#Much like Alphinaud

[takamoris]

I liked Hythlodaeus a lot more when I thought he was a woman. :/

[berrydoodleoo]

The winner of my Thanksgiving poll: my headcanons for the twins! I've been working on their designs for a while now lol.

I started playing FFXIV in 2019, so in my head, the twins are about 20 years old now and most of the way through their growth spurt. So here are my ideas for how they look, alongside their EW selves.

I have Lots Of Thoughts about the twins and why I picked these designs, but I don't have time to ramble now. I have more stuff with them though so I'll save my comments for then!

[impossible-rat-babies]

vierapril day 26--weapon

"and failing that, i'll have my trusty warrior of light box the ears of all concerned."

[1driedpersimmon]

Finally settling on Kaiien’s design so officially officially…

Welcome Ebihara Kaiien !! 🥰

[myreia]

✦ S C H O L A R

Nox nestles between her feet, shaking with worry as she gestures at her target. The carbuncle has always been a strange little thing—colourless, small, fragile. After months of fruitless attempts, he is the only one she can summon. But his light burns a brilliant white, his inner strength flowing through her to enhance her own, the trust she places in him enhancing their abilities tenfold. Together, they can work as one. —level 90 compendium

[shalpilot]

late night train of thought comic abt the point in heavensward where kiril makes a decision that would later be described as “very bad”

[gearinsays]

Happy Starlight!

Things got out of hand and I made a nativity scene. I'm sorry.

[koukouture]

Caravan guard

Xia used to be a mercenary in the Black Shroud after escaping the Garlean army. She didn't know it then (because she wasn't paying attention) but her two life long friends walked into her life that day :)

[remma-demma]

Don’t worry Nico, I, Alphinaud Leveillure, level 50 arcanist, have a healing spell that will heal approximately 6% of my health. I’ll can handle myself thank you.

[fisherrprince]

another thing abt arr/hw alphinaud. Maybe current alphy. Just while I’m looking backwards at cutscenes. he has a tendency to look at a situation that’s gone topside and go ‘well this is wrong’, which I think says something about how much he plans in advance, how often things just do go according to his smart little plans because he’s good at them, and something about how thrown off he gets when things do not go according to the ten step plotline he made up in his head

[scalefeathers]

Now that I've finished the Dawntrail MSQ and now that Ktisis/Brio/Anam are up and running, Bylti's first order of business is to hug EVERYONE.

Bylti loves all the other Scions and would die for both Alphinaud and Alisaie, but her relationship with Alisaie is particularly special. Partly pride in her for how much she's grown, partly admiration for her unshakeable sense of self, partially the unique bond of the trauma that comes from being the last two Scions standing back when their loved ones were dropping like flies at the end of Stormblood. She both sees herself in Alisaie, and aspires to have something approaching the self-confidence and self-possession Alisaie already embodies despite her being so very young. If Alisaie had been older when Bylti met her, Bylti probably would have fallen in love with her. But in this life, Bylti is happy just to watch her shine.

(I also headcanon Alisaie as having had a massive crush on Bylti which peaked around the end of Stormblood and which by now she has mostly gotten over, and which Bylti has tried not to actively encourage. I also think that the truest expression of Alisaie's affection for Bylti is that she actually lets Bylti hug her like this; in public, no less. Much like the relationship my cat has with me, tbh.)

[sapphire-scarletta-wol]

Ok so I was catching up on leveling my trusts and of course the first 3 will always be the best little siblings and 300+ year old simp himself and I got to the final boss and noticed THIS

MY MANS BOOKED IT

both the reds just popped sprint and zoomed through the pathway with full confidence

While this little guy took his absolute sweet time not even making it half way to the other platform

Man I love the trust system so much,so many little details in it that flesh out the characters,heck SE did not even need to add those when we do not even bring g'raha into this particular dungeon but they did and I love them for it and I love the npcs more for it <3

I cannot wait to check out the other dungeons to see what other secrets lie beneath.

[warriorofyapping]

Alphinaud's character development over the expansions has been so good. I remember how I used to not like him much, he was a bit snobbish and thought he was always in the right, he refused to accept when he was wrong. Yes, he's young, but 16 is old enough to know when you're wrong and to accept it. It didn't help how sheltered he was and how much the people around him allowed him to stay that way, hiding things from him when he should rightfully know them.

After what happened with the Crystal Braves, you could see how he realized just how his mindset came to bite him in the bud and we get to watch as he slowly begins growing as a person. He has his moments where he still struggles, but then he realizes and he backtracks, he tries again. We see him rely on the people around him more and accept help from them, especially the WoL, Estinien, and Ysayle during Heavensward.

You can't tell me that ARR-STB took place in less than a year, especially with all the traveling via land and sea alike the group had to do during Stormblood. We get to watch him grow over at least a year and then, in Shadowbringers, he grows again, just without us there. You can tell how he has matured a bit more during the near year he was in The First without us and it's nice to see the difference between the arrogant, stuck up kid we met and the boy he is now.

I love my son so much okay.....

[kaldwinroyalty]

Thinking about it, its kinda wild to me that. The Scions as an organization are supposed to, outside of primal slaying their main role, like, handle diplomatic relations and yet.

And yet you have basically a group of zero actual diplomats.

Like ok listen. Minfilia was the one who handled the majority of that when she was around, ARR made it clear she handled a lot of the bureacracy, but after she's out of the picture its the Scions taking on the role on a 'whichever one of us is closest to the current diplomatic meeting' basis, not a 'yeah I want and/or trained to do this'. Yeah you could say they have Alphinaud but like, huge plot point was him not getting the nuances of politics and fucking up big time, it wasn't till a lot of development did he get to where he is in Endwalker where he can pull on diplomatic relations like a pro so.

Zero proper diplomats for a good chunk of the MSQ

Cause Y'shtola is a magic scholar who constantly toes the line of "maybe casting dangerous magic isn't a bad idea", and is only not permanently living alone in a cave because thats a slippery slope to being like Matoya

Thancred is a goddamn spy, the guy behind the scenes, and once he's out of his flirting stage he's rather blunt and short tempered when dealing with people being slightly annoying

Alisae basically dragged her feet to joining the Scions at all and voices several times diplomacy not being her cup of tea

Urinager doth verily speaketh like so

Estinien gives me a heart attack each time he turns to an ancient dragon and goes "bitch"

I suppose Tataru and Krile I'd trust, but Tataru is much more in the mercantile world and Krile has had other things to deal with instead of working out relations between city states

So until G'raha showed up, it really was just Alphinaud with a shaky dream, AND EVEN THEN. Mister Crystal "stop trying to make me king" Exarch only pulls out his commanding tone when he really has to, otherwise he's content letting others handle it. This super powerful group is coasting through their peace keeping job with luck, very specific and relevant knowledge, and the ability to go "we can ask the WOL, a practical walking nuke, to kill that for us"

[cynthffxiv]

FFXIVWrite 2024 Day 9 - Lend an Ear

ARR patch 2.55 spoilers

The mood is one of pure sorrow as Alphinaud and Cynthia watch the climate turn cold and snowy from their spots on The Enterprise.

“I- I didn’t mean for any of this to happen…” the young elezen says, voice strained as he hangs his head.

Cynthia rubs a hand along his back. “I know you didn’t.”

“It’s all my fault-”

“Alphinaud, no. You’re not to blame for all of this. You may have started the Crystal Braves, but you’re not at fault for the bad actors in it or the ones who paid them.”

“...I was a fool to think that I could achieve what I had set out to do. Too ambitious. I should have known better.”

“And what does that say about the rest of us who couldn’t see any flaws with your ideas either?” She pulls him closer. “It’ll be alright. I don’t know how it will be, but… we’ll figure something out.”

“I just- I just wanted to help Eorzea. Like grandfather did.”

Cynthia looks out at the trees flying by on the ground. 

“Tell me about him. I knew him, but… not in the way you did. Tell me about what he was like as your grandfather, not as a scholar.”

Alphinaud sighs, before leaning his head against Cynthia’s shoulder and talking until they arrive at Camp Dragonhead.