carrying our song, cradled fast within your arms
Coco was very young when his parents left him in the care of a family friend in the midst of an isolated and stunted Sharlayan, and that separation left him more than a little scared of, well, everything. Deciding to leave Sharlayan to learn more about himself and the world around him shaped him for the better, but if he's still a bit of a coward from time to time and needs someone else to go "excuse me he ask for no pickles" once in a while, don't hold it against him. He really is doing his best.
✧─Early Life
Beyond the Azure Sky
It would take Coco 25 years of life on Etheirys to learn this, but his mother was a descendent of Sharlayan's influential Lev clan, able to trace her ancestry all the way to the nation's founding. Their family's accolades mattered little to Nanata Lev Nata, a plucky and eccentric girl who bored easily and thought little of their dusty Bibliothec policies. She found a match for her whimsy in Myrrh Mistral, a returning professor to the Studium, and under her tutelage became a powerful archmage and even more powerful
The moment Myrrh's semester at the Studium ended Nanata dropped out of school, joining the Gleaners and rising through the ranks for her ability to cull the monsters of the star that the others could not before eventually disappearing from Sharlayan entirely to marry her simpleton of a husband.
Said simpleton of a husband, Dodocoda Popocoda, was a cousin to the Highwind Skyways family and was using Fallgourd Float as a base for his own workshop.
Coco was born in the Black Shroud in year 1560 of the 6th Astral Era. As the first child of a local airship engineer and his (by her own admission) strange housewife, he had a relatively normal first few years childhood before his entire world was turned upside down.
With the Forum determined to fulfill their mission from the stars, they sought engineers and smiths from around the world to bring onto the project in the depths of Labyrinthos. One of the most promising engineers they scouted was Dodocoda, who they offered a very generous paycheck to uproot his family and move to the isolated isle. It was too late when they realized just who his wife was and Nanata was back to cause chaos on her old hometown.
Coco was always a quiet and meek boy (to the concern of his mother, who felt that his lack of a spine would be a problem for him) and would, from an early age, rely on his friends to prod him into taking action. He was four when they moved, at an age where he already had friends and was very familiar with his village, so the upheaval of his entire short life only served to make him even more timid and frightened of everything. His saving grace would come in the form of his new next door neighbours and their daughter, Melmeltan Macha, who would quickly become his best friend and protector.
Their friendship was especially important in the moons to come after their arrival in Sharlayan. Fourchenault Leveilleur personally approached Coco's parents and told them they had to move into the Hamlet in Labyrinthos, a fact they hadn't been warned of before the move. Though at first they were inclined to refuse, he would repeatedly mention his own children just one year Coco's junior, and pressed them about how it was for their future that the project needed to be a success. With heavy hearts, Dodocoda and Nanata agreed—but they did not take Coco with him, unwilling to trap him in such a place for his whole childhood.
Nanata was never close to her older brother in her youth; their ideals and beliefs were far too different and their age gap wide. The one she considered a true brother was her childhood best friend Herschel, and it was he who took care of Coco for the thirteen years to follow their disappearance. With the Forum's own secrecy they could tell him nothing of where they were going, only that the child they left with him was his godson and they were counting on him to care for him.
In the years to follow, Coco never really understood what happened to his parents, nor did he want to; if he had to face the fact that they abandoned him it would be too much for his heart. Uncle Herschel couldn't do much to help him either, for even he didn't know where Nanata and Dodocoda went after they brought him a sleeping child in the dead of night. Nevertheless, Coco carefully navigated his childhood with Melmeltan by his side. The two got in plenty of mischief together—Melmeltan was an energetic girl and he stuck to her like glue, and Herschel frequently had to bail them out of a lecture with some self-important scholar nearly every other day. He didn't make many other friends in those days save for perhaps Reese Farouel, who was just their cool babysitter who actually liked them, but the rest of the neighbourhood children were older than them and generally didn't care much for their not-very-scholarly pursuits of playing the flute poorly and singing offkey.
Things would change with Melmeltan's tenth nameday.
✧─Another Story
A Realm Reborn
Coco arrived in Limsa Lominsa and was promptly held at knifepoint by a mugger. A passing adventurer saved him with a timely draw of his bow and it was then and there Coco decided he had to learn archery.
Heavensward
Stormblood
Shadowbringers
Endwalker
Dawntrail
✧─The Warrior of Light
Appearance
Image
3'2". He's both tall and thin for a Lalafell. His body language leans toward the childish and silly manners associated with the average Lalafell, but unlike his brethren who are 100% playing it up in order to scam you, Coco really is just a little guy. He can't help it.
Features
Coco's most distinct feature may be his big fluffy head of dirty blond hair. Lunya's pretty sure there's nothing in there. He doesn't seem to have grown into his giant ears properly like everyone else did. His eyes are blue as the sky and he seems to always be blushing.
Wardrobe
Coco hasn't got much of a fashion sense, but with Lunya's guidance he's got several (mostly blue) outfit coords that are functional and cute. Textures are very important to him and it's pretty common for him to be sporting a fluffy collar even in 30 degree weather. He likes silly fashion accessories, particularly tiny hats and fake glasses. He's scared of needles so his ears aren't pierced and he wears clip-on earrings instead.
Repertoire
BARD─Rank SSS
Classically trained in a number of instruments since his fingers were large enough to play a chord properly, BRD was a natural fit for Coco but actually wasn't his first profession.
ARTIFICER─Summoner, Rank A
Combining a mixture of somanoutics and arcanima, Coco started developing the theory for this magic during his time at Academia Estheim but didn't start to put it into practice until arriving in Eorzea. Skimming spare aether into physical form which he keeps in a tin lunchbox, the little bricks he makes can be enlargened and used to make bigger constructs in the shape of anything he can imagine, even combat-ready mechanisms. Given that he made the art himself and it's mostly been a hobby since he picked up archery, it's not exactly a refined magic yet, and its most common use is to make stepping stools for him to stand on.
Relationships
Coco was well-liked among his classmates at Academia Estheim and later the Studium, but his best friend was and always would be Melmeltan even in their years apart.
| Alma Nox | Coco's foster grandmother. The previous leader of the Libertine faction, which directly opposes Sharlayan's conservative Bibliothecs. She continues to dodge numerous assassination attempts by Sevestre Albright even in retirement due to her persisting popularity with the progressive youths of Sharlayan. |
| Dodocoda Popocoda | |
| Herschel Nox | |
| Nanata Nata |
The Unsundered
Icarus the Unyielding
(he/him)
A playful and friendly man sometimes associated with the Bureau of the Traveler. In his days as a student, Icarus often cut classes at Akadaemiya Anyder citing boredom with studying tomes and preferring to invest time in personal projects—that being his dedicated time to understanding the world they lived in.
He was named for the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, who perished in the sea after flying too close to the sun.
✧─Miscellaneous
Trivia
Coco can't swim, but he's pretty good at floating in the same way a coconut is. He has semi-regular nightmares about being a skinny catboy with blue hair. He's scared of doctors. Healers are fine, but don't let him know you need to perform a medical checkup on him until it's too late.
TV Tropes
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Pets
Grilled Cheese:
Tomato Bisque:
Mailpo: a seagull that hatched from an egg Coco claims to have... laid? Huh? It keeps following him around now. Coco's scared of it.
Verses
sailboats wish they were starsDouble WoL AU with Coco. A verse where Melmeltan and Coco are the Warriors of Light and everyone else is just along for the ride. They left for Eorzea together. |
Motifs
Similar Characters & Inspirations
Coco (Yes! Precure 5) Emil (Nier) Hope (Final Fantasy 13) Jacuzzi Splot (Baccano!) Lowen (Dragalia Lost) Lucas (MOTHER 3) Piglet (Winnie the Pooh) Ralsei (Deltarune) Vivi (Final Fantasy 9) Rob (bobacupcake)
Etymology
Coco is named for the fairy mascot from Yes! Precure 5. Nanata's name comes from "nata de coco". Herschel comes from the thought pipeline of coco > cocoa > chocolate > Herschey's > Herschel. Herschel's last name, Nox, means "night" but is actually taken from nux meaning "nut", which is the root of "nucifera" in cocos nucifera, the scientific name for the coconut. Grandma Alma's name comes from palm. Like, the tree.
Gallery
Footnotes
Original characters referenced on this page, with Tumblr URLs.
- Reese Farouel - @winduphaurchefant
Header photo by Billy Huynh.