gwen

“I’m turning on the KLEOS now, Cid.”

“Roger that, Mihri. Reading the KLEOS as active.”

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply and evenly. All around her, the cockpit of the warmachina was lit up with holographic screens reporting on every aspect of her surroundings, but none of that mattered right now. The hairpin-like device on her forehead was warm, and she could feel it guiding her toward the familiar mental state of the Echo.

Hear… Feel… That wasn’t it. She needed to go deeper. The machine was thrumming above her, below her, around her, like a living being. Focus on its heart, Cid had said, and your own will follow. She let herself sink into it.

The thrumming was inside her, now, and she opened her eyes, raised her hand, and saw the metal fingers flex as she moved them. She turned her head to the side and looked towards the catwalk at eye level. Cid and the other Ironworks technicians were so small compared to her now. “I’ve got it,” she said.

A complete rewrite of the Sorrows of Werlyt questline, focusing on Milisandia and the other pilots.

Chapter 1: Crossing the Rubicon on AO3 here

mecha battles are tragically hard to describe in written form

“Copy that. Come back safely, Mihri.”

“I always do,” she replied, shoving back memories of Light shattering inside her.

The explosive bolts on her shoulders broke off as the Ironworks engineers triggered the cable release, and then she was falling. One second, two, ten—and she triggered her maneuvering jets, turning her plunge into a forward dive, screaming through the air toward the Ruby Weapon.

“Enemy detected!” That was an unfamiliar voice, a young voice, echoing through her internal communications system. Before she could even think to wonder where it was coming from, the Ruby Weapon leapt forward, triggering its own flight packs to dodge just before Mihri would have intercepted it. She cut her jets and swung her thruster-wings over her shoulders, firing them again to reverse course and keep from crashing unceremoniously into the ground. Mihri landed on one knee, left hand on the ground to brace herself as the Ruby Weapon swung around to face her.

it's coming along, though

modern au mihri meets zenos when mihri is working retail because lyse really needed someone to help cover extra shifts. and zenos is like wow... the dispassionate emotionless department store employee... she's just like me fr... but actually she's just working retail

But her life has been borrowed ever since that night in the tunnels of Ul’dah.

a ghost real only to you