#as a whole it is THE whole of final fantasy and i just. hold ffxiv in such a huge regard

[veiledfox]

} There really is something to good music making things memorable

[noxtivagus]

me when me when ffxiv orchestra.. hdfklasdjflskdfjasdflk

[liketheinferno2]

These aren't full ref sheets but I was trying to take some clear pictures of Hephaistos for later art reasons and then got side tracked doing all of the Pandaemonium bosses so here they are in order. Also for anyone following who doesn't play FFXIV and knows it as the catgirl game, enjoy this instead? VISUAL SPOILERS obviously.

Asphodelos

Warder of the Condemned: Erichthonios

Mythic Creation: The Hippokampos

Mythic Creation: The Phoinix

(+ familiars)

Hemitheos: Hesperos

(+ sexy fanfic redesign by Nemjiji)

To be brutally honest I never really liked either of these designs compared to every other Hemitheos we get, I think the really brutal black and red of the Phoinix is weakened by gold accents, but I still am always down for gay vampire surf rock. The Savage version kind of looks like Ultimalius as well if you've played XVI.

Abyssos

Mythic Creation: Proto-Carbuncle

Hrgrhhgrhrgrh

Hemitheos: Hegemone

^ My favourite detail on this is you can see the parasite's outlines in her robes and in her legs, then right through the eye holes on the mask to wrap around the torso. I'm convinced this version of Hegemone is functionally an ant being piloted by a cordyceps infection.

Hemitheos: Agdistis

She's very big

Perfect Imperfection: Hephaistos

I'm probably biased by Abyssos being the first raid I was there for day of release but these really are all fantastic. It's also when the story abandons all pretense of not being (at least partly) about family abuse and is loudly using the body horror and shackle motifs to talk about that. It's great. Hephaistos specifically is constantly bulging and twisting in and out of different forms like a highly unstable chimera and the more I look at these the more I notice parts that just should not be there. He's giving everything.

As for the Savage design It's a hard thing to rate as such but my favourite part is the veins that grow down from the eyeholes in his mask like bloody tears.

Thanks Abyssos I love you

Anabaseios

Mythic Creation: Kokytos

Dæmoniac Dungeon: Pandæmonium

It's really hard to communicate how huge this nasty tumor crab I zoomed out as far as physically possible in the game engine and subsequently ended up at a goofy angle staring up his nose.

Ephemeral Justice: Themis

Best boy. The double ended lance and second pair of arms are fantastic for this character.

Theos: Athena

In.. almost every final fantasy adventure you're fighting the real villain not at the very end but a little beforehand, the big iconic end boss is often more a metaphorical figure representing everything wrong with that first person's ideals. Athena cut out the middle man and became her own JENOVA.

I do like the moth angel, especially the hollow body full of dubious orbs, but with her eyes closed all the time it gives off the impression of this not even being the true body but some kind of anglerfish lure in the shape of a fairy... which might be true because this exists:

I really really love her twitchy anemone feelers and how the moth body ends up grafted to the rest of it waist down.

Anyway there's the gang I did not specifically intend for this to be design reviews I just wanted to have clear photos because when you actually see them in game there's other things to focus on. In hindsight I can appreciate more the theming of each tier and then the series as a whole, but my only (extremely obvious) observation for now is that every character Athena had a personal hold over is decorated in chains somehow and so I should have seen the Hegemone thing coming lmao. Heph and Aggy are still my favourites I don't think that's changing any time soon. I'm also noticing that Anabaseios is now just old enough for random DF parties to fuck up severely and I find that fun so I'm going to go fight the crab mansion now.

[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

[achromant]

hello, I just followed for your orctober stuff and scrolled through some of your blog and wanted to ask, what is guild wars 2?

OOOH BOY HERE I GO! ahem.

Guild Wars 2 is a high fantasy MMO, similar to maybe Final Fantasy Online. Guid Wars as a series is about as old as World of Warcraft, but has a much smaller fanbase; mostly because the company behind it, ArenaNet, seems to be allergic to advertisements (it's gotten better since the last two expansions).

These days, the core game is free, with only the expansions costing money. Well, some expansions, as they just throw in older expacs for free now. Even if you start with a free account, you can technically buy an upgrade by just... using ingame currency, which is a WILD concept to me.

Most notable features of the game are probably the character customization, free dyeing of armor, and a few thousand unique armor and weapon skins. Players often joke that the true endgame of GW2 is fashion (and they are RIGHT goddamnit). All five playable races are so ridiculously detailed in lore and design, it's incredible. Sylvari for example are not plain elves, they are full on plant constructs that grow from fruits on the mother tree. Asura are not just gnomes/goblins, they are a highly educated society of geniuses that would openly strive for world domination if it werent for their inherent bureaucratic tendencies.

The mounts in GW2 are among the best you will find anywhere, so much that World of Warcraft just copied some for their Dragonflight expansion.

Guild Wars 2 has a medium sized active player base, smaller than WoW or FFXIV, but they are an amazing community. We have veteran players, including me, who routinely patrol the starter maps to offer advice and maybe some healing to newbies (supported by the ingame mentor system). You might receive random mail from players gifting some cake. There's festivals, community parties, role playing, fashion contests, races and minigames.

If you are a seasoned MMO player, GW2 offers raids and the smaller strike system, which is being constantly expanded. Extreme MMO experts might find the game a bit flat, but that's only superficial. For beginners, I'd say the story is beatifully written. You can explore the open world, meeting players along the way (every map holds around 50-80 player at a time). You can choose any class and complete any content, including endgame. Any class, any race, (almost) any playstyle is viable, and nothing about your build is permanent, you can adjust your whole build on the fly.

Aside from the obvious MMO parts, GW2 also has structured PvP (5 vs 5 players) and the so called World vs World, which is a large scale week-long epic battle of three teams of around 50 players on each side (which btw is not as draining on the CPU as you'd think)

If you plan on giving it a try, I'd be more than happy to give you a more detailed overview of the game. This little chaotic hellhole of an MMO is very dear to my heart <3

This is by the way for ANYONE reading this: If any of you want to try the game, hit me up. DM me here on tumblr, or on discord (@ achromant). Even if you already play the game and are still new or just lost - ask me anything you want. I have close to 18k ingame hours.

[plothooksinc]

Tagged by @loadthebases

Turns out if I search by mentions I can find it immediately! I'm so clever. (And yet. I only just went "oh hey".)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

22! I am not as prolific as some-- a lot of these are one shots. |D And most of them are ancient.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

475,671!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The fandoms I write for that are published are Rurouni Kenshin, Final Fantasy VII, and TMNT '03, '07, and ROTTMNT. Unpublished I also have One Piece, Tiger & Bunny, SPN, FFXIV, annnd The Untamed, most of these just being snippets etc etc. (And then RP is another bag entirely, writing in a different format-- you can include Blade of the Immortal that way.)

4. Top five fics by kudos?

It was only recently I managed to clock the 1000 mark, and I did it on two fics at once, lmao. Uhhh--

Underdark - 1089!

No Rest For The Weary - ....1089. (You guys really are neck and neck still.)

The Zaibatsu Project - 291

Some Rest For The Weary. As A Treat. - 221

Snowblind - 174

Not altogether that bad, considering Ruroken is such a dead fandom these days. /o/

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yup. Unless someone is leaving a whole stream of one word OMG/!!!!/EEEK in which I'll probably just answer the last one they left. I did go through a very long period where I did not because I was too tired, but I started again around the 2020 mark when I actually started reading fanfiction again. And started engaging, etc etc.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I write angsty endings? :|a 404 File Not Found. I think the closest I got was the tiny ficlet I wrote for Ruroken which was just Kenshin being depressed in the rain after Tomoe's death, and I'm not sure that really counts. That was like three paragraphs of "well my life sucks" lmao. It never made it to AO3. (It's on ff dot net still, though.)

...OH. But I can tell you which one's going to have the angstiest ending and that's The Legacy. Which given the last chapter I had finished with Raph holding onto his dead not!girlfriend, I would assume most readers are not gonna be surprised by this fact. (File Soon* To Be Found.)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Idk man I tend to angle for happy endings in general, so that is very hard to answer as it comes under YMMV - people have different views of happy endings, after all. Probably Underdark as the most distinct "Yes, everything is okay now" ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nah, not really. I did have one serial reviewer that reviewed every chapter of Tanabata Jasmine back in the day with a lot of backhanded compliments and condescending comments? And one person who started off reviewing Misconduct with "well my friend told me to read this" and two chapters later said "okay I'm bored now bye", but none of this is hate. The only actual "hate" I got given was not actually ...for me? I don't think? It was someone who literally said: Why did you delete your slave fics? BITCH!! And I'm like... I have not now nor will i ever write... one of those...? So yeah. Think they mistook me for another author or something. Maybe Kikide. EH. Not my division.

9. Do you write smut?

Nah.

10. Craziest crossover?

Zaibatsu Project is a Rurouni Kenshin/Cyberpunk 2020 crossover, so that's taking all your 19th century samurai types and ditching them wholesale into 2029 Tokyo. It's fun. Maybe one day I will even write more of it.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Outright? I don't think so. Buuut I've certainly had people ping me in the past to tell me someone's lifted a chunk of it wholesale or "they've written Snowblind, only with smut!" or there was one person who wrote a BNHA fic which followed the same plot of Underdark complete with dialogue borrowed directly from the fic. That last one I contacted the author and they apologised and offered to take the fic down and I told them they could keep it up provided they credit me for the inspiration somewhere. I'm sure by now some AI has scraped my stuff, but largely I write in fandoms that don't get lifted and sold like others do. And honestly, the above examples are more kinda flattering than anything else.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I believe most of my longer works have been translated into Russian, at the very least. I found Tanabata Jasmine back in the day being re-released onto a Russian forum site and I had a lot of fun translating the site to read responses (and laugh a bit at the machine translations because they kept telling me the readers were legless). Underdark has for sure. I've also found Snowblind.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I wrote a few pages of one with @shadowbends at one point! But we didn't get far in and we both got distracted with other projects. And I also wrote half a fic to set up the other half for an author, but she didn't end up going ahead. Alas. So.... kind of?

14. All time favourite ship?

I'm honestly not much of a shipper. I mean-- actually, I ship a lot of different pairings, but only kind of superficially for the most part? Like I really enjoy reading ships but I still vastly prefer gen. I will very rarely read an outright romance fic, there's gotta be a plot. (Or at the very least some interesting smut, god.) It's easier for me to point out ships that make me go UGH GOD NO rather than a preference. (In RP I'll ship a little more if the dynamics between our characters work out really well, but I still won't be crushed if nothing comes from it. This is a hard question for me to answer. I definitely don't have an all time favourite in this lukewarm pile of ships, that's for sure.)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Any of the WIPs that I have that I never bothered publishing have been abandoned. Anything I want to finish will get finished. It will just take some time. This is assuming I have a long life; I mean, if I'm scheduled to die, say, three years from now, the only thing that might get finished is Infinite Ricochet, lmao.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Action scenes! /o/ Pacing and tension. The most common review I get is from people vibrating from delighted stress, lmao.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Connective tissue. I can get really bogged down in getting from A to B. You can really see it in the early days of a fic where I'm still writing set up and wondering how to scale up realistically to the things I really want to write. Once everything starts going wrong, it gets much easier, rofl.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Depends on context. Like many I started writing fanfic at the time people tried to pepper as much Japanese into their dialogue as possible for realism or brownie points or whathaveyou - you can see that in my first fic on ff dot net lmaooo. Don't do this. Not unless you have a foreign phrase that just loses its flavour when translated through to English. Or, alternatively, when you actually have a non-English character who keeps dropping into their own language, or some try hard teenager who keeps trying to show off how much Spanish they know, as an example. There are always reasons to do so and reasons it will work. But if you're just going "LOOK AT THE WORDS I KNOW"... I recommend not doing so, you will look back years later and go "oh god".

19. First fandom you wrote in?

....look, technically the first fandom I wrote in was Inspector Gadget self insert fic. But I was nine so I feel I should not be judged. /cough

First time I sat down to write an actual story that was based off a show was for the old Defenders of the Earth cartoon while I was ...15? And then when I moved out my one sofa chair was surrounded by notepads as I wrote out my first 1987 TMNT fanfic. I didn't know it was called fanfic back then. In fact I didn't know anyone else did it at all and I was just weird. Please understand that when I got onto the web proper in the late 90s and found fanfic sites I was over the moon.

20. Favourite fic you've written?

It's gotta be Underdark. That thing is its own island by now. It's closely followed by the more recent There Is No Gravy, which much like Underdark wrote itself and also ended up far longer than I intended. It was just fun. It was a soft warm hug for the Rise fandom, okay, I love it.

Thank you! This was fun to reminisce about tbh. :D

I tag: @calliopechild, @radishhqueen, and @bobtheacorn ♥ No pressure, have at it if you like

* please note that the author's definition of soon may vary to yours. She has 13 year breaks between chapters sometimes, after all.

[yuri-is-online]

Saturday Night Question (MMO AU)

a/n: Inspired by Recovery of an MMO Junkie and that bit of Ch. 6 where Idia assigns all the OB Boys rpg classes. Title comes from the op track which I highly recommend. (x) Loose modern au, NRC is an actual college everyone attends and Grim is still a talking cat-weasel-monster. Not everyone knows each other IRL so expect some minor catfishing. The MMO is based off of Final Fantasy XIV and will contain references to class and game mechanics but no spoilers.

For those unfamiliar with FFXIV chats

[FC] <Tempura Kun> this is the guild chat. Everyone in the guild can see this.

Tempura Kun >> this is a whisper, only two people can see this

[NOVICE] Tempura Kun: this is the novice network for mentors, only Riddle can see this

[Tempura Kun] if someone is texting it will be portrayed like this.

LFM- STYX (FC) recruiting, static needs a pure healer/off tank. Serious offers only.

Your buddy Epel talks you into trying critically acclaimed mmo First Fantasia because it has a thirty day free trial with unlimited game time and includes the first expansion as a joke but as college gets more stressful and you struggle to make irl connections it becomes your personal safe haven. You finally work up the nerve to join a guild and find yourself stuck in the middle of a really familiar set of egos. At least you're having fun.

Tempura Kun| lalafell| white mage/omni-crafter| Yu (you)

A college student living in a haunted mansion their dead beat dad's "renovating." You are only really interested in crafting after being really burned out on hardcore raiding from your last MMO, but agree to sub for heals so Epel can replace the group's usual off tank who's taking a hiatus. That and Gloomurai agreed to let you decorate the FC house, how could you refuse?

Granny Smith| male roegadyn| dark knight| Epel Felmier

One of your friends from class. Mannon keeps mailing him fantasia and insisting he change his race but he's really attached to how muscular this lets him be. He really just wants to play for fun, but he's super competitive and is super eager to try out harder content to "prove how manly he is."

Gloomy Samurai| female miqo'te| samurai| Idia Shroud

The leader of the fc and the person who runs the discord. Extreeeeeemely blunt to the point of being a bit unpleasant and downright scary. You're pretty sure they only let you join to get access to more pictures of Grim and because Epel's friends with the main tank. Super funny for someone so terminally online, but you are beginning to suspect they just- don't have a life outside of gaming.

Jude Bellerose| male hyur| black mage| Riddle Rosehearts

Knows the mechanics for every single fight in game and is scarily efficient at his rotation. Also extremely inflexible and refuses to adjust for a n y o n e, but blames the wipe on everyone else because he knew the mechanics so why don't you? Pretty sure he broke a keyboard while trying to clear the last raid tier.

Vivat Rex| male miqo'te| reaper| Leona Kingscholar

Rex plays this game for triple triad like a true king and is only kept on the static for his consistent dps. Claims that he doesn't pay attention to the discord but he knows everything everyone says in there anyway and responds any time someone vaguely mentions him. Likes to mess with Jude and is not above causing a wipe to out dps him.

Snake Whisper| male au ra| dancer| Jamil Viper

He has every single non-crafter class leveled and knows their rotation. Refuses to play anything other than dancer because he hates people pulling logs and enjoys holding dance partner over the other dps's heads. Likes to post pictures of his cooking in the discord and has his spotify linked to his account. Surprisingly willing to swap recipes if you ask, provided you promise to not give them to Nautilus.

Mannon Du Luc| male elezen| paladin| Vil Schoenheit

Epel's online friend who he says he hates but you're pretty sure he admires a whole lot. He's playing this game for glam, his dresser is maxed out with almost every limited piece ever added. He has completed every single piece of extreme content for the glam without being carried and expects the same level of competence from his off tank. Super nice to you though, he always coms his healers.

Nautilus Noise| male viera| sage| Azul Ashengrotto

Raid leader who does the call outs with Snake Whisper. Claims to be irl friends with Gloomurai but neither of them ever talk about their personal lives so who knows. Has ff logs installed and will pull them to... critique the other static members. You are 99.9999% sure he's playing the market board with 8 retainers but lack concrete proof. At least you can make him shut up if you compliment him.

[minti-tales]

FFXIV Write, Day 26 - Last

I am the Bad Wolf.

Contains spoilers for patch 6.0, Endwalker, and the Dark Knight quests of Final Fantasy XIV. Events are adjusted for ease of narration. Some dialogue is borrowed from in game.

CW: Mental Health

-----

(The Knightly Mother) It is done. At the end of all things, it is finally done. Zenos yae Galvus breathes no more.

(The Royal Volunteer) Last one standing, alright, lads! Good damned riddance comin' from all a' us, I say. Right bastard put up a hell of a fight, but we did the same, didn't we? All that trainin' paid off. I think this dark knight, Greene Knight, whatever ye want to call it business, we got it figured out. Can't wait to get back to home and…oh, hells. We're hurtin' again.

Hey! Artist! The hell's goin' on with us?

(The Artist) We just fought one of the most powerful Garleans in existence, what do you think? I'm doing everything I can to keep her stabilised. Good news, she's a lot more tough than she used to be. Bad news, I can't see a way home. Nothing but emptiness.

(The Royal Volunteer) No shite we're tough, we're the bloody Warrior of Light and a bloody tank, too. You know our job is to be at the center a' things, man. An' another thing, I- What's that you said? Nothing?

(The Artist) No stars, nothing. Just us and him, and he's dying. Wait. Someone else. A…girl? There's a girl, dressed in blue, and she's got feathers? She's walking towards us.

(Steel Queen) I can detect no weapons on their person. No threat in the immediate area.

(The Artist) Thank you, that's very helpful.

(Steel Queen) Sarcasm detected.

(The Artist) I am beyond getting baited into banter with you, Queen.

-----

(Meteion) Greetings, you who are my final encounter. I wish to hear your words. Share your feelings. Know your thoughts.

May we please…be friends?

In all but a moment, the familiar known as Meteion felt herself become engulfed by a great rush of water. It wasn't scary, not at all - the water was quite nice, and the sun shone so bright! It was almost like dipping her feet into a pool with the ambystomas Hythlodaeus enjoyed so much.

Come towards the light, beautiful bird. We are waiting for you, came the warm whisper of a fiery ballerina.

Quick as a frilled fish, Meteion rose to the surface of the water and, by the magic of dreams and thought, flew to cloudless azure skies.

What beautiful sights awaited her, below. Soaring mountains, verdant forests, cities both tall and wide. Rivers and seas, and islands, and-!

This is Etheirys, our home, and yours, a noble knight's voice whispered.

A long journey we've had, on this mudball of a planet. Sadness, and joy, and hope. We've had it all, whispered the gruff voice of a soldier.

(Meteion) So many people… The thoughts of them overflowing in your heart…What they live for, what gives their lives meaning. There was never a single answer.

Variable, unable to be quantified, stated a metallic queen's voice matter-of-factly. Life is precious. A resource to be treasured.

(Meteion) Thank you for guiding me here. To find these words at journey's end fills me with joy.

We are the Choir. We are Ourself. We are a gift from Hydaelyn that weighs heavily, and yet, as it should, whispered a warrior with honor in their heart. To know us is to know The Mother Crystal. We are the voices that speak with no sound. We love, we weep, we toil, we live. We live.

(Meteion) If you would allow it, I would sing one last song. A song of the newfound joy that swells in my heart. A song of hope.

(The Knightly Mother) Take my hands and sing with us, dear child. Let me hold you as I once did my daughter, if you will let me.

(Meteion) Yes, I would like that.

Somewhere, high up in the golden heavens of thought, Herme's familiar sang a song of creation, flanked by a whole masked Chorus.

-----

"Are you…are you with us? Thank the heavens, she's alive!"

[evilpenguinrika]

i know i'm like the only person raving on about Hosie/FFXIV AU but like it has been brought to my attention by... well... me, after watching this very immersive and fun retelling of the Eden Story from Shadowbringers (uh, super heavy spoilers for the Final Fantasy 14 story and lore if whoever reads this does play the mmorpg game, so uh, tread carefully?) that Hope and Josie could potentially have a Ryne and Gaia story that you follow in Eden Story

Now. Mind you--I have only made it into Heavensward, which is the second expac in FFXIV, meaning I have a very very long way to go until I meet Ryne (I already know who she is but not who she is if that makes sense). But from that video I watched, I think it would be a very interesting take to see Hope and Josie be Ryne and Gaia.

Though I'm not sure who would be who, like I think the "obvious clear cut" choice would be Josie is Ryne and Hope is Gaia--because Ryne is the Oracle of Light while Gaia is the Oracle of Darkness. Josie has a light that she carries with her and sees the good in people and always goes to bat for the people she cares for. Hope has a trail of death and darkness following her everywhere because of who she is, what she is, and who her family is. So, yeah, the obvious choice in this AU would be Josie is Ryne and Hope is Gaia. Josie does her best to befriend Hope--who wants nothing to do with Josie or anyone else.

But I think another interesting aspect is to switch it to where Hope is Ryne and Josie is Gaia. I say this because even if Hope is always going to have this trauma and darkness following her everywhere, I personally feel like she still sees the hope in things and in people. Whereas Josie I kind of chose because it would fit really well with her stint with Dark Josie. Where Dark Josie is in it for herself, is self-preserving, trying to prove that she's better and can do everything herself without needing anyone there to hold her hand. But like will eventually warm up to people... Probably... (Though probably only if that person is Hope lol)

ALSO, it REMINDS ME A LOT of the whole Dark Josie storyline and Hope never gave up on her in bringing Josie back and then did the head dive into Josie's mind to bring Josie back--like that storyline was what made me think of writing this post bc of what happens with Ryne and Gaia.

ALSO ALSO. Ryne's a ginger, Hope's an auburn. Gaia has black hair (and gothgirl), Josie/Dark Josie is a brunette/dark hair (and gothgirl). Also Hope is short like Ryne and Josie/Dark Josie is tall like Gaia.

THE SIMILARITIES!!!!!

Okay. I may be reaching too much lol. I also had an incredibly full day of going to the drivers place to renew my licence and then doing some shopping and errands and panic when I couldn't find one of my debit cards so this entire post probably is just jargon of incoherent bs but that's okay

as I'm ending this, I realize I have no idea where I was actually going with this post other than "this idea has been cooking in my noggin I Must Speak Upon It". So, here it is. A Hosie FFXIV AU--specifically Eden Story AU--where Hope and Josie play the roles of Ryne and Gaia (the Oracle of Light and Oracle of Darkness) because I, Rika, cannot wait to get to Shadowbringers so I can do the Eden Story raid and finally meet these two cutie girlfriends and continue to connect parallels to Hosie

[absyntthe]

People you want to get to know tag game

Was tagged by @layalu :3

Last Song: I've been listening to a lot of video game soundtracks. I think the very last thing I listened to was Bismarck's theme from FFXIV. I think it's really neat that the boss themes in FFXIV aren't what you'd expect from boss music. Bismarck had no right to be that groovy btw. I don't know if that's the case across the rest of the Final Fantasy series as I've only played 14 & uhh Kingdom Hearts idk if that counts lol. I also have been listening to a Resident Evil Chill playlist on Spotify.

Favorite Color: You cannot ask an artist this. You just can't. I love all colors idk if that's a cop out LOL. It's probably easier for me to tell you the colors I don't like.

Last Movie/Show: I don't watch a whole lot of stuff. I think the last movie I watched was My Big Fat Greek Wedding with my one IRL. And the last show I watched was The Walking Dead with an internet friend. I kind of view watching shows and movies as a group activity I suppose? It's hard for me to sit down and watch something all the way through on my own, which is wild because I used to binge TV shows on my own when I was a teen. Plugging my Letterbox'd.

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: Maybe I'm just an indecisive person because I can't answer this one either. I think right now I prefer savory or spicy more. I eat way too many sweets and I need to cut down on that but they're the only easily-grabbable snack foods we have in the house rn 😩

Relationship Status: In a relationship.

Last Thing I Googled: Urth's Fount boss guide. It's an FFXIV base game boss and I am queueing up for it atm (been waiting for AN HOUR because it's dead content). I need it for my Wondrous Tails quest book tho 😩 As I was writing this post one of the DPS's gave up waiting...I will never forget u queue friend

Current Obsession: FFXIV i dunno if you can tell... 👉👈 I'm still sporadically playing Palia (and running a blog for it) My Dragon Age playthrough with the bf is kind of on hold because we're obsessed with/playing different games atm

Last Book: I've been trying to read more this year because after college I just don't read books anymore :( I'm currently reading Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar. I'm not religious by any means but I've found myself scrolling through Fundiesnark content and researching fundamentalist religions and cults the past few years. (they're scary)

Looking Forward To: I started up my rock-tumbling hobby again, so I'm looking forward to Wednesday when I get to check them! They will more than likely need to go through stage 1 again but it's cool checking on them and recognizing the rocks through each cycle. Also looking forward to TWD: The Ones Who Live in February, and D&D kicking back up with my group on Saturday.

Tag nine people whose answers you are interested in!

I get so nervous about tagging people. If we're mutuals consider yourself tagged.

Totally forgot to add a blank, here it is:

Last Song:

Favorite Color:

Last Movie/Show:

Sweet/Spicy/Savory:

Relationship Status:

Last Thing I Googled:

Current Obsession:

Last Book:

Looking Forward To:

[justcaytlin]

Oh yeah, one good thing about moving back to Tumblr is I can chronicle my FFXIV D&D group much easier!

I'm DMing a campaign where I run my friends through the ARR story (and eventually the rest of MSQ, but one bite at a time, eh?) and we've just started.

Prior to the campaign, I put together a 123-page PDF player's guide for them, as they are unfamiliar with Final Fantasy in general and also to convert lore into D&D mechanics. Rather than taking the homebrew route of creating all the jobs/classes from whole cloth, we converted existing D&D classes into FFXIV flavor.

The PDF also contains custom backgrounds, "This Is Your Life" from Xanathar's Guide but Eorzea-ized, and of course races (tweaked from someone else's homebrew, which is linked in the document).

Of course the PDF is already out of date because that's how these things go, but it's still, like, 99% good.

June was a feverish month of creation LOL

Anyway, here's our intrepid party:

Maeda Matsu (Matsu is her given name) is our Au Ra White Mage (Druid of Stars 2/Cleric of Life X, a Hydaelyn cleric). Barry Spalding (Barius) is our Garlean Gunbreaker (Artificer Armorer). And Sayonji Himemiya is our Red Mage (Wizard Bladesinger).

The First Rising

The first two sessions, I wanted to introduce them to the setting, its characters, its story, etc, and also help them kind of get a feel for their party dynamic. So I set it during the very first annual Rising Festival after the Calamity. For funsies, I decided it would be held at the Gold Saucer, because of course Godbert would hold the first Rising Festival in an attempt to reunify people and bring joy to those who were hurting.

I played the ARR trailer video up until the end of the Calamity, narrating over it and what was happening so they could get the emotional enormity of what had happened.

Then I spent time with each character, doing some story RP with them that explained their normal circumstances and how they got to the festival. Matsu's flighty, flaky mom wanted to take her to the cool new festival. Matsu's a Sharlayan Scholar, and Krile is her mentor, so I had Krile give her a Twilight Sparkle-esque assignment: go have fun and make some friends.

Barry was tagging along to his brother's friend's bachelor party, which was a dumbass stunt of "tee hee let's sneak into savage Eorzea in disguise and have our party at their casino!" They basically brought Barry along because he's sorta always the hanger-on, and his brother Nero thought it would be hilarious to get his baby brother drunk as a skunk in Eorzea. Shortly after arriving, they basically abandoned him to go have fun themselves.

Sayonji is a neglected lil baby whose mother was one of the Company of Heroes, but vanished when he was a child. His father then vanished with the other Warriors of Light during the Calamity. He puts on airs of arrogance and being full of himself to hide his hurt. A traveling bard, Temur Himemiya, came to his town of Summerford to talk about the Rising Festival. Sayonji fell *instantly* in love (hence, taking on the bard's last name) and declared right then and there he'd be an adventurer too. He went to the festival riding high on being ~in love~.

He was 15.

How It Went

They met and had a blast doing a bunch of party games. They competed against Yda and Papalymo in the obstacle course up Mount Corel, doing the limit break mechanic to launch Sayonji to the finish line.

They had an astrologian read their fortunes using the Tarokka deck (especially since my husband had already coded up a really cool tarokka reading table). Barry is 100% sure it's fluff and nonsense because lol being in the middle of a corrupt regime??? what lol??? He's a soft baby boy.

Sayonji started to cotton on that Barry might be a Garlean. Most especially because he was weirdly neurotic about keeping his dumb pirate bandanna on over his forehead.

They made contact with a pair of extremely arrogant 11 year old Sharlayan twins whom Matsu had seen around the Studium.

Suddenly, a *tower of light* appeared in Event Square and Godbert made a big show of it, like, OH NO, HEROES, WHAT DO WE DOOOOO, GATHER IN PARTIES OF NO MORE OR LESS THAN FIVE PEOPLE PLEASE THANK YOU

They nabbed Alphinaud and Alisaie as their fourth and fifth (the twins had been arguing with Godbert that they should be allowed to run the tower on their own because they were PRODIGIES) and entered.

The whole tower was an exercise in getting to know your party:

A philosophical discussion with a couple of moogles about what to do if you find a Garlean baby in a camp after you've killed all the soldiers. (Party was solidly in the Don't Kill the Baby camp) The only goal here was to come to a party consensus.

A room where a freaky candy was created to represent each person's deepest fears. You had to eat someone else's candy and be in their shoes for a little Echo scene. Note, they had to attune to a crystal, and Barry could not. He was trying and panicking, and Godbert basically was like "Oh oops it must be on the fritz :D" and had it generate an appropriate chocolate. Matsu learned that Barry is a Garlean, and both Matsu and Sayonji came to the conclusion that he is a soft sweet boy and not a spy, and also he has a shitty family.

A room where you had to speak out loud your worst flaw, and someone else had to talk about how they'd be able to compensate for that flaw. Heroes should be able to lift each other up! Speaking your flaw would summon a platform that would help build a bridge across a chasm, and having it compensated for would stabilize it enough to be able to stand on it.

At this point, both Alisaie and Sayonji were commiserating on "WHAT IS THIS UNAGREED UPON GROUP THERAPY BULLSHIT"

Final room was a fight against Mama Moogle (fat moogle) and her moogley minions. Lots of goofy combat, and they knocked Mama Moogle so hard she quit early.

They got lil plastic medals that, when pressed, would do the tinny victory theme. They say "I survived the Tower of Light at the first annual Rising Festival!" on them. Super gaudy.

Everyone parted ways a bit sadly, assuming they'd never see each other again. Matsu gave Barry a lil kiss in hopes of impressing his jackass brother and friends.

And Then The Call

Last session, I had another round of "here's what you've been doing ever since that day." Matsu had realized her mother was a flake when her mom casually dropped that Matsu was a foundling and didn't seem to get that this was Big News to her. Sayonji had been adventuring, and by adventuring, I mean being a gal friday for Bentbranch. Barry was busy trying to experiment on solidifying the gunblade and the art of gunbreaking.

Matsu was in the middle of discussing with her father and Krile about trying to become a cleric of Hydaelyn, and then breaking the news that she knew about her birth, when her vision blurred and she blacked out.

Sayonji ran into Temur again, was horribly embarrassed that he hadn't done hardly enough, Temur composed a little ditty on the spot about him helping little old ladies, and Sayonji blacked out.

Barry was walking through Ala Mhigo with his brother when Nero got into a spat with a little girl and her mother, and when the girl attacked him, Nero reacted without thinking and went to rifle-butt-smack her in the face. Barry intervened and blacked out.

They all had a joint vision of themselves in a floating void -- the others were glowing light figures, like the Warriors of Light -- and they got to see themselves as max level as a lil glowing light did the Hear, Feel, Think shtick.

Then they saw the glowing orb start to bleed black mist and shrivel, and an Ascian appeared, picked up the orb, and crumpled it in his fist. Then he shot away, and the three of them were able to give chase and limit break him into non-existence.

When they woke up, they all basically got lil scenes that got them to a boat. Barry asked his brother to cover for him while he went "field testing" and Nero took this to mean he wanted to basically do Garlean Rumspringa and also probably do some casual murdering of Eorzean soldiers, which is a-okay in his book. Nero gave him the thumbsup. Krile was excited about the vision, and Matsu's dad was worried. They urged her to start adventuring, and Krile offered to put in an appointment with Baderon at the Adventurer's Guild in Limsa. Sayonji told Temur about his vision and got a lil ditty in compensation.

It's worth noting right about now that I've been making quest plates for them, so they can keep track of the long-term questions.

Anyway, they all got on their boats. Sayonji and Barry had about a month on the boat together to catch up (Barry was a stowaway). They met Matsu in the Cieldalaes, where Limsa customs is presently, since the Yellowjackets are buttoning up everything in response to a spate of kidnappings.

They met Brennan, the friendly peddler, who chatted with them and asked them why they were adventuring and whatnot.

THEN PIRATES ATTACKED, and we stopped for the day.

Whew

Most of these writeups won't be this long, since they won't encompass THREE SESSIONS plus setup, but at least I have something I can point to now lol

[elizabethrobertajones]

While playing my Melly WoL I'm thinking hard about her story, both the original novels I've written 1000 drafts of since I was 12, and how to wrangle the basic facts into her being a WoL...

She's a mermaid princess (able to walk on land with ease and eventually choice of transformation), because that's always been a part of her story one way or another, though if I ever manage to write far enough to get there I will have to not call it Atlantis like I did in the 12 year old me's drafts. Ugh, original names? And thankfully we do have a whole bunch of lore about undersea auri folks living in their bubbles and even having royalty for this OC WoL business. So she and Kurenai are already set up to be cousins with a pleasant if slightly stiff and formal relationship. You know, forced to socialise at events. Never really understood each other even if they also are the most alike of any of their peoples, which can really foster misunderstanding and confusion MORE than not getting someone at all...

In the stories she has a fail-wizard bestie who to be perfectly honest Galvin is already somewhat like because I have a stock rota of characters I put in all my stories, as we all do, so I guess if I'm committing to Melly being defined enough as a WoL character she can exist in Galvinverse, as his really prickly, exhausted bestie. Maybe this is what Galvin has been missing all this time. Maybe we can fix him.

Ardbert most fits her love interest in terms of personality even if he's a sword guy not an axe guy (MELLY is the Axe Guy in this relationship, it's the start and end of her personality though I am talking about character dynamics here not her other Mary Sue powers), and I'm thinking more of Alive!Ardbert than the one we interact with :P In any case, the tragedy of WoLbert shipping has been consuming me as I played through ShB over the last month.

6.4 has made me start thinking wildly while I have been zoned out doing level 34 reaper rotation in levelling roulette. So. We are able to give Themis a whole bunch of aether to keep that memory of him alive. And he owes us one on the Ardbert front. If Melly has been THAT attached to Ardbert, she's forthright enough to just tell him (also to not do that dance with Lahabrea not telling HIM what he did >:)) so Themis, knowing Melly and understanding what he personally did to her in the future, ALSO has a connection to Ardbert within her. Blah blah aetheric signatures or something. I think he could probably reach within her and draw him out and drain a bunch more of her aether into drawing out a stable Ardbert from her similar to what Athena did making their memory forms, but stronger and stable because he's still very much part of her soul but also finally free to be a guy and walk around talking to people and wear different clothes and whatever. Hold her hand :) MAYBE GROW OLD TOGETHER? In any case I'm looking forward to that for her.

Melly also fits really perfectly into FFXIV because her story is set in a unstably high fantasy world (i.e. lots of modern elements bleed in despite the overall surrounds, creatures, magic etc being high fantasy). She can wear jeans and fight dragons in both. But it's also got a ton of city states people can be rulers of as well, and since her basis has always been in playing with all the big fantasy tropes there's so much OTT drama over things, I've decided this is the perfect reason to crack out my old favourite: Estinien as the initially or perpetually unknowing true heir to the throne of Ishgard, who should NEVER actually be given it on account of him not wanting it and feeling quite rightly like it would be a terrible idea. Which would just make it very funny that Melly knows this about him and is doing everything in her power to prop up Aymeric in power for the sole reason of protecting Estinien from Ishgard and Ishgard from Estinien, on account of the complete brainrot that people would get in the city if even a whiff of a rumour of a long lost heir of the first Azure Dragoon and unwilling prince of Ishgard being around ever got out. I mean, he would never set foot in Dravania, Coerthas or maybe even The Black Shroud ever again just for good measure XD

... anyway just typing up some things about Melz because it's honestly hilarious that this is the one place my online presence hasn't centred entirely around her existence and I think of her daily even before I got back to levelling her as a WoL, and just playing Warrior has been enough to get me redrafting her story in the past :P

[mariyekos]

Collection of my Meta/HCs/Fics/Prog Posts

This exists mostly for myself/for organizational purposes, but if anyone else happens to find this feel free to check it out.

After an age of mostly FFXIV posts, I've branched out a bit. This is separated by fandom, and only goes back to about 2022. This does not include all of my "highlights", but it does have some of my faves.

Devil May Cry

Meta/Analysis/HCs

Vergil in DMC3, And Unlocking Dante's DT - Analysis post examining the first fight between Vergil and Dante, why Vergil didn't kill Dante, and why he might have intended to unlock his Trigger instead.

On Vergil's potential actions in DMC3 if he knew about Nero - short theory on whether Vergil would have acted differently if he'd known he had a son.

Post DMC4 Nero's potential suspicions about Dante being his father - my additions to someone else's post about how Nero might've wondered about his parentage and why he didn't press the subject.

Dante and Vergil, Four Halves of Two Souls - Rambling on about how I like to HC Dante and Vergil each have one half of the same two demon and human souls.

Lady Post-DMC3 - Musings on the aforementioned, and what I think Lady would do with her inheritance and the family home.

On the Devil Sword Dante and Dante serving as a Seal - An exploration of how Dante might be impacted by creating/absorbing the DSD, which is made of the Sparda/Force Edge + Amulet, which used to help seal the Human World from the Demon World.

Dante + Vergil and Demonic Instincts - A short bit of rambling about how/why I think their demonic instincts would be stronger than their human ones.

Fics

a chosen torture - Post DMC3 Dante is falling apart, torn between the desire to hold onto his humanity and an urge to let his inner demon run free. (Link leads to tumblr post with tags and additional details)

Ru(m)ination - Nelo Angelo ruminates on Trish, the amulet, and the chains Mundus has set on his mind. (Link leads to tumblr post with tags and additional details)

A Thick Skull - In which Vergil is female and the question of whether she remembers Nero becomes a whole lot more loaded. (Link leads to tumblr post with tags and additional details)

Replacement - In which Dante dies on a mission and Vergil is left grappling with what to do in the wake of the death of the only twin anyone liked. Inspired by this post by @/spaceacerat.

Within a Forest Dark - After defeating Mundus, Dante finds himself stuck in Hell. While looking for a way home, he finds something- or someone- unexpected, and proceeds to make several bad decisions. (A DMC1/DMC5 fusion)

Fic Ideas/Rambling

Ancient AU - two ideas for fics in which Dante and Vergil are a few centuries to millennia old, one exploring a DMC1/3 fusion, and one looking at an alternate DMC4. As of now, I do have the first chapter of the DMC1/3 fusion in my drafts...

Final Fantasy VII

Meta/Analysis

FFVII Rebirth and Gameplay at the Cost of Atmosphere - One essay of (hopefully) a few, this one focusing on a certain Nibelheim Sidequest in Chapter 12.

It's Okay to Be Selfish Sometimes: Barret and the Motivations of Avalanche in OG FFVII - A look at how the OG FFVII sends the message that sometimes it's okay to have a selfish motivation to do a selfless thing, and that that does not invalidate the goodness that your personal motivations may inspire you to do.

On Video Games and the Input of The Player / The Importance of Aerith's Disc 1 Scene in the City of the Ancients (OG FFVII) - Redacted for spoilers! But this goes into why I think the fact that you, the player, control the pace of things in video games is so impactful.

Future FFVII Rebirth Essays - A list of essays on FFVII Rebirth/Remake and how they compare to the OG, featuring some short musings on each essay

Final Fantasy X

Meta/Analysis

Yuna in FFX and The Power of Wanting to Live - Yuna's realization in the Macalania Woods gives me the chills, and I just had to gush about how important it is to me as a person.

Final Fantasy XIV

Meta

Souls and Aether: A look at Estinien’s sense of self and Nidhogg’s place within it - How Estinien was impacted by Nidhogg post-3.0/3.3.

Estinien in Endwalker and Problems with Characterization - Tl;dr I think EW Estinien is quite different than HW Estinien even though they're the same character at their cores.

Dragoon theorycraft: Haldrath (revisions in progress) - Originally posted by scrollsfromarebornrealm, I just added on some thoughts!

As Azure Fades Analysis Part 1 - Azure Dragoons: Aging and the Impact of the Eyes - A look at a new official FFXIV Sidestory where Estinien experiences the memories of Haldrath's death.

On Nophica and Halone's Comments in Myths of the Realm - Reblog of another person's post, regarding Nophica's thoughts on the Elementals and Halone's thoughts of the (misuse of) faith.

Headcanons

Ishgardian Fangs (note: this is just a fun thing to throw around, not really something I wish was/think is true 100% of the time)

Pandaemonium 9-12 Possible Story - A crack theory treated seriously, with a what-if Erichthonios sealed himself away

Fics

Umbral Winds - Estinien post Ultima Thule and the feelings that come with that.

Subservient to our hearts - Estinien Drabble Collection

An (Un)official Recounting of the Life and Deeds of Saint Shiva - Completed for the Fantastic Fauxlore mini bang, a fic looking at Shiva's life as told in official Ishgardian Accounts and the true history.

My Prog/Raiding

TOP Clear - Achieved 12/3/2023. I'm so proud of us!!! Link to a post about it which includes both my thoughts and the clear video.

DSR Clears - Achieved 4/10/2024 and again with a second group on 5/28/2024. Let's gooooo team!!!!!

M4S Clear - Achieved 8/8/2024 on Week 2! Pretty cool. Beat our P4S record of Week 4.

Other

Manufactured Divinity - A favorite concept of mine.

[toadeyes-miqote]

You had me at Blood Pearl Charms

I'm aware that Final Fantasy has flavour text. But due to not really paying attention I didn't actively screenshot FFXIV stuff till late Heavensward or mid Stormblood. A number of quests were culled by the time I reached end ARR.

Extracted and kinda expanded from 5.1 ShB relationship thing. Might have to update it for G'raha. Took a long time to get used his male Miqo'te energy.

Anyway I wasn't expecting Tataru to notice much less ask after Hylnyan. I can't remember the Waking Sands Post ARR flavour text since its The Rising stones ones that caught my attention. This was around Good Intentions. This just hit me and made me pay attention to Tataru. A simple little thing.

Didn't really gave much thought and then this.

Here on it just built on their relationship between the two of them where I'm concern. Especially when certain Scions were just friendlier than others.

And all things considered. Tataru would technically be like the princess who's left behind by the rest of team as they go to the really huge battle in typical stories(the Belgarid even though Ce Nedra travels with the team for a good chunk). And the one who gives the heroes a token. Or somehow the Galadriel / Arwen who can't join the frontline team.

So the one left behind is waiting for WoL to come home. Someone/reason to come back to.

So I hate to ask Tataru if the rest of the team receive a blood pearl charm before Bloody Banquet? Did Moenbryda get one? Was this before or after? I have memory lost.

Dangit Tataru, this one act alone, made Hylnyan position herself as your champion. Totally at work in full force for the hearsy trial

Their friendship went like that from then on. Hylnyan made sure not to disappoint or make Tataru cry. She became the second most important person after Thancred(stop being so smug Thancred).

This two I can't remember the exact order but one was probably Niddhog (Final Steps of Faith). The other is Hour of Departure (Going to Azys La to chase down Thordan (Hour of Departure)?

That Tataru is aware of human limitations of the WoL is what interested me. She understands the responsibilities and see the person. Yeah the whole holding onto humanity thing was important to me.

There was a rhythm to it. Clap your hands if you believe. There's more than enough dynamis.

So yeah, if Thancred is Hylnyan's front line supporter, then Tataru is Hylnyan's back line supporter. One does not make the popoto cry.

. An interesting thing for me was that Hylnyan and Tataru were only 1 year apart in age.

That and the popoto runs Hylnyan's PR team

Apparently NG+ refresher that Tataru started her PR manager stunt as early as Ifrit.

I still need Blood Pearl charms as earrings or bracelets for Hylnyan to wear though. Rings belong to Fortemps and Gridania while necklace is wayfarer crystal. And I would like to keep a Bogatyr something as her mate's gift.

[despair-ninja-everything-agency]

05-LOG-RN-375-615

A quickie FFXIV fanfic very loosely inspired by FFXIVWrite2023's 21st prompt Grave as well as based on Iron Lung's The Quiet Rupture event.

Fandom: Final Fantasy XIV

Word count: 1126

It’s been 375 days since the Quiet Rapture.

175 days since I found out it took Eitherys with it, along with her Moon and Shards.

Water was on perpetual availability thanks to Black Magic, yet foods are getting scarce. Ultima Thule could only provide so much in its current state before it too would run out of resources.

There’s still some fuel left in the RN-05, thankfully. There should be spare fuels in Ostrakon Deka-hexi as well. Though I’m not holding on much hope it’d last long enough until I could find the next resourceful Star. Or any celestial bodies, really.

The damn crystal still wouldn’t work. No matter how hard I tried to think of my friends, my allies, my loved ones, my enemies, those who were long deceased, those who came from different Shards, different Stars. Anyone I could think of. Yet it doesn’t react at all. Not anymore.

I wonder if it sensed the Quiet Rapture. The end of a time. The futility of finding companions in the vast unknown while the strange phenomenon took any habitable Stars and celestial bodies away, along with their living creatures. Along with whatever their metaphysical forces that kept themselves existing.

It's a miracle Ultima Thule persists. I wouldn’t call it ‘habitable’ anymore, but I can still breathe and gather something edible around here. At least, as long as it is able to. The simulacrum of previous civilizations had long since vanished. The Dragons, The Eas, The Omicrons. They’re all gone, leaving only their near lifeless floating environments for me to explore. Alone. Gravity had become a mere concept at this point. The only time I could safely plant my feet on a solid surface is when I’m inside RN-05. On the bright side, it makes navigating around Thule much easier.

Thinking about Ultima Thule, my mind frequently wandered to Meteion. What is she doing right now? Did she survive the Quiet Rapture, still singing her song of hope out there? Was she unfortunate enough to land in a habitable place, taken from the mortal world by that infernal event?

If she did survive, I certainly couldn’t hear her song of hope. Or her cries of despair.

Just the deafening silence of the universe and beyond.

I miss my friends. I miss Thancred and his shitty flirty attitude. I miss G’raha and his pluckiness, always eager to be by my side. I miss the Twins, always bickering over minor disagreements. I miss Urianger and his stupid Shakespearean way of talking (bless Jacques for introducing me to that term). I miss Y’shtola and her sass. I miss Tataru and her cunningness in business endeavors, the way her eyes lit up when she found any opportunities to strike. I miss Ange, probably writing her latest children's book to cheer up every child in the World. I miss the Chocobros, going around the streets of Eos and her lands while camping around, feasting on Ignis’ homemade cooking. I miss the New Mexico Mercenaries, their zaniness, and their refusal to die even after their bodies blown up to smithereens.

I miss everyone.

I'm not exactly a religious person but if there’s a God out there - a Higher Entity and actual Creator of this universe, unlike the ones I know and personally took care of - then I pray and hope He/She/They/Whatever’ll listen to my prayer. I pray that I could see them once more, hale and whole, wherever they are now. Smiling as they welcome me into their open arms.

Day 615 after the Quiet Rapture.

Ultima Thule has been depleted of its remaining resources.

820 canisters of unidentified substance obtained from Ostrakon Deka-hexi. Experience tells me these were used to 'feed' the simulacrum of the Omicrons when they were still roaming around. Chemical scan revealed it to be compatible with RN-05's ceruleum-based engine.

Should be good for a few years or so. I'm grateful they let the refill to be done from within the ship. I'm starting to get sick of floating in nothingness.

Edible alien lifeforms are stored in the ship's cramped storeroom. If nothing's busted, I should be able to manipulate the storage's temperature. Thank God there's automatic kitchen utilities or else I'll die from food poisoning before anything else gets me first.

All parts and engines are in order. Internal systems are up to date. Automatic 'household' contraptions are running smoothly, keeping the interior tidy and ready for whatever I need. Navigation screens show the ship's current position, in the middle of nowhere facing unknown direction. Air filter still converting the vacuum cosmos into breathable oxygen. Gravity machine keeps me grounded on the ship's gridded floor.

It's time for me to leave this Godforsaken land. I don't know how long am I able to move forward or if I'll find another living being. But I'm willing to hope that I'll find someone to talk to, someday. Maybe there are other creatures roaming around the vacant space. Maybe I'll come across Meteion, chatting with each other for old times sake and comforting our loneliness.

Staring outside the cockpit's window, my eyes are lost to the inky blackness. Twinkling of ghostlights teases their existence, taunting me to guess if the Star it corresponds to is still there or has long since vanished. Being out here was once my dream. Now it's just a bitter reminder of my desolate existence. Soft lights of the cockpit's screens and many buttons illuminated my face, its reflection on the window's surface gazing back amongst the ghostlights. I guess I'm not entirely alone. Quite literally, I still have myself to keep company.

I don't know where to go from here. Following the faint twinkling lights is my only option, even if it would be met with disappointment. Amongst the barely visible Stars, one shines the brightest. A promise for a brighter future or a malevolent trick to crush one's hope eventually.

Operating the cockpit has become a second nature to me since acquiring the RN-05. Press this button, touch this part of the screen, pull this lever to bring out the thrusters, spin this rod to rotate the x coordinate, lock on the next target, confirm target destination's position.

Estimated distance: 21.5 billion light years

My heart sinks as I see the numbers plastered on the screen. 'Twould be an eternity before I'm able to reach that, even with RN-05's top speed and hyper thrust. Yet it's the only thing that keeps me going. Determined, I brace for my longest journey yet as I seal my fate with a push of a button. Thrusters blare to life, ready to take me through the vast unknown. Towards the brightest non-existent Star in the universe.

Tonight’s dinner will be fried dragon egg.

[chocoboyjames]

Hope you feel better soon OP! <3 As for my lil' story. I didn't get into Resident Evil, until a good friend of mine, back in the day, told me I would probably LOVE Resident Evil 4.

Before I did that, I wanted to at least know what was going on in the other games story wise, that when I still had a WII, I played "the Umbrella Chronicles" and "Darkside Chronicles" too. So overall that's where I lost my "Resident Evil virginity."

This was all the way around the time where RE 5 had also been released. I had played that one before RE 4 as well. Because... No judge. I went to play because I found Albert Wesker a bloody handsome chad in the footage I saw back then. RE 5 has a special place in my heart, because me and my friend had been CO-OPping the hell out of it. Shooting each other down, laughing, etc.

When I played Resident Evil 4, I became a HUUUGE Ramon Salazar fan. Just how he was this lil' gremlin is what I loved xD!

Eventually, the whole game became a meme for me and my friend. We had the biggest laughter about many scenes, and we made parodies, etc.

Resident Evil 6, well... Ada's and Leon's story is my definitive favourite (throughout the whole franchise.) Both characters are just great to me. Leon's dynamic with Claire, Ada's mysterious origin and her spy stuff. Yusss.

RE 6 was the same as RE 5. Played CO-OP with my friend, had the biggest of fun whenever we could. The biggest memory was him driving me over with a snowmobile, I heard one approaching, no idea where from. I didn't hear a thing from my friend... Suddenly VROOM and he starts laughing at how he had no idea I was even there! xD

Over the time, I somewhat lost interest in the franchise because RE 7 wasn't my gameplay style. I saw a playthrough to still get updated on the story... But I didn't like where it was going.

Then I gave RE Village a shot, because in the trailer there was this brief shot of Karl Heisenberg and I near dropped my pants. The self-same friend said: I knew it. You have a type.

So my flame was rekindled after playing RE 8,and I became a HUGE Karl Heisenberg fan xD.

Then... the RE 4 Remake was announced...

Of course I couldn't hold back, my favourite RE game, getting a remake!? So- I played it. I also has been streaming on twitch for a while, so I was doing the playthrough live on Twitch.

When Krauser's scenes came up... I just... Lost it. I was... looking respectfully.

Now before I continue that- There's a slight side story to give context as to how this all happened.

I am also a HUUUGE Final Fantasy XIV fan. And in that franchise there's a character called Ilberd Feare. Now he, if you fight him in a dungeon, often says: "Sloppy" as a mock. It became a well known meme in the FFXIV fandom, and it only made me love him more.

Now, you may know where I am going with this.

The moment Krauser yells "SLOPPY" and tackles Leon... I LOST MY MIND...

....

And my Krauser love had begun to flourish...

It has become a meme now itself that 'so a guy just needs to say "sloppy" and James falls in love with him! Gotcha!'

So overall, I know the story I just told went from this to that, but... for now, I am just a huge Jack Krauser fan. Knowing Ilberd too, I definitely have a type too. They are almost identical in a way...

So, erm yeah! thanks for reading! And to OP, once more, get well soon! *pats and hugs*

I've been pretty sick these past few months and this week has been particularly bad, so...

Tell me about your favorite Resident Evil things! Things from the games, movies, books and so on. And tell me what you love about your favorite character(s). Also tell me what you love about your favorite ship (Cleon is my fave so I would particularly like to hear about that one BUT I'd also love to hear what makes you love different ones. Just please keep it civil).

Leave comments, reblog, send me asks, tag me, whatever... Just gush about what RE things make you happy.