#Because i played arr as a catboy

[heart-of-the-party]

Azune's surname Viraum is a bastardized version of the Tamil word veeram which means bravery. By the time i decided that she'd be from thavnair, i was too attached to the name azune so i didnt bother changing it even though it's not an Indian name

[nights-at-crystarium]

You know what, I assume that people always read my pinned, or notice the pointer "new reader? start here" in every new Fragments' episode. I might be deluding myself. So hi hello lemme TALK ABOUT MY COMIC.

Before I get too rambly (and I mean RAMBLY), here's a quick intro. Fragments is a comic focused on feels and slice of life, made by a queer guy, aiming to ~character study~ the main cast (Vivi, Raha, Alisaie, Feo Ul) and fill in the gaps in canon (or linger in canon moments that needed more air imo), the tone ranging from angst to fluff to meme. Good punches require a good windup, so please don't expect angst anytime soon :3c

The story's segmented (fragmented, heh) into episodes. Episodes 1-11 take place in ARR, you can enjoy them with no worry about spoilers. Episode 12 onward is ShB, with all the spoilers and lorebending.

My storytelling style assumes you haven't only played through ShB, but know it like the back of your hand, i.e. it's for nerds and thinkers. Of course there's plenty of silly moments that don't require any deep knowledge, but the overarching story does. Often I skip canon events, only hinting that they took place, simply because I don't wanna retell the msq 1:1, I've got plenty of original scenes waiting to be drawn. You're in for a treat if you like obsessing over emotional and moral implications of things. And, yes, this's a story about a morally grey mc. Don't expect to be spoon-fed "and this's why that thing's bad, kids".

Currently I've outlined all the main story beats up until post EW, so it's like, not being winged as I go. Yes I refine things here and there, but I know where I'm going. I'm going ham!!!! With the lorebending post ShB. Initially I didn't plan to, but the more I learned about Vivi and personally grew as a writer, the more courage I got to "divorce" from canon. The general xiv story may still be good wherever it's headed, but it's not suited for an established wolgraha, so I'm making food for myself.

Everyone imagines the lil scenes from their wol's life, I'm taking that a tiiiiiny step further. Fragments tells a cohesive story that's looking to be the longest project at least in our corner. I can and will hyperfixate on this for years.

I started out just like many others, being hit with ShB like a truck, I wanted to put a catboy under a microscope and rotate him forever. Although I'd already been drawing for decades, I didn't have the comic-making skills yet, or eloquence to write the dialogue, so I spent the first half of 2022 self-studying, just because I needed a mouth to be able to scream about my ship.

Vivi didn't exist prior to my obsession with Exarch. He was made for this, he started out as a reagent (or a foil, now that I know fancy writing terms) for a rich and fun chemistry, and keep myself entertained for years, first and foremost.

Me, a fool: okay let's make a guy that falls in love with Exarch in this particular moment, what kinda life must he have led to- Me: ....oh no

The chemistry quickly bubbled up and exploded in my face, involving not only Exarch, but other characters (first as a means to subtly tell about Vivi, then they also demanded their own screentime), and here I am, sitting with a massive script on my hands, drawing my blorbos every day. Thanks for enabling that btw.

I care about characters a lot. I ask a lot of whys and hows. I'm critical-minded and burned on many bad stories that did their characters dirty, and I wanna be an opposing example. What I'm doing is extremely ambitious and risky, yes, but I can only invite you to tag along and see if I stick to my word.

The internet's a cruel and unforgiving place nowadays, and here I am, pitting my passion against what feels like decaying humanity. I'm making this comic to keep myself happy above all else, being sincere and cringe because life's too short to be anything else.

Thanks for reading this, and if you haven't yet, read Fragments here!

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

if you click the unrebloggable red catboy haterade readmore it's your own damn fault

i am so tired of people trying to defend g'raha's writing in ew

"they're capable of subtlety" switching between being a manipulative asshole and the writer's most perfect prince who can never do wrong and is the wol's bestest friend 5ever (don't look at shb) and never allowing the player/other characters to say "dude wtf" at the former is not "subtle writing", it's complete lack of awareness that the character is being an asshole

like it was bad enough that the writers forced you to be buddy-buddy with him in shb with only a token option of expressing mild distaste , doing that and also making it very clear that he's still a manipulative shithead (because if he was meant to trying to put on a brave face they would have had a "dude wtf" line where he would have apologized in the post-credits, not acted like the promise made under duress was still valid) is just bad fucking writing given that on the other side of the corridor is zenos, who they constantly deny even acknowledgement of his humanity

you can try to compare it to urianger's writing but uri's writing never flinches away from the fact that he's being a fucker when he's being a fucker even when played for comedy, and they still have this gaping gap of not touching the fact that urianger functionally killed thancred's foster daughter/little sister onscreen (while they probably would have realistically hashed it out over like 3 years, you really don't get to see any of that at all so it's very strained; even having thancred still kind of mad before he gets snatched and having the more cordial relationship we normally see during shb would have communicated that better).

idk. so much of ew is just written really damn poorly (even parts that, in isolation, i find acceptable to actively enjoyable (ie the 6.0 zenos cutscenes) end up falling flat in context) because of external factors forcing the sardine treatment for plot points and i'm tired of seeing people pretend that it's not. i can't exactly compare the gameplay side well given i started in 6.0, but i can break down the writing just fine and ew's fucking dire even if you consider how heavily i weigh 4.2-4.3 against stb.

i really hope they sideline the scions besides krile (or tataru, but i think she's probably going to live in side content for a while and krile has been badly neglected for so long). i don't want to interact with g'raha again anytime soon but especially not if his writing remains this bad. either acknowledge that he can be an asshole and let me be colder to him or stop bringing him up, i'm fine hating major recurring characters if they're actually well written (asahi, varis, thordan) and the catboy isn't at this point, and even when he was better-written there was still the major problem of "let me call him a dick or at least untrustworthy you pricks".

"what about estinien don't you like him" if they just have him being a weird hungry vagrant that only shows up sometimes to be deeply strange and get mobbed by baby mamool ja that is ideal, actually, i love when he's a bit of a freak. or they could have him get adopted by another fancy prince, having him repeatedly reel in powerful fancy prince types with the power of

dragon autism

would be the funniest shit on the planet.

but like. i want a break from even the scions i like, barring maybe the twins, and the twins are best when i don't have to refer to them as a unit, yknow? i want new people to take center stage. i'm not going to get that given the trailer, but god. please. make this the erenville-and-wuk lamat show with cameos by the scions and not the other way around. they can come back in 8.0.

(plus, doing that might mean we don't have the fifth expansion straight of y'shtola death fakeouts (i counted: arr/hw (given timing it's hard for me to define where catgirl blunt best belongs), stb (vs Zenos), shb (sailor moon catgirl), ew (ultima thule)). i am so fucking tired of her fakeouts. do literally anything else with her as a character i BEG OF YOU. we all know you aren't killing Miss Final Fantasy 14. her fans would flay you. the merch sales would plummet.)

[plounce]

i havent talked about my wol on here in a hot minute but ummm her lore has developed a lot :) she's co-wols with my friend hawke's wol and she has terminal tank disease and of course it goes without saying that she's hopelessly dependent on the catboy bestfriend. she's selectively mute (silent player character = autism legend) and mikh'a, because he has the echo, can understand the sign she uses (which is half cobbled out of sign languages from the shroud but also from around eorzea and half her own creation) without many wrinkles and also he's just very nice and shortly before she met him she got ejected from her family group so she was like YOU'RE MY PERSON NOW and imprinted. also in ARR she was deeply uncomfortable with any social stuff and so mikh'a handled a lot of it for her. it was a very vulnerable time in her life and she will always feel deeply grateful to him for that. but then we get to hvw and mikh'a (that's the other wol) was engaged to haurchefant before That Happened and it destroys him and he's basically out of the game for the rest of hvw msq from the debilitating grief. so that's the real genesis of her life attitude being "i have to take care of everything and shoulder all of the burdens and duties so that mikh'a has room for HIS burdens". also she has that autism feeling of like "i don't feel as much / as strongly as other people" (yknow) and it's something she really admires about mikh'a, how strongly he feels things (even as the trauma starts to make him an asshole), so. yes. he's the face and she's the shield. due to her terminal tank syndrome. anyway in shadowbringers she gets brought over to the first right before mikh'a does, like 6 months in first time, and the way that their deal works out is that mikh'a is the one who is able to channel the light into tomte so she contains it, leaving her with light poisoning and him with the light aether scraped out of him, so that she's gradually growing more and more blank and stoic and unfeeling while he gets more volatile and emotional (light = stasis, dark = change). anyway tomte decides to go off the empty alone because she's operating on her most basic MO of "other people cannot handle this burden, but i can, i must, i will" and just wakes up, has a very one-sided argument with mikh'a, and then teleports away without telling anyone her plans. and then has an even bigger fight with mikh'a in the tempest as all the scions watch in distress and discomfort and then ryne manages to get through to her and tomte like. cries. and that's a big deal. we've rp'd much of this and more.

hawke (my friend if you forgot) has been ensorcelled by bg3 so he has not played past 5.1 so my further building of tomte's co-WoL story lore canon is sort of on pause right now but i think the end of shadowbringers really freaked her out and she stops tanking because she couldn't handle it. she wasn't able to. it didn't work out and it wouldn't have worked out, and she realizes, when the light is no longer poisoning her brain, that she probably would have doomed everybody if she had gone through with her plan and walked into emet-selch's lair alone. she needed her loved ones to hold her back. and in endwalker i switched to samurai because i capped on warrior so im imagining that in endwalker she also puts down the axe and takes up a sword. still throwing herself into the middle of things, but uncertain about taking responsibility. i think this general level of uncertainty and anxiety is compounded by the fact that she's the WoL zenos is fixated on - she's the muscle, she's been the one really taking on most of the primals and lightwardens. so it's like arrrghhh everything is my fault and my arrogance and my hubris (which is so sad because she is so quiet and humble). anyway. idk how we're gonna do the azem of it all (i have numerous ideas and possibilities in my brain - maybe emet tried to resurrect azem at some point and botched it, leading to the rejoined souls splitting from the source soul, and tomte is the rejoined souls and mikh'a is the core source souls? maybe it's a 3 and 4 split? maybe tomte is a different person altogether? i just know that mikh'a should definitely be azem since his themes and story of destructive grief align really well with emet)

anyway. that's a glimpse of the evolving tomte lore. click and post

[anneapocalypse]

G'raha was an acquaintance at best to Ariane in ARR and she never truly got to know him there, though she would have liked to. I do think she recognized him when she met him in the first--like, aside from the voice, the connection to the Crystal Tower just puts too much of a spotlight on him, and so she was mostly curious why he was pretending not to be. (For this reason too she sympathizes with Y'shtola's suspicions, like she'd kind of have to be an infant not to feel like the Exarch wasn't telling her everything no matter how much she liked him.) And Ariane does like him, whatever questions she may have, because it's hard not to see how much good he's done and how many people he's helped and protected.

It's also really hard for me not to read the conversation in Kholusia, where the Exarch is waxing rhapsodical about going on an adventure together, as him having a massive crush on Ariane. 😅 I mean, it's going to read different to everyone, I'm not saying that's the one interpretation or anyone, I might not even read it that way myself with a different character (like Merlwaen, if I ever played her, I think with her it'd be strictly hero worship and no romantic feelings either way). But with Ariane... what can I say, even though she doesn't really go for catboys (men in hoods though...) the vibes were there.

In Ariverse, G'raha also knows that Urianger has feelings for Ariane, like--he's not an idiot. And I won't say he exploits them, because for Urianger, saving the world would have been enough. But it's obvious he wants to save his friend's life, too, and that he won't want to risk anyone getting in the way of that. (Sidenote but Tim Watson putting on his Command Voice for Urianger's "Do not interfere!" is one of the hottest things that ever came out of Urianger's mouth. Kill me where I stand.)

And once Ariane arrives, and G'raha's seen the two of them together... like, he knows this is what's happening. Everyone knows this is what happening. And because G'raha has a good heart, he is truly happy for both of them. They deserve to find happiness together after everything they've been through. It's not going to be him, and he never thought that it would be, especially since he was planning to die. He's very kind and supportive toward Ariane in the aftermath of her near-death experience when she's really struggling and looking for someone to blame for her feelings because she can't be angry at Urianger for what he did, knowing why, but everything still hurts and she has nowhere to direct it, and she briefly turns that anger on G'raha and he accepts it and encourages her to try and work things out with Urianger. In the end G'raha's a true friend to her and she forgives him and they care deeply for each other as friends and he's happy with that.

But I look at that moment out in Kholusia and it's like, well. He had to shoot his shot. 😂

[humblemooncat]

Happy 10th Anniversary to what has become my favorite MMO I've ever played.

I went into why and when I started playing here, but I figured I'd go more in-depth on my characters (and why Ki'to is my main) in this post since it's finally Rising time again.

Warning, long ass rambling post ahead

As I had mentioned, I started playing in late 2020 when a couple friends I played D&D with introduced me to it.

At that time, I created my first character Suna Amantius (Whom I still have for nostalgia, but don't play). Since au ra were free to play at that time, I made her a pink raen Arcanist. Yes, back when carbies gave every arcanist heart palpitations because they used aoe without asking. Thus why it took me a long time to pick it back up again.

The very first screen I got in cc while making her. <3

We only played together a few times, but since I was so deep into Genshin, I ended up uninstalling since XIV's a massive space-hog.

When I picked it back up for the free 30 days after my other friend bought me the game & expacks, I ended up making a viera named Bunilla Chai over on Faerie since my little brother was playing over there at the time. She was a WHM, and another I have kept for nostalgia's sake. (I sadly don't have a screen for her, but she's cute. uwu)

I kinda main-hopped for a while after I got back into the game and actually subbed in September of '21. I played with Bunilla for a little while, but when the option to make male viera came out with EW, I ended up making one by the name of Kieran Vashanti (The surname being an homage to my old TERA character of the same name; Kieran actually went on to become Seire, and now Vikesh). I co-mained him alongside Orias, my longest-standing OC, who actually started out as an Elezen.

Kieran / Seire / Vikesh

Orias

How it started > where it went > where we are now

I also ended up making a lalafell since I saw how much fun my mother seemed to be having with her own. My dear little Sprout Arboris. <3

The best pic I have of her. xD

I rotated through this menagerie of mains for a while until I fanta'd and renamed Sprout. Her new name? Nox Vitae.

Yup. My horrible son was initially a sweet lalafell lady. xD Though he did go through one hell of a transition, from fem lala, to fem viera, to fem miqo, to masc viera (this was about when I had come out to my friends, so I embraced it in my main at the time as well. As such, he started out looking like a self-insert, but took on his own traits after a while. This is also why he is canonically trans ftm, as I see both viera transformations as canon for him. His fem form being what was canon in appearance for Vitae when he and U'nhea were sprouts)

(I did miss Sprout after a while though, so I remade her on Zalera later.)

Alongside Nox, who was my main for a while, I also had an alt on Siren I used to play with other friends, A'razi Tia. He was my first introduction to Monk, as well as catboys. To say I took maybe too many pictures admiring him is an understatement. Before Ki'to, he was my most gposed character. xD

We ended up moving data centers a little while after last rising, and then is when I created Y'rhala and Ki'to, whom I played as alts while I switched back to A'razi for most things.

Once I hit the CT ARs with Razi, my social anxiety got the best of me, and I decided to run an alt for a while and redo ARR. So I picked back up with Ki'to, whom I had made as a pretty ashen moon keeper simply to grab the moonfire outfit last year.

He wasn't meant to be more than an alt. Honestly, he looked like a fuckboy and it made me laugh when I logged him.

Look at this fuckin' nerd. I do miss his ashen kitty days, truth be told, but I can't fanta him now. He wouldn't look right any other way.

He looked like this until I reached post-ARR. I ended up using his ARR fanta to make him a self-insert, thus his baby-faced face 3 catboy era.

Thankfully, with the FC he joined, I ended up getting help powering through CT and finishing ARR fully. It was post-ARR that I got another fanta and gave him more defined features with face 4, and gave him the face he's known for today.

As I put it on my personal discord:

It wasn't too long after this that I made this blog and captured his adventures through HW and beyond. It was then that I committed to making him my main, as the story had sucked me in and he was my protagonist. I couldn't imagine any other in his place.

Though, the story isn't the only reason he's become my most robust OC ever, that came through story and interactions over here. I'm constantly thankful that I decided to make this blog when I did, because using it as an outlet for headcanons and getting asks from the friends I've made during his journey has made him such a well-rounded character with a clear personality and character arc.

I am very grateful for those of you I've met here, not only have you been some of the best people I've met through this game, but you've all helped to shape Ki'to in some small way. The man fights for love because he was made from love. <3

Hope you enjoyed my rambling about my journey, and happy Rising my friends! Here's to 10 more years! /toast

[tokidokifish]

alright now that i've got ALL the characters i want through arr msq i have to decide who to continue running through the story so here are the choices:

here are some arguments i've had in my head for/against but you don't have to read them. just vote on vibes if you want.

stray

for: he's the one i rp the most and i'd like to be able to go to events without having to just glamour zefir to look like him.

against: on goblin and thus separated from my ability to send myself anything i need from my main. also the storyline wouldn't be canon for him EVEN A LITTLE so i would just be running him through it for the sake of leveling. also most of my ffxiv rp friends aren't playing right now so it's questionable what the utility of leveling an rp character even would be. :(

lalari

for: WAN BE SMALL. wanna go in the lil dwarf houses!! wanna get snarked at in [REDACTED]!!

against: no interest in lalafell outside of being small. also on goblin.

curious

for: Look At Her. also on mateus so in my main fc. definitely could be a canon wol. also i bought her an ast skip fucking forever for the vibes ago so it would be nice to get some utility out of it.

against: ehhhh dunno if i'm feeling it? (might be because she's the one i most recently finished running through msq and i did it VERY FAST and i'm a lil burned out on curious)

l'mao

for: i like him. :) probably the most wol out of all these options and i already have Shipping Opinions for him. also on mateus and a tank so i could get quick queues.

against: i dunno if i have that many arguments against, honestly, i like mao very much.

[emcapi-gaming]

Kodhi'ra having some fun with his homecoming to Sharlayan :)

(fun facts, lore, & technical details under cut!)

Fun facts and lore!

G'raha is definitely taking the photo, and the pose was possibly his idea. (they are having so much fun running around their old stomping grounds being Menaces and also In Love :D)

I'm really happy with his outfit!! One of the coolest things about it is that it kind of wound up as a more elegant/refined version of the outfit he wore for a significant portion of Shadowbringers, which I refer to as "Slutty Spite Mode":

Context for Slutty Spite Mode: he immediately knew that the Exarch was G'raha, who was his roommate for several years (of mutual oblivious pining) in Sharlayan + boyfriend for several weeks after they met up again on the Crystal Tower expedition (shortly followed by The Incident). He was also very, very pissed about Raha now basically ignoring him and playing dumb. So he found this outfit in Eulmore and basically went "alright. let's see him ignore THIS."

(Also, the crowning achievement of Slutty Spite Mode was hooking up with Emet-Selch in Rak'tika, after he retrieved Y'shtola. ...Yeah, basically all of Shadowbringers, for him, was just "unfathomable levels of gay drama.")

Anyways. Character development via skimpy outfits!!! He's now far more secure in his relationship with G'raha and he can wear skimpy outfits because he likes them and they agree with his sensory issues (any pants thicker than leggings are The Actual Worst) instead of trying to torment the Exarch.

As it happens, the top is "Thaliak's Chestwrap of Healing" which is also significant! He's feeling a lot more comfortable with/embracing his Sharlayan heritage, which he was previously a lot more conflicted about: he originally wound up in Limsa at the start of ARR because he got expelled from the Studium for getting in a fight.

This is also, by far, the most technical gpose I've ever done for several reasons!

In-game lighting effects: I put a plain backlight behind him, and a teal one right about where the aetheryte "would" be if he was, in fact, using it as a star globe.

For the dual focal points: I had to take 2 screenshots - one focused on the aetheryte (with invisible catboy), and one focused on my boy with a chromakey - and merge them with GIMP to get the dual focus effect.

Despite my absolute best efforts I could NOT get the transparent background to work with chromakey. It drove me completely bonkers. I had to resort to a flat color, and then I realized the reason that the color replacement kept leaving an outline was because there was another shader in there blurring the edges and blending in some of the neon green (one of the anti-aliasing ones - which, now I know what anti-aliasing does!)

Extra post-processing: While I was already in GIMP, I decided to experiment with some extra editing/effects! I added some extra copies of the Kodhi layer behind him with blur and a drop shadow to make him look less sharp-edged and stand out more. Also added a little extra bloom on the aetheryte, sharpening on both the aetheryte and the catboy, and slightly darkened the sidewalk right under him. I haven't done any post-processing on my other screenshots, so this is new territory for me, but for the most part I'm very happy with how it turned out!

Shader used: Arkana Strength.

[maniaparty]

catastrophic autism moment. jin & casey's wols throughout the years with some silly things below the cut

so jin's wol has gone through a lotttt of changes LEGACY: catgirl because catboys aren't around yet first of all. jin actually played on launch! :D aurora break'r was there since day one, she was a pld through and through! no crazy notes aside from the weapon she's holding being the starter zodiac relics.

ARR: finally. catboy. the warrior zodiac relic because of Course he'd grind that out. he's also a warrior cuz he wnated to try out another tank, and... WAR was the only other one at the time. he also gave his WOL the FF13 collab hair because i knoww he'd like ff13. unfortunately i haven't finished it so i don't know much to add here. but he would like it. HSW: the start of his DRK arc. aurora has golden eyes atp because of hraesvelgr and i loveee doing that to peoples' wols. the gear that he uses here is his current DRK glam, too! :D sillay note.

STB: sorry. he saw his first chance to dress slutty and took it. the first two ultimates came out and he ate those uppppppp. he went back to PLD because apparently DRK & WAR didn't feel good during stb. also it's been awhile since he played it so. lul.

SHB: back to being a woman. this is where the white eye comes in, too. also you can see the dqslime earrings. he'd love dragon quest methinks. anyways not that much to say here but he loved his bunnygirl. lightning hair btw because he liked lightning

EDW: THE END OF IT ALL. 5 ultimates under his belt. i know he lost his mind when mviera were announced cuz he was waiiiiting so long for them to come out. ever since he saw fran he was like +__+ thats rlly it for him

CASEY. ON THE OTHER HAND... i should say has gone through similar changes. believe it or not she fantasias way more than jin. jin only does it for jokes but casey does it because she likes messing around in the character creator. she just always comes back to the catgirl cuz she likes the fluffy ears and also being short. ALSO IM SO SAD I COULDN'T HAVE A LEGACY ONE FOR HER. well... i could've. but 8 y/o casey's wol would have made me sad. just know she was the kind of person that downloaded the game, played a bit, never touched her character until arr. speaking of which

ARR: ACN starter :D she thought carbuncles were sooooooooooo cuteiepie... u can't tell but both of her eyes are pink HSW: She heard a lot of people liked WHM, and the relic that came out for it was sooo cute that she decided to level it up n use it as her main job!! new hair just cuz she wanted to try it out. for lorereasons k'cea couldn't get a haircut since she was a criminal in eorzea... lol STB: SURPRISE! of course she'd want to try out the new cute girl race. ummmmm... still a whm. this was where she actually started to do hard content! she started doing savage fights with her brother (this is also where she started playing w/ jins static but it wasn't official. esp since she was still... 16 when they started coming out. but she started playing the game less casually :3 SHB: First ultimate clear baby... casey actually hasn't done UWU or UCoB. she dove headfirst into TEA w/ slopsquad :D this is where she started her SCH phase and she honestly hasn't looked back since. (back to ACN stuff btw which is soo cute to me) EDW: thats right. THE SAME CATGIRL!!!!!! there's nothing really new to say but she does flex her ultimate weapons and also is alwyas changing her glams :D

[abimee]

back when i played in ARR i was shown a trick on how to jailbreak sprouts from limsas without needing an airship fly and it involved teleporting to your friend's estate in a goblet/lav beds area, and i think the second day i played my bestie broke me out and took me on a world tour since ARR just gave everyone the ability to fly

so as a literal like level 1 player mags just took me all over to every ARR area and had me attune to all the aetherytes, and before i even got to lvl 10 in msq i was able to just go Anywhere i wanted to as long as i had enough gil. he took me down the streets of ul'dah and through the markets of gridania, showed me the farthest reaches of thanalan and the wedding chapel of the shroud, but one place i will literal never forget is when he took me beyond the city states to a little cold pocket area of Coerthas

i was in the lvl 1 gear! and i was shown a little campfire up on a post and learned to gpose and use emotes IN gposes there, and i had no idea what this place was besides a wintery region full of castles and vigils. we even went back during starlight for pictures when i was still bumming around in like the level 10-20 MSQ as a lvl 50 scholar (my priorities were... somewhere. somewhere that involved picking up scholar before running tam tara)

and for some reason this little area sticks out in my head in my ARR days because when we sat around the campfire, luka (besties m'iqote) got up and started running around the camp through doors, and in party chat he said that he was ''looking for haurchefant'' but couldnt remember ''where he'd be''. literally retained none of that in the moment, i just sort of went ? must be some guy and then went on with my day of bumming around the areas and avoiding MSQ.

i never once bumped into him beforehand, i never went into the inside areas much at all, because i mostly came here for gposes and was too focused on not getting eaten alive as a little lvl 1-30 baby at the start, and then coming back as a lvl 52 sch and just waltzing around the enemies to see some cool rocks. starlight always reminds me of this time, TWO years ago now in ARR, and i like to imagine its part of tock's lore itself; that the random catboy she met in the limsa markets took her around to help her get acquainted with Eorzea and prepare her for the unseen future, and unbeknowing to her she had in fact almost met someone very special before she was anybody special. and now starlight leaves a strange and lingering taste in her mouth

[arinemone]

okay fuck it. Aresiba/Rhemi notes I've been thinkin about while trying to draw. under read more bc its big yappin hours:

Despite being the older sister by a couple of years, Siba is shorter than her sister Yahima. and in general has always been the more outgoing/cheerful/The Silly™ of the two

Is very emotionally sensitive/an empath/what have you, and has been before she got the echo. But unfortunately it's always been played as a bit by others/isn't usually taken seriously bc of her fee fees

but that's okay, bc as she got older, she learned to use this as an advantage. now she usually leaves people second guessing her actual prowess and rumors with her personality/way she presents herself. Yeah no dw the blue catgirl can't hurt you I promise. she's just here for the vibes.

Speaking of The Vibes. she has ALWAYS been more dynamis sensetive, and is able to do Rule of Cool wack shit because of it. But due to the NATURE of dynamis, growing up she learned real fast to keep those emotions in check, bc the more intense the feeling for her. the more shit around her warps to reflect that, to a degree.

it's bc of her dynamis sensitivity that she was able to save herself and her sister back in the day, despite being young and untrained in the hunt. this is not an accomplishment that she cheers on bc it was. extremely tragic for her. it's a whole can of worms, sudden dead parents are involved, etc.

Math nerd summoners hate her for being able to do this one cool trick* to summon Shiva for a tragic bi for bi bit *(a cool guitar riff and a dream)

she can probably still use aether-based magics just fine, but it's clear to everyone her shit on bard hit diffrent. our resident Vibe Checker. the Vibe Enrichment.

she also grows into being a VERY GOOD ACTRESS. Siba tends to suppress and hide a lot of things from the scions, to even her closest friends, due to the harsh environment her tribe lives in. and it became a force of habit. So despite giving off the personality of being an open book, she's a surprisingly difficult read.

Although there ARE signs to tell when she's masking or not, and there are people in her life who can tell and who can't. Yahmia and their Grandmother are some of the few who have always been able to read her ticks, even after being gone for so long. Y'shtola, Koana*(to varying degrees), G'raha, Papalymo, Krile(in dt) and Minfilia can clock her from a mile away if paying attention, with varied reactions. Lamaty'i, the Twins, Erenville, Thancred/Urianger, Lyse, Ysale, and the rest of the scions to varying levels tbh can tell the more obvious ones, but still get tricked by the act more often than not. estinien is head empty other than being able to catch a vibe and know when to provide. solidarity. and we love that for him.

Basically how truly perceptive are u willing to be of Catgirl

*Koana is a weird one bc BEFORE they all started leaving tural (he for his studies, her later for her "getting away from my depression only to later rack up more trauma" adventure. aka arr and beyond) he learned to read her well-- as did she for him. Part of the reason why they get along so well is that they feel extremely comfortable around eachother. As fellow perceptive people, even with the opposing personalities, they picked up on another's habits growing up and developed their own weird way of communicating. Ambivert cat to Intorvert cat communication. also the fact that they were both curious book nerds who enjoyed listening to the other yap helped a lot too but ANYWAY. He USED to be able to read her well, but now coming back after 4 years, she's gotten a lot better at the act. Many ticks have changed, while many others have stayed the same, and for a while, it's like learning a new language that has the same base root as your first language. Familiar, yet different. Luckily, green catboy is a fast learner, and by the end of the expansion, they're p much back to where they were before. Y'know, other than. developments. (kissing your childhood best friend and pretending it didn't alter your brain chemistry a little bit. totally being normal about it)

also I HAVE MANY FEELS ABT. ARESIBA BEING A CRYBABY. ESPECIALLY WHEN SHES RHEMI AND BUILDING UP HER REPUTATION AS THE WOL W THIS STAGENAME

bc the rumors and etc never talk about how emotional she gets. How she is. in fact. a crybaby

but will still get the job done even if in tears. she's not weak because she cries. because she allows herself to feel these emotions and work thorigh them.

and Yahima has been saying this since day ONE, bc her sister has had to make a lot of hard decisions for them growing up. all while through tears half the time.

Basically "Yes my sister is emotional. Yes she is a crybaby. She's also the strongest and bravest person I know and I don't want to hear ANY slander on her name"

also it's very funny. bc she's v much the "cheerful/sweet/optimistic character who changes vibe on a dime to be scary/cold/etc.'

it's all fun and games until the Bard is looking at you from beyond her brim with that one eye covered look. it's all fun and games until you get a knife barely grazing you neck. bc she has scary pinpoint aim from learning how to hunt.

and it's always a shock, bc people NEVER EXPECT her to get so humorless and cold when she gets into these moods. They're rare, but dangerous

anyway. she's the "character who smiles the brightest is burdened with the most grief" type beat. purposefully, forcefully, actively Hopeful despite everything

also a theatrical dork who I adore. her theatrics and energy are in EVERYTHING she does as the wol. she cares abt putting on a good performance.

[farfromdaylight]

first, i highly recommend reading the notes: it's lovely reading about everyone's wolships.

second, i am here to summarize 250k words of fic, so, you know.

I played through the entire game (which was up to 5.1 at the time) without shipping any of the characters with my Viera... but that didn't mean I wasn't interested in shipping. Enter catboy: I tossed a longtime OC into the game, made him a Miqo'te, and off we went.

Cálei spends most of ARR in a haze. He doesn't remember his past and struggles with his own identity beyond that of Warrior of Light. When he meets G'raha Tia, his initial reaction is dislike: he is not fond of fellow Seekers of the Sun, much less one so presumptuous.

But as Cálei wrestles with his own problems, he begins spending more and more time at Saint Coinach's Find, seeking a measure of peace and quiet outside of the constant errands the Scions send him on. And when it gets to the point that he can't ignore his own troubled heart, G'raha offers him much-needed support.

Cálei does not mean to fall for him, and takes some time to adjust to his feelings, but once they're there there's no avoiding it. He still does his job as Warrior of Light, but more and more he returns to G'raha's side. And when he's finally confident enough to share his feelings, he finds they're returned.

And yet, G'raha's gaze remains on the Tower.

While G'raha doesn't actively push Cálei away, his focus — and priority — are clearly on the Tower. He wants to understand his history. He knows he has an inescapable connection to it. And when the opportunity comes to make a difference à la the heroes he so admires, he takes it with both hands. He locks himself in the Tower, ignoring Cálei's pleas to stay with him.

Cálei is devastated. Not long after, the end of the ARR plot kicks in, and Cálei proceeds to withdraw entirely into himself. He spends the first half of Heavensward dissociating and trying to snuff out his broken heart.

During this time, he gets messy with Estinien. It is in no way a healthy relationship: they're both using each other to try and avoid their own problems. It tapers off after the Vault, as Cálei starts to regain himself and actively starts to recover from his heartbreak.

And for a while, it works. He doesn't exactly move on, but he processes the loss enough to be more functional, at least. The war with Garlemald is in full swing at that point, and he doesn't have time to waste on matters of the heart.

Then all his friends pass out and he goes to Norvrandt.

He knows who the Exarch is immediately. He tries to bridge the gap between them, and is firmly rebuffed. His heart aches, but he can't change the Exarch's mind, so he buries himself in his duty.

Of course, the Exarch's master plan doesn't quite pan out the way he'd hoped. And even with things uncertain between them, Cálei would stop at nothing to retrieve his lost love.

They make it through and come out the other side, and at long last they rekindle their relationship. There's still some speed bumps — returning to the Source, for one thing — but even that manages to fall by the wayside.

Then Endwalker happens, and things get crazy for a while. But amidst the depths of despair, Cálei makes his commitment to G'raha clear. Sometime in 6.x they get married and live happily ever after... for now, at least! We'll see where the future takes them.

(last photo is by @shepherdtostars, thank u again 💗)

...i realize now that i barely actually answered the question, lmao. i was drawn to G'raha immediately because he resembled one of my OCs, and I loved the way his story developed in Shadowbringers, but since I didn't ship him with my first WoL (they are firmly BFFs), I had to go about shipping another way. i did not expect that catboy would take over my life, but, well, here we are.

And really, the more I thought about how they would get together, the more I wanted to explore it. It's no wonder I've been writing about these catboys for years, at this point.

Another random WoLQotD/OC question

I thought I'd ask this while I worked on my other questions. :)

If you're a WoL x NPC shipper, what drew you to that ship and why? What makes that ship the pinnacle for you and your oc? Is it that you love the canon character you write them with, you find their dynamic interesting or something in between?

If you're not a WoL x NPC shipper, but you have a ship with another person, how did that come about? What makes that ship fulfilling for you? Has the ship impacted your relationship with that other person? Feel free to gush, I wanna hear it!

Oh, and pictures are a must (if you have them).

[cielsosinfel]

Some recent-ish achievements in FFXIV I want to archive lol.

I've been playing this game since mid-2020 I think? I started it when a bunch of World of Warcraft friends were moving on to it, after the disappointment of patch 8.3 (if you know, you know). I played the free trial of meme legend, which at that time I think only went up to ARR patches? And then Heavensward got me hooked and now we're here.

Throughout that whole time I never thought I'd ever level my crafter jobs. The rotations and gil-sinks required to max out quality frustrated and stressed me out too damn much.

But now! 3.5 years later! I have achieved what was once believed the impossible!!!

I still have to replace the level 80 crafting tools on most of these but!!! I can craft most level 90 recipes with just a little effort now!!!! If only I could learn how to make profit off them now... It's very exciting though.

Also another milestone: I have mastered ocean fishing. I was so dead-set on completing the "Earn 8000 points in one Ocean Fishing trip" goal for Mogtomes and getting SO FRUSTRATED because I was always hitting 7k points. It took me like 5 tries but I super lucked out during a spectral current AND LOOK... LOOK. SECOND PLACE ON THE SCOREBOARD

A big part of this is people on ocean fishing trips so readily giving advice to everyone, and also this is pretty RNG-heavy, but man, it really feels good to finally reach a point where a once-super-confusing system Makes Sense, and you know how to work it...

those are my meaningless MMO achievements of the last month, thank you. Catboy Sagawa moving up in the world.

[macgyvertape]

FF14 ARR base campaign notes

My notes from ARR through pre-Heavensward patches, mostly for reference to myself of what happened since I’m playing very slowly with a friend, and marking story points I’m confused by since the lore for this game is overwhelmingly confusing. In hindsight this list might seem critical but I am having fun, and its kinda obvious what parts I found engaging. I welcome explanations for lore stuff I’m confused on.

Started playing the game b/c free trial and a lot of people I know who play Destiny 2 also play it, but I stopped right after unlocking chocobo because of how boring the story was.

Got back into it to play with a friend and people were telling me to stick with it saying early story is bad, but yikes it’s real bad/boring

All i know of the plot from fandom osmosis is people meming on catboi being shot in Shadowbringers, and being horny for the guy who shot him. This is apparently big spoilers  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Really its a problem with Stakes/pacing: oh there's this big threat but now you gotta spend the next 5 hours or so doing a dumb fetch quest for the feast. Even the reveal that the feast is for you did not lessen my annoyance, since that took more than 1 gaming session

Points for them leaning into the angst with your organization getting wiped out first high point of the game for me

Time to go deal with racist snow elves for the next 4 hours, theyre obstructionist enough its really fucking annoying. I was catching up on the archer quest line at the same time and had to ask in a discord if all the elves were just assholes. Its definitely because I don’t know the lore that I found myself so frustrated: their anti-dragon dogma won’t matter if the Empire conquers the realm

Doing the lvl 40 dungeon for the first time, i like the "vote abandon" system a lot more than wow's /.vote kick. I’m at lvl 41 in bad gear and i keep telling the tank i can't heal their big pulls and struggling with boss fights because the mechanics are hard. After every time I die/wipe tank is voting to abandon activity, till at the final boss where we wipe the tank just quits, so then dps leaves too after trying to get us to vote abandon again

the 2 new people who join literally open with "who abandoned the sprouts!?" and help explain what we are doing wrong. In wow i would have been vote kicked 2-1, with my friend we were able to vote no on abandon instead of having to restart it

I think they lean too heavily on star trek references with this airship. Later Note: i think they lean too hard on pop culture references generally

Cid’s whole cutsene: another example of how totally lost i am with this lore

Y'shtola can titan bubble? I hope she and Yda are girlfriends

The voice acting is SO FUCKING STILTED

These lvl 49 & 50 9 person groups for big story moments are fun, i don’t have to sweat as healer

Soooo many cutscenes, sooo many credits. 

I can tell the budget went up, characters have facial animations now

Ok that lvl 50 moogle king fight was very cute, no idea what to do in it so I just AOEd heals and enjoyed the atmosphere and music

The voice acting has gotten better, but its kind of weird how some random cutscenes are voiced and others aren't. Guess its based on how important they are

Think I spent over an hour crossing across maps to unlock hard versions of dungeons, and all the other lvl 50 unlocks. Would have been a lot worse without teleports and flying mount

Trachtoum, can’t believe this assholes back again

I do like this character building long plot where you help the refugees and defeat Primals. I like Y'shtola going “history is going to keep repeating itself if we just keep driving the beastmen to desperation then killing them to stop a primal”

Uuhhhh BIG YIKES, with the cultural appropriation Blue Mage questline, where the plot is a scummy dude goes to the “New World” to learn magic from characters that are visually coded to be Native Americans. Looking this up, seems like it's an issue that’s already been repeatedly discussed.

After not being able to play for 3 weeks due to Endwalker queue times, its confusing to return and have part of a plot about a politician manipulating sentiment around refugees to get access to some weapon tech then go fight another Primal and then set through a lore dump and overly cryptic Ascian cutscene

A nice person stranger invited me to a FC after giving some advice, wow didn’t realize housing was so big and complicated. I’m making the resolution to never get invested in that, I don’t even have a good house in ACNH

Why are we getting story with this dude Ilberd instead of the old bearded pope guy the audience was shown an ominous cutscene of

iceheart seems super based, like everyone’s criticizing  her for laying with dragons, but the dragons pass the Harkness test I’d fuck one. All the stuff she’s talking about after the hard mode dungeon fight i just have no clue whats going on

Midgardsormr: both a corpse and alive? (is he the God-Emperor of dragons??) Talking about how he doesn’t forgive or forget, and I’m like ok I have no clue what’s going on other than the dragons seem to fight the Empire and the Ishtar elves? The dragon says he won’t harm me but removed the rainbow crystal group blessing?!  We get a little baby midgardsormr minion??

So glad Moenbryda gives recaps like the pace of the story is so fucking slow and with so many sidetracks, I had tuned out somewhere around Ascians bad gotta build a special magic device to kill them. The game even does an almost 4th wall break acknowledging their recapping exposition 

I like Moenbryda a lot but i cant not think how impractically short her outfit is, like it should be flashing everyone in combat

Ok i will give Nabriales points for grandstanding and the “enlighten” pun, but im so confused why this staff matters. Oh shit Moenbryda got 1 shot that sure raised the stakes. I’d be sadder about her death if she wasn’t introduced to be tragic when killed off same patch

This disembodied voice is G’raha Tia? Very curious to see his journey into the catboi who gets shot and the internet is also horny for. I see why, the archer outfit with the beefy arms, the mysterious entrance, the mismatched eyes, being a CATBOI

Ok so the instigator of the crystal tower questline is a Garlean named Nero, with a infamously historical name like that I’m sure this guy is gonna be a villain. Honestly time to be suspicious of anyone covering their eyes

Ok so red eyed people show up and are mysterious and we get backstory with G’raha, then its revealed they’re clones, then the plot just moves on. This is why I don’t fucking remember Nero or characters like him, too much shit happens in this game

Im increasingly amused that G’raha Tia’s heterochromia isn’t like a normal cat thing in this world but has a magic backstory. I think its a totally different experience playing this quest line and knowing its required because G’raha is in Shadowbringers vs playing it when this questline was released then years later being surprised at his return as a main character

I know someone’s supposed to be important when there’s a slow-mo body pan of them and their armor, which Estinien’s armor looks peak final fantasy bullshit. Apparently he wields the powers of dragons but that isn’t heretical?? Seems hypocritical 

Steps of Faith dungeon was actually novel and fun, i spent most of my time as white mage doing damage

Glad the game warns me when there will be a lot of cutscene so i can get a snack.     Teledji really is a scheming type villain, and damn I liked Ilberd :(  that “it was me” moment goes hard in the cutscene

I’m very gay for Yda, her mask cracks then she goes to One Punch mode. Everyone’s so desperate to make a “I’ll hold them off” that I have to wonder if they would have succeeded better grouping up. I’d be more worried if I didn’t know they wouldn’t kill off any of these beloved characters offscreen since they played that hand once 

Wow Haurchefant has a bro moment, using the snow elf xenophobia for our benefit 

Ah what would it be without cryptic Ascian shit after the credits, I was wondering where Urianger was, I guess hanging out with the ascians 

[destiny-islanders]

So I'm playing thru ARR again to see the changes they made (and also play melee because why not) and I decided to go with an Elezen this time and it is SO WEIRD running around with no tail.

I can’t imagine playing through the game as anyone but my catboy haha! Maybe after I’ve played it long enough that will change but the cat is just too good right now lmao

[handsomeunderwear-art]

[MANY SPOILERS AHEAD]

SO DURING ARR UNTIL MID STORMBLOOD MY BOY WAS A MIQO'TE HENCE HIS NAME (i was an FT player for almost 2 years) and mid stormblood i changed him to viera (partially why i play the game) also since his name stays, i decided to make him half miqo'te half viera (but alas i havent found any face 3 miqo'te face marks for face 3 viera if there's any)

(lvl 15 smn, 2021)

(lvl 90 rpr, march 2023)

So! Vis'ya, a fresh adventurer, very green, next to none experience in the adventuring business, set foot to Limsa Lominsa for the first time. He made many friends during ARR and he's started to be well known as eikonslayer and for him, it sounded barbaric but he couldn't do anything to change it.

During Heavensward events, where he involuntarily had to stop the dragonsong war, he met again with Lord Haurchefant. For years he's staying in Ishgard, they got closer and engaged. The marriage planned for after the war is over. Alphinaud and Tataru so happy of the news. But alas, it couldn't happen nor it would. Due to how busy he was during the time, his hair got really long and Haurchefant loves to brush his hair every night before they go to sleep.

After his fiance's funeral, he cut his hair short.

Onwards during Stormblood, his hair started to get longer, and usually it's Tataru who'd tie his hair, but sometimes after seeing him struggling with his own hair, Alisaie helped him in brushing and tying his hair. Sometimes she'd give him a cute style! (Occasionally, Alphinaud would brush his hair too but alas he just couldn't tie his hair the way alisaie did).

Post Stormblood (alr a viera in the game), he cut his hair short again so it's a lot low maintenance for him during battle too and he found that he loved having flowers (with Y'shtola's help so the flowers didn't wilt) in his hair, he started to gather LOTS of flowers in his pack. And he found out he loved purple.

He kept the same hairstyle until well into Shadowbringers.

When his family starting to collapse one by one, he was momentarily lost. What would he do without his family? And then he met the miqo'te he's long forgotten in the First. Who would've thought?

Until middle of Shadowbringers, his hair got longer and Alisaie found a new hairstyle for his longer hair.

During Endwalker, he let the hair dye faded completely and his black hair is back (forgot to mention he did dye his hair sometime before).

And now it's a lot longer than before because his boyfriend (YES OUR FAVORITE RED CATBOY) encouraged him to grow his hair back again and promised to always brush his hair every night or anytime he wanted.

And this is him now :>

This got way too long i got too excited 😭

I want more WoLs on my dash. Reblog this with the oldest picture you have of your WoL/OC, and then the newest photo you have of them. Show off what changed! Did they change race? Gender? Hair color? Hair style? Tell me about it!