Shrike is demi-sexual demi-romantic, but:
-Outgoing and confident, passionate, a fighter at heart
-Strong-willed, but needing to lean on him as their foundation to return to
-Mutually loyal and supportive
-Likes being pampered and spoiled
-Not afraid to get under his skin
#ShrikeQOTD
Terrorizing the Ishgardian and Coerthan countryside, hanging local landlords and nobles, brooding and sleeping alone in caves, biding his time.
#ShrikeQOTD
Shrike gets really bashful talking about Hilda and isn't super expressive with his words in the first place. At a minimum though, he'll say he loves her more than anything else in the world, and that no other woman burns as bright as she does for the sake of those around her.
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Hilda is Shrike's reason for being, so he's extremely protective of her, even if he knows how resilient she is. He mainly worries about the enemies she's made among Ishgard's elite, as well as making sure she doesn't overwork herself in leading the Brume.
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Hilda, by god, can make Shrike smile doing almost anything but the thing that really makes him melt inside is when he's engrossed doing something and he looks up to find her watching affectionately and then tells him that he's cute
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No contest. Wherever this butch walks, the world holds its breath. He knows very well how much he makes Ishgardian women question their sexuality and how much he intimidates insecure men. He doesn't need to assert himself at all, his lesbian masculinity speaks volumes even in silence.
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Shrike is known as the "Furyslayer," the "Specter of the Ward," (often also just "Specter"), and the "Pyrewyrm" among others. His status in Ishgard is so (in)famous that people have come up with all sorts of epithets they gossip about in hushed tones.
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He always has on him:
-Cigarettes
-Knife (I mean, if you count that, everyone has one)
-A thin strip of one of Hilda's old scarves
-Pocket watch
-A small notebook and pen
-Extra gloves
#ShrikeQOTD
Shrike and Hilda have absolutely gotten snowed in during teenage escapades outside Ishgard. it's almost definite that they shared their first kiss in a cramped inn room in Coerthas
after that, well. they would try to get snowed in as much as possible.
#ShrikeQOTD
Love. Intimacy. Communication.
Shrike struggles to fully express himself through his words, but not with touch. Learning and finding joy in pleasuring his partners, getting lost in their bodies, and letting himself move without the noise of thought is how he affirms his feelings.
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Shrike's family hails from Northern Coerthas which I imagine as being distinct from Ishgard Proper, due to their relative isolation. As a result I tend to imagine him with an accent resembling Austrian IRL.
#ShrikeQOTD
tagging this thread w/ #ShrikeQOTD so I can find it later.
Hilda and Shrike were a couple before Shrike and his family got purged and sentenced to death. The calamity happened and then Shrike was on his solitary pursuit of vengeance.
So for five years they had effectively broken up and thus not touched each other at all.
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Shrike calls Hilda "magpie." Hilda calls him "my flame" along with his "actual" name, Léone / Léo. She's one of very few he's okay with still calling him that.
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His most notable nervous habits are chainsmoking and going out to exercise at 2 in the morning. It's gotten less bad over time but these are some of his main outlets for his PTSD. Most of his stress turns into anger and disquiet that activity helps vent or smoking helps soothe.
#ShrikeQOTD
That the goddess he placed his faith in– the one he was convinced literally saved him from a cold death in the wilderness as a child– was nothing but an effigy to instill guilt, fear, and bloodlust in an entire nation of people. The Fury is no righteous guardian, but a cruel tyrant.
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Shrike is stalwartly defending his date and if they seem too distressed at anything in particular he will suddenly become scarier than anything else in the attraction.
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bizarre mix of lowborn Ishgardian coming from someone raised in a highborn environment and the poetic tangents of draconic. someone who many would call well-spoken and eloquent, if cryptic, if they manage to interact with him long enough, as otherwise he keeps things short and clear.
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OOC: intense eyes. the way he makes contempt look hotter than it's ever been. armor-like scales. his piercings and scars. his chin, jawline and side profile.
IC: aside from Hilda, I don't think he's complimented often due to how intimidating he is. only the boldest women go for it.
#ShrikeQOTD
Retribution and Reconciliation. What happens when a society leaves an omnipresent trail of blood and violently excises undesired people. Class warfare and how it intersects with faith. Destruction of faith. Dysfunction and disagreement in resistance movements. Eschatology. Forgiveness.
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like he would to any Warrior of Light that's worth something he is chokeslamming that man into the DIRT and making him REGRET playing hero
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Shrike is inseparably involved in the MSQ as a primary antagonist of Heavensward. I do not have my own WoL but instead operate off of the canon of friends' WoLs. He functions as a foil and nemesis to the WoL so works better in others' canons rather than having one of his own.
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Shrike's aether is an ever-burning pyre, with Surtr's eye like a collapsing star held in suspension. A pillar of tarnished silver flame shot through with molten layers of shadowy black and claret red. Surtr's eye gazes balefully, projecting an X-shaped void like a scar upon the world.
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Crashing the fuck out somewhere in the Coerthan wastes, trying to get a grip on the fact his life was shattered mere weeks ago and that he was now turning into a vessel for an apocalyptic Great Wyrm he willingly put into his soul via its eye.
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Shrike doesn't really change, he's already a sort of vampire-coded dragon. But now Hilda is a vampire dragon too, sired by Shrike's own blood. They lead a lowborn resistance of other monsters and rejects to feast upon the blood of their highborn oppressors. Brume Gothic, if you will.
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Hilda.
Perhaps a bit uninspired of an answer to say "his wife," but she's his anchor and more than that, she's home. He doesn't even need to necessarily wake her up. As long as he can feel her still drawing breath, he knows that he too is still alive, in the real world, and not alone.
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The dungeons beneath the Vault, and probably the Vault in general. No reason to revisit the site of his torture and be reminded of having his faith stolen from him. And every single reason that fueled his urge to reduce Ishgard to ashes.
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slowly and agonizingly. a shockingly controlled burn compared to how he usually is with things, but that's because he has a terrible habit of coveting his most painful emotions and burning them as fuel rather than just letting things go their course naturally.
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