I keep being like "I should make Savoulain* in FFXIV proper... except like, what's even the point? I'd need to commit so many victimless crimes to get him to look right and also we are terrible at keeping up with multiple characters, I will never actually play him"
and then, just now, the apple of enlightenment clonked off of my head - no, doofus, you're not making him so you can play him. You're making him for posing purposes.
I think as much as Lucent likes fighting, he doesn't fly into a rage and begin beating people up over just anything. it's a specific combination of things:
RDM!Lucent once beat up a bunch of pirates in Limsa for stealing from a Qiqirn traveler, and has had plenty more opportunities to let out his rage, as per the life of an adventurer. SGE!Lucent has been much more insulated, but has probably still beaten up some fellow students for bullying others, enough to have gotten a Reputation. I'm playing with the idea that the reason SGE!Lucent rolls better on intimidation checks than RDM!Lucent is because people were eventually like "hey, families are complaining about him beating up their sons/daughters/progeny, we need to keep him from doing that or else he'll get exiled," and someone was like "sure! I can teach him how to resolve conflicts without physical violence. :)"
(what people thought this meant: "how to politely explain to bullies why bullying is bad"
what it actually was: "how to be Really Scary and win fights without actually touching anyone")
between this, the doctor who went "idk, have you tried giving him enrichment instead of locking him up," and myriad other people who were genuine friends and role models in Lucent's academic life, I'm playing with the idea that Sharlayan as a country kind of sucks, and there's plenty of individual people who suck, but there's also a lot of passionate, caring people who are creating positive change on a personal level. you know, kind of like the school system IRL
thinking about how SGE!Lucent, despite being cis, ended up a trans metaphor after all
namely, he is not comfortable in his body unless he is continuously changing it to better suit him, including in ways that would be considered "risky" and "bizarre" to many people. the fact that doing so often has him straining against the limits of his vessel is a plus. it makes him feel alive, to press up against those boundaries and transcend them - those flashes of clarity, the euphoria of triumph. he may die or drive himself to madness in the process, but it's better than suffocating slowly in the shackles of his flesh.
it's a happy arrangement that his profession synergizes with his personal research - a lot of what he figures out from experimenting on himself helps him figure out how to help others, and a lot of what he learns in the process of expanding his medical knowledge goes right back into his experimentation. and he does genuinely care a lot about helping other people! he believes very strongly in What It Means To Be A Healer! so strongly that he's gotten into more than one fight about it
(his friends don't dissuade him from experimenting, but they do try to get him to do it in safer ways. e.g. "please do not lock yourself inside a remote cave and drink an experimental and potentially deadly tincture For Science. at least let one of us stay with you and maybe also double-check your manic midnight calculations")
