About Marla

Marla was raised by a pair of adventurers, both Xaela who had left their clan because the wanderlust they felt was even stronger than that of the average Xaela clan. The trained her first in the art of magic, as her initial skills lent themselves to the arcane, and not long after she first fought using a carbuncle and expressed interest in summoning bigger and more dangerous beasts they trained her to be able to survive on her own. Even as a child it was obvious she wanted to see everything, do everything, and fight everything, she was constantly challenging monsters at the edge of her capabilities and as a teenager would often ask anyone who traveled with them to spar with her, so she could learn more. It wasn’t until she picked a fight with something bigger than she could handle, and her father got maimed protecting her did she ask to learn how to use a shield. The sight of someone being injured protecting her was enraging, and she blamed herself for not having been strong enough to defeat the beast on her own.

Once she reached 16 her parents started letting her take small adventures on her own, and she would constantly stretch the boundary of “small”. She also had a habit of bringing home stray people she would save on the way, especially young women and orphans. Her parents were constantly burdened with helping these people get back to where they came from as Marla didn’t ever even consider that they wouldn’t want to follow her around the world exploring. This transient nature of all her relationships except her parents was the only thing that she didn’t love about the life of an adventurer, and would become the catalyst for her future relationships with lovers and friends.

At age 20 Marla left her parents side and started to travel the world on her own adventuring as she pleased until her travels brought her to Eorzea. While her parents had forced her to learn to read and write, they had never done the same, so she had no way to keep in contact with them unless she ran into them through coincidence. This loneliness is what lead to her joining some of the groups she found in Eorzea, a grand company, a free company, a group of problem solvers, all these provided ways for her to interact with people through friendship, but many of them were still semi transient. None of them stuck around all the time, each pulled different directions because they all had their own travels. They would congregate and have fun and spend time together when they were between jobs and this helped for a time.

Eventually Marla took a lover, a small Raen named Rin, the two were inseparable. Rin followed Marla on her adventures and would dutifully wait at camp for Marla to return from defeating whatever monsters, gods, or men required her attention, and would take care of Racer their chocobo. She would always be ready for Marla to clean the blood off her, bind her wounds, ensure she remembered to eat, and satisfy every urge Marla had. As a service submissive Rin found joy in keeping Marla happy, and Marla found peace just being next to Rin, it was the one place where she could simply sit and stop doing things for a time. Rin always joked that Marla should have more people following her around, as her deeds had made her the hero of entire countries and that someday there would be an entire Clan of adventurers named for Marla. Marla saw Rin as an extension of herself, she belonged to Marla, and Rin was perfectly happy to be considered so.

The night of the bloody banquet in Ul’dah while Marla took tea with the Sultana Rin got swept up in the events of the night, and was held hostage in an attempt to ensure Marla’s compliance. Marla had no idea that Rin was at the banquet already, for she was supposed to have waited at the Inn as Marla disliked brining Rin into politics. By the time Marla was on her way to Ishgard Rin was held at the hands of the nights villains and brutally raped while Marla frantically tried to reach her on their Linkpearl. Upon reaching Camp Dragonhead their informants had brought the unfortunate news of Rin’s capture and subsequent death. Rin, rather than continue to be raped and used against her lover, had bitten off her own tongue and bled to death after warning them they were all dead men walking.

While she was in Ishgard along with listening for the news of their other missing friends Marla also had their contacts listening for any news of the parties involved and their whereabouts. She would frequently vanish and bodies clad in blue and covered in blood would be found shortly afterwards by the authorities. A small few were still living by the time Marla had left Ishgard to travel to Gyr Abania, and the battle on top of the Castrum was the most frustrating in Marla’s life, not because it was difficult, but because the last of her quarry had escaped her, and she would never get to complete her revenge. This shook Marla’s entire being, as she finally processed the loss of her lover Rin, and this lack of resolve would result in her struggles in the first part of her adventure in Gyr Abania.

It was in her travels in Kugane that finally got Marla righted, spending time with her friends as they traveled Doma, explored her heritage in the Azim Step, and met a widow named Manami. The widow was down on her luck, her husband and sons had died in the attempted revolution in Doma and to keep herself fed she had become a concubine for a wealthy figure in Kugane, but her age had caught up to her, and she was thrown out onto the streets and replaced with a younger woman. Marla came across her in a Kugane alley starving and offered to share her food if the woman would prepare it for her. The two woman fast became friends as Manami listened to Marla’s story and shared her own over multiple meals, the older woman had come a long way since the listless place Marla was in after her own tragedy and was able to provide an ear to listen and a shoulder to mourn on. Spending time with Manami was the brightest point in Marla’s history since losing Rin, and Manami’s kindness seemed never ending.

Marla offered to let her stay in her room while she resumed her travels around the eastern continent but Manami refused until Marla explained it had already been paid for and would be going to waste if she didn’t use it. Marla made frequent trips back to Kugane while traveling the area and spend many dinners bonding with Manami, the two women even slept together after a drink one night and Manami admitted that she had always wondered what kissing a woman felt like. Wanting to give Manami this experience Marla took her to their room and showed her that and more. This started a new aspect to their relationship, and Manami having been curious about some things Marla had told her about asked to be shown many activities in the bedroom. Some she took to, and some she didn’t, her experiences had made her traumatized in regard to some things and was taken aback by some of Marla’s proclivities, but unlike her prior lord Marla never forced her to endure the things she didn’t enjoy and they both found the kinks that were uniquely their own.

When Marla was to return to Eorzea she invited Manami to return with her, and she gladly accepted. Marla not wanting to put Manami at risk made her stay at their apartment in Limsa while she was on the road. Marla already knew that Manami was very happy and skilled at taking care of a home, and took great pride in having a clean home for Marla to return home to after a long trip. She made Manami feel sexy and desirable, while Manami made her feel calm and relaxed.

Marla would shortly continue her habit of pickup of strays as one afternoon in Limsa they find a broken and bloodied female Roegadyn lying in an alley, and before Marla can even react Manami tells her to go ahead and help the woman, and that she would go ahead home and make an extra helping of dinner and draw a bath.

Marla helped the young woman home, carrying the woman nearly twice her size back to their apartment and helped dress her wounds. Marla recognized many of the wounds as those from a sadist with no regard for the bottom and was enraged. The woman awoke later that evening in Marla and Manami’s bed, and told them her name was Mae, she was a sex worker, and she had blacked out during her most recent encounter and couldn’t remember how she got to the alley they found her in, let alone here. She tried to leave but was stopped by Marla and though she was much smaller than Mae she was also much stronger. Marla and Manami convince her to at least stay until she had healed, and though she protested since she was practically homeless she eventually relented as if these women wanted to hurt her she would have already been at their mercy before she even woke up.

After a few days spent with the two women Mae waited until Manami had left and tried to thank Marla for saving her with the only commodity she had left, this led to a discussion of Marla rejecting sex as thanks but would gladly accept sex between the two as friends. Mae saw little difference but acquiesced, and their sexual encounter started Tame by both of their standards but quickly became more involved as Marla drew out Mae’s kinks and played her body like a well tuned instrument. Mae was astounded by this and as they finished Manami let herself back in to the apartment to Mae’s horror and Marla’s amusement. The two women had expected as much as Mae’s intentions had been clear to them for the past day and Manami had left for precisely this purpose two give Mae and her savior a chance to talk. Now that Manami judged the woman well enough they had a few drinks they spoke more about Marla and Manami’s relationship and how they both felt Mae was welcome to stay for as long or as short a time as she wanted.

Mae finally learned who Marla was and rather than be intimidated she was fascinated, she begged her to tell her about her adventures. This led to a much more serious discussion where Marla sat and explained some of her darkest moments to Mae’s horror and what had happened to Rin. The very next day Marla found Mae pouring through Marla’s tomes on healing magic and Mae declared she was going to be a healer so that Marla would never have to go through something like that again and that perhaps she could even help Marla someday. Marla was both concerned and flattered but tried to discourage Mae, but she was insistent that being able to keep herself safe healthy and do the same for Marla was the best way she could help. Marla begrudgingly agreed getting Mae some training with a conjurer who owed Marla a favor, Mae showed a surprising aptitude for the art in a short time.

While observing Mae’s training one day Manami reminded Marla of one of the stories about Rin and how she would someday have an entire clan, before pointing to Mae and indicating she believed it was starting right in front of them. Marla agreed and suggested they should buy a larger home than the apartment as the bed they had was already too small, Manami agreed but also pointed out that a clan needed a base of operations as well and perhaps in was time to take up an offer to get a new larger home in Limsa for their growing family. They shortly moved into a house which Marla claimed was much too large but the Admiral and Manami had conspired together in order to purchase. All the while Manami chided Marla that if she was going to keep bringing home strays they might as well have enough beds to put them in.

Marla considered what kind of clan she would want to build, obviously many people would jump to use her as a stepping stone to draw attention to themselves, or just to say they were involved with her. However, spending time with Mae and Manami had made her life so much more fulfilling so the thought of building upon this tight-knit bond made her feel so warm to her core that she almost looked forward to her next “Stray”.

Marla was walking through Limsa’s main square a few days later and trying to think about who would be a good choice as her daily run in with a local pickpocket drew nearer. The younger woman tried to nab her coin purse every time she saw her and Marla knew of her as Mackenzie from the Limsa thieves guild as she was a runner for the guild on occasion. Marla went to the Smith and got a coin purse and filled it with chips of tin and a small note telling her to pop by their new home for dinner some night. When the pickpocket came Marla was “too slow” to stop her and smiled as the young Miqo’te ran off hoping she would see her again soon.

Knowing that it would take time to build a clan from the ground up Marla took a friend’s advice and went to Gridania to fish and relax, Marla sometimes enjoyed fishing, especially when the weather was nice and the company was pleasant. She picked a spot not far upstream from a small village and cast her line to get some fish to bring home to Manami, as the older Hyur loved any seafood dish and both Marla and Mae would get the benefit of Manami’s cooking. She was joined for the rest of the morning by an elderly Lalafel gentleman who left around lunch and later after lunch by a young and very pretty Viera lad.

The young man and Marla had an enjoyable conversation while fishing and he introduced himself as Mason. Mason was an avid outdoors man and much preferred it to his home growing up in packed, dirty, and sandy Ul’dah. Marla could tell Mason was checking her out, and normally that would bother her, as most men checking her out had a look like they wanted to eat her in their eyes, and she didn’t suffer that sort of nonsense, Mason however had some sort of starstruck look in his eyes as he asked Marla questions about herself and seemed genuinely interested in her. He was still a man, which wasn’t her preference, but he was a very pretty man and while many Viera were there was something a bit softer about Mason that seemed to cut short her immediate distaste.

Mason continued to ask her many questions about her adventures and seemed surprised when he recognized she was the hero everyone spoke about. As their afternoon came to a close and Marla packed up Mason immediately asked if she would go fishing with him again sometime, and the hope in his voice was palpable. Marla walked over to the sitting man, so she would be taller than him for a moment and stared straight into his eyes, and was surprised to see him drop his own eyes to the ground almost immediately. She teased him with a noncommittal answer and watched his ears perk up immediately, and she made a mental note to come back here again in a few days and headed home.

Evidently her good mood from meeting these two throughout her day was showing as Mae and Manami immediately peppered her with questions for which she refused to answer. Both Mackenzie and Mason were both interesting in different ways, and she was looking forward to getting to know them each.

A few days later Marla had to visit Ul’dah on business, while she was signed with the Immortal Flames, the city itself didn’t really speak to her. It annoyed her, even before the worst night of her life happened here, but she came by now and again to visit the Adventurers Guild, the Flames, or the Sultana. Today her business was with the Adventurers Guild as they had asked her to come in and take care of something that could be quite messy. Almost as soon as she entered the Inn she noticed her admirers head snap to look at her, and then suddenly look away. The young Hyur had been watching Marla whenever she had the chance and Marla had a mind to give the woman a closer show today. She got her assignment, which was dealing with an odd voidsent in Thanalan, and then asked the woman at the counter if she knew the one who had been watching Marla. She was told her name was Mal and that she was a member of the Pugilists Guild and the Adventurers Guild as well, and was a very promising newcomer.

As Marla left the inn she checked her reflection to see the younger woman following her as she left the city. She purposefully walked towards the location as to make her self easier to tail, and the young woman obliged as they walked further from the city, when they came to the entrance of a canyon where the job would be Marla called out to the woman without warning. She invited her to join her up here, as it would be a better view. This spooked Mal, who peaked her head around a rock realizing that Marla had already known she was there. Pretty quickly she perked up and jogged up to Marla and gushed a bit of hero worship as then walked into the canyon. Marla hushed her when they began to close in on the location of the voidsent and motioned for Mal to wait while she took a look at her quarry.

The voidsent was abnormal to be sure, but only in looks, Its aura was only middling level and would be a great chance for Marla to see what Mal could do. She returned to her waiting companion and asked if she would join her in subduing the monster, Marla figured she could hold its attention as to ensure Mal’s safety, and she could see what her training so far had amounted to. Mal jumped at the chance to fight with Marla, and they discussed strategy for a moment before Marla concentrated and focused on her gear pulling it from the aether and took up her sword and shield. Mal was amazed, and Marla had to prompt her to get ready, and watched as Mal pulled out a nice set of tonfas and took a few warm up swings. The woman clearly had been training and Marla and Mal made quick work of it as Mal pummeled it into submission while it flailed helplessly against Marla’s shield.

On the trip back to the city Marla invited Mal to come visit her new home sometime for a work-out, a spar, and to have dinner. Mal readily agreed, and they set a date for the following week, Marla returned home and once again was grilled by the ladies as her grin gave everything way about meeting someone promising.

Not every encounter Marla that had was so fortuitous, there were many frauds and conmen as well as a number of people who assumed they would immediately be invited due to their reputation. Marla wanted none of that. She was building a clan of friends and family, not an organization who only cared about reputation and results. She would rather take young adventurers like Mal, street rats like Mackenzie, or even just outdoors men like Mason. She refused to compromise, and slowly the annoying self invitations decreased as they realized no one was going to get her to change her mind. In a dinner with the Admiral she was teased about it incessantly, which resulted in the Admirals best bottle of rum being confiscated as payback.

After a few fishing trips with Mason and feeling out the young man Marla invited him over for dinner one night and arranged for Manami and Mae to spend the evening at the hot springs. Marla had plans for little Mason and didn’t want him to get scared off. She was fairly confident she knew where the lads proclivities lay and was almost eager to play with them. What started as a lovely dinner that Manami left for them Marla then escalated into a bit of play which resulted in her uncovering Masons kinks and finding them to meet and surpass her expectations. He would be a great addition to the Clan in her opinion, not someone who would come in and be disruptive, but someone who would be glad to be there and most importantly add to the family and the dynamic they had at home. Marla saw him home after leaving him hanging and invited him to come by the next afternoon to meet everyone else.

After talking with Manami and Mae the next day they both were excited to meet Mason and see what man had been interesting enough to distract Marla who preferences ran in the other direction. Marla tried to explain that she was interested in feminine and submissive not females specifically, but realized they were just teasing her again. The next day Mason came over and Mason and Mae hit it off immediately with a discussion of Marla, which made Marla self-conscious until Manami came and settled her mind. By the end of the night Mason was formally invited to the clan, and had accepted before the invitation was entirely out of Marla’s mouth.

Mackenzie came by for the first time later that week, and spent some time chatting in the yard after angrily throwing the coin purse of junk at Marla and declaring she owned Mackenzie dinner. Marla brought out some food, and they chatted for a few hours before Mackenzie quickly disappeared when Mae and Manami returned home. Mason was moving into the clan house, and the beds were finally slowly being filled.

Marla also finally had Mal over for the first time after a few scheduling issues and was amazed at the home, and the facilities, and most of all at Marla. Marla and her sparred in the basement and even though Marla took it easy on her Mal had already improved since the last time they met. Mal practically invited herself back just as Marla was about to do the same, which made Marla laugh. Mal and Mackenzie both had so much energy that it was exciting and infectious.

Mal reached out to Marla a few weeks later, they had been spending some time together on and off and Mal had met the rest of the family a few times. She wanted to know if Marla was free to watch her back while she hunted a monster she was particularly nervous about and wanted the assurance of Marla nearby. Flattered Marla agreed and the two traveled to Coerthas, while on their way the two women had quite a bit of fun and once reaching the north they even ended up bunking together for warmth, Mal had no idea how Marla was able to stay comfortable in any weather and any clothing. Snuggled together the two women chatted away about both of their lives as they slept the first night in that cold weather.

The second day they were there they went to the caves the monster frequented and ended up staking it out all day only for it not to show its face. It took 3 days of stakeouts until the monster finally showed its face. It was massive, but Mal seemed fairly confident she could take it down, and was very reassured to have Marla by her side for backup. Mal did end up defeating it on her own, but Marla was nervous the entire fight as she watched the young woman take down a creature 5 times her size. So excited when she defeated it, still covered in blood Mal ran and jumped into Marla forcing her to catch Mal and kissed her on the spot before she realized what she had done and ran.

Marla had to chase Mal down, which wasn’t difficult given the tracks, but Mal received a head start as Marla stopped to take the needed parts of the hunted creature for Mal’s job. Finally catching her just before she tried to lock Marla out of the room Marla forced Mal to talk to her and while pinned to a wall had a very heart-to-heart conversation ending with an invitation to the Clan which she accepted after triple checking Marla was sure she was wanted. Mal went home with Marla that night and spent time with the family and moved her things in after a few days time.

Marla spent quite a bit of time at home over the next few weeks. Mackenzie came to visit fairly regularly and would just let herself in whenever she wanted, which no one seemed to mind. The young Miqo became a fixture around the place along with the occasional visitors who wanted to hang out with Marla from her Free Company and the others she adventured with. She still kept an eye out for new clan members, but they were reaching a good point that Marla didn’t want to exceed. This was before she discovered a young beggar in the poorer part of Gridania, it was hard to tell their age, but it couldn’t be more than 20. Marla was sure something was wrong, the Elezen was quite dirty and looked like they hadn’t eaten in days, their face was gaunt and their body was either extremely lithe or underfed.

Coming up to the beggar Marla noticed they didn’t react to her presence, she slowly reached up to bush aside their hair to see their face better which resulted in just the barest of movements to look up at who was touching them. Marla crouched down and studied their face asking them if they were hungry and offered them food. They barely replied, so Marla ripped up some bread from her bag and handed it to them and watched as they slowly consumed the bread, when finished they didn’t even ask for more. Marla met their eyes and asked them if they would like to come get cleaned up and have some better food, but received only a noncommittal answer. Taking the taller Elezen by the hand Marla helped them to their feed and instructed them to follow her, and noticed as the immediately did with not a word.

Leading them to the Inn Marla got a room and took them to a bath, washed them, dried them, Marla noticed clear marks of punishment on their back and when inquired about how they got them received nothing more than “Parents”. Marla was enraged, who would allow such behavior, but she pushed it down trying not to startle the young Elezen. Having washed and fed them Marla then attempted to pry out where they were from, what they were doing in that part of Gridania, and other such questions. They were not very forth coming but said their name was Max and was quite adamant that it was just Max, based on what she had seen Marla understood the insistence and kindly called them Max as requested. Max’s body language was very bristly when Marla used any gendered pronouns and so Marla slipped into using non gendered pronouns for Max.

Marla decided to try and loosen Max up by speaking about her Clan and Family, and as she told stories she noticed Max start to listen a bit more closely. Asking he Max would like to meet them and getting a nod in response Marla agrees to bring them to her house the next day to say hi to everyone. As Max slept Marla stepped out and bought some new clothes that were less ragged and made sure Max had them before going to her own room for the night. The next day they both headed to the Clan house and presented a very shy Max to the rest of the Family. Over dinner Marla and company were able to get Max to open up a bit about where they came from, and learned that they were from a Garlean province where they were tossed out by their family because they refused to wear pretty dresses and go by the name their parents gave them. Tossed aside because it made the parents look bad to the Garlean conquerors, Marla and Manami were the most visibly upset, though you could tell Mal, Mason and Mae were bothered as well.

Mal however did a great job getting everyone’s spirits up again telling tales of her more recent adventure, and Mae was very excited showing off a new spell she had learned. By the time night came Manami set Max up in their own bed in a guest room and joined Marla in bed to discuss the poor orphan. After they got to sleep Marla was later awoken by the sight of a nude Max entering her room, with their rail thin frame highlighted in the door light. Max tiptoed over and then tried to lay down next to the bed before Marla startled them and invited them to just climb in if they were going to sleep here. Surprised, Max did oblige and soon the pretty and lithe Elezen was tucked between Marla and Manami as they all dozed off to sleep.

After breakfast Max attempted to pack up what little things they had, before being approached by Manami who let them know they could stay as long as they wanted. This brought Max to tears, and resulted in the entire family comforting them.

With Max moved in the house began feeling full, Manami had Marla go out and buy another dining room table and a few other housing items as they didn’t have enough space for visitors anymore. Max also had a tendency to walk around completely naked, which absolutely no one complained about, and resulted in a few more scantily clad people on the regular. This became a bit complicated when people would spontaneous become involved, and was generally fine except the time when Mackenzie stopped by to visit and just let herself in, only to find Mae, Max and Marla involved on the dinning room table. However instead of Mackenzie being embarrassed you could tell she was quite pleased, as the Miqo stripped off her clothes visibly excited and immediately joined in declaring resignedly that she would finally join the Clan.

Mae continued to train in healing, becoming an accomplished mage in her own right and would join Mal on her adventures if she felt like her assistance would be needed. Mason and Max would train martial skills with Marla, Mason developing a few more spear skills to protect himself, and Max putting their very agile fingers to work with a bow. Manami even surprised everyone when she defended a neighbor child from a wondering beast with a sword using skills she had apparently learned to protect herself back in Kugane. Marla was exceedingly happy with her Clan and every friend she had could tell, as she spent more effort than ever to return home between adventures.