bespectacledpaladin

[bespectacledpaladin]

As he looked to the sunset-painted skies beyond the airborne islands, his eyes caught Lila's silhouette as she stood at the rocky edge of the island, her form still, silent, aimless, her gaze fixed upon the horizon and beyond, her mind lost in the fathomless ocean of her thoughts... A deep sigh of worry left his lungs as he turned his gaze to her, the concern he yet bore for his close and trusted friend an ever-present stone among the many gathering in the pit of his heart, even more so now, with the signs of the turmoil thundering in her soul as pure crystal in their clarity, a turmoil that ripped chunks from her inner flesh and festered in the wounds it had left. Warrior of Light or not, she was his friend, pure and simple.  "Lila...? Is...aught amiss?" Alphinaud knew full well of what maelstrom yet churned within her as he asked, but it would be remiss of him to not extend a hand of concern at the sight of a friend in the throes of thought as her mind lingered on her agony. "Oh," Lila smiled pensively as she briefly turned to face him upon her ear catching the sound of his voice, "hey, Alphinaud. Look, don't worry about me, I'm...I'm fine, okay?" With a deep, wistful sigh, Lila again turned her eyes to the expanse of clouds set against the horizon, her mind pondering the radiant golden sunset...there was a time when she would gladly drink in such sunsets, watching as the sky ignited with luminous hues of orange and gold as the sun dipped below the hills of her native Thanalan in her youth, but now...it seemed such a spectacle held a whole new meaning to her... "Beautiful, isn't it..." she mused, her eyes pensive as her lips remained cast with a somewhat ambivalent smile, "...the sunset. When we...when we stormed the Vault...the sunset looked just like this...I remember it so...clearly. I used to love sunsets like this when I was a little girl, but...I guess it's just bad memories now.." "I suppose...that would be so, after...everything..." Alphinaud sighed, the weight upon her shoulders yet again spilling over onto his own, his heart feeling the ache in her words as they fell upon his ears.  "Alphinaud...may I ask you something?" A cloud of grave solemnity darkened Lila's voice as she turned to him, the lingering ache of her tumult painfully evident. "B-by...by all means," Alphinaud assured, shrugging his shoulders briefly as she took a deep breath.  "Would you...would you call me selfish if I said that...a part of me wants to head back to Ishgard?" Needless to say, Alphinaud found himself mildly vexed by Lila's question, a perplexed furrow forming in his brow, but it took little thought for his mind to ascertain why she would be asking such a thing. "This is...this is about Haurchefant, is it not? Lila?" "It's just that..." she continued, attempting to unstick the words from her throat, pushing through the struggle to give a voice to the nebulous swirl churning in her core, "I'm...I know how important this mission is...Thordan needs to pay for what he and his rat-faced dog have done, and Twelve as my WITNESS I shall be the one to make that snake pay...but..." "But..." Alphinaud cocked his head to the side, pointed ears drooping with vexation as he followed Lila's words.  "But...now that I'm here...it dawned on me just how far away from Ishgard I am right now...how far away from Haurchefant I am. As important as this mission is, and as much as I want to find those fiends and plunge my sword straight into their rotten hearts...I want to...I want to be with Haurchefant, I want to be by his side, I HAVE to be. I feel...almost like I've left him on his own...what if something happens, and I'm not there by his side? He could still die for all I know, and I won't be there..." Not even the sunset reflected in the lenses of her glasses could hide the shadows the looming grief within her cast to her eyes, nor could they hide the tears that threatened to break from them as she brought her woes to light, the lump in her throat growing with each word she spoke. 

Recreated another scene from my AU fic in gpose form! I would recreate more scenes but I only have the vanilla gpose option since I play the game on PS4 so...yeah :/

You can read the whole fic on AO3 here! :3

[bespectacledpaladin]

[bespectacledpaladin]

Chapter 7 of my fic is up and live on AO3! I honestly didn't expect I would be reimagining the Heavensward MSQ in such detail but...yeah hehe :3

[bespectacledpaladin]

Finished the base content for Stormblood a couple of days ago! It's on to the patch content now, which I am SUPER excited for!

[bespectacledpaladin]

Gyr Abania in the fog 🌫️

[bespectacledpaladin]

I did the Limitless Blue on Duty Roulette while levelling Samurai and I had to capture this moment after finishing because the ✨aura✨

[bespectacledpaladin]

So I took on the Samurai job and I've been having an absolute blast with levelling it, and I just adore this look I had for Lila while doing the World of Darkness alliance raid a little while ago!

[bespectacledpaladin]

Woooo another new chapter of my AU fic is up and live on AO3! Things are gonna get interesting from here hehe

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Doma Castle is such a gorgeous dungeon, it has to be one of my new favourites from the game! Definitely my favourite in Stormblood so far!

[bespectacledpaladin]

Okay so Square Enix was kind enough to let us cosplay Cloud Strife from the mainline games, and of course I had to see how the Strife set looked on Lila and HOLY FRICC. GAAAAAAH SHE LOOKS SO FREAKING COOL LIKE HOLY WOW

(Edit; I thought this was a Starlight Celebration gift but I had to change that in the post because I just found out that this is actually a reward for being subscribed to the game for 60 days)

[bespectacledpaladin]

As Lila looked around, she couldn't help but darkly marvel at how even this, a supposedly holy place to this city's people, might have been stained with the blackened taint of the so-called Holy See and their lies, their sin...such a shame, since she had been rather taken by this place when she had first set foot in Ishgard, curious about the Fury's religion and even pondering the times Haurchefant must have come to pray within that very cathedral, but now...even as a daughter of Nald'Thal, the sovereign of her native Ul'Dah, she could only wonder what the Fury would make of the wretched dogs who would dare to blaspheme her. 

Taking a pew at the front, Lila sat before the statue of Halone, pondering the goddess as she brandished her lance and hoplon, looking as both a soldier and a queen, and with a weighted sigh that echoed among the empty space, she offered her piece...

"May the Traders forgive me for...offering supplication to a strange god, but if you may...please...please, O Halone...though I am a child of Nald'Thal, please...I beg you...watch over Haurchefant, and please see to it that he makes it through this...please. If it's true what they say, about how you keep your knights safe...h-he...he is one of your most loyal, most devoted knights, and he means so much to me...I ask that please get him through this...bestow your blessing upon your loyal knight and get him through this...let him live...please..." 

She could only hope and pray that her words, the words of a daughter of the Traders, would reach the ears of Haurchefant's god, and that this god would find it within her holy heart to spare the life of one of her most devoted soldiers, a life that oh so precariously hung in the balance. Her head remained bowed in prayer, eyes closed, partly in reverence but also from the emotion churning within her, but she had yet to notice the figure of another who would join her. 

Decided to recreate a scene from my Haurchefant Lives AU fic in gpose form! Honestly this scene was actually one of my favourites to write, and as I was rereading it I had to recreate it with screenshots. I would make it more fancy but alas, I play FFXIV on the PS4 and I don't think I would be able to use those fancy add-ons that professional gposers use. Anyways, you can read my fic here on AO3! And once again, shoutout to my fellow FFXIV girlies @mikanashii and @mrslittletall for their support!

[bespectacledpaladin]

It's a few days late but here's a little collection of screenshots and gposes from Lila celebrating 2024's Starlight Celebration!

The Starlight Stalls were so SO pretty and I loved exploring them! Also this was pretty much the closest thing I had to a winter glam in my glamour plates but it still looks great and the seasonal event quest was adorable! Oh and a (very late) Merry Christmas, Merry Starlight and Happy New Year lovelies! 🎄🎆🌠

[bespectacledpaladin]

Happy New Year my lovely peepadeeps! I've been cooking like you would not believe, so have a fresh new chapter of my au fic to see in 2025! Also don't worry, I'll be posting new gposes and screenshots soon hehe ;)

And a very happy new year to my lovely FFXIV girlies @mikanashii and @mrslittletall!

[bespectacledpaladin]

Holy wow Chapter 4! Chapter 4 of my AU fic is up and live on AO3! It's slowly gaining traction an it just makes me so SO happy to know that you lovelies enjoy my copium hehe ;) EDIT: I had to delete the chapter and reupload it to fix an issue with the date (I accidentally backdated it), so I had to replace the link too.

[bespectacledpaladin]

Got the Little Ladies suikan set off of Mog Station and decided to do a little photoshoot around Kugane! I love this set so much, and I decided to dye it Lila's colours as well!🏯🌸

[bespectacledpaladin]

Vexed paladin meets some weird funky little fish dudes

I love the Namazu, they're so silly

[bespectacledpaladin]

Sunset and nighttime on the Azim Steppe