Chapter Text
Flashback
A pair of young Miqo'te sit in on a bed with a deep pink bedspread and plush toys dotting the surface, it may not be obvious to all but these are the Soup twins. The children of dear Mushroom Soufflé and her terminated union with Soup Tia, since he lost the Nuhn title by leaving her.
"So where are you gonna go Seaweed?"
"I think Ul'dah, you M'mushroom?"
"Gridania- Wait no you can't go to Ul'dah it's dangerous!" His rosewood pink ears and tail raising up in protest.
"I can handle myself, anyways they have the best course on Shattoto the lady of destruction." Seaweed smiles smugly and sticks out her tongue at her worrywart of a brother.
"Can't you go to Limsa Lominsa at least?"
"Nope, I have no plans to join the navy." The sharply poped p and a gentle shake of her head she has him reaching for something to keep her away from that corrupted place.
"Well Limsa is closer to Sharlyan and that upper classmen you'd liked goes there. You might be able to see him if you go there!" Hes wildly gesturing and concern is plain on his face but it was a low blow from him.
"That was a low blow M'mushroom Tia, shall I inform our mother?" There is a surprising amount of hurt on her face so he regrets a bit but he knows that she won't tell their mother. After all if she was really mad she would have dragged him outside to fight.
"You won't tell mom about your crush on G'raha Tia, I only know because i was fortunate enough to walk in on your psyching yourself up to try and ask him on a date." This was a week ago, she saw him because they looked at going to the remote Sharlyan campus near them. Sharlyan is interesting in that it has no sports teams so only Seaweed would be able to go.
"Well I mean I'd have liked to at least tour a Garlemald university or an Ishgardian one but those are so exclusive or even only for citizens of the respective areas. So annoying, Ishgard is the best place for dragon studies."
He nods to her comment and with a sigh, "The medical program in a Garlean university is so good for non aether based healing."
"It must be hard having no talent for manipulating aether, huh bro?"
"It can be yeah."
"Well I can do that and you can learn to do all the other stuff! I'll be the mind and you'll be the body. You tank and I heal."
"Yeah ok, Seaweed. You should learn to heal then. Go try some conjury in Gridania then dear sister."
"Nice try, the best way to heal is make sure you don't die and then use a single potion followed by taking you to an actual Chirugan." She laughs and he joins her but the two start rough housing a bit.
Seaweed is much taller than M'mushroom but he is a great deal stronger. She's faster but he can take more hits, if they were to work together they may be unstoppable.
"Seaweed! Mushroom'a! Its almost time for dinner, let's talk about your college choices while you set the table." The Voice of the lovely of heart and face Mushroom Soufflé rings out for her twins to hear.
The two stand up and fic their hair so that they won't get scolded for rough housing inside. M'mushroom even quickly wipes off and reaplies Seaweeds light violet lipstick since it was smudged during the incident.
Looking as if they are siblings who have never fought and are perfect angels of children they walk down to help their mother. She knows that they were fighting again but chooses to not remark on it due to some news that is even more tragic than her dear children fighting again.
"I'm gonna go to Ul'dah Mom."
"Oh my little Kelp, I can't let you stay in the dorms if you're going there."
"Alright Mom, I'll commute." Their mother breathes a deep sigh of relief and turns to M'mushroom.
"I want to go to Gridania." She lights up at that.
"That's wonderful my little fungi, what do you plan to major in my dears?"
“I plan to major in medicine but I know I can only go so far without a transfer to a different university with less of a focus on healing via aether.”
“I know that it is hard for you with your troubles with aether.”
“Well I am going to major in history, with a focus on the third astral era. Shatotto is who I plan to focus on but the nymian scholars are fascinating as well.”
“She was the Avatar of destruction?”
“Yeah she is the founder of black magic and thaumaturgy. I plan to even learn thaumaturgy since then I can defend myself better. Like I've listened to enough true crime to know I should be able to defend myself in general.”
“That's very good to hear dear, but I have some news for both of you.”
“What is it mom?” the two say in near perfect sync.
“I have a sickness and it can’t be cured. We can treat the symptoms but most of the treatments have a good chance to shorten what time I have left.”
“Mom, what do you mean there's no cure? I can find one. You don’t need to die yet mom. I can’t lose you.”
“Don’t give up mom. We can both learn medicine and try to help you with everything we have. I can switch majors and universities to do this or I can just add a major.” Seaweed isn't saying words anymore but the sounds continue to fall from her mouth as she struggles to not sob.
“My dears, I need you to both live the lives you want to live. I know you want to learn all about the past and if you get a chance to transfer to sharlayan take it, they give out so many grants and you're so smart my little kelp. You could spend your life learning like you want to do. Mushroom’a my dear, you are an ala migan. That means that you can gain citizenship in Garlemald if you really need to, learn all of the medicine you can and then help others.”
“Ok mom.” the two say and then the flood gates open and tears fall, this is the only time they allow themselves to do this. After all they had to be strong since they were fine but that was just not properly grieving, then again who can blame two people that are barely nineteen for that?
Months later, the twins are separated and their mother buried, each starts the first day at a new school full of interesting people and they may be living together but they have not been talking for days.
--
"Welcome to the thaumaturges guild, I am the guild master Cocobuki. I will be giving all of you a list of things to find and defeat in the wild, if you can then you can consider yourselves a fledgling thaumaturge. Afterwards, report to me and I will give you another task that you can complete at your leisure.”
He also introduces several similarly named lalafell but the names simply do not stay in Seaweed's brain. “So many Coco named lalafell, at least it's easy to kill these ladybugs.”
Meanwhile in Gridania, “Here you will learn to train your body so that you may not only learn courage but also to defend yourselves and in a crisis Gridania herself. Therefore to make certain that you are able to handle the rigors of being a lancer go find and slay these.” He hands out a list and M’mushroom goes to kill things to get used to his new lance, it's a loan from the guild, the handle is worn from use and the edge could be sharper but it can still kill easily.
"This was fairly easy but I should save up for my own lance."
Seaweed runs through the city of Ul'dah to the adventurers guild to get a new commission, "Ah there you are Seaweed, I have a job for you. I need you to go to black brush station and see Papushan."
With a nod Seaweed rushes off to the aforementioned area and after Papushan checks her gear she is sent to find someone. This someone is at the sultantree, an ancient tree related to the Sultanate somehow. It is sacred to the family. Something like that, there is a young Lalafell at the tree.
"We should leave-" Seaweed starts to call out, feeling a prickle of danger before a large voidsent starts to attack. Cursing herself for being too late she, having been a short distance away from the tree, still starts to draw the fire of the voidsent.
After the thunder spell she runs a little further away to keep it from hitting the girl under the tree. The monster follows Seaweed turning away from the tree and the two do a dance of death, well it's not truly a dance since seaweed has to stay still for far too long to cast each spell. But each dodge of the voidsent’s attacks is just in the nick of time, a man with white hair and archon marks observes.
The fight has gone well for her and an acsian agrees with that assessment. Fainting from a vision of the recent past the man keeps watch over the two and the lalafellin girl does not protest.