#It was a tough life lesson

[ffxivaltaholic]

Prompt #11: Once Bitten, Twice Shy

FFxivWrite2023

"So that's it then? You're hanging up your sword?" Rarely did the gentle giant of a Knight raise his voice, but Roland was at his wits end with his sulking friend. They had spent the last few hours in a heated argument, so much so even the maid would not dare enter, even to offer them a warm drink or a meal.

"I... I don't know alright? By Halone's fury Roland, we're the only ones who survived!" He was pacing as much as his injured body would allow. "What if I go out there and I screw it up again? What if more people die because I missed something?"

Silence permeated the room.

"It wasn't your fault. No one saw the dragons descend through the snow storm." Roland's tone softened and he finally took a seat, resting his head in his hands. "Regardless of who was on watch, it would have ended the same." It felt like a broken record going around and around, and yet he was making no headway on the subject.

"Please... Don't walk away, not after everything..." Running a hand through his blonde hair, Roland glanced up as he heard his friend cease pacing. "It's okay to be afraid... And it's okay to feel angry and hurt, but you can't let it win. Giving up just means they died for nothing Tsirae." Staring at his raven-haired friend, practically a brother after all these years, he couldn't help but feel a pang of hurt at the look in the young Knight's eyes, normally so warm and now icy cold. Perhaps the trauma was still to great, the wounds still to fresh.

"I'm sorry... Perhaps I have been out of line..." Despite having survived the same ordeal, he didn't end up in the maw of a dragon and nearly exsanguinated in the snow as Tsirae had. Were it not for the old stone wall having fallen in such a way as to protect him from the onslaught, there was a very good chance the Captain would have perished like the rest of his squad.

Once again silence between them.

Finally after a minute of nothing but the crackle of the fire his soft voice broke through. "I do not know if I would be more of a liability than an asset in battle... What if I freeze up? Fail again? How many more lives can be on my shoulders...?" Tsirae lowered his gaze to the floor, emerald eyes vacant and glossing over. He looked utterly exhausted, but continued to persist with the argument rather than rest.

"At lease sleep on it... Do not make any rash decisions on exhausted emotions. That's all I ask." It was a fair request to make, and Tsirae couldn't deny his closest friend that. "Fine..." He caved and the blonde Elezen visibly relaxed his shoulders, clearly relieved to have some compromise. "Thank you... Now perhaps it would be a valuable use of our time to go home and get some rest?" Pushing himself up from the chair, Roland fetched his coat in order to exit into the frigid night air of Ishgard. At the door he paused and glanced back, finding his friend standing by the fire a little longer. "Go home, see Rheyla, she's been worried about you, and please consider my words..." "Please don't give up. Come back stronger. If not for yourself... Do it for them."

[haleyincarnate]

Reminder. ✨

[crowdeerdire]

Since so many people like the Cove version, I wanna do more <3 Baxter believes in you!! YOU GOT THIS!! Keep going!

[Cove] [Derek]

[thereadmind]

[lunarkittenn]

I rarely take pictures anymore. It’s like I just don’t want to remember any moment from this part of my life lol

[suhyla]

rabat / casa / ١٤٤٦

[positivelypositive]

🌵

sometimes...

...all you can do is lay low and let things happen as they do.

that's okay. it doesn't make you weak or lazy. it's simply a way to cope because in those times, even letting yourself exist can seem too tiring.

let yourself be. it's enough. you're enough ✨

[justalittlebluetiefling]

Something I've seen a couple people saying is that they want to make sure that Laudna understands that she's not the only one who has been through trauma. But like. Laudna is not the only one who needs to learn that lesson. Actually, it's not even that Laudna needs to learn that she's not the only one that's been through trauma at all, because they're all very aware of what they've all been through. This became an inevitable confrontation when Laudna decided to let Delilah back in, though, and after rewatching the scene, I actually think the only people who managed this situation correctly were Imogen* and Ashton.

Orym and Laudna are both more focused on their own pasts with the sword and not thinking about each other. Orym should have talked to the group and come to a decision with them about using the sword and Laudna should have talked to him about it instead of trying to steal it.

*my feelings about this are still up in the air don't read into this too much

[arioagio]

Don't be scared of what might happen. you are gonna be okay. God is good. 💗

[shrinkthisviolet]

Who was your first oc? Are they still an active oc or did you leave them in the past? If they're still active, tell us five facts about them! - 🖤

Ooh my first OC? Probably Morgan tbh 😅 if I’ve had any before her, I don’t remember them

(I did have some nebulous Skywalker triplet OC concepts before her, but…the final version of those is Lucy, who didn’t exist until after, during the Kenobi show’s run)

Five facts about her:

She’s loyal to a fault. This sometimes pays off but also quite often gets her into dangerous situations

She’s left-handed, while Jesse is right-handed! This is partly projection (I’m a lefty) and partly derived from canon, seeing as E2 Cisco (Reverb) is left-handed while E1 Cisco is right-handed

She speaks two languages, English and Spanish

She can sing, has been since she was around 8, but she can’t play the piano. A certain someone teaches her in s3 👀

She’s aroace! I’m nearly caught up timeline-wise to the installment when she realizes this (which I’ve written 1 chapter of and do intend to finish before I go past 1x16) with Caitlin’s help (who, by the way, is aro in this AU!). Morgan had already figured out she was ace before this, but a little push from Caitlin solidified the aro part for her

Taglist (send an ask or DM to be added or removed):

@arrthurpendragon @ocappreciationtag @raith-way @vexic929 @ironverseocs

@thechaoticfanartist @goldheartedchaoticdisaster @negative-speedforce @starstruckpurpledragon @angst-is-love-angst-is-life

[the-healing-mindset]

For so long, we may hold our inability to "get along" in certain environments against ourselves. We may question ourselves as to why we just can't take whatever it is we may be facing. But what if those things are truly abusive? What if what we are experiencing is only meant to cause us pain and not to help us grow?

It is very easy for us to want to grow while we are in hardship because there is no other way, but in some situations, we are better off leaving alone those things that are causing us that pain, not leaning further into them. How do we know when to abandon those things? We need to ask what it is we are looking to get out of the situation. "Tough love" will only get us so far.

This goes for more than just relationships. Jobs. Environments. Habits. Is any of this easy? No. Is any of this clear and straightforward? Also, no. What this will look like is different for each of us. What works for one person will not work for another. That's why it is so important to get in touch with what is inside. The internet tells us one thing. Mainstream media tells us another. Society has a completely different answer. But where do you fall amongst all of that? In the end, only your say matters because you are the one who has to live your life.

Source: Jeff Brown

[loving-jack-kelly]

au proposition of the day is: jack and race run a boxing gym, davey starts taking lessons as a way to blow off steam and learn self-defense at the same time

[byteresa]

i saw u yesterday

& i thought you'd have no effect on me, but i felt everything rush back into me when i saw u,

and i felt everything rush back out of me when u said hello-

i'd be lying through my teeth if i said part of me didn't want to fall back in again,

but i know the bigger part of me& i am proud of her for smiling and walking away. i am proud of her for holding herself high and collected even when she was falling apart inside.

little shards of my heart despise you, but i know damn well that i could never resent you. you are falling off that pedestal but you are one hell of a human being- the mark you've made on me is indelible, just like the mark i will make on the world,

without u.

and i hope one day you find it in yourself to heal like i have been healing and love someone, like i loved u.

i trust in the universe that one day, the thought of you won't pierce me as deep. your love once felt irrevocable but i know now it is ephemeral.

goodbye to everything you once were to me, and here's to myself, the person you chose not to keep & the person who pledged to grow with you forever.

you were, a true gentleman & golden retriever.

[clairethecutepup]

It's YOUR Fault if You Give Up Art...

Does anyone else feel like it’s more on an artist than anyone else if they gave up because of insults/harassment/etc? No, I obviously do not condone such behavior… I mean, you need to take time out of your day to write scathing messages and do other things to pick on someone, just because, “Wahhh, I don’t like the thing they made”? Honestly pretty spoiled, if you ask me: having to discourage and “punish” someone for making content that doesn’t appeal to your personal level of “quality,” like nothing is allowed to be done nor exist in this world when not to your exact liking.

I mean, I’d personally prefer to witness artwork/etc I find terrible, rather than witness a terrible tragedy unfold before my eyes… Man, how many people forced to, say, experience America’s mass shootings would’ve preferred to see poor drawings/animations/etc, than seeing friends and family get gunned down instead? Apologies for the extreme example of “there being worse things to witness and better warrant outrage,” but sometimes ya gotta get intense to make a point when claiming some social media users as “spoiled” and all.

Anyhow, back to the artists/etc themselves… People are saying what you make is “bad,” they’re not threatening to track you down and kill your entire family if you continue. … Okay, yeah, there’s the rarer cases of doxxing and what have you, but that’s a different story because you are being made to stop for the sake of your safety and those you care about. I’m talking about cases where it’s just insults, bullying and nothing actually threatening to your well-being. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but not everyone is gonna be the nicest about what you have to show. Trust me, I’d know: I’ve had multiple people on a discussion board point out how terrible my pilot of my first animated series was, I’ve had comments insulting my work getting thumbs-up (ex: “Tell me why anyone would like this…”), I’ve had a user by the name “I Fave Bad Art” do so on Deviantart before… But did I ever give up, despite that and more? All in all, I’ve seen my fair share of people going out of their way to ensure that I knew I only made crap. 

I’ll admit, I ironically hate the, “I was in the same boat and I didn’t do what they did” argument: it completely nullifies the concept of searching for even the slightest difference and just blatantly spouting, “It’s not an excuse!” when we should instead be asking, “What made them turn out different and how can we avoid it repeating?” But still, I think I have a right to say this time: “If I didn’t give up and kept creating things, no matter how mean people got, what’s making you do different?” I get you’re more sensitive about things when you’re a young teen or older one, as that was when I experienced these things, but are you really going to give up on your artistic and creative dreams entirely…? If that’s the case, you honestly never deserved the “artist” title to begin with. After all, it sounds to me like you really wanted gratification and praise more than to actually bring your dreams to life.

You got the keyword of, “entirely,” right? As in, not taking a break to recover and rebuild confidence, but never creating anything ever again-- drawings, stories, etc --right? If you got your heart broken as a young teenager and tried again as a more capable adult, you definitely still deserve to be considered a true artist. It’s when you decide to never do it again that you don’t, as in never again and up to when you finally die. After all, why are you letting these people decide whether or not you can create things: just because they don’t like it? Okay, then find a way to improve and make something that can be more appealing if you need others to like it so badly. “Negative criticism” is a real thing, and people aren’t always going to be so nice about pointing out how you can improve-- nor will they care if you want it or not.

Case in point, I want to one day make original series that can appeal to a wide audience. You think I’d be able to do that if I still drew in the lesser quality I did as a teen or if I still had the worse writing quality I did back then? No, I needed to learn-- and still am --how to provide enough quality to not only create something others enjoy, but also be the best possible way to bring a vision to life. Not gonna happen if I don’t pull a “Scott Cawthon” and open myself up to what aspects might suck about my work… I mean, I want to make something I’d like and be proud to know I made, too! Like, I finally managed a drawing style that I like and wanna keep doing: that hybrid look of Western (American) and Eastern (Japanese) animation! Even if not many people do end up appreciating it, I can still feel happy I draw in a way that makes me like what I bring into the world. Plus, there’s something just generally satisfying to me about making my ideas reality and simply sharing them, anyhow. 

Overall, stop crying, “Boo hoo, I don’t wanna do art/etc anymore because everyone’s so mean about it…” Instead, focus less on your hurt feelings and on continuing your journey. Back to Scott Cawthon: do you think Five Nights at Freddy’s would have ever gotten made if he gave up game-making because of how badly Chipper & Son’s was chastised? I know a friend over in Canada who also learned to draw better than “simple MS Paint shapes” and whatnot, after years… And let’s just say that she’s familiar with insults and even accusations of being “underaged” for Deviantart because of how bad her drawings admittedly were back then (her “being” under 13). Don’t worry, I’m only brutally honest because she’d be fine with admitting they weren’t of the highest quality.

So, just block people who get too spam-happy, find ways to tune out those who mock you-- and if someone actually is trying to doxx you or something over what you make, get the police involved. Even if they just threaten it, you have every right to still make a report because that’s a serious crime… 

But typically, at the end of the day, it’s you who decides if you continue with art, so what’re you going to choose?

[whenthegoldrays]

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