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sinfluencers
PLAYER NAME: alex.
CONTACT: PM
OVER THE AGE OF 18?: Yup, I am 25+!
TIMEZONE: EST
OTHER CHARACTERS: N/A
TRIGGERS: I doubt it's likely to come up but I would appreciate a warning for wasting/terminal illness!
LINK TO RESERVE: Here!
CHARACTER NAME: Thancred Waters
CANON: Final Fantasy XIV
CANON POINT: He's coming in from the end of Endwalker (6.0) but not the subsequent patches!
AGE: 30! He had a birthday in his CRAU and his soul underwent some canon "aging without his body attached" shenanigans but functionally he is 30 years old.
BACKGROUND: Canon History can be found on the FFXIV Wiki!
In terms of his CRAU, Thancred spent roughly half a year in a previous jamjar game called The City (citycenter), which I'll be drawing on mostly as a way of allowing him to engage with the contemporary social media aspects of Sinfluencers more quickly. His time in City made him aware of the concept of a multiverse, and he was exposed to things like movies, selfies, texting, and that sort of thing as a consequence of his stay in the game. He also will be keeping one prior CR relationship from that game, with Reno (
SUITABILITY: In canon, Thancred is the Scions' information-gathering and espionage expert; he received his Archon designation (which is essentially FFXIV's version of a ph.d.) in this study, and accordingly he is recognized as one of the foremost experts at Being Sneaky in the whole of the world. We also know that he had achieved his Archon status by the age of 17, because he was already on assignment in Ul'dah by that point in his life. Canon confirms that Thancred would spend his time in taverns "becoming every drunk's best friend" as a way of gathering information; he is also very much recognized as a playboy, both from his incorrigible tendency to flirt and the fact that fellow Scion Urianger is apparently able to embarrass him by "listing off the names of all his conquests". He also claims to be something of a bard, and is used to the idea of being an entertainer of the masses when it benefits him to play that role.
In short, Thancred is someone well-suited to a setting like Sinfluencers both because he is perfectly willing to leverage sex in pursuit of his goals, but also because he has a great deal of familiarity with the concept of playing to an audience and manipulating the flow of information for the sake of achieving his aims. In Endwalker it's even confirmed that Thancred has established and maintains a linkpearl network (essentially, a cell phone network) of basically everyone the Scions have ever met on their journeys — he's already well versed in the benefits of social media and a robust contacts list, even within the swords-and-sorcery setting of Final Fantasy XIV. Life in the environment of Sinducers plays directly to the things he does best, and in all likelihood he will take to the setting like a fish to water as a result.
CHARACTER ARC PLANS: One of the things that I'm most interested in exploring with Thancred in Sinfluencers is how the social media environment will intersect both with Thancred's Archon skillset, but also with his tendency to basically always be "working" and never really allowing himself an opportunity to relax or do things for himself. As the party tank, he feels responsible for the welfare of his friends and in canon quest circumstances he's almost always the one focused on either the task at hand or assessing the possible threat level of any given situation. I'm interested in seeing how he develops when put into an environment where the "job" becomes performing for an entertainment-hungry crowd, and how he might grapple with finding opportunities to be himself amidst those performances. I also want him to build relationships with others and have meaningful discussions about some of the more traumatizing things that have happened to him in canon (being possessed by Lahabrea in ARR, or getting turned into an atmosphere in Endwalker), and just generally explore his character through the lens of the environment's (s)influence.
Also I am a firm enjoyer of hilarious shitposts and ridiculous situations played straight-faced, so. Love to put a man into some Situations. Please let me have some of his fans invent Thanfiction.net, an archive of fanfiction about him specifically. He will comment on it. He will post reviews of his favorites. It will be incredible.
COLLATERAL: He will put up his memories of Minfilia Warde, which he considers to be among his most precious of memories, and the desire he's wishing to have granted is essentially the secret to multiversal travel, to be paid upon his return home. This is actually in alignment with something already occurring in canon in the most recent set of patches — Y'shtola is researching a means of traveling between the Source and the other planes of existence that surround it, the Shards — but essentially what Thancred wants is the guaranteed ability to visit the people he cares about regardless of what plane of existence they live on. He won't spell out his specific reasons for the desire (unless forced) in the contract, but that's what he's aiming for with the nature of his request.
ADDITIONAL CONTRACT CLAUSES: Depending on what the terms were, he might want to negotiate for better starting treatment for himself and Reno (
PERSONALITY: Loyal, protective, flirtatious, brooding, resilient, self-sacrificing.
INVENTORY: Outside of his usual clothes and accessories, Thancred is stated to carry a bag that typically contains quest-relevant items in it (for example, eyedrops that facilitate seeing in the dark, magical sleeping powder used to put sentries to sleep, etc.) but these are generally incidental and nonspecific. Accordingly, I'd like to say he's showing up with a nonspecific set of infiltration- and espionage-type tools, which I will use only for thread hooks and not for attempts at breaking the setting.
He'll also be arriving with the following inventory items from his CRAU:• the black crystal necklace that Lahabrea used to possess him (it has no magical powers whatsoever and is just a Bad Memory necklace)
• the pair of daggers he gave Ryne, her Fatebreakers
• an Elpis flower, whose special ability is solely that it changes color in the presence of strong emotion, like a mood ring.
SKILLS/ABILITIES:
Thancred's "powers" are a little complicated because due to canon circumstances he is not capable of using magic (his aether was disrupted due to a swim in the Lifestream), but at the same time he has certain skills and abilities that, like Batman, border on the supernatural at times.
He is an Archon of survival techniques, espionage, and information-gathering, and also has longstanding ties to the Limsa Lominsan Rogue's Guild, both of which he frequently uses to facilitate his infiltration and espionage efforts. Alongside more conventional techniques for moving silently and avoiding notice, part of this training involved cultivating an ability that allows him to render himself functionally invisible by halting the flow of aether in his own body; the problem is, doing so puts a massive strain on his heart, slows his movements significantly, and, if prolonged, could outright kill him.
His job classes (fighting proficiencies) are primarily Gunbreaker with a side of Rogue, which means when he's in possession of a gunblade he exercises a variety of skills and techniques that align with that particular discipline of tanking — though conspicuously, he can't aether-charge his own bullets because again, he can't wield magic on his own. If someone else charges the cartridges for him in advance, however, he's still able to use them. As a Rogue, he's also proficient in close-quarters fighting with dual-wielded knives or daggers, and a full complement of stupid twirls and backflips to match. He's agile, fast, and tough, capable of taking an absolutely ludicrous amount of damage yet still remaining on his feet on the basis of sheer determination to protect the people he loves.
Overall, none of Thancred's abilities are strictly magical or supernatural in origin; they're more of personal skills developed over time. However, given that FFXIV is a fantasy game and "lol can turn invisible but it might kill him if he does it for too long" smacks pretty close to "a power" regardless of how you justify it, I figured I'd better list it here just to be safe.
Oh, right, and he can hold his breath for ten minutes. Yes, just like Guybrush Threepwood. Yes, FFXIV is hilarious.
GAMEBREAKING POWERS? I don't believe that any of his stated abilities would be considered gamebreaking!
TDM SAMPLES:
Thancred's Action Top-Level
Thancred's Network Top-Level
Action Thread with Reno
Action Thread with Sansa
OTHER SAMPLES:
Sample One from a previous game, feat. introspection with crosscanon CR
Sample Two from a previous game, feat. introspection with crosscanon CR
Sample Three from a previous game, feat. Thancred catfishing on the game network
Sample Four from a previous game, feat. Thancred texting about the multiverse
Sample Five from a previous game, feat. Thancred texting about his canon relationships and backstory
Sample Six from a previous game, feat. Thancred texting about canon events with a canonmate