#like many he’s got a big heart | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hqmillioncorn · 9 months

Text

FFXIVWrite Day six: Ring

"-And then!!" Babycorn swung back and forth on the railing by her legs as she continued her story. "Then-! They got down on their knee and handed me a tasty looking circle!" She recounted how she couldn't resist just eating it right then and there. So she did! With a big chomp!!

Never in a million years would Babycorn have guessed that Pupusa would have actually agreed to visit her and Tilika in Old Sharlayan. Pupusa and her family had really only known each other for almost a year now but Babycorn was glad she was able to meet them at all. And while Pupusa was a little prickly on the outside, that didn’t stop Babycorn from trying to be friends with her.

Mostly because Babycorn just couldn’t tell that Pupusa had wanted nothing to do with her at first.

By now Pupusa had softened up significantly to her younger cousin but that didn’t mean she was going to change her entire personality for her or anything.

That’s why she even found it surprising that she agreed to go to Old Sharlayan for a few days to visit Babycorn and Tilika.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Pupusa threw a bag over her shoulder. It was packed with a few changes of clothes and little else. She was a pretty simple gal who didn’t really have much use for anything else other than her hairbrush and toothbrush. And maybe a blanket or two.

As she waited outside for Babycorn to arrive (most likely a few minutes late) Pupusa was certain that most of her family was just out of view, watching to see what would happen next. They weren’t really subtle about it at all.

Pupusa sighed, “Tia Niniki! If you’re going to stare at least try and hide behind the curtains!” This came as a genuine shock to Niniki as Pupusa was currently facing away from her. How would she know that she wasn’t fully hidden behind the curtains? Unless she really did have a pair of eyes on the back of her head, like Pupusa had always told her younger sibling.

“I can tell because you always do this!!” Pupusa yelled out.

“See?! See?! I told you she could read minds!!” They did it before her first day working for the Immortal Flames and even during her first date. Now that had been mortifying.

Pupusa recognized that voice as her niece, Libra.

“That’s right! And even when I’m far away I’ll be able to tell when you’re lying to your mama!!”

Pupusa heard a shrill yell and smirked to herself.

That smirk immediately dropped when Pupusa noticed Babycorn excitedly running right for her. If that wasn’t enough, Pupusa could also hear Babycorn’s voice getting closer and closer. “Pupusaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!” It looked and sounded like she was really excited about this.

Everyday Pupusa thanked the Twelve that Babycorn was not a touchy feely kind of person.

As Babycorn screeched to a halt in front of Pupusa, Pupusa watched as Babycorn hopped up and down giggling to herself. “Yay! Yay! Yay! Are you ready to go Pupusa?!” Babycorn let out a loud “Squeeee!!” that Pupusa was worried would break the glasses on Babycorn’s face.

“Yeah. I’m ready.” Pupusa adjusted the bag on her shoulder. “So…How are we getting there? Are we taking an airship to Limsa or are we just an airship the whole way there or-?” Despite how it appeared, Pupusa had listened to Babycorn when she retold stories of her adventure. Babycorn had traveled to Old Sharlayan by boat, so maybe they were going to do the same thing?

Pupusa had to admit she was a little excited. She had never been on a boat before-

Babycorn grabbed onto Pupusa with an apprehensive hug. It was clear that doing this was making her just a bit uncomfortable. “Hold on! Okay?!” Babycorn warned. Then she began to concentrate entirely on her Return spell.

“Hold on?! To what?!”

Then in the very next second, Pupusa and Babycorn disappeared in a cloud of purple aether.

Their family more confused now more than ever.

Babycorn’s trajectory was just a bit off as she and Pupusa ended up teleporting straight into Old Sharlayan’s port Thankfully they didn’t land in the ocean itself. Unfortunately they did land right in the middle of a fisher’s boat.

While this meant that Pupusa did get her wish of being on a boat it also meant she had to deal with Babycorn’s constant screaming until the captain of the boat was able to drop them back onto shore. On the bright side, Pupusa had no problems with touching dead fish so it was a fun way to entertain herself in the meantime by waving a fish at Babycorn.

The trip down to Labyrinthos was far less hectic. Since Pupusa knew what was going to happen ahead of time when Babycorn led her to the Aetheryte in the middle of town.

The whole walk to the home Babycorn talked Pupusa’s ears off about everything they could do while she was here. Things like eating at the Last Stand, eating some of the fruit they grew here, eating some of the school lunches at the Studium while Tilika was busy working and chasing frogs.

Pupusa nodded and agreed to everything that Babycorn planned, not only because she was only halfway listening but also because she was genuinely excited about the whole trip. This was the first time in a long time that Pupusa felt out of place somewhere and while it was sort of a scary feeling, it was exciting all at the same time.

Knowing that the sky above them was all a fabrication was an extra funky feeling.

Suddenly Babycorn took off running, leaving Pupusa behind.

Just in front of them, a pink viera was waving them down. A group of dolls were waiting just behind her. It was a good thing that Pupusa already knew about Babycorn’s doll situation or she would be tempted to turn around and walk all the way back to Ul’dah.

She wasn’t a big fan of dolls.

“Tilika!!!!” Babycorn ran up to her cousin with a big smile and looked back to Pupusa who was making her way to where they were at her own leisurely pace. “Look! Look! Pupusas here!! Yaaay!!!” She did a little excited twirl in place and the dolls spun around in place with her.

“So you did!” Tilika nodded and looked down at Pupusa, holding her hand out to her. “Hi there! I think this is the first time we’ve met but I’ve heard a lot about you!” Babycorn hadn’t been able to shut up about meeting Pupusa’s part of the family for weeks. “My name is Tilika Stark! It’s nice to meet you!” Tilika’s heart shaped ears wiggled to themselves in happiness.

Pupusa was beyond relieved that Tilika was a short Viera. “Nice to meet you too.” She took Tilika’s hand and gave it a firm shake. While she was not unfamiliar to asking taller people to please kneel down or to stretch out her arm for shakes, she didn’t have the energy for that right now.

“I see you managed to survive the Special Babycorn Transportation Special.” As Tilika liked to call it, “Don’t worry-the second time around is a much smoother ride!” Tilika could still remember the first time that Babycorn teleported them into a random tree instead of the Labyrinthos aetheryte.

Pupusa moved aside to let Babycorn run inside and let her continue yelling about how Pupusa was here. “Really? Did she drop you into the ocean too?”

“The OCEAN?!” Tilika put her hand over her face in embarrassment, “Oh, Babycorn…” Talk about bad first impressions.

“It’s fine. We landed on a boat.” Pupusa decided not to elaborate any further. “Is it okay if I come in?” Normally she would just walk in without a second thought but in this case it was probably more polite to ask permission.

Not only that, the looks on the dolls faces made her feel if she did that, she wouldn’t live to regret it.

Tilika perked up instantly, “Of course! Come on in! Yes! Yes!” Tilika led Pupusa in as the dolls moved around to create a non-cluttered walkway for her. Some of them twirled all the way into the darkness and away from where Pupusa could see them.

The living room was small (and very pink), with a small kitchen (also very pink) connected to it. Just a little far away Pupusa could see a few doors that probably led to Babycorn and Tilika’s rooms. (they were probably pink too if Pupusa had to guess)

“Go ahead and take a seat! I’ll get you some fruit salad me and Bebe made earlier!” Tilika rummaged through the fridge and as always let the Calca and Brina dolls spin around the kitchen and get everything else ready

Pupusa set her bag down and sat down on their very pink couch. She could hear the sounds of Babycorn rummaging through things in the other room. She was talking to herself (or the dolls) about how excited she was. Using words that Pupusa had never heard. Just what did “Jeepers” and “Tubular” mean anyway? Those didn’t sound like real words.

“Uggghh” A wave of fatigue suddenly hit Pupusa and she laid down on the couch.

Once she did that, something caught her eye. A large bag tucked away in the corner of the house. There was something twinkling inside of it. It was really none of Pupusa’s business and she would have gladly ignored the bag all together if not for the events of the next few seconds.

“Oh yeah, can you put this in the bag with the others?” Babycorn’s voice came from her room and then next thing Pupusa knew-a stuffed kitty doll came walking in with a whole-ass engagement ring in its stubby hands.

“HUH?!?!!?!” Pupusa sat up with a jolt and a yell that caught everyone’s attention.

Tilika came running up behind the couch, a bowl of fruit salad in her hands, “What? What?! What?! Did something happen?! Even though she was in a panic Tilika still took the time to gently hand the fruit salad over to Pupusa, who gladly took it.

Babycorn came running in shortly after. “What’s wrong?! Did something happen?!” She was holding her White Mage staff in her hands, ready to aim a Glare at anyone and anything that was asking for it.

Pupusa leapt from the couch (making sure to place the fruit salad on the small table in front of it) and snatched the engagement ring from the stuffed cat’s little paws. “What are you doing with an eternity ring?!?!” She held the ring up to Babycorn’s face as if she wasn’t the one who gave it to the stuffed cat in the first place. “Since when?!?!”

Being from a family of goldsmiths, Pupusa could also recognize the work of the Manderville family from anywhere. Rings like these weren’t cheap!! Whoever had given this to her meant business!! Surely Babycorn getting eternally bonded to someone would be something she would bring up to her family!! Or even to her!!

Babycorn and Tilika exchanged a pair of looks that could only be described as “playfully nervous”

Tilika laughed nervously, “Well…I suppose now is a better time than any to find out.”

“Find out my cousin is getting hitched?!?!” Pupusa was so busy pulling at her own hair that she didn’t notice Babycorn skip right past her.

“Not…Entirely…” Tilika motioned for Pupusa to turn around, and turn around she did.

Only to be met by Babycorn grabbing the bag she had seen earlier and tossing it all on the ground. “Look out belooooow!” As soon as she said that, an avalanche of rings and trinkets all descended onto the living room floor. Pupusa could recognize the makers all from a glance. If one Manderville ring was enough to make her lose her mind then seeing more than a dozen of them was about to send her off the deep end.

There were even rings from the famed goldsmith that had famously helped out the Sultana herself a few years ago. The little ‘BB’ emblems on the rings were a dead give away. That particular crafter was actually impossible to get ahold of just what was Babycorn doing with these?!??!?!

“WhYYY do you have all these?!?!” Pupusa grabbed a fistfull of rings from the pile and looked at them in bewilderment.

“People keep giving them to me!” Babycorn said with a smile.

“They WHAT?!?!?!” Pupusa was floored. She knew that being a Warrior of Light gave you lots of fans and attention but she never imagined it to this extent.

Tilika sat on the couch behind them, her own fruit bowl in hand. “That’s our Babycorn for you. Just yesterday she had three people come up to her and propose to her.” She took a bite and waved her spoon around, “You should have seen it. One was a gleaner who brought her a bouquet of different kinds of flowers from all over Eorzea. It was pretty impressive.”

“And delicious!” Babycorn licked her lips.

“I wish you would remember to wait till we got home to eat the bouquets people give you.” Tilika had told her countless times already but the lesson still really hadn’t sunk in.

“I’ll remember next time I promise!”

Pupusa listened to their conversations while digging through the rings in front of her. If the countless amount of rings wasn’t bad enough, there were some that had clear bite marks in them. She didn’t even have to guess what those were about. But it would be really fun to ask about it anyway.

She grabbed one of the rings she couldn’t recognize and held it up to Babycorn, for some reason it was glowing with a ring of light. “What’s with the bite marks? Did you try to snack on some of these?”

Babycorn nodded, “Yeah! I ate a lot of them before Lunya and Vertical told me I should stop eating them!” It had taken her a while to stop entirely but eventually Babycorn had moved from eating rings to just taking small bites of them, all in front of the people that were giving them to her. “I can’t help it! They’re really yummy!”

“There’s yummier things out there sweetie…” Tilika tiredly explained.

“Yeah! Like flower bouquets!!”

“No! Not like those!”

“Wait.” Pupusa put the ring down onto the pile and looked around. “You’re telling me you had more rings than this?! You just ate them?!?!”

“Yuppers!” Babycorn laughed to herself, as if this was much much less of a huge deal to her than it was for Pupusa or literally anyone else. And that’s because it was.

“That reminds me! I still have two rings to put away! Be right back!!” Babycorn skipped back to her room, a group of dolls trailing behind her.

Pupusa was left in a state of shock, as Tilika made her way next to her.

Tilika knelt down and gave Pupusa a reassuring pat on her shoulder. “Welcome to the club.”

“The club…?”

“You know! The being single club while Babycorn gets like fifteen potential suitors a day club!” Despite Tilika’s wording, there was still a smile on her face.

“Um, I have a boyfriend.”

“Ah.”

#ffxivwrite2023 #alongside the rings there is also a big bag of jewelry she probably keeps somehwere else #tilika doesnt know it yet but shes also got people pining for her and she does get love letters sometimes but not people proposing to her #in the streets #this takes place just a few weeks before cherrypit comes back :)#pupusas boyfriend couldnt come along hes too busy protecting uldah #good news for tilika though thancred does like her #but hes swearing to himself to not get mixed up with babycorns family in respect to her which tilika does not know #babycorn has broken many hearts several which are npcs will i name them maybe one day #eorzeas number one bachelorette bayybbeee

3 notes · View notes