Iyashikei App

[mist_the_point]

Player Information

Player Name:Tanks
Pronouns: She/Her
Age: The answer to life, the universe, and everything. (AKA 42)
Preferred Means of Contact: Tanks4thememory, or PM this journal
Invitation: Link
Other Characters In Game: NA
Do you have any plans for this character in the game? Dealing with his issues, learning how to trust people again, and generally becoming less of a grump.

Character Information

Character's Full Name: Foulques of the Mist
Character's Pronouns: he/him
Character's Canon: Final Fantasy XIV
Character's Canon Point: His death at the end of the Lancer questline, falling off a cliff after his final battle with the player character
Character's Age: Unclear, but given context clues, I'm guestimating late 30s-early 40s
Did your character willingly come to Iyashikei? If yes, why? Yes because the alternative was falling to his death
Will they need any special accommodations upon arrival? Nope.

Character's History: Foulques on the Final Fantasy wiki

Character's Personality: Questions are go!

Questions:

1. Tell us about who your character is and what someone’s first impression would be upon meeting them. How would your character act once someone got to know them?
The first impression someone is likely to get of Foulques is of someone fairly intimidating; he's 6'6", likely wearing armor and packing a dangerous-looking spear, and generally tries to project the impression that he's someone dangerous and not to be messed with (magic doing its best to make people be nice to each other notwithstanding).

How effective this show of bravado is varies by the individual, as does how much he tries to project it to a certain degree. He can be surprisingly chill with children, likely because he views them as no threat, though he'd quickly become exasperated if they misbehaved or caused him trouble. Adults he's far more likely to try to keep at arm's length at best, and if he feels someone is looking down on him or unduly disrespecting him, he's likely to react with arrogance and aggression.

Getting to know him can difficult due to the aforementioned tendency to keep people at a distance. The last people he called 'friend' not only brutally betrayed him but proved themselves to actually be a bunch of racist jerks (or at least willing to act like it to cover their own butts, which amounts to the same thing as far as Foulques is concerned), and he's been left extremely cynical about the whole idea, calling the player character foolish for stopping to help injured comrades, as they'd only stab them in the back eventually.

But if someone does manage to get close to him, he'll relax more around them, which may well let them see beneath the mask of bravado and dry humor to the mess of self-loathing and other issues beneath. They may also bring out his protective side; given his life spent enduring fantastic racism, he had serious empathy for others who were abused, neglected, or were part of an oppressed minority group, and would stand up for them where they might be unwilling to do so themselves. If/when he starts to become more comfortable both in his new life and his own skin, this side of him will come out more easily.

2. What is something unique and interesting about them, or what is a fun little tidbit that sets them apart from the crowd?
Foulques isn't fond of sweets, which one might assume given the air of tough-guy bravado he tends to project. What one might not guess about him is that he's a bit of a tea snob. Gridanian food has a (sometimes deserved) reputation of being somewhat bland and unimaginative, but they do make excellent tea, particularly herbal blends; he knows what good, well made tea tastes like because he grew up drinking it. He doesn't care how someone likes to drink their tea, but if someone claims their tea is good and it turns out to be sub-par, he will absolutely judge them, often out loud.

He despises cowardice, and will react negatively to what he views as overt displays of it, and is absolutely willing to call people on their BS regardless of their rank. Staying silent about such things, in his experience, only ever led to more of the same. In fact he may need to be held back a little if he feels he or someone he's protective of is being abused or belittled; his experience has left him rather reactionary to such things, and is likely to assume malicious intent rather than give someone the benefit of the doubt.

3. What does your character think their flaws are? What do they think their strengths are? What are their actual flaws and strengths? Hoo boy... Foulques has a deep-seated self loathing born from growing up and living in the environment of Gridania's fantastic racism towards Duskwights. He's internalized many of the negative stereotypes he's always lived under the shadow of, and believes himself to be a worthless coward undeserving of love, kindness, or forgiveness. The twisted version of 'courage' he espoused to the player character, he's now realized was born more out of a lack of truly caring whether he lived or died than anything else.

Needless to say, the dude's got issues. His one remaining point of actual pride is his skill fighting with spears and other polearms, and he views it as pretty much the only good thing about him.

Most of his actual weaknesses are tied into his mental and emotional issues. He tends to be cynical, aggressive, and unwilling to actually connect with people out of a combination of a lack of self-worth and fear of being hurt or betrayed again. He has a hard time accepting any kind of real love, friendship, affection, or even compliments due to deep self-loathing, and tends to be cynical in general. Plus the whole, ya know, stabby murderous revenge plot that the player character gets swept up in; that's a whole other can of worms he'll need to unpack and deal with at some point.

He's actually capable of far more gentleness and protectiveness than he gives himself credit for however, and under all the rage, despair, and self-loathing, this is much more his true nature. Bringing it out, however, and even more so, getting him to a point where he can see and acknowledge it will be a process.

4. What is a common misconception other characters have about your character?
Outside of the stereotypes regarding Duskwights in his own world, characters who only interact with him briefly might likely assume he's an aloof, unfeeling jerk. In fact, he's a jerk who feels very strongly about things. They might also assume, upon finding out about his past that he's some sort of innocent victim, but he will point out if it's brought up that while he was definitely a victim, he is not innocent, and committed genuine crimes, including violent ones. He is not a good guy. But hopefully his time in Iyashikei will help him become a better one.

Character Abilities: Being the 'final boss' of the Lancer questline, Foulques has access to all Lancer abilities aside from Chaos Thrust and True North. During his boss fight, he also has a boss ability that generates damaging circles of energy that linger on the ground for a short time when he stabs his spear into the ground; it's OK if this one is left out though, since it's not part of the usual Lancer skillset. In short, he's very much a trained and experienced warrior when it comes to fighting with a variety of polearms like lances, spears, and tridents, so maybe don't pick a fight with him if you can't compete with that.

In terms of non-combat abilities, he knows how to hunt and fish with a spear, find edible plants and fungi, and generally survive in the wild in a forested environment. This also includes knowing how to cook basic things over an open fire with minimal equipment, and how to clean/dress fish and game for such, as well as how to build/tend a non-magical campfire. Also he's a reasonably good singer if that ever comes up.

He also, like any adventurer in game, has a hammerspace inventory, though per the mods, in game it's been reduced to ten items and usable for only non-living objects that can be hand held. His starting inventory will be: 2 Potions, 2 Antidotes, a bag of Midland Cabbage seeds, a change of clothes (a simple dark green shirt and pants made of cotton and a pair of equally simple, briefs-style smallclothes- AKA underwear- made of undyed cotton), a jar of honey, and a piece of flatbread. Once he frees up some space however, other characters can have fun wondering where that object they handed him a moment ago went.

Player Opt-out/Opt-in Permissions post: Foulques doesn't really have any abilities that really require this, I don't think? He's pretty much a pure physical attacker, and his one healing ability only affects himself. But I'll gladly write one up for him if need be.


TDM Sample Link: Link to TDM thread

Any comments or questions you would like us to know? A funny meme is also welcome!