#in between Junelezen posting

[iron-sparrow]

PRIDE MONTH 2024 ˖⁺‧₊♡₊˚⊹

THE FIRST PRIDE WAS A RIOT

On June 28, 1969, activists Miss Major, Marsha P. Johnson, Silvia Rivera and Stormé Dulavarie led the the Stonewall Uprising ⸺ a five-day clash between patrons of the Stonewall Inn and NYPD. Prior to this, the police had raided the bar, and began assaulting and arresting people.

This wasn’t the first time the Stonewall Inn or other establishments for queer people were targeted by police. This time, however, hundreds of people decided to fight back.

On the one-year anniversary of Stonewall, activists walked from the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village to Central Park, in the first ever Pride March. Today, Pride has grown into an international celebration of LGBTQIA+ culture. Despite growing visibility, we must always remember the roots of this celebratory month and remain aware of the continued attacks against our community ⸺ to protect our progress and push for safety and equality for all.

[driftward]

Junelezen 2023: Aftershocks

Last week, I had a masterpost of every single entry I made for Junelezen 2023, which I dubbed Echoes. This week, I am posting annotated entries for every post from there, except this time I am linking to specific entries in the reblog chains, or to posts that others made as responses to Echoes. In particular, one member of my FC, (here on Tumblr as @yzeltia), took it upon himself to create a reblog response to every post.

The previous masterpost can be considered the 'original cut', consisting solely of my entries. This is the 'fat cut' I mentioned there. What parts of all this are canonical? I don't know, come back with a warrant.

As already mentioned, this post will have annotations on the various entries. I could go on for hours about my thought process, things I learned, and I may yet make some other posts about such things, but for now, I am (mostly) restricting myself to commentary here, both on my work, and the work of others.

I have learned a lot during this. One of the things I have learned is that in the future, readmores and reblogs do not necessarily play well together for these round-up posts, as readmores will roll out without the linked reblog, and if you just look at the reblog chain, you'll miss whatever was in the readmore. If I do this again in the future, I think I will stick to making posts, and maybe just link back and forth between them. And maybe if I am responding to someone else's work like this, instead of a reblog, I might just tag OP? I am uncertain. Reblogs keep tumblr alive. The cleanest for archive purposes would probably be reblog the original, then make the follow-up and tag the originator. Still though, that's neither here nor there. What is here is the fantastic work done by others.

And I appreciate all of it. I am humbled by the response.

Final note, these will largely link to Y'zel Tia's responses, since he reblogged almost every response with his own screenshot and words. Click throughs and context should make it obvious which ones are which.

.portrait

Where we got started, with a bit of a literal framing device. Y'zel Tia belongs to @yzeltia; part of his character canon is being a cousin to Y'shtola Rhul, and so that'll explain why you'll often see both of them in his responses. I'm not at all sure why Y'shtola would be interested in what happens to some random feckless adventurer, though...

Special shout out to @matrixdragon and @sabbactroll who both had, uh, opinions on this development. :)

.home

Look, haven't we all had a scientific experiment go a little sideways and light someone's world on fire. This is, of course, the bridge between the Incident and Junelezen: Echoes.

.spring

What strange sights are seen beyond the veil of reality, and what utterly normal places those left behind would go. I picked Coerthas as an early anchor point, since that's where Zoissette grew up.

.new adventure

I was still learning a lot here, both about my tools (gpose+more/Affinity Photo) as well as the posting medium (tumblr). An early goal I had was that the Junelezen 'entry' would be its own screenshot with minimal words, and I would build on the 'story' portion in reblogs or readmores, so that way people who were only interested in the Junelezen part could ignore the rest. This one I used a reblog to expand the story.

Studying Her History (by @yzeltia)

Zoissette would probably prefer they stay out of her room at the Baldesion Annex. Y'shtola is always cute when passed out from studying too much though.

.job

Using a reblog chain to expand the story portion again. I couldn't figure out how to make the jobstone work, so I added a light source to Zoissette's hand to make a kind of 'glow'. Not real happy with how it turned out, but making mistakes makes the learning happen.

Informing Alka Zolka (by @yzeltia)

Okay Y'zel was just trying for emotional damage here. I mean, he succeeded, but still. :|

.mount

I have written about part of Zoissette's mission of mercy before. Look ma, my lore has lore. This event left its mark on her; it did not change her in any great way, just sort of underlines who she already was at that point. In the reblog, Y'zel went for the emotional damage again. Writing in my FC is a PvP activity.

Absence Felt (by @ladyofvoss)

Incredible work here, in the expressiveness of the posture, and the choice of shots taken (at my heart). This is Thalia Voss, belonging to @ladyofvoss. Where she's at is Zoissette's office at Gage Acquisitions (designed by fellow FC member Ghurab)

.friends

Another reblog chain. Compositing the 'shards' to put the faces of friends into them was quite difficult, each one requiring four layers (the way I did it) and quite a bit of manual touch up work. The color scheme was chosen on purpose. Look, Junelezen is also Pride Month, I don't make the rules, but I do make things queer.

1000 words remix (by @yzeltia)

Y'zel has a real fondness for all things music, and that's seen here. As @saesama put it, 'he made an AMV in tumblr form'. Having not played FF X-2, I was not familiar with the song, but I am now. This will not be the last musical piece from our aurally inclined catboy.

.beauty

With this one I really found the problems with reblog chains when making archival posts. This links to the reblog I made to my own post to add story, but in going to the original post, it's actually really hard to fish out the reblog!

We get further hints here that 'Adriané' may not be who Zoissette thinks she is.

Dancing Alone (by @yzeltia)

Dance like nobody's watching. Hey. Why are you watching. Go away, this is meant to be a private moment!

.mirror

Getting to here took a lot of false starts, fiddling with Affinity Photo, getting samples from in game, changing outfits, and it was all worthwhile in the end. I really like the end result. Y'zel went for a more chaotic approach.

Absence Mourned (by @scrollsfromarebornrealm)

For context, the character in these shots is Mathye Bishop, who belongs to @scrollsfromarebornrealm, a character who has been courting Zoissette for over a year by this point. They are close, in any case. The tone provided by the filter and his posture all scream of the devastation he feels in the wake of Zoissette's absence.

.summer

A memory that never happened, but did. Strange things in these echoes, and as has happened before, Y'zel's character visits the 'real' location, feeling a twinge of what is going on out beyond the rift, thanks to his own Echo gift. Klynt Gohtawyn belongs to @saesama, and this hearkens back to the days she and Zoissette may have crossed paths back when they both worked for the Maelstrom.

Klynt's a jerk.

.day

Not much to say for this one. I thought the sun would make more of an arc crossing the sky, making for an interesting dynamic shot, but it turns out it makes kind of a very straight line, which makes sense if you think about it. I had an alternative shot planned that, while it was gorgeous, I just couldn't make the story aspect of it work out. I will probably share that shot, and others, at a future date.

.sun

You can see I am choosing more and more often to use readmores instead of reblogs, and I will probably stand by that decision in the future. Also here is where I found out I had been doing a crime these many years. Due to her somewhat reserved nature, I usually have Zoissette have very subtle almost-nonexistent expressions. Clearly, this entire time, I should have been turning them up somewhere around 11. I love her face.

Echo Disrupted (by @yzeltia)

Looks like in the search for their friend, someone may have overdone it a bit. Overdoing it a bit, in fact, seems to be a bit of a theme with Y'zel, both player and character.

.ancient times

I am not going to take the space it would require for me to say everything that I would like about Atlas, so instead I will just mention that this served as a useful pivot for the story, and provided a path forward. I had actually been juggling several ideas up to this point, and this is where I hard committed to a specific direction. Thanks, Atlas.

Sanctuary remix (by @yzeltia)

Honestly I think Y'zel having his character black out was just an excuse to have a space to put this entry without having to worry about what I was doing. Which, really, is a stroke of genius. Another AMV in tumblr form. Should we make a new word for that?

.night

It was around here that I decided to lean more on my strengths - writing - and less on screenshots. That decision did not last long. Junelezen started as a screenshot event, and I was having fun with those. Here we anchor for everything ever after.

Connected remix (by @yzeltia)

Y'zel introduces me to a new song that lives in my heart.

.romance

Zoissette, no longer losing herself in the echoes, shows up only in the containment suit in shots from here on out. I continue to be cheeky about the colours I use whenever she's in the rift, and Y'zel drops a slick FF8 reference, which just really plays into my love of multiverse shenanigans.

.magic

Not completely sworn off of reblogs yet, though this reblog was pushed out fast, before I had a riot on my hands. This is also where I started hinted more heavily at things to come, with another Lavender PoV piece.

In the reblog chain, where you see the fairies, from left to right, is C'oretta Khell's (belongs to @autumnslance) Lotus, pink-shifted compared to the others; Ryssthota Sundstyrwyn's (belongs to @erickgage) Glitterdust, and Riven Fortemp's (belongs to @scrollsfromarebornrealm) Sugarplum, who I tried to make the little hairtufts rounder for.

.magic response by Y'zel Tia

You can ask Y'zel about this one.

.autumn

And pulled that trigger. This is where I finalized the smoke effect I wanted to use for Lavender, and I'm rather proud of how it turned out, particularly in future shots.

.landscape

I really like this shot, for the utter alien landscape I managed to make using FFXIV assets and some aggressive photo editor work. My only regret is that it does not -quite- look like Zoissette and Lavender are actually in that place, but I think that can be fixed with a few more adjustments.

I'd been leaning on Y'zel's entries to sort of weakly gesture at what may have been going on in the 'real world' while Zoissette was gone, but here I start to make my own narrative about the matter. Judging from conversations I've had, there is one thing I could have made clearer in this story. Zoissette's perspective of how much time has passed is dramatically different from that of the Source. In the Source, it has been a short time. For Zoissette, it has been quite a lot longer.

.travel

I think this is the only one with a single screenshot. I lean more heavily on my writing abilities once more, and I think they speak for themselves.

.dungeon

Figures. Zoissette is having one of the worst days of her life, and the cats are napping. It took me a while to settle on a ghostly effect for the people 'yelling' at her, and I rather like how it turned out. We also are spending more time with Lavender. Hard decisions to be made, but just because they are hard does not mean they are difficult. Lavender and Zoissette are alike like that.

.deity

Some trivia. Zoissette's mom lost her right arm fighting a dragon, back before the Calamity. The Deity is supposed to be a mix of Halone and Zoissette's mother, and so, she, too, is missing her right arm.

.harvest

Reaper job unlocked. Un-edge-lording your edgelord jobs since at least 2016.

.hobbies

So while I was writing a follow-up story for The Incident, I was also trying to follow the Junelezen prompts. And one of my goals was that someone who was just here for Junelezen could just see the photo, nod, go 'ah that makes sense' and move on without having to know a damned thing about the Incident or about Zoissette. I probably did not succeed as well as I would have liked, but I did try.

Having said that, the location of the hobbies prompt in the middle of the others and what I had planned presented some real problems for me, and I did not solve it until pretty late. So we get this moment of downtime. I like how it turned out, but it sure did vex me getting there.

.winter

Back where we began. A lot has changed, a lot has stayed the same. There are a lot of subtle things I did intentionally throughout this story. In this shot, the shift to the skybox and lighting, as well as changing where they are sitting relative to the fence, were decisions I made on purpose.

Speaking of changes done on purpose, Y'zel-the-character's hair goes white as he once again overdoes it. We do recurring themes here, sir.

.cozy

I will stop composing shots of Zoissette and Y'shtola sitting like this the day I die. Also, seriously Y'zel, is NOW the time to be forcing that question??? Ridiculous, now we have -two- casualties.

.relaxing

Under the readmore, we spend more time with the science team, as they try to work out what to do next. But here...

A Relaxing Summary (by @matrixdragon)

I will let @matrixdragon provide the summary.

.fancy clothes

A schematic of the Aurora Laboratories Containment Suit. And two more questions from @matrixdragon, who picked up on my oh-so-subtle (okay no it wasn't) Babylon 5 reference. On that note, I adore the Babylon 5 questions, and I think they serve as an extremely useful framing tool for just about any character in any universe.

Some very touching possible answers from Y'shtola in Y'zel's reblog.

Midnight talk

Things are happening, and faster, now. I did not use a readmore or the reblog chain for these additional entries, which I made sure were scheduled for 2300 in my time zone every night. 1100 for the Junelezen post, 2300 for additional story posts. I keep to this plan for the rest of the run. These special additional entries I refer to as The Eleventh Hour.

.family

Thank you to everyone in these shots. I have a little story in my mind for each one. Maybe I will even write them one day.

The Trapeze Swinger remix (by @yzeltia)

As I go through these entries, I can tell how and where my skills are improving. I can say the same for Y'zel, whose 'tumblr AMV' skills expand. While they are all very good, this is one of his best works, in my opinion, and I found another new song through him.

Recovery plan

Another Eleventh Hour entry. You know, it's funny, this arguably all started because Zoissette was trying very hard to not be a burden on her FC or an inconvenience to anyone.

Sure seem to have inconvenienced a lot of people here.

The Last Contingency: Judgement Call (by @saesama)

This one stabs right in the feeling-parts, but somebody has to think of these things, and Zoissette isn't here to do it.

.holidays

Erick Gage (@erickgage) has something to say about this whole mess.

The Only Exception remix (by @yzeltia)

You may have invented the AMV. But Y'zel tumblrized it. Perfected its new form. And then he unleashed it upon us all.

Reconciliation

And truth, at last. I could say so much here. I elect to say nothing.

.free

The final shot was a pain to composite, and I am so proud of how it turned out.

.begin

One year, from Zoissette's perspective, give or take a lot. Two weeks for the world. But she's home again.

Ma there's a cat on the foot of my bed I don't know how it got there (but seriously, thank you @yzeltia :) )

BONUS SECTION

Imposter Syndrome! (by @starladyquasar)

Ladies, ladies, you're both beautiful. Though also seriously, Squeenix, give us more customisation options.

ELEZEVANGELION (by @yzeltia)

You want to know what it's like being part of the funniest FC? It's pretty great, I tell you what.

Anyroad. Special thanks to all of you - those who stopped to leave a comment, or found me on the moon during a screenshot session (you know who you are), or even those of you who just followed along, in whole or in part. And for those of you who were just here for Elezen shots, I hope you found something you liked in here!

[starlightcleric]

2022 Personal Fanfiction Retrospective

It’s the beginning of a new year, so time to reflect back on the old one!

What was your personal writing goal? Did you meet it?

“Knock out some stuff from my mental backlog/prompts lists I’ve imposed on myself. I have some WIPs on my laptop that are 3-4 years old.

In the “less self pressure” variety, stop writing things saved only on my laptop and write on google drive so stuff is backed up in the cloud and available from multiple computers!“

Well, I didn’t accomplish the first, but I did accomplish the second. I’ve moved almost entirely to writing on google drive now.

How much did you write? 

Counting Prepare for the Dawn, 31,561 posted words in 20 stories. If we just look at solo work, that’s 19,910 words in 19 stories.

I have an additional 4,679 words in unfinished/unposted works, for a total of 24,589 words in solo writing.

I also did a ton of rpg writing this year, so I’d be interested to total all that up, too.

How does that compare to last year? 

That is 16,940 words more than last year!

Which fandom did you write the most for?

Final Fantasy XIV, and this is the first year I’ve written for that fandom, even.

What story was your favorite? 

Tie between “Soup, With Love” and “How to Impress Girls.” The first because I think it’s good comedy, the second because I’m proud of the action scene.

What story do you think could have used more work?

I’m not happy with “Leaving Gridania” and sometimes question if I should have posted it. It’s very rambly and was the result of me starting to try to write what turned into “Shelter in the Storm” and failing. I think I did the beginning of Belle’s journey better in the Junelezen 2022 ficlets.

What is your writing goal for next year? 

I’m trying to set quarterly writing goals this year because planning for a whole year is hard, so my goal for the first three months of 2023 is to finish the first draft of a five chapter fic I started and to finish at least one of the prompts in my inbox.

[orime-stories]

I posted 3,133 times in 2022

172 posts created (5%)

2,961 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tytonidaedraco

@fairylightfairlybright

@serenbach86

@skellingtondrac

@sayonaramidnight

I tagged 3,061 of my posts in 2022

Only 2% of my posts had no tags

#final fantasy xiv - 674 posts

#nature - 472 posts

#green - 470 posts

#blue - 237 posts

#heavensward - 234 posts

#gold - 222 posts

#dungeons and dragons - 215 posts

#a realm reborn - 187 posts

#humans - 172 posts

#story telling - 170 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#but in times where we would genuinely like to change minds it's good to be aware of the things that are most likely to facilitate that goal

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Day 21 - Uncanny Valley

The Fortemps family were staunch believers in the Ishgardian sense of dignity. (Most of them at least, but Emmanellain was a man that existed in a world entirely his own, it seemed.) Count Edmont and Lord Artoirel’s faces rarely strayed from their stern nobleman’s masks, expressing their gladness for her presence and their desire for her to feel welcome in their home by courteous words alone. But when she first came to Ishgard, such stoic respect was not a language she understood.

It took time for her to learn their ways, and they hers. And for her to truly feel the bonds of kinship stirring and then strengthening between them. To better express herself in measured phrases that kept some portion of herself at a slight distance. But she also found them reaching forward to meet her in her efforts, permitting and even instigating more open conversations, candidly admitting their concerns and reliefs with her. And gradually, those stoic masks began to soften at the edges. Gradually, she even came to know their smiles, finally seeing the language she knew best reflected back at her.

A victory that was bittersweet, as it was when they smiled that they most closely resembled him.

For the Junelezen Challenge 2022

Previous Entries: Introduction / Calamity / A Realm Reborn / History Repeating / Eorzea Defended / Dreams of Ice / Warrior of Light / Heavensward / Floor the Horde / Gaol Break / Orthodox Mayhem / Five Minutes of Fate / Stormblood / Crimson Footprints / Solar Cycle / Lunar Cycle / More Heroes / Shadowbringers / Between Two Worlds / Paradise Found

27 notes - Posted June 21, 2022

#4

Day 10 - Gaol Break

“My friend!” Haurchefant beamed as she entered his hall. “To what do I owe the unexpected pleasure?”

“I was nearby—”

“And you thought to valiantly rescue me from this dreary report I am supposed to be compiling! How very kind of you!”

“My Lord...” Yaelle groaned in frustrated resignation as he carelessly stuffed the offending papers into a drawer and then hurried out of his seat and to Aurelle’s side.

“Oh never mind all that — it shall get done, and it shall get done on a day that I do not have such a distinguished guest. Now,” he turned his attention back to Aurelle. “Might you consent to joining me on a bracing stroll through these frozen wastes of ours?” He offered her his arm with an easy smile, as though he had just suggested a wander through some picturesque gardens instead. “There shall be hot chocolate by way of reimbursement later,” he then added.

“That sounds lovely,” she beamed back. “All of it.”

For the Junelezen Challenge 2022

Previous Entries: Introduction / Calamity / A Realm Reborn / History Repeating / Eorzea Defended / Dreams of Ice / Warrior of Light / Heavensward / Floor the Horde

28 notes - Posted June 10, 2022

#3

Aurelle Silmontier Fic Masterlist

Final Fantasy XIV

AO3 collection here, spotify playlist here, tumblr links I’ll keep updated below the cut! Feel free to dip in and out of stuff as you fancy, each piece should hopefully hold up on its own.

A Realm Reborn

FFXIV Write 2021 Writing Challenge - Introduction to Aurelle’s character

The Nervous Warrior - Aymeric meeting Aurelle for the first time (Aymeric POV)

The Steps of Faith - Aurelle taking a moment of strength from Aymeric before returning to the battle on the Steps of Faith

Before the Dawn - Taking refuge with Haurchefant after things go bad in Ul’dah

Heavensward

The Congregation of Our Knights Most Heavenly - Aurelle checking in with Aymeric upon reaching Ishgard

Divine Intervention - Aurelle takes part in a trial by combat to prove the Scions’ innocence

A Fancy Dinner - Aymeric invites Aurelle round for dinner (aka their first date but they don’t realise they’re dating yet)

The Lovely Woman - Aymeric reflecting on the dinner he shared with Aurelle (aka pining despite his best efforts) (Aymeric POV)

Ferocity and Fear - Aurelle’s intial impressions of Estinien and Ysayle

Trepidation and Hope - Aymeric preparing the city for attack and appreciating Aurelle’s visits (Aymeric POV)

Trust - Their second dinner date (but they still don’t realise they’re dating yet)

Wandering Minds - Considering their feelings for each other alone in their rooms at night (Mixed POV) (Explicit)

Camaraderie - Aurelle musing on how close her, Alphinaud, Ysayle and Estinien are growing despite themselves

Friendly Concern - Estinien interrogates Aymeric about what’s going on between him and Aurelle (Aymeric POV)

A Last Glimpse - Aurelle checks in with Aymeric one last time before a climactic battle

Noble Bloodlines - Aurelle shares dinner with House Fortemps and the Scions but something seems to be bothering Haurchefant

Impossible Dreams - Aurelle enjoys some evening drinks at Aymeric’s and the pair finally realise what’s going on and do something about it

A Secret to Keep - Aurelle and Aymeric have a discussion on where to go from here

Surrender - Aymeric musing on his newly begun romance with Aurelle after they’ve parted for the night (Aymeric POV)

The Masked Dragoon - Estinien interrogates Aurelle about what’s going on between her and Aymeric

Into the Aery - Aurelle and Estinien take down a great threat to Ishgard together

The Song Begins - Aurelle, Estinien and Ysayle take a moment to process some revelations

Miscellaneous

Junelezen 2021 Screenshot and Writing Challenge - Snapshots of Aurelle’s relationships with different people and places

28 notes - Posted March 26, 2022

#2

Heavensward Drink - Eorzea Cafe

30 notes - Posted July 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Day 1 - Introduction

And so it was that I came to know Aurelle Silmontier, Eorzea’s recently named Warrior of Light. Her plain, midnight blue robes marked her as one of Gridania’s conjurers—shapers of nature itself, whose powers manifest in accordance with an ancient pact kept with the elemental guardians of the Twelveswood. Her borrowed coat marked her as one that had come to our city hastily, unprepared for the bitter cold of our post-calamity climate. And her downcast eyes and faltering voice marked her as one mired by a great many anxieties and doubts.

But beneath all that, we were soon to learn, lay a noble and courageous heart. Never faltering as she walked the treacherous path that had been placed beneath her feet—one that would see our great city delivered from a doom we could not have forseen nor stood against alone.

Despite the tangled web of politics, misplaced faith and cold suspicion she was met with, still she fought for us.

Still she soldiered on—as into our homes, and into our hearts, she came.

—From the memoirs of Count Edmont de Fortemps Heavensward

32 notes - Posted June 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[potassium-pilot]

On the one hand, I'll probably be here until this webbed site burns down.

On the other hand, I don't trust the possibility of a merger between tumblr and midjourney. I did the opt-out, but I'm not sure what data has already been sold, so...

Going forward, I will no longer be posting any fic, art, or gposes directly to Tumblr.

I will still do my sporadic ffxiv reblog of any memes or analyses I see and maybe still make memes of my own. Beyond that, I probably won't be doing anything else here unless this gets resolved.

As for events like FFXIVWrite or Junelezen, I intend to post for these on my new cohost.

Of course, anything that is written for FFXIVWrite is also crossposted to my Ao3. That isn't changing. I will be posting a new long fic soon, so I will still probably post alerts of any updates in here as well as on Cohost.

I'll still be here, and tbh with the way I've been treating this tumblr, I doubt much will really change.

[whatsthisascianbullshit]

Junelezen 2022 Day 12: Five Minutes of Fate

Muireann squinted down the shaft of the arrow, she was going to hit the target block this time she was sure of it. She could hear the instructor walking back up the short line of kids who were learning how not to shoot themselves in the feet. She took a deep breath, her muscles straining at holding the arrow ready for so long – she was improving though! At least she thought she was. Raer had described how muscles hurt when they’re growing and this was more like that and less like she was just getting tired for no real reason. A toothy grin spread across her face, she was gonna be an adventurer and have songs sung about her and the moogles would love them!

“Loose!” Muireann held her breath as she let the arrow fly…into the wall behind the target blocks. She kicked at the ground impatiently waiting for the go ahead to collect the arrows. She was glad that Miss Hanna had told mama and papa about one of the older kids starting with the Archery Guild who was teaching the younger kids the very basics. And they couldn’t complain about her going on some trips with Raer if she was able to help. From far away. And she was already good at being sneaky and hiding.

“Okay, collect the arrows – Ralenne, next time try draw back with both arms and bring that elbow up higher.” Muireann scrunched up her face at the name, Ralenne was hardly a good adventurer name. It was too delicate. Now Muireann Uais that was a name. Good to say and sounded strong. Muireann was the name of someone who would save a Ralenne. Yes. She was very pleased with her adventurer name.

She ran to collect her arrows. This time. This time she’d hit the target for sure.

                                                       ***

Muireann landed heavier than she intended and leveled her bladed bow at the looming creature, the rush of her battle song in full swing as something glinted behind her target. She loosed her arrow and it struck between where its eyes should be were it still a person as Raer’s lance tore through its chest from the opposite direction.

Finding no arrows left in her quiver she called for cover as she dispelled the bowstring and unlocked a mechanism, they had quickly learned to not presume whether or not a normal killing blow would be enough – which meant she needed to be faster with her sword. Raer landed in front of her, half ready to grab her and jump away if the Sin Eater got too close. As her blade clicked with the lock in place the creature started dissolving into light, returning back to the brilliant sky. She let out a sigh of relief and sheathed her weapon.

“Nice shot.” Raer held out a hand to help her up, and together they collected her arrows for the next fight.

Raer belongs to @azure-dragonsinger​ who I totally did Not forget to tag when I posted it first adhkadhkah