Some musings on Felix and his element
Nov. 8th, 2009 05:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
venusadept_2Felix, according to my millicanon and headcanon, is very strongly attuned to his element, Earth. This is both a cause and an effect of his fairly high level; I've stated that the way one uses Psynergy is to "tune" one's mind to the pattern of one's element, and use the connection formed thereby to channel the element's power. Naturally, the more you do this, the better the thought pattern sticks with you, and the closer you get to the very center, the ideal.
Earth is, in many ways, the most straightforward of the elements. Even Fire, the next most straightforward, can exercise significant influence while being hidden. But earth is Earth, and plants - which are rooted in earth - are Earth, and that's that. Earth doesn't have disparate aspects, the way Wind or Water does. Indeed, in-game, the Earth adepts are the only ones who don't get any buffs or debuffs - and Felix prefers that. His style, in nearly every aspect of his life, is very straighforward - find the problem, and deal with it. He doesn't go in for prolonging a confrontation by taking time to decrease how well his opponent fights or closing off their options for a moment.
Indeed, Felix doesn't like things being done "for a moment". Earth is the most perpetual and unchanging of the elements. Yes, it's true that the ocean, as a whole, persists, but change is arguably at the very heart of what Water is. In any case, Felix prefers that a situation be resolved perpetually, or at least for the foreseeable future. This, by the way, is one of the big reasons that he hates time travel - it inevitably upsets things hugely.
Earth is, by far, the most "settled" element - "home-loving" is a good term for it. This is, paradoxically, the biggest reason that late!Felix travels so much. He knows that if he stops anywhere and starts thinking of it as home, he'll have a very hard time leaving. He'd have to, since his responsibility is to protect the world, rather than any single part of it, but he wouldn't be happy. So he stays at a lesser level of unhappiness - having no home - continually, rather than the greater unhappiness - being away from home - later and repeatedly. Besides, there isn't really a place he'd particularly want to stay: Vale still doesn't entirely trust him; Lalivero holds way too many memories of Sheba; Izumo is - as he puts it - weird; Champa is too vertical; and he doesn't really want to live anywhere without a decent Earth-specific presence.
(For the record, I have certain ideas about what various Adepts do post-canonically. Isaac and Jenna have stationed themselves in Vale, as a steady point of contact and to raise their child(ren); Garet alternates between hanging around Vale and spending time in Gondowan; Ivan travels almost as much as Felix, though for different reasons - mostly that wind likes new places; Mia is mostly in Imil, making sure Megan and Justin are properly trained and that things around the Lighthouse are going smoothly; Sheba is dead; Piers, still banished from Lemuria, tends to spend most of his time on the various islands and in port towns, and taking the others across oceans when they feel the need.)
Earth is, in many ways, the most straightforward of the elements. Even Fire, the next most straightforward, can exercise significant influence while being hidden. But earth is Earth, and plants - which are rooted in earth - are Earth, and that's that. Earth doesn't have disparate aspects, the way Wind or Water does. Indeed, in-game, the Earth adepts are the only ones who don't get any buffs or debuffs - and Felix prefers that. His style, in nearly every aspect of his life, is very straighforward - find the problem, and deal with it. He doesn't go in for prolonging a confrontation by taking time to decrease how well his opponent fights or closing off their options for a moment.
Indeed, Felix doesn't like things being done "for a moment". Earth is the most perpetual and unchanging of the elements. Yes, it's true that the ocean, as a whole, persists, but change is arguably at the very heart of what Water is. In any case, Felix prefers that a situation be resolved perpetually, or at least for the foreseeable future. This, by the way, is one of the big reasons that he hates time travel - it inevitably upsets things hugely.
Earth is, by far, the most "settled" element - "home-loving" is a good term for it. This is, paradoxically, the biggest reason that late!Felix travels so much. He knows that if he stops anywhere and starts thinking of it as home, he'll have a very hard time leaving. He'd have to, since his responsibility is to protect the world, rather than any single part of it, but he wouldn't be happy. So he stays at a lesser level of unhappiness - having no home - continually, rather than the greater unhappiness - being away from home - later and repeatedly. Besides, there isn't really a place he'd particularly want to stay: Vale still doesn't entirely trust him; Lalivero holds way too many memories of Sheba; Izumo is - as he puts it - weird; Champa is too vertical; and he doesn't really want to live anywhere without a decent Earth-specific presence.
(For the record, I have certain ideas about what various Adepts do post-canonically. Isaac and Jenna have stationed themselves in Vale, as a steady point of contact and to raise their child(ren); Garet alternates between hanging around Vale and spending time in Gondowan; Ivan travels almost as much as Felix, though for different reasons - mostly that wind likes new places; Mia is mostly in Imil, making sure Megan and Justin are properly trained and that things around the Lighthouse are going smoothly; Sheba is dead; Piers, still banished from Lemuria, tends to spend most of his time on the various islands and in port towns, and taking the others across oceans when they feel the need.)