● It’s said someday the flower shall bloom eternally. ●

[vocantem]

name; Jinx
contact; burialapplicant or PM corsetjinx
other characters played; N/A

character; Rydia
series; Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
point in canon; Post Game
age; 24*

*In the original Final Fantasy IV, Rydia is a child of 7, and then she is whisked away to the Feymarch. When she returns to the party some unknown time later her body is that of a 16-18 year old woman. With 17 years between IV and The After Years, Rydia should be roughly 24. However her real age, since her age skip in the original canon is never stated.

zodiac sign; Aries
job; Summoner
special abilities;
- Black Magic
- Use of a whip [Mystic Whip]
- Bands*

In my playthrough of FFIV: TAY, I've managed to collect the following summons: Goblin, Chocobo, Sylph, Ifirit, Shiva, Ramuh, Titan, Dragon [Mist Dragon], Odin, Asura, Levithan, and Bahamut. I would very much like it if Rydia could keep her summons, seeing as losing them again might break her character.

Rydia's pretty proficient in black magic, but as far as it goes she's mastered the basic elemental spells.

*Bands were introduced in The After Years, and Rydia can only preform them with certain people. There's a nice list of them located here.

history;
A young girl of blessed circumstance
Bid farewell to your bloodstained past
A New Moon Leads to a New Destiny

previous game history; N/A

personality;

Rydia is one of those characters who comes off as pretty much the most extravagantly emotional. A perfect storm, a roller coaster of feelings. She has the most emotional responses throughout the entirety of her journey, outshining even the main character. She’s forceful, practically rough around the edges and can be a little jerk! And even though she spent the majority of her childhood in Eidolon hands she retains quite the flare for dramatics. She may come off as being harsh on some occasions, but she really is a kind and gentle person nonetheless. She definitely adores everyone she’s met throughout her life, owing to them her growth into the young woman she is today.

As a summoner and a mage, this young woman finds herself relying specifically on her summoning arts. Her focus is so great that she considers herself useless without her summoning arts, as seen in The After Years, where she has a minor breakdown while facing a Zu. Her focus on the fact that she has lost her ability to summon makes her doubt her other gifts. Little things sometimes get to Rydia at the worst of times. But frankly she gets over these incidents very quickly. Or at least she works around them. That doesn’t mean that she ignores her problems entirely. It simply means that she has discovered her own strengths in times of crisis. Even when she is freaking out about not being able to summon a damn thing, she still uses her magic and her whip. She still finds a way to prove to herself that she isn’t unable to help.

For all she’s confrontational, she picks her fights wisely. She is very aware of the nature of things. She knows if you go to a gunfight with a knife, you’ll probably lose unless you get in close and fast. She argues when she has to. And if arguing will get her nowhere she will find a way to prove she’s right. When Cecil, Kain, and Edge tell her and Rosa to stay behind so the men can go beat the bad guy, she and Rosa don’t waste too much breath arguing. They act like they’re obeying orders only to hide on-board the Lunar Whale and wait to reveal themselves after it lands. When they reveal themselves, she makes sure to show how useful having her around is. Who else is going to back them up with powerful Eidolons? If she’s got a point to make, she makes it. And if she can’t back up whatever she wants to say she just won’t say it. She’s not going to make herself look like an idiot if she can help it.

If she’s displeased, she shows it. She can come off a little rude, but she isn’t half as rude as she was when she was a child. When Edward loses his love, she pretty much tells him to up and grow a pair - and she was only seven at the time. That was her forceful way of telling him to get over it. She didn’t really give others the time they need to properly get over something, and that may have been because she never got the chance to really mourn for her mother’s passing or the destruction of her village. But now she knows otherwise. She does know when there are no need for words, or there just is nothing to say. She has learned to give others space when such can be afforded. She has learned to back off, that she shouldn’t take out her aggression on others. At least we see this during her adulthood. When Luca has to sacrifice her dolls to get their ship off the ground, Rydia doesn’t press for anything, she offers her apologies and her help. She has discovered that you can’t just tell people to quit being a baby, that’s something for them to decide. She has learned that people need what time can be spared to mourn for their loss. That it can be something that lets them keep going.

Rydia was traumatized by the earlier events in her childhood. A terrible fear of fire had taken root when she was a child. It was so terrible that the mere thought of casting the easiest black magic spell in the world made her tense up and nearly burst into tears. But she did get over it, with the help of Rosa. She didn’t make the fear vanish, of course, but being introduced to the fact that she can control such a simple spell like fire probably made it easier to deal with the issue. It is never brought up again, but it does show how much Rydia had to grow. How much she had to learn as quickly as possible. She still recalls that it was a fire that destroyed her childhood, but that memory doesn’t paralyze her like it used to. She remembers clearly that her mother died right before her eyes and very suddenly, but again that doesn’t damper her personality. It doesn’t hold on to her with the same kind of weight as it once did.

Even though she’s lost her mother at a young age, she’s grown to fully accept and love her adoptive parents. They aren’t normal, since they’re Eidolons, but they’re her family. Leviathan and Asura, the King and Queen of the Eidolons. She loves them with all of her heart, and all the other Eidolons who helped raise her. Under their hand she grew into her powers and lost some of her worst traits as a child. She has made room in her heart to fit the entirety of her home village, Mist, the Feymarch, and all of her friends that she met along the way - even those two little mages she didn’t meet until sometime before Cecil and Rosa wed. Yeah, Rydia’s a really caring person. She likes being around people even if she might not know how to operate. And when it comes to meeting new people, she can get very excited. But she can also judge people poorly very quickly. When she met Edge it was after his fight with Rubicante, the Fiend of Fire. Edge was pretty hell bent on going after the Archfiend by himself. Rydia bursts into tears, not wanting to lose another person. She had already lost quite a few people and didn’t want him to become another statistic. She knew nothing about him, but damn did she already consider him a reckless fool. Even after they got to know each other, some part of her still registers him as being a fool. She doesn’t quite let go of first impressions. Cecil is one of the few people who manages to get her to completely change her mind about him and that’s only after quite a bit of trials.

People change, she’s learned that. And no matter who they used to be they deserve that second chance. Take Golbez for instance, she willingly fights along side the man who caused the Crystal War seventeen years ago, even after finding out who he really is. He wasn’t himself then. She doesn’t hold it against him. But, then again, Golbez is a special case. The man had been brainwashed by an evil Lunarian and forced to cause the war. The man who saved her and Luca, he was the real Golbez. Quiet, calm and collected, something of a breath of fresh air in all the madness. But even the summoner isn’t quite sure how to feel about the mysterious man. But she feels that she can trust him, and he has no ill will toward the party, in fact, he only wishes to help deal with the chaos.

So, with special circumstances involved, Rydia can let go of her first impressions.

Rydia is helpful and firm, rough and sweet. She’s the kind of woman who throws herself into the fray, taking up arms along side her friends when circumstance calls for it. She won’t abandon anyone, and only wants to protect everyone she can. When she makes a promise, she’ll do her damnedest to see it through. When the Eidolons are sealed in stone, she swears to save them no matter the cost. And she does everything she can for them; even though she doesn’t want to fight Titan or Ifrit, she doesn’t back down. She calls to them, tries to persuade them to see and remember her.

Rydia loves her Eidolons. They are her family, they are the most stable, unchanging thing in her life. They have been with her since she was a child, and have protected her for years. They have taught her so much, guiding her in her skills as both a mage and a summoner. To fight them is like a knife to the belly. A wound that does not heal, not until they are once more at her side and free of the Maenad’s control.

So for all Rydia is an emotional young woman, she is aware that she has flaws. She knows that she can be practically brash, but she is also very kind and loving. She has developed into quite the amazing woman given the circumstances she’s in. Although she has a lot of self doubts due in part to the loss of her powers, she’ll learn to work around them. To better herself. She knows that teamwork is necessary for survival. That the strongest teams can be full of surprises, and that those teams are strengthened by deep bonds that can't be denied. She may not be physically the strongest in the large group that has built up around Cecil, but she knows that she makes an excellent support. But most of all, it's important that no one get's left behind. Life is precious, and Rydia's journey has proven that to her. Going up against monsters, being a part of a team, a family unit... it's all means so much to the summoner. More than words can describe.

◊Samples

first person sample;
Cuore, I hope that when you read this it will not damper our relationship. You are, no matter what, my family. Please don't think little of me - I hope I am there when you do read this so we may talk.

Asura was right, my place is not with the Eidolons for all I wish it to be. It is here, beside you, Cuore. When I met you, I did not know what to think. It was as if I were gazing upon a younger version of myself. The child who had been lost at sea, swallowed by an Eidolon. It was frightening, confusing, and to this day I still don't know how else to describe what I felt. I didn't believe that I'd see you again. I didn't believe you would listen to such an order. I am glad you did...

You've grown so much, Cuore. You still slip up, you know, but I won't hold it against you. It's endearing, really. My fast growing Cuore. Oh! When I say it like that, it sounds as if I'm trying to be your mother. I hope you can forgive me! But you have grown up and everyday it seems so strange, remembering what you were then and what you are now. Not a maenad, but just another child. A Summoner like me. I hope I didn't pressure you into the role, but I needed - no, we needed to bring strength back into the village. A fresh start for all of us.

Let us hope that peace remains.

third person sample;

The true moon.

This was it, wasn’t it? The last leg of their journey. They had reached the true moon, panicked and anything but whole. There was ice inside some hearts, minds locked away in unresponsive bodies. Souls merging the dark and the light - surely Kain, the recently christened Holy Dragoon, might be struggling to comprehend that he was truly whole. Darkness and light merged into one. Balanced. And all these children accompanying them, those who had never experienced a journey quite like this.

Luca seemed to take it in stride, and Rydia was envious of that. Her dwarven friend had started this journey with her, and would end it with her. She had been there to see Rydia’s rise and fall, and their friendship only seemed to be further sealed.

It was enough to bring some warmth to the otherwise cold summoner.

Green eyes darted across the crater battered empty grey landscape. The silence was deafening. This place, so lifeless and empty, was far more terrifying than the red moon. At least the other moon housed some life, be it Bahamut or FuSoYa, the ancient Lunarian who had helped them so much during the end of their first journey. Somewhere beneath the surface of the moon she could feel the all too familiar pull of her missing Eidolons. The gentle warmth of Asura was tainted now, shallow and freezing. The languid pull of Leviathan, so like the sea, now felt like a raging storm. And the heaviness, the striking power of Bahamut seemed to boil deep inside of her. And yet, and yet it all was so distant. A scraping in the back of Rydia’s mind.

They were so close and yet so far away.

It took all her strength to keep her tears at bay, to keep from letting out a whimper. How was she going to get them back? Was she strong enough to encourage them to listen to her, to come back to her? Would she even be useful here? They had mages by the handful, powerful black mages and white mages. And she was the only summoner, true enough, but her summons were lacking. She was lacking. Would she even survive this last fight or the many fights to come?

Stop!

She had made it this far, too far to doubt herself once more. This landscape was doing something to her, making her doubt when she shouldn’t. She couldn’t do this to herself. Rydia shook her head wildly, physically pushing the thoughts away. That was enough. She didn’t need to focus on something she couldn’t control. They had all come this far; she had fought long and hard to get to this point. That was surely enough. Besides - Rydia turned her attention to the Lunar Whale, her heart clenching for a moment - Cecil still wasn’t himself. She could see how it wore on his loved ones, how it tore at Rosa and Ceodore. Cecil had been their guiding light before, a savior in times of need. He had protected her once before, when she was but a small child. Wasn’t it time to protect him?

The summoner took a deep breath and readied herself for the upcoming battle. With high spirits and hope for the future, she knew that she could do it. For herself, her Eidolons, and her friends.