-orphan girl falling asleep on Balthier at a restaurant while he and Vaan meet up after a while (they spend a lot of time apart at first w Balthier doing Balthierthings/avoiding this very matter), insert Balthier covering up his excitement at her comfort with him by drawling, “in all my days with women I’ve never met a little lady who I’ve manged to bore to sleep”. He carries her back to Strahl with Vaan at his side
-additionally insert orphan girl running up to Balthier and hugging him and declaring she wants to hang out with him all day, and Balthier saying to Vaan “well what can I say. Ladies love me.”
-and lastly, Balthier returning from Balfonheim after a month or two with the new cat, says to excited orphan bab “you can come meet her on my ship if you like”, as some first way he reaches out to her, and Vaan laughs. “Okay (insert her name i didn’t bother making up), rule number one. If a man who dresses weird and talks funny ever invites you on his airship with the promise of kittens, Do Not Do That.” Balthier glares, Vaan grins. “But this guy is okay. No one else though.”
@skystones The artist words : “When Vaan’s tears won’t come, Penelo would cry for him, when Penelo won’t cry, Vaan is here to cry for her. They are living sharing their pain”
That’s it ! That’s exactly how it would happen !!!
The dialogue from the artist goes like this : Vaan : “not that bad right~ ?” Penelo : “Unexpected like this, it’s unfair !” Vaan : “Maybe you should close your eyes next time…” Penelo : “Give me a break !”
I am more and more confused about my (headcanon) feelings towards Vaan and Penelo’s relationship. For the longest time I’ve shipped them romantically, but I was actually interested in how they would get together. Penelo having no doubts about her feelings, and Vaan being Vaan, not noticing anything because for him being close to Penelo is obvious. Also, Vaan being super protective.
But the more I read @skystones vision, the more I’m craving for Vaan and Penelo’s brother and sister relationship. Still being super close and protective and everything, but no romance bs lol
I can’t ship Vaan and Balthier because of my personal twisted crack headcanon multiverse AU where they’re brothers, and I can’t ship Penelo with anyone else either…
Now, romance is not a goal at all (I’m aromantic myself) I just don’t know how to headcanon their sentimental development anymore lmao
WHY DO YOU FEED THIS YOU KNOW I WON’T EVR SHUT UP ABOUT IT
orphan girl headcanon that she’s actually superduper shy and she clings to vaan really hard at first; she barely says a peep and she’s this rozarrian little thing with dark hair and BIG BIG BIG brown eyes and vaan just adores her. so much that while she’s with penelo and filo/kytes at the orphanage he’s kept up at night in bed with balthier just thinking about her and how he misses her and bal is just like, eyeroll, it’s only been three days away, come on vaan. and vaan’s just like. i want to see her i promised i’d see her soon aahhhHHHHHHHH
i had a situation where bal takes her for the day while vaan does. something. maybe vaan asks him to take her for the day. and bal has never spent time 1×1 with her and he’s like. oh jeez. but she’s so good and quiet? she just colors and draws a lot. and bal is doing maintenance on the strahl inside and she asks what he’s doing, and he explains, and she just. plops down in the corner and starts coloring quietly and keeping him company, and she’s just occupied for a while and then when he’s done she’s like “i drew u and vaan!” and it’s a terrible fucking drawing but bal is like, aw, let’s go show vaan i guess, whatever i’m supposed to do, uh. and they go show vaan in town and vaan like – holds the drawing, slowly falls to the floor, this is the most beautiful thing i’ve ever seen . in the entire life that is mine. faram. by ultima. fates.
balthier is like, jesus vaan. but it makes him smile anyway. and the lil girl holds balthier’s hand. he buys her cute scarves to put in her hair but she asks vaan to tie it around her neck like a cool bandana so he does and balthier is like FINE.
anyway yes once she opens up more around balthier she senses that he’s tougher to please than vaan so she tries to get him to warm up to her. but she still snuggles vaan like a lifeline and vaan is. so god damn sweet to her i wnt to CRY. she talks a lot around vaan but is def one of Those Kids that clams right up around other people. she opens up to penelo eventually but it’s a PROCESS. penelo is like JESUS I THOUGHT I WAS GOOD WITH KIDS WHAT’S WORNG WITH THIS ONE.
fran definitely doesn’t like kids but she appreciates this one is QUIET. especially around her. lil girl is like O___O constantly at fran. she clams up. in fact fran tries to get her to open up and the kid is just like O_______O and vaan is like lmao. chill. fran won’t bite. kid is still like O_____O until one day she just reaches out and touches fran’s hair. fran freezes and then relents.
There is one trope (?) I like, and if it was applied to Balvaan I would imagine it like this:
At the beginning Balthier is actually quite clumsy with flirt, especially because it’s difficult to get Vaan’s attention (he is focused on airship y’know). So, in an attempt to provoke Vaan, Balthier asks Penelo to help him. Penelo is completely on board with the idea, and they start to fake!flirt. Of course Balthier is clueless about seduction with girls, Penelo is the one telling him what to do. In the end, Vaan observes Balthier and Penelo’s strange behavior and starts screaming internally “no no no no something is very wrong, Balthier should be doing this / saying that to me ! …. wait what ?”. After that, they both are way more aware of each other and each attempt to flirt is more efficient.
sparkly water archades headcanon good headcanon, and when the imperials are assigned to rabanastre they come to the Sandsea and get super irritated at tomaj that there’s no sparkly water, and tomaj is like, what the fuck is sparkly water? anyway the demand is high and tomaj loses a lot of control with the Sandsea once archadia takes over so he HAS to start serving it and tomaj hates sparkly water and so does vaan
balthier fucking loves sparkly water and now i want vaan, in an attempt to annoy balthier, taking his cup at the Sandsea and chugging it only to make the world’s most horrified face upon finding out it’s sparkly water and he spits it all over the floor and tomaj comes up like what the fuck vaan, i own this place dude, and vaan’s like SPARJKLY WATER BAD!! and tomaj is like oh, you’re excused then, and balthier is like ??? refill my fucking water???
Live orchestral rendition of Penelo’s theme, for @vivisucre~
The thematic implications in all the pieces of FFXII are vibrant but here I find them especially captivating of her warmth, hope, and the flute-lilts that remind me of a bird cresting on the winds on a blue-sky day.
Thank you ❤ Flute suits Penelo because she’s young and cute, but I especially love the clarinet (?) and the deepest sounds. The sound is so smooth and calm. It’s also more mature and warm. Mature, calm, dependable, all of this is Penelo.
Final fantasy XII &co 