#all i do is play ffxiv instead of draw....

[whatthegorf]

Alphinaud!! 🥺

i love the twins

[mirawhat]

am i dead? no. do i kinda wish i was? sure.

idk if its because of playing ffxiv(*), or because of adhd(***) or because of poor time management or because i live alone and have to do all the chores all the time all alone, but i do not understand what should i do ti have time for everything i want to do. i have so little obligations outside of 9hr work day but i just dont have time!!! for basic things!!!!!! and i hate this

[devotedlystrangewizard]

me?? juggling two hyperfixations and two special interests?? its more likely than you think

[eemamminy-art]

Hi, I've been seeing you post a lot of FFXIV stuff, and I've been kind of interested in trying it for a long while but am absolutely broke. Do you think it's worth getting into even if it's just the free trial version?

Omg yes!! The free trial honestly has a LOT in it, it takes you through the base game (A Realm Reborn) and the first two expansions (Heavensward and Stormblood, the latter of which is my favorite in the whole storyline), which goes up to level 70. You have a few limitations on the free trial, such as being unable to send private messages or join free companies (guilds, basically), but you can still party up with people and fully engage with the story and gameplay! They also have made it now where if you want to have a solo experience, the main scenario has support for partying with a group of NPCs instead of other players too, though there are a few parts where you'll need to play with real people. But I might be presuming too much, maybe you like the social aspect of MMOs :D

The character customization is really nice! There are a bunch of different races to play as, though sadly two of them will be locked behind a paid subscription (viera, which are bunny-people, and hrothgar, which are like a lion anthro race), but all the others are available on the free trial. I love making OCs in it, it's a lot of fun! I'm really fond of roegadyn, which are giants basically, and elezen, which are elves but if the elves were weird gangly pointy things. There's also cat and lizard kemonomimi (miqo'te and au ra respectively), chibis as the smallfolk race (lalafells), and stock standard humans in two varieties (midlander and highlander hyurs, one is like a normal human and the other are like bodybuilders). I'm probably forgetting something but.... Yeah!

The story is really good... ✪ ω ✪ Like extremely good!! I have been a fan of Final Fantasy for my whole life and not really ever much for multiplayer games, but FFXIV's story grabs hold of you in a way that a single player rpg does!! It's amazing! I've played it on and off since the ps3 beta of the game a decade ago, it's really special to me :3

I might be biased because I have like, nearly 12000 hours logged of playtime but.. yeah I think it's worth getting into ahaha

If you had specific questions about it I'd be glad to answer! I'm honestly kind of surprised to get an ask like this since I have been posting my art from ffxiv for the last few years, but I'm assuming you followed me for something else since I draw a variety of things! But always glad to share the gospel about this beloved game ahaha

[justices-blade]

☆ did someone say anniversary munday

from neffi!! thank you :D

celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

repost, don't reblog. only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

happy anniversary, TOA! here's to many more years spent together.

name: leo

pronouns: he/him

birthday: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

where are you from? what is your time zone? the states, but im in europe now and i aint plannin to leave, baybey. CEST!

how long is your roleplay experience? uhhh 13 years of which 11 were on tumblr. the passage of time is horrifying

how were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? deviantart sonic oc self inserts. dont say anything

how were you introduced to TOA? im an avid skimmer of the tellius tag on tumblr and saw toa crop up a few times in the past but the concept of fodlan as a setting fundamentally scared me for a good while because it was the only fe game i wasnt even remotely familiar with. then one winter holiday in 2022 i saw neffis leonardo crop up in the tag and i was like lmfao it would be fucking hilarious if i started writing edward again right and then i blacked out for the next 12 hours and suddenly im here.

do you have any pets? nope. i do want a rat a spider or a snake though. maybe a toad even

what is your favorite time of year and why? autumn... its the cusp of summer and autum weather rn actually and im freaking thriving

what is your IRL occupation? graphic design student (help)

some interests and things you like/enjoy? gaming and writing are the no-brainers, but i also love dnd, drawing and making cosplay. despite being easily scared i also really like horror. also frogs are eternal i love frogs forever and ever

what non-fire emblem games do you play? currently it's mostly warframe, elden ring and arknights with some enstars on the side HAHA maybe xiv'll suck me back in soon < his ass still hasnt played dawntrail

favorite pokemon type & pokemon: favorite type is ghost, but the charcadet line has RICOCHETED to the top of my favorite pokemon list over spiritombs throne LMFAO

tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! i once wrote a poem based off of haurchefant greystone of ffxiv fame for korean school because i could not fucking think of anything else and i won a fucking award (minor) for a competition i didnt even know i was getting myself into????

i also inject frogs into any art assignments that i really dont want to do so i find the motivation to do them lmfao

how did you get into fire emblem? smash bros brawl baybey. i watched my friend play awakening for a bit but i only owned a wii (region locked. american. we were in europe) so i crawled to my dad all sopping wet and pathetic to ask if he could pretty please buy me por while he was on a business trip to i think LA. he brought back rd instead.

what fire emblem games have you played? hilariously exactly the same amount as last time (sorry) (gba, tellius, 3ds, engage)

first & favorite fire emblem games: radiant dawn all the way babyyyy

list your 5 favorite fire emblem characters across the series! chad leonardo edward limstella micaiah. yep

who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? can be any context and reason! leonardo showed his pretty face on the screen when i was 14 and it was over for me

any fire emblem crushes? 😳leonardo showed his pretty face on the screen when i was 14 and it was over for me.

jokes aside im not sure i do crushes but if we're talking about current i think pandreo applies

if you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first s support? who would you s support nowadays? - awakening: stahl or miriel - fates: hinata... or beruka - three houses: jeritza probably i am going to be so real - engage: pandreo.

favorite fire emblem class? are thieves meant to be a gimmick/utility class. yes. do i care? BOY OH BOY. rogue my beloved... (also i inevitably end up doting on at least one archer and anima mage)

if you were a fire emblem character, what would be your class and stats? would you be playable? weirdly magic-heavy thief i think. playable only if he likes your vibes. probably have to recruit him like cath. i'm not even that good i'm best used for meteor/bolting/bersesrk etc bait

if you were a three houses character, what would be your affiliation? golden deer!

if you were an officers academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? boon in faith+axe, bane in riding+heavy armor, hidden talent in authority. no it does not mean i want to be in charge. but alas im reasonably good at it.

if you were an engage character, which nation would you originate from? i thought on elusia for a while but honestly i think its firene for me. i will never say no to citrus.

how do you pronounce TOA? 🤔toe-ah...

current TOA muses: edward, chad, denning

past TOA muses? its just been these three so far baybey

who was your first TOA muse? if you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? [gripping edward really hard as i hold him out towards the camera] this boy has lived in my brain rent fucking free for 11 years he is a vital part of my deciding whether i get fries with my burger order atp

do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? reiterating this from the last time i filled this out: little guys and pensive freaks. i also fundamentally like characters who experience internal conflict of interests between their morality and their loyalty/duty/other social trappings. its tasty!

do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? i love digging deep into lore and piecing it together even if its not immediately evident and a bit fragmented (its the soulsborne enjoyer in me). BUT if i need to do this for a main or major character with a bajillion dialogue and context clues strewn across three playthroughs of a game and i could easily overlook things i would be a little too scared of getting soemthing wrong. "oh x loves orange juice" "WRONG x said as a one off in the middle of this heavy story segment that he hates orange juice and prefers strawberry milk actually" i would fucking die. i would die

what kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? UNRELIABLE NARRATION. shit you look at and go "hm that aint whats going on rn at all". love that shit. i try to not overuse it but i love when it becomes more evident midway through a scene. good stuff. i also love writing impulsive stupid responses and vividly descriptive scenes, but also i love writing affection and devotion in general, even if exceptionally gooey and cavity-inducing, even if ill-advised and misplaced. there's so much more i can add here but i love writing i love writing with people i love writing with y'all. love and peace.

and violence. i used to be scared of fight scenes but now i love thinking in those milliseconds between the violence. flurries and slurries of blood. can i rip more shit apart pretty please

do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man i hope i get to write this one day”? [stuffs my fist in my mouth and screams]

incredibly loosely speaking. i want edward to realise he's been a bit fucked up actually and have to sit in that thought instead of shrugging past it as usual. i want chad to sit with someone and just connect with them so they don't feel as alone (yes this has happened i just love when this happens). i want denning to forcibly feel an emotion, and whether they get better or worse from it might depend entirely on their company.

favorite TOA-related memories? sorry that i keep bringing up edwards 37.5 damage astra during the final fight of apollyon ouranos i just can't stop thinking about it. that's so much fucking damage. that said i loved banding together against the impossible and FUCKING WINNING

present or past tense? uhhh present < just had to go back to check

normal size text, small text, no preference? normal size is a bit easier for me to read, but i have no real preference

got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 either you know my delusions or you don't . at any rate i don't think my rosters going to move anytime soon

[ooeygooeyghoul]

Going to not be playing ffxiv today methinks. I'll leave finishing EW and getting to the new stuff for this weekend, and instead use today to work on my billion and one WIPs.

I'm going to finish at least one of these drawings if it's the last thing I do. Hope all of you who are online today have fun!!

[hqmillioncorn]

True love will NOT bloom on the battlefield

“Bull’s eye!” Oleo pumped a fist into the air and let out another holler.  Another dot had pierced their dartboard and even though Oleo had far less points than Butter at the moment he was still glad to celebrate every little victory that he got. “Do you think Momoka would believe me if I told her I hit a bull’s eye?” Oleo asked his best friend Butter.  “I think she’d believe you!” That was just like Butter to say, ever the optimist.  “Ha! Knew it!” Oleo smiled and watched as Butter got ready to take his turn. “Yeah! Get em’ Butter!” Truthfully Oleo had no idea why there was a drawing of B’ig Nunh on Butter’s dartboard but if that’s how Butter wanted to play then who was he to say no to it.  Maybe it would explain how good Butter was doing this game as opposed to the rest but who could really know?

ffxiv write day 19: taken with @windupnamazu 's lunya and @windupiceheart 's vertical and (sorry) b'ig nunh

babycorn practices her reading in what perhaps is the worst way possible

“LUnyaaaaaaaaaaAAAAA!!!!”

The sound of someone knocking about a million times per second was enough to knock Lunya out of her weaving. “Babycorn.” There were only two people in the mansion that ever knocked on her door like that. One of them was Coco and the other was Babycorn. 

And since there was no more than ten seconds of uncontrollable wailing on the other side of the door–the more likely it was that it was Babycorn. 

Lunya stabbed her sewing needle in its cushion and hid it away just outside of Babycorn’s view. “Coming!” She yelled back, hoping that would get Babycorn to stop hitting her door so hard. It did not. 

“Lunya! Lunya! Lunya!” 

Babycorn was knocking and saying Lunya’s name in a rhythm now. It was almost impressive how long she was able to keep it up. 

The knocking finally came to a stop when Lunya grabbed her doorknob, swinging her door open not long after that. As Lunya had correctly guessed, it was Babycorn on the other side of the door all along. “Hi Lunya!” Babycorn innocently waved at her. Almost like she hadn’t been knocking on Lunya’s door like a maniac. “I have a question!!” 

Lunya watched as Babycorn wiggled her raised hand around all over the place. “Hi to you too Babycorn!” 

“Lunya I read a book!” Babycorn smiled. 

Of course Babycorn had forgotten about her earlier question. Lunya figured she would ask again when she remembered. As always. “Oh! Congrats!” Lunya knew Babycorn was slowly learning to read and had even started to practice her writing too. 

She was making progress according to the writing Lunya had seen on the walls earlier that week. “You’re not writing on the walls anymore right Babycorn?” 

“Nope!” Babycorn shook her head. “I’m writing on the ground now!”

“You what?” 

Before Lunya could ask Babycorn to elaborate more on what she had just admitted, Babycorn remembered what she had come to Lunya’s room to do in the first place. “Oh! That’s right Lunya! I wanted to ask you something super duper important!!” 

Things that were super duper important to Babycorn often ranged from either the most mundane thing ever to asking Lunya what she was supposed to do when the kitchen was on fire.

While Lunya tried to smell the air for any sign of smoke let Babycorn know she could ask whatever question she had burning in her mind. Which hopefully was the only thing burning. 

“Lunya! Am I dating B’ig Nunh?”

Suddenly Lunya started to wish there was smoke in the air instead. “...C-Can you repeat that?” By now there weren’t too many things Babycorn did that would surprise or shock Lunya, having known the girl for years now. But every now and then something would happen that reminded Lunya she could never keep her guard down.

Surely she hadn’t heard Babycorn right. Right?

“Am I dating B’ig Nunh?!” Once she asked the second time, Babycorn pulled up the book she had been holding under her arm the entire time. “This book said I went on a date with him!” The book she held up had a picture of B’ig Nunh on the cover along with the very concerning words of Go and date and with. Not in that order. 

The aforementioned catboy was mysteriously shirtless and posing on a beach looking straight at the person looking at the cover. There was a sticker on the cover that gave Lunya all the answers to the newly born confusion in her head.

“Y slash N…” Lunya stroked her chin. She didn’t want to look at the cover any longer than she had to and pushed the book down and out of sight, Babycorn didn’t seem to mind, she thought it was fun. 

“Babycorn what did I say about reading books with B’ig Nunh on the cover?”

“Not to…” Babycorn held the book up, trying to use it as a shield between her and Lunya. “But I didn’t read it! Someone else read it for me!” 

Lunya thought she also made sure to tell everyone she could to not read any books with B’ig Nunh on the cover to Babycorn. The mystery of how Babycorn could have read the books wouldn’t stay unsolved for long. 

A sprinkle of green cookie magic started to come down from the ceiling. Until it all came to a head when Airy landed on Babycorn’s head without a care in the world. “Hey.” Airy greeted Lunya in her own callous way. By acting as if Lunya wasn’t even there. 

Of course. “No Babycorn. You are not dating B’ig Nunh.” Lunya didn’t even want to imagine a world where that even had the slightest chance of happening. 

“Are you sure??” Babycorn sniffled. 

“Yes. Very sure!” 

“Really sure????”

Lunya knew where this was going. “I’m. Sure.” No matter how many times Lunya would tell her the opposite of what Babycorn was afraid of, she wouldn’t take her for her word. Even if Babycorn lived by the singular life rule that Lunya knew everything. No matter the topic. “Alright you know what-” 

Lunya grabbed Babycorn’s hand and spun her around towards the outside. She was sure that B’ig Nunh was home and if even she couldn’t convince Babycorn of the obvious, then surely hearing it from the mouth of B’ig Nunh himself would. 

If not then, Lunya would just have to kill him. 

“Woah where are we going Lunya?” Babycorn smiled, her worries of her dating B’ig Nunh had probably blown out of her head by now. 

“We’re going to go find B’ig and talk to him!” Lunya hummed. She of course was just a very normal lalafell and there was absolutely no danger involved in B’ig Nunh talking with Lunya Lanya about this. 

“And you-!” 

Lunya grabbed one of Airy’s wings and tugged on it. “OW?! Watch the wings!” Airy tried to shake herself out of Lunya’s grasp but her struggle was in vain. 

“You’re grounded.

“You’re not even my MOM?!?!”

Regardless, Airy flew all the way back to Babycorn’s room and spent the rest of the day there. Something about Lunya Lanya specifically scared her out of her wits. 

Outside of the mansion B’ig Nunh and Vertical Height were playing fetch with Cherrypit. Throwing cans at him to watch him catch them and eat them. It was enriching for the tiny little normal baby lalafell and also entertaining to watch. 

“okay cherry catch.” Vertical threw a can way up in the air and watched as Cherrypit caught it, biting down on it. “cool.” Cherrypit crunched the can with his very sharp teeth like it was a soft sugar cookie. 

“Again! Again!” Cherrypit cheered. This was way funner to do than whatever b’oring book his sister was reading. 

B’ig Nunh picked up another can from the pile and threw it in his hands. “Alright I’m gonna put all my strength into this one! Get ready!!” Cherrypit showed him how ready he was by running around in a circle very excitedly. 

“Go!” The can flew upwards! Just as B’ig Nunh had warned, it went really high up!

Just as Cherrypit got ready to leap after it, he heard something. It sounded like a door opening. He turned to see the front door of the mansion opening. Out from the inside of the house came Lunya followed by Babycorn, who was practically being dragged outside. “Bebe! Lulu!” Cherrypit cheered and ran over to hug them both.

Which was entirely possible with the way his arms worked. 

Cherrypit extended his arms out wide and grabbed both girls in a great big hug. “Hi Cherry!” Lunya managed to squeeze her arm out and give Cherrypit a little pat on his arm. “Are you having fun with B’ig and Verty?” 

“Yeah yeah!” 

“How much fun?” Babycorn rested her head on Cherrypit’s arm to ask. Cherrypit nodded and stretched out his arms wiiiiide open, dropping both Lunya and Babycorn to the ground. While one of them gently floated to the ground the other fell flat on her face and no I won’t say who did what,  it should be so obvious by now. 

“hey lunya hey babycorn.” Vertical raised her hand to greet her good friends, while still looking up at the sky. 

B’ig Nunh also got ready to say hi to his friends but happened to be stopped right in his tracks by Babycorn running up to him, crying her eyes out. 

If that wasn’t bad enough the next words out of her mouth were almost shocking enough to kill him.

“B’iggy are we dating?” 

Babycorn was sobbing, snot coming out of her nose.It was very dire. 

B’ig Nunh froze like a statue. “What? What? What? What????” His situation was also very dire. “NO???!!! NO WE’RE NOT???”  What kind of question was that?! Where did it come from!? Why was Babycorn asking him this?! 

B’ig resisted the urge to run away and hide because if he did that he couldn’t explain to Babycorn how wrong she was. Then that would lead to her to actually think what she said was true. Which it obviously wasn’t!!

All of this was hitting B’ig Nunh at once like a…like a…

“like a can from the sky?” 

“Well actually I was going to say like a ton of bric-”

Then a can from the sky bumped B’ig Nunh on his lovely moogle cap, right before tumbling to the ground, free for Cherrypit to bite and run off with. His current plan was to bury it in the backyard for later. 

Lunya let B’ig Nunh gather his bearings before talking to him. “See Babycorn? If B’ig Nunh says you’re not dating, then you’re not dating.” There was a very threatening aura around Lunya,  “End of story! 🤗” 

Babycorn looked down at her book. She didn’t understand a single word on the cover or on the back. All she knew was that her good friend B’iggy Nunh was on the cover and he would never lie to her. “But my book said…”

“If a book told you to walk off a bridge would you?” Lunya asked.

“...Well…”

“Babycorn Corn!” 

“No! I wouldn’t!” She was scared of heights! 

Vertical looked down at the book Babycorn was holding in her shivering hands. There was something about it that she recognized. “is that the book that told you you were dating b’ig nunh?” 

Babycorn nodded, tearfully. 

Now Vertical remembered. “i saw b’ig carrying a pile of those books. he said they were advanced copies made to sell later.” Vertical also remembered seeing B’ig Nunh reading one of them from the time she went to bed to when she woke up early the next morning.  

“They’re part of the B’ig Nunh self shipping collection…sniffle…” B’ig Nunh cried, sobbed, whined, all of the above. There were currently around ten books in the collection. They were best sellers for some reason. 

(the reason was that babycorn always bought half the stock. Something nobody but tataru knew yet) 

“Yeah. I figured.” Lunya huffed. “No more reading those kinds of books. Okay Babycorn?” Otherwise they would have to have this conversation more than once and once was already enough for Lunya. 

“Okay…” Babycorn sighed, “Do I also have to not read the other thing too?” 

Everyone was afraid to ask. Especially B’ig Nunh who was basically already dead. 

“what other thing…” Vertical finally decided to ask. 

Babycorn opened the B’ig Nunh takes you to the B’each book and pulled something out, it somehow looked larger than the book itself. “This!” She turned it around and showed her friends the Sexy B’ig Nunh Calendar for the current year she had. It was a costume edition, featuring B’ig Nunh in all sorts of different costumes for the different months!

“woah.” Vertical said while she also noticed B’ig Nunh dissolving into dust and blowing away in the wind. 

Without even taking a second to ask why she had that, Lunya grabbed both the book and the calendar from Babycorn. “NO! You cannot read either!!” She also made sure to grab Babycorn and carried her back to her room with Cherrypit following right behind her. 

“Aww…” Babycorn sadly sighed. 

“Don’t worry Verty! I’ll get the broom and you can sweep up B’ig when I get back!”

“thanks.” Vertical gave a thumbs-up.

[a-pink-beau]

FFXIV Write 2024 #16 - Third-Rate

Summary: Beau and Lehon'a meet again in this civilian AU.

Content Warnings: None

Spoilers: None

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The campfire illuminated the otherwise pitch black of the night. Lehon'a and her troop were getting ready to settle in for the night. Caught half way between two destinations, they would be making camp out in the Black Shroud this night instead of an inn. Lehon'a had just finished shedding the chocobos of their harnesses and was sitting quietly near the fire, keeping warm with Felicitas and looking out to the other dancers as they chat and practise some of their routine. 

Lehon'a lets out a big stretch, Felicitas mirroring her and then looks out into the brush. Lehon'a follows his gaze and just as she does, hears twigs snapping and foliage brushing. The others start to hear the ruckus too and all chatter stops. They look to the source of the sound, some drawing their chakrams as the barely lit bushes begin to move and a figure can be seen.

Everyone's on their feet now as they ready themselves. The figure parts the green and steps into the light. It's Ar'beunti! Her pink hair littered with twigs and leaves, her arms and legs covered in dirt, mug smeared on her face and in her teeth.

“Finally found you guys!” She struts into camp, some of the dancers give each other looks as if to say, oh, her again, before setting their weapons down and going back to what they were doing. It has been a few months since she last made an appearance. Beau rifles through her bag and pulls out a smaller sack. “Got that chamomile you wanted, and only a little late this time.” Beau laughs at her own “joke.” One of the dancers approaches her and takes the bag from her, disinterested. Beau's energy does not falter. “You really have some specific stuff you guys want. Had to go all the way to the New World for that.”

The initial tension of who was approaching their camp gone, Lehon'a just smiles and shakes her head. It was good to see her friend again.

“Heya, Beau.” Beau squints her eyes as she scans the silhouettes around her until she spots the voice's source.

“Lehon'a!” Ar'beunti swings her arms wide and starts closing the distance between them for a hug. Lehon'a makes a face as the filthy miqo’te approaches her. Felicitas, having done this song and dance before, quickly clambers to his feet and plants himself between the two. The only one who could get Lehon'a muddy was him. Beau giggles to herself as she tries to juke the massive bird. Felicitas stays on guard as Beau tackles him instead, hanging from his neck, laughing.

“How about we get you cleaned up before I have to clean Felix a second time this evening” Lehon'a says with a laugh.

_ _ _

The two retire to Lehon'a's tent, Beau now clean. The light of a lantern hanging above them for light.

“I got a whole bunch of new cards while I was over there- Tural they call it. You should try to get the troupe over there, you'd love it.” Beau shuffles through a deck of Triple Triad cards and sorts them into two piles. “Here are my duplicates, you can pick through the ones you want. Pretty much no one in Eorzea is going to have these. You'll be the cool kid on the block.” Beau sets five cards to the side, being careful not to flash them to her opponent. Lehon'a doesn't even notice as she leafs through the cards from across the ocean. She pays no mind to the star rating on the cards, or their values. Lehon'a is more interested in the art on the card. She plucks a few from the pile and adds them to her own deck. Beau takes the remainder back and combs through them, raising an eyebrow. “You sure you don't want these ones? I even have an extra four star in here.” Lehon'a shrugs with a smirk, knowing her way of playing bugged her friend.

“Not what I'm interested in.” Lehon'a looks through her deck of mostly one, two, and three star cards, planning her hand to face off against the botanist. Beau shakes her head.

“I don't know how I keep losing to you,” Beau says, ashamed of herself. She picks up her hand and looks to the dancer. “You ready?” Lehon'a plucks a few cards from her deck, making her hand of five.

“Mhm!”

_ _ _

Beau has her head in her hands, slightly lifting her head and banging it against her palms.

“How. Do. You. Keep. Winning?” Lehon'a shrugs as she picks up her cards from the play mat.

“I don't know. You're the only one I win against.” Beau's head snaps up to look at Lehon'a.

“I don't believe you only pick your cards based off-”

“Off of how pretty they are? I do. It's fun!” Beau grabs the cards from Lehon'a's hands and looks through them for the one card she didn't play. Eyes on it, they go wide.

“You're telling me you had no four or five star cards?! This hand is garbage! Trash!” Beau is not angry, just in disbelief. Lehon'a calmly takes her cards back from Beau.

“Still beat you,” Lehon'a says with a playful smile.

[Note: this is an AU where neither Ar'beunti nor Lehon'a became Warriors of Light. This is a world where instead, Lehon'a joined a dancer troupe and Beau became a botanist, both still travelling the world. Beau is often commissioned by the troupe for different ingredients they use brewing some remedies and potions for the road. The two became friends bit by bit as they periodically meet whenever Beau returns (or catches up) to the troupe as they travel.]

[foxoftheninetails]

Well. Why not? With Dawntrail dropping Friday, its gonna get real quiet on my page. So might as well throw this on here.

Everyone is familiar with the journal and map by now that I've made for my FFXIV character. My map is absolutely lovely, and I think I'm going to finish inking in Tural tomorrow. My journal has been added to again and again as my OC sails along the worlds coastlines to make the map, visiting Thavnair finally.

I like to add little touches here and there. A pressed leaf from Gridania, drawings from his room as he convalesces after an injury, a lotus bracelet from a vendor during a trip to Radz-at-Han. Beads hand made in his village hang on the cover. I'm pretty proud of the Triple Triad card I made from his visit to the Manderville Gold Saucer.

Ever since I started the journal, I've been playing with this idea of putting some kind of textile from Ul'Dah in the journal. I've talked about it with Kenna for months now. So we finally went out a couple weeks ago and got the materials to make it (because why would I just buy a little cloth swatch? Who would do that?)

We got canvas bags, thread, needles, and a needlepoint frame. Originally I was going to use needlepoint yarn, but didn't like the way it looked. First thing I did was cut up the canvas bag into the size I wanted, and aged it using coffee. Then I stenciled on the pattern. Yesterday, I finally worked up the nerve to start.

For literally no reason other than I find it entertaining and I think it's going to look good in my journal, I am trying my hand at needlepoint. The avenues these two projects have taken my down fascinate me. Things I never thought I would try to do, I have successfully done.

(I wasn't sure if I wanted to post pics, cause the stencil looks like shit. But once its all done, it'll look waaaaaay better.)

So, ignore how terrible the stencil lines look. I freehanded it and I cannot draw to save my life. First pic: 1 hour of needle point. Second: 4 hours. Third pic: 6.5 hours. It's tough to tell at this point, but the lines in the center are red thread, and the birds are orange. I wanted to get some of everything on there instead of doing each color to completion so I can better see how its going to come out.

It is by no means perfect, this is my first needlepoint project, but I honestly love how its coming already.

Probably wont make much progress on it tomorrow since I want to finish the coastlines on the map before I get completely distracted by Dawntrail. But its a really relaxing way to spend a few hours in the evening before sleep.

[superthatguy62]

Rant/Argument: Why Jack should not be THE Garland

Let me preface this by saying: I like Jack. I unfortunately have not played Stranger of Paradise myself as I lack the means to do so (None of the big consoles + My laptop can’t even run Dissidia NT or FFXIV. Given the horror stories I’ve heard of the PC port’s optimization, I’m not holding my breath), but I have seen playthroughs and have seen the story unfold. And Jack is a great guy, even once you get past the “I NEED TO KILL CHAOS” memes. Heck, especially after that.

But I have seen people treating Jack and Garland as the same guy and suggesting the latter is the will of the former made manifest due to Opera Omnia.

And that would be ruin Dissida Garland’s character if so.

And, instead of getting into an argument in Youtube comment sections and trying to ignore that the concepts of retcons are a thing, I’m going to summarize all three Garlands in order to argue that making Dissidia Garland an extension of Jack (rather than both being variants of the same guy) is a Bad Idea Actually meaning that SE is totally going to do it.

The nature of this essay means that it should go without saying, but spoilers for all three games: FF1, Dissidia (including Opera Omnia and everything in between) and Stranger of Paradise (including the DLCs)

Part 1: A Brief Summary of Garland

This is Garland.

Garland was once a knight of Cornelia and well beloved by all. However, his heart belonged to one person: Princess Sarah of Cornelia. However, Garland had unknowingly been corrupted in some fashion. When Sarah rejected the knight’s feelings, he snapped: He kidnapped the fair maiden, locked them both in the Chaos Shrine and killed anyone who tried to save her.

Eventually four travelers appear, each holding a crystal fragment with radiant light. The King, suspecting that the four are the Warriors of Light, tested them by tasking them with rescuing Sarah. The four entered the Chaos Shrine and fought Garland. Cornelia’s best wound up slain, liberating Sarah and ending his tale.

...At least, one would think.

Eventually, the Warriors of Light realized that the energy that the Four Fiends had siphoned from the crystal was converging upon the Chaos Shrine. Learning of a true villain who had fled through time, the Warriors of Light chased after, arriving at the Chaos Shrine 2000 years in the past. It is there that they defeat the fiends once more and confront the real villain: Garland.

Wait, what?!

Garland explains (and the ending elaborates):

As Garland lay dying in the Chaos Shrine, the four great powers (i.e. the crystals) sent Garland back in time. There, Garland would absorb their powers and send the Four Fiends forward in time who, in-turn will bring Garland back. Garland himself would reign as Chaos for a time, but eventually the power will leave him[1]. In effect, this creates a time loop that will allow Garland to live forever; Just ignore any silly questions or issues like “Doesn’t Garland only exist within the loop now?” and “That’s the most pointless form of immortality ever”.

At some point however, a freak miracle happens: The Warriors of Light manage to defeat Chaos in the past, one of two ways the cycle could be broken. As a result, the entire cycle collapses and is erased from existence. The game notes Garland is among the people waiting for the Warriors of Light in the new future and while it is ambiguous, one could draw the conclusion that the event that caused Garland to snap no longer occurred and he was back to the paragon that he once was.

[1]Some retellings embellish a few details (MoH makes the fiends natural creatures and gives the corrupted Garland an entitlement complex, Brave Exvius and few other sources imply that Garland’s rage gets stronger with each cycle, giving more of a end-goal).

Part 2: A Not-So-Brief Summary of Garland.

This is Garland.

Garland was pulled into the past by his own hand to continue the time loop that would result in him living forever. However, at some point during the 2000 year long wait, he is suddenly hit with a realization: This was a terrible idea. But alas, despite no desire to continue the plan, he knows that eventually his rage will get the best of him, he will make “an irreparable mistake” and that he is doomed to live out the Cycle once more, a thought that leaves even the mighty Garland afraid.

However, he finds that he has hit a snag: Rather than being in 2000 years into the past, he is actually in another dimension. More specifically, he is in World B, a parallel version of his world that was already in ruins. There he meets three people: Cid, a Lufenian scientist hired by 'the state’ to make a superweapon. Cosmos, a manikin of Cid’s wife created to control said superweapon after Cid and his wife refused to work with 'the state’ any further. And finally, the superweapon in question, a nameless manikin created by stuffing memories from 10+ people into one manikin, and has the innocence and disposition of a newborn child.

Intrigued by this creature which looks akin to the form he is fated to take, Garland bonds with the creature, later dubbing him Chaos. Shinryu, who entered this world prior to the others stumbling upon it, appears and soon a pact is made: Cosmos would become the Goddess of Harmony while Chaos would become the God of Discord and the two would use pawns created by Cid summon warriors to act as their pawns and wage war with each other. Each time one side won, Shinryu would purify those that fell (while also absorbing their memories to become stronger, unbeknownst to everyone else) and the battles would continue. With each cycle, Chaos would grow stronger in hopes of him becoming strong enough to return to World A, with Garland acting as his mentor and faithful servant out of sympathy.

However, it eventually became clear that that the cycles would not end any time soon. In fact, it became clearer and clearer that the cycles would never end. Realizing that he has effectively traded one cycle for another, Garland does the only thing he could do to cope with his fate: If he is to do endless battle, then he may as well savor it. Garland became (or at least, put on the appearance) of one obsessed with battle, all to mask his despair at being a slave to fate.

Of course, all of this is contrasted by the Warrior of Light. He is one of the Warriors destined to clash with Garland and while Garland himself is disillusioned at the possibility of breaking free of the Cycle due to having lived it for so long, the comparatively new Warrior of Light has faith that it will be broken. After being confronted by the Warriors of Cosmos for one final time, Garland reveals that Chaos intends to destroy both himself and the world. When asked if he is alright with this, Garland simply states that all he needs is to find another cycle and the soul of strife shall endure.

Eventually, Garland would be pulled into World B again, this time to fight on behalf of Spiritus, one of the two new gods of the newly rebooted World B. The new world ends up under the threat of Shinryu (Who’s still miffed that Cid went back on their deal and wants that sweet sweet energy) who ends up defeated. Garland leaves behind a copy of himself to act as one of Spiritus’ champions for the sake of rebuilding World B via battle energy and goes home.

This is also Garland.

(Well, so’s the guy above, but this makes for a better segue, so shush).

This Garland is (presumably, OO is kinda strange with this relation) the Garland that was created due to the events above. He hungers for battle and...

Look, I’ll break character and level with you here: Opera Omnia’s plotline is kinda spotty to me. I was on and off in Act 2 and by 3 I stopped caring for reasons that are obvious if you’re familiar with this blog’s wheelhouse. Not helping matters is that it’s unclear in and of itself how OO relates to NT, being more of an alternate continuity than a continuation. But I do know some of the things about it, especially as pertaining to the end of Act 2.

Things have gone bad and Shinryu is getting ready to snack on the World of Respite/Conflict/whatever the nature of the world kind of drifted the more its significance became stressed. The Warrior of Light leads the heroes into battle against the villains who are opposing them because of course they are. The last of these villains is Garland who, despite the world crumbling around him, still wants to battle. But don’t worry, Garland does want to preserve the world. After all, where else will he do battle?

Just as the original Garland is implied to have turned to battle to cope with his situation, this Garland turns to battle to cope with his existence, or rather his lackthereof. The Warrior of Light succeeded, meaning that Garland returned to being the honorable knight he once was... But this Garland is derived from the Chaos which no longer exists.

Eventually, the damage is done. The world begins to collapse. The Warrior of Light sends his newfound allies into the new world, choosing to remain with Garland. Then, to keep the world stable he and Garland clash for eternity until Act 3.

Some more Garland shenanigans happen in Act 3, but this section is long enough as is and I do not want to discuss Act 3 so just know that WoL and Garland have been slowly but surely being pushed as the new gods of Harmony and Discord respectively. 

But Garland’s not the only one in the running for that title...

Part 3: A Very Brief Summary of Chaos (?)

This is Chaos Advent, formerly known as Chaos (?).

Chaos Advent awaited the Warriors of Light in the Chaos Shrine. Based on Princess Sarah’s description of him, he appears to be Garland: The Knight of Cornelia who left to vanquish Chaos and not only never returned, but seemingly faded from the memory of all but Sarah. In truth, Garland had fallen to the darkness and now wishes to become Chaos.

Jack punches his face in and darkness fades away to reveal... a just-narrowly-not-a-teenage girl named Neon. 

Neon did not believe that Chaos existed and sought to give the people hope. Thus  she took the guise of Chaos to give the people a physical representation of Chaos to defeat, in hopes of inspiring hope.

But what of Garland? If “Chaos” wasn’t him, then who was he?

Well, to say his true identity would be a spoiler. If you are truly

It’s Garland.

Jack Garland.

Jack is Chaos.

Part 3.5: A Brief Summary of Jack

This is Jack Garland.

He wants to kill Chaos.

Jack Garland is one of the four Warriors of Light alongside his friends Ashe and Jed. Soon, two more followers join the Warriors of Light (3): a girl named Neon and a woman named Sophia. Together, the quartet (5) go to awaken the crystals with the help of the mysterious Astos, the king of Dark Elves. While awakening the crystals, however, they fight four monsters that are guarding them. These monsters turn into humans when they die and Jack’s allies begin regaining their memories... slowly revealing that they’ve done this before and they themselves are the monsters.

When the party returns to Cornelia, they find that they have not saved the world and, in fact, things are even worse as the crystals intensify their respective elements. They hunt down Astos who eventually reveals the truth behind the Stranger Project, with further pieces coming in as monsters attack Cornelia. Despite Jack and his allies’ efforts, the monsters kill the royal family, including Princess Sarah. It is at this point that Jack’s memory begins to return in full force and the full picture starts setting in.

Lufenia faced a problem: Cornelia’s darkness buildup was getting too intense. In just 2000 or so years, the buildup will reach critical mass and blow up the kingdom. It is at this point that a “mysterious collaborator” appears who gifts them a dimensional matrix crystal, allowing them to manipulate time and space. All the collaborator asks in return is that Lufenia pipelines the excess energy generated by the resets back to them. With their shiny new toy, Lufenia engages the Stranger Project: recruiting people from other worlds (?) to go around and maintain the balance between darkness and light.

Unfortunately, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and in this case, the road quickly became a highway..

Lufenia became arrogant with their newfound tech. Staging their own collapse, Lufenia moved to a pocket dimension where they could observe other worlds.  Out of the Cornelians’ reach, Lufenia began experimenting with the world, warping and mutating its inhabitants and changing regions to resemble those in the other dimensions they’ve been peeping at.

Fortunately for Cornelia, Jack Garland would not stand for this. Jack concocted a complex plan beginning by giving his Dark Crystal to Princess Sarah. As a result, his memories were totally buried. Then, Astos and his friends would push Jack and lead him down a path that resulted in him becoming Chaos.

And said plan concludes with the other Strangers attacking Jack, forcing him to kill them.

The plan works. Jack storms the Chaos Shrine, heads for Lufenia and absorbs their Darkness made Manifest. The Lufenians decide to cut their losses, sealing off the station connected to Jack’s world. And when Jack’s boss tells him to look out for the Warriors of Light, she gives Jack an idea...

At the Chaos Shrine, Jack and his friends/fiends hatch a new plan: Create their own Warriors of Light to act as a beacon of hope for Cornelia. And if they must die for Cornelia to no longer worry about Darkness, then so be it.

Meanwhile, Jack’s boss is pissed that Jack got one up on her. Initially, she lures Gilgamesh to Jack’s location before sending a Death Machine in hopes of killing him. When that fails, she sends Lufenia into chaos in order to claim two pieces of crystal ore: One that gives her power over the Interdimensional Rift and one that allows her to create manikins.

All of this catches the attention of a lone moogle. The moogle is not from Lufenia but World B a world of eternal conflict. But the world that the moogle hails from is reliant on the future of Jack’s world, and if Jack’s world gets erased, the Moogle’s will go with it. Thus, the Moogle brings Jack to Lufenia in order to stop Jack’s former boss Nil from preventing that future from coming to pass.

Of course, the moogle is no ordinary moogle: Said moogle is actually a manifestation of Cosmos’ will and is implied to have been active behind the scenes for quite a while. The Moogle’s endgoal  is to to push Jack into the role of the new God of Discord (whatever happened to Spiritus is left unsaid, assuming the moogle is even referring to a post-NT timeline).

Upon defeating Nil, one of two outcomes occurs.

In the first timeline, Nil drops the crystal, which Jack refuses to use. The moogle questions Jack in ways implying that it wants Jack to pick up the crystal, but Jack refuses. He and his allies go home and live out their roles of being defeated by the Warriors of Light.

However, in a Different Future (TM), The Emperor of Palamecia (who had previously appeared in Lufenia, having tailed the moogle) appears after Nil’s death and seizes the crystal. Jack naturally beats him up, but accidentally absorbs the crystal in the process. His future secured, the moogle informs Jack that now he must take his role as the God of Discord and that he, opposite and alongside the Warrior of Light as the God of Harmony, will be the foundation for a new world.

Part 5: Now that that’s all settled

What’s the problem with Jack and Dissidia Garland being the same individual?

Because it ruins both Dissidia Garland and Jack’s characters.

Dissidia Garland is a natural extension of FF1 Garland. Even in the original game, it’s said that Garland used to be a paragon of Cornelia until very recently. In some of his interactions, especially those with Chaos, you can kind of see it.

In the end, Garland is not just a villain, but he’s a man who’s trapped. Trapped in a destiny of his own making. He’s just as much a victim of his own scheme as anyone else: But the difference is that he himself created it.

As a certain well-known movie once put it:

It also adds to his relation to Chaos. Garland was reminded of himself when he met Chaos, which is why he becomes Chaos’ right-hand. If one takes supplementary material into account, then the spinoffs alluding to Garland’s rage getting stronger over the course of the cycles could relate to Chaos’ fate in Dissidia as well: Becoming more and more powerful with each cycle to the point that 012′s post-story storyline takes place in a nightmare reality where the cycles never ended: Chaos snaps and kills both sets of warriors, reduced to a Feral Desperado... Thing.

Is that what Garland could have potentially ended up as?

Meanwhile Jack’s story is different. Yeah, sure he and his friends become Chaos and the Fiends and that’s a bummer, but the story as a whole is a “The Real Story” type deal. Thus Jack and his friends aren’t the real villains, Lufenia is. Pay no mind to how little you’ll pity them when Tiamat forces them out of their sky castle.

Jack’s story is still tragic, but the bitterness of it being a consequence of his own actions is lost. Garland ruined the entire world all because his rage got the better of him. He has no one but himself to blame and the hopelessness it’s implied that he feels suggests that even he himself knows it. Jack’s massive plan is a direct response to Lufenia’s shenanigans.  Jack’s situation is more akin to Ramza’s, where he and his allies will go down in history as monsters as no one knows the truth.

However, all of that is ok, because Jack’s story is not

This is not his own masterpiece.

This is also ignoring all of the dev interviews and even the moogle and the Emperor saying that Jack resembles the man from the world of conflict, but is not actually him.

Fin: A Brief Conclusion

IT’S TIME FOR THE OBLIGATORY FF3 MENTION/RANT

Onion Knight in Dissidia is a character I love-hate. I can’t say I hate him all that much: I main him in Dissidia 012, he gets lots of good fanart, I used him extensively in Record Keeper and Brave Exvius  and his “little shit” attitude is fun.

But, I do not care about Onion Knight’s story. Indeed, as I alluded to above, when Onion Knight became the main protagonist of Opera Omnia’s story, I completely lost interest. I was even annoyed at how the finale ended.

Is it Onion Knight’s fault though? YesNo.

While I like Onion Knight, I prefer Luneth, Arc, Refia and Ingus. Onion Knight standing in place of the does not endear me as much as him standing alongside them. Perhaps it is because they don’t involve the FF characters in the plot, but Record Keeper and Brave Exvius understand this. Record Keeper even implies a connection between Onion Knight and the remake characters.

By contrast, Opera Omnia, the game where characters actually interact and can flex their characterization, which of the two groups is in the game at the time of this writing, and which isn’t: The four who had vague personalities in the source material or the one who only had a personality in the fighting game spinoff (Hint: It’s the one that’s only a single character)? 

At the same time though, I don’t want Onion Knight removed from the series either. Not only because of what my big issue with him is (one of a few, admittedly), but because I know that there are people that like him. I’ve been on the receiving end of the “neglect” stick, but I don’t necessarily want the other group to be simply take my place. Both can co-exist.

But what does this have to do with (Jack) Garland?

Because Garland is the same, but also different.

Opera Omnia does not hide the fact that Jack is Garland. Jack even gets his Garland armor as an alternate costume, recreating Chaos’ pose from the game logo.

But unlike Cecil or Yda, whose alternate forms cannot co-exist, Jack and Garland are treated as separate characters. As Garland was away for quite a while, they could have found some way for the Warrior of Light to restore Garland’s sanity or write some way to turn Garland into Jack or otherwise. Instead, they had Jack show up and interact with Dissidia Garland. And while Dissidia Garland is based on a Garland that no longer exists, Jack’s comments at the end of the Act suggest that he isn’t from that point; He intends to use the power of light to find a way to get home so that he can build his own Warriors of Light. If Jack truly is from that fixed future (and still alive, given that SoP was ambiguous with Jack’s fate in the true ending and the fact that Jack and his friends aren’t from Cornelia, look the timeline nonsense is weird, OK?) then why does he have memories of a timeline that no longer exists (whereas WoL at least has the excuse of having been there and lived, “memories buried in his heart” etc etc.)? 

With how blatant a tie-in the Different Future DLC is, it is inevitable that Dissidia Opera Omnia will tackle both Jack and Garland (Act 3 started, but hasn’t done too much yet. Act 4 introduces Neon and Astos to liven things up). Only time will tell where the story goes exactly, but so far, all indications seem to treat Jack and Garland as separate characters. And you know what?

That’s probably the best option.

Still, regardless of how one feels, there are fans who love Jack. 

There are fans who love OG Garland. 

They don’t need to be explicitly connected to co-exist

(Plus, no offense to Jack’s VA, he did a superb job, but Christopher Sabat Garland is hard to beat).

[paintedscales]

FFXIV Write 2023 :: Day 4

Prompt :: Off the Hook Characters :: Nomin tal Kheeriin, Esenaij Sagahl Word Count :: 1,084

FFXIV Write 2023 Master List

“Stupid, stupid, stupid Esenaij!” Nomin cursed, and none too quietly either as she stormed off away from the Sagahl Iloh. She clutched her training bow in her hand, her knuckles pale with how tightly she gripped it in frustration. The intrusive thought that told her to throw the bow down on the ground won, and she did. The bow laid there in the grass a good few seconds before Nomin slumped to the ground herself.

She was frustrated. By night’s good graces, she was incredibly frustrated. It had been a good fortnight that she had been attempting to learn how to shoot a bow and hit her mark, but nothing seemed to have been coming out of it. Hitting the targets that Esenaij set up for her had been difficult, and it certainly did not help when Esenaij said little more than, ‘you need more practice.’

It just did not feel helpful in the slightest!

Nomin was taught to string her bow. She was taught to nock an arrow. She was taught a basic stance to keep herself grounded. She was taught to exhale before firing. All these things, and yet she could not well hit her targets! Was Esenaij not teaching her the proper forms of each? Was he intentionally showing her how to do things wrong?

Nomin took in a breath before angrily laying back onto the grass, her brow furrowed and her mouth in a tight frown.

No. Esenaij did the exact same things that he showed her and he was still able to hit his marks with ease.

That just made it even more frustrating!

“What am I doing wrong!?” Nomin yelled, kicking her heels into the dirt and punching one of her fists into the ground next to her. The anger within her coalesced into a lump in her throat, and a tightening of her chest.

Allowing a growl to fall from her lips, Nomin grit her teeth and laid an arm over her eyes. They had begun to sting with all that frustration that had built up over time.

She laid there for what felt like bells, the warmth of daylight slowly becoming the wash of dusk’s encroaching chill. Though she felt the ache of fatigue, she was still too upset to actually rest. Nomin had played over and over in her mind about the lessons shown to her; she was following his instructions! She knew she was!

Sitting up after a time, Nomin looked out toward the ocean from where she had stormed off to. She felt her frustration slowly fade as she took in the sight and colors. It was the first time she had ever gotten to really sit down and look out upon the ocean at sunset.

The sight was pretty. The oncoming night mingling with whatever remained of daylight created such beautiful colors. For a moment, Nomin wondered if she could create something like this with paint. She could draw plants well enough, she thought. A vast sky should have been simple enough.

Suddenly, the sound of rustling grass had caught Nomin’s attention. She quickly grabbed the bow next to her -- even if she had no arrows, it was some source of comfort. Turning, she looked up to see Esenaij as he approached. He still wore that unimpressed look upon his face, though something seemed a little different about him. Nomin was not entirely sure what.

Esenaij sat next to Nomin in silence. Together they sat there, Nomin’s attention going back out toward the ocean.

“Bayarmaa said you didn’t come back to the ger…” Esenaij finally said. “It’s been a bell or so. She was worried you’d miss out on getting something to eat.”

Nomin had not been feeling particularly hungry. Not until Esenaji said that, anyroad. Her stomach’s hunger was now felt within more noticeably. If anything, she was surprised it had yet to groan with how it felt.

However, instead of focusing on the hunger, Nomin frowned and looked down at the bow in her hands.

“... What am I doing wrong, Esenaij?” Nomin asked. “I’m really, really trying to do everything you do, but why can’t I hit anything?”

“You’re impatient and you’re only mimicking me, not taking my advice to heart,” Esenaij replied. His response was immediate, but his tone was actually soft and genuine. Softer than Nomin had so often been used to with him. He looked at Nomin, then looked at her bow before reaching for it and gently taking it. “Mimicry will only get you so far, Nomin… While it’s a good way to learn, you have to adjust for yourself. You’re smaller than me, you certainly cannot lift or pull as much as I can… You must keep yourself in mind instead of me. And you can’t keep getting upset after every miss -- that only serves to rattle your nerves and make you miss more.”

Nomin kept her eyes on the training bow that was now in Esenaij’s possession. Eventually, she lifted her gaze to him. His expression had softened only slightly, and now that her attention was pointed at him, he handed the bow back to her.

Mulling over all of the information that was given to her, it was hard not to feel the sting of Esenaij’s criticisms. Her mouth twisted into a frown before she pushed herself up and back onto her feet. Letting out a breath, Nomin did her best to keep herself calm. She would have rather not had Esenaij yell at her because she was angry. She had already left their archery lessons having snapped at him.

“What’s Bayarmaa cooking tonight?” Nomin asked, changing the subject. Her tone was terse, not that she particularly noticed herself. She would need time to think on the critique she had been given. Though for now, her mind resisted against the notion, her jaw set after she had spoken.

“Budaatai huurga.” Esenaij also stood himself back up, folding his arms over his chest once he was on his feet. He looked down at his foster sister, a more stern look on his face. “You’re not off the hook yet, though. If you really want to be a good archer, we have more to go over later. But please just do what you can to curb that impatience more than anything.”

Puffing her cheeks, Nomin furrowed her brow.

“Hmph!” Nomin could feel her anger bubbling back up, though she sharply turned her back on Esenaij and strode across the grassland back to the Sagahl Iloh.

[luck-and-larceny]

🌪️ TORNADO - what is the biggest change you've ever made to them? how have they changed from their original version?

Oh! That's a fun question! Malika started as a tabletop character. From first conception, she was always a cowardly and selfish bard/rogue who was obsessed with petty theft. In the tabletop game she started in, there was this iconic figure called The Prince of Shadows who was the most infamous of thieves. Her goal was to steal so many items that were considered 'unstealable' that she'd eventually draw the attention of The Prince of Shadows. Then, I think, she wanted to steal their title and become The Prince of Shadows herself. That game was relatively short-lived, but I really loved the concept and wanted to play her again! I thought it'd be fun to figure out how to make her in FFXIV. Thieves aren't exactly rare in RP spaces and certainly not in Final Fantasy games! I wanted to think of a way to keep her a thief, but in a unique way that other people might have fun interacting with her rather than just being annoyed that she steals all the time. Instead, I thought it'd be fun if her theft were more interactive than that. I wouldn't RP stealing anything from other characters without getting consent from the player first (obviously), but to make it more appealing I thought it could be fun if every time Malika steals something, she leaves something else behind. So every RP where theft happened it wasn't like the character just -lost- something, but that they got a random item in exchange too. I thought that quirk was so much fun that it became central to her personality and to her backstory. Her desire to get the attention and favor of The Prince of Shadows has changed to wanting to draw the attention of Nymeia and to court fate. I really like these changes! And I hope others do too. Thank you so much for the Ask!

[dreamsculptor]

It hasn't been quite a year, but I looked back here and saw my last pinned post, and thought I might make another.

I was reading over my last pinned post and it's funny how much better things have gotten since then. I don't have the same job, I work somewhere else now, and it shows me how much better things can be. I was holding my head above the water with the last team I worked with, but now I have coworkers and managers that care about and support me.

Last time, I mentioned that my birthday had passed, and that just a small few friends came by for a little while but had to leave. I was happy for it but this year was so much better and it was what I had hoped for last year.

I had most of the same, I just invited my coworkers and friends to come hang out, have cake and food and such. A bunch of my coworkers came by and stayed well until 10 or 11 at night before everyone started heading home, and it was so much fun, and so fulfilling. It took 24 years but I finally have what I wished for all along: people that I can physically be with, that I have some kind of tangible love with. Life is full of hits-and-misses and attempted connections and bitter failures, but eventually you do get your chance. It was all worth it in the end.

I finished FFXIV, too, which is fun! Now I'm part of the crowd waiting with bated breath for the next expansion, but now that I have finished it, I find myself needing new ways to fill the time that used to be playing FF. I've picked up, played, and even finished some handful of games; Palworld, Vintage Story, a bit of Transistor, and the ever-beloved Sims. And in every game I play I find myself delightfully driven to create and write and join in on the world.

I managed to find and join a company in FFXIV that's focused on roleplay, and I've been having a lot of fun with Sye, but I've also created Takumi now too! They've got all their bits and pieces in motion, but aside from that, I also reached out to and joined an RP-focused Vintage Story server. It's been a lot of fun finally getting to indulge these things that I wanted to do for so long, but tried and failed so many times.

I've also been befriending my company mates, many of whom also love to write and draw and otherwise create. I got to read the draft of the first chapter of my friend's book; I am proofreading and editing for another one of them; and yet another has given me a link to their old D&D information for me to go read. I've made new friends, in and out of FFXIV, and even they have tons of amazing art and writing to share. Even in other games, like Vintage Story, I'm playing with friends and forming towns where we actually work together and delegate specific tasks to people who want to do them. It feels like all of the joys I experienced as a kid are finally being re-ignited in the best way possible.

I haven't written too much - if you don't count roleplay posts - but I have been indulging the ~egotistical~ love of my own voice. It's been fun making pseudo-audiobooks of the fics I've written and singing all of the songs that I love and getting to talk and laugh with my company mates and other friends.

All in all, I think I can say I'm happy with where my life is right now. I'll leave this with a pristine verse from Kristoff Krane this time:

Making love, making friends, no doubt I make a difference There's positive and negative effects of my decisions And although my dreams are selfish, I hope you can relate May my attempts at being honest resurrect the fact I'm fake

✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

Instead of albums, this time, I leave you with songs:

Passing Through - Kaden MacKay Thank You Energy - Kristoff Krane Doing My Thing - Kristoff Krane Knocking on Wood - Spose Okay - Atmosphere

[greentrickster]

Gonna be real - I just can’t bring myself to keep going with FFXIV. I like the game play a lot, and it’s very generous with so many things in the free trial, but for a game like this a big part of the draw is the story, and I just... can’t bring myself to keep going with it. The way the beast races are portrayed is kind of ew, the Scions of the Seventh Dawn make me uncomfortable (even though they’re supposed to be the good guys), and the last really big win I had, against Ifrit, got soured for me almost instantly, which is a big problem because I’d been feeling kind of iffy about that part story arc until that point anyway.

I’m the sort of person who gets really into game stories (as those of you who have followed my other live-bloggings of games I play may know), and I’ve heard that ‘it gets better with Heavensward,’ but I don’t know when in the story that is. How many more hours of gut-punches do I have to go through before it gets ‘good’? And what does ‘good’ even mean in this instance? Because I’ve read the base synopsis of the game on Wikipedia and, unless the writing is absolutely stunning, it’s really not a story I’m interested in. And so far, the writing has me feeling very much like it’s not worth it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m open to being convinced, I’m willing to believe that it does start getting as good as I’ve been told at some point, and I’m also willing to admit that how much one enjoys a story is a subjective experience, so 0% shade at anyone who really does enjoy it even if I never do. But I need more than a ‘it gets good’ or ‘wait until Heavensward’ to convince me to keep going. I don’t care about getting spoilers for this game at this point - a well-written story can actually withstand being spoiled because it instead allows you so spot all the foreshadowing for the coming twist or exciting bit, which heightens excitement in a different way. But if it’s just going to keep being Ifrit all over again, I’m sorry, I just can’t do that, it won’t be good for my mental or emotional health.

[justices-blade]

ooc; TOA Anniversary Munday!

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

tagging: you :)

Name: leo

Pronouns: he/him

Birthday (no year): :)

Where are you from? What is your time zone?: yes. cest (gmt+2)

Roleplay experience: 12 years total, 10 years on and off on tumblr

Got any pets? i had a bunch of fish at various times in my life but the last hag of a molly murdered all her tankmates it was a whole thing

Favorite time of year: autumn

Some interests and things you like: dnd, drawing, gaming, a bit of cosplay. i like frogs :) and rock.

Some funfacts & trivia about you: - i once kneed myself in the eye on accident - ive made 47+ ocs just for ffxiv - funny character voices are my passion - i either go completely silent or get really loud while gaming. i also make actually physically wounded noises when my character gets hit

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? ffxiv, apex legends, flight rising, honkai star rail, enstars, soulsborne, splatoon. its a list of all time for sure

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: ghost/bug, spiritomb/armarouge

How did you get into Fire Emblem? was really into smash bros for a while and got interested in fire emblem. my friend had a copy of awakening and i watched her play, and when i asked my dad to get me path of radiance when he was in the us he got radiant dawn instead

What Fire Emblem games have you played? the gba ones, tellius, the 3ds ones and engage

First Fire Emblem game: radiant dawn

Favorite Fire Emblem game: also radiant dawn

Any Fire Emblem crushes? i dont do crushes but pandreo? ephraim also makes me feel profoundly unwell. also call me brendan reed because limstella,

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? - Awakening: stahl - Fates: niles - Three Houses: idk tbh - Engage: pandreo

Favorite Fire Emblem class: thief, mage

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? thief (high skl/spd/res/mag, dogshit con def and hp, normal str)

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? golden deer

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? micaiah or byleth

How did you find TOA? saw it here and there while scrolling fe tags on tumblr... was scrolling the tellius one and saw an active leonardo??? and i was missing tumblr rp at the time and i was like okay sure why the hell not (i would write edward regardless though)

Current TOA muses: edward, chad, denning

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? edward has taken up permanent residence in my brain since i was 14 he is NOT leaving

Have you had any other TOA muses? im at three and im staying with these three until further notice ✌️

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards? little guys and pensive freaks. theres closer descriptions of my archetypes but this is good enough

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? hmhmhm. i like themes of belonging and not-belonging i think? places and people with which you feel at home, places you feel adrift and lost and that disconnect where it falls apart. i also really like unreliable narration, horror and that unsettling slightly delusional tonal dissonance when i have occasion to whip it out to maximum effect :)

Favorite TOA-related memory: keras kai elephas was so damn fun to me i need to stress this. first lore event really hit and solidified that i definitely want to stay!!

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day in TOA that you’d like to share? wil boey kliff and jean. are At My Door. theyre not getting in anytime soon but Hey.

[dragonsongmakhali]

<Get to know the mun!>

1. Are you named after anyone?: Nah, though my middle name is from my father's side. Fun fact: my dad actually wanted to name me Trillian, from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Kind of wish he had won.

2. When was the last time you cried?: I think I may have teared up at some point during Suzume when we went to see it in theaters.

3. Do you have kids?: No, and I do not plan on having any at the moment. I've got a niece, though, so I've got a little one in the family to buy obnoxious toys for.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?: It's part of the family vernacular, so yes.

5. What sports do you play/have you played?: sports??? Not really. I was in color guard in high school, and I practiced kung fu for many years in/after college. Sadly I have lost all of my athletic ability as I've aged.

6. What’s the first thing you notice about other people?: Their outfits! I love seeing the stuff people choose to wear, even if I don't put any effort into my own clothing.

7. Scary movies or happy endings?: Happy endings, I'm terrible with scary movies.

8. Any special talents?: I am extremely good at making chicken pot pies specifically. Alright at most other forms of cooking too.

9. Where were you born?: Orlando, Florida.

10. What are your hobbies?: FFXIV/gpose, I suppose gaming in general, writing (generally only for the current hyperfixation, and even then only in the notes app on my phone never to see the light of day), and once in a blue moon I draw.

11. Do you have any pets?: Just one, a german shepherd named Orion who has the most adorable face I've ever seen.

12. How tall are you?: 5'1.7", but they let me say 5'2".

13. Fave subject in school?: I think the class I was most excited about was Calculus (thank you Sho Minamimoto).

14. Dream job?: I've got a job that pays the bills and that treats me well, which is pretty much as close to a dream as you can get in this economy. I'm a software developer :)

15. Eye colour?: Brown.

Tagged by: @loveliestbun (thank you!! This was such fun :>)

Tagging: Grabbing some folks from my tag post, if you've done this already/don't wanna do this then uh. post a screenshot for me instead :D @aethericfist @airis-ray @duchessdynamic @ae-fond-seeker @aethericmusings @blackestnight