#janzoo

[morgan-aleghieri]

OC Smash or Pass: Cessalie Sombreterre

Rules: pretty self explanatory. include physical descriptions or pics, and propaganda. the “other” label can be used for “sexuality misalignment” (ie: oc is femme and you’re gay, vice versa or you aren’t into smashing but a specific thing you wanna do with them like perhaps hug or study them under a microscope idc).

Tagged in by @janzoo hello thank you :3 Not going to tag anyone in, but if you see it and want to play go for gold 😅

First things first: my girl 🥰

Quick Facts

Height: 183cm (min height gang rise up! but not too high. We're gonna need a ladder 🤔)

Age: As at HW she is 30.

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Bisexual

Pros:

Very clever - had she been born into wealth she would probably be a heralded scholar. As it stands, she's worked and studied hard to make a life for herself.

To wit, very self-sufficient.

Very protective of the young and idealistic - she's not herself an idealist - but will go to bat for them every time.

Very amiable, is generally considered well liked.

A talented alchemist. Will try to reverse engineer complicated alchemical creations just for funsies.

Has the biggest, saddest, wettest eyes you ever did see.

Has a cat named Miette (a la, "La Cité des Enfants Perdus." She is leetle crumb.)

Cons:

Outwardly is very congenial, but keeps her true thoughts buried deep inside. She was an angry youth with a hot temper, and learned very well to to hide those feelings that might get her into trouble.

She's very cynical and distrustful, stemming from her upbringing in the Brume. She's afraid to be genuine with people and balks at genuine affection. You want to get close to her you're going to have to peel her many onion-like layers very carefully.

Prefers to be in control of a situation. Will happily tease and flirt in a non-serious way, but if things should get too real... she is not comfortable with emotional vulnerability.

Gets sick very easily. Does not have a good constitution due to a terrible illness suffered as a child, that took out a number of people in the Brume (including her parents).

Related, she does not like to be dependant on people. Has trouble asking for or accepting help when she needs it.

Hates the cold. Absolutely miserable in cold weather.

Neutral:

Bisexual disaster. But then, who among us is not thrown for a loop when confronted with dazzling, gender-neutral cleavage immediately at eye level? (there are many benefits to being a minimum height elezen 🤔)

Is generally good at keeping her cool despite this, but genuine displays of affection do make her very flustered - especially when it's someone who's good opinion she quietly cares about.

Night owl.

On that note,

[edgepunk]

Miles Morales in C1? Let's fancy him up lol

fancy pose for a fancy outfit

send me a character

[lilbittymonster]

Would those who know your OC describe them as being rational and clear-thinking? Or are their thoughts often muddied by conflicting emotions? Or are they easily distracted by irrelevant details?

.....Yes. Lol.

Kitali is very tactical in that she can laser focus on problem solving and is usually at least two steps ahead with a contingency, because that's how she's always had to live her life. She absolutely will let her own emotions drive her decisions, but it's still with that intense tactical focus.

I really don't think Kitali has been conflicted much in her life. She's never had the luxury of agonising over a decision because hesitation could mean literal life or death for her. To compensate, she just has incredibly sharp and quick analytical skills to make her decisions faster and just lives with the consequences. She's not one to hem and haw.

I think the general consensus is that Kitali can be a bit of a loose cannon, especially after ShB, but she's still absolutely someone you want to have at your back.

Thanks for the ask @janzoo

Scents of Samhain Asks

[morganali-art]

Just wanna say that I love Cessalie (and her relationship with Artoirel), she lives in my head rent-free (with Artoirel) 😄

*prints out this ask and tapes it to my wall directly above my monitor so I can look at it always*

I'm so delighted thank you ;w;

[icyxmischief]

BOOP 🐾

"At last. I had feared I was going to miss this chaotic pastime entirely."

[velnica]

Are you alright after doing The Vault..? 🥺

I'm so not okay I had to write it all down to process it 😭 It's a big turning point in my OC's story so I really went all in this time.

https://www.tumblr.com/velnica/736647416730763264/lv-57-the-vault-part-1

[shivasdarknight]

The...the devs admitted to killing Ysayle because they didn't know what to do with her? We were denied Scion Ysayle because they figured the best way to handle being at a loss for her was to kill her off?????????

Y e a h. And there's a bit more to it when you look at some of the behind-the-scenes stuff beyond her, but yeah that was it. Instead of shelving her for later (like they did with Estinien), they just killed her. Despite talking about how she qualified as a scion and would be a good ally, and despite all of her present relevancy especially with Thavnair and Vrtra. Estinien is a good enough example of how they saved a male character for later, but they went further and killed Zenos but brought him back through - need I remind - the Echo (ik his is a resonance but regardless), which Ysayle had, and kept him around for two more expansions (more minor in one, but regardless he lived longer than she did).

The devs did this to Yotsuyu, as well, but the thing about Ysayle that makes this one so telling is that she is one of three characters designed by the same person to die one after the other; those being Moenbryda and Haurchefant, who were all designed by Natsuko Ishikawa, the writer of the rog/nin & drk job quests, the Doman half of Stormblood, and MSQ for Shadowbringers and Endwalker. She - as the only main female writer on the team - has gone on record saying that the deaths of those three in quick succession felt targeted. And out of those three, it's only Haurchefant that gets to remain relevant, has a permanent grave, gets emotes and allusions to him, and DSR is centered around saving him (while Ysayle is alive by consequence) because Yoshi-P likes him. Sections where Oda takes over (eg parts of post-stb involving Yotsuyu and Tsuyu) plus the post-arr to hvw stuff is where it's really clear something went fucky here. They have stated they didn't know what to do with Ysayle, but her death in conjunction with Moenbryda's - as both were designed by Ishikawa - along with their lack of acknowledgement in story reeks a deeper level of sexism on the devs' parts.

So, yeah. She's dead because:

The devs didn't know what to do with her, so they just killed her off - had she been a man, she would've just been shelved (like Estinien)

It seems to be something personal as she's the third of Ishikawa's characters to die immediately after introduction, especially since the only man in the group gets tons of focus while Ysayle and Moenbryda are sidelined constantly

It's only during content written by Ishikawa that we see allusions and direct references to Ysayle (and Moenbryda) and it feels like the devs are trying to ignore what they did and just move right along. If the fucking Resonant and what that Sahagin priest did to stay as a soul and around could keep Zenos and a Sahagin Priest alive, then there's no excuse with Ysayle. And I'm saying this as someone who is actively writing a fix-it fic tackling many of the aspects of her character that they just left unresolved and unexplored - like this isn't even getting into the fact that Estinien has had 4 different stories going into his background and where he's been this whole time, while Ysayle's only story was just a beat for beat rehash of her death scene.

Also, as I feel it needs to be said since this Is tumblr: my bringing up any male characters is not a condemnation for anyone Liking said characters. Estinien's one of my favs in this game, but the guy was wrapped in death flags and he's still around as of 6.4?

Really?

[rabid-catboy]

I'm so glad that my post with Aymeric and Estinien eating pizza made you that happy. I originally took those screenshots to make myself feel better. I debated posting them; it seemed like kind of a useless post and tumblr kept glitching while trying to upload the images. But knowing that it made someone else smile too was worth it. Thank you. ; 3;

Hehehehe I'm glad that it making me happy made you happy! Infinity happiness glitch ..

[matcha-bnuuy]

I gotta say, your tags on my Stepping in the Steppe post absolutely made my whole day. Thank you so much for your kind words!😄💙 And I'm so glad you also enjoyed the event!

Oh you're super welcome! Thank you for taking the time to read them! I hope your day continues to be great! 😊💕

[vera-simik]

drop this sunflower 🌻 into the inboxes of the blogs that make you happy! lets spread a little sunshine ☀️ (right back 'atcha :D)

Haha, thank you <3

[janzoo]

Hello fellow FFXIV gposers! I've made this post to pass along a few tips for working with Aymeric and a few quirks of his model. Both of these tips were picked up along the way - I want to send a thank you to those who gave them to me so I could give them to you.

I'm working with Brio for this. Hopefully they are still applicable to other programs, as I'm not familiar with them.

First: Aymeric's earring. As many of you have seen, his earring is "attached" to his armour, so changing whatever is in his "body" slot removes it. But there's a quick fix:

Simply enter "86" into the first section.

Second: His hair. It clips through hats and other headgear.

That is, unless you switch to the player version of his hair, which is number 150 in the hairstyle menu.

Voila! Aymeric can wear hats now!

That's that. Two easy fixes to make gposing with Aymeric that much better.😄Thanks again to those from whom I picked up these tidbits. I list them here only in the hopes of spreading them to as many people as possible. (And to make an easy reference for myself lol)

Take care, and happy gposing!

[morgan-aleghieri]

People I want to get to know better

Tagged by @janzoo ~ (I did see this one and said "I'll answer this later! and forgot u__u;;)

Last song: I had the Tristram theme song from Diablo on repeat while I was drawing last night 👀 (shout out to the guy on youtube with a channel full of hour loops of Diablo themes)

Favorite color: Purple, ostensibly

Currently watching: I don't watch a lot of things, I tend to just pull up things on youtube to have on in the background while doing other stuff. The Monster Factory playlist gets a lot of replay value from me, Drawfee also good background noise.

Last movie: Oh golly, last movie I saw in theatres was probably the D&D movie. (I might have watched the Muppet Christmas Carol since)

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: ohh that's tricky. I like them all, but I generally need one to balance out the other. If I have too many sweet things, I need something savoury. Savoury you can get away with less sweet things, but it makes a nice follow up. Spicy is also good, but balanced with something more neutral.

Relationship status: Confirmed Spinster

Current obsessions: I've been hyperfixating on stardew valley again at the moment, lowkey getting into baking new things. Also lowkey still on my ffxiv grind.

Last thing i googled: Bonne Maman jam

[edgepunk]

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

"ugh why can't you let us enjoy this?" whenever someone makes constructive criticism like lmao no one is telling you to not to engage with the thing. I get feeling upset if you see nothing but hate, but people criticising something in a respectful manner is not the same as constantly spewing hate and yelling at other people for liking the thing

[lilbittymonster]

Happy birthday!!! 🎂

Thank you!

[morganali-art]

@janzoo : #pfft #aah like that scene in your fic

YEAH! you remembered 🥹💕

OC x Canon Week - Day 5 Getting Into Trouble

Please stop flirting you're making everyone uncomfortable with how sweet and earnest you are 🤢

(crops under read more)

[e-dragoons]

“I like your hair like this.”

Lehna’s gaze went from her face, where she had just smeared some lotion across her cheeks, and met Estinien’s eyes in the mirror. “What do you mean?”

His expression was thoughtful as he reached out and twirled a finger around a lock of her hair, climbing up slowly to her scalp as he did so. The closer he got to her scalp, the more it sent shivers down her spine. 

“Long,” he said after a moment. “When you leave it down.”

In the time they had known each other, Lehna had gone through so many different hairstyles. It had been long when they had first met, though not nearly as long as it was now. Between how busy they had all been since returning from the First and the injuries she had sustained in Ultima Thule knocking her out for several weeks… It was one of those things she had not really considered, falling to the wayside as more important things became pressing matters they needed to take care of.

Only now during the long, warm nights spent in Thavnair–and only after Estinien had pointed it out–had she realized just how long it had gotten. 

It flowed down in long, beachy waves down the entirety of her back–the only part she had trimmed regularly was her bangs, so they did not get in the way of her daily life. More often than not, her hair was thrown up with a ribbon to get it out of her way–something Estinien did with his own hair, too.

But when she looked in the mirror back to herself, all she saw was the weariness that filled her aching bones–enough of it to spread to her dull eyes, her knotted hair. She still required the assistance of a brace to walk, the injuries to her knees taking so long to heal that the healers warned her that she may not ever fully recover. 

She tried not to think about that part.

“I am glad you like it,” she said after a moment, tearing her eyes away from her reflection. Lehna had never been a vain person–at least she did not think so–but seeing herself now just filled her with an overwhelming sense of disgust. It was not her.

As Lehna swept across the room to their bed, Estinien followed not far behind. His hand rested on her lower back–a supportive gesture he had grown quite fond of after her first few stumbles with trying to walk after their return. It was not a gesture she minded–no one had ever comforted her the way Estinien tried to.

She sat down on the bed and winced as the familiar pain jolted through her. That, at least, was meant to be temporary.

Estinien slid into the bed next to her, pulling the thin sheet over both of them. Radz-at-Han was simply too hot for much more than that.

“I have always liked your hair,” Estinien said after a long silence. 

“Is that so?” A smile played at her lips, though it was not genuine–and sure enough, Estinien gave her a knowing look.

“It is,” he said.

Lehna tried hard to think of a time Estinien had given her a physical compliment that was not about her form or how strong she was. She could not think of one. “Well, thank you I suppose.”

“You…” He hesitated, stumbling over his words for a moment. “You truly are beautiful. You know that, right?”

She did–she was no fool. Even before she became the Warrior of Light, it was a rarity for her to leave the bar alone at night. She took excellent care of her skin when she was able to do so. Her eyes were a jeweled tourmaline unique to her Keeper clan that made people curious–one of the only things she would ever think about thanking her father for. 

And yet to hear Estinien say it… Her cheeks warmed, tinging a shade darker. “Thank you,” she repeated, this time her voice soft and gentle. Vulnerable.

But with Estinien, that was alright. She snaked her arms around his torso as he placed his own hand on the small of her back again, his other positioned so he could run his fingers through the fringes of her hair that fell across his chest as Lehna placed her head there. Eyes closed, she took in a breath of him–a musky aroma with the faintest hint of spice. Her shoulders relaxed and she allowed herself to sink into his side. 

Her own hand wandered across his chest–across scars of all shapes and sizes, the bumps on his shoulder from where Nidhogg’s eye had fused with him feeling much like the scars of a burn. Estinien used to suck in a breath and flinch away from her touch in surprise when she did that–but no longer. Now, he brushed his lips across the top of her head, pressing his nose into her hair. 

“I mean the scars too, you know,” he said. “The ones I can see and the ones I cannot.”

Tears stung at the corners of her eyes at that, but she dare not move–the last thing she wanted was for Estinien to see her cry, even if he had already seen her at her worst so many times before. 

She clung to him as she let out a small sniffle, and in turn he pulled her in tighter. “Get some rest, mon chaton.”

As Lehna allowed herself to drift off to sleep, she laced her fingers through Estinien’s. Her knight.