#hint of ffxiv at the end

[toyherb]

Various drawings from 2020-2022. Mostly 2020 dnd stuff and ocs.

[corbokkur]

My Azem, Atlas, presenting his newest concept to the Words of Halmarut (with some special guests from Elpis/the Bureau of the Architect in attendance!).

Bonus shot I made while setting up the npcs for this picture:

[nozomikei]

Maybe I'm evil blah blah blah, but y'know what I love in a Hythlodaeus/Hades fic?

When Hyth's opinion of himself is completely in the shitter and it's explored and intensified.

I'm talking eating disorders, suicidal ideation, self-harm (of all types, not just the obvious), breaking up with Hades to 'help' him find somebody better. Gimme it all!

This brilliant man thinks his greatest contribution during the final days is as just another sacrifice, energy to charge the summoning of Zodiark. In Ultima Thule he addresses his contributions as "a bit part" (Wrong!!! He is so essential to our success at every stage! He is so, so loved and precious!!!)

I love seeing the belief that he's untalented and replaceable behind the endless patience and sweet smiles. The optimism about those he cares for that hides the fear that that is all he brings to the table, so he should never seem unhappy or others might realize they don't need him around.

He was scouted for the Convocation! He was the head of the Bureau of the Architect! He has perhaps the strongest ability to see souls of anyone!

But he talks down his abilities as a bard, as a user of creation magics.

I love fics where Hades, or others dear to Hythlodaeus, finally catch a glimpse behind the gentle smile to the pain, and struggle with low self-esteem, and start working to show him how wrong he is. Show him that he has and deserves their love and care. That they won't leave him if he is less than perfectly amiable and cheerful.

[emc2beans]

#FFXIVWrite Day 17: Noisome

(Vague future semi-au in which Alphinaud and Llewellyn are married bc I'm a sucker for domestic fluff. Idk just take it.)

In the years following an official retirement from adventuring, Alphinaud had found that his life had not gotten any less complicated. His choice to help expand and improve Idyllshire at Llewellyn’s side had not gone over terribly well with his parents who had wanted him to return to Sharlayan. Instead he had decided to ‘shore up a ruin’ and ‘marry an undereducated Eorzean delinquent’ (his father’s words, not his mother’s and decidedly not his). At least his mother had imbued some sense into the man, eventually, and Fourchenault calling Idyllshire a ruin would come back to bite him.

When the Sharlayan Forum found out that their abandoned colony had been taken over and was nearing the point of becoming a proper township, they had come to the logical conclusion that the so-called ‘squatters’ either needed to leave or adhere to Sharlayan’s authority. After Alphinaud facilitated significant back-and-forth negotiations, Idyllshire agreed to be part of Sharlayan under the condition that they would have at least one representative on the Forum.The people of Idyllshire had then elected the only person who was truly versed in Sharlayan politics which, of course, was Alphinaud. This was an unexpected loophole that meant he was serving on the Forum at the same time as his father, something that gave both of them no end of consternation. Needless to say, Alphinaud did not have many days off. 

Thankfully, Llewellyn’s own work on improving Idyllshire meant that he had plenty of time to take care of the home he had refurbished for them. Following his dream of being the star’s greatest house husband made Llewellyn very happy, and it also gave him ample time to do things like go camping with his friends in the Black Shroud for a week. He was due home from such a trip soon. Alphinaud had managed to configure his schedule in a way that meant he was back from Sharlayan a few bells ahead of when Llewellyn was supposed to return in hopes of surprising him. He had tidied the house and was now watching the path up to Idyllshire’s Aetheryte from his study. As luck would have it, he was able to catch a glimpse of his husband walking down towards their front door. 

Alphinaud headed down the main stairs to the foyer and excitedly opened the double doors, only to deflate when Llewellyn was not there nor was he farther up the path. Confused, Alphinaud stepped out onto the front patio and looked around. Llewellyn’s pack was leaning against the patio stairs, but the roegadyn man was nowhere to be found at the front of the house. 

Confused, Alphinaud walked around the house and through Llewellyn’s (work-in-progress) garden to see that the gate to the back yard was sitting slightly ajar. He could already hear Llewellyn talking in a baby voice, interrupted occasionally by the excited ‘kweh’s of Pip, the beloved chocobo for whom the entire back yard had been designed. 

“I should have known that you would say hello to Pip before me.” Alphinaud stood in the gateway and laughed as Llewellyn looked up from giving Pip a scratch.

“Wh- You’re home!” Llewellyn grinned and jogged across the yard to scoop up his husband for a hug. 

“As are you! I managed to finish work early and I had hoped to surprise you.” Alphinaud looped his arms around Llewellyn’s neck, pulling him down slightly into a kiss. They lingered there for a moment until an awful smell hit Alphinaud’s nose. He pulled back a bit. “Llewellyn, love, you reek.” 

“I’ve been in the woods for a week, not exactly a lot of opportunities to wash.” Llewellyn laughed, not letting go of Alphinaud’s waist. “I also haven’t really shaved.” He rubbed his cheek against Alphinaud’s face, making him recoil further from the unpleasant texture. 

“Go inside and bathe. Now.” Alphinaud pushed him back playfully with his face scrunched up in mock disgust, making Llewellyn release him at last. 

“Alright, alright. I’ll go bathe.” Llewellyn walked towards the front of the house, then paused to look back over his shoulder. “Can I expect you to join me?”

“Absolutely not.” Alphinaud shut the back gate behind them. “You are filthy. Go bathe or you’ll be sleeping with the chocobo.” He shooed a laughing Llewellyn inside, unable to keep the smile off of his face. 

[wtf-amiru]

I know most of us have moved on from it but I'm still thinking about voice claims :3

Surprisingly settled on arannis' right out the gate, his was easy, Miru still needs to cook a bit longer, I'm not 100% yet bc I chose her first and never listened to anyone else so I gotta just drop in on a few other candidates to make up my mind and Yomi is so hard. She's so hard, internally I know what she sounds like, I have to find her externally now and it's haaaarrrrrddddd

[genshingorlsrevengeance]

Chris, I suffer of simpinitis and the only cure is you to write for Arlecchino (just a joke don't feel pressured especially if you end up not liking her also good luck if you're pulling for her)

(Genshin Impact) Arlecchino, Lynette, Xianyun, and Barbara's S/O getting scared by a spider

I don't plan on pulling for her because Clorinde is showing up, but FEAR NOT ANON! Quoth the FFXIV:

Arlecchino watches with vague amusement as S/O suddenly leaps back, nearly into her arms.

She catches them with minimal effort as her eyes slowly track tiny movement on the floor.

A spider was skittering across the floor at a slow pace, making her gaze trail back to S/O.

(Arlecchino) "Spiders are not very likely to attack humans without being provoked. And even then, that is under the most dire of circumstances-"

(S/O) "I-I know, but...they're just creepy!"

(Arlecchino) "Indeed."

With a hum of acknowledgement, she almost drops S/O to the ground as they barely caught themselves in time.

Arlecchino walks over to the spider and gently puts it in a cup before releasing it outside.

She crosses her arms as distant memories from her past came trickling in.

(Arlecchino) "You wouldn't have liked Bambi."

(S/O) "Who's that?"

(Arlecchino) "A pet spider that I once owned."

(S/O) Of course you owned one...

They were smart enough to not say that out loud, but Arlecchino had the faintest hint of a smile on her lips.

She probably knew what they were thinking anyway.

Even when she was spacing out, Lynette could easily spot something moving in the corner of her eye.

(Lynette) "Oh, a spider-"

(S/O) "WHAT?!"

S/O immediately balled up onto the couch, head rapidly darting back and forth.

(S/O) "W-WHERE?!"

Lynette's ears twitched from how loud S/O was being, but she easily grabbed the spider in a cup, noting how S/O was inching away from her.

(Lynette) "It's not even a dangerous kind, just a regular-"

(S/O) "I don't care what it is, just throw it out!"

Lynette smiled and gently let it escape out the house.

As she sat back down next to S/O, her tail swished playfully, though Lynette herself was stoic as ever.

(Lynette) "What are you going to do when i'm not here?"

(S/O) "D-Don't tease me!"

Xianyun adjusts her glasses when she sees a spider on the table.

S/O almost dropped their food completely at the sight of it, while Xianyun looked slightly annoyed.

(Xianyun) "How unsightly for a dinner table."

With a small gust of wind, she flicks it away, making S/O leap out their seat.

(S/O) "GAH! D-Don't fling it at me!"

(Xianyun) "One was not aiming at you, dear. Do be careful, otherwise your plate will drop."

S/O took a deep breath of relief while Xianyun continued to eat.

(Xianyun) "Hm...One has an idea for an invention. We could construct you a machine that can take care of household pests like that."

(S/O) "...W-Would you?"

Xianyun suddenly beams with pride, a gleam of light reflecting off her glasses.

(Xianyun) "Fear not, One will make sure you are never bothered by a spider ever again! We will get started straight away after dinner."

What ended up happening was Xianyun constructed a machine that was too good at killing household pests, to the point it broke parts of the wall.

Both Barbara and S/O yelp when they see a spider speed along the tiles of the Cathedral.

(S/O) "Aw man, it's going up to the ceiling!"

(Barbara) "I-It's not going to drop on our heads, is it?!"

The two exchanged a look that said neither were wanting to find out the answer.

Accepting defeat, the two quickly exited the cathedral out onto the plaza.

(S/O) "Do you think we could ask one of the sisters to help us?"

(Barbara) "U-Um...well-"

It didn't take long for either of them to realize that it'd be absolutely mortifying to ask a sister for something so trivial.

Instead, they decided to practice their singing outside.

Which arguably, was worse since spiders could be anywhere, but it didn't seem to cross their minds as they slowly became comfortable again and laughed the situation off.

Until the next day they forgot about it and entered the cathedral, only to be jumpscared by it as it sat on the pews they were at.

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

06/29/2024 - 06/30/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Guz Khan; Vico Ortiz; Rachel House; How To Fuck Off With Con O'Neill: CW; AdoptOurCrew Charity Raffle Update; Gold Derby Voting; Fan Spotlight: Cast Cards; Our Flag Means Fanfiction; Big Gay Energy Podcast; Teal Oranges & Garlic Soup Week; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Today's Taika

== Rhys Darby ==

Quick sighting of Rhys with Kirk Thatcher and another commercial for FFXIV!

Source: kirkrthatcher's Instagram

Source: FFXIV's Instagram

== Taika Waititi ==

Quick shot of Taika and Rita with Andy Hernden!

Source: Andyhernden's Instagram

= Guz Khan =

A shot of Guz with Mark Silcox-- apparently this is a hint at Season 5 of Guz' show Man Like Mobeen!

Source: Guz Khan Official Twitter

== Vico Ortiz ==

Lots more sightings of Vico out and about!

Source: Vico Ortiz Instagram

== Rachel House ==

Yet another chat show with Rachel house!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Last Video Store (@lastvideostorebetoota)

Source: The Last Video Store instagram

CW: Con O'Neill in Underwear under the cut.

== How to Fuck Off w/ Con O'Neill ==

Many of our crewmates attended the Momentus class with Con O'Neill on Saturday! When Samba did his cooking class, the video was released to youtube a week or so later so hopefully this one will be too. I did try to transcribe some of the information, if it is quoted it should be word for word minus uhms. Non quoted is paraphrased. This was 3 hours long if you did the meet and greet so I've only added what I was able to get through. If I have time I'll transcribe more.

Con showed up on camera with no pants on

Re Izzy: When David approached him, Izzy was just a thought, a husk yet to be formed

David saw Izzy as a Salieri from Amadeus, or Iago (from Othello)

Con "Agreed with David" but also "saw [Izzy] as a man desperately, painfully in love. So his passion, and his anger, and his fear and his love, all erupted in his expletives, i loved him from the off, I loved his directness, I loved his fearlessness, pain, and of course his fabulous use of profanities"

Con then taught the class how to do various types of "fucks" "shits", "twats" etc.

Some fun quotes:

"A happy shit is one with a smile"

"A sad shit is one you say with a frown"

"Everyone give me an orgasmic twat"

Some Transcribed BTS Info:

"In Season 1 I was terrified of ad-libbing, improv, which I've said many times. We had great writers and everything we needed was on the page-- Except for the day 'Daddy' came to visit."

"I have no idea where that line came from, no idea which part of my dark perverted psyche it erupted from but as soon as it was out, it was out."

"In Season 2, again, everything I needed was on the page, our writers are/were will always be spectacular, they gave Izzy such beautiful stuff, and I will be forever grateful to them, to David Jenkins, to the whole cast and crew, and to you all for your continued support."

"But towards the end of the shoot, we were filming the tavern scene with me and Erroll, aka Ricky and it was the 'belonging to something' which was so beautifully written it took my breath away."

"And we shot many many takes, and I was tired, and emotional, and I knew we had it nearly. There was something missing. There was a beat, a moment to end what was really Izzy's epitaph. And then-- our brilliant director Fernando came up to me and he whispered in my ear 'we'll do one more take, let him go' and we started the take and I could feel myself getting emotional."

"This was Izzy's big moment, it had to be right, it had to be right, and then as we reached this final line, instead of what was written, I heard Izzy say: 'and you are a rancid syphilitic cunt' and to my dying day, I will never ever understand how we got that on the telly, but we did because sometimes in life only a rancid syphillitic cunt will suffice."

== Adopt Our Crew Pride Month Charity Raffle Update ==

Well done everyone! $7041.72 was raised for 148 LGBTQ+ charities around the world! Thank you so much to @adoptourcrew for all the wonderful work they did and all our crewmates for all the donated art, writing, crafts, etc to make this happen!

Source: Adopt Our Crew's Twitter

== Gold Derby Voting ==

Rhys, Taika, and Our Flag Means Death are up for some more nominations-- this time the Gold Derby for best Comedy Series / Comedy Actors! It does require you to sign up, but if you'd like to add to the nominations you can follow this handy guide:

Thank you to @adoptourcrew for sharing the goldderby information!

Source: AdoptOurCrew's Twitter

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Cast Cards =

More cast cards from our dear @melvisik!

Simone Grace: "Tonight's is another Emmy submission "for Outstanding Period Costumes in a Series for Impossible Birds" - @adoptourcrew"

Francesco Toby: "Credited as Jean Luc, the beret-wearing French sailor in Pete's story."

Source: @melvisik's Twitter

= OFMD Colouring Pages! =

Once again our kind and wonderful friend @PatchworkPirateBear has more colouring pages for Pride month! Hosted by @adoptourcrew! Wanna following PatchworkPirateBear for more colouring pages? Visit their socials!:  Instagram / Twitter / Tumblr 

Source: AdoptOurCrew's Tumblr

= Our Flag Means Fanfiction =

There's a new episode by our lovely friends over at Our Flag Means Fanfiction! This time a ranking of the top 10 Rhys Darby moments by members of the Rhys Darby Faction! Visit https://linktr.ee/ofmff to pick out your favourite listening platform!

Source: Our Flag Means Fanfiction Instagram

== Big Gay Energy Pod ==

Another episode of Big Gay Energy Pod! This time covering Season 2 Episodes 5/6! Check them out on Youtube, or their https://linktr.ee/biggayenergypod!

Source: Big Gay Energy Pod Instagram

== Teal Oranges & Garlic Soup Week ==

As you may remember, our crewmates over at @garlicsoupweek have been hosting a wonderful prompt week for our favorite Polycule! I would love to do a much bigger fan spotlight, but I was only able to get permission from some of the artists to share-- so I'll do more if I can get more permissions from folks! You can also scroll through all the awesome art/writing/edits on @garlicsoupweek!

= OhTangerine=

First up is the absolute stunning work done by @ohtangerines on Instagram and here on tumblr! The faces, and background detail is just so amazing-- please visit them on instagram or here on tumblr to check out more of their awesome work! Check them out on the various socials on their carrd! https://ohtangerines.carrd.co/

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 🍊Maria I. (@ohtangerines)

Source: @ohtangerines's Instagram

= Sonorawent =

Next up for Teal Oranges is our dear crewmate @sonorawent! Check out their incredibly gorgeous water colour of our Jim and Oluwande! I adore the colour blending! You can follow them on Twitter / Tumblr!

Source: sonorawent's Twitter

= Blackbeardskneebrace =

Our next artist spotlight is none other than the magnificent @blackbeardskneebrace! You may recognise them from their wide variety of artwork styles (medieval, peanuts, tradition, etc) whatever style they decide to create in -- they've gifted this fandom with such beautiful work! Please visit their tumblr, or their Ko-fi, or their twitter for more brilliant work!

Source: BlackbeardsKneeBrace's Tumblr

= _SilverSheep =

Next up on our fan spotlight for the evening is @_silversheep on twitter! This adorable rendition of Cambell's Soup has such cute details hidden in the label, I'm so glad she was kind enough to allow me to share it with you! You can check them out here on their twitter, or her https://linktr.ee/asisherright !

Source: _Silversheep's Twitter

= LibroseITM =

Back again is our absolutely lovely @libroseitm! They were kind enough to let me share this steamy scene with our Polycule for @garlicsoupweek based off of Sense8! Want to check out more of their work? Visit @libroseitm on Tumblr, or Twitter for more beautiful work from LIb!

Source: LibRoseITM's Twitter

= ipomoea-batatas =

Next in our fan spotlight is the briliiant @ipomoea-batatas! I cannot tell you how much I adore the detail on their work! Look at those faces, it's like looking at our dear Archie, Jim, and Olu in person! Capturing Olu's smile and excitement is no small feat too! Wanna check out more of their awesome OFMD art? Please visit their tumblr here on tumblr!

Source: ipomoea-batatas's Tumblr

= TheseAreTheKids =

Another incredibly talented crewmate - thesearethekids on twitter put together this very sweet cross-stitch pattern for our polycule! She was kind enough to make a downloadable PDF chart and put it up on her Ko-Fi as well so you can work on it yourself. Want to follow them for more cross stitch/embroidery fun? Visit their Twitter!

Source: TheseAreTheKids Twitter

= ErosTheArtist =

Back again with more artwork from the lovely @erostheartist! This time with our Polycule in the Teal Orange outfits! I love it! Love their work? Follow them here on tumblr, or on instagram/check out their https://linktr.ee/eros_the_artist!

Source: Eros The Artist Tumblr

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies! I hope you had a wonderful weekend-- and an even better pride month! There has been so much queer joy this month-- and everyone's been celebrating being themselves and celebrating all the wonderful people around them-- and I'm so very happy so many of you have gotten to experience that. If you aren't out yet, or pride isn't your thing, or maybe this month is always tough on you, that's okay too. Your safety, and comfort is more important than anything, so please don't feel bad if you aren't experiencing that joy like others are. Just know that no matter what stage of your journey you are in-- your crew loves and cares for you. I wanted to send a gentle reminder, I know that after so much excitement, sometimes our brains can rebound a bit and go the same distance in the other direction. This is perfectly normal lovelies, so if you feel a bit sad tomorrow or the upcoming month, just remember to take it in stride. If you are feeling heavy feelings, remember to embrace them and acknowledge them, and let them go in your own time. No matter what gender, sexuality, or various degree of queer you are, or not queer at all, please know that you are so very loved crew. Truly truly loved. You are beautiful, and unique, and brilliant, and wonderful, and no one gets to say otherwise, okay?

Rest well lovelies, tomorrow is another day.

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

Tonight's gif just exudes Last Day of Pride Month for me -- as well as running straight into July's Queer Wrath! Tonight's gif courtesy of the wonderful @edsrosetattoo!

[meatball-headache]

I dont have a non-spoilery screenshot for The Sacrifice, so, please enjoy this survey!

Chiclet's not allowed to read this yet, so shhhh

Howling... full moon... heh. He's a Wereframe.

So, once again I'm captivated by Warframe's approach to storytelling. It's unique, in my experience—and I'll be glad to admit my experience is pretty limited. MMOs tend to dominate all your time, y'know?

I've heard how with The Second Dream they started to take the story in a different direction, that is, they introduced a lot more cinematic scenes—and, man, they pack a punch. Honestly, I think introducing this style later in the game, years down the road for some players and still many months for myself—it's very effective. I keep using analogies like playing Tetris to level 100 and then suddenly you get a scene that introduces the pieces' names. If Warframe had been this from the beginning, it still would have been good, but the impact of the surprise wouldn't have been there, and that moment still shines so brightly for me. The game would just be a fun grind to kill some time without it, but with that "This is what you are" scene, the whole game just took on a profound, sacred aspect that can't be topped.

...and yet...

No, no, The Sacrifice isn't better than The Second Dream, but, I am surprised. See, I've long known two things: one, you can look at the Codex and see all the quests in the game. Angels of the Zariman is there right from the beginning, except it says "Prerequisite: The New War." Whispers in the Walls is there right from the beginning, except it says "Prerequisite: The New War." Jade Shadows is there from the beginning, except it says "Prerequisite: The New War."

The New War does not appear in my Codex.

The second thing I've long known? The New War is going to be a big deal.

There's something else that's been stuck in my craw for a long time. What's the Ropalolyst? There's a mission on Jupiter that can't be done because it requires the quest The Chimera: Prologue. That quest... also doesn't appear in my Codex? So, there are some quests that aren't in the Codex...

Compared to FFXIV, there's no comparison. A classic MMORPG is quest-dense with wall-to-wall dialogue and almost nonstop cutscenes. On the other end of the coin, the other type of game I'm most familiar with is Soulsbornes, where there's almost no story in-game; it's more similar to the NES classics where you turn on the game, press Start, and fight stuff until you see credits. Warframe, of course, doesn't need to be FFXIV, but what's exciting is the hint that there's something behind it all, and there's still some secrets I don't know about.

I did Apostasy: Prologue and was really surprised to find out that it's a one-mission quest that sets up the next story quest. I wonder if it released at the same time as The Sacrifice? I was thinking I'd do Apostasy tonight, The Sacrifice tomorrow... well, since Apostasy was basically just one cutscene, I had to do The Sacrifice. I'll get into the details later, but...

What the...

Well. We found the Chimera Prologue. Hell, we found the Chimera, didn't we?

This is what I mean. Once again, I'm astounded by the game's turns. So, Prelude to War has... chapters?! That's never been a thing before. That explains why Chimera Prologue wasn't in my Codex. Maybe The New War is one of these chapters? No, no, for what a big deal The New War is, it must be its whole own system. It must be something as big as Duviri. It's got to be something.

None of the quests in this game have been big enough to warrant chapters. I'm guessing it's not that each "chapter" is just its own mission, no. Each chapter must be the size of a normal quest, right? Around 3-5 missions, cutscenes between a couple...

Just want to throw this in, I really like how Warframe just doesn't give a shit about throwing something weird at you without explanation. You get an objective "Search the lab." Search for what? Is it glowing? Am I supposed to use my scanner on it? Turn into the kid and blast it with my void beam? Walk up to it and press the button? Am I looking for a console to use, an item to pick up, damage to get curious about? I appreciate that Warframe seems to trust the player to figure it out. They trust the player to figure out that there's something to figure out. ...which might be a little optimistic on their part, because I did have to look up what to do on those Kuva siphon missions...

FFXIV's narrative is massive and non-stop. I have to wait four months for the next patch, but every patch always ends with a big fight, and then Y'shtola puzzling over some magical mystery, saying, "I'll let you know when I've figured something out." When the patch comes out, you talk to her in the same place, "Perfect timing! I just wanted to let you know I've figured something out." A new player would get uninterrupted flow and never know when one patch ends and another begins, unless they clue in on the little narrative trick. But, like I said, me, I've always played patches day one, and then I have months between patches.

If I played Warframe the same way... well, the way I'm playing Warframe now, is that I'm going at an absolute snail's pace, tiptoeing my way through the quests and spending a lot of time leveling things and grinding all the time.

I'm not explaining myself properly. Let me try again.

Warframe's quests released months or more apart, as did FFXIV's. But FFXIV's are meant to be continuous. Warframe's feel like they need to have space between them, because it's not a continuous narrative from one to the next. I'm not saying the story is disjointed or makes no sense; but imagine if it were FFXIV, and you do the quest where you fight Ifrit and all that, and then the next quest is to do the banquet and fight Titan, and then the next quest is to fight Garuda. Played back to back, it'd feel like there's vast gaps between them, both narratively and level-wise.

Maybe I just have a shit memory for lore? Warframe's quests always feel like they're talking about characters I should be extremely familiar with. Or, maybe I'm just used to less-well-written games that explicitly hand you reminders of these characters that haven't been mentioned in several minutes.

So, The Sacrifice is all about Ballas. I don't really know who Ballas is, but this quest has the feeling of "Finally, we're going to take on Ballas." But, I have heard about him. In The Second Dream, we see that Margulis was talking to Ballas. He might've been mentioned in Chains of Harrow? Or, no... I think it was The Silver Grove, where we had dialogue from I don't remember who, someone who was building Warframes for Ballas, I think, and regretted it because they were doing horrible things, so her last Warframe was Titania, to protect the forest. But where I know Ballas from the most is the song, "For Narmer." I don't know the context in-game, but you can't listen to "We All Lift Together" on Youtube without getting recommended the rest. There's a lyric that says "Praise the wise and mighty Ballas" in it. I thought they were saying "balance" at first, but then I thought, are they saying someone's name?

Ballas is a little like Ludwig from Bloodborne. If you've been paying attention, you have hints and snippets of this guy's role in the story. If you're like me, you take one little hint, dwell on it, obsess over it, and when the grand reveal finally comes, oh how grand it is! Ludwig, Ballas, Ketenramm... okay, maybe not Ketenramm.

Warframe has this unshakable feeling that there was some plot between quest beats that I missed. Same thing with just... the game. Ghoul Purge! Thermia Fractures! ...do I know what that's about? Was there some quest to introduce those, and now they're just in the game? It's like fighting Yojimbo or Typhon at the Gold Saucer when you've been playing FFXIV for three weeks and you're level 37. Am I supposed to know who this is? Oh well, gotta do my dailies! Or the... Rathuum? Where you fight... I had to look up her name... Kela De Thaym, on Sedna. The thing has this feeling like we're old rivals, her dialogue suggests she's finally going to get us for all the times we've foiled her before! But, lady, we just met you. Actually, we haven't even met you! We just showed up at this new node and you're going, "Finally we settle things!"

Don't misunderstand, I'm not complaining, it's just a very unique feeling about the game's whole quest style.

There's something else, too. There always is, you know me.

You ever get into a new series, books, movies, games, whatever? There's already three seasons but you're just finding out about it now, so you eat it all up and you're excited to learn there's going to be a new season next year. It comes and you watch it and... it just feels different? They got new writers, or the pacing is weird, something's just not clicking. And then next year another new season and, yeah it's just not as good. Or, music, people do this with music all the time, right?

When I first got into Warframe, Angels of the Zariman was the new patch. I didn't play it, obviously, don't know anything about it, but, I wonder if, when I get to that point, then everything from then on is going to feel like "new" Warframe, and just not have the same impact as the "original" stuff? I know me; I'm certain I'm going to be overly aware of the dividing line, and look for changes.

Also? In The Sacrifice, we learn that Margulis was sentenced to the Jade light. There's a new Warframe named Jade, and in fact a whole new quest called Jade Shadows. Clearly, this "Jade" thing has been long foreshadowed (lol) and must tie into the story deeply. I just thought it was a cool new Warframe they made because they didn't have one starting with J already. My playing these old quests with hints of knowledge of the future is an interseting perspective; anyone playing these things back when they were new wouldn't have this "Ah, so this is where Jade comes from!" moment... but at the same time, they get what I won't, they get a "Holy shit they're finally making a Jade Warframe?!" (Now that I think about it, that does kind of explain why this warranted a whole new Eximus type...)

Now, the actual quest.

What the FUCK just happened?

After dealing with Rell's psyche and releasing or destroying Harrow in the Void, or whatever we did, there's something odd in our personal quarters. When we go in, we suddenly find ourselves on Lua, where we find... the pod containing the actual Lotus? And then Ballas just... shows up, and takes her away? But, Ballas is one of the Orokin, the people that were annihilated by the Warframes in the Old War (I think) ... how long ago? A couple years? A couple thousand years? I think there were some lore snippets along the lines of, after the Orokin fell, the Grineer and Corpus took over the system. The Grineer used to be strong and competent, but cloning errors began to creep in generation after generation, so some time must have transpore since the Old War. We have extremely overgrown Orokin ruins on Deimos. And, Ballas's dialogue suggests he's been around for a bazillion years.

What happened? Why did Ballas wait for us to arrive to take the Lotus away? Did we have to lead him to her? We found magic voices from the Lotus asking to be freed... is this what she's always wanted? Or was that a memory from when she was like, imprisoned before her execution? The other lines do seem to be the latter, so. Who was it that Ballas turned into Umbra? Does it matter? Is it supposed to be someone we know? Why does Ballas have a long Bloodborne arm? Why is Ballas a blue Orokin and Isaah is just like a dude?

All rhetorical questions, as always, but this is what I'm asking for real. Am I forgetting something? Or am I meant to wonder what's going on, try to figure out the missing pieces? These cutscenes are as cinematic as anything in Final Fantasy, but the story is as Swiss-cheesed as any Soulsborne. Pieces are missing and I don't know what's going on, but it's being presented as if I already have the setup, as if I already know the context.

And, again. I love this style. It's completely fascinating and captivating. I'm not being critical, I know it sounds like I'm just complaining about being confused, but, that's not the case. I like being confused, because it's just the right level. There's plenty of story and characters, and enough lore and just... this vibe to suggest there's more. Ordis chirps every now and then, "Do you remember the Old War? Ordis seems to have... misplaced those memories." That's enough to make you go, whoa whoa whoa, what? ...and now whenever you play, you're looking for any tangential reference to this mysterious "Old War." Nora on the radio talks about Alad V's experiments, and now you know this mad scientist is out there something, up to something strange... It's not always a throughline narrative like FF, but you get these pieces to sort of color a vibe, so to speak. The world gradually fills in, and every now and then the dam breaks and it all spills forth, and you get all the water you could ever want, but... gosh, it's pretty messy sometimes.

Somehow, I've lucked into the ideal way to play this game, I think. At least, I'm having a lot of fun. I look up builds on websites, and they'll have powerful mods like Umbral Intensify. Umbral! I know about Primed, but Umbral!? Where do I get that! ...and then, suddenly, I have it, and it's like the stars have aligned and I've achieved enlightenment. At long last, this mythical relic has entered my hand! And, not gonna lie, it's kind of a profound moment. Now I know. Now I know where this important and mysterious item comes from!

There's so much to this game. Eidolon hunts, Kuva liches, sorties—these I've just recently unlocked, in terms of progression, and I could spend ages grinding them for the latest paths to strength. And there's more out there that I know very little or nothing about. I have "Arbitration" on my menu, but I can't select it until I clear the star chart, which includes a few things I can't do, like the Ropalolyst, and things I'm not up to yet, like Zariman, and things I can't even fathom a guess at, like the half-dozen remaining nodes on Deimos. I've vaguely heard about Icarnons? Something about a special mode for weapons? And recently I was watching a video explaining damage types, and he mentioned Archon shards? I have no idea what that is! But this man is shooting a bow that explodes ten times for 1,000,000 damage each hit... I can sometimes do a million damage with Baruuk's exalted weapon's charged heavy attack... And, there's probably more cool mods out there that are just super rare from an extremely specific source... I've heard of Adaptation and Growing Power, a couple other types of "Power," I think, so those must be from... who knows? C rotation in a rescue mission on Sedna? I know Vor shows up after round 1 survival on Mot in the Void, and he drops some unique mods, so maybe other places have some weird gimmick like that? I just don't know, and I probably won't without looking it up.

There is SO. MUCH. To this game. It's absurd. I've never played anything that comes close, even FFXIV, with as huge a game as it is, its content is much more samey—consistent tomestone systems, raid loot designs, dungeon length, whatnot. Nothing compares to Warframe, it's absolutely ridiculous.

And?

All this is free. Completely free. The only things you can only get with real cash money are cosmetic skins and syandanas and color palettes, I think. You can play the entire story and campaign for free, you can get every Warframe for free—getting enough storage to keep them all is a different story, though... Nora has some slots you can grind for sometimes but mostly you gotta pay—you can get all the Prime Warframes and weapons for free, there's no paid version of the season pass, no subscribers-only zones or Warframes or quests...

If I had found Warframe before FFXIV... I probably wouldn't have liked it. Original Warframe seemed... really different. I mean, current Warframe didn't even grab me until the third or fourth time around. But, I mean, what'm I playing now? I played Dawntrail, I logged in as soon as the servers went live and I sank deep into the story for a couple months. I took my time, exploring, grinding all my jobs first, and then as soon as the story was done—I went and did the post-game dungeons and raids :p But as soon as that was done, I just kinda... stopped playing. I haven't capped tomes once in Dawntrail; I used to do it religiously. I haven't even been getting all my Arcadion NM loot. I love FFXIV, it's my absolute baby, thinking about it, reminiscing about it, listening to it—my god, Soken's a genius—pondering the story, looking at fanart... but when it comes to pure gameplay? It's... dry. Combat is great—for an MMO. I find action RPGs like Warframe, Bloodborne, these kind of things a lot more fun, in terms of pure gameplay. And, look, every dungeon is formulaic, so many of the jobs play so similarly to others... Then you go to Warframe where, yes, missions are extremely formulaic, but you also have randomized maps, Stalker attacks, Eximus waves; and every Warframe plays so different from every other. Every weapon is different! Most games seem to just be a sliding scale of "This shoots fast but does less damage," "This shoots slow and does lots of damage," "This does lots of damage but is not accurate." Warframe has "This is an assault rifle," "This is an assault rifle. If you empty the magazine then it drains life from enemies nearby." "This is an assault rifle. It shoots missiles that explode," "This shoots grenades. You have to press this button to detonate them manually."

All right, folks. I'm tired of writing. To summarize: I love Warframe, this quest was great. Thanks for reading. Good night.

[bills-pokedex]

To whom it may concern (Bebe and Cassius):

I'm sure we'll all well aware of the current event surrounding a certain Unovan(?) entrepreneur who stylizes himself as a genius. It is therefore unnecessary to show me news about his latest "innovative endeavors" for the express purpose of "watching [me], an inventor, age about ten years every time."

So to get it out of the way for the thirteenth and hopefully final time:

Yes, I'm aware.

No, I don't know how he got a stainless steel tank, a rocket cobbled together from spare parts, a self-driving car that occasionally ignites into a ball of flames while trapping its driver in thanks to multiple design flaws, or the brain chip past an ethics committee.

Yes, I am "salty" that I made one mistake with one of my inventions, and now I'm constantly scrutinized by the Pokémon Cutting-Edge Technology Research Institute's ethics committee.

No, I do not want the brain chip.

Yes, I want to study the brain chip.

The fifth point is out of morbid curiosity as to how it got past an ethics committee, not respect.

Hopefully, this clears things up.

Best, Bill

-

{From the Mun:

I found this in the drafts, and I thought it would be hilarious to bring this out and tack on an update post while I'm at it.

But the biggest thing is, I'm . . . actually leaving Tumblr. Now, the main reason for that is my main got super borked up. I've been told by my followers over there it's not shadowbanning, but I'm pretty sure it's random-ass shadowbanning. I cannot receive asks, I can't tag people, I don't have DMs, and I don't show up in notes. As for why, I can't fathom. For the most part, I've kept my nose pretty clean on that account, other than that one time somebody in the writeblr community kinda lost it and tried to use a bunch of random people as a scapegoat for drama reasons. Yeah, idk.

Anyway, the point is, I've submitted a ticket a few months ago and then . . . never heard back. And honestly, for personal reasons, I'm not really inclined on remaking.

Personal reasons being I'm gunning for writing an actual book, as you might know from my last-ish post? Like, non-Pokémon book. Though I'll admit some bits might be familiar to those of you who've hung around the blog for a while. Here's a hint: take powerverse, gender swap it, role swap it, and then stick it into FFXIV and add more steampunk. It's been cooking for the past year you haven't seen me, and I'm aiming to start pitching it to agents by the end of the year. If you'd like to follow along, if you're also a writer who would like to make more writing friends, or if you just like my writing for some reason and want to keep up with me, you can find me at jaxwolffwrites on both Bluesky and Twitter. Bsky moreso, but you'll get progress on this project on either of those other platforms.

Now, I will say this: just to be fair, I'm doing three things:

Closing the askbox. Admittedly, if you've been sending me asks for the past three months, I haven't seen them anyway. Sooooo I probably should've done that ages ago. Sorry about that.

Answering any ask I've saved to the drafts. Any ask. Please note that I don't know if the borking I've described above extends to this blog as well, so Bill won't be replying to replies or reblogs/tags. Apologies for that in advance. There are 49 posts in the drafts, and these will come out fairly slowly as I continue to keep up with my writing schedule on the other project.

Leaving this blog up as an archive. Assuming Tumblr doesn't nuke the main and the backup account that was created in an effort to avoid total nuking, and assuming Tumblr doesn't nuke this blog itself, I really want to leave this up so you can enjoy this pretty much forever onward. You all are the reason why this blog has gone on for so long, and I want to preserve this blog as a thank you for following me for so long.

So yes, after I clear the drafts, you'll likely see one last farewell from Bill and Lanette, and then that will be that. To everyone who's followed, thank you so much for following and supporting this blog over the years. As many ups and downs as running this had, I still look back on every moment as one fun adventure.

So thank you, and take care.}

[nothingxs]

FFXIV Write // Stable

She was up first.

A quick rise, a wipe of her eyes; a quick trip to the shower and restroom for all the things one does in the morning.

A tousle of her hair; not like it ever needed much.

A trip upstairs, a fetch of the pan, dodo eggs retrieved from a basket. Butter on the pan, eggs cracked into a bowl and scrambled. A pair of links of sausage retrieved from their hanging spot against a board on the wall and sliced open, and some sliced bacon fetched from the icebox.

The smell of bacon, eggs and sausage filling the room as another pan toasts slices of a crusty bread.

Early breakfast for her, a plate reserved on the side for Das, who she goes downstairs to bother and give pats and rubs to, to encourage to wake up. She heads back up, she scarfs breakfast down, and after another trip downstairs to plant a kiss on Das' cheek as she is on the way to stumble to the shower, it's off to routine daily business.

Daily business involves a lot of checking in with folk.

A linkpearl call out to Vex, check on how she's doing, halfway across the damn Star over in Thavnair. Different things than hunting this sun, it seems. She has a new idea for something to serve. She's already sent a courier with new spices. There's brief chatter about the latest changes to the bar and how some of the neighbors are.

A linkpearl call out to Reny, who politely answers as she is getting ready to continue writing a thesis statement on arcanima and its parallels with conjury, as well as many curious (and odd) applications. She has been at this for several moons, now. She still has new things to talk about. Celica will never not be impressed by this.

A quick visit to the local market; this sun is a good one to stock up on the goods Vex will need by the end of the sennight to prepare what will be on the menu for the Dusk and Dawn when it next opens, and all of it is made in bulk and left in the ice chests to be used next week. A package is already there with the promised spices.

Celica will look into how she gets things that fast to her some other sun. Not this one.

She gets to a lot of the preparation in the morning—vegetables are prepped and cut; marinades are put together according to a recipe Vex has separated. Bulk loads of poultry and red meat are cut to reasonable sizes and separated; utmost care placed in keeping them separate and everything as clean as she can. She prepares dozens of skewers for incoming orders, humming along to a tune as she does.

Later in the sun, she's making linkpearl calls and visits around Ul'dah. Some are to clarify some questions—the Ossuary LOVES to harangue her about things regarding that strange Terminal she has, and Celica had the good sense to be the person she put as the contact for it. She doesn't know enough about how it works, but she is affable and clever enough to distract and parry most of the prodding without ever giving too much of it away. Das would get irritated too fast and maybe put the license in jeopardy; Lia would give up the plot the moment she felt danger lurking over her shoulder.

Celica telling them about how cool the fights it enables and dropping hints and vagaries of what it can stop seems to satisfy them enough.

Her shoulder bothers her a bit throughout the sun. She spends time stretching it, holding a lamp post and pulling gently in one direction, doing light exercises and rotating it. Best to keep it limber. It's been a little since she shoved Imogen out of the way of a falling boulder, but the injury still nags her. Charlette likely wants to follow up on the damage. She has not been very good about returning to the CETEA at all (though she makes time to show up, here and there, to gatherings and outings). She promises quietly to herself she'll be better about it.

Later.

This sun, she's wound up in a familiar space right outside Ul'dah; close to the place where she made a little trade many Twelvemoons ago. She's not sure why she's wound up there.

She's not sure why she can spy a be-hatted Keeper woman there, who is suspiciously sitting exactly where she once sat and waited for someone else. "Spader."

"Where?" came the woman's reply.

A bell or two of catching up as the sun begins to sink in the sky. A quick farewell and a promise of a linkpearl call, soon, and in half a bell she is already back in the bottom floor of the Dusk and Dawn, where her heavy top is discarded for a lighter and tighter one, and she gets to doing all of the exercises and training she normally does. No better way to keep herself fit, after all.

A bell later and she's lying on the ground, staring at the wooden ceiling, breathing heavily and covered in sweat.

…It seems hard to believe, given how things were just a few years ago.

But life, right now? Even as busy as it is? It's… safe. It's stable.

Dare she say it, it's… comforting.

Maybe things can get better, after all.

[notreallysorryxx]

#”Stay”

Being the Warrior of Light is getting to you, but someone is there to share the burden with you.

Warnings: none

Characters: Alphinaud

Note: I wrote this wanting angst, and ended up with some comfort. My first oneshot in the FFXIV fandom. Although I’ve been playing for almost one year, I never posted anything for it. Words: 352

Arguments between you and Alphinaud were few and far between, but every so often one of you would snap due to stress. Today was one of those few days. It had been many a sleepless and anxiety-inducing night during the days leading up to the Final Days. And when the Final Days were averted, all that bottled-up stress came spilling out. Alphinaud found himself the unfortunate target of the bottled-up stress. “You do not have to carry the worries of the entirety of Eorzea’s on your back, Alphinaud!” Alphinaud flinched. He had never really seen or heard you this angry. He wasn’t really sure what to do when you just started crying and yelling at him. Alphinaud hesitantly cut into your yelling, his voice quiet, “Why not share the burden with me?” You paused. Did he really just say that? “What?” “Why not share the burden with me?” he repeated. Your yelling ceased as your expression softened. “I could not ask that of you. I am just stressed, do not take what I say seriously.” You sighed, feeling awkward when Alphinaud didn’t speak. You took his silence as a type of hint for you to leave him be. But as soon as you made for the door, your wrist was caught. “Wait! Stay!” Alphinaud exclaimed, his grip only tightening on your wrist. Although his grip was firm, he was gentle, careful not to harm you in any way. “I am not angry at you, quite the opposite. You do so much for Eorzea and yet you have no one to lessen the burden. Allow me, please.” A lull formed in the conversation, the air thick with tension as Alphinaud held his breath. He was anxiously awaiting your response. You practically choked on your words as your eyes began to fill with tears once more, “I could never ask that of you.” “Please,” Alphinaud was begging you, a somewhat pleading expression on his face. A simple nod from you was all he needed before he pulled you into a tight embrace, whispering comforting words in your ear as you sobbed on his shoulder.

[starres-stuff]

Day 3- Tempest FFXIV Write 2024

Tempest: to raise a tempest in or around

CW/TW: Dark Themes, Mature Themes, Hints at Abusive Upbringing.

Long before Vi and Dimitri another story existed, the story of their Mother; Saphelle Jienuex. 

“What will you do to suffer no more? Will you plead with the Dragons to eat them? Will you hire thugs to kill them in the streets or will you submit to me, girl?” Hers was always a cruel and scathing voice when she spoke. The distant specter of the void hungered for another of the Jienuex line to pay her price and step into her trap. Saphelle had noted that she had tripled her visits in recent weeks, her whispers far more tangible than normal. 

“Are you done yet?” the young Elezen asked from the shadows she brooded in, lavender eyes lingering on what appeared to be the shapely figure of a woman cast upon her wall. “We have gone through this nightly Numeria Ichatan” 

A low hiss was her reply and long; needle-like claws moved towards her across her wall, their intention to siphon some of her Aether to remind her of her place but they never did reach her, trying as she might. The girl seemed to be shielded by a powerful ward that a simple voidsent could not break through. 

“My name is not yours to use, girl.” The voice called back, a screeching sound coming from the wall, always dramatic this one was; hells bent on getting her own way. 

“I will use whatever I please.” Saphelle was in no mood for parlor tricks or over-dramatic theatrics. She had sought her darkness to tend to the wounds left behind by a drunken Father who did not know how to keep his hands to himself and needed them broken finger by finger to learn a lesson. He was not the only one either, the cruel gaze of her Mother as she watched him dish out his punishment. “He is sick Saphelle” the spineless creature would whisper later when they were alone, trying to make up for the things that had happened. This was her every night, some macabre play she had been birthed into one moonless night.

“Say yes and it will all be over.” The whisper teased again, there was nothing she wanted more than for it to be over. Soon to be twenty-one and not promised for marriage as any other Ishgardian noble daughter her age would have been. There had been other unfortunate things like this in her young life. No debutante ball, no sweet sixteen, and certainly no entertaining suitors come to ask for her hand.

“And what will you take from me in return to solve my problems Numeria Ichatan?” her, own, cruel smile appeared as she said the name again, a name she had found scrawled into the journal of her ancestors Neophinne the Scholar, her Mhachi ancestors who had been summoner, handler, and lover to the creature that followed her. 

“Nothing now, only after your death. I would claim your name and body as my own. I would live out your days as I lived our Neophinne’s, as I saw fit. In return, I will leave them as empty husk devoid of Aether, a fitting end for what they have offered you.”

Ah, the feelings that rose in Saphelle as she listened, the cold smile devoid or emotion that curled on her lips, as lost herself in the thoughts of all of this being hers. Oh, the sweet notes of revenge that hummed in her ears now. As much as she hated to admit it, the Voidsents price was small for something that would put her plan into motion. 

“You win. I will take your bargain.” Saphelle returned her attention to the wounds on her arms and stomach, a cotton ball dabbing at the lash marks from her Father's whip with a very sterile astringent that her Mother made to care for things such as this. 

“We have an oath then? Do you consent to the pact? Their death and your freedom for the right to claim your body when your soul goes on to the Sea?” The shadows moved and the form of a succubus emerged from them, gliding across the floor without her feet touching as if she was some twisted angel here to be the benevolent savior of the young woman. 

“I agree to your terms.” A slim hand rose, garnets glittering across her pale skin on golden bands “I would like it to be my Birthday present, we will be attending the theater as we always do to celebrate. When it is over we will emerge in the right alleyway from our private box. I expect them not to emerge from the alley.” 

The succubus took her hand turning it over and taking one of her claws to etch a symbol into the skin when completed the symbol glowed with the power of the void and a pair of grotesque lips touched hers, they felt like old parchment dry and ready to decay. 

“An exchange of Aether to seal the pact.” Saphelle's eyes grew wide as she felt her breath sucked out of her lungs, leaving her to gasp for air and then seconds later the voidsent breathed into her an old air that tasted like decay, causing the young woman to shudder in disgust. 

“Three days count them and I will be at your side” Her presence faded then leaving Saphelle alone in the darkness, her empty eyes filled with a vivid ruby light and her emotionless smile became a beacon of hope in the dismal gray. 

 “Happy Birthday to me.”  A short laugh burst forth from her lips into the room, the echo of it ominous and foreboding. She knew well the tempest that she had released that night, the creeping death that would set right all she had endured to this point. It would be a chaotic storm, but she would see the other side. 

[asha-mage]

🌶️ whats the Hot Take on fire emblem or ffxiv!!

Oh boy. I'll go with Fire Emblem since I've played it more recently. Let me just put on this metaphorical beekeepers suit before I take a swing at this particular hornet's nest.

*zips*

Azure Moon is, inherently, a tragedy, and of the various endings, the one that is the bleakest for the over all future of Fodlan. On a smaller scale level, all the characters that we personally care about are going to be fine by the end of Azure Moon (presuming you where playing on casual and/or didn't let your favs die in the war). On a macro scale, none of the cycles that lead things to fall apart in the first place are fundamentally changed in any way. The systems that lead to the misery/issues of most of the cast are still in place.

Byleth has replaced Rhea as Archbishop, and thus as the semi-divine shadow ruler of Fodlan, and Dimitri has become Wilhelm 2.0- the mortal companion and figure head of said semi-divine shadow ruler, who unites all of Fodlan beneath the control of the Kingdom and Church. The Agarthans meanwhile remain unexposed and plotting in secret. Their's no hint that the Church is going to reform and stop it's policy of censoring and altering history to suit it's political agenda, or meddling in the affairs of the governments of Fodlan at whim or need. And their is really no reason to believe that in another few hundred years the cycle wont repeat itself as the pressure from all the cracks and flaws in the system once again becomes unbearable.

It's telling to me that Edelgard in Verdant Wind more or less accepts her fate when Claude and Byleth have her cornered. She tells them outright that the only way forward is to unite all of Fodlan and sieze the future, and they can only do that if they kill her. But in Azure Moon she resists past the point of all reason, becoming the Hegemon in her efforts to defeat Byleth and Dimitri, and using her last breath to try and cut Dimitri down with her dagger. And that's because deep down, she knows that Dimitri lacks the will and the courage to break the cycle. Claude, is a reformer, a visionary who wants a better future and wont stop until he has the truth. Dimitri even after everything he's been through is still a servant of the past, and still bound by it. So she refuses to yield to the bitter end, to give up her dream of a better future no matter what.

[loldragoon-ffxiv]

Obligatory Long Dawntrail Post

I wanted to wait a while to say anything and let my hype die down first, but I think it's finally time. Overall, I really liked it! Especially how it relates to my WoL, which is more what I want to focus on because the internet has had enough hot takes about Wuk Lamat. More rambling under the cut:

To get the big picture stuff out of the way, I have always felt that this game is at its best when it's leaning into its politics. I'll admit it's risky to do from a commercial standpoint in this very polarized world, and sometimes I think it misses, especially when they try to touch on something that Japan has a huge blind spot towards culturally. But many of its best story beats, in my opinion, are the political ones. I'll always remember playing patch 2.55 for the first time, and that moment of realization I had watching Nanamo and Alphinaud both face consequences for their well-intentioned idealism, that we may not solve all the worlds' problems through the power of friendship and being really good at fighting alone. Obviously, the power of friendship is a big part of the game's central ethos, but it isn't enough. It was a hint at the underlying pragmatism of the game's politics that I really wasn't expecting from an MMO, especially one that has as many cheesy hopeful feel-good moments as this one tends to. I am also a big Stormblood liker overall, as much as I acknowledge it had serious problems with the pacing and character writing. I think the comparisons to Dawntrail are fair, but I like the same things about both of them. They're both best interpreted through the lens of actual world history and current events, and I think seem more shallow on the surface than they really are if you're not paying attention to the smaller moments with minor NPCs during the "exploring the new zones" bits of MSQ. I'd argue that Dawntrail did an even better job with its political commentary than Stormblood did, and I had a feeling it would when they mentioned they were hiring sensitivity readers. I think they did a great job of addressing a lot of the things that made people uncomfy about Stormblood by having the Scions take the backseat and letting the Turali people have their own agency in the story. I have a lot more opinions on the politics in Dawntrail overall, but I think other people have mostly said everything I want to say about that already. More interestingly, I think this expansion really surprised me with how well a lot of my character decisions with Zoisite, my WoL, ended up paying off. Because I hadn't really thought of Zoisite as an OC until early Heavensward, I tried to think about her backstory through the lens of what would make her the most interesting protagonist for the themes and plotlines I thought the game was trying to set up. I decided to make her half Doman, with a foreign adventurer father, and with an older half-sister that spent most of Zoisite's life fighting against Garlemald. During the events of 1.0, while her sister was busy with the XIVth legion and Project Meteor, Zoisite ended up more of an adventurer instead, and entangled with Minfilia and the Path of the Twelve because of the Echo, which was unique to Zoisite. I wanted her to have a personal connection to the Garlemald plotline so that it felt deserved for her to be the one to "resolve" it, but explain why she was willing to go along with these other diversions during ARR and HW that weren't related to it, too. Obviously, the game itself had a similar idea with Lyse, but I thought the parallel was actually kinda nice and it was a big part of why I ate SB up as much as I did. As much as SE and the writers have no real control over this, these accidental predictions and coincidences have honestly been a big part of why I have enjoyed FFXIV as much as I have. My favorite moments in the game are when I'm wondering if the writers are reading my google docs for ideas. It makes me feel like I'm doing a good job picking up on subtext.

But aside from her backstory, I let MSQ itself determine most of Zoisite's arc, and I very rarely find myself "retconning" MSQ vs the other way around. She is just trailer WoL/Meteor in most ways, with the big exception being Feldspar's existence from the late HW patches on. Because Feldspar is my RP character and I'm mostly writing 20ish years post-MSQ, Zoisite's primary role as a character has always been Feldspar's estranged birth mother first, and MSQ WoL second. When I'm experiencing the game through Zoisite's perspective, however, I constantly have to reconcile these two roles, and it has honestly been very difficult to do that during ShB and EW. It's hard to justify the tedious fetch quests when the stakes (for her, at least) are so high. It made it very hard for her to care much about the ancients, or the people on the First, or Zenos's weird one-sided obsession with her, even when the game was trying to force her to. As much as possible, I've tried to rationalize away these character inconsistencies as an intentional distraction on her part, and that the excuse of saving the world and helping people has been keeping some of that fear and guilt about "abandoning" her son at bay for a while now.

And then Dawntrail really just came out and addressed it for me, in a way I was not expecting. It presented itself from the outset as a "vacation" from the high stakes, where Zoisite was just kinda standing in the background most of the time, along with a VERY HEAVY THEME of parental abandonment to force her to reckon with her issues. She spent all of Dawntrail wondering if Feldspar would feel the same way about her that Krile and Wuk Lamat feel about their parents, and see it as a noble sacrifice for his best interest, or if he would resent her for abandoning him without explanation like Gulool Ja and Koana do. Most importantly, it was much harder for Zoisite to pretend that she had no other choice than to give Feldspar up when she was constantly facing the reality that she could step down at this point and the world would probably keep turning without her protecting it. Unfortunately, it's too late for her to change her mind about Feldspar, both because Feldspar's narrative demands it, and also because years have passed and she can't just casually ask for him back even if she wanted to. Zoisite had no choice but to mourn and let it go, and I think watching Cahciua and Erenville's interactions in Living Memory also helped with that, because she kinda got a glimpse of the type of mother she most likely would have ended up as, and saw that motherhood might not have worked out as perfectly as she'd started fantasizing about in retrospect. Like Cahciua, she cares the most about seeing the world and helping people, and doing what's "right," and she would always struggle with putting anyone else (including her own son) ahead of that, if it came down to it. Without another parent in the picture to help, there was no route that wouldn't end with Feldspar feeling abandoned by Zoisite in some way. All-in-all, I liked how this gave me a satisfying conclusion to that arc for her, and a nice refresh for future expansions. I'd rank it on par with SB and ShB for how much I enjoyed them, with my overall ranking being something like HW > SB-ShB-DT > ARR > EW. There's also that minor detail about the Alexandrians having rock names, and Zoisite's existing backstory that her name is a family naming convention from her father's side, and that she doesn't really know where he's from. I have yet to figure out how to make that connection, but man. The possibilities.

[torialefay]

*sees screenshots of chans bubble messages again along with his insta post* ._.

BRUH. His timing is absolutely impeccable. It's actually hilarious. I legit JUST joked with my friend in dms that a fictional character from a fucking game I have a crush on felt me pulling away bc of my crush on Chan, so he's(the character) been acting super sweet in a recent event to take my attention back. I passed out bc it was 3 a.m., wake up just HOURS later, and Christopher is being a flirt yet again and posting delulu fake date posts onto insta as if in unintentional retaliation(delulu on my end lmao). Flirty soft posts are right up my alley, too ._.

Bruh, I need to find time to play ffxiv or something and revive my crushes on more fictional characters. This guy *points and squints at chan* is dangerous with those ideas from his actual human brain.

Also, I don't follow the guys so closely enough to know if he's ever said "delulu" before, but I love that he drops little hints every now and then to confirm that he's lurking on every post lmao.

well my honey, i do not know what a "ffxiv" is, but i would also suggest you play it.

to be fair, this is probably all a game in chris' mind anyway. he's playing as this fictional little flirty character that he made up for us... when in reality, he's a lil loser nerd boy <33333

literally thinking of the interview they did recently (i think it was the radio one in new york?) where someone asked if they'd been playing any games lately and felix answered (insert the name of his game here idk much)... like yeah, christopher stays playing games too. but he can't just explain "every day i am constantly taking part in a roleplaying game i invented in my own head to satisfy not only my fans' desires, but also mine as well" on gods radio.

life is currently just one big game and our opponent is christopher bang. its okay though, we will eventually take him down. just might have some casualties along the way ❤️

[housedeaubemarle]

FFXIV Write 2024 #30: Two Heads are Better than One

~~

Six summers ago, at a particular soiree:

“Those’re the Aubemarle twins then?”

“Hah! Sooner call Dzemael and Haillenarte twins than those two. Not saying you have to be mirrors of each other but the colouring could stand to be more consistent.”

“Characters are none like too - one's running round Ishgard probably fathering a million bastards, the other's got legs crossed so tight it gives me a headache to look at her.”

“You sure ‘bout that last one? The way they hover round each other, she might well have opened them up for brother dearest-”

“Whhsst, not so loud, you idiot.”

Across the hall, one half of the Aubemarle twins fans herself gently, making sure her pleasant smile isn't obscured in any way as she does so. Half an eye is kept on one of the gentlemen conversing some distance from her, his grins and laughter not subtle to those who'd had the displeasure of his company. Which she'd experienced, just a sennight before when she'd accompanied the viscount to a meeting at House Dzemael.

She turns her head to the young man who comes up to her, and hands her a glass of punch. In his other hand is a similar glass. “Gaspard de Nogelois and his ilk were so busy repeating the most ludicrous rumours about us, he didn't even notice who was walking behind them.”

She accepts the drink, turning her eyes towards him, ever smiling. “Hardly surprising considering how Lord Nogelois embarrassed himself in the meeting with Papa, right before Count Tarreson. I doubt the younger Nogelois would be in much of a charitable mood.”

Her brother grins slightly. “You don't think our father did the embarrassing?”

A twinkle steals into her grey eyes at that. “Our father? Embarrass the house who claimed they couldn't possibly spare anymore gil to fortify the Congregation, yet commissioned a new wing to their manor? He would never be so gauche.”

He chuckles. “No, of course not.” He sips the punch and keeps smiling. “You know, Dine, allusions are one thing, but to be so direct is surely worth some form of response.”

She raises an eyebrow. “No brawling, no slander. Mamma will never forgive you for such mortification.”

“She would never forgive us for letting this go unanswered either.”

She lets out a breath. That much is also true; neither of their parents are in attendance tonight (hence her brother's uncommon appearance) which means it is left to them to decide their next course of action. “What did you have in mind?”

He grins widely at her. “I think we should redouble our mingling – Lady Gaelle and her posse have been hinting at me for a conversation, so I’ll head over and lament the ill treatment of my virtuous, upstanding sister. I’m sure the ladies will be more than happy to be loudly sympathetic if I exert myself enough. Perhaps you might like to wander in Lord Paulecrain’s direction; I hear he’s curious about the meeting but hasn’t been told much. Such pearls of wisdom that fall from your lips are bound to be taken more seriously. And repeated more often.”

She throws him a very sharp look, then shakes her head. “If Lady Gaelle’s husband calls you out, I will refuse to intervene, so I warn you, Rem. Within reason please; these tactics lose their potency if we use them too often.”

“Yes, but they also should be used when reason demands it,” he replies with his own meaningful look. 

The siblings share a silent exchange – almost an argument – before Oudine snorts, dropping the look she's aimed at him. “Very well.”

With a grin, Remont raises his glass in her direction. His sister duly clinks hers against it. “To triumph, my twin.”

“In totality, my twin.”

They each take a swig, then neatly depart, one to the left, the other to the right, off to set the ballroom (socially) alight.

-

end.