#dawntrail prep

[blessed-by-umbral]

Westward

Far off in the horizon, the radiant aetheryte of Limsa glimmered like a constellation of stars, however, the enchanting brilliance was destined to be dimmed as ominous rainclouds began to gather. Throughout the day, she possessed the extraordinary ability to anticipate the arrival of rain merely by its scent. Whether she found herself in the grandeur of the estate's ballroom or the tranquility of the garden, the fragrance of rain would permeate the air. The weather's deceptive façade of a clear, cloudless sky painted in hues of pale blue did not deter her keen intuition, for she knew that the rain was on its way, carried by the gentle breeze that passed promise of the impending storm. The tempestuous allure of thunder and lightning called to her in strange ways. The way the dark clouds rolled in, heralding the impending chaos, filled her with a sense of comfort.  She found solace in the symphony of raindrops against her window, coupled with the fierce winds whispering secrets only she could decipher. Storms were not just weather phenomena to her; they were living, breathing entities that spoke to her soul in a language only she could understand. Presently, she discovered herself traversing the extensive stone pathway which stretched for a mile and a half, enveloped by an abundance of tended foliage. This route guided her towards the waterfront of the Cress Estate, and it was this very location where the inception of all Cress Ships took place, harmoniously intertwined with the looming presence of the Cress Bell tower. However, the resplendence of this architectural marvel was momentarily subdued as a somber blanket of grey clouds descended around it, as if it reached so high it pierced the firmament. With each stride, her drenched boot graced the stone steps that guided her towards the grand entrance of the bell tower. As the supple leather made contact with the first droplet of water, a symphony of nature's tears began to unfold. One by one, the raindrops danced upon her boot, creating a mesmerizing rhythm that echoed through the air. Soon, a deluge of rain enveloped her, its weighty presence accompanied by the resounding chorus of raindrops.

Ondrea made not to hasten herself toward the grand oak door, with its intricate iron details catching the dim light in a mesmerizing dance. Amongst the ornate filigree, a bell-shaped impression stood out at the center. Her fingers, adorned in leather, grasped the bell heirloom around her neck and pulled it free. No sooner did it fit perfectly within the shape adorning the barricade. As she entered, she was reminded of the interiors vertical structure and the sense of timeless luxury it houses. Every detail was meticulously crafted to perfection. The rain outside continued to beat its perpetual symphony as it cascaded down upon the iron dome ceiling. The stone walls were adorned with meticulously crafted iron wrought sconces, each radiating a mesmerizing glow that seemed to have been carefully nurtured. The way they illuminated the surroundings was nothing short of haunting, as if an invisible hand had already bestowed upon them the gift of life.

The bell, once a symbol of admittance, adorned her neck once more as she traversed the cold, unyielding stone beneath her feet. The rhythmic click-clack of her heels reverberated through the air till it reached its crescendo at the foot of a large spiral staircase. With a gaze fixed upon the ascending steps, she marveled at their seemingly infinite ascent "This tower always did call to you." Argrin's mellifluous voice reverberated through the air, gently urging her to cast a fleeting glance in his direction. As she obliged, a peculiar sensation washed over Argrin, for it appeared as though the golden hue of her eyes had been adorned with specks of emerald. "It's more than the tower that calls to me, brother." Ondrea pivoted on her heels, her gaze fixated on her brother with an air of reverence as she humbly inclined her head. "Pray tell, what brings about this dreadful afternoon?"

"The sea." he remarked casually as he approached her. He exuded an aura of authority, a man of imposing presence and grandeur. Some referred to him as 'The Bulwark of La Noscea' due to his towering height and impressive breadth.

With a gentle yet firm touch, he placed his sizable hand on Ondrea's shoulder and gracefully guided her towards one of the magnificent circular windows. Among the few that boasted intricate stained glass designs, this particular window offered a breathtaking view of the sea, its azure waters muted by the raging storm. The frothy whitecaps adorned the vast expanse of the ocean's surface. Despite appearing as mere specks from their vantage point, the pair of kin understood the immense power of the waves that were churning in the distance. "Several of our ships have failed to send message back of their findings." Argrin spoke low, his mismatched hues narrowing as he inspected the raging waters. "Shall we host a service?" "We'll give it another week. If our fears come to fruition, then we will need to instill the aide of our supporters in search of them. We cannot have our own lost in uncharted territory." "--and if our efforts should yield success?" Argrin paused. "Then perhaps your penchants will come in handy, should we need to venture within other seas." The implication was palpable. The aetherial mists. "As you say." Ondrea's reply was delivered with an air of anticipation, as if such a request had been foreseen. "In the interim, we will continue to forge our fleets?" "-And supply our supporters with food, security, and the prospect of travel. We must seek to source what lies beyond the West." "Allow me to make the necessary arrangements for the preparation of Baetylus. However, I must inquire on having Ingram and Cormac attend with me." The mere mention of their names seemed to have an intriguing effect on Argrin, causing his jaw to shift in contemplation. "-After you've completed your rituals, dear sister, then you may petition them to attend with you." Ondrea shifted her gaze towards the vast expanse of the churning sea. As the waves crashed against the shore with a rhythmic melody, she took a moment to absorb the magnitude of the journey that lay ahead. With a subtle yet powerful nod, she silently acknowledged the challenges that awaited her family in the West for it, like many other lands of the past, would be privy to the tolling of their bells.

[kalviberry]

Stream time!

Guess I'm doing Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail prep, also daily roulettes.

Twitch: Kalviberry

[asteriasfallingstarsandtears]

Tonight before the servers go down I should post my glams I prepared for Dawntrail. Then it's 48 hours until the servers come back and I start my vacation!

Reminder I will use #Dawntrail Spoilers if I do post -anything-

[liminalitycarb]

Dawntrail Food Prep

Ended up making a bunch of food so that I can have proper meals during Dawntrail headstart tomorrow (and the weekend). Made some slow cooker beef stew (which I got 4 meals out of) and Chicken & sausage jambalaya which I got 9 meals out of!

The jambalaya also was today's dinner, and 4 of the containers is going to get frozen.

[oh-look-words]

Ok but like, what Tiki drinks are you making for Dawntrail?

[shadowsandspiderlilies]

(( So, with Dawntrail coming up... Its very likely both this and my side blog stop posting for a bit cause... Yeah, Dawntrail. But I'll come back with screens and stuff with once it all gets fixed, and more aesthetics once it all settles down a bit and I'm not frantically doing content. ))

[lavampira]

koana is so funny to me because he’s very resourceful, right, like his whole thing is planning and preparing, always striving to prove his worth as an innovator, even under duress, but he’s also so emotionally impulsive. and reactive.

[ghastigiggles]

[maniacal laughter]

IT IS DONE!

DO NOT! FUCKING! SEPARATE THEM!!!

[adureus]

Last week was wild busy/chaotic so I'm just chilling a bit. I'll be around this week hopefully!! Hope everyone's been well.

[tally-ace]

I am cool and fine 👍 <- RUNNING AT BREAKNECK SPEED THROUGH THE ENDWALKER PATCHES BECAUSE I DECIDED HILDEBRAND UFO MOUNT WAS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FINISHING THE STORY IN TIME FOR DAWNTRAIL

[tinkertechy]

I am inflicting myself with more brainworms: FFXV edition

So ages ago when I was but a young sprout, I started writing a FFXV fic called Lean on Me. I've since deleted it from the internet, mostly because where I want to take the story now is vastly different from where it started. And naturally, now as an old tree, I am far too busy to just sit down and write a story out of the blue.

So I'm just going to put down the brainworms here and run away like a coward.

Lean On Me is/was a FFXV fic that focused on Ignis and his role as Noct's friend, confidant and retainer, order of importance depending on who you asked. I'm the kind of person that likes to expand on a world and its worldbuilding in my writing, and Ignis always felt like the one whose life/relations outside the Chocobros was least explored. He does not know the meaning of the words 'Social Life' and I will die on this hill.

One of the 'backstory' events that isn't explored as far as I can tell is Noct's 'accident' as a kid that sends him to Tenebrae, at least as far as Ignis is concerned. I imagine for a young kid 'tasked' with looking out for a younger one like a sibling this would be extremely traumatic; years later Ignis still has horrible nightmares of that day.

It's because of this event that Ignis' role in Noct's life changes to more of a guardian/advisor. Noct even notices that he felt like 'he lost a friend' when he got back home.

Noct keeps a 'scrapbook' in an old book of Iggy's with pictures, clippings, lists, acheivements-parts of Ignis' life that he thinks his friend has 'ignored' in favor of being his retainer. He's never told Ignis about this.

I needed to give Ignis some form of relation/attachment outside the Chocobros, so I created Shiroma Shimura, whose role in his life is one of the changes I've made since edition 1. Here she is the guardian/assistant to her younger (Genius) brother, and by extension a classmate in Ignis' college courses. Her father still hates the royal family with a passion, and attempts to murder them with a bomb hidden in Shiroma's purse. Her time in the hospital, and later witness protection, is what allows the two to get to know each other outside their normal roles concerning their charges.

Shiroma grew up in an abusive and ruthless household; While her father adores his son, he loathes her with a passion for reasons she will never know. She excels at reading the emotions and mental states of others, but struggles massively with communicating her own wants and needs. She adores her little brother and fears her father. She's also a talented pianist and uses it as an outlet while she's in witness protection.

An attempt on her life after a day in court shatters her knee, crippling her ability to walk; even after therapy she needs a brace and a crutch, and can't move faster than a walk.

It is by sheer luck/a miracle that she escapes Insomnia on the day of niflheim's attack; An attempt by her father to abduct her out of custody goes south, and allows the Witness protection team to arrange a disappearance using two particular Niffs who came into town hoping for an actual peace treaty and a restaurant that gramps talked up.

Shiroma is whisked away to Lestallum, where she's finally able to set up a modest life for herself working as a secretary at the power plant. Holly gives her the home of a friend to look after while the friend is out of town 'visiting relatives.' The friend left three weeks ago for a week long trip and never made it to their destination.

Ignis and Shiroma duck in and out of each other's lives until the cast is re-united after the assault on Nifleheim. Shiroma opens her doors to the collective cast, and becomes 'home base' for the team during the ten years of darkness.

Personally 10 years is a really long time for this time-skip, especially if the story is insistent on keeping the more realistic elements. If I ever write this I may shorten it down.

While on their way out of Nifleheim, The group blasts as many soldier production facilities as they can. While raiding one, they find a lab that was performing genetic experiments on a control group of clones. They take the sole surviving baby and flee, inadvertently giving Prompto a baby sister.

Ignis has a breakdown a couple years into the timeskip; Stiff-upper lip that he is, he's just lost everything and his one primary anchor in his life is gone, and who knows when he's getting back? There's only so much a man can take. It takes the entirety of his collective 'found family' to pull him out of his depressive slump and give him direction again.

While Shiroma does her best to support the group as cook/cleaner/supportive ear, her bad knee means she can only do so much. Ignis ends up transferring some of his pent-up 'caretaker' energy to reminding her to rest.

The question of Ignis and Shiroma's romantic interest in each other is one danced around for a large portion of the story, mostly because I want their relationship to be more of a slow burn. While they both grow to care for each other deeply, Shiroma knows that Noct will always be first in Ignis' life, which causes her distress once she realizes her own feelings for him. Ignis, meanwhile, slowly realizes that as much as he cares for his friend and ward, he's been putting himself on the backburner, to his own detriment.

Aaaannnnd... here I stop, lest I give away very important plot elements. There's so much more I could talk about, but I do want to give myself room to...y'know... actually write the story someday.

Someday.

Not this week.

I have things to do. Very important things.

[crossroadsdimension]

In my preparation for Dawntrail tomorrow, I've decided that I'm gonna wear a couple things that will help mark me as an adventurer, even if I'm in the real world and not going to Fantasy South America with my Warrior of Light.

I got this necklace last year from an Etsy shop called Heartcrafted Fantasy -- it's sold as an Atlantis: The Lost Empire crystal replica, and yes, twisting the metal bit at the top turns on and off the glow! There is a battery I can swap out as needed.

The shop sells other crystal-like items that glow like this, like Star Wars kyber crystals or Infinity Stones! Can't say those things are ones that catch my attention, but if this Atlantis crystal came out as well as it did, I expect the other crystals come out just as good.

[asteriasfallingstarsandtears]

I think my achievable goal for before Dawntrail arrives will be maxxing the Fates for Shadowbringers and Endwalker.

My second goal will be finish leveling Eureka.

Other goals with less of a desire to finish before but would be nice:

Get Mina's jobs to 80, get mentor back on Mina, finish relics for both characters, get my tome weapon for both Mina and Sunna for healing/tank classes I'm bringing into Dawntrail, make sure healing/tank classes are properly geared for Dawntrail

[astrxealis]

in ~5 days i have played 27 hours of da inquisition ... despite also having had to go outside the last 5 days for leisure or college/health related stuff. Goddamn.

[mmorpg-escapism]

Okay, wow, that revelation took me out a bit. I suspect, at the very least, that Thancred and Urianger are the ones working with Koana. It would make the most sense based on the stuff we saw in 6.55...

Oh, and Bakool's plan A was to steal a prototype of Koana's solution, but it doesn't actually show us that it worked so there's a nonzero chance they really mess things up afterwards. That'd suck...

Now, I need a bit to get the aether current quests done and get back to Tuliyollal, and then *sleep*, so we'll see where this takes us next tomorrow.

[designsdefiance]

technically playing msq for the first time on loren whilst also being about to do dawntrail on him is an experience because on the one hand i'm like :))) yay my son gets the vacation he desperately needs and on the other i'm causing myself psychic damage thinking about how fucked up he is in heavensward