#and bakool ja- okay you know what?

[razzz-poutine]

Part of the joy of playing a video game that has a large world in it that is also your hyperfixation is that you'll straight up avoid certain zones, or mute the bgm if you have to go there, because something bad happened to your blorbos there.

[tritoch]

the warrior of light as a game-breaking force of violence

there's a moment, relatively early in dawntrail, that establishes succinctly how out of place the warrior of light (as the savior of eorzea and main character of four successive final fantasy game plots) is in what is essentially the story of fresh new final fantasy protagonist wuk lamat. and it sets up quite nicely how the framework of fantasy video game conflict pulls the warrior of light forever towards violence as the expansion goes on.

spoilers through 7.0 follow

consider wuk lamat's kidnapping and rescue. bakool ja ja holds his blade to wuk lamat's throat, taunting you. his lackeys line up against your party in neat little ranks suspiciously reminiscent of a classic final fantasy encounter screen.

and it simply does not matter to the warrior of light. you stride right through their combat setup because you are beyond that by now. the warrior of light has absolutely no respect for the "we are about to do ATB combat" lineup. the camera even jumps the line for you in one continuous rotating shot, crossing the axis of action as though to emphasize through the disruption of visual convention how far outside the game's boundaries you are.

this is how far you are above the problems of dawntrail's first half. you cannot even be bound by the normal rules of cinematography and video game combat. everyone else here lined up for a good old-fashioned scrap and the warrior of light said haha nope actually. i'm going to stroll through here like a god of war astride this tiny battlefield. your henchmen cannot even raise a hand to me. i don't even have to engage in violence directly anymore. my mere presence is enough.

in fact, not only can bakool ja ja's henchmen not raise a hand to you, he's not even worthy of your direct intervention. he kidnaps wuk lamat and steals her keystones and frees valigarmanda and kidnaps hunmu rruk and none of it warrants the warrior of light so much as raising a finger. he's wuk lamat's recurring villain, that's not your problem. you're just here to take in the scenery.

zoraal ja spends his whole life aspiring to be thought of as his father's equal and a worthy successor to the dawnservant as the "resilient son." all it takes for gulool ja ja to acknowledge you as a warrior on his level is like a five minute sparring match. the acknowledgement from gulool ja ja that zoraal ja hungered for his whole life and would eventually go full cyborg supervillain to get via regicide is something the warrior of light receives casually in a throwaway line after their level 93 solo duty on the way to more important plot conversations.

it really seems for a second, in the first half of dawntrail, like you are strong enough and the problems simple enough for this to be a clean and easy adventure. bakool ja ja? power of friendship'd. mamook? successfully reintegrated, no worries about the crimes against humanity. rite of succession? handily won. nothing can stop you. even duty finder queue times have been conquered: you can do all your duties with trusts now.

all of which only makes it better when the second half has sphene ask you and wuk lamat directly: could your strength have been enough to save alexandria? could you have found a different way?

i know some people get very annoyed we don't intervene in the gulool ja ja fight. now personally i think if you see arthur and mordred squaring up it's rude to intervene, but beyond that, it simply wouldn't have mattered. by the time zoraal ja's forces arrived in tuliyollal, alexandria and tural were already on a collision course and doomed to conflict. your hands alone could never have averted this conflict. sphene was always bound to do what she did—and certainly a gulool ja ja without his reason would not be any more inclined to peace than wuk lamat and koana were.

there's a great little moment just before living memory where estinien, champion at reading the room, is like "okay so if thancred and i stay here that frees up you up, aibou, to do what you do best and save the world and have epic fights. woo!!!" and immediately afterwards you basically have to apologize to alisaie because part of the sort of unspoken premise of this whole trip in the first place was that you were, finally, not going to plunge into mortal peril to save the world. you were finally going to take it easy. you were finally done with that. and she has to sort of ruefully be like nah it's fine bro. i was trying to get you to take it easy and not do insane risky world-saving violence. but y'know these things (interdimensional invasions) happen.

by the time you reach the very last trial, all pretense that the warrior of light could have ever been beyond these problems has vanished. you were, very emphatically, not strong enough to hold onto all that was dear without sacrifice. gulool ja ja and otis and cahciua died. yyasulani was irreversibly changed, physically colonized and culturally decimated by another dimension. you systematically shut down each part of living memory, and all its friendly, charming, loving ghosts, with your own hands. with your own clicks.

not even the vaunted strength of the warrior of light is enough to overcome sphene's inexorable logic of conflict. and so, in the end, she plucks you out of the crowd and says, explicitly for reasons of your strength, that you are going to have to do a boss fight now. you are going to have to kill her and you are going to have to do it in a proper 8-on-1 trial, and she forces you to affirmatively state that you understand you're going to kill her.

did you think you were above it all? did you think you could get away from here with your weapon undrawn, with your hands clean? that for you and you alone the logic of conflict comes undone? wrong. wrong. wrong.

your strength cannot redeem you, says sphene. your friends cannot make these sacrifices for you. if you would play the hero then you must play the hero. no half-measures.

back to the duty finder with ye.

[anneapocalypse]

It didn't have to be you.

I'm not just okay with it, I actually really like the fact that the Warrior of Light and their companions take a more supporting role in Dawntrail. I enjoyed the Scions' role in the story and was happy to see all my faves onscreen, I just didn't mind them taking the backseat to some new characters. I really loved Wuk Lamat and also enjoyed Erenville and Koana and Bakool Ja Ja and even Zoraal Ja as a villain a great deal. But it's more than just the fact that I loved the new characters and the focus on developing them and their setting.

So much of the Warrior of Light's story has been about... the burdens of being the Warrior of Light. How awful and exhausting and isolating and even depersonalizing it can be to be the only one who can solve the problem, again and again and again. It's such a thing in ARR that the patches kind of lampshade the dehumanization your character faces, the way the Scions kind of take the WoL for granted early on, something I've written about before. It's still present as late as Shadowbringers, being a major point of that story's plot that only the Warrior of Light can do this thing, and they very nearly die as a result. This theme finally finds its resolution in Endwalker when you meet Hydaelyn face to face, you learn of the promise made in another time, you learn why it had to be you.

That story arc is finished now. You've done what only you could do. You know why you were the Warrior of Light. If you were at Carteneau, you know why you survived and came back. You know why Hydaelyn had to keep you alive, even as so many of your friends died around you. (That last thing in particular is such a major part of Ariane's story arc; it's the central thing she's wrestling with in the fic I'm currently working on, so it was at the forefront of my mind playing Dawntrail.)

It doesn't have to be you anymore.

That's not a downside for me. That is the appeal. It felt so appropriate to me after the tremendously heavy, world-ending stakes of Endwalker. My character could be invested without everything riding on her shoulders. She could help, voluntarily (in-universe, obviously the game asks you to accept this premise in order to like, play it), without everyone looking to her and going, "Well, it has to be you, so you'll do it, right?" In fact, had that continued, it wouldn't have felt right to me. It would have felt like it undid some of the narrative and thematic closure that Endwalker offered.

So this felt like the natural progression of the Warrior of Light's role in the story following Endwalker to me, and I thought it worked for the story, while allowing me to still feel invested and see a cool new setting and meet some great new characters.

[senespera-ffxiv]

Bakooling His Ja Ja's

Okay so this entire thing started when my friend and I started seeing posts about how Bakool Ja Ja would have two Ja Ja’s. And so I was like “hmm I wonder what lizards actually have” and here I am at the bottom of this rabbit hole wondering how I got here

I’m gonna split this into roughly three sections

The sexual anatomy of lizards (as explained by someone who knows about it through wikipedia)

The potential neural circuitry of a two-headed individual’s nads (as explained by someone who refuses to look up case studies that could elaborate on this so this is largely speculative)

The implications of the first two sections on what certain activities with Bakool Ja Ja would be like

//NSFW TEXT AND CARTOONISH IMAGERY BELOW THE CUT

//There's no actual things there, just badly drawn Ja Ja's lol

Section 1: The Sexual Anatomy of Lizards

Our journey starts with a thing called a Hemipenis. Now, when I first looked this up I was also severely confused cuz I was like “what the fuck is a hemipenis, is it like half a penis, like a fucking cylinder that got cut in half or something” well turns out they’re a little bit more fucked up than that

They are essentially inverted dicks that are pushed out by erectile tissue, and lizards will typically have two. They can also be ornamented with shit like spines, it all looks very weird unfortunately they very much do look like dicks on lizards so I’m gonna include one from a rattlesnake instead which just kinda looks like a spiny blob that way tumblr admins don’t kill me

The weirdest part is that the tube through which semen flows is Outside (unlike in the human penis where the urethra should be inside the penis) and is instead called the Sulcus Spermaticus. I can only assume this translates to “cum groove” in Latin.

I should also mention something about the spines cuz there’s multiple theories as to why they’re there. Cuz a spiny dick seems somewhat counterproductive to sex.

Theory #1 is that it’s involved in a lock-and-key mechanism to ensure that no one else that isn’t a lizard of that same species can fuck it. Female lizards have been observed to have cloacas with similar structures to male lizard hemipenes, etc.

Theory #2 is that the spines are there to promote longer and more successful reproduction for males. Make of this information what you will.

There’s also theories as to why there’s two dicks and it has to do with how female lizards can just kinda store semen for later, which does mean that it’s possible that even after fucking a male lizard won’t be able to actually have children. Thus, the two dicks come in for multiple consecutive fuck sessions, that way if one starts running out of juice the other one can sub in while the first one recovers.

Section 2: The Potential Neural Circuitry of a Two-Headed Individual’s Nads

I’m not looking up case studies for this so you’ll get my neurobio undergrad speculative theories on this shit, but there’s two possibilities I can think of for Bakool Ja Ja’s specific situation, and it has to do with how bifurcated his two heads’ nervous systems are.

Their nervous systems are only really differentiated at the neck up (implies that their spinal cords merge at or just below the neck)

Their nervous systems are bifurcated across the entire body (implies that their spinal cords either don’t merge at all or only merge at the very bottom)

As an additional note I should mention that by spinal cord I mean the nerves themselves. Most likely even if their spinal cords didn’t merge, they’d be running in parallel and be shaped in such a way as to resemble a normal spinal cord, just with a gap maybe right down the middle

So there’s a concept in neurology known as a “Dermatome” which is essentially a region of skin that is innervated by sensory neurons from dorsal root of any given spinal nerve (of which the major dermatomes are defined by the spinal nerve they originate from).

Using this concept, we can maybe define the Dermatomes on Bakool Ja Ja similarly, and this is where the organization of his spinal cords matter. If scenario #1 is correct, then his dermatomes will look similar to that of a human. Sensory information is also most likely copied and sent to both heads, meaning that both heads will be able to sense what happens to their entire body

If scenario #2 is correct, however, then we have something slightly more interesting and it’s that each head receives somatosensory information from the contralateral (opposite) side of the body, similar to how the brain’s two halves receive somatosensory information from the rest of the body. Here’s a really low quality diagram from my kinesiology class that shows the ascending pathways for discriminative touch (orange) and pain/temperature/affective touch (brown)

You can see that no matter where specifically they cross over, both pathways do end up crossing over to the other side. Here’s a rough diagram of how this would work out for Bakool Ja Ja that I drew myself with the relevant “dermatomes” (these aren’t actual dermatomes I just highlighted which dick is wired to which head) highlighted

The three testicles were added for sexual effect, I don’t think lizards actually have testicles but I added them to Bakool Ja Ja. For you. Please recognize my sacrifice.

Suffice it to say I’m going with Scenario #2. Not because it’s scientifically accurate or anything (scenario #1 makes more logical sense in like every single universe), but because it has funnier implications. Speaking of implications—

Section 3: The implications of the first two sections on what certain activities with Bakool Ja Ja would be like

This section is going to get NSFW real fast so you have been warned

Using our conclusion from Section #2, we can see that Bakool Ja Ja’s two Ja Ja’s will only send sensory information up to their respective head. This means that if you’re doing anything to one of them, only one head will be feeling anything, meaning that this legendary tweet by @kwehzy is now mandatory so that you don’t accidentally blue ball one of the heads

Also DP or at the very least two consecutive fuck sessions will also be mandatory to avoid blue balling one of them. Unless if that’s your goal in which case more power to you.

However, the entire universe will be working to try and stop you from fucking that two-headed lizard man because his dicks have a decently high chance of being hooked and/or covered in spikes. This has stopped exactly 0 people from trying to fuck lizardmen anyways so I don’t know why I even mentioned this, just try not to break anything.

Given all of the evidence in Section #1, whatever you decide to do with Bakool Ja Ja’s Ja Ja’s will probably end up taking a really fucking long time, so enjoy I guess

That’s it, that’s all the analysis I had. tl;dr Bakooling his Ja Ja’s will be a lengthy and potentially dangerous affair with high potential to accidentally fuck over one of the heads. Have fun.

[starrysnowdrop]

Okay, so now that I am done with the 7.1 MSQ, the Pandaemonium Epilogue quest, and I finished the FFXI alliance raid quests, I have a lot to say about it all, so I’ll put my comments under the cut below.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Don’t click unless you’re caught up with the 7.1 MSQ at least!!! 👇👇👇

So let’s get some of the side stuff out of the way first before I dive into the details of the MSQ.

The housing items, omg the housing items are amazing!!! There’s so many that I want for Hali that I know I’ll be broke very soon. RIP Hali’s Gil.

The crafted glam gear looks adorable and so is some of the gear sets from the new 7.1 dungeon. I also NEED all of the weapon design contest funny weapons, but I’ve yet to figure out how to get them.

Next, the Pandaemonium epilogue was so cute, as it’s only one quest long if I remember correctly, and you get a reward that, for many of us, is well worth it at the end. Won’t give it away here but yup I love it.

The FFXI alliance raid… oh my god. I have never played XI so any nostalgia factor is completely lost on me, but the raid itself is really fun, the locations are gorgeous, and god the mechanics are way harder than Myths of the Realm in EW in my opinion. I died so many times… but I still think it was fun! The story is really interesting so far, especially with a certain someone returning and Bakool Ja Ja is still incredibly fun, so I’m looking forward to seeing more in the future, and I’ll be running it every week for gear!

Alright, now let’s get into the MSQ. I’m going to say that overall I enjoyed the 7.1 MSQ even more than 7.0, as the story caught my attention way more than it had in 7.0. At the very least they are giving us some more villains to hate, which is a welcome change, and oh boy am I loving to hate these characters!

But let me back up a bit. I enjoyed that they seem to be balancing out our time spent with Wuk Lamat and allowing us to have some time with others; this time I was really happy that we got to spend some time with Koana. I also enjoyed seeing the progress made in Tuliyollal with helping those who were once Turali get readjusted to life outside the dome again; it was nice to see that being addressed with the support group and the railroad. I’m also happy that we got more backstory on Gulool Ja and his parents, which that will transition into what I really wanted to talk about.

The DUNGEON!!!! HOLY SHIT BALLS!!! 😱

The dungeon was spectacular!! The atmosphere of the fucked up research facility, the zombie researchers, the abominations, and then the tural vidraal final boss… everything was absolutely amazing. The final boss is really difficult at first, but I was thoroughly impressed with it nonetheless. I had a slight panic attack during that fight, but I still loved it overall.

I was also excited to be able to run through the facility and take my time looking over everything at my own pace. It really gave me a mixture of Resident Evil and FFVII vibes, with the Jenova Project in particular coming to mind when examining some of the rooms.

I’m really hoping that this place has more significance than just “Oh this is where Galool Ja’s parents did messed up shit researching feral souls” though. I’m actually hoping that this ties into the greater narrative and the hidden enemy or whatever.

Speaking of Galool Ja’s parents…. Ummmmm… wow…. I never thought that I’d have a hard time deciding who the bigger asshole is, Zoraal Ja or Teeshal Ja… because man, she was a creeper. I know it doesn’t go into a ton of detail on how he was conceived, but it really seemed as though she just created Galool Ja in the lab, you know, as a test tube baby, with how Zoraal Ja reacted to seeing the baby anyway. But ehhhh that’s just my best guess on that. Like I said before, I hope more is revealed with all of this, and it’s connected somehow with the greater threat, but we shall see.

Speaking of the greater narrative, I am equal parts curious, excited, and utterly confused by not only the “fake” Sphene that appeared before the people in Solution Nine and the “real??” Sphene at the very end in the “Meanwhile, in Living Memory…” scene. I am glad that I’m confused at the moment and I haven’t figured out what’s going on yet, yet I’m so damn angry about whoever the hell is controlling the “fake” Sphene. Overall, I had a much bigger and much more positive reaction to all of this than I did in 7.0 with all the Alexandria stuff, so I’m definitely looking forward to more story in 7.2!!

I think if there’s anything I can say that’s not as positive about it all, it would be my personal thoughts on the Alexandrian people. Having both their minds wiped whenever anyone died and having a ready supply of extra souls on tap, both functions made possible by their regulators, the Alexandrians just have no idea how to deal with grief and trauma. And yes, while it’s a very interesting idea to explore, and my science fiction loving brain is eating this stuff up, on the other hand, I am finding it incredibly hard to relate to them in any meaningful way.

Perhaps it’s because I have known both traumatic experiences and death of close relatives and loved ones from an early age in my life, that I look at them and its hard not to laugh at how ridiculous they all look. It’s also really hard to relate to their heavy reliance on their queen, so much so that they have no idea how to grieve her properly or how to handle their affairs without a complete reliance upon her. I am very aware that this might just be a “me” problem and that others may have very different feelings about it all. Nevertheless those are my real thoughts on it, and perhaps I can feel a bit more empathetic towards the Alexandrians in the next patches, but we shall see.

I think that’s all I’ve got for now. If you wish for me to elaborate, or you have a specific question for me about my thoughts on 7.1, please don’t hesitate to send me an ask!! Thank you all for reading!! 💖

[meatball-headache]

I'm in the final zone. (MSQ spoilers like you wouldn't believe)

I mean... on the one hand, this is exactly what we expected. The city of gold.

On the other hand... I mean, the circumstances are just. No one had this on their bingo card. The city of gold, a city of utopian immortals? Okay, they kind of said that from the gecko. The city of gold, another shard? Well, shards are a major part of the overarching story, so, yeah, it's a possibility, and honestly I'm ashamed I didn't think of it myself. Both, and, it's ruled by a kindly FF9 reference who has to slaughter our entire planet to use our souls to fuel her people's, who teamed up with Wuk Lamat's brother, who also tried to slaughter our entire planet, and his own, so he could eat everyone's souls and get strong enough to outdo his dad? I guessed Ketenramm! Ketenramm!

Man, I don't know what else to say. I'll give a more thorough review when I'm done, but, Dawntrail has really impressed me. How can they make us care about these new characters, this new world, after we've spent so long in Eorzea with the Scions? Oh, right, because Ishikawa is in charge and she's got a knack for characters. Every character I liked right away—not as a person, but as a character. From Gulool Ja Ja's beneficence, to Bakool Ja Ja's arrogance, Zoraal Ja's stoicism, Koana's practicality, and Wuk Lamat.

Oh my god. Wuk Lamat might be the best character in the game. She'll ferociously defend her people and thoughtfully consider other options. She's got a heart of gold, a will of iron, and a stomach of watery pudding where you did the recipe wrong and it didn't set right. She loves her family, she strives to understand her enemy, she eats anything and for some reason her stomach does somersaults whenever she's within sight of a vehicle of any kind. She's the most human and most believable character in the game, and it's a game that has been full of excellent characters.

[escherstrange-ffxiv]

22 7 Dawntrail Inspired Questions

Based on this list of questions floating around I wanted to answer a few, and so I did.

Answers under the cut because MSQ SPOILERS!

3. What was their initial impression of the four claimants? How did this change over the course of the story?

Wuk Lamat: "Oh, so she's Erenville's childhood friend. I feel you man, my childhood friend is a terror that permeates every second of my day." *gently pats Erenville*

Escher goes through the rite of succession nodding politely and saying "...Okay." a lot when he sees her getting sea/air/alpaca-sick. She's not Lyse-levels of naive so she doesn't grate on his nerves but by the time he's fighting the Eternal Queen he's hollering back at her, "I DON'T THINK SHE WANTS TO LISTEN, LAMATY'I, CAN YOU JUST-"

He never got over her barging in before he even used the toilet.

Koana: He didn't even notice the guy until after he got passionately angry. Then Escher was "oh no he's hot when he's mad." (Escher you should know better)

Zoraal Ja: "He's gonna die by our hands. Bet you 5 gil I'm right."

Bakool Ja Ja: He found him very annoying and was very satisfied when Wuk Lamat kicked his ass. I think this dialogue choice sums it up.

9. What was going through their mind when the dome dropped?

"Oh, that can't be good."

12. What was their opinion of the culture of recycling souls and the use of regulators? Did this change as the story progressed?

He thought it was interesting how they had circumvented death. Resonates when he's died twice. He wondered if his own deaths would have been preventable with a regulator like that...until he learned about the memory wipe. For someone like Escher who wants to leave a legacy and be remembered, that part doesn't fly.

13. What was their initial impression of Cahciua?

Escher truly, honestly, thought she was the little hover robot and wondered if Erenville was half robot. That's obviously why we never hear about his father, right?

17. The theme of family and legacy is repeated throughout Dawntrail—did this theme resonate with your character? Were there specific moments relating to family that impacted them?

19. What was their favorite location in Tural?

Escher isn't a sentimental guy, but I think he probably filched an energy drink and sent it to his parents along with a letter informing them he's fineee.

20. Do they lean more Tuliyollal or more Solution Nine?

I'm sure he stood there wondering how the aether of everything works in Mamook while thinking of kissing Adrian under it.

Definitely Solution Nine. Tuliyollal's vibrant culture and food was one thing but the Sharlayan in Escher gravitated to learning more about how everything worked. Even the grape-flavoured drink.

[faeriemachinist]

Rayla Snowtail is an accomplished White Mage, Gunbreaker, and Reaper (level 100 before I started Dawntrail content)

Rayla's journal:

Entry 1: Okay, the Hrothgar girl has so much spirit and vigor. While I don't know her fighting style she is competent in it (if I had decided to be more vigilant in my studies of the Marauder art I might have more input). But I can definitely provide advice, and yet she is adamantly denying her own flaws, I've been there, I thought I could solve everything with Conjury and later White magic, and I couldn't. She has the makings of a hero and I need more people like her in power if I'm going to go further. Tural is going get it's backside kicked in if they test the East, but I don't want Tural to suffer that beating, and I'm even more concerned about the Eorzean Alliance and Eastern bearing the casualties of that easy victory.

Entry 2: My protegé actually backwardly solved the Hanu Hanu's by revitalizing a local tradition. Glad to see this level of faith magic not summoning a Primal, but revitalizing some of the reed paddies. Bakool Ja Ja is aching to be made Bakool Ja, and I know which head I'm aiming at severing. Koana had an alchemical solution to the same problem we solved with bringing back Ihihanna. Koana's rise to the throne isn't an issue for my long term goals, but conflicts with my current objective, but Ihihanna was actually so much fun that I favor the ritual over immediacy. The Elementals didn't grant me a White Mage soul stone because I'm blind the value of traditions, Ihihanna is wonderful festival that brings the community together, worth maintaining, but Koana's solution should absolutely fill in the gaps Ihihanna isn't getting the job done.

Entry 3: Congratulations Wuk Lamat, you successful made me question following you. Oh no when you were a kid acting out of turn you got spit upon by the animal you were infuriating! I ride around in a cart pulled by the most most lethally cantankerous herbivore you can imagine, a Hippo. She's starting to grow, and I deeply understand why old things can hold you back, but nasty smelling stuff that was spit in your face? I fight Morbols regularly. I can't catch the Alpaca for you but I can pay to skip this nonsense. Oh wait, you won't let me? Fine let's get this over with ASAP.

Entry 4: I actually love Wuk Lamat's spirit, we got the saddle without me having to pay a single Gil (other than what I payed for the Mescal the rest of drank while waiting for her) and she got an alpaca to finish the challenge. Yes her brother got a golden fleeced alpaca, but that wasn't required for the test (note to self: come back here and buy the golden alpaca once the Pelupelu have brought it to heel).

[hqmillioncorn]

This could have been a Phone Call

“I am soooo sorry!!” Babycorn danced around in a panic, running around the platform they were standing on. “I-I didn’t mean to transform like that! It just happened and-! And-!” Her eyes were beginning to water.  “Babycorn it’s fine!!” Alisaie was the first to stand in her way, stopping Babycorn in her tracks. “The point is we won and because of you we won even faster than we normally would.” “Weally…?” Babycorn was crying now.  “R-Really…?” Alisaie turned around to her brother, silently asking him if he was seeing the same thing as her. When Alphinaud nodded, that's when she figured that she hadn’t hit her head too hard, she wasn’t seeing things.  Babycorn sniffled, “Okay…!” As long as no one thought she was a scary freak it was fine. Hopefully everyone would still want to be friends with her and not leave her alone forever. Babycorn Corn was absolutely normal with nothing wrong with her. …Except for maybe the pair of horns on her head and tail swishing behind her.

ffxiv write day 16: third-rate

dawntrail spoilers during the rite of successsion wuk lamat is called to answer a vitally important question

It had been strange, very strange. All of a sudden, right as Team Wuk Lamat had landed in Yak T'el, one of the members of Zoraal Ja’s group had come up to them and very nervously told Wuk Lamat that her eldest brother wanted to speak to her. Alone. 

Of course this request was met with a resounding agreement of ‘Um. No????’ Considering what had happened a few days ago with Bakool Ja Ja, the apprehension was understandable. 

Thankfully Wuk Lamat managed to convince the others to let her go. After all this was her brother she was meeting with. Yes, it was her one brother who on no condition was allowed to win the rite of succession otherwise an all out war would break out–but her brother nonetheless. 

It took a lot (A LOT) of persuading but eventually she was able to convince even Erenville to let her go. 

On one condition.

Another bug flew past Wuk Lamat, “Woah! That was a big one.” It must have been some kind of beetle. Whatever it was didn’t really matter for long because exactly one second later Cherrypit jumped up and caught the bug in his mouth. 

Wuk Lamat watched as he chewed up the bug. “How does that taste?” 

Cherrypit sat innocently on the ground as if he hadn’t done anything. “Bah!” He answered. 

“I see.” That hadn’t really answered her question. Oh well, time was of the essence and she had someone to see. She was surprised Zoraal Ja had even bothered reaching out to her. She couldn’t help but let her thoughts wander on what exactly he wanted with her. 

True to Zoraal Ja’s teammate's words, he was standing in the exact spot he had told her he would be waiting at. It looked like he had been waiting for quite a while, arms crossed and staring right at her. ‘How did he know I was coming this way?’ 

“Hey! Zoraal Ja! Here I am!” Wuk Lamat shouted, jumping up and down, waving her arms around. As if she wasn’t standing right in front of him. “And right on time–might I add.” 

“Hiiii!” Cherrypit cheered. He wanted to say hi too. 

Zoraal Ja walked closer and looked down, eyeing Cherrypit. “Abababab!” Cherrypit babbled. His white blank eyes reflected Zooral Ja’s reflection back at him. “I thought I said-” 

“Yeah, yeah. Come alone. I heard. But…” Wuk Lamat sighed, shaking her head. It was a little embarrassing to admit after all. “Turns out when you get kidnapped the group you’re traveling with decides together to assign you a bodyguard…”

Zoraal Ja was silent. Staring at Cherrypit and then at Wuk Lamat and then back at Cherrypit again then at the baby leash he was wearing being held by his sister. 

“Hey he’s tougher than he looks okay?!”

Both siblings looked down to see Cherrypit currently chewing on the leash tying him to Wuk Lamat’s side. Cherrypit looked up and smiled, a swab of drool dripping down his mouth onto his shirt. 

None present would have ever guessed Cherrypit currently had a kill count in the triple digits. 

“Right. I need to ask you something.”

Ah so he was just going to cut straight to the point. That was expected. “Abouuuut?” Wuk Lamat had a few guesses about what this was about. “If this is about the rite of succession then you should have asked Koana.” He probably knew more about it then her anyway… 

“No. It’s not.” Zoraal Ja for once looked like he was hesitating, “It’s a question I can only ask you.”

“R-Really?! You’re serious?!” This had to be a hell of a question then if neither of her brothers could answer it. A surge of confidence overtook Wuk Lamat, suddenly she was really pumped up to answer whatever question Zoraal Ja had for her. “Okay then! Let me have it! What’s your question hermano?!”

“The one you’re traveling with. Babycorn. Is she together with anyone?” 

“What.”

Even Cherrypit was confused to hear his sister’s name come up. 

“What kind of question is THAT?!” Of course only she would be able to answer that! Babycorn was on her team, traveling with her. Babycorn hadn’t spent much time with either of her brothers as far as she knew. Then again there was that short amount of time Babycorn talked with Koana. Apparently. 

But still-! “Why are you asking me that?!” What reason would Zoraal Ja have to…

“Oh…Oooooh!!” The dots were coming together. The way that Zoraal Ja had left so quickly after defeating Valigarmanda, how far away he stood from their group, the way he seemed to instantly teleport to the opposite side of the room when Babycorn walked up to him.

“Oooooh my god do you like her??!!!” 

Zoraal Ja let out a grunt that Wuk Lamat knew meant something like ‘Not so loud’ 

Despite this, Wuk Lamat cackled louder than ever. Cherrypit wasn’t sure what was going on but he wanted to laugh too. “Ha! Ha! Ha!” He wiggled his legs around and swayed from side to side. Clearly having the time of his life sitting in the dirt. 

Wuk Lamat took a deep breath, trying to calm down after her fit of laughter. “Well first of all–congrats she’s single.” She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, “Is this because she jumped on you while she looked like that?” What Wuk Lamat was referring to was a form that Babycorn took by complete accident. 

While in this form Babycorn was almost twice her size, a pair of horns on her head and a tail swinging behind her. Not to mention the sharp teeth that Wuk Lamat had personally seen easily tearing a monster apart. 

It was probably best to not mention that to Zoraal Ja right now. Maybe later.

The way Zoraal Ja didn’t bother to look at her was the confirmation she needed. Her brother unfortunately had a crush on one of the worst people he could have gotten. “Sorry but I think you have your work cut out for you.” 

“Explain.” 

Wuk Lamat shrugged, “The second we landed in Tuliyollal someone came up to her and asked her out on a date!” During her tour of the city Wuk Lamat ended up having to cut through areas she knew hardly had any people in it just so they could walk more than five steps without someone stopping Babycorn to offer her flowers and chocolates. “Then they tell me that this happens to her almost everyday! Sorry but you've got a lot of competition out there.” 

As Zoraal Ja considered whether or not it would be a smarter move to violently cut down his apparent competition now or simply give more gifts than them, Wuk Lamat continued to talk.

“Plus there’s Butter too.” He might be the single most threatening person for anyone trying to win Babycorn’s heart.  Even Wuk Lamat could see something going on there. From the way they held hands almost everywhere to Babycorn constantly asking Butter if he was okay. 

“Who? What?”

“You know…?” Wuk Lamat put her hands on her head to imitate a pair of shetona ears. “The shetona boy? The small one? Spiky hair? Always has a smile on his face?” 

None of that was ringing a bell for him. 

“Don’t tell me you haven’t been paying attention to any members of my team?!”

The deafening sound of Zoraal Ja’s silence told Wuk Lamat everything she needed to know. 

“Aw what?!” Her disappointment was immeasurable. “We’re competing with each other! Don’t tell me you’re not even paying attention to the people helping me?!” Was Zoraal Ja even taking her seriously? She expected something like this but somehow it still really stung. 

“The people helping you are of no interest to me.”

Wuk Lamat exchanged a glance with Cherrypit. She turned her back and pointed back at her brother with a look that she hoped he would understand as her saying something like ‘Can you believe this guy Cherry?’ It was probably better if she skipped asking whether this was because Zoraal Ja didn’t see them as a threat in the competition. 

Nonetheless, she didn’t see her brother getting very far in the very real gauntlet of getting a date with Babycorn. 

“Far be it from me to offer romantic advice but maybe you could start by talking to her?” As far as Wuk Lamat could remember her brother and Babycorn had never even exchanged a single word with each other. 

“I did talk to her.”

“Destroying our path and telling us we needed to find another way in Worqor Zormor doesn’t count.” 

Zoraal Ja crossed his arms and looked away again. It counted for him. 

“Besides even if you do count it–that’s only once you’ve talked with her.” All the couples she knew definitely talked more than once. And if Zoraal Ja couldn’t even work up the nerve to talk with Babycorn, then his chance was over before it even started. “Have I mentioned that Butter is also a viper? That’s direct competition.” 

That just seemed to make him madder. Or more determined? Wuk Lamat couldn’t tell the difference lately. Hopefully she hadn’t just put Butter’s life in mortal danger. 

“For the record I am on your side one hundred percent Zoraal Ja!” Having Babycorn as a sister-in-law sounded like the coolest thing ever. “If you want me to put in a good word for you I will! You just need to ask!” Probably after the rite of succession though. 

Wuk Lamat guessed that maybe Babycorn wouldn’t believe her saying those sorts of things while directly competing with her brother. 

“I don’t need you to do that.”

“...Then why even ask for my help?” 

“I just needed you to answer one question. That’s all.”

“Figures.” Wuk Lamat looked down at Cherrypit, still happily sitting down and babbling some made up baby language to himself. He looked up at her and smiled, “Wuka! Wukla!” He wiggled his fingers towards her. It was pretty clear he wanted her to pick him up. 

There was no way Wuk Lamat could stay mad looking at something so cute. She could get mad later though. “Come here then!” She stretched her arms out and let Cherrypit jump into them. Enough time had passed that she was finally getting acclimated to both Starsinger’s weird behavior. 

“You know even if you don’t ask for it–I’ll still help you out.” By now Zoraal Ja had already begun to walk away, only stopping for a second to hear whatever Wuk Lamat had left to say. “I gotta say though it’s a pretty bold move to admit your crush in front of Babycorn’s brother.” 

“What.” 

Zoraal Ja quickly turned around, looking straight at Cherrypit. “Hiii!” Cherrypit could tell he was being stared at. He waved back at Zoraal Ja with both his hands. 

“Did you-Did you not-? Did you not know??” 

Wuk Lamat’s answer came in the form of Zoraal Ja walking away from them faster than he’d been walking before. “Ah-!?” In the blink of an eye he was long gone. Which also gave him a head start to find the next elector. Damn it. 

“You can’t walk away from your problems forever Zoraal Jaaaa!”

[tobyfoxmademeascaly]

Dawntrail Part 6

Llama captured, time for birds.

doing the quests as GNB so I don't vastly overlevel on WAR

ooooh very pretty

... okay, given how much this storm is coming up, it was deffo not a normal weather event, was it. There's Fuckery afoot, isn't there.

CAT (green)

her mood soured. her day ruined.

... you realize that in a contest of Might Makes Right, then i win, yes? Like. There's no real competition here.

I mean, he's also a silicon valley sort of cat. He may think bitcoin is the answer to this conundrum somehow.

yeah I'd bet you would much rather be fighting giant crocodiles or something

little Butchling knows her limits

...once again. I am SO glad to be playing a video game and not doing this for real. my knees are aching just looking at those stairs.

something wrong with this cat.

my man she's an adventurer-in-training. common lackey errands are an essential part of that. They build character.

ooooh the nighttime rain makes kozama'uka SO pretty its unreal

yeah that's a... polite way to put it.

very practical concerns, ms kitty

that's my girl, killing more tigers!

(selected "I half-expected a flying whale") ma'am I have not once but TWICE beaten up a flying whale with spiritual importance. It's not off the table

ITS BEEN TOO LONG SINCE I COULD BREAK OUT THE CIRCUS MUSIC!

Calling security on his lizard ass

oh TERRIBLE choice of words

YEAAAAH GO KITTY GO!

GET HIS ASS

Yeah, and NOT on the side you want. Did you forget that I just got done killing every god on the planet?

YAAAY BIRD PARADE!

You know, with all the aether motes flying everywhere, I feel it was a bit obvious that the festival was magical...

archon allies- THANCRED.

Koana is by far the least irritating of the other contestants, since he's actually trying to be helpful and not bullying animals or other contestants. He's just a sharlayan weeaboo.

... hey. what's Bakool Ja Ja doing with that vial. Sir are you intending to use that fertilizer as a performance enhancer. sir.

[charlottedabookworm]

Dawntrail Day 1

spoilers up to: first lvl91 quest, after the msq split paths merge back together

original draft date: 28/6/24

scheduled release for: 26/7/24

early access time! planning on unlocking picto and then i'm leaping headfirst into the msq

*

okay the quest accept music

interesting

i like it

*

“You had me at ‘magicked painting’” lolllllll

*

….excuse me i didn’t agree to a job interview

i hate job interviews get back here you bloody moogle i-

*

“I’m uh- between jobs at the moment”

“My stick figure drawings are second to none…?”

pffft best job interview i’ve ever been on

*

furry little shites

*

okay i really do like the quest music

*

picto hotbars step up but subject to change

now msq time

*

Ali, love, that’s called jinxing it

*

shades triangle! we’ve heard about that before :)))

*

lolll poor wuk lamat gets seasick

*

oooo erenville lore

shetona from xak tural, doesn’t know his father and hey-

stupid crash i want to hear the erenville lore!

*

kay that shit is pretty af

*

i love erenville and wuk lamat you really feel the childhood friends who fuck with each other energy every time they interact its fucking great

“she’s technically royalty”

“just ‘technically’ ignoring me, then…”

*

Tuliyollal is huge and it feels so much fuller than previous cities

*

pffft

*

aight so Bakool ja ja is a twat and i don’t even care who wins as long as it isn’t him

his brother seems alright tho. less of a twat or maybe just a quieter twat

*

nevermind the mystic is just as much of a twat as the mighty is

the mighty is just louder about it

*

even all these expansions later it still sends a thrill of fear through me

*

ESTI!

ESTI IS DOING THE SPARRING SCENE WITH GULOOL JA HA FROM THE TRAILER

yessssss

love how we’re just smiling in the background

*

Esti is bigging us up!

love you esti!

*

elene’sh

erenviles name is elene’sh?!?! ir it is it a term of endearment like what gulool ja ja calls wuk lamat

*

erenville: this is the last chance for me to help you back out

us: flashback to raha

fucking hell i love that set would 100% be thinking of his husband in a time like this

*

genuinely appreciate that they gave krile the echo vision instead of us for once

sorry krile but i’m a little bored of it always being us that sees shit

*

holy shit the inn room

fuck it i’m moving to tuliyollal i live in this cabin now it’s mine sorry raha you’ll have to move out here

*

reached the quest split

experience tells me that one of these will be extremely traumatic and the other will be less so but maybe it’ll be a little less here? maybe? hopefully

please pelupelu don’t fuck me over this is my summer holiday adventure

*

so esti is gonna get utterly fleeced by the pelupelu huh

*

love that our first challenge is to approach a terrified alpaca

love rhat for us

poor wuk lamat

*

camping! Chilling out at the fire with all of erenvilles tent and stuff while waiting for wuk lamat!

*

i’m cackling-

*

oh fuck off and get some character development

This guy isn’t at fandanny or zenos level of ‘i hate you on sight’ but i really don’t like him

*

“There’s much less debate when I’m traveling alone” erenville i love you

*

“He lives and works in the House of Waters High, at the top of that large tree nearby”

turns camera

ah yes that tree the tree i climbed five minutes ago in search of a sightseeing spot found nothing and then leapt off to go back and do msq instead

that tree

Cool

*

“We have a two headed problem. Yes please hurry”

Erenville you are legit one of my fav characters i love you dude

*

i’m starting to really really hate bakool ja ja

like he was annoying before but the hatred is growing

i would seriously rather the warmonger first promise take the throne i am legit not lying rn

*

you fucking tell him (? Them? They use borh plural and singular when talking about the two headed mamool ja) ali

*

look i’m not a particularly enthusiastic person but we really should be doing something instead of just walking there

like dance a little alright? bop to the beat? something other than just strolling seriously along while all the hanu dance around us

*

annnd i'mma call it there for today got picto unlocked and to 81, msq is starting the 91 quests, and i've unlocked all the aether currents i can reach in the zones so far

[impossible-rat-babies]

5. How do they feel about Wuk Lamat looking up to them as a mentor figure? Did this attitude change as the story progressed? (I've seen you talk a bit about it so I want to know more ehehe)

ty for asking friend!!

ask meme

5. how do they feel about wuk lamat looking up to them as a mentor figure? did this attitude change as the story progressed?

oh gosh....eyrie is hesitant about her looking up to them, because they know they aren't--in their eyes--a good example of what to strive for. being heroic chose them, and even if they are dutiful to a fault, how they have done things in the past aren't particularly admirable. yotsuyu, ysayle, fandaniel and hermes, how things ended with zenos, etc. the ends justify the means to an extent, but it doesn't help them sleep at night, nor be content with wuk lamat looking up to them. their tenaciousness and stubborn successes have all been won at either the person cost of themselves, or someone they care about. it's not all rose colored glasses, and it makes them hesitant when wuk lamat looks to them for guidance. as cruel as it sounds, they would have her make her own mistakes. to make her choices and stand by them. and thankfully she does! she sticks to her principles and she falls down, messes up and kicks herself for it, but nevertheless she keeps going. it's some small blessing that she is so stubborn and pigheaded, or there would be a lot more conflicts of making choices between the two. it's a mentor/mentee relationship of she just needs someone in her corner when things get rough. someone to back her up, and tell her that it's going to be a struggle, but she can handle this. that she needn't bear it alone. it becomes less looking to eyrie for guidance, and more for reassurance. (in a way i do think wuk lamat comes to see a lot of her father in eyrie--how they are cut from similar cloth). ultimately eyrie is okay with having been a mentor to her, but they are more glad that she was making the choices. they know who they are far too well--too guarded, too prone to violence, too stubborn for the good of others and themselves. they might have killed or seriously injured bakool ja ja. they would have come to blows with zoraal ja before everkeep. they would have treated sphene with distrust, and let their preconceptions dictate how they feel about how alexandrians use souls (that later is still something eyrie is incredibly stubborn about). wuk lamat....is so much of a better person than they are, and they are so, so glad for it.

[tritoch]

miscellaneous wol characterization thoughts post-dawntrail

since wolund is supposed to be as close to canon wol as possible i think about this stuff a lot. huge spoilers through the end of 7.0. non-exhaustive list

we're WAY more chilled out now. very consciously avoiding combat or taking up arms until absolutely necessary. in retrospect you could sort of tie that back as far as the endwalker patches so maybe my new canon is now just that wolund lays down his sword after the zenos fight. we're done looking for new fights because we fought our greatest rival at the end of existence in a place made real by our willpower and where we were strengthened by our emotions. the conflagration of our clash scorched even the stars--and now we are kind of burned out!

there's a recurring thing where alisaie keeps saying you should take a break when you've not done any more work than the rest of the team, and there's also the moment where she's like "oof okay. i guess you gotta go into living memory. aight :\" and i think that's fun. as far as scions go this was really her and g'raha's expansion emotionally.

so much of the wol's stuff here is about what you don't do or say. you don't step in during the bakool ja ja fight, either the kidnapping or the wuk lamat fight. during valigarmanda, you very pointedly don't talk about prior experiences fighting primals or even your experience with the auspices, because this is wuk's big moment and you've gotta let her have it. you don't ever draw direct comparisons to emet-selch or other things with wuk lamat when sphene comes up because you're letting her figure things out herself. we've evolved from hot-blooded hero to wizened mentor, and we've gone sharply back to a heavensward-ish number of dialogue options. we're VERY quiet.

the gulool ja ja fight really is the one time you cut loose! and you're explicitly denied the chance to test yourself against him in his prime 1 on 1. there's a subtle undercurrent that basically every single fight in dawntrail is kind of "beneath" the wol in the sense that it doesn't require their exclusive attention in the way that Only You Could Fight Meteion, even if you're clearly the strongest combatant and wuk lamat says they couldn't have beaten zoraal ja without you. no one except gulool ja ja really takes your full measure in this expansion. i think a g'raha-level fighter probably could have helped the wuk lamat team clear everything just fine, and he's definitely supposed to be below you and estinien level even if he's an all-rounder.

that kind of denial of anything truly satisfying on the wol's level...seems very intentional? it's interesting that after the credits you're explicitly like "yeah i'm gonna be outta here soon." shadowbringers you had to resolve the scion's dimension hopping problems, endwalker cuts you off before you can say what's next, but here you're like "yeah this was fun but honestly not that big a deal to me. i like you and i know you think of me as surrogate family after losing your dad and mom and brother but i am in fact gonna bounce." the key is obviously more immediately interesting to the adventurer than anything about tural.

oh my god. oh my god wolund is already a deadbeat dad to a young woman in her 20s. he's gonna ditch wuk lamat too. my god what an asshole. this is so fucking funny.

i think i'm gonna go back and have wolund be a scholar as early as 6.1 and see how that changes things for me. i think i'll find it a lot more satisfying if i'm like "he came to tural because he's done fighting" instead of the "he now loves fighting even more" i'd been carrying through endwalker patches.

[papercrane]

#okay you know what real#I’m obsessed w tumblr discourse about bakool ja ja being focused on his metaphorical truck#ffxiv

Dear im afraid theres no discourse, the other post was me too XD

But Bakool ja ja would NOT have a 4-door pavement princess. He's a hick. He's from a place so rural it has actually absolutely jack fuck. No industry no services a ton of people left for the cities and it's just gotten worse. Whole 9

He'd have the best truck in town but it'd be an absolutely fucked up shitty truck anyway. And he'd rev it for no reason

[ffxivbabey]

Taken

The Third Promise goes missing.

Written for ffxivwrite for the prompt 'taken'.

Grace was beginning to get worried. Wuk Lamat had been gone for some time now, far longer than whatever she had been called away for. Her tail flicked back and forth in agitation, swishing through the rather thick vegetation. Erenville was looking at the path ahead, clearly eager to continue on to Urqopacha, but none of them were willing to leave without their beloved Lamaty'i.

"Something's not right," said Shay, the dark-skinned viera striding forward down the path. "I'm going to ask around, see if anyone knows what happened."

"Then I'm coming with you," Grace declared, joining her girlfriend on the walk back to the village of the moblins. Curiously, though, Redirok, the moblin who had apparently called Wuk Lamat back to the village had not seen hide nor hair of the woman.

"I see," said Shay. Grace grit her teeth, clenching her hands into fists.

"Something must have happened to her on the way back to the village, then," said Grace. "We'll ask around, surely someone must know something."

All clues led to a bandit, and then, naturally, to Bakool Ja Ja, who had his kidnapped victim tied with vines in the middle of a cave where the group had so recently fought a giant green troll that really they could have simply walked around.

"Let her go, Bakool Ja Ja," Grace snapped, the au ra drawing her tathlums and readying to throw one. Bakool Ja Ja laughed, snatching up Wuk Lamat to use her rather smaller body as a shield. The small tokens that she'd been collecting were scattered on the floor, glinting in what light managed to filter in.

"Aww, look at this," Bakool Ja Ja crooned. "The lizard has come to claim her house cat, how sweet." Grace threw a tathlum, which bounced off the head of Resolve. "Hey!"

"Let her go, you massive brute," said Grace, catching her thrown tathlum easily. "Or there's more where that came from." Bakool Ja Ja laughed.

"Well, why not, I've already taken what I needed from her," he said, and tossed her aside, Grace dashing forward to catch her bound girlfriend. Bakool Ja Ja, meanwhile, bent to scoop up his prize, giving a grunt of annoyance as a bullet grazed the back of his great hand. Koana was there, glaring at the brute.

"You leave my sister's things alone, you bully," he demanded. Bakool Ja Ja laughed again, pocketing his prize, though he took only the token from the Feat of Pots and let her keep the others, for a mercy.

"You'll just have to try taking them from me," he sneered at the hhetsarro. "There's nothing in the rules stating that you had to collect them yourself, earn them through the feats."

"That was implied," Wuk Lamat spat, rubbing her wrists after Grace had freed them from the vines. Once her ankles and legs were freed too, she jumped to her feet, hefting her axe, but Bakool Ja Ja and his retinue were already halfway up the ladder, twisting to dodge bullets. At the last, he turned and stuck his tongue out, and that and a flick of his tail were the last the group saw of him.

"Good riddance," said Grace. "But are you alright?" She turned to Wuk Lamat, checking her carefully for injuries.

"I am, but he stole my token," said Wuk Lamat, eyes glimmering with tears. She blinked them away. "But that's okay, I'll just have to get them back!"

"That's the spirit!" said Grace. "And I'll be right there alongside you." Wuk Lamat beamed.

"That's exactly what I thought you'd say," she said. "Alright, shall we get going?"

"If you're sure you're okay," said Koana. Wuk Lamat nodded to her brother.

"Of course," said Wuk Lamat. "But don't think this will make me go easier on you in the next challenge." Koana grinned.

"I never doubted that," said Koana. Not even for a second.

[charlottedabookworm]

Dawntrail Day 2

spoilers up to: lvl 93 msq (including first two dungeons and first trial)

original draft date: 29/6/24

scheduled release for: 27/7/24

time for more msq! only passively leveling picto atm - i ain't dealing with those dps queues - so i'm hoping to reach the first dungeon and trial at least today!

*

sorry wuk lamat but you did tell erenville you’d take any way that was available

*

awww Thancred’s embarrassing koana

*

….i stopped literally ten minutes before the dungeon unlock last night

ten minutes

fucker

*

question (that isn’t gonna be answered for a month lol): does who the cutscene mentions staying behijd change? cos i’m on drg and ali is staying behind but if i was a healer would it be alphi? or can alphi or wuk lamat switch out for dps on this trust dungeon?

…they probably just flex wuk lamat or alphi thinking about it

*

okay wow hi i hate that

*

sorry wuk lamat we’ll get you a rest soon let me just drive all over the zone collecting aether currents first

*

yeah but neither do your brothers

you heard even koana: he doesn’t see rhe point or ihih’hana when there are simpler ways to revitalise the soils aether. why care about tradition when you can have efficiency?

you want to learn wuk lamat and that’s the important part

*

the boy is just so damn pretty

*

i don’t care how villainous you are you do not take a seat at a cafe for your top secret villain meeting and then not at least order drinks

fucks sake support local businesses damn it

*

“As long as you cover my teleportation fees”

“…what is a teleportation?”

I’m dying-

*

time to get my arse handed to me in a spar with gulool ja ja!

*

fucking hell i was not expecting that active time maneuver to go so hard

fun fight tho not really hard but definitely has you bouncing around a lot

*

that none of them are ready for the throne?

yeah clocked that

but then that’s what this rite is for yeah? to teach them and see who will be ready

*

sareel ja is giving me major mad scientist vibes ngl

i am very worried about what he’s gonna get up to

maybe the true villain? he’s almost certainly gonna end up tossing aside zoraal ja at some point

*

damn she missed

*

i hate follow quests

doesn’t matter what game just hate

*

TWO????

there’s a second one?!?!?!

*

oh hey! nice!

we haven’t had a race speak a different language since the dragons iirc!

i mean these guys can speak both and are gonna try and kill us almost certainly but! own language!

*

wait what-

another dungeon already?

i know they do them on odd quests but still it hardly feels like any time has passed since the last dungeon esp when i played eight hours yesterday without hitting the first one

*

okay i’m digging the music in worqor zormor

*

rdm confirmed as a healer class square said it first

*

annnd valigarmanda is free

i’m not saying i’m blaming bakool ja ja despite having no evidence but

*

i were fucking right

*

that has to disqualify them right?

like bakool ja ja has to be disqualified from the rite for freeing valigarmanda right?

*

koana’s back!

i’d say they were gonna let us do trust for the trial but alphi isn’t here-

zoraal ja? huh

really expected him to have left tbh

maybe trust is back on the table then? but still no second healer (except for healer rdm ali who doesn’t steal the lb)

*

duty support yes!

i love it when they do this for trials!

*

….how tf did we get onto this platform? I see no way up in the slightest

yes i am typing this while standing in front of valigarmanda i’m on trust they’ll wait

*

huh

no idea if this is a trust trial thing? so you have a chance to learn from your mistakes? or if it’s supposed to be for everyone and it’s only showing on me cos of trusts

but also the trial was fun and can’t wait to see how the extreme ends up

*

i do appreciate that wuk lamat is basically the only one makinh friends so she’s (seemingly) the only one getting all these golden city lore dumps

*

flying unlocked for urqopacha and kozama’uka!

*

so i've been thinking aobut it for an hour or so (dog walk) and it's occurred to me what i found odd about this part of the msq

dawntraal bucks a trend that's been in every ffxiv expansion

we've had at least a single split zone since heavensward (sea of clouds) and two in every expansion since: the peaks and the fringes for stormblood, kholusia and amh areng in shadowbringers, and labyrinthos and thavnair in endwalker

dawntrail doesn't buck the trend here with urqopacha and kozama'uka

but in every previous expansion, those split zones were some of the first, usually the first, zones we visited. we explored half of them. we left and the msq continued on, we visited 1-3 other zones, and then we return once more late into the expansion to explore the other half of the zones. it has been this way in every expansion

except for dawntrail

dawntrail starts exactly were you expect, esp after shb and ew, you start the msq. the msq splits along two paths. those paths introduce the split zones. the msq remerges and continues

only instead of taking you to the third zone, as anyone who'd played the previous expansions would except, dawntrail immediately takes you back

urqopacha and kozama'uka are the two first zones you visit and then you go back and explore the other half and there are still four zones left to visit and i-

i'm really curious as to how this will change things. usually split zones are both beginning and almost endgame zones (usually place directly before the final zone in more recent expansions) so now that they are fully beginning zones what does that mean?

will this be the new trend now or is are they gonna change it up every expansion? is this just something for dawntrail?

idk and it probably means absolutely nothing but it's interesting