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/countdown 10
Battle commencing in 10 seconds! (Paige Rowboat)
5
4
3
2
1
START!
More
mr-rowboat's arts means more FFXIV flavored indulgences means more stories to go along with them!
Also think of this as a... happy belated Shark Week!
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
The worn down soles of Paige's boots, their grips long since scuffed and scraped away, slid across polished marble.
“Paige! Oh Paiiiiiiiiiiige!” called out Wuk Lamat.
Fur standing on end the Rogue promptly popped Sprint in response. Arms swinging at his sides, and panting up a storm, the cream colored cat bounded across Sharlayan's scenic seaside harbor.
“Come now, Warrior of Light!” eeheed the Hrothgar. “We have so much more training to do!”
Even with his head start she was still catching up! Ears perked up, and tail puffed out, Paige hurled himself through the Aetheryte Plaza. Shoving pedestrians and passersby aside he struggled to put as many bodies as possible between himself and his tutor from Tural. “That woman will be the death of me!” he wheezed.
“Ohhhh I love it when they play hard to get!” purred the princess. “Paaaaaaaaaige!”
The Rogue, be it out of fright or focus, refused to look behind him. Cloak flapping wildly in the salt stained breeze he scrambled out of the city's center and towards its mountainous outskirts. Head tilted back, his teeth biting down into his lower lip, he steeled himself for the inevitable ascent. By leaps and bounds he leapt up the staircases carved into Sharlayan's steep slopes.
Stumbling up onto a veined marble platform, the burbling fountains at its center spraying Paige with a much welcomed mist, he whipped his head side to side from atop the platform overlooking the heart of the seaside city-state.
“THERE!” he all but screamed. Lungs burning, and arms shaking, he haggardly ambled towards a shorn smooth cliff face. At its base a tunnel, carved through sheets of silt and sandstone, beckoned.
"Paiiiiiiiiiige!" echoed Wuk Lamat's call to arms.
“AHHHHHHH!” Upon entering the tunnel the cloudless sky and blazing sun overhead immediately gave way to the succor of shade. Blobs of pink and green crowded at the edges of Paige's vision from the sudden shift in light.
“Hey!” came a gruff and heavily accented voice.
“Watch it!” chirped another.
Hood flopped down, the frumpled feline bumped aside many a Gleaners milling about. “Sorry!” he breathlessly mewled out in response to the scoffs and grumbles that assailed him from all sides as he blindly staggered down down down into the depths. With a shake of his head the Rogue's sight came back into focus.
“Just. Just a little. Just a little further...” he tried telling himself as his nerves frayed with every footfall. Trudging down a tastefully decorated torch lit path, his plodding steps clapping noisily against the the reflective tiled floor, Paige choked down every gasp he could.
“I think... I can. I know... I can. I will... I can!” he mentally screamed at himself. Gritting his teeth, the Warrior of Light shambled ever onwards! Shamelessly he bumbled past and shoved aside a colossal queue of Gleaners. Crates in hand, and satchels slung over their shoulders, they shouted and cursed at Paige as he cut their turn in line to descend to the depths. Shrugging off their ever more quarrelsome complaints he pushed past them before vaulting over a set of turnstiles.
Stuffy Studium sentries, stationed in place to inspect every individual and item proceeding past them, impotently called out for Paige to stop. Or... they tried to until the rumbling of a hulking Hrothgar drew their attention elsewhere. Shouts and shrieks filled the air as Wuk Lamat bulldozed through the lot of them with a giggle as many a plea, from the sentries and Gleaners both, fell on deaf ears.
“NYAHHHHH!” screamed the Rogue as he dove head first into the lone set of doors leading down into the mountain's heart.
KACLICK
Skidding across the floor, his snout scrunching against a curved wall of glass, Paige heaved an emphatic sigh of relief when he heard the elevator doors clack shut behind him.
BADUMMMMMM
The soothing whir of countless gears, and the hum of channeled aether, graced the feline's ears when it began its slow but steady descent. Hobbling to his feet, his sweat slicked hair matting to his forehead, Paige clasped his hands to his chest. “Champion this... Champion that...” he gasped. “Just what kind of trials await me in Tural?!”
The Hrothgar, earnest and eager and equal parts uncertain, had been all too enthusiastic to put Paige through his paces. While he understood her doubts, and her hesitation, over competing for a country much less leading it... the overbearing optimist had started to run the Rogue ragged. Even with Morgan doing her darndest to prop him up with every panacea in her toolkit there was only so much a Regen Healer could do!
“What I need...” Paige groaned. “What I need...” he trailed off as he peered past his reflection in the glass and looked out over the whole of Labyrinthos. His eyes drifted towards the artificial sky mimicking the cloudless canopy of the world above. Cerulean in color, gentle and warm, it twinkled down upon the living library unfurling before him. “What I need is someone who won't just fix my boo-boos... but keep them from ever happenin' in the first place!”
Wobbling back and forth on his feet the Rogue uneasily stumbled back into the slammed shut elevator doors. As he ran a hand through his hair his eyes darted to and fro across the lush and lavish biomes seamlessly blending into one another. “What I need is a Shield Healer,” he mewled before fumbling forward and letting his forehead come to bap against the glass.
Dragging an arm along the window he scrubbed away what grime he could. His likeness faded into the sweat and oils as a fresh faced thief looked back at him. The mewling kitten, barely a Gil to his name, beamed from ear to ear.
A pronounced blush creased Paige's cream furred cheeks, and a nervous chuckle revved within his throat, as he thought back to his halcyon days as a fresh faced Rogue. That and...
The wavering image of a towering shark, standing head and shoulders and more above him, sidled up behind his reflection.
With a sheepish eheh the Warrior of Light scritched at his cheek. That and... the wonderful woman, the Sea Wolf, who took him under her wing and welcomed him into the Rogue's Guild. Who, without fail, always always always kept him out of trouble and out of harm's way. Her soothing shields, silver tongue, and silent steps were the stuff of legend! There was no one else in all of Eorzea, all of anywhere, he trusted more!
“What I need, who I need, is-”
“Miss Ilias?”
“Hum?” Shifting in place the grey scaled shark, clad in a sleeveless vest, pushed away from her standing desk and turned towards her receptionist. Step by plodding step she watched as he ambled into her meticulous mess of a workshop.
“Forgive me, but...” the brown furred Nu Mou, his eyes gone milky white, squinted at the ledger held out before him. “It would appear I neglected to note an appointment. Mine infinite apologies for the short notice!” he said with a shameful bow of his head. “They're patiently waiting for an audience with you as we speak!”
“Psh. Come now, Ezel,” chuckled the shark. Her fiery red pixie cut, its locks wreathed around her enormous and Elezen shaming ears, bounced with her every bout of laughter. “Let's see what suck up from the Studium we'll be wrangling with today.” Pinching the ledger between her thick fingers Ilias scanned the lines of chicken scratch. Her brows furrowed, and scaly snout scrunched, at the realization the ink was still damp. This was no accident. This was, in fact, freshly forged. “Ezel.”
“Yes, Ma'am?”
Ilias' golden eyes narrowed at the all too familiar name and title that graced the parchment. “Would you be so kind to excuse me and my... guest?”
"But of course!" Tail dragging behind him, it's graying form happily swishing to and fro along the tiled floor, Ezel cautiously bumbled back out into the entrance to Ilias' workshop. With a bow he bid her unexpected arrival to step forth through a set of marble double doors.
KROOOOOM
Paige tensed when the slabs of stone slammed shut behind him. Pulling down his hood, and lips wavering with an uneasy snaggle toothed smile, he sheepishly waved at Ilias.
The sizable shark incredulously arched her brows. Leaning back against her desk, finned tail curled around her ankles, Ilias' long pointed ears stood at attention. Idly did her fingers stroke at the ribbon wrapped around her neck in thoughtful contemplation while she awaited his introduction.
"L-l-long time no see, Master Ilias!" he mumbled into his chest.
"There something I can help you with, Padfoot?" snarked Ilias. Crinkled paper in hand she lazily shook his nigh illegible chicken scratch side to side.
"It's uhhh... it's Warrior of Light now," the Rogue bashfully mewled. "WoL for short!"
FWISH
With a flick of Ilias' finger, curling towards herself as if she was beckoning Paige forth, the cream colored cat found himself ensnared by a magical tether. Golden ribbons of aether circled around him as an anything but subtle cast of Rescue sent him gliding across the polished floor and straight into the shark. A profuse blush enveloped the whole of his head when his petite padded toes bunched up against the sharks enormous stompers.
Chin tucked against her neck, the towering Sea Wolf flashed a toothy grin at the feline that failed to clear her cleavage. "We both know you'll always be my Padfoot."
Steam wafted out from Paige's ears as his former albeit massive mentor continued to coo at him. "W-w-we're not in Limsa anymore mew know!" stammered the Rogue.
"No," Ilias conceded. Cupping a hand against his cheek she thumbed away at the bags under his eyes and peeled away his exhaustion layer by layer. "But here I am tending to your every ailment as always."
Paige's fur frazzled out when he felt the shark's toes bunch against and overtake his own.
"And you wouldn't have sought me out unless you needed something," Ilias trailed off with a subdued smile. Papping a hand atop Paige's head she gently took to ruffling his hair. "It's a nasty habit of yours!"
"How was I supposed to know you would find your way here!" he sputtered. Never had he ever thought his fellow Rogue would turn Researcher! Much less relocate to Sharlayan of all places!
"Psh. Your mentor, a Sage in everything but name, had to learn the tools of her trade somewhere!" she said with a roll of her eyes.
"It was still an accident..." he mumble grumbled. Bumping into her over the course of his slapdash preparations for the Final Day had... it had meant everything to him. It had made it all the more bearable knowing she was watching over him.
"Was it really?" Ilias teased. "Word spreads that my Padfoot is staring down the apocalypse and I'm supposed to just let him at it all by his lonesome? Hells no!" Thumbing at her nose the most muted of blushes pierced through her white scaled cheeks. "Course I gladly traded away my rags for robes if it meant keeping you out of harm's way."
Many a neuron misfired inside the Rogue's noggin not just at the revelation but at the sensation of her soft and supple soles planted atop his paws. Her digits alone were big enough to swallow up his ankles between them.
"So what can I help you with, Padfoot?" giggled Ilias.
Pitiful mewls slipped free from Paige's lips as he unconsciously leaned into her pets and pats. "W-w-well. I was wondering if you could..."
‐‐
"Just who do you think you're talking to?" the shark playfully scowled.
Hands tucked behind his head Paige hum hum hummed. "I mean... it's been how many years now since you had the run of the Rogue's Guild? No one would fault you for bein' out of practice, Master Ilias!"
Hands on her hips, and the cuffs of her dress slacks brushing against the top of her enormous feet, Ilias leaned forward and swallowed up Paige in her shadow. "Padfoot."
"When was the last time mew even nicked something?" he snickered.
"You tell me," she sassed. "Nothing up my sleeves as you can see!" said Ilias as she gestured to her exposed and muscular arms. Twirling her hand about her wrist a particularly fat coin purse, overflowing with Gil, came to overflow the shark's palm. "And yet..."
Panicked mrowls tumbled forth from Paige's maw at the realization his pockets were feeling significantly lighter. "H-h-hey!"
"Just because I moved on from picking pockets to picking brains doesn't mean I've lost my touch," cooed Ilias.
WHUMPF
With a blush and a harrumph Paige scrambled for his hard earned Gil after Ilias lobbed them into his chest. Even after all this time she was still the same old Sea Wolf...
His ears drooped flat and cheeks turned red and rosy when he tilted his head back to meet her gaze once more. The same old shark who Rescued him round back alley corners to slink past the Yellowjacket's patrols. Who smothered him in shields whenever he tried, and failed, to trapeze about rafters and rooftops. Who always topped him off, and stood shoulder to shoulder with him, no matter how nasty a scrape he found himself tossed into.
"Still entertaining those second guesses?" hummed the shark.
"Noooooooooo."
"Good," Ilias chuckled. Pinching her thumb and index fingers together the shark snapped them with a dash of flair. Low rumbles sounded out from the edges of her workshop as a quartet of short stone spears, interwoven with runes, flickered to life. At her unspoken command the nouliths flew forth and surrounded Paige. Arcs of aether leapt from between them and, in an instant, the flustered feline was surrounded by a latticework of magical shields.
Once more Ilias snapped her digits. Faint cracks, akin to sheets of ice snapping apart, sounded out as the intricate cube reshaped itself into a sphere.
VBEWWWW
Brows arched, Paige curiously mrowled when the nouliths seamlessly slipped through the shields and attached themselves to his back like a set of pseudo wings.
"So here's how this goes," Ilias proudly ahemhemed. "What you have you right there is a prototype of mine. Any aether you feed into those nouliths will be siphoned straight into that shield."
Sashaying side to side the Rogue happily hummed as his mock wings and the whole of the sphere slid along with him. "And what's the catch?"
"The matter of testing it," answered Ilias. "Given what you've told me of your trials thus far and yet to come..."
WHAP
With thunderous force the sagely shark slapped her meaty sole against the tiled floor. "We will need to put this prototype through rigorous stress tests."
"O-o-oh," Paige mewled. "R-r-right here? Right now?"
Hand cupped to her snout, Ilias couldn't help but laugh. "Those aren't leaving my workshop until I'm all but certain they can keep you safe in my stead."
"I. Umm."
Pivoting her foot upon its heel Ilias patiently tamped her soft and swollen sole. "Come now, Padfoot."
The rumpled Rogue could but wordlessly nod. With a nervous, and all too excited, swallow he cast the mightiest of magics at his disposal: Mini.
Slowly, then all at once, Paige watched as the world around him began to soften and blur. Far off blueprints tacked to the walls faded from sight and seamlessly blended into the artificial sky. Desks, and the chairs tucked beneath them, rose and roared into the heavens as the most minute imperfections were magnified into glaring scars impossible to ignore. The tiles at his very feet stretched out beyond the periphery of his vision and what were once negligible gaps, barely perceptible divots, transformed into depthless canyons which he could never hope to cross.
Then of course there was-
THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Ilias herself. Head tilted back as far as he was able Paige dreamily sighed. He would never tire of looking up to her... much less her horizon spanning sole. His eyes wavered, and heart pounded, when the living landscape continued to pivot and pap her bare feet against the floor.
THOOOOOOOOOOM
Waves of heated air howled past the Rogue as shard sized flakes of dirt harmlessly rolled past the shield that had shrunken right along with him. Ilias' toes, so thick and swollen they chafed together, rivaled even the mightiest of mountain ranges as they crashed down into the perfectly polished earth.
"Well?" boomed the shark's nigh divine feminine baritone.
Teeth chattering their way out of his skull Paige wordlessly complied. Fists clenched, and brows furrowed, a faint and translucent haze burned off his body. Pleasant pinpricks of magic, akin to goosebumps, traveled up along his arms and legs as raw aether seeped out from his every pore.
VRRRRRRR
The nouliths clinging to his back clicked and clacked to life before taking on a brilliant sapphire sheen. With a mechanical whir they took to circling round the cream colored cat as they siphoned and redistributed the gathered aether. Little by little, layer by layer, interlocking hexagons bubbled into being and relentlessly reinforced the bitty barrier.
Ominous creaks roared out from Ilias' incomprehensible frame as she shifted in place. Every innocuous act, be it splaying her toes or arching the ball of her foot, carried with it power enough to reshape shards. "Just say when," she cooed.
Paige's posture faltered as the most pitiful of squeaks tumbled out from between his lips. Deafening groans, and a tornadic roar of suction, beset the alien and angular landscape when Ilias lifted her thick foot.
The Rogue's mind reeled when her city state dwarfing digits rose from the earth and came to blot the very skies. Eyes wavering, and arms hanging limp, Paige could do little more than gawk at the fissures carved into her very flesh. What ought to have been the most minute of wrinkles teemed with abyssal darkness. Cloud sized specks of displaced dust twinkled against not only them but the very backdrop of her sole.
DOOOOOOOOOOM
In an instant the horizon itself lurched towards him. His ears popped, and knees knocked together, as a pitch black pall enveloped the whole of the realm. Save the pale glow of his spherical shield not a mote of light was to be found as all of creation roared and rent itself apart.
CRSKKKKKKKK
A plane of flesh, an expanse of shark sole, crashed down upon the shield. Upon impact cracks spidered throughout its surface all while warm waves of gray molded around its curvature. Its descent, while delayed, would not to be denied.
"Oh?" Ilias boomed. Her voice, felt more than heard as it pulsed through her very flesh, bombarded Paige from all sides. "And here I thought you could handle it..."
KRSSSSSSH
Tail puffed out and fur standing on end Paige's composure crumbled. His outflow of aether trickled to a halt as his energy and attention was drawn elsewhere. To the cavernous wrinkles illuminated overhead. To the sumptuously soft sole threatening to peek through the faintest gaps. To the suffocating if not inviting warmth bleeding through the barrier itself.
"Padfoot. Please," Ilias tried to deadpan in between snorts. "At least try to take this seriously!"
KRKKKKKKK
A dopey smile spread from ear to ear upon Paige's mug while crystallized shards of aether began to rain down around him. In raucous fits and spurts the barrier dimpled and bowed inward as it gave way to Ilias' prodigious paw. Bashfully did the Rogue wring his hands together as he wholeheartedly embraced the inevitable.
POFF
Eyes half-lidded, Ilias shook her head with a sigh and a smile as she felt a ticklish puff of aether brush against her swollen sole. "At this rate you'll never have my say so to leave," she rumbled. "Not that you seem to mind."
Embedded and all but entombed within the deepest recesses of a wrinkle... Paige contentedly purred. Upon the barrier's catastrophic collapse its Haima fail safe activated and what scant shards of shielding remained snapped tight to his feline frame. Even as the shark's ample everything bore down upon him he remained unharmed and unbothered. Such was her foresight. Such was the strength of Master Ilias' magic!
"Padfoot. Be honest with me. Did you fail this test on purpose?"
Paige happily nodded and nuzzled into a hill sized fold of flesh. As his cheeks strained from how hard he was blushing his thoughts drifted while he enthusiastically indulged in her full body footsies. There was no overbearing and pernicious pressure squeezing the air out of his very lungs. No need to flail and fumble about for an escape. Never would his mentor ever allow him to come to harm and... and... oh how he missed this. And her.
"...Very well," Ilias said with a loving scrunch of her sole. Plodding about through her workshop, purposefully wedging Paige all the deeper into her stompers as she reinforced his shielding to levels beyond belief, she resumed her studies in earnest. "Once you've regained your strength we will resume testing. That and-" Chin tucked against her shoulder she peeled her heel off the floor and winked at her bitty and beloved apprentice stamped flat against her feet. Twas a sight she never tired of and that had all but inspired his nickname when he was still a fresh faced Rogue under her care. "Even if you are the vaunted Warrior of Light, the very Savior of our star, you'll always always always be my precious Padfoot."
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Battle commencing in 10 seconds! (Paige Rowboat)
5
4
3
2
1
START!
More
mr-rowboat's arts means more FFXIV flavored indulgences means more stories to go along with them! Also think of this as a... happy belated Shark Week!
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
The worn down soles of Paige's boots, their grips long since scuffed and scraped away, slid across polished marble.
“Paige! Oh Paiiiiiiiiiiige!” called out Wuk Lamat.
Fur standing on end the Rogue promptly popped Sprint in response. Arms swinging at his sides, and panting up a storm, the cream colored cat bounded across Sharlayan's scenic seaside harbor.
“Come now, Warrior of Light!” eeheed the Hrothgar. “We have so much more training to do!”
Even with his head start she was still catching up! Ears perked up, and tail puffed out, Paige hurled himself through the Aetheryte Plaza. Shoving pedestrians and passersby aside he struggled to put as many bodies as possible between himself and his tutor from Tural. “That woman will be the death of me!” he wheezed.
“Ohhhh I love it when they play hard to get!” purred the princess. “Paaaaaaaaaige!”
The Rogue, be it out of fright or focus, refused to look behind him. Cloak flapping wildly in the salt stained breeze he scrambled out of the city's center and towards its mountainous outskirts. Head tilted back, his teeth biting down into his lower lip, he steeled himself for the inevitable ascent. By leaps and bounds he leapt up the staircases carved into Sharlayan's steep slopes.
Stumbling up onto a veined marble platform, the burbling fountains at its center spraying Paige with a much welcomed mist, he whipped his head side to side from atop the platform overlooking the heart of the seaside city-state.
“THERE!” he all but screamed. Lungs burning, and arms shaking, he haggardly ambled towards a shorn smooth cliff face. At its base a tunnel, carved through sheets of silt and sandstone, beckoned.
"Paiiiiiiiiiige!" echoed Wuk Lamat's call to arms.
“AHHHHHHH!” Upon entering the tunnel the cloudless sky and blazing sun overhead immediately gave way to the succor of shade. Blobs of pink and green crowded at the edges of Paige's vision from the sudden shift in light.
“Hey!” came a gruff and heavily accented voice.
“Watch it!” chirped another.
Hood flopped down, the frumpled feline bumped aside many a Gleaners milling about. “Sorry!” he breathlessly mewled out in response to the scoffs and grumbles that assailed him from all sides as he blindly staggered down down down into the depths. With a shake of his head the Rogue's sight came back into focus.
“Just. Just a little. Just a little further...” he tried telling himself as his nerves frayed with every footfall. Trudging down a tastefully decorated torch lit path, his plodding steps clapping noisily against the the reflective tiled floor, Paige choked down every gasp he could.
“I think... I can. I know... I can. I will... I can!” he mentally screamed at himself. Gritting his teeth, the Warrior of Light shambled ever onwards! Shamelessly he bumbled past and shoved aside a colossal queue of Gleaners. Crates in hand, and satchels slung over their shoulders, they shouted and cursed at Paige as he cut their turn in line to descend to the depths. Shrugging off their ever more quarrelsome complaints he pushed past them before vaulting over a set of turnstiles.
Stuffy Studium sentries, stationed in place to inspect every individual and item proceeding past them, impotently called out for Paige to stop. Or... they tried to until the rumbling of a hulking Hrothgar drew their attention elsewhere. Shouts and shrieks filled the air as Wuk Lamat bulldozed through the lot of them with a giggle as many a plea, from the sentries and Gleaners both, fell on deaf ears.
“NYAHHHHH!” screamed the Rogue as he dove head first into the lone set of doors leading down into the mountain's heart.
KACLICK
Skidding across the floor, his snout scrunching against a curved wall of glass, Paige heaved an emphatic sigh of relief when he heard the elevator doors clack shut behind him.
BADUMMMMMM
The soothing whir of countless gears, and the hum of channeled aether, graced the feline's ears when it began its slow but steady descent. Hobbling to his feet, his sweat slicked hair matting to his forehead, Paige clasped his hands to his chest. “Champion this... Champion that...” he gasped. “Just what kind of trials await me in Tural?!”
The Hrothgar, earnest and eager and equal parts uncertain, had been all too enthusiastic to put Paige through his paces. While he understood her doubts, and her hesitation, over competing for a country much less leading it... the overbearing optimist had started to run the Rogue ragged. Even with Morgan doing her darndest to prop him up with every panacea in her toolkit there was only so much a Regen Healer could do!
“What I need...” Paige groaned. “What I need...” he trailed off as he peered past his reflection in the glass and looked out over the whole of Labyrinthos. His eyes drifted towards the artificial sky mimicking the cloudless canopy of the world above. Cerulean in color, gentle and warm, it twinkled down upon the living library unfurling before him. “What I need is someone who won't just fix my boo-boos... but keep them from ever happenin' in the first place!”
Wobbling back and forth on his feet the Rogue uneasily stumbled back into the slammed shut elevator doors. As he ran a hand through his hair his eyes darted to and fro across the lush and lavish biomes seamlessly blending into one another. “What I need is a Shield Healer,” he mewled before fumbling forward and letting his forehead come to bap against the glass.
Dragging an arm along the window he scrubbed away what grime he could. His likeness faded into the sweat and oils as a fresh faced thief looked back at him. The mewling kitten, barely a Gil to his name, beamed from ear to ear.
A pronounced blush creased Paige's cream furred cheeks, and a nervous chuckle revved within his throat, as he thought back to his halcyon days as a fresh faced Rogue. That and...
The wavering image of a towering shark, standing head and shoulders and more above him, sidled up behind his reflection.
With a sheepish eheh the Warrior of Light scritched at his cheek. That and... the wonderful woman, the Sea Wolf, who took him under her wing and welcomed him into the Rogue's Guild. Who, without fail, always always always kept him out of trouble and out of harm's way. Her soothing shields, silver tongue, and silent steps were the stuff of legend! There was no one else in all of Eorzea, all of anywhere, he trusted more!
“What I need, who I need, is-”
“Miss Ilias?”
“Hum?” Shifting in place the grey scaled shark, clad in a sleeveless vest, pushed away from her standing desk and turned towards her receptionist. Step by plodding step she watched as he ambled into her meticulous mess of a workshop.
“Forgive me, but...” the brown furred Nu Mou, his eyes gone milky white, squinted at the ledger held out before him. “It would appear I neglected to note an appointment. Mine infinite apologies for the short notice!” he said with a shameful bow of his head. “They're patiently waiting for an audience with you as we speak!”
“Psh. Come now, Ezel,” chuckled the shark. Her fiery red pixie cut, its locks wreathed around her enormous and Elezen shaming ears, bounced with her every bout of laughter. “Let's see what suck up from the Studium we'll be wrangling with today.” Pinching the ledger between her thick fingers Ilias scanned the lines of chicken scratch. Her brows furrowed, and scaly snout scrunched, at the realization the ink was still damp. This was no accident. This was, in fact, freshly forged. “Ezel.”
“Yes, Ma'am?”
Ilias' golden eyes narrowed at the all too familiar name and title that graced the parchment. “Would you be so kind to excuse me and my... guest?”
"But of course!" Tail dragging behind him, it's graying form happily swishing to and fro along the tiled floor, Ezel cautiously bumbled back out into the entrance to Ilias' workshop. With a bow he bid her unexpected arrival to step forth through a set of marble double doors.
KROOOOOM
Paige tensed when the slabs of stone slammed shut behind him. Pulling down his hood, and lips wavering with an uneasy snaggle toothed smile, he sheepishly waved at Ilias.
The sizable shark incredulously arched her brows. Leaning back against her desk, finned tail curled around her ankles, Ilias' long pointed ears stood at attention. Idly did her fingers stroke at the ribbon wrapped around her neck in thoughtful contemplation while she awaited his introduction.
"L-l-long time no see, Master Ilias!" he mumbled into his chest.
"There something I can help you with, Padfoot?" snarked Ilias. Crinkled paper in hand she lazily shook his nigh illegible chicken scratch side to side.
"It's uhhh... it's Warrior of Light now," the Rogue bashfully mewled. "WoL for short!"
FWISH
With a flick of Ilias' finger, curling towards herself as if she was beckoning Paige forth, the cream colored cat found himself ensnared by a magical tether. Golden ribbons of aether circled around him as an anything but subtle cast of Rescue sent him gliding across the polished floor and straight into the shark. A profuse blush enveloped the whole of his head when his petite padded toes bunched up against the sharks enormous stompers.
Chin tucked against her neck, the towering Sea Wolf flashed a toothy grin at the feline that failed to clear her cleavage. "We both know you'll always be my Padfoot."
Steam wafted out from Paige's ears as his former albeit massive mentor continued to coo at him. "W-w-we're not in Limsa anymore mew know!" stammered the Rogue.
"No," Ilias conceded. Cupping a hand against his cheek she thumbed away at the bags under his eyes and peeled away his exhaustion layer by layer. "But here I am tending to your every ailment as always."
Paige's fur frazzled out when he felt the shark's toes bunch against and overtake his own.
"And you wouldn't have sought me out unless you needed something," Ilias trailed off with a subdued smile. Papping a hand atop Paige's head she gently took to ruffling his hair. "It's a nasty habit of yours!"
"How was I supposed to know you would find your way here!" he sputtered. Never had he ever thought his fellow Rogue would turn Researcher! Much less relocate to Sharlayan of all places!
"Psh. Your mentor, a Sage in everything but name, had to learn the tools of her trade somewhere!" she said with a roll of her eyes.
"It was still an accident..." he mumble grumbled. Bumping into her over the course of his slapdash preparations for the Final Day had... it had meant everything to him. It had made it all the more bearable knowing she was watching over him.
"Was it really?" Ilias teased. "Word spreads that my Padfoot is staring down the apocalypse and I'm supposed to just let him at it all by his lonesome? Hells no!" Thumbing at her nose the most muted of blushes pierced through her white scaled cheeks. "Course I gladly traded away my rags for robes if it meant keeping you out of harm's way."
Many a neuron misfired inside the Rogue's noggin not just at the revelation but at the sensation of her soft and supple soles planted atop his paws. Her digits alone were big enough to swallow up his ankles between them.
"So what can I help you with, Padfoot?" giggled Ilias.
Pitiful mewls slipped free from Paige's lips as he unconsciously leaned into her pets and pats. "W-w-well. I was wondering if you could..."
‐‐
"Just who do you think you're talking to?" the shark playfully scowled.
Hands tucked behind his head Paige hum hum hummed. "I mean... it's been how many years now since you had the run of the Rogue's Guild? No one would fault you for bein' out of practice, Master Ilias!"
Hands on her hips, and the cuffs of her dress slacks brushing against the top of her enormous feet, Ilias leaned forward and swallowed up Paige in her shadow. "Padfoot."
"When was the last time mew even nicked something?" he snickered.
"You tell me," she sassed. "Nothing up my sleeves as you can see!" said Ilias as she gestured to her exposed and muscular arms. Twirling her hand about her wrist a particularly fat coin purse, overflowing with Gil, came to overflow the shark's palm. "And yet..."
Panicked mrowls tumbled forth from Paige's maw at the realization his pockets were feeling significantly lighter. "H-h-hey!"
"Just because I moved on from picking pockets to picking brains doesn't mean I've lost my touch," cooed Ilias.
WHUMPF
With a blush and a harrumph Paige scrambled for his hard earned Gil after Ilias lobbed them into his chest. Even after all this time she was still the same old Sea Wolf...
His ears drooped flat and cheeks turned red and rosy when he tilted his head back to meet her gaze once more. The same old shark who Rescued him round back alley corners to slink past the Yellowjacket's patrols. Who smothered him in shields whenever he tried, and failed, to trapeze about rafters and rooftops. Who always topped him off, and stood shoulder to shoulder with him, no matter how nasty a scrape he found himself tossed into.
"Still entertaining those second guesses?" hummed the shark.
"Noooooooooo."
"Good," Ilias chuckled. Pinching her thumb and index fingers together the shark snapped them with a dash of flair. Low rumbles sounded out from the edges of her workshop as a quartet of short stone spears, interwoven with runes, flickered to life. At her unspoken command the nouliths flew forth and surrounded Paige. Arcs of aether leapt from between them and, in an instant, the flustered feline was surrounded by a latticework of magical shields.
Once more Ilias snapped her digits. Faint cracks, akin to sheets of ice snapping apart, sounded out as the intricate cube reshaped itself into a sphere.
VBEWWWW
Brows arched, Paige curiously mrowled when the nouliths seamlessly slipped through the shields and attached themselves to his back like a set of pseudo wings.
"So here's how this goes," Ilias proudly ahemhemed. "What you have you right there is a prototype of mine. Any aether you feed into those nouliths will be siphoned straight into that shield."
Sashaying side to side the Rogue happily hummed as his mock wings and the whole of the sphere slid along with him. "And what's the catch?"
"The matter of testing it," answered Ilias. "Given what you've told me of your trials thus far and yet to come..."
WHAP
With thunderous force the sagely shark slapped her meaty sole against the tiled floor. "We will need to put this prototype through rigorous stress tests."
"O-o-oh," Paige mewled. "R-r-right here? Right now?"
Hand cupped to her snout, Ilias couldn't help but laugh. "Those aren't leaving my workshop until I'm all but certain they can keep you safe in my stead."
"I. Umm."
Pivoting her foot upon its heel Ilias patiently tamped her soft and swollen sole. "Come now, Padfoot."
The rumpled Rogue could but wordlessly nod. With a nervous, and all too excited, swallow he cast the mightiest of magics at his disposal: Mini.
Slowly, then all at once, Paige watched as the world around him began to soften and blur. Far off blueprints tacked to the walls faded from sight and seamlessly blended into the artificial sky. Desks, and the chairs tucked beneath them, rose and roared into the heavens as the most minute imperfections were magnified into glaring scars impossible to ignore. The tiles at his very feet stretched out beyond the periphery of his vision and what were once negligible gaps, barely perceptible divots, transformed into depthless canyons which he could never hope to cross.
Then of course there was-
THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Ilias herself. Head tilted back as far as he was able Paige dreamily sighed. He would never tire of looking up to her... much less her horizon spanning sole. His eyes wavered, and heart pounded, when the living landscape continued to pivot and pap her bare feet against the floor.
THOOOOOOOOOOM
Waves of heated air howled past the Rogue as shard sized flakes of dirt harmlessly rolled past the shield that had shrunken right along with him. Ilias' toes, so thick and swollen they chafed together, rivaled even the mightiest of mountain ranges as they crashed down into the perfectly polished earth.
"Well?" boomed the shark's nigh divine feminine baritone.
Teeth chattering their way out of his skull Paige wordlessly complied. Fists clenched, and brows furrowed, a faint and translucent haze burned off his body. Pleasant pinpricks of magic, akin to goosebumps, traveled up along his arms and legs as raw aether seeped out from his every pore.
VRRRRRRR
The nouliths clinging to his back clicked and clacked to life before taking on a brilliant sapphire sheen. With a mechanical whir they took to circling round the cream colored cat as they siphoned and redistributed the gathered aether. Little by little, layer by layer, interlocking hexagons bubbled into being and relentlessly reinforced the bitty barrier.
Ominous creaks roared out from Ilias' incomprehensible frame as she shifted in place. Every innocuous act, be it splaying her toes or arching the ball of her foot, carried with it power enough to reshape shards. "Just say when," she cooed.
Paige's posture faltered as the most pitiful of squeaks tumbled out from between his lips. Deafening groans, and a tornadic roar of suction, beset the alien and angular landscape when Ilias lifted her thick foot.
The Rogue's mind reeled when her city state dwarfing digits rose from the earth and came to blot the very skies. Eyes wavering, and arms hanging limp, Paige could do little more than gawk at the fissures carved into her very flesh. What ought to have been the most minute of wrinkles teemed with abyssal darkness. Cloud sized specks of displaced dust twinkled against not only them but the very backdrop of her sole.
DOOOOOOOOOOM
In an instant the horizon itself lurched towards him. His ears popped, and knees knocked together, as a pitch black pall enveloped the whole of the realm. Save the pale glow of his spherical shield not a mote of light was to be found as all of creation roared and rent itself apart.
CRSKKKKKKKK
A plane of flesh, an expanse of shark sole, crashed down upon the shield. Upon impact cracks spidered throughout its surface all while warm waves of gray molded around its curvature. Its descent, while delayed, would not to be denied.
"Oh?" Ilias boomed. Her voice, felt more than heard as it pulsed through her very flesh, bombarded Paige from all sides. "And here I thought you could handle it..."
KRSSSSSSH
Tail puffed out and fur standing on end Paige's composure crumbled. His outflow of aether trickled to a halt as his energy and attention was drawn elsewhere. To the cavernous wrinkles illuminated overhead. To the sumptuously soft sole threatening to peek through the faintest gaps. To the suffocating if not inviting warmth bleeding through the barrier itself.
"Padfoot. Please," Ilias tried to deadpan in between snorts. "At least try to take this seriously!"
KRKKKKKKK
A dopey smile spread from ear to ear upon Paige's mug while crystallized shards of aether began to rain down around him. In raucous fits and spurts the barrier dimpled and bowed inward as it gave way to Ilias' prodigious paw. Bashfully did the Rogue wring his hands together as he wholeheartedly embraced the inevitable.
POFF
Eyes half-lidded, Ilias shook her head with a sigh and a smile as she felt a ticklish puff of aether brush against her swollen sole. "At this rate you'll never have my say so to leave," she rumbled. "Not that you seem to mind."
Embedded and all but entombed within the deepest recesses of a wrinkle... Paige contentedly purred. Upon the barrier's catastrophic collapse its Haima fail safe activated and what scant shards of shielding remained snapped tight to his feline frame. Even as the shark's ample everything bore down upon him he remained unharmed and unbothered. Such was her foresight. Such was the strength of Master Ilias' magic!
"Padfoot. Be honest with me. Did you fail this test on purpose?"
Paige happily nodded and nuzzled into a hill sized fold of flesh. As his cheeks strained from how hard he was blushing his thoughts drifted while he enthusiastically indulged in her full body footsies. There was no overbearing and pernicious pressure squeezing the air out of his very lungs. No need to flail and fumble about for an escape. Never would his mentor ever allow him to come to harm and... and... oh how he missed this. And her.
"...Very well," Ilias said with a loving scrunch of her sole. Plodding about through her workshop, purposefully wedging Paige all the deeper into her stompers as she reinforced his shielding to levels beyond belief, she resumed her studies in earnest. "Once you've regained your strength we will resume testing. That and-" Chin tucked against her shoulder she peeled her heel off the floor and winked at her bitty and beloved apprentice stamped flat against her feet. Twas a sight she never tired of and that had all but inspired his nickname when he was still a fresh faced Rogue under her care. "Even if you are the vaunted Warrior of Light, the very Savior of our star, you'll always always always be my precious Padfoot."
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Category All / Macro / Micro
Species Shark
Size 2146 x 1717px
File Size 3.11 MB
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