In this au, the events of the story take place through ashe’s point of view. The opening cutscene with the wagon doesn’t technically happen. It happens with Isabella, but it took place 5 years ago, some time after the Calamity. That’s when she would’ve had her old hairstyle too.

How I imagine it: the events of 1.0 takes place when Ashe is 16. Without going into too much detail of his backstory, he became an adventurer to earn coin for his siblings and mother. They’re all from the Black Shroud, which is why he starts his journey in Gridania.

I’m still trying to watch old yt vids about 1.0, so I don’t know too much about it yet for his story. For my enjoyment, he would’ve been a part of an fc akin to the blue lions. Of course, he didn’t expect to get tangled up into the whole war thing.

He would’ve been terrified fighting against the empire in the battle of carteneau, but still trudged on for his duty to protects others (especially his family). The whole bahamut thing was unexpected, and that event definitely traumatized him. During the battle-

-he would’ve been separated from his fc, as they all joined the battle together. Then Louisoix casts the spell to send all wol 5 years into the future. What I had in mind is that, as he travels to the future, he ages 5 years older, which explains his height growth.

His hairstyle also changed. So in 2.0, he would be 21. Unfortunately, when he arrives in Gridania, he has a bad case of amnesia and doesn’t remember who he is or where he comes from (meaning he doesn’t remember his former fc and even his family).

He just kinda arrives and is assumed to be an adventurer. He thinks this is a sign of who he used to be and goes along with it. All he has is a mysterious mark on his back, bow, arrows, quiver, and his trusty chocobo. He at least remembers his name.

So he goes along with the tasks he’s given (the msq) until things start taking a serious turn. He meets with Yda and Papalymo, though they don’t recognize him just yet. During one of the blue side quests, he’s asked by a lady at Bentbranch Meadows to check out the-

-Lavender Beds for her. When Ashe gets there, he’s told that it’s for adventurers only. He has to tell her the bad news, but decides to take a look around the place first. While most are houses, some are venues. He takes an interest in a certain café.

“Meeting you halfway.” is the slogan. “Prepare to come home.” is what’s written on the sign outdoors. They catch his eye, so he decides to enter. At first, it seems calm enough. Someone at the front greets him and gestures him to a door that leads downstairs.

As he goes down, he enters a beautiful room of the café. One of the servers leads him to an open seat kindly and is given a menu. While given time he takes a look at the beautiful scenery, music playing in the background. He orders his food. Everything is calm.

Until more people start showing up. He realizes that some customers, servers even!, are more lively than he expected (looking at u mayari and chai). it begins to get too loud for him. After paying, he almost decides to leave, until he notices a dragon-like girl appear on stage.

At first, she dances to the music playing. It’s charming, he’ll admit. It’s when the music tones down and she begins to sing that he becomes entranced. Something about her performance makes him feel something, but he can’t pin which emotion.

When her performance is over and she gets off stage, he wants to speak with her. Unfortunately, it’s time for the café to close, and he has to leave. He decides to make time to come back again at some point. Throughout the events of 2.0, he definitely comes back more often.

But before going into that, let’s go back to msq. Skipping forward to when he gets to the waking sands, he meets Minfilia, Thancred, Y’shtola, and Urianger for the “very first time”, while also meeting back with Yda and Papalymo. Minfilia tells him that she remembers him-

-That he’s finally come back to them after 5 years. She explains that, due to Louisoix’s spell, everyone seems to have forgotten about him and the other original wol, but she remembers them because of the echo. He doesn’t have time to explain as she moves on to other matters.

Ultimately, he decides to go along with her claims, not wanting to upset her or let her down. With all the he’s heard about the wol, he doesn’t believe himself to be one. They sound like heroes of legend, but he’s just a simple adventurer. There’s no way he can be a wol. Right?

Throughout the msq that take place in battling primals and saving the sylphs, ashe makes a few stops back to the café. He hopes to see the girl perform again, but sees that someone else performing on stage. He is a bit disappointed, but it would be rude to leave.

As he looks at the menu, a server walks up to him asking if he is ready to order. When he looks up, he realizes that the dragon girl with pink hair who performed that day is speaking to him, taking on the role of a server this time. Cue awkwardness djsksjdkdkf.

After he pays for the food, he tries to spark a conversation with her, complimenting her on her performance that day. She is very pleased by his compliment, but it also humble about it, stating that others are better than her. He wants to speak to her more, but-

-she is called back to serve other guests. She seems very kind and sweet. He realizes she can also be stern with some of the other servers, especially the more chaotic ones (still looking at u mayari and chai) yelling about. As he leaves, he realizes he didn’t get her name.

The next time he goes, some of the staff begin to recognize him. They start seeing him as a regular, despite this being around the 3rd time he’s been there. He takes a closer look at the menu and sees that “borrowed time” is an available service.

For an hour and 80k gil, he can borrow an available staff to focus on him. He contemplates for a long while, when he finally decides to ask for “the dragon girl with pink hair”. He is very much embarrassed and almost immediately regrets his decision.

When she walks up to him and asks how she can be of service, he apologizes profusely to her and tells her that he doesn’t want to do anything to make her uncomfortable. She reassures him that this is fine, just that this is the first time someone asked for her service personally.

He’s confused as to how this would be her first time doing personal service with a guest, assuming she would be popular, but he doesn’t mention it, not wanting to accept her. He decides to use this time just to speak to her. He once again compliments her performance.

She explains that it was just something she picked up when she started working there, nothing to make a big deal out of. It’s then that she reveals her name, Isabella. She explains that the café is actually made up of the free company she’s in.

Meaning that all servers, greeters, and performers are all a part of the fc. Of course, not everyone works the same day. They only open on weekends, everyone rotating shifts. They’re all adventurers like him. She explains what free companies are and how some open venues like this

He gets a familiar feeling in his chest at the mention of fcs, but he just can’t remember. She asks if he is a part of a fc, but he reveals that he’s been going about these quests all by himself, tagging along with a few parties every now and then to clear certain dungeons.

He doesn’t really speak to the adventurers in his parties, all disbanding once their duty is done. They also don’t stick around long enough to witness the enemies ashe has faced, like the ascians. Isabella, friendly, wonders if she can ask the fc leader if they can-

-invite ashe into their group. They helped her in a time of need, and since Ashe seems kind enough, maybe they can also help him. He reassures her that he’s fine and he can manage. Before they know it, an hour has passed, and their time together has ended.

Still happening in between this time of the msq, he visits the café again. At this point, everyone knows who he is and recognizes him immediately. Wanting to spend time with Isabella again, he borrows her service again, and he tells her about his current journey.

Isabella is in awe of the stories he tells, but it also worried that he travels and fights on his own. Curious, Ashe asks about her journeys, as she mentioned that they’re all adventurers. She admits that she’s a conjurer, but then looks forlorn.

Ashe asks if anything is wrong, but she says she’s fine. She admits that she is actually a retired adventurer, and she is the only one in the fc. For reasons she does not want to talk about quit about a year or two ago. At first, she had feared that the fc would kick her out-

-and that she would no longer be able to work at the café. Thankfully, they were all kind enough to let her stay and continue working there. While earning less from no longer taking on quests to get gil, the tips she receives is enough to let her stay at Gridania’s inn.

Ashe asks what led her to become an adventurer in the first place. She admits that she became an adventurer at the age of 18, almost right after the Calamity. A refuge, she was alone, out on the streets with little food and no shelter, traveling around in hopes of-

-finding a safe haven. One day, she overheard tales of adventuring, and how much money they earn from quests. She heard about the different jobs from each of the city-states. The art of conjuring interested her, so she hopped aboard a wagon to Gridania and started-

-her work there. She was pretty good for a beginning conjurer, constantly being complimented by E-Sumi-Yan. She disliked the attention, however. During a dungeon, she joined a random party and met the fc leader (t’hyme hehe). She was invited to join the fc by him and accepted.

They opened up the café not long after she joined. Over the next three years, she got along with (almost) everyone, and they became like a family to her. She was very studious in her healing and did whatever she could to improve. It wasn’t until something happened one day that-

-she decided to quit adventuring. She doesn’t go into this, and Ashe doesn’t pressure her to tell him. Their session ends once again after an hour. He goes back to doing msq, side quests, and archer/bard quests.