond for Rielle, a girl he'd only just met, and given the choice, he'd rather leap in and act, even if he'd gripe the whole way. But it's easier to criticize the behaviour in someone else than yourself, and if there's anything Fray does well, it's offer criticism. His care and love for others was the source of his power and his undoing, and it continues regardless of his opinions about seeing others hurt themselves. He's the one who's supposed to do all that, you're not allowed to do it!

VESSEL SELECTION
Which Vessel Type are you choosing: Token or Offering?
Offering
Why does this Vessel type feel appropriate for your character? Seraph has a lot of symbolic weight for Fray; it links into the circumstances of his execution (killed by Temple Knights in Ishgard, who worship Halone, a goddess with wing motifs), his growth in experience alongside the Warrior of Light (going to the First especially, which has an abundance of angelic enemies called Sin-Eaters and which he mentions as having had a specific effect on him) and his role as shaped by the WoL and his own inclinations (a literal 'guardian angel').

It also ties into the mortal Fray's ability for conjury and healing that the current Fray inherited, the protection and vengeance that a Dark Knight represents for the downtrodden, and the historical meaning of a 'sin-eater' (one who absorbs and absolves the sins of others by symbolically devouring them) and how that ties in with what Fray was initially shaped into by the WoL's desires and his own lingering ghost; "a mentor to guide you, a dark knight you could aspire to become, a [person] who was free to do and say the things you could not", a person who could give voice to hidden anger and pain.

Choose one OR list three subclass options within your chosen Vessel type that you think would suit them: Seraph

Samples:
TDM toplevel
Sample 1
Sample 2