mersi-kokhavasheva

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

Please follow my beautiful wife! Her brain is so big!

Before anyone says I'm biased because she's my wife, just know that I'm her wife because she biased me with her brilliance and her creative spirit and the way she lives and loves the universe. That's totally different.

I, however, am still on hiatus. Wish me luck—and enjoy our beautiful, brilliant, flawless Rhya!

Hello and welcome to A'rhya Writes! A little bit about me:

A'rhya Velorë, Warrior of Light

Seeker of the Sun Miqo'te

Astrologian and Paladin main, but I play most jobs! (<- Terminal omnicrafter [affectionate] )

Data Center Primal, Server Behemoth

I've been playing since just before Endwalker dropped and finally caught up to MSQ just as Dawntrail was gearing up to drop. Ive been writing snippets for nearly that long, even more since my beautiful wife @mersi-kokhavasheva started playing and I could smoosh our WoLs together like dolls.

I'm planning to post original writing and screenshots here, as well as hopefully taking commissions eventually! Please send me asks and interact so I can get to know the community!

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

FFXIV Fic: Serenade for a Ruby

War in the north has found peace; those who fought alone to the east have found allies. From the patrol squadrons of Ishgard comes Mersi Kokhavasheva of the Knights Dragoon; from the war rooms of Rhalgr's Reach comes A'rhya Velore. This is not a story of their struggles, but of a rare moment in between. This is the story of a chance to grasp, and of their refusal to let go.

I, PurpleNidoqueen, haven't been playing Final Fantasy XIV. My son was involved in an accident. Life has been too stressful to worry about dungeons and raids and FATEs and gathering and crafting and class levels. I miss the world, though, and all the wonderful people in it. I miss dear Rhya, I miss our friends... I miss the Blue Mage Gals, even though I wasn't nearly high enough a level to keep up. I miss the crystal peaks of Mor Dhona, and the stone towers of the Black Shroud, and the hustle and bustle of Idyllshire. I miss Eorzea.

But in spite of the hardship, I feel stronger than I ever have. I've grown a lot. I've learned a lot. Therapy and antidepressants do wonders, gamers! Therapy, antidepressants, and people you love. That's the triad that leads to healing.

Finally the time feels right. This is the first story I wrote for Final Fantasy XIV. This is the first story of Mersi Kokhavasheva and A'rhya Velore: Serenade for a Ruby.

There's also another little linky in there—the first one of those I made, as well! I hope they're fun.

This is the last of what I've finished. I haven't been able to write either, so it might just be the last for a while. I hope to return to Mersi and Rhya, and show you the future we have in store, but that will come in time. For now,

Thanks for reading.

I love you, my ruby. Here's to ten years, and to many more.

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

Yensday #4 - 28 February 2024

Welcome back to another Yensday! We have two questions today, so let's get into it!

<><><> Q&A <><><>

@purplenidoqueen asked:

I was thinking about my childhood, and how the one thing that stands out more than anything is a little statuette my mother has. It got me thinking about what Yen might have latched onto, considering the youth she had. Whether a thing, or a person, or a creature, or a place... Is there one symbol from her childhood that she most cherishes to this day?

Yen is in a situation where she has a lot of strong memories but not a lot of keepsakes to tie her to them. The enforced meagerness of life for the Ala Mhigan refugees in Quarrymill kind of meant she just didn't have a lot ever.

With that said, she did have a few things to latch onto. Quarrymill, and the area outside its walls, is filled with memories for Yen due to how much exploring she got up to as a child. She was a bit of a troublemaker, and worse, a leader, so her antics would usually become a group's antics pretty quickly.

The biggest symbol linking her to her childhood, however, is more a ritual, and that's dyeing her hair. Her mother started doing it with her when she was nine, and Yen has pretty religiously maintained doing it ever since. Especially since the Calamity, it has tethered her to her childhood and to Aebba, both of which are now long gone... It's an act that is sacred to Yen now, this last little reminder to herself of love.

@vivailwrites asked:

I know a lot of people who make one character in a lot of different properties. I make and remake vivail in various roughly similar forms, as often as i make new characters. One of my favorite streamers makes her oc, voxer, in basically anything. She even made a voxer mech in ac6. Do you think you would ever make yen in another game or franchise or story or is she purely ffxiv

Yen is a character that I think is pretty versatile; you could put her in any setting, and she'll do at least alright. With that said, beyond a handful of times I have aesthetically remade her in other RPGs that I am poking at, I don't personally use her that much beyond the walls of FFXIV.

The main reason is, I think, that Yen was designed for one setting explicitly, and that's Eorzea. While I could pick her up and put her somewhere else, like Faerûn or Tattooine, I would have to change enough about her for her to fit into that world (or worlds) that she would stop being Yen. I think I'd rather create new characters at that point, tell a new story.

She is very near and dear to my heart, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if I transported her for fun on occasion, little one-shots of a woman increasingly out of her depth.

<><><> Tidbits & Errata <><><>

Kind of spinning off of the first question, I actually had been thinking recently about what kid Yenifer was up to. She lost most of her adolescence to working; the Ala Mhigans needed every hand to make ends meet, and Gridania (and all of Eorzea, for that matter) has no child labor laws. Any time she did have to herself was probably spent similarly to how she spent it as a child: Getting into trouble.

I do like to imagine Yenifer as being a bit of a ringleader, both because it suits her and how she is, and because it echoes out to roles she will assume as an adult, throughout Light's Falle.

As far as how much of the Black Shroud she got to see, the answer is, unfortunately, quite little. The pre-Calamity Twelveswood was a bit of an enigma to navigate, so she could only safely explore a few square malm around the hamlet.

Something mentioned in passing in Gridanian Prelude is Yen finding a mysterious door in the southern Shroud that she was barred from exploring. That was, in fact, an entrance to the Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak, a place she will return to sooner than later.

Another detail that will crop up sooner than later is that Yenifer knows Buscarron, the owner of Buscarron's Druthers, and has since she was entering puberty. This is a bit of a gray area in the canon, when did Buscarron retire, and for the life of me I can't find something concrete. I've set it by fiat to be ten summers ago, in 1567, which means that he and Yen met when she was eleven at the earliest. They have a... complicated relationship, which is to say they tease the hell out of each other, something that I look forward to showing in the near future.

I want to thank you all again for stopping by. This is the first Yensday under my new schedule, and I think it's gone pretty well!

Til next time, may you ever walk in the light of the Crystal!

- H

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

How could I not post this?

Blutkatze posted a massive deep-dive into Eorzean skin care, focusing on the needs of Au Ra but including information for everyone from hyur to miqo'te. She delves into everything from the use of local herbs, to varying bathing customs, to factors of regional humidity, to specific requirements of scales and scutes and sheds, to recipes for soaps, shampoos, and other skincare products!

Nothing I can say can compare to her work—yet her blog post here only has ten notes! Give it a look!

...

That aside, Mersi partakes in regular ritual purification baths for spiritual purposes and for mental wellness, but she has to be very careful with her hygiene in general. This is due in part to her overuse of facepaints, but she also has a chromosomal condition that has left her with—from her perspective—unexplained differences in hygienic needs than the other women of the temple. She puts many of the points from Blutkatze's work into practice whenever given the chance, and will not leave home without at least a couple of bars of soap.

Does your WoL have a skincare routine?

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

I didn't know Heavensward depression hair was a tradition, but yeah! that makes sense!

Spoilers for Coerthan Call and The Lovers' Plainsong below the cut, but Mersi had a really hard time in Ishgard and she is uhhhhh

she is Doing Her Best.

Getting a haircut for your WOL in FFXIV as part of their character development is something that can be so personal.

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

i just know coerthan snowball fights are legendary

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

Medical care for our cat Meera

I'm sorry, I hate to do this, but Meera is very sick and is currently in hospital for emergency medical treatment. More info in our GFM: https://gofund.me/b2bc687e

We totally understand if you can't donate, but would appreciate it if you could share this around as much as possible!

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

characters said this is my story and i get to choose the actions

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

I had a dream the other day. It was the same dream Mersi and Rhya have shared for moons and moons: the dream of a little cafe in Sharlayan, where the two can enjoy the quiet that comes after they've averted their last apocalypse.

Her kitten, A'rhya Velore.

She truly is my muse. Sketch and details under the cut.

Also pictured: a pair of their signature dishes, ruby and larimar entremets! The ruby is made according to Rhya's tastes, and contains layers of rolanberry mousse, chocolate cremeux, and rolanberry compote built upon a foundation of angel's food cake, coated in a creamy red rosewater glaze to allow the floral notes to brighten the berry flavors within. The larimar is more to Mersi's preferences, which is to say it's way too rich and messy: a molten chocolate pudding core, a thin layer of dense chocolate to maintain its shape, caramel mixed with shredded chocolate, and finally a cinnamon walnut mousse, all stacked upon a dense chocolate crumb cake base and doused in a pale blue chocolate glaze. Very, very chocolatey. They're sold alone or paired, but Mersi loves plating them together. It just feels right.

Not pictured: Mersi, absently getting another pot of coffee ready to siphon, watching Rhya's tail swish back and forth as she walks to the customers' table, thinking about the first time they made and shared these entremets to celebrate getting their names on the deed to their own cafe: the Ruby and Larimar.

Also not pictured: A background! I need more physical therapy before you get anything else out of me.

my spine

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

I usually don't give much of a fuck about FF14's characters but yeah I think I'll die for Wuk Lamat I'll do anything she wants I think

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

Yensday #1 - 31 January 2024

Hello, and welcome to the inaugural Yensday! This is the start of a (hopefully!) long-running tradition of doing Q&A and little tidbits about Light's Falle (abbreviated to LF for future use)!

<><><> Q&A <><><>

@purplenidoqueen asked:

I'm sorry if this is heavy, but there's one thing that's really been bothering me about FFXIV, and it's surely been Yenifer's problem. How does she contend with all the negative sentiment and microaggressions and bigotry against Ala Mhigan refugees? What keeps her working for the betterment of a society that largely does not want her?

(picture sent by purplenidoqueen)

I think, unavoidably, we have to mention how much FFXIV uses race as a set dressing before the question can be answered. A great deal of the bigotry portrayed in the game and its setting is never seriously confronted. Square Enix's primary use of it is to provide backdrops for conflict or "flavor" to the world, but at very few points is resolving these inequities seriously discussed by the MSQ. Gridania is the most sterling example of it, and remains set in stone throughout the story (excluding the laughable Stormblood Carpenters' questline where you solve racism with a tea table!). Race and racism aren't themes in FFXIV; they're things that occur to drive plots.

Yenifer's story is one about diaspora; she is the victim of several great and horrible crimes committed by powers beyond her individual ability to control. The exact scale of what was lost is not something she fully understands yet, and her own relationship to her people is something that will evolve and be tested. She is, and always will be, Ala Mhigan, and that is something defined onto her as much as she defines for herself.

Yen's response to what you mentioned is going to change over the course of LF as she comes into her own and gains new understandings, both about the star and about herself. At the beginning, Yen mostly has to bottle up her own feelings for survival, obscuring her fear and anger in order to gain any amount of forward momentum. The outbursts she has stems mostly from either her having a rare position of power (which is fragile and held aloft mostly because she has yet to seriously challenge the status quo), or from her losing her temper. In the latter case, she immediately realizes how dangerous letting these feelings out is, and beats a humiliated retreat for fear of being targeted for violence. She is not, and cannot be, comfortable.

At this stage, she isn't working for the betterment of these societies; her goal is, instead, to protect her people, who are the victims of those societies. Above all else, Yen is an Ala Mhigan, and her mission is ultimately that of liberation, though she doesn't think of it that way - at least, not during ARR. She is going to view much of the existential threats posed in the first volume through the lens of them ultimately threatening her own people. This isn't to say she is stone-hearted, of course. Individual suffering matters immensely to her, because she possesses, for lack of a better term, human decency. If things were phrased more in terms of "this will be good for Ul'dah," or "this would hurt Gridanian interests," she would be significantly more apathetic. That inaction would lead to suffering and death is what stirs her to throw herself into harm's way.

Beyond this early scope, and to truly answer your question: Yen weathers it because she knows she has to, and she presses back as hard as she can with as much authority and support she can muster. Her actions alone cannot break these systems of oppression, but her confrontations of them will lead to others following suit. I think it's farer to say that, rather than Yen acting to better these societies, the societies better themselves because of her. While she will repeatedly save Eorzea and its people from destruction, the only people she frees is her own. Eorzea - and the rest of the star - frees itself.

<><><> Tidbits & Errata <><><>

While Q&A is the focus of a Yensday, I'd be remiss not to toss something of my own out there. I'm not sure if calling it an offering is wise, but it is a little amusing.

Yen's primary adventuring outfit is based around the hyur starting gear, though with some amount of modification.

For one, she abstains from wearing the gloves that come with the outfit; this is mostly because I repeatedly forgot about them! During Gridanian Prelude's rewrite, I realized my error, and had to make a final decision, in the end opting against.

For two, the dagger that appears on the model also does not exist for Yen, initially for similar reasons (I have a bad habit of going off of memory and then needing to revisit and fix things during editing passes). However, the dagger does become a story element in White Towers, Deep Waters! In the end, it all came together rather nicely in a serendipitous kind of way.

I want to thank everyone for reading and for putting in questions! I really enjoyed having to throw all my thoughts in order, and hopefully the additional context that process created is useful and interesting to you all. Next week will be another Yensday, so feel free to start throwing questions in now!

Until then, may you ever walk in the light of the Crystal!

-H

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

Mersi's post-Heavensward experience thus far:

The man who brought us "You have a girl to do your bidding now, do you not?" is one of only two people that can really understand what Mersi has been going through. Rip

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

kind of wanna reinforce this here. because i’ve seen ai writing become so popular on tik tok.

ai writing is not okay.

it’s literally theft. just like how ai art steals, ai writing steals. it’s using authors’ very real work to generate whatever you type in. and this also needs to be said as well.

writing is a form of art. fanfiction is a form of literature.

seeing this all over my fyp is REALLY discouraging. fanfic itself is already a labor of love and we love it when you interact. but please do not use ai writing for your fanfic needs when this writing literally steals from fanfic authors.

genuinely don’t know if this post will go around because my interactions outside of hcs are shit, but i hope it does.

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

reblog if you love your wife

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

tarot’s most important utility is inspiring themed fanart

[mersi-kokhavasheva]

get this piece of shit debuff OFF OF ME i have hunts to get to